I'd love to kill you by a stream, where no one can hear my baby scream

[onceflewicarus]

Characters: AU!Jay and AU!Benny!
Date&Time: August 13th, early morning.
Setting: The Love Shack
Summary: The Guthries are feared for a reason.
Rating: Torture, Mind Fuckery - body parts will be removed.
Status: CLOSED

Comments

[staticsnap]

Ben dreamed of falling. Not of tumbling from some great height but of an eternal, endless sprawl through a black nothingness that had neither start nor finish. He turned end over end, his arms cast out to the side to catch the wind that did not exist to try and fly but they were useless, boneless things that flapped as weakly as rice paper flags on an origami turret. It was strange that he could breathe here, where there was no air. The miracle of dreams, he supposed.

As he twisted over again, a dull glow of white light began to fill the void, illuminating the black in throbbing pulses. There was a gentle hum, a coaxing call that pulled him forward with the promise of oxygen.

Ben opened his eyes to just that, and for a moment wished it had been a lie. With the half-aware sluggishness that came from the lingering hold of sedatives he found that he could not orient himself to the chorus of small differences in his surroundings. Had everyone left? No, no that didn`t make sense. So it had to be he who had moved, a new room.

The young man shifted in his seat, wincing at the pull on his arms. They were only tingling a little now, in a distant way that made him worry about nerve damage. How long could seperated shoulders remain untreated before permanent damage was done?

And then his bleary gaze fell on Jay.

"I didn`t recognize you," he said. Ben frowned and cleared his throat before continuing. "Not at first. You`ve filled out a lot. Got taller. got tits. But I remember now. How you been, Sweetheart?"

[onceflewicarus]

"I've been busy my love." She smiled in response to his frown. This was to be their time, the other kids would be educated proper in how POWs were treated, but that was lessons for the siblings to teach - Ben was hers

"How are you feeling? I'm sure I can guess- you must be pretty sore right now, not feelings things that should be there, feeling things that shouldn't..." Her voice was like the syrup that pored over a child's breakfast, sweet, dark and entirely man-made. There was nothing honest behind her tone, and it was a voice she had practiced since she had first met him. One of many in a catalog that few had heard.

With a glance around their new quarters, Jay made a bit of a show of standing up and walking over to bolt the door shut. "No visitors." She promised, and came back to sit across from him. "Would you like me to tell you what will happen tonight Ben? I will, if you want..."

[staticsnap]

Ben was already taking measure of the altered situation. The silence, which meant that they were far enough away from anyone else to risk disturbance or, of more importance, disturbing; the restraints that were tight enough to hold him upright and prevent him from even a sagging relax; the remaining drugs in his system, just enough that when he put a cautionary reach out for his powers, all he got in response was a muddled, fuzzy thump; and finally, the unassuming box perched at the edge of the nearest bed.

He raised a brow. "I think I can guess well enough."

Jay swayed across the room, all leg and hip, and Ben tracked her carefully. "Fuck, if I'd known you were gonna be giving me a private show, I would have been better prepared," he remarked, willing away the pharmaceutical nausea. Ben shook his head. "Don't got any small bills on me. What a goddamn pity."

[onceflewicarus]

"I saw what you carried on you." Jay responded, grinning once again with that sick smile she wore s well. It was a smile she ha learned from her brother, the one that waited for someone to bleed like Ben would.

"I am going to put your arm back in now, just one- and if you try any funny shit? You'll be losing a hell of a lot more than your arms.

She picked up one of the unrestrained limbs then, exam ed it before pulling it out and shoving it back- all with the expertise of someone who had done this dozens of time before... for she had.

"Isn't that better?"

She answered her last question then, without needing his response.

"I just want to let you know en. That tonight you are going to tell me everything, and when you get done with that? You're going to tell me nothing at all, you'll say nonsense just to make the pain stop.

And it wont. I'm sorry for that Ben, but you made your choice plenty of time ago."

[staticsnap]

What came out could go back in. That was logical. But replacing his shoulder wasn't a simple matter of putting it back into place, not now with the ligaments having been pulled ragged and inflammation crowding 'round the joint. Ben ground his teeth together at the brush of Jay's hands on the bruised skin, clamped down on the flinch that wanted to burst forth. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of eking out a response, not this early on in the game.

But the piercing line of pain that lanced through him on the back of a sick, hollow pop nearly did him in. It hurt more than the initial dislocation had and Ben growled lowly, muscles in his jaw jumping as his eyes shut. Slow, forced breaths punctuated the silence while he scrabbled for composure. When Ben looked up again, his eyes were hard and filled with a writhing hatred tailor-fit for the woman before him.

"Fuck you," Ben sneered, lip curling. "I'm not telling you anything. No matter what you do to me? It doesn't even come close to half as bad as what will happen if I break. So go ahead, you feathered cunt, give it a whirl. But when we're done here, when I'm back where I belong - and I will get back, I promise you that - you remember that it's not for long. I killed you once and I'll see you dead again, and this time I'll make sure it fucking sticks."

[onceflewicarus]

"Who will be the one to punish you? Erik? Alex?" Jay asked, sitting back down in front of him. Her voice was cordial, pleasant even. It was a trait she had picked up years ago, and one that the Guthries employed as so many bullets on a pitched field. She went on to explain as she strapped down Ben's now good arm, rotating it up to show the underside of his forearm and wrist.

"From the stories I have been told, Erik was trained in the art of pain at a young age, thirteen or so while in the concentration camps of Poland. Correct?" She raised an eyebrow at him, making sure the binds were tight and even his fingers were kept down against the grain of the wood of his chair. "After the war he was freed like so many others, and went on a Nazi killing spree across the greater part of the globe. Along the way he picked up a child named Alex Summers and taught him all he knew."

"While that makes for great stories to tell on the cold winter nights by the fireplace, that's all it really is. You see?" She smiled. "I was barely eleven when I met Mr. Shaw, and while he had to kill and maim and force the boy to do his will? I welcomed it with open arms. Took in all there was to learn, and Ben? I assure you, I was a stellar student."

It may not have all been true to the fact, she may not have learned directly from Shaw for all of those years, and for the first few of them she was kept in the background of the Hellfire Club- only really gaining her footing at fifteen after his death and Charles Xavier's ascension. She placed her hands on Ben's arm at this point, touching it like that of a lover's, the most careful of caresses. A long, narrow finger trailed from the crook of his elbow to the base of his wrist, memorizing it for future use. His fingers were strapped back, his thumb held down to keep the possibly dangerous limb at bay for the time being.

"You're going to tell me all about this new Alex Summers now Ben. Alright?"

[staticsnap]

"Congratufuckinglations, you know your history. Gold star for you," Ben commented sarcastically. He watched with sharp eyes as she pinioned his arm, letting the wash of her words flow over him because they were meant to be a distraction, to keep him from following the real message here which was spoken by the care she took to prepare his hand, to keep it from moving at all.

That was where this one's true power lay: in her voice, which was as beguiling as a siren and possessed of a legion of inflections, every desire or need covered by it's own unique cadence. Ben had been scared by it all those years ago, when he'd been a young, ragged thing cutting his teeth. Now? Now he was just pissed off and sick to his stomach, an unusual combination that tasted vapourous and hot at the back of his throat, like vodka.

"You want to know about Alex, is that all? Well, fuck, why didn't you say so?" Ben grinned, tried to flex his hand just to test the restraints. He squinted up at the ceiling, considering. "This new guy, he's different from Havok, you gotta approach him from a whole new goddamn direction or else your ass is gonna get shot down. Let's see... he likes walks along the beach underneath the moonlight, mystery novels, and he's fucking crazy about fondue. Between you and me I think it probably means he's a real kinky fucker in the sack but that's always how it goes with the quiet ones," Ben winked, his smile pulling even wider.

[onceflewicarus]

"And?" She asked, sure. Jessica understood that Ben was going to joke, turn every answer into some crude comment- but that was why it was she who was here, and not Lizzie- far too prone to violence. As she waited, she turned away from the kid (still a kid) and gathered up her supplies from the bag at their side.

A vial, needles, small scissors, a scalpel, cotton swabs, vodka and thread. There were more rummaging around the bottom- but this was what was needed to begin. Using the alcohol Jessica began to prep the inside of one of his fingers, cleaning the grime off and rubbing it pink and pretty and raw. He had likely never seen this form of torture- so much neater and less dramatic than the style that Shaw taught, that Erik preferred. This was medical, precise and came from years of experience.

"I am expecting you to go on Ben, you best keep talking."

[staticsnap]

"Does this make you queasy, Sweetheart?" Ben cooed. "That why you need the distraction? Or maybe it's just my voice, in particular. Gets you wet, gets you ready - you've been carrying a torch for me ever since that shithole rest stop. And look at us now, all grown up. We could get up to a hell of a lot more in a dirty bathroom these days."

There was a purpose in the way that she moved that told of her having done this before. Ben wondered what had done it, where the shift had happened. The last time he had seen her she had been a child, a genuine child and not one who was merely waiting to grow up so all the twisted bits inside would fit. Had it been in Bellevue? Had it been after? Wherever her path had turned it had led to something far more calculating than he was sure he even knew.

[onceflewicarus]

"I wasn't asking about you and I Ben, you turned that down years ago." Jay replied, glancing up to watch his eyes- not his face, his eyes for a moment before she turned back to the task at hand. Whatever it was that she was looking for inside of his expression was clearly either gone- or she had mistaken it when she first thought she had seen it those years back. "I am asking you about Alex Summers. So keep talking."

The scalpel was sharp, surgical grade and lifted from a few unfortunate med students several months earlier and when she moved it across the lower portion of Ben's middle finger (her personal favorite) it slipped through the skin as if it were no more than butter. The blood was quickly blotted away with the same cloth as had cleaned it moments before, and she continued, pressing down and down through muscle and veins and nerves until the very bone itself was exposed to the open air.

"I'm waiting." She prompted coolly.

[staticsnap]

It didn`t hurt. Not at first. Ben watched with a morbid, almost anticipatory fascination as the scalpel skated across his skin and split it into a gaping, red-gummed mouth of a wound. The cut was so fine, so delicate that it was almost beautiful and he was caught by surprise when the sting set in, the fierceness of it unbelievable given the precision.

And then Jay did it again and went deeper, bringing the pale pink lines of muscle into relief and there, in a flash that was quickly drowned by a welling of blood, the clean white surface of bone. It felt like a cold wind was cutting over his finger and whatever lingering stupor there was from the drugs scattered, leaving Ben with a blinding clarity that took his breath away so that he reeled, dizzy.

"You`re going to be waiting a long fucking time," he spat roughly, a prickle of sweat rising over his body in response to the violent change in temperature, the icy sharpness suddenly a throbbing fire.

[onceflewicarus]

"I doubt that." Jay commented idly, passing the scalpel up further to cover both knuckles- still keeping the blood dabbed up, still keeping it neat and symmetrical as a butterfly's wings. It was her turn to talk however, her voice still calming, almost condescending as she spoke. It was words only for Ben, and so she spoke no louder than was needed.

"I'm told your mother is less than a whore. Is that right Ben? Is it true that we left you in a whore's home to grow up on the streets?" She knuckles of the bones were exposed now, and she gathered up a few re-tractors from the bag to hold the skin and tissue back. "If that is so, then I am sorry Benjamin, that was wrong of us. You could have come to work with us, have a family- a proper one."

With him still properly restrained, Jay moved over to the table, gathering up the scissors with the ease that few surgeons carried about their persons. She needed no nurse, no overhead lights or opera in the background. Jessica was a professional in the most precise sense. She warned him then, as she brought the cold metal down to begin cutting away the tendons; "This might hurt."

[staticsnap]

There were many fates that could have been had, if only the most insignificant details had been different. That was true of anyone. Jay might have been a goddess revered if she`d been born in some distant ecclesiastical land, seen as something holy and divine. Or if her genetic coding had been just slightly different, perhaps she would be in university now, top of the dean`s list for all her due diligence instead of here, now, pulling Ben apart in increments. In another life they might have been lovers; in another life they might not have existed.

But none of that mattered. If was a dangerous world within which to live and Ben did not entertain notions of rewriting history at the cost of losing the present.

"Fuck you and your inbred kin," he was breathing heavily, drawing in deep breaths through his nose as she cut to try and keep focused. He had to embrace the pain, own it, let it wash over him and not try to push it away. "I never needed you. I have a family."

It was clear that he didn`t mean his mother. Clear in the way his eyes burned with a pride that she had never ignited, but not in his words because Ben wasn`t speaking anymore, he was shouting. The snick of the scissors was lost in the desperate roar of his voice and though he hadn`t struggled before, he was moving now on instinct, straining against the leather that held him to the chair. Ben had hurt before, felt deliberate pain and been made to submit to it but this was so much worse, so different than anything that had ever happened. This was not a broad tempering of breaks and bruises, this was a dissection and in an instant he realized that he did not have to worry about death. Death would have been the lesser evil, the merciful option.

[onceflewicarus]

"Shhh shh Ben. Now is not the time for screaming." Jay assured him, bringing a soiled and bloody hand up to hold his cheek. It was once again the touch of a lover, of one who was far less intimate than she was within him now. Her free hand stayed within his fingers, holding tight the bone, her slight fingers wrapping around his. "You are not in pain yet."

And that was true, for all that Ben likely felt that he might have a run at things when compared to the martyrs and prophets - Jay had only began. Her voice was honey sweet, and hinting on the edges of hypnotic. It was an ability that she had to learn, to couple with the born skills that whomever was above had given her. She did not want the entire town to know his presence, and for all that they had prepared for his pain, it was still better yet to be safe in such situations.

"A family wouldn't do this to you." She assured him, a thumb brushing against his cheek. "Do you really think it was happenstance that you're here and not Tabitha? Not Lorna? Erik sent because you're nothing to them, you're dispensable. No one has come looking for you, you've been here a week and we've yet to get as much as a letter."

It was then that she pulled her hand away, and cut the last cords that held the proximal bone in place. With a quick tug it shifted from his hand to hers - bloody, tiny and cleanly removed.

[staticsnap]

She was trying to get inside his head, Ben knew that. As effective as physical torture was - and it was a goddamn goldmine of a skill - the real advantages came from being able to psychologically brutalize an opponent. That was the battleground upon which wars were won.

"L-l-lie more, bitch," Ben gasped, shaking with the contained force of his cries. He wanted to yell aloud, release the unrelenting tension in some way because he couldn`t even thrash to let it loose, but her voice was heavy, as cloying as cream and it clogged his throat, filled his mind and forced everything back so that it felt like there were great waves of screams ricchocheting against the inside of his skull.

There was no truth to what she was saying, there wasn`t, there wasn`t. Ben was dispensable, yes, but no more than anyone was in the grand scheme of things and he certainly hadn`t been sent here because of some percieved uselessness. That defied his entire realm of experience at the mansion. If he`d been of such little value, why would Erik have invested so much time in him, why had Alex taken such measures to break him down? If it really had been a week (he had no way of knowing) then it was only because they did not know he was being held captive or because they were preparing an attack that would render the Guthries an obsolete fucking breed.

Didn`t it?

No, no, he had to keep her out. Ben beat at the doubt trying to creep in amongst the agony but no sooner had he lashed out at it than an agonized keen rattled from his mouth, the sound trimmed and muted by Jay`s alchemy. Ben stared in horror at the delicate bone being pried from his flesh, the cartilege tearing with a wet pop like fat rendering in cast iron. And then it was out and he was shaking as waves of cold shock rippled up and down his body, punching the pain all the deeper.

[onceflewicarus]

"There there." Jay was all kindness at this point, as proud of his pain as a mother was of a baby cutting it's teeth. He would be easier to break than not- but it would be fun to break him apart, to destroy him so completely that there was less than anything left to mail home. She reached forward and across the space between them, placing the softest of pecks to the corner of his mouth.

I wasn't the norm for the Guthries to mix sex and pain- they were hardly one of Erik's lot, but this wasn't just business. This was personal. He was a boy who had killed her, broke her chance at a more normal existence and began what made her today. It was why it was only the two of them here, and not the clan as may be more practical.

"I don't lie Ben." She swore, fixing the hair on his face and the wiping the blood from his hand. Taking the wad of cotton in her hand, Jay doused it with the vodka and began to roll it into shape, intending to let it take the place of the missing bone. It would look right for a short while, before destroying much more than her own efforts could.

"You should have stayed with us Ben, we're happy, we're together. You could have been together, never afraid, never running... you wouldn't be here. If you'd like, that could still happen. Do you want to be happy Benjamin?"