Part 13
Theresa straddled a brown, wooden chair that sat across from her soon-to-be victim; Calvin. Hours earlier he had been tracked down and captured, brought to the soundproof room beneath Eleven's club. He was tied to the chair in the otherwise empty room and left to be dealt with by Theresa.
Theresa looked up to the single light bulb dangling from the ceiling and back into Calvin's dark brown eyes. He mumbled through the black rag bound around his mouth, sweat dripping from his brow.
She wrapped her arms around the back of her chair and smiled slightly.
"What is it that you have done to find yourself here?" She asked. "Something quite terrible I am sure. Did you kill someone, perhaps?"
Calvin shook his head.
"Would you tell me if you had?" Theresa asked curiously.
Calvin nodded in response.
"Liar," she shot back. "The innocent do not find themselves in the cell. Perhaps you murdered, perhaps you raped, perhaps you did both. I do not care. It is of no relevance to me. There is no escape for you so I would kindly suggest you satisfy my curiosity so that the hell that I am soon to bring you through may be slightly less agonizing."
Theresa rose from her seat and circled behind him. Her fingers tugged the knot holding the gag in place and it fell into his lap.
"Help! Someone help me!" Calvin screamed.
Theresa's arm shot forward, her fist slamming into the back of his head.
"Please do not do that," she said stepping out from behind him. "The room is soundproof and it is quite annoying."
She straddled her chair once again and watched him pant and gasp for breath.
"Who did you kill?" She asked, folding her arms.
Theresa leaned to her right, reaching into the black leather doctor's bag she had brought with her. Her fingers fumbled through its contents, finally grasping the handle of a small pair of bolt cutters.
She rose from her chair and circled around Calvin. She took his hand in hers, holding it tight and slipped the mouth of the bolt cutters around his right index finger.
"What the fuck? No, don't do that," Calvin protested desperately.
"You have a tattoo on your left hand," Theresa said. "Where is it from?"
Calvin's lips sealed only to open a moment later to let out a scream as Theresa snapped the bolt cutters shut, cutting off the tip of his pinkie. It dropped to the floor and blood trickled from the wound. She released his hand and rested the bolt cutters on her chair. Once again she reached into the bag, drawing out a syringe. Her hands searched through the bag for a small glass bottle. With her teeth she removed the orange cap on the syringe before plunging the needle into the bottle. She pulled back the plunger and returned the bottle to her bag.
"You seem to have quite a nasty bleed," she said.
Her arm swung forward, driving the syringe into his thigh, depressing the plunger.
Calvin let out a wincing sound.
"What is that, what the fuck did you give me?!" He asked in a hoarse voice.
She pulled the syringe from his thigh, carefully replacing the orange cap, "Vitamin K."
"What for?" He whimpered.
"Clotting," she explained. "I would not like you to bleed to death before I am finished."
Calvin's lips parted to speak again for a moment.
He let out a sigh, "Get it over with. Pop me in the head."
She shook her head, "I do not plan on killing you. I find no pleasure in it. You will wish you were dead, but I will not give you the release."
Calvin's eyes widened, "So you're just gonna torture me? I told you I didn't kill nobody."
In one smooth motion Theresa reached into her coat and drew her pistol from her shoulder holster, she pointed the barrel at Calvin's left knee and pulled the trigger. There was a whisper of air as the bullet exited the barrel followed by a shriek from his lips. She pointed the barrel at his right knee and bulled the trigger again. Another whisper, another scream.
Quickly blood soaked into his navy blue jeans, leaving dark stains running down his shins from both knees.
"That is the plan," she said quietly.
Theresa slipped her pistol back into its holster. Calvin squirmed and winced in pain, struggling to escape from the ropes tied around his torso, wrists and ankles.
"The tattoo," she said.
"What do you care?" He murmured.
Theresa stepped in front of him and gripped his right ear between her fingers and thumb. With a quick jerk she tore it from the side of his head, watching the blood ooze from the wound and down the side of his neck. He screamed out, whimpering and gasping for air.
She held the ear up to her lips and said, "Where did you get the tattoo?"
Calvin groaned and wriggled, futily trying to escape from the ropes tied around his chest and arms.
"When I was fourteen," he groaned. "Initiation."
"Interesting," she said quietly.
She lifted her doctor's bag to the seat of the chair and began to search through its contents. She drew out another syringe, setting it beside the bag and continued pawing through the bag.
"I didn't kill nobody!" He repeated forcefully.
"I heard you quite well the first time," she said, retrieving a small bottle of clear liquid. "Though I do not believe a word of it. I will have the truth from you eventually, whatever it may be."
"I'm telling the truth!" He groaned, wriggling in the chair.
Theresa removed the cap from the second syringe and drove the needle into the bottle.
"No, you are not," she said matter-of-factly. "You have no fear of death. You asked for it. Torture may prove to be more useful, however you may very well tell me anything trying to end it. I will get my answer one way or another, whether it comes from your lips or the lips of one of your friends. Perhaps one that is lacks your fortitude when facing death. One that has something more to live for."
Calvin shook his head, "No, you're bluffing."
Theresa smirked, turning towards him with the filled syringe.
"Am I?" She asked. "Perhaps this is one of many cells. Perhaps you are not the only captive. It could very well be that I have four other captives and I will take my turn with each of them; torturing them just the same one by one until they talk. There is always a weak link in the chain."
Calvin nervously licked his lips and Theresa stuck the needle into a vein in his left arm.
"This, is pancuronium," Theresa explained. "If I inject it into you, it will relax your muscles. From the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Your diaphragm, your lungs, your trachea, your intercostal muscles. It will effectively suffocate you. You will not be able to even gasp for air."
Theresa waited for a moment, her eyes locked onto Calvin's. Theresa shrugged and began to depress the plunger.
"No!" Calvin shouted in a raspy voice.
Her finger slipped from the plunger, "Yes?"
"He killed my brother," he said quietly.
"Interesting," she replied.
Theresa withdrew the syringe from his arm. She turned back to her chair and snatched up the orange cap. She slipped the cap over the needle and once again straddled the chair.
He let out a heavy cough, "Are you happy now?"
Theresa shook her head.
"I would not know if I were," she said. "It does however pique my interest. Your brother was killed, judging by that tattoo and your admitted initiation that in the name of revenge you killed his killer."
Calvin nodded, holding his head high.
"But that is not why you are here. We could not care less about petty gang quarrels. A man in a red shirt kills a man in a blue shirt because he happened to take a wrong turn. It is very uninteresting. It happens every day. However your presence here means that you have done something far worse than a simple revenge-fueled murder," Theresa explained.
He shook his head, "Only him. So he's not the first, so what. You said it's not interesting, that you don't care."
Theresa stared at him for a moment.
"You do not know what you have done," she said quietly.
"All I did was get revenge for my brother," he argued.
"How?" Theresa asked.
Calvin sighed, "We drove up on his house."
Theresa gave a single nod and rose to her feet.
"I am done with you," she said.
She slipped her tools back into her doctor's bag and turned to face the door.
"That's it?" He asked. "What'd I do?"
"You killed an innocent," Theresa replied quietly before stepping out of the room.
Theresa shut the door behind her and walked down the short hall leading to the concrete staircase. She ascended the stairs and pushed open the black metal door at the top. As the door swung open into the employees only area of the club she found Viveka leaning against the wall.
Viveka looked to her and Theresa nodded.