Chapter 6 Ivy
IVY
Man has invented so many brutal ways to torture someone.
Vicious machines and implements that inflict the worst types of pain imaginable.
Each one with the goal of breaking the victim—physically and mentally.
These devices wear down a person’s resolve. Their ability to handle the torment is stretched to the very limit until it snaps. But nothing could possibly compare to this.
The agony that wracks me now won’t let up. Not even for a second. Not even when I scream and beg. Not when I pray and make deals with a God I’m not sure I believe in.
It’s like death by a thousand cuts, only instead of dying and finding relief from the torment, I’m stuck suspended and at its mercy.
And those cuts just keep coming.
From a blade with sharp cheekbones, haunted blue eyes beneath thick, unruly dark hair, and a touch that once brought me back to life when I thought nothing and no one ever could.
It sinks into me.
Flays apart my skin.
Digs deep into my flesh.
Not a thousand times.
Not even a million.
Relentless slices and stabs straight to my chest…
Driving into my heart…
Gouging it and tearing it to shreds…
Until there’s nothing left there to beat.
Nothing to keep me going.