Broken Kingdom (Corium University Trilogy 3)

“Normally, farmers use this to castrate their bulls. They heat these tongs so the process is quick and the skin is cauterized. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a lighter, and I wasn’t in the Boy Scouts, so I have no idea how to make fire.”

Pauli mumbles something inaudible against the fabric shoved in his mouth.

“What was that? You’re looking forward to having your balls chopped off? Yeah, me too, buddy. Me too.” I snap the clamp shut, letting him hear the sound of the metal coming together.

“I guess we’re ready to start.” My father’s voice booms through the space, and two of his men take their position behind Pauli. Grabbing the chair, they tip Pauli back. His muffled screams are music to my ears.

“Here, put this on,” Dad orders and throws me a ski mask. I pull it on quickly before kneeling in front of Pauli with the castration clamp in hand.

“Is the camera on? Don’t want to miss any of this.” I grin.

“Camera is on,” my father confirms.

“Good. Say goodbye to your shriveled-up balls, Pauli.” I open the tongs and place them around his scrotum. Even with the fabric stuffed into his mouth, Pauli’s screams are so loud it hurts my eardrum.

I clamp down, and his whole body convulses in pain to the point I think he might break the restraints. His high-pitched screams go on for a while before they turn to pained groans and finally trail off into a low whimper.

Leaving the clamp on, I get on my feet and watch Pauli being sat back up. With every little move, his distress gets more apparent, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

I don’t keep track of time, but I know we must have been at it for hours by the way my muscles ache, and Pauli’s blood is dried to his skin.

Every time I feel an inkling of guilt for doing this to him, I think about the way he raped Aspen on this very floor, and all my doubts disappear into thin air. He deserves every single excruciating second of pain I inflict on him.

He has passed out a few times, but luckily, we brought a few vials of epinephrine to wake his ass right back up. Unfortunately, if we give him another dose, his heart will probably stop. So I guess it is time to end this and go home.

A while ago, Dad pulled up a chair to lounge back like he’s enjoying the show all while filming everything.

“My phone battery is about to die, better wrap this up soon if you want to get it on video.” My father sounds almost bored now.

“That’s fine. I don’t think he’s gonna make it much longer anyway. What do you say, Pauli? Should we stop torturing you?”

Pauli’s eyes are so swollen I’m not sure he can even see me, but when he slowly nods his head, I know he can at least hear. His face is unrecognizable, his body barely able to support his own weight. The gag in his mouth is soaked with blood and puke, so I grab a pair of pliers from the table to take it out.

He doesn’t even squirm away anymore, his body too battered to fight me, even a little. The castration tool is still hanging from his balls which are a dark blue now.

As soon as the gag is out, he starts pleading. “P-Please… please…”

“Please, what? End your miserable life? Yeah, planning on it. But you know what? I’m not heartless. Maybe you’ve suffered enough? I mean, your balls are basically about to fall off, and all you did was have a little fun with some unwilling girl, right? Do you really deserve to die for that?”

Pauli must have grown a brain cell in the last few hours because he doesn’t even try to answer my rhetorical question.

“Like I said, I’m not heartless. So I’m gonna let fate decide if you live or die.” I walk back to the table and pull the small black container closer. Unlatching the sides, I pop the lid open and look at the two syringes inside.

“One of these has morphine in it, the other one strychnine. Heard of it?” I pause, taking the container over to Pauli to let him look at them. “Strychnine is a particularly nasty poison that takes only ten minutes to work when taken by mouth. Which means an injection will work much faster than that. First, your body will begin to spasm, starting around the head and neck area, then it will spread to the rest of your muscle tissue. It will get to the point of your backbone arching. The convulsions will get so bad that lactic acidosis, hyperthermia, and rhabdomyolysis will all set in around the same time. But you’ll actually die from asphyxiation since your neural pathways will be paralyzed, and you won’t be able to breathe.”