WARNING : THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGE AND DESCRIPTION IS HEAVILY NOT RECOMMENDED FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. IF YOU GET EASILY DISTURBED BY TORTURE, PLEASE DO NOT READ.

The psychological torture of betrayal was only the beginning of Yang Feng’s plans. Fluidly, he settled the partially-sipped glass down beside him. Familiar with the taste of the liquor, it didn’t burn his throat as it did to most people.

His blank face and placid eyes were supposed to be out of place for the setting of this room. The dark shadows slithering in the corner created uncertainty.

What could be hiding in the bleak darkness where light couldn’t penetrate? Many people feared death for a variety of reasons. Some felt the loss of life meant the loss of everything and others believed it was the uncertainty of what comes after death that terrified them. Regardless of the reason, the fear associated with death all boiled down to one action: torture.

What made the darkness so frightening? Was it the monsters that hid within it? Or was it the nothingness that forced the eyes to completely space out? Flat, bleak darkness swarming the vision, despite the open eyes that rapidly blinked to adjust to the soulless color. A fear of darkness often doesn’t stem from the lack of light, but the uncertainty of what could be dwelling in the black void. Could it be an axe murder with blood splattered on the victim’s tattered clothes? Or maybe it could be the demon lurking under the bed? Perhaps it was even the ghost hiding in the closet, giggling to herself, a cruel and unusual sound gurgling from her mouth.

So many things could often spike the fear of someone.

Raised in all sorts of environments unsuitable for a growing child, the young Yang Feng knew that best. Thrusted into everything that a person could be scared of, he was taught how to manipulate the environment to provoke and rapidly increase the heart rate.

Through his disorientated eyes that turned solid items into hazy doubles, Zheng Tianyi was only able to focus on one thing. For the sins he had piled at his feet, Zheng Tianyi didn’t think he would meet the Devil so quickly.

Even when the world was a blur, he could see Yang Feng’s flawless face. His golden tinted skin, smooth like newly polished marble, was a stark contrast to his surroundings and environment. He sat in that chair, moderate size with mediocre materials, but with the nonspecific appearance of a throne.

Zheng Tianyi couldn’t think straight. Even so, he could see it. The curve of Yang Feng’s thin lips. The corners, sharp and prickly like the thorns of a forbidden rose, unruly tugged upwards in a sinister smirk. And that was the last thing he saw before the lights went out.

Darkness.

The dripping sound in the background ceased. The crippling and unnerving silence plunged Zheng Tianyi to a heightened state of uneasiness. He couldn’t comprehend the situation around him moments before, and now, he was blinded. His ears crinkled, straining, desperate, to hear a sound, any familiar sound, that could calm his racing heart. Thud. Thud. Thud. Something was pounding, growing louder with each passing second.

Haggard breathing, panicked gasps of air that grew heavier and heavier. What was that sound? Where was it coming from? It was so close to him. The senses were unfamiliar. And then he realized, it was him who was making all sorts of noises.

Without warning, something whizzed past him, seemingly out of thin air.

Zheng Tianyi jumped but kept his mouth shut. In an attempt to pacify his racing heart, he tried to think of the calm ocean tides of the tropical beach he had taken Xia Mengxi. But thinking about his cheating fiancée only drove his emotions to the edge. He was not in the right state of mind.

Suddenly, Zheng Tianyi couldn’t feel the binding ropes on him. He tried sticking his hands out, slowly, hoping to use his sense of touch to identify what was going on.

At the brink of his sanity, he stammered, “T-that’s enough, isn’t it? You g-got what you wanted?”

Zheng Tianyi heard a taunting chuckle from behind him and swiveled around with a speed that matched light. Believing there was an opening to fight back, he threw a punch. Nothing. His fist struck the air. The force of his own punch sent him straight to the icky floor below him.

Just as he managed to pull himself up, he felt something forcefully grabbing his hand. Zheng Tianyi let out a startled scream and in a swift motion, something was yanked off. It happened so quickly, he didn’t register it until all of his emotions drowned him at once. Agonizingly slow, sparks of pain spiking through the body, churning a person’s insides, the pain so intense, it induced a splitting headache pounding at the corners of the forehead.

A sharp, mangled scream shrouded the silence. It was the only sound occupying the room. The sound spooked Zheng Tianyi, who couldn’t register that it came from him until something else latched onto his remaining four nails. Then there were three.

“ARGH!” He bellowed, crippling with the pain that shocked his senses so hard, he dropped to his knees in hopes of alleviating the pain.

An eerie, doll-like voice, dripping with honey sweetness, competed with his ear-splitting screams. “Pretty…pretty nails…” Giggles choked Zheng Tianyi on all four sides of him, yet when he crawled on the floor and reached his hands out to grab the feet of the people around him, he was only met with the cold, stone floor. That was strange…

“S-stop it.” He begged. Born with a golden spoon in his mouth, he never understood what pain was until today. He had never begged someone and the words sounded foreign on his tongue, but it was an automatic response. At his wit’s end, rationality escaped past his head.

His wandering fingers met something cold, but sticky. Shakily, he tried to bring his hands to his eyes to see what it was, only to realize he didn’t know what it was. This only sent his brain into another turmoil.

“What the— stop it! Don’t touch me!” He growled when two different fingers touched his face, each with different roughness upon the fingertips. One was oddly soft, like that of a woman. The other was a bit harsh, similar to the hands of a person who cleaned the dishes or did too many house chores.

Zheng Tianyi attempted to force his nerves to relax. ‘S-so it was just women. T-that was fine.’ None of them were going to be as cruel as a man. And little did he know, with all sorts of tools laid beside him, he was going to regret his words. Indeed, they had the hands of a woman, but everyone knew, the bulge from their leather boxers indicated a brutal night of pain in every crevice…

– – – – –

Guo Sheng thought that he was insane. Well, in some aspects, he sort of was. From clapping his hands at gory torture to dipping his fingers into freshly dripped blood that was still warm, he had done everything that a person would witness from a horror movie.

With his night vision goggles on, he could see the scenes perfectly. The contour of the man’s body with unfathomably uncomfortable sweat sticking to the unrecognizable flash. Muffled shrieks and whimpers could be heard from the rag that was shoved into the man’s mouth.

Guo Sheng liked screaming. He loved it more than anything. In particular, he loved the style of Zheng Tianyi’s tortured screams. It was animalistic, something you could only hear during a pig slaughter. High-pitched, unveiling, body-crumpling, bone-shattering screams that forced shivers to crawl up the spine. Guo Sheng enjoyed the thrill of it, the goosebumps that formed on his skin. It was therapeutic. And they were only at the worst stages.

His eyes wandered to his Big Boss who never moved from the chair. The Big Boss wasn’t wearing night-vision glasses, but his eyes were perfectly aligned with the gruesome torture. The men working on Zheng Tianyi were on the last nail of his right foot. His hands were pinned onto the ground with steel nails jammed into the exposed, fleshly and wrinkled skin hidden under the spot where his nails should’ve been.

How his Big Boss could see, or at least pretend to do so, without glasses was mind-boggling. Judging from his unchanging expression and the smallest curve of his lips. Guo Sheng knew his Big Boss was registering everything that was unfolding a few feet away from him.

Finally, Guo Sheng decided enough was enough. He wanted to see everything in full-color. He wanted to witness the semi-finished masterpiece before it was completed with his personal finishing touches.

He skipped to the table and picked up a black blindfold whose materials shut out all forms of light. Like a wind traveling by Zheng Tianyi’s writhing, shaking, and rocking body, the blindfold was easily slipped over Zheng Tianyi’s eyes.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!?!” Zheng Tianyi’s voice, once smooth and deep like the ocean, was unpleasing to the ears. It was like the needles of a vinyl player scratching over broken lines, creating unsettling screeches.

“ARGH—!” His screams were even more unsettling to hear. It resembled finely sharpened nails running down the chalkboard, scratching a screeching path. Shivers shook the body of many people witnessing the gruesome scene.

Guo Sheng finally saw Zheng Tianyi’s body. There was an animalistic dog-mask of some sorts covering over his mouth, turning his voice and screams into something much more unsettling.

His eyes widened when he realized something was rolling on the ground. It was the chip that was supposed to suppress and alter the skin-crawling sounds coming from Zheng Tianyi’s mouth. My, oh my, Guo Sheng felt his brain enter into an entirely different thrill. It seemed the noises coming from Zheng Tianyi weren’t altered or artificial! It was real! It was real!

Guo Sheng’s eyes greedily took in the unsettling scene in front of him. There was a white, bumpy, and shiny film covering Zheng Tianyi’s disfigured body. The sheen substance was filled with small hills that resembled the bubbles of boiling water. Occasionally, his thick veins made it look like small, yellow maggots were squirming on the skin, due to the texture of the weird liquid coating his body. It appeared to be sticky and uncomfortable, like smoldering sweat clinging onto a person’s body during the hottest day of summer.

His foot moved on its own accord, swishing and skipping on the tiles, following the rhythm of Zheng Tianyi’s screams, that now resembled a disturbed and abused beast. Guo Sheng began to polish his toys… He meticulously took his time. Finally, his fingers picked up the scalpel-like an artist would their brush. He dipped it into the paint — a chemical known for dissolving fat-tissues. Slowly, he stalked towards Zheng Tianyi and there, he carved and finished his masterpiece. It was bright red, raw, with so many jagged cuts and removed pieces, one would think it was a sculpture instead of an actual human.