The Silence That Surrounds: Screams of the Damned

Narrator’s POV:

Death can be merciful or merciless. It depended where you were, who you were with, what the odds were like at the time.

For Harry and Sophie – they weren’t very good.

When the guards had forced the two to walk to the middle of the arena with the flat wooden structure and heavy straps did Harry fully get an eye opener to the full situation.

“Strap her down, Breathless.” Ouch ordered the guard who had hesitated.

Breathless still looked conflicted but he shoved Harry down onto his knees for lack of any other logical reaction. Harry had been passed onto the guard while they had made their way to dead center for the grand torture session that was about to transpire.

The other guards that had held onto the fair lady simply threw her onto the ground for the pointed worker to follow orders.

Sophie landed beside Harry with a soft whimper.

“Pardon my curiosity, sir, but why me?” Breathless demanded, watching Ouch’s lips turn to a smirk.

He stepped forward with intent but Breathless beat him to it and fell down beside the young woman.

“There will be many, many times in your life, Breathless, where you will be called upon to take an order that will not always necessarily have a reason. It is your job to obey that command, no matter how unpleasant you deem it. I don’t give a fuck if the order is to give a blow job to your friend, relative or blind mother. When Jinx Kaiser leaves this ring, I am God and I call shots. You take the commands from your head officers – no matter how unflattering they seem at the time; for every command we ask has a purpose; understand?”

Breathless nodded solemnly and reached to untie Sophie from her binds that were used to restrain her into submission.

Harry brought his foot up and side kicked Breathless in the mouth and knocking one of his front bottom teeth out.

Breathless yelled out a vulgar swearword before defensively punching Harry back in the nose as a revenge tactic but was quickly restrained by the other guards.

“We don’t hit to damage them; they need to be able to fight!” Jensen growled, glancing at Ouch who merely shrugged.

“Eye for an eye, lads. Harry Styles needs to learn that he is not God here. He needs to learn that he is nothing but a profit to be made for others entertainment, nothing more. Perhaps a few years of being told this it will start to seep in but for now, unbind him. Jensen? Oversee that Breathless is a good little boy and doesn’t kill Styles; we need him and Deprave alive for the grand finale.” Ouch ordered, glaring at the curly headed leader while Aiden and Harry’s gang looked on from the sidelines.

They waited several minutes until the young guard’s mouth had slowed its bleeding.

Breathless continued on toward the ground to help the girl from her restraints, snapping them from her easily before removing her gag.

She inhaled sharply, whimpering in fright when he tried to guide her toward the board.

“I don’t want to die this way. It’ll hurt, please. I just want to die quick. I beg – “She started but Breathless forced his one hand across her mouth, his dark eyes an array of emotions.

For a moment they simply stared one another down.

“I’m sorry, milady. My trespasses seem to reach quite deep for only twenty-three cycles – perhaps someday they can be absolved but I know that they won’t be today. Come, please don’t make me hurt you. You of all people here know I hate unneeded violence.” He reasoned, holding his hand out for her to take, his lips a cherry full crimson from Harry’s kick.

Sophie stared at him again, nodding sadly. She reached delicately and grasped the soft flesh of his hand, squeezing to his bone, allowing the young guard to help her to the flat board.

Around them the crowds were chittering away as if nothing was going on, making bets against Sophie and the pain that would soon course through her.

Harry glowered darkly, watching Breathless help the young scarlet onto her back, her delicate long fingers grasping his hand with everything they were worth.

The dark prince’s eyes were dipped in the most beautiful night sky Harry had probably ever seen. They were so dark in fact that when they stormed over, they clouded with this hue of dream that reflected the endless space around us.

Sophie’s eyes were staring at his full pink, now crimson lips. They would be perfect for his girlfriend, should he have been blessed with one. A gentlewoman’s kiss to soften his roughened gaze. She imagined his eyes softening when he laid eyes upon her when walking through the door to their flat at night. He would throw his wallet on the table and she would meet him with a smile at the door, wrapping her arms around him and planting a gentle kiss to his full lips in a loving way that only a gentlewoman could. Sadly, Sophie could only offer him a simple thanks for his kindness; the same as she had done many a times before.

“To be forgiven for your trespasses, my Lord, you must first forgive yourself. Those who you trespass are gone and those who are not will soon be. To find peace, you must find the torment hidden within yourself and forgive whatever you have done.” Sophie whispered, using one hand to position her hand on the board while scooting with the other, her lips forcing a small gentle smile.

Breathless paused, milking in her words like a sponge. His medium length dark raven brown hair falling to the side ever so gently.

He was beautiful. Breathtakingly so in fact. With his lean body, tight medium built chest and a height of one point eight meters (six foot, two inches) it was no wonder how he got his nickname. Especially the strong jawline and barely there five o’ clock shadow to match the dark mystery that was guard two nine five.

“You would know all about forgiveness, wouldn’t you Sophie? You forgive everyone at the drop of a hat and that’s your problem. Perhaps you should keep some trespasses for others so that they have something to fight for, milady,” Breathless bite back but smiled tightly at her regardless and took her arm, pulling it downward. “Come on, sweetheart, down you go. It’s about time for your grand finale.” He let her know, his eyes contracting a different emotion. Something much deeper – sadder even.

Sophie nodded but paused again, this time not meeting his eyes.

“I’ve known you for a long time, Breathless. You started working here with your father days after I was brought to The Cage, seems a world away from then to now, doesn’t it?” She asks softly, swallowing nervously to shyly glance his way.

Harry was being held by Jensen and Jake – or as Louis named them, Jackass and elephant dick…or whatever kind of elephant part he was. Either or but the exchange in front of him was making him all the more nauseous. Sophie was becoming the submissive doll that she had become accustomed to and she was about to die – on her back, at the mercy of monsters.

“A world that is far from our own now, Sophie. An unfortunate happenstance if one chooses to look at it as such. We have known one another in passing but we truly know nothing about – “Breathless began but she sat up straighter, her hand reaching for his wrist.

“You walk the same level I am on exactly two hundred and fifty-nine times a day. You stare at the ground but glance halfheartedly up to meet my face as your lip gives a half twitch when you pass. You do this almost every time. You have asked how Aiden is when he is not with me. You gave me an extra spool of soup before and Aiden an extra cup of water when it is your day to pass out food and drink to the prisoners. I may not know you, sir Breathless, but I have acquired enough information to know you are not a bad person. Come what may, I forgive you my trespass – for He judges all and eventually my time too shall come to pass.” She smiled, laying down on the board without further prompting and moving her arms gently to the straps.

Sophie didn’t look away from Breathless; instead she watched him proceed with his task. He was swift but gentle in his task, starting with her right arm, picking up the rough strip and feeding it into the buckle.

Harry flinched when he saw it bite into her skin but she didn’t. She focused her loving energy into her captor’s eyes with her light blue ones. They were filled with nonjudgmental love but out of very emotion Harry had run across, they were filled with peace.

“There is something I’ve always wanted to know about you but you won’t tell me – will you, sir Breathless?” Sophie whispered, her blonde hair laid neatly on the board, her head twisted to watch the breathtaking man in front of her.

He shrugged, strapping down her stomach and pulling the strap taunt.

“It depends what you wish to know, lady Sophie. What you could possibly want to know with the likes of me.” Breathless’s voice dropped, halting in his task and bowing his head to look at her beautifully tied down hand.

“A name. I bet it is as breathtaking as you are breathing.” Sophie smiled, earning her an eye roll from Harry. She was either laying it on extremely thick or she was a very naïve eighteen-year-old girl. His money was on the latter.

“No names.” Breathless said without hesitation and finished tying her to the board before making sure she was secured.

Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

Breathless made his way from the ground again, smacking the dirt from his clothes as he did so and walking to stand in front of Harry, uncovering his knife as he did.

“I’m going to take your gag and your restraints off. When they are off, you and I are to wait. When the timer begins, we begin to pile rocks on – “He explained but Harry bit down on the cloth and hummed a ‘no’ into it, shaking his head once with vigor.

No, he was not killing a girl by some twisted evil dark ages method. He was taking his bloody ball and going the fuck home. He had enough with the twisted neighborhood kids and their fucked up games of madness.

Breathless reached out and grabbed the collar of Harry’s shirt, pulling him until their noses touched, the look in his cloudy dark eyes pooled over into a dark storm cloud of intensity that left Harry wanting to piss himself.

“You will or you and your gang will bloody DIE! Damien Styles left you in our hands. He left you all here to fend for yourselves and Sophie was whose responsibility to kill? Oh that’s right! She was Harry Styles burden. You had a chance to do right by putting her out of her misery before it came to this and you couldn’t even do that. Now? She dies in a horrific way that makes normal murder seem like a picnic in the park.” Breathless clenched his teeth while he explained.

The gag was torn off and Harry took in a well needed breath of air.

“Bastard!” Harry yelled, his feet dying to go forward and imbed themselves somewhere in Breathless that would do the most damage.

“Not according to my account, Styles. You wouldn’t know mercy if it slapped you on the ass and called you Ned Flanders.” Breathless glared with a challenged expression.

“I kill when Damien tells me I have to kill. He gives me the order; I carry it out. He didn’t give this order!” Harry defended, his eyes snapping to Sophie that just looked up to him helplessly.

Breathless shook him once, his attention going back to the guard.

“You are property of Jinx Kaiser, Mr. Styles and when he tells you to jump then by God, you drop to your fucking knees and kiss his fucking feet and ask how high because an angry Jinx is a dangerous one. It doesn’t just affect the fighters, it affects everyone.”

Harry was sure Breathless was about to start foaming at the mouth. In fact, he was holding back violence against the slightly younger bloke he held in a death grip.

Breathless had slightly damp hair from the sweat the had gathered and barely a five o’clock but the anger in his eyes matched Harry’s own.

“I belong to nobody.” He simply stated, glancing down at Sophie for a distraction.

“You belong to The Cage. You will fight, you will kill…you will die. A fact of life you have not yet accepted and I can respect you for it, mate but do yourself a favor – don’t wait too long.”

With that his restraints were pulled away and he was pushed back onto his knees.

“Get up and help me put the board on, the timer will be starting any moment now.” Breathless demanded but Harry remained on his knees and unmoving.

Breathless waited for a verbal response and was even disappointed in that as well.

After several seconds he simply walked to where the board was and hoisted it up, gently setting it atop of Sophie.

“Fine, Styles. Then – actually, where are the rocks?” Breathless halted, glancing around to find only the board.

“Up your ass?” Harry tried but that only got him backhanded.

“Leave the sarcasm for Tomlinson, it’s far more unbecoming of you.” Breathless huffed, stopping only with slight interest when Tomlinson, Malik and Deprave were all but hauled out of the cage mesh and toward the forced together group.

“These are the rocks.” An unknown guard proudly stated, throwing Tomlinson to the ground.

Louis groaned in pain, laying still where he was thrown.

Breathless paused, looking around to Tomlinson, Malik, Styles and Deprave himself. If all current bodyweight was combined, it would be enough to break bones if not crush Sophie’s chest completely. They would add the weight on as needed to end her life – but not her suffering. The four of them would do for now.

“We estimate the weight to be forty-two stone; or if were going American here, five hundred and ninety-two pounds. Tell our host so he knows the average weight and when the lads are situated on the board we will add the guards next if she has not died. When she is still, we throw her body into the pit with the others.” Breathless ordered, going about his procedure with an unemotional detachment.

Harry would have looked at him in disbelief but he knew that to protect themselves, they too had to look at what they did strictly as a job. Harry understood the monsters within The Cage. The place that chained him down and kept him shackled in a mesh of wires and bars. He understood them the most out of anyone here and it was torturous in a way that his revelation came too late, that he finally saw what Zayn, Liam and Niall experienced on a daily basis. It had become just another way of life for them – even Louis was unaffected by the brutality but right then, he understood how it felt to be the victim. What it was like to not get a choice of your own. He understood life as a prisoner and how it felt to be betrayed by the only person you thought you could count on the most to help you. He now understood that Sophie should have died by his hand. She should have been granted the mercy she begged for.

Harry looked subtly at the sides of the guard’s pockets and saw the knife protruding from the unnamed guard that was still standing there like a clueless git.

“Not if I can help it you fucking monster.” Harry muttered the same time he reached out and confiscated the knife, opening it and letting it loose in a blind throw before the guards could react.

Breathless turned in shock when a faint gasp met his ear, he looked over and saw blood trailing down Sophie’s neck from the deep embedment the knife made when it entered.

For a split second his masked dropped. For just a quick moment in time Harry saw the true man behind the veil of hidden emotions and forced down feelings.

“Sophie!” Breathless exclaimed while Harry was manhandled back down to the ground again, his hands firmly retied behind him.

While they struggled to restrain Harry, Aiden was screaming out in a muffled panic to be released, begging – pleading to the monsters above him to let him go to the only person he ever truly cared about.

Breathless obeyed the order and took his own knife, walking to him in a hurry and cutting his ties from his hands first before his feet.

“Sophie! Sophie, oh my God – Sophie, no!” Aiden cried out once he forced the gag out, rushing to her side and lifting her head up to set it on his slightly raised knee. “UNSTRAP HER!” He demanded the Breathless one while the guards just stood by and watched the scene – some in shock, some not giving a rat’s ass and some smiling. Though Ouch could hardly be blamed for that, the years working at The Cage had hardened him into a shell of his former self.

Harry looked up and noticed the timer had been gone for two minutes – he realized it wasn’t her scream that the audience was supposed to hear. It was Aiden’s…his, Zayn’s – Louis’s…though Louis was currently unconscious on the ground again. He needed to get hydrated soon or he could slip into a coma permanently.

Breathless threw the board off and catered to Aiden’s wish, his hand petting over her milk blonde hair. She was beautiful, fair and kind. She was his lady – his princess and now? She was dying.

A few hums of a faint gurgle made their way up her through and out her mouth in a blood soaked river.

“N-name.” She mouthed, reaching out to Breathless that had ripped her wrist straps away and was trying to find a way to fix the unfixable situation. Unfortunately, Harry got her in a place where the blood would spill and coagulate more quickly.

“My name is Adam. Adam Woods and it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Sophie.” Adam’s voice went quieter as he looked up to the faces of the other guards. All but one showed disappointment.

“You weren’t torturing her and using us to do it you fucking bastards!” Harry shouted with a low grow etched in his voice but got a yank in the arm for his efforts.

Sophie’s eyes turned to Aiden, her hand going to his wet cheek, his chest heaving to take in adequate stale air but nothing worked. His heart felt a sharp torn pang in it. He didn’t know if he could die of a broken heart but he sure felt like he could.

His hand met hers in a loving gesture, taking it and kissing it frantically.

“No, no, no, NO! You can’t leave me, Soph. No! Don’t go home! Baby, stay with me. I can take care of you. We can be happy, we can – “Her hand met his cheek again, her eyes closing. No matter how much she fought, the blood was leaving her faster.

“Home.” She gurgled, smiling softly, showing him her bloodied teeth before glancing at Harry. That’s when the reaper reached out and scythed her.

It showed by the light leaving her beautiful eyes before her body went slack against the man she had loved for most of her teenaged life at The Cage and the rest of her short adult one.

Aiden knelt there; frozen in a time of memories and feelings of her warmth, her sadness, her sass, her anger – all the emotions and recollections overloaded him at once. It hurt with each sharp intake of forced air.

Zayn was on the ground submissively, watching the scene with a look that could only be described as sympathetic. No one removed his gag to get a formal statement so he could only assume he wasn’t invited to the sadistic tea party these people decided to throw.

No matter, after the day they all had – he just wanted to go back to his cell but after seeing the display, it would be with a much heavier heart. He didn’t know Sophie well enough but he knew a gem when he saw one and it reminded him of their own pain in the ass.

A slight snore interrupted his thoughts from the side and he looked to see Louis sound asleep. Which was incredibly…astonishing.

“I hope you all burn in hell.” Harry glowered lowly, head butting Ouch in the crotch with the back of his head; making the older man howl in pain.

“SOPHIE! No! Come back! You’re my everything – you’re…if we ever got out of here. If we ever truly got out I was going to ask you to marry me! I can’t imagine myself with anyone else. I can’t – “Aiden broke off in a sob that could only be described as a howl.

The microphone above them came to life, with the announcer. He was indicating that Aiden’s scream had come out to a ten point nine. The highest to come from a male fighter.

Harry growled but that was soon silenced again by bringing the same piece of cloth into his mouth and tying it.

Aiden’s eyes squared in on Harry and darkened. His mind was going a million miles an hour and his heart burned like fire, bleeding into his chest like hot molten lava.

He gently pulls the knife from his beloved but that’s as far as he gets before being tackled by Adam.

“No, mate. You are not to hurt him! It won’t bring her back!” Adam yelled in his ear, hoping that it would jolt Aiden from the murderous rage he was feeling for the younger boy at the moment.

“Let me go! He’s MINE! HE KILLED MY BELOVED!” Aiden screamed to the heavens, struggling in Adam’s arms but stilled, feeling a pinch in his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Aiden. By the grace of God above, lad – I swear to you I am.” Adam left it at that when the man crashed below him, knife tucked under his chest and in his fist tightly.

“My Sophie – my beloved.” Aiden broke down, letting his body settle onto the ground in defeat, sobbing into the dirt of the arena.

“Fucking bitch!” Ouch groaned, followed by a hard bunch to Harry’s cheek. He was already knelt on the ground, so bunching Harry wasn’t really all that difficult.

Zayn seemed to be the only good lad in the class today not intending to piss off the teacher, lucky for him. Louis was snoring, Aiden was checking out from the sedation shot that Adam got into him and Harry was getting man punched.

Jinx Kaiser had been watching the events from his window and smiled in satisfactory. He knew it would play out exactly how he hoped it would.

“Harry Styles has a conscience – a small one but one we can break if not shatter completely. Give me a month, Master Styles and I will give you the son you could only have dreamt of. In exchange, you get your son and members back – perhaps your pick of a fighter for your recruitment? Five million pounds doesn’t pay for a lot now a day but it will certainly take care of this. Consider it a deal, Damien. A pleasure as usual. Ta-ta.” Jinx waved subconsciously, smiling like an invisible Cheshire cat and walking back from his hiding place to the arena with a smirk.

“Guards? I believe our fighters have had enough excitement for one day. Return them to their cells, chain them down for the night and get everything else squared away after execution hour is finished, yeah?” Jinx nodded to his guards to see them agree back – all but Adam. He just sat beside Aiden, rubbing his back. The fighter had fallen asleep a few minutes prior but it didn’t quite feel right. His mask dropped, he knew he was in trouble with Kaiser and didn’t think there was any point in hiding it.

“Breathless, lad? Fighters need to be put away. Help your friends with that, yeah?” He tried being nice but all Adam did was look up with the same stormy look that he held before.

“Go to hell you fucking bloody monster!” Adam growled but all Jinx Kaiser did was laugh – laughing meant danger. It meant danger because Jinx Kaiser didn’t fucking laugh unless he was about to do something very, very violent.

“Oh I love it. I love the impudence. Thank you, Breathless; thank you my lad because you just volunteered to be our next contestant to see how much weight it takes to crush a human chest under duress. Gents? Tie him right.

It was then, despite the pain that Harry was in, got a very brutal reality of how deep their savagery reached. Truth was? Unlike his, it had no boundaries. The layers of it were limitless to their own sadistic imagination. Not even their own were safe around there and when Adam screamed out in a breath of horror for the world to hear, nobody came to his screams. No one rescued him from the hells of reality the Cage brought daily. No one cared that he was murdered in front of them – as long as they got their bloody bets, what care did they have for a human being? The rich were cruel without remorse and the underground were only joined by blood and money. Only difference is, when someone scrapes on their deal; it no longer becomes about money but blood – then it really comes down to who the bigger dog is and sometimes in the game of life – there are no winners amongst the two.

Notes