Trust in Oneself, Draft 1, CH 11 (Patreon)

Paul woke to a splitting headache, the sound of fabric being ruffled, and the tension in his wrists, shoulders, and back. Those were what told him not to move. He was hunched forward, being held in place by how his wrists were tied behind his back. The headache was the result of the hit on the side of his head. The fabric?

He cracked an eye open and looked down at his boxer-covered crotch. He was so happy he’d brought them in the shower with him this morning. His mother’s admonition to always wear clean underwear went back to when he was a kid, and being on the run made that tough. Once this was over, he should consider making himself a go-bag and ensuring there were at least a week’s worth of underwear in it.

“Hey,” a man said, “look who’s awake.”

So much for playing possum and learning anything. Paul straightened, and his back thanked him, as did his wrists once the pressure was off them.

The room wasn’t what he’d expected. No large penthouse with all the amenities. Two double beds, a dresser, a desk, and a screen on the wall. It was larger than the rooms he’d stayed in these last days, but these people weren’t living it large.

The room felt small with the five of them, plus him. They each had an air of dangerous business in how they looked at him, but two caught his attention. The rhinoceros, because of the strangest telescope he held, with its pitted black surface and knobs on the end with the obvious eyepiece, and the chimpanzee holding the gold cane—no, brass—with all the bumps and valleys and… were those letters? He canted his head, trying to make some of them out.

L, O, V, E…

That was a strange thing to have on a cane.

Only that wasn’t a cane, that was a staff, and once he realized that, the facts that bumps on it were all in sets of four and that they were all brass, locked what it was into place.

A staff of brass knuckles. No wonder the impact had knocked him out so hard.

When meant the other one wasn’t a telescope, not unless Shila had gotten what the Chamber was up to utterly wrong. It was a microscope.

“Well, I’d love to see you deny you know who we are now,” the chimpanzee said.

Paul tried to look like he didn’t understand what he meant, and the rhino chuckled.

“Don’t go into acting. Trust me on that.”

The three others, a buffalo, a koala, and a gorilla, who was holding Paul’s pants in one hand, and his phone in the other—Hopefully it was still locked—didn’t have staves, but had guns at their belts.

“Now,” the rhinoceros said, “how about you tell me what the two practitioners you’re traveling with can do? And this is just to make our lives easier. We’ll find out eventually, but I would much rather we do that from you than from her.”

Paul shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. I do room service. I’m not traveling with anyone.”

“I don’t think hotel employees are allowed to have phones that do that when I try to get into them.” The gorilla turned the phone so Paul could see the screen and odd-colored waves moved on it. “Well?” she asked.

He knew he didn’t have any apps on there that did visuals like those. Had Shila put extra apps without telling him? He didn’t put it past her.

Paul shook his head.

“I am so glad,” the chimpanzee said, taking a step forward, slapping the staff into his open hand, and Paul felt the shock wave of the impact from where he sat.

The rhino stopped him by putting his staff in the way. “No. I don’t want his head ripped off his body. Joshua, why don’t you explain to mister Heeran why it’s in his benefit to cooperate with us?”

The koala smiles and stepped forward. “It’ll be my pleasure.” His accent was so thick, Paul thought it was an act. There was no way people from Boston spoke like that. “You gonna answer the question?”

Paul only got half a shake of the head out before the fist connected with his muzzle and his head snapped to the side. The pain was such that he saw stars. He’s always thought that was a figure of speech before.

The koala centered his head again and wound back for another. Paul’s eyes went wide with fear before closing them in anticipation.

“You just have to tell me what I want to know.”

Paul swallowed his fear and shook his head again. The fix hit on the other side of his muzzle and the snap of the head was such Paul thought his spine would wrench out of his back.

“Just so you know,” The koala said, “I actually like doing this, so as far as I’m concerned, I want you to hold out for as long as possible.”

“You’re a sadist,” Paul mumbled.

“What can I say? I needed a hobby.” The punch rattled Paul’s teeth.

Fuck, that was another one he’d thought was a figure of speech. He so hadn’t signed up for this. He opened his eyes and found that only one of them cooperated, and the glee on the koala’s face made him clamp his mouth shut. He wasn’t giving that guy the satisfaction.

The koala smirked in return, and changed the punch, catching Paul under the muzzle and lifting him and the chair off the floor. Then he crashed off balance. The chair’s legs snapped, and he fell back hard enough he thought the sound of more breaking were his bones.

The koala yanked him up hard and Paul realized he wouldn’t hold out. Pain hurt. He’d heard stories, had people describe how much pain they’d been in because of this accident, or that stupid thing, but he’d never expect to experience it. When he looked at the rhino, the man wore a satisfied smile. He knew it was just a question of how much pain they inflicted before Paul told them all he knew.

The only hope he had was that the Koala miscalculated and broke his neck with the next hit.

The door shattered inward just as Paul’s phone rang. Then a call connected. The gorilla looked at it, frowning, as the others in the room stepped back, readying themselves for a fight.

Paul’s thinking was clear. Somehow the pain was only a shadow of itself. He made out Donal’s voice, and he realized they were here to rescue him.

And they were about to get their asses handed to them.

Paul shouldered the koala away and ran for the chimpanzee. Shila and Donal could deal with the ones without magic, but they had been certain this would be a fighter of talisman, not of staves. As far as he knew, neither of them had anything to deal with physical attacks.

That meant it was his job to keep the chimpanzee from using his brass-knuckle staff on them.

The chimpanzee stepped out of the way, and Paul turned on his toes, trying for a spin kick. He missed, but the chimpanzee stepped back and focused on him, a grin forming on his muzzle. He swung at Paul, holding the cane by the shaft, but Paul knew to watch for the whole thing now and was quick enough to dance out of the way.

With his hands behind his back, he was limited in what he could do. But at least his opponent was slow and not particularly skilled. He seemed to rely on the power in his staff to get the job down, so all Paul had to do was stay out of reach.

Yeah, like that was going to be possible in a hotel room with other people fighting. He had to end this and end it fast.

He ducked left, zigged right, and in a move that would make Niel so proud, if he lived to tell his friend about it, fought dirty.

His foot landed squarely in the chimpanzee’s balls, and Paul winced in sympathy at the pain that showed on the man’s face. Then the staff clattered to the floor, and the chimpanzee was curled in a ball, holding his crotch, and possibly crying. Paul was too busy dropping to the floor to get his tied arms under his feet and in front of him.

He sighed in relief as he got to his feet again, his shoulder unbunching.

The koala was down, as was the gorilla. Shila was facing the rhino while Donal somehow held his own against the buffalo.

Nina entered the room, and Paul was about to tell her to go back outside when he noticed that instead of carrying Merlin’s cane, she was holding it by the handle, the way a cane was meant to. It looked like the staff had been calling to her after all and that she’d made her choice, Paul thought, then noticed the confidence in her steps, the smile on her lips.

The cane came down as the tip hitting the floor hit Paul in the balls. He bent down, holding his crotch. Fuck, that hurt. Out of the corner of his tearing eye, he saw the chimpanzee relaxed.

Paul looked up at Nina. There was no compassion in those eyes, only a glee that was far too similar to that the Koala had worn as he punched Paul.

Oh, Fuck.

She was Chamber. The smile as she looked at him was enough of a confirmation. She was delighting in the pain she was inflicting on him. The pain of the kick to the balls he’d given the chimpanzee.

Fuck, it hurt.

Paul pushed himself up.

But he’d already suffered plenty of pain already, and even with it numbed, he had its memory to fuel him. The memory of knowing he’d been about to tell them everything he knew just so he wouldn’t feel more pain.

He kept his eyes on the hare. Was Nina even her real name? Had she really been Merlin’s nurse?

He also kept track of the chimpanzee out of the corner of his eye as he took the brass-knuckle staff and got to his feet. Paul counted on their overconfidence. After all, Nina knew he was just some guy helping a friend of a friend. He’d told her that much. She’d seen him fight, but that was only against normal people, people driven to it by desperation. Desperation her and her group had engineered.

And they had magic on their side. While Paul couldn’t say magic people were over-dependent on their magic, he didn’t know enough of them. He had noticed a trend.

When the chimpanzee wound back, holding the cane like a baseball bat, he was slow and clumsy again. Paul ducked at the last instant, and rushed forward, ignoring his scream balls. Even if Nina had transferred the damage along with the pain, it was nothing compared to what was coming if he didn’t stop her.

And as much as he hated what he was about to do, he didn’t have a choice. He wound back as he approached and Nina’s confidence broke under the violence he promised, and she raised her hand to protect herself.

Paul smiles as she too closed her eyes at the expected pain, and he opened his hand, changing from a swing to a grab. He could sacrifice his normal life, if it meant saving Shila, Donal, and everyone else the Chamber was making suffer with this.

His fingers closed around the shaft and he tensed to pull it out of her hand.

And was flung across the room with a shock that made his body tensed the way having electricity ran through it did. He slammed against the back wall hard enough he knew he’d end up with a concussion and the last thought he has was.

This better not happen again today.

Three times is a pattern.