The Carrow Chapter 1

            I drop the tray onto the rusty wooden floors. The glass cup hits the ground with a loud crash and pieces are scattered all over the place. Pills roll across the room and fall into the tiny cracks and holes in the ground. I curse because losing the pills, and breaking another cup would mean earning another punishment. And last time I was whipped with a burning tong still fresh from the fire. I still have scars and burn marks on my skin, and that had been weeks ago. I have been trying to be extra careful, until now. My vision has blurred and I half collapse onto the dirty floor. The Carrow has not been feeding me properly, and he barely lets me sleep nowadays. All he does is purposely make trouble for me. And this  rotting house never runs out of things to be fixed either. There’s always a broken door knob, a cracked window, a clogged sink, or a leaking pipe that needs repair. Of course, I don’t know how to fix these things, but I do the best I can to patch them up. However, I am running out of spare cloth to stop the leaking pipes with, and extra knobs to replace the broken ones. The Carrow never gives me new supplies to work with. He is always being unreasonable like that. And now that I have lost his daily pills, he will be even stricter with me, because he will be out of control with insanity.

            This is what my life is like everyday. I clean, I fix, I get punished. I know no other life besides this one. Most of the time, I have no time to wonder about what goes on outside. In my world, it is only me, and the Carrow. I call him the Carrow, but he is actually a mad professor who has shut himself from the rest of the world. He is also biologically, my father. But I’m not even sure what a father is anymore. In the few books that I have managed to hide and read, a father is someone who takes care of the family, and watches out for his children. The Carrow is nothing like that. He tortures me when he’s bored and performs nasty experiments on me. I have long given up on protesting, because no matter what I do, he will always get me. And if I refuse, I will experience a hell that no one has ever imagined before. One time, he threw me in a fire and laughed at me while I was burned alive, but not wanting me to die, he put out the fire only a few minutes before I was going to be disintegrated entirely. He never let me die, he only tortures me up to the point where death would be a blessing. I have tried to kill myself countless of times, but nothing ever works. There are always cameras watching me, and the Carrow will do anything to keep me alive, if only to be his little guinea pig.

            He never gave me enough to eat, I was lucky if I got four hours of sleep, and I never shower. The Carrow has placed cameras everywhere. It’s not that I don’t feel comfortable knowing that he probably watches me shower, no, that’s just part of it. What he does is play with the temperature of the water until it’s either hot enough to leave boils on my skin or cold enough so that I’m shaking harder than a cell phone when it vibrates. One time, he had installed razors in a bathroom, and for some reason I chose to risk a shower that day. As soon as I entered the tub, blades shot out of the wall, cutting me in multiple places. All I could hear before I passed out was his loud nasally laugh; any other person would think he was watching a comedy.

            Yes, this is my life. There is no way out of this hell. No, not in a million lifetimes.

            My fingers shake as I try to pick up all the broken pieces of glass. My head is still foggy, and I can’t think clearly, but I manage to collect all the pieces. Suddenly, I hear the Carrow’s voice on the intercom that is installed all around the house,

            “Did you break another cup Syren? And do you know what this means?” I stare expressionlessly into a camera on the ceiling, and shake my head, but I know very well what is coming up. The Carrow’s voice lowers into a whisper, “It means I get to test out my new toy.” His laugh echoes all around the empty house. It’s mocking, hideous, and insane. I gulp nervously, but my throat is too dry to do something as simple as that. I carefully collect what I can from the mess and slowly walk back to the kitchen. It takes me about five minutes to get there, because the house is so enormous. The old floors creak mysteriously as I enter the kitchen. It smells bad, but I have grown used to it by now. I am the only one that ever goes around the house, because the Carrow is always in his lab underground.

            I drop the tray into the metal sink with a loud clang and reach for another cup. Then I put it under the tap to fill it with water, but nothing comes out of it. I continue to flick the switch on and off but still no progress. The Carrow must be messing with me.

            “Why don’t you clean up that mess you made first Syren?” I look over to the sink and sigh. He means that I have to clean the tray and throw out the broken glass first. I do just that and even begin to take out another batch of pills to give to the professor. But the cabinet is locked. That’s right; I can only open it once a day at a certain time. If I forget, or screw up like I did today, then the professor would not be able to get his pills, and I would have to experience a terrible punishment. This is his way of disciplining me. I begin to get scared of what new toy might be awaiting me downstairs. Could it be something to hurt my hands? Because last time, he invented a unique set of pliers that were specially made to yank off all my nails. A cold feeling passes over me.

            Of course, I have tried to run away countless of times, but the professor is smart. He has lined the entire property with an electrical fence which had barbed wire running all across the top and bottom of it to keep out visitors. But mostly to keep me in. The house is located in the middle of a large forest, so hardly anyone ever comes across here, only the occasional delivery man. I have also tried to dig underground once, but only came across spikes that gave me a huge gash on my leg. I have no idea when the Carrow installed that into the property, but no matter how bruised or cut or injured I am, he always has something to heal me properly. However it is always only enough to keep me alive and functional. It’s a miracle I’m still here, even after all this terrible treatment from him. And he’s hardly a doctor, but I must admit that he has some very nice medical equipment locked up somewhere underground.

            I can’t remember a time where I was happy, and I cannot remember my mother at all. I don’t even have a picture of her. But the Carrow always tells me stories about her and about how her screams, whenever he tortured her, sounded wonderful. I can only imagine what he did to her. He told me she died though, because he went too hard on her once. I begin to envy my mother, at least she was able to escape this mad man. Ever since, the Carrow has been extra careful about torturing me while still keeping me alive. He likes to hear my screams of pain too.

            The clock chimes. It’s time for me to go underground to his lab, and to see what his new toy will do to me. I open a hidden door and take my time walking down the stairs, but apparently I am too slow because I feel a metal rod shove me and I trip on my feet and roll down the stairs. My head hits a crate at the bottom of it and I shake my head dizzily. I begin to feel a throbbing sensation on the back of my head but ignore it. That is the least of worries right now.

            I walk toward the professor, a little faster now, and stop behind his lab chair. He spins around and smiles broadly, showing every one of his rotten yellow teeth.           

            “Come Syren, take a look at this. Isn’t it beautiful?” He begins to rub his hands together, and I can almost hear the scratchy noise his rough skin is making. I look at what he’s gesturing at and gasp. It’s a large tank with little grenade looking things floating inside it. He isn’t planning on bombing me to pieces is he?

            “Do you know what those are?” I shake my head. “They’re flash bombs. Meaning, if you touch them, it’ll set off and blind you for a few minutes. Luckily, I have these goggles that can protect me from the flash.” The Carrow claps his hands together. “Now, let’s play a little game, shall we?”

            A game? What kind of sick game would it be this time? When I was seven, he set off a bunch of mad dogs with rabies after me and I had to run away from them for two hours. He had set up an obstacle course, and my objective was to kill off each dog by slinging them with a sharp rock. However, not only were there crazy saliva frothing dogs chasing after me, some of the machines he set up out there would set off randomly and fire would shoot out or a blade might try to slice me. I barely survived, but I had somehow killed all the dogs.

            “What do you want me to do?” I ask. My voice sounds hoarse and dry because I didn’t get to drink any water earlier. 

            “This time, the objective is to capture all the berries in the water. Each one is tied to a flash bomb grenade, so if you touch the bomb, you’ll go blind temporarily. Oh and every time you set off a bomb, I’ll send an electric current in the water and you’ll get shocked! Doesn’t that sound fun?” The Carrow barked out a laugh. “As soon as you catch all the berries, you can have them for dinner. But I wouldn’t if I were you, because that water has been tainted with poison, and who knows how long those berries have been soaking underwater? Of course, I do, but I don’t quite remember.” I stare at him. He really is crazy.

            “What happens if I drink some of the water?” I ask.

            “It’s obvious isn’t it? You’ll get poisoned! This poison is supposed to give you a stomach ache for a whole week! I found it in a catalog, and I was hoping you could test it out. You’ll do that for me won’t you?”

            “Do I really have a choice?” I mutter. I didn’t even want to know what kind of sick catalog would advertise different kinds of poisons.

            “I’ll be nice to you today, and let you breath every seventy seconds. So every seventy seconds you’re allowed to swim up to the surface of the water and take in some air ok? However, when it’s not time for you to breathe, the tank will refill itself and there will be no space for you to take in oxygen. “

            Seventy seconds? I doubt I could do that constantly. I would tire myself out in no time.

            The professor motions for me to step onto the ladder and climb to the top of the tank. As I get to the top, he shouts out, “There are five berries. Have fun!” Another metal rod pops out of the ceiling and pushes me into the water. I barely have time to hold my breath. It isn’t until I hit the water that I realize that the poison will enter my body no matter what: if not through my mouth, then through my eyes and ears and through the multiple cuts on my body. I know the professor isn’t stupid, so he probably knew this already. At least, now I know what to expect during the week. I had no choice but to play his little game anyways. I swim frantically through the tank and begin to reach for the nearest berry. It’s tied onto the trigger of the flash grenade with a tiny string. I break the berry off from the stem, and am careful about not touching the bomb. I hear the Carrow knock on the tank’s glass, he shouts something out about a timer to keep track of when I can breathe. Gee thanks for the help professor, I know you’re only helping me stay alive long enough to entertain you, I think to myself. I check the timer, twenty more seconds until I can breathe. I slowly swim up to the surface and wait for the water level to lower itself. Finally it does and I rise to the surface, gasping for air. The timer says I have ten seconds to take in more oxygen. Six now. I breathe in one last time and dive back into the water. There’s another berry about ten feet away from me. I kick my feet and swim over to it as quickly as I can, but I’m too fast and can’t stop myself as the momentum from the water pushes me straight into the bomb. Right as my head touches it, the trigger pops out and a huge white light erupts out of it.  Then I feel the sharp zap of the electric current. My head is fuzzy, and I accidentally open my mouth from the shock of the current, thus, taking in a mouthful of the tainted water. I needed air, but I couldn’t see, and my head is spinning. I can’t tell which direction the surface of the water is. I know that I can’t make it in time.

            As the tank begins to drain itself, I can feel the water pulling me down, and that’s when I know which way to go. I swim up in the opposite direction of the water’s movements and gasp for air once again. I am still blind, but at least I have time to get air now. My body feels exhausted though, and I don’t know how much longer I can last. So I stay close to the surface of the water and wait for my vision to return. It isn’t until two breathing intervals later that my eyes begin to clear up and I can partially see again. I have one berry right now. The detonated flash grenade’s berry was still tied to it. So I swim toward it and rip off the berry. At least I have one less bomb to worry about now. That’s two down. I search frantically for the next one, and see a bomb floating close to the tank. Too close. I know that if I moved too quickly, I could push the water into the grenade against the tank and it would go off. Steeling myself, I approach it cautiously and begin to carefully push the water to the side, and I feel relieved as I see the bomb slowly moving away from the glass. When it is a safe enough distance from it, I pick off the berry and head for the surface. Sixteen seconds until I can breathe again. As soon as the water level lowers, I breathe in more air, this time I use up the entire ten seconds because I feel so tired. Only two berries left.         

            The water begins to rise again, and I reluctantly leave to find the next one. I am surprised to see that it is only a few feet away from me. I push myself toward it, but it’s too late, the bomb touches the top of the tank and sets off. I shut my eyes just on time and force myself to count to twenty before I open them again. This time I have saved myself from the flash, but I still feel the electricity run through the water and shock me. I let out a loud grunt and slowly inch myself toward the berry. Even in the water, I can tell that my body is shaking uncontrollably, and I have a massive headache from the electric shocks. I know that the professor only put enough voltage in it to hurt me, but not enough to kill me. Still, it really did hurt. I bet he didn’t even stop to consider the side effects of it, nor did he care. I wait close to the surface of the water again until the next interval ends and take in more air. Then I hear knocking on the glass pane; the Carrow is holding up a large sign. It says “this is getting too easy for you, so I’m adding a few carnivorous fish to the tank to make it more fun for us.” I stare at his face, too horrified to move. Then I hear the splash of fish being dropped into the water and quickly count about six of them. I search anxiously for the last berry. It’s at the bottom of the tank. I can see the metal part of the grenade glistening up at me. I kick off of the top of the tank and swim as quickly as I can toward it. I am almost there when the first fish gets me.

            Its sharp teeth bite into my ankle and I grimace, shutting my eyes from the pain. Hopefully these fish weren’t poisonous too. I open my eyes again and grab the fish with my hands, digging my long nails into its flesh and ripping it in half. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice the professor nod in approval. This simple movement pulls me up short and a thought comes to me. Am I turning into him? That’s the last thing I wanted. I refuse to admit that I am going mad. Pushing the thought away, I turn my attention back to the berry, but not before noticing that the other fish were almost upon me. The berry was so close.

            Ignoring the other bites from the fish, I grab the berry and swim as fast as I can back to the surface. The water level is already lowering, but the fish are still biting me. I do my best to ignore the pain from their teeth. Finally, I break free from the surface and a claw comes out of the ceiling to grab me. More claws reach out to pluck the fish off , along with some of my skin. The pain is unbearable, but finally my feet touch solid ground and I collapse tiredly onto the dirty floor. The game and torture is over, but only for now.

Author's Note

Please read the next chapter!

Reviews

[A. L. Allen]

Holy freakin' cow!!!! This is so terrible, but I couldn't tear myself away!! The Carrow really freaks me out, but he makes so mad at the same time!!! D:<

Your writing style is really great, and you immediately make the readers sympathize with Syren. You know, if he ever manages to escape, he would make a really great secret agent or something because of what he's had to go through. :)

Amazing job!!

(*clicks 'next chapter' button*)

Cool I admire your creativity greatly. I'll be reading the rest of this soon.

[chloe cruz]

This reminds me of a more scientific, and fictional version of A Child Called 'It'. It's a very intense, disturbing tale that makes me feel uncomfortable- a result of the non-stop abuse. You're a great writer.

[_]

HOLY JEEBUS THATS INSANE! no way out? no sleep? no place of safety? NO FOOD? I WOULD ALL READY BE A MADMAN! poor syren! ^(*o*)^

[Coyote Poetry]

A powerful and terrible story. How can a father torture someone for pleasure? Your description and detail made each punishment come alive in vision. No weakness in this chapter. I will keep reading. A excellent chapter.
Coyote

[Jack Isaac]

A hideously enjoyable write. [Sounds like my house, at least the plumbing part] Inventive and well organized storyline. Opening is inviting, and pulls the reader in. Flow dynamics are good; be careful of paragraph length at half-way through this however. Storyline keeps the reader’s interest. Just when you’re sure nothing more could possibly happen to Syren.. wait… there’s more! Good job here!

[kathrina]

Wow. That was great, really great. :)
Anyway, I like the plot you have and I'm already interested in the characters.
The details are good. I don't see any mistakes.
I really like your style of writing. All three of your stories and books are in my library. :) You could be a professional writer. :)

[Myrmidon]

really makes me wonder what'll happen in the future. thing usually come back and bite you in the butt dont they? keep it up, i like it.

[Archia]

Wow. It was suspenseful when she was in the water. I like the idea of it. I just have one question though, is the rest going to be gory, because I can't stand gory at all?

[Sylvia E. Lioness]

Wowie/ Hooking and cool. This is a really cool idea.