"Why is she adding him adrenaline?" Caden asked.
"Adrenaline heightens one's senses and increases their awareness of something. That way they can respond to stimulus faster," he said.
"Yeah, but adrenaline, in some cases, also dulls pain," Caden said.
"Yes, that may be true, but what happens when adrenaline runs out when you have major injuries," Anthony asked.
"The pain comes rushing back to you," Caden said, "but why would someone do that? It's sadistic."
"No, it's mercy… Katie will torture him all she wants with him feeling barely any pain… the rest you will have to see for yourself," Anthony said, his voice wasn't loud anymore as he watched this happen. It was clear that even within the Hunter's Agency, Katie was not normal in the slightest. Cole watched with more concerned eyes… 'Katie, what have you been turned into?'
..............
"You're adding me more adrenaline… You're dumber than you look, Chase. This will only make me numb to any of the torture tactics you have in store for me…" the hysterical laughing continued, the boy becoming evidently more confident, "Show me your worst, Chase."
"Well, if you insist then… I'll just leave this electricity running. I won't lecture you on how much voltage a human can handle or on when it is that a werewolf can also stop feeling… I'll just turn it up to your satisfaction," she said.
"What do you mean when you…" he stopped as Katie turned it up to an insane voltage.
"You see, you have adrenaline coursing through you. So you can withstand more than an average wolf can… You won't even notice when the meat on your bones even begins to get charred until right before you're dead, a quick painful death if you ask me…" she said.
"Is this how you plan to get information out of me…" Chandler screamed, "It's certainly an uninformed way of doing it… You think this is pain. Look at me, my limbs are practically useless and rotting. What is this going to get you? Didn't you come here for information?"
"You know…" Katie said, in a sing-song tone, taking her time with her words. A seat next to the panel proved convenient to drive this point into his head, "I really don't care how I walk out of here. With or without information, it doesn't matter. I'm not obligated to turn off that dial at any one point. I can already smell your roasting carcass even now," she said, smirking at him as he turned red.
"You're a monster… get to the point…" he yelled through gritted teeth when he noticed Katie was not going to turn down the electricity.
"Katie, that's enough. You'll kill him without getting anything out of him," Anthony yelled through a microphone.
"That is not my concern, Director Anthony. It's up to him if he gets to live longer really. I definitely don't feel motivated to turn down that power," she said, yawning within her seat.
Chandler's body was begin to smoke as the electricity continued to go through him. Katie did not show a single sign of bluffing and Chandler was starting to see just how worthless he was to her. "If I die, you will never know what I know about who killed that… traitor," Chandler yelled.
Katie crossed her legs and leaned back into the chair rocking herself slightly, her composure that of someone that was sitting on their front porch watching fields of wheat in the countryside. "Even if I keep you alive, there is nothing that guarantees that you will tell me. To be honest, you're just wasting my time. If I cannot get information out of you, then you're better off dead, but if you do tell me something, then things can change. You don't have much time though. I honestly don't care about your life and I have other leads and sources to chase. So, I would say you have about three minutes before you die from the electricity. In two, you…"
"Fine, I'll tell you what I called you here. I am the one who called you here, wasn't I?" he yelled out at the top of his lungs. Katie stood up calmly and scrolled down the panel.
"Where was it… Or here it is…" she said, casually lowering the voltage and pumping more adrenaline into his system.
"No, please, no more adrenaline…"
"I don't want you passing out in the middle of your big reveal…"
Chandler chuckled darkly, "You're a true monster. The boss will enjoy snuffing the life out of you… I'm a dead man, but there is still something that I have to tell you…" he said, laughing once more, "It gives me a rush thinking of it every time I do… every time I think of just how surrounded you are. You will never see it coming… You will be so surprised when you find out who killed that poor traitor… someone who has been in that school for far longer than you have. You will never see them coming. I pity you, Chase… no, all I regret is not having the opportunity to see the look on your face when you find out. My best bet is that now that all of this has happened, he won't need to stay in hiding for so long."
"Is there anything else you intend to say to me?" Katie asked.
"What's with that look on your face? Why do you look so calm? Why isn't any of this bothering you? I've been watching you for a long time now… Why do you still look at me with that same bored expression?" the boy continued to yell out.
Katie walked up to the panel scrolling through the controls, "You know, you must have known what you were getting yourself into when you became a rogue and decided to carry out this kind of work. Instead of choosing a life that would get you a happy ending, you chose one that was most likely to get you killed… and look at you now, strapped to a chair with no limbs, on the brink of a gruesome death. I wonder if you ever ask yourself if you could take it all back and finally live a life that brings you joy rather than…"
"Spare me the pep talk… I know all of that. Those sweet words and empty promises are probably what got that traitor on your side in the first place. Just because you have me in this state of weakness doesn't mean my resolve will change so easily. I see you still have the same empathy I deduced while I studied you all these years. Don't take pity on rogues, Chase. We'll kill you without a second thought because that's our one and only purpose. To rid this world of all humans and the werewolves that betrayed their moon goddess' original will," with that he fell silent, staring at Katie with a defiant look in his eye.
Katie tapped something on the panel. A syringe began to inject a colourless fluid into his system. "What's that?" Cole asked the director from the other side of the glass pane.
"A drug that will give Chandler a painless death… It seems he wasn't as capable of breaking through Katie's will as he'd hoped or maybe he did. With Katie, one cannot be very sure of anything, because she can hide it if she wants to," the man said.
Katie watched Chandler's body go limp, his gaze going lifeless and his head lolling back when his muscles went slack. She walked up to him and shut his eyes with her right palm before walking out of the room, her face still expressionless.
"Why did you kill him?" Anthony asked her once she was out of the torture chamber.
"He was useless to us at that point," she said.
"Who let you decide that?"
"It was I who decided to capture him alive in the first place. His prolonged life was decided by me. I am not wrong when I decide he's no longer of use to us…"
"You lost those privileges when you handed him over to the Hunter's Agency," he said.
"Would it give you more comfort to know that he was already going to die regardless of what you could have done to prolong his life?"
"Elaborate…"
"His body had already been put under a voltage higher than his normal body was capable of. When the adrenaline wore off, he was going to die immediately. His healing was no longer functional as most of his cells were already halfbaked. He was living on borrowed time and he had already given up on trying to draw a satisfactory reaction out of me," she explained.
The two stared each other down for a while, tension building in the room, "You forget that you are still a prime…"
"We just confirmed right now that it was a rogue that killed Ash Myster," she stopped him before he could finish his statement.
"That information only works to prove your case worthy of investigation. Other than that, it was your blade that cut through the boy and led to his unfortunate demise…"
"Why are you fighting?" Cole spoke up, stopping the exchange, "Ash's killer is still on the loose and you are bickering amongst yourselves over trivial matters that shouldn't be your concern at all. What do you care what the people think about this? I just want the killer found. If anything, my say on the matter goes because Ash was my subordinate…"
The director didn't have anything to say to that but apologize for his behaviour. "What's your next step, Katie?" Cole asked. Katie walked out of the room without another word. Sandra followed her to find out what was going on with her best friend. 'Could it be that she was affected by what that scoundrel said?' Cole thought to himself. It was undeniable that she still wore an expressionless to hide something. He thought he managed when she left out the main door, a teardrop falling from her cheeks.
Sandra finally caught up to Katie's fast-paced walking. Tears were flowing down her cheeks, "I have to get out of here, Sandra. I'll see you later. Just let me go for a run," she said, speeding up to the front door and palming it.
"You can talk to me, you know that right," Katie was gone in a flash as soon as the large stone door could fit a human being, having slipped out faster than the eye could follow. 'I hope you are fine, Katie.'
Sandra got out of the dungeon and waited for the rest to come out. After all, without Katie, she couldn't open any of the doors that were within it. If she went back in, she wouldn't even have been able to enter the door to the room she'd left the other werewolves in.
Back in the control room, Anthony paced about trying to think himself. "We didn't even get to question the guy ourselves," Jason whined.
"You sure you wanted to be in the same room as someone who had been that heavily dosed on wolfsbane. I'm sure you'd puke your guts out," Caden replied.
"Hey, I'm not the only one who would have that reaction," he complained.
"Anthony, what is the information going to help us with? Katie was upset when she left," Cole spoke up.
"The information that Chandler was withholding can only be used by Katie because it was personal to her. If she hadn't kept her cool while she was in there, he would have gotten what he wanted. All we can do now is wait for her to figure it out. Don't trust anyone who is close to her though, my best guess is that there is someone close to her that committed this atrocity," Anthony said.
"Would you show us out now? This place is not one a werewolf can find any kind of comfort in," Cole said, silently cursing the numerous security measures that were taken in making this place. The three followed Anthony out, finding Sandra waiting diligently outside the facility.
"Where did Katie go?" Anthony asked her.
"She went for a run. She'll communicate when she feels like it. Is there anything else that we are required to attend to here at the agency?"
"You say 'we' as though you particularly came here with these werewolves," Anthony observed, narrowing his eyes at Cole and the others, getting a naughty smirk from Jason.
"You could say that. I have some arrangements if you may… Besides, today is a day of rest for many and tomorrow, the Founder's Festival will happen," she said. This placed a look of worry on Anthony's face.
"Oh yes, the Founder's festival, I'll have to tell you this. Get all the rest you can. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. The same goes to you three," turning to the werewolves, "I'll overlook the insults that you threw to my guards while you were waiting for Katie's arrival. That tongue of yours needs a serious washout, Jason."
"What is going to happen tomorrow?" Caden asked, making it his first indulgence in the conversation since they had arrived.
"That is something that cannot be revealed prematurely for a numerous number of reasons, I'm afraid. You will be briefed when it happens," he said.
"Okay then, we'll take our leave now," Cole's mood had started to turn sour and he only wished he could go for a run. The scents that lingered on the outer parts of the gas masks as they returned them made him feel even more nauseous and disgusted by the operation that was going on in this place. He understood clearly that rogues were unreasonable in the way they thought and couldn't be spared much mercy, but some methods the hunters resorted to could turn one's stomach.
What bothered him above everything else was the way Katie wasn't affected by the things that they saw. She had shocked the rogue and half-cooked him while keeping her composure as though this was something that she'd done all her life. "Was Katie trained in the art of torture as well?" Caden was the one to ask they turned to leave.
Anthony smirked, turning back to them as he was meant to get back into the open dungeon. It was surprising that the smell of wolfsbane that was in the dungeon was not leaking out. "I was wondering if that was nagging you in any way. The answer to your question is yes… The Chase family has been graced with one of the most powerful hunters of this generation. She's been trained in every aspect of our not-so-pretty job. If that is all you were asking, I bid you farewell."
The guards heaved as they shut the stone door once again, "I know you guys probably have Strength Prometheus gifts but do you still have to strain when closing that door?"
"Do you want to try it out?" one of them asked, stretching out his shoulder to relieve himself from the aches of having to close and open the impossible entrance.
"No, thank you. I'm good, but if it's that hard to move, then how was it put there in the first place?" Jason asked.
"It was installed using machines, but once it was in place, all mechanizations were removed and the door was made manual so that it was impossible to open unless two professional hunters with the strength Prometheus gifts could open it," the guard explained.
"Oh, so there are hunters that are stationed here with the purpose of opening and closing this thing?"
"Only when there is something that is being done here, otherwise, there are better things that I could be wasting my time with. It's just that this door can only be opened from the outside… only one person has ever opened it from the inside and it was because it had not been shut," the man said, "Even then, it shouldn't have been possible for them to open it alone."
"I won't try to ask who did that. For some reason, everything that sounds impossible points to her," Cole said, sighing and starting the walk that would lead them out of the facility.
"I can't argue with that logic. She's a far cry from ordinary… and something tells me she is still growing. She's not even eighteen yet…" the guard sighed.
....
They walked on in silence, or rather Cole walked on in silence listening to the others. They passed by the statue of the hunter that was facing an alpha. When they entered this facility, this whole statue looked impossible and much like a dream. The werewolves have always doubted the power of the hunters and that was because they always took the hunters to be not much different from humans. "So do you have some free time on your hands?" Sandra asked Jason and Caden.
"Yeah, I think we are fine. What did you have in mind… Oh, that… someone's fired up," Jason said.
"Yeah, I agree… Are you really that eager?"
"You guys can have your fun. I'm going for a run," Cole spoke up as the gates came into sight.
"Going for a run or looking for Katie?"
"I'm going for a run. I need to clear my mind and get the scent of wolfsbane off me," he said, waving the others off once they were out of the gate and sprinting into the forest leaping right at the forest and shifting into his massive black wolf mid-air. Cole was not in a chatty mood anymore and couldn't wait to get out of the facility. Looking back on the mood that he'd arrived with, eager to question the rogue in captivity, he felt like slapping himself when he saw what the rogue had been put through. 'Those rogues have some resolve. It's impossible to believe he went through all that and still didn't give up any information.'
Cole ran through the forest, his thoughts a mushed mess. It was this day that he was finally coming to the realization of just how ugly the life of a hunter really was. It was common knowledge to know that hunters were trained from their childhood. 'How is making a spy out of young rogues any more cruel from what the hunters were doing to their children that they trained to become weapons. These thoughts and worries troubled him every time he saw Katie put on an expressionless face and sealed her emotions from all that were around her.
.....
"What has got into him?" Sandra asked, sounding puzzled by Cole's sour mood.
"We really do live in different worlds," Jason chuckled when he heard the question. The fact that Sandra didn't see anything wrong with everything that was going on in the dungeon of the Hunter's Agency was amusing to the two werewolves that stayed with her. "Sometimes I forget that. Caden, perhaps we shouldn't take her so lightly. She could actually be more powerful than she looks."
"I was thinking the exact same thing, Jason. What I have seen today has taught me a lot about hunters. It's no wonder we don't treat them like humans. They just aren't…" Sandra looked between the two.
"I'm glad you guys finally realized that," she said, smiling. 'Maybe now they will realise just how much hunters go through in the name of peace between the wolves and humans. "Do you know why some hunters take years before attaining a Prometheus gift?" she answered, taking their silence as a sign to continue, "It's simply because it's not so simple to give up the innocent part of one's humanity and still remain basically normal.
Some don't get their gifts until they know the balance and can dive into the depths of darkness and come out unscathed. I want to catch up to Katie… but, Katie is different. She took in everything she was taught about the organization without getting that affected. It's not every day that someone looks at their first werewolf carcass comes through the ordeal without puking their guts out. Katie was taught not to feel sympathy towards them after understanding the way they thought."
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