From a King to a Slave (Thalion) -- Extremely Mature Content - Darius and Crew

When Thalion woke, he was bound. Both of his wrists bound behind his back with steel cable, as well as his legs bound together. He was naked and had been tossed in a corner. As he came to, he felt as though there were bugs crawling all over his skin, felt the prickle and tingle of thousands of tiny legs caressing his flesh -- and not one insect could be seen. It was almost like he had been on speed and taken too much or his arms and legs had fallen asleep. But it was inside as well, like they were making their way over his stomach contents.

In a glance, he could tell that he wasn't in a bedroom of any sort -- but more like a cave or somewhere... barren and hidden. He was cold -- and he could hear. The sound of metal scraping against metal as Darius moved across the room, obviously preparing something.

"Hey...Darius! What's the safe word?" Thalion said trying to make light of the situation. It felt wrong, everything felt wrong...

"What's going on?"

Daruis, for the moment, seemed to ignore the blonde man's words. He When he turned, he smiled. In one hand, he held a straight razor. The other one was empty.

"So prideful. So proud of your beauty."

And with one jerk of his hand, Thalion's hair was wrapped around his fist. And in the next breath, it was gone, the big man pulling away the blonde's hair and dropping it into his lap.

"There is no safeword here. Your safety is mine."

Thalion was shocked. He didn't even know what to say.

"Let me go! You'll pay if you hurt me! You'll pay!" He screamed. "Victoria will come and you'll see! She'll make you pay!"

One hand shot out, pressing the boy's lips together. And he... smiled.

"I highly doubt you mean as much to her as you think. Besides, Thalion... didn't you want me to make you beg?"

With another gentle flick of his wrist, he brought the razor down just below Thalion's left eye. He rested it there for a moment, the threat obvious.

"So whiny about a little bit of hair. Tsk, tsk."

"Hair grows back, you can still be safe if you stop now." He whined in a high pitched tone, if Darius wanted begging, let the begging commence.

"My sister is powerful too! And vengeful! My Father is powerful! You're making a mistake, please let me go and none of them need to know!"

He tilted his head and smiled.

"That isn't begging, Thalion," he said in a slightly reproachful voice.

His free hand curled into a fist in what was left of Thalion's hair -- which probably hurt, since he hadn't left a whole lot -- he jerked the boy's head backward. And with a look of sick satisfaction... yes, he was getting quite a bit of joy out of this... he started to very, very slowly... remove Thalion's left eye.

He screamed high and shrill, very much like a woman, "Please NO, no don't please stop!"

He kept that determined look -- not minding in the least the high, shrill screams. But no... he didn't stop. In fact, once he popped the small orb into his palm, he smiled into the screaming, horrified face of Thalion.

"Now that was begging. Much better. I'm very proud of you. You see, so many are blind to what they do. Their selfish desires, the things that they want. They don't even see the bigger picture. Me taking this eye from you? It is to remind you that to be blind is to be in constant pain. Only by opening your eyes will you see truth."

He jerked the blonde boy's head around and smiled again.

"Look at me."

Thalion was just sobbing, his good eye hardly able to focus on Darius, "Put it back, please, put it back...I can heal it still, please..."

He didn't care if this psycho new about vampires or not, he just needed his eyes back.

It didn't matter what Thalion said. Darius waited until the one good eye had focused on him. With a smile, he popped the bright blue orb into his mouth. Sucking on it for a moment as though it were some sick version of a jawbreaker, he trapped it between his teeth -- so that Thalion's good eye was staring into the removed one. His teeth descended, biting through the orb -- spraying Thalion with the fluid within.

He didn't say a word. He just watched the boy as he continued to chew. No hope left for saving the eye, I'm afraid.

Thalion just went quiet. He wouldn't give Darius the satisfaction. He wouldn't say a word. Not another word. He was dead anyway and it didn't matter what Darius did anymore.

He smiled at that. This was a cycle -- and it wouldn't help him in the least. There was a purpose to this, one that Thalion didn't quite understand. Darius rose to his feet and patted the boy's cheek.

"You likely will not forget to open your eyes -- I'm sorry, eye -- again."

Making his way back to the table, he whistled a soft, merry tune. A lullaby, even. this time, though, when he came back, he held some sharp hooks in his hands. those went into Thalion's shoulders and his knees, attaching more strong cables to the boy as he started to hoist him up in the air.

Death, apparently, would be a long way off.

Thalion screamed when the hooks went in, but he didn't say anymore. He had begged and it didn't save his eye and so he would not beg again.

His body shook from shock and the pain. He closed his lids. If he could goad Darius into killing him quickly, that would be better.

The problem was... Darius had no intention of killing the blonde man. Use him, yes. Torment him, definitely. Kill him? Not even close.

He smiled when he raised the boy off of the ground, his hand at Thalion's hair turning gentle. Petting him, like one might pet a kitten.

"Poor dear. I've hurt you, it would seem. But don't you see? This is for your growth."

Thalion started crying when Darius became gentle, he tried to clamp down on his sobs and tears, but it was hard to have resolve when Darius wasn't being cold.

"Let me grow back my eye. There's still a chance...I'll be good, I won't forget, I promise... please."

So much for not begging.

He continued to pet the boy, soothing and comforting. Like one might pet a puppy or a kitten. His face had a look of concern on it and his voice... oh, that voice was still so gentle.

"Oh, but Thalion... lovely boy. My lovely, lovely prince. Don't you see? You are promising to not forget, to not be blind. But you still aren't seeing that I am not stopping you from growing your eye. You are stopping you."

Yes, but you might rip it right back out...Thalion thought, but even so, Darius was right. Thalion closed his lids and concentrated, putting his will and everything into regrowing that eye. Then he realized he was supposed to look, Darius said to look, so his lids flew open, his one beautiful perfect eye, locked on Darius, wide and fearful.

Then he willed his eye back into being with sweet Victoria's blood.

((Spent wp))

He nodded with approval as he saw that Thalion opened his eye again. He nodded again when the eye re-grew, a smile on his handsome face.

"You see, Thalion, the one thing I will not tolerate in any form is weakness. You aren't weak. I wouldn't have brought you here if I thought that you were. But you have been so long without someone to show you that you can rely on yourself for things. Now, with that said... are you going to forget that? Are you going to forget that you can do things for yourself?"

Sweet sweet relief. Regrowing the eye was painful, agonizing, but it was a good pain, as Darius came into view in BOTH eyes, Thalion felt...empowered.

He nodded to Darius's words. "I won't forget." He was powerless to what Darius was doing and yet, he did have some some measure of control, he could control himself and that was something.

He tilted his head and smiled again.

"Do you have what it takes, Thalion? To be useful, to be meaningful? To be strong?"

"My name...means strength. I picked it for myself." He gasped in pain, the hooks now screaming at him since his eye had stopped throbbing.

"I will be strong! I AM!"

He picked up a small jar with a thick, white substance inside of it. As he opened the jar, his smile was back -- he looked... proud. As he started to spread the thick, sticky honey over Thalion's midsection -- just around his navel -- he started to speak again.

"Are you willing to show me that? Are you willing to be strong for me?"

"What are you doing?" He demanded, fear in his voice, he took and breath and corrected, "I mean...YES, god damn me..."

Once the honey had been applied, he sat the jar aside. He smiled, reaching out to caress Thalion's cheek gently.

"It is all right. It takes time to un-learn such behaviors as these. But you are strong, you will make me proud. Pain is a good thing, Thalion. It lets you know that you are alive."

Darius disappeared behind Thalion and with a metallic sound, Thalion found himself being lowered to the ground.

"Think about this. The most interesting creature in the world isn't human. For me, I love ants. They lift twenty times their body weight because it's better for the hive if they do. They never apologize, they never demand to know why it is that the world is so cruel. We step on them, we kill them without so much as a thought. We spray them and watch them die because they inconvenience us -- and yet, they do not hate us. They don't feel one way or the other about humans. They continue on as they have always done, because they are some of the strongest creatures in the world."

With the kick of his foot, he uprooted the anthill -- Florida fire ants, you know you love me -- and set the little stinging creatures loose on Thalion's bare flesh.

"Relatively speaking, of course. Obviously, no ant is going to even come close to the superior size and strength of a human. But if humans could do what they do -- most men and women I know can't even lift their own body weight. Let alone twenty times that. Yes, I know it hurts you, but you're learning. I'm not needlessly cruel."