Now that Matt was out of harm's way, Joe happily continued with Marshall's punishment. The next part would involve the skin of his face being cut and peeled off like an orange. By the time she was done there was no skin left on his face, no lids on his eyes, no nose or ears. He couldn't clench his jaw against any pain for fear of driving the nails in his gums deeper, and that made everything all the more worse somehow.
Joe hadn't said anything during the torture so far – and the silent look on her face spoke of nothing either. Her eyes were alive though, shining with mad ecstasy. She watched the bulk of a werewolf that was shackled to the torture table; she saw the utter pain and fear in his eyes. Not knowing what she was going to do to him next was terrifying to him.
Then her expression changed with the outside corner of her left eye narrowing. It was a minor change, but Marshall saw it – he had no choice without eyelids, and his body squirmed in response. He tried begging again for her to stop this, but she clearly wasn't listening. His body tensed as she started ripping his shirt off, and he flinched as Joe's nails ripped through his skin. He'd experienced worse before in fights with other werewolves, but knowing what Joe could do just with those sharp implements had him on edge. His breathing intensified as he realised what she was going to do next…
Not clenching his jaw was hard to do, so instead he let out stifled screams as she started the painful process of cutting his skin in segments. Again the tears appeared in his eyes as she began tearing the skin segments off, revealing the muscle and soft tissue below. Some pieces were deeper than others, and only added to the uncertainty of the pain level. His screams could no longer be stifled, and they echoed through the room.
The worst part of this process was his quick healing. After each slither or piece of skin was removed, Joe would place it back, and let his body re-attach it… then she'd remove it again, sometimes slowly and sometimes with a quick rip. As it was newly healed, the nerves were extremely sensitive – the second time the skin got removed was even more agonising than the first. Sometimes she'd do it a third time as well.
Then she stopped with the skinning, and Marshall breathed with shallow relief. It was of course short-lived as he felt a sharp stab to the side of his ribs. When he screamed that pain intensified, and it was joined by another stab next to it. From the corner of his eye he saw the cause of it… Rusty blades were being wedged between his ribs, cutting deeper into the bone every time he dared to breathe. Screaming brought no relief, but only did the opposite. Even worse was the sudden surprise of her removing a piece of freshly attached skin every now and then.
This cycle was repeated as she wedged in more blades between his ribs. His chest was beginning to resemble a pin cushion. The skinning continued over his stomach and on his sides…
When she was done with the front of his body, she had him raised up and turned around. The spike that she had jammed in his cheek painfully tore at it as it was left behind. The clicking of the chains counted the seconds to the next horrible pain-filled session. As he hanged by his arms, suspended in mid-air he cringed and screamed again as she repeated the brutal sequence on his back. More blades between his ribs and more skinning were done in-between. Sometimes she would drive a gash through his shoulder blades or disturb a wedged blade just for fun. By now he was freely sobbing… he couldn't take any more of this, and there was no sign of this nightmare ever ending.
After Joe had had her fun, she stepped away from Marshall and disappeared from his sight. His heart began racing, sending more pangs of pain through his body. What was she planning next?! Oh no… she was coming back… her steps sounded different, like she was carrying something-
A cold wash of water hit him from behind, but instead of bringing cold relief, it burned his entire body wherever the water flowed. Again he let out a gut-wrenching scream as this was happening. There was something else in the water – salt or acid – he didn't know what, but it felt like a thousand fire ants were eating at his skin…
To add to his suffering, Joe jumped and kicked him under his armpit and with a loud sickening crack broke his arm out of its socket. The weight of his body dragged down, leaving his arm at an odd angle above his shoulder. His voice was hoarse but he cried out as his body swung from the force, agitating the wedged blades between his ribs, and pulling at his loose arm and broken bones. Joe moved to his other side, and he stared at her with horrified eyes, knowing that she was going to do the same to his other arm…
His pleading mumbles fell on deaf ears as she again jumped and kicked him, breaking and dislocating his other arm. His vision was blurring from the pain, and was riddled with spots at the edges. He wished he could just pass out to escape this horrible torture… but he didn't. His body was too stubborn and his mind too resilient. He lost count of how many times she kicked him about, making the pain and agony drag on.
As he tried to fight the pain, Joe had gotten hold of more railway spikes… They were forcefully jammed in behind his knees, through to the front and through his kneecaps. Then she twisted and pulled it out at an angle, and jammed it in again from a different side. More strain was forced on his dangling body, and he didn't know what pain to flee from. It was made even worse as she kicked his kneecaps from the front…
Then she adjusted the chains' setup and had him hanging horizontally, so he faced the floor. He was whimpering, and as his tears dripped on the floor below him, he unwillingly listened to Joe's footsteps. His heart raced as he felt the chains pulling against his limbs. His muscles stretched painfully and his bones popped as they were strained from being pulled apart. As the stretching continued he yelled in protest in a long and unrelenting howl. For what felt like hours the pull didn't let up and he felt the chains being fastened to keep him hanging in suspense. There was a heavy metallic sound as Joe picked something up, and approached him. Then there was a moment of complete silence, save for his laboured breathing. If he could blink, he'd be doing so frantically… his eyes darted around, trying to see where Joe was.
More silence…
It was broken swiftly with the sound of her foot turning on the stone floor and he felt a blunt force to his stomach. She had hit him with a sledgehammer from below, just as he had exhaled and it sent him flying upwards. The impact sent searing pain through his body, and he tasted blood escaping from his mouth as he coughed out of reflex. His eyes bulged and he instinctively clenched his jaws – causing the nails to penetrate deeper in his gums. His scream was unworldly and terrified.
The pain carried on as his body fell down and the momentum sent him swinging and dangling on the chains. His arms and chest screamed form the terrible abuse as his misaligned bones had tried to heal and were now ground against each other. Loose muscles were stretched and torn, ribs were being cut by the blades and his backbone was most certainly fractured.
Before he could even try and make sense of all the pain, Joe swung again and this time hit him from above, close to his kidneys. There was a loud crack as his spine was shattered to pieces, and his abdomen felt like it wanted to burst. The indescribable pain sent his mouth agape as he tried to both scream and gasp. There was an odd exclaiming sound from his mouth – his body didn't know how to audibly respond anymore… his voice was hacking at air now, muddled with more audible gargles as he swung and rattled about on the chains.
Joe didn't stop at just the two hits… more followed. Then to make it worse, after she let him take a breath or two, she did some more quick and violent skinning again. That was a different kind of pain compared to the blunt force, and his mind didn't know which type was worse. Before she was finished with the hammer she hit him on his shoulders again, crushing whatever bones were left to support them. His arms were now hanging only by some muscle and sinews. The desperation of them clinging to his body was violently felt with any movement.
His knees also got the same treatment, as did his elbows, along with more spikes added. His whole body was a mess of blood and shredded skin and torn muscles. Bone pieces were sticking out, tearing at surrounding flesh with every movement. More spikes were added all over his body; some jammed in and others hammered in. The uncertainty of where the next one would land somehow drove him mad – especially when Joe paused between their placements.
Unfortunately for Marshall, Joe wasn't done with him yet… not even close.
Using the chains, she adjusted his position again. As he was dropped back on the table, he felt the blades digging deeper in between his ribs. The spikes added to the blinding pain, and he couldn't even lift his legs or arms to lessen the pressure. The blades between his ribs were just short of penetrating his lungs, but not enough to make them collapse. Joe had been smart with that.
He still had trouble breathing though, and he had another pain forming in his chest close to his heart. In truth, a heart attack would be child's play compared to all the other pain he was being put through but he dearly wished for one. His body had had enough a long time ago, and he had been wanting to die so many times already… but he couldn't. His body was too strong, and Joe was too smart to let him just die from his injuries.
A wash of terror shot through him as he felt the skinning starting again, this time on his legs… the time seemed to be dragging on as she had her pickings and re-pickings. At some point she surprised him by pulling out a spike from his knee and jamming it into his leg, piercing and crushing the bones. The sledgehammer made short work of his feet and ankles – his arms and legs were also treated with more blows. Some of them landed on the spikes, driving them deeper or crunching bones apart. Then more skinning followed.
His lungs were burning, as was his throat. There was no more sound coming from his mouth whenever he opened it to even cry. The pain never stopped though, and it came from all over.
Then he saw her standing over him, with a terrifying grin on her face. He wanted to hide away from that manic grin, but he couldn't move… both from being restrained and from the pain reminding him what would be in store for him if he tried. The spikes pinning him to the table didn't help either. Her shining eyes scared the life out of him... there was no sanity left in those eyes.
To his horror she had a finger extended, and started cutting him open from the top of his sternum down to his stomach with her sharp fingernail. She ripped open the skin and muscle like a curtain to expose his innards, and the odd sensation had his entire body reeling with unease. Even more horrible was the feeling of her digging through the organs and the mess of blood, like she was looking for something. The squelching noises made his skin crawl and he whimpered in feeble protest.
A sharp sting and a fleshy pop made him realise that she had torn something out… he didn't want to look, but he couldn't shut his eyes either.
He was feeling very lightheaded suddenly, and for a split second hoped that he would die now… maybe from blood loss… or organ failure… he didn't care which.
In his muddled state he felt himself moved again. This had the effect of reeling him awake as the pain reminded him of being alive. Where the spikes had him pinned was the worst as they didn't want to let go. He felt where flesh and bone was torn from him, clinging to the table and sinews or muscle snapped off. Joe had him hanging upside down freely now – the cuffs on his hands were taken off… but he couldn't move anything. The sprawling mess that was his innards dangled next to him and on the floor. That was another kind of horror to his psyche. He should have been dead by now… surely he should be dead! How the hell was he still alive?
… Then there was a strange sound… like bending metal. A small panic grew from deep inside his mind as the sound came closer. He realised that he was fully awake now, thanks to the remaining blood rushing to his head. As Joe stepped into view, she kneeled in front of him, holding a large saw blade for him to see.
She let him get a good look at it… it was a big one. It looked like it could cut through bone with those huge, sharp teeth. The panic that was growing let him put two and two together, and he gave a last attempt at screaming a plea even before Joe stood up to begin the final process. For added torture she placed a thick stick of wood in this mouth so that if he tried to bite, it would be on that. She even tied it with a piece of cloth to keep him from spitting it out. He continued to scream on in vain.
Joe didn't need anyone holding the other side of the saw as she positioned it between his legs. It was going to be a slow and terrifying process. Hearing yourself being cut in half while hanging upside down was one thing, being awake through the entire process was another… and that wasn't even how he was going to die… His frantic muffled screams and cries continued through the entire process. Joe loved it.
She would only stop once she got close to his heart… Then she would hold his head in an iron grip at each side and start squeezing it, while pressing her thumbs into his eyes. The pressure on his skull would build and build, and he would only die once his head was crushed to a pulp, long after what would feel like a lifelong migraine. It was an agonising way to die, having your imminent death stretched out like that.
