Pieces

[Jay Carpenter]

"...eep them guessing." The towel was pulled from Jay's face after...well, Jay would have no real way of knowing that. But the towel was pulled free, and the chair was lowered to sit upright again, which would give the man a chance to try and cough the water clear of his lungs. The fetid, soiled water was tossed to a slight depression in the floor where a drain let most of it run out of the room, and then two of the thugs grabbed the chair, hoisted it free of the plates, and dragged it over to a dry patch.

The plates were brought along a moment later, the chair was anchored to the floor again.

When Jay might clear his head enough to get his bearings, the blue-eyed man was seated in front of him, leaning forwards with elbows on his knees, and he grinned and held Jay's eyes for a moment, before raising his hands to show what he was holding. In one, a pair of jagged-toothed alligator clamps attached to cables that ran out of Jay's line of sight. No live current yet, it seemed, as they were touching without sparking.

In the other hand, a simple, cheap Exacto knife. He pressed his thumb to the slide, and an inch of blade slide forth; it was at least shiny and clean looking. Sharp.

"Choose your own adventure time. Which one do you want?" The man still grinned, amused. Excited, perhaps. Jay's shirt had been cut free at some point during the water-play; the weight of the shirt pressing against his wet body would have helped convince his mind that they were under water, would have helped sway him away from involuntarily gasping, trying to draw air through the wet towel. Remove the shirt, remove the weight on the chest, remove that primal instinct to not breath.

The blue-eyed man had removed his own shirt, leaving only a plain grey beater. It revealed more unit and gang tattoos up his arms and across his chest. Mismatched, disorganized. The Exacto knife blade was retracted and extended again, and the man's gaze finally let Jay's go to glance at Jay's arm. At his bicep, at a tattoo there.