Painful Memories

The stone door slowly closed behind him. Its heavy thud was swallowed entirely by the thick stone walls, leaving only a faint echo reverberating through the passage.

The moment Skylar stepped inside, a powerful stench seized him—the rancid odor unique to blood and potions mixed together over a long period. Dim braziers stretched along both walls, their blue-green flames flickering erratically and casting a cold, oppressive pall over the entire space.

Seven bodies hung beneath the vaulted ceiling on thick iron chains.

They were neither standing nor kneeling. Their feet dangled above the ground, forcing them to hang in midair like a row of carefully displayed warning specimens.

The chains had bitten deeply into their wrists. Their skin had long since split and festered, and every fingernail had been neatly pulled out, leaving behind only cracked blood scabs and exposed finger bones.

As Skylar drew closer, he sucked in a sharp breath.

The seven people's eye sockets had become two deeply sunken hollows. Where their eyeballs had once rested, there were now only dried blood scabs and dark-red wounds. They were forever cut off from light, never again able to perceive even the faintest glimmer.

Their mouths had been forced open, and their tongues had been cleanly severed at the root by a sharp blade. The stumps had long since scabbed over, but the straight, cruel cuts were still visible. They would likely never utter another syllable.

Their legs hung limply, devoid of life. The tendons behind their calves had been precisely cut, the severed ends of the muscles exposed in ghastly white, while the surrounding flesh had turned purple, as though torn apart by a blunt instrument. The muscles once used to run, struggle, and beg on their knees had now been completely ruined, with even their last possibility