Ten Opportunities

Warning: This chapter contains graphic descriptions of torture and intense physical and emotional distress.

Eulalia was forcibly held aloft, her eyes widened as though being drawn upwards, incapable of closing. Her typically captivating pupils had turned blood-red, so intensely hued they appeared on the verge of bleeding.

The bindings around her wrists were slackened, followed by those encircling her neck and ankles. The blood-drenched chains clattered to the ground.

A scent reminiscent of rust pervaded the air. Eulalia reclined on a wooden plank, her breaths shallow. Her chest motionless; were her eyes not open, one might presume her deceased.

The jagged object embedded in her collarbone remained unextracted. At the end of a slender chain dangled a silver hook, akin to a fish hook piercing through gills.

Eulalia tumbled from the board to the earth, propelled by the man’s force. Prostrate, blood dripped from the corner of her mouth to the floor.

“Summon the fool we apprehended two day