Beautiful Scar

Seven

After what happened today, Lucas was rather paralyzed, mentally. This foreign place, new people, to suddenly be recruited under Captain Scarlet and meeting the perpetrator of Mary’s kidnapper and his sister’s murderer. It was a lot to take in.

As he tried to calm down from his thinking, an officer passed him a message. Though, he was to report to Scarlet tomorrow, it seemed she required his presence now and at the castle’s dungeon.

Ronald was stripped to the waist; his arms were pulled apart and chained to the brick walls. There was no special treatment here for this foreign prince.

Despites that, Ronald was still fuming with rage, “Unchain me, you crazy woman!” he shouted at Scarlet, who was towering over him, her arms crossed, unfazed, in fact, she smirked.

“My kingdom will wage war on you if you imprison their Prince”, he threatened.

Scarlet crouched to his level, her smile still in place, “Aw, you thought your parents are going to save you? Boy, the moment you signed this contract, we have tipped off all your unpunished crimes and offenses to them”. That stunned him to silence, “In fact, tonight they are meeting the King and the Princess to discuss what to do with you…Your crime is so heavy, it’s almost punishable by death at your kingdom.” There was fear in his eyes. “But, it’s okay, we don’t do that here for your crimes. After all, we don’t want to make your parents any sadder than this. Killing their son is just too much”.

“What are you going to do to me, huh?” Ronald was still trying to put up a fight.

Scarlet instead used her foot to jam against his groin, real hard. That made him screamed in pain. The steel heel pressed further. Ronald was writhing in pain at the contact. He wanted to push her off, but the other guards were holding down his massive body.

Lucas who had just arrived, witnessed the scene unfolded before him. For the first time, he noticed the look in his superior’s eyes. Scarlet’s eyes were cold. She was truly disgusted by the man under her foot.

“You men build so much of your physique and yet when it comes to this.”, her heel dug further, “You all break so easily”, she spat out his words at him. And then she lifted her leg. Ronald was relieved but he managed to glare at Scarlet.

But Scarlet snorted at him instead. “If you could see yourself now, I’m sure all the women you broke and killed them looked more furious than you when you tortured and toyed with them. You’re so angry, aren’t you? I’m sure that was how it felt like for all those women you did them wrong”.

Then, another group of officers arrived with a tray of various length of sharp tools and blades, that almost looked surgical instead of weapons.

“Castrate him”.

Blood drained immediately from Ronald’s face, his body was writhing, wanting to escape.

“No, no, no! I beg of you! I’ll do anything, give you golds! I’ll repent! Anything but that! You monster!” his mouth started to muffle by a strip piece of cloth in between his teeth. The group of officers and guards were starting to unbuckle his pants and cutting the clothing that covered his sore sensitive parts.

“I can’t go against the order of the King and Queen of the Ire Kingdom”, Scarlet replied coldly. “Start”.

And the first blade made contact with the skin. And the howling of pain resounded across the dungeon.

Scarlet turned away and stepped outside of the cell. She noticed the shocked and paled look on Lucas.

“Come with me”, and Lucas heeded.

The screaming of a sinned man and the howling of his pain echoed for awhile throughout their walks across the castle ways.

“I don’t think that the pain we inflicted on him would ever make up for all the horrible things he did to all those women, including your sister…” Scarlet softly said.

Lucas gulped, unable to form coherent words. It was after all the first time he saw torture was carried out.

“Or did you think the torture just now was inhumane?” Scarlet queried, raising a brow at him, challenging him for his own opinion.

“I…honestly don’t know if there was any better way to go about this thing, Captain. This was the first time I’m seeing and hearing all of these.”

“Then, what would you have done to address his crimes?”

“Castrate him and make him a servant serving the remaining victims alive”.

And Scarlet smiled at his answer.

The sounds of the torture had stopped following them and only the footsteps of these two warriors were heard climbing up the stairs.

“Officer Lucas, I do have to apologize for not being honest with you on one thing”, Scarlet said as they finally came across a door.

Lucas was puzzled at where this was going. And when Scarlet opened the door, inside, bound to a wheelchair, a young lady with green eyes the same as Lucas was engrossed in her readings, surrounded by a couple of maidservants. The green-eyed girl looked up at Scarlet and Lucas. Then, for a while, something like recognition hit both the young lady and Lucas.

“L-Lydia? Is that you?” Lucas was gasping and shaking, tears were threatening to spill from his eyes.

“Lucas?” the now 19-year-old maiden spoke. And before anyone could stop, Lucas lunged himself for an embrace on his supposedly dead sister. His lost sister.

“I thought you were gone”, he sobbed, not bothered at how he was crying with other people around. Lydia smiled sadly and patted his back. He always had such soft heart.

When Lucas released her and glanced at the state of his current sister, he remembered what Scarlet said.

He was the one who killed your sister

In such a way, Ronald did kill his sister, or some parts of her. He guessed whatever Ronald did to his sister had caused her to be paralyzed from the waist down. The thought made his fists clenched. But she was here, alive and looked well and cared for.  And it seemed she had become someone close to Scarlet as well.

“How was the first day of this battle royal events?” Lydia asked Scarlet. “I’ve prepared the summary report and bookmarked the books for your further reference on the table over there”.

Scarlet went to the table and opened the works Lydia mentioned while answering her, “That pampered boys were a pain. I wonder if Fina is doing all right this evening if one of them managed to reach her. And Brie accidentally poisoned me”.

Lydia chuckled at all this information. Seemed like her younger friend was doing all right, “My, Brie did that?”

“Her invention malfunctioned during my training”.

“What made you want to use it in the first place?”

“Just to test…but it did help me out on something”, and Lucas felt uneasy at where this conversation was going.

“It helped us caught the bastard that wronged you” Scarlet said flatly.

For a moment Lydia did not understand, until it dawned her. The painful memory came flooding into her mind. Her hands were clenched, lips tightly pursed. Lucas tried to ease his sister’s shaking body.

And instead of lashing out in rage, Lydia sobbed instead, “I thought it was impossible. I was already content with just this but…Thank you, thank you Scar”, she was smiling with heavy swollen eyes.

It reminded her of the times when she was saved and freed by the Silverstorm’s army. And at the time, she met Scarlet who was only 14, and she, 16.

She was the one who tipped off to Scarlet, the direction to locate the imprisoned young girls. But when she thought Scarlet would left her at that, she offered to follow her escape instead, to freedom.

She recalled the great escape of hers to Lucas that evening, as Scarlet listened to some while she read the report in Lydia’s chamber.

“Hey, don’t you want to leave too?” Scarlet asked Lydia from the door with small window separating and connecting her and Scarlet.

“It-it’s okay, don’t worry about me. Even if I want to, I can’t walk neither I can run anymore”. Lydia had already resigned to this harsh fate. She should have never left home even though her intention was to make a better living for her and her younger brother.

“What’s wrong?” Scarlet was still there. Even though, the area was in chaos as the army had infiltrated the place and caused the guards and enemy to engage in fights, Scarlet was not going anywhere yet.

“I’ve tried running away so many times, the Master had destroyed my ability to walk anymore…”

“Then, I’ll carry you. You get on top of me and lead the way out of here”.

That caught Lydia off guard. And before she could say anything, Scarlet managed to break the door and unlocked it.

She offered her hand out and from there, they both escaped. Lydia remembered the winds hitting her face as her body was carried on Scarlet’s back. She marveled at Scarlet at the time. She was smaller and braver than her.

“What can I call you?” Scarlet asked as she sprinted while carrying Lydia behind her back.

“My name is Lydia. And you are?”

“Scarlet”.

“Listen Lydia, from today onwards, you answer to no Master. You are the Master of your own fate. You are a free lady!”

Hearing that, it rekindled back Lydia’s spirits to never lose hope.

For Lucas, the last memory he had of his sister was the vision of her back as she waved him goodbye from their home, before she set out in hopes finding better fortune for her and himself. And that was when she was 13 at the time and him 12. He had never heard of her ever since until when he was 15, a message came reporting to him that his sister had died.

Now, that she was in front of her, tears started to well up again. He truly missed his sister.

“I’m sorry Lucas dear”, Lydia caressed his tear-eyed face, “I’m sorry for not telling you or write to you sooner. I don’t want you to be burdened”.

“You always do things without telling me”, he managed to sniff and scowl. Lydia chuckled, and even Scarlet snorted, which Lucas suddenly realized the other presence and quickly overcame with embarrassment to be displaying such behavior in front of his superior.

Scarlet rose from her seat and added, “By the way, Lydia. Your younger brother is going to be my assistant”.

“My, congratulations, Lucas!” Lydia was genuinely happy for Lucas.

But Lucas, despites what Scarlet had done to his loved ones, was still terrified at the prospect of this. He smiled thinly and controlled from gulping aloud. Especially when Scarlet’s hand still gripped his shoulder.

Scarlet left the two reunited siblings and went for tea. She was relived that the matter with Ronald was dealt with. It had been an unresolved case for a few years. But tonight, they would settle the verdict on Ronald’s life.

She entered the spacious dining room for the royals and settled into a seat.

Then, she heard sounds of footsteps and clanking of some plates and spoons on a moving cart approaching the table.

“Captain Scarlet”, the male who would serve her greeted.

Scarlet looked at him and grinned, “Doctor James, so kind of you to be serving me”, she addressed the suitor playing servant.