“You don’t know anything.” Trowa’s voice was winter-cold. “You don’t know anything worse? What if it wasn’t a fifteen-year-old soldier they raped and tortured? What if it were a six-year-old girl that they stole away from her family, and fucked her until all her bones were broken and she bleeds to death impaled on their cock? You don’t know anything, Heero Yuy. You’ve never seen. You didn’t see a group of soldiers throw a living man into a pot of boiling water and then ate him after he stopped screaming. You didn’t see them peel a man’s skin away from his flesh, and leave him out in the sun to burn --”
“Shut up,” Heero whispered, dizzied and sick. “Shut up, Trowa!”
But the words didn’t stop spilling from Trowa’s lips. “Did you know, Heero, in some army encampments they have terrible infestations of rats? There are so many, that they eat more rats than anything else. They catch rats, and keep them in pits until they’re hungry. But the rats get hungry, too, so sometimes they will take a man and drop him into the pits and when the rats have eaten their fill of skin and eyes and hair they are slow and easy to catch --”
“STOP IT!” Heero screamed, and staggered into motion. He turned on Trowa, like an injured animal, and his knife leapt into his hand almost of his own will. The vision of his friend, his tormentor, wavered in his sight, as though through heat waves, or the reflection on water. Trowa didn’t stop.
“Do you know what happens when you tie a rope to a man’s ankle, and throw him out of a building? How it breaks every bone in his body, and crushes his insides until he vomits out the bloody remains of his guts?”
“God damn you, Trowa, stop it or I will make you stop!” he roared, advancing on Trowa with the knife drawn. Trowa never moved a muscle except to speak, his own eyes locked with Heero’s.
“You’ve never seen a man, tied all four limbs to four different horses, and made them run. You’ve never seen the bones splinter and shatter out of their sockets, skin pulling apart from bone, you never heard the sound of a body shredding into pieces. You never smelled --”
“STOP IT!” A strangled noise burst out of Heero’s throat, and the dagger wavered and dropped from his grasp as Heero fell to his knees with both hands over his ears.
Re: Spoil of War, prologue
Date: 2006-02-27 11:27 pm (UTC)“You don’t know anything.” Trowa’s voice was winter-cold. “You don’t know anything worse? What if it wasn’t a fifteen-year-old soldier they raped and tortured? What if it were a six-year-old girl that they stole away from her family, and fucked her until all her bones were broken and she bleeds to death impaled on their cock? You don’t know anything, Heero Yuy. You’ve never seen. You didn’t see a group of soldiers throw a living man into a pot of boiling water and then ate him after he stopped screaming. You didn’t see them peel a man’s skin away from his flesh, and leave him out in the sun to burn --”
“Shut up,” Heero whispered, dizzied and sick. “Shut up, Trowa!”
But the words didn’t stop spilling from Trowa’s lips. “Did you know, Heero, in some army encampments they have terrible infestations of rats? There are so many, that they eat more rats than anything else. They catch rats, and keep them in pits until they’re hungry. But the rats get hungry, too, so sometimes they will take a man and drop him into the pits and when the rats have eaten their fill of skin and eyes and hair they are slow and easy to catch --”
“STOP IT!” Heero screamed, and staggered into motion. He turned on Trowa, like an injured animal, and his knife leapt into his hand almost of his own will. The vision of his friend, his tormentor, wavered in his sight, as though through heat waves, or the reflection on water. Trowa didn’t stop.
“Do you know what happens when you tie a rope to a man’s ankle, and throw him out of a building? How it breaks every bone in his body, and crushes his insides until he vomits out the bloody remains of his guts?”
“God damn you, Trowa, stop it or I will make you stop!” he roared, advancing on Trowa with the knife drawn. Trowa never moved a muscle except to speak, his own eyes locked with Heero’s.
“You’ve never seen a man, tied all four limbs to four different horses, and made them run. You’ve never seen the bones splinter and shatter out of their sockets, skin pulling apart from bone, you never heard the sound of a body shredding into pieces. You never smelled --”
“STOP IT!” A strangled noise burst out of Heero’s throat, and the dagger wavered and dropped from his grasp as Heero fell to his knees with both hands over his ears.
“I CAN’T!” Trowa shouted back.
Dead silence.