For hours, Rudy Gobert had been waiting patiently for his guest to wake up. He didn’t feel like waiting anymore. Retrieving a nearby bucket of ice water he had set aside specifically for this purpose, he dumped the entire contents onto the head of the unconscious man strapped to the chair.
The shirtless man immediately jolted awake and began to cough uncontrollaby. Rudy smiled a thin-lipped smile as his guest spluttered and shivered. Long ago, his ability to feel remorse had withered away from disuse. Nowhere in his troubled mind did reside the concept of “mercy”. It gave him great pleasure to see another human being’s suffering and anguish.
“Wha…where am I?” Kristaps Porzingis asked, dazed and confused. He looked around at the unfurnished room with the concrete floor and cinderblock walls, lit only by a single failing fluorescent bulb, and then he took a good look at his captor. His eyes grew wide with fear. “Rudy, what’s going on? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
“I thought you needed a little reminder of my domination over you,” Rudy answered plainly.
Kristaps struggled to free his arms from where they were tied behind his back, but couldn’t make the knots loosen even a bit. “SOMEBODY HELP ME!” he yelled helplessly. “HELP!”
To these desperate cries, Rudy only chuckled. “That’s cute. We’re in the basement of an abandoned warehouse. Nobody will ever hear you, so you might as well save your voice. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get something from the other room.”
“What other thing? What are you talking about? LET ME GO!” Kristaps yelled, but this plea did not get a response. Rudy exited the room and walked down the pitch-black hallway to a room a few doors down. In this room he had found a working boiler, which had been turned on. It was red-hot, but from design or from defect, Rudy didn’t know or care. All he knew was that it provided the source of heat he needed for the next part of the plan.
Removing the Eiffel tower-shaped medallion from inside the chamber of the boiler, a medallion that had been improvised into a sort of brand that was glowing white with heat. Rudy returned to the room where his captive was still struggling and whimpering.
Kristaps began to panic when he saw that Rudy was holding in his hand. “What’s that? WHAT’S THAT?”
“It’s your reminder,” Rudy replied. “Now you will be my little Latvian bitch…FOREVER!” Rudy pressed the searing-hot brand directly onto Kristap’s exposed chest. The flesh burned and blackened as Kristaps screamed in pure agony. Grinning with delight, Rudy forced the brand further into the man’s skin, taking sick pleasure in the act. Finally, after many seconds, he pulled the brand away to admire his handiwork.
A black silhouette of the Eiffel tower was now burned into the center of Kristap’s chest. Rudy nodded once in approval. “Now you will never forget,” he said, before turning off the light switch and leaving the man who remained bound in the chair. As he walked up the stairs and left the building, he could hear faint cries for help growing fainter, and he smiled.