Low Profile Pt 5 - Learn Your Place
TW: Choking/suffocation
Low Profile Masterlist
Hale had been crying for so long that his tears had carved paths of clear skin through the sticky blood that had dripped down his face from Viper’s mark. He’d let the terror and pain all catch up to him and just let loose, now that his cries would be too muffled to be a bother. He’d cried more in these past few hours than he had in the past few years combined— but then again, it wasn’t as if he was without a reason.
He heard the click of the thick bolt turning in the door and he jolted upright, shrinking backwards on instinct.
“Looks like someone got in a bit of trouble,” Viper taunted, a devious grin on his face. “I’d like to make you beg me to take that off, but I know you really can’t… so let’s just say that actions speak louder than words.”
Hale let out an exhausted sigh, his gaze pleading. Just take it off, I’ll shut up, I promise.
Viper laughed softly, the sound raspy and foreign in such a place of suffering. “You think that’s enough to sell it for me? C’mon, put some heart into it.”
“I don’t know what you mean!” Hale tried to protest. Yet it came out as little more than a muffled set of sounds.
“Do you really need me to spell it out for you? God. Just this once, I’ll tell you, only ‘cause you look so pathetic,” Viper taunted. “I want you to get on your knees for me. The more pitiful, the better.”
Hale’s eyes narrowed, yet he knew he was in no place to dissent. He slid down from the cot, his legs trembling under him, and dropped to his knees. He didn’t need to try in order to look helpless— he already was: his face was stained with blood and tears, his gaze contained the fear he was trying so uselessly to hide.
Viper nodded in approval. “That’s my boy,” he said, tone thick with sarcasm, before he reached down and ripped the tape off of Hale’s mouth.
Hale flinched at the sudden pain, but was much more preoccupied with spitting the wad of fabric from his mouth. He coughed and choked once the saliva-soaked handkerchief had fallen to the floor, gasping in greedy lungfuls of oxygen.
Viper unlocked his handcuffs, and as the restraints fell from Hale’s wrists, he held out his hand to help his captive up, brass knuckles glistening over his fingers. Hale glared at the ground for a moment before begrudgingly slipping his hand into his captor’s. His body was still weak from the dregs of adrenaline left over from the interrogation.
“What do you say?” Viper prompted, giving Hale a shit-eating grin and raising an eyebrow.
“Thanks,” he muttered shortly.
“Oh, you don’t appreciate me?”
“No! No… I— I’m— I’m just tired—” he defended, panic jolting his system like a sudden shot of espresso. But it was too late.
“I’ll teach you to appreciate my kindness, love,” Viper intoned softly, his voice dangerously low. He slipped his hand into Hale’s once more, yet he reached for his gun with the other before leading him out into the hall. When they reached the expansive room he’d been tortured in, Hale stopped cold.
Viper tugged at his arm incessantly. “You’re acting like a fucking child,” he snapped, his nails digging red half-moons into Hale’s arm. “Get a grip on yourself. Snap back into that nice, rational state you’d gotten yourself into. It was better for both of us.”
Hale’s gaze flicked from the room to Viper and back again as he weighed his options. But he thought for a moment too long— Viper had taken hold of his arm and landed a kick to his knees, sending him toppling to the floor with a cry.
He dragged him by an ankle into the middle of the room and shoved him into a corner, locking his wrists into shackles dangling from an anchor on the wall. The cuffs pulled Hale’s arms over his head, forcing him to choose between kneeling or painfully stretching his shoulders.
“Here’s how this is going to work,” Viper said coldly. “You’re going to learn to cooperate. Breathe on my command, no other time. Understand?”
Hale snorted. “You want me to what?” His instinct was to shrink back into the wall and cry, but the terror boiling in his chest had turned to rage. “I’m fucking done,” he snapped. “I’m not gonna be part of your sick power fantasy, you fucking—”
Viper’s hands were tight around his throat before he could finish, mercilessly crushing against his windpipe. Hale choked and struggled, thrashing against the chains but unable to escape Viper’s grip.
It was only when Hale slumped in defeat, his heart pounding in panic and his head throbbing, that Viper released him. Hale gasped in a desperate breath. Yet the spinning in his head hadn’t even ceased before Viper resumed strangling him once more.
“You breathe when I say so, or not at all,” he hissed.
When he let go for the second time, Hale didn’t dare take a breath.
“There you go,” Viper praised, his demeanor changing instantaneously. “Breathe in now, and hold it.”
Hale took in a slow breath, sagging in relief as the burning in his lungs eased. Yet the relief drained away as Viper remained silent, eyeing him like a hawk watching its prey.
He kept his lips sealed together, his heart pounding as he thought about being choked again. He had to hold out, he couldn’t take it one more time…
“Exhale, but don’t take another breath,” Viper ordered with a firm nod.
Hale let his breath out with a whoosh, his lungs straining and desperate for air. Yet he forced himself not to breathe in, even as his sight blurred at the edges and he was swept with vertigo. He gave Viper a pleading look, trying to appear as pathetic as possible. Yet he wasn’t permitted another breath, not until he felt his chest might burst.
“In, hold it.”
“Out, love, don’t take another.”
“In, slowly.”
“Out.”
“Hold it.”
Hale’s chest stabbed with pain, his lungs rebelling against him. And just when his vision began to tunnel to black—
“Alright, good job,” Viper relented. “Breathe normally, now. See how it isn't so hard once you just accept who’s in charge?”
Hale heaved in heavy gasps that ached in his burning lungs, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes. His wrists strung where he’d unconsciously tugged at the shackles, and he felt a sob building in his throat before he forced it down. His head spun with vertigo, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
“That wasn’t rhetorical, Hale,” Viper said sharply, twisting a hand through his hair and forcing Hale to look him in the eye.
“Sorry— I— yeah— ‘m sorry—” he stammered, clenching his hands into fists so his captor wouldn’t see how they trembled. His vision was cut with dark spots, he still felt like he could barely breathe.
Viper shook his head in disappointment, huffing out an annoyed sigh. “That’ll do, I guess. God, you’re pathetic,” he scoffed. “Poor little thing. Never had a hard day in your life before your folks threw you out?”
Hale’s eyes narrowed, but the retort he tried to spit back was an incoherent mess of sound. He coughed weakly, his chest tightening as he took in another shallow breath.
“Aww… too tired to be any more fun?” his captor chuckled. “Oh well. We could both use a break.”
He unlocked the restraints, catching Hale’s wounded hand in his own and holding it up to his face to examine the blood and bruises underneath his nails. “I want you to know that this is nothing,” he added in a low voice. “Compared to what I’ve done to some people. I’m going easy for now, but the minute you stop cooperating, I won’t hesitate to change my mind. Understand?”
Hale didn’t have the guts to tug his hand away, let alone talk back. He barely managed a weak nod before his sight tunneled to nothing and consciousness fled.
Taglist: @morning-star-whump @whumpkitty @shameless-dumbass
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