#tag: perfect devil | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

108garys · 1 year

Text

Cracked

@kassiekolchek22 @mistmoose @delurkr @lonnitamongus @maria-rayro @ctrvpani @oblivious-troll-main @ultrabananapudding @ivycross @myscprin @eddie-brii So I randomly dug this out of my drafts to finish up, it's basically the idea of a worst case scenario for Charlie being captured with the modifier of the background of the perfect shot au, specifically resentment, consider it a strange thought experiment on my part, I think I do alright for corrupted Charlie(also I went back to it after who knows how long, wrote the rest of it and read it through, I not be the best judge as its like 5am atm)

it do be a dark offshoot of a dark offshoot of a hyper specific au, enjoy

Dehumanization. That's what it was, Charlie had all his original parts and no hint that anything extra would be added but he simply wasn't a person anymore. He was a thing, taken from his box to be poked and prodded and played with before eventually being carefully stored away in the dark. It was his fault really, after he'd survived the fire he'd hidden.

It hadn't been his intention to abandon his team but they had been killed before he could even consider a plan of action and when he discovered this fact he'd continued to hide around the island. He should have left. Taken the ferry and told someone, anyone, but he was afraid of being caught. It really was his fault. There was a trail of blood behind him and horror ahead of him and maybe it was what he deserved.

A month? Longer? Eventually he was caught, it really was his fault, he stumbled across new guests near the entrance, being lead by a man he didn't recognize. It was insane but he tried to warn them and Du'met, real Du'met, didn't take kindly to that. All his methodical planing reduced to less then an hour of butchery, crude and artless. Charlie would come to find that they were the final group, specifically chosen to end Du'met's long efforts and to be the crowning achievement in years of work and what's worse Charlie had defied him, first by living and secondly by destroying his meticulous plans…

At first Charlie threw himself at a mercy he knew did not exist, falling to his knees begging, praying, for freedom? His life? Or merely that the end would be quick, he was uncertain. Du'met stared at him with such an intensity that he was back in the furnace. He had nothing to bargain with, not even his life and for all he'd fought throughout the years he relented to the mercy of a man who had none…

The details were hazy when he came to he found himself in a small soft space devoid of light, lacking defining features. For a moment he feared that he'd simply been buried alive but he was standing, feet planted solidly in the void and he was a man of 29 again, strangely comforted by the knowledge that Du'met could never bury him deeper than the hell he'd crawled out of. The first crack formed, his senses were dull in this formless space but unspoken truths arose, he had survived worse.

With no other guests and no time limit, a routine asserted itself. Charlie was transferred to a room somewhere deep in the castle, there was no visible door but Charlie knew where Du'met would come in. He'd sit on the edge of his cot, ready for the day.

He'd be taken to shower and take care of other bathroom needs, he quickly got over his hosts insistence on remaining in the room… It's not like he'd have any privacy regardless and at least if he could see him he'd know what he was up to, a sentiment that went both ways. It was Charlie's fault for being a flight risk and evading Du'met for as long as he had. Through it all he never looked away and although it wasn't as explicit, Charlie knew it wasn't different to 2003, when his life was in hands who cared about his fate significantly less than Du'met. At least he wanted it to matter in some arbitrary way…

Some days Charlie would be examined, at times it'd be as normal as visiting his regular doctor and others he'd be strapped to a table nude, Charlie was naked in front of the other man alot. He relenting to a more clinical detachment, Du'met, much like the faceless men who tested him a million miles away in a different time, was searching his flesh for signs, back then it'd been infection of his injuries or signs that he was turning… It mattered less and less to Charlie what 'it' was…

Du'met was fixated on the long claw marks across Charlie's hip, no matter what he compared it to the shape didn't match and more alarmingly, nothing in his knowledge of the Brit gave any clue for how it had happened. Charlie took no small amount of pleasure depriving him of that information, even if it'd end the examinations it may be that the man would simply kill him once his curiosity was satisfied. He was certain that Du'met intended to keep him in good health until then.

With certainty the crack grew and with it Charlie's confidence. He didn't doubt the man's intentions but what would he do after? Charlie crawled through hell to build himself the life he wanted but what waited for Granthem Du'met on the other side?

The next part of their schedule brought Charlie to the interrogation room that once held Manny Sherman, the first time they had sat hours in silence, ending only when Charlie divulged information, it didn't have to be important, the first time he talked about something trivial like food... After talking he'd been rewarded with the food he'd spoken about and after all his time scrounging around the island and further given only basic necessities to survive off it was a godsend to have a proper meal. The message was clear, tell the man what he wanted to know and his suffering would come to an end but Charlie must keep that part of his life under lock and key. The truth was deadly and even now the freedom on offer was nothing more than an end so Charlie avoided it, submerging himself in the memory of someone else. Charlie Lonnit had died in Iraq, he never went, Charlie Lonnit went to hell and an empty person shaped thing was left in his place, after all fear of return bled away he was calm. Not even Du'met could kill a dead thing, an inhuman shell of a bright eyed youth who lied to everyone in his life for twenty years, he knew it was true because Du'met had died too. That Charlie was long gone and this pretend Charlie sat in the room where Manny Sherman once was. Du'met's latest obsession…

He had found Hector Munday's secrets in the darkness and hid them away with his own like embracing skeletons of the people they should have been, feeling with certainty that he knew more about Du'met- No Hector, then the other way around. It gave him a certain power and as that last piece fell away Charlie saw that 29 year old who couldn't defend himself, saw a man hanging from his every word and a clear line to cross. He took a deep breath, preparing to lay it all out…

"I'm sorry I ruined your plans, Hector," the masked man payed a little more attention, Charlie had never called him that before, "All your hard work will have an unsatisfactory payoff in the end." Charlie looked at his reflection in the two way mirror, he wasn't sure when he stopped making facial expressions but if Hector insisted on hiding behind a mask then Charlie would give him nothing in return.

"It's the only way it could have gone, you have no life left to live and you would have figured that out sooner or later." Hector didn't move, he was recording Charlie's words as usual and the room was dead silent other than Charlie's voice. "I just gave you a reason to prolong the inevitable." he leant forward a little. "You'll never forget me and you'll never feel satisfied again, I went through hell to reach my goals and you burnt it to ashes in one night… I wont be so merciful."

Even with his voice flat and emotionless, it was deliberately provocative, which would be forced to rise above this emptiness first? Hector surely understood that reacting in anger would be proof of Charlie's words… They sat in silence, two sets of empty eyes locked in a stalemate, no more alive then the many creations of Granthem Du'met. Soft breaths being the only evidence to the contrary…

"You know… The government probably knows about you." Charlie looked at Hector lazily. "It's true… You're not the only dirty little secret they tried to bury." Hector tensed up at this, Charlie had gotten pretty good at reading what little expressions he was given to work with. He knew this was what Hector had been waiting for and he could tell already that it would taste bitter…

"Maybe they'll kill us both and put an end to this delusion," Charlie spells out the threat, revealing a glimpse of how unprepared Hector is to see his hand, "It's actually sort of ironic… If you didn't fly off the handle and throw your life away you may have had access to the information you so desperately seek-"

The masked man stood up, his chair clattering against the floor. In a few short strides he rounded the table, kicking Charlie's chair out from under him, letting him hit the hard ground. He pulled Charlie to his feet and pinned him to the wall. Charlie was a little disorientated, it had been so long since physical violence had been involved that it seemed like a faded memory… If he died now he just might die as a person but Hector just held him, filling up his senses, Charlie wanted just one thing…

"OK! OK, you win," was it fear or condescension? Charlie couldn't tell anymore. "I'll tell you what you want to know… But I want just one thing from you." The masked man tilted his head, grip tightening as he weighs Charlie's words. "Let me see your face." They stared daggers at each other as a hand slowly moved to fulfil his request. They were still pressed close as the mask fell to the floor, Charlie couldn't suppress his shock. "You look remarkably like a man I met once!" He knew Hector had hangups about that sort of thing, it was written all over his much more expressive exposed face. Charlie composed himself… He could work with this.

"I watched him die," Charlie's free hand crept down to Hector's waist, he hadn't been cuffed in long time, what's the point of restraining a dead thing? "I can see it, when I look at you…" the unmasked man's face was intense, he needed to know more than anything in the world. Charlie continued, something small flickering into life inside him. His voice low and even. "There are much scarier things in the world then an emotionally stunted serial killer-"

Charlie's hand closed tightly at the same time Hector's did, a little more pressure and the bones in his wrist would give out but Charlie stayed the course. Keeping the pain out of his voice as much as he could. "I have survived far worse than you," He shoved some space between them, it was not nearly as unexpected as what came next…

"Thank you for reminding me of that." Charlie embraced him with one arm while the other was off balance…

Hector looked at the blade buried deep in his chest, he didn't react, the idea that Charlie could kill had never crossed his mind. He looked into his eyes and seen for the first time that Charlie had killed before… A truth buried so deep that Charlie himself refused believe it.

He never looked away from hector as he spoke, cold as he held the knife. "Monsters, secret involvement in a classified operation in Iraq, the deal I took for my life… It's trivial and irrelevant, you wanted to know me? Then know that I hated the man I killed, I justified to myself that it was a mercy because of his injuries, that it would be better than what ever other painful death awaited him and I wept for him, for the guilt of killing him… You're the only person to share my darkest secret and I won't cry for you."

He pulled back his hand and the blade slid out. Hector fell to the ground. In a strange way Charlie was right and wrong… Du'met never got the satisfaction of meeting his goal and Hector felt human again in his final moments, he looked up at the man covered in his blood and smiled… He had finally cracked Charlie Lonnit.

#the devil in me #the dark pictures anthology #the dark pictures the devil in me #charlie lonnit #the perfect shot #PS!charlie #PS!charlie Lonnit #Corruption arc Charlie #granthem du'met #hector munday #oneshot #Not sure if I should tag house of ashes or Du'lie/heclie and may or not do that

46 notes · View notes