"Wakey wakey, you barbaric fuck."

Luguselwa's eyes fluttered open and darted around the room as he asked, "Where am I?"

I approached from behind and spun around the chair he was tied to. "Oh, I'd say this is somewhere between the fifth and sixth rings of Hell. I'm not so arrogant as to declare this the ninth, after all."

Luguselwa glared at me. "Who the hell are you?"

"Name's Bivolvo. I work for a certain group you're rather well acquainted with."

"Bleeding Edge."

I patted Lu on the head as I replied, "Top of the class there, friend. Now, I imagine you thought the consequences of your actions were behind you once the others escaped your little torture camp. I'm all too happy to dissuade you from that notion. Very happy."

Lu smirked at me as he fired back, "Oh, you stupid little street rat. I have the best personal security detail money can buy. The second they find you, you're getting tossed into a hole and buried alive."

"Look to your right."

Lu humored my request, at which point his smirk disappeared instantly. Scattered along the wall were the remains of Lu's prized security team, their blood drying on every surface. Two of them were slumped against a wall with their skin from sternum to forehead flayed off, one was hanging from the ceiling by a barbed wire noose, another was split in half, and the remaining four were nothing but a massive pile of raw flesh clumped together in front of a meat grinder. Lu promptly threw up on himself as I deadpanned, "Oh yeah, you really got your money's worth with those assholes."

Lu stared at me in abject horror. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

I pressed my switchblade against his throat and hissed, "No no no no no no, you don't get to ask that of me. Especially not when you had my crew, my friends, held captive and subjected to things that would've gotten somebody fired from the fucking CIA. Those people took me in when the rest of the world told me to do everyone a favor and kill myself. And you slammed their heads against death's door to get what you wanted out of them."

As Lu looked like he was pissing himself, I abruptly put away the switchblade and picked up a case that was laying next to Lu's chair. I popped it open and pulled out an emergency flare as I looked at Lu with a stoic expression and said, "You know, they say in the realm of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

"No, no, please don't--"

I forced Lu's eyelid up and ignited the flare. "You ready to find out how a commoner lives, friend?"