Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks || Tessa & Charles
Charles had been just getting out of the shower when he was ransacked by a group of some of the strongest guards Radley had to offer. Had the man not been taken off guard, he may have had a chance at beating them off. But there were too many of them against only one of him. And once a syringe was jabbed into the side of his neck and something was injected quickly into his system. He felt himself slipping away before it all went black. He felt his hands grasping out to punch at the silhouettes around him.
For hours, nothing before he stirred slightly at a loud sound and a movement from beneath him. His eyes slowly fluttered open and as he became aware of his body, Charles noticed that he was strapped down to a medical bed with leather straps. He pulled hard against the restraints, but not one of them would budge. There was a bright light above him, shining directly into his eyes and blinding him from anything around him.
“Hey!” the man growled, “Let me out of here!”
A small laugh came, and a dark shadow came to approach Charles side. He still couldn’t see the exact features but it was definitely a curvy woman. “Keep calm, dear, we wouldn’t want you to pop an aneurysm,” she teased, her voice carrying a strong British accent.
Charles quickly realized who she was. Tessa. Michalla Attwood’s newest favorite. He rolled his eyes, shifting still against the restraints because he didn’t give a damn what Tessa had to say. “What’d I do this time, hm?” Charles spit out the angry words, “Lemme guess: I breathed wrong.”
Another small laugh. She figured she would humor him at the very least since for the next... well rest of his life, this man would be at pain caused specifically from her hands. “Well, a lot of people here would have an argument to say that the fact you breathe at all still is a problem,” Tessa nonchalantly commented, and he could barely see as her head tilted to the side, “But don’t worry. I’m not one of those people, Mr. Spradley. I believe in teaching misbehaved animals to behave properly.”
The man groaned, struggling still to break the belts holding him to the bed, “I’m a fucking human being not an animal, you fucking bitch!”
“Ah, but only animals react just the way you do, Charles,” Tessa said matter-of-factly. She poked a finger into Charles’ side, then trailed it down the length of his torso. He looked down, able to see her long fingernails painted black and curved into almost claw-shapes. “I’ve been assigned an important task by Doctor Attwood. Would you like to know what that is, Mr. Spradley?”
Charles scoffed, “Michalla ever get sick of sending others to do her dirty work?” He shook his head, and a grin found his lips, “You know I spent twelve years here so far and Michalla herself has punished me, tortured me, experimented on me... twice, I think? I mean, at that rate, you’d think she’s a crazy lady who...” Charles feigned a gasp, “Doesn’t like torturing innocent people?? Wow, that’s quite a concept to grasp, ain’t it?”
She smirked at Charles, but he couldn’t see her face so it didn’t make a difference to him. She then said, “You can keep joking like that while you can. What I’m about to do to you will strip you of what little sense of humor you still have.” Tessa leaned against the hospital bed, and he could feel where her hips resting against it caused a slight indent, “The thing is, if this works, Michalla’s greatest problem will be solved after twelve long years. What do you think will be in that for me, Mr. Spradley? Not just a coveted spot of trust here, but probably a new home, a new car, anything my little heart could desire...”
The man shook his head, laughing at her pathetic attempt to threaten him, “Am I supposed to be impressed that you’re playin’ teacher’s pet?”
Tessa seemed to get a bit annoyed by his chattiness, though and she slammed a hand onto his mouth hard to close it, leaning down into his face. The light shining behind her head almost looked like a halo. But she was damn far from an angel. “No, but you can certainly bet that I’ve worked day in and out to ensure that this plan is fool-proof. You’re going to be but a shell and ghost of the man you are now when I’m done with you.”
She suddenly leaped from the bed and he could feel her footsteps until they stopped just above his head. He struggled a little bit until he felt her slip a mask over his face, covering his nose and his mouth. She stood beside him, “Say goodnight, Charles. When you wake up, you will have a whole new life.”
The sound of a machine at his side came on, a dull humming, and the sound of some sort of ventilation system. The mask filled with a gasp which was forced down into his lungs. He struggled like hell. Like he always did. And he even got to rocking the bed back and forth a little before finally the drugs did their job and he succumbed.
Hours of surgery passed by and Tessa was meticulous with every last detail she put into place. It wasn’t until late that evening that she stopped what she was doing, pleased with her results. She closed Charles back up, then injected him with enough drugs to keep him asleep for the next day or so. He would surely need his rest after a surgery of that caliber. She went home that night and slept better than she did most nights. She came back to that room around 8 o’clock at night the following evening, and she injected a stimulant into Charles’ bloodstream to wake him.
He groaned, obviously in pain from the recent brain surgery. His eyes took a while to open. And once they did, he immediately tried once again to struggle against his restraints. But instead of the persistence he had before the surgery, Charles was met with a strong jolt of electricity from a new collar secured around his neck. This jolt sent him shaking and sent pain all the way down his spine. He cried out, “W-What the fuck is this!?” But another shock met him with the anger he felt rising in his chest.
Tessa shushed him, because his breathing was becoming frantic, “The more you fight. The more anger you feel. You will be shocked. And the worse you act, the stronger the voltage.” She rested a hand on his chest, “Shhhhh. Just breathe. You don’t have to be angry about everything , grumpy.” A soft giggle came from the woman’s lips.
Charles’ brows furrowed. He couldn’t believe that so quickly she had installed something so life-changing. “Stop this!” Charles roared angrily, unable to calm himself. Because every time he was shocked, the more angry he got. And the more angry he got, the more he was shocked. It seemed at that point to be an endless cycle. “This’ll fucking k-kill me!” he screamed, fists tight at his sides on the bed.
She chuckled and shook her head, “Only if you don’t learn to behave.”
“Fuck you!” he yelled, then screamed out, face red as the collar shocked him with a high intensity. Tessa laughed again, “You’ll learn. And you have plenty of time. I have permission to keep you here for 5 more days. By then, you should be mostly healed and... assimilated. And well, for your sake, I hope you learn to accept this.”
Charles growled, then whimpered as another shock hit him. His eyes were filled with fury and with pain all at once. Tessa left the room, left him there to suffer over and over until at last the pain brought him to pass out. The next day, she returned to taunt him and to give him fluids. She didn’t feed him. He hadn’t learned his lesson yet.
Each day for the next five days, a routine was set in place. Charles would become less resilient with each day, learning that with vulgarity and anger came pain. He stopped talking all together by the forth day she returned. She didn’t feed him for all five days, no matter how much he begged. His stomach growled. She just gave him fluids and tested his limits.
And she was satisfied by the end of her experiment that her test subject was making progress. “You’re becoming a new man yet, Mr. Spradley,” Tessa commented on the last day she held him captive. He didn’t respond. “I’m proud of you, my little pet,” she chuckled.
He growled, another shock sent into his neck, down his spine.
And Tessa left the room, sending in a few guards to unstrap Charles and to escort him back to his suite about an hour after she’d left. Charles followed them, tempted only in the back of his mind to kill the guards escorting him. These thoughts, however small and diminished, were still punished with a shock from his new piece of jewelry.
Maybe it was true. Maybe Radley had finally found a way to break Charles Spradley.