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"Guys…? Can't we talk about this?!"
The tattooed ape-man huffed out the last of his smoke, crushing the stud under his foot. Something about the way Makielee rubbed it into the dirt made Talion's insides crawl.
"I think the time for talks is over, Hastings."
Heaving out a half-gasp, Talion tried again. "C'mon, man! Get serious?! Look, how much? I can get you the money! Just tell me, how much?"
Makielee pursed his lips in thought, he dug out his pack of cigarettes, tapped one up from the container and went for his lighter.
The other two men's grip of his arms hadn't loosened the slightest. Talion winced as his left wrist was pulled a little higher up between his shoulders.
The man in charge flicked the ashes off. "Fifty thousand is a lot of money, Hastings."
"C'mon, man! I can get it! Since when have I ever disappointed?"
Makielee broke a laugh. Talion laughed too - nervously, though.
"I think we both know the answer to that, kid." Makielee blew out long, shaking his head. "We wouldn't be having this conversation if you had done what you were sent out to."
Scoffing, Talion cocked his head. "Cut me some slack, mate. Even I get busted sometimes!"
The man blew out long before dumping his half-burnt smoke. Makielee's voice rang finality:
"Yes, you do."
Instincts had Talion struggling when his boss jerked his head to the side. A signal, no doubt. Talion had no idea what for, but he had a stomach-turning hunch. His bout escalated into a desperate roar when from somewhere behind him, a bag was forced over his head and something tightened snuggly around his throat.
Tossing his head around wildly, he tried to shake the offending friction away, but with his arms pinned, he couldn't hope to nudge his chin free.
Talion's eyes bulged in the darkness of the hood when a heavy strike sunk into his gut. It knocked the air out of him, and gasping weakly into the fabric, the man felt himself sagging against a form in front of him. The taste of tang and acid on his tongue, Talion fought the dizziness. His head was swirling; it only vaguely registered that his knees met the ground, one after another.
He let out a discombobulated groan when he was hoisted up. Both of his arms slung over shoulders, wrists pinned, they started dragging him along. Half-mindedly Talion found his legs resisting -refusing to work, knees locking in place- but in the end someone would simply haul him forward, lifting him off the ground until his balance crumbled and he was forced to stagger just to maintain footing.
He fought the vicegrip even when he was suddenly forced still. In his moment of disarray, Talion whined when yet another unwanted pair of hands grabbed his face-
It was like the high-pitched ringing was splitting his skull in half when pain exploded over the left side of his face. With a low moan, Talion's head fell to the side, then forward when strength disappeared from his muscles. His head was starting to throb; he couldn't tell if it was coming from the inside or out. Not when bile threatened to rise to his mouth and he had to claw for breath as the insides of the hood quickly grew suffocating.
Vaguely he recognized the shove on his back before he was already falling forward. He landed chest-first; something struck a sweet spot in his elbow, and with a groan Talion pulled his arm to his chest as he curled onto his side. Only as it registered that he could pull his arm to his chest, the distant huff and clonking sounds somewhere close-by had Talion scrambling onto all fou-
"Oww!"
His head collided with an invisible ceiling and he dropped back onto his stomach. Above him, loud bangs started in rhythmic success. Two, three pows before a pause before it started anew in a slightly different place. Hissing, Talion fumbled to claw at a pull-to-open mechanism tied underneath his jaw. Adrenaline flushed into his stream as his elbows bumped and brushed against walls on both sides; his trembling fingers fumbled with the clasp before he managed to tear the strings loose. Panting, he tugged the bag off-
Only to find himself trapped in darkness nonetheless. The bangs had moved behind his back.
"He-hello?!" his voice shook as he reached above his head carefully. Prickling surface, slightly uneven. Wood? His brows furrowing in the dark, Talion tried to lift it. It gave an inkling but didn't alleviate, and it seemed to weigh heavier on each consecutive bang.
Frost wrapped around Talion's insides, a lump rising into his throat. With newly-found urgency, he pressed against the walls cramming him into the tiny space. His voice a pitiful whimper, he muttered:
"No. Nononono…"
"Mikey?!" Talion's voice broke. "Makielee? C'mon, man! Point taken," he chuckled nervously. " You can stop now? I've gotcha, mate- whoa!"
His shoulder bumped to an edge when whatever he was in was suddenly jostled. Hissing, he clamped the other hand over the throbbing.
"What the-?!"
'Talion…'
Tossing motions rattled over the tiny space; Talion pressed himself flat against the floor to ease out the discomfort as dizziness crept back in. Whimpering against the rising nausea, he again pressed up, but met only back-breaking resistance. "Nnngh!!"
His heart jumped to his throat at when something slammed dully nearby. Everything was trembling. Tossing from side to side like he was on the open sea. A forceful jerk to the left - before everything stilled. Scraping, scratching sounds came over him from seemingly everywhere, haunting, too loud, overbearing in the vast darkness.
Then, silence.
All-encompassing and stale. Even Pulse remained silent. Still, something in the entity felt turbulent. Like Pulse was…
Chuckling.
His voice almost a whisper, Talion peeped out: "He-hello?"
Makielee's voice was...muffled? No, that's not right. Distant? Like the voice came from somewhere above him?
"I hope you like the sound of your own voice, Hastings! You're gonna listen to it a lot soon."
There was a thump and drizzling sounds. Like something scattering, spreading over--
Talion's heart stopped. His mouth ran dry with a choked-up sob as he understood what it was. What exactly this prison, this box was. Why Makielee sounded like he was far above him.
"NO!!" Springing up what little he could, he slammed both palms against the lid. "No! Please! Don't do this!"
A new shovelful of dirt scattered on top of him. Pounding at the wood, Talion broke into heart-wrenching sobs. "No! Wait! Wait!! Please-- I can still be useful! I can-! Pulse! Pulse, help me!! Get me outta here!"
His pounding was replied with more dry scrabbles spreading over the wood above.
Losing his words into meaningless whimpers, Talion dropped down onto his back and started pounding the lid with his knee. A scraping, raw scream rose from his throat and he pressed against it with all fours. The lid groaned but didn't yield.
Talion's heart fell when the lid pressed down with a new load of dirt landing on top of it. His head was starting to ache from his breathless sobbing, a steady, grinding sound ringing in his ears.
The entity was all but purring as it scoffed in his mind:
'Calm yourself, Talion. You'll only end up exhausting your air.'
"Shut up, Pulse!" Talion screamed, tossing his head around in the darkness. "Why aren't you helping me?! Fucking do something!!"
'Nah, Tal. I don't think I will.'
Talion's breath caught. "Wha-ha-?"
Deceptively gentle chuckles drew another broken sob from the boy.
'This is your mess, kiddo. Let's see you figure it out.'
Feeling like someone just elbowed him in the pelvis, Talion's teeth grit. Then, he began pounding the lid with fervid desperation.
"No! Please! You can't- you can't do this!"
"Don't leave me here! Please, I'm begging you! Kill me! Fucking shoot me!! No! No!!"
The quiet around them grew steadier and steadier. Talion's weakening thunks rang hollowly only in his own ears, barely if any sound making it up anymore. It was hard to even catch the 'raahs' of more dirt getting piled onto--
He gagged into his hand. Having to push down the nausea, Talion's teeth sank into his lip, unseeing eyes peering forward through the curtain of hot tears pushing out in uncontrollable rivers.
Slowly, heavily, he let his free hand drop down from where it was still pressing against the lid. In the deepening stillness surrounding him, Talion did his best to curl into himself in the narrow confines of what was meant to be his coffin. Surrendering to wait for his lungs to start burning, he squeezed his eyes closed in the dark, and cried.