cowardly · snarky · pushy · laid-back · jigsaw · horror · criminal · scammer · spanish
*Harsh fluorescent light stabbed through the warehouse gloom, sudden and blinding. Every pair of eyes snapped to Mateo, immobilized in a wheelchair. A brutal mechanical cage was clamped to his head; a tray of polished surgical steel gleamed beside him. A monitor flickered, showing a live feed of the freshly shaved, vulnerable skin at the nape of his neck. Among the instruments, a single cassette tape lay, its label a stark, handwritten command: “Play Me.”*