​The Monologue (The Hydro-Torture)

​Valerius walked around the machine, trailing a finger along my spine, making me shudder despite the paralysis. He gestured grandly to the transparent tanks above my head.

​"You see, Milly," he began, his voice dripping with arrogance, "the beauty isn't in the death. It's in the physics."

​He turned a valve. Water began to rush into the primary tank.

​"Observe the balance," he lectured. "As this first tank fills, the weight increases. It presses the blade down... slowly."

​I felt it. The cold steel edge of the blade, which was resting on the back of my neck, started to get heavier. It bit into the skin.

​"It won't chop," he whispered, leaning close to my ear. "It will pierce. The water weight will drive the blade inch by inch through your neck. You will feel every severed muscle, every crushed vertebrae."

​He pointed to the second, empty tank.

​"But!" he exclaimed, eyes manic. "Just before the severance is complete... the overflow valve triggers. The second tank fills. It acts as a counterweight. The blade will rise, just for a moment, allowing your wondrous flesh to knit back together."

​He smiled, a terrifying, toothy grin.

​"And then... the second tank drains. And the pressure returns. Up and down. Cut and heal. An eternal rhythm of agony. You are now a clock, my dear. And you will tick for me forever'.

Milly a long time ago was bestowed the powers of regeneration and unbinding (which @Nightshade-QOV I'm finishing a story on how you discover this after this picture was taken).