Chapter XXVI - Persecution

The electric chair was awaiting him.

Electro had thought about running and trying to escape, but that was no possibility after he had observed what happened to such an innocent man. In Electro's mind, he was guiltless. However, his views didn't matter, especially when he was so scared to formulate thought. Now, he had to endure the consequences.

Despite its antiquity, the chair had been polished and looked like it was new. Straps and head probes fell loose from the chair, all coated in a thin layer of dust. The singular chair lonely sat in the middle of the room, waiting for its victim.

Lord Horror Hill shook his head and commented in a disappointed tone, "I had faith in you, Electro, and gave you a chance at Horror Hill. Every Horror Hillian should value their place here... but you didn't."

The torturers strapped Electro in the chair and slapped tape over his mouth.

At this point, his instinct took over, and he began screaming and wailing behind the tape. A rubbery hand clenched around his shoulder, which sent shivers through his bonds. The torturer placed his finger on his lips as his eyes widened. Frightened, Electro stopped begging. After screaming through the tape and unable to breathe, Electro closed his eyes and hoped for the best, though there wasn't anything that was going to save him now.

The probes had been fitted as the dial was turned. Higher and higher the voltage went. Pulses of electricity throbbed and pulsated through his veins. Tingles and jolts quivered through arteries. Electro's hand - which was the colour purple - shook in a fierce manner. His heart quickly palpitated like a bird in a cage. Muffled laughs and chortles hung in the air. Meanwhile, Lord Horror Hill and the executioners stared in awe at the electrical contraption beating electrical impulses into Electro Von Poison's body.

There Electro sat, pinned to the chair as if experiencing masses of G-force. His wrinkled and withered face shook violently, his inflated eyes poked out of their sockets, the pupils at the back of his forehead. Continuing to endure the pain, Lord Horror Hill and the executioners turned up the dial. Electro's brain, a mess of electrical signals, rattled in his head. Sunken, his skin sagged from his bones, and the electrical pulsations were visible from his outer body zipping through the dense medium of Electro's flesh. Electro couldn't undergo anymore of this, his eyes closing to rest for eternity. Now, it was his time to die.

"Stop! Turn down the dial! Enough, enough!" Lord Horror Hill bellowed at the confused executioners.

The electricity escaped his body as Lord Horror Hill let him out. Falling onto the ground, Electro stared at Lord Horror Hill in agony.

"Defenceless, weak, brattish, insignificant," Lord Horror Hill knew Electro Von Poison would never do anything like what he did again after this punishment.

The Lord smiled through gritted teeth at Electro, who was a crumpled mess on the floor. Wheeling in a trolley, a doctor left at once, somewhat terrified. Dreading what came next, Electro lay bewildered at his surroundings. Lord Horror Hill's eyes portrayed an annoyed frown as he held up a syringe filled with liquid.

"Now Electro, this in my hand is poison. It wears off but will imitate what the paralysed Butler Burns would have felt after the syringe was injected and before it quickly got to his bloodstream," Lord Horror Hill turned and looked at the executioner.

"Recite after me Electro: I killed Butler Burns. I swapped his medicine for poison. I killed Dr Vincent John Lazer. I smashed a memorial headstone. I broke the Horror Hill rules." Lord Horror Hill slowly listed.

"I killed Butler Burns..." Electro began more distraught than the Lord thought he would have been.

"...I killed him because Cobra killed my family!" Electro said quickly, words cascading out of his mouth.

"No excuses, Electro... The Butler was a kind man! He had nothing to do with Cobra!"