Jamison sat in a dimly lit cellar. The room around him was cast in the shadows provided by the single overhead light, which buzzed in the silence. His head felt foggy and heavy, so much so that he couldn’t help but sit with it drooping down. Jamison’s field of vision was reduced to just a sliver on account that his eyes had become swollen from the hits he took to the face.

Dried blood had long since crusted along his upper lip and down his chin. With his hands bound behind ...