# Most painful ways to die.



## Stormcat (Nov 6, 2015)

I'm preparing for the death of two characters, One is to die a quick death, but the other suffers in agony for about thirty minutes before finally expiring.

Both of these characters were downright bastards, so I want them both to suffer horrifically. :devilish:

Being unable to experience death without actually dying, does anyone know of a resource that explains what it feels like to die by certain methods? I want the quick death to be something along the lines of trauma (Blunt force or stabbing, I haven't decided) and the other one to be excruciatingly painful, but takes no longer than a half hour to finally kill the person.

In both cases, a body has to be left over to "prove" the character is finally dead. Even if it's badly mangled.


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## Blade (Nov 7, 2015)

I think the one going on 'quick death' is not going to suffer but just have his light switch turned off.:blue:

The only thing that I could think of for the latter is to try and find an account from someone who has actually endured torture. It does not sound like the kind of thing I would do personally but I could well imagine it might work for someone else.8-[ If you Google around a bit I think you will find an account of some sort that you can either reference on line or get a hold of at a library. I think that is as close a resource as you are going to get on the topic.

I think that examination of torture here misses the point as you only get the externals, so to speak.:-k Good luck.


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## Bloggsworth (Nov 7, 2015)

Dying of burns is excruciating I'm told, ditto acid burns.


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## Stormcat (Nov 7, 2015)

Bloggsworth said:


> Dying of burns is excruciating I'm told, ditto acid burns.



Sounds good, but wouldn't a person on fire try to extinguish themselves?


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## aj47 (Nov 7, 2015)

Hydrofluoric acid poisoning might qualify.


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## voltigeur (Nov 7, 2015)

If they are still rational. I have been told (Don't have first hand knowledge.) The pain from burning is so intense and unrelenting they may be in total panic. I'm not sure how long they would last tho. 

I saw a movie where the KGB put someone in a crematorium while they were still alive. Feet first slowly. Out side of anything involving children it was the most messed up scene I've ever seen. The person watched his fellow prisoner put in, Knew what was going to happen and they grabbed his metal stretcher.  Stopped while he shoes caught fire pulled him out. 

Then slowly put him in again in stages (knees, thighs, waist, chest, them head) 

It was a foreign film. Still get the heeby jeebys when I think of it.


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## LeeC (Nov 8, 2015)

If you're striving for reality, something you should consider is that differences in pain perception and tolerance thresholds are associated with, among other factors, ethnicity, genetics, and sex, and that some individuals in all cultures have significantly higher than normal pain perception and tolerance thresholds. For example, one study found that on average Italian women tolerate less intense electric shock than Jewish or Native American women.

More generally, from what I've seen, the worst pain from severe widespread burns doesn't occur immediately. The worst pain usually occurs an hour or two afterwards, if the victim lives that long. One such victim actively rolled about trying to extinguish the flames for up to thirty minutes, then was in a numbed state for about an hour, then started screaming from the pain. If you want real pain, look into how severe widespread burns are treated. 

If you really want someone to die a gruesome death, stake them out naked on a red ant hill, push cactus needles under their fingernails and toenails, and make small incisions at nerve ending points. Severe trauma would likely put a victim into a catatonic state quickly.

You can of course go with the more visceral, as I saw in a viking movie long ago where the victim had to wind his digestive tract around a pole. How's that for gruesome. 

I've avoided answering your question because I see shock value in writing as a substitute, but that's just my view ;-)


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## Blade (Nov 8, 2015)

Stormcat said:


> Sounds good, but wouldn't a person on fire try to extinguish themselves?



Not if their hands were tied behind their backs.:blue:



astroannie said:


> Hydrofluoric acid poisoning might qualify.



I think that is a particularly caustic acid. :thumbl: Sodium Hydroxide though is also very caustic though it kills the pain nerve cells along with everything else.



LeeC said:


> I've avoided answering your question because I see shock value in writing as a substitute, but that's just my view ;-)



I would agree with that. The extremely abnormal in general just shuts me down.:grey:


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## Stormcat (Nov 8, 2015)

So I like the idea of having one of the two characters burn to death. I'll pin him under some burning debris, and have the other characters abandon him there as he cries out for mercy.


But for the other, quick death, I need something still extremely painful. I was thinking bashing his brains in or being stabbed, but I can't decide which of the two would be more painful.


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## Stormcat (Nov 8, 2015)

voltigeur said:


> If they are still rational. I have been told (Don't have first hand knowledge.) The pain from burning is so intense and unrelenting they may be in total panic. I'm not sure how long they would last tho.
> 
> I saw a movie where the KGB put someone in a crematorium while they were still alive. Feet first slowly. Out side of anything involving children it was the most messed up scene I've ever seen. The person watched his fellow prisoner put in, Knew what was going to happen and they grabbed his metal stretcher.  Stopped while he shoes caught fire pulled him out.
> 
> ...




Oh man, that sounds horrifying! I won't show that much brutality in the character's death.


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## Cave Troll (Jan 2, 2019)

Have you considered they be flayed alive. 
Though you could also look up impalement as
well, it takes something like 3-4 days for the 
victim to die if done right, and the spike misses
all the internal organs as it travels through the
chest cavity and up through the mouth. 
Nasty business that is.


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## sigmadog (Jan 2, 2019)

Eaten alive.


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## Megan Pearson (Jan 2, 2019)

Egads. How gruesome. (All of it!)

1. Buried alive.

2. Spiders. Snakes. Ants. Centipedes. Anything natural and seemingly harmless can provide a terrifying, horrific end. 

3. Worms. The kind that burst from the gut while the person is still alive.

4. Flatulence. Not kidding. Not only was it a cause of death in _Water for Chocolate_ (where I'm sure the author had some medical condition in mind), I also read this in a novel where the sea captain of a boat lost a crewman overboard and the author kept going on and on about how the crewman had been a flatulent boy. When the author began describing in detail how the boy would finally explode as he sank, due to his flatulence and the oceanic pressures at great depths, I put the book down. Gagh. Disgusting. Yet, now this strange death seems oddly useful...

Ack. How morbid. 

Have fun...I think.


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## CyberWar (Jan 4, 2019)

Burning on a slow fire would be one of the worst, but not THE worst way to die. While it hurts like hell at first, the pain only lasts until the nerve endings in the skin are destroyed. After that, the pain stops and the victims actually begin to feel cold despite still being on fire. With that said, even the most skilled torturer could only overcome the laws of physics and chemistry for so long before the victim can no longer feel his efforts. Same goes for acid and any other means of torture that destroys the skin.

A skillfuly done impalement would certainly be a worse torture because the victim can survive for several days. The very worst, however, is probably scaphism. The victim is tied inside a pair of small boats put together like a walnut shell, force-fed with honey and milk (which works as a laxative), and then anchored in a pond during a hot summer. As the victim soils himself, the stench will attract all sorts of insects, his filthy backside will soon get sore and infected, develop gangrene, and he will slowly succumb to infection while being eaten alive by maggots ass-first. According to Ancient Greek sources, this torture was inflicted upon a certain Mithridates for insulting the king of Persia. It reportedly took 17 days for him to die this way, servants seeing to it that he did not die of thirst or hunger beforehand.

---

From common non-deliberate injuries, I'd go with bilateral pneumothorax, which can be caused by penetrating chest injury and basically involves the collapse of both lungs. Despite your diaphragm still working, the air enters your chest cavity through the puncture rather than the normal airways. As a result, you slowly suffocate despite breathing more intensely than ever, a sensation comparable to drowning. 

---

From natural causes, I'd go with any of a number of diseases. Gangrene, such as one caused by necrotizing fasciitis or bubonic plague, is certainly a nasty way to go, both because of the pain and the psychological terror of having to watch and smell your own body decompose alive. 

In terms of direct effects, I think smallpox was probably the worst historically. At first, before any symptoms would manifest, you would start seeing horrifying vivid nightmares as your body realizes its impending doom. Then, once the disease manifests itself, every epithelial membrane of your body would blister, inside as well as outside, the pustules feeling like red-hot ball bearings embedded in your skin - and unlike with most other diseases with high fever, you would retain full consciousness and an unusual alertness. If you are unlucky enough to have contracted black pox, the nastiest form of smallpox, that blistering would spread evenly over large areas of your skin. Blood vessels would rupture all over your body, the hemorrhages making your skin look black and charred and give your eyes a deep-red, almost black hue. If you survive long enough, your skin will start to slough off in large sheets, you will start to bleed from every orifice, and finally shit out bits of your colon shortly before death. And, as mentioned before, you would be fully aware and conscious during the entire process. Assuming you survive, there's the added certainty of a permanent disfigurement and a considerable chance of blindness in one or both eyes.

---

Long story short, there are a lot of nasty ways to go, the exact worst one being open to personal interpretation.


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## Olly Buckle (Jan 4, 2019)

Historical sources cite the rack as the worst form of applied torture, destroys all the joints without affecting anything vital too much.


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## Megan Pearson (Jan 4, 2019)

Olly Buckle said:


> Historical sources cite the rack as the worst form of applied torture, destroys all the joints without affecting anything vital too much.



Ooo... that scene in _Braveheart_, where they put him to rack, was horrible! Olly, that just might be the absolute worst thing, especially with it being made a town spectacle, too.


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## Olly Buckle (Jan 5, 2019)

I have not seen that, Megan, I somewhat doubt the veracity as you say it was a town spectacle, there was only one rack kept in England and that was in the Tower of London, and it was nor exactly portable from the illustrations I have seen. On the other hand I have several times read 'The suspect was shown the rack and made a full confession', people would rather confess and be executed than be racked.


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## epimetheus (Jan 5, 2019)

The mental component of pain needs to be considered. There is plenty of research to suggest that the pain experience changes by context - for instance WW1 soldiers with broken legs were documented as experiencing less pain than soldiers with lesser injuries. The difference was a broken leg got you sent away from the horror of the front line.

Easier for Braveheart to bear that pain of the rack if he believes in his martyrdom.


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## Megan Pearson (Jan 7, 2019)

Olly Buckle said:


> I have not seen that, Megan, I somewhat doubt the veracity as you say it was a town spectacle, there was only one rack kept in England and that was in the Tower of London, and it was nor exactly portable from the illustrations I have seen. On the other hand I have several times read 'The suspect was shown the rack and made a full confession', people would rather confess and be executed than be racked.



_Braveheart_, with Mel Gibson, based on the story of 13th century Scotsman William Wallace? (Okay, so it's an Americanized version of British history, but how else can we learn our history if it's not in a romanticized Hollywood movie? :grin: )

If I remember right, they sent his limbs to the four corners of the land to deter further uprisings, yet in doing so the people venerated him as a hero.

***

Here's something new not on this list. In keeping the historical era in mind, Roman crucifixion was slow suffocation.


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## Amnesiac (Apr 2, 2019)

Being shot in the liver will take someone about 30-60 minutes to die. Exactly how painful it is, I don't know. I've never been on the _receiving_ end of that.

Being slowly suffocated is pretty good. Being deprived of air, or made to believe that you are being deprived of air, (e.g. waterboarding) incites fear, panic, and may be a precursor to actually being drowned. (i.e. if, in your novel, someone is being slowly drowned in a toilet or a bathtub). At fairly close range, 12ga birdshot may not be lethal, but it's my understanding that it is quite painful.

Often, the greatest instrument of torture is not the gross physical, but rather, psychological. The _belief_ that pain, suffering, death, dismemberment, etc., is imminent. When the actual event comes -- I don't know about anyone else, but the times when I've known/believed I was going to die, I simply felt a sense of resignation. I could no longer afford to care, you know?


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## seigfried007 (Jul 8, 2019)

Burning can do both deaths at the same time--one just dies faster than the other. One might be in a hotter area, have rubble collapse on him, have a pre-existing condition like asthma, might be nailed to a beam. Burns, suffocation (which is what kills most people in fires--they inhale too much smoke), and heat are terrible ways to go. 

I don't know of any diseases that will kill someone off in 30 minutes, but I do know ones that can kill in a few hours. Really bad flus (like the infamous Spanish flu) can do this, but the worst fast way to go is a tremendous underdog in advanced societies: Cholera. Good ole V_ibrio cholerae_. It's a nightmarish but sometimes very quick way to go (depends on the exact strain--killing in a few hours to a few months, if at all). Cholera produces a nice little toxin that binds in the intestines and causes water to pour out the person. Extremities turn blue. Person is totally debilitated through dehydration and diarrhea--but the kicker is that the brain is prioritized so until the very moment of death, the person's totally cognizant and unable to do anything about it. Best "cure" is actually to drink constantly and wait it out... but if the person doesn't know that or can't get to fluids... 

Severe enough dehydration is a terrible way to go. The thirst response is one of the strongest drives we have (right next to breathing) so obstructing it is sure to cause a lot of agony. While a person can die in two days without drinking, applying pressures which expedite fluid loss can dramatically shorten this. Diarrhea, extreme heat, a very dry environment, issues which obstruct drinking or prevent fluids from "staying down", exsanguination (severe bleeding/bleeding out), diabetes and other conditions which cause excessive urination. Could probably kill someone in a few hours by this--especially if combining a very hot environment with the fluid loss. 

Car accidents and other gross trauma are another way to go either instantly or slowly. Say the car hits a post (or one of the guys) in the desert. One party might die instantly, and the other left to sit/hang/crawl in agony for half an hour easy. No one coming by to help. Or, if the environment is full of obstructions, one might get thrown away from the scene of the accident--off a cliff, down a hill, into a pond, into shrubbery, cover and/or darkness. Even when someone does try to help, they might not be able to find our guy. He might linger, unable to scream or move, keenly aware but unable to get the attention of the rescuing party. 

The harder he tries and more he sacrifices, the more horrible the death is going to be when it finally happens. I think this is one of the biggest things to keep in mind when making a really awful death. 

For instance, we have our cholera patient nailed to a cactus in the desert, drenched in honey, not far from a road that hardly anyone travels on but nevertheless obstructed from view--if he can only get free! He's left near a rusty handsaw and a cup! So he frees a hand after struggling and incredible pain, then valiantly sacrifices a limb to get it off the cactus, but is now bleeding and losing fluids. And the ants are coming out of holes. And birds are pecking at his wounds. He gets the bright idea to drink his own blood, urine and diarrhea to avoid passing out... because he simply has to make it to the road before the next vehicle comes! By the time he's free of the cactus, he's lost so much fluid and sustained so much damage to his limbs that he can no longer make it up the embankment to the road. But he tries and tries, clawing fistful of dry sand and dirt with his bleeding finger-stubs, all while these animals are biting and stinging and pecking at him. He can hear the car! but his throat is so swollen, and he is so weak, and the car's stereo is blaring! The driver can't see or hear him! he reaches a hand over the edge... only to have the car run over his only functional hand. A trucker finds the body, stuck to the road and being eaten by vultures hours later.

Or, in the case of the car accident, one guy is ejected from the car and tumbles down the hillside on a dark, stormy night in a heavily forested area of the country, off a small rural highway. He regains consciousness very quickly, unable to breathe. His throat was heavily damaged in the crash, and he has to perform an emergency tracheotomy with a pen. Most of his limbs are broken, might even be missing, maybe the nerves are severed and he simply can't feel or move them. He's stuck in a furrow which is quickly becoming a creek in the storm. He has to valiantly struggle to keep his throat-hole out of the water so he doesn't drown, but he can't speak or scream. He's covered in wet leaves, mud and pine needles. The wreck is discovered, but nobody can see him or hear him... and he slowly drowns in rainwater and his own blood, possibly also dying from internal bleeding and/or other injuries also.


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## velo (Jul 8, 2019)

Burning is absolutely the worst acute pain.  If you want a half-hour of the worst pain, roasting over a pit of glowing embers or a low fire is it.  (bonfire or large flame will kill relatively quickly, possibly by asphyxiation vs actual burn damage) As was mentioned, when the nerve endings go that's it so put them on a rotisserie or keep removing from the heat to cook slowly, like Gorgon Ramsey does with his scrambled eggs.  

Psychological pain, on the other hand, can perhaps be even worse.  Put the characters in a place in which they KNOW they are going to die and have no way to escape, let them see it comint...put a weight around their ankle that they can not remove (think ball and chain style) and drop them in a lake but with a 30min air supply.  Others can stand around and take bets on how fast they use up the oxygen.    Also a good water one- put them in a tank with a shark and nothing else...make sure the shark isn't too hungry at first so the anticipation really builds up.  (sharks with frikkin laser beams was another story, though) 

Combine psychological pain with some form of slow torture, think Ramsay Bolton in _A Song of Ice and Fire, _and you've got a full-on horror show.  Slow flaying, small burns, etc.  You could literally drag it out for months.  

I've heard a really painful way to go is to stake someone out on a sunny beach dressed in a leather vest.  You douse the leather with water and then let it dry in the sun over and over again.  Supposedly this shrinks the leather that slowly constricts to the point of snapping the ribs.  As the pressure increases the pain is supposed to be horrid.  No idea if this would actually work, though.


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## Rojack79 (Aug 4, 2019)

Y'all are all sick! & I love it! Let's see there flaying someones skin off and then slathering the area in honey, then you dump fire ants on the spot and watch them go. Or an iron maiden. Those actually depending on the maiden in use were made to not kill someone but to just pierce the skin causing pain and bleeding but it was a slow bleed, so you stayed alive longer. There are so many way's one can torture people. You could break a single bone at a time. You could make then think there drowning via waterboarding. The possibilities are endless! Sorry I'll shove my dark crazy thoughts back in the deep dark hole they crawled out of.


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## LCLee (Aug 4, 2019)

Maybe if he was nit-piked to death:icon_cheesygrin:

All kidding aside, I think a muriatic acid drip into the veins would be a terrible way to go.
It also allows for some great narrative to show the recipient's reaction.


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## Amnesiac (Aug 5, 2019)

There was an Agatha Christie murder where an abusive woman was placed on a rooftop by her adult children, looking from a distance, like she was only sunbathing. Basically, she slowly cooked to death. 

Being starved to death. Crucifixion. Death a la Vlad the Impaler. Beaten to death with a hammer. (everything but the head. Save that for the killing blows) Dismemberment over a period of days/weeks, starting at the extemities and working from distal to proximal...


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## Amnesiac (Aug 5, 2019)

The only way to access the internet is with a 14400 baud modem. Then wait for the victim to slowly go insane and commit suicide.


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## seigfried007 (Aug 5, 2019)

Not sure what the fascination with muriatic acid is here...



Particularly as it pertains to horror writing and making readers squirm, one of the big things to keep in mind when devising awesome deaths is to use things that could affect the reader. It's the same mentality with torture. The more exotic the implement, the less it's going to effect the reader--it becomes removed, safer, perhaps interesting but not horrific in a way that's going to make the reader look at normal items differently. If you want to make people squirm thinking about it, use everyday items and prey on fears most people have.

For instance, if someone is bludgeoned with a lamp, the reader might well look at lamps differently. The emotional reaction preys on a certain confidence we have in the harmlessness of everyday items and reads like a stunning betrayal. Lamps are harmless... so when they're used to kill someone, it's shocking and frightening. If someone's raped with a plunger, you can bet the reader is going to look at plungers differently. Burn a character with a cigarette, and the reader's going to look at all those nice, harmless smokers out there with a bit of horror because they have a sudden, new understanding of that pretty orange glow during a long, leisurely drag. Find some menace in everyday items to up the psychological ante.  

Regarding everyday fears--the dark, drowning, isolation, ostracism, fire, paralysis. These are great go-tos to prey on when devising amazing deaths and hairy situations. 

The more outlandish the implements and setting, the more removed the audience is going to be from the horror. Readers may not know about muriatic acid, and the explanation will drag them out of the story. People who do know may question the use of muriatic acid when other acids are more powerful and the body can handle a degree of acid in the blood. There's a lot of chemistry and physiology involved in making such a thing work--but readers thinking about it and writers explaining it is bad for the story. More outlandish deaths--giant torture chambers, sonic screwdrivers, Q-36 Illudium explosive space modulators, Poe's pendulum--these aren't things the reader's going to have any experience with. Sure, they might be painful implements, might inject a lot of gore and grossness, might make a reader squirm a bit, but none of them are going to really take that fear with them into real life.


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## Amnesiac (Aug 5, 2019)

Agreed. I'm thinking of the final scene in Psycho II: "Sure you don't want a cheese sandwich?" as the shovel is swung... "BONG!!" on the back of the old woman's head. Holy shit!


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## Rojack79 (Aug 5, 2019)

Amnesiac said:


> Agreed. I'm thinking of the final scene in Psycho II: "Sure you don't want a cheese sandwich?" as the shovel is swung... "BONG!!" on the back of the old woman's head. Holy shit!



Smack! "I prefere P.B. & J myself"


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## Olly Buckle (Aug 10, 2019)

'Slow and painful' seem to go together; but is there something that over stimulates every nerve in the body so much it kills you really quickly, but horribly painfully?


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## KenTR (Aug 10, 2019)

In the movie "Audition", a psychopathic woman gives a man a drug which paralyzes him but keeps his nerves awake. She then opens a case with a variety of acupuncture needles. She has studied medicine, so she knows where to insert the needles to cause maximum distress. Even though he's paralyzed, he's still able to scream. At one point, while grasping an especially long needle, she says something like "..and _this_ is the most painful point." She then sticks the needle somewhere in his abdomen...and he doesn't make a sound. 

What about psychological methods as well? Maybe to augment the physical.

Strap someone to a chair and force them to watch "Top Gun" on VHS eighty times in succession while continuously burning them with steam, which I've heard is the most painful way to be burnt, along with hot oil.

My opinion on murder scenes is that they are only as good as the reaction of the victim, so you may want to play with that.

Whew. I feel like this thread needs some kitten pics at this point.


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## Moose.H (Jan 28, 2020)

That is nasty.


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## indianroads (May 30, 2020)

KenTR said:


> In the movie "Audition", a psychopathic woman gives a man a drug which paralyzes him but keeps his nerves awake. She then opens a case with a variety of acupuncture needles. She has studied medicine, so she knows where to insert the needles to cause maximum distress. Even though he's paralyzed, he's still able to scream. At one point, while grasping an especially long needle, she says something like "..and _this_ is the most painful point." She then sticks the needle somewhere in his abdomen...and he doesn't make a sound.
> 
> What about psychological methods as well? Maybe to augment the physical.
> 
> ...



Actually, in my novel Departure the MC endured torture via needles. He didn't die though, their goal was to _persuade_ him to work on a project. The torturer was female (called the Nurse). I did some research on how victims are treated before the physical torture begins. How their clothes are removed (male vs female are stripped differently for maximum effect), sleep deprivation, type of confinement, etc. Then after some days in isolation the torture began by inserting long needles into his feet.


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## indianroads (May 30, 2020)

In my next novel (not my WIP), I'll need a way to kill a snitch - someone that informs on a resistance movement. The torture itself won't be written, only the prelude and what the government finds. I want the manner of death to be related to his crime (snitching), so initially I thought of pouring concrete down his throat, but the death would be too quick that way, so now maybe Drano, or an acid of some kind? Suggestions?


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## Irwin (May 30, 2020)

indianroads said:


> In my next novel (not my WIP), I'll need a way to kill a snitch - someone that informs on a resistance movement. The torture itself won't be written, only the prelude and what the government finds. I want the manner of death to be related to his crime (snitching), so initially I thought of pouring concrete down his throat, but the death would be too quick that way, so now maybe Drano, or an acid of some kind? Suggestions?



You could stitch or superglue his lips together, lock him up, provide him with plenty of food, which he wouldn't be able to eat, and let him starve to death.


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## indianroads (May 30, 2020)

Irwin said:


> You could stitch or superglue his lips together, lock him up, provide him with plenty of food, which he wouldn't be able to eat, and let him starve to death.



Death needs to take less time than that, there's a chance he could be discovered or the killer caught. I might superglue his eyes shut and cut off his nose, in addition to pouring Drano down his throat.


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## Winston (May 30, 2020)

The most painful way to die:  

Being allowed one last breath, one cognizant, sober, clear moment to look back... and see your life was nothing.
It was an empty, vapid exercise in pleasure seeking and pain avoidance.  It was a life where you made no real impact, on anyone or anything.  You just bounced from place to place, person to person like a grain of sand on the infinite galactic beach.
And when you are gone, that beach won't care.  No one truly will.  

That brief moment before death.  When you realize it was all meaningless.  

In comparison, physical pain is nothing.


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## indianroads (Jun 1, 2020)

One more thing - and this is just personal preference:
Torture scenes/chapters should be relatively brief. If it goes on too long it loses its shock effect and becomes drudgery. One chapter max is my rule.

Last night I finished a book that had the FMC and her daughter being tortured for TWELVE chapters. It went on so long that it overshadowed the plot.


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## Pallandozi (Sep 2, 2020)

Stormcat said:


> the other suffers in agony for about thirty minutes before finally expiring.


Do you actually want the maximum pain (which would probably involve technical stuff like neurotransmitters, electrodes stuck into certain parts of the brain, and a neural net set to optimise for a certain outcome) or something that *sounds* painful, which elicits a feeling in the reader?

For example, take a burn victim, wrap them in barbed wire, then give them a sub-lethal dose of strychnine and let the muscle spasms make them torture themselves.

Or you could go for something mythic without giving the details, such as the Norse blood eagle or the Hojojutsu ebizeme and focus in on the evil reputation and the reaction of the victim as they undergo it.

Which genre are you writing in?


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## Joker (Sep 6, 2020)

I've always found ebola a horrible way to go. Slowly dehydrating as you violently shit and vomit your body fluids out, gaping wounds exposed, knowing you only have a 50% shot as living. Intentionally exposing someone to ebola and denying them treatment would be horrific. And if the space is small enough, their own shit would infect the wounds... ugh!!!

Getting a severe enough hernia would also be atrocious. Literally having your guts come out of your anus. Yikes.

I also notice that nothing has been said about genitals, and with good reason. Just... use your imagination with that.


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## Lee Messer (Sep 6, 2020)

[video=youtube;J6l5-Rup-D4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6l5-Rup-D4[/video]

I'll see if I can find more. Hold on.


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## Lee Messer (Sep 6, 2020)

This one is difficult to watch if you're particularly empathic. Not for the weak stomach. Pretty graphic.

[video=youtube;c9TxDxAvqn4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9TxDxAvqn4[/video]


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## Lee Messer (Sep 6, 2020)

[video=youtube;OnFqERT6nJQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnFqERT6nJQ[/video]


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## Lee Messer (Sep 6, 2020)

Much of torture must be properly presented to the victim. It has to be psychological during the entire process. The idea is that even if you are going to kill them anyway, you must break them first. Submission is the goal. Then, once broken, the knowledge that the torture will continue until death is the worst torture of all. It is said through my research, that no one can resist proper torture. They will literally accept anything... be willing to do literally anything once broken. I'll submit one more after this one.

[video=youtube;A54yfyi00dI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A54yfyi00dI[/video]


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## Lee Messer (Sep 6, 2020)

[video=youtube;78GE90_AX_c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78GE90_AX_c[/video]


Yeah. I'm going to put this up there with being raped to death by a demon. This is the worst way I can think of. Truly horrifying.


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## Lee Messer (Sep 6, 2020)

I think that the most important point here is that if you want to exhibit a torturous death is that, in this case, it must be realistic in it's presentation. There must be descriptions of the remnants and extrication thereof. There will be parts removed, or disintegrated away. You must define not only the pain itself, but the permanent loss and grief thereof.

The victim automatically knows the risk of going further, but unfortunately does not realistically understand their actual threshold of pain. This is the issue, much like many others that seem to fight against the logic of our existence, or the existence of emotion as well.

Whether you believe altruisms like love exist or not, such altruisms have an actual physical limit where the mind cannot ascertain reality.

Some recruited by the CIA have supposed ability to resist torture and mutilation at the hands of the KGB during the cold war.

I think it comes down to a situation of knowing why you are being tortured. If you don't know, there is nothing to negotiate your trade of flesh for information. In this situation, I think people would break much faster.

I should clarify that I'm only trying to help. I realize that what I'm posting might be extreme but I'm just trying to offer a multitude of ideas from my field of research. I notice I'm not getting much votes, but one can't argue that what I have provided wasn't useful. These posts should be quite helpful I think.


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