History FateWorseThanDeath / Literature

* In Literature/VanasHeritage As'Saif sees Nirvys captivity as this because he expects that she will get abused and tortured even before she is brought to Vânorak. Nirvy disagrees at first and is determined not to give up, but she changes her mind, after she is being left alone with Vladr.

* In ''Literature/{{Everfound}}'', [[spoiler: Squirrel]] gets this. He [[spoiler: is touched by a scar wraith which erases him from the universe, no afterlife, nothing.]] It's a bit odd since most of the characters are already dead.

*** Maedhros is hung from a cliff by his right hand for years. Being an elf it would never end, until a force of arms broke one of the links that was keeping him trapped, such a link would only be of the chain or his own body that prevented him from.

* The novelette ''Literature/AColderWar'' by Creator/CharlesStross details an alternate-history UsefulNotes/ColdWar where the Soviets have retrieved the sleeping Cthulhu and entombed it in a silo as the ultimate weapon of Mutually Assured Destruction. Things get out of hand, and [[spoiler:the protagonist, a few politicians and a small military force are all who manage to escape, through an [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum eldritch stargate]], to a dead, frozen world. The story ends with the tiny shellshocked population, going through the motions in a domed compound under an alien sky, unable to do anything. And it is implied that they [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness may never have escaped at all]]]]. And they are the lucky ones. [[spoiler:Those who were left behind at Earth were swallowed up by the Old One, and exist for eternity as a part of its being, experiencing every way their lives might have ended.]]

* In ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'', Csevet explains that he "dislikes" Eshevis Tethimar because the man molested him when he was fifteen and had him deliver a message. Not knowing that the man who had grabbed him was a noble, Csevet bit him, which prompted Tethimar to suggest a game of "Fox and Hounds" to his friends. They did not not manage to catch Csevet, if they had, he tells Maia, death would have been the best thing he could have expected.
* Harlan Coben novel ''Gone For Good'' features an ex-pimp named Louis Castman; when hearing that one of his girls is going to run away and elope with a client she has fallen in love with, he brutally disfigures her (and as repeatedly mentioned, [[{{Squick}} not just her face]]) so that her fiance won't want to be with her anymore. It works, but before the guy sees the poor girl he shoots Castman in the spine, rendering him unable to move anything below his neck. The girl, now broken and miserable, keeps Castman alive for as long as possible in a room sealed with cork, with nothing to do ''at all'', just stare at pictures of her when she was pretty. He comes to wait longingly for ex-girls of his to come over and humiliate him, because it's better than lying immobilized in a cot and soiling yourself, with no one to hear you scream.

* The villain from "The expedition into inferno" (written by th e''Creator/{{Strugatsky Brothers}}'' ) build a busness by kidnapping sentient beings, turning them into living computers, and selling them to unsuspecting aliens who just thought they were buying new, more advanced technology. Not only are his victims condemned to spend the rest of their lives immobile but fully sentient, without any means to tell someone what they actually are, but he also included a button meant to inflict horrific pain, and instructs the customers to push said button several times if their computer starts working incorrectly.

* Villain from "The expedition into inferno" (written by ''Creator/{{Strugatsky Brothers}}'' ) build a buisness by kidnapping sentient beings,turning them into living computers and selling to unsuspecting aliens, who just thought, that they buying new, more advanced technology. Not only his victims condemned to spend the rest of their lives as immobile, but fully sentient machines, without any means to tell someone, what they actually are, but villain also included the button, meant to inflict horrific pain, and instruct the customers to push said button several times, if computer start working incorrectly.

*** Morgoth may have marred every aspect of Arda and the physical world that it belongs to but he has no power at all in the rest of Ea which lies beyond the doors of Night. He has been left imprisoned and mutilated there till the end of time, the only concrete thing drowning in the nothingness that he embraced.