"Spiders"
The golden silence of the dawn was shattered in an instant by a scream. Now a lot could be told just by a scream, like in this case. For starters the pitch and tone show the screamer is a female and in a lot of pain. The raspy sound show that she has been screaming an awful lot. And there was also the sound of a weary soul, who's been through too much in such a short amount of time that she can't muster any fear, only exhaustion.
No more fear? There was no more fear in the girls scream! With a growl and a curse Lucas fairly tore her from the shackles, pulling out the finger screws as he stalked across the floor with the limp, bloody little doll of a girl. He back handed her across her broken jaw before throwing her through a door and into the inner "Hall". A final glare was given at the mass of flesh on the floor before he slammed the door shut and stalked to the bathroom.
He stripped off his robe and stepped into the steaming water of the tub. He liked the water hot, the hotter the better, and he lowered down to relax in the hot water while he attempted to think up what he could do to the girl that would cause her to fear again. Perhaps he had been to rough with her. No, of course not, she was still alive wasn't she? It had been two months since that storm where he captured her. Two glorious months where he did what ever he wanted with her and none could hear her scream. He leaned back further in the tub, smiling at the memories of what he had done to her.
A worldly man was he, and he thought up many ways to torture her. He had some books on the matter, and got suggestions from inquisitors. She was the best girl he ever captured. The level of fear in her was a drug to him, and like all drugs he wanted more and more, and he needed it more often then once a night. He found himself skipping a lunch or hiring an overseer for the morning or afternoon while he went home and tortured the girl. Time and again he played mind games, pretending to be so sorry for hurting her. Sobbing his heart out and begging her to kill him. She of course wouldn't...she was too much of a wimp for that. But it was perfect with his twisted game, luring her into hope to be free and then dashing it to pieces. She would sob her heart out after that, which was almost as good as the fear.
The girl wouldn't play any longer though, nothing worked. Ohh yes she screamed with pain, but no longer was she afraid of anything he could think up. And as he soaked in the tub he picked his brain for anything he hadn't tried. Unfortunately he couldn't think of anything. Which left only one thing. Destroying his toy and start on the search for a new one. He hated the searching, the waiting, And he would make his toy suffer a horrible death for forcing him into this.
He was just getting out of the now warm water when a sound rent the air causing him to freeze. He looked astonished as it once more sounded. A scream, but not just any scream. It was the scream of his toy, and she was afraid of something. Oh it wasn't complete terror but it was a start. He had to see what made her scream so he dashed out of the bathroom and to the inner "Hall" door. A twist and a jerk sent the door opening.
Nothing seemed to be the matter in the hall. The "Hall" held three doors. One led to his room and the other two led to the hall. It was a bit of magic and a bit of good design. It was a plain place, with white/gray walls and ceiling and a gray floor. Everything was cold to touch in the "hall" and is smelled somewhere between a hospital and fresh plaster. There was nothing else in the "hall", nothing except the girl. And at the moment she was crouching in the far corner of the "hall", shivering and staring at a speck on the floor that....was moving? Looking quite puzzled he moved forward slowly. Ah A little Spider! And then he grinned, a cold grin filled with malicious intent. Yes, he knew what to do now.
As he left the "Hall" his laughter rang out, causing the girl to shudder once more. When she looked up from the spider to watch him go the spider scuttled into a crack in the floor and by the time she looked back was long gone. He didn't go back into the hall for a whole week, Leaving her to worry and stew in fear about what he was going to do to her.
Since the night she was brought here it had been a living hell. One torture after another. At first it was only a few nights a week, then it was every night. Since then it grew to the point that three or four times a day was normal! How long could she last under that? Two months it had been since she had been outside and by now she couldn't muster the energy to be afraid, she could hardly muster any to scream. She knew he was getting pissed and would kill her soon, but she just couldn't care any longer....she was so tired.... Too tired to be afraid. So she thought......
That day she knew he was extremely pissed off. He was to the point of killing her now. All she had to do was wait for the final stroke. As she laid in that room she fell into the state between sleep and wake. That's when she felt the tickling across her shoulder. She blinked and brushed her shoulder off only to see a spider land on the floor right in front of her. It wasn't all that big, but it was a spider. She didn't know why she was afraid of such a small thing. She didn't remember that when she was a baby a spider bit her. Not just any spider though. It had been Seth in spider form. Normally spiders didn't scare her. But this one, she knew it was bad. Evil perhaps, but she was helpless in her bassinet.
The spider had bitten her and she had screamed. Of course they never found the spider or the reason why she had gotten deathly sick. She almost died from that bite, but something happened. Something she couldn't describe but to say she was bathed in liquid light and when it was gone so was the poison. Ever since that spider she held an apprehension for spider. She wasn't mindlessly afraid of spiders. Just held a great fear of them all. Nothing to abnormal about that right? And she screamed now, a scream bordering on terror as the spider scuttled away across the floor, and she cowered in a corner, watching it go.
She didn't notice when he came in, or that he was watching her watch the spider. She didn't know until she heard him laugh. A cold laugh filled with the promises of more pain to come. Ohhh gods she was terrified and frozen there in her corner. Aqua twins lifted in worry to watch him, and she blanched at the cruel look of planing on his face. After he had left she looked for the spider once more, but it was long gone. A shaky sigh slid past nerveless lips before she laid down and curled up in a little ball. Shivers wracked her frail frame even as sleep laid it's claim upon her.
She was never sure the passage of time when locked away in the room, all she knew was it had been a long time since the door had opened. It gave her mind time to wander. To drift back to distant memories. Like when she had first met Lucas. The memory welled up painfully with in her mind, forcing her to pay attention to it. He had been so kind to her then. He had become her one and only friend, and taught her so much, so that she could survive. It had been but a month since she left the safety of her mountain, A month after so many years of clinging to the cave, instead of walking under the wide open sky. She had left that safety and had wandered around, trying to learn and master the art of speech here and there, keeping out of sight and listening in on conversations. She had the uncanny knack of absorbing things quickly. And within a month she had a big enough vocabulary to not seem like a moron. Well, that's what she thought, but then we all know what people in RhyDin talk about so she kinda was screwed big time.
She headed into town for the first time. Confident about her knowledge and that no one would hold any ill will towards her. But she didn't know RhyDin. She didn't know that a lot of the population seemed to thrive on the pain of others. And she didn't know how perfect a target she was to these creatures. She was new, so very trusting, an innocent, and she was a tiny thing who didn't seem able to defend her self very well. Which is why that within the first five minutes in the Inn she had attracted four guys' gaze. She didn't like closed in places though, so before they had a chance to act she had already heading out the door. Of the four only two decided to follow her. And out the door the went after her. Keeping to the shadows and herding her towards the shadier section of town. She didn't even realize it. She just kept following the interesting looking light that bounced around. From wall to ground to tree. It was like a bouncing ball, and having very little knowledge of magic, That she remembered that is, she followed along like the curious thing she was.
The light led her to a rickety building and up the outside steps. Creaky rotted things made her nervous and bolt the rest of the way up. Right into the waiting arms of one of the males. They played with her for a while, gaining her trust and smashing it over and over as they had their fun. Finally, thinking she was dead they took her out and dumped her over the dock. But of course she hadn't been dead, just hurt very badly and bewildered about how it could happen here too. She thought this was such a beautiful place and that evil couldn't be with such beauty. But then, she was but a newborn in this world.
She couldn't swim either, so it was just pure luck that when she was dumped she got tangled in a net, she seemed to get tangled in a lot of things these days. But anyway, as the net was pulled free of the water she was left dangling by her tangled leg. Of course she started to slip from the ropes grasp. And just as she started to fall and had squeezed her eyes shut, she was caught. Surprise and pain ran through her body hand in hand. She tried to act dead, but those confound ears kept twitching erratically giving her away.
When she finally opened her eyes she was within a room, and the gentle rocking of water lulled her into a calmness even before the panic welled up. Across the room was a huge back, bare at the moment and laced with scars as if he had been in a lot of fights. His skin was a deep bronze color and when he turned to face her she was taken aback by his hard features and emotionless eyes. He looked as if someone had carved him from granite. Well, that's what she would have thought if she knew what granite was anyway. For sure he meant her harm. So she trembled and cowered as he approached, flinching as he reached for her....
But what was this? He was cleaning her wounds with a tenderness that bewildered her. This was such a strange place.... She watched silently as he patched her up wordlessly. When he finished he made her drink some bitter broth and she almost instantly fell asleep. Hours passed quickly into days. Three days to be exact. She slept for three days and on the morning of the fourth she woke to see him sleeping beside her. Which startled her greatly at first, but then she remembered his help. Since he was asleep she snuck out of the bed, feeling so weak and pained from the...how long had it been? A day? She wasn't sure but carefully she limped to the door and out. She wandered for some time, since it was well before sunrise she was fairly alone. A ship was what she was on, gently rocking with the calm sea's waves. Where was land? Where was RhyDin? Surely it should be somewhere since that was where she had come from. But it was nowhere to be found. All that could be seen was dark water and dark sky with it's twinkling dots of light and a big round whitish thing.
Soon she became tired, more so then when she had started her search actually. So she found a pile of material and curled up in it, falling fast asleep once more. Well, until she was rudely awaken by a kick to the gut. She scrambled away from where the blow came from as aqua twins snapped open. A half circle of angry men where there, trapping her in the corner she had fallen asleep in. Aqua twins widened as they spoke of what they should do to her. She didn't understand the words, but she did understand the tone of voices. She was in trouble. And just as one grabbed her by the ears a bellowing voice parted the crowd around the two. The nerveless man dropped her and started babbling about something called a stowaway and the big man that had helped her before shoved him towards the other and roared about her being the guest he told them all about. The sheepish men mumbled to her, still something she could only pick bits and pieces of the words out and trailed off, leaving the big man and her alone again.
She didn't know what to do, trapped here on this boat with no where to hide. She felt so vulnerable out here like this. Just when she thought about leaping over the side and swimming back he lifted her from the deck. Well, she couldn't swim anyway. He carried her over his shoulder, like a sack of meal. The men started to leer and cheer him on, but he never even looked their way. She did though, and by the time they reached his cabin she was trembling and whimpering softly. Luckily only he and she could hear it, but at the moment it didn't really matter to her who could hear. Once in the cabin he shut the door and shifted her around. Now he was cradling her comfortingly in his muscular arms as he lowered to sit in a chair. He soothed her as one would a child, rocking her gently and checking her bandages carefully. Soon she was asleep again though, and she slept through the day, till late into the night.
She sailed with them for two and a half years. From one exotic place to the next. She learned to fend for herself on those voyages. Enough so she wouldn't get killed, hopefully, when she went back to RhyDin. The sailors where quite willing to teach her curse words, and she picked up quite a few in many different languages. They also taught her the ropes of the ship, often getting her to climb high into the sails, since she by far was the lightest and most agile. She learned not only to tie knots...but how to get out of the most difficult ones, given enough time of course. And they didn't dare touch her in any sexual, or hurtful way, for she was protected by the captain. Protected until that one fateful night.....
They had been at sail for weeks. The water supply was running low, due to a brawl that smashed a cask and a half of the precious liquid. There had been a huge storm, and of course they had been blown off course. The Crew where uneasy in the foggy ghost like waters they where sailing through and there was talk of mutiny. The captain was stressed and hard pressed to keep his crew together. Finally he snapped, like every one he had a good and dark side. A side he only used on his little side trips. Leaving a dead girl at each stop. A nameless whore that he tortured and killed within a night. And he could normally keep it to that. Until this night. And Blade just happened past when he found an answer to his prayers. The fog would lift by morning...but they where still lost. As he seen the ghost like Blade approach he got an idea.
With a roar he grabbed her, proclaiming she was the witch who called the storm and then the fog. He told them he watched her speak to foggy demons and that she drifted like the fog. Who could see or hear her coming in this? They agreed of course, being a superstitious lot, and needing an explanation for why this was happening. He spoke of how she cursed this voyage only after gaining all their trust, and the only way to lift the curse was throw her over the boat and let the sea claim it's vengeance. With much cheering ropes where brought and she was tied. With little ceremony the captain lifted her and grinned maliciously before chucking her into the water. She only survived by pure luck. When she was tossed over and hit the water she sank immediately and as she was bobbing to the surface the rudder caught her. It gouged her arms and back even as it sliced through the ropes. The blood was washed away by the salty water around her, and the pain almost caused her to pass out. Finally she was at the surface, gasping for breath. She didn't know where she could go, out in the middle of the ocean. Yet she had to try.. So she swam. And slowly her strength left her. Pure luck brought her on the beach of black sand. Pure luck slammed her into someone wading into the water. And pure luck made it someone who was strong enough and fast enough to grab her and carry her out of the water. The next morning the fog lifted and the boat came to port. Though she didn't know it until she woke three days later. The sailors never knew she was there, and left bragging about how they braved storm and fog to come to this rich island. No mention of the witch was given, and a week later the ship set sail again.