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Punish Me	By : K.Blood Category: A through F > The Forbidden Game Trilogy Views: 1498 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Before you start the story please read the below disclaimer. It's very important.

Chapter List
- 1-Chapter 1
- 2-Chapter 2
- 1
- 2
Word Count: 2,280
~ Chapter II ~
"Where the hell are you!" She yelled from the landing. The blackness here was just as thick as it had looked from below. Dee took a couple cautious steps deeper into the darkness. Her eyes could just scarcely make things out. There were dark shapes here and there. One was possibly a small table and another on the wall was most likely an unused candleholder.
She knew she was pissed off and that it was making her reckless, but Dee was having a difficult time controlling her temper enough to care. There was just something about the Shadow Man which got under her skin so badly.
"I'm not afraid of the dark," she spat, continuing deeper into the unlit hallway, feeling the adrenaline surge through her, boosting her courage. The ache in her gut no longer mattered, but the jab to her ego still stung.
"Most people aren't. It's the things in the dark which frighten them."
Dee turned around in a complete circle, forcing her eyes to seek out his outline. "Where are you?"
"Right here."
She still didn't see anything. The jerk was toying with her. Dee grimaced, baring her teeth to the darkness. "Coward."
"Don't flatter yourself."
"Well I'm not the one hiding, now am I?" she said with pride. It was short lived. Suddenly, the magnitude of her situation dawned on her.
She had no clue what was going on, or what kind of game the Shadow Man was playing. What were the rules? Were there any rules at all? Was there a time limit? How was she suppose to win it? Mostly, Dee hoped her friends were okay. Julian had said they weren't involved but she didn't trust him. Not one little bit.
She heard the creaking sound of metal on wood and spotted a door a little farther down the hall as it opened. Her vision was in no way good but it was finally starting to adjust to the shadows. She started off in that direction, hoping to see the familiar face of a friend. She came to a quick halt as the outline of something not quite human peeked around the door. She swore to herself, knowing she should have been expecting something like this.
Dee couldn't see it very well but knew exactly what it was by its short stature and the swollen shape of its head. It turned and looked her way, as if it knew exactly where to find her. Dee felt the blood drain from her face and fingers, leaving her feeling cold. Even though she couldn't see them she knew that its empty black, almond-shaped eyes were staring directly at her.
"This doesn't scare me," she said, but she had to force the edge into her tone. Dee fisted her hands, seeking some level of comfort but finding none. The extraterrestrial stepped out of the doorway and shut the door behind it. Its movements were unhurried, but watchful. The fuzzy ebony of its silhouette began to slowly come towards her.
Tremors had started in Dee's fists and were traveling up towards her shoulders. "This isn't real."
"You know it is."
Dee jumped. His voice had sounded so close to her ear she swore she had felt the coolness of his breath.
"No," but even as she said it Dee could feel the familiar phantom itch start up in her thigh.
She tried not to think about the nightmare but its memories forced their way to the surface. The thing she remembered most vividly was the horrible bright light pinning her down, and the sickening feeling of helplessness as those things crowded around the table. She hated the way they had stared down at her, cold and clinical, as if she wasn't a person but a science project. The fear had been indescribable and Dee had never felt so vulnerable in her whole life. She had been powerless to stop them as one of the alien beings cut into her thigh, inserting one of their shiny instruments deep under her skin. The pain had been terrible, almost as if she was being burned instead of cut open. Dee knew it was only because of Jenny that she had survived the ordeal.
More than a month had passed since the nightmare in the paper house and the wound on Dee's leg was completely healed. The scar it left behind wasn't even that noticeable. Sometimes though, while lying in bed late at night, the pain would return—as it did now.
The extraterrestrial was still coming for her. She could hear its gray, leathery feet skidding over the carpet as it came nearer. It was very close now. Dee stood there, back as straight as a rod. Every fiber of her being begged her to run away. She watched, feeling ill, as its arm lifted and its long, distorted fingers reached out to touch her. It wanted to take her back under that suffocating light and continue its twisted experiments. She didn't know how she knew this, but she did.
"Not real," she repeated, her scar throbbing. Every instinct told her to flee, but she stubbornly refused. Her body was shaking badly now. She wanted to face this thing, to fight it, even if she had to repeatedly lie to herself to keep her body from running away. "Not real."
The cold tips of nail-less fingers brushed against her collarbone. She knew the contact was coming but hadn't been prepared for the strange sensation of its touch. Dee screamed. There was no time to be embarrassed about it. The thing was within reach. Now was the time to let instinct take over. She threw her arm out, her knuckles colliding with cool, dry flesh. The feel of it made her stomach twist.
She hit it again, sending a quick jab to its throat. It stumbled back, not making a sound. It didn't cry out or even grunt. It was eerily silent as its arms frantically grabbed at her with cold and clammy fingers. Dee punched the creature again and jerked back out of its nauseating reach.
She slammed up against something solid. Before she could think to send an elbow jab behind her, an arm encircled her neck as another wrapped around her waist, pinning her arms at her sides. Like a panicked animal caught in a bear trap, Dee thrashed against the second alien creature now restraining her.
"No!" she hollered so loud she was screaming. "LET GO!"
Lips brushed against the shell of her ear and she knew immediately who it was.
"If it's not real then why are you so afraid?" His words were laced with a mixture of humor and silk.
Dee pinched her eyes closed. Her face felt hot. Her body trembled against his. She tried to stop it. She didn't want to give the Shadow Man the satisfaction of feeling the evidence of her fear. She was stronger than that. She knew it. The nightmare in the paper house had been a heck of a lot worse than this. Dee tried to calm herself but her erratic heart didn't seem to want to slow down. If the extraterrestrial was somewhere still around it appeared to be keeping its distance.
"You're much weaker when your friends aren't around to help you."
Dee took a deep, broken breath and let it out. She wouldn't let herself listen to anymore of his taunting. "I'm not scared of you."
"Why do you lie to yourself, Deirdre?"
She hated the way he said her name, like a purr melting off his tongue. She had always thought it was such an ugly name, but somehow Julian made it sound elegant.
"You can't pretend with me. I know who you really are." He bent his head and swept his lips up the side of her neck, pausing to whisper in her ear, "I know what it takes to make you quiver with fear."
"Monster," she murmured, ignoring the little sparks his touch left behind. The low sensual timbre of his voice wasn't helping things, either. "Absolutely evil."
Julian chuckled against her. The feel of it tickled her skin. "Monster? You think I'm evil?" He released her and stepped back. His absence left her body feeling oddly alone. She refused to dwell on the thought.
A sharp burst of light blinded her. Dee blinked, forcing her eyes to adjust. She was suddenly afraid she would find herself back under the horrid white light of the alien ship, but she wasn't. No, this was much worse. Both the alien creature and the gloomy hallway were gone. Dee was now in a very spacious and brightly lit room.
Because he wants me to see everything, she thought vaguely as her gaze un-helpingly took in every gory detail laid out on the stone walls around her.
Sick bastard.
But this wasn't his doing, not really. It was hers. Her memories, her nightmares. When Dee was much younger she had gone to San Francisco with her mother. There had been a place at Fisherman's Wharf, a kind of exhibit, like a chamber of horrors. The things she had seen there—real horrors people had actually done to one another throughout history—had haunted her dreams for years.
"God," Dee muttered under her breath as she took in each grotesque scene.
She willed herself to look away but her body refused to listen. They were torture scenes, each victim's face and pain frozen in time. Each scene had been supplied with its own burning spotlight. Some Dee remembered from before, like The Rack and the Iron Maiden, but others... She had never imagined people could really do such things to each other. But here they were, on display, and she knew in her gut that none of this was make-believe.
The tang of bile danced in the back of her throat. The figures in San Francisco had all been wax replicas, but these...these were real. Dee could smell them. The thick coppery scent of their blood lingered with the sickeningly sour aroma of infection and open flesh. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth and suppressed the need to vomit. Her knees were shaking terribly and she wasn't at all surprised when they gave out a second later.
Kneeling on the floor, she focused on the rough carpet under her and forced the lines of her mantra through trembling lips. By the end she was struggling to spit each word out. "I am...as strong as...strong as, I—I need, to be. I am, my—"
"Lovely, aren't they?"
"Make them go away." Her voice came out as a whine and she hated it.
"Each and every one of them thought up by the human mind and carried out by human hands."
"Please, just—"
"Jenny thinks I'm a monster." Dee lifted her head to look at him but Julian's gaze was leveled at one of the bloodier displays. He now stood a short distance away, his back to her. There was a faraway quality to his tone, his thoughts obviously elsewhere. His words were just above a whisper. "She doesn't understand."
As out of place as it was, Dee felt a hint of resentment rear its leathery head. She wasn't sure why, but it didn't matter. Now wasn't the time to think about it. She used the anger to force herself back on to her feet. The phantom pain in her thigh was gone now and the ache in her belly was only a dull soreness, easily ignored. "Doesn't understand what?"
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
Too good to turn and face me, Dee thought bitterly. If I was Jenny I bet you'd face me.
She continued to use the anger to burn away her fear and nausea. She was almost starting to feel like herself again.
"That's life."
Dee shot out an arm and waved it at the messy horrors around them. "This is life?" she echoed in disbelief.
He faced her then, his eyes gleaming waves of blue-ice. In the brightness of the room he looked shockingly intense, like a predator without fear, hunting in broad daylight. Something both beautiful and frightening. Standing with the mutilated bodies as his backdrop there was no hiding what he was. "Yes."
"That so? Well, I think you're full of shit." Dee felt her panic wanting to return but she put a tight cap on it. She wanted to leave this place and its horrors. She tried not to inhale. Every time she did she caught the spoiled scent of human innards and had to resist the need to gag. "Whatever game you're playing, I'm done with it."
"There's no game, only a joke."
"This is a joke?" Dee snapped. She hoped her expression properly displayed the amount of violence and disdain she felt festering just beneath her skin. She knew she needed to calm down before she did something stupid, but Dee was on her last nerve and it was quickly rubbing thin.
Julian crossed his arms over his chest. He sighed and shook his head as if she had disappointed him. "Deirdre, you are the joke."
Pure, unhindered rage shot through Dee, boiling her blood and causing her onyx-colored eyes to flash. Rational thought and years of martial arts training told her he was too far away, that an attack from this distance would be foolish. She lunged for him, anyway.
Of course he saw it coming and simply stepped out of the way.
Fuck!
It was the only coherent thought Dee could manage as she stumbled. Too late, she realized she was going to crash headfirst into the bloodied remains of what might once have been a human being.
~.~.~.~.~
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