Post by The Prettiest Squish on Apr 28, 2017 22:16:25 GMT -5
After the events of 'Sinful Smiles', Venus Jades and Queen L. Taylor retreat back to the latter's cabana for much deserved rest. Below are a collection of days from the harlequin's residence...
Day 1:
For what she expected, the accommodations suited her needs far more than anticipated. That first step the harlequin took signaled the beginning of a new page in her life; whether the path unknown would lead to resolution was yet to be seen. With that final foot crossing the threshold, an old door closed and a new one opened, this would be her fresh new start. I just hope this wasn't a mistake...
Her partner, the young delinquent who went by the name of Taylor ushered her to hurry inside and make herself at home. Just by a look around, Jades found it was a...quaint little place, constructed almost entirely of wood as it was all and only the natural resources around them. With the host's home being situated smack in the middle of the jungle, it surely couldn't have been that difficult in acquiring the necessities to build such a place. Yet for what its material was worth, the construction was solid from what she saw.
They two moved from area to area with the runt giving a concise description for what each entailed. Jades noticed or rather didn't notice the lack of creaking below them as the pair shuffled across the house. Even the floors are shut tight? Who built this place? There's no way she's got the hands to craft something as fine as this. An iota of envy crept up on the penniless jester who admired her guide's dwelling further as time passed. And without thinking, a look of amazement washed over her typical grimace but only so slightly — before the lingering dolor set in once again.
Jades froze her feet in place, head struck downcast, "Hey...this is nice and all but I'd really just like to lay down for a bit. It's been a long day..." As composed she wished to appear, the girl could not hide the truth with such a glaringly obvious feature. As she spoke, she gripped tightly to that haunting soreness, the screeching flesh jigsaw hung upon her bosom. The white cloth — makeshift at the time — wrapped the collective fractured bones together and kept it from falling apart at the seams. Even hours from their prior engagement, the crimson ran clear through the sling like water through a damp towel.
A nod came her way through the awkward silence between them and Taylor escorted her guest over to a nearby room at the back. The settlement wasn't terribly lacking in furnishings for a house seemingly meant for a single resident. Granted the space was scarce but Jades needed merely a bed to work with. The window just adjacent to her mattress overlooked the tropical labyrinth outside but would hardly be used tonight and for many other nights. Tay left the morose mummer to herself and hopped back to her quarters to attend to personal matters.
For a few hours, Jades stayed there in solitude, her eyes peered far deep to realms beyond but still within the gravity of the situation. Her body lay spread on the mattress, submissive in stance and poise: the ceiling as her grand view. From this state, she occasionally connected back to reality, wandered about her surroundings lethargically only to doze back into the everlasting nothingness once again. For hours she continued until the afternoon star had made way for the twilight. The ceiling had gone black, her bunk had grown cold and all the sound of the jungle died down to the chirping of crickets. She gripped her arm; everything changed but the pain was still there.
Jades stepped out of her room shuffling her feet across the floorboards, paying no mind to the craftsmanship this time around, and headed for the entrance. At the very front of the porch sat an arrangement of wooden chairs all facing into the abyss; it was down there that the one armed villain sat herself and began to ponder. Exactly what the girl was seeking to brood over was unclear, she sought only to reflect and review. And what better environment for the heinous harlequin to introspect than in complete darkness?
So there she sat, alone and cold and bitter to the bone when a moist drop landed on her arm. Then another, and another. The wind carried the drops and dragged their frigid touch across her body. Soon enough, she was bathing in frost. But unfazed by such trivial conditions, Jades contemplated further. There was initially nothing coming to mind. Only pieces of words and questions that zoomed by as quickly as they popped up, until ...Just what's wrong with me? was the very first real question to form in her head.
It was an honest question. Vague and open to so many responses, just what was she asking was wrong with her? What part of her did she believe was causing such constant distress and sorrow in her soul? The very first thing to pop to her mind was the very annoyance keeping her awake these past hours. Jades grasped the limp flesh noodle slung to her neck, It's you isn't it, you little shit?... Without hesitation, she unsheathed a knife strapped to her belt and planted the edge against the surface of her shoulder. "Once you're gone...I can clear my head..." Steel met flesh for a second when the masochist heard a cry behind her.
It was White Haired Tay looking as menacing as always, her authoritative aura accentuated by the falling of rain. Jades paused as a silky red tear was washed away by the rain and vanished to oblivion. Turning her head, Jades saw her acquaintance donned in proper pajamas - now soaking wet -and fuming with irritation. Not one to joke around, she brought the knife to plain view and replied in deadpan, "I'm coping, don't you see?" But Taylor kept a straight face and stared dead on with just one eye. Without a word, she grabbed the knife out of her hand and pulled the drenched demon out from the rain.
Once back inside, the gracious host let loose her mind on the matter, nagging the blonde bombshell with expected phrases like, "You really are a crazy one! "What 'ave me got meself into?!" Jades sat quietly on a nearby sofa still dripping wet from the elements unable to respond. Her head remained downcast while her hair sprinkled drops down onto the floorboards, forming a puddle around her. Taylor stomped to attract her attention, "Well, hello? Do ya gots anyting to say?" A few more seconds of silence passed between them. All that could be heard indoors was the dripping of wet onto wood. An exuberant sigh left her lips and Tay walked past in a storm when suddenly the silent sinner barely whispered, "Sorry for the floor..." The look on the mocha minx's face was rich with bewilderment. The floor, what did the floor have to do with anything? Without waiting for inquiry, she resumed, "Whoever built the house would be pissed I got the floor wet...Water damage and all..." Tay just stood staring at Jades. And after the brief pause, she walked with the jester back to her room.
Squelch squelch squelch, the sound of her wet steps trailed behind her. Heavy drops landed on the glass pane of her bedside window. It was still dark and she was still cold. Without even the dignity to show self strength, Jades shivered in the moonlight. Her 'friend' stayed by her side possibly to keep watch so she did not continue to make a nuisance of herself. But Jades couldn't help it; that voice earlier in the day still echoed dull but potent whispers. It split her mind in two and with the fragile state she was already in, just a single conscience to live in was difficult enough.
The masked menace noticed that the little landlord was still there, waiting and watching. Perhaps she could put an end to these voices? Her throat cleared, "H-hey, you remember what you did back then? During the...piggyback ride?" It disgusted the clown that she resorted to such childish language but she felt that acting casual around Taylor would benefit her in the long run. This young woman was all she could rely on to keep things from getting out of hand and if that episode outside was any indication of what was to come, Jades needed assurance that someone could keep her from making a mistake. She sat on the mattress patiently waiting for a response. But before any verbal answer left the one eyed woman's mouth, a sphere of energy surrounded them and the pitter patter of raindrops subsided as the room grew deathly quiet.
Jades looked about confused and bewildered until she remembered this was the exact situation how Taylor had introduced herself in their first encounter. She watched the storm brewing outdoors but detected nothing aside from brief flashes and the infinite wet curtain falling over the jungle. Even the beat of her heart, the rush of blood in her ears, the very brushing of her eyelashes ceased to register. A dead zone...as silent as the grave. Jades turned her gaze back to Tay only to be met with a swift palm to the forehead, forcing her lush golden locks to crash into the confines of the bed. Her initial instinct was to retaliate reactively but something stopped the hotheaded harlequin dead in her tracks. Along with the silence in the room, there was a strange euphoria that overcame her senses the instant Taylor placed that hand on her.
Calm. Soothing serenity. A gentle pond. No ripples or waves. Only the stillness, nothing more. There were no breezes in here. There were no other forces at work. Just her mind and the sound of silence...
Drip. Crak. Thump. What was this? Drip. Crak. Thump. Where was the stillness? Drip. Crak. Thump. This felt all too strange to her yet so familar. Drip. Crak. Thump. And what was with these sounds? ...No...Had they truly stopped? Was it that easy to render such insufferable stimuli inaudible? Whoooot... No! For a new sound emerged yet this unlike the three before. This one did not belong, it was not present in her room nor was it heard at any point in the cabana. Whooooot.... It zoomed by like a whistle, like a blade of air screeching over an abyssal maw. Then, as the whistling continued, Jades felt a cushion press up against her back gradually growing stronger when suddenly, BAM! The whistling vanished and was replaced with the cracking and crumbling of stone. She could feel them all stabbing her skin, the infinite granules all digging into the texture of her complexion like shrapnel on a soldier. She could feel her arms and how hot they were, burnt and stinging with the rage of a thousand molten pin needles. WIth all this pain she felt, nothing of concern rose up to oppose the matter. All Jades pondered was what and why? And that's when it finally struck her.
All the pieces of stimuli collected to form a faint vision. Her corpse blue eyes quickly danced above and came across the sight of a rooftop and a figure mounted above it. When her fingertips scurried over the pattern of her concrete carpet, there was nothing new to discover for she had felt these very same cracks before. And when she finally mustered the courage to raise those infernal hands to her view, a flurry of blood red consumed her vision and a voice called out from the vermilion void, "I WANT HIM DEAD, JAAAADES!!!-"
From her slumber, the petrified pirate awoke but hyperventilating and confused, unaware she had shut her eyes to begin with. When Jades came to her senses, she found her 'friend' was gone and saw only herself in this empty room. The damsel coughed and sobbed silently to herself. There was no pond of serenity, there never was. With rain still dripping down her cheeks, she hastily darted back and forth around her surroundings until landing dead on the ceiling to reaffirm that this was indeed the real world. Her free hand came within view; there were only bandages, no needles. Jades pulled over her blanket to sneeze into, still broken and comforting herself to feel safe and would have continued to convince her self had it not been for the faintest ray of violet hitting her cheek. In earnest, she turned to the window; the sun was rising.
...I can't fall asleep...Never again...
Days: 2-4
Following the nightmare that transpired on her first day of residence, Jades took to avoiding the comfort of her bed at all costs. The second night had been reasonably tame as previous experiences had taught her how to keep oneself awake. All it took was to imagine the terror of what awaited her once she did fall to slumber. She found it was exhausting however to occupy her time staying in the cramped up cabana and would often roam about around the jungle in the latest hours of the night. The wild threats of nature did not frighten her though; Jades had dealt with bigger foes than savage animals before. So she wandered and wandered until the break of dawn descended upon her. And the meandering menace would walk back inside for another day of recovery.
So she did the same for the third day, mindfully avoiding her bedroom through the entire day and abandoning any notion of rest. However, Taylor had grown observant through her brief stay and inquired of the harlequin's current mentality. The deceitful dame was aware that the silent sniper's abilities could quell what turmoil remained inside her but wished not to rely on its usefulness. As evident from the first night, whatever effects Tay could induce only lasted for the ephemeral beginnings of her sleep. The madness could only be delayed but never restrained. So her final decision was to leave little Ms. One Eye with a shrug of indifference and assure her that no problems persisted. Jades acted very much on her own and already despised having to depend on another to resolve her problems; begging Taylor for any further assistance would render her pride obsolete. And so by the time the third night approached, she strayed mindlessly once again within the depths of trees and flora.
Then the fourth day came.
Much like the past half of the week, Jades was left alone to recover from the duo's skirmish with Yellow Streak and White Feather. Fortunately for the pale patient, the functions of her hand showed signs of returning and it appeared that it'd be another week or so before the two would part ways. It did not please the piratess that she'd depart in such an ill condition but hell would freeze over before her knees hit the floor for a stranger. She would get through this by her own strength no matter how painful it would be...
Then the fourth night came.
Jades did not venture into the wildness under the fourth moon as the sleepless nights finally took their toll on her exhaustion and injuries. Instead, she paced about in the confined spaces of the cabana but did so quietly as Taylor slept in her own room. But it wasn't easy to keep her frantic steps silent from her roommate. Even when gliding across those superbly structured floorboards, the faintest shuffle and thud of a heel sent chills up the woman's spine as if the situation felt like a burglary about to go wrong. Taylor did not have to know that Jades resisted the urge to rest these past few days; the tired troublemaker only wished to avoid any confrontation so that her leave would be all the more manageable.
But hours passed and soon enough midnight was a long ways past before her black masked lids grew heavy with weariness. They struggled to remain open, spasming as erratically as an insect knocked down to its back. She performed physical moves and acrobatics to keep her heart pumping energy but every little twirl only served to deplete her even more. Soon enough, Jades' feet no longer glided on the wooden boards but clawed slowly over them with the speed of a lethargic slug. Her arms inevitably failed to swing with the sway of her hips and dropped down lazily like pendulous sagging noodles, her shoulders dropped so low they appeared tantamount to that of a hunchback bowing in prayer, and her jaw hung so loose with such a wasted and decayed disposition that only bare skulls could relate with. The fatigued phantom tried and tried again to fight off the urge but her strength was dwindling by the ounces. She tried to make way for the exit perhaps to shock her mind into a fight or flight mode by endangering herself in the jungle, but her legs had melted away before the knob was even within reach. The darkness of the night crept into her line of sight and everything grew cold as she braced herself for a visit back into the abyss...
At first, she heard the sloshing of water. Her body swayed side to side, rocking to and fro in a nauseating way. There was a pungent odor in the air that she could not exactly place other than that it stunk of something fierce and most likely originated from bodily fluids. Her eyes were still shut tight but slowly came to life when the blood of her closed lids reddened up her vision and a warm touch came over her head. Jades opened them and saw a world she thought had been forgotten.
As she began to adjust herself to this reawakened vision, a claw grasped her by the neck and swung her body to the ceiling. "GET UP? I SAID GET UP NOW!" the master spoke down to her as he did for all her time here. She was soaked in some kind of filth from the looks of it, strange drippings of an unsightly color oozing down her legs and chest. "I thought I made it clear!" The man reached for his belt and brought out a familiar sight that she was afraid of all too well. Jades screamed at him, her nails digging into his leathery arm but garnering no reaction from him whatsoever. He snarled and squinted at her, in disbelief that she had the will to continue opposing them. "You mop up this cell and you won't get any lashes. But look what you've done, you stupid girl!" He choked her without restraint, evident by his fingers turning hot red and the tips of them disappearing into the skin of her neck. She could not scream this time but only gag and retch as the life was choked out of her. The man continued, seething and foaming at the mouth, but only for just another second before containing himself and slamming her body to the ground. She could hardly move after that and only lay there breathing whatever was around to sustain her. "Worthless. You're just a worthless dumb witch. But some day, I'll find a good use for you. Oh, I always do, trust me on that. " She heard him walking away until a violent splash of horrid waters was kicked into her face. His laughter filled the silent halls and slowly faded as he left the quarters completely. Jades lied there on her back, her hair now soaked in what she could only assume came out of another inhabitant. It felt horrible, it truly did, but she did not cry nor did she act out in any way. For she was aware that this was all a dream. Yes, of course. How else could she be back on this ship? This vessel of hell that carried hundreds like her to destinations unknown belonged in the past. It was nothing but a memory, she thought to herself. And her eyes shut again, the sound of the seas fading with the descent of her lids and the warmth of the sun disappearing from her skin...
....
"...Hello, girl."
It was bitterly cold, darker than night even. She was standing upright to her surprise. The floor was a frigid steel plate from what her feet could feel but in the veil of darkness nothing was certain. She felt cuffs tightly strapped to her wrists and chains holding her arms above her shoulders. The girl tried to shake them away but their grip was tight and their hold on her tighter. Just then it came to her attention. The chilly air of this space was of no unusual temperature but her body screamed at the stinging numbness overcoming it. With what little movement was allowed of her, she brought her thighs together and rubbed her chin against her bosom. An audible gasp echoed throughout the chamber and she felt the air leaving her lips turn to frost on her naked breast. She was deprived of cover, exposed and vulnerable to these elements. The air suddenly felt colder now and the chains rattled with her every movement. She remembered a voice just seconds ago echoing that of the man who broke her. A step moved behind her with the scraping of leather following its silence. She was not alone. And she was afraid of what was to come.
"...Are you nervous?..They always are."
In the infinite shadow they both lived in, the perception of sound was all she could use to draw up where he was hiding. To the left, the girl heard a faint shuffling across the floor, drawn out and constant; they were unlike that of footsteps which were recurrent and rhythmic in sound. To the right, she heard a light breathing - giggling even - barely passing through like some cruel phantom of darkness. When the whispers in the wind began to vanish, Jades hushed her own breath to better hear what was there. She waited. She waited. For an eternity, she stood there with ear to the maw, listening to the abyss. Yet nothing answered her. For a moment it truly seemed that it would all be for the suspense of violence. That there was never a real threat of harm but only the implication of it. She lowered her guard, and with it, succumbed to weakness. Light exploded above her in a blinding flash of white like a cone of fluorescent pain showering her in blazing agony. She flinched at the sight of it, growling and wincing with discontent. In the light, her cold blue eyes gleamed with hatred until they were drowned in shock at the sound of it. At the touch of it. CRAK! In an instant it was done, the flesh of her shoulder no more, but only a crimson fissure in its place weeping where it once lied. Jades screamed and the chains trembled with her.
"...Shhhh...We've just begun...Save your tears for the end...There will be nothing left of you if they come this early..."
Her breathing picked up in pace, venting whatever stress befell her, yet the emptiness of this dark world only served to echo back her heaving voice and repeat it tenfold from all directions. There was no sliding of slips or carefully placed feet now, all she could detect was her own desperate panting. She was so surrounded by it, that the faintest noise to the back of her drew no attention. It was a clear chuckle but she could not hear any of it. Instead she called out to the darkness, "Where are you? Show yourself, coward!" The one in shadow cackled harder, now attracting the focus of the haughty naughty jokester. He must have found it hysterical, that the poor girl was trapped in a position such as this. Sickening, she thought to herself. Even for her, it was sickening. But it mattered naught to the man with the whip, the one who held all the power of this realm and controlled the direction her life would take from here. Should she live or die by his hand was up to him. And so, with lash in hand and hidden grin on his face, he continued his duties, the trembling of chains growing to an uncontrollable spasm.
"...You look so beautiful under all those layers. In that light. With those chains. All that savory scarlet...Just for me..."
Lifewater, glossy red under the glowing lamp, spilled out of her back dripping and pouring into several puddles at her feet. Her skin which was typically as pale as the light itself was now a rotten red and growing pinker as the minutes passed. For every slash he made, she reacted with a desperate yelp. The lash never ceased to allow her any registration of the pain but continued at its own pace regardless of how quickly she could survive the prior mark. It would strike, splattering scarlet torn skin off of her spine causing her to scream and shake right before issuing the next strike just as strong but swifter. Inevitably, It took no time at all before the master completed resurfacing Jades' back with countless open scars; a vile pattern of infinitesimal rose crosses all neatly striped with descending scarlet strokes was all that was left of her posterior. The chains hardly trembled now for the strength required just to remain standing left her breathless and shaken. Jades' eyes had gone blank, the lighting blue of her irises were replaced by a comatose cobalt. Her jaw was left gaping wide open as saliva trickled from her lips, running like syrup and seemingly at no end of stopping. An occasional spasm overtook her but otherwise she could not respond. She looked downcast to the floor and all the red puddles. Then she looked up and saw the light dangling from the ceiling. The warmth of the round red carpet beneath her escaped into the floor until it turned cool to the touch like the pulp of mashed strawberries; the lamp above her melted into a dream, evolving, shaping, molding into a star brighter than all the lights of the earth as it showered her in its rays and delivered her to a realm beyond imagination. If only for a moment, she felt a solitude and serenity unlike anything she'd ever known. True freedom of all her senses, absolutely lost in the delirium of numbness yet liberated from any worldly sensation that could take her out of it. It was not peace, but it was not cruelty or pain. It was to not be, forever and always. And she saw it clearly, flashing before her eyes before it was taken away from her yet again.
"WAKE UP NOW, WOULD YOU!"
The ice reawakened in her eyes and Jades' jaws spewed one final spoon of saliva before violently screaming out for the thousandth time today. She stared at the void of darkness, eyes widened so open that her pupils sat in an ocean of white in her sclera. They melted just as quickly as they froze and the water from her seas of sorrow broke through the floodgates and flowed down her cheeks like waterfalls. She could not see the marks that her master had made but she felt them, oh she felt them like no other scar had done before. For they were not mere physical wounds such as the countless ones on her back; she could feel the twitching and jerking of other muscles as they were slowly pulled apart by the tension of her rage. He struck hard and fast at them, for they were small and delicate unlike the great canvas of her spine. They hung there like meats cured after slaughter, like ivory tusks waiting to be harvested; though the sheen of her pale white skin glowed brightly in the lamp light, the scarlet splatter of her pink palms torn asunder gave him ecstasy and pleasure beyond the aesthetic glow of this moonlit demon. She cried once more at the touch of it, trying to deny what was unraveling behind her eyes. He lashed without mercy and robbed her of what meant most to her in this world. It was her arms, the pride of her piracy, the treasures she cherished most, what made 'Venus Jades' the queen of chaos that all men and women feared. He took them away from her. In her mind, even though he stripped her of dignity, control, sensation, and spirit she would always be stronger. The whip the master held was a toy to the power of a planet in the palm of her hands. But he took that as well. And now she was truly nothing, forevermore.
"...Oh hoho...What's this? An act of survival? Delicious...It is truly fun when they struggle, after all...So go on, little girl. Scream for me...Cry for me."
Jades' chains erupted in a cacophony of quaking as her broken body palpitated uncontrollably and the passage of roses ran with haste once more. It was here that the mere din of her wailing was insufficient in expressing the truth of her tormented rage. She was breathless before she could blink, throat tightening by the lack of breath and head boiling at the strain with which she forced it. Her cheeks, her ears, and eyes turned violet the very next second until all life left her face and her tongue was sprawled out in the open. She heard the man cackling with joy but could say nothing. His footsteps were loose and faint now, hovering in between periodic snaps of time almost as if he was dancing to this sanguine soirée, enjoying it, pleasuring himself to it. He laughed some more whilst accentuating his pitch, higher and higher, as the vim and vigor of his boisterous celebration rapidly devolved to a sporadic and nonsensical tapping that resonated coldly from the steel floor. She felt the vibrations in her toes, the ripples of blood gently caressing against her heels, but it brought no life to her swollen purple portrait still gazing on endlessly at the nothingness that stretched on eternally in front of, behind, and beside her.. All that existed was his laughter, his steps and the suffering, the endless suffering.
"...You are without a doubt the best little toy I've had in years..." For the first time ever, she heard the voice moving to her and not further away. No one has gotten this wet before they just dropped, HAHAH!...No one until you that is... She felt the waft of his nose, moist and warm, heaving down the crown of her neck, waiting and waiting. ...I...I.....I wonder how much more you can take...Before you're nothing but a scrumptious rose puddle just for me!"
Jades kept quiet, body stiff and cold with the touch of death on her shoulders. Her vision grew hazy and her hearing was beginning to betray her, the footsteps of the master were barely being registered despite their close proximity to her. Every thing grew so cold and bitter that not even the light above gave life to her skin. She felt it, the vast quantities of flowing scarlet soul drifting down the macabre river and draining her of every ounce of strength left in those fragile bones. The girl wished only for it to end.
"You know girl...I've always wanted you...if you weren't such a mess to deal with...But here in this room, I can have you tonight, and tomorrow, and every night after until you're nothing but just another body in my collection...Understand me girl? You're all mine, now and forever."
She felt his scorching palm upon her chest, tightening and squeezing with tremendous pressure. It was not within her to scream any further, she had expired all caches of tears, and the only response she could give were faint shudders in the darkness. He grasped her tightly, being sure to pull away from the corporeal flesh her twins of virility so as to punish and exacerbate whatever demented torment she suffered. But there was nothing else, nothing more she could offer to appease the monster at her rear. All voice, all spirit left her body much time ago; there was no sorrow he could siphon through these endeavors now. But he did not care. He persisted, twisting her broken neck until his eyes directly met his. With her jaw agape and his lips stretched to the horizons of his countenance, the two locked faces for a brief moment before the beast took his initiative and planted a slimy, moist smooch upon her lips. Her eyes widened with fear and uncertainty, awareness overcoming the girl's senses until it was already too late and the first move had been made. She felt the grazing of prickly, frigid fingers clawing down the cliff of her breasts, down her ribs and finally her waist. "All....Mine..." Jades screamed into the night.
"HEY!! HEYYY!!!? WHATSA MATTAH WITH YOU!? SNAP OUT OF IT!!" A crack of lightning lit up the background and the room boomed shortly after to the sound of thunder. White dangling chains were at her face now, no longer the ghastly white lamp shining on her from above. She looked to the sides of her and saw blue and brown and gray and violet all scattered through the shadows and all reflecting off their matte surfaces to her eyes once more. The absolute darkness was gone, the light was gone, and...Jades reached for her bust and covered her womanhood. The master was gone. She sobbed with tears streaming down her eyes and grabbed on tight to the girl watching over her.
For a few minutes, everything was silent between the two with the only noise in the room coming from the heartbroken harlequin. She mumbled words that made no sense in an incoherent tone that offered no clarity. Her hands were spastically clawing away at the hazelnut skinned host's pajamas so hard the blood of her fingertips turned raw and tender by the pressure. If Jades was the type to maintain proper nail care, she would have slashed through her companion's clothing without a hitch. Yet regardless of all the gibberish and abuse she was putting Tay through, the one eyed woman stayed calm and composed through it all. There was no slap to the face or a punch in the gut to snap Jades out of her delirious state. She could only hold the harlot's hand and gently pat her pale blonde hair as the whimpering continued.
Half an hour passed before the two of them could sit side by side without the crying clown breaking down again. They were quiet together, blankly staring at the floor or at each other for a brief second before turning away. The storm outside had begun to subside but was still very much relevant in the background with a bolt of lightning passing by every other minute. Because the thunder was just about the only sound that could be heard inside the cabana, it helped to alleviate some of the awkward silence that dwelled between them. For a second, Tay rose up her head as if to speak but quickly changed her mind. Jades noticed the gesture and sighed through the tremors in her chest, the trauma of her nightmare were still alive as one could see. She turned to face the silent sniper and opened her mouth while it still shook uncontrollably. Her chin quivered as a tear ran down it and fell to the floorboard below.
Sensing the distress, Tay clutched her hand and looked directly into her eyes. "Just...tell me." she whispered so softly that it hardly sounded like her: the rambunctious young spitfire who she fought alongside less than a week prior. The lone iris that stared right at her was intense yet didn't feel hostile in purpose but instead warming and concerned. Jades stifled a sob and pushed it down her throat before responding. Initially her voice was fragile and cracked as she mumbled, "I...I've been...broken. For a...long time now." The pauses in between her words were filled in by the woman's constant sniffling. When she looked to see how Tay would react, she simply looked back at Jades knowing there was more to be heard. And so she resumed,
"Not...really sure...how long or...everything that's happened...but..." Before she could elaborate, Jades tensed up and her face went sour with grief. Her eyes narrowed and shut tight, squeezing every last tear out of her lids, and she put a hand to her mouth so as to plug the screaming from inside. Tay crawled swiftly to her side and clamped tight to her other arm. "Go slower if ya need to, me's not goin anywhere." the cocoa companion reassured her. Looking into her eyes again, Jades simmered her erratic behavior and continued, "Everyday I wanna just...end it." Tay's soothing presence was beginning to work as evidenced by this much clearer speech but this newfound sentiment was worrisome to say the least. "IWhen I look into a reflection...I sometimes see parts of her...parts of me that I hated being...parts of me I wished would go away..." Jades tucked her knees into her chest and lied her head upon on them, looking blankly into the dark corridor of the cabana. Taylor still sat by the harlot's side, rubbing her back for comfort but all the meanwhile listening with grave concern at these confessions. In all the time they'd known each other, she never exposed so much of herself in a single sitting let alone throughout the course of half a week.
Continuing on, the girl muttered through the cramped spaces of her legs, "I never wanted this you know...to exist. To feel all these...stupid shitty feelings! I never said I wanted to be born!!" She clutched her face with vigor until her fingers wrapped around the black mask that snugly fit atop her eyes. Enraged and unstable, she ripped off the flimsy dark material and flung it across the chamber until it collided against her door. Tay sprang back from the sudden outburst but quickly regained her composure after Jades let out a deep sigh and sniffle. She looked to the dark skinned toddler standing tall above her, "...You know...I never got to meet my mom..." A brief pause of silence ensued between them before the proper response was asked, "...Why is that?" The distraught damsel let out a cruel snort through her sniffling, looking to Taylor with bawling blue eyes filled to the brim with salty tears. "I killed her...when she gave me life..."
A boom of thunder filled the cabana and the flash of lightning lit up their faces with perfect brilliance, illuminating the surprise on Taylor's face and the emptiness inside of Jades. "I've killed...quite a lot of people actually. Well, not me...Her. But yeah, we've killed more than our fair share of bodies..." She was sitting there now almost unmoving, in contrast to how shaky and volatile her movements were before this was an uncomfortably odd experience to behold. "Sometimes I...still feel their blood pouring down my arms. Their warmth...fading...and fading...until they just go cold...Have you ever felt how cold they were?" Jades' eyes were sunken now, her lids half veiling the sapphire hues with which she wandered. She stood there staring at the void ahead of her, as though she were just retelling all the lost words she'd been gathering in it for so long. "She never minded though...it was always CHAOS and BURN THEM ALL or some stupid shit...she didn't care...she never did..."
Taylor looked to the room she assigned the mindless orator and looked back at the ghoul telling her old stories. She then glanced outside and saw the night was still young, the moon in its infancy still flew high up in the sky with its millions of distant cousins. The clown never spoke as she wandered the surroundings though, she just kept talking, "Sometimes I wonder which one of us was meant to be born...her, the putrid scum of the earth? Or me, a pathetic weak little turd who can't even stand up to a fuckin' whip!!" She rose her arm to slam it down but stopped halfway when a brown arm caught it in midair. Her icy cold hues ascended to meet the gaze of her roommate, the lonesome eye of one Queen L. Taylor, and she soon found her lids growing heavier by the second.
"You really messed in the head, you know that?" A cheeky statement to be sure, but not entirely untrue given the content of Jades' recent quotations. She tried to scowl at the woman suspending her arm but yawned before any real grimace came to form. "Me's heard enough, you need rest! Plenty of it!" The harlequin cried out in protest, flailing her arms about but to no success, "Fuck you mean rest? I'm not going back to sleep again! NEVER!!...Never!...Never...never...n e v e r . . ." The sleepy blonde beauty gently bowed her head onto Tay's lap, lips still murmuring some faint resemblances of words before shutting up completely. She dropped all restraints and her body went limp like a went noodle before the Silent Sniper's powerful hands. She shook her head as she stared down at the exhausted enigma sleeping on her thigh, "You one crazy dumb broad...How bad did they hurt you?..."
Taylor carried the slumbering sinner to her quarters and there she lied with her through the night, never napping nor faltering in her duty. For hours, she rotated through breathing as her hands grasped to Jades. For hours. she kept watch over the state of this maniac for whom she owed her life. All night long, Taylor kept the girl calm and even through all the close calls of near slumber, she remained awake and silent. It was odd to see her in this way after all they'd been through. When Tay looked upon Jades, she didn't see a hellbent agent of chaos. That was hardly the case. No, instead she saw a little girl smiling to herself, lost in her greatest fantasies and unburdened by the weight of insanity.
She was free...
Day: 7
"Jaejae!....Oy, Jaejae! Get off yer ass, ya good for nothin' bum!"
"...guh. I'm up goddamn it, I'm up!!"
Sunlight cascading through the windows bathed the room in a rich gold warmth. A beam of light that peeked through the curtains slowly rose with the accelerating morning. "Jaeee!!! Dun make me get you out!!" The room buzzed with a light nasal snoring emanating from beneath the crumpled linen bedsheets. A pale white hand stuck out from under it and hung off the cliff side of the mattress upon which she lay. Furious stomping could be heard approaching the door and the ivory fingers scrambled falling to the floor with the rest of her. "Breakfast is getting cold, you lazy arse!! Git movin!" A crash broke the silence of an otherwise peaceful morning inside the bedroom and she figured it was time to finally start the day. Her cheek stretched against the floorboards like pancakes on a griddle until a groan came rumbling out of her, "Ughhh, I got it, alright?...fuckin jeez, I got it the first time, lay off me man..." Jades spat out a wad of phlegm into a canister at the foot of the nightstand and jumped up from the ground with her bare white bottom lit up by the yellow rays peeping from outside.
She stood with her arms outstretched above her head, joint after joint cracking from the pressure. Her toes curled and cracked as she stood, raising her stance higher by a handful of inches before eventually settling down to their typical posture where she let out a bemoaned yawn to shake off the morning lethargy. "Ahhh...Gahhh!!!...Ah, yeah." A satisfied grin overtook her bare visage before it shifted to an inquisitive scowl. She stumbled about the room with the grace of a one-legged-chimpanzee, clumsily reaching into the space between the wall and a mahogany drawer at the parallel side of the bedside window. She squatted down in front of it peering through the dark crevice with her good right eye whereupon spotting the item of choice she reached deep into the maw and tugged out a soot black bra out from the corner leg. "How the hell did you get under there?" Jades asked herself, not entirely certain if the answer was worth seeking. She shrugged as her fingers dug their way into her shirt dragging the article along with them.
As she fumbled through the mess, her feet made better uses of themselves by clutching the sheets between her first two toes. Her hands worked their magic in the meantime, squeezing the fatty sacks of her fertility into a pair of coal colored craters, while the fragmented appendages of her feet clutched the corners of her blankets and set them aside to their rightful places. Though the work she did was good, her face said otherwise when an agitated frown decorated the front of it, "Make your bed, Jades. Wake up early, Jades. Do my taxes, Jades. What am I a maid?" she rambled to herself in ill intended earnest. The sheets soon were unfolded and reassembled up to code but not without the soreness of her toes to show for it. She bounced around on her good foot, now searching for yet another article of clothing, one that would allow her to roam about the premises without fear of reprimand. Much like before, she lied herself down to locate the whereabouts of her wardrobe. The trickling rays of sunlight moved off the bedside and dropped down to where she squatted and exposed the pasty white surface of her buttocks to the rising star outdoors. Startled by the sudden sensation, she spoke aloud in complaint, "What the fu-? Wasn't it raining last night? How is it so warm?...Hmm, where the f*ck are my pants again?"
She planked onto the floor, peeking through every tiny crack of space beneath the furniture. When her eyes passed across the underside of the bed, they opened in revelation as she grinned at the find, "There you are! Come to mama!" Jades jerked the dual dyed cotton trousers out from under the mattress and dusted off the wrinkly folds riddling the surface. She jumped into the pant legs one at a time, looking about the room as she fit into them. As crowded with miscellaneous items it appeared to be, the floor wasn't exactly a treasure trove of desirable secrets. There were towels, crumbs, disposable forks and napkins spread out across the wooden canvas at her feet. She stretched to the bedside windowsill and grabbed a leather strap embellished in high caliber rounds then tightened the belt across her waist. One last item to find but it was not anywhere she bothered to look. Curious, she called to outside of her room, "Hey, Tay? Where's my jacket?"
"Ya left it on the nightstand, are ya blind or somethin'?! Now hurry up and get out here!" Jades turned a full one-eighty and saw the rustled red suit piled on the edge of the beside table. An awkward giggle escaped out of her as she eyed the door expecting Taylor to be there in a matter-of-factly stance saying, "I told you so." Nonetheless, she was ready to go. She prepared to walk off with her hand still pulling the jacket off the nightstand when a glimpse of black in her peripheral vision stopped the harlequin in her tracks. Her feet froze and a tiny bead of sweat formed on the peak of her forehead. When she looked back to investigate, it was staring back at her. A jet black mask, its eyes punctured for vision, stared directly at her from the two drawer table. She gulped anxiously looking at it, slowly and slowly reaching for the haunting guise when a roar from the kitchen snapped her out of it, "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU IF YOU DONT COME EAT MY PANCAKES!!" Jades jolted to the doorknob and turned it open quickly, but not before looking back at the visage that still gazed back at her. "C-coming...The door shut closed.
When she walked to the table she was greeted by an assortment of breakfast dishes laid out in front of her. A couple of them were half eaten already while some plates were piling up with crumbs and had syrup pooling in the center. The only other chair open at the table had a large plate in front of it stacked with three pancakes and a large square of butter slightly off kilter with a handful strips of bacon on the side. A opened jug of maple syrup awaited her by the side of the plate along with a knife and fork. Jades sat down and dug right in without so much as a greeting.
"Ahem..." The clown devoured through her first batch and reached for a ladle in the pot of oatmeal at the middle of the table. "...Ahem?" She grunted as if to acknowledge she heard the hostess but continued on anyway pouring the thick grainy stew into a small bowl. "...AHEM?" Jades hopped in her seat with a mean look on her face, slamming the half-full spoon onto the table and pouring the sticky concoction onto her hand. "Whah ooh uh ahnt?" she shouted through a stuffed mouth. Tay's one eye glared like a hot knife at her and the voracious vixen eased up her anger. She knew better than to lash back at the woman who owned the cabana they were currently staying at. The girl swallowed the mushed contents of her jaw down the hatch and breathed a sigh of relief with her mouth was ready to breathe again. "Sorry uh...you were saying?" she said sheepishly, her spoon now poking playfully across the surface of the oatmeal.
Taylor sighed and fumbled about with a fork in her hands, staring back and forth between her finished plates and the gluttonous "So as you know, it's been a week..." The air of the dining table grew thick as she said it. Jades ceased to poke at her food and merely listened in on what she assumed would be unfavorable news. "You've...seemed to gotten better? Right?" At the end, she bent towards Jades as if to affirm the reality of the question. Goldilocks on the other hand backed away from her interviewer, staring at the oatmeal and barely touching the table. "I...I don't know. Maybe?" They looked at each other with no direction in their eyes, as if they were still searching for an answer to their problems. The room was quiet save for the chirping of birds coming from outdoors. "I'm just asking because...it feels like you're comfortable where you are but nothing's really changed. And it doesn't seem that staying here will help you get any bett-" Jades slid out of her chair without a word and headed for her room when Tay chased after her and gripped tight to her arm.
"Let me go!" She said hesitantly, holding back the volume of her tone. Though the sniper could not see them, her eyes were moist but hidden beneath the yellow mop atop her head. She didn't turn to meet the shortstack's gaze and instead pointed straight for the door at the end of the hallway. Her legs also shook as she tried to walk for it but Tay's grasp held her back. "Go where? MY room? This isn't your place, Jae! It never WAS!!" Suddenly, the toddler managed to pull Jades away from the entrance and threw her to the ground knocking the dining chair to its side in the process. The room exploded in an uproar at the crashing and gnashing of the blonde's body falling. Her back rolled until colliding against the leg of the table where an audible thud could be heard as her skull knocked against the hard wooden underside. "What the fu-" the maiden faltered, her lips just about to curse Taylor out when suddenly she saw the face of her cocoa companion melting down from looking at her. She was sniffling to herself, something that the harlequin never heard from her week's stay in the cabana. The clenched fists Jades held after the fall loosened up and she sat back to listen for the sake of her friend's sanity, "You're not alright, Jae...when can you see that?"
Silently, the pale spirit stood herself up and laid her hands upon the shorter girl's shoulders. She paused for a second before speaking as interacting with others was not her strong suit. As her eyes crossed over the background, trying to find an object of interest that would divert this messy topic to a nicer one, she landed upon an open window with a mother bird chirping and feeding worms to her young. The sight of it gave her an idea. She brought the tot's head to a rise and smiled a little, "You're right, I certainly have a lot to catch up on...not only for who I used to be but the person I am now." She could immediately see the light in the runt's eye start to return. That alone gave her the motivation to suggest the unthinkable. Jades gestured her hand to the cabana's front door and stuttered through her words as clearly as she could, "W-why don't we u-uh...s-s-socialize with...people...S-sound good?" The native Queendom resident placed both hands on her hips and sneered at her mischievously, all pessimism seemingly gone from her system and out of her mind. It felt as though a giant weight had been lifted off the jacketed jester but the struggle was not done yet. While Jades brushed a drop of sweat off the ridge of her brow, the sniper sprinted through the house as energetic and pumped the day she first met her. By the end of her indoor marathon, Tay was changed and ready to leave with her feet planted firmly on the welcome mat outside. "What ah you waitin' for? Let's go!" Jae heaved a heavy sigh from her bust and knew this would be a day to remember.
Their walk downtown was less than eventful. Aside from admiring the scenery around them, Jades and Taylor strolled through the streets of Acattopa as if they were clueless travelers. There were hardly any civilians to socialize with as the original plan entailed but that hardly mattered given that they made it outisde. On their scenic route through the residential roads, they came across a familiar city block currently underway for several repairs. The authorities were still mobilized in this area due to the riot that broke out a week before, the day that the two girls happened to meet each other on that fateful day. Much had changed in the short time since they had seen this place last. The garden pots planted all throughout the capital were nearly all recovered save for a few still cooking up in the kiln of a contracted craftsman out there in the city. The girls observed the ivory white buildings they had passed over seven days ago, hardly recognizing the refurbished architecture after a few more coats of paint. Though much of the lumber skeleton still showed exposed through a few spots in the building, many repairs had been made through the once ravaged city. Taylor could be heard laughing aloud to herself after finally getting to see the state of her homeland heal itself from that day of destruction. The Queendom meant much to her, it was the girl's entire heritage, a noble identity she possessed that did not take insults lightly. Jades couldn't say much for the island though, she had been all over the world, from south to north and back again. The chaos that rampaged in the streets over seven days ago felt like any other disaster she'd come across in her travels. Slightly more traumatic yes, but her head was more stable than when she had experienced it and the girl could affirm to herself in hindsight that the riots were no big deal to bother with. Of course, she'd never admit it to her companion. There were far more terrifying things inside that one eyed sniper than any civilian riot could evoke out of her. Even if they behaved as friends, Jades only saw her as a partner at best and believed Tay saw the relationship with her in a similar way.
By a quarter hour's march they sat down to rest. On the way, they had bought a few tasty pastries from a street vendor raising funds for the damages. There was in fact an entire street corner dedicated with snacks for the wreckage but given the large breakfast the two tore through earlier, they stuck with a single confection for the break. Jades gnawed on a sweet cinnamon french toast sandwich filled with cream cheese and raspberry jam while Tay stuck with a vanilla lemon strudel caked in double chocolate sprinkles. They lounged out in the fresh breeze under the shade of a newly built garden pot overlooking the public square. A few passerby scattered around the area roamed the grounds but they were too uninteresting for the two to bother. Instead they lied in the cool shade with smiles on their faces. Taylor was right, she thought. Staying in the cabana all day wasn't such a great idea after all.
She turned to the munchkin zealously munching down on her strudel. "Haha, I'm pretty glad we had that fight back there." Jades bit into her own sandwich when a pale ribbon of cheese and jam came running out the bottom and plummeted to the ground. Her look of disappointment got to the one eyed wonder and she nearly coughed out whatever remained of the strudel from her maw of a mouth. "Ahahaha! You paid how much for that again? Hahahaha!" Clearly, the cheated consumer did not find the situation all that humorous and faked laughed her way to a nearby bin. The uproar of the rambunctious youth filled the air as she strutted a distance to the closest metal receptacle and tossed the hollow toasted vessel into the void. "What a waste, dude...Fuck that was good..." After she took one final look at the fallen pastry, her eyes rose again at the landscape still under renewed construction. In that moment, her interest was piqued as she most definitely did not wish to return back to Tay's insufferable guffawing. Jades took one last look behind her, still seeing the girl bent over in laughter, and walked over to the taped off zone to check out the urban scenery.
When she entered, nothing unique stood out for her. The buildings resembled the very same she and the toddler had run through though relatively less damaged. A few tiles on the roofs were still missing and the walls were peppered in what appeared to be bullet holes. But aside from those disturbances in the setting, this area appeared in less need of recovery than the other parts of the city. She furrowed her brow in wonder, Why would they leave this place alone when it could just be patched up in a couple hours? Odd." The curious clown's feet took her further into the zone and away from the view of one-eyed Tay.
She traveled farther through the ruins eyeing at the houses with a mind looking for answers. Though she couldn't quite place it, something about this street felt more than just similar to the ones before, but also almost familiar. The tile patterns of this sector varied heavily from the roads she had just left behind and were instantly recognizable as though she had been here before. Her intuition screamed at the harlot to stay back and avoid any further investigation but the disturbance of not knowing was far too much to bear; she had to know why this place was more than just a passing location. A few more steps she turned the corner of a house and that's when she saw it, the traced outline of a woman's silhouette imprinted in the shattered crater of broken tiles. Above it, she saw the same rooftop of her nightmares from where she felt her back split open by the fall. Jades began panting and her heart felt tight as its rhythm dramatically grew. "No...no...thi-this can't be...I thought something..something was too familiar around here!!" The crazed clown dashed away from the scene of the crime.
Her eyes were watered in tears as she sprinted through the labyrinth of identical plaster houses. One after the other, they crossed her vision with no distinguishable exit in sight. "HELP!! HEELLLP!! TAY, HELP ME! SOMEBODY!!" she screamed into the air, hoping someone would catch wind of her call. Her feet never stopped however, they were far too panicked to halt now. Jades kept moving from a threat she believed had long since disappeared that fateful day one week ago. Her spine was tingling with scars and the girth of her arms burned with pain. It was all coming back to her now, after all this time the memories buried deep inside of her were resurfacing thanks to the vision of that forgotten confrontation. "SOMEBODY!? ANYBODY?! please..." The girl ran into a wall under construction in the midst of wiping her tears away but instantly struggled to get herself out from under the debris. She laid on the ground for a time, still breathing heavily from the revelation. There was still a rush of adrenaline fueling her every move and each breath felt as though the sun was engulfed in her lungs. She choked on the air itself and sobbed onto the tiled floor. She heard footsteps approaching and soon enough a worried voice screaming at her, "Jae? Jae!! What the hell are you doin!?"
Taylor knelt down to the blonde and patted down the dust on her clothing. Jades' red jacket still expanded and shrunk with her lungs operating out of control. Sick of seeing her friend in such a state, the white haired loudmouth screamed at her with worry in her voice, "Damn it, girl!! You shouldn't run off from me like that! What were you thinking?...Jae?" The volume of the girl shrunk as quickly as it developed when she saw Jades' eyes leaking profusely. Her quivering blue eyes looked at her with an empty sadness reminiscent of the early days of this week. And that's when the familiarity of the surroundings hit her and Tay's face dropped at the final realization. "Oh lord, Jae...this is where...I'm so sorry, girl." Jades bawled in her shoulder, snot dripping from her nostrils. Taylor didn't relent and held the broken blonde in her arms ever so tightly The two shared a mutual embrace before standing up to leave this hell from the harlot's past...
By the time they managed to return home, the sky had turned a dim grey blue. The jungle was no place for a stranger to traverse this late but given that it was the native resident's own home, she'd memorize the way since the inception of its construction. The rocky path to the front stairs was a harsh one with Jades lagging behind on every step that the toddler made. Taylor began to open the front door when a whisper from behind stopped from doing such a thing. "I don't think...I'll be alright for a long time...And...that's fine with me..." Jades had seemingly ran out of tears tonight as all she could do was sniffle with her eyes dried open. The tiny housekeeper listened to her respectfully and took her hand off the knob. The unmasked maiden continued to speak but choked through her words every other second, "...Just...if you could...please let me stay.. a little bit longer...I don't wanna lose you again...not again..." In the silence they stood together, beneath the light of a perfect moon. Tay looked longingly at her companion and she did the same. In the near darkness, the two walked closer together until they were standing face to face with no obstacle between them. Taylor gave the harlequin a smirk before holding onto her pale hand and rested her own chocolate one on the knob of the front entrance, "Come inside then, you dummy. It's gonna be a cold one tonight..."
The door shut closed and inside the cabana a new one opened; the two crossed through the threshold together and slept through the night together as one...
END.
