Nusac

Chapter 23
Faith’s POV

I feel a confused look cross my face. Why is she so scared? It’s not like this guy is really big or anything. He has got armour on but he’s so lanky and weedy.

I come back around him to stand next to Nam and I immediately recognise him. He smiles at me in that arrogant way that I hated from the moment I clapped eyes on him. “Slayer, what a pleasure to meet again.” He holds out his hand again to shake it.

I really, really don’t want to touch that, so I make this clear and fold my arms across my chest. “I assure you Abbas, the pleasure is all yours.”

His face twitches slightly and his hand balls into a fist before he puts the offending limb down to his side. He narrows his eyes at me then proceeds to pretend that I’m not really there and turns his attention to Namine pulling his face into a smirk. “And how is my Little Pet?”

My eyes shoot to Nam. Until this point she has had her head bowed finding the floor really interesting. At this nickname however she shoots her eyes up into his. “Do not call me that.” Anger fills Abbas’ eyes and she bows her head again. What the fuck is going on here.

Abbas steps around me and into Namine’s personal space leaning down to whisper to her. “Looks to me as if you have forgotten your place since you have been away.” Huh? She has a place. I’m so confused. Do you have any idea how hard it is to stay in charge of a situation when you have no idea what is going on? Neither did I up until this point. Just gotta say, not easy. “I’m sure it will not take me long to rectify that.”

Okay so now Nam is frightened. Not sure why but she’s scared of this guy. See I knew she knew him. I’ll gloat about being right later. No one frightens my girl. “Is there a problem?”

His gaze flicks back to me. “No problem.”

“Then we’re done here.” I’m done with this guy.

He straightens up and his eyes flare. “We are done when I say we are done Slayer.”

I step up to him and have to tilt my head skywards, as he is a good 6 inches taller than me. “Well then you’d better say we’re done right now. Don’t you think?” My hand drops menacingly down to the hilt of my sword. I wont draw it on him but he doesn’t know that.

His eyes flick down to my hand. To my surprise Namine chooses this moment to jump in. “Faith, don’t.” Why is she telling me to stop? Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t I defending you?

He smiles at me. “So it’s Faith.” Thanks Nam. He steps back drawing his sword. That’s not good. “I think it’s time to put The Slayer back into her place.”

I draw my sword and bury the tip into the floor. “Try it.”

Oh he tries. He brings the blade over his head to slice down at my skull so I move my upper body out of the way twisting to the side. I then plant a hard punch to his ribs and step around him. He’s using the blade of his sword to keep him upright and he turns his gaze to me over his shoulder before righting himself. “You’ll pay for that.” He assures me.

I lift my eyebrows at him in challenge hoping that he’ll make another mistake like last time. This time he tries to swing his blade from his side to try and strike me on my arm. I see this before he’s even thought of the move and step towards him catching his wrist in my open palm halting his attack. He thinks fast grasping my exposed throat. I aim another punch to his breastbone and he goes flying backwards off me. As he flies back I feel the string attaching my amulet around my neck snap as he pulls that with him.

He lands hard on his butt to the sounds of laughter all around him.

He practically jumps to his feel looking all around him and throws my amulet to the ground at his feet. “We will meet again Slayer and next time you may not come out so favourably.” Looks like he doesn’t want to be humiliated again today then. He turns on his heel and storms off like a child in a tantrum.

“Well that was fun.” That’s the first fight I’ve been in since I hurt my knee. Not counting training Namine but she is overly careful now. I’d also like to point out that even with my knee stationary I managed to beat him relatively quickly.

“Are you ok?” Always with the worrying Namine. She comes over to me and places her hand on my neck to check the small injury. She must have not been able to see him pulling my amulet off. He hand goes to the front of her neck feeling my pain in my throat.

I gasp as bright white light flashes across my eyes blinding me for a second. When my eyes refocus I’m somewhere else. It’s dimly lit and there is a strong smell of severe damp. My eyes blink to try and readjust to the difference in light.

Where the fuck am I? I can hear a distinct drip and I look down at my now dirty hands. Very dirty hands… with chains. What the fuck?

In the corner of the room a door opens, the hinges creaking and the wood scraping off the stone floor. Light fills the room and I’m blinded again just when I got used to that dim light as well. This time however I stay in the same place and a figure is silhouetted against the bright light from the other side of the door.

“How is my pet this morning?” I know that voice. That’s Abbas. This is not of the good. Chained up with Abbas around equals big trouble.

Fear swells in my chest like I’ve never felt before and my mouth begins to move in speech. “Yes my master.” That’s not my voice. It’s far too high pitched to have come out of my mouth and when have I ever been that submissive?

My eyes adjust to the new light in the room and I see a smirk cross his face. “You are starting to learn my pet.” He’s talking to me as if I’m just an animal. If I didn’t want to kill him before I certainly do now.

My head bows without my permission. Okay this is getting stupid where the fuck am I? More importantly who the fuck am I? “Yes my master.” Again with the master. I know the voice but I can’t place it properly. It sounds raspy through either lack of use or lack of water but I definitely know this voice.

The man turns to leave and I find myself looking up through dirty blonde hair towards the door, before Abbas reaches the door, I feel a flutter in my stomach, a very thick sickly feeling mixed with a lot of fear. “Master?” A tiny voice from the back of my throat asks.

Abbas spins on his heal with a look of pure hatred in his eyes, he does not say anything in reply to my question so I continue. “Would my merciful Master permit me to have some water so I may quench my thirst?”

The sting on my face is obviously my answer, as he leaves the room I slide down to the floor clutching my probably red face.

Everything goes black. Then white again, I am obviously the same person I was before but this time it is different, I am lying on warm grass, I can hear water running near by and the world smells like vanilla and flowers. I smile.

And then I awake, back in the room I was before, I am lying on the cold stone floor I lift my head and feel pain course though my whole body, from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, everything aches or burns or stabs.

I push myself up onto my knees and see my hands covered with dry blood, I brace myself and pull myself to my feet using the wall as my support, my head is spinning and vomit permanently rests in my throat, burning and stinging.

Sobs shake my body as I gingerly step towards the large bowl of cold water in the corner of the room before almost collapsing against the stone, wall again. I strip what remains of my tatty dress, new rips have been made, the string holding the corset type top part into place have been pulled with such force that the holes in the material for them to thread through have been ripped off the dress. The skirt apart from its usual filth and mould has wet and dried blood staining the brown material.

And so I stand sobbing in the cold darkness using another dirty rag to try and mop some of the grime off my bruised and battered body. I examine myself in the reflection of the water. In my head I make an audible gasp but nothing comes out of Namine’s mouth except some wincing against the stinging of the now filthy water against wounds in different stages of healing.

Her knuckles are red raw from either fighting or work, her wrists have obviously been restrained, a lot, they are small and grey (as is most of her skin) and have very obvious bruises from both rope and chains. Her arms have various cuts although most of them seem to be self-inflicted. Her legs and ankles are the same story, I will not even describe what that animal has done to the rest of her body.

Again without any input from me Namine dips the rag into the water before running it up and down her inner thighs, trying to wipe away the blood but only smearing it over the rest of her. The blood just mixes with water and seems to create more blood. Namine hits a particularly mutilated place between her legs then promptly passes out. I am glad to go with her.

I awake and look down, I think I am still her… I feel her body rocking backwards and forwards, she is hunched over her own knees, sitting on the floor… still naked. Her nails rake up and down her arms, white lines appear followed by red marks, she doesn’t stop even when I can see spots of blood appearing on her arm.

The door opens in front of her. “You shall learn not to disobey me in future my pet, you shall do as told, when told.” And with that he smiles, a huge, toothy grin.

I fall to the floor, back in my own body smashing my still painful knee onto a rock, I hear the joint pop out of place but I feel no pain. The only thing I can feel is the most intense, all consuming, fiery, dark hatred I have ever experienced in what I expect is the history of any world in existence.