I Fell In Love With The Devil

Chapter 36

I stared at the pile of glass shards in horror.

'Bow,' Theodore ordered again. When I didn't move, he motioned to either Mol or Scar Neck to come forward. I was totally unprepared for the crack of the whip and the explosion of pain on my back. I fell forwards and screamed again when the glass ripped at my skin and the halo tugged painfully on my scalp.

'Nice persuasion, Mol.'

Tears leaked down my cheeks.

'I think she deserves more punishment for taking so long, don't you.'

The whip cracked again and I screamed out at the agony it caused.

'Once more should be enough.'

I was screaming before the whip even touched my flesh and when it did, I surprised myself by being capable of screaming louder than before. I rolled onto my side into the glass and moaned in agony as more shards pierced my skin and the heavy halo pulled hard on my head.

'Quit whining, Piper, or do I need to inflict more punishment,' he pouted.

I climbed back onto my knees and felt the shards dig deeper along my shins. I left the shards along my arm and side because if I pulled them out, I'd lose a lot of necessary blood. The blood that had leaked from the hundreds of scratches glistened under the spotlight on the stage, bright red against the crystal clear glass. I gritted my teeth and glared daggers at the smug figure upon the throne.

'Bring it in, I want my things to know that they belong to me and me only,' Theodore smiled gleefully as Mol strode through the flaps in the curtain. 'Whenever you look at yourself for however long I decide to keep you alive, you will see that I have claimed you as mine.'

What the fu-

Mol strode back in with a long metal rod that glowed red.

'No,' I breathed, my eyes wide with fear. 'No.'

'I promise only long enough to leave a brand,' Theodore said as he stood up and slowly made his way towards me.

'No,' I repeated louder, shaking my head. My limbs had turned to absolute jelly at the sight of Theodore taking the metal from Mol.

'Look closely at the end, angel. An 'S' for Satan. Something you will never forget in the rest of your worthless life.'

'No.' The blood had drained from my face and I was struggling to breathe. 'No.' I was shaking all over and dread had coiled around my gut. I gulped as Theodore finally stepped behind me. 'No,' I breathed one last time before the scalding metal touched high on my right shoulder. I arched away and screamed, the cloth of the dress burnt away immediately and suddenly the metal was on my skin. I screamed and screamed and tried to jerk away – the shards digging in deeper with every sudden movement – but Mol was firmly gripping my shoulders, her nails drawing more blood. 'Stop!' I screamed, 'Please.' Theodore quickly took the metal rod away, if he melted any more skin, he'd do some irreparable damage. I was officially branded by him. My skin was still in agony and burning fiercely but I sagged as the pressure of the metal left my shoulder and continued to groan as he idly made his way back to the throne, a metal bucket of water now beside it which he dumped the metal rod in. A cloud of steam erupted from it with a hiss and billowed up to the roof of the tall room. Theodore sat on the throne again and draped an arm on one of the armrests, casually resting his chin on his knuckles and asked, 'On a scale of one to ten, how do you rate the pain you are in, my sinful angel?'

'Wouldn't you like to fucking know,' I seethed through a clenched jaw.

'Oh I would, that's why I asked.'

'If I said ten, what would happen?'

'You're not at ten yet. Ten means you have to scream silently because you have no voice left to scream with.'

'Eight.'

'Six, if that,' he grinned.

'Eight.'

'You're not even shedding any tears right now.'

'I'm beyond them. I've cried myself dry and since you're not finished, I guess I'll just have to wait until I scream myself dry too.'

'Why not give you some water so that you can cry again? I like seeing tears.'

'As much as blood?'

He shrugged, 'Close, but not quite. I love seeing them together though.' He motioned for Mol and Scar Neck to go behind the curtain and get the next object to torture me with. A coil of rope was thrown out and it landed close to Theodore's feet. He stared at it with distaste then turned and yelled, 'That is punishable!' at the two figures emerging from the gloom with a tank in tow. Theodore stalked off the throne and grabbed the coil, demanding that I hold my hands out in front of me. I wasn't going to object, I only needed to complete the necessary pain, not any extra from punishments I stupidly got inflicted upon myself. He roughly tied my wrists together and then hauled me off my knees so that I was standing with my feet amid the shards. Multiple pieces of glass fell off me but many remained stuck in my body. Theodore yanked me off the pile and onto the smooth wooden floor, my feet ripped open by the sharp shards at the sudden movement.

'Lay on your back,' he ordered. I dropped to the ground quickly since my legs could barely hold up and I groaned as my burnt and whipped back made contact with a hard surface. I didn't move as Theodore fished out most of the glass, warm trickles slid down the sides of my legs in the wake of each removed shard. A pile of glistening red ones quickly formed beside Theodore. 

Once all the shards were out, Mol and Scar Neck lifted me to my feet and Theodore reached up and wriggled the thorny, golden halo free of my scalp. I immediately felt droplets of warm blood trail down the back and sides of my neck and down my face. Mol and Scar Neck had set up the tank full of water with two ladders beside it. A hatch at the top was open and waiting for me to be dunked in. Theodore tied my ankles together and Scar Neck lifted me over his shoulder. I turned my pleading eyes towards Mol and her eyes were dead as they stared back. 'Satan!' I yelled to get Theodore's attention.

'Yes?' he drawled from the throne he had sat back down on.

'Please, don't do this, please.'

Scar Neck climbed the ladder and dropped me half into the open hatch.

'Too late. Bub-bye.' He wiggled his fingers mockingly and a triumphant sadistic look crossed his face. One of predatory delight. I didn't register the lack of hands holding me above the water, I was surrounded by it and I didn't need to look up to know that the hatch had been locked. I went still as the gravity of the situation fell on me. I was going to die and Theodore was either going to leave me dead or revive me so that he could inflict more torture. I wouldn't-couldn't let Theodore win like that. I began to thrash around in the water with my tied limbs, I knew it was going to be no use but I pushed off the floor and slammed my branded shoulder into the glass. I didn't gain anything from the manoeuvre other than more pain to my shoulder. A stream of bubbles left my mouth as I cursed in anguish and put both my middle fingers up at Theodore, Mol and Scar Neck. I needed to take a breath but there was no room for air in the tank. My lungs screamed at me to breathe and my chest constricted when I opened my mouth but didn't breathe in. The water was going a cloudy red from all the blood when a siren started wailing unexpectedly and lights began flashing red. Mol and Scar Neck jumped off the stage, unholstering guns as they went. Theodore had thrown away his crown and was pushing the throne a few metres away from me and the pile of glass. I could feel myself losing consciousness as I watched Mol and Scar Neck duck under some chairs as bullets exploded from the doorway. My red-stained, white gown floated around me in the water as a figure appeared in the doorway, brandishing a machine gun. Our eyes met for a millisecond before I lost consciousness in the tank of water.