Slaves of Insanity

Part 8

Autumn slowly reached out and touched Leeloo's arm. A flood of images gushed through her head. She gasped and quickly retracted her hand earning confused gazes from the others. "Whoa...Sorry. That was kind of intense." She breathed out not making eye contact with anyone. Leeloo sported an apologetic gaze. She slowly reached out and grabbed Autumn's hand. This time Autumn's eyes glazed over. Her body sat stone still. She was in Leeloo's world now. She looked around. She was in a black room. Everything was black. As she looked around she noticed she was holding something. She pulled it up and opened her hand, revealing a chain. Her eyes followed the chain from her hand down to Leeloo's collar. She quickly let it fall from her hands. The chains made a loud clank as the iron collided with the black tile.

"I'm sorry...I thought this might be easier for you." Leeloo whispered as she gathered up the chain bringing it closer to her.

"You can talk?" Autumn asked kneeling down to be at Leeloo's level.

"Only in here." She half smiled.

"Where is here? Where are we?"

"My mind. I will tell you whatever Uta wants to know. As a medium you should be able to break through and talk to him, right?" She asked hopeful.

"I think so." Autumn breathed closing her eyes as she tried to concentrate. Soon she seen both worlds. She seen Uta and Itori staring curiously at her as well as Leeloo. "Okay I have it." She whispered. "What do you want to know?"

"Ask what she is." Uta commanded lightly.

"Okay, Leeloo. He wants to know what you are."

Leeloo thought for a moment. Could he handle the truth? Could any of them? The better question was would they believe her? In any case it was now against her will to lie to a master. She was in Uta's care now, she could never lie to him.

"Ishtar..." She whispered as Autumn quietly repeated her answer. "That was what the first humans called me. They seen me as the goddess of the storehouse, warfare and sex."

"First humans?"

"You know them as the Mesopotamian culture." Leeloo said as she looked down at her hands. "I was never fond of the name Ishtar...But I had forgotten my real name throughout the years. I was a universal goddess in the ancient middle ages...I was once even called the Queen of the Universe...Now look at me." Her voice cracked a little as she finished looking down at herself.

"How... or rather who done this to you?"

"My memory of how it happened is fuzzy. I certainly remember who. I am still bound by him and I will be until he sets me free."

"Who is it?"

"It is an interdenominational being. He has many names. You know him as the Slenderman. He is my master. I have to obey him and his minions."

"Why did he take you?"

"At first I was not sure. He took me to his home, where he and his minions live. I thought that it was just to please them. I took care of them. I clean, cook, bathe, and prepare them for their hunts. They are allowed to torture me as long as they want with out me dying. A few of them enjoyed that immensely. But some of them just want the company of a woman." She whispered looking disgusted. "But I found out quickly that it was everything. I was perfect for them. Goddess of sex and war. It made sense. That's all they want." She said looking to Autumn who was still repeating what she was saying. There was a long silence.

"So there is going to be a war?"

Leeloo nodded her head. "Yes. They want to make every human suffer as much as they themselves have suffered."

There was another long pause. Nobody knew what else to ask. There was so many questions Uta had but he felt uncomfortable asking.

"What did you do to Juuzou that day when we first met?"

Leeloo looked away. She bit her bottom lip. She said nothing as the room began to change. Autumn was now standing in the warehouse. She was watching Juuzou as he sat on top of her. "Fight back!" He was screaming at the woman beneath him. She was refusing. She slid her hands out of her gloves and cupped Juuzou's face in her bare hands. Suddenly Autumn was in the black room again. Only this time it was Juuzou who was holding Leeloo's chain. He wasn't yelling this time. Actually he was quite calm as he slowly pulled the chain bringing Leeloo's face close to his. He paused for a moment before softly pressing his lips to hers earning a soft whimper to fall from her mouth. He pulled back only to smack her face. She bit her bottom lip as she knelt in front of him. She hung her head as an apology. Juuzou smirked. His expression drastically changing to a mixture of deviousness and lust. He reached his hand down and pulled her chin making her look up at him. Her face now mirrored his expression. He held her chin in his hand as he slowly pulled his suspenders off his shoulders. Autumn suddenly felt uncomfortable. She knew where this was going and frankly she didn't want to watch. Thankfully, everything froze. The real Leeloo walked up behind her.

"This was not one of my best moments. You have to understand...He was trying to kill me before I brought him here." She whispered looking at the floor.

Autumn turned to look at her. "Its okay...I'm not here to judge you. But I want to know how? How did you get Juuzou to go from killing you to...this?" She motioned to the scene behind her.

"It's what I do. I know everything about a person as soon as I see them. I know their fears, their wants, their dreams, but most importantly their desires. When I pull a human in here I can make everything they want real. Juuzou was no different. He just wants to be acknowledged as a man. He wants to be loved. He feels like Big Madame took that all away from him."

"So you forced him?" She asked appalled.

"No...Not at all. Did that look forced?" She asked tilting her head and looking at the scene behind them. Autumn took another glance and slowly shook her head. "I give them an opportunity. An opportunity to have what they desire most...They choose whether or not to take it. Juuzou chose to accept it, as most do."

"Oh...I see." Autumn gasped. "That's why I was holding your chain when I first entered here? Juuzou too..."

Leeloo nodded. "I am just used to that being what they want. My masters always want submission."

"What relation to you is the man with the blue mask?"

Leeloo swallowed hard. "You've seen him?"

"Yes. He was looking for something."

"His name is Jack. Eyeless Jack...or E.J. He is one of my masters. He keeps me the most. If he is looking for me, I need to find him. He is going to be very upset with me." She mumbled looking kind of afraid.

"How did you get separated from him?"

"We all have to move from place to place in order to not be found. We came here a few weeks ago. For them it seemed like a good place to be, because the ghouls were taking the fall for the killings. One night E.J. went out to hunt. He made me go with him so I obeyed. Everything was going normally, until Juuzou found us. He thought E.J. and I were ghouls so he attacked us. E.J. held his own but told me to run. I managed to get away. I hid under some bridges and behind some buildings for a few days, before I ran into Juuzou again. That was the day I found Uta. I am eternally thankful that he was there. Juuzou wouldn't have been able to kill me, but some things are worse than death."

It was quiet for a long time before Autumn spoke again. It made Leeloo nervous. Were they thinking the worst of her?

"Can Uta take the collar off to set you free?" Autumn asked with hope in her voice.

Leeloo felt her breath catch in her throat. "I-I'm not sure... I don't think so. If the masters catch me without it I am truly afraid of what they will do...not only to me but to you all as well."

"Why couldn't you go home to wherever gods and goddess's live?" She asked as if she was genuinely curious.

"I don't remember how... I am not so good at living as a human. I don't know how to do most basic things. I am sorry for my ignorance." She whispered looking away from the woman. With that Leeloo let go, pulling Autumn out of her mind. She took in a loud gasp as she came back fully to the real world.