The Price of a Mind

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Lucy felt the burlap sack be pulled from her head, and she blinked groggily. Her vision went blurry then went back to normal. She was tied down to a chair, but surprisingly wasn't gagged.

She looked around. She was in a dark warehouse. She could tell it was night time, and she could tell she was near the bay by the sound of seagulls.

Lucy nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw him. In the corner, illuminated by moonlight, Penguin stood watching her. "Let me go you son of a bitch! Let me go!" She yelled, moving her arms to try and get her wrists free. Penguin limped over and lifted her chin up with his hand. Lucy looked like she was about to cry.

"You can cry if you want." Penguin smiled. "But I'm not leaving you alone to get a tissue, so you'll look horribly messy for the photoshoot if you do." He moved her head so she could see a tripod and video camera propped up in the corner.

"What do you want?!" Lucy yelled

"I want money. I want revenge. I want your father to know if he EVER does something like what he did again there will be SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES!"

"My fa- What has Dad done that makes ME deserve this?!"

"Oh?" Penguin looked at her before starting to laugh. "Oh ho ho! You don't know! He hasn't told you what he's done!" He cackled

"What has he done." Lucy repeated firmly.

"Lets just say." He kneeled a bit so he was at face level and rested a hand against her dark blue blouse that was now stained with blood and dust. Lucy visibly recoiled at his touch. "If you knew the monster your father is, your heart—" He pulled her blouse up, forcing her to rub against the ropes around her waist and wrists uncomfortably. "—would break." He laughed and forced her back down into the chair. Lucy just glared at him.

"Now—" Penguin went around into a nook in the room and came back wheeling a trolley covered in blades. "I don't like getting my suit dirty, so.." He clapped his hands and the ginger man from before entered the room. Lucy swore under her breath. "You remember Jacob, don't you?"

Lucy's shoulder, which was now bandaged, twinged at the sight of him and Lucy nodded.

"Jacob will be doing the aforementioned 'dirty' work." Penguin explained. "Try to bite your lip. He hates a screamer."

Lucy expected him to leave, but on the contrary he leant against the back wall. Jacob approached her and with a cold hand moved her face to a good angle. "Lets accent that pretty little face of yours..." He sliced quickly along the right side of her jaw and the left.

The stinging hit her almost instantly. The salty sea air most certainly didn't help. The stinging of the shallow wounds moved along her jaw and up to her eyes, where tears pricked her lashes.

She winced, and hissed through her teeth. "Asshole."

()()()()()()()()()()()

After what felt like hours of cuts, burns and punches, Penguin held his hand up and Jacob stopped instantly. Lucy was crying now, tears and black mascara streaming down her cheeks and snot running out of her nose, dripping into her mouth from a lack of being able to close it.

"I want to do this next bit. Makes it a great deal more personal. Exciting." Penguin grinned. He took a black phone out of his pocket and a knife off the tray. "So.." He approached her. "You /will/ tell me your fathers phone number. Every digit you refuse to say, every time you lie — and I can tell a liar — I make this deep cut," he slashed deep on her upper arm "even longer. And you reeeeally don't want it reaching your wrist, now do you?" He laughed. Lucy looked terrified. "Right! First digit." He stuck the knife into the wound and Lucy yelled. "Sev— Seven—" Oswald smiled, typing the area code in and a seven.

Then an eight

Two cuts

A one.

Another one.

A four.

Five cuts.

A six.

A nine.

A seven.

A two.

A five.

Two more cuts.

The knife was pressed just against where the critical part of her wrist began.

Lucy let silence fill the room. Oswald pressed the blade as far against the uncut skin as he could  without cutting it. She winced, tears going down her face again. "Three. Three. The final fucking number is three okay."

Oswald yanked the knife out of the wound and stroked her cheek "Good girl."

He punched in the numbers and immediately spun around, taking a selfie with her. "Smile!"

"You're a sick bastard, you know that? You're a sick vindictive fucking BASTARD! What is WRONG WITH YOU!" Lucy roared. Oswald backhanded her across the face and took a photo of her with her head flung to the side.

"One more for the record!" Oswald laughed, twisting her wrist and taking a photo of her bloody arm.

"Now..." He sent the photos off, and spoke as he was typing. "Call me before twelve noon. I have a proposition for you. dash P."

He sat and waited. Five minutes went by. Ten. Thirty. It got ever closer to the middle of the day. Then Oswald's phone rang. He bounded over to Lucy and put it on speaker. "Mister Rhysworth sir, hello!"

"You son of a bitch, Penguin." Lucy heard her dads voice coming out of the phone. "Wheres my daughter! Tell me. NOW!"

"Tch tch tch, calm down Mr Rhysworth, sir. There's no need to be so loud. Your daughter is... alive."

"Safe?"

Oswald laughed. "Wouldn't go that far.. Now." He grabbed a piece of paper and forced the phone beside Lucy's mouth. "Read it." He snarled.

Lucy spoke haphazardly, reading off the paper. "P- Pay Oswald C- C- Cobblepot one—" She sniffed "—One m- million dollars before.. before July 31st. Or- Or y- you will never- you will never see me again."

There was silence. Deafening, deafening silence. Then Lucy's dad spoke. "You have a deal. Lucy— I love you. I love you."

"I love you Dad- I love you-"

Oswald rolled his eyes and hung up the phone. "I hate soppy ransomings."