The Murderer's Daughter

Chapter XVI

An apology was what he wanted to hear, but not what he would get. Lena knew that already and saw in his eyes when she lifted her head that he expected her to decline his offer. "No, you and I both no that it would not happen so you may as well carry on with your plan. Would you care to let me know of what that may be?" His smirk annoyed her but saying so would again not help her. There was much written behind his eyes of power, strength, and malevolence. Both their eyes glanced one another's faces. Taking in details, expressions and emotions, being silent and the tension in the room was growing with each silent second. Lena's neck strained to hold her head up, her arms and legs shaking in protest but she made no sound or gave no look of pain, she couldn't let herself be brought down so quickly. He had already so easily gotten her here but now breaking her he would come to find would be a process. the only questions now were when he was going to start and how? 

"Now Lena, you now know that I have no choice then to proceed with my original plans. You could have just walked out of here without nothing more then a lecture and even granted a ride back home. but alas I was left disappointed. I am getting tired of doing these same punishments to make sure my employees follow my orders. My business of making sure that the countries secrets remain a secret is difficult, and if there is a break within my business then I have to put aside my affairs with controlling the outside world to handle the inside problem. This time it is you. It is rather embarrassing to think just this eighteen year old female has been a cause of a murder spree." He watched her, waiting for an outburst in her defense that was eating away at her. She kept every word inside, every insult and threat in the back of her throat, feeling that pain alone starting to match her physical pain. Would her voice crack from pain if she even tried? She couldn't risk it, if she wasn't going to apologize, maybe she could at least play his victim for a little while to satisfy him. It was sounding like he wouldn't kill her.

But maybe that was just his plan, the casual way he stood beside her hanging body, his unblinking eyes that showed nothing. Out of the corner of her eye Martin still leaned against the table, watching them with a tense look to his body language. No one said anything, leaving Lena to focus on her body, her body was hanging in the middle again, her spine curls like a cat arching its back in the opposite way. The cuffs felt heavier, as did her own body as time passed, the chains were still taunt and keeping her lifted from the ground but her body wasn't as stiff as it had been, nor as strong. Tiredness seeped into Lena's muscles, not helping with her stiff core to keep her facing the ceiling. The leaning returned, tilting her to the side once more but she was becoming too weak to right herself back up. Hayden took the time to touch her shoulder, gripping it painfully and moving her back to position to look up at him while he glanced down. Still silent glances and heavy breathing, but Hayden looked so calm his breathing almost looked nonexistent. 

Was this just another mental breakdown he wanted to witness? For her to finally cave and give him to apology that really didn't matter to him? It couldn't be done at this point, Lena was losing against just the chains and cuffs, they cut off the blood flow to her hands and feet, leaving them cold and numb. "Have you ever heard of scarification, Lena?" She met his eyes again. "Yes I have." The studies she did rushed back to her, images of people burning their skins to get patterns of designs, or cutting away parts of their flesh so it scars into the either tribal marks of their culture or just part of body modification. She didn't want or feel the need to tell him all that she knew, whatever he was going to do she would rather get it done and over with, rather then keep having her thoughts eat away at her and his voice continuing on. 

"If you noticed, the card I gave you had a hologram of my initials on it. Now what I have decided in the past is in order for people to consider themselves registered to me, I would brand them, personally, of my initials. Now since this will be your first time, I shall let you decide if I will burn it into your flesh or cut it out of your skin? Which sounds most appealing? I will discuss afterwards where this will be located." Once again silence. Lena had to give Hayden points for creativity. He could hide the mark anywhere on her body, or anyone's body and they would know unless perhaps stripped or perhaps what other way he had planned. The burning would be third degree, she knew that already. and the cutting would result in blood loss. If she chose the cutting, then it would take months for new skin to heal over, making her uncomfortable for that entire period. The burning however was a little less severe in her opinion. But no doubt Hayden would find a way to make it worse then how it is usually done.