Missing Baby Bird

Tortured

   The smell of smoke was what brought me back into consciousness.

  'Don't open your eyes. Don't wake up.'  I repeated in my mind, determined to stay still and silent. I thought I was doing decent, until a cloud of what smelled like cigarette smoke, was blown directly into my face. My head jerked back, as I started coughing in disgust. When I opened my watering eyes, I couldn't stop the whimper of fear that escaped my lips upon seeing the black spikes of hair standing above me.

  Dabi was staring down at me silently, his eyes making a calculating trail from my face, down my body, and back up again. My eyes followed his, gasping softly when I saw I was in shorts and a bra and nothing else. I tried to move my arms to cover myself, in the most feeble sense of protection possible...but my arms wouldn't move. I closed my eyes as realization flooded through me. 'Tied down. Again.' But this was different. It didn't burn as much as it did earlier. It was...cold. Slowly turning my head, I saw a steel bar holding my wrist down to a table. After staring at it in resignation for a bit, I glanced around the room and realized I was strapped to the table Dabi had demanded I get on earlier, when I tried to run.

  My eyes went back to his face as I heard him take a drag out of his cigarette. Gently tapping it beside the table, he began to actually talk to me, low and emotionlessly.

  "You know what the best part of your little escape attempt was?"
  Simply hearing his voice was enough to scare me into silence, so I merely shook my head.

  "This table was just going to be a holding place for you. We're under strict orders not to hurt you...too badly. But then you had to go and...well, I don't even know if "try" is the correct word for whatever the fuck you did.
See...fear, is what keeps us going. It's what we enjoy. When only we know what's going to happen. The feeling of a helpless victim. The fear radiating off of them. You weren't gonna be hurt, but you didn't know that."

I felt my eyes widen in horror, realizing what I'd done. How badly I'd screwed up.  He leaned down over me, his face inches from mine. The right side of his lips turned up in the slightest in that terrifying small smirk.

"We were never going to do anything to you. But you went and fucked that up, didn't you?"
Then his smirk got wider, his fingers held up his cigarette, and he held it down, right on my ribs.

The scream that left my throat was ear piercing.

I desperately tried squirming away, only to feel the ashes falling on my body, making the pain worse. I wished he would just punch me again. Or knock me unconscious. If I wasn't awake, I couldn't feel anything, right ?

After a solid minute, he pulled the cigarette away. I was panting raggedly and tears were rapidly falling down my face. Shakily glancing down, I saw I now had a black circle, with little red spots in the center of my ribs. I was still in shock by what had just happened, so it escaped my notice when Dabi stood up and walked across the room. A small sigh of relief left my lips as I saw him leave. It was a sigh he heard, because I heard his throaty laugh from across the room.

"You think that was it, huh?"

He turned back around and I saw he was holding a 50 pack of cigarettes in his hand, as he stared at home with his eyebrow raised.

My head starting shaking and I began to yell.

"No...Please no more burns, please don't do this...!"

He chuckled and pulled up a metal chair next to the table I was trapped on. He stayed silent as he opened the package with his head down. I couldn't see his expression, and I was glad. I didn't ever wanna see it again. Once he had one pulled out, I heard him chuckle again, as his head raised.

I almost screamed again at the look on his face.

His eyes were lit bright blue, and he was staring at me with a wicked grin. No...Not wicked, I realized. Just insanity. This is the smile of a crazy person.
His index finger lit up in a small flame, holding it up to light his cigarette. He took a long drag, keeping his eyes on me the whole time. When he finally spoke, his words had me wishing I was already dead.

"What can I say...I've got a bit of a habit."

~AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER~

   Dabi stomped on the last cigarette, putting it out under his boot. His arms raised above his head as he stretched, before groaning softly.

"Fuck...Must've made myself sick with how much I smoked today." His cruel laugh reverberated throughout the room.

My eyes were closed, my body limp against the table. I had never wanted to die so badly in all my life. Both my arms, my thighs, and my entire torso were on fire, covered in black circles, and red splotches. I had screamed so loud, I lost my voice halfway through. All I could do was throw my head back in agony, and scream soundlessly, with my body jerking in an attempt to get away from Dabi and the burns. My arms were twitching against the table. I was covered in sweat, tears, and ashes.

"There's two more of us here still, Quirkless. You haven't dealt with anything yet."