There's a sudden attack. Now Cassie Hart is dead. Her friends, Isabel Diaz, Galen Hooks, and new friend Rhea Morris all want to take a short break from their careers to find out who killed her.
Isabel, however, right before finding out who they are...
Galen's heart was pounding in her chest as Johanna trained her gaze on her. She had seen her reaction to the damaging weapon, especially since her face was now as pale as snow.
"You like what you see?" she cackled. "Well, take a good look now because you've seen what's going to happen to you."
Oh no...
Breathing heavily, Galen watched in dismay as the cat-o-nine-tails was taken off the wall. Johanna carefully held it in her hands, making sure not to cut herself before she used it on the helpless woman in front of her.
"Please don't..." she gasped, unsteadily raising a hand as the lights switched off again, leaving only one shining right on her.
"Too late for that, Hooks," Johanna growled, stepping toward her and knocking her hand away. Galen closed her eyes, willing herself to stay strong for it. I just have to get through this and it'll all be over one way or another...
Then it started. The hooked whip swung through the air and its nine sharp spikes quickly slashed across Galen's chest, leaving the same amount of bleeding cuts. Galen winced in pain as she instinctively pressed her hands against them.
"That was not the last of it!" Johanna yelled angrily, plying the whip twice more. Each time, it struck the same area, slicing through the dancer's hands.
"Aah!" Galen cried out in pain as the whip kept striking her over and over. At one point, it stopped to let her catch a breath and she held up one of her pale hands in the darkness outside the light to look at it. At a time beforehand, she had held up her hands to keep the blows away from her already bleeding chest and now her palms and wrists were sticky with blood as well.
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"Ooh, I love the sight of sweet, scarlet blood," Johanna sighed, reaching forward to grasp one bloody hand. Galen groaned and tried to pull away at the contact, but soon enough, she retreated and slowly licked the remains of the blood she had collected off her hands. "Yes, the sweet taste of victory."
"What do you mean, victory?" Galen spat at her, clearly revolted by the vampire-like action.
"Sweet Galen, you know your friends won't get here in time," she laughed. "The boat will be ready in a few hours and there is no way they will get here by then. Even if they do, they'd have to fight through me and my friends to get to you. They don't stand a chance against us. It'd be a shame if we had to kill them."
She clearly didn't hear about the time Isabel killed all those guard friends of hers with the ninja stars, Galen thought with a glimmer of hope. She and Camila- who is also a formidable fighter- may actually stand a chance.
Then humiliation shot through her. If she'd been strong enough before... she could have fought off Johanna when she'd raped and abused her before. Instead, she was so weakened by what had been done to her that she had become unable to escape and entirely dependent upon her friends if they ever came.
"But not yet." Johanna giggled like a maniac for a short moment as she placed the cat-o-nine-tails back on the wall. "I have more planned." Her smile grew wider as she stepped over to Galen. "And just so you know, I lied about not having a session with you. I just wanted to have a chance for you to meet my cat. Now... let's have some more fun." She emphasized the last word, which prompted Galen to stand shakily to her feet.
I have to fight, she realized. I will not die in the midst of humiliation.
When Johanna got near her and reached out to her, Galen ducked under her arm and drove herself against her, knocking her to the ground. The impact also made her draw back in surprise as a stab of pain shot through her and then noticed that her shoulder was bleeding again. She clasped a hand against it and blood steadily dripped down her arm from her cut wrist and ripped flesh.
"Very brave," Johanna commented, getting to her feet again almost immediately. "But you don't want to escape now, trust me. My friends are not as lenient as I."
Lenient? Yeah, right!
Ignoring the woman's words, Galen dodged past her and flipped the light on again, then instantly made for where she saw the door was. Johanna let her go, her smile turning into a glare as her target ran into Simon, who had been waiting for her. He drove the hilt of the sword he was holding into her stomach, knocking the breath out of her for a moment, the slashed the sharp end across the same spot. Galen stumbled back before falling to her knees, cradling the wound as agony throbbed inside her.
I should have known Johanna would call for a friend as soon as I tried to escape!
Annoyed at herself for not being alert enough, she stayed in the same position until Simon kicked out at her and vanished, slamming the door behind him as she collapsed on the musty floor.
"That's what you get for trying to get away from me," Johanna snarled threateningly. "You're lucky those aren't too deep." Maybe not too deep, but they'll still hurt like hell. "And those scars will serve as a reminder that you can never escape me... or the legacy I will leave behind."
She already left a mark on me, Galen thought, shuddering at the flashbacks when Johanna had gently bitten the side of her neck in the middle of the molestation on her body. The good news is that the blood will wash it away since it's temporary. The bad news is that these things hurt terribly and if I lose too much blood... She shook her head to clear the thoughts. No! I can't think about that. I can't lose hope!
"I don't care," she roared as loud as she could. I really do, but I can't show it.
"Oh, I know you do." Johanna rolled her eyes. "But since you clearly don't want to have a session now, I'll force one more on you before I kill you at the island. Now, back in your cage."
"No!" Galen shouted, shaking her head forcefully.
"If that's the way you want to play this." Johanna shrugged and then took something else off of the wall. It looked like a black stick, but when she flipped some kind of switch on it, bright purple light crackled around the top half of it. A taser!
"Okay, okay, I'm going!" She had been cursed with a slight fear of lightning ever since the incident the previous month, which was April. Galen cursed Johanna under her breath as she climbed back into the enclosure, but she heard it and shocked her in the leg with the taser before slamming the door behind her and locking it.
"Hey!" she called, drawing her knees up to her chest, which caused the blood from her stomach to start streaming onto her still inflamed thighs. "I thought you weren't going to do that if I got in..."
"I never said I wouldn't," Johanna retorted. "Besides, you curse at me and that's what you get. I'll see you again in a few hours." The light switched off again as she opened the door and disappeared.
"I can't believe this," Galen whispered to herself as she uncurled her body and examined the bloody slash in her stomach. The bleeding was easing off, but as she nervously touched it, a jolt of pain flashed through her body and tears began to drip from her eyes.
"I just hope it will be over soon," she breathed as she hid her face in her hands. "One way... or another... I hope this will all end."
