"Good morning, Espresso Cookie." Reverend's voice echoed throughout the room, the dread of her words sinking into Madeleine's skin. He glared at her, panic lingering in his eyes.
"Hey- WHY THE HELL IS HE HERE-" he cried out. Reverend took a few steps towards him. "Because I can read you like a book, I know what will make you break, shatter." She cooed.
"The fuck is your problem, why do you need me anyways??" He frowned, gripping the chains that held him firm. "You're powerful, you hold valuable information, you have your high ranking in the kingdom, you have Influence, and you're the one who ratted us out perhaps?" Reverend said as she turned to face the small room on the side, supposedly where Espresso was.
The small door slammed open, Espresso falling forwards out of the room as he held himself off the ground, staring at Madeleine. He was chained up, blood seeping out from underneath the cuffs on his neck, wrists and ankles. He struggled to pick himself up.
Reverend walked over to him, pulling him up by the back of his collar. Espresso winced, falling back against the wall behind him, holding himself up as Reverend chuckled to herself. "Alright! I get you're angry but he has NOTHING to do with this! You were going to kill innocent cookies, I had to save them and bring your charade to a close!"
Espresso trembled from the pain for a moment, he seemed to have some sort of magic binding spell on him. He quickly moved to attack her before shortly getting elbowed in the stomach.
Reverend moved her grip to the chains on his hands, yanking them as the blades dug further into his dough, he winced from the pain, lowering his head. He figured maybe if he decided to submit for the time being he could buy them both pity.
"HEY-" Madeleine went to try and get up, only to quickly lower himself again, the chains pressing into his skin. "..Innocent in your eyes, Madeleine." she released her grip on Espresso, starting to walk towards the knight as Espresso fell to his knees. "Nonetheless it's still MURDER." Madeleine said, gritting his teeth.
"You have your job, we have ours." She stepped in front of him, leaning down to his height as she grabbed him by the collar, yanking his forwards. "Now you're going to be a good boy and do as I say." she snarled, keeping her eyes shut.
Madeleine's breaths were heavy, his hands in fists. "What the hell do you even want from me, and I'm not telling you shit until the professor is released." "..Unfortunately, that's not how this is going to work." she cooed, letting go of his shirt as she stood back up.
"You're going to do as I say, or there'll be dire consequences." she glanced to Espresso as Madeleine quickly got the hint, his eyes widened. "You see, I know for a fact you won't do much if I do anything to you, that's why we have another body to take the damage for you. A human meat shield you could say?" Reverend chuckled, just barely peeking open one of her eyes, a yellow pupil staring down at him.
Madeleine gulped. "You're sick-" Reverend grabbed him by the back of his head, pulling on his hair before slamming his face onto the hard, cold floor beneath him. He yelped out, his nose quickly starting to bleed. Reverend stood up, digging her heel into his neck before he could do a thing.
Espresso sat against the wall, closing his eyes as he flinched upon Madeleine's cries. He couldn't even pick himself up off the ground the chains digging deep into his joints.
Madeleine opened his eyes, he could see the blood seeping from his nose, it had probably been dislocated. He coughed a bit, his wrists held tightly to the ground by the chains. "..what.. what do you want then.."
Reverend moved her foot off of him, closing her eye again. "As for now, simply play along, child." she turned to leave, walking past Espresso as she laid her hand firmly on his shoulder, her sharp nails digging into his skin. "Same goes to you." she moved her hand, leaving the room as a door appeared in the wall. Reverend walked through, it disappearing behind her.
Madeleine carefully lifted himself from the ground, with the cost of his wrists being wounded. "..you alright Professor-?" Espresso was mostly speechless, in a bit of a panic. "Yes, I'm alright, nothing too bad." He paused. "Jesus christ - how are you holding up?" "-I can't move. At all. or my hands and legs are ripping off. I'm sure It's alright though, I'm confident somebody will notice our absence and come for us, hopefully.."
..
Velvet had himself sitting down on a bench in the training grounds, Madeleine hadn't shown up today and people were starting to worry. The guard's chatter filled the area. "Where's the captain?" "He isn't usually late.." "Should we start without him?"
A young knight walked up to Velvet, it seemed to be the same one who tried to rat him out. Peanut Butter huffed, crossing his arms. "Listen uh, as much as I hate to be anywhere near you, I was told by Captain you were going out with him last night, and I'm the only one who isn't too much of a pussy to come near you. Do you know where he is? Did you do something??"
Velvet looked at him, a bit caught off guard by the sudden approach. "Oh- No I haven't, and yes we went out to the bar the last night." Peanut butter frowned, moving his hand off of his Sword's holster as he crossed his arms.
"Well, he always shows up even when he's sick, and he's usually only at least 5 minutes late!" "God- alright then, maybe he passed out?" "He gets great sleep, drinking has never gotten in way of his schedule and he's completely healthy! That's not likely." Peanut Butter paused, glancing away. "..I'm just getting a bit worried, he's like a father to me.."
Velvet took a deep breath, standing up. "Do you know if he has a house? I can go check on him." The small knight shook his head. "He lives in the Castle's dorms with us, though I know where the Professor's house is, the two of them are pretty close and if he's not here he's usually with him."
Velvet nodded. "I think I know where that is, I'll go see." Velvet said as he turned to leave, pulling his sword from off the ground as he put it in its holster.
..
Latte paced back and forth in front of Espresso's house, she seemed worried. Velvet walked up to her, taking a deep breath. "Hello- Miss? Would you know where the Professor is?" The woman perked up her head to see him.
"Ah, my brother, Espresso Cookie? Oh dear that's what I was worried about, I haven't been able to find him anywhere and I'm starting to get worried.. I tried to ask Madeleine but he's also nowhere to be found!" she huffed.
"Really? I came here in search of Madeleine." Latte put her hand on her cheek. "Both of them are missing.. Oh, my poor baby brother, where could they be?" Velvet nodded. "If something happened to them I can only think of two people.. do you know of anybody else we could ask?"
"Ah, I believe so, we could Ask Detective almond, he's working at the church for the time being. He sees a lot so maybe he knows a thing or two?" "Alright then, lead the way."
..
Espresso laid his head back against the wall, thoughts racing through his head as his gaze darted around the room, it was no use. He took a deep breath, looking to Madeleine who had managed to get himself to sit up. They both quickly perked up their heads, the door Reverend Mother had left through reappearing as she walked through.
The door disappeared behind her again as she stepped through. Reverend held two syringes, both filled with a blood-red liquid. "I'm back!" she smiled.
Madeleine glared at her. "What the fuck is- I'M NOT GONNA COOPERATE IF YOU'RE GONNA DRUG ME!" Of course, Reverend didn't care. She quickly walked over to Espresso, pulling him up off the ground. He quickly took a step back, going to attack her before she quickly wrapped her hands around his neck and slammed him to the ground.
Espresso yelled out, Reverend's sharp nails breaking through his skin as blood ran down his neck. Madeleine quickly went into a panic. "HEY- LET HIM GO THIS INSTANT-" he tugged on the chains which dug into his dough.
Before he could say another word, Reverend plunged one of the syringes into Espresso's neck, he went pale for a moment, his body falling limp as he went unconscious.
Madeleine tugged further on the chains, quickly stopping himself as they reached the bone in his wrists, he started to tear up from the pain. "Espresso..? ESPRESSO WAKE UP- WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM YOU MONSTER??" he lashed out as Reverend released her grip on the professor.
Reverend Mother stood up, shaking the blood from her hands as she started walking towards him, throwing the empty syringe on the ground, and holding the other tightly. "Now now, don't worry, yours hopefully won't have the same effect.." "..what? DID YOU KILL HIM??"
Reverend chuckled to herself, stopping in front of him as she examined the jam seeping from the cuffs. "No no, that would be pointless wouldn't it? I brought him here for a reason, if I wanted him dead I would have done it myself!"
Madeleine glared at her, taking a deep, shaky breath. There had to be something he could do, right?? "You're sick.. I'll put an end to you and your pathetic Order.. I'll die if it means you won't terrorize cookies any longer!"
"Trying to be the big hero, are we?" Reverend smiled, kneeling down to look him in the eyes. "Come on now, is there really anything you can do in this situation right now?" Madeleine frowned, glaring at her for a moment before lowering his head in defeat.
"Good boy." She pushed him to the ground once again, firmly holding his hands behind his back with one hand, causing the cuffs to dig further. She plunged the needle into his shoulder as Madeleine yelped out in pain, Reverend emptied out the needle before taking it out and standing back up, pulling Madeleine back up to his knees.
He didn't feel much different, but his arm hurt like hell. He could feel his body trembling, he suddenly felt cold and sweaty, the warm air felt like it was burning up against his skin. His head was spinning. "Wh- WHAT THE HELL IN IN THAT THING-" he started to thrash around, trying to break free as he just started to feel more and more drowsy.
"Oh? for now it won't do much, though the side effects at first will be a bit.. strange, as you can certainly see, my child." Madeleine grit his teeth, quickly running out of energy from the drug as he relaxed his movements, lowering his head. the stinging, sore pain shocking through his body.
"..I'm not a damn child.." "You're all nothing but curious and arrogant children in my house." though her eyes were closed, he could feel her gaze piercing through him.
"This 'house', is a cult, a slaughterhouse.." "Oh come on now, don't be so boring, so- repetitive.. go on, tell me something that hasn't been rung through my head twenty-one times!" "twentyone- what the fuck is wrong with you?? You take away every crumb of a cookie and just- get rid of them when they don't have any more damn use to you- you're fucking insane.." Madeleine muttered, barely having enough energy to yell.
"You'll pay.. you'll face justice for all the innocent lives you've taken.." Reverend Chuckled to herself. "Oh- but I won't! No punishment would be NEAR WORTHY of what I've done here! We fooled the whole world, EVERYONE, KNIGHT."
"When we get out of here- four witnesses will be more than enough to shut you and your little operation down.. YOUR REPUTATION IS ALREADY SLANDERED, SO MIGHT AS WELL GIVE UP NOW."
Reverend pulled a bloody, rusty, bloodstained knife from her garments. "So what if we're known for our true nature from here on out? That won't stop SHIT! Your little witnesses don't even know a quarter of the story! The nuns you have captive are just numbers, we have eyes everywhere. I'm not as easy as I look, child!"
Madeleine scowled, keeping his head down. "Nonetheless, you will be stopped." "Sure! In a million years!" Reverend grinned, taking a step towards him as she gripped the knife.
He shakily took his breaths, surely he couldn't die now, especially with the new info he now had. "..what do you want.." "Hm? Oh, I don't need anything as for now." she looked over to Espresso's limp, aching body that lay on the floor. "For now, you're here for fun, simply a plaything.." Reverend cooed, looking back to him.
Madeleine gulped. He was fine with anything happening to him, but the professor? He glanced over to Espresso, frowning. He may be strong, but without Coffee magic, he was rather defenceless to Reverend. He didn't know how much he would be able to take before he breaks in two. "Please... Do whatever you want with me, just leave the professor alone.."