After spending her free time killing as many innocent citizens of Gotham she could find and terrorizing those she didn't kill, Annabelle let out a guttural groan and watched as her newest victim's head rolled off of his shoulders and landed on the asphalt.
After allowing a small smile to make its way onto her face, she released the rest of his body and watched as it fell onto the asphalt with her head tilted to the side.
After staring at the headless body for a couple of moments, she sighed and bent down to grab his head.
It was only after it was lying in her hand and she was staring at it for a couple of moments and reveled in the fact of how the last look he had on his face showed just how terrified he was of her that she wordlessly tossed his head over her shoulder.
She turned around and grinned at the pile of heads she'd made since Carmine Falcone had dismissed her task of watching Detective James Gordon.
She only stopped staring at the pile of heads when she heard approaching footsteps, which got her to quickly look up with wide eyes and a huge grin on her face.
She eagerly clapped her hands together, while she turned around and was about to go and grab whoever's footsteps she was hearing, only to stop when she heard her phone start to ring.
After closing her eyes and letting them remain that way for a couple of seconds, she slowly reached into her coat and pulled out her phone.
She was prepared to go and find whoever it was that was disturbing her and torture them in such a horrid way that they would be sent off to Arkham Asylum to live in for the rest of their days, only to stop when she accepted the phone call and heard Carmine Falcone say to her, "Annabelle, I need your help."
Annabelle's eyebrows furrowed as she asked him, "Don Falcone? Is everything alright?"
Carmine replied, "No, something's wrong, Annabelle. And I need your help."
Annabelle nodded her head as she said, "Of course, sir. What do you need?"
Carmine told her, "I need you to help me find Liza. Someone took her."
Annabelle's eyebrows furrowed even more as she asked him, "Liza? Isn't that the girl you've brought into your home? The one that cooks and cleans for you?"
Carmine replied, "Yes, that's Liza. Just help me find her, Annabelle."
Annabelle nodded her head as she straightened her back before she said to him, "Of course, sir. You can count on me."
Then Annabelle ended the call and sped home to change into a new set of clothes before she went on her search for Liza.
* * *
After spending several hours searching for Liza in every spot she could possibly think of, Annabelle only sighed as she entered Mooney's to get herself a drink before she started to look for the girl once more.
She glanced over at the bar before she looked over at the booths.
She sighed once more before she jumped over the counter and grabbed herself a couple of bottles.
Then she jumped back to the other side of the counter and started to walk towards one of the booths, only to stop when Butch stepped in front of her and said to her, "Hey, Annabelle, I haven't seen you in a while."
Annabelle merely raised an eyebrow at him and eyed him before she said to him, "Butch."
When she started to step to the side in an attempt to walk around him, he stepped back in front of her and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Annabelle raised her hands to show the two bottles she was holding, while she told him, "I'm here to get something to drink here and stay here until my mind is not so overwhelmed and get back to what I was doing prior to coming here."
He asked her, "And what would that be?"
She sighed as she put the two bottles on the counter of the bar and patted the side of his face before she told him, "Butch, I might have grown fond of you and your loyalty to the cause and what Don Falcone is trying to do, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to share with you every single thing that I happen to deal with."
He only forced a chuckle in response before he looked past her to see one of Fish's other men quietly walking towards her with a big syringe in hand that had a big dosage of vervain inside of it in liquid form.
He knew he had to say something more to Annabelle, or she would question his sudden silence and turn around to see the man that was silently walking towards her.
In order to prevent that from happening, he asked her, "So, how have you been, Annabelle?"
Annabelle only sighed before she told the man that was now standing behind her, "Unless you'd rather I rip both of your arms off your body, I suggest you drop that weapon of yours and go on your merry way."
When didn't hear any retreating footsteps, she quickly turned around and smacked the syringe out of his left hand, which caused it to fly towards one of the walls and shatter upon impact.
The man's eyes widened as he quickly raised his hands and he nervously laughed to himself before he started to say to her, "Annabelle—"
Annabelle feigned a pout, while she took a step closer to him and dragged the back of her finger across his face and watched as he started to tremble from seeing just how calm she appeared to be at that exact moment.
When he opened his mouth to say something else to her, she pressed another finger against his lips and shushed him before she said to him, "You had your chance to leave and you blew it." When he started to lose the color in his face, she said, "If it's anyone's fault for this occurring, it's you for thinking that you'd actually succeed in harming me with that cursed herb."
He repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, while he tried to think of something else to say to her.
She chuckled as she reveled in the fact of just how much his fear was consuming him.
Without saying another word to him, she grabbed his forearms and ripped his arms out of their socks before she watched as the blood started to pour out of the wounds.
She tilted her head and eyed the blood and the man himself, who was now unconscious from the mere shock he was dealing with because of her actually ripping his arms off of his body.
Just as she was about to turn to look back at Butch, she suddenly grew tense and her eyes had widened when she felt a stab in the side of her neck.
She quickly turned around and grabbed the neck of the person who stabbed her, only for her eyebrows to furrow when she saw Butch staring down at her with a deep frown on his face before she said to him, 'What? I don't understand."
After he pressed the needle of the syringe even further into her neck and watched as she squeezed her eyes shut from the painful sensation of the vervain starting to course through her veins, he sighed before he said to her, "I'm sorry, Annabelle, but you were close to finding out and I just couldn't let that happen."
She opened her eyes and asked through gritted teeth, "Getting too close? Too close to what? I don't understand."
Butch didn't respond and simply stepped out of the way, which allowed her to see Liza, who was silently standing behind him with no signs of an injury on her.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she asked, "Liza? You're not hurt?"
Liza didn't bother to respond to her and only closed her eyes when she saw another one of Fish's men sneak up on Annabelle before he snapped her neck from behind her.
Annabelle didn't say anything as she fell onto the floor.
As he stared down at Annabelle, Butch sighed before he said to her, "I wish this wasn't necessary, Annabelle, but Fish said it needed to happen. She knew Falcone would turn to you to help him with finding Liza, so she needed you to be temporarily taken out of the equation until her business with Falcone was finished."
After staring at her for another moment, he nodded head and just like that, Fish's men grabbed Annabelle by her arms and dragged her off into a room they had set up for her after Fish had taken Liza and called Carmine Falcone to tell him she had Liza through the means of a voice disguiser.
In this room, they would have her tied and chained down to a metal chair with vervain surrounding her inside of the room and vervain doused on the ropes and chains.
And every other hour until Fish would get what she wanted, they would inject more vervain into Annabelle.
It was extra precautions to ensure that Annabelle didn't find some way to break free and murder all of them before Fish had finished carrying out her plan.
Because if they knew Annabelle as well as they thought they did, they knew that she would murder all of them in the most gruesome ways possible if she ever got out of her current imprisonment.
* * *
After waking up for what felt like the millionth time at this point, Annabelle lightly groaned when she heard the door to her practical cell be opened.
She might have been going in and out of consciousness from the amount of vervain that was being injected into her, but she was aware of the situation enough to know when it was Fish, Butch or one of Fish's men that had entered the room she was stuck inside of.
When Fish entered the room, she would be saying how there should be no hard feelings between the two of them because of what she'd ordered her men to do to Annabelle.
When Butch would enter it, he would apologize profusely and say that if he had a choice in the matter, he would have left her out of it.
As for Fish's men, however, they would either talk with each other about Fish's plan or be silent the whole time they were on her way to her practical cell and also when they were inside of said cell.
Annabelle, though, would remain silent and say nothing to them, despite the groans that would come from her every single time she heard the door open and she listened to their footsteps walk around her in a circle for a couple of minutes before they would inject more vervain into her bloodstream.
When she heard footsteps echoing in the room and the same footsteps circling her, she couldn't help but let out another groan and lower her head, while she stared down at the pair of black shoes the person was wearing.
She silently waited for another injection of vervain to take place, only for her eyebrows to furrow when she heard a sigh and glanced up to see a blurry figure crouched down in front of her and probably eyeing her.
It was no surprise that her vision was blurry, given how she'd just regained her consciousness for about the millionth time that day and the amount of vervain that had been injected into her bloodstream for the past couple of hours that she'd been trapped inside of this practical cell of hers.
After the figure remained crouched there for a couple of moments, they reached out and brushed some hair out of her eyes, which got her to frown and move her head away from their hand.
The figure allowed their hand to fall back down to their side, while she scoffed before she said, "If you're going to inject me with that damned herb again, then just get it over with already and leave me be. I have far better things to do than to entertain you with my current state of weakness.
Then she heard a chuckle, which got her eyebrows to furrow as her vision slowly started to return to her before she asked, "What the bloody hell is so funny? I don't see what you could possibly find to be so humorous in this situation."
The figure only sighed once more before letting out a chuckle, while they started to untie the rope from her.
While feeling the rope start to fall off her, Annabelle asked, "What are you doing?"
The figure didn't bother to respond and instead used bolt cutters in order to allow her to get out of the chair.
It was only when her eyesight had returned that she could look down and see the broken chains and the rope that was lying on the floor.
When she felt a hand grab her shoulder, she quickly grabbed the hand with a tight grip and was about to crush it, only to stop when she heard a familiar voice ask her, "This is how you thank me for breaking you out? By trying to crush my hand?"
Annabelle's eyebrows furrowed as she slowly turned to look at her rescuer and said, "Zsasz?"
Victor chuckled, while he asked her, "It's 'Zsasz', now, huh? What happened to 'Victor'?"
Annabelle groaned as she said to him, "Piss off, will you?"
Victor grinned in response before she started to walk away as he said to her, "Okay."
Annabelle watched him walk away from her and started to frown to herself before she asked him, "What are you doing? Help me get out of here."
Victor turned to her with a smirk on his face, while he asked her, "Oh, you want my help now?"
Annabelle stared at him with a blank look on her face, which got Victor to turn his back on her and start to walk away once more, only to stop with an even bigger smirk on his face when she yelled, "Zsasz, come on! You can't just leave me like this!"
Victor slowly turned to look back at her with that same smirk on his face as he saw just how desperate she was for his help.
He would have teased her some more, but he saw just how weak and defenseless she was in that exact moment, so he sighed before he walked over to her and helped get her out of the chair.
It was only when she was helped out of the chair that she stumbled forward and was about to fall flat onto her face, only for Victor to quickly grab her by her waist and hold her up.
From his sudden action, she fell into his side and grabbed the side of his coat with her hands.
Victor, on the other hand, kept a hold of her waist and helped walk her out of the room and towards the main part of the nightclub.
It was only when they were in the main part of the nightclub that they saw Oswald talking to Fish and Butch just silently standing there.
Upon seeing Fish and Butch, Annabelle's veins came onto display and her hands that were holding onto Victor's coat had turned into fists as her entire body started to shake from the anger that was coursing through her.
When Victor saw who she was staring at, he helped walk her over to them and ignored the frown on Oswald's face when he and Annabelle had stopped just beside him.
It looked as if Fish was about to say something to Oswald, only for her to stop when she saw who was standing beside him and the murderous look that was on the Original's face.
In an attempt to make sure that Annabelle wouldn't kill her at that exact moment, Fish started to say to her, "Annabelle—"
Annabelle told her, "You and Gilzean better hope neither of you see me ever again because if you do, I won't simply murder the both of you. I'll take you with me to a secure location that I've kept hidden from Don Falcone himself and torture the pair of you until you're driven mad and begging for the sweet mercy that is death and it is only at that moment that I will do as you wish and tear your bloody heads from the rest of your bodies."
Butch took a step towards them and started to say to her, "Annabelle, look—"
Annabelle quickly looked over at him and told him, "I don't care what you have to say to me. Friend or not, I don't appreciate being practically cast aside like this. You should be glad that I'm in the current state I am now. If it wasn't for that, I would have killed the both of you from where you stand."
Since Oswald had never seen Annabelle be quite so angry with someone as she was in that exact moment, he stepped to the side, while she took a step closer to Fish, who said to her, "But, Annabelle, Falcone wouldn't let you do that."
Annabelle yelled, "Does it look like I give a damn about what he'd want me to do?! You held me prisoner and repeatedly had me injected with vervain during my time trapped here!" She closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath before she opened her eyes and said, "But I won't. Believe it or not. I had gained some more self-restraint during my time of working for Don Falcone, so it is him that you should thank for the fact that I'm not tearing you apart limb by limb for the hell you've put me through. Don't get me wrong, though, Mooney. I will look forward to the day where you two eventually die or piss him off even more than you already had."
Then she looked over at Victor and said to him, "Just get me out of here. I can't stand seeing those traitorous bastards any longer."
Victor silently nodded his head and carefully turned her head, while he glanced over at an incredibly confused Oswald Cobblepot and led her out of the nightclub and back to the new home of a recent victim she'd made before her capture, but not before telling her he'd go to her old home and gather all of her things for her and all of the blood bags he could get his hands on.