Justice woke up suddenly. The last memory of soil covering his mouth and eyes rushing through him sharply. He looked around suddenly, and found himself in a stone room, empty of anything apart from a metal door and metal chains which were keeping him in the centre of the room. He was naked and his fake leg was gone. It was cold. Justice shivered, closing his eyes again and sobbed. He was going to die. He was going to die and John was going to make as painful as possible just because he wanted to be free.
"I've told you before, Justice. Crying is pointless," John's voice echoed around the room suddenly. Wrapping around Justice and making it hard for the man to breathe as fear flooded through him.
"Yes, Master," Justice agreed, unable to stop the tears rolling down his face. He rubbed his cheeks but it didn't stop them. They just kept coming, rolling down his arms as he tried to dry them.
"You look like such a baby," John's voice scolded with disgust. The door swung open and John was stood there in his human form again, barefoot and hair like he had just been dragged through some bushes backwards. He was wearing a green tunic and soft trousers. It was a strange look on the normally well-dressed man. Somehow more alien than the monstrous form Justice had seen in the forest. The anger on John's face was the same though. The fury in his eyes still burned into Justice soul.
Justice met them for a few moments before look down in shame. He had known the risks, hadn't he? He had known from the start how John treated those who tried to escape him.
"How long have you served me now, Justice?" John asked, his voice still echoing in the stone room. Apparently, there was going to be no idle talk, they were just going to dive straight into this. "And in that time, have I ever broken a promise?"
Justice bit his lip and curled his hands into fists on the floor. "Almost 6 years, and no, Master, you have not," he admitted almost steadily, with the tears rolling down his face like a child he had already lost part of his dignity. As for promises, John had always stated when he could or could not promise something. John had always been very clear on all of it. Justice knew that.
"The last time you ran from me, what did I promise you?" John asked, shifting his hips and leaning against the doorframe
"I didn't run from you last time! I went to my mothers funeral! I was always coming back," Justice found himself yelling, looking up at John desperately. That was a mistake.
John's whip appeared in his hand and he flexed it threateningly. "Want to try that again Justice?" He demanded in his own yell. John's stronger, firmer and a lot more serious that Justice could ever really hope to be.
"You promised," Justice hiccupped slightly before bowing his head. "You promised you would kill me," Justice admitted, trembling. "You also said it was going to be painful," he added tearfully.
"Yes," John agreed. "It will be." John walked forward and reached down to unfasten in the chains on Justice's wrists, Justice sitting quietly as he did so, tears still rolling down his cheeks.
"Master, please," Justice pleaded, gripping onto John's soft trousers tightly as John stood up. Unable to keep from begging just once for John not to kill him. "Don't do this."
John cupped Justice's chin, his hand almost as cold as the look in his eyes. "It's too late for that now," John said neutrally. "You broke the rules, Justice. You must be made an example off." John slapped Justice face hard, making the young man yell in fright and let go of Johns trousers. He crawled backwards, trying to escape more pain but John grabbed him by his hair. The fae's fingers curling painfully in the curled locks as he dragged Justice behind him.
Justice screamed in pain, unable to do anything without his fake leg. One leg wasn't enough to get purchase on the ground. John gave no mercy and continued to drag him by his hair. Tears ran down his face and Justice scratched at Johns' hands, trying to get the supernatural creature to let him go.
"Stop it,"John ordered darkly, beginning to lose patience.
"It hurts!" Justice yelled, sounding childish even to his own ears but unable to come up with anything else. He yelled again as he was dropped, his shoulder hitting the wooden floor with a loud and painful bang. Justice stayed when he fell, knowing there was nothing at this point he could do. He was helpless and completely at the fae's mercy.
"It's going to hurt so much more in a moment," John scowled down at Justice. A purple glow running through this veins making him look more demonic than fae. Justice just sobbed, head bowed, waiting for his fate. John exhaled and reached down, picked Justice up and thrown him over his shoulder. "I really am going soft," John exhaled. "I still have to kill you though. I can't let people think they can get away with breaking deals with me. The city would be in chaos and I'd have to kill so many people," he mused sadly.
Still crying but making an effort not to make too much noise, Justice didn't fight as he was carried. John's shoulder dug into his ribs but it was better than being dragged by his hair. John had clearly decided his fate and Justice had to take comfort in the small mercies. A hand was rubbing the backs of his thighs gently. This was it. Justice was going to die in moments because he had wanted to be free.
John carried him outside into a garden Justice had never seen before. It looked almost like an orchard with how many trees there were. It was dark, the path lit with paper lanterns and Justice could see stars in the sky. The air was oddly peaceful for what was about to happen, unlike when John had been chasing them. It was still chilly however and Justice started shivering from the cold rather from fear.
Eventually, he was set on a stone altar and John forced him to lay down, tying his limbs into place. Justice's arms were tied tight above his head with vines and his good leg was bound too. John kissed his forehead, and a hand stroked down his cheek fondly. A thumb gently wiping away some of the tears.
"I am so fond of you," John murmured, holding something up. He was no longer holding his whip, but instead, he was holding a dagger. The blade looked sharp in the orange lighting and Justice could see some runes carved into the side.
"Please don't kill me," Justice begged one last time futility.
"It's only a temporary state Justice. I do own your soul, after all," John commented almost too calmly before raising the blade and slamming it down in Justice's chest.
Justice screamed. The pain blooming like nothing he had ever felt before and he could feel as blood flowed from his body. He was dimly aware of John saying something but could only feel pain. The last thing he was aware of was blood being poured down his throat making him cough and sputtered. Then, there was nothing.
John caught Justice's soul as it left his body. Frightened little soul but burning bright with colours which had attracted Johns to Justice in the first place. He caught the fragile thing in a cage, his magic surrounding it gently and comforting it in a strange way. The soul wept but didn't fight the touch of John's magic. It was used to it and much like Bill's soul, Justice knew not to fight it.
"My baby," John sighed, placing the soul out of sight of the empty shell it had left. "My poor baby," he said sadly, looking at the dagger sticking out of Justice's chest. Blood still pouring from the body. He had done his best, despite his promises of making the event painful, to keep it as painless as possible. He really hadn't wanted to kill Justice.
John reached down and forced Justices chest open with a sickening crack of bones. Wrinkling his nose in disgust as the stench of the newly deceased washed over him. Breaking the ribs bones with very little care for the now empty body, John pulled Justice's heart out of the shell. The heart still warm and twitching. Using a different dagger, he cut the heart out and placed it in a wooden container next to the altar carefully. Next, he cut out Justice's liver and also his eyes, placing them in the box too. Parts acquired, John calmly shut the box.
Taking the first dagger from the now mutilated body, John lifted his hands up and spoke words he had not said in living memory. Words in a language humans could not comprehend, forget ever being able to understand. He split his wrists open and let his blue blood low over the box. A light flared up on the box and flashed for a moment.
John watched calmly and smiled. His wrists healing, John picked up the box with one arm carried it and the cage away from the altar. Ignoring Justice's soul still weeping in the cage.
John stopped in front of a large oak tree. Murmuring a prayer, John knelt in the dirt and dug under the oak with his human hands. Slowly making a hole under the tree's roots, creating a little burrow. He placed the box inside the hole and a pouch containing his own hair and nail clippings. He buried the box and stood again. He picked up the cage and kissed the outside of it, before pressing his hand to the bark of the oak and pushing, creating a hollow within the tree inside. Perfectly hidden from anyone who happened to come to the garden. John put Justice's soul inside the tree and kissed the outside bark, placing a spell form protection over the tree.
Task finished, John returned to the corpse to deal with the mess, blood smeared over his body. He covered the body with a tarp and threw his own clothes on the altar as well. He clicked his fingers and everything went up in flames. Justice was no more.
A/N Thank you for reading. I'm sorry if the ending was not what you were hoping for. The story is currently being edited for mistakes so in a few months it should be cleaned up a bit. Once that is done and I have enough ideas for the sequel, I will write one. Until then, read try my other works :)