Vitae

iii

Nyx ran as quickly as she could, all though she knew it was futile. Slamming the door shut, she looked around the room for somewhere to hide. Her bare room provided no help, and her heart started beating even faster at the sound of footsteps. The door was thrown open roughly, and the Joker walked inside, nonchalantly. "You know I don't want to do this." He reached out, caressing her face. "But you just had to disobey, didn't you." His cold voice sent shivers down her spine. He roughly grabbed her chin, pulling her towards him. He pulled her out of the room, towards his new torture chamber. Forcing her to lay down on a hospital bed, he strapped her down. Nyx tried not to wince as the straps dug into her skin. 

"I'm not going to kill you, Nyx." The Joker whispered in her ear, "I'm just going hurt you, really, really bad." He lifted her shirt up, and grabbed a serrated knife from a nearby table. The knife was driven into her exposed stomach, Nyx bit down on her tongue to stop screaming. The knife curved and swirled in many different directions. To distract herself, she tried to focus on the screams that usually surrounded her. The Joker stopped digging the knife in the girl, confused as to why she wasn't screaming. As looked up to see her calmly watching him. "Are you done?" She asked, calmly. The Joker growled at the girl, returning to the table where he kept his many torture weapons. Picking up a needle and thread, he started to sew up her mutilated stomach, waiting for her to react in some way. He growled again when she didn't react. He'd have to try harder to get her to scream. Nyx just looked bored, strapped down to the operating table. The Joker next pulled out a cat-o-nine-tails whip and flipped Nyx onto her back. He gave her thirteen lashing; she finally let out a scream on the last one. He relished in that one scream, filled with pain and sadness. The Joker ran his fingers down her many cuts, licking the blood he collected of his fingers. "Thank you, Nyx. I do love our time together." He whispered in her ear, licking it, before loosening the straps. "You aren't to move, I don't want you breaking you stitches." He chuckled, before leaving the room. Nyx, finding she was alone, allowed the tears to fall. She knew she wouldn't be getting much sleep this night.

Harley ran into the room as soon as the sun rose, helping Nyx off of the bed. She checked over her injuries, but found that they had already healed. Nyx looked down at her stomach, the scar still remained there. Property of The Joker, it read. Nyx shook off Harley's arms, looking at her friends face. There was a large purple bruise on her check. "How did you get this?" Nyx ask, touching it lightly. Harley flinched at her touch. "I tried to protect you." She whispered. Nyx nodded. "Thank you. We shall wear our injuries with pride with our chins held high. We shall not be intimidated by him." With linked arms, the two girls walked out of the room, chin held high, ready for breakfast. The Joker was surprised to see the girl he relentlessly tortured walking towards him. Waving one of his henchmen over, he told him to get the girls breakfast. "Hello, Jester." Nyx smiled widely at the man that had tortured her last night. "I like the scar." She quickly ate the food in front of her, before walking back to her room. Looking her painting of June, Nyx decided that it was time to go home.

That night, Nyx took some rope and throw it out her window; she began to climb down the building. Looking up at her window, she saw the Joker. Uh oh, she thought. Then she saw the end of the rope being thrown out to her. Bigger uh oh, Nyx began to fall, thinking about how this was such a bad plan. Suddenly, her fall was stopped, she realised who was holding her. "You've been a bad girl." He whispered in her hair, before taking her back inside. Straight towards the torture chamber.