][Malice][ =One Piece=

:: Chapter Thirty Seven ::

Darkness, eternal darkness. Every day was never ending darkness. Malice had no idea how long she’d been in the pitch black nothingness. There was no sense of time, there was nothing. Just black. Was she even alive? Had she ever been alive? Her mind was always pounding, always racing driving her further and further into madness. So many questions, constantly streaming through her mind, and as the darkness stretched on, she found she had fewer and fewer answers.

When she closed her eyes she could swear it was brighter, somehow, occasionally if she was able to pull herself from her dwindling sanity she could see brilliant crimson hair, feral orange eyes and a strong handsome face. Kid. His name graced her consciousness, the only thing keeping her from completely losing herself in the darkness.

One day light flooded the darkness, instantly blinding her. Struggling to see through the intense brightness, she could barely make out the small dank stone holding cell she’d been occupying for however long she’d been trapped. It was more like a well, deep within the ground and about four feet in circumference.

She was dragged from her holding cell in her confusion and disorientation. Once her eyes finally adjusted to the light she found was in a large open room with numerous circular grates. Was there someone in each of these holes? She could hear whimpers, someone was crying another pleading. How had she not been able to hear them in her own enclosure? Two masked men stood on either side of her and roughly grabbed hold of her arms. Somewhere in the recesses of her weary mind and body she found the strength to struggle.

One of her captors backhanded her with enough force she stumbled and her vision darkened for a few moments. Her captors dragged her away from the room with the well like cells. She could barely make out the dank corridor they drug her through due to the blinding lights along the wall lighting their path. After a mere couple of minutes they paused at a door. It opened automatically and her captors threw her in without remorse. One even chuckled as her cranium smacked into the hard stone floor. Disoriented she attempted to stand and survey her surroundings. The room was dimly lit and filled with all manner of torture instruments. There was a large meat hook hanging in the middle of the room and a metal table with filtering holes in the bottom and a slew of restraints just beyond.

Her gaze flit to the door that had been closed behind her and she saw a string of monitors. What was going on? Where was she? One of the monitors sprang to life and she saw a shadowy figure with a mane of wild hair and fathomlessly dark eyes peering back at her, Kaido.

“You’re going to do something for me, girl.” His voice was more animalistic growl than that of a man.

Malice picked herself up off the floor rising to a sitting position and paused as she realized her hair now swept around her blanketing the floor. It had grown. She could see her crimson roots falling past her eyes fading into ebony. How long had she been trapped in the darkness? It had to have at least been months. What happened to Kid and the others?

“Did you hear me?” The voice growled.

“Why haven’t you killed me?” Malice croaked surprised her voice still worked.

“There’s plenty of time for that.”

She stayed where she was seated partially because she wasn’t sure if her legs could hold her but also because she had a pretty good vantage point of the door and could be ready for whoever may enter.

“You’re going to draw in that bull headed captain of yours so I can make an example of him for the rest of The Worst Generation.” Kaido growled.

Kid was alive! “Like hell I will.”

A dark chuckle sounded from Kaido’s end of the screen, “It makes no difference to me how you lure him out, willingly or not, you’re going to do it.”