It had been two weeks since Joan returned home; nothing had changed. There had been a brutal death on campus, one of the most respected and oldest professors was dead but it changed nothing for most. The burring ceremony was done during her hospital time, close casket as the body was in no condition to be shown.
For the members of her class, they had placed a replacement teacher and all would be given a passing grade as long as it has actual work on it, so as long as she went to class and gave in the homework she would pass with no problems.
To everyone who wanted it there was a personal psychologist available twenty-four seven but Joan decided to keep to herself, she has never been able to talk about her feelings or thoughts to others.
She woke up as her stomach roared, the temperature higher than she was used to still uncomfortable.
After their first encounter both of them needed a serious discussion to clarify information and renegotiate the apartment rules. She had explained that she was the landlord’s daughter and he was the only one who paid rent but she helped him each month because she thought the rent was too high. It was partially a lie because he was paying hers, but her father did present himself so Jacob bought it with no complains.
He, however, had given her an ultimatum they would change the rules or she would need to find a new roommate. There was time to get a new one before pay date but close to the end on the semester she would find no one willing to pay what Jacob paid so she accepted his terms.
Temperature would be risen by one of the three fireplaces; Jacob had travelled through the islands off the south coast and felt comfortable at high temperatures. There would be incense every Omis, she had no idea why he wanted it in the first place but she did not care as long as he would stop complaining.
Joan thought she could maintain it this way for some time and after brake find another roommate, but after two weeks, she started to be annoyed.
Since the event she had started to eat more, always did when she was stressed. Jacob had complained when he discovered she had added bread and honey to her breakfast every day, but she did not care what he thought she needed the food to stay calm.
Taking a look at the clock at the side of the bed she felt annoyed, one in the afternoon, too early to come out of bed and way too early to socialize, she had gone to bed at three in the morning after a late-night reading session. She felt empty, not even her books helped her now.
Her stomach roared again making her get up, at this time of the day Jacob would start making lunch, he cooked his own food but even after a year she actually knew nothing on what vegetarians eat aside from salads.
She opened the door of her room slowly, watching for her roommate. Nothing, the apartment was deserted, there was no sound coming from the kitchen and the weird smell of incense was not there.
This was a nice change, without the smell of vegetarian food Joan felt very much relaxed in the kitchen, after all she enjoyed cooking when the food was for her. For the next hour she cooked all her menu and ate each part of her huge breakfast feeling somehow liberated.
She did not feel like taking a bath or going to her room, she decided to make it a writing afternoon. Joan was usually an obsessed reader but she maintained certain times for writing, nothing fancy or anything that would be published. Without a care in the word, she wrote a variety of shot tales for hours. Racing, battle, mystery; alone like this was the best way to spend her time.
Joan ate lunch around five in the afternoon and continued writing until nightfall, by nine she started to feel worried as Jacob was the most responsible guy she had ever met. It was normal he went out some weekends to a tavern or something but that was on Viezils or Sasets, on Omis he stayed at home all day exercising or working on his art he had never stayed out this late.
Just before ten pm as she finished eating her dinner, she decided to go out and look for him around the neighbourhood but as she reached for the door, she noticed she was still wearing her pyjamas. After a quick change of clothes, now with a black set of pants with white stripes, a white shirt and a black cloak Joan left the apartment to look for her roommate.
As she left the building, she noticed a guard wagon across the street; it was odd, they lived in a really quiet neighbourhood mostly old residents with no real need for a guard wagon to be here. However, extra protection specially when looking for a missing person could not hurt anyone.
As she came close, she noticed two guards sleeping in the front, she did not blame them as she would do the same, and leaving them to rest Joan continued down the road.
Two streets over was located the local market, a small store that made most its income from chicken and sprout soups but maintained some liquor at hand. This was the first place to look for someone, Mr Hoger was known by all around the area and knew most of the events that occur on the neighbourhood.
As she entered the store the classic “ding dong” of the bell announced her arrival. Mr Hoger looked at her puzzled.
“Joan? How unusual of you to arrive here at this hour, I was not expecting you to come till Viezil for your weekend supplies, how can I help you?”
By weekend supplies he meant a large amount of food and an equally large quantity of chocolate.
“Good night, Mr Hoger, I am looking for my roommate have you seen him around?”
“The tall blonde guy, Jacob, right?” Joan responded with a nod. “He came in some hours ago, close to twilight with a friend, they bought some veggies and meat, if I am not mistaken, they had some knifes, I suppose he had a dinner or something”
So, he was fine, just gone to some friend’s house for dinner.
“Thanks, I’ll tell him to leave a note next time” She started to walk towards the entrance but stopped after three steps “On second thought I will take a chocolate bar for the journey back”
On her way back home, she noticed three black carriages parked two houses down from her building, those where not there when she left and she had never seen them before so making haste she returned home.
When she entered the building, the light was out, the door was opened, she tried to manual light it but it was too wet, meaning she had to walk up the stairs in the dark. Joan was out of breath when she managed to get to her door in the third floor.
In the time it took her to reach her apartment her eyes adjusted to the dark in some degree letting her see the general shapes of the edification. The door was open, was it her that left it this way or did Jacob come in while she was away?
She came in and close the door behind her but it bounced back, she tried again but it came back. Using her hands, she examined the lock. Destroyed. Panic started to take over, taking a step back she closed her eyes even if there was no much difference from keeping them wide open.
The door was missing a piece; the lock was cut out or taken down.
Before she finished her second step, she tripped over something falling backwards. She hit her head in something somehow soft and humid like a wet mattress but warm, the sound she made seems to have alerted someone inside as she heard footsteps.
“Joan Collins is that you?” Asked a strange voice.
“Ye- Yes, it is me this… this is my apartment, who are you?” She asked while trying to regain her footing.
“I’m a friend of Jacob from work, you see he asked me to come help him with the clean-up of this job” He said as he walked towards her, some kind of oil lamp resting on his right hand.
His appearance was obscured by the flame movement. His hair colour could have ranged from blonde to a light red, curly and medium in length barely covering his ears. His prominent nose and the position of the flame helped him cover most of his face in a shadow.
“So, this is some kind of art installation? It smells weird and it is dark any way” She could not understand the shape of the object she landed on as she tried to stand. “And what about the door? You did that?”
“Well… I call it art, not sure what you gonna call it, darling, as for the door that was the guards, not us” As he came closer, she noticed a scar starting in the centre of his lower lip, rising towards his left eye, she could not see the end but the damage on his upper lip made the fang visible which gave Joan a chill down her spine.
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“The guards? What are you taking about?” She asked as she finally regained her footing.
“I think this will help you understand” This time it was Jacob’s voice coming from the darkness. Accompanied by the sound of a thunder bolt she lights turned on along with the fires, the brightness blinding her, forcing her to hide her face in her arm.
It took her some time to adjust to the light and after she did, she felt confused. The apartment was a disaster, holes covered most of the walls, and her precious library was cut in three sections with the coffee table going halfway through the wall where the library used to be.
The man looked better with the lights on, the flame light made him look more macabre. He was small one sixty-five and skinny to the bone his hair was ginger and the scar came up to his forehead barely missing the eye. He was wearing a dark red shirt with some kind of shoulder protection two pale white bracelets and white leather pants.
Jacob opposite to his friend was wearing an all-black outfit, leather coat and gloves slightly covered in what seemed as red paint and his hair short and dyed dark brown.
She was still thinking on how her father would punish her after this mess when she noticed two figures, one small was placed on the floor looking down, the other sitting by Jacob’s side as would a pair of drunken friends.
“Who are those two? Alcoholic friends of yours I suppose” She shouted more than asked.
“You don’t recognize your friends?” He lifted the head of the small man. “This are the guards that have been following you, last two weeks, I broke their necks, so you can thank me any time now”
Jacob raised a hand and slowly lifted the head of one of them for Joan to look at his face. It was judiciary Grif.
“Whaaaaaaaa, don’t joke around like that, you would never hurt anyone you are a vegetarian for a reason, now seriously what is the judiciary doing here?” When she finished Jacob let go of the head. Terror began to crawl in her back as the head fell hitting the floor hard with a wet noise.
“Don’t worry they did not suffer; I am a civilized man and as such I gave them a quick almost painless death. My counterpart on the other hand is more of a brute” Jacob responded looking at his partner as he crossed his arms.
“I am an artist you prick! Just look at it, I know it is not symmetrical but is the best I could do with the materials at hand” He was signalling the wall behind her and she knew she could not turn around, instead she closed her eyes turned slowly towards the door and started walking as the two men argued on what art was.
“STOP” She did not identify who gave the order but she was not going to stay. However, after just two steps into a sprint she was caught by some kind of rope to the knees making her fall.
It was some kind of metal wire; she guessed aluminium by its texture but at the same time it was impossible for an aluminium wire to be flexible enough for it to tangle in that way to her body.
“I came here to take you because they told me you had amazing raw power; the higher ups said you completely destroyed a professor just because she was an annoying bitch. But look at you! Is she really her mate?” That was the other man speaking.
Joan turned to have a look at how she was captured. A wire came out of his jacket’s arm and made several turns around going up along her legs, the wire had nothing at its end so by any logic it should be easy to get out of it.
“Yes, Bartolomeo she is the one. But as I already explained she just broke the glass and maybe expanded the water so it managed to kill her professor, it was not intentional. She has no control over her power.”
He was taking nonsense; she tried to ignore them and untangle herself from the wire but as soon as she touched the wire it tightened. She tried again grabbing the tip, this time the wire moved on its own as a snake and with a whip like movement made a deep wound on the back of her forearm. The pain made her scream and with it she got Jacob’s attention.
He took a deep breath and as he placed his hand over his face rubbing his eyes he added.
“Don’t damage the product, it may not be as good as the information mentioned but it is still HIS property”
Joan was silent, she knew not what to say or what to do, and they were talking of her like an object, like property, like a
SLAVE.
“If you want to get technical it is not his property until we deliver and a “collar” is placed, so we can do whatever we like with her as long as she is not badly … damaged” As he paused, he jerked his arm backwards pulling the wire and tightening the grip on her legs.
“We were sent to capture and contain, and that is what we did, now we wait for the extraction, it is going to be close to ten minutes so don’t damage the product.” Jacob’s tone was authoritarian; they were colleagues but they did not care for one another in the slightest.
“Ten? That is more than enough time for what I have in mind, I’ll be using your old room I’m sure you won’t mind” A sinister smile rose from his lips as he said those words.
“My old room? What are you blathering ab…” as Jacob realized what his partner was referring to, he seemed to become visibly sick. “Just… get out of my sight I don’t want to know anything on the subject” He finished as he gave Bartolomeo a signal to leave.
The first pull of the wire worked as a wakeup call to Joan, she had been in a state of disbelieve since they started the discussion.
Turning around she started to crawl, she reached for any surface she was able to gasp. Her efforts however were for not. The man was strong, even if she was not physically strong, he could move her with close to no effort, his lean figure showed nothing of his true strength.
As they reached the living room Joan pushed herself to the side and managed to get a hold of the kitchen archway. She knew it only took one pull to get her back moving, she was weak and the wall was covered in blood that came down from the “art piece” this monster had created, she was terrified to open her eyes but movement from the cable made her look towards her attacker.
“That’s the spirit, it would not be entertaining unless you try to defend yourself” Bartolomeo as standing still with a wide smile on his scared face.
The wire on the other hand was moving, slowly crawling and turning around her body as a snake strangling its pay. It took no more than three seconds to get a grip on both her arms and her neck, but instead of choking the air out of her it began to tighten in certain directions forcing her to let go of the wall and placed her arms on her back and her knees to her chest.
“I may not look like it but I once was a city guard, I hated most of it but I am more grateful than knot” Silence fell on the room, after some seconds Bartolomeo lost himself to anger. “That was a joke you bitch, you should laugh” He said that last word and the wires tightened al across her body taking her breath way and placing her in excruciating pain.
“I was going to be gentle; but you are a rude girl so I might go all out. You know; the leader doesn’t let me torture people often, cause they break easy, but it is my favourite hobby” He began to walk again towards the room, this time Joan had no way to get grip of something, she tried to move to be able to get an arm out but she was totally immobilised by the wire.
When her feet reached the entrance to Jacob’s’ old room she stopped struggling and took a deep breath.
“HELP!!!” she shouted with all she had. “HELP!!!”
Jacob was graving an old book and sat on what was left of the sofa.
“Don’t bother, we took care of any who could interfere in the building, no one is coming to your aid” He avoided looking at her like he regretted not helping or was not able to do something. His voice had been calm but he tightened the grip on the book. “No permanent damage, I am not dealing with your bullshit this time”
“Don’t worry leader, only superficial wounds” He responded before entering the room.
Bartolomeo placed her on the centre of the room before going back and closing the door. He loosened up on the wire letting her legs go but maintaining her arms at her back.
Joan stayed still as long as she could be waiting for him to get close. As soon as he got close, she kicked with all her might hoping she could knock him out.
Bartolomeo took the hit on the lower jaw making him take a step back as blood came out. But his reaction was not what she expected
“Nith hith, dam, thik you took part of mi tongue” he started to laugh but was interrupted by a cough caused by the blood blocking the airflow.
“You fucking bastard, stay away from me or I will kill you” She meant what she just said, the fear that maintained her in place was replaced by anger and determination, she was not going to let this maniac treat her like a toy.
He seemed happy of how things turned out, he seemed like a puppy playing with a new toy. Joan was throwing furious volleys of kicks as soon as he got close maintaining him at bay at least to gain some time.
“FIVE MINUTES” Jacob shouted from the living room alerting his partner he had no time to waste.
“Sorry love seems you are out of time for our game, I will be taking control now” He lifted two fingers and with them the wire tightened. Joan was forced down and once more her knees were slammed to her chest.
“NO! LET ME GO!” Joan tried to move but was held in place by the wire. “Let me go you BASTARD!” She could not see his face, she could barely turn her head, her shoulder blocking most of her view.
She was no longer scared, that part ended when she was able to kick him in the face, now she felt frustrated and infuriated with everything; especially with herself for actually hoping she could knock him out and escape. Bartolomeo was a sadist, he knew how to torture the body and mind of his victims, and she fell for the simplest psychological torture there was.
Finally, he took action, she felt the knot lightened as his hands pulling her up, her face against a wall the wire stiffened to maintain them in position. By how she was restrained he wanted to whip her or something similar. She struggled, used all her strength to get rid of her restrains, this time she felt something. The wire was now shining more somehow, her right hand felt as it was inside an oven the temperature rising and moving up to the elbow. She felt the tension leaving the wire bit by bit.
She knew not what was happening but her instincts told her what to do. She waited as Bartolomeo took out a small knife from his belt. Joan with her arms and legs trembling out of anger, used all her self-control to keep it in until it was the right moment. Bartolomeo approached her and as soon as she felt the blade cut her upper back, she exploded.
A burning sensation accompanied by a wave of pain came down to her arm and back with a thunderous noise, she felt lost by the shock for some seconds but after she regain her senses, she felt light, the wire was still there but there was no strength behind it. It took her no more than a second before she was able to free her hands.
The door came down before she could inspect her arm, Jacob came from other side holding huge needle between each finger. He looked to his left and when he returned, he noticed Bartolomeo, Joan was not aware of what she just did but seeing his body she knew it was not something a human could do.
His head was burned black as charcoal and a chunk of his left cheek was missing along with his ear, the smell of burned flesh covered the air making Joan nauseous.
With a deep laugh Jacob kicked his partner’s corpse.
“Useless idiot” She could see his breath as he spoke, it was looking almost solid. He looked at Joan “Seems like you are more capable than I thought, that was gorgeous” That was all he said before slamming her head to the ground.