Death Note Fan Fiction ❯ Taming the Tiger ❯ Play Time for Monsters ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: Nothing to say.

Warning: More Mello abuse.

Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Takeshi Obata.

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Mello woke the next... was it morning? He couldn't tell. Either way, he figured he had slept for about three hours. It was the sound of the door opening that woke him. This time, though, it was the thin man who entered the room. He was pale, so much so that he nearly glowed, and that was how Mello recognized him. He was abnormally thin and abnormally pale. Mello smiled at his approach. This man was good. This man had never hurt him, never laid a hand on him. This was the man who brought him food and water. He never spoke, this man, but that was alright. He wasn't violent and that was good enough. The food was better than good enough.

Mello waited until the thin man was gone to investigate the food he had left. It seemed to be something similar to oatmeal. Then again, Mello was so starved that he would eat anything right now. He tried not to eat too fast, for fear of making himself sick and wasting precious food, but it still took him almost no time to devour what he had been given.

Of course, Mello knew that feeding him was also an excuse to bring him out to play. After all, they would joke, Mello was still a kid. Just that made Mello feel sick. They considered him a kid, but they still did those things to him. He just hoped that they wouldn't decide to take him out today. But no sooner had he finished that thought than the door creaked open again.

“Hey there, kiddo,” the man laughed menacingly. “Why dontcha come out en play?”

Mello tried not to cringe as the man clipped a leash to the collar they had placed around his neck. It served as a constant reminder that he was their dog. The skin beneath it was rubbed red and raw and had been for weeks now. He was almost certain it was infected. Not that any of that mattered to the man at the other end of the leash. No, he was just their plaything, a mere toy for these disgusting animals.

There was a sharp tug on the leash and he closed his eyes against the bright light. In all truth it was only typical strip lighting like one might expect to find in an industrial building, but to Mello's light-starved eyes it was blinding. He could hear the snickering of five or six men. He opened his eyes to see who had gathered this time. The thin man was absent, as was usual, but so was the cruellest man who Mello assumed to be their leader. That was odd. He never seemed to miss a chance to torture him. Then he felt something heavy collide with the back of his head. Oh. Maybe he was there.

One of the men, a big ugly brute with brown hair and a jagged scar running down the left side of his face, made a grab at him. Without thinking he clamped his teeth down on the hand that had found its way to his face. He actually managed to land a punch on the foul creature before he was restrained and thrown to the ground. Then a black boot connected with his temple and he saw no more.

When Mello woke he was lying in his cell. He tried to sit up, but found that he couldn't. He was covered in cuts and bruises and he was certain he had a few broken bones. He tried to take a deep breath to calm his nerves and winced as a sharp pain shot through his chest. It was difficult to breathe at all, actually. And he couldn't feel his right arm. Silently he wondered just how much more of this he could take. He had been beaten with chilling frequency, but they had never injured him this badly. And it wasn't as though he had never tried to fight back before. Perhaps they didn't plan on keeping him around much longer...

Closing his eyes, he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. Finding that to be impossible, he gave up and simply sprawled out on his back, willing sleep to come and take his pain away.