Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Renewal of the Forgotten ❯ Mistress of Darkness ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Pain...cold...blinding darkness. A pounding in her head. She moved only to find her limbs were bound tightly together. She attempted to sit up at least, but this made the pounding in her head intensify which only served to disorient her in this abyss of darkness. Laying back down was the only way to relieve the pain in her head. But it was the only relief she had. The cool stone floor did nothing to rid her of her fears, nor did it answer the questions of where she was or how she got here. It had been nearing midnight when she left her dorm room to make use of the restroom facilities. She had just finished up and began washing her hands when she caught a glimpse of something in the mirror. One of the stall doors was moving of its own accord...no, not of its own accord. Someone was behind the door. The silhouette of a man. She opened her mouth to scream, but the scream never left her mouth. Next thing she knew she was here. Bound and beaten in a deathly cold room with a headache fit to split an atom.

She had no sense of time here. Whether she’d been here only minutes, hours, or perhaps even days she did not know. Nor did she know what had happened to her while she was out, and she shuddered to think of the many courses of action that may have been taken with her unconscious body. Tears began to well up in her eyes at the thoughts of what more she would be subjected to while she was here. Many times she wondered how long it would be before she was dead.

Loud noises issued from the next room; yelling and banging around, glass shattering. It sounded like a bar room brawl.

And then a door opened...

A thin stream of light appeared in the crack at the door. She squeezed her eyes tight shut as it hit her square in the face making her eyes water. The light was soon blocked out by the silhouettes of two large, beefy looking men. They came towards her and picked her up off the ground as if she were nothing more than a rag doll. All she could do was pray she lived through this. The men’s nails dug painfully into her flesh as they dragged her out into the adjoining room. She struggled to force her eyes to adjust to the light but they still saw nothing more than vague blurs. The men dropped her on the ground, under the shadow of a tall figure.

“Ah...so the little wench is finally awake,” said the honey venomed voice of a woman. The girl felt a pressure on her cheek as the woman used a pointed boot to tilt her head upwards. The woman’s face was shadowed by the halo of light around her head provided by the overhead fixture. She heard the woman snort, but whether in disgust or amusement she wasn’t sure.

“What would you like us to do with her, My Lady,” asked one of the men. The woman removed her boot from the girl’s face.

“I would like for you to shut up, and only speak when you are spoken to,” she replied calmly, but there was an unmistakable malice in her voice. She returned to examining the girl’s face. “Foul little creatures, aren’t they? Pitiful. Even the strongest of them wouldn’t be able to kill a Child.”

“Wha...what are you talking about,” the girl finally spoke, though her voice cracked from not being used in what seemed like years.

“So the abomination speaks does it,” the woman laughed maliciously. She leaned down so her face was mere inches from the girl’s.

“Tell me girl...what is your name?”

As she spoke a humid stench wafted from her mouth and washed over the girl’s face. The smell was like a hundred rotting sunbaked corpses. At once the girl began choking, gagging, her eyes began streaming. She would have given anything at the moment to vomit, and vomit again to rid herself of the vile, putrid smell assaulting her but her stomach would not relinquish its contents.

“I’ll ask you one last time girl: what is your name?”

“K-Kasey,” she finally managed to choke out.

“Ah, Kasey, yes...” she whispered. “And do you know where you are, Kasey?”

She managed out a ‘no’ between fits of coughing.

“I thought not. All you humans are the same. No sense of anything outside your own little world.”

Just like when she said ‘Child’ earlier, Kasey found the woman’s sentence a bit peculiar.

“What...do you mean...you’re a human too...aren’t you,” she choked out again. And like someone had hit a switch, the woman’s temper flared. In a flash the woman had grabbed Kasey by the face and pulled her up into a sitting position.

“Open your eyes, girl!”

Kasey managed to stave off her coughing fit long enough to open her eyes, which had finally adjusted to the light in the room. For the first time she could see the woman’s face clear as day, and for the first time since she had woken up she wished she hadn’t opened her eyes.

The woman’s flesh was pale as death, almost matching the color of her long silvery-white hair which fell limp and unhealthy around her shoulders. Her outfit was almost exclusively made of black leather: A leather corset with a skull insignia that pushed painfully up on her breasts; tight leather pants with the left leg completely torn away exposing her corpse-like skin; mid-calf length boots; arm length gloves; and a mask that covered the top half of her face. For the finishing touch thick metal chains draped around her arms like a shawl.

“Look at me! Do I look human to you,” the woman raged. The girl’s wide eyed fearful expression was enough of an answer for her. “And look at them!” She twisted the girl’s head and neck around until she was facing the two ‘men’ that had brought her in to the room. Men they certainly were not she realized, now that she had a good look at them. A cross between a bear, dog, and a Muppet more like. Their thick, hulking bodies were covered in dense brown fur, massive horns sticking out from their shoulders. They wore strange horned helmets with faces crudely scribbled on them, like deranged hockey masks, and their ears were like a springer spaniel’s except that they were the color of dying moss. They grinned at the girl almost cartoonishly with their wide lips.

“Do they look human to you?!”

Kasey whimpered in pain as the ‘woman’ tightened her grip on her cheeks, nearly skewering them with her long, sharp nails.

“How dare you lot us in with you pathetic beings,” she paused then laughed before continuing in a much gentler voice, “but of course, your knowledge is limited. I suppose I should just pity you all for your ignorance. But the fact is you disgust me. You humans created computers, created the internet and everything that goes along with it, and yet you don’t even realize the extent of all that you’ve done. It’s sickening to think that our world was created by a bunch of half-wit creatures trying to play god! HA! Boasting about your technological advances and yet with all your devices you’ve failed to detect the existence of an entire world, one that you see evidence of EVERY DAY! You’re all just too STUPID to see what’s right in front of your faces!”

She let out a laugh fitting of a classic Disney villain. She walked over to a table and picked up a cigarette and a holder, lit it and took a drag.

“W-what are you going to do with me?” Kasey asked in a frightened whisper. Death’s pale mistress looked down at her with a depraved smile and laughed.

“Make you SUFFER!”

A cold hand seemed to grip the girl’s heart...

“Ow..don’t be so rough,” the girl pleaded. The furry brown behemoths only grunted with laughter in response. With no effort at all they cast her back into the dark room from which she woke up. She hit the stone floor hard, scraping some skin off one of her arms, and rolled a couple times stopping only when she hit something soft and warm. A dog...no. After what she saw in the previous room she doubted it was any earthly creature. She didn’t dwell on the thought long though, for she gasped as the bitter air began to bite at the raw flesh on her arm. She couldn’t tend to it, not with her limbs still bound together. She knew she wouldn’t be able to take much more of this, she wasn’t strong.

There was movement behind her. The thing she hit, it was moving. Kasey held her breath, waiting in anticipation.

“Who’s there?” said a groggy voice. The girl did not respond. What should she say?

“I said who’s there?” The waking voice was growing more agitated. “If she sent you here...”

“No...I...please, don’t hurt me,” Kasey finally interrupted. It was the other voice’s turn to pause in thought.

“Wha? Hold on, let me get the light.”

Kasey felt the other - person, for lack of a better word - brush past her. There was a click and a dull yellow light buzzed into existence overhead. Lying on her side and not in any position to move freely and painlessly, she couldn’t turn herself enough to see the face of her roommate. Instead she was only able to see two black-furred dog feet and the end of what she assumed was a bushy black tail.

“Oh, my,” the voice said under its breath. “What has she done?” The voice was almost fearful now. Without another word Kasey’s new ‘roommate’ kneeled down next to her and began to undo her bindings. With an almost overwhelming relief the girl’s limbs were finally free. She tried pushing herself into a sitting position but winced and fell slack against the cold stone floor. Every movement seemed to take more energy than it was worth. Seeing the pain it was causing the girl the dog-footed female presence(Kasey assumed she was female by her voice) picked her up and propped her against the wall a few feet away. She tenderly rubbed a sore, red wrist with her hand.

“Are you okay?”

Kasey looked up to find herself facing some sort of anthropomorphic black fox. The fox tilted her head and scrutinized the raw part of the girl’s arm. “I have something that will help that.”

The fox went to the corner where a musty old moth-eaten mat lay and dug underneath it to retrieve a small, plain looking metal container. After replacing the mat she knelt at the girl’s side.

“Let me see your arm.”

Kasey didn’t question her and held out her arm. The fox twisted off the lid of the container. Inside was a thick, light green substance that smelled vaguely like Aloe which she began applying generously to the human’s arm and afterwards to other visible cuts and abrasions.

“I’m BlackRenamon by the way. You can just call me Renamon though.”

“I’m Kasey.”

BlackRenamon had finished tending to her wounds and put the tin back under the mat, then she sat down in front of the girl.

“I bet you go through a lot of that stuff.” commented Kasey. BlackRenamon let out a hollow laugh.

“I use more of that stuff than I can count on all my toes. But it helps.”
Silence followed as Kasey continued to rub her sore wrist.

“Kasey, may I ask how you got here? Humans aren’t really a usual sighting here if you might have noticed.”

Kasey thought back for a moment. “...I’m not sure how I got here. The last thing I remember...I was in the bathroom washing my hands. A man came out of one of the stalls. At least I think it was a man. I think he hit me over the head, but I can’t remember. It would be the reason why my head hurts so much.”

BlackRenamon put her chin in her paw as she thought. “It sounds like one of LadyDevimon’s goons got to you. But what I don’t understand is why she went to all the trouble to bring you here.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, it’s common knowledge that LadyDevimon has it out for all humans. Since you’re here she has obviously found a way to travel between our worlds. It’s something she’s been working on for a while. But as well as I know her, she’d be more likely to just kill you.”

Kasey was almost afraid to ask her next question. “So...so why didn’t she kill me.”

“That’s what I can’t figure out. You must mean something to her. There has to be something about you that’s unlike other humans, that would be the only reason why she’d keep you alive.”

“I’m just an average college student. I went to Running Start, but lots of kids go through that program. It’s not that unusual.”

BlackRenamon continued to wrack her brain but no explanation for LadyDevimon’s actions came to her. She watched the human girl curiously. Kasey sat with her arms wrapped around herself, one eye bruised, a scratch coming across her nose and one cheek, dressed in a tank top and pajama pants; she was probably rather cold. She appeared to be nothing more than a sad, beaten little girl. What made her so different?

“Would you like something to drink?”

The girl looked up. “Yes, but...we’re not even allowed out of here are we?”

“We’re not allowed out of that door, no,” she pointed to the door that Kasey was hastily thrown in through, “It’s locked most of the time anyway. It’s only unlocked when she needs to yell at us. That door however we can go in and out of as we please.” And she pointed to a door that Kasey hadn’t noticed before. Then she realized she hadn’t taken a proper look around the room, not that it was needed. It was a small, plain rectangular room with walls made of stone. No windows, just the two doors; one in the wall right next to where they were sitting, the bed on the other side of where it would open. The locked door was on the far end of the adjacent wall. Lastly was the light hanging from the ceiling that made the room look like a mine.
BlackRenamon stood and offered her paw to Kasey. She took it and the fox like creature pulled her to her feet. Then she opened the unlocked door and led the girl into a very well lit and clean kitchen.

“I assume LadyDevimon wants me to show you your duties.” She pulled a glass from the cupboard, filled it with water from the tap, and handed it to Kasey. “You have to do a lot of assuming when you work for her, or in our case, are forced into slave labor for her. You won’t know that you were supposed to do something until she comes to beat you for not doing it.” She filled a glass of water for herself.

Kasey finished her water before replying. “That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”

“That’s LadyDevimon for you. And harsh is hardly a strong enough word for her.” She took a sip of her water.

“So what are we supposed to do here?”

“Right, your duties.” She finished her water and set the glass on the counter. “This place is called ‘Mistress of Darkness’. It’s a hot spot for digimon of the dark and evil persuasion. It’s a casino, lounge, and restaurant. We are basically the clean-up crew. Mostly we wash dishes here in the kitchen. No one else does them because they think it’s funny to give the slaves more work.”

Kasey then noticed that the kitchen was oddly empty. “Is that why no one else is in here?”

“Oh, no. It’s empty right now because it’s one in the afternoon. No one really gets here until six-ish.” Kasey nodded. “Now besides dishes we also have to bus some of tables. Sometimes we have to take orders. Those are our main duties, but we sometimes have to be ready to do anything we’re told to do. If we have events going on we have to announce them. We’ll sometimes have to make drinks at the bar, and I’ll show you how to make them in a little bit. Lastly we have to run and tend to LadyDevimon’s every whim.... Would you like some more water?”

Kasey nodded again. BlackRenamon refilled her glass and handed it back to her. The took a long sip.

“I’ve been wondering...why are you here?”

BlackRenamon looked down at her feet. “It’s...slightly complicated.” She sat on the kitchen counter. “A few years ago LadyDevimon recruited me to work for her. I am a dark digimon myself. For a while I was her number one employee, despite being a low level digimon. I got things done quickly and efficiently. I did all of her dirty work. No matter what she asked me to do, I got it done, no questions asked. You could say I was her lap dog.

“I was a real bitch. I ran this floor and if the other ‘employees’ didn’t grovel at my feet when I came to speak with them I made them pay. So everyone listened to me and followed my orders exactly because they knew the consequences. A lot of my behavior I probably learned from LadyDevimon by being around her so much.”

“You don’t seem so mean now.” replied Kasey. She had finished her second glass of water and then sat on the island counter across from BlackRenamon.

“No. No I’m not that digimon anymore. Something changed me one day. We had employed a new digimon. She was small and shy and she wouldn’t hurt a fly. She was to do a lot of the jobs we’re doing now. Every day I saw her verbally and physically abused by the others...even by me...mostly by me. One day I had gone to reprimand her for making a mess of yet another task. I had raised my paw to smack her but before I could strike she smacked me instead. I was taken aback. I looked at her and she was no longer this shy little digimon anymore. She had this vengeful look in her eyes. All of a sudden I had a flashback from my younger days, memories I had forgotten, or more likely I had repressed. These flashbacks reminded me that once, a long time ago, I was treated the same way I was treating this poor digimon.”

“That’s so sad.” Kasey remarked. BlackRenamon nodded in agreement.

“After that day I felt like I was in a daze. The others said I was losing my touch. They laughed at me because I let the new employee rattle me. A couple just thought I needed a vacation. A few days later LadyDevimon had called me to her private lounge, as she had on many occasions, and requested that I severely beat the new employee because she had irritated her. I absolutely refused to do it. That little digimon had made me realize that this wasn’t the life I wanted anymore. I used to be good. I knew that, somewhere deep inside.

“At first LadyDevimon thought I was joking with her. But I disobeyed her again. She practically exploded, she was so angry with me. She beat me very badly, I was close to death. Now I’m here.”

There was a long silence. Kasey had no idea what to say to her. She decided it would be better to look down at the floor. BlackRenamon slid of the counter and put their glasses in the sink.

“Come on,” BlackRenamon finally spoke, “I should show you how to mix the drinks before the early crowd gets here.” Kasey slid off the counter to join her. “This door leads to the lounge area in front of the bar.” She held open the door for the girl. The girl exited the kitchen and she was about to follow when something caught her eye. She turned back and notice something black sitting on the island counter where Kasey previously was.

“Is that yours?” she asked the girl. Kasey came back into the kitchen.

“Is what mine?”

“That.” And she pointed to the black item. Both of them walked toward the counter to examine it. It was solid black with black buttons, about the size of Kasey’s fist and looked vaguely like a small handheld game. Kasey picked it up and as sudden as a lightning strike it gave off a very bright, short burst of light, and afterwards a red LED light came to life in the top right of the device. BlackRenamon’s eyes got big. “What is that?”

Kasey shook her head. “I have no idea.”

~~~

Author’s Note: Finally got around to finishing this chapter. I’m quite proud of it. I’ve been shuffled around quite a bit the past month and a half so it’s been difficult to get things done. Unfortunately before I get the next chapter out I have to do some character drawings since I’ll be adding some of my own digimon creations to the story. My goal is to work on getting some of my projects done this summer so I won’t get this far behind on my projects again. For those of you that actually read my story I really hope you enjoyed this chapter.