"Liam… LIAM"
He lay on the floor, motionless. The woman continued to scream at him the name he did not own anymore. He finally made eye contact with her.
A split second later, a carriage whip cracked across his face, hitting his bad eye and sending a tuft of blonde hair flying. "You will NEVER respond to that name again, do you hear me?" He winced at the lady's aggressive tone. She lit a cigarette and kicked him impatiently as he huddled away in fear. "I said, do you hear me?!"
Fearing another spleen-shattering bootfull, he screeched a hoarse yes and curled up even tighter. His timid young body betrayed the anger that had been building in him since the ordeal started. He heard the boots stomp away from him towards the exit of his dark cell. The cruel woman exited and returned moments later with a dark lump slung over her arm. She threw it at him, and he discovered it to be a uniform of sorts.
"Your new name is Black. You will be required to wear that uniform at all times apart from hygiene block at 0630." Her voice was flat and stern, and her freakish blue-green hair was now visible. "Do you understand, Liam?"
"Y-yes" he stammered for only an instant. The final kick and whipping made him pass out.
The woman put her cigarette out on his earlobe before leaving.
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A few days later, a ragged man by the name of Joseph Dogwood showed up at the blue haired woman's humid office. The guards only barely let him in, despite having the go-ahead from their boss. Exhausted, he crumbled to the floor, his business suit was stained and torn and he smelled like something a cat threw up after dragging in. He had a decent blonde scruff going that reached up to his ears. She knew immediately who he was after seeing him.
"You continue to disrespect me even to this day." She slammed a glass full of water down onto her wood and marble desk. She could tell he was thirsty and likely hadn't consumed anything but his own sweat for the past few days. To her surprise, he stared at her instead of the water.
"I am only at your mercy, cupcake," Joseph spat. She immediately flew into rage and stood up threatening to throw an iron 3 hole-punch. He maintained his glare. "If you won't give him back to me, then kill me now. I've made my peace with this world. Just know that what you remember is not what really went down that night." There wasn't a drop of crudeness or sarcasm in his voice by the end of the sentence. His life had drained from him.
She let fly the hole punch en-route to his head, but he nimbly dodged the weighty projectile. A sharp pain brought him back to his knees and he doubled over. She screeched at him angrily, "I should have had you killed on sight! Both you and that damned slut of yours!" He merely smiled wearily and rose to his feet.
"I owe you nothing; you've taken what is yours. But it is more than you would ever want from me. You'll find out what I mean sooner or later." And with that, he turned to leave. Seeing an opportunity, the woman grabbed her .44 magnum from her desk and with a well guided hand sent Joseph Dogwood to the afterlife.
Her guards moved in and immediately started cleaning up what was left of Joseph Dogwood. Her attendant entered and stepped over the mess as if it would come back and take its revenge on him instead. "Miss Jade," he asked, "we can't cause any trouble with that foreigner around town, what should we tell Mrs- um, Mr. Dogwood's fiancée?"
"Tell her Joseph died of dehydration," she stated without emotion.
"And if she asks about the boy?" The assistant seemed very tense from all of the commotion.
Jade turned to her underling with a stern look in her eyes, only just shy of wild. "Tell her that we will break him, break him until he doesn't remember her or his father or even his damned sister, if you could call her that. If she keeps asking questions, dispose of her." She turned from him and grabbed a pill bottle and the glass of water from her desk, and she exited to the lavatory.
Once she made it into the bathroom, she hastily locked the door and opened the bottle. A cascade of transparent capsules flowed into her hand only to be swallowed moments later with a gulp of the stale, room-temperature water. She couldn't get Joseph out of her head, as if she inhaled part of him as his brain disintegrated. He was dead, but not dead enough to her. Another handful of pills and she floated beyond any sort of coherence.