The coffee shop was buzzing with conversation. The people within were blissfully unaware of the immanent disaster. It was a busy Saturday morning uneventful, as Saturdays always tended to be. Nicole sat with her friend nursing a frappacino, something that had seemed like a good idea at the time but was fast becoming less appealing.
"So what was it like?" asked Nicole in a hushed tone. She was filled with a strange sort of curiosity.
"It's not as big a deal as everyone seems to make over it," said Melanie quietly, she appeared thoughtful, "It hurts at first, but after a while you get used to it."
"Still, getting your tongue pierced, that must have annoyed your mum," Melanie stuck out the aforementioned piercing and waved it around a little. They laughed at the childish gesture.
"She was a bit miffed, but it's my body. I think she was annoyed about how much it cost more than anything," she said with a grimace.
"I suppose, I'd never have the guts to get mine..." the air was torn apart by an explosion cutting short the end of Nicole's sentence. There was silence, save the car alarms and then the screaming began. The wails blended together, as Nicole raised her head from the ground and crawled over to where her friend lay.
"Mellie..." she whispered gently touching her shoulders, the girls eyes flew open and expression of pain rippled across her face, "Mellie we gotta get out of here."
"I can't move," she whispered, her voice was tiny. As if her lungs were barely working.
Nicole looked down at the safety glass embedded in her friends stomach and was horrified by the impossibility of it. The glass was supposed to shatter into tiny pieces, this sort of thing was not supposed to happen.
"It's ok," said Nicole quietly, "I'll get help."
Melanie's hand grabbed weakly onto her shoulder but it was enough to pull Nicole back, "Don't leave me, I don't want to die... I don't want to be alone."
"I have to get help," she begged her friend, but the girl would not listen. Melanie's eyes were already going hazy.
Nicole looked around and saw a man in odd clothing staring down at her. He wore a black cloak and carried a strange stick in his hand. She reached out to him.
"Please you have to help us, she's hurt badly, we need to get her to a doctor," he just stared at her, not moving, his grey eyes taking in the scene before him with what seemed to be a smirk. "Please..."
She begged again, wondering why he did not help them, wondering why he did nothing. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder pulling her up beside him. Melanie screamed as her friend let go of her hand, and Nicole fought against his harsh grip.
"Please what are you doing we have to help her," shouted Nicole pulling desperately away from him. She heard her friend begging her to come back and she fought harder.
He laughed at her then, "Your pleas will get you nowhere girl."
He pointed the strange stick within his hand at her friend and mumbled some words in a language she could not understand. A flash of green light hit Melanie in the chest and she lay still.
"Welcome to the new world order," She looked up at him without comprehension as the world around them disappeared. One single word escaped her lips.
"Mellie?" Then all was silence.
It was a warm day in June when the wizards took over. Someone somewhere had failed and the world would suffer the consequences.
XOXOX
It was explained to Nicole that she was Muggle scum. It seemed that her position was to serve the dark ones, as she called them, in whatever way they saw fit, or she would die. There were others like her. She knew some of them from before. Others she had never met despite living in the same town as them. They went to different schools, or were in different years. They were given a number she was told she was Seven. Nicole accepted it, and stayed silent. After a while they gave up trying to make her talk believing her to be mute.
The one with the grey eyes watched her, she was careful around him. It was harder to stay vacant when the sight of him made her want to scream. Nicole was never touched, the others were and she listened to their tears every night. For some reason the men left her alone. It seemed they found her silence off putting. The words of one rang in her head, the best piece of inadvertent advice she had ever received, 'Where's the fun if they don't scream?'
Time passed as it always does and life settled into a rhythm under the new regime. Nicole knew little of the world outside the fortress. It seemed to her as if it had simply ceased to be. She did not know about the resistance, at least not at first. Slowly she came to understand this new world she lived in. She waited for her chance to escape, waited for a chance to change things, and hid in her silence.
OXOXO
He was watching her again. The blonde one who had killed her best friend always watched her. Nicole found his gaze repellent. Every time she felt his silver eyes upon her she wanted to rip them out. She always hid it though. She kept her face blank and her voice silent, words made no difference here.
"Come here Seven," said a voice behind her. Turning she walked towards the wizard behind her, refilling his glass. In her head she called him Scar, because he reminded her of the character in the lion king. When the liquid reached the appropriate measure she pulled the jug away and waited to be dismissed, "What do you think of her then Victor? Does our mute meet as much of your approval up close as she did from a distance?"
The man next to him laughed, it was a deep and cruel sound which Nicole found she disliked. She kept her eyes upon the ground.
"I do like the younger ones," he drawled in a thickly accented voice, she felt a cold pool of fear in her stomach, "look me in the eye girl."
Nicole did as she was ordered keeping her face passive. His eyes were a yellow colour, She wondered what exactly he was before pushing the thought aside.
"No I find she is not to my taste, her eyes are vacant, I prefer them to have a little fire," She felt a flash of triumph at his words. Once again her blank stare protected her from their cruelty. These men liked to break things, they were all the same. They had no use for something already destroyed. In silence she was safe. She was still looking into his eyes as ordered and she saw a look of surprise cross his features, she worried that he had sensed her triumph. "Then again, she smells so sweet, the crazy ones always do."
Was she crazy? Nicole found herself wondering. She came to the conclusion that she was not. It was simply the world which had gone insane. She waited staring into his unusual amber eyes whilst he considered her. She hoped he would lose interest soon, she was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
"You may go," he said gently, she turned away and the blonde one motioned her over with his empty glass.
She walked to him and filled it up, since he had not spoken to her she assumed he wished her to complete the task and disappear. Once his glass was full she went to move backwards but he reached out a hand to stop her. He held onto her wrist and she had to fight not to drop the jug and run. Out of them all he was the one she hated. The one that even in her head she could not bear to name. He was the one who ignored her pleas and destroyed her world. His touch on her skin was more painful than a knife slicing through it. She stood completely still, not daring to breathe. Nicole wondered if he could sense her fear. She could feel his eyes upon her, staring at her as he always did. She kept her gaze on the ground.
"Playing with the mute now Lucius?" asked the man beside him, "I prefer the ones that scream personally, but I suppose silence has its appeal."
"Quite," was his only response, it sounded dangerous like he always did, "Go."
She obeyed his command and melted into the shadows. Nicole watched as some of the men found amusement with the other girls, some of them laughed, others did not. No one touched her that night. She was protected by her silence.
XOXOX
She looked around the empty room in shock, she was not supposed to be here. It was a supply room, she had opened the wrong door. Nicole could have hit herself for her own stupidity. It was as she was about to close the door and back out that she saw it. Before her upon one of the tables was a pile of sketch pads. It seemed ridiculous that they should be there. She could not imagine any of the men drawing, or sketching things, they were too vulgar for such a thoughtful talent. Nicole remembered how she used to draw things, how she could sit for hours and sketch an image. Slowly she walked over to the pile and picked one up, the pages were blank as she flicked through. They looked almost melancholy, as if they were waiting to be filled. She made a snap decision and hid it in her dress.
Looking around again Nicole noted a pile of pencils, sharpeners and rubbers. She grabbed some of those as well before she quietly excited the room. She completed her set task and on the way back she stopped off at the rooms provided for them and hid what she had stolen. She then quickly headed back to the Dark one. He might not beat her if she was lucky. She was certain she had taken no longer than usual. Bringing him the little box he had ordered her to collect she placed it into his pale waiting hands. No one commented on the length of her absence and she felt relief.
"So tell me Lucius, how did the raids proceed," ordered the Dark one.
The one she hated spoke evenly, nothing scared him, even his masters wrath, "We were unable to capture the Granger girl, but we managed to kill a few of the resistance."
Nicole listened in her blank interest, no one ordered her away. They assumed she was vacant. They talked often about this resistance and now she felt happiness whenever she heard of their triumphs. Worry filled her, one of them had died. She wondered which one it was.
"Good, but I'm disappointed," said the Dark one, "See that you kill the mudblood soon, it will cripple them and I need them on their knees."
"Yes my Lord," was the clipped reply. She hated his voice it was always so composed and restrained. It reminded her of ice. That was what he was, realised Nicole, pure ice that would never be melted.
She was the only one trusted to wait on them during these meetings, not even their elves held that honour. They were discussions for the ears of the inner circle only, yet they still must have their slave. She was like a trophy, displayed to remind them all of what they had conquered.
To Nicole they were fools. Just because she did not talk they assumed she could not. She knew that if she ever found this resistance then she would tell them everything she had learned. So she paid attention remembering every scrap and detail of the conversation and filing it away in her memory for later use. She would make them suffer for their crimes. She would destroy these men, these nightmares and shadows.
The Dark one opened the box and inside was a large blue stone. It looked like a sapphire but it could have as easily been a tinted crystal. Nicole had never really been able to tell the difference. To her stones were simply that, stones.
"Do you know what this is?" asked the Dark one, his high voice spreading through the room he did not wait for an answer. It was clear by the shock on the faces in the room that they all did, "This is the key to our victory."
It was then that Nicole decided that she would destroy that crystal. If it was the last thing she ever did she would see it shattered on the floor.
OXOXO
Staring at her prize she wondered what to do with it, she had everything she needed to draw but she had nothing to draw. After all, mused Nicole, what was there in this world worthy of remembrance? Looking round the room at the others it struck her. Caroline was next to her, and she was staring vacantly into the distance, her eyes were empty. There was a painful bruise down the side of her face and scratch marks on her neck. One of the men had been rough.
Slowly Nicole began to draw, she did not realise that the others had stopped to watch her. She did not notice when Caroline looked away and the other girls made her go back to her position. She did not even perceive the silence. Nicole just kept drawing, she sketched her face and her features first, and then some of her shoulders. After that she added in the shading and whilst she did so she remembered the girl that Caroline had once been. She remembered the times she had seen her laughing or happy. She put it all into the sketch and she ignored the blemishes caused by their fists. When it came to the eyes Nicole caught perfectly the way the light highlighted them. The eyes she drew on the page stared into the distance, but they were not vacant. They were far from it. In them they held depth and strength. The sketch on the page was of someone who was far from broken.
Slowly she put the pencil down and looked up to see them staring at her expectantly. She put the pad into Caroline's lap and the girl looked at it in surprise. After she had studied it a while she looked up at Nicole.
"This isn't me," she whispered. She seemed shocked, Nicole stared at her then picked up her pencil and wrote a name next to the sketch 'Caroline'. The girl looked at her in silence, her eyes seemed on the verge of tears, "But where are the bruises, the scratches, this is not me, I am Four. This is Caroline, it isn't me."
Some of the others crowded around to look at the image. They stared at it like they could barely comprehend what they saw. Everyone called each other by their numbers now; they had long ago given up on names. Names were the people they used to be. Seeing one on the page scared them, it was dangerous. The entire thing was dangerous but it was a way past the silence of the girl they never called Seven.
"Is this what you see when you look at us?" asked Emily. The room was quiet as they waited for an answer. Slowly Nicole caught her gaze and nodded just slightly. After that the others let her be and Nicole continued with her task, if they were a bit still when they felt her eyes on them, no one commented.
She filled up the pages of the pad with what she saw. That had always been what her art teacher had said, 'Draw what you see Nicole, not what you want to see.' Perhaps what she drew was not exactly true to life, but it was what she saw. If there were bruises she drew strength, if there were tears she drew bravery. When she thought of the men she drew their cruelty and their evil. A few weeks later when she came to the last page she drew something from memory. Nicole sketched her best friends face as she had smiled a minute before the attack, as she had been laughing. She drew it in detail, she remembered the freckle next to her eye and the curve of her lips. When she was finished she wrote a single word, 'Melanie'.
XOXOX
The next day when she returned to the room she found another blank pad beside the first one. Someone had seen that it was complete and stolen her another one. Nicole picked up the first pad and looked through it at the pictures she had created. It always amazed her how she managed to make a finished sketch. They seemed sacred, almost untouchable when they were complete. Slowly she put it back in its hiding place. She left the new pad where it was. She was done, there was nothing more to draw.
OXOXO
The wizards kept dogs. It was odd really considering they could probably cast a spell that was a more effective alarm. They wondered around the perimeter of the compound at night sniffling and biting. The other girls were afraid of the Rottweiler's, but Nicole was not. The task of feeding them was left to her. At first when she came by with the meat they snapped at her. Their yellow teeth bared as they barked. After a while however the dogs stopped seeing her as a threat.
Nicole was silent and gentle always, she never shouted or hit them and slowly when they smelt her coming they stopped growling. The one she called Sniffler even let her pet him. After that when she appeared they would bound up to her wagging their docked tales. Sometimes they went so far as to lick her. These supposedly violent dogs saw her as something to protect. Nicole had always had a way with animals.
One day as she absentmindedly tickled the one she called Sneaky under the chin she felt a pair of eyes staring at her. She stood still and waited. She knew it was him. He was the one who was always watching her. Sneaky seemed to pick up on her unrest. He turned to look at the man.
"Sit," he ordered Sneaky, but the dog did not listen. He moved protectively in front of Nicole and bared his teeth in a growl. She felt horror as she saw the man move his wand and the dog fell to the ground. It was dead. "A dog that does not obey orders is useless, his death is your fault Seven."
Nicole did nothing, she looked at the floor and waited. This man seemed intent upon killing the things she loved. She refused to give him another target.
"Come here Seven," she did as she was told and walked forwards to stand in front of him, "On your knees."
She again obliged still staring at the floor. He reached down and lifted up her chin forcing her to look into his eyes. Nicole repressed a shudder at his touch. He used his other hand to brush her hair behind her ear and she wanted to scream and rage and hit him. She could never do what she wanted to.
"What lies behind your empty eyes Seven?" he asked her quietly, his tone seemed gentle, "Those dogs attack the broken ones, the scent of weakness drives them to a frenzy. It brings out the violence in them. Yet it protected you. Seven, the first one to break, the empty shell, the symbol of what we have conquered." He paused, leaning down he twisted her hair in his hands and pulled her head back further, "What creature hides behind your careful facade?"
He trailed his fingers across her exposed throat as Nicole fought to control her screaming mind. She had to keep silent, she could not expose herself. As long as she was silent she was safe. Safe from what, her mind mocked her, from this? She ignored it concentrating on the blankness. Just whack him in the nuts and run. Urged another part of herself, the defiant part. His mouth touched her neck. No stay still, screamed her head, Stay still and he'll lose interest, he wants you to fight, if you don't give him what he wants he'll lose interest and you'll be safe.
After a few moments he pulled back and let her go. She remained perfectly still, exactly how he left her. He stood up and looked down at her contemplatively. Everything was silent for a while, it could have been moments or minutes. Nicole barely dared breathe, afraid of what he would do next.
"Go," he said, his voice was still gentle and she obliged him. She walked like she always did. Just before she reached the door he spoke.
"Oh and Seven," she waited for him to continue, "Come to my room tonight once you have finished your duties."
Nicole felt all the previous relief disappear. When she was sure he finished speaking she left. Her footsteps reverberated through the corridors like silent screams as her mind planned and panicked.
XOXOX
That day as she dusted and cleaned, and served as she always did her thoughts were elsewhere. She listened only for orders. At all other times she was planning an escape. An idea struck her as she refilled one of the men's glasses, if she was ill or injured then he might leave her alone. It was risky, maybe too risky. Yet if it worked it bought her time to plan an escape. One of the violent ones called her over.
"There all the same really, disgusting trash..." he did not stop his conversation with the wizard next to him as she poured. When the cup was full, she lifted the jug back with a little extra force and managed to spill some of the repulsive liquid over his hand and sleeve. He stopped mid sentence and turned to look at her in rage.
Nicole kept silent and vacant, praying her plan would work whilst fearing the consequences. He simply back handed her. The force of the slap knocked her off her feet and the jug in her hands went flying across the room. She landed with a thump, and bashed her head on the floor, knocking herself out. Before the darkness over took her she hoped that it was enough.
Later that night Nicole awoke with a head ache worse than any hangover. Caroline sat beside her, the girl held lightly onto her hand. It seemed she had been the one looking after her.
"It's ok, don't get up," Caroline told her when she opened her eyes, "You hit your head pretty hard, we were worried about you."
Nicole stared up at her quietly her eyes thanking her with the words she could not say, "Why did you do it Nicole?"
She whispered her name and it shocked her to the bone. Caroline had long ago given up on her own name, calling Nicole by hers gave her a wonderful flash of triumph, "You're always so careful, why did you give him a reason to hurt you?"
Nicole felt sleep drag over her again, she squeezed Caroline's hand lightly and then let herself go.
He did not order her to come to him again.
OXOXO
Days passed and nothing happened, she walked down the corridor alone. She was returning to her rooms to change, she had spilt a strange liquid down herself and Caroline had told her to clean herself up. She opened the door to the empty room, and sighed lightly as she closed it behind her. She was about to go into the tiny bathroom, when she noticed something that stopped her in her tracks. The floor board under which she had hidden the sketch pad was opened. She had been discovered.
"I wonder..." said a voice lightly behind her, "Who these drawings could possibly belong to."
It was him, he had found her out. She stared straight ahead, waiting.
"There's skill here, although some of the work is a little bit stylized," a voice whispered behind her ear, she had not heard him move closer but she was not surprised he was there. She heard the sound of pages flipping as he looked through, "It could have been any of you really, or even all of you. But it looks like the same artist. Wouldn't you agree Seven?"
He held the pad out in front of her, open on the final page, "But this girl is not one of the ones here. She could perhaps be a figure from the artists past, this Melanie girl," Nicole found it difficult to control her anger, she wondered how he could not remember, how he could dare forget her. "But ah yes I seem to remember your friend now, this is her isn't it, 'Mellie' you called her, wasn't it?"
The page began to burn and Nicole's hand shot out to grab it before it would be destroyed. He stopped her, his arm pulled around her waist as he held the object out of reach, forcing her to watch as her friends face disappeared in flames.
Once it was over and the ashes had crumbled away he let her go. The moment his hands were off of her she forgot about her restraint and moved away from him, trying to fight off tears. He wiped the dust of his gloved hands and smirked at her.
"I'm being kind to you really Seven," he said lightly, "Such a thing could only get you into trouble, especially considering the unflattering light you portrayed my acquaintances and I."
Nicole wanted to scream at him, she almost did. She wanted to rage at this man who destroyed everything she cared about and then dared to claim it as kindness. She wanted revenge. Revenge however was far from his mind.
"Now Seven," he said lightly, turning her around to face him and pulling her body possessively into his, "how are you going to thank me?"
She could not escape him as he undid her dress, she could not fight as he pushed her down to the ground. She struggled as he lay on top of her. She even bit him, but it made no difference it excited him. There was nothing she could do to stop him. So she stopped fighting and let him. It hurt as he pushed his way inside her, as he ripped away the last thing she had been able to cling to. She even bled, he was by no means gentle, and it was her first time. Through it all she made no sound, all that escaped her was a single tear. Then it was over, and he held onto her. She felt his sweat on her skin. The smell of him made her feel ill. Eventually he left her there, on the floor.
Nicole waited until she heard the door close before she got up and cleaned herself. She took time to be sick in the sink. It had happened to the others before now, she was lucky to have escaped it for so long. The assurances she used to try and make herself feel better were meaningless. As she stared at her face in the mirror there was only one thought left. Why him, why did it have to be him?
XOXOX
"It's ok," she whispered to the girl, "you'll be ok."
Nicole had not meant to speak but as she had seen Caroline there on the floor words had slipped out unexpectedly. Now it seemed they were unstoppable. She repeated the mantra as she held her in her arms, but Nicole doubted she understood. Anger clogged her throat as she struggled to comfort her.
"No it's not, it will never be ok," she whispered into her arms, "They've taken everything. Everything."
The last part was almost a scream, a scream of pure desperation. She was beyond noticing who had spoken to her.
"Well then of course it will be ok," said Nicole with sudden conviction. A pair of teary eyes looked up at her without comprehension. She had finally realised that it was the mute who was talking, even though her words made little sense.
"What...?"
"If they've taken everything already, then what more can they possibly do?" She continued, the anger had changed, her silence had disappeared as she finally understood, "There's nothing left to fear from them, they're only men."
There conversation was drawing attention from everyone present and Nicole looked around to see twelve pairs of lost eyes trained upon her. Everyone listened in varying degrees of shock, and another strange emotion. She was done with silence.
"They treat us like dirt, like rats, but we are far from that," she paused, "They say we have no humanity, but if that is what they have then they can keep it. They are the rats, the vermin. They use us for their brutal, their violent, and their sadistic urges. It has nothing to do with us. Their like the builders who used to honk their horns as they drove past, or the boys who would wolf whistle at us. They are only human," her breath was coming short and she had to lower her voice, "They can deny us humanity but I don't want their humanity. I'll have my virtue instead, which is something they will never take. They can invade our bodies with their pathetic excuses for manhood, grind us down with their animalistic humanity, but our virtue is our own. It's not a piece of skin that can be destroyed, it cannot be cried out in our tears or beaten out of us in blood. It's our power, our love, our kindness, and our strength. So they can torture us, and hurt as. Make us scream for the families that they murdered, for the lives they destroyed, but it's all ok. We will be ok, because if they have taken everything, then we've won. They are only men after all, even with their magic they are still just men. There is nought else they can do save kill us. If they do that we still win, because we have nothing to fear in death. Nothing is worse than this. They are nothing more than animals, and that is all they will ever be."
She stood in silence looking at the girls around her, the beaten bruised and broken children, the oldest of them barely nineteen. For the first time in months she saw something whole in their eyes. She saw hope.
A clapping noise began behind her, and the hopeful eyes turned empty and looked away. Nicole knew she was not being applauded. An animal had heard her speech and know she would suffer. Turning around she looked at him as he stood there with a smirk upon his face leaning against the doorway. Before she had hated him, now her enmity went beyond that, now it was loathing. The cold slaps of his hand were pealing through the room like a whip lash. Her anger had yet to desert her, and Nicole found she could hold his gaze.
"You are nothing," she stated.
The claps stopped and he walked forward slowly, silently surveying her. His eyes were piercing like an eagle who had sighted a mouse. He stopped a short distance away.
"I am everything," he replied.
"To be everything is to be nothing," said Nicole, her voice was steady, but she began to wonder at her bravery. She had been silent for so long, yet now her tongue seemed unstoppable.
"It seems your discipline has been over looked recently Seven. Oh, my... First stealing, now talking back? We will have to correct that mistake," he grabbed her arm before looking down at the other girls in the room, his gaze fell on empty shells. Distaste clouded his features, "Pathetic. This is what you call virtue Seven? No God would touch these vermin."
He apparated them away from the room and Nicole found herself alone in a cell. It was dark, save the torch which burned sickeningly on the wall; it seemed rather to highlight the shadows than to destroy them. A silent emptiness permeated the thick air and she found she did not want to breath too deeply, she was afraid that it might destroy her.
"You say we can do nothing?" he asked quietly, "You're fond of that word aren't you, but it seems that if we are nothing, and everything is nothing... then you have everything to worry about."
Nicole kept her silence, she had done so for months. If he thought his goading would affect her then he was a fool.
"Answer me Seven," he ordered, "I know you are not mute, I have heard your vile voice now."
"If it's so vile then I am sure you have heard enough of it," replied Nicole.
"Perhaps that is so, you're words are not to my liking, but your screams... I suppose they would be an entirely different matter," his voice dripped with malice as he circled her.
"Well then my screams I will deny you, if you could not extract them yesterday then you never will," she said quietly. The words seemed strong, that feeling of anger that overcame her fear that peculiar strength which she should ignore seemed to cling to her still.
"Is this courage I perceive in you Seven, you never showed signs of the trait before," his tone mocked her, but his cold eyes radiated fury.
Nicole considered the strange feeling, perhaps it was courage. Was courage not a virtue? Certainty filled her and she almost smiled. Yes it was courage that held her body straight, courage that persuaded her tongue to move. Whilst it did not erase the fear or the feeling of desperate need, or the adrenaline singing through her veins, it allowed her to ignore it. She was not foolish enough to think she might escape, or that she had anything but pain to look forward to, yet she was not afraid.
"Nil illegitimi carborundum," slipped from her lips so quietly she did not even realise she had spoken the words.
"I assure you I am no bastard my blood is the purer than your Queens," he whispered in her ear, he was standing too close to her, "There is no need for petty insults."
Nicole met his gaze, "blood is meaningless, you don't have your fathers blood. The blood which flows now through your veins did not at any point flow through those of your ancestors. Blood is a transient perishable liquid. A person's true worth has nothing to do with their parents, nothing to do with their money or their ancestry, nothing to do with their birth, or whether or not they can wield magic. A baby is a baby, and a child a child. A person, is their own entity made up of their own choices their own courage," she paused emphasizing her next word, "or cowardice. Blood is your own and no one else's, and its purity has nothing to do with its descent. There is no murder in my blood, and little malice... there is no evil, I find now there is even that courage you so despise. So whose blood is purer? The amount of pollution in yours I'm surprised it's not sludge."
The slap rang out through the room and it took Nicole a moment to realise he had hit her. The expected surprise of it created a little bubble of laughter in her throat. She felt something more than courage now; it seemed to be almost triumph. She wondered at the possibility.
"You will address me as Master, Seven," his voice was cutting and cold, "You will respect your superiors."
"The title of master does not make you my superior, it is only a word," the triumphant feeling did not disappear it seemed strengthened by his inability to disprove her words.
"You will address me as Master," he said as she felt the sting of another slap.
"It is only a word... Master," her tone was mocking she refused to let him win. She was done with silence.
His grey eyes were calculating as he surveyed her, "Respect your superiors Seven."
"I respect your violence Master, and your fists. I respect your intellect, and your cunning. I respect you as an advisory. I would be a fool not to. What I do not respect however Master is your superiority. How can I respect what does not exist. In short I respect you as I would a Lion, or an ant, but I do not respect you... Master."
She had said too much, Nicole could tell from the way he was looking at her. Now he would hurt her, to teach her a lesson, but his actions would change nothing.
"This virtue that you seem to cling to, does it include your deceit, or your cruelty?" he asked quietly. Nicole did not understand what he meant.
"Your silence all these months has been deceitful Seven, but what else can be expected from a muggle whore," his words were far more effective than his slaps, "You think its kindness that moves you to comfort those girls. It's not, it is pure selfish cruelty. You give them hope, but that hope will be ripped away, over and over again. You made them feel when they had accepted their fate. You played with them and that hope you gave them... it will destroy them. What you did Seven is pure cruelty. There is no virtue left in you. You are nothing but a number."
He hit her then, over and over again, till she was bleeding on the floor.
"Tell me Seven, what do you feel now?" he looked down at her and Nicole forced herself not to cry or scream. She ignored the prickling feeling behind her eyes, and forced away the fire that clogged her throat, or was that blood. "Tell me Seven, do you enjoy being disgusting. Do you take pride in your ugliness. Did your deceit fill you with a purpose? Because that purpose is over now Seven, you will never leave this cell."
"Nicole..." she whispered, her voice barely louder than a sigh.
"What was that," he queried, his voice was deceptively gentle, "What did you say?"
"My name is Nicole," she yelled. With those words she let go of all the restraint all the pain and all the tears she had held back, and as there echo died from the room she felt a sudden calm.
"No, it isn't, a name belongs to a person, you are not a person," was his simple reply, and then the pain began once again.
OXOXO
"I waited for you," he said it so gently that Nicole was not sure if she heard correctly, it sounded oddly confessional, "I knew there was more to you than the silence so I waited."
He thought that she was asleep, the beating he had inflicted had taken her almost wholly into unconsciousness and he was unaware that at that moment she was still slightly lucid.
"The first moment I saw you, I saw her," He paused for a moment considering her as he gently played with a strand of her hair between his fingers, "It was the colour I think, your fair head reminded me of hers. You were so afraid, everyone there was, so wonderfully terrified. When I looked at you again, I realised there was little resemblance really. I was quite ready to ignore you, let the others have their fun, but then you spoke. It was nothing like her voice, but there was something in it that caught my attention. You begged for a friend's life, but I showed you words were useless."
He let go of her hair and brushed his fingers gently across her jaw, delicately avoiding the bruises he had inflicted, "So you stopped speaking, the others believed you to be mute, and if I had not heard the fire in your voice I might have believed it so. But a voice like that, passion like that is impossible to stifle. So I watched you, and I waited for you to speak again. It was strange at first. I would have never thought it possible to learn so much about a person without once hearing their voice. I wondered if maybe you would speak to the other girls, but you did not say a word. As I watched I saw kindness, in the way you looked after those around you. I watched your face, and your reactions. I learnt your soul, something which could never truly be articulated. They believed you broken, but I knew better."
He was still staring down at her and she exerted the little control she possessed over her body to stay still, "I knew you were just hiding, hiding behind a blank face, because I could see it in your eyes. It was the fire in them that excited me. The fire reminded me of her. I wanted you. I wanted all of you to submit to me. I suppose some would call it obsession..."
He left it at that as if he was unsure what else to say. After a while of silence she felt herself drift into unconsciousness, his words barely registering in her mind.
XOXOX
Nicole had been sure no one cared. She had been certain that she would rot down there, in the dungeon, her only company him and the rats. She had been mistaken. A man stood in the door way of her cell and he held out his hand to her.
"I'm here to help you," he said gently, moving towards her quietly. She skittered backwards away from him.
"Who... who are you?" she asked, her voice breaking in fear.
"You used to feed me," he said gently, she looked at him without comprehension, "I was actually the first one you stroked."
The look on his face reminded her of a puppy wagging its tail.
"Sniffler?" she asked in shock, "What... how?"
"Is that what you called me, I kind of like it," he said smiling, he held out his arm and she took it no longer afraid, "Although just so you know its Marcus. I'm a sort of involuntary animagus. But come on we need to get you out of here."
"Wait," she said quietly, "I don't really understand much, but if you're here to help there's something that needs to be destroyed."
He paused looking down at her, he seemed unsure for a moment.
"There's..." she paused wondering how best to put it, "There's this big blue stone that the Dark one had and he said it was the key to his victory."
He nodded them mumbled something into his sleeve, "control yeh, the rocks here, he has it... I'll be right with it. Are you sending the Chudley boys after it? Make sure Grangers with them, it's important they get it... No I'm bringing something else in. Be back in a sec."
He turned to her then with a light smile, "Were you just talking to your sleeve?"
"No time to explain," he said in a blasé manner, "Now hold on tight, unless you want to leave you legs behind."
Without another word he apparated them away from her dank dungeon to safety.