Sorry everybody, not quite as much action in this chapter. But it really starts to introduce the characters more. Especially Raven. I hope you enjoy, remember, read x review as you like. But I enjoy getting reviews on my stories!
Raven sat on her bed, momentarily reliving the fight. With her all powerful Branch of Sin, it had mostly been just a show she was putting on for the sake of the audience. There was a reason she was a favorite among the crowds. Her Raven's Mystique had given victories that should have been easy defeats. She wasn't exactly a powerful fighter.
Controlling her opponents certainly aided her during combat. If the Woodpecker wasn't linked to her blood, then she would have been at the Swallow's mercy. Her blood raced thinking back to it. What she wanted above all else, what she craved, what she needed! She loved the feeling of being dominated. She wanted somebody to control her, to keep her on their leash. She wanted somebody to take all of the responsibility away from her, leaving her free to do whatever she desired. Unfortunately, none of the pussies in G ward seemed fit to fulfill that criteria. She was undefeated, one of only a very select few of the Deadmen who could claim that.
Unfortunately, she couldn't have such pleasant reminiscences forever.
It wasn't long after she thought pleasantly of the warmth starting in her loins that she remembered the pain. The shadows in the corner of the room began to collapse in on themselves, thickening and becoming distinctly man shaped.
"D-daddy?" She said, with tears audible on her voice. The man walked toward her. Despite the shadowy appearance, she could clearly distinguish her father's unkempt appearance. A stained wifebeater, unshaven, ragged facial hair, the ripped and torn pants. Everything just how she remembered him. Raven was afraid that he was disappointed in her, mad at her for what she'd done. He always was, he hated her! She loved him more than her own life was valued and he hated her!
He approached, reaching down toward her. "I l-love you." She whispered as he slapped her across the face. "I'm sorry!" He grabbed her by the hair and threw her off of the bed. He lifted his leg and was about to kick her brutally hard in the stomach before a noise came from the door.
"What now?"
"The Raven's f*cking doing it again."
Her father looked down at her pathetic frame before stepping back into the corner. He put a finger to his lips and held her razor up motioning it across his throat as the door opened.
"Yep, there she is. F*cking psycho bitch." One of the guards muttered as he leaned down to pick her up harshly, nearly wrenching her arm out of its socket. He threw her back onto the bed. "Look girl." He shoved his face right in front of hers. "I don't give a shit what your breakdown is. You freak out on me again, I'll tie you to the bed. Sit your ass down and calm the f*ck out."
Raven simply sat there, her eyes flitting about the room, trying to look anywhere but at her father. She could sense his rage, radiating out but all focused directly at her.
"Did you even check for that stupid little blade of hers? What if she'd been armed you idiot?" The other guard growled.
"Are you kidding me? She's f*cking pathetic." He echoed her father's words. "She only hurts people when she's told to. Kinda like a psycho puppy."
"I don't know man."
Raven watched her father place the razor down on the shelf right near him before disappearing back into the shadows. At the same instance, the first guard turned around to glare at his partner. "Are you seriously afraid of this whore?" His eyes flashed to the weapon. "And besides, her stupid razor's all the way over here. Are you really that much a pussy?" He flicked it out in front of his partner. "Besides, we got all this gear that says she can't do shit against us." He laid the weapon back in its place.
"Dude, let's just get out of here."
"Whatever." The first complained. "Hey whore. You hear that, we're out for now. You freak on us again, I will tie you up. And f*ck whatever you wanna try. Hell, you cause too much trouble, I'll work you over with some trouble you're more used to." He gyrated his hips to make his point perfectly clear.
Raven bit down on her finger, not in fear of the guards and what they would do, rather, in fear of what her father would do to punish her next. As the guards left, the shadows stood prominent again and crept across the room to crawl over her bed. She began to kick at them as they crawled up atop the bed with her. No matter how many she flung away from her, they simply kept coming, pouring over her in a deluge of shadowy vermin.
The needle sharp fingers prodding into her from hundreds of black spiders, prickly hairs as a rat crawled under her blanket with her, and the fangs. Sharp fangs, small fangs, dull, large, they bit into her from all directions, cutting into her flesh with little regard.
"Hey, you weren't serious about that threat were you man?"
The guard shook his head in disgust. "You've gotta be kidding me. With the Raven? She's probably got teeth in her cunt or something." They shared a laugh as they headed away.
Shinji only just caught himself from launching into a fury directed at them. Nothing would be solved by it, and it would only end up with him probably being shut down into solitary for killing a guard again. They were all pathetic anyway. He toyed with the rings on his finger.
"And here we go!" A voice came over the announcements. "Tomorrow, there will be no fights. Two days from now however, there will be a full battle royale. All deadmen are to be divided between two teams. Teams are to be chosen randomly. The team with the last member standing wins. This time the losers are in luck. Only the first one down is to be subjected to a penalty game. Of course, if you aren't doing a good enough effort, we can always change that ruling. So good luck deadmen!"
Shinji sighed. "Of f*cking course!" He growled. Whether or not he was on Raven's team or not, he was responsible for her protection. If he was on her team, well, he'd just seen her ability.
It seemed like she needed to wait for somebody to taken down before she could actually use her branch of sin. What had they called it? Mystique or something? Whatever. That meant that she would need protection until she had a body to use. If he ended up facing her, then he couldn't exactly take her out himself. He barely hit any of the female deadmen in general, most particularly Raven, could he actually bring himself to fight against her? Or would he just be stuck trying to fend the female off. He had no qualms about hitting the other females, but the Raven was special.
Well, all he could do now was hope.
Raven was barely even conscious of the announcement. What she was conscious of was the opening of the door that forced the vermin to hide under the covers of the bed with her. She cried silent tears as the vermin traveled across her body, prickling fur digging into her and needle sharp claws tracing horrible paths over her tender flesh. She cried, tears streaming down her cheeks, but she refused to give her sobs to the darkness.
The door had opened this time to admit another of the deadmen. Mockingbird. One of the nicest among the ranks of the deadmen, while at the same time one of the worst and cruelest. He walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. Raven curled up and fell against him. He slowly stroked a hand down over her hair, whispering soothing words of nothing in hopes that she would calm down.
Raven knew the Mockingbird better than that though, knew him better than to assume that he did this out of concern for her well-being. He was here looking for some advantage over her should they happen to end up in the Cage against one another. He tried to get information of that sort about all of the deadmen.
He stroked her hair, whistling a soft, lilting tune. She clung to him, bobbing softly with her quiet sobbing. She was leaning up against his torso, her hands lying in his lap. She felt how aroused he was becoming, having her body pressed against him.
Unlike the response of most women, feeling him harden that close to her didn't bother her very much. Most women would react with anger and disgust, she simply gave a weak smile and laid her head against his shoulder once again. Her hands rubbed softly, an unconscious motion. She felt him harden even more. Then he left, nearly running out of the room.
The Mockingbird fled back to his own room. God, what had that been! She had pretty much just jerked him off through his pants! What the f*ck was that shit? In his own room, he was better able to calm down. He did not want to get involved with her like that. He barely wanted anything to do with her in general, with any of the deadmen. Raven was bat shit, Crow was aggressive, even Swan was mental. The only normal person in G ward was he himself. There was no way in hell that he wanted to do anything in relation to any of the other women, most particularly not considering how much baggage they were carrying with them.
But just because he didn't want to get involved with her did not mean that she couldn't star in his fantasies. He slipped his hand under his pants as he went back to his thoughts of her.
Raven's tears came back full force after the Mockingbird fled. She didn't know what had happened, what she might have done to frighten him off so quickly. Now though, she was all alone. And it was frightening, and painful. She shivered, and then felt the biting coming back.
She sat there for several minutes, trying to simply accept the pain, but the bites eventually grew to be too painful for her to withstand anymore. She leapt up and raced to the shelf to pick up her razor. A quick flick and she jumped back onto the bed, stabbing furiously into the mattress in an attempt to slay the spiders. Her assault appeared to be ineffectual. The bed and vermin were torn apart, but there were always a hundred more to replace those she killed.
She attempted to kill them all before they were able to climb onto her body. She tried, but unfortunately was not able to do so for too long. That did not stop her from attacking them nonetheless.
She winced at all of the lacerations she gave herself, but refused to succumb. The bedding quickly turned crimson, crimson bubbles roiling up through the material of the bed as her blood dripped and was immersed into it. Her razor never stopped, slicing across her thigh in one moment, her stomach the next, the bed once again.
She didn't notice that somebody had entered the room with her until a hand wrapped around her wrist. Her first response was to lash out at them.
"Ah f*ck! The bitch got me!" The voice breaking through her delirium brought her to her senses.
She had been attacking the spiders, the rats, the monsters that worked along with her father to try to destroy her. She looked around, even as the guards approached her once again, this time much more cautiously. There was nothing dark on the bed anymore. "No," She whispered. "No nononononono!" She screamed. "Where are they!" She ripped the sheets off of her bed, searching for her tormentors. Of course they weren't there. "Bastards!" She jumped to her feet, pushing the guards back with her rush. "Where are you!"
"Will somebody f*cking restrain her?" One of the guards shouted.
Raven began to pick up the edge of her bed, intending to flip it to check the shadows underneath it. Before she could, a guard smacked her on the nape of her neck, brutally hard with his firearm.
"Whoa! Careful there newbie!" The leader among them shouted as she staggered, hitting her head fiercely against the metal frame of the bed. "She's a crowd favorite, gotta be careful with the merchandise."
"But she's f*cking bat shit in here! She f*cking cut me!"
"Exactly!" He tapped his forehead as he stepped forward and kicked the razor into the corner. When did I drop that? She thought, hearing it skid over the floor. "A lot of the other psychos in here are still human. Not this bitch here though. She'll slit your throat just as soon as mine, so long as somebody tells her to." He laughed. "We put her in the cage and she'll f*cking tear a guy's nuts out his stomach with her teeth."
A few of the veteran guards shivered at that statement. The man was actually referring to a real incident in one of her early fights. Raven had freaked out in the middle of her battle and made a quick slash through her opponent's midsection. He was a rather talented fighter though, able to disarm even injured as such. Backed into a corner, Raven lunged at him. Most deadmen would simply try to pin their opponent or even to just beat them into submission. Her response had been to bite into the injury and tear a chunk of flesh out.
"She's a cold bitch ain't she?" One laughed as he hefted the lithe girl into his arms. "Pretty as a virgin, deadlier'n a cobra."
"Shut up man." The newbie responded.
"Aw, does somebody got themselves a little crush?" He laughed once more, throwing her over his shoulder. Raven groaned in pain at the action. "Sounds like she might be up for some playing. Course, foreplay with her might leave you as only half a man!" All of the guards joined his laughter, including the one being mocked.
"Alright, enough fun at her expense. Bring her down to the medical ward, get her patched up, and see if we can get her ass sedated. She's not nearly as fun when she's asleep, but it's better she be knocked out than any of us. Even with the worm eaters, with no Mystique and unarmed and beakless, she's still killed a few guards in her day. Do not take her lightly in any regard."