"Elsa are you sure about this?" Aelina said quietly.
"I don't want to do it anymore than you do, but I can't think of any other way to this," Elsa admitted. That's when Penelope began to panic and wriggle underneath Elsa's grip.
"I can either do this bit by bit so that the pain is only short bursts," Aelina whispered to Elsa, so that Penelope didn't have to hear them. "Or I can do it quickly but the pain will probably be unbearable."
"How quickly is 'quickly'?" Elsa mumbled.
"Thirty seconds, tops," Aelina guessed.
"Then we'll do that. Penny, darling listen to me." Penelope's eyes followed her Aunt at the mention of her name. "This is going to take thirty seconds and will probably unbearable pain but you have to understand that this is essential. You need to let us do this." Penelope nodded reluctantly and squeezed her eyes shut so tightly that they began to burn her.
"Aunt Elsa, please hold her down," Aelina began, kneeling more comfortably. Elsa pinned Penelope's shoulders to the floor and Aelina grabbed the pliers, biting her bottom lip.
"I'm so sorry, Pen. This will be over soon," she whispered comfortingly. Penelope rememvered that it was supposed to take 30 seconds. So she squeezed her eyes shut again, and counted.
One.
Aelina hooked the pliers underneath the corner of the mask, took out the knife that Elsa got her, and lifted the contraption as far as it could go. Penelope let out a small muffled scream.
Two.
Aelina used the blade and cut off one of the stables, letting a small amount of blood dribble from the hole down Penelope's chin.
Three.
Aelina repeated the process, but on the inside of her mouth this time.
Four.
So far the pain was bearable and Penelope wasn't overly bothered. But then it was time for Aelina to pull and tug.
Five, six, seven.
"It is so firmly put down and I can't take out every staple," she hissed. Elsa shrugged.
Eight, nine, ten, eleven.
"Then we slice across and pull until it comes off!"
"We're going to end up ripping her skin off her face, she's going to scar, Elsa! This is cruel!" Aelina cried, tears pooling in her eyes.
Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
"AELINA JUST DO IT!" Elsa snapped. Aelina shook her head sadly, hooked the pliers, took the knife again and swiftly began to cut anything that attached.
That's when the screaming really began.
Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," Aelina mumbled. She could hear the tearing of skin even louder than the screams Penelope was giving off. The blood was now too much, flowing from her mouth and onto Elsa's hands.
N-n-ineteen, twenty, twenty one.
The first half of the contraptions left holes in her mouth, a lot of holes. Around her lips, skin had been torn off and was raw red, bleeding as expected. Penelope started to attempted to move away from them, eyes streaming down her face and her body shaking in fear, pain and anticipation.
"I'm so sorry, we're nearly done, okay?" Aelina comforted her. "I promise we're nearly done."
Twenty two…
Finally the front of the contraption was off and Aelina chucked it across the floor. So the front of Penelope's face was free, bloodied and skin missing, but it was free. Now all that was left was the inside of her mouth.
Twenty three.
"Elsa, help me pry her mouth open, please." Elsa put her knee on Penelope's chest and pried her mouth open. Now Penelope's screams were more than audiable.
T-t-t-twenty four, twenty five.
Aelina began to slice, and pull. Penelope screeched, and sobbed. The inside of her mouth was gushing with blood and it almost choked her.
Twenty six.
More slicing on the roof of her mouth. More skin falling onto Penelope's tongue. More blood. More screaming.
Twenty seven.
Penelope couldn't take it anymore, she was going to faint.
Twenty eight.
Elsa's eyes went wide as in one swift jerk, Aelina ripped the inside of the contraption out alongside most of her skin. Penelope shot up, vomiting blood and whatever they forced her to eat in that prison. Her face was a mess, the lower half was almost shredded to pieces and if she lost anymore blood, she would definitely die.
Then she fainted.
Penelope opened her eyes slowly, focussing on Aelina who was standing in front of her. It was cold in the room, but she felt very hot. Aelina breathed out in relief and sat down properly on the cold stone floor. Penelope remembered that her contraption was off and gasped. Elsa turned to her, a smile playing on her lip as Penelope gained consciousness. Suddenly, Penelope leaned to the left of her and threw up again. "T-t-twenty eight," her faint voice spoke quietly after she had finished throwing up violently in the corner. Elsa and Aelina stared at her in shock.
"Twenty eight what?" Elsa asked.
"Seconds," Penelope panted. "Not thirty." Aelina let out a relieved giggle and even Elsa smiled broadly.
"Are you not in pain, Pen?" she frowned, watching the young lady weakly try to stand up. "You've been unconscious for nearly two days so your wounds have been cleaned, but they still look painful."
"I am in pain," Penelope answered shortly. "But it's the adrenalin. I'm not bothered about it right now for some reason."
"Oh god Penelope, your face," Aelina gasped quietly. Penelope glanced up at her. "It's ripped apart so I don't understand how you're even speaking right now." It was true, all of the words Penelope's spoke were still muffled and anguished but clearly she didn't care. Elsa and Aelina both checked in on Penelope every hour, to see if she had regained consciousness. They also managed to properly attend her cuts and tears of her skin. Perhaps the pain hadn't settled in yet, the adrenalin of getting the thing off her face appeared to motivate her.
Somehow, Penelope still looked beautiful.
"I know I look disgusting," she hummed, sitting back down, collapsed in a heap.
"I'm not bringing your daughter in whilst you look like that," Elsa warned her. Penelope's eyes lit up with the words 'your daughter.'
"She's right, you should really heal first," Aelina agreed, beginning to tidy the remaining blood, tissue, staples and whatever else they hadn't managed to clean up.
"Yeah, you're right," Penelope muttered. She looked up to Aelina and Elsa. "Thank you both, so much. And I….I-I-I am sorry."
"Yes I think you've been punished enough," Elsa whispered gently. "So don't worry about it. You need to heal up so you can hold your beautiful baby girl again."
"That's gotta be the first thing on your list, right?" Aelina smiled.
"Yes. That – and brutally killing whoever called the police on me. And I know exactly who it was."
A/N: Pain, I felt pain whilst writing this. Pain.
- J x
