Nerves
Chapter Eighteen - Epilogue
The room was cold and silent, a man lay on the hard ground, face-down. He didn't move as a grey and white cat sniffed his shoes, working his way up to the face. The man swatted the cat away instinctively as the whiskers tickled his nose. The cat hissed at him and growled as he walked away. The man looked around and groaned. His body was sore but he had no memory of how it got to that state. He didn't even know where he was. He tried to sit up but found the pain too immense and laid back down on the cool surface. He continued to look around and saw a small metal stand with surgical tools sitting a few feet away.
The man attempted to crawl to the small stand but was stopped by the sound of footsteps quickly approaching him. He turned to look back behind him but couldn't see through the darkness. A single hanging light swung gently back and forth, throwing its light to and fro, illuminating the darkness in one spot and then quickly removing to go to the next. It swung so sadly, as if in mourning.
A man's outline could be made out in the shadows as he rapidly advanced on the downed man. The man tried to lift himself up once more but again fell to the floor in pain. A man with a clown painted face jumped out of the shadows.
"Boo," he said.
The man flinched.
The clown began to pace, knife in hand. "I bet you're wondering why you're here."
"Who the fuck are you?" the man spat out.
"You know Anwar, I had a little friend who had a dirty mouth just like you. You know what happened to her?"
"Fuck you."
"You killed her!" he roared in anger as he kicked the man in the ribs. "And I've been hunting down your men ever since and now it's come down to you. It's your turn to feel what you did to her."
Anwar laughed. "You have no idea what we did to her."
The Joker nodded. "Oh, but yes I do. You see, people will tell you strange things when they fear for their lives. Some open up like a destroyed dam. They just come out with whatever you ask them." He leaned down close to Anwar's face. "I know exactly what you did to her. And, I found that little drug you gave her to intensify pain, and well, I think I'll be stealing that idea."
The Joker whipped out a syringe filled with an orange liquid. The man struggled to keep the clown off him but the Joker was too strong for him. He injected the liquid into his blood stream before ripping it out and throwing it somewhere in the room. The man began screaming as it took effect and his pain grew, almost unbearable.
"Oh, you're going to have to scream louder than that," he commented while standing. "See, I'm like a dog, and you just killed my owner. So now I'm baring my teeth."
The Joker was interrupted by a small meow at his feet and he looked down to see a cat rubbing along his feet. He picked up the cat gingerly and turned it to his face.
"And she was his owner too, wasn't she?" he asked the cat. "What, are you angry Mr. Simba?" He held the cat against his ear in mock-listening and the cat meowed. "Oh, you're very angry? Well, we're just going to have to fix that." He placed the cat back on the ground with a pat on the head. He began tossing the knife back and forth between hands, staring at the man on the ground, threateningly. "We're going to have to fix that."
The cat's ears twitched as the man's screams filled the once silent room. He strolled along to the stand and began rubbing up against it, trying to fill the void that was left when his owner died. But at least this new man was taking care of him. And now, he was taking care of the man who had killed his owner. Making him broken.
But the screams that filled the room all said the same thing, "She's not dead!"
THE END. (For Now)
Special thanks to LaBellaMorta, Meena, JayJay, Devoted2You, SafetyPinStitches, Ella-Riella, and Platinim13 for the amazing reviews!