A short jaunt through hell

When I woke up, it covered me; blood was every ware and my head kinda funny. It was everywhere, coating my hands, crusting on my brand new dress; it was even caked in my long hair… wait, what! I brushed a few limp strands of hair out of the way as I idly set back to work. A part of me begging me to stop. My hind brain telling me this was wrong, that something was horribly wrong. Tears fell of their own accord.

Then I heard a voice, "Are you almost finished here, Poppet?" then the fog returned, and I was a prisoner in my body once more.

"Almost Mister. Jack… just… gotta… put on the… the finishing touches and there!" I involuntarily exclaimed as I finished stitching up the last person. Mechanically Applying a quick and dirty salve on the cuts that would rapidly promote healing without scaring.

It was only then now that I had turned around to see his face. A face that I put to the name given. This was Jack Slash AKA Jacob Witte the monster, lier, deceiver, the Devil. It was only after I realized that in some part that I realized just where I was.

I was not, in fact, at my PC typing out my latest fanfic after a long day at work, nor was I just waking up from a long rest. I was in Worm, one of my favorite stories. Fuck, I was in Worm.

"Whats the matter, poppet?" He asked, looming over me. "Your crying. You remember what I told you?"

Against my will, my hand went to wipe away the tears. With a smile, I raged against in protest. I replied, "I'm a good girl. Mister Jack, good girls don't need to cry."

"That's right," He offered me a hand, "come along now I have a new toy for you to play with." a sick manic grin forming.

It took everything I had, and all I had managed was a glance back, back at my work. No, my victims, who I had carved into. So many, and I had forced them all to look like us, like the Nine. Once more I was drowned in the fog, letting out a meek, "uunn," of compliance, my will suppressed. As I took his hand and following obediently like his puppet.

I wanted to rage, thrash about, but the part of me that was Riley. She was utterly terrified of Jack. there was no part that was Bonesaw. Just the fog, thick and cloying. A puppet on strings when he wanted me to laugh and giggle. I did it. I cut and carved it asked. And some times I did it, anyway. It was what Jack wanted. I would do anything for Mr. Jack, endure anything, any indignity, absolutely ANYTHING…

To see his greatest work his Bonesaw. Create monsters for his amusement. To dance to his chaotic play.

"No more" I resolved. If I no, we wanted out, then there was no choice. I communicated this intent to Riley. Until now, I had always been wary of this. If I opened myself up to the little girl who was Bonesaw, what would happen to me, what would happen to her. If she did the same. Until now I had brute forced my way into what amounted as the passenger seat. So long as Jack was there, that's all it would be. While Bonesaw not, Riley was at the stick.

Timidly, cautiously, she to open herself up to me As well.

I being a man of twenty-nine years old. Nearly three decades of joyful experiences. She was positively giddy with excitement. As she bound from point to point of my memories. If only for the moment, she experienced genuine joy through my eyes. A happy, loving family.

Her life, Riley's life, was so much darker, to be made into a toy, the puppet, Jack's Good Girl. I experienced it all, every cut, every horrible act committed to please Mister Jack, every repressed trauma, every hidden fear. Her every work of 'art'. The fears and horror only managed by copious amounts of drugs.

In each memory, every person was just a faceless doll. A bag of meat to carve into her, our, my work. Even the Nine, especially the Nine.

Then I saw it the day Riley Grace Davis died and Bonesaw, the doll was born. It started out a day like any other a morning breakfast with Mommy, Daddy, and big brother Drew, and Mr. Muffles. A truly normal day.

It started with a knock on the door. Then the games began…

It was in that moment that I experienced true crippling terror. Her fear was mine, her exhaustion was mine, her knowledge was mine, her stress was mine. And together we worked for hours, days? We couldn't tell how long we just kept going. We saved mommy, daddy, and Drew. Over and over, again and again. We never gave up. Not until there was nothing left. Until we knew that, without a doubt, there was nothing we could do to save even one of them. Not mommy, not daddy, not even Drew.

The only thing we could do for them now was let them go. It was a kindness at the very end. In that moment, her despair was mine. It was devastating, all-consuming torment.

But it was what came next that truly broke me. On a fundamental level…

The other monsters came into the room. And I fucking smiled at him. At Jack Slash. On some level, I knew it was a memory that I had no control. That I couldn't stop it even if I wanted. That I could not stop myself from going with Jack. In that moment, all I wanted was for us to say no. No to Jack, no to the next seven years of hell. But we couldn't. So I broke…

[Destination.]

[Agreement.]

[Trajectory.]

[Agreement.]

I looked upon a world fractaline in nature. Vast and unending. An ever morphing fractal entity sat upon the word as if it was a throne. And perhaps it was.

"…," it spoke.

"What?" I asked. My nose bled.

It put more force behind its words, "!...!...!"

I convulsed, falling in a paroxysm of agony.

"!," I couldn't understand what it wanted. I just - I Just blacked out.

When I came too, I did so with a gasp of fear, shear and utter terror. Before me was a young man tied to a makeshift operating table. And not just any young man. But Grue, my hazy memory supplied. I had a scalpel in hand, hovering midway to cutting into him. Into ripping Grue, no Brian, into so many pieces. And stringing him up like Christmas Lights. He was glaring at me. Snarling and swearing.

"I swear to god when I get out of here I'm gunna fucking kill you!" he promised. Over and over.

I cared not for his useless bleating at the moment. For with each passing second, my head cleared of the foggy bliss. With each second, I became Riley, and she became me. And the more Bonesaw died. The more we turned into me then I. And that I decided was something that benefited not only me, but Brian as well.

"I swear," he snarled. "When I get out of here, I'll find out what you love and I'll destroy it right in front of you!"

Now that brought me completely out of the fog, "that would be difficult since everything I have ever loved or cared for is already gone." I said, as I smiled a smile brittle like so much glass. "Jack unfortunately beat you there." There was venom in my voice now.

He spat in my face for my comment. It made me sorely tempted; to simply… give in and let Bonesaw out to play. Of all my hang-ups, spitting in my face was probably the biggest insult.

"That… was rude." I scowled. As I wiped off my face, then I took a syringe from my pocket and jammed it into his leg. I did this not out of spite, but for what came next. Ok, maybe a bit of spite.

"I'm trying to help you here." I hissed in a low, dangerous tone. "Jack, does not have just one power."

"Whad! (What!)" he slurred. The fast acting paralytic taking its toll.

"He does not know it, but he's a master," I whispered. "And the Siberian is a projection." Already I could feel my control slipping. Which meant Jack was nearby. And I was going to be Bonesaw once more. "I don't have time to explain, so no matter what, capture me."

I turned, moving my hair out of the way. Exposing the nape of my neck. "When jack is around I'm not Riley, I am Bonesaw. You 're going to break my neck." I explained. Tapping on my neck on the exact spot. "Right here." I emphasized our eyes meeting.

When I turned back to see the horrified look on his face. I knew he understood. How could he not with Regent on his team? "You will only have one shot, don't miss. Don't let Jack take me."

"Now I have to hurt you really, really bad." I saw the resolve in his eyes. He would endure. And so I cut. Slipping into the background as Bonesaw took the fore, not Riley. To do this, I could not be Riley. I had to be Bonesaw. And unfortunately for him, that meant I had to speed run this. If I wanted him to second trigger, then it had to be as real as possible.

Piece by piece I took him apart, cutting into his skull, wiring him up to wetware computers. it took hours as I lined the entire freezer with pieces of him. With each cut I could see the realization in his eyes, the horror grow. And I hated myself for it.

There was not much left to go as I attached his nerves to the artificial ones. By the time I was done, I had cut open his ribcage. Had his organs strewn about. Machines kept him alive. Pumping his body with vital life giving nutrients and fluids. I had left him suspended from the ceiling of the freezer on a lattice network of interconnected nerves and arteries that were spread to cover every surface. I had flayed his arms, legs, and back, deeply attaching nerves. It was a truly gruesome sight. It was thanks to my current specialty that I made this far worse than Bone saw ever could. He would now be trapped in his own mind, experiencing everything that I knew caused him to second trigger. Repeatedly. As if it were real until it really was real. For him, at least.

"Quite the impressive work of art, my dear." it was Jack. I stiffened as he rested a hand on my shoulder. Even now, I could feel his influence. Subtle, insidious, foul and pervasive. If I so much as slipped in his presence, then that would be it. And I would fall back under his sway.

It was tempting to just give in, but I could not, would not. For as long as I could, I sought to endure, to resist. To not let myself become Bonesaw.

I felt Brian's eyes on me from within his prison of flesh. His eyes met mine as I closed the door. Within those brown eyes, I saw confusion, fear, revulsion, and what I hoped was understanding.

Jack led me away from the kitchen with a hand on my shoulder. My heart pounded away in my chest. I would like nothing more than to get away from him. He led me right into a different room. We filled it with the hostages of Doll town I noted. The ones I had made into pale mockeries of the Nine. All of whom were right there as well.

Jack slash who was just behind me, the Siberian resting off in a corner of the room, Burnscar was there as well standing watch next to a window, in the center of the room lay Crawler resting the bulk of his body on the floor lazing about in a light dose. And mannequin took to keeping watch of the hostages standing as still as the grave.

So many ideas flooded my head about how I could kill each of them. The only snag in my plan would be Crawler and Jack. I would need time, and that was something I did not have an abundance of right now.

Jack grinned as a streak of light flew by overhead. "Crawler, why don't you say hello to our guests." it was purity I knew. The woman who was the second strongest blaster on the east coast.

"Well, it looks like they brought the entire gang why don't we have some fun." as Jack said that the street we were on shook from one of Purity's blasts. "And Alan, let the rats scarper off, would you?"

With that, Jack and the others left amid the decoys. I however opted to stay here. I still had a roll to play. Even better, I could feel myself growing stronger. More resistant to Jack's influence. Even if I doubted I could resist a direct order. My utter terror of the man ensured my compliance with that alone. He broke me once, and I knew full well that he could and would do it again if he had to.

I turned my efforts elsewhere I was not a fighter after all, at least not yet, anyway. I had little time before the Undersiders showed up and I wanted to be ready. Summoning one of the spider bots to me, I took it apart, harvesting it for parts. It was a shame to destroy one, but I had little choice in the matter if I wanted. My escape to go off without a hitch.

In the end, I was left with a pair of cleverly disguised stimpacks courtesy of my knowledge of Fallout four that looked like a pair of earring studs. They would activate on their own once I was incapacitated. And while it would not immediately heal me. It would keep me from dying. Because dying was bad.

And so I walked to where I knew the Undersiders, plus most of the Travelers would be from the kitchen, my improvised lab where I had left Grue. I had to drag a chair over to the stove so I could work once again cursing my short stature of only 3'10. But a lifetime of being on the run would do that to a person.

While I waited, I worked on my next project making Mentats. I went down the list of what I had on hand; I had batteries from which I could harvest lead. The stock of borax I had on hand. The key ingredient in Abraxo, my power, helpfully told me. My only snag was that I lacked any brain fungus, something I did not have the time to make. I had various canned mushrooms. A poor substitute, I knew. But what choice did I have? I quickly got to work.

I hadn't even gotten done extracting the lead from the batteries before they teleported in right in front of me. And there I was. With the Undersiders and the Travelers standing right in front of me.

It was foolish how I had forgotten just how fast they had taken the initiative in my excitement to tinker.

"Where is Grue." Skitter growled at me. A menacing swarm gathering at her back.

It was then that I frightfully realized that this was Skitter. The girl who willingly became Kepri just to bully a god to death. She could and would draw the gun I knew she carried and shoot me just to prove a point. Even kill me.

Slowly, I lowered the battery I was working on to the table next to the stove. I turned the burners off as well. Not making any sudden movements, I turned to face them. Raising my hands I said, "he is in the Freezer."

"But I wouldn't at least not yet he's not done 'baking' yet." I added when Skitter made a B-Line to said freezer. I even did the whole air quotes thing.

Still, she ignored me and opened the door with a gasp of shock at what she saw. And had to be stopped by Tattletale, who this time held an actual gun to my head.

She looked me dead in the eyes as she gave me the order to "fix him."

Before I could even answer, there was screaming then. Black as I saw once more the unfamiliar sight of whatever the entity was that governed over my powers. Because it certainly was not Scion.

This time was different, though. It was garbled and hard to understand.

[... ave... em]

My nose bled once more.

[... cha… p…]

I convulsed once more. Blacking out sooner than the last time.

I came to around the same time as the other's blood still pouring from my nose. With the shadowy figure's hands around my neck. Instinctively, I kicked and flailed uselessly even as the grip tightened.

I looked to the cooler I could see the look of hatred in his eyes as Brian slowly put himself back together.

I couldn't help the smug grin that crossed my face. The pride I had put into my work. He had never taken two powers at the same time in the other timeline. But now he could. I would later come to regret the grin as he promptly snapped my neck with his projection.

Just before everything went black, I saw the look of rage on Jack's face as he barged into the room.

"Yeah sorry but not sorry Jack…"