She tossed and turned for several hours. Well at least as much as she could
manage while still bound tightly to the metal bed. Her body ached under the
movement, her skin and muscles screaming in protest every single time they
connected with anything solid. The sound of what she had now guessed was
likely a spider walking up and down the wall as well as the dripping water
thundered loudly in her eardrums. She was exhausted. Everything hurt and
her mind felt like cotton. Her normal instincts and senses were overwhelmed
by all of the sensory input and she felt almost dizzy.
Just the same, she tried to focus. Harley's intents were obvious. She meant no good at all. Well okay that was painfully obvious and hardly took a genius to figure out. Her intent was revenge; that much was fitfully clear. Against Barbara and Dinah. "Have to stop her," Helena murmured, the words barely intelligible.
Yeah and if only it were all that easy.
But the reality of the situation was far more dire. She was tied to a bed, drugged and barely lucid. Her chanced of formulating a decent escape plan hardly looked promising.
Helena lifted her head, suddenly aware of something moving towards her. Her eyes dilated painfully as a rather distinct odor invaded her nostrils.
Harley.
And she smelled him too; that dirty horrible creature that had attacked her. She heard their footsteps as they came closer. Idly she wondered how she could hear through what had to be solid steel. The heavy metal door opened, screeching loudly. The wailing of the rusted metal assaulted her ears and she winced in pain.
"Hello Helena, how do you feel?" Harley cooed from the doorway. She slid it shut behind her and indicated for Alushe to go into the corner. He did so wordlessly and then turned to gaze at her with large wide eyes.
"Just fine," Helena drawled. "Was wondering when you'd show up again."
Harley cocked her head to the side, amusement playing on her lips. "Oh why? Did you miss me?" She watched Helena closely for reaction. When she saw none she pushed on, "I had things to do. Preparations to make."
Helena wrinkled her nose as the smell of decay assaulted her in violent waves. She turned her head towards Alushe, smelling him but not seeing him. "I see you brought your pet back," Helena said calmly. Her head felt rather like she was being kicked by a thousand Oompa Loompas on crack but she knew that she had to keep her emotions on an even keel. At least for now.
"Yes," Harley murmured, glancing at the strange young man who was crouched low in the corner. "He wants to taste you again. You left quite the impression on him." She paused. "And me."
Helena blinked, not quite understanding. She didn't have long to contemplate the odd comment before she felt a hand settle on her hip. Confusion contorting her face, she felt her former therapist apparently crawling over his lithe frame, almost like a lover. Lack of understanding quickly gave way to anger and irritation at the touch of her captor.
"What do you want now?" Helena asked feeling tired. She trembled a bit when she felt Harley slide a hand down her shirt to where it lifted to reveal her bare midriff. The touch of the woman's fingers sent electricity flying through her. Her skin was too sensitive and everything was causing a reaction. It pissed her off to no end that she was giving the woman exactly what she wanted.
"Helena, my dear, I think we should have another session. I don't think either of us was satisfied with the....shall we say...lack of progress from yesterday. I think we should start fresh." She slid her fingers across her prey's flesh, enjoying the reaction she got as Helena tried to flinch away.
"Not a good idea right now," Helena gritted out between tightly clenched teeth. She closed her eyes tight, trying to control the pain coursing through her body. The touches along her skin didn't feel good; they felt like fire and the hurt like bloody hell.
Harley smiled as she felt the brunette shake under her touch. "I see you're enjoying this. You're so responsive," she murmured. She bent closer so that her mouth was near Helena's ear. "Do you like sex Huntress?"
Helena opened her eyes and looked up. She couldn't see her tormentor but she could feel her close by. "Yes," she said, her tone hard. "But I usually don't bed down with psychopaths."
Harley pressed her forehead against Helena's, delighting in the shiver she got as a reaction. "That's not quite true now is it Helena?" She smiled widely, in an almost predatory fashion. "You like danger. You actively seek out the excitement of someone as deranged as you are. You crave the passion of dementia. The more unbalanced and psychotic, the better. And that includes your bed partners."
Helena snorted. "The only thing I crave is seeing you back in Arkham wearing a nice little white jacket." She adjusted her body a few inches, trying to slide away from Harley's invasive presence. The woman was definitely abusing the personal space rules. Assuming of course that she cared which considering the fact that she was a demented homicidal whack- job was hardly a given.
Harley flicked her cheek hard and Helena hissed. Normally the obnoxious contact would have just annoyed her but with her skin as hyperactive as it apparently was, it felt like fire racing along the thin lines of her nerves.
"Wrong answer," Harley snapped. "Do you realize that I own you, Helena? You belong to me now. You're like a little toy that I can do whatever I wish to. If I want to break you and then put you back together again, I can. If I want to tear you apart and toss you in the garbage, I can do that too. You're mine."
"I'm not yours," Helena replied, jaw set hard. "I don't belong to anyone."
"What's wrong Helena? You don't like to be touched? I wouldn't have figured you for that at all," Harley said as she reached out and traced a finger across the hard muscles of Helena's abdomen. "You're far too responsive for that to be true and we both know it."
Helena swallowed hard, agitated by the violent tremor that ripped through her body. She could feel her heart slam against her chest, threatening to break through and let her bleed. Let her die.
Harley laughed at the physical reaction. She lowered her voice. "What are you feeling right now? Are you excited? Turned on maybe?" She licked her lips in an almost hungry manner. "You like this don't you?" She ran her hand down from the girls' abdomen to the waistband of her leather pants. "Do you want to feel good Helena? I can make you feel good."
"You're not really my type," Helena growled. "Dammit, get the hell away from me." She felt anger rip through her, energizing her blood. She was neither amused nor intrigued by whatever the hell game her captor was playing with her.
"Am I lying? Am I telling you something that isn't true?" Harley's thumb played between her skin and the leather of her pants at her waistband. Helena held her breath and closed her eyes trying to stay focused on keeping some semblance of control. Harley laughed again; it amused her to see the brunette struggling so badly.
"Tell me Huntress, tell me what you like and how you like it..."
Helena looked up at her sharply, suddenly not caring if Harley could see her eyes and the expression therein. "What I want, you don't have." There was terribly sadness in her tone as she reflected on exactly what her words meant. And then just as abruptly, she pushed those thoughts away. There was nothing she could do about him now. Surely there would be time enough for that later.
Assuming she survived of course. One couldn't really mourn the dead when you yourself were it.
Harley laughed and took her hand away from Helena, eliciting an unconscious sigh of relief from the girl. "Perhaps that's true Helena but being that the good Detective is dead, I think you'll have to adjust. I think you'll have to learn to like something new. Accept what's offered." She bent back over Helena and pressed her mouth against the brunette's ear. "But tell me, how do you feel now? Excited?" She gently bit down on Helena's earlobe; more teasing than trying to actively hurt her
Helena cried out, quite involuntarily. She immediately bit down hard on her lip to stop the sound but she couldn't keep from tightly clenching her eyes against the pain that stormed through her. Whatever had been done to her nerves, she simply couldn't handle any kind of physical contact.
"Helena, let Huntress out, let her answer me." Harley whispered rubbing her face against her prey's neck. She bit at the flesh there, marking the spot just above Alushe's previous wound. "What's your issue Harley?" Helena snapped out, her voice dripping with anger. "I mean I know you're a fucking psycho but trying to seduce someone tied to a bed, that's even more depraved than I'd given you credit for."
Harley pulled back and slapped Helena hard, her palm cracking against the girls' cheek like thunder sounding in a church. Helena bit down so hard into her lip that blood seeped out and spilled over onto her chin. She tasted iron in her mouth.
"I would caution against trying to think for yourself Helena. It's really not something you do well," Harley retorted. She stepped back and away from her captive and looked her over. It was indeed her rebellious and angry nature that had attracted her to the brunette in the first place. Calm then. Calm.
"Yeah, look who's talking," Helena said, lip quivering and red with blood. "This thinking thing ain't going so well for you either now is it?"
Harley chose to ignore her and decided to change tracks. It was time to get things going back in the direction she had intended. "Helena, I'm not the one to blame here. You must understand that. You and I will never get anywhere with your therapy if you continue blaming me for what happened. I'm a criminal. It's what I do." She smiled when she saw the confusion play across Helena's face. Still very much a child. "You're the one who betrayed your friends and family. And oh poor sweet Barbara Gordon. She picked you up off the street when no one wanted you and how did you repay her? By betraying her trust and getting her beloved Wade Brixton murdered."
"Fuck you..."
"You told me about Barbara and Wade. I killed him for you. You told me who he was. It was you. I never would have known about him if not for you. But thanks to you I did...and well...I think it was my best kill ever. All thanks to you."
"I trusted you," Helena shot back. "That was my mistake. You killed Wade. Not me."
"You stole away her opportunity to be... a woman again. Do you think another man could ever have interest in a useless woman like her? Men are pigs Helena; they don't tend to have much interest in a woman who can't walk. Wade was...unique."
"She's not useless," Helena growled.
"Oh how naïve you are," Harley laughed. "What man would actually care about a woman confined to a wheelchair?" She shook her head. "But Wade did apparently and you stole that from her. You stole her second chance. Oh Helena, your father left you behind and she took you in. If she hadn't, God only knows what you'd have become. You'd probably be crawling around in a gutter right about now."
"No," Helena hissed, her eyes dilating. She wanted desperately to lash out at the insane woman but the metal cuffs held her tight. She fought against her former therapists words, knowing full well that she had wondered a thousand times what would have happened to her had it not been for Barbara's astonishing act of generosity. In truth, Harley really wasn't all that far off. God alone knew who she'd have become if not for Barbara taking her in.
"Barbara saved you and you betrayed her. It's that simple really," Harley reminded her, in an almost sing-song voice.
"No..."
"Do you sleep at night Helena? I mean do you dream about him? Do you dream about telling me about him? Don't tell me you don't feel guilty. I know better. You gave him to me. You're as much responsible as I am."
"Fuck off," Helena snapped back, anger in her voice. Harley wasn't all that far off but she had no intention of allowing the psychopath to know that.
"What did you see last night? Was it Wade? Did you see him because of your guilt? Because you know the truth even if you won't admit it?" Harley pressed. She paced around Helena, her heels clicking loudly against the floor.
"I didn't kill him you psycho bitch," Helena cried out, hatred in her words. If not for the chains between them, she was pretty damn certain that she would have already ripped Harley's black heart from her chest.
The doctor answered her words with a hard slap to her left cheek. "You've been warned," she snapped at Helena. "I don't like that word."
"Deal," Helena replied shortly.
Harley grabbed the brunette's neck with her hands. Helena gritted her teeth feeling Harley's fingers burying into the gauze that covered the bloody wound she had received on the previous night. "Tell me that how many times has Barbara Gordon stopped you from killing. Tell me it doesn't piss you off every time she does? Tell me it doesn't frustrate you? Tell me you don't want to taste blood? Tell me that I'm lying Helena!" Harley shook her. "You want to kill. You hunger to kill. Every time she stops you, your blood burns with rage. It's who you are. It's who we are."
"You're a sick lunatic and we're nothing alike," Helena said, shaking her head in disgust.
"Right now Helena, all you are is my prey," Harley purred. She moved back down to the bed. She grinned at the young girl; she had the enticing Huntress completely under her control and it gave her a sensation of astonishing power. And why not? She had in her possession the daughter of the mighty Batman and the mysterious Catwoman. She had her and consequently, she had Barbara Gordon too. "You know killing is in your nature."
"So is kicking your ass," Helena assured her, trying to sound as bored as she could manage.
Harley chuckled. She bent down over Helena and ran her fingers over the side of the brunette's face. She stopped her slow inspection just behind Helena's ear, right where the latch for the glasses attached to the lock. She unhooked it and removed the dark shades from around the girls' eyes. "I don't think we'll be needing these anymore."
The brunette blinked. Her eyes were two thin blurry lines, painfully dilated from the extended lack of light. Just the same, the turbulent blue color snapped out from under half-droopy eyelids. Like the ocean during a hurricane thought Harley with delight. Helena tried to focus but the bright lights in the cell left her temporarily dazed and disorientated.
Harley grabbed her throat roughly, pulling Helena away from her attempts to regain her vision and reminding her of her pressing issue; her captivity. "I want you to behave," Harley said softly, her angry eyes in stark difference to her "let's all just play nice" tone. "Alushe."
Helena trembled involuntarily, momentarily caught in the memory of the first time that the strange creature had fed from her. She glanced up and stared in horror at the creature against the wall. He was an odd looking boy, probably at one time even a good-looking man. Now he was little more than a hungry monster desperately in need of her blood. Anything to make the pain in his body cease for even a few seconds. He lumbered towards Helena, his gait awkward and unsteady. He licked his lips in anticipation, eyes on his unwilling prey. She searched him for some signs of humanity but found none. Whatever Harley had done to the poor boy, he was no longer even remotely human.
Harley stepped in his way. "Don't touch her yet," she snapped at her creation. He immediately cowered back, terrified by the crack of her voice. Sensing that she had his attention she said softly. "Take her to the room." She glanced at Helena. "I wouldn't try anything Helena, he's quite hungry and in quite a good deal of pain. It wouldn't take much for him to just...snap." She popped her fingers against each other as if to provide an example. The noise echoes across the room and Helena winced, her eyes drawing tightly together and her brow furrowing.
Helena turned her head away from Alushe as he approached. His smell was horrible and it assaulted her already hyper-stimulated senses. She felt her stomach roll but managed to just barely keep it all together. He reached up over her and released the chains. She thought to lash out at him but was never afforded the opportunity before he roughly grabbed her shoulder and yanked it. She felt the joint explode in agony as the ball popped out of the socket. Crying out, she bit down hard on her lip, once again tearing it. Idly it occurred to her that she had torn the tender flesh of her lips to shreds. Yeah, gloss really wasn't going to be able to cover that much damage.
"He will break your arm," Harley assured her, grinning with delight as she watched the girls' pain. Whatever was going on due to Alushe's blood running through her system, this was all just making it that much worse.
Which was wonderful of course.
Unable to fight back, Helena allowed Alushe to lift her up and toss her haphazardly over his shoulder. He slid a hand under the back of her shirt but there was nothing even remotely sexual about the contact. He was simply searching for a way to hold her in place. His fingers latched onto the leather of her waistband. A stray thought about him tearing her expensive duds crossed her mind. She shook her head in amazement, astonished that even a small part of her could be bemoaning the loss of good clothes during a time like this.
Well they were really nice pants.
And gallows humor didn't really know an appropriate time or place.
Helena tried to open her eyes but the brightness of the lights hurt her. He carried her out of the cell and down a long corridor. She could hear the sound of steps as he descended them. After almost five minutes he dropped her against a wall, slamming her back into hard plaster surface. She grunted in pain. He moved his face up against her, sniffing loudly at her throat.
She pushed back against him with her good arm, shoving him off. "Get the fuck off me," she growled.
He ignored her, reaching out to lick her neck. She felt his blunt teeth graze the flesh of her throat and she shuddered under the contact. She pushed out with her foot and knocked him away. "Not the All You Can Eat table," she muttered. "Uh uh, kitten," Harley reprimanded as she walked into the cell, flanked closely by Torch who was holding a large pistol in his hands. "I know that I said to behave and not try anything. You and Alushe must learn to play nice." She nodded to Torch. "Go ahead."
Torch took her hands and cuffed them together. The chains were loose however and afforded her quite a bit of movement. Probably too much in fact. He reached down and chained her ankles as well. The restraints were not unlike the type used when a prisoner was brought into a courthouse; all one piece. The sound of metal cuffs jingled loudly, sounding like a damn orchestra in her ears. She winced in pain.
When Torch finished, he stepped back. "All good," he drawled, sounding almost drunk and terribly pleased with himself. He watched with some disgust as Alushe immediately circled back over to the brunette and startled nuzzling into her neck.
"Leave her alone Alushe." Harley ordered to the creature.
He looked her with an imploring look. He wanted to taste her. He needed her. His mouth watered and his skin burned. A distant memory of a different time rang like a bell in his head but the hunger blurred it. He needed her blood. He needed relief.
"I said leave her alone," Harley snapped at him, her posture changing abruptly to one of power and dominance. He immediately responded, fear in his eyes.
Disappointed and terrified, he pulled away from his prey, dropping her. Helena fell heavily to the floor holding her neck, she was sure he had opened the wound again. She pulled herself into a ball on the floor, cradling her wounded arm. Every part of her body hurt like hell. In short she was on fire.
"This is your new home kitten," Harley told her as she walked around the room. "I think it's rather comfortable myself. You have a bathroom and a bed. Torch will bring you food later. So be nice, and I'll be nice with you. Behave for long enough and I might even unchain you and allow you walk around in here by yourself."
"Fuck off," Helena snorted, letting it be known that she had no intention of playing nice. "What the hell do you want with me? Isn't this a little bit much just to get laid?" She knew full well that she was playing with fire and that whatever Harley's intention were, they were about far more than just a sexual thrill and enticement but she had no intention of allowing her captor to see just how scared she really was.
"I want the real you Helena. I want the Huntress. She's the sexy, rough and dangerous one. I want her. Don't you think she wants me too?"
"No," Helena replied shortly, locking her hazy eyes on Harley. "She has better taste than that."
The blonde decided to ignore the obvious insult. "We're a lot alike she and I. We both like power and control. We both like having life and death in our hands." She smiled evilly at Helena. "I like having it over you."
Harley looked back at Alushe. She smiled and nodded. A few seconds later Helena felt him over crawling over her again. She tried to kick him away but he was fast and strong. He held her arms and she cried out in agony and horror as he sunk his blunt teeth into her throat again. He ripped at the flesh, tormenting it with his incisors. She tried to pull away from him but he held her down with a hard fist into the middle of her gut. She heard a dull crack but only vaguely recognized it as the sound of one of her ribs breaking.
Her vision blurred but she could still hear the sounds of him roughly lapping at the blood on her neck. He hadn't opened a vein but he had created quite a nasty gouge and he was feeding from that, replacing her blood with his own diseased fluids. She made a thick gurgling noise as she tried to breathe.
Torch shook his head in disgust, appalled by the sight before his eyes. The usually beautiful girl was anything but as she lay there being ravaged by the monster. Her eyelids were half open and her body was shaking fiercely. Her left hand was spasming horribly as she fought for some degree of balance. He reached over to the table and picked up a Polaroid camera. He snapped a quick picture and then another. He dropped the two prints on to a table and put the camera back down. "Oh God," he muttered.
"Don't like you the show Torch?" Harley laughed.
"I'm just glad I didn't eat first," he said, wincing as he watched the carnage. He almost felt for the girl as the disgusting creature continued to tear at her. Her pain and torment were obvious. He had no idea what she had done to Harley but it had to have been something fairly major to deserve this degree of torture.
"Oh how dramatic," she laughed. "I think it's a beautiful thing. Man helping out each other. How giving. How wonderfully altruistic."
"Right," Torch said, shaking his head. "Whatever you say Boss."
Alushe pushed harder against his prey, grunting in frustration as he failed to draw more blood from her. His teeth weren't strong enough to open a vein so he had to settle for what he could create by tearing at her skin. She pushed at him but he resisted, using his size to hold her in place.
"Our little Helena Kyle is a really strong little girl Torch. She is dangerous, true but I'm sure that if I could release the beast inside her, I could manage her as easily as I have Alushe." She looked at the two figures struggling on the floor. "That's enough Alushe. Let her go."
The creature looked up at his master, dismay in his eyes. He pleaded with her silently, begging her to allow him to continue his feeding.
"I said enough!" Harley shouted.
He apparently decided to ignore her. He dropped his head back to Helena's neck and bit down again, causing the brunette to cry out. Harley growled, infuriated by his defiance. She picked up a long wooden stick that was leaning against the door and slammed it forcefully against his back. "Now!"
He released Helena and crawled away from her, moving towards the corner of the room. Harley didn't let him go far before she slammed the stick down on his head and shoulders, causing him to howl in pain. "You will listen to me," she hissed at him. "You will not disobey or you will not feed."
He hid his face between his hands and crouched in the corner looking up at her in fear. "I think he gets it," Torch said, frowning. The whole scene made him terribly uncomfortable and he was a murderer eleven times over.
"Good," Harley replied, her eyes already back at on her original target. She crossed over to the far wall, which Helena was leaning heavily against. The brunette was barely conscious and her breathing was labored. Harley cocked her head and lifted her fingers up to examine the wound on the girls' neck.
"She still alive?" Torch asked, not sure which he'd prefer. He was all for a good torture but this seemed like too much. This was truly horrific and grotesque.
"Looks rather ugly," Harley admitted, though she didn't seem terribly upset. She reached out her hand and Torch handed her a first aide kit. "You're going to be okay," she promised Helena. "But perhaps you'll start to understand that the only way you're going to survive is by letting the Huntress out. Helena can't do it."
"Bitch...."
Harley smiled widely, deeply impressed. "I love your strength dear, you are really quite amazing. How about this, as a reward for surviving the first two days I promise to call Barbara Gordon. Is there anything you would like me to say to her? I'm sure she'll be happy to know that you're alive."
Helena closed her eyes, unwilling to speak. God only knew what Harley had planned for Barbara but she had no intention of helping out whatever it be.
"Nothing to say? That's too bad," Harley said, shaking her head. "Well in any case, we took some pictures of you and Alushe. I thought she should see them. I think she'll be delighted to know that you're still alive." She bent down and kissed her captive's forehead. "In the meanwhile, I have things to do. You should...try to sleep. Sweet dreams." She touched Helena's cheek and then moved away, snapping her fingers. "Alushe, come."
There was the sound of feet scrapping the floor and then the door shut, leaving her in the silence of the cell. Through hazy eyes she glanced around and saw that she was indeed by herself. Calmed a bit by that revelation, she dropped back to the floor and lay there, staring up at the ceiling.
The pain tearing through her body was horrific. The creature had mauled her but that was only part of it. His diseased blood was doing something to her, tainting her. Changing her somehow.
Something was happening.
Something very bad.
She tried to focus, knowing that she needed to come up with a plan. Barbara and Dinah's lives depended on it. Harley was up to something very bad and that meant that the two of them would likely be in the blonde's crosshairs. Somehow Helena Kyle knew that she had to stop her former therapist.
Some how. Some way.
She swallowed hard, her throat dry and parched. Her stomach rolled but she managed not to vomit. She dropped to her side and rolled into a protective ball. Her dislocated shoulder screamed out at her, barking orders. Numbly she pushed herself up. Lowering her mouth down to her shirt, she bit down as she slammed her shoulder roughly against the wall. It slid back into the socket with a wet pop. Breathing hard and barely able to stay lucid, she collapsed back to the floor of the room.
She needed to think. She needed to focus.
She allowed her eyes to wander the room, searching desperately for an escape. After a few moments she gave up, the burning in her skull convincing her that she wouldn't get anywhere that way,
Everything just hurt too much.
Her vision blurred and her body seized. After the fit passed she pressed her eyelids tightly shut, praying for exhaustion to take her and allow her some respite. She'd never wanted to sleep so badly in all her life nor needed it so desperately.
It never came.
Just the same, she tried to focus. Harley's intents were obvious. She meant no good at all. Well okay that was painfully obvious and hardly took a genius to figure out. Her intent was revenge; that much was fitfully clear. Against Barbara and Dinah. "Have to stop her," Helena murmured, the words barely intelligible.
Yeah and if only it were all that easy.
But the reality of the situation was far more dire. She was tied to a bed, drugged and barely lucid. Her chanced of formulating a decent escape plan hardly looked promising.
Helena lifted her head, suddenly aware of something moving towards her. Her eyes dilated painfully as a rather distinct odor invaded her nostrils.
Harley.
And she smelled him too; that dirty horrible creature that had attacked her. She heard their footsteps as they came closer. Idly she wondered how she could hear through what had to be solid steel. The heavy metal door opened, screeching loudly. The wailing of the rusted metal assaulted her ears and she winced in pain.
"Hello Helena, how do you feel?" Harley cooed from the doorway. She slid it shut behind her and indicated for Alushe to go into the corner. He did so wordlessly and then turned to gaze at her with large wide eyes.
"Just fine," Helena drawled. "Was wondering when you'd show up again."
Harley cocked her head to the side, amusement playing on her lips. "Oh why? Did you miss me?" She watched Helena closely for reaction. When she saw none she pushed on, "I had things to do. Preparations to make."
Helena wrinkled her nose as the smell of decay assaulted her in violent waves. She turned her head towards Alushe, smelling him but not seeing him. "I see you brought your pet back," Helena said calmly. Her head felt rather like she was being kicked by a thousand Oompa Loompas on crack but she knew that she had to keep her emotions on an even keel. At least for now.
"Yes," Harley murmured, glancing at the strange young man who was crouched low in the corner. "He wants to taste you again. You left quite the impression on him." She paused. "And me."
Helena blinked, not quite understanding. She didn't have long to contemplate the odd comment before she felt a hand settle on her hip. Confusion contorting her face, she felt her former therapist apparently crawling over his lithe frame, almost like a lover. Lack of understanding quickly gave way to anger and irritation at the touch of her captor.
"What do you want now?" Helena asked feeling tired. She trembled a bit when she felt Harley slide a hand down her shirt to where it lifted to reveal her bare midriff. The touch of the woman's fingers sent electricity flying through her. Her skin was too sensitive and everything was causing a reaction. It pissed her off to no end that she was giving the woman exactly what she wanted.
"Helena, my dear, I think we should have another session. I don't think either of us was satisfied with the....shall we say...lack of progress from yesterday. I think we should start fresh." She slid her fingers across her prey's flesh, enjoying the reaction she got as Helena tried to flinch away.
"Not a good idea right now," Helena gritted out between tightly clenched teeth. She closed her eyes tight, trying to control the pain coursing through her body. The touches along her skin didn't feel good; they felt like fire and the hurt like bloody hell.
Harley smiled as she felt the brunette shake under her touch. "I see you're enjoying this. You're so responsive," she murmured. She bent closer so that her mouth was near Helena's ear. "Do you like sex Huntress?"
Helena opened her eyes and looked up. She couldn't see her tormentor but she could feel her close by. "Yes," she said, her tone hard. "But I usually don't bed down with psychopaths."
Harley pressed her forehead against Helena's, delighting in the shiver she got as a reaction. "That's not quite true now is it Helena?" She smiled widely, in an almost predatory fashion. "You like danger. You actively seek out the excitement of someone as deranged as you are. You crave the passion of dementia. The more unbalanced and psychotic, the better. And that includes your bed partners."
Helena snorted. "The only thing I crave is seeing you back in Arkham wearing a nice little white jacket." She adjusted her body a few inches, trying to slide away from Harley's invasive presence. The woman was definitely abusing the personal space rules. Assuming of course that she cared which considering the fact that she was a demented homicidal whack- job was hardly a given.
Harley flicked her cheek hard and Helena hissed. Normally the obnoxious contact would have just annoyed her but with her skin as hyperactive as it apparently was, it felt like fire racing along the thin lines of her nerves.
"Wrong answer," Harley snapped. "Do you realize that I own you, Helena? You belong to me now. You're like a little toy that I can do whatever I wish to. If I want to break you and then put you back together again, I can. If I want to tear you apart and toss you in the garbage, I can do that too. You're mine."
"I'm not yours," Helena replied, jaw set hard. "I don't belong to anyone."
"What's wrong Helena? You don't like to be touched? I wouldn't have figured you for that at all," Harley said as she reached out and traced a finger across the hard muscles of Helena's abdomen. "You're far too responsive for that to be true and we both know it."
Helena swallowed hard, agitated by the violent tremor that ripped through her body. She could feel her heart slam against her chest, threatening to break through and let her bleed. Let her die.
Harley laughed at the physical reaction. She lowered her voice. "What are you feeling right now? Are you excited? Turned on maybe?" She licked her lips in an almost hungry manner. "You like this don't you?" She ran her hand down from the girls' abdomen to the waistband of her leather pants. "Do you want to feel good Helena? I can make you feel good."
"You're not really my type," Helena growled. "Dammit, get the hell away from me." She felt anger rip through her, energizing her blood. She was neither amused nor intrigued by whatever the hell game her captor was playing with her.
"Am I lying? Am I telling you something that isn't true?" Harley's thumb played between her skin and the leather of her pants at her waistband. Helena held her breath and closed her eyes trying to stay focused on keeping some semblance of control. Harley laughed again; it amused her to see the brunette struggling so badly.
"Tell me Huntress, tell me what you like and how you like it..."
Helena looked up at her sharply, suddenly not caring if Harley could see her eyes and the expression therein. "What I want, you don't have." There was terribly sadness in her tone as she reflected on exactly what her words meant. And then just as abruptly, she pushed those thoughts away. There was nothing she could do about him now. Surely there would be time enough for that later.
Assuming she survived of course. One couldn't really mourn the dead when you yourself were it.
Harley laughed and took her hand away from Helena, eliciting an unconscious sigh of relief from the girl. "Perhaps that's true Helena but being that the good Detective is dead, I think you'll have to adjust. I think you'll have to learn to like something new. Accept what's offered." She bent back over Helena and pressed her mouth against the brunette's ear. "But tell me, how do you feel now? Excited?" She gently bit down on Helena's earlobe; more teasing than trying to actively hurt her
Helena cried out, quite involuntarily. She immediately bit down hard on her lip to stop the sound but she couldn't keep from tightly clenching her eyes against the pain that stormed through her. Whatever had been done to her nerves, she simply couldn't handle any kind of physical contact.
"Helena, let Huntress out, let her answer me." Harley whispered rubbing her face against her prey's neck. She bit at the flesh there, marking the spot just above Alushe's previous wound. "What's your issue Harley?" Helena snapped out, her voice dripping with anger. "I mean I know you're a fucking psycho but trying to seduce someone tied to a bed, that's even more depraved than I'd given you credit for."
Harley pulled back and slapped Helena hard, her palm cracking against the girls' cheek like thunder sounding in a church. Helena bit down so hard into her lip that blood seeped out and spilled over onto her chin. She tasted iron in her mouth.
"I would caution against trying to think for yourself Helena. It's really not something you do well," Harley retorted. She stepped back and away from her captive and looked her over. It was indeed her rebellious and angry nature that had attracted her to the brunette in the first place. Calm then. Calm.
"Yeah, look who's talking," Helena said, lip quivering and red with blood. "This thinking thing ain't going so well for you either now is it?"
Harley chose to ignore her and decided to change tracks. It was time to get things going back in the direction she had intended. "Helena, I'm not the one to blame here. You must understand that. You and I will never get anywhere with your therapy if you continue blaming me for what happened. I'm a criminal. It's what I do." She smiled when she saw the confusion play across Helena's face. Still very much a child. "You're the one who betrayed your friends and family. And oh poor sweet Barbara Gordon. She picked you up off the street when no one wanted you and how did you repay her? By betraying her trust and getting her beloved Wade Brixton murdered."
"Fuck you..."
"You told me about Barbara and Wade. I killed him for you. You told me who he was. It was you. I never would have known about him if not for you. But thanks to you I did...and well...I think it was my best kill ever. All thanks to you."
"I trusted you," Helena shot back. "That was my mistake. You killed Wade. Not me."
"You stole away her opportunity to be... a woman again. Do you think another man could ever have interest in a useless woman like her? Men are pigs Helena; they don't tend to have much interest in a woman who can't walk. Wade was...unique."
"She's not useless," Helena growled.
"Oh how naïve you are," Harley laughed. "What man would actually care about a woman confined to a wheelchair?" She shook her head. "But Wade did apparently and you stole that from her. You stole her second chance. Oh Helena, your father left you behind and she took you in. If she hadn't, God only knows what you'd have become. You'd probably be crawling around in a gutter right about now."
"No," Helena hissed, her eyes dilating. She wanted desperately to lash out at the insane woman but the metal cuffs held her tight. She fought against her former therapists words, knowing full well that she had wondered a thousand times what would have happened to her had it not been for Barbara's astonishing act of generosity. In truth, Harley really wasn't all that far off. God alone knew who she'd have become if not for Barbara taking her in.
"Barbara saved you and you betrayed her. It's that simple really," Harley reminded her, in an almost sing-song voice.
"No..."
"Do you sleep at night Helena? I mean do you dream about him? Do you dream about telling me about him? Don't tell me you don't feel guilty. I know better. You gave him to me. You're as much responsible as I am."
"Fuck off," Helena snapped back, anger in her voice. Harley wasn't all that far off but she had no intention of allowing the psychopath to know that.
"What did you see last night? Was it Wade? Did you see him because of your guilt? Because you know the truth even if you won't admit it?" Harley pressed. She paced around Helena, her heels clicking loudly against the floor.
"I didn't kill him you psycho bitch," Helena cried out, hatred in her words. If not for the chains between them, she was pretty damn certain that she would have already ripped Harley's black heart from her chest.
The doctor answered her words with a hard slap to her left cheek. "You've been warned," she snapped at Helena. "I don't like that word."
"Deal," Helena replied shortly.
Harley grabbed the brunette's neck with her hands. Helena gritted her teeth feeling Harley's fingers burying into the gauze that covered the bloody wound she had received on the previous night. "Tell me that how many times has Barbara Gordon stopped you from killing. Tell me it doesn't piss you off every time she does? Tell me it doesn't frustrate you? Tell me you don't want to taste blood? Tell me that I'm lying Helena!" Harley shook her. "You want to kill. You hunger to kill. Every time she stops you, your blood burns with rage. It's who you are. It's who we are."
"You're a sick lunatic and we're nothing alike," Helena said, shaking her head in disgust.
"Right now Helena, all you are is my prey," Harley purred. She moved back down to the bed. She grinned at the young girl; she had the enticing Huntress completely under her control and it gave her a sensation of astonishing power. And why not? She had in her possession the daughter of the mighty Batman and the mysterious Catwoman. She had her and consequently, she had Barbara Gordon too. "You know killing is in your nature."
"So is kicking your ass," Helena assured her, trying to sound as bored as she could manage.
Harley chuckled. She bent down over Helena and ran her fingers over the side of the brunette's face. She stopped her slow inspection just behind Helena's ear, right where the latch for the glasses attached to the lock. She unhooked it and removed the dark shades from around the girls' eyes. "I don't think we'll be needing these anymore."
The brunette blinked. Her eyes were two thin blurry lines, painfully dilated from the extended lack of light. Just the same, the turbulent blue color snapped out from under half-droopy eyelids. Like the ocean during a hurricane thought Harley with delight. Helena tried to focus but the bright lights in the cell left her temporarily dazed and disorientated.
Harley grabbed her throat roughly, pulling Helena away from her attempts to regain her vision and reminding her of her pressing issue; her captivity. "I want you to behave," Harley said softly, her angry eyes in stark difference to her "let's all just play nice" tone. "Alushe."
Helena trembled involuntarily, momentarily caught in the memory of the first time that the strange creature had fed from her. She glanced up and stared in horror at the creature against the wall. He was an odd looking boy, probably at one time even a good-looking man. Now he was little more than a hungry monster desperately in need of her blood. Anything to make the pain in his body cease for even a few seconds. He lumbered towards Helena, his gait awkward and unsteady. He licked his lips in anticipation, eyes on his unwilling prey. She searched him for some signs of humanity but found none. Whatever Harley had done to the poor boy, he was no longer even remotely human.
Harley stepped in his way. "Don't touch her yet," she snapped at her creation. He immediately cowered back, terrified by the crack of her voice. Sensing that she had his attention she said softly. "Take her to the room." She glanced at Helena. "I wouldn't try anything Helena, he's quite hungry and in quite a good deal of pain. It wouldn't take much for him to just...snap." She popped her fingers against each other as if to provide an example. The noise echoes across the room and Helena winced, her eyes drawing tightly together and her brow furrowing.
Helena turned her head away from Alushe as he approached. His smell was horrible and it assaulted her already hyper-stimulated senses. She felt her stomach roll but managed to just barely keep it all together. He reached up over her and released the chains. She thought to lash out at him but was never afforded the opportunity before he roughly grabbed her shoulder and yanked it. She felt the joint explode in agony as the ball popped out of the socket. Crying out, she bit down hard on her lip, once again tearing it. Idly it occurred to her that she had torn the tender flesh of her lips to shreds. Yeah, gloss really wasn't going to be able to cover that much damage.
"He will break your arm," Harley assured her, grinning with delight as she watched the girls' pain. Whatever was going on due to Alushe's blood running through her system, this was all just making it that much worse.
Which was wonderful of course.
Unable to fight back, Helena allowed Alushe to lift her up and toss her haphazardly over his shoulder. He slid a hand under the back of her shirt but there was nothing even remotely sexual about the contact. He was simply searching for a way to hold her in place. His fingers latched onto the leather of her waistband. A stray thought about him tearing her expensive duds crossed her mind. She shook her head in amazement, astonished that even a small part of her could be bemoaning the loss of good clothes during a time like this.
Well they were really nice pants.
And gallows humor didn't really know an appropriate time or place.
Helena tried to open her eyes but the brightness of the lights hurt her. He carried her out of the cell and down a long corridor. She could hear the sound of steps as he descended them. After almost five minutes he dropped her against a wall, slamming her back into hard plaster surface. She grunted in pain. He moved his face up against her, sniffing loudly at her throat.
She pushed back against him with her good arm, shoving him off. "Get the fuck off me," she growled.
He ignored her, reaching out to lick her neck. She felt his blunt teeth graze the flesh of her throat and she shuddered under the contact. She pushed out with her foot and knocked him away. "Not the All You Can Eat table," she muttered. "Uh uh, kitten," Harley reprimanded as she walked into the cell, flanked closely by Torch who was holding a large pistol in his hands. "I know that I said to behave and not try anything. You and Alushe must learn to play nice." She nodded to Torch. "Go ahead."
Torch took her hands and cuffed them together. The chains were loose however and afforded her quite a bit of movement. Probably too much in fact. He reached down and chained her ankles as well. The restraints were not unlike the type used when a prisoner was brought into a courthouse; all one piece. The sound of metal cuffs jingled loudly, sounding like a damn orchestra in her ears. She winced in pain.
When Torch finished, he stepped back. "All good," he drawled, sounding almost drunk and terribly pleased with himself. He watched with some disgust as Alushe immediately circled back over to the brunette and startled nuzzling into her neck.
"Leave her alone Alushe." Harley ordered to the creature.
He looked her with an imploring look. He wanted to taste her. He needed her. His mouth watered and his skin burned. A distant memory of a different time rang like a bell in his head but the hunger blurred it. He needed her blood. He needed relief.
"I said leave her alone," Harley snapped at him, her posture changing abruptly to one of power and dominance. He immediately responded, fear in his eyes.
Disappointed and terrified, he pulled away from his prey, dropping her. Helena fell heavily to the floor holding her neck, she was sure he had opened the wound again. She pulled herself into a ball on the floor, cradling her wounded arm. Every part of her body hurt like hell. In short she was on fire.
"This is your new home kitten," Harley told her as she walked around the room. "I think it's rather comfortable myself. You have a bathroom and a bed. Torch will bring you food later. So be nice, and I'll be nice with you. Behave for long enough and I might even unchain you and allow you walk around in here by yourself."
"Fuck off," Helena snorted, letting it be known that she had no intention of playing nice. "What the hell do you want with me? Isn't this a little bit much just to get laid?" She knew full well that she was playing with fire and that whatever Harley's intention were, they were about far more than just a sexual thrill and enticement but she had no intention of allowing her captor to see just how scared she really was.
"I want the real you Helena. I want the Huntress. She's the sexy, rough and dangerous one. I want her. Don't you think she wants me too?"
"No," Helena replied shortly, locking her hazy eyes on Harley. "She has better taste than that."
The blonde decided to ignore the obvious insult. "We're a lot alike she and I. We both like power and control. We both like having life and death in our hands." She smiled evilly at Helena. "I like having it over you."
Harley looked back at Alushe. She smiled and nodded. A few seconds later Helena felt him over crawling over her again. She tried to kick him away but he was fast and strong. He held her arms and she cried out in agony and horror as he sunk his blunt teeth into her throat again. He ripped at the flesh, tormenting it with his incisors. She tried to pull away from him but he held her down with a hard fist into the middle of her gut. She heard a dull crack but only vaguely recognized it as the sound of one of her ribs breaking.
Her vision blurred but she could still hear the sounds of him roughly lapping at the blood on her neck. He hadn't opened a vein but he had created quite a nasty gouge and he was feeding from that, replacing her blood with his own diseased fluids. She made a thick gurgling noise as she tried to breathe.
Torch shook his head in disgust, appalled by the sight before his eyes. The usually beautiful girl was anything but as she lay there being ravaged by the monster. Her eyelids were half open and her body was shaking fiercely. Her left hand was spasming horribly as she fought for some degree of balance. He reached over to the table and picked up a Polaroid camera. He snapped a quick picture and then another. He dropped the two prints on to a table and put the camera back down. "Oh God," he muttered.
"Don't like you the show Torch?" Harley laughed.
"I'm just glad I didn't eat first," he said, wincing as he watched the carnage. He almost felt for the girl as the disgusting creature continued to tear at her. Her pain and torment were obvious. He had no idea what she had done to Harley but it had to have been something fairly major to deserve this degree of torture.
"Oh how dramatic," she laughed. "I think it's a beautiful thing. Man helping out each other. How giving. How wonderfully altruistic."
"Right," Torch said, shaking his head. "Whatever you say Boss."
Alushe pushed harder against his prey, grunting in frustration as he failed to draw more blood from her. His teeth weren't strong enough to open a vein so he had to settle for what he could create by tearing at her skin. She pushed at him but he resisted, using his size to hold her in place.
"Our little Helena Kyle is a really strong little girl Torch. She is dangerous, true but I'm sure that if I could release the beast inside her, I could manage her as easily as I have Alushe." She looked at the two figures struggling on the floor. "That's enough Alushe. Let her go."
The creature looked up at his master, dismay in his eyes. He pleaded with her silently, begging her to allow him to continue his feeding.
"I said enough!" Harley shouted.
He apparently decided to ignore her. He dropped his head back to Helena's neck and bit down again, causing the brunette to cry out. Harley growled, infuriated by his defiance. She picked up a long wooden stick that was leaning against the door and slammed it forcefully against his back. "Now!"
He released Helena and crawled away from her, moving towards the corner of the room. Harley didn't let him go far before she slammed the stick down on his head and shoulders, causing him to howl in pain. "You will listen to me," she hissed at him. "You will not disobey or you will not feed."
He hid his face between his hands and crouched in the corner looking up at her in fear. "I think he gets it," Torch said, frowning. The whole scene made him terribly uncomfortable and he was a murderer eleven times over.
"Good," Harley replied, her eyes already back at on her original target. She crossed over to the far wall, which Helena was leaning heavily against. The brunette was barely conscious and her breathing was labored. Harley cocked her head and lifted her fingers up to examine the wound on the girls' neck.
"She still alive?" Torch asked, not sure which he'd prefer. He was all for a good torture but this seemed like too much. This was truly horrific and grotesque.
"Looks rather ugly," Harley admitted, though she didn't seem terribly upset. She reached out her hand and Torch handed her a first aide kit. "You're going to be okay," she promised Helena. "But perhaps you'll start to understand that the only way you're going to survive is by letting the Huntress out. Helena can't do it."
"Bitch...."
Harley smiled widely, deeply impressed. "I love your strength dear, you are really quite amazing. How about this, as a reward for surviving the first two days I promise to call Barbara Gordon. Is there anything you would like me to say to her? I'm sure she'll be happy to know that you're alive."
Helena closed her eyes, unwilling to speak. God only knew what Harley had planned for Barbara but she had no intention of helping out whatever it be.
"Nothing to say? That's too bad," Harley said, shaking her head. "Well in any case, we took some pictures of you and Alushe. I thought she should see them. I think she'll be delighted to know that you're still alive." She bent down and kissed her captive's forehead. "In the meanwhile, I have things to do. You should...try to sleep. Sweet dreams." She touched Helena's cheek and then moved away, snapping her fingers. "Alushe, come."
There was the sound of feet scrapping the floor and then the door shut, leaving her in the silence of the cell. Through hazy eyes she glanced around and saw that she was indeed by herself. Calmed a bit by that revelation, she dropped back to the floor and lay there, staring up at the ceiling.
The pain tearing through her body was horrific. The creature had mauled her but that was only part of it. His diseased blood was doing something to her, tainting her. Changing her somehow.
Something was happening.
Something very bad.
She tried to focus, knowing that she needed to come up with a plan. Barbara and Dinah's lives depended on it. Harley was up to something very bad and that meant that the two of them would likely be in the blonde's crosshairs. Somehow Helena Kyle knew that she had to stop her former therapist.
Some how. Some way.
She swallowed hard, her throat dry and parched. Her stomach rolled but she managed not to vomit. She dropped to her side and rolled into a protective ball. Her dislocated shoulder screamed out at her, barking orders. Numbly she pushed herself up. Lowering her mouth down to her shirt, she bit down as she slammed her shoulder roughly against the wall. It slid back into the socket with a wet pop. Breathing hard and barely able to stay lucid, she collapsed back to the floor of the room.
She needed to think. She needed to focus.
She allowed her eyes to wander the room, searching desperately for an escape. After a few moments she gave up, the burning in her skull convincing her that she wouldn't get anywhere that way,
Everything just hurt too much.
Her vision blurred and her body seized. After the fit passed she pressed her eyelids tightly shut, praying for exhaustion to take her and allow her some respite. She'd never wanted to sleep so badly in all her life nor needed it so desperately.
It never came.