Captured. Raye was captured. She lay still, chained to a bed. Raye had pneumonia too. The day before she had gone to the Emergency Room in the Tokyo hospital because she had had a cough for over a week. The doctor had given her some pills, but she hadn't taken any since then. Awaiting the Queen. The Queen that had killed Mika, tortured Amy, and captured her. Amy had been burned for hours by Beryl's minions, and thrown back to the earth. Beryl had killed Mika herself. Mika had been screaming at the Queen for what she had done to Amy. Beryl had a quick temper, allow me to state the obvious. The door to the room creaked open, and Beryl stepped through the door. She raised her eyebrows, amused, to see the young Sensei struggling.
Beryl stepped forward, and sat at the edge of the bed.
Raye stopped struggling for a moment to look at the woman before her. "Where am I?"
"Why the Negaverse of course" Beryl said, smiling sickly, she leaned down, her face inches from Raye's, "are you afraid?" Raye's chin trembled for a moment. Beryl's eyes lit up. She loved it when her victims cried. How she loved it when they cried.
But Raye wouldn't cry. "Your..your" she stuttered, "a..stupid…bitch." A split second later, Beryl slapped her. Hard. Raye didn't feel anything. She liked it. She loved the pain. It took her so far away from everything else. She cut herself. She was afraid of people seeing, so she cut her stomach mostly. She was thankful she was in her clothing now.
Queen Beryl, confused by the girls awkward emotions, slapped her yet again. Blood trickled out the corner of her mouth. It wasn't pain to Raye. It was pleasure. She was only fourteen years old, she had already been raped, abused, and mortified by the beings that she called family and friends. She had already felt so much pain, she was completely numb to it.
Beryl grabbed her chin, looking her straight in the eyes. "What is the matter with you, girl?" she hissed.
Raye's eyes darted around in fear for a moment, but she finally relaxed. She closed them in defiance, and repeated the lie she had told to everyone else had asked her that question, whether be negative or positive, "nothing."
Beryl was frustrated. "Maybe this will hurt you." Raye's eyes closed for a moment, and she opened them. She felt a huge jolt of pain through her body, she was being electrocuted. This time it hurt. But it felt so good. She knew she had to stop it, or she would die. "OW!" she screamed as loud as she could. Beryl smiled smugly, and stopped whatever she was doing to Raye.
Raye trembled slightly. "Unchain me." She whispered shakily.
Beryl laughed a loud. "And just why would you think I would do that?"
"What do you need me for?"
Beryl was silent for a moment. "This will lure Serena back to you. Your both young at age. Your friendship is very strong, yes?"
It was Raye's turn to laugh aloud. Beryl slapped her again. "Only I can laugh."
With that, Beryl left the room.
Late into the night, Raye had an idea. A crazy idea. A horrible idea. But still, it was an idea. She wanted to die. She had always wanted to die, to give up, as long as she remembered. And the cuffs chaining her to the bed were very sharp. She looked up, and positioned her wrist so that a vein was hitting one of the rusty nails, sticking up from the horribly made cuff. With that, she shoved her wrist onto it. It hurt. She, unfortunately, let out a scream. That sent Beryl running. She knew what the girl was trying to do. She burst into the room, watching, as blood trickled down Raye's arm.
Her motive was to keep the girl alive, to use her as bait. But something else had pushed her to save the girls life. Something she hadn't felt in a long time, before her soul slipped into oblivion when she came to the Negaverse. Concern. She unlocked the cuff from Raye's left wrist, then her right. She searched around for bandages, anything. She ripped a strip of cloth from her cloak, and tied it around the girl's wrist. Raye's eyes slowly opened. She was tired.
A scream came from within her when she saw Beryl's face, millimeters from hers. She couldn't quite read the emotion on her face. Angry, she decided. Beryl covered Raye's mouth with her left hand, and pointed a shaking finger at her with her right. "Don't you ever, ever, EVER do that again" her mouth formed a cruel smile, "you are mine, you hear me?"
Beryl disappeared out the door to the mysterious room. Raye breathed a sigh of relief. Her wrists were finally freed. Still, the cuffs around her ankles cut deep into her skin, so blood was running down her foot.
She reached across to touch her wrist, but realized it was bandaged by a heavy black cloth. "Isn't that Beryl's?" she asked particularly to no one. The room was cold. She wanted to get out. She was only fourteen years old!
A few hours later, the Dark Queen returned again. She was surprised that her young prisoner hadn't broken down. It was a pleasure to watch them break down, seeing their bodies twist and wrack with sobs, as she once did. Beryl shook away the memory, and sat at the edge of Raye's bed. She took the cuffs from Raye's ankles, so the girls bloodied feet were free.
Raye sat up and took a deep breath. "Wow" she whispered, feeling the steady rise and fall of her chest. The Pnuemonia was working up again. She coughed slightly, but determined not to break into one of her fits, because she would not let the Queen see her weak.
Beryl noticed this and laughed aloud. "Please just leave me alone!" Raye yelled, stupidly. The Queen's temper set in on her, and she fixed her stare on Raye. "I'm going to teach you what real pain IS." She whispered.
She undid the buttons on Raye's top, and was rather taken aback at what she saw. Cuts, everywhere. Surrounding her breasts, just covering her stomach. True, she had seen self mutilation much more grotesque than this, but the girls age made it rather disturbing. She took a deep breath. She placed her hand on the girls stomach, and dug her nails into Raye's chest. Raye felt the nails piercing her skin, and let out a high pitched scream. Beryl tried to smile. The scream didn't give her the usual satisfaction that she was hoping for. Anyways, Raye was tired. She lay back and let the pain inflict upon her. She squeezed her eyes shut. She remembered. She remembered her uncle pounding into her, a sick smile upon his face. Her father, drunk, kicking her to the ground. She remembered Serena ignoring her, she remembered everything. She snapped her mouth shut. She knew she wasn't with any of those people, but the pain still made it unbearable. Beryl was reopening scars, scars that shouldn't ever be touched. She felt warm blood running down her stomach, rivulets creeping their way under her skirt. She felt her chin tremble. Raye. No. Stop it. You are NOT going to cry. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CRY. And yet she did. At first it was silent, salty tears running down her face in rivers, dripping down her chin. Then, her body began to wrack as she let the first sob escape her mouth.
Beryl felt the twisting movements of Raye's body. "Finally, girl, you'll see that I will always stand above you." Raye bit her tongue, so the sobs were only physically showing. Beryl leaned closer to her, her nails still in Raye's stomach. She pushed them deeper. "Say I am stronger" she whispered, but the cruelness had left her tone, she was saying each word softer as she watched Raye's face twist and contort, stubbornly trying to stifle her sobs.
Raye's mouth slipped open, and she let out another sob. She closed it tightly again. "Say I am stronger" Beryl whispered, "and this will all stop." The Dark Queen's fingers were now almost submerged in blood.
Raye shook her head defiantly, tears pouring down her cheeks. Raye finally decided torturing herself wasn't going to help the crying stop, so she opened her mouth. She was sobbing openly by now, her body twisting, wracking, and bleeding.
Beryl drew her hand back, wiping it on her cloak. She watched Raye, transfixed. Raye, by now, had crossed her arms over her chest, and was crying loudly into her pillow, screaming at herself to stop.
The Queen didn't know what to do. True, she was dark, evil, a bitch etc….but she had NEVER seen this before. Beryl then did something she hadn't done in almost fourteen years. She reached out and touched Raye's shoulder, gently.
Almost immediately, Raye shot up, her eyes filled with fear. "Don't touch me Uncle, stop it please" she whispered, memories blocking her vision.
"What?" Beryl, who had by now drawn her hand back, asked.
"DON'T TOUCH ME! STOP IT!" Raye screamed. She threw herself back in fear. Her skirt pushed up a little, revealing the bruises covering her forelegs. Beryl bit her tongue, and grabbed Raye's wrist.
Raye panicked, and started to scream "HELP! HELP!" she began crying again, and resorted to just softly repeating, "help me please."
"I am not your Uncle. Listen to me, Sensei. I am not your Uncle" she said, her soft tone slowly bringing Raye back to reality, "what did he do?"
Raye looked up at her, tears pooling once again in her eyes. "He. Raped. Me." She stated. Then Raye sat, still as a statue, tears dripping down her already soaked cheeks.
Beryl looked at her. She just looked at her. She was still tightly gripping Raye's wrist. She softened the grip a bit, still staring. Raye closed her eyes, hoping that when she opened them she would be back on her own bed at home. She only opened them to see Beryl, holding her wrist gently, just looking at her. She looked at the woman before her. Beautiful face, cast in dark makeup. Her red hair cascaded down her shoulders, yet she still had that sense of maturity, the way her lips were pursed, the way she looked at Raye intently. Raye remembered her own mother. The last time she had seen her was when she was twelve. Her mother was twenty-five. (yes, she had Raye at thirteen). She remembered cleaning up the broken glass from her mother's beer bottle off the kitchen floor. Her mother had long black hair, streaked red and blue. She was wearing tight jeans and a low black top, and she was chewing gum. She had her hands down her pants, fingering herself because she was having phone sex, right there in the middle of the living room, in front of Raye, with her boyfriend Kyle. Raye's father had left when she was seven. He was twenty eight. He got drunk, beat both of them up, and left.
Raye remembered cutting her finger, and letting out a small whimper. She remembered scolding herself for the whimper, because she had had worse, considering the bruises on her back. She also remembered the night when her mother O.D.'d. She was dead on the kitchen floor. Raye called the only relative she knew, her uncle. He had come to save the day, her knight in shining armor.
She spent a week with him, happily. Then, it happened. She remembered stepping out of the shower, her towel wrapped tightly around her. She combed her hair, and just stood there in front of the bathroom mirror. The door opened, and her uncle stepped through. She screamed, but he silenced her with a slap across the face. He gently pushed her down on the bathroom floor, freeing her of her towel. He dug his fingers savagely into her entrance, and shoved his manhood into her backside. He reversed after he had jacked off, enjoying himself thoroughly. Raye had been ashamed, embarrassed, but most of all angry.
That night, she had stolen a knife from the kitchen, and killed him. She remembered his face, frozen in shock. Then, she had run. She just ran. She buried a knife in an abandoned field, and just kept running. Then she came to the temple, where her 'grandfather' adopted her. He was good enough to her, but she still felt pain. She remembered the first time she had cut her stomach. Sure, she felt the physical pain, but nothing in her heart. Absolutely nothing. And she had loved it. Then, she found out she was sailor mars, became a sensei…yada yada yada. She had a boyfriend, but he had raped her a few days ago. That's why she had bruises on her forelegs.
And yet, here she was, captured by the evilest woman ever known, looking at her. The situation was almost laughable. But Raye wasn't laughing. She was crying. Her shoulders began to shake once more. And the floodgates came undone. The tears falling down her face burned her cheeks. But she didn't care. She didn't move. And before she knew it, she was sobbing again. She felt herself being moved, but didn't really acknowledge it. When she opened her tear-filled eyes, she saw nothing but black. She was still sobbing her heart out. Her first notion was that she was blind. But she felt a warm, velvety fabric against her wet cheeks. And she felt a hand rubbing her back. Good Lord. The Dark Queen of the Negaverse, the bitch of the universe, was holding her. And somehow, she didn't care. It didn't matter who was holding her, just as long as she was held. Surprising Beryl, and even herself, she wrapped her arms tightly around the other woman, her cries growing louder and more desperate. Yet muffled by the shoulder she cried into.
Beryl was surprised by what she had done. She had never comforted anyone, let alone felt sympathy for anyone, in years. But she was worn out from this unfamiliar outburst of emotion. And she was doing for Raye what should had been done for her, so many years ago. She had not wanted to kill Serenity. Not really. Serenity had begged for mercy, but savagely gloated on what she and Endymion had. The way she had stolen him. And it prevailed, Beryl's temper had won then. But not now. Not for the sake of this poor girl. She shouldn't have even killed Zoicite.
Beryl stroked her raven black hair gently, until finally, Raye had fallen asleep in her arms.
