The room was enormous with high ceilings embellished with paintings and an extravagant chandelier that shone refracted light onto the walls. The biggest object in the room was an oak-framed bed covered in a velvet blanket, red silk sheets, and an over-abundance of embroidered decorative pillows. Two night stands stood on each side of the bed, an alarm clock on one and an ashtray on the other. A still-lit cigar sat casually in the tray, its smoking fumes slinked upwards with artistic grace.
"Do you like the view?" He whispered into my ear from behind while wrapping his arms around my waist. My whole body went rigid.
"O-oh yes, it's lovely!" My voice cracked as I maneuvered out of his grip coyly and attempted to smile at him. He grinned back and came towards me again.
"I know another view that would be lovely," he cooed as he trailed his index finger down my jawline and neck. When it began to venture further I stepped back nervously with that fake smile still plastered on my face.
"Maybe you could show me your courtyard first," I suggested sweetly before adding, "I'd love to see the flowers."
"There's only one flower I'm interested in," he said in a failed attempt at being seductive as his gaze flitted down to my short skirt. He reached over and pulled the curtains closed without breaking eye contact—he was used to this. I was screaming inside my head, that window was my only lifeline to the people that might help me if things went awry. And the way they were going so far, things were well on their way to fucked.
His massive form was overwhelming as he pushed me backwards towards the bed. I fell onto it, bouncing roughly as he landed beside me. Gorzo reached over to grab his cigar, the sickly smell bombarding me with every puff.
"You're so beautiful," He whispered as he pulled the string of my corset abruptly, causing it to loosen against my will. As much as I wanted to get out of that dress, I wanted to stay in it as long as I was around that walrus of a man. I tried squirming away from him before his weight rolled over me.
"Can't... breathe," I wheezed until he lifted himself, propping over me with his elbows.
He took a long puff on his cigar and looked at me playfully, his lip curling into a sickening smirk before blowing the smoke out and leaning in for a kiss. I turned my head to the side, a tiny whimper unintentionally escaping my lips. He went along anyway, attacking my neck with his tongue as his sausage-like fingers roamed across my body before beginning to burrow down the top of my dress.
I knew I was supposed to play along, do whatever it took to get him outside, but it didn't seem likely that I'd be able to do that before things went too far.
I had been isolated for most of my life with nothing but the books in my room for so long. I wasn't so naive or uneducated that I didn't know about sex… but I had always thought of it as something romantic between two characters in love from one of my novels. I had never thought of it as something someone could do to you, something that could be forced upon you. In that moment I realized how truly stupid and unaware I had been. Of course this evil existed in the world, why wouldn't it? I knew then that I couldn't complete my duty, even with how much I wanted to be strong and prove myself, I just couldn't do it.
"Please… stop," I managed to squeak out quietly while trying to push him away. To my horror, this only seemed to excite him further.
"Oh ho ho, I love when they play hard to get," he growled before continuing his assault on my neck. His lips smacked and made a variety of other nauseating noises as he traveled down to my collarbone.
"I said stop!" I cried suddenly as I shoved him away. My palms mashed into his face, contorting it as all his fat pushed to one side. He grunted in dismay before lifting himself off me.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" He asked, the rage shaking his voice and making it rougher than before. I rolled out from under him and leapt off the bed, staggering backwards for a moment, not used to the imbalance of stilettos.
"I want to go home!" I yelled as I stood defensively, like I would even know what to do if he came at me.
"Oh, so you wanna play rough?" His beady eyes narrowed and seemed to sink even further into his skull. "Well I can show you rough," He smiled devilishly before lunging towards me. I leapt onto the bed and began crawling frantically to the other side, the velvet blankets slipped beneath my knees, making it hard to move with any haste at all.
"Ah!" I shrieked as I felt a forceful grip wrap around my ankle.
"Oh no you don't," Gorzo spat fiercely through gritted teeth, the cigar still held between them. I clawed desperately at the blankets to pull myself towards the edge of the bed, but the wind flew from me as I felt myself being yanked backwards. I screamed as he grabbed my torso and flipped me onto my back.
"I wanted you, so I'm going to have you," he snarled as smoke billowed from his mouth like a disease. I squirmed desperately as he grabbed me by my hips and pulled me against him roughly, his hands travelling up my skirt and tearing aggressively at my panties. They tore easily.
There was a moment when I looked into his eyes, searching them for anything. But the only thing I saw was a clouded soul, iced over with selfish indignity and lustful hatred. They glinted with wild delight, reveling in my trepidation. His smile was wide and twisted like the roots of a dying tree. Blackened in the crevices, the smoke from the cigar seemingly flew from his mouth as if to show the stench of his breath and wickedness of his spirit.
"Struggle all you want, it'll only make things more fun for me, " he bellowed through gnashing, grinning teeth. I gasped with horror as I felt him against me. My underwear was torn, the only thing separating him from me with the thin fabric of his own lounge pants. His hands released me for a brief moment in order to remove that final barrier. I knew it was my only chance.
"Get off!" I shrieked as I I pushed myself back and kicked my legs violently, connecting with his face just once. My jaw fell slack and eyes shot open widely as I gaped at the image before me. Gorzo's eyes were just as wide as mine, quivering with shock as a gurgling noise bubbled in the back of his throat. The stiletto heel pierced through his right cheek and could be seen dripping through his open mouth. A red trail dribbled in a line down his neck— as if telling me to go for his jugular next— and seeped slowly into his shirt. The cigar had fallen from his mouth, continuing to smolder by itself on the floor.
"Oh fuck!" I yelled as the shock passed. I tore my foot back, ripping the heel from his flesh, and shakily scrambled to move off the bed.
"You filthy whore!" Gorzo's voice was distorted by the pooling blood in his mouth and the boiling blood in his veins. He grabbed me more roughly than he had before. I could feel my skin bruising on contact as he pulled me towards him by my ankle once more and seized me by the neck, the skin dimpling deeply beneath his fingers. I grasped frantically at his hands as my eyes began to roll back in my head.
Gasping deeply as his hands released their grip from me, my body was flung to the ground. I landed with a thud— my back and head cracking harshly against the floor— and tumbled several times before coming to a stop violently against the wall. I let out a weak cough as my hand massaged my neck. I laid on my back and stared at the ceiling through wincing eyes. It spun above me like a confused carousel, turning to the beat of my drumming heart. But before I could regain my senses, he was over me, holding me down beneath his weight and straddling over my petite frame.
"Help!" I screamed hoarsely at the top of my lungs before he clapped his hand over my mouth callously. My arms flailed out to the sides, reaching and scraping for anything that could help. We were close enough to the window that I recognized the velvet beneath my fingers as the bottom hem of the curtains. That wouldn't do me any good but I still yanked at them despite this. Perhaps I would get lucky and pull the curtain rod down in just the right angle to fall of Gorzo's thick skull.
The curtains resisted my initial attempts but soon gave in to my desperate, persistent tugging. They fell in a heap on top of Gorzo and myself. He flung them off easily and with annoyance, the curtain rod missing him by a mile.
"Help!" I tried screaming again, but it came out as nothing more than a pathetic, muffled noise. My left hand slapped against the glass in vain while the other attempted to pull his hand from my mouth quite unsuccessfully. Hot tears streamed from my eyes as I realized with tremendous panic that I was powerless to change what was about to happen.
"No one is going to help you here," he spattered blood across my face with every syllable that left his mouth. I knew he was right. I knew the position I was in, but damn it if I wasn't going to still fight.
I clenched my eyes shut in avoidance and brought my teeth down hard on Gorzo's fleshy palm. He cussed loudly as he tore his hand back and slapped me hard across the face. I spit the blood out of my mouth to the side before I noticed him glance to his right, his eyes gaining a new sparkle of wickedness.
"You're going to beg me for death by the time I'm done with you," he spat before reaching beneath the bed to grab the cigar that had fallen from his lips earlier.
I shrieked as he brought the cherried cigar to my temple, screaming out over his bitter laughter that echoed loudly and unbearably in my ears. The cinders smoldered against my skin, maring my previously unscathed face. My body began to tremble and my heart swelled violently within my chest. The feeling was sickening, an urge to kill and protect myself so strong that it made me nauseous. I felt him push the cigar even harder. I couldn't think of anything but the pain and how badly I wanted it to stop.
So do it then.
I wrenched my eyes open to glare up at him, my teeth gritting and jaw clenching as I focused hard on making it stop. Making him stop.
"Oh, now that's a dangerous look," He jeered, blood still dribbling sloppily from his lips.
Not unlike the thick liquid pouring from the corners of Gorzo's mouth, I felt a sensation I had become increasingly familiar with as of late coming from my nose. The viscous liquid dripped slowly before picking up pace and streaming down from my nostrils, across my cheeks as I focused hard on my rage, urging it to metastasize into something cancerous.
A conflicted cry burst from me with wretched force. The hot cherry of the stogy burned even hotter against my flesh but I had to power through it, I had to make it so hot that it became fire. It was all I had in my arsenal.
"Wh-what the hell?" Gorzo sputtered as the cigar almost seemed to spark with a tiny explosion before erupting into flames entirely.
This is it.
The pressure of the cigar relieved itself from my temple and I stared in shock at Gorzo, his arm aflame and the blaze travelling abnormally fast across his chest like wildfire, as if the flames themselves fed from his malice to grow like a parasite. An agonizing scream spewed from him as the fire began to consume as I had willed it to.
I gaped at what I had done for a brief moment before desperately worming my way out from under him and crawling towards the window. I looked back fearfully to see Gorzo moving to his feet, wailing in agony as he slowly staggered towards me.
I couldn't stop the tears. My vision blurred terribly as I looked out the window, my forehead hitting against it with exhaustion. There they were. Hidan and Kakuzu. I smiled a little at the sight. They were so close but so far away at the same time. I blinked furiously in an attempt to clear my vision. Hidan looked to be losing his mind at Kakuzu and in turn Kakuzu seemed to be trying to calm him down. Probably mad that they'll be in trouble with Pain for getting me killed.
Still on all fours from crawling over, I brought one hand against the glass, slapping it hard and causing the window to shake. I slowly tried pushing myself up to my feet but I felt like I was in a daze. The smallest of actions made me dizzy, the edges of my vision reducing to areas of light.
I squinted hard, making out Kakuzu pointing at me and yelling something at his partner who snapped his attention toward me as well. I stood weakly, swaying and mustering every ounce of strength I had left to begin breaking the glass.
My fist went through, digging gashes into my hand like a plow running through earth. But there was no pain anymore, only adrenaline. I continued to smash the glass urgently, not caring about the shards embedding themselves in my skin.
A noise from behind made me snap my head back to look. I hadn't noticed how close Gorzo had gotten during the heat of the moment. His face was contorted, the hungry flames making him appear as the devil himself. His black eyes blazed intensely within the fire as he lunged towards me. I dropped to the ground in an attempt to dodge him, the broken glass grinding into my palms, but it was in vain. He managed to quickly grab me up by the throat and raise me to my feet. The flames that encased him began to immediately singe the ends of my hair. I clawed at his arm as it lifted me from the ground, leaving my feet to flail about trying to find purchase.
"You wanted to leave? Then leave," he bellowed, his voice so booming it nearly had an echo. He thrust me through the massive window and released his choking grip. I felt the shatter of glass against my back before my body became weightless. It moved on it's own to grab wildly at the only thing within reach, Gorzo himself. Snagging at his robe, I didn't manage to hold on but it was enough to throw him off balance. As I began to fall backwards I took solace in the look on his face as he realized that he too would take the trip just after me.
Okay so full disclosure, Final Fantasy 7 has been a big influence in my life throughout the years and that is very apparent given this story arc. Just wanted to give credit for this very much unoriginal side-storyline.
Thank you for reading as always. A lot of the people leaving reviews are doing so as guests so I'm unable to respond to you guys individually but just know how much I appreciate it!
