"Nightmare~!" I whined, sitting on the couch in his bedroom as I cuddled with the adorable kitten known as Amber, "When can I leave? It's been four days!"

"You've been attacked three times already, Alexis," Nightmare responded, turning his head to look at me. He placed his arm on the back of his chair, his other resting on his lap. He frowned at me, "You are not to leave the Tower of Clover without Gray or another role-holder. I forbid it."

"You're not my dad!" I argued, annoyed. I scowled at him, rubbing the spot right behind Amber's ear. I held back a sneeze, "You can't just forbid me to go somewhere! You're not even my brother!"

"That may be so, but I refuse to put you in anymore danger. I am the Lord of this Tower and what I say goes, so there." That...That was so childish! How ridiculous is this!? You can't just trap me in here and expect me to obey! I'm not some submissive disney princess, buddy. "On the contrary, I find you much more submissive than you are actually aggressive." My jaw dropped at his words, and at that moment I wanted nothing more than to strangle and bury him alive. Nightmare coughed a little at my thoughts and wiped his mouth off with his handkerchief, stammering, "Th-That isn't an insult, Alexis! I was merely stating a fact!"

"Shut up and do your paperwork," I growled, standing up and holding Amber to my chest. "Fact or not, I don't care." Submissive people are "ukes". I refused to be an uke. Jeez... As I walked to the door, I tried to ignore the feeling of guilt that was bubbling inside of me, weighing on my chest. I-I won't apologize for what I said. I refuse. Because-Because if I apologize, that means Nightmare won, and if Nightmare won then I really would have to stay in the Tower for the rest of life. I grumbled to myself, irritated at the entire situation. "Freaking stupid Incubus..."

"Hey! I'm not stupid!"

"So says the one who's acting like a kid and refuses to do his paperwork!" I slammed the door shut behind me and scowled, finally let out a loud sneeze as Amber jumped out of my arms. Inside the room, there was the clattering of objects hitting the floor and the hammering of footsteps running frantically. I turned my head to look at the door in confusion, hearing Nightmare shouting my name in horror, only to let out a small scream as a cloth was placed over my mouth and nose, an arm around my torso and holding me in place to prevent from escaping.

Chloroform. My eyes widened and I squeezed them shut, thrashing my head about trying to get it off of me as I held by breath. The door slammed open, revealing Nightmare, and the man holding me quickly threw me over his shoulder and broke out into a run.

"GRAY!" Nightmare yelled, before going completely silent. I started to let out a scream when the faceless carrying me ran onto a window ledge, kicking the thing and breaking the glass. Unfortunately, that caused me to breathe in some of the toxin and made me grow extremely lightheaded. I could barely make out a blurry image of Gray running at us, knives sailing through the air in our direction.

"Release her at once!"

"Ha! Like hell I will!" The man scoffed and jumped out the window, causing me to scream as loud as I possibly could before everything went black, succumbing to the poison of the chloroform.

When I awoke, I had a killer migraine and oddly tasted something metallic. My throat was sore.

"-damn lizard. Nearly skewered me." I winced a the sound of his voice and briefly registered that he was carrying me. It was dark. "Hey, Damien; you here or not?" I quickly closed my eyes and tried to pretend I was asleep, doing my best to calm my breathing. Come on, don't let them find out your awake. "I got the girl."

"You have the foreigner?"

"Yup. I have one question before I hand her over; why the hell did you want us to meet up in an alley?"

"Because if it was at a restaurant or a warehouse, we'd be found out!"

"But those places are less suspicious-" There was a click.

BANG

Holy-! I screamed as the man that was holding me suddenly fell to the ground, dropping me simultaneously. My back hit against the floor pavement roughly and the world spun for a moment. I froze and turned my head when I heard the sound of a gun clicking, seeing the man pointing the barrel straight at my head. I swallowed, feeling a lump form in my pained throat. Good god, it hurt... Wish I had some water.

"Stand up," He ordered, his eyebrows tilting down in anger. I pushed myself onto my feet, my legs nearly buckling and giving out below me from exhaustion. The chloroform must not have worn out completely. He scowled at me, "I knew we should have used a bigger dose. Come on, then. This way." He gestured with his gun for me to follow him. Fear shot through me and my body almost didn't want to obey. Hesitantly sliding a foot forward, I slowly followed the man out the alley. I could briefly hear the sounds of people bumbling about in the town nearby.

His name was...Damien, right?

"Walk faster, damn it!" I hurried my pace, trying my best not to panic. Shit. Holy shit, I'm screwed. I never should have argued with Nightmare! I just didn't like him telling me what I should be doing. Damn it. "If you even think about slowing down, I'm gonna blast your god damned brains out. Got it?"

"Y-Yes, sir!" I squeaked, flinching as I tried to keep up. We didn't walk long. We walked to the end of the alley and turned the corner, and there was a door right there.

"Thanks to you and that damn rat, we had to change our fucking headquarters. Now, get in front of me." I froze, really not wanting to do that. If I go in front of him, he'll shoot me in the back. "I said move!" I scurried over to stand in front of the man, and tensed when I felt the gun get pressed against my middle-back. "That's right. Be a good girl and just listen. See that door over? Walk over and open it." It was difficult trying to hide my fear as I walked over and twisted the knob, the world around me seeming slow and desolate and painted in gray. One wrong move and the gray would be dashed in red crimson. "Go down the stairs." The hairs on my neck stood up as I grabbed the railing on the stairs, walking down the stairs slowly, "Now, go through that door and down those stairs." I walked even slower-as if expecting someone to jump out and come save me like in the movies.

The only thing that happened was that I was in a cold basement, and when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I felt the butt of a gun bash against my cranium and was sent sprawling across the floor, unconscious.

Damien grabbed the girl by her arm and slung her over his shoulder, scowling at all the work he was having to do. He was regretting killing Joshua by the second. The point of having henchman was to have them do all the dirty work. Unfortunately, his henchmen kept failing him every time he found the girl's whereabouts and kept getting killed by all the stupid role-holders she was with. He had spies everywhere. Telling him of her whereabouts and when, making it easy for him to send more faceless after her.

But she kept managing to escape. The assassin he sent to the tower ages ago was completely unable to find her and was later killed by the lizard, and the damn Cheshire cat had managed to help her escape twice, the second time with help of the mouse as he fended off all Damien's men. Joshua was the only one to escape alive-with the girl. He was a bit banged up, sure, as he must have had an encounter with that fucking Incubus' subordinate lizard.

If it wasn't for him...If it wasn't for him, they'd have the most revered ex-assassin of all time on their side! And now this little whore...Damn, it just pissed him off thinking about it. And because of his big mouth, Joshua had to get taken off the list. Damn it, he scowled, throwing the girl on the ground against a wall. Kneeling down, he grabbed her wrists and put the handcuffs around them, leaving her wrists chained to a wall. The side of her head was bleeding from when the gun hit her, and if she awoke, she'd probably feel like she was in hell.

He smirked. Why, that was if she awoke at all. Between getting chloroformed and hit in the side of the head, he doubted that someone as fragile as a foreigner would ever wake up. Especially if that foreigner looked as weak as this one did. He was going to kill that damn Incubus, and he was going to use this little whore to do it. Dancing her way around all the role-holders...bending them to her every whim...

It would only make sense if they risked their lives trying to save her. And when that Incubus comes, he was going to kill her. And when he's disoriented with grief, it'll be his turn. Damien could already see it play out in his head.

The game wasn't even ending, yet. It had only just begun. Besides, even if his plan fails and he dies, there's always April Season. Everyone has their own Joker. Whether or not they acknowledge it consciously or subconsciously... There was no doubt that this little girl had her own Joker.

Kicking her leg harshly to see if she would wake up, he frowned at her before shrugging. She was still alive, so that was all that really mattered. He couldn't have her die before his plan started to unwind. She was the main piece-the pawn. The most important pawn.

As Damien walked back up the stairs, he closed the door behind him and locked it. As smart as the role-holders were, they weren't going to find her that easily. He trudged up another set of stairs and went thought a trap door, appearing at another part of town. Gunshots were echoing about and he knew that the Hatter Family were arguing over territory negotiations again. The Queen's guards must have chased them out of her territory and into town, which was why they were fighting now.

"Haha! You faceless are so weak! Right, brother?!"

"Mm!" The red-eyed twin smirked in agreement, slashing at a soldier with his ax. Damien ground his teeth together, seeing the twins in their adult forms. If he wasn't careful, he may die himself. "Right! Hey, hey, why are you runnin'? We're still playin' with you!"

The soldier was given to time to react or even scream as he was promptly split in two. The entire town was covered in bloodshed, but it was nothing that Damien wasn't used to seeing.

"Stop goofing around, brats!" Elliot growled, bullets flying out of his gun with surprising aim. "Do your job seriously!"

"Eh?" They exclaimed, "We are, you chickie-rabbit!"

Blood merely smirked at their arguments, waving his cane around before transforming it into a gun, sidestepping an attack from another soldier and shooting him in the head, before pointing the gun behind him and releasing another gunshot. A man fell dead to the ground. "Now, now. We need to hurry and finish this, otherwise dear Alice will get worried. We can't have that, can we?"

Damien tried to ignore them as he slipped through a crack in another alley, trying to get to a certain place.

Someone kill me. Please. Just kill me now. Tears welled up in my eyes as the man pulled on my hair roughly, a knife gliding across my skin on my arm. My cheek was still bleeding from earlier, and the left side of my face had bruises. My entire body hurt-my head, my chest, my legs, my arms-everywhere he had hit and cut me. A whole time period had passed by now-maybe even two. I wasn't really counting.

"Just tell me already!"

"I-I already said I don't know anything!" I cried out in pain as he pulled on my hair again, sending a terrible pain into my already-aching skull. He dragged another line down my arm, causing blood to trail down the pale skin and sink into my clothes, dripping onto the floor. "How-how many times do I have to tell you!?"

He slammed my head against the wall behind me, before releasing my hair and wrapping an hand around my throat, putting intense pressure on my windpipe. My eyes watered and the pressure in my head only increased. It didn't take long for my lungs to start burning as they cried out for oxygen. My neck felt like it was going to snap and my eyes like they were going to pop out of my head.

I wanted to cry and scream and fight for my life as a face flashed through my mind. His smile...His stupid, stupid face and his annoying crying... His laugh... Damn it-Le-Let go! L-let go-of-me-! I would have clawed at the man's hand if I could, but I was pinned against the wall with chains. Why was it always chains?

Mafia. Right. There's more than one.

"Just tell me his damn weakness and I'll let your ass go!" His grip tightened, and I started to grow horribly sleepy. Seeing this, he released me and allowed me to fall back against the cold wall gasping and coughing. My chest heaved painfully and my lungs were practically crying in relief. I let out a shaky labored breath and coughed roughly, tears streaming down my face as I managed to get the beautiful taste of air back in my lungs.

I-I'm alive...I'm alive... I felt so light-headed. The world was practically spinning at this point, shadows dancing and laughing at me in the background. Voices were whispering for me to close my eyes, but I refused to listen. They were so comforting and relaxing, egging me on...

But I didn't trust them.

Once I regained my bearings, I looked at the guy standing before me-him being completely different compared to Damien. This one had brown hair and tan skin. He had a beauty mark right underneath where his right eye should be. Swallowing painfully, my throat still sore, I gasped, "You...aren't gonna learn anythin' by keepin' me here..."

He held up his knife and stared at his reflection for a moment, a deep frown etching onto his face. He turned his head and looked down at me with a smirk. "Is that so? You can't even breathe properly right now. You're lucky I'm under strict orders not to kill you, otherwise you'd be completely dead right now. Now, how still and this might not hurt so much..." My face twisted into that of fear as he grabbed my left leg, holding the knife towards it. I screamed and kicked, trying to get him to release me. He let out an angered yell and back-handed me across the face, leaving the taste of iron in my mouth. "Shut the fuck up and stay still you little bitch!" I ground my teeth together as the knife let multiple cuts on my leg.

I wanted to curl up into a ball and die. I didn't want to be here. Where was Pierce? Where was Gray? Where was everyone? Why hadn't they come yet? Do they hate me? I'm scared...I'm so scared...Someone please save me... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a terrible person. Just someone please get me out of this hell...

The man stood up and roughly ruffled my hair, smirking at me. "Well, I think that's enough for now. I'll be back later. You can go and catch a few z's in the meantime."

Sleep? They expected me to be able to sleep after all they were putting me through? Ho-How could I be able to sleep? I-I want to go home...Just leave me alone. Go away. Go away and leave me be. Let me go home.

Tears welled up in my eyes again, and I could only watch his retreating back go up the stairs. He closed the door behind him and the room became pitch black. My shoulders started to shake as I let out a choked sob, trying to keep myself from breaking down completely and balling my eyes out.

What did I do wrong? Was it because I'm a bad person? W-Was it because I was so mean to everyone? W-Why was...why was this happening to me?

Pierce's face flashed through my mind again and I cried, sitting there chained against the wall with blood trickling down my skin. Down my face, down my arms, down my legs... Was I in Hell?

All my life, I honestly never thought something like this would happen to me. I knew it existed, I knew it happened to hundreds of people all the time, but my life was so boring and uneventful, the thought of something like this happening never really occurred...

Was it because I was naive? That I was ignorant? Is that why this was happening? I didn't know...

I wanted to go home. To Nightmare. To Gray. To the Clover Tower. I want to go home. Just take me home. I don't care. Just take me home.

Pierce...

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. W-Why was I such a jerk to you guys...? I'm sorry...I'm so sorry... They were all so nice to me and I-I just-I just acted like a total jerk and... and now I won't ever be able to apologize. My last words to them were unforgivable.

"Fall in love with you? The hell is that supposed to mean, stupid? Like I'd fall for you." But I did. I fell for Pierce so damn hard. And Nightmare...I got into an argument with him and endlessly insulted him... Elliot still thought I was scared of him, and I yelled at the twins for trying to kill me and told them that I hated their guts. I never really talked to Vivaldi much, but she was actually rather nice. Alice... same thing. I should have been nicer. Peter...I-I don't know about him, but I was probably really mean to him too. Blood-I had only one conversation with total, and that was during the Assemblies... Boris-I know he's alive, but I haven't been able to actually talk to him or thank him for saving me, and now... He probably thinks I hate him for not talking to him.

Wh-Why...Why is everything I do so bad? Why am I such a jerk?

I was left there to drown in my thoughts, surrounded by complete silence. There was nothing but the sound of my own breathing, and the sound of blood slowly dripping against the floor. I felt completely light-headed. I wanted to sleep. I was scared to sleep though, for I feared that if I closed my eyes, it wasn't going to be Nightmare that I saw. It wouldn't even be Pierce.

It would just be darkness and death, escorting me into the afterlife. If I die here...would be dead, or would I be reborn as someone with a clock? Or was it impossible to die here, and that if I "died" here, I'd be shoved back into my world? It was curious thought, but not one I really wanted to find out. I wanted to die as an old lady with grandchildren-not as a fifteen-year-old girl from bloodloss and a possible concussion. Actually, it probably was a concussion I had. I don't even remember how many times my head had hit the wall or how many times I got bashed against the head.

My wrists were sore. My legs were numb. My head hurt like hell, and my entire body was asleep-limp even. Just how much longer could I keep this up?

I wanted to apologize to everyone... to Pierce. I...said something mean and hurt him. He ended up crying after my words. He trivialized it and said that I didn't mean what I said and that I would fall for him, but I kept lying and saying such bad things...

Why was Pierce the only one who kept popping up in my mind? I'm thinking of everyone, but he's the one I think about the most. The one I feel most bad about. I know I...I know I liked him, but...

Boris' riddle. Warms without heat, and makes man both strong and weak. Something you feel, but you cannot touch. And something that moves you, but cannot be budged. I already knew the answer to it, but... Did he give me that riddle to try and tell me something?

-this one is for you and only you. Ya have to think reaaaal hard about this one-

It only made me cry harder, and it pissed me off so damn much because I couldn't wipe my tears away with my hands. My eyes stung and I could only shift my shoulder and turn my head awkwardly to wipe my eyes on the stained sweater-dress I was wearing. It hurt. My chest felt like it was being crushed, and I felt like a complete idiot for not realizing everything sooner.

Boris gave me the answer to everything, and I was too stupid to realize what he was hinting at. Pierce said he loved me, that he was going to make me fall in love with him. Little did he know, I already loved him. Damn-Damn jerk! No...No, he's not the jerk. I was. I'm the jerk.

I'm the true villain here. Everyone else are my victims. They did nothing but be nice to me, and I acted like a complete and total...

B-I-T-C-H

I stared at the letters craved into my leg, feeling almost lifeless. I shuffled and leaned my head back, staring into the empty abyss of darkness. I had grown so used to the dark, that I could practically see in it at this point.

Maybe a little nap wouldn't hurt. If I die, not many people would probably even care. Besides, I'm completely numb. I doubt I'd even feel anything.

So, closing my eyes, I succumbed to sleep.

And the plot thickens. Sorry if its a bit fast paced, but I was trying to do a chapter a day. DX Then again, I was writing those at 4 o'clock in the morning, so there's that too. Anyway, I'm taking it a bit slower now. We're finally at the major part of this arc.

There will be an April Season with Joker, but I might make that into another story called "We're All Mad Here: Circus Freaks". That'll be story 2. Which means we'll get to meet Julius! :) Sorry, he's one of my favorites. He, Nightmare, Pierce, and Peter-though sadly Peter isn't in this story much. Sad face. I might include another character to make things interesting. Fufufufu...

Anyway, read and review and tell me what you think! And sorry if the kidnapping is a bit sudden, along with the attacks, but it's kinda difficult trying to write scenes like that without it being all sudden and out-of-the-blue. There are more Mafia bosses other than Blood. I know that much.

I think that if its Mafia, it would make more since for them to know her whereabouts due to spies and what-not, and why they would try and grab her at every moments notice. They'd do whatever the hell they want to GET what they want. As proven by Elliot when he once said "I'm a filthy member of the Mafia! That means I'll take and do what I want" I think it was something like that anyway. Eh.

I think this is the mindset of how a person who was kidnapped and tortured would react. I was never kidnapped myself, though my family did think that about twice in my life (getting lost at the farmer's fair. My sister had me help carry the band's banner. I was around ten, then. Tried to back track after the parade was over to get back to my brother, sister, and mother and had to stop in the crowd cause of the floats driving by. Another time I rode the wrong bus when I was about 8. I wasn't the brightest child.)