Chapter Six
The days following the new abductions had taken its toll on Jake very badly. His mood was foul and he had begun to snap at anyone and everyone. He had apologized to Tabitha and Sanjay numerous times for snapping at them and starting arguments and then apologizing to them later.
This was beginning to take its toll on Tabitha as well as her emotions were already out of whack due to the pregnancy. Yet, she was always able to forgive her fiancé because she knew what it was he was going through.
Blade had taken to never leaving Tabitha's side. Perhaps it was the fact that as a former doctor, he knew what the stress was doing to her and wanted to make sure she encountered as little as possible. To this end, whenever Jake would begin to yell and rave, he would walk over and promptly stick him in the ankle with his knife hand. Nine times out of ten, it did the trick and Jake stopped whatever it was he was doing.
Sanjay had received word one morning that he was being called home for something.
"I wish I could let you know what it is, but I cannot. It is forbidden for me to do so. I can only hope you understand." He had said when explaining the situation.
"But we need you, Sanjay." Jake said, "You've enlightened me to a lot of things. Besides, the dagger thing of yours seems to really do the trick."
Nodding and with a slight grin, Sanjay replied, "I wish for you to have it. You will need it in the days to come I am sure. It truly fills me with guilt that I must take my leave from you, but in time, you will see it is for the best."
Handing over the dagger to Jake, he said, "Take care my friends. We will meet again, of that I promise."
Tabitha hugged him before Jake shook his hand.
"I hate to see you leave, but as you said, if it's that important, then you have to go." Jake tried to sound strong.
Sanjay tried to smile, but couldn't as he turned and was let out the door of the museum before it was shut and locked once more.
"Down another comrade." Jake muttered, walking over and sitting on the couch as Decapitron, Trickster and Blade followed Tabitha to sit next to him.
"Everything is going to be alright." She said as she sat beside him and ran a finger through his hair.
Shaking his head, Jake chuckled, "We all thought that at the start of this whole nightmare. We could handle anything Sutaketh threw at us. Look at us now. Down to five people and God knows what's happening to the others."
"Don't keep doing this to yourself, Jake!" Tabitha pleaded with him.
He looked up at her and frowned, "How can I not think about what's going on wherever they are? That's our family down there! Being tortured! You sound like you don't even care!" He snapped.
Standing, he turned and walked to the other side of the room and stood, leaning against the wall and looking into the fireplace.
Tears began to well up in Tabitha's eyes as she stood and left the room, quickly followed by Blade whose dagger eyes shot out as he looked at Jake, showing his disapproval of the way things were handled.
"You seriously need to pull yourself together, son." Said Decapitron who stood in the center of the room, "Your mother is down there, remember. I am so upset by it, some nights I don't know how I will go on. But I do. I keep going, knowing that I may be the only thing that can bring her back. You need to man up and take charge. It's you who are the key to all of this, like it or not. You can pout about it and feel guilty about our losses or you can take charge and do something about it. But, don't you dare take your anger out on your fiancé. She doesn't deserve it. She loves you, Jake, we all do."
With that, Decapitron walked off after Blade and Tabitha who had went upstairs.
Trickster remained sitting on the couch for several moments before jumping down and walking over to Jake, who was still seemingly mesmerized with the fire.
"He he?" the little puppet offered as he looked up at him.
Switching his gaze over, he saw Trickster looking up at him and sighed.
"I screwed up, Dex." He said, shaking his head, "It seems I've been doing a lot of that lately. The one person I love more than anything and I keep yelling at her."
For a moment, Trickster was still before motioning Jake to kneel down. Complying, Jake got on his knees and leaned forward.
Moving his flower to him in a quick movement, he sprayed Jake with a blast of cold water in the face.
Sputtering, Jake wiped the water from his face and stood up, "What the hell, Dex?"
"Hehehehehe." Laughed Trickster as he motioned Jake to do the same.
Although he was still filled with guilt and anger, Jake couldn't help but grin at the little puppet and eventually chuckled, then laughed.
"I get it." He said smiling down, "Lighten up."
Trickster nodded.
Wiping his face with his shirt, he said, "C'mon. Let's go find Tabitha and the others. I need to apologize…again."
Walking up the stairs, Jake called out, "Tabitha?"
There was no reply from the kitchen area, so he headed down to the bedroom where the door was shut.
Turning the knob, he found it was locked as he sighed and leaned against the door.
"Okay. I deserve to be locked out. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted that way and I know I should never have turned on you. Can you please forgive me?"
There was no reply as he knocked a few times, "Come on, sweetie. Let me in so I can at least beg forgiveness on my knees in front of you."
Again, there was no reply.
"How long do you intend to…"
He was interrupted mid-sentence by a crash from inside the room and the sound of scuffling on the floor.
"Tabby?" he yelled out and again tried the knob, but it didn't budge.
Backing up slightly, Jake rammed him body into the door as it slammed open as he tumbled inside, dagger drawn.
The sight before him was one he had only seen in his nightmares.
A Wheeler stood in the center of the room, it's arm wrapped around Tabitha's waist as she struggled to get free, a Totem on its shoulder holding her mouth shut with its hand.
Two Totems had Blade caught in their hands as he, too, struggled in their clutches.
Decapitron was thrashing about on the floor, his Electro-head having been forcibly removed by the three Totems holding him down.
"You want your beloved?" asked the Wheeler holding her, "Then beg Sutaketh for an audience."
The room filled with the sound of three bursts of flame as Blade, Decapitron and Tabitha were all taken.
"NO!" Jake shouted out, rushing to the spot where they had been as he fell to his knees, clutching the spot where Tabitha had been.
He slammed the blade of the dagger into the floorboard and cursed, "Damn you! I will kill you for this! I swear I will fucking kill you!" and stabbed the floor several more times.
Trickster moved forward a few feet toward him before a voice behind them said, "Don't stop him. I like this."
Quickly looking behind him, Jake pulled the dagger up and turned to see Abomination standing on a desk, looking at him and smiling.
"You little…" Jake said beginning to move toward him when the small man pulled out his two guns and aimed them at him.
"Don't even think about it boy." He said, shaking his right gun, "I'm so not in the mood to deal with your insolence. I'm here to deliver a message for my Master."
Glaring, Jake spat out, "What?"
"It's down to you and your little jokester friend now. Sutaketh has taken everyone else from your life and is taking great delight in torturing all of them as we speak. Now he has your little fiancé as well. I can only imagine the fun he is going to have with her. But, he isn't finished with you yet."
Hearing these words made the blood rush to Jake's face as his eyes became bloodshot due to the rage that now filled his body.
"I am going to kill him." Jake managed to say with great difficulty.
Abomination laughed, "No you're not. What you are going to do is surrender yourself to him or have your days and nights filled with images of those you care for the most suffering in your place. But, for now, I'm here to take away your last little friend." Pointing to Trickster.
Moving to stand in front of Jake, Trickster removed his own little gun and aimed it up at his foe.
"You're not taking him."
The small man's eyes switched from Trickster to Jake and back again before he brought up his right gun and fired on Jake. A flash of red light shot out from it as it struck Jake in the chest. Suddenly, he couldn't feel anything as he felt his body fall back onto the floor, unmoving.
"What the hell?" he managed to say, looking around.
Trickster was quickly over by his head, looking him over.
"I was told only to incapacitate you, boy, not harm you." Abomination said as he leapt from the desk and began walking toward Trickster.
Holstering his weapons, Abomination pulled out a lasso constructed with barbed wire as he began to twirl it over his head.
"Come on little puppet," he said with a grin, "Get it over with and come with me."
Petrified and unable to do anything to save Dex, Jake did the only thing that came to his mind.
"Hunter!" he yelled out.
This seemed to get Abomination's attention as he let the rope fall to his side and looked over at him, "Who?"
The sound of something heavy dropping to the floor caused Abomination to turn to the corner of the room and the shadows there.
A red light emanated from the darkness as a small figure began to walk out. Clad in the silver and black armor, Hunter walked out, a small beam of red light coming from the left side of his helmet. The small light formed a dot on Abomnation's left shoulder as the small man looked down at it.
Only a second later, Hunter's left arm shot up as a laser beam shot through the air, connecting with the red dot as Abominations left arm was seared off in a burst of smoke.
Screaming out, Abomination looked at the wound which had already cauterized due to the heat of the laser. Drawing out his own right hand gun he fired off several bullets, each one reflected harmlessly off Hunter's armor.
Continuing toward him, Hunter lowered his arm and clenched both hands into fists several times.
Abomination wasted no time in charging toward this new enemy who was only a mere inch or two taller than him.
As he made contact with Hunter, he placed his right hand onto the armor and quickly drew it back as electrical sparks popped all along the surface.
A hand shot out, gripping Abomination's right hand at the wrist while Hunter's left hand grabbed his right shoulder.
There was a moment before Jake heard something pop and then the sound of flesh being separated from a body.
The right arm of Abomination was held in the air for only a moment before Hunter threw it across the room as Abomination screamed out in pain, blood spurting from the open wound.
Grabbing the sides of Abomination, Hunter pulled him close as he slammed his helmet into Abomination's face, breaking his nose and fracturing his skull.
Letting go of him for a moment, Abomination stumbled back a few steps as Hunter drew out a small knife from behind his back and threw it into the left kneecap of Abomination who screamed out in pain and dropped to one knee.
Watching all of this transpire, Jake smiled broadly at the actions of his creation as he yelled out, "Take him out, Hunter!"
Nodding, Hunter drew out a second blade, this one slightly larger with jagged edges on the blade as he ran toward Abomination and sliced the blade through the man's neck as the head tumbled off onto the floor.
The body collapsed to the ground as Hunter knelt to one knee in front of Jake.
As the body stopped moving, Jake found he could move once again as he sat up and looked over at the armor puppet.
"Hunter?" he asked.
The puppet hissed for a moment as Jake's eyes widened, "Pinhead."
From the moment she had been taken, Tabitha had not known where she was. Images blurred past her, sounds of a battle and then all was dark. Opening her eyes, she found herself back in the museum, the lights off and the windows only showing the dark night outside.
"Hello?" she called out, walking along the hallway, "Jake? Guys?"
There was no reply as she continued walking and checking in on each room. Finally, she stopped at the end of the hallway where a single bed sat. She saw movement in the back as she walked inside. From out of nowhere, a blindfold was placed over her eyes as she heard Jake's voice say, "Shhh. It's okay."
"Jake?" She called out, thrilled to hear his voice, but was unsure why he wanted to play a game like blindfolding her.
"Quiet. Just go with it." He said as she stopped her argument.
She let herself be led over to the bed as he laid her down on it and removed her clothes.
"I want you to remember something." Said his voice as she felt something silky and soft being tied around her wrists and then ankles as she was tied to the posts of the bed in an X position.
There was silence for a moment as she asked, "Jake?"
Then, a feather began to tickle the underside of her left foot as she let out a giggle.
"Jake! No, no tickling! I'm not in the mood." She said between giggles.
But, the tickling continued as another feather began to brush up against her right foot as well.
Struggling against her silky bonds she began to laugh as the tickling began to increase. The feathers now somehow tickling her under her arms as well.
"Darn you Jake! You've got Trickster and Jester both doing this? Cut it out!" she managed to say between laughs, her sides beginning to hurt now.
As she thought she couldn't endure any more, a new ticklish sensation began to be felt below her waist as her eyes widened under the blindfold.
"Jake!" she yelled out, "Not there! You know I can't stand that!"
It was several moments of her continued torture that her body succumbed to the pleasurable tickling as she moaned out and then lay still as the tickling stopped.
Sighing and breathing heavily, she was shocked as the blindfold was ripped off and she found the face of Sutaketh looking down at her.
The bed was no longer in the room it was before but set amidst the cavernous depths of the underworld, surrounded by demons both male and female, laughing and pointing at her. Instead of the silky restraints she had felt, four Totems held her ankles and wrists in place.
"Did you enjoy yourself?" Asked the demon lord with a wicked grin, looking into her reddening face.
She felt humiliated, embarrassed and used. Made to look as Sutaketh's plaything. Shutting her eyes, she felt tears running down her face as she shook her head.
"Damn you!" were the words she heard and as she opened her eyes a bright light filled them.
As it faded, she saw Jake standing on a larger rock, holding what appeared to be some type of green crystal in his hands.
"I told you I'd find a way to kill you, you son of a bitch!" Jake yelled out as he rushed forward, hurling the sharp end of the crystal out as it landed in Sutaketh's chest.
The demon lord yelled out in pain, clutching his hands to the crystal as his scaly wings extended out.
The Totems holding her released their grasp as she felt Jake's hand grab her right arm and pulled her up, close to his chest.
Muttering a few words she didn't understand, she felt herself and Jake moving at a rapid pace as if being pulled upward as she shut her eyes. The next thing she knew she was standing with him in their bedroom.
"Are you okay?" she heard him ask as she looked around.
Blade, Jester, Tunneler, Decapitron, Leech Woman and the others were all sitting around the room looking at her and nodding.
"I think so." She whispered back as Jake let go of her only so he could remove the blanket from the bed and cover her body with it.
"What happened?" She asked as he moved to set her into the chair beside the bed, "How did you get that…what was that you used on him."
"Something I found out about during the month you were gone."
"Month?" she asked, her eyes widening, "I wasn't gone a month, I barely left."
Jake shook his head, "Nope. I guess time is different there. It was only me and Dexter for a month. I did some research and found out about the Shyath Dagger. It was being shown in a museum about two days from ours. So, we went there and I sent Dex in to get it since it would be easier for him to do."
Her face was filled with awe as he told her the story about how he had managed to find a way to the Underworld and had first managed to retrieve the puppets and then pinpoint exactly where she was in there. Then, he went to rescue her as well.
"So, the rest you know. I got there, threw it at him and sent us back here using the enchantment spell I had read about."
She pulled him close and held onto him tightly as she asked, "Now we need to go back for your parents."
Jake laughed as she got a confused look on her face and sat up, looking at him.
"What's so funny?"
"You are."
Arching a brow, she asked, "What did I say that's so funny?"
"Not what you said," Jake replied, "It's the fact that you bought that pathetic story I just told you."
Around her the puppets were now laughing too as their faces and bodies began to morph into Totems.
Looking back at Jake, his face split off into two bloody halves as Sutaketh's face now came into view.
"You will never escape this madness, Toulon." He said as she hid her face in her arms, using her hands to shield her ears from the echoing laughter.
Her torture had only just begun.