Chapter Nineteen.
* Elisha's POV *
HELION PRIMME; INSIDE BASILICA.
Laying out stiff on a cold metal operating table like a piece of meat being prepared for a meal. I grip my teeth as a Necromonger women with bright white hair which was pulled back harshly from her face revealing she has sharp angular facial features with heavy black make up rimming her eyes, pulled a fabric strip coated with sticky liquid from my leg tearing out the hairs beneath it.
I had been laid out on this metal table for more than an hour as slowly sections by section the women painfully removed the hairs from my legs, torso, underarms along with private areas and small parts of my eyebrows leaving me feeling plucked like a chicken, ready for roasting as apparently the Lord Marshall has no interest in meeting me until I am dressed like the other Necromonger women with make up to match.
"Come off the table," the pale women orders while moving backwards, "And remove your robe."
My muscles shiver as I sit up before swinging my legs over the edge and lowering myself gently onto the cold stone floor. Slipping off my thin robe allowing the cold air to cling to my hairless body to stand completely naked in front of this stranger knowing I should be embarrassed but this women, if that is still what you can call her, is so unlike any of the others I have witnessed, resulting in my not being as self-conscious as I feared when first escorted into the room.
The women uses a bristled scrub and rubs me down with a lumpy aqua blue lotion that removes the flaky skin but also two good layers of rough skin beneath. After my skin becomes red and blood spotted, the women discarded the bristled scrub and gently massages my body with a dark magenta lotion that stings incredibly at first but then smooths my raw skin nicely.
A knock echoes through the wide room, the Necromonger guard stationed in the room opens the door to inspect who is there, I glance down at the women who is finished off rubbing around my ankles before standing to bow to the women who has entered with burnt sienna skin tone, strong bone structure and dark black make up covering her eyes – similar to the woman at my feet – with defined brown eyebrows. She wore a strange looking dress, the top half was made from shiny black material attached to a heart neckline corset clenching tightly around her upper half, released from the bottom of her corset was a leather skirt that draped down to the floor, hugging the curves of her hips, hum and thighs. A pendent made from small individual jewels hung around her neck to pay complements to the neckline of her outfit, the back of the chain connecting at the back of her neck was sewn to a metal independent caps to create the illusion of a cats tail.
"Larissa, why have you not got her dressed yet?" the dark-skinned woman demands.
The girl who now had a name, Larissa, shot up from my feet in a blind panic to stand in front of me whilst I rushed to cover myself with the thin robe. "Sorry Dame Vaako, preparation took slightly longer than expected." she apologised.
A small chuckle breaks through my sealed lips, "You're the commander's wife?" I ask with a distinction of disbelief. This women was beautiful there was truly no doubt about it but I could smell a deceiving nature about her.
Dame Vaako raised one of her thin eyebrows at me, "And you're the Furyan that everyone is making a fuss about." she says nastily. We stand staring at each other, neither one of us betraying any emotion on our faces but our eyes burned with dislike. After several seconds her face breaks into a smile, "I feel we may get along." she says before turning her glare to Larissa, "Get her dressed. Now." Dame Vaako orders before turning on her sharply pointed heels and walking out.
The Necromonger guard held the door open for her and closed it behind her before repositioning himself in front of the inside of the door. He was there by an order of agreement between the Lord Marshall and Vaako as they were uncertain of my abilities, basically they were frightened I may attempt to kill the women who was putting her effort into making me attractive but she is under orders that were unbreakable and I am not an animal that kills for fun, Riddick is dead so I have no reason to fight anymore. The guard has remained standing strong at those double doors throughout the entire process of me being naked, waxed and scrubbed raw, he will also see my transformation through to me getting dressed and completely reshaped with hair and make up.
Larissa silently beckons me through into another room adjoining with this one. The second room was smaller but had more of a home feeling, a small table with a large mirror attached stood against the end left wall as I lingered in the doorway with the guard stood tall behind me. To the far right was a rack covered with clothing hung neatly on hangers kept off the floor by a metal pole running across the middle and in front against the opposite wall from me was a metal table, much like the one I had been laying on but larger and wide covered in small tubes, paintbrushes and pallets, all of a similar colours, grey, silver, white with glitter and ash black, also displayed on the table was brown hair strips, silver beads and different pieces of jewellery.
"I expected you to be more on edge towards me." Larissa speaks, her voice is smooth with obvious education and high pitched.
I sigh a chuckle, "Why do you assume that?" I ask.
She bits the inner-rim of her lip, "The Commander told me to keep an extra eye out, in case of mood swings. Hence the large body guard." she gestures using her head to the guard in the doorway.
A real chuckle of amusement echoes from my throat, "I'm not twelve anymore and what is the point of trying to kill you? The one person I am certain I love is dead, you have to start a fresh somewhere. Killing you won't behind anybody back."
Larissa connects eyes with me for a millisecond in the reflection of the mirror, she abruptly becomes silent and returns her attention to attending to the wilderness of my hair. With a small comb she brushes through my hair, snagging at the knots and pulling them free. Once she was confident she had removed the clumps of hair, Larissa divides thin sections of the side of my hair away from the bulk of the middle which she pins up onto the top of my head. Her talented bony fingers begin to work on the left side of my head.
Like before on the metal bed, I grit my teeth without saying a word as she tightly plaits the section of hair into two neat plaits which connect at the start of my earlobes, she continues to plait the hair tightly to my skull stopping at the base of my skull in the centre. She repeats the method on the right hand side stopping the plait in the centre of my skull next to the other plait. Larissa then turns her unique attention to the mess of the middle section she had parted off. Her fingers wrapped around the frizzy hair before sectioning them into three separate parts just below the crown of my head and plaits the hair to the base of my skull where she pulls the other plaits from the base of my skull to join into the ponytail.
She steps back to inspect her work with hawk like eyes; she scans the hair for several minutes before turning to collect two or three of the silver beads from the table behind us and placed them on the wooden table in front of me. Unaware of what she is planning I attempt to relax but I keep catching the eyes of the Necromonger guard behind us, I do not deliberately try get his attention but whenever I seem to glance over, he is looking. Larissa snags and tugs on the hair in the ponytail before snatching a bead from the table and soon they are gone but unfortunately I am no where near ready to go.
Larissa turns the chair around with me still seated on so I face away from the mirror. She orders that I close my eye before using a brush to cover any blemishes with a strange base slightly lighter than my own facial colour, she coats a silvery grey cream on my eyelids before putting down the brush and telling me to open my eyes.
"Stand up," she orders, walking to the hanging clothes, "Take off your robe."
I obey and ten minutes later I am dressed in a black unitard that covers the entirety of my body's surface area from my neck to my ankles with leather boots laced up to my knees. The surface of the garment was covered in small shiny black scales and Larissa gives me a sleeveless overcoat that is made of a rough fabric which is covered with deliberate tears, holes but also flaking shiny grey material which made the outfit look as rough as I felt. The overcoat also has a deep hood that when put over my head it covers my face except my chin but if I angle my head correctly I can peer through two holes so I am not wandering blind.
Larissa steps away from me and studies me. I look up from her slightly twitching to get used to the outfit and the horrid girly feeling washing over me as I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I hate it but Larissa smiles feeling proud with herself and I can smelt the confidence on her.
"You're ready to meet the Lord Marshall." she announces to me before turning to the guard who nods and beckons me with his eyes to follow him, before I leave Larissa pushes a strand of hair that has fallen free in front of my face before tapping my shoulders comfortingly and walking along with me out of the room with the guard in front.
xXx
The guard and Larissa say nothing and I make zero effort to make conversation as the guard leads us across a large open space where statues holds up the second floor and a throne makes itself at home near the far end. Larissa walks behind me too close for comfort, her narrow breaths tickle the back of my covered neck. Up two small sets of chairs brings us to the third floor, I am guided along the corridor catching some strange glimpses from people, mostly men wearing similar outfits to a man I remember from Crematoria. Women nod to the guard and ignore me as I trail along like a constant third-wheel.
Larissa breaks off from me and the guard to chatter to a women, we turn a corner leaving Larissa talking and walk into some other Necromonger guards, who stop to have a word with the guard escorting me to the Marshall. I remove my hood and lean up against the railing of the balcony waiting for the guard to finish his conversation or Larissa to rejoin me. I scan through the crowds on the ground floor, a man catches me eyes. The man stops and stares up at me; he is tall and strong, a helmet covers his head but not his eyes. Maybe it was a side-effect from lack of food or water I had consumed within the last unknown hours but a strange florescent purple gleam was projected from two small circles embedded in the whites of his eyes.
"Riddick?" I whisper to myself.
Larissa rejoined me at my side causing me to talk my eyes off the man, when I turn back he is gone. A large hand clasps Larissa's left shoulder, "Come on." the gruff voice of the guard orders turning me gently around to follow before him with Larissa at my side. My nerves sky-rocket and my heart knots.
He is dead. I felt his pulse, he had no pulse. I tell myself as she guides me into a remote tiny corridor no bigger than four foot, two large doors of an entrance are the only thing decorating this tiny space. The guard knocks on the door but he does not enter.
"Come in." a strong masculine voice calls from inside the room.
It was then the guard reaches forward to grip the handle of the door and swings it open. The room behind the door was rather beautiful, metal beams carved with different patterns stretch across the room whose walls there painted a silvery grey like the rest of the Necromonger features. Furniture like a desk, book shelve along with a strange column with a thin bowl on top similar to the one inside the carrier ship. Across to the far side of the room was another set of doors, stood between us was a tall man with large muscles, he wore a tight fitting hat that only covered the back of his bald head with heavy armour strapped to his body. His grey eyes penetrate deep into my body making my gut tighten, his gloved hands tighten into fists but he smiles with genuine happiness but the smile doesn't reach his eyes.
"I am the Lord Marshall." he says sternly. "We have some thing's to discuss don't we?"
Pushing all my fear to the back of my mind, I nod confidently. "Yes, we do."
The Marshall smiles with glee before peering around me to eye up Larissa and the guard, "Leave us," he orders and they obey despite my looking at Larissa with pleading eyes, she smiles reassuringly at me and leaves along with the guard.
They leave me alone with the Lord Marshall. Murder to an entire race. They leave me alone and truthfully I've never been more scared of one man.
A/N: What do you think? REVIEW. I also need your help about my next Fan-Fiction, I have ideas for Harry Potter, Hunger Games or Avengers but of course I would like to know which one you guys – my readers – would most like to read from me so please review and tell me. Warning in advance, the Hunger Games fiction involves possibly a little bit of smut and the stealing of one character from a previous game and injected into this one so.
Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter and tell me which Fan-Fiction you would like me to write next *smiley face* – VA.16.