Trigger Warning:

- rape

- blood

- gore

- mutilation

- death

- burning

- stabbing

- depressing thoughts

- crude language

It is a cloudy night.

Unsuspecting, inconspicuous, and unassuming.

A perfect cover to conceal the moonlight and starlight.

A brilliant disguise for the darkness that awakens at night.

I cannot help but marvel at nature's ability to conceal secrets when my own life is an amalgamation of them. This night will be another of one of those secrets.

Today marks the New Year.

And in the Hanada household, we celebrate it by raping the girl in her own bed.

Ever since the engagement, Hanada-sama's eldest son's hormones have been very active. He was always guided by what was in his pants; during the winter break, more so. During the daytime, I assisted in wedding preparations, meeting with guests, essentially serving as a tool for political and financial gain. At night, it was a different story. In the late hours, I was entertainment for these same people in bed. This useless collection of skin and bones on top of me was the most excited by the prospect.

I heard he had an argument with one of the event planners today. It must explain why he is taking out his frustration onto me.

He is relentless. His fingers dig into my skin. Any harder and my eyes will prick with the sting of tears. His face is buried in the slope of my neck, biting, pulling, tearing. My intuition tells me not to goad him tonight, otherwise, the torture may be more than I can handle. As he continues to seek pleasure from my body, I let my mind drift to something else. I have to. Otherwise, I'll succumb.

And yet, the first thought to come to mind is guilt. Guilt for the boy I love and can never have.

Shouto deserves someone so much better than me. All the reasons why spiral in my head like a tempest. The massacre I committed is the latest; the things I will do in the future become more. Most people make a mistake and learn to not repeat it. What does it say about me, who knows what she is doing is unforgivable, but continues to do it again and again? What kind of monster does that make me? Perhaps the worst kind …

I pause there. If I were the most evil being in existence, what did that make my tormentor? What did that make Hanada-sama? What did that make all the other people who assaulted me? I am certainly no saint, but there was no way they were on the same level as me. And from how Shigaraki and Kurogiri reacted, they were beneath me because they were beneath the two of them.

Kurogiri …

I hadn't thought of that name in so long. Though Shigaraki would never admit it, he missed him. Truth be told, I did, too. He was the best approximation of a good father figure in my life. Like mine, his hands were stained with blood. But he took care of me like a daughter. I wonder how he is faring in Tartarus … The idea is farfetched, but what if we retrieved him from there? A naive hope, I know. But I owe him a life debt.

A few more passing thoughts later, my torturer speaks. "After my marriage," he grunts as he comes inside me, "Don't think this will end."

Of course, it won't, you vile creature. Not once did I believe it would.

I mutter harshly, "You really take me for a fool, don't you?"

"Just making sure you know your place," he grits out.

Just a minute ago, I decided not to ire him. But he has the audacity to stoke mine with that derogatory statement. I hiss at him. "Funny how we've had this exact conversation before. It ended with your blood in my mouth and your tongue held back in yours. Seems like you're the fool."

His hands wrap around my neck and squeeze. I refuse to show him any weakness.

"Careful, you little whore. I know all about the threat Father made. As his heir, it is my duty to carry his will out. Irritate me one more time, I'll personally send you to the brothels myself. Because that's where you belong, slut."

"And you belong in the final circle of hell, fucktard!" All of a sudden, my tormentor is yanked away. Literally, pulled out of me and thrown against a wall.

That insult was not from me. I bolt straight up to look at the owner of the voice. My eyes widen in astonishment once the lamp turns on. Shigaraki, Toga, Dabi, and Mr. Compress are here, standing in the bedroom at the foot of the bed. A naked so-called successor is gripped by the nape in Shigaraki's palm. Mr. Compress fits quirk-suppressing cuffs on the hands and feets of said successor. The cuffs are bulky and heavy, restricting physical movement, too.

The voice that comes out next is mine. "Didn't I tell you to arrive when I wasn't at the manor?"

"That was the intention," Shigaraki says. "But how were we supposed to know you would be here?! And how were we supposed to know that this bastard would be forcing himself on you?! The Doctor teleported us here with his black sludge noumu, so we can't go back and do this another time!"

"Oh, really?" I seethe. "It's the middle of the night, and it's vacation time. Where the bloody hell do you think I would be?!"

Shigaraki has the gall to look appalled. "You were the one who told us to surprise you!"

"Not like this!"

Dabi interrupts our argument. "Could both of you shut up? You'll awaken all of Tokyo with the noise you're making."

I glare at him, but close my mouth. He has a point. If the servants wake up, then all of us are doomed.

"W-W-Why is the League of V-Villains in our home?" my tormentor asks shakily. His eyes look around frantically, searching for an escape. There is none. "H-H-How do you know these people, Selene? W-W-What do they want with us? A-And w-why aren't they attacking you?"

Seeing the terror in his eyes makes my anger and guilt dissipate. Perhaps it was best that my comrades chose this night to attack. I would have never gotten to savor this expression from my torturer. I get out of the bed and fetch my cane. Although, I am naked like him, I have never felt so powerful until this moment.

Hanada-sama's eldest son is forced to his knees. I get down to his level and unleash my diabolical, manic self. No longer present is the girl who silently endured suffering. Here kneels the monster who hungers for blood. "There is a saying to never rub salt in a snake's wound for it will strike back with a vengeance. I am that snake, dearest heir. And I have waited years for the perfect moment to bite.

"What is my relationship to these people, you ask? I am a villain. These are my accomplices. They are the ones who are going to end your life while I revel in your pain. No wedding, no inheritance, no sex. All your dreams end with the beginning of the new year. How ironic!"

If fear was wine, I would drink until I was intoxicated and still demand more. That is how exhilarating my victim's expression is. Shock has swept down his spine and seeped into his bones, freezing him in place. His eyes dilate the way an animal's does when it realizes it is about to die a horrible death. I trail the head of my cane down his jaw, his throat before tilting it up sharply. His chin rises with it.

"All these years you subjected me to unspeakable pain," I whisper, seductively yet tauntingly. "Those rapes, those beatings, those curses, those scars." I pat his cheeks with each torture named. "You damaged me beyond repair. This demon in front of you is the culmination of your sins. Lucifer Morningstar is her name. Shigaraki is right: you deserve to be in the most brutal of hells. As the empress, it is my responsibility to escort you there." And I shove a cloth into his mouth.

I rise to my feet and swing the cane at his testicles. The howl he tries to emit sends a heart-racing thrill through me. Once more. Another hit. Blood spurts out this time. He cries like a baby. I begin laughing uncontrollably. A third hit. A fourth. Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. Eleven years I have been his slave. Eleven blows for each one. His eyes roll back into his head from the torture. I have mangled his reproductive organs in such a way that no number of surgeries will fix. How does it feel to taste a smidgen of my suffering, hmm? Delicious? Have. Some. More.

I prepare to hurt him for a twelfth when Dabi puts a hand on my shoulder. "I'm all for you getting a badass revenge, but as a guy, even I'm starting to wince." A quick glance at Shigaraki and Mr. Compress also reveal that they are glad they are not the ones being subjected to this treatment. Toga is the only one who looks positively enthralled by the blood and gore. "You said that you wanted us to kill. Get the other two in here."

Rationality ultimately finds me. I rush to the bathroom and wipe the blood off my face and cane. The smell remains. I hope my other two victims are none the wiser. Snagging the nearest robe, I pull it on and step outside the bedroom. The hallways are dim, and everyone is asleep. Perfect. Quietly, I navigate toward the twins' rooms. Two knocks later, one of them opens.

He looks at my disheveled state and rolls his eyes. "What do you want?" he sneers.

"Your big brother decided to have an orgy. He's invited you two to the party," I lie nonchalantly.

Again, he scours me up and down. But with a hungry gaze this time. It takes everything in me not to mutilate him with my cane, too. Yet. Not yet. Just a few moments longer. Then I can hurt them, too. While he is waking up his twin, I recite this vow to steel myself.

Unlike me, who was careful in the hallways, the twins have no such qualms. The lack of inhibition makes me smile. When they step inside the den of death, I lock the door behind me and shove them forward with a cane stab to the back. They tumble at Dabi's and Toga's feet. The twins open their mouths to shout for help when their mouths are stuffed with rags. Mr. Compress affixes cuffs onto them, too.

The three brothers glower at me with primal hatred. I already know what kind of insults they are throwing at me with their eyes. Their simmering gazes are met with my devilish smirk. "Proceed," I command, my cold tone contrasting with my insanity. "Punish them so that they remember the pain even after death."

I perch on the foot of the bed and rest my head upon one raised knee. My victorious face is what these three imbeciles must remember in their last moments. A trace a line against my thigh. "Remove their gags. I've silenced the room."

Immediately, their mouths spew the volley of slurs they had been communicating silently. I've heard this nonsense before. To tell them just that, I laugh at each of them. Their slander is my praise. ***, whore, and slut they call me. The same words they etched onto my body when I was at my weakest. Ironic that now it is you at the mercy of a prostitute.

"A toast to the new year!" I pretend there is an imaginary wine glass in my hand and raise it.

The eldest son is murdered first.

My mania has incited the madness of the other villains. Shigaraki wraps his hands around his throat and murmurs, "I hated your face when I saw you for the first time. But I like it a lot right now." Fissures run up my victim's body. Cracks that penetrate his bones and damage his nerves. He breaks into hundreds of bloody pieces before disintegrating into dust. He is not even granted the mercy to scream.

The sensation is like a balm. That five-year-old orphan who was wrongly thrust into this dark world of sin finally got her revenge. The fourteen-year-old girl who had succumbed to her miserable fate realized that not all hope was lost. The Bone Crusher Killer who slaughtered every man who dared lay a hand on her shuddered in poetic delight. The girl sitting here now will relish the terrible fate of her enemies.

I stare at the twins. "That one said to burn me," I declare, pointing at one of them. "And the other one said to cut me."

Dabi and Toga switch their respective victims. Fire is Dabi's expertise; knives are Toga's. They are thrilled by the prospect of utilizing their talents without any restraint. The twins notice this, too. After they are tossed unceremoniously to the villains, they beg to be spared.

I snap my fingers at them. "Shouldn't you be asking that question to me? After all, your assassinations were my scheme."

One of the twins spits at me. It hits my foot. "Ask you for mercy? Never."

"Fine. Have it your way, then." My next words are directed at Dabi and Toga. "Plus Ultra the ego out of them."

The poor, unfortunate soul in Dabi's custody shrieks like a banshee when he is set alight. Blue flames envelop his body as though he is a matchstick. He tries to shake out of Dabi's grasp to roll onto the ground. But Dabi pulls him back and grins, "This kind of opportunity to say 'fuck you' doesn't come every day. Stay still." The fire climbs higher. Before the smoke alarm can ring, I stand on the bed and disconnect the battery.

A minute later, the victim is nothing more than a burnt corpse. However, the flames still consume his body.

Seeing his twin's fate, the last of the three jerks around violently. Thinking that because Toga is a girl, she will be easy to throw off. Wrong. In response to his misbehavior, Toga jabs her knife through his back the way Brutus and his allies killed Julius Caesar. With countless stabs. Blood colors his shirt red and splatters across Toga's face. One drop comes particularly close to her mouth. She licks it and smiles. "More! More! More!" Each word is punctuated with another stab.

She continues piercing him to shreds long after he is dead.

It is then that Mr. Compress states a problem that none of us considered. Looking at the gruesome remains, he says grimly, "We did as you asked, Selene. But the thing we feared the most has come true. Because of our inopportune timing, you were here, too. Come morning, it will be suspicious if there are three dead bodies in your room, and you're the only one unharmed. The police will arrest you before thinking that the League had a hand in it."

My elation vanishes at his words. He's right. This is a serious complication. The servants and Hanada-sama know that I am at the manor. Their testimony will only make it that much harder for me to escape the grip of law. I can only think of one solution.

Meeting Mr. Compress's gaze with my own, I issue one last request: "Torture me."

"Absolutely not," Shigaraki replies.

I knew he would protest. So as calmly as possible, I attempt to reason with him. Thanks to Skeptic, the battle of Deika City was brushed off as being committed by some twenty angry youngsters. With that deception, the last time the League of Villains made an appearance was in October. It was January now. The public did not know how much power we had acquired since then. While that was good, we could not let the public become too lax either.

"Imagine the hysteria it will invoke when the girl the League attempted to kidnap was attacked once more. In her own home." I pause, so they can envision it themselves. "The citizen's beliefs in heroes will waver. Isn't that what we want? Destabilization will give us more time to accumulate power."

Shigaraki shakes his head. "You're too valuable."

"This won't be the first time you have hurt me, Shigaraki. We have fabricated a story to cover up the truth once; it's the same thing this time."

He stares at me with unspoken doubt. No. It is not the same as that time. Our journey has come too far for things to remain the same.

I jump off the bed to rest a hand against his cheek. "This is not your fault," I whisper. "I understand why you are upset, and it is completely justified. However, if I am going to delay the heroes progress and grant you resources, this must be done. Thank you for giving me my revenge, Shigaraki. I swear to return the favor to you."

"I've already lost my mentor and my friend … I cannot afford to lose you, too."

Hearing him acknowledge that Kurogiri was important to him surprises me. But I let out a chuckle and cup his other cheek. "You won't. I've survived death so many times, haven't I?"

A long moment passes. He seems like he still wants to argue, but thinks better of it. When he gives a single, curt nod, I move back and address all of them. "To make things easier, knock me out and then injure me. Don't hurt me too much that I will never be able to walk again."

Mr. Compress and Toga feel a little guilty about what they're about to do. Dabi's uncaring face … I cannot tell if that is how he truly feels or is a mask.

"What I am asking from all of you is cruel. Know that I am doing it for all of our sakes. If you find it in your heart, forgive me."

Shigaraki steps toward me. "I'll do the honors."

A sliver of the cloudy night sky peeps through the curtains.

A brilliant disguise for the darkness that awakens at night.

I embrace that darkness when I shut my eyes.