REVENGE II: TSUYU
The bath salts felt as heavenly as the Count promised. Tsuyu reclined into the luxurious embrace of the silky water, until her nose brushed against the still surface.
"Enjoying yourself, madame?"
Tsuyu would have slapped her tongue at the intruder if she could, but she couldn't even twitch a muscle. Grateful for the thin sheen of bubbles preserving her modesty, Tsuyu tried to call out, to look around, to do anything. The water pressed down on her like a velvet glove, squeezing her against the bottom of the tub.
"Oh, do forgive me. It would be quite rude having conversing with you from out of sight."
Boots clicked against the bathroom tile. The Count drifted into her vision, like a specter, grinning and pale beneath a billowing black bathrobe.
Tsuyu tried to ask what he did, but the words wouldn't come out. "You must be wondering why you can't move," the Count said. "Those bath salts have a powerful paralytic in them. Perfectly harmless to ordinary humans unless ingested, but with skin as permeable as yours, the powerful muscle relaxant seeps into every pore of your skin, getting deeper and deeper the longer you sit there."
Tsuyu tried to heave her whole body. Her head twitched up, before sliding back towards the water.
"Of course, eventually, the water will evaporate, your body will metabolize the poison, and you'll be free to leave. That's why I brought you another gift."
The Count drew a box from his cloak and pulled out a shiny new toaster.
"Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning?"
Tsuyu tried to say she was a frog.
The Count plugged in the toaster and dangled it over the water. "The same thing that happens to everything else."
The toaster fell. Water splashed everywhere, and the lights snapped off. The Count sighed in the darkness.
"Of course it tripped the circuit breaker. Are you dead in there?"
Tsuyu tried to raise a middle finger.
"Right, paralyzed. No matter. I brought a back-up."
A servant rushed over a full aquarium tank. The Count, with many yelps and curses, fished out a piranha and dangled it before Tsuyu. "Don't worry. You'll soon be sleeping with the fishes."
The Count dumped the whole tank in. Tsuyu closed her eyes and braced herself. After a few seconds, all the piranhas floated belly-up in the tub.
"Right. The bath salts. Should've seen that coming. In that case…"
The Count gently pushed her head down until she was completely underwater. He waited for bubbles, but when none rose up, he facepalmed. "You breathe through your skin. Figures. Now how am I supposed to kill you?"
He yanked her up. She felt cold to the touch. Feeling for a pulse and finding none, the Count hung his head. "The muscle relaxants stopped your heart. Great. This was a huge waste of time."
He dramatically twirled his cloak, stepped forward, and slipped on the water all over the floor.
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