As soon as the blade sliced into her flesh and the pointed scalpel scraped against her bone, the pain ripped through her like nothing ever had before.
Her lungs burnt with the desire to scream as the excruciating sensation overwhelmed her but she could still do nothing except feel.
Her heart burned with hatred as she glowered up at Narcissa, who was humming to herself as she cut through her flesh, as if Lexi were nothing more than a soft piece of fruit being carved for display.
Narcissa's eyes flicked up to check on Lexi's condition and her lips turned upwards into a cruel sneer as she watched the silent tears trickle down Lexi's face.
"Not so tough now, are you?" She smirked as she sliced through the layers of her skin leisurely, without a care in the world.
The creature that had carried her over to the table hovered in the background, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably and making little chirrups in its throat. He could see that it didn't like what was going on, but Lexi knew that there was no way it could have intervened. Lesser daemons weren't renowned for their intelligence, and even less for their compassion, but this one was obviously slightly different from the rest of the daemons that Lexi knew about.
She tried desperately to distract herself from the horror of what Narcissa was putting her through but she struggled to keep her focus on track. She definitely intended to find out what this daemon was and why it was here, and if she could, she would remove it as far from Narcissa as possible.
If she had the chance, Narcissa would pay for this with her life... many times over and she swore to herself that the first opportunity that was presented to her, Lexi was going to find a way to imprison her and prolong her torment until the end of time.
"There!" Narcissa trilled happily as she stood straight and stretched her back out, "A perfect little hole to wedge this into."
She disappeared out of Lexi's line of sight momentarily before returning with a twisted mass of sharp looking metal that encased a fat little nugget of amber and jet fused together, holding it up in front of Lexi's face.
"Isn't it beautiful?" She purred, "All these little razor sharp edges are going to be implanted directly into your sternum so that it will be anchored to you for the rest of your life and any time that my Lord wishes to punish you…all he will have to do is press down lightly on your chest for these little blades to slice through you from the inside out."
Lexi's stomach rolled in horror.
"Oh dear. Did I scare you?" Narcissa simpered malevolently, "You've suddenly gone an awful color. Don't worry, when my lord finally gets around to rutting you, I doubt he'll want to see your face…he's quite…forceful in bed. He will make sure that you know your place every time he lays with you, whether you want him to or not, so there's no danger of him inadvertently laying on it because he'll be defiling you from behind…or you'll be servicing him from the front."
If Lexi could have ripped Narcissa's eyes from her face in that moment and rammed her eyeballs down her throat then she would have done, the fact that she was completely helpless in this situation was driving her crazy.
How could fucking Eromaug even pretend to do this for love if he has to go to these lengths to keep her here. His grand claims were clearly nothing more than a front for his true intentions.
He had no concept of what love truly was and when she finally got the chance to tell him to his face, she fully intended to tell him exactly what a colossal piece of shit he was.
She didn't understand how or why Narcissa and Ely were so willing to help Eromaug enslave her either. Did they really think that they were ever going to be successful in enacting their vision of world domination?
How could they treat another person this way? What had happened to their humanity?
But then again…Lexi had never quite been able to wrap her head around the whole idea of fleshcrafting and that was something that clearly both Ely and Narcissa shared a keen interest in. Perhaps they were just psychotic sadists and that was all there was to it…void-touched, her mother had used to call them.
She was brought out of her rapidly spiraling thoughts as another wave of excruciating pain shot through her chest as Narcissa began carefully hammering the little anchors into place against her bones.
The pain was simply too much and as the nauseating rolling of her stomach threatened to expel whatever was left inside it out of her mouth, Lexi felt her grip on consciousness slipping.
She was a fucking failure. She only had herself to blame for getting caught in this stupid trap and now she would probably never see her mates again.
There was nothing that she could do to stop Narcissa from embedding that into her…and nothing that she could do right now to improve her situation.
What was she fighting for really? Forcing herself to stay conscious wouldn't achieve anything if she couldn't fight back…why suffer?
A numbness seemed to wash over her as she felt herself slipping away into the blissful embrace of darkness and in that moment as the pain subsided for the briefest of moments, Lexi wanted to smile in relief.
Perhaps death was the answer…
"Oh, what a pity," Narcissa's disappointed voice floated around the edges of her consciousness, "I wanted to draw this out as long as possible but she's given up already."
"You know most people don't last even this long though, Narcissa…she's definitely powerful…" Ely replied thoughtfully before a furious hiss interrupted him.
"She is nothing, Ely. NOTHING. Just a fucking distraction until my lord grows bored with his nostalgic memories of her…when he sees what a disappointment she is, he'll come running back…just you wait and see…"
"Narcissa…she's his eternal…you can't seriously think he'll toss her aside in favor of you?" Ely snorted as she whirled to face him furiously, jabbing the scalpel towards him angrily.
"Don't laugh at me Ely! My whole life, I have done NOTHING but serve," She roared furiously, "You'll see…Eromaug is just…he rewards his disciples well and whatever he offers when he is done with this little whore…I will accept gratefully."
"You can be as angry as you want with me but I think you're delusional." Ely snorted as he shook his head, "The Daemon Lord has no use for us other than to further his plans on our world."
Narcissa stood with her arm still raised towards him as she shook silently.
"He made me a wraith so that I could spend eternity with him." she replied confidently, her furious gaze focused intently on her brother.
"He made you a wraith so that you would be punished for eternity…it's not a fucking holiday Narcissa. Get a grip of yourself, or are you succumbing to the madness after such a short time already?" He sneered.
"Get out." Narcissa breathed, her voice dangerously low as Ely sighed dramatically and picked the unconscious body of Genevieve up and slung her over his shoulder again.
"I warned you Narcissa. If you weren't my sister, I would leave you to your madness but…I can help with that. When you realize you're losing your grip then come and see me…I can fix that."
Narcissa turned her back on him and resumed her furious stitching of Lexi's chest back up. Eromaug had never said it had to be pretty and besides, if it wasn't for this bitch and her father interfering in the first place, then Narcissa wouldn't have failed in her last ditch attempt in maneuvering Ada into a position of power. She had to take what little revenge she could, when she had the opportunity.
She paused as the heavy door to the room closed behind Ely and an unhinged smile played at the corners of her mouth.
"He'll see…they'll all see…" She muttered furiously under her breath as the creature behind her rumbled its unease quietly and stepped back into the shadows of it's cell.