Story 3: The Severing

Chapter 16:

Laysan!

She was at the other end of my tether. She was the anchor of my leash. Or perhaps I was hers. Either way we were connected crotch to crotch by a quickly shortening chain.

"Laysan!" I cried. She, of course, could only watch me in her typical silence, her chest heaving with fear, her eyes flitting to take me in, her mouth held pursed tightly, trembling with anxiety.

Links were ejected from the chain until we stood, locked in our separate cages staring into each others eyes only feet away from one another.

I took a moment to study our tormentor. She was easily as tall as the Doll Monsters. She had long straight hair as dark as death and skin the color of the moon in winter. She wore a tight, full body suit lined with metal plates yet somehow supple. Her eyes were big and the darkest shade of brown. They looked like endless pits. A subtle smirk bent her thin pale lips.

She disconnected the chain shortener and rolled the stand holding the capstan wheel out of the way. Machete Woman then pulled a length of chain from her belt. She pressed a small plate anchored at one end of the chain to Laysan's mouth. I saw Laysan's head jerk back in shock, but her efforts did little to impede Machete Woman's intent. When Machete Woman moved her hand from Laysan's mouth, the anchor plate and chain remained.

I realized that the chain that now dangled from Laysan's mouth contained an identical plate at the other end. Machete Woman grabbed the plate and began to raise it to my mouth. I cringed in fear waiting for my mouth to be covered.

Machete Woman whispered into my ear, "Smile, subGrrl. Your sacrifice will be remembered far into the future. This will be painful."

Lisianski!? Machete Woman was Lisianski!

She pressed her lips against mine through the bars of my cage in a slippery, warm kiss.

"Sacrifice?" I began to scream. Don't kill me Lisianski!

Before I could say another word, Lisianski pressed the cold anchor plate to my mouth. I felt tendrils drill through the flesh of my lips and slither into my mouth, wrapping my teeth and tongue in a tight metal knot, holding them still and filling the empty spaces around until my mouth was immobile and relentlessly locked away.

Lisianski stepped back and Laysan and I stared at one another across this new expanse of chain that linked us so closely. I could feel the chain transmit Laysan's trembling. We locked our eyes together helplessly waiting for the next horror.

Lisianski stepped between us with a second short chain. This one also had plates at each end, but a dreadful whimper strangled quietly in my throat when I noticed the pair of sharp spikes embedded in the plate.

Lisianski turned to Laysan and jammed the spikes directly into her chest, right into her heart. Laysan's cage rattled and I saw her eyes roll up into her head. Snot sprayed from her nose on Lisianski and I. A small stream of blood trickled down between her breasts.

Laysan's head lolled forward dreamily. She was not there. She was leaving. I was certain. But, then Lisianski pushed Laysan's forehead back and her eyes flickered open, dilated and unfocused.

Lisianski turned to me. I pushed back against the bars that held me trying to shake my head. Lisianski thrust her fist towards me and I felt the spike drive into my chest, breaching my vessel. I was flooding with chill. The torches on the walls flickered and flashed.

When I could focus again I slowly glanced down at the plate press against my breast. A warm trickle of fluid winnowed its way across my abdomen. I lazily followed the links of chain from my heart over to where they connected to Laysan.

One finger at a time, Lisianski began to wrap her fist around this chain that connected my heart to Laysan's. Finally, when she had a firm grip, she yanked as hard as she could with the sound of tearing flesh and bending bones. The room faded again, but I heard the whining squeak in my nose where a scream struggled to escape.

I opened my eyes to see Lisianski standing with the chain still in her hands. Each end of the chain now held a trembling, bloody muscle, pumping, pulsing, painting our flesh red in alternating sprays of fluid. They were our hearts, Laysan's and mine. Yet we still stood here witnessing our own disembowelment.

I know which heart belonged to whom. Laysan's was big and strong and red; mine - smaller and grayer, more beaten by life.

Lisianski took Laysan's heart in both of her hands with my dangling below. She began pulling at Laysan's heart, seemingly trying to rip it to shreds. Indeed she seemed to be succeeding. But as she pulled her hands apart, I realized that she was now holding two copies of Laysan's heart. The chain, too, had split into two and my old tired heart now hung between Laysan's two.

I looked at Laysan. Her face was purple and her eyelids were drooping. My entire body felt cold, but I could not shiver.

Lisianski suddenly shoved the copy of Laysan's heart into my chest. I felt bile and blood surge in the back of my throat. My entire body began to tingle as blood began to spray through my organs again.

When I looked up, I realized that Lisianski had replaced Laysan's heart as well. My old one hung slowly dying on the chain between us.

Lisianski stepped away for a moment. I heard a sudden roar of clicking below me. I struggled to look down to see what the source was, but immediately closed my eyes and wished I hadn't.