With a dull thud, the body hit the floor. His hands, arms, face, clothes, all slicked in dark red blood. It pooled around the metal cuffs on his wrist, the only positive point being that now the cuffs were no longer linked by a chain. The corpse stared up at him, almost accusatory. You took too much satisfaction in the kill, the eyes seemed to admonish. Had he? He supposed tearing out your enemy's heart barehanded and then taking a large bite out of it might seem...a tad enthusiastic, but could he help it?
Four years. They had held him here for four years.
Over time, the torture had faded to a dull presence in the back of his mind. It was the pain caused by his bond to her that was driving him mad. If he had been truly banished, the connection would have vanished, or at least no longer registered. The pulsating pain of the bond was how he knew he had a chance for escape. At least he knew he wouldn't be persecuted by his own kind.
Somehow, he had to get to her. It had been four years.
He wondered where she was now.
"Lisette!" A cheerful voice called out just as Lisette Engel closed the door to the apartment behind her. An imperceptible sigh escaped her. How does she always know the minute I get home? The she in question bounded out into the living area, grinning widely.
"Dani," Lis greeted wearily.
"What's wrong?" The exuberant blonde asked, a frown marring her features.
"Nothing, just a long day. Tired."
Recently, Lisette had picked up double shifts at her place of work, and the strain was clearly taking a toll on her. However, it kept her mind off of anything happening in her own head, and she needed that. A week previously, she had woken up in the middle of the night, drenched in tears and sweat, breathing hard as she held in her scream. She could have sworn he reached out to her in the dream. But there was blood and violence and pain, and all that was completely clear in her memory was him desperately screaming her name.
It was the Slayer's Foedus that had done this to her. If it wasn't for them...but it wasn't just them, was it? She asked herself with a rueful grin. No, her entire existence had created this mess. The Foedus had always been searching for a reason to get rid of her, and on her eighteenth birthday, they found something to use. The ruse was so obvious in retrospect, she hated herself for falling for it. If she hadn't been so blinded by emotion, Septimus would still be here.
"Ookaaay," Dani drawled, clearly not believing her. Lis gave her a weak smile, a form of apology, or as close as she would ever come to one. "Hey, someone called for you, like, fifteen times."
"You're exaggerating."
"Nope! I picked up once and the guy nearly chewed my head off! Angry ex-boyfriend?"
"Huh?" Lis frowned. "Don't have any. What did he say exactly?"
"He was insistent that I tell him where you were right that minute, and if I had hurt you he was going to rip me apart and... Well... I sort of tuned him out after a while. I told him he would just have to wait until you got home. He hasn't called for a few hours..."
"Did he give a name?" The nightmare flashed in Lis's mind.
"No, sorry."
"Not your fault. Mind if I call the number back?"
"Sure! We can talk after."
Lis gave her a grateful nod and went to the phone. Scrolling to the previous calls list, she redialed the number. The dial tone stopped abruptly as a robotic female voice informed her that this number was no longer connected.
"What?" Dani asked as Lis angrily returned the phone to the cradle.
"Disconnected number."
"That makes no sense. He was desperate to talk to you!"
"I don't know, Dani. Maybe it really was some crazy guy."
"Maybe..." Lis watched Dani frown and made a mental note to make sure her friend stayed out of trouble.
Lis was moving back to her room when the phone began to ring.
The two girls locked gazes, and Lis looked away first, her eyes traveling to the phone. She walked to it slowly, and as she raised it to her ear and accepted the call, it felt strangely like a dream.
"Hello?"
"Lisette? Lisette Engel?"
"This is she, and who is this?"
There was the sound of papers being shuffled around and a muffled curse before the female speaker returned to the line.
"This is the Lisette Engel who reached the rank of primus pilus?" Lis's blood ran cold at the question, and she stood there, frozen. "Ma'am?" the woman on the phone asked. Lis snapped out of her state, and moved farther from Dani, lowering her voice.
"How the hell did you get this number?"
"Well, you should know, the Foedus-,"
"Shut up! Don't site rules and regulations to me! I was being groomed as a goddamn legion legate. I know everything there is to know about Foedus policy. Why did you call me?"
"Crispin wanted to speak with you..." The woman's words elicited a hiss from Lis. She should have known it would be him. He had only cared for her, groomed her, and then committed the ultimate betrayal against her as a Slayer. Who else would be behind this call?
"Then he should get on the phone."
"Hold a moment, please..." The woman's voice had gone soft and small, as if Lis's rage was something that could reach through the wires and harm her.
Lis waited with impatience, feeling Dani's curious gaze on her. She wasn't about to let Dani have any role in the events to come. She was innocent, never involved with the Cursed or Slayers on any active level. If anything major happened, Dani could only get hurt.
"Lisette, you are a difficult girl to find," a smooth male voice came onto the line, a hint of amusement in his voice. Crispin.
"Not difficult enough, obviously."
"Don't condescend yourself that way. It was really quite a pain to get into contact with you."
"Then why did you bother? The Foedus made it very clear that I should disappear. Or die."
"Lisette, your departure from the Foedus was very devastating to me. I would rather you not wind up dead on the streets, hence all of the hard work and effort to find you, dear." She shuddered to hear him call her "dear" again. How many times had he called her that before his betrayal? How many times had he murmured it into her ear as he got too close to her, or whispered the lies of how far she would go as a Slayer, or how much she meant to him?
"So say what you wanted to say." There was the sound of a deep sigh from the other end of the line.
"We have heard...rumors, that a certain demon found a way around his banishment."
"What?"
"Yes, it is rather inconvenient..."
"No, I mean... Why would I end up dead over that?"
"Demons without bonds are free to do whatever they please, sometimes including revenge."
"I'm not seeing your point."
"Well," she could hear his frown over the phone, "with your bond no longer in play..."
"Oh." Lis's eyes widened. Had the Foedus thought her bond to him had been severed this whole time? Did they think they were no longer connected? What do I say? What do I do?
"Be careful, dear. I'd hate to see your pretty little person come to harm."
"Thanks for the warning." Lis hung up the phone angrily. The bastard.
"So, who was it? What did they want?" Dani asked, practically bouncing on her feet.
"It was just work stuff. nothing serious."
"Sure?"
"Yeah."
Dani made a noise under her breath, moving off to her room. Lis twisted her forearm upwards, tracing the raised mark along her flesh, the symbol of wrath. Why can't I feel him<? Shaking her head, Lis proceeded to putter around the apartment, dusting and cleaning.
A knock on the door startled Lis out of her quiet, mindless task, and she opened it warily.
Standing in her doorway with dried blood all over him, was Septimus.
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