I sit here sipping from my glass, a fine glass at that; delicate in nature, with spinning hues of barest midnight blue drawn through its perfect surface, creating an undulating wave of confused beauty. Beauty; I look at the cavern around me, the carved seat I rest upon, my enclave, my domain, my perfect world. Things of beauty surround me, but only at my beck and call. True, some have come crawling, but I find I’ve no use for such sniveling. They – are no longer amongst us. Is there not a creature worthy of my attentiveness? Ordering one of the grovlings to fetch me a new pet, I wait with little patience.
Finally, she is brought before me. “Kneel.” There is no question she will do as instructed, they all do. I toss a collar onto the floor, it is attached to a leash fastened to the arm of my perch. “Put it on.” She begins to speak.
“I do not recall telling you to open your lips. Put it on, and do so with your mouth shut!” She scrambles to do as ordered, but the idiot grovling has yet to release her from the crude looped choker used to drag her here. A glance at the grovling and he realizes his folly. He apologizes profusely, trying to loosen the choker as she desperately tries to fasten the collar around her bleeding neck with shaking hands. I let him babble, his stupidity is quite amusing, then I bore of hearing it. Standing, I descend the two steps that separate myself from the others. She shivers uncontrollably as I pass by. He drops to a knee while still begging forgiveness for his lack of foresight. Foolish, that. The assumption that he’s been given the right to foreshadow my thoughts or wishes, a mistake I would not have made had I been in his position. Crouching in front of him, my wing tips curling against the stone floor, I order him to lift his chin. As he does so, he pisses himself. Glancing down to the puddle growing beneath him, I gently tap the edge of the glass against the floor. It fractures magnificently.
“Do you recall when this glass was made for me, grovling?” Desperately, he tries to hold my eye, but cannot. His own orbs flick quickly to the glass, I smile. He opens his mouth to respond and I shush him with a gentle, garnet adorned finger upon his lips. “My question did not require an answer, or did your foresight fail you yet again?” Trembling with indecision, he is unsure if a response is expected. I’m of the opinion it is not, but I’ll allow his inner torment to continue a bit longer. The jingling to my right finally stops; she has managed to fasten the collar around her neck. I hear a slight tinkling, the metal chain leading from the collar back to the leashed handle affixed to my seat; she is frightened, but doing admirably well – so far.
Waiting is the sweetest torture, one my many eons in this festering shit hole has taught me well how to exploit. The grovling on the other hand, is finding the wait – arduous. I can sense his overwhelming desire to speak; I can see the thoughts flick through his feeble little mind. Dragging the now jagged edge of the glass through his own urine, I provoke him. “It must be so difficult kneeling before me, wanting to speak your mind, but knowing you probably should not. I almost feel compassion for you, honestly, I almost do. Was being obedient and keeping your mouth shut so very hard that you simply found yourself incapable of the task?” His lips part, bait taken. If I were a sport fisherman, this is the point at which I would yank the line, one quick hard pull to set my hook. In what is a blink in his world, I ram the piss covered broken glass through his eye socket clean into his brain cavity. The ickor that oozes into the glass is proof enough that his brief squeal will be his final utterance.
I turn to the captive beside me, realizing that the grovling’s piss has spread to her knees. Retrieving the handle of the leash, I gently guide her to the hot spring welling in the far corner of the cavern. “Come, let’s clean you, then we shall figure out what purpose you might serve.”
(…more on this piece as other letters crop up…)
© Copyright 2013 Nina D’Arcangela. All Rights Reserved.
I’m doing the 2013 Blogging from A to Z Challenge! Pop back everyday but Sunday through the month of April for a new letter prompt to spawn my deranged ramblings! ;}
April 9th, 2013 at 11:13 am
Wow, ewww. If it was a movie, then I would be watching through my fingers covering my face! Great imagery. Now I have to try and get it out of my mind. LOL
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April 9th, 2013 at 3:18 pm
LOL – well, you might want to avoid my other Dark Angel posts then. You’d have to watch the film version of those with your hands over your eyes 😉 Thank you for the kind words, and sorry to creep you out… kinda (in the best way!)
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April 9th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Wow, this is magnificently brutal, Nina!! Loved it! And the tease that there is yet more to this piece… you dastardly Dark Angel, you!! lol
“Hard” is typical ‘Nina’ prose that I love so much: you wrap your darkness with such eloquence, it is painful in its own right.
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April 9th, 2013 at 3:20 pm
Thanks Joe! My Dark Angel is always up to no good, and generally tortured herself – so those around her must suffer as well. Thank you for the kind words and the compliments! 🙂
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April 9th, 2013 at 10:24 pm
Ah grovelng to the cold hard edge are we?
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April 10th, 2013 at 12:14 pm
The grovlings might be, but never the Dark Angel, she grovels for no one… or nothing for that matter. Thank you for stopping by to read my ramble! 🙂
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April 10th, 2013 at 10:16 am
I read this yesterday and was quite struck or chained. So I came back today groveling, begging for more
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April 10th, 2013 at 12:10 pm
You’ve morphed into a grovling, have you? Or did you simply mean you were groveling for more. Minion positions are always open… LOL
Thanks Leslie! There will be more, I just don’t know which letter it will be yet. 😉
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April 10th, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Oh I DO like this! Found myself totally absorbed into the story and I have to read more. Will be hunting for more on your dark angel!
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April 10th, 2013 at 5:13 pm
Thank you! She loves to come out to play, but I leash her as often as possible… 😉
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April 10th, 2013 at 5:12 pm
Reblogged this on A Window Into The Dark and commented:
A decadent dark piece of writing. Enjoy!
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April 11th, 2013 at 10:48 am
Thank you!
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April 10th, 2013 at 11:58 pm
Man! You do so love the macabre, don’t you?
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April 11th, 2013 at 10:50 am
This is the Dark Angel, she hasn’t even eviscerated anything yet, only dispatched of one of the grovlings… She has so much farther to go before she reaches truly macbre in this piece. I hope you enjoyed it!! ;}
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April 13th, 2013 at 2:49 pm
While the Dark Angel describes the assumptions playing across the face of the doomed grovling, I found myself wondering what one worthy of her attention might do. Instead of the frustration of wanting to speak, I imagine one who not only demonstrates steely obedience but also teases what they will not say with the slightest of grins…
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April 13th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
That would depend entirely on her mood at the moment. She’s a twitchy, unpredictable creature. Catch her off guard, surprise her, and she might be amused enough to allow a grovling to live a while longer. But read her wrong, or read her right on the wrong day, and the same fate might still await the poor little bastard. Frustration, arrogance, want, and a lack of ability to find satisfaction drive her to destroy most things that cross her path. It’s really only a matter of time for everything living in her world – she is a destroyer. Until, of course, she runs into another creature like herself that can actually control her. If there is one… Yet to be determined. ;}
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April 13th, 2013 at 10:11 pm
😉
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