The Pit

TRIGGER WARNING. Read at your own discretion. You have been warned.

I lost count of the days after a week passed. Kenshin was worse than the rumors. I was kept somewhere deep in the maze of his fortress where the only light had to be brought in with candles.

 I was not given any other clothes to wear, still wearing the night robe I was wearing when I was captured. There were days that I went without food or water, and would later be given small meals. If Kenshin was not away from the fortress he visited me and I doubt I will ever forget the words he spoke to me the first day in this horrid place. "I like to break my mares before giving them a foal."

He was sadistic and cruel as he made every attempt to make me scream, and the longer I did not give him those screams the more cruel he became. It started with whips, and despite the urge to run from him as he stripped my naked body, I stood firm in the middle of the room with dead eyes that hid the fire in my soul that wished to destroy him and everything he had. "Well, aren't you a surprise." He ran his hand from my belly button up to my face to grab my jaw. "You will break little bird. You will scream!" He released my jaw as he brought the whip back to hit me with all of his strength. The whip licked my skin, leaving hot trails of injured flesh. He circled around me, catching his breath as he repeatedly whipped my body, being so very careful to avoid my face.

He became enraged the longer I resisted the urge to scream and soon his movements became wild and less controlled until he saw that at some point he had whipped hard enough to break skin, and yet I still had not screamed. He bent and caught his breath. "You may look like porcelain, but you appear to be made of stone." He said as he ran his hand through his hair and stood, regaining his composer. When he left he took the candle with him, leaving me with a promise, "next time I will bring something to chip away that stone." He left me in the dark for two days.

It was Kenshin that brought back the light and fed me small bites of fish and bread. He faked gentleness as he fed me, inciting nothing from my blank stare, enraging him further. He hit me in the stomach, causing me to fall over and that's when he saw the blood. I had started my cycle during those two days in the dark and I could hardly bring myself to care about the mess, I was already covered in blood from his hands, what was a little more. He did however send some clean rags and water for me to clean myself off.  

The torture progressed and yet I never screamed. Not when he cut me, not when he stuck needles in me, not even when he branded me. I never spoke to Kenshin, only listened to his harsh and obscene words.

He was away for several days, the only reason I knew was because a servant had been sent to bring me food and change my candles instead of the dragon that haunted me. She did not search the room for me as she entered and it made her jump when she heard my cracked voice from the opposite side of the room as her. "Please. How long have I been here?"

She began to leave the room, she must have been ordered and threated to not speak to me. But before she left I heard the faintest voice cut through the darkness. "Eight weeks."

Eight weeks. I was right to believe that Nobunaga would not come for me. The fire that had been protecting me from Kenshin was threatened to be extinguished by the silent tears and anguished crying that shook through my body that night. 

When Kenshin returned this time he had fresh scars and wounds along with a greedy smile. "Good news mare." He locked the door behind himself. "You get to leave this place tomorrow." He began removing the many layers of his armor and attire. His ears perked at my voice, the one he had not heard since the first day of torture. "Why?"

He smiled and I felt sick as he turned to me with only his loosened kimono on. "The Devil has agreed to come for dinner" He approached me quickly and attacked my neck with his teeth as he tore my robe away. "I can smell your excitement and anger. I am looking forward to tasting your anguish." He smiled on my skin as he bit, tugged and scratched by body. "No way in hell will I allow Nobunaga the satisfaction of claiming your body first." He pushed me to the ground and pinned me there. He continued biting my shoulder and back as he spread my legs apart with his feet and forced himself inside of me, my mind retreated as he continued to defile my body. I retreated to an empty place in my mind where the small embers of the fire that I had in me were beginning to fade. Silent tears from the pain of Kenshin's actions, both physically and psychologically, seemed to ingnite the embers within me again. By the time the Dragon finished there was a wildfire raging within me again. 

The next morning when the door opened and the servants found me on the ground naked and covered in bite marks it wasn't clear who was more shocked; them at the sight of me, or me at sight of several female servants coming to get me out of this chamber. "We've come to take you to get ready for the Lord's guests." The eldest servant informed me as she reached her hand out to me. I tried to stand on my own, but faltered. She caught me and another servant came to my other side before they helped cover me with a new robe and helped me walk out of the pit of hell.

The younger women that helped bath me were stunned by the amount of damage their master had inflicted to my body. Covered in scars and new marks from the night before.

 When I was in that room I preferred the silence to Kenshin's voice. Now that I was in a room of women I hated the silence and felt the need to break it. "He did his best to avoid my face, unfortunately he left me with this when he came in drunk" I pointed to the scar that broke the uniformity of me right eyebrow. They were fixated at my back though and I knew what they were looking at. "He branded me, right?" Although I asked for their confirmation,  the evil laughter that came from him when he did was enough for me to know.

"Yes my lady." The oldest woman spoke as she focused on washing my hands. "That's enough about that." She snapped her gaze to me. She was trying desperately to convey fierceness but I could see the larger amount of fear in her dark eyes. I nodded my head in understanding.

When the bath was completed they began working on beautifying me. I grew up with this kind of treatment, and now it felt foreign. I hated their gentle touches and soft smiles of pity as they pinned my hair up and painted my face. They dressed me in a blue kimono with white dragons. I was accessorized with a black sash and silver beads. I came to understand that Nobunaga and several of his vassals were coming to celebrate the peace agreement with Kenshin and I was to perform for them before their meal. Suddenly the revealing kimono made sense now; the branding on my shoulder was exposed, this was all a show of strength and I was just a pawn for Kenshin.

I could hear the warlords talking behind the screen door that would open for me to come in when Kenshin summoned for entertainment. I heard so many familiar voices on the other side, all but the one I wanted to hear. I closed my eyes to focus and try to find Nobunaga's voice through the rambling ons of the other Lords.

"Do you like your attire?" The sudden appearance of Kenshin behind me, his lips close to my ear and next his hands grasping my hips tightly. He squeezed my hips hard enough I would bruise as he continued. "I had it especially made for you, for this performance. It's my own design." He spun me around to face him and grasped my chin. "Don't forget who's claimed you." He traced the brand on my shoulder before leaving my side to enter the room.

"How much longer are we to wait Kenshin?" That was him! His deep baritone and commanding voice. That was Nobunaga.

A single clap and the sliding of doors. The sake was being served and soon the room settled.

Two claps and the sliding of doors as the musicians entered. My stomach began to turn and my heart began to race.

Three claps and the door in front of me opened.

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Again, probably going to burn in hell for actually thinking and writing this...

Hehe a bit of a cliff hanger for you. This chapter has a part two, but I don't think I will post it until I get some more attention. (I can be such a brat sometimes...) 

Anyway!

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