The People v. Eleanor Warwick

Bailey paces back and forth in front of House Warwick.

When someone has to be left behind, he knows it’s going to be him. The longer he waits around the more he wishes he’d been off tonight.

The entire Warwick situation makes him nervous. There’s been some odd things happening, and even when there isn’t, he’s still standing in the freezing cold.

The lights of his car bathe him in shifting colors as he keeps an eye out for anyone else fleeing the House. With a hand on his sidearm, he prepares for someone to come out of the building. He isn’t quite as prepared for someone trying to get in.

A luxury town car rounds the corner onto Riverside. It makes its way toward House Warwick at above the posted speed limit.

Penny thumbs through a notebook. Her sharp green eyes pass over scribbled words and symbols. She’s never performed a hellblood ritual before. She doesn’t have long to figure out how. She hastily gathered some usual ritual items and threw them in a bag.

Something on the page grabs her attention. She sighs heavily and looks out the window at the Lampton River running along the street. Closing the notebook, she taps her fingernails on the cover. She knew this was coming. She even prepared for it. That wasn’t going to make it any easier.

“Um, Mistress?” Lisa asks from behind the wheel. “There’s a cop outside the House.”

Penny turns to the front to see the officer in question. “Ignore him.”

Lisa pulls the car along the curb, stopping directly in front of the police vehicle.

“Door.”

Lisa looks back at her Mistress in the rearview mirror. “Mistress?”

“Door,” Penny repeats.

“Oh!” Lisa exclaims as she realizes what her Mistress means. Swinging her door open, she starts to exit the car before being jerked clumsily back by her still-fastened seat belt. Penny shakes her head as the sub fumbles with the clasp. Finally freeing herself, Lisa hops out of the car and rushes around to open Penelope’s door.

Bailey watches Penny rise out of the backseat and straighten her long coat. As she leads the way toward the door of House Warwick, the officer steps toward her.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. You can’t go in there.”

Penny ignores him. Lisa glances nervously at Bailey but stays close behind her Mistress. They pass through the waist-high fence.

Moving his hand to his gun, Bailey walks faster. “Ma’am! Stop!”

As he approaches the fence, he feels a sudden lurch in his stomach. His vision starts to blur and his head swims. Bailey stumbles back, wiping his face, which is suddenly covered in sweat. As he retreats, the alarming symptoms fade.

Glancing around in confusion, he looks to the entrance of House Warwick. The women have disappeared within.

The figures standing over her are starting to get fuzzy. Jessie’s vision is rapidly failing. When a new grayish outline of a person appears at her bedside, she squints in an attempt to identify them.

“Hello, Jessica. You look dreadful.”

The voice is instantly familiar. She remembers the words spoken directly into her ear while she hung by her wrists with a red ball in her mouth. She’s never felt so helpless and vulnerable. She doesn’t like feeling either.

Her face forms into an ugly scowl. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she manages to say in a weak, but venomous voice.

“Don’t be so sour,” Penny responds without a hint of offense. “I’m here to help you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“Are you sure? You appear to be near death.”

“Yes!” Marvin interjects frantically. “She needs help!”

Penny gives him a glance before looking to Henry. “Who is this?”

“Marvin Towles: Private investigator and Jessie’s…friend, I suppose,” Henry answers.

“I see.” Penny returns to Marvin. “Nice to meet you. Please leave.”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t be in here for this. We’re going to have to undress her.”

“In here for what?” Jessie struggles to sit up in bed. “Undress who?”

Penny forcefully pushes Jessie back down before looking up at Henry. “You haven’t told her?”

He shifts. “I was working my way around to it.”

“Waiting for me to show up, no doubt.” Penny places a hand on Jessie’s shoulder. “Jessica, dear. We need to repeat the ritual that made you a hellblood.”

Mouth agape, Jessie stares at the ceiling with a look of utter shock. Within moments, the expression fades into fear. She fights the tremble of her lip as well as she can, but she isn’t in fighting shape.

The images plaguing her mind for years are easily recalled. The dark figures she now knows to be her parents would come to her in the attic they kept her in, brandishing their shimmering daggers. They would cut deep into her skin. They would bleed her on a regular basis. She never knew why or at least didn’t remember why.

Then one day they chained her down and performed their sinister ritual. Jessie barely remembers it, but the extraordinary pain was hard to forget.

“Jessica?” Penny’s question prompts Jessie to compose herself. “Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I understand. You want to cut me up.”

“We don’t want to,” says Henry as he crouches down beside the bed. “We have to. There’s no other choice.”

“Says who? Warwick? What the fuck does she know about anything?” Jessie looks around in a vain attempt to search the room. “Is she even in here?”

“She…stepped out.” Henry answers.

“Stepped out?” The hellblood considers the information for a moment before suddenly trying to sit up again. “Out there? With those crazy bitches? Why the fuck did you let her do that?”

Henry seizes her by the shoulders and turns her to face him. “Jessie! Get a hold of yourself. She went out there so Penelope could get in here, and she did it so we could save you.”

The hellblood’s dead eyes stare at him. Henry appears as little more than a gray blob. “She’s an idiot.”

Henry offers an uncharacteristically compassionate smirk. He knows she can’t see it anyway. “Perhaps, but she’s probably counting on you to be out of this bed and off to her rescue before Grey can get ahold of her.”

After a heavy sigh, Jessie slumps. “Let’s just get this shit over with.”

“Excellent,” Penny says in a tone that strikes Jessie as infuriatingly chipper. “Lay back and try to relax. We’ll take care of everything. Lisa, help her out of her clothes.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

Penny turns to Marvin as Lisa carefully pulls off Jessie’s shoes. “You may go now.”

“I’d really rather- .”

“Out,” Jessie wheezes. “I don’t need a fuckin’ audience.”

Marvin begins to protest but gives up. With a slight hang of his head, he turns and heads for the door. “Okay.”

Penny and Henry pull the bed away from the wall. Lisa fights to remove Jessie’s pants, her efforts complicated by the hellblood’s constant squirming. Henry circles the bed, using spray paint to arrange runes on the carpet. Penny reaches into her bag and retrieves four heavy leather cuffs, each with a length of chain attached.

Henry raises an eyebrow. “Is that necessary?”

“The last time she killed someone,” Penny reminds him.

“True.”

Jessie’s clothing removed and her appendages secured, Penny lays the contents of her bag on Jessie’s dresser. A large vial of demon blood. A large, ornate dagger. A pouch of bone ashes. She holds up a picture and sighs, before setting it down on the dresser.

Removing her jacket, she rolls up her sleeves. Lisa and Henry watch as she circles the bed, casting handfuls of ash to the ground. She murmurs ancient words. It takes three circles before she runs out of burned bone.

Now comes the dagger and blood. Penny scans the hellblood for the best place to start.

Despite her failing eyesight, Jessie seems to sense the presence of the weapon. She fidgets in the bed and pulls at her restraints. When Penny places a hand on her, she tries to jerk her arm away.

“Try to stay calm, dear. If you fight me, it’s only going to make things harder.”

With only a slight nod as a response, Jessie takes long, measured breaths as she awaits the inevitable. A gasp escapes her as the blade penetrates the skin of her arm. She grits her teeth as Penny drags the knife down her limb, splitting the flesh as it goes. Black blood runs out from the deep gash and stains the sheets.

Closing her eyes tight, Jessie grimaces in pain as Penny repeats the process along her leg. Once the Mistress moves on to her side, the intensity of the pain grows. When the dagger cuts its crease into her other leg, it’s too much for her to keep quiet.

“Fuck!” she shouts before the curse trails off into a painful moan. Penny continues to slice her way up her side bringing more frequent and louder outbursts. “Fuck! Damn it! Fuck!”

Breathing in short, hard bursts, Jessie’s dead eyes water and her body trembles under the cold and agony. The dagger drags across her stomach, causing her to shoot up in the bed as far as her chains will allow. After a loud gasp, she grits her teeth and growled. Black blood pools on her flat abdomen before slowly running off the sides to the mattress.

“Careful, Penelope,” Henry rebukes. “Cut too deep there and you’ll hit her organs.”

He steps back as Penny levels her gaze at him. “Did you not call me here because you didn’t want to do this?”

“Yes.”

“Then perhaps you should let me handle it.” With a nod, Henry sheathes his tongue as Penny brings the blade close to Jessie’s face. “You need to be very still, dear.”

With a deep breath, Jessie closes her eyes as Penny carefully slices across her cheeks. After a slight whimper, Penny pulls the knife away and hands it to Lisa. The submissive holds the blade at arm’s length by two fingers. Gathering the large vial of demon blood, Penny unscrews to top. “How are we doing, Jessica?”

“How the fuck do you think I’m doing?” the hellblood returns in a wobbling voice.

“I imagine you’re in a great deal of pain. Sadly, that was the easy part.”

Jessie’s fists tighten in their cuffs. “It won’t be so bad. I’ve already got demon blood in me. Right?”

“I don’t know.”

Ignoring the tear running down her cheek, Jessie sets her jaw. “Just do it.”

Separating the lacerated sections of her arm, Penny carefully drips the dark ichor into the long cut. Jessie’s nerves flare as a horrible shock of pain spreads through her appendage.

With a torturous cry, she wildly flails in her restraints, which fortunately hold. Penny holds her ground in the face of the frantic reaction, pouring more blood into the wounds.

Racked with more pain than she can clearly verbalize, Jessie shrieks and howls. The bed shakes violently as the hellblood desperately tries to escape the torment. The screams soon break down into blubbering bellows. Tears runs down her face and spittle flies from her lips and drizzling down her chin.

Henry’s eyes widen before turning away. Placing a hand to his chin, he thanks a God he rarely believes in that the girl isn’t there.

Lisa frantically backs away to the point that she’s against the wall. Closing her eyes tight, she covers her ears, trying to block out the terrible sounds.

Marvin paces in the hallway, covering his mouth. The painful shrieks from the other side of the door are close to making him physically ill.

He wasn’t happy about Penelope booting him from the room, but at this point, he’s glad to be in the hall. The sound of Jessie’s agony is difficult to hear, he can’t imagine seeing it.

The further he traipses into the so-called Shadow Side, the more it disturbs him. He likes it on the outskirts, only occasionally doing jobs for Mr. Willard. Meeting Jessie led him in deeper. He might have stayed away if he knew it would lead here.

Who am I kidding, he asks himself.

Meeting Jessie was the best thing that had happened to him in some time. Not that there’s much competition. She plays things close to the vest, but she likes him. It was obvious. He likes her too. She has a lot of baggage, no denying that, but who doesn’t? Even her violent temper is strangely attractive to him.

Another loud bellow from the room gives him a start. Running a hand through his hair, Marvin’s pacing picks up speed.

He can’t help but wonder if there’s anything he can do to help her. He knows nothing about the weird ritual they’re performing, but there must be something. One thing is certain; he won’t find out in the hall.

Turning to the door, he stares at the knob as if he expects it to turn itself. Approaching slowly, he wipes his hand on his pants before reaching for the handle. Opening the passage a crack, another howling cry nearly makes him quickly close it again. Taking a deep breath, he swings the door open and slides in.

His mouth falls open as he beholds the hellblood violently thrashing on the bed. Her screams sound hoarse as they take their toll on her throat. Dark blood is everywhere, staining the carpet and splattered all over Penny’s clothes. Jessie fights the chains holding her in place. Her eyes are heavy with tears.

Penny glances up from carefully administering the demon blood into her gashes. Their eyes meet for a moment, but she says nothing, instead remaining focused on Jessie.

Towles cautiously edges closer, still unsure as to what he’s planning to do. Once Penny finishes with the hellblood’s left side, Jessie gets a momentary rest as the wizard moves around the bed. Her limbs fall limp as she gasps desperately, futilely trying to collect herself.

There’s nothing he could do to ease her pain. Marvin can see that. All he can do is offer support. Despite her previous resistance, Marvin reaches out and takes her cuffed hand in his. He sees her eyes flare, but she doesn’t look at him.

As Penny takes position on her right side and prepares to resume the ritual, Jessie’s trembling hand closes around his.

Her grip tightens, almost painfully, when the screaming resumes. Marvin places his other hand on top of hers. He holds firm even as she continues to flail against her torment. Towles grimaces at the shrieking sounds, but his grip never loosens. After a few minutes that feel like hours, Penny rises from the bedside. “Henry. I need your help now.”

With a quick straightening of his jacket, Henry turns back to the bed. He raised an eyebrow at Marvin’s presence as he steps up the bedside and pops his knuckles. “I’m ready.”

“Hang on, Jessica,” Penny says with surprising sincerity. “We’re almost there.”

Penny tosses Henry her notebook. He holds it up with one hand and holds the other out over Jessie, palm open. Retrieving the picture from the dresser, Penny pulls a lighter from her pocket.

She holds the picture over the bed. The time has come. She does not hesitate. Flame licks the corner of the picture. It curls as the flame spreads. Penny watches as the image of a young girl and her mother vanishes in her hand.

She drops the burning image within the circle. With a nod to Henry, she holds her hands out. The wizards begin to repeat words of power. Nothing happens at first, but after a few moments, an unnatural wind kicks up in the room.

Marvin holds on desperately as Jessie wildly twitches and convulses. Angry growls replace her painful screams. Her eyes roll back in her head and her torso repeatedly thrusts up from the mattress.

The wind swirls around the bed, kicking up the bone ash. Plumes circle the ritual in a dusty tornado.

Marvin whines as Jessie’s grip grows tighter and tighter. Jessie feels her heart pounding in her chest as if it’s going to burst out. Eyes wide, Marvin watches as she whips her head about snarling and snapping like a chained animal.

Finally, Marvin pries his hand away before she crushes it. Jessie closes her eyes tight and unleashes an ear-piercing scream, emptying the air from her lungs. When her eyes open, they are as dark as the deepest depths.

A thundering roar echoes through the halls of House Warwick.