Haunted by the Past

Doing his Worst

He locked me up in a cage for one day before he came to me. Maybe that was part of the torture. Maybe he meant to try to drive me crazy by making me wonder what he would do to me. By having me imagine what he could do to me. In truth, I needed that time to set my mind straight. Last morning I had almost given up after Henry shot Diaval out of the sky. But I couldn't give up, not when I promised Aurora I would try to get back to her. "Good morning, Maleficent," he said happily. A little too happily. "Not really," I replied. "Oh, no no, but it is. It's a great morning, really. And I promise we will entertain you greatly today." "How, are you going to hang yourself?" Henry didn't seem taken aback by my suggestion that he should go kill himself. "Let's get you out of that cage first, shall we? Guards!" Two guards came walking over. One of them carried chains. The other carried a set of keys. They opened my cage and chained me. The chains they used were made of iron, of course. And they burned against my wrists, ankles and my neck. "Don't look so glum, Maleficent," Henry said. "The fun is only just beginning."

Henry had his guards drag me to the second biggest tent of his camp. There he joined me again, to my great displeasure. "Good to see you here. If you don't mind, I took the time to change my clothes. You see, blood is so hard to get out of linen and cotton. So I thought leather might be better suited for this job." I looked around the tent, mostly so I didn't have to look at him. "Ah, are you admiring my toys?" He asked me. "They're beautiful, aren't they?" His toys were far from beautiful, in fact, they weren't even toys at all. The walls were covered in knives, whips, pliers, prongs and thing I didn't even know the names of. "Hmm... what shall I do to you today," Henry mused as he looked over the wall. "Ah, yes, that should do. In fact, I think it's perfect to start with." He grabbed a leather strap, with two iron two pronged forks sticking out of it on two sides. "Guard, take that shackle off of her neck and replace it with this, please." The guard dis as he was told, and soon I found myself with my head tilted backwards with both of the "forks" poking into my flesh. One right under my chin, the other on my chest, near my collarbones. "Hmm, that looks surprisingly pleasing," Henry said as he looked me over. "Hmm... surprisingly pleasing indeed..." Then he turned to his guards, "Get four more men and hold down her wings. That way I can reach her back." One of the guards took off, probably to get those four men he talked about. The other stayed with us, holding my chains, while Henry looked over his walls, apparently looking at the whips hanging from it. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun," he whispered.

Eventually the other guard came back with four more man. Henry watched them, a smile on his face, as they tried to pry my wings open and pull them down so my back would be bare. Even with the six of them it took them a long time to pry them open. Unfortunately, getting them down and keeping them down was a lot easier for them, since they decided to just sit on my wings. I could feel my wings break under their weight and I almost cried out in pain. Almost. Henry seemed delighted, it was clear that he could see the pain on my face. "Thank you, gentlemen," he said to the guards who had so ungraciously sat down on my wings. "Now, please try not to get whipped. I don't want to hurt my friends." "Didn't know you had any of those," I told him. However, talking was a mistake, I could feel the iron piercing my flesh under my chin and on my chest. I could feel a drop of blood slowly trickling down my throat. Henry smiled at me, "Maybe you should leave the clever remarks for later... Hmm? Would be less... painful to you. Of course I wouldn't mind about that at all." He walked around me a few times, as if to fully take me in. "Hmm, yes, very nice." Then he stopped as he stood behind me. "The clothes you chose to put on yesterday turn out to be... very convenient for what I have planned. Isn't it funny when things align perfectly like that?" I didn't find it funny, at all, but I didn't answer him. "Well, let's get started."

The whip landed on my back. At first there was only a dull stinging sensation, which was already quite painful, but then, when he took the whip off my back, the spot where he had hit me started to burn. I barely had time to process the pain, for the whip hit me again, and just as quickly as it had hit me, it was gone again. I could feel the iron prods poking into my skin again, and more blood seemed to be tricking down my throat. This time I could also feel some blood trickling down my chest. I tried to calm my breathing and I tried to tilt my head back, but the pain of the whip hitting me on my shoulder made both of those tasks impossible. He hit me again, near the base of one of my wings and I swear I could feel my skin splitting open. I could feel blood starting to go down my back. The whip hit me again, and again and again. Tears started to well up in my eyes, I tried to not let them fall, to blink them back but the whip hit me again and I could feel them streaming down my face. "Come on, Maleficent. It's no fun when you're this quiet, now is it?" I didn't answer him, speaking would be too painful. "Is it?" The whip hit my back again, even harder this time. He let it rest there for a while. Long enough for me to feel the wounds sting and burn. "Hmm... you're hard to break, huh? Guess we'll just have to change it up a little then."