Shadowcloud

by L'Espion

 

Chapter 5  Rebirth

 

“Mmmmpphh!” Shadowcloud screamed into the gag.  She was in fierce agony.  Her shoulder joints were slowly being torn from their sockets by her own body weight, and her breathing was laboured as she attempted to suck air into her lungs while suspended in the unnatural position.  But it was the excruciating anguish of the monstrous dildo that had her shrieking in agony.  The pain was savage beyond imagining.  Just as it must have been for Astra. 

 

That thought surprised her.  Somehow Astra had survived what had been done to her.  But why should she care about that?  The bitch had it coming.  And once she got free of this predicament she would make the twat pay with her life.

 

Her thoughts were wrenched back to the present by another surge of pain.  She screamed again and then fought for control.  Panting with the pain and physical strain of her brutal bondage she tried to focus beyond the physical torment.  There must be a way out of this.  There must be.  If not she would die.  And die most horribly as the huge dildo rammed itself deeper and deeper and her body underwent complete physical collapse.  Already she could feel the increasing pain as her blood began to pool in her lower extremities.  Sooner or later it would kill her. 

 

“Uuuunnnghh!” She settled a little lower on the dildo, the sudden burst of pain jolting her temporarily back to reality.  “What is happening to me?” she thought.  Her mind was no longer functioning properly.  “Must have blacked out,” she mused.  She could no longer concentrate.  But that meant death.  She had to stay awake.  Had to attempt to find a way out of her terrifying predicament.   

 

“Mmmpphh!” The muffled scream was ripped out of her involuntarily.  She had slipped a bit farther onto the dildo.  There wasn’t much left of the ice blocks now.  The cold of the melting ice had numbed her legs to the knee, but the agony of the giant dildo more than compensated for any other pain that the ice masked.  It was like having a truck rammed into her.  At least that was the image that was conjured in her mind.

 

“Astra,” she thought.  “You bitch.  You’ll die for this.”

 

“Uunngghh!” The ice was almost gone now.  Only the failing strength of her arms was preventing her from being fully impaled.  But she couldn’t hold out much longer.  With every once of her failing strength she fought to survive.  Sweat mixed with the bloody welts on her back.  Her body shuddered under the strain.  And then she let go.

 

“MMMPPPHH!”  Dark spots whirled in front of her eyes.  Her vision failed.  And then she slipped into a more peaceful reality.

 

 

“How soon?” asked a distant voice. 

 

“Hard to say.  It’s surprising she is still alive considering what was done to her.”

 

Shadowcloud tried to open her eyes, but they wouldn’t cooperate.  The voices continued; one male and one female.

 

“How long has she been like this?” the male voice asked.

 

“Ever since she was found,” the female voice answered.  “Sometimes the body does things like that.  It is a way of escaping pain and reality.  What was done to her was horrible.  The pain and shock must have been almost unbelievable.”

 

“Right.  It’s a damned good thing for her that the water from the melting ice soaked through the roof of the apartment below her and the tenants called the building superintendent.  A little longer and she’d have been nothing more than a hanging corpse.”

 

Shadowcloud groaned.  She had to find out what was going on.  She forced her eyes open.

 

The first person she saw was a dark-haired rather attractive woman in a green smock holding a clipboard.  Standing next to her was a tall wavy-haired man wearing a cheap suit.  “Doctor and cop,” she thought, instantly identifying them.

 

The woman leaned forward.  “Hello Maeve,” she said.  “Try to relax.  You’ve been through a brutal ordeal.”

 

She moved back a little and then spoke again.  “I’m Doctor Ravens.  You’ve made a marvelous recovery, but still need a bit more time to heal.  Don’t try to talk just yet.”

 

Shadowcloud ignored the last instruction, forcing herself to speak.  He mouth felt as if it had been stuffed full of sand.  “How long have I been here and what is he doing here?”  she rasped, her gaze fixed on the sandy-haired man.

 

“That’s Detective Sergeant Miles,” answered Ravens.  “He’s investigating your case.  You were quite brutally attacked.”  She changed the subject.  “Are you in any pain?  If so I can get you some medication.”

 

Shadowcloud shook her head.  The last thing she needed was to be put back to sleep.  How long had she been unconscious?  “You didn’t answer my first question.  How long have I been here?”

 

“A week.  You were in a coma when you were brought in.  Your prognosis wasn’t good, but you have recovered amazingly.”

 

“May I ask a question?” Miles interjected.

 

“Perhaps just one, sergeant.  Miss Knight needs to rest.”

 

Miles nodded.  “Who did this thing to you, Miss Knight?  If you can give me any information at all it would greatly help the investigation.”

 

Shadowcloud shook her head.  “Good,” she thought.  They didn’t know who she was.  They knew only her Maeve Knight identity. 

 

She replied to Miles’ question, speaking in a low voice.  She was surprised at how difficult it was to speak.  It must have been all that screaming when she was being tortured.  “I don’t remember anything.  It all seems like a bad dream.  Everything is so fuzzy.”

 

“Do you have any idea who might want to hurt you?” Miles asked.

 

“That’s two questions, sergeant,” Ravens interrupted.  “I don’t want you exhausting her.  She needs rest and something more than IV nutrition.  Come back tomorrow.  She’ll be better able to answer your questions then.”

 

Miles frowned, but nodded.  “Thank you, doctor,” Shadowcloud thought.  She didn’t intend to tell Miles anything.  She would take care of Astra by herself. 

 

 

Miles came back the next day, but Shadowcloud maintained her pretended memory loss.  Ravens proved to be more of a problem than the police, however.

 

“I’ve never seen anyone recover from injuries the way you have,” the doctor said.  “You came in here close to death and in less than two weeks you have almost completely recovered.  There isn’t even any scarring.  That isn’t normal.  Have you always been able to do that?”

 

“I don’t know,” Shadowcloud lied.  “I’ve never been injured before except for a few childhood scrapes and bruises.  Maybe I’m just a fast healer.”

 

She shifted uncomfortably. She was sitting up in bed, a tray of food in front of her.  Healing always used up a great deal of her body’s reserves.  She had to eat to restore them.  She also had to get out of the hospital before the nosy doctor learned too much about her. 

 

“There’s something else,” Ravens said.  “You have a number of physical anomalies.  Your eyes have vertical irises like those of a cat.  And your fingernails appear to be retractable claws.  Can you tell me anything about that?”

 

“I’m going to have to kill her,” Shadowcloud thought.  “She’s too damned smart.”

 

“I’ve always been like that,” Shadowcloud replied.  “I guess I’m just a freak of nature.  Now if you don’t mind, all these questions are making me tired.”  She lay back on the pillow and closed her eyes, ending the conversation. 

 

“Alright,” Ravens said.  “Perhaps when you’ve recovered a bit more.”

 

Shadowcloud thought the situation over.  Ravens clearly understood that there was something very unusual about her patient.  The question was did anyone else know about her?  Ravens was a competent physician.  It seemed logical that she would have recorded all of her observations and probably spoken to other members of the staff about them.  If that was the case then killing her would not solve the problem.  As a matter of fact it might serve to draw unnecessary attention to the situation. 

 

“Damn Astra,” Shadowcloud thought.  This was all her fault.  Not only had the blonde bitch humiliated and brutalized her, but she had as good as exposed who she was.  It was no longer safe to operate in the city.  She would have to change locations.  But before she went she would have to destroy any records that hinted at her enhanced physical abilities. 

 

She would have to act fast before Doctor Ravens gathered any more data.  It would have to be tonight.

 

 

“That was simple,” Shadowcloud thought as she entered her apartment.  Hospital security wasn’t up to much.  It had taken her very little time to get out of her room.  It was watched by a security guard as she had guessed, but the guard never expected her to exit through the window of her room.  Once out she had purloined a set of hospital fatigues and an identity card.  It wasn’t a proper card, but no one seemed to notice. 

 

Breaking into the room in the hospital where the patient records were kept was equally easy.  She had found her file quite easily.  She suspected, however, that there was probably information about her on the hospital computer.  That had been a little more difficult.  It had taken her a bit more time to crack into the hospital server and locate the patient files.  She had managed to do it by accessing her own computer from the terminal in the records office and running a code to crack the hospital’s password.  After that it was a simple matter to find her file and remove it. 

 

Actually she removed a lot of files.  That way she would not necessarily be pinpointed as a suspect.  She did the same with the hard copies in the office, loading up several hundred folders and carting them off to the hospital incinerator.  No one stopped her.  It was amazing how trustful people were when she wore the appropriate attire. 

 

Now for her apartment.  There was a lot here that she had sweated hard to get.  It represented dozens of crimes over the course of several years.  But it would all have to go.  With a few rare exceptions.  She would take the Picasso; and the Matisse.  They were irreplaceable.  But the rest was commonplace.  It was just stuff after all. 

 

She would have to leave the city.  But she already had a new home in mind.  The largest city in the country.  Grande Capital.  Fifteen million people.  Many of them wealthy beyond what they needed.  Well, she would help out with that.  There was just one more little matter to attend to.  Astra.  She had a score to settle there.  She hoped the bitch wasn’t too hard to find.  It was time for Shadowcloud to disappear and then be reborn.  It was an event that she was looking forward to.

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