dot.

10: Aftermath

Nimue pov

  "Tiro, this is too much."

  She stared down at the feeble creature, barely able to hold his own head up. Straggling tendrils of muscle clung to his leg like an infestation of squirming worms, the dried blood underneath them a dull, dark red.

  Nimue was so furious at the man that she grabbed his head, pulled it towards her, and slapped him across the face as hard as she could. "This isn't even an experiment, Tiro. If you keep doing these things I will fire you."

  It was a pathetic bluff, and he knew it. She couldn't fire him- he was the only assistant that she could be completely sure wouldn't leave or betray her. And besides, he took care of the ones that did try to run.

  She took hold of a needle and some of the clear liquid, injecting a healthy dose into Dot's leg before standing back and observing how it fixed itself. Luckily, although the wounds were gruesome, they weren't too severe and healed relatively well. The only parts of his leg that struggled to repair themselves were the foot, where Tiro had scraped down to the bone, and deep inside the calf, where he had dislodged a tendon.

  "Tiro..." The woman was so furious that words escaped her.

  He had no right to do this to him. Dot was hers. She owned him, and what happened to him was her choice to make. It should be, anyway.

  Nimue silently knelt down next to the hybrid and began to stitch some of the loose skin back together with a needle and thread she had in her chest pocket. Tiro watched in an equal quietness, feeling nervous of what would happen to him. He had gone too far, he knew that- but it had just been so fun.

  Once she was finished stitching, she injected another half-dose of the liquid into his system to help the leg heal a little more. Then she turned to Tiro, and spoke in a chirpy falsetto to him: "I need you to come with me now, please."

  She radiated fury, and could tell that she was worrying Tiro more and more with every step they took.

  "Come in here."

  The pair walked into an empty white room, and she locked the door behind them.

  "I can't let you keep doing this." She repeated, watching as the man shrunk under her gaze. "We use him for experiments and trials, not for personal enjoyment."

  "I know." Tiro mumbled, keeping his head hung low.

  "If you know, then why do you keep doing it?"

  He shrugged and shifted his feet, nervous as a scolded schoolboy.

  Nimue sighed and unlocked the door before telling him to wait here and walking out. She relocked it, turned back down the corridor and hurried back to Dot.

  While they had been gone, his leg seemed to have patched itself up nicely. However, there was no improvement in his ability to move or register her walking in- so she worried about what mental damage he may have sustained.

  Gently, she gathered him up into her arms and carried him back to his room. She hadn't held him like this since he was very young, so it was a nice throwback to the past.

  Once she reached the room, Felix practically jumped on her in his concern.

  "What's wrong with him? What happened?"

  "Tiro made a mistake, and will be punished accordingly." She lowered Dot down to the floor and instructed Felix to hold him until he showed signs of recovery, shushing his other questions before returning to Tiro.

  The man was right where she had left him, still shifting his feet in shame. At the moment, just looking at him filled her with an immeasurable fury, so she brought her hand down onto his cheek with a hard slap.

  The sound resonated around the room, bouncing off of the walls and back towards the pair. Tiro didn't react to the pain, earning him another hit- and another, and another.

  She slapped him again and again until his cheeks shone a blistering red and tears streamed from his eyes, a trail of snot and blood snaking out from his nose. "I'm sorry-" He mumbled, only to be cut off as she kicked him in the stomach, making him fall to the floor and curl up into a ball.

  Nimue was kicking him now, determined to get the message through. Dot was hers; she got to decide what happened to him, not Tiro.

  He was crying pathetically on the floor, desperately trying to cover his face and protect himself. She had half a mind to take a knife to him, but knew that would be too far. She was trying to teach him a lesson, not kill him.

  Eventually, the rage inside her had subsided and she took a step back from him.

  He was patterned with blood and bruises, still sobbing feeble tears while curled up. She knelt down next to him and grabbed his hair, forcing his head upwards to look at her.

  "You are not to do things I do not approve of. Do you understand?" She glared at him while she spoke, daring him to disobey.

  He nodded weakly and she released him, smashing his face into the floor one last time before exiting the room and going back towards Dot. Had he recovered yet?

  When she entered Dot's room, the scene was almost identical to how she had left it. Felix was gently cradling her hybrid, carefully monitoring him to check if he was okay.

  "Any improvement?" She questioned.

  "Not yet- his breathing is more stable though."

  "That's good."

  Felix peered up at her, doe eyes full of anxiety. "What happened to him?"

  She raked her hand through her hair and sighed. "That's not something you need to kn-"

  "You have blood on your hand." Felix interrupted her. She glanced down at her hand, seeing the streaks of red that patterned it.

  "So I do."