Chapter 7: Chapter 6: Die Happy

Xenia had returned to her hotel famished. She sat alone in the hotel’s restaurant waiting for her food as she sipped a glass of red wine.

The waiter approached Xenia and addressed her, “Princess BloodStar, we are pleased to serve an individual of your stature and as such the head chef is personally working on your dish to see that it is perfect in every way. May I bring you anything during your short wait?”

Xenia took a sip of her red wine and then said, “This wine is simply to die for. Can you please have the rest of the bottle sent to my room for later? That will be all until the food arrives, thank you.”

The waiter nodded and assured her, “The bottle will be in your room within minutes. I shall take it myself.”

After speeding away, Nero entered through the double door entrance of the restaurant. His huge frame made the large doorway seem otherwise small by comparison. He approached Xenia and said, “Mr. Jenkins has returned with your vehicle, Princess. He would like to discuss the schedule for tomorrow morning.”

Xenia swirled her wine in the glass before saying, “Inform Mr. Jenkins he is to pick me up at 10 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning. He can keep the car for the night.”

Nero nodded and turned to leave; however, Xenia called out to him, “Oh and Nero darling! Please ready the prisoner in my room for me. I think I’d like to speak with him before the gala. I have a bit of time before I need to get ready, don’t I?”

Nero checked his watch and said, “Yes, the first guests won’t arrive for two hours.”

Xenia smiled, “Perfect! I will head up soon then.”

As Nero left the hotel restaurant, the waiter came rushing out of the kitchen with Xenia’s hot plate of food. He proudly placed the plate down in front of Xenia and removed the lid revealing a perfectly cooked and seasoned filet mignon.

He announced, “For the Princess, a filet mignon from the nation’s finest stock. Cooked perfectly rare at the lady’s request. With a side of mashed potatoes and carrot. Bon Appetit!”

Xenia smiled politely saying, “Thank you for the wonderful meal. The dish presentation has left me speechless.”

The waiter bowed, “If you need anything. Anything at all. Do not hesitate to call for me. I am at your service Princess.”

The waiter took his leave as Xenia picked up her knife and fork to begin eating. She cut in to the tender steak with a red-pink center and took her first bite. As she chewed, she struggled to maintain a face of pleasure as she thought to herself, “The flavor of this meat is inedible. Horrendous. Absolutely sickening.”

She politely choked her small bite down her throat before ringing the waiter back over. As he approached, she called out, “I believe I will finish this in my room. Can you please have it sent up at once?”

The waiter was much obliged and packaged it up before running it up to her room himself. As he departed, he assured her, “Your wine and meal will be waiting for you when you arrive.”

She smiled and said, “Truly 5-star service. Thank you for attending to me with grace.”

Xenia sat for a moment with her arms crossed thinking to herself, “One day. I’ve been here for one day, and I am already exhausted of this place. But… the day isn’t yet over.” She smiled to herself as she began to make her way up to her penthouse suite.

Nero was waiting for her outside of her room. As she approached, he greeted her, “Your private penthouse is through this door, Princess. Across the hall is a meeting room that has been carefully setup to your specifications for the prisoner. This entire floor is sound-proofed, electromagnetic-proof, and proofed in all ways known to our empire by way of ki interference and traditional technologies. You may do as you please with no risk of outside spying.”

She had smiled many times since her arrival; however, upon hearing Nero’s words, she had her first genuine heartfelt smile of the day. She said, “Nero, I am going to change and then I will be right out to meet with our prisoner. While I am on this floor, I want zero interruptions. I don’t care if Empress Victoria herself shows up to see me. You will tell her and anyone else that I am otherwise occupied until the gala starts.”

Nero nodded, “It will be done. I stake my life on it.”

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Xenia entered the makeshift interrogation room after changing out of her red dress for the day. She now donned black leather leggings, a tight-fitting double-breasted black leather top with gold buttons fastening one side of the front as well as gold buttons adorning her long-sleeved cuffs. She also wore black leather boots and black leather gloves with her hair now in a ponytail.

This outfit was more becoming of her as she considered the all-black leather outfit to be her military uniform. Within the empire, this was the people’s image of their beloved General BloodStar.

The prisoner faced away from the entrance of the room and could only hear the step of her heavy boots as she approached. He was shirtless and splayed out on a wooden ‘X’ with his arms, legs, waist, and neck fastened tightly to the wooden structure.

She walked in front of him and smiled, “You have no idea how happy you’ve made me. This country is so boring. Everyone is repressed from their primal instincts.” She walked closer to him and ran her leather gloves down his chest and abdomen as she continued, “But me… I have urges. I have violent urges. And you are here to give me my release.”

Xenia backed away and turned around to inspect the table behind her fully outfitted with knives, whips, riding crops, vials of liquids, and more. The prisoner yelled at her back, “I may have failed but Ashrok will not! You are as good as dead!”

Xenia ran her gloves over a leather bull whip and picked it up, letting the tail fall to the ground as she held the grip tightly. She said, “I’m not here to interrogate you. I’m here to have fun with you.”

The prisoner was caught off guard and slightly confused. He continued, “You think you know the truth, huh?! You think my pistol was a second-hand weapon from the Ru-Shai-Ra, but it wasn’t. I saw Wraith Ashrok imbue that very bullet himself with his Nightmare Ki, and it was the real deal.”

Xenia gave him a sinister smile and said, “I do know the truth. The ki surrounding that bullet was identical to Ashrok’s ki. Furthermore, it had zero degeneration in its ki architecture. The ki was alive and vibrant, freshly constructed and crafted. It’s almost as if… you’re the one who does not know the truth.”

He lashed out at her once more saying, “You’re as good as dead when he comes for you! And my only wish is to be alive to see it when it happens!”

Xenia walked closer to the prisoner again and surprised him as she pushed her body up against his sensually. He could feel her toned body underneath her leather outfit, and he could feel the smooth leather as she pushed her big boobs up against his chest. She said, “Come now, that can’t be your only wish.”

She then kissed him on the lips for several seconds before pushing herself away and moaning. She laughed and said, “Don’t you wish to die at the hands of a sexy, ruthless girl like me?”

He couldn’t deny she was ever so seductive and beautiful, but he managed to wrestle his mind away from the sensual kiss he just experienced, “Your day will come Princess BloodStar. I will die happy knowing that.”

She crossed her arms underneath her chest, “Die happy? Oh no no no. I will make sure you die in sorrow and in pain tonight.”

He smiled and said, “You’re bluffing. If you kill me tonight, the Americans will surely come for you.” He gave a soft laugh to himself as he watched her knowing that he was untouchable until the Americans had their turn with him.

However, to his genuine surprise, she gripped her whip and slashed it across his chest without hesitation creating a slash mark from his upper left shoulder down to his lower right abdomen. He cried out in pain and grinded his teeth as the pain was almost unbearable.

She stopped after the first lash and said, “Do you think the Americans can tell me what to do? I am the heir to the most powerful Empire the world has ever seen. I am destined to be even greater than my mother, Empress Victoria. You are sorely mistaken if you think the specter of the Americans will save you.” She then took the whip in hand and began to angrily lash at him over and over.

She suddenly stopped as she said to herself, “Oh. I nearly forgot. The wine and meat in this country are simply detestable. You won’t mind if I prepare a small meal for myself while I’m here?”

She placed the whip on the table and grabbed a large hunting knife with a razor-sharp blade. She then took her wine glass from earlier in the night and placed it below the prisoner. She ran her leather gloves along his abdomen and around his side as she walked behind him.

She pulled up a stool and said, “Now you focus on dying happy while I harvest the most tender meat the human body has to offer.”

She took her knife and began to peel the skin off of his lower back. He writhed and struggled from the intense pain, but he was fastened much too tight to make any meaningful movements away from the pain. She slowly and painstakingly flayed the skin off of his entire lower back revealing a layer of thin fat with underlying muscle. She licked the blood off of her pointer finger and moaned, “Finally, a proper meal.”

Once the skin was removed, she said, “The tenderloin of the human body has always been the soft peri- and para-spinal muscles. Of course, there is some debate, but these cuts have always been my favorite.”

She took her knife once more in hand and began to carve out his muscles. He could feel every single muscle fiber as it was cut. Every single nerve as it was severed. And every single tendon as it gave way to the blade. The pain was exquisite, and he yelled at the top of his lungs only fueling her enjoyment more.

The blood from her carvings dripped aimlessly below, much of it falling into the positioned wine glass as the glass soon became brimming with blood.

She was an expert with the knife, and flawlessly carved out the muscle from the surrounding fascia and neurovascular bundles innervating it. After a few minutes, she had several strips of tender meat. She placed the meat as well as the brimming full wine glass on the table with the other items. She then turned to him and said, “Now tell me, are you still dying happy?”

The prisoner could hardly speak through the pain. His entire chest was pulsating from the whiplashes and his back had literally been carved out.

She once again took her whip in hand and began to violently lash at his chest time after time. After thirty lashes, the prisoner’s chest was largely devoid of skin with exposed soft tissue and blood replacing it.

She laughed and said, “My, you are a tough one. Maybe I should heal you, so we can do this all over again some time. I could even take you back with me to the BloodStar Empire. We could have lots of fun. I’m always in need of a lesser being to satiate my needs.”

He hadn’t considered the possibility of eternal torture due to her healing talents, and it gave him a panic which brought enough energy to plead with her. He began to plead to her, “Please no. Just… Just kill me. Please. I beg you to just kill me.”

Without answering, she took the whip in hand and lashed it at him one more time across his face. The slash went diagonally across his face rupturing one of his eye balls. She placed the whip back on the table and grabbed her large knife.

She walked closer to him once more and began to kiss him on the lips. She moaned as she could taste the blood running down his face as she kissed him. She gripped the back of his head with one hand and held the knife up to his abdomen with the other as she said, “If I am to kill you, you’re not going to die happy, are you?”

The prisoner shook his head and said, “No.”

She stabbed the knife into his gut and said, “It’s ‘No, General Xenia’!” She pulled the large knife out, and she then immediately healed the stab wound with her ki aura, and said, “You are going to die in pain, nod yes.”

The prisoner nodded and said, “Yes, General Xenia.”

She stabbed him in the gut once more and yelled, “Look me in the eye when you speak to me!” The prisoner could hardly bare the pain of the stab wound. He managed to fight through the pain to look her in the eye though. She stroked his face and said, “Good boy.” She then healed his wound once more quickly.

She resumed kissing him and managed to say in between kisses, “You’ve done so well. I think you’ve earned death as a reward. Tell me how you would like to die.” She stopped kissing him and listened intently for his answer.

He looked into her eyes and said, “Thank you General Xenia. I- uh- I would- umm-.” The prisoner’s mind ran as he considered her question; however, he wasn’t prepared to decide the method of his own death on such short notice and fell into a stuttering loop.

She smiled at his indecision and said, “Shhh. I’ll decide then.” She then pushed his head into her kiss as she began to ravenously make out with him. For Xenia, there was no greater pleasure than violence and killing.

She then took her knife as they kissed and began to stab him quickly over and over in the abdomen. The wounds were shallow inflicting as much pain as possible without causing fatal wounds.

She looked him in the eyes and said, “Are you sure you don’t want to come back with me? We could have fun like this every night.”

He could barely lift his eyes but managed to look up at her as he whispered, “Kill me.”

She kissed him one last time as she ever so slowly inserted the large blade deeply into his abdomen. She then let out a loud moan and tore the blade upwards slicing open his entire abdomen open as his intestines fell to the ground.

She walked back to the table and placed the knife upon it biting her lip in pleasure. She turned around and ran her hands over her aroused body as she watched and enjoyed every last second of life slowly drain from his eyes.