‘You were a lot stronger before you met me young Dorothy, what weakened your judgment dear, my sad story, my sorrow?’
Feeling rage build inside of her, a defeat so simple the young girl holds back whatever tears she wants to shed and spits her words with venom, screaming, ‘You lying whore!’ The witch simply laughs, walking gently towards her guests as she smiles, pulling at the lion’s chain with an air of satisfaction:
‘Don’t bother fighting, you’re mine now, and this pitiful creature helped me. My little informer came straight to my side when you ‘unmasked’ the wizard, and without his help I wouldn’t have dared look inside Emerald city, let alone flood the streets with the Carnivorous, but I did. Though I suppose you’re to blame too Dorothy. Still, if your cowardly lion hadn’t betrayed you you’d have all gotten what you wanted from the lying wizard, and I’d have been none the wiser. He may have even sent you back to Kansas, but instead you’re here with me.’
Cowering his head the lion looks at Dorothy, sadly quivering his lips as he stutters, ‘S…so sorry Dorothy, she, she said she’d send me back to Mr, Mr Jack. I was so…so scared’.
Almost as if he’d broken her heart Dorothy looks at him emptily and abruptly the tin-man roars, the witch close enough to attack as he swings his axe in the air and runs at her. His tortured eyes filled with rage he’s ready to cut the witch in two, but as his blade descends Outika simply smirks and he’s defeated. Without warning his hands force open, each finger snapping backwards before his wrists shatter and his elbows collapse into themselves. His agony roars through the palace and he crashes to the floor as oil and blood pool around his body. Breathing heavily with a mechanical grunt he tries to stand but the witch forces him down, confining him to the ground as she smiles:
‘Don’t worry, flesh or metal I’ll fix you, then break you all over again.’
Crippling the metal monster without moving a limb the witch watches Dorothy and the scarecrow run to his side, quickly controlling their bodies with her magic. Holding Scarecrow to the ground she makes Dorothy walk backwards, and then holds her still. As she stands straight, Outika walks toward the frozen girl and leads the timid lion, pressing a gloved hand against her face. Dorothy’s attempt to move is useless, and Outika leans toward her, pressing her ruby red lips against the young girl’s ear. She gently whispers, ‘You have something I want,’ with satisfaction, then simply smiles to make her lose consciousness.
As time passes Outika leads the lion out of the palace into a rotten courtyard. The greenery’s dead and nothing grows, but still she chains him to the ground and points her hand to scattered pools of water. Smiling at him the beautiful witch shows her blackheart, caressing his forehead as she rewards, ‘You’re a good traitor, for that I won’t send you to Mr Jack…’
The lion looks up at her with a sudden hope, almost feeling relief in his stomach, but she cuts it away instantly: ‘Well not for a few days. You can stay here until then, but you’ll have to share with my pets.’ The fear bites at him as he looks at her face, begging, ‘P…please no,’ watching her leave. Scared he looks around, watching the pools of water as a nest of snakes slither from the depths, hissing at him as he cries pitifully.
Meanwhile, in a dungeon below the palace Dorothy wakes to the smell of burning coals as she opens her eyes to see nothing but darkness. Struggling to move she’s hung from the ceiling with chains, her confined hands hold the weight of her body and she feels them wrench, ache with pain. Trying to move her legs, pulling them she feels restraints around her ankles, shackling her to the floor but she refuses to scream. She hangs in the dark dungeon for an hour, awake with her eyes blindfolded; unsure of the time, or even where she is, as from nowhere Outika’s gentle voice unexpectedly lingers in her ear. ‘Do you know the population of Emerald city?’ the witch asks, and Dorothy refuses to speak, clenching her teeth tightly together as the witch continues:
‘Thousands…thousands of men, women and children, and you’re responsible. The lion may have helped me but I gave him no other choice, unlike you. I couldn’t have done it without you Dorothy; I wouldn’t have been freed from my prison. I owe you something for that, because there was a reason why Bopeia warned you not to come to the west. I’m a trickster and she knew you were naive enough to believe me…how does it feel to be responsible for the death of thousands?’
Dorothy breaks, her silence shattered as she shouts incoherently, condemning the witch as she simply smiles in response, letting the young girl’s throat wear itself out before she clicks a finger to silence her screams, whispering in the young girl’s ear again:
‘They didn’t die quickly either. The Carnivorous is a parasite, and although its touch is like acid it likes a warm place to nest, guess where? Then it takes the prey several agonising hours to be digested from inside out, and it leaves nothing but bones. But let’s talk about you, are you at all curious how little sweet Dorothy saved the evil witch? It’s because of your good little soul, and all you had to do was walk me out of this prison. You see the witches’ knew I could never create a good soul, find one in my land, nor could I force one to free me, but you Dorothy, you did it of your own free will. So for that I’ll give you a choice. I want those boots on your perfect feet, and if you give them to me I’ll send you home…but if you don’t, then I’ll torture you until you do…What will it be?’
Clicking her fingers the witch lets Dorothy talk and waits for a response, but the young girl doesn’t say a word. Instead she takes deep breaths, wondering why the witch wants the boots, why she can’t simply tear them from her feet. She wonders if they’re powerful in a witch’s hand, and the young girl knows she can’t let her have them, not at the thought of what she may do to Oz. Outika’s grim smile quickly fades and she threatens calmly, ‘Answer me or I will burn you!’ touching the young girl’s face delicately. Dorothy’s thoughts flood, everything she has suffered, all she’s been put through. Perhaps she’s not meant to go home she wonders, maybe she was never supposed to leave Oz.
Dorothy smiles mournfully, letting the tears run down her face, kissing her chance of going home on the lips and letting it go as the hope of seeing Kansas, uncle Henry and aunt Em slips away. Despite how selfish she could be Dorothy knows what she has to do, and as the tears stain her face she smiles, lets it stretch across her face as she groans, ‘Go to hell.’ Outika stares scornfully, smiling at the pain to come as she replies, ‘I’m sorry sweetie but this is hell, and you’re here with me.’
Dorothy screams, her agony sirens through the palace as the wretched witch thrusts a searing hot spike into her thigh, whispering delicately in her ear:
‘My land’s filled with tortured souls, welcome to the fold Dorothy!’
31
The next day Dorothy hangs restrained in her cell, but the witch doesn’t even enter the dungeon, instead she wanders through the palace, occasionally torturing the tin-man as she lets the girl starve, and her body dehydrate.
A day after Dorothy wakes to the smell of blood as she stretches her dangling body to feel the muscles sting. With her eyes still blindfolded she can’t tell if it’s day or night, and hungry and thirsty she licks at her lips as a voice sends shivers down her spine. ‘Awake are we,’ the witch says, running a finger along Dorothy’s body as her gentle voice presses through the air, whispering, ‘Shall I tell you what I’ve done to your friends?’ Dorothy tries to move, pulls at the chains in fear and her face cringing at the thought, as the witch watches her struggle. ‘Well…’ Outika says calmly, her voice as soft as velvet though her words like nails as she scrapes:
‘The tin-man is confined to a table, and yesterday I went to him and healed his wounds…then I slit his throat and burnt the thin metal from his skin. After letting him suffer through the night, I’ll heal him today, and then I’ll start again. But I can make it stop, if you give me the boots!’
Dorothy bares her teeth, grinding away at the enamel as she bites, ‘No,’ thinking of the poor Tin-man, wondering if he could ever
forgive her. Outika smiles, ‘Very well,’ and the young girl waits in silence, feeling her dress open at the back as it unfastens, and the witch’s voice lurks:
‘Do you like leeches, being scolded, whipped? You know, I could plant an insect in your stomach and let it burrow its way out…but let’s start gently first shall we.’
With her fingers pressed to the zip on Dorothy’s dress Outika spreads the fabric, unveiling the young girl’s bare back as she runs a finger along the soft skin, mouthing the word, ‘Fresh!’ Dorothy shivers, she doesn’t want to give in to the witch but she knows she’ll suffer for it, and so will her friends. Yet the thought of what Outika could do with Avatonika’s boots scares her, if she can slaughter a city without lifting a finger, how powerful would she become with something of another witch’s, and what would she do to Oz.
So Dorothy waits in the darkness, hearing nothing but footsteps and the twist of leather, feeling only cold air along her skin as she screams to the witch, ‘C’mon!’ Outika watches the young girl patiently, lets the anxiety build in her mind at the thought of what will come next. The witch makes her wait and hears her scream again, demanding Outika punish her to get it over with, but the cruel torturess watches her patiently. Expecting an attack at any moment, readying herself for it Dorothy taunts:
‘Lost your guts witch? I’ve suffered my world I can suffers yours…What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for?’
Yet the witch lets an hour pass, walking around the room so Dorothy knows she’s not alone, lets her scream, beg for the pain. Then finally, when the young girl’s energy’s gone and her throat’s raw the witch strikes, whipping Dorothy’s back with a cat o’ nine tails as her flesh tears open and she screams. Fingering at the knots on the tip of the whip Outika feels the metal wire she’d wound around each strand, admiring her work as she walks to the front of her prisoner. Dorothy shivers, her moaning lips open as she tries not to cry. Thrusting a small piece of wood into her mouth the witch gently offers:
‘I’ll be generous, bite on this and tell me when you’re ready to give in.’
Feeling the piece between her teeth Dorothy spits it out, cursing, ‘You’re wicked!’ but the witch smiles, pressing her ruby lips close to Dorothy’s ear as she whispers, ‘No darling, not wicked, evil.’
Then she lashes at young Dorothy thirty times, looking to the bloody skin, eventually bored at the girl’s determination as she hears her scream, still refusing to give in. Having punished her enough for now the witch speaks, leaving the room and gently letting her words murk in the dungeon as she suggests:
‘Give me the boots and there will be no-more pain… I’m going to visit your friends now, and I’ll be back with salt for your wounds.’
Leaving the girl, hearing her sobs echo in the distance Outika walks through the palace, smiling at how she almost feared Dorothy before, a simple child who killed the eastern witch and stole her boots. Now she’s a prisoner and all the witch has to do is make her take off the silver boots, then her power’s limitless and she’ll mould Dorothy into whatever she wants. The evil one smiles, proud of herself and free from the good witches’ curse. She’s already taken Emerald city, and the Carnivorous she’d planted through the land now wakes, ready to devour earth and life. Her happiness gleams at the agony and she looks through the courtyard gate, seeing the lion resting on his side. Cursing, ‘What have you done?’ the witch watches him stand, cowering backward as she looks at the dead snakes spread along the ground. The lion had been bitten many times, but despite the blood he lost and the attacks he suffered, when the beast eventually caught the snakes he tore them to pieces.
Outika clenches her fist, gazing into the lion’s dead eye as she opens the gate to hear a grumble from within the small pools. Looking at them hesitantly, scared of what will come next the lion whines and the witch smiles, cutting with, ‘If you manage to kill these, you’ll see Mr Jack much sooner,’ before leaving him alone with the unknown creatures.
Soon nightfall creeps over the palace, and after healing the tin-man’s wounds just to torture him again Outika returns to Dorothy. Entering the dungeon she can hear the young girl singing:
‘When I walked all alone I felt so scared, wanted to go home, When I walked all alone…’
Curiously asking, ‘What’s that?’ the witch locks the door behind her, looking to the confined girl as Dorothy hisses, ‘A lullaby, did your mother ever sing to you, or were you just hatched?’ Smiling at her the witch returns, ‘Feisty, I like that,’ as she reaches for her violin, tapping at Dorothy’s cheeks with the bow as she says, ‘You’re not sleeping tonight girl, I’ll make sure of that.’ Taking a seat the witch plays her violin, softly at first, gently enough to send Dorothy asleep as she rapidly scratches the strings, making the highest pitch possible as it screeches through the young girl’s ears. Shaking her head she begs, ‘Stop!’ feeling the deafening pitch stab at her skull, pulsing through her veins as she screams.
Despite the pain, the torture of starvation and the piercing sound, Dorothy doesn’t give in, not even as the witch scars her skin when she drifts asleep, depriving her of unconsciousness.
32
With the morning sun shining onto the palace Outika looks to Dorothy, shaking as she mutters to herself.
The young girl hasn’t eaten or drunk a drop of water for days and the dehydration sets in as she twitches her chapped lips, murmuring to a hallucination as the witch opens a window in the dungeon. She tears away Dorothy’s blindfold and the young girl screams, taking the light into her eyes after days of darkness as she focuses on the beautiful witch. Smiling at the weakened girl, Outika whispers, ‘Shall I show you what I’ve done to Scarecrow?’ as she points outside. Unable to focus at first, wondering if it’s all just a hallucination Dorothy squints her eyes, looking out to the yellow canyon as she screams, seeing the scarecrow nailed to a cross as crows swarm around him. The young girl struggles, tries to free herself as she watches her friend, begging for the witch to stop, but Outika gently whispers, ‘Only you can stop it.’
Scarecrow screams, ‘Please stop, please stop!’ as the winged creatures hack at his insides with their beaks, pulling away straw from his body as Dorothy closes her eyes. The young girl cries, moistening her dry skin as Outika places a hand on her face, ‘If you close your eyes I will cut them out next, understand?’ Dorothy’s lip quivers and the witch simply clicks a finger to force her eyes open, making her watch her friend’s suffering. The scarecrow can see her through the window and calls, ‘Dorothy, Dorothy!’ as the crows pull away his skin, gnawing at his bones and eventually trying to peck away his eyes. The young girl sobs as she watches Scarecrow suffer, hearing him scream as they gnaw at his buttons, pulling one loose and unravelling the stitching throughout his body. The witch whispers, ‘You can stop his torment, just give me the boots,’ and the torn Dorothy screeches, ‘I’ll rot first!’ as Outika smiles, ‘Then so will the poor scarecrow!’
Trying to close her eyes Dorothy’s forced to watch Scarecrow suffer, and as the crows pick at his body, disembowelling the tortured soul they peck away at both of his eyes, tearing away the string so his buttons fall to the floor. Blind, the scarecrow screams, ‘My buttons. No, no not my buttons. Dorothy… Dorothy!’ as he begs for help, unable to save himself. The cruel witch looks at the crows, making them fly away with a simple suggestion as she whispers, ‘We’ll have to save some for tomorrow won’t we!’ Looking out at her tragic friend the young girl stares at his open body, the straw blowing away with the slight breeze as he calls out curiously, ‘Dorothy I can’t see… I can’t see Dorothy.’ Feeling the tears stain her face she screams, suffering the witch’s evil wrath as Outika laughs, gently placing a hand on the young girl's eyes as she makes her fall asleep.
Waking to the sounds of agony Dorothy opens her worn eyes, feeling them almost glued with dry tears as she feels her body pressed against a cold stone floor. Struggling to swallow she feels her dry face ache and looks to the tin-man to see blood and oi
l spread along his body. His legs are broken, the metal’s been pulled from his skin and his thick bear-trap jaw’s torn completely from his face. Struggling to move her body the weak Dorothy looks to the scars cut into her wrists from the shackles, and her legs shake as she stands, frailly leaning against a wall as she walks to the tin-man.
She wipes a shaking hand across her face as she tenses her limbs, trying to get the feeling back in them as she staggers to the metal table. With her sight fading and her mind adrift she touches at her friends face, looking down at his mangled body as tortured eyes stare back at her. She’s barely able to utter, ‘What has she done to you?’ as the tin-man roars in agony. Abruptly his wounds heal, snapping back into place and cutting deeper into his defeated skin as Dorothy turns to see the witch. Gazing into the young girl’s eyes Outika looks at her weakened body, making the tin-man scream with her magic as she softly thrashes:
‘How long has it been Dorothy, without water, food, two days…well I assure you, you should die without it soon enough, but I won’t let you. I’ll feed you to make you stronger then starve you again, torturing you and your friends until I get what I want, but for now I’ll just kill the tin-man.’
As the witch stretches her arms the young girl looks around, the room filled with jars of thick black liquid, resting on shelves and waiting to consume. She trembles slightly, looking at the contained pieces of the Carnivorous as they wriggle within the glass, whipping their bodies like tentacles as the witch leers:
Dorothy: The Darker Side of OZ v5 Page 22
