All That's Left to Hold, ;; Mike

[Roxy Stone]

She should have known coming into this that it wasn't going to go well for her. Between how terrible her temper could be and what she already knew about Selma, it shouldn't have been too surprising that that Selma was going to push her buttons. Hell, she physically tortured Julian until he almost died, pushing her buttons a little bit would be a walk in the park. If only Roxy could get a handle on things and not let her anger and frustrations get the best of her.

And she was trying really hard not to get upset. But Selma seemed to know just how to piss her off. She'd taunted her, asking what she would do if she did take Julian from the hospital, but Roxy wasn't going to play games. She wanted answers, not the BS that Selma was trying to feed her right now. And even though she was starting to lose her cool, Selma was still skirting around her questions. This was probably going exactly how Selma wanted it to go, and there was nothing Roxy could do about it.

She stood there squeezing her fists even tighter as Selma went on about Julian and how it hurt Roxy to care so much. She clenched her jaw, resisting any urge to interrupt the woman until she was done with her little speech, finally giving Roxy the chance to give Selma her own opinion on the matter. "You don't know shit about Julian and I's friendship. In fact, I bet you don't know shit about friendship at all. I imagine someone as old and bitter as you are can't have many friends. Why would someone want to be friends with someone like you...you're probably not even capable of caring about someone. Yet you're going to sit there and lecture me about how much it hurts to care? If you want the truth? Yes, it fucking hurts...but just because it hurts doesn't mean I'll ever stop caring about Julian, even if he doesn't know just how much I care."

[Selma]

So Roxy wasn't here to play games. So what? Maybe Selma liked to play games, and maybe she did not care about why Roxy was here. She did not care about Julian, that was for certain. And what a pity for Mike that he could not kill Julian, so Julian was now alive - and might hate Mike once he showed up again. People who did not die did have a tendency to show up again sometime. Selma knew that. But enough about that, maybe Selma did not care about Julian, or even Roxy. But she did care about taunting and mocking other people. Torture could be done physically... but also mentally.

Roxy was already so tense, and Selma's little speech did not seem to help much. Selma easily ignored Roxy's claim of not wanting to play games, ignored her question and began speaking about how men hurt you because you cared about them. Selma glanced to Roxy's fists as the mortal seemed to squeeze them even tighter. Would her nails dig into her skin soon, make her bleed? Selma hoped it would happen. Then Selma was done and let Roxy talk. The words flew over her head easily. No, she knew did not know much about friendship. And why would she care if she had friends or not?

She tilted her head, "Do you want to know why I don't have friends? Because I don't want them. Caring means pain... to the one who cares." If she did not care, she would not be hurt. That's the conclusion she'd come to after Cian loved her and made her love him, and then he stopped loving her. And left. She'd loved and she'd been hurt. And she would never want to try that again. That's also why she was so careful with Halla. It was the one thing Selma feared, though she'd never admit that to herself. She inhaled a breath, Roxy annoyed her a little now, but she was going to tell the young mortal a thing or two, "I may be old and bitter, but I've learned my lessons. A long life such as mine tends to do that. And I've learned by experience, Roxy, do not doubt that."

[Roxy Stone]

Obviously Selma wasn't going to help her find Julian. IF she even know where Julian went, which, by this point seemed pretty unlikely. From what Mike told her, and how Selma spoke of him being 'pathetic,' she knew that Julian didn't mean anything to the woman, he was just something to play with until he broke, then she tossed him like an old toy. She wouldn't have cared about Julian enough to have taken him from the hospital. He was yesterday's news. She'd probably already moved on to destroy someone else's life.

Like her's perhaps? Or maybe she'd try, but the truth was, she'd already taken the only thing that Roxy really cared about? So what was there left to destroy? She couldn't really think of one particular thing that Selma could destroy that would reallyimpact her like the woman probably wanted. So for now, the woman just sat there, taunting and lecturing her about things that she probably didn't even know anything about. From what she could tell, Selma was a heartless bitch. So what did she know about friends and caring? There was no way that Roxy could just stand there and listen to the bullshit that came out of Selma's mouth.

She'd thrown everything that Selma had tried to taunt her with right back at her, mentioned how she doubted Selma had friends or was capable of caring. She knew that vampire lost their humanity the older they got. So maybe that was the problem...Selma was just an old bitter hag. She listened to what Selma had to say once again, but really everything she was saying was going in one ear and out the other. She didn't care about what this woman had to say. "Old and bitter? Yea...you've got that part right. But you also left out the 'raging bitch' part." Oops. Maybe she should have kept that to herself? She took a deep breath and let it out again, realizing that she needed to leave before she said or did something more incredibly stupid. "I'm done wasting my time with you. Obviously you've got no more of a clue about Julian's whereabouts than I do. And I'm not going to stand here while you attempt to rip me apart with words. Please...I deal with the media regularly, it's going to take a lot more than some harsh words to hurt me."

[Selma]

Roxy was an annoying human being. Selma might even decide Roxy was exactly the kind of human being she hated, despite Roxy not being a male. But it didn't matter. Roxy was too strong, somehow. Humans weren't supposed to be like that. That's why Selma liked Halla, she was fragile, she could use a pair of vampire arms to hold her. But Roxy here... she was just annoying. As if she didn't need anyone. Or, she needed Julian, for some weird reason. That other pathetic annoying mortal, who wasn't strong at all. Perhaps it was Julian who needed her. That wouldn't surprise Selma. Behind every man who claimed to be great, was an even... but wait, Roxy wasn't great. She was annoying. Not likeable.

The mortal woman had begun to accuse Selma for why she had no friends, because no one would want to be her friend. Oh, Selma had tried that, and she firmly believed now that she had no friends... because she did not want or need them. She wasn't like Roxy, she wasn't like anyone. But to have Roxy claim things she had no idea about, well she didn't like that of course. So she tried to lay out the truth. That she'd learned by experience. Her smile had faded, but Roxy didn't seem to care. When Selma was done, Roxy shot something back about Selma indeed being old and bitter, and a raging bitch. Oh really? Well if that's what Selma was, she better act like one!

Meanwhile Roxy claiming she was wasting her own time. She seemed to realize that Selma knew nothing about Julian, then said she'd not let Selma rip her apart with words. Well she'd stop that then. Selma rose, her pretty yellow dress falling in place around her hips, "So I'm a raging bitch? Nothing new there." Selma said, stepping closer to Roxy so fast, that one moment she'd seem to just be in front of her chair, the next much closer than what she should be comfortable. She shot a hand up and gripped Roxy tightly around the throat, lifting her up with one arm, "And... I'll stop wasting your time with words. I can do much better than that." Of course she did not hold her tightly enough to break bones, even if she could. Just enough to lift Roxy. And then she threw Roxy through the room - intentionally landing Roxy against the door that would lead to Selma's torture room. Humans. So pathetic. She shook her head and walked over towards the human.

[Roxy Stone]

Selma could say whatever she wanted to Roxy, it didn't really matter. Sure, the part about her not telling Julian how much she cared about him stung a bit, but she'd never let something as little as that get her bent out of shape. She'd spent the past 5 years of her life dealing with people's attempts to cut her down with words. When you dealt with the media regularly, you tended to grow a thick skin, and Selma's attempts to hurt her with words weren't going to be any more successful that some gossip column writer.

Of course Roxy wasn't exactly thinking completely rationally at the moment, so the fact that Selma could do much more than hurt her with words wasn't on the top of her mind. That was, until the woman was holding her by the throat a split second later. Surprise briefly passed through her face, though she hadn't reacted much more that that aside from the attempts to breathe while the woman was putting pressure on her windpipe. Selma spoke to her briefly, telling her that she could to more than hurt her with words. And perhaps Roxy had given her a bit of a challenging look right before the woman threw her across the room. Yes, Roxy was very stupid to be practically daring this woman to hurt her, but anyone who knew Roxy knew that she often did very stupid things without any regret.

She flew a few feet in the air before hitting the ground fairly hard and sliding the rest of the way until she hit the door. The way she landed, Roxy was almost sure that she bruised her tailbone. She'd done it before, on stage, after jumping off a few stacked up amps. That was the night she learned to never jump off things while wearing 4 inch heels. It hurt like a bitch, but it was definitely not going to be enough to bother Roxy. "Fuck, man..." she coughed, taking a moment to catch her breath, having the wind knocked out of her from hitting the ground. She started to stand back up using both the ground and the door behind her for support, cracking her back along the way.

[Selma]

She'd been called a bitch before. It did not surprise her and it didn't really anger her to be called a bitch. It was more some of the other things Roxy said, that made Selma upset, and made her want to hurt the mortal. She wasn't thinking about Mike waiting outside right now. He was smarter than that anyway, right? Knew he should stay out of Selma's business now. Selma focused on Roxy. Who thought Selma was wasting her time with words and words couldn't hurt her anyway. Good. Selma would hurt her a way she enjoyed even more then. She'd stood, on her bare flat feet in front of Roxy, and lifted her up by the throat. Roxy hadn't expected that? Well Selma had only just begun!

Selma didn't like how Roxy, even when lifted up and having her breath blocked slightly, still looked at Selma in that challenging way. Roxy might just die tonight. Julian wasn't dead, and Selma killing Roxy wouldn't change a thing between them. He'd still hate her. It was fuel for things to happen, and Selma didn't mind that. Pain and hurtful things, she liked to inflict that and cause that to anyone. Selma threw Roxy through the room, and the mortal landed hard. Selma could sense that pain. Still, only just getting started.

Roxy coughed while trying to catch her breath after she landed, and then she tried to stand back up. But Selma was there before she could, showing her aside a bit - hard - so she could open the door Roxy had landed against. Selma wasn't talking now - she was just wasting Roxy's time with words anyway, right? - but she could express a lot of things still. The door was open now, and if Roxy cared to look, she'd see the entire wall of blades in there. Selma moved fast again, in a split second she was behind Roxy and had caught both her arms and pushed the mortal into the room, with Selma holding her. She smirked, looking over Roxy's shoulder at the knives. Clean and shiny. And once they were both inside the room, she let go of Roxy to reach behind her and close the door.

Meanwhile outside, Mike thought he'd been hearing things. He had tried to not listen too much to their conversation, but when there was a loud bump like someone landing somewhere, he knew that Selma was up to something. Mike shouldn't interrupt. But Roxy had obviously said something that upset Selma, and now she'd pay the price. Mike didn't want her to, it was his fault for bringing her here. He paced the terrace outside, trying to think up a plan. And he knew he had to think fast.

[Roxy Stone]

Maybe Roxy should have be afraid once the woman started getting physical with her, but really, so what if this big bad vampire wanted to hurt her. She wasn't afraid, hell, she could hardly take her seriously in that bright yellow dress. Now, she'd give Selma the credit where it was due, she was strong. Thanks to Selma tossing her across the room like she was a bag of feathers, Roxy was sure it was going to hurt to sit for a while, but she wasn't going to let a bruised tailbone get her down. She'd done an entire set with dancing around singing with it last time it happened.

She tried to get up so that she could face Selma again, but the woman come to her instead, pushing her to the side to open the door she had been using for support. Fuck, did it hurt to land on her tailbone a second time. She hadn't bothered to see what was in the room, getting a good enough look at it all once Selma had practically picked her up and pushed her inside.

She stumbled when the woman finally let go of her, looking around at the knives that hung on the wall. It really took a lot for her not to smile at the sight before her. Was she dead? This was sadomasochism heaven. Look how nice and clean everything was. Did Selma use this stuff? Or better yet, was Selma going to be using this stuff on her? It was terrible that she was actually thinking about how arousing this could be when in reality her life could end tonight. Then again, wasn't that a danger every other night she did stuff like this?

[Selma]

Roxy had already annoyed Selma. Selma was already pissed off, and whatever Roxy did from now on would probably not help. The mortal wasn't even so afraid. When she landed it hurt, that was obvious, but all Roxy did was mutter a curse and then tried to get up. Though before she got too far, Roxy had already annoyed Selma. Selma was already pissed off, and whatever Roxy did from now on would probably not help. The mortal wasn't even so afraid. When she landed it hurt, that was obvious, but all Roxy did was mutter a curse and then tried to get up. Though before she got too far, Selma was there, showing her away so she could open the door. Roxy landed on her tailbone again, Selma didn't care. She pulled Roxy up, pushed her inside the room and closed the door behind her. Letting Roxy see what was here would give her a hint of what was going to happen. Selma smirked ā€“ but only shortly.

For what was that? Roxy couldn't be in her right mind! When she lay her eyes upon the wall of blades, she did not smile; but Selma could sense the mortal's feelings easily. She got excited and curious. She wasn't afraid, still. Someone must have messed with her brain, Selma thought. "You like that, do you?" Selma asked, her smile had faded once more. Roxy wasn't supposed to get excited when looking at a lot of sharp objects and knowing they'd be used on her. She was supposed to fear what was going to happen, not want it to happen. We´ll see if you like it once I´m done with you." She then added.

"I suppose, if you´re that excited, why don´t you just lay on the table by yourself?"¯ Selma nodded to the large table with the straps that would secure Roxy there. Of course Selma would have to be the one to secure Roxy, but if Roxy wanted to be cut and hurt and bleed; well Selma wouldn´t argue against it then. She crossed her arms, giving Roxy a challenging look. "Let´s get started, shall we?"

[Roxy Stone]

Just because Roxy enjoyed pushing the threshold between pain and pleasure didn't mean she was stupid. Or maybe she was stupid about some things (like coming to see Selma, for instance), but she wasn't dumb. She knew once she was dragged into that little room with all the torture stuff everywhere, that Selma had full intentions to hurt her. But what Selma wasn't counting on was the fact that Roxy might actually enjoy it. And if that was the case, she also knew that Selma would try whatever it took to get a negative reaction from her. And unfortunately, dying wasn't on her agenda tonight. It wasn't even that she was afraid to die, because hey, if she died, she'd be dead...it wasn't like she'd feel anything after that. But she'd promised herself that she would find Julian, and she wasn't going down until she found him.

Apparently Selma could see how excited she had gotten by the room, asking her if she liked it, then suggesting that she go get ready on a table if she liked it that much. Her gaze met Selma's as the woman looked at her, practically daring her to go over to the table. Now, if she was in any other situation, she'd probably have skipped over there and jumped right on, but tonight...no way. The woman had already thrown her across the room, she knew she had pissed her off. This wasn't going to be some super hot BDSM moment. She was dealing with a pissed off vampire.

She glanced over to the table for a moment, before looking back to Selma again. "Nah...I think I'm good. It's not nearly as sexy with a chick." Her gazed moved to the door, "I'm sorry...but I'm not afraid of you or anything you've got in here, which kind of defeats the purpose, so you should probably just let me go. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that will be a lot more fun than me in here..."

[Selma]

This could get very ugly. The more Selma said, the more annoying Roxy seemed to become. She was so strong and stubborn and not what Selma liked in a mortal at all. Mortals were weak beings who were just going to die anyway. So why should they even want to be strong, when they weren't? It was stupid. Roxy was stupid. Especially when she seemed to get all excited when they entered the room, Selma sensed it easily, and she wasn't fond about it. Roxy was supposed to be scared, grow pale, shaky... maybe even have her heart pace faster. Well it did, but not in the right way to Selma!

Well if she was that excited, she could just hop right up on the table! Selma suggested that, so they could get started, but of course Roxy wasn't going to let Selma get it that easily. She told Selma she did not consider it sexy with a female, and glanced towards the door. Then spoke of how she wasn't afraid, so Selma should let her go. Oh no. Not that easily! "No." Selma replied simply, raising her chin, "Maybe I won't let you go at all." And then she was there, close to Roxy again, her hand around the mortal throat, pushing her up against the cold metal table. Once there, Selma kept on pushing until Roxy would naturally slide up on it. Selma moved fast, then. Before Roxy would have a chance to slide down again, her wrists were secured and soon her ankles too. Selma smiled at the sight.

"I don't care if you like it or not. I don't care at all, in fact." Oh what a lie, Selma was almost furious about how Roxy wasn't afraid and claimed she liked this stuff. She'd make it hurt. And if she couldn't make it hurt enough on Roxy, well Mike was still outside, Selma knew that much. She could always use him. Mike was useful, even if he wasn't her minion anymore. With Roxy now secured, Selma took her time walking over to the wall to pick something. A knife, 5 inches long, sharp on both edges. Now where to begin? She smiled. So Roxy liked this? Well let's see how much she liked it, and where. Selma said nothing as she moved back to the table and placed the point of the blade very high up towards the crotch on the inside of Roxy's left thigh. And then she pushed it through, cutting a horizontal line up over the thigh. Blood colored Roxy's trousers, and how lovely it looked.