Title: None of the Girls Escaped Mama
Fandom: : Chicago
Rating: M
Length: 1061 Words
Content notes: With the generated prompts of "Chicago," "Crack," and "Tentacles"
Summary: Roxie peeps into one too many knotholes.


Roxie peeked through the hole in the mirror, but she couldn't see much. She couldn't hope to overhear another informative conversation like the last time each time she changed the towels in the can by Mama's office, but she figured that if she snooped long enough, something would come to her. Good things usually came to her, and this whole Fred Asley fiasco was really throwing her for a loop. Bad things like that just didn't happen to her! True, she hadn't become a star yet, but that was only a matter of time!

She didn't dare to dawdle much longer, or the warden would come looking for her, but she peeked through the hole one more time, hoping to glimpse a secret that could help her.

Instead, she found someone looking back.

Roxie bit back a scream, because that eye was not human, but she still was wary of the guard. Slowly, the eye blinked, and Roxie stared at it in shock. A knock on the door brought her out of her daze and she dropped the towels onto the counter.

Hurrying out of the can, she found the guard looking annoyed, and she bobbed her head in apology. Before she could grab her cart and skedaddle in the other direction, the office door opened. "Send her in," Mama's voice boomed.

Roxie froze, wanting more than anything in the world right now not to go into that office, but the warden shoved her forward.

The door closed, seemingly on its own accord, and Roxie looked determinedly at the floor. She didn't really want an explanation for what she had just seen, and a part of her believed that if she delayed the inevitable long enough, it would simply go away.
"Look at you, pretty little thing," Mamma Morton cooed. "Peeping into knot-holes where she doesn't belong,"

The tone was sweet, mocking, but Roxie knew that a dangerous edge lay beneath it. She kept her eyes glued to the floor.

So what did the little birdie see this time?" Mama asked, more to herself than to Roxie. "What did she see before?"

Roxie was half tempted to lie and say that this was the first time, but something made her keep still. Some feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't explain warned her not to engage with Mama's teasing.

"Mama's got rules, you know," she taunted. "Rules that are there for the chickie's own good. But you broke a rule, little baby, didn't you? You peep on me and think I wouldn't find out?"

Roxie felt someone, or something, behind her, and she began to tremble. She had visions of the warden axing her down, or of some fairy-tale monster, befitting that eye, sneaking up behind her and gobbling her up. Unreasonable thoughts, of course, but still they filled her mind just as the uneasy feelings filled her belly.

Something was off about this room, and it gave her a fearful sensation.

"Mama knows everything," Mama whispered, but Roxie heard it as loudly as though she had shouted in the stillness of the office.

"Mama makes the rules, and Mama gets what she wants. Got it?"

Roxie nodded violently, her trembling increasing to shaking. This was the part where she paid the Matron what she wanted. She had heard it at night, in the other cells. After most of the girls were asleep, or pretending, those calm, even footsteps would return. And one key would grate in a lock. And one door would open.

And then the moans and muffled screams would begin. Some screamed more than others, some just sobbed silently. But none of the girls escaped Mama.

Each night, Roxie had waited for those footsteps. And each night, they had stopped at a different cell door. Until this moment.

There were no footsteps on the plush oriental rug, but she knew just the same what was going to happen. Mama was going to get her dues.

Suddenly something warm and slick moved against her throat. Eyes bursting open wide with shock, Roxie tried to move. At that second, her entire body was wrapped in the same warm coils, binding her tightly. She struggled, instinctively, but they didn't budge an inch. She opened her mouth to scream, and the one around her neck tightened until only a gurgle emerged.

Roxie finally froze, bowing to the power that held her. She didn't look down, terrified of what she would find had a hold on her, but cast her gaze wildly around the room instead. suddenly Mama came into her view, moving across the carpet like she was gliding on oiled wheels. The top of her looked the same as always, with a frown on her face and her arms crossed over her chest. But at the bottom of her dress, where her legs should be, writhed a mass of green-ish brown... tentacles?

Roxie recoiled in horror, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the wriggling mass. She felt her belly roiling, but her dry heaves were prevented by the tentacle, as she now knew it was, wrapped around her neck. She began to struggle again, caught in her desperation to flee even though she had already realized that it was pointless.

None of the girls escaped Mama.

She fought and wiggled until she was breathless and the room was starting to go dark around the edges. Finally she sagged, spent, and the tentacle coils held her fast, supporting her dead weight.

All the while, Mama had stood there, eyeing her calmly, but now she glided forwards again, until she was just a few inches from Roxie's face. Roxie finally looked up, meeting the Matron's gaze. The face was stern, but pretty, but those eyes… If Roxie had had anything left in her she would have fought her way free again, but she was completely spent. Those eyes were like looking into a dead man's gaze. They were like falling into a deep pit from which there was no escape. They were a smothering deep velvet that wrapped around her and pulled her down into the abyss. There was no escaping from those eyes.

Mama blinked, and Roxie sagged again, defeated. She had no idea what kind of creature this Matron was, but she knew that she was firmly in its grasp.

None of the girls escaped Mama.