Tomb of the Thief

by kingnothing1996 (ao3)

The sound of police sirens filled the cool Gotham night as Selina Kyle leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Each leap was conducted with the grace of a cat, and there wasn’t a hint of fear or concern on Selina’s face. For over a decade now she had been operating as “Catwoman”. She had played both sides, both helping and hindering Gotham’s self-appointed protector. Granted, she leaned towards helping him nowadays, but as far as she was concerned there wasn’t any harm in pulling off a heist for old times sake.

The heist Selina had planned was a simple one. She wouldn’t hit up a museum or private collection in search for a valuable feline themed artifact, at least not tonight.

Tonight Selina’s target was a young woman who had made a splash on the Gotham art scene in recent months. It took most artists years to establish themselves enough to be making millions off of their art, yet this artist was a millionaire barely half a year into her career. It was enough to raise a few eyebrows, Selina’s included, so she had called in a little favor Oracle owed her and gotten the paraplegic hacker to dig up info on Gotham’s newest artist.

As it turned out, talent had nothing to do with her rise to fame. She was in fact a relative of Black Mask, one of Gotham’s most infamous gangsters. Truth be told the current Black Mask was the second, as Selina had been content to let the original fall to his death after he abducted and tortured her sister Maggie as a form of revenge by proxy on Selina. But that wasn’t important. What was important was that the artist's rise to fame was most likely part of a money laundering scheme. 

Since Oracle had found that info, the Bat-family had been brought into the loop, and as far as Selina knew the Batgirls were investigating. That meant it was only a matter of time before the scheme was exposed and those involved arrested. 

It also meant Selina had a chance to “retrieve” some evidence before that happened. 

Arriving at her destination, Selina carefully slunk around the roof, peering in through the windows for any sign of life inside. She had staked out the place in the last few days, but it was better to be safe than sorry. 

Seeing nobody inside, Selina made her move. Carefully the experienced cat-burglar opened a window and crept inside. She knew from Oracle’s hacking and her own scouting that the older apartment only had a silent alarm that was installed almost two decades ago and was easily disabled by Selina. 

Selina’s black catsuit blended in with the shadows as she carefully crept through the apartment. Her eyes darted around, looking for any sign of a safe as she made her way towards the bedroom. With how much money was being filtered through, there was no way the artist wasn’t keeping some physical cash around in case things went south. 

With no signs of a safe, Selina made her way into the bedroom. Unsurprisingly, it was furnished with large and expensive pieces of furniture, with a good deal of it seemingly imported. Honestly Selina could easily see some of it in her own bedroom, but she wasn’t here to steal furniture. It did not take long for Selina to find the safe. She knew from experience that there were a handful of “default” hiding spots for safes, and she found it in the closet behind a fake wall panel.

Looking at the safe, Selina noted it was a fairly new safe with an entirely electronic lock and keypad. Years ago that would have meant Selina spending several minutes cutting through the safe and its locking mechanism, but times had changed, and all Selina needed to do was take a small device out and apply it to the keypad. In a matter of seconds the device went through thousands of possible combinations before finding the proper one. 

Selina couldn’t help but smile as she tucked the device away and slowly opened the safe. It felt like an eternity since she had last done this, and though she’d never admit it, she was worried she’d become rusty. But as she opened the door to the safe, all those fears were laid to rest. 

Once the door was open, Selina crouched down, looking inside to see nothing inside. 

“Bullshit,” Selina said as she frowned, realizing that either hours of work had all been for nothing, or that this was a decoy and that the real safe was better hidden. 

Unbeknownst to Selina, those were the last words she would ever say, as before she could move away from the safe a mist was suddenly sprayed into her face. Immediately Selina began coughing as she moved back, waving the air in front of her with her other hand to try and get rid of whatever had been sprayed in her face. 

As she moved her hand she began to see double before her vision began to blur. It didn’t take years of experience to tell Selina the safe had been booby trapped, and she quickly tried to get up on her feet and out of the apartment. Unfortunately for her, she only made it a few steps before she collapsed. The mist that had been sprayed in her face was a powerful nerve agent that knocked out anyone who inhaled it. It was so powerful that even someone who had been immunized against Fear Toxin, Joker Venom, Poison Ivy’s Pheromones and every other mind altering material Gotham had to offer would be out of commission for hours at minimum.

Sure enough, Selina was unconscious before her body hit the floor with a thud that echoed through the apartment and could be heard in the hallway outside. 

A smile crept onto a pair of feminine lips as the sound of Selina falling echoed, followed by the opening of the apartment door. Everything was going exactly according to plan, and soon Gotham would be rid of Catwoman forever…

‘Fuck,’ Selina thought as she took stock of the situation she awoke to. She couldn’t move any part of her body but her eyes, likely because of whatever she had been sprayed with. Glancing around as best she could, she could see she was in some room with walls covered by paint stained white sheets. She was laid out on a table, and though she couldn’t actually see it, she knew she was restrained.

Specifically, she could tell there were leather straps wrapped around her ankles, knees, thighs, stomach, and both below and above her breasts. Her arms were pinned to her sides by the straps, and a posture collar had been locked around her neck. Finally, in Selina’s mouth was a large ball gag that painfully stretched her mouth, with the straps under her mask, telling Selina that whoever did this had briefly unmasked her.

It seemed whomever had captured her was rather kinky, though Selina wasn’t sure if that was cause for concern yet. 

‘Speak of the devil,’ Selina thought as she heard footsteps approaching her. Whomever it was stayed just outside of Selina’s limited field of vision as they began to speak.

“It’s about time you woke up,” A feminine voice said. “I’ve already been waiting hours to get started.”

As they spoke, Selina could see the figure moving towards her feet. Though it was only a quick glimpse, she could tell it was a woman, though she appeared to be wearing welding gear for some reason. 

“Before I start, I guess I should tell you what’s about to happen,” the woman said as Selina rolled her eyes. This was not her first time bound and gagged after a failed heist, nor was it the first time she heard some speech from her captor. 

“Nnphph gmph nn mmnphh nph,” Selina groaned into her gag.

(Just get on with it)

“You’ve been a thorn in the side of this cities wealthy for years, taking our hard earned money and throwing us at those GCPD dogs.”

‘Yes, that’s my MO,’ Selina thought to herself.

“But that changes tonight. Tonight I’m going to get rid of you once and for all.”

‘Definitely haven’t heard that one before.’

“Tonight I’m gonna put you in nine layers of inescapable bondage you will never be freed from.”

‘Okay, that one is new,’ Selina thought to herself as she felt her feet being lifted up into the air. She could just barely see the tips of her toes as her captor began wrapping bandages around them. Selina raised an eyebrow as she watched her captor continue wrapping her legs. While Selina herself wasn’t much of an escape artist (“normal” restraints notwithstanding) there was zero doubt in her mind that her disappearing wouldn’t go unnoticed, and once it reached Batman, it would only be a matter of time before he arrived and used some fancy toy from his utility belt to free her.

Twenty minutes passed before Selina’s captor was done with the bandages. Truthfully she had been done after four, having managed to go from Selina’s toes to her neck with just one roll, but it turned out she had more, and she intended to use them all. How many rolls in total had been used was unknown to Selina. She had tried to count them, she didn’t really have anything else she could do, but with her body still numb she couldn’t turn her head, limiting what she could see. Gradually Selina had been regaining some movement, but it was useless under the wrappings of bandages and leather straps.

“That’s layer two down, are you comfy kitty?” Selina’s captor asked in a mocking tone as Selina glared at them in response. Though she hid it well, it was starting to get a bit uncomfortable for Selina. As the feeling in her body came back she could feel how painfully tight the straps had been pulled, her jaw had begun to ache from the gag, and the layers of bandages coupled with her (totally not latex) catsuit were causing her to heat up.

“If you think this is hot, you’re in for a surprise,” the captor said as though she could read Selina’s mind. A wordless grown escaped from Selina’s gagged mouth as she watched her captor lay some sort of latex sheet on top of her. It quickly became apparent to Selina that it was not a sheet that had just been placed upon her, but a latex sleepsack. As the zipper was slowly pulled up, Selina found her mobility returning to her, and she put it to good use.

“You can move again, wonderful,” the captor mumbled as Selina began thrashing around. The bandages and straps certainly limited her movement, but Selina had enough left to make zipping her into the sack a headache. 

Unfortunately, like most headaches, it could be overcome. All of Selina’s struggling might have bought her a few extra minutes without the sleepsack completely zipped up, but soon enough the sack was zipped all the way up. With her movement even more limited than before, and with layers of bandages and now a sleepsack enveloping her body, breathing was becoming increasingly difficult. 

‘Not the worse,’ Selina told herself as she took a labored breath through her nose. It might not be soon, but Selina knew eventually rescue would be on its way. She still kept an ear to the ground regarding Gotham’s villains, and as far as she knew no big plans were being hatched tonight.

But, at the same time, there was always the chance something would suddenly spring up. It could be Joker being in the mood for chaos, or another alien invasion, or the seemingly annual universe threatening crisis could have started up. 

Regardless, each minute that passed caused dread to slowly build up in Selina. She did her best not to show it to her captor, but it was getting harder and harder to keep up her poker face.

The fourth layer was an unexpected one for Selina. She had figured more latex or leather was inbound, but instead her captor placed a comforter, the thick kind Selina threw on her bed during Gotham’s winters, on top of Selina and carefully wrapped it around her. This layer confused Selina more than anything. How did this count as a restraint? Sure, Selina couldn’t get out of it, but that was because of the previous layers of restraint.

That confusion disappeared with the addition of the fifth layer, which consisted of rope. Though Selina couldn’t see it, her captor was carefully wrapping the rope around her bound form, creating a diamond patterned net that ensnared her from the neck down. Selina couldn’t stop herself from groaning as the discomfort of the layers was intensified by the tight ropes, making it feel as though she was being crushed on all sides.

“I bet it’s feeling nice and tight now,” Selina’s captor said as she pulled the last rope as tight as they possibly could. “And I bet you’re starting to panic about why nobody’s come to rescue you,” the captor said as she retrieved several rolls of the heaviest heavy duty tape she could get her hands on. “Well I’ll let you in on a lil secret,”

“We’re not in Gotham.”

Those words were enough to cause Selina’s barely held together calm facade to crumble. 

‘She’s lying,’ Selina told herself. ‘She has to be lying, I was only out for a few hours at best,’ she told herself. Even if that was the case, if somebody really wanted to get out of Gotham, they could be in less than two hours. Selina knew that from experience. 

Selina’s captor grinned under the welding mask they wore as they listened to Selina take labored panicked breaths. It took over an hour for her to exhaust her supply of tape, and by now Selina’s body was encased in a thick oval shaped cocoon. Movement was impossible, and Selina could barely breathe. Panic now filled the cat burglar's eyes as her gag muffled her grounds of pain and panic. With no way of escaping on her own, and if her captor was to be believed, no rescue on its way, Selina was screwed.

With panic gripping her mind, Selina forgot for a moment that there were three more layers to be added. Thanks to that momentary lapse in memory, her panic intensified when she felt a leather sleepsack was zipped up around her and she was propped up against the table. This new point of view did nothing for Selina as she looked down at herself, barely registering that the sleepsack was incredibly loose around her. 

“This is actually layer eight,” Selina’s captor said as they hooked a hose into the sleepsack. “I can’t really do layer seven without something to keep it in place,” she said as she flicked a switch. Immediately liquid latex was pumped into the sleepsack, quickly inflating it to its limit while also acting as a glue. This time Selina didn’t groan in discomfort, she squealed in pain as the crushing feeling got even worse. It felt to Selina as though her body was about to break, that if any more pressure was put on her, that would be the end of her. Tears began to fall from her eyes as the latex hardened. Selina had been close to death before, but this was worse than any of the previous times. This was long and drawn out. 

This was torture.

It may have only taken a few minutes for the liquid latex to fill the sack, but for Selina it felt like an eternity. She tried to move something, anything, but she couldn’t.

“There, eight layers down and one to go,” the captor said as she unplugged the hose and tossed it aside. “That fear on your face is exciting,” the captor said as she stepped in front of Selina. “I think I’ll use it for my next painting,” she said, grinning under her mask. 

“I really wish you could see what the last layer is, but I need to completely finish the first eight before I can move on to layer nine,” she said as she grabbed a roll of bandages.

“PMMNPHM NNN'PH!” Selina shouted into her gag as her captor ignored her cries and began wrapping the bandages around Selina’s head. She had three rolls left, and she made sure to use up all of them, leaving only the tiniest slit for Selina to breathe through. It wasn’t long before wet spots became visible around Selina’s eyes, telling her captor that the thieves' crying had intensified. 

(PLEASE DON’T!)

The bandages were followed up with a latex sensory deprivation hood that cut off whatever hearing Selina still had. She could still breath, but the hood only had two tiny holes, further restricting her breathing. Next came a comforter, as thick as the one used on Selina’s body but sized for toddlers. It was quickly wrapped around Selina’s head and rope then wrapped around it. The same diamond shaped pattern was used for the head ropes, keeping the second comforter in place and putting more pressure on Selina’s head.

Once the comforter was in place, Selina’s breathing was completely cut off, and as her lungs began to burn she went into a blind panic. The fact that she couldn’t move didn’t matter to Selina as she struggled in her restraints, desperately trying to break free despite knowing deep down that she couldn’t.

But, as the minutes ticked by, a realization came to Selina.

She was still alive.

She couldn’t breathe, and her lungs were burning, but she was still alive.

A feeling of dread promptly came over Selina as different possibilities ran through her head. Could she have been injected with some sort of immortality serum? Could she or one of her restraints have been enchanted to never die?

Whatever happened didn’t matter to Selina as she realized with a feeling of unparalleled horror that she could be like this for days, weeks, maybe even months or…

A wordless wail escaped from Selina as it dawned on her that this inescapable cocoon of bondage would entomb her for years or even centuries, with her only escape in death preemptively robbed from her.

Selina Kyle had prided herself for years on being able to keep a level head, on being able to keep her calm. Now, however, sheer panic and fear enveloped her, reducing her to a sobbing mess.

But these sobs didn’t penetrate the cocoon, and even if they did they wouldn’t have made a difference as tape was wrapped around the rope, covering all traces of it and the comforter under a smooth and shiny layer of silver. A leather hood came next, thick, but fitting loose around Selina’s head. Like with the sleepsack, this was part of layer eight, and layer seven came a moment later as liquid rubber encased Selina’s head, inflating the leather hood until it was at its limit and quickly hardening. The liquid rubber acted like a glue, fusing with layers six and eight.

“I wonder if it’s dawned on you that this isn’t a temporary arrangement?” Selina’s captor said as they moved the pieces of layer nine into place. Compared to how long her body had taken, taking care of Selina’s head had been a short process. Not a single sound escaped from her, not a single movement could be seen, and if it weren’t for the measures that had been taken to keep her alive and suffering, she might’ve thought that Selina had died of fright alone.

Layer nine consisted of three parts. A front, a back, and a head. All three were made from a special alloy. A mixture of the worlds strongest metals, with a little bit of lead thrown in to prevent any Kryptonians from looking in. Getting them into place was actually fairly easy, but it was making sure they stayed together that required some work.

At this point though, a little extra work was worth it if it meant the end of Selina Kyle. 

With barely contained excitement the captor lit a welding torch and got to work welding shut the metal casing, ensuring that it would never be removed. Once the welding was done and the metal cooled, a grinder was taken to it to remove any trace of it being welded shut, and when that was finished, there was nothing left for the captor to do but to sit back and admire her latest work of art.

“I think I’ll call this piece… tomb of the thief,” the captor said with a grin, imagining the sheer panic and dread Selina must have been experiencing, and would be experiencing until her mind finally broke.

Earth - 31st Century

All was quiet in the Museum of 21st Century Art. Not a single being, organic or robotic, was left in the building as the pale moonlight shined in through the windows, illuminating the museum’s latest acquisition, a piece called “Tomb of the Thief,” from an (in)famous Gotham City artist.

Yes, the museum’s curator knew there was a person, a living person, inside of it, but they had decided to cover that up and put the piece on display as though it was a normal statue.

Inside, Selina Kyle still lived, but her mind had shattered years ago. Now she either experienced hallucinations so vivid she thought they were real, or snapped back to her torturous reality. Sometimes she imagined she was a collared latex slave licking clean the boots of her leather clad Master. Other times she imagined she was a hero and the Guardian of Gotham. Her favorite though was when Batman swooped in and saved her from her bondage, holding her close so she knew everything would be okay.

But no matter what, Selina would always snap back into reality and realize she was still in her hell, and when that happened she did the only thing she truly could do.

Cry.