The dagger's tip landed on Harvey's forehead, traced down between his eyebrows and over his straight, prominent nose, sliced through his lips, and finally stopped at his chin.
Blood welled from the wound. Unconscious, Harvey felt the pain, and the muscles in his cheeks twitched.
"Yes! Just like that, that's it! Suffer, howl! Now you're like a book anyone can leaf through. I'm going to open it up and let everyone in Gotham see just what's hiding beneath that exquisite face!!!!!"
Maroni dug his fingers into the wound and peeled Harvey's face away bit by bit.
Skin gradually separated from flesh. Finding the process too slow, Maroni slipped the dagger into the gap and severed several strands of muscle tissue still trying to hold them together.
Amid the immense, tearing pain, Harvey gradually regained consciousness.
Though his limbs were still numb, his senses were returning.
But that process only brought him greater agony. Half his face felt as though it had been set alight, the nerves at the wound constantly transmitting searing pain to his brain.
When the final corner of skin came away from his face, blood had almost drenched both his eyes.
His eyes rolled back as he screamed, his brain steeped in such immense agony that he nearly passed out again.
His hands clawed wildly until he finally grasped the rifle's grip. Squeezing out the last of his strength, he swung it at Maroni.
Smack!
Maroni's gaunt body slammed against the wall. Rather than growing angry, he began laughing in broken bursts that sounded like sobs.
"Ahahahaha, Harvey Dent, now all of Gotham will see your true face! Hideous! Twisted! Dripping with blood!" Maroni suddenly no longer wanted to kill him. Rather than finish Harvey with a stab, he would much rather watch him wear that horrifying