Lily had woken up from nightmares before. It was, frankly, more common than sleeping well. Sometimes they’d be gasping for air, hyperventilating until they felt dizzy. Sometimes they’d wake up to their own screams. Sometimes they’d feel their heart pounding out of their chest, beating so loudly it echoed in their head.

They weren’t unfamiliar with headaches, either. But this was a worse one than any they could remember.

Would it have been better to not wake up at all? They didn’t know what would happen today, but they did not have high hopes. Whatever it was, it  would surely just be a new form of torture.

Mistress’s words echoed in their ears.

On the morrow, you will dance. You will dance, or you will suffer. Those are your two options. 

“I will dance or… I will suffer,” they murmured. They couldn’t believe any of this was happening. Magnolia – fuck, Mistr – no, Magnolia hadn’t tormented them enough the day before? Their head hurt, but that only compounded on the painfully burning lines across their back.

Lily looked at the mirror. Their face was unrecognizable. Still the same green eyes, still the same brown hair, but they framed a palette of bruises more than skin. It was more evidence of the agony they’d suffered – and, more so, it was a mark of ownership to their Mistress.

That was surely what it was meant as.

Lily wanted to go back to sleep. To escape back into a waking nightmare, where at least it wasn’t real. But she controlled even that. She could tell, hear their mind, and she could play with it like a toy. Dissociation wasn’t an escape from her, it was just putting themself more in her power, in a mind she ruled— 

And they couldn’t even have that consideration alone. The door slammed open, and Lily gasped, scrambling to their feet to face… oh. Her.

“Your food is here,” Josey said blandly, presenting a simple metal tray with its pathetic offerings. A singular fried egg, a banana, water, and a pill Lily could only pray was a multivitamin. “I also brought your outfit for the day. Don’t destroy it this time. Mistress wants you at the ballroom in 10 minutes.”

With the same utterly neutral expression, Josey handed Lily their meal. Lily stared at it blankly. They needed to eat. After last night, especially. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to go on. 

“I’m not hungry,” Lily lied firmly, pushing their hand out in refusal.

Josey narrowed her eyes – the largest emotional change Lily had seen on her face. “This wasn’t a kindness from the Mistress. It was an order. Eat all of it. She’ll know if you missed anything.”

Lily couldn’t reply. They were hungry, yes – starving, even. But eating? When they felt this anxious, this miserable, this furious, and this trapped? They could barely imagine taking a single bite of anything, let alone chewing and swallowing.

“Are you hoping that you’ll pass out to escape from the Mistress?”

Lily froze briefly. How did she know? They hadn't considered it, just in case someone could hear.

“Your expression is answer enough,” Josey sighed. “You’ve already displeased the Mistress enough with your attitude yesterday. After all the kindness she showed you, too.”

“What fucking kindness did she show us?” Kassandra snapped, practically tearing Lily from the front in a single rage-fueled instant. “Beating us senselessly? Freezing us to death with a cold shower? Though that was you, wasn't it? Humiliating us by making us wear frilly dresses from the 50s? Threatening us if we don’t comply?”

Josey didn’t immediately respond, instead opting to check her watch. Kassandra hardly noticed. “What about forcing us to… to…!” Kassandra grew nauseous even thinking about the order she'd given Lily. She could barely restrain herself from either throwing up or attacking Josey when she remembered how Magnolia had called their lack of pleasure from masturbation a ‘travesty’.

Josey sighed again. “This conversation has been two minutes and six seconds long,” she stated calmly. Kassandra’s being burned, on the edge of committing to that attack, but fear of the consequences to Lily held her back long enough for Josey to steamroll over. “Eat your breakfast, change, and go to the dance floor. Consider that an order from the Mistress.”

She dropped the platter on Lily’s bed – not that there was any other surface in the room but the floor – and, with that, left. 

Lily stared at the food. Dance until you break or suffer. Eat even if you feel sick to your stomach or suffer. Suffering was the only choice they had.

Taking slow but meaningful bites, Lily finished their breakfast. Putting on the dress just made them even more sick. But hey – they could choose a million canings instead. What a wealth of wonderful options.

~~~

Lily greeted Mistress, their eyes lifeless and their voice a flat monotone. That’s all it took for them to earn a hit from the cane.

The strikes were merciless as before, and even worse, given their back still hadn't properly healed. The rod she was using had looked longer, too, and it certainly hit harder. As per their new usual, Mistress held them up by their hair and forced them back on their feet afterwards.

She didn’t even bother telling Lily what they did wrong. As if no orders could have ever been anything but a trap. Mistress truly and honestly was going to punish them without telling them what they were expected to do. She was going to train them in something they didn’t know, expect them to already know how to perform perfectly, and punish them severely for anything less.

Mistress called out to Josey, resonant again. The music played. Like broken clockwork, Lily began the box step. Notably, the metronome wasn’t present this time, and the song didn’t have strong beats to follow. After a few canings paired with the silent treatment from Mistress, Lily finally got into the modified box step she wanted, not that they knew what it was called or supposed to be. But of course, Mistress wasn’t pleased with mere obedience. She joined them in, holding them just as close as before, though tilting their head to the side rather than locking eyes, and her presence threw everything off all over again. Now in close proximity to Lily, Mistress abandoned the rod in favor of slaps to the face that made Lily see white.

So they danced.

So they obeyed.

So they were Mistress’s broken marionette.

The couple – for given definitions of couple – moved into turns, walking around the ballroom floor. Every few missteps, which was every few steps, Lily received another harsh slap. At least it was effective at getting them back on track?

Not that they knew what the track was supposed to be. But their real challenge came with the turns.

Turns were, from what Lily had vaguely picked up, much of the ballroom experience. And the steps. Oh, the steps. Lily had no idea what to do. At first they thought they were supposed to twirl on their toes, but that was wrong. Or maybe Mistress just wanted to hit them. The first couple of strikes barely left them standing. Then they tried simply walking in a circle with her, racking their brain for any dancing anything they'd ever seen in shows or magazines. But Mistress simply groaned in annoyance before beating them again. They wished they could get used to it, but the pain was so sudden and changed with every movement they made.

After an uncountable number of strikes, they had something of an inkling of an idea of what they were supposed to do. The steps looked like what they'd seen of  a waltz, which helped them narrow it down. They gave it a try, and after a positively merciful couple of strikes for mistakes, finally did a turn correctly enough to avoid the rod. They finally were figuring it out. It would have been nice if their back didn't feel like it was made of fire, but that wasn't exactly an option, now was it? It soured any accomplishment quite thoroughly.

Mistress smirked. “Oh? The simplest of reprimands, and this is the state you end in? Well, I am not the one to blame for how slowly you have learned.”

Lily didn’t know how to reply to that. And then the cane hit them again, so not replying was the wrong thing, so they screamed “th-thank you, Mistress!”

“Finally, you learn. You are always to respond to me, and you are always to respond, ‘yes, Mistress’, ‘no, Mistress’, ‘I am sorry, Mistress’, ‘thank you, Mistress’, and the like.”

Lily deflated. For fear of the cane, they absently responded “I understand, Mistress.” Thank god, the cane didn’t strike them again for lack of enthusiasm. Maybe automatic responses were what she was trying to get.

They genuinely didn’t know how they were going to make it through more of this.

But Mistress’s words were a knife held to their throat, keeping them from their usual means of escape.

You will not hide from me within yourself. Should you try, I will drag you back to your place beneath me. 

Mistress narrowed her eyes at Lily as they continued to dance. Lily knew that she knew what was going to happen. But Lily couldn't help it. They couldn’t survive like this. They wouldn’t last any longer. Clutching their hands, holding their Mistress’s hand tightly, they retreated.

For a moment, something like bliss washed over them. Pain, fear, and agony were distant. A reprieve. Their body moved with her, automatic, and the faraway look in their eyes almost looked like happiness. Putting on a mask. Wearing someone else’s skin.

And that reprieve was, like everything else, torn from Lily.

Mistress stopped her dancing. Lily, distantly, knew what was going to happen, even if they didn't know the exact shape of it. She stopped them in their tracks, grabbing their neck and lifting them up. Her red eyes bore into them, sending shards of ice cutting through their veins.

And suddenly, they felt heat. All-consuming primal fire, boiling their mind alive. They knew, they knew it was all going to be in their head, but that didn't stop them from feeling it. Their head was splitting open. They writhed in Mistress’ grasp, screamed in pain that was so much worse than anything they were running from. 

They had known they wouldn't be safe, as they fled from that heat the only way their mind could – back into clarity, replacing one set of pains with another. This was only going to end like this. But they had no other choice. They had to escape the pain, even if it was into the fire.

“Futile,” Mistress chided. “What is the point of this resistance? You knew the punishment that was to be levied, and yet.”

They had no answer to that, as their struggles resumed, and their sobs began again. They knew it had been pointless. Once again, their life, even down to the space within their mind, was in their Mistress’ grasp, and she could do whatever she wanted with it.

Lily couldn't feel Kassandra, but they didn't feel abandoned by that. At least one of them wasn't feeling this pain.

And even through that, Mistress had kept dancing, and they had followed. But Lily couldn't move, not after that. They collapsed to the ground, sobbing and hiccuping, mumbling words they weren't fully conscious of.

“I don’t know how to do any of this, Mistress. I can’t do it. I don’t know. I'm sorry, Mistress. I'm sorry Kassandra told you to stop. Please teach me, Mistress. Please tell me what to do. I’m so sorry, Mistress. I’m so sorry for yesterday. I’m a failure. I can’t… I can’t do this anymore…”

At some point, Lily had stopped speaking, though they weren't sure when. All they knew was that eventually, lying there, sore on the ground, and Mistress was looking down. Had their pleas reached her? She heard them, certainly, but had they managed to reach her?

They laughed at that silently. No, of course not. That was absurd. Humanity was the last thing they should have expected from her. 

Instead, Mistress dragged them up, forcing them onto hands and knees, before beating them senseless with the cane. Consciousness became inconstant, for the next few minutes. Over and over, they blacked out, and something pulled them back. Their mind bounced like a ball on a string, completely at the whim of the one who owned them.

When they woke, she was still there, staring. They thought to beg for mercy, but what was the point? 

With a twitch of a smile, Mistress grabbed their arm, hauling them up to their feet.

It took a minute for Lily to get back on the beat, but they did, for they had no other choice. Mistress led them through turns, spins, whatever they were actually called. She’d test them in different ways, beat them for getting it wrong, and Lily would eventually figure out what they needed to do at the cost of another swathe of searing pain on their back. Rinse, wash, repeat. Fail, hurt, repeat.

They were stupid for hoping for even a shred of kindness or dignity. Honestly, they were stupid for hoping for anything at all, when they walked up to that door in the rain.

~~~

Lily crawled back to their room, body battered and soul broken. Surely Mistress had made her point. Surely.

What were they thinking? They weren’t going to survive this by getting their hopes up. They threw themselves back onto the bed with a sigh.

And noticed something under them. Pulling it out from beneath them, they groaned. It was a skimpy piece of lingerie that would present the wearer – surely, Lily – as a gift to their owner. Plus a note attached to it, along with an annotated map of the mansion.

Change into this. The Mistress wishes to see you in her bedroom in 10 minutes.

Lily’s hands shook. Of course. She couldn't even write it herself. But she had said it – she wanted to make Lily into everything for her. Her thrall, her partner, and her sex pet, and anything else she ever would want them to be.

They didn’t even notice their eyes beading with tears. Nor their tears falling down their face onto the paper. Did they have a way out of this? Even for just the night? Even for just an hour? But no. Mistress – damn it, Magnolia would know what they were trying to do, and just punish them harder for it.

Lily, you don’t have to do this, Kassandra pleaded with them. It was weird to hear her voice so soft. But it wasn't like there was much in the situation to draw strength from.

But they did have to do this. They had no other choice. Even if they tried, that choice would just be taken.

I... I didn't mean it like...

But they weren't listening. Holding back nausea, they slipped out of the dress and stepped into the lingerie. It left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Being nude would be more conservative than this.

Like a lamb to the slaughter, they slogged off.

~~~

Out of the dress and back into lingerie. They weren’t sure if that was worse or not.

Mistress’ bedroom was… extravagant. Sickeningly so. Candle-lit, decorated with elegant leather seating, showing off a king-sized bed for, presumably, one, and a small library's worth of books.

And on the bed, of course, was Mistress. In her own set of lingerie, which of course was color-coordinated with theirs – Lily wore a semi-transparent red one-piece, with ribbons decorating their nipples and crotch, while Mistress’s was a blue nightgown with an outer layer of lacework.

Lily stood by the door. They looked at their Mistress with soft, pleading eyes. They didn’t want this. They didn’t want this.

“You need not be so frightened, plaything,” Mistress purred, beckoning Lily closer. Lily, like the miserable sex pet they had been made into, followed, the fear fading to be replaced with... not emptiness, but resignation. As they slowly laid down on the bed, bile rising with their terror, Mistress continued. “You will want this soon enough. It is a pity you have not felt true pleasure, given from one who truly cares. And I must admit, those you will perform for will not, but you must be tested, and you must perform, no matter how it crushes you. I will grant you something to hold onto for those times. You shall hold on to my love as they test you, and draw strength from my cherishment.”

“I-I…” Lily’s breath hitched in their throat. Love? Cherishment? Care? She was trying to claim she cared?!

You don’t need to do this, Magnolia, Kassandra hissed. You can leave this line uncrossed. You have a choice. You can stop here. You should stop here. Stop this. Please. Stop this.

“Ah, my bright thing,” Magnolia beamed, and Lily physically felt Kassandra retch. Not yours. Never yours. “Yes, how lovely of you to join us. I understand you have the misconception you are not mine, simply because I have not claimed you as I have Lily. I do not intend you to fill their role, it is true, but there are many ways to be mine. For this evening, I intend to have you as a... bystander of sorts.”

…a… bystander…?

“Indeed. Consider yourself present for this time. I will not let you hide, as before. From the lambent feel of your mind, and how easily the soft thing was dragged out, I believe that compelling them to hold on to you should be sufficient.”

Lily’s eyes beaded with tears. What happened to no compulsion? “I did say I would reconsider kindness if they danced well, did I not? I intend to show you wonders, bright one.” 

Kassandra didn't respond to that, not beyond a pervasive sense of dread. She knew Magnolia wouldn't consider mercy. She probably considered this to be a mercy. As if in answer, she climbed on top of them, leaning her head in so close, so close that Lily could feel her ice cold breath. Lily instinctively recoiled, but their Mistress didn’t allow it. She wrapped her hand around their scalp, leaning in closer.

They wanted this but they didn’t. She wanted to run but she couldn't. An iron grip held her in place, forcing her to be present when all she wished to do was not be. She struggled against it, but... Lily wouldn't stop. She knew Lily wouldn't stop. Lily couldn't stop. And they were so, very sorry.

Their lips connected.

Lily immediately resisted, but the physical resistance did less for them than mental resistance could. Mistress just kept trying to kiss them deeper, trying to coax their mouth open, but Lily wouldn’t kiss her back, Kassandra would rather die, and her mouth certainly wouldn’t open for her. Her breath lingered on their face, and Lily could feel her lips curling into a scowl.

She grabbed Lily’s hair on the back of their head, far harder than she’d grabbed it before. She was probably pulling some out. Lily knew what she was trying to do. They wouldn’t relent. They couldn’t–

Until, with a sharp jerk, all the hair she was holding came free. Lily screamed, and Mistress took that opportunity to kiss them, deeply, harshly, possessively.

Stop it! They don’t want this! Stop FUCKING HURTING THEM! She couldn't take this. She couldn't be present like this, but Lily held her with a will stronger than any they could muster, and they were sorry but they couldn't help it, and she knew that, and she was sorry but she couldn't handle this as Magnolia scooped up their tears with a finger off their cheek and slid it between the kiss so Lily and Kassandra could taste the salt of this hell and Kassandra panicked and tried to do something, to attack Lily in some way she had never quite tried to or conceptualized, and the hold slipped for a moment, and–

Magnolia violated their mouth. She claimed it. And with that, she claimed their mind once more, and they dragged Kassandra back, dragged her back when they still were hurting from whatever that had been so she could be forced to bear witness to what was only the beginning of their sexual torment, until eventually, Magnolia pulled back.

“Plaything,” she said sweetly. “You are meant to kiss me back. Even if you are my puppet, the same cannot be said of those you will service, and there are appearances to maintain. They may hurt you worse than I, as Kassandra just has, and if something so small as pain makes you falter, what kind of thrall would you be? So be a good pet and kiss me with passion. Do you understand?”

Lily choked out a sob. “Y-yes, Mistress.” When she leaned back in, they had no choice. Their body moved for them, and their tongue quested out, kissing her as best they knew how.

“A start,” Mistress purred, and Lily somehow understood her muffled words. “More. Give me more.”

Lily complied. They tilted their head, moaning, embracing Mistress tighter as they loved this. They loved it, despite themself, because it was wonderful, it was passionate, they gave her everything, and they hated that. Kassandra's voice was something approaching a constant scream, and a part of Lily was glad because she had hurt them, and Lily loved hearing her scream now. They hated that. They hated this. They loved that hatred, and hated the love all the more for it. Mistress wanted Lily to learn to love intimacy? Did she also intend to teach them to hate joy?

Distantly, they felt something throbbing between their legs. Sickening wetness coated the bottom of their panties, and they could smell their body's betrayal. Surely Mistress could too.

Tears continued to fall as they made out. Suddenly, Lily felt something… hard… on their thigh, where Mistress’ crotch had rested. Confusion and horror mixed within them – did vampires, or was she... – and oh god, they were going to be, no, don't think about it, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT – Kassandra jerked their head back, seizing control and breaking the kiss—

“D-don’t… don’t do anything more…”

Magnolia narrowed her eyes. “That is not for you to decide, bright one.” Her hand wrapped around their neck, and squeezed, and Kassandra couldn't breathe, and they gasped for air, and Mistress just released their neck and used that gasp to lock lips again. “They are mine. Their body is mine. I will not leave their training unfinished, no matter how long it takes.”

They aren't yours to claim, Kassandra cried out, more a desperate plea than a scathing remark.

“They are,” Mistress intoned, and something clicked into place – that Lily was hers and hers to claim and use and break and shatter and Kassandra – why was she crying? Kassandra, this is what they were for! They were hers to use, for as long as she wanted, and wasn't that a wonderful thing? It had to be a wonderful thing, because otherwise, Lily didn't know what would happen otherwise. It was impossible to imagine, because to imagine it would be to be destroyed. “Yes, you will be here for a great deal of time. We have much remedial material to go over.”

N…no. This is wrong. No, no, no. And you’re… your crotch is… Kassandra heaved trying to get the words out. Lily's eyes widened in horror, and they were so sorry for her reaction, Mistress!

“Ah, yes,” Magnolia chuckled. “Worry not, I understood her meaning. You shall get to know her very, very well. I am certain she will love you. She already shivers with anticipation.”

Lily's body sobbed for them, even as they smiled at the thought. Kassandra was begging for this to stop, begging for Mistress to spare Lily. Why?

Mistress didn't listen to Kassandra. Her perfect hands began to trail down Lily’s body, slowing down at their chest to give extra attention, pushing and pinching the soft flesh, as she made her way down, down, to where her cock rested against their crotch, and they loved this, loved it so dearly, it was all so right, and they hated that most of all.

Mistress broke the kiss, and they gasped, instinctively leaning to follow, and it felt so wrong to be without her! But Mistress was talking, and her words were everything, so they would listen, they had to listen–

“Such shapely hips you have,” she mused, and that was wrong. “We may have to test if you can carry my children. Ah, your body is perfectly suited for that.”

It... was?

Don’t fucking listen, Lily. She has no right. She can’t do that to you!

“Brightling, you forget it would not just be Lily. My child will be yours to bear as well, and I do wonder how you will handle? Tense and rigid as you are, I suspect you might simply... shatter.” Mistress used her thumb to hook their lips open, and they instinctively opened for her even as they wanted to vomit and they didn’t know why. Slowly, she pushed her index and middle finger in, and began moving back and forth, thrusting more and more and more and–

And then she released them and leaned back. Lily felt like the most beautiful thing in the world, and that was a thought that was disgusting beyond measure. They didn’t know how much more of this they could take. And they were only starting? How were they going to survive? She didn’t want to overwrite them, so all they could do was suffer, is that it? Compulsion didn’t even give Lily the option of choosing just suffering over fuckdoll training. Then again, suffering was just another tool for her to turn into something erotic and depraved.

“You would be correct in that,” Magnolia purred. “Come here. Lean over me, now.”

Lily complied. They had to. Holding their body back was an idle consideration, not something they could actually do. It felt bizarre to be on top of their Mistress, for they were below her in every way... except they still were. They had not even a semblance of control over themself.

Mistress grabbed a handful of hair and pushed their head down, so her mouth was to their ear, and she hissed out–

“If you disappoint me, you will still be trained to service me. Harsher, even. I would make you choke on me, until the taste of my cock and the scent of my body becomes the only thing you know, the only thing you remember. I would fuck you sunset to sunrise, and then you would dance for me, and then we would do it again. I will fuck you forever, give you pleasure unending and break your body to my shape, until you cannot imagine existing without me inside you. Your choice has never been whether or not this happens. It is how much of you I leave behind.”

Lily’s breath was coming far too fast, their eyes all but popping out of their sockets. That... they were hers, and to destroy them wouldn’t make sense, right?

“Cute, to believe you understand your purpose. But I will give you the chance to demonstrate,” Mistress said brightly as if she hadn’t just declared things straight out of nightmares. “Kiss me. Kiss me, with passion, as you would if you meant it. Truly meaning it will come with time, but you will learn by doing. If you do not, you will suffer a far worse fate.”

Lily, still choking and sobbing, mind a ruin, complied. They got on their hands and knees on top of Mistress. She smirked at them, reveling in their sorrow, relishing their tears.

“Ah, and no crutches,” she added, as if an afterthought. And she took their purpose. Once again, their mind was their own, as much as it ever could be again.

They wanted it back. They couldn’t handle this, not without being mindfucked into wanting it, they couldn’t even handle it when they were mindfucked, they couldn’t take this, they weren’t here, they weren’t–

Pain became everything they knew as the inside of their mind betrayed them. Back into clarity, now, there was no other choice; their body felt like it was burning alive, and they remembered why they hadn’t escaped earlier, because that compulsion was lying in wait, because even their headspace was hers, even retreat was denied.

“I would have thought you learned your lesson by now,” Mistress quipped. “Well, no matter. Surely you will eventually learn that touching the fire burns.” She laughed. “You were about to kiss me. Do it. Do not try to elicit sympathy from me anymore.”

Lily wouldn’t. They leaned down, fully in the moment, for they had no other choice but to be in the present they couldn’t stand. 

Their body resisted the idea, but Lily didn’t have a choice, not one that couldn’t be taken away, so they had to comply. They placed their lips on Mistress’s, softly at first, and then more roughly. She wanted them to kiss her with passion? Fine. They would. Lily lunged forward, intent to obey, to give her exactly what she wanted. 

Lily grabbed their Mistress’s head and pulled her close. They wanted to hate her, and they wanted that hatred to show in their kiss. Passion? People could bite when they kissed. That was passionate. 

Their teeth didn’t break the skin. 

Mistress moaned into the kiss. What was the point of it, then?! Their anger didn’t hurt Mistress, it only gave her more to be enamoured with!

“What a good plaything, taking to training so readily,” Mistress cooed, pulling back and looking at them with adoration. Lily glared at her and tried to look defiant, but the clattering of their teeth showed that to be the lie it was. “Are you not happy you are here? Tell me, what do you feel?”

“I-I hate you,” Lily growled. But not angrily. Anger was for something you could fight. This was just despair, despair deeper than anything they’d ever felt before. A high bar to cross, but Mistress didn’t play by the rules, and their contempt only seemed to make her stronger. “I hate you so, so much, Mistress.”

“And yet you kiss me with such passion? As they say, hatred is not so far from something else. Might you be misunderstanding your feelings? Might it be…” Mistress’s head was suddenly next to theirs, lips on their ear. “Love?”

Before Lily could deny that, or reply at all, Mistress’ hands groped Lily’s chest, squeezing them so tightly they couldn’t help but scream. Mistress muffled them with another forceful kiss, then grabbed their shoulders and pressed down. Before long, Lily literally couldn’t stand anymore, and was shoved to their hands and knees.

Her hand trailed down to grab their ass tightly, before digging her nails into it. One of her legs moved, knee bent, rubbing against Lily’s soaked (why why why, they cried) clit. They moaned loudly, straight into their Mistress’s throat, but of course she was just encouraged by that. She lifted her knee sharply into their crotch, which was painful in a way that had no right being pleasurable, no right to force them to rest their weight on that knee and allow Mistress to further violate them.

Her hands, now, trailed up, nails dragging and surely leaving marks on their way up their back. It would have been nice, maybe, in other circumstances. But not like this, and not this hard. They were sure she had drawn blood.

Mistress then brought her lips to Lily’s shoulder, fast enough they didn’t have time to react or process before they felt a sharp sting. They gasped in pain, as it clicked. Their Mistress drank blood. Their blood, now. They could feel her, somehow, through their veins, her presence extending through them into the ice that they’d grown used to, and they knew, intimately, this must have been how it happened. This was how she made them her slave. Even if they had the strength to fight back, they didn’t think they were capable of it. 

And yet, even with the dominion she held over them, so amplified they were practically an extension of her, she still chose to violate their body. She could have moved them, and they knew they would have moved for her, but not for them. They just... couldn’t do anything. They were hers. Like this, they had no hope, and everything else crashed down with it, feelings bleeding out like the blood Mistress sucked. Hatred? What use was hatred? They were just tired.

But Kassandra wasn’t.

I refuse, she murmured, and Lily barely registered the words. No, I fucking refuse! You’re going to fuck with them how you like? I will take my fucking pound of flesh.

She couldn’t resist. She knew that. Lily would just be forced to stop her.

But she could make doing that infuriating.

Kassandra shrieked. Screamed. Ran down every earworm she knew, then moved on from just that. Magnolia lost the game, breathed manually, saw pink elephants, and bore those and every other bit of cursed knowledge Kassandra had in her arsenal. She unloaded a horrible childhood’s worth of shock porn on her, and decided to go further. She mentally peeled the vampiric bitch apart, reveling in Magnolia’s imagined death, in the visceral and gory end of the tyrant. Anything and everything.

And she didn’t stop.

Lily’s dread just grew deeper. It was obvious what would happen. They were going to be punished for this, more than the collateral they were already taking. But Kassandra wouldn’t listen to reason. Because she didn’t believe Lily was capable of it, not in their state, and they knew she was right. They just wanted the pain to stop. They were ready to give in, but Kassandra just had to keep resisting.

Mistress’s eye twitched. She heard Kassandra. Obviously. She screeched, sang stupid songs, did everything she could to just make their mind hell, a hell that Magnolia would have to share. It hurt, and it was annoying, and infuriated Lily and Kassandra both, but Kassandra reveled in the bit of power she had claimed.

Finally, Mistress snapped. 

Her fangs left their neck, and her presence vanished as if Lily hadn’t just felt it spreading throughout their entire body. They felt... empty, without that. Kassandra had accomplished her goal. Now for Lily to bear the consequences.

Mistress grabbed Lily’s neck, pressing her thumb over the barely-bleeding puncture wounds, and growled into their ear.

“Yes, I am quite aware you wish for this to cease, Kassandra. Mortals tend to, at the start.” Her hands trailed down, ready to lift her dress and, presumably, lower her panties. “They are wrong to do so. None of this will end. This is your life, a gift I give to you freely. You will love it, even if you must hate it. Truly, even allowing that is indulgence on my part.”

Kassandra didn’t respond, but her confusion was just as audible as words were.

“Did you think you were special, bright one? Just because your words are alight? Your existence is novel to me, true, but it provides you no protection.” 

Wh... what? Alight? Protection? What are you talking about?! 

“The qualia of your mind’s voice matters not. You escaped enthrallment the first time, yes. But Lily is mine, and you have seen that I can make them bring you out for me. Your mind remains, tragically, your own, by my own will, and nothing more.”

A long pause. ... what?

Dawning horror flooded their mind, so forcefully it crashed over any barriers and separation in its way.

Me resisting isn’t, isn’t some act of defiance to you, is it? It’s why I’m here for you. I’m not an inconvenience in your perfect little plaything. I’m... I’m a plaything.

“She can learn,” Magnolia crowed. “Playthings intertwined, indeed, unable to do aught but tear at each other. It is truly amusing to watch! You purport to protect, and you give Lily nothing but pain when you try. You wish to escape? So, what, you can destroy each other in peace?”

Silence.

“Well, if she has no more to say, that is acceptable. A fire like her will be back to rage at the world soon enough. And until then, I can offer you more... pleasant destruction.”

Before they had time to figure out what she meant precisely, they had their answer, splitting them in two from the girth of it. They had been wet, they belatedly realized. Even their body betrayed them.

They weren’t a virgin, by traditional definition or otherwise. Not hardly. But it still felt like she was taking something precious, something they couldn’t get back. Torn away, over, and over, and over.

And Mistress just grinned. She could feel that, couldn’t she? And it just emboldened her. She was using her unnatural strength to hold them still, and began thrusting at a rate that should have been painful but somehow wasn’t, just overwhelming, because the sensation was there but with none of the pain they expected and it felt good in a way that made them sick and she probably thought that was something to be fixed too, didn’t she? And what was stopping her? Kassandra? Kassandra couldn’t stop her. Lily? They weren’t much more than a puppet, or they supposed it’d be a sex doll, now. They were going to be molded, and they were going to be hers. They might as well hold back a hurricane as resist.

“I knew I could show you how to love this,” she compelled, and they did, and that was how they felt about that now, a thin pretense of love over an ocean of despair. They didn’t know how to obey her. They didn’t know how to love something, not really.

So... they supposed they would learn.

“Beg for it,” their Mistress demanded, and so they did.

“Please, Mistress,” they murmured. “Please. If this is how it’s going to be... then do it. Fuck me. Break me. Make me love it. I don’t... I can’t care anymore, okay?”

She slowed for a moment, but any contemplativeness the gesture had was undercut by the fact that she did so just as Lily reached the edge, their body screaming for a release they didn’t want. “That... is not what I... no, never mind that.” She grinned. “I believe this is better. Do continue.”

“Yes, Mistress.” The words were barely whispered, they didn’t have the strength for more, not with the blood loss, not with them being held at the edge, but they had no will left to resist, and the compulsion moved their mouth for them anyway. “We both know how this ends. Why drag it out? Just break me down until you can make something that can be happy from the pieces.”

“And ruin perfectly good material?” Mistress chuckled, and their heart fell. “You are not metal, to be smelted down and made anew. That is how one makes an exceptionally poor thrall. Those have their place, of course. A useless, hapless thing, unable to function without orders... it is a tantalizing thought, and some prefer those. But they bore me, and require so much management besides. I told you that what I desired from you was your everything.  I have no intention to settle for anything less.”

Mistress smiled, and it felt insulting how warm that made them feel, even more than her literal warmth burning in their cunt. “However, I do see the merit of the idea. You wish to understand surrender, for you have never let yourself do so. You wish to understand love, for you believe you have never felt it. So, I will grant you this. Break, for a time.”

Emotion shattered them like a flimsy piece of glass, their body’s sudden climax almost unnoticed. They struggled to process it. It was unfamiliar. Something like fear, but without the dread; desperation, without threat of pain. Comfort, without paranoia. Determination.

No, Mistress had been right. They had felt this before. From a heart that burned itself up to protect them, even if she was hated for it. 

They barely noticed Kassandra’s sobs.

So that was love, then.

What a terrible, wonderful, beautiful thing.

~~~

Time had passed. They weren’t sure how long. But Mistress was still within them, both mentally and physically, even if that love had faded. They didn’t quite know how to feel about that.

Mistress decoupled from them.

They felt worse about that. Never mind the mess of stuff that now dripped out, probably ruining the sheets, never mind the stark emptiness of their body, never mind the exhaustion lidding their eyes.

They had felt what she was going to give them. They didn’t have it in them to wait.

They wanted it to be over.

They wanted to be able to dance as she wished, because then they wouldn’t be punished. They wanted to feel as she wished, because then they wouldn’t be empty.

“In due time,” Mistress’s voice rumbled through them. She hadn’t gotten out of the bed. She was still next to them. Why?

“Is it so wrong to wish for the simple joy of resting by a lover’s side? Yes, tomorrow you will dance. Yes, tomorrow you will serve. But this too is a part of everything, my...” she yawned. “My dear pet. Goodness. I do not sleep, but as you can see, I am not immune to the perils of exhaustion. Perhaps I went a bit overboard, using you to my satisfaction, even if it was only barely. I certainly cannot claim it was a mistake.”

Oh. They’d satisfied her? Even a little?

“Mediocre you may be,” she murmured, “but I saw potential in you. You will be nothing less than perfect in your surrender. I promised I would make you glorious, after all. Good night, plaything.”

Good? They weren’t sure. But... if surrender would make it good... that... sounded... kind of nice...