by Bob Dattolo
“God damn, it’s like you have mental issues.” Stacey spoke for the first time.
“See now, Stacey, that’s hurtful. As for mental issues? Yes, you can say that I do. I was a pet for a psychotic mass murdering earth dragon for more than four years. You don’t get to say a whole lot there when your entire life revolves around pleasing him and his friends. Making them believe that everything they do to you is simply wonderful and what you live to do. So do I ramble at times? I do. Like I said? It helps hold back the anger. Or, more specifically? The mountain of rage that I keep bottled up inside. I figured it’s better to be somewhat random and make myself smile or laugh inside than to spew bile on people that don’t deserve it. Or, even if they do? Sometimes saying random crap throws them off their game and trips them up. Everyone expects to be yelled at back when they yell first, so when you don’t? Sometimes that’s when it’s the funniest. Watching them lose track because the script isn’t going the way they thought it would go?” I sipped more hot chocolate. Man, it’s good here. “Sort of like with this conversation. The three of you came over and you had a script. I can smell your confusion at how this is going. For the two of you that are dragons? You can smell my honesty in how I answered. That’s throwing the two of you even more. I’m not sure what you were expecting when you sat down, but it wasn’t playful randomness and me talking about being a pet. Not even close. For you, Stacey? You smell agitated that…I don’t know, my guess is that I’m not intimidated. I don’t know that for sure, but that’s my guess. And from your new smell, possibly a decent one. As for being intimidated? You three were there. I just fought three fully shifted dragons. They’re way, way scarier than any normal student here. Even with mages being more powerful on average magic-wise. Given how fast I can shift, if things start going poorly, I can always let things bounce from my scales while working up a decent bloodlust.”
More confusion from them mixed with a little fear.
Ugh! “Okay, skip that. Let’s rewind the conversation to when you all sat down.” I took two deep breaths, shook myself, and then wiped the smile from my face as I picked up my drink and sipped it. When I put it down, I looked over and startled a little, “Oh…uhh…what do you want?”
Cesar laughed, although it’s quiet. The two girls took deep breaths, several, as if trying to get back to center, “That’s just the most fucked thing. I swear, it’s like you really saw us for the first time. Are you an actress?”
His reaction, especially smelling the truth from him, got me to smile, “Actress? No. Not really? I don’t believe I was from before I was stricken. All of my acting since then was from belonging to Reggie.”
Cleo put her drink down, “You said you belonged to a dragon? You were his pet? You weren’t exaggerating with that, I could smell it, but why do I think it’s worse than you’re saying?”
“Umm, from my perspective? It wasn’t worse. Not really. Other than what I said about what Levi’s parents used to do to me? They were the worst. Reggie himself? I was a prized possession. I saw some of the bodies that they took out of the house, though. He killed more than 300 in the house while I was there, and I only knew about a few of them. What he did to them? Yeah, that was a fucking nightmare and a half.”
“Umm, I don’t get it? How do you belong to someone? Why didn’t you escape?” Stacey looks to the others like they’ll have an answer.
Instead, I swiped my phone and pulled up the pictures of me with my mortmagi in and handed her the phone. “That’s why I didn’t escape. I was a belonging. I wasn’t human. I was a hole for fucking. I wasn’t a girlfriend. When I say I was a possession, I don’t mean it like an expression. Cleo and Cesar understand what this means. I got down on my fucking knees and put his hand on my neck. I gave myself to him because the alternative was going to be violent rapes and I couldn’t even guess what else. I decided that I’d play along if he’d protect me. He took me in, and it was the only reason I wasn’t slaughtered with the other 300 people.”
Cleo touched her arm, “Okay, that’s a fucking nightmare. I told you a little about that? How we can sort of petition someone that’s stronger? They basically own us if they accept, but our hope is that it’ll protect us from other people? Or other things?”
“Umm, okay? I guess I get that. But…you can’t get away?”
“How was I gonna do that? Those aren’t photoshopped in. I was stricken. Mortmagi and everything. I couldn’t see and didn’t have magic from the time it happened up until the last day and I broke free. I never expected to see or have magic again, yet it happened. My goal wasn’t really to get away. My decision was to die how I wanted to die. I wanted to die fighting. My dream was to kill the two with me and get away before Reggie found me, but I honestly expected that he was there, and he’d kill me before I could get away. I was planning on ending it before he got creative. So, escape? Him owning me saved me from death by torturous debauchery. I was willing to pay the price until I wasn’t any longer.”
No response from them.
“So when you ask about acting? For more than four years I had to act like everything he said and did was the world to me. I wake up by 5am every day because that’s what he wanted from me. I work out as often as possible because he wanted me to be fit. I went along with every request. Every wish. Every demand. Dance a pole? Done it. Stripteases? Done ‘em. Blown him until he couldn’t get it up anymore? Done it. Along with his friends? Done it. Let them fuck me until I was raw yet had to pretend that I loved every minute of it? Done it. So, acting? I haven’t done everything on stage. What I had to do had to be done to survive. So I can emote with the best of ‘em when I have to.”
I pulled my hands back and forced blood to my cheeks as I dipped my eyes, “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to walk in on you when you’re undressed?” My eyes came up a little, “Do you…do you want me to help you with that? I’ve never seen someone as big as you before.”
The three of them lasted maybe four seconds before they started laughing. Cleo recovered first, “God damn, Cesar’s right. You’re good at that. I swear you really walked in on someone naked.”
“Right? When your alternative is a painful death? You damn well know you learn how to blush on command and all of that.”
More laughing.
I waited for them to calm down, finishing my hot chocolate, “So we’re back to the beginning, you came over here with a script in your heads. I’m sorry I’m not playing along, so let’s bypass that. You came over with a reason. Given what happened out there, I have to think that you’re probing. I’m just not sure for what. If it was an enemy thing, you’d probably just start acting like dicks.”
Cleo responded again, “No, we’re not looking for that.”
“No, not that.” Stacey licked her lips, as if thinking of what to say, “How do you feel about Tiffany?”
“They make decent jewelry, but I can’t wear it since shifting will break it?” Confusion. “Fine, that’s Tiffany’s. By Tiffany, I have to assume you mean the fire dragon?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t feel any particular way about her? She’s allied with my roommate. So far, neither of them really like me. I had my first non semi-argument with them today after the fight. Eva was freaked and they ended up going back to Tiffany’s room to get away from me.”
“You’re not allies with her?”
“Technically, I’m not allies with anyone.”
“Why not?” Cesar’s question seemed perfectly honest to me.
So I tapped near my eye to accentuate the scars, “Don’t let the magic and shifting fool you, I was a stricken and still have the last name. People hate that and seem to have an issue with me because of it. I had one main ally last year, a group that I was supposed to be allied with, and other groups that hated me. I was the primary target going into the trial. Someone spread a ton of rumors about me starting about a week before, and everyone hated me. I lost the group and went in with the one person. This year, she doesn’t seem to want to hav
e anything to do with me, although she won’t tell me why. No one has asked me. I haven’t gone around to find people here to ask to be my ally. I figured it’ll happen, or it won’t. I’m okay either way.”
“You don’t want allies?”
“Want? Sure. Then again, I saw what allies did in the trial. The first kills in that fucking thing were allies turning against allies. That’s a nightmare to me. So I’m okay going it alone if I have to. I’d love to have others allied, though.”
They exchanged looks, with Cleo stepping in again, “You didn’t quite answer the question. How do you feel about Tiffany? Would you ally with her if she asked you?”
“I honestly don’t know. We didn’t start out in a great direction, so I’d probably have to see what direction things go before making that happen. As it is now? No. I don’t have any plans to do that. Why do you ask?”
“Cesar and I are from the islands, obviously. We were allied last year. We had two others, but they were from Puerto Rico, so stayed behind when we were forced here. We’re trying to build a decent group, and we wanted to ask you. Stacey and Tiffany…they don’t get along.”
Hmmm, something about how Stacey’s sitting stands out to me, “Let me guess, you thought you were dating, and she treated it like friends with benefits and slept with someone else? Then you fought?”
Her eyes went wide, “What the fuck? How did you know that?”
My hands fluttered as I gestured vaguely to my body, “It’s a posture thing, mostly. You’re personally hurt. Closed off. The hurt’s deep, telling me she kinda hurt you pretty bad. The rest is guesswork.”
Her shoulders fell more, “Yeah. I thought we had been connecting. We were, just to her it was only physical. We fought, but never got to the point of challenge. I said some things. She said things. Makes me think she may come for me at some point.”
“Sorry to hear that. That sucks.”
“You willing to join us?” Cesar looks to already know the answer to that.
“What’re you expecting when it comes to joining? Hanging out? We braiding each other’s hair? Tie-dying shirts together?”
Cleo patted her gorgeous hair, “If you know how to braid, I’ll gladly sit for you, but otherwise? No braiding. Hanging out would be good. We need to get to know each other. Build up a trust. So far, all we know about you is that you’re kinda a freak, you have mental issues that you’re pretty upfront about, and you’re absolutely brutal in a fight.”
Do I get upset about her summary? You know what? Nah. It’s all kinda spot on. “True. And I don’t know much about you three. Hell, I’ve never even seen either of you in the bathroom, so there’s that.”
“We haven’t been staying out on purpose. It just hasn’t worked out for us to be there at the same time.” Stacey smiled at my look, “So, you interested?”
“I am. Should we do some getting to know you things? Who knows, maybe you’ll hate my habits and decide you don’t want anything to do with me.”
“I’m okay with that. For now? We should head out.” Cleo stood up.
“That makes sense. You need to go talk about how the conversation went and let Stacey know how much of what I said is the truth.”
Knowing nods from the two dragons as they tugged the confused mage away. Good. They should talk. I don’t have any issues with them, so maybe this’ll work? Or else they’re setting me up for something. I can’t trust them just yet. That means that I have to dig more and find out what they’re all about.
At least it gives me hope that I’ll have some allies, though. Known allies.
That gets a text sent out to one of my mystery contacts letting them know I wanted to speak with them for a few minutes. That has me heading out, only to get sidetracked by the smell of blood. Familiar blood. It doesn’t take me long to find Kaylee. Someone beat the hell out of her again.
“Holy shit, are you okay?”
She jerked away from me, smelling like terror. My hands went up immediately, “I’m sorry! I’m not gonna do anything. Are you okay? Who did this?”
She shook her head and looked around before mumbling, “No one. Just…leave me alone. Please.”
“I can help, Kaylee. Please tell me. Was it because we were allies last year?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Please go!” More terror from her.
Damn, man, this is ridiculous, “Okay, I’ll leave. But I’m here if you want to talk.”
She didn’t call me back as I left her behind. What the fuck is wrong with people? Who’d go after someone like her? I don’t smell anyone on her, so maybe they had gloves on or something? She’s not as badly beaten as she was last year, but its decently bad.
This place…it’s a slice of hell.
Chapter 22
Angelica left with the information about my possible allies. She seemed pleased by that, although we agreed to keep the rest of this silent still. I did ask if she’d keep an eye out on Kaylee for me and see if she can pick up any rumors about anyone going after her. She may not want to be an ally, but I worry about her.
That put me back in the room, where I lounged around for a bit before doing a bit of solo exploration, if you will. There’s something about draining someone that gets the motor running. I was done before Eva came back to the room. She still looks freaked and is even more thrown off since I’m lying on the bed with no sheets covering me. No, I’m not dressed.
“Do you have to be like that?” She locked the door and turned away, as if bothered by it.
“Yes. It’s a compulsion, sort of like OCD, just with more boobs.”
She turned back around, squinting, as if trying to see if I’m telling the truth.
“No, I don’t have to be like this. I just don’t care, so why bother? I don’t get why you’d be annoyed or upset. You have the same stuff. Besides, you were with Tiffany earlier. Why would more boobs throw you so badly?”
She blushed like crazy and turned out the light, “I don’t want to talk about that!”
Ugh! “I didn’t ask you to tell me about that. I don’t care about that. I’m just saying that you saw another girl earlier. Why would seeing another bother you?”
“It’s just not right!”
“Umm, I hate to break it to you, but every dragon gets naked in our last class. I saw every set of dragon balls earlier today. More than a few buttholes, too. We can’t care when we’re shifted, so why bother with it? There’s no difference in our buttholes in either form other than size!”
She held up her hands, “I don’t want to talk about your butthole!”
“You sure? I just had it bleached while on break. It looks fantastic!”
She whipped around, not realizing that I can see just fine in the dark. She’s looking towards me; I just don’t think she can see me worth a damn. I’m not about to tell her that I can see her boobs since she’s mid-change at the moment, “Would you stop! I don’t want to talk about your asshole!”
“It’s finger licking good?”
“Ugh!” She got dressed kinda angrily, then disappeared into the bathroom. She mumbled through using the toilet about a freak of a roommate and why she has to put up with me, washed up, then came back in. Cleo and Stacey came through their door just as ours was closing. They just arrived back at their rooms based on the conversation I heard. It wasn’t about me.
My roommate was quiet as she got into bed. I expected her to ignore me, so it was a shock to have her talk to me, voice crazy quiet for a mage. “I heard you were talking to Stacey.”
Makes me wonder who saw it and who thought it was worthwhile spreading to others. “I was.”
“Why?”
“She has a nice timeshare in Idaho she’s looking to sell for a steal. I’m turning into quite the real estate mogul, so I’m interested.” Her eyes went wide, so I jumped back in before she could ask me more questions. “She had some questions about what she saw. Same with Cleo and Cesar.” In the bathroom, the girls’ voices dip down as Cleo shushes her. Eva had no clue.
“I don’t like that you were talking to her.”
“I’m not even sure how to answer that or if it needs an answer. There was no question there.”
“You need to stop talking to her.” Her lips pressed together, as if she didn’t expect to blurt it out like that.
“I tried interpretive dance to start, but she wasn’t getting it. I was doing a blossoming flower thing to symbolize the spring equinox and how the patriarchy rules women and keeps us down, but she kept thinking I was doing those vagina paintings, just touched up by Thomas Kinkade.” Her eyes reflect her utter confusion. “Thomas Kinkade? Painter of light? He’d touch up paintings with paint that reflects light more? Wood scenes, little houses, maybe with snow on the roof? No, you never saw those before?”
Cleo laughed and tried to explain to Stacey what I said. I’m shocked they don’t pop up a hearing spell. I’m thinking they don’t know one.
“It’s like you have brain damage, you know that? How someone as fucking terrifying as you are can be such an imbecile is beyond me.”
Anger builds in me as Cleo rushes through filling Stacey in on what was just said. My new fire mage ally is not a fan of what was just said to me.
Which is kinda touching, considering what they said earlier.
“There’s an online course for both. 12 Steps to True Terror and then Imbecile at Home: Reach Your Potential. I was accepted into the master’s courses for both, which is quite an accomplishment.” My rage dimmed a little. “They used my thesis in their advertising. It was touching. I got to give one of the speeches at graduation. For the terror classes. I got three people to pee, which was pretty high praise if you ask me.”
Her mouth hung open. I swear she really has no clue how well we see in the dark, “Do you ever shut up?”