Reign of Ruin

by Bene, Jennifer

  “Ice skating… interesting.” The rumble in the thing’s chest faded as it released her from the vision and exhaled against her hair. “A much better memory.”

  “Yes, th-thank you for that.” Swallowing, Danielle wiped her eyes and tried to turn, but the thing wouldn’t let her. It had power, real power, and that was almost more terrifying than its hold on her. Tracing her hands over the arm wrapped across her body, she tried to understand what it was, but all she could tell was that the dimensions were wrong. Strange. Too large compared to her to be any kind of human. “You’re… exactly how big are you?”

  “I am as small as I can make myself and still have substance.” Another low laugh. “This memory is good.”

  Before she could tell the thing to wait, to give her a moment to breathe, she was tossed into it. Someone was kissing her, softly, with a hand on the side of her neck. On a bed in the afternoon sun, a handsome boy leaned up and grinned down at her as she felt his fingers glide down her body. Teasing a breast, lightly pinching her nipple until his mouth replaced it, sucking it in as she parted her thighs so he could slip his fingers inside. Somewhat clumsy, but there was so much excitement, their hearts racing, breath coming too fast as she moaned, and he kissed her to keep her quiet. ‘Now?’ he asked, and she nodded, a blush heating her cheeks, and then he moved between her legs. Kissing, easing in slowly, gently, asking, ‘Are you okay?’ between kisses until their bodies met, fitting perfectly. No pain, just fumbling, new pleasure. ‘I love you,’ he whispered, like he always did, with a kiss to her nose and then her lips. ‘I love you too,’ she answered, and it was true and good as he moved inside her.

  The vision, memory, whatever, ended just as abruptly as it had begun, leaving her with a tingling in her skin that had the ghost of a smile spreading across her face. She was still able to feel his lips on hers. Christopher’s lips. A slightly younger version of the man from the café, which meant they had stayed together. Her first love, her first time with a man had been good. The thought made her happy and sad — bittersweet. To know she’d had love, but it was already gone.

  “There are more of those memories.” One large hand moved between her thighs, and she gasped as one thick digit slid inside without any pain. “More, where he is better. I can show you them while I touch you.”

  Shaking her head, she tried to close her thighs, but her legs wouldn’t move any closer together. “I want to know everything. Everything they took.”

  “I can keep the bad memories away, give you your childhood, your Christopher, your—”

  “No!” Grabbing at the thing’s huge hand, she tried to pull it away, but there was no moving it. “Stop, please… I just want to know my life. You said you would give back my memories, give back what they took.”

  “And you gave yourself to me in exchange.” A low rumble as a second finger tried to work in beside the first — too big. Whimpering, she was about to argue when it spoke. “If you want to know more, here.”

  “Wait!” she shouted, but it was too late. A thump behind her eyes and she was on her knees. Hands bound with chain to a pole behind her back. There were more women to her right and left, but too far away to be of help to each other — and talking to each other always earned punishment. The man in front of her had his pants open, his dick in hand as he approached and grabbed her hair. ‘Open up,’ he demanded, and when she clenched her jaw, he backhanded her, and pain burst in vibrant white across her cheek. Ears ringing, ripped upright, but this time he shoved in, instantly choking her. ‘Hit me with your teeth and I’ll take them out.’ So many more men like him. One after another. Her lips felt bruised, split, throat aching as another told her to ‘Open’ and she did without argument. His cock went too deep, too fast, forced into her throat and her stomach heaved. She threw up, but it was nothing more than water and seed, because that was all she’d had… but the man hit her anyway, kicked her before someone else pulled him back. Left her bound on the floor. Bleeding and crying, praying to God for help.

  Ripped back to reality, Danielle could only sob, jerking in the tight grip across her ribs as she tried to escape the men from her memories. Free of them now, but she was still trapped in the darkness, aching as her body strained to accept the creature’s fingers, feeling the thick digits moving in and out as the memory made her throat ache in sympathy. She wanted to scream, but she bit her tongue instead of yelling and cursing at the thing like it deserved. It could hurt her easily. With more memories, with its strong, too-large hands and arms, and she knew she was still just as powerless as she had been chained to the pole. Licking her dry lips, she whispered, “I… didn’t remember them doing that.”

  “I know,” it rumbled low. “It was from shortly after you were taken.”

  “How long ago?” she asked, gasping when its fingers pushed deep again, straining the limit of how far her cunt could stretch. Clenching her teeth, she stifled the whine, holding her breath until it finally eased them back. She had a new threshold for pain after the cardinals, but her body still had limits.

  “Hmm…” The creature’s other hand slid to her breast, and she couldn’t help but clench around the fingers buried deep when it pinched her nipple, tweaking it just like Christopher had. “Time is confusing. Perhaps four or five years ago.”

  Danielle’s heart stuttered, her head swimming. “That’s impossible.”

  “It is true. You just do not have the memories.” A low rumble as those fingers rocked in and out, the wetness easing their path, her body somehow adjusting to it. It purred against her back, a soft rumble like distant thunder. “There are no good memories from this place to give you back.”

  That was easy to believe. Eden was Hell, but part of her still wanted them, wanted the truth, just to know what had happened. What had been done to her body, to her, but she didn’t say it aloud. “Why can’t I remember?” she whispered.

  “You are human. Your body was never meant to be healed like that, Danielle. Each time you were injured, they put you in the water, but it has been too many times, and the water cannot heal your mind. Just your body. So frail and mortal… you have been damaged so often, so easily.” As if to make the point, the thing spread its fingers inside her until the painful stretch had her whining and clawing at its hand desperately. A hot exhale brushed over her hair and down her front as it returned to simply thrusting them. “It is not surprising your mind is broken.”

  “But they said Go—”

  The thing growled, arm tightening until her ribs creaked. “What they call their baptism baths is a power stolen from me.”

  “Stolen?” Twisting her head, she tried again to look at the thing, but there was only the hint of some kind of shadow in the black as its fingers stayed still inside her. “How?”

  “The water. The runes the humans used to bind me here, to imprison me, seems to lock my power in as well. I cannot reach past these walls, but my time here has resulted in some of my power leaching into the water.” A low, rumbling chuckle buzzed against her back. “I believe they discovered the effect on humans by accident… after they tried to drown me with their water supply. Now they give credit to their god for what they have stolen from me.”

  “It was all a lie,” she whispered. She’d known it, she felt she’d always known it was a lie. That the priests, all of Eden was just a corrupt hellhole.

  “It is, and you are correct. You never believed them. Such a smart girl, Danielle.” A gentle touch turned her face, but her eyes closed before she could see anything in the dark. Unable to open them, she felt its mouth on hers. So much larger, but it tasted sweet as its tongue teased hers softly. Pleasure pulsed, and a moan slipped from her as she rocked her hips against those delving fingers — until a third tried to fit.

  “No, st—” Cut off with another kiss, face held firm by one strong hand, she whimpered as the thing forced her legs wide, bending them towards her chest. In the new position it was able to work the third in a little bit, steadily stretching her as she tried to plead for
the thing to stop. Her begging broken by each flick of its tongue past her lips.

  “You gave yourself to me, Danielle. I will not be patient much longer. Open for me.” The thick fingers pushed harder, and she cried out, tears springing to her eyes as the creature’s hold on her became complete for a moment. In empty air, she was left floating while it moved around her in the black. Suspended in the nothing until the thing’s tongue slid over her clit and three painfully thick digits thrust at her bruised cunt, trying to stretch her even further.

  Pleasure competed with pain, mindlessly terrifying, unable to move. Just as an orgasm was about to crest through the torment, she regained some control and screamed, “STOP!”

  “You would rather not feel pleasure?” it asked, a feral growl under the words, and then she fell. A short scream escaping before she hit the ground hard.

  Danielle had no idea how far she’d fallen, only that her shoulder hurt, and she’d hit her head. More pain. Just more pain. Had the priests known it would do this? That it would want inside her just like them? What had they thought fucking her would do? What did they think their twisted drug would do other than make everything hurt worse?

  Sniffling on the floor, she rolled to her side slowly, wishing that her body would finally just give up, that her heart would stop beating before worse could happen. Her head pounded as she pushed herself up with a weak whimper. “You— you said you wouldn’t hurt me,” she accused in a soft voice, staring up into the black, and the only response for a minute was low, echoing laughter.

  “I never promised that. I promised to fix what they had broken, to return your memories in exchange for you. That was our pact, and yet… you fight me. Even as I seek to offer pleasure, you make demands.” Another rumble that shook the ground as she swallowed the lingering taste of charred candy from its kiss. “If you want your memories, Danielle, you can have them.”

  Something snapped behind her eyes, like the pop of a rubber band, and then there was only suffering. A surge of pure agony as she screamed. Screaming, always screaming. ‘They like it when you scream.’ A rough hand grabbed her, bent her over the side of a bed a second before the man shoved his cock in her ass. So much pain. Another flash, and she realized she was hanging by her wrists, in thick cuffs, but one wrist was already broken, and the baton was still in his hand as seed leaked down her thighs. ‘Piñata time,’ he laughed before he swung and broke a rib. Then the world shifted, and a man loomed over her… shouting, yelling, and she curled up on the floor. Unable to remember what she did as he kicked, punched her. Face down, a different time, a different man lifting her ass into the air, spanking her just before he started to fuck her as she sobbed. Bleeding. A man on top of her, inside her, thrusting so hard her cunt hurt — but then it was someone new — again — again. Her throat, her pussy, her ass, a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, there was no counting. Some hit her, hurt her on purpose, some just used her for the warm body she was. The flickers slowed, and she sat down on the floor of a hallway where a girl lay dead. Bloody, the shape of her skull was wrong. The priest touched her hair, ordering her to pray. Shivering, she woke up in the baptism baths. Over and over and over and over. Sometimes the men wanted her to serve them before she went to the priest. Before the priest fucked her on the floor, another on her knees, another taking her throat. Then there was someone whipping her, she couldn’t see them, but she wanted to die. She wants to die. She just wants to die.

  “NO!” Tear-streaked, Danielle screamed and gulped air in the pitch black. Sobbing hysterically, trying to fill lungs through broken ribs that were not broken anymore. Confused. Nothing felt right as she scratched nails over stone, on hands and knees, screaming whenever she had the breath to let one tear from her throat. There was so much wrong, though not wrong anymore, but her mind could still remember the burns on her hands that taught her not to steal food. Everything seemed to be happening at once, and also be over, and eventually there was nothing to do but cry and scream as the memories tried to sort in her head. All of it worse, so much worse, because people had done it. Just people. Humans.

  “Yesss,” the voice answered, smug and self-satisfied as the horror slowly forced her into silence. “You really do it all to yourselves. This place was not my idea.”

  “I can’t,” she whispered, too afraid to live with what could happen — what had already happened. “Please… I want to die.”

  “No, there is no chance of that.” The thing lifted her from the ground, spreading her thighs painfully wide to fit between them. Purring, it kissed her, all burned sugar sweetness with the tip of its large tongue moving between her lips. “You are mine, you gave yourself to me”—a trail of kisses down her throat as it continued—“you are never going to die, Danielle. I can fix you, just like I said. Mentally and physically. If I hurt you, and that is unavoidable, I can heal it. Sometimes you will accept me, and sometimes I will take what I want from you. But you are mine and I will have you.”

  “Please just kill me,” she begged, whimpering as the thing lifted her higher and its massive cock pressed against her entrance. “No, no, stop! Please!”

  “I can fix it,” it purred. A sharp pull at her hips and the head popped in, a searing ache as her cunt stretched. When she tried to put her leg down to push away, they were suddenly back in the air, floating as it forced another inch or two in and she screamed.

  “Don’t hurt me anymore,” she cried, begging as the pain spiked and ebbed.

  “This feels good, Danielle… Be with me this first time, feel it all.” It growled low, arms wrapped tight behind her back as it thrust deeper. Something tore and she screamed, hiccupping on a sob as pain shot like lightning up her spine. “Yessss… let me in. Feel me inside you. I will hear all of your sounds eventually.”

  “Please,” she whimpered as it thrust deeper, and the agony stretched with her. It groaned against her, a dull vibration as it held her tight to its massive body.

  “So tight, so warm. This was meant to be.” Its tongue invaded her mouth as she cried out, overwhelming as it took control and its cock throbbed inside her. “Mmm… you are mine. Perhaps in time you will even bear a child like they had planned. Although it would never serve them. It would be ours.”

  “No…” Shaking her head, she felt something deep inside shudder. Confused and lost in the pain as it lifted her a bit and then pulled her down by her hips again. Her sob of pain was echoed by its satisfied groan.

  I will never bring a child into this hell.

  “You would be glorious swollen with child, filled with my seed.” It purred and traced sharp nails down her spine. “It could even make you stronger. There are so many possibilities for us.”

  “Why?” she whimpered as it moved a little deeper inside her. “Why a child?”

  “A child might let me escape.” Sliding her up and down its shaft, she shuddered, choked on a sob as with each downward thrust a little more made it inside. “I have never bred a human before, but we have all the time we need to see if it is possible, Danielle.”

  “Please… no…” Crying, she found her arms trapped behind her back, unable to move them as it controlled every inch, every movement.

  “If you play nice, I can give you pleasure with the pain.”

  Desperate, she nodded, and tried to relax enough to let the thing’s massive shaft inside her. Pleasure bloomed out from where they were joined until the pain was manageable, as if it took nothing for it to erase the ache inside her. Just as it had been nothing to show her the memories, both wonderful and horrible. Thinking of the torrent of memories still trying to find a place in her head, she shuddered. “Was— was it all just a lie? Everything?”

  “What your priests told you?” The irritation in the thing’s voice was clear.

  “All of it. God, the Devil, Heaven, Hell… is any of it real or was it all a lie?” she asked, voice shaky, and then she cried out as it rolled them so she was on her back, once again on the stone floor. Knees bent high as it slid another few inc
hes in successfully. For a moment, there was just her scream of pain as her body shook, straining to adjust.

  “Shhh,” it hushed her with a purr, ecstasy pulsing from the agonizing place it was trying to split her. Confusing, like two different versions of her body overlapping. One tortured, one pleasured.

  Her breath shuddered. “Pl-please, just tell me.”

  “Heaven and Hell?” The thing laughed, a low and disturbing sound directly by her ear, and she couldn’t stop the tears. “And what would I be in that dichotomy? Your devil?”

  Maybe.

  It didn’t need to be said aloud, the thing could read her mind. Knew her better than she knew herself. As it started to fuck her, still not all the way inside, she hovered between bliss and torment and knew that the thing could control all of it. Every sensation, every memory, everything. It was choosing for her to suffer right now, just like it had chosen to dump the most horrific memories into her mind at once — and this was only the beginning. Still trapped in Eden, still doomed to suffer, to remember or forget on a whim.

  Danielle would have to beg for the good memories, would have to play nice and ask it to take the memories of Eden back. She wanted to forget ever being baptized in Eden.

  There could be a different memory for how she ended up here, something new, because whether it existed or not… this was Hell.

  And she was trapped with a monster.

  She was damned.

  Epilogue

  Later

  “It is almost time, Danielle…” The voice echoed around the room, not anchored to any specific point, but she just kept her eyes closed and ignored it. Soaking in the pool, she felt good. Relaxed. It didn’t really matter that she knew the water was cold, that some part of herself could still feel it, because she could also feel warm water wrapped around her like the pool was some sort of luxurious bath — and she chose to focus on that version of reality. Still, it was strange to be aware of both.