I can’t think.
Mistress doesn’t stop. She moves the prod to my stomach, my thigh, each shock worse than the last.
She grabs my leg, forcing the thing against my most sensitive part and the terror I feel then is indescribable.
I’m screaming, begging, tearing my vocal chords that have only just started to heal, but the words are lost in the haze of pain she inflicts on me.
Make it stop. Please make it stop.
My body convulses, my mind splintering under the weight of it. It feels like she’s burnt my insides, like I’m on fire and I need it to be put out.
I sob, hanging limply, my words turning to an incoherent mess as the door opens and the sound of his footsteps reach me.
“What is this?”
Mistress freezes, the cattle prod still in her hand, barely an inch from my bruised flesh.
Antonio doesn’t wait for an answer. He moves to me, his hands so fucking gentle as he undoes the shackles.
My body gives out as soon as I’m free, and he catches me, lifting me into his arms like I’m not the ten-ton heifer the other women want me to believe I am.
Antonio carries me through the halls, his grip firm but not unkind. I don’t understand what’s happening, why he’s helping me. After all they’re all acting on his orders, his instructions.
I tense as we enter a room with a massive tub. He sets me down gently, his hands lingering for a moment before he steps back.
I’m trembling, my body still wracked with pain.
This is the moment, isn’t it? This is where he tells me to strip the last of my clothing, where he pretends to be kind and then he fucks me anyway.
Only, he doesn’t.
Instead he orders a maid to run me a bath. To get toiletries, oils, and things a normal person would want if they needed comfort.
I open my mouth to speak but my mind feels too fuzzy, too confused.
What the fuck is this man playing at?
Maybe he wants me clean, maybe he doesn’t like to fuck his pets when they’re all stinking and dirty from scrubbing his precious damn castle all day.
Antonio stands for a moment, his expression unreadable before he suddenly turns and leaves without another word.
I’m alone. He left me alone?
I wrap my arms around my poor battered body, silently waiting for the water to fill enough. The maid returns with an array of luxury bath products, some I recognise from when my mother used to have daily baths.
The maid doesn’t say a word to me, doesn’t look at me. It’s clear she thinks of me the same way Antonio’s other pets do.
Once she’s gone, I climb into the bath. The heat of the water stings at first, and then it turns into a balm against my bruised and battered skin. I barely believe this moment is real.
I lie back, shutting my eyes, feeling as the tears silently fall.
I can’t do this. I can’t continue living like this.
The door creaks open, and fear explodes in my chest as I scramble up, covering myself as best I can.
Anya slips in. She glances behind herself nervously, then quickly shuts the door.
“What do you want?” I ask before I can stop myself and my words come out as a hoarse, haunting whisper with how damaged my throat is. “Have you come to torment me some more? Come to call me a fat pig, to laugh at my body? Or perhaps you’ve decided to try and drown me and be done with it.”
