11th October, 36 Days until the banquet.
“Here it is.” She swallowed nervously, gently placing the parcel, the cassette tape, onto her desk. “Just like you asked, Ma’am.”
“Good girl.” Claudia grinned, picking it up and admiring.
Finally. After years of being without it, it was back, right where it belonged.
“My sister didn’t see this, did she?”
“No, Ma’am.” The slave hung her head, glad to be able to say that she hadn’t shown it to the girl. “Not a second of it.”
“And let’s keep it that way~” Claudia hummed beneath her breath, handing it back to the girl, watching the lithe little mouse take it into her paws. “In the cupboard with the rest.”
“Y-yes, M-Ma’am…” Terrified, she choked back her sobs, prying it from Claudia’s claws at taking it where she was directed to, hearing it slot into place perfectly. “There…”
“Very good.” Claudia still sat behind her desk, smiling tenderly at the girl. “That’s it then, you’re forgiven~”
The smaller woman swallowed nervously, very near vomiting. “You mean that?”
“Enough to keep you off the zed list, yes.” Claudia smiled, her eyes drifting towards the cupboard, towards that tape. “Now run along, Ms. Watts will escort you back out.”
“And where exactly am I taking her-” The word was like venom on Leah’s tongue. “Ma’am?”
“Where else would you be taking her…” Claudia giggled, rolling her eyes at that. “To the plantation~”
She slowly stood up, using her cane to help her back to her feet, walking towards the pair of women. Claudia’s place of work was not an office, she dealt in drugs, selling and growing.
She ran a plantation.
“And Aria~” She stepped towards the girl, gently lifting her chin upwards, an evil smirk painted onto her face. “Be a good girl and work hard, I’ll see you soon…”
Fairmont bit her lip, completely silent save for a couple of quiet gags, nodding her agreement to the other woman.
And that satisfied Claudia, at least for now. “Take her away, Ms. Watts.” She grinned, turning away from the little mouse, stepping back into her office.
Crack. Claudia’s mother was clearly not the only one who was prone to smacking her in the face, there were very few people in the world who were untouchable to Claudia, and Leah was not one of them, but she didn’t care.
“Hurt another hair on your sister’s head, and you’re through.” Leah stared her down, a fistful of keys in hand, ready to thump the other woman in the face a second time. “You got that?”
She stumbled, but she didn’t fall, glaring her father’s assistant in the eyes, wanting to gut her right there on the spot but knowing she probably ought not to. “Whatever you say, Alecia.”
Leah scoffed, grabbing Aria by the trembling hand and quickly escorting her away, while Claudia’s evil gaze slowly drifted back towards that cupboard of hers, eyeing her collection.
Aria might not have known it, or maybe she did, but she might have just saved Candace’s skin with that one. She would have hated to recreate her favorite film by recasting her little sister in the lead role, but she almost had to.
Almost.
Her hand trailed upwards to her small collection of VHS tapes, tracing over them with her finger as she searched for the one that had been missing for so long.
- 8928. 8332. 7790. 7161. 6113. 5261. 4019. 4600. 4188. 3540. 3032. 2841. 1726. 1648. 0972. 0454. 0006…
And now… 0001.
Charlotte Zed… Oh how I’ve missed you~
She plucked it off of the shelf and held it to her chest, happy to have it back, cradling it like it was alive, like a person. It was like she was finally back with her.
Eighteen out of nineteen tapes just sat there, all in a line, while this one- this very special one- sat in Claudia’s grasp after so long.
She blushed, staring at the VCR she kept in her office for the exact purpose of watching these tapes, before quietly deciding against it.
The shelf, which fit exactly twenty of them, was full of Z-tapes, except for just one slot. She stared at the empty spot where 0001Z slotted in, all the way to the left.
The rest of them were there. Jaymie, Kiera, Brenda, Kelly, Anna, and now Martha’s tape, they were all there. Even Bella’s tape was there, 0006Z, right there next to Charlotte’s as she slotted the other tape back in.
She always kept an empty slot clear to the left, just for this tape, but now that it was full she didn’t need to do that anymore. But maybe she still would…
She stared at the other empty slot, clear on the other end of the shelf. She had kept it open just in case she needed to make a tape there, and there was a chance she still would, however unlikely.
The tapes all slid one slot to the right, leaving the shelf empty towards the other end, directly to the left of her most prized possession. There weren’t a lot of numbers less than 0001, but there was one… and she might just be able to make one to fit in that slot.
And now for Chloe…
Claudia was in an eerily cheerful mood when she came to get the girl, but Chloe wasn’t about to complain.
“Master-” She clenched her curled up hands to her chest, biting her lip nervously as she stared up in awe at the other woman. “I’m sorry about last night, I really am.”
“You have until the party.” Claudia cut to the chase, having no time for the girl’s silly little worries. “If you’re not one of my drones before the end of said party-”
“You’ll kill me.” Chloe nodded, her mouth curled into a slight smile. “Thank you for this…”
Strange- Claudia thought of the slave’s weirdly positive reaction- But welcome~
On the other side of that smile however, was Chloe, and Chloe wasn’t even remotely okay, not after that last night.
She shook on her knees before the woman, lowering her lips to her master’s foot, and gently kissing her boot to demonstrate her loyalty and appreciation towards Claudia.
“What do I need to do, Master?” Chloe smiled, trying to pretend like she was happy to be doing this, when she really wasn’t. She wanted to be a mindless drone just as much as the next drone, except she didn’t. She didn’t want to lose who she was, or more accurately, there was a little part of her that didn’t want to go away. “I’ll do anything for you, I swear…”
“You have a little gamer brain in there don’t you, an eye for tiny details.” She smiled, tapping Chloe’s noggin with her cane, watching her slave wince. “You can navigate~”
“As long as I’ve been there before yes, I can navigate.” Chloe took a deep breath, choking back her nerves. “Where are we going, Ma’am?”
“In due time, slave. But first-” Claudia smirked, retrieving a set of clothes from her bag, Chloe’s clothes, passed onto her new owner from the facility once she was purchased. “Put those on.”
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“You have got to be kidding me…” The highly annoyed blonde scoffed, growling under her breath at her older sister. “What do you want, Claudia?”
“My slave and I just figured we ought to pay you a visit, that’s all~” Claudia swung her cane around, gesturing towards the overtly distraught Chloe beside her. “To apologize for all that happened last night.”
“I’m sorry, I have a girl over.” Candace smirked, quickly beginning to shut the door. “Maybe some other time-”
Thud. Claudia stopped the door with her cane, peeking inside and smiling at her sister. “Can I come in and meet her?”
Candace paused, exchanging a quick glance with the nervous blushing Chloe. “That was a lie…” She sighed, opening the door as wide as she could for the pair of women. “Come on in…”
Claudia nodded, stepping in first, followed by her slave, heading into Candace’s mansion. “Well I must say… this wasn’t quite what I was expecting from your home dear~”
“Sorry about that I guess, you didn’t really catch me at the best of times.” Candace, closing the door behind them, quickly shuffled towards the guest bedroom, making sure to lock the door before anyone could peek inside. “The slave stays on a leash, I don’t want her wandering.”
What the hell… Chloe stepped inside, jaws dropping at the sight of the place, her former home. What happened here…
Candace’s home, which Chloe had gotten so used to seeing in perfect working order, spotlessly clean and immaculately organized, was in absolute ruins. It was a wreck, like it had been blown to smithereens, but somehow worse. The place was a complete and total disaster, and it made Chloe sick to her stomach, not just to see her former master’s home in such a shape, but to see Candace like this.
“You’ll have to excuse the mess, Sophia.” Candace snapped at the girl, her voice irritated and sharp. She was rubbing her eyes, and it was clearly not because she had just woken up, because Candace had been crying. “I haven’t gotten around to finding a replacement housekeeper just yet.”
And Chloe snarled, grinding her teeth together. Good - She thought, gloating internally as she saw just how much of a disaster St. Clair truly was on the inside, the other woman wasn’t anything without her- You deserve to be crying about it…
“Apologies for not calling ahead, I suppose~” Claudia followed behind her sister, careful not to step on loose clothes littered all over the floor. “I just wanted to surprise you.”
“Well you’ve surprised me alright.” Candace scoffed, stuffing her hands inside of her hoodie pocket- and Candace doesn’t usually wear hoodies, mind you- so that was when Chloe realized:
That’s not Candace’s hoodie.
In fact, a large portion of the clothes littered about the floor weren’t Candace’s. Candace, or more specifically, Candace’s slave- whoever that might be at any given time- took immaculate care of Candace’s fancy and expensive clothes.
No, these were not Candace’s clothes. These were Chloe’s clothes. Sophia’s clothes.
“Where did you get all of these clothes?” Chloe scoffed, picking up a large armful of the garments and gathering them into her clutch, gently sniffing them- these came from her old studio apartment alright. “Are these mine?”
If glares could fucking kill, Candace would have murdered Chloe ten times over right then and there, angrily staring at the insolent slave. “Sister. Slave. Leash. Please.”
“I have a better idea, actually-” Claudia grinned, tapping her cane on the floor to get her slave’s attention, before lifting another garment from the ground with her cane. “Clean.”
Candace, unsurprisingly, did not like this suggestion. “I told you I don’t want her wandering.”
“Oh relax, dear.” Claudia swung her cane towards Candace. “She’ll be fine, she’s done this before, right?”
“Fine…” Softer, more sullen gazes from the littler sister to the bigger sister wouldn’t quite kill Claudia like Candace would have killed Chloe, but Candace agreed. “But only because it needs cleaned.”
“I’ll start with the laundry then, Ma’am~” Chloe smiled, bowing for her new master, while scanning for her old master’s reaction- which was just kind of sad, Candace didn’t have any new negative emotions to show her that she hadn’t already, but that wasn’t going to stop Chloe from digging for them. “The hoodie.”
“What about it?” Candace’s hands remained firmly buried in that pocket, not willing to let go of it.
“I’m doing laundry.” Chloe smirked, eyeing her up and down. “And you look filthy.”
That one hit Candace, made her look like she was just about to cry. “Whatever…” Pockets still full of hands and keys, Candace rolled it over her head, throwing it at the other girl. “Here.”
She, the dazzling public eye starlet St. Clair, was not wearing a bra under that, and her daddy’s dollar bought double D cups did not like being out in the open air, skin as pale as a canvas.
Or so that’s how it would go, but Candace’s body looked scary shades of purple beneath that, no wonder she wasn’t wearing a bra. Bruised and battered yeah, those tits had absolutely gotten it, and not in the fun way.
“Your bruises paint you over quite nicely, hon.” Was not the reaction Chloe wanted to hear from her master, staring now at her little sister’s tits, and not at her own slave. Off putting, but leagues away from surprising, knowing her.
It made Chloe’s skin crawl- again, not in the good way- to hear it, and not only because it was gross. These people were gross, but honestly… it kind of made her jealous, and she wasn’t sure if she was jealous that her master wasn’t looking at her, or if it was that she wanted to be the one to play with Candace’s breasts.
Candace’s jaw just hung open with shock as she carefully covered her boobs with her arms. “I hate it here.”
“Chloe, dear…” Claudia smiled, turning to wave the slave off. “Make yourself useful, I think I’d like to be alone with my sister for a little while~”
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Claudia made sure to lock Candace’s bedroom door shut behind them, intent on making sure Chloe doesn’t overhear them. “So-”
“Why did you bring her here?” Candace took a seat, intimately ashamed. “You know and you still brought her with you, why?”
“I brought her here with me because of you, dearest.” Claudia grinned, sitting down across from her. “Did you think about the offer I made you?”
She snarled, swallowing her anger. “You mean that’s somehow still on the table?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact-” Claudia smirked, still gawking at her sister’s bruised body. “It is~”
“You did it once already, and I’m letting it slide, but no.” She shivered, collecting herself in her seat, shaking nervously in her sister’s presence. “I can’t just-”
“Think about it, Candace…” Claudia frowned, disappointed in her sister’s reluctance. “Don’t you think you deserve it?”
“Look, I don’t know what she’s told you, but-”
“Would you like to?” Claudia grinned, more than willing to show Candace what Chloe had been saying. “I have a message from her, just for you~”
“I…” Candace froze, staring at the head of Claudia’s cane. “From when?”
“Last night.” She smiled, luring the girl straight into her trap. “After you left.”
Candace hesitated, but ultimately agreed-
I’m sorry, Candace… I love you and I miss you, but…
Fuck… I’m sorry… but I can’t just forgive you for it all.
I don’t know what was real and what was fake, and I still don’t know… all I know is that this is where I am now, and this is who I belong to. Being Sophia never did anything for me, but being Chloe… being Chloe keeps me safe. Being Chloe is what she wants from me… not Sophia… nobody’s ever wanted Sophia, but people want Chloe.
I want Chloe~
Go on, tell me who you belong to… Tell her who you belong to.
Not you, Candace… not anymore.
I’m sorry… but I belong to her now.
And it left her speechless to hear it all.
“What do I need to do?” Broken down to the bone, Candace gave up, agreeing to the terms her sister had laid out for her the previous night. “What do you want from me?”
“Weekends.” Claudia set the cane back down, having finished playing the recording out loud. “Every weekend, without exception~”
“I have the world championship.” Candace scoffed, squirming with disgust in her seat. “The weekend before your party.”
“Every weekend but that one then~”
“And you won’t tell father?”
“Not until after it’s official, no… But I’ll expect you to have made your verdict by the end of the party.” Claudia smiled, leaning forwards eagerly. “So… do we have a deal?”
“If it means that I get to see her-” The little sister choked, missing the feel of Chloe’s hoodie on her skin. “Then yes.”
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Chloe clung tight to that tiny little bell clipped onto the front of her collar as she stood in the kitchen alone, working on lunch for the pair of women as she listened to the disgusting sounds of whatever they were doing in there.
She couldn’t ration why she wanted it to stop, but she did, and it made her feel tenfold more powerless than she had ever felt in this house before.
Trapped in the kitchen where she belonged, a proper slave.
And she finally decided that right now, while those two were busy having sex in there, was finally her chance to put to use all of that plotting she had done in her months at Candace’s side.
Click. The secret door to Candace’s basement opened up, and Chloe went down.
Claudia, mercifully, had let Chloe dress like a proper human, in her own clothes no less, and that meant giving the opportunity to bring that backpack of hers along for the ride.
But she didn’t wear it just to look cute, fresh out of the dryer she had stuffed warm clean clothes, her own clothes, into her bag- and slotted conveniently among them, now that Candace had no need for it, fit the very same laptop that Malcolm used to use to access the security cameras within Candace’s house.
And just like the evidence had been pointing to- it was Chloe’s own laptop, provided by her former master to Malcolm for the express use of keeping the girl in check, stolen from Chloe’s apartment along with apparently the entirety of her wardrobe. She didn’t know how or why Candace had it, but she was glad that she did.
Quick and easy, back up the stairs she went, closing the door behind her, and leaving no sign that she had been down there.
Now for those keys of hers~
Ah yes, my best friend-
Chloe gently tossed the keyring up into the air, catching it in her hand moments later.
Candace’s rage quit response~
Chloe wasn’t just a good slave, she was an evil genius. In her anger, Candace had tossed the hoodie straight towards Chloe’s face, likely without realizing that her keys were still in the pocket, because all Candace cared about in that moment was smacking Chloe in the face with it- but Chloe knew they were in there, she saw the other woman stuff them in her pocket post locking the guest bedroom door.
And now she had a way out~
It really did serve her master right though, Claudia was somehow so focused on her sister and not on her new slave that she didn’t even realize where Chloe was right now, on her way out.
For months and months and months, Chloe had been focused on coming up with a way to escape this house, and she had one. She was just stuck on one last detail- how to get out of the house without being electrocuted.
And fortunately for her, that was no longer a problem. Her collar was no longer connected to Candace’s security system, which meant that she could slip through the door mostly undetected.
After all, Candace hadn’t exactly locked the door back out of the house, just the guest bedroom. She had measures in place to keep slaves trapped inside, but she very much did not want to trap her sister in here with her.
She gently stepped outside, quietly closing the main entrance behind her, careful not to make any noise. Both Candace and Claudia took their time during sex, but she knew very well that she didn’t have much longer until they were finished.
But that little yellow car of Candace’s that she had stolen from Chloe hummed like a bird when she turned it on.
She tossed the backpack into the passenger’s seat next to her, digging the laptop back out so that hopefully she might be able to disarm the gates and open the garage door, and just like that, it was going perfectly-
Too perfectly.
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“Ummmm…” Candace blinked as she stared at her phone, making sure that she was seeing what she was seeing correctly. “H-hey sis… I think I need a moment…”
Right… I’m only doing this for her… I probably ought to save her from herself, huh?
“I’ll just be out, umm-” She swallowed, waving her phone at Claudia for just a moment, not long enough for her to see what was on the screen. “Feeding the cats.”
“Well alright then…” Claudia sighed, gazing longingly at the other woman. “I’ll be in the restroom, make sure Chloe knows to have lunch finished by the time we’re done here~”
“Will do…” Candace sighed, climbing out of bed and heading out into the hallway, taking a quick detour to the kitchen to make sure Chloe didn’t completely burn the lunch than she had left on the stove. “You moron…”
Chloe really was too smart for her own good, she had thought of quite literally everything in that little head of hers, which meant the only thing that could stop her in her tracks was something which she hadn’t considered, some obstacle that to her, would seem like it came completely out of nowhere.
The notification kept beeping on her phone, and she kept pretending like it was a timer to remind her to feed the cats, but it wasn’t- it was her two-factor authentication on that laptop, asking her if it was really her trying to login, and this time- it wasn’t.
“Get out of the car, Sophia.” Candace very patiently opened the door, holding it open for the girl as she climbed out, slowly closing the laptop and sliding it back into her bag. “You’re an idiot.”
“I know.” Chloe hung her head in shame, voluntarily letting her former master take her backpack from her. “I’m sorry.”
Candace’s mouth remained curled into a frown, snatching the keys straight away from the slave’s grasp. “If my sister caught you out here trying this, you would be dead.”
That, while technically true, was something that Chloe couldn’t help but scoff at. “Your sister wouldn’t catch me out here trying this, Candace.”
“That’s because my sister is not as smart as I am…” Candace slammed shut and locked the car door, careful not to make noise. “Heinous and manipulative, yes… but not abundantly intelligent.” She frowned, taking her former rival by the arm and slowly dragging her back into the house. “So if she asks, you were out feeding my cats, got it?”
“Got it…” Chloe nodded, sucking it up and accepting that her escape attempt had failed. “Thank you…”
“I won’t save your ass like this again, Sophia. So don’t expect me to be there to bail your skin out from your next beating-”
That, quite deliberately, was a bluff on Candace’s behalf, but the dejected escapee didn’t need to know that actually- in reality- Candace would do anything to protect Chloe.
Even if it meant actively letting herself fall into her sister’s trap.
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“The two of us will be off then~” Claudia said her stomach wrenching goodbyes, which included kissing her little sister on the lips, and just as quick as they had arrived, it was time to go- just not before Chloe got her chance to say goodbye too.
Claudia finally had Chloe on a proper leash, ready to take her home, and Chloe was prepared to stay that way for a little while, at least as a way to dissolve Candace of any potential liability for any further escape attempt.
She did appreciate Candace for her help, though.
“I’ve done your laundry, fed the cats, washed the dishes, straightened up the parlor, the dining room, the kitchen, and your bathroom… you’re welcome.” That just didn’t mean she wanted to be any nicer to her than she had already been. “Take better care of yourself, St. Clair.”
She had gotten her backpack confiscated, but that was the least of her worries, she was after all just thankful that Candace didn’t rat her out.
She smiled, waving goodbye. “See you next weekend~”
Immensely thankful, at the end of the day- and it made her smile to hear that she would be seeing the other woman again very soon.
Though, it wasn’t quite the smile Candace got from seeing that bell around her neck again.
“Until then-” Candace rolled her eyes, once again seeing her rival off. “Get out of my house, Sophia~”