8th November, 8 days until the banquet.

My day was already off to a pretty rocky start, waking up with dried tears and semen in my eyes by the time I came to- and it was only going to get worse from there.

I quickly realized as I sat up that the arms I thought were my master’s when I curled up in them to sob myself to sleep had actually been her little sister’s, and that I had been sleeping in Candace’s arms for the better part of the night.

She looked like shit as well. I couldn’t be sure just from seeing her whether or not she also had tears in her eyes, but one thing I did know for certain was that she hadn’t gotten a lot of shut eye recently.

She was usually a heavy sleeper, but I must have woken her up when I pried myself from her arms because she seemed to just be waking up as well, and she did not look happy.

“I don’t know how anybody can sleep in the same room as you with all of that snoring.” I must have missed the part of the day where Candace said good morning because like always, she launched into her usual cranky attitude she had when waking up. “What time is it?”

“Buenos días, princesa~” I carefully stretched, noticing that Claudia was nowhere to be seen this morning thus far. “I don’t know, check your phone or something?”

“Shit, I missed morning services-” Candace practically launched out of bed as she checked her phone, groaning loudly in annoyance.

“Guess I’m not a very good alarm clock.” I giggled, teasing her as she quietly cursed herself under her breath for missing church. “Claudia’s probably gone to mass then, right?”

“Yeah, and I should be there too. But it’s fine; there are evening services I can attend.” She took a deep breath as she stood on the other side of the room from me, holding her phone to her ear. “Oh boy, six missed calls.”

Candace held out a finger towards me to keep quiet as she returned her missed calls- and from across the room I couldn’t hear the dial tone, but I could most certainly hear Candace getting shouted at in what sounded somewhere between mexican and caribbean spanish, to which she clearly had no reply.

And coming from a non-spanish speaking household, Candace wouldn’t know it, but from the sounds of it- it was pretty scathing. About the last thing I could hear from clear across the room before Candace pulled herself away was the sound of someone very angrily saying- put her on the fucking phone - in english, which I promptly recognized was her manager’s voice.

I just kind of sat there as Candace made her way back, holding her phone towards me as she sat down on the bed, which I nervously answered. “Umm… hello?”

“Fix this.” The first she launched into me with wasn’t a greeting, but a seething shout that could only have been a command, continuing to speak in english now that she’d lowered her voice some. “I don’t know what happened, but you’d better fucking fix this.”

“I’m sorry… I don’t understand, Ma’am…” My voice shook as I spoke into the receiver, unsure what Tallulah wanted from me. “Fix what?”

“You . Know . What .” Click - that was all either of us were going to be hearing from her for today, because Candace wasn’t about to call her back just for another earful of screams. She did have a little bit of a point though, I could turn to Candace beside me and make an educated guess as to what she was talking about, and it was kind of my fault.

“Give me that.” Candace wasn’t about to let me near her phone for more than a second longer than she needed to, so I just let her swipe it from my hands without making a fuss, quietly sitting next to her and giving her a real sorry look with just my eyes- which she admired for a moment-

And then she slapped me.

“Ow…” I whined under my breath as I rubbed my now sore cheek, looking up at her with pleading eyes. “Why’d you hit me?”

“Because you looked like you needed it.” She sighed, putting her phone away somewhere secure before popping her knuckles, trying to intimidate me. “I’ll do much more than that if you’re not careful.”

“Y-yes, Miss…” I blushed, curling in on myself at the threat of further punishment. “Are we back on the fighting thing?”

“Now that we’re out of my sister’s earshot, yeah-” Candace rolled her eyes, standing up from bed and quickly doing her best to get dressed for the day. “We’re a little bit back on the fighting thing.”

“I’m sorry.” Knowing better by now than to apologize without an explicit reason, I corrected myself before Candace could. “I didn’t mean to get you into trouble with your manager.”

“She’s annoyed that I woke her up. Having just landed in California, she’s probably jetlagged. So there’s that, plus the fact that she doesn’t like you.” She was as unamused as she was frustrated, and it showed. “But I accept your apology.”

Her forgiveness caught me off guard, because I had expected at least some of her frustration to be pointed at me. “That’s not sarcasm, is it?”

“No. I forgive you.”

Adorning herself in a frilly blue house dress helped show off how stunning Candace really was. The fabric fit her perfectly and the colors looked good on her. If I didn’t have the eyes of a hobbyist seamstress I would almost think that the gown was made for her, but I could see subtle signs that the garment had been stretched over time. It was almost like Candace had grown into the dress, and it had grown with her.

To add just a bit of extra flair, Candace wrapped a belt around her waist. The belt was wrapped tight enough to compress her stomach in just slightly, making her look that much more pronounced in the chest. Candace was always pretty. Today she was going for fierce, and I loved it.

That beautiful violet necklace sure did add a splash of much needed color against her skin as it dangled in front of her throat. The twin spirals were as sharp as the woman who wore them, and I would much prefer seeing them hanging around her neck than anything else, including the small cross she liked to wear from time to time.

I was torn on the collar. It was like a solid black band with gorgeously cut diamonds embedded into it, which definitely matched the jet black leather belt with metal studs. The two pieces would look good together. On the other hand, only the belt could be removed. Once that collar was clasped around her neck, it wasn’t coming off.

I was just glad to get a good look at it before she slid the drawer closed. She definitely considered putting the collar on here and now just to get it over with, but that level of pressure would make any woman hesitate.

I didn’t own clothes. Being another woman’s personal belonging meant I didn’t even own the body I lived in, let alone anything to cover it with. But I could make do. I had Josie’s closet and vanity here at my disposal, and that was more than enough to put something together, hopefully turning a few heads in the process.

Who needs a bra when I can just cover up in a sleek red camisole, tossing customs to the wayside and sliding into a pair of lacy black boyshorts? Not me.

Candace didn’t feel like putting on makeup, so I didn’t bother. It wasn’t like we were going to be going anywhere today, especially since she’d already missed church. I had her right where I wanted her, casting her eyes on my simple but gorgeous ensemble.

“Sophia.” Candace wasn’t even going to pretend not to notice the way I looked, but her tone was a lot less positive than I had hoped. “Can I be honest with you?”

I smirked, trying to keep it cool as she just loomed over me with an overly exasperated look in her eyes. “Of course.”

“You’re bad at this.” She ripped the bandage off by just saying it. “You’re a bad slave.”

Hearing her say that so openly broke my heart. “I am?”

“My father has always wanted you dead. I thought I made it clear that I was taking a chance by punishing you myself. I saved your life by sending you to the facility, but somehow you still haven’t learned how to be a proper slave.”

“But I am a proper slave. It’s not me that’s the problem, it’s Sophia. If you would just stop provoking her-”

“You are Sophia, Chloe.” Candace blushed, taking a deep breath to balance herself out before finally giving in. “I don’t care if I’m in trouble. I just want you to be safe.”

“But I want you to be safe too.” I frowned, nervously staring into her unwavering eyes. “I don’t want you to do this just for me, it’s dangerous here. I don’t need you here to keep me safe, I need to keep yourself safe.”

“Are you really that self-centered?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “This isn’t just about you.”

“Yes it is. Everything with you is about me. All you want is to win me back, and you’re willing to go through all these hoops to get me. If you want to be a pussy and let yourself become your sister’s bitch, go ahead. But Candy the sweetheart is never going to win my heart.”

I leapt to my feet from the vanity and stood up to her, staring her down and calling her out straight to her face, watching the color leave her face. Candace had nowhere to run but the bed behind her. It was either crawl back under her sister’s covers or stay right where she was, neither of which were her preferred option.

“If you’re waiting for me to crawl up to your feet and beg you to take me back home with you, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m willing to drag this out just as long as you are, so if you’re just doing this to get back with me, you’re just going to have to bow down and let yourself get collared like the lovesick puppy you really are.”

My heart was positively pounding with excitement as I faced her down, eager to see what she was going to do next. Either I had already won and she was just about to bow out, or I was going to finally get the fight that I’d been aching for. And she did not disappoint.

“You think you’re so tough.” She grabbed me by the straps of the camisole of Josephine’s I’d dressed myself in, spinning me around in an instant and forcing my back to the wall. Suddenly I was the one caught between her and the bed at my rear, able to see the vanity mirror behind her. “Brat. You’re nothing but a brat. Spit in my face why don’t you? See what happens.”

I was so very tempted to take her up on that, but I held back, my heartrate picking up in my chest as her attitude finally turned feisty. “Your face isn’t worth my spit.”

“Just like yours isn’t worth my semen, but you certainly whimpered and begged your way to a cum facial last night, didn’t you?”

I growled angrily, trying to force her hands off of me to no avail. Her grasp was iron tight, and no amount of struggling was going to be enough to pry my camisole from her hands- and I certainly wasn’t about to get naked for her all over again. “Bite me.”

I almost thought she was backing down when she did finally let go of me, but then I felt her hands right back on my chest, shoving me backwards onto the bed behind me.

“I’m not taking you with me, Sophia. I don’t want you back if you’re going to be like this. Keep living like you’re the invincible protagonist of some horror game and you’re going to get yourself killed.” Candace pounced, instantly finding her place on top of me in bed, growling down at me. “I know we’re rivals, but this isn’t a game anymore. If you really cared about me and respected everything I’ve done to try and keep you safe, you’d take this seriously. But you don’t.”

I shrunk back into the pillow beneath my head, seeing my flustered cheeks in the reflection in Candace’s eyes as my own began to tear up just slightly. I didn’t have words; I couldn’t speak. All I could do was sit there and listen to her scold me for my behavior.

“You don’t care about me. You don’t care about my safety. You’re just trying to use me to get away from her, because the only person you care about is yourself. You’re a brat, and I can see how desperate you are for me to tame you, but this is more than just fun and games. I am not falling for it.”

By the time I’d decided to fight back, she already had me pinned. She grabbed me by my shirt all over again, slamming me further down onto the bed beneath her.

“If you really wanted to be with me, you should have just said so- or better yet- you should have never left in the first place.” She had tears in her eyes as she fought, intimidating me back into place beneath her. Candace was not playing around. “You haven’t just ruined my life; You’ve ruined my sister’s life, and you’ve ruined your life. This was your decision. You have to face the consequences of your actions.”

I could feel myself breaking first beneath her, beginning to sob with rage as she grabbed my struggling arms by the wrists and shoved them both down beside my head. “If I ruined your life then why are you here?! If you’re not here for me, what are you here for?!”

“Because I’m a deplorable monster of a human being who deserved to have her life ruined. You were the one who made me realize just how wrong it was to punish you like I did, and I’m here to make up for that.”

“How is joining me to rot under your sister’s boot ever supposed to make it up to me?!”

“I will not sacrifice any more of my self-respect and dignity for you , Sophia Cavalier. So if you’re really expecting me to come save you from this, you had better quit barking up the wrong tree and find your own way out of this, because I am not about to give up everything just for you. I’m not here for you, I’m here for me.”

The wetness between my legs was like sand compared to the ire boiling in my eyes as I cried, staring her straight in the face and spitting. This was all I could do. This was my only defense mechanism. All I could do was be a brat, because I would break if I didn’t.

“You made your choice, and now you have to live with it. You knew what would happen. I told you what would happen. Once they took you away from me you could never come back. You knew that. You knew what they did with my mother; you knew that was the only alternative. I gave you a second chance at life by my side. I gave you a choice, and you chose this.”

She was just as turned on by this as I was, but she refused to cry. She hated crying about as much as she hated being humiliated. But I couldn’t stop myself like she could.

“Believe me when I say this, because I love you with all of my heart, but you deserve this. And do you know why?” I crumbled beneath the disappointment in her voice. This was enough punishment for the both of us. “Because you’ve been a bad slave.”

By now the tears pouring from my eyes weren’t tears of anger, but of pure fear. I knew everything she was saying was true, and it was hard to finally have to admit it to myself. I couldn’t handle knowing that everything was hopeless, but I had to stop pretending like it wasn’t.

“I know this isn’t a game, Candace.” I sobbed quietly, covering my crying eyes with my hands as she released them, knowing just how broken I really was. “But if I didn’t treat all of this like it was a game, then I’d know there’s no way to win. I don’t want to lose myself. It’s all I have left. I don’t want to lose all of my hope. I want to win…”

“There’s nothing to win. You’re a slave. You’ve already lost.” My hands were tugged away from my face as she spoke, wiping my tears away. “Now be a good slave, and take better care of yourself. I know you’re not mine anymore, but you’re not yours either. Be good for your master and maybe she’ll let you be a part of her family.”

“But I don’t want to belong to Claudia.” I sniffled back my tears, my upturned palms going limp beside my head. “I want to belong to-”

“Do not finish that.” She didn’t even know what I was going to say; I didn’t even know what I was going to say. But Candace didn’t want to hear it like I wanted to hear it. “I don’t want to do this, but I know that I have to. And I know that you’re the only person in the world who can stop me.”

“Candace.” My voice trailed out as I spoke her name, the sound like fire on a pointed pair of ears that wanted to hear me call her master again.

“Look at these ears of yours and tell me that you’re a human.” She smiled, rubbing my earlobe between two of her fingers as she admired them. “You’re not. You know that.”

“I’m a slave.” I turned my head towards her hand ever so slightly. “I’m a bad slave.”

“You’ve been a bad slave.” She smiled, slowly pulling her hand away from me. “But you’re going to be a good slave. Because I’m telling you now, be a good slave.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” I smiled happily, feeling just a few happy tears working their way down my cheeks as I looked up at her. She might not be my master, but she most certainly deserved to be given the proper respect. “I’ll be a good slave.”

“Take these clothes off, Chloe.” She smiled, her hands trailing towards my waist. “They don’t belong to you.”

Candace didn’t need my help to undress me, I just needed to let it happen. We were finally this close after so long, it almost felt wrong not to kiss her. But I did what I knew she wanted and I sat still, letting her begin to undress me in the hopes that it would lead to something more.

But she knew just how wrong it was to want that something more. She couldn’t do it, not like this. “On second thought, you look really cute in these.”

I bit my lip into a frown, letting out a long sigh of disappointment as she pulled herself away from my body. This wasn’t how I wanted it. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. “If you don’t want to be with me, why are you here?”

“I do want to be with you, but there’s more to it than that.” She sat up next to me, her legs now hanging over the side of the bed, turned away to keep herself off of me. “I’m not doing this to be with you. I don’t want to be a slave. I deserve to be a slave.”

“You think you deserve this?”

“I know I deserve this. Because if I’m not a slave like my mother, then I’m a monster like my father. I don’t want to be my father, Chloe. I don’t want to keep ruining lives.”

“You don’t deserve this, Candace. You know that’s not true.”

“You. Aria. Robin. Riley.” Her eyes drifted towards the belt she kept wrapped around her hips as that last name left her lips. “I don’t want to destroy another woman like I’ve destroyed all of you. If I don’t have someone there to help hold me back I’ll never get better.”

“But if you do this you’ll become your mother instead. You’ll end up like your mother. You’ll die like your mother.”

“Not if I’m good.” Candace turned to me and smiled, her cheeks faintly pink. “Because I can trust my sister to take care of me like I can trust her to take care of you.”

My heart shattered inside of my chest as she said that, because I knew she was wrong. “Candace-”

“Don’t say anything.” I found a single finger of hers pressed against my lips, quieting me. “Don’t say another word until I have that collar around my neck. I don’t want you to change my mind.”

The grim reality overtook me, taking a hold of me with its sharp claws of despair. I still remembered the day I got my collar, and it was eerily reminiscent of this. Candace tried to make me keep my lips shut, but in the end it was my words that won me the right to wear this collar.

Her collar.

And unless I wanted to lose her the right to wear a collar of her own, those words of mine needed to stay tucked away forever.

I’ve ruined her. I’ve ruined this entire family. I hung my head in defeat, keeping my mouth shut as tears poured out of my eyes, trying to respect her decision. I’ve ruined everything.

✶ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✶ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✶

“I’m surprised you two hatebirds have managed to get along so well since I’ve been gone.” Claudia returned after a while. She was tired, spent, and worn. This weekend had taken a lot out of her already. “I’m sorry that I took so long, I had a lot of soul searching to do today.”

“About that, actually.” Candace wasn’t at all shy to approach her sister, she didn’t know what she was getting into. “I would still like to attend church tonight, you know. You should have woken me.”

Claudia smiled, her cane in hand like always as she looked us both over to make sure we were okay. “I would have woken you. I needed to go alone this morning, but I’d be more than happy to attend again if you’d like me to take you.”

“I would, actually.” Candace smirked, taking a quick glance towards me before saying exactly what I wished she wouldn’t. “Could we bring Chloe with us?”

“Chloe?” Claudia was almost surprised to hear Candace refer to me like that. “Heavens no. She’d humiliate us.”

I was just a little bit offended that she didn’t want to take me to church. I didn’t want her to try and convert me, but if I was going to be a better slave I would have tried if I was told to.

“How is this instead?” Claudia smiled, picking up her cane and pointing it towards me. “You and I will go together, and Chloe will help the other girls clean and make dinner, and she’ll have this place ready to go for us when we get back. Food on the table and bedroom ready to get you your collar. What do you think?”

“Sounds reasonable to me, I guess.” She nervously looked back at me before giving me a reassuring smile. “The sooner the better.”

“Then let’s not waste any more time.”

And just like that, the two were gone for Sunday service. It was a difficult time for me to be alone, but I did my best to push through it.

There was no way out of this. Nothing mattered anymore. And it was starting to get to me. If there really was no way to win, what was even the point of staying alive?

At the very least, my fellow slaves were sweet to me.

Autumn helped me clean up the bedroom and everything. She never even questioned me when I asked her to help me set up that cruel little hair trap they used to put her in, because I knew that I was going to need it to help keep me from doing something I wasn’t supposed to tonight.

We set it up at Josie’s vanity, because where else were we going to put it?

My hair was precious to me, and there was no way in hell I was going to rip it out of my head once I was trapped inside. It was there to help keep me from running away, or even worse, trying to stop Claudia’s little collaring ceremony for her sister.

Next up was dinner. Darcey, sensing a whole lot of tension in the household, was the one to cook…

And she cooked a lot.

I’m sure using up just about everything we had to make a meal worthy of nobles was a little bit my idea, but I wanted to enjoy myself just the same. If I was going to have a last meal before I died, I wanted it to be this one, because damn was Darcey a talented cook.

And yeah, I was more than a little bit proud about getting Darcey and Autumn to switch roles, they both seemed to like this much better anyways.

I even got a moment to myself with Zenna before dinner. The lioness could tell that a cat got my tongue, so instead of sticking around to talk she just hand delivered Poppy into my arms before giving me a kiss on the forehead. If only for a couple of seconds it was nice to be treated like a six year old girl being taken to the foster home for the first time, because that was exactly how I felt.

Darcey, Autumn, and Zenna all went upstairs to eat with Josephine, politely leaving me to dine on my own downstairs.

I’d bore you with details about how the rest of the evening went for me, but it was dreary to the point of depressing having to eat alone downstairs, even if it was a good meal all in all.

I curled up in my master’s bed with my stuffed dog, and I awaited her return. I knew what was important tonight, and it wasn’t me. For once I hardly deserved the spotlight at all.

Everything was in utter chaos, and it was all my fault.

✶ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✶ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✶

“What’s got you looking so glum?” Claudia was the first to get back, and she had a less than amused look in her eyes when I didn’t respond. “Answer me when I speak to you.”

“I don’t want this, Master.” Claudia forced the words out of my mouth, so I gave her the honest truth. “Candace doesn’t want me to change her mind, but I don’t want this.”

“Why don’t you want this?” Claudia sat hip to hip with me, her cane still clutched tight in her left hand. “This is what you and I have been working towards, subjugating Candace.”

“No. This is what you’ve been working towards, and you’ve forced me to go along with it.” I bit my lip and hung my head, a ball of regret rolling up inside of my chest. “She doesn’t want this.”

“I don’t care if she doesn’t want this. This is what’s happening.” My master was already seething with rage at her own wife, and being dressed in Josie’s clothes wasn’t doing me any favors. “You’ve already cost me my relationship with my wife. Without the plantation I have no power. I need to prove to my father that I’m worthy of being his heiress, since Candace certainly isn’t.”

“I didn’t cost you anything with your wife, Ma’am. All I’ve done is help you see the cracks that were already there.” I couldn’t even feel my heartbeat at this point. I had gotten the fight I wanted, and there was nothing else for me. “And Candace is worthy. I’m the one who ruined everything for her. You ruined everything for yourself.”

“I’m only going to say this once, Chloe, so you had better listen.” She stared me down, glaring into my soul with those daggers in her eyes. “If I hear one more thing that I don’t like come out of that little mouth of yours before that collar is clasped around my sister’s neck, you’re getting beaten. I don’t want to hurt you tonight, but I will if I have to. Understood?”

“Yes, Master.” I gave her a nervous bow, lowering myself to the mattress for a few moments before sitting back up. “I have the mousetrap set up in case you want to lock me in.”

“Clever girl.” Claudia smiled, taking me by the hand and helping me to my feet. “You don’t have to stay and watch if you don’t want to.”

“I would like to be there for this if you’ll let me.” I sat down at the vanity without a fuss, turning my back to her and making myself vulnerable. “Please?”

“Chloe.” I felt Claudia take a handful of my hair and hold it tight. “I’m not going to let you ruin this for me.”

“I know, Ma’am.” I took the rest of my shoulder length locks and pulled them taut for her to take. “Living is a privilege that I won’t take for granted any longer.”

The first thing Claudia made sure to do was strip me completely naked. Tonight was about vulnerability and submission, and not just from Candace. She didn’t want to look at me in her wife’s clothes anyways.

My head of fluffy orange hair quickly fell prey to my master’s mousetrap. The iron jaws clamped tight around my locks, trapping them in place to keep me from running away.

I parted my lips for her as she forced a length of rope between my teeth, knowing better than to trust me to keep my stupid mouth shut. I didn’t want to let her gag me, but if I wanted to live I couldn’t afford to put up a fuss.

Next came the handcuffs, which weren’t particularly bad. They were bound together behind my head, making sure to keep me vulnerable. Claudia wasn’t going to admit it, but the real reason she wanted my hands behind my head was to keep me from cutting off all of my hair and escaping the mousetrap like Candace had.

I knew Claudia was fond of the nipple clamps, but I really didn’t think they were necessary. That didn’t stop her from putting them on me though, and she made sure to make it as painful for me as possible.

“Once this collar is around Candace’s neck it won’t matter what you say to her. She’ll already be mine. I’ll control her.” Claudia whispered into my ear. “And you’ll have a new slave sister.”

Loud whimpers escaped through the rope as she yanked on the chain between my nipples, slipping her other hand between my thighs. I couldn’t say a goddamn thing as she made me face the vanity mirror, not even giving me the dignity of watching the show head on.

“Awe. Poor girl. She’s not even going to get to masturbate to this.” Two fingers slowly pumped their way in and out of my cunt, forcing quiet squeaks from between my gagged lips. Claudia was not playing around anymore; she was in charge here and she was going to make sure I knew that. And the way to do it was apparently by wiping her fingers clean against the skin of my neck. “I do trust you to enjoy yourself though. I’d hate for you to miss this.”

The chastity belt made its way onto my hips, the last piece of the puzzle, locking me out of pleasure for the night. It was the same belt Claudia so often wore around her waist, but the snake shaped strapon harness had been removed in order to strip it back to simple chastity.

And just like that, she was ready to torment me by making me watch her collar the girl of my dreams.

“Is all of this really necessary, Claudia?” Candace almost felt bad for me. Almost. “I know she looks good bound, but isn’t this overkill?”

An unamused glare was all that met her eyes as she looked at me, my cheeks blushing bright pink. I was starting to think that maybe she was already beyond saving.

“I’m sorry that it has to be this way, Candace. But you know how she is, always ruining this and humiliating us at the last moment.”

“I know how she is, Claudia. I just thought you’d have taught her better is all.” Candace leaned down, lowering herself to my level as I was forced to just sit there. “I know you don’t think this is the right thing to do, but don't try to stop this, Chloe. That’s not an order, that’s a request.”

Claudia gave the orders around here, not Candace. She whispered it, but I’m sure her sister could still hear it, because she did not look happy. All I could manage was a nervous nod of my head, lowering my eyes to the floor in respect as she pet my hair.

Looking through the mirror showed me the bed behind me, where Claudia was sitting with her back turned to me. She ignored us for now, knowing that I was likely to be staring Candace straight down in the mirror when she did climb into bed.

I could see that hesitation in Candace’s eyes as she stopped to really think about what she was doing. The part of her determined to punish herself for everything she’d done was urging her forward, but the rest of her didn’t want to go through with this. The gears in her head kept ticking away, echoing how ridiculous this idea was inside of her head, but she wasn’t listening.

If anything she had a look in her eyes that was confident she could get out of this at any time, even once that collar was on, even if logically she’d fall completely under Claudia’s control.

Or as completely under Claudia’s control as was possible. My master’s grasp over me was less than perfect, and my defiance was a sure sign of her failure to reign me. But Candace had suffered from the same problem just a month or so prior, which said more about my willpower than either of my owners.

Candace smiled at me, gently tapping the bell hanging from my collar with her fingertips, enjoying the sound of it ringing. She sighed, just about forgetting about her own jewelry until she caught me staring at the necklace I’d made for her.

“I should probably bare my neck for this, huh?” She gently reached behind her, first unclasping the pendant which bore St. Clair’s cross, the crest she’d inherited from her mother. She admired it for a moment, and then almost without thinking about it, tucked it between her breasts for good luck. “It’s just like trading one of my mother’s necklaces for another, no big deal. I don’t want anything getting in the way of this collar.”

Her cheeks glowed pink but her smile betrayed the feeling of anxiety and regret that filled her. I could see in her eyes just how badly she wanted to stop herself as she was forced to strip herself naked from her throat to her nape. It was such a small and seemingly insignificant part of the body, but when it came to this, the area around our necks meant everything.

It was one thing to have to remove her mother’s cross to make room for the dazzling diamond studded black band that once stood as the symbol of Alecia’s eternal devotion to her husband- and before that- Charlotte’s devotion to her mistress. But having to remove the necklace I’d made just for her was another thing entirely, because she wasn’t quite ready to throw away her devotion to me just yet.

“Take good care of this for me, okay?” I watched as she removed it, passing it onto me. My hands were simply cuffed behind my head, but I was unable to maneuver them to the front of my body without going through my bundle of hair that hung over them. I had a pretty free range of motion otherwise, but I wouldn’t have had the courage to adorn myself with the twin spirals if Candace wasn’t there to do it for me. “Careful. They’re sharp.”

Candace’s neck was now bare, ready to accept a collar around her neck like I had around mine. The necklace would have fit perfectly fine around her throat even as her sister collared her, but it was about the principle of removing all jewelry from her neck and making herself vulnerable. Besides, I needed this symbol of us more than she did right now.

My eyes drifted downwards to the necklace, admiring it for what it was. Two spirals- demented nautilus shells with an array of razor sharp spines curling around them- both warped to fit a half heart shape to create one whole when put together. It was going to be difficult not to cut myself on them, either on accident or on purpose.

One was red and one was blue, but when together they fused in such a way to make them both look a bright ominous violet. Thanks to some clever magic with a high tech printer they were better together than they could ever be apart.

“I’d hate to try and stuff that one down my bra.” She giggled, sensing Claudia’s impatience as she continued to stall. The spirals probably didn’t look as good on me as they did on her, but that hardly mattered. If anything I deserved to wear it like a trophy after coming out on top of her in the championship a year ago. “You’re no master, but you probably deserve the title of Queen more than I do.”

I wanted to kick her for saying that. I wanted to bite her head off for disrespecting herself like this. Even if I was more Queen than she was- which I wasn’t- she was still my King.

It had been a year ago next Monday, crazy enough. A week from tomorrow was going to be the first anniversary of Sophia Cavalier defeating Candace St. Clair in the Stolen Cosmos WCS finals. The same day as the party.

Candace settled for planting a kiss on my forehead since she could reach my lips, wiping the tears from my eyes as they formed. She gave me a smile like it was going to be okay, her fingers drifting towards my right ear to pinch my lobe one last time.

But as her hand reached my surgically pointed ear, she stopped. Her eyes once again stabbed her in the back. I could see them practically screaming for help even as they fixated on my cute little lobe, unable to even reach out and touch them.

Her hand slowly retracted, making its way back to her chest. The gears in her head had stopped, but her nervous heart was still pumping away. “I really miss that cattle tag you used to wear.”

My gears were rattling away to my heart’s content, but my heart was the one to stop. I really needed her to pinch my ear between her fingers, but she couldn’t. There was no way that this was really going to end up okay, and there was no use lying to ourselves any further.

Claudia’s eyes glared at me through the mirror as Candace slid open the drawer of the vanity before me, retrieving the collar she didn’t yet know had killed her mother. Those angry eyes stayed on me even as my master’s sister climbed into bed with her, holding the collar towards Claudia with open palms as if presenting it to her.

By the time Claudia had turned towards her sister, Candace was now in bed facing the mirror, unable to even give me so much as a fake smile. The best she could do for me now was to take Claudia’s eyes off of me.

“Now before I do this I have to ask again, do you want this?” Claudia stared her sister down. I could see it in Candace’s eyes. “Never mind what she wants, Candace. Do you want this?”

“I think so.” Candace frowned, dreading what was happening already. “I don’t have any objections yet.”

“If you’re ready to be claimed, I’m ready to collar you.” The jaws of Claudia’s collar opened up, biting down on the head of the open collar. She had to be very careful with it, because once it was closed even she wasn’t going to be able to open it back up. “Your neck. Bare yourself to me.”

This was it, the moment of truth. There was no way out of this, at least not for me. But if I could stop this- even if it meant my life- I could save her instead.

And that was exactly as I was going to do.

I would have been helpless if it weren’t for Candace. My legs were too weak to move. My hair was chained to the floor. And my hands were cuffed behind my head. But I still had a way out of this, thanks to her. This was all my fault. I couldn’t fuck this up any longer.

There was no time to watch Claudia lifting her cane to place the collar around her sister’s throat, and I wouldn’t have been able to stomach it anyways. I swallowed nervously and tilted my own head back, reaching my cuffed hands around my neck to retrieve the purple necklace dangling just at my chest.

I pulled it tight around my head, maneuvering the chain to bring the sharp spiraled edges towards the back of my neck to better grasp them. Candace wasn’t kidding, they were sharp, and that was just what I needed.

I couldn’t escape this even if I tried, but I didn’t need to. All I needed was to use that pretty little mouth of mine. I must have sliced through a good few inches of my precious blazing hair, freeing myself from the sharp metal jaws of the mousetrap that threatened to rip them from my head.

Claudia already had the collar pressed to Candace’s throat and was ready to press the button, but by now the two of them had both noticed what I was doing. Candace’s eyes glowed with awe and Claudia’s with fear and anger as they both stopped, unable to keep their gazes on each other and off of me.

The sharp metal jaws of the mousetrap opened once they were freed from my locks, just like I was counting on. I opened them up and clamped them back down onto the ropes wrapped around my mouth like they were a snake of my own, feeling them slice through my gag like butter.

“Candace, no!! Don’t do this!!” I kicked off of the vanity in front of me, sending the chair spinning around to face them both. Tears ran down my eyes as I pleaded with her, knowing that this was about to get me killed. But there was no point in stalling for even a second, I knew I had to say and I needed to say it. “Please don’t let her put that on you, I’ve seen what it’s done!! Claudia killed your mother, and her mother has been covering it up for her!! Please don’t do this!!”

The room was overtaken with shocked silence. Claudia’s eyes were the ones struck with the most fear, but Candace’s told a story of their own. And they told them straight to her sister, glaring unblinkingly into Claudia’s.

“Claudia.” Candace meant when she said this wasn’t fun and games anymore. “Tell me she’s lying.”

She looked to her sister for reassurance that it wasn’t true, desperately hoping it wasn’t. Claudia on the other hand, was simply petrified. And her silence spoke volumes, but her voice told more. “I’m sorry…”

Thump . I watched with sheer unbridled satisfaction as Candace tore the cane straight from Claudia’s hands and slammed the end of it into her sister’s chest, forcing her onto her back between Candace and I.

And then- Click. Click. Click.

The collar clasped shut around Claudia’s throat.

But it didn’t end there. Because like father, like son, Candace wasn’t done with her yet.

“I trusted you, Claudia!!” Candace’s eyes were filled to bursting with furious tears as she pressed the head of the cane into her sister’s throat, ready to electrocute her. “You tried to put this on me?! After using it to kill my mother?! After not telling me about it for twelve fucking years?!”

Candace was not happy, and neither was her older sister. Claudia almost looked like she was going into shock. Her breath quickened. Her eyes watered. Her mouth hung open ever so slightly. Her whole body froze.

I caught Candace’s eyes with my own. She stared into them for a moment, still overcome with terror and rage. I could see just how much she wanted to end her sister’s life right then and there, and I wasn’t going to stop her if she chose to. I was a dead woman either way.

Click. Click. Click. I watched the jaws release themselves from the head of Claudia’s shiny new collar as Candace pulled the cane away from her throat, leaving her lying there in almost petrified terror.

I hung my head as I watched Candace approach, just as scared of what she was going to do to me. But by the time she got there, most of her pent up anger had subsided. “Thank you, Chloe.”

“Yes, Ma’am. Of course.” I swallowed nervously, glancing up at her for just a second, still fiddling with her necklace between my hands. “You should leave while you still can…”

“So should you.” She smirked, standing over me with one hand extended towards me. “What do you say?”

I stopped, my own palms shaking as I squeezed the stuffed dog in my lap. I almost took that hand of hers too, before suddenly Claudia began to scream.

She wasn’t just angry screaming either, this was a full blown panic attack for her. She was hyperventilating, screaming, crying for help, her whole body trembling.

Candace turned towards her sister for a second with an almost guilty look in her eyes before returning to my open hand, delivering Claudia’s cane into my grasp. It wasn’t long after hearing Claudia screaming that we’d gotten the attention of the rest of the house, and Candace thankfully handed the cane off to me just in time to have her arms wrestled behind her back by the enforcer.

“Oh shit!!” Nell was almost laughing at Claudia’s misfortune as they struggled to grab ahold of Candace from behind. “Your father is so going to hear about this. Holy shit-”

“Then take me to him already. I’d like to have a word.” Candace had plenty of upper body strength to her, so it was clear that she was holding back when she refused to wrestle out of Nell’s grasp, not even putting up much of a fight. “Don’t expect me to show up to your party, especially if this is how I’m going to be treated.”

“Candace?”

“And you-” I almost thought I’d escaped Candace’s wrath until she turned to me and snapped one last thing with tears in her eyes. “This had better not get you killed.”

I could see in the way that she looked at me that she was desperate to keep me safe, but she was powerless to do anything about it. And that worried look in her eyes filled my heart with warmth.

“You and I both know there’s no way out of this for me, Candace.” I smiled even as the tears started rolling down my eyes, clutching the cane she’d handed me to my chest. “But hey, at least I’m finally thinking about someone else for once?”

That actually made Candace giggle just a little bit, nervously gazing into my eyes. “You’re beautiful, Sophia Cavalier. Have I ever told you that?”

“You just did.” I took a deep breath before reaching for the necklace, separating it into two pieces before handing one half of the necklace towards her to take, glimmering red in my hands. “For you, to match that beautiful eye you have.”

“Chloe, please-” She hardly had time to say anything further before I pushed one of the two spirals past her lips, making sure the dangerous edges were pointed out as she bit down on it, her eyes still watering angrily.

“I don’t want to keep you here any longer.” I bit my lip, gazing up at the enforcer in an attempt to avoid Candace’s gaze. “Goodbye, St. Clair. Good luck at the championship. I know you’ll be a great host.”

I screwed my eyes shut and listened for the sounds of Nell dragging Candace out of the room, both the cane and my dumb stuffed dog clutched tight to the chest. I knew I wasn’t clear of danger just yet, and I embraced that. After a few moments that felt like hours, I heard the door close and lock tightly.

“Oh no…” I had expected Claudia’s voice to be the one to snap me out of it, but when I opened my eyes I confirmed that it wasn’t. “Oh honey, no…”

Josephine bolted to her crying wife’s side, completely disregarding my existence. Claudia was still a sniveling mess, shaken with absolute terror to the point of not forming words. But the moment Josie reached her she practically flew into a fit of terrified rage.

“Hey. It’s okay.” Josie grabbed both of Claudia’s wrists as she flailed them at her, pinning them in midair to keep her wife from hurting herself. “You’re safe with me, Claudia. I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re okay.”

Claudia slowly settled down as she stared into her wife’s eyes, just as quickly melting into Josie’s grasp as she was grabbed, letting herself be held as she sobbed.

“I’ve got you, Claudia. You’re safe now.” Josie gently cooed her, letting the other girl fall into her chest and wrapping her arms around Claudia to help comfort her. “It’s me, honey. You’re safe now, I promise. I’ve got you, my love.”

In seeing those two together I realized just how little Claudia deserved a woman like Josephine, but she was always going to have her. Watching her curl up in her wife’s arms squeezed my heart inside of my chest, knowing how much pain I’d caused the two of them since I’d gotten there.

“Jesse-” As soon as Claudia could form words she was already showing her true colors, and this was as vulnerable as she’d ever been. “Josie?”

“Yes, honey. It’s me.” Josie smiled, holding Claudia at arm’s length so that she could look into her cloudy blue eyes, wet with tears. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“Please don’t leave me like this.” Claudia bit her lip, tears streaming down her cheeks as she gripped at her new collar with both hands, unable to pry it off. “Promise you won’t leave me like this?”

“I would never leave you like this, I promise.” Josie gently pulled Claudia’s hands from the black metal collar, trying to get her attention off of it. “Never in a million years.”

Claudia continued to hyperventilate, pointing a half outstretched finger across the room. Her eyes shook as they drifted towards me, her finger aimed straight at me and the cane in my hands.

“Don’t worry, honey.” Josie smiled, leaning forward and giving her wife a kiss on the forehead as she stood up. “I’ll take care of this.”

I tensed up as she approached, clutching the cane to my chest as a form of self-defense. Josie had her sights set, and she was not happy.

“Give me that, right now.” Her hand slipped past the cane entirely, gripping me by the chain connecting my nipples and painfully yanking me upward by them. “Do not make me repeat myself.”

“Y-yes, Ma’am…” I broke, nestling the cane into her other open palm as she lifted one foot and kicked me in the groin, her boot pressing into the front of my chastity belt. “Please… I’m sorry…”

“What happened?!” She grinded her foot into my crotch, continuing to pull on the chain. “What did you do?!”

“I just told her the truth!!” I squealed again, letting the truth slip out of my mouth for the second time tonight. “Claudia killed Candace’s mom with that collar!!”

I held my cuffed hands upward like I was being arrested, and Josie instantly retracted herself, cane firmly within her grasp. Meanwhile, Claudia went from having a look on her face that screamed my hero to one that screamed for help as she broke back into tears.

“Oh my god, Claudia?!” Josephine almost immediately regretted yelling at her, because it only made things worse. “Holy hell, honey. Is that what’s got you like this?!”

Claudia nervously nodded her head, still tugging on her collar with both hands as Josie arrived again to comfort her. She was shaken to her core, once again unable to form words.

“Breathe in.” Josie sat next to her, cane in hand, demonstrating. “Breathe out.”

And Claudia followed. Breathing in and then breathing out.

“Deep breath in.” Josie did it again, continuing to calm her wife. “Deep breath out.”

And Claudia listened again, breathing deeper this time.

“Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out. In. Out.”

At this point Claudia didn’t need a demonstration, she just kept going, staring into Josie’s eyes for support.

“That’s it.” Josephine smiled, setting the cane down in her lap. “Just like that.”

Claudia’s eyes once again shook as she saw Preyboy in Josie’s lap, beginning to hyperventilate.

“Claudia, no.” Josie frowned, holding the cane up for her wife to see. “Slow down. In. Out. In. Out. Slowly.”

Claudia’s eyes snapped back to Josie’s, quickly slowly her breath back down.

“Hands on your head.” Josie frowned, tapping Claudia between the legs with the head of her cane. “Cross your legs.”

She quickly did as she was told, putting both hands on her head as she sat criss cross in bed in front of her wife.

“You’re having a panic attack, honey.” Josie frowned, holding the cane in front of her wife to show her that there was nothing to be afraid of. “Watching your step-mom die has traumatized you, and having her collar around your neck is making that trauma claw its way back up.”

“What do I do?” Claudia was finally able to form words again, not for a second taking her eyes off of Josie’s. “How do I fix this?”

“Talk to me. Let me show you how safe you are. Nobody’s going to electrocute you like that, not while I have this cane.”

“But the controllers. My daddy still has the controllers.”

“That just means that we can trust him not to hurt you like this. He’s not here. I’m here.”

I just sat there in awe at the two of them going back and forth in this sudden harmony. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to get to watch them for very much longer.

“You.” Claudia stared straight at me as she spoke. “You’re dead. You’re so fucking dead. When I get my hands on you-”

“I know, Master.” I was already cried out of tears by the time she turned on me. “I know what I’ve done, and I’m ready.”

“Chloe…” Josie almost looked distraught hearing me say that, and I wasn’t doing any better. “No…”

“I knew what would happen, and I disobeyed anyway, Master.” I sniffled back the last of my tears, lowering my head in submission towards. “I knew what my punishment was going to be when I said it, and I’m ready. I’m ready to die.”

The two of them just looked at each other. Claudia stared up at her wife for support. Josie just hung her head. And I awaited my cruel fate.

“We’ll talk about this in the morning.” Josie was almost saying it more for her wife’s benefit than for mine. “But for now you need to go into the cell.”

“I’m sorry, Josie. But you’re not my master.” I took a deep breath before daring to look up at the woman who owned me. “She is.”

“Do as she says, Chloe. That’s an order.” Her terrified eyes twitched as they stared me down, steadying only as they returned to her wife. “She’s in charge now.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” I bowed just slightly before sitting back up. “If I may have one request-”

“You may put in your request, but I can’t promise anything.” Claudia continued to keep her eyes off of me. “What is it?”

I smiled ever so slightly as I glanced down, cradling the blue half of Candace’s necklace in my hand as I spoke.

“I’d like to be able to watch Candace host the world championship.”