I stared deeply into her eyes for a few anxious moments, my furious heart pounding out of my chest.

For the first time, I had her right where I wanted her, her desperate eyes sparkling with fear. A mixture of expressions washed over her face in that instant, as her fearful gaze turned tranquil.

No.

Claudia was weeping, a pool of tears streaming from her eyes as she looked up at me. Preyboy’s eyes were red with a fury mine couldn’t express. I had the jaws of her own cane clasped around the head of her collar, my finger on the button and her body pinned beneath my weight, ready to beat her to death with her own weapon.

And I just couldn’t do it.

No.

She had always been afraid of her slaves hurting her. That’s where all of this had started, I wanted to prove her fears right. I wanted Claudia to be afraid of me.

But I just couldn’t do it. All I could do now was finally embrace my own death as she reached out with her sorrowful fingers and grabbed the handle of her trusted protector from my quivering hands.

Not again.

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15th November, 1 day until the banquet.

This was my only option. The last time I’d ever be able to make a stand, and I couldn’t let this chance get away from me.

The final preparations were in full swing now. It was the day before the party, and Claudia waited until there was just one day left to spring this on me out of nowhere, like an oncoming car. She was going to put me down like an animal.

I knew it was coming too. It had been a long time coming, but I just wasn’t ready. I’d gone through a lot, but after everything I’ve done for them, this was just too far.

I can’t let her do this to me.

She can’t do this to me.

“You can’t do this to me!!” My fists pounded against the metal walls of her pitiful little holding cell, too afraid to kill me at her own home that she decided to drag me all the way to her plantation to have me put down. Pathetic. “Let me out!! Now!!”

“Oh my god. Shut up already!! She’s not here!!” A woman’s voice shouted back at me. “Jesus fucking Christ. You’d think after an hour and a half of screaming you would figure out that she can’t hear you!!”

“I don’t care if she can’t hear me.” I growled loudly, slamming my knuckles into the bulletproof glass that substituted for a window. “She’s not the one keeping me trapped in here!!”

“What the mistress says goes, so shut up. It’s already difficult enough to set up the recording devices without your whining.” The woman groaned, clearly as fed up with me as I was with her. “God. Where’s Nell when you need them?”

“Didn’t you hear?” A low pitched male voice responded to her from beyond the door, one which I recognized as Claudia’s bodyguard, Russel. “Nell’s getting a promotion.”

The woman, who I could only assume was Violet, sounded surprised. “Really?”

“Yes really.” The man snorted, giving the door between us one solid pound with his fist. “Turns out Claudia might not need an enforcer at home after all.”

“Wow. It’s almost like I told her she didn’t need an enforcer at home. She needs an enforcer here.” Violet’s voice just oozed exasperation. “Just like when I told her she didn’t need an office assistant. She needed a secretary.”

“Didn’t she hire a secretary?”

“Xander Mallick was not a secretary, he was an asshole and a con.”

“Eugh.” I finally just pounded my head into the door before simply giving up and retreating to the far corner of my cell as the two of them made small talk with each other. This was it, I was about to die, and one of the last conversations I had to listen to were two colleagues trying very pathetically to conceal the fact that they were dating behind their bosses back, which you could hear just from the way they talked to one another. “If you two aren’t going to let me out, then just leave.”

“Whoa. Tough girls giving orders now.” The man, Russel, taunted me from the other side of the door. “Go ahead, tough girl. Tell me what your plan is once I open this door?”

“You know what we should do with her?” The woman, Violet, joined in on her lover’s attempts at intimidation. “We should let her run out and put her in with the other girls. She can pick cotton, harvest vegetables, and grow cannabis.”

“I’m sure she’d love that, wouldn’t she?”

“Probably better than dying in her book, right?”

“We could always use a few more nobodies to help make our drugs for us.”

“I bet she’s wishing she had some of that right about now.”

“It would make her death just a little bit less painful.”

“But you don’t deserve a painless execution, do you?”

Thump . Before I could even hope to answer, my so-called master was answering for me.

“That’s enough.” Claudia’s voice reverberated through the door, menacing more in an instant than her lackey’s could all morning. “She’s mine.”

She was as stunning as always walking through that door, if not just a bit more than I’d ever seen her. Wearing a gorgeous lace and faux fur ensemble, it was clear from the way she was dressed that I wasn’t just a victim to be executed, I was the star of her next snuff film.

“My apologies for not dressing the part, Ma’am.” I scoffed at her from on my knees, my willpower unwavering. “I didn’t know this was going to be black lingerie formal.”

“Chloe, honey. This isn’t just supposed to be fun for me.” She stepped past me entirely, mounting her cane to the corner of the cell best suited to capturing the whole scene in her eyes, balancing it loosely but securely against the wall. “Half of the philosophy here is that if a girl needs to die, she might as well die doing something fun. Having sex.”

I bit my tongue as she turned towards me. “And the other half?”

“If I get your death on tape, you don’t really die.” She smirked, my controller clasped to her left wrist like I’d seen Candace and Josie do. “You live on in my collection forever.”

“That’s sick.” My eyes locked onto hers, burning with disapproval. “You are absolutely disgusting.”

“Yeah. Well.” She rolled her eyes, motioning for me to stand up. “I can’t please everyone.”

This cell, unlike the others I’d been in, was furnished. It was just unfortunate that the only reason it was furnished was so that it could be used for this purpose.

But I did as I was told, I stood up from the simple futon and I unfolded it for us, giving Claudia and I a place to lay down together. At long last, my death was finally upon me. So I might as well make the most of it.

Claudia and I laid down together, but not before shoving the whole futon into the corner beneath the cane, for a more intimate exposure to the camera above us.

“So this is what you do, huh?” I made myself vulnerable in bed next to her, nervously glancing towards the cane above us. “You act all intimate with girls for the camera, right before you kill them?”

“Almost.” There was neither light in her eyes nor a smile on her lips as she spoke. “I act all intimate with girls before, during, and after killing them.”

My stomach churned. “You’re delusional.”

“I realize that now.” She got herself into position beside me, gently beginning to play with my hair. “But that’s not going to change anything.”

“Whatever you say, Ma’am.” I took a deep breath, trying not to make eye contact with her at all. “Do your worst.”

“Chloe?” Her voice had hints of sorrow and insecurity as she asked this. “Am I really not a worthy opponent?”

What it even meant to be a worthy opponent I wasn’t sure. It was such a bizarre thing for her to be stuck on. It felt like it came out of nowhere, but clearly she’d been ruminating on it for the last three days. I’d gotten to know this woman inside and out in the forty five days since I became hers. Those gears of hers weren’t going to rest until she’d gotten an answer, but if she wasn’t already a worthy opponent, there was hardly enough time for her to change that.

“Why does it matter?” I gazed through her, almost missing her eyes as I looked into her brain and beyond. “I’m already dead. Why does it matter what I want?”

“Because you’re not dead. Not yet.” Those eyelashes batted away, not for the camera, but for me. “There’s no point in saving part of your soul for someone else if it means letting a piece of you die quiet. If you don’t give yourself while you still can, eventually you’ll miss your last chance.”

My blood boiled at just the thought of that. “You really want me to give you all that I’ve got?”

“I do. If not for me, for the camera.” She smiled hungrily. “I’d hate for you to die while there’s still a little bit of fight in you just waiting to be crushed.”

A wave of adrenaline was quickly building to a breaking point as I stared into those eyes, but not the stormy ocean blue that glimmered as Claudia gazed towards me, those fiendish red things that watched us from above. Those crimson lights bore down at us both, challenging me to give it all I could one last time. I hated to say it, but god damn was Claudia right.

“Bitch.” I snapped, my knuckles erupting with a fierce crack as they connected with Claudia’s left eye, stunning her with the most violent right hook I’d ever given in my life. “You fucking bitch!!”

That most certainly got Claudia started. For once in her life she seemed to be up for a fight at long last, because that brought a smile to her cruel villainous lips.

“That’s it. There it is. There’s the fight I’ve been looking for.” For a moment I almost expected her to break after just one blow, but then I heard her knuckles popping in her hand. Even through the pain she smirked, her horrendous stare showing off her vile intent. “But this time, I’m not afraid to hit back.”

My eyes went wide out of pure surprise as I watched her retaliate. Her moves were telegraphed long in advance, but just knowing how far she’s had to fall to get to a point where she wasn’t too petrified to fight her own slaves shook me.

The hard steel wedding ring she wore on her left hand drove into me as she twisted her fist, slamming her bony knuckles into my stomach. The bracelet she wore on that very same wrist caught my eye for just a moment before my vision shuddered shut, coughing up the full force of her pummeling her giantess strength into me.

That I forgot her left was her dominant arm when I anticipated her response was secondary to the disconnect I had feeling her full brute force for the first time. In my head Claudia was a meek loser of a woman, but physically she was a troll. Obviously that six and a half feet of pure woman packed a punch, I just wasn’t ready to feel it.

“That’s better.” Claudia loomed over me, snatching me by both wrists as I reeled, slamming my back into the bed beneath us with excessive force, pinning my wrists beside my head. “This does feel good, doesn’t it?”

“If you like, umm… maybe. Eugh.” I couldn’t even find a comeback for that, all she was getting were snarls. “Get off of me.”

“No.” Claudia’s face got dangerously close, mere breath widths from my lips as she kicked apart my legs with hers, the head of the metal serpent strapped between her legs intentionally pressing down on my clitoris, crushing it beneath her weight. “In fact, I ought to thank you for reminding me what I’m capable of. So just lay there and enjoy the monster you’ve helped create.”

Desperate gasps escaped me as she continued, able to feel myself tightening between my legs with little resistance. As if being raped wasn’t bad enough, all of my pathetic noises were being caught on camera. I struggled beneath her grasp, but each push was just met with increasing force from above. Claudia was loving this, and that just made things worse.

Usually she didn’t carry the controllers on her person for fear of accidentally killing one of her slaves, but today was different. This was where I was meant to die, which meant that the controller was right there for the taking, strapped to her left wrist.

I snarled loudly, using the full force of my right arm to try and break free from that vice grip of hers. If I was up against anyone else it might have even worked, but again, Claudia was left handed. So instead I threw care to the wind, letting out a loud moan as my teeth unclenched, lunging towards her left arm in an attempt to bite the controller off of her.

I was met with nothing more than a cruel smile however, at least at first. Clearly Claudia wasn’t so stupid, and the moment she saw what I was doing she released my wrist, and that was when I was rewarded with the furious hand of an evil giant smacking me in the face for even trying to touch her with that rabid mouth of mine.

Reeling from the force, I was left unable to brace myself or retaliate as I heard my own voice shriek with pain. Claudia bucked her hips, sliding her strapon inside of my waiting cunt as I lay there, helpless to do anything about it.

She forced herself into me one last time, delighting in cruel satisfaction as she violated what she knew was a woman’s most sacred and vulnerable area, and Claudia regretted nothing.

But then she got cocky, and before she could once again pin my wrist I had hers in my grasp, trying desperately to slide my fingers beneath it and snatch it from her. This was it. I was so close to my controller at long last. I didn’t want to die by her hand, and it was my only key out of here. Once I had it between my fingers all I needed to do was crush it with every ounce of strength I have left, and I would either be free of it for good, or I’d be denying Claudia her satisfaction by killing myself before she had the chance to.

And then passionate lips mixed saliva with mine as her tongue dove deep between my teeth, forcing my jaw open as she invaded me. Like a snake, her tongue slithered its way down my mouth. I could feel the giantess’ anaconda of a tongue reach my throat, hissing against my gagging uvula and making my whole body shiver, curling inwards on itself for protection.

Fingers loosened and interlocked on both sides and I felt the backs of my hands crushed between the weight of this titan. My eyes watered, desperate for breath as she choked me with her kiss of death, finally exhausting all of my options and leaving me broken under the utter humiliation of being fucked in half by her strapon.

I must have been bawling by the time I came, because the feelings of my involuntary moans hardly registered in the wake of what I was being put through. My muscles moved on their own, hips grinding with hers as she pounded into me, giving myself up in the end and finally letting myself enjoy it in the moment. Hopefully this would be the last time I was ever raped, and I welcomed that with open legs.

“Good girl.” Her words were venom in my ears. Sweet and sour, indescribably bitter sounds mixed with the heavenly delight of release. If I was to die, I might as well die broken. I might as well die a good girl.

I hung limp on every sight, sound, and scent. Claudia pulled out, sitting up and lording over me. Just like that she was finished with me, without even so much as touching herself. Not once.

“Master.” I put everything on the line, ready for one last ride. All of my hopes were put into one final rush, placing all of my bets on the chance of getting through to her. “Let me pleasure you one last time, please.”

And Claudia hummed sweetly, her unblinking eyes gliding from mine to the cane’s, still watching us from beyond my reach. Without a word, I’d known it worked. She plucked the weapon from the wall, still filming us, and she brought it to the harness she wore as both a strapon and a chastity belt, and she began to unlock it.

Flourishing the cane in her right hand, Claudia was without a care in the world. The harness slid from her waist and clattered onto the floor behind her, her wet cunt hungry to be serviced, ready for me to pleasure her.

And then, in the most Sophia Cavalier way imaginable, I went in for the kill. I spat in her face.

Claudia was nothing less than a monster. There was no hope of overpowering her. But I could outsmart her.

Aiming right for the eyes, all I could do was catch her off guard, but it was just enough to get her scared. Instinctively, she reached for the controller to my collar, blindly clawing at her wrist with her dominant hand.

I was nothing if not the queen of being two steps ahead. Claudia wore her bracelet on her left wrist just like everyone else did, imitating their looks, but she failed to recognize why no one wore them on her dominant hand. But by the time she realized her mistake and switched to correct it, it was already too late.

My fingers curled around her cane, her strength wavering as she reached towards the controller, and with just a bit of force she quickly dropped it.

Right into my waiting hands.

Click. Click. Click.

I could feel her strength give out as the terror overtook her. The jaws clasped tight to the front of her collar, sending waves of traumatic shock straight to her nervous heart.

“Game over.”

Neither Candace nor I could match her for sheer strength, but that meant nothing when she was too scared to use it. She was one press of the button away from a panic charged anxiety attack. Now that the jaws of her own weapon bit down at her from my hands, I had already won.

I just needed to press the button.

No.

The tears never left my eyes for a second as I stared down at her, watching them roll from my cheeks and down the length of the cane as my finger rested on the trigger.

No.

Unable to move a muscle.

Not again.

“Oh my.” Those terrified eyes of hers turned sharp all over again, the desire to win flooding into her like never before. And I fell into her, my fingers giving themselves over to her grasp as she pried them away from the trigger and replaced them with her own. She didn’t even need to look, she knew exactly what to press to get this thing off of her, and it bent to her will all the same.

Click. Click. Click.

But now Claudia had something she’d never had before, all thanks to me. Without even realizing it, I had inadvertently created a monster.

She’d found the strength to fight, and she wasn’t about to lose.

“And I thought I wasn’t a worthy opponent.” The cane quickly slid back into place, staring down at us both, and I was given no choice but to turn my back on Claudia behind me and face down those glowing red eyes head to head. “Your winning streak is finally up.”

Our lips pressed together one last time, rewarding me with one final kiss before my death. If I didn’t do something now, I wouldn’t live to kiss again, but there was nothing I could do.

I couldn’t press the button, I’m not a monster. Claudia was a monster, but I wasn’t, because I knew exactly what I was.

The reflection in her eyes stared back at me as she pulled away, but that wasn’t my reflection. I looked past her eyes for just a moment and I saw Sophia Cavalier looking back at me.

Sophia would never give up like this, Sophia was a whole different breed of monster. But that’s not who I am.

That’s not me. I’m not Sophia.

“You couldn’t even press the button.”

She towered over me from behind, her arms wrapping around me. I could see the end of the road as the controller to my collar hovered right there in front of me. And I was completely helpless to save myself.

“But I can.”

I froze, cowering beneath the gaze of that thing above us as I awaited my death. At long last, this was fine, there was no way out and I was okay with that. Because at least I got to find out exactly who I am.

She was right. She knew me like I knew her, and that just wasn’t the person I wanted to be. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill Claudia.

That’s not who I am.

She pressed the button. And just like that, without even so much as a warning, I could feel it. The electricity pulsed through me like lightning, searing pain deep into me the likes of which I wouldn’t soon forget.

My entire life flashed before my eyes in those last few moments.

And then everything faded to black.

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“Sophia?” Her voice shook nervously as she even said the name, on stage in front of so many people, all looking at her for the first time in a long time. “What did I think of Sophia?”

Candace sat in the middle of the panel, in front of the largest crowd she’d seen since a year ago tomorrow, so many of them wanting to get her thoughts on Sophia Cavalier for the first time since her death.

“Sophia and I met for the first time here, at this convention, four years ago.” The sweetheart everyone knew and loved put on a cheery smile as she faced them all down alone, now that it was her turn to be center stage. “I didn’t realize it until after she’d been missing for a while, but she was always a pretty closed off person. I knew her better than most, I think, I just didn’t realize it at the time.”

Candace was the last one to comment on my disappearance and apparent suicide publicly, and because of our last encounter on stage, she was the one people wanted thoughts from most.

“We had a complicated friendship and rivalry, honestly. She started off as my biggest fan, became my go to girl for a lot of things, and then she eventually became my biggest rival. That’s where things got complicated. Our professional relationship became a little rough, and we kind of had to cut contact with each other for a while, even before the championship season.”

This was it. Time to leave everything out on the table. The first and last time she would talk about Sophia Cavalier in public.

“I did notice when she started closing herself off, how could I not. But I didn’t do anything about it, and I wish I had. Because maybe if her and I were closer, this never would have happened.”

It wasn’t technically a lie, but it was far from the truth. The microphone picked up her sigh as she looked towards the front row of the audience, towards a little reserved section of people that she and her manager had requested be saved for her.

Tallulah waved at her, nodding her on. Candace’s manager was nothing if not forceful, which Candace hated above all else. She could be kind of a bitch, and the last time they’d spoken or seen each other before this event hadn’t gone well.

But to Tallulah’s left, sitting between her and some other young hispanic woman, was Justin Donovan. Sophia’s manager had been breached for comment many times over, there was nothing more he could say. His decision to host alongside Candace had purely been because of me, and nothing else. He only did it to help make something right left unsaid between him and I.

He was chatting politely with the hispanic woman to his left, while Tallulah spoke quietly to this year’s champion to her right. Silver Notts had gotten off of the panel a little while ago, and was now just waiting it out and watching, and of course Tallulah spoke Italian. Candace could understand why he would single out her manager to speak to, but there was one thing that Candace couldn’t understand.

Why is he here?

Standing on the other side of Justin’s friend as she lamented her situation was a familiar looking bushy haired squirrel girl, hanging her head nervously as her master flirted with some goth looking redhead to his left, her eyes glowing weirdly red in the light of the auditorium. Candace didn’t quite know why Xander Mallick and his slave were here, but she really wasn’t surprised.

After all, Xander was apparently a big fan of both Candace St. Clair and Sophia Cavalier. Being an associate of the family had its perks too, because even though he actually owed her money, he was still somehow able to reserve a front row seat for himself.

“I don’t know where she is right now. But I hope that when we find her, we find her alive. It hurts to know that a friend has taken her own life, and I can only hope it’s just not true in the end. Chloe and I were friends-”

But Candace didn’t have time to worry about him, she had to save face in front of thousands of fans, especially after a line like that.

“Whoops. Silver medal does not mean silver tongue, you guys. I hope my girlfriend isn’t listening, because she is not going to be happy to hear me call her a friend live on stage like that.”

The whole crowd giggled as she said that, and she couldn’t be sure if they were laughing with or at her, which made her light up red with embarrassment. It didn’t even dawn on her until she heard the surprised coos from the audience and saw the flash of camera lights that she’d just inadvertently given herself away as a lesbian in front of all of her fans.

Silver Notts was amongst the people giggling at her, but amazingly, Justin didn’t seem as surprised as the hispanic woman beside him. But Tallulah was just fuming about it. A look like that was enough to kill someone, even before she shook her head in disapproval at Candace’s mistake. The redheaded girl Xander had been flirting with was gone too, leaving him alone with his miserable little companion to his right.

Candace just had to shake it off all over again, her eyes clearly darting back and forth as if she was looking for a way out, and that was when she locked eyes with her for just a moment, right before the girl made her way out of the auditorium.

“Anyways. What’s important is that yes, Sophia and I were friends. No championship was going to change the way I thought about her, not really. She was a good person, and an amazing rival, and all I can do is hope that we find her soon. I’m rooting for her, and I’m rooting for her family and friends.”

Candace took one last glance towards her audience up front, not even realizing that she had tears in her eyes until she saw them in those of Justin’s companion beside him.

And then she got up and walked off stage, leaving the microphone behind as she left to hide her tears.

“Thank you.”

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“What the fuck was that?!” Tallulah was very viciously verbally berating her the moment they stepped backstage together. “Do you know the lengths I’m going to have to go to in order to cover all of that up?!”

“This was your idea, Tallie.” Candace was not about to sit there and take this from her, not for a second. “I didn’t want to do this. You talked me into this.”

“Oh so it’s my fault, huh?!” Tallulah quickly burst into insulting her in Spanish, which Candace very much did not understand. “I was trying to get you back on track for next year’s-”

Knock knock .

And it quickly became clear that this conversation had ended with the knock on the door.

“You know what. Go ahead, Candace.” Tallulah turned her back and marched towards the door, flinging the door open and pushing her way past the guests. “Fix this yourself.”

After the kind of week Candace just had, she simply didn’t have the energy to stand up and chase after Tallulah, even if she wanted to.

“You know if you’re looking for a new manager.” Justin had a friendly smile on his face as he stepped in the door. “I’m always open to meeting about new clients.”

“I will keep that in mind, thank you.” Candace sighed, slowly standing up from the backstage sofa and stepping towards the entrance to greet him. “What brings you back here?”

“About that. I have someone here who really wants to meet you.” He smiled politely, pointing back towards his friend still waiting on the other side of the door. “I sort of promised her the chance to talk to you in person.”

Candace just rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mr. Donovan, I can’t just-”

“It’s someone important.” His eyes were all she needed to see to know how desperate he was. “Please?”

Her heart sort of just dropped in her chest, and she nodded, not wanting to break someone else’s hopes right now. “Alright. Bring her in.”

“Thank you.” He let out a sigh of relief. “You won’t regret this, I promise.”

He stepped out and back in the blink of an eye, followed inside by a particularly distraught hispanic woman with tears in her eyes. She clearly wasn’t as young as they were, but she couldn’t have been older than her early forties. Candace estimated her at about 44, which was just a bit younger than her own mother would have been if she was still alive.

“Hello, um-” Candace wasn’t exactly sure what to say to her. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”

“Candace. This is Ms. Caballero.” He got the accent right without a syllable out of place. “This is Candace St. Clair.”

“I know who she is, Justin. Thank you.” The woman giggled just slightly as she stepped forward, taking and shaking Candace’s hand for a moment. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Miss-” Candace’s smile quickly faded away, her eyes going wide as she sounded the name out herself. “Ms. Cavalier.”

“That’s my name.” She smiled proudly, digging into her purse to find something. “Those things you said on stage back there meant a lot to me, I just wanted to let you know that.”

Candace’s heart thumped nervously. “Oh my god, you’re her mother.”

“Just a little bit.” Colleen got exactly what she was looking for out of that purse of hers, holding it out towards Candace. “I will admit, I didn’t have the best relationship with her in those last few years, and I never really understood this hobby of hers. But I was proud of her, and I’m proud of you.”

She just blinked as she made eye contact with the gift Colleen held in her hands for her, a powder grey stuffed cat with light blue patches inside of her ears, shockingly familiar to something else that Candace knew. She took it into her hands, and within moments she was squeezing it as tight as she could.

“Thank you. I-” Candace’s heart swelled, threatening to tear in two. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh don’t be like that, please. I’ve gotten too many well wishes and apologies to count.” She sighed, wiping the tears from both her and Candace’s eyes. “I don’t mean to keep you, I swear. I just wanted to say thank you for everything you did for her. I just hope we can all move on from this, and ask that you keep her in your heart while you can.”

“Always.” Candace bit her lip as she nodded, holding back tears with all of her might. “It was nice to meet you, Ms. Cavalier.”

“Please. You can call me Colleen.” She smiled, leaning in and giving Candace a hug before turning away. “It was nice to meet you, Candace.”

She could feel her heart shatter inside of her as she watched the other woman leave, escorted out by Justin to ultimately return to wherever they were staying for the night, assumedly together. And after a few moments, Colleen was gone, but Justin quickly turned around and came back.

“She doesn’t know.” Justin stared Candace in the eyes as he spoke, locking the door behind him to stave off unwanted guests. “Let’s not tell her.”

Her eyes nervously followed Sophia’s former manager as he crossed the room and sat down. “She doesn’t know what, Justin?”

“She doesn’t know what you did to her.”

His words spoke volumes that they’d never spoken before, and that made Candace’s skin crawl.

“And you do?”

“Yeah. I know everything about her.” Not even Justin had the strength to look Candace in the eye as he said her name. “About Chloe, I mean.”

“You son of a bitch.” Candace’s heart ached with rage. “You knew this whole time, and you never said a damn thing. You never even came to look for her.”

“Why would I need to look for her?” His eyes flashed hot with his own anger towards. “I knew exactly where she was.”

“I was prepared for someone, anyone, to come looking for her. But no one came. How could you know where she was and not do anything about it?” Candace’s blood boiled just from looking at him, and it took a mighty amount of restraint not to kick him in the mouth. “How did you figure it out?”

“I didn’t figure anything out, Candace. I didn’t need to. I knew the whole time.” He let out a defeated sigh, hanging his head in defeat. “Who do you think sold her out in the first place?”

An understanding overtook her in that moment, quickly calming Candace’s anger and nerves. Of course Justin had been in on it, of course he knew.

“If you were in on it all along, why didn’t you just tell me?” She sat herself next to him, new friend in hand. “Why be so coy about it?”

“Because you’re evil.” He chuckled, trying to laugh it off as if it were funny. “I thought if you knew, you’d tell Sophia that I betrayed her. I didn’t want you to torment her even that little bit more.”

“So you begged my manager not to tell me about your involvement.” Candace was almost starting to feel bad for the guy. “But you were her best friend. Why betray her in the first place?”

“Because she was killing herself.” He frowned, his heart clearly weighing him down. “This sport wasn’t just her career, it was her everything. Her lifestyle was killing her. I was the only one she allowed close. I was the only one who got to see what it did to her.”

Candace squeezed the stuffed cat in her arms. “What do you mean?”

“If you’d been there to see it you’d know exactly what I mean. I hate to be the one to pull back the curtain, but she was miserable.”

“I get that she was miserable. We’re all miserable. Do you really think I care?”

“Yeah, I do. So just shut up and listen already.”

As the clock ticked down everyone was getting sick of the lies and the secrets, and these two were no exception. On the eve of the last day, every second counted.

“Your manager came to me and told me the only way to save her life is to help fake her death, what was I supposed to do?” He stared her in the eyes, continuing without a word from her. “I should have known better than to give in to your demands, but I was so scared of what would happen to her if I didn’t. I thought maybe you could help her.”

“Help her?” She just scoffed at him. “What the hell would you know?”

“I know she’s not still with you.” The sound of that quickly sent chills down Candace’s spine. “I can see it in your eyes. Everything from the way you’ve been talking about her to those gears in your head tell me that you don’t still have her. Which means you broke your half of the promise.”

Promises weren’t the only things Candace had broken. “What was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to keep her safe. You were supposed to save her. But you failed her.” Justin’s gaze drifted towards the stuffed feline in Candace’s arms, his eyes sadly dry. “We failed her.”

They both took a moment to admire the handiwork Colleen had put into her patchwork, especially the name sewn into her ear, Candace. “Why did you bring her here if you knew the truth?”

“Because I didn’t want to carry all of that guilt alone. If I have to look into that woman’s eyes and lie to her, then you should too. I can’t let these feelings swallow me like they swallowed her.”

“Justin, please. Say it already. Why did you let me take her?”

“Because Sophia used foes and followers to fill the hole meant for family and friends. If you want to know why no one came, it was because she didn’t have anyone to look for her. Cinco de Mayo was the first time she’d seen her mom in four years, and when her mother questioned why she’d cut herself off, the only impression she left was one of guilt and grief and nihilism.” His voice cracked, caught on a lump in his throat. “Her car was found washed up in a park the next morning.”

“And that was your doing.” Candace bit her lip nervously. “The car. That was you.”

“She knew how to swim.” He swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed forward. “Everyone believed it was a suicide because no one was surprised. Any time someone tried to help her she just pushed them away. Her work hours were hell. She didn’t get to be the best in just a year by taking breaks to eat and sleep, she did it by destroying herself.”

“That was her own fault, not mine. She was the one who destroyed herself just to be better than me, and she made enemies doing it. That was her own doing.”

“All you had to do was shake her hand, Candace. That’s all she wanted. She didn’t do it because she wanted to be better than you, she did it because she looked up to you. She needed to feel like she was something special, like you. All she wanted was to hold hands with you.”

“But I wouldn’t shake her hand.” Candace’s voice quivered as it left her. “Because I’m a monster.”

That was the last straw for her. Candace broke into tears right there just thinking about that day. She pictured those moments on stage with me, and she imagined how differently things would have gone if she’d been better than she was.

“That’s why she wouldn’t throw the game. She wanted to impress me.”

“It wasn’t just you. It was everyone” Justin put one hand on her shoulder. “She needed to prove herself. The game was the only thing she’d ever been good at. She didn’t need to win because she wanted to be the best, she needed to win because she wasn’t at anything else. If she couldn’t be the best at something, she was worthless.”

“But she wasn’t worthless.” Candace pleaded with him as if it would change something. “She’s not worthless, not to me.”

“Good luck trying to tell her that.” He just shook his head. “She doesn’t see herself like other people see her. She sees herself like she’s the protagonist of some video game.”

“Yes, she does.” Candace knew better than most how her lover saw herself. “But why?”

“Because that’s what she needs to be.” Everyone except Justin. “Because if she’s not the protagonist of some story, there’s no reason for her to exist. If everything she’s been through didn’t happen for a reason, then they didn’t need to happen at all. She needs a reason to exist or else she’ll lose herself and give up. If she doesn’t have a reason to live-”

“She doesn’t want to live.” Candace’s pride hung around her neck, her hand moving past the cross she’d gotten from her mother as she grabbed her half of the locket I’d made for her, cradling it in her hand. “She fought all the way to the top looking for a reason to live, and she found nothing.”

“That’s not true.” Seeing the spiral hanging from Candace’s throat actually made Justin smile. “She found her way to you, didn’t she?”

“Yeah. I guess she did.” Candace smiled, her thumb nervously pressing against her beloved cross. “Now she just needs a new purpose.”

“You know it’s funny hearing you accidentally say her new name on stage.” He chuckled just slightly, trying to warm up the room. “When I brought you all the way out here to give you that, I said that name too. I said it right to your face and you didn’t even know it. I should have known from the way you talked about her then that something had happened to her.”

“She’s not dead.” Candace nervously scrambled to her feet, unable to wait a moment longer. “She’s just chasing her own tail.”

“Where are you going?” Justin practically shouted at her as she turned to leave. “I’m not done with you yet.”

“Then you’ll have to ask for a rematch another day.” Candace sauntered off, slamming the door shut behind her as she walked out the door. “Like I said, I’m ready to face anyone who’s going to try and take her from me.”

She gripped the stuffed cat in her arms and fumed, storming her way down the hall with her mother’s cross in hand.

And that includes you, Claudia.

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Night had fallen, the championship was over, and Candace needed to get home as soon as possible if she was going to crash this party tomorrow.

And she could only hope that I was going to be there.

Being Candace St. Clair of course meant that she was instantly surrounded by adoring fans and searing critics alike while trying to leave the event center on her own. Even without her usual bodyguard or assistant she managed to push past the crowd, but there was one girl in the crowd that caught her attention.

“No.” It was just a glance. It was always just a glance, but it was the same girl without a doubt. “Riley?”

Candace’s heart quickly split down the middle, escaping into the back unlit halls of the convention center to follow after the girl. It was her. It had to be her, right?

It had been her walking out of the auditorium. It had been her talking to the rich bitch in the front row. That eerie red glow in her eyes couldn’t fool her. But she followed her until she lost her, and then she followed her tracks some more, only to find herself outside and see nothing.

Just an empty back alley and the glowing lights of the city all around her. Alone. If that really was her, she could have gone anywhere.

Out of breath and out of places to go at this point, Candace had no choice but to regain her energy and walk the long way around the building to catch a cab home, at least now that the back door had locked behind her.

“Hello?” Candace tried the handle and sighed, knocking on the door on the off chance that someone was inside to let her back in. “Any crazy stalker girls who’ve been following me that want to let me back in?”

After a moment of silence, Candace sighed to herself and shook her head, and then the door opened. Curious eyes fluttered up as Candace stepped towards the entrance, looking to see who it was, only to find…

“…Lucy. Lucy Barnett.” Candace actually smiled at the sight of her. “Where’s your master, 0125?”

She had one foot in the door before she heard the click , and suddenly she was slowly forced away into the alleyway, cautiously backing herself into a wall.

“I’m right here, Ms. Saint Clair.” Xander Mallick had a gun pointed to her head, and his finger on the trigger like a fucking novice. “If squirrel girl here is good for one thing it’s sniffing out nuts and following them around all day, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, Sir.” There wasn’t even a hint of pride in her voice about what she was doing. “Whatever you say.”

“Alright, that’s enough. Shut your trap, trap.” He just groaned and rolled his eyes. “I forgot how grating your voice sounds.”

Oh, Candace did not like the way he talked to his own slave, not one bit. “Excuse you, Mister Mallick.”

“Excuse you, Candace.” He took a step closer, reminding her just what he had pointed at her face. “I didn’t ask for you to talk either. If I wanted to hear yappy whining from a wannabe bitch with an undergrown dick, I’d kick you or the squirrel here in the acorns. I’ll ask the questions here, got it?”

Wow. Sexist and transphobic. Candace couldn’t help but think, but as soon as she opened her lips to actually say it out loud, she thought it through for once and she quickly shut the hell up. She wasn’t exactly the best at these things either, but this was horrific. Deep breath in, deep breath out, Candace nodded her head to him to indicate her understanding, copping to his demands for the time being.

Xander wore his diabolical smirk with pride. “On your knees. Hands on your head. Eyes on me.”

A furious blush overtook Candace’s face, a quick glance towards Lucy being the only thing she needed to confirm she was the one being spoken to. But nevertheless, she wordlessly did as he told her, not wanting to get her brains blown out if she could avoid it.

Candace didn’t take her eyes off of him for a second, watching the grim satisfaction in his face as she lowered herself to her knees at his feet, placing both hands on the back of her head.

And then she opened that stupid mouth of hers. “So what now, you’re going to rape me?”

She wasn’t even on her knees for half a minute before she watched him snarl, buckling over and falling forward as the man holding her at gunpoint slammed his foot into her groin. Getting kicked in the family jewels was one thing, given what family she belonged to, but not even a proper Colombo could stand a steel toed boot to the genitals, regardless of sex.

“And you’ll be next if you don’t do your fucking job already.” Xander turned to his left, controller in hand, and shouted at his slave. “Search her.”

On cue, the bushy tailed slave woman scurried to Candace’s side, beginning to loot her like a charlatan. Candace, unfortunately, didn’t carry much in the way of self defense. She usually didn’t need to, but as of recently she had successfully uninvited all of her closest friends, bodyguards, and even her manager from standing at her side.

“She doesn’t have much on her, Sir.” Lucy said to him, at the risk of angering her master even further. “Th-there’s just a bit of cash, her cards, and a stuffed animal in here.”

Xander just scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Then tear it apart and see if there’s anything inside of it.”

“No, please.” Candace knew she wasn’t supposed to say anything, but she couldn’t let it get torn apart already. “I can make this easy for you. What are you after?”

“What am I after?” The barrel of the gun pressed harder against her forehead. “What’s your father after?”

“Oh my god. Is that what this is about?” Candace just groaned, rolling her eyes at them both. “Money, Xander. It’s always money with him. You owe him money, and it’s time to pay up.”

“Bullshit.” He picked his foot up and once again slammed it into Candace, this time crushing her thigh beneath its weight. “I don’t owe your daddy a fucking dime, princess.”

“Then tell him that.” Candace groaned in pain, doing her best to stay composed and look up at him. “He seems to think you owe him quite a bit, and soon.”

Her groans didn’t really make things any better, judging by how Xander just grinded his boot further into her thigh. “Then I guess I’ll just have to hold his precious princess for ransom then.”

Candace paused for a moment, regained her breath, and then snarled. “Oh for the love of God, Mallick. Are you that fucking dense?!”

That didn’t seem to make Xander very happy.

“You can’t ransom me to my father, because as soon as I’m out of your grasp, you lose your leverage.”

“Then I’ll just keep you-”

“No you fucking won’t, moron.” Candace snarled, lowering her hands from her head and climbing to her feet, still staring down the barrel of his gun. “The longer you have me, the bigger the fucking target on your back. There isn’t a way for you to get away with this. Don’t tell me you’re so stupid that you don’t realize that.”

Lucy, at least, seemed to back off just slightly. But Xander didn’t.

“Oh, but I’m not stupid enough to think that there’s a way out of this. I’m stupid enough to know that there’s no way out, and to cause as much collateral damage as possible before I go.” His smile just got bigger and bigger. “Which means either you figure out a way to get me out of this, or-”

Candace’s eyes widened anxiously as she watched him reach towards her, grabbing the fancy little cross she wore around her neck into his hand and watching him snap it off of his chain, taking it for himself.

“Or I cause as much damage to you as I can.” Her heart beat quickly in her chest as she watched him take it, swallowing nervously as it slid into his pocket. “You figure out a way to get me out of this, and I’ll stop stealing from your father. How’s that?”

Candace simply bit her lip, desperately trying to hold herself back for fear of getting shot. “How’d a made man like you even get into this mess?”

“By being too charming for my own good, I guess.” He chuckled, glancing towards his slave and motioning her to his side. “It’s not my fault Bella liked me better than your sister.”

The mention of her sister certainly got Candace’s attention. “What was that?”

“Honestly, it wasn’t my fault she never got over me. She loved me more than your sister, big deal.” Xander just rolled his eyes. “The girl was a lunatic. I got my use out of her, and then I threw her away.”

“You threw her away?” Just the sound of it made Candace’s blood boil. “What do you mean you threw her away?”

“I threw her away.” He chuckled at her. “I bought her, I used her for a while, and then I got rid of her. Really, it’s like throwing a used condom in the trash. She wasn’t the first.”

Candace turned her eyes towards Lucy, suddenly quite concerned for the girl. The slave, for her part, was just doing as she needed to survive, bringing the loot from Candace’s bag to her master.

“Here you are, Sir.” Lucy flinched as he swiped the things from her hands, before quickly shoving her away, and the girl didn’t seem too happy to have the stuffed animal taken away so fast. “C-can I keep the cat?”

“No. If there’s nothing in it, I don’t want it.” He groaned, taking it and tossing back towards Candace in front of him as he continued to root through her other things. “But here’s something. Is this your doctor, St. Clair?”

Candace watched him pull out the card Lilith had given her, referring her to some famous doctor, Julienne Renee. “No. I’m afraid not.”

“Such a shame.” He took the card and tore it in half on the spot, before flicking the pieces into her face. “Barbie here is in need of having her dick chopped off, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do it with a knife.”

The girl just whimpered loudly, hanging her head in abject despair, knowing she couldn’t do anything about it. There was no way Xander was getting away with that.

Candace eyes flashed red with anger and disgust as he said that, and that was the last straw. She didn’t care if she was going to get shot, she wasn’t about to let that level of property abuse fly.

“You can’t talk to her like that.”

Lucy’s eyes actually flickered towards her, looking into Candace’s eyes in desperation. And that, that was all Candace needed to know she was right.

“Don’t you dare say things like that, not in front of me.” Candace snarled angrily at him, her hands curled into fists. “I will not stand here and watch you abuse her like this.”

Xander just laughed it off. “I’ll treat her however I like, she belongs to me.”

“I don’t care if she belongs to you, you can’t just treat her like garbage.”

“Yes I can. Because she is garbage. I will use her, abuse her, and then throw her away just like the rest.”

“Not on my watch, you won’t. I will not let you lay a finger on her, nor take your turn at castrating someone you don’t respect, especially if you’re not planning on keeping her.” Candace stepped towards him, and for once, he was on the backfoot. “That girl is not a thing to be thrown away.”

He kept his gun pointed at her head, but it didn’t seem to phase Candace at all. “She’s a slave-”

“And that makes her a possession, not an object. She is a belonging to be prized and cherished, not a toy to be ruined and disposed of like a used condom.” Candace seethed, grabbing him by the wrist and forcing the barrel of his gun away from her head. “This woman is not garbage. She is a slave, but that does not make her any less of a person. So if you would like to leave with this person, you had better say that again, but right this time.”

Xander didn’t even try to point his gun at her after that, but he did reach into his pocket, producing the controller to his slave’s collar. “If she’s so important, I’d suggest you let go of my hand before I fry her brains out of her skull.”

Candace took one look at Lucy’s crying eyes, and promptly let go of her owner’s wrist. “You piece of shit.”

“Don’t take the moral high ground with me.” Xander caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, enjoying the way she struggled not to flinch. “You’re just as bad as I am.”

“Not anymore I’m not.” Candace shook her head, sighing at the sight of the devastated slave in the corner of her eyes. “Don’t even try to compare us.”

He just smiled at the look of frustration on her face, his hand slowly gliding to the one thing he missed, noticing Candace’s increased heart rate as his fingers cradled the necklace around her neck. “Sophia Cavalier gave you this, didn’t she?”

Candace bit her lip and held her tongue. “What does it matter?”

“I didn’t tell you, did I?” He chuckled. “About what happened to her in the facility?”

Her heart dropped in her chest. “What are you on about?”

“I raped her.” He smiled proudly as he said that. “I raped Sophia Cavalier.”

Oh he was so dead. The next time Candace laid eyes on him, Xander Mallick was dead.

“Barbie dear, cover your ears.” Xander pointed his gun straight at Candace’s head. “This is for splashing gin in my face.”

Bang .

For a moment, Candace’s life flashed before her eyes, only to be snapped back out of it at humiliation of realizing he’d fired a blank straight into her face.

She stumbled backwards onto the ground behind her, her ears ringing loudly. The only sound she could really make out was his stupid voice berating her from above.

“As if you could bring bullets into a convention center.” He grabbed his slave by the arm and yanked her towards him, her controller still in hand. “Some mafia boss you’re gonna make. Doesn’t even know when a gun is loaded.”

Candace was too dazed to do anything but sit there, her hands held to her ears as she reeled from the sound of the gunshot before her very eyes. Xander just walked away a slightly richer man, honestly just lucky to still be alive after that, violently dragging his slave alongside him.

That man was so fucking dead. But until then, Candace had other things to worry about.

“Hey, Tallie. I just got mugged.” The humiliation was palpable in her voice as she spoke into her cell, calling one of the few people she knew for help as she held her new stuffed friend in her lap. “He made away with my mother’s cross and-”

Candace’s hand clutched at her chest, grabbing at nothing.

“And the necklace Chloe made me.” She couldn’t help but let out a defeated sob as she realized it. “Anyways. If you get this message, please call me back. I could use some help.”

The proud mafia heiress just sat with her back to the wall as she hung up the phone, clutching her stuffed kitten to her lap. If only she had brought someone with her to help protect her, none of this would have happened. She needed someone at her side, she couldn’t live alone anymore.

“Hey, Leah?” Candace was still crying by the time her closest friend picked up the phone. “I’m sorry for not letting you come down here with me.”

“Honey. Why are you crying?” The first thing Leah was concerned about was Candace’s wellbeing over anything else. “Did something happen?”

“It was Xander.” Candace was more than a little bit ashamed to admit it. “He took mom’s cross.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Candace didn’t even have the heart to mention the necklace again. “I’ll get it back for you.”

“No, Leah. You don’t have to-”

“Don’t fight me on this, Candace. Nobody attacks you and gets away with it.” Leah’s voice was calm but stern. “I’ll help you take care of it. Your father doesn’t need to know, okay?”

“Okay.” Candace chuckled as she wiped away her tears. “Thanks mom.”

“Oh god, don’t call me that.” Leah giggled back. “That makes me feel old.”

“You are old.” Candace snapped right back, as witty as ever. “Way too old to be having sex with Aria.”

“We didn’t have sex. She just showed me how to masturbate.” Leah pouted from the other end. “Story for another day, okay?”

“Okay.” Candace sighed, slowly climbing to her feet. “I’m going to go find Tallie.”

“Promise you’ll let me know when you’re safe?”

“Promise.”

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“What the hell happened to you?”

Tallulah had been sleeping by the time Candace met her at the hotel, forcing her client to drag herself all the way there alone in the dark of night, unable to call a taxi after having her wallet stolen.

“You stormed off on me.” Candace’s eyes hung glum as she stood outside of the doorway. “That’s what happened.”

Tallie was quickly overcome with guilt as Candace said that. “I’m sorry, Candace.”

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t fine, but she didn’t want to push the issue. “I want a private plane back home, tonight.”

That caught her off guard. “Why?”

“Because I’m going to my sister’s party.” She let out an annoyed snarl. “Whether you want me to or not.”

She paused for a moment before deciding not to press it any further. “Earliest I can do is tomorrow morning.”

“It’s a six hour flight-”

“And I’d have to get a private plane from my home in Cancun here to come pick us up, which means we’d need to wait the night anyways.”

“Can I get a commercial flight sooner?”

“Maybe. But you’d have to exchange tickets.”

“If it means getting there sooner.” Candace rooted through her bag for a moment before she realized what had happened. “I don’t have my ticket.”

“Then private plane from Cancun to Anaheim to the Keys it is then.” Tallie smiled, gesturing for Candace to come inside. “In the meantime, come lay in bed with me.”

“Actually. If it’s all the same to you, I think I’d like my own bed.” Candace frowned, hanging her head just slightly. “I don’t think this is working.”

It took a few moments for Tallulah to figure out what exactly Candace was getting at. “Candace, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“You’re fired, Tallulah.” Candace took a deep breath before just tearing off the bandage. “I don’t want you to be my manager anymore.”

A mix of emotions quickly overtook the hispanic mafia beauty. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t like the way you’ve handled my career this last year, especially when it comes to Chloe.” She frowned, hoping that Tallie would take it well. “Donovan told me everything.”

“I’m sorry about lying to you, honey.” Tallulah whined under her breath. “Really, I am-”

“I think I might go with him next year, as a manager. If he’ll even have me after all of this.” She smiled nervously, looking up into her friend’s eyes. “Tallie, are you okay?”

“I-” She stuttered nervously as she spoke, something Candace didn’t usually see from her. “I don’t know.”

Candace stood there for a few moments, trying to figure out what to do. “You do realize I’m only talking about the work stuff and not any of the other stuff, right?”

A flood of relief quickly overtook Tallie at that point. “Oh thank God. I was worried-”

“I mean we still have things to talk about, but it’s not like I’m breaking up with you.” Candace giggled awkwardly. “Not that there’s a romance here to break up, because there isn’t.”

“You seem very hung up about my demiromanticism not quite being there yet, but I’m glad, because I would like it to get there eventually.” She let out a loud sigh. “Besides, it was going to make this next part very awkward.”

“Oh?” Candace rolled her eyes. “There’s more?”

“There’s always more to come, my little princess.” She motioned Candace into the hotel room. “Come inside and meet her.”

Candace’s heart swelled and her stomach dropped all at the same time. For a second she dreaded that Tallie had gotten her something too big, but she was pleasantly surprised to discover otherwise.

“Aww, Tallulah. She’s adorable.” Candace couldn’t help but smile the closer she got to the little thing. “Is that-”

“The border collie you were so head over heels for back in Seattle?” Tallulah grinned proudly. “Yes it is.”

“I can’t believe you went back and got her.” She smiled, sitting down in bed next to the new puppy. “How long have you had her?”

“I bought her that night over the phone.” Tallulah sighed, picking the dog up and setting her in Candace’s lap. “But I had them hold onto her until it was the right time to bring her home. I wanted to wait until the world championship was over, and now that you’ve finished hosting. I wanted to reward you.”

“I can’t believe this.” The little thing climbed all over Candace’s lap once she got there, the puppy was no bigger than her purse at this point, and she wanted all of her attention. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, Candace.” Tallulah just shook her head. “I imagine you’ll want me to hang onto her for a while. At least until Christmas?”

“Christmas?”

“So that you can surprise Chloe with her once you’ve brought her back home.” Tallulah relented, giving Candace her blessing to go ahead and be reckless. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. If you want Chloe as your slave again, go get her.”

“Tallulah.” Candace blushed. “Thank you.”

“Get some sleep.” Tallie nodded, reaching down to pet the puppy. “I’ll bring her back to Cancun with me.”

“Actually. I think I want to surprise Chloe tomorrow.” Candace stopped her. “I’m going to bring them both home together, and I’m going to do what I should have done a year ago, hold Chloe’s hand and never let go.”

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16th November, 365 days until the banquet.

“I’m in the finals.”

I couldn’t help but nervously pace back and forth across the room. Winning the semifinal match should have gotten me excited, but it had just made me antsy. I was always anxious before a match.

“I can’t believe I’m in the finals.” My heart was simply pounding away in my chest. I wasn’t sure if what I was feeling was the urge to scream with joy or the urge to throw up. “How did I even get here?”

“By defeating Silver Notts in the semifinals.” My manager responded with a smirk. “At least I’m pretty sure that’s how tournaments work.”

“You’re very funny, Justin.” I stopped in place for a moment so that he could appreciate just how hard I wasn’t laughing. “I mean the whole tournament. How is someone like me even qualified to be here?”

“I would say because you qualified for the tournament, but I think what I’m supposed to say is because you worked hard and you earned it.” Justin looked up from his laptop to see me, once again pacing back and forth. “You were incredibly impressive as a new challenger back in winter. You qualified for and did fine in spring. Then you seemingly got knocked out of the standings when they wiped the floor with you in summer. Only to take a chance, buckle down, and go all in to win in the fall. Now you’re here.”

“And it’s about as shitty as the ride just getting here.” I let out a loud groan, trying to shake loose any remaining nerves. “The ride you just described, not the flight, I mean.”

“I got you.” He nodded, promptly returning to his laptop screen. “Never thought we’d be taking a plane to travel intrastate, did you?”

“Never thought we’d be able to afford it.” I snorted back at him. “Seemed so frivolous to fly across the state when we could drive for so much cheaper.”

“Like we’ve always done.” Justin and I had driven the distance to the convention together for the last few years, but it was nice not to be behind the wheel of a car you had to cross your fingers and hope would make the distance home, which last year it did not. “How’s the new car doing anyways?”

“Calliope, you mean?” Man did I love that little yellow thing. It just sucked that I had to keep a crowbar in her truck, given where I lived. “Finally replaced her tires after the boys downtown gashed them, and I got the brakes fixed. Her transmission’s kind of fucked, though.”

He raised an eyebrow at that, but not much more. “You should get that looked at.”

“With what money?” I rolled my eyes at him, not that he noticed with where his attention was at. “I bought her to replace our old squeaker after we had to tow her home. Between that, getting the brakes fixed, buying new tires, and repairing her back window not once but twice, my winnings have gone kaput.”

“That’s because the old flat’s just no good.” My ex-boyfriend just shook his head. “I’ve been telling you that you need to move to a better neighborhood, Soph.”

“What, like you did?” I quickly snapped back at him. “I don’t have the income for that.”

“That’s because you quit the magazine.”

“Yeah, to stream full time.”

“And then you stopped streaming-”

“Because people stopped caring about my content after I stopped practicing live.”

“No. You did it because you stopped caring about all of your other content.”

“I needed to focus on practicing full time if I ever wanted to qualify for this.”

“Well you’re here now, Soph. Congratulations.” Justin threw his laptop closed in his lap, staring up at me with the single most fed up expression I’d ever seen on his face. “I’m glad it turned out in the end, because I’m not sure how you were going to keep practicing for next year once you couldn’t afford electricity anymore.”

“Thank you, Justin. But clearly I don’t need you to worry about me because I’m here. I’ve done it.” Our voices progressively raised until we were finally yelling at each other again. “I’m in the top two already, so whether I win or I lose, I have a big payout coming my way once this is all over. With half a million dollars maybe I can finally buy that house you’ve been so insistent on me getting.”

“Half a million?” He furled his eyebrows at me. “Do you know how hard it’s been trying to manage you when you can’t afford to pay me until the end of the season?”

“Alright fine, 375K once I’ve given you that twenty five percent I promised you.”

“And for that money from the fall you didn’t give me a dime of?”

“Okay okay, I need a new car, but that’s fair. You’ll get thirty percent. I’ll have 350K. That’s still a lot.”

“But that’s only if you win.”

“I mean I guess 200K is a bit less than 500K.”

“And 140K is a lot less that 350K.”

“So we’ll swing for a house together, yeah?” I tried to spin it in a positive way to him, knowing that he wasn’t exactly buying it. “It’ll be just like the flat, you and I living together like we used to.”

“Back when we were dating, you mean?”

“Look. It’s only a temporary thing, okay?” No matter how hard I pitched it to him, Justin wasn’t buying it. “It’s just to give us both stability so that we don’t have to worry about ourselves on the streets for next season. We’ll do even better next year. Once you and I have some more money to throw around, you’ll be able to afford your own house, and I can help pay you back for all of this.”

“I don’t need a house. I already have a stable place to live.”

“Yeah, in a smaller apartment in a slightly better neighborhood.”

“Please don’t make me spell this out for you, Sophia.”

“Spell what out for me, Justin?”

Looking back on it now, he was just as stressed as I was back there, I just didn’t realize it at the time. So much of the stress we both went through was because of me, but my dumb ass was too proud and arrogant to admit it. It’s a bit too little too late, but seeing this one last time made me wish I could apologize to him for that. Even though I knew I would never get the chance again.

“I didn’t want to say it until after the tournament was over because I know how important this last game is going to be, but you’re kind of putting me on the spot here.”

He was positively exasperated. Justin was as on edge as I was, if not more, and being on his laptop had been his way to try and relax. But he couldn’t even have that while I was freaking out like I was.

“When we started this whole thing together, you and I weren’t just you and I, we were us. But that’s not what we are. I’m not your girlfriend, I’m not your roommate, and I’m honestly not sure if I can call myself your best friend anymore. At the end of the day, I’ve been your friend and your manager, but I don’t even think I can handle that last part after all of this.” He hung his head just slightly, clearly feeling guilty for saying it now of all times. “Regardless of what happens here today, I’m done. We’re done working together, Sophia. I’m sorry.”

I didn’t even have the dignity of giving him a response. I just fumed, tearing his own laptop from his grasp, and without even thinking about what I was doing…

SMASH!!!

…I slammed it straight into the ground between us, watching it shatter into a thousand pieces in an instant.

We both went silent at that point, when it became painfully obvious that I had just burned another bridge. But I didn’t say sorry, and he didn’t really say anything about it at all. We just stared at each other until the whole subject was dropped, and then we moved on.

“Well I was watching the other semifinal on that.” He let out a sigh, clearly not angry, just disappointed. “But I guess I have to go watch it on stage now.”

“Who’s winning?” I asked, pretending like nothing had happened at all. “Just so that I know who I’m going to face?”

“I wasn’t going to tell you until it was finished, like you asked.” Justin slowly got to work picking up the pieces of the broken thing, trying to collect them all in one spot. “But now I don’t know who’s going to win because I can’t watch the last round.”

I stood out of his way, admiring his quick work from afar as best as I could. “Tied?”

“Not that it changes anything, but yeah.” He set the pile on the table in front of the sofa, giving up on it as quickly as he was giving up on me. “You can keep that, by the way.”

“Thanks.” I didn’t really care, but I pretended like I did. “Hopefully it’s Candace?”

“Hopefully it’s not Candace.” Justin donned his jacket, rolling his eyes at my fangirl excitement. “You know you can’t beat her, right?”

“Sure I can.” I scoffed, putting my hands on my hips. “I’ve done it before, haven’t I?”

“Yeah, once, in a best of five.” He said as he slung his empty laptop carrier over his shoulder. “You can’t beat her in a best of seven. You know that. She knows that. The organizers know that. That’s why you two were put in opposite brackets.”

“What, to give her an unfair advantage?” I rolled my eyes at how absurd that sounded. “Why would they do that?”

“Because people hated when you knocked her out of the quarterfinals back in fall.” He wasn’t even sure why he was even saying all of this if I wasn’t really listening. “Or maybe they just hated how you taunted her between every game, even after the ones you lost. Not to mention going on to win it after making yourself look like the bad guy.”

“People like a good villain. I’m just playing a character.” I protested, outright denying the idea that the fans actually hated me, I couldn’t handle that so it couldn’t have been true. “She won Katowice and summer, she didn’t even need to show up for fall. What’s wrong with trying to stick it to her just once?”

“You have to make sure that it really is just once, because if you do that again, people are not going to be very happy with you.”

“They’re going to be that way if I win regardless of how sportsmanlike I am. She’s the fan favorite, I can’t help it.” Just thinking about playing her was getting me excited. “Maybe once I’ve bested her she’ll finally notice me for once.”

“Maybe she will. Maybe she won’t.” Justin started, and just then there was a knock at the door, which was his cue that he could finally get up and leave. “Just don’t hurt her feelings. I know how you feel about her, and it’s not going to help.”

“Please don’t leave yet.” I hesitantly reached out towards him, desperate to stop him from walking out the door. “I can buy you a better laptop if you’d like.”

“Get some help, Sophia.” Was the single hardest thing I’d ever had to hear in my entire life, and it stung that it came from him. “Keep the money. I don’t need anything from you. I want you to get some help. Take whatever you were going to pay me with and use it to put your life back together. Fix what’s broken, buy yourself some stability, and stop chasing your own tail.”

I watched him leave without another word after that, and even back then I couldn’t blame him for turning his back on me and walking away. Because thinking about it now, that’s exactly what I would have done too.

But at the time I had other pressing things to worry about, including an upcoming final match and a sweetheart at the door begging for my attention.

“Hey there, Candace.” Admittedly, I wasn’t the best at talking to women. “What are you doing here?”

“Weird question considering I’m the one who belongs here while your presence is the one that feels a bit out of place.” She answered with a smug smile on her face. “But I suppose what you meant to ask was what I’m doing backstage, to which the answer is: I just finished my match.”

“Yeah, that.” I blushed ever so slightly, awkwardly standing in the doorway to keep her from coming inside. “How’d the match go? Who won?”

“An even weirder question considering how that implies you weren’t watching even though we’re supposed to be rivals.” She squinted ever so slightly, folding her arms at her chest. “Or am I not appropriate rival material for the great SoCavalier, because if you don’t want me to check in on you, I don’t have to.”

“No no, I appreciate it, really. We make great rivals, I swear.” I chuckled awkwardly, trying to hide my nerves. “I just didn’t want to get my hopes up about playing against you just in case something happened, so I didn’t-”

“Sophia.” She interrupted, sternly. “Let me inside the room. Please?”

I swallowed nervously as she said that, taking a couple steps back and holding the door open as she walked inside, closing the door behind her. “Sorry. It’s kind of a mess back here.”

“I can see that.” She almost shuddered as she saw the busted up laptop on the center table. “Did you do this?”

“What, the laptop?” I couldn’t exactly shrug it off like it was nothing. “Yeah, that was me.”

“I see.” She stared at it for a moment, before smiling at me with her usual on stage cuteness. “You really ought to get your temper under control. You wouldn’t want people to mistake you for a wild animal, would you?”

“And what’s wrong with being a wild animal?” I mewled back at her, also taking on my demeanor from up on the stage. “People need to know not to root for me when we play against each other, right?”

“Yes.” She looked at me with just a little bit of disbelief. “About that.”

My heart dropped in my chest as she said that. “Oh. Um. I guess I should probably ask how your semifinal went, huh?”

“That’s what I was about to get into, actually. It was pretty close. Because as we both know, Hyo is a pretty good opponent.” She quickly dropped the facade, grinning proudly at the results of her last match. “He’s just not Candace St. Clair good.”

“You won.” I was almost as proud of her as I was proud of myself. “We’re going to be playing each other in the finals.”

She just wasn’t as proud of me as I would have liked. “Yes. I suppose we are.”

Candace was my rival, but I couldn’t help but smile at the news. Within just a few moments I found myself stepping towards her with open arms, trying to give her a hug to congratulate her on her win.

But that was when I saw her look at me with wide eyes and quickly take a good few steps back, only stopping once I’d gotten the hint and done so myself. Candace clearly didn’t want a hug from me.

“I’m sorry, hon.” Her face was nothing short of uncomfortable. “I don’t do hugs.”

I just sort of screeched to a halt, slowly lowering my arms in embarrassment as she said that. I knew what she meant, I could see it on her face.

“Yes you do.” I blushed, sliding my hands into the pocket of my hoodie. “You’re a sweetheart on stage. I’ve seen you do it lots of times before.”

“Well.” Even though she couldn’t deny that, she just didn’t want to say it to my face. “I don’t do hugs right now, how’s that?”

“That’s fine.” I frowned, backing up to give her some space. “Hugs are for losers anyways.”

“And are you saying that because you’re calling me a loser now?” This girl just didn’t let up. “Or as a weird sort of shield to hide your embarrassment?”

I wasn’t sure what it was, but something inside of me broke in that moment, and I just couldn’t pretend like nothing was wrong.

“God, Candace. What is your deal?” I said with a gravel to my voice. “You’re such a sweetheart on stage, but whenever we’re in a room together you treat me like I’m dirt.”

“Oh, come now, that’s not fair.” She tapped her foot impatiently, shaking her head at me. “Up there’s all an act, you know. Like how you’re not really a big strong bad girl like you try to make everyone believe. This is just what I’m like, there’s no reason to get all upset about it.”

“I guess.” I let the issue go, knowing it was probably all in my head. “I’ve just always thought you were sweet.”

“Thank you.” She smiled, humming to herself. “I am sweet once you’ve gotten to know me.”

I blushed, hanging my head just slightly. “Am I ever going to get the chance to know you better?”

“Sophia.” She sighed loudly, not even looking me in the eyes. “Look. There’s a lot you don’t know about me, so don’t fall in love with the girl you see on stage.”

“I’m not in love with you.” It wasn’t technically a lie, given that my feelings were much closer to a crush, but it still wasn’t the whole truth. “You don’t know me either.”

“No. I don’t.” She paused for a moment, glancing back towards the shattered laptop on the table beside her. “And something tells me I should be grateful for that.”

Maybe it was just how much I looked up to her that made this pit in my stomach so difficult to bear. Seeing Candace on stage made me fall in love with the idea of being like her. But getting to know her, or rather, not getting to know her off stage was a bitter slap in the face. The reality of reaching the pinnacle I’d so longed for was nothing more than an illusion the closer I got, and it really put into perspective just how little it all meant. I was just as miserable up here as I’d been down there, and nothing captured that feeling better than being face to face with my idol.

And Candace wouldn’t even give me the time of day to let me enjoy that illusion, not for a second.

Yet I still found my heart beating excitedly as she looked me up and down, from head to toe, and smiled to herself. I didn’t care what was going through her head to make her grin like that, it was just a little bit nice to know that she was enjoying it.

“Tell me.” She kept her eyes focused on my body, rather than my face. “Nobody’s ever beaten that third strategy of yours, have they?”

“Are you kidding me?” I chuckled. “Most of them can’t beat my first strategy.”

“And why’s that, do you think?”

“Because you might think you know how to beat it from just watching it.” I made sure to rub it in her face just a bit. “But trust me, you have to lose to it first before you can hope to overcome it.”

“And that goes for all four of your strategies, does it?” Her face was clean as she smirked at me. “Or all three of them?”

“I’m not telling you a thing.”

“It’s a shame too. You’ve never really gotten to show off a fourth strategy.” Something in her voice was a lot hungrier than I’d heard from her. “Because if I recall correctly, you’ve never beaten me in a best of seven before. Which means your odds are a million to one.”

I snorted. “Says the girl who can’t beat me in a best of five to save her life.”

“Watch your mouth.” She practically barked at me, taking one strong step in my direction. “Or I’ll watch it for you.”

“Oh you’d like that, I’m sure.” I wasn’t scared of her, not one bit, and I was willing to prove it. Her and I stood face to face, glaring angrily into each other’s eyes, mere inches away from one another. “We’ll see who’s laughing once this is all over.”

“I guess we will, and for your sake, I hope it’s me.” Her mouth curled into an eager smile, and just for a moment, I watched her cheeks turn pink. “Because if it’s not, then I suspect I’m going to have one hell of a time having you brought to my doorstep just so that I can kick the shit out of you. I would love to watch you cry.”

“Oh, be my guest, princess. All you have to do is invite me over. You can kick the shit out of me anytime, but you’ll never see me cry.” I could feel myself getting as hot and bothered as she was, and I couldn’t help but smile at that. “And you’ll never be the world champion.”

Candace’s eyes flashed with sheer awe in that moment, her breath escaping her like a gasp from her lips.

And I wasn’t sure who did what but the next thing I felt were those lips locked against mine, my whole body pressed to the wall behind me as she grasped me by the collar and shoved me back, our souls dancing around each other as we kissed.

But just as soon as it began, it all had to end, and I could see in Candace’s eyes a fierce overwhelming regret, and it broke my heart in an instant.

So many things overtook her in that moment as she pulled away, and none of it bloomed confidence within me. That excitement in her breath was replaced with the heat of guilty passion, but even the feeling of her hands fleeing from my touch didn’t hurt like looking her in those eyes as she spat in my face.

And I crumbled to the floor at her feet within moments.

“No.” Candace’s voice was filled with hatred, and it was painful to know that hatred was towards herself, and not for me. Her hands clasped over her lips, face twisting into a rueful scowl. “Not you.”

“Candace.” I couldn’t help it. I didn’t care if she spat in my face. She made me smile. “Please.”

“I can’t.” She looked at me like my lips were poison, shaking her head in abject disgust. “Keep your filthy hands off me.”

That was the moment when it all came crashing down. Where just wiping her ire from my face wasn’t enough, because she was already turned around and at the door, and I could do nothing but watch her leave and wish she wouldn’t.

I’d always known deep down that just her acknowledgement wasn’t enough. Her approval wasn’t enough, I needed more. Her adoration was what I was after. That was what I needed. That would be enough.

I had looked up to her from so far away for so long, and now that I was up close I couldn’t stand to let myself crumble, I wouldn’t fall all the way back to the bottom just to start over again.

And there was only one way I could think to make her see me like I saw her.

Win.

So that’s exactly what I did.

SoCavalier 4 - 2 CStC

Winner

SoCavalier

And she did not like that.

Not at all.

“And in a stunning turn of events, we have our winner!!”

It should have been the best moment of my life, and it was, but something still felt wrong.

“Despite all odds, Sophia Cavalier has defied expectations yet again by fighting her way out of nowhere to become not only our newest WCS champion, but the first woman to ever win the title of best in the world!!”

All of it felt wrong. It felt so right and so wrong at the same time.

“Let’s hear it from you, Sophia. How does it feel to become the first woman to ever win on the big stage here tonight?”

By all accounts, it was the greatest moment of my life, but it wasn’t quite what I had expected it to be.

“When you first started your journey a year ago, did you ever expect to find yourself here so soon?”

It was fulfilling, yes. But it was also strangely empty. I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to describe.”

Something important.

“It feels like I shouldn’t be here.”

“And I’m sure many champions before you have felt the same way, but none of them have ever had a season like yours. Your climb to the top has been unprecedented, don’t you agree?”

“I do.” I had a smile on my face that wouldn’t go away, and a girl in the corner I couldn’t take my eyes off of. “It’s an honor I didn’t think I’d ever have the privilege of accepting. Honestly, I’m speechless.”

But everyone else in that room had their eyes on me, and not all of them were happy about it.

“I just want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity in the first place. Without everyone out there, I wouldn’t be here today. I can’t possibly describe how it’s felt to get to this point, so before I go, I just want all of you out there watching to know how much this means to me…”

...And that was all I could say before I started crying on stage in front of everyone there to see me.

“Let’s hear one last round of applause for our new WCS global champion, SoCavalier!!”

The crowd was filled with boos, that was for sure, but to just ignore the overwhelming amount of congratulations and support would be doing everyone, including myself, a disservice. They were cheering me on just as hard as they’d ever cheered a champion on before, if not just a little bit more.

They had been cheering for me to win after all.

“Candace.” I still had tears in my eyes as I ran to her side, but I needed to catch her before she stepped off stage. Because once she was gone, it was already too late, I would never have the strength to face her again. “Thank you so much for everything. I’d love to play again. Please?”

I opened my heart one last time and reached out, holding my hand out for her to take.

And for a moment, she actually thought about taking it, I could see that smile on her face and those lights in her eyes as she held her hand out towards mine.

But then she stopped, and without a word, Candace retracted her hand, all of that feeling gone from her face.

Anything we had together in that moment was dead in the water, and all I could do was watch as she turned her back on me one last time…

…And walk away.

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

16th November, 0 days until the banquet.

“Sophia?”

“Chloe?”

“Can you hear me?”

And just like that the whole world came crashing in on me again.

“Are you in there, Chloe?”

I awoke with a start, my hands curled around my neck as if clutching at something, quickly gasping for breath as I sat up.

It would seem like my entire life flashing in front of my eyes had followed me into my sleep, because those memories were the last thing I remembered when I regained consciousness.

Still alive.

“Candace.”

And those memories were enough to send me headfirst into a panic stricken terror.

“No. No. No. No. No.” I could feel everything and nothing all at the same time. “NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.”

“Chloe, please. Calm down.” Josephine’s voice was the first I recognized when I came to. “Everything’s fine. You’re alive. It’s safe.”

“NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. ” But her voice alone wasn’t quite enough to save me. “ NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. ”

I was bawling. Tears were running down my face now harder than ever. I was more scared now than ever before. Even after I was sure I had died.

“ NO! NO!! NO!!! NO!!!! NO!!!!! ”

“Hey now.” I heard her voice calling out to me, and I was as desperate as ever to have something to cling onto. “Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.”

I wouldn’t have believed in it if I hadn’t heard her do it before, but the memory of Josie helping calm her wife down was just enough to get me to open up.

To let her help me.

To let anyone help me.

“Just like that. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. You can do it.”

I submitted myself to her instructions, doing exactly as I was told by the wife of the woman who I was noticing hadn’t quite taken my life.

And I was extremely grateful to have her here.

“In. Out. In. Out. In Out.” She smiled happily as she spoke, doing it with me. “You’re safe now, I promise.”

“What happened?” I calmed down after a few minutes, but even still I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Where am I?”

“You’re still at the plantation.” She stopped, gesturing towards the very room I thought I’d died in. “This is real. You’re not imagining it. You’re okay.”

“Why?” Was the only question on my mind. “Why am I alive?”

“Short answer.” Josie took me by both hands as we sat there. “Because you didn’t die.”

“Here, let me take a look at her, Miss.” I could hear another voice, Aria’s voice, as she stepped inside of the cell with us. “I want to make sure she’s okay.”

“Aria?” I looked on at her in complete disbelief, not yet convinced I wasn’t already dead, and that she and Josie were too. “What are you doing here?”

“Why do you think I’m here?” She smiled, taking Josie’s place in front of me as she made room for her. “It’s because I’m a nurse. I’m here to check and see if you’re alright.”

“But.” I had tears in her eyes as she did just that, sitting down to examine me. “But your master.”

“Her master is here too, she’s just outside with her daughter.” Josie said as she slowly stood up. “Hang tight, I’m going to go get them.”

“No.” Before I could stop her she was already gone, and I could feel my anxiety skyrocketing all over again. “Wait.”

“That was one hell of a show you put on, Sophia Cavalier.” Aria said with a rather impressed smile as she checked for a concussion, and that alone was enough to help calm me down. “I’ve never seen someone face their death so head on like that before. You have my respect, that’s for sure.”

“Is she alright, dear?” Finally, Lilith made her debut, with her daughter-in-law beside her, holding her arm as she coughed heavily into her handkerchief. “She’s not concussed, is she?”

“Not that I’ve seen, Mistress. No concussion, no bruises, no nothing.” Aria looked up at her owner and smiled. “Claudia did a good job with that at least. She probably traumatized her, though.”

And that was when I saw her, cane in hand, daring to show her face to me again.

“Oh thank god, you’re awake.”

At long last, Claudia was finally here to return to my side, and I was not excited about that.

“I wasn’t sure if you were going to make it.”

“Stay back.” I couldn’t help but snap at her, especially after everything she’d done to me. “You tried to kill me.”

“Don’t be insolent, Chloe.” Josephine made sure to scold me for that, but lightly. “Claudia’s not trying to kill you.”

“I’m sorry that I had to trick you like this.” Claudia frowned nervously, making sure to be slow in her approach as she sat down next to me. “I needed your reactions to be genuine. For the camera.”

“The camera?” I swallowed nervously, now near deathly terrified of that cane in her hand. “What do you mean?”

“To show to my father. As proof of your death.” She smiled nervously, pulling a familiar looking VHS tape and setting it down in her lap, this one labelled #0000B. My number. “He was never going to believe it unless you really thought you were dying. I had no choice but to keep it a secret from you, I apologize.”

Finally, it dawned on me what had just happened. “You faked my death.”

“We faked your death.” Claudia smiled, her eyes fluttering over to her wife beside me. “It was Josephine’s idea. I was just here to press the button.”

“But you did it, and you didn’t kill anyone.” Lilith smiled, impressed by her daughter’s progress. “I’m proud of you, sweetheart.”

Claudia’s face actually turned a little bit red, and she gently looked down towards the controller still strapped to around her wrist, gently running her finger along its length. “Thanks, Mom.”

“I’m proud of her too.” Josie practically tackled Claudia to the ground with how happy she was, wrapping her arms around her wife. “I love you, Claudibear.”

“I love you too, Josiepie.” Claudia giggled quietly, returning her partner’s loving embrace as she fell into the other woman’s arms. “But let’s not do this right now, there’s no time. We can canoodle when we get home.”

“You guys faked my death.” I still wasn’t over this. “Why would you fake my death?”

“Because the girls think of you as family.” My master had a distinct snarl in her voice as she said it. “Whether I like it or not, I can’t exactly get rid of you without breaking a lot of hearts.”

“But what about everything I’ve done?” I snarled right back at her. “I thought you hated me?”

“I do hate you.” Even in her cruelty, Claudia still had an ounce of compassion within her. “But that doesn’t mean I have to kill you.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Claudia Rosegold Mariam, the woman who’d killed her own stepmother and hid it from her sister Candace, was faking my death to spare my life, much like her little sister. I had gone along with all of it without even knowing, playing along with the act like it was real, because I thought it was. All that was left now that there was a tape proving that I’d been killed was to find a place to keep me, because it was no longer safe to show my face, I’m supposed to be dead.

“We’ve spared your life, but not for nothing.” Josie held Claudia’s hand in hers, going through the rest of the plan they’d come up with. “You’re still a slave. We expect you to live, work, and act like a slave. You just won’t be a house slave anymore.”

“You’re going to be a plantation slave.” Claudia finished for her, giving Josephine a sly smile. “You’ll live here at the plantation. We’re going to put you to work with the rest of the men and women here. Every slave here at the plantation was on the zed list, saved from being put down only by my mercy. I bought each of them for the express purpose of keeping them alive, with the implicit understanding that if they choose to rebel, there’s nowhere else for them to go but hell.”

“That means that just like all of the other girls Claudia’s put down, she has the authority to change her mind and put you down as well, if she so chooses.” Josie clearly didn’t want this to be the case, but it was the price she had to pay to talk her wife down from killing me outright. “The facility that Lilith created is run by her son, which means it’s under Cardinal’s control now. But when my family agreed to marry me to his daughter, they did so in exchange for this place. The plantation is my birthright, and that means it’s outside of his jurisdiction.”

“My family profits off of it, trafficking the drugs we grow here to prey on weaklings and make money, but it’s not my family’s to control.” Claudia smiled, looking softly into her wife’s glowing eyes. “It’s mine to control.”

“It’s ours to control.” Josephine smirked, leaning in and pecking Claudia’s lips for a kiss. “And while you’re here, you’re ours to control. You’ll have to get used to that.”

“Starting now.” Claudia finished with a dispassionate anger. “Now stand up. I’m taking you to your new world before I change my mind.”

No. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. I was supposed to be dead. I deserved to be dead. Even in death there was the silver lining of being put out of my misery, but even that was gone. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be under her control any longer, but Claudia wasn’t giving me any other choice.

“Hold on, Sweetheart.” Claudia’s mother said as soon as there was a lull in her near constant coughing. “Don’t you remember what I said when I asked you to host this party for me?”

Claudia grabbed me by the arm, but before she could drag me to my feet, she stopped. “You said a lot of things, Mom. Can you be just a bit more specific?”

Lilith nodded from behind her handkerchief, holding one finger up to request a moment as she suffered through another fit of painful hacks and wheezes. “About her, Claudia. What did I say about Candace?”

“You requested that I invite my sister.” Claudia’s eyes briefly went wide, looking at her mother in disbelief. “And her lady friend.’

“Like I said, that doll’s a wonderful girl.” Lilith looked at me with a wink. “I want them both there at my party.”

“You can’t be serious.” I felt my arm slip out of Claudia’s grasp as she protested. “She’s already here at the plantation, you can’t be serious about this, Mom.”

“Darling, please.” Lilith lowered her handkerchief for just a moment, showing her daughter a desperate smile. “It’s one of your mother’s dying wishes.”

As soon as she finished speaking, everything quickly took a turn for the worse. In the span of just a couple moments I watched all of the color fade from the old woman’s face, quickly clutching her handkerchief to her mouth with both hands as she launched into a gauntlet of completely uncontrolled coughs.

I wasn’t quite sure what was different about this coughing fit at first, but thankfully Aria recognized what was happening and quickly scampered to her mistress’ side. As Lilith’s cane clattered to the floor, her newest slave made sure to grab her arm and slowly support her before she fell to the ground with it.

It was then that I saw the white cloth in her hands turn red with blood. I never doubted that she was really dying, but coughing up blood was a sure sign that something was seriously wrong.

“I’ve got you, Mistress.” Aria wrapped her arm around Lilith’s lower torso. She might have been a pretty small woman, but Lilith was more than light enough for her slave to hold. It had become her job to be there to help nurse Lilith’s medical needs, to be her nurse, but even she was out of her league when it came to helping her owner with her cancer. “I’m right here. I promise.”

“Aria.” I couldn’t help but feel for the girl, even after everything she’d done to me. Nobody should have to deal with helping her elder through her death, and it was clear that the two of them had a closer relationship than I’d imagined. They both had tears in their eyes. “Is she okay?”

“I don’t have the heart to say that, but she’s gotten this far.” Aria smiled, slowly helping Lilith to the closest seat, sitting down with her and continuing to help keep her comfortable. It was all she could do at this point. “It’s your birthday, Ma’am. Don’t let it do you in just yet. P-please?”

Lilith’s eyes slowly opened and closed, locked onto her nurse for the brief moment they were let out to see, and just for a moment she had the strength to give her a reassuring nod. The coughing fit continued and she had no choice to suffer through it, but after a moment or so I could see her take a shaking hand from her handkerchief and place it on Aria’s shoulder, trying to help herself lean into the girl.

“It’ll be okay, Mistress.” Aria tilted her head forward, pressing her forehead against Lilith’s to help support the older woman. Gentle tears rolled their way down the mouse girl’s cheeks, biting her tongue and forcing a second wind into her own lungs. “It’ll all be over soon, I promise. Just hang in there a little longer for me.”

Josie held her wife by both shoulders as she stared at the scene in front of her, struggling not to cry. She knew her mother was dying, but she wasn’t ready to watch it happen. “Mom…”

“I’ll be okay.” Lilith forced through pained lungs, slowly but surely regaining her strength. “I just need some sleep for tonight.”

“Let’s get you home, Mistress.” Aria shook herself free of tears, forcing her own feelings to the side as she helped Lilith to her feet. “It’s already past two, we shouldn’t be out this late.”

“Take me home, Aria.” Lilith had no choice to agree, giving the rest of us one last smile before leaving. “And I’ll see you girls at the party tonight.”

“Let me help you girls get home.” Josie gave her wife a quick kiss before wiping her face free of tears, knowing the best way to help her was to help her mother. “We’re going to have a great time tonight, I just know it.”

“Happy birthday.” Claudia just watched in awe as her wife helped her mother out, a smile on her face as she stayed behind. “I love you, Mommy.”

Lilith, for just a moment, couldn’t help but smile at the sound of that word again. So even though she was that much closer to death,she clearly left just a little bit happier than she’d arrived. “I love you too, princess.”

The three of them made their way out of the crypt, leaving Claudia and I alone together for the first time since what I thought would be the last time.

“I guess I have no choice but to bring you home one last time.” Her wife left with Preyboy, but Claudia would leave with her mother’s cane. “If I’d gotten my way, you’d be dead already. But thankfully, it’s not always about me. Today is about her. Today is about family.”

“Master.” I nervously stared into her angry eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“I really did try to make this work.” She frowned, taking her mother’s cane and snapping it in half right there out of anger. “But you made your decision.”

“I knew what I was doing.” I said with a weak voice. “Why didn’t you kill me?”

“Because I’m not done with you yet.” She turned to me with those unblinking eyes, petrifying me to my soul. “Don’t mistake this for mercy.”

I could feel my heart squeezed inside of my chest as I looked into her, terrified beyond belief about what she was going to say next. I’d lived through this once before, and I wasn’t ready to do it again. “No. Please.”

My master sat there wordlessly for a moment, admiring the sight of my controller clasped around her wrist as she reluctantly removed it from her reach. But before she put it away, she took it and she held it before her eyes. She stared at her reflection in the bracelet and smiled.

“I’m not sparing you because you don’t deserve to die. I’m sparing you because you deserve a fate worse than death.” Her smile carried over as she tucked the controller away in her pocket for later, turning her head to face me. “I’m sparing you so that I can hurt you. I’m going to punish you for everything you’ve done to me. And I’m going to love every moment of it.”

I cowered within her aura as she stood, looming over me like an unstoppable giant, a mountain that I couldn’t climb, and just like that I looked to her with tears in my eyes as she gave me one last smile.

Before spitting right in my face.

“Enjoy the rest of your miserable life, Sophia Madeline Cavalier. I hope it was worth it.”