Elisha woke slowly out of a deep sleep, following gentle music to the waking world. Opening her eyes, she blinked sleepily, listening to the clear strains of an acoustic guitar, accompanied my Matthew’s pleasantly deep voice.

Shady grove, my little love

Shady grove, my dear

Shady grove, my little love…

I’m gonna meet you here

After a last chord, the music ceased. “Good morning, beautiful.”

Elisha sat up fully and smiled at Matthew, who was looking at her from a cushioned chair by the bedside, a burnished guitar on his lap. Oddly, the guitar strings shone like silver… but no-one had silver guitar strings, right? The golden haired girl felt a flash of nervous embarrassment run through her as she realized she was naked under the sheets. Considering what they had done yesterday, it didn’t make a lot of sense, but that didn’t seem to matter.

“Hey,” she replied shyly.

“Thank you,” Matthew said seriously. “You saved my life.”

Elisha blushed and looked down. “Welcome,” she mumbled.

Matthew hesitated for a moment. He said slowly, “Why’d you do it? I thought you didn’t like me.”

The golden-haired girl looked at him in shock, blinking rapidly. “What? I – I’ve always liked you, Matthew! You just… make me kinda nervous. I’m always afraid of – of saying the wrong thing, or – I don’t know.” She stared at the bed sheets in confusion and embarrassment, her hands knotted into fists in her lap.

Matthew swallowed hard, taken aback. “Oh… ok.” He hesitated a moment, digesting this, then shook his head and bit his lip, glancing at the clock. “I hate to say this, but… you’d better get your stuff. The sooner you’re out of here, the less suspicious it’ll look.”

“Of – of course,” Elisha managed, trying to sound calm and collected. Scrambling out from under the covers to find her clothes, she was gratified to see Matthew take a sharp breath in before turning his head to avoid seeing her nakedness.

Elisha ran into Charsi as she made her way downstairs. Her dark-haired friend looked askance at her. “And where have you been?” she demanded truculently.

Elisha shrugged and avoided her eyes. “Around,” she mumbled.

Charsi frowned as she followed Elisha. “Around? Certainly not around where I was! I was looking everywhere for you last night, and you weren’t-” she broke off as a though struck her. “Waaait a minute. Around? As in, around Matthew?”

Elisha ducked her head, her cheeks fiery. “Um… y-yes?”

Charsi’s lips twitched and she punched her friend lightly in the side. “You’re really smart, you know that? Guys totally dig the whole nursing them back to health thing. How about it, d’you think it’s working?”

Elisha blinked rapidly. “Um, yeah, I’d say so.” She turned a little more rosy as images from last night passed through her mind. She stood a little straighter, repeating more confidently, “I’d say so.”

Matthew leaned against the register despondently, staring at the counter. It was shaping up to be another slow night. When he had come it, Mr. Jansten had taken him into the back and given him a thorough dressing-down for failing to call in and missing two days of work. Matthew, who could hardly protest that he had been at death’s door when he looked right as rain now, had to just stand there and take it while Mr. Jansten thundered on and on about his irresponsibility and dishonor.

What really upset Matthew was that, of all the people Mr. Jansten had working for him, Matthew was undoubtedly the only one with any conception of honor at all, and he took his word very seriously. But whatever Kant urged to the contrary, Matthew hardly felt he could tell the truth.

“How’s it going?”

Matthew looked up and smiled. Adrienne, another of his co-workers who was a close friend of Erin’s, was walking slowly to the counter. Unlike Erin, she was very pleasant. Adrienne had bright eyes and long, soft hair, and Matthew thought she might have been quite pretty if she were not so horribly overweight. As it was he had the same reaction to her as he had to any person with something unnatural affecting their body, whether it be a wound or a deformity; pain.

Matthew had never understood exactly why, but he had always felt some sort of feedback from seeing such things. Until he had grown up, he had assumed everyone felt the same thing; and he still found it hard to understand that anyone could look on some sort of gross abnormality of the human form and not be physically affected.

Looking fully on Adrienne was something like sticking his finger in an electric socket and keeping it there. On the other hand, he did not want to offend her or make her feel ugly; which led Matthew to walk an uneasy, fine line between, making full eye contact and keeping her out of his line of sight.

“Not great,” he replied honestly.

Adrienne leaned on the counter. “Yeah, I heard Mr. Jansten chewing out earlier,” she said sympathetically. “What happened?”

Matthew shrugged. “I got some really nasty 48 hour bug. It had me totally wiped out; and of course the Mannel’s weren’t going to call in for me. I got better as fast as I got sick, so at this point…” he gestured at himself. “I knew Mr. Jansten wouldn’t believe me.”

Adrienne said: “You’re right, he probably wouldn’t. He doesn’t seem to like you much, for some reason.”

Matthew sighed. “I’ll have to be careful. He’s probably just waiting for one more slip-up so he can fire me.”

The bell on the front door rang stridently, and the two looked up to see Erin enter the shop.

“H-hi Erin,” Matthew said, unable to keep the nervous stutter out of his voice. Adrienne shot him a glance before echoing his words in her lighter, more relaxed voice.

Erin mumbled something that might have been a greeting, avoiding looking at Matthew entirely, before hurriedly making her way into the back. Adrienne turned back to her co-worker, a puzzled frowned on her lips. “What was that all about?”

Matthew shrugged, a hint of confusion in his eyes. “I’m… not sure,” he said hesitantly. “Maybe she thinks I just made up an excuse to get out of work, and she’s angry at me for it?”

“Hm,” Adrienne murmured, unconvinced. She had been friends with the fiery redhead since they were both very young, and she had never known Erin to hold back if she thought someone else was in the wrong. If she had thought Matthew had been shirking his work, she’d have cut him dead.

Adrienne joined Erin in the back, finding his friend over viewing the stock slotted to go on the shelves that night, hands on her hips. Adrienne soon realized that the redhead was just staring straight ahead, unseeing. She started violently when Adrienne touched her shoulder.

“Oh,” Erin gasped, hand on her heart. “It’s just you.”

Adrienne said: “What’s with you tonight? Don’t even try and tell me it’s nothing, ‘cause I know you better than that.”

Erin hesitated, looking torn, and Adrienne added, “I know it had something to do with Matthew, too. C’mon, Erin, spill it!”

The redhead looked away, her hands nervously clasped in front of her. After a second, she sighed. “Ok, ok. Look, you need to keep this quiet. If it got out, I’d just die.”

Adrienne nodded solemnly.

Erin held out her hand. “Pinky swear?”

Adrienne linked digits with her for a minute before they separated. Erin took a deep breath. “Ok. Back on Thursday, when Matthew and I were working, something kinda happened. We were closing up… and – I don’t know, the night’s a little blurry, but I guess one thing led to another, and… w-well… we kinda, sorta… had sex!” she ended in a rush, her face flushing crimson.

Adrienne blinked. “You – you what?”

Erin looked positively miserable. “We had sex,” she repeated.

“But what about Craig?”

Erin threw her hands up. “I don’t know! It isn’t like a planned it! Being with Matthew was like… going crazy or something! I couldn’t control myself – I wanted, and I… took.”

Adrienne held up her hand. “Ok, more than I need to know. “ She paused, then shook her head. “Um, ok… was it, uh… really bad?”

Erin blinked, uncomprehending. “ No, it was really great.”

“So you’re just feeling really guilty or something?”

Erin rolled her eyes. “No. I mean, sure, I don’t want to cheat on Craig, but I’ve had… slips, before, with some of my other boyfriends, and I don’t feel real bad about them. Sometimes, things just happen, and I’m not going to beat myself up about them.”

Adrienne sighed and leaned back against one of the racks. “Ok, maybe I’m slow, but you’re going to have to spell this out for me, ‘cause I have no idea where you’re going with it.”

Erin distractedly ran her hand through her hair, before trailing it lower to trace over some sort of mark on her neck. “It’s just… it’s Matthew! I loathe him! He’s this sycophantic brown-nosing loser with delusions of grandeur! And I can’t,” her voice took on a nearly hysterical tinge. “I can’t stop thinking about him!”

Adrienne said: Ok, ok, calm down. Look, what’s the problem with Matthew? He’s a pretty decent guy, by everything I know.”

Erin huffed in anger and disbelief. “How can you say that! He stole my register job!”

Adrienne rolled her eyes. “He did not ‘steal’ your position, Erin. Jansten put him there. In fact, once Matthew realized how upset you were about it, he tried to get Jansten to switch him to stocking, instead. And that did not go over well with our illustrious employer, let me tell you.” Erin blinked, taken aback. “H-he did?” she whispered. Then she shook her head violently, sending her fiery locks tumbling about her face. “Whatever! I don’t care! He probably just wanted to get in good with me so he could fuck me, anyway! I know what kind of guy Matthew is, ok? He uses people, manipulates them! He pretends to give a shit about people so they’ll do what he wants! I’d rather deal with a straight out honest asshole than some slick, double-dealing bastard like Matthew. At least you know what’s up with them. At least they don’t smile to your face while fucking you over.”

Adrienne held her peace for a minute while Erin wound down from her tirade. Neither of them heard Matthew moving back from the door where he had been drawn by the sound of loud voices.

“You’re wrong,” Adrienne told her friend flatly. “If you really talked to him at all, you’d know that. And if you bothered to read between the lines, you’d know he hasn’t got a lot of breaks. His parents are dead, he’s living with people who treat him like crap, and he’s run afoul of all the wrong people around here. I love you, you know that, but sometimes you might try being less of a bitch.”

Adrienne went back into the store, slamming the door behind her. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed her face with an effort, and took a deep breath before heading to the register. Matthew was ringing a customer out, his face easy and relaxed. She waited until he was done before approaching him.

Matthew saw her and smiled, before looking away in his usually shy manner.

Adrienne said: “I’m heading out now, ok?” She hesitated. “Look, Erin’s kinda on the warpath right now, so try and keep a low profile.”

Matthew nodded. “Will do,” he assured her. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

“Goodnight, sweetie.” As Adrienne walked away with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She really didn’t want to be around when he saw today’s newspaper.

Matthew sighed as the shop door swung closed behind Adrienne, a deep sense of depression settling down on him in a bone-crushing cloud. He had never realized how much Erin had loathed him… or did she only hate him that much because of what had happened between them? He couldn’t blame her for that. It wasn’t like she’d had a choice in the matter. Erin had been forced into doing something she never normally would’ve done, and that was bound to have repercussions.

Self-loathing rising within him like an acidic tide, Matthew shook his head. Could he have resisted, and saved Erin from the terrible experience? He didn’t think so. He had been just as much of a puppet as his co-worker. But he had a horrible suspicion that even if he had been able to choose, had the chance to push her off and stop things from going further, he wouldn’t have.

Flashes of that night rose before his eyes, unbidden, and Matthew felt a warm flush rise through him, starting at his groin and prickling out into his scalp and the tips of his toes. Visions of creamy white skin, of smooth mounds crested by stiff peaks, of her soft, welcoming wetness burned in his mind, and he stifled a groan as he felt his erection press insistently against the front of his pants.

The backdoor swung open with a crash, and Erin stalked through, clearly furious, judging from the set of her shoulders and the pout firmly entrenched on her lips. Her anger only made her more beautiful. Matthew gazed at her, his lust surging to almost uncontrollable heights; but she never graced him with a look, instead turning away to stock the shelves with a toss her hair that conveyed both distaste and scorn.

Matthew’s breath came short and shallow as he watched her. She bent over to put her tray down, and he gritted her teeth as her tight skirt strained over her smooth, firm derrière.

Matthew tore his gaze away with an almost physical effort, stifling a plaintive whine that threatened to break free from deep within him. He needed to get a grip. He needed to take a deep breath, take a step back, and just calm down…

Matthew heard muffled swearing coming from behind him. “Matthew!” Erin’s voice called, sharp with annoyance. “This fucking shelf won’t go up right. Give me a hand, ok!”

Matthew froze, a silent war raging within him. He wanted to go and help her, stand beside her, brushing shoulders, perhaps, the subtle scent of Erin’s perfume and the natural musk of her body blending together to tantalize him; the touch and smell driving him crazy, driving him to the breaking point. But at the same time, he didn’t want to lose control again, didn’t want to hurt her anymore than he already had.

“Damn it, Matthew, wake the fuck up! This is really fucking heavy! Get your ass over here!”

As if in a dream, Matthew saw himself move to go to her. He turned, saw Erin’s furious face looking at him, and all his breath left him in an instant. Her blazing eyes stopped him in his tracks, the volatile, raging fires within calling out to him in a siren song he could not resist.

Erin was trying to balance a heavily loaded shelf in her hands. She’d clearly slipped it out of it’s slot to move it to a higher one, but had neglected to take the merchandise off it first. Now she was stuck, unable to attach the shelf because of its weight, and not able to lower it without sending the items on it sliding off onto the floor.

“Well?” Erin’s strident tone cut through his daze. “Are you going to lend a hand, or are you going to sit there all fucking day!”

And just like that, time resumed its normal flow, and the conflict within him was gone. Moving quickly, Matthew came to her side, taking the burden from her tired arms. Carefully controlling his movements, he reattached the shelf, first on one side, then on the other.

“Fucking hell!” Erin breathed, massaging her shoulders. “That was really fucking heavy. Uh… thanks Matthew,” she added as an afterthought.

“A pleasure,” Matthew responded smoothly. “If I may?” He reached out and took her shoulders in his long-fingered hands, gently working over strained muscles with skilled movements.

“Ooohhhh…” Erin sighed in relief. “Th-that feels really good M-” The red-head’s eyes snapped open as the reality of the situation struck her. With an inarticulate cry, she tore herself out of his touch; and turned to regard him, her back against the shelf, with wide eyes and a heaving chest.

She looked like a trapped animal. Matthew licked his lips openly as he moved in on her, putting an arm on either side of her body to keep her from moving. “What’s the matter, Erin?” he inquired dangerously. “You look a little apprehensive.”

“Matthew…” Erin put a hand on his chest, as if to push him away, but snatched it back as if burned when he simply looked down at it, his grin widening. “You’d better just stay away from me, ok?”

“Stay away from you?” Matthew leaned in, closer, closer, until he was breathing on her neck, and his tongue slipped out to tease her warm skin. “Why? You think someone might get hurt?”

Erin shuddered under his touch. “Stop it!” she said more forcefully. Drawing her hand back, she slapped him across the face as hard as she could.

Matthew blinked and shook his head, a scarlet handprint in sharp relief on his cheek. “Mmmm… you like it rough? I can do that.” Bringing the red-head’s face up forcefully, he crushed his lips to hers. She melted into him.

The doorbell jangled sharply, and Matthew fell back with a gasp, horror writ large on his face. “Erin! I– I-”

Erin was gone in an instant, wiping the tears off her face as she ran to the back. Matthew turned mechanically, heading for the register, unable to control the trembling that shook his body. That had been too close.

Erin avoided him for the rest of the night, and truthfully, Matthew was glad of that. His self-control had already broken once, and he did not trust it to be tested again, in spite of his shame and remorse. At the end of the day, Erin ran through the store to the outside, where her hulking boyfriend Craig was waiting for her in a red Camaro.

Matthew watched her go, a complex play of emotions churning in him. There was a pang in his heart, and he desperately wanted to call after her, to somehow tell her how sorry he was; but he knew she wouldn’t listen. At the same time, anger tightened his muscles seeing her go to another man, when his instincts screamed at him that she should only be his.

Matthew pressed his palms into his eyes, fighting back the sharp opening pains of a major headache. “Damn it!”

Jephel hung in the air of Matthew’s dark closet, discorporate and brooding. There was much for him to think on. His Master was strong, true, but also callow and inexperienced. He did not seem to understand that everything had changed; that his life would never again be the same.

Jephel could not really blame the youth for his incomprehension. How do you communicate to a nineteen year-old, even an exceptional one, that any dreams they might have had, and hopes or aspirations, were now dust? The truth was that Matthew’s life was now going to revolve around the simple, day-to-day struggle for survival; and the sooner he accepted that, the better his chances would be.

All the small wight could do was hope that Matthew survived the first shock of contact, and that it woke him to the true gravity of his situation. Hope… and prepare. Amass as much power to himself as he could; so that; Gods willing, he could protect his Master for the first few crucial weeks.

A familiar sensation intruded itself on Jephel’s awareness, and his senses pricked into alertness. There… close. The daemon spread himself even thinner and drifted through the closet door. He glided slowly but surely, passing through several rooms of the palatial building before coming to the one he sought.

Jessica and her boyfriend lay together on the large four-poster bed in her room. The brunette was on top, straddling Josh’s waist with her long, slender legs. As Jephel watched, one of the young man’s hands wandered downwards from where it had been fastened on his girlfriend’s large breast, heading for her nether regions. Jessica immediately broke off her passionate lip lock and glared at him.

“Do we need to have this talk again?”

“Ah… n-no. Sorry,” Josh muttered, bringing his hand away quickly.

Swift as lightning, Jessica slapped him hard across the face. Jephel winced as Josh grunted from the impact. Then he bit his lip as Jessica ground cruelly hard against his erection.

“You may think you’re a big shot, Josh,” Jessica told him, syrupy sweet and vicious. “But I’m bigger. You keep it in your pants, and you keep your hands above the waist, or I’ll destroy your life. OK?”

Josh nodded. Jessica bore down on him again, eliciting a yelp of discomfort from her boyfriend. “I said OK?”

“OK, OK!” Josh gasped. “Jesus, Jess, you can be a real bitch sometimes, you know that?”

“Mmmhmm,” Jessica nodded, satisfied. “I’m the alpha bitch, baby, and don’t you forget it.”

Jephel looked on, horrified. This was wrong on so many levels. There was no such thing as an alpha bitch. Alphas were always male, and this girl was acting in a manner completely contrary to the natural order. Doubtless, the wight reasoned, she simply needed a good hard screwing to get her head on straight. There was nothing like the satisfaction and contentment of afterglow to bring out properly submissive feelings in a female.

Slipping down under the bed, Jephel materialized briefly. His flexible tail snaked up and around the side of the bed, and he jabbed it into Jessica’s delicate ankle sharply before dissolving into formless mist once again.

“Ow!” the statuesque brunette yelped, clutching at her ankle.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Josh inquired worriedly; though Jephel could tell from his tone that his anxiety stemmed mainly from the fear that his girlfriend might blame whatever had happened on him.

“Fuck!” Jessica hissed, rubbing the smarting area furiously. “I stabbed myself on a pin or something…” She leaned over and closely examined that portion of the bed, but Jephel was safely out of sight, and she found nothing.

“Oh, whatever,” she dismissed the incident with a giggle, and positioned herself back on top of her boyfriend deftly. “Where were we, lover?” Stooping swiftly, she crushed her red lips against his mouth. Her tongue slid slowly out to tease his, and Jessica moaned into the contact, shivering as the erotic thrill shot through her.

“Mmm…” she purred, pulling back a little. “I can feel you all… hard for me,” she whispered playfully, and snaked a hand down in-between their bodies to cup and explore his growing stiffness.

“Jesus, Jess,” Josh gasped, gritting his teeth. “W-what are you doing?”

Jessica hushed him and laid a finger against his lips. “What, we can’t have fun sometimes?” she breathed. Shaking her head as if to clear it she favored her boyfriend with a sultry smile. “You wanna have fun, lover?”

Josh swallowed convulsively. “Um – uh, I mean… oh God, y-yeah.” Fear and lust struggled in him, the conflict for dominance clear in his eyes.

Jessica brushed her heated core against his hard length, her inner warmth evident despite the layers of fabric separating them; biting her lip gently as she gazed at him through lowered lashes, her rich, wavy hair tumbled all about her face. “You wanna touch me, baby?”

Sweat stood out on the jock’s forehead as he fought the instinct to buck his hips upwards against his girlfriend’s welcoming softness. “Yeah.”

Jessica took a deep breath and let it sigh out softly, then straightened up and slipped slowly out of her top, letting the fabric slide tantalizingly over her smooth flesh, baring more and more soft white skin to her boyfriend’s appreciative gaze. “Touch me,” she said, a hint of pleading in her voice. “I’m cold, Josh. Warm me up, baby.”

Hesitantly, the jock placed one of his large hands on the soft swell of her ass, eying her uncertainly. When no immediate aggressive response seemed to be forthcoming, he grew bolder, his grip firming as he reached up with the other to fondle her large breasts, enticingly restrained by a white, lacy bra.

Jessica murmured happily, arching her back to thrust her proudly jutting mounds into his touch. “Ohhhh… yeah.”

Josh couldn’t believe his luck. He furiously kneaded and pulled at her breasts, fumblingly unhooking her bra after a minute letting her confined flesh spring free into his eager hands. “God, Jess… so hot… so good,” he panted.

The two impassioned teenagers continued to grapple together on the bed, fretting and clutching at each other. Jephel churned unhappily under the bed. The emanations he was picking up were strengthening him, true, but they were not very powerful. The energy from Josh came in waves, but lacked any real intensity or depth, and Jessica’s feelings were muted.

Though the drug on his tail had heightened her senses whilst lowering her inhibitions, it could do nothing for the fact that her partner did not really know what he was doing, and his inexpert pawing caused her pain as often as pleasure.

The two rolled over, switching positions, and Josh pulled back hurriedly to take off Jessica’s pants. Shoving her thong aside, he ran his fingers over her unprotected pussy, glistening with pearly juices, his frame quivering with unrestrained lust. Quickly tiring of this, the jock inserted two fingers into her wet hole and began to plunge them in and out, causing his girlfriend to gasp from the intense sensation.

“Yeah, you like that, don’t you?” Josh said smugly. “And I think I know what you’ll like even better…” Quickly, he unsnapped his pants and slid them off. Unleashing his dick, he positioned himself atop her, and with no finesse or fanfare, slammed home.

Both cried out simultaneously; Josh in pleasure, as her tight, sucking wetness closed around his cock, and Jessica in pain at the rapid intrusion, searing discomfort playing along her nerves so bad she felt as though she might split apart.

Josh pulled out part-way before slamming in again, beginning a fast and steady rhythm in and out, grunting in appreciation. Misinterpreting Jessica’s muted cries of pain, he grinned. “Yeah, that’s right, take it bitch… take it all”

Suddenly, his smug expression faltered, then fell away entirely, and the jock moaned loudly, his lunges becoming more frantic. With one last heave, he came in her, groaning as he pushed himself as far inside as he could. When he was done, he collapsed on top of her, then rolled to the side, catching his breath.

After a minute, Josh got up and began putting on his clothes. Glancing over as Jessica’s still supine form, he smiled. “It’s good you decided to unbend a little, Jess. That was really hot. I can see you’re still a little, uh, out of it, so… I’ll just let myself out. See you later.”

The door clicked to softly behind him. Under the bed, Jephel seethed; and atop it, her face turned to the wall, Jessica let silent tears slip down her cheeks.

Erin stifled a sigh as Craig’s car slid to a stop in front of her parent’s home. Her boyfriend had taken her out to eat after work, and though the food at Etrange Pature was good as usual, the redhead had found the evening dragging. Craig’s conversation had been boring, and he sat too close. Every time he tried to touch her, she felt sick.

Erin had reached the decision that she’d have to end things between them. She’d been with Craig for three months, and up until a few days ago, their connection had been as intense as the day they’d hooked up. But now that was apparently gone, ruined somehow by Matthew, Erin had a sinking feeling that things could get ugly fast.

She’d known of Craig’s reputation before she ever got together with him, but his dangerousness had only added to the heat of her attraction to him. Erin was always able to sate the ready fire of his anger with her body, and was proud that she was able to tame him where so many others had failed. But now she was unable to keep him placated with sex, she was beginning to be afraid. When Craig didn’t get what he wanted, he got mean fast.

“Look, Craig, we need to talk,” Erin began firmly, not quite working up with nerve to look over at him.

“We’ve talked enough. Let’s to something else.” Craig turned her head and kissed her with demanding force. His strong hand grabbed roughly at her breasts as his tongue pushed into her mouth.

For a moment, Erin thought it would be OK, that she could just give him what he wanted this one last time, and then break up with him once he was in a mellow mood. But then her body caught up with what was happening, and nausea surged in the pit of her stomach. A feeling of trapped suffocation closed in on her, and she panicked.

Placing her hands on his chest, Erin shoved him away as hard as she could. Turning her head to the side, she retched miserably, feeling as though she might sick up for a minute before the roiling in her stomach subsided somewhat.

“I can’t,” she gasped breathlessly. “I’m sorry… I just can’t.”

“You can’t,” Craig said flatly. “You fucking bitch.”

Erin held up a hand, still shaking a little. “It’s just-”

“What the fuck makes you think you can do this to me!” her boyfriend yelled. “You think you can just string me along and leave me hanging? Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Erin fought her instincts, which insistently pressuring her to get as far away from him as possible. Scrunching back a little in her seat, she tried to keep her voice steady. “Look, I don’t mean to-”

Stars exploded across her vision as Craig’s fist connected with the side of her face. Erin’s head slammed into the side window, and she slumped forward, stunned.

As if from a distance, she heard the car door open, and heavy footsteps make their way around the vehicle. She knew she should open the door, run to her house, scream for help, anything; but her nerveless body betrayed her, and her thoughts were muddied and slow.

Craig opened the passenger side door, and Erin tumbled out. Her boyfriend caught her before she hit the ground. He shoved her against the trunk of a nearby tree, holding her upright with a forearm pressed against her throat. She choked and gagged, fighting for air, but her weak attempts to free herself were useless. Craig leaned forward, his mouth by her ear.

“I guess I have to spell it out for you, you stupid cunt,” he breathed. “ You have no choice, and no control here. What I want, I take. Right now, I want you. I’m going to take you, right here, right now. You look at your house and remember this, bitch; there is nowhere you are safe from me.”

Craig pulled back, and Erin slid painfully to the ground, gasping for breath, tears staining her cheeks. “Not that I give a fuck, one way or the other,” he continued callously, unbuckling his belt. “But if you relax, you might even enjoy this. I know I will.”

When Matthew returned to the Mannel mansion and opened the door to his room, he froze at the sight that greeted his eyes. His guitar lay mangled and splintered on the floor, a dent marking where somebody had thrown it at the wall. Jephel brooded by the window.

“I’m sorry, Master,” the small wight said quietly. “I was not here.”

Matthew nodded remotely. Dropping to his knees by his broken instrument, he ran his fingers over the smashed body. It was only when the first tear splashed to the floor that he realized he was crying. It was a long time before he stopped.