Reign of Ruin

by Bene, Jennifer

  But everything in her life was strange.

  Like the darkness inside the thing’s prison. She knew it was dark in the stone room, that there was no light… and yet, now she could see the dull gray of the darkness and then the pitch black of it.

  Opening her eyes, she turned to where she could sense it moving. A scattered, shapeless shadow passing across the massive space. She knew it sensed her too, sensed her looking at it — or it read her thoughts — any of it was possible. It was capable of anything. It did horrible things and miraculous things. Completely unpredictable. Insane. Perhaps it had lost its mind long before she’d ever been thrown inside its prison, and one day it might lose enough of it to finally kill her.

  To set her free.

  One moment the creature was nothing more than a blurry shadow, and then it had form. Legs, arms, a massive body, and the thing was walking toward her. She could hear it, the heavy steps on the stone, but that meant nothing. It could be soundless when it wanted to. Everything about it was fabricated for her. For her limited perception.

  “Are you comfortable?” it asked, standing so tall above her that its head seemed to blend into the ultimate black high above them.

  “Yes,” she answered aloud even though she didn’t have to… but she preferred it. It was unnerving to have a conversation using just her thoughts when the thing always had to speak for her to understand. Of course, sometimes thoughts were all it allowed her. Those times when it took her voice away so that she didn’t distract it from the true things in her mind. Usually it wanted to hear the noises she made, the moans and the screams, but lately it had been silencing her more and more often. Whenever it wanted to know if she understood, if she believed it.

  Not that it likely helped. She didn’t even know if she believed it.

  The things it said to her, whispered in her ear, were madness.

  “I am not mad, Danielle,” it said, answering her thoughts because she hadn’t said any of it aloud. A low sound like a chuckle came out of it, and then it stepped closer. “Do you still doubt me? Even after all I have shown you?”

  “Does it matter?” she asked, because she knew it didn’t. In this hell it had never mattered what she wanted or didn’t want, it had never mattered if she said no. Not to the ones in her visions, and not to this… whatever it was.

  “Soon you will see that I have not lied to you. That I have never lied to you,” it rumbled, crouching beside her to lay one of its large hands over her breast, squeezing. She felt the rush of artificial pleasure that it used as just one more method to control her. It never got any easier to suddenly have her clit pounding, her cunt squeezing around nothing as she arched into its touch, body on automatic. A different kind of violation as it manipulated her mind, made her feel what it wanted her to.

  It pulled away and the pleasure cut off instantly, leaving her panting in the water, clenching her teeth against the urge to beg. That was probably what it wanted right now, and she refused. It had everything else. It had everything it wanted from her, and it would never end. She’d tried to play its game in the beginning, to acquiesce to every demand, terrified of the pain and the visions it could shove inside her head — but it always hurt her anyway. Had taken memories away only to give them back. Had forced itself inside her with no gift of pleasure just to hear her screaming, sobbing, pleading. So, she had given up on trying at all. She refused to be joyful in her suffering.

  Now, she merely existed. Breathed. Drank the water. And, even though she always fought it as long as possible, she swallowed mouthfuls of its seed when she was hungry. Although, her body wasn’t hungry as often anymore. Not tired. Not thirsty.

  Perhaps it was finally killing her.

  “You are doing very well, Danielle,” it said, an edge of humor to its tone.

  She rolled her head back, looking straight up at the dark outline of its form, but she didn’t bother to speak. It could sense her doubt, her bitter hatred of it and everything else.

  “Come here,” it beckoned, and she rose out of the water because it willed it so. Floating above the surface as drips ran in rivulets over her skin. The sensation was still odd, still felt like it should be impossible, but her entire world was insane. This impossibility was just one more piece of it. Just like the creature that owned her inside and out.

  Wrapping large hands around her shoulders, it pulled her closer and let her drop slowly until her feet touched the stone. “What were you thinking about?”

  “Death,” she answered honestly, but it only chuckled as it released her.

  “As I have told you many times, you need not worry about death. You are mine, so you are safe.” It moved backwards slightly, the edges of it blurring.

  “Not safe from you,” she mumbled.

  Another scattered chuckle, like more than one voice was mocking her until the sounds coalesced into one heavy word. “No.”

  “What do you want?” she asked, and it reached forward to touch her cheek before palming the entire side of her head.

  “Danielle… did you forget again?” There was a soft edge to its voice, and she felt the odd flicker behind her eyes that she connected to it digging through her mind. “Do you remember where you are?”

  “In your prison,” she answered, turning her face away from its touch to try and end the invasion of her mind, but it just turned painful. Her knees buckled with the sharp stab between her eyes, unable to even feel the ache of her knees impacting the stone as she grabbed onto the sides of her head. Whining, begging with incoherent pleas for it to stop.

  Suddenly, the blinding pain disappeared, and she sagged forward, hands planted on the ground as she gulped air, tears painting warm tracks down her cheeks.

  “You are fighting me, Danielle.” It crouched beside her, still so much taller as it forced her to sit back on her heels so it could brush one large hand over her hair. “You know better than to fight me.”

  “I’m not doing anything,” she whispered, staring up at the empty black shadow that made up its face. Featureless, even though she could feel lips when it kissed her.

  “I am not sure whether I find it promising, or troubling, that you are doing it without trying.” It petted her again, brushing over her hair several times before resting its palm at the back of her skull. “Can you sense the changes within you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  A buzzing hmm floated around her and then it squeezed the back of her neck. “That was honest. Your mind still has its limitations, Danielle, but those will fade in time. You will see.”

  “I can see you.” Swallowing, she tried to identify a nose, eyes, anything inside the dark shape of its head, but there was nothing else. Just its shape. “Almost,” she added.

  “That is good, Danielle. You will know this face soon enough, but now we must discuss the plan again.” It shook her gently. “That means you need to focus. Remember.”

  “Just tell me what you want,” she replied softly, not wanting it angry. She didn’t want any more pain, she just wanted to get back in the cold, but warm, water again.

  “I want you to tell me where you are, where this prison is.”

  “It’s…” she started to answer but trailed off as she searched her memory and found a hole. A space where that information used to be, almost like she could picture the outline of the missing knowledge. It scared her, and she felt her breathing pick up as tears stung her eyes, not wanting to answer because it would mean pain.

  “I will help you.” The thing lifted her into the air, floating high above the ground, with only its hand against the back of her skull. “This will hurt, Danielle.”

  “No!” she shouted, desperate to avoid it, but the piercing headache came back almost instantly. Like someone stabbed a needle through the center of her forehead and then held it there, twisting it as vicious flashes forced themselves into her awareness. Men holding her down, inside her. Slapping her, hitting her. Wrists in chains as someone forced their cock past her lips, into her throat so there wa
s no air. No way to breathe until she finally gasped awake in a cold bath, bound to a submerged table, where more men told her she was lucky. Baptized. And then the priests. The Church. The cardinals. The prison. Eden. Eden. Eden.

  “Shhh.” It tried to calm her as she snapped back to reality with a choked sob, a scream that wouldn’t stop until it placed its warmth at her back and wrapped its arms around her, squeezing until her ribs ached.

  “It— this is…” The words wouldn’t leave her lips as she tried to twist out of the thing’s grip, but it wouldn’t let go, wouldn’t stop shushing her like some errant child. There was more floating in her head, visions that were actually memories — memories she didn’t want. So much worse than the flashes it had last given when it wanted her to scream, because there were so many more. Like hulking beasts waiting at the edges of her thoughts, just waiting for her to turn away so they could take her down. “Take them back,” she demanded.

  “No.”

  “Take it back!” she screamed, rage filling her as she tried to shove its impossibly strong arms away from her, but it simply adjusted to pin her arms to her sides. Held to its hard chest, helpless, crying pathetically as a whole new wave of hate crested inside her. “Why?” she growled.

  “Because you need to remember. I have taken the memories away before, but you will need them.” It shushed her again as she screamed, trying to stop the subconscious horror reel unraveling in her mind. They had done so many things to her, erased them with baptism baths, baths created by the power from the thing holding her tight. “Danielle, do you remember where you are?”

  “Eden,” she spat. The word made her sick to her stomach, made the rage burn at the back of her throat, fists clenched as she remembered her last moments in the light with the cardinals. Remembered the cruel priest and the endless litany of horrors from the men who visited their sanctuary.

  “Good,” it replied, its tone still so calm. “Now stop fighting it, stop trying to forget.”

  She ignored the thing, trying to remember how empty and peaceful she had felt in the water. She wanted that back. The barren wasteland her mind had been for a short while, but as she pushed the memories away the pain returned. That same sharp stab behind her eyes that made her cry out, dissolving into tears as she squirmed against the monster trying to ruin her.

  “Stop fighting me and it will not hurt.”

  “You don’t know what… you just don’t—”

  “I see it all, Danielle, and I want you to remember what they have done to you.” Another sharp twinge between her eyes buckled her resolve, left her limp against its hard form as she was forced to relive a thousand terrible things, a thousand nightmares. “Shh, that is all done. You are above that now.”

  “Why won’t you just let me die?” she whispered, and that strange laugh echoed around her.

  “Because I need you.” It relaxed its hold on her and she pulled in a deeper breath as its face brushed the top of her head. “And you are finally strong enough.”

  “I’m not strong.”

  “You are, it is just one more thing you have ignored.” One of its hands drifted over her skin, claws dragging in thin lines until the claws disappeared. “I have changed you, but they began this process long before I ever touched you. They put me inside you, my power. Bathed you in it over and over and over.”

  “So?”

  “And you survived, Danielle.” Its hand slipped between her thighs, and she flinched, muscles twitching even though she knew she couldn’t close them. “You survived me as well. Having me inside you.”

  “I don’t want to survive.” She shook her head as it delved one thick finger inside. “I want you to end this. No more, please.”

  “I cannot do that, Danielle.” It started to move back and forth, slowly teasing at the wetness her body responded with as the pleasure returned. A rush like heat washing up the front of her, landing like a scalding blush in her cheeks before it wrapped around her. It was disorienting but compared to the nightmares lurking in her mind she didn’t care.

  “What are you?” she asked, still so lost, so helpless under its control. So uselessly human when compared to the thing that wasn’t a demon as the priests thought — but something else. A question that she knew she had asked so many times before. She could remember each of them. “Please, just tell me what you are.”

  “Does it matter?” it asked in return, pushing in a second and then a third finger alongside the first, but she could handle it now even though the stretch made her whimper.

  “Please, just tell me,” she begged, biting down on a whine as it spread her legs, bending her knees without actually touching her. Folding her into the position it needed to work all three fingers deeper. She couldn’t stop the pathetic cry as the first twinge of pain between her thighs made her spine stiffen. “Please…”

  “There are things that existed before your kind. Things that you have no word for, things you cannot comprehend so you never named them. That is what I am, Danielle.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything,” she whined, cunt already twitching around the invasion.

  “It is the only answer. I have already told you that I am not some simple demon.” It hummed against her ear, tongue tracing up her throat as it worked to stretch her until the strain of its fingers bordered on bearable again. “There is no word for me, no concept that you would understand, Danielle. At least, not yet.”

  “When?” she whispered, moaning as another flood of pleasure overwhelmed the next stretching thrust. Suddenly on the edge of an orgasm that scattered her thoughts for a moment.

  “If you can ever see past this world, you might understand, Danielle. But first, you must get out of this prison.” It turned her head, brushing its lips across hers. “You have to get out of here to discover what you are capable of.”

  “I don’t understand,” she whimpered, tilting her hips as she sought the obliterating pleasure the thing could give her when it wanted to.

  “You have to break the seal. Set us both free.” Its tongue flicked past her lips, tasting her for a moment. “Then you will have your vengeance.”

  “I don’t know if I can…” Flashes passed behind her eyes, things it had forced in, things not hers. The mad things. The things she had locked away with Eden in the darkest places of her mind, but it had set them free again and she could feel the last pieces of her sanity fraying as the images wouldn’t stop.

  “I know, Danielle. Shhh, let me give you something good before it is time.”

  Time? There was no time, not here, and she wanted to remind it of that, of the terrifying things it had shown her, but before she could speak… everything was gone.

  There was only sunlight, a warm, soft bed at her back — and Christopher. Brown hair, bright blue eyes, twin dimples as he smiled down at her. ‘You are so beautiful,’ he whispered before he kissed her. Tongue dancing with hers as she clung to him, pulled him closer, so desperate to feel him against her. To keep him there.

  ‘Please don’t leave me,’ she begged, voice betraying the unending sadness in her chest, but he simply laughed and kissed her again as he settled between her thighs.

  ‘Why would I leave you? I love you,’ he replied just before he caught her lips again. A soft moan buzzed against her mouth, turning into a playful growl as she lifted her hips so she could feel him rubbing against her. ‘Want me?’ he asked, grinning.

  ‘Yes.’ She nodded, hands at his back to pull him closer. ‘Please, Christopher?’

  ‘I am always here, babe.’ He shifted, bending one of her knees gently before he lined up and pushed against her. There was a brief flash of pain, but he kissed her to catch the whine as it escaped, not letting up as his hips thrust in shallow, insistent dips. ‘You can take it. You can take all of me.’

  ‘It hurts…’ She gasped as he thrust harder and forced himself inside, agony rocking her until a sudden rush of pleasure overwhelmed it. Her head spun, dizzy as he groaned above her.

  ‘Yessss, Danielle.�
� He kissed her again, sealing his lips to hers, and then another thrust brought more pain.

  ‘AH! Wait, Christopher, please?’ Whimpering, she looked between them and saw where they were joined. He wasn’t all the way inside her, but he looked like he always did. It shouldn’t have hurt, shouldn’t feel so painful.

  ‘I know what you need,’ he purred, kissing her mouth, her jaw, her neck. Reaching between them he started to rub that little bundle of nerves. Small, sweeping circles that made her feel warm and tingling as pleasure rushed through her veins. Her muscles relaxed, legs spreading wider for him to ease deeper. ‘There, all better.’

  ‘Just go slow?’ she begged, lifting to capture his lips again as he moved within her, more hurt that washed away with the next pulse of bliss. There was an ache deep inside, like he went too deep somehow, but she forgot it as an orgasm crested and wiped out everything but pure ecstasy. She cried out against his lips, holding onto him as she felt his arms wrap around her. Another brilliant spike of pain in the haze, and then his hips were pressed to her, and she felt the rumble of his moan.

  ‘You are perfect, so perfect…’ His tongue tangled with hers, pleasure rebounding inside her as he started to thrust steadily, creating a delirious friction that had her arching and asking for more as the pain abated and another orgasm took her breath away. Completely filled, every nerve ending alight with ecstasy, body warm and hungry for more. Christopher began to thrust harder, and she was able to take it, riding the flood of endorphins in her veins so that even the brief flashes of pain were nothing but passing thoughts. ‘I knew you could do it,’ he whispered.

  ‘I love you,’ she cried out, another delirious crash of pleasure overtaking her as he thrust hard and came deep inside her. She could feel the warm pulses of his seed filling her, moaning with him as his weight pressed her into the bed and the ache between her thighs became a buzz at the back of her brain.

  ‘I love you too,’ Christopher panted, kissing her as he eased from her slowly so he could lie by her side. ‘Danielle?’