V3.59 Good Girl
Watching someone else live your life while you’re helplessly locked away is a whole new level of hell. On one floor I found several new depths of hell I couldn’t have conceived. And each time, one woman-slash-monster was the cause—Elveil.
My alter ego enthusiasm to do anything for her was nauseating. The only thing that made it worse was I understood why. Her fear of pain constantly crept through the mental barrier between us. I felt her fear every time my disgust for Elveil snuck up on her. I couldn’t feel what she did physically. I still watched.
Elveil pampered her at every opportunity. Delicious foods, soft touches, kind words, and a warm place to cuddle. Each “present” tightened the collar around our neck. My ego’s personality quickly regressed and fell into the role of the pet. Her childishness was worrying, and Elveil urged it to grow.
I could see it clearly. She was being manipulated, her mind being shaped into the doting little pet that hung on her every word. Orange and I plotted to do more to her.
I feel sorry for her. But how does Orange do this? Just watching is driving me mad. Seriously, how can you just sit here? She’s lying in Elveil’s mane!
My body hasn’t required sleep ever since I lost the requirement to breathe, but most of the time, my other self would curl up in Elveil’s mane with her shadow clone petting her.
If you resume control, Elveil will never let you out of her sight again. Being trapped in a cage forever would be worse than being trapped in your mind. Besides, we have the memories of the devil to process. I know it is challenging, but have patience. She took the last twenty days to turn a part of you into her loyal pet.
Yeah. You’ve told me that more than a dozen times. But what if she finds us in here? She’s already suspicious of you avoiding her.
It was unnerving how easily I referenced my split personality as an entirely different person, but I couldn’t see myself as her in any way. Even watching the evolution of her personality was unbelievable. But that’s likely normal behavior for split personalities. Not that there’s anything normal about them.
If we are discovered, don’t do anything. Elveil has already made sure that she won’t listen to me directly. But it seems that part of you has most of your memories too. She knows we can’t be separated from her. It will be much harder at that point, but you have to block her out while not letting yourself feel any emotions. The wall is keeping most of each other’s emotions from mixing together. At that point, we will do our best to rebuild the wall.
My alter ego stood up and jumped down to Elveil’s awaiting shadow clone. The moment her paws touched down, the shadow clone gave her scratches on her chin. My ego purred in delight at the contact. I had to look away. This is wrong. But there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Elveil hummed at my ego, running her hand down the length of her body. “Good girl.”
Those two words had been programmed to fill my alter ego with almost overwhelming pleasure. Her knees went weak as she shuddered. It was getting harder to ignore them as the pleasure grew each time she heard it. Textbook conditioning Orange called it. A guy did it with dogs and a bell on Earth.
But the reason she jumped off Elveil was because someone walked in. It was Dagiel’s replacement. His name was Druum, and he was a wiry blue man with no hair anywhere. He was Elveil’s first man to give orders to those on the surface.
“We have closed down the colosseum, my queen.” Druum’s voice quivered with his body. “The sphinx is angry. We have claimed this was all by your order. Now the sphinx wishes to speak with you.”
He’s not a very brave man. I can’t blame him though. The last guy who had his job was killed by the pet fox in front of him—my body.
Elveil’s original body let out a throaty growl. “This is why you shouldn’t think.” Then she let out a loud sigh. “But it was only a matter of time before that over-inflated egomaniac noticed.”
Her shadow clone hugged my body, and my ego started purring audibly. “My pet needs me this time. It will scare her if I leave her now. Go tell the sphinx I will speak with him when I am ready.”
Now’s a good time to build her trust. Get her to separate from Elveil. Just tell her what we tell you to. Make sure you use Elveil’s voice like you’ve been practicing.
Fine. But using her voice is so disgusting. I feel like I need to scrub my mouth out with soap every time I use it. This is your plan. So let’s do this and hope it ends better than mine did.
****
Someone’s being bad. But not me—never me.
Mistress was annoyed and moved again. The last two days have been simple. She never gave me any tasks and just held me close to her. Before, the days were quiet and rewarding. My mistress would give me simple tasks. Tasks like kill this prisoner, step on that prisoner’s leg, cut up another prisoner, and force feed those pieces to other prisoners who were close to him.
Simple things.
Everything I did always earned me a warm pat on the head and comforting words. Part of me understood what I was doing was amoral, but morals didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was what Mistress wanted.
Every face that I killed or tortured was missing from my mind. After the first few times, it was hard to keep going. So I asked my mistress for help. She told me to forget their faces and focus on her words. It helped a lot. I could remember how many people I killed—seventeen, none of which gave me any stats—and tortured—fifty-five. But because my mistress told me to forget them, I couldn’t tell you what I did to who and what they looked like.
And every time she would call me, “Good girl.”
That’s all I ever wanted. After what she did to me, what I saw her do to others who were bad, I swore I would be her “good girl” no matter what. Orange had been missing. Mistress said that’s fine, but I keep having these moments where I hate Mistress. Each time I feel them, they’re short-lived and disappear as quickly as they appear.
I told my mistress about them, but she has done nothing more than give me a warm hug each time, saying that they’ll pass. She’s right, they pass, but they’re never really gone. I really wish that they would go away. I don’t like those feelings.
But now I leaned into my mistress’s embrace. Her touch was always warm and gentle and would have me feel all tingly. Things were so much better after I’d given up fighting her.
Why did I even try resisting her in the first place? Why is everyone trying to register? Don’t they see the consequences? Freedom isn’t worth their lives. It’s pointless pride that makes things worse. Bark let his pride swallow him when he took some of my nanites and died. Besides, she takes such good care of those who behave. Druum doesn’t have anything to worry about, unless there’s something he hasn’t told Mistress. But he knows better than to be a bad boy.
I sat on the ground, waiting patiently for Mistress to leave so I could be ready for her to return. My pride didn’t kill me this time. But it earned me a world of unimaginable pain. Oh, the pain. If I held onto it, my mistress would’ve kept me buried alive with that shocking rod until I broke. But everything was preventable. I was a bad girl. But never again! I’m a good girl. I will always be her good girl.
“Good girls want to help.” Mistress’s voice was in my head again.
I knew my mistress couldn’t project her voice or thoughts into my mind like that; she told me as such. It’s happened several times now. Part of me thought it was Orange impersonating my mistress, but all it ever said was “good girl,” and only said it when I was doing what I was told to.
But that changed with that sentence. Orange, is that you? There was no response. I know you can’t leave. Whatever you have planned, it won’t work.
“Mistress.” I gave her a gentle nudge. “The voice is back; Orange is back.”
The shadow clone winked out of existence. Mistress lowered her head to my level. “Did they now? Exactly the same as before?”
I shook my head violently. “No. She said something else. She said, ‘Good girls want to help.’”
Mistress blinked several times. “Curious.”
She pursed her lips and didn’t say anything for a minute. I just stared and waited, like a well-behaved pet.
“So, do you?”
“Of course!” I blurted. “I’m a good girl. Anything, just say it. I’ll do it.”
“Things have been too quiet.” Mistress stood up and grinned down at me. It was the same look she gave someone before she crushed them under her paw. “If she wants to play a game, then I’ll bite. I can’t hold back my curiosity this time.”
I lowered myself to the floor. Did I say something wrong? “What… what do you want me to do? What if she talks to me again? You told me not to listen to her, but she’s using your words with your voice.”
“Shh.” She gently brushed my head with a feather from her wing. “Don’t fret, my pet. Orange is craftier than I gave her credit for. She hasn’t lied—yet. But always take my words over hers. She’s taken to impersonation, but she’ll learn that it won’t work. You’re mine now. Maybe she sees that now and gave up fighting too.”
I lowered my gaze to the floor. Orange does want me to live. Being Mistress’s pet is the best option for me to live. Orange’s never one to hold a position if it was harmful to me. Her not fighting back makes some sense.
The shadow clone appeared behind me. “You’ve been such a good girl. You deserve a chance to run and stretch your legs.” She put her hand on my collar that kept my mana regeneration negligible. “Here’s a little treat.”
The last time she said that, she gave me the tail of the dragon I had killed. My mouth watered, reminiscing on the wonderful flavors of the dragon. There were so many that I lacked the vocabulary to describe them sufficiently. It truly was a divine experience.
Instead of a tasty morsel, my mana regeneration spiked up to thirty percent of my maximum per second. I wagged my tail as the familiar, comforting feeling of mana washed through my body. My battery didn’t feel so dead and empty. The muscles all over my body limbered up and felt a little stronger even. It was like a part of me had woken up after being half asleep for so long.
“Does this mean I have permission to use magic?”
The shadow clone wagged her finger in my face. “Not entirely. It’s much too early for that. You can use your kitsune form. Actually, I want you to keep it active indefinitely. That would make me happy.”
No sooner did she finish her sentence did I activate the spell. I almost doubled in size, and my six legs danced off the floor as I spun in circles, chasing my twin tails. The mana fortifying my body, enhancing all of my physical attributes, left me feeling giddy.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou.” My energy levels were always well over one thousand percent, but now I felt whole again. Eventually, I stopped running in circles and pranced on all six feet. “I love you so much. Thank you.”
My mistress laughed. “You’re so adorable. Did you miss having mana that much?”
I nodded enthusiastically. She reached out and stroked the bridge of my muzzle. “Then you’re going to be a good girl and run up to the sphinx and deal with it, right? Tell him that he’ll get his fights to watch soon. After you tell him, I want you to come right back, understand?”
I don’t understand why she cares about letting the sphinx live and be free. Why doesn’t she turn him into her pet too? Ah, no. Don’t question, Mistress! That’s not my place. If she wants to tell me, she’ll tell me. I just have to do what I’m told. It will all make sense when her plan to control the Nexus comes to fruition.
I bounced on my feet but never pulled my head from her hand. “Of course. Does that mean we’re going to the next floor soon?”
She continued to rub the bridge of my nose while adding her other hand to my chin. My muscles almost went limp from the pleasure of her touch.
“You want to see Killa and Shadara again, don’t you?” She whispered in my ear, “You will, my pet. You will.”
Good. I knew those two were safe, but I missed them. Killa’s motherliness and Shadara’s soft touch…
But I had my mistress to keep me happy until I saw them again. When they see how happy I am and how good care she takes of me, they will join. Yeah, they will try to fight and talk me out of being her pet. I can’t fight her—not again. I want to save them and keep them from experiencing the same pain I did. And most importantly, I don’t want them to die.
I leaned in and nuzzled the shadow clone even harder. Killa will be the hardest. She already serves and is devoted to Aquantula. Hopefully, at the least, I can talk her into behaving so she doesn’t get punished.
“My, my,” Mistress purred. “You’re extra affectionate now. But my pet must be patient. My scouts must establish a spot for our first foothold to subjugate the next floor, just like we did this one. The sphinx’s trial will be a good way to cull the weak and those who lack devotion.” She gave me an extra hard scratch on the chin. “And my pet is far from weak.”
She released me. I already missed her touch. “Now, don’t you have something you’re supposed to be doing?”
“Oh, yes. Right away.”
The wind running through my shadow mana fur replaced the phantoms of her touch. At some point during my talk with my mistress, Druum had stopped shaking and remained in his position.
But that wasn’t important. I had a job to do, and I was a good girl.