whispers, his chest pressed against my back.
A haze of confusion hangs over me, and I don’t want to open my eyes, for fear of leaving him, my gentle giant. “You’re here.” I can’t help the weepy smile in my voice. The relief that cocoons beneath my skin, being this close to him again.
“You missed me?”
A tear leaks from the corner of my eye, trickling down my temple, and I nod. “Very much.”
Lips slant over mine, while his fingers glide up and down my seam, stirring a slick wetness that belongs only to him.
“Take me away from here, Titus. Please.”
“Come for me, and I will. I’ll take you far away. I promise you,” he whispers.
Keeping my eyes closed on the dream, I nod, sliding my hand down along his arm into my pants. Feeling the absence of fingers, I startle awake on a gasp. Lids flipped open to Remus’s room, and I shove the hand away.
Cruel laughter bounces inside my skull, and I shake my head, as the reality of what I’ve done settles over me.
“Guards, tie her up.” Remus pushes off the mattress behind me, and I glance over my shoulder to see him disrobe.
I dart toward the edge of the bed, but collapse onto my stomach when hands take hold of my ankles. They drag my body backward. I kick out at nothing. My hands are captured, my body wrested hard against the headboard. The wooden frame knocks against my head, as I kick and fight to break free.
“She kissed me. Did you see?” Remus stands beside one of the guards, who secures my wrists and elbows him. “Got a little tongue action out of her.”
The guard chuckles and steps back from the bed. “Think she liked it.”
“She definitely did.” Tipping his head, Remus drags the same finger he used to fondle me over my cheek, the sensation twisting my stomach inside out. “More than she cares to admit.”
Rage and humiliation burn inside of me, my eyes wet with tears. “You will never be the man Titus was. You’re weak. So fucking weak!”
A flash of movement in my periphery is the only warning, before a bone-rattling punch strikes the corner of my eye. The room darkens on the fringes and dissolves into a pinprick.
Remus pushes off of me for the dozenth, or so, time--I’ve lost count. My hips are bruised and aching, as usual, but I stare off at the white wall, praying that it’ll turn black.
Agatha is absent this time. Perhaps she’s grown bored with the violations. Maybe my apathy toward it all has stripped the excitement. They didn’t feel the need to gag me this time, after all.
“You will bear my child. Produce a perfect version of myself. And after the birth, I will hand you over to my men to do with you what they will. That will be my revenge. The ultimate revenge against your bastard father.”
Tears stream down my temples as I study the path of the cracks in the wall, all the way up to the ceiling, and I let loose a sound I considered myself no longer capable of. Obnoxious, inappropriate laughter that echoes in the room.
“I’m happy that you find that so amusing. It’ll help with the trauma.”
“You’re … fucking stupid.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“All of you. You’ve all been fucking duped. You’re all so ... stupid!”
“Enlighten me as to what I’m so stupid about.” The grinding of his teeth betrays the calm in his voice, as he slides his robe over his body, shielding me from his sickly, naked form.
“I wasn’t a virgin when you took me in. I fucked my best friend to avoid being raped. I was supposed to be a Daughter. A symbol of virtue and fertility. But I can’t even get pregnant.” Another wheeze of laughter explodes out of me, jostling my body against the bed. “My body isn’t designed for pregnancy! So you will never bear a perfect child with me, Remus. Never. The joke is on you! Stupid!”
An eerie silence follows.
Remus draws his hand behind his back and paces beside the bed. The sound of his harsh breathing is white noise to the graceless clomp of his feet. “You’re lying.”
“What do I gain from lying? You won’t set me free. You’ve taken everything from me. What do I care what you do to me now?”
An angry sound vibrates in his throat, and he runs his hand through his hair, before coming to a stop alongside the table across the room. “You want death. That’s why