Page 5 of The Devil's Embrace

He moaned and turned his head away, whimpering when the pain got sharper.

“Repeat that,” the voice demanded, louder when he wasn’t immediately obeyed. “Say it again.”

Say what?

Calix shook his head, not comprehending. The room was dim, and he couldn’t make anything out other than shapes and shadows. He could tell something wasn’t right, but couldn’t say what, only that he was uncomfortable and it was hard to breathe. Something heavy held him down, crushing his chest, and between his legs—

“Don’t…stop.” Weakly, his hands lifted, and he grabbed onto silky material.

“What?” the voice sounded shocked, but not disgusted.

That wasn’t right. He should find Cal grotesque. Everyone did, once they truly got to know him.

“Hard…er,” he said, clinging to the man’s shirt. “Make me…suffer. I want…to.”

“Repeat that,” the voice growled, losing his patience, and Calix struggled to follow, wanting the pleasure to return to mix with the pain, knowing from experience that obedience was the way to achieve that.

But…what was going on?

Where was he?

Why was he…

“I’m going to kill you for what you’ve done,” the voice said. “Don’t you get that?”

Oh.

For what he’d done.

Was this retribution then?

His comeuppance?

“…mercy…” Calix didn’t want to die. Or maybe he did, and he was simply too out of it to realize. Maybe his resistance was really just born of survival instinct.

A strangled sound was pulled from him when the heavy weight over him started to move again.

May the gods have mercy on that poor boy's soul.

Clearly, they weren’t going to.

If only he could tell Sister Grace her precious gods hadn’t listened to her pleas.

“…the gods…” Before he knew it, he was muttering out loud again. “…have mercy…”

The heavy weight came to another stop, but Calix was already slipping back into the darkness, welcoming it with open arms since it’d mean escaping the agony of being awake.

The agony of being him.

“Gods?” the voice laughed, the sound manic at best, demonic at worst. “I’ll…”

Calix didn’t catch the rest of that sentence.

The darkness encased him once more.

* * *

“What kind of freak gets hard while they’re raped?” There was a dark sound, a chuckle maybe. “You came all over the place. Was that why you were spared? Is that why you’re still breathing?”

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