Abuse

She was a girl of flawed and low character, suitable for little more than feedstock.

Miranda “Dove” Tuesday, Janitor First Class, really doesn’t deserve what’s about to happen to her.

Two vignettes about Callista Hayes, followed by descriptions of her and her superior officer.

There is an unpleasant smell in the garden; something not wholly subsumed by the freshly turned gravel and the scattered wood chips. An unfamiliar flower, perhaps, though to the Fulminous Princess’s practiced nose it has more in common with the exercise of power. She’d never thought that the stories about saint-sworn nuns were true, but …

Originally posted to Twitter on August 17, 2022. Beatrice sniffs the air uneasily, unsure of herself in a way that she once vowed she would never be. Something has changed, something has shifted within her home’s generous confines, and she hasn’t the slightest idea what. An absence in the air; a lack of smell and noise. “Cinnamon,” she calls, “I need your eyes.” The doll doesn’t answer her. Its warm, welcoming scent doesn’t swell in the air around her as it pads towards her waiting hands. ...

“Why!” (slam) “won’t!” (slam) “you!” (slam) “die!” She brings the window down on your neck again and again, each impact sending fresh cracks shooting through your body’s smooth glass, reopening the old ones you had so laboriously sealed earlier in the day. A passerby glances at you, curious about the noise; you do your best to smile back, to ward off his attention. It’s easy enough not to wince, to play this off as just some game. ...