Chapter 36: Broken

“Diva…”

“Diva. Wake up”

I rolled away from the voice.

“Just 5 more minutes.”

“It's important something came for us.”

“Can it wait?”

“No, it can't.”

I sighed as I slowly sat up. I was met with Apollinaris holding a large cherry-red box.

“Is that?”

“Yeah, one of the trolley boys brought it up for us a few minutes ago. Do you wanna have a look?”

“Sure, just give me a few moments to wake up.”

I slowly slid off the bed we were sharing and towards the bathroom. A few minutes later, and one quick shower. I was refreshed and ready. I walked over to the box where Apollinairs was patiently waiting for me.

“Can you hurry up? I want to see my dress.”

“Patience. Little girl, patience.”

She pouted at me as I carefully unsealed the box; inside were another 2 cherry red boxes stacked on top of each other. One had my name and the other Apollinaris’s.

I took my box out and handed Appollinaris’s Hers. Inside was a dress so long that it reached my ankles. It was silky smooth to the touch. The tailor did a fantastic job with the design. It was mostly black except around the shoulder and arms, which was a brilliant white. It was simple yet striking. I Pulled the dress out, and underneath there was a black and white head scarf accompanied by some pitch-black gloves. Besides the scarf, there were some inky black high heel shoes with a note attached.

I know you didn’t ask for these, but I thought they would go great with the dress.

-Ilza, senior tailor.

Ilza, so that’s her name. I took the shoe and slipped it onto my foot. It was a Perfect fit. How did she?..... I swear she never measured down there… whatever, it doesn’t matter.

“Are you done?” Asked he giddy child next to me.

“Yep”

Without hesitation, she tore open her box like a child on Christmas day.

“This is…. This is AMAZING! Im gonna put it on RIGHT NOW!”

Before I could respond, she leapt off the bed and started taking off her nightwear, exposing her greyish, yellow body, which had just the right amount of curves to it. Damn, was she always this hot? I mean, Apollinaris didn’t have an hourglass figure, but she was pretty damn close to it. On top of that, she had the most perfect set of breasts I've seen, not too huge but not too small either. The perfect set of breasts, not too big, not too small. They were just right. On top of that, she's great in other areas as well besides just looks. She's smart, resourceful and creative, and when she gets angry, she has this dangerous aura around her I really like. She’s-

“DIVA!”

“Huh, what?”

“You’ve been staring at me like painting. Is everything okay?”

“Uhm yeah…... I'm fine. Sorry. Got lost in my own thoughts there.”

She glared at me for a few seconds before taking off the remainder of her clothes. I need to get my shit together. It's not like me to get distracted like that.

“WOW. I can't believe this is mine.” Appolinaris lifted her dress up for the second time. Like mine, it was a black and white singular dress, but it had large white puffed-up arms and white accents along the entirety of the dress.

Apollinaris held the dress and rubbed it against her face. “This is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever bought for me.” She put on the dress, and Without warning, she ran towards me and gave me the deepest hug.

“Thank you. Thank you, Thank you so much. I promise you one day ill pay you back.”

She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face, but with a wide bright smile. I felt a smile creep onto my face as I slowly raised my hand and placed it on her head.

“You don’t need to thank me, Apollinaris. Just continue to be as you are. But if you feel you must pay me back, I need you to make something for me.”

She looked up at me and smiled. Wiping away her tears. She has such a beautiful smile.

*Ba bump*

Sometime later…..

“Thank you. Come again.”

I nodded at the clerk as I left. It was a great morning to go shopping, too bad what I bought wasn't for me but for my 2 friends in the basement. I took a deep breath in and nearly gagged. The air was filled with the stench of humans, more so than usual. I guess that is to be expected, though. If I remember correctly, Mrs Ashdown mentions that this town will have its founding festival soon.

“Oh yeah, she said she wanted to see it. Guess ill have to make some time for it.”

Speaking about Apollinaris, I wish she was here right now so she could do all this heavy lifting. A queen like myself shouldn’t carry stuff like this. I sighed; I shouldn’t complain. It is my fault she’s at the hotel right now.

I picked up the pace as I headed towards the warehouse. Soon the shops started to get replaced with old residential buildings and what looked like offices and factories. I took a left and made. On my way down a familiar alley, I was soon in front of the warehouse. I looked around. The street wasn’t very busy, but it wasn’t silent either. I have to be careful. I waited until the coast was clear and quickly rushed across the street and towards the warehouse door. Not missing a beat, I promptly entered the warehouse and shut the door behind me. I walked over to the office. Thankfully all the furniture was where I left it. A few moments later, the furniture was clear, and I descended the ladder.

“Good morning!” I yelled as I hit the bottom of the stairs.

“Now, don’t look at me like that, you two. We had fun last night, didn’t we?”

The man glared at me with hate plastered on his face, and yet at the same time, his member was standing at attention. The girl, on the other hand, was a completely different story.

“Are you okay?” I said, approaching and kneeling to her level.

“…….Ma please come back……I wanna be and adventurer like you…….”

Her eyes were vacant, and waltzed around the room. I've seen this before during some of my more extreme human trafficking cases. She's disassociating; in this case, she has regressed to a child-like state.

“Momma…..My stomach hurts…….am I sick?”

What a pitiful thing. However, in this state, she is like Play-Doh. I can mould her into something useful.

“Don’t worry. Mothers here.” I said, gently rubbing her cheek.

“Oh, mom… you're here. I was so scared. There was this scary monster. It took me.... and....and.... it did painful things, like dad and his friends used to......I’m scared..”

Like her dad used to? Hmmm….. that probably explains why she broke so quickly. The straw that broke the camel's back, I suppose. Shame, I hate getting someone else sloppy seconds or thirds in this case.

“ Oh, you poor thing,” I said, pulling her into a hug

“But Mama has to tell you something very important, okay.”

“What is it, momma?”

“Promise me you won't be scared?”

“I promise”

“Good, well, That scary monster who took you. It was me

“w.....w...what.....why would Mama hurt me like...why..I.. don’t...”

“Shhhhh. It's okay,” I pulled her deeper into my hug. “momma did that because she loves you so so much.”

It may seem risky to tell her this, but for what I have planned, her brain will need an explanation for what just happened.

“L...love?”

“Yes.... momma loves you so much. I love you so much that I filled you with my love, see.” I gently rubbed her stomach

“All of my love is in here. And very soon, the love I have will leave your body.”

“Noooooo. I dont want it to leave....please momma do something?”

“It's okay. When that love leaves, Mother will just fill you up again and again and again. As many times as you want, okay?”

“Will it always hurt?”

it won’t. It will even feel nice. Didn’t it feel nice yesterday?”

Her face went bright red; I knew it. I quickly opened one the bags and handed her a ready-made sandwich wrapped in some sort of brown sandwich paper.

“Now, enough questions. Eat, please. Momma will feel bad if her precious daughter starved.”

I held it to her lips, and she earnestly took a bite.

“It...It's good.”

She snatched it out of my hand and tore into it like a wolf seeing a big red steak.

“See. Just leave it to momma, and she will take good care of you.”

I opened the bag and brought out several pieces of fruit and sweet treats

“Thank you, momma! I haven’t eaten like this in forever” I gave her a nice pat on the head. As I stood up and walked towards the man.

“My my. You’ve been awfully quiet. What happened.”

His eyes turned into a scowl as he looked up at me.

“Go fuck yourself.”

“That’s not polite. Your friend was much nicer.”

“LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BITCH. If you lay a hand, I will- MMmmmphh”

My hand snapped against his mouth. Shutting him up.

“Shhhhhh. We don’t want our mutual friend to hear or think about something she shouldn’t. I mean, I am her loving, caring mother, after all.”

His face twisted with anger as he fought free from my hand.

“I SWEAR ILL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU MON-MMMPHHHH!!”

“SHUT! UP!” I yelled, shoving a sandwich into his mouth and crushing all the bravado he had p to that point “If I have to silence you a third time, I Will crush your throat. Honestly, You should be grateful I'm even feeding you at all And that what I'm feeding you is actually edible. I Did see some juicy rats outside. Would you have rather eaten them instead?”

He violently shook his head. Good, he’s remembered his place. I looked down towards his pants, and just like before, his penis was rock hard. Honestly, humans can be fucking weird sometimes. He preaches about how he would kill me if given the chance but secretly wishes I would fuck him.

I force-fed him the remaining food before finally deciding to leave. However, before I did, I tore a piece of fabric from his clothes and used it to tie a gag around his mouth. The girl is broken. I don’t need him trying to fix her.

<Man, what a busy morning and annoyingly, it’s going to get busier. I hope Apollinaris has finished that thing>

Sevral hours later

“Annnnnd done.”

Apollinaris had just finished tying the headscarf around my mask. It took us a while, but we are finally ready. I want to make a good first impression for The Ashdowns. I mean, we are supposed to be wealthy travelling merchants.

“Thank you. Are we all ready?” I asked.

“Yep! We‘re ready to….no wait! I forgot something.”

I looked over to Apollinaris as she ran over and picked up a black and white purse the tailor was nice enough to give her.

“got it. It would be bad if I left these.”

“Yes, it would. Now Let us let the night's festivities commence.”

We left our room towards the main entrance. Earlier I called the receptionist and asked about transport. It turns out they offer a carriage service that will take us anywhere in town, which is good news. But why didn’t they tell us earlier? It would have saved us a lot of walking. No matter, ill just have to punish the hotel staff later on.

“Thinking evil thoughts again.”

“What gave it away?”

“I don’t know. The aura around you goes a little bit cold, and you start giggling to yourself quietly.”

“Is that so? I'll have to work on hiding those tells.”

“Please don’t…….I like them.”

I gave her a gentle pat on the head.

“I'll keep them around for when it's just me and you.”

In no time, we were down in the foyer and making our way to the main entrance, where our carriage awaited us. All the way there, me and Apollinaris were getting looks and whispers from everyone present.

“Wow, they look amazing. They have to be custom.”

“Who is their tailor? I need to know.”

“That tall lady looks amazing. Maybe I should Buy her a drink.”

“She's Wayyyy outta your league, bro. The best you can manage is a “Lady of the night” From the south side of town.

“Shut up, and that's still better than the midget you hooked up with the other day.”

Okay, and that is way too much information. Sometimes having a better-than-average hearing is a curse. I ignored the rest and hurried us both into the carriage. In no time, we were on our way to the Ashdowns’s mansion.

I looked over to Apollinaris. Her face was slightly pale.

“How are you feeling.”

“I don’t know. Nervous, I guess.”

I moved over to her side of the carriage and sat down.

“If it's too much, I can always go alone or cancel with the Ashdowns. Whichever you want.” She shook her head.

“No. I will be fine. Let's do this.” She looked up at me and gave me a half-hearted smile.

“no matter what happens, just know I will be around, okay? I won't let anything harm you, okay..”

She nodded. “Thank you” I pulled her close and wrapped my hands around her hands. And we made our way in silence towards the mansion.