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Josefina had no idea how long she had been down there. Time seemed to have no meaning in this place. There was no sun down here, in the depths of the Keep, down the cold stone steps and far past the bolted door. But it never grew dark here, the ceiling spiderwebbed with something that bathed her cell in bright light, but provided no warmth.
There was no day, but also no night.
When she slept on the sparse cot in her cell, the lights made it impossible until exhaustion overtook her. She had no idea when day passed to night, or vice versa. The lights and the screams from outside the thick wooden door. She’d lost count of the meals she’d eaten, cold scraps of meat and hard bread, and even if she hadn’t, had no idea if she were allotted one a day or more. Sometimes the time passed long enough that she wondered if she’d ever eat again.
She paced the cold, rough stone, barely managing six paces from the door to the back wall. Aside from that, her only recreation was to sit and think. She didn’t… this wasn’t fair. It was the Contessa’s prerogative, but she did not deserve this.
Escape was not an option. She’d beaten on the door with her bare hands for far longer than she should have, bloodying them and yielding nothing. When the guards opened the door to bring her food or a pitcher of water or to take her chamber pot, she didn’t move, didn’t try to escape or beg for mercy. They moved like marionettes, glared at her through blank, empty eye sockets, and reeked of decay.
The Contessa’s dungeon guards knew nothing of compassion or mercy, only following orders tirelessly and to the letter. A plea would fall on deaf ears, and escape would be met with the utmost savagery.
And so she was trapped with her thoughts, reflecting on how her mistake should not have damned her. The Contessa had always chided her for being too soft-hearted, but how was she to know that little kindness would merit this? It wasn’t right.
Thoughts of the past were bad, but of the future, they were worse. The Contessa’s dungeons weren’t a punishment. They were merely a place to store those deemed deserving of punishment. She had always known this, and never asked more. Above ground, in the Keep’s gardens, she never heard the screams. And the few living souls that the Contessa led downstairs never talked about what they saw in the dungeon.
She had no idea how long she’d been trapped when the door creaked open, again, and that stern, low voice intoned “Bring her.”
“Mistress, please.” Josefina said as she was pulled to her feet by the guards. The cold, dead stares she could make out in the visors of their helms told her that they were not going to have any sympathy for her. “Haven’t I always served you flawlessly? I only made one mistake.”
Pleading with her Contessa was probably just as useless.
“You did serve me well. Until you made that ‘one mistake’.” Her Contessa sharply repeated. Something deep beyond her cell hissed as if in reply to those words. “But that one mistake says that you never listened when I told you how soft you were. All that faithful service, and you’d fail. The upside is, the harm you've done me is slight.”
“I…” She trailed off. It wasn’t fair. Words failed her as the guards dragged her down a corridor. Her please where met with screams, gibbering laughter from the other cells. They took turn innumerable turns, her barely able to keep up with the rapid stride of the Contessa or the long, untiring strides of the guards holder her. The corridor led to a massive double door. Another pair of guards stiffened, tarnished armor creaking. Empty sockets locked on their mistress, who waved her hand. They turned, mechanically undoing the massive bolts that held the door to this chamber shut.
Something slammed into door, and all four of the guards rushed to hold the door.
The Contessa shouted in the old tongue, and something on the other side of the door shrieked loud enough to rattle Josefina’s teeth. She looked at the corridor behind her as whatever was on the other side of the door ran, scraping against stone as it fled. Josefina could run up the stairs. She could run, but not far. If the guards gave chase, their dead bodies could move much faster than she.
And the Contessa would be even more cross.
Josefina stayed put, but struggles renewed when gauntleted hands clasped her shoulders again. She was dragged into the light. The room was large, in a way that felt impossible in the cramped dungeon. Racks and chains and benches littered the room. Far in the distance, she saw another, completely dark, unlike the rest of the dungeon.
Josefina averted her gaze, occasionally looking up to see the Contessa staring at her, before looking back to the floor to avoid eye contact with her mistress. She heard the clanking of armor, more guards, flanking the other girls, the rest of Contessa’s retinue of personal servants. The guards ushered the women into the room and then plunged fearlessly into the darkness.
Josefina barely noticed that, instead looking at the other servants. The closest she had to sisters. They were also averted their eyes until their Mistress commanded their attention.
“Josefina has, as you know, disappointed me gravely. Please, affirm your loyalty to me and help prepare her for her punishment.”
The girls all stepped forward, Luisa carrying a bucket, others carrying knives. Josefina pled as they reached for her, around the grasps of the guards. None made eye contact as they stripped her, pulling and cutting at her tunic, tearing away the clothes that marked her as one of the Contessa’s faithful. Lidia carefully removed the necklace that had once signaled that she had potential.
“Please…” Josefina begged.
Lidia looked up at her, tears welling in her eyes. “You used to be her favorite.”
She looked away as Luisa dumped the bucket, full of perfumed water, over Josefina. She was scrubbed clean, the dirt and grime of her imprisonment rubbed from her flesh. Every inch of her was meticulously cleaned, one guard shifting his grip to a fistful of her hair when one of the girls tried to scrub around his hand on her shoulder.
When they were done, the Contessa’s voice rang out. “You are free to return to your quarters, now, girls. But it might be of benefit to witness this.”
It was not an offer, or suggestion. It was an ultimatum. The other servants retreated to the far wall, trying to look away as the Contessa approached. Tall, severe, lean, she smelled of flowers and fire. Josefina forced herself to meet the Contessa’s gaze.
“My dear Josefina…” Contessa said, running a cold hand against her tanned face. “…you had so much promise. But you failed me, and for that you need to be punished.”
She was about to reply, when she was yanked to the side.
The pillory was low to the ground, and the guards forced Josefina to kneel in order to be held there. Josefina thrashed and attempted to break free as her wrists and neck were placed in the gaps, and then the upper board was slammed down, trapping her.
“The point of punishment, my dear, is to make things right. You have wronged me, yes.” The Contessa said, tousling Josefina’s hair like she had when Josefina was a newcomer, welcomed into the Contessa’s service. “But I wouldn’t be subjecting you to this if I thought it would not redeem you.”
Her mistress’s calm tone did nothing for Josefina, who was fighting back tears. She had made a mistake, yes, but did not deserve this.
“I know it may seem harsh, and it must be so.” The Contessa continued. “For at the very least, it must serve as an example to your former peers.”
Former peers. Mistress’s other servants. Yes, they were subordinate to her, but they were clearly important, could speak with her voice in her stead. If not respected by their liege, they were acknowledged as useful. Like Josefina had been until so very, very recently.
“And…” Mistress concluded. “As you have said, you’ve never—until now—let me down. It pains me that you need such an egregious punishment, but… I will find a use for you.”
Josefina bit her tongue. There was nothing in the Contessa’s tone that betrayed her as liar, but she knew that being in these dungeons as a captive meant there was no returning to her station. The Contessa found uses for many people and things. The dead guards were useful, for instance.
Seeing that Josefina was not taking the bait, the Contessa leaned down, very close. “You know of my studies, correct?”
Back when she still had the Contessa’s favor, she’d been most useful, and in fact, the Contessa had deigned to teach her some minor, trifling things. Josefina had helped the Contessa in all manner of explorations in a variety of topics.
Josefina did not want to think of what blasphemies she’d helped the Contessa study would be applied to her, now.
The slap echoed against the stone walls. Josefina did her best not to make a sound, not to cry out at the slap. The Contessa didn’t like that. “I had asked you a question, Josefina.”
“Yes.” She inhaled sharply and looked up at the Contessa, trying not to avert her eyes. “I’ve helped you with some of them.”
The Contessa smiled, brushing some of Josefina’s hair to the side. “Do you know what your punishment is?”
Josefina replied, promptly this time, “No.”
“Do you remember what you asked me when I suggested we breed a Chimera?”
Josefina’s heart sank deep at that sentence. Her attempt to maintain eye contact faltered, and she thrashed and bucked in her restraints. “Please Mistress, no!”
That earned a chuckle.
“You did say that, actually.” The Contessa’s grin widened. “But you tried to dissuade me. You said it was wrong… I said that I decide what is wrong and right in my lands. You pleaded, there were other promising avenues to research. I staid my hand because you brought up a very pertinent point. Do you remember what it was?”
The Contessa had to slap Josefina again. Once to stop her frantic pleas. Twice more, and a command to get her to answer. “You… the old texts described all manner of monsters could be used, but the mare had to be a virgin. Preferably one with an affinity for magic.”
“Virgin, no. Only that they never had laid with a man.” The Contessa corrected. “That means a mare can be reused as needed, so long as it’s only bred with beasts.”
The other servants looked at one another nervously. Save rare visits from the Contessa’s male relatives, none of whom deigned acknowledge their presence, the unfeeling guards, and eunuch laborers, there were no men in the Keep.
“I would never have considered one of my faithful servants to be bred with monsters—my studies are important, but you are special and important as well.” That was addressed to the servants along the far wall, the closest things that Josefina had to sisters. That presented a minor conundrum, until the night, so long ago, that a few travelers came, begging sanctuary. Travelers that Josefina realized included a young girl. One whom the Contessa took an interest in. Josefina had discretely warned them not to spend the night, to flee. She shouldn't have been caught--they just left in the night before any action could be taken. Yet she ended up in the dungeon regardless. “But prove yourself unworthy of your station…”
The Contessa walked to a bench to the side. She sat, crossing her legs, and motioned for the guards to move. Again, the wait was awful. The Contessa sat, singing low and slow, a song in a language that no one save perhaps the Contessa knew. To the servant’s it was ‘Josefina’s song’, because ever since the Contessa chose her, back when she was so young and so alone, to serve her, that song had endlessly fascinated her.
Josefina was crying by the time the singing stopped, inelegantly muttering along with the tune. She hadn’t completed the song, but rather ended it as armor came clanking from the darkened hallway. Most of the guards arrived, dragging some manner of large hound with them. Three sets of jaws snapped and slavered, and it’s eyes shown red with dark magic.
“A hellhound?” Contessa asked rhetorically. “A fine first sire, don’t you think?”
Whether the question was for Josefina, the servants, or the silent, dead guards, nobody answered.
“And oh my, this one is the leader of the pack.” She strode to the creature, unafraid of its snapping jaws. She leaned in, as if she were greeting one of her cousin’s hunting hounds on his rare visits to the keep. The beast stopped growling as she ran both of her hands against the the middle head. “Very good choice.”
The guards relinquished their grips on the dog as it relaxed. The Contessa walked, and the hound walked with her. Josefina thrashed against her restraints with all of her might as the beast approached, eyes dilating. It’s tongue lolled out.
“Beasts…” The Contessa stated, giving a lesson. “… can be dangerous. But spend enough time around them and you can know what calms them. And what excites them. Can anyone tell me what has gotten his attention?”
“The water?” Josefina blurted out, almost on reflex. The Contessa asked again, turning towards the other girls.
She was not to be taught. She was to be used.
One of the other girls sheepishly gave the same answer, and the Contessa spoke approvingly. Yes, the water was a special blend of aphrodisiacs, to ensure a series of successful couplings. Josefina paid no heed, instead warily watching the hound as it circled around her; view blocked by the wood of the pillory.
Josefina cried out as something wet and clammy pressed against her snatch.
She wriggled her hips, attempted to break the contact between the hound’s snout and tongue against her body. Her teeth chattered as it lapped at her, feeling her face redden. Two more tongues licked at her thighs and her back, while it huffed as it breathed heavily. This was wrong, so very wrong. She was not about to lose her virginity to a dog. The woman who raised her had not orchestrated this in front of the only friends she had ever known.
“Do you think this is an effective punishment?” The Contessa’s voice snapped back to reality. “She seems to be enjoying the attention.”
A whine from Josefina put a lie to the protest she attempted to blurt out. Suddenly the tongues withdrew, and she felt the matted fur of the creature run along her back. The pillory rattled as it placed its forepaws on it. Something pressed against her and she let out a sob.
That seemed to spur the hound into action, and it began rapidly, shallowly thrusting. The first few ran the length of her slit without penetrating, but it adjusted its angle, eventually lining up enough to drive inside her.
Josefina yowled as something massive entered her. She had no idea how long or wide it was, only that it felt impossibly huge compared to her fingers on the rare occasions she had the privacy and inclination to pleasure herself. The hellhound kept thrusting inside her and she was sure it was going to tear her apart. She moaned in pain, and to her horror, something else. As it kept fucking her, the balance of pain to pleasure tilted towards pleasure.
She wished it was more painful, or that it at least seemed that way.
“Would anyone here wish to be in our mare’s place?” The Contessa asked, calling out names one-by-one, earning a collection of ‘no’s, that blended with Josefina’s own sobs.
The thing kept slamming into her body, rapid-fire thrusts as it forced more of itself to fit inside her body. Restrained as she was, the weight of the creature atop her back, she was trapped, completely and utterly. The Hellhound kept driving in, and the unthinkable feel of the beast was building something inside her.
When she chattered and went as slack as the pillory allowed, the Contessa asked something, lost in the jumble of sensation that Josefina was racked by.
And then the weight of the beast was off her, as it turned, still buried deep inside her. Impossibly big as it was, the beast got bigger, the base of its penis swelling massively. They were tied together by the swollen member, the dog panting. Something molten hot flowed inside her.
The Contessa used the lull as the beast was tied inside her, to ask about anatomy. “Can anyone tell me what is happening?”
The other servants were silent, until sheepishly, Lidia said “They’re mating?”
Contessa let out a long-suffering sigh. “I meant, ‘aside from the blazingly obvious’. Who can tell me about Hellhounds?”
A long pause.
“Or regular hounds?”
Another long pause.
Another sigh.
She sauntered over to the pillory and dropped to a crouch. She brushed her thumb against a tear-streaked face. “Josefina, you like dogs, correct?”
Then, after moment, added “Before today, I mean. Please tell my servants what is happening. And include every detail.”
Josefina had wanted a dog, always, after reading in the Keep’s library about them. The Contessa refused, believing it would distract the girls. As she grew she was allowed to care for the Cousin’s hounds on those rare visits, and she was always able to read many books on the subject. She knew the terms.
“It knotted me.”
“Oh? Explain.”
“Its penis. When it has fully penetrated a bitch, a male dog’s penis will swell to lock them together.”
“Indeed.” She grinned wide, and Josefina knew what she would ask before she asked it. “Please, tell me Josefina, what separates Hellhounds from regular hounds?”
There were many answers. They were born in Hell, or from Hellborne stock. They had multiple heads, sometimes. Sometimes they could blend with shadows or flame to disappear. But she knew the answer the Contessa wanted—which meant this was not nearly over. “They have… usually when they have multiple heads, they also have more than one cock.”
“Rule of thumb…” The Contessa said to her students, “…is they have an equal number of heads. In both senses.”
There was almost no pause between when the dog softened enough to pull himself loose, and then to turn around and then mount Josefina again. Josefina slammed her eyes shut as she felt a cock poke at the back of her legs.
It wasn’t lined up right, or the creature had no interest in a hole it had already fucked. Josefina shook her head and thrashed when the cock pressed against her ass. The Contessa was at her in an instant as the cock pushed in and she cried bloody murder. She was shushed, the Contessa saying “Relax.”
It didn’t help much.
“If you lack the power to change things, learn to accept them.”
That was a lesson the Contessa always told them. Usually followed up with the statement that was why you should seek power—to change things you cannot accept.
Apparently, Josefina was no longer worth that addition.
It hurt and was humiliating, while the hound kept thrusting, over and over. She screamed and cried and could not help but hear the Contessa calmly lecture her that if she did not want to suffer, she should not have done something that merited punishment.
She cringed and whined when the dog’s cock swelled inside her, even tighter than she had been. When the dog softened and circled around, Josefina clamped her mouth shut. The hound put its forepaws on the pillory, lifting its upper body up. Off-center, a large red member pulsed. It prodded her face and she screamed beneath closed lips.
“Open your mouth.” Came the order. “Remember, you don’t have the power to change things.”
Armor clanked as the guards approached.
Cringing, Josefina obeyed, tasking metal and flesh, smelling something incredibly male mixed in with the scent of ash. The hellhound fucked her face just as intensely as it had the rest of her, and her mouth tasted of metal. She coughed and gagged as it roughly fucked her face. Her jaw was spread wide, and something foul filled her throat, causing her to gag. Tears rolled down her cheeks as the Contessa walked a lazy circuit around the pillory, then made the rest of the servants do the same.
A dog locked in her mouth, ass and vagina dripping with its cum, Josefina sobbed and gurgled.. When the hound was finally, finally done, it pulled itself free and padded over to the Contessa. It rested it’s right head on the bench and the center head on her lap. The Contessa stroked its head, speaking gently to it.
Meanwhile Josefina coughed up cum.
"I suppose it would be... beneficial for you to all have a new perspective on the situation." The Contessa said to her pupils as the object of their lesson drew in ragged breaths. The guards unlocked the pillory and yanked Josefina to her feet. They dragged her around the room, to a series of chains suspended from the ceiling. Her wrists and ankles were manacled, and she was left, dangling.
They waited for a long time, long enough for Regina to ask the Contessa “Mistress?”
Whatever she had intended to say after that faded, as they apparently did not wish to ask too much of their Lady. Things were awkwardly silent, until the hound stood up, hairs on its back bristling, and it growled. The Contessa placed a hand on its center snout and said… “It seems we’ve got a new suitor for our mare.”
Something clanked from the darkness. Another guard came, lurching forward. Something clung its back as it stubbornly, slowly stepped forward, dragging one of its legs as a multitude of legs clamped around it. It had crossed halfway through the room when it collapsed upon its face, metal clanging against the stone floor. The thing on its back stood, pulling its long fangs from a gap it found between the guard’s helm and armor.
The Contessa chuckled. “This was unexpected. Very fortunate, too.”
It wasn’t covered in fur, so much as stiff, bristly hair. Too many multi-jointed legs splayed wide. A broad, flat, featureless head that those legs issued from. It was a spider, like the ones at the Keep’s Gardens. Only one that was bigger than her. It approached her, and Josefina couldn’t not look around the thing’s body. The obsidian claws that tipped each of its eight feet, or the fangs in a matching color, or, as it drew closer, the multitude of beady eyes set in its’ expressionless face.
The Contessa began singing. Low, slow. Very deliberate, eyes closed. She raised her hand, and Liidia slowly walked over and sat down next to her. She matched the mistress’s song.
The spider walked over Josefina, using its long legs to lift itself onto her legs and then clambered atop her. Their combined weight increased the painful pressure of the suspension. Bristly hairs scraped her exposed skin. The spider splayed itself over her, poisonous fangs dripping maybe three inches above her throat.
“Can anyone tell me what that organ is?” Another question from the Contessa. Lidia was singing, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“A penis.” Came the answer from Regina.
“Actually, no. This Tarantula is a female. You can tell by how robust it is. Additionally, male spiders actually lack that bit of anatomy.” The Contessa lectured. “They mate using hooks on the the little arms between their fangs and walking legs to transfer sperm into the female.”
“So… it’s an ovipositor?” Luisa half-answered-half-asked. They had apparently purged themselves of anything related to sympathy, instead trying to impress their mistress. It was safer for them that way.
“Correct. That song that I’ve had Lidia practice for so long is vital here—she’s looking for a safe place to lay eggs, and this spell is making her see our mare as that, instead of as a meal. I'd been hoping we might see a Tarantula, but they can be very unpredictable.”
The tip of the appendage found her snatch and entered in easily enough. The hellhound had stretched her, and the tip of the thing was narrow. It pushed inside a few inches—and then grew. Josefina cried out as something cold and wet pushed into her.
The eggs were each small. But there were so many of them. Josefina had not read as much on spiders as she had on dogs. But she knew they could lay hundreds upon hundreds of eggs. There was no way that many could fit inside her. One by one, cold, round eggs were pushed through the creature’s ovipositor into Josefina.
“Mistress?” Luisa spoke over over the increasingly strained sound of Lidia’s singing. The spider shifted at a quaver in the song. “What will happen when they hatch?”
“I honestly don’t know. They might simply leave her, or they could try to eat their way out.” The Contessa said. Lidia paused her song to look at the Contessa, before snapping her eyes back on the spider and restarting the song. The Contessa let out an annoyed cough. “However, as I intend to create a chimera, the spiders will be blended and merged into something completely new well before they do hatch.”
Josefina howled. At that matter-of-fact, blasé statement, at the increasing pressure as she was filled with eggs—she had lost count, only aware of the fact she could feel her belly stretching as the creature kept laying eggs. The Contessa kept the lesson going, but Josefina was beyond caring. This couldn’t keep going. The spider needed to stop laying eggs, or she would burst. She had no idea how long this had gone on, how many words the Contessa devoted to discussing spiders. Something had to give.
It ended up being Lidia’s voice.
Her ability to keep singing slowly faltered—she kept trying, but the little coughs, slurred words, pauses to gasp for breath became more frequent. It took an eternity for anyone to notice, with the Contessa eventually stopping her lesson, looking on the singer.
Finally, the spider shifted. Those fangs, she felt them against her neck. Josefina screamed.
And then a dark shape flew over her. It was the hellhound, setting upon the spider, knocking it away. She didn’t see the scuffle, only heard snarls and roars and yips. Something crunched. The other girls were looking away, while the Contessa looked on, fascinated.
The hound, covered in wretched slime and bits of chitin, approached the Contessa and sat down.
“I’m sorry.” Lidia said, massaging her throat.
“No, you kept it up longer than I expected.” The Contessa said. “We only needed a few eggs for the purposes of creating a chimera--but you put forth a tremendous effort. Now then… I want to try another suitor, however… this one we cannot have the guards bring to us.”
She gestured, and the guards once again unshackled Josefina. They carried her, walking past the Contessa and her servants, dragging her off to the darkened hallway. She weakly flailed against the cold grips of the dead men, as they dragged her deeper. The hallway was illuminated by something behind Josefina—the scent of brimstone hitting her over the scents of metal and rot of the dungeon. The Contessa warned the rest of the girls to stay close as they kept walking forward.
They plunged deep into the darkness ahead, until the guards came to a stop. It was a struggle to lift her head and look, and she was rewarded by nothing but darkness when she did. As the Contessa approached, she could see the light intensify, shining on a ledge, not he lip of a pit. The guards set her down at the edge. And she could not even see the bottom.
Just darkness.
Darkness that thrashed and moved up to reach her.
Aching limbs protested Josefina’s attempts to stand, the burst of adrenaline as inky black tentacles reached for her not nearly enough to counter when one of the guards grabbed her to hold her down. Long, black limbs coiled their way around her, dragging them both down.
There was nothing but cold and darkness as she fell for what felt like an eternity; she was utterly disoriented right up until she landed in cold water with a splash. The side that hit the water felt like she’d been lanced by a thousand pins from the unplanned impact, and she was fully submerged.
She thrashed and flailed, fingers breaching the surface of the water in a panicked move. She tried to orient herself and get her head above the water, but was jerked downwards. A dozen limbs stroked her, sucked at flesh, latched onto her nipples, crisscrossed her closed mouth.
She let out a scream against her closed mouth when the limbs reached her snatch. She kicked and thrashed against the water until thicker limbs coiled around her ankles, while the smaller ones probed and penetrated and stroked. They were each small, nowhere near the size of the hound. But one, by one, they pushed inside her ass or snatch, exploring deep. Others ran against her clitoris, pushing against it and buzzing.
Josefina’s lungs and eyes burned as she helplessly clawed towards the surface, towards air, while a dozen limbs held her. She wanted to scream and cry and moan as the tentacles explored and toyed with her, filling her more and more, pushing against spider eggs as they explored.
Just when her eyes unfocused, and lungs burning, she was about to inhale, regardless of the fact she was below water, she was shoved upwards by the larger limbs, held aloft by pillars of rubbery flesh. Her attempt to suck in air failed with a dozen limbs, cloying in taste, forced their way into her mouth. She bit down, tasting even more awfulness running down her throat, but couldn’t sever the limbs fully, couldn’t force them out of her mouth as they explored deeper.
She gurgled and sputtered as tentacle after tentacle stroked and pushed and probed, and she felt suction at her breasts and between her legs, and every inch of her body was subject to at least a moment’s attention by the thing.
Somewhere above, she could make out the sound of the Contessa’s voice, high up and barely audible. But given the measured tone, she was giving her pupils another lesson. All the while Josefina moaned and cried as she was molested by the creature. Thoughts of escape or pity fell by the wayside to sheer, blind panic and sensation.
She had to get away. Her entire body was sore, until the tentacles shifted and moved and vibrated, sending a pleasing thrill down to her core.
When she was dragged back below the surface, even the sudden plunge didn’t instill new panic.
When the coldness inside her expanded and spread and filled her to the point she worried she would freeze, everything went black.
Josefina had no idea how long the intervals had been. Still in the dungeons of the keep, she sat and waited against the sunless days and nights. Food came frequently and she ate ravenously, wildly. There was little else to do.
She continued to pace her cell to the point of exhaustion, struggled to remember lessons that the Contessa had taught her. Told herself stories, half-remembered from old books she read in the library. Tried not to cry when she thought of the library, hunched in a corridor while the other servants… the servants, not livestock like she was, talked and chattered when they were not busy with their Mistress’s instructions.
She tried to keep her mind occupied, even if it hurt to do so, because if she wasn’t, she’d drift over to that day. The Hellhound, three times. The spider. The creature in the pit. Those were the clearest memories. Something lean, reptilian, with intelligent yellow eyes that walked on two legs. Something, a feminine form that smelled of fire and who made Josefina mewl. She was beaten, pleasured, scratched, and made to scream; tasted honey and rot and woke back up on the floor of the cell with bruises and cuts and a protruding belly.
Cold stone under her bare feet, she kept walking.
On occasion, they would come for her, flanked by guards. One of the servants. They would never make eye contact, only perform the tasks appointed. Lidia had been, bit by bit, tattooing a pattern Josefina’s back; some manner of ward to promote the health of the creature, possibly. Luisa useld come to perform check on Josefina’s wounds—once they were healed she stopped. The others would occasionally come to bathe her.
None responded when she asked them questions, begged them to speak to her. So Josefina soon stopped trying. She just paced, and waited, and tried to ignore the growth of her belly or the writhing inside.
She heard the clanking of armor, towards her. Someone was coming.
Josefina stood, facing the wall opposite the door.
She shuddered and cringed when that soft singing began, tears stung her face. Inside, something shifted.
She turned around, looking at the Contessa, for the first time since she had been returned to her cell, after all of the beasts had shredded everything she had. Behind her, was the Hellhound. She shrank back against the wall until she had her back to a corner. The Contessa stood in her doorway. Josefina stiffened, forced herself to square her shoulders and stand up straight.
“I was wondering if you’d be awake.”
Josefina said nothing. The Contessa had to know if she were sleeping or not.
“You have behaved yourself whenever the girls come to tend you.” Contessa said, nonchalantly adding. “And your child is progressing well, it seems.”
Her monster, rather.
Josefina didn’t think of revenge. She wanted it, maybe desperately. But as she was, she had no recourse. When you had no power to choose, you had to learn to accept the choices others made for you.
“Why are you here?” Josefina asked.
The Contessa entered the room, along with the hound. She sat on the bed, disinterestedly looking at the wall, seeming to ignore Josefina as she pulle her skirt up, revealing pale legs. Josefina turned, looking at the same spot the Contessa was. “Come here.”
She repeated herself again at Josefina’s hesitation, and directed the girl to kneel down, between her spread legs. She grabbed a fistful of matted hair pulling her in close. Stroking Josefina’s face with her free hand, she murmured silently. “You can never return to your previous station, you do know this?”
Josefina nodded, looking away.
“But… perhaps if you prove you can be an obedient creature, I think I might find the mercy to let you out of this dungeon, at least until the next time you are ready to be bred.”
Next time. Somehow, Josefina knew there was going to be a next time.
There was no choice, after all. Josefina had nothing left to preserve. She could obey, and maybe, cling to the fading hope she’d be allowed back above ground. Or, she could refuse. And there was no doubt the Contessa would take what she’d want.
The Lady moaned as Josefina leaned forward, thinking of the library. She had no idea if she’d be let back in there. Or the gardens. Or even if she’d really be let upstairs, anyways. But, as she licked and nipped, she could dream. As the Lady sighed that she was a good creature, Josefina could hope. And as the hound circled around behind her, mounted her again, she could plan.
Childish dreams of escape or revenge.
The Contessa's praise of her burned--even after everything, Josefina could not resist trying her best for her Mistress. The hound's tongues worked her over, while she did the same to the Contessa, a beast servicing a beast servicing a woman She trembled as it kept up, tongues against her legs and back and vagina, while the Contessa draped a leg over her shoulder. She whined, and the Contessa spoke gently to her. The Contessa whined, and she did her best to ignore it. When the Contessa sighed and shook and fell back on the bed, Josefina stopped.
When the Contessa got to her feet, smoothing out wrinkles in her dress, Josefina, eyes at the woman's feet asked "Can I..."
"Tomorrow, my pet--I am pleased to say that I do not suspect you will ever again disappoint me, now that you've settled into your new role." The Contessa said. Tomorrow, in this dayless, nightless crypt. "I will order them to prepare a room for you. Until then..."
She got to her feet, walking for the door. The hound remained, looming behind Josefina. "...behave yourselves".
And the door shut.