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After an eternity floating in darkness, I came to, face down on the deck, coughing up water. Wind blasted through my hair and clothes, causing me to sneeze violently. I was too weak to do much else, but managed to roll onto my back, groaning when I saw seven unfriendly faces staring down at me. Not one of them offered me a hand up, but I mustered enough energy to push myself up onto one elbow. That was the moment I realised my mental refuge had been cruelly smashed to pieces, and I cried out in pain as Faith's probe bore in and ripped the last shreds into dust. Her arms had red nail marks on them, and I almost laughed. It served her right, and when I saw the sullen, angry looks on Charity's and Chastity's faces, I knew they too had taken some damage during their murderous underwater campaign.
Faith slapped me across the face, sending me sprawling. "You're a bitch," she spat. "I should throw you back in there and sit on you for what you did, but no matter. You're worth more to us alive than dead, but let me tell you this."
She bent, seized my hair, and hauled me to my feet. "You are about to truly learn what it's like to be under our rule," she spat, her eyes glowing a virulent green as she glared at me. "And you are going to pay for deceiving us this way! You're lucky a dunking was all you got - you deserved to be whipped bloody!"
I stayed silent, and Faith slapped me again, sending me flying. I crashed into one of the banana lounges, feeling every bruise as I got unsteadily to my feet. Hope kicked me in the stomach, and as I doubled over in pain, she grabbed my hair and slammed me to the ground, placing a foot on my stomach and knocking the wind out of already abused lungs. Patience, Prudence, Temperance, Chastity and Charity then took their turns kicking me, putting all their strength behind the kicks, and every time I tried to shield my head or my ribs, Faith would grab my arms and force them to my sides, while Hope pinned my legs so I couldn't kick back, exposing me for her sisters' kicks. It reminded me too acutely of my underwater torment, but Faith was dead wrong in one aspect. I could no longer hide, it was true, but if she thought drowning me would scare me away from swimming, she had another thing coming.
All the same, I preferred drowning again to the horrific abuse being inflicted on me now, and by the time it was over, I was a bleeding, bruised, shaking mess. I'd lost half my teeth when Prudence had kicked me in the face two or three times, and already both my eyes were starting to swell shut. I ached all over, and my lady parts were hurting particularly painfully - Patience had seen to that. But I had no chance to catch my breath as Faith seized my hair again and hauled me to my feet. She said nothing, instead giving me one last kicked that overbalanced me and sent me toppling into the pool again. Bubbles blurred my already damaged vision, and for a few breathless moments, I twisted about, desperately trying to find my way to the surface before I ran out of air. Luckily, no one seemed inclined on holding me underwater, and I broke the surface with a gasp, fumbling my way to the ladder. Once more I was left to struggle out on my own, and Faith slapped me in the face once more. "That's for getting blood in our pool," she snarled. "Now get the fuck inside before I forget myself and chain you hand and foot."
I hung my head in silent submission, but that was soon ripped from me as Patience resumed her role of "emotional regulator." "You're a disgrace," she said in disgust. "You haven't got the good sense to realise you're getting off more lightly than you deserve. You should have died but Faith insisted on keeping you alive, even though you've done nothing but disgrace us for the last three years. Well, the show is over, kiddo. You're trash, and it's about time you learned your place." She snorted in disgust. "Now get upstairs and clean yourself up. And God help you if you get blood in the carpets. Otherwise I just might forget myself and beat you to a bloody pulp."
To that I had nothing to say, but as I fumbled my way up the stairs and to the bathroom, I wished for - or tried to - a way to get through this mess with minimal damage. Patience wasn't having it and forced me instead to be grateful I was still alive. "You're not getting away with the 'poor me' act," she warned. "I'm going to be on you 24/7, and if you even think about trying to hide again, I'll personally take you apart limb from limb, until you're screaming for me to take your life. Fat chance of that, by the way. You belong to us, alive or dead, and if you die, we'll haul your carcass back across the Wheel so fast your fucking head will spin."
She slammed the bathroom door shut after that last salvo, but I couldn't even shiver in revulsion. And as I painfully cleaned myself up, hissing as the hot water of the shower hit my abused body, I felt the first true stirrings of hopelessness. They were swiftly quashed, but not even Patience could take away the bone-deep pain I was feeling, nor could she entirely erase the fear that now awoke - the fear that one of my sisters would force me to link to her wolf so I'd be granted the same long lifespan. Being chained to my sisters for as long as they wished to keep me alive was a horrible prospect, and one they were likely to employ to ensure I stayed on this side of the Wheel. In fact, it would grant me all the abilities of a werewolf, just without the shifting, and though I still felt ill at the prospect of being chained long past my natural lifespan, I felt a moment of pure smugness. Patience must have mistaken it for something else; when she didn't replace it with another emotion, I felt the smugness grow.
If my sisters did link me to their wolves, they'd learn to regret it. I wouldn't be the first human turned into a wolf-less werewolf, and if my sisters were that dumb to make me one of them on a superficial level, they'd soon come to regret it.
Of course, they could never know that, and as I stepped out of the shower and grabbed my towel, I vowed to do all they wished of me, no matter how humiliating or degrading it was. Patience's presence in my mind grew puzzled, before a strong level of smugness came across. I almost smiled.
My sisters were going to regret it if they ever made me one of their own.
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