Keyholder Demoness Bk. 03 Ch. 05

Hope pointed at Illie and herself, then pointed at her eyes.

"You and Illie saw something?" Charity asked.

Hope sucked in a big breath then began shuffling along stiffly.

"You saw um... dead people walking around? People who were sleepwalking?"

Hope pointed at some rocks. Then she spit and pointed at the rock again.

"People were spitting on you and throwing rocks? Sleepy people were spitting?"

Hope pointed at Charity, acted big and pointed at her eyes.

"You have been having gas and you don't want to get me sick? You're trying to see if I have bad gas?"

Whatever Hope was trying to communicate, never really made sense to Charity. Eventually, Illie and Hope started speaking to one another excitedly. There were a lot of frowns. Finally Illie made a forceful declaration and Hope reluctantly allowed Illie to apply her built-in gag, ending the conversation.

Shortly afterwards Illie pushed Charity, who was still tied up from dinner, onto the second hammock, wrapped her up tightly in the web of ropes, and then shoved her into her sleeping compartment over the nest for the night.

The next morning, after breakfast, Illie fastened Charity's leash around the leashing tree. They left a bowl of water by the tree and then went off on their day's errands.

"Such is the life of the family pet," Charity thought to herself as she slowly sat down in the grass somewhere near the furthest extent that her leash allowed. The hard lump was growing fast. It now wrapped around her waist on her left side. She could feel it growing just below her ribs.

Such was the rhythm of life for some number of days, until one rainy afternoon Charity heard a voice.

"Have you been a bad pet?" Fedea asked.

Charity was startled for a moment, but then crawled on her hands and knees through the mud over to the lion and looked at the tiny woman dangling upside-down, held immobile by coils of wire, from the beast's collar. "Where... have...?"

"Oh, my! I think you need another orgasm!" Fedea said.

Charity nodded.

<>--+-

Hope made another batch of the green paste. When everything was ready, Charity was bent over a narrow branch. Her ankles were anchored by ropes two feet above the ground. Her arms were tied up and far in front. Her leash was pulled down until Charity's back was significantly bowed. A fire was burning about ten feet away.

"What... to pierce... this... time?" Charity asked.

"You will not have an orgasm if you know what to expect," Fedea explained. "There will be no piercings."

Illie wrapped a blindfold around Charity's eyes and pulled her head back by pulling on her hair and securing it somehow. A significant amount of green paste was massaged into her back, hands occasionally wrapping around her chest to fondle her breasts. The flogger was employed judiciously upon her back and with much greater force on her well-presented back end.

Soon Charity was screaming and moaning in ecstasy, just shy of the edge of orgasm. She felt the sensation of searing heat near her chest.

She heard Hope and Illie speaking together: "Hee-roo, bee, bah-(tick)..." It was like they were counting down or something.

"Oh, fuck! They're going to brand me!" This was her final conscious thought until she was revived, untethered in Illie's arms. Each breast was sore. They both now sported a flat, thin metal strip that had been cauterized into the skin, circling each nipple. When she shook her chest, she could feel the weight of the metal strips.

Hope knelt next to Charity and brushed a tangled mass of necklaces to the side. Charity's new decorations looked identical to those that circled Hope's nipples. Charity leaned over and kissed Hope's breast.

Once again the next day, Charity, dyed green by the paste, felt as though she had awoken back to her old self. She remembered words like "door" and "glass".

Hope, Illie and Fedea spoke together at length about the lump around Charity's waist. Indeed, the lump now completely circled Charity at the narrowest point just below her ribcage and above her belly-button. The skin was noticeably raised and somewhat darkened.

That night, Charity felt a painful ripping sensation. Her screams awoke all the others. In the early light of the new morning, they found that a solid, sturdy metal ring now circled Charity's waist. The metal was about a quarter inch thick. It was no longer embedded in her skin in any way. It could even be raised and lowered by, perhaps, an inch. Its dimensions were far too narrow, though, for it to ever be lifted past her chest or lowered past her hips.

"What is it going to do now?" Charity asked Fedea, pushing at the metal ring.

"It's not going to do anything, I don't suppose," Fedea responded.

Illie was pulling at one of the chains embedded in her head.

"But, is it going to just stop growing?" Charity asked.

"It's no longer inside you, so there is no longer a source for more metal," Fedea explained. "Obviously."

"So... how do I get it off?" Charity asked.

Illie had popped a ring from her head. She tapped it on Charity's waist ring several times.

"Get it off?" Fedea said. "Yeah! That's not going to happen."

"What?!" Charity asked.

Illie was mumbling in the native language. Hope was sitting back watching with a look of concern in her eyes.

"Maybe there is some witch who can remove it with some magic," Charity suggested. "Please tell Illie to stop tapping me with her ring!"

"Oh! Great idea!" Fedea said. "I know a witch that can do that, too! Her name is Queen Empusa."

Illie grabbed Charity's leash and tapped the ring against one of the links. Immediately, she noticed that Illie's ring had linked with her leash.

Illie grabbed Charity's arm and dragged her roughly over to a log lying on the ground. She forced Charity onto her stomach over the log, then started tapping on Charity's new waist ring again.

"Someone tell this bitch to stop pounding on me!" Charity said.

"Shh!" Illie said as she pushed on the skin at Charity's side attempting to slide a finger under the ring. The gap was so tight, she could only get part of her pinky through.

Illie screamed something at Charity and then walked away. Charity started to get up from the log.

"No!" Hope said, shaking her head. "No!"

Charity let out a huff and laid back down.

Illie returned with a tool that could be used as a hammer. She pushed on Charity's back. "Ae-(tick)-san (cuh) el-dee!"

Then she struck the ring with the hammer. Since Charity was bent over the log, her waist ring was pressed into the wood. Charity could feel the strikes from the hammer rattle around her waist.

"She's going to bend it! Tell her to stop!"

Illie was pounded harder and harder on the ring. Charity kicked at Illie to get her to stop hammering. Illie stepped back mumbling and walked off again.

Charity started to get up again.

"Nooo!" Hope warned again.

"Gahhh!" Charity lay down again.

Illie returned with some rope and bound Charity's ankles together. Then she pushed the rope between Charity's waist ring and her skin. When she began to pull the rope through, the friction began to burn Charity's skin and she screamed.

Hope spoke harshly to Illie for a moment. She stepped up, yanking the rope from Illie's hands, but continued the task of slipping the rope through the gap - just much more gently. Soon, Charity's legs were pulled backwards and her back began to arch as her ankles approached her waist.

"This is humil... this...," Charity grunted.

"You shouldn't have tried to kick Chain-Head," Fedea said.

"Stop laughing!" Charity screamed at Fedea.

When Charity's ankle ties met the waist ring, Illie pulled up on the rope, lifting Charity into the air. She then started shaking Charity up and down, apparently testing to see how sturdy the ring was.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Owww! Stop!" Charity said as she was jerked around in the air.

Illie dropped Charity back onto the log and pushed her over onto her side.

"No! No! No, no no no!" Charity screamed as Illie pulled out another tool with a serrated, metal blade, used for cutting tree limbs.

Ten minutes later, Charity was still bound in a strenuous arch, but mostly happy to have not been sawn in half.

Illie was sitting some distance away, sweating from exertion, staring at the ruined blade.

After quietly staring at Charity's waist ring for a while, Illie built a large fire and dropped her favorite feather into the red hot flames, followed by a link of chain from her own head.

"She thinks your waist ring is the most beautiful, perfect, metal ring that she has ever seen. She's giving thanks and an offering to the Goddess Dammasch." Fedea explained.

Charity simply grunted.

<>--+-

Later that day, Charity was sitting in the meadow with Fedea and her escort. Illie seemed to believe that Charity did not need to be leashed to the home tree as long as Fedea's beast was around.

The skin underneath her new waist ring had been pink and sensitive in the morning, but now it looked and felt completely normal. The metal ring was perfectly oval shaped and fairly tight. She could push a finger between her stomach and the ring if she sucked in her stomach. But, due to its shape, she could not move the ring much.

"When I get home, they should be able to cut it off," she said, hopefully to Fedea.

"Home?" Fedea responded.

"Back to my universe."

"Um... You can't go back there..." Fedea said.

"Why not?" Charity said, looking up from her waist. "You have traveled both ways between the universes."

"Uh... it's been decommissioned," Fedea said.

"I have no idea what decom... whatever... means," Charity growled.

"It has been turned off," Fedea said.

"Well, there is a gate, right?" Charity said. "They can turn it back on again, can't they?"

"No. Your universe is gone-"

"Gone?! What?" Charity stood up. "You can't just turn off a para... a paral..."

"A parallel universe," Fedea said. "You are not from a parallel universe."

"That's what Empusa said," Charity said, beginning to pace.

"She lied," Fedea responded. "You are actually from a simulation. When you went through the gate, you were manifested here based on your specifications in the simulation."

Charity had dropped to her knees holding her stomach. "I'm going to be sick... It's gone?"

"It was considered a failed universe, so, yeah, it's gone," Fedea said.

"Eight billion people..." Charity's stomach started to heave and she bent over to vomit.

"Well... Each woman that acted as a host of the simulation has a complete copy of the state when the universe was decommissioned in their brain, but... yeah... Their contract is complete. They've gone home."

"You need to leave me alone for a while..." Charity said.

"Some people came through the gate after you and your sister... looking for you..." Fedea said. "That police detective... some other people... two Aradales."

"What's an Aradale?" Charity asked - not so much because she was interested in the answer, rather she needed the subject to change.

"Aradale is the Goddess Dammasch's sister," Fedea said. Her voice sounded much more relaxed, and she began to ramble on... "Every universe has a Dammasch and an Aradale and there is always a conflict where one of the sisters takes control. Here, of course, Dammasch is the Goddess and Aradale is permanently confined in the Hollow Well. Magic rules. But, in your universe, Aradale and her technology was supreme and she found the gate and slipped through along with another version of herself. I'm not certain where the second Aradale came from... Was she from a parallel universe's simulation of your universe? Can a simulation begat parallel simulations? Maybe a simulation host had a previous Aradale imprinted in her repository? I'm not sure anyone knows, but..."

Fedea talked on and on...

Charity's hands, meanwhile, were worrying at a newly discovered hard lump on the back of her neck.