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It makes perfect sense to me now why a man Stone’s size would be so easily captured by such a silver tongue. He was promised a basic human emotion and he fell for it; like I had for the money.

“You know what’s consuming me?” he asks quietly. “I can’t help but think that maybe if this were a different time and place, that maybe we could have learned to love each other.”

Another lie.

Another blasphemous blow to my heart and I’m losing myself to his false hopes. The same hopes that Lowell bestowed on him once upon a time.

“No,” I reply, taking a deep breath. “Because I’m a whore and so are you. Whores don’t get to love; that’s not who we are.”

“Wow,” he replies with a chuckle. “That was harsh, and to think I had no idea that I could feel any worse than I already do. Okay. Well, that’s that, I guess.”

I raise an eyebrow.

Was this a test or a testament to how he could have felt about me? Nothing in this abyss makes sense anymore and I have yet to find the sliver of truth in all of the lies being hurled at me. Could it be that the one truth that was finally spoken, I managed to brush aside so brutishly?

It doesn’t matter.

This isn’t another time or place and we both know it. I have no choice but to chalk it up to simp

le conversation from a man conditioned for nothing more than depravity under the will of his owner and pray for a better outcome for myself.

“How long have you been down here?” I ask, changing the subject.

“Days, weeks, months… years. I don’t know. I stopped counting when he took away all the sharp objects I used to mark the time on my skin.”

“What?”

“Oh yeah; I forgot to tell you. The scratches you saw on my body? I did those. It was the only thing I could do to pass the time down here and it’s also how long I know I’ve survived. But my face and my dick? That was him when he figured out why I was bleeding from a new cut every time he came down here to feed me. That’s why I barely get meals anymore too. He doesn’t want me to mark myself anymore and when he does decide I’ve been a good enough boy to eat, he feeds me himself.”

“Not always,” I remind him quietly.

“Yeah to be honest, that took me by surprise, but I can tell that he likes you. If he didn’t he would have fucked you instead of my throat. I really hope he brings water down soon,” Stone says more to himself than me.

I rub the sides of my head and close my eyes tightly. Lowell is more complex than I could have imagined, but now I know that the day he sticks his cock inside of me, I’ll end up chained to a wall too. I have to be nice to him and I have to try to stay on his good side—if he even has one of those—to not end up like Stone.

“Fuck; shut up, he’s coming down,” Stone suddenly says, his chains rattling as the door at the top of the stairs opens.

Lowell descends the steps quickly and I move in the shadows back toward Stone, shrinking against the wall. In the blinding darkness, I reach a hand clumsily along the wall until my fingers find his and I lock our hands together.

Stone gives me a reassuring squeeze as he lowers himself as quietly as he can to the ground and lets a small growl slip from somewhere deep inside.

And just like that, he’s nothing more than an animal again.

“Cessi?” Lowell calls out in his quiet tone.

“I’m here,” I reply as a slight tremble starts to take hold of me. Stone squeezes my hand again, before he slides his fingers out of my grip, and gives me a gentle shove toward our master.

“Come to me, please. I’ve brought you some food,” Lowell says.

I let out a sigh of relief and begin to walk toward him. I wasn’t hungry until he mentioned it, but I also won’t eat unless I can share some of it with Stone. Even if it’s just scraps, he deserves food for his performance from the previous night.

“Thank you,” I say, when he grabs my wrist as I approach him. He steers me back toward the stairs and lowers me down, sitting next to me and waiting patiently for me to begin eating my meal.

“What’s the matter? You’re not hungry?” Lowell asks quietly. The plate has sat on my lap for no more than a moment and he’s already acting as if I’ve disappointed him.

“I was just wondering,” I begin slowly, “If I can share some of this with Stone.”

Lowell scoffs next to me and snatches the plate from my lap. I expect him to stomp up the stairs like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, but instead he makes his way across the room and disappears further into the darkness.