Slowly, stealthily the newly freed demon crept through the lush gardens she herself had been forced to take care of day after long day for almost a year now.
With great care, she ensured the chains she now held in her hand did not rattle and alert her target ahead.
She often played this little game with her former master, who was soon to be a slave himself after the unspeakable cruelty she had witnessed him giving and the torment she herself received.
So she was good at sneaking up on him by now without him being aware.
Her capture had been a result of a moment of carelessness on her part; she had relaxed for one second and the man had thrown such a powerful spell, that, even though she was the most powerful demon, was unable to block in time.
That had been almost a year ago, and every day since had been one that rivaled Hell for its sheer misery.
The slaves of this man were tortured and beaten for the slightest mistake, and often tormented just on a whim.
She herself had been raped several times and skinned alive, and had even seen this man beat his own nephew and even kill him, though he left just enough life energy to bring him back to life once he had finished.
Though this man did have a weak spot; the blue demon William Cipher.
The man might have been the worst in history at showing his true feelings but it was obvious he loved him.
And who was this man?
None other then Stanford Gleeful himself, murderer of his own parents and of several other people, the most powerful man in the world, and tall, with brown hair streaked with gray that he kept brushed back at all times, and piercing brown eyes that felt like lasers when they looked at you.
Soundlessly, the demon, whose name was Crystal, stalked the clueless Ford, who was slowly strolling along on his early morning walk while Will made his breakfast inside and Gideon, a 15 year old boy who was kept there too, set the table.
Both twins were still abed, and Crystal smirked.
They she would kill, but Ford?
Ford needed taught a lesson, a hard one, about how it was to be the target of slavery and cruelty.
And she was going to teach it to him herself.
She must have made some sound, because suddenly Ford spun around, hands glowing as he spotted her several feet away.
She could see his eyes widen behind his glasses as he seen that she was free, and he quickly prepared to defend himself from her attack.
But he wasn't fast enough.
With her demonic speed, she threw a powerful burst of magic that hit him hard, completely draining him of all the magic he had stored in his body and laying him out flat on the ground.
Smirking once more, she stepped to the groaning man and latched the heavy collar around his neck, and the steel bands around his wrists and ankles.
Each was designed to be attached to chains at anytime, but for now she left them off, though she did attach the leash to his collar.
Then she waited on his head to clear.
In Stanford's mind, everything was spinning, and he felt weak and disoriented.
He struggled to right himself, and when he finally was able to open his eyes again, he could just see the outline of Crystal standing over him.
Instantly he tried to use his magic, but he found he had none, and his body felt drained and useless.
Cold fear knotted in the pit of his stomach, and he tried to scramble away, but a firm jerk to his neck stopped him.
His eyes widened as he realized he was captured as a slave would be, and he didn't dare look up at the demon before him.
Somehow he had known this would happen someday, but he had pushed the thought to the back of his mind, it only resurfacing as his worst nightmare on occasion.
"Stanford." The cold voice called to him.
Even though he knew this was a mistake, he stared at the ground and refused to respond.
Clawed fingers gripped his chin a second later and turned his angry face up to see the demon's grinning one.
"Welcome to your new life, Ford, as my slave." She said, curling her claws into his skin as she spoke.
"Never." He growled, and launched to his feet as soon as she had released her grip. "Let me go at once." he glared at her with all the authority he had in him, but she only laughed and took out a whip- his whip- and twirled it.
"Never letting you go." She chuckled. "You have a hard lesson to learn sweetheart, and I intend to teach it to you very well."
"You know I will escape and re-capture you?" Ford growled as she stepped closer to him.
"Oh, I have my doubts." She said as looked at him with her glowing eye.
She used to have two, but Ford had poured bleach in the other one and killed it while forcing her to say yes sir when he spoke to her.
"Well I don't." he snarled, but she could see the fear in his eyes.
"Lying gets you nowhere." She purred before suddenly taking both his hands in hers and forging a connection between them.
Stanford's eyes rolled as he felt the demon enter his mind and start going through his thoughts.
Crystal chuckled.
"Get out of my head!" Ford bellowed, but she only shook her head.
"Nope."
Ford lunged at her and tried to tackle her, but she merely looked at him and stopped him with a look that she used to choke him.
Ford clawed at his neck as she used the power she had to keep him there while she attached the chains to his arm and leg bands.
When she let him speak again, he gasped for breath before asking: "W-what are you going to do with me?"
She smiled as she picked up his leash.
"Punish you over and over and over again until you are completely broken and have learned your lesson well."
She heard him suck in his breath at her words.
So it was no surprise when, as she began to walk forward, he dug in his heels and refused to move.
Calmly, she turned to him and blocked yet another futile attempt to attack her.
"Your training begins now." She said, moving to him, keeping the leash taunt as he tried to run from her already.
"C-Crystal!" he pleaded when he saw her take out a dagger. "I-I'm sure we can t-talk this out!"
She laughed humorlessly. "Talk this out? Oh Stanford, don't you know you could never talk yourself out of paying for the decades of torture you have placed on hundreds of innocent beings?"
"B-but surely you don't want to waste your precious time on me!" he whined as she reached him and gripped his shirt firmly.
"I do and I will." She promised darkly as she flipped him over and threw him to his knees.
Once more he tried to run, tried to kick her, but she only stabbed the dagger down through his leg, causing him to shriek.
Trembling, he froze as she bent over him and lifted his shirt to expose his back.
Yanking the dagger out, causing another yelp, she pressed it into his back and carved a C, for Crystal.
Ford was silent as she did so, but she could read his thoughts of pure rage and fear as she cut her mark of ownership into him.
But she didn't stop at one cut, oh no!
Lifting the dagger, she cut into him over and over, the tender flesh peeling back like bread cut from a loaf.
Ford groaned loudly, and she saw tears dripping from his cheeks as he trembled in her grip.
Once she was satisfied with that, she healed him up enough so he wouldn't bleed too much and yanked him to his feet.
Ford's eyes were dripping tears, and his jaw was clenched.
Before she could move, even though she saw it coming, he had reached out and punched her in the face, hard.
Then he tried to take her dagger, but she kicked him right between the legs and he let out a strangled howl.
"Come come slave." She sneered as she tugged him towards the garden wall. "That was a baaad move you made, and now you must be punished for it."
Ford struggled and fought, but it was hopeless.
She slammed him back first into the wall and chained his arms and legs to it.
Ford struggled some more, eyes wide, but it was no good either.
He could not break free.
Taking her time, she ignored his thought and shouted threats as she unbuttoned his shirt and used her magic to simply lay it aside without ripping it.
Then she took her dagger and cut into his chest, smiling as he clammed up to try and not make a sound of pain.
The things he was thinking of her through, were simply horrid.
Tsking her tongue, she looked at him as she let the dagger float beside her and picked up the whip again.
"It is never a good idea to call your mistress names like that." She told him a she brought her arm back to lash him.
"You are not my mistress." She heard him mutter right before she lashed him across the face.
He let out a yelp right before she repeated the move, bringing an even louder yelp from him.
"Yes I am, and you will speak to me as such. Yes Mame and Yes Mistress is all I want to hear from you got it?" she demanded as she lashed his face two more times.
"N-never!" he choked as he jerked his head away from the whip.
"We'll see." Crystal smirked as she began the whipping in earnest, the result being that Ford was soon screaming and begging his head off, letting out pitiful wails with every stroke of the lash on his bleeding body.
Crystal merely grinned and enjoyed the show as she covered every inch of his body with a whip mark, many done so often in the same place the skin split.
She skimmed his mind as she beat him and to her annoyance saw that a part of him was enjoying this, and so she stepped up her game.
She turned the whip into an electrified one, one that had two tails.
The look on his face, the one of sheer terror and dread, was pricless.
When she was finally satisfied, Ford had given up the pleading and was merely bawling like a baby as he hung limply from the wall.
"Pitiful. Pathetic. Weak." Crystal spat at him as she placed the whip on her belt.
She saw him wince at every word, but he had no breath to respond as he couldn't stop his weeping.
Without another word, she spun on her heels and proceeded to walk away, eliciting a response from the crying Ford fast enough.
"W-where are you going?" was the terrified inquiry that came out between sobs.
She didn't look back. "To kill everyone in the house." she replied matter-of-factly.
A heart-rending wail made her smile. "Not Wiiill!"
"I'll make sure his death is a long one." She replied, tossing her hair.
Ford was soon screaming again, but this time begging and pleading so frantically, she almost decided to use Will as punishment for Ford.
In the end she decided against it.
She wanted her whole focus to be on teaching Ford his lesson, not dealing with the other demon.
However, she was too be disappointed, as Will had observed her escaping and hunting down hi s master, and as soon as Ford had fallen, escaped his own bonds himself.
He knew that all those in the house would be killed, even him, because he knew something about the female demon she herself did not as yet, and because of Ford's feelings for him, he would most certainly be killed by the jealous she-demon.
So he took Gideon, Mason, and Mabel, and escaped into another place far from here.
So when Crystal entered the house, and found it empty, she knew what had happened, and she seethed with rage.
Then she smiled.
She had a new toy wailing in the garden that would be perfect to take her anger out on.
Cracking her knuckles, she moved to the door, already planning her next moves.
