.
.
"Stein..."
Stein opens his eyes, and in the darkness, can see Marie peering down above him.
"Marie." Stein struggles, but his bonds are tight. Marie glances behind her shoulder before pressing a finger to her lips, motioning him to be quiet.
"I've come to rescue you," Marie says, and he feels her hands on his shoulders, clever fingers deftly undoing the straps.
"Marie, Marie..." He groans softly, closing his eyes. "I never thought..."
"Shh," Marie says, and he feels her lean close, her breath warm against his ear. "It will be all right."
"Oh, Marie." Hot tears spill from the corners of his eyes. "You have no idea what she's done to me."
"I know," Marie says. Another strap comes loose. "Did you miss me, Stein?"
Stein opens his eyes. Something about her voice, something about the way she says his name....but no, it's just his mind playing tricks on him. "Of course," Stein says, and the uncertainty bleeds into his voice.
Marie's eyes narrow. Her mouth stretches into a lazy grin. "I've always known," Marie says.
And Stein freezes, because the words and the look in her eyes are just wrong.
Medusa stares down at him, smiling cruelly.
"Disappointed, my love?" Medusa says. She presses a hand flat against his chest, her mouth just inches away from his skin. "That was a cruel, cruel trick. Shall I make it up to you?"
xXx
.
Stein has lost track of the days. Day and night bleeds into one endless stretch of black, and in the closed equability of his cell, time has lost all meaning.
There is only Medusa, the witch's curse, lazy smiles and cruel soft hands clasping around his throat.
Sometimes, when he wakes in the darkness, he sees her eyes glittering in the dark. Amber eyes piercing through him, narrowed and watching. There's something furtive in her gaze, and he realizes she's dissecting him, his body vivisected, slivers of glass slicing his body like ribbons in her mind.
We are alike, you and I...
Those are the days that are the worst; when she collapses on top of him, her mouth slack and her body loose-limbed and supple from her orgasm, she looks almost girlish. Peaceful. Those days he can't help but notice the small bones of her wrists, or the tender hollows of her arms.
And then she will open her eyes, liquid amber and reading everything.
"I know what is in your heart, Stein," Medusa will say, and she'll rub her mouth against the curve of his neck, breathing on his skin. "All your sins. All your thoughts. Everything is mine."
xXx
.
She comes to him one day, locking the door with a soft click. "I think it is time," Medusa says, and she steps into the light, "that we give you a present."
Stein looks up, weakly from his chains. Medusa pads softly on concrete floor, a secret smile on her lips. With a flick of her hand, the vectors holding him snake away; he's no longer bound to the ground.
"There is no way you can leave this place," Medusa says. She begins to undress quietly in front of him, undoing the buttons to her hood. The moon is out, and a pale square of moonlight is on the floor; she continues to undress in front of the open window, her eyes never leaving his.
"What is this?" Stein asks, and Medusa grins. The hood falls without preamble, pooling at her feet.
"You wish for power, ne?" She begins undoing the straps to her dress; one bare shoulder is exposed, then the next. "You can't tell me you haven't thought of this. Wished for this, deep in the depths of your shame..."
"Witch," Stein says, and Medusa laughs, the last of her robes falling until she's completely naked in front of him. Though she's had her way with him, it's the first time Stein has seen her without clothes; she's always managed to have sex with him fully covered, as if to flaunt the power she held over him.
"You don't even know what to do with me, do you?" Medusa's eyes glitter in the dark.
"What makes you think I won't try to kill you?" Stein's voice is harsh. He clenches a fist, staring.
"Because, my love. Even if you kill me, you won't escape," Medusa says. She leans forward, her small hands against his chest. "There is a seal around this room; it will not lift unless I tell it."
He feels a hand trail down his side, grazing him softly. He curses softly as he feels himself harden. "I've always wondered what it'd feel like, to be taken by you," Medusa says. "I will allow you the power, if you wish."
She lies down on the bed, as if to offer herself to him. There's something unreadable in her eyes as she smiles, soft and secret and cruel.
Stein steps forward, uncertainly. Too many nights of being used, of having his sanity stripped away. He positions himself between her thighs, gingerly resting his hand on her knee. She's so much smaller than him. He could break her if he tried.
He positions himself at her entrance, and he feels her inhale, sharply. Her skin is cool and dry and somehow feels inhuman, and when he begins to press inside of her, he feels her tighten, instinctively.
"Yes," Medusa says. "Yes. Go on..."
And then Stein pushes up inside her with one vicious thrust. Medusa lets out a strangled cry, and he thrusts again, and her face scrunches as if she's in pain.
And it's that hurt that drives him, forces him to pull out and slam back into her again, reversing the motion until she's shaking underneath him. He fucks her like a man possessed, one hand shoving her face into the mattress. All those times she's used him. Taken him. Laughed at him as if he were nothing but a child.
When he comes, he buries his face against the curve of her shoulder, breathing and shuddering and gripping her sides.
"Stein-kun," Medusa is amused. Amber eyes flick upwards, meeting his. "You look as if you wish to cry."
He's helpless, unable to move, when she snakes around him, sly mouth grinning and her eyes narrowed like a cat's. And then he realizes that power, that feeling, when he was on top of her, was borrowed. False. She held the power all along.