It's a curious feeling, knowing that you've given your innocence to a serial killer. I would have laughed had you told me that I would be laying naked Harry, who, just a few weeks ago, had cut my palm and whispered strange incantations in my ear. Sometimes things change so suddenly and you wonder if you’re doing the right thing, if you’ve betrayed people along the way… I haven’t thought about my parents in a while. I know they’re looking for me, but it doesn’t matter anymore.
Harry shifts behind me and tightens his arm around my waist. I rub my eyes and squirm slowly under his grip. I'm not afraid of Harry, not anymore. Actually, I don't think I was ever afraid, I was always interested and intrigued. And now, I'm in too deep.
“Good morning, baby,” he murmurs. His morning voice is deep and heavy against my neck. Goosebumps trail down my neck and I turn to face him.
“I’m not so sore anymore,” I tell him. He chuckles softly. The vibrations of his voice tickle my neck.
“Do you want to be sore again?” he winks.
I laugh. “You’re relentless.”
“And you’re beautiful, now come on, let’s take a shower. Last one in has to make the bed,” he teases, pulling at my wrist. I sit up and wrap my waist with the covers. Harry jumps up bare naked. His small butt is cute and I pinch it.
“Hey, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warns. His lip wavers, giving way to a grin.
“Oops,” I pinch him again. He really has a cute little butt.
Harry grabs me by my waist and lifts me up like his personal ballerina. I stretch my arms up and laugh. He tosses me gently, but still quickly. I end up on my stomach and try to sit up, but Harry holds my hips and slides his hand over the curve of my butt.
“My hand print is gone,” he says. I turn slightly and look over my shoulder at him, recalling how he “punished” me back when I was his submissive. Today’s Friday, the choosing ceremony is tonight…
Harry slaps my left cheek softly. I feel my flesh jiggle slightly. Harry slaps it harder, again and again. The vibration and slight sting of his hand against my flesh makes my skin feel hot. I don’t know if I’m really enjoying myself or growing uncomfortable. The line between pleasure and pain is blurred and I like it.
Harry grips my thighs and squeezes them. He slides his finger between my legs, massaging my clit. His other hand is on my butt, gripping and slapping it.
“Your ass is a damn work of art, Jesus,” he groans.
“Do you like being spanked, baby?” he breathes. Goosebumps trail down my back. I squeeze my thighs together, feeling the pressure building between my legs.
“I want to fuck your ass, right now,” he declares. His voice is barely a whisper, but his words are crude and laced with impatience.
“Do it,” I whisper back.
Harry grabs my hips with both hands and I lay down slowly on my stomach, resting my head on the pillow.
“Just relax, baby,” he coos in my ear. I nod and press my face against the pillow, growing more and more nervous. I feel him enter me and I bite down on the pillow. He stretches me just enough to move deeper. A sharp pain and pinching sensation erupts and I squeeze my eyes shut. He pulls out and pushes back in, gently rubbing my left hip to relax me.
“Fuck, Kat, your body is unbelievable,” he pants, picking up speed. I stifle my moans and whimpers.
“Shh, Kitty, you’re gonna wake everyone up,” he chuckles in my ear. The pain subsides and Harry shoves himself inside me completely. I hear him sigh in relief.
Harry pushes deeper. I scream.
“It hurts, Harry.”
Harry pulls out and rubs me gently, easing the cramping.
Harry picks up a rhythm, going in and out, making our bodies move in sync. His warm chest is pressed to my back and I groan as I feel his hands massage my hips. His large warm hands grip me, holding me still. I feel his breath hitch as he shoves deeper.
He pulls out and I take a breath. I feel him come on my back and butt. The sensation is cooling and even soothing compared to the heat of his body and speed of his thrusts.
He slides his fingers to my butt and scoops his come, rubbing it all over my flesh and where he made a new hand print.
“You’re so territorial,” I breathe. Harry smirks and lifts some of his come on his fingers. He brings it to my breasts and rubs it on my nipples, making them perky and smooth.
“You’re mine to love, you’re mine to fuck. And I’m all yours, too, baby, don’t forget that,” he tells me.
Harry lifts me up and carries me to the shower. I stand in front and he wraps his arms around my waist, kissing my neck. I turn the water on and he rubs the small of my back and where he branded me with his new hand print. The warm water sprinkles over us like a heavy rainfall in the Amazon. It’s hot and soothing, especially with Harry’s body pressed close to mine.
I rub his come off and he holds my face, looking into my eyes. I watch as the water grows heavy on his lashes and he blinks the droplets away. I think back to last night, in the tub.
“Do you think the others know what happened last night?” I ask. Since I was recovering from the night I was attacked, the other girls, especially V, haven’t been nearly as nosy about how far I’ve gotten with Harry. I know I’m under contract and all, but it’s none of their business, really.
Harry watches my eyes for a few minutes, almost as if he was preoccupied to have heard my question.
“Mmm maybe. It doesn’t really matter, though. I’ve wanted you and I have you. Who cares what they think?
“The Choosing Ceremony is tonight,” I look down. Harry smooths his long finger over my jaw. I wrap my arm around his shoulders.
He tenses up, as if nervous.
“Are-are you gonna choose me?” he clears his throat.
I smile. “Maybe, maybe not.”
Harry looks down and his lips soften into a slight pout. I kiss his cheek.
“Of course I will, Harry. I was only joking,” I say.
“I’m never gonna get enough of you,” he admits. I find myself smiling. I feel more comfortable with Harry, not just sexually, but as a whole. He teased me when we first met, calling me ‘ginger’ and telling me of this strangely sadistic sex house, then trying to avoid me as though that might make me more inclined to leave this place. But here I am, in the shower with my arms around his broad shoulders. I swear, he gets taller by the day.
Harry presses his forehead to mine and we close our eyes.
“We’re wasting water,” I say. Harry snickers.
“You’re ruining the moment,” he says. I laugh and he kisses my cheek.
We step out of the shower and dress. Harry attempts to grab my towel and tries to slap my butt with it.
“Haven’t you done enough damage to this poor thing?” I pout playfully, rubbing my behind.
Harry kisses my collar bone. His smile disappears slightly. his hands follows along my waist.
“You’ve lost too much weight, baby. Don’t punish your body because your heart hurts,” he tells me. I look into his eyes and clench my jaw. He kisses the corner of my mouth.
“I mean it, Kat.”
I nod. “I was out of it the past two weeks,” I mumble. I don’t feel the need to lose the weight anymore. I don’t think I ever really needed to, but I wasn’t thinking straight because of my medicine and overall confusion. Who wanted to hurt me that night? And why?
Harry pulls on a pair of black jeans that accentuate his long legs. There’s a hole at his knee. He pulls out his red bandanna from his dresser and breathes deeply. Then he puts it on. I look at the bathroom, at the tub. The red water has been drained.
I pull on a pair of sweats and one of Harry’s T-shirts, the one I wore the night he found me semi-unconscious on the street.
I pull my hair into a ponytail and decide against make-up. Harry smiles at me.
“Is your ass sore?” he winks. I swat his hand away.
“No, I just want to wear sweats,” I shrug.
Harry smiles and tucks a piece of hair away from my eyes. “Whatever you say, baby.”
We walk to the door and Harry takes my hand. I pause for a second. I’ve never talked to or sat near Harry outside his chamber, let alone held his hand.
“You don’t have to hold my hand if you don’t want,” I say. I don’t want him to feel obligated to be nice to me outside the chamber just because he has taken my virginity. I do feel closer to him emotionally and physically, but I’m not at all clingy.
Harry squeezes my hand more firmly and turns to face me. “Do you not want me to hold your hand?”
“No, it’s just that I don’t want to feel like you have to,” I shrug.
“Well I want to hold your hand.”
“Ok,” I smile faintly.
We head to the kitchen, where everyone else seems to be either laughing or chewing or laughing and chewing. Scarlette eyes Harry’s bandanna, then raises a dark brow at me.
“Well what do we have here?”
V looks up from the head of the table and smiles. Her eyes trail down to my hand intertwined with Harry’s.
“It’s nice to see you, Kitty. I presume you’re feeling better?”
Marcy murmurs something rude under her breath, but I ignore her and smile.
“Yes, Harry’s really helped take care of me.”
V bites her lip and smiles wider. “I’m sure he has. And I’m sure he hasn’t been feeding you well. You’ve lost weight, honey.”
I look down and shrug.
V snaps her fingers so that Liam and Niall make way for me and Harry to have seats. Niall glares at Harry’s bandanna, then at me. He looks utterly disgusted. I avoid his eyes. He has no reason to be mad at Harry. Harry’s been taking care of me the past two weeks. All Niall did was visit me once and threaten Harry or me or both of us. I honestly can’t remember what happened. My brain was on mute, as was my body. But I’m back now and I feel stronger than before.
V whips up some omelets, turkey bacon and toast for Harry and I. Harry doesn’t let go of my hand until our food is in front of us. I don’t think he’s very possessive; at least he even cares to hold my hand. He used to avoid looking at me outside his chamber.
Lola clears her throat and smiles at me. “Well, how have you been Kitty?”
I look up and see that everyone is watching, Scarlette, V, Marcy, who’s half straddling Niall’s lap, and the rest of the girls. I chew slowly.
“I’ve been relaxing, trying to get better.”
Marcy snickers.
I continue eating my food, trying to ignore the fact that everyone honestly seems to be staring. Is there something on my face? Should I have worn something a bit better than sweats? Can they tell that my butt cheeks are still red from Harry’s spanking?
Harry squeezes my hands more firmly.
“Do you guys need something?” he raises a brow. Scarlette and the others shake their heads.
Liam clears his throat and squeezes his bicep, admiring his bulky arms.
“Well I’ll be in the gym, giving hands-on squatting tutorials for anyone who’s interested,” he says. His eyes linger on my mouth and he chuckles, waiting for me to get mad.
I ignore him. Marcy clears her throat. Isn’t she Niall’s whore? Why is she getting worked up about Liam being a dick and trying to hit on me?
Harry sits up taller and chugs half his coffee. “Maybe Marcy would like help. She loves getting hands-on with anything that has a dick.”
I almost choke on my bacon. Lola covers her mouth, trying to contain her laughter. Even V smirks.
V leaves the room and watches me for a moment before escaping to the hallway. Where does she go at night? Where does she go in general? She doesn’t have a boyfriend or partner here. Doesn’t she get lonely? Of course, you don’t need a man to make you happy, but considering this whole sex house is her idea, I’m assuming she likes having sex, but I’ve never seen her with a man…
Harry and I go off to the living room, where the other girls tend to reside between meals, gym time, and rituals.
Harry sits on the couch with me and pulls me into his lap. The other girls stare, but try to hide it by toying with their hair.
“I know she’s gorgeous, but you gotta stop staring,” he shakes his head. I laugh and rest my head against his shoulder. He kisses me and I know the girls are staring.
“Let them watch,” he breathes. His hand lowers to my waist.
“You’re a horndog.”
Harry smiles. I kiss his dimple.
Lola clears her throat. “So what, are you guys in love?”
Something falls from the hallway and we turn to see Niall holding a glass of beer. He stares at me, then goes off to get a towel to clean his mess. Harry tightens his arm around my waist.
“Is that what it looks like?” Harry smirks. I rest my head more comfortably against his shoulder.
Lola shrugs. “I don’t know what love is, but I’m guessing it’s a hell of a lot more than fucking.” As soon as she says this, her eyes gleam.
V walks into the room clutching a small vile. It looks red, but she slips it into her pocket quickly. “Harry, can I speak with you a moment?”
Harry looks up, then at Lola, as if unsure whose question is more threatening. He decides to go with V.
“I’ll be back, baby, don’t agree to playing any of their crazy sorority games,” he warns with a smile. I smile and kiss his cheek.
“I’m no sorority girl.”
“You could be, at Yale,” he says. I look down. He gets up and follows V. I’m not sure what to make of his statement, whether it means he’s eager for me to go to college and leave him, or if the Omega House is like a sorority in and of itself. It sort of is, what with the bickering, bonding, sex, and talk of sex.
As soon as Harry leaves the hallway, Lola, Rachel and Corrinne scoot closer. Scarlette and Marcy pretend not to care and toy with their hair.
“I bet she’s giving him head,” Lola laughs.
“What?!”
Lola laughs harder. “I’m just kidding, jeeze you really do like him. You’re getting jealous.”
“No, I’m not jealous. I just don’t believe that V would do that,” I defend.
Rachel and Lola exchange glances. I cross my arms over my chest.
“So how was your first time? We all heard you scream,” Lola winks. I bit my inner cheek, hoping I’m not turning red.
“I did not scream…”
So you did do it,” Rachel chimes in.
“Well—“
“Oh my god, you really did, wow, it’s about time,” Lola sighs dramatically.
“Hey, don’t pressure her. She waited until she was ready,” Corinne speaks up. Her voice is soft.
“So what did he do with your blood?”
“Excuse me?”
Lola and Rachel lean closer. Scarlette’s ears perk up, even though she’s still sitting far away.
“What would he do with it? It went through the drain,” I stop myself in mid-sentence
“Drain?”
Scarlette sits up and smirks. “You fucked in the tub?”
Lola laughs hysterically.
“Oh God, Harry’s level of sadism is pure gold,” she fans herself with her hand. I cross my legs and sit up straighter, wanting to seem unaffected by their words. I start to recall the way harry stared at me after he saw my blood. He tied me to the tub. Harry has never physically hurt me with the intent of causing me pain, but last night, in the tub, I saw a look in his eyes. He was completely infatuated with me, as though he loved me so much he wanted to kill me.
“I give you props, Kitty. Not many girls can deal with his level of emotional imbalance. Most of them get killed in the process of being his submissive,” Rachel says, but she doesn’t sound very sympathetic or sincere.
“Well I’m still alive,” I say. I don’t know what it good it does to say it. I don’t think Harry wants to kill me, at least not any more. I don’t think he truly ever did want to kill me, just cause me some pain because it makes him come.
“Let’s go to the ritual chamber,” Lola offers.
“Why?”
“You’re not a virgin anymore; you need to be bathed in holy water.”
I nearly choke on my spit. “Excuse me?” the only times I ever touched Holy Water was in church.
Lola looks at my palms and wrists. The faint rope marks from last night are still there. She, Rachel, and Corinne take me to the ritual chamber, where we have the choosing ceremony.
The three tall slates of stone and the fire pit in the middle of the room is just as daunting as before.
“Have you never heard of The Runes of Björketorp?” Lola inquires.
“The what?”
Scarlette peaks her head through the hallway and listens in on the conversation.
Lola rolls her eyes. “I thought you were going to Stanford or something, you should know this stuff.”
“Yale, I was going to Yale in the fall,” I correct her. Am I even going to get out of here? I know I want to leave eventually, but not without Harry.
“Well anyway, there are three runes in Sweden, each with a saying carved into the stone in Proto-Norse,” she tells me, walking around the three large stones in the room. I look at the stones, then back at Lola.
“Are these—“
“No, silly, these aren’t the actual runes. The real ones are in Blekinge, Sweden. No one has ever been able to move them, to summon the energy the stones contain,” she tells me. I watch her brown eyes in the darkness of the chamber.
“So why do you guys have similar looking stones here?”
“Admiration of the original, hope that we can somehow obtain their power through recreation, through a sacrifice,” she tells me.
I take slower breathes, wanting to seem calm. “What power do they have?”
Scarlette laughs. She walks up closer to me. Her black eye shadow makes her green eyes bug out more.
“Please, this girl isn’t worthy enough to know what power the runes have,” she scoffs. I step closer to her.
“If we have rituals here every Friday, then I damn well deserve to know what all of it means,” I speak up.
Scarlette grits her squared jaw.
“Anyway,” Lola continues. “The runes have remained put since the Vikings first saw them around 500-700 AD. And every so often, someone would try to remove the stones, wanting to harvest the land or build a house. And every time someone tried to move it, freak storms would arise, ending in death.
I looked closely at Lola’s eyes, they grew darker as she spoke, as if wanting to add to the thrill of her story.
“So the runes kill people, big deal. Lots of tragedies occur all the time,” I snort. The story sounds interesting, but I don’t want Lola to feel like she’s successfully creeped me out.
Rachel laughs and walks up closer to Lola. “It’s not just about the deaths, it’s about the immortality that the master of the runes earns when he or she has made a proper sacrifice to the gods.”
I start laughing. “Oh God, you guys really had me for a second.”
Scarlette rolls her eyes. “See, I told you she has no respect for these stories.
“Exactly, they’re just stories.”
“The Bible is filled with stories, too,” Scarlette retorts.
I turn to her. She clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. I feel offended by her calling out The Bible, but at the same time, I understand her point.
“I’m sorry if I made you mad, but I just don’t believe--"
“What were the words Harry whispered in your ear the night he initiated you?” Lola interrupts me calmly.
I turn to her and look at my palm.
“It was foreign, ancient…”
“Proto-norse,” she answers for me.
I walk closer to the first rune. There’s an inscription: “hAidz runo ronu fAlAhAk hAiderA ginArunAz ArAgeu hAerAmAlAusz utiAz welAdAude sAz þAt bArutz.”
I press my finger to my palm, remembering the way Harry sliced my hand open with his knife the night he initiated me, remembering what he whispered in my ear. Recognition sets in quickly and I feel confused. My heart picks up in my chest, but I try to calm it down.
“Take her to the anti-chamber.”
“W-what are you going to do?”
Lola looks down at me. “Bathe you in Holy Water and draw a circle of salt around you, you're no longer a virgin, your seal has been broken and you need protection. The real runes may be in Sweden, But V knows how to recreate their power with Black Magic. You must protect yourself.”
*******P.S. Finally got over my writer's block and found some time to write. Thank you guys for your patience and support <3