Page 14 of The Monster I Am

Simple soap and shampoo were in the bathroom, and he used them both to clean his body and hair. He winced through getting the soap in his cuts, but he knew that they needed to get cleaned out in order to heal. Cuts that weren’t washed got infected easily in the slums.

It was harder to reach some of the cuts on his back, but he tried as much as he could and had to be satisfied that he’d at least rinsed them out, if nothing else.

Shutting off the water, Jared used the towel that was hanging on a rack to towel himself dry, grimacing in anticipation of the blood that would stain the towel. He was surprised when it came away without any. He inspected the cuts on his chest, which were still open and sore, but none of them had started to bleed again.

Magic, probably. The supe had said the knife was enchanted. Ten years, and he still wasn’t used to magic being real.

Jared hung the towel back up, and brushed his fingers through his hair as best he could to try to comb it down before leaving the bathroom to figure out where the kitchen was.

The scent of something savory carried through the air, and he followed it to the kitchen.

“Sit down,” Rhys ordered, bringing a plate over and setting it on the table. He filled a glass of milk and brought that over as well. “Allergies?”

Jared hesitated, caught in the indecision of whether he was supposed to sit on the floor or at the table, when Rhys put the plate of eggs on the table. Licking his lips nervously, he drew out the chair and started to sit on the edge of it, waiting to be told that he was supposed to be sitting on the floor and ready to drop down as soon as he was ordered to.

“I don’t care if you sit on the furniture when it’s only the two of us,” Rhys said, sitting down across from him. “If and when I have guests, you’ll kneel unless I tell you otherwise. Now eat. I’m ready to get to bed. It’s been a long day.” He rubbed his hand across his face, looking tired.

“Yes, sir,” Jared murmured, picking up the fork to start eating. “No allergies,” he added. The first bite of the omelet was heavenly, and he almost moaned in appreciation. It wasn’t that he hadn’t had eggs since the Takeover, but it was a very different thing to have them properly cooked versus the sorry half-burned ones that he’d made using the warped pan that they had in the house that hadn’t heated evenly.

He took a sip of the milk and closed his eyes. He hadn’t had milk since before the Takeover. The best he’d gotten was being lucky enough to get somewhat clean water from the bathroom at the shop he’d worked at to drink.

The food and milk were gone quickly, and he put the fork down on the empty plate and folded his hands in his lap as he waited for further instructions.

Rhys gestured to the sink. “Clean up. Then when you’re done, it’s time for bed. There will be a magical lock on the door, so don’t think you can wander around and snoop.”

Jared took his plate and cup to the kitchen sink and washed them, putting them in the drying rack that was there. He put the food away in the refrigerator once he figured out where it was supposed to go, then washed the pan and utensils.

That done, he turned back to Rhys, keeping his eyes lowered, focused on a spot on Rhys’s chest rather than looking all the way down at the ground. Would that do? It would be hard to do anything if he could only look at the ground.

“Do— Do I sleep in the bed? Sir?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Rhys said, getting up from the table. “Or on the floor. I don’t care. Make the bed in the morning and make sure everything looks presentable.” He started for the guest room. “Get some rest. Tomorrow…” He sighed. “Tomorrow, we’ll figure things out.”

“Yes, sir,” Jared said, following Rhys to the bedroom. He looked around the room in something close to awe after the supe had closed the door and locked it.

He had absolutely no idea what to think of the situation he found himself in. Ten days ago, he’d just been some random gutter rat human living in the slums. Yesterday, he’d been a slave locked in a steel cage with a dozen others, waiting to be abused and raped.

He’d been abused and raped. But he was having a hard time convincing himself that it had been as violating as the first party. At the first party, they had used him. Several different witches had fucked him, after the first time when he’d gotten aroused while he’d been getting fucked. When the delicious pleasure was combined with the pain in ways that made his body betray him and humiliate him.

They’d laughed and mocked him. Humiliated him. He’d felt dirty afterwards. Tainted in ways that felt like they’d never been clean again.

Rhys hadn’t done that to him.

That meant something, didn’t it?

Rhys had given him food, let him sit at the table, and was letting him sleep in an actual bed.

But he’d also been at a party of monsters that catered to the kind of bloodthirsty supes who’d fed on his pain the first night. Anyone who was at those parties had to be monsters.

Didn’t they?

Jared pulled back the covers of the bed and gingerly got in. The mattress was soft under his body, and the covers were warm as they settled over him. He turned out the light and got himself comfortable.

It would be so much worse in the morning when this all turned out to be just a dream.

Chapter 4

Jared