Page 7 of Master B-0361
“I don’t know who that is!” I twisted myself in the crushing hold, managing to slip down the smallest amount, but it only had him shifting his hold to pull me up even more. I hit the bed hard, but not him. His hand locked around my neck, squeezing as he leaned in over me.
“Admit it.The Main Master put you up to this. He either told you to pretend to be her, or he convinced you with his brainwashing-shit that you’re Maggie.”
“I’m not.” My head shook as the tears I’d kept in for what felt like years escaped. “I’m not Maggie. I’m not Margaret. I’m no one.” I squeezed into his wrist with both of my hands as my head pushed hard into the mattress. “No one told me anything. I’m a slave. I’m no one. Eight-forty-two.” The last came out as air as my voice gave out from the pressure. “Please. No one.”
Deep breaths left him.
“I’m not Maggie. I’m not.”
All I was doing was mouthing words as my lips went numb and tingled. There was so much pressure in my face that my eyes felt like they were going to pop at any moment. Just as darkness dotted in, I was gasping and choking on oxygen.
“You’re not Maggie. You’llneverbe Maggie; do you hear me?”
“I’m not,” I cried, sobbing through the confusion of what the hell was happening. “I’m no one. Eight-forty-two.”
The Master loomed over me. With the wildness in his eyes, I wasn’t sure whether he was coming back to finish me off, or if he was going to let me go. His expression softened and he blinked through thoughts that had him making another deep sound.Panic had me too terrified to move. One wrong decision, and he’d come back after me like a rabid dog. I couldn’t afford that if I wanted to live.
“I’m eight-forty-two. Please. Can I go to my bed now?”
“No.”
“What’s your middle name?”
My head quickly shook.
“Middle name.”
“A-Anne.”
He let out a long breath, collapsing to sit on the edge of the bed, away from me. Time stretched out as he didn’t speak.
“Last name.”
“…Leeman.”
“Fuck.” Another long breath. “You’re not Maggie.”
“No.”
“Your name really is Margaret. But you’re not her.”
“No.”
I kept quiet as more time passed.
“It’s so ironic, this need I have.” He turned to face me. “You’re not her. I don’t want you to be her. Yet, that’s exactly why I have you here. How does it even make sense?”
There were no words I could say. I was torn between remaining as still as possible or racing for the door. My legs itched to jump into action. Everything in me was screaming to go. The slave part of me couldn’t, and I didn’t understand it any more than why my Master wanted me to be another woman.
“You don’t look like her. No one’s come close. Yet…you’re…different somehow. I look back at old photos and she’s such a stranger to me. I don’t really know her, either, but everything I remember says she’s my reason to breathe. My reason to live.She made promises,” my Master said, slicing his gaze over to me. “She said she loved me. I loved her. Yet…she chooses him? Marries him? Giveshimwhat she was supposed to give me?Maybe over time I could have accepted it. I think I was starting to with the new baby coming. But for her to die in that car accident.” He paused. “I thought getting revenge on Jake would have ended this.” His head shook as he stared ahead. “Nothing ended. I didn’t get my revenge. The son of a bitch killed himself after marrying Kayla. Just…fucking dead. Just like Maggie. Dead. Both of them. And do you know what’s left behind, slave?”
Green eyes were piercing as my Master turned to me.
“I don’t know.”
“Me.My fucking misery is what’s left behind. No Maggie. No heir. No revenge. Nothing but emptiness and sick, twisted rage. Abandonment issues; I’d fucking say so. You wouldn’t happen to have a cure for this bullshit dilemma I’m suffering through, would you, shrink?”
Somehow, I managed to ease myself into a sitting position. The Master’s words stirred no sympathy in me. Not when it was obvious he’d bought me as his cure, and it hadn’t worked with any of the other slaves yet. But that only had me questioning exactly what the cure was.