-- Warning!

The following story involves nonconsensual sex, violence, abuse of minors, and quite a bit of generalized nastiness.

It is not meant for underage people.

It is also not complete.

In short, it's not good reading... it is being stuck here because I think that eventually it might be decent reading, in some circles, and if I stick it here I'm more likely to keep working on it. *wry grin*

Anyway! You have been warned. If you don't want to read this, then don't. If you DO read this, don't complain to me afterward, I don't want to hear it.

This story is entirely fictional - if people come out of the shadows in your life, perhaps you should take a closer look at the idea of psychotherapy. If the people in your shadows happen to actually KNOW the people in my shadows... err... we'll talk.

Otherwise, enjoy the show.

--- The Play's The Thing(s) ---

--- at the keyboard ---

He steps out of the shadows, something about his movements reminding her of an anime she saw once. He has that same angular impossibility about him, all straight lines and illusion, inked in with just enough reality to make her doubt her own eyes. She knows he can't be real - before the light was off the room was empty, nowhere in it where a man of his size could hide - but still she blinks once, twice, the vision seeming so solid...

"Get up, cunt. Up, go to the keyboard. You've been whining about me for too damned long. Write it down. Turn me into another one of your goddamned stories. Maybe then you'll shut up about it."

The voice is dully bitter, infuriated for no reason other than the wasted time, not angry enough to actually care. The words are harsh; nothing new, he speaks to her as if she was a whore in his care, more often than not. She is almost accustomed to the insulting syllables that intersperse commands and comments both.

And indeed she should be used to it. She has had years to adapt to his type. Oh, not him - he didn't arrive until comparatively recently, only a few years ago - but even when she was so young that she hadn't quite figured out that whole shoe-tying business, there was someone who lived in the shadows, watching her. She could remember being unwilling to fall asleep unless the nightlight was on, not because it gave light, but because it cast the best shadow other than a full moon. She could remember the night after she lost what she wanted to think of as her virginity, crying on the shadow-figure's arms.

She should be used to it, but no matter how many times she hears the insults, the careless verbal slaps across the face, she winces at their sting. Sometimes they drive her into a frenzy of effort, trying to earn praise instead of just coldness, straining every muscle in her body to do some task or another, struggling to please. Other times the words seem to push her into herself, rebellion and disobedience resulting, and shortly thereafter another step closer to broken, her body and emotions both shuddering in her shadow-Lord's grip.

It doesn't take long for her to climb out of bed and take a seat in front of the keyboard; one strong hand rests on her shoulder as she types, a constant reminder of the presence she is supposed to describe, to introduce... to explain?

As the thought crosses her mind she chuckles, then bites her tongue quickly to silence a yelp of pain as the fingers clench, painfully, at her shoulder and throat. This is not, apparently, a laughing matter. Nodding now, cringing, she sets her fingers quickly to the keyboard and begins at the most logical place: a beginning, of sorts.

--- enter, Man ---

"Hello, girl. Shh... you know who I am. Be quiet, there's a good girl. You don't want anyone... interrupting... us, do you?"

A brown-haired head was shaken quickly, flashing the man in the dark suit with lightning in his eyes a look of startlement and fear exchanged first for surprised agreement, then another dose of fear mixed this time with a bit of shame. Although she had no words for what she felt, she was certain she did know who this man was, or at least what he was doing here. He was her keeper. A book about the zoo flashed through her thoughts, and for a split second she wondered where this man's zookeeper hat was.

"I don't need a hat. I have a girl to take care of, not something intelligent and worthwhile like an elephant or a dolphin or a bear," he chuckled, voice friendly and cheerful despite the insult so clearly delivered. She shivered as she realized he had answered something that hadn't even been a question, just a flickerthought in her head. He laughed again.

"Yes, I see what you think, so don't fuck with me. I'll know it if you do, and I will be upset, and then you will be punished. Do you understand, girl?"

A nod spilled up and out from her youthful frame, nearly as frantic and immediate a response as the denial had been earlier. This seemed to be the right way of answering, as it earned her a pat on the head...

...pleasure. So much pleasure she thought she was going to explode from it. She could feel it radiating out from his hand on her hair, her whole body wriggling, her eyes closed in bliss. How could one person, one not-real person, make her feel good like that?

"Oh, but I am real, little girl. As far as you will ever know, I am real as real can be. I can make you hurt, I can make you feel good. I can make you do whatever makes me happy. That's all you exist for, you see - you are here to make me happy. And in turn, I am here to take care of you. To be your Keeper."

She nodded again, accepting this somewhat as his flashing eyes were starting to unnerve her a bit. His lack of a shadow certainly made her lay a few questions on the side of doubt, but some deep instinct drove her to do her best to please him regardless. Accepting his word without question, she knew somehow, was one of the things that would please him. Like the rest of the knowledge she seemed to be drawing on tonight, she had no idea where it was from, but an unshakable certainty that it was true and accurate fact. She looked up at him, wanting to ask questions, and already too nervous to dare to voice them aloud... again his trick of finding her thoughts seemed to aid him.

"Yes, you HAVE been a bad girl, but that's not why I am here. My name is Man. You will think of me as Man, call me Man. I am here because you need someone to introduce you to your role, to accustom you to being Kept. When you are ready for the next lesson, someone else will be your Keeper; someone you can," he chuckled again and she shivered, sensing even at her young age a joke she didn't want to hear, "someone you can relate to."

--- exit, Man ---

"You will be sorry if you didn't listen to me, girl. You'll be very sorry indeed. You should have gone with your parents... and now you will learn your first lesson. You have never really disobeyed me before, only struggled. You just disobeyed. Disobedient girls must be punished... goodbye, girl. I hope you behave better for the next one."

The shadowed figure took one step back and she rose to her feet without thinking, one hand raised as if she could call him back; already she knew better, knew that he would come and go as he pleased and say what he wished, but she was young and spoiled and tired of his grown-up words, even if she COULD understand the meanings when he said them. Brave, because he'd never actually punished her, she started to tell him to come back... then changed her mind. Better to just ignore him. He couldn't mean anything serious, right?

She puzzled over his words until she fell asleep, wondering what he meant by 'the next one' and stretching sleepily. He couldn't really be going to give her to someone else, he had been with her for years already and as far as she was concerned, he was just part of the scenery now, like her parents. Something that didn't really matter, but that she didn't really want to loose, either. He had only hurt her when she did something really bad, like wetting the bed when she was younger, or swearing, or trying to touch herself in what she privately thought of as her 'fuzzy'. It wasn't yet, but she knew it would be eventually.

Daring to sneak a finger down to pet the forbidden area, she grinned. Man was just talking. He wouldn't do anything, and he must just mean the next lesson. Later she would apologise, and he would forgive her. This plan firmly fixed in her head, she curled up on the friend's couch she was sleeping on tonight, looking forward to riding to school with them, since her parents wouldn't be back for two days.

Friday, the day her parents were coming back, she went to school quite happily, looking forward to going home that night. She had only seen Man once, a half-awake dream of him standing beside the sofa, looking down at her, his voice almost regretful as he told her that after this first lesson, he would be gone completely. She knew she was dreaming because Man would never tell her that he loved her - he had said often enough that love was for fools and weak little sluts - but as he stood by the sofa, he seemed to say just that, promising her he would love her for as long as he existed.

When she came home that evening her eyes were red, and her fuzzy was red, and the little buds she hoped would be breasts someday were red, and she got permission to go to bed early.

--- enter, Blade ---

She threw herself on her bed, staring into the shadows, daring Man to come out. At first her rage and pain was kept silent, words stuffed inside, just her thoughts reaching out to throw blame on the figure who stubbornly refused to appear. Finally she sat up, sliding out of the loose sweater and tight leggings that she had worn that day, underwear following suit, and knelt on the bed. Her head lowered and she waited, knowing that Man would usually come out if she was posed like this.

"Pathetic. Truly pathetic. You've been a slut for HOURS now, you should know better than that. Didn't the one before me teach you anything? And you were screaming at him like a little Chinese marketwoman. Shut your hole and present yourself."

Stunned at the harshness of this new voice that seemed to drive straight into her mind, rather than at least brush past her ears as Man's voice did, she spun around to face the foot of the bed. A patch of darkness was coiled there in the corner, slowly forming itself into the figure of a young man leaning back against the wall, a felt cap of some sort keeping back most of his hair although a few strands made their appearance, hiding his eyes. She watched this new figure appear, gasping as she realized how beautiful he was... and how naked she was.

- to be continued, hopefully - --