Fight or F...

Another day.

Another horrible grinding day in the life of Taylor Hebert.

And she was tired.

Not a simple kind of tired, no it was instead the bone deep weariness of a person on the edge, her body fine but her mind restless and horrified. She hadn’t been sleeping well since it had happened, since her best friend in all the world had turned on her, had begun to user her… their… secrets against her. To think that she’d once pledged to be friends forever with the tyrant who now ruled over her every waking moment with a deep sense of dread simply brought greater hurt to her already walled off heart. Months of this hellish campaign had left her simply and unbearably tired. No others no friendships, nothing seemed to get though the brute screen erected between her and everything else. And every second within the school gave nothing but another potential second of this nightmare.

But at least today was different. Just a little bit.

This morning hadn’t been terrible, not really. But that was because she’d been late, willing to take a small punishment from her homeroom teacher in order to avoid the sources of her troubles. She’d woken up same as normal, watching attentively the recent news as she dragged out on eating breakfast and waiting for her father to leave.

Yesterday, she’d managed to even go almost till lunch time without having to face them, only to find herself in another embarrassing confrontation with three again whom she could never seem to win. Along the way she’d been tripped, had her food spilled on the floor after only managing to eat half of it, called names, followed about and made to look like an idiot in front of every teacher possible.

She’d long stopped complaining about the indignities which each day bought.

Today however had been… relatively tame. But even in that she could not help but suffer their taunts their little minor cruelties, the snubbing by her peers, the way people looked at her in withdrawn pity. A full day without their antics and yet every moment was still filled with the echoes of their every act.

She knew, just knew, that she could not continue to this, not the way in which they ground her down every chance they got, not the constant taunts and insults which could not be responded to for fear of escalation, not the way that everyone either joined in or looked away leaving her to fend for herself while being ganged up on. Her tormentors finding every possible way in which they could crush her spirit, kick her while down, and smash every aspect of her life which meant anything at all to her.

The best of friends, she’d learned, made the most poisonous of enemies.

No, this was not an existence which could be tolerated. But it could be endured… until it would not be any more.

“Hebert!”

She couldn’t help the cold dread which came with the sound of her own name, its cadence sickly sweet upon familiar lips. Her shoulders slumped but she refused to turn around, even as she continued with every plodding step; an attempt to get away from the source of her misery. The young girl tensed, even as one strong arm snaked its way around her shoulder leaving her gripped in its loose grip. The dark skin of that bare arm rippled beneath the evening light with distinctive musculature.

Of course they couldn’t just leave her alone for an entire day, the bitter thought bit her.

She tried hard not to look up at the face which she knew would be to the side of her, the girl whose arm was around her restricting her motions and now guiding her onward.

“You know when someone calls you out you should at least say something, Taylor.” The voice to the other side of her cheerfully piped up; a sidelong glance revealing the cute little brunette whom it came from.  “Don’t be so rude Taytay. It’s not like we aren’t your best of friends now isn’t it.”

“She’s just a little tired. She never did have much stamina when we were kids together.” The voice just behind her came again. Sweet and familiar like poisoned sugar.

Surrounded. Trapped. It took everything inside of her not to simply react by trying to break out into a full on sprint.

Useless... Sophia was faster.

“You know Hebert,” The dark girl who trapped her close spoke up. “We’ve been thinking for a bit, I know, not really your thing but bear with us a sec. We’ve got a little event going on soon; you weren’t exactly on the top of our list to be invited. But we had a little talk between us. A bit of a heart to heart. Emma here wants to forgive you.”

A horrible pit in her stomach formed, a cold irrational anger mixed with longing and surprise.

“Forgive… me?” She asked incredulously.

“Yep, all your loserness will be forgiven. I mean it’s not like we expect much out of a dumb cunt like you, but ya know sometimes it’s just time to bury the hatchet and look for what’s best in life.” Madison, that poisonous little bitch beside her spoke cheerfully, her toxic tongue at ease with every poisoned word as she gave the put upon girl a sly grin and a sideward’s glance.

Taylor nearly choked on her tongue spluttering at the backhanded words.

Two arms sneaked their way around her slender waist, embracing her close in a manner which was heartbreakingly familiar. And from behind her Emma’s voice drifted like violence upon tender flesh.

“I miss you Taytay... if you weren’t such fucking garbage now you could have been something special.” She cooed, caressing her former ‘best’ friend’s stomach with light sensual strokes, the heat of her breath brushing against Taylor’s ear as her lips poured more poison inside. “I remember back before your mommy died, before you turned into this… limp dick waiting to get fucked. I remember that what we used to be together...”

Taylor's head swam in confused sensations as her mind bounced from side to side, nausea at the edge of her throat and mind chasing every terrible word. Again and again she reached for words, words which would ward off these jackals, nipping at her feet; words to fight fire with fire against the three as they gang raped her self-esteem.

But nothing would reach past the edge of her tongue.

“She’s fucking shaking like a leaf.” Sophia laughed beside her, arm squeezing just a little bit tighter, her teeth gleaming wide with the horrible smile. “What Hebert, cat got your tongue? You gonna pussy out on this way out too or you just too stupid to know when a good thing comes your way?”

“Oh don’t be so harsh Sophia. We’ve been on her ass the entire time.” Emma added, one hand sliding from Taylor’s stomach to lightly caress her ass, before rising up then landing a sharp blow against it.

Taylor jumped; the invasion of her space too much to bear as her hand shook and balled.

Only to have the smaller Madison grab her fist in light restraint.

“Now, now Taylor. Let’s not make a scene. Or do you want to start something and get your ass kicked in front of everyone.” The cute little adder cooed sweetly. “We spent the whole night talking about you...” her cute features fell into a frown. “All about you. Emma’s still obsessed.”

“Oh shut it…” Taylor could hear a light note of… something in Emma’s voice, sudden and vicious. “… Look let’s not get side-tracked. Taytay honeybear, I’ve got an offer for you like you wouldn’t believe. No more days of being the lowest on the totem pole, no more of us snickering about your flat ass and washboard chest in front your face or behind your back. In fact, we’ll even go so far as to let you hang out with us if you want to.”

Sophia snorted halfheartedly, clearly not particularly into that part of the idea.

All at once it somehow made the entire situation just a bit more real for the tall girl they’d entrapped, eyes widening slightly at the very thought that they weren’t all equally in on whatever was driving this desire for concession. Whatever horrible trick it was that they were playing wasn’t completely out of a shared playbook. That alone gave a brief glimmer of hope, which sold this avenue of attack as something more than just false hope.

“Why?” Taylor’s voice reasserted itself, venturing to question her ‘good’ fortune. Her feet still trod on, and the three followed suit, content to simply entrap her in a straight line rather than control her. “Why even bother... I just want you to leave me alone.”

Tears leaked from her eyes, salt and stinging as they welled.

Her balled fist fell limp.

“I decided that I had just been horrible to you.” Emma spoke, an unseen nod towards Sophia going unnoticed. Her breath tickled her former best friend’s neck, her touch brought a discomforted shifting. “And now… now I’ve decided because I have the power to decide, that you can be my friend again. I’m going to make you work your way back up into being worth my time. Think about it Taytay… The offer won’t last long, and if you though today was nice, well I’ll be sure that you get more days like it.”

Then she let go. Emma’s arms unwrapped themselves from around Taylor’s vulnerable body, pulling back from her victim’s reach.

The trio stopped. The edge of the safer areas of the neighborhood reached, the rest of the way would be to Taylor’s own home in the docks. The three exchanged looks, and nodded as they parted, Sophia’s arm pulling away as Madison let go of the other hand, no longer balled in a fist.

“So. Here we are.” Emma spoke to her once friend’s back. “This is where you get to choose. And you know what I’m going to pledge this to be a real choice. You can walk away from us. You can go as far as you like, and you can keep going. Thing is, any time you come back, we’ll make it worse. Everything you thought you had bad, we’ll find a way to step it up and make it worse. Maybe some things happen… bad things can happen at any time. You know how it is.”

Taylor stood silent; her back still turned. But her feet had stopped moving already.

Tears still dripped, splashing down upon the otherwise dry street.

“But… you turn around and come with us on your own accord, and every day for one or at most two hours you do what we say when we say it and how we say it, where we say it. You come with us every day after school for that short time. You give yourself to me for that time.” Taylor turned to see her speak, Emma her tormentor, her torturer, her friend long lost. Emma and her brilliant red hair, her supermodel beauty which far eclipsed her own talking as if Taylor still were her very closest friend. “And your life will take a sharp turn for the better. Come on Taytay… submit to me.”

The girl could look bloody angelic with blood running down her fingertips, Taylor thought even as Emma smiled and put her hand outstretched to receive her.

A hand Taylor could not help but feel tempted to smack away, dam the consequences.

A hand which offered everything Taylor wanted now. Right now.

A way out of this nightmare.

Taylor tensed.

Her hand reached out with a tentative motion.

Acceptance was reached.

A savage salvation like the worst of damnation.

She walked with them and followed meekly along, a lamb to the slaughterhouse.

She walked behind.




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“Ok… you have me, whatever you want me to do. One hour.” Taylor’s voice all but croaked, trying hard to sound tougher than she knew herself to be. Surrounded by three, one of whom could definitely subdue her on her own. They’d led here. Madison’s house she’d learn later, a haven for the three. With Madison’s mother away more often than not, it was a place which they more or less had to themselves. Madison’s room was as pink as she’d imagined.

She waited nervously for the other shoe to drop.

It was brief, but for a moment she could swear she saw a look of heavy discomfort painted upon her once best friend’s face, her pretty painted lip folded in as her eyes darted about to the other two whom had joined in this venture, the confidence in her own actions strained. But only for a moment, her eyes settling briefly upon the dark skinned beauty as she leaned back and simply watched carefully, then flickered over to the cute brunette as she lounged in her seat, trying not to appear quite as nervous as she really was.

Taylor could practically smell the shift in attitude, almost as if it were a bunch of children and they’d just managed to get a toy they’d been longing for, only to realize they had no clue what the really wanted to do with it. Her breath quickened looking around, because if they didn’t know what to do next… it meant that almost anything could be coming.

Taylor could do little more than hold her breath, the anticipation was killing her.

And then she could see it, the moment that Emma decided, the cold press of her peer’s expectations driving her forward despite the blatant uncertainty which had just filled the last few moments. The redhead’s eyes narrowed as a smile forced itself across her face.

“Alright. Taylor… you’re ours for the next hour. So you’ll be proving your obedience, let’s start with a test.” The smile didn’t quite reach her beautiful eyes, but none the less it flashed with dangerous intent. “Strip.”

“Wait… what?” Ok, Tayler hadn’t known what to expect but this hadn’t been it. Even if she intrinsically understood why within moments of thinking about it.

“You heard me Taylor, I know you’re not quite as stupid as you like to pretend even if you’re not all that bright. Strip, take off all your clothes, every last stitch. You’re not allowed any during our evenings anymore. You’ll have to earn that privilege back.” Emma spoke imperiously, her razor smile no longer wavering as her eyes hardened implicitly. Taylor remembered the girl she’d been best friends with, remembered how she could become an impenetrable wall in any argument where she’d made up her mind. She’d clearly here just made up her mind. “Now be quick about it or leave… and we’ll just pick back up tomorrow where yesterday left off.”

The threat loomed in the air leaving the moment tense and breathless. Second after second ticked by as the crushing weight of consideration closed in on the cornered youth, her mind racing between blank fear and implicit understanding. Her imagination filling in the blanks of how much worse it could all get.

Taylors hand slipped down, gripping the edge of the dowdy sweater which she’d been wearing, to hide her stick figure body and maybe attract just a bit less attention from everyone. Her nervous shaking did not go unnoted as her hands lifted as if struggling with the greatest burden she’d ever been made to carry.

Sophia leaned forward, her predatory eyes crinkling at the corners as she watched with hawkish anticipation. Not at Taylor’s body, but instead at her face, at the way in which her eyes cast down to avoid contact, at the way in which the act of heaving the sweater off of her thin frail body left the tracks of brilliant red printed across her face.

Taylor felt as if trapped with a leopard stalking her every step.

The light shirt underneath the sweater came next, peeled off with the light layer of sweat which came with wearing heavier clothing any time that wasn’t winter, her stomach  and upper body exposed as she continued to strip.

“Wow, you really need to start working out.” Madison piped up from the corner couch in which she sat, kicking up her legs into the air like a child with too much energy. “I mean really girl, a stomach as fat as that, I’d have taken you for pregnant if I didn’t know that no boy would touch you. Well unless it’s your dad… I suppose that would explain some things.”

An angry defiant glare began to form as the poisoned words settled in, only to be cut off mid formation.

“Don’t forget why you’re here, tomorrow can always be a lot worse.” Emma spoke in low tones, her voice like cold water over Taylor’s yet unformed expression, leaving the anger to wash once more away, replaced with a quiet desperation as Emma harshly reasserted her dire command. “Strip Taylor. You’re not done yet.”

Quiet dominated the space for the moments to come, her breaths quickening as her fingers slid between skin and material, pulling down the jeans she’d worn, leaving her legs now bare.

“You know… a little running and you could actually have nice legs. You’d still look like a boy, but you’d have pretty good legs.” Emma complimented backhandedly as she examined Taylor with a critical eye. “The rest of it, don’t get shy now. You don’t get to be shy unless we tell you to be. But if you don’t feel you can do it… just tell yourself it’s only for an hour or two. An hour or two to pay for every day that won’t suck from now on, an hour or two of setting aside what little dignity and self-worth you have for the bigger prize. Just think of how much better it will be… and how much worse it could be.”

Beside her the other girls shifted, Madison fidgeted more, her eyes cast away. Sophia’s gaze had shifted, now looking upon Emma as if seeing her with fresh eyes, eyes which devoured what they saw with gusto.

Taylor’s eyes squeezed shut, tears trickling down as she removed the last vestiges of dignity from her body, rendered now naked before her oppressors.

“Ugg… was this really a good idea?” Madison complained and made a disgusted face, jumping back into her own bed as she did. “She’s not really all that much to look at naked.”

“She’d never make much of girl to be honest, scraggly and skinny in the wrong places… fat and saggy in the rest. But I guess we can just pretend that she’s a passable boy instead of an ugly girl instead. She’s got the figure for it.” Emma tilted her head, tapping her lip as she smiled cruelly at her own suggestion.

A hitched breath came from Taylor’s lips, the oppressive situation pushing her further than she could have ever believed. Naked and insulted in every which way as she stood there bare naked before them.

“Either way, even if she’d not much to look at now, that can be fixed.” Emma spoke, her voice heady with the power which she held. “A little exercise, some make up and she’d actually start looking like a person. Do you want me to do that for you Taylor? Make you a real girl?”

A cold chill settled within the pit of her stomach as Taylor stared, the light breeze of Madison’s AC unit causing her skin to prickle and drying her tears into crystal streaks of salt upon her sallow cheeks.

“Well Taylor? When I ask you something I expect an answer. Well, you can always just pick up your clothes and leave if you don’t want to anymore. We won’t stop you.” Emma spoke once more, imperious as she could manage, a thin smile stretched across her lips. The threat of ‘Or Else’ hung over the conversation like a guillotine.

Taylor knew all too well the words now not said.

“… I… I would like that.” Taylor forced though her teeth, hoping she sounded sufficiently cowed.

“I would like that, Mistress.” Emma echoed after, intent to dominate clear, drunk upon the flavor of victimization.

“I would like that… Mistress.” Taylor repeated, listless and cracked. Her shame painted in a crimson flush across her exposed skin.

All though out the exchange so far Sophia had been silent, her watchful eyes examining everything, ever moment ever movement of both victim and victor. Lounging for the most part like a satisfied kitten as the dark, amused, almost smile lingered upon her lips. It was a surprise when finally she spoke.

"You know." Her words were breathy and slow, each one paced to draw out the moment, a cat playing with it's soon to be kill. "I've never really wanted a pet before. But this has almost convinced me that one might be pretty nice to keep. A cute little bitch at our beck and call."

Taylor blushed with horror as she realized the implication.

"Now, now Sophia... pets can be nice. But you can only play with one in so many ways." Emma spoke again, her authoritative words almost a lifeline for the beset young woman. Slowly the beautiful red head