Trembling, she waited.

She had never been in the basement before, but from the stories she'd heard, she was glad she hadn't. She'd heard stories of anger, of brutality, of punishment and violence, and she was terrified.

What's worse, she was forced to come in the outfit thagt had earned her the detention in the first place. A large orange t-shirt and a pair of red panties, neither of them hers, and both of them bearing the words "NICE LABS".

Huddled in the corner in the mysterious outfit, she whimpered softly, marinating in her own dread.

The fear sang like a beacon to the gray woman. She bounded down the halls swiftly, intent on reaching the delicious flavor before something else claimed her. A silent chain snatched out and grabbed a smaller creature's throat, throwing it aside into a wall with a thud before Steel reached the door leading to the source of the terror. The extra limb snapped back under the cloth over gray skin. She straightened her vest and took a moment to smooth her hair, then opened the door and stepped into the room.

Yellow eyes sought out the girl slowly as the door clanged shut behind her. At the sight of the woman curled in the corner, gray lips split into a hungry grin. The student was already coated in fright. This would be stupendously easy.

"Now then," said the gray woman as she strode slowly on bare feet towards Violett. "Let's have your detention slip, young lady." She held out a hand to the girl and glared at her impatiently and unwaveringly.

Blinking and shuddering, Violett rose to her knees, holding otu the slip in her trembling hand, eyes dartng over this strange woman intently.

She had seen a rainbow of hair colors among her fellow students, and eyes in a dazzling array of gemstone colors, but the gray skin was new to her, and there was something vaguely unsettling about th woman's eyes, the predatory smile on her face.

"I don't want to die..." Violett whimpered quietly.

"Then I recommend being on your best behavior, Miss... Small? How oddly appropriate. Ahh, I'm guessing this is the outfit that got you sent down here. Would you like to attempt to explain yourself, or should we skip to the part where you accept your punishment?" A hand ducked into the loose, open vest hanging limp over the gray woman's shoulders. When it drew back, it held a pair of thick, black leather cuffs bound tight together by a short chain. That predator's grin, glinting in the low light of the single bulb, broadened before Violett's deep blue gaze.

Trembling and whimpering with dread, staring up at the strange gray woman with wide eyes, Violett pressed herself into the corner.

"Who... Who a-are you?"

As her eyes brushed across the cuffs, she hung her head in fear and shame, crawlng forward on her hands and knees.

"I don't know where it came from... I don't know why I was wearing it... I... I don't undersand any of it... I don't remember any of it... But if I went to change, she would have left... And I couldn't let her go outside on her own... Not here! You know what happens here! You've been throught it! Please, you have to understand, she was new and I wanted to be there so they'd take me instead!"

She sobbed softly, flinging herself forward and wrapping her tiny hands around the strange, sinister woman's ankle.

"I know what I did wasn't what they wanted me to do... But you can't tell me it wasn't right... Can you?"

With a toss of dull, gray hair, the tall woman grinned her hungry grin down at Violett and set about answering her questions as they'd been posited. "I am grief. I am lies. You can call me Miss Steel," she said, taking a slight bow despite the awkward nature of the gesture with the girl clinging to her feet. She rose back up and folded her arms as she considered her there, on the floor. "You know, you did a foolish and wasteful thing by taking the fall for her. She's going to get caught doing something and get sent down here eventually, whether you try to protect her or not. All this suffering I'm about to mete out unto you, and all it did was delay the inevitable."

The gray woman swept down and grabbed at Violett's hair, curling her sobbing face carefully away from the ground. "Now, it seems you've properly learned to fear, but you haven't been taught proper respect, nor your place in this world. If you're ready to learn, you'll stop sniveling long enough to stand up and get those rags off your body so I can see what kind of whore you are."

Shaking her head, Violett stood, shuddering.

"You're one of them, then... You probably don't even have a first name..."

Taking off her shirt, Violett summoned up what little courage she had.

"And I know my place, Miss Steel. My place is under the dagger. If I saved my friends one second of suffering... Anything you do is worth it. I don't matter."

She threw her shirt to the floor, the front of defiance she put up betrayed by the way her whole body quivered.

Even that paper-thin front was enough to draw a snarl from the gray woman. A thin chain snapped out and cracked harmlessly around the girl's throat from her captor's back. Steel pulled sharply on it, dragging Violett forward with the new, crude, cold leash.

"You don't understand at all. You're just another sad little martyr, praying your sacrifice is good for anything. You're not the only one who was sent down here, you know. You just... tasted better," she hissed into the girl's face. The sudden burst of anger slowly melted as she spoke until her teeth flashed again in the low light.

Shrieking as the chain wrapped arounf her neck, Violett staggeres, pulled forward, then fel o the floor with a shriek.

"Why do you care? I just make myself an easier target for you and your friends, and if you don't like it, it isn't like you can't go around me."

Shakking her head, she rose to he knees, sobbing.

"I have to try... Otherwise, they'll all hate me... and even if they don't, I'll hate mself... But you don't understand either, do you?"

The gray woman's eyes went wide, briefly, with surprise at the girl's words. Her smile shifted, warming slightly, then froze coldly on her lips.

"So you live to please, slut? Your life is nothingness except when you're making sure your friends like you? That I understand. That I can work with," she said. A soft chuckle rumbled from Steel's lips as she bent down and nipped lightly at Violett's ear.

"Tonight, you're my friend. Tonight, you're going to make sure I like you. If I grow disappointed in you, even the slightest bit, I'm going to have to turn you out into the cold with the true beasts. Do you understand?"

Dropping to her knees, Violett nodded reluctantly, slowly starting to pull down her panties, wiggling her hips a little.

"I... usually call my friends by their first name," she said, reluctantly.

"If you're a good bitch, you can call me Steel, as it's the only real name I have. Until I say otherwise, you will call me Mistress. Now get that damned fabric off and stand up like I told you to once already."

The gray woman stepped back and gave the chain leash some slack as her eyes roamed over the girl at her feet. The bulb at her back flared up brighter, which caused her eyes to tighten down to vertical black slits amongst the yellow-green.

Wobbling to her feet, Violett closed her eyes, letting her panties fall down to her ankles. She crossed her hands in front of her, hoping to hide her short blonde thatch of pubic hair... She kept meaning to shave it off, but she never seemed to get around to more than a trim.

Closing her eys, she stepped back, hoping to get her back to the wall so sh could more adequately cover herself. Sadly the leash she was on proved too short, and all she had managed to do was bring herself to the middle of the room.

"Yes, Mistress."

Steel. No other name, save for Steel. A cold, hard name for a cold, hard woman. And she'd remarked on how VIolett had such an appropriate name... did she even notice her own. Violett was dying to ask, but she didn't dare speak again until commanded to.

"Hands at your sides, girl. How can I get a look at you if you're hiding yourself? Though there's plenty to see as it is," Steel said as she stepped slowly towards Violett and tightened the slack in the leash. She stopped less than a foot away from her and bent down and close to brush her fingers over her freckled cheeks.

"How uneven. And what's that, did you step in moss at some point, whore?" she said, pointing down at the spot of green on the student's ankle. "And so tiny. I'm so afraid I'll break you if I give to hard of a tug on your leash. Pathetic." She paced slowly around the young woman, boring into her flesh with her critical eyes.

Violett refused to move her hands.

"If you're going to call me a whore, Mistress, I'd like cash up front. As for the green dot... I'm not safe telling you, and if I tell you, you'll do something the other monsters will object to... I don't know what they are, but I know there's rules, otherwise so many of us would be dead..."

closing her eyes, she moved one hand, exposing the small, pert breast that was hidden by her arm but still leaving her tight, tiny pussy concealed by her other hand.

"We can be honest with each other, can't we, Mistress?"