The leash received a small, sharp tug as the gray woman finished her circuit and growled at the girl. "Don't talk back to me, girl. Your little minutiae don't change the fact that you're just another slut without the proper refinement. Now, since we're being honest and frank, I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't have to leave you unharmed. I just have to put you back together when I'm done. But trust me, whatever sordid little tale you need to spin to explain the green marring you, I promise, it will not earn you any lashes. Speak, girl. Tell me what's burning your tongue."

As she spoke, the gray woman reached slowly out and settled her free hand on one of the stripped girl's modest breasts. Cool fingers wrapped around the soft flesh, completely enclosing it, and slid over over her skin.

"Such sad little things. They fit you well."

Yelping in shock at te tug, Violett blushed deeply, hanging her head in shame. She winced as the grey woman's cold, smooth fingerswrapped around her breast, squeezing it as if she were examinging produce.

"Why are you keeping me here, then, Mistress? If you hate me so much... Why don't you just leave me here alone, so I can hate myself without your help?"

Whimpering softly, she looked away.

"It was Moss... Joshua Moss. That's why I have a green dot."

She refused to look the gray woman in the eye, hoping she'd assume "joshua moss" was some sort of plant, rather than a name.

"It's so much more fun to taste your self-loathing here than from across the room. Besides, if I wasn't here claiming you as my prey, one of the others would take the chance at you. Now, tell me about this Joshua. Was he handsome? Did he hold you down while he marked you thus? Or is he some lost love whose memory keeps you going? You needn't bother saying it, if it's hard. I can read your mind like a book, girl."

The smooth fingers gripped gently tighter at Violett's flesh and twisted carefully as they continued their inspection of her. Her eyes continued to wander hungrily over her body as her other hand wrapped tighter at the leash. The grin slid away from her lips as she fixed the girl's forehead with a stern glare.

Violett shook her head, biting her lip.

"I'm sorry, Mistress... But you're not reading between the lines. He never even knew my name. I just..."

She sniffled softly, closing her eyes.

"I heard him tell his friend that he liked girls with tattoos. It was going to be a four-leafed clover... But I'm terrified of needles, and that's the part you're going to be evil with! I'm scared of needles! I couldn't hold still!"

She tried so hard to glare back with as much hate as she was recieving, but it was obvious that while she hated this gray woman, she also feared her.

"That's why I had to do it. I loved him, and he didn't even see me..."

"Hah!" The gray woman barked a single laugh into the echoing room and pulled Violett close. "What does that mean about me, then, girl? Here you are, whimpering and forever scarred because you wanted some foolish boy's attention, when all around you are things and people that want you in ways he never could. Does this mean we love you, slut? Are you all our cherished friend?"

The cold metal of the leash, still wrapped around one palm, pressed at the bottom of Violett's chin and force her head up and around until Steel was staring her full in the face.

"No. It means he was a fool to not see what an obedient plaything you are. How lucky you would have counted yourself if he'd let you suck his cock in some alleyway," she said as she turned the girl slightly back and forth to further inspect her face. "Now, I'm going to say this one last time, and then I'm going to abuse that little weakness of yours until you scream and faint a dozen times. Move your hands to your sides."

Violett nodded silently, puttingher hands to her sides as she cringed, closing her eyes. She didn't dare speak, or even think, utterly defeated.

"You're terrible."

She apparently wasn't properly defeated if she was speaking to Steel like that. The gray hand snatched up away from her breast, swung smoothly through the air, and struck across Violett's cheek hard enough to sting slightly at her skin.

"You're terrible, bitch. You mar yourself, trim away what makes you a woman, and snivel here like a pathetic cur before me. You're barely worthy to lick my foot. Get on your knees and do it before you make me hate you more."

Yelping in pain, Violett raised a hand to her cheek even as she dropped to her knees.

"Do you do anything other than hate? No matter what I do, you have the same plans for me... You don't even get off on this like the other freaks do, do you? You're just doing it out of spite..."

Sinking to the floor, she ran her tongue across the gray woman's foot fiercely, as if trying to erode her, to slowly grind her own, to make this Steel woman simply rust away.

"...And your skin tastes like tin foil."

She dropped to one knee at the feel of her tongue and snatched her head hard away by her hair.

"Don't make stupid presumptions, girl. I'm not wholly dead to things other than my hatred for useless sluts who can't even obey and keep their whore mouths shut except to confirm their commands. I don't think you fear properly any more." Steel stood up and threw the girl's head towards the ground hard enough to jar her without causing her to strike the hard surface. "Get on your hands and knees and stick your ass out like a good slut." The chain leash loosened as the gray woman stood until the cold links lay along Violett's spine. "And if I hear any sass from you again, bitch, I'm going to make ten years of immunization and regular blood donation pass in an hour."

Nodding quietly, Violett dropped to her hands and knees. She wasn't entirely sure what the gray woman meant by "stick your as out, ao she thrust it backwards, just a little.

"Mistress... I have to ask... Aren't I going to suffer just as much if I give in?" she asked. The defiance in her voice seemed to be dying down, though, and she didn't seem skeptical so much as sound like she was begging for mercy.

"How would you ever learn if I punished you the same whether you were good or bad, slut? I'm cruel and heartless, not dumb," Steel said as she knelt down behind the woman. One hand wrapped over the offered flesh and slid slowly over it.

"So thin and bony. Barely enough to get a grip on. Maybe I should fatten you up a bit. Is that another thing you did in the hopes people would notice you, girl? Did you starve yourself stupidly?" Her hand slid back and smacked at her rump in a smooth, stinging blow. "Remember, we're being honest with each other like friends should be."

Wincing at the slap, Violett started to pull away, then stopped, thinking the better of it.

"You'd tell me my punishment was especially brutal or lenient, Mistress, depending on whether I was bad or good... I'd imagine you're planning on a few mind games, anyhow, so it wouldn'tbe too far out of your way."

Yelping and shuddering at the next blow, Violett looked away, shuddering softly.

"No, Mistress... I... I just... It didn't fill out the way you wanted it to, I guess... I... I never really starved myself, I just... Sometimes when I'm nervous I don't get hungry, but I'm moving my hands a lot and talking a lot, and it burns off a lot of calories, I guess... Maybe I just made that up so I wouldn't feel bad about being flat..."

Trembling, she stared at the gray woman's feet. "Mistress... Why are you such a cruel person?"

"It's called sadism, slut. Your suffering sustains me. Of course, I have the benefit of not needing anything else, nor suffering your sad little bits of guilt to slow me down. You're all weak next to me. You're just especially pathetic, Violett."

Cool fingers kneaded at the girl's flesh over the curve of her rump and slowly worked down over her thigh. Steel leaned over and lay a hand beside the student's as she bent down to stare her deep in the face. The length of chain rattled on the floor as the fingers slid smoothly up and brushed over the pale woman's slit. The gray woman followed the motion and rose up to her feet again.

"Get on your back and spread your legs like you wanted to for Joshua, bitch. Show me your disgusting cunt and that atrocious attempt at shaving."

Sniffling and trembling, she lowered herself to the floor, spreading her legs just a little.

"That's exactly what I mean, Mistress.... If you feed on suffering, you'll take your fill, regardless..."

She closed her eyes, smiling softly as she thought of Josh.

"My weakness is my greatest strength, Mistress... It's hard to describe, but if I was a fighter, I'd only hurt more. Not everything's a head-on confrontation, Mistress... Do you always think like a predator? You keep talking about Josh... But he was smarter than you. He knew when he didn't need to be in control."

"You don't even begin to understand, bitch." Another length of chain uncurled and wriggled out into the air. It dipped and delicately stroked over Violett's cheek. "If I wanted nothing but raw suffering, I'd just shove a barbed length of chain in your cunt and ass and be done with it, no matter what you could handle. If I didn't want what's best for us both, it wouldn't matter how far along you are in your learning. As it is, you've already learned that your position is to obey your betters. Now we just need to do something about that tongue of yours."

The chain slid further down the girl's neck and up over the slight swell of a breast. The gray woman resettled her feet such that one rested between her spread legs and grinned darkly down at Violett. The cold, uneven metal gave a soft squeeze at her flesh and brushed over one nipple.

"You're a very filthy sort of girl. You can't feel it, but you're covered in the spit of your peers. They don't appreciate you the way we do. Still, I imagine your cunt is still cleaner than the sole of my foot, since I walk around on it all day down here picking up Gods know what. If, as I suspect, you'd prefer I not shove my large toe into you, you'll repeat after me. 'Josh was weak and pathetic, Mistress, but he was smart to avoid a whore like me. I belong here, being useful to the things that want to use me.'" The grin broadened slightly.