NOTE: This is the second chapter of a spin-off story from the Becoming Kitten series. We recommend you read those for background on these characters--which includes incest, so fair warning.
All characters are over 18.
——————
It stares at me from across the campfire, the flames flickering in its glowing red eyes.
The demon.
A restless night wind occasionally pushes sparks and blasts of heat at me, smoke stinging my nostrils. But I am not disturbed. I sit calmly, for some reason at peace as the demon and I stare at each other in the flickering light. We sit perched on a flat stone cliff against the backdrop of a black, whispering forest.
The demon looks like me.
Like me, but with a malevolent sharpness to its features. A very sharp jawline and eyebrows that arch higher than mine.
Then the heat shimmers transform it and now it's true demon body ripples with brutish red muscles, my face holding dripping white fangs, my head with soaring black horns.
Another gust of wind and it's my face on a white-haired executive in a finely-tailored three piece suit, sitting cross-legged on an ivory chair.
Then back to looking like me.
I sit and watch, in no hurry.
"
I'm not a demon," it finally says. It's voice is mine but deeper, containing strange echoes of history, future, and emptiness.
I sit and consider. I don't believe it, of course, given what I just saw. But it's an interesting way to start out.
"
That's an interesting way to start out," I finally say.
It smiles slowly. Everything about it is slow, methodical, considered. Normally that would spook me but I am experiencing myself as the same. Like unhurried chess-players, we are enjoying the game.
Whatever game this is.
"
You see me as a demon, I won't deny that," it continues, "but that's the face you're putting on me. That's not me."
Interesting.
"
So, what are you?"
It sighs, looking off into the night and thinking for a moment. When it returns those demonic eyes to meet my gaze, it says "Well, in this form, I'm just baggage, really."
"
What?"
"
I'm what you think about the kind of person who could meet her needs. I'm who you're afraid of becoming if you dare to grow into the man she needs."
(Stacey.)
"
Of course we're talking about Stacey," it says, reading my thoughts. "The hot little naked slut in the bed with you right now as you're having this dream."
"
Why is a demon visiting my dreams about this?"
It huffs quietly--"I told you I'm not a demon. That's your baggage."
(This is my dream, so I'm calling the shots.) "Explain yourself," I say easily, as if I am ordering a sandwich.
"
You don't love her like Kitten, but that doesn't mean you don't need her."
I nod in agreement, staring into the flames for a moment. That feels right.
"
And she sure as hell doesn't love you like your own daughter does."
It pauses, then continues. "Stacey doesn't need a Daddy. She needs an owner."
That's a surprise. I look back up to see a weirdly sympathetic look on its evil countenance.
Once again reading my thoughts, it says "Not evil. That's your baggage. Quit putting it on me."
Something in me shifts, sliding from doubt to curiosity. It doesn't feel risky, it feels like the right play for this point in the game.
"
So if you're not a demon and you're not evil--I'll ask again. What are you?"
It nods. "Now we're getting somewhere. I'm you, of course. More specifically, I'm the part of you that knows what has to come next for you, and for her." For the first time, it breaks my gaze first, and stares into the flames. "But the bottom line is that you're afraid."
(Hmm. Afraid. Am I afraid?)
"
Yes. You are a special man, Nick, and this part of you knows it. You can read some people's deepest needs--their spiritual needs. Their deep longings for what they must become next in order to walk the path that's meant for them in this life. You were able to do it with Jessica, and it turned her into Kitten. She needed that so badly, but it took your powers of insight to help her transform."
Again, it's words feel right. If I'm to believe it. . .
my
words feel right.
"
Stacey's next transformation in this life is to become. . . not your slave, but your pet. Controlled and dominated, of course--that much is obvious--but her spirit is one that thrives when it is not oppressed, but. . . channeled. Strongly. You need to constrain her, challenge her, drive her, punish her."
This is all making sense, given how she threw herself at me. But. . . "To what end?"
It smiles again slowly, eyes lit bright by the flames as a gust of wind swirls sparks all around. "That is the question, isn't it? Training your new pet, but training it for what?"
I wait, watching it watch the flames. Crackling, sparking, the fire seems to be burning brighter now, almost white-hot, as the game takes us closer to the core of some important truth.
Finally it looks back up at me.
"
It's simple, Nick. She needs to learn what she's really capable of--the depths of her power. And for her, that means being driven like a thoroughbred. . . and used like a whore. It's why she was so happy as captain of the volleyball team and the biggest slut in school.
"
But it's also what you need right now.
"