Triggers and Warnings
Coercion, manipulation, mild gaslighting, incest, M/s dynamics, forced cooperation, bruising and beatings, nanites, medical implants, mentions of rape.
Mild spoilers;
Alex and Victoria consider themselves to be fundamentally good people, however they engage in flagrant manipulative and controlling behaviour. While Nora does eventually enjoy the situation, they should absolutely not be taken as role models and much of what they do in this story is abhorrently morally corrupt. This is not a story about good boundaries or consent, no matter how Alex or Victoria might try to frame it to themselves.
Authors note:
This is my first time publishing. I started this about a year ago and it has been a learning journey; I have no doubt that the writing improves later on, but I have done my best to edit the earlier chapters with my later knowledge. If you spot any continuity errors or formatting / grammar mistakes please let me know!
## Chapter Four
Nora pulled the duvet over herself. She was shivering and sweating at the same time. It seemed Alex's last words had not counted as an order, so she was able to try and doze. Or they just couldn't control that about her. She didn't personally feel like they could have much
more
control...
After about half an hour of this she rolled over, looking for the glass of water Alex had brought her earlier. There was also one from earlier in the day, half empty with a straw in it, and a plate of snacks. All tangible signs that the two of them cared. A fact that remained lost on her in her self-pity and anger. She thought to herself instead how her life had gone completely to shit, that this was a living hell, and it had happened so fast. Two hours from living her best life to practically a mindless robot.
She thought about trashing the room but decided it wouldn't do any good. Besides, it was her space she'd be ruining. Her hands clenched tight for a moment as she sat rocking and screamed. Except she didn't because it came out no louder than speaking. Just another reminder of how totally out of control she was right now.
After she calmed down, she picked up the glass of water she'd sat up for in the first place and drank the whole thing down. Leaning back against the headboard and pulling the blankets up to her neck she picked up her phone. Clearly, she
had
dozed for at least a short time, as she'd left it in the lab where she'd dropped it at some point during the hell they'd put her through, which meant one of them had delivered it to her without her noticing. God, she hoped she had actually dozed, and they couldn't turn her off or something. Literally like a robot. She had 8 messages, one from Kate asking how her head was after last night, the others from the raid chat talking strategy. She read them, but wasn't able to reply to any of it, which sent her into another bout of crying, and she slid sideways onto the pillows for a time.
Eventually she stopped, and with little else to do unless she wanted to aimlessly scroll socials, she started to think about Alex and Victoria's request.
---
Alex shouted up the stairs that dinner was ready. She felt the shift in the rules confining her to her room. Interesting. Based on the comment that someone would call her for dinner, it didn't take a direct instruction that she was allowed to leave for that rule to fade. Frustratingly though, it added an instruction that she should head to the dining table. She managed to grab her phone as she got up this time and walked downstairs. She saw herself in the bedroom mirror as she walked out. She was a mess. Hair everywhere, red faced and puffy. She felt calmer at the moment. Thinking about their request had forced her to assess that they were correct, they could have had her do anything. She knew that her obedience would be absolute. But they didn't, and they wanted to feel safe from her just as she wanted to feel safe from them. Instead of being brutish they were giving her the chance to input. The second glass of water and a snack half an hour ago had also pointed out that at every step they had done what caring people would do. It gave her some hope that this really was all a big mess, and they really didn't just want a new plaything. She'd known Alex her whole life, spent many a holiday with him. He'd never been anything but kind. That didn't mean she was forgiving them for this. But it did mean she could maybe talk to them more politely than she had been.
She got to the kitchen and sat down in the set place nearest the stairs. Victoria took one look at her and said "Do you need anything? I can keep this on the hob for ten mins if you want to clean up." Nora had hoped that this would count as permission to leave the table, but it seemed that that had only counted as a question.
"I really need to pee actually." But she couldn't leave her chair. Victoria turned back to the hob for a second to swirl something and when she turned back and saw Nora had not moved, she said, "Ah, you need direct permission to leave the table?" Nora just nodded. Another tear threatening. "Ok, go and use the bathroom. If you want to do things like brush your hair and wash you can. Just be back here in ten minutes."
Nora looked at the clock on the wall as she got up. 19:07. She headed for the family bathroom in a hurry. The... organoid? Had Alex called it? Welded to her spine apparently kept time much better than her. She could actually feel the ten minutes draining away in the weird place where her rules now lived. She shuddered as she peed. Had she really just thought of them as 'her' rules. This thing was so insidious. She'd only had it about 8 hours.
She arrived back downstairs, face washed, and hair brushed in eight minutes thirty-two seconds. She'd been tempted to see what happened if she tried to stay upstairs until the timer elapsed. She found she was sure it would be fruitless though. She headed down when she was done with her ablutions and sat back at the table. Alex was now also seated but neither of them chose to say anything while Victoria dished up a bolognaise onto three plates. Dinner was awkward, quiet.
It seemed Victoria had worked hard to fill her 'slave' role in Alex's life. The food was delicious. Once finished, the rule keeping her at the table faded and for the first time that day, she was suddenly free to roam the house. The elation she felt at being able to move about freely was palpable in her mind, but it faded quickly as she contrasted it with the fact, she still couldn't
leave the building
.
Victoria got up and started clearing away plates.
"I'd not really noticed just how... domestic Victoria is." Nora said.
At that Victoria smiled, "I live to serve!" she said, tongue in cheek.
"Is that what's going to happen to me?" Nora said meekly.
"What? No." Alex said, "Why would you ask that?"
"This is a slave control program, isn't it? You're turning me into a slave."
"No! You don't have to do anything you don't want to. I just... want to be able to trust that you won't try to destroy my life."
"Except you do want me to do something awful, don't you? You want me to _prove_ I'm not a danger to you. I can tell you now, I'm not. I have to do what you say. I
have
to. I know it." She stared at the tabletop.
"I wish there was a better way to know." Alex said.
Victoria, still loading the dishwasher said, "Do you have any ideas?" She was talking to Nora.
"I thought about it. It was actually really hard. You could make me stand in one spot until I faint. I thought you could make me tell you secrets I don't want people to know. But I realised that there's no rules that stop me lying to you."
"We can't control what you say in that way. There is some code that does some voice control, but it can't tell if you're lying. So, we had to make do with just making someone say specific things at specific times." Victoria said.
Nora shuddered again. "You two are really messed up."
"We know." Victoria said in a sad voice.
"What ideas did you have?" Nora said.
"We thought we would have you strip. And do ballet. While we watched."
Nora went bright red, "Fucking hell. It's always about sex with you two, isn't it?" Then it was Victoria and Alex's turn to turn red. "You might as well just have me suck you off if that's the route you're taking with this. Really go hard on the violation!"
"It needed to be something you would
never
do..." Alex said.
"Well, I damn well wouldn't ever do that!" Nora said.
Alex's face must have said something Nora didn't like the look of because she suddenly back tracked. "No! No! No, no, no. I didn't mean it like that." Alex looked at Victoria. Nora panicked; this was not her intent at all. Why did she suggest something like that? This was awful. She was so stupid.
