Once waking, Naomi couldn't look Lorelei in the eye. Her redheaded girlfriend and potential fiancee was excited and happy about something, but it couldn't get past Naomi's gnawing self-hatred.

Naomi considered everything, and came to the conclusion that she was leeching off Lorelei. Naomi was a monster, a freak, an Unbound- she had only barely escaped the witch trials that had killed thousands of her kind as they emerged, unwanted, as a side portion of the human race. She had taken two of her friends and reduced them to being her pets, for gods' sake! Meanwhile, Lorelei was beautiful, confident, powerful- doing her part to keep Naomi contained. Naomi's parents had been right- an Unbound didn't qualify as human. Didn't deserve to be equal to all the normal people. 

Naomi was playing at being everyone's equal. She so frequently wished that she could turn her powers on herself, and make herself Lorelei's pet- at least then, she'd be honest with the place in life she deserved. When Lorelei fantasized about killing thousands of people, Naomi imagined it was herself. Over and over again, dying to Lorelei's body. It gave her a shiver of arousal just thinking about it. 

Naomi was weak, however. She couldn't bring herself to break up with Lorelei. Even if it was no less than what she deserved to be alone forever, Naomi could not separate herself from the woman, nay, the demigodess she was lucky to have found.

However, she could take her sister's pain out of the equation. She texted Gloria after dinner, while Lorelei was in the bathroom. 

Me::

I can't go through with it. You can return the rings. Keep the money.

*** *** ***

Lucy looked up at her best friend, her owner. Naomi was listless, nearly lifeless. Her soul had been utterly crushed by something. And yet Lorelei didn't notice. 

The woman who claimed to love her didn't care that her heart was breaking. Lorelei was worse than Sammi had been- Sammi was a bitch, but she had merely been shallow and closed-minded. The woman had still done wonders for Naomi's self-esteem while they were together. Lorelei, though, was straight-up evil. Here Naomi was, desperately in need of a hug that Lucy was not large enough to provide, and Lorelei, the one person who could provide it, was positively glowing with joy.

If Lucy didn't fear for her life, she'd try to get Lorelei to do her job as Naomi's girlfriend and make her feel better.

As it was, Lucy decided to go the cat route, rubbing up against Naomi's ankles and trying to make herself as adorable as possible. Even though she hated it, she even put on the little collar Lorelei had bought that Naomi had thought so cute.

"Naomi," Lucy cooed, specifically dragging out the O in the girl's name as long as she could, "Naomi . . . I wanna cuddle . . ."

Mechanically, Naomi picked Lucy up, cradling her in one arm and petting her with the other. Lucy made all sorts of cute happy noises, but none of it worked. Naomi was just doing it as a reflex, staring off into space.

Now it was Lucy's turn to despair. Naomi had done everything she could for her, had had to feed her, bathe her, and clean up after her, and she couldn't so much as put a smile on Naomi's face when she needed it most.

Suddenly, she noticed something . . . off with Naomi. Her eyes seemed . . . off.

Naomi hadn't changed her contacts since Thursday. She was walking blind because her tears had utterly ruined the lenses. Combine this with the emotional wall, and it was only a matter of time until Naomi got hurt.

Lucy knew what she had to do. She gathered her courage, and took a breath.

She suddenly leapt from Naomi's arm, twisting her leg on impact with the table. She didn't restrain her cry of pain in the slightest. 

Naomi suddenly came to, having exited her trance, and recoiled in horror at what had unfolded. Even Lorelei had the decency to jump in surprise. 

Lucy knew what this meant. Naomi would have to remove her contacts, put on her glasses, and drive Lucy to her "vet", Naomi's friend Greg. The man was nice, and gave Lucy and Ryan free monthly checkups with the caveat that Naomi shrink him for a few hours at a time so that he and his wife could spice up their relationship on occasion. In fact, on the rare occasions where Lucy was seriously sick, she didn't truly mind Greg's poking and prodding, so long as she got some serious medicine out of it.

Sure enough, Naomi had her coat on in instants, much to Lorelei's protests. 

"She's hurt, Lor, I'm not taking any chances-"

"Can't it at least wait 'til morning? Or after we've-"

"-I know that I haven't had sex with you in a while, and I promise I'll make it up to you-"

"Isn't this up for discussion?"

"Lucy's hurt, and I'm not going to let her suffer just to satisfy a sexual urge," Naomi finished the argument quickly. "I promise you, at the very next available opportunity I'm your bitch, but right now her leg could be broken, and that would mean she can't get involved."

With that, Lucy was carried out the door and into the cold night (she was seriously dressed in a thin doll dress and a velcro collar meant for . . . Lucy didn't want to know what it was meant for) and, after a brief trip to Greg's and some examination, she was pronounced to be fine, but would have to avoid undue strain on her ankle. One prescription of painkillers later, Lucy was in a delirious, drug-addled haze.

*** *** ***

Gloria cursed, punching the steering wheel over and over again as she missed her turn. She hated coming to this city, but Naomi had decided to live here.

Gloria had tried to call her little sister or text her back, but nothing was getting through. Naomi had texted her last night telling her to return the rings, which only meant that Naomi had gotten serious about her self-loathing.

Gloria played a delicate balancing act on her sister's emotions. On one hand, Naomi couldn't lose herself to despair, because then she'd commit suicide. However, if the girl gained too much confidence, she might become a legitimate threat. Gloria was a licensed psychiatrist, and was intentionally giving her little sister serious mental health issues in the best interest of everyone involved. 

Then there was Lorelei Vera Dougherty. Where to begin with Lorelei? The woman was a psychopath, with a host of anger management issues- a violent altercation waiting to happen. Gloria tried everything she had to get rid of Lorelei, as a woman like that was bound to be nothing but trouble, fucking up Gloria's delicate machinations. 

Gloria knew this because, when she had been studying for her doctorate in psychology, she had popped into a running psychiatrist's office, and looked over the files of patients deemed unlikely to return. Lorelei had been deemed dangerously unstable, a walking disaster area, but had been allowed to leave. Gloria had tried telling Naomi this, but the girl refused to believe it. Stupid little girl was in love with a woman who wanted nothing more than a chew toy, someone to kiss at her heels and call her some variety of egomaniacal title. 

Gloria had slept through her phone going off, and was rushing over early in the morning with the rings in her trunk. While she couldn't let Lorelei ruin her sister any more, if Naomi crushed herself like this then the whole endeavor with this balancing act would have been pointless. 

Gloria idly mused over the fact that a girl with a power that made her practically godlike was reduced to just being a pawn in other people's desires for her entire life.

As she arrived, Gloria heard Lorelei yelling through the door. She put her ear to the wood, wondering what Lorelei could be yelling about, as Naomi's car was gone.

What she heard made her blood run cold.

The tiny, terrified-sounding chitter of one of Naomi's beloved pets, accompanied by a rather sinister statement from the redheaded terror.

"You just don't listen, do you, Toy? Well, I don't care how many attempts it takes for me to get you to learn that Naomi is MINE, but you do not-" a cracking, squelching noise that could only be the helpless mini-person's body carried even through the door, "touch-" another horrific sound, exactly the same as the first, "MY GIRLFRIEND!"

Gloria pushed open the door, to the sight of Lorelei, her pale face spattered with deep red blood, her foot in a puddle of the stuff that one six-inch person should not be able to make.

Gloria chuckled, much to Lorelei's apparent bewilderment. 

"I've got you now," the short, dark-skinned girl said, snapping a picture of Lorelei in this state on her phone. "I finally have something that will definitely get Naomi to leave you! Naomi isn't yours anymore, Lorelei Dougherty. She's coming back home."

Lorelei fumbled around under the couch. "Say that again. I dare you, you fucking cunt. Say that one more time."