I’d seen her a dozen times.  Since I’d become the champion, visiting the Elite Four became a regular part of training my teams.  Of all of them, she had seemed to be the easiest to defeat, but also the only one that made me feel uneasy when I visited her.  In time, her thinly-veiled threats and proclamations of hatred and distaste for me cooled to a sort of cold professionalism whenever we interacted, but there was some trace of smoldering anger behind those tinted lenses of hers.

“Lucy,” Chloe spoke, softly admonishing me as she strolled in from the kitchen.  The disappointment in her voice wounded me like a kick in the gut, and I stood there in stunned anguish watching her approach.  I found comfort in her easy gait, the sensual sway of her hips and the confidence she exuded with every sonorous step.  She carried a tall glass of sparkling wine in each hand, and offered one to Malva when she drew near.  “Don’t be rude, do as she says.”

I melted under Chloe’s warm but firm gaze.  I was to respect her guest to the same degree I respected her.  She’d said as much, and already I was failing.  Slowly, I turned my head back to Malva, watching as she narrowed her eyes at me and took a long swallow of her wine.  She frightened me, even though Chloe was here and would surely keep me safe, but even if I was a little uncertain, I still had no choice in the matter.

I bowed my head and carefully sunk to the ground, kneeling at Malva’s feet.

I found myself looking at her boots, probably because there wasn’t much else for me to look at, and I certainly wasn’t going to lift my eyes to either of them, especially after disappointing Chloe at my first opportunity.  They were black, ankle-length with the ends of her trademarked diamond cutout leggings tucked into them.  I watched one lift from the ground and move towards me, resisting the urge to wince as I half expected the platform sole to smash into me for some reason, but instead it settled to the ground against the side of my leg and was quickly followed by the other.

Malva had moved terribly and uncomfortably close to me and was straddling my knees.  My face was inches from her crotch, but it seemed like I was the only one this bothered.  I tried to pull back a little, turning my head to the side, and my cheeks flushed with shame as I imagined her standing over me, savoring my embarrassment and sipping her wine.

“Oh God, Chloe, this is just fantastic,” she murmured, and I felt her fingers slide through my messy hair, her varnished nails scraping across my scalp a couple times.  She was rough, but it didn’t feel entirely terrible.  “I can’t tell you how good it feels to see this little <i>bitch</i> where she belongs.”

With that, her fingers curled, viciously seizing a fistful of my hair and wrenching my head back, forcing me to meet her gaze.  I squealed in pain, but bit my lip, not wanting to upset our guest anymore than I already had.  “I hate you, Lucy,” she sneered in disgust.  “I hate everything about you, and I can’t tell you the number of nights I drifted off to sleep with soothing scenes of you being burned alive filling my thoughts.”

I couldn’t believe it, to hear that anyone could find me so infuriating.  I’d always been a nice girl and helped everyone I met, behaved myself and put others first.  “I’m sorry,” I genuinely began, but she twisted her hand and wrenched my head back, straining my neck to its limit.

She was leaning down now, right in my face.  What wine she had left sloshed in her glass and spilled across my knee and onto the floor.  “Shut up!” she screeched, “I will see you charred to nothing but cinder and ash, you stupid slut!”

I wailed.  Tears flowed freely from my eyes, and I started to shake, but Chloe came to my rescue.  “Malva, darling, “ she whispered, laying a hand on the seething woman’s shoulder.  “Your searing spirit thrills me to my core, but,” she continued while diplomatically guiding her hand away from me and getting her to take a step back.  “Why don’t we take our time here?  Relax, Lucy spent the evening in her ball, she should be wholly enthralled by this point.  I’ll get you another glass of wine, and you…”

She smiled sweetly, taking the glass from her guest’s hand and giving her a small, sweet kiss on the cheek.  “Take a breath and have some fun.  Experiment,” she suggested, then disappeared into the kitchen.

I was thankful, incredibly thankful for Chloe’s intervention.  Malva, for her part, did take a breath and, after a moment more, smiled down at me as I tried to compose myself, wiping away my tears with the back of my hand.  “You’re afraid of me,” she said, and it hardly sounded like a question.

I didn’t answer out loud, but she was content with a timid nod.  “You fear me,” she continued, her smirk growing as she said it aloud, “and you’ll obey me.  Unquestioningly, because you know that’s what my dear friend Chloe wants from you, isn’t that right?”

I nodded again, taking a breath myself and running my fingers through my hair, trying to rub away the tingling pain from how she’d yanked my head about.  Malva, though, just chuckled softly and nodded once.  “Good.  Get up.”

I was on my feet instantly, as intimidated by Malva’s intense presence before me as I was eager to please Chloe.  Just as quickly, the back of Malva’s hand was whistling through the air and smacked brutally across my face, sending a wave of hot pain through my skull.  My hand went to my cheek and I turned my head back to her, but this time her smile still remained.

“You embarrassed me, you know.  Turned my position into a joke.”  She reached out and firmly took hold of my chin, her nails digging into my reddening cheek, making me wince again.  “The Elite Four were a group to be respected and feared, but now that some child comes to roll through our teams once or twice a week, it’s like we’re a laughingstock.”

Her grip just kept tightening.  I could feel warm blood starting  to trickle down from where her nails dug into my flesh, and I was sure she could break my jaw if she just squeezed the faintest bit harder.  I couldn’t speak, only watch as she continued.

“I’m a huge Holo Caster star.  I don’t have the time that a child like you does to catch and train and bond with my Pokemon.  I have a job and a life, little girl.  Both things it seems like you’re never going to have again.”

She released me after that.  What did she mean, though?  I was only a teenager, of course I was going to have all of those things.  I reached for my face and when I drew my hand away, I did see blood on my fingers.  When I looked back up, though, her hand was already inches away from smashing into my face again.

I couldn’t take it this time.  I collapsed to the ground in a heap, offering only a faint cry as my reaction to her brutal slap.  I tried to blink back tears, not wanting to start crying again so soon after last time, and lay as still as I could.  If I didn’t move, I might not offend her, might not make her want to hurt me again.  Maybe she’d even think I was badly hurt and leave me be.  I wanted to close my eyes, but then I saw Chloe’s towering boots in the distance; felt her footfalls through the floor and I watched her approach carrying the bottle of wine and two fresh glasses.

“Well, I see you two are getting along a bit better,” she mused while settling back onto her couch and setting down the glasses.

“Oh yes,” Malva purred, taking one step towards me, then lifting her other foot above my face.  I continued to lay absolutely still, continued to pray that she’d just leave me alone, but she clearly wasn’t done.  Slowly and firmly she stepped down, pressing the smooth, unyielding sole of her boot into my savaged cheek and grinning with mad delight as she started to grind it back and forth, leaving me writhing in pain.

“We understand each other quite well, don’t we, runt?” she uttered, letting the last syllable hang on her lips a bit longer, drawing out her pet name for me as she twisted my face underfoot.

I’d tried to resist, but there was no stopping it.  Pinned beneath Malva’s heel, beaten and bleeding, I again began to cry.  I didn’t deserve this, I didn’t deserve any part of this.  How did I get here?  How did my life come to this?