Leaving
Ira's loyalty is absolute.
The first piece I've written in a long while, and a gift to @angst-after-dark. Thane and Dami are their characters.
Content / warnings: two whumpees, BBU, recovery, recapture. Past conditioning. A tiny bit of choking. Sacrifice.
The day, on which Ira's fifth life ended, started like any other day.
Of course it did, she thought. It always came as a surprise. Mistress - Madeline - had had her picked up to be given to Ms Gemma after a beautiful holiday. Ms Gemma had locked her up in the bathroom and sold her, just when Ira had started really feeling at home with her. The police had raided Master Adam's apartment during their regular Saturday morning sex.
These had all been the ends to bad lives, though. This life, it had been good. Since the moment she'd met Dami, her days had become brighter, her world larger, her smiles real.
She wasn't ready for it to end. But she knew it did, when she stepped into their kitchen, a bit sweaty from her bike ride home in the summer's heat, backpack half slipped down from her shoulder to stow groceries into the fridge.
"So you're it," a soft male voice stated. "You're the one they settled for."
The backpack dropped to the floor, as she turned around.
The stranger was good looking, young, a bit older than herself. Probably Dami's age. Dark hair, high cheekbones, perfectly white teeth. He'd helped himself to a drink from their fridge, it seemed, as he carefully rested the can of coke on the kitchen counter and looked her down.
Sometimes, activists in the network had felt the need to teach her about how pets have the same worth as others. As people. That they weren't weaker or less human or in any way inferior to them.
The lectures had never been necessary. Ira had never thought they were. There was no difference between pets and regular people.
The difference, the divide, was between all of them and the owners. Between those who had to work and struggle and fight and give in their lives, and those who never did. Those who only existed to take.
The stranger in her kitchen was that. It was obvious from his stance, the twist of his lip, the cool disdain in his eyes.
He was an owner.
And he'd come to take.
She just stood still, met his gaze, waiting for him to make a move, to tell her what it was that he wanted.
And he did move, with long strides, as if this place, this small kitchen with the yellow sunflower curtains, that Dami and Ira had called theirs was his already. And maybe it was. Maybe she was, too.
The stranger reached out to grab her chin. She didn't flinch. Just let him touch her, inspect her, judge her.
Her white hair, her colorful clothes, her tattooed skin, the patterns of crisscrossing scars, the place on her wrist where a tattoo swallowed what remained of her bar code.
The man let go off her, shook his head with a scoff, before he gestured at the room around them. "This shithole of a place? A cheap runaway whore like you? That's the life they chose over what they had with me?"
"I love them," Ira said carefully, an odd sense of pride bristling under her skin. "And they love me."
He chuckled mildly. "We'll see about that," he murmured, and stepped in, settled his hand around her throat. "Would you even fight if I killed you?"
She lifted her chin to meet his gaze. "They love me," she repeated.
The man's fingers wrapped around her throat more tightly. "They're mine," he said. "They might've forgotten it somewhere between your long whore legs, but they'll remember. They-"
"Ira." It was all but a garbled breath behind her, followed by a word that made her shiver, cut to her bone. Dami's voice, horrified, sincere. Absolute. "Sir."
The man's other hand returned her, far enough for her to see them, to meet their gaze for the flicker of a moment, before they dropped to their knees.
She'd never seen them surrender.
Of course she knew they had. They'd been what she'd been, after all. Made to serve. Obey. Surrender. Made for an owner.
Made for this owner.
She wanted to whisper their name, but she kept silent under the man's hands.
"Please," Dami said, "Leave her out of it."
"You're mine," their owner replied.
"Yes. Yes, Sir."
"Then you'll come back with me."
"I will." Dami didn't look at her, just stared at the floor, the tips of the man's polished shoes.
"Good." The hold around Ira's neck loosened, as he stepped back and straightened his shirt. "Then let's go."
Dami scrambled to their feet. "Yes, Sir."
Ira didn't cry, or beg, or say goodbye. Dami was her world. There was no life without them. It wasn't even a question. She stepped forward, to their side, reached out to take their hand.
Their fingers interlaced with hers, natural, perfect, as they always had. They belonged together.
Behind her, she heard the man laugh. "What's that, whore? You want to come?"
"No," Dami whispered.
Ira swallowed, grabbed their hand more tightly and shook her head. This was her decision to make. Not theirs. And there was only one option. Not only her life had become better in freedom, side by side with them.
She knew she couldn't save Dami from going back. But she could keep them from going alone.
"Yes," she said softly. "I will."
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OK THEORY TIME
Yeah so i dont believe lenore killed annabel, but i DO believe annabel thinks lenore killed her.
During the flash-back of episode 90(webtoon isnt letting me take screenshots grr), we see lenore angry, with a gun. Annabel thinks lenore is mad at her, but i think lenore was actually trying to warn annabel that someone was behind her and was going to kill her. Lenore used the gun in annabel's direction, but it wasnt the shot that killed annabel. Lenore shot the assaillant either missing or touching the assaillant superficially(or she couldve missed and actually shot annabel by mistake, making annabel's belief of betrayal stronger.) After that, the assaillant shoots lenore in the head and they both die.
Why do i think lenore didnt kill annabel(intentionally)? Because even after divorcing her and discovering she walled up duke, lenore still called for her in the staircase. She still blushed after receiving the pendulum. What could have annabel done that was worse than attempted murder on lenore's Best friend? Sure, the conditions are different but the point still stands.
But if lenore didnt kill annabel, who did? We have two options: a)the deans lied to further annabel's belief of betrayal and the killer doesnt have to be loved by her, making them either her dad or her old fiancé, or b) she was indeed killed by one of the only three person she ever loved(aka people she didnt see as pawns): her parents and lenore. It wasnt lenore, and i think her mom is dead so it must've been her father, ira. I know their relationship was a bit strained and probably rocky, but he was still her father, so even if she hated him, she probably still loved him deep down.
And why did annabel help lenore even after she thought lenore killed her? Because shes a self-destructive down bad lesbian thats why.
So yeah thats my theory
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