Clemence
My best friend slowly struggled up into a sort of kneeling position, wearing a sweater but with her lower half bare-- her hands were chained behind her, and her ankles chained together, so she didn't have a lot of options for not lying on the ground, and I'm sure waking up from the chloroform made her movements harder too.
"What do you want?" Her words were calm, if a little slurred-- she didn't usually show this side of herself in this world, but I guess she'd fall back to it in a crisis.
Disappointing.
"Natalie Pearson-- or should I say, Empress Domine." The voicechanger made my voice sound weird even to my own ears-- maybe auto-tuning wasn't the best choice, but it had seemed funny when I was thinking about it. Now all of this felt so dreadfully real. "I don't appreciate what you've been doing in the dreamscape." No one called it that, that I was aware of, but having another name for it would maybe make her think it wasn't me.
"...you're inquiring about my dreams?" Natalie paused for a long second. "...It's not hurting anyone real, is it?"
"Depends on what you call real." I lifted the sword I had bought online, and pressed it's sharpened blade gently against her neck.
She flinched back slightly, and then laughed. "What're you saying?"
"You're not the only person in the dream," I stated calmly.
"News to me," Natalie replied, just a bit of tension in her voice. She was protecting me, pretending I didn't share the same dream of a fantastical world, hadn't shared it for every day as we grew up together.
It made me feel a little bit shitty, but given the way she had treated me, it wasn't anything she didn't deserve.
"You're going to step down from power and leave the kingdom." I said flatly, forgetting to shift the cadence of my voice more dramatically to make the auto-tuning sound good. I pressed the blade against her throat again, just enough to cut into her, and she gasped as a bit of blood trickled down the blade.
"So you want total chaos?" Natalie had systematically removed the nobility and made her own system out of her followers, turned me from her protector like I had been when were were growing up, to little more than a companion she kept around.
"I..." What to say? Telling her to put
me in charge would be way too obvious, but I'd be happy if we just left together and got back to the life we were supposed to have. But there were people I cared about in the kingdom, too. "You aren't leaving this basement until you step down. I don't care if you take a little while, but if you take too long, I'll just kill you."
"Hmm. That's reasonable. Lemme know when I get towards the end of your patience, then." There was still the energy of the Empress in her voice. She wasn't scared like she was supposed to be, or at least she was putting up a good front.
I pulled the sword back, then turned it and slapped her cheek with the side of the blade, and she yelped, falling to her side and hitting her head against the concrete of the floor.
Fuck. I hadn't meant to do that much. I was kneeling by her side before I even had the chance to think about it, holding up her head with a gloved hand.
In an instant, I was left with nothing but worry, just like I always did when I was a kid and thought I actually hurt her.
I propped up her head, and there wasn't a crack, and it wasn't bleeding, which were both good signs, and it looked like her body had tensed.
"Hmm. That was quick. I guess you don't really want me dead, huh?" Had she fallen over on purpose? But she was trembling now, at least.
I remembered who I was supposed to be, and stood up. "You should at least pretend to be afraid, Empress."
She slowly moved back up into a kneeling position. There was a bruise forming on her cheek from where I had struck it with the sword. "If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead. You're probably afraid of committing a murder in real life."
"People go after you harder for murders than kidnappings, so I do prefer to keep them to a minimum." She wasn't the first person I had threatened -- I had once held a pistol against her shitty father's forehead while I hade made him kneel, threatening him with death unless he got back out of her life -- but she was the first one I had kidnapped. "You aren't planning to go to the police, are you?"
She smiled, but it was a wavery smile. "Not unless you kill me. In fact, if you let me go right now, I won't even have anything to explain. It'd be a lot easier on you than keeping me like this."
I felt that old familiar feeling of power over her, as well as a little sick in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to get in close, either to bully her more or to comfort her, but I didn't want to risk her smelling or feeling me, recognizing me.
Maybe it would be easier... but would I really be able to kidnap her a second time, if she didn't? It didn't make sense to let her go yet.
If I completely broke her, she'd stop being a terrible ruler in the other world, and an insufferable know-it-all in this one. Maybe she'd even drop her plans for Steelwall University-- she wanted me to go live in an apartment in Steelwall with her, using me as free labor as my own prospects dwindled away, so she could order me around, maybe even get rid of me.
If she was shattered, I'd pick up the pieces. That might even be better for her-- she'd stop being such an unreasonable person.
"Are you thirsty?"
Natalie considered this for a moment. "...Not really, weirdly. I did drink a lot last night. I might need to go to the bathroom soon."
"There's a drain in the floor. There's some bedding in the corner too. I'd advise not pissing on it, but hey, up to you." I started to walk towards the stairs.
"How do I clean myself?" Natalie's head followed me, I guess my steps against the concrete were audible.
I thought that this would be straightforwards, but I'd have to get her up to the bathroom somehow. I needed to stall. "Think of it as an incentive-- the longer you stay here, the worse it'll be for you. Get the dreamscape fixed up."
I didn't actually want her to be miserable or covered in filth, I really thought she'd just cave and start crying immediately.
Maybe she would to me in the dreamworld. Maybe she'd need to rely on me again.
I left her in the basement, chained up, blindfolded, and alone.