At noon, the highlight of May's day had been learning that she had somehow missed the release of an entire album from her favorite band. From then on, her world had been no bigger than thoughts of getting home, locking the door to her room and listening to their discography until she fell asleep.

It had not occurred to her that her life might become substantially different in the matter of a few minutes.

Her shoulder blades rang out in pain as she was shoved against the locker bank, her light blue backpack slipping from her fingers. She had been taken by surprise by two tall girls, girls she recognized as going to the same school as her, but she couldn't even begin to fathom their names.

"Annie would like a word," one sneered at May, the scent of her breath an unusually strong combination of mint and orange. The other held May's right arm up, turning her palm upwards.

"You a rightie?" she asked. May began to have an inkling of what was going on.

"Y-yeah," she stammered out, glancing around in hopes that someone would come to her rescue. A small crowd was forming; people leaned against walls, or even just stood beside May, watching the scene unfold, eager for the results.

The girl inspecting May's hand snorted, specifically holding her thumb out. "She's never won," she announced.

"Never lost, either," some boy from the crowd commented before slinking away as the nasty gazes of the two girls turned on him.

Redoubling her efforts, May tried to squirm out of their grip just as Annie arrived. She was unmistakable; with long blue hair tied into two braids going down her back, there was never any question who or where she was. She stood in front of May, looking the girl up and down. Compared to her own developed, toned, feminine body, May looked downright mannish.

"This is who I'm to beat?" Annie asked with a British accent that May was almost certain was fake. "She's nothing! Has she ever even won?"

"Nope, we checked. She's totally clean."

Annie smirked, looking May in the eyes for the first time that afternoon. "You know how to play, right?" This question drew a round of laughter from the crowd, as if laughing at an in-joke Annie had made. The cruel twist, of course, was that May knew the punchline.

"I don't want any trouble," May said, still trying her best to free her wrist from the taller girl's iron grip.

"Of course you don't. And, when you lose, if you prove that you can be obedient, there won't be any trouble." She was very carefully handed a small device. Deceptively small, for the impact it had had on society. Made of metal, it looked like two tubular triangles connected at their point, with the long, far ends for gripping. On the top of each end was a raised five-point star pattern in a series of dots. Annie's thumb, already bearing the mark of the dotted scar, slid comfortably into place, and the raised points found their home.

"You can do this willingly, or they can make you." Annie nodded toward her goons, then leaned forward and continued in a stage whisper, "Tip from a pro? You're gonna want to go willingly." She winked and grinned, straightening her back once more.

May took a deep breath. She had no idea what to expect; nobody who hadn't played did, and those who had weren't telling. There was nothing to do but take the plunge and hope for the best. She was sure, even if she managed to break free and escape, that Annie would come after her. The azure-haired girl was not accustomed to being snubbed, and society at large had shifted itself to accommodate such personalities.

"Okay," she said, exhaling. "Okay." She looked at the device, the Bow, so called because of its design, and doubling as an acronym for its purpose: a 'Battle of Wits.' Reaching out, she curled her fingers around the thick handle. It was noticeably warm, and May wondered if that was just the nature of the machine, or an indication that it was recently-used.

"Thumb goes there," Annie said with faux-helpfulness, pointing at the dotted star pattern resting just below May's thumb.

"Thanks," May said, staring down at it. This was it. Everything she had done had been her life; from here on out, it would be someone else's. With determination, she placed her thumb on the pattern.

Immediately she felt several things at once. An electric jolt shot through her body, coupled with the stinging pain of the Bow leaving its mark for the first time. Both girls cried out at once, and May crumpled to the floor, twitching. The experience had not been what she had expected. It was not random chance, as many who had not played believed. There was a pattern in what she'd seen, and she'd just barely begun to understand it when she collapsed.

She didn't want to open her eyes. For several seconds she lay on her side, willingly blind to the world, living out her last moments as a free girl. Perhaps someone would take pity on her and crush her now, putting her out of her misery. Perhaps Annie would think her so weak and pathetic as to be unworthy of licking her toes. Hell, maybe everyone would just leave and she could lay on her side until she starved to death. Any of these had to be preferable to what she knew she had to face.

Steeling herself, May opened her eyes and lifted her head, and was immediately startled by what she saw. Her classmates stood in a ring around her, towering above and looking down - only, not nearly as far down as they should have been. Her gaze fell to the ground, scanning it, and she saw the Bow laying on its side, still just as small and unassuming as it had ever been.

And across from the Bow, shrunken, naked, and brilliantly blue, was Annie.

May was in shock. She couldn't even begin to process the situation. It was only when someone goaded her into action that she was able to think straight.

"Go on," a boy said. "Take her. You won."

She shook her head. "No. No, I... I don't want her. I didn't want to play. I don't want this." Even to herself, what she was saying sounded alien, distant. It was unheard of to give up your prize, but May emphasized, "Really, I don't want her. Someone else take her. Do whatever."

Sensing her sincerity the crowd shifted, with several people stepping forward to scoop up the little Annie. The two tall girls who had pressed May into the lockers were now nowhere to be seen, and had she not still been stunned she might have chuckled at that. Vaguely, May registered a thick, pudgy hand wrapping around a screaming Annie, lifting her up to an equally-pudgy face.

As the shrunken contender was stuffed down the front of the boy's pants, May felt a small twinge of guilt. Perhaps she should have taken Annie, if only to give her some semblance of a good life. But with that would come the responsibility of keeping the girl alive, and the unwanted attention as the girl who had enslaved Annie. She didn't want any of that, she wanted her anonymity back. There was comfort in being invisible.

Picking herself and her backpack up, May rushed out the front door of the school and headed home, entirely unconcerned about the rest of her classes. There was music to listen to.

------------------

The smell of baking threw an unexpected detour in May's beeline to her room. Heading to the kitchen, she and her mother noticed one another at the same time. Margot smiled wide at her daughter, overtly glancing at the digital clock on the oven.

"You're home!" she announced, jogging forward to embrace her progeny. May kept her thumb tucked in her palm as she raised her own hands, accepting the hug. "And so early! Did something happen?"

"No," May said, shaking her head. Then, "Yeah."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Margot asked, leading May to the raised island in the kitchen. "Was someone mean to you?"

May shook her head. "No," she repeated, before once again rethinking what she'd said. "Well, I mean, I guess so, but... it's not important now."

"Why is that?" Margot seemed to busy herself with her cooking, though only a small fraction of her attention wasn't focused on her daughter.

"Uh." God, what to say? May wondered to herself. She drummed her fingernails on the marble countertop, still keeping her thumb cocked toward her palm. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed two of her mother's tiny servants kneading a wad of dough in which the both could be easily enveloped. "I guess I, uh... I won."

"Oh?" Her mother's voice raised an octave as she beamed. "That's great! What did you..." Realization then spread across her face, and her eyes opened wide. "You... won?" May didn't miss the glance down at her thumb.

"Yeah." Reluctantly turning her hand face-up, May struggled to keep tears out of her eyes. When her mother saw the dotted star, still fresh with blood, she yelled and clapped, rushing around the island to give her daughter another hug.

"Oh, my baby won! You won!" May was rocked back and forth with the force of Margot's celebration, feeling inversely worse as her mother's mood improved. "Against whom? Where are you keeping them? Did you squash them?"

"Annie. And no, I gave her away." At that, Margot took a step back, looking her daughter in the eyes. Before she could say anything, May continued, "I don't want her. I didn't even want to play, she just... made me. I couldn't back out, so I just did it and I won and now I want everyone to forget that I did."

"But... but honey, it's great news!" Margot insisted. "You have to claim your prize!"

"I don't want a prize, mom! I just want to be left alone!"

"May York Lancrest, you will be grateful for the gift you have been given. Think about the poor girl you beat, what did you say her name was?"

"Annie. Annie Ainsley."

Margot's mouth hung open, readied to continue her speech but now frozen in stunned silence. "Ainsley?" she repeated. "As in..."

"As in the daughter of Tom Ainsley, yeah," May muttered, feeling even worse. "I didn't want to-"

"Oh, this is rich!" Margot cackled, dancing back to the oven to turn it off just before the timer sounded. "Your father is going to have a field day when he hears about this." Withdrawing a large metal sheet from the oven, she set the tray of cookies down on the counter, just beside the kneading slaves. Margot didn't even glance in their direction. "But you need that girl. You've got to get her back."

"Mom, I... I can't. Even if I wanted to, someone else took her. I just said 'go nuts' and then she was gone."

Standing on her tip-toes, Margot reached high overhead. "Well then..." she began, stretching out the last syllable as she pulled down something from above a kitchen drawer. "You go get her back." Extending her hand, Margot offered a red stylized Bow to her daughter, whose eyes widened.

"No! I don't want to do that again! I... I don't even know how I won the first time! It didn't make any sense!"

The matron of the house chuckled, walking to her daughter's side and pressing it into her denim jeans. "Honey, that's the big secret: none of us know how the damn things work. You see that wall, the infinite design, and you just get a glimpse of it before it vanishes, and then the bitch on the other end is resized to fit her new role in life. So you go back to school - tomorrow," she added as an afterthought, glancing at the clock. "And you find who took her, and you make them give her back. Bonus points if you bring home two little prizes." Margot winked at her daughter.

"Mom, this is-"

"Ah-ah!" Margot said, holding a finger to her daughter's lips. "I won't take no for an answer. You get the Ainsley girl back. That is the most important thing in your life right now, do you understand me?"

"Augh!" May screamed, storming off to her room. The white, sparsely-decorated walls of her room did little to assuage her worries. Bowplay was for other people, people who needed to make their mark on the world and be recognized for how great they were, even if it was with some stupid device that apparently nobody even understood. If she was going to gain recognition, she wanted it fair, she wanted it from something she'd worked for and accomplished, not a victory from something that looked like a child's toy.

"Hey Jeeves," she said, throwing her backpack against the side of her bed. The miniature british man who stood on her desk just bowed. He hadn't always been Jeeves, but when he'd been given to her as a present on her eighth birthday, she'd given him the first (and only) British name she knew. All these years later and it may as well have been his name from birth.

"Are you upset, madam?" Jeeves asked, and May glanced down at him. The whole left side of his face was still a splotchy purple from where she'd flicked him after he'd spilled a bottle of nail polish a week or two back. If it was still there in another few weeks, she thought, she might have to get him checked out.

"'Course I'm upset," she said in a huff, falling onto her bed. "I won today. With a Bow."

"Congratulations, Madam." Though he was well-trained and had long been shrunken, May could still hear the pang of humiliation in his voice in reference to a Bow. "Surely this is cause for celebration?"

"I didn't want to win," she insisted. "It didn't even feel good, after. Seeing Annie there on the floor in a pile of her own crumpled clothes... I've heard it feels good to win. To dominate your opponent. But I didn't get that. She looked so scared, and I felt sick, like I'd done something wrong. And now everyone is congratulating me, telling me that I've done this great thing, and..." She trailed off, staying silent for a long time. "I don't know," she finally added.

Jeeves stared at her feet, as he'd been trained. "Madam, you are aware that I am a Loser, correct?" He said, hardly even tripping over the word anymore.

"Well, duh." May rolled her eyes. "So?"

"So, perhaps you should explore the dissonance between your feelings towards the Annie girl and myself, not to mention the countless other servants of this household."

With a wave of her hand, May dismissed the line of thinking. "Nah, that's different. You guys didn't lose to me, and besides, I don't really care about you guys. I knew Annie before I beat her. I mean, we weren't close or anything, but I still knew her. I never thought I'd be looking down on her like that."

Jeeves remained silent for the next few minutes, until May got a text that prompted her to rise and leave the room, flicking the light off before she closed the door. It was a point of pride of his that, in the many years he had served her, May had never seen his frequent sobbing.

On his hands and knees in the giant's palm, the little man lolled his tongue out of his mouth, rapidly breathing in and out. His captor smiled and patted his head, making his face burn hot with humiliation.

"Which one is that?" the giant's wife called from the bathroom, looking at the two of them through the mirror.

"The dog," Alan replied, giving his slave a knowing look. Dog barked a reply.

"Aww, I like that one," Margot said, sauntering into the room in nothing but a long green bathrobe. "He's so well-trained."

"Well, he spends all day with you," Alan replied, kissing his wife as she fell into bed next to him. The Dog was set down on his bare chest, and the hard abs underneath reminded him of the giant's godlike strength. He whimpered, falling back on his haunches, palms against Alan's chest.

"Are you hungry, boy?" Margot asked. Looking up, Dog noticed a wide length of her cleavage visible through a part in her robe; based on the teasing look she was giving him, he wasn't sure it was unintentional. He barked again, eagerly, to signal his hunger.

"Don't give him any dinner, he's being punished!"

"Trust me, this will be punishment enough." Margot turned briefly, getting a jar of peanut butter from within the bedside table. "Did you ever do this when you were a kid?"

Noticing what was in his wife's hand, Alan burst into laughter, holding a hand to his mouth. Dog fell to his side, his fingers digging in to the hard flesh beneath him for purchase. When he felt something hard and warm poke him in the back, and had both of Alan's hands in his field of vision, he whimpered involuntarily.

"You're really gonna let him do that to you, though?" Alan asked, still chuckling with pity for the poor thing. Margot shook her head, beaming.

"Not me, silly." She pulled the sheet down, exposing her husband's nudity below the waist. Taking the top off the jar, she dipped her little finger in, sliding it through the creamy mix, then placed her finger in her thumb and sucked. With the rapt attention of both men, she felt a bit like a goddess playing with a lowly little mortal.

"See, Dog is going to be a good boy," Margot began, putting her index finger in the jar this time. She pulled out a small dollop of peanut butter and leaned over, carefully setting it down and spreading it across her husband's shaved scrotum. "And lick his dinner off your balls."

Dog's heart sunk in his chest. It hadn't been too long since he'd lost to the businessman to whom he now belonged; only a few weeks, if he'd been counting correctly. Still, in that time, Alan had taken a particular interest in him, breaking him down into what he'd now become. Margot had participated from time to time, but never had she come up with something so demeaning. Despite how low he'd fallen, despite his growling stomach and the smug, eager expressions of the giants above him, Dog wanted to believe there was a line he wouldn't cross. He wanted to believe he still had a shred of dignity.

"Lick it up, Dog." Alan's tone said everything the little man needed to know. It wasn't even so much a command as it was an expectation. A certainty that Dog was delaying by remaining immobile. It was known that he would obey, because what other choice did he have? His life was no longer truly his, and those to whom it now belonged had decided he would lick peanut butter off another man's testicles.

Resignedly, he turned around and began to crawl. Alan's enormous erection loomed over him, certainly several times bigger than he himself was now; yet another reminder of his insignificance. He thought of how he lusted after Alan's wife, harboring ideas of running his hands along her breasts, feeling her lips on his neck, the warm, gripping sensation of being inside her; delusions, to the last. She teased him because his impotence amused her, nothing more. He would likely die without ever fucking another woman, meanwhile his owner was using his own humiliation as foreplay with his gorgeous wife.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Margot exclaimed, slapping her forehead. Dog turned, momentarily believing that somehow this was all a joke, that he wasn't really expected to debase himself like this. When he saw that her attention had shifted off of him entirely, he kicked himself for hoping.

"Yes?"

"Our little May won today."

"Really? Who'd she beat?"

"Get this: the Ainsley girl."

Alan erupted into another round of laughter, with Margot giggling into his chest. "Are you kidding? Tom's girl? I can't believe it!"

"It's true! The little doll's indisposed at the moment, but May'll have her available by tomorrow afternoon."

"That's great. That's really great, I'm so proud of her. I knew she'd be good at it." He looked down at Dog, who was staring forlornly at his meal. "Hey, Dog, you not hungry or something?"

Knowing that the question wasn't really a question, Dog lowered his face to the spread and started to lick. The mixture of peanut butter and crotch sweat was more unpleasant than not, but he was determined to not let it show. That would be his victory.

Margot giggled. "Look at him, I think he likes it!" Together they snickered down at their pet. No matter what he did, he couldn't get over on them. He couldn't have a moment of pride, or small, personal victories.

He was, after all, a Loser.

A hush came over the room as May entered the first class of the day. She kept her eyes on the ground and quietly made her way to her seat. The gentle weight of the Bow in her pocket felt like an enormous burden, and the soft whispers that clearly carried her name only made matters worse.

"I heard what happened." Glancing to her left, May gave Lily a once-over; in her short blue skirt and small white top stretched to its limits over her generous endowment, she almost seemed like a smutty caricature of a real girl. May also felt that her friend would appreciate the sentiment.

"Don't wanna talk about it."

"Are you sure? You're on everyone's list now." May shot Lily a worried look, and the busty girl quickly clarified, "Oh! That's not necessarily a bad thing! There's lots of different lists, you know, like who to watch out for, or who's a rising star, or..."

"Or who to beat to impress others," May muttered. Pursing her lips, Lily nodded.

"Yeah. There's those too. But you've got some star power now, girl! You beat Annie! Nobody beats Annie!"

"Nobody beats anyone until they do."

Lily sighed, rolling her eyes. "Come on, lighten up. Today is a good day. Nobody's going to fuck with you the day after your big win. People want to see what you're going to do next."

I'm sure that demanding Annie back and potentially getting into another Bow fight will convince everyone I'm not interested, May thought ruefully.

"Speaking of which, did you hear what happened to Annie?"

May chewed her lip. She didn't want to know what happened, but in a sense, she needed to. "No; what?"

"So that fat kid, Morty, he picked her up after you gave her away and brought her straight to that weird miniatures club." Lily stifled a giggle. "Word is they glued her feet to like a pedestal or something, so now she's basically a living trophy."

"That's..." May swallowed to keep bile out of her throat. That's your fault, she told herself. She chose not to voice the thought. "Does Morty still have her?"

"Yeah, he's been showing her off to everybody. Like, everybody. He's super stoked to have his own Loser even though he's never fought anyone." Rolling her blue eyes, Lily chuckled. "It's kinda sad for both of them, really."

"Yeah." Feeling a million miles away, May fought to keep tears out of her eyes. She was responsible for what had happened to Annie. There was no question about it now: she had to get her prize back. Surely, she thought, it wouldn't be too hard. After all, was Morty really going to fuck with her?

Class couldn't have been slower. May kept her right hand in her pocket, all too conscious of the glances and stares of her classmates. She tried to distract herself and focus on the lecture, but all she could think about was Annie glued to a pedestal, being observed and prodded and mocked by her former classmates.

The moment the bell rang, May was on her feet, her supplies long since gathered into her backpack. She was vaguely aware of Lily calling her name, but May didn't have any time to waste. Opening the door, she took three steps before being accosted by a small group who pinned her against the wall. Flashes of the same fear and confusion as yesterday came back to her, but there was a third emotion mixed in this time.

"What the fuck is this?" she asked, shoving back the boy pinning her shoulders to the wall. Each of the assemblage took a small step back, though they still maintained enough rank to keep her penned in.

"You shouldn't have won, May." A girl about May's height with bobbed blonde hair said, standing directly in front of her. She wore two people as earrings, their ankles and wrists bound to each end of a length of chain that slipped through her lobes. "You're a... non-entity. You don't fit in with the power structure."

Snickering, another girl added, "I bet you don't even have any slaves on you right now."

"I don't have time for this," May growled, trying to push her way past. The group shoved her back harder against the wall.

"Wrong; we don't have time for you. There's no room here for some worthless little upstart trying to make a name for herself, understand?"

May took a long, slow breath. These Bow-types, they were all the same; they needed their power to be recognized. Butting heads with them would just slow her down more.

"I understand. Look, I don't even care about it, okay? Ask anyone - Annie came after me. I did what was expected, turns out I won. That's it. End of story."

The blonde eyed May suspiciously, as if searching her decor for a trace of a lie. Finally she shrugged and nodded. "Sure. It happens. Just make sure it doesn't happen again." She flicked one of her earrings as a threat, and the little woman dangling from her lobe gave a low, pathetic squeal. May flashed a brief, insincere smile and once again forced herself through the group, this time being allowed past.

Fucking psychos. Next period was swiftly approaching, and May racked her brain to figure out if she knew where Morty would be. She half-jogged down the hall, weaving through the mess of people until something through the window caught her eye. Down on the lawn in front of the school, a small group was circled around something, staring down at an object held in someone's hand.

Staring down at Annie held in Morty's hand.

"Gotcha," she whispered. Descending the nearest flight of steps two at a time, she was on the ground floor in seconds flat, bursting out of a side door. A few members of the group observing Annie looked up, and one of them called out.

"Hey, it's her!"

More heads turned in May's direction, and she blushed instinctively. She had hoped for a one-on-one confrontation with Morty, as public spectacles weren't really her thing. Making the best of the situation, May slowed her gait and straightened her back, doing her best to project the awe-inspiring aura of a Winner.

Morty beamed at her, waddling forward with his prize in hand. "Oh hey May!" He sounded enthusiastic to see her, as if giving him Annie had been May's plan all along. "Check it out!"

Looking down, May reeled at what she saw. Lily had not had all the details correct; Annie had been glued to a pedestal, but not by her feet. Instead she had been forced into a kneeling position, legs spread wide, and her entire shins had been secured by what seemed like hot glue to the wooden stand. Her back had then been pushed out and, as May saw when Morty tilted the stand, a metal rod was secured to the base, keeping Annie's chest thrust upwards. Finally, her hands were bent such that the palms touched the wood and then glued in place.

"I turned her into the perfect little fuckdoll!" Morty said, pleased with himself. "She can't say no, she can't wriggle away, and she's always available! I guess I gotta figure out how I'm going to feed her, but that's secondary."

"Give her to me." May knew she had done a poor job of keeping the disgust out of her voice; she also knew that she didn't care. Annie had become a piece of meat to these degenerates, and they had put her on display in the most grotesque way possible.

Morty's smile faltered as he met May's gaze. "W... what?"

"Give me Annie and walk the fuck away." Her voice had become a low hiss and she stepped towards Morty, hoping to intimidate him by proximity if not necessarily just sheer size. "Now."

The fat kid before her stepped back, cradling his prize closer to his chest. "What? No. You gave her to me. She's mine." May had expected the crowd around them to remain as neutral as ever, but to her surprise they seemed to be siding with Morty, making a wall between him and May.

She hadn't wanted to do this, but it seemed as though there was little choice. May pulled her mother's red Bow from her pocket, already gripping it by the handle. The sensation of the raised points sliding into her fresh scar was strange, but not wholly unpleasant. Staring Morty in the eyes, she held it out.

"Fight for her, then."

Opening his mouth, Morty began to say something when another boy stepped forward, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"No problem. Two sluts for the price of one." May felt a moment of panic as the newcomer gripped the Bow before she could let go. The design flashed in front of her eyes for just a moment, and once again she felt as though there was something to understand, something to glean from it if only she could study it for longer than a split-second.

Then, the boy was gone. The experience was much less dramatic than it had been with Annie; for one thing, it had been easy to keep her feet underneath her, and the electric shock had felt much less severe. She briefly wondered why that was as she knelt down and took the small boy off of the pile of clothes, tucking him into the cup of her bra. Raising her eyes back to Morty, she extended the Bow once more, smirking.

"Fight for her," she repeated, delightfully noticing the crowd flinched away from her Bow this time. Morty in particular looked frightened, but not quite cowed yet. He needed a little more nudging. "You know the kind of influence we Winners wield, Morty. You don't want that kind of enemy, do you?"

"B... but-"

"But nothing. Hand her over or take the Bow. Those are your options."

He looked at her Bow, then at her chest. His lips smacked before he spoke.

"If I... if I lose to you, are you gonna..." he pointed at her breast, where the small, wriggling outline of the cocksure kid could be seen. May realized, with both amusement and disdain, that Morty wasn't asking out of concern, but out of hope. She tilted her head slightly.

"Sure, Morty. Tell you what: I'll even let you fuck Annie. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

The fat boy looked down at his prize, licking his lips in anticipation. It was clear he would like that, and for the second time that day May was pleased with herself for managing to keep bile out of her mouth.

Morty didn't say another word. He marched forward and took the Bow, and a moment later he was gone. The crowd murmured to themselves, but May wasn't thinking about that. She was watching Annie's pedestal as it fell to the ground, seemingly in slow-motion. The heavy wooden base kept it upright as it fell, and moments before impact May let out a soft laugh.

Thunk! Morty's own toy collided with him, and May was quick to follow up, inspecting the damage. The little thing was squealing in pain like a stuck pig, writhing in his clothes. His head was covered in blood, and more seemed to be coming fast. Taking her time, the three-time Winner rifled through both sets of pants in front of her, extracting the wallets and taking whatever money was inside. She tossed the rest aside and picked Annie up before standing back to her full height, slipping the Bow once more inside her pocket.

"How sad," she said simply, looking down her nose at Morty. "But at least he's lucky I don't care enough to put him through the hell he deserves." Using the toe of her sandal, May covered the shrieking thing in his own shirt before snuffing him out with a soft, wet crunch. Blood oozed through the fabric of the clothes and several boys turned away in disgust; several more watched with rapt fascination.

Looking down at Annie dulled the thrill she had just felt. The little girl's expression was still one of helpless horror; surely, May realized, Annie had no concept of what would become of her, instead just trading hands from one cruel owner to the next.

"You're so cool, May," a girl from the crowd said. May looked at the thing in her hand, the thing under her foot. She tried to smile, but it made her feel worse.

"Thanks," she replied curtly, looking back at the school. In the same window from which she had observed Morty, she herself was now being watched by the short blonde girl with the slave earrings. Not dealing with this. Not right now. Once again May turned and walked off school grounds in the direction of her home, even as more people began to whisper her name, and word began to spread.

May considered herself lucky to have slipped under her mother's notice, quietly locking herself in her room. Annie was still letting out small, choked sobs occasionally, which tugged at her heartstrings even as they annoyed her. Had she done anything bad to the little girl yet? Couldn't she just stay quiet for a bit?

She set Annie's pedestal down on her desk beside Jeeves, who stood obediently at attention as always. The little servant watched Annie with interest while never looking directly at May herself.

"How do I help her?" May asked, sitting down at the desk and holding her head in her hands. "I'm afraid anything I do is just gonna hurt her worse. Do you think it's best if I just... tug her off like a band-aid?"

"I-" Jeeves' voice caught in his throat as the ghastly imagery popped into his mind. "M-Madam, perhaps you could just cut her off instead with some kind of small, thin blade."

"I don't really have anything like that." May thought for a moment, then her face lit up. "Oh, wait! I totally do!" Looking through her personal supplies, she retrieved a small pair of nail clippers, complete with a nail file extension. To the little people on the desk, the apparatus looked more like a barbed instrument of torture than a harmless tool of personal care.

"No! No, please no!" Annie screamed, her voice raw, as well as completely devoid of its usual British affectation. "Please!"

"Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you." Leveling the file where the glue had dried, she gently pushed it in and sawed, slowly cutting away at the adhesive substance. She started with Annie's hands, as May figured the smaller amount of glue would make them easier to free. Unfortunately, Annie's fingers had not been trapped at a uniform depth, which May discovered after a quick thrust filed half of Annie's ring finger off.

"Sorry! Sorry, fuck! Sorry!" Annie thrashed against her restraints, likely causing herself more damage, but she was wild with pain and fear. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, fuck, goddamnit!" Pinching Annie's wrist for what little stability it could provide, May quickly finished the job, freeing the tiny girl's left hand from the wooden board.

The blue-haired girl swung her left arm in a wide arc before clutching it to her chest, her screams slowly dying down once more into sobs. "See? I'm- I'm trying to help. I'm sorry about your finger, really." A large wad of glue was still stuck to Annie's hand, keeping her fingers largely immobile, but the girl seemed grateful for even a small modicum of mobility. "I'll be more careful with this one."

"Please... please kill me," Annie said. Her eyes struggled to stay focused on the upside-down visage of the enormous girl before her. "D-don't make me suffer more."

May paused. Annie truly was a pathetic sight, only barely resembling the cool, confident girl she had been twenty-four hours ago. Her braids had been undone, and her long blue hair was stuck to various parts of her body by sweat, blood and... May didn't want to think about what else. Her chest - no, her breasts - were bruised black and blue, even moreso than her face. With years of physical and psychological work, May guessed, Annie might come close to having something resembling dignity again, but May couldn't see how the girl would ever truly feel human.

"Hey... hey, come on, don't say that," May cooed at Annie, gripping her other wrist and filing off the glue in slow, careful strokes.

"I w-w-wouldn't have... a-abandoned you." Even through the hoarseness of her voice, Annie communicated her hatred. "Wouldn't have... r-r-r-raped you."

"I didn't rape you." May's tone was flat, clinical. She wasn't going to let a Loser - even Annie - reaffirm what her psyche was already telling her.

"B-bullshit."

"You're in distress. Save your voice." May released the other hand, then gently tilted Annie up off the metal pole in her back. The small girl let out a long, low moan of relief, finally able to relax muscles that had likely been tensed for almost a day straight. Annie's torso fell forward, crumpling onto legs that were still bound to the podium.

"I'll never forgive you," Annie muttered just loud enough for May to hear. Taking away the stress of the pole seemed to have improved her voice already, as her strained stutter was nearly gone. "I would never have done that. I'm n-not a monster." May tried to think of what to say when Annie continued, "Just kill me."

"I can't," May croaked, already seeing a few steps ahead in the conversation and dreading the time between.

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I just..." May blinked and shook her head. "I just can't. Stay still." Slowly, the giant girl began chiseling away at the glue underneath Annie's left shin.

"Fuck your 'just can't'," Annie spat. "Do it. Just shove that file in my throat and twist and be done with me."

"Annie, I-"

"Fucking please!" There was enough emotion in Annie's voice to freeze May in her tracks. "You want me to beg? I'll beg, I've been begging for a day straight. I begged when the glue seared my flesh and stuck me to this fucking thing. I begged while he... w-while he fucking pinched and... a-and..." Annie crossed her arms over herself, shaking. "I can't live with this shame. So... so please, May, please just fucking kill me."

May looked down at the tiny girl, completely rigid, and spoke in stuttered exhalations. "You're. Going. To be shown. To your father." She forced herself to look Annie in the eyes. At the very least, May bitterly consoled herself, she wouldn't be a coward.

Annie's face went white. "No. No, no, not like this, no May no..."

"Mmhmm." May didn't trust her ability to maintain composure if she opened her mouth. Blinking rapidly, she got back to work filing the little girl off the wooden pedestal.

"May, no, May please don't let this happen. Think about what you're doing to me! About what you've already done to me!" The giantess remained silently focused on her work as Annie's voice became shrill. "Answer me! Acknowledge me, you fuck! You low-life, cowardly piece of shit! You abandoned me! You raped me! The least you can do is fucking kill me!"

"SHUT UP!" May shrieked at the top of her lungs. She threw the file aside with one hand while the other snatched up Jeeves. Before any of the three of them knew what was happening, her fingers curled around the little man, crushing his chest in her fist. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, spattering the desk below.

The giant girl didn't even look. Instead, she squeezed her fist harder, drawing out the cracks and crunches of bone right in front of Annie. She brought him forward, closer to the little girl. "This is what you want, then?" she asked venomously. "This is how you want to end, you ungrateful cunt?" Uncurling her fingers, she let the limp mass of meat and bone slide out of her palm and land directly in front of Annie, his viscera splatting onto her.

It was Annie's turn to fall silent, staring in wide-eyed horror at the British man's fate. "My daddy hates your daddy and you were dumb enough to challenge me, so yeah. This is what happens to you now. So, what, you want to end up like him? You want that for yourself? Because that is pathetic. That twerp died for nothing, and nobody will notice. I don't even think my parents remember him. Is that what happens to you? Is that how Annie Ainsley goes out?"

Shell-shocked, Annie couldn't manage anything more than a small shake of her head. May sighed. "I'm sorry that fuckhead had his way with you. He's a grease stain now, if that's any consolation."

It was a long time before either spoke again. "I should have won," Annie lamented, still staring at the mutilated body before her.

"Yeah, you should have." The response surprised Annie, who looked up to meet May's eyes. "I don't want what you had. I don't want everyone knowing my name, and expecting me to be this... slavemaster or something, just because I beat you. I know I would have been a servant, and I know my life and death would have been meaningless, but... yeah, you should have won. I think I'd have preferred that."

The blue-haired girl gave a rueful chuckle. "Isn't this great. The reluctant owner and the defiant slave. What a good fuckin' pair we make."

May was just about to say something when her mother knocked at the door. "May? Are you home?"

Shit. "Yeah, mom," she called, hastily wiping up the mess on her desk with a nearby paper towel.

"Did you get the Ainsley girl?"

"Uh-" she shot a glance at Annie, who shook her head. With an apologetic expression, she replied, "Yeah, I did."

"Oh, that's great! May I see her?"

"Yeah. Yeah, just a second." She threw the bloody paper towel in the trash and hurried to her door, opening it. "She's on my desk over here."

Margot entered, hugging her daughter once more. May felt something wriggle against her boob, and suddenly recalled there was still a living person in her bra. She sheepishly pulled away from her mother, hoping she hadn't felt the movement too.

"Your father and I are both so proud of you, you know," Margot said, looking her daughter in the eyes. "Did you have to shrink anyone else to get her?"

May nodded. "Yeah. Some fat kid who took her. He's - I stepped on him."

Chuckling, Margot walked with her daughter across the room, and together they looked down on the miniscule little girl. Annie held herself tighter as Margot's smug grin grew. "Oh, isn't she just precious. Did you do this to her?"

"No!" May said defensively. "I mean - I mean, no, I didn't. It was the fat kid. I was actually just getting her out with, uh," she glanced around her room, spotting the nail file against the wall to her left. "With those," she pointed.

"Oh, honey." May's mother reached down and tested the glue with her nail, smiling. "You don't need to go through all that effort. I'll go get you some rubbing alcohol, all this will dissolve right off, you'll see." She briefly turned her attention to Annie, adding, "And it's a pleasure to finally meet you too, dear. Welcome to the Lancrest household."

With that, Margot departed, leaving the two girls alone once more. Annie opened her mouth, struggling to find the right words. She settled on just one: "Lancrest."

"Yep," May admitted. "May Lancrest."

Annie's heart plummeted in her chest. "Fuck."

Hours later, a glue-free Annie stood obediently on the dining room table, hands clasped in front of her. She'd been given a gentle washing by several of the other slaves, and her hair was now tied up neatly in a bun. Wearing the maid's outfit she'd been provided, May hardly recognized her prize when she saw her again.

"Isn't she precious?" Margot asked, setting places at the table. "She's agreed to be polite and compliant, which is very refreshing coming from such a headstrong young woman." The matronly woman patted her little blue head condescendingly. "Although it likely comes from a place of self-preservation, hmm?"

"Yes, ma'am," Annie responded, bristling. With a satisfied smile, Margot returned to the kitchen to finish dinner preparations, leaving May alone with the little girl.

"Are you okay?" she asked, taking her seat at the head of the table. "She didn't... do anything to you, did she?"

"No, May, your mother didn't violate me," Annie said darkly.

"You know that's not what I meant. And don't sass me, I'm on your side here. I don't give a fuck about the stupid quarrel between our families, okay?"

"Oh, good, the Lancrest heiress doesn't care, there goes generations of open hostility, right?" The little girl shook her head. "I can't believe I didn't recognize you. My father's shown me pictures of you, said to take advantage of you if I ever had the chance. Augh, I should have won!"

"But you didn't." The larger girl's tolerance for her pet's outbursts was growing thin. "You lost, and now you're mine, and you just have to deal with that. Just because I'm on your side doesn't mean you get to act like a little shit, got it?"

It was obvious Annie was not accustomed to being spoken to so sternly. Biting her tongue, she only nodded in response.

"Speak. And speak respectfully."

Another wicked glare, one that had stopped people in their tracks when she was full-size. Now it just reinforced her own weakness. "Yes, ma'am. I got it."

"Do you like calling me ma'am?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then just..." May sighed. This was one of the exact situations that gave her a distaste for owning others. "Be cool, okay? To me, if nobody else. Just be cool with me, and I'll be cool with you. Is that something we can do?"

"I guess," Annie relented, warily searching May's expression for signs of a trap. Shoulders drooping, she relaxed with a pent-up sigh. "Yeah. We can, I'm sorry."

"Me too."

A door slammed from somewhere in the house, followed by the sounds of shoes on worked stone floors. May leaped up and trotted out, catching her father in a hug just as he rounded the corner into view.

"Daddy!"

"Hey! How's my little girl?"

"I'm good, I'm good." She shot a look to Annie, then to her mother. "Uh, did mom tell you about..."

"She mentioned you might have a little surprise for me. Is that her on the table?"

Nodding, May led her father over to where Annie stood, and Margot filled in the group from the back. With the three of them looking down on her, all with wide, predatory grins, Annie began to feel more like a main course than the help.

"Welcome home, Annie Ainsley." Alan extended a finger towards her, and she hesitantly took it in her best approximation of a handshake.

"Th-thank you, Sir," she replied. He chuckled and pulled away, nearly sending Annie tumbling onto her face.

"So polite! You ladies did a good job with her, that's for sure. And hey, your mother tells me you were the one who beat her? Is that true?"

May held up her thumb. "Yeah, she didn't even see it coming." Annie could feel her blood boil as a girl her age chuckled in regard to the smaller girl's life disappearing in an instant. "Just 'boop!' and then she was like that. Some kid took her from me, but I got her back."

"We're both very proud of you, honey. And hey, you did it! You're a Winner now! That's going to open up a lot of doors for you down the road." Smirking, Alan looked down at the tiny, teenaged maid. "And I guess we have you to thank for that, don't we?"

Annie stood in stunned, furious silence. She had never been more frustrated or humiliated in her whole life. Though she had done the same to countless others, now that hers was the life being mocked, she felt a sharp sickness in her stomach. All she could do was stare at the table and pray they moved on as soon as possible.

"Hey, little girl." Margot snapped her fingers, and Annie's head instinctively rose to face her. "My husband addressed you. You will speak when spoken to."

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am. Um, what was the question, sir?"

Alan chuckled, as if he was having to re-explain basic addition to a five-year-old. "I said, we have your foolishness to thank for paving the way to a brighter future for my daughter, don't we?"

"I... I guess so, sir," Annie said, unsure what was expected of her. She threw out a few more guesses: "Yes sir, you're welcome sir."

The Lancrest family laughed together at Annie, who bowed her head in red-faced shame. While Margot retreated once more into the kitchen, Alan and his daughter sat around the table. May took Annie in her hands, cradling and stroking her like a beloved pet, while she talked with her father about her life, school, and a host of other things the shrunken girl would never again have.

"Dinner's ready!" Margot announced, carrying out a huge tray bearing a roasted turkey. She came out a second time with some sides, then sat down at the table. Glancing at her daughter's hands, she clicked her tongue, "May, you know better than to touch the help at the table. Put her down, she could be filthy."

Bemused, May did as she was told, placing Annie roughly in the middle of the three Lancrests. "Mom, the other servants, like, just washed her."

Margot shook her head dismissively. "That's not the point. It's nasty to touch slaves around food."

"You have slaves bring you food all the time."

"Not the point." Margot's voice was stern. "You will not touch that thing until the dishes are cleared, do you understand me?"

"Excuse me?" All three giants looked at Annie in surprise. The little girl took a defiant step towards Margot. "I may be a slave, and you can assume I'm dirty all you like, but I'm not a fucking thing."

May looked at her blue-haired pet in wide-eyed concern, telepathically willing her to get on her knees and apologize immediately. Despite her feelings for most servants - and the apathetic disdain she'd had for Annie pre-shrink - she was growing fond of the little woman, and didn't want to see her head dashed to bits against a salt shaker.

Her mother's reaction, then, was a bit of a shock. Margot simply took a sip of wine, setting the glass directly beside Annie. "That's nice, dear." Despite her calm tone, she stared daggers into the little girl, as if daring her to backtalk again. "Fetch me the pepper."

It was obvious Annie was shaking. Her little limbs quivered, her hands were balled into fists, and the glints of tears in her eyes were plain as day. When the servant girl spoke, it was in a strained, staggered tone. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good thing."

Annie had already turned to obey, but stopped dead in her tracks at Margot's goading. The matron continued, chuckling. "Oh, you didn't think you'd be allowed to dictate what you were called, did you? Don't be stupid. You're my property, I'll refer to you as I like, and I like calling you a thing."

"Mom, she gets it."

"I'm not certain she does, dear. You have to be stern with these things when you're first breaking them in. Things like this one have a tendency to try bucking their yoke, disobeying orders from their owners. And all you can do is make sure that there's no room for the thing to think of anything other than obedience."

May's mother grinned wider as Annie lost the strength to stand, collapsing to her knees. Pathetic, stifled sobs came from the poor girl, and May stared down at her own plate, having lost her appetite.

"But I'm not a cruel woman," Margot continued, unfinished with her debasement of the miniature teen. "I can understand how it would get upset. After all, it still very much resembles a girl, so why don't we do what we can to change that?"

Finally Annie turned to face her tormentor again, still weeping on her knees. She didn't have the strength to ask her to stop, and couldn't make herself stomach more begging.

"First is that hair. It's utterly ridiculous for a slave; what, you want an identity? Start by not being a Loser, hmm?" Margot raised an eyebrow, meeting Annie's gaze pointedly. "We'll shave it bald and it'll grow a nice, natural, boring color."

"What is she really, anyway?" Alan asked through a bite of turkey. "I should know, but it's been blue for so long."

"It is just a dumb old brunette like the rest of us. We'll keep its hair short and plain. What do you think?"

"I don't deserve this," Annie said through her teeth.

"Next is the name," Margot ignored her comment, relentlessly breaking the girl down. "'Annie' is too feminine, and carries too much baggage of its past life. No, it simply won't do. Thankfully, it's already come up with a wonderful alternative, haven't you, Thing?"

"I like that," Alan remarked. "Thing Ainsley. What do you think, sweetheart?"

Sympathetic as she was to the little girl's plight, she knew there wasn't much she could do to intervene. "It's nice, daddy," she said as noncommittally as she could. "Can we talk about something else?"

"That sounds lovely, but I'm not sure Thing understands its place yet. I can think of one last little aid, something to really seal the deal and make sure it never forgets what it is. Can you guess what it is, Thing?"

"Why are you doing this to me!? Do you think I personally screwed your family over? Is that it?" The tiny servant was on her feet, screaming at the top of her lungs. "It was generations ago! Holy fuck, what sort of psycho tortures a teenager like this over the sins of her... her great-great-great-great-great-grandfather or something?"

She panted heavily, staring daggers at the titanic woman who simply watched her rant with a soft, slightly-bored expression. Biting her lip so hard she tasted blood, Annie sank to her knees and lowered her eyes to the table. "I'm not stupid. I know my place: I'm a Loser. Your daughter owns me, and I'll serve her because there's no alternative for me. But I don't... I don't deserve this. When I fought her, I didn't even know who she was. I have no stakes in the dumb shit between our families." She chanced glancing up into Margot's eyes again. "Please forgive me, ma'am."

Almost immediately, Margot was smiling. "Well honey, that's all you had to say." She reached out and patted the little girl's head. "I'm glad to hear you understand your place. And you're right, it's unfair to judge you for something you had no hand in, even if you did throw in a few too many 'great's. But you need to be punished for speaking out of turn, don't you?"

"Yes ma'am," Annie responded obediently.

"Why don't I do that?" The youngest Lancrest said. "I'll punish her tonight, she'll never act out again and then she can get on with serving us. I actually had to get my own roll, mother," she added in a joking manner. Margot eyed the tiny thing, but eventually nodded.

"You're right, of course. She's your pet, and you're of the age that you can handle your own pets."

"Thanks, mom." May held the tip of her index finger out to Annie. "Kiss and say thanks, girl."

A knot formed in the servant girl's throat at the change in May's tone of voice. She lifted her head and pressed her lips to May's fingertip. "Thank you."

"Thank you what, pet?" May prompted. The gazes of her parents were on them, and she would not be seen as weak now. Annie stared up at her, trying to remind her of the promise they'd made to one another. She was met only with May's hard, expectant stare.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Very good. Now fetch my mother the pepper, and if you have any further complaints, you may direct them towards my ass."

"May!" Margot chided playfully, slapping the back of her daughter's hand. Alan just chuckled and shook his head, shooting another look at the little blue-haired girl who burned red with humiliation.

"Yes ma'am," she repeated before doing as she was told.

-----------------

The dinner passed by without further incident. Annie kept her mouth shut, even as the giant family talked about her directly overhead. She suffered their jabs and remarks silently, only verbally acknowledging direct commands and then carrying out her orders. It was what she had to look forward to in her life.

Back in May's room, Annie was gently set down on the giant girl's bedside table, before her owner made herself comfortable in bed, throwing the blanket over herself and propping her head up on a few pillows. She turned to look at her pet. "That went well, don't you think?"

"Yes, ma'am," Annie responded, letting the negative emotions of the past few hours slip into her tone. Sheepishly, May smiled.

"Yeah, about that," she began.

"There's nothing to explain. I get it. You're the owner and I'm the slave. You need to seem powerful in front of your parents."

"Come on, don't be-"

"That whole 'be cool with me and I'll be cool with you' speech, that was just for you, wasn't it?" the tiny girl continued. "That wasn't a promise, that was just you wanting a way to tell yourself that you're something you're not."

"Hey, don't get indignant with me. Everyone knows the shit you did to your servants."

"Yeah, but I didn't lie about it. I didn't try to make them feel equal, just to strip them of that comfort in public so the embarrassment would burn instead of sting. You're a fucking sicko."

"Hey, I'm not the o-"

"'-one who challenged me!'" Annie finished, her voice as vitriolic as her expression. "'I'm just an innocent, I never wanted this, me, me, me, me, me, me, ME!'"

Affecting the same hard look as she had at the dinner, May sat straighter in bed, looming even higher above the surly servant. "Watch how you speak to me," she warned.

"Or you'll what? Fucking kill me, because that's just something you do? I mean holy shit, May, if being a good person is really as important to you as you make it out to be, maybe you should look into a serial killer support group."

"I... wait, I only killed that kid because-"

"Only? I count two - today." Annie paused. "And, wait, what happened to the kid who challenged you first, the one you put in your bra?"

"Oh, I just... well, I mean, he was kind of a nobody, so I just flushed him," May said, frowning.

Annie tried to take a step back, but fell to her knees instead. A harsh laugh devoid of humor escaped her throat. "Oh my god," she said to herself. "You're a monster. I'm the slave of a monster."

"How dare you? You ungrateful cunt, how dare you say that? I saved you from Morty."

"And now he's dead." The tiny girl's breathing was quickly picking up pace. "He got in your way and you killed him. And the other boy, he got in your way and you drowned him, a-and... and that other one, the butler or whatever, he died just so you could... what, prove a point?" Looking up incredulously at the giantess, she shook her head. "What's keeping me alive?"

A thick, cruel sneer spread across May's lips. "Why, my infinite patience, of course," she said mockingly. "I mean, how could I ever dream of killing someone who dared to question my generosity, who would throw my hospitality in my face just because some people she didn't even know disappeared?" May lifted her hand and flicked Annie hard in the side. The servant girl shrieked and flew through the air, tumbling end-over-end as she crashed into the ground. When she had her bearings again, May was standing over her, each foot no more than a few inches from her tiny form. "I didn't realize you were so stupid, Annie. After all, if I'm really the monster you say I am, you'd think you'd capitulate just a bit more to me, hmm?"

Fear gripped Annie. She couldn't make herself move - she could barely even breathe for fear of upsetting the unstable girl towering above.

"I owned each of those people fair and square, Annie. They were mine to do with as I saw fit." May's bare foot slid across the floor, her big toe coming to a stop directly in front of Annie's face. "And now you will apologize by licking my toe."

Before she knew what she was doing, Annie's tongue was dragging against the uneven surface of May's toe, bottom to top, over and over. She whimpered while she licked, and even raised her hand to the side of the toe for support.

From above, May chuckled. "Good girl," she praised. "This is how you show gratitude. Not by questioning every move I make, trying to be some annoying, blue-haired Jiminy Cricket. No, from now on you'll show gratitude through mindless, bestial submission. Does that sound doable to you?"

"Mmhmm," Annie said, terrified to remove her tongue from the toe for longer than it took to begin another lick.

"Speak, dog."

"Yes ma'am, I can do that, I swear."

"Hmm," May said, putting a finger to her lips. "'Ma'am'. It doesn't really have the right ring to it anymore, does it? I mean, it was fine when we were mostly-equals, and you were just politely observing our roles in society. But now... now it's more than that - now I'm more than that - and I deserve a title fitting that, don't you think?"

"W-whatever you think is best," Annie said hurriedly.

"How about... Lady Lancrest? Try it out."

"Yes, Lady Lancrest."

Giggling, May crouched down and lifted her subject to her face. "That was good! I like the name a lot, don't you?"

"I do, Lady Lancrest."

"Then it stays." May nodded and placed Annie back on the nightstand. "Earlier you asked what's keeping you alive," the giantess said as she once more slipped under her covers and pulled her laptop up off the floor. "The answer used to be your father; my parents would kill me if you died before we had the chance to rub my victory in his face. But now the answer is you."

"M-me?"

"Stay good, and you live." May opened the laptop, doing a few things before continuing her thought with a shrug. "But if you ever insult me again, I'll break all your limbs and leave you in the backyard." She turned to face her slave, beaming. "'Kay?"

Annie had never considered herself a bad person. She had treated people poorly, and kept slaves, but it was the nature of society to do so. She had only done as she was raised to do, but she had good in her too. She stayed true to her family and friends, she worked hard to keep herself sharp physically and mentally. Where others allowed their affluence to make them lazy or cruel, Annie had challenged herself with a set of morals to which she stuck, no matter what. And now all the work she had put in to be good, all the times she went out of her way for others or suffered to make herself someone she could be proud of, every bit of it was meaningless. May had seemed kind and sweet, and Annie had let herself hope she would be allowed to keep a shred of her dignity, of her identity.

Such was not the case.

"Of course, Lady Lancrest."