An old debt repaid

"Just stay right there, dear, let me get a proper look at you." The crazy woman purred and suddenly Marcus couldn't move a muscle. Stranger still, he wasn't even worried about it. This all felt like some weird dream, like he was just watching it happen to someone else. "There we are." She nodded. Suddenly she was circling around him, gliding over the floor as her gorgeous eyes drifted up and down his body. "All these years spent watching from afar, but nothing quite compares to seeing you in the flesh. Do you know who I am, dear?"

"No." Marcus answered, suddenly able to move his mouth and speak. The rest of him was still stuck in place, not that he tried to move. She wanted him to stay still, so stay still he did.

"Your parents didn't tell you." The woman tutted. "How very naughty of them. I shall have to punish them even worse now. I am your owner, dear. You were sold to me before you were even born, for the cost of a spell that saved your kingdom. Yet when the time came to hold up their end of the bargain, your silly Mother and Father refused to give you to me. Instead, they lured me into a trap and tried to have me killed."

"What?!" The young prince gasped, feeing a sudden white-hot anger inside him at the wicked behavior of his parents. How dare they do that to this nice woman! They deserved to get punished, really badly! Like sent to bed with no supper for two whole weeks!

"Fools that they are, your parents believed me dead after their naughty little scheme destroyed my body." The woman continued, still circling him slowly, until she suddenly stopped right in front of his face. When her haunting eyes met his, the young prince felt that same odd calm descend over him, and suddenly it didn't matter what his parents had done anymore. He knew he should be mad about it, but the bad feelings just slipped away, like a wet stone he couldn't quite hold on to. "It has taken me many years to regain my physical form and gather the power to take this castle, but now you are mine, and so are they. A whole family of pretty new toys to play with. So delightful." She clapped her hands like a happy child. "Ah, but if I am your owner, should you not be kneeling in front of me?"

Marcus was panicking suddenly. Why wasn't he on his knees? He tried to collapse forward at the feet of this perfect woman, but his legs still refused to move. His stomach twisted, the pain of disobeying her sharp and sickening. He shouldn't just be kneeling, he should be grovelling on the floor, worshiping this perfect goddess!

"Please." He whimpered hoarsely, tears in his eyes.

"Please what, dear?" The woman asked, cocking her head like she really didn't understand him.

"Please let me kneel and kiss your feet!" The young prince screamed.