But I'm on my way

Ella trembled like a leaf outside the door to the Master’s Suite. She’d barely managed to push herself off the elevator when it arrived at the top floor, and her legs refused to take her any further than that. Her body was petrified in place by the fear of what was to come.

I got out of having to clean the suite before. But now… I don’t know. Ella swallowed, but it did nothing to push down the lump in her throat. Her emotions were running away from her, and she was having trouble keeping them under control.

“THWAP!”

She snapped the rubber-band on her wrist, the way she always did when she felt Cinder trying to take over. She had to keep the malevolent side of herself at heel. She didn’t want to make the situation even worse- especially when she didn’t know what “even worse” would look like.

All she knew was that it was hard to make things seem worse than they already were.

“Ah…” Her voice cracked in her throat as she tried to say something, anything. Maybe words of confidence or encouragement? Something to relieve herself? Well, whatever she had planned, it certainly wasn’t working, because she just felt nauseous.

And the clothes she was wearing didn’t help.

Back when she was living with her stepfamily, they didn’t make her dress up like this. She wouldn’t have been afforded such luxury. They made her wear old rags, while decking themselves out in fine clothes paid for with her father’s money. But this outfit…

It looked nice. Ella couldn’t deny that. A starched white apron as pure as snow, over a black dress with plenty of frills. She was obviously dressed up in the part of a maid, headdress and all, but just because you put a pretty package on something didn’t make the contents any less horrific.

• Putting the “Sweet” in Suite: Cinder and Ella are the master’s new maids. Every day, in preparation for the master’s night with another contestant, they must arrive one hour in advance to clean the Master’s Suite, wearing a maid costume. They may not remove this outfit until the housekeeping is completed. While cleaning, the master has the right to sexually harass them at his leisure. [NOTE: Only actions that have already been done consensually with one of the personas are permitted.] (Maid)

She would have to clean again. There was no avoiding that. And not only would she have to clean, but she opened herself up to all manner of harassment from Nick. Not that she expected he would ever do those things, but… how well did she know him? He seemed so nice during their time together, but she could only remember bits and pieces of it. Cinder had controlled her through parts of that date, and clearly, she’d made things a lot worse.

Ella had agreed to come onto this show because she wanted a chance to experience something she’d never had before. She’d wanted a chance at romance. She never would have imagined meeting people like Dawn and Morgana who seemed to really care about her, but…

That didn’t matter right now. What mattered was Nick, and what he was going to do. What he expected her to do. Frankly, if it was up to Ella, she wouldn’t even come here. But it wasn’t.

Her transformation compelled her to act. So that’s what she would do.

No matter how uneasy it made her.

“Ah! Look at you! Showing up early- how punctual!”

Ella jumped, and bit back a scream. She whirled around and stared in wide-eyed horror as someone else popped out of the elevator behind her.

It was one of the other women. The blonde one with the French accent. And to go along with her accent, she was dressed as a French maid.

What was her name again? Roseanne? Rose? Rosie? Ella couldn’t remember, but it was a flowery name. A fitting descriptor for a girl who had clearly blossomed much more than she had, judging by her curvaceous figure.

“Sorry I’m late,” the other girl greeted her, sauntering over to Ella with an apologetic smile on her lips that failed to reach her eyes, which glimmered mischievously. “I had to drop off Marley for the night… finally, Carly’s taking some responsibility for her sister, leaving me open to get down to business.”

“Wha… huh?” Ella shook her head numbly, not sure what to make of the situation in front of her. “…What do you mean?” She finally asked. “Why… why are you here?”

“For the same reason you are, of course!” Rose tittered. “I’m here to provide service! Just like a good maid should for her master!”

Ella, innocent as she was, missed the suggestive implications in Rose’s voice when she said “service” although she probably wouldn’t have gotten it regardless. She just stared blankly at the other woman, not sure what to say.

Luckily, Rose was sure for the both of them.

“You’re Ella, right? My name’s Rose. I suppose we haven’t talked much, have we?” Rose introduced herself with an extended hand, figuring that the uneasy girl would probably bolt if she kissed her cheeks.

“Oh! Um… yeah… Ella… I’m still Ella…” Ella mumbled, curling in on herself a little. She snapped her rubber-band.

“So are we gonna just sit out here wasting our time away?” Rose questioned. “Or are you ready to get to work?”

She turned towards the door, ignoring Ella’s anxiety and the tension in the air.

Ella’s eyes widened and she blanched at the prospect of entering. “W-wait!” She stopped Rose before the other woman could head inside. “Um… um!”

She needed to think fast, to come up with an excuse of some kind. But her brain was shorting out on her right now.

“…Why are you here?” She finally managed to spit out, pivoting to a question she was rather confused by.

Rose blinked and stared at Ella in confusion.

“…I came here to help,” she said calmly. “Because Nick needs someone to lend him a hand, while you… lend him a hand.”

Again, Ella had no idea what Rose was getting at with that. She stared blankly at the other girl, trying to make sense of why she would come all this way just for work when Ella would have done anything to get out of cleaning duties like this.

“So come on, we can’t keep him waiting! I think our ‘master’ has been pent-up enough, don’t you?” Rose joked, not realizing her words were falling on deaf ears, or just how unnerved and shaken Ella was at the prospect of what was coming. She had other ideas on her mind regardless. After Sylvia’s little altercation with Nick earlier in the afternoon, Rose had been laying it on pretty thick. The reason for that? She wanted to get him worked up for tonight. Nick had made it clear that he didn’t want to bring her into the Master’s Suite to have sex, since that would be an affront to Dani. But Rose’s bounty sheet said otherwise. So if she entered for another purpose, and Nick just so happened to get all hot and bothered by her in a maid outfit like he was this morning, well…

Anything could happen. And it wouldn’t really be her fault at all, would it?

That was the tenuous logic that dragged Rose up to the Master’s Suite this afternoon, along with the promise of 100 BP.

Without giving it another thought, Rose swung the door open wide and flounced into the Master’s Suite with far more entitlement than any maid would naturally have.

“Good afternoon, master!” Rose bowed to Nick immediately, who reacted with surprise upon seeing her. “Your loyal housekeeping staff is here to greet you!”

“R-Rose?” Nick stammered. He’d been expecting Ella to show up, because that was what her transformation required. But Rose?

“I came here to give you a taste of my services, master!” Rose explained calmly. She gestured to Ella, who was petrified in the entryway. “I thought perhaps you might like another maid, while your current one is getting used to the ropes.”

Holly watched from the corner, unimpressed. Nick already had a maid! And if Rose or Ella wanted to upstage her, they’d have to do a lot better than this!

Nick just shook his head slowly. He supposed he should have seen this coming given the way Rose had acted this morning, but he thought that was just another whim of hers. He didn’t expect that she’d been preparing for something like this.

As much as he loved Rose, she could do things sometimes that made him want to scream, and this was definitely one of those times.

Rose turned back and looked at Ella, her face barely able to hide her frustration.

“Come on,” she urged the other girl, trying to be as friendly as possible. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, cleaning this whole place!”

Ella winced. She **** herself to walk forward, but she couldn’t get rid of the doubt and anxiety welling up in her chest.

Only one thing could help her try.

“THWAP!” She snapped her rubber-band again, but it barely did anything. The Master’s Suite was spinning around her in all its ornate and ostentatious glory. It made her feel uneasy and out of place- she wasn’t used to being around such finery.

“Welcome.” Mary rose from the table and approached Ella, ignoring Rose entirely. The blonde clearly wasn’t here for her, and Ella needed more support regardless. “I’m Mary. I thought that… maybe we should talk?”

“Um…” Ella felt her mouth get dry.

Mary lowered her head apologetically. “I’m sorry for my outburst earlier,” she apologized. “Saying you were possessed by a demon. I overreacted.”

“N-no, that… that…” Ella stammered, trying to find the right words to help assuage the other woman’s feelings.

That isn’t too far off.

“I’m glad that you’ll be spending more time here,” Mary said, trying to put on a supportive face. “If you need anything, just let me know, alright? Nick told me all about the time you two shared together… and I’m here to support you.”

Ella swallowed. She glanced at Nick, who looked a little guilty, but not too much.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “But I had to tell her. I know it was private, but since you’re going to be spending so much time here, I thought that it was only fair that Mary know the truth.”

“N-no, that… that’s fine…” Ella mumbled. She’d already been resigned to this outcome for a while now. Ever since Dawn and Morgana had revealed the truth and brought Cinder out to the surface after breakfast, she knew that her… condition… would be a quickly-revealed secret.

No sense in complaining about it now.

“Anyway, I don’t have a problem with it,” Mary said warmly. “If you need support, or if there’s anything we can do to make your job more comfortable, you just let me know, okay? I’ll look out for you, Ella! Promise!”

She tilted her head to the side and smiled cutely. Ella felt a little nervous again.

She’s so pretty… and so kind. No wonder Nick married her. Ella had been dreaming of a faerie tale romance for some time. Back in her worst moments, she’d imagined that some handsome prince would rescue her from her captivity and bring her happiness.

That had never happened, and the matter had been resolved in a different way. Ella wasn’t thrilled by that outcome, but it was a sad reality.

Now, she had some level of romance in her life. In a manner of speaking, anyway. She was close with a boy for the first time in forever. It just so happened that her prospective suitor had several other women fawning over him- like the blonde maid was doing at this very moment.

“So I was thinking, Nick- ooh, how about I call you ‘master’? Would that get you more into things?” Rose wiggled her eyebrows. “Remember, any time you want me to turn on my All Work and Role Play transformation so I can really start getting into character, you just let me know, okay?” She cooed with a saucy wink.

Out of politeness for his infatuated paramour, Nick fought down the groan welling up in his chest.

“Rose… we talked about this,” he said, shaking her off of him. “Tonight is my night with Dani. I’m not going to let you tag along just so you can have sex with me.”

“Aww…” Holly groaned from the corner. Mary glanced disapprovingly at her.

“It’s not like I have to stay…” Rose sighed, twirling her finger in circles over his shirt. “But there’s still a full hour left before Dani’s going to show up… plenty of time for the two of us to have some fun…”

Mary cleared her throat loudly.

“I thought you were here to clean?” She pointed out.

Rose’s expression soured. But a scowl wasn’t a suitable look for a gorgeous maid, so she quickly replaced it with a smile.

“As you wish!” She said with an elegant curtsy. “Now Ella, where would you like to start first? How about the cage, can you handle that? I’ll work on clearing the table in the meantime.”

Ella’s jaw dropped. “C-cage?!” She squeaked, and realized that Rose wasn’t just messing around with her. No, there really WAS a cage in the Master’s Suite, which she hadn’t noticed until just now. It was sitting in the corner and filled with crumpled newspapers like a dog kennel. And a very soft mattress as well.

Did… did someone live in there?!

Ella raised her head and looked up at Nick, the fear obvious in her eyes.

“Wh-why… why do you have a cage?” She stammered, taking a step back.

“Whoa, hold on, it’s not what you think!” Nick held up his hands, realizing how this made him look. “I didn’t… that’s… Holly! Explain!”

Not able to come up with anything that didn’t sound like an obvious excuse or make him look like a creep, Nick looked to the person whose responsibility this whole mess was in the first place in order to take the heat off himself.

Unfortunately, that person was Holly.

“There’s nothing to worry about!” Holly happily informed Ella. “That cage is for my use! I sleep there, to help enjoy myself while master takes his enjoyment from other women.”

Ella looked at Holly and felt sick to her stomach.

“H-he… he keeps his maids in cages?” She took another step back. It looked like she was about to turn and bolt out of the room, if she wasn’t stuck in here until the job was done.

“Holly, did you have to say it like that?” Nick groaned. He would have to do this himself. “Okay, Ella, it’s not a big deal,” he tried to reassure her. “See, part of Holly’s exit transformation, after she got eliminated from the harem, involved her being locked up in a cage. That’s it. Now, I know that’s a little weird… hell, what am I saying? That’s REALLY fucking weird. But she likes it, for some ungodly reason. Don’t worry- I promise no one is going to lock you up in a cage.”

Ella wanted to believe him, she really did.

“B-but… what about the other stuff?” She mumbled. “My… my transformation says… it says you can harass me whenever you want, so…”

As awful as Ella’s stepfamily had been, they’d never taken advantage of her in that way before.

Ella wasn’t positive that the same could be said for Nick.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that!” Rose popped up and patted Ella on the shoulder. “Don’t you remember what your transformation said? Nick might be able to harass you at his leisure, but that’s only for stuff that you’ve already consensually agreed to do with him. If you haven’t done anything with him yet- and judging by the number on your hand, you haven’t- then he can’t do anything with you!”

Ella glanced at the number on her hand, which still read “43” just as it had when it had first appeared yesterday.

Nick scowled. “…Also, I’m not the kind of person to take advantage of other people,” he pointed out, miffed that Rose had conveniently ignored that part.

“My apologies, master, but I don’t think that’s going to help her,” Rose replied, shaking her head and walking over to him. She cupped her fingers on his shoulder and rested her chin on it, staring up into his eyes. “Now, you and I know that you’re too much of a sweetheart to ever do such naughty and debauched things to an innocent girl like that… not with this beastly weapon right here…”

She reached her hand down and brushed her fingers against the front of his pants, just so slightly insulted by the lack of an erection from him. But she pushed past that.

“…But Ella doesn’t know that,” she pointed out. “Look at her, the poor thing… it looks like she’d fall over with a soft breeze!”

Nick glanced at Ella and saw how paralyzed she seemed.

“I hate to say this, but Rose is right,” Mary admitted. “Nick… we all know you’re a nice guy who would never take advantage of someone… but Ella’s only just met you. Trust takes time to build, we both know that.”

Mary remembered how easily she’d doubted Nick, way back when. Those feelings were a black mark on their history together, and something she regretted deeply.

“Sorry for not providing you with a glowing character reference,” Rose said, winking at him. “But it’ll be easier for her to relax if I pointed out that you can’t do anything to her, rather than just saying you wouldn’t.”

Nick couldn’t argue with that pretty sound logic. He turned to Ella with an apologetic look on his face.

“…Ella, Rose is right,” he admitted. “I promise, I wouldn’t ever do anything to you that you wouldn’t want me to. But if you can’t believe that yet, then I hope you’ll believe at least that I can’t, since that’s what your transformation says.”

Ella let out the breath she had been holding and replied with a shaky nod. While she wasn’t fully convinced by Rose’s statements or Nick’s words, it helped her relax just a little bit.

Now, if only he could do something to make the actual cleaning part of this a little easier, that would be ideal.

“And besides, Ella, even if he could do whatever he wanted, he wouldn’t,” Rose assured the other girl with a wink. “After all… I’m here! And why bother harassing you, when he could have the gorgeous moi all to himself?”

She turned to Nick and batted her eyelashes. Nick rolled his eyes and shook himself out of her grip again.

“Nick!” Rose pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Did you really just come here to play out your master/maid fantasies?” Nick asked.

“Well, not my fantasies…”

“I don’t have those fantasies!” Nick could see where she was going with this, and cut her off before she could even put the idea out there. “Come on, Rose, that stuff doesn’t do it for me.”

Rose stared at him, unconvinced. She glanced pointedly at the cage in the corner. Meanwhile, Holly sighed in disappointment.

Mary just turned to Ella with an apologetic look on her face, wishing that Ella’s first day working this job could have started a little better.

“Sorry you have to go through with all this stuff,” she apologized, shaking her head. “But hopefully, you’ll come to see that all this… it’s not so bad, once you get used to it!”

Ella tried to smile through it, she really did. But she still wasn’t convinced that this all wasn’t going to blow up in her face at some point.

And the uncomfortable churning in the back of her mind told her that Cinder wasn’t convinced of that either.