It could be worse?

Laney woke with a jolt, breathing hard. She was in a dim room, lying on a couch. The room was half-paneled with a dark blue wallpaper. There was a small bar and a very nice card table with a vintage looking lamp hanging above it. Over the loudness of her own breath and the pounding of her heart Holly could hear the sounds of the bar coming from outside the room. She checked herself, she seemed intact and unharmed. The tears came.

After a few minutes she pulled herself together and walked to the door, opened it slowly, adjusting to the light.

Someone walking past saw her and said something. A few minutes later a lady appeared in the doorway. Her lips were moving but the words weren’t registering. Holly was hanging on to the door and the doorframe. She was dizzy, and the light hurt her eyes. She felt like she needed to throw up. The lady led her back to the couch.

. . .

When Holly woke up she was in a bed, her old bed, back home. Light was coming in the window. She was wearing an old nightgown, a relic from her former life. She laid there for a minute as the night before came back to her.

“Oh, Holly, you’re awake!” Her mother cried from the other side of her bed. Holly was quickly smothered in her mother’s embrace.

“I’m so sorry baby, I’m so sorry.” She said.

“I’m okay mom, really, I’m okay.” It was a lie, but not a big lie. She was shook but she hadn’t been hurt.

“They said some local guys stopped you from being taken. They have the guys names who drugged you, you’ll have to go to the station and tell them what happened. You don’t have to press charges, the bar is taking. . .” Her mother was talking fast, she was nervous and upset.

“Mom.” Holly said, putting her hand on her mother’s arm. “Please.”

“I’m sorry, I just. . . I’m sorry baby.”

“What time is it?” Holly asked.

“It’s 11 AM. We got you last night around two-thirty.”

Just a little over 8 hours of sleep after being drugged didn’t line up with what she had read. “I don’t feel drugged anymore.” Holly stated.

“Yeah, one silver lining of the curse is your body processes toxins and drugs faster. Side effects are lesser too. I don’t think it is intended, some kind of secondary benefit to the whole not letting us die thing.”

Some silver lining. Probably explains why she could always outdrink her friends in college yet was rarely hung-over.

Her mom fretted over her for about 15 minutes more before Holly was able to convince her she was fine. Really, Holly just wanted to be alone. Knowing those guys had drugged her was unnerving. She had been desperate to find someone to fuck and still they drugged her. It terrified her. Holly laid back down. The life she was living, trying to avoid having a master, trying to beat the curse and end the line of the Purest Petersen, she didn’t know how much longer she could make it. A broken condom or some assholes like Dan and Steve and the curse would make sure she was pregnant.

Holly was furious. Guys like that, she could think of a hundred tortures, but none of them enough. The tears started back up, she had gotten lucky and she knew it. She held her pillow and cried, tried to think of anything else, but what kept coming back was dancing with Dan, working him, doing her best to convince him that he wanted to fuck her. She had wanted him, damn it. Now she knew that the whole time he had planned. . . Fuck.

A soft knock. “Hey Hol, can I come in?”

“Sure Dad.”

He walked in the door, “Are you okay?” His face fell as he heard himself ask the question. “I’m sorry, I know you aren’t, I just. . . I’m sorry you had to experience that. And I’m glad it wasn’t worse.” Her dad looked awkward, trying to find something to say to help. “I’m sorry, not glad, relieved?”

Holly stood up and walked to him, threw her arms around her dad, started crying into his chest. She felt his arms wrap around hers. He gently kissed the top of her head.

“If there’s anything I can do to help. . .” He offered.

“Just hold me, Dad.” Holly answered through her sobs.

He held her there as she cried. Her dad was an office worker, he had a bit of pudge on him. But he had always been there to support her, he had always been comforting. He smelled good too, and he was strong underneath the bit of fat he carried. His shirt was a bit sweaty, he must have been working on something, it made him smell really good. Holly squeezed him tighter and pressed her hip into his crotch, heat rose inside her as she felt his flaccid dick against her thigh.

“Fuck!” Holly cried as she pushed her dad away from her.

“Holly?” Her dad asked.

“Get out!” She screamed, moving across the room from him without looking at him.

“Holly are you okay?” His voice was scared.

“I can’t, Dad. The curse, please, just go.” She cried, holding her eyes shut, trying to think of anything but her dad.

“Holly, what’s wrong?” Her mother asked.

“The curse, please.” Holly whimpered.

She heard her mother shoo her dad out of the room and close the door.

“Holly,” her mother started before Holly cut her off.

“I can’t be here Mom.” Holly cried. “Dad, he was just trying to help.”

“It’s not your fault, Holly.”

“I know that, Mom. But I need to go, I need to deal with the curse and I can’t be around Dad like this.”

Mary Petersen drove her daughter back to her apartment. Holly spent the trip on her phone, trying to find a hook up available this afternoon from someone who looked trustworthy. Not that Holly knew what that looked like anymore. They all looked sketchy to her now, they all had the potential to betray the incredibly small amount of trust she needed to have in them. She just needed someone who could handle basic consent, and in her experience, most guys did fine with it. She told herself the odds were in her favor, but that did little to help. The reality was it only took one of them to ruin everything. One sick asshole dressed up like a fuckboy with only a reasonable level of asshole in him and the curse would win.

Fuck.

Holly was getting hornier as she rode in the car, it was getting harder to think about the men she was looking at and judge them beyond their ability to put a dick in her. She settled on three, sent messages. She just needed one of them to bite. Just one of them to answer her, come over and fuck her so she could try and get through the rest of this shit day.

One of them bit, then a second a few minutes later but she only needed the one. The car pulled up at her building, her mom walked her to her apartment. She asked to come in but Holly told her she had a guy on the way.

“Already?” Her mom asked before the realization hit her. Holly didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t wait and give herself time to process last night.

“I’m sorry Holly.” It was the sincerest sounding apology she’d ever heard her mom make. “I passed the curse onto you and you never had a choice.” Her mom was crying now, Holly grabbed her and hugged her.

“I know what you were going through mom, I can’t blame you.” Her mom already had a husband and master when she turned 25, her options were either to have a baby or ask her husband and master who loved her to allow her to constantly violate her marriage vows.

“I love you, you deserve better.” Holly heard her mom say it, she kissed her mom’s cheek then told her she needed to go before the guy arrived. Her mom turned and left. Holly went up the stairs to her apartment. She walked to her bathroom, turned on the shower, stripped out of her clothes and stood under the hot water.

“You deserve better.” It was obviously true, no one deserved to be cursed like this. But what did better even look like for Holly? What could she do to make the best of a life dominated by her curse?

A daughter. That was the only first step this curse would allow. She’d have to get pregnant and pass on the curse, sacrifice another innocent girl to a vendetta from hundreds of years before she was born. Holly would love her, do her best to raise her and then one day tell her the sick reality of her life. If her baby's life could be like Maisie's, if she could have her daughter live like that maybe she’d be okay. But Maisie was the exception, the one that got away with it. Holly couldn't guarantee that her daughter would find someone like Maisie's fiancé, or even like her dad. She couldn’t bring a little girl into this world knowing the odds. Raise her hoping for the best, but knowing what her life would most likely be.

No, that wasn't an option. So there was no better for Holly. There was only this. There was only the fight.

Holly stepped out of the shower and dried herself off. She sighed. She was starting to think she wasn't going to win this. The way the curse was changing over time, slowly getting stronger, she was very likely fighting a losing battle. She’d slip up someday. Something would go wrong and the curse would ensure she got pregnant. She could tell herself she was going to beat this and end the line, but she knew the truth. Someday, somehow, the curse was going to win.

Holly picked out a tiny black dress, skipped the panties, didn’t even put on shoes. It might be a losing fight, but Holly couldn’t stop. She would handle failing when it finally came to that point. What she wouldn’t do is be complicit in it. This damned curse would have to defeat her, and she would fight it every step of the way.

The door buzzed. Holly pushed the button to let the man into her building. She looked into the mirror and flipped the switch. Laney smiled, then walked to her apartment door and opened it.

“Laney?” The guy asked.

She nodded and moved to let him enter. She couldn't bring herself to even look him in the eye. “You brought condoms?” Laney asked.