Why are you sitting there?

The question hangs in the air between us, and I consider how to respond. Honestly, I thought it was obvious. I stand and again put my foot on the first step, and again she tenses up. We stare at one another for a few breaths, and she shows no sign of moving or speaking. "That's why." I say softly, and sit back down again.

As I sit, I try to consider what options I may have when suddenly a voice cries out from behind me. "Oh, come ON!" I whip around in my chair, and see Nightmare staring at me through the open window. Her hands and massive breasts pressed against the glass, watching us intently and obviously frustrated. "Fucking DO something!" She yells at me through the glass while pointing at Sheila with one hand and fondling herself with another. "If you don't, then I'm gonna..." Whatever she planned to describe to us disappears as Melanie jumps into the frame, 'barking' loudly. nightmare backs off with a grunt and Melanie gives chase.

I turn back to Sheila with a confused look, who is also looking out the window, and see she is actually smiling. The corners of her lips are drawn up and back while the center is open slightly, exposing a few of her front teeth. More than that, I see a light in her eyes for the first time. She almost seems mischievous and elf like. After a second, she looks down at me again and it all fades. "Master, may I..." she begins, before immediately correcting herself. "I... I have a question. Did the... clerk explain this place to you?"

"He did, I may have missed something I guess? There was a lot to look at."

Her brow furrows a bit. "He told you about me, right?"

I nod.

"First Master." Her breath hitches and her tail swings around to rest in her lap and she hugs it like a stuffed animal. "First Master had some **** tastes. I could not handle them. I was not strong enough." The bile rises in my throat and I **** it back. There will be time to help her later. "The cage and hot things were the worst."

"Hot things?" I ask without thinking.

She reaches up and touches a patch of bare skin around her left eye I hadn't yet noticed, and catch hints of a burn scar. I imagine her former owner being **** to **** by living fire, and declare it to be a 'good start'.

"We are designed here. Nightmare is strong and dominant, because she was made that way. Yet, she also wants to be nothing else, so it makes no difference that she had ****. She is who she wants to be because she is supposed to." She looks at me for recognition, and I gesture for her to continue. "If first master was submissive, he would have been drawn to her because of who she is."

"Right." I follow.

Through the bare skin around her eye, a blush shows.

"I am me." With that, she hugs herself to her tail. All I can see is a pair of eyes poking out of a pile of black and white fluff.

My gears turn, and some things I had refused to consider are finally allowed in. I open my dry mouth. "You... WANTED him to do those things?"

I hear a squeak through all the fur and wait. "Not all."

"Sheila, you should have stood up for yourself, said no, fought back," I begin, when suddenly she closes her eyes and yells from behind her own tail.

"I can NOT!"

I stop.

"I am ME! I was made to do First Masters every bidding! I wanted to do everything he did to me because it is what I am! I am ashamed of failing him because I cannot feel any other way!" Her eyes open, soaking wet, "Understand."

She wasn't asking if I HAD understood, she was begging me to understand.

"Alright." I said at last.

Idly, she stoked her tiny hand over a hole in the fur of her tail.

"Master?" She began, just as before, but then places her hand on the top step next to her and pats it lightly. As if asking me to join her.