Chương 117: Chapter 113 - The Traumatized

Content Warning: This chapter contains accidental sexual assault, physical restraint, and a situation in which the protagonist is unable to communicate that she doesn't consent. The scene is treated seriously, but readers sensitive to these subjects may wish to skip it. If you wish to skip it, the chapter is structured that you can just skip the entire thing. The subject is still discussed afterward in future chapters but not in as much detail.

Chelsea is restrained during an intimate encounter with Passion and cannot clearly withdraw consent because her mouth is clamped shut. Passion misunderstands her reactions as enjoyment and only stops once the situation becomes clear. Chelsea's servicer golem is nearly involved. The encounter does not progress further, but Chelsea is left frightened, as well as emotionally, and mentally distraught.

"Del…" Chelsea started but was cut off.

"Hush please. Let me speak," she said.

"You have Ivy. I know that. I watch everyday as you change the clothes on your servicer to more of her dirty laundry. You give me updates on how she's doing when letters arrive from home. She's not here. But I am here. The village I come from, there isn't a single person who reads. Not one. I haven't spoken to anyone in my family in well over four years. I also have no idea how they are doing. I have a younger brother. He's younger than you. I don't know how he's doing. I have been alone here Chelsea.

Then you showed up. This little white demon of chaos." Chelsea sat very still. Delilah was rambling. The wine was definitely in control of some of the words, but not all of them. There was too much truth beneath the uneven pace. Too much loneliness. Too much of something Delilah had been carrying long before the wine gave her permission to say it. Chelsea knew what loneliness looked like when it finally found a door. She had seen it in Freya. She had felt it in herself.

Delilah's hands kept moving through her hair, finishing the braid with the same care she had started with, even while her voice became less steady.

"You're beautiful, frustrating, brilliant, confusing and more driven than anyone else here. Somewhere along the way I fell for you. I know we are supposed to take you home in two and a half years but that's just for inspection. You will be a Valkyr for life Chelsea. I'm watching you day in and day out dwell on a past life that just isn't your life anymore. I… I want what Deceit and Suffering have. And I desperately want it to be with you." Delilah tied off the end of Chelsea's braid with the cord.

The silence after that felt too full. Chelsea did not know what to do with it. Delilah wasn't wrong about everything, and that made it worse. Chelsea did have Ivy. Chelsea loved Ivy. Chelsea wrote her every day and missed her every night, even on the nights when she was too tired to do anything but fall into bed and hurt. But Ivy was not here. Delilah was. Delilah had seen her after the battlefield.

She had watched her shatter and had stayed when Chelsea was impossible to comfort, and now Delilah was behind her, warm and real and asking for a place Chelsea hadn't meant to offer. Delilah hugged Chelsea from behind. Chelsea's breath caught when she felt the large hand cup firmly over her left breast as part of the embrace. The touch wasn't subtle. It changed the confession from words into something immediate and physical, and Chelsea's thoughts scattered for a moment. She liked Delilah.

Of course she liked Delilah. She trusted her, fought beside her, shared a room with her, and had just spent the day trying to spoil her because Delilah deserved to feel wanted by someone. Did Chelsea like her romantically? She didn't know. She had not let herself ask that question because she had Ivy. Now the question was in the room anyway. What happened after the inspection in two and a half years? Would Chelsea go home only to be approved for another term?

Would she return to Valhalla because the world needed Havoc? What about Ivy? Ivy had gone home. Ivy had removed Chelsea from her bank account. Was that distance? Was it a clean break Chelsea hadn't been told about yet? If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Chelsea just didn't know. Here was Delilah, beautiful and lonely and drunk enough to be brave. She was offering something Chelsea could not pretend was casual. Maybe she was offering it badly.

Maybe she would regret the method in the morning. But the heart behind it was real. And Chelsea was tired. Tired of being good and of being careful. Tired of wanting people who were not there while people who were there reached for her with shaking hands and an honest voice. These were supposed to be her college years. Experimentation was common, wasn't it?

"Here, let me help you," Delilah said seductively into Chelsea's ear. She lifted the demon girl and placed her on her back.

"Delilah, I…"

"I remember you saying feeling powerless was one of your things." A mischievous voice crept into Delilah's words. She moved before Chelsea could answer properly. Chelsea's arms were lifted above her head with no effort at all, and Delilah pinned her wrists in place. Her other hand turned Chelsea's face gently to the side, keeping her jaw held shut enough that Chelsea couldn't speak. For one confused moment, Chelsea thought she understood. Her body reacted before her mind did.

The strength difference, the lack of control, the weight holding her in place, all of it touched something she had admitted too freely and too honestly. She had trusted Delilah with that truth. She had trusted Delilah with a lot of truths today. This could still be okay. It could be embarrassing. It could be too much. It could be something they laughed about later when the wine wore off and Chelsea finally figured out how to explain where the line was.

Delilah caught Chelsea's tail and pinned it too, tucking it beneath her shin. The room seemed to shrink. Chelsea tried to make a sound, but Delilah's hand kept her jaw clamped. The playfulness began to feel wrong. It was still Delilah above her, still her friend, still the woman who had trusted Chelsea with her real name and confessed something fragile while braiding her hair. That was why Chelsea did not panic immediately. Then Delilah looked across the room.

"Servicer. Come to the bed." The servicer obeyed. Chelsea's eyes opened wide. No. No no no. That was not what she wanted. Her thoughts scattered so fast she could barely hold onto them. She couldn't move her arms. She could not pull her tail free or speak. Chelsea desperately wanted to tell Delilah that the game had stopped being a game the moment the servicer became part of it. The golem began crossing the room in Ivy's robe. That made it so so much worse. Chelsea tried to jerk away, but Delilah held her easily.

Her body was still reacting in ways that made everything more confusing, but her mind had gone cold with fear. She was trapped beneath someone stronger than her, unable to say no, while the thing wearing Ivy's scent came closer because Delilah had told it to.

"Here he comes." Delilah bent close and nibbled at Chelsea's ear. Chelsea was too far into panic for anything to feel the way Delilah thought it should. The fear inside her rose so sharply that something else moved with it. Celeste. Control shifted. Delilah still had the body pinned. Chelsea still felt everything, still understood everything, but Celeste took what little movement remained and used it. Delilah gasped playfully.

"He's here." The servicer had reached the side of the bed. Chelsea could see the hem of Ivy's robe in the corner of her vision. Celeste did something with their tail. It was something strange and more precise than what Chelsea was capable of. Celeste always showed off that the tail was not just a limb but a demon part, flexible in ways she had never practiced.

Celeste flattened the pinned section enough to slide it under Delilah's shin, curling the tip back on itself inch by inch until the heart-shaped end came free. The movement was tiny. Delilah didn't notice until it was too late. Celeste snapped the tail around the servicer's ankle and yanked. The golem fell hard. It hit the floor with a heavy crack that shook the bedframe. Delilah froze with confusion written across her face. Her hand loosened from Chelsea's face.

Chelsea seized control back from Celeste and sucked in a broken breath.

"Please get off of me. Please. Please Passion. Please get off of me." The words came out through tears. Delilah released her immediately. For a moment, she only stared. Then she backed off the bed, hands raised slightly, face draining of color. Chelsea scrambled away from her. She stumbled off the mattress and grabbed for her pouch with shaking hands. Broken rings slid onto her fingers one after another. She reached for Pundukarack's head and slammed the helmet on before curling into a tight ball on the floor.

New title acquired: The Humiliated. New title acquired: The Traumatized. The words appeared and vanished, but Chelsea barely saw them. Her whole body trembled. The servicer remained fallen beside the bed, still wearing Ivy's robe. Delilah stood frozen near the mattress.

"Chelsea. I thought that's what you wanted!" Delilah yelled in what seemed like… anger?

"You were moaning. You wanted it!" Chelsea folded tighter around herself. The door slammed open shockingly loudly. Freya stood in the doorway. The room went silent.

"Freya," Passion meekly said.

"I-I thought it was OK." Freya entered without a word. She crossed the room, bent down, and picked up the sobbing mess on the floor. Chelsea flinched even at Freya's touch, but Freya held her carefully, close enough to carry and loose enough not to trap her. Chelsea shook in her arms. Freya turned to leave with her. She had only one thing to say.

"You broke her, Passion. This was a lot. Even for you." Then they were gone.