to make decisions themselves. They wouldn’t need to submit to anyone.”
“Even the weak humans choose their own mates?”
“Of course.”
“But what happens if the mate you choose doesn’t like your flavor?” she asks.
“Then you find a mate who does.”
“But what if you don’t want another mate?”
“Then there is nothing you can do about it. Kind of like how Licorice can do nothing about taking you as his mate now that you are with me.”
“It’s not the same,” she says. “If somebody doesn’t have a mate and you want them to be your mate you should be able to take them.”
“It isn’t fair to that person, though. You don’t think it is fair for all women to be submissives, so why do you think it is fair for anyone to be a submissive?”
“Some people are supposed to be submissives. Some people are supposed to be dominants.”
“But why?”
“Because that’s how it is,” she says.
“But we could easily be equals,” he says. “If we could be equals then anyone can be equals.”
“We are not equals,” she says. “I am a dominant and you are a submissive. That is how it is.”
“But if you just open your mind . . .”
“No,” she says. “That is how it is.”
The infection under Franklin’s skin is getting more and more agonizing. It is like his flesh is rotting under the green candy. The swelling around his false limbs is becoming so ballooned that it feels as if the limbs are going to pop off.
The only thing that numbs the pain is giving Jujy oral sex. Every other hour, he finds himself digging his tongue between her thighs to suck out the strawberry drug. He has become addicted to it. Whenever she is away on a long hunt, Franklin goes through withdrawal. Besides the intense aches and pains, he gets emotionally unstable, paranoid, depressed, angry. He sweats and shivers in a corner. When she returns home, Franklin attacks her like a dog. He wraps his arms around her thighs and buries his nose in her crotch, inhaling the drug feverishly.
She says, “Just a moment. After I put the food away, I’ll let you lick me in the bedroom.”
When they are in the bedroom, Jujy has him kneel in the doorway and wait for him. She gets on the bed and spreads her legs. Then she has him crawl across the floor towards her.
The way she smiles when he licks her is more than just a smile of physical pleasure. Franklin can tell that she also smiles because she knows that he needs to lick her. He thinks she enjoys knowing that he suffers whenever he is not licking her. Sometimes she won’t let him give her oral sex for a while. Franklin believes that she does this because she likes to watch him squirm. She wants him to beg her to let him do it.
When the drug seeps into Franklin’s mind, he calms down. His eyelids droop shut. He lays his cheek on the soft flesh below Jujy’s belly button and takes deep breaths as all the pain and stress dissipates from his flesh. These are his favorite moments of the day, until Jujy smacks him on the forehead and forces him to continue pleasuring her.
One time, after Franklin gives Jujy oral sex and lays his head on the soft place below Jujy’s belly button, he notices that the flesh is much firmer than usual. It is also much more plump.
He rubs her belly and says, “What is wrong? It’s hard.”
Jujy looks down at it.
“What?” she says, looking down at his face between her legs.
Her belly is slowly expanding.
“It can’t be . . .” she says.
She rubs the swollen area with both of her hands.
“It’s a baby,” she says.
She looks at Franklin with a very serious, almost angry face. “I’m actually growing a baby inside me. Our coupling was successful.”
Franklin watches as her belly continues to grow. “Why is your belly expanding so quickly?”
She looks down at her pregnant stomach. “Because there is a baby growing inside of me.”
“But why is it growing so fast?”
“Because I’m healthy,” she says. “I make sure to eat plenty of meat.”
Franklin just watches her belly as she rubs herself, trying to feel the being inside of her.
Then she wraps her arms around him and kisses him gently.
“We’re really going to have offspring together,” she says. “Now I never have to mate with Licorice. You can be my mate forever.”
Lying in bed together, the marshmallow puppy sleeping between their feet, it dawns on Franklin that he is going to have a child with the creature who killed his siblings. He wonders what the child will look like when it is born. Will it be human, candy person, or a mixture? Will its hair be blonde or pink cotton candy? Will its skin be made of human flesh or white taffy? Will its teeth be razor sharp or will Jujy have to file them to points? Franklin decides he doesn’t want to think about it.
“Now that we have successfully mated,” Franklin asks Jujy. “Can I be unchained from the bed?”
She moans as if he has just pulled her out of sleep.
“Now that I’m pregnant I’m allowed to let you go if I want to,” she says. “But I don’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“I want you to stay here,” she says.
“I won’t leave. I just don’t want to be chained up anymore.”
“You can only be unchained when I’m ready for you to leave, but I don’t want you to leave. Ever.”
“I promise I won’t leave.”
“I take you out on walks,” she says. “Isn’t that enough for you? No dominants ever give their submissives as many freedoms as I give you. By the time this baby is born you will have to learn your place. You will stay chained so that you can care for our child while I am away. Then we will start another mating period and have another child. Then we will do it again. It is my duty as a dominant to make sure you stay in the home and take care of the offspring.”
Franklin doesn’t respond. He rolls over and tries to sleep. He is beginning to realize that he needs to escape as soon as he can. If he doesn’t get out soon enough he will be trapped in this life Jujy has created for him until the day he dies.
Jujy is gone on a hunt and Franklin is on the floor, writhing in pain. The marshmallow puppy licks the salt from his ear as he sweats from withdrawal. The infection under the candy coating is worse than it has ever been. He reopens the crack in his torso and sticks a thin sharpened candy cane inside to scratch the itchiness. A foul odor creeps out of the hole. It is getting gangrenous. When he pulls out the candy cane, there are three dead ants stuck to it and one that is still alive.
Franklin knows that he has to get to a hospital as soon as possible or else he will die from the infection. He can’t wait around for Jujy to take him on walks, mapping the rest of the cavern slowly over the course of several days. He has to find his way to the exit now. He has to free himself from his bonds and get out before Jujy gets back.
He pushes the puppy away from his face and crawls into the bedroom. He uses his cane to stand himself up. Examining the chain that is attached to the bedpost, he isn’t sure how he’ll be able to free himself without breaking the chain. Jujy has been able to hook him and unhook him with ease, but the chain looks as if it is molded into the bedpost. He doesn’t want to break the chain because if he can’t find his way out of the cave he’ll need to be able to chain himself back to the bed so that Jujy won’t know he was ever gone. For some reason his super brain isn’t able to figure it out. He wonders if it hasn’t been working properly with all the candy sprinkled on it.
After fiddling with the chain for a few minutes, unable to work it out, he decides that he doesn’t have a
