Chapter 6Sweeter than Drugs27 January 2022Ace isn’t quite sure what happened. They are quite sure about the end-result, as they are living through it, but the steps between waking up te in the night yesterday and ending up here? She can only guess.

  It is, of course, rather easy to guess. There was a woman who grabbed her, wearing some kind of spooky robe, and then she went bck. She must have been taken down the stairs afterwards, down into the celrs of the castle. The mystery woman made sure to take off her uniform, leaving Ace in her underwear, throwing everything into the corner of the cell. She shackled the girl to the wall, ensuring she is rather cold and miserable, and left the keys on the floor just outside of the cell, and definitely outside of Ace’s reach.

  She’s called for help a few times, help that didn’t come. So she just sits here, waiting.

  There are, of course, a couple problems with her current situation. The first is that she is bored as hell, with absolutely nothing to do. Ever since waking up she’s been thinking of things to do, but her hands are above her head and rather useless, and she’s only been able to use her feet to readjust herself to be mildly more comfortable on the cold brick she’s been left in.

  Ace tried to use her feet to reach for her uniform, stretching as much as she can to take it and use it as something to cover herself with and keep a little more warm, but she failed to do even that: instead of her feet pulling the uniform closer, she kicked it further away.

  It would be too much of a metaphor if she wasn’t actually stuck in a rather stupid situation right now.

  Which leads to the second problem – she’s horrifically turned on by it all.

  Ace knew that she had something for the concept of being helplessly restrained and abandoned, though she always thought that part of it came from some psycho-sexual reinterpretation of her general fear of abandonment and a sense of being helpless in life.

  Or, what would Amy say? That she is just a very silly, very horny little girl who needs someone to fix her, whether she likes it or not. Which does rather nicely expin why her best friend made sure that Ace ended up here, of all pces.

  Just thinking about Amy’s words makes her more horny, and the fact that her position means she couldn’t possibly get any release? It’s cruel. Frustrating. Which is probably exactly what they wanted her to feel when she was taken down here.

  Ace can hear the door to the celr open, and she flinches at first, afraid that people see her. Or maybe she shouldn’t care: she will be found regardless, and she is cold and miserable and frustrated. She rattles her chains.

  “Hello?” Aoife responds. “Ace, are you in there?”

  Her roommate looks around in the cell next to Ace’s, then finally finds her.

  “Oh. You look like you’re enjoying yourself.” She says, grinning.

  “Please, could you just–” She pleads.

  “Unshackle you?” Aoife asks.

  “Yes. That’d be nice. My arms hurt.” Ace rattles the chains some more to make a point. “These things suck.”

  Aoife leans against the wall across from the cell. “Ugh. If I remove those handcuffs, then they’ll stop searching for you, and we have to do things. I’d much rather just leave you there, to be honest.”

  Ace looks up at the girl on the other side of the bars, unsure if she should be angry with her for saying that, or have expected the response the second she noticed it was Aoife who came down to look at her. “Please?” She tries again.

  “What’s in it for me?” Aoife asks. “I just lose out by freeing you. And like, you do enjoy being there., I can see it on your face and in your panties.”

  “No I– that’s not the point.” Ace pouts.

  “You probably got yourself stuck here, and then realised you couldn’t get out, did you?” Aoife looks so incredibly smug at coming up with this specific theory. “God, you’re only mildly better than Gwen, at least you act on your feelings.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Am I not correct? You put yourself in this cell.” Aoife ughs. “Oh my god. You horny little thing.”

  “I didn’t. There was this girl in like, this robe, and she took me down here.” Ace starts to stammer out in a desperate attempt to get Aoife to do something.

  “Oh? Is this girl in this building with us right now? Or does she go to another school?” She giggles.

  “I don’t know!” Ace yells.

  “You gotta come up with a better excuse than that. I’m not going to let you out if you don’t admit you got yourself stuck there. Oh, and the– the ‘something in it for me’ thing too.” Aoife kneels down to grab the keys, pying around with them in her hands.

  “You’re the worst.”

  “Thank you! I try.” Aoife smiles and for just a second it seems genuine.

  “So. Will you free me now?” Ace tries.

  “Ugh. I gave you my conditions. Take them or leave them.” She rolls her eyes. “If you want out, start thinking with your head and not with your… head.”

  Fuck it. Ace is going to be annoying too. “How long did you workshop that sentence?”

  “About two minutes. Now– Take it or leave it.” Aoife grins, knowing she’s beaten Ace around twelve times over at this point.

  “Okay. I got myself stuck here.” Ace rolls her eyes.

  “Hah. I knew you did. That’s kind of cute, really.” Aoife looks at Ace, inspecting her.

  “It’s not cute.” Ace says, blushing and pouting like she never has before. “It’s like, a really stupid thing to do.”

  “Okay. You’re cute and stupid then. Shame you’re not blonde.” Aoife giggles at her own joke. “So– You’re staying?”

  “But–”

  “There’s nothing you’re offering me, is there?”

  “I’ll– I’ll–” Ace considers what she could offer Aoife at this point. She considers a kiss, but that would be assuming that the girl would even want one from her, an annoying and not very pretty boy-thing. Which she wouldn’t. No chance. And like, she isn’t that into Aoife either. It’s the situation which is making her horny and desperate, and giving off the wrong indication would be really bad, because Aoife would bully her endlessly for it if like, she doesn’t want it–

  “You’ll?” Aoife stops walking to the door.

  “I’ll, uh, I’ll do your chores for today.” Ace offers, desperately.

  “Today and tomorrow.” The girl decides to take even more advantage of the situation.

  “Okay.” Ace says.

  “Okay? Okay what?”

  “I’ll– I’ll do your chores today and tomorrow.” Ace sighs, shaking her head.

  “Aha. Good girl.” Aoife says, and grins very evilly. She enters the cell and removes Ace’s shackles, then handing her the uniform. “Come on, put something on, will you? Not everyone wants to see your boner.”

  Ace obliges, taking the uniform and slowly putting it on. Aoife gives her some room, stepping out of the cell, and she had no time to get suspicious of what was to come before the door shut again and Aoife had locked it tight.

  “You said you’d free me!”

  “You asked me to remove your shackles. I did that.” She smirks. “And you’re much less cold now. And like, if you’re down here, and I tell them there’s no one down here, they can’t make us do chores~”

  “Oh my god. You really are the worst.”

  “Love you too, darling.” Aoife drops the keys on the floor, just out of reach from Ace. “See you tomorrow.”

  She really does feel stupid now.

  ***

  Ace really should be more flexible than this. They first try to reach for the keys on the floor by ying down uncomfortably on their chest and trying to fetch them with their hand, like one would do if they dropped their phone between the bed and the wall, hoping that at first their arm is long enough to reach it, before just sticking their shoulders under there as well and finally barely, painfully reaching it.

  Of course, unlike the phone in that scenario, she can’t reach the keys: she’s a few centimetres short of that. Even if she presses herself uncomfortably tight against the bars, she is just unable to reach them.

  The revenge she will get on Aoife when she is out will be as sweet as it will be cruel. That girl is going to regret what she did.

  Ace reconsiders her approach to reaching the keys and realises a critical fact: legs are longer than arms. If she manoeuvres her legs betweens the bars, she should be able to reach the keys, at least if she stretches.

  It’s worth a shot.

  Ace tries this approach and whilst it does hurt her legs, which are a little more thick around the thighs than she would have hoped, at least for these purposes, it does work, just about. She was able to kick the keys closer to the bars, from where she could grab them with rather minimal effort.

  One turn of the key from the outside – easier said than done, given she had to find the hole first – and she’s free.

  Free to go back upstairs and wreak some havoc.

  Ace quickly finds her way back to the first floor of the castle, walking into a mildly stunned common area in which a few of the inhabitants had gathered for what seems to be lunch.

  “Hi.” Ace says. Before she can say anything more Amy collides with her at the speed of light, or at least something near it.

  “Oh my god. There you are– I was worried sick. Where have you been? We had this whole power outage, and despite all the doors being locked, you just disappeared? Oh, wow. You look like a mess.”

  “I got stuck in the cells.” Ace whispers. “There was like, this woman in a robe and she took me there.”

  “Oh? Is she the one who left the lipstick on your cheek?” Amy asks whilst pulling slightly at the spot. “I can’t believe someone got you before I could. So–”

  Amy kisses Ace on the cheek as well, as if it is a competition, but where the first kiss mostly left Ace confused, this one just leaves her even more shy than usual.

  “Get a room, you two.” One of the two girls at the table shakes her head. She’s blond, short, and her voice sounds familiar, as if Ace should remember it from somewhere.

  Before Ace has a choice on whether she wants to do this, Amy takes her hand and sits her down on the couch, next to her, ciming her. “You’re so much worse, Fey.” Amy says.

  “What can I say? I like girls.” Fey grins.

  “Oh! I should introduce everyone.” Amy stops preparing a 4th cup of tea for a moment. “So, everyone, this is Ace– she’s mine. I brought her here. Take this as me marking my territory, girls. Peeing on the pole. Before either of you tries anything.”

  “Puppygirl doesn’t mean we act like actual dogs, Amy. Mostly.” The other girl comments.

  “Jen– I know. I just don’t respect it. It’s this whole new thing– I miss when we would uwu, owo, nyaa~ and especially colon-three.”

  “Colon-three?” Jen asks.

  “Like, the silly little face. With the three in it.”

  “Oh. We still do that.”

  “Anyway– Ace, this is Jennifer,” The brown-haired girl waves a little, and it is at this point that Ace finds herself aware enough of the world to notice the fact that the woman is wearing a colr.

  “Hi.”

  “And this is Faith–” Amy point at her other friend.

  “Hello.” She says, delicately sipping away at a gss of tea.

  “But I call her Fey, because she’s like this little monster which makes things disappear from my wardrobe and the fourth year snacks cabinet and from Jen’s weed stash.”

  “Guilty, your honour.” Fey grins.

  “This is the Ace you talked about like, all the time, right?” Jen asks.

  “Well, yes! It is. I thought she’d benefit from the great work we do here.”

  “That’s true. Everyone born male at birth would.” Fey smiles. “Either they go here, or to the Other Pce.”

  “They do not know about the Other Pce, Fey.” Amy finishes preparing Ace’s cup of tea.

  “Do I want to know?” Ace asks, blushing a little as Amy pulls an arm around her.

  “No. It’s a horrible pce.” Jen says.

  “Is it the NHS?” Ace really has no clue what they are even going on about, other than that it somehow retes to transgender healthcare.

  “It’s a private operator.” Amy says. “Nothing too interesting.”

  Jen and Fey nod along, and they quickly move on from this specific topic.

  “How are you finding our accommodations?” Fey asks, putting a little biscuit next to Ace’s tea cup.

  “It’s like a worse, hornier dorm.” Ace whispers. “My roommates are the worst. I, uh, I woke up in a cell this morning after I got myself stuck there. That’s why they were searching for me. So– Aoife found me earlier and she just taunted me and went back upstairs.”

  “Oh. That’s awful.” Jen says through what seems like a rather amused smile. “I didn’t expect her to do that.”

  “Are you to Aoife what Amy is to me? I don’t know the name.” Ace blushes.

  “She’s my friend, yes. She’s the best. I love her so much.”

  “Gwen’s mine.” Fey whispers.

  “Somehow I’m not surprised by that.” Ace whispers.

  “Amy– I’m being bullied by Ace.”

  “Good. She’s right. You give me a headache every other day.” Amy, seeking more physical connection, ruffles Ace’s hair.

  “I love you too, Aym.” Fey blows a kiss towards Amy, who catches it and smiles.

  Ace is feeling a little envious of everything going on around her. Being a fourth wheel is bad enough in general, but to be that next to your own best friend, someone who wanted to be intimate with her? It hurts. She can’t say it, she doesn’t want to show it, but that feeling is still there.

  She almost forgets that she faked her death in the full knowledge that she could have broken Amy’s heart doing so. That she would have given up on the dream of ever meeting her just so she could transition. Her being with Amy is a miracle in the first pce, and she would be supremely greedy to feel bitter at the fact that she has friends and Ace does not.

  She wishes Amy would love her the way she loves her friends, though.

  ***

  It takes a little effort, but Ace finally manages to get herself out of Amy’s embrace and away from her insistence that she drink another cup of tea and join in on the chatter and be with her and her friends and manoeuvers herself into a shower. Amy seemed disappointed that she did – Ace is, if nothing else, a disappointment – but let her go anyway, eventually agreeing to the fact that a shower might be wise, but that she should only go if she really wants to have one now. That she doesn’t need one.

  Ace needs somewhere away from everyone else, where she is unlikely to be disturbed by people who want her to be something she can’t be. They’re all so pretty, they’re all so fun, skilled, they know how to be competent people in their own right and Ace, Ace is a fucking idiot. A boyish fool with no social skills, no friends, no one who loves them or cares or would ever, could ever care about the fucking mess they have made of themselves over the years.

  When she has managed to dry herself off and put on some clothes, going back to pretending to being a girl, unable to achieve even the natural bitchiness of Aoife or the silliness of Gwen, she steps out into the hallway and immediately finds herself caught in the act of… whatever she is doing. Being a miserable git.

  Amy was waiting for her. She takes her hand, slowly walking her through the hallways. Neither of them say anything. They just walk, linked through their hands and their arms.

  Ace lets herself be led to Amy’s bedroom. It’s messy, with clothes and books and video game cartridges spread over the corners. There’s a little too much pastel blue in it for her liking, mostly on some of the stuffed animals and the pillows, even if the pink of the bed sheet bances it out. It’s very Amy overall, though.

  Unsure what to do, how to react, Ace freezes. Why would Amy want her, of all people, to be here? She has friends! They’re lovely!

  Amy guides her to the side of the bed and sits her down. One of her hands on her shoulder, and another under her chin. She looks at Ace. Smiles. Giggles. And then kisses her on the lips.

  “Stop being so worried.” She says.

  Ace feels compelled to listen, even if just to keep this moment alive.