Dominion: Chapter 5 – A Foundation of Bones

A Foundation of Bones

All of Lee’s men currently in Augusta stood in the entry hall of the mansion, scared out of their wits. Even the cops on his payroll had been brought in. All the estate guards had already had their wills broken, either through the injuries Dominion had inflicted on them, or the horrific nightmares he had trapped them in. For hours, they experienced tortures beyond de***********ion. Dominion had ripped out their souls and tossed them into a Hell of his own creation. Breaking bones, ripping flesh, pierced organs, burning tissue, they felt it all, despite their bodies showing none of the damage. Those with physical wounds were not exempt from the assembly. They simply had to be bandaged up by the mob doctor.

Standing at the base of the stairs and facing them was Lee. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone, just stared at the floor in a daze. He looked like a corpse hanging on strings. Like them, his will had been broken, incinerated by Dominion’s bloodlust. He now understood what Eric had been talking about, about the men in the bar and why they killed themselves. There was no death worse than being killed by him. To die was escape the pain of living, but to be killed by him was to be devoured and spend eternity imprisoned. The only reason why he hadn’t killed himself already was because of his daughters, now held hostage. If he committed suicide to escape Dominion, then Cho and Hijiri would meet the fate he was so afraid of, but his compliance didn’t mean that their horrors would end. Dominion had made it clear that he would continue to rape and torture them, and there was nothing Lee could do to stop it.

For now, only those ignorant of the situation dared speak, fruitlessly asking what was going on, but receiving no answers. Then, all fell silent, as pure evil and killing intent flooded the mansion like poison gas. It was a miasma, detected not by the physical senses, but by the soul. It drained the men of their strength, of their courage, of their ability even to think. Sitting on the floor in the corner, Eric gripped his skull, digging his nails into his scalp as he suffered a terror-induced mental breakdown. Everyone could hear them, footsteps echoing in the upper corridors. He appeared at the top of the staircase. Behind him were a row of large windows, with the light of the setting sun shining on his back, leaving him in silhouette with his shadow being cast down the stairs.

Dominion, the men stared at him in terror. Even if they were somehow blind to his bloodlust, the evil in his eyes was undeniable, it was palpable. They all knew it, he wasn’t a normal person. He wasn’t even human.

“Gentlemen, welcome. I had Misato gather you all here so that I could fill you in as to the changes that are being made. My name is Dominion, and as of now, I am in control of this operation, and your lives. I’m on my way to implementing a new world order, but first I need to build the foundations. You can either lay the bricks or be the bricks. Resistance will not be tolerated, there can be no action aside from total obedience. Your friends, your family, your community, you will hand them over by my slightest whim.

For those who defy me, only agony and death await, for you and your family. But for collaborators, the rewards will be many.”

He snapped his fingers, and gasps filled the entryway as Cho and Hijiri came into view, naked and crawling on all fours. Cho was silent, her face still stained with dry semen, but Hijiri continued to cry, with the blood on her inner thighs visible to all. At his command, they got to their feet.

“Those who serve will lead comfortable lives, the safety of their families ensured.” He then inserted his middle finger into Cho’s pussy without even looking at her. She shivered in disgust, not just from the physical sensation, but from how casually he did it. It was like he was pressing the choke on a lawnmower. “You will also get your pick of slaves to exploit and abuse however you wish. I have already claimed these two as my personal property. Obey my will, and I might resist subjugating your wives and daughters in the same way.”

All the men trembled at his words, at the way he treated the two girls. They all knew Lee’s daughters. True, most of them hated Cho, but not even she deserved this fate, and they knew Hijiri to be a timid, but sweet girl. And it was no bluff, they could only imagine the monstrous acts he would perform on their loved ones if they rebelled. The choice had been made for them.

“And to make sure I have your compliance…”

He again snapped his fingers, and an eruption of darkness surged from his body like and oil well. From the darkness, grotesque spirits took form. Mangled skeletons with rotten muscles and molting flesh, they filled the air, flying like hornets and shrieking in rage and hunger. The men screamed in fear like children, many even drawing their guns and opening fire, though their bullets had no effect. The wraiths swooped down, each one tackling a different man and disappearing into his shadow.

“Those ghosts will keep an eye on you for me. There is nowhere on Earth for you to run. Tomorrow, you will all return here at 7:00 am for your new assignments. Now, you are all dismissed.” He pointed to the chef in the back. “Except you.”

The men could not get out of there fast enough. They swarmed through the front door, shoving each other out of the way and screaming in fear. Eric was the first to escape. Soon, the mansion was empty, save for Dominion, Misato, his daughters, and the chef. Dominion walked down the steps towards Misato, but he was too afraid to look around.

“You are dismissed as well.”

It took all his courage, but he worked up the words, “but I…”

A hard strike to the side of the head sent him falling to the ground.

“Dad!” the girls screamed.

Dominion glared at them, his malicious aura robbing them of the ability to breathe. “I don’t recall saying you were allowed to talk. I’ll punish you both later.” He looked back down at Misato, slowly pushing himself up off the floor. “This isn’t your home anymore.” Misato looked back at his crying daughters, and with his own face wet with tears, he got to his feet and walked out the front door. Dominion turned to the chef. “Steak dinner, now,” he barked.

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Night fell, and while Dominion had enjoyed a lavish feast, the twins had been denied even a scrap of food as part of their punishment. However, their hunger was the least of their concerns. They were hanging in the basement by their wrists, shackled with the chains looping over pipes in the ceiling. They were side by side but facing in opposite directions, unable to look at each other. Their naked, unwashed bodies trembled from helplessness. They couldn’t even beg for mercy due to the ball gags secured in their mouths.

Dominion walked around them, his eyes displaying a mix of annoyance and excitement. “It seems you two still haven’t learned your place. You spoke, something which I never granted permission for. Your voices aren’t entitlements given to you by God or your parents, they are the result of my mercy, and that I’d only slightly prefer hearing your screams rather than carve out your vocal cords and eat them for a snack. You still think your bodies belong to you. I’ll have to correct this misconception.”

He held out his hand and closed it into a fist. Like a caught animal trying to escape, lengths of black hair began to slide out of his grip. The strands, multiplying and growing each second, wove themselves together into knotted coils. In seconds, a flogging whip had formed in his hand. He walked another loop around them, letting them both see it. Already swollen from endless crying, Hijiri’s face was soaked in fear-induced tears, while Cho stared at the whip with wide eyes and a muffled scream.

It was so fast, Dominion whipping Cho across the stomach without any hint or warning. She shrieked in agony, both from the strength of the impact and the damage to her skin. The hair used to make the whip, it was sharp and abrasive, like a wire saw. Her smooth belly had a red streak as if she had just been swiped with some rough sandpaper. Dominion then turned and struck Hijiri, hitting her under the arm and making her scream like her sister.

He walked behind Cho, the girl hyperventilating in terror, just waiting to feel the whip across her back. Instead, he circled to her front and delivered a downward slash onto her left breast. A scream, at a pitch not yet heard today, slipped past the ball gag from the nerves in her areola feeling like they were on fire.

Then, it was back to Hijiri, and an especially hard strike against her ass. In her pain, she writhed and swung her body from side to side like a fish pulling against the hook in its mouth, but the agony of another lash stifled her movement. He circled to her front, staring into her terror-filled eyes. A third strike, whipping both of her flat breasts. Saliva, tears, and snot were pouring off her face as he screamed. Cho got a lash across the back, just as she had expected, but that didn’t make it any less agonizing.

This continued on without any known measure of time. Again and again, he struck them, leaving few spots untouched. Blood was quick to appear, budding on the scraped skin like condensation on a cold window. For Cho, her breasts got the worst of it. Their outrageous size made them an easy target, and the fat just soaked up the abuse. Most of Hijiri’s whips were focused on her labia. Her puffy majora protected the inner sanctum, but the nerve endings were just as sensitive and drew just as many tears. As they were facing away from each other, neither twin ever saw where the other was struck. They could only hear the scream while fear forced them to ponder the area, and wonder if Dominion would hit them in the same spot. The curiosity, the anticipation, that in itself was agony

Then, when their screams finally ended, he stopped. The two of them were drenched in sweat from the ordeal. The salty gloss soaked into their wounds and made them sting with fresh fury, just enough pain to keep them conscious after all they had endured. Their hair and faces were sticky from varying bodily fluids, including the semen from when he raped them the first time. Even messier was the floor, soaked in twin puddles of urine.

“Very well, I believe you two have learned your lesson. But just to be sure, I’ll leave you here to think about it overnight.”

And just like that, he went up the basement steps, turned off the light, and abandoned them. They spent the night hanging from the ceiling, still with the gags in their mouth, but that was Dominion’s plan. Unable to speak, unable to even see each other’s faces, there was no way for them to communicate, no way to comfort each other. They could only wallow in their own misery, while painfully aware of each other’s, with no way to do anything about it.

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Sunlight streamed through the basement window, shining directly into Cho’s eyes. However, due to how puffy her eyes were from crying, the presence of light didn’t mean she could actually see. She then dropped to the floor, released from her shackles, along with Hijiri. If that wasn’t enough to wake them up, the sudden splash of cold water was. They were both sprayed with a hose, washing away the filth that caked their bodies. They shielded themselves with their hands, only looking up when it finally stopped. But while they were expecting Dominion, what they saw left them screaming in terror.

It was a creature, resembling a human but without skin. The limbs were twisted and bent, many bones the wrong length. Its exposed muscles were black, almost gangrenous, and its eyes were glazed as if with cataracts.

“Time… for… break… fast…” the creature groaned.

It then disappeared, returning to Dominion. The sisters clutched each other on the floor, trembling from the cold and fear. They had seen Dominion’s undead pets before, but this was the first time up close. They didn’t want to get up, they didn’t want to face a new day of this nightmare. They wanted to stay hidden, unseen and then forgotten, but Dominion wouldn’t let them escape pain so easily. If they made him wait, he would surely torture them again like last night.

Hijiri wanted to cry, but she couldn’t produce any more tears.

‘We’ll get through this.’ Cho wanted to say it, to say anything that might boost her sister’s spirits, but the wounds on their bodies were the result of them speaking out of turn. Dominion’s pets could be watching them, he might know if she spoke, which would just bring them both more punishment. Their voices no longer belonged to them. Likewise, the gags were still in their mouths, and while their jaws were throbbing from being forced open all night, Dominion had not given permission to remove them. All Cho could do was hug her sister and pull her to her feet.

Upstairs, Dominion sat at the head of the dining table, enjoying a sumptuous feast. He could sense Cho and Hijiri moving up the basement steps. Good, the wraiths had done its job. Unfortunately, that seemed all it could do. He had been experimenting with his pets, seeing the limits of their capabilities beyond simply gathering souls. It didn’t matter whether their personalities were stripped away or not, the demons and human spirits were naturally clumsy and unstable existences.

He had given several the task of mimicking the chef as he prepared breakfast, but they were like toddlers. The only way they could perform precise actions was if he telepathically controlled their movements, but that simply wasn’t feasible. He only had so much attention he could direct, and the more effort he put into controlling his puppets, the less he could put into controlling his own body. In the coming future, it would be unwise to allocate all complex tasks to human workers and leave his pets simply with the job of hunting.