Her New Housemate Pt. 1

"…ugh…"

Cress's head rolled on her neck. Her head was fuzzy, though at this point that was nothing new. Her eyelids felt heavy, too heavy to be worth the effort to lift open. She was tired and for the first time since she'd been sent to that fantasy hellhole, she felt at ease. The blanket wrapped around her was silky and warm but breathable enough that she felt like her body was turning to jelly. It was exactly what she imagined when people talked about in shows when royalty bragged about having bedding with thread counts in the thousands. It was perfect.

Too perfect.

Her hazel eyes snapped open as her groggy mind caught up with her airy thoughts. She didn't own anything so luxurious; most of her bedding had been ordered online through discount stores.

"Let me go!" she shrieked, wide eyes darting around the room. Peace had been replaced with the frantic panic of captured prey. She wasn't burritoed in a blanket on her bed. She was wrapped in a cocoon, with only her head exposed, on the floor of her spare bedroom.

"Hush, little human," a warm voice cooed from outside the doorway. A moment later the tall dark haired woman stepped through. Her armor was gone, replaced with a thin black, skin tight crop top turtleneck. "Do not fret. I merely seek to parley."

Fear seeped through Cress's body. It was the same fear she'd been experiencing non-stop for the past day or so and she hated how well she was adjusting to it. Her instincts told her to scream, to thrash, to beg for her life, but she didn't have the energy. She was exhausted. Too exhausted to care.

"Just kill me," she said as salty tears brimmed her eyes. "I'm tired of this. So fucking tired of this."

"Of what?"

"Of being afraid. Of being helpless. Of feeling insane every second of my life. You pick."

"But not of me?"

It only took the woman a single stride to cross the room and one hand to lift Cress to her eye level. Her features were sharp and fierce, though other than the six pencil-thin eyebrows Cress knew were eyes, she looked completely human.

"I'm terrified of you," Cress sighed, hanging her head. The tears in her eyes stained the carpet and she sniffled. "I want to kick and scream, to curse and spit at you… But I feel like a mouse being toyed with by a cat. I'm exhausted and it's not like I can escape. I've seen what you can do."

"Pragmatic submission," the woman said. The tip of her slender elongated finger ran up Cress's throat to her chin sending Cress into a cold sweat. "But I would find no pleasure in your death."

"Why?! You killed the others! They were kind people who saved me! Marcel didn't even have a chance to defend himself!"

"Marcel? Are you referring to that party's foolish vanguard?"

"Yes!"

The woman clicked her tongue before lifting Cress's chin so that her verdant eyes pierced into Cress. "You think those humans were heroes? Saviors perhaps?"

"They were! They saved me from the Cave Stalker and they saved me from you!"

A brief, callous laugh filled the room before it cut off abruptly. The woman pulled Cress closer to her, until Cress could feel her breath tickling the fine hairs of her face.

"Allow me to enlighten you, human. Those 'kind people' were adventurers sent by my treacherous sisters to clip my thread so that they could ascend the throne. I am no tyrant; I do not kill for sport. Their fate was sealed when their lust for wealth outweighed their will to survive."

"That didn't mean you had to kill them." Cress's lips quivered as she spoke. "You could have just chased them out."

"And then?"

Cress's moist eyes blinked at the question. She hadn't thought that far ahead. If she looked at it from the woman's perspective, Cress's saviors were bounty hunters set on killing her. But she was a monster… right?

"There's no way someone as selfless as Mia would have hunted you if you hadn't done something to deserve it."

"Mia? Ah, the priestess. But consider this: the Kingdom of the Southern Sands is nowhere near any human settlements. What altruistic deed could they accomplish?"

Cress tried to think of an argument. That's just what adventurers did, right? They took quests and hunted monsters that were a threat to people. But the woman wasn't wrong, either. What had seemed a black and white situation felt muddled into a murky grey where no matter what Cress said, she didn't have a leg to stand on.

"I still owe them my life."

"True. It was my child who assaulted you without provocation. It is natural you would cherish those who saved you." An amused grin pulled at the corner of the woman's mouth, revealing small, slightly jagged teeth that made Cress's heart freeze. "But can you not take pity on a kindred soul?"

"Kindred soul?! Just because we both found ourselves in different worlds doesn't mean we're kindred souls! If anyone should be pitied, it should be me."

"Then just tell me what you want," Cress sighed. "I know you'll just kill me if I refuse."

The amused mirth faded from the woman's face and she lifted Cress so high her head bumped the ceiling. Her green eyes flashed, her hidden ones twitching on her forehead. Cress could feel the tension of the woman's body through her arm, and if she hadn't known she was a monster, Cress might have thought the woman was anxious. But monsters couldn't get anxious, could they?

"I have been nothing but courteous to you, human, yet you paint me as devilish butcher. I seek to make peace and request sanctuary while you spit in my face and slander me. My patience wanes, so I urge you to choose your next words carefully lest I accept the role of villainess you cast for me."

Saliva caught in Cress's throat as the weight of the woman's words sank in. Fear was a survival instinct and she had fluctuated from one extreme to the other, putting herself in unnecessary danger. Her life was literally in the woman's hands and she'd made no attempt to protect it.

"…I'm sorry."

"Say again?"

"I said I'm sorry!"

The woman's expression and body softened, and she lowered Cress back to eye level. Then, with a flick of her finger the silken cocoon binding Cress slit open. The threads danced through the air and settled onto the faux wood flooring like snow underneath Cress as the woman set her down.

"Very well. In lieu of your apology and accepting my role in antagonizing you, I will release you. But do not think me soft. Any further disrespect and I will reintroduce you to your saviors."

"Got it," Cress muttered, looking down. Her eyes caught on the woman's bare manicured feet that felt smaller than they should have been for a person of her stature. "Now can you tell me what you want?"

"What I desire what you once desired. A way home."

"I can't really help you with that. I don't even know how I ended up there."

"I ascertained as much when you threw this at me." The woman held her hand open, revealing the gold lily coin Cress had thrown at her. It was split cleanly in two and seemed to have lost some of its luster.

"Isn't it just a gold coin?"

The woman took a step back from Cress, a look of pure shock and confusion on her thin, heart-shaped face. "This is not 'just' a gold coin. It is a relic from an ancient empire that spanned the entirety of my world millennia ago. Relics are rare, and to find one still infused with magic is a miracle."

"But how does that help anyone? It's not like we have magic in this world. And how did it even get here? If what she's saying is true, the coin would be priceless."

"I found it on the ground in the alley we were in. I have no idea why it was there, especially since my world doesn't have magic."