The air in the cottage tasted stale. Tadao sat on the edge of his cot, his fingers tracing the raised, intricate lines of the purple tattoo spiraling across his lower abdomen. It was quiet. A thrumming quiet, the kind that vibrates in your teeth. His mothers and sisters were out in the garden, their laughter a distant, sharp sound. Leo was off with the Baron's men, playing hero. And Penny… Penny had said she was going to gather herbs at the forest's edge.
A cold knot tightened in his gut. It wasn't suspicion, not yet. It was a heavier, duller thing. A knowing. The mark under his fingers pulsed, a single, slow beat like a second heart. A wave of heat, unwelcome and urgent, spread outwards from it, making his cock twitch against the rough fabric of his pants. He clenched his jaw.
Not again. Please, not again.
But the thought of Penny alone, of Dex who had been lurking, who had stopped his overt bullying but now watched her with a lazy, predatory focus… The knot twisted. Jealousy, sour and hot, flooded his mouth. The tattoo burned.
A soundless explosion of purple light erupted behind his eyes. The world—the cot, the wooden walls, the scent of straw and woodsmoke—ripped away. There was a nauseating lurch, a sensation of falling without moving. Then he was elsewhere, bodiless, a ghost made of pure, agonizing perception.
*
Sunlight dappled through the green canopy. He was in the forest, hovering near a thick oak. Penny stood there, her back to the rough bark. Dex stood before her, close, too close, his broad body blocking her in.
"—just talking, Penny," Dex was saying, his voice a low, easy rumble. He leaned a forearm against the tree, over her shoulder, caging her. "A week of peace for your precious Tadao. That's what you want, isn't it?"
Penny's chestnut hair was coming loose from its tie. Her eyes were wide, the soft brown of them fixed on Dex's chest. She swallowed. "Y-yes. But…"
"But nothing." Dex's other hand came up, not touching her, just tracing a line in the air beside her cheek. Tadao screamed, a soundless rage. Get away from her! "I'm a man of my word. I'll leave the little null-point alone. No shoves, no taunts, no 'accidental' trips. For a whole week." He leaned in, his mouth near her ear. Tadao could see the curve of his lips. "All it costs is a little of your time."
"What… what do you mean?" Penny's voice was a fragile thread.
Dex chuckled. The sound was warm, confident. It filled the clearing. "Come on. You're not that naive. I see how you look at me when you think I'm not watching. All that blushing." His head tilted. "You preach love for Tadao, but your body speaks a different language, Penny. It's practically shouting."
"That's not true!" The protest was automatic, but it lacked force. Her cheeks were flushed a deep, betraying pink.
"Isn't it?" His hand finally landed, just his fingertips, on the side of her neck. Penny flinched, but didn't pull away. A full-body tremor went through her. Tadao felt it as if it were his own. The curse drank it in, and a corresponding jolt of corrupted energy, sweet and vicious, shot down his phantom spine, making his spectral form shudder with a wave of heat. No. No no no.
"Let's call it a trade," Dex murmured, his thumb stroking the frantic pulse in her throat. "A weekly subscription to peace. You keep me… satisfied… and I forget Tadao exists. Simple."
The aura was a tangible thing to Tadao's cursed senses. A shimmering, purple-tinged haze emanating from his own distant body, now enveloping this glade. It made the sunlight seem warmer, the shadows deeper. It smoothed the edges of Dex's aggression into something like charisma, and it softened Penny's fear, mixing it with a dizzying, unwelcome curl of attraction. She felt it as her own confusing emotion. He's so confident. He's not being mean… he's just being direct. For Tadao. I have to do this for Tadao.
Her resistance crumbled. The curse-fed thought felt like her own salvation. She closed her eyes for a second, then opened them, looking past Dex's shoulder at nothing. "One week," she whispered. "You promise."
"Cross my heart." Dex's grin was triumphant.
He didn't wait. His mouth crashed down on hers.
It wasn't a kiss; it was a claiming. A hard, hungry press of lips that stole her breath. Penny made a muffled sound of surprise, her hands coming up to push weakly at his chest. Dex ignored them. His tongue forced its way between her lips, and she gasped, the invasion shocking, wet, overwhelming. Tadao watched, paralyzed, as Dex's tongue delved into her mouth. He could see the slick slide of it, hear the wet, intimate slurp and smack of their joined mouths.
Dex's hands moved. One tangled in her hair, holding her head still for his plunder. The other slid down from her neck, over the simple fabric of her dress, palming her breast. He kneaded it roughly through the cloth, his thumb finding her nipple and pinching. A sharp, startled cry was swallowed by his mouth. Penny's weak pushes stopped. Her hands fisted in his tunic.
Tadao's phantom body was on fire. The curse reveled in his jealousy, his powerlessness, and fed him back a scorching, shameful arousal. He felt himself hardening, aching, a traitor to his own agony. He wanted to vomit. He wanted to watch.
Dex broke the kiss, a string of saliva connecting their lips for a moment before it snapped. Penny panted, her lips swollen and glistening, her eyes dazed. "S-see?" she stammered, trying to regain some control. "A k-kiss. That's all, so—"
"That's all?" Dex laughed, a short, cruel bark. His hand left her breast and shoved her dress up around her hips. The cool forest air hit her bare thighs. She wore simple linen underthings. "You're already dripping for me, you hypocritical little slut. Talking about love while your cunt weeps."
"I'm not—!" The denial died as his fingers hooked into the waistband of her drawers and yanked them down to her knees. She cried out, trying to clamp her thighs together, but he was already between them. His fingers, calloused and demanding, found her bare sex.
Tadao saw it all. The neat thatch of chestnut curls, already damp. The glistening pink folds, exposed and vulnerable. Dex didn't tease. Two fingers pressed against her entrance, then pushed inside in one blunt, rough stroke.
"Nnnggh!" Penny's back arched off the tree, a strangled, guttural sound ripping from her throat. It wasn't just pain. The sound was layered, complex—shock, yes, but underneath, a raw, electric thread of sensation.
"So fucking wet," Dex grunted, his fingers pistoning in and out of her with a slick, obscene shlick-shlick-shlick. "All this for me. For your boyfriend's safety. What a devoted girlfriend you are." He twisted his wrist, curling his fingers. Penny jolted, a sharp gasp escaping. "There it is. You like that. Your body doesn't lie, Penny."
Tears welled in her eyes. Shame burned through her, but it was tangled, smothered by the curse's aura and the relentless, shocking friction inside her. Her hips gave a tiny, involuntary jerk against his hand. She hated it. She hated that she felt it—a deep, gathering thrum of pleasure coiling low in her belly, utterly betraying her.
"Please…" she whimpered, unsure what she was begging for. Stop. Or don't stop.
Dex watched her face, a smirk playing on his lips. He sped up, the rhythm of his fingers becoming harder, faster. The wet sounds grew louder, echoing in Tadao's ghostly ears. Squelch. Slap. Schlorp. Penny's breathing became ragged, torn between sobs and hitched gasps. Her hands scrabbled at the bark behind her. Her legs trembled.
"Gonna come already?" Dex taunted, his voice a husky whisper. "Gonna cream my fingers thinking about how you're saving Tadao? That's so sweet. So fucking dirty."
The words, the degradation, lit her up. The coil snapped. Her eyes flew wide, her mouth opened in a silent 'O' before a broken, shuddering cry tore loose. "Ah—AH—DEX!" Her body convulsed, clamping down hard on his invading fingers as a rush of wet heat gushed out of her, soaking his hand and dripping down her inner thighs. She sagged against the tree, boneless, panting, horrified tears streaming down her face.
Dex slowly pulled his glistening fingers out, holding them up to the light. He brought them to his mouth, sucking them clean with a deliberate, loud pop. "Mmm. A down payment."
He stepped back, letting her dress fall. Penny slid down the trunk to the forest floor, pulling her soaked undergarments up with shaking hands, unable to look at him. The humiliation was a physical weight.
"A week," Dex said, adjusting his own trousers where a prominent bulge strained the fabric. "I'll collect the rest later. Be ready."
He turned and walked away, whistling.
The vision shattered.
*
Tadao slammed back into his own body on the cot with a gasp that was almost a sob. He was drenched in cold sweat. His cock was painfully hard, tenting his pants, a slick spot of precum staining the fabric. The tattoo on his stomach glowed with a faint, dying purple light, pulsing in time with his frantic heartbeat. He curled onto his side, dry heaves wracking him. The image of Dex's fingers inside Penny, the sound of her climax, played on a loop behind his eyes. The shame was molten, but beneath it, the cursed arousal still simmered, a vile, addictive poison.
She did it for me. She did it for me. The curse whispered the justification, wrapping it in the guise of love and sacrifice. It felt true. It felt like the only thing keeping him from screaming. He clutched his stomach, the glow of the mark seeping through his fingers.
The week passed in a blur of strained normalcy. Dex was true to his word. No shoves, no trips, no muttered insults. He simply ignored Tadao, which was almost worse. His attention was now fully, openly on Penny. Lingering looks. "Accidental" brushes of his hand against hers when passing a bowl. Compliments on her cooking, spoken in that low, intimate rumble that made her flush.
Tadao watched it all, the knot in his gut a permanent fixture. The curse hummed, a constant, hungry presence. He caught Penny staring into the fire, her expression distant, troubled. When he asked if she was okay, she'd jump, force a smile. "Just tired," she'd say. She stopped meeting his eyes for too long.
The day the "week" was up, Tadao was sent to the village on an errand for his mother. A sense of dread clung to him. As he walked back, the familiar, hated heat began to build in his mark. Jealousy, obsession, a terrified certainty. He broke into a run, but it was too late. The world dissolved into purple static.
He rematerialized in the dim interior of the cottage. It was empty save for two figures by the far wall.
Dex had Penny pinned. One large hand was clamped over her mouth, muffling her sounds. The other had her dress rucked up around her waist again. Her back was to his chest, his front pressed tight against her back. Tadao could see everything.
"Shhh," Dex breathed into her ear, his voice a hot, threatening whisper. "He'll be back soon. Wouldn't want him to see his loyal girl getting her cunt played with, would we?"
Penny shook her head frantically, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Her struggles were weak, uncoordinated. The curse's aura was thick here, a heavy perfume of corruption that made her limbs feel like lead and turned Dex's aggression into an irresistible force.
"You held up your end," Dex murmured, nuzzling her neck. "A week of peace. Time for my reward." His hand left her mouth and slid down her front, over her stomach, and plunged into the front of her underclothes.
Penny's cry was sharp, choked. "D-Dex, no—"
"Yes." His fingers found her bare flesh, already slick from memory and fear and the curse's insidious influence. He didn't bother with finesse. Two fingers speared into her, curling deep. "Gah!" Her head fell back against his shoulder, a shudder wracking her frame.
"Still so tight," he grunted, pumping his fingers. "Sloosh. Sloosh. Still so fucking wet for me. Is this what you think about when you're with him? When he touches you, do you pretend it's my hand?"
"N-never… I love him…" she sobbed, but her hips were moving, making tiny, desperate circles against his thrusting hand.
"You love this," Dex corrected, his voice guttural. He added a third finger, stretching her. Penny gasped, a sound of overwhelm that tipped into a moan. "Glrk… see? Your body knows the truth. It knows what it needs."
He fucked her with his fingers, hard and fast, the lewd, wet noises filling the silent cottage. His other hand groped her breast, pinching her nipple through the fabric. Penny was dissolving. Her protests became fragmented whimpers. Her hands, which had been trying to pull his wrist away, now gripped his forearm, her knuckles white, holding on as much as pushing away. Her world narrowed to the brutal, incredible friction inside her, to the heat of his body, to the filthy promises in her ear.
"That's it. Take it. Take your reward like a good little peacemaker. Come on my fingers. Do it."
The command, the degradation, was the final key. Her climax ripped through her with a violence that stole her voice. Her body locked, rigid, then spasmed uncontrollably around his invading fingers, a fresh flood of her release spilling out, dripping down his hand and her thighs with a soft patter on the dirt floor. She went limp in his arms, breathing in ragged, shattered gulps.
Dex slowly withdrew his soaked fingers. He turned her in his arms, her face a mess of tears and blissful ruin. He kissed her, deep and possessive, tasting her own salt. "Good girl," he whispered against her lips. "Now. You owe me more than just a finger-fuck."
He guided her, pliant and trembling, to her knees on the floor in front of him.
Tadao could only watch, a spectral prisoner. The arousal was a fire in his ghostly veins, his phantom cock throbbing. The curse was feasting, and with each bite, it showed him something new. This time, he didn't just see. He felt. A trickle of feedback, of sensation—the ghost of Penny's overwhelmed pleasure, the brutal satisfaction from Dex. It wasn't empathy. It was parasitic sharing. The curse wasn't just making him watch; it was making him a part of it.
Dex unfastened his trousers. His cock sprang free, fully erect, thick and heavy. The sight of it, the sheer, intimidating size of it, made Penny whimper. In the back of her corrupted mind, a new, shocking thought surfaced: Tadao's is nothing like that.
"Open," Dex said, not asking.
Penny stared at the swollen head, the prominent vein running along the shaft, the thatch of dark hair at the base. Her love for Tadao was a scream in a distant room. The here and now was the scent of musk, the powerful thighs before her, the threat and the promise. The curse soothed her, blurring the lines. This is the price. This is how you keep him safe. She leaned forward, her eyes closing, and opened her mouth.
The first touch of the broad, spongy head against her lips was a shock. Salty, musky. She flinched, but Dex's hand was in her hair, firm, guiding. He pushed forward. Her lips stretched around the girth. A choked mmmpfh escaped her as the tip breached past her teeth and hit the back of her throat. Tears sprang anew.
"That's it," Dex sighed, looking down at her. "Look at you. The devoted girlfriend, choking on my cock. So perfect."
He began to move, shallow at first, then deeper. Penny gagged, saliva dripping from her stretched lips. The sounds were obscenely vivid in Tadao's perception: the wet gluck as the head popped past her tight lips, the desperate gulp and slrk as she tried to accommodate him, the ragged, nasal breaths she drew through her nose.
Dex set a rhythm, holding her head still, fucking her face. "Take it all. You can do it. Such a good little cocksucker for me." The praise, twisted as it was, ignited something in her shame-soaked mind. A desperate need to please, to be good at this horrible thing. She relaxed her jaw, tried to take him deeper. The thick shaft slid further, nudging the entrance to her throat. She gagged violently, her body convulsing.
"Shhh, just breathe," he cooed, not stopping. He pulled back until just the head was in her mouth, slick with her spit. "Now lick it. Show me how sorry you are."
Penny, dazed, obeyed. Her tongue, tentative at first, then with a strange, burgeoning curiosity, swirled around the crown, lapped at the slit where a bead of precum gleamed. The taste was bitter, potent. It should have revolted her. Instead, a strange, dark thrill shot through her. She was doing this. She was making this powerful man sigh with pleasure. Her tongue grew bolder, tracing the thick vein, flattening against the sensitive frenulum.
"Fuck yeah," Dex groaned. "Just like that. Use that pretty mouth."
Encouraged, she took him back in, deeper this time. Her throat opened reluctantly, accepting the invasion. The sensation of being utterly filled, of having her mouth stretched and used, was overwhelming. It drowned out the guilt, replacing it with a single, all-consuming physical reality. Her own core, freshly fucked and sensitive, clenched emptily. She was humiliated, degraded, and somehow, perversely, more alive than she'd ever felt.
Dex's thrusts became harder, faster, losing their rhythm. His grunts grew sharper. "Gonna come. Swallow it all, you hear me? Every drop. That's your job now."
Penny just focused on breathing through her nose, on the heavy, sliding weight on her tongue, the salty-bitter taste flooding her senses. She was a vessel. A means to an end. For Tadao.
With a final, deep grind of his hips, Dex buried himself to the hilt. A raw, guttural shout tore from him. "Hnngg—take it!"
The first spurt hit the back of her throat, hot and thick as cream. She gagged, but he held her fast. The second, third, fourth followed in rapid, pulsing jets, flooding her mouth. It was too much. It filled her cheeks, spilled out around the seal of her lips where they were stretched around his shaft. The taste was overwhelming, salty and musky and alien. It kept coming, a seemingly endless flow, until her mouth was packed, her throat working convulsively to swallow.
Dex finally pulled out with a wet schlopp. Strands of thick, gluey white semen stretched between his glistening cock and her bruised lips. Penny fell forward onto her hands, coughing, strings of cum and saliva dripping from her chin onto the floor. Her mouth was full. She was swallowing in desperate gulps, but more leaked out, painting her chin, her neck.
Dex looked down at her, tucking himself away, a look of supreme satisfaction on his face. "A deal's a deal," he said, his voice rough. "See you next week, Penny." He turned and walked out of the cottage, leaving her on her knees, covered in the evidence of her betrayal.
The vision faded. Tadao returned to his body just as he reached the cottage door. He stumbled inside, his face pale. Penny was there, on her knees by the hearth, scrubbing the floorboards furiously. She jumped when she saw him, her eyes red-rimmed, her lips still slightly puffy. She'd cleaned her face, but a faint, sticky sheen glistened at her hairline.
"Tadao! You're back early," she said, her voice too bright.
He looked at her. He looked at the spot on the floor she was scrubbing. A new, terrible understanding crystallized in the cursed fog of his mind. The visions weren't just punishment. They were nourishment. And with each feeding, the connection deepened. The last vision… he hadn't just seen and heard. He'd tasted. The ghost of salt and bitterness was on his own tongue.
The curse wasn't just a spectator sport. It was making him a participant. It was grafting their sensations onto his soul. His own mana, the brief, physical surges he got, was tied to this cycle. Betrayal → Arousal → Witness → Power. He was an engine, and their corruption was his fuel.
Penny stood up, wringing her hands in her apron. "Is everything alright? You look…"
He forced a smile. It felt like cracking ice. "I'm fine," he said. The lie was ashes. "Just tired."
He saw the relief flood her features, the love in her eyes, now forever tainted by what he knew. She believed she was protecting him. And in her own way, she was. She was feeding the very thing that would destroy them both