…“I didn’t break, never once.” he says proudly.

“Not even once?” she purrs.

“N-N-Never once my lady, I-I, I am a m-man of my word.” he stammers nervously, as beads of sweat break out on his brow.

“Then you have nothing to fear from me, do you?” she says as she relaxes back into her eyesore of a throne.

“N-N-No my l-lady.”

“But yet you do, don’t you?”

“I-I-I, I do what?”

She laughs softly, brushing her flowing red locks from her face with graceful poise. “You fear me, even though you swear you have done all I ask. Why would one who has pleased every facet of my requests fear me still?”

“I-I,” he swallows a mouthful of stale air that feels like razor blades, air that tears at his throat as it is forced down his gullet. He gasps, tearing at his collar desperately as he tries to free the breath that screams out in his chest.

“You?” she says with playful purr, gently running her fingernails across her pouting lips.

“I-I-I, I am n-not afraid o-o-of you,” he stammers.

She smiles broadly and throws her head back with a sarcastically bemused laugh. “You my dear, are a terrible liar.”.…