Matthew slowly walked back down the hallway, leaving Rebecca alone in her room so she could arrange and store all the clothes however she wanted. As much as he was dreading ruining his good mood, there were things which he knew he needed to deal with before heading back to the school where everyone else was. Walking back into his room, he frowned slightly and looked down at where Jennifer was still sleeping peacefully.

“Wake up,” he commanded, frowning slightly. “Get up and shut up.” Rubbing his temples slightly, Matthew sighed slightly as Jennifer awoke and suddenly stood up, her eyes opening wide first in surprise, and then wider in shock as she struggled to speak and found herself unable to do so.

Walking over slowly to the bed, Matthew flopped back on it and stared up at the silky canopy above. Taking a few deep breathes, he spoke quietly without looking at anything in particular. “You’re screwed. You can probably tell that already as all you can do is stand there, fidget, and not say a word.” Crossing his arms behind his neck, he sighed deeply and then shrugged slightly. “You’re so screwed, I don’t even know where to start,” he admitted to Jennifer quietly.

“I brought you here to help protect you from the game which we’re all trapped playing now,” he rambled softly to himself. “I wanted to bind your spirt and Rebecca’s here, so if anything unthinkable ever did happen, you wouldn’t suffer an eternity of torment as some other god’s plaything. Unfortunately,” he sighed deeply, “Mistress Hel didn’t like what she saw when she looked in your heart. You were found unworthy by her and she’s punished you.”

Matthew closed his eyes, refusing to look at anything, then continued in a rush as Jennifer stood helpless over to the side, unable to make a sound. “You’re a slave now,” Matthew whispered softly, barely loud enough for Jennifer to hear him. “Not some cheap slave by human law either,” he explained sadly, “but a true slave bound by the rule of a goddess. Your body is completely under my control now, and there’s nothing I can do about that!”

Turning suddenly, Matthew jumped out of the bed and half shook his fist towards Jennifer. “No one ever asked me if I wanted a damn slave. No one ever asked me what my opinion was on such a damn thing. Hel didn’t like you, and I got fucking stuck with you! Our whole lives we’ve been taught that slavery is bad. It’s an evil act against the basic human rights of people. We fought damn wars to end it!”

“I’m not a racist damn bastard,” Matthew half cried, “and yet now I’m stuck with a god damned slave! Can you even imagine how people are going to react to me when they find out about it? IF they find out about it,” he corrected himself suddenly.

“Consider that my first damnable order,” Matthew told Jennifer. “Don’t ever tell anyone you’re a slave. Don’t ever write it down on a piece of paper. Don’t mumble it in your sleep. Don’t try to tell someone with sign language, smoke signals, Morse code, or any other damn way. No one ever needs to know you’re a damn slave and we’re not going to tell anyone. If someone asks why you listen so well to me, just tell them I’m the leader for our group and it’s only right for you to listen to your leader.”

“Understand?” Matthew was now standing directly in front of Jennifer, staring directly into her eyes. “Well,” he prodded, and she finally nodded her head up and down showing that she understood and agreed with his demand.

“Fine,” Matthew let out a relieved sigh before finally going back and flopping back on the bed again. “You can talk again,” he told Jennifer quietly, “as long as you keep your voice low and don’t shout for now. And, you can come over and relax back on the bed here with me for a while, as we try and sort this mess out.”

Trembling, Jennifer slowly strode around the bed and then laid down in it across from Matthew. Tears were leaking from the corner of her eyes and she was shaking erratically, like the last leaf of Autumn before the first Winter storm arrives.

“Don’t worry,” Matthew tried to reassure her gently, “I’m not going to hurt you. There’s absolutely no reason to now, no matter what you did or might have wanted to do in the past. Hel has bound you to me for as long as you live – and probably even for an eternity after,” Matthew warned her softly. “You’re stuck with me from now on, just as I’m stuck with you, “ he sighed deeply, “and there’s not a damn thing either one of us can do about it.

“Why?” Jennifer whispered, tears blurring her vision as she struggled to get the question out.

“Honestly,” Matthew admitted, “I don’t know. All I know is that Hel mentioned she saw murder in your heart towards us, and that was enough for her to punish you like this.” Shrugging slightly, Matthew turned back over to his back so he didn’t have to look directly at the anguish visible on her face.

“I… I wouldn’t have killed either of you,” Jennifer quietly insisted. “I was just upset because everything had changed so fast. I was just as angry at myself as I was with anyone else!”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Matthew shrugged slightly. “I know you probably won’t believe me – I doubt I’d believe me if I was a woman caught up enslaved to some man – but I did argue with Hel to try and have her set you free. In fact, I argued with her enough that she got annoyed at me; and I’ve made it a point to never annoy the Lady Hel. She’s kind of the source of my magic, my home, and my well being. My soul is going to end up spending an eternity down here in this place when I die – I’d be crazy to offend her and do something to make her upset with me!”

“And yet,” Matthew whispered, “I pushed that hard to try and get her to give you a second chance and undo the magic on you. She simply refused. The best I could get out of her was for her to agree to judge you once again, sometime after a year.”

Sitting up, Matthew slowly turned and stared over at Jennifer. “One chance,” he warned. “One chance is all you’ll ever get and I don’t have a clue what you’d have to do to prove yourself. You admit you were angry. Apparently your anger got you into this mess. I honestly don’t have any clue about what it might take to get you back out of it. All I know,“ Matthew stressed, “is that you only have one chance to ask Hel to judge you again while you’re living, and you have to wait at least one year before she’ll let you have it.”

“So… I’m… I’m stuck like this for at least a year?” Jennifer shook visibly as she curled up into a fetal position on the bed.

“And for an eternity,” Matthew warned, “if you can’t pass Hel’s test when she judges you again. I also have a feeling,” Matthew sighed, “that if you die before being judged, or if I die before you’re judged, that your spirit will be stuck serving mine for all eternity. The dead can’t easily change their fates, like the living can.”

Jennifer said nothing as she only curled up even tighter into a ball and rocked herself slowly. Sighing, Matthew got up and slowly started to the door.

“I’m going to go back and get Rebecca,” he whispered softly. “She should be finished with all she was doing by now. For now, all I really want is for you to stay in the room here and follow a few basic rules. First, you can’t tell anyone you’re a slave ever. We’ll come up with some excuse for the shackles, or find some way to hide them, or something in the future,” Matthew insisted. “Hell, for now, if anyone asks about them, tell them they’re magical armor like Rebecca’s bracers and they’re the only thing we’ve found that you can wear with your class so far. Most people should understand the importance of armor and protection in the new world we’re living in. If they don’t, then they won’t live in it long and their opinion doesn’t matter anyway.”

“Second,” Matthew added, as he slowly turned the handle and opened the door, “you can’t do anything to deliberately hurt yourself, myself, or Rebecca. I couldn’t really blame you if you were suicidal or homicidal after what’s happened,” he admitted softly, “but killing yourself, or one of us, won’t do anything to make the situation better. It just means you’d be stuck with it for the rest of eternity – your own little private version of Hell.”

“Third,” Matthew shrugged, frowning as he stopped at the doorway. “Hell, I’m not certain what the third rule would be. Just don’t betray us, try to run away from us, or do anything stupid like that purposely against us.” Walking out the door, he turned and slowly looked back into the room. “If you can do those few things for us, as far as I’m concerned, I’ll try not to treat you like anything has really changed that much between us.”

“I can’t set you free,” Matthew reminded her gently, “but I’ll try to be as undemanding as possible. I never really wanted a slave at all, you know,” he admitted. “I just wanted a few true companions who I could trust, grow, and live beside in this new damn world which we’re trapped in now. If things aren’t screwed up beyond all hope of redemption between us now,” Matthew wryly chuckled, “I’d still like to get back to that point with us, if we can.”

“But for now, “ Matthew called into the room, slowly pulling the door shut behind him, “just stay in the room and wait on me to come back. Feel free to cry, or scream, or shout, or tear shit up. Do whatever you need to do to try and make peace with yourself. As much as I’d like to give you a month to sit around down here to mope and adjust, I can’t do that. We’ve got to get back to the school and deal with that damn crystal there with all the students.”

:Listening to the door as it slowly clicked closed, Matthew leaned back against the wall and slowly shook his head from side to side. It was all so fucked up. Life was all so fucked up. Nothing was going like he’d imagined it would’ve been. He hadn’t found Kristy and rescued her. He wasn’t looked up to as some all-knowing, all-powerful hero who was saving people. No one was ever going to name a street after him, or build a statue of him in some park. He’d imagined that things would be simple for him with his prior experience in the game, but everything was all screwed up.

“Matthew the Mighty,” he mumbled softly to himself as he slowly walked down the hall and back towards Rebecca’s room. “Feeder of The Crystal of Eternal Torment, Enslaver of Women and Children, Slayer of Innocents!” Clenching his fist tight enough to turn the knuckles white, he turned and slammed it against the wall several times, until he could feel the warm blood drip off the side of his fist.

“What the hell’s wrong with me?” Hanging his head, Matthew strode rest of the way down the hall in brooding silence, not even noticing the blood as it slowly ran down his hand and dripped trailing in the floor beside him.