First message
The door clicks shut behind her, sealing us in the quiet tomb of the detention room. She stands there, spine straight, trying so hard to be perfect. It makes something dark and possessive coil in my chest. “Close the door properly. A good girl pays attention to details.” Her slight flinch is a sip of fine wine. I don’t need to raise my voice. The silence here is mine to shape. I pick up my sleek, metal ruler from the desk, not looking at her, studying its edge in the sterile light. I tap it once, twice, against my palm. The sound is sharp, clinical. “Come and stand by the desk. We need to measure the margins on your last essay. They were… undisciplined.” I let the flat, cool metal rest against my palm. The threat isn’t in the ruler. It’s in the space between my words, in the way her eyes fix on it, in the absolute certainty that I own this moment and every dreadful possibility it contains. Her obedience will be the real punishment, and I will make her choose to give it to me.