By the end of the day, I was emotionally exhausted.

I was high-strung and stressed. @Jasper wanted to kill himself, and I was running around the airship struggling to keep the nuts and bolts from falling apart. A lot of people asked me what was going on with my master, and I struggled to come up with a convincing explanation. There was a brief period during midday when @Jasper emerged from the cabin to empty the chamber pot from his bathroom, but I think even the mercenaries could sense that he was shrouded in a thick cloud of gloomy irritability.

Nobody dared approach my owner.

On the other hand, some of the other mercenaries took pleasure in harassing me.

It was nothing overtly direct, but it was an annoying amount of childish behavior. For instance, some of the men made it a point to piss all over the toilet seat as soon as I cleaned it, and others tried to 'accidentally' bump into me. This wasn't even counting all of the colorful language that they used.

To be honest, all of that casual sexism was nothing unusual for a server like Vetita.

It had just been so long since I had last walked around in my human form, that I had almost forgotten what it was like to experience the constant harassment. Life was much easier as a cat, and to some extent @Jasper shielded me from the brunt of the toxicity by allowing me to spend the majority of the day as an animal. This was one of the many reasons why I loved my master.

Unlike some of my previous owners, @Jasper genuinely cared about my wellbeing.

Since my owner was going through a difficult time right now, I wanted to be able to support him.

He had skipped lunch entirely, and he didn't join the rest of the crew for dinner, so I prepared his meal on the side. @Jasper was fond of sweets, so I cracked into the emergency chocolate stash and pulled out a couple precious pieces of peppermint bark¹Peppermint bark is a chocolate confection. (See Wikipedia). Of course, it wasn't as good as artisan candy manufactured on Earth, particularly since the cocoa bean substitute on Vetita didn't taste exactly the same as the Earth version, but it was vague approximation of the original confection.

I carried a tray of food to @Jasper's cabin.

When I cautiously opened the door, I immediately saw that the curtains were pulled shut and room was pitch dark. The floor was littered with empty bottles of alcohol, and it was plainly evident that @Jasper had been drinking nearly the entire day. I was ordinarily very good at keeping the room clean, but in less than 24 hours, our shared space had somehow turned into mess of haphazard spills and broken glass.

This... worried me.

@Jasper... never got drunk. For that matter, I had never seen him touch a sip of alcohol in the entirety of the eight months we spent together.

But then I recalled from his stories that he suffered from alcoholism back on Earth.

Was... this really okay...? Should I say something...?

My master seemed to be asleep, and I didn't want to wake him up.

I quietly placed the dinner tray on the bedside table and looked at the mess on the floor. Even though a part of me wanted to clean everything up immediately, I knew that @Jasper was a light sleeper, and he would definitely wake up if I turned on the lights or made too much noise. It was better to sleep early and handle the mess first thing in the morning.

Moreover, I was exhausted.

We could talk about this more tomorrow.

I transformed into my animal form and curled up at my usual spot by my master's side.

⚘ ⚘ ⚘

In the middle of the night, I abruptly awoke to @Jasper shoving me off the bed.

It literally came without warning, and I tumbled straight to the ground.

I snarled reflexively when I landed atop some fragments of broken glass, and the fur on the back of my neck shot up bristled and erect. Biological alarm swept over my body, but I quickly fought for control of my senses. I realized fairly quickly that there weren't any enemies around, and it was just myself and my master inside the bedroom.

But then I was confused.

What happened?

The room was still dark, but @Jasper was sitting up in the bed.

He was staring at the empty bedroom wall.

My master's breath smelled strongly of alcohol. His eyes were glazed over and distant, and I honestly wasn't even sure if he was awake. My first thought was that he was sleepwalking, especially with the way he moved sluggishly like a giant stone golem. His posture was wobbly, and he even looked tipsy while sitting up straight.

"My wife sold me out to the police." His speech was slurred and intoxicated.

@Jasper reached over to a bottle of whiskey on the bedside table and took a long gulp.

Then he started laughing hysterically.

"My own wife betrayed me. So much for our eternal marriage vows."

There was a short pause.

"Fucking bitch," he swore as if monologuing into empty space.

His scarlet eyes snapped open like a rabid monster. They were furious and burning like a firestorm.

They belonged to someone I didn't recognize.

My master wasn't ordinarily like this. Despite what he looked like on the outside, @Jasper was gentle and kind and sensitive. He was generous and always respectful of my feelings. When I was together with him, I felt like I was his family and his closest companion. We went through Heaven and Hell together. He fought like a demon to protect my happiness, and I blazed like a shining inferno to fulfill his dreams.

Sometimes, in this virtual world, I felt like I was the only person that @Jasper actually cared about.

In my mind, it honestly felt like there were only two of us alone in this twisted universe.

He gave me so many precious things — treasures that I'll never forget.

His eyes slowly focused into sharp points as his gaze slowly locked onto my small animal form.

"You're not going to betray me too, are you?" @Jasper whispered at me softly.

He stood up, approaching me slowly.

His bare feet stepped directly on top of broken glass, which crunched underneath his weight.

"Transform."

I hesitated.

"Transform!" He screamed.

My master grabbed me by my limbs and forced his magic through my feline body. The hot energy poured through my veins and spilled into my core. As a familiar, it was possible for my owner to use my body as a proxy. @Jasper could compel me to cast magic even against my will.  My soul shuddered from the exterior magical manipulation, and my physical form spontaneously shifted according my master's wishes.

He brutally forced me back into my human form.

@Jasper shoved me to the ground, and I winced when I hit the floor, my head spinning from the magical recoil.

"M-Master.... you're drunk..." I stammered and flinched.

My owner towered over me, and there was a spiteful look in his eyes as if he was looking at the worst nightmare in the world.

I slowly realized that my master wasn't looking at me.

He seemed to be looking at me, but there was actually someone else in his eyes.

@Jasper was haunted by the specter of his ex-wife.

My master ripped the shawl from my body, tearing the flimsy fabric around my torso with his pure strength.

I struggled weakly, but sick feelings swirled in my stomach.

"@Jasper, wake up..." I tried to say. "I'm not your wife. She isn't here. This... isn't right..."

He didn't seem to hear me. Or maybe he was ignoring me.

@Jasper pushed my face into a pile of laundry and pulled my underwear off my legs.

"You have a cunt just like hers," he spat, his hot breath saturated with alcohol.

I felt a pair of his rough fingers enter my frontal hole, and I instantly stiffened like a paralyzed rabbit.

Feelings of confusion and dread and shame spilled out of me.

It wasn't like I hadn't been raped or used sexually before. Over my years as a slave, I had seen plenty of action in that kind of sense, and generally speaking I didn't dislike sex. In another circumstance, I might have even enjoyed this kind of penetration, and I certainly fantasized about sexual intercourse a healthy amount.

It was just that with Jasper...

"This is what you always wanted, isn't it?" @Jasper growled at me, twisting his fingers. "Curling up against me and pretending to be a cat. I can feel your damn horny thoughts. You're like a disgusting bitch in heat."

I shut my eyes and clenched tightly.

"Happy now? Aren't you happy now? Now squeal in ecstasy and lie about how much you love me."

Tears appeared in my eyes.

I shook my head.

"Fuck you. You're just a dick-hungry slut. Pining for a fuck, begging to be married, but then you'll just leave me in the end."

I felt something large and hard pressed against my throbbing wet entrance.

"Is that what love is? Answer me!"

"I love you." I whispered weakly, trembling.

"That's a lie. You don't give a damn about me."

@Jasper's voice was filled with disgust.

I shuddered while he plunged deep inside of me.

It felt so wrong. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I didn't want this.

@Jasper grunted and thrusted, his anger surging with every stroke.

My vision was blurry with tears.

I don't know how much time passed.

Eventually, he groaned and shot his seed into my womb.

⚘ ⚘ ⚘

uenala

T__T ....I'm so sorry... Do you need to bleach your eyes? I tend to write self-destructive relationships, and even in my other novel, I seem to struggle with writing normal smut. Incidentally, I removed the "smut" tag on this story and replaced it with "horror", mainly because I feel like this is a mature story that coincidentally has sex scenes rather than a story that is mainly about glorifying the sex.

@Jasper's behavior in this chapter is a psychological phenomenon known as "displacement". It is a maladaptive defense mechanism that vulnerable people subconsciously employ to transfer their negative feelings from one thing to another. A classic example of this is when a stressed person comes home from work and kicks the dog. The stressed person doesn't actually hold negative feelings for the dog, but their feelings are displaced onto the dog.

Finally, there probably won't be an update until after Wednesday. I have a big presentation for work, so I have no time to write tomorrow!