Tighter, Please... Until They Snap

Ru's bare foot slid across the plum-colored rug like a pale serpent, toes curling toward Jasper's boot—a movement both deliberate and devastating in its casual grace.

"This isn't true," Claude blurted, his voice cracking. His fingers clutched Ru's wrist like a man gripping a cliff's edge. The lace at his cuffs trembled. "You can't do this to him."

Heise's claws pressed deeper into Ru's thigh, crimson beads rising in perfect alignment—a constellation of pain. "Am I doing this to him?" His obsidian mask reflected Jasper's hunger. "Or is this what he's always wanted?"

"What you're saying is incomprehensible," Claude snapped, tightening his grip on Ru's arm. He moved to pull him away—

But Heise interjected, "Ask him."

Ru exhaled sharply, his foot pausing just before touching Jasper's knee. The gilded chains at his ankle chimed softly—a sacrilegious hymn.