1. “hold them down for me”
“Jesse, darling, I need to borrow you for a moment.” Maharet says it like anyone would and mean ‘come tell me if this frame is straight’ or ‘hold the cat while I take the trash out’, perfectly casual, like her claw-tipped fingers aren’t covered in blood, like Jesse has a choice.
Maharet slithers into Jesse’s skull; makes her body rise. It stumbles over to Maharet and the thing on the floor, the weeping, broken body. Jesse’s crumples gracelessly, and Maharet does not control her mouth, so she cries out. Then: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” as her hands pin it down.
2. forced turning/forced to turn another
“All right. So what’s this ‘surprise’?” Daniel asks. He’s tired of being toyed with, and he’s tired of being alive. In love with death, Louis called him this morning. Not an easeful one, you said. Louis smiled, all soft. No, he agreed.
Louis smiles now, all teeth. “Arun?”
Your stomach churns. You’ve never—you never wanted—
(oh, don’t lie to yourself)
—but it is demanded of you, and so you shall. It is not a sin to be forced.
“Hey,” says Daniel, hands raised, panicking. “Hey now. We don’t need to—”
You freeze him. “Maître?”
“Go on. He’ll want it.”