Celia sat with a bump on the chair, feeling somewhat bruised but in a way that wasn't sexy - bruises to her body she was used to and enjoyed when Mistress gave them, but this - this was a bruise to her mind. Her subconscious had betrayed her. She played back the conversations, both internal and the one with Mistress.<br/><br/>The arms surrounding her and comforting her gave her confidence.<br/><br/>"Um... Mistress, this is going to sound weird. I'm not crazy, please believe that? I just... I have my mother inside my head..."<br/><br/>She sighed and poured the story out. Something she had never told anyone. The way her father had abused her mother and her mother had abused her in return, sometimes physically, but mostly verbally and psychologically. Subtle tortures that didn't exactly break her spirit but warped it to be what she was now. And then three years ago her father had killed himself. And her mother's mind had snapped. The woman was in a care home being looked after, unable to do anything for herself.<br/><br/>And it was as if her mother's spirit had jumped, on that day, into her own head. That was the day the voice inside her head started. She had been at college when her father had jumped in front of a speeding train. Her mother had got the news an hour later when a policeman came to call and she had been rushed to hospital. And Celia had known. She had been doing a maths problem when suddenly she heard her mother, clear as a bell, inside her head, say,<em>Stupid girl. That's completely wrong. You'll never amount to anything</em>.<br/><br/>Celia sighed and looked up at Mistress. "And it's been that way ever since. Even now she's telling me that my telling you all this will drive you away and I'll loose you forever and it will serve me right for being such a pathetic looser.<br/><br/>"But Mistress... I<em>know</em>the things she says aren't true - well, usually. I know I'm not stupid. I'm a good Maths teacher. I know I'm not useless - at the very least, half kids in my calculus class will pass it, and that gives me a sense of satisfaction. And I certainly don't think I'm a slut. You are my only lover and you know I've never been with anyone else. I still have the blood stain to prove it, like you told me to!"<br/><br/>She smiled at Mistress. "Pathetic... Well, maybe I like feeling a little bit pathetic from time to time?"<br/><br/><em>Now you've done it. Now you've blown every chance you ever had at happiness. She'll never love you, and she's going to fire you on the spot. You're crazy. You belong in a psycho-ward!</em><br/><br/>"Oh, that's a new one! She just told me that you will never love me, that you will fire me, that I'm crazy and need to be locked up!"<em>Take that, Mother!</em>