Elizabeth didn’t so much settle back into routine as her infernal roommate threw metaphorical hands to the sky as simply continue to exist just as she had been. Catharsis felt a thread of interesting hearing voices outside as Elizabeth was unlocking the door after work a couple more weeks on. The demon hardly had time to catch that it was one of the neighbors down the hall before Elizabeth shut the door on him with a quiet apology. She turned the bolt and gave the door a wide berth the rest of that night. The demon wondered what would happen were someone else to actually come inside the apartment.

It still had these thoughts in mind when three days later the doorbell rang. Without checking the demon knew that Elizabeth gave no reaction to the sound. A minute past, Elizabeth continuing her dinner and three knocks followed the bell. Out of boredom as much as curiosity, Catharsis turned the latch, releasing the deadbolt.

That sound did stop Elizabeth, bringing her head up to look at the door. At the same time, whoever was on the other side took that as invitation, and opened the door, stepping inside in the same motion. No disguising the recognition as the man now in the apartment grinned humorlessly, pushing the door shut behind himself.

“Hello girly.” The man’s voice bore evidence of a long smoking habit. “You were lost for a long time weren’t you?”

Catharsis watched intently as Elizabeth stood up, taking a clear couple of steps away from her table and chair. She spoke softly.

“Oh no.”

That was all. A flash of fear, gone before the words finished leaving her lips. The man advanced on Elizabeth. Her skin crawled but the girl made no effort to escape or avoid him. The man cupped her cheek almost paternally, the intent twisted by his predatory expression. Catharsis, a demon tasked with corrupting human souls, felt revulsion. There wasn’t even any pleasure in the man as his hand slid from her cheek to grip Elizabeth’s neck.

“You know I have to remind you now, girly, don’t you?” His other hand went to his pocket, “It makes me sad when you forget what you are for.”

The sadness in the man’s voice only made it worse. The hand left his pocket holding a switchblade he flipped open and turned with practiced motion. The blade was pressed to Elizabeth’s hip and drawn down, separating the waistband and partway down the thigh of the flannel pants Elizabeth was wearing. He let go of her neck to cut and tear the pants away entirely. Rather than try to fight or run, Elizabeth took his momentary focus as opportunity to take off the blouse she hadn’t changed after work off herself, tossing the light-colored fabric to the far side of the room. She was protecting the shirt, Catharsis realized. There wasn’t even a thought for herself.

The man made a point of breaking the skin in a couple more places as he removed the shredded pants, splotches of red standing out as they soaked into Elizabeth’s neon blue panties.

“Get some ideas of fashion have you?”

He hooked his knife under one side, cutting the girl again before pulling back to tear more than cut the underwear away from her right leg. The fabric hadn’t time to slip down her other thigh before he stiff-armed her in the shoulder. Elizabeth moved with the blow, deliberately falling all the way to the floor.

“That’s a good girly. Starting to remember? We’ll get you there.”

The man dropped one knee, almost perfunctorily splitting one cup of Elizabeth’s bra with the knife as his other hand went to his belt. A red drop left the tip of her breast, soaking into the hanging pad.

Once the intruder had his pants down, he stabbed the knife into the floor, gripping her cut breast in one hand, the other dug into her hip as he entered her. The actual sex was anti-climatic, with Elizabeth still unfeeling and the man’s excitement from his knife work quickly spent. His rhythmic thrusts were mechanical. Why bother when neither party at all derived pleasure from it?

After he finished, the man got up, using the bathroom before laying claim to the mattress to sleep. Elizabeth did not move for several hours. Catharsis, irrationally hesitant to stare at the woman so thoroughly exposed, wondered if the girl had in fact fallen asleep.

But no, as soon as the man’s breathing had reached that deep slowness of sleep, Elizabeth slowly got to her feet. The damaged bra was dropped in the trash on the way past and she went to the bathroom, relieving herself and brushing her teeth. She then returned, with no effort to cover herself or find a blanket, and laid back down where she’d been taken.

The knife still stood, tip buried in the floor past her hip as she laid back down. It would be a simple matter for her to take it and stab the man. Even if she missed his heart the hovering demon knew she could kill her abuser easily. Yet the weapon may as well not have existed for all the attention she gave it. Catharsis went so far as to entice a thread of outside city light to reflect off the blade, playing on the girl’s face where she could not miss seeing it. Elizabeth reacted by turning her head away, nothing more.