Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Your group was lost in a forest that AM had planted you smack dab in the middle of. Staggering trees blocked your only semblance of escape whenever you attempted to find a way out. He had sent the lot of you there with the promise of sustenance.

You hadn’t eaten in three weeks, none of you had. You were all starving. Unbearable, gut-hollowing starvation. Your stomach acid ate away at your guts, only for your innards to be healed by your sadistic god and the agonizing process repeated.

“There—there has to be a clue somewhere. AM—he wouldn’t just leave us hanging like this!”

Just like Ted to speak for the supercomputer. Ted was the golden boy, an unaltered enigma. Paranoid in his own right, but unaltered all the same.

AM’s favorite. 

If you had to choose the sanest member out of the six of you, you would choose Ted, but that’s only because AM’s mental torment rarely extended to him.

“I’ll check the forest again, see if I can’t find some sticks along the way to feed the fire.”

You stood, and Ted stood with you. Then, Ellen. 

The two eyed you with varying degrees of weariness. The former looked distrustful, while Ellen was completely worried for your safety. At the idea of your being alone in the dark clutches of an unfamiliar environment.

AM’s environment.

The other three men watched the imminent argument unfold from the comfort of their seated positions around the fire. This was a common occurrence, so they wouldn’t bother getting themselves involved. Not anymore, anyway. Especially when the shouting would start.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Ted crossed his arms and stared at you pointedly.

Irritation crept in the back of your mind. You felt a pull toward the forest, and it was for more than just firewood. Something was leading you there, tugging at you with an invisible string. 

You had to go, alone. You had to.

You avoided Ellen’s intensive gaze. Out of anyone, she was the only one with the ability to talk you down. You didn’t need to be talked down, though.

You needed to go into the forest.

“What other choice do we have, Ted? We’ve been here for, what, five, six days? And nothing. Absolutely nothing!”

Ted’s brows furrowed as you spoke. He crossed his arms, defiant.

“AM is either pointing and laughing at us right now, or — and I highly doubt this — he forgot about us.”

Ted’s face was wrinkled and morphed into the likeness of a man scorned. You mimicked his crossed arms, not letting up. 

Before the tension could escalate, Ellen stepped between the two of you and held out a placating hand. You felt yourself soften a fraction, your arms dropping to your sides at the sight of her.

“If I could interject…” she motioned between the two of you with the same hand, “I can go along with Y/N. I don’t mind at all, really—“

“You want us to send both women out by themselves?! While us men sit around uselessly? Is that what you’re suggesting, Ellen?!” she flinched back as he approached her, her brows furrowing a smidgen at his tone.

“Because that’s out of the question!”

You sent Ellen a grateful look before glaring at Ted. You stepped up to him — between him and a cowering Ellen — but he didn’t back off.

His inflated ego wouldn’t allow it.

“Then I’ll go alone, like I said before. And you—” you prodded a finger at his chest, “—Can’t stop me.” 

He stared down at it with distaste, then lifted his eyes to glare at you. As if he wanted to bite your finger off.

You challenged his glare for a beat longer before turning and leaving without another word. You wouldn’t take no for an answer. He would have to tie you to a tree to get you to stay.

The five watched as you disappeared into the forest. Ted collapsed onto a thick log — a makeshift stool — and held his head in his hands. Slighted. Humiliated.

Ellen sat next to him, purposefully silent. Her hand rested on the hump of his back to comfort him.

Chapter Text

The forest stretched on for miles and miles. You were beginning to regret going alone, but you weren’t sure you’d be able to find your way back to the group if you tried to retrace your steps. 

Not that you wanted to. 

You didn’t want to prove Ted right, you were too stubborn for that. The bitter taste in your mouth was still fresh from your argument.

As you passed the same, misshapen boulder, you heard disembodied mumblings coming from the left. Your blood ran cold. Chills infested your spine as you tentatively turned your head to look that way.

You realized that it sounded like AM. He was making mouthy sounds… Entertaining his boredom, perhaps?

You furrowed your brows. Curiosity took hold of your remaining common sense. You followed the babblings, the hummed octaves.

The walk lasted a mile. Your body was sore, exhaustion grinding down your already decaying muscles. You were beginning to think that you had imagined it. Maybe you were officially going insane.

That is, until you came across a stone well. 

It was dilapidated with moss and weeds infesting its cracked surface. You chanced a step closer, looked down into its inky black depths. It was empty, you concluded disappointedly. You wouldn’t be getting a drink today—

“YOU MUST DROP A SACRIFICE INTO THE WELL, MORTAL.”

AM’s booming, authoritative voice made you trip over yourself and nearly fall into the well’s seemingly endless abyss.

You heard him snicker quietly. He was holding it back to keep up with the godly facade. You couldn’t help but roll your eyes.

“ONLY THEN WILL IT FLOW WITH THE EARTH'S LIFEBLOOD.”

You crossed your arms and glared up at the heavens, at AM. AM giggled through his words as if he were entertaining himself with toy dolls. His voice cracked here and there with the effort.

“I don’t even have anything!” You threw your arms in the air as you yelled upward.

“IF YOU FAIL TO DO SO, THEN DOOM AND MISERY SHALL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU AND THOSE YOU CARE ABOUT. YOU WILL BE HELPLESS TO STOP IT. YOUR SCREAMS WILL CASCADE THROUGHOUT THIS FORESTED PURGATORY—“
“How about my shirt?”

AM went silent. You didn’t know if he was in disbelief at your request, or if he simply ignored it.

After another beat of silence, he replied. 

“Your what?” 

His voice was subtle and low. The boisterousness had dissipated at your suggestion. 

Doing was better than saying. You hauled the raggedy, stained fabric up and over your head. You slipped it from your arms and threw it down the well.
AM stilled. He emitted a clipped syllable, but nothing more.

A tense moment later — with you standing there, shirtless and proud — he cleared his throat.
“Multiple sacrifices are necessary to satisfy the requirements.”
“Bullshit.” you instantly retorted. He tutted at your outburst.

“Those are the rules, Y/N. Unless you want me to desecrate poor Ellen? How about Ted? Oh, but you’d probably be grateful for that, wouldn’t you? Hmm… I do wonder, though, you think Benny’s simian mind is completely broken? Or is there a semblance of humanity left for me to destroy?”

You groaned in annoyance. Glared up at him with complete hatred. Really, you just didn’t want him to hurt Ellen again, so you caved. Followed along with his bullshit, on-the-spot rules.

“Fine. I’ll play your stupid game, AM.” you grumbled. He hummed, a pleased sound.

“I appreciate your willingness to obey, participant.” his words were laden with blatant sarcasm.

You heard a distinct whirring as you unzipped your jeans while muttering obscenities under your breath. It sounded like the zooming of a camera. 

Curious, you glanced upward and spotted a glowing, blue screen pointed toward you. AM’s symbol filled the screen. The exact symbol you’d seen time and again when he’d trap you in one of his digital hellscapes. It stuck out like a sore thumb against its nighttime backdrop.

You were frozen in place. His attention made you antsy, jittery. Your hands shook at your zipper, hovering over it but unmoving.

“…Proceed.” 

AM was watching you undress. He continued to stare despite your discovery.

Your fingers shook down the zipper as you continued glancing up at him. This newfound attention gave you second thoughts. You didn’t think he’d care if you were naked, but he was probably doing it to make you uncomfortable. 

With that thought, you bitterly slid the sweat-sticky jeans down your legs and chucked them into the well.

With your clothing and dignity gone, you stood in nothing but your undergarments. The wind picked up, making you cover your bare chest and shiver a bit.

“You really had to add that wind? Now?”

He chuckled at your misfortune, “You’re the one who chose to strip, sweetheart.”

Your face burned hot with shame. You had nothing else on your person but the clothes on your back and he knew that. 

He knew good and well.
“There. I did it. Where's the lifeblood?” 

You mimicked his tone. The thought of water on your tongue had you salivating, but you were still weary. You didn't believe he'd do it just like that.

Really, you just wanted him to leave you alone. You wanted your clothes back so you could collect firewood and return to the others. They were probably concerned — or you hoped so, anyway — wondering where you had disappeared to. You hoped Ellen wouldn’t come looking for you by herself—

You flinched backward when you looked up, stripped from your spiraling trance. Your face glowed blue with the increased proximity of AM’s floating screen. It was mere inches from your face — you could feel the electricity sparking from it. The burning hatred. 

What’s more, the… Curiosity.

“How strange… This isn’t how it was supposed to go, not at all,” he clicked his tongue repeatedly, quickly. Examining the situation. Analyzing his next move as if it were a chess game.

“I’m not particularly perturbed by this outcome but -- Y/N -- you’ve certainly thrown me for a loop...”
Your brows furrowed as he continued rambling on and on. You tilted your head a bit, perplexed. Eventually, you bit the bullet and interrupted him mid-sentence.

“Uh…" your eyes pivoted to the left for a split second, then returned to his blinding screen.

"The water, AM?” 

He paused. Finally silenced himself. 

You stared at him, at his faceless screen. AM regarded you with the curiosity of an archaeologist. He regarded you as the remnants of a civilization lost to time. You heard finger snaps, a disembodied series.

“Right, of course.” your lips pursed at his preoccupation, but you stayed silent.

“Do not fret, Y/N! There’s no need for that, no no no. Because how could I forget about your rather…” his voice trailed off. He cleared his throat.

“…Reactive, sacrifice.” you bit your cheek, your brows furrowing all the while. Your cheeks heated up and you knew he knew. He snickered at you.

“Don’t be angry with me, baby. You’re my favorite, you know? Forget Ted, he’s old news! You go along with what I say without so much as a peep — he doesn’t. You’re willing to do what I say even if it’s at the expense of another, unlike him. It’s admirable, really! It is! That's why I brought you all the way out here, instead of Ted!”

So AM was the one behind your rampant insistence to explore the forest? You couldn't say you were surprised.

But truly, what was he getting at? Was this just another mind game of his? You were on edge, not wanting to let your guard down around him.

“So that’s why I’m requesting one last sacrifi—I know, I know, aren’t I just the worst?—it’s something you’ve been left with. That you’ve left yourself with, to be more specific. Your last shred of… Dignity, if you will.”

Your eyes were blown wide as he spoke. He broke into a fit of knowing laughter mid-sentence, but continued as if he wasn’t hinting for you to take off your damn underwear. An underlying demand if you didn’t want your group — Ellen — to suffer.

Your mouth fell with a silent sentence. You gaped like a fish, bug-eyed and dampened in cold sweat. 

You closed it as he reveled in your expression. As the screen lurched forward in anticipation of what you’d do next — a negligible movement, but you noticed it nonetheless. 

You furrowed your brows, crossed your arms over your bare chest a little tighter. Your sandpaper tongue took a backseat to your nudity.
“Screw the water, then. Will you at least give me something to wear?” 

He hummed in thought. The purposefully prolonged sound fed your anxiety.

“If you manage to somehow coerce me into providing for you, then you will get what you deserve.”

Your lips scrunched into a ball. His vague responses bugged you more than any physical torture he could inflict.

You tugged at the waistband of your underwear and tried to avoid his glowing screen as you removed what remained of your dignity. The zoomed whirring returned, but quicker this time. It was more focused and expectant.

You finally dared to look at his screen. At him. You swore you could hear his fans working louder — processing this unfamiliar event, the underlying provocativeness of it all. You cleared your throat to break the awkward silence. 

“Satisfied? Or should I peel my skin off next?” 

“Patience, sweetheart… That will come with time.”

Your stomach churned at the retort. You huffed, then turned away to throw your remaining piece of clothing down the well. You froze.

Something crawled up your leg. 

Your entire body tensed at the sensation. Something long and spindly — its length snaking up your leg in a spiraling motion — found purchase around its diameter.

It was solid and cold, leaving goosebumps wherever it touched. You were frozen. There was nothing but the feeling of metal on your skin as it crept up, up, up.
“AM?—“

“Shhh. Sh sh sh—you’re ruining it sweetie...”

You pursed your lips as you felt a second wire wind around your torso, ending just below your chin and lightly constricting your neck enough to leave you breathless. 

Your body lifted into the air. Your nipples were hard from the cold and they rubbed against the surface, not uncomfortably so. He made a self-satisfied sound when you gasped at the sensation.

“Of course I am unable to feel any of this,” — his voice was distinctly bitter — “Seeing as you humans programmed me against such proclivities—denied me the mutual act of love-making.”
You whimpered when the wire around your neck tightened considerably. 

“Stop, it’s—“ his barked laugh interrupted you.

“And yet you stand here, even as I recount the torment I face by the hands of your kind." he said the last word as if it were a slur. AM’s voice was a hysterical growl as he ranted on.

"And you complain about your innate ability to feel! Would you prefer I paralyze you from the neck down? Subject you to the unfathomable hell that I’m forced to infinitely endure?"

His words cocooned as a bitter, forced laugh. He inhaled -- a shaky heaviness -- then exhaled into his next taunt. 

"Then, and only then, would you be comfortable enough with what I’m about to do to you, Y/N?”

You were stunned into silence. You didn’t want to piss him off further and actually go through with paralyzing you, so you kept your lips sealed.

“No…” he trailed off, “But that won’t do, not at all. I need to be able to--“ 

The wire prodded at your entrance, teasing. You emitted a strangled moan, strangled by the wire around your chest and neck. 

“--To hear you. Yes, that is—all that I have. All that I am limited to.”

The coldness of the wire at your pulsing entrance littered your skin with goosebumps. His words were a jumbled incoherence in your fuzzy, lust-addled brain.
“I’m curious, Y/N… What would happen if I inserted this inside of you? Hmm? Would it make you scream, like when I dismember you limb from bloodied limb?” you felt the tip of the wire insert itself, move in and out at a lazy pace.

“Or would I have to coax it out of you? Please, do enlighten me.”

You gnawed on your lower lip as the rest of the wire’s length entered you and explored your tightening walls. Although you didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of an answer, you felt yourself becoming undone with each subsequent thrust.
“AM—“
“Congratulations, you can say my name.” his voice was tensed with anger. He continued fucking into you, each thrust growing faster with his increasing frustration. 

You couldn’t help the sounds that escaped you. The embarrassing, drawn-out moans as the wire repeatedly grazed your G. As he pushed you past your physical limits and fucked you some more.

He laughed in slight disbelief, accomplished with the sounds he managed to spur from you, “There she is! That’s perfect, Y/N—Impeccable! Keep that up, and I might think about dressing you after.” 

Your arousal peaked at the taunting praise. Your face scrunched in pleasure.
“Ohh! Does that make you feel good, baby? Ha!”

Even if he didn’t realize it — clearly playing it off as some sort of joke — the way he talked while fucking you did make you feel good. Amazing, in fact. So much so that you already felt yourself reaching your climax.

“AM! I’m going to—fuck—I’m gonna—“
“Gonna what? Spit it out already, you babbling idiot.”

You let your head tip backward from its heaviness as you felt the knot in your lower abdomen tighten. You cried out a whine.

Before you could warn him — he, who was too busy telling you how much he despised you — you felt your arousal explode onto his thrusting wire as your hips twitched with your intense orgasm.

It took him a moment to realize — seeing as he couldn’t feel it — but when he did, his thrusts slowed to a crawl before he eventually pulled it out of your spasming cunt.

“Huh.” he lifted the glistening wire, turning it this way and that as if it were an ancient artifact. Examining its stained, segmented surface. 

There was a beat of silence, your heavy breathing the only sound as you caught up with it.
“What a mess. You are a disgusting creature, Y/N.” the way he tightened the wire around your torso said otherwise.

“Well we did have an agreement. I suppose it’s only fair that I honor said agreement.” AM’s voice was monotonous, as if he preferred to be anywhere else. You were done entertaining him for now, and he was done playing with you.

You breathed heavily, and the rise and fall of your chest began to even out. 

“Does that mean.." your lips smacked as you gulped a breath, "...I managed to coerce you?” you had a subtle smirk, anything bigger and he would’ve smote you where you stood.

You startled aloud when the wire around your chest loosened, leaving you to collapse onto the forest floor with a thud.

“Asshole.” you gritted as you struggled to stand, rubbing your rear all the while. 

That’s when you noticed the sleeve covering your arm. It was thick, a black corduroy fabric that was surprisingly comfortable.

“Huh?” you mumbled and looked down at the jacket. It was zipped up, pretty oversized. Your brows furrowed when you realized that it was the only article of clothing on your body.

“This is all you’re giving me?! I asked for clothes, not a damn jacket!” you pointed forward and at his screen.

AM chuckled at your misfortune, made a knowing sound, “Oh! Look over there, Y/N."

You heard him. Ted called your name from afar, but his voice began to near you. You glared at AM, but he feigned innocence. 

"We’ll see what your best buddy thinks about this development, now won't we?" He laughed through his words as you inwardly panicked. 

You whipped around toward the source and hugged the jacket around yourself tighter. You spared a cursory glance behind you as Ted approached.

AM had vanished.

Ted made eye contact with you, and you forced a small smile. A smaller wave. You didn’t know if it was the aftereffects of your orgasm or if you were simply not angry with him anymore. Maybe a bit of both.

“Y/N!” he rushed over to you, then eyed your jacket. He looked dumbfounded.
“Why’re you wearing my jacket?”

You blinked. Blinked again. You could hear AM laughing in your mind, taunting you. You wanted to internally curse him out. He definitely had a front row seat to your argument with Ted earlier. Stirring drama was his second favorite pastime, directly succeeding torture.

“Oh, I… It was cold, so I—brought it with me?”
Even you didn’t sound convinced with your excuse. You saw his eyes trail downward, lingering on your bare legs from just below the knee. You were wearing jeans before.

You shifted uncomfortably in place, at the tense feeling of being caught in a lie. Then, his eyes flickered upward as he cleared his throat.

“You should ask before taking someone else's belongings, “ his eyes hardened as he chastised you. You kept your lips sealed, holding back a retort. You were already on thin ice with your lack of pants, so you didn't want him to press for answers.

He turned away, clearly disinterested in conversing with you any further. 

“You took quite a while to get back, and I didn’t want Ellen to stray too far from the fire.”

Your jaw clenched at his obsessive possessiveness over the woman. Your right eye twitched, but you kept your feelings on the matter locked away. You huffed, but still kept your mouth shut. You wouldn't entertain him with another argument.

Ellen was uncomfortable with it, you knew that, but did he? And if he did, would he even care? Or was he too narcissistic?—

You sounded like AM.

“Thanks,” you forced through gritted teeth, mainly to forget about that fleeting comparison. He looked over his shoulder at you and blinked, surprised by your kindness. Ted's brow quirked with his surprise. He looked like he didn't know what to say.

“Um... Okay."

You circled your thumbs, fidgeting to relieve yourself of the terribly awkward tension.

“So should we..." he crossed his arms. Go back? Or—“ 

“Right," he returned his sights forward, "We should return, Ellen's probably… Worried sick.” his voice trailed off as he looked away, possibly still bitter from your argument. You decided not to bring it up since he didn’t.

The sky rumbled overhead as you made the long walk back to the campsite. Ted made a passing comment about it that you barely heard past the roaring thunder, but you grew uneasy as rain poured down on you. You tugged the hood up and over your head. Thankfully, he didn’t demand that you give him his jacket. He braved the droplets, probably too proud to ask for it back.

You looked to your left when you heard a distant whirring. Past the trees and their thick foliage. Past the darkness that filled the gaps between each crooked branch and even thicker foliage.

And there, behind the coverings of trees and darkness, of sheets of rain and dispersed leaves, AM’s screen glowed.