Page 39 of Taken

I stood there for what felt like forever, staring around with a mixture of horror and wonder. To my left was a large metal cage with a woman tied to the bars by her wrists and ankles. Her bare breasts were squashed by the bars as a man thrust into her from behind, making her shriek. Every so often he stopped to lash at her back with a whip, making her scream even louder.

Not far from that, a group of young women were kneeling with their hands bound behind their backs with thick rope. They were sucking cocks presented to them by men with terrible, lust-filled gazes.

On my right, an oiled-up woman with pale skin and dark hair was grunting through a gag as a big blond man bent her over and fucked her in the ass. Her ankles were wide apart, trapped in the position by a black spreader bar, and her hands were cuffed in front of her.

It almost looked like a BDSM sex club in here, only none of the women were willing participants and they wouldn’t have the first clue what BDSM was, let alone what consensual sex was.

A skinny brunette girl approached me and kneeled. “Hello, sir,” she said. “I am here to service you, if that is what you desire. I am a widow and therefore no longer a virgin, so you may use me in any way you like.”

She sounded like a fucking robot. Literally.

I was trying to think of some excuse not to touch her when Jacob shooed her away. “That’s very good of you to offer, but we are simply showing Mr. Ashwood around right now. He has joined us from the outside, and he is weary from his long journey.”

The young woman darted away without another word, but she threw a few curious glances over her shoulder. I looked at her with a frown, trying to figure out how old she was. That was when I caught sight of Jolie again.

She was all the way to my right, crouching on the floor. Her pale blue dress had been yanked down to reveal a white cotton bra and the bare skin of her abdomen. Above her was a man with his pants down and his stiff pink dick out, dangling it above her lips.

She looked terrified.

No fucking way.I marched over to her and pulled her away from the man. Her eyes widened in shock. “What… what are you doing?”

“Yes, Mason. What are you doing?” Jacob asked.

Shit.

I turned back to face him and the Elders. In my moment of rage, I’d forgotten all about them. I needed to think of a reason for grabbing Jolie, and I needed to think of one fast, or they’d realize I was here under false pretenses and not at all committed to their sordid lifestyle.

My eyes fell on the girl getting whipped in the cage across the room, and an idea formed in my mind.

“I’m sorry,” I said, bowing my head in respect. “It’s just that when I was visiting from the Wastelands a few months ago, I didn’t realize how seriously you took your rules here. It’s only now that I’ve come to live at the commune that I’ve fully realized. I feel like I would be disrespecting you and starting off on the wrong foot if I didn’t come clean.”

“Come clean about what?” Jacob’s eyes narrowed.

“When I was here last time, I spoke to Jolie. Well, actually, she initiated the conversation, but still… it happened. She didn’t say much—not enough for me to gather any information about your lifestyle, that is—but as I’ve come to understand it, that’s still grounds for punishment, is it not?”

Jacob glared at Jolie. “You spoke to an outsider?”

Jolie shivered under his cold gaze and wrapped her thin arms around her middle as if she were hugging herself for protection. She glanced at me, her eyes wide from the shock of my treachery, and then she looked back at her father. “Yes, Father. I’m sorry. I recognized him from before the Great Reckoning, and I wanted to say hello,” she murmured. “I couldn’t help it. Please forgive me.”

She looked at me for another second after that, her pretty features twisted with hurt. Right now, she thought I was a terrible man who’d deeply betrayed her, but she would realize the truth soon.

In my tour of the shelter earlier, I’d come to realize how difficult it would be to get her alone so we could speak without fear of interruption. It was almost fucking impossible.

As a new member, I would be carefully watched by all the other men to make sure I wasn’t doing anything strange, so I couldn’t just grab one of the girls and take her to my suite to chat. Also, women weren’t actually allowed in the men’s section unless they were cleaning, and even then, there was always someone around keeping an eye on them. So I couldn’t just wait for Jolie to get assigned cleaning duties in that section and try to chat to her there. Someone would see us and get suspicious.

The women’s section was just as bad. It was almost always busy and crowded, from what the Elders had told me, and the doors there had no locks.

Except the Penance Rooms. It had only just occurred to me now.

They were the only rooms in the whole shelter where a man could take a woman and lock her in for a ‘valid’ reason, leaving the two of them uninterruptable for however long they were in there. No one could walk in and overhear what they were saying.

In any other room in the shelter, that wasn’t possible. Even if I somehow sneaked down into Jolie’s room long after midnight, there was always a chance that someone else would wake up and walk in on us. Considering how long I needed to talk to her to explain the truth about everything, I simply couldn’t risk that. Also, knowing how terrified Jolie was in general, she’d probably scream the place down if I showed up in the middle of the night.

“Prophet Jacob,” I said with a frown. “I know this girl is your daughter, so the thought of her being punished probably isn’t very nice for you, but she broke the rules. You said it yourself: any rule-breaking must be punished. So please… allow me to do it. I would like to demonstrate how seriously I take things now that I understand the rules.”

The Elders muttered amongst themselves, looking impressed at my supposed dedication to their ways.

Jacob’s eyes gleamed. “I think that’s a good idea, Mason,” he said, grabbing Jolie’s left arm and squeezing it until she yelped. “And don’t worry. She is my daughter, and I do have a soft spot for her because of that, but that doesn’t mean I will allow lies and sin to fester inside her.”

I nodded curtly. “Good.”

Jacob smiled and let go of Jolie’s arm. “Do it,” he said. “Take her and punish her. Now.”

---