Page 26 of Black
“You’re damn right there will be nothing sexual about it, becauseit’s not happening,” I said in a raised voice.
“Those were our instructions,” Gabriel said.
“I don’t care. I’m not doing it. I told you… I don’t take orders from anyone.” My voice was loud and high-pitched and inside me my heart was hammering so fast. What he was asking me to do was terrifying. Fuck the baby costume, I could pretend it was Halloween and make a joke of it, but the part that brought out a full-fledged anxiety attack was the realization that Bruce wanted me to relinquish all control and let Gabriel take care of me.
“Calm down,” Gabriel said with a frown.
“No, I won’t calm down,” I hissed back. “I’m not taking orders from you… and certainly not that crazy Dr. Jekyll who thinks he can play twisted games with me, and call it therapy. Fuck him!”
“You can use that phone and call Bruce directly.” Gabriel pointed to a phone on the wall. “But wouldn’t it be easier to just play along?”
“Oh, I’m calling Bruce right now, because this is crazy.”
Gabriel took a seat on the bed while I called up Bruce, who remained completely calm no matter how much I screamed profanities at him. It was like banging my head against the wall.
“You can spend your two weeks here being a baby if you refuse to work with us, or you can comply and move up to become a toddler tomorrow. It’s up to you, Cia. If you cooperate, you could be a teenager by the end of the week.”
When I hung up the phone, I slid down the wall and pulled my legs up to my chest, hugging myself. I couldn’t even look at Gabriel or face the humiliating things before me.
I couldn’t see him with my head hidden against my knees but I felt him sitting down next to me.
“Hey, it’s not so bad,” he said in a soft voice. “We’ll get through this together, and what if it actually helps? Won’t it be worth two weeks of craziness if you end up feeling a lot better?”
I raised my head and looked at him, not caring that he would see the moisture in my eyes. “I don’t want to do it.”
“I know,” he said and stroked my back. It made me jerk and I shot him an angry glance, not feeling comfortable with his touches. “But I don’t think you have much choice.”
“Of course I have a choice,” I said, got up, and left the cabin, slamming the door after me.
Some people might have been brave enough to just start walking home. I know I wanted to, and maybe I would have succeeded if the sign at the end of the road hadn’t been there. “Beware,” it said and showed pictures of bears, cougars, and wolves. That sign made me stop and ponder for a minute. It would take me hours to hike to a road large enough to hope for a ride, and it would be dark before I got there. I had nothing with me. No flashlight, no water, no map. Chances were I would get lost or end up as dinner for some wild animal.
This therapy was ridiculous and disgusting, but was it worse than dying or going to jail?
My feet dragged when, thirty minutes later, I turned around and headed back to the cabin, to find Gabriel sitting outside on the porch.
“Let’s get this over with,” I hissed as I passed him, hoping he didn’t see me dry away an angry tear.
He got up and followed me inside, closing the door.
“So how do you want to do this?” he asked and moved forward to grab the pile on the bed. “We have to get you into the baby costume and since you’re a baby, I have to dress you.”
I reached for the pile, and when I lifted the black and yellow jumpsuit my eyes widened. Underneath were a diaper, a pacifier, and a baby bottle.Hell no!I had been ready to do this, but the diaper was a deal breaker.
Gabriel swallowed a laugh, and I snapped my head up and gave him my most evil look.
“If you think this is funny, then why don’t I dress you in a diaper?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s so grotesque that it’s funny,” he said, still trying to suppress his laughter.
I stuck a finger up his face. “If you want to get out of this cabin alive, you will not even attempt to put me in a diaper. Do you understand?”
He was nodding when the phone on the wall rang.
“What?” I asked angrily, squeezing the phone in my hand.
“The diaper will have to go on. It’s an important part of the role-play,” Bruce said on the phone.
My eyes flew around the cabin and stopped when I saw the camera. “Are you fucking spying on us?” I hissed.
