Page 14 of Fear and Desire

“Okay, ladies, the bowl is empty.”

Her heart sank.

“Slave?”

She looked up at him through her tears.

“Would you like to eat?”

It was a trap. She knew it. It was a trick question, and the wrong response would ensure an empty belly. She searched frantically for the appropriate response. “Only if my master desires me to, sir.”

“Excellent! Most new slaves go hungry for quite a while until they figure out the right response. Stay here and don’t move.” He stood up and disappeared.

Where the hell did he think she might go?

A moment later, he sat before her again with another bowl. This time he fed it all to her, making her take little bites, and big ones, admonishing her when a bit of gravy dripped down her chin, and coaching her about where her eyes should be. The other women sat silent and motionless on either side. At the end, he held out a glass of water for each woman. Laura had a tough time drinking when she couldn’t control the flow, but most of it went in her and not on her.

When they finished, Laura struggled to her feet, and they walked the short distance back to the cell where her arms were finally freed. All the women made a dash to the bathroom, and though she joined them, she didn’t understand why there was this frantic rush, until the grating voice of Master 3 yelled at them to get in line. A wail went up from the two women who hadn’t gotten to pee yet.

Laura leaned over to Claire. “What’s the matter?”

“The next time we’re allowed to go is after 9 o’clock tonight. They’ll never hold it that long. They’ll pee accidentally at some point today, and be punished for it.”

Laura bristled with anger, but Claire put a hand on her arm. “Don’t. Remember how Shannon was punished for standing up for Staci? You will be, too. We all have a pact. It doesn’t do a bit of good to protest on someone’s behalf, and there’s no point to having two people punished. That doesn’t mean we don’t jump in sometimes, because we get angry at the unfairness, but try to hold it back.”

Laura took a deep breath. “What misery do they have for use now?”

“Something that will make you wish you were back in the room with the Sybian.”

Claire was right. Over the next several hours, they introduced Laura to all kinds of evil, painful torments. She was whipped and flogged. She was tied to the spanking bench and paddled. They smacked her nipples with the riding crop. They seemed determined to give her a taste of everything.

Most of the other women endured it in eerie silence. She quickly learned that if she didn’t beg, the pain ended sooner, so she did her best to confine herself to screeches and screams, biting back the urge to call them names that would have shocked her mother. When the session ended, she was covered in red blotches and stripes, and tears ran down her face. She stumbled back to the cell with the others.

There was no time to recover, though. It was time to work.

“Bathrooms!”

“Bedrooms!”

“Serving!”

Over the next hour, they drilled Laura in how to serve a formal meal. Someone commented that she wasn’t being seductive enough, and in angry rebellion, she dumped a tray of pretend food onto the floor. She was summarily folded over the arm of a chair and paddled until she was screeching.

The next stop in the bizarre rabbit hole she’d fallen into was called ‘talents’. Master 2 quizzed her.

“Do you know how to give a massage?”

“No.”

“Paint?”

“No.”

“Can you make anything?”

“No.”

“Sing?”

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