Page 35 of Fear and Desire

Master 3 turned around, dragging Jackie along with him. His grip was so tight she was clawing desperately at his fingers.

“One of these bitches put a spider in my food, and I’m going to find out who, if I have to beat every one of them until they confess!”

“Marco!” It was Master 2, and he must have been mad to use Master 3’s real name. “No one put the spider in your food. It’s my fault. I saw it crawling on the counter and went to get something to put it in. I got distracted. It must have crawled onto your plate while no one was looking.”

Marco eyed Master 2 with distrust, then shoved Jackie away.

“Shall we all go back and eat?” Master 1 asked. The crowd of men at the kitchen door dispersed.

“Master 3, may I make you a new plate of food?” Claire asked, her voice laced with sweetness.

“No. I’ve lost my appetite.” He stomped out, and they heard him leave the dining room, slamming the door on his way out.

Master 2 picked up the remaining plate and looked a long moment at Claire.

“No spiders in here?” he asked.

“No, sir. I promise.”

“That’s good.” He left the kitchen.

They stared at each other for almost thirty seconds before a bubble of laughter rose from Laura. It triggered one from Claire, and then suddenly the entire group was holding their sides and trying desperately to keep silent as they fell to the floor together, arms around each other, laughing until tears ran down their faces.

20

Laura:

Theauctiongrewcloser,and the women were falling into a depression. Laura couldn’t imagine what they must be going through, believing that they were about to be removed forever from the world they knew. She willed them to hold on, in her thoughts, and in her nightly prayers. She held them as they cried and tried to encourage them as much as possible without revealing anything. In her whispered conversations with Master 2 after Dan’s daily fuckings, she begged to give them something, anything, but he shook his head and looked away. She dared to push the subject once, and he responded with a memorable spanking that made it impossible to sit for a day. She had some sympathy for how frustrated he and Dan must be, but she wasn’t sure they would ever understand what the women were going through.

Laura worried about Staci more than any of the others. The young woman seemed scarcely able to move each morning, and didn’t react to the punishments she got. She spoke of longing to visit her mother, who had died years ago.

Laura forced the subject again the next morning as Master 2 paddled her while she struggled to stay bent over, grasping her ankles. Each blow made her stumble forward until she learned how to brace herself, and it wasn’t until she could take ten hard ones without moving that she was done. By that point, she had over twenty-five red circles across her bottom and down the backs of her thighs, and had long ago given into screams of frustration.

“Good,” he praised. “Tomorrow we’ll work on this without making all the screeching racket you did today.”

She sobbed quietly, not knowing how she’d do this again. Today had been bad, though not the worst. That honor still belonged to the day Dan had caned her breasts. The purple spot on her left side still made her hiss when anyone bumped it.

Master 2 wiped down the paddle and put it away.

“Sir,” she whispered as she straightened up.

“Stay in your position until I tell you to move, slave!” he barked as he moved closer. “Yes?” he asked quietly.

“I’m really worried about Staci. I think she might try something… drastic.” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word ‘suicide.’

“Escape?”

“Worse.”

“Damn.” He moved away.

“Do not move until I come back.”

He left, and she stayed bent over, her sore back and strained tendons adding to the pain that radiated from her waist to her knees. She closed her eyes and breathed deep, calming her mind, and quelling her rising rebellion. Though it popped up daily, she was getting better at managing it.

As she pushed her struggles into a corner of her mind and remained bent over, Master 3 entered the room. Her heart dropped. Masters 1 and 2 had reassured her he knew better than to assault her, but she’d never been as confident of that as they were.

He circled around her, silent, as she stared at the floor. “Well,” he said eventually, “what do we have here?”

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