Betrayal Chapter 9: Insomniac Sleeping Beauty

Part Nine Chapter Forty – Insomniac Sleeping Beauty

We had been back in the pony pen for five days and four nights. That day I had been working as a team with Monica – our first attempt together since the branding. We had built up some confidence at running but our stamina was low. I was recovering quickly, and in a day or two more I thought I might be back to normal or even better than before. The nasty chastity belt was gone but Sarah would whip me sharply if she ever suspected I was trying to rub myself against anything.

Unaccountably, all my piercings had healed up completely and were giving me no trouble at all. Sarah said I needed a new bar in my tongue as the old one had become loose due to the swelling going down completely, but Dehlia would have to see to that. Even my breasts, which had been swollen from continual beatings and bindings, had gone down, though they would never be the same as they were before.

Monica was not recovering so well and for the first time I was able to outlast her easily while running; she had become the limiting factor in the team.

Neither Lucas nor Johnno had touched me since my illness. It felt as if they didn’t even like to be close to me. They had made me sixty-nine with Monica a couple of times. It was probably to see if anything would happen to her, but it didn’t. Despite this they still shunned me. This had made me frustrated at first and desperate to cum – in my pony outfit I had no way to manage it – but after a while the need subsided.

That night I lay awake in the pen. I hadn’t slept well since my illness and would often lie awake thinking of the odd dreams I’d had while I was sick. There was one where I had been some kind of mermaid and I liked to recall it and remember the feeling of strength and muscular power I’d experienced in that dream. I had elaborated on it considerably, adding new scenes and details.

I also liked to remember a dream where I was a beautiful and sexy woman who had men and even other women eating out of her palm, metaphorically at least. I enjoyed the fantasy of that confident seductress, even though in reality I was lying on my side and restrained in my leather pony outfit amidst the flies and the stink.

I was not so keen to remember the cage from my fever dreams or the real one that had been moved back into Johnno’s dungeon. That nightmare was always haunted by a shadowy and unseen figure: the one who had put me in the cage and ensured that I would never leave it. This shadowy monster lived only to siphon off my bodily fluids: blood, sweat, saliva, even the juice from my pussy, and the imagination – or was it recollection – terrified me whenever the thought of him inserting his numerous tubes into me came to mind.

Autumn was coming on and the nights were getting colder. I lay there pressed up against Monica’s sleeping body to conserve heat, wishing the ground would start to feel warmer or more comfortable. We had developed a habit of almost always sleeping that way, with me on the outside and Monica between me and either Keiko or Noriko, who tended to take it in turns. My sleeplessness and a restless urge to move about more made it awkward for me to take the middle position, and I think overall the cold bothered me less than it did Monica.

I was sure I’d heard the distant sound of a vehicle. Sometimes we would hear cars moving on the dirt road far away, but we never saw one, not even the lights. This time I felt something was different. It had sounded like a car moving very slowly and quietly nearby rather than one moving quickly at a distance – not that I imagined the cars moved very quickly down the dirt road at night.

I became fully alert at the point I heard somebody moving through the grass at the other side of the field. It was much too dark to see anything. The night was moonless and though a magnificent array of dizzying stars was clearly visible in the sky, they cast little in the way of useful light.

The sound moved towards the house and I had the impression that somebody was prowling around it, looking for something. For an instant I saw a hint of a figure caught in the dim light spilling from one of the windows. There were no curtains on the house and sometimes we would catch glimpses of the occupants moving about inside.

Most of the games seemed to consist of abusing Sarah and every day she sported some new injury. She was still obliged to train us, and they made her do it naked, or wearing nothing but a few leather straps, weights hanging off her nipple rings. She had developed a beaten hangdog look to her that she shared with the rest of us and I hadn’t seen her wear anything resembling clothes since the plastic overalls.

Johnno would watch her work with intense concentration and never missed a thing. He had the long lunging whip. If he thought she was too soft on us he would quickly use it to administer punishment to her; if she made a mistake or pushed us too hard, again she would be whipped. He liked to tell her that if she couldn’t do the job any better than him she might as well be in the pen with us.

It seemed to me that it would have been easier for her to give in and join us in the pen rather than persisting in training us. I couldn’t decide if she was clinging to a hope that they would relent and stop treating her so badly, or whether she was trying to protect us from Johnno in some way.

I put such thoughts aside when I heard the faint sounds of somebody moving stealthily through the darkness towards the pen. There was definitely somebody out there and they were close. I got up on my knees and knee-shuffled as quietly as I could towards the sound. It stopped when I moved, but after a few moments it began to come closer again.

I moved up to the wire and pressed against it. There, only inches away was the face of Deshi my brother. He was lying on his belly where he had commando crawled through the dry grass up to the edge of the pen.

“Hello?” He whispered. “Is Mei there.”

“Yes brother. I am here.”

“Mei? Is that you? I can’t believe it’s you after all this time.”

“Yes. It is me. I am so happy to see you. I’m restrained in a stupid leather costume, but it’s me. Release me, quickly... Please.”

Suki might not have been prepared for this moment, but I was. I had been hoping and praying that he would come before we were handed over. Dehlia was obviously nothing like Johnno, but there was something hypnotic about her. I didn’t want to end up tangled up in her world and I certainly didn’t want Lucas’ plan to work out as he had intended without knowing more about both Dehlia and Marcus. How could I take part in a scheme against Dehlia? She seemed to think she was helping us by purchasing us, but I couldn’t figure what she had intended with me or what had really happened while I was ill.

“How do I do that? Do I need to cut this wire?”

“No. The way into the pen is through the stable but it’s just two doors with ordinary latches. We can’t use our hands so there are no locks.”

“Where is the door?”

“It’s close by, to your left. Just be quiet, nobody will come out at this time unless they hear a disturbance but if the other girls wake up and hear you moving about they will raise up a racket.”

He scuttled over to the stable in a crouch and then stood up to open the door. I heard the click of the latch and the creak of the hinges. He closed it behind him. A moment later the door from the stable into the pen opened a crack and I stood up and slipped through as quietly as I could. The door closed behind me. Deshi was there, I could feel his breath, but it was so dark inside the stable with the doors closed. How did he find the door?

He turned on the light from a tiny torch, dazzling me.

“How do I get you out of this thing you are wearing?”

“Hanging high up on the wall are some tools. There are wire cutters and a small saw. Cut the laces. You could undo them but cutting should be quicker. When you get to the buckles, undo them by hand.”

He searched the wall where Johnno hung all kinds of farm tools and implements. Many were rusty and disused but others were new. Everything he had used to build the pen was here apart from the machinery. There were even spare rolls of wire. I had noticed all of this when we passed in and out of the stable for training, and I had taken careful note of what tools were there. I had spent many idle hours pondering what would be the quickest way to remove my pony tack.

“Alright, I have them. Where should I start?”

“This awful helmet, undo the buckle underneath and cut the laces.”

He started working the buckle.

“This thing is difficult… You said there other girls here? I couldn’t see in the dark.”

“Three others. Forget about them for a moment. Let me tell you about the people in the house.”

“I saw a car and a ute.”

“There are two men holding me captive. One is that shitbag that I married, Lucas. I’ve been told he made a big pretence of looking for me but he was the one that made me disappear. The other is a real thug called Johnno. He’s a Taiwanese and very strong. He boasts of how many men he defeated with his knife but he’s not as strong as Lucas. Lucas is inhumanly strong. I don’t know how, but he is. You mustn’t fight either of them hand to hand or you will die. They are killers. You aren’t ready for people like them.”

“Mei, I can’t believe that bastard has done this to you. I’m going to beat him for this.”

“Don’t get macho now. Lucas is as good at fighting as you and he is bigger. These men are not sportsmen, they are monsters. Johnno keeps a pump action shotgun in his ute, which he does not lock. You must get that so you can shoot them if they come after us. That is the best way. Anything else would be reckless.”

“Shoot them? With a shotgun? They would be killed, unless I missed.”

“They would kill you from ambush without a thought. It is the only way to be safe. My only fear is that the gun might not be loaded, but knowing the way Johnno thinks, it will be.”

“Where is it in the ute?”

“It’s hidden underneath the driver’s seat, right at the back I think. I could only see him get it from a distance. Also, there’s a woman, Sarah, in the house. They keep her as a sort of slave but she is dangerous and is a strong fighter. She might decide to help them or she might help us. She is treacherous and unpredictable so you should not rely on her or take her word for anything. She did a lot of terrible things to me so I hate her almost as much as the men. They will be keeping her helpless so there is no need to worry about her unless we free her.”

“You have been suffering all this time? So much that you wish them dead?”

“It is better you don’t know all of it. You might be disgusted with me, but it was not my fault. I was a prisoner and they tortured me. I did whatever disgraceful things they demanded so I could stay alive in the hope that one day I might be rescued.”

“No. I won’t be disgusted. You are my baby sister. The people in the wrong are the criminals. Many times I lay awake at night tortured by thoughts of what evil men might do to a woman they had kidnapped but never once did I think it was your fault.”

My arms and hands were free but they were still numb and my fingers were so stiff and useless I wasn’t sure I could do anything with them. I did my best to get some life into them while he continued to work on the corset.

“The girls in the pen are innocent but they are terrified of everyone in the house, they might even raise the alarm or panic in some other way if you try to rescue them. They will be so afraid of escape that we shouldn’t wake them if we can avoid it. We have to deal with the people in the house before we can help the girls. No other way will work. Trust me on this.”

“I can tell you have considered all this carefully and you know the situation. I will do as you say, even if it means shooting these people. Is there some way we can take them prisoner? Have you thought of that?”

He ripped the corset off my body and I took a wonderful unrestrained breath.

“You are not wearing anything underneath?” He said in astonishment.

“Are you stupid? You were looking at my naked privates a moment ago but my bare boobs shock you? Of course I am naked, what clothes do you think a girl wears under a leather bondage corset?”

“Sister, you are still a shrew,” he said with a smile.

I couldn’t help hugging him then, even though I was naked apart from the pony boots and we had important things to worry about.

“I was afraid you would not come, but Tate said he would help me, and I guess he did. I wonder if he did it on his own or somebody told him to do it?”

“Tate? Was that the Australian man who called us?”

“I’m not sure, but probably.”

Deshi looked down at my feet.

“What about the boots?”

“Leave them, I can run in them and I have nothing else to wear.”

“If we get the gun, what is the plan from there?”

“You don’t know the layout of the house. Though it is not complicated they would have the advantage of familiarity there. I think if we set fire to the ute then Johnno will run out and then you can shoot him in the open. Lucas will lurk inside trying to come up with some scheme. He probably has a gun in there. If he doesn’t see Johnno get shot he might come out, in which case you can shoot him too. If he stays inside you give me the gun and I will sneak in the back and shoot him. As long as he knows it is just the two of us, he will never expect that. We must make sure he thinks you want to fight him so the plan can work.”

“There is a lot of shooting in this plan. Can’t we capture them?”

“Don’t even think of aiming at their legs or something, it is too risky. I am so determined on these men never getting their hands on me again, you cannot imagine what I would do to make sure that never happens… The terror they inspire means I can show them no mercy. I will not take a single chance. In the end, if the police are involved we can tell the story in our favour. We can burn the house with the bodies in it. In any case, this place is remote. Nobody can come here quickly. If somebody sees the fire they will send a helicopter to check, but there is no wind so they will not be afraid of a major bush fire starting.”

“You are sure of this?”

“Yes. Johnno and the others talked about this while I was there. They were trying to work out who might come here and for what reason. They made a plan to hide us if there was a chance of discovery. They argued a lot about how the fire service would act. Giant bush fires are a huge worry in this country and they take them very seriously. If a fire is noticed there will definitely be a response, but even the local fire station is an hour away because the roads are bad.”

“It feels wrong leaving these girls you mention to lie here. Something may happen to them in the struggle, but I think you are right. If they are bound up like you were they can only hinder us.”

I took a machete from amongst Johnno’s tools.

“I can’t use this, but I can carry it for you,” I said.

“You are very serious. I was afraid coming here, the story was so outlandish. Now I am terrified, but I can see the scars on your body. You have a right to your anger.”

“Let’s go now.”

Deshi turned off the torch and after a few moments my eyes became sufficiently accustomed to the darkness and we slipped out of the stable door. I had lost most of my night vision but the house was lit up and I knew the path from memory. Chapter Forty-One – A Different Kind Of Power

With the greatest care Deshi opened the driver’s door of the ute and began to search for the gun. I could feel my heart beating. I should have been in a panic. I should have been helpless and frozen with fear but I wasn’t. Everything seemed clear. I knew how Johnno and Lucas would behave. I knew where the dangers were.

Sarah would not fight us if those two were defeated and she would not risk her life to help them under any circumstances. Knowing the way it all fit together I knew exactly how to exploit their weaknesses. They would probably be drunk and in the middle of doing something cruel to Sarah, so she would be helpless and restrained.

While Deshi searched the ute, I stood back in the darkness and peered in through the windows into the house, trying to see what was going on. Nobody was in the main room or the kitchen. My guess was that they were all downstairs in the dungeon.

Deshi tapped me on the shoulder. He had the gun.

“How does this work?” He whispered.

“You pump it to put a round in. Even Johnno doesn’t leave a gun ready to fire.”

“Is there a safety?”

“I should think so. I was never close enough to see properly, so you must look very carefully to be sure there is not.”

“It won’t pump.”

“It should move easily, but it only holds four shots unless there is one already in the chamber. I think he keeps more in his glove compartment.”

“This is confusing. I don’t know if this catch should move or not.”

“I know. I thought it would be simple. Let me try.”

As soon as the gun was in my hands everything I’d seen Johnno do when he used it came back to me and I was able to pump it right away and I knew it would fire.

“The safety wasn’t on because Johnno keeps it so you have to pump to get it ready to fire. To pump it you have to slide it all the way forward first and then all the way back. That’s all. I’m going to hand it over now. Please be careful of the trigger as it is ready to fire.”

“Why don’t you keep hold of it?”

“My arms are like jelly from being bound up so long. I can barely hold it up. I need more time before I can use them properly.”

“So you have a plan to set the ute on fire or something?”

“Yes. It will throw Johnno off balance the most.”

I did the next part myself. Johnno loved his ute and it would be a small victory to see it destroyed. I opened the petrol cap and stuffed one of the oily rags that was loose in the passenger foot-well into the tank so that the end was hanging out. I got one of the cans of petrol he had stowed by the side of the house and splashed it all over the ute, especially where the filler cap was.

I made a trail of petrol that led around the corner of the house. Using the lighter that I’d got from the dashboard I lit the little splash of petrol on the ground. It made an alarming woomf sound as it went up. The flame singed my eyebrows and scorched my face but I wasn’t really hurt.

The flames rushed around the corner of the house, but then nothing happened. I knew better than to look around the corner so I waited. I had seen Johnno use petrol to burn things and I knew it to be dangerous stuff that liked to explode.

“It didn’t work,” Deshi said.

“No. Wait, it’s working. The ute is on fire already.”

Suddenly there was a huge explosion that left my ears ringing. Bits of burning ute were all over the place starting little fires in the grass. The windows in the front of the house were broken. It seemed like there was smoke everywhere.

“I thought that could only happen in movies,” Deshi said.

“I guess they really do explode. I thought it would burn more.”

I could hear terrified screaming coming from the pony pen.

“Ready… When you hear the door, step around and shoot him in the back.”

We waited, but we did not hear the door. I guess if I hadn’t been deafened by the explosion I might have heard Johnno sneaking up on us but the first I knew was when he jumped at Deshi.

It seemed that Johnno had crept quietly out of the back door after the ute blew up, or maybe he had heard us before it happened. We were expecting someone coming from the front, but he came the opposite way.

There was still a chance to shoot him before he could reach us, but Deshi froze when Johnno surprised us.

Johnno dropped his knife when he saw Deshi had the gun and decided to try and get it off him. He lunged straight at him and had obviously hoped to knock him down and stun him. Deshi rolled with it and they both hit the ground wrestling for the gun. Deshi managed to throw the gun out of the brawl and it went off with a resounding bang though it didn’t seem so bad after the explosion. At least it didn’t hit either of us.

I stepped in and snatched up the gun before Johnno could spot where it had gone. Jumping back I pumped it and levelled it in the direction of the wrestling match.

“Give up or I’ll shoot any part of you I can.”

Johnno ignored me. Perhaps he doubted my resolve. I didn’t want to get close to him but I was afraid I might hit Deshi if I fired. I stepped in and kicked Johnno in the head with my pony boot. The boots had metal horseshoes on them, which made them heavy and tiring to run in, but perfect for kicking Johnno in the head.

Johnno went limp and Deshi climbed off him and picked up the knife and the machete, one in each hand.

“I wanted to shoot you, but I guess you are captured after all,” I said.

“You stupid bitch. Give me that gun right now and I might let you keep your hands,” Johnno snarled.

“No. Get down on the ground and stay there or I will go back to my old plan.”

 “Lucas! Look out, they have the gun. There’s two of them. Suki and some bloke!” Johnno yelled.

Again, Johnno had doubted my resolve, ignoring me. Infuriated, I stamped repeatedly on his head with all my strength, until he started to scream in fear that I would cave his head in.

“Don’t make any more noise or I will shoot.”

While Johnno’s alert would have been perfect if we were sticking to the original plan, there was no way to guard the bastard and still have me slip around the back with the gun. Also, I wasn’t joking about my arms. I could barely feel the gun in my hands and the pins and needles were starting in my hands and arms.

I was more afraid of the gun going off by accident than not being able to fire. There were only three shots left. It was enough for all of them if I didn’t waste any more. Deshi had more in his pocket but that was no use in a hurry.

Lucas stepped around the corner of the house at the far end. We were near the front and he was near the back, but he was right there in plain sight. He must have been looking for Johnno who had neglected to mention he’d been captured.

“Shit,” said Lucas, dodging back around the corner.

Deshi and I stepped back around our corner leaving Johnno lying out in the open. I figured he would try to get towards Lucas so I leaned around the corner and took my one chance.

I levelled the gun right at Johnno’s hunched, retreating back and squeezed the trigger nice and smooth. The stock of the gun smashed me in the shoulder, the shot going high. Johnno slumped down onto the ground. Lucas squeezed off a shot from his pistol and then dropped too. Both of the bastards had patches of red on them.

I wasn’t sure what had happened but Lucas’ bullet had missed me. I looked around at Deshi.

“Are you ok?” He said.

There was a corner of the wall missing up above my head. Even the solid posts of the wooden house didn’t provide much cover against bullets.

“He missed me.”

Cautiously, I walked up close to Johnno’s body. It gave a groan. There were wounds on his shoulder and a deep scratch on his head. He’d thrown himself down. I think it had saved him.

I stomped him from behind, as hard as I could with my hoof, smashing him in the kidneys.

The fight went right out of him. I didn’t know if I had knocked him out or killed him, or he was just faking, but I took my chance and hurried over to Lucas. He also looked as if he’d got a few pellets in the shoulder. Nervously, I rolled him over onto his back, or tried too. He was too heavy. I would need to use both hands to do it, not just one foot.

His gun – some kind of automatic pistol – was lying nearby and I picked it up and took it back to Deshi.

“It must be ready to fire,” he said and put it down by the side of the house.

I handed him the shotgun and looked back towards the bodies.

“I think Lucas is dead. I have to go back and check,” I said.

When I finally rolled Lucas over I saw that a single pellet had hit him in the eye. Whatever that tiny piece of lead had done inside him had been fatal. Dehlia had survived a shooting but I guess Lucas couldn’t do that. I imagined that in any situation Dehlia would be lucky; there was something strange about her that way.

I couldn’t process how I felt about Lucas being dead but I didn’t want Johnno to die so easily He was a sick, perverted sadist and anything bad that happened to him would still be a long way short of justice for all the damage he’d done over the years.

I would never let him live to come after Monica or myself for revenge. I wasn’t sure how I would kill him, but I knew that I would do it.

Johnno was still breathing. Deshi dragged him into the house. I led the way, carrying the shotgun. Sarah was somewhere inside but I doubted she was free. A quick check of the bedrooms revealed nothing. She had to be in the dungeon, as I had guessed before.

Every step I took down the stairs into the dungeon I expected her to jump out at me, but it never happened. She was there, hanging from the ceiling, hooded and ring-gagged. Her arms were in the same single-sleeve binder she’d used on me. Her legs were locked to the same spreader bar that had caused me such distress. She was bent over at the waist, with her hands hauled up in the air behind her and her head hanging down in defeat. A leash was attached to her collar, the other end tied to the spreader bar so it pulled her head down. A thin stream of drool dribbled from her mouth into a puddle beneath her.

I found the safety and put the gun down by the wall. I unfastened her gag and then I pulled off the hood – it was just a thin black rubber hood, devoid of any holes for the eyes or nose – though it didn’t look much I remembered feeling very helpless and vulnerable in such a hood. Her hair was drenched with sweat and her eyes were red, irritated and running with tears. She looked like a wreck.

As for me, I must have looked quite a sight as well: bald, naked apart from my pony boots, covered in soot from the fire and with my face slightly scorched. I probably smelled of stale sweat and singed hair. She didn’t smell so good either.

“Please… I was working for Dehlia all along. I never really ran away from her. I was sent to spy on Marcus. It’s because of me that she knew all his plans. I did my best to help you. I just wanted to help you all because I know what it’s like.”

“Your best wasn’t good enough though was it Sarah? You remember how it was for me? You remember what you would do when I didn’t satisfy?”

“Yes Mistress, but if I hadn’t done it, I would have been found out. Please Mistress, have mercy!”

She sounded pathetic, almost whimpering. Lucas and Johnno had already done enough to her. How much worse did she think I would be? I was tempted to get the electro-shock gear and see how she fared with it. There wasn’t time and it wasn’t necessary.

“I could leave you here, tied like this. Somebody told me once that when you get exhausted your shoulders give out, and if they dislocate from the weight then it hurts a whole lot more. I think you’re quite a lot heavier than I am Sarah. I don’t suppose you can hold out until the police come. It might be days. Or maybe you can? Should I leave you here?”

“Please Mistress, don’t leave me like this. I would be dead before they found me.”

“Lucas is already dead, so don’t try anything. I will do the same to you in an instant.”

I was tempted to put her in the cage, but I’d told myself I wouldn’t be like her, and she’d suffered enough in that thing. I put the hood back on her, taking away her sight. I removed the spreader bar and undid the chain holding her arms up. I figured it was prudent to leave the arm-binder on her.

I took up the leash and led her upstairs where Deshi was waiting with Johnno. He’d found some heavy hinged cuffs and locked Johnno’s hands behind his back. Rather than a collar he’d looped a dog’s choke chain around his neck and put a leash on that. I’d seen them do that to Sarah recently and months ago Sarah had done it to me. Used forcefully it would take the fight out of Johnno in no time. Deshi had hooked it onto one of the ceiling rings and pulled it tight. Johnno couldn’t move without strangling himself.

One of Johnno’s eyes had swollen shut from where I’d kicked him in the head, and in addition to the scratch from the gunshot there were numerous scrapes and bruises from the later abuse. His face looked seriously messed up. It reminded me of how Sarah had looked when they let her out of the cage.

I hooked her leash onto a nearby hook and went off to search her room for clothes. They were missing and the bed was gone too. The floor had been bare boards with d-rings for restraint bolted into them, and that hadn’t changed. There was a dirty blanket in one corner along with a length of chain, and an empty bucket that stank of piss in the other. Her wardrobe was empty.

I moved on to search the other rooms for her clothes in case they had kept them. Her bags were in Lucas’ room, one was packed up neatly. The other had been stuffed haphazardly with an assortment of clothes and bondage toys. I guess she had brought them with her on the day Dehlia came and only had a chance to open one of them.

I dumped her clothes out onto the floor and picked out one of the shorter dresses and some panties that pretty much fit me. None of her huge bras were even remotely likely to be useful. I had no idea how long it was since I had last worn normal clothes and it felt strange. It just didn’t feel right. I had another look and found a stretch-fabric underbust corset that would fit me. I hardly had to adjust the laces to zip it up. It felt better to have a bit of support around my middle.

A quick search of Lucas’ drawers found Sarah’s handbag, complete with purse and driver’s license. I took the cash as it would probably be useful to buy fuel, clothes and other essentials if we got away. I didn’t feel a shred of guilt at stealing her stuff as she and Lucas had stolen all of mine.

Thinking about cash and identification I went back out into the main room and walked up close to Johnno who was conscious though possibly concussed. He snarled at me as I pulled his wallet from his back pocket and took the cash from that too. There would be more cash in Lucas’ wallet but I wasn’t even going to look at his corpse again if I could avoid it, never mind touch it.

I moved around in front of him and stepped up close. I put my hand down the front of his pants, took a firm hold of his balls and squeezed nice and hard. I was rewarded with a reluctant gurgle of pain through gritted teeth.

“Doesn’t feel so nice to have somebody take ownership of your private parts does it?”

“Go to hell bitch.”

“I wish there was a way to make you feel all the things you put Monica through, to know how Keiko and Noriko felt, or what went through Mira’s mind before you killed her. Torturing you wouldn’t achieve that in the time I have. Making you hate me more than you do already would be pointless. I think you thrive on it.”

It seemed fitting that those oppressive boots should be used against him again, and I kicked him sharply in the kneecap. He gave a suppressed grunt of pain. I didn’t have the strength to break his knee and I didn’t want to. I just wanted to bruise it and make it swell up so he wouldn’t be able to move quickly if he got a chance to escape.

“Let’s get the girls out of the pen now. They must be terrified with all this smoke blowing about,” I called out to Deshi, who was distracted, staring at Sarah.

Thankfully, due to the still night air, the spot fires were burning themselves but the field was still clouded with an atmosphere of smoke that made me cough. I pulled Sarah along behind me on her leash and carried the shotgun with the other.

Deshi had a lantern from the house and control of Johnno. We took them into the stable and tied their leashes to hooks on an overhead beam that had clearly been put there for exactly that purpose. Deshi set up the lantern so that it illuminated most of the stable interior with a dim wavering light.

“You won’t get away with this bitch. Give up now and I’ll go easy on you,” Johnno snarled.

“I would gag you Johnno, but you say such funny things that I want to hear them.”

“I’m not joking. No matter where you run to I’ll hunt you down and we’ll have such fun when I catch you, but you know I can also be merciful. I keep my word. We had a deal.”

“Deshi, can you go and fetch your vehicle from where it is parked? We will be leaving soon.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright alone with these two?”

“I don’t think they’re much of a threat. I’ll be fine.”

“What about the girls? Should I let them out?”

“Not yet. I’ll do it. There’s no danger from the fires after all. We can take our time.”

Deshi closed the stable door behind him as he left and I felt a thrill of excitement knowing that I could open it whenever I liked.

“I know you miss being a pony Sarah, so you can go back to that for a while. You used to be one didn’t you? It’s so obvious when I think about it. You even admitted it earlier.”

“Yes Mistress.”

She moved her head around trying to sense where I was. I had no need to remove the rubber hood from her yet.

“Did you like being a pony?”

“Sorry Mistress. I didn’t. My owner was very harsh.”

“Was that Dehlia?”

“Sorry Mistress. I wasn’t Dehlia. It was Sarah. The real Sarah.”

“That’s very confusing. I’m not sure I can believe that.”

“I fucking knew it,” Johnno said.

“Shush.”

I kicked his other kneecap to reinforce my command. He winced but didn’t make a sound. Sarah’s face was in shadow and I couldn’t see how she reacted.

Rather than dig further into Sarah’s puzzling claim. I found the pony tack that had been made for her and held it up so she could see it.

“You’ve been aching to get into this for weeks now haven’t you Sarah?”

“Yes Mistress.”

“What a lucky girl you are to have these lovely comfortable clothes made specially to fit you.”

I got her into the boots without difficulty. As I tightened the laces I thought about whether I would bother questioning her further.

“You said you ran away from Dehlia but there was no sign she recognized you from before. Johnno couldn’t tell you apart from the supposed real Sarah. How do you explain that?”

“Sorry Mistress. When I was with Dehlia I looked different. Now I look exactly like Sarah but I’m not her. Marcus got rid of the real one. He didn’t like her.”

I wrapped the corset around her body and started working the laces. The corset had never been designed to be fitted or removed quickly and the long lace had to be threaded through every one of the many eyelets individually.

 “It sounds like you really are the Sarah that Johnno knew but Marcus has messed up your head. I know how easy that is to do. You know the truth, you’re just denying it. The thing about Dehlia is just part of the story he made up for you, right?”

“Sorry Mistress. I can’t explain it. You wouldn’t believe me.”

 “You could if you were working for Dehlia, but you’re not. It’s Marcus that you serve. It doesn’t really matter though, I despise them both. You and Lucas ruined your own lives by getting mixed up with those monsters and you dragged me into it and ruined mine too. I never asked to be part of your screwed up holy wars. I don’t know if I will ever be able to get free of all this … weight … you heaped on me. Why does this all matter so much? Tell me. I’m sure Johnno would like to know too.”

“Sorry Mistress. Sorry! I don’t even know the answer. Only Lucas knew. I trusted Marcus and he said it mattered. I know it’s impossible for you to believe me but I just trusted Marcus.”

“That’s because it is all lies and madness,” I shrieked, suddenly enraged. “The whole damn thing is a lie. You don’t even know why you’re doing this or what the truth is. Do you trust Marcus or Dehlia? You can’t remember what side you are on from one moment to the next. You don’t even know why you did this to me.”

I was raging and crying and pulling at the corset laces, pulling them tighter and tighter as if I wished they would snap, but they didn’t. I realised what I was doing and let a little slack back in and tied them off. I tried to calm myself by fiddling with the exact fit of Sarah’s corset as if I cared whether it hurt her or not.

I wanted to replace the arm-binder with the parts of the pony tack, which was slightly risky. I hobbled Sarah’s ankles first, for a little extra safety. I wouldn’t remove the rubber hood until it was time to put on the leather one.

I shut out the thoughts that were crowding in on me and focused on the task of lacing Sarah’s arms into the outfit. It took a few minutes to finish it up. The only sounds in the stable were laboured breathing and the continuing cries of distress from the pen outside. I shut them out. I couldn’t let those girls come in and ruin everything.

As I completed Sarah’s outfit, tightening the laces on the hood I had a few more things I wanted to say.

“You’ve left your mark on my body. Piercings. Branding. Scars from beatings. You stretched and brutalised my breasts and made me build up these oversized leg muscles. I wish I could leave a mark on you just as deep, but there is nothing that I can do that would compare to any of that. As all those things were done to you already long ago, what is the point anyway? You just passed on what was given to you before. It’s sad.”

I went over to where the shotgun was waiting and picked it up. Sarah was trembling. With the collar holding her head up I could see her eyes and they were full of fear and despair.

I thumbed the safety off the gun and stepped in front of Johnno.

“There’s only one thing I can do with you. I can’t risk you coming after Monica, or her family, or my family. I won’t allow that. I raised the gun, bracing it well against my shoulder, remembering how it hurt to fire it last time. Killing a man should be hard to do, but I could feel it would be easy. It was a pity that Johnno would get off so lightly, but there was no helping it.

“Do it bitch,” he snarled.

I waited.

“Fucking do it.”

“I’ll do it when I’m ready. Not on your command. Your demands are meaningless now. It’s no trouble for me to shoot you. It will happen… Now.”

He opened his mouth to say something else and I shot him right in the chest. His head flopped and his body went slack, dangling by the choke-chain around his neck. He’d been so sure I couldn’t do it, but he was the one that gave me permission to hurt others.

Sarah gave a terrified shriek but I could hardly hear it after the report of the gun. The noise was worse than before because of the enclosed space.

“Be quiet or I’ll gag you,” I said. I might have been shouting over the ringing in my ears. “You stupid bitch. You taught me that violence works. I’ll never forgive you for that.”

She seemed able to find a reserve of self-control after that and went very quiet. Perhaps it was just the way she was trained to behave and she couldn’t shake that.

I didn’t pump the gun, but I kept hold of it. I took her leash from the hook and went over to put out the lantern before going over to let her into the pen. I held the door open.

“Monica, Keiko, Noriko, come on out. Sarah, in you go.”

They practically knocked me over in their rush to get out. I closed the door, locking Sarah in the pen. If she could open a simple latch she could leave any time, but she would never be able to. The stable was pitch dark inside, and I made my way to the other door by feel. The girls followed me out and I closed the door.

“What’s going on?” Monica said. “What’s happening?”

“Johnno and Lucas are dead. You saw what I did with Sarah. Now we are leaving. I’ll help you get these things off back in the house.” Chapter Forty-Three – Suspicious Loose Ends

I returned to the apartment in Sydney. I had no idea how to find it but Monica could navigate Sydney and had been there many times. We decided that it would be for the best if Deshi left the country as soon as possible though we were both reluctant to part so soon. I was determined he would not be blamed for anything that took place on the farm that night.

It seemed likely that Sarah would survive for a day or two without food. She had water and ought to be in no immediate danger, so I could afford to wait for Monica to leave the country too. She said she knew where Johnno had money stashed. She was prepared to turn herself in to the consulate, but after searching Johnno’s house she found her passport and enough cash to split with Keiko and Noriko. She thought it unlikely she would ever be able to return to Australia, but I didn’t want to stay there either.

I never found out what happened to the two Korean girls, but with the mental and physical scars that Johnno had left on them I doubted that they were destined for happiness, but that was beyond my control. I had promised myself that I would survive until I was away from Lucas and Sarah, but I wasn’t completely free of them. As I had feared, they were inside of me and I could not exorcise their taint. The events at the farm seemed as if they would haunt me forever.

With everyone else as safe as they could be, I turned myself in at the local police station and told a story about how I’d been kept prisoner on the farm. Ten days ago I’d been taken to the apartment and locked in, alone, with a little food and the promise they would return in five days. When nobody showed up I got up the courage to pry open the door and escape. I made the state of the apartment look plausible enough.

I was worried that Sarah would contradict my story. It would have been easy to make sure that the police didn’t find that place for months, leaving her to starve to death in the pen, listening to the sound of the flies swarming around Johnno’s corpse – easy in some ways – but I couldn’t do that to her. Lucas had died by accident. I still don’t know if I would have shot him like Johnno if I had captured him alive. I never will.

With carefully prepared answers and a conveniently obvious note – written by Monica and left in the apartment – and with the help of some drawings supposedly left on a map by Johnno, I made sure the police found the farm in time to save Sarah.

They never let me in on their detailed opinion of what happened there, but I’d torched all the pony kit apart from what Sarah was wearing before we left, so there was only weak evidence that there had been more than one girl. In my version of the story, Johnno had kept me captive and I suggested that he had other thugs helping him.

I let the police work out for themselves that the body in the stable was Johnno’s. From their perspective it was far from a simple scenario. The idea that I might have been responsible for the deaths at the farm probably never crossed their minds.

These days they would have found plenty of DNA, but this happened back in the mid-eighties and the technology wasn’t even mentioned.

I had to stay in Australia while the investigation continued but my parents flew in to keep me company and while I didn’t feel normal I started to feel like the possibility of normal existed if they would let me go home.

It turned out that Sarah never told the police anything and did a wonderful job of playing a traumatised victim who was so afraid of her captors that she dare not speak even when confronted with their deaths.

The media questioned whether Lucas had told the truth to the press and police and gone to the farm looking for me, or whether he’d been involved somehow. It was far tidier for the police to go with the former explanation. I stuck to most of the story he’d prepared about my abduction and that seemed to suit them just fine – it was as if they didn’t want to find anything wrong with it.

While there was little solid evidence to corroborate my story, there was nothing to refute it either. The police were in no hurry to admit they might have been mistaken about Lucas from the start, and my testimony suggested that I’d spent most of my time in the pen on the farm.

Eventually, the police decided that Lucas had gone to the farm playing detective, looking for me. He’d surprised Johnno, but because I wasn’t there he had assumed I was dead and overcome with grief and vengefulness had tortured and killed him. Johnno’s associates had returned to the farm before Lucas could leave and shot him in a gun battle before covering their tracks and vanishing. Sarah was just another one of Johnno’s victims and she was put into a protection program, much to the disappointment of the press, eager to hound her for lurid stories of her captivity.

Connecting me to the killings at the farm wasn’t going to make them look good so I imagine they chose to downplay any evidence that led in that direction, if there was any. I guess it suited them to paint Lucas as a hero who did his part in bringing down a shadowy slave trading ring. There was nobody to prosecute. They claimed Johnno’s associates were some motorcycle club members they didn’t much like, but I couldn’t identify them and it never went to court.

* * * * *

At first I felt relief at returning to Hong Kong and began to put the horror behind me. After resting for a few weeks and seriously considering my future, I went back into full-time education to work on my English. I was determined not to let the entire experience in Australia be a waste. I’d been studying for nearly a year when I received an odd letter.

I deeply regret the events that followed your marriage and understand now that it was an error of judgement on my part to allow such a scheme to proceed. I apologize unreservedly for the great harm and distress that my unwise decisions caused you.

Though I was not directly responsible for anything that occurred, I must accept responsibility for the rash course of action followed by Lucas. If I had remained silent I’m sure he and others would still be alive today.

I would like to apologize in person and allow you a chance to better understand what led Lucas to die on that dreadful farm that night. If you are prepared to give me a chance to do so (and I know this is probably an unwelcome request) you may contact my agent at…

There was no indication who it was from, and it was phrased in such a way as to admit nothing illegal; instead it suggested that the author had been the one who had tipped Lucas off about the farm. Nevertheless, I knew it was from Marcus. Even without the obvious correlation with the scheme that Lucas and Sarah had described, Dehlia would be unlikely to feel responsible for anything that I did to Lucas, so it had to be from him.

I had never expected an apology from the shadowy architect of my woes, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I ignored it for weeks, but things had not gone back to normal despite my efforts.

I was doing well in my studies but I had increasing difficulty sleeping. The strange nightmares that came when I was sick never completely went away. I found that my sex drive was greatly increased from before and that I masturbated every night, often more than once.

I’d had all the piercings removed and found I missed the ones through my nipples. I was almost tempted to have them redone though I didn’t. I’d thought I would always see them as a reminder of my suffering but I didn’t really feel that way at all. I didn’t really feel that strongly about them one way or the other.

I couldn’t stop thinking about sex but I felt unable to form any kind of romantic relationship: the mere idea of being touched by a man made me disgusted, jumpy and irritable, and the thought of intimacy with a woman revolted me even more.

When I reached the point where the masturbation wasn’t enough and I had started to put pegs on my nipples and labia when I did it so I could really feel it, I knew I had to do something. It wasn’t until I found myself buying a Hitachi mains-powered ‘massager’ that I finally acted on that thought.

Because I was afraid of being in a position of weakness again my first scheme to distract myself was to take up martial arts, and I went to the place where my brother had gone since he was a kid caught up in the martial arts movie craze; they knew me there and I’d been once or twice before, but I’d never been that kind of girl. At first fixated on it, taking every possible class and training in the gym until I was exhausted on nights when there was no class.

I found to my surprise that my physical strength and stamina increased easily. While I had struggled simply to tone up in the past, I found that I could keep up with men – and not just the wimps either – even though I hadn’t put on a lot of muscle I was already on a par with the strongest of the male instructors in the class, and I knew I could go further.

Despite throwing myself into my new hobby, it couldn’t compare with the feeling of satisfaction when I’d kicked at Johnno and stamped on his head. It was nothing like the release of pulling the trigger and watching him die. The more it came back to me the more the martial arts seemed like a stupid game.

There were some genuine thugs in that club but they treated it like a macho gym. The remainder seemed like children at play and I began to lose interest in training there. I had realised that I wasn’t learning anything useful. I still went there but I began to teach myself, trying to train my reactions so I would never be caught unawares again.

My sexual frustration had not reduced and I started to play with the possibility of going to the kind of night clubs where I would have no problem getting involved in casual sex and one-night stands. Though this might seem at odds with a dislike of intimate physical contact, I found myself increasingly torn by such contradictions.

There were incidents where I lost my temper. Some girl whose boyfriend I screwed was stupid enough to call me a slut and I lashed out and broke her jaw. I hadn’t really intended it, but it didn’t bother me either. I simply told her that I’d kill her if she dared go to the police about it.

Deshi confronted me over it when he caught me sneaking in at four in the morning dressed in a micro-mini dress and fuck-me heels. By that point I had fucked dozens of men and I was becoming bored of that too. After his warning I didn’t stop but I had a new awareness of where I was headed if I kept down the track I was on. I was becoming something I despised.

I considered his suggestion that I get psychological help – I had never had any kind of counselling for what had happened, though you would think that impossible – I certainly hadn’t sought help to deal with what had happened at the farm that night and I researched whether a doctor would be obliged to keep my secrets.

Around that time I also stopped sleeping almost completely. It seemed to make perfect sense as it allowed me to pursue my frenzied sex life, spend hours on physical training and still keep up with my studies. Despite the lack of sleep I felt fine – physically at least – and somehow I rationalized it all away as a phase that would soon pass.

I was feeling at a dead end when by chance I rediscovered the letter. At that point it seemed like an obvious thing to call the number.

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23.08.13

story continues in Betrayal Chapter 10: Unexpected Temptations

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