The Stories of Bound Friends 10: Sophia and the Unpleasant Arrangement

(story continues from The Stories of Bound Friends 9: Andrea and the New Normal)

Part 10: Sophia and the Unpleasant Arrangement

The next few days after Carl’s death were slow and painful for Sophia. She met with a lawyer who said the contract could be passed down just like it could be sold, and so all the same restrictions apply. Which was especially terrible because there was then no one to give her permission to do the things she needed permission to do. And with the contract transferring ownership, she would likely be under extra scrutiny. She couldn’t ever be sure she had a moment where she could be free to break the rules without being noticed.

She was told to be safe she needed to stay in the suite, not the casino at large. But she was often alone and lonely, without Carl living there no one ever had reason to come in. She couldn’t even bring herself to go into the bedroom, she kept looking at that spot beside the bed where he had been, all night beside her. No one had even bothered to move the stockade she had been in.

Worst of all she couldn’t talk to anyone. She needed permission to communicate long distance and without it being clear who owned her contract she had no one to ask for permission. She asked the lawyer when he was there, but he didn’t feel comfortable giving permission as he didn’t want to run afoul of the contract himself. She lay on the couch, clutching a large pillow wishing beyond all reason for a familiar face to walk through the front door. She missed her friends, and with so much of her future in the air she wanted desperately to cling to something good from her past. She wanted Lea to tell her this would be ok, or to share a joke with Andrea or ask Megan how her classes were going. Anything. Anything but the bleak loneliness she helplessly sat through.

She was awoken abruptly on the third day as four men stood around the couch she was sleeping on. One wore tan chinos with a polo shirt while the other three surrounded him wearing suits. One of the men in suits she recognized as Carl’s assistant but everyone else was unfamiliar. The casually dressed one of the group was tan and looked to be in his 30s. “Are you Sophia Ladas?” one of the suit wearing men asked. Sophia sat up and nodded her head.

“Is that one of my father’s shirts?” the casually dressed man asked as he noticed what Sophia was wearing.

“Yes sir, I haven’t been allowed to leave and I don’t have any clothes of my own,” she explained with a slightly downturned head.

“Well, take it off, I want to see what I just got,” the casually dressed man replied.

Sophia stood up and removed the oversized t-shirt that had been her only clothing. She stood there naked while he seemed to examine her, fighting every instinct she had to cover herself with her hands.

“Are you the only one or did he have any other whores working for him?” he said as he spun her around to get a look at Sophia’s backside.

“No others that I’m aware of,” Sophia said getting increasingly self-conscious from being so casually called a whore.

“Good, but lets get a few things straight. My name is Felix, and along with my dad’s casinos I apparently just inherited your contract. It means that I need to use you daily or I’m in violation of the stupid thing. But my first rule, and I will not tolerate it being violated, I don’t want to hear a word about what you did or didn’t do with my father. You even mention something in passing and you will severely regret it,” he said as he spun her back around and pushed her down onto the couch.

“But sir, Carl had made me this prom...,” Sophia tried explaining before receiving a strong backhanded slap to the face.

“What did I just say? I don’t want to hear what my dad did with you. I am in charge of you now and I say I don’t want to hear anything that went on from the moment you met him to today is that understood?.”

Sophia looked to the only person she knew there to help. She had seen him in passing dozens of times, surely he would stand up for her. But he didn’t.

“I said is that understood?” he repeated as he raised his hand in the air.

“Yes sir,” Sophia said as she looked down at his feet. “But if I could just..”

“Grant, gag her would you,” Felix said to Carl’s assistant.

With that, Grant pulled from the large bag he was carrying a harness gag. As he stepped forward, Sophia grudgingly opened her mouth and accepted the soft red ball before waiting patiently for all the straps to be applied and tightened.

Sophia was scared. She just wanted to tell him that he had the wrong idea, that he never treated her like a whore. She desperately wanted that promise of leniency Carl made to extend to his son but it didn’t seem like he wanted to listen. At least not right now.

“And I can’t very well have you following me all day, so we’re going to have to make a detour to my home since I can’t risk leaving you somewhere not my residence or risk you panicking and running, violating your contract and getting us both in trouble with the ICB,” Felix said as he nodded to Grant.

Grant pulled out a metal collar and locked it shut around her neck. He then produced two ankle cuffs that came forged with an 18 inch hobble chain connecting them. Her wrists were guided behind her back while a pair of similar cuffs with only a 9 inch chain were attached to her wrists. Finally a thin almost delicate looking chain was produced. It was in sharp contrast to the heaviness of everything else. It was fed through a ring in her collar with a handle on one side and a small u shaped piece of metal on the other. Handing the leash over to one of the other men, Grant bent down and replaced Sophia’s barbell clit piercing with another bar that fed through the u shaped piece of metal at the end of the leash. Now if she didn’t keep up with her leash it would pull painfully on her most sensitive area.

Sophia hoped she would at least get some clothes but she wasn’t so lucky. She was led to the private elevator. It opened up in a secluded area of the underground parking, but to get from the public garage to Carl’s private garage required going through one of the hotel’s many laundry rooms. Sophia couldn’t help but look up and see what it looked like when about 20 people all stopped what they were doing at once to silently stare. She looked back down at the ground ahead of her, realizing it was probably a mistake to look up.

When she got to the car she half expected to be thrown in the trunk as cargo for as well as things seemed to be going. She was thankful that she was only led to the back seat where someone buckled her seat belt for her. Felix got in the other side and the two cars drove off with everyone else riding in the second car. Once they were moving, he placed his hand on her thigh and began to feel around. “Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll find a use for you yet,” he said as they pulled out of the parking garage.

****

After a very short drive across some water, they arrived at the end of a road leading to a gated address. The gate was wood and metal, looking very old fashioned as it opened up to a wide courtyard. Its stone walls were high and it seemed to be the only thing built on the small peninsula they turned onto. When they pulled up, a large woman was there to greet them. Sophia rarely met women much taller than her but this redheaded woman certainly was. Granted Sophia was barefoot and she wore heels, though not very tall ones.

“Well Sophia, this is Sadie, and welcome to The Couesnon,” Felix said as he got to the other side of the car to help her out

Sophia had been so focused on the gates pulling up and the people waiting and keeping her head down that what stood in front of her took her by surprise. It looked like an oversized fantasy castle. The stone walls that made up the front of the property continued around with what was meant to looked like fortifications once it reached the (albeit shallow) water. The main building was not very wide but was maybe five or six stories tall with several towers all with blue cone roofs that rose even higher than that. The whole structure also sat elevated, one man with a drink had walked over to the railing but seemed to lose interest and walk back out of sight. Her gag prevented her from speaking but her eyes asked a thousand questions, puzzled at why it would seem someone would simply move a French castle to the shores of New Jersey.

Felix took Sophia by the leash and began explaining as they approached. “This was a gamble of sorts by my father. Once he had the Baiae up and running here, and a Kasbah in both Vegas and Macau, he was basically printing money. Part of what made his resorts so successful was making them seem more elite, decadent, and more than a bit depraved in parts when compared with the family-friendly catch-alls he was competing against. So he thought about trying to take it one step further, create an ultra high end resort. Problem is he refused to cut any corners, exploding the cost way beyond his original estimates. Somehow he hadn’t factored in how complicated it could be to build a tall, mostly stone building on tidal wetlands. Those walls aren't decorative, he had to basically build a giant cement bathtub to stop the whole thing from flooding or sinking. And as it turns out there just isn’t enough of a client base to make it very profitable. Years ago when I went to him and said I wanted in on the business, he gave me this to try and run. He had written it off as a failure but I’ve managed to keep it afloat, no pun intended.”

Sophia couldn’t help but find it funny to see all the medieval decor, the stone facade, but that the entrance was still a set of automatic glass sliding doors. Inside it looked like the lobby of any small hotel, a check in desk in front of them and a small bank of elevators beside them. She could see that beyond them were gaming tables, but saw no slot machines that she had grown so used to seeing and hearing at the Baiae. Sadie was waiting with an elevator open that everyone piled into.

When they got out, Sadie walked ahead again, opening one of the double doored rooms in anticipation of their arrival. As soon as Sophia was through the door she was handed off to Sadie. “Ok, Sadie, I want you to go secure her in my bedroom and get her whatever she might need. Oh and you can probably take the gag out too”

Sophia started to protest, she rattled her chains and tried her best to say “I’ll be good.” She didn’t like the sound of “secured in the bedroom”

“It’s for both of our sakes, you look like you’re freaking out and I need you to really not try anything stupid like running  away. You need to stay in the room.”

“I wirrlt, I promisch, I’r be ghood” Sophia sware with utter sincerity.

“Sorry, but I just don’t put a lot of weight in the promise of some random whore,” he said as he began to back out of the room. “I got many, many more hours with lawyers, I’ll probably be back late.”

Sophia watched helplessly as Felix simply closed the front door leaving her there with Sadie. Sadie led her through one of the only two sets of doors coming off the living room, revealing a rather spacious bedroom. Sadie pulled out a key fob and held it down at a patch of floor about two thirds of the way to the bathroom from the bed. A small chamber opened up otherwise concealed by the carpeting about the size of a large water bottle case holding a spool of somewhat thick cable.

She pulled out part of the steel cable and closed the door again, making sure the cable lined up with the small hole that allowed it to feed out. She pulled it up and used the fob to open a mechanism in the loop at the end of the cable, before closing it around Sophia’s collar for a near seamless connection. Only once Sophia was secured to the cable did Sadie let go of and then remove the chain connected to Sophia’s piercing. She unclipped the chain from the piercing but left the piercing where it was. “This cable is long enough you can reach the bed and the bathroom. If you want to retract the cable press this button on the loop here otherwise whatever you pull out will stay out. You should rather easily be able to get your hands out in front and then you can take the gag off yourself,” she said as she was already halfway out the room.

Sophia breathed a sigh of relief when she moved her arms in front of her and was able to remove her gag. She pulled out as much cable as it would to give her so she could better see her range. She couldn’t reach the doors to the living room, not even with her feet, though the whole of the bed was within reach and it was quite soft especially by comparison to the couch she had been calling a bed the last few nights. She saw a closet at the other end of the room but there was no way it was close enough for her to peek into. The bathroom was rather empty, though to her relief the cable just barely let her into the shower, something she knew she could really appreciate. She just looked down at her cuffs and hope they’d not be staying long and also hoping that they could stand a little water.

Felix did not return until quite late. When he did Sophia simply sat up in bed quietly as she watched him go silently into his closet. Without even glancing much in her general direction he continued on to the bathroom, preparing for bed as if she was not even there. When he left the bathroom he wore only a pair of satin pants tied off with a drawstring. He continued to ignore her existence as he marched back out into the living room closing the door behind him.

Sophia wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing. It was certainly more than a bit dehumanizing. He seemed to give her about the same acknowledgment as the bedside lamp. But on the other hand, people usually don’t mistreat a lamp. When he returned he climbed into bed opposite Sophia and just said “off,” like he was shooing a dog off a couch. Sophia didn’t say anything she simply got off the bed. She took a pillow with her, which he didn’t seem to care about. It made the carpeted floor a little more bearable, but as he turned off the lights she knew it wasn’t going to be a very good night’s sleep.

****

She woke up to the sound of a bedside alarm which began blaring until the sound of a fist against plastic shut it off. After it came back on and was again hit off, she finally heard stirring in the bed. She sat up to get a better look and saw him rolling over to her side. He sat up and stretched with what was very noticeably a morning erection.

“Come over here,” he said as he sat a little more forward. Sophia crawled forward until her knees were at the base of the bed. Felix bent down and grabbed her by the hair. “Now, so long as I own your contract I need you to service me daily.  Do you understand that?” He asked condescendingly. Sophia nodded her head causing him to release her. “Now if you’ll excuse me a man has certain needs,” he said as he stretched out his arms, giving prominence to his erect cock. Sophia made a guess at his meaning and began to sit up and free his erect member from his pants.

“So that’s how you want it then? Alright but you better not spill a single drop is that understood?”

“Yes sir,” Sophia meekly replied before wrapping her lips around his cock. She began to suck but after only a few strokes she tasted a warm acrid liquid begin to fill her mouth. All she knew was if she didn’t start swallowing it would start to spill out, so as much as it disgusted her she quickly began to swallow. When the flow had finally stopped she pulled herself off of him and began desperately to cough.

“Well that’s certainly serving,” he said as he lightly slapped her on the back. He walked past her into the bathroom where she immediately heard the shower turn on. She went to test the door, she badly wanted to rinse her mouth out, but the door was locked. She wasn’t offering that when she crawled forward. She didn’t mind the taste of cum but this was a different story. As his shower continued on for what seemed like an eternity the taste didn’t go away. She leaned against the wall just beside the bathroom door and brought her knees up to her chest. She brought herself to the verge of tears but was able to just narrowly pull herself back. It wasn’t just the taste, it was the violation. Carl would never have done that. But she wasn’t Carl’s any more.

When he left the bathroom, she immediately ran in and began using the toothbrush Sadie had given her the day before. She scrubbed her tongue all the way back until she was nearly making herself gag. It was minutes hunched over the sink. By the time she returned out to the bedroom he was just emerging from his closet with khakis and a white button down shirt. He didn’t acknowledge her he simply left.

Once Sophia was sure he had left she went to his bed and buried her head in one of his pillows, finally feeling free enough to cry. At some point the crying turned into sleeping, she had been on the floor naked all night and wrapping herself in covers on a real bed was simply too comfortable to stay awake.

“Excuse me,” Sadie said, waking Sophia from her rest. “I need to make the bed, and I need you out of it to do that. You can go back to resting on top of it when I’m done.”

Sophia got up and stood aside as she went to work. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, though I can’t always give you an answer,” Sadie said without even breaking her stride.

“Is there a plan.. you know for me?” Sophia asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking as she asked.

“Not really, he’s probably not going to be taking you with him so you’re probably going to be confined to his room most of the time. Surely it can’t be that much smaller than when you were confined to Carl’s suite,” she said as she pressed the topsheet flat and even across the bed.

“Well I wasn’t just confined to his room. His lawyers got it so the whole hotel complex considered his residence for the purpose of the contract. So I was..” Sophia responded before being interrupted.

“So you could go anywhere in the whole complex? And that was within the confines of the contract? And what did you do when you weren't in his room?” Sadie said, finally seeming to show interest in Sophia and not her work.

“Well he let me understudy for one of the dancers, I really liked that, it was a lot of my time but it was fun,” Sophia said, cracking a wistful smile. “And otherwise I had to do some daily shifts at this sports bar. I had to wear this skimpy costume so it got the sexual service part out of the way so that..”

“So you could go anywhere, and working for the hotel counted as service as long as it’s sexual?” Sadie interrupted again. “And this all worked within your contract?”

“Yeah, but what I was trying to say..” Sophia continued before being cut off for a third time.

“Excuse me I need to go see Felix, I think we might just find a long term plan for you yet.” Sadie said as she was rushing out of the room.

Sophia had a difficult time gauging this. On the one hand it could return her to a little more sane of a life, but she didn’t trust Felix to really make anything better. All he had done so far was make things worse, and she worried she just given him new tools to maybe make her life even worse still.

When Sadie came marching back in about a half hour later the first words out of her mouth were “hands behind your back.” Sophia scooted her chain around her legs, standing up with her hands behind her, but all her mind was thinking was that this didn’t sound good. Sadie had brought a bag with her and disappeared with it behind Sophia. She felt the chain connecting her wrist cuffs pulled up slightly before she felt something attach to the back of her collar. She could no longer lower her hands and when she tried it put pressure on her neck.

Sophia opened her mouth to ask a question bet felt something round and hard pushed into it. The invader was clearly hard plastic but the straps she felt going around her face were clearly metal; heavy, dull and almost rusted from what she could tell. As metal straps snapped into place she could feel pressure along her lips where a metal panel hid the gag. She could also feel pressure on her lower jaw and the top of her head, preventing her from attempting to open her mouth. There was a hole no wider than a pencil through which she could easily breathe but she could do almost nothing else. She really didn’t like where this was going.

Sadie took a heavy looking metal chain and locked it, with what looked like a very medieval lock, to the front of Sophia’s collar. She made sure she had firm hold of it before releasing her from the floor’s cable. She tugged on it and Sophia obediently followed behind.

Sophia was led into the hallway where she ended up passing by a guest also on his way to the elevator. He seemed remarkably unshocked by Sophia’s appearance as they both waited for the elevator. On the ride down he took some time to look over Sophia’s shaking body but if he thought anything he kept it to himself. He got off at the lobby, but Sadie did not, they continued down.

As the elevator doors opened, the air was instantly more musty. Everything was darker and because they were clearly below ground level there was no natural light. They were probably below sea level even. The ominous sound of water dripping echoed through the high arched stone ceilings, Sophia just hoped it was supposed to be leaking. Sophia was led immediately to the right before her eyes had had much time to adjust to see what was in the main room.

Down a small stone ramp was a narrow but long room. Along the far side there was nothing, but against the near side were a long row of women. They were each chained identically to how Sophia was, but with considerably more dirt, some marks and even bruises as well as a generally dishevelled appearance. One of the women was shaved bald, and yet another was sitting with her feet forward that were clearly covered in scabbed over welts. Each of the women were leaning with their backs against the wall and between every other woman was a small stone bowl where water seemed to trickle into and spill over.

Some spaces were unoccupied and Sophia was led to one of them. She noticed a small hole in the ground slightly beside where she was put down where the overflow of the water bowls seemed to drain. Her leash chain was fed through a metal hoop protruding from the stone wall and continued up until it attached to a hook that hung down from the ceiling. There was no lock, almost anyone could remove the chain but thanks to both the hoop preventing Sophia from standing and her hands being held behind her head, Sophia could not do so.

“Since you can work for the hotel anywhere, we’re putting you down here. It’s where we most need people contractually able to do.. well, let’s just leave it at things you’re able to do. Almost all these girls are here on a penal contract, the few that aren’t are down here usually as punishment for messing up elsewhere. If they’re level 9 at least, we don’t get a lot of troublemakers when they know what’s waiting for them down here. Congratulations, you are now one of the many prisoners accused of heresy in the Couesnon Dungeon. The guests that venture down this far love the new prisoners especially. I’ll probably come check on you in a few days. Oh, and since you need permission, I’m just going to go ahead and tell you that Felix said that if you can get off then you’re free to do so.”

With that she simply left. Sophia looked around at the almost five other girls down here. None of them wanted to look at the new arrival. They were all equally restrained and equally gagged, there would be no conversation. Sophia knew already that she wasn’t going to like this.

****

Sophia had never felt such blinding, overwhelming terror. She spasmed as much as her restraints would allow, which locked down to the metal grate was not very much. The water that surrounded her was freezing, which only added to the suffering. The fear became so ever-present, it blocked out almost all other rational thoughts except one: don’t try to breathe in. When she was raised back up out of the water they seemed to have their fill for now, locking off the board at a level position. Sophia sputtered and coughed before simply starting to shiver.

One of the two men standing over her began to rub his hand along her helpless body, paying particular attention to her breasts. It barely registered with Sophia, she began to wish that his fingers were all he wanted to use, that would at least give her a rest from the tortures. The grate she was fastened to was shaped like a “Y,” with her head at the base and both legs spread out in the two directions. The other man walked around to stand between Sophia’s spread legs. She did not see him but she felt his cock push hard against her asshole. He had done it without extra lube and it was enough to make Sophia cry out in pain.

Sophia began to panic as she felt the board tipping back down, once again submerging her head in the cold water. The man however had not stopped thrusting and at the first deep thrust an attempt to scream emptied her lungs of air. She had not reacted quickly enough and now her mouth was filled with water. She tried her best to shake her hands, her feet, anything to plead with these men to let her back up. She felt the grim feeling of death approaching, her mind was absolutely convinced she was going to drowned.

Just as she thought she could take no more she felt the sweet relief of air hitting her wet face. She turned to her side as best she could and began to cough out the water in her mouth. One of the staff checked some readings at the side of the contraption. “Sorry but I’m going to have to call it. Finish up, no more water and then she’s going back away for a while,” he said, finally clearing Sophia to go back and rest. It meant he began to reattach her metal harness gag, but she gladly welcomed it over what she had just been through.

“Uhh, after only a few hours? We’re going to have to work on your stamina girlie,” said the man fucking her ass. He was new but he was simply the latest in a string of depraved guests that had taken their pleasure torturing her. He finished quickly, spilling his load into her ass before withdrawing. “See you in a few hours girl,” he said as he zipped up and left.

The staff member unlocked the various iron restraints and helped Sophia sit up. He replaced her wrist and ankle shackles, with her hands once again behind her back and attached to her collar. She almost instantly collapsed her weight onto him as she tried to stand. Her feet still hurt horribly from the session before this when hung from her wrists and dangled over a fire, made especially worse because the time right before that the soles of her feet were whipped and caned to the point of bleeding.

She used to think she understood how sadism could be erotic, but now she could make no sense of it or find any eroticism whatsoever. As far as she was concerned she might as well have been a real prisoner in a medieval castle, and these weren't guests but horrible torturers whose goal was simply to see her suffer. But at least, there was enough sanity for them to pull her out when the medical risks began to grow too high. Of course they'd only pull her out for a few hours like she expected they were doing now, but it was still better than letting them go unchecked.

As she was helped down to the ground, her collar’s chain was fed through the eyelet and up to the ceiling, once again trapping her without the need for a lock.  A baggie of nutrient liquid was hung from the wall with a straw protruded out that Sophia could fit through the hole in her gag to suck down the mostly tasteless solution.

But she was still too exhausted to do that. She did not know what time it was, what day it was even. There were busier times and slower times, so presumably if those are day long cycles it had been maybe five days but she couldn’t really be sure. Either way she was more tired than hungry so she left the bag alone, leaned up against the wall and as best as possible tried to get some sleep.

****

When she was woken with a poke, she at first didn’t want to open her eyes. Closed, her eyes could be in a total state of denial. The poking came again and she reluctantly opened her eyes to see what hell awaited her now.

She was happily surprised to see Sadie standing before her. It at least hopefully was someone who could get her out of here. “Good news for you, we got a new penal contract to take your place. We’re gonna take you upstairs.”

Sophia looked over and beside Sadie was a perhaps overly tan blond girl bound just as she was. She was held by someone who looked to be security, judging by their uniforms and earpieces. The girl shook as she looked around in panic and horror. Her eyes were red from tears. If this girl was on a penal contract, than she had not asked for this, she simply broke a law or another, less serious contract and this is her punishment. Sophia felt sorry for her. However she quickly looked away, deciding to focus her thoughts on the fact that she was getting out of here and not who would be replacing her.

Her feet were still sore, but once the girl was secure, taking the spot she had just occupied, the two security men were free to hold her from either side. They did not bother removing any of her bindings, they simply walked her to the elevators as she was. She walked past the main room again and saw three other slaves were being tortured. One in the Iron Chain, another receiving whippings chained to a post while this one bald slave continued to hang from her wrists. She had been up there for maybe two days already, maybe three. She wore a collar with twin forks held against her chest and chin. If she tried to rest, her head would try to fall causing her to be painfully stabbed. She likely had not been to sleep since she was put up there. Sophia couldn’t imagine such a fate, the few hours gaps to rest had been the only thing keeping her sane.

As the elevator stopped by the lobby, an older woman looked devilishly at Sophia. “Who’s the lucky one who gets room service while the rest of us have to go downstairs?” She asked Sadie mostly rhetorically like she felt a need to justify her look. Sadie never replied and eventually the woman lost interest and got off on the fourth floor.

When they marched through the double doors of Felix’s suite, she was actually a little surprised to see him already there. “We’re not in the dungeon any more you can lose the gag,” he said to Sadie as he barely looked up from his computer. “Well, I understand that all might have seemed a bit harsh, but we were rather suddenly short staffed and Sadie suggested I give you a chance. Now I’m going to put you back in my room and start to use you myself. You are quite.. lovely after all it would be a shame for something so pretty I have going to waste downstairs. But do remember what the alternative is to my bed, is that understood?” He asked finally putting down what he was doing and walking over to Sophia.

“Yes sir,” she replied. She really wanted to say a whole lot more but she held her tongue.

“OK, undo these would you?” he said as he generally waved his hand at Sophia.

Sadie set about removing the shackles from her wrists and ankles, leaving only the collar remaining. The two security agents then opened the doors and walked to the far side of the living room. There was now nothing standing between Sophia and the hallway, and even Sadie backed off so that if she were to make a run for it none of them could instantly stop her. Of course her feet still hurt, she didn’t know her way out and the perimeter was surrounded by stone walls and probably more security downstairs. Not to mention she would be violating her contract, making her a fugitive. It was a tempting fantasy to make a run for it, but Sophia restrained herself.

“Now if I’m going to be letting you sleep near me I want you to demonstrate your compliance, that you know to follow orders without doing anything stupid. Go into the other room, Sadie will hand you the key fob. I want you to open the panel in the floor, loop the cable around your neck, and toss the key to the door of the closet so you can’t change your mind later. Then, once you’re secure, I want you to bend over the front of the bed and present your ass. I’ll be in shortly.”

Sophia knew this as the power play it was. He was going to demand she be willing to bind herself and present herself without any coaxing. She really didn’t want to, she thought again about running, but instead she took the key from Sadie and did as she was told. She walked in, which still hurt some but less so now that she was on carpet and not stone floor. She opened up the loop, ran it through her collar and closed it. She looked at the keys that could open this back up again, but she threw them as instructed far out of reach. The only thing left was to walk to the foot of his bed and bend over the wooden footboard leaving her ass prominently in the air. When she heard the door open she even got up on her toes to make her legs and ass that much more defined. It hurt a bit to put extra pressure on a smaller part of her feet, but she needed to not be downstairs again. She wasn’t happy with herself for thinking of that extra detail.

“Well, I was wrong, a few days downstairs was enough to break this whore. I thought she’d be a little more defiant than that but you were right. How’d you figure this one would be so pliable,” Felix said, but soft enough it was clearly not directed to her.

“I just had a hunch,” said the deep voice of what Sophia assumed was one of the security men.

“Well, at least I got a few days use out of her down there. Alright, you win. Have at her,” he said, once again to someone beside him. “Oh, and Sophia, you have permission to cum,” He said this time in a louder voice directed at her as he closed the door.

Sophia couldn’t look behind her because her head was below the solid footboard, but she heard the faint steps of someone up behind her on carpet. She heard the sound of a zipper and felt a half hard dick pressed against her pussy. She closed her eyes, she tried to think of something else, but it hadn’t worked downstairs and it wasn’t working here. She would feel every thrust, feel the arms of someone probing around her body, hear every derogatory “you like that whore? You’re just broken and craving it aren't ya?” It was not torture, but it was demeaning on a very different level. She eventually heard him begin to groan and eventually felt as he filled her with cum. He had done almost nothing to insure she might like it, and he then quickly left without a word.

She heard a zipper, followed by the door opening and then closing again. She had the freedom to get off her feet, and so she collapsed into a ball beside where she had just stood. She knew a shower would feel amazing, but she saw it was not even noon and she knew a shower was possibly all she would have on her plate for the rest of the day. For now there was plenty of time for her to lean up against the foot of the bed and begin to cry.

****

She was not allowed on the bed at night, she thought about complaining but asked herself what good could possibly come of that. Her hands and legs remained unshackled, though she herself remained tethered to the floor. The carpet was at least soft and she seemed to now have “her” pillow she would use each night. She never again presumed he wanted anything done with his morning erection, and he never again used her that way. But it seemed to be about the only way he didn’t use her. It ranged from a long, slow blowjob in bed as he read to an occasional fuck. He seemed to prefer her to do all the work, laying down while she bounced up and down on his cock until he filled her with his cum. He never wanted to look at her, Sophia wasn’t sure why that mattered to her but after a few days like that it began to.

On the fourth night of this, she happened to hear music coming from out in the living room. There was a lot of talking, it was clearly a party, and she just hoped it stayed in there.

That hope was shattered quickly as a young man with short, gel covered hair burst in. “So, anything goes?” He called back, apparently seeking permission from Felix and not from her. Getting it he walked in and shut the door before ordering Sophia up onto the bed on all fours. He got out his cock and stuck it right in without any warning or signal. He then bent over more and began to push Sophia’s head down into the bed. By the end of it her head was pinned under a decent amount of his weight as he quickly pulled out and yanked Sophia by the hair to turn her just enough for him to blow his load on her face instead of inside her. When he left he did not close the door behind him and soon a steady stream of people were making their way in, often content to just watch as others continued to order Sophia around and treat her as an object to be shared and used.

Over the course of the next 5 hours she lost track of how many men came in and used her like that, but she never had time to rest or clean herself, so by the end she was covered in cum on almost every part of her to one degree or another, particularly her hair and face. Once the last one left and shut the door Sophia finally got up and started walking towards the bathroom.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Felix said as he barged in seconds after the door closed. “I don’t want you cleaning up, I want you to stay like that all night. It will be good for you to remember your place,” he said before quickly returning to the party.

Somehow that, that part right there was the last straw. Sophia had been dreaming of what she might want to say to this guy, but she always held herself back. Not this time. She needed to be able to live with herself and she felt the only way to do that is to be honest even if she doesn’t like what comes of it. And she was pretty sure she wouldn’t. But at some point, a clean soul is sometimes just worth more than creature comforts, especially when they aren’t exactly very comfortable comforts.

The party continued a little while longer before Felix finally came in and went straight to bed. Before he turned off the light, Sophia began to speak while still laying down. “Sir, may I just say something?”

“Sure, what is it.”

“Well, and I know you said earlier not to, but I just wanted to say something I didn’t get a chance to say about your father.”

“Careful now, tread lightly,” Felix said as he sat up

“Yes sir. It’s just this party reminded me of how your father used to have parties. I don’t know exactly how many people he would have over but it would be dozens. And you know what he used to make me do for those parties?”

“I said I don’t want to hear..”

“Nothing.” Sophia interrupted. “He did not make me service him, he did not pass me off to his friends, he didn’t even make me have to come. He would just let me go back to my own room at the other side of the complex from his. Or he would let me go spend the time at dance rehearsal doing something I love and learning enough that I might just be able to perform with them eventually.”

“I don’t get it, why would he..”

“Because he knew I didn’t want to do this. And to him that actually mattered. Doesn’t it matter to you?” She said as she turned around to look directly at Felix.

“It doesn’t matter, you’re under a contract, a contract you signed.”

Sophia let out a futile laugh, a chuckle of utter frustration like one might make after spending an hour trying to discuss the finer points of the benefits of a Federated Europe only to realize a half hour later that the whole time they were talking to a potted fern. “You know, I once heard it said that you can best judge a man’s character by how he treats those he has dominion over. Carl.. Carl treated me well when he really didn’t have to. He cared about me. He promised that as long as he lived he would never make me do anything I didn’t want to do.”

“Well guess what, he’s not living anymore,” Felix said in a juvenile tone with seemingly no other purpose but to hurt. “I’m not him.”

“You’re right,” Sophia said finally standing up to look down at Felix who was still sitting at the edge of the bed. “You aren’t your father. Your father was a good man. And you.. you are nothing like him. You are a small, not even shadow of what he was. You would have me tortured for days just to settle a bet with your security guard. If I’m judging you by how you treat the people you have dominion over, you fail. You are a terrible person.”

“I warned you to watch it,” Felix said as he too got up. “Now sit back down. We’re done talking.”

Sophia lightly chuckled again before biting her lips for a moment before walking inches away from Felix and continuing. “You’re right, we are done talking.”

“I said..” Felix began to command before Sophia punched him hard square in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. She jumped on top of him, punching him one time in the face before Felix was able to grab her hands. She struggled down onto the floor with him, kneeing him hard in the balls to gain the upper hand and pull one of her arms free. She flipped him onto his stomach and took the spare slack of her leash and wrapped it around his neck, beginning to pull tightly.

At that moment she was so sure she was willing to just kill this man who had caused her so much pain. But as his gasps became desperate, she lost her nerve. She thought back to what it had felt like to not be able to breathe. To feel like your life being taken from you as someone else made it impossible to take your next breath. The absolute fear, the absolute dread. She couldn’t do it. She loosened her grip and leaned in. “Do you swear to honor your father’s promise? Do you swear that this shit ends now?”

As she leaned in further she felt him head-butt her hard, breaking her nose and causing her to lose balance and grip. Felix began crawling away and when Sophia tried to hold him still he landed a lucky shot with his foot to the side of her head. She lost her grip entirely and he continued to crawl away. Sophia regained her composure and began quickly closing the distance until she was stopped by the end of her leash. She was helpless to watch as he sat up against the wall catching his breath.

As the adrenaline wore down, the magnitude of what she just did began to sink in. She started shaking and began to quickly crawl into the bathroom. She tried to shut the door but the thick cable was designed to not let the door completely close. It didn’t stop her from trying to shove the last little bit under the near non-existent gap at the base of the door. She was so focused she did not even see Felix make a call or see three large men come barging in until they were just inches away. She screamed and tried running back towards the tub but they grabbed her arm and pulled her back out to the living room and held her down on her stomach.

The three worked together to reapply her shackles, pinning her arms to the back of her collar and while her legs had a 12 inch hobble chain they added an additional lock to bring her ankles completely together. They pulled her legs up behind her and connected the spare chain to the base of her cuffs, creating a single line of connected chain from ankle to cuff to collar. Once she was effectively hogtied, the one that had been at her feet got up to go to Felix while the other two stood guard on either side of her.

Sophia was certainly frightened, and she was certainly distraught, but despite all reason and logic she felt a huge wave of satisfaction. She had told that monster what he really was, and she could have had him. She was only laying there hogtied now because she felt she refused to lose her humanity. No matter what came her way, she felt at that moment that she had fitted herself with armor. A safe refuge for her mind to escape to when the world around her becomes terrible again, which she had no doubt it would.

Felix returned to the room quite some time later with the security guard and two other men she vaguely recognized as being beside him when they first met, presumably lawyers.

“I know you think I’m a monster, and I know you cared for my father. From what it sounds like he cared for you to. So I will give you a gift like he would have, to show you we’re not that different. No I’m not giving you a room or any of that nonsense, but I am willing to forget this entire exchange took place. It’s at my discretion to press charges and I can choose not to.” He said as he slowly walked towards her and sat down on his bed directly in Sophia’s line of sight.

“And in exchange?” Sophia asked with slight vitriolic tone.

“Well, I’ll sign this paper here,” he said as he snapped his fingers causing one of his lawyers to draw out a piece of paper and set it in front of Sophia. “But first, I want to hear you beg. I want to hear you grovel. Enough with this uppity whore attitude making yourself think you’re better than you really are. Beg to be my slave. Tell me how worthless you are and how lucky you would be to serve me,” he said with the hatred and poison of someone deeply scorned.

Sophia looked over the paper, it was a rather simple contract. It simply says that he hereby waives all right to press charges now or in the future over the events of tonight. No other pages no other demands, at least on paper. She had no doubt that he wouldn’t sign that unless she did as he asked. She took a moment to think, pretending she was still reading the paper so as not to be pressed so much for time. She knew that attempted murder would get her penal labor, and that violating her contract to actually do that labor would result in more penal labor. For once in the evening, her emotions were finally willing to take a back seat to her logic, at least for a bit. She needed to beg, and she needed it to be convincing.

She looked up at Felix, and began to think of what to say. He smugly sat there, waiting to hear Sophia beg, like it was some big victory. Sophia held herself back from laughing, realizing just how truly sad and hollow he seemed. He insisted so strongly that she meant nothing, and yet he seemed so anxious to be told how great he was and how lowly she was, like her opinion was suddenly so valuable. Sophia channeled that, thinking of what a small pathetic man would want to hear, making the whole thing a long subtle joke only she was in on.

“Please sir, please let me be your slave. I’m just a stupid whore after all, one that loves cock so much she sold herself into slavery. I guess I just got overwhelmed tonight, I got so many cocks in me and so many men’s cum on me I got overwhelmed. I just got carried away, my mind started thinking all kinds of dumb thing. It’s probably why I shouldn’t do so much thinking. I don’t know why I said all those things, that’s not me. Please master give me another chance. I promise I’ll be your good little whore, use me however you want master. In fact I’d rather be using my mouth to suck your cock than speaking, I like that more anyway especially with all these other men watching. Maybe you can let me suck their cocks too master! Or maybe fuck me with them? Mmm it would make this dumb whore so happy. Please, I want a master as powerful as you who can use me the way I got used tonight,” Sophia pleaded with the sound of absolute sincerity. She was able to see each insult, each derogatory plea not an indictment on her but on him. This is what he wanted, and how small must a man see himself to need such base reassuring from someone he has such power over and open disdain for.

He ended with the smug satisfied smile that makes just about anyone want to punch that someone in the gut. She wasn’t sure he heard it all as sincere or not, but he certainly didn’t seem to hear it as sarcastic. “Bring her up here, I’ll take you up on that,” he said to the guards who lifted Sophia onto his bed between his legs. He unleashed his cock and Sophia began to suck. She moaned, she played the dumb whore, and all the while found it sad that he seemed to believe it. He held her head down as he came in the back of her throat, holding her there as she struggled to swallow with his cock still there.

“Well ok, I think I’ll keep you on as my whore” he said as he took the paper and signed it. He handed it over to one of the lawyers who scanned the document and sent it off to become official. “You know? I think I’ll be moving, this place is just too small for me now. I think I’m going to start living somewhere else. Oh, would one of you bring my luggage there?” He said as he pointed to Sophia. “I’m making some changes to the Baiae, and I think you’ll make an excellent addition to the new lineup.”

As he left, the two men that had been standing to either side of Sophia picked her up and carried her down to the car. She was flopped into the back of a van before the two security men left. “You know, actually I think I’ll go in the morning. But technically this garage is still the casino so it’s still my resident right?” Felix acted out for Sophia’s benefit, turning to his lawyer who simply nodded his head. “Oh well, no reason to bring my things back upstairs. We’ll be back tomorrow, eventually, probably,” He said as he shut the doors on Sophia before laughing a self-satisfied laugh.

Sophia laid her head down and smiled. A very small man indeed!

****

Lea was excited to see Andrea and Megan again. She hadn’t talked to Andrea since her phone call, and had barely touched bases with Megan except when Megan invited her to come down for the weekend. She did not want to impose by showing up unannounced but she had begun to quite badly miss them. Her birthday was also that Saturday, October 27th, and she assumed that Megan must have something planned. She was told to bring a costume. She needed to get a costume. She was never very big on dressing up, but she was told they’d be meeting up and maybe going right on to a party so she’d need to arrive already in costume.

As her van drove her down, she nervously sat waiting. It had been over three weeks since Andrea called her, and she hadn’t heard anything about her since. She didn’t know what to expect, she hated not knowing what to expect. But she calmed herself down, whatever might be going on with Andrea she was sure Megan knew what she was doing when she invited her to come in costume. Her doubt however increased as she pulled up onto a quiet residential street lined with townhouses on one side and forested park on the other. No sign that she was in the right place, but Megan had seemed to want to be vague.

She got out of the van and started walking to wherever 2229 was. She had gotten changed in the van and had not walked in her boots before, she was surprised how loudly the clicked as she walked along the pavement. She passed someone walking his dog and suddenly began to have doubts about the amount of cleavage she decided to show off. He certainly was checking her out, but he almost seemed as impressed by the outfit itself as by her. She had splurged after all, no cheap drugstore garbage for Lea! The red corset top was made of a kind of synthetic leather that gave it a reflective sheen which blended well with the metal that accented it. Below she wore a blue skirt made of the same leather like material that broke mostly into overlapping strips with pointed metal ends, parting over each leg as she walked.

She walked up the stairs and saw a note: Lea, come in.

“Hello?” Lea called out as she opened the door, receiving a response from up the stairs. “Last door on the right,” came a woman’s voice she didn’t recognize.

As she opened the last door on the right she was.. surprised to say the least. Megan and Andrea were both dressed as prisoners in full orange with white shoes, metal cuffs and chains to complete the authentic look. Beside them a short dark skinned woman stood dressed in.. well.. what a porn set might consider to be a police uniform. Police usually didn’t wear bikini shorts or fishnets. The only authentic part seemed to be a very well stocked looking belt with just from what was visible at least two more pairs of cuffs and an electric stun baton.

“Oh yes, Wonder Woman, how original. Well at least that looks like some real rope you have there,” Zainab said as she slowly walked towards Lea. She held out her hands invitingly to take Lea’s hands. “And these are some nice quality too, real metal by the look of things,” she said as she lifted up Lea’s hands to get a better look at the silver bracelets. She brought them close together as if inspecting them for imperfections. She held both Lea’s hands in one hand as her other began to feel around for seams. “You should look at that poster over there,” she said as she nodded with her head to one side. When Lea turned away, looking for what she might be talking about, Zainab quickly snapped a pair of cuffs around Lea’s wrists.

“What the hell?” Lea screamed as she jumped back from this woman she had never met before.

“You know being a vigilante is actually a crime..” Zainab said as she walked back towards Megan and Andrea. “So if you like you can think of me as your warden tonight.”

“You’re.. wait.. warden? No I didn’t come down here for this!” Lea said as she examined the cuffs which had no safety release and looked like they required a very serious key to open.

“Oh where’s your sense of fun? Andrea said you like to switch, but if you really aren’t into it I guess that third prison outfit is just gonna go to waste,” Zainab said as she pointed over to a folded orange garment with another pair of handcuffs on it..

“No, I don’t think she’s liking this,” Andrea said softly as she bent down to Zainab’s level.

“Hmm, you’re right. Well I’m certainly not going to make you. Come here, let me see,” Zainab said as she motioned Lea forward.

Lea looked around for what else might be waiting for her, but she didn’t see anything. She walked over to the orange garment and felt it. Her back was facing the rest of them and so under concealment she grabbed the other pair of cuffs that were on top and hid them in a way that she looked like she was simply holding her own hand. As she walked towards them, Zainab reached over to her night stand to grab the key. With her turned to her side, Lea pushed Zainab onto her bed and in a smooth motion cuffed one of her hands. She used her body to keep her from raising her other arm, and after considerable fighting she was able to bring her cuffed arm over to cuff her second arm as well.

“How do you like it?” She said as she got up and looked for where the key may have been flung in the struggle.

Zainab flipped over and sat up and simply started laughing. She continued laughing long into when it started to become very confusing for Lea. “Oh, you were so right,” Zainab said looking over to Andrea. “You tried to warn me, you said it was a stupid idea. Well guess we paid the price now huh?” She looked back at Lea. “I’m sorry, I can get carried away sometimes. I had this idea of all four of us, group costume, you all in handcuffs and I’m the warden. I guess I lost my ability to think with a little more common sense.”

“Who the hell is this?” Lea asked Andrea as she pointed both fingers at the other woman.

“That’s Zainab. She’s Megan’s roommate and.. kind of.. my.. girlfriend,” Andrea said, becoming a little sheepish at the end.

“Girlfriend?” Lea asked, standing in disbelief.

“Yes, you will have to excuse her. She still is not so comfortable with that whole title,” Zainab said as she began to contort herself to bring her hands in front of her. “She wouldn’t even say it to me till just this week on our fourth date. But yes, I am warden and girlfriend, how about you?” She asked as a formality while she stood up and draped her still cuffed arms around Andrea’s neck.

“I’m.. I’m Lea.. but you probably already knew that, because of the note,” Lea said as she searched for something to sit down on but simply leaned up against the wall instead.

“Yes of course.. I don’t make it a habit to invite total strangers into my father’s house and surprise them like that. But how are those fitting?” Zainab asked.

“They’re ok for cuffs I guess. Why?”

“Well, funny story. So when you tackled me I had the only handcuff key in my hand. And.. well.. see that airvent beside the bed?” She said as she looked over with her eyes at a small air conditioning floor vent just beside the nightstand. “Yeah… we’re going to go need to find a place open on a Saturday night with a metal printer with a very specific handcuff key on file to go get another key. So.. that’s a thing.”

Lea looked over at the vent. Of course that’s what happened. She even managed to smirk at the absurdity.

“Oh.. and happy birthday I believe,” Zainab added.

****

Lea instantly had a dislike for this woman. She tried to be objective about it, the unsolicited cuffing, the blasé attitude about something she was very serious about, but she also knew she wasn’t being entirely objective. As the four of them walked out to her van to look for a place to buy a handcuff key, she couldn’t help but stare as Zainab whispered and playfully jostled with Andrea. Thinking about it rationally she knew Andrea’s phone call, and the questioning behind it, probably wasn’t about her even at the time. And that this meetup was probably just a chance to catch up like they hadn’t in over a month. But.. in the back of her mind.. irrationally she hoped it was about more than that.

For Andrea’s sake she tried to be nice, she tried to be chummy, but she often felt any progress in that regard would be largely undone whenever they started acting like a couple again. By the fourth store they were able to find a key that fit their cuffs. Lea unlocked herself first before handing the key to Zainab who unlocked herself before pocketing it, leaving Megan and Andrea still in their prison shackles.

“You going to just keep them locked like that?” Lea asked.

“It would ruin the group costume we have going on otherwise. Besides, they said you were the one who helped them realize they liked this stuff anyway so who are you to complain?” Zainab said moving to sit between Megan and Andrea, placing an arm around each of them.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Lea asked, ignoring Zainab’s latest rhetorical question.

“The plan now is whatever you want. Your friends weren't sure if you’d want a big party or a quiet night, so I planned for either,” Zainab explained.

“Then if we aren’t going to a party why the costumes?”

“Well, because we may go to one. And even if we don’t, costumes are just more fun than not-costumes wouldn’t you say Diana? These two thought it would be fun being locked up in such a way and at about the one time a year when all those boring vanilla people would just accept it as a normal sight. But of course I respect it’s also your birthday, so what is it you want?” Zainab asked with a wide lively smile as she continued holding her two “prisoners,” one in each arm.

Since Lea hadn’t known what to expect when she drove down, she had prepared herself for a lot of different ideas of what she might be doing. She had prepared herself to go to some costume house party or even club, she had prepared herself for a quiet night in, she had even prepared in case things wanted to get a little kinky, bringing a bag full of yellow dyed rope. But she hadn’t prepared for Zainab. Right at that moment all she wanted to do was wipe that smug smile off Zainab’s face. She didn’t have a good rational reason for it, she was pretty sure it was just about Andrea. She rationally wanted to be cordial, but she still couldn’t help herself from feeling otherwise. “Why don’t we just go back to your place for now,” she said as she told the van where to go.

“So Zainab, where exactly are you from?” Lea asked once they had all returned to the house, hoping some banal conversation could get her on some friendlier terms.

“I’m from Surda, it’s a small island chain about half way between Oman and India, right on..” Zainab began to say in an uncharacteristically serious and adult voice.

“No, I know where it is, so what brought you out here?” Lea asked.

“My father is the deputy head of mission at the embassy, it’s his fourth posting so I’ve lived all over. Before this it was Italy, before that Brazil and before that Panama,” Zainab replied continuing her business like tone.

“So do you go back often?” Lea said receiving a blank stare back.

“Look, you want a detailed background check or something? Some kind of Homeland Security screening?” Zainab replied in her more usual animated (if sarcastic) tone.

“Calm down, I think she’s just nervous,” Andrea said as she reached her cuffed arms out and grabbed Zainab’s arm. “You can be kind of intimidating sometimes and I think she’s just trying to ease in,” Andrea said as she pulled Zainab back and looked her in the eyes.

“You’re right,” Zainab said after giving Andrea a quick kiss and returning to face Lea. “So, let’s just go at your pace, what do you want?

Lea fought hard to not let any of it show, but she was not having a good time. She might have considered her infatuation on the wane, but clearly not gone enough to not get jealous. And yet she hated herself for feeling it, she just couldn’t help but see the whole thing as petty. A wicked smile crossed her face. “Well if I’m going too slow, how about I jump a few steps. Have you ever been tied yourself or have you always been the one doing the tying?” she said as she moved one hand over to the coil of yellow rope that sat at the side of her costume’s belt.

“I.. I’m not really,” Zainab began to say before looking over at Andrea. Andrea’s eyes were encouraging, the look of someone just wanting their two fighting friends to get along. “If you want to I guess I’m game then,” she said looking back at Lea.

Lea knew this was probably going to fail, but she wanted to give it a shot anyway. As she had dressed, she tied one end of the rope into the characteristic lasso. She twirled it out and attempted to throw it Zainab’s way. It ended up hitting Megan nearly in the eye instead. “Well.. don’t let that be an indicator of how I normally am with ropes,” Lea said as she embarrassingly pulled back her rope to untie the knot. Zainab and Andrea were both quite clearly working to hold in a laugh. “Oh shut up, I’d like to see how well you do on a first try!”

She had brought her bag up earlier since presumably she was having the guest room that night, and she opened up one of her bags to reveal the coils of rope she had with her.

“Hehe, so I guess I walked into that one then didn’t I? Oh well, I stand by what I say. I’ll let you have this one,” Zainab said as she scooted forward onto the floor halfway between the couch she had been sitting on and the chair Lea was currently sitting on.

Lea began at the legs, wrapping coils around the ankles, above and below the knees and, apparently for good measure, her upper thigh. She flipped Zainab onto her chest and held her hands up against her back. She tied her palms touching in a reverse prayer, before wrapping a rope around her chest pinning the arms to the chest. Then, turning her to her side, Lea brought Zainab’s knees up to her chest. Using the extra rope she left from the wrist tie she ran the rope over both sides of the neck  and to the coil of rope above the knees. She pulled and tightened several times until the only way to move her legs off her chest was to raise her hands even more to do so.

“Wow.. heh, so this is really tight,” Zainab nervously joked. “No, really,” she said as she began to fidget. “Nothing above the knee can move even a full inch,” she was trying her best to hide it, but Megan and Andrea could tell she seemed nervous, and she almost never got nervous.

Lea fastened one more rope to Zainab’s ankle bindings and began pulling those close into the ball as well. She ran the rope under all the chest harness ropes and continued to pull until Zainab’s feet were resting against her ass.

“You know.. I was just thinkinrrr, rrarro” Zainab began to say before Lea pulled the rope over her mouth from both sides.

“You talk too much sometimes..” Lea said as she started to tie the rope off behind the back of her head. Zainab had to bend her head back in order for her legs to move off her own ass. Lea smirked as she sat back and watched Zainab look around, trying to get accustomed to her new restricted movement. She tried jerking one way or another, but it was never enough to make her move.

Lea got up and started very slowly walking around the tiny bound woman. Zainab tried following with her eyes when Lea was in front of her. Lea knelt down to get a closer look. Zainab began to look back in fear, she was suddenly very intimidated as Lea was free to run the back of her hand across her face while holding her head with the other hand. Zainab tried pulling away but couldn’t even move her head enough to do that. Her whole body began to shake as she looked over towards Andrea for help.

“OK Lea, I think that’s enough,” Andrea said. Lea simply ignored it, lost in the self-satisfaction of looking over Zainab’s helpless and shivering form. “Lea did you hear me?” Andrea asked again a little louder.

“No, I think she looks just fine. A nice little wrapped up present, isn’t that right?” Lea said looking intently into Zainab’s eyes. Zainab began to breathe faster and dart her eyes back in the direction of the other two, staying quiet but symbolically screaming for help. Lea began to run a hand down Zainab’s fishnet-clad legs working her way slowly down towards her ass.

“I said that’s enough!” Andrea shouted as she rushed over and physically pushed Lea off of Zainab. “Do you want out?” Andrea asked looking into Zainab’s eyes, holding her head in her cuffed hands. Zainab began frantically nodding her head as much as she was able.

“What the hell is wrong with you Lea?” Andrea shouted angrily as she shuffled around to untie the rope holding Zainab’s mouth open. Zainab quickly bent her legs forward and just started saying “my arms, my arms,” until Andrea was able to loosen them from her leg. As soon as that was free she instantly stretched out and began to moan and grunt. Andrea continued untying her hands which she could now see were so tight they were beginning to discolor. Once she did, Zainab began to grunt and whimper in rather obvious pain as the blood rushed back in causing painful and powerful pins and needles all over her hands and down her arms. Zainab moved over, laid her head on Andrea’s knees and hugged her legs as best as the ropes still around her chest would allow. “Are you OK?” Andrea quietly whispered as Zainab started to shake her head no.

“So what the hell was that all about Lea?” Andrea finally asked after a few  moments of quietly stroking Zainab’s hair. “Do you have any kind of explanation?”

Lea tried searching for one, but they all seemed to come back to the perverse thrill of watching her suffer, which she judged not to be an at all acceptable answer. So she just kind of shook her head and looked down at the floor.

“I think you should probably go. I’m sorry to do this on your birthday, but this just wasn’t ok. I don’t know what’s going on but I think it would be best if you just weren't here.” Andrea said before checking if Zainab agreed, she slowly but decidedly nodded her head.

Lea couldn’t think of any defence. She couldn’t think of any reason that would seem to satisfy Andrea. Now she started to feel bad. She let her jealousy get in the way because it really seemed that she hurt Andrea, something she didn’t at all want to do. So she grabbed her bag and started to leave. She didn’t bother collecting the rope, figured that was a bridge too far.

“Sorry it worked out like this,” Megan said as Lea walked towards the door. “Here, let me walk you out at least.”

“Huh?” Lea said turning back to watch Megan shuffle forward in her shackles while Andrea and Zainab were still holding each other on the floor. “Oh, sure, that would be nice. Bye you two, sorry it ended up like this,” Lea said as she waited for Megan to get out of the room before closing the door behind both of them.

“So are you alright? You don’t look it,” Megan said as they began to walk, cutting right to the chase.

“I don’t know. It’s a lot of things I guess. Not really liking college, not really meeting many people. Kind of realizing I don’t have any friends up there, about the only people who even talk to me are those random creeps who are only interested in me once they recognize me from those damn videos. Wish that would just die already,” Lea started ranting.

“Seriously, tell me about it. Recently tried Andrea’s move and dyed my hair black, even tried going by ‘Meg,’ but then I wouldn’t recognize it when people tried to call to me ‘Meg.’ But sorry, back to you, didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s fine. Anyway, David’s still ducking me, I don’t know how long it’s supposed to be to get over getting turned on by a video of your little sister, but it hasn’t been long enough yet apparently.  I hadn’t heard from Andrea for almost a month, and even Sophia seems to be avoiding me.”

“You too?” Megan asked as they both stepped out into the cold outdoors. “Last I heard we were supposed to talk back on the 6th. She never makes it, which has happened, but then she never attempted to reach out for another time since.”

“Yeah, that’s the same for me. I was supposed to talk to her that exact night and never heard from her. Hope she’s alright.”

“Yeah, but from what she’s said in the past she seems to really be making the best of it,” Megan said. “I’m sure she’s fine. Anyway, sorry this all got so messed up.”

“Well that’s probably mostly my fault anyway. Good seeing you again though,” Lea said as she hugged Megan, who hugged back as best as she could. “And could you apologize to Andrea for me when she’s calmed down a bit would you?”

“Of course. Goodnight, safe travels,” Megan said as Lea got in her van.

Lea shut the door and turned on the car. “Take me to the Baiae Resort in Atlantic City,” she instructed, causing her van to start the three hour journey to see if she couldn’t find out what exactly happened to Sophia.

****

Lea took the time of the drive to book a room and change out of her costume, she’d had enough of that for the night. It was just shy of midnight by the time she arrived. She contemplated just going to bed and looking for Sophia starting tomorrow when she was more likely awake, but in her check-in packet it mentioned that this weekend was the opening of a newly redone section of the hotel. The small ad was sensationalist but vague. Lea thought that if something was changing and Sophia was a part of it that might explain where she had been. After dropping off her bags and using the bathroom she went right back downstairs to see what this “Nemi Festum” was.

She had not remembered what used to be in the space, but she was amazed at what she saw. The entranceway was, at least on the surface, a real stone archway complete with chiseled frieze. It opened to a small round room encircling a large decorative fountain. Beyond it, the only other way to go, curved so that only the entranceway could be seen from the outside floor. On the wall before the curve, carved into the stone, was a warning that the Nemi Festum contains activities some may find offensive. Now Lea was both curious and worried as to what they might have Sophia doing.

As she rounded the corner, the building opened into a single massive room with doors along all the walls. Throughout the main floor were what looked like merchant stands, and in every direction she could see she saw beautiful women dressed in often little more than a silken loin cloth but they all wore the same kind of a metal collar with a large metal disk hanging from it. She saw some of these women chained to a single post, with a man dressed in a toga beside them presumably negotiating for their use with one of the guests.

“Hello,” said a stunning woman wearing an elaborate but revealing outfit. It covered only one breast and was made a translucent blue fabric held together only by a black rope. “My name’s Valeria, is this your first time here?” She said as she moved incredibly close and placed an arm on Lea’s shoulder. She flicked her curly, dirty blonde hair to one side flirtatiously, giving Lea a captivating smile.

“Um.. yea.. what is all this?” Lea said as she couldn’t help but marvel at the woman’s stunning appearance.

“Well this is the market hall. These doors around you are ours, and I would be happy to share mine with you,” she said, coming in with a bit of a hard sell but with such a deliriously sultry voice it was hard to get annoyed by it.

“Well that’s..” Lea said, briefly getting lost in thought as Valeria came in closer.

“Tell me, what’s your name?” She said as she began to lead Lea away from the entrance and towards one of the stalls.

“Sorry, it’s Lea. I’m actually here looking for someone,” Lea said trying to get herself under control.

“Perhaps I can be that someone, or I can at least help you look..” She said as she arrived at a small stand with another man standing by in a toga holding what is meant to look like a ledger book but at the right angle can be seen as clearly a tablet covered by a fake book.

“Well my friend works here.. maybe. She might be working somewhere else in the casino.”

“What’s your room number?” the man in the toga asked.

“Oh no.. I don’t need.. um..” Lea said before getting distracted by the feel of a soft finger running  down her arm. She looked over to see Valeria’s smiling face and could almost hear her resolve weaken. “OK sure, 1109.” Lea said as she handed the man her keycard.

“OK, Lea, you’re all set, enjoy,” he said like he just sold her a sandwich.

“So,” Lea said as she put her arm around Valeria’s smooth skin. “I’m really just looking for a friend who’s contracted to the casino so I have no idea where she might be assigned but she hasn’t been returning anyone’s messages so I’m starting to get worried.”

“Well what kind of contract? Only level 8s and up work in here.” Valeria said, with a decidedly more curious and less sensual tone.

“Level 9, her name’s Sophia Ladas.”

“Ohhh.. yeah that’s why you wouldn’t have heard from her,” Valeria said as she subtly began to open one of the doors Lea hadn’t even noticed they were heading to. She walked inside and began to untie the rope that was about the only thing holding her dress together. “Perhaps we could talk in here?” she said as the last shred of covering dropped to the ground.

Lea leered, she did not usually do that, but she was doing it now. She decided there was no reason they couldn’t talk inside. As the door closed several artificial candles turned on, illuminating the room with a low, flickering yellow light. “Now wait a second,” she said as Valeria slowly guided her back towards the bed. “Wait, I do actually want to make sure she’s ok.”

“Well, any of us working here are in total emersion. I don’t know a Sophia personally but we are also given different names to use while we work here, you know to make sure there’s no one in a toga named Ted or some such. However, if she’s in a level nine contract she’s probably around here somewhere. Between this expansion and the other casino’s expansion, there’s a major shortfall of bodies. Anyone they can get their hands on that can go to a place like this, does. And while we work, none of us get to leave or have contact with the outside world, that insane new boss thinks it keeps things ‘more real.’” Valeria whispered very quietly into Lea’s ear. “But I’m really not supposed to be breaking character to talk about this.”

“Fine, but.. wait new boss?” Lea asked, though being careful to match Valeria’s hushed tone.

Valeria pushed Lea down onto the bed and flipped her legs up before crawling on top of her. “Sorry, these rooms have cameras. Yeah, Carl Olsen died a few weeks ago, you didn’t hear? His son inherited everything so now he’s running things.”

Lea found it very difficult to not react to that bombshell. But as Valeria began to nibble on her earlobe and kiss the side of her neck she was able to calm herself. She tried to get herself to get back to the topic at hand but Valeria knew what buttons to push to make her forget. “No, I need to go,” Lea finally had the strength to say, sitting up as Valeria had descended down and was beginning to remove Lea’s shirt.

“Oh, you can’t think of one reason you haven't earned this?” Valeria said as she sat up  and pressed her flawless breasts between Lea’s head. “Would it really be so bad to stay a while first?” She said as she once again began to remove Lea’s shirt, this time without the same resistance. “Come now, you’re on vacation I imagine aren’t you?”

Lea tried to rationalize a reason to stop and continue looking for Sophia, but her reason wasn’t winning. “Well.. it.. um.. it is my birthday.”

“Of course it is,” Valeria murmured under her breath as she began to unhook Lea’s bra. “Then in that case,” she said in a much more normal voice. “Let me give you a present,” she said as she moved in and began to play with Lea’s pierced nipples with her tongue.

Lea began to moan, but she had enough of her rational mind left that it was bugging her that Valeria didn’t believe her. “No, really, in my pocket,” she said, questioning why she cared if Valeria believed her. Valeria withdrew from Lea’s breasts to go down to her pants. She decided, of course, that it would be far simpler to simply remove the pants in question and check the wallet more freely.

“Oh, I apologize for ever doubting you,” Valeria said as she draped the pants over a chair and crawled between Lea’s legs. “Here, let me make it up to you.”

Her face disappeared from view, leaving only the sight of the top of a head of dark blonde hair. Lea felt her panties simply moved to one side as her tongue made contact. Lea reached down and grabbed the sheets. The sensations went racing around bouncing off of every inch of skin and returning to their place of origin between her legs. She looked down at the curly blonde hair and her rational mind suddenly created an annoying cold shower thought. It tried to remind her that Sophia has curly hair too, and that this woman between her legs may no more want to be there than if it were Sophia pleasuring some random out of towner.

“Shit.. no stop for a second,” Lea said as she pushed Valeria’s head away with both hands.

Valeria crawled up , and laid her naked body atop Lea’s. ”What’s wrong baby,” she asked as she placed her head beside Lea’s.

“Do you even want to be doing this?” Lea asked as she placed an arm across Valeria’s back. “I mean.. I just had this.. like.. passing thought. I thought about my friend who might be doing what you're doing and hating it. I’m not like.. taking advantage or something?”

She smiled and gave Lea a few pats on the side of the cheek. “It’s nice that you care, but no you’re not taking advantage. Hell, you didn’t even try to pull the whole, ‘it’s my birthday so I should get something extra for free. No I’m doing this because it pays well and most of the time it’s still a lot better than a lot of jobs. So no, there’s no advantage being taken. But why’d your friend sign up if she didn’t want to do this? Is she a penal contract?”

“Not quite, it’s a long story, but basically she didn’t think she had a choice but to sign so now she’s stuck in it.

“That’s terrible. Look, after you I’m supposed to just get a break. You seem like a good person and so if you want I can help you look.”

“That’s nice of you to offer but I don’t want to take your break away like that. Just give me a rundown of where to look and that would be fine. Especially since you can’t go very far, right?” Lea said, reminding Valeria of her situation.

“Well, if it weren't a break I could still accompany you everywhere I’m allowed to go,” Valeria said seductively.

As Valeria continued to tease her in silence, Lea found it hard to say no to this woman. “Ok that sounds fine. But why don’t you just.. as you said ‘finish up’ first?”

“Oh, there’s no hurry on that,” Valeria said softly into Lea’s ear. “I like to stretch things out for people I like. You’ve only just seen the start,” she added before kissing the side of Lea’s neck causing her to sigh in pleasure, both at the sensation caused by this beautiful woman and the implication of how much more there was to come.

****

Lea lay out of breath but incredibly satisfied as she watched Valeria showering in the corner of the room. It wasn’t so much a real shower as a removable shower head over a metal grate, but with the low water pressure she could wash herself without spraying the water anywhere else. Her wet body glistened in the flickering candle light, accentuating her already gorgeous body. Lea got up and walked over, feeling rather sticky herself. As she approached, Valeria stopped washing herself and began to scrub Lea instead.

“Thank you, I know this is your job but I think I really needed all of this,” Lea said as she closed her eyes and braced herself against the wall to let Valeria wash her more thoroughly.

“Of course, anything you need,” she replied as she turned off the water and brought Lea a towel. Lea got dressed again while Valeria finished washing herself. She got dressed much faster, there was far less to dress into, before she stood by the door. “Shall we?” she asked as she opened the door and allowed Lea the chance to walk through first.

Lea decided that if she was going to have accompaniment she would make the most of it. Wrapping one arm softly around Valeria, holding her close. Valeria began leading them through doors at the far side of the market hall. Inside Lea saw even more slavegirls, though in place of elegant silks they all wore heavy iron, and not just the metal collars with disks that everyone seemed to wear.. Many of them were dirty and heavily restricted. Many of them bore the marks of being heavily whipped. One was hanging from the ceiling by her arms. Lea began looking around, she felt strange walking in, watching some of these girls being publicly fucked right as she walked past. She looked into everyone’s faces but none of them were Sophia. She was glad to see it. As they reached the end she simply looked over at Valeria and shook her head. They left much more quickly than they entered.

“What was all that?” Lea asked once they were safely back to the main market hall.

“Well, this new owner, Felix Olsen, he has been trying to bring in these more extreme types of offerings for guests. Most of the business is still just.. well the sex. But guests with such specific tastes are willing to part with quite a lot of money to make them happen. None of this was here just a few weeks ago,” Valeria said as she walked the two of them to the opposite side where another exit was.

After a few quick turns, again to presumably keep the contents of the market hall hidden from passersby, they entered to the far side of the Casino’s Coliseum Plaza. It was one of the headlining features of the resort. Under a curved roof that mimicked the sky well, they had built to Roman specifications (though with slightly more comfortable seats) a small stone coliseum where they held events all day that guests could come and go from. But now it was nearly 1am, and the look of typical tourists pouring in and out while noise echoed out of the stands was all gone. There was quiet, there were fewer people and intermixed were many slave girls as scantily clad or more than Valeria was. This was clearly a much more adult presentation that was about to happen. As they walked to the entrance they passed yet another warning sign, but didn’t bother to stop to read. If this was a performance, Lea thought there was possibly a good chance Sophia was here.

The two had good timing, moments after sitting down at the far side so they could get front row seats, a toga clad orator stood in the center of the arena to announce what was to come next. It started with a gladiator fight, but it was all women, all topless. Three teams of two armed one with a net and one with a whip. They each wore masks but none of them seemed to be Sophia. When only one team stood, the other four were dragged away before two lines of two chariots emerged from opposites sides, each pulled by two leather clad ponygirls. The one-woman chariots, whose drivers clearly wore the slave collars with a metal disk, began to fire blunted but painted arrows at the two. The winning gladiator team seemed to do their best to avoid the arrows but the cards were stacked against them from the start. There was so little face visible on the ponygirls Lea couldn’t be sure if one of them was Sophia or not.

Once the two gladiators were taken care of, the four chariots all moved to one side of the stadium. The orator announced the start of a new battle, a re-enactment to be fought “to the death.” Lea didn’t like the emphasis he put on that. After he left, another few women came out from the other side, on foot wearing only slave collars and what looked like a burlap loin cloth. They were armed with shields and blunted, paint covered spears, a much fairer fight.

The women in shields tried to form a protective formation around themselves, but Lea finally recognized one of those women as Sophia. She was suddenly much more interested in the outcome of this battle. The first pass of the chariots took out one of the women, with a lucky shot between a hole in the shields. But the women in shields were quick to recover and as the chariots came back around two of the women suddenly lunged their spears further out striking one of the archers, knocking her from her cart and into the dirt. The two ponygirls of the now driverless chariot simply walked off to the side of the arena and waited.

On a third pass, Sophia and another girl broke formation unexpectedly to strike two of the pony girls driving one of the chariots, causing them to stop dead in their tracks. There was now only two carts left, while the driver of the third was forced to get off, and was nearly chased down by Sophia before she darted back to the other woman as the chariots prepared for another pass. This time the chariots charged straight for the lines, threatening to run the girls over if they did not turn or the girls scatter. The girls with shields blinked before the ponygirls did and dove out of the way, breaking the group’s collective shield and leading to arrow hits for all but two of them. Sophia and one other girl were all that stood, they went back to back, but the chariots simply circled at a distance. Sophia and the other girl both let out a scream as the charged head long for one of the chariots each. Sophia’s compatriot was taken out but only after striking one of the ponies, rendering the other chariot useless.

Sophia was successful, but now faced two women alone who at least did not have a chariot to help them. She had a look of pure determination in her eye, the look of someone who would not be intimidated. The two women began to flank her, causing Sophia to back up or lose the protection of her shield from their drawn arrows. As she nearly had her back against the wall, she made her stand, charging at one of them which unfortunately gave the other a clean shot, ending her charge before she could harm the other one. The crowd cheered at the conclusion, but Lea had become too invested in wishing for Sophia’s victory to join them.

Men dressed as centurions came pouring out and grabbed everyone who had been killed and locked chains to their slave collars connecting one collar to another, which connecting to another in a long line. The women looked worried, much more worried than actors should be after losing a stage fight.

“What’s happening to them,” Lea asked Valeria as the orator was back out to announce whatever it was that was coming next. Valeria looked worried too, like she knew the answer would be upsetting enough it should be her job to keep the truth hidden. “OK you’re scaring me, what are they going to do to them,” Lea said, taking Valeria’s worried face as a bad omen.

“Well, they can’t exactly kill people in the arena, but they want the night show to have a sense of peril none the less. So anyone who ‘dies’ in one of the fights that are considered ‘to the death’ is punished outside the coliseum for the rest of the night until they get taken down before the morning show starts,” Valeria said quietly leaning into Lea to explain. “I don’t know that you want to see that.”

Lea knew a part of her didn’t want to, but she needed to know what had become of Sophia. “And if they’re being punished all night what does that mean they do tomorrow? Could I get to talk to her?” Lea asked.

“You can try, they generally get taken down just before the public show starts at 11 am. I don’t know what happens to them after that but if you’re willing to pay I’m sure it could be arranged.” Valeria said in a bit of blunt honesty. “So now that you found her, do you want to stick around with me or have you had your fill?” she said, running her hand along Lea’s inner thigh.

“Yeah, I’ll walk you back,” Lea said as she got up and started heading for the nearest exit. As she started walking around she could faintly hear a yell “No, this is the fourth night in a row, you keep assigning me to the losing side, it’s not my fault! Don’t tell me this isn’t him putting me on the losing side every night either, I shouldn’t have to go up there again!” It was faint but Lea thought it sounded like Sophia. As she turned walked further around the coliseum, she could see Sophia angrily shoving one of the guards. Something the other guards seemed to take as an invitation to use more force on her.

“Well you’ve done it now,” said the guard that was pushed as one of his comrades tied a blindfold around Sophia. “Refusing an order and physically accosting a guard, that sounds like an automatic upgrade wouldn’t you say boys?”

“Shit no, I’m sorry!” Sophia began to instantly apologize. “No please not that. I’ll do anything,” she cried as she dropped to her knees pleading in perhaps the quickest turn around Lea had ever seen.

Lea looked beside Sophia and saw some other guards raising up a cross that was holding one of the chariot drivers who had died. Her arms and legs were tied allowing her to lean forward in a position that did not look like it was going to stay comfortable for very long. She wore a blindfold as well, but had otherwise been stripped to be tied absolutely naked.

Two men brought out a slightly different cross and had what looked like a doctor following behind. The guards unhooked the plain cross that had been on the hinge behind Sophia and replaced it with this different one flat along the floor. Unlike the other one, this had what looked like a wooden wedge with a rather large metal phallus sticking through a hole in the wedge. The phallus continued down before bending and attaching to the cross in a different place. It looked like the wooden wedge could be lowered or raised, causing the rod stick out only a few inches or possibly up to two feet long, clearly longer than any human could take.

Sophia was shivering and resisting at first, but after what seemed to be a few deep, calming breaths she stopped either, becoming very cooperative. Sophia lay down as the guards scooted her onto the metal dildo to where she was resting on the wooden wedge when it seemed to be as high as it would go. Unlike the way her neighbor’s feet were simply tied together and to the cross, Sophia’s ankles were put into leather cuffs which were attached with a short chain to either side of the cross. Her hands were tied to the cross and then to Lea’s horror a rope was tied loosely around Sophia’s neck.

The doctor looking person that had arrived was examining Sophia’s hands carefully. With some kind of special eyewear on, he began working a thin needle through her palm, causing a few sounds of pain from Sophia but compared to the protesting she had been doing she stayed rather quiet. Satisfied with whatever criteria he was making, the man then reached for a hammer and nail. Lea couldn’t look, she turned to bury her head into Valeria chest, hearing several loud hits of a hammer always accompanied by a cry of pain from Sophia. When Lea was finally able to look back she saw he was moving on to the other hand and so she turned back away again until she heard more sounds of a hammer.

She watched as they now stood Sophia’s cross up on the hinge. Once she was up it did at least seem that the nails were not load bearing, the rope around her wrists seemed to be holding up most of the weight. The guards pressed some button at the side which began to lower the wooden wedge, forcing Sophia to take an uncomfortably large amount of dildo and suffer from a tighter rope around her neck if she wanted to rest her muscles. She tried straightening her legs, which seemed to relieve a lot of the pressure, but it strained her leg so she could not hold it there. Lea watched as the guards simply moved on to the next woman, who was exceedingly cooperative after watching that.

Lea walked in front to get a better view. Sophia was blindfolded and so couldn’t see Lea standing there. There were small drips of blood coming from her palms but not very much, considering everything. As Sophia let her legs go limp, she sat deep on the dildo, painfully on the wedge and had the rope around her neck tighten. It didn’t look to be cutting off all air, but it certainly limited it at least some. Lea decided she couldn't watch any more. She darted back towards the market hall, beginning to shake as she did. By the time they were through the gateway Lea looked like she was going to be sick or pass out. Valeria held her causing Lea to nearly lean her entire body weight on her.

“You don’t look good, let’s get you laid down,” Valeria said in a way that did not at all hint that she might be using “laid down” as any kind of euphemism. Lea simply followed her into the room they had been in earlier. The sheets were changed, but it was otherwise the same. Lea simply silently collapsed onto the bed facing the wall. Valeria climbed in beside her, still clothed.

“It’s my fault she’s here, I hadn’t heard from her in weeks and I was worried. Turned out for good reason,” Lea began to say, still facing the wall. Valeria simply lay there holding her supportively. “Did you hear about that story this summer, what everyone was calling ‘The NESIC Slaves?’ Well we’re each one of them. I created the program that sent out all the videos, the same program that tricked us into thinking we were being abducted and tried to get us all to sign 99 year contracts, trying to make us like slaves. They called Sophia down first and they went through the contract with Carl Olsen, point by point on video before she signed and registered it with the ICB. She didn’t think she had a choice, but it got registered all the same. Now she’s here, doing this, and it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t have made that program.. or if I had just.. If they went after me. If they charged me with all the crimes my AI did then she could be free and I’d be serving some horrible penal contract somewhere. If I knew this is what would happen to her maybe they should have done that.. ” Lea began to quietly sob as Valeria continued to just silently comfort her. After a few minutes of that Lea finally turned and faced Valeria. “What do you think the chances of Felix just selling me her contract are?” she said softly, remembering there were cameras and not wanting to get Valeria in trouble.

“Well, right now he’s so short on girls I’m not sure all the money in the world would be enough, at least not for the next few months till he finishes staffing up all his hotels. He’s trying to build something of this scale in each one of them,” Valeria quietly whispered in Lea’s ear.

“Is there any way you think I could see him?” Lea asked.

“Only if you were an absolute whale, dropping a half mil or more in a night. Or you had some girls with level 9 or 10 contracts to sell him, that might do it.”

Lea might have had money, but not that kind of money. Instead she simply tried to put it from her mind for now. The problem would still be there tomorrow.

“Would you like to stay the night?” Valeria asked. Lea simply nodded her head and turned back over to face the wall, pulling one of Valeria’s arms around her as she did. It felt nice to held, even if she was paying for it, she was able to forget about that part in the moment and simply enjoy the intimate contact.

****

The next morning, Lea awoke with Valeria still wrapped around her. She crawled over Lea to face her, still dressed in the see through blue dress that covered only one of her breasts. “Are you feeling any better?” she asked as Lea began to more noticeably stir.

“A bit actually,” Lea replied.

“Well we are still both here and before you head off, is there anything more you might want me to do for you?” She asked, returning to the sultry, suggestive voice she had been using most of last night.

Lea wasn’t feeling too good, but she couldn’t deny that the offer was very inviting, and perhaps best of all very distracting. Valeria began to reach a hand under Lea’s shirt, rubbing against her bare skin as it worked its way up her back to grab hold of her bra fastener. “So?” Valeria said with a passion in her voice as she also began to inch herself closer. Lea couldn’t help herself, she nodded her head causing Valeria to smile and unhook Lea’s bra. In one smooth motion, Lea’s shirt and bra were both removed, giving Valeria opportunity to play with Lea’s exposed nipples.

Valeria sat up and began to untie the long rope that held her garment in place. She set it aside before removing the fabric as well. Lea looked down at the black rope that had been casually discarded beside her. “This is maybe going to sound weird,” Lea started.

“Oh please, you haven’t heard weird till you work here.”

“It’s just, would you mind maybe tying my hands to the bed?” Lea said, presenting her the rope. “I’m just.. not.. I mean I just don’t feel very good about myself after last night and when I get like that I find I like being tied.”

“How do you know I wouldn't just rob you, or tie you down and leave the clock running while I just read a book?” Valeria teased, straddling Lea with a grin.

Lea quivered. “That’s I guess where I just have to hope you wouldn't.”

Valeria sat up, putting her weight on Lea’s chest as she grabbed the rope and began wrapping it around Lea’s wrists. It wasn’t smooth or particularly pretty, but as she cinched the coil it was good enough as she tied the remaining rope to the bedframe. She then got up and simply sat in the chair picking up her book and beginning to read. Lea looked over and closed her eyes. She was enjoying the humiliation of being ignored like that. With her eyes still closed she began to shift around in the bed, enjoying the sensation before the feeling of someone removing her pants and panties woke her back up.

After Lea was completely naked, Valeria went back to her chair to feign reading her book again. Lea returned to closing her eyes and reveling in the sensations as she fidgeted around. It meant that when Valeria did return, she nearly jumped. Valeria slowly crawled up onto the bed, leaning in between Lea’s legs. She started by kissing her inner thighs, working her way slowly down, building anticipation only to skip over and move on to the other leg. When she finally did make contact Lea moaned and pulled on her bindings, which nicely heightened the already amazing sensations coming from between her legs. It took very little time as Valeria reached one hand up to massage her breast before she was at the brink of cumming.

Right before the moment, Valeria sat up. “Aren’t you going to ask permission?” she said prompting Lea to begin pleading with her to make her cum. When she returned to work it was just moments later that an intense orgasm went rocketing through her, causing her to pull so hard she yanked the rope from the bed frame.

Valeria began to move up, standing over Lea just inches above. She pressed her leg against Lea’s crotch while her other leg straddle over Lea’s right leg. Lea looked up into her eyes and placed her bounds arms around her neck to pull her in for a kiss. She felt pressure as Valeria began to rock herself against Lea’s leg which in turn cause friction against Lea’s own crotch. She soon began rocking her hips as well. Though still not releasing her hands from their resting place at the nape of Valeria’s neck.

She could feel herself approaching another orgasm and simply continued rocking, this time not asking for anything. She flipped herself and Valeria onto their sides so they could both get a better range of motion, and seemingly at the same time both girls began shaking into another orgasm.

This time though, both of them stopped. Valeria began untying Lea’s arms and inspecting the rope to make sure it wasn’t damaged. As Lea stood up and walked to the corner, Valeria turned the shower on and began to bathe her. Valeria washed Lea thoroughly and dried her off before beginning to shower herself. She was much faster and by the time Lea was dressed again Valeria was just finishing.

Lea looked at the time on her phone. “What time is it?” Valeria asked.

“10:34, why?” Lea asked

“Well, they usually let the losers from the night arena down at 10:30 so that everything can be cleared out in anticipation of the 11 o’clock show. If you wanted to talk to your friend now might be a time.” Valeria explained. Lea was less confident but it was a perfect opportunity to catch Sophia. But then she thought about what she saw last night and started to shake a little with worry and guilt.

“Hey,” Valeria said as she leaned in and held Sophia’s shoulders. “It’s going to be alright.”

Lea wasn’t as confident of that. “Can you come with me?” Lea asked, afraid that if she tried alone she might not be able to do it. Valeria said that of course she would.

The two of them walked back towards the coliseum plaza where all the crosses were now flat on the floor as staff members, this time not in any costume, were at work untying them. Many of them seemed to have trouble walking, but they were helped up and shuffled off towards the staff only door at the back. She could see Sophia just sitting up with someone examining her hands before wrapping them up in bandages and helping her to her feet. She was now no longer blindfolded and as she saw Lea approaching she burst into tears.

“Oh my god, Oh I missed you so much,” Sophia said as she started limping towards Lea before the two of them began to hug. She was still naked except for her slave collar and bandages around her hands.

“Sophia I’m so sorry, I can’t imagine..”

“No! No, you stop that, this isn’t your fault.” Sophia said as she cut off Lea. “No please, I’m already suffering in here, I don’t want you to be suffering over that too. OK, I need you to forgive yourself, just be happy we’re finally getting a chance to see each other again.” Sophia said as she continued her tight hug. “Where am I next?” Sophia asked as she turned back to the staff.

“Says here, you’ve got a meal and then you’ve got a few hours to sleep before you get back to work.”

“Can they come with me for any of that?” She asked pleadingly but not demandingly.

“Well, it looks like she’s actually still on her shift, but if that guest is willing to continue to pay the standard rate you can have her join,” he said after checking over a tablet.

“This is goodbye then I guess, do i need to do anything else?” Lea asked as she turned to Valeria.

Valeria shook her head no and simply kissed her on the cheek. “Good luck with everything,” she said as she walked back towards the market hall.

“So, please, catch me up. And if you don’t mind paying I can actually have some decent food for once,” Sophia said as she started walking with a good amount of her weight on Lea.

“Of course, anything for you.”

****

The two of them caught up over food and blew deep into what was supposed to be Sophia’s rest time. Lea pointed that out, but Sophia simply said that hearing from her again was better than an extra few hours of sleep anyway. Sophia shared everything she had been through and Lea shared everything that had been happening with them, about her brother, about Andrea’s girlfriend. In a momentary slip, she even shared how jealous she got watching Zainab being with Andrea before realizing what she was just admitting to.

“Oh shit. OK, promise me that stays between us,” Lea said as she contemplated backpedaling but decided swearing to secrecy was maybe easier.

“I promise, besides I have to get Felix to agree to let me communicate with anyone long distance and he hasn’t said yes once so who am I going to tell?” Sophia said, trying to make light of her own circumstances. “So, how long have you thought about Andrea that way?”

Lea paused, she still didn’t feel comfortable sharing, but she also wanted desperately to have someone to talk this through with. “For a while now. After the FetFair, once we started playing together. Somewhere, with her, it started blurring the line between desire to play and simply desire. I tried to ignore it, that didn’t work. But I was afraid if I told any of you, well then you wouldn’t feel comfortable around me anymore. I mean at the time Andrea still called herself straight, she was never a real possibility, and so I was more able to justify not doing anything about it.”

“Then the blow up?” Sophia asked.

“Yeah, I mean don’t get me wrong you had a big part in that too. But after weeks of knowing nothing could happen, actually hearing it was still devastating. I couldn’t be around you because of the box, I couldn’t be around Andrea because I kept hearing her yelling back at you she doesn’t love me, and I couldn’t be around Megan without thinking of one or both of the two of you. But now a few weeks ago Andrea calls me up, starts asking me when I first noticed I liked girls, saying how she’s not sure any more. I, niave me, thought she might be thinking about me. Then I get down there and I get introduced to this girlfriend. I didn’t handle it well.”

“Wow, that sucks,” Sophia said. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep this to myself.”

Lea began to tear up and move over to hug Sophia. “Thank you, and I promise I’m going to find a way to get you out of here, I’m not going to let you live like this forever.”

“Just, whatever you do, try not to mention you want to buy me specifically, Felix kind of really hates me. If he knows a friend wants to buy me he might just say no out of spite. I think the only way he’ll sell me is if he doesn't know it’s me specifically you’re buying. I guess that’s what you get when you almost kill someone.”

“I’ll try,” Lea said as she broke off the long hug. “Well you only have three hours left, I would feel bad if I ate into much more of your sleep time.”

“It’s fine, just.. take care. And just.. when you tell Andrea and Megan.. I don’t know this is the kind of thing they’d want to hear over the phone.” Sophia said as she got up. She didn’t want to admit it but she was beyond dead tired.

“I will, and you take care too. Hopefully I can get you out of here so just, don’t give them more reason to make you suffer,” Lea said as she pointed to the palm of one of her hands.

“Goodbye Lea,”

“For now. Goodbye for now. I’ll see you soon I hope,” Lea said as she closed the door behind her. She didn’t know what she was going to do but she needed a plan.

****

“I’m sorry, but Mr. Olsen is very busy and has no time at all today to meet with anyone,” the snippy assistant said from behind his desk. “May I ask what this is regarding?” he asked, seemingly with no patience for this random drop in guest asking to see the owner on a Sunday.

“Tell him it’s regarding the sale of a girl with a level nine contract,” Lea said, only stretching the truth a tiny bit.

The assistant’s face suddenly became more serious, like Lea had just said the password to prove she was a member of the right secret society. He scanned over the computer screen. “I am sorry, he really doesn’t have any openings until at least Friday the second. We have someone else you can talk to about selling,”

“No, this really needs to be him I think,” Lea said.

“Ok, well would you like to leave any information besides your name?”

“No, I think it’s better to talk to him in person. So what time should I be back?” Lea asked, getting out her phone to take this down.

“Well, I’ve got 10 minutes early in the morning, 10:50. I also have an afternoon appointment at 3:15 which would work better for you?”

Lea had two classes that day, but they were both a lecture hall of over a hundred students that never bothered with attendance, they wouldn’t miss her. “First available, the morning would be fine.”

Lea fretted nearly non-stop. She had no idea what her plan would be. Surely as soon as Felix found out she wanted to buy and not sell he would lose interest. He was supposed to be badly short staffed after all. She was coming up blank.

Then of course there was the other job that seemed almost as daunting; how on earth would she break this news to Megan and Andrea. She had promised Sophia she wouldn't do it over the phone, but she wasn’t sure Andrea wanted very much to see her. Andrea didn’t even take her call when she tried, though Megan did.

“Hi there,” Megan said as she answered.

“Hi, so.. I was.. not to jump to the chase but is Andrea still too pissed to see me? I tried calling her and my call got rejected, there’s something I really need to say to her. You also, but I really think it should be done in person,” Lea asked

“Well, it’s easy to reject a call. But if you’re offering up an apology, I assume that’s what you’re meaning, it’s not as easy to turn you away when you’re standing right there.”

“Sure, but she’d have to agree to see me still,” Lea said, not wanting to correct Megan about the topic.

“Are you free Thursday? If you are, dress formally and come down, there’s a party Andrea, Zainab and I will be at. And they definitely aren’t going to leave it if they see you, it’s at the embassy for Surdan’s Independence Day. It’s probably your best chance to get her to see you in the near future.”

“You think it’s possible it could just be you, me and Andrea for this?” Lea asked, not sure what her reaction might be if Zainab was there for the news too.

“That’s.. probably not going to happen. Besides you owe Zainab an apology as much as anyone.”

Lea couldn’t deny that she owed her an apology, but that wasn’t exactly what she was aiming to talk about most. But this was at least a way to talk to them at all, so she agreed.

Much like costumes, Lea never did formal very much. She never went to fancy parties that might require one and never felt like dressing up just for herself. She ended up getting a rather modest black halter dress. It left her arms bare and showed a little bit of black, but it also went all the way down to her knees, there was no mistaking it for a seductress’s dress which is just how Lea wanted it. This was about Sophia, not Andrea.

The embassy was surprisingly modest given the island nation’s international reputation as a magnet for the wealthy and excessive. Not much bigger than two mansions with a patio between them. She had driven up with Megan, being Megan’s “+1” was after all how she planned to get in. Andrea and Zainab should already be there, but it was still early and so it was still quiet and modestly empty.

“What are you doing here?” Andrea snapped bitterly as she saw Lea walk up to her alongside Megan.

“You’ve got every right to be pissed,” Megan said, trying to play mediator. “But she’s here to say something and it’s important.”

“Thanks,” Lea said softly to Megan. “Andrea, Zainab, I’m sorry. You both have every right to hate me, what I did has no excuse. I somehow just lost control utterly and I promise that it will never happen again.”

Andrea looked skeptically at Lea but seemed eventually to accept it. Zainab seemed to wait for Andrea’s reaction and then herself accepted.

“But that’s not why I came down here,” Lea said.

“It’s not?” Megan asked. “Then what else is it about?”

“Any chance it could just be the three of us?” She asked, looking at Andrea.

“No, if you can say it to me you can say it to her.”

“Fine.. it’s about Sophia,” she said, causing Megan to walk around beside Andrea to face Lea rather than simply stand beside her. “Carl’s dead. And apparently everything he had, including Sophia’s contract, was passed down to his son. Now Carl’s son, a guy named Felix, is putting Sophia to work in some really horrible ways. He’s not respecting Carl’s agreement at all and is just using her to the greatest extent the contract allows. I was able to track her down, she seems like she’s holding up but I don’t know how much longer that will last.”

The three were breathless, listening and not knowing what to make of it.

“I’ve got a meeting with Felix tomorrow, I’m going to try to buy her contract. I probably should have just tried that from the start, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier. But I don’t know if it will work. Apparently he’s currently more in need of workers than money, so I don’t know if he’ll sell for what I’m able to offer.”

A slow silence crept across the group. “Do you need anything?” Megan finally asked.

“I doubt it. Unless you’ve got a pile of cash laying around,” Lea replied sarcastically.

“I could maybe talk to my uncle, he’s..” Zainab slowly started to reply before Lea cut her off.

“That’s generous, and if it’ll just be a matter of getting more money I’ll maybe take you up on it.”

“So when would we know anything?”  Andrea asked, clutching Zainab as she was very visibly distraught.

“If it works.. if I reach a deal.. I’ll let you know tomorrow. Otherwise.. well let’s just cross that bridge when we come to it,” Lea said, looking mostly at Megan and away from Andrea/Zainab. She tried not to concern herself too much with the worry of not finding a way to fix it. She felt she had to fix it. She felt responsible to a degree for what Sophia was going through, and she needed to figure out a way to make it right or she just might never sleep right again. She certainly hadn’t been able to over the last few nights since she came back from Atlantic City.

“So now that you’re here, you wanna stay for the party?” Andrea asked with her arm still around Zainab.

“Not really in a party mood,” Lea said. “Besides, it’s a few hours back by car and I have a morning meeting to prepare myself for.”

“I understand,” Andrea said as she stood up and walked over to hug Lea goodbye. “Take care,” Megan said, cutting in as soon as Andrea had pulled back. Then when she was done, Zainab moved in for her turn, Lea worked hard to hide any reaction. “And remember if it’s that bad I might be able to get some money from my uncle to help,” she whispered into Lea’s ear. Lea hoped it didn’t come to that for many reasons. Some rational like the knowledge that they would then simply be indebted to Zainab while still needing to pay Sophia’s monthly expenses. Then there were the less rational, she didn’t much like Zainab and she didn’t want Sophia’s freedom to be forever tied to her. She knew rationally if it were the only way then fine, but.. hopefully not.

****

“So, Lea is it?” Felix asked as he invited Lea in to sit down.

“Yes sir, thanks for seeing me,” Lea said as she started to extend a hand for a handshake, but withdrew it when he simply sat back and made no effort to meet her halfway.

“So I’ve been told this has something to do with some more level 9 contracts. I do have a guy that deals with hiring, is there a reason you’re coming all the way to me?” he asked very directly.

“Well, to put it bluntly, I was hoping to actually acquire one of the level 9s you have already working for you,” Lea blurted out quickly, hoping speed could soften the blow.

“That’s just not possible right now. See, we’re in a transition period right now. My dad never really updated his casinos to reflect the new realities. When the Supreme Court ruled last winter that any and all laws restricting what kinds of contracts a business rather than individual can accept, I moved fast to change the one casino I was in charge of. He had his reservations though, he didn’t want to rebuild any of it, he was just too fond of what he built to see any fault. But I was almost bringing in as much from the new adult entertainment as I was from the gambling. Most of the volume is just your typical brothel fare, but the money you can charge for the rarities? Forget it. So first thing I’m doing is trying to build those kind of specialized services up in every one of the casinos. And that takes women. Women willing to agree do some very demanding and unsavory work. OK, and a few men, but let’s not joke around here, I see here when you stayed with us last week you enjoyed the company of two of these women,” he said, finishing by checking something on his computer screen.

“So I don’t want your money right now. Right now I’m trying to get these up and running before any of the other casinos do, to put us out front and centre in this arena. Make us the go-to before the market gets flooded with later-comers. To put it bluntly it’s a race. It’s only been legal across the nation for just over 8 months and you wouldn’t believe how many casinos are working on remodels to reflect the new laws. I need to make sure for the long term future that Olsen Resorts is the one of the first to finish. Right now you could back up a dump truck of money and unless there’s a girl driving it who’s willing to sign a level 8 or above contract I’m not interested,” he continued, painting a very bleak but oddly understandable picture for Lea.

“And what would you do for one of these girls?” Lea asked

“Well, if they could start quickly and they stay at an absolute minimum of.. Lets see,” he said as he began scanning the computer. “I’d say they’d need to stay on till at least middle of March when I’m more in a position to let people go. I’ll double check with some people to be sure. And you’d still need to be willing to pay a bit on top of all that, then I’d maybe consider it,” he said leaning forward and putting his finger down on his desk as he ran through conditions like he was running through invisible bullet points.

“Well, if I find someone, when would they..”

“Today. If I could get an extra body for this weekend that would make things go a lot smoother at the other place, there’s already looking like I might have to push the opening back, but I already advertised and don’t want to make it look like I’m falling behind,” he said, interrupting Lea.

“OK, well if I could get someone out here today, for a level 9 contract, and I pay, then I’d want my choice of who I’d take with me at the end of this. And I mean I want to be able to look through your whole staff list, no one level 9 off limit, is that something that you could live with?”

“So long as it’s only one person, and you don’t take the contract till March when the other contract’s up,” he said as he started typing something on the computer at his desk.

“What if I just come back in March or April? If you’re more in a position to sell then..”

“Just because I could let someone go doesn’t mean I would want to. It might still hurt to let someone go so soon into the rebuilding of everything, but I’d rather it hurt later and have someone extra now. If all you’re offering is money, I’m not sure I’d even be interested by April to tell you the truth. Demand for woman willing to do this kind of work is high, I’m guessing that’s why you’re trying to buy from me in the first place,” he said as he finished typing. Lea had no response.

“So how about this, I’ve given the details to my assistant outside. He’ll check the dates and pass it on to legal and get a contract to you within the hour. I got an opening later this afternoon, if you have someone in good enough physical shape willing to sign then we’ve got a deal.”

“I will definitely look over the terms and get back to you this afternoon. Do you have a conference room I could look these over?”

“Sure, just tell my assistant you need a room and he’ll get everything set up for you.”

This time he was willing to shake her hand as she got up and left. The assistant had one of the other staff show her to her room, a rather nice one actually. She stood out on the balcony and could see the shoreline in the far distance. The wind was a bit cold, but it was fresh air she really needed as she metaphorically banged her head against a metaphorical wall over what to do now.

****

Lea got a sample contract promptly and looked it over, identical to what would be signed but with the name of the girl left blank. It seemed to say exactly the points they had discussed with nothing else. An A9 contract, it outlined for girl who signed to agree to some very explicit ways they could be used by guests, very restrictive ways they could be treated by staff and the many harsh ways she could be punished for disobeying. It went from that day, November 2nd until Noon on March 21th, exactly 20 weeks. All the girl’s possessions would be held in trust for the duration, she would have no access to her possessions. Neither Lea nor the signer would receive any monetary compensation. Lea would in fact pay Felix a small amount at the beginning and an amount at the end of the contract proportional to the value of the contract she chose to acquire.

At that point, the term of service would be over and Lea could compel the transfer of ownership of any level 8 or 9 contract tied to Felix Olsen, his company or any of his holdings. She quickly sent a copy off to the lawyer Paul had flown out back at the cabin, asking if this would in fact allow her to take possession of Sophia. He replied quickly. He said it would, and that there were no loopholes to extend time or irreversibly harm the person. He also made sure that Lea had more than enough money to cover the last payment no matter what they might be able to objectively value Sophia’s contract at.

So the contract was there, all she had to do was find a person who would sign it. She had a passing thought, but didn’t want to entertain it. She continued on and knew she couldn’t ask Megan. Megan couldn’t miss months of school over two semesters and still have a place at Georgetown. She thought only for seconds about Andrea, but even with it being so temporary she couldn’t let herself think of pushing that fate on her.

She started to grin as she thought about Zainab. She didn’t know how she’d get her to agree, but a wave of satisfaction rolled over her as she lay down and closed her eyes picturing the girl being stripped and put in chains, carried off to some back room to be whipped and fucked in public for months on end. No contact with the outside world, no contact with Andrea. She pictured herself coming as a guest and, with Zainab hooded to not know it was her, inflicting some of those painful blows herself. Zainab had offered to help after all, even if this isn’t what she meant.

Lea’s mind was feeding her images she was enjoying, until it gave her one she didn’t like as much. She pictured Andrea heartbroken and crying, not understanding why Zainab would just leave her like that or why she wasn’t returning her calls. Then she looked angry and betrayed when she found out what Lea did to her. No, Lea now knew she couldn’t do that even if she had a plan to convince Zainab. Damn.

Lea realized she had bluffed her way into this problem. She got him to offer her a deal based on her delivering a girl, but she had no one she could deliver. She looked over, time was quickly approaching and while she didn’t know what to do, she did need to eat.

On her way back to her room, with less than an hour to go, she finally gave consideration to a thought that had been at the back of her mind all day. She needed someone to sign up, it seemed like the only way to get ahold of Sophia’s contract. And she really needed to figure out a way to get Sophia’s contract, she felt so guilty once she saw how they were treating her she needed to get her out of there. She didn’t have any friends she could offer, didn’t have any contacts she could convince to sign, but she did know someone... herself!

She tried to shake the notion. It wasn’t one she wanted to have. But as she looked up at the clock she saw she had 40 minutes, she was running out of options. On the plus side, it got her Sophia’s contract and she saw how she was being treated. She didn’t care much if she dropped out of college for a year, it was the kind of college that wouldn’t care if she tried re-applying for next fall. At that moment, she was also very alone in her life. There was no one in her life that depended on her and no one that would miss her on a daily basis either. Besides, it was a few months. On the other hand, it was still months, and she saw how they treated Sophia for just one night. 25 minutes.

She started thinking about the details of how this would work. Her rent would need to be addressed. Though other than a few old clothes and a bed she really didn’t have much, so it would probably be cheaper just to give notice and pay them to put her stuff in storage. She’d need to contact the school to tell them of her deferment. As she started typing out an e-mail to the school after having sent off an email to her landlord it hit her that she seemed to have made up her mind. Even though she hadn’t really said as much, she seemed to be preparing herself for this. 15 minutes.

The hotel room phone rang. It was one of the legal assistants, wanting to print out final copies and wanted to know what name to put down. Lea swallowed her fear and gave them her own name. He sounded a little confused but after she confirmed he thanked her and hung up. About a minute later there was a knock on her door as someone slipped her the finalized contract. She checked it against the draft and they hadn’t changed a word except to add her name in place of the blank spaces. By the time she looked up from studying the contract she saw she only had a few minutes. She grabbed her bag and began to walk back to the office.

She had time to make one call before the meeting and so she called David. He wasn’t answering and so she simply got his voicemail. “Hi, David, it’s me. So, I know things have been strained the last month or so, but I just wanted.. I wanted to make sure you knew I still love you, I understand why you needed to do what you did and I am ok with that now.”

“Lea, he’s ready to see you now,” the assistant said as Lea tried to buy enough time to finish her call.

“So I’m going to be gone for a while, I.. there’s something I have to do. I should be back by before April. I don’t want you worrying about me and know that I’ll be alright in the end. I’ve got to go, goodbye for now,” Lea said before hanging up the phone and walking through the door to Felix’s office.

“I understand you’re volunteering yourself. I’ll agree but I’d like to see what I’m getting first. Strip,” Felix said, flanked on either side by men in suits and with a camera set up on his desk. Lea undressed but in a much more clinical than sexual way. Once she did a spin for him he told her to sit at the chair the camera was facing. “Now understand, this contract doesn’t give you much choice in what I use you for, I’m agreeing in large part for the flexibility you are giving me to put you where I most need someone is that clear?”

“It’s like you said, there’s just not enough women willing to do this work to go around. It’s why I want to buy one from you in the first place, if this is what it takes to get one I’ll do it,” Lea said, trying to spin a convincing tale.

“Well you must really want this bad, but alright. Now this will all be recorded as we go through the contract to make sure you understand what you’re signing. These men are lawyers and you may ask them questions whenever you with to ensure this contract keeps its A9 status” he said before going point by point over the contract. Lea listened quietly and responded only when prompted. “So once you sign the contract and send the initial payment you will be registered and your term will begin right away.”

Lea was handed a pen and pad to write on. She initialed, signed and dated where appropriate. Once she handed back the contract, Felix did the same while Lea got on her phone to make a money transfer. One Felix got confirmation of payment, the lawyers scanned the document and sent it off to be registered. Felix’s gaze hovered over the screen as he waited to get confirmation that the contract had been registered. Once that came in, he reached over to turn off the camera. “She’s ready,” he said into the intercom.

Two large men came into the office carrying shackles and a collar. They were strange looking. They were clear like they were made of Lucite, with a clear cable connecting each pair of cuffs to a clear ring in the middle. The men began to attach them to Lea who started to have serious second thoughts as she watched them briefly illuminate red as the clicked shut. “So.. too late to back out then?” she softly asked in nervous jest. Felix simply nodded his head.  As the two began leading Lea out of the room doubt began to turn into full panic. “Shit, can I just make another phone call?” She screamed, realizing in the rush she had not even had a time to call Megan or Andrea to tell them about this plan.

“Sorry, you agreed total emersion. No outside communication. Your belongings will be kept in storage until you are free to go. One more outburst and you’ll be gagged too,” Felix said as the two men simply continued marching Lea out of the room. She hung her head and tried to keep up.

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17.01.15

story continues in The Stories of Bound Friends 11: Lea and the Consequences of Actions

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