Nicki was rocking, wrapped in a quilt and leaning against an unfamiliar chest. The man did not smell right, and her confused mind needed Master Cain to comfort her. Her eyes opened, and she saw that she was on a horse that was trailing behind others. Edges of quilts and the naked legs of her friends were hanging over the sides of the saddles. The man holding her spoke softly. "You're okay, sweetheart. You're all right now."
No. No, I'm not all right. Cain? She was trembling slightly, but she was afraid that if she struggled, he would stick her with the needle and knock her out again. "Where is my Master?" She quivered. The man's arm tightened around her, but he did not answer her. They rode down the mountain, breaking Rule number four.
By dusk, they had reached the end of the trail by the highway, and Nicki closed her eyes when she saw the flashing lights of police cruisers and ambulances. In panic she opened them again, searching for Cain. He and the others were handcuffed, and a sheriff had his hand on Cain's head while his other rested on her Master's shoulder, pushing him into the car. Nicki felt her heart squeezing and tears rolled down her cheeks. Just before the door to the cruiser closed, Cain's blue eyes found hers and he smiled at her, giving her a slight nod of reassurance.
The last sight Nicki had of the mountain, were the russet autumn colors splashed across the surface. Fall was her favorite time of the year, because they were kept busy stock-piling supplies for winter and Master Cain spent more time with her. They would be snowbound by the fireplace in the cabin, and only leave for their meals and erotic pleasures with the others in the lodge.
Ambulances with hurting, blaring sirens, raced them to the hospital. It was three days before the authorities figured out who the women were. They were kept sedated in separate rooms, and Sallie's mind remained shattered in fear. She kept whispering for Master Dwain. Lucy, Saundra and Nichole, did not say a word. They prayed that the rescue was some horrible nightmare, and that they would wake up in the familiar safety of their cabins with their Masters.
Nicki had convinced herself that Cain would find her, and make her safe again. This terrifying place with its beeping machines and people prodding and investigating her body, kept her silent. She knew these doctors and nurses had a needle that could make her fall asleep, and then Master Cain would not be able to rescue her.
Their mothers and fathers showed up a week later, accompanied by the preacher from their church. They had not seen their daughters since they were eighteen, the summer they sent them to college. Their girls had been model students, and raised in a strict religious upbringing. They had been pure and innocent, with high morals to protect and prepare them for the outside world.
Nicki looking up at her mom's familiar face. It was older now, and lined with wrinkles, but she still held the formidable challenge of righteousness in her stare. Her face was framed by hair that was more grey than blonde, and she was not smiling. Nichole thought she might have an ally with her anyway, and her eyes widened with fearful hope. "Can you tell Master Cain where I am?"
Her mother's eyes narrowed and she walked back into the hall, never saying a word to Nicki. The mothers had coped with their daughters' loss ten years ago, and these animals that had come back in their place, did not belong in their world. The mothers and fathers and the accommodating consoling Preacher, returned home. Nicki never saw them again.
CHAPTER II. THE ASYLUM
They were transferred to another hospital, with heavy metal locking doors and wire threaded through the windowpanes. Months passed by, with doctors patiently trying to coax and pry. Nicki distrusted their motives, but she discovered that if she answered some of their questions, she was slowly given more freedoms.
When they finally unstrapped her from her bed and decreased her medication, the confusing nightmares ended. She paced around her room like a trapped animal, and stared out the caged window for hours. Days passed by while she wandered around her room, having her frightened thoughts interrupted by orderlies bringing her meals and Doctor Tom asking her questions. He wanted to know what happened on the mountain, but Nicki kept her answers vague. It was easy to fool him. He thought that she was still in too much shock to remember, so he gave up when she pretended to be agitated. Sometimes his questions bothered her, and her nervousness was not an act.
Daytimes became an isolated cage of paranoia, and Nicki held onto the time when the sun sank low, and she was left alone in her dark room. At first, she lay in her bed and dreamed about Cain. After a few nights she broke Rule number six, and she let her hands roam her body trying to pretend it was her Master's touch. It was a sad attempt, and whenever she heard a sound from the hall her eyes flew to the door, ruining her arousal with the brief flashing thought that Cain would catch her and punish her.
Eventually, she accepted that Master Cain could not come to her, and she relaxed enough to stroke herself and picture different comforting times with her Master. It never felt right, until she discovered that if she stripped off her gown and wrapped it around her neck, the reassuring feel of the mock collar helped her calm enough to almost make her memories real. She could feel Cain's strong hands massaging her breasts, his fingertips stroking her areolas until her nipples peaked enough for her rings to rise.
Nicki twisted her tight tips, briefly recognizing the rings were now gone, but turning her nipples between pinching fingers until the sharp pain could at least shadow the experience. She was lying on the cold linoleum floor, but her mind envisioned her ankle and wrist cuffs secured to the hard wooden table. Her pussy squeezed in flexing tight spasms, anticipating Cain's fingers.
Holding her labia spread wide, Cain's gaze darted between her glistening pink slit and her eyes. His thumb stroked her clit and her hips thrust towards him, her channel pulsing and leaking, searching for his fingers.
Yes. Oh god, yes Master.
His fingers slid inside and her muscles gripped frantically while he pumped. One hand continued to torture her nipple and his thumb kept wiggling her clit.
Nicki felt the wash of her orgasm clear her mind of all thought, except for the pleasure she was experiencing. After her shudders slowed, she lifted her wet fingers and curled onto her side. Smelling only her own cream and none of Cain's scent, she cried silently in the darkness on the floor of her room in the asylum.
Nicki usually woke at dawn, when the carts rolling down the hallway with breakfast would wake her. One morning she overslept, and the shocked nurse rang for the doctor. To find her patient lying on the floor, naked and trying to strangle herself with her gown, was a terrible setback. Nicki was immediately strapped to her bed, and before her confused mind could think of how to explain, the injection had pushed her into vacant blackness again.
Nicki had no idea how long it had taken for them to allow her to resurface. Eventually, she progressed from being strapped to a bed and drugged when she screamed for Cain, to traveling the frightening hall of wandering patients to the day room. Most of the other patients were more confused than she was, and Lucy was the only friend she saw. Lucy stood by the window for hours, stroking the glass with her fingers and staring at the mountains in the distance. She would not speak, except to whisper Master Solomon's name under her breath.
Nicki sat near her and watched the television. She absorbed happenings that had taken place over the past decade, but what she really waited for, were the times the newscast focused on them.
Nicki rose and took Lucy's arm and turned her towards the television. "Lucy, look. It's the Masters."
Lucy's eyes filled, and her fingertips traced over the screen, caressing the image of Sol until he disappeared behind the metal door. She floated back to the window, stroking the mountains in the distance beyond the wired pane. After a few tries, Nicki realized that Lucy could not talk to her, so she did not interrupt her from looking out towards their home.
Nicki listened to the reporter say that the men were in jail, while the Prosecutor continued to build his case. Her fists clenched, and she leaned towards the television when a picture Ca
in or the scene of his arrest were replayed. Tears filled her eyes, and she heard the reporter say that Prosecution was hoping that one of the women would recover enough to testify. At this point, Nicki had no idea that the reporters were talking about her.
Her mind never registered or accepted the picture of herself taken from her college ID on the screen. There were brief shots of Lucy and Saundra cheerleading at some high school football game, and snapshots of Sallie and herself on campus during their senior year while they worked on the homecoming decorations. The glimpses of this girl named Nichole Flynn did not relate to her, though Nicki sometimes thought that she remembered her.
Over the days that followed, Nicki became paranoid that the photos were not real, and that the hospital somehow fed them into the television to confuse her. What was becoming real to her, were the frightening words of the reporter… that the doctors were going to try to convince the girls to betray their Masters. For the next few days, Nicki refused to speak to Doctor Tom. She became silently uncooperative, and he was getting irritated with her.
Nichole was the only woman that they were able to communicate with, and now she was shutting down. Doctor Tom had already told the Prosecutor, that he could meet with her at the end of the week. The last thing he needed was to have the lawyer see that they had not made progress with any of the victims.
Nicki was confused again, and she did not want to be the one they used against her Master. Doctor Tom finally tricked her, and he told her that Cain had asked for her. "Can I see him?" she asked breathlessly.
After that, he used threats to increase her medication again. Doctor Tom knew that she hated the unreal feeling. He also knew that Nichole was the strongest of the survivors, and that her mind was slowly threading its way back to reality.
One afternoon, a man wearing a suit was waiting in Doctor Tom's office. Nicki sat down and nervously played with the tail of her braid, while Doctor Tom explained that Mike Ross was the Prosecutor. Nicki stared at the man. She finally had a face for her enemy.
Mike looked at the pretty young woman. She was fidgeting, but after seeing the others, he agreed with the Doctor that she would be his best bet. The other victims still refused to respond, other than occasionally asking for their Masters. Mike's analytical mind had difficulty absorbing the victims' reaction. It appeared that the only way to break through to the women, would be to expose them to their abductors. This was out of the question, because they would not be of any help if this unreasonable bond could not be broken.
Mike was ecstatic when he received the case. After ten years working through the drudgery and long hours in the Prosecutor's Office, he was up for a chance at the bench when Judge Lawson retired next year. If he could successfully win a conviction in the biggest case of the decade, he would be a shoe in.
Mike's problem… and it was a huge one… was that all of the women were of legal age when they had disappeared. Several witnesses reported the women were willingly dating the men throughout the summer, and although the pictures from the mountain depicted a gruesome sight of torture and confinement, if all of the women insisted that they were willing participants and that they chose to be with the sadistic men, there was no case. He needed to get at least one of them to admit that they had been abducted.
Mike made a side agreement with the Doctor, that they would work on getting one of the girls to testify. He told Tom that when he became Judge Ross, he would make sure the institution received the largest quota of cases he deemed to include unstable victims or perpetrators. Doctor Tom agreed that it was in the best interests of the four confused young women. Of course, Mike's offer did not hurt, because the state funding was based on the number of incarcerated patients. If Ross made Judge, it would be a windfall of funding for the neglected hospital.
"How does it feel to be free, Nichole?" Mike asked.
Nicki stared at her lap. Free? You moron. I'm stuck inside an institution. I can't run in the grass, and if I don't do what they say, they strap me to my bed and drug me. "A lot has changed since I left," she answered quietly.
"You didn't leave, Nichole. You were taken. There's a difference," the arrogant man replied.
Nicki ignored him, and she looked across the cluttered desk. "Can I go back to the dayroom, Doctor Tom? I don't feel well."
"No, Nichole. I want you to talk with Mr. Ross."
Nicki lowered her eyes again, picking at her hair, and frantic that she might say something that this horrible man would use against her Master.
"Nichole, think back. Remember when you and your friends were starting college? Remember how excited you were?"
Nicki frowned. It was so hard to drag back those memories. In the earlier time up at the cabin, she had forced those thoughts out of her mind. They became too depressing, and she had to focus on learning Master Cain's Rules. "I remember," she lied. The one clear vision she had of the time before, was Cain and his friends picking them up to take them out on the boat. "We had dinner on the river. It was beautiful, and the water was calm. There was a full moon."
Although Mike did not want her remembering some romantic fantasy, he was encouraged that she could pick up at least a fragment of the abduction. The rest should come back, and she would realize how she had let her mind twist things. "What happened after dinner, Nichole?"
Nicki looked up at him. His glasses had thick black frames, and his beady brown eyes were magnified. The same purpose and power her Master had in his eyes, were in this man's dark stare. She knew that he would do anything he had to, to make Nicki hurt her Master. "We went camping," she replied.
Over the next few weeks, Nicki thought she kept her answers cautious and benign. Doctor Tom was pleased with her slow cooperation, and he let her go outside with an escort. Nicki ran through the grass and hugged the trees, inhaling the earthy scent of the bark, and remembering Cain tying her to them. She could almost hear the whistle of the whip, and her pussy got wet when she imagined the burning lash.
Usually, a bored woman named Sylvia was her escort, but sometimes it was somebody else if she had a day off. One afternoon it was a male orderly named Benny. He laughed at Nicki's antics while she sucked in the fresh air and enjoyed the grounds. "You liked it up on the mountain," he commented.
Without thinking, Nicki answered, "That's because my Master kept me safe. We never got interrupted by phones or television, and in the winter, especially, we got to spend all of our time together."
"So, you miss Cain?"
Nicki stopped running around him. She stared at the orderly and wondered if he was someone Mike Ross was using to get information on her Master.
"He misses you, Nicki," Benny said quietly.
Her mouth dropped open and her bottom lip began to tremble. "How do you know that?"
Benny stared into her eyes, and he decided that his information was right. Nicki did look like she was stable, though unsure of what was going on. It might not be too difficult for the savvy Prosecutor, working with the Doctor, to twist her thoughts with doubt and get her to turn on Cain. "I work for his lawyers."
Nicki's eyes filled and she wandered up to him. "Is Master Cain all right?"
"He's in jail, Nicki. Him, Solomon, Dwain and Mathias."
"Has he been there the whole time?" Nicki felt her heart squeeze when she thought of her Master in a cage. Cain loved the outdoors.
"Yes, Nicki… and Mike Ross wants to make it so they stay there a lot longer."
Nicki looked at the grass, feeling guilty. She knew that she was the only one that the awful Mr. Ross was working on. "I haven't told him very much."
"I know, but there are ways they can try to get you to lie about your time with Cain. They have drugs…"
"I know," she shuddered. "That's why I have to tell him a few things, or I know that they'll use them on me." Nicki looked up at the orderly. "Does Cain want me to kill myself, so I can't talk to Mr. Ross anymore?" she suggested.
Holy shit. Benny quickly contained the shocked look on his face. "No. Oh god,
no, Nicki." He looked around to make sure that no one could hear them. "He wants you to get out of here and hide until he can come get you."
Nicki felt such a wave of relief that she ran through the grass again. Her Master would come for her. Cain would make everything all right again. She stopped short and walked back to the orderly. "How? They won't ever let me out of here."
"Walk with me, Nicki."
Nicki followed him to the edge of the lawn, where the bushes hid the fence. The orderly knelt in front of a rock, and Nicki lowered beside him. His hands pushed through the bushes, and Nicki peered in. She could see where the fence had been cut. The ends were wound through the rest of the wire, but she could easily see the break. The orderly quickly sat back, releasing the camouflage bushes. He lifted the rock and she saw a black leather pouch.
"There's a pager inside, and it will stay charged for a few more days. When you clear the fence, push the button and run to the right. There's a car on the corner that will be waiting to pick you up."
Nicki looked across the lawn to the huge building, and all of the people outside with their attendants. The orderly pulled her to her feet and guided her back. "You remember the spot?"
"Yes."
"When you see me, stay near. I'll cause a distraction that will get your escort away from you. You have to be quick."
Nicki's fingers were stroking her braid while she stared across the grounds to the gray stone building. "I will be."
Flashback Mountain Page 2
