Pandora

by Slave Nano

He might be a bastard and, if Pandora ever caught up with him again he was going to be in big trouble, but she was not about to betray anyone to these goons.

  She heard a sound she recognized well from her own skilful use of such implements in her own dungeon; the wisp of a cane through the air. Then there was a crack as it came down onto her bare breasts. She could almost see the red weal form across them.

  “We know you’re lying. Let me ask you again, do you know this man?”

  “No, I’ve told you, I’ve never seen his face before,” she replied nonchalantly.

  The cane crashed down again, once, twice, three times in quick succession, with unrestrained force. The pain cut through Pandora; a throbbing soreness pulsated across her breasts. But she did not cry out. She knew about his, she understood what this was; she had inflicted these kinds of punishments herself. She had an insight into how people could open themselves to this kind of pain and embrace it. She remembered thinking; if this was the worst they are going to throw at me, perhaps I can survive.

  “You’re not very artistic at this, are you?” Pandora goaded. “When I do this I create patterns, I turn my cane weals into a piece of body art. You people have no panache.”

  In response to this taunt the cane came crashing across her breasts again. Pandora could not remember how many times. She felt a raw piercing pain but, once the initial shock had passed, she let it wash over her and she tried to invite it in like an old friend. She smiled inwardly to herself. Her breasts were now covered in thick, dark, bloody marks. The discolouring and bruising had not taken hold but, whatever else happened, Pandora knew she was going to have aching tits for some time to come.

  She was suddenly jerked out of her inner thoughts. A bucket of ice cold water was thrown over her. The icy water soaked her, covering her bruised and battered breasts and dripping down from her long dark hair. She shook her head to try and get the water out of her face.

  She had angered the interrogators with her resilience and defiance. They were now both shouting and screaming at her in rapid Chinese. Pandora saw this as a good sign; when you lose your temper, you lose control. Pandora knew from her experience of inflicting her own form of pain and humiliation that the best punishments were coldly considered and calculated. Psychologically get a submissive where you wanted and apply pressure on them subtly but relentlessly until they succumbed of their own free will. That way you had them and you knew that from then on they would do whatever you desired. There was finally an intelligible but hysterical shout from one of the interrogators.

  “We know you’re lying? We’ve seen this man enter your house. What links does this person have with the resistance movement? Tell us what you know. Tell us what you know about the attack on the Ministry of Culture building today.”

  Pandora looked the two men in the eye; her dark hair a bedraggled and tangled mess, her breasts darkening with bruising. She scrutinised them with a gaze of withering superiority and contempt.

  “Nothing. I will say nothing.”

  She smiled to herself. The irony was she didn’t know anything about these things but she had no intention of giving that away and they would never have believed her anyway.

  They were enraged now. Blows came raining down across her face bloodying her nose and mouth.

  Then one of them untied her ankles and pulled out one of her legs, whilst the other started caning the bottoms of her feet. Bastinado. Pandora knew all about the sensitive nerve endings in the feet. She had occasionally done this to her slaves; those who had been particularly disobedient and could take that kind of discipline but sparingly and never using the full force she was capable of. This bloody hurt, more than anything she had ever inflicted on one of her slaves. She had to use all her self-control, all her strength of will to stop from crying out and breaking down.

  Finally, they had had enough.

  “Take her to the cells,” one of them said to the other and then he turned to Pandora, “this is only the start, we will break you; we will get this information out of you. Pandora spat some blood out of her mouth and summoned up the strength for one parting comment.

  “You know, I’m far better at this than you are. You lack subtlety and finesse. Sometimes less is more. You need a feminine touch.”

  Pandora remembered being dragged away to the cell where she found herself now, hunched up, cold, wet, beaten and bruised. She knew her plight was desperate. Being arrested for being a dominatrix was one thing but they had given away a lot of information and she now knew there were far more dangerous things they believed she had been associated with. The cold and pain began to grip her. She felt tears welling up in her eyes but she refused to let them flow. She wanted so much to collapse in a heap sobbing but she knew she must remain strong. She had given them nothing. She had used all her knowledge and strength as a dominatrix and goddess and had not been beaten or humiliated; at least not yet. But how long could she withstand this when there was no prospect of escape? Who out there could possibly aid her?

  ***

  Nano Mk II released the door as soon as it saw Vicky on the doorstep. She always considered that Pandora had an odd relationship with her household management system. She knew they could exchange banter but Pandora never realised how strange that was. She took it for granted and just joked that Nano Mk II’s computer chip had a defect. Now, here she was, in Pandora’s living room, about to have a conversation with a household management system about what they could do to rescue Pandora. This was truly bizarre.

  “Nano, I don’t know what I can do. You know what she’s like. She always sails close to the wind; there was always the risk her lifestyle could get her into trouble.”

  Nano Mk II spoke, its voice calmer and more composed, in its normal methodical automated tone but it started to express opinions and plans, which seemed odd to Vicky.

  “Vicky, I believe there’s something you can do. You can contact the spirit world. Pandora has a protector; she has somebody in the other world that can help her. You know she is one of a sisterhood of goddesses; you can invoke the spirit of Goddess Nemesis.”

  Vicky was stunned. She might have expected a scheme to contact people who could find out where Pandora was and why she had been taken into custody but this was not what she expected. Vicky focused on the monitor and speakers where Nano Mk II’s voice was coming from.

  “Nano, you don’t understand, it’s not that simple. It’s true, I do have a gift, but it’s the other world that contacts me. I can’t call on goddesses from the spirit world. I don’t have anything like that power. I can’t summon spirits back to do real stuff, like organise a jail break!”

  A voice replied from the speaker with an increasing sense of desperation,

  “But, you can try, can’t you,” it pleaded. “Look, do you believe that Goddess Nemesis is Pandora’s protector, that there is a connection between them and that she has been chosen in some way. Do you believe that?”

  Vicky hesitated, “Yes, I guess I do. I understand what you’re saying.”

  “Well, if you believe that, don’t you think Goddess Nemesis would want to know what has happened to Pandora? Don’t you think if she knew, she’d want to do something to help her?”

  “Well, yes, I suppose I do, but... ” her voice trailed off; she could see where Nano Mk II’s inexorable logic was heading.

  “Then you know what you must do. You know you must at least try.”

  Vicky could not escape this undeniable conclusion. Yes, she knew she had to try. It went way beyond what Vicky thought she was capable of but, yes, she had been persuaded. She had to at least try to help her friend.

  “OK, Nano. I don’t know if this can work. I can only put myself into a trance and see what happens, see if any spirits answer. But, yes, I’ll give it a go.”

  Vicky sat herself on the settee and composed herself, took a deep breath and blanke
d everything else out. She had done this hundreds of times before and it usually came naturally to her but this was different. She had never been in a situation where so much was at stake. She strained every sinew of her mind and body to reach out to make some kind of connection. She did not know how long she had been in a trance.

  She was in a place in her own head fighting a personal battle. It was like trying to prise open a safe door with her bare fingers but she couldn’t do it. It wasn’t going to budge. So many times, when it didn’t matter, she had eased through that door like strolling through mist but now, however hard she strained, she remained in this world. She came out of her trance pale, drained, and unable to think clearly through the exhaustion of the effort. She slumped back into the chair.

  “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t make a connection,” she said, her voice weak with emotion.

  “Vicky, you have to try harder. Just think. Pandora is in some dungeon. She’s probably being interrogated now. She’s probably being tortured. We’ve all heard stories; if they think Pandora has any information they want they will use any methods to get it,” Nano Mk II’s electronic voice was raised and desperate.

  Tired, emotional and fearful for the safety of her friend Vicky lashed back,

  “You think I don’t know that? I’ve tried everything,” she pleaded. “I’ve strained every muscle in my body, every thought in my waking head but it just didn’t happen for me.”

  The emotional strain, the desperate attempt to get through to the spirit world had finally overwhelmed Vicky. She collapsed into the chair, bitter tears flooding down her checks; tears of failure, tears for her friend, tears for the fact that when her skills were really needed she could not summon them. She was inconsolable.

  Nano’s electronic voice spoke back in its strange electronic way empathising with Vicky’s plight, “I’m sorry Vicky. I know you’ve done your best.”

  ***

  Pandora was back in the interrogation room. Two uniformed officers had replaced the non-uniformed police. They were smartly dressed and composed, their cold eyes gazing out from peaked caps with the red star symbol of the Chinese military on. Pandora was more worried about these than her previous interrogators. They had a disturbing air of detachment and ruthlessness. They stood in front of the table in the middle of the room. On the other side of the table Pandora was tied to a chair but now with her hands handcuffed and resting on the surface of the table. The table was littered with different objects; clamps, chains, tools and various implements, obviously designed to upset their subjects. Pandora took a deep breath. She couldn’t deny this wasn’t having the desired effect on her. One of them had picked up a pair of pincers and was manipulating them in his hand.

  “We are patient. We know you have information we can extract from you. I won’t ask you lots of questions. I will just inflict pain on you until you speak. I’m in no hurry; this can take as long as you want it to take. There’s nobody knows you are here, nobody who can get you out of this but yourself.” He put the pincers down on the table next to Pandora’s handcuffed hands, “The choice is yours. If we don’t extract information from you, then we will extract your finger nails, one a day, one by one, until you give in.”

  His voice was calm and sadistic. Pandora had to admit he was good; that was neat work, building up the tension, trying to get inside someone’s head. Pandora glanced down at her beautiful long finger nails. They were still painted black, her favourite nail polish colour, though by now the varnish was chipped and broken. Yes, he certainly knew how to get to her.

  “You still do not have anything you want to say to us?”

  Pandora made eye contact with him and shook her head from side to side.

  The other interrogator untied Pandora and dragged her from the chair. Pandora’s body was like a limp rag doll and she had no energy in her body to resist. She was dragged back to the wall where her wrists were shackled into the iron cuffs hanging from the wall and her ankles similarly secured so that her limbs were fully stretched.

  One of them approached holding a metal rod with a wire attached to a portable power supply; a cattle prod or something like that thought Pandora. She heard the throb of the power source and she knew the device had been switched on. The probe was held in front of her eyes by the sadistic interrogator staring directly at her. He said nothing. The pair of them knew what would follow. He lowered the rod and ran it across Pandora’s thigh. Although she was trying to anticipate the throbbing metal, the initial shock still made her jump. As a result she unwittingly pulled at the cuffs on her wrists and ankles and felt the rough metal cutting into her skin.

  She had used electrics, violet wands and similar devices, but this was a shock on a completely different level. My god, she thought, trying to distract herself, my slaves have it bloody easy; if I get back I’m going to turn the charge up a bit. The metal probe was run over her forearm with the same agonising effect. This time she smelt the singeing of body hair, and flesh. When she glanced down she could see the trace of a burn mark on her arm. Then, and most painful of all, the prod was run against her already bruised and sore breasts. Her head was spinning with pain and a red haze crossed Pandora’s eyes. She felt she was going to pass out. Mentally she tried to hold herself together but her body switched off. She plunged into darkness.

  ***

  Vicky didn’t know whether to cry or laugh; a computer chip had just apologised to her.

  “Its Ok Nano. I know you’re only trying to do the best for Pandora. I feel there’s nothing more I can do now.”

  “Vicky, I’ve a suggestion, if you think you are up to it. Perhaps you are in the wrong place to make the connection. Perhaps you need to be downstairs in the cellars where Goddess Nemesis’s dungeons used to be. Can you summon up enough energy to try it?”

  Vicky jolted upright. Of course, Nano could be right. Place, and the resonances that locations have, can exert enormous influence on the spirit world. How stupid of her, she should have realised that herself. She felt an immediate injection of hope and optimism. She mustn’t try too hard this time. The connection would either be there for her or not.

  “Yes, I’m ready to try again in the dungeon.”

  Vicky went down into Pandora’s dungeon. She perched on Pandora’s pvc padded throne and nestled herself against its back resting her arms. She tried to visualise male slaves, Pandora’s at first, some of whom she knew by sight. She saw them knelt at Pandora’s booted feet, she saw them hung from her suspension frame, she visualised them tied onto the rack and stretched.

  Then she tried to drift further back. She tried to visualise another goddess from another time, tried to conjure up her commanding presence. She brought to mind the groans and screams of slaves that had passed through this place; the noises that had originally kept Pandora awake, which Vicky had been called on to remove. This time she used her mind to call them back. She heard the distant pleas of slaves, calling to be allowed into this place to submit to this supreme feminine presence. She reached out to the tears of suffering and joy that had been felt in this place as men have given themselves up to Goddess Nemesis. Her body may have left this place many years ago but Vicky knew that her spirit was still here. And then it happened; she felt a mist lifting from her eyes, she saw a transcendent light in the distance as the spirit world entered her. She sensed another voice come from her lips.

  “My name is Slave Nano. I have served the Goddess Nemesis and have passed into her world to serve her. Who dares to summon her from her resting place she shares with the goddess spirits?”

  “This is your namesake, Nano Mk II. I’m the household management system that serves Goddess Pandora. You may remember me from when you were summoned to this place before. You helped Pandora come to the realisation of her true being. I have sought you out to call on Goddess Pandora’s mentor, the Goddess Nemesis. Goddess Pandora is in serious trouble. She has been captur
ed by secret police in this world and is in grave danger. Her life is under threat. This is why you have been called. Can you help her?”

  “Yes, I remember this place. I recall being summoned here before. I remember other times from the distant past. You have done the right thing. I will pass on your message to Goddess Nemesis.”

  The voice was fading fast but the connection lasted long enough for Nano Mk II to get his message through. Vicky’s eyes opened as she suddenly came out of her trance. She was exhausted with the mental effort but this time she was euphoric.

  “I did it, didn’t I? I know I made the connection, I could feel it. What happened?”

  “Yes, Vicky, you did it. I spoke to Slave Nano. I pleaded for him to help Pandora. He said he would pass the message on to Goddess Nemesis. We’ve done it Vicky. Thank you. You’ve given Pandora some hope. If I was able to I’d give you a big hug!”

  Bloody hell, thought Vicky, that’s a scary thought.

  ***

  Pandora remained chained to the wall, her aching arms and legs spread-eagled against the cold concrete. One of the interrogators had pushed a rubber implement up her cunt and her whole insides were throbbing. Pandora was in a daze wondering how much longer she could endure this and when her breaking point would finally be reached.

  The two uniformed guards had taken a break from torturing her and were enjoying a meal, shovelling rice into their mouths with chopsticks and drinking Chinese beer as if to taunt her. Pandora had given them nothing, neither confessing nor denying anything. What she did or didn’t know had become an irrelevance. Everything had come down to a battle of wills and Pandora’s desperate attempt to maintain her dignity in the face of the ordeal.

  Suddenly, she felt a shiver of cold run through her body. Not the cold of the icy water thrown over her by the interrogators to revive her. This was an altogether different feeling, like another presence in the room. Then the feeling shifted into a strange warm glow that permeated her body. She saw a hazy mist forming in one corner of the room. She was tired, hungry and weak and she could only think that she was hallucinating.