by Susan Sass
“So you took it upon yourself to punish this girl for her refusal to stand still as you washed her?”
“She was being bad.” Layla was practically babbling in her desperation to somehow justify her actions, “She was being punished. That is why she is in the box. That is why you made her wear the chains and be your pony. I was mad at her for being such a bad slave. I was just being mean, like you wanted me to be.” Layla seemed to realize she had spoke perhaps too much, “You wanted me to be mean, right?”
Aya fought the urge to strike the girl, “You seem to enjoy inflicting punishment on others.”
Layla looked at her, confused and frightened. “Mistress, please. I try to be good. I try to do what you want.”
“Sometimes you try too hard. Tonight I want you to continue in that error.” Aya threw the whip down at the girl’s feet. “Pick it up.”
After the girl picked up whip, Aya walked to the wooden grill that separated the sleeping area from the front office. She reached up and stuck her wrists through the loops of dangling ropes and gave them a couple of twists, wrapping the ropes around her arms, forcing them shorter and pulling her up and outstretched. Her voice was low and tense, “Whip me.”
Layla’s voice was horrified, “Mistress, please, it would be wrong.”
“Obey me now! Whip me and you better fucking put your back into it!”
The first blow was tentative and Aya snarled, “I watched you whip Leeane. I know you can do this. Do you need me to demonstrate on you what I am asking of you?”
The next blow was sharper and Aya hissed, “Yes, like that, only harder next time.” With each blow Aya would convulse but her only sound was a deep guttural growl, “Harder!”
Finally Layla stopped, gasping in fatigue, her voice was quivering in fear, “mistress, please, we have to stop. You are bleeding.”
Aya’s voice was hoarse and raw, “We will stop when I say we stop. Again, harder!”
Aya was hanging limp and semi-conscious, her back slick with blood when she finally whispered, “Enough.” When Layla tried to untangle her wrists from the ropes, to help her down, Aya muttered, “Don’t fucking touch me. Get out.”
Only after the girl was gone did Aya untwist her arms and let herself fall to the floor. The jar of the fall made the first moan of pain come from her lips. She huddled on the floor on her side and began to cry, deep sobs that wracked her whole body.
Aya woke to the sure and clinical touch of someone washing the blood from her back. She blinked and looked up at the face of the doctor. She tried to push him away and he spoke, his voice was soft but implacable. “You will lie still and let me treat you. If you fight me I will go straight to JD and speak to him about your foolishness.”
Aya stilled and muttered, “There is no reason to disturb the Master with this.”
“You will be lucky to keep this from him. You will have marks from this whipping that will take weeks to fade. You will be lucky to avoid permanent scarring.” His hands were deft and fast but Aya could not help but hiss in pain as he spread antibiotic ointment across her back. “I want you to stay flat on your belly for at least twenty-four hours.”
Aya did not respond. She knew that she would be up and fulfilling her duties in the morning. “Did Layla come to you directly?”
“Yes, she said she had whipped you because you commanded her to, but she was panicked when she realized you were so hurt and would not let her take care of you.”
Aya let him assist her to the bed and lay down on her stomach. When he spoke he had a reproving tone, “The girl was traumatized. I don’t know what inspired you to this madness and to tell you the truth, I don’t want to know. If JD asks I was never here. But if I hear of anything like this ever happening again, I will go to JD and ask that you be put under some kind of psychiatric observation. The only reason I am not doing that now is because you chose to inflict this on yourself instead of another.” He paused looking down at her raw and still oozing wounds, “You will understand why I do not cover you.” He pulled the mosquito netting closed and left.
Aya was up and struggling to slip her arms into a fresh jumpsuit when Layla knocked on the door, “Mistress?”
“Why are you here?”
“Please Mistress, don’t be angry with me, the doctor said I should attend you. I have some breakfast and some more salve for your back.”
Layla looked at Aya, her eyes frightened, “The doctor said you would be in bed.”
“I have things to do. Come put that medicine on my back, and then help me pull up these fucking sleeves.”
As Layla spread the salve on Aya’s back, she started to cry, “Mistress, I am sorry.”
“You have nothing to regret. You obeyed me. I would have accepted nothing less. Now help me on with these sleeves.” Aya could feel the scabs stretching and cracking as she worked her arms into the jump suit. “Layla, you were wise to go to the doctor. It showed initiative and thought. If you had asked, I would have forbidden it and yet it was the right thing to do.” Aya turned around and, ignoring the screaming agony in her back, pulled the girl into a soft embrace. “You may not understand but I needed this more than you could imagine. I asked more from you than it was fair to expect and you gave me what I demanded. Thank you.” Then Aya paused and spoke clearly, “What happened here last night will never be spoken of again, with me or anyone else.”
Aya looked around her quarters, in the bright light of day she could see dozens of tiny flecks of blood that had cast off from the whip. “Today I want you to clean this room, top to bottom.” Her eyes fell on the whip still laying in a sticky tangle on the floor, “Clean that whip too.” Then she paused and seemed to think better of it, “No, don’t do that. Throw it away.”
Chapter 6
A voice like wind chimes woke her from her deep slumber and Faith couldn’t help but smile as tiffany’s pretty face came into focus. A tray with delicately enticing aromas drew her attention as the nurse placed the tray on a small table next to her bed.
“It is common practice among us,” tiffany began. “To greet equals with a kiss. We are all servants of the Master. And so, sister slave, this one greets you. I expect not to be pushed away this time.”
Faith obeyed, if only out of reflex. Tiffany’s lips met hers in an opened mouth kiss. Faith was amazed at how soft they were. Tiffany drew her into a hug. Even though the nurse wore the traditional shift, Faith could feel her nipples through the filmy fabric against her own causing a curiously pleasant sensation.
“You’d better eat while it’s hot.” Tiffany broke the spell. As Faith ate, tiffany chatted away. It was obvious that tiffany wanted her to accept the life she’d been forced into, as if she wanted to save her from further torment. Faith, not wanting to be punished and the food withdrawn, allowed her to speak.
“You think you’re unique. Really, you’re not. It’s been discovered long ago that everyone who is brought in service of the Master must be brought to this point or the transition takes much longer.
“I was where you are now. Thinking I could fight them, escape, that they were all wrong about me. How foolish we are to fight against our nature.”
“The Doctor requested to have me brought here. We worked together in the States. It was during his divorce. The society bitch he married was taking him for all he was worth. When the Master, who’d been a long time friend invited him to escape alimony and headaches, the Doctor jumped at the chance. The one condition he had was that I be brought along six months later.”
“Oh, I hated him for that at first. I fought with everything that was in me. It took me a full week to get to the point where you are now. It took almost a year to completely embrace what society taught me was wrong.”
“But it’s not wrong to serve. It’s not wrong to embrace pleasure in pain. It’s not wrong to give yourself to one who knows you better than you know yourself. You will understand this in time.”
Faith listened, mesmerized. When tiffany talked of embracing slavery
, she unconsciously shook her head in protest. She would never be happy in the role the man had proscribed her.
“Don’t you see?” tiffany emphasized. “You would never have been brought here if it wasn’t in your nature. I am sure that Master chose you for a reason. You were born for this life. If you weren’t, the Master wouldn’t have given you a second thought.”
“No!” The word burst from Faith’s mouth before she could hold it back. In horror, she clasps her hands over her mouth. Moldy earth poured down around her for her transgression. Again, she was falling into the hole. Again, she was cold and alone as the walls of dirt closed in on her and suffocated her.
Faith threw herself to the floor on her hands and knees. She clung to tiffany’s feet, sobbing and begging her forgiveness. She would be good, she would. Just please, oh please, don’t put her in that place again.
At first tiffany was shocked. What happened to cause such a reaction in the new girl? Then the light of understanding shone in her eyes as she pulled the novice to her in a comforting embrace. They weren’t dealing with a true break. Oh, the physical collapse helped speed things along as it always did, but not to the point they’d thought. Faith was a phobic. They’d triggered a huge panic attack. That, coupled with the physical stress precipitated her exaggerated break down. Oh, this was going to be a rather interesting journey for all of them. Especially the Master and …Aya… Oh… She must tell Aya.
As soon as tiffany could calm the new slave down, reassuring her that no punishment was coming, she hurried to the compound. She intercepted her Overseer. Aya strode across the enclosure with her usual, confident stride. Yet there was something in her continence that seemed, well, off balance to the nurse. For a moment, tiffany hesitated. It was never a good thing to approach Aya if she was “of a mood”. Knowing it would be worse if she didn’t report immediately, tiffany hurried to intercept her. Blocking Aya’s apparently determined path back to her quarters, tiffany knelt in supplication.
“Mistress, forgive my interruption of your duties, but I’ve news of the new slave, Faith.”
Aya paused and looked at tiffany, her voice was its usual cool tone, “Yes?”
Tiffany told of Faith’s odd outburst and her theory of the new girl’s phobia of being put into the hole again and Aya stood listening without speaking. “So you think this is why she has suddenly changed her behavior?”
Tiffany’s voice warmed as she expounded on her theory, “Yes, don’t you see? She is obeying out of fear, but not fear of punishment. It is just fear of being buried in that hole again. And her fears are all out of proportion. The nail biting and hair pulling are just symptoms of that, she has not really broken, she has the resistance inside her still but the exaggerated fear has her reacting in terror each time she has those feelings or thoughts.”
Aya stood for a moment apparently thinking and then she nodded, “You did well to bring this information to me. I like that you are talking with the girl, attempting to ease her transformation. Continue your overtures of friendship, but keep an eye out. If what you say is true it will be hard to predict her behavior, she could still be dangerous. She will still harbor thoughts of escape and rebellion and if her terror is irrational, she could become aggressive.”
Tiffany nodded, “Oh yes, if she felt cornered and really thought that she was going to be put back in that hole, she would do anything to escape.” The nurse paused, “Respectfully Mistress Aya, medically I think that it would be a really bad idea for anyone to put her back in there, she Might never recover.”
Aya’s voice was dry, “Perhaps.”
Tiffany looked up in concern, her first impulse to protest and persuade the importance of her opinion, but she paused. Aya looked pale, she seemed almost to sway, and there were shadows of stress on her face. Tiffany had never seen Aya so off balance. She lowered her eyes and spoke softly, “I am sure that Mistress Aya will choose wisely for the new slave.”
As was her habit, Aya turned to walk away without a word. Tiffany could not help but notice that Aya seemed to move without her characteristic boneless glide. There was an odd stiffness to her movements like she had a pulled muscle in her neck or back. As tiffany gracefully came to her feet she turned to watch Aya walk away, her medical curiosity kicking in. Her eyes grew large when she saw what looked like flecks of blood soaking through the sheer white fabric of the head overseer’s white jumpsuit in several places on the back.
The little blond nurse’s words struck into Aya’s heart like that lash of the night before, “choose wisely”; Aya forced herself to move with a strong rhythMic stride, ignoring the agony in her back and the exhaustion that seemed to come from the constant battle to remain stoic. It seemed like all wisdom had left her heart.
The doctor was correct, there was no way she could keep this from her Master and even the thought of trying was beginning to tear at her sanity. On impulse she turned and began to walk towards the big house. There was only one thing to do.
When JD walked into his office, she was kneeling on the floor, nude to the waist, her jumpsuit hanging down around her hips. Her back was the first thing he saw.
JD was aghast at the sight that greeted him. There on her knees was Aya stripped to the waist. Her back was crisscrossed with half scabbed and half bloody stripes. He couldn’t believe his own eyes. His beautiful Aya had been disfigured and he didn’t even know how. He called for the doctor to immediately come to the big house. He didn’t know if Aya heard him come in.
“What has happened to you? Who did this? No one is allowed to treat my property this way, let alone you. Now tell me what has happened.”
“My master, I had this done to me. I felt such pain inside of me for failing you that I had Layla flog me. I needed to be punished for my failure in serving you.”
JD thought for a Minute and finally said to Aya, “I never meant for you to feel that you needed to be beaten for what transpired. I wanted you to know that I was disappointed and that is why I sent you to your quarters to contemplate what had gone wrong and what you were to do about it. But this is not what I wanted. Do you not know what you mean to me? Could you not accept my judgment and punishment as it was given? Could you not trust me to know when enough was enough?”
JD stood silently waiting for an answer. He knew that Aya would not say anything more; that she thought would upset him more. She thought that maybe she should have trusted him to forgive her and that his punishment was enough. But then again, she failed him and she had to be punished to the level of her anguish at failing him.
Just as Aya was going to answer JD, the doctor walked in. “I see that you have decided to see your Master after all. It’s a good thing to have everything out in the open. I hate to have secrets from my friend and the Master of this island.” He turned to JD and told him, “Layla came to me and told me of what Aya had commanded her to do. I treated Aya all ready, but she has chosen to ignore my medical advice and walk around before she could heal up.”
JD looked at Aya before he spoke, “I want you and your nurse to take her into the extra room next to the guest room. I want her to be put into bed so that she is comfortable. I want you to sedate her so that she has to lie still until the wounds heal enough for her to get up and around. You will do everything in your power to heal her without scarring.”
“Okay, JD, I will do what you want. I want you to know, however, that some scarring will occur whether you want it to or not. When she got up and walked around, it started stretching the scabs and that leads to scarring. But, I will do my best for you and her.”
He looked at Aya. His heart was so heavy with what she had done to herself because of his words. He wasn’t wrong in punishing her, but did he do it right? Was this his punishment in abstention? He didn’t know. But he was going to find out.
“Before the doctor takes you and treats you, I have only one thing to ask of you. Why?”
Aya’s face was a mask of confusion and despair. She threw herself down at his feet. Her voice was raw,
“I failed. You deserve better.”
The doctor was instantly by her side, his hand on her restraining her from anymore violent movements. His voice was sharp and directive, “If she continues in this, she will just tear open more scabs. Let’s get her down and sedated. You can ask her all the questions you want after she has healed up for a day or two.”
Aya started to push away his hands when JD’s voice cut through her awareness, “Stop it this instant. You will obey me in this!”
As the needle entered her vein, a soft sob of grief rose up and she wailed, “Not good enough.” And then the darkness flowed up and over her.
Chapter 7
Faith paced her room. There was no door to close, nothing to bar her way, but she knew without being told that she was required to stay in her assigned area. Frankly, it terrified Faith to imagine what sort of people she Might run into. Bizarre imagining’s flitted through her Mind as she contemplated what Might be going on just around the corner. That dread increased when she head muffled voices far down the hall. They sounded upset, angry. Then there was the sound of a woman crying as if her heart would break. More male voices, questioning and scolding, then the anguished woman’s voice in answer. It was too far away to make out the words, but Faith was certain that the male voices belonged to the doctor and the man and the female was Aya. What had she done to get into so much trouble? What were they doing to her tormenter? Were they inflicting on Aya the same kind of torture she’d dealt out to Faith only days ago?
