by Ashley Woods
Kristen looked at him in utter disbelief, “You have got to be kidding me.”
Karl replied “No, I am quite serious. Please walk over to the hallway.” He lifted her from the couch to the floor and added, “You will be rewarded.”
Kristen thought that maybe he would be the prize, so she obeyed.
As Karl held onto one end of the long leash, she began to paw her way through the plush carpet. Karl watched with no emotion. She knew she looked cute, but she felt ridiculous, and rolled over on her side with her arms and legs sticking straight up like a dog.
“This is so silly. I am not doing this.”
“That is fine Miss Kenworth. Please return to your chair.”
Kristen just stayed on the floor and looked at him for a short time. Then, without another word from Karl, she knew to pull herself up and return to sit down.
“I don’t think I am into this Karl. I am sorry.”
Karl stood up, “No need to apologize. You are just afraid to like it. It goes against what you have learned through the years.”
He then reached into one of the bags, “Hold out your hands please.”
Kristen raised them, and he swiftly wrapped one of her new scarves around them. She could feel the softness of the silk as he pulled it taut. She looked into his blue eyes and fell into them. She felt a longing deep within and was starting to enjoy this!
“There. That will keep your hands off of me.”
Kristen wondered if this was all some lame English joke, and she decided to appease him.
She tritely said, “What next Master? Where’s the whip?”
Karl was not pleased, “You don’t know who you are addressing. Until you do, it is best to keep quiet. I will mix you a drink to calm you down.”
Kristen whined, “Karl. Can’t we do something else? I really mean it. I am just not into this.”
He frowned, “No, but you are into me, and I know you want to please me.”
He stirred her to her greater depths and she was dying to make love with him. She softly asked, “How can I do that?”
He answered, “By listening to me and not talking.”
She retorted, “I am not a child.”
Karl laughed “You know that you are, and you will be treated like one.”
He then looked aggravated and said, “Kristen, you are boring me. Time for you to go. There will be no dinner.”
Kristen pleaded, “Oh please Karl, I don’t want to go. I want to stay here with you!”
He untied her hands and pointed to the door, “Please enjoy the items I bought you.”
It was difficult for her to gather up all the bags, but she managed. She started to walk out the door and began telling him her phone number, “Karl, please write it down, I want you to call me.”
Karl replied, “There is no need to be begging me. I am not interested in having it. This meeting is over. I have a limousine out front to return you to where we met.”
Kristen kept repeating the number, until he finally shut the door loudly behind her.
When morning came, Kristen was a bit depressed because she knew she probably blew her chances with him. Now, she felt like something precious had been yanked away from her. She figured that Karl was serious when he said that he didn’t care if he had her number. He probably would never call. What was worse, she had wasted her time trying to give him her home phone, and not her cell number.
For the entire week and into the next one, whenever she went out, she would always wonder if he had called her. She continuously dialed her answering machine, but to no avail.
Kristen knew she wasn’t acting like herself. Normally she never let men affect her this way. She usually knew to maintain some distance to ensure that she would never get hurt.
It was Wednesday night. And, Kristen had a big day of lunch with the girls, and shopping ahead of her, so she went to sleep at 10:30 PM. An hour later, the phone clanged against the vase next to her.
“Oh, God, let me sleep.” She groaned, rolling away from the direction of the ring, and back-handed the phone, knocking it off the nightstand. Silence.
The phone rang again. Kristen then remembered, “Karl! Maybe it’s him.” Frantic, she struggled to reach down to pull the phone back off the floor. She fell off the bed scraping her ankle against the frame and made a lot of noise.
“Oww!” she yelped. She then steadied the phone, “Hello,” she said calmly.
A low voice inquired, “What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing much.” Kristen replied, rubbing on her ankle and trying to straighten out her body, which now seemed locked in a pretzel.
“What was all that commotion?” Karl sounded normal, and then quickly snapped back into his stern voice.
“Did you expect me to call?”
“I wasn’t sure if you would, and it didn’t really matter anyway.” Kristen replied.
He was aggravated by her answer, and continued, “I have no time for game players that are not truthful. I am going to hang up.”
Kristen begged, “No, no, I was hoping you would call. Please talk to me.”
Karl smugly said, “Very well, I assumed you would be glad.” He seemed pleased.
“God, what arrogance. She loved it!”
“I have been very busy.” Then he paused, “Excuse me. I need to call you back.”
Now Kristen was feeling very nervous. She started propping herself up higher on her pillows and smoothing out her hair. She turned on her small lamp, and pulled the phone off of the table, and onto her lap.
“Ring already!” she demanded. The phone just sat there. She waited another eight minutes without making a move. Now, she was just feeling stupid. She got out of bed pulling the phone cord behind her and stretching it out into the hallway as far as it would go. She then sat down on the stairs with the phone between her legs.
She groaned, “Oh, no, not again! He’s not going to call. I can’t take this.”
Just as she was about to pout, he called back. She scooped up the phone trying to remain cool and sophisticated.
Karl said, “I think we should meet again. Do you have a fax at home?”
“Yes, same number, but I will have to hang up.” He clicked off.
The fax began to ring. Slowly a page emerged. She curiously watched as it came out. It was a grainy textured photo, very dark, and hard to make out. She tilted her head. It looked like a woman on a bed, with tubes coming out of her that were attached to a machine. A man in a mask was standing over her. More pictures followed, and they were almost completely obscured by blackness.
Her cell phone now rang. Kristen was puzzled that he knew that number.
“How do you like them?” he asked.
“I like,” Kristen lied.
Karl began to speak about bondage and his perception of it, and Kristen listened intently. After an hour, she was more than curious, and told him she wanted to learn more. They spoke late into the night.
Before they hung up, Karl asked, “Kristen. Are you planning on going to Palm Beach any time soon?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Oh, it's nothing, I was just wondering. I very much enjoyed talking to you. I am going to let you go now. Good night.”
Kristen was now sure that she had Karl all lined up. But the problem was, he never set a date, or said when she would hear from him. She thought about the bondage scene again and realized there were people out there that followed BDSM like it was a religion. Obviously, some of them were warped to begin with. She figured Karl just did it for kicks, but she was not sure, and it scared her. Maybe he had a strict upbringing or a scary English governess.
For herself, Kristen was only thinking about it as something different to do, to experiment with, and to test her limits. She felt a need to experience it, before she was ready to go back to how mundane things could be.
She sensed an element of true danger to it, and she wanted to meet the real players. She knew that Karl was perfect for what she was looking for
. She wanted in!
She was also completely amazed that she was babbling like this. What the heck was going on? This was not her doing her own thinking…
The next day, Kristen was anxious to start this new adventure, and she was very annoyed that Karl had chosen not to call her back again. She wasn’t sure if he was in New York, or Chicago.
She thought about him for another week, and then one late morning, she felt extra impatient, and decided to go through her caller I.D. logs. Karl had blocked the first call that he had made to her home phone that night. But he didn’t when he re-dialed, and she easily spotted the New York City prefix.
She felt very unnerved as she entered the number into her cell phone. It rang for a while and went to a generic voicemail. She lost her courage and did not leave a message.
She felt like she had made a big mistake trying to call him and went downstairs to make some lunch. After twenty minutes, she decided she was really craving to talk to him, so she tried it again.
The phone did not even ring, and it was answered.
Kristen said, “Is this you?”
His strong voice replied, “You know it is. Why are you calling me?”
She meekly spoke, “I don’t know why. I just feel like I should.”
He said indifferently, “You know why, but you just don’t understand it yet. You should really know that it is not for you.” Kristen completely understood what he meant.
“I know I should not see you again, but I am still stuck in town, and this place is not as exciting as New York, so I am bored. Some friends of mine are having a gathering tonight in the West Loop. Give me your e-mail. You need a pass to get in.” She relayed it to him and he hung up.
Kristen looked at the message when it came in. Karl had typed the address, and when she clicked on the attachment, all it showed was a black square. She thought that was funny and wondered what type of event this was going to be.
The address was for an art studio, and she was instructed to go in the back door at midnight. It felt like Halloween!
She printed out the page and cut along the black square. She started thinking about asking one of her girlfriends to come, but she was afraid to call Karl again for permission. She feared that it would make him mad, and she would be uninvited.
She looked in her closet for an outfit that would really fit in with the bondage scene and found one of her short skirts that she used to wear in her punkier teen days. It was black and lined with little strips of metal. She then threw on a black leather teddy, stilettos, and left to meet him.
It was a pretty creepy section of town that he directed her to. The streetlights were not working on that block, and she looked up and down for the art gallery. She just saw houses. She could barely read the addresses on any of them. Most of them were abandoned and boarded up.
She saw lights on at one house, and thought it was the right one. There were no numbers on it, and she knocked. No one answered. She waited for a while, and then assumed they were partying and could not hear her. She turned the doorknob and walked in.
The hall smelled like someone had been heavily cooking with spices. She walked around and saw beat up furniture in the living room, and toys on the floor.
“Oops, I don’t think this is right!” She heard a commotion upstairs and rushed out.
She ran fast down the block. She couldn’t believe that she walked into someone’s house. She leaned over and tried to catch her breath.
“What are you doing?” She heard Karl’s voice behind her. He was standing by the rear of another house. He blended into the shadows wearing a dark suit and black shirt with no tie.
She went over to him and started to explain. He just looked at her, and she knew to stop talking. He didn’t say another word. She produced her black square, and he didn’t even look. He walked. She followed.
They went into the backyard and he opened a screen door. She peered in. It looked like steps leading to a basement. He had her walk in front of him now.
Kristen tried to make it down the narrow wood stairs in her stilettos without stumbling. At the bottom, there was a light bulb in the ceiling that had black paint sprayed on the end of it, and it was difficult to see. She didn’t hear anyone making party noises and was afraid that she was alone with him.
She didn’t know why, but Kristen began to worry that she didn’t even know his last name and had never checked him out on the internet. She only was aware that he was a prominent businessman. Even though William knew him, if Karl wanted to get freaky and hurt her, this was the perfect place for it.
They went through a couple of doors and walked into a cold cement room that was painted black. In the corner, were iron poles that came out of the walls which had handcuffs hanging down. There was a small platform only a few inches off the ground.
“Kind of seems like first date hell,” Karl said deadpan.
Kristen’s throat grew tight and she was very frightened. She knew she had really made a big mistake, and now it was all over for her. It was too dark to see the expression on his face. She thought she should try to kick him and escape, but he was exceptionally strong, and she was absolutely paralyzed with fear.
He walked slowly over to a wooden table and lit up a large candle. Kristen thought she saw three long curved knives laying on it. He pulled a black scarf from his coat pocket, turned her around suddenly, and tied it over her eyes.
Kristen thought she was going to drop right down on the floor, every muscle in her body grew weak, and she slumped. He held her up around her waist and brought her to the structure.
“No please,” she weakly cried out.
“You will need to remain completely quiet. Raise your feet.” She lifted them one at a time and he removed her spiky heels.
Kristen submissively let him raise her arms and place each hand into a cuff. She could feel the coldness of the metal against her veins. She could feel him place mittens on her hands that didn’t have thumbs.
“Open your mouth.” He inserted a very small ball that tasted like dirty rubber and strapped it around her head. She could hear him step back from her and then she felt the platform move away from her feet. Her toes still touched the floor, but she was in a stretched position and uncomfortable. She could hear his shoes as he walked out and then the door closed.
He left her hanging for what was probably an hour.
“Karl?” She muttered with the ball in place. It was getting really cold in there, and she could feel her feet start to numb. She thought maybe she could work to loosen the poles with her weight and pull them out of the wall.
She tried several times to reach up, and then bounce down. She felt the pole bend slightly, but it was still secured tightly, and made a loud clanging noise.
She heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs, and she stopped her movement. The door opened, and she could hear more than one person walk in. She realized that maybe there were three of them, as she heard folding chairs being opened and placed in front of her. Kristen was terrified. She tried making noises with the ball in her mouth. She was met by only silence.
One of the chairs squeaked as it pushed back. She could hear footsteps, and then a sound that she thought was one of those knives being lifted off the table. She could sense someone was coming up to her, and she could feel the warm breath close against her face.
“Uhh, Uhh,” Kristen tried to make grunting noises as she struggled and pushed back her body away from the stranger. She could smell cologne and she knew it was a man.
“Karl, Karl?” she tried to get the words out.
The ball went deeper into her mouth, and she was gagging on her own saliva. She could feel the sharp point of the knife being pushed slightly into her throat. It was then run down the length of her chest, barely touching it.
She started making choking noises, and she could feel hands on her face. The ball was then unstrapped, and a wad of cloth replaced it before she could scream out. It smelled like medicine and tasted like lemons.
/> She could now hear another figure coming toward her. She felt the dull side of a blade being brought up along the inside of her leg and under her skirt. Kristen braced herself in pure terror. Then it stopped.
The chairs were now being folded up and pulled along the floor. She could hear them being stacked against the wall. The door closed and all of them went back upstairs, and into a room above her. She was alone for several minutes.
Someone came silently in the room and walked up to her. Her cuffs and mittens were taken off. A soft hand guided her out of the room and into another one. She thought it might be a woman.
She could now feel that there was heat in in this room and began to feel better. But, she also thought this was the end, and that someone was going to kill her.
“Kristen.” She heard Karl’s voice from the other side of the room, and she felt strangely comforted. The cloth was taken from her mouth.
Her blindfold was then removed by someone else. It was Karl! He returned it to his pocket. She did not talk and knew not to express anger or any emotion. He made her feel safe.
Now, she thought she knew what it was all about…
Kristen felt listless as she walked around her house for the next week. She accepted that the encounter had definitely affected her and she was becoming darker. Her fear had drawn her closer to him.
She was sad that Karl might be incapable of romantic feelings when it came to her, and she badly wanted to break through that stone exterior. She knew that she was not in love with Karl. She was addicted.
The fact that he didn’t want her, made Kristen desire him even more. She kept picturing them in bed together and her emotions could not be suppressed. She thought of lame excuses to talk to him, and she wanted to ask him about the cadre of men that night, and what they were doing while they were watching her. Kristen knew Karl had more in store for her if he thought she could handle it.
It had been long enough not hearing from him. She couldn’t resist calling him again and dialed the number. There was no answer and no voicemail.
She was afraid that he had left town and had no further use for her. Kristen couldn’t stand it. She had to talk to him. She kept re-dialing the number. After the fourth try, a voicemail came on. She said, “Karl, I need to talk to you. I am ready.”
