by Cerys du Lys
And what about him? Lucent wouldn't have anything, but perhaps he deserved as much.
If that happened, he needed to figure a way to cut ties in a clean manner, though. Which, he thought, involved contacting Asher Landseer.
He wanted to call him, but he could barely keep his eyes open for some reason. He didn't know why he was so tired. It made no sense.
Instead of calling, he decided on text messaging him. He picked up Laura's cell phone and sent off a text.
"Mr. Landseer. Everything is fine. The situation becomes more troublesome with each passing hour, but things are looking up. -L"
That should work. Laura went by Elle, too, because that was the name he gave her a long time ago. The reasoning for it made him laugh in disgust. He was possibly a very sick individual.
The phone buzzed with Asher's response.
"L? With E? Are you sure everything's fine? There's been a few happy revelations here. By happy, I mean not happy at all."
Lucent sighed, struggling to keep his eyes open. "Sorry to hear that. Care to elaborate?"
Asher responded with, "There are rumors that Lucent Storme bugged all of the computers at Landseer Tower and has been recording information through the laptop webcams and microphones. This isn't public knowledge yet, but it's bound to be leaked any day now. I heard a little office romance audio clip between two people that sounded remarkably like Elise and Lucent. They were talking about her being punished for being in his office without permission."
Well, what the fuck? Lucent stared at the phone, dumbfounded. Honestly, he had no idea how to deal with that. He didn't know how anyone could. How had that even happened? It made no sense.
He closed his eyes, trying to think. Just before he fell asleep, the phone buzzed again, snapping him back to wakefulness.
"The directors are livid. I've managed to calm them down for now, but I don't know how long that's going to last. I don't know if I can tell Jessika. I don't know how. Stay safe. Both of you. I can't say we've made it through worse, because this entire situation is bad, but if we make it through this I think we can make it through anything."
Lucent nodded more times than he would have preferred. His eyes closed, then snapped open. They closed again, and opened. He managed to type a quick response, but before he finished he forgot what he'd written. He pushed send and it felt like he'd finally finished a marathon and was exhausted beyond belief.
Lurching to the side, he fell on the bed, head lolling onto a pillow.
Why was he...
...so tired?
...
I woke with a strange start, never realizing I'd fallen asleep. Where was I? I blinked one eye open and then I remembered. That apartment, that room, with that girl who acted submissive towards Lucent. She wore a leather collar just like the one he'd given me. I didn't have mine on me, though. I'd left it in my purse, like I usually did. Sometimes I wore it, if it went with my outfit, but it didn't go with everything. I would have liked to wear it with everything anyways, but that might have looked strange.
Why was I here? Not here here, but just in this position? When exactly, during the course of fate and time and space, had it been decreed that I should end up in these specific circumstances in this precise situation?
Maybe I wasn't meant to. Maybe it was a mistake. The idea of it made me laugh. Was it possible to correct everything, then? Request a refund? Find my life's customer service representative and just wait in line and...
I saw someone. Waiting. Looking at me. I opened my eyes fully and she looked away.
What the hell? Why was she here?
I sat up and stared at her angrily. Elle knelt by the foot of the bed in a submissive pose like the one she'd given me earlier, with her head bowed low, staring at the ground.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I snapped.
"Waiting for you to wake up, Mistress Tanner," she said.
I didn't think I liked being called Mistress Tanner, except upon further reflection maybe I did. I definitely didn't want her to call me Elise, at least. Nor Miss Tanner, because that was reserved for...
Lucent.
I hated Lucent right now. Except I loved him. I didn't know anything about him. That made me sad and angry all at once. It really pissed me off. A lot.
"He got you that choker, didn't he?" I asked.
She peeked her head up. "What?"
A fury I didn't know existed flew through me. I threw myself off the bed and descended on her. Grabbing her hair and pulling it hard, I lifted her head up. She choked back a whimper, but remained mostly quiet. Reaching for her neck, I snuck one finger beneath the leather choker, then tugged on it.
"Where did you get this? Did Lucent give it to you?" I asked.
This wasn't me. I didn't know who this was. I wanted it to be me.
Elle gulped and I felt the pressure in her throat pushing past my finger. It felt good. Strong and powerful.
"N-no, Mistress, Lucent didn't give it to me."
I stared at her, not sure whether I believed her or not. I pulled on the choker harder, dragging her neck forward.
"Don't lie to me," I said. "Tell me where you got it."
"I-I..." She stammered for an answer; I pulled the choker even harder. "I bought it!" she squeaked. "For myself. Lucent always liked them. He used to look at them. He never bought one for me, though. He never..."
"What?" I asked, letting her go and pushing her away. I stood and walked away from her, refusing to look at her.
"He never bought any of his submissives one. He told me he didn't think any of us were worthy of it. It didn't belong with us."
That was... new. Interesting? Yes, in a way, but I still didn't know if I trusted her. I didn't know anything about her.
"How many submissives did he have?" I asked. I finally turned to look at her, thinking maybe I could tell if she was lying by the look in her eyes. I stared at her hard, just begging her to lie so I could...
So I could what? I wasn't entirely sure.
Elle smiled, giddy. "I was Master Storme's twelfth," she said.
"Twelve?" I asked. Twelve seemed like a lot to me. "Who were the others? Are they here?"
Elle blinked and tilted her head to the side. "Here? No. Why would they be?"
I stepped towards her, cool and confident. I reached out as if to pet her on the head, but instead I yanked her head back by the roots of her hair again. I glared at her, jaw clenched. "You don't ask the questions, here. I'm asking you questions, and you're going to answer them. Do you understand?"
She tried to nod as best she could, but my hand gripping her hair made it difficult.
"Twelve," I said again. "You, and who else?"
In a sing-song voice, she started to recite something. "Aya, Bee, Sia, Dee—" She paused and smiled, which seemed very odd to me since I had her head pulled back, fingers tight in her hair. "—all the way up to Jay, Kay, and I'm Elle."
Recognition and revelation struck me, leaving me dumbfounded and uncertain. I released her hair and staggered back, somehow managing to keep my footing.
"Elle's not your real name," I said. "Lucent named you all according to the alphabet."
Elle nodded. In a hushed whisper, she said, "My real name is Laura, but don't tell Master Storme I told you. I think he'd be angry."
Elle. Laura. And who else? Who was Aya, and Bee? Who were the rest? Twelve, and... were there more?
"What about after you?" I asked.
"There's no one after Elle," she said. "There should have been an Emme, but there isn't. There's just you."
I stared at her, unblinking, trying to work through everything in my head. Sleep slowed my thoughts, but I pulled away from it and into further wakefulness after a moment or two. Emme. That would have been me. Or not. Did Lucent choose Laura because her name began with an "L," or did she get the name "Elle" by pure happenstance and coincidence? If so, if the first letter of the first name was how it worked, I didn't even fit into his naming scheme at all. I wo
uld never have fit, either. With my first name beginning with an "E," I was seven letters too late. I didn't belong anywhere in the grand scheme of Lucent's BDSM things.
The idea of that hurt more than I let on. It shouldn't hurt. We'd been together for just about six months now, so there must be something there, right? I'd never acted the way Elle did. Maybe that's why he brought me here? Using our criminal status as an excuse, did he plan on using Elle to teach me how to become a better submissive?
Why didn't he come to me? Why wasn't he here now instead of her? Why wasn't he apologizing?
"Where's Lucent?" I asked her.
Elle smiled sweetly. "I tired him out. He's in my bed. He looked like he could use a nap, so maybe we should let Master Storme sleep for a little while, don't you think?"
What the fuck did she just say to me? "What the fuck did you just say?"
"You were sleeping, too, so I didn't think you'd mind," she said, shrugging.
That did it. That was it. So while I sat here, sleeping, tired from stress and having to deal with everything, Lucent just screwed around with his ex-girlfriend? Was she even a girlfriend? I didn't know how that worked. She was a submissive, and presumably his, but besides that I knew nothing about the extent of their previous relationship.
If the relationship was even previous? What if it never stopped? If it was ongoing? I lived in my own apartment, away from Lucent. I spent a lot of time with him, but not every second of every day. Was he sneaking off with this submissive slut and screwing around behind my back? Doing all of the BDSM things he wished I was better at? It wasn't my fault I didn't know how to do everything, nor that I didn't understood it all. I tried. What more could he ask from me?
He couldn't ask anything from me now. He was off sleeping after having sex with the tramp at my feet. She was submissive, was she? I was Mistress Tanner, was I? I'd teach her exactly what that meant. I was not an idiot, nor a pushover, nor someone to be trifled with and made a fool of.
I was Elise Tanner. My first name, Elise, meant "God is my oath." I would show Laura, or Elle, or whoever the hell she was, just what exactly that meant to me. Mistress Tanner was not a very happy Mistress at the moment. She was, in fact, very angry.
...
I remembered Lucent telling me once that when participating in a BDSM scene, the dominant should never be drunk or angry. Inebriation increased the risk of misjudgments on the dominant's part, which had the potential to reduce the trust of the submissive if he overstepped the invisible boundary between pain for pleasure and potential actual injury. Anger worked in much the same way.
Because of this, I very much doubted Lucent would appreciate what I was about to do. Lucent wasn't here, though. He was asleep, and I didn't care what he thought, anyways. I didn't want Elle to trust me. I never expected it. I didn't even know her. I didn't want to know her. I wished I'd never met her.
I stared at her, eyes glaring with sharpened hate. She stared back at me for half a second before looking away and resuming an adequately submissive pose. Good.
"Remove your dress," I said. "Fold it neatly and place it on the floor by the foot of the bed."
"What?" she asked, stunned. "Why?"
"I'm going to punish you," I said simply. "If your dress isn't off by the time I come back to the bed, I'm going to rip it off of you." And with that, I turned away from her and went towards one of the walls.
I heard her stand and start to take off her dress. That was good. I didn't know if I could actually rip it off of her. I didn't know what I'd do if she defied me, either. I wished I knew more about this, but it was a role I'd never expected to play the part of.
I'd seen it, though. I'd been on the receiving side. I might not know a lot, but I knew enough of what I wanted to do, and I thought I could do a good job of it. To be honest, I didn't care all that much if I didn't do a good job, though. This was for me, not for her.
I wanted her to hurt. I wanted to see bright red marks on her ass and her thighs and her body. I wanted to dominate her, to control her, because I could. That was it. She was nothing. Not to me, nor to anyone. This wasn't how this was supposed to work, but I honestly couldn't care less.
I found a medium sized paddle hanging from a hook on the wall and I took it down. I gripped the handle in one hand, holding it tight, while I smacked it lightly into my other hand, testing it. I liked it; it felt good. Not velvet-covered, thank God. Just leather. It had rivets on the handle, which added to the feel of the grip whenever the paddle portion smacked against something. Lucent mentioned to me that he had a velvet-covered paddle hidden somewhere in his apartment, but up until now he'd never shown it to me or used it on me. I wondered if Elle knew about it, intimately or otherwise.
I needed to stop thinking about things like that. I needed to focus. This would do to start, but...
I glanced over my options. Canes, floggers, riding crops. Hm.
I was extremely angry, but a cane was far too much. I liked floggers myself, which made that an obvious choice: no. I didn't have much experience with riding crops, but Lucent said they weren't any worse than a paddle, and I'd seen shows with them at Sam's BDSM club, Carousel.
I took one of the riding crops down and tested it, too. I slapped the tongue into my hand, relishing the sensation. It snapped and stung a little more than the paddle, but in a smaller area. Good.
Just in case, for further good measure, I grabbed a hanging pair of nipple clamps. I knew they wouldn't be too painful... unless Elle decided to move around a lot, making them shift and wobble. And, well, yes, I planned on making her do exactly that. I didn't like her, afterall. I wasn't exactly planning on being nice.
She knelt near the bed, obeisant. She no longer wore her dress, but she still had her bra and panties and shoes on. I placed all of my gathered items on the bed, then approached her.
"Turn around," I said.
She looked up at me, almost defiant.
"Turn around!" I yelled.
She shifted about, staying on her knees, turning away from the bed. With deft fingers, I unsnapped her bra and slipped it off her shoulders, then flung it hard against the wall. Unfortunately it was just a bra, and didn't make a lot of noise. That made me madder than I thought it ought to.
I grabbed the nipple clamps and went around in front of her. One clip, then another, and I clamped them to her breasts. She squirmed and bucked as the metal dug into her sensitive skin. Her discomfort made me grin.
I felt altogether far too sadistic at the moment. I didn't know what had come over me, or why I was being like this. Except, no, I knew exactly why. I was mad. Mad at Lucent, mad at Elle, but mostly mad at myself. How could I fall for this? How could I let Lucent deceive me like that? I didn't understand why I needed to be the object of his absolute betrayal. I felt dejected and lost, thrown out and discarded.
I just... I wanted someone else to feel the same way I did. I wanted someone else to hurt like I did, so maybe they would understand. I didn't think this was right, or a good way to feel, but that was just how I felt and there wasn't much I could do about it.
I didn't like this, though. I didn't like looking at her almost naked. Elle was attractive in her own way, and I thought men would like to see her naked, but it really held no appeal to me. She looked nice, but I thought I looked nicer, for whatever that was worth. Kind of a poor consolation, considering my boyfriend was currently sleeping in her bed after she'd "tired him out."
"Get on all fours," I said. Out of some random respect for Lucent's BDSM protocol, I added, "For trying to steal Lucent away from me, I'm going to spank you ten times with the paddle. Do you understand?"
Always have a reason, regardless of what it is. Always state exactly what you're going to do in a clear and even tone.
Elle practically scrambled to get on all fours. She seemed far too excited about this, or fearful. Sometimes they both looked a little the same. I couldn't see her face, so I wasn't sure which was which.
When she was on her hands and kne
es, she nodded and said, "Yes, Mistress."
"What's your safeword?" I asked her.
"I don't like to use it," she said.
For whatever reason, that really bothered me. I picked up the paddle and smacked her left butt cheek. Not too hard, but a little more than a light warning.
"I didn't ask what you like," I said. "I asked you what your safeword is. Who do you think you are? You're just a stupid letter in the alphabet. Answer me. Now."
I thought I was both inordinately witty and extremely stupid for saying half of those things. I hoped she didn't realize I had no idea what I was doing... or not exactly.
If she did, it didn't matter. She answered me. "It's Lucent," she said. "Master Storme always made me call him Lucent when he wanted me to stop, except I never—"
She didn't get to finish that sentence or those thoughts. I spanked her ass. Hard. Directly in the center, hitting both cheeks. A resounding smack echoed through the room and when I pulled the paddle back, there was the glorious beginnings of redness.
"That's two," I said. "Eight more. No more talking unless I ask you a question."
These were the sorts of things Lucent said to me when we were playing at his BDSM things. This was different, though. First off, Elle actually listened and did as I said. Perhaps that was why Lucent liked her? I didn't listen. Sometimes I didn't think I knew how to listen. I just wanted to know. I wanted to explain my side of things. I wanted...
Maybe I didn't know exactly what I wanted. Sometimes I wanted to be tossed around and treated roughly. Even then, I wanted to be loved, though. Lucent did that, or I thought he did. I wasn't sure anymore.
Other times I liked to be equal. I wanted to talk to Lucent and have him consider my thoughts, but I also wanted him to talk to me and to ask me my opinion. I liked when he took control sometimes, but not every situation needed a constant controller. Some situations didn't need anything, and others needed balance.