by H. A. Kotys
Raven knew full well that Mela was limber but she put that flexibility to the test now. Elbows already bound, Raven threaded a tie through, yanking it as tightly as she could, forming a cinch and causing Mela’s flesh to bulge around the harsh plastic band.
Mela would cause no more trouble. The affront of a slave resisting her though scorched Raven. She unclipped Mela’s now empty belt and wrestled it from under her.
== ~ ==
The commotion behind the mirrored wall was even enough to beat the soundproofing. The exhausted Katarina craned her head in hope of seeing beyond her reflected image, that of a naked running woman.
She knew things were not well in BDSM paradise and that her own introduction into this carefully sculpted world had caused it to start to fragment. It was a strange satisfaction to draw, but a satisfaction nonetheless and it kept Katarina going, even though her body was reaching the end of its endurance.
== ~ ==
Raven dodged Mela’s attempts to kick her with ease and grabbed her legs. Tucking them under her arm, she threaded the belt she had taken through the zip tie at Mela’s ankles.
One more buck of her hips, more in protest than in any hope of delaying the outcome and Mela mewled into her gag. Her legs were folded over, the bite of plastic felt even through the leather of her boots.
‘So glad I still have the boots on,’ thought Mela. She could feel herself drifting into that detached space she always went to when subjected to Raven’s sadism. The chunky heels of her boots were soon pressing into her butt.
Already biting deeply, the added pressure increased Mela’s discomfort as her legs naturally tried to spring back straight. Raven didn’t stop though, drawing the belt tighter and tighter until she was satisfied there was no more bow she could achieve in Mela’s body. Mela was naturally flexible but even that was pushed to the limit. Her back protested at the position imposed on it and she was rolled onto her side.
There above her, in a position so familiar, stood Raven; authoritative, cool, dominant. Raven paused, just looking down on the now immobile figure at her feet, then crouched beside the young woman she had taken so easily.
Her examination of Mela was almost scientific. Mela, in turn, could do nothing but lie there like a hogtied animal. “I will enjoy your proper punishment.” It sounded inevitable in so many ways.
Long elegant fingers slid open the zip on Mela’s catsuit to expose milky white skin beneath. It felt like the invasion it was and as her breasts were scooped out from their latex confines, Mela grunted her protest through the gag in her mouth.
“Oh yes, these will get such exquisite attention.” Raven squeezed both nipples hard. The groan was one of frustration, though it could easily have been mistaken for pleasure. Raven smirked, releasing the pinch just enough to allow the blood to hurry back, knowing the pulsing discomfort it would bring.
Mela was rolled onto her front and the cold tile floor shocked her newly sore nipples. “Now stay there, I have pressing matters to attend to.”
And with that Raven stepped over Mela, raking a sharp heel over the bound girl’s back. When it had snagged and torn the latex as intended, Raven went to the door to hunt down Jade. By instinct and with Mela’s appearance, she had to be somewhere close by.
== ~ ==
Jade’s heart pounded, primed to leap. She had been spotted yet there was no attack and her gut was telling her there was no real threat here. As the figure moved into the swathe of light on the landing, Jade breathed again at the sight of Dan and stepped forward.
“Please Dan, help Amber.” Jade pointed back up the steps to hurry things along. His nod confirmed his understanding and, striding past, he rushed up the stairs two at a time.
It could so easily have been Raven. In her haste, Jade knew she’d been careless, trying to move too fast. She set off again, efforts to remain quiet redoubled, descending the next flight of stairs.
== ~ ==
She’d let them down, let them all down. Her own part in this had ended with little more than a whimper. Mistress Jade would be so disappointed in her. ‘Mistress Jade,’ Mela repeated in her head. The words sat well together. She was nothing like Raven. In her, there was compassion, respect, a woman she could entrust herself to without fear of the red mist that took control of the whip.
Where Raven had her studied elegance, Jade possessed natural class which spoke of her good breeding. Where Raven had brutality, Jade had an easy sensual authority, carrot as opposed to Raven’s stick.
Jade offered a new start, an exciting start, yet with the structure and control Mela still felt she needed to deal with the demons that cavorted and refused to lie still within her. Looking straight at the naked Katarina beyond the one-way mirror, Mela knew she would follow Jade anywhere and through anything. She was her girl now and yet, with her blundering carelessness, she had let her down.
CHAPTER L – Red Raw
Amber had a plan and it would deal with Red in such a sweetly poetic way. Red had abandoned her to follow that bitch. She had strode away with barely a backward glance to follow Raven with such myopic devotion that she had crossed all boundaries of morality and decency. Red had clearly lost herself and Amber would gladly press the reset button for her to start again, this time alone. With that contented thought, Amber set to work.
It’d been a while since she’d tried it and even then it had only been on rare occasions where the job had been simple. ‘Probably six years,’ Amber thought as she took the needle from the sterile package, but now it was time again. It was during her rebellious late teens where she’d veered this way and that, looking for her direction. She’d found it in needles, tattoo needles to be precise and drawing the ink into the gun and fitting a fresh needle, old memories gushed back.
She’d worked so hard, studied those long lonely hours to the detriment of more than herself. The course could have been designed for Amber, a mix of linguistics and law that she’d eyed for almost four years. Her grades had been achieved, more than achieved, her application had been accepted and she planned with the enthusiasm of a puppy to follow something that had long been her destiny.
Timing though had been the chief conspirator and the cutbacks needed to be made. First, the law faculty was amalgamated with the university in the city. No big deal but when the linguistics lab was then closed to save costs, the door to her future slammed shut in her face. So much planning, so much effort but Amber’s best laid plans had been shown to be nothing more than glass and shattered.
Sure, other places had been offered. None though captured either her imagination or her heart. Her parents had been so worried as she lost not just a university place but also her purpose.
Waking each morning with the same bleak future ahead, one pointless day merged with another, until one Saturday had seen her wake with an idea that had her dress quickly and head into town.
It was more an act of rebellious protest than anything, rebellion against the establishment that had invited her in and then shown her the door. A tattoo wouldn’t give her anything back but it would be a visible sign of the frustration she felt. So she’d gone there determined to see through her mini-mutiny.
The sound pulled her up short and Amber found herself standing in front of the counter looking at a bored receptionist with long straggly purple hair. She’d been asked what she wanted. Amber should have asked for the tattoo she’d planned but the sound of the gun prompted her to seek out another outlet and, seeing the ‘Help Wanted’ sign on the counter, Amber had asked for a job.
It wasn’t ideal, far from it, but it gave her the independence in both spirit and finance to start to break free from childhood confines and strike out on her own. She soon moved from home and into the small studio apartment above the shop. It hadn’t lasted long before she’d been kicked out as the parlour struggled with its debts. Fortunately, the artist she’d assisted soon found work elsewhere and called her, saving Amber from the ignominy of a return to parents who poured scorn on her new freedom.
<
br /> It was a tenuous freedom but it was during the time she’d been working in the third parlour that Amber had met Red. She had been sitting in a park for lunch and a casual conversation had developed into much more. Red was different then. Her bust was smaller, hips a little broader and her confidence needed to be nurtured back to health following the trauma of a recently failed marriage.
They’d started as lunch buddies but, two lonely girls in a strange town, they had stumbled into more and, within weeks, shared a bed. Confidence slowly rebuilding, Red had pushed her reconstruction. Daily visits to the gym were the norm but soon she had grown weary of the tiringly slow process. So she’d saved everything she could, often skipping meals to pay for the knife that sculpted and shaped what the gymnasium struggled to reach.
Amber now looked at the woman below her. The Red she’d met and nursed through her emotional pain had gone, replaced by the version unconscious at her feet, the sycophantic disciple of a psychopath. With a whispered goodbye Amber started to work, first cutting away the prone woman’s leather catsuit to get the access she needed.
== ~ ==
It was on the third letter that she stirred and Red’s eyes shot open as scratching fire seared her abdomen. “Easy there.” The soothing words from Amber bought her another letter while the woman drifted, her body a blank canvas to revenge.
The voice was familiar and so Red instinctively eased, relaxing in protective arms. “Drink,” came the next instruction and, with a cup raised to her lips, Red drank the drugged water and was soon ushered back into a deep sleep.
== ~ ==
Amber had no need to work with the same urgency now, Red wouldn’t cause any problems for several hours, but she wanted to give whatever help she could to Jade. She dispensed with the usual care such a job would demand to push it through. Somehow care didn’t seem fitting as she’d received none herself and the rushed scrawl of untidy letters seemed somehow right.
She hadn’t kept the colour within the boundaries but then she didn’t really care about that either and, standing back to get the full effect, Amber nodded in satisfaction.
Red was one of those annoying women who frequently wore crop tops. Even more annoyingly, she also made them look good with her flat stomach and softly sculpted definition. In future perhaps she would think twice. The tattoo had been carefully placed to ensure that and the word chosen was perfect.
‘CHEAP’ was what was permanently etched. All too cheap had been the relationship Red had simply thrown away with such little care. Amber tilted her head. It doubly fit as Red’s body was anything but, expensively honed by investment in both gym time and surgeons. The new look brought a smile of wicked satisfaction to Amber’s face.
It was the prelude to what Red would experience later and Amber dispensed with the normal protective aftercare of petroleum jelly and bandages to guard against potential infection. If it got infected then karma had determined it and first packing her tools away, Amber tried to drag Red into the cage where she would spend her first night branded.
Try as she might, with a damaged knee that would take no pressure, moving the slumbering woman was beyond Amber. Red was a dead weight. She couldn’t do it alone but fate was smiling kindly, bringing the friendly but panicked face of Dan emerging hurriedly from the dressing area.
“The gym Miss Amber!” he babbled. “It’s Miss Mela!”
Amber swore. “Help me first!” Together they stuffed the woman into the cage to the left of the large bed, locking the door against her folded legs. With an uncomfortable night awaiting her, Red was secure.
“Go, Dan, go!” ushered Amber. “Quick as you can.” Dan hurried off back down the narrow back stairs with the limping Amber following as fast as her injured knee would allow.
CHAPTER LI – Two Into One Doesn’t Go
Raven doubted that Mela had grown the balls to come back alone. Raven was too streetwise, too intelligent to consider for a moment that she had, and her senses were alerted to other possible dangers.
She was back in the familiar territory of survival. It had shepherded her through dark times when she had no choice but to fight for her very existence. It came naturally and Raven slipped comfortably back into a former persona, finding a dark protective corner and sheltering there while she gathered her thoughts. She ran though events so far, piecing together the puzzle.
Mela in the house would probably mean Jade was too. Was she already aware of Immelmann’s demise? She couldn’t be. Just coincidence. There were only four present. She knew she could trust the sycophantic Red and she had just left Katarina in the gym. Immelmann was dead and she was the fourth.
If Jade learnt of his death it might be different but for now she was just another pathetic dominant wannabe. Raven needed to secure what was now hers once and for all. Jade was weak. She would be easy to deal with.
Raven sifted through her memory of the morning, the playback being scrutinised detail by detail for any further hints toward what was unfolding. The thud she had heard earlier, what was that? It sounded as if it was quite a distance away so was difficult to decipher. It could have been a scuffle or something as innocent as a servant knocking over a chair. She would have to be on her guard though, just in case.
Raven had a decision to make. She could find and alert Red - that would improve her own odds but that was quickly dismissed. It would take time, risking the discovery that Mela had already been dealt with. Surprise would be lost and looking for help didn’t suit. She was Raven, after all. Nobody would stand between her and what she wanted - she needed no-one’s help.
Right now, Raven had to cement her newly won primacy of place. Jade was trying to put herself in the way of that. If truthful to herself, other than that she was her discarded predecessor, Raven knew little of her. She had a dominant demeanour at the ball, but to Raven it was fake.
“Weak,” Raven reminded herself, half assured yet still half wary. Jade had been taken down once and would be again. If she was here then sooner rather than later. Yet it would be foolish to dismiss her obvious spirit, and Raven headed to a place where she knew the odds would be in her favour.
== ~ ==
She was stealthy this time, her lesson well learnt. Nobody could possibly have heard and as she approached the observation room, Jade was confident that nobody had seen. Dan had been despatched to help Amber so she had just two concerns – find Mela, find Raven.
She’d checked three likely rooms on the way down and, barring the dramatic change of décor from her time in the house, all looked normal. There was no sign of Mela at all and Jade was becoming increasingly concerned.
Even from their all too brief time together, it was clear that Mela remained damaged goods. Recovering? Sure, but still damaged and she wouldn’t have the strength to stand up to Raven so soon.
Coming to the door to the gym Jade paused with her hand on the handle, listening to the whirring and pounding rhythm from within. Her sense of urgency was still pushing her on too fast so she took that moment to gather herself and slowly leant on it, flinching as the catch slid back. With her shoulder, Jade eased the door carefully forward and peered inside.
== ~ ==
Her thighs burnt like molten lava but Katarina knew she couldn’t slacken her pace. At first it had been easy but the constant bounce of the chain from the piercings was no longer pleasant. The cross weave on the treadmill belt bit the soles of her feet and she was quickly approaching the point of exhaustion. It was more subtle than Raven’s usual sadism but it hurt nonetheless, and tears dripped as Katarina pushed on.
A movement caught her eye, making her stumble as she turned her head. Pain shot from her nipples and gritting her teeth, she pounded on.
Set again, Katarina looked at the door. In her exhaustion, she thought for a moment that Raven had changed before realising it wasn’t her. It was the woman from the grand ball, Jade, and as she came into the room, Katarina tried to make sense of it.
Dressed in a jet black latex catsuit, Jade’s l
ook was very different to the classic gown of the night before, though no less stunning. Her boots shouted of practicality rather than sophistication and the belt cinched tightly around her waist made her purpose obvious, adorned as it was with equipment that smacked of forcible control. A functional look but in an overtly sexual way.
== ~ ==
Jade’s hand rested next to the treadmill’s controls. How to end this ordeal by exercise? She stabbed at the buttons, trying to stem the relentless churn of the belt. A stumble said that the woman was close to collapse but, try as she might, it wouldn’t slow or stop, the control lay elsewhere.
Jade moved quickly to the chains holding the woman onto the machine. From Mela’s description this was Katarina, the woman she had seen at the grand ball, the woman she was this time here to help. The chains were padlocked and their anchor points well fixed. They would be impossible to remove without causing too much damage and Jade looked into the near sightless eyes of someone who could take little more.