Chapter Two
Awakening To a New Reality
I don’t know how long I slept, but after coming muzzily awake, wondered why I had literally passed out and who had undressed me then put me to bed? I was still too bleary of mind to make any sense of the evening past and so lay quietly, snuggled under the covers, wondering about the day to come. The light coming through the large window seemed strangely distorted behind the gauze curtains, but for the moment I thought nothing of it while lying quiescent.
At last my mind seemed to clear and I suddenly became aware of the pressure on my bladder, needing to go to the toilet. I vaguely remembered my father’s words about having my own rooms complete with an en suite bathroom so decided that it was my next and immediate stop and attempted to kick off the covers of the bed.
My shock was immediate!
As soon as I moved my legs and tried to kick, I instantly became aware of the snug encirclements of my ankles and their immediate limiting when the noise of chain links came to my ears! What theHELL was that! I kicked once more and again experienced all the things just described, having affected the covers slipping off the bed, then tried to sit up. It was then that I got my second awful shock! I discovered that my neck bore a wide band that was so high it prevented me from looking down! In addition, when I did sit up, my head spinning from the after effects of the drugged wine, I both felt and heard a length of body-warmed chain links slither down my spine!
I screamed loudly and immediately clapped my hands to my throat and it was then I discovered that my wrists werealso encircled by wide, thick and tight steel cuffs, complete with dangling rings and a chain between them! I gasped with dismay and terror when my fingers touched the smooth surface of the snug metal collar that, seemingly seamlessly, held my throat a captive! In a trice, I reached to behind my neck, where my fingers immediately encountered the rapidly-cooling links of a dangling chain and I pulled the loose loop around in front of me, over my shoulder, then with disbelief, stared at the substantial steel tether with dumb horror. My eyes flew again to my wrists and ankles and I moaned with horror upon revisiting the gleaming, thick bands. In a frenzy, I attempted to jerk on the chain to move the collar around my throat, but it didn’t shift at all, being oval shaped and very snugly-fitted. Next, I attempted to pull off the chain, but that was equally as fruitless and it was then that I looked down at my legs and feet once more. Each of my ankles was encircled by a tight, steel cuff of the same type that held my neck and wrists! Not only that though, but these were joined on their inner sides by a short chain of the same type as that descended from the back of my collar, only about 20 cm long with a larger ring at the centre, and from this, yet another chain trailed under the covers!
It was then that I began to wail with dismay at what had been done to me and flung myself from the bed to stand trembling beside it, then sank to my knees with my head in my hands, sobbing with humiliation and distress. The chain from the wall above the head of the bed and that from the foot fell out from under the covers that remained with the slithery sound of steel links against one another and fell to the uncarpeted, parquet wooden floor with a noisy clatter. My disbelieving eyes followed their trails to see that the one leading to the back of my new collar terminated at a large ring, this being securely mounted on the wall above the headboard. At the foot of the bed, the chain from the centre of the one between my ankles was padlocked to a sturdy ring set into the massive bed frame.
“No!No! Let me out of these!” I screamed loudly, standing naked except for the steel clasped about my neck, wrists and ankles. I looked away from this horrifying arrangement of my captivity and my eyes fell upon the bed I’d been sleeping in.
To call it a bed was a substantial misrepresentation! It was far more than a mere piece of furniture upon which I would sleep. The manner of its construction was very solid with a metre high headboard of perhaps 12 cm in thickness at the upper end, tight to the wall and the side panels were equally as massive, framing the mattress. At the bottom, the footboard was the same thickness, but what struck me forcefully though were the three rings set into the fr