Chapter One
“What could I have done?” Cheryl shrugged and took a sip of her coffee. It was still a bit hotter than she liked it. “There were three of them.” She looked across the small round table at her companion and brushed back a stray lock of dark brown hair. The look in her eyes was defiant, even taunting.
“Ah…” Marie fumbled with her own coffee cup, looking down and away from Cheryl. The coffee shop wasn’t exactly crowded this late in the evening, but there were still too many people here who might overhear what had become a very strange and disturbing conversation. She gathered up her courage to look back into Cheryl’s dark brown eyes. “That might just explain what happenedthen,” she said. “It doesn’t explain what you told me earlier. You can’t be serious about going back!”
“Why not?” Cheryl smirked.
“WHY?!” Marie exclaimed. She realized that she’d raised her voice well above the background murmur usually favored here. Blushing, she looked around to see if anyone was now paying attention to them in the corner where they were sitting. No one appeared to be.
“I mean…why?” she went on, much more quietly. “You don’t know what they might do. You could get hurt.”
“No, I won’t,” Cheryl replied smugly. “Well…not beyond some spanking, maybe. They won’t really hurt me.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because they’ll want me to keep coming back.” Cheryl’s smile was somehow annoying. She took another sip of her coffee.
Marie looked at her friend as if she’d just grown a third eye. “And you mean to tell me that you’re actually serious aboutgoing back?”
“I do. I am serious.”
“Geez…” Marie shook her head. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Oh, come on,” Cheryl waved a hand. “Don’t we tell each other all about our latest boyfriends?” She leaned forward over the table. Without quite realizing it, Marie leaned forward too.
“Think about it…” Cheryl began in a conspiratorial whisper. Her eyes were intense. “Haven’t you ever had fantasies? I mean the really dark and terrible ones where you’re completely helpless and not responsible for anything that’s going on? Ones where you get your brains fucked out?” She smiled slyly, showing even, white teeth. Then she winked.
Marie sat back in her chair as abruptly as if Cheryl had slapped her. She felt her face reddening. “I…I don’t need to know this,” she shook her head. “I don’t need to know any of this.”
“Maybe I just need to tell someone,” Cheryl shrugged. She leaned back herself. “Maybe I justhave to tell someone. Mmmm…I’m getting a little moist just talking about it.” Now her smile turned lecherous. Her eyes seemed to unfocus for a moment.
“Stop it,” Marie whispered desperately. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just get up and walk out.
“You don’t want to talk about it?” Cheryl asked. She took a quick look around. “Maybe it’s too public here? We could go back to my apartment, and talk about it there.” She picked up her coffee cup again and sipped at it slowly, smiling at Marie with her eyes over the plain white china rim. She seemed to be enjoying her friend’s discomfort as much as she was enjoying telling her tale.
“Not here, not there, not anywhere,” Marie shook her head.
“Suit yourself,” Cheryl shrugged. She put the cup down on its saucer with exaggerated care. “I’m going back next Friday, right after work. They said that they might even keep me there all weekend.” She smiled. It was her smug smile again. Marie wished that there was a way to wipe it right off of her face.
***
It was a little after a quarter to five that next Friday when Marie gingerly opened the heavy metal door. It was the door that Cheryl had described to her in such loving detail back at the coffee shop, painted a flat institutional gray. Someone had stenciled “No Admittance Employees Only” on it many years ago in big black letters. The lettering was worn and faded now, but still readable, right down to the ancient misspelling.
It was uncomfortably warm down here in the basement. It looked and felt and even smelled like something from a bad horror movie. There were pipes running everywhere, thick dust all over almost everything, and a constant din of machine noises. Only the floor was clean. Someone must sweep it every so often.
Marie took a