Nightmare. Pain. Shock.
In Ilona's dark world orientation dissolved. Once more she was naked in space, and the space was hostile! With a moan of anguish, she did what she had been trained to do. She fell to her knees and bowed her head in submission to an unseen foe. Her tied wrists, crossed at the small of her back, accentuated her helpless acceptance of Fate.
"Hmmmm. . nice. Very nice indeed." It was a man's voice.
"We've taken trouble with her. I'd say she's well broken." It was a woman, just faintly foreign. "Her background makes her interesting."
There was a dry male chuckle. "And expensive."
"We can easily pick up teen-age bodies and bored wives, but they hardly suit your clientele. This woman and the other I showed you possess depth."
"Yet you break them so easily?"
"This one, not the other."
The male voice became sardonically curious. "How long will she remain in that abject posture?"
"I've no idea." The female voice changed direction. "Nora, lift Miss Paisley and display her for Mr. Karamal."
As the pain of the whiplash across her back receded, Ilona's mind raced. Susan was somewhere close, but she dared not ask. Something was terribly wrong in this house of Antonia Noyes. The verbal exchange between a man and a woman she could not see, indicated the sale of her body to a brothel. It was all unreal. She wilted within her darkness and was thankful when Nora's fingers grasped her arm.
"If she can't get that sulk off her face and stand up straight, Nora, give the silly bitch a whipping." The feminine voice was without animus, it was simply dealing with routine.
Ilona did not want the whip. She made her nudity erect and proud, her features impassive. Trusting Nora's hand, she walked gracefully where she was led.
"D'you want the blinds off her eyes, Carl?"
"No, leave them on. I find them intriguing. Damned interesting effect, knowing there's a woman behind those blinkers."
"We've had a hood on her. A hood's damn good on a girl. Even if her hands are free she can't get it off."
"I can see that." The man's voice was reflective. "I prefer what you have on her now. On the other hand. . The concept of artificial blindness. . ! Its got possibilities. As far as I know its never been used."
"I'd thought of suggesting it, Carl. I've been pleased with this experiment. We could leave this one as she is for the rest of her life. She's been blind now for a couple of weeks and she's adjusting. Trouble is the supervision, and unless you use the hood you must keep her hands tied behind her back the way she is now."
"I know a chap who's clever at such things, Selma. He might make an adaptation of what she's wearing now. I really like them. Damn strange if he couldn't concoct something she couldn't get off with her fingers."
"Well, perhaps. Y'know, Carl, you've got me interested. I don't have the time but you have, to see if she'd wear them with free hands in the knowledge that if she tampered with them she'd get the damnedest punishment."
"Hmmmm. . " A male chuckle. "She'd have 'em off in no time flat."
"Not necessarily." Selma had become animated with an idea. "Suppose their fastenings are a one time only deal? she couldn't get 'em back on, couldn't be foxy and pretend she hadn't touched 'em. She'd be up the creek. . " Selma laughed pleasurably. "Take this girl here, she hates to be whipped. The promise of a hundred lashes would keep her pretty little hands away from her face."
The blind, captive was curling up inside. To be blind always, never to see again.
The prospect was devastating. Yet, within her horror, she was aware of the stirrings or an erotic feminine curiosity. Under the threat of punishment would she indeed keep her hands away from her eyes! Would she accept blindness in preference to a hundred strokes from Nora's whip??
The handclasp tightened. "Stand still right here, Miss Paisley. Do as I say please."
Ilona supposed her nakedness on display, facing curious eyes. She shrank from the thought of Susan. But, for once, blindness was a boon hiding what she feared to see.
In response to a curt command and the slap of a hand she widened the space between her feet. Firm fingers emphasized the squaring of her shoulders even more than her tied arms. Fearful and sulkily, she thrust out her breasts, tautened her tummy and tilted her chin. She even spread her thighs another inch to give a better view of her pubic triangle. Miss Ilona Paisley was naked and on display for a man she could not see.
"Like I said, she's well trained. Notice her respond?"
"Hmmmm, you're right. Selma. Those breasts are worth the money. I've noticed they don't deflate. Even without her hands tied they'd stand out."
"I find her interesting between the legs. Lovely Venus Mound and pubic patch.
With some of 'em a threat to shave their cunt naked makes 'em more tractable than the whip."
Karamal laughed. "Yeah, its surprised me the things they're amenable to. Get a pair of lesbians and threaten one? her partner instantly offers anything. . You know, her proverbial all, if you'll just layoff."
Ilona's blush was no longer hidden by a hood. It was there for all to see in her mortification. Obedient to the hand, she turned about that Mr. Karamal might be edified by sight of her bottom and back. His response was gratifying.
"A good ass! Doesn't often last after twenty one. A round rump is a tremendous asset? Dammit! look at those marks, Selma! That girl's been whipped for sure!"
"Would you like her whipped again, now, just for you, Carl?"
"Hell, any man wants that! But, no. She'll probably collect a whipping or two over behavior, and there's no point in marking her too badly."
"You're going to take her then?"
"Oh, yes. She definitely belongs. Put her with the others. We've already discussed money."
"Good! But what about keeping her blind? She's totally helpless, y'know. She'll be a damn nuisance."
"I realize that. But dammit, Selma, if she's been like that a couple of weeks it makes the experiment worth perpetuating." Karamal chuckled in inspiration. "Why not sell me Nora?"
"Carl, sometimes you're a bit trying."
"Lend her to me then. I'll send her home safe, and with a bonus?"
"And whipmarks from head to toe." Selma laughed caustically. "You'd most likely sell the poor girl and send me a cheque."
"What's wrong with that?" Carl's tone was raillery. "Y'know, Selma, you could use a bit more merchandise to keep the turnover up."
"Show me where I can get it." Selma sounded caustic. "I've got a reputation to maintain. What I deal in isn't easy to come by, and it doesn't often lay itself open to being conveniently picked up. This group of idiotic females almost begged for it.
Damn lucky I got in there before someone else did."
"The girls listening, Selma?"
"So! Poor dear Miss Paisley. She isn't going anywhere except with you. Tell her what she's in for. Watch her reaction. Must be a bitch of a sensation, being blind and having this happen. Far as I can discover all four of 'em are lesbian. Pricks will be a bit of a shock."
The blind girl cringed. So it was a brothel! Ilona fought a vision of Susan's loveliness spread beneath the obscenity of the male whose horrific prong was advancing to impale the girl she loved. It was more than she could bear.
"Look. I'm rich!" She gasped, her blind eyes searching.
"I'll pay whatever you want to set us free. No questions asked."
She had expected the whip. Instead, it was Carl's amused query. "Quote us a price, Miss Paisley."
"I don't know. I just don't know!" Ilona twisted a futile resentment at her bound hands. "I can probably raise a million?"
"And the cops and the F.B.I, and the Marines!"
"No, oh no!" Ilona fought desperately. "Don't you see. . ? As long as you hold Susan I'll work with you? or let her go and hold me?"
"Always envied lesbians. Selma." Karamal's tone was reflective. "Judging by what they'l do for each other a tongue and a clit must be a helluva' lot better than a cock and a cunt."
"Please. . please! Let me get the money?"
"Lady, you got any idea what those two youngsters are worth on our Market. . ? It's anything up to a couple of million apiece. I know poor old bastards who'l pay a thousand dollars a shot for trying to screw 'em with a limp dink, or maybe spanking their little bottoms. Can you match that?"
"Only if I sell the business. I'll do it, honest I'll?"
"Too much kerfuffle, Miss Paisley. No money in kidnapping. It's a mug's game.
What we're going to do with you is neat and tidy."
"You're going to ruin four lives?!"
Immediately she had spoken the words, Ilona knew she had gone too far. There was a long, long silence before Selma said, icily: "Five, Nora."
She was turned around, and then turned again. Nora's hands on her bare shoulders forced her to kneel, then bent her forward to place her forehead on the rug.
Nora's whisper was for her ears alone: "Keep still while I whip you. If you roll around and scream it will be ten. When it's over say a real good thank you."
It was a hateful pose. Ilona was positive she must be positioned to point her taut and arrogant bottom at those who would now watch it wealed by Nora's crop.
Because of the watching eyes it was vital to her that she should neither scream or roll upon the floor as her flesh was striped. She would long to but she must not.
"Don't hurry, Nora. Let Mr. Karamal enjoy. Miss Paisley is an excellent subject."
So she has been watched! Back there in her darkness through the days and nights this woman, Selma, had gloated over her writhings and her tussles with her chains!
But that was over. What mattered was now. Ilona repeated over and over to herself: five, five. . It must not be ten, it must not be ten! She pressed her head hard against the rug and wished Nora would hurry and cut her with the first stroke. Rut when it came it was far, far worse than she remembered. Within her fiery hell of pain, silent and motionless, she supposed it always was. A girl would never, never become used to being whipped. It would always be unimaginably awful. Or perhaps, this time, it was because of her posture and tensioned skin and because the crop hurt worse than did the whip. Ilona Paisley clenched her teeth, she clenched her bound hands, her breathing was tumultuous, but she did not move.
"I should put her price up." Selma said thoughtfully. "Damn and blast it Carl, you and I have just seen something remarkable. Don't waste this one. Hell, she's worth nine million, she's worth the moon!"
"The right man will pay it." Carl agreed. "And I'll find him. She may have to stay awhile behind bars." He turned to Nora. "Look, girl, keep this one safe. Don't give her the faintest chance of escape."
"None of them will escape. Mr. Karamal. I guarantee it." Nora's voice was smugly assured, tinged with pride.
No escape! It was as though the cords on her wrists and the metal shields on her eyes had spoken the words. Of course she would not escape! The days and days of darkness and the chains had taught her that. Nora's drill had taught her lessons too.
Hating the ritualistic humility, she controlled her voice to simulate gratitude: "Thank you for whipping me. Nora. You did it very well."
"I'll be go to hell!" Karamal ejaculated admiringly. "I'm a damn good mind to keep this one myself."
"You can kneel properly, girl. Get your head off the floor." Selma sounded almost cordial. "Nora, turn her round to face us. Her rump's a picture but we've had enough of it."
Ilona knelt as the hands placed her. With arms tied behind her back it was difficult not to seem to bow forward submissively, to kneel erect might appear defiant. Her blazing bottom denied the flood of questions she longed to ask. Not that the questions mattered much any more if she was being taken to a brothel and made subject to a sale to any male who might find her loins to his liking. Life was Over.
"You'll have Nora 'tend 'em, eh. Selma? I've got the arrangements to deal with.
You won't have to feed 'em too long?"
"Of course, and they'll be safe."
"Dammit! Selma, sell me that girl? I like the way she handles bodies, and she's an artist with that riding crop."
"Carl, I need her!"
"You can get another. You can recruit One a lot easier than I can."
The kneeling woman, blind and bound, could visualize them: Middle aged, money, fat cats complacent with a good thing going. She found herself rooting for Carl. She wanted Nora as badly as he did. If he intended to keep her blind. Nora was her eyes and hands.
"I suppose I could lend her to you while you get 'em settled." Selma's concession was grudging. She chuckled. "But I'll want a deposit on her, something substantial."
"Don't you trust me?"
"Yes, but not with saleable females." Selma turned her attention to her maid.
"Nora, would you want to go with Mr. Karamal? If he's going to keep Miss Paisley blind he needs you."
"I'll do whatever you tell me. Mrs. Szabo."
"Wonderful!" Carl was pleased. "The girl's a honey, Selma. Have her look after the merchandise. Let's you and me go have a drink."
How hateful to be blind! To have to guess at what was going on around you, using words and sounds to paint pictures, forbidden to speak, hands bound. Ilona Paisley saw herself as a nothing. She had been reduced to a bodily orifice for men to use. In dumb misery she listened to sounds. . Then, in response to Nora's hand, rose to her feet.
It was a longish walk, and there were stairs going down, there were doors and the chill of cold air on her bare skin. Nora's whisper was urgent but assured.
"You keep being obedient. Miss Paisley, do like I say."
"Of course I will. Nora!" Ilona had never been more sincere.
"You can't ask questions, but soon you get a few answers?" A pause as though in thought. "I sure do hope I get to go with you, I'd like that a lot. Miss Paisley."
"Yes! Oh, Nora. . Yes!"
"I'm going to untie your hands soon. You going to be sensible?"
"Yes. . oh, yes!" Suddenly, the air was warm.
The floor was stone under her bare feet. Ilona sensed space while she stood passively for her hands to be untied.
"Stretch 'em a moment, Miss Paisley, and rub your wrists. I know it feels good."
Nora's concession was amused.
It did feel good, very good indeed! Ilona allowed her nudity to be pressed back against an easily identified column and her arms pul ed back. "Hold 'em close for the handcuffs. Miss Paisley." Nora's request was without anxiety. A moment later there were the familiar clicks and the familiar clutch of metal bands. Nora's lips brushed her cheek in approval, her whisper was close to a captive ear.
"I'm going to take the blinds off, Miss Paisley."
"Oh. Nora? Nora?!" The captive throat was choked with emotion, the captive heart thudding painfully.
"I'll have to put them back on you again, before anyone sees."
"Yes, of course! Oh. Nora! I won't struggle. I promise I won't give you trouble Oh, thank you!"
The blind girl was alight with happiness, uncaring for the rest of her predicament.
Eagerly, she strained forward against her hand cuffs to expose the nape of her neck to Nora's merciful fingers, when she knew the metal shields in her eye hollows were free she closed her eyes.
"You've been blind a long time, Miss Paisley. Take it easy."
Ilona took it easy. The first moments of reawakening sight were almost agony, she dared look only through slits shielded by eyelashes. But they were ecstatic moments to be cherished and long remembered.
"You O.K., Miss Paisley?"
"Nora, I can see you, I can see?!"
"Sure you can? and I have to go?"
The smiling and impudent face was very close as its lips again bestowed affection.
In a daze of delight, Ilona watched the pert maid recede through a door she did not bother to lock. She opened her eyes now, blinking and cautious, and turning to survey her new captivity, what she beheld caused her to gasp in shock.
It was a rectangular stone chamber with vaulted ceiling convoluting into half a dozen stone pillars for support, slender columns well spaced in pleasant symmetry. It was to one of these she was attached. But her quick scan was momentary, its focus frozen on the nude figure of a girl suspended by its wrists, toes a foot above the floor.
It was gently turning on the rope tether reaching from above.
"Hello and welcome, darling." Said Susan cheerfully. "Don't worry about me."
But there were two other shocks for the newly released vision. Griselda and Antonia, naked and gagged were attached to pillars in the same fashion as herself, handcuffs on wrists behind the column to which their bare backs were pressed. Their eyes signalled the greeting they could not voice.
"I've been a naughty girl, darling, so I've been hung out to dry awhile. Don't feel badly, I can stand it."
Ilona was choked for words. But how could she and the gagged nudities exchange anything, all three were helpless, their arms held behind their columns! A smile was the best they could manage, spanning the space between them in inadequate frustration. Communication must be with the nude girl suspended from her rope.
"Oh, Susan. . oh, darling??" The words seemed poor things when measured by love. "How. . ? What??"
"Two days after I came here, darling. First that awful woman on an expedient, and then three men. We never had a chance. They tied us up and we've been tied or chained ever since. When the men went there was just Nora and the bitch. They were waiting for you, they were sure you'd come? and I couldn't phone? oh, darling, I couldn't phone, I couldn't do anything. I was trussed up like a turkey."
Susan kicked fretfully at the air in disgust.
Ilona found herself tugging at her wrists in her own painful expression of despair.
"Sweetheart. . oh, sweetheart! I should never have sent you."
"Don't be silly. Griselda's a honey, and 'Tonia was so good for me? She's a marvellous Mistress. Poor darlings! Selma's been so mean to them, and for 'Tonia its been awful having to be submissive and humble and obedient, and to be whipped!
They've whipped her terribly just because she isn't the way Griselda and I are."
"Susan. . to hang you up like this??"
"Well, I can't get loose, darling. If I gasp and moan a bit it goes with the package.
It's not all that much fun. I'm hanging like this as a terrible example to you three. I wish we all had our hands behind a column and could talk."
"Did they make you blind the way they did me?"
"No. I think you're some sort of an experiment?" The young voice broke. "Oh, darling, was it very terrible?"
"The worst thing I've ever known." Ilona sighed, "And I've got to go back to it.
You heard Nora??"
"Ilona, dear, I hate to ask?" The question was tremulous. "Has a man ever? I mean, have you ever been??"
"Fucked?" Ilona supplied wearily. "That's the operative word, we might as well use it. Yes, I've been fucked. It seemed to me a messy waste of time."
"Well, we're going to be? all four of us. . fucked!"
"I sort of gathered that in the darkness. We're going to a brothel, aren't we?"
"Yes. Oh, darling. . !"
"Susan, don't panic about it." Ilona realized her own limited experience. "That thing between our legs doesn't wear out. That 'fate worse than death' thing was good old Queen Victoria. It's not a fate at all, it's simply the temporary use of a female facility we were built to accommodate."
"But we'll all get pregnant."
"They'll give us the pill, you can be sure of that."
"Those great big things. . sticking into us?"
"They've been exaggerated, pet. If you just relax you won't notice half of 'em. The other half may give you an occasional orgasm, that's all."
Susan, swinging on her rope, was mystified. "But, Ilona, how do you know?"
"I'm a journalist. I've talked to whores."
"Darling, that awful word! Is that what we'll be?"
Ilona's retort was bitter. "Hell no! Whores get paid. We're going to belong to the house."
"Nora says we're going to be used other ways too." The youthful plaint was pathetic, tearing at Ilona's heart. "If they pay enough the men will be able to spank our bottoms. . and whip our backs. . and? torture us?"
Ilona's heart bled. None of the four of them had anything to look forward to, but this darling girl hanging by her wrists, must not panic in hopeless desolation, at least not yet. "All such places have whips and. . things." She volunteered with simulated equanimity. "It goes along with the rest The House makes sure we don't get damaged." She sneered bitterly. "We're merchandise now, sweetheart, we'l be looked after. We're valuable."
"Poor 'Tonia, she's never been fucked at all!"
"Neither have you, Susan. It may sound callous, but neither of you'l die. After you've washed your pussies, that's the end of it. Like I said, It's simply messy."
"Oh, darling. . " The punished girl relapsed into gasping silence. Her exquisite nudity turned slowly, her head bowed. .
The glory of sight had spent itself against the implacability of captivity.
Despondently, Ilona pressed back against the stone and toyed with the handcuffs on her wrists. They were tight, there would be no slipping out of them, from now on there would be no slipping out of anything. She exchanged commiserating glances with the two girls chained as she was chained. Unhappily, she said to them; "I'm sorry, I'm so terribly sorry." Griselda and 'Tonia shrugged ruefully in reply.
There was nothing else they could do.
Dusk terminated Susan's punishment. Nora lowered her feet to the stone, placed her against another column, and handcuffed her wrists at its back. Then the gag. It was strapped tight into Susan's mouth. The youngster was exhausted. Secured and silenced, she slipped easily to the floor, still helpless, and leaning back against the stone, closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry." There could be no doubting Nora's sincerity as she held the blinding bits of shaped metal for Ilona to see. "I've got to make you blind again. It's not safe?"
"I don't mind, Nora. Honest I don't!"
Nora kissed the lips that had lied. "Of course you mind." She said somberly. "But there's no choice, not for either of us." She tidied her captive's hair. "I'm going to kiss you good-night while you can still see. . Then I want you to close your eyes."
Ilona sighed under the warm lips, then closed her eyes to feel the deft fingers busy with fastenings. When she opened them again site was blind. After a long time she let herself slide to the floor, her thighs and bottom warming the stone, her hands resigned within their cuffs. Soon, she slept.
The morning was basics. Ilona, handcuffed, was led to a shower, she was led to a place where she was fed, she was led wherever her needs might be. Blind, she was unable to be sure if she was alone. Nora remained her only link with reality.
"It's pretty soon now, Miss Paisley."
"You mean the? the? the place where we're to be taken?"
"That's right. It's a lot better than standing with your hands cuffed behind that post."
"Is it, Nora? Is it, really?"
"Well. . Gosh, Miss Paisley, that's no question to ask."
"I'm going to be kept blind, aren't I? while I'm fucked by a hundred men?"
"I don't know, honest I don't I've never been where we're going any more'n you.
But I think they're going to treat you special."
"Will they treat Susan special?"
"Not likely. That little girl's so damn lush. She's a dish."
"Will you still whip me now if I ask meaningful questions?"
"Yes, Miss Paisley."
"None of the four of us have much to look forward to, have we?"
"Depends on how you look at it, Miss?"
"But, Nora, aren't you scared? The way that man talked??"
"Sure I'm scared, Ilona." The grasp on a captive arm tightened. "Now, just you hold real still!"
The thrust of the hypodermic was unmistakable. Until she lost consciousness Ilona Paisley held very still indeed.