Mind Games

       Chapter 13:  A choice and a consequence

       Mariah was running, then fleeing, through a fallow field she did not recognize.  She came to a stream and tried to hurdle it, but her legs wouldn’t move properly.  She started to put her hands out to break her fall but they, too, were stuck.  She awoke with a start, her heart pounding madly.   As in her dream her limbs would not obey.  They were held – no, tied – down.  Panicked, she flailed about until she banged the back of her head on the platform on which she lay, and saw stars. 

       Through sheer force of will she held herself still, except for the trembling that she could not control. When she could no longer hear her pulse pounding in her ears, she slowly tried to take stock.  Her legs were spread wide apart and her ankles tied down, and her wrists shackled near her hips.  Other than that, she was not restrained.  She raised herself up onto her elbows and looked cautiously around. 

       She was on a sleeping platform, alone.  On either side of her were drab low walls that did not reach the ceiling.  Past her feet was a corridor, and beyond it another low wall. 

      She heard pleading from not far away.  A boy’s voice, begging someone to stop whatever they were doing to him.  But she didn’t hear the slash or cut of a whip.

     

      A mistress walked through the corridor past her, but paid her no mind.  A moment later a slave walked by.  Mariah cleared her throat.  “Excuse me,” she said, but the slave did not turn his head or slow his pace. 

     

      Mariah wondered how long she had been tied to the table, and if she had been left here to die, alone and untended.  One of the cornfield masters had had a boy killed that way.  He locked him in a cabin and forbade the other slaves to bring him food or water.  He died in about five days.  Mariah couldn't recall what he was being punished for. 

     

      Suddenly she remembered Master Jonas.  The malice, as cold as the water he sprayed on her body and then inside it.  And his threat to kill her.  As she heard the boy’s voice, begging again, Mariah wondered if it wouldn't be better to provoke Master Jonas into carrying out his threat. 

       No, a voice from inside Mariah said, I want to live. 

       Mariah leaned back and closed her eyes.  The boy’s begging rose to a shriek.  Rolanda had lived through this mindgame and had escaped beyond the walls.  But the mindgame had continued even then, Mariah realized.  Rolanda was surely dead by now.

      “No despair,” Mariah told herself fiercely.

     

      She listened for clues as to where she was or what would come next, but could hear only murmurs of sound from beyond the low walls.  She could no longer hear the boy, but there were conversations whose words she could not make out.  Perhaps someone whimpering.  At least she was not alone, she told herself.

       A slave appeared, rolling a table on wheels in front of him.  Wordlessly he stopped in front of Mariah, cranked a lever which raised the back end of her platform up and moved her to a sitting position.  He untied her hands and handed her a bowl of lukewarm gruel.  As she took it she whispered to him, "Are you allowed to talk?"  He looked unsurprised by this question, but shook his head and opened his mouth wide. Inside, his tongue was only a stub. 

      Mariah’s stomach churned at the sight, but the slave put the spoon into her hand as if she were simple and pantomimed that she must eat.  She dipped the spoon into the gruel and barely managed to get it into her mouth.  She concentrated on not vomiting.  Another spoonful, more concentration.  She couldn’t take a third. 

      The slave seemed satisfied with her efforts.  He gave her a cup of water and indicated that she should drink it.  She was parched, and the water helped the gruel settle.  The slave tied her arms again, leaving her sitting up, and moved on, expressionless.

       Mariah looked around but could see nothing beyond the short walls surrounding her, and the ceiling that gave away no secrets.  Occasionally slaves or people walked by, but they did not look at her.  “They fed me,” Mariah told herself several times.  “I’ll not die today.” 

      Panic gave way to boredom that was even worse.  Occasionally Mariah tested the bonds that tied her wrists and ankles, but not with any real hope that they would give way.  And even if they did, what would she do? 

       The wall.  If she could get free, could she make it to the wall?  Mariah thought of what she knew of the geography of Riviera.  It seemed certain that she was still in the mansion which was in the dead center of Riviera.  The wall encircled Riviera, but was miles and miles away.  It had taken the rider hours to bring her here on a horse, and the cornfields were closer to the mansion than to the wall. 

       Yet, it was not all farmland between the mansion and the wall.  There were woods and wild places.  If she could get to them, could she hide there? 

       She sighed and shook her head at what she knew was foolishness.  Even if she could untie her bonds, she would never make it out of this strange room.

      The tongueless slave returned to Mariah twice, each time giving her a bowl of gruel and a cup of water. After the third meal Mariah dozed. Through her sleep she could hear the cart making its way through the aisle yet again.  Someone was shaking her arm.  She immediately jerked awake.  It was an older slave, a female, large and muscular.  "Toilet," she said.  Mariah saw that she pushed a bucket on wheels with a seat on top, like a portable latrine. 

       Mariah shook her head.  "I'm not allowed," she said.

       "Sure you are, honey," the slave said.  "Everyone uses the toilet.  You don't need special permission for that."  She began to untie Mariah's restraints.

       Mariah felt her face burn red.  "No," she said.  "It's a punishment.  He said I couldn't for 24 hours."

       The woman clucked.  "What did you do to deserve that?" she asked.

       Mariah said nothing.  The woman was just a slave, and Mariah did not have to answer her.  She didn't see the frown of annoyance on the slave’s face as she patted Mariah just above her sex place.  "Do you have to go something awful?" she asked.

       Until that moment, Mariah hadn't. But now she felt that if she didn't pee she would burst. 

       "I'll tell you what," the woman said.  "You just sit up here on the toilet and pretend.  It'll make you feel better."

       Mariah shrank away from her.  "No,” she said.

       The woman's eyes narrowed but she said pleasantly, "It's the rules, honey.  Everyone has to sit on the toilet, whether or not they go. Otherwise, I get punished.  That wouldn't be fair, now would it?" 

       Defeated, Mariah stepped onto the floor, gasping at the stiffness in her muscles, and then onto the toilet platform.

       "There, now," the woman said soothingly.  "You close your eyes and relax.  I'll just tie you here for a minute and come right back."

       Mariah didn't react as the woman tied her ankles apart, affixing them to cuffs jutting from the bottom of the toilet box, or when she tied her knees open.  But when she took her right hand and put it in a container of warm water, Mariah jerked her hand away, splashing.  "What are you doing to me?"  she shouted.

       The noise brought a mistress over, who frowned at Mariah as she grasped her whip.  "What's this racket, Shinelle?" she asked sternly. 

       The slave woman answered, "This farm cunt won't let me do my job, Mistress.  I keep telling her, these are the rules, but she just makes trouble."

       The mistress glared at Mariah.  "I don't like to punish other's pickings in here," she said, "but if I hear one more sound out of you I'll beat you right back to the farm.  Do you understand me?"

       "Yes, mistress," Mariah said. 

       As the mistress strode away, Shinelle tied both of Mariah's arms in bowls of warm water, saying softly, "Don't make trouble.  You just go along with me, everything will work out fine."  Then she walked away.

       Mariah felt the need to pee like waves in her body.  Her very jaw tingled with the feel of it.  She closed her eyes and tried to think of anything else, or to concentrate on the noises echoing around her, but nothing helped.

       Suddenly there was a body behind her, and breasts pressing into her back.  Hands came around to her front and began rubbing her where her hair grew, above her sex place.  Shinelle said in her ear, "Just relax, and neither one of us will be punished."

       Mariah felt as if her pee was streaming through her body like blood.  Shinelle’s hand moved lower, to her clitoris, touching her there.  “Please, stop,” Mariah begged, trying to close her legs that were tied open.  Then Shinelle was licking the inside of Mariah’s ear and blowing softly into it.  Mariah could stand it no more.  With a groan, she let herself pee.  She felt as if it would never stop.  She did not notice that Shinelle had moved away.   

       When the stream stopped, Mariah opened her eyes.  Master Jonas was standing there, hands on his hips, staring at her, his eyes ice.

       "Forgive me, Master," Mariah said hopelessly.

       Shinelle snorted from behind her.  "Now she begs for forgiveness, Master," she said.  "You should have heard her a few minutes ago begging me to let her pee. I told her no, but a mistress came over and told me to let her do it just to shut her up."

       "No," Mariah whispered.  "That's not true."

       "Shut up, scum," her Master said.  He turned to the slave woman.  "Tell me, Shinelle, you see these farm cunts come and go.  How would you punish her?"

       Shinelle smiled in satisfaction.  "This one is no better than an animal, Master," she said.  "I say no point in having a master like yourself break her in.  Give her to a dog."

       Master Jonas actually laughed.  "You are a delight," he said.  "Go to the exercise yards and bring me the finest looking dog you can find."  Shinelle dropped to the floor and touched her forehead all the way down before she stood and ran down the corridor.

       "Master, I'm sorry," Mariah pleaded.

       Without warning Master Jonas punched her in her left breast, so hard that Mariah would have tumbled backwards off the latrine seat if she were not tied to it.  “No talking,” he said.  He moved behind her and began to touch her, on her back, on her shoulders, on her breasts, on her stomach, on her thighs.  His touch was gentle and yet aggressive.  Mariah hated it.  She concentrated on not moving.  Her body felt hot, as if she was in a sweatbox.

       It seemed like an eternity later when Shinelle came down the corridor leading a large brown and black dog by the leash.  She handed the leash over to Master Lucas and untied Mariah.  “On the floor,” he told Mariah.  Mariah dove down and lay on her stomach.  With his foot Master Lucas rolled Mariah over onto her back.  "Bring a cushion," he ordered Shinelle.  Then he turned back to Mariah.

       "Shinelle is right, you deserve to be broken in by a dog," Master Jonas said to Mariah. 

       "Yes, master," Mariah said.

       Master Jonas kicked her in the side with his boot.  "No talking,” he said again.  He glowered over her to see if she would groan or move.  When she lay perfectly still, he continued, "Unfortunately, since you haven't been fully tested, I can't punish you as you deserve, yet."

       Shinelle returned then with a cushion, which Master Jonas indicated she should put under Mariah's head.  "Bend your knees and open them," he said to Mariah.  She obeyed immediately.

       "Have you ever seen a hard penis?" he asked Mariah. 

       Mariah remembered a mistress tormenting one of the slave boys in the room where Master Jonas had found her.  She nodded her head. 

       "Good," Master Jonas said. "Have you ever seen a man come?"

       "No, master," Mariah pleaded.  "I've been good, I swear." 

       Master Jonas kicked her again, but not as hard as before.  "I know you," he said. "You've never been good."  He continued, "If you were good, the first time you saw a man come it would be to bring you pleasure, and the man.  But you have lost that privilege.  Because you are nothing more than an animal, your first experience of pleasure will be when this dog comes in your mouth."  He pulled the dog’s hind legs over Mariah's chest.  "You will put your mouth around the penis.  You will caress it and suck on it.  If you obey, your punishment will be over.  If you bite him or do anything to make him pull back, I'll kill you on a cross.  Do you understand?"

       Mariah nodded frantically.  "Yes, master," she said.

       "Good," Master Lucas said.  He prodded the dog forward.  "Put your mouth around its penis, gently."

       Mariah obeyed, willing herself not to gag or disobey in any way.  The thing was hairy and disgusting, but this punishment was merely revolting, not painful. 

      Suddenly, two things happened at once. The dog's organ began to widen and elongate in her mouth, almost choking her, and she felt something wet and warm, a tongue, on her own sex, licking her slowly.  Frantically she jerked her head back, but reminded herself fiercely that she wanted to live.  She lifted her mouth again to the dog's organ, hoping her master had not noticed.

       The dog whimpered and began moving its hips up and down, forcing its penis deeper into her mouth.  Mariah's nose was pressed against its hairy belly and she felt that she would suffocate, until she learned to gasp for breath when the dog pulled back to begin a deeper thrust.  "That's it," she heard Master Lucas say.  "Suck on it." 

       Moving her lips around her teeth so she wouldn't bite the dog's penis, Mariah sucked, still fighting for every breath.  It seemed to go on and on.  Her jaw ached with the effort of keeping her mouth wide enough.  She tried to pretend this was not happening to her, that she was still back on the farm with her cohort, that she was young and innocent, that she had never met Rolanda, but the licking of her own cunt was interrupted by a bite there, which jolted her back into this reality.  She in turn bit the dog, but not so hard that the dog's pleasure was interrupted. 

       Suddenly there was a wet goo in the back of her mouth, like thin gruel.  Mariah choked and sputtered as the dog went soft inside her.  "Swallow it," Master Lucas ordered.  She did her best, still keeping her mouth wide so as not to injure the dog's softening organ which he did not seem inclined to remove from her mouth.  Minutes passed before he pulled out.  Giving her an apologetic look, he lay down next to her and immediately went to sleep.  Master Lucas put his foot under Shinelle's throat, pulling her head away from Mariah's cunt.  "I knew you could obey if you tried," Lucas said to Mariah.  "Thank me for teaching you that."

       "Thank you, Master," Mariah said.