Mind Games

CHAPTER 15:  TASTING SOMETHING NEW

       The mute slave untied Mariah and indicated that she should stand.  He had her place her feet into holes in stiffened leather.  When he pulled it up her legs she realized it was a sort of garment, similar to panties a mistress might wear, except that it ballooned out at her crotch so the leather did not touch her skin there and it kept her legs apart.  The mute tied a cloth gag in place, loosely as if it was meant to be more symbolic than practical, and cuffed her hands behind her neck.  He shoved her to start her walking.

       Mariah caught glimpses of other slaves tied to platforms as she had been, boys and girls alike and all of the same age as she.  At the end of the corridor the mute turned her and led her to a door which, to Mariah’s surprise, opened to outside.  The sun stabbed at her eyes. 

      She was in an enclosed pen.  A number of slaves, similarly clad with the strange crotch garment, and similarly bound and gagged, trudged in a circle around the perimeter.  With another shove, the mute indicated that Mariah should do the same, and then he left her.

       Mariah’s arms soon started to ache and her position made her feel embarrassed by her breasts, which jutted out in front of her in a way she had never noticed before.  “What do I care?” she asked herself in annoyance as she stumbled and almost fell over. “What these slaves think of me is nothing.” She wondered if she would feel the same if Samson, or any of the rest of her cohort, even Sefka, could see her.  Homesickness washed over her, and her eyes blurred.

       She walked in a circle for an hour, until the pain in her shoulders was almost unbearable.  When the mute slave came to get her she nearly cried with relief.  At her cubicle, when he unbound her wrists and allowed her to lower her arms, she groaned with relief.  He patted her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile before he removed her crotch cover and her gag.  “Thank you,” Mariah said very softly, so as not to get him in trouble.  He nodded slightly, tied her to her table, and was gone.

       The walk in the pen was repeated twice a day for several days.  Each time, although the pain in her arms became less, Mariah’s embarrassment grew.  She imagined that the other slaves were staring at her breasts, or at her covered crotch, and she found herself staring at them in turn. 

       There was a tingling sensation in her crotch, sort of like having to pee, but constant and getting worse.  She longed to rub herself there, but was always bound in such a way that she could not reach that area, and her legs were tied apart.

       At last Master Jonas returned.  Without a word to her, he placed his hand on her inner thigh, tied open as always.  Then he put the index finger of his other hand at the entrance to her vagina and pushed it in slightly.  He pulled it out, looked at it, and frowned.  “Are you eating?” he asked her.

       “Yes, my lord,” Mariah answered.

       “Well, not enough.  You need to eat more,” he said, and left.

       At her next meal the mute slave handed her a larger portion than before, and hovered near her to make sure that she ate it all.

       Over the next days the tingling in her crotch grew worse.  When she was awake she thought of ways to escape her bonds so that she could touch herself.  When she slept she dreamed of doing so.  When Shinelle came with the portable latrine Mariah remembered how Shinelle had licked her crotch when the dog’s penis had been in her mouth.  The tingling grew to a burning. Mariah could not bear to look at Shinelle.

       Master Jonas returned, and as before pushed his index finger into her vagina.  This time he looked pleased.  “Soon you’ll be ripe enough,” he said, before he walked away.           

***

       The next morning Gabriel wheeled Mariah to a different entrance to the mansion.  It was early enough that the lawn was mostly deserted.  Gabriel seemingly aimlessly led Mariah on a walk parallel to the mansion. Mariah enjoyed the feeling of sun on her face and the fresh air.  It made her feel strong and healthy.  The grass was short, and was cool and soft beneath her feet.

       Gabriel came to a sudden stop, staring at the lawn.  He bent over and picked something green.  Turning to Mariah he said, "Do you know what this is?"

       "Clover, my lord," said Mariah, expressionless.

       Gabriel shook his head.  "Clover is a darker green than this, and less stringy.  This is sorrel."  Mariah mouthed the strange word.  "It's delicious," Gabriel added, putting a couple of its tiny leaves in his mouth.  He handed some to Mariah.  "Try it." 

       Mariah took a step back from him, her lips clamped closed as if she thought he would force her mouth open.

       Gabriel looked at her appraisingly.  "What Animal told you the other day was true," he said.  "You can't survive outside of Riviera on your own.  Not unless you know how to take care of yourself. How to recognize food.  How to build a fire.  How to trap animals, and skin and cook them.  You would starve to death in a week if you don't know these things."

       "You told me Master Animal said nothing about this, Master," Mariah said, almost triumphantly.

       Gabriel rolled his eyes.  "He told me last night, when I asked him," he said.  "And he was right.  It would be suicide for you to try to live out there right now."

       "What are you saying, Master?" Mariah asked bitterly.  "That you'll teach me what I need to know to run away, and then drop me off five miles outside the gate and leave me on my own?"

       Gabriel smiled sadly.  "I don't know," he said.  "Even I couldn’t survive on my own for long without provisions from home and a good horse with a lot of sense.  No matter how much I teach you, if I just dropped you off it would be murder.  But if I assume that if you get a chance to run away again you'll take it, then I have a responsibility to teach you what I can."

       Mariah felt the mindgame rushing in at her again, a feeling of vertigo that was beginning to seem normal to her.  She remembered what Animal had said to her when she first woke up.  Playing the mindgame through to the end gave her a chance.  She tentatively looked at the sorrel, sniffed it, tore off half a leaf and put it in her mouth.  She puckered up and spit it out.  "It's sour!" she said accusingly.

       Gabriel smiled.  "Your taste buds are weak from that bland gruel you eat," he said.  "Rose could cure you of that.  She's an excellent cook."

       "I can cook, Master," Mariah said defensively.

       "Aah, but can you eat?" Gabriel said.  "Rose isn't afraid to eat her own cooking. Are you?"

       "I'm not afraid of anything," Mariah said fiercely.  She broke off three sorrel leaves with her fingernail and popped them in her mouth.  Gabriel looked away quickly to hide a smile of triumph.  Trickery or not, he had finally figured out how to get through to her.

***

      Mariah woke with a start.  Master Jonas was moving a lever next to the platform on which she was tied, causing the platform to split at its bottom and spread her legs farther.  Before they were spread wide enough to be really uncomfortable rather than just shameful, Master Jonas stopped.  He came around the side of the table and sat on its edge, taking her pinioned hand in his.  "Do you hate me?" he asked her softly.

       With all her heart.  "No, master, I only want to please you," Mariah whispered.

       "Shsh," Master Jonas said.  "It's okay that you hate me.  It will make my victory more complete."  He unlocked the cuff that held her wrist, and stroked her hand, and then held it.  He put his other hand on her breast, resting it there lightly.  Mariah was electrified.  Her clitoris was pinging. 

      Master Jonas spoke softly, almost dreamily, gently, as he tapped his fingertips all over her breast. Mariah’s heart pounded, and she was gulping air. "Sometimes there is a mix-up among the babies,” Master Jonas was saying..  “Human babies are switched with slave babies, and brought up by accident as slaves, on the farm. This factory is the last test."  He looked at Mariah intently and slowly brought her hand to his mouth, kissing and then licking her palm.  Mariah felt a though he were licking her crotch directly, as Shinelle had.  Master Jonas slowly lowered her hand back down, continuing to massage it with his thumb. "You see, Mariah, a human being would have the dignity and the strength of character to resist temptation.  But a cunt would grasp the first chance she is given to have an orgasm."  He looked at her carefully.  "Which do you think you are?"

       For a brief moment Mariah forgot her body’s urges as a shining hope flared in her:  she was indeed a human being, switched at birth.  Her life had been a mistake.  She should have been raised in the mansion, by parents, not on the farm.  But she knew immediately that this was the mindgame Rolanda had spoken of.  She also knew that Master Jonas must be made to think that she believed him, or things would go much worse for her.  "I don't know, master," she said.

       Master Jonas smiled.  "Then we must find out, my dear," he said.  "The test is this: If you can go for a single hour without coming, you will pass the test and be declared a human being.  But if you have an orgasm, you are declared for all time to be a dirty slave cunt.  Do you understand?"

       “No, master,” Mariah said.  “I don’t know what an orgasm is.”

       “What the dog did in your mouth,” Master Jonas said.  Mariah was still confused.  She didn’t have  a penis.  How could she do that, or want it? 

       Master Jonas said no more.  He let go of Mariah’s hand and of her breast, and untied her legs and her other hand.  "I want you to turn over on your back and relax."  Mariah thought briefly about running.  Even if Master Jonas caught her immediately, he would take time to tie her down and to punish her.  That would surely run the clock.  But she dismissed the idea.  This is only a mindgame, she told herself.  She turned over.

       Master Jonas moved her hair off her shoulder.  Taking a bottle from his waistpack, he squirted her shoulders with oil and began to massage them, deeply, starting with the triangles next to her neck.  Mariah willed herself to fight him.  "Shsh," Master Jonas said, his fingers biting painfully into her muscles, "I told you to relax.  Disobedience won't help you."  Mariah continued to fight him, and he squeezed harder, causing a shooting pain in her head.  He pulled back and she gave in. 

      He went back to massaging her gently, soothing the muscles he had just tortured.  "Good girl," he said softly.  "You can't resist me."  He poured more oil onto her shoulders, rubbing gently in deep circles.  After a long time he moved slowly down her back, circling and then pushing his fingers deeply into her shoulder blades.  Mariah’s muscles spasmed and then suddenly relaxed into jelly.  "Good girl," Master Jonas said again, slowly moving down her spine, inch by inch, adding oil as he went, then pressing his fists gently into her lower back.  Moving lower still, he massaged both cheeks of her bottom, carefully oiling all over and in her crack.  He slid a slippery finger into her asshole, not too fast and not too hard.  Mariah whimpered.  "Shsh," Master Jonas said.  "That doesn't hurt, does it?"

       "No, Master," Mariah whispered.  Master Jonas pulled his finger out and went back to massaging her bottom cheeks, his thumbs between them and his fingers outside.  When another sound escaped her mouth, he moved down her left leg, covering it inch by inch with oil and his massaging hands.  Then he returned to her bottom, rubbing it again, again putting a finger in her asshole, this time a little deeper.  Mariah whimpered again, but this time not with fear but because it felt so, so good.  Master Jonas moved his finger in and out of her ass, slowly, not hurting her.  Then, so slowly, he brought his hands down her right leg, all the way to her toes.

       "Turn over," he ordered her in a soft, husky voice.  Mariah hastened to comply.  He stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.  "Slowly," he said, and he helped her turn onto her back and respread her legs.  Then, for what seemed like a long time to Mariah, he simply looked her in the eye, not touching her.  Mariah was afraid to look away, but also afraid she would get lost in him.  Almost imperceptibly he moved his head towards her and kissed her on the lips, opening her mouth his tongue, slowly exploring the inside of her upper lip.  The ache in Mariah's again vagina flared to a burning.  She groaned.  Master Jonas continued to kiss her, moving his hands to her neck, softly. He blew in her ear, as his hands found her breasts and caressed them gently, like butterflies.  Mariah heard a noise and realized it was herself, whimpering.

       "Where do you feel it?"  Master Jonas whispered in her ear.

       "Please, master, everywhere," Mariah said.

       "Here?" Master Jonas asked, gently cupping her pubic triangle with his hand.  She could only nod. 

       Master Jonas returned his hand to Mariah's breast, massaging it slightly harder than before, and then placed his lips over her nipple, sucking.  Mariah groaned out loud, over and over again. 

      With his other hand, Master Jonas slowly rubbed her all the way down her belly, back to her pubic bone, which he gently ran his fingers over, tickling her.  He placed his forefinger at the entrance to her vagina, but did not push in.  Rather, he moved his finger up her slit, slowly, stopping before he touched her clitoris, and then back down to her vagina.  He repeated this action, again, again, and again. Mariah’s sex place was soaking, as if she had peed.  Slowly Master Jonas moved his finger back up towards her clitoris, and stopped without touching it.  Not able to help herself, Mariah raised her hips, seeking contact.  Master Jonas moved his hand away.  He lifted his lips from her breast.  "Beg me for it," he said.

       In the corner of her mind that was able to retain control, to think rationally, Mariah thought of fighting.  But she knew this was the mindgame.  "Please, Master," she said.  "Please."

       Master Jonas returned to toying with her slit.  "Beg me to make you come," he said.  "Beg me to prove that you are a slave."  His finger came slowly up her slit, again stopping before her clitoris.

       "I beg you, Master," Mariah said.  "Make me come.  I am a slave."  With her left hand, Mariah crossed her fingers. 

      Slowly, Master Jonas moved his finger away from her clitoris and into the entrance of her vagina, not very deeply, and vibrated it there.  Then he took it back up the slippery path of her slit, and kept going, circling around her hard button, again, and again, closer and closer, until finally he was circling on top of her clitoris itself.  A convulsion shook Mariah, wave after wave.  Dimly she heard Master Jonas laugh, and felt him push his finger all the way into her vagina, which spasmed around it.  It hurt, but the pleasure was overwhelming, like a dream of freedom.