A Year

It didn't matter to Anja. She was in love and sexually more satisfied than she could dream of. The older man knew ways to bring her pleasure she had never heard of, and as she lay quivering with delight under his careful, kind ministrations she reached fulfillment beyond her wildest dreams.

Unlike younger men, and more shallow men, the Professor delighted in sharing pleasure, making sure that she felt more delight than he, his orgasms easy and messy, hers special to him like nothing else.

Except science.

She learned from him, and grew to love him even more for his amazing knowledge than for the amazing sex she got from him.

Yet one night, when Bill was away on a trip she sat, bereft of him and she called Tia who she had not seen in weeks.

"Hello?" Tia sounded asleep.

"Tia. It's me, Anja. Are you home?"

"Yes, my Master is punishing me."

"What?"

The other girl began to weep over the phone, saying something unintelligible.

"Tia I'm coming over. Let me in okay?" Taking her phone with her and listening to Tia's incoherent babbling Anja rushed down the hall to her friend's apartment. Pounding on the door she called into the phone. "Let me in Tia. Come to the door."

At last the door was opened and Anja went into the dark apartment while Tia shuffled off into the gloom. All the lights were off and the windows curtained.

Flicking on a light Anja looked for Tia. The other woman was curled on the couch weeping inconsolably, her dark hair messy and her face blotchy. Tia was wearing a robe, and where her pale skin showed she was bruised and welted. Anja felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. Nausea and fear made her shrill.

"My God Tia what happened to you?"

"He is mad at me, and he won't let me see him. I'm having my period and he hates that."

"Oh for fuck's sake. No. What happened to your legs?"

"What?"The crying woman brushed her hand along her leg casually. "That is nothing. He is mad at me and won't let me be there. He sent me away." She began to sob once more.

"Good. Tia stop going there. You look awful. My God are those burns?"

"Don't worry about that Anja. I need you to help me. Tell him I'm sorry. Make him listen to you." Then she sat up erect, as if jolted by a current. "No! I'm being punished; I mustn't beg him to stop it, unless he tells me to. No it is my duty to endure."

"Are you listening to yourself Tia. You sound insane. This man is killing you and you want to go back for more?"

"He isn't killing me! He brought me to life. He gave me a reason to live."

Anja sat down beside her friend and took her hands in her own. "Tia we all like a little slap and tickle now and then. I get that you like playing submissive and all. Kink is fine. But you are talking something way beyond that right now. You sound like a person in a cult. It sounds crazy."

Looking deep into Anja's eyes Tia spoke carefully. "I love him Anja. He is my Master body and soul. This is how it works. He can do anything to me he likes, and I love him for it. A T.V. loves to be watched, a bed wants to be slept in. I want to do anything for him that he wants to do to me. I live to serve."

"No. No, Tia. You are an independent person. You have a life. You existed long before he came along."

"Did I? It doesn't feel like it."

"Look sweetie I don't know what kind of mind games he is playing with you but this isn't right. I want you to listen to me we need to report him to the authorities."

"They won't understand. Same as you don't understand. I want this." Tia opened her robe and showed Anja a body lashed with scars and welts. Her breasts were black and blue with bite marks and deep purple bruises. Old green and yellow ones marred the firm breasts as well. Across Tia's flat stomach marks from a whip looked half healed. Burns of some kind dotted her skin, and more bruises coloured her skin than space was left unmarked.

Tears leaped to Anja's eyes. "Jesus Christ Tia!" Anja felt dizzy looking at the damage her sweet shy friend had endured at the hands of this monster.

"This feels good to me. He makes me cum whenever he does this. I love making him feel good, and doing this makes him feel good. It makes me feel like I'm alive."

"I'm calling the police."

"No. NO! Anja, there are no laws being broken here. I beg him -do you hear me?- beg him to do this."

"Okay. Let's say I believe you. Will you let me document this, just in case something happens? Just for a second think about what happens if he goes too far. Even by accident. We need to know who he is, where he lives and have proof that this happens to you."

"No, Anja. If I died on his wrack I would never want him to be in trouble. It would be my fault if he went too far, because I didn't please him sooner."

"Don't you have one of those safe words?"

"No. There is no need."

"This isn't right. This is so not right." Anja stood and began to pace."I don't know what to do."

"You don't need to do anything. It's nice that you are worried, but I love him. This is the best thing to ever happen to me. I am becoming who I am supposed to be."

"I can't look at you like this. It breaks my heart."

"You hate me?"

"No! I love you."

"Then look at me. See me for who I am."

"I can't. This isn't you."

"Look at me." Tia stood up and dropped her robe. Turning around fully she displayed her battered body to Anja. Compelled to witness the torture she gazed at her friend, her mind reeling from the wounds.

All along Tia's legs mottled bruises and lashes criss-crossed the once beautiful flesh. They went over her buttocks, and back. Tia lifted her cascade of black hair exposing the whip marks that went over her shoulders and across the whole of her back and neck.

"This is his love for me. Each mark earned with patience and doled out with pity."

Anja spotted a dark blotch at the base of Tia's neck.

"What is that?"

"What?"

"That mark." Anja approached and lifted the settling hair. Tia held it up and revealed to Anja a bar-code tattooed just at the place Tia's hair met her neck. "You let him tattoo you?"

"No. I don't have a tattoo."

"Yes, it's right here." She pressed the spot.

"I don't have a tattoo, Anja."

"Yes you do. Give me a sec." Anja went for her phone and began opening her camera ap.

"You aren't taking pictures of me to get my Master arrested."

"No. I just want one picture of your neck. Then if you see that he has tattooed you maybe you believe me. He is obviously drugging you or something. How could you not notice this?"

Tia held her hair while Anja took a close up picture of the tattoo.

When Anja held it up for Tia to see the dark haired girl was stunned. "I don't believe that. When did he do that? I never felt it. You'd think it would hurt for days."

"Now do you believe me that there is something weird going on?"

"This could have happened some other time?"

"When? When you came off the assembly line? He did this."

"You don't know that."

"The ink looks fresh. This hasn't seen the sun, ever."

"I always wear my hair down."

"Stop defending him Tia. He has had you branded."

"I would have noticed."

"Right, one more stinging wound would be noticeable among all this shit."

That stopped Tia.

"I'm not trying to take something away from you, Tia. I'm trying to get you to see how hurtful he is being to you. Sex shouldn't just be about pain."

"What you're trying to do is warp my mind. Get out! Get out of my house!"

Suddenly Tia was in a rage. Anja couldn't believe the anger her friend was showing. She had never seen Tia like this. "Okay. I'll leave, please stop screaming. I was wrong. I shouldn't have interfered."

When Anja opened the door she saw Paul looking stunned in front of his apartment door. When Tia slammed the door behind Anja Paul turned slightly, then slowly looked over. He looked shell shocked, his eyes unfocused and blind. His keys were in his hand but he hadn't opened his door.

"Wow. Tia is in a state. You should see what that mother fucker is doing to her."

Paul mumbled quietly. "Sorry to hear that."

"What? Paul are you okay?" Paul looked physically unharmed. His clothes were neat, his usual collared shirt buttoned and tidy, but he looked like he had taken a blow to the head.

"Fine. Thanks. You?" He replied.

"Oh come on. You too? Come here." She took his keys and opened his apartment door. She went in ahead of him and flicked on the lights. The place was neat and tidy and Spartan, everything in its place and almost nothing to see.

Going to the cupboard Anja found a glass and poured him some water. Paul had meandered in behind her still looking shocked. She took the water to him and went and closed the open door.

"Drink the water Paul. " She said when she turned and found him still standing looking at the water in his hand. Paul drank.

"Sit down. Tell me what happened."

Sitting down Paul looked at her but didn't see her. His eyes were glazed over.

"Paul! Snap out of it! I'm about to lose my shit over here!"

Giving his head a literal shake Paul attempted to bring his focus back into the room.

"I found something terrible today. Something horrible and insane, and ... magical?"

"Magical doesn't really fit on that list Paul."

Now that he was more present Paul looked slightly healthier. He shook his head again and drank some more water. "I don't know how else to say it. I think I believe in God, or something. Somehow. "

"That would freak me out. "Anja tried, but knew the joke had failed.

"I am reincarnated. I saw the photos to prove it. "

"You saw photos of someone who looked like you from before you were born?"

"No. I found photos of me from... years ago, nineteen years ago. But it is me, for sure. Even the clothes were similar."

"I've kinda always wondered why you dressed like that. So straight, so old fashioned."

"Really? I dress old fashioned?"

"There is sort of a songs of yesteryear quality about it, yeah."

"Huh. I don't know what to say to that."

"Go back to your story. Why did this freak you out so much?"

"I don't know. I've been really falling in love with Marny. She is amazing. She just gets me. Like no-one else ever has, but sometimes she says weird things. Thinks that refer to stuff we did in the past. But before we met, you know?"

"No I don't know what that means."

"She just talks like we have known each for a longer than we have. She talks about people we used to know, and stuff we have done, and it is all from when I would have been a child or before I was born. Marny is nineteen years older than me. I thought she was confusing me for her late husband, and it was a little sad. I felt sorry for her. Then today I was looking for a pen in her dresser. I wanted to do a cross-word puzzle while she was in the shower. In this box in a drawer I found a bunch of papers and old photos. One of the first ones I saw was of me and her. I looked like I did in college, and she looked... she looked the same age. College age. She looked so young, and I looked just the same age. When she was that young I would have been maybe one or two years old. And just to prove I'm not lying. I'll show it to you. It was New Years Eve."

Handing her a picture he had in his jacket Paul let her take it then stood up and began pace, taking off his coat, and then his over shirt.

Looking at the photo Anja saw a pale young woman who was pretty in a bland sort of way. She had big glasses on and permed hair. Her dress had large shoulder pads and sequins all over it. The girl was grinning and holding a man to her side. The man was the spitting image of Paul. He looked like Paul did in Anja's memories of when he first moved here. Identical. The image in her memory was as clear as this photo. This was absolutely Paul a few years ago.

And the banner way behind them on a wall showed the phrase. "Happy New Year 1986."

Anja felt the world slip a little to the left.

Paul was pacing and wiping his sweaty brow. He was wearing a white undershirt beneath the button down he had on earlier. The sweat was soaking through it at his back and arm pits. He mopped his brow, rubbed his face and looked terrified.

"That is me. That is me and I've been reincarnated. Except I was alive then. I was two years old. How does that happen?"

Anja stared back and forth from Pau to the photo as he paced. Then when he was facing away from her he ran his hand through his hair and her gaze was snagged by his neck. As he wandered away from her muttering Anja saw a tattoo on the base of his neck where his hair ended.

It took her two tries calling him before she could make a noise. "Paul stop."

"What?"

"Come here."

Paul walked to her and sat next to her on the arm of her chair. Turning him away she placed a finger on his barcode tattoo.

"Where did you get this?"

"Get what?"

"You have a tattoo on your neck."

"No I don't"

"Yes you do." Anja took out her phone and told him to sit still. She once more took a photo and showed him first his own.

"What the hell?"

Then the one on Tia's neck.

"Holy shit!"

"They are the same. "

"What the hell is going on here?"

"Paul have you ever met Tia's boyfriend?"

"No. Why?"

"Because I think he gave her this tattoo. He has beat the shit out of her, and is playing some mind game on her and she is beside herself crying one minute, then raging at me for suggesting he is killing her the next."

"Let's go talk to her."

They pounded on her door and called to her but she wouldn't answer. Anja texted Tia that Paul had the same tattoo and wanted to talk about it. Anja included the photo of Paul's neck to prove it.

Tia opened the door. "Let me see your neck." she demanded. Paul turned and she flinched when she saw it. "Master couldn't have done that. How could Paul have been tattooed by my Master?"

Paul pushed past her and went inside.

"Call him." Paul said through gritted teeth. "I want to talk to him."

"What for? He didn't do that?"

"Well who did? Who tattooed both of us?"

"Somebody probably broke in here and did it."

"Who?" Anja asked. "Aliens?"

"Maybe. That makes as much sense as my Master kidnapping Paul and tattooing him."

It actually did, Anja thought.

"Anja I want to see what the numbers on our tattoos are, can you read them?" Paul leaned over so that Anja could look closely. "4239670042.P."

"Now Tia."

Tia lifted her hair once more and Anja bent over to read her tattoo. "4239670043.T." Anja read.

She turned to Paul to see if that meant anything to him but he was looking at her like he had seen a ghost.

"Do those numbers mean anything to you?" she asked.

"You have one too."

Her bowels turned to liquid. Her mouth went dry, and her vision swam. "I don't have a tattoo..."

Paul came over and moved her hair to the side and looked at her neck. "4239670041.A."

Anja felt faint. She sat on the nearest chair.

"What is happening?" Tia asked her voice small and childlike.

"I have no idea." Paul said.

The three friends sat in silence for a long time trying to absorb what was happening.

Finally Anja broke the silence with a question. "Paul as best you can remember what sorts of things did Marny say to you that sounded so odd"

"Well once she said something like, 'That is just like what you did when we were in Vegas. You are so logical all the time. This is supposed to be fun.' We have never been to Vegas. Why?"

"Tia, has your Master ever said anything that made you think he was remembering someone else?"

"No, not really."

"Anything at all. Or any weird ways of talking?"

"Well sometimes he looks at me really intently and will say things like 'Just the way I told them.' Or 'That is how I told them.' Something like that. What is going on?"

"The Profess-Bill hasn't said it in awhile, but in the first few months, especially in the early days of dating he would often confuse my name with his old lab assistant. He would say 'Anja wasn't as good as you- I mean my old assistant wasn't as good at that.' Stuff like that. I used to think it was just him getting us confused. A couple times he said things like 'You're perfect, so much better than the original.' I thought it was some weird way of talking about his first love or something."

"Now what do you think?'

"I think there is something really weird going on with us, and our relationships. We all fell in love on the same day. Immediately. I mean I knew Bill was the right man for me the instant I met him. I woke up thinking I was going to meet him."

"Me too with Marny."

"That is how I felt. Including thinking I was going to meet Master that day. I remember that clearly."

"We need to do some research into this. There may be something weird going on with our partners. We have to search their houses and find out who they really are. Paul bring that whole box home. Let's see what else is in there."

"What box?" Tia asked meekly. Anja turned to him.

"I found a box at Marny's that had this photo in it."

He handed Tia the picture and he and Anja watched as understanding came to her.

"How could that be you? How is that possible?

"It isn't. " Paul said. "I think I've been reincarnated somehow."

"Tia look for anything at..."She made a face as she said it, "your Master's house. Find out if there is anything weird like this there, okay? I'll do the same at Bill's."

The three friends agreed, then sat in silence for a little while longer.

Finally Anja spoke once more.

"I'm scared you guys."

They both nodded in agreement.

Paul went to Marny's the next day. When he saw her he started to forget the worry of last night. Love filled him. Marny wasn't out to hurt him. She love him, he could see it in her eyes. He almost asked her about the photo, but felt guilty for having doubted her.

They went out. They drove to a flower park and basked in the beauty of hundreds of different types of flowers. They laughed together, and gaped at the astounding beauty on display, and ate a lovely picnic on the lawn.

It was a fabulous day.

That evening they cuddled and watched their favorite movie, An Affair To Remember.

They made love and Paul felt like he was exactly where he belonged.

In the morning Marny had to go out. She had a meeting with her stock broker, apparently she had had some sort of set back and she was somewhat distraught.

Paul tidied up the house for her, and began preparations for dinner, getting a lamb roast out to thaw. As he sat basking in the glow of his love his mind began to wander back to last night. His hand brushed the spot where his tattoo was. Going to the bathroom he angled two mirrors to get a better look at his neck.

There it was, the tattoo. All the fear of last night came flooding back. Going to Marny's room he found the box of papers and photos and began to look through them.

An hour later Marny came home.

They began a conversation about what he had found. They both cried and yelled and Paul felt his world come crashing down around him.

The pork roast sat on the counter in a pan defrosting, blood slowly seeping out of the wax butcher's paper, filling the pan.

Tia dreaded going to her Master's house. She had not been given permission to return, and her period was still happening. This defiance was beyond anything she could fathom. Often she disobeyed or purposely made mistakes so that her Master had opportunity to punish her. Punishments brought both of them so much pleasure, but this was excessive.

Yet Tia felt a level of jealousy she couldn't shake. Had her Master tattooed her and her friends? Were Anja and Paul lying to her about knowing him?

Had they slept with her Master? The idea of either of them being with her Master made her heart turn to ash. She had no right to stop him from seeking his pleasure in any way he saw fit, but somehow this violation, not being told, shattered her confidence.