Fifty Shades of War

"I told you, it's not finished, it's a mess, it's under construction, it's..."

Ares' nostrils flared as the stench of fear began rising off Grey's expensive suit, "Something about the office you don't want us to see? Is there where you're keeping your mistress? Very handy. Very ballsy and stupid, a man should never shit where he eats."

Ana had no idea how the night turned in this direction so suddenly, "Christian? Is there something down there?" She tapped a well-manicured nail on the hard plastic feeling a sense of panic run through her and it made her feel alive. He stood stone faced and silent. Part of her told her that she would be punished for her disobedience later. Her inner goddess started screaming that what she wanted, what she needed, was just around the corner was ugly. The inner goddess advised that it was tough to take but it led to true freedom. If she had the courage to follow her inner goddess she would never live under his thumb again. "Let's go." Ana pushed the button on the penthouse elevator.

The doors slid open, Ana, Alena and Ares climb aboard as Christian stood his place and called out, "Wait, don't."

"Oh, don't worry, Christian, you're coming with us," Ares informed him as he beckoned the man forward with one finger, "aren't you?"

Feeling as though he had no will of his own, Grey's legs hesitantly carried him to the elevator with his heart pounding in his chest and that light bead of sweat on his brown turning into a trickling brook. Standing next to his wife, he tried to take Ana's hand but she moved away from him. "Just let me say something..."

"I don't think so," Ana replied, "I think we'll let whatever's behind this door do the talking."

The elevator doors slid shut as Ares and Alena nodded to each other over the young woman's words. Chapter Eight
Welcome to my Nightmare

The elevator doors slid open on the 14^th floor. The apartments down here were not as nice or expensive as those on the upper floors and certainly nowhere near the price of the penthouse. They were expensive enough and the white corridor with its white marble floor shone top to bottom under the tasteful bronze chandeliers. Grey turned around to stop them from exiting but Ares cast him aside before he could speak shoving him into the heavy steel wall with a loud bone-racking thud. The God of War turned to Ana with a genuine smile, "Ladies first," he gestured to the door as his big hand kept Christian pinned to the wall.

"Thank you, my darling," Alena gave Ana a little push in the small of her back to get the young woman to lead the way.

With both women off the elevator, Ares held Grey in place, leaned in close and whispered directly in his ear, "Be a good boy, take your punishment like a man and maybe you live, hummm?" Wrenching Grey's arm behind his back, Ares turned him to the open doors and shoved him through like a sack of potatoes.

No longer feeling smug or brash but instead trembling where he stood, Christian met Ari's gaze, "Who are you?"

"The question is, Mr. Grey; Who are you? I think we're about to find out." With a thick finger, he pointed off down the corridor toward where the women were walking ahead of them. "Go on, scurry along, better catch up. Who knows what they're saying?"

Christian didn't want to follow the women but there was no way he was going to circumvent Ari and run away. The way the man was glaring at him made Christian's blood run cold telling him there truly was so much more than a few billion dollars on the line tonight. "This isn't about business, is it?"

"It's about some very nasty business, I'm afraid." Squaring his broad shoulders and stretching his neck to stand his full height Ares let out a long sigh, "Now, are you going to be a good little boy and walk down the hall or do I have kick your ass all the way to the door?"

That was it. If he started yelling that he was being attacked the lower apartment dwellers would come out and someone would call the police who would come and end this whole thing. "I've had enough of this, Ari," Christian said as sternly as he could, "I'm going to..."

"Call for help?" Ares invited. "Go ahead. Scream."

At first, Christian didn't understand but then the fact that the sound was suddenly deadened came to his straining ears. Ari was right next to him but he sounded miles away. "What is this?" Panic turned to desperation as he began to back up, away, and down the hall from where the big man was slowly striding after him knowing deep inside that he could scream until his throat was raw and no one would hear him. Stumbling as his body turned around he called out, "Ana?" But there was no resonance. It was although the air became too heavy to carry sound waves. Down the hall, Ana was standing with the silver-haired bitch in front Apartment 1408 they were waiting patiently as he started making silent pacts with God to do anything if God would just suddenly whisk him away from this place.

God did not answer.

Not in the way Christian expected anyway.

With no other option, he finally came to a stop in front of the shiny mahogany door with the bronze numbers just over the bronze peephole. No way out, trapped like a rat in a maze, he watched helplessly as Ana slid the keycard into the lock. The light turned green, the lock opened with a chunk and she turned the bronze knob in her milky palm. "Don't..."

Too late.

With more strength than she knew she had, Ana walked straight through the open door with her hand reaching along the wall to the right for the light switch.

Red. Everything was red. Different shades from carpet to furniture to ceiling. Red with accents of gold, grey, and black. Letting out a sickening grunt, her weakening knees carried her further inside, she walked through the small white entryway that was probably like all the rest except for the sliding smoked glass privacy doors that had been installed and could be easily closed should an unexpected visitor arrive to ruin the fun.

To her amazement, she found that the shock and horror she felt bolting through her at the sight of the living room was not in response to what it represented but in knowing that this was probably the tamest of all the rooms in Christian's new Red Apartment of Pain. It was almost Victorian in its design with several red velvet chaise lounges spread out around the fireplace. They seemed innocent and comfortable until she looked closer to see the restraints hidden below the soft pillows. Several classic and very expensive oil paintings of the Greek Gods in all their naked glory adorned the walls. (Even Ares was there depicted with Aphrodite's naked body perched on his naked lap while Eros flittered around them.) There were heavy coat racks with corsets hanging from them, silk stockings, garter belts, bras, blindfolds, strands of red velvet. Golden umbrella stands with riding crops stood below. This was the room where he broke them in and first introduced them to his version of roleplaying. The women he brought here probably ate it up as much as she had in the beginning. Ana shook her head as she glared at her husband with cold blue eyes, "I gave you everything."

Christian stood silent so Alena answered for him, "I'm sure he had a wonderful time taking it from you."

"You haven't changed at all!"

Christian held his arms out to her, "I have changed, you made me a better man, I have changed," he protested.

Ana snickered and then cackled as she threw her back and laughed with thunderous force before swiping the back of her hand over her cheeks and under to nose to clear away the moisture, "Then what's all this? Why are we here?" He hadn't changed at all he had just gone underground and expanded his sessions. "What else have you got in here?" Walking away from him she wandered through the living room and then down the hall to the first room with a purple door. Opening it, she found a purple room heavy on red accents in the middle of it was a tub churching with water but it did not steam. It was so cold in here she felt certain that the constant motion of the water was the only thing keeping it from freezing solid. Chains hung in three corners of the room next to metal racks of toys ranging from thumbscrews to nipple clamps to big vice grips sat alongside dildos, vibrators, butt-plugs, cock rings, hoods, gag balls, and a wide assortment of lubrications in various flavors. They didn't surprise her; she was used to them and was certain she would find their exact like in every room, but the stainless steel stand-up doublewide freeze in the other corner chilled her to the bone. Drawn to it like a moth to a flame, Ana put her shaking hand out to touch the cold steel of the handle. Closing her eyes and saying a little prayer, she gave it yank; the door opened to reveal it was thick with ice on all sides and completely empty except for a few tufts of long hair, smears of blood, and a fingernail sunk deep in the ice. Ana's stomach churned threatening to empty her fine dinner onto the purple carpet but she held it back, held it in check, knowing there was so much more to come before the night was over. She needed to be ready to face it.

Standing in the doorway of the Ice Room all Christian could do was stare helplessly at Ana while weakly offering, "I can explain."

While Ares and Alena were very interested to hear Grey's explanation, Ana was not, she walked past him as though he wasn't even down there. Down the hall, a little more she noticed the artwork changed, it went from tasteful but risqué classic oil paintings, to framed images from the Kama Sutra and then to ancient tiles from Rome depicting some of the most heinous of sexual acts.

The next room was on the right and the door was a mustard yellow that wanted to be bright but failed. Steeling herself while behind her Christian yelled for her to wait, she opened the door to the Wax Room. The interior matched the door and again it was heavily accented with red in the form of leather restraints, masks, blindfolds, and the chains themselves were covered in a flat crimson. In here, a similar tub to the one in the Ice Room bubbled and churned but not with cold water with hot wax. There was no freezer in here but, other than his normal supply of sexual toys, there boxes of wood stick matches, candles, even a small blow torch and welder's mask. It smelled of smoke and burnt flesh.

This time as her pretty little wife walked past him, Christian remained silent and hung his head.

Standing in the hall and noticing that now that white walls began to graduate to a black as dark as the door in front of her, Ana held a hand over her heart and bit down on her bottom lip. One slow step at a time she ventured to it passing pictures so vile and torturous she couldn't stand to look directly at them. Women in chains, women being beaten, women tied up in ropes so elaborate and tight their flesh was purple, women being raped while men stand around and laugh at their pain. Swallowing hard as she reached out with a trembling hand, Ana knew what whatever was behind the black door was the true heart of the man she'd married, once she discovered it in all of its sinister glory she could fool herself into believing he was just a misunderstood knight in shining armor. The bronze knob in her hand jiggled with the force of her quivering grip as she fought to keep her eyes from rolling back in her head and fainting dead away on the floor.

"Don't, Ana, if you ever loved me, don't open that door. Walk away." Chapter Nine
Janie's Got a Gun

With her inner goddess urging her onward, Ana opened the door and felt her dinner come to the back of her throat again. The walls and ceiling, ranged from steel grey to pitch black but unlike the other rooms this one had a black marble floor with veins of gold running through it. There was no tub in here; instead, where it should be was a marble platform taking command of the entire room. It was seven feet long, six feet wide, and three feet deep. Directly over the middle hung a pair of iron chains and directly below an equally menacing pair of shackles bolted to the black marble. Both sets of chains had wrist cuffs so thick no one hanging there had a prayer of escape. The floor below and the wall behind had red accents as well but not in velvet or leather but dried blood.

Doing her best to keep command of her stomach, she turned around to take in the entire room. There was a blacksmith's forge on the far wall and inside its cold embers were iron rods, branding irons, and pincers of various sizes. On racks of wood so old they looked as they were straight from the Dungeon of the Marquis de Sade hung scourges and heavy leather bullwhips along with metal dildos sporting large sharp spikes.

She marveled at the iron maiden in the near corner again thinking of how old it was as it stood there thicker than a bank vault's door with its face forever gnarled in agony wants arms just waiting to hold you in painful embrace. He'd also managed to acquire a working and ancient rack it lounged in the furthest corner of the room. If that was not enough, there was a tilting board with ankle and wrist straps. Next to that sat another rack of tools including one she did not readily recognize. It was metal, in the shape of a pear, and had a turnkey at the bottom as though it opened. Ana shuddered at the thought even as she wonder with just how much force the thing blossomed once inserted into its victim.

Standing back watching the scene, Ares thought the room greatly resembled the torture chamber he once had but did not use to get his rocks off on but to extract information and, yes, some times for revenge. "It's quite the collection, Mr. Grey," he complimented as he wandered inside to inspect the items. "This must have cost you a fortune. The rack, 15^th century, isn't it? Spanish, if I'm not mistaken." With gleaming eyes, he walked to the iron maiden and laid his big hand upon the cold iron, "Very impressive, made in Rome, 18^th century." He swung open the heavy door letting the creaking of its ancient hinges fill the silent room as he revealed the three-foot spikes covering the interior. "I wonder how many people met their Fates in these devices, what do you think? Hundreds? Thousands? Died screaming begging for mercy inside your most cherished of possessions?" He hadn't seen one of these in a long time so he took a closer peek inside where the stench of blood and fear rose hot. Ares rubbed his fingers along one spike and came back with blood that was only barely dry. "Fairly recently too, I would think," he held up his hand so that all in the room could see the evidence on his fingertips. "But that," he hitched a thumb toward the only piece of artwork in the room to a five-foot high oil painting of a woman with brown hair. "Let me guess...mommy?"

Ana's eyes scanned to the painting but all she was the fingernail embedded in the ice flashing behind her blue eyes, Ana turned to Christian with pleading in her voice, "Tell me it's not true, tell me you haven't killed anyone." As sick and depraved as it all was, if he looked her dead in the eye and told everything that ever happened here was consensual, there was a safe word, he obeyed, and no one got hurt she'd believe him. "Please?"

With nothing left to lose, Christian's gray eyes rolled over to his side and to the silver-haired woman standing there, "This is all your fault you little bitch! Fucking little cunt!" Before anyone could stop him, Christian grabbed Alena, twisted her arm up behind her back and yanked hard on a fistful of her silver-hair. "I'm gonna teach you a lesson you'll never forget," he hissed as he pressed his growing cock against the small of her back.

"You couldn't if you tried," she returned cold as ice just before stomping on his left foot driving the heel of her stiletto heel through it to the floor below. Bringing it back up again, she elbowed him in the sternum with her free hand then bent forward to throw him over her back and onto the floor where she stood on his throat looming over him with icy eyes. "But I'll teach you one, Mr. Grey." Easing up on his neck, she stepped back, pointed at him, and then at the chains over the marble platform. Grey disappeared from the floor only to appear hanging in his favorite set of cuffs. Rubbing her hands together to warm up she smiled at him, "Where shall we start?"

Wrestling in the chains that he already knew would never give he shouted out to his wife, "Ana! Ana, get out of here! Call the police!" She just stood there frozen like a deer in the headlights. "Do it you bitch! I command it!"

It didn't look to her as though he was commanding much of anything now. She would feel sorry for him, she'd even stand up for him, if weren't for that fingernail and the blood spatters on the walls in here. For the first time she was seeing him for the cold-blooded monster he really was and understood from her years of training at his hand that punishment must be doled out. "How many?" She hissed as she swayed up to the foot of the platform to look at him hanging there helpless. "How many? How long?"

Christian remained steadfast in his silence.

Ares laid a gentle mitt on Ana's shoulder, "Perhaps you should look under his piano, I think you'll find a rather fat stack of, what do you call them? Ah, Consent and Non-Disclosure Forms, taped there."

Ana wanted to run from the room, race up to the apartment and see if Ari was telling the truth even though she hadn't the slightest idea of how the dark handsome stranger should know such a thing.

"I think you'll many of those women who consented are now listed as Missing with the authorities," Alena added, "Won't she, Mr. Grey?"

With his entire world collapsing around him, Grey began to wail, to demand, that he be let out of the chains and that this wretched game end finishing with, "Don't you know who I am? I'll bury you, Ari!"

Ares and Alena looked at each other a quick moment then back to him, "Again, you're mistaken, Mr. Grey, it's you who doesn't know who you are or who we are." Ares answered then casually held his hand up before his face spreading his thick fingers wide allowing flames to spring up from each one to bring light to the darkened room. "Allow me," he turned to the blacksmith's forge, let streams of fire fly from his fingers and lit the cold fire until it crackled with new life.

"Ready to begin, Mr. Grey?" Alena snapped her fingers and Grey's suit disappeared from his body leaving him exposed. His torso was peppered with old burns that appeared to be from the tip of a cigarette. "You're so pathetically typical," she sighed, "let me guess, mommy didn't love you. She never wanted you, she had many other men, maybe even an outright whore and she put all of those swinging dicks before you. Is that the crux of you little perversion, Mr. Grey? Do you have any idea who your real father is? Any idea at all?"

Ana felt that Alena's words were too harsh and even though her inner goddess railed against it, she came to his defense, "It's not his fault, he was abused."

"No, that's not his fault," Alena informed the young woman, "but how he deals with it is," she gestured around the Torture Chamber, "Do you find this acceptable therapy, Ana?"

The young woman cast her eyes to the black marble floor with its veins of gold and stains of blood, "No."

Alena turned back to the chained Mr. Grey as she ascended the platform and walked around him close enough to feel his body heat radiating from him but not close enough to touch him. "Did your mommy touch your little pee-pee, Mr. Grey? On the other hand, maybe she used you the same way other men used her, threw you down, made you her little bitch, and fucked the snot out of you. Is that what happened, Mr. Grey?"

No, it wasn't exactly what happened but it was close enough for Government Work. It was close enough for Christian not to deny it even as he fought against the restraints with his cock flapping in the breeze. "Fuck you."