Stranger Than Truth Ch. 07

"She's my Mistress. I would let her do anything to me. I trust her."

"Valerie, you are one lucky lady to be loved and trusted that much." Crystal turned back to Sally. "I think I understand why you do the things you do. Melanie trusts me too. I don't always feel like I deserve that much trust."

"I struggle with that myself," Val commented. "We have to trust our partners as well, trust that they aren't trusting us too much. It makes me very careful."

"Valerie, may I stay in contact with you, ask for advice when I need it?"

"Of course Crystal, I'd be honored."

A head stuck itself through the door. "Come on folks, time is money." Milton paused for a moment. "Sally honey, you must tell our physical therapist how you managed to get your hands back like that. Very impressive."

"I had help Milton." Sally tugged at the chain holding her hands up.

"It's time to release you, Sally."

Sally turned around and Val undid the bindings on her wrists. When Sally went to button her blouse back up, Val put her hand on Sally's and shook her head. They followed the actors into the club and to one of the private rooms. Crewmen were bustling about, preparing the room for the shoot. Val turned to Milton.

"Milton, I'm a little confused. You've had Tasha made up like it was the end of a scene. Shouldn't you have started with her unmarked and then added marks as the scene progressed?"

"Ah, that's why I'm directing and not you. It's easier and takes less time to take effects off than to put them on. So we'll be shooting things in reverse, for all practical purposes. Each scene in the movie with whipping is broken up into one to two minutes shots. We film each in reverse order and take a little of the markings off after each one. Our first shot will be Tasha being released after being subjected to unwanted sexual attention from Melanie.

Val and Sally smiled at the remembrance of Val's first scene with Sally, back when Val was still repulsed by lesbian sex. Their hands clasped and squeezed. The preparations were ready in a matter of minutes and the room was cleared of anyone not needed for the scene.

"All right, places everyone!" The shot supervisor's voice was loud enough to belong to a marine drill sergeant. "Valerie's Crisis, scene 57, take 1."

Milton looked for and received a nod from the cameramen and called out, "Action!"

Tasha's visage changed in an instant. Her face was drawn in pain and her breath was coming short. "Mistress, is it allowed for a slave to ask for a specific punishment?"

Melanie looked up with a wicked grin that made both Val and Sally shudder. "As long as they ask for permission too. What would you like?"

Tasha looked down sheepishly. "Would you tease me with pleasure?"

"You know you can't climax, don't you?"

"Yes, Mistress, but, this is about your pleasure."

"Very well, sensual torture it is."

Melanie reached up and kissed Tasha. Sally, long experienced with kisses between women, could see that the two actresses were not acting much. She marveled that the heterosexual Tasha could so readily act out a same sex kiss on screen. Melanie's hands started moving towards Tasha's breasts, simulating caresses and pinches. Val could see that real contact was kept to a minimum. Glancing over, she saw that the camera angles would make up for much of what wasn't being done for real. Tasha was begging for Melanie to stop, just as Valerie had done in the real encounter. Several minutes passed.

"Cut! Great job folks. Okay, it's been 30 minutes of sex without orgasm for you, Tasha. Harvey, a little sweat and blushing if you would? Tasha, Melanie will be giving you head and you will suddenly cry out your safe word. Melanie, pull away immediately. This is one of our two chances to show a safe word being honored. From there, let Tasha loose and comfort her from a distance. Tasha will be too high strung by the unwanted contact to handle physical comfort. Tasha, when you're crouching, fear and longing at the same time."

Melanie dropped to her knees. A costume lady brought over a flesh colored skirt and wrapped it around Tasha's crotch, preventing actual physical contact between Melanie and Tasha. It was extremely realistic and molded against Tasha's skin so that it looked like it wasn't there.

"Valerie's crisis, scene 58, take 1!"

"And…action!"

Tasha's face showed that blend of terror and arousal that Sally so loved to see in Valerie when Sally was the Mistress. Melanie was simulating a slow, sensuous oral sex while smiling up at Tasha. The action continued for a few minutes when Milton made a hand motion and Tasha screamed, "Red, Light. Oh God, please, red light!" Like a whip shot, Melanie backed off and stood. The scene played out much the way Val and Sally remembered it, including the, "Drop of a word," joke that had the two ladies rolling in laughter when Charles had walked in on them so many months ago.

From there, the whippings that Sally had given Valerie were reenacted in small thirty second snippets. After each, Harvey took a minute to remove some of the whip marks. As they watched his work, Valerie noticed that each removal was practically a second skin, transparent where there were no marks. It took two hours to work their way through the whippings, ending with Melanie and Tasha entering the room and binding the actress playing Valerie to the whipping post.

When they had finished, Valerie walked over to Tasha, who had slipped a robe on. "Tasha, just how long were you in makeup?"

"Let's see. I arrived at three and we came here at seven, so…four hours."

"Oh my God!" Sally exclaimed. "I can't imagine being trapped in a chair for that long."

"This was nothing. I've seen seven hour make up sessions. If Harvey hadn't had those second skins ready in advance, it would have been twice as long. I've got three more of these scenes to shoot, one tomorrow and two on Wednesday. At least I can eat in my makeup. Some of the full body jobs require the actor to go without solids for the entire time they're in makeup. It takes too long to fix. CGI is helping with that, but live actors still need real make up."

The rest of the morning was spent filming the auction scene. The workers had taken advantage of the soundproofing in Mephisto's and constructed a circle of green screen around the stage so that the auction crowd could be added in post production. Val and Sally learned that recruiters would be on site the next couple of days to hire a crowd for the auction. Milton's financial team had negotiated an arrangement with Mephisto's owners to allow anyone who participated in the crowd scene to be given free cover charge on Wednesday night when the filming would be done.

To Valerie and Sally, the sight of the auction going off with no one in the crowd seemed almost surreal. The one change to what actually happened was that Tasha did not have her bra or panties pulled off during the auction. By 1:00, everyone was starving and the cast retired to the house and the catered food. The afternoon and evening were spent shooting more non-BDSM scenes. With Milton in control, the atmosphere on the set was light and things ran smoothly. As they were breaking for the evening, Milton waved the two over.

"Valerie, Sally, I want to apologize. I should have taken your calls about Barry more seriously. Barry's been a good friend for over a decade and I've never known him to try to ruin a film before."

"I'm just glad it's going to work out in the end. I have to admit, I was shocked when he slapped Mistress. I want to thank you, Milton, for making this movie. It seems that those into BDSM are always portrayed as fools or evil in the movies. At least people will be able to see us for who we are for once."

"It's my pleasure Sally. See you in the morning."

That night, Val had Sally sleep in the kennel again, this time with her hands bound to her collar. Tuesday was much like Monday, with a whipping scene in the morning and more vanilla scenes in the afternoon. Valerie kept Sally in her bed, cuddling through the night. On both nights, Val caught up on vital work from the office. During lunch on Wednesday, June phoned Valerie.

"Ms. Burbon. You received a call from Mrs. Anders of Yara's Leather Emporium. She would like you to come in for a meeting tomorrow at 11:00. I took the liberty of saying yes for you."

"Excellent! The filming is just about wrapped up and I should be able to slip out for a couple of hours. If it's a yes, I'll be in to start any ad work we need to do."

"How's the movie going, Ms. Burbon?"

"Really well, it should show this lifestyle in a good light for the first time."

"I'm glad to hear that. I'll look for you tomorrow."

That afternoon, returning from Mephisto's, they entered the house to find the front room and connecting dining room looking eerily familiar. Sally placed it first and gripped Valerie's hand for the inevitable. Then Valerie saw it as well. The room had been returned to its original appearance. Valerie's breath came in ragged gasps as the past crashed in on her and she was once again stretched in the dining room entrance, her back being savaged by a friend driven over the edge.

"I…I…I don't think I can do this. It's too much."

"You don't have to, Mistress. I can deal with anything that comes up."

People were staring at Valerie, wondering what was happening. Tasha glared at people, backing them off through force of personality. Tasha walked over as the crowd found other places to be, putting her hand on Sally's shoulder.

"Sally, could I have a minute or two with Valerie?"

Sally looked up, ready to deny the request and saw something in Tasha's face that stopped her. There was empathy, true empathy, and pain. "Sure, but be gentle, she's on the edge. Last Thursday she had a flashback."

"I will."

The actress led Valerie to another room, one with less memory attached.

"Valerie, look at me." Val looked up, her face trying to hide the horror she was feeling. "If you can't do this, I'll understand. You were hurt badly, but it would be good for you and me if you could find it in you to stay." At the questioning in Val's eyes, Tasha continued. "I have a confession to make. There's a reason I had so much trouble with what you were training us to do. I've experienced what you did. My back looked like a miniature version of yours at one point in time."

"But, your back is lovely, unmarked."

"Plastic surgery. When you have money, a multitude of sins can be covered up. When I was 12, a man, and I use the term loosely, punished me for stealing apples from his orchard. He dragged me to a barn and beat me with a switch until my back was bloody. I guess you would say I was past my limits from the first blow." The dour voice and humorless expression belied the lightness of her statement. "It took a year of hospital visits to erase the scars on my body. It has taken this movie to erase the scars from my mind. I don't know if I can film this. It would help if someone who understands what I went through would be there. Will you stand by me in case I flash back?"

Valerie looked at the actress in awe. She had had no idea that Tasha was dealing with her own demons. She gave a sob and clasped the actress in a tight hug. "Yes, if you can hold me when mine happen."

"Deal, we'll be two of the wounded, facing the darkness together." When they broke their embrace, Tasha smiled, saying, "I still don't understand how you can let people whip you after what happened."

"I'm not sure I could explain it. I think it helps that Francine was not acting out of malice, like the man did with you, but out of pain. If it had been Harv who attacked me that way, who knows how I would have reacted."

"Let's get this shot out of the way."

"Tasha, thank you for understanding. It's helped, I think."

The two women walked back to the living room of the house where Val stopped short. She stifled a cry as she took in the scene of Sally, upper body bared, strung up in the doorway while Crystal whipped her back with a cat. She started to lunge forward when Tasha grabbed her arm.

"Sally!" Val gasped in horror.

"Valerie, it's practice," came Tasha's reassuring whisper.

Valerie gulped and trembled. Her nightmare flashed through her mind, the bloody and dying vision of Sally superimposing itself over the unharmed form of her lover. Tasha grabbed Valerie in a hug, holding her tight and turning Val away from the sight. Several heads turned with quizzical looks until Tasha's fearsome glare had them cowered and looking away. As Tasha watched, she saw Crystal's form improve with every stroke, the muscle memory of the training sessions two weeks past returning. Milton's voice was heard over the sound of the whips slapping flesh.

"Great Crystal, I love that look," he commented about the intense concentration she showed. "Give us the same look when we film with Tasha. Sally, how's she doing?"

Crystal stopped in response to the question so Sally could answer. "Fine Milton, she's got the technique down pat. The last dozen blows were not painful at all. Could someone let me down?"

A stage hand release Sally from the ropes. By then, Valerie had turned back towards Sally, letting Sally see her tear streaked face. Sally rushed over and took Valerie's hands into her own.

"Mistress, are you okay?"

Val nodded her head. "Yeah, I saw you and had a nightmare flashback. This isn't going to be easy."

"Do you want to wait somewhere else?"

"No," Val shook her head. "I think I need to be here, to face the demon I've been avoiding for the last few months. I'm seeing Dr, Gloush tomorrow, so if it's too bad, he'll help me deal with it."

"I'm sorry about frightening you, but Crystal was unsure about being safe, having not had any practice since the shooting started."

"You did well. I'm sure that Tasha will be grateful for any practice Crystal has had."

The actress in question was now nude and being roped into place in the doorway. The scenes leading up to the whipping had been filmed early in the previous week. Unlike the previous whipping scenes, this one would be filmed in forward time progression. Harvey had prepared a series of second skins with differing levels of wounds on them. The plan was to take the rest of the afternoon to shoot the entire whipping scene. There would be more time spent on changing the second skins than actually shooting the shots.

The first two hours were not very hard on Valerie, as they covered the time period before she had used the ignored safe word. While she hid it well, Tasha was struggling with the whole scene. She had to struggle with holding the flashbacks to her own incident at bay. Valerie was there, comforting and reassuring Tasha between each shot. It actually helped both women when Valerie talked about the feelings she had experienced during the shots that were coming up.

"Are you going to be ready for this one?" Val asked, knowing the crucial safe word scene was the next shot.

"I don't know. This is where it stopped being consensual."

"Right, until now I was accepting everything. I thought Francine wanted a safe word scene, and I was okay with that."

"What were you feeling when she didn't stop?"

"At first: confusion. It never occurred to me that someone would not stop at a safe word. I suppose I should have known it could happen. Lord knows Master and the others had mentioned it enough, if only as a never thing. After a time, I was panicked and pleading for Francine to stop, trying to understand amid the haze of sheer agony I was feeling. It was only as I invoked her love for me and she became increasingly frantic that I realized, at least subconsciously, that she was in as much pain as I was."

"Every time I think about it, it just seems so horrible."

"I won't sugar coat it, it was horrible. It's my hope that this film will make sure that nothing like this ever has to happen again. I don't mean safe word violations, but what happened to Francine. Harv's reaction, his intense revulsion at Francine's kink came as much from being shocked, I think, as it did from a hatred of it. It doesn't excuse what he did, but if the world at large understood BDSM better, maybe they wouldn't react so harshly when confronted by it."

"I'll try to hold onto that thought. Never again has been a good motivator for other things as well."

Tasha was strung back up and the filming started anew. Valerie held Sally's hand as the crucial scene approached. When Tasha screamed, "Red light!" with a realistic cry of pain and agony, Valerie squeezed, her breath coming short and fast, her mind on the verge of panic. Sally winced in pain as her hand was crushed by her unaware partner. She squeezed back, gently, letting Valerie know that Sally was there, ready to be whatever she needed. When Milton cried out, "Cut!" Val ran forward, embracing the bound actress, both ladies crying with emotional pain.

Five more makeup changes, each bloodier and looking more wicked than the last, took place between shots of a woman in pain and terror, beaten beyond endurance. Five more times, Tasha and Valerie embraced, with Sally beside them, and cried as their individual flashbacks knocked at their minds' doors, threatening to overwhelm them. Five times the combined strength of the two former victims and the woman who loved one and respected the other pushed the horror back just enough for their fragile grip on coherence to remain intact.

Milton Freeman knew that this scene was the heart of the movie. It was here that people would see the results of prejudice and intolerance and, perhaps, feel a little guilt for their own less than pure thoughts. Whatever was affecting Tasha so strongly was also making the scene more powerful than he could imagine. He knew that they were going overtime with the extra time needed to comfort Tasha between each take, but he did not begrudge them that time. He wanted the best for his movie and Tasha was giving him that. If that meant overtime pay, so be it.

The final take was the rescue by Sally and Surmi. Milton went over the scene again, hoping to shoot it in one take.

"Okay, Crystal is whipping Tasha when Melanie and Ursala," mentioning the name of the actress playing Surmi, "rush in. Ursala grabs the whip and Melanie lets Tasha down. Crystal, you run into the kitchen. Cynthia, are the blood bags ready in the kitchen?" Cynthia nodded and Milton continued. "When Tasha is down, she will crawl to Crystal, with the camera following her, to find Crystal with slashed wrists and try to stop the bleeding, yelling for Melanie and Ursala to call 911."

The scenes of the paramedics showing up and treating Valerie had been cut and the outside scenes with the police had already been shot. After today, the only scenes left were the handfasting ceremony and the final confrontation with Harv on the steps of the hospital. Everyone was in their places and the shot started with Milton's "Action!"

As the scene played out, Valerie had to put her hand to her mouth to keep the convulsive sob from being picked up by the sound system. Valerie's emotions clashed as the incredible love and anguish she recalled having felt at Francine's near death met the anger Dr. Gloush had brought to the surface. She faced the conflict of loving and hating her friend at the same time with tremendous force. Sally held her close, trying to absorb some of the pain her Mistress was feeling.

The shot went perfectly. When Milton cried "Cut! Print it," Tasha rushed to Sally and Val, embracing for one more balm to her emotions. The three did not hear Milton telling everyone they were done for the day or that the next day would be the last day of filming. Valerie and Tasha let go finally, letting themselves break down into tears. They had taken themselves through an emotional wringer to finish the shot, and the release was almost more than they could bear.