The Slave of Dystonia Ch. 04

After closing the door, she came to the tub and immediately started to shampoo my hair. We sat in silence for a while, but I couldn't help feeling bad. All Lacey had done this entire time I've known her was help me, and I returned her kindness with suspicion and snappy comments.

"Lacey... I... I'm sorry for being so... well you know-" I started, but she interrupted me.

"Emi, you don't have to apologize for anything. This is a huge transition; I know this because I've been through it myself. You are under a lot of stress and I don't expect you to be kind to me. Like I said, I know how you're feeling. It's okay." At this, I turned to look at her. She gave me a soft smile, and it took everything in me not to cry. After everything that had happened so far, there was one person who could relate to me, one person that knew exactly what I've been going through, and didn't judge me at all for my feelings. I returned her smile, happy to have someone so kind to me and we continued to sit in silence for a bit. But before long my curiosity got the best of me.

"Where are you from?" I asked, genuinely curious. Dystonia had destroyed many countries in its quest for world domination, and I wanted to see what country Lacey came from.

"I'm originally from Castel, I lived in the capital." My heart hurt for her. The war with Castel was short lived, but disastrous and bloody for the people. Castel was a strong country that had made many advancements but a majority of the people in Castel resided in the capital, and when Dystonia attacked, they knew if they hit the capital hard, the war could be easily won. In the end, there wasn't much of a war. Castel fell within 2 days of the first air strikes, and almost 75% of the entire population was killed. Those who rebelled any further afterwards were taken as slaves.

"I'm so sorry, Lacey," I said, not looking at her. I'm sure it was a hard topic.

"It's okay, it was almost 5 years ago. During the attacks I was a medic, and that was the worst of my experience." Her hands were running conditioner through my hair, and I felt them tremble with her words. "Obviously once the capital surrendered and Dystonian soldiers came to collect any one left fighting in the city, or in my case still trying to save people, we were taken as prisoners of war."

At this I scoffed. "What war? Dystonia was ruthless with Castel. No prisoners of war should have ever been taken," I seethed. The war was long over, but my blood still boiled at the horror Dystonia wrecked on Castel. I felt her shrug behind me.

"I agree, but it's too late now. Past is past, all we can do now is live in the present and worry about the future." Our conversation ended there, and her words repeated in my head as I finished my bath. Once dry, Lacey weaved my hair into an elegant braid, and lead me out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, where a dress the same as hers lay on the bed. No bra or underwear provided, I quickly noticed, but I slipped the dress over me anyways. It was tight against my breasts and fairly low cut, but the rest of the dress wasn't tight against my skin and went down to the middle of my thighs, which gave me more comfort. I looked over to where Lacey was, but paused at her sad expression.

"Lacey? Are you okay?"

She looked down at the ground for a second, then lifted her eyes and walked over to where I stood. "I saw everything about what happened to you on the news, how you got here. You seem to me like a real genuine, kind person, and I am thankful for what you have done for my people and other peoples in slavery." She paused, looking down. "I know my Master would be angry at me for saying what I am about to say, but I believe you can fight your way through this so I want to tell you as much as I can. The room is white because this way you don't have any stimuli from the room, and you are likely to become bored quickly. If you are bored, you want to leave sooner and thus you are awaiting the arrival of Master and thinking about when he will come get you. It's just another one of his ways to make you more dependent on him, lose your sense of self." She grabbed my hands into her own and looked into my eyes. "Be careful of his mind tricks. They do more damage than anything physical." With a squeeze of her hands and a soft smile, she turned to leave, closing (and locking) the door behind her.

Great. Fucking mind games. At least now I had some sort of idea, as well as a new friend thanks to Lacey. But what else would these mind games entail? I began to pace, trying to organize my thoughts. I had to admit that the white room was genius, but that couldn't be his only card. No... I would have to keep my mind sharp, prepared for anything he may throw at me. If he wants to play games, then I need a game plan. I continued to pace in front of my small window, eyes flipping from the blood spot from my earlier injury to the outside view.

First thing I came to realization with almost immediately was that cooperation is key. Fighting Harper at every turn, especially flat out ignoring his questions, would get me nowhere except punishment, and as I found out from last night, this leads me to weakness and self pity. No, I would have to play by his rules if I wanted to make any progress and get the hell out of here. I just hoped I would be able to suck up my pride and deal with it. God, if I could control my quick temper I might find a way to get through this.

With some cooperation, I could gain Harper's trust, hopefully without the expense of my sanity. With trust comes leniency, which would give me more freedom to become familiar with his house, and any possible escape routes. I paused abruptly as a thought struck me. The tracker in my back. I had almost forgot about that, as in my dealings with slaves (with the exception of Lorena) had been without the tracker since Nick and Sophie had a remover for the pesky devices. If I didn't find a way to remove my tracker, any kind of escape would be pointless. And once returned to "my rightful owner," Harper would never trust me again. He'd break me for good, and then I would be nothing but a mindless sex doll. HIS mindless sex doll. I shuddered at the thought. This was going to be rough. A part of me yelled, "it's impossible!" but I refused to be dragged down by such depressing thoughts. I'd been here for only one night, and god forbid I fall into despair before I'd even spent 24 hours here. No, I needed to retain hope. Sanity. Myself. If I could do that, then just maybe-

"Anxious, are we?" came his deep voice from across the room. I immediately halted and my eyes shot to him, sitting causally in a white lounge chair in the corner of the room near the door. He was already ready for the day, looking a combination of scary and sexy. Oh god why did someone so evil have to be so attractive. And when the hell did he get here? How long had he just... watched me? I gulped.

"Or maybe just plotting your escape," he continued, now standing up to approach me. At his words I felt the blood rush to my cheeks, and averted my eyes to the ground where my blood still colored the carpet. I'd always been a terrible liar, but I tried to hide my expression. Suddenly his hand was underneath my jaw, gentile but firm, and he lifted my face to meet his eyes. "Eyes on me pet," he said softly. His eyes were so dark, so brown, I felt like I was falling into them. I wanted to look away. He studied my face for a moment, his expression quizzical as he looked into my eyes.

"Definitely option 2," he stated matter of factly as he released his grip on my jaw and turned towards the window, hands clasped behind him. "It doesn't matter to me, soon enough you won't be able to harbor such thoughts." My anger seethed at his arrogance, but I held my tongue, remembering what I told myself earlier. Control your temper. Control. He must have noticed a change in my manner, for he glanced over and chuckled at me. Damn him, how did he notice so much? Was I really so obvious?

"I noticed you had a little accident this morning, isn't that right?" he asked, his gaze briefly flickering towards my hand. I looked down at my hand so neatly wrapped and looked back up at him, eyes narrowed.

"It wasn't an accident," I said snottily, lifting my nose towards him. At this his head cocked curiously and he made his way over towards me.

"Mmm... already forgetting the rules I see," he said, only a hint of irritation in his voice while the rest sounded amused. "Do I need to remind you what happens when you do not obey me, Emilina?" he finished, standing directly in front of me and looking down.

My name sounded so sinister on his tongue, and I quickly looked down from his intense gaze, biting my lower lip. Fuck. I had forgotten to address him as Master. Ugh. But despite my disgust, I could still feel the burn of the whip on my back.

"No... Master," I replied sulkily. At the sound of my words, he smirked, satisfied.

"Good girl. Now I'd like to make this clear for you. Your body is mine now, not yours, and therefore I will not allow you to damage my property in any way. If you harm yourself again, you will be punished accordingly." His eyes darkened at these words as he looked down on me. When I didn't respond, he raised an eyebrow expectantly. God this was so infuriating.

"Yes... Master," the words stuttered out, as they were hard to say. This was MY body and I could do whatever I want with it. But I kept those words to myself. My emotions were all over. While I was afraid of what he may to do me, a part of me was becoming extremely angry at the situation, and didn't care what he might do.

"Luckily my little Lacey is quite a skilled medic," he began casually, finally turning away from me and walking slowly towards the window. "Beautiful too, but can't seem to keep her mouth shut. She isn't as loyal to me yet as I would have liked, but of course she is new. I will continue my work on her," he said matter-of-factly. I couldn't help as my mouth opened. He must have known about our conversation! But how? My eyes roamed around the room, searching for some sort of video camera, before his voice interrupted my thoughts as he began an easy pace in front of me.

"Now, I believe it is time for me to introduce you to some more basic rules. In my presence, unless I say otherwise, you will drop to your knees and keep your eyes on the floor. This is a basic slave position, and a first of many you must learn." He stopped and looked at me expectantly. Ugh, he wanted me to do it now. I was starting to wonder if this whole "controlling my temper" thing was actually going to work. I could already feel my blood begin to boil. Rolling my eyes to be as defiant as possible but still play by his rules, I got to my knees and averted my eyes down.

"Tsk tsk, that attitude. I'm going to have to fix that. Not just yet, but soon. Now, I need to make a few phone calls in my office. Follow me." Annoyed that he literally just asked me to get down on my knees, and now we were leaving, I moved to get up. But before I could stand, he intervened, "oh no, pet, you will crawl behind me and keep your eyes down." My eyes narrowed at his words, but I didn't move, one leg still propped up. At my defiance, he faced me fully, brows raised. "Emilina, it's only been 5 minutes; are you going to be difficult already?"

I couldn't help myself, "Yes Master," I said in a sickly sweet voice and stood up, looking him straight in the eye. His expression became dark, and I saw anger quickly flash across his face... along with another emotion I didn't quite recognize. But the look went away as quickly as it came, and that stupid smirk came back.

"I had a feeling this would happen," he sighed, not sounding put out at all. He quickly stalked towards me, and at his determined expression I couldn't help but run. Unfortunately there wasn't really anywhere for me to run to...

To be continued!