Chapter 2: Choices

The longer I drove the higher her fear level rose. Throughout the journey home and up the half mile gravel road to my estate, the girl diligently worked to loosen her bonds, rubbing her wrists raw, not even caring about the tape sealing her mouth. My recently acquired pickup was too conspicuous, so it ended up in the garage. My Audi gazed balefully from the unprotected driveway into the safer confines that were normally its place out of the sun and rain.

I unbelted and assisted the petite brunette teen out of the truck and escorted my new charge into my house. Asking her to stand still, I unbuttoned, unzipped and removed the forty-pound coat causing her to stagger before hanging it in the closet.

Escorting Catherine into the den, I instructed her to sit down on the left chair. “Wait there please. I will get the tape remover. Opening a chest beside my chair, I pulled out a white jar and a clean rag. I gently spread the alcohol-based gel over the tape before replacing the cap, placing the rag in a Ziploc and sealing it after.

“This might sting a little, but not worse than a band aid.” I quickly tore the adhesive strip from her face causing a wince but no other reaction. Good.

“You are probably thirsty. Stay there please.” My ‘kidnap victim’ glared at me with little force. The fear was still too prevalent for any direct action against me. The intelligent young teen had to have known the implications of me freeing her with no apparent protection.

By the time I returned, Catherine was standing sideways to the front door trying to get it open. “That won’t work, Miss Larkin. The doors are locked right now.” She kicked the door once and stopped struggling with the handle.

“Why are you doing this?”

I smiled. I appreciated the wording of that question. It was far better than if she added to me at the end of it.

I slipped my hand under her bicep and guided Catherine back to my den. After sitting her down I offered a drink of water from the straw in the glass. “There is nothing in the glass besides water. Drugging you would serve no purpose.”

Seeing she had little choice but to believe my words, her soft brown eyes took in the room while taking a few careful sips. “Are you going to tell me why?”

“Before I respond and before you ask any further questions, I will allow any three you can think of, but only three. I will answer fully and truthfully to each one. Do you still want to ask that question?”

Three minutes past by with me sitting on the corner of my desk observing my captive who took my words to heart before she spoke again.

“How can I get you to let me go unharmed?” she asked with some determination and a challenge.

I applauded her initial question. “Learn what I want to teach you, if you choose that path.”

“What if I can’t?” she shot back ignoring the semi threat implied by the second half of my answer.

“If you are truly unable to learn what I want to teach you, then together you and I will discuss what your options are. Miss Larkin, unwilling is not the same as unable. Keep that in mind, unwilling will have repercussions.”

The obvious question from her should be ‘what do you want to teach me?’ I hoped she could resist that one, it would have been a waste.

“You didn’t kidnap me for my necklace, you want me,” she paused to mentally phrase the next words carefully. “I want to save my last question for later.” Both statements were not a question. Well done.

“I have no problem with that. Just let me know when you want to ask. Until then I will treat all your questions as normal ones.”

“Who are you?”

“I am Smith. You will address me as Master, Miss Larkin; formerly StarLight, C-Ranked junior Heroine affiliated with the teen group known as Light Force or The Teen Lights; as Central City’s media refers to your group.” At her lack of surprise of me knowing her identity, I opened my desk drawer as she searched her memory for my name. I saw the recognition in her eyes as she pulled up my information from that wonderful memory of hers that she kept hidden for far too long.

As I placed three items on the middle of the desk; a metallic collar, a black leather collar with a silver ring, and a brown bottle with a skull and crossbones on the white label. A concerned expression deepened at each item placed, etched in her eyes.

“I offer three paths; Slave with nothing, Pet and Student, Poison and death. You have twenty-four hours.” Catherine’s eyes misted as she shrank into the couch.

“Why me?” she complained for the first time while unsuccessfully holding back her tears.

“I believe in you.” That response confused her. “For both the poison or the Pet, you need to actively choose one. If you do not choose, then the choice defaults to slave. Mind you, slaves are property and can never own anything including clothes or dignity.”

“Why must I be a Pet and a student, can’t I just be your student?” The cute brunette haggled.

“That wasn’t a choice I offered.”

“If I were a boy would you ask me to be a Pet?” She retorted in anger.

“With your potential, the Frankensteins would seek you out for parts. Be happy that wasn’t on the list.” She shuddered, recalling the horror stories that had been circulating of that villain society and their creations. The Frankensteins were a group of chimera builders. They would take apart people and animals trying to improve on both and merge them together in hopes that the DNA would bind and create a greater being. Most that lived ended up as horrors but not all lived. Thankfully their failures did not live for very long.

“Fine, I will be your Pet,” she said with some force that didn’t mask her fear.

I stood her up and unwrapped the cuffs. With a practiced movement she swung a concealed blade up and under my exposed armpit with all of her might only to have it bounce off the force field under my shirt. She swung again before I easily caught her wrist. StarLight was a ranged attacker. While her charged fist attack supposedly had considerable power, she had never been reported using that method or ability in combat. Without the magical artifact that granted her super powers, she was only as strong as the average 115-pound, 62-inch-tall, sixteen-year-old athletic girl.

“Well timed.” I admired while holding her wrists in one hand above her head. She wiggled cutely for a few minutes before conceding to my vastly superior strength. Correctly, she didn’t attempt to kick me, calculating that the forcefield did not just cover my torso.

“Do you wish to change your choice, Miss Larkin?”

“I hate you.”

I released her hands and stepped to the side. Watching her, I decided not to save her the effort, and let her play out the poison throw.

Shakily she walked up to the three items and in a fluid move twisted, opened and threw the poison at my face. I let her. I used my fingertip to trace a line of the liquid and taste it. Her countenance fell even further than it had from her failed attempt at using the concealed dagger to kill me.

“It seems you are rejecting the poison. Good for you. No situation is ever hopeless with the right mindset.” I remained unmoved as the tears that coursed down her cheeks past her generous pink lips, dimming her pretty brown eyes.

The will to resist left her and she stood again and walked from out behind my desk directly picking up her new two inch fitted black leather collar. She looked at me in despair silently asking, ‘now what’?

I bent down and picked up her dagger testing the tip, decently sharp; not bad for an emergency backup and tossed it on my desk. I removed a blood extractor from the drawer from my desk and placed it against the back of her hand, “This will be quick and sharp, similar to the pain from a diabetes blood level check.” With that I injected her and withdrew a drop of blood. “Hand me the collar please.”

Reluctantly, the former Super Heroine presented the object of her presumed doom, to me. After I injected the recently removed blood into the clasp, I handed it back to the terrified young teen. “Put it on. It will lock automatically.”

Shakily she complied. It closed with an audible Click. I reached over and picked up the alloy collar off my desk. “Come with me.”

I guided her to the to the back doorwall facing the patio and pool, half opening it, not giving her an opportunity to do yet another foolish thing. “Observe.” I hung the alloy collar on the edge of the broom and held it outside. As the distance increased from the opening, the collar visibly shrank.

“Hisss...” Once she understood, I flung the collar to the end of the forty-five-foot-wide patio watching it roll in a circle of less than half its original diameter.

I closed the glass door after the fake collar settled. Catherine stared at it even after I turned out the light outside. Hanging next to the door was a forty-inch fine alloy mesh leash. I took it down and casually attached it to the black leather collar with the single silver D-ring, causing a harsh flinch from the overwhelmed girl.

Taking one end of the leash, I led her up the stairs and to the rear of the house and my bedroom. I had already cleared a space on the floor for a five-foot-diameter circular bed which rested on a medium sized Persian rug. She frowned behind my back at seeing it. My new Pet instinctively knew what it meant.

Surprisingly, to her, I led my captive to my bedside instead of her bed. I sat but kept her standing while facing me with her positioned between my knees. I observed her; Five-foot-two, one-fifteen, brown-eyed, upper back length brunette hair, Catherine Larkin was athletically trim and firm like only a mid-teen could be. She was cute but couldn’t be considered ‘pretty’. What did they know...

“I have some rules of the house.” I could sense her reluctance, fear and more than a little determination.

“One is I expect a reply when I ask a question. Understood?”

I waited until I received the expected reply of “Yes, sir.”

“Close. From now on you will address me as Master, not sir. Is this understood?”

She resisted a sigh and replied unenthusiastically, “Yes, Master.”

“That is a start. Next, I expect honesty. I understand you are unwilling right now but I still require honesty. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Master,” she repeated.

“When I give you a task, I expect you to complete it to the best of your ability. One of the things you will be doing is learning. The petty concepts of your previous high school that you hid in, were laughably simple. Do you disagree?”

Watching her hesitate, I raised an eyebrow. “No,” she admitted.

“No, Master.”

“No, Master,” she dutifully repeated.

“I would also appreciate it if you don’t try and kill me or try to escape all the time. I do expect some attempts. Not that any attempt will go unpunished. Do you understand that any attempt to either harm me, escape, or fail to try your best at any task will lead to a punishment?” I warned.

I could see the spurious thoughts of me expecting her to try and kill me on a regular basis is expected of her. “I ... understand.”

“What do you understand?”

“If I don’t try hard in my studies or I try and escape or hurt you, you will punish me.”

“You will also be punished if you go out of control or lash out. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.

“There is an exception to your attempts to kill me. If you build something that can defeat me in a duel, you earn the right to go your own way.” The carrot. “Is that clear?”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand, Master,” I clarified.

“I don’t understand, Master,” she repeated with a spark of interest.

“I will be teaching you how to conceive of and build Devices. Like the powered field under my shirt that protected me from your dagger.” I saw the interest spark a bit higher. Not displacing the wariness inside of those pretty eyes though.

“Does that interest you, Pet?” I saw the distaste at being addressed as Pet but she held her tongue.

“A little,” she admitted.

“Master,” I added.

“A little, Master.” She now had a goal aside from being rescued or escaping.

“Tomorrow, I will show you my workshop. For now, it is late and we both need some rest. In the bathroom, the left hand side of the sink and drawers are yours. You will find cosmetic remover and other items that you will need. I do not approve the use of face paint.”

I gestured at her hands, “Nail polish and your usual facial treatments are allowed. I expect that if you do wear polish, it will be maintained properly. No spurious foundation, blush, eye liner, or shadow. Is this understood?” The cute teen girl who just had been denied cosmetics frowned and nodded in resignation.

“A verbal reply is needed, Pet.” I corrected firmly.

“I understand, Master.” The ‘master’ came a hair easier that time. Her Psych profile did not lie.

“I know what you normally wear to sleep.” She blanched at the implications. “Shoo, go use the bathroom wash up and change. The right side of the closet is completely yours. You will also find a slim five-foot dresser for your personal items in the walk-in closet.” I released her leash letting it fall gently against her body and watched to see what Catherine’s next decisions would be. I hoped she didn’t disappoint.

Since I cleared and refilled the bathroom and closet a week ago, I wasn’t all that worried of her making a provisional weapon just yet. For that, I needed to wait for some training before she felt that a suitable time had passed to attack me again. If she ended up choosing that route.

Once the door closed both sinks turned on, causing me to laugh. I imagined her deep red blush at the thought of me overhearing when she flushed the toilet.

Twenty-five minutes later, both faucets finally closed. The doorknob shook for over ninety-seconds before she emerged. As she scooted over to the small circular bed, I called out. “Come here, Catherine.” She froze, making her way to me, stopping a few feet away with her arms wrapped tightly across her breasts over her nightshirt and the thin metal leash dangling between the medium small mounds being repressed.

A hint of blue straps up and over her shoulders stated that the bra was still on. The pale pink nightgown which barely made it to mid-thigh, sported Einstein’s face hovering above an amusing slogan stating ‘Rocks don’t Matter’.

“Do you normally wear a bra under your gown to bed?”

“At sleepovers I do.” She managed to justify her change in wardrobe.

“Until you figure out a way to get past the barrier, or without me letting you out, or escaping on your own, this is your new home. I will give you two minutes to go in the bathroom and remove it.”

She stepped back and fled to the bathroom, exiting less than a minute later. I stopped her again and summoned her to my side. She paused a few feet away. But this time I pointed to the same spot I originally had her stand when I was reciting the rules of the house.

Disregarding the flinch, I used my finger to lift her chin to look at me. “There will be no punishments for any of your actions today.” I could tell from her startled expression she hadn’t considered that yet.

“I take it you would prefer to sleep on that bed over there tonight?” I gestured to the smaller circular bed a few feet away.