Chapter 13: Real or Fantasy

The bikers take a break in fucking me. I look around the room as I regain my senses. A tall cage has been placed on the raised platform in the centre of the room. Inside the cage is a scantily clad dancer gyrating to the background music. I recognise her at once ... Liz, or at least PAIGE’s equivalent, Bess. The cage both imprisons her and protects her from the eager grasping audience around her.

With the pause in my debasement, I begin to wonder why PAIGE is ignoring the sex parameter.

“The software controlling the level of sex has been modified in this unit,” chimes my tiny daemon who, after a lengthy absence, has decided to make a reappearance.

‘Explain’ I ask in my mind.

“The sex parameter has been locked at maximum.”

‘Are there any other modifications I should be aware of?’ I ask mentally.

“None which should affect your character. The manufacturers of PAIGE wish to express their sincerest regrets and assure you that the error will be fixed in the next update. In the meantime, please enjoy your game.”

My daemon vanishes. I put the sex setting issue aside for the moment as I’ve more immediate things needing my attention. The bikers’ leader hauls me upright and marches me towards the stairs leading down to the dungeon. The other two bikers and the gimp are already at the stairs.

We go down to the lower basement and follow the winding passage which leads to the games room. At the back of the games room is a small door, which I’ve always presumed to be a storage cupboard.

“Open the door, slut,” orders the biker’s leader. I try the handle, but it’s locked. “Use your key, you brainless idiot.”

I remember from the previous iteration that there’s a large key padlocked to my steel collar. After some acrobatics I manage to open the door with the key. Task complete, I earn a hard swat on my arse as a reward for my entertaining efforts. The three bikers, the gimp and I all squeeze along the low tunnel and into a small stone room on the other side. The unpleasant smell of sewage is rising through the metre wide grill set in the floor. Strangely, the noisome vapours don’t unduly bother me. The bikers are of a more delicate disposition and complain bitterly. The gimp’s discomfort matters to nobody.

“Thought you said there would be some fun and games down here,” grumbles one of the bikers. “I’m not going down through this grill, and there’s no other route.”

I suddenly recall from the last iteration of this scene that part of the wall is a hologram. I worm my way to where the hologram was previously located. Only this time the wall is solid. A quick check of the rest of the wall confirms that the only way out is to return the way we came, or go down into the sewer. One of the bikers decides to go back the way we came, only to find the door is locked shut. It doesn’t take him long to realise that my key isn’t going to be of any help from this side of the door.

“What’s going on, Flasher?” asks one of the bikers. “You said that some hot chick was going to entertain us down here. If Paige is our reward then she could have entertained us in the games room.”

Flasher simply shrugs his shoulders, confirming that he’s as baffled as the rest of us at this turn of events.

“Down we go, I guess,” says Flasher reluctantly.

He unfastens the gimp’s arms and removes his blindfold so that the gimp can climb down the vertical ladder beneath the grill door. One by one we descend into the stinking depths of the sewer. About five metres down, the side of the shaft opens into a large stone culvert. Shin deep sludge lies along the bottom of the sewer. The decision about which direction to head is easily solved when we see bright red light flooding into the culvert about twenty metres to our left. Our route is obvious and we bravely wade through the stinking sludge towards the source of the light. The bottom of the culvert is slippery and all of us fall into the sludge at one point or another. As a result we emerge into a large underground cavern looking like creatures from some zombie horror movie. The cavern looks to be part natural and part man made.

We’ve barely clambered out of the sludge when several high pressure hoses are turned on us, washing the filth back into the sewer. Unfortunately my flimsy clothing can’t withstand the water pressure and I end up entirely naked by the time the hoses are turned off.

“You took your time, Flasher,” comes a voice I recognise as belonging to Michelle.

I look around me, not bothering to hide my nakedness. Michelle is like a goddess sitting on her huge throne. Standing like a statue to the right of her is Bess, although her presence here is a mystery. Only a few minutes ago she was dancing inside a cage upstairs. PAIGE certainly believes in reusing characters in each scenario, or is the lack of variation a limitation of my own imagination. Even though I can see very little of his features, I know that Rob is the gimp. As in the last iteration of this scene, Flasher is modelled on lecherous Lloyd. Although the other bikers are strangers to me, they too have featured as extras in other scenarios.

The bikers all stand mesmerized by the beautiful but cruel goddess before them. None of them move a muscle, and I realise that my own limbs stubbornly refuse to answer to my control. Michelle moves towards us and promptly rebinds the gimp’s arms and replaces his blindfold. She drags him over to what I can only interpret as her throne. There she locks a chain bolted to the side of the throne around his neck.

Next she returns to me. Although I try to resist, my limbs will only respond to Michelle’s will. She walks me to a wooden bench facing her throne and makes me sit down. In front of the bench is a wooden set of foot stocks into which she places my unresisting ankles. Not content with locking my ankles in the stocks, she handcuffs my wrists behind my back. For good measure she tweaks my nipples before she moves onto the others. Once I’m bound I find that my limbs are once more under my control ... only there’s now very little I can do with them. I should feel fear at what is going on around me, but I only sense a mounting arousal.

Flasher is the next person Michelle repositions. She moves him so that he is standing to the left of her throne. The two remaining bikers are left facing Michelle’s throne like a guard of honour for me. I keep reminding myself that this is only a scenario inside PAIGE, but this experience is nothing like any previous scenario I’ve played. The red lighting in the cavern only adds to the creepy feeling of the whole scene.

“At long last you have answered my summons,” says Michelle imperiously.

Although she hasn’t addressed her comments to anyone in particular, I somehow know they are specifically directed at me. I look at the gimp who is kneeling passively on the floor in front of her throne. With his hood covering his head, it’s impossible to tell whether he too is mesmerised or if his docility is a consequence of his restraints.