Chapter 25: Helping Others

Course 8 / Day 46:

Corinne's mobile rings: "Corinne? It's Larry. I've got some good news at last. It seems the Americans have 'eliminated McEwan from their enquiries' and she's on her way back to you. Can you tell the others?"

"Larry, that's a relief," Corinne responds "Yes, I'll tell the others right now — and thank your contacts for all their help. Are we ever going to get something approaching an apology for all this turmoil?"

"Er, well I wouldn't hold your breath. Let's just be glad the whole things over. If anyone needs an apology it's Mcewan."

Memo (Confidential)
From: Corinne
To: Jo and Charlotte

Further to my last memo: I am relieved to be able to let you know that that McEwan is on her way back. However, I'm not at all happy with the explanations we have been given. The whole thing sounds odd to me and I think that once the course is over the three of us should get together to talk about this in confidence. There's a few things I'm unhappy about including how Larry seems to have been in the middle of all of this. Maybe we'll know more by the time the course finishes.

Memo
From: Jo
To: Corinne

Extremely anxious about Jenny. She was brought back late evening today by whomsoever.

Once in her cell, she wrapped herself in her blanket and curled up in the corner facing away from the door, weeping. She was disinclined to talk and initially declined food.

I took her up to the main accommodation wing and had her fed with what we had had for dinner after which her mood lightened, but only a little. Charlotte stayed with her overnight. We may find ourselves dealing with a real psychological casualty and have to seek professional help for her. I need not labour how serious this is.

Memo
From: Corinne
To: Larry

Here is a copy of a report about Jenny McEwan just received from Jo. Just what the hell are we going to do now? If professional help is needed for Jenny, I - we - will have to provide a full account of what has happened to the medical authorities and I will not know where to begin.

Memo
From: Larry
To: Corinne

Corinne, I know there may be some problems with McEwan. Yes, it will take her a little while to recover, but I'm confident she'll bounce back.

In the meantime, I'm sure you'll do everything possible to get her back on an even keel and to keep your people onside too. My recommendation is that you should return her to the regime she was under as quickly as possible. This will create a sense of reassurance with her surroundings and enable her to adjust back to the Inward Bound "normality" before attempting to return to real life.

Of course, the professional psychological help will be there if we need it. I've got someone that I'll get to come up and see McEwan. Keep me in touch with the situation.

Memo
From: Larry
To: Pam Jordan

Pam, our former "problem" got back home day but she is quite bruised by the interrogation. I think mainly psychologically but I expect physically as well as she has been through Connie's hands. I'm getting angry e-mails from the Inward Bound staff. Can you take a trip up here and asses the situation if McEwan is still giving concern? How long should I give it? I was thinking 24 hours max? Would that be OK?

Jenny's Recollections

I'm still in the Facility. Two heavies come for me. The same thick set men in dark suits and shades. I am hooded and taken out of the facility. I know only because I feel my feet on an outside surface again. No one speaks to me. I'm pushed into their van and driven off. At first all I feel is relief, each passing moment taking me away from my nightmare. Then anxiety replaces relief. What if they are not taking me to Inward Bound? What if I'm just being taken away? After an eternity we arrive somewhere else. The van stops, I am taken out, across some gravel into a building and down some stairs. We stop.

"Stand there, please, Ma'am," says an American voice. My hood is pulled off and my hands un-cuffed. My eyes protest at the bright light, after the darkness on the hood and I see I am back, facing one wall of my cell, away from the door.

"We are obliged for your co-operation, Ma'am," says the voice, to someone and then there is the sound of receding steps...

I'm overcome with relief and curl up in one corner of the cell, trying to shut out the memories of the last few days.

When I wake up, I'm in a normal bedroom. Charlotte is there, too sleeping in an easy chair. The sun is coming through the window, and I can see the flowering shrubs in the garden...

Jo comes in. "How are you now, Jenny?" she asks. "We were all so worried about you..."

"Er, ... better than I was ... I've still got this headache and I just feel exhausted ... But, I am so glad to be back ... did the men say anything? Are they still here? Are they coming back?"

"No," says Jo with a smile, "they are not coming back and they didn't really tell us anything. Beyond that they had warrants and that they were anxious about a security situation and..."

"It was terrifying, the interrogation was bad enough but there was worse they talked about selling me. Jo, I really thought that I was about to be sold into real slavery. That maybe I would just ... just ... disappear." My voice is beginning to break up as I try to tell what happened

"That's all right. It's all right now." Jo sits on the bed and puts her arm over my shoulder "Let's get you used to being back here again. Stay here for now and perhaps you could join the others later today or tomorrow. Could you manage that?"

"Yes, thanks, Jo. I would like that very much." The more I think about it the more I want to do just that to get back to the way things are here.

"OK Look I'll get some breakfast sent up to you and we will get you back into routine as far as you are able. Let us know straightaway if you are not managing, OK?"

"Yes, OK. Thank you, Jo." I stand up and cuddle her with relief at being safe once again. My back is reflected in the wardrobe mirror.

Jo says, "Wow! Someone has given you a good whipping, was that ... was that OK by you?"

Connie's efforts of the evening before last are plain to see; I began and ended the scene naked and Connie wasn't for giving me any clothes back again. It seems she likes her work to get a public showing whenever possible.

The memory of Connie comes back in full force: a cocktail of terror and erotic desire, but I manage a smile and, bringing myself back to my position as a slave, say "Yes, Mistress, Thank you, Mistress. Thank you."

By the time lunch has come and gone and I have been given permission to go down into the gardens, but Jo, or Charlotte, Celia, Gerry or George seem never to be far away.

As for me, I am feeling just enormous relief to be back in familiar surroundings, comforted by the familiar "beep" as my RFID chip is registered by a sensor on the building systems again.

I'm ashamed to admit that I had completely forgotten about Angela. I wonder for a moment if it all hadn't been some form of roller coaster ride organised by Inward Bound. But Angela would never have gone along with that would she? And Jo seemed genuinely confused and upset by it. And, it all seemed so real. I mean, I had seen Connie at the garden party. Does that mean she was involved with Inward Bound, or did it just mean that she was part of some surveillance team? It's all so confusing — maybe while I've been here I've lost my ability to think straight.

The Inward Bound people do everything to make me feel at home again, gradually I start to feel better. As far as I can manage. Eventually, I'm back in my old cell, and Ylena comes to the cell to examine me, and pretends to be outraged that I have been beaten by someone else. But then, she admires the marks of Connie's whip and tells me that I can most certainly expect another caning shortly. Gerry comes by, shaves my head again and gives my scalp a massage with some soothing moisturiser. Celia drops by to check my piercings and Jonathan looks in on me to tell me that I am due for some more work on my tattoo soon, but only when I feel I can cope with it.

At last, Jo gives me my work assignments - more gardening, cleaning in her suite and work in the kitchens. I'm not going to have the chance to get bored. It feels as though I am where I am meant to be. When I lay down on my bed, I look up at the blinking red light of the CCTV camera. It almost feels like a friend. I am asleep almost at once.

At breakfast, the other girls are all anxious to know where I'd been and what had happened to me but Jo tells them all that they are not to quiz me about it. She warns that any idle gossip about things that may or may not have gone on outside the centre will incur substantial demerits. That certainly seems to dampen down their curiosity and, since I am pretty certain that demerits will be passed my way too, it serves to discourage me from talking about it, too. Not that I want to pick at recent painful wounds.

It's Jo that comes to see me after breakfast. "How are you now, Fifty?" she asks. I go to get up, but she tells me to stay put.

"I'm fine, thank you, Mistress," I say.

"Good," she says. "Are you ready to pick up where you left off?"

"Yes," I say, surprising myself with my willingness. "Yes, I am." And, in a curious way, I now feel ready for anything.

"Very well," says Jo. "You'd better come with me." She smiles a sly smile...

Jo clips a leash to my nose ring and leads me through the centre. I follow, as I must. She stops to talk to Charlotte at one point. I wait silently, head bowed, hands clasped behind my back while they talk of some session, or other, that they have planned for Carrie and Sue. Neither Jo nor Charlotte even mentions me. Their conversation is soon finished and Jo sets off again with me in tow.

She takes me to Ylena's room. I'm glad but, even so, I'm caught between a confused desire to see Ylena again and the dread of a further round of punishment after my experiences with Connie.

Jo leads me through into the adjoining room with its scarlet wall coverings and pale blue carpet.

There is a small box on the floor. It's got various jars and bottles and clothes in it.

"Work time, Fifty," Jo announces. "Mistress Ylena needs to use this room later, but the equipment needs cleaning. You can make yourself useful with this." She points to the box. "You'll find saddle soap for the leather and polish for the wooden racks that the punishment tools are stacked in. Don't use very much, just enough to take the dust off and shine them up. On the side over there," she points to a small white trolley, "are Ylena's electrical toys. They need to be cleaned with an antiseptic wipe. So do the whips and canes and any of the straps and cuffs that fasten around the body. The insertable toys have all been sterilized by Mistress Ylena and bagged with the number of the slave they are used on, so it's essential you do not open the bags or break the seals."

I stand nodding as she explains the task.

"Do you understand what need to be done?" Jo asks.

"Yes, Mistress," I reply and she leaves me. I start on my work, taking the whips, canes and floggers down from their rack first of all. There is a table on one side of the room and I lay them out neatly there. That way I'll be able to keep track of which ones I have cleaned and which are left to do and make sure that I put them back in the same place that they have come from.

I clean the wooden racks. The polish smells sweet and scented. The racks aren't very dusty but I try to be as thorough as I can be. I know that if Ylena were to use her canes on me, the last thing I would want was dust and dirt being crushed into a wound by the blow of one of them.

I finish the racks and start to clean off the canes, wiping each of them with an antiseptic wipe before returning them to their place, trying to remember exactly where each has come from. As I am doing it, I'm suddenly aware of how relaxed I feel. This simple task with the simple precision it requires is absorbing all of my attention, and I have already nearly forgotten the psychological pain of recent days. I'm feeling pleased with myself when I hear Ylena's voice outside.

She appears in the room looking very firm and determined. Judy is following her with a smirk on her face. She looks at me in a way that I've come to expect from the staff at Inward Bound, but certainly not from the other slaves. I'm worried because she certainly took pleasure from ordering me about when I was told to please her before.

Ylena sees me. "Ah, Fifty! Moi slooga is back."

I smile, pleased by her acknowledgement of my status. "Da, Gaspazha," I say.

Ylena says. "Have you cleaned all my toys?"

"Da Gaspazha," I reply pointing proudly to the rack.

Ylena peers at it and seems to approve. She turns back to Judy. "Tell Fifty why you are here, Nineteen."

"Corporal punishment, Gaspazha," Judy says with a gleam in her eye." Her use of Ylena's title rekindles old jealousies. She's my Gaspazha. I am her slooga, vash slooga, I say to myself, watching in dismay as the brightness in Ylena's eyes tells me that she takes as much pleasure in punishing Judy as she ever had me. But Judy's next words give me a shock, "It's for a corporal punishment session with Number Fifty." She sounds like she is looking forward to taking a cane to my backside.

"Very good, Nineteen," Ylena says. "How do you feel about that, Fifty?"

The truth is that I'm not very happy with the idea. I suppose that if Ylena is ordering Judy to beat me, it's just the same as if she is doing it herself, but somehow it seems wrong to be being beaten by another slave. "If that is what you wish, Gaspazha," I say, uncertainly.

Ylena smiles with approval. "Good answer, Fifty," she says. "Good answer."

"And you, Nineteen, how do you feel?"

"What ever you wish, Gaspazha," she says, taking her cue from me, but a self satisfied little smile is playing across her lips...

"Very good," says Ylena. "In which case we can begin." She picks up one of the chains that she uses as a leash. I'm expecting her to clip it to my collar but instead she turns on her heel fastens the chain to Judy's collar and pulls her towards her. "You, slave," she says firmly, "have still to learn some important lessons."

Judy is obviously started by the change of events. "Please, I've done nothing to deserve punishment," Judy pleads.

"Do you think so?" Ylena says. She turns to me and orders, "Fifty, you will help me deal with this!" Ylena twists Judy's chain in her hand until Judy's face is brought up against Ylena's fist. She simply rolls her arm over and Judy is forced to her knees at Ylena's feet. Ylena turns back towards me. "Make the horse ready for her," she says.