It was my birthday, and I had come into my inheritance. I was both twenty-four, and had finished college successfully. It was nothing big, my inheritance that is. An old farmstead now reduced to twenty-five acres of overgrown land. A two story farmhouse built in the mid-1800's and about 300,000 dollars (after dear Uncle Sam and the State ripped out their share.) That 300,000 I had taken time to split between three very Government insured, and non-connected banks. Oh and not to forget all the annual county taxes and school taxes. Thank God everything was in a county where the biggest town was over a thirty some miles away, and held exactly 3,512 people. It was of course the county seat. Still there was a plus, the land was considered agricultural. So as long as I grew a few acres of something sellable every year I had the lowest taxes possible. But I had no income. Not a penny.

So there I was, in the middle of my birthday party, friends, acquaintances and more than one hanger on who had driven all the way out to see their college schoolmates inheritance, to eat and drink up as much of my inheritance as they could in two days, then stagger back to the big city and their own last year of school. I really didn't mind, I planned on using my time painting, lease out the twenty acres of field just as my grandfather had, and in short. Lazing around the rest of my life until I got the art down pat and became famous. In my young mind that couldn't take more than five years at worst. It took over nineteen actually.

It would be lonely, but I had a plan. I would attend every convention I could and see what the professionals were doing, then find some lonely fan, grab her, and drag her home as my pet. Yes, I said her. So I'm a lesbian, bit deal. Over twenty percent of the human race is, no matter what men and learned scientist may say. Especially the religious freaks, of all followings.

Tired of the loud music, louder couples making bacon and bottles all over the place I headed outside. It was getting dark, which meant skeeter swarms, but I wanted clear air. Intelligently, I had triple locked the basement doors so no one could damage the utility systems down there, and the doors to my second floor. No one was sleeping in my bed tonight but me. Outside was as bad as inside, and I could tell that the 'skeeters were having a field day. An awful lot of college kids were going to be hitting the free clinic Monday. Still I was fully dress and prepped for such things, so I wandered around to the West side, where the doors to my basement were. And the DEET could work its magic.

And there I found her. Not at first. No, I had been relaxing in one of the chairs, idly batting away the occasional DEET resistant skeeter when I noticed her. She was sleeping on the hammock, a three year old net style hammock I had brought my grandfather a year before he died. Standing, I went over to see who she was, and then kid her about sleeping nude in the open. As I approached a cloud of skeeters lifted off. Oh this one was in a really bad way I realized. She must have been asleep for hours. Every inch of skin that I could see was a raised welt. A look at her face told me I didn't know her, I didn't know any Chinese or Japanese girls, and she could be either. Taking out my can of DEET I sprayed her down toes to top of the head, emptying the can. Too late, but it would stop any further damage. Considering the current damage she should have woken screaming at the nasty chemicals touch. Instead, she groaned and went back to sleep. The smell of alcohol wasn't that bad, it had to have been drugs. There were enough around. None of mine, I never had and never will do drugs. They rot the imagination.

She was pretty too, or would be when the skeeter bites healed, which would take about two weeks. Unless she scratched herself, and with the fingernails I saw, she was going to do major damage to herself. I looked around, there was no one on this side of the house. Maybe, maybe I wouldn't have to wait years. Maybe, just maybe. If I took the chance.

Running back into my house, stepping around the near unconscious party hardies (who would be leaving in the morning, thank God) I opened the freezer and grabbed my keys. Hidden in a bag of peas of course. I like peas, almost no one else does. It was also obvious that people had been digging in the freezer. I was going to have to sterilize everything this week. Going back outside I passed two semi-conscious guests who, finding the skeeters too much, were headed inside. Both I knew and said hello too. Neither more than grunted in return. Returning to the hammock I found a cloud of skeeters around my hoped for prize, but not one was touching down. Good, she was safe from them at least.

Quickly opening the basement I went in, grabbed a waiting flashlight and looked around. Dust, cobwebs and ancient beams shown in the light, along with a five year old central heating and cooling system (off for the party) and an electric demand water heater (also off for the party.) Finally, there was my pile of 'stuff' that was supposed to be upstairs, or in the attic, but was here for safety. No one was going to break, or take my anime. Included in this mess was a hammock, a duplicate of the one outside only never used. Carefully opening the box I pulled out the device. Oh perfect, with plenty of extra rope.

It was a good twenty minutes to hang the hammock between two thick beams, then going outside I went to my hoped for prize. Whomever she was, she was starting to wake up. I realized that had very little time. Rolling her out of the hammock she landed with a thump, waking only enough to puke. Good, that would make her weaker. It was a hilariously easy ten minutes to guide her down the stairs (to a bed) I kept whispering and dump her in the waiting hammock. Or at least it should have been. Getting a near boneless person into a hammock is a lot harder than it seems. But finally I managed.

My next hurdle was to tie her hands and feet to the posts, actually a very easy thing to do. Shove a couple of Tylenol sinus in her mouth, then slap a wad of cloth behind them (one of my old, but clean pairs) and tie it in place with one of my brand new, never used stockings. She better be worth it I thought, those things would have to be mail ordered from now on. Done, I took time to carefully sew her into her prison. Like a spider I examined my prize. Wrapped in my web, there was no chance that she could escape. Now all I had to hope was that no one came looking for a missing girlfriend.

There was just one thing I simply had to do. Going to my grandfathers workbench I found a can of 3 in 1 oil. Pumping just a little on my long finger I returned to my now moaning prize. It was a little difficult, what with her legs held closed, still I managed the penetration. And discovered something wonderful.

My prize was a virgin. At least there. So no STD's, no baby, no worries. Unless someone started looking for her. Leaving the basement (and my now turned off flashlight) I returned to the surface, closed the heavy door lightly and locked it. Finished I returned to my chair. After all, at night the stars are beautiful here. I was going to have to afford a telescope, in the city you could even tell the colors of the stars. There I stayed until the DEET began to wear off. Walking into the disaster my home was, I unlocked the door to my back stairs, went through and relocked it. When morning sun (and the complaints of my guests) woke me I couldn't believe that no one was yelling for a missing girl.

My good friends helped clean up. It was, after all, a total disaster. As car after van after motorcycle departed more and more of my home surfaced.

"Your going to have to trash this furniture" Sara Thompson told me. "They broke its back."

"I kinda figured this would happen" I admitted. "All grandads stuff is in the locked barn. I bought this at a thrift store last week and had it delivered special."

Sara laughed. "I noticed the basement and second floor was locked, but never got to the barn. Bull kept me kinda busy."

'Bull', her boy of the moment, grinned sheepishly. "Good party" he agreed. "And no one gone missing either."

"Shouldn't have" I agreed. "Everyone was told to stay in the fenced in area. Anyone who went out, well there are ants and chiggers and goats spurs aplenty out there. Your certain everyone was accounted for?"

"Yep" Billy answered, holding up a blue composition book. "Everyone signed in and everyone signed out. Except the few that are still here that is."

I took a deep breath, letting it go slowly. So, my little prize was a party crasher. One who didn't sign in because she didn't want to be known. "Anyone want to see the second floor" I offered.

"What about the basement" Sara asked.

"Still live knob and tube wiring down there, I've got an electrician coming next week to examine the whole house and give me a quote. I have to pay him fifty just to come out, it's a two hour drive after all. He promised that if I hired him, and the job was big enough he'd apply that to the final bill. Bet he doesn't though." I shrugged in defeat, a consumer left helpless in the face of business. "I don't want to lose any of you. Nothing but my grandfathers old workbench, the water heater and central air anyway. And an awful lot of spiders and other bugs.

"Spiders, euuu" Sara gasped, shaking herself. "And your going to live here alone?"

I gave Sara my standard leer. "Unless you want to join me my pretty."

She just laughed. It was an old joke, she knew my tastes after all. Mainly by digging into places she shouldn't have and getting the education of her life. Seeing as she couldn't leave that closet until we left. "I'll visit Matty if she still wants me, but I'll never stay more than a weekend."

"Good enough. So, who wants to see the second floor?" Everyone did.

When Sara and Bull left sometime near two pm the house was cleaner and her pickup had several boxes of clothing and junk in it. All the drugs we stumbled on went into the toilet. I had the septic man due tomorrow, with fair warning what he might find down there. Alone finally I left the windows open to air out the house, then went into the basement.

It stank, my prize had soiled herself, and the floor. Another chore. So ignoring those coal black eyes that followed my every move I cleaned up. Thank God the basement had retrofitted with a concrete floor and two four inch drains. It only took half an hour to clean up. Happy I went back upstairs, turning the light off and locking the door. That was a good thing, as less than fifteen minutes, while dragging yet another garbage bag filled with empty bottles to the waiting dumpster (yes, I had hired one. I'm not an idiot.) a van came down the road. I sort of recognized it. It belonged to a guy in my last History class. I watched as it pulled into the drive, now vacant except for my own van.

Carl Roberts came out of the van, still somewhat hung over. He managed to make it to where I was waiting.

"Hi Matty" he said in greeting. "Um ... I think I lost something."

"If its drugs, we flushed them all" I answered. "Everything else Bill and Sara have in their truck. It's red, you had to have passed it. Still your welcome to search, we may have missed something."

"Uh. It wasn't something. It was someone."

I blinked. So here it was. "Carl, everyone signed in when they arrived. It was a requirement remember? Bill has the book with him. Everyone signed out. Whomever your missing, they are probably with someone else."

"Oh. Thanks. Well, she'll be naked though."

That stopped me. "Naked? Why?"

"I have her clothes in the van. I slipped her a roofie, left her on you hammock. Was gonna pop her cherry last night. But I got too drunk and woke up late. Bunch cars already left. I went to the hammock, but she wasn't there." He was babbling, probably still under the effects of whatever recreational drug he popped this morning.

"You" I said with more than a little anger. "Drugged a girl. Then left her naked on my hammock, for the skeeters to feast on? Who was it Carl."

"Exchange student" Carl blabbered. "From China. Doesn't speak English well. Names Liang Zhao."

I was advancing hard now, giving him a look as though I wanted to kill him. Which I did. Drug a woman, then leave her alone for anything (like me) to happen to her. "Look around Carl. If she's wandered off someplace, find her. If she doesn't show up I'm telling the police. And never come here again. Got it?"

"Yeah, sure Matty." He took off running towards the hammock, I took off running to my bedroom. That was where I kept the pump action shotgun. It turned out I needed it, as Carl had come in the back door and was half way up the stairs when he met the shotgun coming down.

"She's not in this house Carl" I warned him.

"Yeah. I guessed. But I can't let you turn me in."

"Double Ought twelve gauge" I warned him. "Get, I'll give you twenty minutes head start." I held up my cell phone (totally useless out here) then I call the County. Move."

One thing Carl did know was guns, and what they could do. Stumbling back down the stairs he ran for his van. I was amazed that he didn't hit anything on the way out, as I fired one round into the air as he left. True to my word though, I waited twenty minutes. Like hell I did. As soon as he was out of sight down the road I called the County Sheriff. On my house phone. He was much interested in my story, and the fact that some city kid had threatened me. Though he barely knew me, he knew my family. An APB, or whatever the county called it, was out for Carl and his van within minutes.

Later I learned that he had tried to outrun the police. His van wasn't in the best shape to start with. When he missed Buzzard Bend and went off a three hundred foot cliff into Whitewater River it was in even worse shape. They found Carl, they found drugs, they found guns, They found rope cut into two foot lengths. They even found Liang's clothing, purse and identification. Her body they never found.

Because I had her body.

Sheriff Bradley arrived late in the evening, noting that I was still cleaning. "Big party" he asked.

"Too big" I admitted. "I invited a few friends, they invited. I think I had ninety people here. Had to lock the good furniture in the barn, my basement and the second floor. Even after all day it's a disaster. Never, ever again. Carl and the girl?"

"His body we found. My deputies and a few townsfolk are dragging him up the cliff now. What's left of him. No seat belt, whole van was covered in blood. Its being dragged out of the river by wench. Her body, not yet. Probably hunters or fishers will stumble over it. In a year of two. Your sure she was in the van."

"When he drove out I could swear I saw a woman's face in the back window. It looked like she was gagged. But it was quick, and it could have been a blow up sex doll for all I know. You caught Sara and Billy?"

"Yep. Check that book you told us about. No Chinese girl listed. She snuck in. Or he left her in the van. Don't think she would have made it back to that school either. That ravines on the way, and a body dumped there wouldn't be found until it was bones."

"I take it that its happened before?"

"In this towns history? Two or three dozen times. Not in the last fifty years though. Mind if I look around?'

"Enjoy yourself" I said, shaking my head as if in disbelief. "Hammocks over there. Why do people do these things?"

"Donno" Bradley answered as he headed for the hammock. "Just Donno."

Sheriff Bradley left half an hour after sundown, thanking me for my assistance and warning me not to open my doors to anyone at night. "Your too far out in no where. Wait till people know you've got that shotgun. Then you should be okay."

Watching him leave, carefully closing and latching my gate behind him, I giggled. I have my toy, and everyone thought that she was dead. Locking my front door (darn sturdy I realized, as was every door) I went to the basement.

"So" I said to the still bound girl. "Your Chinese, and your name is Liang Zhao. Well, that ends now. Your name is Susan. Answer to anything but Susan and I'll punish you. Probably by leaving you out for the skeeters." I walked over to her, reaching down to untie the gag, then with a pair of long nose pliers removed the sock. No teeth lopping off one of my fingers. Not if I could help it.

She gasped, trying to lick her lips. With a nod to her need I brought over a pitcher of water, fresh from the well. Soaking a clean washrag I held it over her mouth, twisting it so it dribbled into her parched lips. Too much water too fast and she'd get sick, or worse. As I worked I heard thunder outside. A good rain was what we needed, and it would make the red clay county road near impassable for at least a day after the rain stopped. Maybe longer. It would also wash away any traces I had left. Problem was, it was going to delay the sewer work, and if it lasted too long, the electrical as well.

Just as I thought of it the lights flickered and died. Exactly one long minute later Grandfathers old generator started up and the lights returned. As I recalled it had a fifty gallon tank. I would have to refuel it daily. A drag.

"Why" my pet asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I slapped her across the closest breasts, hard. "Susan. It is Why MISTRESS" I growled.

She tried to pull away, but the web hammock was a near perfect trap. Realizing she had no option 'Susan' decided to go with the flow. For now. "Why ... Mistress."

"Why what? Why hit you? You were disrespectful."

"Why do this Mistress" She wiggled her body, indicating the entrapment.

"A little more specific Susan" I asked gently. Carrot and Stick my Phyc Proff had harped. Carrot and stick always works, though it takes longer.

She took a few breaths, obviously now realizing the true trap. By moving she had 'scratched' many of those nasty skeeter bites, and now they itched like hell. I had Calamine lotion upstairs, but not enough to even begin helping her. "Mistress, please. The itch."

"Will itch Susan. If I could help you I would. But the only thing I have that will help is a half empty bottle. One treatment. Your breasts, your face, your buttocks? Where? And in hours you'd be right back where you started. It would be a torture that you do not, as yet, deserve."

There were tears in my prizes eyes. 'Susan's' eyes. I would never use her real name again. Liang Zhao was dead, her body somewhere in the Whitewater river. Susan was my toy. Eventually to become my willing slave. "You speak English well" I noted.

"I studied many years" she answered. "Mistress. I came to America. To learn Agriculture."

I let the slip pass, this time. "Okay. This is a farm, but I lease out the twenty acres that grow, well whatever they grow here. I intend to live here all my life, but if I did so alone I would grow crazy. Does that answer your question Susan?"

"Yes Mistress. I am to be your companion."

"For the rest of my life" I added.

"The police Mistress." There was hope in her voice.

"Have come and gone. They are certain that your sweet young body is somewhere in Whitewater River with the animal that drugged you. I'll pick up next weeks newspaper, just so you can read about your own death. You do read English well?"

"Not as well as I wish Mistress."

"You'll learn Susan."

"Mistress?"

"Yeah?" I was getting tired of this. I needed to get water, and a little food into her body. I'd placed a large galvanized pan under her to catch her wastes. For now.

"I am to be your lover Mistress?"

I leaned over her face, pressing my lips against hers. She fought, but only for a moment. Yielding to my kiss was better than waking those bits again. Finished with my taste (and not fool enough to use my tongue) I stepped back. "What do you think Susan?"

"I will fight you mistress" she whispered.

I laughed, reaching down to run my hand along her skin, waking those madding itches. "I have all my life, and millions of skeeters. Who do you think will win Susan."

Tears were falling like rain, but I heard her answer. "I have to try Mistress. Allow me that."

In answer I leaned over again, drawing one pink nipple deeply into my mouth. My left hand reached down, finding that place between her legs. Already she was damp. By the time I finished she was shaking, having been brought to orgasm twice. "I have all your life Susan. You have my permission to resist. But in truth. Who will win."

"You Mistress" she gasped, the tears now a flood.

"Good. When you agree that I have won, you may never resist again. You will be my willing property. To do with and what I desire when and where I desire. Now I'll get you some food. A light meal after the last twenty four hours and that filthy drug. After the rain ends I am going to move you to the barn. Fight me, you get the skeeters. Obey, I will do my best to keep them away. They are nasty little insects, they carry disease and they get through the tiniest spaces. Remember how you feel, and remember that every time that you disobey me you'll be this way again."

"And winter?"

"I'll tie you outside naked, to freeze until you are blue. If I watch carefully, you won't lose any fingers or toes." I played with her again, waiting until she was close. "Nipples maybe. You might even lose this." Then I set her over a third time. When she was coherent again I pinched her little pearl hard, electing a gasp of pain from her. "Think how terrible it would be, to lose this." Then I left. A light broth and bread for my toy, then sleep.

As I expected, the Septic man called early in the morning to reschedule. He was sorry, but the road was impassable until it dried. I agreed and set a date for late next week, then called the electrician. He too was happy to wait until the roads dried, though he claimed that his truck could make the roads in. "And get stuck half way home?" I asked. It was enough to agree to the delay.