Chapter 19: An Unexpected Houseguest

Marie floated in the dream world yet again. She was now alone in the courtyard, kept in a tiny cage that forced her to curl up in a ball. Her head was held down at her knees by the force of a woman's high-heeled boot or shoe, the spike heel poking at the back of her neck.

In front of the cage was a soothsayer's crystal ball, the mist within showing a house -- her aunt's house! The mist cleared, and she saw workmen hammering and sawing away at the sides of the beautiful Victorian structure. The workmen peeled the outer walls like paper, and soon everything but the top of the building fell away. What lay beneath were the bars of a steel cage.

Marie woke suddenly as the lid to her crate suddenly opened, light streaming in between her body and the foam padding. She pulled her mouth off of the breathing ball, and straightened her back up. Looking around, she saw that she was alone in the hallway of her house again. The delivery people must have set a timed release for the lid, or perhaps some sort of remote control.

Shakily, Marie got to her feet, unable to use her arms for support as they were still cuffed behind her. She stepped out of the box and looked around for a handcuff key. Not finding anything, she sighed and walked into the living room.

Nothing was the same there any more. Her aunt's cheap fluffy sofa had been replaced with a pair of antique fainting couches, and a white bear rug sat in front of the fireplace. Iron rings were embedded in the walls, and the floor had the occasional steel attachment point flush with the ground. The artwork on the walls consisted of black and white photos of noir vamps and wasp- waisted vixens.

Marie ran through the dining room, ensuring that her Aunt's heirloom furniture was still there, although the iron chain chandelier was quite new. She ran into the kitchen, unable to make sense of many of the implements now adorning its countertops. Flustered, she ran back to the stairs, and up toward her bedroom.

The door was closed when she got there, so she turned her back to it and worked the knob behind her. She was mortified to find it locked. She wiggled it furiously for a moment, then slumped down onto the stairs. She sat with her back against the door and sighed.

Soon, she heard a ratcheting and clicking noise from behind her. The door opened suddenly, and Marie fell backward onto her latex-clad elbows. Looking up, she saw the tops of a pair of knee-high vinyl boots, the hem of a pair of black stockings, and the slick glow of a red latex miniskirt. In the dark folds of the skirt, illuminated by a pair of winking red eyes, was a glittering silver cuntdragon.

Marie scrambled to her feet and looked straight into Angie's eyes. The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity.

Slowly, Angelica brought her black-gloved hand up. Without breaking her gaze, she held out a leather riding crop and traced the outline of Marie's chin with the soft flap at the end.

"Kneel." Angelica commanded and Marie obeyed, rolling to her knees and pressing her forehead to the floor. She felt the blood pumping through her ears, and clenched her cuffed fists behind her back.

Angelica watched Marie in silence for several minutes, and then walked back into the bedroom. Marie quivered, screwing her eyes shut tight as if to hold in the rising tide of emotion and confusion. Angelica returned ten minutes later with a ring of keys, and removed Marie's handcuffs.

"You may enter the room, Slave." Marie rubbed her wrists with relief as she pulled herself to her feet, only to be struck in several places by Angelica's crop.

"Did I tell you you could stand up? Get back on the floor and do as you are told!"

Marie quickly dropped to all fours and crawled into what was once her bedroom. Most of the fixtures and furniture were the same as when she had left for the Halloween party, but she began to remember that the bedroom had changed several times. She was not entirely sure which items were added or changed during her enslavement, and found it hard to even remember what her bedroom had looked like before she had first locked herself into the bed's cuffs for her night of punishment.

"I'm getting hungry, slave, so I'll make this brief. Your Mistress has permitted me to stay as a guest in Her home until such time as you are ready to live in Her presence. I shall supervise this stage of your training and preparation, and you are to follow my orders to the letter. Is everything understood, slave?"

Marie took a deep breath, wondering if she would be able to find her own voice. "Oh yes, Angie." she mumbled.

Angelica brought the crop down on Marie's rear. "You will address me as Ma'am or Lady A. I am your Mistress's surrogate, and you will show proper respect."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Marie cried out as the strokes stung lightly, even through her catsuit.

"Good girl. Now, let's get you dressed for housework so that you can fix me some dinner."

Marie heard Angelica rummaging through boxes and racks of squeaky clothing. After a few minutes, Marie was ordered to stand and strip. Reaching back, Marie peeled off the catsuit, the mute pounding sound of flopping latex cascading to the floor.

"I said strip! That means all of it!"

Marie looked at her temporary mistress, confused. She spread her arms out to show how naked she was.

"You stupid girl!" Angelica snapped, snatching the red wig from Marie's shiny baldness, "That will be five strokes later tonight. For now, it's time for a shower. On your feet!"

Marie couldn't recognize her old bathroom at all. Gone was the friendly iron tub with the lion's feet, the Victorian sink fixtures, and the heirloom medicine cabinet. In their place was a stainless steel and tile room, with fearsome fixtures coming from the walls and a large mirror along the far-side.

Angelica pointed to a control panel on one wall, instructing Marie in it's basic uses. Marie followed her instructions and requested a five-minute shower from the device, her heart skipping a few beats at some of the options she saw listed.

Lights came on behind the mirror on the far wall, revealing a small shower stall. The mirror, now transparent, slid open to allow entry. A pole then lowered from the ceiling, ending in a recognizable figure-8 of metal. The pole's cuffs snapped open, and a light yet persistent beeping sound indicated that Marie was to step in.

Angelica shoved Marie into the stall roughly, spinning her around. Marie realized that she felt warm and protected as her old friend grabbed her arms and shoved her wrists into the self-sealing manacles above her. She let her head hang as Angelica pushed her ankles into the cuffs that had emerged from the lower walls. Satisfied that Marie was properly positioned, Angelica stepped back and the two-way mirrored door closed between them.

The shower was quick and methodical. Jets of warm soapy water sprouted from the walls, tracing interlocking spirals over Marie's body. She was reminded again what a creature of sex she had become, the tingling jets of liquid stimulating her erogenous zones and sending shivers through her piercings. Her hungry eyes roamed, and her gaze met Angelica's through the glass.

The rinse portion of the shower started at the top of her bald head, and worked its way down her body. It was followed immediately by a gust of hot air that blew down from above, pushing all of the moisture into the central drain.

A timer sounded, and the glass door slid back again. Soon the ankle cuffs opened and retreated into the wall, and the wrist cuffs retracted into the ceiling. Marie stepped out to be inspected.

Angelica slipped her hand over the back of Marie's neck, her thumb and middle finger gripping the flesh behind Marie's jaw. She looked the young slavegirl over and then pushed her back out into the bedroom.

"Your home has been fitted with control panels to automate most tasks. They are designed so that you will be able to use them even when strictly bound. This one controls the wardrobe, so that you will be able to retrieve the clothing that has been chosen for you."

Marie frowned, realizing that she was no longer able to simply wander her closet and pick out clothing. She followed Angelica's instructions, and heard motors whirring, like the automated racks that they use at dry-cleaners. Eventually the whirring stopped, and a rack of clothing extended into the room from the wall.

Hanging from the rack were a pair of long white latex stockings topped with black bows, a low-cut and short black rubber dress with a wide circle skirt and pouffy shoulder-sleeves, a strappy corset of some sort, a pair of high- heeled mary-janes, some accessories in a plastic bag, and a large bundle of rubber surgical gloves that Marie could not identify.

"You will begin," Angelica ordered, "with the stockings."

Marie nodded a polite "Yes Ma'am" and grabbed the long latex sheaths. Bunching one up, she leaned against the wall and began quickly tugging it up her foot.

"No, no, no!" Angelica bellowed, cropping Marie's leg with each word. "No wonder your mistress won't deign to see you! You're such a poorly-behaved slave. Do it again, properly!"

Marie pulled the stocking off her foot, panicked. She looked up at Angelica, bewildered.

"Oh for fuck's sake, haven't you been instructed in the basics?" Angelica ignored Marie's frightened reply, and grabbed a book off of the bedstand, opening it to a page in the first chapter.

The book was an instructional manual, filled with diagrams and illustrations. The style was largely inspired by Japanese manga, with submissive young girls performing lewd and painful acts with seductive artistry. The section that Angelica held out to Marie showed a lithe nude, her blue hair pinned up in a bun, demonstrating the proper and pleasing way to put on a pair of stockings.

Angelica tapped the page, "You will memorize the steps, slave, and I will quiz you on this next time. Now put on the stockings properly!"

Marie studied the images quickly, and grabbed the chair from the vanity desk. Turning sideways, she raised her right knee up high, pointing her toe at the seat. Delicately, she gathered the stocking up and stretched it over her toes, resting them lightly on the chair. Working carefully, she tugged the stocking up over her calf, smoothing it gently and ensuring that the black seam was straight in back.

Once she had successfully pulled the garment up to her knee, she kicked her leg out straight in front of her just long enough to pull the latex up to her lower thigh. Bending her knee again, she brought her toes daintily to the floor next to her other foot, then turned her heel outward slightly and finished tugging and smoothing the glossy film over her delicately presented leg.

"That was acceptable." Angelica nodded, and closed the book while Marie repeated the process with the other stocking.

Marie finished putting on the stockings and took the book from Angelica's outstretched arm. The cover of the book had the title "A Novice Slave's Illustrated Primer", and showed a drawing of a young woman in an underbust corset and collar. The woman in the drawing sat on her heels, her knees spread, hands on her thighs, palm upward. Around her image were notes and arrows showing how her breasts were outthrust, her elbows bent, neck straight but eyes downcast, and so forth.

There was a yellow sigil boasting about the accompanying CD in the back, and it seemed to have been published professionally through a standard printing house. It even had a suggested retail price listed in several currencies, and an ISBN barcode on the back!

Marie flipped through the first few chapters, glancing over little cartoons teaching forms of address, proper dressing technique, sexual services, and correct posture in various submissive positions. As Marie flipped deeper and deeper into the book, the women appeared in more and more distress.

Marie stopped on a page depicting a crying girl splayed over a triangular wooden horse, the end of a crop just entering the panel. A little sidebar explained the important fact that "Unless the slave has been ordered to count strokes, she has the right to beg for a gag." The next panel showed the same girl looking up demurely at her unseen master as his hands buckled a red ballgag between her teeth. The notes in the image pointed out her "thankful submissive glance".

"That is the elementary text for your slave training." Angelica explained, "You will be given dedicated study periods, after which you may beg to practice the exercises at the end of each chapter. On Monday you will report to the Agency again for classroom instruction. You will be expected to have read the fellatio sections in chapter three. Now let's get the rest of your uniform on!"