Abroad

The oldest child in a family with three younger brothers and an uncaring parent, she was the authority of the household. She laid down the law for the boys and made them obey.

A year ago she left home and enrolled at the university. She dated around with many men but always took the upper hand and made it clear what she wanted.

Seeing Anne leashed and spread out naked on the lawn awoke a strange unexpected desire in her to explore that life. When Francesca came to collect Anne, they chatted.

Rae said she was intrigued; she didn't admit she was tempted to try it out, but she asked what the first steps were.

Francesca looked at her, thought a moment, and directed her to get in touch with Anne's first owner Paul. He would know how to satisfy her needs. She was not sure what that meant at the time.

The next day she contacted him. Paul suggested they meet for dinner that evening.

Afterwards they went to his place. Treating him like any date she could boss around, she started to grill him. He slapped her and ordered her to remove her clothes. All of them.

Startled, she obeyed. He bent her over a padded chair and pulled her cheeks apart, and without a word or further ceremony possessed her.

The experience changed her life. She could not see her conqueror or touch him, all she could do was submit.

A great weight dropped from her; ambition, selfishness, anxiety, all the tensions that drove her to strive for success. She was his; all that was left of her own will was a desire to please him.

There was pain. She welcomed it. No transformation, certainly not one as profound as this, occurred without pain.

There was blood, she could feel it seeping from the torn flesh of her rear. It would lubricate the passage and ease his entry. And it marked the blood-sacrifice of her old self.

Delirious with happiness she let him use her like an animal, oblivious to her cries until he finished taking his pleasure. His warm seed rested within her, comforting and contenting her.

Her destiny was fulfilled. She was reborn, a butterfly emerging from its earthbound shell.

Her mind wandered until he pulled her upright by her hair and told her to face him. She sank to her knees and kissed the floor at his feet.

She begged to be his. He said nothing, but led her to a closet in the hall. As he closed the door she saw it had openings for ventilation and realized she was not the first.

She wondered how many houses had girls like her in them; she had never given it much thought, although she saw them walking out on their leashes now and then. A sisterhood who shed their responsibilities along with their clothes, free of all care, honoring their masters.

And how many did this house have? She heard sounds from below but Paul was upstairs. She fell asleep with the question unanswered.

The next morning about dawn she awoke to the sound of footsteps in the hall. She pressed her face to the grill in the closet door.

A girl approached weeping. She was naked except for a black ribbon around her neck. Paul followed with a neutral expression. They went out the front door and Rae heard a car start and drive off.

Something told Rae the girl was being led to her execution. For reasons she could not explain, it made her want to adopt that life, to raise the stakes for pleasing her owner. She had to become his if he would let her.

Paul returned a half hour later and led her out into the hallway. Neither of them spoke.

He held up two pieces of paper. One was a public letter "to whom it may concern" stating her decision; in the other she gave herself and all her lawful property to him. She knelt on the floor and signed them both, overjoyed at being accepted into this new life.

He took the documents away and returned with a tray, setting it on a small table. He placed his hands around Rae's neck as if to strangle her; but he was only estimating its size. He selected a metal collar from the tray and told her to put it on. She obeyed and heard it click into place.

She did the same with a pair of bracelets on her wrists; they had loops that enabled them to be fastened together like handcuffs.

He motioned for her to sit on the floor and gave her another pair of bracelets, slightly larger, for her ankles.

She would wear them for the rest of her life. She was his possession now.

He fastened her bracelets behind her - a new sensation, she liked it - and she followed him into the kitchen where a bowl of water and a smaller one of pet food awaited her. She took her breakfast under his watchful eye and used the litter box in the corner.

He explained that he had contracted to receive a pair of English girls belonging to a collector for training, so she could not stay here; instead he would take her to a friend's house. Stefan would know what to do with her, how to certify her for sale, and the rule of three.

Rae looked up in puzzlement. That girl he said, the one she viewed this morning from her closet (he saw her looking), had been rejected by three potential buyers. He was not surprised, she had been "difficult"; but the custom was to treat such girls as unsalable and dispose of them.

She knew the rule and accepted it, he said; the same would apply to Rae.

Rae looked at the floor and agreed, hoping she would not fail the test when her time came. She was gambling her life on it; how exciting.

He leashed her and led her outside naked, down the street a few blocks to his fellow trainer's house. The loops on Rae's anklets made little tinkling sounds as she walked. Rather pleasant she thought; and she could not go anywhere silently now.

He rang the doorbell and a man in his forties appeared. Thin and ascetic, with a receding hairline, not especially attractive, frowning. He frightened her a little.

Stefan looked Rae up and down before accepting the end of her leash from Paul, then led her inside and down a set of stairs into the basement where he introduced her to his wife Inge.

Inge fastened her bracelets together in front. They made her stand in the center of the room and suspended her by her wrists from a hook in the ceiling.

Rae felt a thrill of arousal. She was committed now.

She had a moment to survey the cellar before they left and turned out the light. A bench against one wall and a stack of wooden chairs in the corner.

In another was a sink and a toilet. That was good; she sensed she would be here for some time.

Beside the sink was a tall set of shelves, empty except for boxes of dry pet food on the top shelf and a pair of bowls - one large, one small - in the middle.

The windows near the ceiling were covered with a dark heavy cloth. Enough light leaked around the sides that she could tell day from night, but no more.

This new life was a revelation to her; used to giving commands, now she obeyed them.

Without her physical freedom she was free of responsibilities, in the care of others who would feed and house her. The beauty of her position was beyond words.

She must have dropped off to sleep at some point, because it was dark outside when she heard someone turn on the light and descend the stairs. She smiled demurely and she hoped suitably to her status at her masters.

They looked at each other and nodded. Later she learned she had passed her first test. In a few cases a girl failed and had to be put down; afterwards a renderer purchased the remains for what he could extract from them.

Stefan unhooked her and fastened her bracelets behind while Inge took a box of kibble and filled the small bowl with it before setting it on the floor. She filled the larger one with water from the sink and motioned to Rae who crawled forward on her knees for her dinner.

They observed her at her meal. She showed no reluctance at this new mode of dining and they approved; this one had promise, she was a keeper.

They returned upstairs and left her in darkness. Rae disposed herself on the cement floor, harder than the closet but more spacious. She said a prayer of thanks to them and slept till dawn.