Lorna arrived back at the flat and flung her changing bag on the couch. She looked up at me when she heard me entering the room.
"Good Session?" I asked her.
She nodded in way of reply. She had just spent the last few hours dancing with Master Nash. It had been several months since he had agreed to teach her. Her mouth turned into a frown. "Tank wants to see you. He will be in The Old Hen later tonight."
A cold shiver ran down my spine. Being called in front of Tank was rarely a pleasurable experience. "Did he say why?"
She shook her head. "No. He simply smiled and said he wanted to see you."
I had spent the past few days avoiding the Masters. Now that Tank was demanding my presence, I knew it was likely that I would have to explain my absence. I wondered what excuse I could use. Of course, if they found out the real reason, I would be punished severely for it.
"Do you think it's possible that they know?" I asked.
She shrugged helplessly. "Everything is possible. I did see Lane today on my way home, and he didn't say anything. Nor did he try to avoid me."
I let out an audible sigh. "Well that's good at least. Now all I need to do is come up with some excuse that they might believe."
Lorna looked at me blankly for a few seconds, then she flashed me a smile. "Say that you got scared by something that Tank said."
I stared at the ground, deepening the creases in my forehead. "Won't work. Tank would have known that something was wrong. I could say that I wanted some time alone."
Lorna frowned and shook her head. "Not sure they would like that answer." She paused for a second. "You could tell them the truth, but they will like that even less. If they notice the marks you will have to act surprised at their anger."
At about eight o'clock I decided to make my way over to The Old Hen. The Old Hen was the club where the Black Masters hung out. If you were another Master and you wanted to talk to them then you went there. If you had a slave you thought they might be interested in, you took her there so that she would be noticed. If you were a free woman you didn't dare go there without a Master, as there were horror stories told all over the city.
I recognized the man on the door; before I could ask if Tank was in, he glanced at me and said gruffly, "You'll find them in the back."
My shoulder slumped. I was already nervous enough without being told that Tank was in one of the secluded room at the back of The Old Hen. I had heard others say that those rooms were soundproofed. On the few occasions that I had been in them, it had never been a pleasant experience.
I entered the club. Glad now that I had chosen to wear a light cotton black cloak. I pulled the hood over my head to try and hide my face and made my way as quickly as I could through the crowded room and out through the double doors that led to the private rooms. I just wanted to get things over and done with, and the last thing I wanted was for someone to recognise me and engage in conversation.
I breathed a sigh of relief after I had made it through those double doors. I heard voices coming from one of the rooms and saw that the door had been left open. As I entered, Tank called out to me and smiled. "Evening, precious. Be a good girl and close the door behind yourself."
I smiled weakly back at him and then turned around to close the door. I was nervous and I felt my heart beating fast. I had only got a brief glimpse at what was going on, but it was enough to frighten me. Other Black Masters were standing gathered in a loose circle around Tank and Matt. They all just seemed to be standing around talking, waiting for something to happen. It was unlikely that I was here to perform for them, but I knew neither would it be a nice friendly conversation as to why I had not been around.
Once the door had been closed I turned around to face Tank once more. He smiled at me and motioned with his hand to come nearer. Matt stood next to him. Both held whips in their hands. They knew. I felt my heart skip a beat.
"We have missed you," Tank said as I approached him. I immediately dropped into slave position, kneeling with my bottom resting on my heels. I arched my back slightly thrusting my chest out and clasped my hands behing me, at the small of my back. I lower my head slightly and kept my gaze firmly at the floor near his feet.
I felt Tank move his fingers gently down beneath my chin. I lifted my head slowly in response to his fingers pressing into my chin. My gaze met his.
"Sarah, my darling." He almost cooed it as if he were speaking to me out of an intense emotion of love. "Surely you would prefer to stand before us as a free woman, tall and proud, rather than kneel before us as a slave."
I was unsettled. I knew that he was playing with me. There had to be a reason he wanted me to stand as a free woman rather than a slave. I decided that I would play the slave, reasoning that as a slave I was not always responsible for my actions, whereas a free woman was responsible for every choice she made.
"I would rather remain in this position," I said. "It is the position I am most comfortable in, for I know I am in the company of those who believe there is much I must learn before I am worthy to be called free."
"As you wish, little one. Stand for your Master then."
I stood up slowly before him, trying to stop my body from shaking. Master Tank's eyes moved upwards and I followed his gaze. To my horror I saw that hanging from the ceiling was a rope with two leather bracelets attached. I could feel my eyes growing wider and I quickly looked back to Tank.
"We missed you," he said, smiling at me and gently moving his finger down my left cheek.
I desperately wanted to reach out and touch him, or at the very least for him to tell me that everything would be okay. All I could do was smile back at him. I raised my arms towards the bracelets.
He frowned at me and grabbed my wrists bringing my arms down in front of me. "We cannot admire your body through the clothes your wear."
I forced myself to keep meeting his eyes even though I wanted to look away. "I am frightened, Master."
He moved behind me and with his hands, brushed my hair behind my ears. "There is nothing for a good slave to be frightened of. We merely wish to admire what is ours. We will take good care of your body just like you take good care of it. You have my word tonight that I will not mark your body in any way other than you have allowed it to be marked in our absence."
His words did nothing to soothe me. He let go of my hair and stepped away from me. I just stood there too scared to be capable of doing anything.
Master Tank reached out and grabbed my wrists, pulling me sharply towards him and causing me to lose my footing.
The smile had disappeared from his face. "Be a good little girl and remove your clothing before I decide to hoist you up and have them ripped from you."
"Yes, Master Tank." I couldn't help the tears falling from my eyes. They knew what had happened with Lane, and I was going to be punished for it. I knew my tears were an admission to my guilt, and when my clothing was removed, the evidence would be there for all to see.
I slowly removed my cloak, letting it fall to the ground. I tensed the muscles around my stomach and tried to steady and calm myself. I had chosen a light long-sleeved summer dress to wear under the cloak. Now I wished I had picked a short-sleeved one because it just seemed to scream 'guilty'. Trying to hide one's guilt would make many a Master angry, and that probably applied to every one of them here in the room.
I slowly bent down to remove my boots, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Adam, one of the novice Masters, shaking his head and frowning deeply. I don't know whether he meant me to see, or if he did it out of disbelief at my intended action. Either way, rather than remove my boots, I lifted the bottom of my dress and pulled it high over my head. It came off easily, and I let it fall to the ground. I knew those who stood behind me would be able to observe the red and black marks on my back, even though some of them had started to fade. Slowly I turned around so that my back was facing Tank. He said and did nothing so I continued stripping, removing my underwear and finally my boots.
I turned around to face Tank. He was frowning deeply and I knew he would be displeased at the tears falling from my eyes. He reached out and turned me around so that my back was facing him. He moved his fingers along every whip mark that was on my back. Then he moved his fingers around the whip mark that was on my upper arm.
"Why?" he murmured, more to himself than as a question.
When he finished tracing the marks he took his hand away and said nothing. I guessed that he was waiting for me to make the next move. I turned to the right slightly so that I was standing with my right side facing him. I raised my arms up over my head and Matt reached up and placed them in the bracelets. He then pulled on the chains to move the bracelets closer together, which also raised me so that my toes were barely touching the ground. I felt bracelets being placed on my ankles and looked down to see Tank attaching the bracelets to metal pins on the ground. I figured that they must have been embedded into the ground.
"If you wanted to feel the whip you only needed to ask," Tank said softly as he stood beside me.
He left me hanging there for a few minutes. The room was so quiet that I could hear my heartbeat as it quickened. It always amazed me that the Masters had a lot of respect for other Masters when they were disciplining. They all considered punishment to be necessary and important.
I felt the whip come down on my back and was surprised at the gentleness of it, even though I still gasped and jerked violently. Another soft blow followed across the middle of my back. Tank then placed a metal gag in my mouth. The gag was a round black metal bar which had rubber grips to bite down on. It was attached around the back of my head by stretchy ropes which attached to either end of the gag. Matt stood in front of me and put his fingers underneath my chin and moved my head upwards. I understood that it meant that he wanted my gaze to meet his. I fought hard to stop my body from trembling. Tank had never used a gag on me before.
The next blows from the whip came in much harder. I screamed for each one, often lifting my mouth off the gag. When the whip tail lashed against my upper right arm I knew that Tank was matching the marks that were already there. He ran his fingers along each whip mark, counting as he moved onto a new mark. "One...Two...Three...Four...Five...Six."
I don't know what possessed me to let Lane use a whip on me. We had been drinking at Lehan's. Lane mentioned that he brought a whip and was going to see if he could get a Master to teach him how to use it. Lane worked in one of the stalls in the market. We normally didn't speak much to him but he was very interested in the fact that I knew Matt and Tank.
"Perhaps you could ask one of them," he said. "Or maybe they have even shown you a thing or two about the whip. Most Masters, after all, explain to the poor wretch the method and technique of the torture they will use for punishment."
