Matilda's eyes focused on the twinkling lights dotting the skyscrapers that stood along the Crossroads Inner Loop highway. Being driven was strange and unsettling; she'd always taken her own car to the office, refusing even to take the trains and subways that formed a network across the city, or to ride in the back of a summoned rideshare. It was easier to focus on the wheel, on the operation of the accelerator and brake, then to be left in the silence and contemplation of finding her hands and feet without anything to do.
She set her hands in her lap, drumming her fingers against her thighs. The window glass of the backseat felt cool against her skin, its exterior surface dotted by the rain.
Jocelyn, however, sat cool and composed behind the wheel, leading the car along the wide arc of the highway as it rounded the city center. The woman hadn't said much of a word since they left the office; the back door of her car had been opened in silence, her hand reaching out for Matilda to sit down inside.
It was rather luxurious, Matilda thought. The car was sleek and elegant, just as Jocelyn herself was. She'd clearly paid a great sum of money for it judging by the dashboard's touchscreen interface and the smooth polish to every interior surface. She laughed to herself in amusement: her secretary seemed far more wealthy than she was, and made that quite clear with everything she owned.
"Where," Matilda finally said, not lifting her head, though her eyes met Jocelyn's in the rear-view mirror, "are we going?"
"To my penthouse, on the west end of Almede District."
Matilda blinked. Outside of the highrise suites reserved for the wealthiest in downtown Crossroads, Almede was one of the nicest parts of the city. It had once been a slum, but the investment of the Nexus Corporation into the neighborhood had transformed it into one of the most up-and-coming blocks of land in town.
"I didn't realize you lived so well," Matilda said, her eyes once more turning to the view outside the window.
Jocelyn smiled. "In fairness, there's a lot you don't know about me."
Matilda nodded. She'd never really talked about anything other than business with her secretary. Or, she realized, much of anyone. That was part of the problem, after all, and if she believed what Jocelyn had sold her own, was exactly what they were going to address.
"What," Matilda said, her own voice sounding distant from her body, from her consciousness, "what exactly are you going to do to me?"
The car shifted, moving onto an off ramp. Outside Matilda's window, the great spire of the Nexus Corporation building soared into the night sky, its rooftop beacon glowing like a star over the cityscape it presided over. Then, as quickly as it came into view, the car turned, sliding under the Loop, orienting itself towards their destination.
"My technique depends on the application of physical and mental pain." Jocelyn eased the car to slower speeds as she spoke, cruising through the valleys cut by roadways between the shops and apartments of Almede District. "As I mentioned in your office, how I intend to reshape you, rebuild you, depends entirely on destroying everything you've been to this point. The way to do that is to push you right up to the edge of your pain tolerance."
Matilda's throat tightened. "What do you mean by pain?" she asked. Her voice trembled, as unsteady as her legs would be if she were standing. Her hand braced itself against the release for the car door, as though she could will herself to jump out of the moving vehicle and run away.
"There's no need to worry. We'll start small and build." The same thin, enigmatic smile Jocelyn wore when she first proposed their project curled her lips. "You will be pushed hard; it'll be easier to show you what I intend than it will be to try to explain everything here. I assure you, however, Ms. Langley, that you will be safe in my hands."
"I can trust you?"
"Absolutely. Will you trust me?"
Matilda closed her eyes. She wanted relief. She thought of her body, her being, being pushed over and shattered by Jocelyn's hand just as easily as her vase had exploded into pieces. The thought of being slowly put back together, veins of gold spiraling around the seams in her body, made her shiver.
"I do."
"Very well."
~
Matilda paused just inside of Jocelyn's home, eyes wide, drinking the sight of it all in.
Like the woman's car, the penthouse itself was sophisticated and luxurious. The entry lead into the main living space, an open room with kitchen and bar counter with polished counters, along with a parlor whose space was dominated by an arcing sectional couch set in front of a fireplace. A pointalist painting of the Crossroads skyline hung opposite the fireplace, while the exterior wall looked out onto a park that bounded the city's coastal cliffs. Rain cascaded down the windows, breaking apart the park's lamp lights into endless stars against the dark waters of the sea beyond.
To either side of the painting, she noticed, were separate doors. One surely lead to a bedroom, she realized, trying to orient herself. The other was, perhaps, a restroom? She shook her head. There had been a small washroom in the entry leading into the condo, and surely there wouldn't be two bathrooms just beside one another.
Matilda approached the unknown door, only to pause upon noticing there was a keyed lock on the doorknob. She turned towards Jocelyn, who was just stepping out of the entry, her coat hung in the closet there.
"You'll see what that is soon enough," she said with a smile, then stepped into the kitchen. "Would you like a glass of water before we begin?
Nodding, Matilda made her way over to the bar separating the kitchen from the living room. She had just settled onto one of the stools there as Jocelyn set a glass of ice water down in front of her. Taking a sip, Matilda hadn't realized just how thirsty she was - a combination of her nerves, she supposed, and the whiskey she's had in the office. She greedily drank at the glass, all while keeping her eyes on Jocelyn.
Jocelyn leaned against the counter, meeting Matilda's eyes. "Are you still wondering what I intend to do to you?"
Matilda nodded, her throat too inundated with water to answer aloud.
"I am, quite simply, going to restrain you against the wall of my dungeon. Shackle you in place, and proceed to beat your body until every inch of it bruises." She smiled and folded her hands, one on top of the other, on the counter. "I'm going to lash and flog you, pull your hair like a rope, and make you scream. I may cut you. I may make you bleed."
Matilda's face drained to shock white, and set her glass down on the counter with what seemed an impossibly loud clatter of glass on stone. Her throat twitched. "What," she asked, lips trembling, "are you?"
"A dominant," Jocelyn said, her voice as smooth as silk, "and a sadist. Pain is the instrument through which I extract pleasure and catharsis from others. And I intend to bring every ounce of skill I possess to bear on you, and shatter that exterior you so desperately cling to, just as I promised."
Every fiber of Matilda's being screamed at her to get up and run. She stayed, frozen in place, her eyes wide. "And," Matilda stared to speak, mouth and tongue sputtering over her words, "and if I can't handle it..."
"Then I'll take care of you, bring you back down, and take you home. I owe you no less."
Jocelyn stood, crossing her arms over her chest. "Now, I know you surely have a lot of questions. And I will answer any you may have. But I can see the apprehension and fear in your body language and in the look in your eyes, so Ms. Langley, do confirm for me: do you, or do you not, want to go through with this?"
Matilda swallowed the knot in her throat. "I do," she said, her voice sounding smaller than she intended.
Jocelyn shook her head. "Louder. More confident. Speak from your gut and not from your terror. Does the thought of me pouring down pain on you excite you, Ms. Langley?"
Matilda closed her eyes. Deep down, there was something terrifying about being subject to violence at her secretary's hands. The more she dwelt on the thought of her hands upon her with force and singular purpose, however, the more she felt a heat deep in her belly. No one had ever touched her, much less done so with power. The more her mind sank down into her body, into consciousness of her muscle and skin, the more she realized how hungry her body was for contact.
She sat up straight, setting her shoulders. "I am," she said, speaking through the shake in her voice, "I am at least intrigued by it."
Jocelyn laughed, but nodded. "I suppose that will do."
Stepping out from behind the bar counter, Jocelyn crossed into her bedroom, emerging only a few moments later with a keychain dangling from her finger. She gestured with curling fingers for Matilda to approach as she made her way to the mysterious, locked door that Matilda had noticed earlier.
The lock clicked as Matilda joined Jocelyn's side. The knob turned, opening the doorway into...
Matilda's eyes went wide.
The room was, as she walked inside behind Jocelyn, deceptively simple. Low, warm lighting filled the space, a blessed contrast to the bright overhead lights in the rest of the condo. The space had clearly originally been a bedroom, and even still had a bed set in the center of it.
There was, however, much more.
An X-shaped cross was bolted to the wall at one side of the bed. A long dresser sat on the opposite side, lit by a pair of candles on either side of a tall mirror. She stepped forward, resting her hand against the bedsheets as Jocelyn turned towards the dresser.
