The sound of the running water filled the bathroom. Wafting plumes of heavy steam rose up from the tub, coiling and curling about her body as she observed herself in the mirror.
Her name was Clara Ellison, and she was pretty normal on the face of it. Of course, she knew that most people would describe themselves as pretty normal. It would be weird not to, right? Or then again, maybe she was just fooling herself and she wasn't normal at all? What really was normal anyway?
Clara sighed and tried to start again.
Her name was Clara Ellison and she was - as far as anyone else knew - a pretty normal girl. She'd only recently turned eighteen, she lived with her parents in a small town on the edge of nowhere. She'd done okay in school. She was no genius but she had gotten by. She had friends, goals, and her whole life ahead of her.
According to her family, her future was so bright that it was shining but she suspected that would have said that anyway. Clara had one great talent, but she was self-aware enough to know that it wasn't her intelligence,
She got on with people. She networked. She could talk anyone around to her way of thinking. Introduce her to a room full of strangers and within minutes, she'd be laughing and joking with them as if she'd known them for years. Clara was warm and friendly, and hardly anyone had a bad word to say about her.
Very few people considered just how exhausting that was. She made it look effortless, but that came with skill and practice. The truth was that Clara put a great deal of effort into it. Learning about people, learning how to talk to them, how to lower their guard. How to joke and laugh and get them to play along too. It had taken her years to put it all together.
Sometimes, she wondered why she did it but the reason was lost to the years. Presumably, she'd started years ago for some purpose but at this point, she'd been doing it so long that she didn't even remember why she did. It was just easier to keep going. To keep building herself up, never to admit that the person most of the town knew was not in fact the real her. It was a construct, someone designed to be as safe and approachable as possible. Clara who was always laughing, mischievous, but never in a threatening way. Bright and sunny and full of cheer.
She hated that mask sometimes. She hated the way it had moulded itself to her and she could not escape it. She hated how her fantasies went so far against the image, how she was torn between them.
Because you see, Clara Ellison had dreams of things that she probably shouldn't have. She woke at night, sweating, her skin tingling. Her hardened nipples pressed against the inside of the blankets, feeling the dying images of her nightmare-fantasy fade away.
She didn't want to have sex with some nice boy with a cute face. She didn't want her first time to be some innocent little bubble she would treasure forever.
Clara wanted to be used. To be fucked. To be chained up and made to writhe and cry out in pleasure. She wanted to feel helpless, humiliated and ashamed. The very idea sent spikes of heat flaring through her body. Even now, looking at herself in the mirror, her chest was fluttering. Blood rushed to her face.
She was struggling. She knew that these sorts of thoughts weren't the kind an innocent small-town girl like her should have. If anyone knew, well, they would never quite look at her the same way again. But she'd felt this way for years, ever since she'd come into her own. She knew by now it would not fade, it was exactly what she wanted.
She bit her lower lip, gazing at her reflection in the mirror. She was naked. The steam from the bath gently caressed her pale skin. Her body was slender, her legs were long. Clara was a runner, who enjoyed the rush of feeling the wind against her dark hair. Her eyes were blue, and her face was finely featured, but she was no great beauty. She looked good in a girl next door kind of way, but she knew she would never be one of those women who could command attention from across the room.
A shiver raced through her body, thoughts of her fantasies turned her mind towards the very dream which had woken her up only an hour ago. It was very early morning, the rest of the house was asleep. She'd decided to take a bath and clear her mind, but it was obviously not working!
Absently, she ran one hand along her chest, her fingers brushed against her breasts, teasing and edging the hardened flesh of her nipples. A soft moan escaped the back of her throat. Her body was still aroused from the nightmare.
She couldn't remember all of what it had been. Mostly, there were impressions. She remembered darkness, chains, and the feeling of something cracking against her back. A whip? Her legs had been shackled together so she couldn't walk very far, and she had been naked. Was she being sold as a slave? Maybe... that did sound familiar.
Clara pursed her lips, her heart beat faster. There was a distant throbbing echoing between her legs, growing stronger and more urgent the more she thought about the dream. She tried to focus, tried to claw it back. What had it been about? She had been naked... in chains....