Family Matters

Some time later she heard steps descending to the cellar. Miki and a woman dressed all in black.

Odette was tall, slender, about thirty she guessed. Small pointed breasts beneath her sweater; black fishnet stockings under a miniskirt that revealed a tight little rear. Anne grew passionate and opened her legs in welcome. She hoped Odette would find her attractive.

The woman showed no expression as she was introduced to Anne but at once began to inspect her.

She lifted Anne's breasts. Large, she thought; hormones? Miki nodded.

She brushed the nipples and watched them rise, then placed a hand on her belly - firm, that was good.

Anne felt tears streaming down her face and closed her eyes for the rest. Odette reached around and examined her buttocks but made no comment; Anne hoped she was pleased with them.

Holding Anne's head in place, she traced a circle with her index finger on her victim's lips. Anne made her mouth into an O and prepared to suck on it, but Odette withdrew.

She had something else in mind. She reached beneath Anne and explored her. Anne began to moan, her eyes still closed; her world contracted to her womb and the questing hand within it.

When she came around and opened her eyes, Odette had finished. The woman held up her fingers and let Anne taste herself on each. She said nothing but Anne saw her smile and warmed with hope.

She craved Odette's approval; she would do anything for it and to have the woman in her again.

Miki released her from the hook and fastened her hands in back. She started to attach the leash to Anne's collar when Odette intervened. She attached one end to the steel ring between Anne's legs and passed the other behind her.

More effective this way, she explained. She demonstrated a few simple commands as she led Anne around the floor; a shake of the leash to start moving or speed up, pulling back to slow or stop, a tug to left or right, before handing it to Miki.

Her little sister took the reins and imitated Odette until they were called upstairs for dinner.

The family had laid out an impressive spread to welcome Miki's new tutor; the dinner table was lit by candles, the silverware gleamed and their best china graced the linen cloth.

Miki wrapped Anne's leash around her waist and she knelt in a corner beside a pair of earthenware bowls, facing the wall and presenting what one owner called her "charms" to the diners' view.

Her sister patted her on the buttocks and she glowed with contentment. It was good to be home again.

The bowls held water and a small amount of feed pellets. Her parents had been told of the need to keep her always hungry for the sake of her figure, and for discipline. Food was the one reward she was allowed.

The family continued a conversation begun earlier; whether to put a water bowl for her use in the cellar. More convenient for her keepers, but she would have to share it with the rats. They decided yes.

They discussed her as if she were not there. She was a disappointment to her father; a brilliant student with a promising career, but an ungovernable slut who had thrown it all away to become a whore.

Miki rose to her defense. This was her vocation, her calling, it is what she was made for.

Her mother thought her more useful as a slave than she was in her previous career; she was making the world a happier place, one man at a time. Anne knew she must not speak, but she smiled in agreement.

Odette said she appeared well suited to her new profession, and her father was silent. Anne was pleased to have his approval, or at least the absence of disapproval.

Dinner proceeded, and afterwards they retired to the living room for coffee. Her father told her to crouch in front of him and used her as a footstool.

He said an old boyfriend of hers wanted to buy her. She cringed at the thought of belonging to Gaspar; he was repulsive. Every time they had sex, she felt the need to bathe afterwards. Still, he was masterful; as his slave she would have to yield to him in everything. Perhaps he would beat her. She began to like the idea.

Her mother noticed the marks seared into her buttocks when she was branded; Miki traced them with a finger and Anne almost purred.

Someone asked what the words on either cheek meant; Odette said they stood for "Open | here", and they all laughed at this.

A while later, Odette took her leave; Miki's lessons began tomorrow and she wanted to be well rested. Miki shook Anne's leash and she stood with the others who said their goodbyes, before being led back down to the cellar.

She wondered if she was to spend the night hung up on the hook, but Miki attached her collar to a chain in the wall. It was long enough for her to reach her water bowl and the litter box; she blessed her family for this.

Miki went upstairs and turned out the light. Anne lay on the stone floor to sleep. It was cold and hard, but that was good for her.

In a few minutes the rats emerged, emboldened by the darkness; Anne was a minor obstacle, easy to climb over. They reminded her of a year she spent in the basement of Francesca's apartment building. Filled with nostalgia for that innocent time, she dropped off to sleep with pleasant dreams.

The next morning, Odette appeared with Miki. Her little sister was in her usual shirt and jeans; Anne noticed they were black now. Odette wore a black unitard that showed all the curves of her body.

The two women suspended Anne by her wrists. Anne grew warm at their touch; she wondered if the two were lovers, and if Odette would accept her as one.

She did not; but for the next three months she was a constant presence at the house, instructing Miki.

She arrived early and supervised feeding and watering Anne. They let her use the litter box, then took her to the back yard where she sat or knelt on the ground.

The mornings were devoted to teaching Miki use of the long bullwhip. The young woman practiced on a variety of targets while standing or in motion. Anne was impressed to see how quickly her little sister learned to use it.

At midday the women took their lunch outside and discussed the upcoming lady-rodeo. Miki gave Anne a bowl of water, then fastened her bracelets to the top of a large stake. Odette drew designs - simple at first, then more intricate - on Anne's legs and torso with a felt pen and handed Miki a leather whip.

The young woman traced her teacher's designs with the whip, erasing the ink and replacing it with pale red lines. Next she filled in areas with bluish bruises from a heavy crop. Odette critiqued her work and offered suggestions while Anne hung panting and weeping on the stake.

Sometimes the two left her and went inside. Anne wondered what they were talking about or doing at such times but she never learned.

At the end of the day they leashed her and led her back to the cellar. If they passed one of her parents in the hallway, she bowed or (at a touch on her shoulder) knelt until they went by.

Downstairs she was fed, then either hung up for the night or allowed to spend it on the stone floor with the rats. The decision seemed to be random; she never knew which it would be until Miki pulled on her collar and placed her.

Sometimes Miki blindfolded her with a strip of black cloth. Vulnerable, weak and helpless, so good; she needed that. She listened to noises in the house above her: the doorbell ringing, footsteps, voices talking.

After a month of these exercises, they took Anne to a park on the edge of town where a large grassy field afforded more scope for Miki to practice. She let Anne try to run away and brought her down with the long whip, then hog-tied her and pulled her back to the starting point again and again until she had mastered the technique.

At the edge of the park was the city's firehouse. Odette noticed the staff watching from windows in an upper story and pointed it out to Miki.

The two women conferred and Odette went over to the building. A minute later, about twenty firefighters emerged, eager to take advantage of her offer. Lying in the grass, Anne noticed with pleasure that three of them were female.

"Ladies first," said their chief and Anne opened her legs in greeting.

When they were done Anne lay half-conscious, writhing feebly and staring up at the sky as the first man took her. She gathered her wits and tried to respond to him.

She must have succeeded; she heard him speak with approval as he got up and turned her over to his successor. After that she lost track and did her best with waning strength.

Some time later she woke when Odette threw a bucket of cold water on her. The two trainers lifted her up. The firefighters were gone, though two could be seen at windows of their building. Anne would have waved to them if her hands were free.

This scene was repeated several times over the next eight weeks; Anne looked forward to it and slept well each night afterward.

By the end of the period Miki had become quite skilled in using the bullwhip, and in adorning her sister with designs of her own creation. Odette expressed pleasure at her pupil's achievement; the young woman could win a prize, maybe even the grand prize, at the rodeo. Anne was filled with hope and anticipation on her behalf.

She had much time to think. She was pleased that her mother and little sister approved of her; perhaps her father would come around in time as well. He might even like to use her.

Late one evening as she hung in the cellar Miki came down the stairs; that was odd. She stood before Anne and removed her jeans. Hanging them on a nail she unbuttoned her shirt and put it aside, then slowly removed her bra. Her breasts were full and womanly now; Anne had not seen them since leaving home years ago.

She removed her panties, hung them with her other garments and stood naked before her captive. Holding up one hand she traced the circle of Anne's lips as Odette had done, then kissed her on the mouth.

It was too much; Anne tried to control herself but could not and came with involuntary movements of her hips.

Miki laughed. She took a spoon of nutritional paste and placed it into her sister's waiting mouth, letting it linger. Anne submitted to it all, wholly in her power.

She dressed and went upstairs. The rats were away but a quantity of flies were attracted to the liquor between her thighs. She opened her legs for them as she would for a human partner and let them feast on her.

The weeks of practice left Anne so covered with wounds that Odette worried they would not be fully healed before the rodeo. Miki applied oil to them; each of her strokes as she rubbed it in reminded Anne of her kiss and she struggled to contain her desire.

They took her out for walks, to return some color to her skin and accustom her to being among crowds; she would need that in the arena.

On one of those they ran into a pair of Odette's friends. Hari was from Calcutta, a professor of mathematics at the university; his English wife Tish was a concert pianist. Both were in their early thirties.

Tish held a leash; on the other end was a naked and very pregnant young woman.

Odette introduced the couple and Hari explained their possession. They walked Sandra outside daily; the exercise should pay off in a healthy child when the time came, just a couple weeks from now. The girl smiled and looked demurely down at the sidewalk. Her distended belly proclaimed her condition and her swollen breasts reminded Anne of her own time as a cow.

Sandra - blonde and a head taller than her owners - was a physics Ph.D. graduate who had given herself to George, a janitor in the department. He sold her to Hari and Tish who were childless and wanted one. The child would at least be Hari's.

Perhaps something in Miki's look gave away her skepticism. Hari laughed and explained that George was black and the infant's parentage would be clear at birth. George promised to refund Sandra's price if the baby turned out to be his.

They would keep it in any case, and after it was weaned they had arranged to sell Sandra to Marcel and David, a pair of English professors who wanted a child. The two men would toss a coin and the loser had to impregnate her; they found the task distasteful and hoped it would "take" in as few tries as possible.

The men had not decided what to do with Sandra when they were done with her. Odette suggested George might buy her back for resale, he traded in female students, and Hari promised to mention it to them.

On the last day before the rodeo, Odette examined Anne; that was good too, though businesslike and not as stimulating as her sister's touch. The two women went off to a corner and conferred out of her hearing, where they apparently agreed Anne was ready.

Hung up by her wrists, she did not sleep well that night. She had never been to a lady-rodeo, her parents would not allow it and never spoke of it in her presence. It frightened her a little.