Stranger Than Truth

Chapter Two: The Screenwriters

Before they left to meet the screenwriter at the Texan, Sally and Valerie packed a bag with clothes more appropriate for submitting to their Master. Both were lost in their thoughts on the drive. Valerie was still frustrated by how easily Milton Freeman, the producer, managed to make her mad. It wasn't going to help her deal with a screenwriter who, in all likelihood, held the same common misconceptions about BDSM and the people who participated in it. Sally, in spite of her earlier reassurances to Valerie, was worried that this whole project could hurt the lifestyle she loved so much. It certainly could not portray the incredible variety of ways that D/s was expressed.

The Texan was a popular steakhouse whose ads boasted that authentic Texas longhorn beef, grilled in true Texan fashion would make it impossible to enjoy steak cooked anywhere else. While it didn't have that effect, it was very good steak. Milton was waiting for them in the outer lobby.

"Valerie! How good to see you. And you must be Sally. You both look lovely. I have the table already, a private dining room, actually. That way we can speak freely. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of ordering for the two of you. I hope neither of you is a vegetarian."

Sally squeezed Valerie's hand, sensing her lover's anger rising to boiling in a flash. "Not at all Mr. Freeman. It was very kind of you to buy us lunch."

He led them to one of the Texan's private dining rooms. Inside was a couple. The man was decidedly effeminate. He wore a blue satin shirt and designer jeans. There was something odd about the shirt, but neither Sally nor Valerie could place it right away. There were rings on four of the fingers of his two hands, one of which was entangled in the fingers of the woman. He had earring studs in both ears and a matching stud in the left side of his nose.

She exuded sensuality. Her tan evenly covered the entire exposed portion of her body. She wore an emerald green dress without looking garish. The low cleavage of the dress promised that a lover would probably find no tan lines on her body. Her brown hair fell in long locks, reaching to the small of her back. Her jade and emerald earrings matched her dress. Valerie was certain that if she walked onto the floor of the Gotham Club, she would be the cause of several male bruises from a girlfriend's fist. Heads would turn, and likely, roll later.

"Valerie, Sally, let me introduce our screenwriter, Sampson."

Sally reach a hand out towards the gentleman. "It's nice to meet you Sampson."

Mr. Freeman coughed gently. "I'm sorry, I must not have been clear. Sampson is the screenwriting team, not anyone's name. Caroline and Thomas are a team and insist on being billed as a single writer. They are expert at translating vision into pictures."

Valerie looked the two over. "Yes, I'm sure they are. Tell me Sampson, how good are you at translating reality to the big screen?"

The lady, Caroline, looked amused. "Oh my. We're not doing reality. We're going to write better than reality. Reality is so boring." The word so was drawn out to take a full two seconds to finish.

Valerie and Sally had sat down by now. "I see," Sally started, "Just how do you intend to improve on Valerie's and my lives? I can assure you, the first month we knew each other was not boring."

Thomas twisted one of his rings as he responded to the question. "Oh, We don't mean that your lives are boring, just the way that people tell the story of their lives. We will be making the telling exciting. Surely you don't think Terms of Endearment was exciting because of the story? It was the way it was told that made it so wonderful."

At this time, waiters carried in their food. After everything was situated and the waiters gone again, Caroline picked up where Thomas had left off. "You see, any story can be made captivating by telling it the right way. Our gift is in finding that perfect way. What we would like is for you to tell us what happened. It was, what, a month of time from when you discovered Francine was a... dominant, is it... until she attacked you and left you for dead?"

Valerie carefully put her fork down. In measured tones, she corrected Caroline. "Francine did not attack me. She lost control in a consensual BDSM scene. I was there because I wanted to be there. In fact, I asked to submit to her, not the other way around."

Thomas looked excited. "Yes, that's what we need from you two. What really happened that night and what led up to it. We can't tell the story right until we know what the story is."

"So, you want to know, and tell, the truth?"

"Exactly. We want to tell

your

story. We also want to get some of the details of this BDSM thing right. I'm not really comfortable with the masochism thing, but if it's part of the story, I need to understand it." Thomas did look uncomfortable when he spoke.

Sally, speaking around a bite of baked potato, tried to explain something to the two writers. "One of the first things you have to understand is that BDSM, or D/s, is not just about pain and those who like it. I doubt many in the lifestyle truly enjoy the pain and some don't use pain in their play at all."

"But, isn't the desire for pain what led Valerie to seek Francine out?" The confusion on both their faces was apparent as Caroline asked her question.

"No it wasn't. I don't like pain. It sucks. But, I do enjoy submitting to the will of my Master and/or Mistress. I sought out Francine that night because I wanted to express how much I loved her and cared for her. I didn't even know she wanted to whip me until I got there."

"But, what else could she have done?"

"Oh my," laughed Sally. "Almost anything. Francine could have tortured Val with near climaxes for hours, forced her to have climaxes unendingly for hours, or even just tied her up tightly and left her to sit in bondage. Submission is about letting someone else have their way with you. It is not all about pain. You two need to visit Mephisto's, a lot."

Milton interrupted. "Valerie, Sally, why don't you tell the story in your own words? We can worry about the details of bondage and such later."

Valerie looked into the air for a moment, a dreamy expression on her face, as the months rolled back in her mind. "I suppose it started with the week from hell at Bradford and Gashune. I had just finished a particularly difficult assignment and was in need of some serious unwinding. For me, that frequently included some serious, down to earth, sex. I had gone out to the Gotham Club for just that reason. I was looking for a man to fuck. It was there that I met..."

For the next hour and a half, Valerie and Sally related the events of those 37 days that transformed Valerie from the straight vanilla person she used to be to the submissive bisexual lady she was now. When they reached the crisis with Francine, Sally was narrating.

"Surmi and I burst in to see Francine whipping Val with all her strength. Both had blood running down their backs and were crying."

Caroline interrupted. "Wait. They both had bloody backs?"

Valerie answered. "Yes. Francine had become so numb to the world, from what she's been able to share, that she sought out the dregs of our lifestyle, people who torture and maim for fun. She had reopened wounds that a man called Painmaster had given her the day before.."

Thomas continued seeking understanding. "I can understand why you would have been crying, but why was she?"

"She was demanding that I hate her, that I stop loving her. In her mind, love brought all the pain she had felt and she wanted to be free of it."

Sally picked up the narrative again. "Surmi stopped the beating and I took Val down. Francine had rushed past us and slit her wrists. We had to call 911 to save her life. That's when the real crisis started."

Milton gaped in astonishment. "The real crisis? I would have thought what happened to your back was the crisis."

Valerie smiled. "Don't get me wrong. The whipping was terrible. But it did not destroy the life I had. It was the publicity. To keep Francine out of jail, I admitted to the police that I had come there willingly to be whipped. It was leaked to the press and everything fell apart. I was fired, evicted, lost friends and was generally ostracized by nearly everyone. If not for the steadfast friends that did stay with me," Valerie squeezed Sally's hand as her eyes watered, "I would have never been able to carry on."

Thomas put his hand to his chin. "I think I see. The whipping left wounds that were merely physical. The prejudice that followed left the more lasting mental damage. Much the way we gays were treated in decades past."

Sally slammed her hand on the table. "Yes! Exactly! BDSM is in the same place homosexuality was 30 years ago. Being outed could destroy your life. Mind you, there were some bright spots in it all. The police, even though you could tell they did not approve of what we did, were professionals through and through. The paramedics that responded to Valerie being shot didn't bat an eye at Valerie's collar."

Caroline dropped her fork. "Shot? Valerie was shot?"

"Yes, though Harv was aiming at Francine."

"Harv, Francine's boy friend?"

"Former boyfriend, yes. Sally and I were picking up Francine from the hospital, her injuries were actually worse than mine, and he met us on the steps and tried to shoot Francine. I stepped in between them and his bullet hit my slave collar. For a moment, I thought I was dying."

"I think you lost me. Slave collar?"

Sally tried to explain. "Yes, you see, after the whipping and suicide attempt, Surmi called 911 and..."

Sally and Valerie finished the narrative, explaining how Valerie came to have a permanent slave collar around her neck that saved her life. The trio of movie makers were fascinated by the collar and the reasons why Valerie would want to wear such a thing. The tale ended with their hand fasting ceremony and public auction.

Valerie was finishing. "And since then, my life has been pretty normal, or at lest as normal as someone who lets herself be tortured for sexual fun can be. I suspect that Wednesday marked the start of another period of time dominated by that ancient Chinese curse, 'May you live in interesting times.' Nothing about movie making sounds normal."

Milton smiled the smile of one who knows a secret. "It can be at times. There are interesting times scattered about, though."

By now, their lunches had been finished and the writing pair had been taking voluminous notes. Caroline and Thomas had long since stopped eating in favor of writing what was being revealed to them to supplement their recordings. Milton was pulling some papers out of his briefcase.

"Valerie, Sally, I have these contracts for you. They're the usual contracts that we offer consultants on our movies. Take these with you, look them over with your lawyers and sign them. That way, we can start paying you for your time. Valerie, this is a contract for Delgrasi. It spells out the details of reporter access and how we will reimburse Delgrasi for the time of yours that they will lose. I'm sure that your legal department will have no problem with it. Do you have any questions?"

Valerie and Sally looked at each other. Sally answered. "No, not that we can think of. If you want a chance to view some authentic BDSM play, you could come and visit Mephisto's tonight. Our Master has summoned us there at 4:00. In fact," she had looked at her watch, "we should be going if we're going to be on time."

Caroline looked up, hopefully. "Will we have a chance to see you in action?"

Valerie chuckled at the phrase. "Usually I'm in inaction, not action," She thought to herself. Out loud she answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't know. If he has something public planned, yes. If we use one of the private rooms, probably not. Either way, what you will see publicly will be informative. Just remember, no pictures and, while there is no rule against it, I would avoid taking notes. Later, Sally and I can explain things that you don't fully understand."

With that, Valerie and Sally bid the three a good day and headed off to Mephisto's. Both were feeling good about the first meeting with Caroline and Thomas. Neither had seemed put off by the subject matter and were genuinely interested. The general lack of questions was a bit odd, but perhaps their style was listen, digest, then ask. The couple arrived at Mephisto's with ten minutes to spare. After changing into their play clothes, they locked the bags in a locker.

Sally had donned a leather bra and hot pants with no under wear. She added a matching leather collar and cuffs. Valerie had slipped into a full body dress that was translucent, leaving everyone able to see her charms. Both carried leashes for their Master to lead them by, if he so wished. As per Charles' instructions, they went over to the main stage and waited, watching the scene being played out while they did.

There was a naked woman on stage tied between the uprights of a basic square frame. She was not tied tightly, having some play in her bonds. The second woman, dressed in a leather body suit was attaching clothes pins to the bound woman's body. Valerie gasped at the sight of nearly two dozen pins on each of the submissive's breasts. They formed a double spiral from the center between her breasts to the nipples. Tears were running down her face as she panted and moaned at the little bursts of pain as each pin was attached.

Once the breasts were fully pinned, the dominant started a third curving line of pins down her belly until she reached the pussy. The line split at the clit and ended with four pins in each cunt lip. Then, the leather clad woman began to string a length of twine through the springs of the pins. After linking all the pins in the first breast spiral, another was started on the second.

Sally winced. "Oh my. She's doing a zipper."

Valerie looked over. "Zipper? What do you mean?"

"Watch. Master will probably want to do this to you sometime. It's very painful. Think of the equivalent pain of an hour of whipping in five seconds."

Valerie looked at her lover, looked at the stage, looked back at Sally. "Oh my God! She's not going to..."

Sally nodded. "Yes. All at once."

By now, the zipper had been completed. At the center clothes pin between her breasts, hung three loose ends of twine. The dominant woman had all three in her hand and was saying something to the bound woman. She was shaking her head and sobbing uncontrollably. Suddenly, the twine ends were pulled hard. In rapid succession, every clothes pin popped off the bound submissive. It seemed that there was the briefest of pauses, as if the pain had not fully registered yet, before a scream erupted from the throat of the submissive. The wail drowned out every other sound in the room, continuing for over a minute, as the simultaneous pain of six dozen clothes pins coming off made itself felt.

Valerie had turned away from the sight, eyes screwed shut, unable to watch, fearful of experiencing the same thing herself. A hand grasped her chin and her eyes flew open to see Charles Vanquil, her Master holding her and looking at her face.

"Master." Valerie could not think of anything to say.

"Valerie. Sally. It's good to see you. Valerie, what do you think of the zipper?"

"Master, I... It looked very painful. Is that what is going to happen to me tonight?"

"Do you want it to happen?"

"Master, I..." Valerie was unable to give an answer, unsure of what to say. Would a no be considered rebellious?

"Honest answer, Valerie. You can't go wrong with an honest answer."

"No, Master, I don't want that to happen. But if that is your wish..."

"I will zipper you sometime, Valerie, but not tonight. Tonight, we're going to start confronting one of your fears. Come, both of you. I have a room rented."

He led them to a room at the far end of the floor that Valerie had never been in before. Sally knew what was in the room and prepared herself to give Valerie all the support she could. Charles went in first, followed by Sally, with Val bringing up the rear. As soon as Valerie stepped into the room, she stopped, her breath catching. In the middle of the floor was a doctor's examination table, complete with stirrups.

Months ago, Valerie had suffered a safe word panic attack at being bound to such a table in Charles' basement. To this day, she had no idea why this particular item held such unreasoning fear for her. Yet it did, and that fear was back.

Charles took on his most commanding voice. "Valerie. Come in and close the door."

Moving like an automaton, Valerie stepped to the side and closed the door. "Master?" she whispered.

"I know Val. We won't go past your safe word limit. I want you to go up to the table and put your hands on it. Just stand there with your hands on the rail."

Valerie approached the table with baby steps. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and a cold sweat had broken out on her body. There was no arousal, just a nameless fear that threatened to force her to bolt for the door. Val was unaware of what was happening behind her. The blood pounding in her ears was louder than the voices of Sally and Charles. The stainless steel of the table was cold under her hands and felt... dangerous, somehow.

Sally's voice from beside her caused her to squeal in fright. "Val. It's okay. Master wants me on the table first. You're going to help him bind me. Okay?"

Valerie nodded her head, unable to get words out. Sally climbed on top of the table and lay down. Valerie felt a hand grip her arm and she jerked back from the table. Charles held her tight until she calmed down.

"Valerie. Use these ropes to tie Sally's arms to the rails. One at each wrist ad one at each elbow. Can you do that?"

"Y... Y... Yes Master. I'm sorry Master."

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Valerie. Every submissive has at least one major block to overcome. We will take it slowly and you

will

be able to overcome this one. Wait and see."

While Valerie was tying Sally's arms to the rails, Charles was securing her feet to the stirrups. Straps were then added to hold her body down. They strapped her at her waist, her chest and across her forehead (a pillow was placed under Sally's head). Her knees were pulled apart by ropes that were anchored to the poles of the stirrups. Sally struggled for a few minutes against the bindings. None gave any slack.

"Sally, tell Valerie how you feel right now."

"Yes, Master. Val, I feel very helpless. I can't move anything but my fingers and toes. I'm nervous too. I don't know what master has planned. He could be intending to tease me and leave me aroused and frustrated. I might find myself being spanked or whipped. If that happens, I won't be able to move away from the lashes at all. He could use the crop on the exact same place over and over again, making the pain so much more intense. I'm also excited. I'm Master's toy, to be used any way he wishes and I can't have any effect on what that is. I want him to touch me. You know how bad that can be."

By now, Sally was struggling against her bonds. She wasn't trying to get loose, she was simply feeling them, acknowledging their presence, their hold on her body. Valerie found that she was struggling too. She wanted to submit to Charles in every possible way. Here was Sally doing something that she could not bring herself to do. Tears started flowing from her eyes as she gripped the rail again. Her knuckles were white.

Charles put his hand on Valerie's shoulder. "Valerie, what are you feeling right now?"

"Master, I... I want so much to be in Sally's place, to submit to this. But I'm so scared. It's terrifying. I know I'll break if I try. It makes me sad, heartbroken."