At two minutes before seven she went upstairs to his apartment and paused in the hall before approaching his door. As she raised her hand to knock, he opened the door and let her in. At his direction she preceded him to the bedroom. There he told her to stand before a closet where she was to put her clothes. She was surprised to see a woman's dress hanging at the far end and a pair of shoes; they were gone the next day and she never learned who they belonged to.
After she hung up her skirt, blouse, and lingerie item by item Paul inspected her. He made her remove her jewelry and ordered her to dispose of it all and never to wear any again, except for her collar and bracelets. She wanted to kneel at his feet but feared he would disapprove.
He fastened her hands behind her and attached a leash to the back of her collar. As a child, Anne envied the dogs she saw going for walks on their leashes. How happy they looked under the control of their owners. She asked her parents to take her out in the park like that, but her father looked at her strangely and her mother said no.
Later when she was at college, she tried again with an older girl and got her wish. From a chest at the foot of her bed Hilde drew out a short rope and formed it into a noose. Anne knelt at her feet as she slipped it over her head, and crawled around on the floor at her command. A crowd of students gathered to watch. Hilde lifted the hem of Anne's pleated skirt over her back and pulled her panties down to her knees. It was hard to crawl that way, but Hilde whacked her with a hairbrush whenever she slowed down.
She let Anne wear the noose for the rest of the school year, hidden under her clothes during the day. Its rough surface rubbed her belly and between her growing breasts, a constant presence. As soon as classes were over she went up to her room; after she undressed she took the end of the rope in her teeth and crawled on hands and knees to Hilde's. Soon other girls and even teachers led her out around the corridors.
They used the hairbrush on her buttocks to speed her up, or a leather belt. Now and then Hilde tightened the noose to demonstrate her power over Anne, which frightened her but was exciting and made her wet. Once someone - she never learned who - spread her cheeks apart. It was a new sensation, strange and exciting.
The link between submission and pleasure that had been vague and faint before grew strong that year. She craved orders to obey, praise from her instructor and the group when she performed well, and even their chastisements when she failed. Which happened often; she could not help analyzing the situation, and this slowed her down until the paddle or the belt brought her back to her task.
The school had a grassy sports field beside the highway. At the end of the field was a cage that some previous headmaster kept a watchdog in. They made her sleep in it overnight sometimes; the headlights of passing cars illuminated her and she shivered naked in the early morning hours when the wind came up and blew through the iron bars. The yearbook made a veiled reference to her as the school's new mascot.
By the end of the term Anne had a crush on Hilde, but nothing came of it. She heard that Hilde married a wealthy -
Paul tugged on the leash and ended her reverie; she tingled with anticipation at surrendering herself into the hands of a stranger. Then he locked the closet and drove her before him into the living room. Standing to one side he had her march back and forth, her leash dangling behind, while he reviewed her posture and told her how to improve it.
Her appetite was strong since she had taken no food after breakfast. After several minutes of these exercises he led her to the kitchen. There she knelt on the floor while he fastened the end of her leash to an iron loop in the wall before setting a pair of bowls before her, pouring water into one and a cup of feed pellets in the other; they were her dinner.
Lowering her head, she inhaled the odor of the feed for a moment. Then she extended her tongue into the bowl and chewed a pellet while Paul watched her. She could not identify the flavor; it was bland if a bit salty and she began to eat in earnest. Paul swung a chair around and sat to observe as she continued through her dinner, alternating between the dry food and the water which she learned to lap up. Feeding this way soon became natural to her.
She ate all the pellets and hoped Paul would give her some more. (Actually her first dinner was a generous one. Later when the syndicate decided to slim her down, they were smaller and left her hungry nearly all the time.)
As Paul made no sign for her to rise she lowered her head and stared at the wooden floor. A pair of ants crawled along the rim of her feed bowl; she wondered if they would fall in, and what she would do if she saw them.
Paul shook her leash and she raised her head. He told her to stand and led her into the living room. At his direction she knelt as he opened his trousers, and took him in her mouth. He was slow to arouse and critiqued her performance, giving directions she followed to the best of her ability. She was grateful to him for teaching her a new skill and had to pay close attention.
After a minute or two she heard the front door open and a man greet Paul, who waved him to a sideboard where beverages were laid out; she dared not turn her head to look at the newcomer and could not if she wanted to.
Soon she felt Paul harden in her and at last her efforts were successful. (He was strict and demanding, Anne said, but not cruel; once when she asked why she must perform a simple act for the fifth time, he bound her hands and made her lie down. Securing her collar to the floor with a short chain, he left her there until morning without dinner. But he poured her an extra ration of pellets for breakfast before sending her away, and he explained the need for repetition. She never questioned him again.)
He pushed her away, restored his clothing and told her to stand. The visitor inspected her.
"How was she?"
