She did not know where the Saint Agnes Academy was located, since she had been taken there and away at night. She thought it was in the country since it was surrounded by fields and forest.
The driver pulled Anne out of the van by her feet and stood her up. She started to ask a question and he slapped her. His son squeezed her mouth and told her to be quiet.
As she followed the driver to a low stone building, the son pinched her behind and she squealed. The driver looked back at her angrily. She kept her mouth firmly shut after that and only snorted when the boy pinched her again.
At the building a young dark-haired attendant (rather attractive, Anne thought) attached a leash to her collar and led her to an exam room.
After weighing her he inspected her for disease. A uniformed nurse brought in a tray of instruments and a notepad; he called out the results to her as he penetrated each of the cavities of Anne's body over the next several minutes.
Anne found the exercise rather pleasant and opened herself to him. He lingered over some of the tests; perhaps he enjoyed them as much as she did. His assistant seemed to also, and came close to watch. Anne thought she detected a metal collar under the uniform; but bent over, she could not see clearly.
She was declared clean, entered into the academy's inventory and assigned to a cell. He took her to a one-room structure with concrete walls where he attached her collar to a tether like the one she was on now and filled a bowl with water.
He let her drink from it, then motioned for her to kneel and began to unzip his pants. She opened her mouth to receive him; but something made him change his mind and he turned out the light and left. She heard him bolt the door on the outside. Had an act of hers repelled him? Did she appear unwilling? She feared she had done wrong in some way she could not guess. She had so much to learn; a feeling of inadequacy overwhelmed her.
As her eyes adjusted to the semidarkness, she surveyed her new home. Her tether ran up to the ceiling, through a large hook and down to a cleat in the far wall. It allowed enough slack for her to lie down, but not to reach the door. It could be pulled short to make her stand, or even to hang her by her collar if someone wanted.
Anne remembered visiting the zoo in the city where she grew up. She loved to imagine herself living in a cage, viewed by the public and fed by a trainer who made her perform tricks. In the old days some animals had chains on their necks; that was even better. Now she was one of them.
Two of the walls had windows that were barred on the outside. An opening in the floor plainly served as a squat toilet. In the center of the cell was a long counter which held her water bowl. She guessed the extra length allowed her to be bent over it.
And hanging from a peg by the door was a garrote; she shuddered and looked away.
The water pitcher sat on a shelf beyond the reach of her tether; there was no sign of food. Eventually she stretched out on the cement floor, glad that Paul made her used to sleeping on hard surfaces and looking forward to the next phase of her transformation. She lay down naked, her hands bound behind her and her collar secured to the wall, the property of her new owner.
The next morning a doctor examined her in a small room with white walls. Her measurements were recorded in a binder with her name on it. He asked intimate questions about her medical and personal history and wrote the answers in her book before leading her down the hall to another room where she knelt before an empty chair. After several minutes, an executive in a suit entered and sat down. He perused the entries in her book and frowned at one.
"Your examination shows that yesterday one or more men possessed you from behind; who were they?"
"It was my owner, sir."
"What time?"
"I - I'm not sure, sir, but it was in the evening just before I was taken here."
