IV
He awoke to numbness. Numbness. No pain, no feeling. Nothingness it was a black void. There was nothing he could relate to. For a long moment he was not even sure that he was still on the same plane that he had been on a short while ago. X wanted to get a sense of time. How long had he been gone? Surely, by now someone would notice that he was missing. By now his absence must have been felt. Regardless that he was scheduled to be at several parties before Friday and his weekend had been booked solid. Someone had notice; he kept thinking to himself, someone knows that I am gone.
The blackness began to recede, but not the numbness; he still felt nothing, a wholly frightening thought. He began to have visions, blurry, flashing, moving things in the distance, but other than that nothing. Numb, blank, a body without feeling, unresponsive. It would have made his skin prickly if he could feel his skin. He commanded his arms to move, he commanded his legs to move. He commanded his head to move. He searched in a nonexistent mouth for a tongue. He looked with eyes that could not focus for something to see. But there was nothing.
Then, as if an explosion was filling the void, sound, sound rushed in and overwhelmed him. He could hear with vivid clarity, almost as if hearing was the focus of all his senses. He heard and he heard. The sounds filling him up, overwhelming X as he lay upon a surface he could not feel.
"It's not perfect. He is hearing. But otherwise, it seems to be effective." He heard a masculine voice say.
"Good, leave me with the antidote. Continue to work on it. I want this perfected before the end of the week." That was Tech. He could recognize her with a sickening familiarity. The conversation made no sense. The voice was surely not that of Lila, but he could not think of anyone that had made his acquaintance during his time with Tech who would accurately fit the voice that he was hearing. He grasped at straws of memory to find a face to match the voice, but there was nothing there that conjured and image. No face to attach to the sounds, no comprehension to attach to the words.
He felt a tickle, somewhere in the void that was his body. Suddenly it was a great surge of sensation, moving up his legs, over his chest, his arms his neck his head, everything was alive with warmth and a prick and a buzz, chaotic and pleasurable. He was waking once again into the conscious world. His eyes focused, and they focused on the smiling face of Tech.
"Welcome, welcome, my precious X. And how are we this fine and sunny morning?" X looked around, his tongue was alive again, and the gag was still in place. He could move though, his hands, arms, legs and feet were finally free. He swung his hand to slap Tech, but was suddenly numb with pain. He almost lost consciousness again, but was able to maintain his grip this time.
"Now, now, don't do anything unnecessarily foolish, really." Tech held up a small black box. "This, my love, is your leash. We begin your training today, and as such we must begin with your leash. We cannot just have you running about as if you were free. You see, my dear, freedom is a prize that one acquires with maturity. You have experienced so much freedom so much pleasure. Look out that window. Don't you see it out there? Do you see the light falling on the grass, the birds flying about, free, all free? They live and work for their pleasure, thinking about nothing but themselves, happy taking care of their own selfish wants.
Much like you, my X. They were much like you. Taking on petty cares and desires with no understanding of what freedom really is. How you loved to spoil yourself and the world be damned, but you shall learn to love what you can earn rather than what you can get. I shall teach you to understand the absolute freedom of your servitude. You will be so beautiful." As Tech finished she ran a finger down X's chest.
"Well, my, but don't we have a lot of things to do today. First, we must explain your leash, before I forget. I must try not to meander so much about things you simply cannot understand with your unformed mind.
You see this box, here. This is the leash. There is a wireless connection between this and the iron maiden. The maiden, you see, is far more delicate instrument than you first imagined, and it will serve as both your guide and maker into your new world. The leash controls the maiden and I control the leash. When you tried to hit me your body was filled with pain. That was from the leash. Let me explain to you in detail how all of this works.
