*Hi guys...
This chapter is a little shorter then usual, but I'm not going to be able to work on Poor Simon for a few days so I'm just giving you what I have.
The 'Sexual Intensity Scale' is at a 7.5
All characters are 18+
Thank you and enjoy the following chapter!*
*
I was sleeping restlessly, and for the first time the alarm clock woke me up. The buzzing siren rang through my skull and I jumped.
"FUCK!"
I cradled my bruised skull in my arms, suddenly terrified. Master's hand was on the alarm clock and for a moment we looked at each other with wide startled eyes in the dim light from the bathroom in the hallway.
He started laughing. I let out a weak chuckle, more of relief that he wouldn't hit me then anything, but I was still too betrayed from last night to look at him in the same adoring light.
"It's a bit too early in the morning for such profanity, don't you think so Simon?"
I tried to say 'Yes Master' but all that came out was a hoarse caw. I was losing my voice. The second time I managed to whisper it but my voice was nothing but a foggy memory.
I winced as he turned the lights on. I looked down and I waited for him to unlock the cage. When he didn't, I looked up and it gave me a nasty jolt of anxious surprise to see that he was staring at me fixedly. I bit my lip and I looked down again.
"Do you need aspirin? Or maybe something stronger?"
He was speaking in this strange cautious tone. I realized that it seemed so strange because he was speaking like we were equals. I felt the tears coming again in a hot gritty rush, so I wiped my eyes with the heel of my hand and shook my head, not trusting my words not to waver.
He unlocked the cage and I crawled to the bathroom. There I saw why he had looked at me so strangely. My eyes were dark swollen hollows and my mouth was a weak trembling line and my lashes were matted and sticky. I was very pale.
I had cried far more often then the other boys my age at home. Hell, probably more then some of the girls in my school. I had found ways of hiding the evidence.
I ran the tap until the water was icy cold and I stuck the corner of a washcloth under it. I used the cold water to dab my swollen gritty eyes. When I was done dabbing them clean I did the same with very hot water. When I was done, my eyes looked a little puffy, but nowhere near how bad they had been.
---
I was eating breakfast listlessly when Thomas came to our table with a small white envelope. He saw me, and gave a little sympathetic shrug.
Master ripped the envelope along the seam with his thumbnail and took out a piece of pearly grey stationary. He read it, his mouth pursed slightly with distaste and then he rubbed his temples. I flinched when he looked down at me. His mouth had been open to speak, but when I flinched he looked at me strangely for a moment before going on.
"Eat up Simon." He said quietly. "Mr. Grey wants to evaluate you after breakfast, and he can be rough."
My stomach curled up with fear, and for a moment tears welled up in my eyes. I was so scared, and I was so tired of being scared. I just wanted to crawl into a corner and sleep.
I looked down at the strip of ham and sliced apples. I had barely picked at it, and for the first time here I wasn't hungry.
"Eat Simon." There was an edge of frustration in his voice. "You cannot be like this in a few minutes, or Mr. Grey can make your life hell."
I ate, but the food tasted like ashes in my mouth.
---
I crawled at his side. I was in a sort of daze as we walked to Mr. Grey. The worst thing about this mess was I couldn't hate him. I couldn't hate my Master. By all rights I should've feared and despised him from the start, and now he was breaking my goddamn heart and I couldn't even find a speck of bad feelings towards him. I loved him.
He hesitated at the doorway. It was a plain door with a small steel plate that said 'conference' in the middle. I leaned into his leg, desperate for any kind of contact. A moment later, I felt his fingers twine into my hair; petting me, comforting me. At least he cared. I don't think I could have survived myself if he had disliked me.
"Let's do this." He said firmly. "Obey every thing that we say to the letter, no...no matter how much it hurts."
"Yes Master" I whispered hoarsely.
---
It was dark in the room. The only light came from the half-closed blinds and through the blinds I could see winks of the ocean. A few chains with leather shackles hung from the ceiling, and two men sat in swivel chairs around a long table of dark wood.
Mr. Grey was easy to see. He was wearing a steel-grey suit with a bright red tie and he was looking at me with small black dead eyes. He was a slender small-framed man with a strangely smooth face. He only had two sets of wrinkles, but that word seemed inaccurate. He had deep lines around his mouth that looked like they had been carved, and another set of knife-slash wrinkles around his eyes. His hair was almost completely white, with a touch of dark grey hair in the back. He had small smooth hands that were very pale, and I wondered if he powdered them.
The other man was definitely a bodyguard. He was the biggest man I had ever seen, and as black as a coal shaft. Not brown, like some black people, but actually black. The only places where his skin was a little lighter was around his mouth and the palms of his hands. His head was perfectly shaved and it gleamed like an obsidian marble. He wore a cream-colored suit and a red tie. The muscles on his body strained the tailored suit.
I crawled at Master's feet, feeling sick with fear. I crawled until I was kneeling at his feet, looking at his pointed Italian shoes.
"So this little thing is what the fuss was about?"
I nearly jumped. Mr. Grey was such a small man, almost delicate compared to his bodyguard, but his voice was a deep smoke-broken rasp.
"Yes Mr. Grey." Master's voice was subservient, and it seemed so wrong. "What did the Doctor say?"
