Corinnes World

In the beginning, Corinne is dying of thirst inches from the toilet's water.

Her arms are crisscrossed behind her and each is handcuffed to an ankle. There's a large dog collar on her neck, with a chain that goes to the toilet's water-intake pipe. There's just enough play so she can work her head over the rim and smell the water inside.

How did she come here? She sometimes forgets to suffer, forgets to remember, but she can't remember to forget long enough. It has been three days. Or two. Or four. Corinne can't follow the time. After smelling the water she licks the porcelain and slumps back to the floor to forget everything until the sizzle in her nipples rouses her again.

The last time she blacked out Corinne felt her mother tuck her into bed and kiss her forehead, like she did so many years ago, and whisper I love you, Corrie-Glory. Was she saying goodbye? I miss you so much, Mom.

Two men are talking. One of them is X, her master.

Look what I got here, says X.

The other man whistles and says, She's a fucking mess!

X makes a chortling sound. That's the way I like her.

Corinne moves her mouth a little to beg for drink. There is no saliva. She can open her eyes but can't focus. The man's voice is familiar. She can't place him, and she tries to swallow while they discuss her.

Look here. The other's voice is close to her ear. She feels something, a pinch on the skin of a breast. See? It stays up. She's that dehydrated. You'll kill her if you're not careful. I don't know if she can last another day.

Oh, we'll have plenty of fun with her.

She can't do anything for us like that.

Going soft?

She's damaged goods!

Corinne slips into a vision, one in which she is drinking the coldest water imaginable. And drinking. And drinking. The voices wake her.

You want her? You can have her for a thousand. Fix her up and play with her all you want.

Yeah. Right. Like I want to spend my money to get something I'd probably have to dump right away.

X laughs.

Corinne recognizes the voice. He is one from the party X threw, one of the men who came over to play with her that night, just before X chained her to the toilet. Wasn't he the one who used the lighter on her? She can't remember. She tries to think but loses her thread and is dreaming of water.

Nothing has happened since the party except that she's been dying. X had warned her about the party. He said he charged the men a bundle and she better be sweet. They're fellow slave-masters. It's not easy to get into their society, so don't disappoint me. Some of them give parties too. I don't charge those guys.

For the first hour or so she served them, going back and forth to the kitchen hobbled by ankle chains, serving drinks and snacks while they watched sadistic pornography. They touched her and pinched her and stared at her. She was going to be the main entertainment.

The man is talking. Tell you what, though. I'll give you three-fifty, cash. I might be wasting my money, but I'm willing to take the chance. But I need a signed statement that says she was pretty much done for when I got her.

Make it five and you got a deal.

At some point during the party the men had been making Corinne into a sandwich, fucking her ass and vagina at the same time. Another one stuck his erection into her mouth. The others were laughing and cheering. They were having a great time. One of them asked, You want to feel something incredible? He had two other men hold her tight. Then he took a butane lighter, lit it, and moved the flame across her right nipple. Corinne went crazy. She screamed around the dick in her mouth and twisted her body every way she could, so hard the men could hardly hold her. The man moved the flame to her left breast and the man in her mouth squirted into her.

Damn! Said the man in her ass. Don't stop! Man that was great! Corinne was moaning. Noo, noo, please, noo. Another man pulled her mouth open and stuck his dick in.

This time when the flame came Corinne bit the penis. The man cursed and slapped her. He stepped back and hit her on the side of the head and in the stomach, before X pulled him off. The party was ruined. X let a few men fuck her while she whimpered over her blistered nipples, but two of them threatened him until he refunded their money. It was then he decided to chain her in the bathroom and see how long she could last.

Corinne is lifted and carried. A glass is put to her mouth. Water! She gulps and spills much of it. Slowly, says the man's voice. Another glass comes and she is given sips.

She ain't mine anymore, so hurry up and get her out of here!

Corinne is placed on something. Picked up. There's movement, a car, a trunk closes, the feel of driving. At some point she is awake and aware the car has stopped and that she can make out a line of rhythmic blue light on the roof of the trunk. She stares. Is it God? The man is talking to someone. There's laughter. She's here. The trunk opens. I'll take care of her. The flashing blue lights are blinding to her with the trunk open, but Corinne can see him make quotation mark signs with his fingers when he says Take care. After the trunk closes again there are two or maybe three voices, and then a sound like a car backfiring.

She passes in and out, dreaming not of God but of glasses of water, drinking and drinking again but never quenching her thirst, until she becomes aware that she's drinking real water. She's reclining against the man, who is holding a glass to her again. Time passes, time of cool, sweet water such as she's never known, before she understands she's unbound, and they're in some strange house, and on a bed. He brings her another glass and he murmurs to her while she drinks.

When Corinne is conscious again, and opens her eyes, the man is sitting beside the bed reading. He has a plate with an apple that has been sliced into a continuous spiral, that he feeds to her a little at a time, followed by apple juice so cold it makes her teeth ache. She is still unbound.

He places another sliver of apple to her lips.

Corinne awakens again and finds he is leading her somewhere, to the bath. It is full. Get in, he says. She knows he will push her under and hold her there until her lungs are full of water and her struggles almost stop. Then he will pull her out so she can get some breath and do it again. Rinse and repeat, X used to say. But he doesn't do it. He washes her hair and scrubs her tenderly all over, especially tender over her nipples. It is so gentle she forgets to stay awake, so that he has to speak to her to keep her from sliding under on her own.

She can't keep from swaying while he dries her. Easy does it. Sit here. He puts a thick towel on the toilet. Much better, he says, while combing her hair and using the blow dryer. She nods off again.

Corinne is wearing a plaid, cotton dress. She does not remember dressing. The man is asking if she wants more of something. He gives her juice and a small, turkey-cheese sandwich with lettuce and tomato and pickles. Halfway through eating she finds she has to urinate. When had she last done that? Does she dare ask him? She can hardly get the words out: Please, sir. I need to go to the bathroom.

He smiles at her and says, Call me Daryl.

Yes sir.

He leads her back to the bathroom. Her urine is dark and it burns when she goes.

Then he takes her back to the bedroom. Look over here, he tells her. That's for you. She sees a walk-in closet with a mattress. You'll have to sleep in there awhile. Too many people know about you, and I don't know how much I can trust you yet.

She looks at it, and at him. It has a comforter. He speaks again. You look confused. Ask me some questions.

Corinne is tongue tied, but then it comes out. Do I have to go back to X after you play with me, sir?

It's Daryl.

Yes sir. Will I have to go back to X?

X? Right about now, he's

Daryl looks at a clock.

he's dead.

Later Corinne rests beside Daryl on the bed, only half awake, while he reads through some manila folders. They hold typed pages and photos of men, some of them from the party. Three photos are crossed out in red marker. One of those is X.

On her mattress, Corinne gathers the comforter around herself. She still isn't bound. She curls herself so that she can see the narrow line of light at the bottom of the door. She listens to Daryl move around the room. She tries to remember every aspect of his face, and his voice, and how he smelled, and how his hands felt on her. After the light goes off she falls asleep again, but this time she doesn't dream of water.

End.