Chapter 1: Foreclosure
Lisa shivered from the touch of cold iron against her naked flesh. There was so little room in her narrow cage that her breasts were pressed against the metal bars. A ball gag had been stuffed in her mouth to prevent any unwanted noise. Her cage stood on a small platform, so that prospective buyers could see her while they were bidding. Lisa could see a few of them staring at her already. The noise of the crowd subsided as the auctioneer began his pitch.
"I have something special for you today. One Lisa Andrews. Five foot one, 26 years old, dark hair, brown eyes, and as you can see, nice tits and ass. She used to be a stockbroker, but this dumb bitch ended up selling
herself
!"
The crowd laughed. Lisa tried to tell them that it wasn't like that, that she
wasn't
dumb, that she wasn't
supposed
to be a slave, but the huge gag in her mouth reduced her to mumbles that were easily ignored.
"Now, naturally she can't be expected to
think
, but Lisa's just made for a good, hard fucking!"
The crowd cheered as Lisa cowered helplessly in her cage.
"Who'll start the bidding? Who'll have the pleasure of owning this hot little piece of ass and keeping her in chains?"
Lisa woke up in a cold sweat.
Calm down,
she told herself.
Under the circumstances, it's only natural that you'd have a few nightmares
. Lisa took a quick shower, made herself breakfast, and left early for the office. Win or lose, this was going to be the most important day of her life.
Lisa sat behind the desk in her one-room office and held her breath as she stared at the screen. Today she wasn't trading on behalf of a client. This time she was the one taking the risks. Lisa had everything riding on this stock-literally. She had financed the transaction by mortgaging herself as a slave. Selling yourself had become legal nine years ago. Naturally, as with oil and grain, a market in slaves had formed, but the people who actually sold themselves were usually desperate, with no other options. As a high-end professional broker with valuable skills, Lisa was able to mortgage herself for a tidy sum.
Many would have said that it was insane to take that kind of a risk. The threat of being turned into someone's property would have made most people freeze in their tracks. But Lisa saw it as a calculated gamble as part of her masterplan:
1. Mortgage yourself.
2. Use the proceeds to buy all the shares you can of IntelliCorp, an undervalued stock that you have a hot tip on.
3. Rake in enormous profits, and buy back your slavery mortgage before it's due.
4. Spend the rest of your life as a millionaire and live in a mansion with all of your worldly needs met.
Lisa knew the stock was a sure thing, but with such high stakes, she couldn't help being nervous. It was no surprise that she was having nightmares. She jumped as the mail icon lit up. Lisa opened the earnings report. Her eyes widened as she read it with a growing sense of horror.
No matter how much Lisa read and reread the report, the numbers stayed the same. She was ruined. She didn't have a penny to her name. Even worse, when she went bankrupt her mortgage had automatically defaulted. She was now for sale. Lisa could never say afterwards how long she spent staring at the screen. She just sat there, numb to the world.
When Lisa came to her senses, she saw that she had another message. It was a notice on her personal mortgage. Lisa had been
bought
- by Carla Davenport, another stockbroker. The law was clear. Slave collection agents would come to take her into custody and deliver her to her new owner. She said the words to herself.
My new owner.
They didn't seem real to her. The idea that someone
owned
her was unbelievable. And it was
Carla
, of all people. Lisa had interacted with her before at some of the business events that they both attended. She had always found Carla to be vaguely... unsettling. She had a cold, remote quality about her. You could never figure out just what she was thinking or where the conversation was heading.
But that line of thought was pointless. Unsettling or not, Carla was her owner, and there was nothing more to be said. Lisa couldn't think of anything to do before she left that seemed worthwhile. She turned off her computer and, without calling anyone that she knew, she locked the door to her office behind her and went down to the parking lot.
She didn't have to wait long. The agents from the enslavement bureau arrived shortly, three of them in drab suits. One of them showed her an official looking document.
"Lisa Andrews. Under the authority given to me by the court I hereby declare your personhood to be in a state of foreclosure. Your rights, freedom, and citizenship have been revoked. You are now the legal property of Carla Davenport. Please put your hands in front of you so that you may be secured for transport."
To her shock, she saw that one of the men was carrying heavy restraints.
"Um, I don't think those will be necessary. I won't make any trouble."
This didn't impress them in the slightest. They acted like they'd heard it all before, and Lisa supposed they probably had.
Lisa jumped as she felt the handcuffs close about her wrists. Leg irons were fastened to her ankles. One of the men used a chain to attach the cuffs to the irons. Another agent injected Lisa with a tracker chip in case she tried to run. Lisa shivered as the hopelessness of her situation began to sink in.
The agents led her across the parking lot to their van. The leg irons forced her to take small steps, and the chain connecting the cuffs and irons was so short that she had to walk hunched over. It was obvious to Lisa that she had no hope of escape, even if she had somewhere to escape to. Lisa wondered what her new owner was going to do with her. She had heard rumors that some people liked to keep their slaves in permanent bondage, welding their shackles shut so that they could never be freed. Lisa tried not to think of some of the even more unpleasant stories that she had heard. A slave had few legal rights, and even those were frequently ignored. There was no telling what Carla would do to her.
By now several office workers had stopped to watch the novel sight of a businesswoman being led away in chains. Lisa was glad to get into the agents' van where at least she wouldn't be stared at. After she had been chained to her seat, they drove away, leaving Lisa's old life behind.
The trip wasn't long. And all things considered, Lisa felt surprisingly optimistic by the time it was over. In spite of her restraints, the ride had cleared her head and given her time to think. She was even more encouraged when she got to Carla's palatial home. Carla politely asked the agents to remove Lisa's chains before they went, telling them that restraints would not be necessary. Lisa was then served an excellent lunch, after which Carla led her to an elegant sitting room to chat.
It was typical of Lisa that she already had a plan all worked out. She presented her proposal to Carla over coffee.
"You could maintain ownership of me, and lose money paying for my food and living expenses. Or, you could let me do what I'm good at. I can go back to trading, under your banner instead of my own company, and make you a fortune. I'll even throw in my client list. In exchange, you let me buy back myself in 5 years. I get my freedom, you get even richer. Everyone's happy. What do you say?"
Carla rose to her feet and stared down at her. Lisa began to feel uncomfortable. She had always been a little insecure about Carla. While Lisa was the short and busty type, and dressed casually, Carla was tall, aristocratic, and always elegantly clothed. She was born into an upper-crust old money family, and it showed. She loomed over Lisa in her high heels and smiled.