Author's note: Traumatised by being held hostage in the cafe siege, Chloe has chosen a new direction in her life. She gives up her steady boyfriend and stable job to seek out new thrills in risky encounters. Covalent has laid out his plans to make her disappear and Chloe finds herself spiraling deeper and deeper into his fantasy of total control.
The story contains themes of female submission, edge play and autassassinophilia. Discretion is advised: please check the story tags to see whether this a series you'll enjoy.]
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BEHIND THE MASK
The first thing I notice is the light. My eyes are closed, but I can see reds and oranges alongside tiny sparkles of pure white. I can't feel my body at all, or hear anything. I need to open my eyes, to see what's happened to me, but I can't. I won't.
A softness, pressed against my lips, then gone. Fingers through my hair.
"Raven?"
Reluctantly, I open my eyes, and find myself looking up into the vault of a cloudless blue sky. Slowly, my thoughts begin to coalesce.
"Is this heaven?" I croak.
There is a rich, low chuckling sound near my head. A figure leans over me.
"I don't think so. I'm here," Covalent says, "I don't think they'd let me in."
I feel his arms sliding beneath my bare body and suddenly I'm in the air. I try to focus on his face, but I can't, my head lolling uselessly as he carries me across the parched grass. I know where he's taking me: towards the house and away from the hole in the earth. I'm struggling to think straight, but I know I need to work it out.
"Why?"
Covalent doesn't answer. I feel his arms around me, supporting me like I'm a rag doll unable to bear my own weight. I close my eyes again, enjoying the feeling of his chest pressed tightly against my naked skin, the jolt of each step as he crosses the paddock with me in his arms. It brings back a memory: of being curled up tightly in the plastic sack in the bottom of the hole. I shudder, but not from fear. I'm recalling the bliss.
The cadence of his steps change and I hear the creak of wood then the sound of the flyscreen door opening. I'm being lowered down, spread out on my little deflated mat on the old wooden decking. I don't move, keeping my eyes closed as he arranges my limbs, lying me comfortably on my back in the shade of the enclosed verandah, away from the burning heat of the sun.
A silence descends, but I know he's still there next to me. I can feel his eyes on me, taking in the shape of my nude body, the dirt ground into my bare skin, the nakedness of me, shaved completely of all hair, clean between my legs, my head bald and slick with the gleam of perspiration from the heat of the day. I am what he's made me, rendered from boss bitch in my power skirts and high heels to a motionless plaything, arranged on a mat in front of him.
"Why?"
I still need to know.
"I wanted to know if you were really ready."
Fingers touch the top of my head, roaming across my cheek, my chin. I still don't open my eyes, not wanting to break the spell and end this moment. The fingers explore my body, the curve of a breast, brushing over a nipple, making me shiver. He explores further, down to my waist, circling my belly button, then further, over my bare, shaved mons, to settle at last on my pussy. With the merest feather-light touch, he strokes up and down my slit. I let out a long, slow groan.
Covalent removes his hand, and I hear the creak of the decking as he walks away. I hear the door into the house open and then close, then silence. I'm left exactly as he arranged me, as if I'm nothing more than his empty beautiful doll. I don't try and move because it seems inappropriate. The air is warm around me, and, as the adrenaline purges from my body, I find myself sinking gratefully into the mat.
It's just as he told me, that he could make me feel like the deflated mattress on the hard wooden decking was as soft as any bed I'd ever slept on. He'd said that he would train my body, and he has. He's shaping me and I'm not resisting him. He can do with me as he pleases.
As I drift into sleep, I recall his words to me as he closed up the sack: love.
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I don't know what rouses me, but I wake with a start, rolling onto my side, blinking away the sleep. The sun is lower now, and the sky has gone from blue to a rich golden colour. I sit up, listening out for any sign of Covalent, but the house is silent. There's a moment of panic, a little spike of adrenaline that gets me to my feet. Where is he? Has he left me all alone?
I peer through the windows into the house, but I can't see him. Maybe he's crashed out on the bed, taking a nap in the heat. I know I'm not allowed inside, so I decide to go around the house to look in through the bedroom window. Carefully, trying not to make a sound, I open the flyscreen door and descend the wooden steps to the grass.
Rounding the corner of the house, I see his vehicle still parked where he left it. I go up to his bedroom window and look in, but the bed is empty. I look in all the windows, until I'm sure he isn't in the house. Looking around, the only place left to search is the shed.
I walk over to it, the only sound in the stifling, lifeless air being the swish of my feet through the dry grass. The doors of the shed are wide open, as usual, but he's not there either. I stand in the middle of the grass with my hands on my hips, taking in the view of the shed, the house, the bore water pumping apparatus. There's a little feeling gnawing at me, that he's abandoned me, but it's ridiculous. He can't be far, the car's still here. Then I hear a voice.
It's just a few words, and then silence, but I creep into the shed, in the direction of the sounds. Standing by the little broken window, I pause, listening hard.
"Yeah."
I freeze. He's outside, just the other side of the window.
"Look, yeah, but it's like I said."
