Sleeping in a collar was unpleasant. Meena found herself tossing and turning throughout the night. Besides that and Ellen's intermittent snoring, the conditions were quite conducive to a good night's rest: complete darkness; a tightly wrapped duvet and even the warmth of others was strangely soothing. Still, Meena stirred several times, and now found herself the first one awake as the LEDs embedded in the ceiling began gradually introducing a yellow glow. A sad imitation of a sunrise.
Despite spending so much of last night naked, she felt compelled to cover her breasts as she sat up. The duvet didn't have enough slack for that sort of modesty, so instead she enveloped her chest with her arms. She still felt like she was being watched.
She fished for her glasses in the sheets and fumbled them on. With the full benefit of her sight in the rising light, she was struck by the claustrophobia of their small shared cell. The back of the bookcase sealing them in. Hunger clawed at her stomach; it was about all she could feel, the bitterness of yesterday had left her numb, her usually sharp fury now blunt.
Quinn woke with a deep sighing breath, finding herself cradled in one of Will's arms, her head resting on his chest, her leg over his. The light caught the diamond of her engagement ring, glinting off the brilliant gold of the wedding ring next to it, and seeing it resting on another man's chest sent a stab of guilt to her gut. Beyond her ring, the sight of Ellen asleep opposite her was jarring, reflecting her pose on the other side of Will's body. She felt like a slut draped over him this way. It had her fully awake in an instant, wriggling backwards towards the wall, sliding her limbs away from him in the hopes he wouldn't wake and she could just pretend this hadn't happened. Her stomach dropped as she looked up to see Meena watching her. It doubled her shame, given Meena's long-held crush on him.
Moving up in the bed until her swan-like shoulders peeked out of the covers, she avoided Meena's eyes. The memories of last night made her feel dirty against the pure white of the sheets, still dank with sex from Ellen and Will's session in the dark. There was a scent on her too. She was desperate to scrub at her skin, still sticky and achy. Her hair felt frizzy, messy and out of place from being pulled, and her bum was still stinging on one side, Ellen had surely left a mark. She yearned for a warm shower.
The two of them sat in silence for a short while as the room grew brighter, until Ellen came alive with a jolt, grunting from the remnants of a vivid dream and waking Will as a result. She seemed thrilled to find herself wrapped around him. His solid member was warm against her thigh, and she deliberately rocked her leg up and down against it teasingly as she flashed him a smile.
"Morning," she croaked, twisting her skinny frame into a long stretch and then mirroring Meena by sitting up against the plain wood headboard, their shoulders touching. She brought her knees to her chest to bring them over the duvet before spreading out again to relish the cool air. The room wasn't freezing any more, but it was still a refreshing contrast against Ellen's skin. Still in a sleepy haze, Quinn found herself staring at Ellen's taut figure, so nimble and light. The wild mop of curls were engrossing, and Quinn was fascinated by how a mess could look so beautiful.
A narrow horizontal panel whirred open in the wall beside Meena, revealing a shallow space in the wall lined with black felt. The sound drew all their attention, surveying the contents collectively. In the centre there was a blank touchscreen, beside it were two hooks, each had a pair of handcuffs hanging from it. On the other side of the touchscreen were two more hooks with a matching pair of unfamiliar silicone objects, Meena was the closest of them and leaned forward to examine them, presuming them to be vibrators.
All the items were colour coded, allowing them to discern who they were intended for. They knew their assigned colours by now. One set of handcuffs were green for Will, the other was red for Ellen; the two vibrators were black and white for Quinn and Meena respectively. Ellen blinked the sleep from her eyes and stifled a yawn, leaning calmly forward and lifting out the crimson handcuffs. The screen flashed red to match the selection, with white text proclaiming:
'Choose your slave'
Ellen gave a hum of intrigue, her lips stretching into a smile as she turned the handcuffs in her hand and studied them contemplatively. The two metal cuffs were connected by thick red plastic in the centre. They looked heavy duty, distinctly uncomfortable. Meena drew a breath as if about to say something, and then paused as all their attention moved to her. The culmination of all of last night's regret spun in her mind, and a burst of decisiveness overtook her as she lurched forward out of the sheets, grabbing the green handcuffs and clasping them around one of her wrists. She fell back with a thump, narrowly avoiding landing on Will's legs beneath the covers.
All eyes were on her, wide and expectant of an explanation but she had none. It was instinct. She wasn't sure if she had been motivated by the fear of what Ellen was capable of, or her growing desperation for Will's attention. Perhaps it was both. Keen to avoid further questioning, she squared her shoulders back in an attempt at Ellen's air of confidence, and held out her wrists to Will, who hesitantly took her wrists and cuffed them together as if he'd been ordered to. They tightened automatically until the metal was pressed against her skin on all sides. On the wall, the touchscreen displayed an animation of Will's circular green icon spinning into view, with a smaller icon for Meena's avatar snapping beside it with the text:
'Slave selected'
His rigid erection created a tent in the sheets and Meena looked from the growing bulge to his blushed expression. Having him as her master felt innocuous, he was so easily persuaded, but the text remained for a few moments as if forcing her to accept it. The screen went red, Ellen's avatar in the centre with text commanding her to select a slave.