Chapter Fourteen

“Come now, dear, you’re up.” Mistress pulled gently on the leash. Tanya dared not resist, and not simply for fear of punishment. She could barely keep her balance as it was. Her arms were gathered behind her in a soft leather casing that Mistress had called a ‘monoglove’. It pulled her shoulders back and thrust her breasts up and out, putting them on display. Aside from that and the simple leather collar, she was naked…except for those uncomfortable and precarious high stiletto heels strapped around her ankles. All of the practice Mistress had forced on her at least paid off now. She glided along behind Mistress as she’d been trained, out of the wings and onto the stage. There were no bells dangling from her ears or nipples to chime if she made a misstep. In fact, the rings through her nipples and labia had been removed, apparently just for this event. Mistress led her to center stage and made her turn to face the audience, widening her stance just enough to give them all a clear view of her freshly-shaven pussy. She heard the murmurs go up from the crowd and forced herself to look above and beyond them. She knew all too well what was going to happen now. She was going to be sold at auction. She would be a slave.

No, that wasn’t quite right. She had been a slave ever since they had brought her here, raw and untrained. Now, trained and conditioned, she would pass into the hands of a new master or…she shuddered…mistress. She had no say in any of it. All she could do was hope that she would be sold to someone who would not mistreat her too badly.

“I know you’ve been waiting for this,” Mistress said to the crowd. She was standing in front of Tanya and off to one side, still holding the end of the leash. Tanya could not see her face, but she knew that Mistress was smiling. “Our next item is the lovely Tanya. Bidding will begin at…”

Tanya closed her eyes and fought to remain silent. She wanted to fight, she wanted to scream, she wanted to run, and she couldn’t, or didn’t dare, do any of those things. The man who ran this place frightened her, with his cold, measuring gaze and measured brutality, but Mistress, she had come to learn, was even more calculatingly and mercilessly cruel. Ruining the proceedings by misbehaving would earn Tanya nothing but incredible torment.

She heard the bidding escalating, heard both men’s and women’s voices calling out some new and higher amount that they would pay to own her. Gradually, some of the voices faded out, until she could only identify three voices: Two men and one woman. She thought that the woman was the one who had disliked her piercings. Then one of the two men dropped out and the bidding slowed. It did not stop, however, and the total kept creeping higher and higher until Tanya desperately wished that it would all be over soon. The suspense was agonizing to her, but not as agonizing as the strain the stiletto heels were putting on her legs. If she could at least move around it would not have been quite so bad, but she had to remain perfectly still until it was all over. More than once she had heard the auctioneer, standing behind a podium at one end of the stage, say: “Going once…going twice…” only to have yet one more last-second bid for her go in and start the process all over again.

And now she heard it again. “Going once…” then a long pause. “Going twice…” followed by an even longer pause. Tanya gritted her teeth.

“Sold!” She heard the gavel bang down and an immediate uproar from the crowd.

“Oh, my dear, you did so very well!” Mistress gushed as she turned back towards Tanya. “So very, very well! I’m so proud of you! Come, now, let’s get you ready for your new owner.” She pulled on the leash. Finally moving again, after so much time standing uncomfortably, painfully still, hurt. Tanya groaned weakly as she followed after Mistress offstage. Whatever future debasement awaited her, at least this particular torture would be over soon. She managed to glide gracefully along after Mistress until they were offstage and out of view, and then the cramps in her legs finally took over and she began to limp and stagger a little.

“That’s all right, dear,” Mistress smiled back at her over her shoulder. “Only a little ways to go now. Oh, I shall miss you!”

Tanya said nothing. She was too intent on keeping her balance now. And it wasn’t a little ways to go. It was down along another long, dimly-lit corridor, one she hadn’t seen before, that seemed to slope downwards. The walls changed from beige-painted cinderblock to rough-hewn stone, but at least the floor remained flat and carpeted. By now, Tanya was too physically exhausted to think about what had just happened or what was going to happen next.

The corridor ended at a massive steel door. Mistress tapped something onto a keypad set in the wall near it and the door began to slide upward, slowly and silently.

“I have to leave you now, dear,” Mistress smiled fondly, even wistfully, at Tanya. She put her hands to the sides of Tanya’s breasts, caressing them lightly, as she raised herself up on her toes to kiss Tanya softly. “There’s a party going on up above, and I simply must attend. Don’t worry. I’m leaving you in very skilled hands, and soon you’ll be on your way to a new life with a new owner. Isn’t that exciting?”

Tanya merely stared at Mistress blankly. She thought that maybe she should answer, but she was beyond caring at that point, and if she had just been bought, what more could Mistress possibly do to her?

An impossibly tall, impossibly muscled swarthy-skinned man appeared and took the end of Tanya’s leash from Mistress’ hand. Mistress gave Tanya’s ass a playful little swat before walking away. Tanya did not try to see if Mistress ever looked back.

“You’re a nice, healthy young specimen, aren’t you?” the man said in an unmistakably American accent. He brought his hands up under Tanya’s breasts and lifted them slightly, as if testing their weight and firmness. Tanya endured it. She had no idea who this man was, but she somehow doubted that he was her new owner.

“Real, too,” he nodded, smiling. “Very, very nice. Well, come on, little girl. I have to get you ready to travel.”

Before Tanya quite realized what he was doing, he had hoisted her up over his shoulder, her head hanging down behind him. He slapped her ass once, hard enough for it to sting, and Tanya yelped.

“Settle down, now,” he chuckled, patting her ass more gently. He started down the short hallway towards some double doors. Now Tanya couldn’t see where he was taking her, but did it matter anymore? He would do whatever he wanted with her no matter what.

She heard the sound of the double doors sliding open and immediately afterwards she heard a woman complaining or pleading in a high-pitched voice. At the same time, she felt the man carrying her deftly unbuckling the ankle straps to the stiletto heels.

“Ya! Ya! Yamate!” Tanya heard the other woman wail. She didn’t care what was causing her to do that. The man pulled the stilettos off of her feet and put her down as easily as if she weighed nothing. The floor was ceramic tiles, hard and a bit wet. Tanya groaned, trying to stay upright as the muscles in her legs screamed. She staggered, but the man kept her upright.

“Yamate! Yamate…e…e…” the other woman sobbed, her voice still high-pitched. The man turned Tanya to face towards the source of the noise. She saw a tiny, lovely little Oriental woman, small-breasted and slim-hipped, crying and sobbing as two more men washed her down, using rags that they kept dipping into a bucket. Her feet were on the tiles, just to either side of a floor drain, but her arms were held up over her head by chains that hung down from the ceiling. The woman had prominent dark nipples, and she kept squirming and crying as the men cleaned her up.

“You gonna give us any trouble?” the man with Tanya asked as he began freeing her from the monoglove. Now Tanya felt her arms and shoulders screaming as well as her legs.

“No, sir,” she answered in a flat monotone. She might have seen that other woman before once or twice as they passed each other crawling along one of the hallways. But she couldn’t be sure, and she didn’t really care.

“Good,” the man said as he slid the monoglove off of her. “A couple of you bitches decided to get all contrary once they were down here, and we’re running a little behind. You’ll be a good girl, won’t you?”

“Yes, sir,” Tanya answered in the same flat voice. The truth was, she didn’t think she could put up a fight even if she wanted to. Her legs ached, her arms ached, even her back ached a little now that she was free to move. She found that she could keep her balance, but her arms were so weak that she couldn’t raise them more than a couple of inches. As the man removed her collar, she continued to watch as the other woman was washed down from head to toe and then rinsed off with water from another bucket. The water must have been cold, because she suddenly started jerking and shrieking again, repeating ‘yamate’ over and over between sobs. Tanya wondered absently what the word meant. She stood passively and watched the men towel the little Asian woman down briskly. By the end, she wasn’t saying anything anymore, only sobbing bitterly and hopelessly. They freed her wrists. The man with Tanya took his hand off of her shoulder…she had barely noticed that he had put it there in the first place…and led the other woman away around a corner, still sobbing miserably, hopelessly.

“Oh, wow, look at this one,” one of the other men said to his companion. He grinned at Tanya. “Those real, babe?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” Tanya replied wearily. She shook her shoulders as she had been trained to, making her breasts jiggle. She didn’t look at either of the men as she did that. She knew all too well already how men looked at her naked body, knew all too well what they were thinking. There had been a time when she used that body to make men do what she wanted. Now she felt like it was a curse, a horrible curse that had turned her into merchandise, female flesh for sale and for use.

“Well, let’s get started,” the man said, still grinning. “Stand over the drain, bitch.”

Tanya tried to obey, but she found that her legs would not work properly and her arms were still useless for keeping her balance. The other man caught her before she could fall and helped her over to the designated spot.

“Just stand still, bitch,” the first man said as he took his rag from the bucket.

“Yes, sir,” Tanya replied. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor as the men began to wash her down. They were thorough, and not too rough. This was another thing she had become accustomed to, though she hated it as much as she hated all of the small indignities that had been heaped on her from her first moments here: Hands, unwelcome hands, all over her body, rubbing, scrubbing, fondling, invading her most intimate places at will. She endured it. She could feel the tingling in her arms and legs as feeling was restored to them, but at the same time a different sort of numbness crept over her soul, deadening her in a way that bindings never could. She only gasped weakly when the men sluiced her down with cold, chilly water. She had nothing left for any stronger response. They dried her off as thoroughly as they had washed her, and then the big, muscled, swarthy man came for her. He took her by her arm and led her away around the same corner he had led the little Oriental woman earlier. Tanya followed along tamely. She could walk safely now, though her thighs and calves still ached. He led her down a short, wide corridor and through another sliding door. As she stepped through it into the next room, in spite of her numbness, Tanya was shocked.

It looked like a shipping room. Long, low, narrow cages made of thick, round steel bars sat on the bare cement floor. Some of the cages were occupied, each one by a naked woman lying on a thin pallet. She saw the little Oriental woman lying on her side in the nearest cage, curled up into a ball, her back to all the activity. She was no longer sobbing, but she was sniffling and whimpering. Her handler brought Tanya over to another cage, already equipped with a pallet. One end of the cage was open.

“Get in there,” the man ordered as he let go of Tanya.

She obeyed, but she moved slowly, still not quite sure of her control of her limbs. The cage was barely high enough for her to go on her hands and knees, not quite wide enough for her to turn around in it, and not quite long enough for her to stretch out completely. It was obvious that she was going to be transported somewhere, with the cage as her shipping container. She crawled in as she had been ordered, staying on all fours as she heard the cage door clang shut behind her. Only then did she lower herself to the pallet. It was more comfortable than she had expected, and seemed to be filled with some kind of foam or gel.

“Ah, there you are!” Tanya turned her head just enough to see who was speaking. It was the older woman who had disapproved of Tanya’s piercings previously. She looked impeccably tailored in a stylish business suit. She smiled and held out a squeeze bottle towards Tanya.

“We’ll be on our way in a little while,” the woman said. “In the meantime, here’s a little treat for you.” She stuck the end of the built-in plastic straw between the bars.

The liquid in the bottle looked like fruit juice. Eager for something, anything to drink other than water, Tanya put her lips to the end of the straw and sucked greedily.

It wasn’t fruit juice. It was wine, sweet-tasting and potent. It was something she would have turned down when she was free, but it had been so long since she’d had any wine of any kind that now she didn’t care. She drank the bottle dry, even sucking on the straw afterwards to scavenge any missed drops.

“That’s enough,” the woman said finally as she took the bottle away. “Rest, now. We want you in tip-top shape.”

There must have been something in the wine. In a little while, Tanya felt herself drifting off to sleep, even as her cage was being put inside a wooden crate. She dimly heard the cries of the other women as they too were put into crates. The last thing she noticed before the top of her crate was nailed into place was that there were holes in the sides for light and ventilation. Then the whole world seemed to float away from her, leaving her in a warm, dark, peaceful limbo.

She might have been in transit for days, or only hours. She had no way of knowing. Once or twice, or it might have been three times along the way she was let out of her crate and her cage to crawl around drunkenly for a while to stretch her muscles, take a little food and be made to drink some more of the sweet, strong wine. Then it was back in her cage for another leg of the trip. She vaguely recalled men’s voices around her any time she was let out, but her mind was so befuddled by whatever they were giving her that even if they’d been speaking English she wouldn’t have understood a word that they said. She didn’t need to. By now the tones of their voices told her everything there was to know about what they were thinking as they leered at her naked body.

Then she was let out one last time. The older woman fastened a length of heavy chain around Tanya’s slender neck and clipped a chain leash to it before leading her away to a darkened room with a bed. Still groggy, still unsteady, Tanya crawled all the way there. The older woman had to help her up onto the bed, even though it was barely a foot off of the floor. Once in the bed, Tanya flopped over heavily onto her back, feeling exhausted from the effort. The woman covered her with a clean white sheet before she left the room. Already asleep, Tanya did not notice. All she knew was that the bed was clean and soft and comfortable and large enough for her to finally stretch out. It also smelled faintly of flowers. She slept, comfortable for the first time in what seemed like a terribly long time, still too deeply drugged to be aware of much beyond her sensations of ease. She was dimly aware of the weight of the chain around her neck, but after being made to wear so many different kinds of collars it actually felt strangely reassuring any time it intruded upon her foggy consciousness. She slept. She did not know for how long, but as the effects of the drug slowly wore off from time to time she would realize that this wonderful state of affairs could not last, would not last. But then her mind would drift away from those uncomfortable thoughts and she would sleep again.