Part 9. Stabled.


	The car stopped and the engine was shut off.  Shortly thereafter the
trunk lid opened.  Amy began screaming at Malcolm, who did not reply.  She felt
a pressure against her thigh, followed by a sharp pain, and blacked out.

	When Amy awoke, she was naked.  She was kneeling in what appeared to be
a stall. The wooden walls on either side of her did not go all the way to the
ceiling, although the wall behind her did.  She was chained by the neck to that
wall.  The chain was short and she didn't have enough slack to stand or sit. 
She could only kneel or squat.  The door to the front of her stall was open and
she could see across the room to another stall opposite.  Its door was also open
and it was unoccupied.  Amy's hands were tied behind her.

	She was kneeling in straw and she couldn't decide which was worse, the
straw or the bare concrete under it.  Each provided its own discomfort to her
sore knees.  She tried shifting her weight to find a more comfortable position,
and discovered that everything hurt.  What had been done to her?  This didn't
look like Malcolm's building.  Where was she?

	At least she wasn't gagged.  She began yelling.

	A man she had never seen before entered her stall carrying what she
thought might be a stun gun.  Now she thought she knew what had been done to
her.

	The man ignored her questions and demands.  Speaking not a word, he
walked up to her, grabbed her hair and pulled her head back.  He pressed the
stun gun against her breast and pulled the trigger.  Amy's entire body exploded
in pain

	When Amy awoke the next time, she was in the same place, on her knees
leaning against the wall to which she was chained.

	Amy was now truly frightened. The man who had stunned her was not
Malcolm. The stun gun he had used on her had produced the most painful
experience of her life. It had taken a while to recover from its effects and she
was still a bit confused, but her recovery this time had been different from her
first awakening here. That had been more like regaining consciousness or
awakening from sleep. This was more like what she imagined recovering from an
epileptic fit would be like. What had been done to her on the trip over must
have been something different. Amy knelt in her stall. As uncomfortable as the
position was, it was the best she could achieve.

	She waited. She was afraid to call out again. After what seemed a
considerable period of time, nothing had changed. The building she was in was
eerily silent. Once she had heard a clink of chain and wondered if there were
other women here, chained as she was. If so, they were being very quiet, not
unlike herself. She must be at Sebastian's place. It was too much to believe
that this had just randomly happened to her. Malcolm must have paid them abduct
and train her. If so, the man she had seen must be Sebastian's partner. She
wondered if she would see Claire here.

	Time passed. Amy was beginning to wonder if she would see anyone at all.
More time passed.

	Footsteps were approaching. The man who had stunned her came into view.

	"Please...," Amy started to speak, then stopped abruptly as a second
person came into view.  The man was leading a woman by a chain around her neck.
She was naked, with her hands tied behind her. Her hair was matted with sweat
and although tears streamed down her face she made no sound. Her breasts were
red and swollen. The man glowered at Amy, then led the woman into the stall
opposite Amy. She knelt and was chained to the wall. The man closed the door to
her stall, obscuring Amy's vision. The walls rang with an ear splitting wail,
then silence returned. The door to the woman's stall was opened and the man
emerged. The woman was kneeling within, stiffly erect, eyes cast down, tears
dripping from her nose and chin.

	The man crossed the hall to Amy. "I see you're going to insist on
learning the hard way," he said as he unclipped the stun gun from his belt.

	Learn what, Amy wondered?  She tried to shrink away, but there was
nowhere to go. He repeated his performance of the previous occasion, pulling
Amy's head back by her hair. This time he placed the gun against her other
breast, paused to let her contemplate what he was about to do, then pulled the
trigger. Once again her entire body was filled with incredible pain. She lost
control of her muscles and slumped against the wall.

	When Amy recovered enough to look about, she saw that the other woman
was still kneeling in the opposite stall. She did not appear to have moved at
all, although Amy noted that her hair and skin were now dry. Amy was now
beginning to understand Ingrid and Trish. She would gladly spend an evening as a
pony girl, even in a total control bridle, if only they would stop doing this to
her.

	Amy wondered if she could attract the attention of the woman. First she
tried relatively innocuous things that she hoped wouldn't get her in trouble.
She squirmed about and rattled her chain. She tried inhaling and exhaling
noisily. The woman didn't react. Amy's efforts so far had produced no adverse
consequences, so she tried hissing quietly. Still no reaction. Amy grew bolder.

	 "Psst...pssst...PSSST."

	 Footsteps. The man entered the other woman's stall and closed the door.
Another horrific shriek filled the room. The door opened. The man approached Amy
again with the stun gun. Once again he seized her by the hair. He took her lower
lip between thumb and forefinger and pulled down sharply. Amy opened her mouth
and the man put the end of the stun gun inside, pressing it  into her tongue. A
perverse little corner of her mind observed that people seemed to be putting a
lot of things in her mouth lately.  The rest of her mind was too frightened to
comment.  The man held her in this position for a few moments, savoring the
terror in her eyes, then pulled the trigger. The increased conductivity in her
mouth made the effect of the jolt even worse. Amy's body was consumed by a level
of agony that exceeded all experience or expectation.

	The woman in the other stall did not appear to have moved even an
eyelash when Amy was next in a condition to observe her. Amy began to realize
that the woman had been placed there for her benefit, if you could use that word
in this context. Whenever Amy was punished, she would be punished as well. Amy
decided to try another tactic. She knelt stiffly erect in the same manner as the
other woman, trying to remain utterly still. Amy wondered how the other woman
was able to do it. She had been kneeling there without moving much longer than
Amy. The desire to fidget was nearly overpowering, but Amy decided that if this
other woman could do it, then she could.

	It seemed to take forever, but finally she heard footsteps. The man came
into Amy's stall, bypassing the other woman.

	"I'm glad to see you finally caught on. Took you long enough."

	Amy didn't move or answer.  The man had a slight accent.  She would have
remembered that voice if she'd ever heard it before, but she hadn't.  The man
was a total stranger.

	"Your sister was a slow learner, too."

	"Claire? Where is she? What have you done with her?"

	The man's hand lashed out, slapping Amy hard on the cheek and knocking
her head against the wall, then he waited, hands on hips, until Amy once again
knelt erect. He crossed the hall and paid another visit to the other woman, who
gave voice to a long ululating wail even more horrifying than her previous
screams.

	Returning to Amy, he placed the tip of the stun gun to her lips. Amy
fearfully opened her mouth.

	When she could move again, Amy painfully resumed emulating the
immobility of the woman in the other stall. After yet another forever, the
footsteps returned.

	"Learned your lesson yet?"

	Amy nodded, afraid to speak. Once again, the man held the gun to Amy's
lips. Tears streaming down her face, Amy opened her mouth to be tortured. The
man slid the end of the gun into Amy's mouth, waited for her fear to reach a
peak, then withdrew it without pulling the trigger.

	"You've passed your first test," the man informed her. He unlocked the
chain around her neck, replaced it with a heavy collar, then locked the end of
the chain to the collar, allowing her a little more slack between her neck and
the wall.

	"Lie down." The chain was just long enough for Amy to rest her head on
the floor. "Cross your ankles." Amy complied and he bound them tightly with a
short length of rope. "Now get some sleep. You're going to need it."

	The man crossed over to the other woman's stall, unhooked her chain, and
led her away. She limped painfully, but hurried to keep up with the man's brisk
pace.