One leaden foot lifts, moves forward and plants. Slowly the second one follows. What appeared to be a slight downhill grade seems incredibly steep going back uphill. Suddenly I am surrounded by the teeming mass of people too, trying to push my way against the swirling throng. I lift my eyes above the crowd to the white light for a second to check my progress and run smack into someone.
“I’m so sorry, excuse me…” I stop short as my eyes drop to the person I ran into. It is a woman in a red dress, made of a luxurious thin fabric. It is cut very low on the chest and cut very high up the thigh, hanging loose in parts and clinging tightly in others. Long blonde hair flows down over her bare shoulders, blue eyes dancing wildly from beneath bouncy bangs. “I…I…” try stammering again, cut short as I realize she has moved closer to me, the breath from her bright red lips tickling my ear as she grabs my arm and pulls me in tight against her.
“Why, where ya’ goin’ sugar?” Her southern accent is heavy and easily picked up from her soft whisper. “Why don’t ya’ follow me, I think we’d have some fun.” Her hand reaches up and traces the nape of my neck and I involuntarily close my eyes. Yes, this is nice, maybe I should follow her, she seems nice enough.
“Travis”
The voice again! It snaps my eyes open with a start. I realize I had been feeling something as soon as I saw the woman in red, but that voice cut right through it. They were almost similar feelings, but the voice completely eclipsed whatever it was the lady in red made me feel, drawing all my hearts attention to the voice. With my eyes opened I realize with a start there is a huge line of guys behind the lady in red, each staring directly at her back with blank, soulless expressions. The strangest thing of all is they all have a thick silver necklace bound tight around their necks with a chain hanging down in front and back. I gasped out loud when I followed the chains. Those weren’t necklaces but collars and they were chained to each other! My eyes followed the link from as far back as I could see of a never ending line to the guy directly behind the lady in red, knowing before I even saw it, that she held the end of the chain in her hand. I needed to run, to flee but my legs felt cemented to the spot, her warm breath spreading like a spider web over my skin, sticking me close to her. I trembled with fear, seeing my fate stretching out endlessly before me, the eminent disaster pressed close against my body.
“Ah suga’ don’t be so tense, I’ll make ya’ feel good, just relax.” I felt her hand moving on my neck again and wanted to listen to her, my body seeming to take control of my mind. Wait, what was that? The warm caress of her hand had grown cold, hard, almost metallic. The collar! My heart screamed within me and it carried outward, taking control of both my body and brain, till my lungs burst out a roar of defiance. I shoved the lady in red roughly, knocking her back into her line of slaves. They toppled like dominoes, tipping over rigidly. She would have kept her balance but her tight grip on the leash meant she got pulled down into the pile. Suddenly the lifeless eyes of her slaves woke with a feverish glow and they began grabbing at her hungrily. She slapped away groping hands futility as more of the imprisoned men reached for her. Soon she and her followers were entangled in a helpless knot of chains, a writhing mass of bodies, her and her bright red dress slowly being swallowed into the middle.
“Get off me you goons! You will never get me! Do you understand?! I own you but you don’t get me!” Her soft southern drawl was gone now, replaced by a hoarse raging shout. I quickly took the chance to begin scrambling uphill again, giving a wide berth to the ongoing struggle. No longer caring about civility or caution I pushed and shoved my way up the path, elbowing my way through the throng that passed by seemingly oblivious or unmoved by the maelstrom going on right in front of them.
“Wait! Except for you sugar! Of course you can have me! You can have all of me! These guys are all nothing, it’s you I want! Please, just come get me out of this and you can have whatever you want!” The lady in red called after me, her harsh tone replaced again with the soft accent. But I was no longer listening, my only focus on getting as far away as I could. If she would have only dropped the leash and untangled herself she might have been able to catch me, but the very thing that was holding her in the melee she was unwilling to let go of, so I continued my frenzied pace away, her voice fading.
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Ok, so I thought maybe I could wrap this up in 3 parts...thats not happenings. Looks like probably 5 parts lol. Sorry, this one is kind of growing in my head the more I work on it. Hopefully you, my very valued reader will see this journey through with me, because I think the ending will be well worth it! Again, of course, I love any feedback or thoughts!
Keep it up!
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