Female Prey & the Elusive Prey Page 21

  The sun wasn’t completely up, but enough of it was poking above the horizon to send long shadows down the main street. The early-morning air felt cool on Kimberley’s face. Cat hadn’t arrived yet, but there were three men already waiting on the wide front porch of the hotel. One of them was Mr. Brown. Kimberley hadn’t seen the other two before. They were younger than Mr. Brown, but still about ten or fifteen years older than Kimberley and Barbara, lean and deeply tanned, dressed as Mr. Brown was in jeans, work shirt and boots.

  “Good morning, ladies,” Mr. Brown greeted them. “Good to see you again.” His smile looked sincere enough, but Kimberley was certain he was looking forward to meeting them in the future under very different circumstances. She wondered if Mr. Brown or either of his two sidekicks here, ever sampled any of the slaves they were tending…or was any sampling just an extra benefit from whatever kind of training they put those captives through? She smiled sweetly at the three men, imagining them standing around her cage, just looking at her, and thinking…

  “Good morning, Mr. Brown.” She nodded towards him. “It’s good to see you again, too. Who are your friends?”

  “Mr. Green and Mr. Black,” Mr. Brown replied, indicating which was which with a small gesture. Green and Black nodded and smiled at the two women in turn.

  “Ah…I see…” Kimberley nodded again. No doubt any additional sidekicks would be Mr. Gray, Mr. Gold…how many colors were there, anyway? She thought back to the huge box of crayons she’d had as a child. Was there, somewhere in this strange town, a Mr. Burnt Umber?

  “You came!” Kimberley and Barbara both turned around to see Cat hurrying towards them, smiling widely. She was wearing one of the hotel bathrobes. “Thank you both SO much!” She gave Kimberley a quick and surprisingly strong hug, then did the same to Barbara, who grunted with surprise. “I wasn’t sure you’d be here!”

  “Hey, I made a promise.” Kimberley tried to make it sound like not such a big deal, but it certainly seemed important to Cat.

  “You ready, Miss?” Mr. Brown interrupted.

  “Oh! Yes, I guess I am.” Cat’s exuberance evaporated and once again she looked tiny and fragile.

  “Shed the robe, then,” Mr. Brown ordered. He turned to Kimberley and Barbara. “You two can tag along, but no talking, and no trying to interfere or you’ll be escorted right back here. Understood?”

  The two women nodded. Mr. Brown sounded rather stern about it, and there was no doubt in their minds that he meant exactly what he said. Cat, in the meantime, had taken off her robe. That was all she had been wearing, apparently. Naked, she looked even more helpless than before. She smiled crookedly at Kimberley, as Mr. Green yanked her hands behind her. Kimberley had expected them to use rope to bind her, but instead, Mr. Black produced a long, thin strip of plastic and circled her wrists with it while Mr. Green held her arms tightly. Kimberley heard a zipping noise as he drew it tight. She’d seen that kind of thing used by police in newscasts. Cat winced as the plastic was drawn even tighter, but made no sound of complaint. Mr. Black then grabbed a fistful of Cat’s short hair, pulling her head back while Mr. Green continued to hold her by her arms. Mr. Brown now walked towards her, pulling something out of a jeans pocket.

  “Open wide,” he ordered Cat. She did, and he stuffed what looked like a hard rubber ball into her opened mouth. He held it in place as Mr. Black buckled it in place with a strap that ran straight through the ball. Kimberley had seen pictures of ball gags before, but this was the first time she’d seen one used in person, so to speak. It seemed to stretch Cat’s jaws uncomfortably, but aside from one tiny grunt, Cat still made no noise.

  Cat had a lovely little body, Kimberley thought. There was nothing immature about it. It was just a well-sculpted woman’s body in a smaller than usual size. Mr. Black gave Cat’s rump a pat…as if she were a pet he was fond of, Kimberley thought. Mr. Green let go of her arms, and Mr. Brown turned her around and got his own grip on her hair. He began to steer her towards the steps leading down to the street. Kimberley noted that Cat’s breasts had dark areolas, about the size of fifty-cent pieces, and her nipples were swollen. She was sure it wasn’t just from the cool morning air. As Mr. Brown began guiding his tiny captive down the wide stairs, Kimberley realized that she’d agreed to accompany Cat all the way to the slave market. Barbara also seemed mesmerized by the whole procedure. Kimberley gave Barbara a hard nudge with her elbow to bring her around before hastily setting off to follow the little procession. Mr. Green and Mr. Black fell in to either side of the two.

  The whole thing had taken no more than a minute, Kimberley was sure. On one side of that minute, Cat had been greeting and thanking them. Now they were on the other side of that minute, following a bound, gagged and naked woman towards what, exactly? Kimberley wondered. She very much wanted to find out. Beside her, Barbara trudged along, yawning.

  Yesterday, Cat had walked to the hotel straight down the middle of the wide street. Today, she was going in the opposite direction straight down the middle of the street, held and herded along by Mr. Brown. Kimberley wondered if all the women who decided to go straight into the slave market were taken to it in this particular way. If so, then it made some sense for them to have kept the roadway a mix of dirt, sand and sawdust. Cat’s bare feet left small tracks in it, alongside Mr. Brown’s larger boot prints.

  The nearer they came to the side street that led to the slave market, the less eager to get there Cat seemed to become. Soon Mr. Brown had a grip on one of her arms as well as her hair, hustling her along. Kimberley had seen bar bouncers use a similar technique on unruly patrons. Was Cat beginning to regret her decision? Kimberley knew all about that. She also knew just how useless it was. Up to a point, they gave you plenty of opportunities to back out, but after that point, you had no more choices at all. Cat was now on the wrong side of her minute for choosing.

  They reached the side street, and now Cat began to struggle, trying to dig her heels into the soft, yielding street. She was trying to protest too, but the ball gag turned anything she tried to say into high-pitched whines and grunts. Mr. Brown barely seemed to notice. He was more than a head taller than she was, and in spite of his lean frame, must have outweighed her by at least two-to-one. All he did was tighten his grip and shove her right along. Kimberley shivered. What was Cat suddenly so worried about? Or…maybe she wasn’t worried, just putting on an act to get everybody’s juices flowing? Up ahead, the opened doors of the slave market looked menacing in the early morning light. Mr. Brown ushered Cat in. Kimberley and Barbara followed, still escorted by Mr. Green and Mr. Black.

  Once they’d entered the slave market, all of the fight seemed to go out of Cat. Mr. Brown still held her as tightly as before, but now she trudged along obediently, making a whining, keening noise. They headed towards the raised platform at the end of the building. There were short flights of steps up either side of it. Mr. Brown steered Cat up the left-hand side and then onto the platform. The steps were just wide enough for two people to use at the same time. Kimberley and Barbara went up side by side, followed by their escorts.

  Mr. Brown forced Cat to her knees, then onto her belly. He signaled to his companions to come over.

  “Hold her down and hold her still,” he ordered them. Mr. Green sat down, straddling Cat’s legs, holding them down with his weight, his hands on the backs of her thighs. Mr. Black knelt so that Cat’s head was between his knees. He gripped Cat’s forearms in his hands, pulled them up into the middle of her back, and then leaned down on them. Cat’s naked flesh was now pressed tightly down onto the rough plank flooring of the platform.

  Kimberley wondered why they were doing this. She looked at Barbara and shrugged questioningly. Barbara only shook her head once and shrugged back. She didn’t know what this was about, either. Kimberley wanted to ask Mr. Brown about it very badly, but he’d gone off behind the thick black curtain at the back of the stage, and they weren’t supposed to speak anyway. For a long, long, long moment, she and Barbara ju
st stood there, listening to Cat’s muffled moaning.

  The curtains parted. Mr. Brown emerged. Another man followed him, about the same age, clean-shaven, white-haired and wearing a white lab coat. A stethoscope dangled around his neck. ‘Of course…’ Kimberley thought with a mental snicker… ‘this must be Doctor White’.

  Her second thought was not as funny. Why do they need a doctor? Then she saw what Mr. Brown was holding in one sinewy hand. It was a branding iron, glowing nearly white-hot. She opened her mouth. She almost said something, but Mr. Brown looked at her first and something in his eyes made her swallow her words with an audible gulp. She felt Barbara move close to her, touch her. She slid an arm around Barbara’s waist, and Barbara slid one around hers. She could hear Barbara’s breathing, fast and shallow…or was that her own breathing?

  Mr. Brown stood over Cat, as if choosing where to put the brand.

  “Hold ‘er tight, now,” he told his henchmen. Kimberley saw Cat’s body tense, then shudder uncontrollably. Cat began squealing around the ball gag.

  Mr. Brown eyed Cat for a moment, stepped a bit closer…and then, with a quickness that surprised Kimberley, applied the white-hot iron to Cat’s round little ass. Cat shrieked and her body bucked against the planks in spite of the two men holding her down. Barbara, still holding on to Kimberley, turned her head away with a moan. Kimberley herself was torn. Part of her wanted to turn away also, but instead she kept staring at the scene in horrified fascination. Mr. Brown held the iron in place for a moment, then withdrew it, signaling for the doctor to come over before turning back to Kimberley and Barbara.

  “That’s all, ladies,” he said. “Time for you to go back to the hotel now.” Mr. Green and Mr. Black had released Cat and stood up. Doctor White bent over the tiny, sobbing woman apparently beginning an examination. Mr. Brown looked down at them for a moment, then back up.

  “She’ll be fine,” he reassured them. “And in case you were wondering, this is part of what she signed up for. Mr. Black and Mr. Green will escort you back to the hotel. Good day, ladies.”

  Kimberley took one last glance back over her shoulder as they left the slave market. She could see Mr. Brown and Doctor White helping Cat to her feet. Cat was still bound and gagged, but…she did seem all right…didn’t she?

  Her legs felt unsteady. So did Barbara’s, from the way her friend was leaning against her. Neither of them said a word during the long walk back to the hotel.

  “I just can’t believe it…” Barbara said for what seemed to be the thousandth time. They were sitting in a corner booth in the hotel restaurant, drinking coffee and waiting for their breakfast order. The restaurant seemed to operate twenty-four hours a day, but at this early hour, there were few other customers.

  “Will you stop saying that?” Kimberley shot back with a low hiss. She herself could believe it all too well: the sight, the sound, even the faint odor of Cat’s seared little bottom, were all too fresh in her mind. “We were both there. We both saw it. It happened, okay?”

  Barbara looked pale and shaken. “I can’t…” she started to repeat, and caught herself. “I mean, it’s hard for me to believe that she asked for that.”

  “Oh…” Kimberley took another gulp of her coffee. “Well, apparently she did. Now I know why she wanted some moral support with her, but I wish she’d warned us first.”

  “Would you have still gone if she had?” Barbara leaned closer, eyes wide.

  “I think I would have,” Kimberley replied. “How about you?”

  Barbara leaned back, looked away and shrugged.

  “Are you thinking of backing out now?” Kimberley prodded. Barbara was about to answer, but was interrupted by the arrival of their breakfast. The two women just looked at each other, saying nothing, until the waiter had left. Barbara glanced over her shoulder at him until he was out of hearing, then turned back to Kimberley.

  “No…I’m not thinking of backing out now. I’m just kind of…shaken, you know? What else is going to happen to her now?”

  “I don’t know.” Kimberley shrugged. “Whatever it is, she knew about it ahead of time. Hell, she signed up for it. So, it was her choice.” She turned her attention to breakfast: A cheese omelet, sausages on the side. It looked and smelled delicious, but she didn’t seem to have much appetite at the moment. She kept thinking of Cat’s shriek as the branding iron was applied. A brand was permanent. Tattoos were permanent too, but while she’d seen plenty of women with tattoos…usually small ones…she had never seen a woman with a brand before. Cat’s brand had looked small…nothing more than a wavy line, like a stretched-out letter ‘s’, but still…

  She sighed loudly and took a bite of the omelet. Across from her, Barbara poked at her own breakfast with a fork. She didn’t look particularly enthusiastic, and maybe she was thinking of quitting in spite of what she’d just said. Kimberley didn’t want her to do that. It wouldn’t be the same without Barbara along. It wouldn’t be the same at all.

  “Hey,” she said. Barbara looked up.

  “I think…I think I know how that works.”

  “How what works?” Barbara frowned.

  “That dramatic little scene we saw earlier.”

  “Oh?” Barbara leaned forward. “Please, tell me.”

  “Look…there seem to be a lot of levels to all this.” She waved her fork, taking in the restaurant, and, by implication, the hotel, the town, and everything behind it. “You and I are only in the kiddie pool, so to speak.”

  “The kiddie pool?” Barbara raised one perfect eyebrow. “I don’t know. It seems plenty deep to me.”

  “Work with me,” Kimberley urged. “Sure, it’s plenty deep for me, too. But there are deeper parts. We don’t have to go into them, but Cat just did. I think maybe the branding was some kind of initiation into that deep end.”

  “You think?” Barbara frowned again. “Well…maybe…”

  “Sure!” Kimberley smiled. “It’s got to be something like that.”

  “It was still pretty brutal.” Barbara shuddered delicately.

  “Yes, it was,” Kimberley agreed. It was also, she thought, another level of female submission. When she thought of it that way, it didn’t seem quite so bad, but still… Last year, she’d been put through gang-banging, oral sex, anal sex…she’d even been fucked by a woman wearing a strap-on. She’d thought that that was about as submissive as anyone could get, and if she was right about Cat and her branding, it meant that she was wrong about the other stuff. She shivered at that thought.

  “So, we’re still on?” Barbara interrupted her dark and unformed imaginings.

  “Huh? Oh, hey, sure! Wouldn’t miss it!”

  “Okay, then.” Barbara licked her lips nervously. “But…”

  “But what?”

  “But…I’m still tired and still kinda shaky. I was thinking maybe we could just unwind here for the day, get a good night’s rest and start out tomorrow morning instead of today?”

  Kimberley took a bite of sausage to give her a little time to think. She was more than a little tired and still ‘kinda shaky’ herself. The hotel had a pool and even if she hadn’t brought a dress, she had brought a cute little bikini, just in case. It might be fun to flirt with and tease some of the good-looking men here. She also had a few more questions for Joanna.

  She swallowed the bite of sausage. “Okay,” she nodded and smiled. “We can do that.”

  Chapter Five

  “Well…here we go,” Barbara said nervously. Behind them, the heavy metal gate clanged shut, making her jump.

  Kimberley laughed. She herself was more pumped up than nervous. There was a belt of fifty feet of open space between them and the forest, and she scanned the trees alertly. Somewhere out there were at least four groups of hunters, plus a number of lone individuals, all seeking female prey. Behind her, faintly, she could still hear splashing and laughing from the hotel pool. She doubted that any of the hunters would be lurking so close to civilization, but why take chances? It would be
embarrassing to be caught so soon, given her plans.

  She scratched at her ear lightly. There might indeed be a chip implanted there, but she couldn’t feel it. The scratching was a late response to the tiny sting when they’d put it in just a few minutes ago.

  “I don’t see any trail.” Barbara remarked, peering ahead. She tugged her baseball cap down a little further and squinted. “Nope. No trail at all.” Her long hair stuck out from under the cap and rippled down her back in a long ponytail. She put her hands on her hips and looked at Kimberley expectantly.

  “Just as well.” Kimberley shrugged. “We won’t be taking any trails anyway, if we can help it.” They had a detailed map and a good compass, and she was sure she could navigate the forest with those. The map showed some sort of small town or trading post about seven or eight miles away to the south. It was marked as a “safe zone”. She was planning to go to that place first and have a look around. There were three more such places marked on the map. Kimberley planned to visit every one of them. Barbara could keep up with her or not.

  “Why not?” Barbara asked. Then her eyes widened. “Oh!” she nodded.

  “Exactly.” Kimberley grinned. “Any hunters are probably watching those trails.”

  “So how do we get to that place you want to see?”

  “Just trust me,” Kimberley replied. “I’ve done this kind of thing before.” She began walking towards the line of trees at an angle, looking for a good-but-not-obvious way to enter. She felt good…very good. The buzz of the bees, the swishing noise they made as they trod through the long grass, the smell of the flowers that poked up here and there, the blue of the cloudless sky overhead all seemed wonderfully sharp and clear to her senses. She could feel her muscles clenching and unclenching, her heart beating, slow and strong and steady, the warmth of the sunshine on her arms and bare knees. She almost felt as if she could fly, and she knew the reason the roller coaster was beginning the slow click-click-clicking ascent.