Alternative Natty/Page1

(Author's Note: I changed my mind about where the (Natty) story was going. But I may keep the original storyline going as well. Think alternate reality. After all, why should there be only one kind of reality??)

What if it was all a dream?
I awoke, ready to study some more. I'd get a spanking today, of course, but I'd live through it. And then I found myself chained in Samuel's torture room.

But that isn't possible. I was found. I was freed. Wasn't I?

But my entire body throbs from that horrible session with the switch. Even when I throw my head around (as much as I can) I don't feel any hair swishing around. And there is a terrible ache between my legs.

But it was so real!

But it couldn't have been real. The door to my torture chamber opens. It is HIM. The nemesis. The nightmare. The MAN.

"Hope you enjoyed that taste of happiness, little slave. It's called a holodeck. Very real, aren't they? And VERY expensive. But worth it, you know."

As my mind fights the return to reality, a certain remote part of me remembers that the technology was invented on Aynrand, but hasn't been released to any of the other planets. It's like watching holo, the newsbrief said, but it's all around you. It was even theorized that a more advanced model might be good enough to fool someone who didn't know it was a holodeck. Well, I guess they came up with the more advanced model.

Or could THIS be a dream? But the pains of my body suggest otherwise.

"You'll never be found, little slave. That car wasn't mine. It was stolen. And I took other precautions. You don't need to know about them. Women only need to know how to spread their legs. Isn't that right, little slave?"

I know I should say yes, master. But I cannot. I just cannot. I open my mouth to say yes master and find that my pride, my soul, and everything that is me have taken over to voice one protest, perhaps the only one ever. "Why?"

I meant to say more, but his slap knocked me sideways. "You don't ask questions, little slave."

"You can get help!" Another slap splits my lip.

"I don't want help!" Slap! "I was trained to do this!" Slap! "By the SYSTEM!" . "Slap! "But now.." SLAP! "They won't LET.." SLAP, SLAP! "Me do it." SLAP, SLAP! "It's their fault!" SLAP, SLAP! "I wouldn't have the longing otherwise!" SLAP, SLAP, SLAP! "They taught me to hate criminals, to beat and fuck them. That's all I know to do! So you will suffer, little slave, oh you will suffer. A martyr for the system's faults." He laughs, brittle and ugly. "You're Christian, little slave? You talked so much during the holoprogram, I know a lot about you. Though you'll have to learn not to talk so much. Anyway, you're Christian, so this is right up your alley. Making one suffer for the sins of others."

My head is ringing from the slaps, and I can feel half a dozen cuts on my face. But I have to say something. "Dif'runt," I croak weakly. I have to defend my sweet Jesus.

SLAP, SLAP, SLAP, SLAP, SLAP!!! "You don't talk unless I say to, little slave!" SLAP! "Your God is evil!" SLAP! "He rewards the guilty and punishes the innocent!" SLAP! "EVIL! Say it!" SLAP! "SAY IT!" SLAP, SLAP! "SAY IT!"

I cannot see for the blood. Even though I am tied down, I feel so dizzy. It's as if I were to fall off the table. Pain, pain, nothing but pain. I know dimly that he wants something but cannot remember what.

The blows continue to fall, a bizarre counterpoint, something happening to someone very far away, and isn't it a pity I can't help her. Where am I? I'm falling...falling so far....

And suddenly I am back to reality. SLAP! "Say it!" SLAP! "EVIL! SAY IT!"

"Evil," I croak, and even though I cannot remember what it is I'm talking about, I feel an incalculable loss, as if the core of my heart is suddenly gone.