The Slave World (25)

(25): Home

I felt drained and mentally tired as I walked into my flat just in time to see Kassa pushing her bicycle out into the hallway for the start of her late night delivery shift.

“Caitlin, I was worried. Where have you been?” she asked. She touched my cheek and frowned. “You look awful.”

“I feel awful. It's been a difficult day, Kassa,” I said with fatigue dripping from my voice as I let myself into our hallway. “Think I need an early night.”

“Okay, but list of chores is on kitchen fridge. Please to finish them before you go to bed, please. Must be done by time I get back.”

“What?” I turned round in confusion.

“Chores. List is up. Please tick each one when done. I review work tomorrow to satisfaction.”

I watched her push the cycle down the corridor to the stairwell as she disappeared from sight. I walked into my kitchen and sure enough there it was, Kassa had pinned a list of chores for me on the door of the fridge. ‘Caitlin’s chores’ it read and there was a space beside each one for me to sign that I’d completed it.

“What the fuck…” I read the list – everything from cleaning the flat thoroughly each day, cooking designated meals (a set of recipe cards were left for me on the table), making the beds, washing and ironing her clothes, and so on.

She had obviously taken this whole kajira slave thing seriously from when Andromedus had told her. But if she thought she was going to treat me like a serving slave in my own flat she could go take a running jump from the roof of the tower block. In fact, now that I thought about it, I’d have my old room back. Yeah, I’d shift her things back into the small room. But when I got to the bedroom doors I discovered that the door to my old room now had a clasp and padlock fixed in place. I couldn’t get in. Only the door to the tiny single bed room was open. I peered inside and saw the single bed wedged next to a cheap dresser and wardrobe, with little room for anything. My things had been dumped unceremoniously into boxes last night under the watchful eye of Andromedus and they sat now in a jumble on top of the bed.

I stomped back into the living room in a very pissed off mood. And where was my laptop? In her new bedroom no doubt. Well at least she couldn’t use it without my password. I sat down on the sofa and then quickly got up again, stomped back into the kitchen, took the list of chores down from the fridge door and threw it into the rubbish bin. Then I made myself some instant coffee and returned to the living room. Fucking Polish girls. I should have known she’d get off on having an English slave. She was always bossy with people, especially her boyfriends.

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Mark had dropped me off by car and, seeing the run down area in which I lived, had looked surprised I was living here.

“Rent in London is expensive,” I said, anticipating his next question. “and the PI line of work isn’t exactly a reliable income stream.”

Mark nodded and escorted me to the front of the building.

“I should be fine from here,” I said. “Thank you, Mark, thank you for saving me.” I stood there not really knowing whether it would be okay to offer him a chaste goodbye kiss on the cheek. He was Gorean after all. “Are you going to be okay? Andromedus threatened to kill you.”

“He can try,” said Mark. “I was a Captain in Ar once, before the fall of the city. I survived the horrors of the vosk delta.” I had no idea what that was, but I supposed it was some sort of military campaign. The hell with it, I leaned forward and kissed him demurely on the right cheek which elicited a degree of surprise. “I would have been raped if it hadn’t been for you,” I said. “You're my hero today.”

“A kiss from a free woman is unexpected,” he said, “but I appreciate the sentiment with which it was given, Lady Caitlin.”

I laughed softly as he said that. That was the very first time he had ever called me 'Lady'. “You are so overwhelmingly formal at times, Mark. The sentiment with which it was given…”

“I am what I am.” He glanced around the quiet street and the nearby tower blocks that sat close to mine. “I will wait in my car for a while. Let me know when you are safe. I may watch your building for a few hours to ensure there is not another attempt while Adam is away.”

“I appreciate that, Mark. I really do.”

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I lay on the sofa, ignoring the wash basket of Kassa's clothes that were piled up for ironing, presumably by me, and I switched on BBC News 24 where I was horrified to see rolling breaking news coverage of a pro-women’s rights march in Boston. American news agencies had reported over 10,000 women had attended the march to protest recent erosions in their civil liberties. The march had been proceeding peacefully but had run a gauntlet of angry men who had subjected them to streams of abuse calling for them to go home and behave, just not in such polite language. And then when the women had stuck doggedly to their right to protest, a couple of gunmen had opened up with military grade assault rifles into the protest column. One hundred and thirty seven women had been killed by gunfire and the ensuing stampede of panic had killed or injured many more. I watched in shock as a state governor accused the women of behaving in a disgraceful manner that meant the police were limited in their ability to protect them. As if it was their own fault. Pretty middle class white anglo-saxon housewives and mothers in nineteen fifties style dresses and aprons were then wheeled out to espouse the right wing 'New Feminism' movement line and denounce their own sex for provoking a response from the normally patient men of America who were sick and tired of seeing 'militant lesbians' trying to agitate insurrection against the principles that had made their country great. I switched the news off, feeling sick, having heard the mayor announce a curfew for women in Boston to keep off the streets after the hours of sunset unless they were accompanied by a male relative or recognised 'companion', for their own safety. What the fuck was happening over there?

I wanted to call Adam, but I first needed to check that it was safe to do so. Mark had given me a small device that resembled a pen. I used it to check my bedroom for electronic surveillance devices. When I felt vibrations through the shell of the pen I knew that my new bedroom was indeed bugged. This was getting very serious. I walked into the bathroom and swept that room for bugs and again registered a reading. The same thing came from the living room and the kitchen. My whole apartment was bugged. Mark had assured me that the apartment had not been bugged the last time Adam had visited or else he would have known. So this was new. I was under direct surveillance now by the suspicious House of Three Moons. I returned to my cramped bedroom with the single bed, the wardrobe and the dresser and I twisted the body of the pen counter clockwise. Mark had told me that doing so would override the transmitter of any surveillance device and would broadcast in place of my conversation a stream of natural ambient background sound. I would be safe to make a phone call. I sat on the bed and activated the app that Mark had loaded onto my phone. My next call would bypass any malware that might have been loaded onto my phone for surveillance purposes.

I dialled Adam's number and waited as I lay on my bed, feeling tense and nervous. Mark had said Adam might have his phone back by now. There were four rings before he picked up.

“Cat,” he said in a relieved voice. “Mark told me what happened.”

“I’m okay,” I said, “But it was touch and go. Where are you?”

“In the New Forest. Will tell you about it later. You’re safe now?”

“I think so. But Kassa has pissed me off big time.”

“Oh?”

“Andromedus told her I’m supposed to be a slave.”

“And?”

“Well, typical fucking Kassa seems to be loving it. She thinks she has a slave in the flat and she put up a list of chores for me to do. Can you believe that?”

“Ah.” There was a hint of concern in Adam’s voice. “That’s what that was about.”

“What what was about?”

“When I got my phone back there was a message from Andromedus on it saying I needed to maintain discipline in your flat if a free woman was living there. He had sent it yesterday. He seemed angry and demanded I took this seriously.”

“Fuck him,” I said.

“It’s not quite that simple. What Mark did to help you today, well, it’s not going to be good for my cover story. I’m going to be grilled as to who Mark is, and how much he knows. If they even suspect I’m not treating you as a Gorean slave… I think you’re going to have to keep your head down and go along with being the slave in the flat.”

“What?!”

“If it gets back to Andromedus that you’re not acting like a kajira he’s going to suspect I’m not the master I’m supposed to be. And that could prove fatal now.”

“I’m not going to be Kassa’s fucking kajira! She wants me to clean and cook for her!”

“Awkward, I know, but it’s what a kajira would do. She is technically a free woman.”

“So am I, Adam!”

“No, you’re a kajira, Caitlin.”

“Not really.”

“I’m afraid you are.”

I was too tired to argue like this. “What have you been doing?”

“Several of us were taken out into the New Forest, just outside Burley. We’ve been preparing the landing zone for the next silver ship from Gor. They use different drop zones randomly chosen. The next pick up of slaves is in just over two weeks time. They trusted me enough to test me with the prep work. They may feel differently now that Mark has stepped in to save you. Andromedus has told me to meet him at the House as soon as I return to London. I'm going to have to plan very carefully what I'm going to say about Mark.”

“Andromedus would have raped me if Mark hadn’t intervened.”

“I know. It’s unfortunate, and it has made my job more difficult, but I don’t begrudge the necessity of it, Cat. How are you holding up?”

“I’m terrified, Adam. I want you home. I want to…” I bit my tongue rather than speak the words out loud.

“Want to what?”

“I want you to hold me and tell me everything will be okay. I’m sorry if that sounds weak.” I winced as I imagined how that might sound.

“You’re a woman, Cat. It’s natural you want to be protected by a man.”

“Fuck, I don’t know what to do, Adam. I am so out of my depth here. Please come home. Please. I need you so much right now.”

Adam was silent for a moment as he took in those words. “You know I have feelings for you, don’t you, Cat? Mark said he told you.”

“Yes. And he told me you've lived on Gor for five years too. You never told me this before.”

“It was an amazing experience. I didn’t really want to leave and come back to England.”

“I suppose you used slaves while you were there?”

“Yes. That doesn’t surprise you, surely? They are very tempting.”

“I wish I didn’t know this about you, Adam. I’m having a very hard time reconciling what I know about you both now. Have you enslaved women? From Earth I mean? Mark said he has. Have you? Have you abducted women and caged them?”

Again a pause on the phone. “You’re asking a lot of questions, Cat. Are you sure you want honest answers from me on everything?”

“No. I’ve changed my mind. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to think of you like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like… a Gorean. I want you to be Adam. Just... Adam.”

“I am Adam. I’m the man you’ve always known.”

“Mark says you wish I was your slave girl. In a collar. In chains.” There. I'd gone and said it.

Silence at the end of the line. “Again, is this a conversation you really want to have, Cat? Honestly?”

I nibbled at a fingernail as I considered that. What did I really want? Honest answers, or the comfort of not knowing? “Would you put me in a collar if we were on Gor?” I asked quickly.

“Yes. I think I would.”

Oh God. I felt a mix of emotions that were at risk of running out of control. “And you would keep me as a slave?”

“I would never free you, if that's what you mean. And I don't think I would ever sell you. But we are on Earth and things are more complicated here.”

“But on Gor? If I was on Gor?”

“I think I would have enslaved you. But that is Gor.”

“I may hate you now, Adam. I don’t know how I feel about you. I really don't. I'm not sure how our friendship can stand now.”

“That is your prerogative. At least while you are free.”

What did he mean by that? At least while I was free?

“I’m not going to pretend to be a knight in shining armour, Cat. But I do care about you. I want you to be safe. I want to protect you the best way I can. Perhaps the only way I can. I only know one way to protect you.”

“When are you coming back, Adam?”

“I will be in London shortly, but I have to see Andromedus and come up with something to explain Mark’s actions. We’re in a dangerous place now. I need to convince Andromedus that Mark is simply a serious Gorean life-styler like me. Nothing more. If I don’t…” he let the implications of that possibility linger.

“Can we please just walk away from this madness, Adam? While we still can?”

“No. I’m so close to achieving what I’ve dedicated my life to these last couple of years. I can’t stop now. I’m so close, Cat. I’m almost there.”

“What is it that’s so important?”

“Carousel,” and before I could answer that word with what I knew already, Adam hung up.

I sat up in the living room for a while, mulling over the conversation with Adam as I nursed a glass of much needed wine. Adam may not have been born on Gor but it was evident he now shared common Gorean values. He wasn’t really the man I had known all these years. He had put slaves to use during his time on Gor. I had difficulty just accepting that. And yet in some way my sexual feelings for him remained undiminished. I imagined what it might have been like if I had been abducted to Gor and I had found myself in a paga tavern and one day Adam had visited and after paying for a cup of paga had selected me, sent me to a curtained alcove to be put to use. I imagined myself in the small alcove with its furs and its ankle chains. I imagined myself dressed in the simple tunic of a paga slave, being told to remove it as Adam placed a steel chain on my ankle. I imagined being put to use in that curtained alcove for his pleasure with no say in the matter. I imagined telling him, that I was English, from Earth, the same as him, for all the good it might do. I stroked the ankle ring locked on my left foot as I though these rich dark troubling thoughts.

I felt restless, unable to sleep. I wished Adam was here to comfort me somehow, despite his past. I thought too of the chores that Kassa had pinned in the kitchen. In the living room there was a wicker basket of laundry that I was required to iron by tomorrow morning. As if. I sipped my wine and ignored the wash basket. Kassa could iron her own laundry.

But then I thought of Andromedus and what he might say, what he might do if Kassa happened to mention I had refused to work. I imagined what he might say to Adam, the expectation that Adam would then have to punish me.

Reluctantly I put the glass of wine down and fished the chores list from the waste basket. I set up the ironing board and picked out the first of Kassa's blouses from the wash basket. With a heavy heart I set to work ironing Kassa’s things. It took me close to an hour after which I ticked off the first of the chores on her hand written list. The second item read 'clean bathroom – thoroughly. All taps must shine and sparkle.'

All I wanted to do now was go to bed, but if the list wasn't completed by the morning...

Like some domestic slave I went in search of our cleaning products.