Out of the Dungeon (12 page)

I have no memory of what's happened to me,
so I imagine that Roman is experimenting with some kind of extreme
bondage. If could speak, I would tell him that I hate it. The
fantasy, however, helps me cope with all of this. And the drugs, of
course, that knock me completely out and let me sleep. Perhaps they
force sleep upon me, and that is the point of them. I hope so, and
I hope to get more soon. I have no way to tell anyone that I'm
awake, aware, and so I just wait. "Be still," was Roman's command,
and I practice, though now and again I wriggle my fingers in pure
defiance. Wouldn't the punishment brush do just as well? It would
be a quicker agony, and though I hate it, I know what it feel like,
and I know that it ends, and I am not afraid.

I cry off and on. I can feel the tears
sliding out of my eyes and some of them drop into my ears and make
me shiver.

"Hi sweetie," comes a voice from above me.
"Oh, you poor dear, you must be hurting." It is, I assume, a nurse,
although for some reason my eyes refuse to focus. I can see the
shape of her face, feel the coolness of her hands. She wipes my
face with a soft tissue, and it makes me cry harder. "You're doing
great," she said. "Although you probably feel like a train hit you.
Do you want to go back to sleep?"

I blinked. It was all I could do. "Once for
no, twice for yes?" she asked. I blinked again, twice for yes.

"All right. Off to la-la land for you."

I watched her from the corner of my eye. She
took a syringe from her pocket, and fiddled with an IV line.

"Be still," Roman had said, and he'd said it
in his very firm voice, the one I can't argue with.

I couldn't speak to break my contract, so
all I could do was obey.

T
hree days passed
without significant change. Roman called Vanessa as he promised,
and her voice grew to be familiar and comforting in his ear. On
Tuesday there was news. "They're taking him off the vent today,"
Roman said, "and then they'll see if he wakes up a little
more."

"That's good news," Vanessa said.

"Yes." Roman agreed.

"How are you holding up?"

"All right. Well, other than losing my mind
because I am aware of how much Jeff spoils me. Talk about taking
things for granted. There is laundry piling up, I'm running out of
coffee, and I'm sure there are bills that need to be paid, but I
have no idea what."

"Damn. You've practically allowed him to
infantilize you."

"I know. All the little life crap I never
paid attention to is driving me crazy."

"Poor Roman."

"Oh, I'm not having a pity party over it. I
am an adult and I can figure it out. But you asked."

"True," she said. "And how is Dare
doing?"

Roman sighed. "Coming into his own. I think
he's backing off even more, though it hardly seems like he could
back off any more. He has a guilt complex, a feeling that he
shouldn't be involved with me while Jeff is unavailable, because it
be unfair to Jeff. We've had supper together every night, though
generally he escapes before bedtime and goes back to Doc's place.
He has a second interview somewhere tomorrow. Hell, he could be
gone by next week, for all I know."

"He won't go far," Vanessa said. "He cares
for you."

"Thanks for that. So. Do you want to see Jeff
?"

"Yes!"

"All right, settle," Roman said, "or they
won't let you in. Hyperactivity is frowned upon in the ICU. I think
Jeff's afternoon nurse is a little in love with me, so I can
probably get you in. I just got sent to the waiting room while they
assemble a respiratory team and pull the vent. Apparently removing
a vent is gruesome, because they won't let me watch."

"Poor Jeff," she said. "Damn. This
sucks."

"Well, they're sedating him for this. They
have his neck immobilized, because they can't risk that he's going
to fight them, or try to lift himself off the bed, or anything like
that. So that part's going to be okay. He's been awake about one
minute per shift, and we're doing blink communication. I asked him
if he wanted the vent removed, and he blinked a definite yes. I
also asked him if you could visit, told him you were worried half
to death, and he gave a yes to that, too. So anyway, I'm thinking
if you meet me here at about eight o'clock tonight, I can convince
Zach to let us both in."

He heard the door to the ICU open.
"Roman?"

It was Sally, one of the day shift
nurses.

"I have to go," Roman said to Vanessa. "If I
don't talk to you before then, I'll meet you here in the waiting
room at eight, all right?"

He snapped the phone shut, then turned it
off. "How'd he do?" Roman asked Sally.

"Without a hitch," she said. "Zach left
report that your voice is very calming for Jeff. We gave him short
acting anesthesia to remove the vent, but otherwise he's hasn't
been sedated since last night. Which means we expect and want him
to wake up. Soon. We'll medicate him for pain, of course, but it
would be good to get the chance to assess his cognition."

"Still worried about a head injury?"

"Not worried. But an assessment needs to be
done, and he has to be conscious for that. You can stay with him
now. Talk to him as he wakes up, try to keep him from panicking.
Tell him what's going on, but don't encourage him to talk. He won't
be able to speak well for a couple of days because his throat will
be raw from the vent."

A chair had been squeezed in next to the bed,
but Roman didn't sit right away. He just stared at Jeff's face,
which looked pretty good, considering all he'd been through. Jeff
seemed to be asleep, breathing softly through his nose. Roman took
Jeff's silver collar out of his pocket and laid it on the portable
bedside table. It gleamed. He thought it would be comforting, but
it just looked broken.

Jeff's eyelids fluttered open and then closed
again. Roman started talking.

"It's time to wake up, love. The easy part is
over and the hard stuff is just starting, but we'll get through it,
no worries. You're in bondage, and I don't want you to move, but
it's okay to listen to my voice and let yourself come awake, let
yourself be aware, so long as you stay still. I know you can be
still for me, so don't disappoint me now. The doctors have you
immobilized, and it's important to keep your head and neck still.
Everything's okay, it's nothing to worry about, but that's what
they want. And I want what they want, and of course, what I want
must come to be, right?"

He thought he saw another flutter, and then
he was sure, as both Jeff's eyes opened for a quick second before
closing again.

"Good, you're waking up. Keep breathing slow
and easy. Remember my birthday? How I sandwiched you between
Plexiglas panels? I had those foam cushions so you couldn't move
your head, remember? Let's go back and think about that day for a
little while. I was having a party, and I had the new device in the
dungeon, and I was so excited to put you into it that I felt like a
little kid again, breathlessly waiting for the best birthday
present ever. I needed some help with the set up, which was
annoying, and probably why we haven't used it much, because it took
two other people to get you properly secured.

"So you came into the dungeon, and stared at
it, like, what the heck is this thing? Remember how it had the
hinged flaps over strategic areas, both front and back? It was a
custom job, and I'd had to send measurements to the manufacturer,
to be sure I could get to your pertinent parts."

Sally came into the room, and Roman stopped
talking.

"How's he doing?" She asked. "Is he waking up
at all?"

"I think so," Roman said. "I'm telling him a
story that I think will help him stay calm."

"Aw, that's really sweet," Sally said, and
Roman nearly laughed out loud. Sally bustled around checking
monitors and straightening wires. "Don't worry about me," she
said.

"I wasn't," Roman answered, but waited for
her to go away before he started talking again.

"Anyway. I had you step between the panels,
and put your feet through the bottom slots for feet. Let you stand
there with your hands at your sides, remember? I know you wondered
about that, how could it be bondage without bindings? But I knew
what I was up to. I opened the face panel and positioned your chin
on the chin rest, but didn't gag you, yet. Then Sir James, and, I
don't know, was it Lenny, the body piercing guy? They rolled the
back piece into place. Remember the Plexiglas panels were set into
nice wood frames, almost like picture frames, but bigger, of
course, and each frame had four wheels. Each one balanced
separately, but barely, and that was the precarious part, pressing
them close enough together to slide on huge C clamps.

"Your hands were closing into fists and
opening again. I remember that, almost like you didn't quite know
what to do with them. And when I checked in with you, I realized
that your head needed some support, that you had some leeway to
pull your face back, for instance, say if I wanted you to take a
gag or something like that. So I sent someone for the foam
cushioning, and secured your head. Hey, that's what started me on
this story, isn't it? You're kind of in traction or something, I
don't know, but they're making sure you can't move your head or
your neck. I wanted you to remember how the plexi-frame felt, let
yourself be reminded that it was unusual but not especially
terrifying, and that I looked out for you and kept you safe."

Jeff's leg twitched, and caught Roman's
attention, and when he looked back at Jeff's face, Jeff was staring
at him.

"Good morning, Sunshine. Don't talk. I'm
telling you a story, and your job is to listen."

Jeff blinked twice. "Good," Roman said.
"Because if you get all wound up, they'll kick me out of here. They
want me to keep you calm."

The focus of Jeff's eyes shifted to the end
of the bed. His leg twitched again, and it bumped against the rail.
There were soft ties holding each leg to the bed.

"I'm telling you a bondage story, and you
want me to untie your legs?" Roman asked Jeff. Jeff blinked twice.
"That's really backwards, Jeff."

Roman glanced around. The nurse's station
outside the cubicle was bustling, and he guessed it was probably
shift change.

"You promise not to thrash and bang
around?"

Jeff blinked twice again.

"All right. I'll do it, but I will seriously
punish you if you're messing with me."

He released the soft ties.

Jeff slowly bent his knees and then shuffled
his feet gently against the bed. Roman watched Jeff's feet, and
then his face, and saw Jeff open his mouth to speak. Roman held up
a hand. "No talking. Maybe tomorrow. But if you stay calm while I
tell you more of the story, I'll untie your hands. Is that a
deal?"

Jeff blinked his agreement.

Roman shifted his chair so he could rest his
arms on the bedrail, and looked into Jeff's eyes as he spoke.

"I positioned the foam around your head, and
we got you sandwiched between the frames to the point where we
could slide the C clamps into place. You were panting a little bit,
because your chest was tight between the frames, and I think you
were a little bit scared. I tightened the clamps at each corner,
oh, three or four turns, I guess, and it seemed like enough. I
wasn't going to let you suffocate. So now the frame stood by
itself, and I came around the front to kiss you, but I hadn't
locked the wheels, so I was startled when the frame rolled away
from me. And don't laugh, but you were startled, too, and you had
that look on your face like the one people have at the top of a
roller coaster, just before the car plummets down."

He thought Jeff almost smiled.

"New equipment has its down side, doesn't it?
It took me a minute to figure out how to lock the wheels, but I got
it done. So there you were, front and center at the party, encased
naked in the Plexiglas. You looked… well, better than the cake,
I'll tell you that much. And that was just the set up. Your cock
was squished unhappily against the glass, so after I kissed you
again, I asked if you wanted me to release it. And, ever the good
little slave, you said, "If it appeals to you, Master." You were in
fine form that night. Like you were trying to give me perfect
obedience for my birthday. So I opened the hatch that was cut into
the glass and let your cock spill out. I tugged your balls out too,
so they were hanging over the edge of the hatch, accessible for
play or torture, or whatever struck my fancy.

"Now remember, your arms were just at your
sides, not particularly immobilized, though they didn't really have
anywhere to go. It wasn't like you could reach the C clamps to
release yourself. People were milling around, coming up and looking
at you, checking out the new equipment, because nobody had seen
anything like it before, and of course, checking out your
equipment, because it was hanging out there. You were taking your
attention off of me now and again to notice them, maybe to
recognize and wink at some of your friends, and you even said hello
to someone. I didn't think that was acceptable, so I had Sir James
keep an eye on you while I went to find a gag. I kind of wanted a
ball gag, but since you were all clamped in, I wasn't sure I'd be
able to fasten it around your head, so I ended up with a phallus
shaped gag and duct tape. Duct tape is so trailer trash, I know,
and I knew that's what you were thinking when I showed it to you.
You would have preferred a ball gag, even if it made you drool. "Oh
please," you said, "please, no," and I kissed you on the mouth
again and said, "Yes. Open up." You opened your mouth and I filled
it with the gag. That was the part you didn't like, not being
gagged, but that it was the kind of gag that filled your
mouth."