My Submission

[sujet]

The Unsuspecting Accomplice

I have never learned to write short. Everything always seems to novella with me, including journal entries! I would place rating on this, but I will leave that to the pros. ~sujet

Part One
Chapter 1

She pulled into the garage to see the guard her keeper had installed after her last attempt to run. She got out of the vehicle and started to unload the trunk trying to ignore his presence as much as he was going to allow her.

“You’re ten minutes late.” He said.

She contemplated telling him to go fuck himself then decided to be quiet.

He was almost cheerful as he helped unload the groceries and bring them into the kitchen. This made her suspicious, as he was never helpful in anyway. After the bags made their way in, he removed the tracking device from her ankle and headed for his apartment downstairs in the basement. As he went to leave he stopped at the kitchen entrance to stare at her.

“Call Brent bitch.”

With that, he turned and left after activating the alarm system. He never used her name, which would have proven she was human in any capacity. She had become immune to the names he often used for her and this was the nice one. The turmoil and fear started as soon as she knew she was late, Bryan only added to it. Being ten minutes late was enough to get her privileges revoked for a month. She had worked hard for this small right to leave the house to go grocery shopping and visit the local library. In the beginning, Bryan had to go with her, and then came the ankle device. Brent allowed three hours once a month to run his errands and to go to the local library to get one book. It was one of her few freedoms she had and she enjoyed the serenity of being away from it all for those few hours.

She picked up the phone and dialed the only phone number she could dial.

“Headmaster’s office, how may I help you?”

“Good morning Miss Lee, it’s Sunni, I was told to call Headmaster.”

“Hey Sunni, let me put you through to him.”

As the moments ticked past waiting for him to answer, her stomach tightened more. Bryan acted strange, which meant he knew something she did not. That was always bad.

The deep, sinister voice came on and broke her thoughts.

“You’re back, good.”

“Yes sir.”

“You have anything to tell me I need to know?”

There it was. Bryan had already told Brent. He never missed that chance to get her punished.

She sighed, “Yes sir.”

“Tell me.”

“I was ten minutes late getting back.”

“Any particular reason why?”

“No sir.”

“No excuses for me today?”

“No sir.”

She rolled her eyes; making excuses would just make it all worse than it was at this very moment. Pissing him off would not help.

“Well, we will deal with this later. For today, I want you to tend your chores and then just spend the day freely; within the confines of the house, of course.”

Wait! What did he just say? I can do nothing all afternoon.

“Any questions?”

“Yes sir.”

“Go ahead.”

“I really can just go read, watch television, take a bath, or just sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Sir?”

“Yes?”

“I am very appreciative of the free time. Thank you very much, but…”

Her voice was stuck there; did she dare to question it?

“But? Go on, ask.”

“What is the catch?”

He chuckled; it was almost an amusing laugh for him. She knew him well enough to be concerned or suspicious.

“No catch, just a small present for this special day.”

She said nothing, as she had no idea what was so special about today. She knew it was Valentine’s Day, but that never held anything special before.

“You have no idea what today is, do you?”

“I’m afraid I don’t, my apologies sir.”

“Today is you one year anniversary among other things.”

Her mind was reeling and spitting questions out to her. From surviving his torments for the past several years, for his selling her off to others, for being fifteen feet away from freedom but knowing it is just out of grasp, or all of the above?

She blurted it out with no thought, “Anniversary of what?”

“I see you will also need a few reminders on top of that punishment you have already earned for being late. Hang on a minute.”

He placed her on hold and she started to cry. A reminder would mean he would make her remember, with as much pain as he felt appropriate, and only get worse which would mean she would never get it right. His voice returned to her making her tears cease as fast as they started.

“I am in an exceptionally good mood today, so I will be kind and tell you. One year ago today you finally came to your senses and accepted what you are and who you are.”

The memory of it came to her in a rush.

“He is celebrating the day he broke her,” she thought to herself, “It is his anniversary, not mine. It is her day of death and my day birth into accepting to stop running. The day she came to realize there was no way out and she was his property and nothing more. He is celebrating something I wish I could run from.” Knowing she had better respond, she collected her thoughts fast.

“Thank you for your thoughtfulness Master Brent.”

She choked on the words to get them out, more in the hope of minimizing the punishment she would be receiving for “forgetting” such a momentous occasion in his mind.

“Now, I will not be home until tomorrow morning. Bryan will be fending for himself and has been told to leave you be. I have planned a little something special for you later. I am sure you will enjoy.”

This statement produced his sinister laugh. If they had been facing each other, she would have known that it was beyond what she ever thought he would do to her. However, she was not dismissive of the thought that his idea of “something special” and hers were two completely different ideas.

“Yes sir.”

“Alright, hop to it, daylight is burning.”

As she hung of the phone, the tears fell freely. She was in as deep as she could get now. Two strikes in one call. Tomorrow promised to be a bad day, as he never waited more than 24 hours to implement his correction of an infraction to his supreme authority over her.

She turned to her chores and the past 15 minutes of her life. The telephone conversation with Brent was too calm, normal conversations with him always entailed him making her submit to some form of humiliating statement. Maybe she was reading too much into all of it. Maybe Brent had just decided to give her these few precious hours of free choice. She needed to stop worrying and enjoy it, as she rarely had much more than an hour here or there usually at any given time when left alone. Brent always had something for her to do from household chores to learning something new when she was not working or sent to another. The learning something new was always the scariest, as he would pick something and then quizzed her on it thoroughly. Rarely did she ever pass his oral exams without missing a question or two.
With her chores completed, she grabbed her new library book and headed for the sanctuary of her bedroom. This was her one place she knew she was safe; no harm had ever entered this one room in the house. No bad memories or nightmares followed her here.

She found herself lost in her book as minutes passed into three hours. The sound of the doorbell scared her right off her bed and the book across the room. She jumped up and almost tripped down the stairs as the knocking and ringing were constant. She stood at the foot of the stairs wondering if she should buzz Bryan since she could not open the door without tripping the alarm.

She had little time to wonder as Bryan came slamming through the basement door, stopping to turn off the alarm and spew obscenities at her. She followed behind him to the door. He threw open the door.

“What the fuck is your prob…”

He never finished the sentence as she barely caught sight of the person slamming into Bryan hard. She tried to avoid the two men hitting the ground but was slammed into by Bryan’s body, which was starting to go limp as they fell to the ground hard. She never got a clear view of the man. As she slammed into the floor hands came over her face to obstruct her breathing. She tried to fight the hands off her face, but Bryan’s body was blocking and crushing her ability to stop the hands from letting her breathe. As darkness surrounded her and she slipped into it, her last thought was,

“Finally, I am released.”

Death was never that easy.