Rafael lead the way down a maze of corridors, to a set of nondescript elevator doors. He pulled out a key card and held it in front of the chip reader. There was a small beep and the green flashing light, before the doors slowly opened.
The other parts of this story can be found here.
Rafael and Eli stepped in, and the doctor immediately noted that this was no ordinary elevator. There were no buttons, only a small alpha-numeric keypad, into which his partner imputed a long code. Eli’s hopes deflated as he realized that there was no way he could memorize the long string of digits as the other man’s fingers ran deftly over the buttons.
He tried not to think of how many times he must have put in that code, to know it that well.
Rafael turned and smiled at him, knowingly. “I have to keep your pretty little wife safe, you know,” Rafael said, with a smirk.
Eli scowled.
The elevator went down, down, down.
Privately, Eli wondered how big this building was, and how many floors it really had. He had only concerned himself with the clinics and operating rooms from where had done his work, but now he realized that there was so much more to this whole operation.
And to Rafael, himself.
How stupid had he been, to take this deal?
But then again, what choice had he had? Rafael knew too much.
When the doors finally opened again, the two men stepped out and approached another set of doors with a key card access, to which Rafael provided. The doors opened with whooshing whisper, which led into a dimly lit hallway.
As they walked past each featureless door, anxiety bubbled up through Eli‘s body.
He hoped that Rafael had not hurt his wife, but the longer they walked and the deeper they went into the compound, the less he believed in that possibility.
Anything kept this far down, wouldn’t be kept for any innocuous purpose.
As Rafael lead the pair of them, the hallways became a twisted maze, smelling like antiseptic and something sweeter, almost cloying. They went down another set of stairs, and then through another set of swinging doors. The lights got dimmer and dimmer, as they walked on.
Eli tried desperately to remember this convoluted path, but it was hopeless.
“Almost there, old friend,“ Rafael said.
The patronizing words graded on Eli‘s mind. Rafael was no friend of his.
That, he knew, now. He just hoped that he hadn’t come to that conclusion too late.
Another set of stairs down, and Eli found himself counting in his head, involuntarily. Ten, nine, eight, seven.
It was an odd compulsion, but when he went to think about it, it was like the thought itself evaporated in his brain.
Six, five.
The lights in the stairwell cast more murky shadows than light.
Four, three, two.
A set of heavy black doors, reinforced with metal rivets, came in to view a few steps in front of them.
One, zero.
“And we’re here,“ Raphael said, his voice unnaturally cheery.
Eli struggled to remember why he was here.
It seemed so right to follow Rafael, but why, again, was he standing here? He tried to think, try to remember, but it was like there was a blank hole in his mind, where these important memories used to be. He turned Rafael, his friend. “Where are we?”
Rafael smiled at him, and that way that he was so used to.
The familiarity of it soothed him, almost. “We’re here to check on your wife’s progress.“
Somewhere in the back of his mind, a tiny thought niggled.
His wife?
Yes, now he remembered. There was some thing about his wife. But… What was it again?
Rafael moved to face the door, before placing his hand print against it. There was a faint green light that showed around the outline of it, and the door audibly unlocked.
Inside was a rather posh apartment, all decorated and creams and blushes. There was a living room, a tiny dining table, and a little kitchenette. Somewhere in the depths beyond the entryway, A faint vibration could be heard, along with soft moaning.
Rafael strode through the room toward the noise.
Eli‘s eyes darted from one fixture to the next, trying to make sense of it all. This was not a clinician’s room. These were living quarters.
Almost too late, he followed Raphael through the apartment. There, he saw her.
Long, dark hair curled down her naked back, ending just above the swell of her hips. The shape of her he knew so well, he would know it anywhere; memories of their life together, before he had met Rafael, before this all happened, came trickling back into his brain.
She was so beautiful, his wife. And he loved her so much.
Her hands were bound together above her head, connected to a hook in the ceiling. She was nude and covered with a sheet of sweat. She straddled some object that looked like a saddle with a motor and cords snaking out from around it. A large screen flashed in front of her, with pictures almost too quick to process.
There were flashing words, but they appeared and disappeared before he could read them.
He watched the muscles in her back contract rhythmically.
She swayed back and forth on the machine, her hips rolling enticingly.
“Please. Please… Anything,“ she said, her voice week. “Please, Rafael. I’m begging you.“
She sounded broken, needy, desperate.
Strangely, arousal raged through Eli‘s body, he had never seen her this way. She had always been perfect, almost frigid.
His perfect little icy princess was now bound and forced to endure some sexual torture at the hands of this other man. Thoughts warred in Eli’s mind; he wanted to protect her, to save her. But there was an undeniable, nearly shameful desire racing through his body, to watch her suffer in this beautiful way. “What have you done to her?“ he asked, without taking his eyes off of her.
She made no indication that she had heard him or that she was even aware that he was in the room with her.
Eli had meant the question to sound strong, maybe even indignant. But it came out sounding more curious, than anything. He noticed this, and he realized that thought should have bothered him, but it didn’t.
It was as if his ability to self-reflect, was somehow hindered.
That, too, should have bothered him, but the vision of his raven-haired wife before him made it hard to concentrate on anything else.
“Tori, darling.“ Rafael moved behind her and dragged his finger lightly over her trembling shoulder blade.
Tori. She had never been Tori to him, to Eli. She has always been a very proper Victoria.
Her begging continued, like it had become a mantra. “Please, Raphael. Please.”
“Victoria,” Eli whispered. His eyes tracked upward along the delicate line of her arm and around the black leather cuffs that circled her wrists.
Tori shivered. “Eli…? Raphael?” She started to turn her head.
“No, darling. Keep watching the screen.“ Raphael’s voice soothed. “You know the rules.”
Obediently, Her eyes returned to the screen in front of her. “Rafael, please.“ It was like she was somehow compelled to keep watching.
This, too, should have bothered him, Eli knew. But the thought didn’t seem to stick.
“Good girl, “Rafael said. “You know how to be a good girl for me now don’t you?“
Ice coated the inside of Eli‘s veins. “Rafael, if you’ve hurt her…”
“Hurt her? Of course not.“ Rafael smiled a dark smile. “In fact she’s helped me quite a bit, haven’t you darling?“
“Please, Rafael, I’m begging you. Please.“ Her breathing was heavy, and she sounded desperate. “I need it, please.”
“Mmm,” Rafael whispered, close to her ear. “Tell me what you need, Tori. And tell me what you’re willing to do for it.“
Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash