Story 2: Submissive Feminist

Chapter 5:

That night I dreamt of Laysan.

"Can you understand me?" I asked her desperately.

She shook her head affirmatively.

"You need to run and hide! They are after you! You can't let them find you!"

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. I don't think she had the slightest clue what I was talking about.

"They want to steal you from me. They want to hurt you. I love you so much, Laysan. I'm so afraid of what they will do to you!"

She just shook her head and poked at the sun-drenched container of the dream in which we stood causing the scenery to ripple as she did.

"No! I don't think that the dream will protect you! They're probably even somewhere nearby now," I said frantically scanning through the trees and unicorns.

She wrapped her arms and chains around me and pulled me close so that our cheeks touched and her unruly mane tickled the end of my nose. She held me so tightly, that I felt her heart beat in her breast.

"I can't lose you Laysan," I cried. "You're all that I have."

She stroked my hair and kissed my chin as the dream slowly faded away.

---

Since I take the same bus to work and back every day, I see the same crowd of regulars clocking their way through their lives. Some think I'm scary, I think. Some think I'm funny. Some just smirk. They all give me a wide berth. I sit in the same seat every day. It's always there waiting for me. Everyone knows it is mine. No one dares sit in either my chair or the one next to it. Occasionally, a new rider will mistakenly sit there, though less and less lately. I think other riders are warning the uninitiated. I imagine them saying, "That's the crazy lady's seat" before the bus arrives at my stop. Even the driver looks at me oddly.

So, I was surprised to see a tall, thin woman huddled in a long black raincoat, hiding underneath a slick hat, sitting in my window seat. I cautiously sat beside her gently patting myself to ensure that NemesisGirl's leash was sufficiently hidden beneath my clothes.

I was staring at the designs of water stains on my leather purse when I got the odd sensation that someone was staring at me. I often feel that people are staring at me, particularly on my bus ride, but this was something more. It was like a mysterious pin prick on my neck that wouldn't resolve itself - a misfiring nerve ending perhaps.

I slithered my hand up to my neck, trying to stay as small as possible and brushed the sensation away. No sooner had I returned my hand to my lap, when I felt the pin prick ignite again. The tall woman next to me shifted. She was looking at me. I knew she was. I brushed my neck again and scooted further towards the outside of the seat until one butt cheek was halfway hanging off.

A slithering whisper suddenly cut down the aisle of the bus assaulting my ears. "subGrrl!"

Wracked with fear and a growing sense of vertigo I twisted to look at the tall, raincoated intruder. As I did she slowly turned her face towards me and I screamed and staggered up from my seat. Her face!

Well... she had a face, indeed, perfectly contoured, but upon it there were no features. She had no eyes. Her perfect thin nose had no nostrils. And where her mouth should have been there was nothing but smooth skin.

"subGrrl!!!" she whispered, the sound, loud and emanating from her very being - knifing into my head. I screamed again, staggering backwards as I did until I fell into a man's lap who had been sitting across the aisle.

He pushed me away screaming, "Crazy, fucking bitch!" and I fell into the aisle of the bus, the contents of my purse pouring across the floor. I looked up in fear certain that the faceless woman was about to pounce on top of me, but she was gone. My window seat was empty.

"Are you having an episode back there, Loony Girl?" the bus driver yelled from his seat.

I realized that the bus had stopped. Everyone was looking at me crouched and shaking on the floor. I feebly shook my head no.

"Do you need to get off the bus?" he asked.

I looked up to the seat where faceless woman had been, then back at the bus driver. "No. I'm fine..."

"Ok, then..."

I started crawling around on my hands and knees gathering items that had tumbled from my purse. Over the deafening silence I heard the scraping of metal across the floor. Before I even looked, I knew that my leash was hanging out from my skirt in plain view. I glanced up to see all the patrons staring at me. I quickly scraped the rest of my purse together and climbed into my seat, adjusting my clothes to hide the chain.

"Looks like someone forgot to lock Loony's leash to the tree today..." some older woman said.

I pressed my face and head to the window, doing my best to disappear, wiping tears as they silently fell down my face.