Story 3: The Severing

Chapter 2:

I returned to work the next week, but I was steeped in melancholy. NemesisGirl seemed to be able to feel it. She eyed me occasionally with concern as I complied with our typical routine silently and unenthusiastically. Even when I did not have the ball in my mouth, I did not speak. And one morning, when I asked to go to the bathroom, NemesisGirl simply said to go ahead. I had not even realized that we had forgotten to lock my leash to the chair when I had arrived.

"My pet?" NemesisGirl asked one afternoon.

"Yes, Mistress," I responded.

"I need your help tomorrow night. Can you stay after work?" She was leaning over her desk, pressing each of her fingers to her thumb individually in a calm and orderly manner.

"Um... I think so. Let me check."

I picked up my desk phone and called my apartment. "Hello, Lisianski?" I said when the answering machine picked up. "I need to work late tomorrow can we reschedule that thing... you know... that we had planned?"

NemesisGirl watched with a single eyebrow raised slightly.

"I command you to stay late at work, silly Slave," Lisianski said in my head, laughing.

"Ok..." I hung up the phone, turned to NemesisGirl and faked a quick smile. "No problem."

"I didn't mean to break up your plans, pet..."

"Oh!" I interrupted. "That was just an acquaintance and it was just this thing... that we had planned... Easy to reschedule... No problem."

"No, subGrrl, I don't want to break up any plans you have with a special friend... I mean, if this Lisianski person is a special friend..."

"No! No! She's not a special friend... more like a cousin..." I stammered.

"Ok! So, this acquaintance cousin of yours won't mind."

"Um..." I looked at the floor. "No... I can stay..."

"Good!" NemesisGirl said smiling broadly.

---

The next evening, I stayed at my desk as the other day workers shuffled off to their normal lives. NemesisGirl had promised that she would be back shortly and left me locked to my seat, barefoot. But now an hour had passed. Had she forgotten me? Shortly after the cleaning crew came through, I heard NemesisGirl shuffling down the aisle.

"Pizza pocket?" she asked, sniffing a plastic package covered in ice crystals.

"No, thank you," I said meekly.

"Yeah? Me neither! Hate those things! Reflux city." She knelt by my chair and unlocked the leash chain. "Can I see the leash?" she asked.

I began to pull the chain up through the collar of my sweater, feeling the links drag across my stomach.

"Why are you so sad, my pet?" she asked.

I stopped pulling on the chain for a second, mildly shocked that she would ask. I shrugged my shoulders and pulled the rest of the chain out. I presented NemesisGirl with the tangled handful of links. She shook the chain out, letting the links dangle down until they tickled the floor and ran her thumb along the chain over each small link seemingly looking for blemishes in the metal.

"Do you like being on my leash?" she asked.

I shrugged again and looked down at my lap. I wanted to scream, "No!" but I couldn't for some reason.

"I'm surprised that you have put up with it for so long," she said softly. "I thought that you'd revolt somehow."

"I didn't know that the leash was optional," I whispered.

NemesisGirl pulled on the leash and as one end was still locked to my collar I was forced to follow her fist until our faces were only inches apart. I could smell her breath, minty fresh. As for my own, I dared not breathe at all.

She leaned forward and brushed my lips with hers. Air whistled in through my nose as my body jerked involuntarily. She brushed my lips again and I closed my eyes. Her lips were so soft, so smooth, so simple and light. I wanted more of them, but they were gone.

I opened my eyes again and found NemesisGirl sitting back, still firmly holding my leash, smiling, studying my reaction. My face flushed with blood and I was swept up in a moment of embarrassment which forced me to look back down at the ground.

I felt a tug on my neck. NemesisGirl stood up and beckoned me to follow her. We left the safety of our cube and navigated the maze of corridors of the darkened office. I felt so small as I was pulled along behind her, furtively looking around for any late workers, praying no one would see me barefoot and chained like this. We came to a supply room door, and NemesisGirl pulled out a heavily keyed ring. She unlocked the door and led me inside.