Janet collapsed onto the sofa in the living room, crying.

What was she supposed to do now? How could she help all the trapped women?

She’d actually thanked the train for the ride back; the woman inside had smiled at her.

“That’s all we want, mistress; to be appreciated and useful”, she said. “I’ll be here whenever you need me.”

In a blind panic, she decided that she was going to have to leave first, then do something once she got back to the city.

She grabbed her bag from where it was still sitting in the hall, then dived out of the front door. She had to find a way back home…!

As she started down the driveway, stones crunching under her feet, she heard movement behind her. The Bentley pulled up alongside her and stopped.

A statuesque blonde-haired woman in a black suit got out.

“Let me take your bag, mistress”, she said.

“No! I want nothing to do with you, or this place!”

“Don’t be silly”, the woman said. “It’s a ten mile walk into town, and there isn’t any public transport. Also, I’m your personal driver. I’m the only member of staff allowed off of the estate. If you don’t use me, I might lose that privilege…”

The woman looked at Janet meaningfully.

“I get it”, said Janet. “You don’t want to be punished…”

“You’re learning”, the driver said, with a wan smile.

Janet let her put the bag in the boot and got into the car. She was unconscious before the car got to the end of the drive…

Janet woke up some time later back in the living room. She then looked down at herself.

She was dressed identically to the way her aunt had usually been in the pictures of her, even down to the white opera gloves and the heels. Her clothes looked like they had come straight out of the fifties.

She jumped up with a start, then caught sight of herself in the mirror over the fireplace.

Her aunt’s face stared back at her…

Tanya had come back into the room, without being called.

“I thought you might need me”, she said. “It’s very traumatic, the first time.”

“First time of what?”, said Janet, distraught.

“First time in slavery”, said Tanya. “Your old life, as you knew it, is over now. After all, you have all these people here relying on you to care for them and look after them. You can’t leave us now. Your aunt had a contingency plan in place for any successor that tried to leave. They were to be converted into her and trapped here.”

“The collar round your neck has the same effect on you as leaving here does on us”, Tanya said. “If you try it, your head and body part company, unless you are in the company of Rowan, your driver. You can still use the train, and any destination on its journey; indeed, the collar and your new programming will insist on it. However, it wasn’t expected that you would show compassion for the other ‘residents’, like me; the collar won’t override that. You can still be as nice or as nasty as normal.”

Janet just sat on the sofa, crying. She had been turned into an obscene copy of her own aunt and given a houseful of slaves to care for.

She just wanted to curl up in bed and shut the world out. Unfortunately, when she headed for bed, her programming made her go and collect the teddy bear from her shelf to help keep her warm…

“It’s ok, Terri”, she said, as the bear shivered and whimpered, “It’s me, Janet. They’ve sealed me in this crazy suit…”

Janet went to bed and cried herself to sleep…

Janet hated Rowan with a passion; as far as she was concerned, it was her that had done this.

Rowan picked up on this quite quickly. From then on, Janet never dealt with her directly; instead of calling for her, she gave written instructions to Tanya to pass on.

Rowan even tried talking to her, once; the glare of absolute hate that she got shocked her. Janet didn’t speak to her; she just waited until she left the room.

Rowan was terrified. She could tell she was going to lose her job over what she had done, even though she’d done it to save everyone’s lives. She screamed as she got the letter detailing her dismissal…

Two of the maids grabbed her and she was loaded onto the train, to be taken to the gym. They then stripped the struggling woman naked, then brought out a transparent ball…

“Please! I did what I thought was right for all of us! Don’t punish me for that! Please!”

Tears ran down the maids cheeks as they pushed a struggling Rowan into the ball, which was then sealed shut. She was then loaded into the back of one of the other exercise machines, to await her fate…

Janet, still furious with her, was told by Tanya what had happened to her.

She made a point to use the machine with Rowan sealed inside when she was next down the gym…

She stopped, however, as she heard the sobbing…

She walked round to the back of the machine.

Rowan was crying freely in her ball; she didn’t care if she drowned or not.

“I’m so sorry, mistress!”, she cried. “I let you down. I only did it to protect everyone here! We couldn’t have done without a mistress much longer; people would have started dying! I couldn’t let you leave!”

She sobbed again.

“If this is my fate for helping everyone, I accept it. I’m just so sad I didn’t get to know you better…”

Janet looked down at Rowan.

This woman had been sealed into a transparent ball because of her. She had nobody else to blame but herself, even though she thought she had a good reason at the time…

She lifted Rowan’s ball out of the machine, then rolled her onto the train.

“Mistress! What are you doing?”, said Rowan, shocked. “You can’t take me out of the gym!”

“Who says?”, said Janet. “I run this place now, remember?”

Back in the living room, with Rowan in her ball, she called the maids in.

“Find a way to get her out of that ball, or you’re all fired”, she said. “No excuses.”

The maids were panic-stricken…

No-one had ever escaped one of the House’s traps before. Even the split where Rowan had been pushed into the ball had hermetically sealed, leaving no trace.

In the end, the answer was found quite by accident.

Because the ball had been stored for so long, as it had been ages since the last one was needed, the ball had very slightly started to degrade.

One of the maids just happened to hit the ball at the right angle on a weak spot. The ball split…

All three maids hauled on the rip, as well as Rowan trying from inside.

The ball split just enough for Rowan to force her way out…!

A naked woman was now lying on the floor of the lounge.

“Now, what am I going to do with you…?”, said Janet. “I know; seeing as you care for the other staff so much, as well as me, you are now the house nurse. Get her a uniform and start her training.”

Janet just waved the maids and Rowan off, dismissively. She was acting just like her aunt would have done…

“And someone get rid of this damn ball!”, she called after them…