by Writing Shark
A rude awakening
The sounds of her mother waking Valerie from her deep sleep.
“Good morning sweetie” greets the cheerful voice of Grace.
“Mom…” grumbles her daughter, rolling around on her mattress. “Get the fuck out of my room and let me sleep.” Just after the conversation yesterday Valerie would have thought her mother would be more understanding… She opens her eyes… “What…” And stares at a bare concrete ceiling. She remembers and sits up jerkily, but then winces as a sharp pain maltreats her forehead. “Fuck…” Then she feels a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“I told you not to swear,” Grace admonishes with the angelic patience Valerie has always hated.
“What are you doing?” she asks, ignoring the pain. “Where am I? What have you done to me? Fuck.” Grace glares at her daughter in the bare light of a lone lamp set on the wall.
“Valerie. You really shouldn’t swear like that.” But the girl doesn’t listen to her mother as she realizes she doesn’t know where she is.
“Where am I?”
“At home.”
“Don’t lie to me you bitch! What have you done to me? Where is Harold? What…” Then her eyes grow wide as Grace grabs Valerie by the shoulders with surprising urgency.
“Now listen to me carefully you stupid thing!” the woman hisses, sounding more concerned than angry. “A new time has begun. You don’t understand it yet but you have to behave now, Valerie. You need to be a good girl now.”
“Mom…” The daughter is so surprised by her mother’s determination, but then she glares at the woman and flinches back until her back hits the bare wall of the room. She crouches on a plain mattress on the floor and glares at her mother, clad in a black and white uniform that… “What the fuck?” Grace Hoover rises gracefully, running her hands carefully over the fabric.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” She smiles dreamily as Valerie becomes frightened. “You’ll be wearing one of these soon, too.” Only now the girl realizes that she is completely naked. She shrieks and wants to grab her blanked, but can’t find one and has to wrap her slender arms around her body instead.
“Mom… I… I’m scared…” Even Valerie is surprised by the pitch of her voice, as is Grace, but her mother just smiles in satisfaction.
“That’s good sweetie,” she says softly. “This will help you. Use your fear to…”
Before Grace can speak further a loud whirring sound is heard, then a door opens at the other end of the bare room.
Valerie quickly recognizes the girl coming into the room.
“Elise? Elise!” Briefly forgetting her nakedness, she crawls on her knees toward the girl, past her mother. Then she feels a cold tug on her leg, turns around, and the blood freezes in her veins. She is chained to the wall. “Oh God…”
“Good,” she hears Elise’s voice. “So you’ve settled in already.” It’s not directed at Valerie. The frightened girl’s eyes first fall on Elise, she has a tray with two plastic cups and a bottle of water in her hand. Valerie follows her gaze to her mother.
Grace Hoover stands in her uniform next to her daughter, her hands clasped in front of her lap, her eyes downcast. Then Valerie notices a second mattress in the room, closer to the door, also with a chain on the wall. A fluffy bedspread lies neatly folded over the mattress along with a pillow and a small side table.
“Thank you, mistress, Elise” Grace says. “My daughter just woke up. I have not been able to start her training yet.”
“Training…” Valerie doesn’t understand. “What…”
“Oh boy.” Elise just ignores Valerie and moves freely around the room. The two girls have never gotten along well and now Valerie is startled to find that Elise, the girl without a father, seems much more confident than she is used to. As she saunters past Valerie, the girl on the chain even makes room for her while her mother continues to stand quietly, her eyes lowered. “I can’t wait to see him break you.” Elise nudges the dirty mattress with her foot. “This is where he conceived me,” she says dreamily. “Never thought Mom would keep this old thing.” She giggles. “Kind of fitting.”
“Elise…where am I?”
“Didn’t your mother tell you that you only speak when spoken to?” Annoyed, Elise turns to Grace. “He won’t like that.”
“I didn’t had enough time mistress” Grace replies without raising her head. “I will tell the mistress of the house and get myself punished.”
“What the fuck is going on?” roars Valerie in horror, tugging at her chains. Panic comes over her like a wildfire. The people in this room are crazy and yet they talk so calmly. “What’s going on here! What’s happening here? Let me go! I want to get out of here! I want to…”
But even Valerie Hoover notices something changing as Elise turns around. The heavy door buzzes loudly again, then opens.
“Oh God…”
She knows Mister James Winters from school. And also his daughter Alice. The blood in her veins freezes as she realizes what is going on.
“No!” she shrieks and wants to run past Mister Winters. The chain prevents that and Valerie hits the cold floor lengthwise. “No!” She tugs at the chain. “Let me hurgh…”
Like a dark shadow, Mister Winters comes over her. Valerie has never been so scared when Mister Winters grabs her. She thinks now it’s over, then she can think nothing more as his arms tighten around her neck from behind and squeeze her tightly.
“Take it easy,” he says in his deep voice. Valerie doesn’t feel like it, stomps around and wants to kick but Mister Winters just lifts her up until her legs are kicking helplessly in the air. “It’s going to be okay,” he says, sounding almost gentle. “Don’t worry.” Oxygen is running low and Valerie feels her world getting smaller. Then her legs go limp, but just before she passes out, the big man lowers her. His arms still enclose her but she can breathe again. He waits until she has stopped coughing, Grace, Elise and Alice watching the frightened girl.
“Please…” gasps Valerie. “I don’t know… please…” James Winters spins her around again. She has to lift her head to look at him, so tall and powerful he towers over her.
“You don’t have to understand,” he says, sounding almost tender, running his fingers over the girl’s bare skin. Tears stream down her cheek but she’s so confused she doesn’t think to hide her nakedness. “That’s good. You’re going to learn. Look over there.” He points to the entrance of the room. Numbly, Valerie follows his outstretched arm. Alice is standing there. “You questioned my daughter once too often, so you will learn to respect her.” Valerie sees Alice smile, lightly, almost tenderly, not in triumph, but just facing her father. Now Valerie understands. “You will learn to serve, just like your mother. And you will like it.” Now Mister Winters smiles, too. “Not at first, but that’s always the case with silly girls. But we don’t mind. We have patience.” Then he grabs her, closing his fingers tightly but not hard around her throat. “Do what I or Alice tell you, listen to your mother, and you will be rewarded.” Then he squeezes tighter. “Resist, and you will be punished. Do you understand?”
Valerie is scared. Her mother is here. She looks to the woman who raised her. But Grace is still standing right where she was standing before, smiling at the ground and seeming… relieved. Valerie looks at Alice and Elise. The two girls from her class are standing by the door, watching the grisly proceedings with satisfied looks. Alice looks at her father who is doing a horrible thing and Elise looks contentedly at Valerie in her terrible situation. Valerie does not understand what is going on, but on a subconscious level of her mind, she does know. And it shames her to know what she will do. Even if there is only one solution, it deeply shames the proud girl.
“Yes…”
Writing Shark 