Lindsay led her to the end of the hallway.
“W-wait… we’re doing this right now?”
In answer, he unlocked the door and pushed her inside. The room looked like it moonlighted as a porn set. A medical examining area, including a table and stirrups, was set up in the back corner. There was lighting and camera equipment everywhere. The center of the room was a simple bed with fluffy white bedding and steel bars for a headboard.
Lindsay pressed a button on the wall intercom.
“Yes?” Anton’s thick accent caressed the air.
“I need you in the auction prep room.”
“Give me fifteen.”
Lindsay turned on the lights—not just the normal lights in the ceiling or the ambient lamps strategically placed around the room, but also the studio lighting.
“Get on the examining table. I need to take samples for analysis.”
Mina wore the white t-shirt and colorful gym shorts the girls of the house had been given for casual free time. It was weird to think that she’d yet to be involved in anything overtly sexual herself here. She felt like a nun, stumbling upon somebody’s porn stash. The only thing resembling BDSM had been the naked cage incident.
She sat on the exam table as the doctor took off his sport coat and replaced it with a white lab coat. He scrubbed up in the sink and pulled on blue medical gloves. He set up a tray with a syringe and alcohol and cotton swabs.
“I’m going to swipe under your tongue for a mineral and hormone profile. Then I’ll draw blood to do a full blood panel. After that I’ll do the gynecological exam. We’ll do photos and video both here and on the bed. Anton will join us for part of it.”
She’d become so consumed with her fears and the knowledge she had of how deeply her trust could be abused, that she’d forgotten the erotic charge of a little fear. Previous men had never dwelled in that space of erotic fear. They’d pushed right past that. Anticipation had changed to terror, and the mild flutter of flushed excitement had never returned. But inside this room with the doctor, she thought maybe it could melt back into anticipation.
“A-are you going to videotape t-the exam?”
“Not the boring parts, but yes. There will be no hospital gown as you may be used to in these types of things. Don’t you think your master has the right to see everything in the exam?”
“Y-yes Sir.”
Lindsay touched her cheek. “We will find you someone. He will meet your needs for a master who won’t harm you. Everything you’ve been through up to this point will have been worth it. Just trust me.”
Lindsay sealed the saliva sample in a bag, then took the needle from the tray and drew blood. When he finished, he put a label on the vial and put it in a bag as well. He jotted notes on a chart inside a manilla folder. Then he put everything he’d gathered into a larger plastic bag.
She startled when the door opened, but it was only Anton. He moved behind the video equipment like a shadow. He adjusted it to view the examining table. Then he set up the photography equipment.
“Mina,” Lindsay said. “I want you to undress, lie back on the table, and put your feet in the stirrups for me.”
She’d thought she could do this. She’d wanted to believe. She’d tried so hard to believe that everything inside her hadn’t been broken already, that the pieces could somehow be glued back together so that no one would ever even notice.
She wanted the fantasy to work. She wanted to trust one more time. She’d thought she’d felt those hints that her body still wanted this, and maybe it did. But her mind couldn’t take any more of it. If only she’d known this the day the driver came. She wouldn’t have chased him. She would have let him go. But seeing those tail lights had made her panic… like this was her last chance for… anything. She knew it.
And she was so lonely. How could she go on this way? If some kind man could take her and remake her and heal her… She just wanted to believe the fantasy. That was all. Just one more time.
“N-no, I-I can’t.”
The doctor’s eyes narrowed. Something in his expression snapped apart and the mask came off. His voice went dark and low as if a demon had taken possession of him. “What did you just say to me? Maybe I should send you down to Brian. A couple of hours in the dungeon with him, and you’ll be grateful to do anything I ask of you in here. A couple of hours with him and you’d let every man in this house do anything he wanted with you and feel honored for the privilege. Believe me, you would do anything to stay out of one of his cells. You think you’re scared of me? Anton? This? You think this is too much for you? I’ve fucking had it with you!”
Mina dropped to her knees. “Please… I’m sorry I c-can’t. Please don’t make me do those things. Please. I swear I won’t tell anyone if you just let me go.”
Lindsay laughed. “Let you go? No my dear, you are in deep now. There is no going except to a master or a pine box. Your choice. I could make you do this. I can just strip you and tie you down, but the buyers we might attract with such footage wouldn’t be the ones you’d want.”
“Lindsay. Stop! Stop this! Just go cool off,” Anton said, pulling the doctor back.
Lindsay wrenched out of his grasp and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him. Mina flinched when Anton helped her up.
“I should have told him no when he asked about you. When you came to Dome, I was going to do more, but I couldn’t. You had so much fear coming off you. Even with the excitement, it was too much fear. I thought he would kill you, so I said yes. He knows he’s made a big mistake and that you don’t deserve to die for it. Let me talk to him. I’ll try to calm him down.”
When Anton left, Mina curled up in the bed in the middle of the room. She hoped the sheets were clean, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to disappear. She cringed and clenched the blankets over her head as the shouting in the hallway grew louder. The walls were thick, so she couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she could imagine.
After a while the shouting became loud talking, and then a murmur of normal speech. And then silence. The door opened again. Lindsay walked back in, composed, Anton behind him. Anton stood in the corner while Lindsay pulled a chair up to sit beside the bed.
“Here is how it will be,” the doctor said. “I have to have photos of something. No one will buy you sight unseen. So we are going to do photos that aren’t nude. Just normal everyday pictures. I will speak to my contacts and explain the new development in this situation to see if I can find anyone who will be patient with you long term, who can accept that you might be far too broken to ever be anything more than their maid. Can you clean? Can you cook?”
Mina couldn’t meet his eyes. “Y-yes, Sir.”
“Good. Because it’s probably about all you’re good for.”
“W-why can’t I just stay here?”
“We are not going to feed and house you as a permanent guest. You have no use in this house. And you think Brian is going to resist the temptation to fuck you up beyond repair? You think Jason was bad? Jason is an amateur next to Brian. Brian is a full-on sociopath. If he wasn’t doing this, he’d probably be a serial killer. Can you tell me you want to stay in a house with a man like that and risk your paths crossing?”