She flinched as if he might punish her for the slip, for talking to him as if they were roommates instead of property and owner. But no retribution came.
“Why, Master?”
“I can’t hit you, but you need pain.”
She scrambled back, shaking her head violently. “No.” She couldn’t bring herself to say “you promised”. What did his promise mean? She’d known it was empty from the beginning. She’d just hoped his mercy might stretch longer than this.
His voice turned soft. “That’s not what I meant. I would never… You need catharsis. You need something physical to unwind this thing inside you that’s eating you alive. I know this.” He took her hands in his. And she believed he knew exactly where she’d been. He’d been in the same dark place somehow.
“You need to run,” he said.
The word sounded much as it had in the corridor that first night. And it carried the same urgency now that it had then. It made everything inside her unfreeze. It made movement possible. It made breathing possible.
Run.
Was that why he ran so much on the treadmill? Trying to outrun his demons? Did it ever work?
When she’d dressed, Brian led her up the stairs to the main level. The house slumbered so deep it was as if a spell had been cast over it. It seemed nothing would wake the inhabitants. All that existed were Brian and Mina—him tugging her hand, pulling her insistently through the darkened house. The lights near the floor cast an eerie, ghostly glow upon everything they touched.
When they reached the gym, he only turned one set of lights on, the rest of the space stayed dark.
He set the program on the treadmill and took the machine beside her, setting the same program. “Run. Don’t stop until you can’t go anymore.”
Mina ran. She ran to him, away from him, away from everyone and everything, away from the dreams, away from Jason, away from her brokenness and the pieces she couldn’t reach to pick up.
She didn’t look at him. He didn’t look at her. No music played. It was just the sound of shoes hitting the moving platform over and over.
Half an hour later, she couldn’t go anymore. She stopped the program and collapsed on the floor trying to catch her breath. Brian was still going strong. How much did he run? It seemed as if his life was a string of coping mechanisms for the violence that shaped him still.
Brian got off the treadmill and pulled her to her feet. “Shower next, then food.”
It was a carefully orchestrated ritual. How many nights had he done this? How many nights had it been him waking from a nightmare instead of her? He was letting her into something private, and for the first time it didn’t feel like a game or an act. It felt like intimacy. Understanding. If only it was real.
Showering was another silent ritual, both of them squeezed inside, his hands running carefully over her with the soap. But that was all he did.
He shut the water off, toweled off, and dressed. Mina echoed him and started to put her own clothes back on.
“No.”
Her hand froze over the clothes.
“Just wrap the towel around you and come with me.”
She followed him down the dark silent hallways until he stopped at a door at the end of one hall. He punched in a code and pushed the door open.
She hesitated. It was the medical room. She felt the panic wrap around her throat as the memories of the last time she was here flooded back. She’d been spared that time.
“Go on,” Brian said, nudging her.
She stepped inside as he locked the door behind them and flicked on the lights.
He crossed to the bigger spotlights and turned them on. They sputtered to life as they slowly woke and brightened the room further. He set up the video camera and positioned it near the medical equipment, lining up what he wanted to film.
“Drop the towel,” he said.
“M-Master…”
He stepped out from behind the camera. “No one else will see it. It’s just for me. If you don’t want to do it, we can just go eat. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” He’d closed the distance between them. He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Will you be a good girl for me and let me do the exam? After all, I never got the full clean bill of health from the doctor on you. I need to know what I bought, don’t you think? All the other buyers get to see this.”
His tone was light, teasing. While he’d been kind to her, having a moment of teasing from him was a new side entirely. It made her want to do it.
“Drop the towel.”
Mina’s hand unclenched, and the terrycloth fluttered to the floor.
He bent his head, and his tongue flicked across first one nipple, then the other. They hardened when the cool air hit.
“Good. I want, hard pert little nipples in my film. Will you do this for me, Mina?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Good girl. Get on the table. Feet in the stirrups. I’m sure you’ve been to the doctor before. You know how this goes.”
She climbed onto the table and did as he asked while he put on a white lab coat and blue surgical gloves. He snapped the gloves on. The red light on the camera blinked as it hovered over the examining table with a clear unobstructed view of her.
He picked up a clipboard with some papers on it and made a show of studying it, even though she knew he was just making a cheesy porno with her. The only thing missing was the bad music.
“Hmmmm Ms. Calloway, when was your last visit?” He looked up, clearly expecting her to go along with it.
For the smallest space of time, she felt something softer for him beginning to form. It was a terrible idea to let that seed take root, but he was playing a game with her. A lighthearted sexual game—the kind of thing she’d wanted before but had never been given. How could he be so brutal to others and do this with her?
“Ms. Calloway? It’s important that you are very honest with me about your medical history. Or else how can I treat you?”
“Uh… about a year,” she said.
“And how many partners have you had? I mean, I’m your doctor. Surely the exact details of your sex life are my business. I’m only trying to help you.”
He made it sound as smug and paternalistic as possible. A laugh escaped her.
Brian sat on a rolling stool and moved closer, his hands on her knees, pushing the stirrups wider apart. His intense gaze met hers, but it was tempered with amusement. “Is something funny?”
“N-no, Doctor. Nothing’s funny. Fifty partners since my last check-up,” she lied.
“Fifty!” he exclaimed. “We’ll have to test you for everything. So slutty. Nurse! I need the full panel of slut tests, stat!”
Mina held back another laugh, afraid if she laughed too much he wouldn’t finish this. Unbelievably, she wanted him to, now.
Before she had time to think, a cold, metal speculum was inside her. “I’m going to make you watch this video later,” he whispered for her instead of the camera, “so you can get a good look at what your doctor has been looking at all these years.”
The thought should have bothered her, but right now it just turned her on. After a few minutes, he removed the cold metal, then gloved fingers were inside her, exploring, feeling all her most intimate private places.
“With your prolific sexual misadventures, I think you should come in for more frequent check-ups. Don’t you agree, Ms. Calloway?”