Valerie stretched her arms out to relieve the ropes’ pull on her wrists. She opened and closed her hands, trying to find even a little slack. The ropes were tight, and not quite painful; and as long as she did not pull on them too hard, there was none of the tingling numbness that would indicate danger.

Phaine stared down at the tankard of ale like she was a gambler and she thought the beer was bluffing.

“Do you want to use your safe word, now?” Valerie blinked at Dana, eyes wide in surprise. As she processed that feeling, some pieces started to fall into place for her. Dana had spoken of fear, and Valerie realized the woman thought that fear was all that kept her.

Valerie finished tidying, and Dana and Lucca still had not returned. She showered, and between the caffeine from her tea and the almost-scalding water, she felt fully awake afterward; if not entirely clear-headed. Her time with Lucca had left her exhausted and something like sated; but another day and night had passed and with nothing left to occupy the time, her mind wandered.

Valerie woke with a start; she had dreamed again of the inside of a car trunk, of darkness and fear and the certainty of her own eventual destruction, if not death.

Dana paced her dimly lit hotel room, debating how much of heaven and earth she was willing to uproot to get back to California a few hours early. She had no way to reach Valerie directly— a situation of her own making, and one she was, at least in that moment, regretting. A simple text message would have done wonders to set her mind at ease.

Valerie stood naked in front of the full length mirror in Dana’s bathroom, staring at herself. Her eyes were fixed on the metal that Lucca had put through her body. She had been staring for several minutes, lost in thought; occasionally she turned, just to watch the light glint off of the new piercings.

Valerie moaned as the plug inside her cycled on. Her eyes widened — pointlessly, behind both blindfold and hood. The intense pulsing lasted only a few seconds before cutting off again.

Isolation, and Valerie’s own fearful imagination, broke her before any action of Lucca’s.

Without instructions to the contrary, Valerie slept in the cell that night. Unbound, still wearing the flannel pajamas, with a blanket, and no cold shower— she found it practically luxurious. She slept well, and, blessedly, dreamed only strange dreams, whose memory dissipated when she awoke.