THE BREAKAWAY

BY THE ONE
wordzwizardz@hotmail.com

Nikki was really the only one of the three slaves in The Circle, as it had come to be known, who could say she was happy. Of course her bracelets marked her as property, but hardly anything had happened to her since the night she had received the permanent jewelry. Several months had passed by now, and in that time she had been a perfect angel. She had obeyed her mistresses’ every command, and had learned her place well. She had been so good that at long last, Lisa had removed the bracelet that bore her name. Nikki once again had a single mistress: her still-best-friend Kristin.

Kristin was anything but cruel. Under her gentle hand, Nikki led a happy life, barely interrupted at all for the harsh acts imposed upon her counterparts Heather and Emilie. The other two girls had been growing slightly jealous of Nikki, who was never really forced to do anything against her will, and who was always bubbly and happy. And in addition, the fact that Nikki only had one bracelet and one mistress made her a favorite in the eyes of Alice and Lisa as well as Kristin.

But all good things eventually come to an end. One day Nikki arrived at school to find her merciful mistress absent. Thinking nothing of it she strolled into the private room where she and the other girls met with their mistresses each morning. Because she was a little earlier than usual she was expecting an empty room, but to her surprise Alice and Emilie were already there.

“Oh! Good morning, Milady!” Nikki said cheerfully. (By the rules, neither Alice nor Lisa were officially Nikki’s mistresses anymore, so she was allowed to use less submissive titles when addressing them. Kristin was still ‘mistress’ in public, but she didn’t care if Nikki used her regular name in casual conversations). “Hey, Emilie!”

“Good morning, Nikki,” Alice said. She seemed a little annoyed that Nikki was there so early. Emilie murmured something in response, her eyes downcast. She knew that though they were both still submissive, Nikki ranked higher than she did.

Detecting dissatisfaction from Alice, Nikki asked, “Am I disturbing you?”

“No, no!” Alice said, “I was just getting things set up for this morning’s meeting. We have a few things to address with you.”

“Oh? Like what?” Nikki inquired.

Before explaining, Alice dismissed her slave-sister. Emilie gave Nikki a dark look as she slunk out the door. “Big things for you!” Alice exclaimed once they were alone, then lowered her voice, “Lisa and I see you moving up in The Circle very soon!”

“Wow! Really?” Nikki was enthusiastic, then another thought crossed her mind, “That is good, right?”

“Very good!” Alice said, “Very good indeed…” Nikki was elated. Maybe they had decided to free her completely, or make her some kind of mistress-in-training. Though she couldn’t imagine hurting her friends, Nikki liked the idea of finally being out from under all control whatsoever.

Her excitement rose when Lisa arrived with Heather. Kristin still was not present. Heather and Emilie were left to themselves while Alice and Lisa took Nikki into the room alone.

“Well, Miss Nikki,” Lisa said proudly, “You have come a very long way since we first met!”

“Thank you, Milady!” Nikki smiled.

“But I do have one question for you,” Lisa said, a little more ominously than before.

“What’s that?” Nikki asked warily.

“How’s your continued training coming along?”

Nikki didn’t know what to say. What continued training? Kristin barely had her do anything, and everything they did Nikki agreed to. There was no force or prodding needed. Everything was consensual.

“Fine, I suppose,” she said after a moment.

Glancing at Lisa, Alice asked, “And what does your lovely mistress have you do? You are still receiving training, I hope.”

“Oh yes, yes!” Nikki was getting a little scared now, “I basically do the same kinds of things I did with you. I’m a good girl, if that’s what you’re wondering. Ask Kristin; she’ll tell you that I am.”

“Kristin?”

“Of course! You know, my mistress Kristin?”

“If she is your mistress why did you not refer to her as such?”

“Oh! I’m sorry. Just a slip.”

“A slip, hm? Sounds like you’re getting breaks in your training.”

“No!”

“Then describe the last time Kristin tied you up.”

Nikki described in detail the last time Kristin had used restraints on her. It had been a long time ago, and hadn’t been that strict.

“I remember that,” Lisa said, “That was over a month ago!”

“Sounds like we need to have a little chat with Kristin,” Alice suggested.

“It sounds to me,” Lisa growled, “That we need to take away her rights as a mistress. For the second time.”

Nikki paled. She knew what that would mean. More time under Lisa’s lash.

The two mistresses whispered to each other for a long minute. Then they approached Nikki.

Lisa said, “Come with us, Nikki.” Trying to comfort the suddenly frightened girl, Alice said, “Don’t be scared. We’re not going to hurt you.”

“O…Okay…” Nikki said shakily, rising and allowing herself to be led out of the room. As the trio breezed past Heather and Emilie, Nikki saw that they had interested, almost satisfied looks on their faces.

Nikki was led to the auditorium stage.

“You see that door?” Lisa indicated the metal trapdoor that led to the passage under the stage where she had left Nicole bound in the failed attempt to secure her as a new slave.

Nikki nodded.

“That leads to a dark, dusty, cold, hard, miserable little passageway under the stage. We can lock the door from the outside, trapping whoever is down there. It’s where we like to send girls when they start to forget their manners.”

Nikki gulped. She hoped she would get a second chance.

“The next time you talk to Kristin, you will tell her that you would like to have more strict training. You need more time in bondage, as well as more time actually living the part of the submissive, not just acting it to please us. We will talk to your mistress ourselves, but I expect you to discuss this with her as well.”

“But aren’t I her responsibility now?” Nikki ventured, “Can’t she do with me what she wants? If she doesn’t want to be harsh, why does she have to be?”

Lisa smiled her malicious smile. “My dear, that was the wrong thing to say.”

“I’m sorry!” Nikki said quickly, but it was too late.

Pleading for forgiveness, she was dragged to an access ladder bolted to the cinder block wall of the area backstage. Wrestling their captive to the floor, Alice and Lisa pulled Nikki’s shirt off to reveal the pink lingerie corset Kristin had given her. A quick look showed that she also wore the matching thong, and so her jeans came off too, along with all other clothing besides her lingerie.

Lisa pulled a pair of shiny handcuffs from her jacket pocket and locked Nikki’s right wrist into a cuff. They pushed the struggling girl against the ladder, hoisted her up so that even on tiptoe her feet barely touched the floor. Lisa, slightly taller than Alice, then reached up and secured Nikki’s left wrist in the cuffs, making sure to pass the connecting chain around a ladder rung. The pair stepped back to admire their work.

Almost hanging by her wrists, Nikki swayed precariously on her tiptoes, wincing at the pain in her feet and wrists. “What did I do?” she whined.

“You need a lesson, Nikki,” Alice said flatly, “You’re a very slow learner.”

“But…but…but you have no right!” she cried, “You’re not my mistresses anymore! You can’t do this to me!”

“Kristin was, is, and always will be a pathetic excuse for a mistress!” Lisa nearly shouted, “Besides, I don’t see her anywhere around here! Now be a good girl and just stay here. We’ll be back to get you at the end of our first class.”

“I’ll…I’ll scream!” Nikki threatened, “I’ll blow this whole Circle of yours wide open! You’ll be finished!”

“You won’t make a sound,” Lisa said, “Because if you do, someone will find you like this.”

Mustering her courage, Nikki challenged, “Oh well! Let them see!”

“Be that way then,” Lisa muttered. She strolled back over to Nikki and pulled the pink thong down and off. Placing it around the helpless girl’s neck, she said, “How about now? Still not humiliating enough?”

Nikki was (at least on the surface) still determined.

With a sigh Lisa unlaced the corset and pulled the ties far tighter than Nikki had ever experienced. The breath crushed out of her, she hung helpless as Lisa’s experienced fingers tied the laces off in an impossibly complex knot. She could already feel the cramps beginning in her stomach.

“There now,” Lisa said, “That should be good enough! See you in an hour!” She left arm-in-arm with Alice as the first bell rang.

Nikki hung there in disbelief and horror. She knew they were right; she would never scream or call out for help in a state like this, when she knew whoever came wouldn’t be very understanding of the situation. So she climbed a few rungs up the ladder to relieve the strain on her feet, and just waited. Despite the relief in her toes, the corset held tightly. She didn’t want to try twisting on the ladder to reach the laces for fear that she would slip and fall, and maybe seriously hurt herself. So she bore her cramps and shortened breath in silence and waited.

She didn’t have long to wait for activity. Within minutes she heard voices outside the stage door. She couldn’t discern who they belonged to, but she assumed it was Alice and Lisa come to free her, having had a change of heart.

How wrong she was. Two members of the cheerleading squad, gossiping in high-pitched voices about their secret crushes, stole onto the stage to take a shortcut to class through the auditorium. Nikki froze and held her breath as they walked past. They seemed so interested in their conversation that it seemed they wouldn’t notice her, even though they were passing directly in front of her. When they had gone from sight Nikki relaxed a little, and her handcuff chain grated against the metal ladder rung, making a loud enough noise to give away her presence. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart seemed to stop along with the cheerleaders’ gossiping.

“Did you hear something?” one asked.

“Yeah,” said the other, “Sounded like metal…”

A face peered around the curtain that had previously blocked Nikki from their view. The cheerleader looked around quickly, then her eyes settled on Nikki. Her mouth fell open in a gasp of disbelief. Nikki squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable.

There was a moment of silence, then, “Oh. My. God. Jen, look at this!”

“What?” asked the girl apparently called Jen. A second face poked around the curtain, followed by the same response.

The two cheerleaders burst into uncontrollable laughter. Nikki’s face burned with humiliation.

Finally, the still-unnamed intruder asked, “How in the world did that happen to you?”

The one called Jen added, “Did somebody, like, rape you? Or did you do this to yourself?”

They started laughing again, walking toward their helpless victim, whose face was as pink as her lingerie with embarrassment.

“Please don’t tell anyone!” Nikki begged, but they weren’t listening to a word.

“Hold on,” cried the first, “Let me get a picture!” She pulled out her camera phone and started to center Nikki in the picture.

“No!” she cried, turning away and burying her face in her arms. From behind her she saw three flashes, then more hysterical laugher.

“Please, girls, don’t tell anyone!”

“Did you do that yourself?”

“No!”

“Well if somebody did it to you wouldn’t you want them to, like, get arrested or something? Or do you enjoy it too much?”

“No! No! I…I just…It’s none of your business anyway! Just please don’t tell!”

“It’s our business now!” Jen said, “Come on, Becky, we have people to inform!”

Nikki cried after them not to as they jumped down from the stage and started trotting towards the auditorium doors, laughing the whole way. When the door had slammed behind them, Nikki moaned to no one, “My life is ruined!! I’ll never be able to show my face here again!!”

As she started to cry, she heard another voice outside the door, saying, “Nikki? Nikki, is that you?”

Nikki silenced herself instantly, dreading another unwanted visitor.

“Nikki, it’s me, Kristin! Where are you?”

“Kristin! Help me! I’m in here!”

The door opened and Kristin slipped in, calling her friend’s name.

“Over here!”

Kristin pushed curtains aside and finally came into view. “Nikki! Oh my God, what happened to you?” She rushed over to her.

“Lisa and Alice…brought me in her…and…and chained me to the ladder…and then these two girls found me…and said they were going to tell everyone! Where were you, Kristin?” Nikki spilled her story between sobs.

“Oh, Nikki, I’m so sorry! I was just late this morning, and I had no idea this was happening to you!” She climbed up the ladder and freed her friend. (all the mistresses in the Circle had keys to the handcuffs one another used).

As Nikki collapsed into her rescuer’s arms, Kristin suddenly felt a surge of anger. Alice and Lisa had no right at all to do this to her girl! To her friend! It was time this came to an end. Whipping out her keychain, Kristin thrust a tiny, electronically coded key into Nikki’s bracelet lock. The engraved band popped open and fell to the floor.

“Kristin! What did you do?” Nikki exclaimed.

“It’s time we went back to our old lives,” Kristin declared, “Our old lives when we were just friends, none of this mistress/slave shit. I hate it! I dragged us into it, now I’m getting us out!” She picked up the unlocked bracelet, clicked it shut, and hurled it upward into the shadows of the auditorium ceiling. An echoing clang resounded as it landed on top of the plane of a large acoustic panel suspended from the ceiling. Even if it was ever found, it couldn’t be opened to render another girl property without the key, which Kristin intended to dispose of separately. Discovery wasn’t likely, though. Out of the reach of even the tallest ladders, the bracelet had found its final resting place.

Releasing the corset, Kristin kept watch while Nikki put her lingerie back on properly and pulled on the rest of her discarded clothes. They grabbed each other in a long embrace, Nikki silently thanking her best friend for staying just that. A best friend. Not a mistress. Not a figure of authority. Not someone to be obeyed.

As the pair moved toward the stage door to leave, they were intercepted by Alice and Lisa, who were returning to free Nikki. Both halted in shock at the sight of Kristin alongside a liberated and bracelet-less Nikki.

“What have you done?” Lisa demanded, pointing to Nikki’s empty wrist, “What the hell have you done with my girl!?”

“As I recall,” Kristin challenged, “You gave her up. She was completely mine. I chose to release her.”

“But…but…her bracelet…”

“Is gone,” Kristin finished, “We’re done playing these games. Do what you want with the rest of your Circle, but we’re leaving!”

“You can’t leave!” Lisa raged, “I won’t let you!!”

“You have no right to stop us. If I remember your rules correctly, a mistress can live her life how she wants, and her slave must obey her. I chose to free Nikki, which means she is no longer a slave and I am no longer a mistress. We are equals, and we are a neutral party as far as you are concerned. We are beyond your control.”

With that, Nikki and Kristin left Alice and Lisa standing in the doorway in disbelief. It felt so good to Nikki to be able to talk to Kristin without worrying about using her title correctly, speaking softly, walking properly, wearing what she was supposed to, or anything else that Kristin might formerly have wanted. She was a person again. And it felt wonderful!