| MARGARET - LOST FROM HER MIND [ part 1 ] I was relaxing at home. The girls were outside playing in the sunshine and I was listening to music. I’d arranged with Bill to leave me alone for the next two weeks. I needed a break. The noise from my computer dragged me from my peace. It was an unusual tone, almost like a phone ringing; I’d never heard that before. I looked at the screen ‘incoming call’ was displayed on it. I pressed a key and a window opened. “Mr. Purple? My mistress would like to speak to you.” It was Sue-Li, her mistress was Elizabeth and psychologist I knew, I had supplied her with another . . . Slave I suppose is the term but she’s treated as a aide to Elizabeth. Her name, the name I gave her was Little Cat. I looked at my watch, “Good Morning Sue-Li how are you this morning?” I found that it never hurt to be polite to people, even slaves. She smiled at me and blushed slightly, “I am well Mr. Purple. May I pass you onto my Mistress? She has a very difficult problem.” This puzzled me as I’m not in Elizabeth’s league at all. “Certainly Sue-Li, It’s nice to see you again.” This time the smile broadened and then I was looking at Elizabeth. “Paul. I hope I’m not disturbing you?” From her tone I could tell that she was worried about something. “Not at all, I’m between assignments at the moment, I was hoping for a vacation.” Her face dropped slightly, “But I can change my plans if you want me to.” “I don’t want to put you out or anything.” Her tone told me that she did need my help. “Elizabeth, I was told that if anyone from Ropeville required my help I had to give it.” Or words to that effect, but it was part of my agreement with the Council. “To be honest I’m not sure if you’ll be able to help her, but I’ve tried everything I can and she isn’t responding.” This was getting me interested… “Okay then tell me about her.” Elizabeth leaned back in her chair and released the breath that she didn’t seem to know she was holding. She pressed a key on her computer and a picture of a naked girl, she was about 10, appeared on the screen. “Her name is Margaret, she was found beside a dead man about three weeks ago, we don’t know who he was, there was no i.d. on the body and we can’t trace him by fingerprints.” I interrupted her, “What about dental records or retina scans?” Elizabeth shook her head. “Neither was available. His eyes were pulped and his face was smashed. As a John Doe he’s the most unknown person in creation, but Margaret is the one I’m concerned about. She hasn’t spoken about it.” I was interested, but there was a question I wanted to ask. “Could she have killed him?” I was studying the picture of Margaret, She was a pretty girl, long dark hair, and brown eyes, barely forming breasts and thin waist, her hips were just losing the boyish shape. Hinting at the woman she was going to become. Her pubic mound was free of hair, but I couldn’t tell if it was from her youth or for any other reason, her vagina was visible, the labia lips were separated showing that she wasn’t a virgin, or at least something had been in there over some time. Her legs were perfectly formed and went all the way down to her feet. I missed Elizabeth’s answer to my question and so I asked her to repeat it. “We don’t know! It’s possible that she could have done it, but we don’t know why she would. There was nothing close to the body that could have caused such wounds. And since she’s been with us she hasn’t spoken.” Elizabeth was watching me as she spoke. “Well you know Elizabeth, that trauma can cause children to decide not to speak, just in case they caused the problem.” This was true as many child molesters knew to their advantage. Elizabeth shook her head, “No, I mean she doesn’t say a word, it’s as if she’s a mute!” I didn’t understand what she was trying to say, “So why don’t you just send her to a mental ward until she starts to recover.” “No way Paul! I’m not going to treat her like that! That would be as good as saying we’ve given up on her!” Elizabeth was angry now the tone of her voice told me that, not angry with me but with herself. “I’m not going to give up on her, and anyway she’s a Ropeville child.” Which, in a way, said a lot. At Ropeville although they treated some of the children as slaves they were jealously protective of them. I already knew how they reacted against anyone who mistreated a Ropeville child. “You’re certain about that?” I asked her. “Yes, her footprints are on file at the hospital. That’s how we know her name, her parents moved away from here several years ago and we lost contact with them. Margaret Wilkinson, now aged 10. Parents - Michael and Sonya Wilkinson, both born and raised in Ropeville.” She paused to look at me again, “We did check his feet. It isn’t Michael. And there’s another thing.” She pressed another key on her computer to give me a view of a room – The same girl, still naked, was standing in the middle of the room her eyes watching the door. After a few seconds the door opened and Little Cat walked in – she had obviously been given a signal – she looked at Margaret. “Good morning Margaret.” She said at which point the girl ran towards Little Cat with her hands ready to attack. “Margaret Stop!” I said into the microphone. Her reaction was immediate; she went down onto her knees and then positioned her head on the floor. “Stand up!” I said and like an automaton she obeyed. “Little Cat please leave the room.” I said softly and could see the look of relief on her face as she slipped out of the room. I could see a plate of food and water by her bed, both untouched as far as I could see, well if my ordering worked once . . . “You will eat and drink, then use the utilities in the corner of the room to relieve yourself, after that you will sleep!” I watched as the girl walked to the bed and started to slowly eat the food there, the screen then closed to show an amazed Elizabeth. “I thought you would know what to do!” She said, “But how did you know it would work?” I shook my head, “I didn’t! But I remember something I read about some years ago, Specialised training of a slave. Conditioned to obey commands and strongly reactive against other slaves of the same sex. It’s very intensive and tends to bind the subject to the trainer” “Can she be treated?” Elizabeth asked. “I don’t know, the training is designed to destroy the original personality, you would have to be with her constantly until she starts to react.” “But then she might never react?” Elizabeth asked. I had to nod my head. “That is true; she might be so traumatised that she’d never recover.” I confirmed for her. “I can’t give her that kind of attention; my other patients need my help.” She told me and then looked into her camera. “I’m sorry Paul but as I said earlier I need your help. She won’t listen to me and you’ve seen how she reacts to Little Cat and she’s even worse with Sue-Li. Could you take her and see what you can do to help her.” I sat back in my chair and thought for a few minutes, I did owe Ropeville for my freedom. Freedom to continue my work and to remain my own person. Really there wasn’t any other answer to her request, except to say. “Okay Elizabeth, I’ll do it. But I can’t promise that she’ll recover.” Then I realised something else. “The only problem is that she’ll have to be on her own - I can’t have Pauline or Billie-Jo near her what can I do with them?” “They can stay here. In Ropeville. We can place them in the school while you work on Margaret.” She looked away for a moment before adding, “We were going to ask to have Pauline back for a few days anyway, her personalities need attention after a while, sort of a 10,000 miles service you might say.” Pauline was a ‘product’ of Ropeville, taken as a orphan into the Ropeville orphanage she was given a choice to become a child slave or to leave the county to another orphanage, she chose to remain and was given several ‘personas’ to help with the various type of people she might meet, from a pain slut to a child like whore. But she also had two additional personalities; one was a younger Elizabeth – trained as a psychologist, and the second as a spy for the Ropeville council. “That’s not funny Elizabeth. Pauline’s been very helpful to me and I don’t want any – and I mean any – of her avatars to be changed or removed.” I looked into my camera so that she could see I was serious. “Paul I promise that I will be in attendance at all times, the personalities need to be treated for any problems and degradation otherwise they can break out and drive the host mad.” She was serious about that. “Okay, as long as that is all that is done I agree. When will you arrange to pick them up?” She smiled at me, “I’m glad you agreed, would this afternoon be too soon?” She certainly didn’t want to waste any time on this. “Alright, I’ll make sure they’re ready, how will you want them?” I knew that they were always worried about their charges knowing exactly where Ropeville was. “Our people will take care of that, do you have enough room for our transport to land?” This surprised me as I’d already been taken by their team once so they should have all the details to hand. “Plenty of room. Now what about money, how are they going to live?” I didn’t want the girls to go without. “We’ll give then credit cards attached to your account, you won’t have to worry about that. Also you will be paid for your time, so there’s no need to concern yourself either.” Elizabeth added. “I didn’t ask to be paid for this.” “I know you didn’t, but you’re going to be anyway. Please don’t fight us on this.” There was a emphasis on ‘us’ which I couldn’t understand but knew that I wouldn’t win. “Okay Elizabeth, I’ll prepare the girls and wait for your team’s arrival.” She smiled her thanks and then closed the connections. I looked out of the window at the two girls still playing outside, I called them in. |