Pheobe's Discovery

She's a rebellious sort but not enough to make her daddy cringe and reflect on the days when he was 'without a cause'. Pheobe Grey is a playful thorn that sometimes can prick the tough skin of her father Christian's side. Not that she means to, it just seems to come naturally. Little impish tricks; light defiance but never so much that a wall would end up experiencing the punishment of her daddy's angry fist. No. She would instead feel the intense burn of fierce gray eyes and firm scowl staring her down until she couldn't take anymore and forgiveness was her only plea. Christian would always grin and remark, "You're just like your mother."

And she is. From her long chestnut hair, blue eyes, lean figure and infinite adoration for her father Pheobe is the spitting image of Ana.

…

Semesters end and nineteen year old Pheobe's freshman year at University State Davis is behind her. Naturally, her overprotective control freak of a father disapproved of her choice of college. He assumed she'd want to choose one closer to Seattle not two states away in California. Her Grandma Grace championed her decision claiming it was one of the finest colleges on the west coast to receive a degree in her career pursuit-Veterinary medicine.

Christian still wasn't thrilled with his daughter living such a far distance away but was overruled by the other Grey and Kavanagh family members by 7-1 who thought it a wonderful idea to know what life is like other than being Christian Grey's daughter. She got her way and is now preparing to make a twelve and a half hour drive to Seattle to spend the summer with them.

The last of her luggage was snuggly packed into the trunk of her dark blue Mini Cooper, a going-away present from her parents, which sported the personal license plate 'PHEOBES'. She reaches over to give her roommate Jeanette Chang a hug goodbye, "See you when I get back in three months. Take care of the apartment and Chrissy!"

Little did she realize that the apartment building was actually owned by her father! He bought it so he'd have the security of knowing his daughter would be living somewhere safe and sound.

Jeanette, a pretty young Asian girl hugs her back "Don't worry, I will. I'm leaving in a few weeks for Cambria to visit with my parents. I'll only be gone a few days so I'm taking her with me."

"Great. I owe you one. Give her a kiss for me and do forget the treats. I would have taken her with me but my Dad's allergic. That's why we never had a pet growing up."

Jeanette rolled her eyes and pulled her long black hair up into a ponytail. "I won't but she's fat enough don't you think? If you aren't careful you're gonna have one pudgy little Corgi on your hands."

Pheobe laughs and waves goodbye. It's two o'clock in the afternoon. She gets into her car, buckles up for safety, turns the radio on to a country western station (she's a big fan of Taylor Swift) then heads off for the long drive ahead.

…

It's almost one o'clock in the morning when she arrives to Seattle. The traffic was nonexistent so she made the drive in record time. After stopping at an all night market to pick up some groceries she heads over to Escala. The wee morning hour is too early she feels to disturb her family so out of courtesy decides to crash and relax in the family penthouse for a bit. All this without her parent's knowledge.

Pheobe hasn't spent much time at the penthouse nor has her other siblings, Teddy and the twins Ray and Caroline. Its there; a convenience if needed And Christian and Ana make sure it isn't needed much by their children. She always wondered what was so special about it that her parents would make it a point to spend one day out of the week to check it out.

She parks in the driveway right in front of the garage, grabs the brown paper sack of groceries, her backpack and heads for the elevator. Security knows her; they know all the Grey children so entry was no problem. She enters the penthouse lobby exhausted but hungry too and goes straight for the kitchen with the sack in hand. The contents consist of a loaf of bread, a head of iceberg lettuce, sliced turkey, a small jar of mayo, a bag of corn chips, a small carton of milk and grapes. A sandwich is her meal of choice and it must have tasted delicious for she devoured it and the chips without a sign of a crumb left behind. When it came to food her father taught her right.

Being a tidy person Pheobe starts cleaning her mess, making sure when she leaves in the morning its as clean as when she arrived. She puts the perishables like milk in the refrigerator and is distracted by a shiny object sticking out from underneath. It turns out to be a key but to what? Naturally her curiosity piques. First thing that came to mind was it belonged to the liquor cabinet and second to the locked desk drawer in her father's office.

Not once did she think the key might belong to the room she'd been told was for storage.

After trying to open both locks without much success she sighed defeat…or did she? On a lark she thought why not try it on the storage door and climbed the stairs to the second floor put the key into the lock of those big wooden doors and turned. To her surprise it opened but to her bigger surprise was what she saw inside. "Holy fuck!"

Pheobe gingerly took one step forward, her eyes canvassing the entire expanse. The blood red walls, the benches, tables, the red velvet couch, the metal grid on the ceiling with chains and cuffs dangling. The huge wooden cross against one of the walls, a spot just for a variety of whips, floggers, paddles but the canes were missing. The most eye-catching part of the room was the massive four- poster bed with a deep red duvet. She was drawn to the trunk at her far right and began to open its drawers to find an assortment of erotic sex toys: nipple clamps, wands that looked like teeny tiny pizza cutters, anal beads, butt plugs, Be-Wa balls, gags, vibrators and handcuffs. There were also everyday items like rope cable ties and masking tape. They all made her shudder and brought to mind…a torture chamber.

She became nauseous wanting to vomit but that would only ruin the powerful odor of leather, wood and citrus scented polish. She assessed the information before her and the answer quickly came to mind. A shiver ran through her for she didn't want to believe it. "Oh Christ! My parents are Sadists!"

The doors couldn't close fast enough behind her or the key lock it swift enough for Pheobe. She was no longer fatigued but wide-awake and energized. She pulled her laptop out of her backpack sat down at the kitchen counter and was ready to do research on BDSM.

The more research she did the more she began to wonder just who was the sub and who was the Dom. Surely it was her father who was Dominate. With his stern take-control-of-any-situation attitude picturing him as a submissive was preposterous. Which meant the job was left to her mom.

Eww! How sick! How twisted! Did anyone else in the family know of their perverted lifestyle?

She felt ill now and decided to leave. How could she stay or even come back here again now that she knew of her parent's warped secret and their 'Red Room of Pain'. There was no will to stay; it vanished along with the turkey sandwich she'd waited until she got to the bathroom to throw up. She placed whatever was left of the groceries into the bag, tucked it under one arm, picked up her backpack and bid Escala a not-so-fond farewell.

Pheobe didn't care if it were only three-thirty in the morning the qualms about disturbing her family were irrelevant to her. As far as she was concerned they were already disturbed!

She had no idea how her parents would react or what they might say when she finally had the nerve to confront them.