Well, here we are, deep in the bowels of the Diamond Club. Are we still enjoying it, or are we all just hanging in there grimly, hoping the whole thing might make sense eventually? Either way, I appreciate you sticking with it.
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"I just want you to know that if anything did happen between you..."
"It won't, Sally. It's been a long time."
"But if it did," the girl said, "I wouldn't want you to think... I wouldn't want to interfere, you know? Get in the way."
"What do you mean?"
"I wouldn't want you to think you owed me anything. That you'd have to keep to the arrangement."
"Sally..."
"What I'm trying to say is that if you wanted her back as your sub I wouldn't stand in the way. I know that this is just-"
"What makes you think she was my sub?"
"I thought you said you were both... you know?"
The woman smiled. "We were," she said. "But she wasn't my sub."
The girl seemed a little shocked. "But surely you weren't..."
"A sub? In a way."
"I don't understand."
"We used to switch," the woman said. "We'd take it in turns."
"I... Can you do that?"
"Of course you can do it, Sally. You can do anything you want to. There are no rules about who does what, no matter what some people would have you believe."
"Some people?"
"Her mother," the woman said. "She was a holy terror. She really believed that being a domme was some kind of calling, that you were 'naturally' dominant, that it was who you were. She was horrified when she found out."
"I'm sorry."
"Water under the bridge, now, Sally. She died, a few years ago. Maybe I should have got in contact then, but I could never quite bring myself to." She held up the invitation. "I was never expecting this."
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"It must be security," Tori whispered.
"What?" Jade hissed. "I thought you said there was no security!"
"I said there were no cameras. I didn't say there was no security. I'm pretty sure my mom said one of the members owns a company, kind of specialized."
"Specialized?"
"You, know. Discreet."
"Well, way to go, Tori! You didn't think to mention this before?"
"You didn't ask!"
"I shouldn't have to ask! What kind of discreet? 'A quiet word and send you on your way' discreet, or 'dump the body in the river, no questions asked' discreet?"
"I don't know!"
"Shit."
They crouched down, listening as the boots crossed the corridor outside. "There's only one of them, by the sound of it," Jade whispered.
"Do you think we can take him?"
"Do I..." Jade stared at her in disbelief. "We're not real fucking ninjas, Tori! Of course we can't 'take him'."
"I just thought-"
"We have to get out of here." She played the beam of the flashlight around the walls in the hope of a previously unnoticed door, but there was nothing. The only way out led through the main door.
They crept towards it, and Tori opened it a crack, as quietly as she could. "I can't see him. Do you think we should make a run for it?"
"Wait." Jade peered out too. The landing was clear, and straight across the head of the stairs she could see the door they'd come through. "Okay."
They opened the door further, and Tori eased herself through it. "You ready?" Jade said.
"Ready."
"Go."
Tori set off at a sprint across the landing, her sneakers squeaking on the wooden floor. Jade made ready to follow her, when she remembered the map was still on the cabinet. Crap. That would really give the game away. She slipped back through the door and retrieved it, slipping it into her pants, and left the room again.
She could see Tori waiting anxiously behind the other door, holding it open, big brown eyes wide with worry at her sudden disappearance. She was about to cross, when her view of Tori was completely obscured by six feet of ugliness in a security uniform, emerging from a door between them. There was a split second of silence, and then, "Hey, you!"
Fuck.
She just had chance to mouth 'Go!' to Tori, before she turned and bolted in the other direction, praying that the guard's attention had been focussed on her. The meaty pound of footsteps behind her told her it had, but that only raised a whole new set of problems.
She crashed through the nearest door into another corridor, counting the seconds until she heard the guard come through to gauge her advantage. Four seconds. Not much. Hang a left. Another door.
Five seconds. She might do this yet.
She had a moment to consider that the uniform had been filled out in odd, unexpected ways. Of course. That's what they meant by specialized. They'd never let a bunch of dicks look after a place like this, it'd be way too volatile.
The knowledge that her pursuer was a woman lessened her panic not one jot. In fact it made it worse. She might, might have been able to talk her way round a guy, but she had no chance at all with the slab of muscle chasing her. It was a sad reflection on the state of universal sisterhood, she decided, as she tried to ignore the burning in her chest, that practically every woman she met seemed to want to injure her in some way. Even the girl she loved had an unhealthy fixation with beating her on the ass. Another door. Hang a right.
Seven seconds.
Maybe it was her. Maybe she just had that kind of face. A 'beat me on the ass' kind of face. A 'beat me on the ass, drag me around by my ears, tie me to a tree and stick broken bottles in me' kind of face. It seemed a trifle unfair, genetically speaking. She was pretty sure her mom never had to put up with any of this. Another door.
Eight seconds.
All she wanted was a little respect. And yet the world seemed intent on making her ridiculous. Take this, for instance. Take the current example. You try to do one little thing, one nice thing for a friend, and before you know it you're running for your life through a fetish club being chased by a lesbian death squad.
Sally never had this problem. Sally could do whatever she wanted. Sally could be a sub, and still come out with her dignity intact. Sally was always on top, even when she was on the bottom.
Damn Sally.
Ten seconds. She was winning. All she had to do was...
She clattered through the door at the end of the corridor, only to find herself slithering desperately to a halt on a shiny, tiled floor. She looked around. Shit.
Nine seconds.
How many washrooms does one club need? She turned, but she knew there was no way to get back to the other end before she was caught. As if to reinforce this message, the tread of boots began to grow louder.
Eight seconds.
There was no other way out. No useful air-conditioning vents, small windows, false ceilings. Nothing.
Seven seconds.
She went into a stall, and pushed the door half-closed, hopping up onto the seat so her legs couldn't be seen. She'd seen it in the movies...
Six seconds.
... and it never worked. Fuck.
Five seconds.
She hoped Tori had got out okay. She should never have brought her into this. She should never have done this. Any of it. Life would have been a whole lot simpler if she'd just done the right thing that day, the day Tori came to her with all the bondage bullshit and ass-slappery. The noble thing. If she'd just calmly punched her in the face and dropped her in the dumpster like she should have, all this nonsense could have been avoided.
Four seconds.
This was it. Even if she didn't get her head bashed in, the Club would definitely press charges, and maybe worse. She wasn't sure what the Diamond Club was capable of, because so far she'd been insignificant enough to avoid its full attention. But she'd recognized enough faces to know that its membership could and would destroy her and her career to protect itself. She slid the scissors from her boot and clutched them tightly in both hands, listening for the sound of the washroom door. If she had to go down, she was going to go down fighting.
Three seconds.
The boots were outside the door.
Two seconds.
The boots were inside the door.
One second.
And then she heard it, somewhere in the distance. A mournful, almost tremulous sound, echoing down the hallways, like the plaintive call of a wounded deer. A sound that she'd heard before.
The voice of an angel, running like the Devil.
"Here I am, once again, feeling lost but now and then..."
Oh no. She wouldn't. No, no, no.
Tori, you idiot...
She heard the boots slow, twist with a creak, and start to accelerate away in the other direction. They were already out of the washroom and halfway down the corridor before she had the presence of mind to follow, crashing out of the stall and through the door. Jesus, Tori, how could you? The one time she needed her to be an inconsiderate brat, the one time she actually needed the Tori that wouldn't think twice about letting her choke to death for the sake of a pair of shoes, she'd gone all self-sacrificial on her. She headed out of the washroom to see the door at the end closing. She sped up. The last thing she could afford to do was...
Lose her. Damn it.
She skidded to a halt on the other side of the door, and listened carefully. The strains of Tori's singing could still be heard, faintly, which meant that she hadn't been caught. Jade picked a door that seemed to lead in its direction, and set off.
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Tori was lost. She hadn't really though much beyond this point, concerned only with attracting attention. Now she was having to hold that attention while running through a building she didn't know at all, but which the guard would know like the back of his hand. Her hand. She tried not to think about the fact that a chase like this could only end one way, and kept on going. She needed to find Jade. She needed that very, very badly.
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Jade was lost. She'd long since abandoned any kind of plan, following Tori's siren song instinctively, twisting and turning to its spell. She began to wonder if this was all some kind of fever dream, endlessly chasing something that couldn't be found.
The girl was never there.
It's always the same.
I'm running towards nothing.
Again and again and again and again…
No. Tori was real. She was the only thing that was. She redoubled her efforts.
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Tori knew exactly where she was, now. She was in a dead-end. That was very clear. The distant drumming of boots was getting closer. Her singing started to falter. What it would come to, if only somebody could hear...
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Jade opened the next door in time to hear the singing fade. You're running out of time. She began to accelerate towards the last few notes.
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Tori turned, to find her way blocked by six feet of black Kevlar, armed with two feet of heavy hardwood. They stood facing each other for a moment.
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Faster, West.
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"It's not what you think," Tori managed, her voice a low croak.
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Faster.
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The guard closed the distance between them in a single stride, and Tori watched in horror as the nightstick raised. What kind of discreet? She closed her eyes. Jade...
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"What kind of place is it?"
"I gather it's very... exclusive. And also rather formal, sadly. I'm not sure we'll fit in. But that was always her way."
"It's her club?"
"I suspect she has a hand in it. She was always very organized. She liked to be in control. She was always in charge, even when I held the whip." She smiled. "She was a little like you, in that respect. Or like you will be."
"What do you mean, Mistress?"
"I sometime wish I could have met you in real life, Sally," the woman said. "Outside of all this. I imagine you're quite someone to be reckoned with, even at your age. It would have been nice to see the real you."
"But-"
"I'm not a fool, Sally. I've met a great many... practitioners in my time, subs and doms, and I've learnt a little along the way. And this isn't you. You came here for the experience, to find something out about yourself, but this isn't what you crave, this isn't the life you want to lead. You chafe at the bit, you're restless. And sooner or later you'll move on."
"Caroline..."
"I'm not saying this to be cruel, Sally, I'm happy to keep to our arrangement as long as you like, and I hope you'll stay with me for a while yet. But this isn't your future. One day you may come back to it, just for fun. Or one day you may decide to be a domme yourself, who knows?"
She reached down, and gently stroked the girl's hair. "You'd be a good one, I think," she said, smiling. "I daresay you'd make some lucky girl very happy."
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Jade…
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The momentum of a moving body is equal to its mass multiplied by its velocity. Jade West wasn't a big girl. But she was going at a hell of a speed.
She cannoned into the guard, shoulder first, striking her square in the small of the back. There was a horrible crunching noise as the woman hit the opposing wall face-first, but Jade didn't stop long enough to think about it.
"Come on!" She grabbed Tori by the wrist and dragged her out of the room, door banging behind them, and they raced down the corridor hand in hand.
"I told you to run!"
"I did run!"
"Away, Tori! The key word was away!"
"But-"
"I am so going to click your ass when we get home."
Tori sighed, no mean feat under the circumstances. "Yes, Mistress," she said. "Sorry Mistress."
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The girl said nothing, and the woman decided that the conversation had stalled. Distraction might be the best way forward. "I think that's enough talking for now," she said, peremptorily. She got to her feet. "Stand."
The girl stood automatically. "Mistress."
"Come." She headed out of the room.
"Yes, Mistress."
The girl followed without hesitation, the very model of submission, and only the picture in the frame bore witness to the fire in her eyes.
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The Diamond Club. We're going to the Diamond Club.
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"We have to find a way out of here."
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