Bayou Bishops Box Set: Books 1-12

CHAPTER 10

Cat forced her mouth shut after entering through a heavy door made of black metal. She squeezed Ethan’s hand, glad he’d taken it in his. “Don’t need to worry about anybody breaking in here,” she muttered as lights flickered on along the walls, revealing a sight that set her pulse racing. Black walls, black floor, black ceiling.

“It’s uh…fully black,” she said, her stomach knotting at spotting the single bed looking chair in the middle of the room. Also black. Stuff hung from the ceiling right above it and rose from the floor beneath. Not at all like a hospital horror movie.

He suddenly pulled her to him and kissed her. His tongue drove and lashed, telling her what being in there did to him. Enough to make her weak-kneed. He suddenly pulled away and walked over to the chair. He stood next to a small table and the lights dimmed and the walls all around changed into a scene. Of a dungeon. She looked up as the ceiling filled with the same cavernous décor. She looked all around in utter, creeped out astonishment. The audacity to have this kind of brilliance in a swamp of all places.

Her gaze snapped back to him now removing his clothes. Was he starting? Was she supposed to stand where she was? And just watch?

He suddenly turned and reached his hand out toward her.

She made her way to him and put her hand in his. “So, I lay in this chair,” he said softly, showing her. “And hook myself up to the all these wires and undergo a session.”

Undergo. Like a painful medical procedure. “A session?”

“A Dungeon scene.”

She nodded, looking at the chair, not understanding.

“You have two ways of understanding this process. Either you get in the chair and let me show you. Or you put on a second headset and watch me go through a session.”

Oh God. “W-what…exactly would you do in a session?”

He eyed her, making her nervous with his intense gaze. Clearly the hard part for her to hear. “I’m bound on a stone slab face down. A sadist enters and whips me with a flogger while…my cock is imprisoned in something like a cage that tightens until orgasm.”

She swallowed. “H-how long is…the session?”

“As long as it takes to orgasm.”

“Which is…usually…”

“An hour. Sometimes less. Or more. Depending on my state of mind.”

She nodded, looking at the bed, ready to be sick at the idea of seeing him endure such a thing. “But…it’s not real.” She regarded him. “Right?”

“Right,” he said, his tone so very unconvincing.

She nodded, again looking at the bed.

“It’s okay to be scared,” he said softly.

More nods. “Good because…I’m definitely that. For you.”

“Why me?”

His genuine confusion confused her. “Because…I don’t like to see you hurting.”

“How do you know if you haven’t seen me in pain?”

Oh. Oh boy. Was he saying she might think he was hot when in agony? Highly doubtful. “And the other way is for me to…experience what you do.”

“On a…much lesser level,” he said.

“I can ask you to stop if I watch you do it?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t like that answer. Like she could ask him, but that didn’t mean he would. “And if I ask you to stop, you will?”

He lowered his head. “Yes.”

He wouldn’t lie about it, she told herself the second she suspected exactly that. “I think it’s better to watch you then.”

He turned and walked to a wall, and she got stuck on the way his butt moved, missing the secret hole in the wall he pulled the odd head apparatus he now carried.

She looked at it, listening as he explained what it was and that she would wear it over her head like a helmet with movie glasses.

“Oh, now,” she gasped as he raised it and set it on her head, strapping it on.

“This is your sound,” he said, pressing little things into her ears. “Make sure they’re snug in the ear canal.”

“Okay,” she whispered, doing as he said, her hands and entire body shaking. “Is it me or is it cold in here?”

“Sixty degrees. It adds to the experience.”

“Ah,” she said, her jaws chattering. “Not used to that.”

He took her hands, and she gasped as his mouth covered hers softly. “You’re okay. If you want me to stop, just call out to me.” He guided her to the chair. “Stand here where you can touch me. Once the scene starts, it’ll seem very real. That’s normal. Since you’re not hooked up to the neuro-network’s algorithms, there’s no stimuli other than the sight and sounds. Okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered. “I’m…I’m ready.”

“When I start the scene, you will see other people but remember it’s not real. They’re virtual. A computer generated image. But they seem very real.”

She watched him through the goggles, explaining everything while hooking things to his body and head. Even his feet. Good lord.

“Activate Dungeon scene forty-three.”

“Shit!” Cat whispered when another world appeared all around her.

“You see the people?”

“I-I see them,” she gasped. “Men…there’s men dressed in black right there,” she pointed. “More than one, is there supposed to be more than one?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Welcome back Ethan,” a female voice said, sending Cat looking all around. “It’s been a while. What will your poison be tonight?”

“Standard flog with cock cage.”

“Initiating scene. Who would you like to attend you this evening?”

“Is there…a Mistress?”

Mistress? She looked at Ethan, finding him strapped face down on a large stone, just as he’d said. God, the sight of him, naked and bound, arms stretched out and wide open, legs the same.

“Of course. What is your preference?”

“None.”

He’s just using a woman to teach you.

Did he always use a woman in this? The idea knotted and burned her stomach.

“How are you doing Cat?” he asked, making her jump.

“I’m…I’m a little…I’m fine. Oh shit,” she gasped. “He…the man passed right through me,” she whispered, feeling dizzy.

“That’s normal, baby. They can’t see you. Try to relax.”

Relax. Freaking never. She reached out and encountered his shoulder, moving her hand along his arm. “Sorry,” she whispered, pulling away at feeling one of the things attached to him.

“You ready for a ride to Hell?”

Cat snapped her head to the foot of the stone slab where a woman in a shiny black leather dress split at the front stood. She was astonishingly real looking and beautiful, boobs barely covered by the black material.

“Yes Mistress,” Ethan answered, his winded words making Cat’s pulse triple as she lowered her gaze to a slash of material embedded between the woman’s shaven vagina lips. She wore boots. Black and shiny too, stopping above her knee.

“That’s a good boy,” she said, walking slowly around the stone bed, the heel of her boots clicking on the stone floor. She leaned her head next to his. “Just kidding,” she whispered. “I know there’s nothing good in you, Slave.”

“No Mistress,” he whispered.

Cat jumped when she raised a black looking crop with long leather strings and swatted the air next to her, making it snap.

“You hear that, Ethan?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“That’s the sound of your salvation.” She swung it, bringing the straps over his back, making Cat step back. His strained groan preceded his hot, “Yes. Punish me.”

“You dare command me?” She swung the straps in an X formation and Cat gasped at the blood beading on his skin.

Virtual. Not real. Just pretend.

“No Mistress,” he groaned, letting go several hot gasps that gripped her womb despite her fear. “Forgive me.”

“Forgive…” She chuckled, stepping onto the stone slab. Straddling his waist, she faced his feet and dangled the leather straps between his opened legs. “There is no forgiveness here, boy. Only punishment.”

Cat recalled his reaction to her calling him boy, her stomach knotting more.

“Yes, Mistress,” he moaned. “Punish my cock, please.”

“Demon,” she called. “You heard him. Just a taste.”

Ethan’s body jerked on the slab, his hips pressing hard into the stone, his groans seething, getting frantic and louder. His legs and arms jerked in the restraints—she couldn’t breathe. The Mistress brought the straps down right between his legs. “Be still, Slave while the Demon gives you everything you deserve.”

Cat heard growling under the bed and leaned, her pulse jackhammering. “Oh God,” she whispered. What…what was that? Some…kind of animal, doing something to his penis with its mouth. It was biting him!

“I told you to be still!” The woman flew into a rage and Cat stood frozen in horror as she went on a whipping rampage, the straps flying faster than humanly possible, blood appearing on his thrashing body. “Not real, not real, not real,” she gasped right as Ethan’s roar ripped her heart right from her chest.

“STOOOOOOOOPPP!” Cat screamed. “STOP IT! ETHAN STOP! STOP STOP STOP!”

“I’m stopped,” he gasped, removing that evil helmet from her head. “It’s over.”

She stared at him, looking for signs of what happened, a sob gushing at finding nothing. “You…you yelled and I thought…”

He pulled her in his arms and hugged her tight. “Shhh, it wasn’t real.”

“But you screamed. It was…she was hurting you for real. You said it wasn’t real,” she gasped.

“They’re not really doing it but everything I’m attached to is designed to make it feel real.”

She gasped, looking at him. “You could…feel that? What they did?” she strained, sick to her stomach, looking around. “I want to leave, I need air.” The final word came on a huge sob, and he hugged her again, walking her out.

****

Ethan watched Cat, dread growing in the pit of his stomach with her every pacing step and tear-filled mumbling. She was sick and disgusted. Horrified. Mortified.

“Talk to me, please,” Ethan quietly begged finally.

“There is…a lot to unpack here,” she explained on a gasp, wiping the tears that seemed to never stop.

There was only one thing he wanted to know. “Are you leaving?”

She didn’t come to an immediate halt but when she did, his muscles locked up at the perturbed look she wore. “Leaving?”

Like she’d never heard the word. “Are you leaving me now,” he clarified.

She drew back like he’d slapped her. “Leaving you? You think I’d leave you…because of that?” she strained, pointing in the direction of his Dungeon. “Is that what you think I’m made of, just…one bad experience and I’m running off and leaving you?”

Fuck, her anger had never felt so good aimed at him. “It’s a lot for anybody to take if you’re not used to it.”

She suddenly faced him, her small frame moving with her breaths. “I will never get used to that.” She paced again, her words stirring equal portions of disappointment and excitement. She pointed at the wall again. “That…is not okay. And why did you choose a woman? What the hell was that thing under the bed?”

“I chose a woman for an example.”

She let out a huge, dry laugh. “That…bitch,” she grit, fury twisting her face. “How dare you let a woman talk to you that way much less do that to you!” she yelled. “I will never,” she growled at him, “ever… be okay with any woman, not a real one, not a fake one, not a fucking paper-doll one or anything,” she went on, her hands spreading “say or do those evil things to you!” She jerked away, back to pacing and now Ethan was too, his Dungeon addictions clashing with his Cat ones, both gearing up to fight.

She suddenly gasped and came to a stop, staring at the air before her. “That’s it,” she marveled.

“What’s it?”

She looked at him. “It’s been nagging my mind since I walked out of there. What the Seer said.”

“Which part?”

“About removing the false idol blocking the path or we will never reclaim the lost land.”

He eyed her, shaking his head, not getting it. “There is no lost land to reclaim.”

“All of that stuff in there, Ethan…it’s fake. It’s artificial. It’s not real, not human, you said that yourself.”

He paced now, agitation riding his skin.

“The only way for you to reclaim what’s lost is to remove that out of your life. Completely,” she said right at him.

He faced the back door, closing his eyes.

“You’ve been exchanging your humanity for…a pretend world that you’re not made for.”

“I made this world,” he said, turning to her. “I didn’t make it to replace real things, I made it because it was all I had. I had AL and Big G.”

“Yes, Ethan?” they both answered.

“Nothing, I’m talking to Cat.”

“No,” she said, to the air. “Let Big G and AL speak since they’re obviously a part of this. Are they not?”

“They are,” he said, pacing and looking at her. “They helped me build all of it. Because of them, I survived humanity. So what if I lost some of my own along the way, I’m here, aren’t I? I like codes, I like numbers, I like algorithms because they’re factual, they don’t change, they obey laws, they don’t get up and walk out of your life and never come back. They stay and they’re always the same, they never change.”

“They are products of you, Ethan,” she said, her compassion bringing his anger. “You created them, you made them what you needed, and I get that, I do. I’m glad you did, but it wasn’t ever supposed to be a permanent thing, you weren’t supposed to become that!” she pointed at the wall.

He opened the back door and went out to get air and away from her cruel fucking words. He would not explain himself to her. She had no clue. No fucking clue. He needed pain and if she couldn’t handle that then... He turned, finding her behind him. He pointed at the gate. “You can go,” he said. “You can’t accept me for who I am, then leave. Fucking leave! I’m not changing for anybody.”

She slammed her hands on her hips, her eyes on fire. “Like hell will I leave,” she warned, her fight returning with a ferocity. “We are solving this, that’s what we’re doing.”

“I want pain and I’ll have pain, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. You don’t like it then too fucking bad.”

She gasped, nodding at his challenge. “I will tear that place apart, do you hear me?”

He stormed up to her, his breaths blasting as he looked down at her fearless glare. “You will never touch them. They are my family. And I will never abandon them for anybody,” he grit at her.

“This pain bullshit has a beginning, Ethan, and I aim to find it and show you that you don’t need it.”

“No, I fucking don’t need pain, I want it,” he yelled, turning away from her.

“Why?” she snapped. “Tell me why you want or even need pain, Ethan. Why do you need punishing?”

He turned. “I don’t need punishing.”

“Damn right you don’t.”

“I want it. I need it to hurt!”

“But why!”

“So I don’t have to feel what I can’tfuckingsurvive,” he roared, ready to kill. “I couldn’t escape, I couldn’t escape the fucking bonecrushingagony,” he seethed. “It came every…fucking… day and night! I was thirteen,” he gasped, winded. “Alone, I was so fucking alone! I made an escape so I could live because they weren’t going to kill me,” he said around the iron jaws on his chest and heart. “I was worthsomething. They were wrong, I was worth something,” he swore between jagged breaths, sagging against the rail and sliding down to the pier.

Cat flew to him in a sob, clinging to his neck. “You’re not worthless, you’re not!” she cried, holding him tight. “I will never leave you, do you hear me? You are stuck and I am not sorry,” she wailed, covering his face with kisses. “I love you so much. I’m your wife. We are one! I will never, ever leave you!”

He pulled her in his arms and held on to her so fucking tight. “Please don’t leave,” he begged, fighting to breathe as he pulled her closer and buried his face in her neck. “I’ll learn, I’ll learn how to be human again,” he swore, his words breaking with the rest of him. “You’ll show me, ma menou, you’ll show me how to love. Show me how to love. ”