Chapter 18
JOSIE
Aweek passes without incident. Or I should say, without any major incidents.
Lanie manages to get herself in trouble pretty much once a day, often dragging me along with her.
But I don’t resent the sore bottoms, or even Uncle Axel forcing us to sit on the couch for an hour with nothing to entertain ourselves after we apparently pushed things a bit too far.
For the first time in years, I’m having fun, and it’s worth every punishment.
I haven’t completely abandoned my plans to escape, though they are certainly moving more slowly than I expected.
Well, if I’m being honest, they’re pretty much at a standstill.
After that first trip into town, I realized I have no idea who I can trust. Between that, and Daddy’s threat still hanging over me about making anyone I confide in “disappear”, I haven’t wanted to risk talking to anyone.
And escaping from the cabin itself is impossible.
If Lanie or myself so much as look at the front door for too long, we're immediately scooped up by our Daddies or one of their siblings and redirected to another activity.
Even when they do take us outside, they watch us far too closely for me to slip away unnoticed.
So I settle for making trouble with Lanie, and doing my best to convince everyone that I’ve finally accepted my role as Daddy’s Little girl in the hopes they might, eventually, look away long enough for me to make my great escape.
“All right, you two.” Marching into the living room, Auntie Gray pins us with a stern glare. “You’re coming with me.”
“Oh, um.” Clearly nervous by our auntie’s sudden appearance, Lanie presses herself deeper into the couch. “Daddy said to stay here until he told us we could get up.”
“I already spoke with both your Daddies about my plans. Now are you going to do as I say, or am I going to have to paddle both your bottoms?”
That gets us both moving. We hop up from the couch, and Auntie Gray nods once before turning and gesturing for us to follow her. I glance over at Lanie, who shrugs and hurries after Auntie Gray. Unwilling to risk Auntie Gray’s wrath, I follow behind as she leads us up the stairs to… a closet.
What the hell?
Stepping into what I’m realizing now is a shockingly large linen closet, Auntie Gray pulls down a blanket and hands it off to Lanie. “Take that to my bedroom.” Turning back to the shelf, she grabs another blanket and places it in my arms. “You too. Then both of you come back for more.”
More confused now than I was when she first told us to follow her, I do as I’m told and scurry down the hall with my blanket. Lanie drops hers on Auntie Gray’s bed, so I do the same, then turn to meet her equally confused gaze.
“What do you think she’s up to?”
Lanie shrugs. “No idea. I was hoping you might know.”
“Me? Why would I know?”
“Uh, she’s your best friend.” She doesn’t actually say “Duh” but it’s heavily implied by her tone.
“Was,” I correct her, ignoring the pang in my chest. “She was my best friend.”
“However you wanna phrase it, you've known her way longer than I have so I thought maybe this was some secret Auntie Gray thing I just didn’t know about.”
A memory surfaces, from the before times, and excitement wells up inside me. “Oh my god! Blanket fort!”
Turning on my heel, I run back down the hall to the closet. “Are we making a blanket fort?”
Auntie Gray cocks a brow at me as she passes off a large comforter. “We are. But if I catch you running again, you’ll be building it with a sore bottom, little girl.”
“Sorry, Auntie Gray, I just got excited!”
“I know, sweetheart, but you need to be careful. Take this blanket and I’ll be right behind you.”
Lanie and I each take one more, and we hurry back down the hall as quickly as we dare so that we don’t get in trouble. Despite all the mischief we've been making the past week, neither one of us wants to ruin the fun with a spanking right now.
In her bedroom, Auntie Gray sets her blanket down on top of the others and looks around, a grin stretching across her face. “All right, little girls. Let’s build ourselves a fort.”
Josie
“It’s… beautiful.”
Lanie’s voice is filled with awe as she stares at our creation. And I can’t blame her.
Blankets and pillows and fairy lights crisscross across the entire bedroom, creating what has turned out to be less of a fort and more a magical land of make-believe.
Auntie Gray’s bed with the pretty canopy serves as the linchpin, anchoring the blankets and adding an upper “level” to our fort.
The various stuffed animals Lanie’s managed to collect during her stay here at the cabin are scattered around the structure, along with the llama Uncle Dane gave me and so many pillows I briefly wonder how many of our uncles will be going to bed without any support tonight.
But I don’t care. Because our fort is fabulous.
A knock on the door drags my attention away from the glorious creation in front of me. “No boys allowed!” Lanie and I yell together.
It’s become a bit of a mantra for us. Our Daddies and the other uncles have tried to “check on us” multiple times during the fort’s construction, and each time we’ve sent them packing.
But this time, Auntie Gray just grins and reaches for the door handle. “I think we can allow this boy in.”
She opens the door and Uncle Eli steps inside, holding a tray full of snacks.
And not just healthy snacks, either. While there are a few bits of green on the tray, mostly it’s covered with cookies and cakes and colorful candy and even my favorite gourmet chocolates.
“Room service!” Uncle Eli announces with an uncharacteristic smile as he carries the tray over to our fort.
“Jesus, Eli, when I said, ‘bring snacks’ I didn’t mean enough sugar to choke a horse.” But despite her scolding words, Auntie Gray is eyeing the tray in Uncle Eli’s hands with the same longing I feel.
“It’s a sleepover,” Uncle Eli says by way of explanation as he sets the tray down in the fort. “And these are sleepover snacks. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you and Josie used to sneak into the kitchen when you were younger. This should keep you out of my way the rest of the night.”
The last is said in warning and I instinctively shove my hands behind me to protect my bottom. “Yes, Uncle Eli.”
Rising up to his full height again, he grunts, but there’s a hint of a smile on his lips. “Good girl. Make sure you keep Lanie out of my kitchen too, or you’ll both be feeling my spoon on your bottoms.”
With that dire warning, he leaves us alone with Auntie Gray, who grins and rubs her hands together. “All right, little ones. We have a fort. We have snacks. Let’s get you girls changed into your jammies and pick a movie.”
She produces a nightgown for each of us from somewhere, which means she either raided our nurseries herself or our Daddies have been in on this from the beginning. The latter thought has my chest swelling with mixed emotions as my former bestie pulls my nightgown down over my head.
“There we go.” Beaming, Auntie Gray steps back and gestures to the entrance of the fort. “In you go, little ones.”
Squealing with excitement, Lanie all but dives into the fort. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and a giggle bubbles up inside me as I follow her inside.
It really is magical. Like our own little world, completely separate from the rest of the house. From all the bad things that have happened to me ever since I saw Bennett Kincaid in that candy store.
Maybe it is. Maybe this is some fairy realm where, for at least one night, I can just let myself… be. Without worrying about escape, without stressing over how to find an ally in town without getting them killed. For this one night, I can just be a girl spending the night with her friends.
Auntie Gray joins us a few moments later, carrying a laptop, which she sets up opposite the wall of pillows Lanie and I are currently nestled against. “All right, babygirls. I promised your Daddies I wouldn’t keep you up too late, so one movie and then it’s bedtime.”
Lanie and I both immediately launch into whining protests that Auntie Gray shuts down with a look. “If you’d prefer, we can put the snacks up and you can both go to bed now.”
Well, neither of us wants that, so we both promise to be good. “Much better,” Auntie Gray says as she leans forward to hit play on the movie. A picture face fills the screen and a squeal slips past my lips.
“Princess Bride!”
“Our favorite.” Grinning, Auntie Gray loops an arm around my shoulder and pulls me close to press a kiss to my hair. “I decided it was time to introduce Lanie to the perfect movie.”
“Oh my god, you’ve never seen Princess Bride? You are so in for a treat. I wish I could watch it for the first time again.”
For an hour and a half, I am a child again, watching my favorite movie with my favorite person in the whole world while we gorge ourselves on sweets.
Storming the castle, rescuing the princess, fighting horrible princes and rodents of unusual size.
Auntie Gray and I can quote nearly every line of the movie and even though it’s Lanie’s first time it isn’t long before she’s gasping in shock and squealing at all the romantic parts.
It is, hands down, the best ninety minutes of my life in nearly twenty years.
When the credits roll, Auntie Gray heaves the most contented sigh I think I’ve ever heard. “God I love that movie. I haven’t watched it since…”
The implication hangs heavy in the air and I press myself closer to her. “Me neither.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It just didn’t seem right to watch it without you.”
Her arms tighten around me and her chest shakes in a way that tells me she’s fighting back tears. And I have to close my eyes against my own swell of emotion. I’ve missed her, missed this so fucking much.
How am I supposed to walk away from it again?
But then Auntie Gray clears her throat and the moment is lost. “It’s time for Little girls to potty and then we need to get to sleep.”
My eyes lock with Lanie’s and I see my own apprehension reflected there. Tilting her head up, Lanie gives Auntie Gray the biggest, roundest puppy-dog eyes I have ever seen. “Can we please use the bathroom just this once, Auntie Gray? Pretty please?”
“Don’t be silly, little one. You know Little girls only use their diapers.”
Red floods Lanie’s face, and I can feel the same embarrassment heating my own cheeks. Rebellion rises up inside me, and I’m tempted to tell Auntie Gray to fuck off, that we aren’t Little girls, we’re Big girls and we should be allowed to pee on a toilet like anyone else.
But I already know how that will end: With us getting our bare bottoms spanked, not only by Auntie Gray but likely by our Daddies as well.
My resignation is reflected in Lanie’s eyes as she sighs. “Yes, Auntie Gray.”
“Good girl.” Turning her head, Auntie Gray pins me with a stern look that clearly says she isn’t going to tolerate any arguing. “You too, Josie.”
“What if I can’t?” I whisper, horrified to feel tears filling my eyes. “What if it’s too hard?”
“Do you need Auntie Gray to help you, sweet girl?”
No. I need you to let me use the bathroom like a fucking adult.
Whether I’m just scared of the punishment that response will earn me or I’m still feeling sentimental after our movie, I’m not sure. Either way, I don’t argue, I simply nod.
“Okay. Lie back, honey and Auntie Gray will help.”
Shifting down on the pillows, I lie down and close my eyes, trying to imagine I’m off in some far-away land, riding horseback with my long-lost love instead of trapped in this cabin in the mountains of Colorado.
But even in my imagination, my prince wears my Daddy’s face and even though I can’t feel it, I know the thick cotton of my diaper is wedged between us on the saddle.
Auntie Gray presses down on my bladder, and it takes a shockingly short amount of time for me to relax enough to fill my diaper. I’m not really sure what that means—just that my bladder was exceedingly full, or I’m actually getting used to living as a baby.
“Such a good Little girl you are!” Auntie Gray praises as she strips the diaper from me and wipes me clean.
Surprisingly, her words do ease some of the humiliation threatening to consume me whole. And again, I’m not sure what that says about me and my current mental state.
Once Lanie and I are both cleaned up, Auntie Gray tucks us both into our makeshift beds, with her snuggled between us. Despite her promises to our Daddies, we do stay up too late, sharing stories from our old lives with Lanie while she regales me with tales of her exploits here at the cabin.
And when Auntie Gray finally puts her foot down and tells us it’s time for sleep, we don’t argue. Curled up with my old best friend and my new best friend, I fall asleep wondering if maybe staying here wouldn’t be the worst fate in the world after all.