Louisa draws all the wrong conclusions. |
Lesson 4: WC 2000 Ever since the events of the previous night Louisa wanted to take a closer look at Rochelle’s bedroom. Taking her dust mop she went upstairs and opened the door. Inside the room was a large antique mahogany bed. It had a canopy that was a real dust catcher, which every month had to be removed and washed in the laundry room. The furniture was matching mahogany with a dresser, chest of drawers and worktable. On the wall was a wide screen TV. The windows were a French design that arched up into the cathedral ceiling. They were bordered by flowing lace curtains that allowed a flood of sunlight to pour through. The windows opened onto a balcony by doors with ornate brass handles. Next to the bed was a nightstand with a brass lamp, landline telephone, a computer keyboard and two remotes. Rochelle would have been here, probably in bed. she speculated, when she heard the Intruder. Louisa felt around the night table and discovered a momentary switch. She pushed and heard a distinctive click. Looking to the source she saw that a part of the wall had moved ajar. She walked over, pulled it open and a light came on. She peered in. This is most interesting. At the end of the corridor was a blinking LED button. She walked to the end and pressed it. Again there was a click as the door cracked into a larger interior room. She pushed and the lights came on. It was a Surveillance Room. A double-tiered bank of video monitors occupied the four walls. In the center was an elliptical table. A rail ran around it supporting a plush leather chair on a rolling pedestal. She went over and sat down. There was a joystick on the arm that moved the chair along the rail. She let the chair take her in a slow circular arc around the room. On the right arm was a toggle switch. She moved it and a counsel rose up from inside the table. Oh my goodness, she thought, is this cool or what? Remembering the instructions Alonso had given she reached out and pushed the blinking red light. It turned orange as from both sides of the room steel doors dropped down and locked into place. The light began blinking green. Oh my Gawd, this doubles as a Safe Room. On the console was a keypad and she entered the code 51437. The monitors began blinking and coming to life. The top tier showed the outside. Beneath these were monitors showing all the rooms in the house. She got up and walked over to one of the screens. There were wheels that panned the camera right and left and up and down. There was, however, one monitor that hadn’t cut on and she returned to the control console and looked closer. All the views were labeled. Each had a switch that could turn the monitor on and off. The dark monitor continued to intrigue her. It was marked “Carmelita’s Room.” Looking about Louisa could account for the outdoor vistas and each of the rooms inside the house. What could the inactive one be for? she wondered. She punched in the code a second time and pushed enter. The monitors began blinking and shutting down. Then she pushed the blinking green light and the doors on either side of the room gave a mechanical jolt. There was the whirr of an electrical motor as they lifted and disappeared into the ceiling. Getting up she went back to the access corridor and pulled the door nearly closed. The lights in the Surveillance Room went off. She clicked the door shut and returned to Rochelle’s room and closed the hidden door. She took the canopy and went down into the basement to do the laundry. She had never noticed before, amid all the clutter, that the square footage was less than half what she would have expected. Her curiosity was now peaked and she began nosing about. In the back she noted there was a sheet rock wall where there should have been a cement inner foundation. She searched around for a button but to no avail. Then, looking up, noted a conduit cable running down the ceiling between the floor joists. There was a metal electrical box where the cable entered one side and exiting the other, disappeared behind the false wall. She pulled a chair over and using the utility on her key chain, turned out the retaining screws. The access plate came loose dropping into her hand. The insides revealed a keypad. Hmmmm, she thought, I wonder…. She entered the code 51437 and hit the enter button. From below she heard a click and a door cracked open. She stepped down off the chair, walked over and pushed the door open. A light came on and she peered inside. Nothing could have prepared her for what she beheld next. It was a torture chamber. Louisa looked inside, in total disbelief. There was a confinement cage on the back wall, and a brass bed with handcuffs dangling from the bedposts. There was a medical examining table with stirrups and restraining straps. From the ceiling hung chain binders with wrist shackles and on the floor below were two painted footprints. On the side wall was a large oak cross with wrist and ankle restraints. She stepped back abruptly, no longer able to contain the abject terror that gripped her heart. She felt nauseous and stumbled backward into the hallway. She saw herself locked in the animal cage shaking on the bars, crying out in helpless desperation. Her imagination ran wild as she envisioned Alonso forcing her from one apparatus to the next, exercising a cruel and perverse will. I knew he was a drug dealer but I never dreamed a psychopath. All this time I was one step away from being tortured, mutilated and cut up into little pieces. She saw her dismembered body being dragged across the floor in a clear plastic garbage bag. Being hauled out to the car and thrown into the trunk. She saw the evil face of Alonso leering about as he threw her remains into a dumpster. She raced up the stairs, locking herself in the bathroom, nerves frazzled, sitting bent over the commode. She heard the front door open and Alonso call out. “Louisa, are you still here?” With a supreme exercise of will she struggled to contain her emotions and summoned all her police training and experience. She donned her plastic face and taking a deep breath stepped out into the hallway… just in time to confront the man from Hell coming out of the kitchen. “This milk is past the due date.” Alonso pointed out. “Take a whiff and tell me if you think it’s spoiled.” She took a sniff and then a swallow. “Smells fine to me. If it tastes funny, pour it out.” He took a sip, filled his glass and drank it down. “What happened when you got home last night?” She inquired. “”There’d been an intruder. The police were searching for a cat burglar in the area and caught up with him last night… in my house of all places. There was a pursuit and he ran headlong into a police car.” She took a deep breath “Are you all right he inquired?” “I’m fine…” “Good…. There’s a ROOM I want you to see.” Louisa lost it. She began retching and fled back into the toilet. “Are you all right sweetheart?” She retched again and again… “Can I get you something?” Louisa looked up from the commode; her face blanched a pale white. “Must have been that milk starting to spoil.” “Shit,” exclaimed Alonso, “and I drank the rest of the carton.” She heaved one last time wiping her face with her sleeve. “Are you OK? I really want you to see this," he said taking her arm. Her eyes were wild as he turned her… not towards the basement but instead up the stairs. “If you’re ever here alone and you need a safe place to hide, I want you to know where to go.” Louisa’s mind cried out with a huge sigh of relief. She almost floated up the stairs leaving a pall of dread trailing behind. He took her into the master bedroom and paused before sweeping her into his arms. He kissed her lips and she went completely limp. Do whatever he wants, cried the voice of her fears… Just don’t go down in the basement. He pushed her towards the bed and her calves stopped at the bed rails as she fell backwards onto the mattress. His hands pulled at her blouse and began to unbutton the front. Been there, done this, she told herself as the seam opened revealing her bra. His hands went behind and unsnapped the retainers. This time he pulled down on the cups revealing her breasts. They were the size of minneolas and much the same shape. The aureola puffed out in a texture of goose bumps, perking up into a rubbery brown nippel. "You think they're ugly," don't you?" "They're exotic sweetheart." "Suck um," she pleaded. He drew one into his mouth and began tormenting the nub. She felt a surge of desire. What are you thinking? cried her awareness! This is no time to be enjoying yourself… this man is evil beyond all imagination. Still, she couldn’t deny the effect of his teasing lips and darting tongue. She felt his weight wrestle apart her thighs and the wetness as she turned her knees out and spread wide. He came off, unbuckled his trousers and dropped them along with his boxer shorts. She watched anxiously as he drew out his erection and brandished it back and forth. The sight of it was unexpected. She'd seen porn movies with her sister. It looks ample enough she thought, but nothing like the ones that used to set Lupita to clapping her hands in delight. She was suddenly gripped by a hysteria that couldn’t separate the laughter from the tears. As his hands started tugging at her underwear she totally lost it and became mega-hysterical. Her body began shaking uncontrollably. “What is it?” Alonso asked, losing his focus. As he paused the moment was lost. “Get off me,” she demanded. “Is this what you wanted me to see?" “Why? Isn’t it up to your expectations?” “Not that! I was just expecting something besides your... you know what?“ He sagged and got up from the bed. She pulled up her panties and rolled off the other side, struggling to button up her blouse. “Sorry Honey, I don’t know what comes over me. Sometimes I simply can’t control myself. That’s how bad I want you.” “Its OK,” she answered, “I'm getting used to your groping hands, but what I'll never get used to are these damned migraines and if things don’t start calming down I’m going to start really vomiting.” She tucked herself in and straightened her dress. “ Now what was the real reason you got me up here?” “Oh yeah! Remember last night; how I told Rochelle where to hide from the intruder?” “I have this vague recollection,” she answered sarcastically. “Well let me walk you through where I want you to go if you ever find yourself alone and facing a similar set of circumstances.” He pushed the button beneath the nightstand and proceeded to show, step by step what she already knew. When he finished they were standing in the Safe Room. “Why doesn’t that last monitor work?” She asked. "That?" He replied. "Oh that one. It’s been disconnected." She walked over to the access panel, “This one labeled ‘Carmelita’s room’, is disconnected?” He began to chuckle. “If you ever went down there and walked in,” he replied, ”you wouldn’t be wondering why.” “Humor me.” “My wife was a Dominatrix and the basement was where she took her submissives.“ |