i had been asleep, but i wake up quickly.  The woman, whose presence i’ve gotten used to, leads me to the bathroom, and when i am finished there, she nods for me to sit at the table.  She gives me the one cup of coffee i am allowed, and one hard-boiled egg, watching patiently while i eat.

i expect her to take me to the shower next, but instead she attaches the leash to my collar and leads me out of the room.  i am naked, other than my collar and the narrow cuffs on my wrists and ankles.  Before we leave the room, she attaches my wrists to the ring in my collar and puts a blindfold on me.

i stumble a little as she leads me down the hallway, but she has led me blindfolded before, so i am not as clumsy as i was the first time.   We make several turns and seem to go a long way before she stops, and i can hear her open a door.  She nudges me forward about 10 steps, then stops me.

“Wait here,” she says.  She drops the leash, her footsteps move back in the direction from which we had come, and i hear the door open and close.  i don’t know if she’s really left, or if there are other people in the room.  i don’t hear movement, but it would be foolish to assume no one’s watching me.

i am a little bit afraid.  i have no idea what’s going to happen next.  i’ve been here for – well, i don’t know how long i’ve been here – more than a day, maybe several days, i think.  My room has no windows, and i haven’t been allowed outside since i got here.  At first, i was terrified all the time, but it’s mostly been monotonous.  They haven’t let me wear clothes, which worries me, but they take care of me in such an impersonal way that i’ve almost gotten used to it.

When they first brought me here, i kept trying to get them to tell me what was going to happen to me.  But every time i talked, they gagged me – didn’t even tell me to be quiet, just stuck something in my mouth so i couldn’t talk.  i quit trying to ask questions pretty quickly after a few times of that.

Really, it’s been like that with everything.  They haven’t hurt me, but they get me to obey.  Any time i try to resist, they attach my collar or my wrists to a hook in the wall or to my bed or another piece of furniture and just leave me there until i give up and do whatever they want.  They haven’t made me do anything awful really, just regular stuff.  i eat, i exercise, i shower, i sleep.

So in a way, i’m glad that something different is happening.  i was a little bit afraid that it was just going to go on the same way forever.  But now – well, i just don’t know what’s going to happen next.

{This story didn’t go the way i thought it was going to.  i don’t even know where this story came from, it wrote itself, and i hope there isn’t more of it tucked away in my head, just waiting to come out.}