Dark Leather

The next morning held suprises for her. Before leaving she made sure the
place was well locked up, Randy and Ilana locked in their room and the rest of the
house locked up, then she took a cab to the lawyer who was reading the will.

The building the cab stopped infront of was massive, it was one of those
lawyer firms that have gone down from generation to rich generation and held only
the most weathy of clientel, it was called, simply enough, \'Heldrige and Sons\'. The
building was placed in the center of uptown amongst all the most fashionable
places, it stood impressively at four stories high, the highest building the town could
boast of having, it had a skyriser effect, lots of windows and silver/grey steel
outside, the entrance doors where those revolving kind, the ones that you walk into a
small booth barely big enough to stand in and walk forward until your inside, getting
out is always the hard part if you don\'t catch it soon enough and put too much
momentum into it you could end up back where you began.

Getting out she hands the cabbie his fare plus a resonable tip, she felt it was
necessary since she used them so much, she would of drove her own car but that
suspicious side of her wouldn\'t allow it to be seen much, especially since she\'d
disappeared after her mother\'s death with another girl, who was still underaged.
Tugging on the cotton skirt she made her way inside, she\'d dressed conservitively in
a dark blue suit, the sleeves of the jacket were short, the undershirt was a medium
blue, the skirt ended just above her knee, from there down she had pany hose,
something she just knew was created to torture, and dark blue highheels, she\'d had
Ilana do her hair up, which made her look years older. She wore no jewelry, no
makeup, and looked rather plain, just the effect she was going for, she\'d give off
boring and proper before she gave off young and rebelious or hired killer, or the
many other things that she really was, because boring and proper she\'d never been
and never could be.

Inside the building housed more luxury then the outside had hinted at, dark
polished hardwood floors, wide foyar leading to several halls that housed lawyers,
the walls in the foyar held contempory art, landscape art, anything and everything but
all of it looked worth a fortune, even the dark wood chairs, with coushioned leather.
Their was a desk at the far end, opposite the doors, and she went to the secretary
there, though she wanted to call her a receptionist.

\"Excuse me, I have an appointment.\"

The aged woman looked up from the book she was reading and squinted at
her, glasses lay off to the side suggesting that the woman most likely couldn\'t see
her.

\"Who with?\"

\"Mr. Brown.\"

The old woman points to the hall on the right and Celest goes down it looking
for the right name on the doors that she passed. She found the office she was
looking for after some time and found herself smiling at the name pained on the
door in black block letters, Mr. Henry Brown. He wasn\'t part of the \'..and Sons\',
most likely just a business partner or an employee, someone of no importants and
with little need to dig into affairs that weren\'t safe for him. Taking a calming breathe
she pushed open the door and walked in, not bothering to knock, offices like this,
and with an appointment, she didn\'t feel the need to knock though it offset the
personality she was trying to be.

The office was like the rest of the building, elegant in a very weathy way, the
floor was yet again polished wood, the walls almost matched it line for line, of what
could be seen through the wall to wall shelves of law books. The only furniture in the
room, aside from the book shelves, was the desk, dark polished wood again, that
sat across from the door, infront of the desk sat two stiff chairs, they matched the
desk, a highback leather chair sat behind it and in that chair was the man she\'d
come to see.

\"Ah, miss Vander, so good to finally meet you, your father talked about you in
his last days, talked about you alot. I\'m just glad that you two got to spend so much
time together before he died, a tragic affair indeed, mugged in the streets...\"

The lawyer, a middle aged greying man with a belly large enough for Santa
Claus, stood when she walked in then motioned her to one of the seats infront of the
desk, taking his seat again, his voice had a droning note to it that she hated, she\'d
had a science teacher like that. What she was confused about was that he was
saying her teacher was her father, and that just didn\'t sound right, but the more she
thought about it the more it fit, her teacher must of said she was his daughter so
that she could inherit what he was giving her.

\"Now, let us begin the matter at hand, shall we.\"


****


An hour later she left the grand building in shock, she kept on walking
even when she was well away, she didn\'t know where she was going and that that
moment it didn\'t matter, didn\'t matter one bit. She\'s rich now, all because of
Peter, he had made sure she was secure in the world when he passed on, she
hadn\'t even known him long and he\'d done all this for her. She now owned a
large house just outside the city limits that had ten plus acres of land on it, she
had money in several bank accounts because, as the lawyer had put it, \'banks
don\'t like too much money from on person, so it has to be split up when you
pocess those kind of asset\'. Call it what he wanted to but she was rich with plenty
of money to spend, not to mention the fact that their was monies invested in
stock, some land owned in several places. She had come futher then she\'d
thought she would ever.

She had to go see the place had to look at it, but that would have to wait til
tomorrow, it was getting late in the day and she wanted to start early.

She wandered around, lost in thought, and when she finally looked up to
get her bearings she found she was standing infront of the bar she\'s worked at
for several years now. At first she wasn\'t sure why she was there but then it came
to her, it was time to end it, end it all, to cut her ties and be freed of everything.
Once again facing another life changing desicion she takes a deep breath and
walks into the building, dull and dirty looking in the light of day but she knew it
held it\'s own magic once the sun dropped from the sky.

She headed straight for Roger\'s office, she couldn\'t waste her time talking
to anyone else or doing anything else. The door was wide open as if he were
expecting someone, and maybe he was, expecting her.

\"Peter is dead and I\'m taking over his business.\"

Celest said as she walked into Roger\'s office, he looked up in suprise, not
about Peter being dead, in his world you learn those things quick, but that she
was taking over his business, because that would mean only one thing.

\"Your leaving us?\"

\"Yes, I won\'t have enough time taking over his business and working here.\"

\"What about your family?\"

Her face grows a little dark and he knew he had asked wrong, he had
never asked her such a personal question in all the time they had known each
other.

\"I\'ve never met my father, he could be dead for all I know, and my mother
died of an overdose a day before Peter died. Their\'s never been anyone but
myself, and their will only be myself. I\'m leaving now, my locker\'s cleaned out of
any personal items.\"

She never had any personal items in her locker, nothing but her uniform
and the whip she now carried with her almost constantly. She makes to leave but
he stops her.

\"We\'ll be seeing you, then. I hope things go well for you.\"


\"Of course, I can\'t just forget about you guy\'s.\"

She smiles but means not a word of it, as soon as she leaves the building
she will push them to the back of her mind and never see them again, just
another part of burning her bridges, and Roger knew it, knew that they would
never see her again, he just hoped that something in her life would brighten,
someone that young shouldn\'t look so sad and lost.


****


Celest started the next day early, first she went out and scouted the area
where her new house was, her and Mr. Brown had finished all the paper work the
day before so it was legally her\'s, and then went back to the little shack, for it
could be nothing more compared to the house she now owned. She woke Ilana
up and had her carry what few things they had out to the car and then took a
small break.

Celest moved Ilana in during the afternoon, left her to unpack things while
she explored the place more, still in shock from what she had inherited from her
former teacher. It wasn\'t only the money that had come with it, but the three story
house on ten acres of land that had her mind still spinning. The house was
painted universal white, their were more windows then was necessary for a house,
though later she was to discover that the master bedroom, her room, had no
windows in it. It looked just like any other mansion, right down to the perfectly
manicured lawn.

While she was exploring the first floor she comes across something odd next to
the stairs and when she investigates she discovers a hidden door, intrigued, she
opens it and finds stairs leading down.

The temperature is slightly cooler then the rest of the house, the light
fades away after only a couple steps, her hands feel the wall for a light switch,
which she eventually finds at the end of the stairs. She gasps in delight at what
she finds, a large room filled with \'toys\'. The wall is littered with sharp objects,
small swords, screws, hooks. Their are mallets and other blunt objects, a table
sits in the middle of the room, it\'s large enough to hold several people laying on it,
it\'s clean, so clean that the cold metal shines in the dull light. At one end of the
room hangs chains, near it on the wall is a hook, she reconizes it as a place to
hold a whip, atleast that\'s what it will be used for.

Such toys, she thought with delight as she soaked the room in, walking
further in, as she does so she notices something she hadn\'t seen at first glance,
so enthralled with the place as she had. Upon closer inspection she finds a note,
addressed to her from her former teacher. She reconized the writing, the way he
didn\'t sign it, always anonymous, and her hands shook slightly as she reached
out and picked it up, reading each word with care. Her former teacher had been
the only one, aside from her mother, that she had ever truely cared about, he had
been like a father to her.

The note read:
If your reading this then I\'m dead. Don\'t be sad or mourn my passing, not
that I expect you will, your strong, always have been, and also too smart to be
held down by such emotions. I\'ve had the preminition for some time now that I
would meet my end soon so I gathered things together and prepared for you to
take over my holdings, my work, if you so wish to. I redecorated the basement to
fit your tastes, I do hope it\'s too your liking, their\'s also a list of people to contact
when you need certain items, the list is under the table in a hidden drawer.
Enjoy your new life, my pupil, my heir. May pleasure fill the rest of your
existance.

She smiles and she rereads the note then crumbles it up and shoves it in a
pocket, she would decide later what to do with it, but she knew what she would do
with the room, had just the thing. Randy was still locked in the house just outside
of town, she had left him there not certain what to do with him, he still fought her,
was still defiant, and she hadn\'t wanted to bring him to such a nice place only to
have to dirty it, but with the discovery of the basement she had just the place to
put him, just the place. Her eyes watch the wall where the chains hang as she
walks back up stairs.

She finished exploring the house close to night fall and before she left she
assigned Ilana a room, next to her\'s.

\"I\'m going to leave for a little while, I want you to clean while I\'m gone, I
don\'t want to have any dust or dirt about the place when I return, understand?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"Good.\"

Celest pats the side of her face and walks away, Ilana wasn\'t sure what to
think about the change of enviroments, this place was deffinitely cleaner and
better but she wasn\'t sure if attitudes would change, if anything at all would
change, or only get worse. Worse was not what she wanted.


****


Randy lay on the bed, exhausted, he had spent all day trying to free
himself but to no avail, if only he had been able to get loose then he would of
been free, truely free again. Celest had taken Ilana earlier that day, said
something about moving into a new home, but she hadn\'t taken him, did that
mean she was going to leave him like this, to starve to death, or was she coming
back? The uncertainty had been enough to drive him insane.
The weather outside must of been wonderful, because the room heated up
til it was almost unbearable, smells from somewhere permeated the air and made
him want to gag, and through this all he struggled with his bindings in the hopes
that he would escape, but day came and went and he was still unable to free
himself.
Right after nightfall a car pulled into the driveway and Celest got out, she
covered her face from the smells that came from the only house nearby, a trashy
place that must have dead animals in the yard. Whatever caused the smell it was
digusting and she hurried inside, she would get Randy and leave this awful place,
greatful once again for what her former teacher had given her.
Randy blinks from the bright light when Celest opens the door and walks
in.

\"Looks like you\'ve been a very bad boy, can\'t leave you alone for one
minute without you trying to escape, now can I.\"

She says as she looks at his hands, all his struggles had accomplished
was to rub the skin around his wrists raw, so much so that they bled though
currently they had stopped. None too gently she untied him from the bed then
tied his hands behind his back, tight enough that it made him wince.

\"Time for us to relocate.\"

She says with a grin as she leads him out of the room and through the
house. Outside she opens the trunk of the car and order\'s him in, he doesn\'t
want to go in and puts up a fight but is too weak to do too much and so she
pushes him in and forces him to fit into the tight space.

\"Maybe if you hadn\'t done your wrists like you had you could sit in the front
of the car, but I refuse to have the inside of my car dirty, especially with your
blood.\"

With that she shuts the door and again his world is in darkness, for the first
time since this had all happened he wondered if he\'d ever be allowed to see
daylight again, and not just a small glimpse here and there, but true daylight.
The drive was long a bumpy, both of which only Randy noticed. The
house Celest had newly aquired was across town from where they had been,
though still out of the city limits, of which she liked, because it gave her more
freedom, and even more so with no neighbors as far as the eye could see.

When she arrived at the house Ilana was at the door immediately, almost
as if she had stood by it waiting for her arrival, what ever the case might be Celest
liked how she was very cooperative. Celest dragged Randy out of the trunk and
drug him inside the house, she issued order\'s to Ilana as she went, having her to
make sure she locked the door behind them and opened the hidden door by the
stairs, then she ordered her to get a glass of water and while she was gone
Celest hooked Randy to the chains. He looked almost funny to her, hanging
spread out as he was. What he was hooked to wasn\'t the wall, no the wall was
still several feet away, he was hanging in mid-air, which gave her plenty of room
to maneuver if she wished to use her whip, whch she knew with him she would
have to.


Ilana brought the glass of water to Celest, but paused when she saw
Randy hanging from the ceiling, tears welled up in her eyes at the sight of him, he
didn\'t deserve all this, none of them had deserved what she had done to them,
but it didn\'t seem like it was escapable, at the very least this was too much, far too
much.

Celest took the glass from her and offered it to Randy, he took it happily.

\"Enjoy, it\'s all you\'ll be having for awhile, and this is only because I know
how hot it gets in that room and I don\'t want you to die on me.\"

She moves to hand the glass to Ilana but something about the look in her
eyes made her stop.

\"What?\"

\"D-do you have to do this, surely he\'s learned by now...\"

The look on Celest\'s face made her stop and when she moved forward
Ilana backed up but found only the wall, much to her horror.

\"What\'s this, questioning me are you now? I don\'t believe I gave you
permission to do any such thing.\"

\"S-sorry...Ce...\"

There, she had done it, she had been almost ready to say her real name
aloud, she had not been able to call her anything but Mistress ever since the first
night, to call her anything else was to evoke her wrath.

The glass in Celest\'s hand broke under the pressure of her hand but a
smile slowly uplifted her lips, her eyes dark as death.

\"So, that\'s how it is, is it, my pet.\"

Celest grabs her by the collar of her shirt and practically carries her over
to the table where she lays the upper part of her body on the table, ripping open
the back of her shirt and leaving her back, already scarred, bare and open. The
whip appears suddenly in her hand, cracking in the silence. Randy watched,
scared, unable to look away.

\"I do not tolerate such defiance, I do not tolerate it from Randy and I\'ll not
tolerate it from you!\"

She glanced over at Randy, that cruel look in her eyes.

\"Watch closely, boy, because this is what\'ll happen to you in a moment.\"

She turned her attention back to Ilana who now shivered where she half
stood half lay against the table, the cold in the room having nothing to do with the
shivers.

The whip cracked and lashed out connecting with her back, the first few
times she made noises, which made the whip hit even harder, but after awhile she
managed to stay quiet, she knew it only angered her Mistress to make noise, to
even cry. That was the hard part, not crying after recieving such a beating.
Finally the whip went silent and only the stinging from the wounds were left
as a reminder of her disobediance and defiance.

\"Stand up.\"

Ilana stood, clutching her shirt close, and turned to face Celest, her head
bowed in submission.

\"Will you be questioning or defying my orders again?\"

\"No, Mistress...\"

\"Will you be a good pet now?\"

\"Yes, Mistress.\"

\"Good. Now clean up the glass from the floor then go to your room.\"

\"Yes, Mistress.\"

She ran upstairs and was back a moment later with a broom and dust pan,
then gone just as quckly, hiding herself in her assigned room where she cried
silent tears, unable to tend to her wounds alone.

Celest turned her attention back to Randy, walking up to him, he looked
away when she stood infront of him and, using the whip, she made him look up,
look her in the eyes.

\"You\'ve been exceptionally defiant to my wishes, boy, but it stops now. I\'m
the only person you\'ll be seeing for awhile, you stay in this room, like you are
now, until you decide to cooperate, do you understand?\"

He gives her a dirty look and starts to make a rude remark when she
smacks his face with the whip, enclosed so that it didn\'t mark his face, but with
enough force his head went flying back, enough that part of his face would bruise.
She let the whip uncoil as she walked behind him, it dragged on the floor,
playing with his imagination, he felt the first blow long before it hit, just the
anticipation of it, but when it hit he knew it, she let him have it putting her full
strength into it, blow after blow to his back until their was no pain, just a hot
burning, until their was no breath in him to scream out anymore, nothing but the
burning pain in his back. She stopped at this point and moved infront of him, her
whip was covered in blood, so was the hand in which she had wound it up with.

\"Such a mess, and I do hate cleaning messes up.\"

She watches him closely as she raises her bloodied hand to her face and
licks some of the blood off, she felt a rush from this and though she couldn\'t tell,
her eyes flashed silver. Randy couldn\'t look away, couldn\'t move, not that it
mattered, his world was spinning, growing darker with each moment.

When he passed out from the pain she left, turning the light off as she
went. She cleaned the whip, and her hands of blood before she went upstairs to
the second floor, where she went directly to Ilana\'s room with medical supplies.
She didn\'t want the wounds to get infected, and they were clean enough that they
shouldn\'t scar, not if treated properly. With Randy she didn\'t care if his wounds
killed him.

Ilana jumped when the door opened and Celest walked in, immediately she
lowered her head and stood.

\"Lay on the bed on your stomach, yes, good girl.\"

Ilana did as commanded, not wanting to anger her anymore, it was enough
that she was getting her back treated, that her Mistress cared enough about her
heath to do so herself, not that she felt she was important, she knew she was
merely a dog, a lowly creature in Celest\'s sight.

Celest wasn\'t gentle in her cleaning and doctoring the wounds but Ilana
stayed quiet the whole time, not once uttering a sound, Celest smiled at that part,
of the two Ilana was deffinitely the faster learner, this had been her first act of
defiance in a long time.

When she was finished she left the room without a word, Ilana stayed
where she was, fell asleep that way. That night her dreams were filled with
nightmares, horred dreams, that left her with restless sleep.