Caroline awoke to the bright sunlight streaming through the windows, as every morning the sun woke her early. Adrian was still sleeping so Caroline let him be and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Once out she blow-dried and curled her long brown hair. She changed out of her nightgown and into ripped skinny jeans and a gray and white striped top. Adrian had woken by the time she emerged.
“May I take a shower?”
“Sure. Let me take your collar off.”
Adrian came and knelt next to the couch where Caroline was sitting and she removed the black band around his neck. She then took his wrists and removed the cuff like bracelets. Adrian smiled at her and walked into the bathroom. Caroline glanced at the bands in her hand.
The collar was simple and black, exactly like a dog collar apart from the presence of tags. The cuffs and collars were not worn by slaves for identification, rather distinguishing and punishment. Every slave in Seba wore a collar of some sort, most were simple like Adrian's but others grew excessively extravagant. The Princess' favorite slave girl wore a collar made of gold with emeralds and diamonds embedded into it, decorative gold chains hung in patterns off of the collar. Common folk though used the collars for their intended purpose, collars and cuff bracelets were all made with metal rings attached so that one could clip a lead or bind the hands together without strife.
Caroline of course rarely used either the lead or restraints. She had no need. When she had first trained Adrian she admittedly needed to use a lead and bound his hands together, but it had been almost five years since then. Now Adrian was nearly the most obedient, compliant slave in all of Seba. Caroline considered herself lucky to have him. She fingered the collar in her hands, part of her wondering why he even wore it. He knew his place, very well in fact, and he never needed punished severely enough to merit a painful tightening of the collar or restraining that would require the cuffs.
Adrian walked out of the bathroom in his usual attire of jeans and a black and gray t-shirt, his hair still damp from the water. He came and knelt before Caroline again, setting his wrists in her lap, waiting for her to replace the cuffs and the collar.
“I don’t think you need them Adrian.”
He glanced up at her in surprise.
‘Mistress, it is an honor that you trust me this much,” he hesitated, “but...I was told that it is law. And they remind me of my place mistress, they remind me that I am wanted.”
“You’re right aren’t you?”
Adrian’s eyes went back to her lap in reply. Caroline took his wrists and placed the black leather cuffs around them, buckling the strap to keep them in place. She then lifted his downcast head to buckle the collar into its place around his neck. He watched her face the entire time, admiring his young mistress. She twisted the collar into its intended position and leaned down to kiss Adrian on the forehead, running her fingers through his hair as she did so.
“I have to finish the ads and commercials for the Yoski’s today, it’ll probably occupy most of my time. Do you have anything you need to do?”
“My time is devoted only to you.”
“You can watch T.V. if you’d like, and I’m sure that once Leon gets up he’ll beg you to play games with him. Or Riley and Ryan’s nurse could probably use a break.”
“Whatever my mistress wishes of me.”
“I’m positive none of them are up yet, why don’t you watch something.”
Caroline stood from the couch and sat instead at her desk, focusing all of her attention to the photographs on her computer. She glanced from time to time at Adrian, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the program from the floor. She smiled at the man sitting, back to her; she really appreciated how wonderful her life was. Shaking her head Caroline returned her attention to the photos on her computer. She was sifting through files and deleting unnecessary photographs when she came across a photo she thought she would never see.
Based on a vote from the general populous of Seba taken six years before, use of electricity as a correctional method had been outlawed. Electricity had been used as punishment for years but it was extremely harmful, slaves had been unintentionally killed. At first the people of Seba hadn’t cared, but as time progressed and the death rate only went up, their worries began to rise. That was the only time in history that the Yoski family was not in the favor of the people, so they immediately agreed to stop using electricity as correction.
She looked as close as she could at her computer screen, her eyes had to be wrong. She had been photographing the training one-day, but this photo shed light on an issue she didn’t know existed. She quickly zoomed and printed the photo, pulling it from the tray and looking closer. One of the guards had a strange blue light encircling his hand.
“Adrian come look at this.”
Adrian jumped to his feet and was at his mistress’ side.
“What is it?”
‘What do you think that blue light is?”
“It looks like their voltaic gloves, at least I think that’s what they called them.”
“Voltaic? As in pertaining to electricity?”
“I-I think so. Is something wrong?” He questioned in confusion.
“Perhaps. What did they do with these voltaic gloves?”
Rather than speaking Adrian pulled up the hem of his shirt and on his right hip pulled down the waistband of his jeans. Just where the band lay were five red marks. Caroline placed her fingers on them; they were positioned perfectly so that she was gripping his waist.
“They use them on you.”
“It’s a punishment yes.”
“How often?”
“It was usually a last resort but often enough.”
Caroline pulled Adrian so that he was sitting on the bed.
“I need you to think very carefully pet, I need you to remember, and can you do that?”
“I’ll try,” he knitted his eyebrows together in apparent confusion.
“Do you remember if there were ever slaves at the Yoski House that weren’t in your group?”
“Course there were. Some were there for the auctions on the weekends, others were just there for a couple of days then they got picked up by the same people that dropped them off.”
“And did the guards use the electricity on them?”
“Not always,” he answered, shaking his head and leaving it cocked to the left as he looked at Caroline.
“Adrian this is very serious, I need you to be positive about this. Did they use electricity not only on you but also many others?”
“Yeah, but it’s normal. We all deserved it.”
“What on earth could you have done to merit such drastic measures of punishment?”
Taking a deep breath Adrian recalled the night years ago.
~*~
“Slave two-forty three. Up! Now,” the guard yelled through the bars that separated Adrian and the five slaves he shared the small quarters with from the hallway. Adrian sluggishly got to his feet and grabbed the bars. He was beyond exhausted, they all were, and wanted nothing more than a slight rest before the next painful day would begin. He laid his face against the bars, waiting for the guard to further instruct him what to do. He fell forward as the door was opened; the guard dragged him up and attached his hands together with a lead, pulling him down the barren hall. All of his fellow slaves dragged themselves to their feet to peer through the bars to see what was happening.
The basement of the Yoski Auction House was dull and dark, especially compared to the upper two floors that were reserved for special training and guests of the Auction House. Adrian had never been in one of these special training sessions before, but he had heard horrors of what the woman would do behind closed doors. Needless to say when the guard began to lead him up the stairs to the top floor of the house he panicked. Even with his hands bound together Adrian easily knocked the guard out cold. Of course the other guards in the house were right around him to witness this event and they shoved him to the floor. One of the guards lit up the glove on his hand, pressing his fingers into Adrian’s hip, causing the boy to pass out from pain after a few seconds.
~*~
“Did you ever end up with the woman?”
“Immediately after I recuperated.”
“I see.”
“May I say something?”
“Yes.”
“I’m more than grateful to you. After the time I spent with that woman I was terrified, I knew what people could do to me, what they would do because of the way I looked. You’ve never done any of that and I’m-well I, thank you.”
“Adrian I’m sorry they did that to you. I’m very glad that you’re here rather than somewhere else.”
"I deserved the electricity Mistress, they use it when they need to.”
“It’s illegal,” she informed him with a sigh.
“What do you mean?”
“Six years ago it was a voting issue in the country, I know call me a geek but I was always interested in domestic affairs, but the people decided that the same conclusions could be reached without such drastic measures. Yoski House agreed to stop using it so that they wouldn’t lose the people’s favor. It was made into a law that same year, it was a year before I got you, so at least six months before you arrived here.”
Adrian focused his gaze on the comforter, taking in the information Caroline had presented. He had met men who believed that slaves where heinously mistreated, he had never agreed of course, but he never knew that the Sebans cared at all. He never knew that Caroline would ever consider something that her own people were doing was wrong.
“We need to talk to Garrett. If they really are still doing this I-I can’t leave it alone.”
“Do you want me to go get him?”
“Why don’t you, just tell Ella that it won’t take long.”
Adrian nodded and left Caroline’s room making his way around the corner of the hall and knocking on Estella’s purple door. Garrett answered and quickly whispered, “I can’t just let you in, what do I do?”
“Just tell your mistress that I beg a moment of her time.”
Garrett nodded, silently mouthing a thanks, momentarily disappearing from the door. He returned motioning for Adrian to enter. Estella was sitting on her bed reading a book; he went and knelt next to her.
“What do you need Adrian?”
“Mistress was wondering if she could see Garrett for a while, she promises that it won’t take long.
“Getting back at me already is she? Fine then, ten minutes Garrett then I want you back here.”
Garrett nodded, Adrian thanked Estella and both of them began to leave the room but were stopped by her voice.
“Oh and Adrian, I’m curious, did my sister heal your wounds last night?”
“I did not ask her to ma’am but she did,” he nodded as he obediently responded with the truth.
“As long as you didn’t beg her like a pathetic little boy, you are quite the man Adrian, well as much of a man as a slave can be. Now go, I’m sure my sister is growing impatient.”
Gritting his teeth Adrian led Garrett out of the room. He had always taken insult after insult from Caroline’s family and even Caroline herself the first month or so that he had been with her. None of the things they said were false, he only wished he could’ve been one of them. They had everything.
Not to say that he was not content with his life, he certainly knew how lucky he was. The training he had been through taught him skills that would be required for much more painstaking jobs. One of the days he had gone with Caroline to the Auction house he learned that one of the men he had shared a cell with had died at twenty from the work he had been doing. Adrian was more than thankful to have been purchased by Caroline; in his eyes she had saved him.
He reached her door and opened it finding her sitting at her desk, working as though she hadn’t just discovered one of the biggest lies that the Yoski family had ever told.
“Mistress?”
She turned around, seeing Garrett she moved to the couch, patting the seat next to her indicating that he should sit.
“Garrett, I just have a couple of questions to ask you. It’s imperative that you are completely truthful. Can you do that?”
“I can ma’am.”
‘I need you to remember the training period before The Auction,” she pulled the photograph from the table and placed it in his hands, pointing to the guard.
“What is that?”
Squinting his eyes Garrett tried to make out exactly what was on the guard’s hand.
“It’s a voltaic glove,” he stated matter of factly.
“You’re sure? They actually use electricity on you?”
“Hurts like hell, and it’s the only thing they won’t heal.”
“They don’t have the ability. How do they hide the scars?”
Pulling aside the neck of his shirt to reveal scars similar to Adrian’s he replied,” Apparently this is a birthmark.”
“How often did they use this form of punishment?”
“All the time. There wasn’t a person there without these scars somewhere.”
Taking a deep breath Caroline began to contemplate her situation, she had the information to knock the Yoski family off of their pedestal, but they could ruin her. If she wanted to protect her career she would keep this information to herself, but they were breaking the law and she was almost positive that some of the “mentally challenged” slaves had been in perfect condition during The Offering.
To make matters worse, people sent slaves to the Auction House for punishment if they didn’t want to do it themselves. Caroline’s sister Felice had done it with Olive once, if they were using electricity on those slaves they were permanently damaging slaves that were not their own, the property of their paying customers, which broke more laws than one.
“Thank you Garrett, you’ve been very helpful.”
“Was that all you needed?”
“Yes, you may go.”
With her permission Garrett walked out the door and back to Estella’s room. He opened the door to find him exactly how he had left her.
“What did she want?”
“She just asked me a few questions about the correctional methods they used during training.”
“What did Adrian do to merit that?”
“Nothing, at least I don’t think.”
“So she’s just getting bored then? I told her she would regret going into photography. Poor Adrian, taking the short end of that stick.”
“Poor Adrian indeed.” Garrett replied, knitting his eyebrows together with worry for the man. He had experienced the pain of electric shock before; it wasn’t a punishment to be taken lightly. He knew, even after the short time he had known the man that Adrian was likely the closest thing to a perfect slave that there was.
For him to be given the pain that came with electricity with no reason, it would kill him. Garrett knew that Adrian would not argue, he would take any beating with silence, never would he speak out against his superiors. If what Ella said was true, Caroline would probably be bored a lot. He couldn’t understand how someone could be so interested in photographs. If she was bored often, she would beat Adrian often, it wouldn’t be long before Caroline was back at The Auction because Adrian was no longer around.
“Yes, poor Adrian indeed.”