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Jakub turns back to face me, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. “Do you honestly think you have a choice?”
I fold my arms across my chest. “I’m not foolish enough to think anything of the sort. I’m simply asking a question. What will happen to me if I refuse? Will you tie me to The Weeping Tree again, maybe you’ll lock me up in the dungeons, or wait… Will I be whipped?”
Jakub pushes up out of his seat and strides across the room towards me. “Let me show you,” he snarls, grasping my upper arm and yanking me to the other side of the room. Stopping before one of the tall bookcases, he looks over his shoulder at his brothers. “Leon, Konrad, you too.”
Leon grins. “Brother, so soon?”
“Why not? She’s here now. We may as well show her,” Jakub replies, reaching for a red, leather bound book on the shelf level to his shoulder. He pulls it towards him and with a puff of cold air, the door swings inwards revealing a stone staircase that curls upwards and out of sight.
“What’s up there?” I ask, knowing that wherever we’re going, it can’t be good.
“You’ll see,” he replies, blocking my exit so that I have no choice but to climb the steep, stone steps.
When we get to the top of the circular stairwell, lit periodically by the soft glow of the sunset pouring through slim rectangular windows, a door greets us. It’s arched at the top, thick metal hinges are fixed into the dark wood and the surface is gnarly and bumpy just like the bark of The Weeping Tree. I have the sudden urge to touch the wood, and reach out pressing my fingers against the surface.
Behind me Jakub steps close, I can feel the warmth of his breath against my cheek as he slides a large metal key into the lock. “Five years ago a storm brought down several trees in the forest. This door was made from one of the ancient oaks,” he explains, turning the key in the lock and pushing open the door. “As was every piece of furniture in this room…”
With his chest against my back, and his hand clasped around my upper arm, he walks me into the room. I draw in a sharp intake of breath at what I’m confronted with.
“No,” I whisper, aware of Leon and Konrad entering the space.
“Yes,” Jakub replies.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Konrad walk over to the huge four poster bed taking up the centre of the room, big enough to sleep several people. He reaches up and removes his mask, chucking it into a woven basket on the floor beneath the window then sits on the mattress, his hand moving over the bedding leisurely. None of that would’ve bothered me had I not seen the four rusty chains hanging from the bed frames from metal rings. At the end of each chain is a leather cuff. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what they’re for.
Konrad catches my eye as he picks up one of the cuffs, fingering the leather almost reverently as Leon approaches the bed. “You are the first woman to enter this space...” Konrad’s voice trails off as he licks his lips.
“I don’t want—”
“You don’t want this?” Leon asks, trailing his hands up the bedpost provocatively. “This is tame in comparison to what’s over there.” He points to the far left of the room at a huge armoire, also made out of wood. “Jakub, may I?” he asks.
“Do it,” Jakub says from behind me.
My throat dries. I don’t want to see what’s in that wardrobe, and before Leon’s even reached it, Jakub leans down, his lips pressing against my ear as his arm wraps around my waist. “You wanted to know what would happen to you if you refused to perform in The Menagerie. Well,Nothing,” he says, gripping my jaw with his hand and forcing me to look at Leon opening the doors of the armoire, “We’ll doeverything.”
Leon stands back to reveal a plethora of instruments. My mouth dries out at what I see before me. There are whips and floggers in various coloured leather. Wooden paddles in an assortment of sizes. Mouth gags, blindfolds, lengths of silk, feathers and nipple clamps. There are several different vibrators in all manner of shapes and sizes. One particularly scary looking one is as long and as wide as my forearm.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, all of it shocking, but none more so than the knives fixed to the inside of the doors. I’m vaguely aware of Jakub’s fingers circling my hip as he holds me against him. It’s a comforting gesture, gentle. I don’t trust it for a second.
Leon picks up a knife. His fingers wrap around the leather handle of a particularly sharp-looking blade. It may be only a couple of inches long, but it could do untold damage in the wrong hands.
“We’re all partial to a bit of blood play, aren’t we, Brothers?” Leon says, reaching up and removing his mask. He places it on the bed and Konrad picks it up, chucking it in the basket alongside his mask. “There’s something so erotic about fucking a woman with a knife pressed to the thrumming pulse in her neck. You never really know if you’ll finally lose control and let the blade slit her throat.”
“Amen to that, Brother,” Konrad agrees, getting off the bed and walking over to the armoire. “Though I do love the colour of a woman’s skin when it blooms beneath the stinging blow of a paddle.”
“You’re sick,” I say, unable to hide the mounting fear. “How can anyone find pleasure in pain? How canyou?”
“That’s a very one dimensional way to look at the world, Zero. Intense pleasure can be drawn from pain so long as you know what you’re doing,” Konrad counters. “The three of us are experts in walking that fine line.”
“Am I supposed to be impressed?” I counter, swallowing hard as Jakub walks me towards the bed.
“No. Right now you’re reacting just the way we’d expected,” Leon says, pressing the tip of the blade into his thumb, slicing the pad. Blood oozes out of the cut, trickling down his thumb and hand. He holds the blade out to Konrad, who grins and takes it from him. I watch as he cuts his thumb in exactly the same spot.
“Sit,” Jakub demands, twisting my body around and pushing me back onto the bed. I throw my hands out to stop me from falling backwards. Recovering quickly, I move to stand, but Konrad throws Jakub the knife and the blade rushes between us, keeping my arse planted on the bed. Jakub catches it by the handle, a gentle smile pulling up his lips as he removes his mask with his free hand, then turns to face me. It’s clear from the look in his eyes that he wants to cut me.
“Don’t,” I blurt out, holding my hands up defensively and squeezing my eyes shut. My heart pounds in my chest, my throat closes over in fear, but when nothing immediately happens and Leon starts to chuckle, I force myself to look. Jakub holds the blade against his thumb, cutting himself just like Konrad and Leon had. Tipping his head back, there’s a look of pure bliss on his face as blood trickles from the wound. I watch it slide down his thumb and drip from his wrist, tiny droplets spilling onto the skirt of my dress. I’m aware of Konrad and Leon climbing onto the bed behind me, and despite the relative warmth of the room I feel nothing but coldness. Goosebumps break out over my skin. I grit my jaw to stop my teeth from chattering. They can’t know how afraid I am.
Slowly, Jakub lowers his head, meeting my gaze. He lifts the knife and I swallow hard, waiting for him to do what I know he desires.
