~Part Nine~
Nancy came back to the apartment for lunch but Shelby was still sleeping. She left her a note on the kitchen table that she'd been by and that she was headed back to work.
At two, Nancy found herself at Skön, the salon. The waxing process really wasn't all that bad; Nancy's body came out hairless and her face now had two beautifully arched eyebrows.
When she got back to her office the phone was ringing, and it was coming from her apartment.
"Hi, baby girl. How are you feeling?"
"Tired. Sore," Shelby said sourly. She was calling from the bed in the bedroom.
"Go ahead and order yourself some lunch. I'm working now until at least six."
Shelby yawned. "Okay." And she rolled over just for another few seconds of sleep.
Shelby got up, dressed, and came into the kitchen. She ordered herself a cheeseburger and French fries from the cafeteria. When the knock on the door came, she opened it, expecting food.
But it was Lillianna.
"Shelby!" Lillianna said, her lips twisted into a maniacal grin.
Shelby, shocked, started walking backwards into the apartment. Lillianna followed her in and closed the door behind them.
"How are you doing, precious? I just wanted to check on you."
Shelby went to talk but nothing came out.
"Turn around and lift your dress. Let me see how your bottom is doing."
"N-n-n-" Shelby stuttered, shaking her head.
"Come on, girl," Lillianna demanded, smacking her hand on the kitchen table. "Show me that pretty ass."
"Y-you need to l-leave," Shelby spluttered.
Lillianna reached for Shelby but she dodged her. Shelby made a run for the door but Lillianna caught her by her arm.
"Let go of me!" She yelled. "Help! Somebody please help!"
And then Shelby woke up.
She was sweating and breathing hard, and she might have even yelled out in her sleep. She had to work to get herself untangled from the sheets. The cordless phone was beeping next to her in the bed. She hung it up and she looked around. Was that just a dream? She was alone in the apartment as far as she could tell; everything was completely silent except for her pounding heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night Shelby decided to go swimming. She had been given a white bikini to wear that fit her nicely. Nancy went with her and as before when she first saw the pool area, Shelby was impressed. Nancy had changed into her flowery one piece bathing suit, and she immediately put on her goggles and started swimming laps.
But Shelby eyed the high dive. She was going to do it. It loomed above her, a giant sentry watching over the pool, taunting her. But she needed to master it. It was silly, but like at the city pool, it was just something she needed to do.
She slowly climbed the ladder to the top and took a second to catch her breath once she stepped onto the diving board. She hung onto the railings on either side of the board as she walked out. Eventually she was out on the very edge of the diving board, all alone, and with nothing to hang on to.
Shelby stood there for a few seconds looking down. The water was crystal clear and she could see a big square drain down at the bottom of the pool. The pool lights were on and the water in the deep end was a deep, dark blue.
There were other people in the pool, but their laughter and voices seemed to fade into the background. The only thing left was Shelby, the high dive, and the deep end.
She curled her toes around the end of the board and jumped off. Holding her nose, she free fell for what seemed like forever until her feet and the underside of one arm smacked hard into the water.
She rode her momentum down for as long as she could hold her breath, and then she started to kick so that she would surface. When she did, she heard clapping. She spun around to see where it was coming from.
There by the edge of the deep end sat Nancy. "That was awesome!" Nancy said. "I thought you were afraid of heights!"
"I am," Shelby said with a laugh as she swam over to the ladder. "But I wanted to master the high dive before I did anything else in the pool."
Nancy laughed. "Well, you showed it who's boss!"
Shelby laughed. She felt pretty darned proud of herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday
Shelby woke up rather late to see Nancy getting dressed. She was putting on a pair of nice looking jeans and a red short sleeved shirt. "I'm running out to the store," she said. "Is there anything you want?"
Shelby scowled. "Yeah. To get out of here. To come with."
Nancy shook her head. "You know I can't do that."
Shelby sighed. "Fine. Get me some Sprite. Regular. And some Doritos in the blue bag."
Nancy nodded. "Okay. I'll be back in a little bit. I brought you a computer yesterday. It's on the couch. Feel free to surf."
"Okay," Shelby said.
And then with a grin and a wink, Nancy was gone.
Shelby blinked, glancing around. Holy crap. She was alone!
Shelby got up quickly, threw on a wrap dress, and came out into the living room. She was hungry but that could wait. She now had a computer!
She went to the couch and gingerly sat down. She opened the laptop and noticed that it was already on. Immediately she went to the Google webpage and tried to log into her personal account, but the email portion of Google had been deleted. Shelby frowned. She tried to re-download the app but the computer wouldn't let her.
She tried to go to another free email website but it wouldn't even come up on the screen.
"Goddamnit!" Shelby growled. "She's blocked everything!"
So she changed tactics. She put the computer aside and tried the kitchen phone. She tried different combinations of numbers to try to get an outside line. She dialed 9 and then a phone number. She dialed 8 and then a phone number. But none of that worked either.
She noticed that Nancy had left her cellphone on the table, which was weird. She usually carried it everywhere with her. Shelby tried to get into Nancy's phone, but it was password protected and fingerprint locked.
"Fuck," Shelby muttered, tossing it down. "I'm never going to get out of here, am I?" she said.
She put her hands on her hips, thinking. What if the fire alarm was pulled, she wondered. Surely everybody would have to leave the building. But only maybe if there was a legitimate fire. That was something to think about.
She next started looking around for matches or spare keys. Maybe Nancy had an elevator key stashed somewhere. Luckily, the kitchen junk drawer contained what looked to Shelby like either an elevator or an apartment key. Or maybe it did double duty and was both. In any case, it was something to stash away and to try out in a minute, she thought to herself.
Shelby went into the bedroom and started digging around in Nancy's armoire. God, she had a lot of sex toys, Shelby thought. There was an expensive-looking pocket watch in a box but not much else of any interest. Shelby sighed and finally she gave up looking. What if she looked around outside the apartment?
She opened the apartment door and stuck her head out. The hallway was deserted. Good. She left the apartment and went straight to the elevators. She discovered that although she could get on the elevator, floors two and three were off limits; the buttons wouldn't even work with her key. She could only go down to the first floor to the office, or to the basement to the pool. That was why those several days ago when she was trying to run away from the goons the elevator wouldn't even leave the fourth floor - she was missing a key.
Shelby made an executive decision and decided to try the office floor first.
The elevator delivered her right into the middle of the office. It was eerie with the lights off and nobody there. She walked around the empty space until she reached the double set of doors that led into the entryway where the weekend security guard was stationed. But those doors were locked tight, and her key did not work.
She tried Nancy's office, but it too was locked. All of the offices were locked, she discovered, and her key wouldn't unlock any of them. She went back to the entryway and started digging in Joelle's desk. Maybe Joelle kept spare keys around? She looked, but all she found of any interest was a pacifier, hand lotion, some bottles of iced tea, and snacks. Nothing useful to use for an escape. Well, unless she was MacGyver. He could probably take the pacifier and jerry rig it with the hand lotion to make a bomb. But MacGyver she was not.
Shelby even went back into the dreaded storage closet. She dug around a bit and felt around the post-it notes, extra staplers, and boxes of Bic pens. She found the company's stash of Addington Investments swag, but no keys or matches. She kept an interesting looking Addington Investments pen for herself.
Shelby crossed her arms over her chest. "I've got to get out of here," she whispered. "There has to be a way."
Shelby then took the elevator down to the pool. She went into the women's locker room and checked all the available lockers but they were all empty, just as she had suspected. And the ones with padlocks on them wouldn't open. She doubted she could get into the men's locker room to look without drawing suspicion.
Finally she just gave up.
Back in the apartment it was quiet. Shelby was still fuming when she flopped down onto the couch. There was nothing for her to do. Nowhere to go. Nobody to talk to. She didn't feel like going down to Joelle's apartment since she was no doubt dealing with her sick baby.
She didn't know anybody else who lived on the fourth floor.
The fourth floor.
She hadn't explored it yet.
She left the apartment again and started walking around the silent hallways. There was the conference room where she'd sat not even a week ago for her interview with Nancy. And the doctor's exam room where she'd been...well, she didn't like to think about that day very much.
Most of the doors on the fourth floor had numbers on them. That probably meant they were apartments. Nancy's big apartment was number four. Joelle's apartment down the hall was number seven.
She started trying the door knobs of apartments but they were all locked. She was almost out of doors until she came to the very last door at the opposite end of the building from Nancy's apartment. It had no number on it at all. So she tried the door handle. And it opened.
Shelby walked into the dark room and turned on the light. What she saw was definitely a shock.
Her friend Leena a week ago had joked about the Addington building being a place of torture. And now she knew why.
She'd just walked into a BDSM dungeon.
"My God," she breathed. It was absolutely terrifying, yet very interesting at the same time. There were mirrors on the ceiling. The walls were painted dark grey. A Saint Andrew's Cross was against one wall. Various plush benches of different sizes and colors and shapes dotted the big room. There was an immaculately decorated bed with lots of throw pillows, black sheets, and a red comforter. The restraints were already attached to the head and footboards ready for use.
One wall had hooks embedded in it, and two of the hooks together held one long, curled up whip that reminded Shelby of a black snake. There was also a large assortment of paddles and floggers and crops hanging on the hooks on the wall. There was even a bamboo cane.
There was a short, squat, ornate wooden cabinet with two doors against one wall that she walked over to open. There were various kinds and brands of lube inside, and other tubes of stuff she couldn't have guessed what they were for.
And then she saw them.
