Dear readers, thank you for following this story so far. My apologies for the long delay in producing this chapter.
If you have not read the first two chapters, please read them first; it will make the events in Chapter 3 more understandable.
Thank you to kenjisato for his proofreading and general guidance.
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Chapter 3 : The Dream
After the traumatic events of earlier in the evening, Brian found it difficult to sleep. He lay in bed late into the night, gazing up at the ceiling, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. His mind was replaying the sequence of events like a broken record while Linda lay sleeping peacefully beside him, unaware of the turmoil inside her partner's head.
Brian's plan had been to bring some kinky, bondage sex into his and Linda's lives. It was to be a power roleplay, with Linda playing the part of a helpless, bound victim, while Brian played the dominant role. They had played out this fantasy before, but Brian had wanted to add some extra spice into the scenario by adding an element of uncertainty for Linda as to who she was with.
It would, of course, be him on the bed with her as before, but he wanted to have a third party in the house to add footsteps and a voice that Linda would not recognise. To that end, he had arranged for his work colleague, Mat Davis, to come to the house to collect a borrowed video game console. Brian's plan was that he and Mat would go to the spare bedroom, from where the console was to be collected; Mat would then retrace his steps down the stairs and leave quietly, leaving Brian to return to the bedroom and have sex with Linda, and she, not totally sure who it was that was with her, would find the experience thrilling and so adding a little spice to their sex lives.
Each time Brian replayed events in his mind, wondering where it had all gone wrong, his thoughts came to rest on Jon Martin. How Brian hated that man. In truth, Brian hardly knew him. While Brian and Mat worked in accounts at the local branch of the multinational sportswear giant Harrington Sports, Jon Martin, as International Sales Director, was based at head office in London and hardly ever visited the Southampton branch where Brian worked. However, on those occasions when he did visit, he gave the impression of regarding himself as vastly superior to the rank-and-file branch staff.
The only time Jon Martin ever condescended to speak to anyone other than the branch manager was if Jon noticed a new young, pretty female employee. The always immaculately dressed, handsome sales director was a notorious womaniser.
Although, as far as he could tell, the other men in the branch loathed Martin as much as Brian did, despite the way the arrogant executive treated women, which to Brian's mind was to use and then casually discard them, perversely all the women in the office seemed to drool over him.
For example, when Peter Smith, the branch manager, ordered coffees be brought into his office for him and Jon Martin when Martin visited, the women used to almost come to blows as to who would take the drinks in.
Briefly, Brian considered the mystery of why Jon Martin, a company high flyer from
London was with Mat Davis, a lowly accounts clerk, just like Brian himself. As far as he knew, they had never spoken to one another, but swiftly his thoughts turned to a more pressing matter--how could he face Mat Davis at work on Monday morning? Would Jon Martin taunt him? Would Linda find out? The possibilities were endless, each one more terrifying than the last.
His mind raced, a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. Jealousy, humiliation, arousal, fear.It was a toxic brew that kept him awake, tossing and turning, trapped in a nightmare of his own making, with all the time the image that Brian saw as he opened the bedroom door after Mat and Jon had left burnt into his mind.
Eventually, as the night wore on, exhaustion finally triumphed, and sleep overcame
him.
Even in his sleep, Brian did not find peace. Instead of a dreamless deep sleep, he found himself standing in a long, dark, dank tunnel. The air was thick with an eerie stillness; shadows were cast on the uneven, bare stone walls by dim flickering industrial style lamps spread sparsely, high on the vaulted tunnel walls. Brian's bare feet felt the chill from the damp stone floor; looking down, he saw that he was completely naked. Confused and disoriented, Brian struggled to recall how he had ended up in such a miserable place. He stood for a moment, wondering what to do next.
The tunnel stretched away endlessly to his left; the exposed stone walls and rough, uneven flooring reminded Brian of somewhere he had visited; he just couldn't place where. To his right, within just a few feet the tunnel was in total darkness The flickering lights there seemed to have died altogether, leaving only an abyss. Brian felt he had no option but to go left, and so he started walking; the only sound was his bare feet slapping against the cold, damp stone floor, echoing back from the vaulted roof.
After what felt like an endless number of minutes, Brian paused to take stock of his
surroundings. Nothing had changed; the passage continued on into the
distance with little signs of life or movement. He had thought once or twice in his long walk along the tunnel that he had seen a rat scurrying in the shadows, but that might have been a trick of the light. The only other sign of life had been a bat circling one of the lamps, catching insects attracted by the light.
Brian wondered if he should turn back, but when he looked, the hallway had vanished, replaced by an endless void.