My mind was a thousand miles away. I don't remember what I'd been thinking about, but I was in that state where you stare blankly at anything and everything, your eyes scanning from one thing to the next, while your brain is so deeply lost, either to fantasy or thought. And I couldn't hear the tracks anymore, or the announcer, or the occasional passenger's cough; and I couldn't feel the sway anymore, even as I was consistently rocked back and forth where I stood.
A sudden jolt forwards knocked me so abruptly from my stupor, and when I returned from my tiptoes back to my heels, having staggered forwards to then stagger back again, I felt myself bump into a woman behind me (and I knew it was a woman, because no matter how brief our collisionâhardly even a nanosecond, if thatâI had nevertheless felt the distinct shape of a woman's body, specifically her breasts, momentarily press up against me), so I immediately uttered an instinctive apology, hoping that would be enough to amend the little oopsie I'd made, even if it was pretty beyond my control.
But apparently it wasn't enough, because a paralyzing fear was thrust into my heart like the plunge of a dagger, as her arms locked around mine, pulling me back into her when I dared to politely escape. And I felt her breasts glued now to my back; I could smell her perfume that, no matter how lovely the fragrance, could only terrify me in that suddenly dire, panic-striking moment; and I could feel as her hands caressed my arm, her fingers stroking my sleeve... her sharp nails dragging along, yet without applying any pressureâthough it was enough to warn me of her having them, to be sure.
My eyes immediately threw themselves out for the other passenger's to catch, that they might return to me my gaze; and it was almost as if I was begging for their reassurance, as if someone giving me a nod after assessing the situation would normalize a stranger so suddenly grabbing and pinning me to them against my will. But she held onto me as though I was familiar to her, so while a few men, a few women returned my gaze, they stared right through me, as if I was a little girl being held in place and kept safe by her mother, and as if it was far too awkward to stare at someone's child with them right there to protect her, so they would shortly divert their eyes. And upon realizing that no one was going to understand the situation and speak up on my behalf, I threatened to turnâ
"No. Eyes forward," she hissed into my ear, though almost sweetly. But the assertion in her voiceâthat is, the raw confidence that I would blindly obey, never daring to threaten her authority again... made me do just that, my body jolting upright, and my eyes staring straight ahead, as every hair on my body stood on end (especially my neck, because I could feel her hot breath rolling out onto my flesh like steam, her face so close to me), and I scanned the train car desperately, looking from person to person with eyes that pleaded "Help me."
...Not that they noticedâor, if they did... not that they did anything about it...
I felt her nail across my bare flesh nowâagainst my forehead, and then my temple, as she pulled a bang back and tucked it behind my ear. While I was prohibited from seeing her face, it was as though she wanted to, in her desire to freely look upon me, taunt me with the appreciative study of my features... And I could have seen her from my peripheral, and probably could have gotten away with it, given that the train swayed us back and forth again and again (her into me, and then me back into her)âbut so powerful was her coercive charm over me, that I didn't dare even contemplate the possibility for longer than I had to... I banished the thought from my mind, letting her feast her literal eyes on me, so thoroughly helpless to this stranger's forceful demands.
And then, as if to test my obedienceâthat, or the fear in my heart, and how enslaved I was to the sinking, pulse-pounding gravity of anxiety forcing me ever down inside myself, firstly into complaisance, and secondly into compliance, as words were but a choke in the back of my throat, and actions the knot in my stomachâI heard her whisper to me the single word "Stay" as she let me go, her hold no longer physical, save for the breasts in my back, and the femininity of the rest of her body I felt snaked against mine.
I did as told, however. And I felt so humiliated and ashamed over it, tooâfor what kind of person was I? To domesticate a wild animal, you have to punish it into submission or bribe it into cooperation... But this meant I was already domesticated, because she had yet to punish me, and I had yet to even so much as provoke punishmentâand when there isn't any kind of compensation, let alone consent... I realized then and there, for the first time in my life, that I was a slave; that, somehow, my entire life leading up to this moment had been nothing more than a training exercise seeking to render me as weak and pathetic and docile as possible, so that the first person to grab me and start issuing orders became my masterâor, in this woman's case, my... mistress...
Truly, I am already domesticated.
The train slowed, then halted. People shuffled out as different people shuffled in. And the woman, with her intangible leash firmly grasped in hand, she asked, "Is that your stop?"âto which I meekly replied, barely able to form words, "No."
"It's your stop," she insisted, her lips to my ear, breath on my faceâand I couldn't recognize her inflection, or, even as she went on to clarify, what she wanted me to do, or what she even expected. "If you're strong enough," she taunted, "make it your stop, and go."
She was giving me the opportunity to run; and if I did, I wondered if she would follow, like a game of cat and mouseâand an irrational fear, perhaps, because what would she do if she caught me... kill me? While I didn't know her intentionsâshe could have a knife in her coat pocket, and be waiting and wanting to drive it into my side for all I knewâI could somehow sense this wasn't about violence... or, at least, not that sort of violence.âAnd besides, it wasn't my stop. No matter how badly I wanted to be free from her, and no longer feel this surge of adrenaline leaving me so dizzy and faint-headed; no matter how relieving it would've been to be so far from her, that my heart might finally find a normal pace, and I could stop the jitter in my every nerve, keeping me ever on the verge of tremblingâI didn't want to spend my day lost, wandering around in the city, where, honestly, even worse things could happen. And even though I was too afraid to consciously move a single muscleâand I have to emphasize the word "consciously", because I was shaking every so often, anxiety so very unconscious in comparisonâand even though I really didn't have any real say in the matter, because I was, even if I wanted to dart for those doors before they closed, and swim to safety through the sea of people just therebeyond... I was trapped, locked in place, with the breasts of an unknown stranger planted in my back, and causing my back to arch, and my knees to wobble...
I, helpless, watched those doors close...