like something had been yanked away from her. She figured that Karl didn’t care when she tried to give him her number, and would probably never call. What was worse, she had given him her home phone and not her cell.
For the entire week and into the next one, whenever she went out she would always wonder if he had called her. She continuously dialed her answering machine, but to no avail.
Kristen knew she wasn’t acting like herself. Normally she never let men affect her this way. She usually knew to always keep her distance to ensure that she would never get hurt.
It was Wednesday night. She had a big day of lunch with the girls and shopping ahead of her, so she went to sleep at 10:30 PM. An hour later, she was jarred awake by the phone clanging against the vase next to her. “Oh, God, let me sleep!” She groaned, rolling away from the direction of the ring and back-handed the phone knocking it off the nightstand. Silence.
The phone rang again. Kristen then remembered, “Karl! Maybe it’s him!” Frantic, she struggled off the bed reaching down to pull the phone back off the floor. She fell off the bed scraping her ankle against the frame and made a lot of noise. “Oww!” she yelped. She then steadied the phone “Hello” she said calmly. A low voice inquired “What are you doing?” “Oh, nothing much.” Kristen replied rubbing on her ankle and trying to straighten out her body, which now seemed locked in a pretzel. Karl said “What was all that commotion?”
He sounded normal and then quickly snapped back into his stern voice. “Did you expect me to call?” Kristen said “I wasn’t sure if you would and it didn’t really matter anyway.” He was aggravated by her answer and continued “I have no time for game players. I am going to hang up.” Kristen pleaded “No, no I was hoping you would call. Please talk to me.”
Karl smugly said “Very well, I assumed you would be glad.” God, what arrogance. She loved it! He seemed pleased. “I have been very busy. Then he paused. “Excuse me. I need to call you back.” Now Kristen was feeling very nervous. She started propping herself up higher on her pillows and smoothing out her hair. She turned on her small lamp and pulled the phone off of the table and onto her lap.
“Ring already!” The phone just sat there. She waited another eight minutes without making a move. Now, she was just feeling stupid. She got out of bed pulling the phone cord behind her and stretching it out into the hallway as far as it would go. She sat down on the staircase with the phone between her legs. She groaned “Oh, no, not again! He’s not going to call. I can’t take this.”
Just as she was about to pout, he called back. She scooped up the phone trying to remain cool and sophisticated. Karl said “I think we should meet again. Do you have a fax at home?” Kristen said “Yes, same number, but I will have to hang up.” He clicked off.
The fax began to ring. Slowly a page emerged. She curiously watched as it came out. It was a grainy textured picture, very dark and hard to make out. She tilted her head. It looked like a woman on a bed with tubes coming out of her that were attached to a machine. A man in a mask was standing over her. More pictures followed and they were almost completely obscured by blackness. Her cell phone now rang. Kristen was puzzled that he knew that number. “How do you like them?” he asked. “I like” Kristen said.
Karl began to speak about bondage and his perception of it. Kristen listened intently. After an hour, she was more than curious and told him she wanted to learn more. They spoke late into the night. Before they hung up, Karl asked “Kristen. Are you planning on going to Palm Beach anytime soon? She answered “Why do you ask?” Karl replied “Oh, it's nothing. I was just wondering.” Kristen was now sure that she had Karl all lined up. But the problem was, he never set a date or said when he would call again.
Kristen thought about the bondage scene again. She realized there were people out there that followed BDSM like it was a religion. Obviously, some of them were warped to begin with. She figured Karl just did it for kicks, but she was not sure, and it scared her. Maybe he had a strict upbringing or a scary English governess.
For herself, she was only thinking about it as something different to do, to experiment with, and to test the limits. She felt a need to experience it before she was ready to go back to how mundane things could be. She sensed an element of true danger to it and she wanted to find the real players. She knew that Karl was perfect for what she was looking for. She wanted in!
The next day, Kristen was very anxious to start this new adventure and she was very annoyed that Karl had chosen not to call her back again. She wasn’t sure if he was back in New York or was in Chicago. She thought about him for another week and then one late morning, she felt extra impatient, and decided to scroll through her caller I.D. logs. Karl had blocked the first call that he had made to her home phone that night. But he didn’t when he re-dialed. She easily spotted the New York City prefix.
She felt very unnerved as she entered the number into her cell phone. It rang for a while and went to generic voicemail. She lost her braveness and did not leave a message.
She felt like she had made a big mistake trying to call him and went downstairs to make some lunch. After twenty minutes, she decided she was really craving to talk to him, so she tried it again.
The phone did not even ring and it was answered. Kristen said “Is this you?” His strong voice replied “You know it is. Why are you calling me?” She meekly spoke “I don’t know why. I just feel like I should.” He said indifferently “You know why; you just don’t understand it yet. You should really know that it is not for you.” Kristen understood what he meant.
Karl said “I know I should not see you again, but I am still stuck in town and this place is not New York, so I am bored. Some friends of mine are having a gathering tonight in the West Loop. Give me your e-mail. You need a pass to get in.” She relayed it to him and he hung up.
Kristen looked at the message when it came in. Karl had typed the address and when she clicked on the attachment, all it showed was a black square. She thought that was funny and wondered what type of event this was going to be.
The address was for an art studio and she was instructed to go in the back door at midnight. It felt like Halloween! She printed out the page and cut along the black square. She started thinking about calling up one of her girlfriends to come, but she was afraid to call Karl for permission. She feared that he would be mad and she would be uninvited.
She looked in her closet for an outfit that would really fit in with the bondage scene and found one of her short skirts that she used to wear in her punkier days. It was black and lined with little strips of metal. She then threw on a black leather teddy, stilettos, and left to meet him.
It was a pretty creepy section of town that he directed her to. The streetlights were not working on that block and she looked up and down for the art gallery. She just saw houses. She could barely read the addresses on any of them. Most of them were abandoned and boarded up.
She saw lights on at one house and thought it was the right one. There were no numbers on it and she knocked. No one answered. She waited for a while and thought they were partying and could not hear her. She turned the doorknob and walked in. The hall smelled like someone had been heavily cooking with spices. She walked around and saw beat up furniture in the living room and toys on the floor. “Oops, I don’t think this is right!” She heard a commotion upstairs and rushed out.
She ran fast down the block. She couldn’t believe that she walked into someone’s house. She leaned over and tried to catch her breath. “What are you doing?” She heard Karl’s voice behind her. He was standing by the rear of another house. He blended into the shadows wearing a dark suit and black shirt with no tie. She went over to him and started to explain. He just looked at her and she knew to stop talking. He didn’t say another word. She produced her black square and he didn’t even look. He walked. She followed.
They went into the backyard and he opened a screen door. It looked
like steps leading to a basement. He had her walk in front of him now. She tried to make it down the narrow wood stairs in her stilettos without stumbling. At the bottom, there was a light bulb in the ceiling that had black paint sprayed on the end of it and it was difficult to see. She didn’t hear anyone making noise and was afraid that she was alone with him. She didn’t know why, but Kristen began to worry that she didn’t know his last name and had never checked him out on the internet. She only was aware that he was a prominent businessman. Even though William knew him, if Karl wanted to get freaky and hurt her, this was the perfect place for it.
They went through a couple of doors and walked into a cold cement room that was painted black. In the corner were iron poles that came out of the walls which had handcuffs hanging down. There was a small platform only a few inches off the ground.
“Welcome to Hell” Karl said deadpan. Kristen’s throat grew tight and she was very frightened. She knew she had really made a big mistake and now it was all over for her. It was too dark to see the expression on his face. She thought she should try to kick him and escape, but he was exceptionally strong and she was absolutely paralyzed with fear.
He walked slowly