Confinement

I lost 22 kilos. My body bears scars I never saw coming. And every week I lie to my family with a forced smile on the screen.

The Mistress announced the inspection with that smile that always made my blood run cold. I knew at once that this day would be unlike any before it.

When they told me I was their property, I thought it was an empty threat. But when Celestina appeared with the crop in her hand, I knew there was no turning back.

When they shut the door and the darkness became absolute, I knew it wasn’t a punishment. It was something worse: the transformation that would erase me forever.

Raquel thought she would always be the one setting the rules. That night on the pier, with the metal bit and the fresh mark on her thigh, everything changed.

The bamboo rod hissed through the air and Clara didn’t blink. We were friends. Now she held the stopwatch and I was on my knees on the cold grate.

When I opened my eyes it was already too late. Two bodies were pinning me to the mattress, and the cold steel on my wrists told me that night had changed everything.

I was on my knees in the dog run, handcuffed and unable to move, while they laughed and their dogs circled closer and closer.

When the blonde warrior sat on his back, he stopped being a man: he was the living stool where a goddess breakfasted with the queen.

Under the golden light of the estate, she smiled while counting the money. She had no idea the next black leather collar was meant for her own neck.

She called from the bathroom with the tap running so no one would hear her. She heard “domination,” “submission,” “a year with no way out.” And she signed anyway.

I walked into the living room and found him waiting with something hidden behind his back. His smile told me before he did that the night wouldn’t be normal.

When we got off the plane we had a check and a secret. The check paid the debts; the secret, though, can’t be erased, not even with the tattoo covered.

When I saw Iván raise his phone and smile, I knew the drill had been a trap—and that I wouldn’t leave that basement intact.

Roberto humiliated me for years in front of everyone. When the Association offered to train him, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with him.

I saw the videos: women strapped to machines, electric shocks, lashes while they ran. And still I dialed the number. My will was spent.

Selena had spent months molding them into perfect pets. What she didn’t expect was for the buyer to arrive with a third collar under his arm.

When I faked the fainting spell, they knew they had me. But it was exactly then that the balance of power changed hands and the hook began looking for another body.

The flyer promised guaranteed results. It didn’t say they would include restraints, electric shocks, and a year locked away with no way out. I signed anyway.

They didn’t give him water in a cup. They poured it over her foot, and he had to lick it from the leather straps if he wanted to survive.