“How much money?” I asked.
The pen pulled away from my hand and scribbled “enough” on the form. Not being in a very good position to haggle, I signed. As the clipboard floated away with the form, I asked, “Don’t I get a copy?”
No answer or acknowledgement, as dishes could be heard clinking around in the kitchen. Presently unseen hands directed me to the kitchen table, where a plate of chili and garlic bread awaited me.
Seeing that, I was all ready to sit and dig in, when the hands stopped me from approaching the table. Instead, they turned me so that I could see the approaching duffle bag, from which emerged a bundle of blue cloth. *Why do they want me to change clothes again?* I wondered, and was in fact about to ask aloud, when the bundle began resolving itself into a vaguely feminine shape. As it took shape, I could see that it was in fact a full-body hooded catsuit, what the Japanese call zentai. Similar to the Power Rangers, but without a helmet. But unlike what’s seen on the show, this suit had no one visible inside. This was reinforced when the suit completed taking shape, turning its back to me so that I could see that its rear zipper was completely open. If there were anyone inside, I would have seen her exposed back, but instead what I saw was that the suit was just as empty as it had been inside the bag.
The suit began moving as if dancing to music I couldn’t hear, somehow more enticing than it would have been had there been a woman inside it. In this situation, though, the enticement was mixed with both exasperation and uncertainty. Just what did my captors plan to do with me, now that I had signed this agreement, or did that even matter? Was this suit here to add to the torture, or what?
The suit danced over to the chair next to the kitchen table and motioned for me to sit. The hands let me go at that point, so I complied, wondering what would come next. The suit pulled up another chair, sat down in it, and proceeded to feed and tease me. It woold feed me a forkful of food, then caress and fondle me in random places while I chewed.
While I was being fed, the pen lying on the table rose and began writing something in the notebook. The notebook stayed put until I finished eating, after which it slid across the table, stopping in front of me.
I read what the pen had written: “You were picked at random to be sprayed. You reacted as we had expected you to — as we wanted you to. What we did then was what we had intended to do even before we knew who we would do it to. But you’ve been here long enough; it’s time for us to find ourselves another subject… for now.”
“For now”? This was gonna happen again? While I tried to absorb that, invisible hands herded me out of the house and into the van, followed by the suit that had fed me. The van started up and drove me home. Before I was let out, the suit reached into a duffel bag, took out a stack of bills, and handed it to me. It was a stack of hundred-dollar bills. Before I could count them, the suit climbed out of the van ahead of me, then turned and waved for me to follow.
“And where are you going?” I asked. The suit pointed at my house, then beckoned me again, a little impatiently this time. When I got out, the suit took me by the arm and walked me into the house.
Once we got inside, the suit withdrew its arm, lightly brushing against my side as it did so. I giggled a little; the suit flinched, then reached for my side. Instinctively I pulled away, only to be held in place by invisible hands. The suit reached for my left armpit, and I actually started giggling before it had even touched me. The suit seemed somehow to consider my reaction before running its fingertips up and down my sides, drawing hooting laughter from me.
While the hands held me in place, things started stirring in the living room. A feather duster floated away from the hook it was hanging on, followed by peacock feathers from a vase full of them that someone had given me as a gift. As the duster came closer, feathers began yanking themselves free. I tried to pull away from the restraining hands but to no avail. At the same time the front door opened and the bags of rope from the van floated inside, coming to rest on the floor just inside the door.
My right leg was raised until it was parallel to the floor. I tried to resist, but couldn’t, as my shoe and then my sock were removed. A peacock feather began sliding up the inside of my raised pants-leg. Soon my left foot was also bereft of its shoe and sock, with a peacock feather also sliding in and out of that pant-leg as an unseen hand held it in the air.
You read that right — both legs were being held out in front of me. I was floating in a sitting position, but the only support I could detect was the hands holding my legs out. While I tried to figure out how I was gonna get out of this, the unseen hands holding me began moving me towards the staircase. I was turned around to face the living room as I floated up the stairs, with all the feathers and bags of rope floating up the stairs behind me.
Once I got to my bedroom, with the empty suit and all the paraphernalia following me, I found my computer up and running. There was a message on the screen: “Sorry, but this new development was just too good to pass up. You’ll be released… sometime…”