Xi - Chapter 5 - Frisson
Some people tend to have blackouts when they drink too much. Unfortunately, Xi could remember everything.
She extracted herself from beneath the sheets and left Sage sleeping softly. She found an extra large T-shirt and stumbled off for the kitchen. Margaritas and loud music. Sure, it was fun at the time. Now, her head felt as though it was in a vise. Her tongue felt like a wet rag. Her ears were ringing. Orange juice. Aspirin.
Sage was starting to stir when Xi returned to the bedroom and curled up in the comfortable corner chair. She pressed her hand to her head and thought of the night before... Why? Why on earth had she pulled her dress up like a little girl in kindergarten? Why had she exposed herself? Xi remembered the crowd of faces directed toward her impromptu exhibition.
Maybe if she threw up she would feel better.
Xi also thought of the strange visions. That was kind of weird. Alcohol is not a hallucinogen. Maybe it was the Mezcal in the Margaritas...
"Morning..." Sage moaned as she stretched and scratched her head. Her thin body veiled beneath the white sheet. Xi just groaned. Sage smiled, "Hungover?"
"I guess." Xi's voice was raspy. She coughed to try and clear it. "Seems that I've lost my voice."
Sage looked dreamily at Xi, giggled a little, and then seemed to stare at the wall. After a moment she raised her hand to her mouth and appeared to be shielding a small, dirty smile. "Damn, girl!" Sage shivered a little.
"Do you want some orange juice or something?" Xi finally asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Sage said stretching once again. "But first... tell me about that chastity belt."
Xi rolled her eyes and sighed, "Oh, god! I'm so embarrassed..."
"So, you don't have the key to that thing?"
"Well... the key's up at the cottage." Xi looked off to the far corner of the room, resigned.
"You can't take it off?"
"Not without the key."
"And that belt prevents you from having a... well, you know... an orgasm?"
Xi looked at Sage for a second with a pensive look on her face. Surely Sage thought that she was weird or crazy. Xi started nodding slowly. "I doesn't seem to let me..."
Sage briefly furrowed her brow, then shifted her position a little under the sheet. She sat a little closer. Her voice became softer. "Is it a turn on?"
Xi paused for a second, glanced at Sage, and then continued nodding.
The smile upon Sage's face grew. "Can I touch it again?"
Xi thought perhaps Sage was going to make fun of her, but when she looked in her eyes, she found that Sage seemed mesmerized.
Xi repositioned herself in the chair so her feet were on the floor, her legs apart. She pulled her T-shirt up over her waist. Sage had climbed out of bed, holding the sheet around her torso. She approached Xi and knelt by the chair. She reached out a hand a placed it on the cold, hard faceplate of the belt. Xi realized that she was holding her breath. She remembered, clearly, satisfying Sage last night. She remembered being denied any satisfaction herself.
By the evening as Xi drove Sage to the airport, Xi's hangover was much better and Sage no longer seemed to be so fixated by the belt.
"You know that I love you, don't you?" Sage asked.
Xi shot a glance at Sage, then refocused on the road. "Of course."
"Well... I don't know what that belt is doing to you, because, girl, you seemed to be quite inspired last night. Damn!" Xi did her best to suppress a smile. "But, you know," Sage continued, "I'm still worried about you..."
"Why?"
"I think that you're using it as an excuse to avoid people..."
"Hmm," Xi grunted.
"...You're such a beautiful woman. There are millions - and I mean millions - of people in this world who are dying to get to know you. They're dying to fall in love with you. They need you!"
Xi glanced at Sage. She smiled a small, embarrassed smile and looked away.
"You're so beautiful," Sage continued. "You've got so much passion and love to give! Time marches on. One day we will be dust... I know that you're hurting. But it's time to give that up. Put the belt away. Go out and meet people. Go out and love again, ok? Anna would want that for you."
Xi did not shed a tear until after she had dropped Sage off at the airport terminal.
As Xi arrived at her cottage on Friday evening, dark clouds from a summer evening thunderhead were threatening to claim the setting sun prematurely. A rain shield covered the trees along the top of the ridge to the west. Bolts of lightening flashed jagged paths against the growing darkness. Xi turned down Zeppelin, cut off the engine, and stepped out of her car.
She had made it! Two weeks locked in the belt! She was happy to see the cottage sitting just as she had left it. Her whole body was buzzing in anticipation of glorious relief. Xi sang to herself, smiling. "Your time is going to come!"
A cool gust creeping down through the trees of the valley whipped her knee-length skirt. Reflexively, she held it down. As she walked to the cottage, her hand began to trace the smooth curve of the metal belt through the skirt's soft material. She followed the sturdy form over her hips and then back behind, down to the most sensitive skin between her cheeks. She shivered and let out a brief giggle. How should she entertain herself? Her other hand then traced the metal belt down across the solid faceplate. Her fingers lingered and pressed the bottom of the shield optimistically.
Thunder rumbled across the valley as Xi unlocked the cottage door. She was about to kick off her sandals when she noticed small shards of glass littering the commons-room floor. Her heart skipped a beat. Immediately, she looked up, open-mouthed, at the far wall. Paint, dirtied by the years, clearly outlined the location where a picture frame once hung. Now there was only a hook. Below, on the floor was the old family picture - the wooden frame smashed and the glass cover shattered. It was the very picture that had broken in her dream over a week before.
Was it a precognition? Xi was unsure whether she believed in such things. Each person must have events in their lives in which strange coincidences like this happen. That's what this was. Just a coincidence. Still, she eyed the pole and glanced at the blanket wrapped around the base, concealing the collar, just as she had left it.
Xi remembered the dream vividly - how the collar's disk had become stuck in the belt's slot leaving her helplessly anchored to the cottage pole - how she pulled and pulled yet remained unable to escape. If such a thing happened, would anyone hear her screams? Would anyone ever happen to stop by her cottage and look in to find her? Maybe months from now a maintenance man would pass by as he made his start-of-the-winter rounds. His face would twist into a look of horror at her half-decomposed body.
Xi looked around the room, nervously biting a thumbnail. Failing evening light and the creak of trees swaying in the strengthening wind compounded her growing apprehension. She pulled her cell phone from her purse, checked the signal strength, and placed it by the pole. "It was just a dream!" she said to herself.
Regardless, she decided she'd better get a pitcher of water to have near her. Just in case... If she became trapped, she could call Sage. The water would sustain her until she arrived. She set off to the kitchen turning on lights along the way to fight off the encroaching darkness of the storm, quietly reassuring herself, "...just a dream..." Fat dollops of rain began to splatter on the roof and rocks outside. The scent of evergreen needles pressed through the cracks of the cottage.
She returned to the commons room with a pitcher full of cool, tap water. Broken glass cracked and scraped the hard floor under her sandals as she carefully made her way to the support pole. She swept clear a small place to set the pitcher. Xi pulled the blanket from around the pole to reveal the collar. A flash of lightning and an immediate report of thunder made Xi jump. As the sound crashed and echoed down the valley, Xi considered that, just perhaps, holding a metal pole in a thunderstorm was a bad idea.
"I'll just get this belt off real quick," she reassured herself, still quite aware of the powerful craving within her sex. Her insides felt almost knotted in a delicious tangle of lust waiting for a loving hand to massage the tension away.
She grabbed the collar's disk to pull it to waist level. She had not pulled far though, when the disk suddenly snapped out of her hand. Xi jumped and let out a short cry of fear. "What the hell?!?"
Again, she grabbed the disk in her shaking hand and attempted to lift the collar, this time more slowly, but it would no longer slide along the pole as it did two weeks before. The collar had contracted and now stubbornly held its place close to the floor.
"It's all right... It's no big deal..." Xi checked that all the glass slivers had been pushed aside from around the pole. She removed her skirt and set it beside the pitcher. Using the pole for leverage, she lowered herself and sat at its base - the cold, hard floor against her butt. Images from the dream flashed in her head, frightening her. Exciting her.
Outside, the wind had risen to a gale. As she held the pole she could feel it vibrating. She looked up at the overhead light and could see small flecks of dust falling from the ceiling, twirling though currents of air in the room.
Xi straddled the pole and attempted to rotate her pelvis as close as possible to the collar's disk. The slot on the belt opened, but the collar's chain was too short for her to maneuver the disk inside.
"Shit!"
Outside the sound of hard rain turned to a roar as small hail mixed in, pounding the shingles and wood siding of the cottage. For a moment, Xi stared blankly through growing tears of frustration at the white streaks of ice speeding past the exterior window. Then, quickly, she repositioned herself so she was lying on her left side facing the pole. She twisted her crotch toward the collar. The slot opened again. She pulled at the disk and started to insert it in the belt's slot.
A jolt of pain shot through Xi's body. She grabbed her side and kicked out her leg involuntarily. The tip of her sandal tagged the pitcher just enough to set it teetering. Xi tried to stabilize it with her foot, but only succeeded in knocking the pitcher over. It fell towards her sending a wave across the floor. A short squeal slipped from Xi's lips as the cold water washed against her body.
Grimacing and cursing, Xi massaged the muscles in her side and stomach. Twisting around on the floor had given her some kind of muscle cramp. When it loosened, she quickly pushed the disk into the slot until it was seated.
The collar loosened its grip with a pop that echoed up the pole. She opened the collar fully, pulled it from around the pole, and rolled onto her back. "Oh, thank god!"
Xi sat up on her elbows. Water dripped from her wet shirt and down the left side of her face. She looked down at Anna's belt. Soon, she would be without it for the first time in 12 days. Still, she paused for a moment admiring the fine design, the soft sheen of the metal surface - how it's color contrasted so well with that of her skin.
She pulled at the waistband. It opened with a bit of resistance. She moaned softly as the cold surface disengaged from its intimate contact. Her sex overripe, the constant sense of tingling and pulling still seemed to endure...
The room temperature had dropped dramatically since the storm had started. Skin, so sensitive, so long covered by the belt, bristled at the chill of freedom.
Xi's entire body was coursing with adrenaline. She felt so alive. The belt was still encircling her knees, but it was far enough removed to perform the act that she had so long been denied. She grabbed her crotch with both hands and pushed hard against her pelvic bone. It felt so good, Xi thought she might have to scream. She inserted first one and then a second finger and pushed them as deep as she could - slowly extracting them - wriggling them back and forth as she did. She used the thumb of her other hand to stroke the slick, wet skin of her sex.
Then, she was there. She took that final important step to reach the top of the peak. She paused in the moment, not moving at all, hoping to stay on top forever. Gazing down upon the undulating landscape of her sexual wonderland, experiencing ecstasy in every known sense available. Finally, she slid down the slopes - flexing her muscles rhythmically as pleasure popped here and there within the shell of her physical being. Her whole body was vibrating as she came to rest in the puddle of water on the floor.
Outside, the hail had stopped. Now there was only rain and the mad, noisy rush of floodwaters scouring sediment and debris along the banks of small streambeds. Slowly, the water, with a grim sense of inevitability, continued to wash the mountains to the sea.
To be continued in
Xi - Chapter 6 - cat-box.com
23.08.06