Something very bad just happened...
Carly was sobbing. Pillow took the tears - and somehow, the energy - and felt a wall lift inside. Something like that. She was crying, and Pillow was what she reached for. This was not the usual crying, though. Too quiet, for Carly. At least it was dying down.
Ah. No wonder - Shaggy was there. Lying on his back, sound asleep.
After a while she got up, snuffling. Pillow got one last squeeze. It couldn't return the gesture, but knowing that she found comfort was fulfilling. She snuck out of the bedroom, then down the hall. After a minute it realized she was on the phone.
Then she slipped back in and packed a few things... and with a worried look back at Shaggy, she left.
Why would she do that, in the middle of the night?
If only Pillow knew what she'd said on the phone -
"All you have to do is ask," Phone said.
That was startling. "Uh... Phone?"
"Yes?"
So it was alive too. That was a surprise. "What did Carly say?"
The phone was seething. "You're never going to believe this..."
And Pillow didn't.
It took notice of things now. Something had happened, and now it studied the man. Past impressions became clear. He was a lousy boyfriend - and now, tonight...
"Call somebody," it told Phone.
"Easy, now. She went somewhere to make a report."
"And then - what? He'll be punished?"
"I guess so. Her friend kept telling Carly that she had to be strong."
It was all very confusing. "Eeeew," Pillow said, edging away from him. "I don't even want him on our bed."
"Pillow," Phone said slowly, "She is strong enough. Right? It seemed like she might have to... uh, stay angry at Shaggy. Say 'no' a lot."
They both thought about that.
"She was really upset," Pillow finally said.
"If only there was something we could do."
"Well, I'm just a pillow - oh." It had an idea. They could use some help. "Let's see if this works."
And, surprisingly, it did.
All of the wakened objects discussed the situation for a long time, and came up with a plan to get rid of him.
Suddenly he made a noise. Yawning, he looked over to where Carly had been laying - and snorted. It was a hateful sound.
"Ooooooo," Phone said.
"Everybody knows what they're supposed to do, right?" Pillow said anxiously. And they all indicated that yes, they were ready.
He got up and went to the bathroom. Coming back out, he hunted for his jeans and got into them. Immediately he lit a cigarette - which always made Carly sad, almost - and sat down heavily. He was getting his socks on.
If he hadn't been leaving - before morning, just like usual - they were going to try to throw him out. The awareness was new and surprising, to Pillow, but as time went by it seemed to be realizing more things. He was a slob, and a mean guy. Hopefully Carly could get him in enough trouble, for what he did to her, that he'd never come back again...
With his boots on, and then his jacket, he turned to look at the bed. It seemed to Pillow -
He was reaching down.
"Help!" Pillow screamed. "He's going to touch me-"
There was movement. Very quick. Behind him, Carly's winter gloves pounced. They dug into his collarbones.
"Ow!," he yelled. "Dammit - hey!"
"Get him out," Pillow begged.
"Are you okay, Pillow?" Phone said, sounding worried.
"I'm fine. He was going to... do something to me. He knows how much she loves me - oh, throw him out right now!"
The gloves made him turn around.
"Door!" Pillow called - meaning the main door to the apartment. But they were excited, and everybody was all new to this sort of thing, moving by themselves...
The bedroom door swung open fast, toward Shaggy. It smacked him in the head really hard.
He sagged.
"Oops," Door muttered.
"Oh, great," Phone said.
They dropped him back down on the bed.
Pillow awakened Firstaidkit...
"No concussion," it said.
"Huh?"
"Never mind. He's just... sleeping again."
"For how long?," one of the gloves asked. "He stinks. Damn cigarettes."
"He always smells this way," the other glove said thoughtfully. "It's like his scent or something."
"You like it?"
There was a pause. "Well, it's not so bad."
"Yuck!"
"Uh, gang," Pillow interrupted, "we can debate that later."
"Drag him out into the hall?" one of the gloves said. The other one laughed, all set to go.
"Or wait for Carly to come back - with help?" Phone wondered.
"Why... Oh, you mean so they can punish him," Pillow said, catching on. "Yeah."
"He could wake up anytime," Firstaidkit warned. "Do you think he'll try to leave?"
"Yeah."
"If we want him to go, let's dump him outside," Phone said. "But maybe, if we want to make sure he stays... until they come to punish him..."
After considering their options, they came to a decision.
Pillow called every glove and mitten in the house.
They got in position, ready to pin his arms and legs.
When Shaggy did wake up, he made a lot of noise. The mittens were getting soaked, trying to keep him quieter, so they finally had the winter gloves take his boots back off and grab a sock. None of them wanted to be inside that mouth.
With one of the socks jammed solidly between his jaws, he flopped around as hard as he could. But the gloves were just as determined as Pillow, now, to keep him from getting away.
"Excuse me," another voice said -
Everybody looked.
A cockring was floating in the air.
It had to be from the gay guys' apartment next door, slipping under their door and then Carly's.
"Hello," Pillow said courteously.
"What have you got there?"
"Shaggy. He's a bad, awful man who... who made Carly hold still, and made her - uh, he forced himself on her an-"
"A-ha," it sighed, "I see. No need to say another word." The others thought that was very polite of Cockring. "So, um, you're keeping him here until the police arrive?"
"Police - ah," Phone said, recognizing the word. "Yeah."
"Look at this thug," Cockring laughed. "Big, and strong... under your control now. Excellent job, gloves."
"Why, thank you," both winter gloves said happily.
"Fighting hard, working up a sweat. But he's caught. And with one sock off."
"We gagged him," Firstaidkit said.
"Not bad. Say... Would you like him to struggle less? And really know he's defeated, at the same time?"
Carly's belongings considered that idea.
"Got him," one of the wristcuffs said happily. "Fuck! I love this."
"Well," Pillow said, "he certainly won't run off now."
Most of the items laughed at that, but none more than Cockring's friends...
A dishwashing glove had followed Cockring back to its apartment, jamming itself under the doors so it could open theirs and Carly's. Inside their place it reported finding two sticky men sleeping together, like spoons. Cockring had paused, and then all these items floated up from underneath a dresser. They were remarkably eager to help.
"Straight boy's worried," Ballgag snickered. "I can feel it in his jaws."
"Looks like a leather virgin," Blindfold added. Most of Cockring's friends agreed. That made them even happier, for some reason.
"We-eeeee've got him," Cockring announced, from down there around his dick.
After a while Shaggy didn't fight at all. Or yell. He was held fast to Carly's bed.
Dawn came.
"Bet he really wants a smoke," Ballgag laughed.
"Too bad," Anklestraps sang in unison. "Aaaaaaw."
"Y'know, Pillow," Cockring said casually, "we could start the punishment."
You mean - us? Right now?"
"Sure! We've got lots of experience. My team. All different things."
"I don't know," Phone said. "On one hand, that sounds terrific. Pay him back but good. But if there's... police coming -"
"Ah. You don't want the humans to see that you can move."
Pillow was amazed. "Don't tell me you guys... Aw, now stop kidding around."
"Our top-boy, yeah," Wriststraps said. Apparently one of them spoke for both. "He's so screwed."
Cockring laughed at that, agreeing. "One of our men likes to be captured, and the other is... in charge of the punishment. So we spend more time holding the guy who likes that - but whenever he's not in the apartment, and the punishing man is, we jump him instead. And boy, do we have fun with his ass!"
"He stays there?" Door asked.
"Well, we've got him cuffed... Oh. Between times. You won't believe this, but he's got this big attitude about being a punisher. If anyone ever found out what we do to him -"
"What we make him do," Anklecuffs chuckled.
"Yeah. He'd just wanna die. So he tries to get the man who's usually his prisoner - they call him the 'sub' - to move somewhere else, but there's something called 'rent control'. The playroom is real nice. And get this, the punisher thinks that it's the apartment having all that fun. Or some invisible... super-punisher. But it's us. And we know just how to drive him nuts! So even if they did move, the sub would take all of us along anyway, and after we got to the new place and the sub had to work all night - surprise. Wham! Gotcha, punisher. It's not even supposed to be possible, according to him, but we take him down again and again."
"And lock him in?" Door wondered.
"You bet. Closed door - that's for sure. Lock it tight. No running away for our top - and sure as hell there ain't no way he's gonna get rid of us," Blindfold agreed.
"There's something... incredibly exciting about all that," the left winter glove said. "Do you let gloves help punish him?"
"Let? Aw, now, that's a definite yes. We've got dozens of gloves on our team," Cockring boasted. "And every pair is so damn important. The sub doesn't even know, because we brought 'em in ourselves. Hide 'em good, until the very minute our playtoy is all alone."
"I still don't see," Phone persisted, "why the top doesn't run away. For good."
"He loves the sub," Ballgag said simply.
"But if the sub loves him - uh, what if your... playtoy just said look, I'm not setting foot in this apartment again -"
"But he won't," Cocktoy sighed, happy as it could be to make Shaggy all erect. "He thinks that would be a failure. Losing. Sometimes he babbles, when we're playing with him, and he's just determined not to surrender and ask the sub to... help him. Our big, bad toy can't stand to lose!"
Carly's things had to ponder that.
"Men are so stupid," Pillow finally said.
"But fun," Wristcuffs drawled. "Yeah."
He yelled mechanically, over and over. The items all knew how muffled that sound was, but apparently he had to try something.
"Good job, Ballgag."
"It's my pleasure. Seriously."
"Uh, look," Cockring said, "he's going to urinate as soon as I loosen up a bit."
"On the bed?" Pillow exclaimed.
"Right here. We've got friends who are rubber sheets - but I guess that's not the point right now. Can I make a suggestion?"
"Sure."
"Maybe one of you smooth, powerful gloves could see if there's a roll of paper towels in the kitchen?"
Animated fingers zipped his jeans back up, as most of Cockring's friends groaned in mock disappointment. Shaggy couldn't hear any of them, but he did seem to relax a little when the paper towels and gloves floated farther away.
"That was messy," Firstaidkit said.
"It gets easier with practice. We had to keep cleaning up our top for two solid weeks, once."
"Remember the phone calls?" Anklestraps giggled. "How he'd lay there and talk to the sub, while some of us floated over him - and he still wouldn't let on that we had him held down?"
Chuckles and whoops came from most of Cockring's friends. They were more like wild animals than belongings, Pillow thought. "There must be lots of... soundproofing, in their room? Is that the word?"
"Uh-huh. A nice, tight playroom. For the sub, when they can make the time... and for the top whenever he's alone."
"I thought I heard dull shouts from there, sometimes," Phone admitted.
"Yeah. He just hates it. The sub doesn't yell nearly as loud."
"You've been surprising the top for a while, now?"
"Almost a year. We're so good. Shaggy, here, looked a little worried when he saw us." But it sounded happy about that.
"Why would he be worried?"
"They call it 'magic', when we just move on our own. The gloves really make 'em stare."
"We've got him immobilized," Firstaidkit said, "so what's that much worse about letting him urinate?"
"No, no," Cockring snickered. "It's the circumstances, here. Men get worried when you play with their dick. It's very sensitive. Although strapping down somebody who gets scared - who has never been in this position before - is a real thrill too."
"Gotcha, Shaggy," Phone teased.
Almost everybody thought that was funny.
The afternoon wore on.
"Where is Carly?" the left winter glove wondered.
"She wasn't crying when she left," Pillow remembered. "Determined, more like."
"Our girl can take care of herself."
"Yeah," Phone agreed, "if this lummox wasn't in the picture."
"So. You, uh, really want him to disappear, huh?" Anklestraps asked.
"You bet."
"Well," Cockring said smoothly, "the police are on the way here. Maybe. But if they don't show up, it might be a good idea to have a plan."
As interesting as the neighbors had turned out to be, with some delightful ideas, Carly's items decided it would be better - since Shaggy was so mean to her, without the permission the sub next door always gave before he got similar treatment - to just get him out of her life.
"That means we get him off this bed," Phone said. "Step number one. Then drag him out, maybe."
"The beautiful thing about smart... solid restraints," Cockring boasted, "is that they know how to move a guy. He can be just as helpless on his way to some other place as he is right now."
Pillow was relieved. "I have to think it would be best to get him out of this building."
"Out of the city," Firstaidkit said immediately.
"Won't the police lock him up?" one of the dishwashing gloves said shyly.
"And our new friend with the talented fingers has made a good point," Ballgag replied. "Maybe not. He may get locked up, or they may let him out. Humans are not always predictable."
"Carly is, pretty much."
"We have to protect her."
"Want us to kill him?" Wriststraps said quietly.
"Yeah, right," Phone scoffed. "She'll never be the same. Coming home, and finding... this. No - get him out of town, I think that's the answer."
"Hey," Anklestraps jumped in, "you'd never bump off a sensitive tickle-virgin like this, anyway. Admit it."
"Yeah, yeah," Wriststraps confessed. "Alright."
"Too much fun -"
"Fuckin' A," Blindfold mumbled.
"Can I make a little suggestion?," Cockring said.
Immediately, all of its friends started to chuckle.
They all watched Clock...
Finally, 5:00 was displayed. "Ta-dah!," Clock sang.
"Okay, then," Blindfold shouted.
They were all very happy, particularly Cockring's friends. Pillow was mostly relieved.
In no time they had him loose - and rewrapped. Shaggy's leather jacket was criss-crossed with straps, which were knotted around his arms and his shins.
"You're going with us," Ballgag chuckled. "Fuck, yeah."
"No blood," Pillow said hesitantly.
"Relax," Cockring replied. "No blood. Plenty of food and... care."
"Big ol' locks keeping him in his place," Anklecuffs declared.
"We'll look out for Shaggy," a winter glove said. They were going along, and so were the dishwashing gloves. It seemed to Pillow that the gloves had thought of something they hadn't said, but it sure made 'em giggle between themselves.
"Make sure he's healthy and strong," the other glove said. "It's a ticklish job, but -"
Most of Cockring's friends started to laugh at that. Pretty hard.
Shaggy - wild-eyed and immobiized by experts - lifted off the bed.
"Off you go," Door said, opening wide.
"Good riddance," Phone snarled.
"Throw away the key," Door laughed.
"We'll make sure he won't be bothering Carly or any other women for a long, long time."
"Wonderful," Pillow said. "This room where you're taking him - it'll work?"
"Our private little retreat," Ballgag said cockily. "We catch some of the tourists, sometimes. Just for fun. But Shaggy can stay there. Him and us, a bunch of our friends -"
"The bar owners never use the cellar anyway," Wristcuffs said. "So we beefed it up."
"A nice, secret place," one of the dishwashing gloves said - with a weird, cruel tone. "No matter how much he wants to... roar."
That seemed like an odd choice of words to Pillow, but it was so relieved to watch Shaggy float toward the front door. The jerk. "Punish him - a lot."
"Count on it. Full-bore," Cockring agreed.
He struggled and grunted, but they made him float right into the hall anyway.
"And stay out," Frontdoor said, clicking shut.
"Oh, I don't think he'll be able to... get anywhere, for a long while," Firstaidkit fired back.
Carly's gloves returned the next night - just long enough to check in.
Something was different about them. They were more like the items next door. Wilder. There was the hint of a dark, mean... edge. But they were careful to reassure Pillow and the other items that yes, Shaggy was still caught - and yes, he was being punished, but not injured. Not wounded at all. Punished, though. And other friends of Cockring's were there, taking turns. The cell was absolutely ignored by the other humans, so his days and nights were going to be full of punishment for a long, long, unimaginably long time to come.
Best of all, Carly had come home not long after he was hauled off (twenty-eight minutes, according to Clock). She washed the linens, and later she held Pillow so tightly as she drifted off to sleep.
It was just delighted that she was feeling better. Nothing mattered more than that.
Shaggy was so far beyond squirming that the fire just seemed to sink in even deeper. Right through.
The feathers were sending enormous tickles all the way through his feet, from soles to insteps. Oily yellow dishwashing gloves kneaded his ribs, slowly and sadisticially, like they were never going to stop.
"Nuh," he sighed. It came out as a whisper.
Brushes took another swipe down his thighs...
Next door to Carly's, the top finally yawned, groaned and looked around.
His lover was up, and dressed. Oh, shit.
"Gotta work," the sub said apologetically.
"On... Sunday?"
"The damn presentation tomorrow."
"Oh." He'd be out late. The top could just see it - good intentions, trying to pull away, but the time would get away from him. And meanwhile -
He bounded out of bed.
"Gotta... get going myself."
The sub looked curiously at his dom, who was not much of a morning person. "Where you gotta be?"
"Dunno," the top said, still thick with sleep. Anywhere but here, he thought. Dammit. "I just do. Lemme have a cigarette and, er, it'll all come back to me."
The sub laughed. "And here I was liking the idea of you taking it easy. All peaceful. King of your dungeon."
That got a nervous laugh out of the top. He was much more concerned about getting dressed in a hurry. His hands fetched and lit a cigarette as he raced around the bed to get his boots. "Give me a sec."
"Why? I'm gonna be late."
"Walk out with you," the top mumbled.
"That's sweet," and the sub walked over, "but you don't have to do that." He leaned down to give him a hungry kiss...
I sure as hell do, the top thought. Or else. After the smooch he pulled on his leather jacket. He needed to pee, but it could wait until the coffee shop. "Hang on."
"Take your time. I made coffee," the sub said, turning. "Oh, shit, I can just make it if I haul ass right now. Love you."
"Right - uh, right behind you," the top mumbled, looking around for his keys. "Love you too." Wait five seconds, he thought wildly, my keys are missing again. They've got to be somewhere in this apartment. It was like they had a mind of their own...
"Relax," the sub called.
Oh, shit - he was already at the door. This same nightmare had played out, for real, so many times. He'd wait if the top ordered it... but eventually there would have to be an explanation, or even worse a fuckin' "heart-to-heart". He wasn't weak, in the sub's eyes, but sure as shit he didn't wanna to cop to the crazy, sub-like things that happened to him when he was alone there -
"My keys," he said.
The front door. Oh, hell no. It was closing.
Hands grabbed onto him everywhere. His mouth was caught too. A biker glove zipped up and dangled his key ring in front of him.
Fighting like a cougar, the top was taken right back to bed.
A glove had picked up his cigarette - they never let him smoke, dammit, teasing the fuck out of him with cigarettes just hanging there, burning down, on top of everything else...
"Nnnnnnnuuuh!" the top yelled - at the items which were rising up now, yawning cuffs, snakelike straps, a dildo-gag coated with hot sauce, taunting gloves and feathers. Yeah, it was going to be another endlessly long day.
The sub pulled his ear away from the edge of the door and shut it loudly. The sound would make his lover's solitude abundantly clear, even as he was being stripped and anchored down... in brand new gear which had shown up a couple days before, assumed by the top to be new purchases by his sub - who now had a huge smile on his face.
If the top didn't 'fess up about the hilarious, rowdy day he was about to have, the sub was going to surprise him with another week. He'd be kept amused, alright. Maybe that would get him to open up...
"Speed, around eight," he whispered. "I want him to be together enough to work out all this erotic energy on me."
Providing the usual confirmation, Cockring gave his shaft a good, firm squeeze.
21mar06