Elena F.
A group of women made their way through an open-plan office, chatting animatedly. Lunch time was approaching and they were arguing about where to go. The options had been narrowed to two - the new deli down the block or the familiar Thai place in the lobby across the street.
“I’ll be right there”, one of them said to the others, walked a few steps down one of the aisles and leaned over the cubicle wall.
“Elena? Coming to lunch?”
The woman in the mouse-grey blazer, tightly-buttoned blouse and grey skirt glanced up, startled. Her eyes were partially concealed underneath the ash blonde hair.
“Hm?”
“Lunch”, the brown-haired woman leaning over the cubicle wall repeated, smiling at the occupant of the cubicle.
Elena thought for a moment, then shook her head.
“No, thank you. Thank you for asking”, she said, already turning back to her work.
Elena heard the woman leave. She could almost hear the shake of the head. As the mousy blonde focused again on the screen in front of her, a small voice inside her once again spoke up. ‘Why didn’t you go? You know you’d love to.’
“Shut up”, Elena hissed - and looked up, scared that she had actually spoken aloud. A furtive glance around confirmed that nobody had heard her whisper. Sighing, she focused back to her work.
---
She ate her lunch - a sandwich she’d prepared at home - an hour later, sitting alone at a table in the corner of the break room. People came and went around her, a few even stopping to eat and chat among themselves, but nobody said anything to her. As if nobody even saw her.
Munching on her sandwich, she thumbed on her phone, scrolling through her Pinterest. The screen showed one picture after another of beautiful women wearing well-designed, bright-colored clothes - a total opposite of the cheap grey blazer and skirt she was wearing herself. The women in the pictures smiled at the camera or each other.
Sighing, Elena closed the app and stood up. She collected the crumbs from the table onto a napkin, balled the napkin up and deposited it into the trash before washing her plain white teacup and putting it back to its place on the shelf between various mugs. She stood aside to allow a coworker to enter the room and then slipped out, as if trying to leave without anyone noticing her.
Which was exactly what she was doing.
The day drew to a close. Elena took the bus and walked the last couple of blocks to her home, hiding inside her old overcoat. As she entered the building, she checked her mailbox. To her surprise, there was a single envelope. Plain white, but the paper felt expensive, no text apart from her name and address - written by hand, no less. Turning the envelope in her hands, she walked up the stairs.
Once she was inside, she took out an old-fashioned letter-opener and slit the envelope open. Out fell a single piece of shiny gold paper… no, gold foil. Elena picked it up and turned it around, frowning. The postcard-sized piece of thick foil was completely blank, no text, no pictures, nothing. ‘What the… heck’, Elena wondered. Shaking her head, she dropped the foil and the envelope on the dresser and headed to her small kitchen.
---
Evening fell. After dinner, there was little for Elena to do. She checked her email, finding a solitary new message from an old friend who wrote asking how Elena was doing - and reminding her that the previous two emails had gone unanswered. Embarrassed by her forgetfulness, Elena quickly typed a short reply. She thanked the friend for writing, but explained that - once again - there really wasn’t much to write about.
There simply wasn’t much to write about in her life in general.
Once that was done, Elena glanced toward her wardrobe. ‘No, I can’t’, she chided herself. But after sitting there for a few moments longer, she finally got up and walked over. She opened the door, crouched down and pulled out a shallow rectangular carboard box. With almost reverential care she carried it over to the table and opened the lid.
A few moments later she looked at the contents. She’d taken out the black fitted blazer, the matching knee-length skirt and the ivory-colored blouse with a beautiful sheen to it. She’d hung them on clothes hangers and hung them up on a wall, as if a work of art. The clothes stood there, as if they’d remained hanging in the air when the person wearing them had vanished into thin air.
Elena ran her hand along the sleeve of the blazer. The textured fabric felt wonderful to her fingers, almost warm to the touch. She swallowed as she arranged the collar of the blouse a little better… imagining… just for a moment… what it would look… on her…
“Stop that”, she hissed at herself, taking her hand away. She turned around and walked across the room, sitting down.
“That is what someone beautiful would wear”, she said to herself.
And Elena wasn’t beautiful.
Growing up, she’d heard it often. Far too often.
From far too many people… for her to be able to ignore it.
Thus… she’d gone through her life believing it.
She wasn’t beautiful. Nobody wanted to see her. So, she’d lived her life hiding as best as she could. Hiding herself in the quietness, in the un-attractive, ill-fitting clothes… in being invisible.
Gone through life hoping nobody would notice her. So nobody would ever tell her again that she wasn’t beautiful.
Looking at the clothes hanging on the wall, Elena’s eyelids began to droop…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elena awoke with a start.
The first thing she noticed was that she was naked. She was sitting down… in what felt like a chair… a luxuriously soft… plush… chair that she felt like she was sinking into…
She opened her eyes… only to notice that she couldn’t see anything. She could more sense than actually see a faint, muted, red-tinted glow… but no matter how much she tried… she couldn’t see… ‘What…’ As she tried to blink, she felt something on her eyes. Something tied around her head. A blindfold.
Startled, she tried to raise her hands to pull off the blindfold - but her hands wouldn’t move. As she tried to move them, she realized her hands were tied behind her back! Something soft, but unyielding was wrapped snugly around her wrists, trapping them behind her back!
She opened her mouth to scream, but there was something in her mouth - something soft and shapeless - that silenced her scream to a faint, barely audible mumble.
‘WHAT IS THIS?’ “HHHHAAAMMMMMPPHHHHH”, she tried to scream, but nothing comprehensible came out.
Her heart was pounding like crazy, panic rising within her…
Someone touched her on the shoulder.
“Shhhh, Elena. You are safe. We will take care of you.”
A simple touch. A few words. So very little.
And yet it was enough to cut off her rising panic. Enough to calm her hammering heart.
‘What…’
The hand moved down her arm… ‘God that feels good…’
“You are safe, Elena.” A woman’s voice. Soothing, melodious voice, every word full of kindness and warmth.
“We will take care of you. Please let us take care of you.”
‘What’s going on? What is this’, Elena wondered, trying to find her footing in the strange situation… but whoever the woman was… her voice and her touch… were so soft… so kind… so warm… helping her calm down… She found herself nodding.
“Thank you”, the woman said. “Please, let me help you up.”
Strong, but gentle hands helped her stand up. She felt a smooth, pleasantly cool floor underneath her feet. The woman’s hand took her by her upper arm and began to lead her forward.
Elena turned her head, as if trying to look around, desperate to find out where she was… but the blindfold didn’t allow her anything. Still, she found she was not scared. Not even nervous. More like… curious.
The woman led her for a short distance.
“There’s three steps in front of you.”
The woman holding onto her arm, Elena climbed the steps slowly. Then the woman took her also by the other upper arm and turned her around, gently guiding her backwards until her back touched a large, round, smooth pillar.
“Please let us take care of you”, the woman said. “Will you let us take care of you?”
Elena nodded.
Something soft wrapped around her shins, thighs, hips, chest… pulling tight against her body… pinning her to the pillar… binding her in place! Elena yelped into the muffling gag and tried to struggle as the bindings tightened around her… and once again there was that magical touch.
“You are safe, Elena. You are safe. We will take care of you.”
Conflicted, Elena tried to squirm. The restraints were soft, but there was no slack. She could wiggle her toes and turn her head… and that was it. ‘What on earth is going on…’
Hands touched her head - and the blindfold came loose.
The first thing Elena saw was the woman standing in front of her.
She was everything Elena wished she could herself be.
A statuesque, faultless goddess, her long golden hair falling onto her shoulders in soft curls… her face a work of art… her naked skin shining softly… everything about her perfect. Elena couldn’t not stare. Had she not been gagged, her jaw would have fallen open.
The woman smiled at her.
“Thank you, Elena”, she said and laid her hands on the bound woman’s shoulders. There was a glint of gold in one of her hands. She was wearing a ring with a stylized image of the sun carved into the signet.
As her perfect hands slowly slid down Elena’s arms, Elena felt like she was being treated like a work of art. Something irreplaceable, something unmeasurably valuable, something… to be revered. There was something… almost worshipful in the way the woman touched her. ‘What is going on…’ Elena wondered. She heard the woman whisper something to herself… a short sentence… the same words over and over again, but so quietly that Elena couldn’t hear it.
The sound of approaching footsteps made Elena look up. It was only now that she noticed where she was. The pillar she was bound to stood in the middle of a circular pedestal, in the middle of a circle of light, everything outside it hidden in darkness. As she looked around, she saw another woman emerge from the shadows. Another beautiful, perfect goddess, naked as the day she was born. The newcomer climbed up the steps, her thick red hair flowing over her shoulder in a thick plait, a smattering of freckles on her fair skin. She looked at Elena and then knelt on the floor, bowing down until her forehead touched the floor, her arms outstretched with her palms up, a similar golden sun ring in her left hand - and remained there.
Elena looked at the prone woman and turned to look at the golden-haired blonde. The woman smiled at her.
“May she touch you?”
Elena stared at the two women. ‘May she… what?’
As if reading her mind, the blonde asked her again. “May she touch you?”
Not knowing what else to do, Elena nodded.
The redhead rose, but didn’t stand up. She shuffled forward on her knees until she was right at Elena’s feet and then wrapped her arms around the bound woman’s legs.
“So beautiful”, Elena heard her whisper.
‘Beautiful? What?’
“Yes, she is”, the blonde said. “So very beautiful.”
Shocked, Elena shook her head. She didn’t remember anyone ever saying that of her. ‘What? I’m not beautiful! Not… beautiful…’
The redhead stood up, a look of reverence on her face. She touched Elena’s stomach as if she was both desperately eager to feel it and scared she’d break something fragile, her fingers barely brushing against Elena’s skin…
“Beautiful…”
To say that Elena was conflicted would have been an understatement. The whole situation was so completely alien, so unfathomable… and then these two angels… these perfect images of beauty… worshipping her… saying she was… beautiful… Hands touched her all over… gently… softly… and it felt so good…
Two more women emerged slowly from the darkness surrounding the platform, each of them just as wondrously beautiful as the two before them, each of them wearing nothing but the same golden sun ring. One of them a brunette with skin the color of cafe au lait, the other woman’s hair was so black it seemed to almost absorb light, her skin almost white in contrast. Like the redhead, they also knelt at the edge of the platform.
“May they touch you”, the redhead asked as she kissed Elena’s cheek. Lost in the sensations, Elena barely managed to nod. The newcomers rose and joined the other two. Now there were four women standing around Elena’s bound body, caressing her, kissing her… and repeating the same things to each other over and over…
“She’s so beautiful…”
“So wonderful…”
“Beauty…”
“So fucking beautiful…”
“Yes, she is…”
“Beautiful…”
Over and over, the words echoed in Elena’s ears. She was overwhelmed by the caresses… the hands and lips touching her all over… someone kissed her chest… again and again… the pleasure surging within her…
If she’d been able, Elena would have screamed - of pleasure, of passion, of lust… of joy. Her body was awash in pleasure, the four women touching, kissing, licking her… and all she could do… all she had to do… was be there… be the object of their reverence… their worshipping…
“She is so beautiful…”
“So beautiful…”
Hands traced the curves of her body… all over… someone ran her fingers through Elena’s hair and it felt so unbelievably good... a pair of lips kissed the tops of her feet… a hand stroked her cheek… fingers traced her lips through the gag covering her mouth…
A pair of hands covered her eyes… and everything that happened felt even more pleasurable… so much so that Elena felt disappointed when the hands left her eyes… only to forget it the next moment… fingers circled her nipples… she felt a tongue run up the side of her neck… these four perfect women pressing their warm bodies against hers…
“Beautiful…”
The orgasm grew within her, nudged along in gentle, soft touches, each of them at just the right place, the right time… The four women caressing her fed the fire within her… slowly… inexorably… the inferno between her legs glowing white-hot… searing her from the inside...
The orgasm came with the light touch of a falling feather and the inexorable force of a breaking wave. It blew through her like she was made of smoke, scattered her to four winds, leaving nothing behind… her body trembling in the restraints, a long, soft moan escaping through her gag… and all the while the women kept caressing her… their voices in her ears, repeating their words.
“Beautiful… so beautiful… so fucking beautiful…”
The caresses ceased. The women fell silent. Hanging limp against her restraints, Elena saw the woman with the golden hair take out the blindfold and tie it on her, leaving her in her own private darkness… and even that felt good. Gentle, soft hands released her from the pillar. Her legs wouldn’t carry so she was carried away and laid down to rest.
In silence, one by one the hands left her.
As the last lingering touch left her and as her consciousness began to fade, someone spoke to her - not in an audible voice but something that spoke right into her heart.
LET THEM SEE YOU
SEE HOW BEAUTIFUL YOU ARE
SEE HOW BEAUTIFUL YOU ARE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The beeping of the alarm roused Elena from her sleep.
She sat up and looked around her. She was sitting in her armchair in her own small apartment, still wearing the same clothes she’d worn last night. Outside the window, the early rays of morning sun reflected off the windows of the building across the street.
“What the… What’s going on?”
She slumped back into the chair, her thoughts a jumble of confusion, fragments of the dream flashing through her head.
She was in her home.
Everything was exactly as it has always been.
Her glance fell on the outfit hanging on the wall.
‘Well… not everything…’
---
The morning chatter echoed around the office as people arrived to work. Even an occasional burst of laughter rang in the air.
“HOLY SHIT!”
Everyone turned to look toward the voice. The woman who’d said it clamped her hands over her mouth, blushing, but her gaze remained transfixed toward the door.
Everyone turned to look that way.
Chatter died to a hush as a strikingly beautiful ash-blonde woman in an immaculate black blazer and skirt strode through the doors, walking like she owned the place. She looked like she’d stepped off the pages of Vogue or Elle, but she carried herself like she could have walked in wearing a burlap sack and made it look gooooood. The click of her heels rang out in the hushed office as everyone stared.
As Elena made her way through the office, she could hear the whispers behind her.
“Is that Elena?”
“Holy shit, I had no idea she looked like that underneath…”
“Wow, she’s beautiful…”
“I had no idea…”
“Wow…”
“So fu… effing beautiful…”
“God she looks good…”
She realized that just the day before she would have run like a scalded dog at such whispers. Now, she merely smiled. ‘Let them talk’, she thought as she made her way toward her cubicle.
Nodding greetings at her coworkers and smiling at their incredulous expressions Elena made her way to her cubicle. Just as she got there, one of her coworkers - Hannah, her name was - actually stepped aside for her, her head bowed and her hands clasped behind her back… and curtseyed as she passed. As Elena glanced at her, the brunette blushed when she realized what she’d done and quickly retreated to her own cubicle.
The whispers rang in the room as Elena sat down to start working for the day. ‘Today, I think I’ll ask someone for lunch’, she thought, glancing over her shoulder toward Hannah’s cubicle.
With thanks to [mention]TomYi[/mention]
