She had developed some kind of a strange bond with her tormentor. She knew she wasn’t consciously fond of him. But the way he held her in his arms, his words that showed how well he understand her, his gentle kisses and soft caresses made their way into her heart. He stayed beside her till she fell asleep. He wanted her to get comfortable with him. Before she fell asleep, the last thing she heard him say was that he will call her on Saturday.

Pankhudi woke up in the morning as the gentle rays of the morning sun kissed her awake, just the way her stalker had kissed her good night the previous night. She was smiling. Her digital clock displayed the date and time, it was a Wednesday. She still had three days to go before she would have to face him again.

She got ready and left for work. There was something very beautiful about that particular day. For the first time in many days, she was feeling free. The anxiety that burdened her mind all the time was suddenly gone; she felt so much happiness within her heart. There was a subtle smile on her lips the whole day. She wasn’t worried about being attacked anymore; she wasn’t worried about being harmed. From what she had gone through for such a long time, she never thought she could ever experience that much joy again.

After work, she visited her favourite cafe, and ordered a cappuccino. As she gently sipped her coffee enjoying her newly granted freedom, she didn’t want to think of anything else. She knew she was happy, and she wanted to be happy as long as she could.

The next two days were as beautiful, except for the increasing nervousness of facing him again. As her application for leave was granted she thought over her decision again. She wasn’t even sure it was her 'decision', knowing that she didn’t really have much choice. But deep within her heart, she felt that submitting to him was a better thing to do as it drastically cut down on the amount of anguish she was being put through. Also she thought about her own condition, the Masochistic Personality Disorder thing that the psychiatrist told her about. She always responded to everything the stalker did to her. That was a fact. Perhaps there were more unexplored facts that she was about to discover. She was preparing herself mentally for that. Perhaps this three day window her stalker gave her was for this very purpose.

And finally Saturday dawned, and Pankhudi’s apprehension started to build up from the morning itself. But the day was uneventful. In the evening, when she returned home, she found a box placed on the table of her living room. She was not surprised, although nervous. There was a beautiful red rose placed on top of it. In spite of the lovely fragrant rose, her sixth sense was warning her that its contents were perhaps not pleasant. She sat down on a chair quietly waiting for his call. Her phone rang as she was expecting.

“Open the box cupcake” a familiar voice said.

She opened it. It contained a collar wrapped around a cactus stem. The box was full of thorny twigs.

“The best thing about thorns” he said, “Is that they do not wither. Remove the collar from the box and wear it. Just know that, once you do that, you will be completely under my control. I will decide what happens to you. I'm not going to give you any limits except for ones I choose. I'm going to violate you and do things that you haven't considered. I'll abuse you verbally, I'll hurt you and I'll degrade you, so brace yourself for that.”

Pankhudi’s heart began pounding with fear. For a moment she didn’t know what to say.

“Will you let me go after three days as you promised?” she squeaked.

“I am a man of my word” he said assertively, “I will keep my promise if I made any.”
He didn’t say anything further and disconnected the call.

Pankhudi looked at the box again. The collar was entangled with the thorns such that there was no way she could remove it without hurting herself. She tried to remove it gently, but her fingers got pricked multiple times. She could see tiny droplets of her own blood splattered in and around the box. She managed to remove the collar from the box and kept it aside. Then she held her bleeding hands under running cold water. The wounds were not deep so it didn’t take much time for the bleeding to stop. She could still feel pain, but she was hoping it would subside on its own.

She sat on her bed with the collar in her hands. She was thinking for the last time before putting it on. The thought of totally being at his mercy frightened her, but she found it surprisingly arousing. He was a handsome man; she didn’t blame herself for being attracted towards him. She had begun to like and perhaps trust him; she was curious to explore her dark desires, and since her leave was granted; her little stay with him wouldn’t possibly disrupt her life.

For a moment she thought of informing Nisha or her family about her little vacation. But then she discarded the idea because she knew they would lose sleep. She didn’t want to burden them with worries, besides Pankhudi had a strong feeling that this whole thing was about her dark side, something she felt within herself. She knew there wasn’t any way she could explain it to anyone.

She looked at the collar one last time. She took a deep breath and put it around her neck. With a faint click, it was locked in place.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. The collar was black in colour made of some lighter metal. It had a smooth reflective texture, with a D ring in the front which could be attached to a leash. Pankhudi had locked it around her neck, and now there was no way she could remove it. But she didn’t want to. Looking at her collared image in the mirror was strangely turning her on. The feeling of being owned was frightening, yet overwhelming.

It took her some time to get used to the new sensation around her neck. She knew she had to live with it for the next few days. She was beginning to like it.

She went to sleep knowing that the next day, she had to visit the address she had been asked to. Next evening she left her house. She switched off her cell phone and left it at home as she was told to. She carried some money she needed for traveling and nothing else.

She wore a salwar suit and used her dupatta to hide the collar all along the way. She reached the address mentioned on the card on time. She couldn’t risk being late. She knocked the door. A grim looking middle aged woman opened the door. She seemed to be expecting Pankhudi. She said in a stern voice without any smile, “Come in.”

Pankhudi walked in. The woman stared at her and roughly pulled her duppatta. She pointed towards the bed placed in the middle of the room and said, “Take off all those ridiculous clothes and lie down there.”

Pankhudi was confused. She didn’t expect to be asked to strip. She just stared at the woman blankly.

“Stop wasting my time, stupid cunt!” The woman shouted. The woman’s reaction scared Pankhudi. She did as she was told.

“We are going to rip off every hair on your body below your neck. So you better co-operate” she said in the same cold and stern voice.

Pankhudi did visit her beauty parlour regularly, but she had never got her whole body waxed before. The woman worked just as roughly as she spoke, she did the job in the most careless way, causing a lot of pain to Pankhudi. Every time she screamed, the woman threw a dirty word at her. Pankhudi was later given enema and it didn’t take her long to realize what she was being ‘prepared’ for. She trusted her Master, and braced herself for whatever he might have planned to put her through. The woman then cleaned and filed Pankhudi’s fingernails and toenails, set her eyebrows, curled her eyelashes, and made her undergo many other beauty treatments.

After that, the woman asked her to have a cold shower. She was given a fragrant soap. She turned on the shower and let the cold water tickle her skin. In spite of feeling humiliated, she was delighted as she rubbed the soap onto her skin. Her skin felt real smooth, like satin. She never got such a wonderful feeling about herself before. There was a full sized mirror in the bathroom. She looked at her waxed pussy, it never looked so alluring. As she rubbed some soap over it, she got aroused almost instantly. She washed herself well from head to toe. Then she looked at her naked reflection in the mirror. The totally hairless skin was glowing. She felt like she had been transformed into an angel.

She dried herself with a turkish towel kept in the bathroom and wrapped it around her body before she stepped out of the bathroom. When she came out she was given a box which contained clothes she was supposed to wear. It had black lacy lingerie set. She wore it and was spellbound to see how beautiful the black floral design lace looked on her body. The lingerie fit perfectly on her body, the person who bought it for her knew her sizes well. Then there was a revealing top with a deep cut neck. She wore it and it fit snugly onto her curvaceous figure. There was a short skirt that covered her legs only slightly below the level of her lacy panty. She also found a pair of stockings in the box. Everything was black. It was a colour she herself was fond of because it matched her raven hair and best highlighted the curves of her wheatish complexioned body. She slipped on the stockings, and looked at the mirror. She could see her own overtly sexy reflection. She was however uncomfortable in what she was wearing. Pankhudi was not used to such things. Then there were a pair of stilettos she was asked to wear. Now since it was the first time that she slipped her feet into something like that, she was just so uncomfortable. Her effort to carry her new look was clearly visible on her face.

The woman then told her to sit down, and began to blow dry her hair. She was skilled at her work.