Safeword: Davenport(72)

Dana's heart swelled and she leaned down, kissed his forehead, ordered him up, and then hugged him close to her for several long minutes, their heartbeats in synch with one another.

"Okay, show me the labyrinth; I'm excited to see the result of Brent's grand plans."

As Jacob walked her towards the towering hedge Dana wasn't terribly impressed—but stepping inside was like falling through Alice's hole, and two minutes later she wasn't sure she'd have been able to find her way out.

The walls were tall thin trees planted close together, so you couldn't orient yourself with distant landmarks. Eventually they came to a section with shorter hedges, and she saw a neighbor's roof on a hill in the distance and could figure out which direction the house and pool lay—but it didn't help her figure out the correct route.

"Have you ever gotten lost in here?"

"Many, many, times. I know it pretty well now, and can easily get to the center if I start at the beginning. Sometimes he blindfolds me and walks me around until I have no idea where I am, with instructions to count to one hundred before taking the blindfold off and meeting him in the middle, or at a certain statue, and it can take forever to find the way. Sometimes he hobbles me with short chains, or puts a giant plug in, or some torment on my cock or balls, with my hands restrained so I can't give myself relief. Once he used a balloon nozzle to hold an enema in, and I had to navigate to the center and beg him to deflate it, so I could finally expel. It was awful when I was going through it, but now it's a good memory."

"Yeah, you can view it now as proof of his power over you, but at the time I imagine it was hell. How does he supervise you? Make sure you're okay?"

"He puts a voice activated microphone on me and straps a two-way radio around my waist. I'm almost certain there's a homing beacon on me, too, because I fell apart once and he made it to me in practically no time, which wouldn't have been possible if he'd had to find me. I'm sure he has shortcuts; I wasn't allowed out here during construction, and he's never let me see the plans."

"Are Brent's punishments as involved as they used to be? I can see how much he loves you, has it made him go soft on discipline?"

"No, thank goodness. My former Master thought he was being nice by letting me out of consequences, but it only made me feel like I wasn't important enough to take the time to correct. It wasn't our only issue, but it certainly contributed to my asking to be released."

Their conversation continued as they walked side-by-side holding hands, with both comfortably sharing intimate details of current and past relationships. Dana was completely turned around, with no idea of direction, or how close they might be to the center. Jacob confidently skipped some paths and chose others, seemingly at random. She looked down, hoping to see the correct path based on wear patterns, but it was tiny brown gravel, hard packed with no footprints.

He stopped, glanced at his cellphone. “It takes most people five to ten minutes to find the center from here. I'll follow you, but won't give you any hints.” Smiling, he added, “Unless you order me to, but that'd be cheating.” He pushed a few icons on his smartphone and said, “Go."

They were between tall evergreens again, with no view of their surroundings. She had no sense of direction, no idea if the house was in front or behind, or where the center might be. She began walking the way they'd been traveling and skipped a left turn, taking the first right. She figured if she took every right, eventually she'd find her way. When she hit a dead end, the first right on the way back had been a skipped left, confirming this would work if she kept to the pattern.

When she finally rounded a bend and saw a beautiful castle, her mind rebelled. The structure was massive, much larger than the house, which wasn't possible. She'd have seen a building this large from outside the maze, but her brain took a moment to comprehend how it'd been scaled down.

With the fifteen-foot spruce trees behind looking like eighty foot evergreens, the miniature creek running beside it, the smaller bricks and stones and roofing material—the optical illusion was impeccable. The entry was tiny; no way could someone enter.

"Is it just for looks? It's a perfect illusion, but the door is so small, how do you get in?"

He grinned. “Good eye. The real entrance is on the other side. It's big enough on the inside for a bed, basic dungeon equipment, and a no-frills bathroom.” He motioned her towards it and kept talking. “Watching people navigate in here tells you a lot about how their mind works. You were very methodical. If you'd taken left turns instead of right, you'd have made it much quicker, though."

Dana paused as they reached the Lilliputian courtyard, following Jacob as he walked around the far side. She didn't see the door until Jacob opened it, and made him close it again so she could figure out how it'd been camouflaged so well, placing her hand beside his and moving it back and forth several times before finally stepping inside, pulling him with her.