Curious

“Oh God! Oh God! Please...please...stop. Spank me. Oh God!”

Damn it. Three nights in a row now they’ve been going at it like monkeys. Couldn’t they at least be quiet? Danny thought. I’m trying to sleep down here! Danny’s wife slept soundly beside him, oblivious to the thumps on their ceiling, the slaps against flesh, the pleas to God. Danny placed his pillow over his face but could still hear her. Please, oh God, please. Begging Him to do...what? And Him! Spewing orders at her. Do it now, do it now, yes baby yes, that’s it. If things became quiet briefly, Danny could even hear His breathing. Slow and calm. Deep methodical breaths which seemed to absorb her along with all the air in the room each time. Each breath taking something away from her.

As the screaming, hitting and thumps on the floor continued, Danny wondered what exactly was happening above him. Sometimes the woman’s cries aimed at passion, false passion. Veiled underneath Danny heard pain in the woman’s voice. Sometimes she’d remain quiet for several minutes then inexplicably begin screaming again. And who was she? Only a single Hispanic man lived upstairs and Danny never saw any women with him or heard anything before this past few nights. Maybe she was  a prostitute ... for three nights in a row? The monkeys continued above and Danny became keen to every scream and whisper, hoping to gain a clue to the mystery above.

Danny heard steel clash against steel, more moaning and squealing. He heard flesh striking flesh, hard. Then Danny heard Him, his voice such a low, delicate whisper it was almost inaudible. Danny laid motionless in bed.

“Say it.” Danny heard another slap, this one harder.

“Yes Daddy, What do you want me to do Daddy?” Her voice sounded weak and beaten. “Kneel in front of me.” Danny heard her moving, each movement sounded hesitant as she crawled towards Him. Danny heard her adjust her knees, they were now directly above him.

“Bow your head.”

“Please no, I’ll do anything, please.”

“DO IT NOW!” It was the first time Danny heard Him raise his voice. Danny thought he heard the girl crying but he wasn’t sure. He imagined teardrops clinging desperately to her cheeks and lips. Then he heard something hit the floor followed by something heavier crashing down. Then nothing.

Danny didn’t sleep the rest of the night worried what might have happened.

The stereo alarm kicked his wife awake. She turned to hug Danny and found him intently staring at the ceiling. Danny never woke up before her. But Danny was waiting, quietly, patiently. Waiting as he had all through the night, waiting for a sound from above. He wanted to hear a moan, a scream, a good morning, something to tell him everything was fine. Anything. His wife dressed, ate breakfast and left for work. Danny remained in bed feigning sickness. Danny laid there, holding his breath at intervals, scared to make a noise that would force him to miss a sound from above. He waited to hear her voice. Say good morning, say it. Nothing.

At about nine a.m., Danny heard footsteps above him then the front door of the man’s apartment opened and closed. Someone juggled keys and locked the door. Heavy steps, a man’s steps, hurried down the stairs. Danny leapt out of bed and ran to his front window to look at who was leaving. Danny saw the man, but only from behind. He was the man who lived upstairs, but he walked alone. The woman stayed upstairs.

Danny stayed still by the window, like the buck who spots the hunter. If he heard anything, anything, it meant she was fine. Everything was fine. Danny waited and waited and waited. Get out of bed dammit. Use the restroom, drink a glass of milk, breathe, just do something to tell me everything is fine. Danny waited for thirty minutes by the window and heard nothing. Not a single footstep, yawn or whisper.

At eleven a.m. Danny showered and dressed for work. He ate a bowl of spaghetti with tomato sauce from the night before. Around noon he left for work at a shoe store in the nearby mall. Everyday he’d walk the mile-and-a-half trek to the mall with his lunch strapped to his back. As he walked past the elegant two-story homes he would never own, Danny thought of the night’s events. With each step he heard the woman’s cries. Was it pleasure or pain? His arms swinging at his sides reminded him of  the slaps he thought he’d heard. He continued towards the mall, replaying everything he had heard. Danny relived every word, every whisper, every moan, every slap, every whimper, every ... knock on the floor? The thumps on the floor! One after the other, then nothing. What had happened? Did he hit her and knock her down? Did she fall in exhaustion with him on top? His feet stopped moving towards the mall, they turned and headed back to his apartment. Everything above him turned quiet after two things fell on the floor. What had fallen? Why?

Danny opened the door to his apartment and walked in quietly. He threw his backpack on the couch and sat at the kitchen table. He left the stereo and television set off. He wanted to listen. The woman had to be upstairs. The man left the apartment alone and locked the door behind him. Surely she didn’t have keys to the apartment. She couldn’t leave. She had to be above him.

Danny waited. He moved from the kitchen table to the couch and laid down. He waited. He felt hungry, but cooking meant he might miss something from above. Move lady. Jump, shout, turn on the television, something. Nothing. Danny stared at the ceiling above him. His eyelids slid closer. The view became blurry. His body demanded sleep.

Danny’s wife abruptly ended his slumber when she slammed the front door. He sprung from the couch, his eyelids still aching for the touch of their partners. He was sweating. Danny looked at the time on the VCR. Six p.m., he’d slept almost five hours. He stood up to kiss and hug his wife and remembered what he’d been dreaming. The door’s boom had ended the dream prematurely, but he could still remember some of it. The dream was about the apartment upstairs.

His wife asked why he missed work. Stomach flu he said. You don’t look that sick to me. I’m sicker than you think. Danny dragged himself to the bedroom and sank into the bed. His wife went into the kitchen and made herself something to eat.

Danny stared at the ceiling, thinking about the dream. The dream brought everything into focus. The dream allowed him to pry open the clam and steal the pearl inside. The woman was a prostitute, a very special, very expensive prostitute. The man had needs, special needs. Danny had seen talk shows about people like him. People for whom sex and the simple pleasures of intercourse were not enough. People who needed more than foreplay and the usual orgasm. People who needed to inflict pain for their own pleasure. People who enjoyed to redden the buttocks and watch blood roll down someone’s back from the crack of a whip. People who needed to humiliate, control and dominate their partners. To strip them of all their self-worth and respect and watch them plead for leniency only to be punished even more so. According to the web sites Danny had seen, they wore black leather and carried whips, ropes and chains, their tools of pleasure. Their partners wore black leather masks, sometimes they were gagged with plastic balls in their mouth. Domination, dominatrix, sadism, masochism, there were so many names for what had occurred above him the previous night.

The prostitute had probably cost the man a week’s paycheck. In the end he had probably accidentally, or intentionally, knocked her out. That was the thump on the floor. The odor of shrimp being sautéed with bell peppers and onions danced in front of his nose and awoke his tastebuds. But scenes from what happened the night before were doing the lambada in his head. He liked what he was thinking.

To completely dominate a person, a woman. To own them, to make them do anything, anything. To have a slave. That sounded like heaven to Danny and his member agreed. Again and again he replayed the images. Enjoying each slap, each plea to God to the fullest. The blood that boiled through his veins took him to new levels. Danny rose from the bed, stepped into the bathroom and locked the door.

Danny couldn’t remember when his wife had fallen asleep beside him. It was two in the morning, Danny rested patiently in bed waiting for something from above. Danny had heard the man come home near nine o’clock. Danny heard Him go into the restroom, then the kitchen for something to eat. The stereo played heavy metal music until eleven, then He turned the unit off and Danny heard nothing else. Danny waited for the sound of leather striking flesh and cutting through. He waited.

First footsteps. One or two people? Danny couldn’t concentrate, his excitement was overflowing now that the event had begun. Then something heavy fell above him. Definitely only one person walking above. Was she crawling? Danny reached for himself. Danny heard the man say something, but couldn’t decipher the words. Danny’s own breathing was too heavy to listen well. Where was she? He wanted to hear her scream in pain and agony and maybe pleasure. But only strange noises filtered from above. Cloth being ripped apart. Steel crashing against steel, scraping. Wet, moist noises, like someone squeezing a washcloth or sponge. Danny heard him, heard his breathing. The man breathed fast and hard, as if he’d been running. The man was excited, with each outbreath, laughter came. But Danny wanted her, Danny wanted to hear her. The noises continued for another hour, then ended as abruptly as they started. Danny fell asleep quickly and disappointed.

The next day Danny walked to work as usual, no longer worried about the girl, but excited for her. At work, his thoughts strayed very little from domination. Danny imagined how the first time would be. Ordering her to sit, to kneel, to bow. Spanking her for being bad and so much, so much more he could do. He could do anything with her because she’d let him do it to her. Danny wanted the girl’s name. He’d pay for her services.

Danny stayed awake that night again, waiting. But nothing, not a whisper, no steps, no strange noises, no sound crawled down from above. Danny didn’t feel disappointed. He had resolved to meet the man upstairs the following morning and ask about the girl and her services. He needed to experience domination.

At six a.m., Danny pushed his wife out of bed, a half hour early. Danny cooked her a breakfast of sausage and eggs while she showered and dressed. He made her a couple of turkey and bacon sandwiches for lunch and had her out of the apartment by 7:15. Then Danny showered, dressed and prepared himself. He had to meet his neighbor before the man left for work.

Near eight, Danny stepped out of his apartment, locked the door and leapt up the stairs, taking three steps at a time. His hands almost trembling, Danny knocked on the door. Danny looked around him at the other apartment buildings. There was no one outside. Before he could knock again, the door opened. A tall, dark Hispanic man stood in the doorway. The man wore moss green bike shorts and a white muscle shirt. His arms and legs were long, but did not seem disproportionate. His face displayed two days worth of outgrowth along with misshapen teeth as the man smiled at Danny. Danny couldn’t think of what to do or say as the man stood there. Through his hours of thinking and planning this moment, Danny had hardly thought of the man. Danny had concentrated on the girl and what to do with her, not on dealing with this man. The Hispanic man watched Danny as if waiting for a missing order of fries at a fast food place.

“Hi, um, my name’s Danny, I live right below you.” Danny pointed downwards with his index finger. “Anyways, I was wondering if you had a screwdriver I could borrow. Damn VCR is eating my videos again.” The Hispanic man smiled again. “Sure, come in.”

As Danny stepped into the apartment, he felt as if he had entered a barren land. The living room did not have sofas, no television set, no coffee tables, only an old stereo system hidden in the left corner of the living room and a few scattered, deteriorated wooden chairs. Danny hoped he wouldn’t have to sit on those chairs, his weight would probably finish them off. Danny also noticed two bookshelves next to the doorway leading to the bedroom. Each bookshelf contained about five more books that it could and the brackets seemed ready to burst. On the opposite wall, Danny saw eight stacks of books that reached to his waist. The man owned new and old paperbacks, a few hardcovers and some trade paperbacks. Many of the paperbacks had their cover torn off. Danny browsed through the titles. He saw Dickens, Dostoevsky, London and Grisham. And he saw Poe, Frost and Shakespeare. And King, Koontz, Bloch and Lovecraft. And Nietzche, Freud and Jung. Laid atop one of the bookshelves, Danny saw a new copy of Necronomicon and The Satanic Bible.

The kitchen rested stripped even more so than the living room. The man had no table, not that the apartment had enough room for a decent one anyway. Danny didn’t witness any pictures, calendars or any sort of decorations anywhere. The man could at least have a poster of a naked model or something. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even tell you my name.” The Hispanic man startled Danny. “I’m Sonny. Sonny Carranza.” Sonny shook Danny’s hand. It was a firm handshake, the squeeze hurt Danny’s hand. “Give me a second and I’ll get the screwdriver for you, Danny.”

One other thing had struck Danny the moment he set foot inside the apartment. The apartment festered a ... scent ... no a ... a stench. As Danny stood by the front door waiting for Sonny, the odor crawled and slithered into his nostrils, entrenching itself in his nasal cavity. What the hell was that? Rotten meat? Old hamburgers?

“Here it is.” Sonny handed Danny a long yellow screwdriver. “Just bring it back when you’re done, ‘cause if  you don’t, I know where you live.” Danny stared at Sonny for a moment. “Just kidding guy.” Danny struggled to smile then stood there, thinking of what to say next.

“There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.” Sonny stood patiently waiting for the question. “This is sort of embarrassing, more for me than you really. The thing is, I heard you the other day with a woman, late at night you know,”

“What woman?” Sonny pulled back with a puzzled and astonished expression. He didn’t seem nervous, only as if a great mask had just been shattered before him.

“It’s ok Sonny. I’m alright with that, I understand.”

“What do you understand?” Sonny took a step backward as Danny pulverized the mask.

“Domination, or whatever you want to call it. You and her were role playing, she’s submissive, your master, right?” Sonny curled his lips so high, the tips almost touched his ears. He took a step forward, realizing the mask was intact. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m master and she’s very submissive.”

“Well, what I want to know is how to find someone like that. I mean, did you pay for her? Is she yours? I mean maybe I could borrow her, if that’s ok with you I mean. I just want to try this domination thing you know, without it costing me a nut and half.”

“Tell you what, Danny. You look like a cool guy and all. She’s asleep in the bedroom right now. Why don’t you take a look at what she has to offer and if you want her, go ahead and do anything you want to her. She’s mine, she’ll do anything I want her to do.” Sonny stepped aside and pointed towards the bedroom.

Danny’s eyes moved back and forth between Sonny and the bedroom door. After days of anticipation, it would happen. His pants were suddenly cramped. Danny took the necessary steps forward and grasped the doorknob. He slowly turned the knob then realized, who cares if I wake her? He pushed the door open and saw her.

She was covered by a red blanket except for her head, which faced towards him. Her face was not as beautiful as Danny had imagined, but who cared? She could have been three-hundred pounds with a bald head and warts on her ass, just as long as she was his toy. As he moved closer to her, Danny tried to ignore the smell, but it had grown ten times stronger since he opened the door. Danny stood next to the bed looking at her face. The odor so strong his eyes began to water. He noticed her face was bruised and excited himself even more by thinking of the things he would do to her.

Danny could no longer contain himself in his pants. He wanted to see her naked. To grab and squeeze and explore her flesh. To explore her. Danny grabbed the fly of his jeans with one hand and her cover with the other. The cover revealed its contents first.

Her head was severed just above the clavicle. She had a gaping hole from her cleavage to below her belly button. The wound had been spread apart even further and exposed her inner organs. Intestines had been pulled out and rested at her sides. A few maggots crawled inside and around her. Danny placed his hands over his mouth a second too late. He vomited on her. Danny fell on his knees and backwards, struggling to keep away from the corpse. He turned to the doorway and saw Sonny standing there naked. Sonny walked towards Danny. Danny looked at Sonny as if Death were coming towards him. Danny tried to crawl away but he hit the wall behind him. Sonny squatted down in front of Danny, leaned over and whispered in Danny’s ear, “Is she what you expected, dominator?”

Later, how much later he didn’t know, Danny regained consciousness. His head throbbed and pulsed with penetrating shots of pain. His eyes opened slowly. Everything seemed foggy and distorted. He tried to look around but something held his head in place. As things came more into focus Danny saw he was in Sonny’s bedroom. The scent of death slapped him across the face and burrowed itself deeper in his nose, reaching towards his brain. He tried to scream but something was stuffed in his mouth and muffled his attempts. He jerked his arms and legs to move, to run away from this hell. That’s when he realized there was no escape, he was a dead man. His arms and legs where tied down at the wrists and ankles to the appendages of the chair by steel wire. Each time Danny struggled to free himself the wires cut into his skin, the blood seeping slowly from the wounds. He moved his eyes frantically, desperately seeking a ray of hope. As his eyes moved downwards he saw her. The eyes stared intently at him as the head rested comfortably between his legs. Danny vomited again, most of the fluid and pieces absorbed by the cloth in his mouth. Danny cried until no tears rolled down his cheeks and fell asleep.

The boom of a door slamming plucked Danny from the black hole of his dreams and shoved him head first into Sonny’s world. Danny tried to scream once more, but the taste of the cloth in his mouth convulsed his stomach again. Danny heard someone in the kitchen moving things around, looking for something. Danny sat in his chair with her, waiting. The bedroom door opened in front of him. Sonny stood there naked carrying a hammer, nails, a pair of pliers and knives.

“I hope she was good company Danny boy. I didn’t want you to be lonely while I was out.” Sonny walked over to Danny and placed his tools next to the chair, keeping the pliers in his right hand. “You were wrong about me Danny boy. I hope you know that now. I’m not some sort of dominatrix. I’m an explorer. You must’ve had some crazy fantasies while listening to me down there. What were you thinking, Danny boy? What was it? Did you think I was having rough sex with this little lady?” Sonny picked her head up by the hair. “You wanted to do the same to her didn’t you? You wanted her to do anything you asked her to? No, Danny boy. You could never do that, you’re not dominant. You’re too weak. You’re nothing. You’re worthless and insignificant. And you know what else? You shouldn’t have been thinking what you were thinking down there. ‘Cause someone’s always listening. Someone not like me or you, someone better than us, better than even me. And he heard you Danny boy. He heard your thoughts. And he’s told me what to do, because thoughts like that should be punished and he’s told me what to do to you Danny boy.” Sonny placed the pliers over Danny’s left thumb. Danny jerked and tried to move his arm, but the wires cut to the bone and Sonny had his thumb anyway. Tears of dark blood dropped to the floor.

“You wanted to know how I found that girl Danny boy? I’ll tell you. He told me where to find her. He heard her thoughts too and he told me what to do to her Danny boy. She was having bad thoughts like you Danny boy. She was thinking about me Danny boy, and he doesn’t like it when others think about me Danny boy.”

end