Nightmare

~*~

At around three o’clock in the morning, while the young couple was peacefully sleeping, Natacha suddenly started fidgeting in bed. The young woman was currently having a nightmare, one in which she found herself completely naked in the company of her boss. But it didn’t end there. Herman was now holding her on a leash like a common animal and parading her on all fours on a red carpet in front of a crowd of faceless people who seemed to be delighted by the spectacle before them.

Faced with such horror, Barnes couldn’t hide her tears. The humiliation was too great and the young woman had only one desire, and that was to flee and hide in a hole and never come out again. Unfortunately, she was a prisoner of the man in front of her, her body categorically refusing to obey her and behaving as if she were a common dog. Suddenly, Herman and Natacha stopped, and the businessman started to speak to the crowd.

“My dearest friends, allow me to introduce Miss Barnes, a beautiful specimen I’ve recently added to my collection. Very docile, she’s about to perform a charming little trick in front of you all. Would you like to see what she can do?”

With one voice, all these people who obviously had no mouths answered, “Yes! Show us!” at the same time. Herman then asked Natacha to give her paw. The young woman tried to refuse, finding it far too humiliating, but her body began to move on its own without her having given the order, and she finally did as she was told. Barnes held out her hand to Invictus and, in the same way a dog would behave in front of its master, she began to breathe like a canine.

“Very good. Very good. Now bark,” Herman ordered again, this time with an unhealthy grin on his face.

Once again, Natacha’s body didn’t obey her and she let out a “woof!” shortly afterwards.

“You see, my dear friends, very docile as I told you.”

The crowd erupted in applause at the performance they had just witnessed, and some even took photos to immortalize the moment. Natacha obviously begged them to stop, not wanting to be photographed in such a humiliating and degrading situation. Unfortunately for her, no sound came out of her mouth. What’s more, of all the people taking pictures of Barnes, one individual in particular stood out from the rest. It was the only person who wasn’t faceless, but also the person Natacha loved the most: Michael Orzak.

The young woman was stunned when her gaze met Michael’s, and couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing there. For his part, Orzak’s face was filled with a mixture of stupor, anger, sadness, but also deep disappointment with Natacha, which was an image Barnes found very hard to bear.

“Please don’t. Don’t look at me like that,” she tried to say.

Once again, no words came out of Natacha’s mouth as she was desperately trying to explain to Michael that it wasn’t what he thought it was. Besides, even if she had been able to speak without a hitch, there was nothing to assure her that the young man would listen to her. Her fears became reality as he turned abruptly and began to make his way through the crowd of faceless people.

“Babe, wait! Please don’t leave me. I beg you, come back. I can explain everything.”

As on previous occasions, Natacha’s words failed to reach the man she loved and he eventually disappeared into the sea of faceless heads and camera flashes, leaving the young woman to mourn her fate with a heart broken into hundreds of pieces.

“There’s no need for you to weep for this man, Miss Barnes. You already belong to me, and I don’t intend to share you with anyone else. Enjoy this wonderful moment of relaxation, there’ll be less and less of it in the future,” Herman retorted with a wry smile.

Natacha really didn’t want to hear that kind of thing coming out of that man’s mouth, especially not at a time like this. The young woman had no desire to do anything with her boss. All she wanted was for Michael to come back and explain to him the situation, to explain all the sacrifices she’d made for him and the people she loved. She couldn’t let him walk away and think she’d been unfaithful by choice. She didn’t want this to be the last image he had of her.

“That will indeed be the last image he has of you, Miss Barnes,” Herman suddenly said.

Natacha gasped when she heard his words. How could he possibly know what she’d been thinking only moments before?

“I told you, Miss Barnes. You already belong to me.”

Suddenly, Herman started laughing in a Machiavellian manner. Had he finally succumbed to madness? She didn’t know. All she knew for sure was that his laughter was not a good sign for her. And she was right. It wasn’t long before Invictus forced her to follow him by pulling violently on her leash. The other spectators were also laughing at the pitiful state the young woman was in.

*

Michael was awakened in the middle of the night by his fiancée’s movements in bed. The young man immediately understood that Natacha was having a nightmare – the latter asking people to stop – so he decided to wake her up.

“Tacha! Tacha! Babe, wake up!” he exclaimed, giving her a gentle shake.

A few seconds later, Barnes too, regained consciousness after defending herself against unseen assailants and screaming, “let go of me!” at the top of her voice.

“It’s over! It’s over! I’m here, babe. I’m right here. It’s just a bad dream,” Michael retorted, pulling her into his arms.

When she realized that she was not only back in her bedroom, but also in the arms of the person she loved the most and who had promised to protect her, Natacha felt relieved, but she also couldn’t help but cry. What she had seen and experienced in her nightmare was certainly something she didn’t want to experience in the real world.

“I’m here, Tacha. No one will ever hurt you again.”

Orzak did his best to console her, but Natacha continued to cry in his arms. He didn’t know what she had seen in her dream, but it must have been very trying for her to be in such a state. All he could do now was wait for her to calm down.

Shortly afterwards, Barnes stopped crying, but continued to sob all the same. He took the opportunity to ask her what she had seen in her nightmare, but she remained silent.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t force you. But just know that I’m here for you.”

Despite his words, the young man couldn’t hide his curiosity about the nightmare she’d just had. Natacha wasn’t in the habit of having nightmares, not to say that she never did. Hence, it was only natural that he wanted to know what had put his fiancée in such a state. However, as he had said a few seconds earlier, he couldn’t force her to talk, so he had to wait for her to confide in him on her own, which was not long in coming.

“I was stuck at the office, forced to write reports over and over again for Mr. Invictus without ever taking a break…working until I died. At one point, I wanted to stop everything, and that’s when…that’s when some faceless men came and handcuffed me to my desk. I did everything I could to defend myself, but they were much too strong…”

At that moment, Michael understood why she had asked people to stop and why she had fought so hard when he had tried to wake her up.

“In the end, there was nothing I could do and I ended up in chains.”

“It was just a nightmare, Tacha.”

“I know it was!”

Natacha knew perfectly well that it was just a bad dream, but that didn’t change what she had felt at that moment. The feelings of humiliation and guilt she’d felt had been very real. She felt guilty about all the lies she’d recently told Michael and the sense of humiliation stemmed from what her boss was now doing to her. What’s more, she had also been affected by the way her man had looked at her in her nightmare. Even if it hadn’t been real, Barnes didn’t want to see him display the same look; she couldn’t bear it.

“What I meant to say, Tacha, is that nothing you’ve seen in a dream is likely to happen to you in reality.”

The young woman had her doubts. After all, she’d made a pact with the devil in the guise of Herman Invictus. He could now abuse her whenever he wanted after working hours. On top of that, there was this invitation she’d received from him, an invitation to take part in a so-called tasting session. What told her that what she’d seen in her nightmare wouldn’t be what she was likely to experience if she showed up this Saturday morning at the Black Crown underground parking lot? Natacha didn’t know, just as she didn’t know what this famous tasting session really was.

Thinking about all this was beginning to exhaust Natacha. On top of that, it was getting very late and she had to get up in a few hours to go to work. She couldn’t afford to stay up too long. There was just one problem: she didn’t feel like closing her eyes. Barnes didn’t want to risk having the same nightmare. So, she rose abruptly from the bed and headed for the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Michael asked as she was climbing out of bed.

“To get a glass of water.”

In the kitchen, Natacha did indeed pour herself a glass of water, but only took a sip before sitting down at the table. Then she wondered how her life had taken such a dramatic turn. How had a simple request for a promotion turned into sexual blackmail? She thought about it over and over again, and finally decided that the problem must lie with her. And with good reason: if she’d just stayed where she was and waited for the promotion to be offered to her in a more conventional way, she’d never have found herself in this situation. It was her pride and greed that had driven her to make this request, and now she was suffering the consequences. She had no one to blame but herself.

Michael soon arrived in the dining room to find Natacha pensive, staring at her glass of water. He asked her if everything was all right, which she replied to with another question.

“Say, Michael, do you think I’m greedy?”

“What?! No, you’re absolutely not. Why would you think that?” he replied, taking his seat at the table.

“I was just thinking that if I hadn’t asked for this promotion, I wouldn’t be sitting here at three in the morning thinking about my job. So, I’m thinking I’m a greedy person, because I made that request.”

“I don’t think you’re a greedy person, Tacha. If you were, then I’d be just as greedy as you are for having pushed you to make this request. No, I think you’re simply someone who wants her work and efforts to be recognized for what they’re worth.”

“I wish that were true.”

“It is true.”

Natacha really hoped that what Michael had just said was true. However, a part of her couldn’t help but think the opposite, that it was because of her pride and greed that she found herself in this situation.

“Babe, it’s really getting late. We’d better get back to bed,” Michael said.

The young woman turned her gaze to the clock and realized that they only had a few minutes left before 4a.m. It was therefore imperative for them to go back to bed, especially if they didn’t want to look like zombies at work. There was just one problem, however: Natacha still wasn’t sleepy. Nevertheless, she decided to return to the bedroom with her fiancé.

Back in their bedroom, Barnes settled comfortably into her man’s arms who told her that with the short time they both had ahead of them, he hoped to fall asleep in the next few minutes. Knowing Michael, Natacha already knew that he would indeed fall asleep in the next few minutes. And just as she’d expected, the young woman found herself the only one still awake some time later.

For many minutes, Natacha watched Orzak sleep. He looked so peaceful in his sleep that you’d have thought he was someone who never had a problem in his life, which was not the case for her. Her current life had become a huge headache that risked destroying her at any moment. However, she couldn’t deny the love she had for everyone close to her, especially Michael. She then looked away from him before whispering that she loved him.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you,” she continued.

Too exhausted to keep her eyelids open, Natacha finally fell asleep half an hour later, a tear suddenly streaming down her face.