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No character is or was ever
real. No part of the story is a fantasy of the
author. No part of this story may be used or posted
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A Phone Call Changes Everything
Donna sat up, slowly waking up. What woke her up? She looked around the room. It was still dark. “What time is it?” she said softly to herself, as she sleepy looked for the alarm clock somewhere on the night stand. Then she heard what had woke her up. The phone was ringing down stairs. “Four o’clock” Donna saw “Who could be calling me at this hour?”
She turned on the light, and searched for a night gown or something, and found a bath robe. As she tucked herself in she stumbled downstairs to the ringing phone. “All right, all right.” She said out loud “I’m coming”.
“Probably Robert” she thought yawning as she turned on the lights down stairs “Who has something exciting to tell about his job. He sometimes forgets the time difference…”
“Hello?” She said as she picked up the phone.
“Hello, Donna, Donna Alldring?” A voice said
“Speaking?” Donna said a bit surprised, as it wasn’t Robert.
“Hello, this is Dillon McDonnahue, the husband of Vivian.” The man on the other side said “Sorry to bother you, but is Vivian still with you?”
“No…” Donna answered slowly “She left hours ago, around twelve..”
“She hasn’t arrived home yet.” Dillon McDonnahue said “And if she left around twelve from your place, she should have been home hours ago.”
“Yes…” Was all that Donna could say. But her mind was racing again. She was now wide awake, and remembered what had happened last night. Vivian had been such a big help! She hoped nothing had happened to her.
“Did you guys drink a lot?” Dillon McDonnahue asked worriedly.
“Not too much, Vivian knew she still had to drive home.” Donna answered “I hope nothing happened to her.” She added
“I hope so too.” Dillon McDonnahue said “Listen, sorry I had to bother you, I’m going to check the police now. Hopefully she just had a flat tire or so, and her phone was dead so she couldn’t make a call, or something like that.”
“Please, keep me posted.” Donna said, just before Dillon McDonnahue hung up.
“I hope nothing bad happened to her, she didn’t deserve that.” Donna thought as she hung up the phone. She wandered through the living room for a while, switched on the television, trying to distract herself. She couldn’t sleep anymore as she kept on worrying about Vivian. “It is not such a long drive, and she was sober, or at least fit to drive..”
She drifted in and out of sleep on the couch, constantly thinking of what could have happened to Vivian, and hoping for a liberating phone call from her or her husband. All her worries of her own situation were forgotten.
At around six the phone finally rang. Donna woke up from her drowsy state and picked it up “Hello?”
“Donna, this is Dillon….Listen…”
Donna could hear he was very upset, and feared the worst.
“Vivian… she has had an accident. The car must have slipped, and she ended up in the river… “
“Oh no!” Donna said as tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh no!”
“The current has swept her body out of the mangled car. They are looking for it now, but with the current, and the cold, they have little hope of finding her any time soon…”
“How horrible!!” Donna whispered. She heard Dillon choke also.
“I… I have to tell the kids still. I’m sorry, call you later. The police will pass by…”
“I understand, don’t worry. If there is anyway I can help….”
“Thank you..” and Dillon hung up the phone, leaving Donna with her own worrisome thoughts.
The next hour she just sat on the couch comatose, just thinking of the terrible fate of Vivian.
Suddenly and awful thought crept up on her. “Maybe ms Brendan was involved in this?”
She quickly dismissed the thought, but it kept on coming back to her. “It does make sense, in a weird way” she thought “Doctor Dow also explained me once about the gang rape of the mother and daughter. She can be heartless, cruel. My own cut is a clear sign of that…. But still, murder?... And how would she know?”
As time passed by she couldn’t shake the thought, and had to find out if it was true. If it was possible. After some internal deliberating she decided to call Ninon. “She will know. If I ask her she will tell me…”
She picked up the phone. it was seven thirty already, and she expected Ninon would be up by now. She always had been an early bird, as far as Donna knew.
“Hello?”
“Hello Ninon, it’s me, Donna.”
“Oh hi, I wondered when you would call me.” Ninon replied.
Donna was a bit surprised at this. “You expected me to call you?”
“Yes, listen, we can’t talk on the phone right now. I’ll pick you up in about half an hour. I have to bring my kids to school today, and we’ll talk in the car afterwards. And you have little time before your meeting with ms Burkowitz. Be ready.” and Ninon hung up.
Donna looked at the phone, wondering what was going on. “She expected me to call… does that mean that ..?.”
Now she was really worried. And Ninon mentioned the dreaded meeting with the psychiatrist this morning. She had figured she would call it off when the lady would appear at her doorstep. “Or maybe she doesn’t know I quit. Maybe she thinks I’m still going thru with it. But why would she then mention she was expecting my call?”
Donna worried the next half hour as she showered and got ready for Ninon. She was unsure what to wear, normal clothing, or sexy? What was better now? She finally decided for something in between, medium high shoes, and a business suite with skirt. It gave herself an excuse to wear stockings. Thus Ninon could not really complain, and yet she did just wear normal clothing, or close to it.
As for her make up, her business attire excused her to just apply the basics, though she was a bit heavy on the bronze lip gloss and bronze eye shadow. But the bronze color wasn’t showing as much, so she still looked acceptable to herself. Her hair she just tied in a knot on the back of her head. She had no time to really comb it. When she was finished she looked in the mirror. She looked acceptable at first sight. Only when you looked further you saw the too sexy stockings, and the too heavy make up. She knew she was cheating herself somehow with these clothes; she was in fact again following the orders of ms Brendan. But she had no choice.
When she saw Ninon drive up the parking lot in front of the garage she quickly went out, closed the door behind her and got in the car.
“Children, say hi to ms Alldring.”
“Hi ms Alldring!!” the children in the back seat said in unison.
“Hello children.” Donna replied.
They drove the kids to school as Donna observed the family. She knew Ninon had a husband and kids, but she had never met them. She looked at the kids, they were young, ages 4, 8, and 10. Striking was that the youngest one looked very different than the older two. The younger was blond, very blond, while the other two were dark haired. And the faces were really different. “She probably remarried or so” Donna concluded, as she sat back looking forward. Her somber thoughts took over when she saw they were driving alongside the river. The same cold river where somewhere the body of Vivian was drifting.
Not much was said up until the children where delivered at their schools. But when the last one ran out of the car towards his friends, the tension in the car rose. Donna didn’t really know where to begin. She fumbled a bit, and felt herself becoming very emotional. She got herself together and decided to start with the obvious question
“Why did you expect me to call?”
Ninon smiled dryly “You called off ms Brendan, and that is not how it works my dear.”
“Ms Brendan decides if she has had enough of you. On top of that you made the enormous mistake of threatening her. Not wise.”
“So…” Donna said “She is responsible for Vivian’s dead?”
“Who is Vivian?” Ninon asked
“An old girlfriend of mine. I asked her to be my guardian for my therapy. She..” Donna had to choke back a tear “…She is the one who helped me to fight ms Brendan. She had a car accident early this morning. When she left me.”
There was a long silence in the car. Donna observed Ninon who just looked straight forward for a while, but you could see her thinking hard.
“I don’t know if she’s responsible for her death.” Ninon finally said “I know she can be ruthless, vicious. And I know you pissed her off big time. She called me immediately after she heard your stupid message, and boy was she angry.”
Ninon looked at Donna “And for the record, I am pissed too. I have gently trained you, I have been nice to you, I let you know what you were up to. And still you did something as stupid as this.”
“It was Vivian, she convinced me..” Donna started, but stopped. “I’m not going to put the blame on Vivian, she is dead!” she thought “How can I say such a thing.”
“She may have encouraged you, but you have a mind of your own. You should have known it was not wise to do what she told you. You should have known it was actually really stupid. Now you’ll face the consequences.” Ninon said brusquely “You are such a stupid cunt.”
Donna understood Ninon was angry at her, and understood it was because she was blamed for her rebellious act too. She had been angry at her before when she had not reached her fuck quota that weekend.
“How did she knew how to get Vivian?” Donna asked. She had to be sure Vivian was killed by ms Brendan. Though by now she was convinced it was the case.
“I never said she killed your girlfriend. That’s what you can ask her yourself, but I don’t think it would be wise to do so.” Ninon snapped back “Anyway, you decide for yourself what has happened, and how. I don’t really care. Just tell me if you will submit to your training again.”
Donna thought it over. Apart from Vivian disappearing ms Brendan hadn’t done anything to force her back to her. “But then again she only called off yesterday evening. Not much time to react. But Ninon did expect her call. Does she know more than she says to me?”
“You don’t have much time, by the way. Your appointment with ms Burkowitz is in about an hour. And you have to find a new guardian.”
Donna felt the pressure she was putting her under. She had to decide now. Rebel or submit once again.
“If…If I continue to rebel, what will happen?” Donna asked meekly.
“You must face the consequences, and they will be severe. The sky is the limit. If you think she hit on your friend, don’t you think she can hit on your own family also?”
This was a thought that had crossed her mind. “If I quit, and she killed Vivian for it, she will be able to kill my family too, that’s right.” She looked outside as they passed the river again. “I even think she deliberately drives alongside this damn river all the time.” And that thought made it clear to Donna. All the suspicious clues together could only yield to one conclusion; ms Brendan had killed Vivian ruthlessly, in cold blood. And that was her message to Donna. Ninon was showing her her family could end up in the same river if she continued with her actions by constantly driving alongside it. She was kind of the messenger. “I am deeper in this shit than I previously could have imagined. And there is no way out now. But to submit again will mean punishment, heavy punishment” she knew.
“What if I … well… go back again?” Donna asked.
“You will be punished. And it will be hard, no doubt about that.” Ninon answered honestly. “You by now know how ms Brendan works. The last time you lost part of your job, and she upped your commitment. And that was when she was just disappointed with your achievements. Now she is pissed, so she will come down on you hard, very hard, and very cruel.”
“Oh boy..” she mustered. Donna had to think hard. She had to choose between two horrible options. Rebel and face brutal attacks on her family, or submit and face brutal punishment.
“If…if I’m really good, I mean… if I really follow orders, and play along, you know, really play along…will there be a positive..like ending?” she asked, as she felt her tears come up.
“It’s in my opinion your best shot.” Ninon said “Think logically. If you continue to rebel, well, you’ll probably loose everything, jobs, money, the house, and, if she killed Vivian, she might kill more.”
The car turned away from the river finally.
“But if you submit, you might save something of it. And if you’re really working hard, proving to be a good trained girlfriend, show your love to her all the time… You might get back some lost privileges, but I have to be honest, that’s totally up to ms Brendan.”
Donna thought about it again. She could run to the police, could tell them everything, but with the speed ms Brendan reacted with Vivian, she might hit on her daughters immediately, and on Robert, who’s totally in her power.
“Where are my daughters now?” she asked Ninon, as she thought about them.
“You ask me? You are their mother. They spent the night at some friends I guess. The driver picked them up for school.”
Another hint. They were in the power of ms Brendan too.
“I’m really in deep shit, aren’t I.” Donna said.
“That’s an understatement.” Ninon replied.
She looked for another way out, but nothing solved her problem. The family was not together, and the danger had risen from a simple financial and embarrassing revelation, to a murder threat. And she had never expected that. At most she had thought of being raped, her daughters being raped, sodomized. But the cruel killing of her friend, only to keep ms Brendan’s name clean… “It does explain why she can live her dark live. Whoever doesn’t do what she tells her to she will ultimate kill.”
“Do…do you know of any other killings she did?” Donna had to ask again.
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.” Ninon said “And for the record, ms Brendan killing Vivian is still totally your idea. Don’t go around telling she is a killer, unless you have absolute proof. And even then, I don’t think it would be wise to go against her.”
Silence again, and Donna thinking again, but she shook her head at the hopelessness of her situation. “Ok, Police not an option, running away not an option. Until I got my family together I’ll have to go along. Again…”
“I..I understand now.” Donna said “I will submit again.”
She turned to Ninon “What will she do to me?”
“As I said, she will be hard on you. We all will be. But you deserve it, for all the trouble you caused. To everyone involved.”
The last sentence hit hard. “She insinuates I am responsible for Vivian’s death.” Donna thought silently as they crossed the river “If I involve anyone, that person’s life, my family’s life, will all be in danger. I can’t tell anyone anymore. Not for now.”
She felt trapped. She was trapped again.
“Why is she so angry at me, why is she out ot get me?” she asked out loud.
“It is the fact that you blackmailed her. That was wrong. Leaving she could understand, and she would pull you back gently, yet forcefully. But you wanted to fight her, and now you got your fight.” Ninon said.
“Head my advice, just do as you’re told, or better, do even more. Do your utmost to get back on her good side again. Life will be hell otherwise. And you can’t win.”
“But I will loose anyway. If I submit to her wishes she’ll turn me into a whore, a slut! How can I live like that?”
“If you can’t you can always kill yourself, though she probably will still punish your family just for spite in that case.” Ninon answered coldly “You need to focus on making her happy. If she’s happy, you can be, and thus your family, your friends can be. You don’t have any alternative.”
Silently they drove the last part to Donna’s house. When Ninon parked in front of the house she turned to Donna.
“So..” she started “You need to hurry to find yourself a new guardian. One that you will tell the truth; that you want this therapy, that you chose it. Remember you need to update your diary, and choose a fantasy, or fantasies you want to make real too before the meeting. I will return in half an hour and check your writings. It better be good, very good.”
“After the session you’ll need to go to work. And at the spa afterwards just get a message, tomorrow is you skin and tooth treatment, so no special skin treatments. I will come tonight to discuss the new rules in the house. The new strict rules.”
She motioned for Donna to get out. Donna went out of the car in a daze. Her mind was in turmoil as she understood she was back in the hands of ms Brendan, and that she had to be prepared for the worse. She looked at Ninon driving off. She had been angry too, but she understood. If she misbehaved Ninon was held responsible too.
When the cold got to her she woke from her thoughts and ran back in the house. “No time to waste, I need to call for another friend to be my guardian. Someone that will buy my lies, and then write in my diary…”