==== Chapter One: The Clique ====
== In the Discotheque ==
Finally, Johanna arrives at the club. She’s wearing a black pleated skirt and a white blouse. Her long red hair is pinned up, in a traditional manner with hairpins. She is slender, six feet tall, with a long neck. She has sparkling green eyes in a sensual face full of freckles. Her skin is light like alabaster.
All around Johanna are young people of various styles. Many are alternative, goths, or wavers. The club Nachtsplitter is built in an old industrial hall. There is a second and third floor, forming a gallery around the large dance floor. Up there, is a VIP area. In an adjacent building, there are arcade games, and in a nearby hall, there’s a roller-skating rink. The local roller derby team trains there.
This is where Johanna met Björn. Is he already here? She doesn’t see him anywhere, but the place is huge. Impatiently, she looks everywhere for the young man. She had been thinking about him all week. She can’t wait to feel his lips again. To feel his hands glide over her body. Nowhere. Oh well—time to dance. ‘Theatre of Tragedy’ is playing.
When Johanna finally needs a break and goes to the bar, she sees Björn in a seating area. He’s tightly embracing some underfed, pale girl with lots of piercings. They’re kissing so intensely as if they’re devouring each other. Johanna feels a painful sting in her heart. She clutches her hands to her chest and gasps. So that’s how it is. A wave of anger rises within her. She grabs two beers from the bar, walks over to the seating area, and pours them over their heads.
“Traitor! Bitch!”
The girl swings at her, only managing to spill her own drink, which runs down his pants. All the better.
Then Johanna runs away, tears in her eyes. No destination, no thoughts, just running away. She sits by the railing and looks forlornly at the dancing crowd from the gallery, letting her feet dangle over the edge. It’s only after a long while that she even notices she’s in the VIP area. How did she get here? The bouncers usually check very carefully. She must have slipped past them somehow without them noticing. Without her noticing.
Two women come up the stairs to the VIP area. They both have brown curls, very slim, and shorter than Johanna. Could they be sisters? One is wearing a black ruffled dress with gloves. The other is in a black, glittering evening gown with an elaborate hat. Johanna herself wears things she finds in her stepmother Elke’s second-hand shop. But these two outfits look like they’re from an expensive boutique. They’re so elegant and pretty, Johanna thinks as she watches them.
The two women go up a second staircase. Up there are rooms with huge glass fronts from which you can overlook almost the entire club. The ‘Prince’—the club’s owner—apparently holds court there. Or at least that’s what Johanna was told. The two women argue with an employee at the door, one woman goes in, and the other waits outside. Then Johanna sees a man in a beige suit. That must be the ‘Prince’! He talks a little with the woman at the door and gives her a small box. Then he goes into the glass room.
The woman at the door wanders around indecisively and finally sits down next to Johanna. She is unusually slim, with a sensual face, pretty amber-colored eyes, and long brown curls.
“Hi. I’m Anna.”
“Johanna.”
Anna lights a cigarette.
Johanna asks, “Is that your sister up there?”
“My mother.”
“Oh. Going to a club with my mother would be a nightmare.”
Johanna takes a drag from Anna’s cigarette, coughs, and quickly hands it back.
Anna says, “Clubbing isn’t really my thing either. I just came along because my mom was driving anyway. She has some business stuff to discuss.”
She gestures toward the office behind the glass. There, they see Anna’s mother arguing with the ‘Prince’. She gestures excitedly while he calmly watches the club’s guests.
“But if we hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have met you.” Anna smiles at Johanna. “I saw you dancing earlier, I really liked it. Do you come here often?”
Johanna replies, “We just moved here recently. I don’t know anyone here yet. Except at school, of course.”
She sighs. The move hadn’t been easy for her. The reasons were good, but it wasn’t easy. She looks up at the glass front again. The man is looking directly in her direction, their eyes meet. It’s like a bolt of lightning hits Johanna, touching something deep inside her. She almost loses her composure, her eyes well up. She can’t move until he looks away.
Anna says, “If you don’t know anyone here yet, you should do something about that. You’ve got a great figure, wouldn’t a dance class be something for you?”
Johanna smiles, “I’ve been dancing for years. But I had to change schools, and I haven’t had a chance to find a new dance school here yet.”
“I see. You like it, don’t you?”
“Tremendously. And you?” Johanna asks.
“Five years. Ballet before that,” She grins. “Rich parents, but unlike many others, I really wanted to. Which dance school?”
They exchange the names of their dance schools.
Johanna wants to know, “Isn’t that in the north side? Which school do you attend?”
“The Lobfelsen Private School.”
“What’s it like? Going to a private school?”
“What’s it like? Going to a public school?”
Both of them giggle.
Anna and Johanna continue talking. Finally, Anna glances toward the glass room and says, “I think we’ll have to go soon. But you should come visit us. I have a feeling you might fit in with us.”
“Us? Who’s ‚us’?”
“We often hang out with a few friends at my garden house.”
“Sure,” Johanna replies.
Anna adds, “But I have to warn you. We get up to all kinds of daring mischief to keep ourselves entertained. Only come if you’re okay with that, alright?”
Johanna grins, “No problem, I’ve got experience with mischief.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
Later that night, after the club visit, Johanna lies awake in her bed. There’s a tingling sensation between her legs. She thinks about her visit to the Nachtsplitter, about Björn, and is immediately reminded of Nastassja Kinski from ‘Cat People’. She would like to rip out his throat right now. Her hands make their way to her private area. She thinks about Anna, then about the ‘Prince’—what is his real name?—behind the glass. She feels hot, a real burning sensation. Then her thoughts drift to old family photo albums. She has a strange taste in her mouth. Something smells burnt.
Completely confused, she abandons the masturbation project for today.
== The First Dare ==
On Sunday, Johanna drives to the address Anna gave her. She knew the girls in the clique had wealthy parents, but seeing the estate in person for herself has a profound impact on her. At home, money is often tight, but here they just live in a massive villa. How outrageous!
She rings the gate, and a uniformed employee opens it. He leads her through the large garden, where two gardeners are hard at work. Of course, they also have staff. Do they still wipe their own behinds, or does someone do that for them too?
Behind the main house, she is led to a small house in the garden next to the pool. Do they have their own clubhouse? And one like this? It’s probably bigger than the apartment she shares with Elke. How impudent it is to be so wealthy, Johanna thinks.
Anna is waiting at the entrance to the little house and warmly embraces Johanna in greeting.
“Come in.”
The inside of the house is as charming as the outside. Everything is paneled in wood, and as she notices when she takes off her shoes, there’s underfloor heating. The furniture clearly didn’t come from Ikea. On the coffee table sits a beautiful tea set on a silver tray.
How different this kind of life must be, Johanna thinks.
Inside, alongside Anna, three other girls are waiting for her. They have lined up and stand stiffly as Johanna puts her things down. It feels somewhat formal, given how rigidly the girls are standing.
Anna wastes no time, “I’m glad you came. Welcome to our clubhouse. We would be happy if you became one of us.”
After a brief pause, she introduces the girls, “This is Sarah.”
Sarah is tall, more than six feet, and looks very athletic. Her riding pants suggest her hobby. Her long blonde hair is braided into a ponytail.
She gestures to the next girl, “Marie.”
Marie is the smallest of the four. She has blonde, shoulder-length curls and looks at Johanna with a mischievous smile.
“And finally, Franziska.”
Franziska has a shy look. Her long black hair is worn loose. She is the only one dressed entirely in black. She wears a loose blazer, but Johanna can tell that she must be hiding rather large breasts underneath.
All five sit down. Johanna is still in awe.
“Wow, it’s so lovely here. I won’t even pretend not to be jealous, okay?”
The girls laugh.
“And you’re all so pretty too. Is it like in the movies? Rich and beautiful?”
Anna laughs, “Quite the opposite, really. We’re the exception; you should visit our school sometime. But it’s a requirement for the club.”
Johanna asks with a grin, “So a real secret club? With badges, secret handshakes? Is there an underground hideout beneath the clubhouse?”
Anna’s response is straightforward, “It’s not really a secret that we meet.”
Marie adds with a wink, “And you’ll only learn the handshake on the third level.”
Anna continues without pause, “But what’s really important to us is this: We’re not just a bunch of girls who meet up and exchange makeup tips. We’re a real club. And we want to be sure that you genuinely want to be one of us and that you’re ready to stand up for the others if necessary. That this isn’t just a little adventure for you. That’s why there’s a little initiation ritual. In several parts. Are you ready?”
Sarah interjects, “Already? Shouldn’t we get to know her a bit more first?”
Anna replies, “Should I have asked her to bring her report cards? A letter of recommendation from her mother?”
Franziska says, “I agree, we should start. This will show us much better what Johanna is made of than playing 20 Questions.”
Sarah nods, “Okay, fine. Johanna?”
Johanna looks at the four girls uncertainly, instinctively crossing her arms in front of her body and feeling about two inches shorter. Why are they springing this on her so suddenly? Can’t she just settle in first? She feels overwhelmed.
“What kind of initiation ritual? I don’t even know what to expect…”
“Exactly,” Anna replies, “it would be pointless if you already knew what to expect. The whole point of something like this is that you don’t know what’s coming. Otherwise, there would be no point in doing it.”
It somehow sounds sensible, but it doesn’t do much to ease Johanna’s uncertainty. “I can’t just say ‘yes’ when I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Yes, you can,” Franziska interjects. “You have to trust us. That’s what it’s about. Not the task itself, but your trust. There are no more answers; you have to decide now. It’s not a big deal if you don’t want to; it just means we’re not the right club for you.”
Johanna looks around the room thoughtfully. But deep down, she already knows what she’s going to say. She just feels like she owes it to herself to think it over a bit, to not say ‘yes’ immediately. She feels that the girls are unfairly pressuring her. But at the same time, she is incredibly curious about what will happen next. And yes, somehow she trusts the girls, even though she’s certain that the ‘tasks’ will be more challenging than the ones she faced when she played Truth or Dare at fourteen in the youth hostel.
Finally, she blurts out, “Okay, I want to continue. I trust you.”
With that, Sarah takes a cloth blindfold from the shelf behind her and ties it around Johanna’s eyes. Johanna’s knees go weak. What’s going to happen now? She feels vulnerable. Once the blindfold is securely in place, one of the girls presses something against her mouth.
“Open up!”
A gag ball is pushed into Johanna’s mouth and fastened with a leather strap behind her head.
“Come along!” Sarah commands.
She grabs Johanna by the upper arms and pushes her through the room. The commands come so quickly one after another that Johanna has no time to think about what’s actually happening here. She’s with complete strangers, has a blindfold around her head, and a gag in her mouth. It’s so exciting! Johanna is led into the next room.
“Strip!” Sarah orders. Johanna pulls her sweater over her head. She stumbles with her pants; Sarah has to steady her—the blindfold is messing with her sense of balance. Then Johanna hesitates.
“Everything off! Come on, hop hop, do you usually have a maid to help you?”
Johanna clumsily continues, removing her T-shirt, bra, and panties.
“Socks!”
Finally, she stands completely naked. She covers her private parts with her hands. Immediately, her mind starts racing. Technically, she doesn’t even know who else might be in the room. No one guarantees that only the four girls are there. There could be an entire football stadium watching!
One of the girls grabs her pubic hair and pulls hard.
“Ouch!”
“What’s this jungle here? By next time, you’ll have performed a total deforestation and turned this,” she gets pulled on her pubic hair again, “into a flawlessly paved parking lot!”
She hears Sarah’s voice again, “Okay, over here! Lie down here.”
Is it a table? No. Maybe a bench. Padded, hip-high. Johanna lies down. The girls take her arms and legs, place leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles, and secure them to the bench. Johanna lies fully stretched out. A leather strap is placed around her waist and tightened. Headphones are put on her. ‘Internal Flight’ by Estas Tonne. Johanna likes the music.
She attempts to speak, only to be stifled by the gag.
Johanna lies there for minutes. A bunch of unnecessary and superfluous thoughts swirl in her head. Maybe I’ll lie here forever. They’ll put me in a glass coffin, like Snow White, and I’ll have to wait here for a hundred years for the prince. She sighs into her gag. But anyway, she’s tied up, all that’s left is to wait.
After what feels like an eternity, she feels hands. Hands all over her body. Hands that stroke, rub, grab, some gentle, some bold. Are they all from the girls? Is there someone else here? For a moment, Johanna struggles against her restraints, then she lets it happen and gives in to the experience.
Hands on her belly, her neck, her breasts are stroked and kneaded, hands work their way up her legs to her pussy. Two fingers carefully enter her pleasure canal. For a moment, Johanna tenses up, then she just lets it happen. Johanna completely loses her sense of time, drifting away under the lovely touches.
Eventually, the hands leave her.
The music stops, and a voice—Marie’s?—whispers in her ear, „Well, relaxed? Welcome to the second part. We’ve harvested some nettles for you.“
Johanna shouts angrily into the gag and tugs at the restraints again, but to no avail. Right after, she feels a burning on the soles of her feet. Why start with the soles of all places! The insolense! The burning creeps up her legs. A buzzing starts, then she feels something pressed against her pussy. It vibrates. A vibrator, a Magic Wand, is held against her clit while she continues to be worked over with the nettles.
Her body burns and aches everywhere while at the same time she becomes endlessly aroused from the stimulation of her pussy with the vibrating device. When her breasts are finally treated with the nettles, she screams into her gag. Her privates are also touched with the nettles, directly followed by the Magic Wand again. No part of her body except her face is spared. Everything hurts, and at the same time, she’s unspeakably aroused.
She completely loses the sense of what’s where on her body; it’s all one unit of burning and arousal. She feels the approaching orgasm. At the moment it hits her, her gag is suddenly removed, and she screams out her climax in pure ecstasy.
Exhausted, she lies there, completely dazed from her orgasm. After a pause, the hands rub her with a lotion that greatly eases the burning. She is untied and led back into the other room. Sarah removes her blindfold and hands her a stack of her clothes.
The other three girls are already comfortably seated on the sofa with a bottle of wine, looking over at her. Grinning.
“Want a glass?” Franziska asks.
“My goodness, she looks quite exhausted,” comments Marie, “Girl, what have you been doing? Was it something strenuous?”
“Here, take a glass,” says Anna, offering her a wine glass.
“Sit down. And remember, what happened here is our little secret.”
Once she’s back home, Johanna throws herself directly into bed. She thinks things over. The girls had kicked her out right after the experience. What kind of perverse clique is this? They’re not quite normal, those girls. Does she want to be part of something like this? On the other hand—it’s definitely one thing: not boring. Everything else is somehow boring. She hadn’t expected to be touched by other girls like that. And she enjoyed it more than she had admitted to herself until now. While she’s thinking, her hand has unconsciously moved between her legs, and she starts to stimulate herself. She thinks about the orgasm she had while tied up and being treated with nettles. She hadn’t come that hard in a long time. She continues to rub her pussy, imagining the four girls in front of her.
She always thought she wasn’t into girls. She likes boys. Or men, but now she can only think of the four girls. Maybe she’s more flexible than she thought. She rubs until she reaches her second climax of the day. She knows now, she wants to continue. To just give in, no matter what the next tasks are.
== The Sec***********=
On Tuesday, Johanna meets Sarah in front of the school entrance.
“What are you doing here? Don’t you all go to that private school?”
Sarah replies, “Skipping class and visiting you. We’re here for your second task. You’ll skip the second period. Meet us at the north gate.”
Before Johanna can argue or explain that she has a test during the second period and that today is really inconvenient, Sarah has already disappeared into the crowd of students. How rude! She’s so curious about what will happen today that she doesn’t catch a word of Mrs. Wagner’s math lesson during the first period. She’s already on Mrs. Wagner’s bad side anyway.
Right after the first period, Johanna heads to the north gate. ‘Gate’ is a generous term—it’s really more of an old garden door. It’s always locked, but the fence has plenty of gaps. Behind it is a small patch of woods. Anna, Franziska, Sarah, and Marie are already waiting on the other side.
“Come on hurry up! Tick tock tick tock!” commands Anna.
“Where are we going?” Johanna wants to know.
“Just come on and stop asking so many questions.”
Grumbling, Johanna squeezes through a gap in the fence.
They march through the small wooded area and stop in the middle.
Anna suddenly asks her, “We weren’t sure if you’d show up again. I think the first time was pretty intense for you. Do you want to continue with the tasks?”
Johanna replies, “Yes, absolutely!”
Sarah pulls a small box out of her backpack and hands it to Anna. The box looks familiar to Johanna. It’s made of dark wood with carvings, but she can’t quite remember where she’s seen it before. Anna opens it and takes out a small silver amulet on a chain. She puts it around Johanna’s neck.
“With this, you’re a true candidate for our club.”
Johanna is glad; she feels accepted. But what’s the significance of this amulet? She wants to ask Anna, but before she can, Sarah says, “Let’s move on, carpe diem!”
At the other end of the woods, separated by a tall construction fence, is a construction site. Scaffolding is being erected there. Spring is still relatively cool, but the sun is beating down on the site, and most of the scaffold workers are working shirtless.
“We’re going to check out some muscular guys,” says Sarah with a grin.
The men are nice to look at, but Johanna has a feeling that’s not all there is to it. One of the construction workers waves, and the girls wave back. Johanna has always enjoyed checking out the guys at the pool, but this is even better. Every single one of them, by nature of their work, has impressive muscles.
“It’s kind of unfair that we get a nice view while the guys get nothing,” says Marie.
“It’s pretty bold of us to just stare without giving anything in return.”
Johanna had a hunch.
“Your task,” Sarah informs her matter-of-factly, “is to show the men a little something.”
“And she doesn’t mean your feet or anything like that,” Marie adds.
“Now, here, just like that?” Johanna asks uncertainly.
“Come on, the construction fence will protect us,” Sarah teases. “No one can touch you. Your tiddies won’t disappear just from being looked at.”
Alright then, let’s do this, Johanna thinks to herself. The thought of undressing here is embarrassing, but it also somehow excites her. But you don’t do something like that, the thought churns in her mind. What will people think? And anyway, why should strangers be allowed to stare at her naked body? Her mind keeps spinning. She hangs her jacket on a tree and unbuttons her blouse. Then she pulls down her panties under her skirt. Last chance to turn back. But of course, she continues.
As she undoes her bra, Sarah calls out to the construction workers, “Hey, guys, look over here!”
Now Johanna is standing there. Marie just grabbed her bra, leaving her with only one arm covering her sweet breasts. And about a dozen construction workers are looking over at her. She waves with her free hand.
“Hey cutie, are you doing a dare?” one of them shouts over.
Johanna has a lump in her throat, she can’t speak, but now she moves her arm to the side and presents her naked upper body. Two of the men whistle. All of the men have now put down what they were holding and are watching to see what happens next. Their gazes burn like fire on Johanna’s body.
Johanna moves her upper body back and forth, making her breasts jiggle and bounce. She expected this moment to be just embarrassing. And it is embarrassing. But it also has something powerful. She enjoys it. She enjoys the attention, seeing the hunger in the workers’ eyes. The hunger for her. She can’t help herself and pulls up her skirt to her thighs. For a brief moment, she lifts it higher and shows the men her smooth pussy.
Anna comments, “You shaved! Very good.”
Then she reaches between her legs and rubs her pussy. The construction workers watch her intently, making comments.
“Don’t you want to come over here?”
“We can help you rub.”
“She’s really itching.”
Apparently, they didn’t think the ‘dare’ would go this far. Johanna has to rub faster and faster, sticking two fingers inside and rubbing her clit. The other girls watch Johanna in fascination.
“Wow, you’re really going for it!” Anna comments, “Yeah, get yourself off, you little bitch.”
She’s going further than the task actually required, but no one stops her.
It doesn’t take long before Johanna reaches an orgasm. Her whole body trembles, and a loud moan escapes her.
Marie leans over to her and says, “You did great. They’ll be thinking about you all week.”
The girls hand her her clothes, and she gets dressed again. The construction workers blow her kisses as she walks away. Then they quickly head back to school.
For the rest of the school day, Johanna is completely distracted. The whole time, she feels the gazes of the strong, grown men on her skin. The teachers have to call on her multiple times; she doesn’t really hear them. She catches herself checking several times to make sure she’s actually wearing clothes and not naked. She feels naked for the whole day.
Her way home takes her past a construction site. She watches the workers for a while, imagining how she would undress right in the middle of the site. Of course, it’s total nonsense, but it feels as if the workers know. As if all the construction workers in the country were part of a secret pact and now all knew about her escapades. She gets wet again and quickly continues her way home before anything gets out of control.
== The Third Dare ==
It’s Friday afternoon, exactly seven o’clock, and Johanna is once again standing in front of the clubhouse, just as the girls had instructed her. What awaits her today? So far, she’s only seen the entrance room of the clubhouse. What if someone had watched the last time? She notices how the thought excites her but forbids herself from pursuing it further. Why isn’t anyone answering? Impatiently, she shifts from one foot to the other.
Finally, she hears Anna call out, “Come in, it’s open.”
Johanna steps inside, takes off her jacket and shoes. The girls are all sitting on the corner couch, watching some video.
“There you are! Glad you’re on time,” Franziska says.
“Hello,” Johanna says uncertainly.
It’s not just any video. The screen shows a young woman lying on a bed. It’s a recording from her last visit! There she is, lying naked, her arms pulled over her head, Franziska standing beside her, pressing the vibrator against her slit, while Sarah works her breasts with stinging nettles. The girls glance over and smirk as Johanna realizes what kind of film they’re watching.
Marie says, “Come, sit with us, we’re just watching the most exciting nature documentary you can imagine! You have to see it! The wonderful mating instincts of young women.”
Fascinated, Johanna stares at the screen and sits down. She has never seen a recording of herself before. Never this kind of recording. She feels both hot and cold at the same time. She’s embarrassed to be used as living room entertainment like this. At the same time, it somehow feels … grown up to see herself like this. Writhing, as her orgasm builds far too slowly, moaning into her gag. She should be upset that the girls recorded her. She should be worried about where this recording might end up. Instead, she just sits there, staring, and has to hold herself back from slipping her hand into her pants.
Franziska says, “We just can’t get enough of you. Do you like what you see? Are you ready for your second-to-last task?”
The second-to-last? Johanna is almost disappointed; she’s slowly starting to enjoy these games. Who knows what the girls in the club do with each other? A thousand thoughts run through Johanna’s head. They don’t even turn off the recording, letting it all seem like a coincidence.
Franziska comes over to her, and without explanation, pulls out a blindfold again and covers Johanna’s eyes.
Once again, the girls lead Johanna into the next room. Her knees feel weak. What’s going to happen now? She knows there’s a camera in the room again. It’s as if she can sense the electronics’ presence. Someone turns on music—Madonna.
Anna says, “Take off your clothes!”
After Johanna makes the first moves, Anna interrupts her, “You’re not in a department store changing room! Make an effort to look graceful.”
Yeah, graceful my ass, Johanna thinks to herself, you’re not the ones trying to balance with a blindfold on.
She stumbles twice. Johanna realizes she’s being too frantic. She takes her time, moves to the music, and finds a rhythm for her striptease. Once she’s naked, she continues moving to the music.
Then they grab the girls by the upper arms, pushing them firmly somewhere.
“Kneel down.”
Someone slides a seat cushion under her bottom. Something wooden supports her back. Her arms are pulled up, they put them into leather cuffs like during the last visit. They are pulled sideways slightly behind her head until her upper body is taut and stretched out, then secured there. They put a belt around her waist and fasten it behind her. Johanna should actually complain about the uncomfortable position, but it’s so exciting!
Pause. Waiting. The music continues playing.
“What’s my task today?” Johanna asks.
“Patience. The task will find you,” comes the reply from Anna.
“Are you excited?” Two hands knead her breasts. Franziska, maybe? She can’t tell whose hands they are.
A hand tentatively reaches between her legs. “You’re so wet, you horny thing.” The voice belongs to Marie.
“Does it turn you on to be kneeling here, tied up?”
Johanna is sure she’s blushing.
“I asked you something!”
“I… no…”
“No?”
“Well… maybe… oh damn, I don’t know!” Johanna’s voice rises. “Why does this turn me on? Can’t I just be normal?”
Marie leans in close to Johanna’s ear, “We think you’re perfect just the way you are. Just enjoy what’s coming! Open your mouth!”
Before she can think about the command, Johanna opens her mouth. Something slides in. At first, she thinks Marie is pushing a dildo into her mouth. But then she realizes it’s a penis, which pushes deeper into her mouth. She wants to say something, but can only make muffled noises, with the cock stifling any coherent sound. The audacity of just shoving a cock into her mouth arouses her. The boys she’s been with before were much more hesitant and timid. She starts to suck the cock, which hardens fully in her mouth.
“You’re doing well.” The voice belongs to Franziska. “You seem to know what you’re doing. You’re really getting into it, huh? Have you been waiting for a nice cock this whole time?”
The cock begins rhythmically fucking her mouth. In and out. The cock? Whose cock is this, anyway? This is a girls’ clique! Who did they bring here to get a blowjob?
Well, if she’s going to do it, she at least wants to do it well. The cock isn’t overly thick but is fairly long and keeps pushing as far into her mouth as it can go. She plays with her tongue around the cock as best she can. She hears light moans and gasps.
Marie whispers in her ear, “Yes, keep sucking. Does it turn you on, sitting here with a stranger’s dick in your mouth? Yes?”
A hand gropes between her legs. Soaking wet.
The owner of the love rod now slows down his movements, giving Johanna the chance to set the pace. She keeps sucking on it. Now he pulls the rod out of her mouth, but immediately pushes his shaved balls in. Johanna is in a trance, doing everything without thinking. After licking the balls for a while, the rod returns to her mouth and pushes in deep again.
Then it dawns on her. So far, for Johanna, oral sex had only been part of foreplay. A little mouth play before moving on to sex. But this guy isn’t going to stop. He’ll keep going until he eventually comes. He’s going to cum in her mouth! For a brief moment, the thought paralyzes her, then she continues with even more enthusiasm.
The boy—the man?—how old is he anyway?—holds out for a long time, moving in and out of her mouth, but eventually, she can tell he’s about to cum. He starts panting, holds her head with both hands, and thrusts in forcefully.
“Here comes the delicious juice!” she hears Marie say, “Make sure to take it all!”
The penis begins to twitch, and cum spurts into Johanna’s mouth. What does it even taste like? She doesn’t know what to expect. The cock twitches and shoots repeatedly, filling her mouth with more and more cum. The taste is actually quite tolerable, Johanna thinks. Not enjoyable, but the thought of where it comes from turns her on immensely.
The tension leaves her, and her body relaxes as much as it can in her bound position. Cum starts dripping from the corners of her mouth.
“Nah, nah, nah!”
Marie grabs her chin and lifts her mouth. “Keep it all in! Don’t waste your reward like that!”
Johanna swallows. Two fingers push the spilled cum back into her mouth. “Everything down the hatch, okay? Good girl.”
Anna asks her, “How do you feel?”
Johanna had almost forgotten who else was there.
“I don’t know. I’m …”
She thinks about how to answer, but then the words just spill out, “It was hot. Way hotter than it should’ve been. Did that really happen?”
The girls giggle. Her hands are freed. She waits for the leather cuffs to be removed from her wrists, but instead, the girls twist her arms behind her back and click the cuffs together.
“What? I thought…?” Johanna begins to ask, but Marie cuts her off, “We’re not quite done yet. Stand up.”
“Sit down over here,” says Marie.
Someone lies beneath her. With Marie’s help, she sits astride right on his lap. He’s apparently naked; she feels his penis underneath her. Normally, she would never do this—sit on a stranger like this—but the previous events have made her so horny that she doesn’t care.
“Now, let’s see if this fits,” says Marie, “Lift your butt a little, just like that. And now slowly lower yourself. Perfect! You’re a natural!”
Johanna lowers her head involuntarily. She feels the tip of his penis under her vagina; slowly, the cock slides into her.
“The two parts fit perfectly! Did someone design it like this?”
The other girls laugh briefly. Johanna’s pussy is dripping wet, so the cock glides in without resistance. Quite a piece of equipment, Johanna thinks.
Without needing any prompting, Johanna begins to move. Then it hits her. The cock was semi-hard when she sat on it and now it has become fully hard. This can’t possibly be the cock she was just sucking; there’s no way it would get hard again this quickly. So, a second guy? Man? Who are these … the thought slips away.
With increasing energy and enthusiasm, she rides the cock, moving her hips, rubbing herself against him. She moans loudly. She continues thrusting the cock into her pussy.
“Oh my God, this is so hot!”
She tugs at her wrist cuffs, but they hold firm.
“Please!”
She moans.
“Please, let me rub my clit?”
Her hands remain bound. She would do anything right now to be able to rub her pussy. She keeps bouncing up and down on the cock, trying to finally orgasm. She moves her hips with all her might. She feels an orgasm slowly building.
“Fuck me, yes, I’m about to cum!”
Just before she reaches that point, the man lifts her aside and stands up.
Johanna pleads, “No, please keep fucking me. I need to cum. Please, push deep into my cunt.”
The man ignores her pleas and holds his cock to her lips.
“Open your Mouth!”
Johanna obeys, half in a trance, and the second cock slides into her mouth. He fucks her mouth. He rams it uncontrollably, and shortly after, this cock also shoots its load into her mouth. She lets herself fall backward, lying there for a moment with the cum in her mouth, exhausted, as the man stands up. She feels used.
The girls applaud.
“You’re quite the wicked little thing,” she hears Anna say.
She wants to respond, but she’s too exhausted and just lies there for a while. Then she swallows the cum.
The girls take her back to the first room where they remove her blindfold. She looks around at a circle of smirking faces.
“We didn’t expect you to go so wild with this,” says Franziska.
She looks around the room. “Who were those men just now?”
Marie quickly replies, “Well, the second one was my grandfather, and the other one was Anna’s.”
Johanna stares at Marie in horror. It takes a few seconds before the girls can’t hold back anymore and burst into laughter.
“Marie, my goodness, how do you come up with this stuff?” Franziska asks.
Anna interrupts the two, “Don’t think about it too much; it’ll only spoil the memory. We owed a couple of favors, and you clearly needed to get something out of your system.”
They sit together for a while longer; Anna and Franziska smoke while Johanna gets dressed.
“Sunday is your final task,” says Anna. “Then you’ll be one of us. Nine o’clock, don’t be late.”
At home, her stepmother Elke intercepts Johanna. “Where have you been? Do you know what time it is? I told you I wanted you to help around the house today! Where have you been hanging out again? Some club? You look like a runaway drifter!”
Thanks, Elke, yes, I had a lovely evening, nice of you to ask, she thinks. Yes, I find it super easy to make new friends after our move, super easy, barely an inconvenience, thanks, Elke.
“I’ll do the laundry first thing tomorrow morning,” she mumbles.
“What kind of clubs are you always hanging out at? You should take a cue from your sister.”
Stepsister, Johanna corrects silently.
“You’re at the age where you should be finding a decent young man, someone you can bring home. Your sister was already engaged at your age.”
Johanna yells at her stepmother, “My stepsister got engaged so early just to get out of here, damn it!”
Then she stomps off to her room, puts on a cassette by ‘Allerseelen’, and turns off the light. She crawls under her bed, like into a secret cave, and listens to the music.
She lies wide awake under her bed. She wants to sleep. She wants to get up and strangle Elke with the vacuum cleaner cord. She hasn’t had an orgasm since Tuesday either. She wants to let Allerseelen carry her through the night. She lies on her back, unable to sort out the different impulses within her.
Her window rattles and shakes. She feels a weight on her upper arms, pressing her down into the carpet. Above her is a dark figure, like a cloud of smoke. She wonders if she should scream. A dark mass covers her body, like cement or asphalt being poured over her. She opens her mouth to finally scream, but the mass fills her mouth, stifling any sound. It tastes like someone has ashed in her mouth. She can move, but with difficulty. It feels like she’s sinking into a swamp.
She’s cold. A dry coldness that makes her whole body shiver. Something penetrates her vagina. It feels both terrifying and arousing. The dark mass around her slowly hardens, she feels like an insect trapped in black amber; unable to move. Helpless.
The helplessness excites her immensely. Her lower body feels electrified, her private parts tingle more and more. Then a sharp pain in her neck. At that moment, an orgasm surges through her. Her body arches as the climax washes over her, and then she falls asleep.
Johanna wakes up in the morning to the loud clattering of her window. She finds herself in bed, although she doesn’t remember moving from her cave. The window is open, but she’s sure she closed it last night. She sits up. Her pillow is stained with blood on one side. Nosebleed, maybe? But there’s nothing on her nose or cheeks. She only finds bloodstains around her mouth. What the hell happened here?
Regardless, she has no desire for mindless arguments with Elke. She removes the pillowcase and quickly cleans up all traces of her nocturnal experience.
When Johanna comes into the kitchen in the morning, her mother flinches.
She greets with a “Good morning” as usual, but her mother’s expression suggests fear. Something feels off.
“I need to go to the bathroom again, I’ll be right back,” she excuses herself as her mother tends to the eggs.
Johanna inspects the laundry baskets, the bedding of her mother. The bedding is carefully rolled up, not just crumpled. Johanna unfolds it. In the middle, hidden, is dark red. Blood? It’s a significant amount, far more than what might come from a misplaced tampon or a small cut. What the hell is going on here? She hastily returns the laundry and heads to breakfast, so she and her stepmother can once again say nothing to each other.
== The Last Dare ==
Once again, Johanna meets the girls at Anna’s place. She expected that they would dive right into the task or that she would be confronted with a video recording from her last visit. But instead, the girls are sitting together in a cozy circle, and Johanna is invited to join them.
“What about the task?” Johanna asks, unable to bear the uncertainty.
There’s some giggling. “Have you grown so fond of it that you can’t wait?” Anna asks, “You’re quite the sly one, you know that?”
Franziska rolls her eyes, “One might think you’re only here for the tasks.”
Johanna looks down at her wine glass, feeling embarrassed.
They drink wine together and chat.
Eventually, Johanna can’t hold back and asks again, “How did the tasks start in the first place?”
“With a brat named Paula,” answers Franziska, “an unreliable brat.”
“Where is she now?” Sarah asks.
Franziska replies, “No idea. She disappeared from school at some point. Said she was starting an apprenticeship and found something better than our silly girls’ club.” She sticks out her tongue.
Anna takes another big sip and begins to explain, “So it’s a legacy from Paula, who has since left. We want a clique that will stick together even after school. A network. We see how useful that is from our parents. But if the clique is random, if anyone can come and go as they please depending on how many petals they picked off a daisy that day, then it will fall apart as soon as school is over.”
“That’s exactly what happened with my older sisters,” adds Franziska.
Anna continues, “So then there was the idea that there should be some sort of stake. American sororities also have this ‘pledge week’ and such. It brings people together.”
Marie chimes in with a sarcastic tone, “And no one was more surprised than Anna to find out how much fun such games are. Who could have guessed?”
Everyone laughs.
“Thinking about of the hotel lobby challenge, who wouldn’t want to live as a princess? At least for a day?”
“Come on, that was luck,” responds Anna, “Anyone could have had good or bad luck there. I sat my butt sore in lobbies for days beforehand.”
Johanna, fascinated, looks around the group and asks, “Is this only for initiation, or do you still give each other tasks?”
“Well,” answers Marie, “life isn’t worth living without some spice, is it?” She giggles.
Anna adds, “But it works differently than the initiation tasks.”
Johanna looks puzzled.
“When you’re ready.”
“What’s it like having parents who can afford private school?” Johanna asks, “Do they even have time for you?”
They all sigh. Johanna realizes this is a sensitive topic.
Franziska says, “Well, at least the staff has time for us.”
Sarah adds, “Everything has its pros and cons. Who else can afford a clubhouse like this? Or two of their own horses?”
“Your mother owns that second-hand shop on Thompson Square, right?” Franziska asks.
“Stepmother,” Johanna corrects, “My mother has been gone for a long time. And after my stepmother took control of the money and the business, she sent my father packing. Unfortunately, he was a real pushover. Sadly, I rarely see my brother now; he left with my father.”
“Heavy,” comments Franziska, “Sounds like your father didn’t have much luck with women.”
“What do you mean by ‘gone’?” Sarah asks.
Johanna hesitates for a moment, takes a big gulp of wine, steels herself, and explains, “My mother was a problem. She drank. Nearly burned down the house twice. Beat up my father. Smashed neighbors’ car windows at night, things like that. My father couldn’t manage to put a leash on her. One night, my brother and I snuck into her bedroom. She always sleeps very heavily because she takes some pills. We tied her to the bed with a tension strap. I sat on her, we woke her up, and I held a knife to her throat and gave her an ultimatum. Two days later, she ran away and never came back.”
“Oh wow! Seriously?” Franziska looks at her, shocked.
Johanna nods.
Franziska asks, “What did your father say? And how old were you?”
Johanna replies, “My father never found out why she ran away. I was twelve, my brother was ten. I think even if I had told him or would tell him, he wouldn’t believe it.”
They sit there for a long time, talking. They show Johanna a recording of an earlier challenge. An amateur football stadium. Two young naked women run onto the field during the game. One wears a chicken mask, the other a fox mask. They chase each other across the field. Everyone laughs.
Johanna looks around the group, puzzled. “Are you …? Who among you is that?”
The girls shrug.
Anna says with a grin, “Well, we can rule out Franziska, you’d recognize that bust. Other than that, we’ve unfortunately forgotten who was on the field.”
Sarah yawns openly. Franziska looks at her watch, “Oh, it’s already three o’clock. We really got carried away chatting. Should we get going?”
There’s a flurry of activity. They lead Johanna to the garage. Johanna looks puzzled.
“We’re going for a little drive,” says Anna, waving a car key for a large SUV, “But the destination is a secret.”
They put headphones and a blindfold on Johanna and cover her head with a black cloth sack.
“Get in! But watch your head.”
They drive for a while. Johanna can’t see anything and only has Grace Slick’s songs in her ears. It’s so disorienting—she can’t even tell who’s driving and who’s sitting in the back with her. Eventually, the car parks, and they get out. She still has the cloth over her head.
It’s almost like a spy movie, Johanna thinks. Exciting. They’re about to infiltrate the super-protected underground complex beneath the Weyland-Yutani corporate headquarters, where the secret formula for the best cinnamon ice cream in the world is stored, which she’s been searching for her whole life.
“This way.”
The girls guide her somewhere.
“Do you have the keys?”
She can’t even distinguish the voices over the music. Something is unlocked. A gate? They keep walking, stone floors. Then a door. They go inside. The remnants of artificial light seep through the edges of the blindfold. Somewhere deep in the building, they stop. Is this the archive with the secret ice cream recipes?
The music is turned off, and the headphones are removed, leaving only the sack over the head.
Anna says, “So, here we are. Strip, you know the drill.”
Johanna undresses. The blindfold makes it an extremely clumsy process once again.
“Now kneel down and bend forward.”
As instructed, Johanna goes down on all fours, curious about what will follow.
“Lower your upper body further, stick your butt up.”
Hesitantly, Johanna obeys.
She remains in that position for a moment, then feels a hand on her butt, followed by a finger at her anus. It feels slippery. Oil? Lube? Carefully, the finger pushes into her butt. The sensation is unfamiliar—Johanna has no experience with anal play.
The finger moves a little back and forth, then a second finger follows. She feels dirty.
“Relax, don’t be so tense,” says Franziska.
Three fingers move gently in her anus, and after a while, Johanna can relax and accept the penetrating fingers.
“Now, it’s time for the plug,” says Franziska, “breathe calmly and don’t tense up.”
Plug? What exactly does she mean by ‚plug‘, and what does the plug have to do with the cinnamon ice cream, Johanna wonders.
The fingers leave her butt, and something hard and large nudges at her anus, slowly pushing into her. It’s bigger than the fingers, growing larger the deeper the girl pushes it in. A sharp pain shoots through Johanna’s sphincter; she clenches her teeth, stifling any sound. Franziska notices Johanna starting to tense up and now pushes the rather large anal plug in with one firm thrust.
Johanna cries out, “Ouch!” The pain subsides quickly now that the sphincter wraps around the thinner part of the anal plug.
“Stand up!”
With her knees trembling, Johanna stands up.
“Over here!”
She obeys, wondering what will come next. Leather cuffs are placed around her ankles and tightened. She hears a power drill. Then, the girls put cuffs on her wrists, these too are tightened securely. Slowly, her wrists are pulled up until she stands fully stretched out. With wide legs and outstretched arms, like an ‘X’.
“Open your mouth!”
One of the girls pushes a ball gag into her mouth, securing it at the back of her neck.
She hears the girls, “Hey, do you have the motor?”
“Chair.”
“Don’t wobble, hold this for a moment.”
“There, now, no, you need to screw that in there. Like this!”
“The rope is attached.”
She hears the girls setting up or preparing something.
“There, done,” Sarah finally says.
“Well, then we can actually take the hood off her head, right?” Franziska replies.
The sack is pulled from Johanna’s head, and the blindfold is removed. She looks around. Behind her is a wooden board, directly in front of her, a curtain. Around her… ‘No!’ the thought races through her head. Not this! She tries to scream, but thanks to the gag, only indistinct sounds come out. She recognizes the room. It belongs to her school. Here, projects, art things, and such are displayed. Right in front of the curtain is a glass pane from floor to ceiling. She tugs at her restraints, but they hold tight.
“Don’t worry,” Franziska says with a mean tone, “you’ll be standing here for a bit longer, but eventually you’ll be found. That little motor there will pull the curtain open at twenty to eight. Just the right time to be … discovered.”
The girls snicker as Johanna tries to say something again. This goes too far! But the girls are only amused by her efforts, her wriggling, and her attempt to speak despite the gag.
“No worries, they’ll surely free you immediately.”
“Oh, and,” Anna adds, “please don’t say who tied you up here? We have a pact. And besides, we still have those … recordings of you.”
Marie says, “We’d love to keep you company, but you understand we’d rather watch this from a safe distance, right? You’ll manage, you’re a big girl! Next meeting is Wednesday evening, by then all this fuss should have settled down enough.”
They turn off the light and leave through a side door back into the building. Now Johanna stands there. No chance to move. What time is it anyway? Surely there are still hours to go? The plug in her anus isn’t getting any smaller either. She quickly concludes that there’s nothing to be done about her restraints, so all she can do is to stand there and wait.
After a while, she realizes she’ll eventually need to relieve herself. Damn. She holds it back as best as she can. Won’t be able to last until morning, she thinks. But she also doesn’t want to just urinate in the school’s display case. But it’s no use, the pressure becomes too strong, and before having to do it in front of an audience, she eventually lets go. It runs down her legs. The plug hurts, and she’s tired. She hasn’t slept a moment!
After what feels like an endlessly long night, she eventually hears the first students outside. Oh no! Maybe the contraption won’t work? But then it happens: the light in the display case turns on, there’s a whirring, and the curtain is drawn open. Just as a large group of students passes by.
The display case is strategically placed so many students have to pass it. The students stop in disbelief and stare at the naked and bound Johanna. She tries with all her willpower to sink into the ground, but it doesn’t work, and she just stands there. With the gag in her mouth, she looks pleadingly at the students. They stand there, gaping at Johanna.
Some call over other students. That’s when Johanna understands: she’s utterly humiliated, and nothing has ever been more embarrassing for her. But at the same time, her entire lower body tingles, and wetness flows from her shaved pussy. Never in her life has she felt more aroused. She doesn’t understand how these two feelings can coexist, but right now, she would give anything to have a hand free and would pleasure herself right here in front of all these students.
She finally recognizes the four girls from the clique in the large crowd of students. They look at her, grin, wave, and push their way to the front. Anna and Sarah have cameras with them. They hold them discreetly at their waists and are undoubtedly taking pictures of Johanna. No one notices that these four actually don’t attend this school.
It takes a while before the first teacher arrives. He disappears into the building but can’t unlock the door to the display case. The girls must have done something to the lock. More teachers arrive. They try to shoo the students away, shouting, but the students just won’t leave. Only when the principal arrives and issues threats does the group slowly disperse. It takes a long time before she’s freed—the janitor has to drill out the lock.
They wrap a coat around Johanna and lead her out of the display case. After that, the principal, the guidance counselor, the social worker, and the school psychologist are all talking over each other. But Johanna manages to convince them not to call the police or her mother. The educators reluctantly agree after Johanna invokes her legal adulthood. She says she’s completely exhausted. It was a prank that went too far, and they can talk later.
Johanna says, “Please, I stood in that case for so long that I wet myself.”
She looks pained.
“And I’m totally frozen. Can I clean up somewhere?” The teachers allow her to shower alone in the faculty locker room at the gym.
As soon as Johanna is alone and has turned on the water, she immediately reaches between her legs, slides her fingers into her pussy, and rubs her clit, massages her pearl. Oh my God, what’s happening to me, she wonders.
She removes the anal plug, which the teachers hadn’t noticed at all. How do I get this out of here without the teachers seeing it? The teachers gave her some clothes to wear, but she has no bag with her. She pushes the plug back into her anus.
She sits in the shower, the hot water cascading down on her, and continues to rub her pussy. She sees all the students in front of her, staring at her naked body without her being able to do anything about it. Then she climaxes more intensely than ever before in her life. Exhausted, she sits in the shower under the hot water and thinks about her experience.
== Tea with Bellegarde ==
The principal has decided that Johanna should stay home for at least a week until the commotion dies down, maybe even longer. Some pictures have surfaced. A few copies of the photos that Anna and Sarah took have been passed around among the students.
The teachers have warned the students of ‘serious consequences’ if they’re caught with the pictures. But what really bothers Johanna is the thought that every boy she encounters at school might have naked pictures of her. Maybe the boys look at her nudes when they’re masturbating at home? The thought immediately arouses her.
On Tuesday, the school psychologist monologues at her for an hour, but she remains stubbornly silent. He interprets this as shame and guilt. Well, that’s partly true. After enduring this obligatory session, she enjoys a nice day in the park, reading.
On Wednesday afternoon, she goes to Anna’s house. The butler meets her at the gate, just like during her first visit. This time, he doesn’t take her to the clubhouse but to the main house. She hasn’t been inside here before. Are they now meeting in the villa, where her final test will be completed? Is the garden house only for candidates? The house is furnished expensively. Antiques, framed pictures, marble floors. It would be so nice to live in a house like this. Johanna wants to live like this too.
The butler leads Johanna into the salon, then returns with a tray of tea. A man in an expensive suit enters. He might be in his mid-forties? He’s lean, in good shape. He has short brown curls. He bears a certain resemblance to Anna—her father? He looks serious.
“Good day, Johanna. My name is Charles Bellegarde.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Johanna extends her right hand to him.
Mr. Bellegarde shakes her hand and replies, “However, I am not at all pleased.”
Johanna looks at the man, puzzled. Mr. Bellegarde continues, “What do you think you’re doing, you little brat, wanting to join my daughter’s club? My daughter may have momentarily lost sight of what is appropriate for our family, but I have not! I will certainly not stand idly by while a little, depraved lower-town tick without parents latches onto my daughter!”
Johanna tries to regain her composure; she wasn’t expecting this.
“Let’s be clear: you will not show your face here again. You will stay away from my daughter. And you will stay away from Marie, Sarah, and Franziska.”
Johanna collects herself, “You can’t talk about my parents like that. And with all due respect, Mr. Bellegarde, but your daughter is an adult, I’m an adult. You can’t forbid us from having contact. This is not the nineteenth century anymore.”
Mr. Bellegarde slaps Johanna hard, leaving her stunned.
“This is not your public school, where you can mouth off to adults all day without consequences.”
“You … you can’t intimidate me,” Johanna tries to assert herself.
“No? Are you sure? My butler could break your wrist. Later, everyone would believe it was an accident. Oh, and your stepmother has that shabby clothing store? It would be a shame if the bank called in the loan and she had to close, wouldn’t it? I know someone at the bank, that’s just one phone call away. Your stepsister is training to be a bank clerk—it would be a shame if she didn’t get hired after. You could also easily get expelled from school. Test me, and you’ll see what happens.”
Johanna turns pale, a lump formed in her throat, preventing her from getting any words out.
Mr. Bellegarde continues, “My butler will drive you home now. And that’s it, you will not show up here again and you will stay away from my daughter. Edward!”
The butler leads Johanna politely but firmly to the garage. The driver is already waiting there. She and the butler get in, and he drives off.
Johanna is deep in thought, annoyed by the grumpy man. She doesn’t pay attention to where they are driving until the car stops, and she looks around to see where they are.
“Where are we? What … Why have we driven to the lake?”
“Because you’re going for a swim now,” the butler responds dryly.
The two employees drag the protesting Johanna out of the car. Edward lifts her over his shoulder while the driver holds her arms tightly. They have parked directly by the lake. There is a small jetty that they walk down to the end. Then the butler throws Johanna into the water. They turn around, leave, and drive away while Johanna yells after them, “You filthy brutes! Mafia tactics! May the devil eat your grandmothers! Do you even know how cold this is? You ass-born freaks!”
Eventually, she realizes that they can’t hear her anymore and stops shouting. She slowly climbs back onto the jetty. She sits there, leaning against one of the posts, and starts to cry involuntarily.
“Johanna?”
She hears a voice behind her and turns around.
“Thomas?”
Thomas goes to her school, is also in the twelfth grade, and is in many of her classes. A nice boy, a bit of a nerd.
She just looks at him, sitting there resigned. She doesn’t even bother to cover her now semi-transparent blouse, soaked from the water.
Thomas walks over to her and asks, “Did you fall into the lake? What happened? You’re shivering, here, take my jacket.”
He gives her his jacket and helps her put it on. Johanna replies disheartened, “Yes. Was made to fall in.”
He sits down in front of her, looking at her with concern. Somehow, he radiates compassion. Johanna wants to say more, but she has a huge lump in her throat and starts sobbing instead. Thomas puts an arm around her. “Come, I live just around the corner. You can warm up there, and I’ll give you something dry to wear.”
Johanna pulls herself together. Thomas lives in a cozy suburban house. Inside, they meet another girl, about the same age as Thomas. She’s wearing a faded ‘eths’ T-shirt, a studded choker, and has short, straw-blonde hair.
“So, who have you dragged in, Thomas?” the girl teases, “Finally had some success in your hunt for girls? She’s a particularly pretty specimen. Let me have a look…”
She stops. “Oh my God, what happened to you?”
Thomas sighs, “May I introduce my sister, Astrid. She’s very cheeky and will now go upstairs and find something dry for you from her wardrobe and leave us alone until you’re warm and dry.”
Astrid sticks out her tongue at the two of them.
“Astrid, something to change into, please.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll go find something.”
Johanna takes a shower, receives dry clothes from Astrid, and Thomas serves her a hot chocolate, “Here. With a shot.”
Johanna looks around the house curiously. Stylish and spacious, maybe a bit conservative, the parents have definitely missed the seventies. She could move in here.
“No parents?”
“Ever since our parents started their own exhibition stand construction business, they’ve forgotten where they live and are always at the company.” He shrugs. “But now tell me what happened.”
Johanna clings to the cup. “Anna’s father happened. Imported straight out of a Grimm’s fairy tale. It was hard enough to move here. No friends. Then I finally found a clique that wanted me. It felt wonderful. Then Anna’s father comes along and rips my head off. I could scream!”
“Don’t hold back.”
She tells Thomas about how she met the girls. She hints that there were a few ‘dares’, but doesn’t go into detail.
“Dares?” Thomas asks, “Does that have something to do with your appearance in the display case?”
Johanna looks at him seriously, “This is a secret, okay? If you tell anyone about this or who’s involved, I’ll sneak into your room at night and cut off your weenie, got it?”
“Okay, okay,” he mimics zipping his lips.
Johanna continues, telling him about the meeting with Mr. Bellegarde. Thomas listens to the story, sitting there with his mouth open as she talks about Mr. Bellegarde’s threats and the lake, “That’s pretty intense.”
“It must be hard to move in the middle of the school year, right? Why would someone do that anyway?”
“Well, for one thing, my stepmother was able to take over a business here. That second-hand shop.”
She pauses.
“And then there was that incident in the school workshop that burned down. They never found out who it was in the end, and I don’t think the workshop manager will ever tell what he knows about it, but it was still better for us to move away in the end.”
Thomas takes a moment to process that.
Thomas says, “Come on, I’ll show you our hobby room. You need to get your mind on something else. Are you free on Saturday? We always meet here. You could come too.”
They arrive in the hobby room. “This used to be my father’s workshop,” Thomas explains, “but since he now has a large workshop with his company, we’ve taken over this one.”
There was a large table with a detailed miniature landscape and all the materials and tools for building and painting the little world.
“And you play battles with those, right?” They chat for a while about the miniatures, then Johanna says goodbye.