Alice was extremely excited. She was so excited, she barely noticed the cold air blowing past her. Winter had fallen over the city, and with it had come increased heating costs. As a student working her way through college, she felt the pinch of the bills more than most.

 Sighing, she tugged her coat tight against her and buried her nose under her scarf. It had been a harsh winter, and she had spent most of it in class or in her small apartment living off of ramen noodles and water. She hadn't told anyone yet, but she wasn't sure how she was going to make it through Spring semester. Dropping out of college in her junior year would be tragic, but she wasn't sure she had a choice. Her best chance was for this tutoring job to pay off.

  Her long red hair whipped about her as a strong gust forced its way down the narrow street. Chad had first approached her in the tutoring room, sitting down with her and seeking her help on a history project he was having difficulty with. He was bright, but just didn't seem to be able to put all the pieces together into a tidy narrative, and she had enjoyed helping him. She had heard of him before, of course. Chris was the richest kid in town, by most estimates. His parents had died and left him with a fortune. He was handsome in a slender kind of way, with touseled brown hair and green eyes that seemed to pierce through her very soul.

In appreciation for her help, he had offered to pay her. She explained that she wasn't allowed to take money from students, and that the college made sure she was paid regularly (even if it was just minimum wage). He smiled and asked if I would take on a private tutoring position. It didn't take long for Alice to agree, and her eyes widened when he said what he would pay her per hour. She definitely couldn't afford to turn down his offer, or mess it up. She hoped that it would take many, many hours to get his papers in shape.

With a laugh, she found herself in front of his building. Her feet were numb from the cold and she hated to even lift her mittened hands out of her pocket long enough to knock on the large, ebony door. She wondered if he could even hear her knocking in the large house of his. It wasn't a mansion, but it was certainly huge. Three floors tall, with large picture windows looking out onto the street, ivy-laced bricks surrounding the whole building. She admired how open it was despite its size. Far better than many of the houses with their curtains drawn and doors constantly locked.

The creaking of the door opening caught her attention and she jerked up, looking up at Chad. He was dressed in a red turtleneck and blue jeans, and she had never appreciated before how much taller than her he was. At 5'3", most people were taller than her, but Chad had to be 6'3" if he was an inch.

"Come in quick, before the cold decides to follow you!" he urged her with a broad smile. She ducked past him and felt the wave of heat that welcomed her, grateful to hear the door closing behind her. Ah, warmth!! She rubbed her mittened hands together as she worked her mouth, trying to thaw out her cheeks.

"Thanks," she murmured, terrified she would stammer from the cold. "And thanks for hiring me. You have no idea how much I appreciate it!"

He gestured his arm toward a sitting room across from the foyer, and she followed him as he walked in there, tugging off her plaid scarf. "Nonsense," he replied, "it's my pleasure. That college doesn't pay you enough for how talented you are." He sat down in a broad leather chair and gestured at a well-cushioned couch across from him. "Please, have a seat."

She smiled in appreciation and nodded at him, putting her mittens into her coat pocket as she pulled it off, folding it with the scarf on the end of the couch. "I feel better now that I can feel all my fingers and toes!" she laughed. "Should we get to work now?"

"Oh, there's time for that," he said gently. "Don't worry, you're already on the clock and getting paid. But I need to have a sense of trust in you, if you understand. One of my papers is a psychology report and very.. personal. I would appreciate if we could relax a bit before getting into it."

"Oh, of course! Take whatever time you need."

"But where are my manners?" Chad asked. Standing up from the chair, the leather squeaking in protest, he moved over to a end table and poured some steaming tea into a cup. Offering it to her on a saucer, he sat back down. "This will warm you up quickly enough, I promise you. I'll get a fire going in a moment as well."

He was so gentlemanly! She grinned as she smelled the sweet aroma of tea wafting up from the saucer. This was definitely a posh job. She sipped it eagerly, feeling the liquid pour quickly down her throat, spreading heat with it. Her toes began to relax as her muscles loosened up.

"Mm, that's much better. Thank you." She sipped again at the tea before continuing, "but tell me, why me of all people? There are many tutors working for the college. Any of them could have done the job."

"Well, I don't mean any offense, but-" He hesitated before continuing. "Well, I couldn't help but notice how you were dressed, Alice."

"Dressed?" she asked in confusion. The wonderful tea was definitely taking the edge off. She drank more, slipping back into the couch.

"Well, yes. You were dressed a bit - shabby. Now don't bother about it, I don't mean anything by it. I imagine you'd look just fine wearing about anything. But you obviously needed the money and had very little support system."

"Well, yes, my parents are dead in a car crash about six months ago. They.. they weren't rich." She felt her lids beginning to droop. The warmth was causing her to feel sleepy!

"Oh, I know all about that. Research, you see. I don't like to take anyone that would have too many people looking for them."

Her eyes widened a moment before drooping down again. What was he saying? Take anyone? "Y-you mean like.. hiring taking, right?"

"Oh, no. I mean taking, taking. Kidnapping. Possessing. You're mine now, you see, and there won't be too many people who care."

The empty glass of tea dropped out of her hand, bouncing my not breaking on the thick carpet beneath her booted feet. She moved to stand up, to get away, tears running down from her thick, heavy eyelids, but she didn't even make it entirely upright before her eyes closed and she lost consciousness, plummeting helplessly to the floor, into darkness.

-----

Regaining consciousness can often be the hardest thing to do. Alice learned this as she moaned out, a pounding pain throbbing behind her forehead. She cracked her eyes open just a hair, and immediately shut them again, the pain of the bright light overwhelming her. God, she felt horrible. Her mind was foggy and moving slowly as she shifted to try and stand up. She felt metal digging into her throat and stopped moving as the pain managed to register itself. What the hell?

Fear inspired her to open her eyes again, wincing and fighting the pain that caused her vision to dim. She found she could look left and right, but otherwise she couldn't move her head. She was sitting with her back against a cold, metal wall, her butt and legs pressing into cold floor. Cold because she was naked. Naked? How had she gotten naked?

Her jaw ached, and she worked the muscles, crying out for someone to help her. At least she hadn't been gagged or anything!  The room she was in was a brilliant silver metal, reflecting back on her a thousand times over. Everywhere she looked, she saw herself sitting there on the floor. There was some metal collar of some type that seemed to be attached to the wall behind her. That was what kept her from moving.

What the hell had she gotten into? "Chad? Chad, damn it, help me!"

Tears flowed down her cheeks as she realized how helpless she was. With only one restraint, she was unable to move at all. Any shifting would result in her being choked, and her scrabbling hands couldn't tell where the collar joined the wall at all. "Damn it, let me out of here!" she squealed, kicking her feet.

"Good afternoon, nine," a voice crackled from nowhere, echoing against the walls in the small cube.

Nine? Nine what? She knew that voice, though. Chad's voice! "Chad, get me out of here this minute!"

"No, nine, I don't think I will. You're going to be here for a long time, and how pleasant a stay it is depends entirely on you."

"Fuck you," she spat out, jerking against the collar.

"Careful, nine, or you'll hurt your throat. We wouldn't want that. If you just calm yourself and listen, I'll release you from that horrid wall."

"Why do you keep calling me nine, you bastard?"

"Now that isn't calming yourself, is it?"

She growled and kicked her feet, but she wasn't able to accomplish anything. Finally, she wore herself out and sat on the ground, pinned to the wall behind her, panting for breath. He hadn't said anything the entire time. 

Finally, he said, "There, that's better. A nice sheen of sweat calms most people down. Now, I call you nine because that's your name. There will be no other name for you. Let me make something very clear. You belong to me now. Your life is mine, and you keep it or lose it based on my whims."

"N-no," she panted, "my life." Alice glared at the ceiling above her, unsure where he might be watching from. "My life, and my name is ALICE. There will be people coming for me!"

"Tsk tsk, still some fight in you, nine? What a pity. Please,  enjoy the show."

Before she could ask what he was talking about, a portion of the wall in front of her shifted, the polished steel sliding out soundlessly as a flat panel television screen emerged from it. Once the screen was in place, directly in her eyeline, she metal retracted and covered the wall once again. She couldn't figure out how it had happened!

The screen clicked on, and the TiVo navigation screen clicked onto a newscast. It started playing partway through the episode, with the newscaster talking about a college student's death. The truth slowly sank in as they showed a steep cliff, her bookbag and ID at the bottom of it along with splatters of blood. When the newscaster said "Alice North" she sobbed.

"Nine, no one will be coming for you. You see, Alice is dead. Nine is your only chance at life now. You can take it or you can not. Here, let me show you how kind I can be."

The wall shifted and the screen pulled back into its hiding place before being covered once again. Then, there was a loud click that sounded through the chamber, and Alice slumped forward. She was free of the wall!

She rolled quickly away from the cursed wall, into the center of the room. She wasn't going to get trapped again! But then, she caught her nude form reflected from the walls and foor. Steel glinted in the light along her neck. She felt there in shock and disbelief. It was the same collar that had been on her before. It had detached from the wall, but stayed on her.

"Ah, yes. That would be your new collar, nine. It's very beautiful, isn't it? You can thank me for it later. I'd love to tell you how it'll cause you pain or pleasure, or some other such nonsense in controlling you. No, it won't do any of that. It's just a collar. It's made of the same material as the cell that you are in, however. A wonderful invention, and the source of my parents riches before they died. Unbreakable, entirely sanitary, and capable of being molded with just the right electric signal. So bear in mind, I can trap you again any time, nine."

Why did he have to keep calling her that? Why didn't he call her Alice? She couldn't accept being nine!! She wasn't dead, she was here! She was alive! There had to be some way out of this!

________________________________________________________________________________________

For a long time, she heard nothing else from her captor. Alice was left alone in her silver, featureless cell. She hadn't had anything to eat or drink for a long time, judging by the growling of her stomach, but she had no idea how long ago she had been captured. More than long enough for him to convince the world she was dead! She tried to curl up into a ball and attempt to protect herself from him, knowing he had to be watching her naked body, but however she shifted she was still left exposed thanks to the highly reflective metal. Finally she gave up and sobbed, clutching at the collar that locked tightly around her neck. The sobs slowly faded, her breathing smoothing out, until finally she had cried herself into a solid sleep on the hard floor. A few minutes later, the lights clicked off, leaving the cell pitch black.

#

She had no idea how long she slept, but Alice was awakened by the flare of bright lights. She winced and moaned against the unwelcome lights, and then cursed as she found herself once again attached to the wall! She kicked against the floor and screamed to be released. With a click, her collar came loose from the wall and she collapsed again to the hard floor.

"You're awake. About time, nine. You've had quite the day!"

She sensed a chuckle behind his words, and wondered what he meant. She had just woken up! It was in the reflection of the wall that she found the answer. Scrambling to sit up, far away from any of the walls, she felt down along her stomach to the smooth patch of skin just above her vagina. He had shaved her!

"Do you like what I've done? Most slaves get a bald head as well, but I figure your beautiful red hair should be allowed to remain. I might cut it close sometime soon, but you do look good with that red on you. Still, your nasty pussy hair just had to go. Of course, I also had you fixed while I was at it. No little boys or girls for you, I'm afraid. You've been fully spayed, so that's one less thing for me to worry about."

"Spayed??" she screamed, spit running out of her mouth in her sheer fury. "You fucking monster! You fucking asshole monster bastard! How dare you do that to me!!!"

"Well, that's not very polite of you, nine, is it? And here I was going to see if you were hungry."

The walls clicked and churned, and from them came a gleaming silver toilet and what looked like a dildo attached to a metal rod. It was a pink, fleshy color and looked very realistic to her inexperienced eye.

She was too angry to even ask what he wanted. She had dreamed of children.. surely he had to be lying! He had to be lying! There was no way he could do that. No doctor would... would..do that to her, would they?? She shook her head, hiding beneath her long red locks of hair, and sobbed heavily.

"I feel for you, nine, I really do. Time's wasting, though. I'm afraid food and drink are only going to be available for another fifteen minutes. After that, they'll be gone for another six hours. Nothing I can do about it. It's all automatic, out of my control. So you might want to save your crying for later."

She looked around the room, but couldn't see the food or drink. Just the toilet and the... he couldn't be serious. "A toilet?" she cried out in outrage. 

"Of course. It's clean, fresh water, and there's something wonderfully symbolic about it, don't you think? 13 minutes now. Be aware that the.. fleshy bit of dinner will only give you your nutritious treat if it decides you've pleased it properly. Otherwise, no dinner for you. And I recommend drinking before peeing, but that's up to you, I suppose."

The speakers clicked off, and she was left sobbing, staring angrily at the dildo. She crawled over to it, hunger propelling her.. how long since she had eaten? Being knocked out twice, she no longer had any sense of time.. she could have been here a week for all she knew.. that was certainly how her stomach felt!

She slid her face right up to it, disturbed by the veins that were so carefully recreated on it, seeing the small opening at the tip. All made to be as real as possible, she supposed. She shivered and backed away, moving instead over to the toilet and seeing the clear water inside. She was unable to resist this and cupped some in her hands, slurping at it noisily, grabbing more. God, she needed the water!

Finally, she couldn't ignore her stomach any longer and moved back over to the dildo. She knelt down in front of it, as it was positioned too low for her to approach it any other way, and pressed her tongue to it experimentally.. it didn't hurt her, so she began to perform her first, awkward blow job ever on a false dick. She wasn't sure what she was doing or how to do it, but she had seen a porn video one time with her girlfriends and had giggled through most of it, but she did remember what she saw. She tried to duplicate it and gagged instantly, almost dry heaving onto the floor. Trying again, she took as much as she could into her mouth, sucking as she tried running her hands along the rest of the shaft. It seemed like it took forever, but finally she managed to get some spurts of something into her mouth. It tasted like some kind of gravy, but guessed it was what she was going to be eating. Managing to swallow most of it, she swiped the rest off her pale chin with a finger and sucked it off. As soon as it was done squirting, the dildo and toilet came to life and retreated back into the wall.

Damn, she hadn't been able to pee! She would have to next time..and she had just barely gotten the food in time! 

Out of breath and with her jaw hurting badly from the strange effort, she sat back on the floor of the room and looked around, trying to see some kind of weakness. There had to be a way out!