Book of Revenge: Curtsy

Book of Revenge: Curtsy

• by BoundInRibbons, Jun 6, 2016, 7:34:49 PM
• Literature / Prose / Fiction / General Fiction / Introductions & Chapters

Kendal wonders what the machine is all about!
(Picture courtesy HinaYui)

Once again, Karen picked up that cursed book.  As she rifled through the pages, she found what she was looking for, and gave a smile.

  "Here is it!", she said pointing at a particular page.  "Do you remember when my mother was teaching us how to bow and curtsy?  We both learned to bow, but then I had to learn to curtsy.  And you laughed, and laughed and made such fun of me, do you remember?"  I honestly didn't.  But somehow I knew what was about to happen, I'd never forget.

I wanted to tear that book from Karen's hands and throw it into a fire.  For that book was her 'Book of Revenge', the list of all the transgressions I'd done when she was younger and that needed to be revenged... According to Karen.  Except that the transgressions were really the list of every transgression anyone had ever done against Karen.  And during her therapy, her therapist had convinced Karen that she should transfer all that, all the feelings, all the trauma to me.  Well, to the 'me' of Karen's childhood.  If things had worked out normally, it would be to the 'me' who no longer existed.  What the therapist didn't know is that some bad luck in the form of medical problems and then later a disease I was accidentally exposed to, meant I hadn't grown normally.  I hadn't gone through puberty normally.  As a result, current me was still a lot like childhood me.  That mistake was the reason Karen had volunteered to take care of me when I got sick, in order to have her chance to get revenge.  And for the next year that she was in charge, her plan was to enact every single revenge in her book on childhood me.. Who was current me... Well, you know what I mean.  Worst of all, I was in no position to protest.

The day had started with Karen giving me my daily hormones and drugs, one of the few things Karen did I was happy to see.  As a child, I'd had problems with my endocrine system, the system that delivers hormones in the human body.  My lack of growth hormone was the reason why I was so tiny, Karen was able to convince people that I was a large seven year old and put that on my birth certificate.  And my lack of male hormones was the reason why my skin was so soft and my voice hadn't deepened yet.  The doctors had figured out a mix of testosterone and growth hormones to give me that would let me grow up to be a regular man.  Luckily, Karen was giving me hormones regularly.  There hadn't been much change yet, but I could feel my chest growing at least.  Hey, a big manly chest might not sound like much to you, but for a tiny, slender little kid like me, smallest of all my friends by far, I was happy for anything I could get!

After that one positive thing, it was all downhill from there.  Soon Karen was dressing me in one of the most humiliating outfits.... Oh who am I kidding?  Everything she dressed me in was 'the most humiliating', each outfit worse than the last.  It was like she was constantly challenging herself to see how much she could make me blush.  When she'd dress me up, Karen would say "Oh, I know what would make this even better..."  This one was similar to the outfit she'd dressed me in back that first day when I'd found out I was her prisoner, except a bit more grown up... Which wasn't saying much!

One of the biggest differences from that outfit was instead of the baby booties I'd worn back then, this outfit had me wearing pink heels, with delicate ribbons criss-crossing up my calves.  Karen couldn't figure out which she found funnier, me waddling along in diapers and booties, or struggling to stay upright in high heels.  I was always wearing one or the other.  On my head was my already extremely long hair.  I'd had long hair to start.  When I was recovering in the hospital, one of my few moments of happiness was when my girlfriend Skyla took care of my hair for me.  It was our together time, and I'd let my hair keep growing as the longer it grew, the longer our intimate time lasted, so I had more hair than any boy should.  But that wasn't enough for Karen.  No, my hair now sported the fruits of several hours adding extensions for volume.  I wasn't sure if Karen did it because she thought lacing in those extensions would be painful, or because she thought me having more hair than belonged on a human head would make things more humiliating.  She was right... They were both painful and humiliating.  Of course the large princess tiara, which looked like it sat gently atop my waves of hair, was painfully laced in as well.  The ties were hidden, but that didn't make them any less agonizing.  It just insured I'd have more luck ripping my hair out of my head with my bare hands than removing that tiara from my hair.

All that led to the pièce de résistance, the utterly humiliating massive pink dress.  It was so sweet, so saccharine, little girls would reject it as too infantile.  But nothing was too much for Karen.  From the leg of mutton shoulders, to the tremendous bow tied behind the dress, to the massive petticoats that stuck out like a big ball of poof, to the merrily tinkling bells that hung gaily from ribbons, mocking my every movement and allowing Karen to track my every move, finally to the 'Baby Barbie' that was becoming standard on all my clothes.  Karen just had to insure there was no way I could escape that mocking name, or escape the memory that 'Barbie Baybi Dahl', pronounced 'Barbie Baby Doll', was now my legal name, and the only one who could change it back to my real name was my legal guardian for the next year, Karen.

Worst of all, hidden by all the poof, was the dastardly chastity device that Karen had locked onto me.  By remote control, she could activate a vibration function at any time, which would be terrible enough.  But I was recovering from a disease known as Tropical Mentior Profligatus.  TMP had messed up my nervous system like an earthquake messes up buildings.  Some things I took for granted had just been 'broken'.  I'd lost my ability to write anything, for example.  Other things had become messed up.  For example, my boy bits had somehow become messed up that any stimulation, be it vibration or even massage, it just overwhelmed my nervous system and made me spasm uncontrollably.  Even more horrible, if it was allowed to go on for too long, the doctors said my nervous system could fail and I would be permanently paralyzed.  Luckily, the doctors had said my nervous system was still in flux.  That meant that, right now, my nervous system was plastic and changeable.  I was like a computer that could be programmed.  So right now, with training and repetition, I could unlearn the messed up behaviors and relearn the proper ones.  It would take intense therapy, but it meant I could become normal again.  But I was warned... The flux state wouldn't last forever.  With time, it would again become fixed, and when it did, all my systems would become 'locked' as they were.  If I didn't act, my writing would forever be limited to nothing more than a babyish scrawl.  And I would never be able to have normal sexual relations.  But Karen kept putting off those therapies.  Ruefully, I looked down at the pink mittens Karen had once again tied to my hands preventing me from doing anything with my fingers at all.  A few times it seemed like she was going to let me start, but then she'd either changed her mind, or come up with something else she wanted to do instead.  Somehow I had to get through to Karen and convince her to start my therapy!  Even if that meant being her friend, even if that meant doing what she told me to, I had to get her to relent.  I didn't want to be stuck like this forever!

Once Karen had me so dressed, she set up her camera and she began instructing me how to curtsy.  I frowned, but I didn't really have a choice.  Even if she hadn't wiggled that remote control at me to remind me that if she turned on for a moment it would caused me to lose control of my arms and legs, I would've obeyed her.  I certainly had no interest in learning to curtsy, but I didn't dare risk the unstable Karen taking my reluctance as a refusal to play her revenge games, and to permanently paralyze me.  Not to mention, I had to get on her good side so she'd at least let me do my therapy.  So I forced a fake smile on my face and did my best to follow her instructions.

  "Put your right foot behind your left foot.  Briefly bend the knees with one foot forward keeping the upper body straight..."  Eventually, with her instruction and several tries, I executed a perfect curtsy in front of her camera.  And that was only the beginning.  "OK, now you're going to the basement!"  My eyes widened at that.  I'd heard Karen mucking around in the basement with tools, and it sounded scary.  I really didn't want to find out what was down there.  I must've said something without realizing it or shook my head because suddenly Karen had the look she got when I wasn't obeying her.

  "Oh, is little Barbie being a fussy baby?  Well, I know what to do with fussy babies."  And she picked me up, placing me on her hip.  She was so tall, so strong, that I had no chance to resist!  But that's not why I hated it when she carried me on her hip.  When Karen placed me on her hip, holding me around my waist, she put my legs on either side, exactly how you'd carry a small child.  What we'd discovered the first time she carried me that way was that the result was my weight rested on my groin when she held me like that.  And you know what happened when my groin, the nerves messed up by Tropical Mentior Profligatus, had any kind of simulation.  That's right... I was unable to move my limbs at all.  It wasn't as bad as when she activated the chastity device and they'd spasm uncontrollably.  Instead, it was like when I'd ridden in the child seat... The slight pressure was enough that my arms and legs hung limply.  It felt like I was being doused with cold water, and I couldn't speak.  Well, I could a little bit, but when I did it came out like 'Goo goo, gah gah' baby talk, and it made Karen so happy.  So I usually just kept quiet and hung helplessly in her grasp.  It sometimes amused Karen to bounce me on her hip and, again.  Just like the child seat, my arms and legs would move around without my control, kicking and reaching out like a squirming infant.  It didn't physically hurt, but it was mental agony listening to her giggling in amusement while I was helpless to do anything but squirm like a baby and hearing her say how adorable I looked.  Luckily today, she was focused on taking me into the basement and didn't bounce me at all.

I'd never been in the basement before.  The first thing I noticed was a large metal rod that was bolted to the concrete floor.  There was an arm coming off the metal rod, one that ended in a loop of metal.  I was picked up by Karen, and lowered in so the loop of metal would encircle my waist.  I could quickly see the outfit had been designed to accommodate the metal loop.  Obviously all this had been built by Karen and custom designed for me.  Karen fiddled with some setting on the loop, and suddenly the hydraulics in the loop squeezed me.  I could feel enough power squeezing me that I had no doubt it could completely crush my mid-section.  But it just squeezed me super-tight, then stopped holding me firmly.  It just felt like I had the world's tightest corset on.  Once Karen had tightened the loop and I was locked in, I could only move up and down.  I could raise myself slightly by standing on my toes, although the heels I was wearing already almost had me nearly on my tip-toes, or I could lower slightly, all the way into a deep knee bend.  I couldn't rotate at all, I was held fast facing another camera.  And I certainly couldn't move from my spot either.  That loop held me firmly in place.  Karen moved a few pieces around, and soon was ready to explain what was happening.

  "Well, Barbie Doll, with a lot of work you managed one perfect curtsy.  But you need practice!  This is going to make sure that you learn how to do a perfect curtsy and you do it perfectly every time."  With that, she walked around the devices she'd set up around me.  "You're clamped in to my little securing device.  As you've noticed, it will allow you to do your curtsy... And not much more.  You can't leave this spot until I release you.  Keep that in mind."  She grinned an evil grin, still enjoying having complete control over me.  Karen continued on.

  "You've probably noticed the other parts, what I call the 'switch', the 'bopper' and of course... The camera and the TV."  She smiled.  My face didn't change.  Realizing I didn't find it as amusing as she did, she shrugged her shoulders and continued.  She moved to the piece she'd just called the bopper.  It just looked like another metal arm, except with a big padded ball on the end.  It looked like a boxing glove, but without any thumb.  I noticed there was a small camera on the bopper arm.
  "Once every random interval, the 'bopper' will bop you on your head.  Just a gentle touch, and the camera will insure no matter how you move, it gets the same spot every time."  I stared up at the bopper, but it seemed harmless enough.  What was the point?  But Karen saw my look and misinterpreted.  "No, you don't want to put your arm up or block the bopper in any way.  If the camera detects something between it and the bopper, like your hand, it will activate the zapper between your legs.  At first it will just be a warning.  But every time you do it, the interval will increase.  And eventually..." I interrupted.
  "I will be permanently paralyzed.  I understand."
  "Do you?  I'm going to be leaving, so your fate will be in your control.  I won't be here to stop it, so don't be stupid."  I had to admit, there had been times that I'd seriously thought about no longer going along, just letting myself be paralyzed.  But the thing that kept me going was that this was only one year.  One year of my life and I'd be back to my friends and family.  I couldn't let myself be paralyzed and never have a chance to speak to my mom, my girlfriend Skyla or my friends again.  Karen was focused on her revenge, but I'd seen that it was all about humiliating me.  They were revenge fantasies from when she'd been a child.  So while they were unbearably humiliating, while it was torture, it was something I could endure.  Karen continued on with her explanation.

  "The bop will be your indication to do a curtsy.  If you do one immediately, and the camera here matches it with the perfect one you did earlier that I recorded, you will be rewarded and the TV here will turn on.  I've put it to your favorite soap opera."  Karen laughed, knowing how much I hated girly soap operas.  "But if you don't match the perfect one, you will be punished, and that's where the switch comes into play."  I looked back at the switch, which was another mechanical arm, but this one held a twig from a tree.  It also had a camera, and I could see it was aimed directly at the back of my thigh, one of the few areas that was bare flesh.

  "The switch will provide a swift and painful spank to your thigh as a reminder and reinforcement.  Oh, and like the bopper, if you put your hand between the switch and your thigh, your device will be activated and you risk paralysis.  So here, let me 'switch' it on, and let the fun begin!"  She chuckled at her pun, but I was not amused, for obvious reasons.

As soon as Karen hit the switch, the bopper came down, lightly tapping me on the side of my head.  Prepared, I did my little curtsy.  I was rewarded with the TV turning on!  Well, this didn't seem so bad.

  "I see you've got it.  Well, I'm off.  Ta-ta!  Have fun!"  And with that Karen left the room.

As the time rolled past, I saw just how ingenious Karen was.  At first I tried to cheat and do a half curtsy.  The camera immediately buzzed there was no match, and WHACK!  That switch hit me right in a most sensitive area of my thigh.  Ow!  It hurt, but it wasn't unbearable... At first.  But as I missed more, I realized that the switch was hitting the exact same spot on my thigh every time.  And something that's painful but bearable at first quickly gets worse and worse with each strike.  It was so bad I forgot once and put my hand up to stop it.  Just as she'd threatened, there was a loud buzz, and then my chastity device buzzed.  I couldn't control my limbs!  My arms and legs began spasming as always.  Meanwhile the loop that gripped me so tightly around my waist hissed and I was suddenly lifted in the air.  It wasn't far, just high enough that if I stretched my feet out as far as I could possibly reach, my toes would just brush the ground.  Not that I could at the moment because my legs were still kicking out uncontrollably.  I knew I looked like a fussy infant being held off the ground around the waist.  And worse, that damn switch took advantage of my temporary loss of control and hit me right on that spot on my thigh again... A couple of times!!  OOWWW!  Combined with the fact that that the TV had turned off, it wasn't just painful, this was getting boring.  I hated girly soap operas, but I hated staring at a blank TV worse.  I was in a basement, just standing there waiting for the bop.  It didn't take long before I was really motivated to do a perfect curtsy.  Damn that Karen for making such a simple yet ingenious trap.

I don't know how long it had been, but I'd managed to get that perfect curtsy and make it routine.  My legs were a bit sore, but it was just from standing.  The bops would happen every minute or so.  I'd do my perfect curtsy, and then just watch TV.  As far as the revenge that Karen had arranged so far, this was actually one of the best!  Or so it seemed.

After doing many, many perfect curtsies in a row, I decided it was time to mess one up.  I guess I was just thinking to check the machine, to see if it was still working.  The little bop came down on my head and I thought 'Right, I'm not doing anything.  I'll just stand here."  I braced myself for the switch to again hit my thigh.  And then I executed a perfect curtsy.  WHAT?!?  Subsequent attempts met with the same failure.  It didn't matter if I tried to make a minor mistake, tried to ruin it completely, or even tried to do nothing at all.  No matter what I tried to do, that little tap on my head happened, and then I made a perfect curtsy.  As I understood what had happened, it hit me like a runaway train.

Karen had full access to my medical records.  Thus she was fully aware my nervous systems had been ravaged with the disease Tropical Mentior Profligatus.  This rare disease had messed up the pathways of my body.  The disease had left my nervous system in a messed up state so that I had to reprogram myself lest these changes become permanent.  But it also meant that, right now, my nervous system was wide open to being reprogrammed.  That's why it was so important I did my physical therapy during this period where it was healing and it could be reprogrammed.  Because once it healed, it would be that way forever.  But now, it could be changed and new patterns could be put in place...

Karen had tapped into that... Literally.  She had made my body associate the tap on a particular spot on my head with doing a curtsy, one that I had executed to perfection until my body learned it.  And now... It was programmed in!  I could no longer control myself.  My body now knew that a delicate tap on the head on that spot meant to execute a perfect curtsy, and now it was bypassing my conscious mind, going right to my nervous system and not even giving me a chance to react!  It was like when a doctor hits your knee with that little hammer and you kick uncontrollably.  Except now I was doing a curtsy uncontrollably!  No, no, no!

I was very uncomfortable with what this meant, not just for the fact I now could be made to curtsy against my will, but also what this might mean for future....  At this point Karen returned.  And her massive grin told me she knew exactly what she'd done.

  "You're a monster!"  I said.  Karen just shrugged.  I tried to speak firmly, but my voice was shaky.  "I'm a person, not a puppet you can train to do your bidding!"  She looked at the clock for a few moments and we both stood there in silence.  She seemed to be counting something.  Suddenly turned and responded.
  "That's what you always say".  I paused.  I'd never said that before.
  "What do you mean, what I always say?", I asked.  It bothered me that she wasn't looking at me, she was looking at that clock.
  "Every time I program you with something new, that's what you say when you finally figure it out."
  "But", I protested, "This is the first time you've done this"  Karen finally turned to me and her broadening smile was all the confirmation I needed to know I was wrong.
  "Oh, Kendal, every time we go through this.  That drug that I gave you this morning with your hormones.  It makes you more susceptible to being programmed, makes it program your nervous system faster.  But it also robs you of your memory, so you forget this ever happened, leaving only the programming."
  "How... How many..."
  "How many times have we done this?  Oh, at least a dozen by now."  Karen gently caressed my cheek.  Suddenly, without control, I blurted out.
  "Thank you mistress Karen!  You are so wise and smart and beautiful.  I love being your Barbie doll."  I tried to clamp my mittened hands over my mouth, but I couldn't stop it.  Karen reached out and brushed my ear.  It felt like I was a passenger in my own body as I spoke.  "Everything that Karen has said is true.  I'm doing this all of my own free will.  I'm just pretending to hate it and be humiliated, but really I'm a pervert who who secretly loves it all.  Now please let me go back to pretending.  If it bothers you, you should just leave."  What... What did I just say?  I didn't need to be a genius to realize why she'd programmed me to say that!  But the implications were terrifying!  I'm sure my face displayed my abject horror because Karen's face looked like a child at Christmas who just got the exact gift they wanted.  She released me from the machine.  My legs were weak after being in it for so long, but she carried me up the stairs so it didn't matter.  And almost so slight, so quiet I didn't hear it, I heard her say "Now."

This was insane!  I became furious!  How could she do this to me?  This was a whole new ball game... I'd been going along with her insanity hoping to convince her to help me get better, but she was messing around with my system.  She was making changes... Changes that would become permanent before the year ended.  As I thought about what she could do, I felt a terrifying chill.  How could she hope to get away with... with...
Wait a minute.  What was I talking about?  I looked around.  Why was I all dressed up?  And why were we on the stairs to the basement?  My eyes widened at that.  I'd heard Karen mucking around in the basement with tools, and it sounded scary.  I really didn't want to find out what was down there.  I must've said something without realizing it

  "What's the matter, baby Barbie?  Are you worried I'm taking you to the basement?  Well, don't you worry.  We're not going down there." Karen said as she walked up the stairs to the main floor.  I felt so foggy and confused but happy we weren't going to the basement.  For some reason, just thinking about the basement made me feel upset.  I wondered why.
  "Karen?  What's going on?"  Karen just smiled and gave me a gentle hug.
  "Oh, don't you worry your pretty little head about it.  Let's go get lunch."  I was surprisingly hungry, so that sounded like a great idea.  I couldn't wait.  Now if I could just figure out why my thigh was so sore.  I wonder if I'd bumped into something and not realized it?