The X-Factor

THE X-FACTOR

Anna’s invitation to have a few drinks after work was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. It was unexpected because I barely knew her but pleasant because in the short time I’d known her I’d become enthralled by her. What it was that enthralled me was difficult to pinpoint but her sense of humor alone was enough to make me think we were soul sisters.

A large white Mercedes SUV pulled up alongside the curb. Anna was a little late in picking me up and apologized for being delayed. “Sorry, I had to drop off some friends on the way,” she said by way of explanation. She peered over the rim of her glasses and smiled. “Jump in!” A moment later and the whisper quiet vehicle began weaving quickly through the afternoon city traffic toward the freeway.

“This is very nice!” I said.

“Hmm?” Anna looked me directly in the eye for a moment.

“Your car; it’s very nice.”

“It’s not mine,” Anna laughed. “It’s my husband’s.”

I thought about the ancient old rust bucket my husband and I owned. “Oh,” I finally said in a tone I hoped would conceal my twinge of envy.

“Would you like to listen to some music?” Anna asked after a long moment of silence.

I instantly recognized the song the moment it began playing. “That’s my favorite!” I almost squealed with delight.

“Midnight at the Oasis?” Anna glanced at me and smiled.

“Yes!” I started to sing along but quickly stopped. “I’m sorry. I have a terrible singing voice,” I admitted honestly.

“That’s fine! Sing away!” Anna laughed. “Who’s going to care?”

Anna turned up the volume and began to sing along loudly. Encouraged by her, I joined in and together we sang and laughed. When the song finished Anna pointed to a button on the CD player and asked me to press it. The song started to play again but this time both of us seemed to slip into a contemplative mood and we listened in silence. After five repeats of the song Anna navigated her way across the freeway lanes to an exit.

“Nearly there,” she said.

We appeared to be headed for an industrial estate, which made me rather curious. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“My boyfriend’s place,” Anna replied.

“Your boyfriend?” The unexpected reply made me even more curious than I was of the derelict buildings we passed. “But, aren’t you married?”

“Yes; so?” Anna glanced at me, tilted down her glasses and winked.

“Oh; I see,” I laughed as if to try and show I was as open-minded and liberated as she obviously was.

-=0=-

“Here we are,” Anna finally declared. She parked in a narrow laneway between two windowless shabby brick buildings.

“Your boyfriend lives here?” I asked.

“No! Silly; he has a workshop and studio here,” Anna smiled.

The car door locks beeped loudly and Anna invited me to follow her further down the laneway.

“A studio?” I asked; still confused and now feeling a little apprehensive.

“Yes,” Anna said. “He does DJ work and he needs a place like this where there aren’t any neighbors to complain about the noise.”

That made sense so I quickly relaxed. “Oh; of course. I used to have neighbors that complained all the time about everything.”

I started to get into detail about the memory and the annoyance it still caused me but Anna interrupted me. “Midnight at the Oasis…” she sang quietly as she unlocked a large metal door into the building.

I smiled and almost laughed at that most recent memory. Anna led me inside through a maze of corridors and down a long flight of rickety wooden stairs. Another door at the bottom of the stairs opened into a cavernous space that was wildly decorated with exotic furnishings.

“Midnight at the Oasis…’til the evening ends…” Anna sang pleasantly again.

“This is amazing!” I said. It was as if I’d stepped into a real Sultan’s boudoir.

“Champagne?” Anna asked.

“Yes please!”

Anna walked out to a kitchenette near the back of the room and left me to explore.

-=0=-

“What’s all this for?” I asked when Anna returned. I waved my arm in the direction of the corner of the room. It looked to be a small stage with plush purple rugs on the floor and a black satin backdrop. There was a brass tray on a low purple satin covered riser and on the tray an empty wine bottle and crystal goblet; beside these was a thick, hard covered book called The Book of Virtues and beside this, incongruously, was a length of coiled red rope as well as two bright colored dice. On the floor nearby was an exotic small brass trunk.

“Props,” Anna said.

Before I had a chance to ask her to elaborate she handed me my glass and raised hers in a toast. “To sins of the flesh!” Anna said. The salutation surprised me, particularly as Anna seemed to say it quite seriously, but I clinked glasses with her and repeated, “To sins of the flesh!”

“Mmm! This is very nice champagne, Anna! What is it?”

“Moet,” Anna replied. “Moet and Chandon. Do you like it?”

Anna walked toward a large brown leather sofa and flopped down onto it. I followed and sat beside her. “Yes, it’s absolutely heavenly!” I said after I swallowed a second sumptuous sip. “Is it expensive?”

“Who cares?” Anna laughed. She kicked off her heels and then draped her legs across my lap. “You’re worth every cent of it!”

The enigmatic remark surprised me but so too did her sudden and unexpected actions. However; Anna appeared to be happily relaxed in the position and, despite the awkwardness I felt, I didn’t say anything.

“Drink up,” Anna said after she gulped a large mouthful of champagne.

I smiled and sipped a small amount first and then another larger mouthful. Anna appeared to look at me in a peculiar way; an odd look that made me suddenly feel she was smirking at me. A heady rush from the champagne hit me at the same time.

“Nice?” Anna asked. She raised her glass to her lips and drained it empty.

“Mmm!” I replied. My lips tingled as I said it and continued to tingle after I swallowed the last mouthful from my glass.

“Another?” Anna swiveled off the sofa and stood in front of me; her hand outstretched to take my glass.

When I looked up at Anna I felt an abrupt attack of dizziness. My vision of her became blurred and I blinked several times.

“I’m…I’m feeling kind of strange!” It was the last thing I remember saying before everything went frighteningly dark and I passed out.

-=0=-

When I woke I felt completely disorientated and my head ached with a terrible throbbing. My shoulders also felt extremely sore and it was at that moment I immediately snapped to my senses.

“Anna!” I called out. “Anna! What’s going on?”

I couldn’t move my arms from behind my back and realized my wrists were tied. My legs were widely spread and when I tried to bring them together I couldn’t; my ankles felt as if they were strapped in fur-lined cuffs which in turn were shackled to the ends of a bar. But the greatest source for my panic was the blindfold I wore and the knowledge I was also completely naked. “Anna!” I called out in an almost hysterical tone.

“Hush!” Anna’s voice said somewhere close beside me. “Here,” she said. “Drink this.”

“What is it?” I panicked even more when I felt the cold rim of a glass placed at my lips.

“It’s only water,” Anna said. “Drink it; I know you need it.”

I tentatively sipped the tasteless liquid from the glass and swallowed. It seemed to be exactly what Anna said it was so I sipped some more.

“That better,” Anna said; the tone of her voice softly reassuring.

“Anna, what’s going on?” I asked quietly. “Why have you done this to me?”

“I didn’t,” Anna said. I felt her weight lift from the sofa beside me.

“I did!” a man’s voice whispered hotly in my ear.

I shrieked in shock and felt instantly terrified.

“Ingrid; meet my boyfriend,” Anna said.

“Such a pretty piece of flesh,” he said in a somewhat satisfied tone of voice.

A moment later I felt his fingers lightly feather over my breasts. I gasped and felt paralyzed by a rush of fear. He then gently squeezed my nipples. As he pinched them he made lewd remarks about me; his suggestion being that I was aroused by everything.

“Yes, she definitely is, “Anna laughed. “I knew she would be too! Am I a clever procuress?”

“Yes, you certainly are, my lovely,” the man replied. “Where did you find her?”

“She works in that little bookshop across the street from where I work. I’ve been working on getting here for weeks!” Anna said.

The realization Anna had planned what I felt now was my abduction floored me. “How could you!” I felt my eyes burn with the stinging sensations of tears and an overwhelming need to cry. “How could you, Anna. “ I sobbed. The thought that a woman could be complicit in my capture was anathema to me. “I thought you were my friend!”

“Oh, but I am your friend, Ingrid! And we’re all going to have such a lot of fun together tonight!”

I could hear from the tone of her voice she was smugly laughing at me.

“Please let me go,” I whimpered. “I won’t tell anybody; I promise I won’t!”

“Does the little birdie want to be set free?” Anna asked in a silly, sing-song tone of voice.

“Yes; please let me go. I won’t tell anybody; really, I won’t!” I sniffled and tried to win Anna’s support.

“Ok then, we’ll set you free,” Anna said.

My spirits immediately lifted. “Really?”

“Yes, but first we’re going to play a little game,” a voice somewhere in front of me said.

It was a man’s voice but not Anna’s boyfriend. I looked blindly in the direction of him; my mouth agape. My anxiety returned with a brute force that knotted my stomach so tightly I felt nauseous. “What kind of game?” I eventually mumbled after several moments of silence.

“Have you ever watched The X Factor Ingrid?” Anna asked.

The question surprised me and I had no idea where Anna might lead with it. “Is it a singing show on television?”

“That’s it!” Anna exclaimed. “You’re going to sing for us, little birdie!”

I lightly shook my head to try and shake out the confusion. “Sing?”

“Yes; sing,” Anna’s boyfriend said.

A moment later I felt his hands grip my right upper arm and other take hold of my left. They lifted me to me feet. Blood seemed to rush from my head once I was on my feet and I felt momentarily dizzy as the men dragged me away from the sofa. It was impossible to walk gracefully as long as my ankles were spread by the bar and I waddled blindly in the direction led by the men. When I felt a soft plush fur sensation underfoot I recalled the stage I’d seen earlier.

“Turn her around,” a third man’s voice said somewhere behind me.

I shuffled my feet as the two men holding my arms turned me to face the direction of the voice.

“Are you ready to sing, little birdie?” Anna asked.

I was about to ask what when I felt Anna press her fingers between my spread legs. I drew in a sudden deep breath and gasped. My knees felt immediately week and as her fingers rubbed sensuously against my clit the music started; the familiar and much loved opening chords to the song Midnight at the Oasis.

-=0=-