Reel-to-Reel: Side B

Story by Asphalt on SoFurry

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Chapter 1

"Again."

The soft voice of the snow leopard standing next to the bank of CRT screens in front of you painted a stark contrast compared to the rest of you surroundings. She wore a set of dark green Groznean battle fatigues under her lab coat, both unbuttoned to reveal a black undershirt tucked into her pants. The baggy fatigue bottoms were cinched tight above her hips by a dark brown belt and dull buckle. Standing a few inched shorter than you at 5'10", she had a toned body, and light ash-grey fur dotted with a mixture of black spots and circles. A white patch of fur covered most of her torso, stretching up her neck to her chin and almost halfway down the inner sides of her limbs. Her elegant face wore a vaguely pleased expression, framed by the long black hair that flowed over her shoulders. It was clear to anyone the she was meticulous about her personal hygiene, and that the effort she put into her appearance was for herself alone.

The facility you were being held in, on the contrary, painted a stark contrast to her well groomed appearance. It had obviously been abandoned for some time before being re-purposed by Groznean forces as an internment camp. You seemed to fit in much better with your surroundings than she did, despite wearing the same fatigues. The set you wore was old and threadbare, so tattered that sections of it were outright missing. Similarly tattered was the beige paint peeling off of cinderblock walls, the long halls littered with trash, and overly large empty holding rooms. It all together suggested that the building had once been something like an elementary school. An irony that was almost made comical by the table covered in medical equipment pushed up against the wall to your right. They had restored power at least. That much was made obvious by the harsh cold light streaming out of the CFL tube-lamps stuck to the drop ceiling. An industrial control box also hung a few feet away from you, hooked up to the winch that had been used to raise you just up on to your tip-toes.

The CRT's in front of winked on one by one, and began flashing the first portion of the task being demanded of you once again. In a dejected tone, you read out the single digit projected on a random screen.

"One."

It was hard to speak with your arms bound above your head, but the snow leopards piercingly blue eyes watched you expectantly. Clipboard in one hand, and pen in the other, she scribbled notes on the topmost paper as she listened. you croaked out the rest of the now familiar sequence of numbers as they appeared on the screens in succession.

"Seventeen. Six. Thirty two. Twenty seven. Eighty Three. Four."

You finished with a dejected sigh, and clenched your teeth in preparation for what you knew was coming.

"Good boy..."

Coo'd the leopard as she stepped towards you, her lips curling into a slight, sadistic smirk. Placing the pen back into the breast pocket of her lab coat, she drew her now free hand back for leverage.

* CRACK *

You felt the distinct roughness of her pawpads as she smacked you across the face with an open hand. It hurt for a moment, but the stinging quickly faded compared to the soreness from the rest of your bruised body. Now standing next to you, the leopard began to idly play with the tattered fatigues you had been dressed in. You turned away, but watched from the corner of your eye as she licked her lips unconsciously. A sharp claw ran up an exposed section of your torso, just barely leaving a cut in its wake. The arm it was attached to slowly snaked its way around your waist, and you winced as she suddenly dug her entire set of claws into your side. Tears welled in your eyes as she used them to pull the side of your hips into hers. Despite your attempt to lean out of the way, you can feel her nose brush against your ear as stretched up slightly to reach it.

"You've put up with so much for me today... Just a little bit more, my sweet..."

She said in a sultry whisper that made you feel sick. It was the genuine sounding affection in her voice when she spoke to you that turned your stomach and you pulled away instinctively, desperate to separate yourself from her. This only seemed to invite a deepening of the claws piercing your waist, causing you to gasp involuntarily. Having suddenly taken a deep breath in, you found it in yourself to curse her as you let it out.

"Bitch."

You said defiantly as you could muster, despite the dryness of your throat reducing your insult to a hoarse whisper. This didn't receive anywhere near as strong a reaction as you expected, however. She only chuckled softly to herself as she pulled her claws out of you, still holding you close to her side. Her nose pushed in even closer now, and you shivered as her inhale pulled a rush of cold air across the back of your neck. The room itself was reasonably tepid, but the stress of the last few hours had left you wracked with a cold sweat that beaded on your forehead and dampened the lower back of your fatigue top. A shuddering purr from the snow leopard holding you pushed a warm current back over the area that offered a little respite from the chill, but poured down your collar in a way that couldn't have been accidental.

"Just a little bit more..."

She said in the same soft, affectionate tone when she finally pushed her self off of you. She only took about a step and a half backwards before stopping to look you up and down. You couldn't help but watch as she did so, the adrenaline coursing through you compelling you to maintain visual on what was obviously a threat. You knew what was coming. Just like yesterday, and the day before. The last 40 minutes or so of your "day" was spent suffering a constant barrage of her attention, which was usually spread out by the time it took for you to read that damn sequence of numbers over and over again. Though you had been held captive for 2 months at that point, it was only your fifth day under the care of this snow leopard. The end of the first day hadn't been so bad really, but she escalated very quickly and deliberately. By the end of day 4, it took you more than a minute to finally summon the strength to stand after being thrown back in your cell.

You tried not to think about what she was planning as she slowly sauntered over to the polished steel table and picked up a brown leather cuff attached to a strap of the same material. Unwinding the strap from where it snaked through the buckle joining the two, she gracefully separated them before placing the cuff back down on the table. Holding the end of the strap in her left hand, she slid her right hand up and to the side, pulling it out to it's full length of about 3 feet. Her back was still facing you when she brought her hands back together, folding it half. The way she relished in the preparations was disturbing enough, but it wasn't what caused your stomach to drop out as she turned around. The smile on her face was enough to send another chill down your spine as she squeezed the folded end of the strap, creasing its end into a more defined, hard-folded corner. The strut in her step was just another detail that you barely noticed, but still filled you with a hollow dread. Your heart was beating out of your chest as you eyed the short strap that she gently rapped against the central pawpad of her free hand. By the time she reached her original standing position in front of you, you could no longer prevent your knees from shaking slightly. She brought her heels together and looked slightly up at you as she savoured the last few moments before she began. You did your best not to give the satisfaction, but she was still feeding off of the obvious fear in your eyes. It was just then that she suddenly pulled the hand holding strap back to wind up for a strike, and you twisted away involuntarily. But the impact never came. Instead, she held her arm at the ready giggling at you as you swung slightly on the steel cable that she had you suspended from.

"Aww... Did I scare you, Anon?"

She mocked you in the sickly-sweet tone one would take when praising a toddler. A soft giggle was all the warning you received this time however, and she took her swing before you could turn away. You grit your teeth and grunted in spite of yourself as the strap struck you across the side of the ribcage, eliciting a much heartier giggle from the snow leopard this time. The stinging lingered as you swung back and forth again a few times before coming to rest. You weren't given the chance to catch your breath however, and a similar blow stuck your other side. Tears were welling back in your eyes by this point, and the snow leopard had stopped giggling. She was mostly focused on her work, but that's not to say that she wasn't thoroughly enjoying it. You did your best to blink away the tears, and caught a glimpse of a bright, sadistic sparkle in her shining blue eyes before the next blow landed in almost the same spot as the second. That hurt much more than either of the first two had, and you cried out loudly. Panting now, you turned your eyes back down to take another look at her. Her mouth was a perfectly straight line, but the malevolent joy in her eyes shone as brightly as the CFL bulbs above.

It went on like that for another half-hour or so. She paced around you in a circle, praising you in her condescending way while slowly and methodically delivering a beating that easily would have left you on the floor had you not been suspended from the ceiling. The weight on your wrists was painful, but that was background noise compared to strike that had just landed on your by now thoroughly bruised torso. Not like she had ignored your legs though, and welts stretched from your ass to about halfway down your calfs. You didn't have the energy left to shout anymore, but she seemed to be content with your pained groaning as she continued her work. Eventually though, she seemed to be content, and stopped in front of you to linger a little longer than she had before.

"I think that's enough for this evening, don't you?"

She teased again. Groaning slightly in response, you did your best to keep your composure.

"Yea... Lets get you down from there."

She said, still in her kindergarten teacher voice. The yellow industrial control box had gone relatively ignored up until then, to the point that you had almost forgotten it was there. It's not like being lowered back on to your feet was a proposition that offered much relief. She needed to be able to reach your restraints though, and she swung the now gently red-stained strap over her shoulder as she took the box into her right hand and pressed down the lower of the two buttons. The pain in your wrists abated slightly as you were able to take more of your weight on your feet, but you doubted you'd be able to stand without the support. You vaguely recognized that your time with her was coming to an end for the day, but it's not like your cell provided much relief to look forwards too.

The snow leopard had by now paced around to stand behind you, and taking a key from out of one of the pockets of the lab coat, she reached up and undid the cuffs that held you upright. You almost caught yourself as you fell, but one of your knees gave out after a moment. Taking you under one arm, she gracefully pulled it over her shoulders as you fell free.

"There you are... Good boy..."

She coo'd again into your ear, savoring pained groan that escaped you as your weight shifted. adjusting her lab coat, she began half guiding, half carrying you out the door to the right, and down the hall. Leading you down hallways similarly decrepit to the room you had just left, she led you down the now familiar route past the rows of empty cells and to the one you knew was yours. Leaning your weight a little more heavily onto her, she freed up one of her hands to open its barred door. Using another key from the same pocket, she unlocked it before pulling it open and taking a half step inside. Dropping you unceremoniously to the floor inside, she stepped back outside and shut you in without pause. Only then did she take a moment to look down at you on the floor through the bars, as you lay in a crumpled heap on the tile floor.

You could still sense her presence standing over you, even if separated by the cell door. Trying to focus on your breathing you managed to keep it together for a little longer as she watched and waited. Eventually, after what felt like 10 of the longest seconds of your life, you heard her turn and start walking away down the hall. Shuffling forwards, you started to inch yourself along the ground, but every time you did you brought weight down onto another section of already bruised tissue. By the time you reached your bed, you were practically out of energy. You were so close. That shitty plastic covered mattress was calling you, offering the only hint of comfort you had ever felt in that hellhole. You took a few deep breaths to summon your strength, but you just couldn't bring yourself to do anything more than throw one hand up onto it, pulling down the thin rag laid out upon it that was your only sheet. Curling yourself in that on the floor, you began to cry softy. You didn't give a shit anymore. You couldn't even drag yourself up into that worthless cot. Fuck this stupid fucking country, and its bullshit civil wars. You just wanted to go home.