Bondage story - The Phantom of the Roxy - 19

CHAPTER THREE

ABDUCTED AND TORTURED

Rehearsals proceeded without incident the next day, and Jessica was able to put her memories and fears aside, for the most part, and concentrate on the tasks at hand. If her friends noticed that she was occasionally distracted, or that she always contrived to visit the ladies’ room at the same time the other girls did, nobody mentioned it. Her little circle of friends was a cheerful, fun-loving group, and it was easy to forget her troubles with them.

David had the role of the vampire in the play. He was a tall, handsome guy with scruffy blonde hair and an easy manner. He’d been recruited from Vermont, where he’d had a mediocre career doing dinner theater and ski resort musicals. He was the sort of guy who was used to being able to pick up women easily. He firted casually with Jessica, and she firted back, but she noticed that he did the same thing with Sarah and Tina. They were all friends, of course, but all three girls were single and far from home, and they all knew that David wouldn’t have any trouble bedding any of them. They were, in a friendly sort of way, in competition for his attention.

Sarah was every bit as attractive as Jessica. She had long blonde hair and a great tan, and every move she made was somehow just naturally sexy. She was always aware of how she looked from any angle, which gave her terrifc natural stage presence. She was always sweet, cheerful and witty, and Jessica liked her. Sarah had come from Hollywood, too, though neither could remember ever meeting the other. Sarah had the lead role of Lady Ainsworth, the woman the vampire couldn’t resist yet couldn’t bring himself to bite. The role had some excellent lines and some great almost-love scenes with the vampire, and Sarah had already nailed them with instinctive verve.

Tina was a very cute Latina girl, short and buxom, with long black curly hair. She seemed shy and demure until she got comfortable with people, and then she became the most outgoing of them all, bold and sometimes uncomfortably frank. She was from Houston, and she played Lady Ainsworth’s maid, the frst victim of the vampire’s bite. After being bitten in the frst scene, she only appeared occasionally as the vampire’s undead minion, but she was fnding ways to put subtle humor into those appearances.

* * * * * *

As the day progressed, Jessica had time to think, and she began to wonder why Ira Shapiro had covered for her absence by telling the others she wasn’t feeling well. That afternoon, despite his rather obvious efforts to prevent it, she managed to corner him alone in the lobby.

“You told everyone I wasn’t feeling well yesterday,” she said, getting straight to the point before he could brush her off. “Why did you do that?”

His eyes skittered all around the room, fnally settling, more or less, in her general direction. He glanced nervously at her for brief fractions of a second, trying to read her expression. “Well, you weren’t around, so, you know, I sort of assumed…”

She cut him off in the midst of his lame rambling. “You knew where I was, didn’t you?” she accused.

“What? How could I…”

“You knew! You were the one who warned me about the man who hides his face! You knew what would happen, didn’t you? You knew in advance!”

“No!” he protested feelingly. “I didn’t know, I swear to you! It’s just… It’s happened before, that’s all! Sometimes he just… just takes a liking to someone. I knew he’d talked to you, so when you disappeared, I knew he must have taken you! That’s all!”

Jessica stared at the little man. Was that guilt that made him so jittery, or fear? “Then tell me, Ira. Why did you cover for my absence? Why didn’t you call the cops and have the place searched?”

His eyes grazed her face momentarily before bouncing around the room again. When he spoke, it sounded as though he had to drag every word out, painfully, with a crowbar. “I hated doing that, Jessica. I hated every second of it, and I’m so sorry. But this theater can’t afford another scandal! If I called the cops again, whether they found anything or not, we’d be shut down for good. It’d be over for us. So I covered for you, instead. I had to. If it happens again, I’ll have to do the same.”

For a long moment Jessica watched his eyes skitter here, there, anywhere but her face. “So if I went to the police myself and told them I’d been kidnapped and tortured and raped, you’d deny it, and tell them I’m making it up, wouldn’t you?”

Ira looked down at his shoes for a long time. “Yes.”

“How can you live with yourself? What if he takes me and I don’t come back?”

He looked up quickly, an earnest look on his face.

“He always brings them back! He only takes them once or twice, and he always, always brings them back!”

Guilt and fear, she decided. “You know who he is, don’t you, Ira? That’s why you cover for him.”