Sonja scoffed and padded up the stairs to take a quick shower in her mother's bathroom to remove the taste of Mark from her lips and the dampness between her legs.

Later and refreshed, she headed back down into the cool basement. Instead of going to her room, she kept on walking to the back of the basement. It was crowded with boxes and garbage, a washer and dryer, and the various crap that built up since they moved in.

Feeling anxious of her plot, Sonja started to clean out the back room. She stacked up boxes and swept out the floor, working at clearing a space. The feelings of nervousness continued to grow, so she continued cleaning up, calming down through physical effort. She considered filling the closet filled with knives, which she never really explored after the first time, but left it alone after a strange feeling of unease. Instead, she stacked up the boxes on shelves. When she ran out, she padded into the workshop and built new shelves, rigging them together with pieces of wood and metal brackets she found.

Hunger finally caught her around noon and she ate a very quick lunch before padding down the stairs to keep cleaning.

Sonja finished a few hours after noon and stared at the large empty room in the back of the house. A rusted drain sat in the middle of the room, sparkling in the places she had to scrape it clean. She ran a hand along the wall, feeling the cold rough concrete and places. Her eyes glanced up toward the ceiling and she could suddenly see the purpose of her cleaning.

Chain and manacles. It all made sense now and the final pieces of her plan snapped into place.

Grabbing an almost empty box, she padded up the stairs and out to the shed. Gathering up all the manacles and cuffs, she brought them back down to the basement and started fixing them into the wall, using a heavy piece of wood mounted into the rock. She worked quickly and silently, with only the whine of an electric drill and the cracks of the hammer keeping her company.

By the time she finished the third one, she was sweating. Panting, she stared around the room. In her mind’s eye, she could see the girls who hurt her all chained to the wall, naked and helpless, awaiting their fate. It brought a smile to her lips.

A “ping” noise filled the basement. Sonja jumped, her eyes guilty looking toward the stairs but a second ping noise ricocheted from the room she was in. Standing up, she peered around for the source of the sharp noise. Walking around the room, she paused at the fourth set of manacles that hung from the heavy wood. A third ping noise snapped her attention to the top of the chain. As her eyes focused on the manacles, she found herself staring as the metal bent itself, twisting the metal down to the wood and pinning the chains into place.

Gasping, she backed up, terrified.

Then she felt his touch, the frosty wind that rose from nowhere. Hoarfrost grew along the metal as she watched. Mechanically, she reached down, grabbed her pliers, and stepped forward to help her master. Together, girl and ghost mounted eight sets of manacles and cuffs to the wall, high enough to cause discomfort but low enough that Sonja could force someone up there.

A throbbing anger rose inside her throat with every new set of bounds being placed on the wall until she worked in the ruddy glow of anger. As soon as she finished, the cold disappeared and she warmed herself up by sweeping out the corners and wiping down the washer.

When she ran out of things to do, she just sat down in the middle to gaze up at her work, the manacles leaving a fierce joy in her heart. She smiled and just dozed there, enjoying the feel until the doorbell interrupted her daydreams. She waited for her mother to answer it, but when it rang a second time, she forced herself to stand up and pad up the stairs.

She heard whoever rang the doorbell walking down the stairs when she got to the door and cracked it open. Outside, two uniformed men paused at the bottom of the stairs. Beyond them, their delivery truck had a banner for industrial kitchen supplies.

Confused, she opened the door more, “May I help you?”

They turned and did a double-take as they stared at her. “Uh... wow... yeah, we have a delivery for Sonja Bremus.”

“I’m Sonja.”

“No shit, really?” She could feel their lust growing as they both smiled to each other. The speaker stepped up on the stairs and handed her a clipboard. “We're here to install your new walk-in freezer.”

She took the board and looked at it. “Really? Who ordered it?”

“Uh... you did.”

Sonja masked her emotions and lied quickly, “Oh, must have been my mother. We share a first name.”

He shrugged, “Whatever. Where do you want it?”

She hesitated for a moment, then remembered the plaque from the empty room off the kitchen. She favored him with her best smile. “In the kitchen, follow me.”

The workers were fast and efficient. Five hours later, her mother still wasn’t home and she had a walk-in freezer right off the kitchen. Signing the paperwork, she briefly considered giving the men more than a tip, but changed her mind. Shooing them out of her home, she returned back to the room, feeling the first hints of cold air as she padded around the steel freezer.

“Okay, Master Cold, I know it's you.”

She turned around, waiting for an answer. She stopped as the freezer door closed shut, latching into place. She smiled and stared at the door. “Will you talk to me?”

No answer.

“Fine, will you help me?”

The door unlocked itself, moving from a spectral hand. Sonja smiled and pushed at the door, but it refused to move. She looked around, a faint prickling of fear crawling down her spine.

“What do you want?”

Still no response.

Unsure, she sighed and stripped, leaving herself naked in a locked freezer. Standing in the center, she stretched up and caressed the ceiling with her fingertips, knowing he was watching.

“Do you want this? Master Cold?”

“Do you want to see me here, naked in your freezer?”

“Do you want this meat, like that woman... ghost said you did?”

That brought a response and the door swung open. She half expected to see someone outside, but there was no one. Leaving her clothes in the center of the freezer, she walked out on bare feet and back to her basement bedroom.

As her bedroom door shut, she spoke into the basement in a hard tone. “As long as you never take my Meris away, I'll do whatever you want.”

End of chapter 25.

>>4104
Beginning of chapter 25.