Sallas 2: The Gilded Cage

Chapter Description: With Jane's medication running out tempers begin to flare. Anna is determined to get Jane more help, but what cost is she willing to potentially accept? And how does Ryan feel about the idea of going all in with the mysterious Rose Resistance?

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As time wore on it was clear that Jane remembered everything from before she went to Finishing School. There was still a big black hole after she had gotten sent away and maybe, Anna thought, that was for the best. They quickly noticed that the injections wore off too, if Jane wasn’t given more doses of the medicine she slipped back into the way she had been conditioned to act and think. It seemed like the injections were either something she had to give Jane almost every day and it was either building up in her system or didn’t last long.

Anna wished she could say that Jane was absolutely fine when the drugs were having an effect but that would be a lie. There was no doubt the memories she had were very traumatic. One thing the shots weren’t doing was making Jane more independent. She was as obedient as ever and if either Anna or Ryan told her to do something she would start doing it without a moment’s thought. At least there was some golden shoots of recovery though that allowed Anna to have proper conversations with her friend.

“So… Ryan saved you?” Jane asked after Anna had told her about how their time at college had finished.

“He did.” Anna smiled.

“Wow, I never thought any man would do that.” Jane said.

“They would.” Anna sighed, “Maybe not the meatheads here in Sallas but out there in the wider world most men would help.”

“I believe you.” Jane replied, “But it’s hard to imagine, you know?”

Free of Paul and the college environment Anna could finally be open with Jane about everything. Jane sat in rapt attention as if she were a child being read a story as Anna told her about her whole life.

It seemed like Jane had been left feeling a deep anxiety. It made sense to Anna. After living her whole life a certain way, and going through several traumatic events because of it, Jane had just had the rug pulled out from under her, it must’ve felt like everything she knew had to be thrown out. Everything she saw and experienced was new and scary, she had to learn this new place in the world where she wasn’t just a slave to the whims of others.

“What’s wrong?” Jane asked one afternoon.

The two women were relaxing in the living room. Ryan was at work leaving Anna and Jane alone, they were sat on the couch together watching television. They still dressed up as they were expected to and were careful about how they acted, Anna didn’t want anyone to know Jane had been helped or that they weren’t living the “proper” way. Anna was glancing into a drawer next to the couch. It was disturbingly empty.

“We’re out of syringes.” Anna said simply.

“Oh.” Jane replied.

“Yeah, I don’t know how long the current dose will last.” Anna said.

“Can… you get some more?” Jane asked. She bit her lip briefly, “I really don’t like how I feel without them. It’s like I’m trapped in my own body, like I can’t think for myself.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Anna replied with as confident a smile as she could muster, “We’ll work it out.”

The truth was that Anna wasn’t sure what to do. She hadn’t heard from Thorn or The Rose Resistance since she had received the syringes. For the rest of the day Anna tried to help break Jane of her innate need to please. Whilst Jane was no longer suffering the most severe effects of her time at Finishing School she was still struggling with some things. If she heard an order or instruction from someone else, she would be up and doing as she was told before she could even think about it.

By the time Ryan came home that evening it was clear that the women were exhausted from their efforts that day. Little progress had been made however, and Anna was feeling frustrated. With no more shots left all this effort would be for naught and she would only be able to watch as Jane slipped back, and all the progress made was undone.

“I’m going to go upstairs… to change.” Anna said after greeting Ryan. Her diaper was only a little damp, but she wanted to make an excuse to go upstairs.

“Alright, I’ll put dinner on.” Ryan replied.

Anna crinkled as she went upstairs. She had no idea that as she climbed the steps, she was giving Ryan a good view of her clearly mostly dry diaper under her dress. She was too distracted. She had to find a way to get more medicine for Jane.

Anna walked straight past her nursery, Jane’s nursery and the master bedroom to where the entrance to the attic was. She pulled down the ladder and climbed up into the almost completely empty space at the top of the house. In the enclosed space the noises from her diaper felt much louder.

The phone was exactly where she had left it. At the far end of the attic and taped to one of the beams holding the roof up. She pulled it off and turned it on. Scrolling through to the contacts list revealed no saved numbers. She checked the call history but the only number there had been withheld. There was no way to get in contact with The Rose Resistance through this thing. Anna sighed and shook her head in frustration.

“There you are…” Ryan’s voice came from the entrance to the attic and made Anna jump so hard she nearly tripped over a loose plank in the floor.

“Ryan? W-What are you doing up here?” Anna asked as she quickly moved the phone behind her back.

“Coming to see what you’re doing.” Ryan replied as he pulled himself up through the hatch in the floor and walked towards Anna, “Interesting place to change…”

“I was just going there when I saw this room.” Anna tried to act casual. She’d had plenty of practice lying in the past and thought she was pretty good at it. Not to Ryan though, she could see her flimsy excuses weren’t holding water under his gaze.

“Come on.” Ryan said as he reached his wife, “What’s going on? We promised no secrets.”

Anna slumped and then slowly brought her hands out in front of her. They both looked down at the phone in her hand. There was silence but Anna could tell Ryan was annoyed, she could see the way his face twitched that he was trying to stay polite even though he probably wanted to shout at her.

“That’s…” Ryan started with a voice that sounded slightly strained.

“How The Rose Resistance contacted me, yes.” Anna finished for him.

“Do you know what would happen if this was found in this house!?” Ryan hissed angrily, “Get rid of it!”

“I can’t!” Anna replied, “It’s the only way I might be able to talk to Thorn and get more help for Jane.”

“All this phone is going to do is get all of us locked away and forgotten about!” Ryan said angrily.

“So, you want me to let Jane go back to being a slave?” Anna asked venomously.

“I’m asking you to be smart about this.” Ryan was showing an anger Anna hadn’t seen directed at her before.

“And “smart” is abandoning Jane to save ourselves?” Anna asked accusingly.

“Neither of us can help Jane if we are all locked up in Finishing School” Ryan shot back.

“You can’t expect me to let Jane go again!” Anna shouted now. Tears sprung from her eyes as her emotions boiled over completely, “I let her go, Ryan! I’m the reason she is like this!”

“Anna, it wasn’t your fault.” Ryan said softly, “There was nothing you could do, you know that.”

“I know that the only way I can help Jane is by sticking my neck out.” Anna said as she wiped her eyes, “It’s the least I can do.”

“No, Anna, you-…” Ryan started.

Anna let out a little squeal of shock. The phone in her hand vibrated and a second later it began to ring. Both she and Ryan stared down at it as the screen lit up. It was a withheld number again.

“Don’t answer it.” Ryan said quickly.

“But Jane-…” Anna started as she looked from the phone to her husband.

“It’s too risky!” Ryan said with a slightly raised voice, “Who knows what’s in those drugs? And who knows who these people really are?”

Anna hesitated. The phone continued to ring. She knew if she didn’t answer soon, it would cut off and she may never get another chance to speak to Thorn again. Ryan was right, this was a tremendous risk, but the medicine had worked so far. How would Anna live with herself knowing that Jane, the REAL Jane, was trapped inside the mind of a semi-regressed house servant?

“Just ignore it.” Ryan said softly, “We’ll find another way. There must be…”

“Hello? Thorn?” Anna answered the phone and held it up to her ear.

“Anna, I trust Jane is doing well.” The voice on the other end was unmistakably Thorn.

“She is.” Anna replied, “But we’ve run out.”

Anna glanced nervously at Ryan. He looked annoyed but he was making no attempt to stop this contact. Anna took that as tacit acceptance to keep going. Not that she needed it, in her mind saving Jane was as important as anything else and she was willing to take risks to do it.

“We know.” Thorn replied.

“Can… Can we get more?” Anna asked hopefully, “We have money.”

“We have our own funding sources.” Thorn replied with a chuckle, “Your money would be no good to us. You do, however, have your uses.”

“What do you need me to do?” Anna asked.

“You? Nothing.” Thorn said, “Your husband on the other hand…”

Anna looked at Ryan. He could hear the voices on the other end of the line faintly but Anna now put the phone on speaker so he could hear what was going on more clearly. Together they waited with bated breath for what Thorn was going to ask of them.

“Ryan, you work in the Department of Re-Education.” Thorn’s voice echoed around the room a bit and Anna felt an irrational fear they might be overheard, “An agent of ours was recently captured and is going to be transferred to a Finishing School to suffer the most draconian treatment available.”

Anna was in shock. This whole time Ryan hadn’t told her what work he actually did for the government. A shiver went down her spine as she heard that Ryan worked in the worst place possible. He was the one sending women to their torment. Anna saw Ryan furtively looking at her as Thorn spoke. Initially she was angry enough to want to confront Ryan, but it wasn’t like he had much choice in the matter. Prudence dictated it might be better to let it go, at least for now, if it meant Jane got the help she needed.

“I can’t…” Ryan started.

“We need you to amend her paperwork.” Thorn continued without interruption, “We need you to have her transferred to a more moderate facility and a treatment we can quickly reverse when she gets out. She has knowledge we cannot afford her to lose, and we certainly can’t have her telling the government anything.”

“But…” Ryan tried to speak.

“The agent’s name is Lynn West.” Thorn said, “Her paperwork will cross your desk tomorrow. Do this for us and more medicine will arrive for Jane and, perhaps, a way for all three of you to leave.”

“You’re not listening!” Ryan’s voice had some desperation to it, “I don’t have the autho-… Hello?”

There was a click and then the phone hung up. Anna and Ryan stared at it for several seconds before the screen went black. Talking to The Rose Resistance felt like standing in a hurricane, she had no control of what happened and could only reach out to grab at any handhold she could find to prevent herself being blown away.

Anna put the phone away but was painfully aware that Ryan’s eyes were burning a hole through her. She had hoped she could shoulder this burden alone no matter how unrealistic that prospect was but now Ryan was being dragged into it. After everything he had done for her it was surely too much to ask him to risk his job and, potentially, more doing something like this.

“This is insane.” Ryan said.

Anna turned around to see him leaving through the hatch back into the main house. She put the phone down and sighed as she wet her diaper. A change was on the horizon anyway, so she didn’t worry too much about the urine now cascading through the padding. Perhaps it was a bad way to think, that normalising this would undo progress made up until then. Anna didn’t know but right then her main concern was for her husband who was being asked to take a big risk on her behalf.

Dinner was awkward that night. No one had told Jane about the phone call. Ryan hadn’t spoken to Anna either so she could only assume he didn’t want to worry her. Nonetheless he sat in silence as he ate and then left the table without a word. Jane asked what was wrong and all Anna could do was lie and say he was stressed from work. She was sure if Jane knew the real reason, then the poor woman would say she wasn’t worth it and to not get more syringes. Anna couldn’t let that happen.

Bedtime was equally difficult. Jane was still struggling with being a fully-functioning adult again and as the medicine she had been given wore off, she started reverting to increasingly childish behaviour. That night she had asked for Anna to plug in her nightlight, and she had considerable difficulty changing her own diaper necessitating Anna to help out.

When Anna got into bed Ryan was already there. Normally they would at least cuddle for a little bit, but that night Ryan was facing away from her and completely unmoving. Anna turned off the bedside light and laid down doing her best not to be upset.

“Did you know they’ve started sending men to Finishing School?” Ryan asked in the darkness. His voice was flat, “Dissidents caught working against the state mainly.”

“I’d heard that… Wait, is that the problem here?” Anna asked as she sat upright, “You’re scared of getting caught and sent away?”

“Of course I’m scared!” Ryan swung his legs out of the bed and stood up. When he turned to face Anna, she could see how he was very angry, “This isn’t a game. If they catch me doing what Thorn asked…”

“It’s the only way!” Anna said, a note of pleading entering her voice.

“It isn’t. It really isn’t.” Ryan shook his head.

“What do you mean?” Anna asked.

“We’ve got it pretty good here.” Ryan said as he gestured around the room, “Yes, it isn’t perfect, but this is a nice place, you’re free to be you in private, we have a good income…”

Anna felt the words reaching her. The thoughts she had been having since they had reached this house being vocalised. She wanted to let them in, to absorb them and be happy. Part of Anna wanted Ryan to convince her that they should forget everything. A strong guilt washed over Anna, feeling not unlike the warmth that so often flooded her diaper, the strong feminist left wanting the status quo.

“What about Jane?” Anna asked.

“It’s… unfortunate.” Ryan said slowly, “But she would have a good life with us.”

When Anna didn’t immediately shut the idea down, she was shocked with herself. Was she really going to consider sacrificing Jane for this semi-charmed life? All because she was too cowardly to do what was right. But she wasn’t making a sacrifice here. She was asking Ryan to take a huge risk.

“If you don’t want to help… Fine.” Anna said, “But if you don’t try to help then I’m leaving here with Jane. We’ll make a run for it ourselves, there must be someone out there who could help.”

“That’s suicide!” Ryan brought his hands up to his head, “Total insanity! Remember when Jane tried to run? How far did she get?”

“And now you’re the one sending others to the same fate.” Anna retorted.

“That’s unfair.” Ryan’s voice was small, “I don’t WANT to be doing that.”

“But you are.” Anna replied, “Look at what they have us doing. We wanted to buck the system and be free but now I’m in diapers and you’re working for them. Giving in to what they want us to do means they win.”

There was a pause. Both had a lot to think about. Anna wasn’t exactly convinced herself, but she was having to wrestle with her morals. She’d been fighting for so long, how good it would feel to stop and just accept what she had.

“Would you really run away?” Ryan asked.

“Goodnight.” Anna said simply as she rolled over and away from Ryan. She didn’t answer him because she couldn’t.

Ryan seemed to stand next to the bed for an age before Anna finally felt him moving back under the covers. She felt bad for laying down an ultimatum such as she had, but she had to make Ryan understand how important this was to her. That said, she really hoped Ryan wouldn’t call her bluff because if push came to shove, she really wasn’t sure if she could do what she’d said. She would really rather not have to find out…

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