Georgia Plays The Game Ch. 08

Please note that this chapter is definitely not a stand-alone piece. You should read the rest of the story before reading this chapter or you will have no chance of understanding what is going on! If you aren't interested in the plot and just want to cut to 'the action' then that is the section entitled 'The Price of Success'. Don't forget that ratings and constructive criticism are always welcome.

*

The miles rolled by under the wheels of her vehicle - the lights flashed through her vision as she drove through the night. She knew her mind was all over the place, hurtling in a thousand different directions, unable to really process the situation. She just knew that she had to see her daughter, had to know the truth.

It was only as she neared her destination that she realised how impractical she had been. It was past Midnight - was she really intending to haul her daughter out of bed and demand to know whether a Black stranger had knocked her up. She thought of her phone but instantly rejected the idea. Some things had to be dealt with face to face. If nothing else she wanted to be able to hold Charli, to let her know that whatever had happened or would happen she would always love her.

Her brain began to try to rationalise the situation. She had been to Charli's house and noticed its unusual lay-out but it couldn't be the only one with a similar set-up. Perhaps other old merchant houses had been cut down due to disrepair, perhaps the clip hadn't been filmed in her daughter's home after all. She knew it sounded ridiculously far-fetched, too much of a coincidence to be practical, but she grasped at the chance. Suddenly as she reached the far side of the Capital she dreaded the last few miles, dreaded the certain knowledge of what she now only suspected. The adrenaline that had fuelled her rush to drive North was now long dissipated. She felt confused and scared and miserable.

She saw a motel sign, presumably for business travellers to the Capital. Probably the last such before they entered the straggling urban sprawl that stretched between the Capital and its down-at-heel, crime, vice and drug-ridden neighbour - H-Town. She took a snap decision and pulled in. Parked in the lot and pushed back against the head-rest with her eyes closed, fighting the panic down. She had to get it right when she met Charli, clear of thought and speech. Getting this wrong might lose her daughter for good.

There was no-one she could trust with this. Charli's father? He'd faithfully and honourably made bank transfers over the last few years but he would not want or need this drama. She knew his second wife was expecting too, their second. She realised that thought, 'expecting too', had come into her head.

What about the other key person in her life over the last few months? What about her ... she hesitated. What was his real name - Izeye. Didn't the clips come from him? Hadn't he arranged all this? Had he... How could her daughter have been so stupid - to let herself be used and exploited like this! She glanced down at her own body - knew that her own belly might soon be filling out too and with the baby of the man behind all this. He had fooled them, manipulated them both.

Even as the thought ran through her mind she knew it wasn't true. With her daughter perhaps but certainly not for her. Her mind flashed back again. Her helping her Master, she couldn't help thinking of him as anything but that, capture Ann as a new 'trainee'. Her telling Shaka to seed Dee when she was unprotected and fertile, to send her home to her husband and family with a Black man's baby in her. At that moment she had wanted it - wanted her Master and Shaka to succeed, had not cared what happened to the other women.

But was that true? She had worked from her own experience. How good all of this had been for her. How she knew that she could not turn back, more accurately WOULD not turn back once she had gone so far. It hadn't been hypocrisy because she had only helped the other women do just what she was doing, become what she was, enjoy everything that their new lives had to offer. What now? Go back to Izeye despite everything? Find a new Black Master? Just cruise the clubs looking for casual Black partners?

She shook her head and found her bag, checked her credit card was there. Only when checked in and lying on the bed in her little room did she realise that not for one moment had she contemplated giving up Black cock, not for one moment had she considered preventing any pregnancy that she might already have begun. She wasn't the same person that she had been before she gave herself to him. She didn't regret that for one moment - couldn't honestly claim to regret having led others down the same path - but the possible cost to her daughter kept her head whirling until, emotionally exhausted, she finally slept a shallow fitful few hours.

***

She woke still feeling tired and she couldn't face any breakfast. At least her mind seemed to have stabilised . The initial brutality of the shock had worn off. She would consider her own future in time. First she had to see her daughter. They would survive and get through, just as they always had, but she had to see Charli. No matter how much she dreaded it...

She got there at 0930 in the morning. Saw the familiar little street with the big, cut-down frontage. Noticed the change there and knew that any chance of a coincidence, however slim, had gone. On the wall by the front door was a sign and on that sign the design she now had tattooed on her own lower back. The Black face and the White face united in a kiss and forming the symbol of yin and yang. The symbol of her Master's ownership.

Georgia took a deep breath. She rang the bell but heard nothing so she knocked on the door. No response so she tried again. Then again. Still nothing. She closed her eyes - she knew she would have to make the decision.

It cut against the grain. The key really was only for use in emergency. However, wasn't this just that. She quickly reached into her bag and unlocked the front door. The alarm box buzzed until the entered the code - identical to her own, just as her daughter had once joked. With the door closed she looked carefully around her.

It was the strangely truncated lobby with the over-sized staircase - just as she remembered from her previous visit and just as she had seen on the video. She made her way up the stairs and checked the balcony carefully. In a couple of places she noticed that the varnish had been slightly rubbed. Had a rope or cord been tied there? It was possible.

She felt very strange - like some sort of a spy on the lives of her daughter and her house-mate Lex. However, she knew she could have no peace, reach no equilibrium, until she knew the truth. She didn't search the house she just went from room to room and noticed what she found there. Essentially she found ... nothing. Well she found everything you would expect to find in a house occupied by two young female students. Some rooms were none too tidy but other than that there was nothing to cause alarm. Until she reached the final room downstairs. The locked one.

It was a door that had presumably survived since the house's grander days. A big solid wooden door with an old-fashioned keyhole. They'd had doors like that back home when Georgia had been growing up. She remembered the old keys - big metal objects. Definitely not the sort of thing that a young woman carried about with her on her key-chain.

She looked around her and saw a drawer. She pulled it open but found only spare sheets and bedding. That was the first place you might think to put the key. Then, of course, it would seem ridiculously obvious and you would think of somewhere else. She and her daughter had always joked that they seemed to think alike in many ways. She felt anxiety again at the thought but pushed it down. She focused on what her daughter would have decided to do. If Lex had hidden the key then she'd never find it.

She remembered the kitchens and went to check quickly through the units. No key. Only then did she suddenly understand just what her daughter would have done. She returned to the drawer and pulled it almost all the way out. then she felt the underside with her hand and right at the back she found the key taped to the wood.

She hesitated before unlocking the door. There was no doubt that this was a breach of her daughter's privacy. She pushed the thought down - she HAD to know. She unlocked the door and walked into the room.

The first thing she saw - sitting proudly in full view - was a black leather hood. She was almost thinking of it as 'the hood' until she saw a second positioned behind it. Next to one was a black leather choker with the letters 'B - O - S' spelled out in brilliants. She'd seen that before too. Knew that it signalled that its wearer was a 'Black Owned Slut.' Knew that all her suspicions must be true.

She found herself accepting the knowledge amazingly easily. The panic and suspense subsided quickly - now she knew she had to be practical. She began to look through the rest of the room but almost as an after-thought. The new computer with its high-range webcam, just the same as the one Izeye, her Master, had bought for her. The huge walk-in cupboard full of clothing. Some expensive designer outfits, some trashy street-walker style clothes, some kit that belonged in a bondage club or something. A selection of sex-toys. Then the shoes and boots - all extremely high ticket items. The sort that a girl had to do a lot of 'dancing' gigs for. Georgia knew that from experience.

She felt strangely calm. The 'worst' had happened. She was not a hypocrite. It might not have been what she had envisaged for her daughter but she was in no place to get on her high horse about it. Charli wasn't a child any more. Her daughter was a young woman who could make her own decisions and then had to reap the rewards or take the lumps.

Georgia looked again at the computer and booted it up. She expected to need a password but didn't - presumably the girls had realised that anyone in this room knew enough already...

Heard It On The Grape Vine

Really it was a nursing job. Simple applications of first aid and assisting Dr Nikola in his triage of the patients presenting. Alternatively, helping to take samples for the public health programs that his clinic was a part of. H-Town wasn't known for its high rates of health insurance and these regular public clinics were a key support for the hard-pressed public hospitals. Nikola had started them years ago - boosted them once he'd come into contact with the fund-raising prowess of his friend Taylor. They were both rightly proud of their work.

Charli enjoyed helping Dr Nikola. He was a strange fussy, sometimes rather pompous, little man - but he was a very good doctor. She had told him once but he had waived the compliment away.

"No - I am an OK Doctor. My skills, my true genius, lies in surgery. However, the people here mostly do not need a surgeon. They simply need a person with medical knowledge and training to tell them whether they need treatment and where they can go to get it. Four days in the week I minister to the rich and sometimes to the frivolous - this pays for one day helping our people here. My grandfather, now there was a truly great Doctor, he taught me this after many experiences."

The Doctor stood to greet his next patient - an African-American woman in her sixties leaning heavily on a stick. He and Charli moved to help her onto the low couch for examination. Charli was learning a lot already. She knew almost as soon as the Doctor that the woman's ankle was broken and she immediately knew what was needed. She moved to begin preparations and Nikola noticed with a satisfied nod. He smiled at his patient and began to reassure her. The break was not a bad one - with rest and a little help it would soon be on the mend.

***

"It would be - she's in with the Doctor."

Lex was a little short down the phone. She was very busy this morning sorting the blood test paperwork and hadn't got time to be chatting with Charles and his boyfriend - let alone acting as an answering service for Charli! They knew where Charli was and should have known her phone would be turned off! Lex loved the laboratory and she had already switched her course to medical science. She knew she was good at this and she wanted to work here or at a similar clinic when she was qualified.

She listened to the phone again and pursed her lips. This was not good. Charles had got back home this morning and had immediately recognised the vehicle parked outside her and Charli's house. She told him to hang fire - not to do anything. This day was always going to come sooner or later. She paused a few moments and then rang a number.

"Hello, its Lex - we need your help..."

The Tempter and the Tempted

Georgia didn't take long on the computer to realise that all was not as simple as she had assumed. She almost immediately found files of all the video clips she had been sent and a lot more. They were organised in folders named after two video-sharing profiles that she already knew but also linked to two that she had never heard of. Needless to say the 'girl in the hood' folder was front and center. At first she assumed that the clips had been sent to Charli and Lex just as some had been sent to her.

Georgia didn't watch any of the clips beyond a few seconds to identify them. To watch them when she knew they might feature her daughter was unimaginable. It didn't stop images flashing into her mind though, it didn't stop her trying to remember any detail that might help her identify who starred in each of the videos. From the moment she had seen the two identical hoods she had realised that the clips might feature either of the girls - or both. She remembered the deliberate masking of sound and vision quality on the clips. She had known it was designed to obscure identities but she now realised that might have been done for the general public or it might have been just for her.

She was still in front of the computer when she suddenly froze in her seat. She had found the interracial site where her own journey had started - where she had found out about 'the game'. She found she didn't have to log in - the site had obviously been set to do so automatically. The girls must have done that for convenience - passwords were so hard to keep track of. She had her own system set up the same way. Her username would always appear in the top-right and she had involuntarily glanced into that corner of the screen. That was what had made her freeze - that was what had made her understand.

The username was just a jumble of letters. However, they were a jumble of letters that she recognised with no difficulty. The first two videos had been sent to her by her Master directly - the rest had come from a different account that she had also assumed to be his. Now she knew differently. The other clips had been sent to her from here. She sat back and tried to process the information. She was still seated there, deep in thought, when she heard the front door open and a few moments later heard a familiar voice.

Keep It In The Family

"They sent me to find the key but I thought they might have under-estimated you. Anyway, no need for any more secrets. What are we going to do now?"

Georgia looked up into her cousin's face. Jessica was looking at her with an expression of calm but also with concern. Georgia momentarily reflected that the last time she'd seen her cousin had been just after the delivery of her daughter. The memory threatened to send her fears and confusion back to the surface again but she fought them down. She had a strong feeling that Jessica had the answers that she needed to know - whether she wanted to or not.

"How long has it been going on?"

Jessica tilted her head a little to one side and examined her cousin closely before answering. "What do you want to know? Everything? Because I'll happily tell you everything I know. But do you want to consider why you want to know?"

Georgia felt the tears coming again. Her cousin was acting like the lawyer she was. The frustration burst out of her. "I want to know that my daughter is OK - I need to know that she will be alright. Can't you understand that?"

In a flash her cousin was with her and holding her and Georgia finally felt able to let go. Let the fear and the anxiety and the feelings of failure as a mother flow out of her in great heaving sobs, the tears running down her cheeks and onto the shoulder of her cousin's designer jacket. She heard her cousin murmur into her ear.

"Of course I understand, GiGi, of course I understand. Maybe not a year ago but now, now I understand."

Hearing her familiar accent, hearing her old childhood nick-name, being in the arms of her only real family outside of Charli - Georgia began to feel the panic subside again. For a few moments she clung on tight, so painfully tight that her cousin had to be careful not to gasp in protest Jessica's words reminded Georgia that she'd last seen her a couple of months ago - just after Odile had been born. Jessica's daughter. So Jessica might understand...

Georgia released her hold and stepped back. "Will you tell me the truth - swear to it on Odile's life."

She saw her cousin's features stiffen. A hard look come into her eyes. "No, never on that - not for anything. But I will tell you the truth."

Georgia nodded. That was the response she had needed to see. Now they could talk. "How long have you known?"

"Izeye asked my advice as soon as he heard from you both. He suspected the connection - I did too, but we weren't sure. So I told him to go forward on two conditions. First, he should keep each of your activities separate from the other. Second, if he wanted a physical relationship then he would have to choose. Izeye agreed and he has stuck by those rules."

"But he sent me those video clips."

"He told me he had sent you two. He normally sends a clip to his new recruits just to let them know that this serious. Let them withdraw gracefully if they haven't got the mettle for it. Or, of course, encourage them to engage more fully. But you'll know all about that."

Georgia nodded.

"You were pretty hesitant - slow to take the plunge. You had poor Izeye worried. From the first moment he saw you he'd wanted you. It didn't hurt that he saw just how much you needed it. Needed to be set free - liberated to be your real true self. Several times he thought you'd back out and meanwhile the girls... Well you know Charli and Lex better than me."

Georgia did indeed. They were more like sisters than just room-mates. Well, sisters or perhaps something closer. They looked alike, thought alike, had similar tastes in music and fashion. Also, it seemed, similar tastes in men. The two young women's enthusiasms seemed to feed off each other - to propel both of them forward. Suddenly she saw just how it had been. Charli would never have been able to keep so exciting a secret from her closest friend. Lex would have followed suit and then they would have competed together - pushing the boundaries of their desires.

"So Izeye had you, who was so hesitant to even dip a toe in, and he had the two girls who he was having real trouble keeping under control. He'd been real happy about it at first. That clip Lex made at the adult store. Soon as he saw it he knew that was the clip he'd send to all his new recruits from now on. He sent it to you and never thought you might have mistook it for someone else. Pretty soon anyway he's sent you the second clip - Charli had loved it and insisted he posted it everywhere he could.

"So that one was..."

"That was Charli - the piercing video. You know that's Izeye's day job. He didn't see anything sexual in it so he sent you that too. Men can be blind sometimes..."