Sur La Mer - Dans la Merde

There was silence for a moment then we both turned as a screen on a wall away to my left suddenly lit up and a recording began to play. I hadn't realised the clown wore a camera and I froze as I saw Danica open our front door, then crumple in a heap. My face was a mask of fear as the clown approached me and I suffered the same fate. We were then shown being thrown unceremoniously into a van, wrapped in sheets, then tied to our chairs with our heads bowed, livid bruises on our faces.

I looked back at Danica in panic, but there were no discernible bruises on her. I pointed a finger at her from the chair arm and shook my head. She reciprocated with the same action. What was going on?

Vanessa's voice came back, a low hiss. "If you have harmed those girls in any way, I will find you and I will kill you myself. You fucking-"

The voice rose to a deafening volume and we cowered as it shouted her down. "Language, please. We are trying to discuss this civilly. We merely gave them a little reminder to be good girls and show you we are not bluffing."

Danica was shaking her head, puzzled. Whatever they had done to us, they had clearly not hit us. Given the ferocity with which we were apparently thrown into the van, there should be some aches and pains somewhere, but I felt nothing. Perhaps they were just calling her bluff. I could only hope so.

"So, Vanessa. I will give you time to think. I will call again tomorrow when you will have considered your response as clearly, you are not thinking straight this morning."

"You are bluffing. I will find you and I will-"

Again she was cut off. "You will do nothing, deLaunay - assuming you want to see Miss Antonova and Miss Green alive. Let me remind you, I have them in my custody. Those two men who abducted them on my behalf are mercenaries. They took a particular delight in capturing two budding porn stars. I may just let them loose to use and abuse them at their will. Degrade them, make them scream for mercy before I sell them to drug traffickers as sex slaves."

Danica let out a little whimper, but the voice was not finished yet. "Or I may choose just to shoot them in the face with a Glock 69. Better still, do it slowly. One in the instep, one in the ankle, knee, hip before the coup de grace. Watch them die in screaming agony with a bullet through the belly-button, their legs shattered."

Now it was my turn to whimper and the last option had tears coursing down my cheeks.

"Or I could send them back to you bit by bloody bit in small packages and see if you can put them back together in the right order. Or maybe acid - just a few drops should ensure they never work again."

We were both shaking in our bonds as the voice mercifully concluded. "Think carefully, Vanessa. I'll be in touch."

The room fell silent other than Danica's sniffling. I could almost hear my own heart beating. We sat in numb silence for what seemed like an eternity, then my heart almost stopped as light briefly flooded in from behind and above me. Footsteps sounded on what I took to be creaky wooden stairs and I held my breath.

Danica could see better than me from her angle and she screamed into her mask. I turned and almost fainted once more. The clown was back, this time with green hair. The mask seemed to float across the room, lit from below the chin by a torch. It was a chilling, terrifying sight as the wearer of the mask walked slowly between us, then twice around our chairs in a figure of eight.

It then walked away to my right and the torch went out. We screamed in unison as the lights came on and a voice shouted one word.

"Boo!"

We looked in disbelief at a young woman in blue dungarees, her arms outstretched, a huge grin on her pretty face. Blonde pigtails shot out from above her temples at right angles then fell to her shoulders, tipped with red bows. A ponytail cascaded down her back and she wore a red headband with a rose in it. Her eyes were grey behind big, round wireframed glasses and there was only one word I could think of to describe her.

Cute.

If I had not been gagged, I would have stared open-mouthed at the last thing I expected to see, given our predicament.

The girl took a step forward and gave a little bow. Her voice was a million miles from the hideous grating sound we had heard earlier. She was English and sounded as if she were a tour guide welcoming us to her party - slightly breathless and gushing.

"Hiya girls, sorry about all this malarkey. My name is Polly. Thank you for coming - oh sorry, not your choice was it? Deeply regrettable, but as you heard Mr. Monster say to Madame deLaunay, I have no choice either, as the silly woman just will not listen to me!"

She picked up a chair from the shadows and set it down close to us and hung a shoulder bag from the arm. As she sat, she gave us both a playful tap on the knee.

"Righty-ho, apologies for my behaviour and please - all of those horrible things I said - not going to happen. Just for effect. Wouldn't harm a hair on either of your pretty little heads. The men that brought you here are nice - one is my boyfriend actually. Yes, believe it or not, the strange girl who arranged your abduction does get laid - a lot in fact, but that's not relevant at the moment is it?"

I looked at Danica. Seeing the girl and hearing her reassurance, I had calmed down somewhat and she seemed to have regained a little of her composure. The girl went on, almost in a stream of consciousness.

"So, sorry to scare you. Haven't got a gun and if I had, I'd not know one end from t'other. Probably shoot myself in the face, not you!" She tapped her fingers on her lips as if trying to recall. "Anyway, it's a Glock 19 I saw on telly that gave me the idea, not a Glock 69. Don't think there is such a thing to be honest. Probably my obsession with sex, eh? I mean we all like a nice bit of soixante-neuf, do we not?"

We both got another tap on the knee. "Certainly seen you two naughty little tinkers doing it in your movies!"

We were now staring at her wide-eyed, but she was not finished. "So just to reassure, I don't know any sex traffickers - never mind drug dealing ones - and I faint at the merest sight of blood, so you're safe. I'm a very good make-up artist though - I work in TV and movies, so I made your bruises look ultra-real. Then I washed them off, coz I'm a big softie and didn't want to spook you any more than necessary when you woke up. Oh, and they were dummies they threw into the van. You were handled like the precious goods you are."

She rose and I recoiled as she approached me. She was clearly weird and I had no idea what to expect. Her hand went to my shoulder, her voice now a little less frantic.

"Keren Green. Aka in her naughty movies asMorwenna de la Mer. Lovely name for a lovely girl. Love your work, Keren - really love it. All dark and broody and sexy and very, very naughty. That first movie you did, My Lucky Night. Quite a debut, that smoky walk towards the camera, the ciggy in a holder as you did naughty things to yourself, then blowing smoke on that nice man's willy. Got him all big and hard!"

She walked around my chair. "It was that Sybian one that did it for me. Your hands tied above your head, the naughty lady blowing smoke in your mouth, you kissing her, then the big, hooded man putting his willy in your mouth and her cleaning up the mess afterwards. Couldn't recreate it all - haven't got a Sybian- who has, eh? Hee-hee! But I have a nice, rounded chair arm upstairs. Taped my magic wand to it - same tape as on your mouths actually. Quite useful stuff! Anyway, I sat on it and lit my first and last ever ciggy - hated it. Absolutely hated it. Quite disgusting."

She burst out laughing. "Look, lovely little Danica agrees. She's nodding her head! The rest was great though -- my little makeshift Sybian saw me off very nicely." She turned to Danica. "So you don't share her naughty little fetish then?"

Polly laughed as she saw Danica's reaction. A wide-eyed, very deliberate shake of her head. "Right, ok - getting the drift here. Glad the little sweetie doesn't like it really. Thought I hadn't seen her do it in her scenes."

She now moved towards her and knelt down. Danica's nostrils flared and her left leg twitched as if she were trying to kick the girl.

"Danica Antonova, known in the porn world as Danni Supernova." She bowed her head and waved her arms in supplication. "I'm not worthy." Without taking her eyes from her, she pointed at me. "If I love her work, how can I describe thee?"

She thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes, Danni Supernova - if you were chocolate, I'd gobble you all up in an instant! That sweet, innocent look from someone so naughty!" She glanced back towards me. "Oops, did you see that look she gave me, Keren? Oh dear, if looks could kill..."

She stood and patted Danica on the head. Obviously feeling much braver, Danica feigned a bite at her and she giggled. "Right, best keep my distance. Enough about you lovely girls for a moment. After all, it's the Pollyanna Abigail Whiteman show isn't it, not another Danni and Morwenna porn extravaganza."

She sat back down. "That's me by the way. Pollyanna Abigail Whiteman, I mean. Nice name eh? Except having PAW for initials leads to some amusement as you can well imagine. I call my signature my paw print. I even have a little paw print tattoo on my tummy." There was a pause as she laughed nervously. "Well I think it's funny, but I suppose given the circumstances I'll let you off."

Then she became all business-like. "Righty-ho then, to the crux of the matter -- why you are here. I'm not going to give you a history lesson and will keep it brief and hopefully you'll believe me by the end."

She put her head in her hands and took a deep breath. "Ok, long story short. About thirty years ago, a man called Pierre deLaunay bought an island from an English couple who had inherited it from the wife's French parents. It was a failing resort and he offered a decent price. Ten million dollars to be exact. Sound familiar?"

We both nodded. Vanessa had told us how she came to own Sur la Mer. I recalled she had also mentioned that a strange girl had laid a claim to some of it, but she had dismissed her out of hand. I was beginning to wish she had taken her more seriously.

"Great, off on the right track then. Thing is, the intermediaries acting for Monsieur deLaunay were not nice people. They not only defrauded him, but the English couple as well. They rewrote their version of the contract and said he had reconsidered and the property was only worth one million. The couple were desperate to sell, so they reluctantly went with it."

I had a horrible feeling where this was going as she went on. "They took the money and lived comfortably but they were never happy, feeling they were short-changed. They also wanted children but were unable to have any. Then, not long before the year number changed to have lots of zeroes in it, the lady had pioneering fertility treatment and guess what?"

She waved her arms in the air, her pigtails swirling, a big grin on her face. "Yay me! Yay Pollyanna Abigail Whiteman!"

For some strange reason I was warming to this oddly compelling girl.

"So, moving on. Four years ago, when I was eighteen, they told me all about it. They were happy to let it lie, but pardon my French, I'm a persistent little bugger and I was determined to find out what happened. I found out that Pierre deLaunay had passed away and I made contact with Vanessa, his wife at the time of his demise. She was nice at the start and confirmed he paid ten million for it. When I told her my parents only got one million, she ran me out of the room."

She began to cry. "All I wanted was to make things right - to get them back what was rightfully theirs. Sur la Mer is now worth almost a billion. It's small change to her. She probably lights her ciggies with hundred Euro bills. That's all I wanted, Danni, Keren. But she won't listen. I have my parents document upstairs. If only she would compare it with hers, she would see in an instant, I'm sure."

As Polly sat with her head down, Danica looked at me, shaking her head, her nose wrinkled. I wasn't so sceptical -- part of me wanted to believe the girl. Vanessa could be a stubborn old mare at times and where Pierre's memory was concerned, he could do no wrong.

Polly looked up. "Ok, straw poll time, girls. Do you believe me? Use your expressive little heads to let me know one way or the other."

Danica shook hers. I rolled mine in a 'not sure' motion.

"A half out of two then. Oh well, not perfect but better than I expected. Ok, I do have a bit of an insurance policy. Remember I told you I've got a boyfriend? I know it seems odd that a silly little girl like me has a bloke, and he's a bit of a dish actually. Very handsome and we love each other to bits. If I wasn't owed nine million dollars, I'd say I was quite a lucky girl."

She stood again and walked through between us, trailing her hands across our shoulders. "Thing is girls -- you two know my boyfriend. You know him very well in fact. How do I know this?"

She knelt in front of me. "Because you blew smoke on his willy in your debut movie." Then she turned to Danica. "And my lovely Christophe and his pals made a mess of your pretty little faces at the end and you gobbled it all up greedily like I eat chocolate and ice-cream!"

Even behind her tape I could see Danica's look of sheer disdain. I felt the same thing. This strange girl had a crush on Christophe and was pretending he was her boyfriend. I found it quite sad.

"Oh dear -- from your reactions, I think the disbelief quotient has plummeted from a half to zero. You don't believe me at all on this one, do you?" We gave her our verdict, Danica rather more forcefully than me. "Ouch, nought from two." Rising, she tapped us on our noses. "Never judge a book, girls. I worked on a model shoot with Christophe a year ago. We hit it off, believe it or not. Well, obviously not in your cases."

She let out a long breath. "Have to be from 'la bouche du cheval', then won't it. The horse's mouth. Well, he's hung like one so it's quite appropriate. Hee-hee!"

The screen on my left burst into life once more as she tapped at a remote control she had taken from her bag. I shivered as the clown in the boiler suit re-appeared. Then he removed his mask and Danica and I both gasped in unison.

Christophe's handsome face stared at us from the screen. His hand went to his chin and he looked utterly distraught. "Hey Danni, Keren. So sorry for this little charade and I hope you are ok. We tried to be gentle with you, Erich and I."

My mind began to race. Erich had made movies with us too. He was in on this as well.

"Yes, it was us who took you and believe me, I wish we hadn't had to, but Vanessa gave us no choice. It may sound weird, but Polly and I are together. As she told you already, we love each other. She's the sweetest girl and she keeps me grounded in this crazy industry we are in. I may make out with beautiful girls in my day job, but all I want to do is come home to my mad little English fiancée each night and make love to her."

Polly paused the playback. "Not saying told you so, or anything -- but well, told you so! And don't worry -- I'm not jealous of you -- it is his job after all." She let out a little giggle. "Otherwise some of those bruises would have been real! Right, he's coming to the important part, so pin those pretty little ears back."

Christophe's image went on. "I believe her, girls. It's all true. I've seen the document and she has had it authenticated. I have tried to speak to Vanessa, but like Polly, she shuts me down. She even threatened to curtail my contract if I went on about it anymore. She calls Polly horrible names and says Pierre could never have done such a thing. We cannot get her to believe that he was just as much a victim as Polly's parents were."

He hung his head. "I deeply regret what we did, Danni, Keren. But Polly is utterly desperate and wants justice for her folks. I hope that you can forgive me and we can still be friends. I also hope you will help us try to convince Vanessa. Please don't hate me or Polly or Erich. We know we've scared you, but we wanted it to be real -- convincing."

His voice cracked. "Please don't be scared anymore. You know I love you two and what we've done together, yeah? I'd never lie to you, I swear." He kissed his fingers and blew on them, then faded to black.

The three of us sat in silence for a very long time. Polly had her head in her hands and I looked at Danica, who gave me the tiniest of nods, tears in her eyes. I gave her one back, feeling myself well up. We both turned to Polly. Her eyes were also glazed over with tears and she bit her lip.

We both nodded to her. We believed her.

She got up and walked towards us once more, shaking like a leaf in a gale. She knelt and put her hands on our shoulders. Her voice was barely audible. "Thank you."

Her entire body seemed to convulse as she shuddered. "Oh my God, what have I done? You poor girls. I know I said I'd never hurt you, but there's one nasty bit coming I'm afraid."

Before either of us could react, she reached up and ripped the tape from our mouths. We both yelped in pain and Polly let out a nervous little giggle.

"Sorry, best done quickly. Look on it as a free waxing session! Are you two ok."

Danica drew in breath and I tried to say something but ended up sounding like a mating frog. My mouth was so dry, I could barely form a word. Polly saw our predicament and a hand went to her mouth.

"Oh poo, you must be so thirsty. Bum bugger poo. Oh God, I'm so awful -- just a minute." She ran for the stairs berating herself and clattered up them at breakneck speed.

I manage to croak at Danica. "Ok, babe?"

She flexed her lips and jaw. Her voice sounded raw too. "Yeah think so. At least we're not dogmeat!"

My mouth felt like what Tasha would describe as 'the bottom of a budgie's cage' after a heavy night out. "Fucking scared me."

"Yeah, me too. Thought we were done for."

"Love you, Supernova."

"Love you too, Greenie."

The clattering resumed behind me and Polly came back, laden with an armful of drinks bottles. "Right, isotonic sport should do the trick and some water. Here you go -- oh buggery, you're all tied up of course. Poo again!"

She dropped the drinks in our laps and tugged at my left wrist strap and took an age to get it off she shook so much. Danica and I would have been free by the time she released me, but I supposed we were more used to it than her. Once free, I necked the sports drink like it was going out of fashion and burped loudly as the fizzy stuff hit my tummy.

Polly turned from Danica's bonds. "Hee-hee, even porn stars burp!" She retreated and sat on her chair again.

I started on the water bottle as Danica chugged back her drink, then tried to speak again, this time more successfully. I thought I would be angry, but I was just relieved.

"You could have just tried asking us, Polly. You scared us fucking shitless." I began to extricate myself from the rest of my bonds as the girl sat in silence.

Danica released her own right hand then stared at Polly as she bent down to do her ankles. "Good job I had an enema for my anal shoot yesterday or I would have shit myself."

The girl now looked as bereft as Christophe had done. "You probably hate me and Chris too. With every good reason. I know you are angry and probably want to hurt me, but please don't."

"Don't worry, Polly -- we're not going to rush you and beat you up. If I get up too quick, my legs will give way. Besides, you're not the only one who hates the sight of blood."

She gave me a weak little smile then burst into tears, saying how sorry she was and felt so beastly and rotten for scaring us. I loved the strange words she used -- almost old-fashioned and archaic.