Trail of Silver Skulls Ch. 15

"Give me the keys, now!" said Anna.

Wordlessly, Carlos looked down to the keys hanging from his neck and Anna grabbed them and lifted the chain away from his head. He made move to stop her, his eyes wild with fear as he huddled against the floor of the van. Twisting her hands around, Anna inserted the correct one into the cuffs around her wrists and the metal bands snapped free. Without pause, she crawled over to where Rachael was laying and unlocked her cuffs as well. Doing her best to keep her balance and prevent herself from being thrown about, Anna looked around in the chaos of the van. A layer of hot brass cartridges rolled about on the floor as Tom continued to pour down covering fire behind them, the barrel of his rifle now starting to smoke from the heat building up inside. So far though, nobody seemed to have noticed that they were free. Outside, the engine sputtered one last time and finally began to die. A stream of curses in another language poured out into the air from the driver's seat punctuated occasionally by ones in English from Eric as well.

"God damn it," yelled Eric, "Everybody out, we're going to leg it the rest of the way."

They were halfway across the bridge now, the metal rims of the wheels sending sparks up against the road. With one last jolt, they came to a stop as the van crashed into one of the support beams to the side. More bullets punctured up the frame and Eric jumped out, ducking under the fire as he hit the floor. Crawling around to the back, he opened the rear doors and Anna felt him grab onto her shoulder as he prepared to drag her out.

This was it, thought Anna, this was the moment she had been waiting for. She reached out one hand and grabbed onto the van. Eric pulled, and she stayed put.

"I'm not going," said Anna.

Eric looked back in confusion.

"What?" he said.

"I'm not going," said Anna, "You can't make me."

Eric opened his mouth again as he tried to process what she just said. Then, he pressed his lips together into a thin line and pulled out the remote. The end of the bridge was now less than fifty feet away. Even if he had to carry her, ten seconds of running was all it would take. His finger jammed down on the button at the top and besides her, Anna heard Rachael cry out, her entire body going limp as her hands flew down to grab at her chastity belt. From herself though, there was nothing but the triumphant sound of silence. Without the device inside, they had no power over her. Raising her head, she stared Eric dead in the eye.

"I will never be your slave," she said.

Anna reached out and her hand curled around a piece of broken glass laying on the floor. It cut painfully into her flesh but she didn't care anymore. Before Eric could react, she lunched forward and thrust it into his side. He howled as he let go of her and Anna threw herself forward, stabbing him again as she pushed him away.

"I'll kill you!" screamed Eric.

But Anna was no longer listening. Reaching out, she grabbed Rachael and half ran, half carried the other girl over to the side of the bridge. She looked back one last time to see Eric standing with his hand pressed against his side, a sticky wetness soaking through the side of his shirt.

"Get back here bitch!" he screamed, "I'll kill you dead!"

Lifting Rachael up in her arms, Anna stepped over the edge and jumped. The surface of the river below rushed up towards her and then she was underneath it as the hard water rushed up into her nose and mouth. Desperately, she tried to claw her way back up to the surface but the weight of her chastity belt dragged her back down. The last thing Anna heard was the sound of voices calling out to her above her head and the distant engine of a boat approaching. Then, darkness seeped in from the edges of her vision, and then Anna knew no more.

-----

"Ms. Farthwing, are you with us?" a voice spoke out somewhere to her right.

Anna blinked and shook her head. She had been drifting off again and the pale blue pattern of the wallpaper across from her came into focus as she looked up at the doctor sitting beside her hospital bed.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again," she said.

It had been more than a week now since they had dragged her out of the river and taken her here. Even with all that time to think however, laying there against the soft sheets of the hospital bed, she couldn't help but feel as if it was all a dream. Every time she closed her eyes, she could still see the distant bars of her cage around her and feel the grit from the floor against her skin. Compared to the reality she had been through, the current world around her felt fake, like a bubble ready to pop if she pushed too hard.

It was a miracle that she was still alive even, the nurses had told her. Falling from that great of a height, the impact against the water would have been almost like landing on concrete. The cast around her right leg was proof enough of that though she could barely feel any pain from it at all. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a small part of her wondered if she had died and gone to heaven instead. Most likely though, it was just a result of all the drugs they had her take.

Both of her parents sat on the other side of the bed, her father with his usual stoicism while her mother leaned in with a worried look on her face.

"We're just happy you're safe. After you went missing, we didn't know what to do," said her mother, "The last time we saw you, you were still at school. How in the world did you end up a hundred miles away in a stolen car crossing the border?"

Anna sat up further against the pillow and winced as she pulled at the IV in her arms. The clear plastic tube ran up to a bag of fluids hanging from a nearby stand. Every now and then, a fresh drop would fall into the waiting reservoir below as the liquid slowly trickled down. The place where it entered her arm itched, and Anna resisted the urge to scratch at the tape holding it in place. Instead, she looked down in at the white bedsheets and the hospital gown covering her body. A thousand words rose up in her chest as she tried to answer, but somehow they all seemed to die before they could make it out of her throat. Sitting in the silence in between, she felt empty inside, as if all the emotions had been scooped out of her mind.

"Give her some space," said the doctor, "Physically, she's mostly recovered now but her mind might need a little more time."

Officially, she had come out of it all with only a broken leg, two broken ribs, and a slight concussion to her head. When the doctors had told her that, she didn't believe them at first. Even when they showed her the x-rays of the metal wires connecting her bones together, it had taken a while for the reality of it to set in. Who else could say that they've escaped from the slave cartels with so little to show for it. Half the times, she still expected Eric to come walking through the door and tell her it was time to go back. Even if he was dead now, shot to pieces along with the rest of his men, she could still feel his presence lurking around her no matter where she went. In a literal way, this was still sort of true. A familiar weight pressed against her side as she shifted in bed and unconsciously, Anna moved her hands underneath the sheets.

"What's more concerning is the effects the concussion had on her psyche," said the doctor.

"What do you mean?" asked her mother.

"We're still not sure whether it's a result of the fall or of the, ah, training they put her through but the results have been rather... interesting to say the least," said the doctor.

Anna moved her hands down until her fingers came across the steel surface of the chastity belt still around her waist. The smoothness of the metal felt warm as she brushed her fingers across the latch that kept it sealed tight. She had thrown away the key before she got into the van but it would have been trivial for them to just call a locksmith after she had woken up. No, the lock itself wasn't the problem. The doctor glanced over with an apologetic look on his face before he continued with his diagnosis.

"We hypothesize that because of the extreme stimulation she received, the nerve endings in her lower body have adapted in turn by raising their activation threshold. The official name we use for this symptom is Acute Synaptic Threshold Reduction, or ASTR for short. It's not a life threatening issue but it cause some problems with her mental health" said the doctor,

"So, does that mean...," said her mother.

"No more orgasms," said Anna, "Forever"

"Not necessarily, though I would advise against them for the time being" said the doctor, "In the past, patients have been known to cause serious harm to themselves in trying. For now, we recommend you keep the chastity belt on until the activation levels have gone back down."

Anna blinked while her mother gasped in shock besides her, an awkward flush rising up across her face as she had just swallowed something nasty but couldn't spit it back out. Her father on the other hand seemed to be pretending as if he hadn't heard anything at all. Looking at the two of them, Anna almost felt like laughing out loud. Here she was after being rescued from the hands of the cartels and all everybody wanted to do was to talk about how her clit didn't work anymore. She thought back to the final moment in the warehouse where she had locked the belt back around herself with the key. If what the doctor was saying was correct, then even if she had chosen to give in to her desires back then it still wouldn't have done her any good. A bitter taste rose up in her mind and she scratched a little harder against the latch on the belt.

"As bad as that seems though, you'll be happy to learn that treatment is available", said the doctor.

Anna looked up as the doctor handed her a folder and she took it from him. Opening it up, she found a stack of pamphlets inside with various stock photos of smiling young women on the front. Their eyes brimmed with an artificial cheerfulness as they turned to smile at the camera. Anna picked one up and turned it around in her hands. Written on the back was a short description of a recovery program along a phone number and a link to a website where she could go to make an appointment. The slogan 'Taking Back Control' was printed below.

"Since the symptom is a learned condition, treatment mostly involves retraining the nerves to become accustomed to a lower level of stimulation. Typically, this is done through sonic vibrations of the affected areas. We offer one-hour sessions three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays though half day appointments are also available on the weekends," said the doctor.

"How long will it take?" asked Anna.

The doctor cleared his throat as he answered in a clinical manner. Briefly, Anna wondered if he used the exact same tone for every diagnosis he gave.

"Most patients see a fifty-percent chance of recovery after five years and an eighty-percent chance of recovery after ten," he said, "Unfortunately, until the process is complete, the chastity belt will have to stay on. We've found that external stimulation outside of the program schedule can have an adverse effect upon the calibration process."

So that was it then, thought Anna. She might have escaped with her life but she was still stuck in chastity with her orgasms effectively locked away. Even worse, the only way for her to get them back was to attend what was basically an one hour edging session three times a week for the next five years, ten if she was unlucky. Unless she wanted to give up her ability to climax forever, those were here only two choices. Turning the pamphlets over in her hand, Anna wanted to cry through no matter how hard she tried, the tears just wouldn't come out. She looked through the different programs that were offered, each appearing worse than the last. Rectal massages, water jet therapy, handsfree stimulation, every one of them stated a recovery time measured in at least a decade or more. By withholding the final state of climax for so long, the sensitivity of her nerves would be heightened until even a feather would be enough. After years of repeated exposure to the experience, the deadened areas would slowly start reacting again until they were back to normal. Anna felt like life was playing a cruel joke on her. After all that she had been through, this was the only way she could be cured.

A knock came from outside the room but caught up her thoughts, Anna almost didn't hear the door opening as someone came inside. It was only when she heard a familiar voice greeting her that she looked in in surprise. Standing there and dressed in the same kind of hospital gown, Rachael looked awkwardly around the room.

"Ummm, hello?" said Rachael.

Anna looked towards the doctor in confusion and he explained.

"Forgive me for going ahead but since she seems to be your friend, I thought it would be better if you two go through the program together", he said, "At the very least, it'll help deal with the stress of having to wear the chastity belts all the time."

Anna looked back towards Rachael again and saw the familiar outline of a chastity belt around her waist.

"Are you..." she began to ask but Rachael cut her off.

"The doctors already told me everything," said Rachael, "I figured since you saved me on the bridge, I should be there to help you as well. We've made it this far you know, together we should be able to do just a little bit more."

Anna smiled, and the world around her started to waver and blur. She sniffed and reached up to wipe her eyes with a sleeve. Perhaps things wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Thank you," she whispered.

In the quiet confines of a hospital room, one nightmare ended and another story of friendship began.

The end!

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Afterward

Man, it's finally over isn't it. If you've been keeping up with my uploads all this while, I sincerely thank you for reading my poor excuse of a first story. I'll do better the next time, I promise!

When I first started, I had only intended for this story to be a couple of chapters long. Anna would get put in chastity, teased a little, and then find a way to escape. Somewhere along the way though, everything seemed to run away from me and out of control. Halfway through, I almost felt like the story was writing me instead of the other way around. Well, you know the saying about spilt milk, right? Even if the ending is a little bit rushed, I'm happy I can finally bring this story to a close.

If you feel like it should have gone another way though, do feel free to leave a comment below on what you would have liked to see. This story may be over but I have plenty of more future stories coming up and I would really appreciate any feedback no matter whether it's good or bad.