Between a Top Hat and a Relationship
by Mr. Scade
Veronica turned the infamous “toe-killing” corner, eyes on her phone. “Hey, Jesse, you here?” She said, absentmindedly.
A sudden crack filled the room, like wet towel slapping a desk, or leather against leather. Veronica shook in place for a moment, water spilling from the glass in her other hand. “Ah!” She shrieked, phone nearly falling to the floor. “Fuck, Jesse, not when I have my phone on me. You know how many times I’ve drop—” She stopped as she looked up at the source of the sound.
“Remember me?“ The voice stopped everything in the world with its lyrical playfulness.
A glass shattered as it met the floor, a phone made a soundless thud as it hit the floor, screen cracking. Veronica’s eyes went wide in tune with the sinking feeling in her chest, equal parts fear equal parts… something entirely different. She stammered for a moment. Her hand shook. Her thoughts ground to a halt.
The voice giggled playfully. “Oh, I am so glad that you didn’t!” You could hear the grin in the lilt of her words, in the unsung song hidden between every syllable.
Veronica gazed at the woman before her, feeling her eyes water. From the top-hat crowning her fiery-red hair, to the heel of the thigh-high boots, the woman made Veronica’s body react in contradictory ways. She looked at the top of the boots, separated from a high-legged, black leotard by a narrow mesh of fishnets. Veronica felt something crisscross her own legs, and the memory of a tightening sensation in her chest as she looked at the corseted leotard, stylized like a tuxedo-and-jacket combo. Veronica didn’t notice when she dropped on her backside, or that she was beginning to bleed where her hand crushed glass shards underneath. The jacket was red and yellow, with long, white gloves showing from the sleeves, and a tamer’s whip that Veronica knew had soft ridges alongside its length that made it so perfect to hold . Something painful was holding her chest down, and something playful was soothingly caressing between her legs.
The woman took a step forward; Veronica cowered. “Oh, because from now on, I’ll have you regret not enjoying my gifts for much longer…”
Veronica could hear the scarlet smile on her lips, could hear the adrenaline rush through the woman’s veins as she felt her outfit tease in all the right places and fill her with the heavy-metal rush of feeling all powerful—of being powerful. Veronica began to hyperventilate, hands on her ears, eyes tightly closed.
“Oooh,” Even in disappointment, the voice was lyrical. “Don’t be like that, Vero-Vero—it isn’t so bad, really.”
A pause.
“Ah!” Veronica shrieked, falling backwards when she felt the cold metal of the leather’s pommel touch her hand.
“Look at me.” The song was like a drum of war.
Against her will, Veronica’s eyes opened wide.
The light bouncing off the polished brass buttons of the yellow-and-red jacket, the red bow tied around the top hat; Veronica drank the image before her, every detail. Every memory. The bite of the tightly laced boots against her fishnet-covered legs made Veronica reach to make sure that she wasn’t wearing them again. Her eyes were stinging and red, a tear going down one cheek. She felt like the corset the woman was wearing was tight around her waist. Oh, the memory, like the velvet of that leotard, so very real.
The woman took two steps forward, her hips dancing to the roar of some imaginary lions. “Oh, I thought I was abandoned!” She exclaimed, voice like the roar of an audience. “Oh, so very dark and damp in that blasted basement but…” Her eyes the tip of a dagger being thrown from a blindfolded man at a blindfolded volunteer. “But then your boyfriend came down and found me in that stupid suitcase where you had left me.“ She stood before Veronica, hands on her hips, tamer’s whip in her hand—Veronica could even feel her own hands trying to imitate the stand she had once had. And those eyes. Those hazel eyes Veronica knew belonged to someone else.
Veronica felt the glass shards in her hand now. She wanted to look down at the wetness under her palm, but those hazel eyes were calling her. Eyes that had stared at her so intensely as they rolled down a hill and into a pond and into a relationship. The pain and fear and arousal were nothing compared to the complex concoction of memories that those eyes gave her. What were these tears on her eyes?
“Oh, you recognize me, don’t you, Vero-Vero?” The woman in the tamer’s outfit said.
Veronica stared. Unable to stare away. Unable to scream and curse at the blasted outfit. Unable to… She nodded. Blast it, she nodded, slowly and meekly. Blast it!
“Oh, Vero-Vero, you should’ve seen it! Should’ve heard him moan and twist as I felt his urges to impose his bidding. Well, you’re familiar with that sensation, anyway, so I won’t bore you. That’s why you got me in the first place, wasn’t it?” With a flick of a wrist, the whip cracked in the air. “Oh, to tame others. You, Veronica the Tamer. But you should’ve seen him become me! It was so electric, to feel his body contort, his mind break.” The way she spoke that familiar work shot an electric jolt from between Veronica’s leg to her amygdala and back. “So very different than when you wore me, you know. I was a channel for your desires; but with Jesse he was the channel for something so… different.”
That lyrical laugh made Veronica’s face go red. For the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, she managed to move, to grip the doorframe and pull herself up. Her hand stung like hell, her heart even more so. And yet she couldn’t look away. She was angry at herself; she knew how easy it was to follow the woman’s voice, but to be on the other end… Veronica wanted to rage.
“Oh, but you know Jesse wanted some of that too, didn’t you? But you never let him,” Glass crushed under her heel. “I never expected him to try me on so eagerly; but there it was, the desire deep inside, and you know very well how I latch on to that!” She giggled. “We understood each other instantly and it made me so…” The made a powerful erotic sound that made Veronica shiver. She danced in place, her whip-holding hand going from her groin to the crown of her head in a quick, delicious twist. “Oh, that made it so easy to imprint your dream traits onto him.”
The world twisted for a moment. Veronica blinked, the sting in her hand became acute, the weight of her own body came back to her. She stared at those familiar eyes and managed to blink, eyebrows furrowing. “What? No… you can’t do that.” She shook her head, a bit of envy singing in her voice. “I wasn’t able to do that when I wore you.”
The tamer took another step forward and then another. Veronica began to move away, the reverie gone, the command given fading. She could do this, she could escape; but what about Jesse? The tamer reached for Veronica and she tried to dash away but instead tripped on the carpet. A gloved hand held her by the wrist, stopping her fall. The sensation was thrilling—to feel those familiar gloves on her skin was like standing before a tsunami. Veronica flushed, legs shaking, heavy breaths, drool dripping from her lips.
“Oh, careful,” The tamer sang. “Don’t want to hurt my property.”
Veronica shuddered. It was wrong. In the safety of their relationship, Jesse had been the property, not the other way around. And yet to hide the thrill it gave her would be to debase herself. No, no, no, she shouted in her head, trying to pry her hand away from the woman who took over her love’s body.
The tamer’s smile widened, her grip tightened around Veronica’s wrist. “Oh, no, Vero-Vero, you are not escaping me anymore,” The song began to become deeper, a dark crescendo. “Too long have you left me abandoned—left us to rot under the heel of your selfish fantasies. Too afraid to use me, too selfish to even listen to the whole story Jesse had to tell. But now… oh, now we’ll make sure to bring the obedience out of you.”
Veronica pulled her arm away, only to feel a sharp pain shoot up from her wrist. The tamer twisted her arm around, bringing her down to her knees, facing away from the tall woman.“Arhg!” Veronica shrieked as her shoulder began to ache, her back arching over the twisted limb.
“Oh! Oh yes, little Vero,” The tamer sang a siren’s call. “Scream, for me, please; that’ll make it all the sweeter when I finally tame you!” She quickly placed the length of her whip against Veronica’s throat, pulling her head back as she twisted harder.
Veronica felt her eyes stinging; broken pride hurt nastier than a broken body. If only she had gotten rid of this blasted outfit as she had meant to, if only she hadn’t been so addicted to its gifts… if only she had done so she wouldn’t be experiencing this ridiculous situation. And she wouldn’t be feeling so damned horny. And Jesse… oh, she really hoped she could save him.
“Why…” She whispered, angrier at her own body than the pain the woman was giving her.
“Oh, Vero-Vero,” The tamer sang a lullaby against Veronica’s ear, her warm breath sending a shiver down Veronica’s back. “You know exactly why, you little slut. As you wore me to become me, I wore you to become you; I know everything that was in that little head of yours, even the things you didn’t know about. And wouldn’t you like to know how I’ve put them inside Jesse’s brain.” She giggled and then licked the length of Veronica’s neck.
Veronica moaned hard and then shrieked to make up for it. She was shaking, shaking in so many ways. She heard a cackle and before she knew what was going on her chest bounced against the floor. She was winded for a second but quickly scrambled to her knees and then to standing, barely. She was shaking. She took a step forwards before turning away. She wanted to spit at the… thing that took her Jesse from her, she wanted to scream, to slap it, to use it in a way that would make every single cell of her body sing in desire-
Veronica’s throat made a sound. She couldn’t look away. No, not again. She couldn’t look away; not from those beautiful hazel eyes, from the shine of the high-heels, from the soft caress of those gloves. It was beautiful. Damn it, but it was.
The tamer walked towards the stunned Veronica, slowly, teasingly. She knew how to move, after all, she had been Veronica once. “Oh, don’t lie to yourself, Veronica, you’re enjoying this as much as I am. Perhaps even more so,” The tamer licked her glossy lips, making a lyrical sound that made Veronica’s pussy ring like a cymbal. “Fight it all you like, darling, sooner or later you are going to give in.”
Veronica’s legs were shaking, her sex was screaming for attention. She couldn’t stare away if she had wanted to. The woman was right—of course she’d be, they had been one entity for so long so long ago… but time can change someone in many ways, unexpected. Veronica snivelled, shaking some of the blood off her hand. “I am getting Jesse back.” She said, voice weak, defiant. Veronica knew it was a lie, as much as she knew how wet she was; after all, Jesse knew her so very well, and the outfit knew the recesses of her mind like a conductor controlled an orchestra. She would lose.
But she wouldn’t go down easily.
Veronica spat at the woman’s beautiful heels.
The tamer looked down for a second, her stand tensing. She lifted her gaze, looking into Veronica’s eyes, into her very soul. A whip cracked the air.
“All fours, now.” The song was gone, replaced by something too physical, too spiteful.
Veronica dropped to her knees.