Ellen and Meena made their way up the staircase in silence. Meena was seething, a profound frustration coaxed out of her by their nightmarish journey on public transport in the battering heat. Swathes of warm bodied passengers had been pressed into her sides. Meena had been texting Quinn and Will with updates, but got no response, even her calls didn’t go through, which only fuelled her mood. Every shove by a Spanish local, and each bump in the road sent her deeper into quiet fury, and it didn’t help that Ellen had observed her descent into vitriol with bemused interest.
“I told you we should have just got a cab,” Ellen goaded her several times during the hour. Ellen was always trying to get a rise out of someone, but Meena knew better than to react, doing her best to ignore it. It was amusing to her when she watched Ellen teasing others, but unpleasant to be on the receiving end for a change.
Meena huffed a tuft of hair out of her face as she heaved her case up another flight of stairs. Ellen followed loosely behind, airily carting all she needed for the weekend in a backpack. She had emerged unscathed and unaffected by the heat, smiling patiently and absorbing their surroundings with excitement. As they ascended, music came bellowing down the echoey stairway, the peppy remix growing louder as they continued upward. The idea of putting up with noisy neighbors further infuriated Meena, until they arrived at the fifth floor and realised it was actually coming from their own apartment.
“Holy shit!” Ellen yelled as she approached the front door, having to raise her voice over the noise, even from outside.
“Guess that’s why they haven’t been responding…” came the grumble from Meena, panting from the climb, her clothes clinging to her sticky skin. She wiped her brow with her forearm, and only further smeared her mess of melted makeup. She felt disgusting. It had been months since she’d properly seen Quinn. Ever-immaculate Quinn, with her rich family and smarmy perfect husband, and here was Meena turning up in an utter state. She was desperate to get out of her warm clothes and freshen up.
They had used the pin code in the instructions Quinn had emailed them to get into the building, but now they were at the flat door Meena groaned as she saw there was no doorbell. She knocked impatiently, her frustration palpable in her assault on the wood with her fists. No reply came, the music was far too loud. As Meena erupted in an exasperated growl, Ellen tried the handle and found it open. She shot her friend a teasing smirk before pushing it open. Meena couldn’t even feign amusement.
The door was thick and heavy, doing a lot to withhold some of the sound, as it was practically three times the volume once they got inside. It seemed to be coming from the room to their right, but it was loud enough to carry through the rest of the flat. They stepped in, letting the front door swing shut as they looked around. It was so loud, it made their eyes squeeze shut, but thankfully the noise was accompanied by delicious, velvetine cold air. It made Meena feel even more disgusting.
Ellen was smiling, bopping along to the beat as she appraised their surroundings. She dumped her backpack down and decided she approved of their new digs. This Quinn girl seemed a bit uptight and annoying in her messages and email exchanges, but she sure knew how to travel in style! For the meager price they had each paid, this was a total steal, Ellen had stayed in squat grotty hostels for not much less.
Meena watched as her friend swayed to and fro ahead of her, looking on from the hallway as Ellen went on towards the living space. She couldn’t purport to know Ellen all that well, having only met her a few months ago, but she was fun and sure to be great company for a drunken break away. Meena couldn’t wait to see what Quinn made of her, Ellen was practically her antithesis.
Ellen could be brash, but was also wickedly funny, so somehow it worked in her favour, usually playing as witty rather than rude. It certainly helped that she was dazzlingly beautiful. She had a model’s physique, tall and slim enough to fit comfortably into a size eight. Her defining feature was her hair, thick chestnut locks set into tight round curls that bobbed to just below her shoulders. Today her smoky pale blue eyes were accentuated by dark navy eyeshadow and thick black eyelashes that drew the attention from the light smattering of freckles down her narrow face. Her breasts were modest, but perky and flaunted flatteringly by her dress with a deep V neckline. She had funny little eccentricities like her fascination with making her own clothes, combining parts of various outfits she liked. Today’s dress was made of a sheer patterned fabric reminiscent of a peacock feather motif in brilliant colours, with a flourish of white knitted trim along the bottom, where the dress met her upper thighs. It was short on her, so flaunted the full benefit of her long slender legs.
Meena was a little more reserved in her dress sense. Her thick black-rimmed glasses took up much of her small face, with dark bangs hiding the rest. She knew her bookish looks played in her favour, even with the club of male pupils in her class who had contests drawing her in lewd positions. She was strangely flattered when she had found some of the sketches. Some were even coloured in, a crude attempt to capture the coffee brown of her skin. She was of Indian descent, with dark features, a curvaceous build, and long straight dark hair that ran enviously long down her back. Given her shortness, her sizable breasts caught considerable attention, especially from the fathers of her students, who seemed to take every opportunity to oggle her.
“Oh, hi!” Will said, emerging from the spot on the couch where he had been lying out of view. He seemed startled, having been enthralled in his drawing, smudges of ink on his hands and cheeks. Meena noticed his eyes flutter with surprise at her flustered appearance, before his gaze flicked over to Ellen and softened.
“Hey,” she cocked an eyebrow at him, talking unnaturally loud, “Will, right? What you working on there?”
“Just sketching while Quinn is unpacking her stuff.” he mumbled in monotone, Ellen beckoning with her fingers for him to show her. He shrugged, leaning minimally towards her and passing the sketchbook carefully. She snatched it from his hands, flipping through the pages and nodding, mildly impressed. He was actually quite a talented artist, but she did her best to hide her reverence.
“How was the journey?” he droned, slumping back as Ellen sifted through page after page. Someone with more tact might have avoided such a question given Meena’s palpably sour demeanor, and Ellen revelled in the knowledge it would infuriate Meena to no end. Neither of them responded, but Meena’s cheeks flushed in anger and embarrassment, it had been years since she had seen Will and she had forgotten just how ridiculously, painfully good looking he was. Back when she lived with Quinn he would be over all the time: for dinner, to watch TV, join for occasional games nights. It was torturous. The first time seeing him again properly in all these years of intermittent social media exchanges and she looked her absolute worst.
“I’m gonna take a shower real quick,” she stated, capitalising on the fact that Quinn hadn’t seen her yet. A small blessing.
Will pointed at the middle door to her left, “That’s your bathroom, you two can have the connecting bedrooms on either side of it.”
She gave a little nod of recognition, then slunk off inside, kicking her suitcase onto its wheels and dragging it along with her. Once she was in the bathroom, she locked the door behind her, then the doors to the bedroom on either side of the sink at the far end. Finally alone, she released a long drawn out sigh of relief, aggrevation still heavy on her skin. She opened the shower cubicle and jabbed at a button she found built into the wall. The water came blasting out from above, the temperature perfect, cool to the touch but with a hint of warmth. Meena tore off her clothes, tossing each in the broad direction of her suitcase by the door. Her t-shirt, leggings and slip-on shoes fell in a bundle, joined shortly after by her black panties, grey bra, and finally her glasses placed carefully atop. She hopped over the heap to the shower cubicle in the corner, stepping into the generously sized glass chamber and pulling the door closed behind her.
The running water was loud and left a cooling mist that wisped upwards and around her, caressing her skin. She sighed with relief at its touch, spotting the shower gel, shampoo and conditioner units on the wall. Smothering herself in the sweet smelling soap, veins of water rushed down her body leaving black streaks as it carried her melted makeup with it. She lathered her face in bubbles until all the caked-on gunk was gone and she felt fresh and renewed.
* * *
Will noticed Ellen eased even further once Meena was gone, her slim shoulders dropping as she punctuated the moment with a roll of her eyes in his general direction. He smiled, god she was sexy.
“That girl has no chill,” he jested, shaking his head.
“No she does not…” Ellen mumbled, kicking off her shoes and leaving them next to her backpack on the floor. She hopped up onto the back of the couch, swinging her legs over and landing bouncily, still loosely clutching Will’s sketchbook. “This is actually pretty good,” she said flatly, tossing it back over to him nonchalantly so that it landed next to him on the couch. She stretched her bare legs out in front of her, resting her heels on the ground, giving Will a once over. “You’ve got a little…” Ellen said, trailing off as she gestured to her face, rubbing her own cheek until Will caught on. He didn’t seem perturbed by the observation, and unhurriedly cleaned off the smudges on his face with a cursory lick of his fingers and rubbing motion, making it a fair bit worse before it finally faded.
“Thanks.” he mumbled, “So what’s the deal with Meena?”
“Well she insisted on taking the fucking bus because she didn’t want to splash out for a cab.” Ellen complained, her tone was testy but still playful. “We didn’t even have to pay for one! I met these guys on the flight that offered to let us join their cab and drop us off – but she didn’t want to ride with ‘strange men’. I mean, I’ve hitchhiked around Europe plenty of times just fine, but nope, Meena has to do everything the hard way!”
Will gave a knowing nod, recognising a familiar sense of frustration that Quinn would often express in long drawn out rants. Cute little Meena with her roaring temper, she would say, ruled by her emotions. Will could never understand why Meena got so worked up, often over something as insignificant as misplacing her keys or an honest mistake by a coworker.
“Oh and when we tried to call you and couldn’t get through… then she got really pissed.” she finished offhandedly, her eyes bulging to emphasise.
“What?” he asked, slowly retrieving his phone from his pocket. He often missed notifications, but was sure he hadn’t felt it buzz recently. Looking at it now he saw only a blank lock screen, “Oh, there’s no bars in here.”
“Well you could have sorted the damn WiFi by now.” she groaned, peering around and failing to spot the router in any of the likely spots. Will rose lazily to his feet and wandered over to the window, slightly lifting the wooden venetian blinds to press his phone to the glass and see if his signal improved.
What he found puzzled him, “What the fuck?” he muttered, yanking the cord to pull up the blinds revealing not a window, but a pane of frosted glass backlit by some powerful white lamp. Ellen stood to join him in curiosity, their faces bathed his face in a harsh glow. The discovery excited her, a smile colouring her features as she approached with keen interest.
“I’ve seen this trick before” she mused, examining the glass with the pads of her fingers, “It’s an interior design thing for rooms underground, we did something similar for my friend’s basement renovation. It makes it seem like there’s natural light when there isn’t.” she looked over to him for a reaction but he had none beyond bewilderment.
After a while, he nodded slowly to acknowledge the information, “But… why would anyone need to do it in an apartment five stories up?” turning to face her. She shrugged in response, and he was so close to her now that he could fully appreciate her beauty. His confusion quickly gave way to admiration. Her smirk was sexy and catlike, her pale bluish grey eyes piercing, bright and excited, but seemingly disappointed that he lacked the same sense of animated intrigue. Will turned away, and for a while they peered back up at the glass together. Something about this felt significant to Ellen, she broke off, wandering back to her bag to retrieve her phone and test the signal herself. When she reached the spot behind the couch where she had left her backpack and shoes, she was surprised to find nothing there.
“H-have… Did you move my bag?” she asked under her breath, too quiet for him to hear because she knew it wasn’t possible, she had been watching him the whole time. Will hadn’t even noticed her leave his side, still transfixed by the white light, as if trying to decode it. He was uncharacteristically anxious. There was another identical window on the other side of the room by the kitchen, and Will thought it was quite convincing from afar, but now he was paying attention, it was clear that between the thin slits of wood was just brightly-lit glass. He would have been impressed by the feat of design had it not filled him with a hollow dread. It made the space feel smaller, more confined. Suddenly having phone signal felt important.
Ellen gave a sarky wave to get his attention as he stared past her, “Hello?” she whinged, “My bag, have you seen it?”
He was only half paying attention, absentmindedly shaking his head before moving sedately over to the front door. Ellen rolled her eyes, looking back down and forcing herself to confront the obvious: in the little time she had been sitting on the couch and examining the blinds, her belongings had vanished. She drew a breath, preparing to say something to Will but couldn’t find the words. Instead she looked up to find him tugging the handle of the large monolithic front door. He wasn’t frantic, but she could tell that for someone subdued like Will he was fraying at the edges. Even she found a pang of excited panic growing in her belly. They were trapped in here.
***
Meena took a moment to just let the water wash over her, the steam rising and filling her sinuses to calm her irritation. The glass of the cubicle was frosted, but also grew foggy as the temperature of the water steadily rose. It took Meena a while to notice the heat, but she was grateful for it as her body acclimatised. Showers had such a soothing quality. She found herself easing, the tension melting away, carried down the drain with the water. Now it felt like she was on vacation, and she allowed herself to finally get excited about the time off. The travelling bit was always the worst part.
Her meditative clam was disturbed by a chime sound, her attention suddenly drawn to a bright and colourful touchscreen within the cubicle that had come to life with friendly text:
‘We hope you enjoy your stay with us, complimentary soap, toothpaste and ladies razors have been provided’
Meena smiled, peering down to see a sealed pink razor hanging from a hook on the wall. Now that she felt so squeaky clean, it might be nice to freshen up down there. She was on holiday after all, she was intending on hooking up – whether it happened to be with Will or some other handsome stranger. It had been a while, and she felt a craving for delicious ravenous sex. Still, as kind as it was to include such amenities, she preferred to use her own razor tomorrow instead.
With that decision made, Meena pressed the button to shut off the water, pushing blindly towards the door as she wiped water from her eyes. The water didn’t stop, so Meena frowned, turned back and pressed the button again harder. Nothing happened, so instead she pushed at the door to leave but it wouldn’t budge. Her flustered frustration quickly returned. It was hard to see without her glasses, so she peered more closely at the controls. Meena noticed for the first time that it was strangely just a single button, there was no temperature control or markings of any kind. She jabbed at the button a few more times but had no luck, so returned her attention to the door. There was no handle, and shoving the glass had no effect, it was stuck somehow.
Meena stopped, gathered herself a moment, then startled herself by shrieking, “Ellen!” As a teacher she could throw her voice when needed, but over the sound of running water and the blaring music, Meena knew there was a good chance Ellen wouldn’t hear her, and she wasn’t exactly sure she even wanted Ellen coming in. They didn’t really know each other all that well, and it was already quite a leap from work drinks and Sunday brunches, to a weekend break… without her then seeing Meena fully nude. Especially given her suspicions that Ellen seemed to enjoy flirting with both the men and women they encountered while out together. On a few occasions, she had got the sense that Ellen was putting the move on her, awakening an all new curiosity in her that sent shivers up her spine.
She yelled again and again, hyperventilating as the panic began to set in. Even if someone could hear her, the bathroom doors were locked, and she was sealed in this glass chamber with no clear way out. The narrow room felt increasingly constrictive, and with all the steam she could barely see. The gleam of light from the touchscreen cut through, flashing as it chimed again to draw her to it. She checked it, wondering if there were som controls she had missed, but instead saw a message:
‘Please use the ladies razor provided.’
Shock, outrage and fury overtook her in quick succession. She was now actually being commanded to shave. An order. One that hung heavy with implications. It meant someone was watching her, aware that she hadn’t yet done as instructed. The fact she could make out no clear lens did not necessarily preclude the possibility. She was sealed in, forced to comply with this bizarre request. Most of all, she was angry at herself, how could she allow herself to be trapped so easily? Had it really been so easy? It seemed strange now, how in every stay at a hotel, every changing room held with it some element of trust, one she had clearly taken for granted.
***
Will and Ellen’s eyes met across the room, speechless. The giddy holiday excitement had quickly eroded as the truth of their predicament became increasingly apparent. Trapped as they were, Ellen still didn’t understand why. She wasn’t yet aware that both Quinn and Meena were trapped in the other rooms in various states of undress. Ellen was unsure of what was going on, but something about it excited her. She looked over to the kitchen counter where a white folder beckoned to her. In a typical rented apartment it might contain the WiFi password or tips about the area, but as Ellen went and opened it she knew the contents were to be far from ordinary.
Her giggles of surprise caught Will’s attention, calmly joining her in the vague hope that there was some trick to the front door they had to learn, or some reasonable explanation for the apartment having no windows. She stepped aside to let him read the shocking contents of the first page, a list of utterly proposterous house rules. He flipped over to next page, hoping this was some kind of joke, but page after page it only got worse. Ellen stood closely behind him, watching over his shoulder and letting her breath warm his neck. Something about being trapped in here with this tall handsome stranger was really getting her going, and her arousal spiked further at the lewd contents of the pages.
They read in silence, his solemn whilst hers had an air of anticipation. This couldn’t be real. As his shock deepened, so too did her exhilaration, but before they could discuss their discovery the moment was interrupted by yelling from the hallway.
“Will!? Will!? Are you there?” came a woman’s voice, it wasn’t familiar so Ellen quickly presumed it must be Quinn. Will shouted back to her, but was flabbergasted as she came into view, gorgeous and skimpily dressed in a pair of exceedingly sexy white lingerie and a black collar. The relief in her expression dropped when she saw Ellen, stopping dead in her tracks.
This was getting better by the minute, and Ellen felt a familiar wetness brewing, “So you must be Quinn?” said Ellen, lavishing the moment of delicious awkwardness, only exacerbated by the fading volume of the music. Quinn seemed to gulp, bringing her hands inwards, fighting to stop from covering herself, trying her utmost to remain calm and assured, but clearly uncomfortable. Her arms rested limply at her sides.
“Quinn, you need to see thi-” Will started, before Quinn cut him off.
“Where’s Meena?”
***
Meena slammed her palm on the glass, unsure whether her anger or fear were driving her. She was screaming unintelligibly, her eyes frantically searching what little she could see of the room, but none of the colourful blobs she could make out seemed to resemble the yellow of her suitcase. She couldn’t bring herself to follow this outlandish demand to shave, and she was looking for any other means of escape in rising desperation.
Her full attention was brought very suddenly back to the shower as the temperature of the water began to drop, growing quickly cold, then freezing. Meena found herself pressing her body back into the glass, squealing but unable to evade the cold. The water filled the entirety of the space, and the nozzle was firmly fixed to the wall. She was shivering, her small nipples solidifying as she flailed, the touchscreen taunting her with repeated chimes and commands to use the razor.
Her nerves were screaming for relief, and she soon snatched up the razor, clumsily freeing it from its plastic packaging with shaky fingers. The warmth returned the water, the misty clouds from her cold breath slowly dissipating in the heat. The renewed warmth of the water was so relieving that she had to consciously hold onto her anger. Looking from the razor down to her body, she decided to just get it over and done with so she could get out of this glass prison. Gripping the plastic handle tightly in a balled fist, she proceeded to use the razor. Her fury made her careless, twice nearly cutting herself before she paused, collected herself and pressed on more calmly.
She shaved her legs and mons until they were silky smooth, then her underarms. She finished, pausing expectantly but nothing happened except for the water suddenly growing cold yet again. The message on the touchscreen hadn’t changed, and so she concluded her shoddy work had been inspected and found unsatisfactory. She huffed loudly, then ran over her body again with the razor to ensure she was entirely silky smooth, rewarded by warmth, her mood smouldering. Finally, a digital trill from the wall alerted her that it considered her task complete. The message was replaced with a friendly green tick and the water cut off.
Meena threw down the razor, shoving the door with her shoulder but finding that it still didn’t budge. Instead a sudden gust of dry air was propelled downwards from vents in the ceilings and walls. Her long hair went wild with motion, wild brown tendrils flurrying in the air as they gradually dried and fell into messy strands. She cursed, covering her face until the jets ceased, and within seconds she was bone dry. She enjoyed the sensation of being clean, dry, warm and freshly shaven, but the way she had been forced to do it made her furious.
The touch screen seemed satisfied, alerting her that the door was unlocked and hearing a mechanism click to confirm it. She stomped out, slamming the door shut behind her and turning to retrieve her clothes. Immediately, she noticed their absence. Fumbling towards where she had left her suitcase, she found everything had gone except for her glasses. She picked them up from the ground and put them on, now seeing the entirety of the room and realising not only were her possessions gone, there was nothing in the room to preserve her modesty. No gowns, no towels, nothing. All she had done was escape from one naked nightmare to another.
At the end of the narrow room, a glowing light caught her attention. There was a set of drawers built into the sink unit, and the top drawer was lit around the edges. As Meena stared, it began to softly open towards her, presenting its contents. Approaching sheepishly, she peered inside as she neared it, and saw two white objects set on a black satin drawer-liner. The first was a white leather collar of some kind, open and unclasped. The second was in the centre of the drawer, an ornate white key made of thick painted metal, locked underneath a glass covering, the kind that might protect a big red button on a control panel. Meena could see no way to lift it.
This ordeal was getting stranger by the second, this new discovery summoning a ball of terror in her stomach. Before she could decide what to do next, she was startled by the slamming of open palms on the door of the bathroom from the hallway, “Meena?! Meena are you okay?” came Quinn’s voice, heavy with concern. She turned and rushed over, suddenly glad to hear a familiar voice.
“Yeah I’m here, I’m uh-“, She tugged at the door but it wouldn’t budge, and trying to unlock it was fruitless, it was stuck like this. “I can’t get out. My clothes… all my stuff is gone.” she told them weakly, noticing that the music had disappeared at some point, making it easier to communicate.
“Mine too,” said Quinn, and somehow that made Meena feel better and worse all at once.
“My bag is gone,” added Ellen matter-of-factly, Will shooting her a look of surprise and only now considering that his too might be missing, having assumed up to now that Quinn had moved it.
No-one seemed sure what to do, and a heavy silence fell upon them. Quinn’s mind was whirring, hearing the worry in Meena’s tone. She whispered, “Go try the other two doors.” to Will and Ellen, trying to avoid Meena hearing so she wouldn’t freak out further.
Will was accustomed to being ordered around, nodding and slinking into one of the bedrooms, trying not to let his eyes linger on the incredible nakedness of her friend. Quinn shot Ellen an expectant look. She sighed disdainfully at being told what to do, throwing up her arms before retreating into the other bedroom. As both bedroom doors began to swing shut, Quinn suddenly realised her error. She had just separated everyone into different rooms, and wasn’t about to let yet another door close and lock someone inside.
The bedroom doors were beginning to close on either side of her, and in an instant she rushed over to hold Will’s door open. Looking out for him was reflexive, a familiar role. She pressed her side to the door to keep it open, listening to hear the other bedroom door swing shut. Knowing Ellen was now likely trapped inside.
Meena was startled by the turning of handles and tapping of hands from the two other doors. She rushed over, trying one door and then the next, finding that surprisingly the last one unlocked. Whoever was on the other side tugged it open all too eagerly, treated to a full view of Meena entirely naked but for her glasses; while Meena was greeted by the stunned smirk of Ellen.
“Hey you,” said Ellen, holding open the door. Meena said nothing in return, her face blank as she registered that Ellen was still fully dressed, only missing her shoes. A part of her had been hoping that all of them had been duped as she had, and now she felt doubly ashamed. She knew it would be showing on her cheeks.
Ellen stood ogling her naked form unabashedly with hungry eyes, “Hey, she’s in here!” she yelled back to Quinn and Will.
Hearing the news, Quinn’s expression lit up, looking over at Will who stood trying the door handle fruitlessly, shrugging and turning back to Quinn whilst trying to evade eye contact. However uncomfortable she had been before, standing in the bedroom with him whilst she was half-dressed was a lot worse. She glanced off, beckoning him out with a nod of the head.
Quinn knew even before she reached the door that Ellen was locked in with Meena. She confirmed it as she pulled the handle and felt no give. Ellen could see the handle moving to no avail and figured out the rest herself, “Well… this was a great plan wasn’t it.” she sighed, looking around the squalid bedroom, then back to Meena stood sheepishly in place, “Are you coming out or am I coming in?” she asked.