Mistress Persephone was playing with Her slave in Her dungeon, and had just attached the electric clips to his nipples.
“Here we go slave“, She said cheerfully. “This should make you think again before dropping any of my ash onto the floor.” And with that, She turned the dial up to eight and pressed the red button.
The slave shrieked, and jerked hard against his restraints, just as expected. What was unexpected was the way the cry died away almost as soon as it had started, and all the lights went off at the same time, leaving Mistress Persephone and slave in the dark.
After a moment, Her friend Lucy knocked at the door, holding a torch.
“It’s out all over the house”, She said.
The two ladies went over to the window, opened the blinds and gazed out.
“Well, the lights everywhere else seem to be on”, remarked Mistress Persephone. “Seems to be just us. Let’s go and have a look at the electrics”. Lucy led the way with the torch, as the two Ladies left the dungeon to go downstairs.
“We’ll soon sort this out – don’t go away”, Mistress Persephone called distractedly over Her shoulder, to the slave standing in the darkness, strapped firmly to the dungeon cross.
In the utility room, the two Ladies could see that the main circuit-breaker was down in the off position.
“Look – you just need to flick the master switch back up” said Lucy and pushed it up. The lights came on again and there was a brief shriek from upstairs, then once more the room was plunged into darkness.
“Hmmm. It’s turned itself off again. We’ll have to try each of the circuits individually” She flicked each of the smaller switches to off, and then turned the master switch back on.
Then Her finger ran along the line of smaller switches, from left to right, flicking each up in turn.
“Ah – we have light.” She said with satisfaction, as the fourth switch stayed up. “Not upstairs yet”, Mistress Persephone replied, glancing out of the door and up the stairs.
“No, these over here are the upstairs circuits”, said Lucy, and started to flick each of them up in turn.
When She reached the third switch to the right, there was once again a shriek from upstairs, and the switch immediately snapped back down again.
“Won’t stay up.” She said, trying again – with the same result: a howl of pain cut short as the circuit breaker firmly snapped back down.
“Let me try”, said Mistress Persephone, pushing the switch hard with an elegant finger. “Aieee!!” – came the sound from upstairs – but it wouldn’t stay in position for Her either.
“Silly thing”, She said in irritation, flicking it up (“Argh!!!“) and down, up (“Arrghhh – oh please!“) and down, up (“Oooohh!“) and down, up (“Aiiiiee!”)… She could keep the power on by holding the switch up with Her finger (“Aaaagh nono, please!!”), but then it would always switch itself off again the moment Her finger left it.
“Reminds me of that slave who calls himself ‘servitor’”, She remarked. “He can’t keep it up without my help either.”. She pushed the switch up again (“AiEEE!”) and held it in place thoughtfully, as the shrieks faded away into sobbing.
”Be careful, you’ll damage it!” said Lucy.
“Oh don’t worry, they always make that sort of noise.”, Mistress Persephone replied. “Doesn’t seem to do them any lasting harm.”
“No, no – I meant the circuit breaker.”, explained Lucy.
“I suppose you’re right”, Mistress Persephone sighed, and left the switch alone. “I expect it’s the electric box I’d just started to play with. Let me just go and check.”
She went upstairs, back into the dungeon. The slave on the wall was hanging by his wrists, breathing heavily, with his eyes closed, but he opened them in terror as his Mistress entered the room. She went straight over and flicked the switch on the box (the slave flinched, before realising with relief that it was to the off position).
“Try it now!”, She called downstairs.
“Yes, it’s OK now” came the reply. “Do you want to try switching the box back on?”
“Oh no, please no!” gibbered the slave, but Mistress Persephone reached down and switched back on again.
“Aaaaah!” came from the cross and “No, gone off again!” from downstairs. Mistress Persephone sighed, and switched the box off again.
“Please, Mistress”, gasped the slave, “Please don’t, can you not…”
“Oh do be quiet!”, Mistress Persephone replied in irritation, picking up a ball gag from the shelf. “Can’t you see I’m too busy to play just now? We just have to sort this out, then I’ll come back and see about you.”
She gagged the slave tightly. “That’s better. Could hardly hear myself think for all that racket.”
Back downstairs, the two Ladies tried to remember whether they know anyone who might be able to fix the box. “Well, there’s footslave dave“, Lucy reflected. “I think he’s some kind of electrician.”
She went off, and reappeared with the phone to Her ear two minutes later.
“Says he can be here on Thursday morning, some time between ten and two.”
“Give me the phone”, Mistress Persephone replied. “dave? If you’re not round here, with your tools and a bright helpful smile on your face within one hour, you’re spending the weekend chained to the wall with clamps on your nipples, weights on your balls and a red hot chillie up your bum. It’s now…4.43, so the deadline is 5.43.” and She hung up.
“It’s so hard to get decent customer service these days”, She reflected.
“Oh well, he’s not going to be here in time for what’s his face up there, is he? We’ll just have to do something else. And I was just getting into that. How annoying.”
She went back upstairs, and looked at the sweaty slave strapped to the wall, whose staring eyes met hers with mute pleading. She looked down, at Her favourite electric box. “No more electricity today slave”, She said regretfully, and the slave’s breathing slowed noticeably and his head gently rocked forward in relief. “That box is definitely broken.”
“In fact”, Mistress Persephone said, brightening up a bit. “Come to think of it, it only broke when I attached it to your nasty little nipples, didn’t it slave?” The man nodded, doubtfully. “So what does that mean?”
Unsurprisingly, no answer emerged from the ball gag. “It means, slave, it means that you broke my favourite toy. Didn’t you?” And ignoring the frantic shaking of Her slave’s head, Mistress Persephone moved over to Her toybox, happily musing.
“And I think there should be some consequences to that…shouldn‘t there?”