Why You Were Taken

HELLO, PRETTIES ₁₇

Johannesburg, 2021

Fiona jumps out of the communal taxi with a skip in her step. She had ordered lingerie online and the nondescript parcel had been delivered to her at work. It had seemed to burn a hole in her desk drawer the whole afternoon. She hadn’t been this excited to open a package since she won a stationery extravaganza basket a few years ago. At five o’clock she grabbed it and ran to catch a lift home.

She opens the door to her flat and her three cats rush to trip her.

‘Hello, pretties,’ she says, and they meow back at her. She stumbles in, looking for a place to put her parcel down and trying not to step on any of the cats. She forgets to lock the door.

In her bedroom she opens the box and spends time admiring the silk and satin. She can feel the excitement build in her pelvis. A hum, a zing. She strips down in front of her full-length mirror. The sun is setting and the light coming through the window bronzes her body. She touches her nipples. She takes the first set, an ivory satin push-up bra ribbed with black lace, and very small matching panties, and puts them on. In her mind, the bra makes her cleavage look like a swimsuit model’s.

She stands and admires her reflection, moves to see the different angles. She runs her fingers over the softness of the material, over the bra and then over the panties. Her fingers trace her buttocks and the triangle of her front. She feels swollen from the afternoon of anticipation. She touches herself, hesitantly at first, but as she feels the pleasure build she lies down on her bed and lets her hand take over.

Afterwards, she lies in the light of dusk, listening to her pounding heart and enjoying the full body tingle that she had before only associated with sex with Seth. It’s dark when she hears a noise in the front of the house. She grips the bed. It must be one of the cats, she thinks, but hurries to put her dressing gown on. She would investigate, to put her mind at rest. Chide the cats for giving her a heart attack. But then she hears something else, something like slow footsteps, and knows that there is a stranger in her house.