Seductive Nightmare

The Tension and the Spark

Mandi was blown away by how vast Enmu's subterranean home was as he showed her around. She was curious as to why so many of the rooms had been partially decorated or even empty. When she inquired to Enmu about the sparsely finished rooms, he laughed and said he didn't have any idea what he wanted to do with them yet. "His home isn't just a house; it's a freaking maze!"

She stopped counting after he showed her a fifteenth room. She couldn't imagine how he could have built this place, especially with it being all underground. She'd seen a movie one time called Cube where the people in the movie tried to escape out of a fourth dimensional object, a tesseract. After seeing so many rooms, she wondered if she wasn't really in a hypercube. With most of the rooms, there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. Many that he had given her a tour of contained bizarre, sexual sculptures and paintings in them, something like Salvador Dali or Picasso would create. They were standing in one room that had a red theme, and it was filled with red leather gothic furniture and black accents.

She stood next to a pedestal that had a bust of a man upon it in bronze. There was a very large life-like painting of a woman adorning one of the walls. She was naked, curled into a ball, and had numerous hooks piercing her flesh. Her raven hair was laid out in a silken wave before her, her chin tucked down obscuring her mouth. Mandi cleared her throat. This wasn't the first proactive art she had encountered in Enmu's home. Much of the art was very surreal and dream-like, but some of it looked as if it was certainly done from life. She looked back at the bust wondering who it was.

"Ah, that's Marquis de Sade," Enmu answered without her needing to ask.

"Who is he?"

"Oh, no one special. He's one of my idols, though! I love his philosophy."

"Which is?" Mandi raised one eyebrow at the bust then to Enmu.

"Nothing special. Another topic for another time."

"Why so evasive?"

"Because there is much more to see," he offered her a warm smile.

"Okay. Then what about all of this artwork? The various sculptures I've seen. Did you paint this girl being tortured?"

"It's called "Discipline", and yes, I did," he looked at her curiously.

"Well, I have to say, it's amazing if not a little alarming. Was it done from life?"

"No," he replied a little too quickly. The girl who modeled for him had been Nadine, and she was easily persuaded to do what he wished on the promise of beautiful dreams. He granted her her dream by draining her of life. She had even smiled wantonly as he inserted the hooks into her. He wet his lips, recalling how sweet and sultry she had tasted.

"I've seen nude photos of women though on your tour as well. Are you into photography, too?" she glanced back at the painting of the pincushion woman.

"Why, as a matter of fact, I am. I have a darkroom in my laboratory."

"Can you show me?"

"That's the one room that is off limits, Mandi." Enmu shook his head. "It's basically my private study, so no I can't show it to you, unfortunately."

"I understand. It's where you keep the other locked up girls," she said with a smile.

"What?" he replied hesitantly. He calmed himself immediately. "She's only joking with you. Be nonchalant." "When I'm ready to tie you up, that's where I'll take you."

"Haha, you're such a card!" she poked her tongue out at him. Oh, the things he'd like to do with that pink tongue of hers.

"Shall we move on?" he asked, indicating the door. Mandi nodded, wanting to be free of the Red Room of Pain.