Story - Clouds

Clouds

Marissa cracked her eyes open, squinting to counter the sudden onslaught of light. She groaned and closed them rapidly, rolled to her side, slowly sliding away from sleep with the groggy reluctance of the hung over. She sat up, stretching and held her head for a moment, wondering why everything felt so muddied. So full of clouds.

She squinted again, trying hard to remember. What had she been doing the night before? What could possibly have led to this state of utter confusion?

She shook her head slightly, allowing sharp ringlets of vibrantly colored hair to enter her field of vision. For a moment she stared at it incomprehensibly. Had she ever seen hair that color before? Maybe in some cartoon, but in real life? Could it possibly exist in nature? Why would it be on her head?

She grasped a strand, and tried to straighten it, letting it bounce back. She tried to remember, struggling with incomprehensible effort. she was a brunette. She never dyed her hair. Why would she have dyed her hair? Why would she not remember doing it? She squinted again, struggling. She tried to focus on some hazy memory. It wavered just beyond the reach of her mental straining. She tried harder, desperate to catch the image. She could make out the fuzzy outlines of a figure. A figure in front, dressed dark. Another figure beyond, behind a counter. She suddenly stopped, gasping in exertion. It was to hard. Her head was too filled with clouds.

She shook her head again, for a moment simply enjoying the cascade of colors. It made her calm. She wondered about this for a moment, settling back and breathing deeply. Why would it make her calm? She felt serene, with some echo of disquiet faint and distant. She sat up again, trying to think. She tried to make out shapes from beyond the haze of clouds. Something focused for her, a vague image of some rope leading off into the darkness. She tried to follow it, following to the source of that rope. But all that was there were clouds. She sat back again, basking in the warmth and calm that brought her. She let herself simply drift on those clouds. Slowly an urgent thought penetrated through the haze, overwriting her delirium with its insistence.

She needed to visit the restroom. And she stood up.

She looked down at herself, noticing she was completely naked. She wondered why this had not occurred to her before. She squinted, remembering something. She never slept naked. She always had on her sports bra & panties. She never slept naked. She didn't...

She tried to think harder... She was just thinking that she didn't like to be naked... But that wasn't quite true. Maybe it was... Before... The though rose in the back of her head, followed by a succession of vague questions. Before what? Before when? Before... This? She looked down at her naked body, clutching a vibrant strand of wayward hair. She wasn't always so... Full of clouds.

She tried to grasp the fleeting hazy thought. But it eluded her. She focused on her current puzzle. She liked being naked. She loved ever luscious sensation upon her skin. She rubbed her hands down her body and took a moment, relishing the sensation. She liked being naked. Hadn't she always? How couldn't she? She loved the feel of her naked skin. And she was fully naked...

Not quite. Her eyes noticed a slip of color. She had two ribbons around her wrists. They were blue. She looked down further and noticed two more around her ankles. There were the faint rise of some hidden edge, but the ribbons appeared seamless bands of color around her limbs. She stared at them curiously, trying for a moment to make out the fuzzy shapes in her memory. She had vision, large dark hands around hers, wrapping the ribbon. He was speaking words. These words were important. She could feel it. The most important words of his life. But they eluded her.... Lost in the clouds.

Why was she so flustered? She fanned herself for a moment, marveling at the sudden flush of heat. The rising blood tinted her skin, warming her. She basked in the feeling. Rolling her head back and allowing herself to indulge this sensation. This warmth. She shook her head again, trying to clear the clouds away, and focus on her immediate task.

She stepped through the open door and became distracted.

Her reflection was distracting. She stared at it in open mouth shock. A stranger reflected back her same open mouth shock. She looked younger than she remembered. Her skin wasn't always so porcelain. She blinked, watching the stranger blink the large soot lashes over crystalline eyes. She had another moment of disorientation, remembering her eyes. Her eyes weren't that shade of pale... They were... She tried to remember, but it was only clouds. She gazed at the crystalline eyes in the mirror, framed by dark smudges of murky eyeliner.

She blinked again, watching this strange version of herself blink, then yawn, large luscious lips, Her lips were painted the same vivid shade as her hair. It was garish. She rubbed at them and looked back in shock as the color didn't even smudge. A brief unbidden image shot through her consciousness. A dark stranger with some device. A tattoo gun? Inching closer. She shook away the image, loosing herself willingly in the haze of clouds for a moment before she returned to stare at the naked stranger in the mirror. She rubbed at the makeup under her eyes, but it too was permanently now part of her skin. She tried to remember another time. A time when her reflection was of someone else. Who she was... She stared in incredulous disbelief at this stranger, this beautiful stranger in the mirror. The naked stranger who wasn't entirely naked. Along with the bands at her wrists and ankles, there was one around her neck. With a large round ring in the center.

She felt flushed again. She fanned herself quickly and tried to calm down. How was she getting turned on? By her reflection? By the collar? By what she was? But what was she? Who was she?


She held onto the name Marissa. She held it, and clutched onto it through a wave of hazy clouds. She sat down and clutched her head between her legs. She didn't want to stare at the beautiful stranger, she wanted... An image of a brunette, with large brown eyes. Hazy, and obscured by clouds. But did she want that? What did she want? An image danced at the periphery of her vision. A strap, fading into the darkness. The shadow of someone holding the strap. Someone holding her by a leash. She got lost in a crushing wave of orgasmic bliss.

She was carried away in a haze of clouds.

After a while, she came to. She cleaned herself and stood up, once again lost in her reflection and coming away flustered. She looked down at the bands around her arms and legs. And felt warm and comfortable. She turned around and noticed someone there in the bedroom beyond. A dark blurred figure, holding a leash.

"I was... brunette," she said questioningly.

"Once," the strange man responded grinning. "A long time ago." She thrilled at the sound of his voice. His calm resonating tones chilled her to the core, in a pleasant way. in a calming way. A shudder worked through her body as she listened to the echoes of his voice inside her head.

"I... I..." she struggled to find the words to express her confusion.

"It's okay," he spoke soothingly, still grinning. He had an underlying tone of amusement. "It's almost over."

"Wha?" she moaned slightly. The sound of his voice made her dizzy. It made her want to fall down. Down to her knees.

"I could explain it to you. Again. But you wouldn't remember. You've forgotten before, every time you wake up confused. Some last bit of resistance you're still hanging onto I guess." he shrugged. He radiated this cool calm, a supreme authority. She listened to his words, enraptured. That vague disquiet tried to earn her attention. But it was lost in the overwhelming wave of his voice. She dropped to her knees.

"You don't need to." he smiled at her as she inched closer to him. "Let it go. You won't even remember your name."

"My name is M-Mari-...' she paused, taking extreme act of her full willpower. "Marissa." Her eyes shook wide with the mental strain it took to say that name. For a moment the clouds parted, and she remembered for an instant, her reflection. The image of a self, a self from... before. She she struggled to make out the details, but clouds were beginning to overtake this vision. He was speaking, and his voice brought the clouds.

"Not for much longer." She struggled to say something against this, but he was still speaking, and she listened attentively without the capacity to stop. he was speaking so low, so smooth, she had to devote all her attention to make out these words. These words that were so important to her being. "You always forget. You wanted this. You asked for it."

And she knew it was true. And she was overcome with a moment of pure bliss. Bliss rimmed in clouds. And he was speaking again.

"Listen to me for a second." And she did, with every atom of her being, she listened for what he had to tell her. And when it came, it came with the voice of absolute truth.

"Your head is full of clouds."