Sallas 2: The Gilded Cage

Chapter Description: Things look to be on the up, but how long can that last? The answer is not very as Anna and Ryan receive an unwanted visitor.

I'm only able to write as much as I do thanks to the amazing support of my readers. Writing is my only income and I appreciate everyone who reads my stories more than you all can imagine. If you enjoy my stories and want to see updates a week before everyone else PLUS read 35+ stories only available on my membership sites please have a look at the links below. All support is very gratefully accepted ❤️

https://reamstories.com/elfy

https://subscribestar.adult/elfy

---

It wasn’t long until the medicine started having an impact again. Anna was delighted to have her friend back again, Jane seemed relieved to have more control over herself as well. As the days passed and nothing was said about what Ryan had done the three of them started to relax a little. Either no one had noticed what he had done, or no one cared.

For Anna it was a lot easier to accept her life in that giant house when Jane was happy and healthy. Thoughts of leaving Sallas by any means necessary quietly disappeared as the little family felt complete. Jane still needed time and work, whilst she was no longer regressed she still needed to have a lot of her conditioning broken and that’s what Anna focused on in the days after the medication started working.

Anna felt guilty but she actually started to like where and how she was living. With Jane getting back to normal everything felt a little bit brighter. She found it easier to forget what Sallas was really like as she enjoyed the amenities of the gated community. It may not have been perfect, but she had it better that ninety-nine per-cent of women in Sallas, maybe the things she lacked in terms of freedoms were also things she could live without. She was sure her past self would be screaming at her if she could see how she was thinking now.

Anna did her best to ignore the gnawing feeling of guilt about her situation. She had quickly become a celebrity, and it was almost impossible to ignore that now. It felt like every third commercial on TV featured Anna and the family, it was awkward every time it came on. The radio was the same and scrolling the ring-fenced Sallas internet was extremely weird. It seemed like every website available had Anna’s face on it.

It was impossible for anyone in the house to know what effect all the propaganda was having on the rest of the population. On the rare occasion Anna was allowed out of the community, heavily supervised of course, she certainly noticed that people recognised her now. Ryan left the community much more often than Anna, but he never talked about his experiences. He didn’t seem to like talking about what he had going on at all.

What Anna couldn’t help but notice was how some of the other women looked at her. Most females in Sallas were brainwashed to a greater or lesser extent but those few that did retain some individuality clearly hated her. The glares she got made her shrink back into herself. She spent a lot of time trying to convince herself she wasn’t a traitor and that she didn’t have a real choice, but it didn’t help her when she saw a fully infantilised woman staring daggers at her.

Anna found herself starting to crave the safety of the gated community. When she had first arrived, she had wanted to do all she could to get out as often as possible, now she tried to find excuses to stay in. She tried to tell herself it was because she was worried people would discover the truth about Jane, but it didn’t work. She knew the real reason was a lot more selfish.

It was a Thursday morning when everything changed. They had all still been asleep, the sun had barely risen above the houses, when there was a loud banging at the front door. Ryan sat bolt upright, and Anna instinctively reached out for him.

“Who is it?” Anna whispered as if she might be overheard.

“I don’t know.” Ryan replied warily.

There was more insistent banging on the door. Anna held the cover closer to her. Ryan slipped out of the bed and quickly put on some pants and a shirt. Anna had been wearing a cream-coloured shirt and a denim skirtall the previous day and she quickly threw those back on as she made her way out of the bedroom. Her diaper crinkled loudly in the quiet house.

“What’s going on?” Jane’s voice came from her nursery as Anna walked past.

Anna stopped and looked in. Jane was sitting on the edge of her crib. Although she was no longer regressed as long as they had medicine she still slept in the crib as they didn’t have another option, at least they could leave the side down for her.

“I don’t know.” Anna said, “We should probably lift this up just in case.”

Jane scooted back on her mattress as the side of the crib was lifted. As an automatic reaction Anna reached out her hand and checked her friend discovering she was soaked. When she realised what she had done she pulled her hand away and looked at her apologetically before heading back out to the landing.

By the time Anna reached the top of the stairs Ryan was at the bottom. She carefully leaned around the edge to watch what was about to happen. Just as Ryan reached the door there was another hammering that seemed to almost break the door off its hinges.

“Hold on!” Ryan yelled as he walked across the foyer.

Anna watched as Ryan opened the door. She could see over his shoulder. It was Mr. Sawyer, and he was flanked with several armed guards. After a stand-off of a couple of seconds Ryan moved aside and let Mr. Sawyer in.

“This is a surprise.” Ryan said as he watched the guards walk in. They took up positions in front of the doorways around the foyer essentially surrounding Ryan.

“Mr. Manning, I’m sorry to impose on you so early in the morning. We have some rather pressing business to attend to.” Mr. Sawyer said.

“I didn’t think we had anything planned for a couple of weeks.” Ryan frowned.

“Oh, I don’t mean the marketing stuff.” Mr. Sawyer waved a dismissive hand, “No, we have other business.”

Anna felt uneasy. She didn’t like the deliberate vagueness of Mr. Sawyer. She could see Ryan was nervous as well. He seemed to be trying to act cool, but Anna recognised his anxiety for what it was. Nothing good ever came out of a surprise visit from Mr. Sawyer.

“Other business?” Ryan repeated.

“Yes, Mr. manning, other business.” Mr. Sawyer stopped and turned to one of the guards who pulled a folded paper out of his pocket, “Perhaps you’d like to take a look at this and tell me what it says.”

Anna watched Ryan take the paper and even from the top of the stairs she could see his face drain of colour. Ryan must’ve known what was on the paper to have that reaction and yet he still spent the next minute staring at it. Indeed, it was only when Mr. Sawyer pulled the paper away that Ryan looked up.

“Do you remember filling that form out?” Mr. Sawyer asked as he started pacing slowly in front of Ryan.

“I…” Ryan started hesitantly.

“Do you remember making the alterations?” Mr. Sawyer interrupted.

“Well, I ju-…” Ryan looked terrified.

“I was wondering…” Mr. Sawyer stopped his pacing mere inches from Ryan’s face, “Why you decided to make the decision to reduce the sentence of a known terrorist?”

Anna had already suspected the paper was to do with the task given to them by the Rose Resistance but now she knew for certain. Her heart was hammering. She had no idea what to do, there was no way she could help Ryan who was now looking down at the floor. There was no way for her to escape the house either, she was at the top of the only staircase.

“It… It must’ve been a mistake, sir.” Ryan stuttered, “I’m new to the job and…”

“Ah, yes, I see.” Mr. Sawyer nodded his head in understanding. He raised one of his hands and placed it on Ryan’s shoulder in a friendly way, “You are new. There’s a lot of things to learn. Mistakes happen, hmm?”

Ryan smiled weakly as he nodded his head. He still didn’t dare look up from the ground. Anna thought he looked like a puppy being scolded, it seemed her husband was one step away from rolling on to his back with his belly up. She couldn’t exactly blame him though. That kind of subservience was the cornerstone of Sallas, the hierarchy was always to be respected. Men were expected to respect their superiors just as the women were.

“It’s just a little odd.” Mr. Sawyer continued, “I looked through all of the forms that have come through your office and this is the ONLY one with a mistake. Now, I’m not a big believer in coincidences, Mr. Manning, but it is certainly strange that the one you made a mistake on was the one related to a known terrorist from a known subversive group, don’t you think?”

Ryan didn’t say anything. Anna silently begged him to fight back in the same way she would. She tried to communicate telepathically that Ryan had to fight his corner, look shocked and appalled at the accusation and show some backbone. That isn’t what happened though. Instead, Ryan remained silent and in his submissive pose. It was like he had already given up.

“Nothing to say?” Mr. Sawyer asked after several tense seconds of silence, “That’s OK, I understand.”

Mr. Sawyer rubbed Ryan’s shoulder for a few seconds before pulling his hand away. He turned his back on Anna’s husband and walked a few paces towards one of the guards. Almost imperceptibly he nodded his head. The reaction from the men circling the room was instant. They charged forwards and roughly tackled Ryan to the floor where he finally and belatedly started to struggle. Anna couldn’t help herself; she let out a scream of rage as she started running down the stairs as fast as the wet padding between her legs would allow her to go.

“Grab the girl!” Mr. Sawyer called out over the chaos that had broken out.

Anna leapt at the guards from several steps up and crashed into them knocking one over. She aimed a punch at the nearest man she could find but she missed and spun around from her momentum. Arms wrapped around her torso, and she was brought crashing down on to her front. As she screamed and struggled, she felt handcuffs being put around her wrists.

“Don’t hurt her!” Ryan’s voice came from somewhere in the crowded foyer that Anna couldn’t see.

“Your devotion to your wife is touching.” Mr. Sawyer replied with clear amusement in his voice, “If only you showed the same passion for your country. If you did, we wouldn’t have to be doing all this.”

As the struggle continued Anna’s head was turned sideways and she felt someone placing a knee in her upper back and neck preventing her from moving. As she opened her eyes, she saw Jane standing at the top of the stairs looking terrified. After just a second, she turned and ran away back across the landing.

“Get them in the van.” Mr. Sawyer ordered once Ryan and Anna were both restrained at both their wrists and their ankles.

“Let Anna go!” Ryan exclaimed, “She had nothing to do with this!”

“Oh, I doubt that.” Mr. Sawyer chuckled, “You don’t the balls to do something like this by yourself. We know who gives the orders in this relationship.”

Anna and Ryan were roughly picked up and carried out of the front door. She was swearing bloody vengeance at Mr. Sawyer who directed a couple of the other guards to fetch Jane. The last thing Anna saw before the front door closed were the two guards heading upstairs. She was worried about what they would find. Jane was up there, of course, but so was the phone and the medication. Smoking guns of Anna and Ryan’s guilt.

Guilt didn’t seem to be something in doubt though. The married couple were manhandled towards a black van with blacked out windows. The rear doors were opened, and Anna was forced inside behind Ryan. The cuffs that restricted their movement were affixed to the sides of the vehicle forcing the couple to sit on two uncomfortable wooden benches opposite each other.

The doors to the rear of the van were slammed closed leaving Anna and Ryan alone and afraid. A couple of tense minutes passed before the engine started and the van started to vibrate. The bound couple nearly fell off the seats, only the restraints digging into them keeping them upright, as the van pulled away from the curb.

“Shit… shit… shit…” Ryan muttered repeatedly.

Anna felt a rising panic that she did her best to swallow down. She looked across at Ryan who seemed to be stuck in shock. She pulled at the restraints holding her in place, but they didn’t budge at all. She was well and truly stuck.

“What are we going to do?” Anna asked Ryan urgently.

“What can we do?” Ryan mumbled, “We’re fucked.”

“There must be some way out of this.” Anna shook her head. The reality that they had screwed up and lost everything was just too big to properly digest.

“Why did I do it?” Ryan asked himself. He banged his head on the metal side of the van and looked up to the roof.

The car stopped for a second and Anna assumed it must’ve been leaving the gated compound. It was soon on its way again and barrelling towards God knew where. There were no windows or anything to give an idea of where they were going and Anna had soon lost track of all the turns they had made. She was having a harder time not sliding around on the bench, her diaper proving to be slippery compared to Ryan’s regular clothes.

“Everything is going to be alright.” Anna said rather hopefully after a long period of silent despair.

“Are you insane?” Ryan asked as he stared at his wife, “Are you actually crazy? You know where they are taking us, don’t you?”

Anna shivered. She had a good idea where they were being taken but saying it out loud was too terrifying to think about. It had happened so quickly, she had been sure that no one had noticed Ryan’s change and just when she thought they were safe the bottom had fallen out. Her diaper warmed around her without much conscious effort on her part.

“We’re screwed.” Ryan said sadly, “Completely screwed.”

Anna wished she could say her husband was being overly dramatic, but he wasn’t. If they were being carted off to Finishing School, and she had no reason to believe they weren’t, then that was it. They had lost.

The car sped down roads and bounced over bumps. Anna kept her head down as she tried not to let the despair overwhelm her in the way it clearly was taking Ryan. Her whole life had been about getting out of Sallas, about avoiding exactly what was now happening. She kicked herself for being lulled into a false sense of security in that large house.

The couple remained silent, each lost in deep thoughts about their situation, as the van continued. There was no way to tell how far they had travelled when the vehicle started to slow down. They stopped and Anna heard muffled voices outside the van. After a few seconds they continued forwards at a much slower pace. Anna couldn’t see where they were, but she assumed they had just entered the grounds of the Finishing School.

Finally, the van came to a stop. Doors were opened and slammed as the engine was turned off. Anna felt the butterflies in her stomach taking flight as she scooted away from the only exit. Ryan still had his head bowed. He hadn’t said anything in quite some time.

When the doors at the back of the vehicle opened Anna was blinded by bright lights. She felt the weight of the van shift as people climbed in and a second later, they had hooked her under each arm and were dragging her out. Another couple of guards were doing the same to Ryan.

“Get off me!” Anna screamed as she tried to twist away from their grasp unsuccessfully.

Once out of the van Anna could see they were in some sort of indoor garage. There were no markings on the walls to let her know exactly where she was. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, though judging from how she was made to kneel on the ground next to Ryan with Mr. Sawyer towering over them she felt pretty safe to say she wasn’t in a good spot.

“Welcome to your new home.” Mr. Sawyer said as he spread his arms, “It’s a shame it has come to this.”

--- 

If you want to see what happens next RIGHT NOW you can do so at one of the following links. Thank you, and all support is very gratefully received:

https://reamstories.com/page/lpjgftb4y2/story/mf967rdsf7db10/chapter/ml3p10u335e95419

https://subscribestar.adult/posts/2316792