- 2 days ago
Part one
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00I didn't take a lover. I became addicted to a filthy phone call that came in every night at midnight.
00:06Wait, the man with that depraved voice, was that my own stepson?
00:10I'd tear that fussy gown off you, pin you against the wall, make you beg me.
00:15Be quiet, you madman.
00:18I hissed it through my teeth, my fingers dug into the receiver.
00:22I didn't hang up. I couldn't bring myself to hang up.
00:25Listening to him describe what he'd do to me, my legs gave out.
00:28I leaned against the cold wall of the corridor.
00:31A strange heat shot from my belly to between my thighs.
00:34The fabric beneath my skirt was already soaked through.
00:37My husband, the old Earl, had been in London at Parliament for three months.
00:41He was fifty. I was thirty.
00:42The age when a woman wants nothing more than to be hurt and filled.
00:46This dried-out body of mine was driving me mad.
00:49Knees giving out, Countess?
00:51That low, dangerous laugh. Pure provocation.
00:54I clamped a hand over my mouth, tried to swallow back the shameful sound rising in my throat.
01:00My body slid down the wall instead.
01:03Trembling between hunger and shame, I couldn't stop.
01:06Four times this week, every night at midnight, that depraved call came in like clockwork.
01:11At first, it was terror.
01:13Outrage.
01:14An unforgivable violation.
01:16But I told no one.
01:18And worse, I didn't pull the cord from the wall.
01:20By midnight, I was waiting for the bell.
01:23The Earl had been gone three months.
01:25The hollow ache in my body had grown unbearable.
01:28Before he left, every night he'd sat in the leather chair in the master bedroom.
01:32One tap of his cane on the floor.
01:34And I was to strip every layer of silk in front of him.
01:37He'd pull on his black leather gloves.
01:40The leather creaked as it stretched.
01:42Those gloved hands would knead me with terrible force.
01:45No consideration at all.
01:47Until I'd torn the sheets to shreds.
01:50Staring at him, almost begging for the final thrust.
01:53Then he'd stop.
01:54He'd peel the gloves off.
01:56Slow.
01:57Drop them on the vanity.
01:58He never entered me.
02:00Not once.
02:01He'd turn and walk out.
02:02Close the door hard behind him.
02:04I'd lie naked on the bed.
02:06Listening to his boots retreat down the corridor.
02:08My legs unable to close.
02:09And then this man on the telephone.
02:12His damp, ragged breathing.
02:14His filthy fantasies of tearing my clothes apart.
02:17Words I had never heard.
02:19A seduction from another world entirely.
02:22A world without these cold, mildewed rooms.
02:25Without the endless rain and the endless waiting.
02:28A world that offered only immediate, scalding satisfaction.
02:31It was a barbed hook.
02:33Sunk precisely into the softest, most starving part of me.
02:37He knew, exactly, how to draw out a noblewoman left alone too long.
02:45Listen, my countess.
02:48You're so desperate right now.
02:51Aren't you?
02:53Go to your bedroom.
02:54I left you a gift.
02:56Go up.
02:58Enjoy it.
02:59That low, damp voice.
03:01As if pressed right against my ear.
03:03Click.
03:04The line went dead.
03:05I dragged my unsteady legs back to the bedroom.
03:09Bolted the door.
03:10On the vanity, a black velvet box.
03:12No card.
03:13I went rigid.
03:15I scanned the room.
03:16The dark drapes.
03:18The wardrobe.
03:19The shadow under the bed.
03:20The room was silent.
03:22Empty.
03:23I unwrapped it with shaking hands.
03:25Inside, a piece of oriental white porcelain.
03:28Shaped like a dolphin.
03:29But the curve of it was wrong.
03:32Too thick.
03:33Too rounded.
03:34Tilted at the tip in a way that suggested something obscene.
03:38Something made me reach for it.
03:39My hand closed around it.
03:41The porcelain was cold.
03:43My palm was scalding.
03:44I traced my fingertip up that smooth edge.
03:47The cold hardness against the heat of my skin.
03:50I lifted my head to the mirror.
03:52The woman looking back at me had a face flushed crimson.
03:55Her chest was heaving.
03:57She was breathing hard.
03:58In great open mouthfuls.
04:00A sleepless night.
04:02Julian came back at first light.
04:04The old Earl's legitimate heir.
04:07Twenty-two years old.
04:08In a pressed, dark suit.
04:10He stood in the center of the great hall like a flawless English gentleman.
04:15But as he stepped closer, that young man's heir.
04:17Aggressive.
04:18Predatory.
04:19It closed in on me.
04:21He stopped.
04:22Bowed his head.
04:23His large hand caught my wrist.
04:26Lifted the back of my hand to his lips.
04:28His mouth brushed the cold of my skin.
04:31Hot.
04:32Frightening.
04:32Every bit of heat I had only just suppressed surged back.
04:36He didn't release me.
04:37He slowly raised his head.
04:39There was no respect in his eyes.
04:42None of the deference owed to one's stepmother.
04:44His gaze slid from my face down to my chest.
04:47Without restraint.
04:49Like a pair of rough hands.
04:50They tore my fussy gown to ribbons in an instant.
04:54Stripped my wanton body bare beneath.
04:56As though he could see exactly how I'd held that porcelain dolphin last night.
05:01Exactly how I'd breathed.
05:02I sucked in a sharp breath.
05:04Pulled my hand back hard.
05:06I straightened my spine.
05:08Held myself in the bearing of a countess.
05:10Tried to warn him off with cold posture alone.
05:13I didn't dare open my mouth.
05:15A fine layer of sweat was already breaking out down my back.
05:19Beneath the heavy silk, I pressed my thighs together.
05:22Doing everything I could to hide that one look from him had already made me tremble.
05:29Five consecutive nights.
05:31The telephone in the corridor rang at midnight without fail.
05:34Each time I lifted the receiver, only that cheap tavern tune, and his aggressive, panting breath.
05:41I gripped the receiver, said nothing, did not hang up.
05:44I listened to him describe the most depraved fantasies he had of me, in the foulest words.
05:50By day, the estate became another, more dangerous cage.
05:55Julian was always there, in the narrow corridors, at the bend of the stairs.
06:00Always too close, whenever I wasn't expecting him.
06:04He never gave way.
06:05As we passed, his broad shoulder would brush my arm.
06:09Even through the heavy silk of my gown, his young man's body heat was startling.
06:14He turned his head, just slightly.
06:16Pressed his mouth near my ear.
06:18Murmured one word,
06:20Mother.
06:21His voice low, damp, almost wet.
06:24The same tone as the man on the telephone.
06:26The one who said he'd pin me to the wall.
06:29I froze in place.
06:30My fingers clenched the hem of my gown.
06:32Crushed the costly fabric in my fist.
06:34I didn't dare turn around.
06:36I just walked away in my heels, half-fled.
06:40My defenses were being shredded layer by layer.
06:43By day, I was terrified of this perfect, suited stepson.
06:47By midnight, I stood like a madwoman in the cold corridor,
06:51staring at that black telephone, desperate for it to ring.
06:55Luncheon.
06:55A long table covered in snow-white linen.
06:58The cold ring of silver against porcelain.
07:01Three servants stood at the wall like wooden posts.
07:14And that's what I was Probst.
07:15My ведez a vacuum in which I had these young people don't shoot you.
07:16Though theashroom, how do I transparency and how do Iering CM on?
07:17And it's okay.
07:17I'm aware of the首 of the caller is Throughout Cam.
07:18You're right, After Cameroon.
07:26And at PBS, I'm aware of what happens if there's a habit here.
07:27We're one of the teachers before you get to be the work.
07:27There was also on myæ”»'ve mobile system.
07:32Everything down below me and there's been an excess capacity of mobile system.
07:49On my flushed, choking face, on my ruined breathing, then the corner of his mouth lifted into a small, cruel
07:58smile.
07:58What did he know? Or was it suggestion? Rain outside. Heavy. It hammered the glass. I could not sleep. I
08:07went to the door. Turned the key. Click. I bolted myself inside. I stripped off the heavy, restrictive gown. Layer
08:15by layer, I peeled away every piece of fabric that stood for propriety. I struck a match. Lit a single
08:22candle on the vanity. In the dim light, I opened the black velvet box.
08:26I took out the oriental porcelain, the shape of a dolphin. Full, rounded, tilted at the tip. Its surface was
08:34cold. My fingers gripped it until the knuckles went white. I carried it to the edge of the bed, sat
08:40down. The only sound was the rain. My legs wouldn't stop trembling. I pressed my knees together. My stockings whispered
08:48against each other. I couldn't stop.
08:50They rub. They satisfy themselves with abandon.
08:54Julian's words at lunch, ringing in my ears with terrible clarity. A countess's dignity. A countess's morality. Both shattered on
09:03this rain-swept night.
09:05I stopped fighting. I closed my eyes. Tilted my head back. Drew long, open-mouthed breaths.
09:12I gripped that cold, depraved porcelain. And slowly, slowly, lay back across the tangled sheet.
09:23I lay on the disordered sheet. Eyes closed. The weak candlelight flickered against my eyelids. I held the porcelain dolphin.
09:30Slowly slid it downward. Cold, hard, absolutely smooth. It traced down my skin all the way.
09:36I tucked my chin. Bit down on my lower lip. The upward curve of the porcelain found, precisely, the place
09:41that needed it most.
09:42I clutched the silk sheet on the other hand. White knuckles. I began to move it along that curve. Once
09:47again, festive, short, broken breaths. Sweat slid down the sheet.
09:51Onto the cold porcelain. The sheet was twisted out of shape. My thighs shook inside their legs. My knees knocked
09:57together.
09:58They rub. They satisfy themselves.
10:00I couldn't control it. A choked breath tore out of my throat. In that rain-soaked room, the sound was
10:06deafening.
10:07I had thrown away every shred of dignity, panting like an animal over a piece of porcelain. Unable to stop.
10:13Just as I was about to come apart entirely. Click. The smallest turn of metal. The spare key turned in
10:18the door. The door pushed open.
10:20Light from the corridor flooded in. Julie's still in his daytime suit, standing in the doorway. His eyes cold, deliberate,
10:26fell on me.
10:32Get out!
10:33Julian took in the disordered sheet. The piece of porcelain still in my hand.
10:37My breath stopped. I grabbed at the silk coverlet in a panic. Pulled it up to cover myself.
10:41I tried for the bearing of a countess. My voice broke. He didn't move.
10:45Then he turned and locked the door behind him. Click. Piercing in the dead room.
10:48He walked to the bed, one step at a time. His tall shadow closed over me.
10:52He leaned down. Hands braced on either side of me.
10:55His hot, young man's breath struck my collarbone.
10:58Then he parted his lips. Hummed very low a few rough notes.
11:01The cheap tavern gramophone too. The one from the telephone.
11:04My eyes went wide. No sound came out of my throat.
11:07He reached out. Through the thin silk coverlet precisely he closed his hand over the porcelain in mine.
11:12Closed his hand around my hand.
11:13He tore the silk coverlet aside.
11:15My body was bare to the cold air.
11:17His other hand braced beside my head.
11:19His tall body pressed down.
11:20He gripped my hand.
11:22Forced me to hold the porcelain.
11:23Guided my hand downward.
11:24Pressed. The full, tilted tip of the dolphin pushed up into me.
11:28It appears the piece I collected myself suits mother's tastes very well.
11:37He began to move my hand.
11:39Once again, brutal, I tried to close my legs.
11:42He drove them apart with his knee.
11:44The cold porcelain pressed and rubbed without mercy.
11:48Sweat ran from my forehead.
11:49I clenched my teeth.
11:51My other hand pushed the silk into deep folds.
11:54His wrist jerked.
11:55That cold, hard thing broke past the last defense.
11:58Pushed deep into the burning heat of it.
12:01I could no longer hold my lip between my teeth.
12:03He drove my hand inside me with savage force.
12:06The shock of cold and burning heat together.
12:09My thighs convulsed.
12:10I threw my head back.
12:12My neck strained.
12:13My body shook to its limit.
12:15I came apart in his hand.
12:16Slowly, he drew my hand out.
12:18He lifted the porcelain in front of my face.
12:20From the rounded tip, a long, glistening thread of moisture trailed in the candle.
12:25It trembled.
12:26He stared at that thread.
12:27The scalding breath struck my face.
12:29The corner of his mouth pulled up in a cruel smile.
12:32Flatter.
12:33The porcelain fell to the contact.
12:35In the quiet room, the bright snap of a metal belt buckle being undone.
12:38Look at yourself, mother.
12:40You really are just like those dolphins.
12:43Utterly wanting.
12:47The hardness and heat of a young man instantly replacing that cold porcelain pressed against
12:52me, but he did not enter.
12:53He only dragged himself along the burning heat between my thighs.
12:56Cruel.
12:57Slow.
12:58The hollow ache, after the friction of the porcelain, was unbearable.
13:02He stared at me with raw violence in his eyes.
13:04His sweat dripped on my collarbone.
13:06He was waiting for me to give up the last of my dignity.
13:09I clenched my teeth.
13:10What reason I had left forced me to shrink back.
13:12My hands pushed at his hard chest.
13:15My fingertips were shaking.
13:16I begging him to stop.
13:18He stared at my flushed face.
13:19The corner of his mouth pulled into a wicked smile.
13:26He stopped abruptly.
13:27Pulled back an inch.
13:28The pressure vanished.
13:29Cold air rushed in.
13:30My legs were ruined.
13:32I couldn't help it.
13:33My back arched forward.
13:34My thighs wrapped around his waist.
13:36Like a mad woman, I pressed myself against him.
13:38A small, humiliating whimper rose from my throat.
13:41He looked at my thighs locked around his waist.
13:44The malice in his eyes ignited fully.
13:46Every night you stand in that corridor and answer the telephone, mother.
13:49Is this what you've been imagining?
13:50Until you went mad?
13:52His voice dropped lower.
13:54Mocking.
13:55Naked.
13:55I bit my lip.
13:56I had no answer.
13:57He drove down onto me again.
13:59Still not crossing the last line.
14:01He used that hardness only to slide brutally savage.
14:04Fast against the burning heat of me.
14:06The full weight of him.
14:07The frequency of it.
14:08It destroyed what reason I had left.
14:10I threw my head back.
14:11The line of my throat strained tight.
14:13The heavy oak bed began to rock.
14:14The legs slammed against the floor.
14:16A terrible pounding.
14:23I tried to push him off.
14:25My hands locked around his back instead.
14:27My nails sank into the firm flesh.
14:29Cut bright streaks of blood.
14:30The silk sheets snagged in my grip.
14:32He went on.
14:33Fast.
14:34Without consideration.
14:35Heavy drops of his sweat fell on my collarbone and mixed with mine.
14:38Open your eyes.
14:39Horse.
14:40Commanding.
14:41His fingers caught my chin.
14:42Forced my face up.
14:43I opened my eyes.
14:45Shaking.
14:45The mask of the perfect gentleman was gone.
14:48The veins at his temple stood up.
14:49His throat moved.
14:50His eyes were dark.
14:51The lofty young air was because of my 30 year old body drowning in his own pleasure.
14:56Watching him this undone because of me set off something I couldn't name.
14:59The burning heat between my thighs spilled out more wetness.
15:02Where we met was a ruin.
15:03What was left of my reason snapped.
15:10He went savage.
15:12Harder.
15:13Then harder.
15:13I threw my head back.
15:14My nails tore into his body.
15:16My body convulsed under one savage thrust.
15:19I came apart beneath him.
15:20In the same instant his arm tightened around my waist.
15:23His body bowed taut as a drawn string.
15:25A muffled, broken sound.
15:27Scalding wetness a young man spilled across my belly and the inside of my thighs.
15:31The heavy oak bed at last stopped striking the floor.
15:34I lay collapsed on the wrecked silk sheet.
15:37Drawing huge open breaths.
15:38Trembling everywhere.
15:39The hot wetness slid down my skin.
15:41The shame of being used like a thing to be ground against used and released fell over me.
15:46My eyes burned.
15:47But the real deep pleasure he had drawn out of me was so undeniable that my heart, in this despair,
15:52kept pounding wildly.
15:57Then he stood up straight.
15:59He didn't look at me.
16:00Did up his belt.
16:01He walked to the door without a word.
16:03Click.
16:03The door opened.
16:04Shut hard.
16:05The corridor light disappeared.
16:07The room fell dead silent again.
16:09I lay on the ruined sheet.
16:10Drawing black.
16:11The wetness on my skin was going cold.
16:13He had thrown me away.
16:14Like a thing he had used.
16:15Pressed against on the bed.
16:17Rubbed against until he was satisfied.
16:19Then discarded.
16:20The humiliation rose.
16:21I clenched my teeth.
16:23My nails dug into my palm.
16:24Tears mixed with sweat fell on the pillow.
16:27The days that followed, he was worse.
16:28Whenever no one was watching, he closed the distance.
16:31At the bend of the afternoon corridor.
16:33In the airless glass house.
16:35In the dust-laden attic.
16:41He'd step across the space.
16:42Catch my wrist.
16:44Press me against the rough wall.
16:45His body would come down.
16:47His knee would shove between my legs.
16:48Through the heavy gown.
16:50That hardness pressed against me.
16:51He'd breathe at my feet.
16:53His thighs would start their work.
16:55Once.
16:55Again.
16:56A frequency that didn't stop.
16:57I bit down on my lower lip.
16:59My nails clawed into the wall.
17:00Sweat fell from my forehead.
17:02One of his hands gripped my waist.
17:04The other pushed up under my skirt.
17:05His fingers through the silk stockings worked the burning heat between my thighs.
17:09Open your legs.
17:10Let me end.
17:11Very well.
17:12A command.
17:13I was shaking.
17:14The wetness had soaked into the fabric.
17:16I wanted his weight inside me.
17:17To fill the hollow weight.
17:19But I clenched my teeth.
17:20Grabbed my skirt.
17:21Forced my knees tight.
17:22Held the last line.
17:23I would not yield.
17:25He stared at me with that ugly look.
17:27Then a small, cold laugh.
17:29He pulled his hand back.
17:30The pressure was gone.
17:31He smoothed his privet.
17:33Adjusted his cuff.
17:34Without expression.
17:35Turned.
17:36Walked away.
17:37His shoes on the wooden floor.
17:38The sound retreating.
17:39I leaned against the cold wall.
17:41My skirt in disorder.
17:43My legs would not stop shaking.
17:44The ache he had left suspended in me, half built and unfinished, was driving me mad.
17:53This forbidden disorder held until my brother arrived.
17:56I should never have agreed to let him come.
17:58It destroyed him.
18:00It destroyed me.
18:01The heavy oak doors swung in.
18:04Thomas walked in with his case.
18:05Nineteen years old.
18:07In a thin shirt.
18:08Clean.
18:09Unguarded.
18:10I stood in the great hall.
18:12Julian stood at my side.
18:13Thomas came forward.
18:15Greeted me, sister.
18:17Then turned to Julian.
18:18Held out a stiff, polite hand.
18:20Julian did not take it at once.
18:22His gaze moved slowly over Thomas' face.
18:26Across the tense line of his jaw.
18:28Down to the throat that moved as Thomas swallowed nervously.
18:31In the great hall, there was only the sound of the clock.
18:34I stood half a step away.
18:35I heard Julian's breathing deepen.
18:38His throat moved.
18:39The dangerous excitement in his eyes flared all at once.
18:43The look of a starving hunter sighting prey.
18:45More avid, more greedy than when he'd pinned me to a wall at midnight.
18:48He extended his hand.
18:50His broad, rough palm closed around Thomas' hand and squeezed tight.
18:54Welcome to the estate, Thomas.
18:56Very low.
18:58Damp.
18:58Aggressive.
18:59Watching his gaze warm because of Thomas, every drop of blood in my body went cold.
19:04Ice ran up my spine to the base of my skull.
19:07Cold sweat broke down my back.
19:12Julian had stopped seeing me entirely.
19:14For days, his eyes never settled on me.
19:16Not for a second.
19:17He had gone to Thomas.
19:18That afternoon, the photography darkroom of the estate.
19:21The heavy door was ajar.
19:22A line of dim red light.
19:24I stopped outside.
19:25Through the narrow gap Thomas at the basin.
19:27Julian behind him, the small distance between them gone entirely.
19:30Julian's tall body pressed down.
19:32His broad chest against Thomas' thin back.
19:34He reached around from behind.
19:36Folded both arms around Thomas.
19:38Those large hands, the ones that had gripped my waist at midnight, now covered the backs of
19:42Thomas' hands.
19:43Guided them down into the developing fluid.
19:45The surface trembled.
19:46Julian bent his head.
19:47His mouth brushed Thomas' ear.
19:49He spoke low, slow, damp.
19:51The same tone I had heard every midnight in the telephone.
19:54Thomas did not know how to develop a photograph.
19:56He stood frozen.
19:57His thin shoulders shook against Julian's burning chest.
19:59Their breath tangled in the red light.
20:01The heat that had been mine.
20:03The violence that had been mine.
20:04All of it transferred.
20:05I stood in the cold corridor.
20:07My fist clenched.
20:08My nails sank into my palm.
20:10Sharp pain.
20:11A bead of blood seeped through my fingers.
20:13Wet and sticky in my hand.
20:14I stared at the two figures pressed together in the gap of the door.
20:17Whatever sense I had left burned to ash.
20:19I had to do something.
20:23Deep night.
20:24The corridor was dead silent.
20:26I stopped at the end of the corridor.
20:29Near Thomas' guest room.
20:30The heavy door wasn't fully shut.
20:33A narrow line of yellow light spilled across my shoes.
20:36I heard them.
20:37Thomas' breathing fast.
20:39Defenseless.
20:40The breathing of someone already lost.
20:43Already past resistance.
20:44Then Julian's voice.
20:46Very low.
20:47Very slow.
20:48With that damp tone I had heard so many nights in the corridor telephone.
20:52He was drawing Thomas across the last line.
20:54I stared through the gap.
20:56Julian's dark coat lay on the carpet.
20:58His tall body had Thomas pressed against the edge of the bed.
21:01Thomas' trousers were already loosened.
21:03The same large hands that had gripped me, used me, were now between Thomas' open lines.
21:09Thomas' muscles and Julian's arms cast.
21:12The muscles and Julian's arms cast.
21:12A strong, controlling rhythm.
21:13Fast.
21:14Heavy.
21:15Up and down.
21:15The wet, sticky sound was loud in the dead room.
21:19Thomas made a single broken sound.
21:21My violence.
21:22My violence.
21:24He was about to give all of it to someone else.
21:26The bright snap of a metal belt buckle from inside the room.
21:29Clatter.
21:30The sound struck my ear.
21:32I stood outside the door.
21:34Stared at the suit jacket on the carpet.
21:36I raised my hand.
21:37Closed it around the cold brass handle.
21:39Without hesitation.
21:41Pushed the door open.
21:47A loud crack.
21:48The brass handle slammed into the wall.
21:50Thomas flinched.
21:51His face flushed scarlet.
21:52He stared at me with horror and shock.
21:54Shirt open.
21:55In disarray.
21:56I didn't look at him.
21:57I looked at Julian.
21:58On the edge of the bed.
21:59His hand was still between Thomas' legs.
22:01Motion stopped.
22:02That wet, grating friction gone.
22:04He slowly raised his head.
22:06The dangerous excitement in his eyes.
22:07A cold smile pulling at his mouth.
22:10I walked to the bed in my heels.
22:11Step by step.
22:12Sis.
22:13Thomas' voice trembled.
22:15He fumbled at his fallen trousers.
22:17I ignored him entirely.
22:18I stared straight at Julian.
22:20Both hands catching the sash of my robe.
22:22I pulled hard.
22:23The robe fell open white skin.
22:24Nothing beneath but lace.
22:25I lifted my leg.
22:26In front of my own brother I climbed astride Julian's thigh.
22:29Through the rough trousers of his suit.
22:31I pressed down on the hardness already weighted.
22:33My hands pressed his broad shoulders.
22:35My thighs were shaking violently.
22:37I caught his hand, the one that had just been working Thomas, and pressed it flat against
22:41my chest.
22:42Let him go.
22:44The last thing you want.
22:47I will give it to you.
22:49Now.
22:50Take me.
22:53This instant.
22:57Julian didn't refuse.
22:59He smiled.
23:35with genuine interest.
23:37He tore the last barrier away.
23:39There.
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