Chapter 44

‘Whew! What a weekend with the girls! Heading back now! Let’s order in tonight, how about?’

Jen Stintum’s text message to her husband shone out in surreal pixels on his phone as he stared down at it, feeling his stomach clench and drop all at the same time. She had no idea, not the slightest inkling, of what he knew, of the horrible truth that he had discovered by impure avenues earlier that weekend. Carl Stintum had spent the last day or so in a daze, just sitting at home, aimlessly staring at random programs on TV as he steadily drank beer after beer. Carl was not a huge drinker, but it was definitely true to say that, on normal occasions, he enjoyed the pleasant crispness of a beer or two. But now, he was actually getting a little drunk. He had no other way to neutralize the abhorrent flames that steadily licked at his mind, traumatizing him with their licentious heat and energy. 

A couple times, with abject disgust in himself, he even considered logging back onto Porntub and watching more of the grotesque videos of Sarah Helleger humiliating, degrading, squashing, and otherwise utterly dominating his son in the most lewd and unspeakable ways. Carl didn’t quite know why he felt drawn to watch more, but he succeeded in stifling any urges he had — his revulsion was too great, in the end, to watch any more. 

If he had felt the inclination to analyze his thoughts, instead of running away from them by dulling his brain with alcohol, Carl might have realized that the reason why he was unconsciously drawn back to the pornography of his son was because it was something that he had never, ever encountered in his life thus far: a raw, uncompromising, stripped-down, and brutally authentic depiction of a human power dynamic for an unapologetically and expressly sexual purpose. He didn’t have the words, or the inclination, to delve this far into his own sordid thoughts, but even though he wasn’t aware of it, Carl felt the unassailable power of the dynamic in his bones, like something vital inside him that had always existed, and had just now been uncovered. 

Instead of analyzing his own thoughts, though, he did what most people would do in the haze of their self-induced stupor: he blamed himself for logging on to watch porn in the first place, oddly rationalizing that none of this would be a problem if he just hadn’t done that. He blamed himself and Jen for getting so completely duped by Sarah that day, when she had convinced them to let Jeff stay with her again. He blamed Jeff for being such a pushover, such a weak-willed and aimless man, that he had allowed himself to be conned into this utterly humiliating and pathetic new existence. He once again blamed himself for not being a better parent to Jeff, for not bringing him up right, even though, deep down, Carl knew that he had really done the best he could. 

And, of course, he blamed Sarah Helleger herself for ushering these odious things into the world. Somehow, even though Carl was shocked by how far Jeff had fallen, there was something in him that wasn’t all that surprised that this was where his son had finally ended up. Jeff had been so profligate, desultory, and apathetic for so many years that it seemed somehow fitting that he would have ended up in such a publicly humiliating spot. But in Carl Stintum’s mind, the truly shocking thing was how Sarah had ended up. Even though he had seen her in her grown-up form, in his head, she was still the shy, cute, outdoorsy little tomboy who tagged along after Jeff. To think that she could have grown into such an amazonian, monstrous beauty, depraved beyond reckoning, was totally beyond his comprehension — it seemed otherworldly, almost demonic. 

As he sat there on the sofa, staring at his wife’s text, Carl felt such a bizarre and intolerable cocktail of emotions storming about in his brain that he began to question his own reality. Was all of this actually real!? Was he seriously being asked to deal with this insane new turn of events? As an upper-middle-class real estate lawyer who had married Jen fairly early, Carl had, for the most part, lived a quiet, nondescript life. There was nothing, in his experience or imagination, that had prepared him for this. He was so at a loss that he just sat there until his phone went dark, waiting for Jen to get back home. 

He must have fallen asleep, because he suddenly found himself snapping awake at the sound of his wife shutting the front door and clacking up the stairs to the main room. Carl panicked for a moment, not quite knowing why, as he sat bolt upright on the sofa. He felt like he had been caught with something. But he did nothing, just continuing to sit there as Jen came up the stairs. 

“Carl?” she called into the house, the concern already apparent in her voice. “You here?”

“Yeah…yeah I’m here Jen,” he replied. The sound of his voice startled him with its exhausted calmness. Jen emerged up from the stairs, carrying her travel bag around her shoulder. 

“Didn’t you get my text?” she asked, unslinging her cargo and putting it down on the floor. “I know I already spent a lot on that boxed wine we all drank…and let me tell you, we drank it all, haha…but I just don’t think I have the energy to cook tonight. I’m thinking maybe that new Cajun place down the street…uh, what’s it called?”

“Yeah…that sounds good,” said Carl. The hollowness in his voice had returned, and he knew that his tone would tip off his wife. 

“It smells kinda musty in here,” said Jen, looking around the kitchen and living room area. Then, for the first time, she actually fixed her eyes on her husband, and she saw a few empty beer bottles stacked on the coffee table in front of him. She got a good look at his face and felt an injection of alarm in her stomach — he looked pale, and his eyes were…somewhere else. Her brow knitted as she frowned. Something wasn’t right here. 

“Carl? Are you…are you ok?” she ventured, stepping closer to him. “Have you been drinking?” 

“I’m…I’m not ok, Jen,” he said, feeling his mouth sag a little as he spoke the words. He was going to have it all out with her here, and he was dreading how his wife was going to take it. If he was innocent-minded, then he didn’t know what Jen was. She had always been a no-nonsense saint. It felt like eels were squirming around in his stomach. 

“Honey…what’s the matter?” asked Jen, extremely concerned as she rushed over and sat down next to him on the sofa. She felt his forehead, which was cool and clammy. “Are you sick? Have you been to the doctor!?” 

“No…no, Jen…I’m…I’m not sick,” said Carl. He blinked a few times, took a deep breath, and sat up straighter on the sofa. “This…uh…this isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, Jen,” he began. “And don’t worry — it has nothing to do with our relationship.” Carl had quickly realized that his demeanor and his words might have suggested to his wife that he had been having some kind of an affair or something…totally unthinkable. 

“What is it?!” she asked, now thoroughly alarmed. 

“It’s…it’s about Jeff,” said Carl. 

“Jeff!? Oh god, is he hurt?? What happened to him!?” cried Jen. 

“It’s not that,” said Car, shaking his head. “It’s not like anything that you might be thinking, so just…bear with me here, ok?”

“Ok.” 

Carl took another deep breath and continued. Even though it was awful what he was about to say, he had to admit that it was already easier having his wife there with him. He was no longer alone in his own head.

“So,” he started, “A couple nights ago, I was watching some TV, and then I just…well, I started to feel a little horny.”

“Horny?” asked Jen uncertainly, almost looking at him sideways. Talking openly about sex had never really been something the two of them were good at. “Carl…uh, what…what does this have to do with —”

“Like I said, just bear with me, ok?” he said, putting his palms out in a steadying motion. “So…and trust me, I don’t do this very often, but I was like, oh what the hell…so I logged onto one of the major porn sites.”

“Oh no,” breathed Jen, “And you saw something Jeff had searched for a while ago? It came up in the computer history?”

“Jen…no,” said Carl, almost beginning to get irritated. His wife wasn’t making this big reveal any easier. “So…I logged on…and searched around a little…you know, just for this and that…”

“I’m not sure I need the details,” said Jen uncomfortably. “Ok so anyway, you’re on some…some porn site…and then what?”

Carl looked at her seriously. He was quickly realizing what he could and couldn’t tell his wife. He could tell her about just “happening across” the video of Jeff and Sarah. But he could never tell her what had actually happened. And there was never any need to. He almost felt relieved internally, to have realized how he would proceed along in the conversation. 

“And then…I came across something that was…almost too much to take,” he said. 

“What, Carl!?” asked Jen with rising energy. “Just tell me!” 

“It was a video of Jeff and…and Sarah,” said Carl, feeling like they were both suspended in some kind of strange ether as they sat together on the sofa.

“A porno? Of the two of them!?” asked Jen, her eyes going wide. 

“Yes,” said Carl. He would just tell it to her all at once. “And…it was horrible Jen. They’re in some kind of…dominant-submissive relationship. Jeff had on this…this, like…gimp mask or something…and Sarah was…was just doing all this stuff to him.”

Jen just sat there for a few seconds, in stunned silence. But she recovered quickly. 

“Wait,” she said, shaking her head. “Wait a minute. If this person had on…some kind of mask…then how do you know it was Jeff?”

“It was Jeff, trust me,” said Carl. “No one else I know of, who's an adult, anyway...is that…has a body like that. And it was absolutely Sarah, no question about it. No one else…”

“Has a body like hers,” finished Jen, nodding even though she still sounded unconvinced. 

“And then, just to be sure, I went to the uploader’s profile,” said Carl. “It has all this information about the two of them. Sarah wrote it, and…she mentions Jeff by name over and over. It was him, Jen.” 

Mrs. Stintum was silent for a few more moments, looking down at the floor as her chest rose and fell. Carl watched her closely. 

“So…what kinds of things was Sarah doing to him?” asked Jen in a different kind of voice. It was smaller, softer, and terrified. 

“I…I really don’t want to talk about it,” said Carl truthfully. “It was just all…so terrible…and knowing that it was Jeff under there…our Jeff…it made me sick, Jen.”

“So you actually watched the videos??” asked Jen, her voice incredulous. 

“Well like I said I found the first one by accident!” exclaimed Carl defensively. “And then after that one I just…I felt so scared for our son that I just had to see what else was going on!” 

“So you were searching for…for, uh…kinky dominant-submissive stuff on the internet!?” asked Jen, her voice starting to rise a little. 

“N-no Jen!” replied Carl vociferously. This was all starting to get a little out of control. He had to reveal a little more, just to get his wife off his back. “Look…I…I was just searching for blowjob stuff, ok?”

“Oh Carl…” said Jen huffing out an exasperated sigh as she shook her head. 

“I mean, you can get all over me about that later, Jen, ok?” retorted Carl, now clearly irritated. “But the point is that…that…” And here he stopped a moment — he had no idea how to bring up the fact that Jeff’s cock was unnaturally huge, let alone the fact that Sarah deepthroated it. 

“And what?” asked Jen, her own irritation masking her horror, at least for the moment. 

“And…I think Sarah’s done something to Jeff…to Jeff’s penis,” said Carl. “It…it was just…unnaturally huge.”

“Carl!! Oh my god, what on earth are you talking about!?” cried Jen, standing up and staring at him like she was seeing him for the first time. 

“And…and I think it hasn’t stopped there!” persisted Carl, his own voice rising to match his wife’s. “Jen…I think…I think that Sarah had something to do with…with Jeff shrinking during his surgery. I don’t know how, but…but it’s all just starting to come together for me.” 

“How…how do you know that, Carl!?” asked Jen, dumbfounded.

“I don’t know it!” he replied immediately. “I just…I have this feeling. Just reading down on the profile that Sarah wrote…she just keeps talking over and over about…about how small he is and how much bigger she is and…and how she dominates him and overpowers him. There are pictures, Jen…hundreds and hundreds of pictures…of…of Sarah comparing her body with Jeff’s…th-the whole time calling attention to…to, uh…how much bigger she is than him. It’s like a kind of fetish thing…or, o-or something, I don’t know.”

Carl had to admit that saying all of this out loud was relieving in a way. it didn't make it any easier for Jen to hear, though.

“Hundreds of pictures??” She was aghast. 

“Thousands, probably,” returned Carl. “Of course I didn’t go through them all, or even most of them…but there were like…70 individual photo albums of them and…hundreds and hundreds of videos, Jen. It wasn’t just the one.”

“Oh my god!” she cried, putting her hands to her mouth. “And people are actually watching them!?” 

It was Carl’s turn to be silent. He didn’t know if his wife could quite handle the truth of this next bit.

“Carl!?” she asked, grabbing his arm and shaking it. 

“Millions of people,” he said in an empty voice, turning to her and looking her directly in the face. “Millions and millions of people, Jen. It had all the statistics listed. Their videos have over 800 million views.” 

Jen just stood there stock still for long moments, staring at her husband as she gaped. She sat back down, completely dazed, staring straight forward into nothingness. Carl sat there next to her, still watching her closely, looking for any clues to her state of mind that he might be able to use to help her through this. A minute passed by. And then, Jen set her jaw hard and spoke. 

“I’ve gotta see this for myself, Carl.”

“No…no you don’t Jen,” he said immediately, his heart speeding up even faster as he shook his head aggressively back and forth. “You do NOT want to see ANY of this, trust me. I’ll never be able to un-see it, Jen, and I don’t want the same for you.” 

“If my son is living in…in captivity with some kind of twisted, horrible, sex-crazed version of Sarah Helleger…who could rip our poor son in half…I need to be able to see it for myself.” 

“Jen…please…I’m begging you…don’t look at it,” pleaded Carl desperately. 

“Stop it, Carl — just stop!” she yelled angrily. “I need to see what’s happening to our son!! Now show me how to find this…this website.” 

Carl sighed and blinked rapidly, shaking his head, but he knew there was nothing he could do to sway his wife. Once she had made up her mind about something, there was no swaying her. Wordlessly, and feeling like he was moving in slow-motion, he got out his laptop, opened Porntub, and typed in “Sarah and Her Cumslave” into the search bar. 

“Ugh…that’s what it’s called?!” cried Jen, thoroughly disgusted. 

“I told you…you are insane to want to see any of this,” said Carl, handing her the laptop. “Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you, Jen.” 

For the next few minutes, Carl sat there, feeling sick to his stomach, as he watched his wife dry-heave in front of the computer screen. A couple times it looked like she even had to close her mouth and cover it to keep from vomiting everywhere. But there had always been a kind of steely determination to Jen Stintum, and she saw what she had to see. She clicked on the expanded profile; she read Sarah’s whole description. She browsed a little through the photos; she hovered the mouse over some of the videos, but could not find it within herself to click on them. The thumbnails were graphic enough. 

Finally, after several long minutes, she exited out of the browser, shut the laptop, and sat there with it closed on her lap, again staring straight ahead into the abyss. Carl was at least glad that she wasn’t crying, but this odd, silent dismay was almost worse. Suddenly, Jen spoke up again. 

“We have to call the police.”

“What!?” exclaimed Carl, feeling like this had totally come out of left field. “What are you talking about, Jen??”

“Our son has been kidnapped!!” she shouted, “By a sick, twisted young woman who used to look up to him!! It’s clear that Sarah…if we can even call her that anymore…has…has harbored some kind of…grotesque obsession for Jeff, and now she’s got him!”

“But Jen!” said Carl, “She didn’t kidnap him! Remember, he WANTED to go back with her! He…he even BEGGED her, remember!?” 

Jen sat there in silence for a few moments, clearly puzzled by the point her husband was making. He was right, it was true…but…surely something sinister was going on here. 

“I just…maybe Sarah brainwashed him or something,” offered Jen. “The girl is clearly brilliant, and I don’t put anything past her now, after seeing all of what I just saw. Maybe…maybe she gave him some drugs or…or something. To make him…I don’t know! To make him want to be with her or something!” 

“But if we call the police, we’re gonna need a lot more than ‘maybe this’ or ‘maybe that,’” said Carl. “As horrible as it is, Jen, they’re both adults.” 

“I can just…I could never believe that Jeff would WANT this,” said Jen. Now her voice was beginning to get emotional. “How ANYONE would want this…it’s too much, Carl! Oh god, it’s too much!” 

Carl went over and embraced her as she cried into his shoulder; he shed some tears of his own. For a minute or so, the parents wept. It was Jen Stintum who broke the embrace first. 

“You’re right, Carl,” she said, wiping her eyes. “We shouldn’t call the police just yet. We need to get in touch with Jeff. When was the last time we talked to him?”

“It was…a couple weeks ago, wasn’t it?” said Carl. It had been a normal, humdrum kind of conversation — if anything, Jeff had sounded like he was in better spirits. His voice had been a little clearer on the other end of the phone. They had talked for five minutes, covering all the usual bases: he was doing well…mostly reading and doing physical therapy…Sarah was doing well, working hard in her pre-med program…everything was all just fine. 

“And the whole time…he wasn’t saying anything about this,” muttered Jen. “We have to talk to him Carl…and somewhere we can get him alone, without Sarah being there. We have to make sure that he feels like he can speak his mind.” 

They tried calling him on his cellphone, but it went to voicemail, which wasn’t even Jeff’s voice — it was just a robot, saying that the number was not available. 

“Wait! I have Sarah’s number!” said Jen. “Both her numbers — her cell and her landline!” 

“Sarah has a landline?” asked Carl. 

“Yeah! She gave me the number back when Jeff was staying with her for the first time. She said to call it if she didn’t pick up her cell, if I needed to get in touch with her or Jeff.” 

The Stintums sat there for a moment — a latent fear was growing in them. They didn’t want to arouse Sarah’s suspicions by calling around everywhere, asking for Jeff. They wanted to make everything seem normal, like they were just checking in on him. And so they decided not to call Sarah on her cell phone — although neither of them admitted it openly, both Carl and Jen knew somewhere in their subconscious that they didn’t want to speak to Sarah if they could avoid it. They were afraid of her. Their best shot was to call Sarah’s landline and hope that Jeff picked up…and if Sarah did, they would act normal and just ask to speak to Jeff. 

Jen had butterflies in her stomach as the dial tone came through to Sarah’s house. It rang twice, until an unfamiliar female voice answered. 

“Hello?” It was a deep, rich voice, almost like velvet.

“H-Hello,” said Jen, caught off-guard a little. “This is Jen Stintum, and…and I was just wondering if I could speak to Jeff? I’m his mother.”

“Oh! Mrs. Stintum! It’s nice to meet you!” said the female voice pleasantly. “My name’s Savannah, and I stay with Sarah and Jeff sometimes. Your son is…a lot of fun, I have to say.” 

“That’s…good to hear,” said Jen, deeply unnerved. “Is…Is Jeff there now, Savannah? Could I speak to him?” 

“I’m sorry, but Jeff’s not here at the moment,” said Savannah. “He and Sarah have gone on a…little vacation. They should be back sometime tomorrow, though.”

“Oh, ok…ok!” said Jen, her heart beating quickly. She suddenly had an idea. “Um, tell me, Savannah — and I hope this is not an inappropriate question — but…how well do you know Jeff and Sarah?”

“Oh it’s totally fine!” answered Savannah pleasantly. “I know them very well.”

“And…and are my son and Sarah…dating?”

There was silence for a second on the other end; for a moment, Jen felt like she had made a mistake. But then Savannah’s voice came through again, as richly mellifluous as ever. 

“Well…no, Mrs. Stintum, I wouldn’t say they are dating,” said Savannah. “But they are in…a certain type of relationship, yes.”

“How…much can you talk about it with me? With me and his father?” asked Jen. She was beginning to feel like this young woman could help clear everything up for her. 

“I can tell you anything you’d like to know,” said Savannah. “But I just have to caution you that you might not understand or enjoy what I have to say.” 

“I…I don’t mind so much about that,” said Jen. “I’ve…I’ve just seen something that has caused me to worry about my son. And I want to know that he’s ok.” 

“Certainly, Mrs. Stintum,” said Savannah. “In fact, I just got finished up with…some business of my own here at Sarah’s house. I’m free to chat right now, if you’d like. I certainly wouldn’t want Jeff’s parents to be worried about him.”

“So we can keep talking on the phone?” asked Jen, feeling an odd combination of relief and anxiety. 

“Actually,” came Savannah’s velvety voice, “I think it’d be better if you both came over here.”