Dream of the Red Chamber

"Ah." Allison's smile grew into something more. "Then you're in good company."

Without another word, she led the way down the hall and around a corner to a heavy, secure-looking door. She unlocked it with an antique skeleton key and pushed it open slowly.

The room inside was almost completely black, though once she's shepherded the others inside and closed the door behind them little, soft beacons of light became apparent. Allison stepped into a darker corner of the room and almost disappeared entirely before flipping switches that brought up additional lights throughout the room, none of them bright or abrasive or intrusive, but calm.

"This is our smallest room," Allison said. "And by far my favorite."

It was small, with little open space. It was not cramped like a small apartment, but instead it seemed to swaddle each guest in a heavy, sleepy comfort. By a plush, high backed chair there was a wooden table with a lamp on it that was bright enough to read comfortably by. On another longer table in front of a couch that one could sink into was a line of wine glasses and a corkscrew. There were chairs that accommodated massages of the upper body and a pair of massage tables, but all the furniture, regardless of its function, looked to have been handmade by a skilled craftsman, and was entirely comfortable.

The room seemed to be filled with a heavy, pressurized silence that swallowed up other little sounds. In fact, it was not silent, but a combination of warm air currents vented in from the sun room and unseen flowing water from the next room created an atmosphere that was subtle and thick. The air smelled very faintly of spice and fire.

"Please, make yourself comfortable wherever you'd like." Allison waved a hand as she strode off to another corner and opened a tall cabinet. She selected a bottle of wine and returned it to the long table, and she watched Lan out of the corner of her eye while she worked to uncork it.

Allison seemed to have something specific in mind for Lan, because, right after the Chinese girl finished explaining what her ideal space would be, the spa owner immediately guided her around the corner to a secluded, imposing-looking door. Upon entering the dark room, Lan shivered a little, the lack of light unnerving her just a little bit as the two European woman shepherded her inside. Slowly, though, her eyes would begin to adjust to the dim illumination, and once Allison turned on the brighter lights, the problem became moot.

It was a small room. The smallest, according to the British woman. But it was not uncomfortably small—rather, it seemed very cozy. There were several different kinds of furniture scattered around the room, all of them obviously of expert craftsmanship. There were comfortable chairs, and wine, and what looked like a perfect reading place in the plush chair in the corner. The atmosphere felt thick, and the scent of seemingly distant flames was surprisingly pleasurable to Lanâ€s nostrils. She inhaled deeply, and looked up at Allison, giving the owner a little smile. This really was the sort of place that she could see herself getting comfortable in.

As she was instructed to sit down wherever she liked, Lan naturally gravitated over to the big plush chair in the corner, sitting down calmly and folding one leg over the other. She watched from a comfortable distance as Allison uncorked the wine. “Th-thank you for being so kind,” she said, running a hand across her newly-cut mane of ash blonde hair.

Vi stopped when they were inclosed in the room. Her hand naturally gravitated to her vest, slipping just under her suit coat until dim lights flickered to life. Her smile never faded but she pulled her hand out from her coat with inconspicuous ease and trotted over to the couch, draping herself across it elegantly as if she were the one who was supposed to be pampered here. She propped one leg up, pointing her knee to the ceiling while she turned and looked at Allison.

"Oh, dearest Allis? Fufu, she is the very definition of magnanimity."

Allison glanced at Vi as she poured three glasses of wine. She took one for herself and handed another to Lan. She swirled the wine in her glass, tipped it up to the reading lamp next to the chair, and then lifted it to breathe in the bouquet. Then she took a sip, holding the stem delicately between her thumb and middle finger.

She paced easily around to stand behind Lan's tall chair and set her glass down on the end table. She slipped her arms around the back of the chair and set her hands on Lan's shoulders. "This room is safe. There's nothing in it but what you take with you. Some guests have compared it to being in their mother's womb. We have several who sometimes come here to work, writers and artists. Some have had experiences, physical, emotional, sensual, that they have described as 'spiritual'." She gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze.

"So, darling, setting aside your uneasiness and your reservation, what else did you bring with you?"

Lan took the glass of wine, cupping it with both hands as she took a slow, long sip from it. It was excellent wine, if Lan knew anything about liquor—Allison certainly had good taste, and it showed in her choice of wine as much as it did in her choice of dÃcor, and of dress.

Lan shivered a little when Allison walked around the back of her chair and placed her hands on her shoulders, but she managed to remain calmer than she had been when the women had been touching her before. She was slowly getting used to them, and her comfort level here at this spa was certainly increasing. She managed a little smile as Allison talked about the room, how it was like being in a motherâ€s womb, how it had hosted writers and artists, how it provided its guests with an almost spiritual experience. “Wow,” the Chinese girl warbled. “That is…amazing.”

When Allison asked her what she had brought with her, Lan gave a tiny shrug, tilting her head to the side. “I didnâ€t really bring anything,” she answered. “Just my phone, my wallet, my keys…and, uh, the clothes on my back. U-unless you meant…emotionally, or something.”

Vi watched as Lan sat on the big comfy chair and Allison served her a glass of wine, pouring three but only bringing two. Violate smiled and while the other two settled in, she slithered off the couch and strode proudly towards the glass and took it herself. She gripped it with the same natural elegance that Allison had and sipped it as well, with a bit of playfulness added to her mannerisms, rather than the forced apathy that Allison exuded. Letting the wine drip down her throat, she watched the two and when she'd sipped enough, took a few steps forward and sized Lan up. She tilted her head curiously at the Chinese blonde and smiled.

"Fufu, did you bring something emotional with you, little pearl?" She said and grinned, touching the index finger of her free hand to her lips. "Curioser and curioser." She said before looking at the two of them and beaming. "Fufu." Vi then strode gracefully back to the couch and laid herself upon it as elegantly as she had before, like she was not a guest but a piece of art displayed in the room.

"Oh, of course you have." Allison slipped around the chair, trailing her fingers on one hand across Lan's shoulders as she went. "But don't stifle yourself, darling. Nothing you can say could possible shock me."

She slid her fingers down Lan's arm and picked up her wrist, and then knelt down beside her and began to expertly massage her hand, releasing tension and drawing warmth down each finger while she gazed up into her sweetly lost eyes. "I find that people are often as afraid of the things they want as they are of the things they don't," she cooed, and the satin tickle of her posh accent and the quality of her steady, refined voice was at least as effective as the massage. "Do you understand? It's the tension we carry, protecting ourselves from harm, and from the implications of our desires. But I believe that our desires make us what we are, and to deny them is to make ourselves small. A rose which has lost its scent is still pretty..." She paused, and smiled, mostly to herself as she worked her way down Lan's wrist to her forearm.

"And you are so very pretty, darling, but I know there's beauty in you. Will you help me understand what it is? In here, in this room, no one can hear you but your escorts, and we exist to help free you from the bondage you have placed yourself in for the sake of others. So," she stopped at Lan's elbow and reached over to hold her other arm as well. "How do you feel right now, and how would you like to feel?"

Lanâ€s eyes would follow Violateâ€s path across the room, watching the woman pick up her own glass of wine and sip from it elegantly. As the woman approached Lan, pressing a finger to her lips, asking her about whether she had any emotional baggage, Lan tensed up, and she couldnâ€t really form a coherent response until Allison had already begun talking again. She sighed, glad that she had at least a few more seconds to try to express what she was thinking to the two stunning Europeans.

Lanâ€s arm twitched as Allison grabbed it, but the Chinese girl managed to calm herself, allowing the spaâ€s owner to begin to gently massage her palm, wrist, and fingers. Somewhat to her surprise, Lan could really feel the tension in the appendage beginning to melt away. She smiled, listening to Allison as she talked about secret desires, and their expression, and their implications. When she was finally asked once more whether she had carried anything into the spa with her today, Lan would take a deep breath, gather her courage, and try to tell the very, very kind women as much as she dared to tell.

“I…I guess I have a lot of…e-emotional things. Iâ€m one of those people who…worries a lot about what others think of me. Iâ€ve always been shy. I-Iâ€ve n-never really, uh, really expressed myself around others well…I mean, like, even right now, after youâ€ve been so nice to me, itâ€s still difficult for me to talk to you…and I feel like running away.” She sighed, shrugging her shoulders a little. “I always feel like running away. And, really, itâ€s not so bad, but sometimes I do wish I could c-connect with people a little better. Just a little. Enough to get by in social situations without feeling…exposed, and odd, and separate.”

Without taking her eyes off of Lan, Allison reached to pick up her wine glass, and slowly drained the entire thing. "I know exactly what you mean," she said. She stood up and placed her glass back on the long table next to the bottle.

"You can connect with people, darling, you've just never learned the technique." She said, with the faintest hint of a smile on her lips before she turned around. She knelt in front of Lan again and picked up her hands, giving them a firm squeeze. "I'd like you to tell me your name, and then I'd like you to say mine. And then however you like, touch me. Can you do that?"

Violate carefully watched as Allison finished her wine and moved forward, gaining Lan's attention as well as her trust. She seemed to be doing a good job and perhaps she might actually coax something surprising out of the timid Chinese girl.

She eased up from her position on the couch and carefully strolled over to the wine, refilled her sip and then turned around. The normally boisterous hatted blonde might use this opportunity to provide an amusing quip but she silently sipped her wine while she watched, slowly easing to one side of the room while the other two engaged. She was pretty certain that Allison's words would shock the Chinese girl enough to at least keep her focused while Vi sneaked around slowly until she was behind Yi Lan and out of her sight.