The Other World - Part 5 (Patreon)

The news that Lauren and Charlie were headed to their first EO meeting made the next day with Mrs. Wellington slightly easier. The first half of the day was spent with the bulbs being inserted into Lauren’s backside while she did her best to keep quiet so as to not aggravate the collar.

Charlie had tried without success to get Mrs. Wellington to remove it. The woman had just responded that one hundred percent of students who do not use the collar fail and that Little Lauren wouldn’t be an exception. She did hand Charlie a remote in case he needed to turn the collar off while they were home alone and he needed her to speak.

Today, Lauren was forced to demonstrate her ability to eat with baby utensils and in order to “graduate” too big girl utensils once she was to be Mrs. Charlie. While Lauren rolled her eyes at the remark (which rewarded her with a nasty shock) she was still determined to cooperate. Lauren thought to herself if she could just make it to tonight when she’d be meeting the other members of EO and she’d be fine.

But that yearning caused her to also be absent-minded. Several times Lauren forgot the “be seen and not heard” mantra and got nasty shocks as a result. After spilling her bowl of oatmeal while walking back to the high chair, she was sent back to the crib for a few hours and promised a surprise punishment as a result.

It’s not my fault it’s awfully difficult to walk in a full diaper, Lauren grumbled to herself while suffering in silence. Shouldn’t she have gotten bonus points for trying?

But luckily for the former political operative, Lauren scored high points on the core tenants of womanhood that she had to recite back to Mrs. Wellington, which meant she would no longer have to endure the enemas anymore. Lauren had always been excellent at memorizing things and her ability to just grit her teeth and explain to this stern woman with a severe face that “women are better seen and not heard” served her well that day.

But Lauren was in for one more surprise that day. Ms. Wellington woke her from her nap and said that it was time for her punishment. A week ago, Lauren would have protested and would have greeted the ugly elderly woman with a few choice words. But today, Lauren just crawled out of the crib, acknowledged to herself with surprise that she had managed to stay dry during the nap and followed Ms. Wellington’s footsteps to the kitchen.

Lauren gasped. Standing there was her father.

For some reason, Lauren felt relief when her father’s face greeted her. Perhaps it was because he was a familiar friendly face in this cruel metaverse. He felt that if anyone could protect her (besides Charlie) it would be the former marine who had dealt with her mother for all these years.

“Lauren,” her dad embraced her tightly. “It’s good to see you again. Mrs. Wellington tells me you’ve made excellent progress with your potty training today.”

Lauren nodded and gave the man a hug. “What are you doing here?”

No shock this time. Lauren had learned. Let the man speak first, you can speak after.

“While you’ve made progress Mrs. Wellington tells me you’ve misbehaved just a little too much.”

Lauren’s heart sank. Was her father going to witness her humiliation, here in the kitchen?

Turns out it was much worse than that.

“Often we find that subjects who have a hard time learning to correct their behavior need a reminder from the original disciplinarian.” Mrs. Wellington insisted.

Lauren’s father moved a chair in front of him and sat down. “Honey, you need to learn if you hope to make a good wife for Charlie.”

Lauren’s mouth dropped open. “You've got to be kidding me.”

This time, she did receive a shock.

Feeling completely beaten down at this point, Lauren trembled her way toward her father who was explaining that this was going to hurt him more than it would hurt her. All of that of course is utter bullshit that adults say who take pleasure in harming others. While spanking someone can hurt the dealer of the punishment, they’re still in full control of how the sentence is doled out. They’re in control over how hard and most importantly, how long the spanking would last.

Lauren was crying before she was splayed across her father’s lap and cried even harder when he pulled down her diaper and started spanking her methodically. Each spank was more painful than the last.

Smack! The pain was unbearable from the start and just kept rising as her father continued to spank her. Lauren couldn’t help but sob loudly, not just at the pain, but the humiliation of the whole ordeal.

But her father kept going, harder and harder and harder to the point where her bottom began to become numb. Right when the pain would start to become tolerable, her father moved his hand so he was spanking an even fresher spot, which caused the young woman to cry even harder.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Lauren’s spanking was over and the woman’s diaper was pulled up and she was dumped unceremoniously on the floor, rubbing her bottom in pain.

Lauren had never felt so humiliated in her life.

Lauren gritted her teeth. She was going to that EO meeting tonight if it was the last thing she did.

***

Lauren looked at the abandoned warehouse and back at her cell phone. Surely this couldn't be where the EO meeting was being held? Or could it be. Lauren decided she didn’t have time to second guess herself, especially not now. She didn’t fancy getting caught outside by herself in the middle of the night.

Part of her was disappointed that Charlie had backed out of coming to the meeting at the last second, claiming work conflicts. But at least he had encouraged her to go. Lauren was very much aware that if Charlie really wanted too, he could have kept her at home, locked in the crib.

This world really seemed to be built for men.

Lauren shuddered at the thought of sleeping in a crib as she had done at her father’s house. But after her spanking, her father had told her that he had a surprise. And sure enough, it was a crib, fit for an adult her size and shape. There were even restraints along the side “in case things got out of hand,” her father had said to Charlie when he had arrived home.

It would have been easy for Lauren to have left the spanking and the revelation of the crib with depression in her heart. She would be lying if she didn’t admit that she felt a slight depression at the thought of having to sleep in that infant's bed that night, rather than in the master bedroom with Charlie. But another part of her, the campaign operative in her, warned her to focus on the task at hand. Lauren had to endure these various humiliations in order to come out of the other side with a path home. If she didn’t comply with the rules of this new world, then she’d have a harder time finding her way home.

Lauren shook her head, willing herself to pay closer attention to her surroundings. While trying to figure out what to do next, she wandered down a dark hallway, gave a man with enough tattoos a secret code word to enter a door and ended up in a room with about thirty folding chairs facing a small podium.

There were even muffins sitting on a lonely table in the corner with a coffee machine. How cute.

Lauren found a seat among a few other people who seemed to be doing their best to not make eye contact with anyone. It was as if people were concerned they’d be recognized. There wasn’t even small talk as was common during these types of functions. Lauren hadn’t been to Alcoholics Anonymous before but assumed this was what it would have been like in her world.

Lauren studied the room around her. There were a lot of women there, but she was surprised to see a massive amount of men as well. Lauren had to wonder why, in a world that had given men every single opportunity to succeed under the sun, that these men would want to entertain the idea of full equality? Maybe these were the men who liked to be punished in bed. Lauren laughed to herself. Focus girl, we have a task at hand.

After a few moments, a man stepped to the front of the room and everyone got quiet. His face was hardened and his beard seemed to stick out at odd angles. Despite the darkened state of the room, he also happened to be wearing sunglasses.

“Good evening fellow suffragettes,” the man boomed over the room, which instantly broke into applause. “We are fighting for a tomorrow that is…”

“Equal,” the audience chanted back. Lauren, who had learned the chant while browsing online, did the same.

The man then proceeded to discuss some of the progress the “movement” had made in recent weeks. Evidently in Los Angeles, a protest had happened in front of City Hall while the local city council debated rules that would ease the rules required around lending. Another city, Massville in Virginia had elected their first woman to city hall. The leader of the group said that he would not be surprised if in the next five years, they had a woman in Congress. The man, who Lauren discovered was referred to as simply, Number One, insisted that the White House, while an honorable goal, was not the only goal they needed to be fighting for. Equality wasn’t about figureheads, he lectured. It was about real meaningful progress that would make the lives of ordinary women and men across the nation better.

Lauren was shocked to learn that there were other countries where the women's rights movement had happened successfully and that it was just the United States, along with a few other backward countries who had gotten things so horribly wrong.

It was difficult to hear that the United States was one of those backward countries when in her world, the United States had been making significant progress in women’s rights over the past fifty years.

The meeting continued like this for a while. It appeared that the group was preparing for some sort of protest, where they’d pressure the local New York Assembly to pass legislation that would allow women 18 and older to use a credit card.

Lauren rolled her eyes slightly. This sounded like something so small. How would this change the tide at all? But the group seemed extremely excited about this idea and women and men were pitching in on how they could make this idea a reality.

Lauren felt a nudge on her foot and looked up. Sitting next to her was Eric from the police station.

“Where have you been?” Lauren hissed. “It’s been a long fucking week.”

“I have a job to do.” Eric patted Lauren’s leg reassuringly. “But I told you I’d come find you again. Looks like you found the EO.”

“No thanks to you,” Lauren snapped back as Eric just shook his head.

“There’s no need to be so unpleasant. Do I need to get a pacifier out of my bag?”

Lauren rolled her eyes but did feel her heart quicken at the thought. She then remembered why Eric had piqued her curiosity when they first met. “Have you figured out how I am supposed to get home yet?” Lauren prayed that he’d say yes.

“Technically yes. But it’s not easy.”

“We’d be willing to try anything.” Lauren insisted. “Anything.” Lauren was firm. “I can’t stand it here.”

“You and me both.”

“Don’t pretend that you have it as bad as I do.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you were about to.”

“No.”

“You suggested it.”

“I’m going to get out the pacifier now.” Eric rummaged through his backpack and handed it to Lauren. “Keep this in until I’m finished speaking.”

“I’m good.” But Lauren took the pacifier and held it in her hands. She could tell Eric was getting upset.

“Anyway, I was walking from Central Park about nine months ago when I saw a can on the ground that looked out of place. It was Coke-A-Cola.”

“What’s unusual about that?”

Eric smiled slightly, “You haven’t gotten out much have you.”

Lauren stared at Eric, unimpressed.

“Soda doesn’t exist in this universe. At least not traditional big soda as you think about it. They have seltzer and other low-sugar products. But Coke, Pepsi, heck, even RC Cola, doesn’t exist here. Banned a long time ago.

“But that’s not the point, I saw a can of Coke on the ground. For days I kept returning to the spot, over and over again. That’s when I started finding a few other things that were slightly out of place. There was a $20 bill with Harriet Tubman on it. The one here has Andrew Jackson on it. There was even an ice cream cone wrapper on the ground. There’s no ice cream here. So one week I camped out in the park… man that was an experience.

“But then one day, I saw a glowing blue light in the park when I woke up and I smelled funnel cake. That was a funny smell, it was like funnel cake and burnt electricity. I grabbed my phone and followed the light till it got brighter and brighter. And that’s when I saw it… the light… a light so fantastic.”

For a moment, Eric was looking off into the distance, as if he could see the light in his eyes at that very moment. As if he was standing in Central Park watching the light grow brighter and brighter.

But then he was back and the lines appeared on his face again. “I ran desperately towards the light, the crack in the fabric of the universe. But before I could get there… it vanished. I was thrown backwards and the smell was gone. I had missed my chance.”

Eric looked back at Lauren who was fascinated by this change in him. He was so overly optimistic at this moment that there had to be more to this story.

“Who did you leave behind?” Lauren asked gently.

“My wife.” Eric looked at the floor. “I woke up here alone.”

Lauren placed her shoulder on his arm. “I’m sorry Eric. I really am.”

Eric nodded.

“So did you go back the next night?”

Eric nodded again. “As it turns out, the light or portal or whatever, doesn’t appear every single night and you have to be careful.  Three months later the portal came back, but something went wrong. A woman was too close when it appeared and she went a little crazy. She’s from here, and it looks like she crossed over and went over there and then came back and something went screwy. You might have seen her, she’s in the town square, always yelling.”

Lauren grimace. The woman from the town square who was talking to herself wasn’t an ideal future.

“So I began to study the portal. As it turns out, you have about 96 seconds on average before the portal closes and you need to be about fifty yards away when it opens to not go all cooky.” At the last word, Eric spun his finger around his ear and laughed.

Lauren squeezed the front of her diaper checking for wetness and discovered her diaper was pretty full. Though this time, she felt that she could hold things for a few more moments. “When does the next portal open? Charlie and I need to go home. And I am tired of not being able to use the bathroom.”

“That’s the thing… It opens tomorrow night. So we need to move fast.”

“Tomorrow?”

“If my math is right. It’s about…” Eric checked his watch, “One thirty-two in the morning.”

Lauren’s heart quickened. “We need to tell Charlie. Now.”

***

Charlie was naturally excited at the idea of getting home, but as the three of them sat around the kitchen bar discussing the possibility of going utterly insane, there was some hesitation.

“Do you think we’ll go insane?” Charlie had this look on his face where he looked like he was going to be extremely ill.

But Eric brushed off the idea of being confined to a life shouting about equality in the town square. “We’ll be fine. I’ve been watching the portal for months now and I am certain I know how it works. Besides, I can’t stay here anymore. This place is hell.”

Lauren nodded looking closely at Charlie who looked worried. “Babe, come on… the risk is more than worth it.” Lauren pointed to her freshly changed diaper. “I can’t keep wearing these Charlie.”

Lauren knew that Charlie was risk-averse and the idea that Lauren could be severely hurt in any way would cause him to pause instantly. What worried her was that Charlie would most likely do exactly what he did right at this moment.

“We need to think about this,” Charlie studied his computer where Eric had placed a point where they needed to be the next morning. “Is there a way to make this safer?”

“No,” Eric said simply. “How do you make a portal to another dimension safer?”

Charlie cocked his eyebrow at Eric and frowned.

“Come on Charlie, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Lauren loved the man. His cautiousness was one reason she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. All things considered, this idea to avoid risk worked well for them both. With her political career, if Charlie were always off jumping out of planes or cave diving, she’d spend half her time worrying he wasn’t going to come home alive. Predictability was good in most things, but right now, that predictability was going to get the two of them stuck in this purgatory. A hell that only Charlie was the benefactor of. A hell that didn’t impact him in any tangible way.

Lauren pulled her chair close to Charlie’s. “Babe, I need you to listen to me.” She was fighting back tears at the moment. She needed Charlie to hear her. But being dressed like an adult baby didn’t do her any favors. For some reason, people didn’t seem to take you seriously when you’re wearing a diaper. “We need to go home. We don’t have any other option. I can’t stay here Charlie.” Lauren’s voice wavered. “I can’t.”

She couldn’t imagine staying in this horrible place for another few weeks, let alone a few more months… or even a year.

“Do you understand me?” Lauren stared at Charlie. She needed him to understand.

Charlie stood up and paced around the floor. Then he sat back down and grabbed Lauren’s hands. “Babe… we are going to do this. But let’s make sure we are sane enough to reap the benefits when we return home.”

Lauren shook her head. “I’d rather go insane than stay here for another moment.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Babe, let’s go home.”