The Visit Alexis Won’t Forget

Alexis showed up for Chinese New Year dressed head-to-toe in his favorite black spandex, sleek, shiny, and comfortable. He thought he looked great. What he didn’t realize was that black was considered an unlucky color during the holiday, and the moment his friend saw him at the door, their smile stiffened ever so slightly.

Still, Alexis didn’t catch the shift in mood. He stepped inside, chatting cheerfully, completely unaware that his outfit had unintentionally offended his host.

His friend handed him a festive-looking drink, bright red and sweet-smelling. Alexis, still oblivious, accepted it with a grin and downed it in a few gulps.

The room blurred. His knees buckled.

Darkness swallowed him whole.

When Alexis came to, the first thing he felt was pressure, firm, unyielding, wrapping around his arms, his chest, his legs. Smooth rope hugged him tightly, every loop secure and methodical. A blindfold blocked all light, and something pressed over his mouth.

Red. Everything that held him felt like red.
He tested the bindings, twisting, struggling, but the ropes only held him more completely, cinched to cold metal rails that offered no give. A soft, involuntary sound escaped him, half confusion, half helplessness, swallowed instantly by the tape over his mouth.

Somewhere in the dark, he heard footsteps. Slow. Deliberate.

A hand brushed his shoulder.

A voice, familiar, whispered,
“You really wore black today, Alexis?”

He jolted, straining against the ropes. The blindfold kept him disoriented, his senses heightening with every passing second. His friend didn’t raise their voice, didn’t sound angry, but there was a playful sharpness beneath the calm.

“What a terrible color for the new year,” the voice murmured. “So I prepared something more… appropriate for you.”

Alexis shivered, tugging futilely at the restraints as the teasing and “punishment” continued, not painful, but certainly overwhelming. Every little sound he made echoed off the walls, helpless and trapped in the dark.

Eventually, the footsteps grew distant. A door clicked shut.

And Alexis was left alone in the silent room, bound in red, unable to see, unable to speak, tense, restless, and entirely at the mercy of whatever came next.