Cold Fish: A cautionary tale

Rob was a cold fish.  It was the phrase used openly by his colleagues and subordinates at work, even those who liked his ruthless efficiency and drive.  And it was a phrase that Rob himself welcomed: he was pleased to be detached and unreachable by his colleagues.

Rob was Sales Director of a large publishing company in the city of London, no mean feat at the age of 28.  He had graduated with a first class degree at Oxford and quickly risen through the ranks of his company to become its youngest senior executive.  He had little time for social chit-chat at work, and even less time for colleagues who put their personal lives before their work.  Rob’s team knew the consequences of poor attendance, or not hitting their targets.  It was not tolerated by their leader.

Rob lived alone.  He had no time for relationships as they had previously stifled his push for promotion at work.  He preferred solitary activities: his local gym and his daily morning 5-mile run gave him the opportunity to keep his body in perfect shape.  And perfect his body was.  Rob was 6 foot 2 of pure muscle.  His handsome features and jet black groomed hair were supplemented by a body honed to physical perfection.  In his expensive suits, he exuded an air of confidence and masculinity.  He was the perfect catch.

Rob’s small group of friends from university provided the only social outlet that he needed.  He met with them on a regular basis for a meal and a few drinks.  Quiet and aloof, he was respected and liked by his friends but they understood his character.  They knew that the “cold fish” was married to his career: that he wanted material wealth and power.  That he was destined for riches and fine living.  For power and success.

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Thomas  spent a lot of his spare time thinking about Rob’s destiny.  Thomas was 42 years of age and comfortably well off: his previous job and his family background allowed him to live in his comfortable home within the suburbs of London despite the fact that he had been made redundant.

Thomas was devastated to be pushed aside by his publishing company, and to find his former subordinate Rob Anderson being promoted into the position that he had held for 6 years.  In a time of recession, high profile publishing jobs are not easy to achieve.  Thomas’s professional pride would not allow him to remain at the publishing house and he left the company a humiliated man.

Previously bright, articulate and popular, Thomas was a lively and outgoing man.  But his confidence was gone.  He sat alone in his living room in front of the computer screen and scanned the internet. 

An enclosure could be built that would serve his needs, but it would be expensive.  He looked at the space that he had cleared in the corner of his living room.  He was moving closer to his dream.  He was ready to alter the destiny of Rob Anderson.  The cold fish was about to experience a new way of living.

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Thomas decided that it was worth the cost and set about ordering the specialist equipment to house his new project, and it was an exciting day when the equipment was finally installed.  Thomas agreed with the installers that it was unusual to house such a large example within his house, but that it would indeed look spectacular when filled.

And Thomas set about his surveillance of the life of Rob Anderson.  From his parking spot in the street, Thomas sat and watched Rob’s habits for a fortnight.  The times he arrived and left, the amount of people on the street at different times of the day and the clothes that Rob wore as he left his home.  Rob was indeed a creature of habit, as Thomas suspected he would be.  And so it was easy to establish a pattern of his intended prey’s movements.  A pattern that would transform Rob from Sales Director and upwardly mobile executive to an altogether new existence that befitted his character more.  An existence where he would never forget what once he was, and the humble creature that he had become.  Thomas licked his lips in anticipation as the butterflies rose in his stomach.  He couldn’t wait to capture his prey, but he needed to ensure it was right.  That the circumstances were right, and all was ready.

Thomas looked across the street at the athletic form of Rob Anderson as he stretched in front of his house, ready for his morning run.  He looked at the muscular legs and arms, and the tight fitting running gear.  He looked at the sports socks and expensive training shoes.  All would soon be removed and his cold fish would learn to live naked.

For a moment, Rob seemed to look across the street – look into Thomas’s eyes.  And Thomas fancied that he could hear Rob calling to him.  “Come and get me.  Come and own me.”

Thomas bit his bottom lip and sighed.  Not long to go now.

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Rob’s head hurt.  He lay there momentarily and felt the bile in the back of his throat.  His dry, cracked lips suggested he had not had a drink for several hours and his throat was parched.   His eyes flickered open for a fleeting moment and closed against the bright light.  He felt hungover and his mind grasped to remember the night before…..

His eyes shot open and his mind jolted in shock.  He remembered now.  The return from his run.  The blow to the back of his head.  The shock when he had turned around and saw his attacker, recognised him, and then NOTHING.

Where was he?  Rob’s eyes looked up at the bare ceiling above him.  His body registered the bare boards beneath him in the empty, bare room.  The bare boards beneath his bare body.  He was naked.

“What the fuck?”

Rob sat upright, his head spinning as he looked down at his exposed body.  A length of chain was padlocked around his ankle, and attached to the wall.  Otherwise he was naked.  He frowned in confusion before noticing that he was more than naked.  His thatch of hair on his chest, his pubes, his legs had been shaved away.  He was shaved smooth, bald.  Instinctively, his hand moved to his head.  His black hair, his expensive haircut, was gone too.  His head was bald.

Rob staggered to his feet, tears of fear stinging the corner of his eyes, and looked at the door across the room.  A simple door.  An escape.  Staggering towards it, he stopped halfway across the room as the slack in his chain disappeared.  He was imprisoned.

Who had done this to him, and why ?  “Help!  Someone help me!” he shouted.  “Fuck, what the fuck is going on?  Help me please.”

Rob heard movement in a room below him.  He heard a door open and the sound of heavy footsteps climbing the stairs.  As he sank to his knees, Rob saw the door handle to his bare cell open and looked up at Thomas as he entered the room.

“Thomas.  What ?  You … Why ? …” Rob gasped, looking up at his captor.

“Not so superior now boy, are you?”

“What?  What do you mean?  Look … the job … it wasn’t my decision …. I had no say …. I ….”

Thomas smiled condescendingly at the naked man grovelling on the floor before him.  “Shhhhh Rob.  Shhhhh”

Rob looked up at him, an icy shiver of fear shooting down his spine.

“Nothing we can do to change it now.  I want you to see some big changes in your life too.  You are about to learn a whole new lifestyle boy.  Better to forget what you had before.”

Rob stared up at Thomas in confusion.  Rob watched him pull a syringe from his pocket and come towards him.  He was helpless to prevent it, and he gasped as the needle entered his shoulder.

“When you wake up boy, your new life will begin ….”

Rob felt the surge inside him, felt the drug pulsing through his veins.  He looked up at Thomas, and his eyes began to droop.

“Just remember boy, that you are my property now.  A whole new life ahead of you.”

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It was later that evening when Rob reawoke.  Opening his eyes, his mind slowly reawoke to the horrors of his predicament and he shook his head before slowly rising up to a sitting position.

He was still stark naked and his mind still registered with shock the smooth feeling of his shaved skin.  Thomas had treated his skin fully to a permanent depilation treatment and no hair would appear there again.

Shaking his head, Rob’s hand moved to his neck.  A thick silver band circled his neck and he felt a chain moving down his back from the band.  Slowly standing, Rob winced as he felt the pressure on his genitals. Crouching down again, the chain down his back slackened and he reached down to feel his penis.

Frowning in confusion, Rob felt the shaft of his penis, pulled back between his legs.  His fingers touched on a steel mesh encasing his penis, somehow attached to the underside of his body and pointing backwards between his legs.  He gasped in shock as he felt the exposed tip of his cock, now ringed with a metal ring through its head.  A ring that was attached to the chain running down his back.

What the …. His mind raced in confusion and his heart thumped through his now bare chest.  He was a freak, a naked freak, with his cock locked facing backwards and attached to a chain.

Rob stood slowly to his feet, feeling the chain pull tight on his encased penis.  His heart racing, he took in his surroundings with a feeling of dread and confusion.

Rob was encased in a large glass box, eight feet wide by eight feet tall.  Peering through the glass, he could see a large, normal living room.  A sofa and armchairs, a coffee table and TV presented a typical suburban scene.  He wondered though that anyone could have a large glass box such as this in the corner of their room.  A large box in which a naked man was encased.

Rob looked around the upper edges of the box for a hatch, an escape route.  But he could see none.  Only a small bolted square on the ceiling of the box.  Gingerly, he climbed on the only other content of the box, a small square platform in the centre of the box.  However, he could only reach the ceiling with his hands and, despite pushing as hard as he could, he could not move the hatch.  Rob crouched on the podium in the centre of his cell and moved his hands to his head.  Where once there was immaculate hair, his fingers met the permanently shaved baldness of his head.

Rob sobbed.  With a defiant sob, he jumped down and walked around the edges of his cell in confusion.  Why was he here ?  How did he get in here, and more importantly how would he be able to escape ?

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Several hours later.  Rob lay naked on the floor inside his glass cell.  His mind raced at what was happening to him.  Had Thomas placed him in this cell ?  Why was he doing this to him ?  When would he be released ?

Suddenly, Rob became aware of a change of light outside the box.  Rising cautiously, he saw Thomas come through the front door and enter the living room.  Wincing at the strange feeling of his trapped penis pushed backwards between his legs, Rob placed his hands on the glass and shouted to Thomas,

“Please.  Please.  What are you doing to me?  Please, let me go.”

Thomas smiled at his captive animal, watching the frightened nude hunk shouting in vain through the soundproof glass.  He looked at the void between Rob’s legs and smiled.  It looked better than he had hoped for, the hunk’s cock locked out of the way under his body.

Thomas shuddered with excitement.  His captive was about to realise his destiny.  He was about to learn his fate for the rest of his life.  And Thomas couldn’t wait to reveal his future life.

Thomas exited the living room and entered the kitchen.  Nonchalantly, he opened a bottle of wine and started to prepare his evening meal.  Resisting the urge to watch his frightened captive in the living room.

Rob stretched his head to try and see inside the kitchen, but all was in vain.  He could do nothing until his captor decided to release him.  But why was this happening to him?  What had he done to deserve this treatment?

Finally, Thomas returned.  Rob pressed his naked body to the glass, his nude form on full display to the man who now controlled him fully.  With great excitement, Thomas sat in the living room chair next to his pet animal’s glass box and poured himself a glass of wine.

Rob heard the static click of the speakers, built into the corners of his cell.  He heard Thomas chuckle, and the comments “So what do you think of your cell boy ?  I hope you like it because, as I am sure you’ve already worked out, I’ve sealed you in it permanently now.  You cant get out.”

Rob was physically shaking – with fear, confusion and frustration – as he meekly replied “Please.  Please why are you doing this to me?  Please let me go.”

“I’ve always wanted a pet, and now I’ve got one.  For so long now, I’ve heard about how you are a cold fish, and how you don’t care about the feelings of others…”

“It’s not true, I’m just independent, I just….”

“Silence.  Animals don’t talk.”

Rob stared in horror at the man before him, a snarl on his face that chilled Rob’s bones.  This man held Rob’s destiny in his hands and Rob was completely at his mercy.  Rob closed his mouth and listened, his head hurting at the implications of what he was hearing.

“Well the cold fish is home now.  He will live as an animal in his soundproof box for the rest of his life.”

With a laugh, Rob heard the speakers switch off and his head swam in confusion at what was happening.  Staring at Thomas through the glass walls of his prison, he shouted for release.  But Thomas would never hear him speak again.  Suddenly, Rob turned around at the noise of a strange gurgling noise becoming apparent behind him.  Suddenly, the rush of water through the large pipe in the side of his cell.  Rob could only look in amazement as his cell began to fill with warm water.

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Rob’s disappearance caused quite a stir, the police completely unaware of what had happened to him.  All leads had been explored and had led to a dead end.  He was an official statistic.  A missing person.

Thomas accepted the offer of filling Rob’s shoes.  It was the least he could do, and he wanted to help his old company in trying to fill the large gap left by Rob.  It wasn’t long before Rob’s existence as a top executive became history. 

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As evening fell on the anniversary of Rob’s transformation from man to animal, Thomas arrived home and locked his door behind him.  Outside, the wind lashed against his window, but he soon closed out the outside world.  With a flick, he switched on the light of his aquarium, and looked inside at the pale blue water.

His cold fish swam through the water, its sad eyes now accustomed to living in water.  Thomas watched it come towards him, its legs flailing in the water and its smooth groin pressed near him against the glass.  Twelve months living naked as a fish, its penis locked away and its days consisting of nothing more than swimming around its small tank.  Twelve months living as a naked creature in a world of inescapable bondage, as a living display object.  Once a day it was fed through the hatch at the top of its tank.  Overnight, it was allowed four hours when the tank water was cleaned and the water level reduced. Only enough to allow the fish to sleep on its pedestal in the centre of the tank before another mind-numbing day when the water level increased again.

The fish was forgetting its past, trying to forget what once it was.  It was too painful to remember his days as a free man.  He now knew his future.  As he swam upwards to fill his lungs with air at the top of his tank, he sobbed inwardly.  What he would give for one hour of freedom, for the ability to talk to anyone.  What he would give to be allowed to cum.  Experiences that were now impossible in his new life.  A humble and demeaning existence as a fish in a bowl.  

What a waste of a once so promising life.