Embarrassing Emily, continued
— Day Three —
Julie found her way down to the cafeteria in time for breakfast. Claire, Steve, and John were already sitting at a table. Claire gestured to Julie to join them. When Julie sat down at an empty seat, Claire said, in as upbeat a tone as she could muster, “You look awful.”
Julie grunted in acknowledgment.
“How’s Em—”
Julie interrupted Claire. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
John tried to gain some more information. “Is she—”
Julie stopped him, too. “I said I’d rather not talk about it.”
Julie took a sip from a cup of coffee and wiped a tear out of her eyes.
Steve let out a sigh and said, “That’s cool. You know where we are if you change your mind.”
“Thanks.”
There was a long, uncomfortable silence before Julie spoke again. “How do you feel,” she started, looking directly at Claire, “knowing that she blew your boyfriend last night?”
“Well, I… I didn’t expect it, but I can’t really be jealous or anything.”
“Good. I guess you shouldn’t be surprised that she hated doing it.”
Claire opened her mouth to speak but decided against saying that Terry thought she wasn’t very good at it anyway.
Julie looked down and ate her breakfast as quickly as she could. Steve noticed this and attempted to gesture to Claire and John to finish up so that he could talk with his girlfriend somewhat privately.
Claire picked up on Steve’s gestures and stood up. “I’ve got to head to class. I’ll talk to you later. Let me know if you need anything, okay?”
Julie looked up and nodded her head.
Before Claire walked away, she stopped by John’s seat and kicked him under the table. He jumped slightly and, after exchanging some confused and impatient glances with both Claire and Steve, he begrudgingly stood up and walked away with Claire.
Once Steve was sure that both Claire and John were gone, he leaned forward and whispered, “Are you all right? Did you get any sleep last night? Is there something I can do?”
She groaned and shook her head.
“Please, Julie. I care about you. I want to help. What…”
She scowled and spoke in a loud whisper. “Listen, Steve. I appreciate your help. But you didn’t stay up with your roommate, who’s been a complete and total fucking mess after what happened last night. I mean, fuck! Emily was up all night. When she wasn’t crying for her mother, she was crying for Jesus. I rubbed her back and tried to reassure her she’d be all right, but I could only do so much.
“When we got back to our room last night, she thanked me for trying to intervene, even if she did push me away. She hated blowing Terry. She fucking hated it. She tried to make herself throw up in the trash can but couldn’t to do it. So she brushed her teeth so hard and for so long, I thought she was going to break something. Then it was back to the trash can and then more toothbrushing. I never felt so sorry for Emily as I did last night. And now I’m fucking exhausted.”
“Where is she?”
“She finally fell asleep. But I couldn’t get to sleep what with her voice ringing in my ears. I’m really starting to think that maybe Will went too far. D’you think that maybe you can get him to stop this … what should we call it? This experiment? Or at least find another test subject?”
Steve stared at her, eyes bulging. After all Emily had done to sabotage his relationship with Julie, after Emily had made herself out to be such a snooty, holier-than-thou bitch, he never would have predicted that Julie might have wanted out of the plan. “I’ll, um, I’ll talk to Will, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good. Now why don’t you go back to your room and get some rest?”
Julie sighed. Even though she knew she should stick around and get some work done, she could feel her exhaustion in every muscle in her body. “Yeah, I think I will.”
“Let me help you get back to your room, okay?”
The two of them stood up, cleared their trays, and left the cafeteria.
Once they arrived on their dorm floor, Steve placed his arm behind Julie’s back and guided her towards her room. Midway down the hall, they noticed Officer Martinez interviewing two students from their floor.
Julie’s eyes widened as she saw Officer Martinez; she hoped that her expression didn’t reveal that the cop was the last person she had any interest in talking with right now.
Once they reached the door to Julie’s room, he kissed her on the forehead. She smiled and asked him politely to leave; this was one time when they didn’t want to disturb Emily in what they had hoped was a relaxing, much-earned sleep.
Although Steve honored Julie’s wishes, he still peeked into the room to see how Emily looked. She was curled up into a ball, whimpering softly in her sleep.
He pulled the door shut and Julie got into bed without taking off any of her clothes. Within moments, she was asleep.
Steve started back down the hall, unsure where he was going to go next, when he saw Dylan.
Steve glanced around cautiously to ensure that the campus police officer didn’t see him. Once he was certain he wasn’t about to attract attention to himself, he asked Dylan, quietly, “Any idea where your roommate is?”
“Probably at the library. Why?”
Steve glanced at his watch before he answered. “I’m worried about Julie. She’s pissed. And I don’t really blame her but we can’t have her talking.”
Dylan opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing.
“It’s all right. She’s sleeping right now. I just want to nip this little issue in the bud before it becomes a real problem, ya know?”
“I hear you.”
“I’m heading down to the library.”
“I’ll join you.”
“No need. Just tell him I’m looking for him, in case I don’t see him first.”
“But…”
Steve was somewhat forceful in his interruption. “Please. I’m pretty sure that cop over there’s watching you right now. For now, I’m probably better off maintaining some kind of distance. Got it?”
Dylan sighed. “I, um, I guess you’re right.”
“Don’t worry. This’ll blow over soon enough.”
“I hope so. I don’t really like being in the middle of all this.”
Steve patted Dylan on the shoulder in an attempt to demonstrate his understanding.
For his part, Dylan sighed as he watched Steve walk away without saying another word.
He strode briskly to the library, hoping to find Will there. Once he arrived, he stepped through the sliding glass doors and looked around. Figuring the most likely place to find Will would be in the study cubicles off to his right, he turned and hustled in, careful not to draw too much attention to himself while simultaneously scanning the faces of the people studying.
In the far corner, Steve saw Will, typing something into his laptop.
Will noticed Steve shortly before he arrived at the desk and smiled broadly. “Wait’ll you see what I just did…”
“Before I do,” Steve said, trying with minimal success to sound calm. “I’m starting to get a little …”
“…worried about Julie?”
Steve was silent. This was one of those times when Will’s tendency of finishing other people’s sentences was more annoying than funny.
Will nodded and smiled. “Last night, I didn’t expect Julie to intervene and try to stop Emily, so I had Emily throw her off. The way she ran off after Emily when it was all over … well, let’s just say that I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s pissed right now.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty upset.”
“Where’s she now?”
“Sleeping. I just brought her to her room. Emily was still asleep when I brought Julie back. Neither one of them slept much last night.”
“I see.” Will paused, contemplating his next move. “How long d’you think she’ll be asleep?”
“Good question. If Emily wakes up, she’ll probably wake up Julie. Even if she doesn’t, I don’t think Julie’ll get as much as she needs.”
“And we don’t want a sleep-deprived Julie talking to that cop.”
“True.”
“I think I’ll just keep an eye on the goings-on in their room for now. Maybe I can get Emily to sleep longer than she normally would.”
“Good idea.”
“What’re you doing now?”
Steve glanced at his watch. “I got class in half an hour. I think I’ll go get a cup of coffee or something before the class.”
“Not a bad idea.” Will glanced at his own watch. “I should probably get back to the dorm…”
Steve laughed. “The great Will Paulsboro, slummin’ it in his dorm room. I’ll see you at lunch.”
“See you then.”
The two students left the library together and walked off in different directions.
When Will was certain that Steve was far enough away that he wouldn’t hear, he grabbed his cell phone, hit a few keys, and listened to the sound of a phone ringing through the earpiece.
A voice on the other end of the phone said, “Hey, Will. Steve’s looking for you.”
“Hey, Dylan. Thanks. Steve just left. Where are you right now?”
“I’m in our room. What’s up?”
“I need your help with something.”
“What’s that?”
“I need you to hang out outside Emily’s room in about five minutes. She—“
“Do I have to? I’d like to, you know, stay as far away from her as possible.”
“I know, buddy. I know. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important. Trust me, she’s not going to remember anything of it, and you’ll barely see her. She’s going to give you something I need.”
“What’s she going to give me?”
“You’ll see.”
“Ummm.“
“C’mon, Dylan. I’ll make it up to you. Please?”
This might have been the first time since the two of them ever met, that Will ever said ‘Please’ to him. Despite his reservations, Dylan said, “Okay, I guess.”
“When you get it, just hang on to it until I can get back. I’ll be there in about ten, fifteen minutes.” Before Dylan could change his mind, Will said, “Thanks. I’ll see you soon.”
Dylan held the phone up to his ear long after the clicking sound indicated that Will had ended the call. He slowly got up and walked out of his room. As he passed the common room, he glanced in and saw Officer Martinez talking with a few other people from the floor. He shuffled by quickly, hoping she didn’t see him.
He continued to walk towards the women’s end of the dorm. A few seconds after he arrived at his destination, he heard the sound of the door being unlocked He turned his head and saw Emily standing in her doorway. Her eyes were open but her expression was vacant.
“Emily?”
She stepped towards him stiffly and stuffed a small clump of hair into his hand. Without saying a word or changing her expression, she walked back into her room and closed the door., locking it as it had been a few moments earlier. He crushed the hair into a ball, rolling it between his palms for a short while before heading back towards his own room.
He unlocked his door, sat down on his bed, and waited silently for Will to return.
His only needed to wait about five minutes before his roommate came back. He saw the ball of hair between Dylan’s hands, smiled, and took it away. “Thank you, dude!”
“Do I want to know what you’re pl…”
“No.”
“Then I’ll just…”
“Head to class.”
“Ya know, if you weren’t a friend of mine…”
“You’d be worried about what I’d do with you, right?”
Dylan laughed. “Yeah.”
“Well, bro, I don’t think you’d have much to worry about from me.”
Small consolation, Dylan thought as he left the room.
He strode slowly down the hall towards the stairwell. He placed his hand on the doorknob to the stairs when he heard someone call his name. He turned around and saw Officer Martinez, standing a few feet away from him.
He gave her a feeble smile and said, “Good morning, officer.”
“Good morning. Do you have five minutes?”
“Well, I do have to get to class. Could you walk with me?”
Officer Martinez contemplated his response. “Sure.”
The two of them walked in silence down the stairwell and out into the quad outside of the dorm.
“So what can I do for you, Officer… Ummm… Sorry. I forgot your name.”
“Martinez. But anyway, I was wondering if you were aware of an incident that took place in the common room of your dorm last night.”
“I’m assuming you’re talking about Emily, um… performing a lewd act on Terry Andrews?”
“That’s a … polite way of saying it.”
“I wasn’t there when it happened. I only heard about it from other people.”
“That’s … interesting.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You weren’t there. You might be the only person on this floor who didn’t at least partially see it.”
“That’s how I feel, too. Julie said that the movie they were showing last night was one of Emily’s favorite movies, so I made a point of not being in the common room. I’m kind of getting tired of her going off on me all the time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Emily was already blaming me for the fact that she woke up in my bed the other day.”
“Naked…”
“Yes, but, as I said before, I didn’t do anything to her.”
“We know that. At least, we know you didn’t have your way with her.”
“I’m glad you believe me, then. Would you agree that her stripping down to her underwear and then blowing a guy in full view of … I don’t know how many people… Well, let’s just say that’s not like her.”
“I don’t know what to believe about her right now, to be honest.”
“Well, she does take a kind-of superior attitude towards people, so I really can’t imagine why she would have done something like that.”
“Yes… A lot of people said the same thing. But, even before last night, she’s taken what? Two naked trips across the hall, hasn’t she?”
“Um….”
“Once to get into your bed and once … to shower in the men’s showers.”
“I guess.”
“What do you make of this?”
“I’m not a psychology major. Maybe there’s a part of her that she’s been stifling too long, that’s now just … I don’t know, coming out for the first time?”
“Could be. Do think she did what she did to Terry because you weren’t there?”
“I really hope not. If she’d done it to me, she’d find a way of blaming me for that, too.”
Officer Martinez paused, thinking about how, no matter how much these two people disliked each other, something in Dylan’s story made more sense than what Emily had been feeding her. “Thank you, Dylan.”
“You’re welcome.”
The two of them had arrived at the building where his class was being held. Without saying another word, he walked in the front doors and disappeared into the crowd.
Officer Martinez scribbled a few notes into her notepad and returned to her office to review her findings.
Once she had returned to her desk, she sighed and said to her computer that nothing here made sense. She glanced up at the dry erase board on her wall, picked up the eraser, and wiped it clean. She drew a circle in the center with the name “Emily” on it as she started to think this entire case through.
It was mid-afternoon when Emily started to stir. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she sighed and wished she didn’t have to leave her room in order to go to the bathroom.
She quickly threw on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt and walked hastily out of her dorm room and into the women’s bathrooms. Even though she had done this on numerous occasions since she had moved into the dorm at the beginning of the semester, she made a point of double-checking to make sure she was going into the right room.
Will was engrossed in a game he was playing on his computer when his computer began to beep urgently. He sighed as he paused the game, then switched to his controlling software and smiled upon learning that, at long last, Emily had woken up. He gained access to what she saw and recognized that she was in the women’s bathroom.
“I think I’ll let her do her business,” he whispered to his computer.
He cracked his knuckles as he watched Emily stand up and leave the stall in the bathroom, heading for the sinks to wash her hands. As Emily left the bathroom, he mused, what’s the right thing here?
He started typing frantically into his computer, in hopes that his typed words would sink in and become a part of her consciousness. “One thing you haven’t yet learned, my dear Emily,” he said quietly with a tone both condescending and apologetic, “is what pleasure really is. I think it’s time to change that.”
Once Emily was safely back in her room, he watched as she lay back down under the covers of her bed. Turning off her active memory, he made her stand up, strip naked, and return back into her bed. She wouldn’t have any reason to think that she’d be naked now, he snickered.
“Time to see how well this program handles two people at once.”
He typed in a few commands and clicked on a few buttons. In a separate window on his computer, he made Julie open her eyes. She was clearly still asleep.
He typed in a few more commands. Julie stood up and stripped down to her panties. The lack of movement in the window on Will’s computer screen that represented her line of sight, demonstrated that she was waiting for Will’s next command.
Will scowled at his computer monitor. “I wonder if Emily knows what it feels like to be horny….” He started typing a few words into his computer as he chuckled at the thought of what was about to happen.
Emily, still somewhat drowsy from having been up all night, felt an unusual tingle between her thighs as she lay in bed. Barely conscious of her own movements, she spread her legs slightly, while at the same time trying to block the sensation from her mind.
The more she tried to ignore the sensation, the more pronounced it became. She rubbed her eyes and saw her roommate standing over her. “What’s going on, Julie?” Her voice was more sultry than she had expected.
Julie didn’t answer.
Emily’s arousal was getting stronger and she started to feel afraid for both what she was feeling and her roommate’s unsettling lack of responsiveness. Without thinking, she started running her hands up and down on her blanket, rubbing herself through the fabric.
“What’s happening to me?” she asked of her roommate. She’d felt some minor degrees of arousal before, but nothing as dramatic as this.
Emily paused to wipe a tear out of her eye. She got a sick sensation in her stomach as she felt her legs kick out from under her sheets and hang loosely over the edge of her bed.
She pushed herself out of the bed and wanted to scream when she saw herself in her mirror, her face registering the shock and horror of being completely naked. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out.
Will input two commands to Emily on his computer: the first was to spread her legs and the second was to freeze. He wondered what Emily must have been thinking and feeling as her body tensed up.
He turned his head slightly and looked at the scene of their room, through Julie’s eyes. Emily’s eyes were wide open. Was this fear? Panic? Arousal? All of the above? Her motionless body gave no hint as to what Emily actually felt.
He directed Julie’s line of vision further down and saw that Emily had covered herself up before he had frozen her.
Scoffing, he said to the digital image of the naked prude who had unknowingly helped him to test and refine his program, “That won’t do, Emily. That won’t do.”
He typed a few commands into his computer and watched through Julie’s eyes as Emily’s hands moved up to a point so that both hands were now behind her head. Emily’s expression remained unchanged, although he wondered what the girl was actually feeling at this point. Not that it mattered, he chuckled.
He typed a few more commands into his computer and the line of sight from Julie’s eyes quickly moved downward, straight to Emily’s crotch. Judging by the walls behind Emily, he knew that his command to Julie, instructing her to kneel down, had worked.
He typed a few more commands to both of them and decided to let nature take over.
Julie crawled up to Emily’s clit and started to nibble and suck on it. Even though she’d never been with another woman before, the programming she had received from Will’s computer was enough to ensure that she knew exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.
Julie grasped Emily’s ass and took to eating Emily out enthusiastically, her tongue sliding neatly around her roommate’s clit, between the folds and along her greater nether-regions. After a short while, her tongue paused on the lower tip of Emily’s clit. Julie leaned in and began to nibble gently using her upper teeth and her tongue.
Emily let out a squeal. The sensation was so sudden, so unexpected, that she couldn’t restrain herself, even though her body was still frozen. The squeal was a combination of pleasure and revulsion, confusion, sadness, and relief.
Julie backed away and began to run her fingers over Emily’s clit and pussy. Emily struggled to understand why her roommate was doing this, why she couldn’t move, and whether she should feel guilty about enjoying it. As the pleasure increased, she let out another yelp, longer and more drawn out than her earlier squeal.
As the pleasure receded again, she felt her own sweat dripping from her forehead and stinging her eyes. Praying for help, she wished it would be over despite the fact that she recognized, for the first time in her life, that there might be pleasures out there she hadn’t yet experienced.
Will typed a few commands into his computer. In response, Julie stopped playing with Emily. The window that reflected Emily’s line of sight had gotten blurry, presumably from its subject’s eyes watering up from pleasure. What Julie could see was a wet and engorged vulva that clearly had been aroused, even if it wasn’t clear whether Emily had had an orgasm.
“I think that’s about enough,” Will said to his computer.
Julie got back in her own bed and closed her eyes. “You won’t remember a thing,” he whispered to her.
On the commands typed into his computer, Emily’s body stiffly moved back into bed. Once he was sure she was safely in bed, he released his control over her body.
Emily lay in bed for about ten minutes, unsure of why her body had done what it had done, but when she finally tried to move her arm to scratch her cheek, she found she had control over her movements again.
She immediately got out of bed and got dressed. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was after 3 pm. She looked down at Julie, who was sleeping soundly. She realized she had a decision to make. She needed to talk to Julie and find out what had just happened, but she also wanted to talk to Officer Martinez and didn’t know how much longer she’d be in her office.
She let out a long sigh as she whispered, “Why don’t you sleep, Julie? I’ll talk to you later.”
She ran across campus to the station. Panting, she asked the receptionist, “Is … Officer … Martinez … here?”
The receptionist nodded pleasantly and said, “Yes. And you are?”
“Emily. … Emily Fountainbleu.”
“Just a moment.”
Emily paced around the waiting area until the campus officer strode in, “I was hoping to see you today.”
“You were?”
“Yes. Why don’t you come back to my office?”
The two of them walked back in silence. Julie sat down and immediately noticed a dry erase board that had names and circles connecting different names. In the center of the board was the name “Emily.”
Julie, Dylan, and Terry all had circles connecting directly to Emily’s name. The connecting arrows were labelled “Roommate”, “Woke up in his bed”, and “Fellated”, respectively.
Julie’s name then connected with Steve’s name, with the arrow labelled “Boyfriend/girlfriend”.
Steve and John were connected with an arrow that said “Roommates.” John, in turn, was connected to Claire because they were “Brother and Sister.” Claire was connected to Terry as “Boyfriend/girlfriend”. Finally, Dylan connected to Will as “Roommates.”
Noticing that Emily was eyeballing this chart, Officer Martinez asked, kindly, “I’m pretty sure this is your roommate’s complete circle of friends. Am I missing anyone?”
“Um… I, uh… I don’t think so.”
“Good. Now. Put yourself in my shoes, which of these people do you think might be easiest to slip under the radar if they were doing something wrong?”
“Um… I don’t…”
“Tell you what. Let’s get back to that, and we’ll see if you can follow my logic. Now. I’ve got to admit that I wasn’t sure if I should believe you until I spoke with some other residents of your dorm today.”
“But I …”
“I know, Emily. I need you to understand where I’m coming from. In the past couple of days, you’ve done three things that … let’s just say they’re not consistent with what a girl who isn’t a very sexual person. Would you agree with that?”
Emily opened her mouth and nodded her head. She was about to say the word “four,” meaning her interlude with her roommate just before she came down here, but Officer Martinez spoke first.
“So, one of two things had to be true. First — and I’m being practical here — was that you were lying, maybe seeking some kind of perverse kind of attention, and se—”
“But I wasn’t lying!”
“Let me finish, please. That was just one possibility of what’s going on here. The other possibility was that you were telling the truth, which means that somehow, you took your two naked strolls and then committed your lewd act on Terry Andrews without being in control of your actions.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure yet. The most likely candidate is some kind of mental illness, like multiple personality disorder. Most of the time, when people have this, their different personalities come out at different times and the individual personalities quite literally operate in separate spheres of existence and, unless the person is made aware of it, they might not even have one personality know the other.”
“Oh, I.. I don’t think I’m sick.”
“Well, a psychiatric evaluation might be a wise move for you. So let’s take a look at these two possibilities honestly, shall we? If you were lying and seeking attention, then you’re a damn good actress, based on the way you handled yourself in my office two days ago. To further corroborate my hunch that this one isn’t the right angle, quite literally everyone I interviewed today — which is to say easily half of the whole floor you live on — they said that your naked strolls and then the sex act last night are quite literally not something they’d ever expect you of all people to do.”
“So…”
“So I’m fairly sure you’re telling the truth, or at least to the extent that you know what the truth is. When you say that you didn’t like what was happening to you, I believe you.”
“So you’re saying it’s multiple personality disorder?”
“Well,” smiled Officer Martinez. “Let’s look at a few more facts of your case. You didn’t have sex with Dylan Sinclair, did you?
“Of course not! You knew that because I’m still … a, uh, virgin.”
“Right. So if you do have multiple personality disorder and had some kind of a blackout when the sexual version of yourself was in charge, then could you explain why you didn’t have sex with him?”
“Because I don’t want to?”
“That’s not quite the way multiple personality disorder works. The ‘you’ I’m talking to right now is the normal Emily Fountainbleu everyone knows. If there’s a second ‘you’ in there somewhere, then she’d have her own moral compass and have a sense of right and wrong that would be quite different from the sense that you have. If she’s in there, and she’s already demonstrated a willingness and desire to be naked and to walk around naked all over the place, then it doesn’t quite make sense that she wouldn’t want to have sex with the guy she woke up with, naked.”
“Um… I’m, I mean… I guess not, huh?”
“Now. Several witnesses reported seeing you perform oral sex on Terry Andrews last night in the common room of your dorm.”
Emily looked down at the floor, hoping not to be asked to confirm that this happened.
“Do you remember doing this?”
Emily whispered, “Yes.”
“Really?”
She nodded her head.
“I hated it. It was disgusting. But I … I felt like I was a puppet or something. It was …” Her voice trailed off and she started to cry.
Officer Martinez quickly grabbed a tissue and handed it to Emily. The campus cop looked at her dry erase board, scratched her head, and mumbled, “Surprising.”
“What’d you say?”
“Nothing. Are you saying that you remember everything?”
“Please don’t ask me to relive it. Please!”
“I won’t. I’ve got enough information from interviewing other people who saw it all. Can I just ask you one question?”
“Um… I, uh…”
“Everyone said you ran as soon as it was over.”
“Yeah. I ran out as soon as I could regain control over my body. Julie helped me get through the night. She really is…” Emily looked around and decided not to finish her sentence, her confusion at what had happened just before she came down here was something she needed to process before she said anything else.
“I understand. Where’s your roommate now?”
“She was asleep in our room when I came down here to see you. I didn’t want to wake her up.”
“That’s fine. Now, you say that you actually remember what you did last night? You’re not, like, remembering it as if it were a dream?”
“In a dream, you don’t gag on something in your mouth, do you?”
“Um… No.”
Emily took a deep breath and held back her tears.
“So that actually makes my theory of a multiple personality disorder even less likely than it was before. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that someone wants to humiliate you. What do you think?”
“I … I don’t know. It just seems … odd. I mean, how would they do it?”
“That’s one of the things we need to figure out. The who and the how are pretty big stumbling blocks. The why might be fairly straightforward. You might not like what I’m about to say.”
“What do you mean?”
“A lot of people resent your attitude, especially since it seems like you like to ruin other people’s fun.”
“I don’t like to…”
“But you do wish they’d act more like you do.”
“Yes.”
“So, let’s go back to this dry erase board. Now. Put yourself in my shoes. From what I’ve heard from Dylan, he didn’t want you in his bed any more than you wanted to be there. Terry… Let’s just say he didn’t expect what you did last night either. So… if you were me, trying to make sense of all of this, would you seek out the people with the most lines connecting them to other people, or the least?”
“Um… The people with the most lines would be under the most scrutiny.”
“Right.”
“So that would leave us with the people with the least lines.”
“Right again.”
“So that just means Claire and Will.”
“Claire and Will. I haven’t spoken much with either one of them, but… I don’t really think that Claire would be the one trying to get some other girl — you or anyone else for that matter — to perform a sex act on her boyfriend.”
“So that just leaves Will?”
“Right. Now I want some people to keep a close eye on him. Isn’t it curious that Will asked Dylan to leave the door open the same night that you happened to slide into Dylan’s bed?”
“That could be a coincidence.”
“Maybe, but that’s where my instincts are sending me right now. Will’s a computer science major. Is it possible he’s invented some kind of strange technology that’s doing something to you?”
“I guess anything’s possible. Will’s always been so nice to me, though.”
“That’s good to know. I’m not going to rule anything out at this point.”
“You know, I just appreciate it that you believe me.”
“If you’d asked me yesterday, I”m not sure I would’ve.”
“Well…” Emily wasn’t sure how to respond to this statement. “I’m glad you do now. Let me know if I can help you with your investigation.’
“I will. I want you to remember that, just because I’m investigating these leads, that doesn’t mean they’ll lead me anywhere. Or even if it does, that doesn’t mean I’ll have the resources to make an arrest. I guess what I’m trying to say is, just hang in there.”
“Thank you.”
Emily left the office and walked slowly across campus. The idea that Will could somehow be behind all of this: she wasn’t sure what to think. It didn’t seem right but at the same time, it wasn’t so amazingly far-fetched that she could rule it out immediately. At least it wasn’t some kind of mental illness, she sighed. Or was it?
Emily walked briskly back to her dorm room. She brushed arms with several passersby as she rushed to get back, ignoring all of the dirty looks and the “Hey! Watch where you’re going!” comments. She paused for a moment when someone taunted her by asking, “Who you gonna blow tonight?” but decided against responding in any way.
She took a deep breath to slow down her beating heart as she inserted the key into the lock of her door when she heard a voice from behind her. “Emily!”
“Steve!” She stammered. “I-is there, um… I, uh.. I guess you want to see Julie, huh?”
“If she’s awake.”
“She was … I think she was asleep a couple of hours ago. Would you, um… m—”
“Actually, I just want to know if she’s… Or, rather. How’re you doing?”
“Me? I, um… Well… I’d … I don’t really feel like talking about last night.”
“I don’t blame you.”
Emily cocked her head to one side, looking up at his face. She couldn’t read his expression, but then again, she never really was very good at doing things like that. Still, there was something different about him. She’d never really gotten the sense that he … that he even recognized she was a human being before. Just someone who got in the way. But she might’ve sworn that there was a sincerity, a tenderness in his voice and she couldn’t ignore it.
Emily shook her head and sighed. She was about to open the door to her room, when she had a thought. “Do you mind if I ask you something … personal?”
Steve scowled. “Um… I … I guess.”
“Do you … you know … do you like having sex with Julie?”
Steve stared at her for a minute. “I’m sorry. I … Did you just ask me …”
“If you liked sex.”
“Of course.” He scoffed without thinking about it.
Emily immediately asked, “Does she?”
“I… I think so. Why’re you asking me this?”
“I … I’ve got to go.” Emily quickly stepped into her bedroom and closed the door behind her.
Julie let out a low grunt in her sleep, turning slightly.
“You … look peaceful, Jules,” she whispered. “I’m torn between letting you sleep and waking you up. I really need to talk to you but you went over and above last night and, well, it’d feel wrong to wake you up right now. I just… I need to make sense of what I’m feeling.”
Julie gasped for air in her sleep and rolled over. For a brief moment, Emily thought she might be waking up, but let out a sigh when she realized that this wasn’t the case.
She got into bed and tried to fall back asleep, but she couldn’t do it. After rolling back and forth in her bed, more than once catching herself just before she fell off the floor, she decided she wasn’t going to get any more sleep. She sat up and looked at Julie, who was still asleep.
Emily closed her eyes and remembered what Julie had done a couple of hours before. Grinning wickedly, she took off her pants and underwear and began to run her fingers over her sex.
First she ran her fingers over her labia, but found that she really wasn’t getting as good a sensation as she had hoped. So she tried elsewhere until she finally found her own clit. Pinching herself with her thumb and forefinger, she let out a high-pitched squeal of pain.
Immediately letting go, she sighed and said, “I don’t think I’ll do that again.”
She then started to rub her clit with the side of her thumb, and found that it responded better. First, she applied no real pressure, just rubbing, but soon she found herself rubbing stronger, harder, and faster.
She closed her eyes as the tingling sensation intensified. She felt so dirty, so wrong for doing what she was doing, but at the same time, if it felt this good, how could it be that sinful or unnatural? She focussed on the rapid movements of her hand over and around her most private parts.
After a short while, she felt some wetness on the tips of her fingers. She pulled her hand out from between her legs and scowled. Taking a deep breath and shaking her head to try to get herself back into a good frame of mind, she quickly walked over to the sink in the corner of her dorm and began to wash her hands.
She looked at herself in the mirror and finally saw her own sunken eyes, a pale complexion born of a sleepless night. Looking into her own eyes reminded her of the pain she had endured the night before. Whatever pleasure she might have had in the intervening time was forgotten in the memory of her uncontrolled actions from the previous night.
She decided she needed to take a shower, so she took off the rest of her night clothes, wrapped a towel around her body, and went off to the bathrooms. “Here’s hoping I don’t decide to walk again,” she whispered as she stepped into the hallway.
Emily took a long, soothing, hot shower and was relieved to see that her towel was right outside of her stall when she turned the water off. She dried herself off and wrapped the towel around herself just above her breasts.
Because it was so late in the day, she was greeted with some rude comments and whistles from some of the guys who happened to be hanging around on the women’s side of the dorm as she walked by.
“What’s wrong today? How come you’re actually wearing a towel?” “I don’t think my girlfriend would mind as much as Claire did if you blew me…” “I like the new you….”
She turned up her nose and walked quickly past all of the people calling out to her. Their comments weren’t even worthy of any kind of a response, she kept telling herself until she found herself in front of her door.
When she hurriedly entered her room, she noticed Julie sitting up and rubbing her eyes. “You’re awake!”
“Yeah.” Julie stretched and yawned. “I think I heard you leave the room, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to sitting up until, like, thirty seconds ago.”
“I just went to take a shower.” Emily quickly moved to her dresser and started to get dressed.
“Nothing funny happened, did it?”
“Nope.” Although this was undoubtedly a good thing, she tried to convey that she didn’t feel as happy about this fact as she should have.
“That’s good. You need a nice, uneventful day. Something to help you feel normal.”
Emily cocked her head to one side. “What’s it feel like to feel normal?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know what I mean. Do things feel normal when you’re with Steve?”
“What’re you getting at?” Julie crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Nothing!” Emily threw her arms in the air. “It’s just that so many people seem to really like having sex and all and I … Well, to me, normal would be sitting in a pew, basking in god’s glory and just praying. Judging by the comments people’ve been saying to and about me these past couple of days, this isn’t normal. And I’ve been wondering if sex helps you feel normal or if it’s even more isolating?”
“Oh, well. I, um…” Julie looked at the ceiling, trying to figure out how to respond. “I’m not sure I’d say ‘normal’ so much, but he’s got a knack for making me feel good, helping me forget my worries and just being a general pick-me-up.”
“All that’s from sex?”
“Not all of it. But the sex really does help with me feel optimistic, plus it’s a little energy boost to boot!”
“What about it being sinful?”
Julie paused. Was it finally time to say what had long been in the back of her mind? She took a deep breath and started, “Look, Emily.”
Emily raised an eyebrow.
“I … I don’t think it is sinful.”
“But …”
“No. I think the bigger sin is to deny yourself some of the simple pleasures in life for a dogma that, to be polite, is, well… It’s … kind of … um … outdated.”
“Jesus is NOT outdated!”
“Maybe not. But Jesus never said anything about saving yourself until marriage or denying yourself pleasure. That’s a teaching of the church you attend but there’s other Christian churches that foster a healthy — er! A healthier attitude towards sex. They caution you about safety and recognize that it’s natural to be curious about your body.”
“Do you think it’s a bad idea to save yourself until marriage?”
Julie sighed. “My dad’s a divorce lawyer. He says that sex is the second most common reason why people come into his office. Only behind money. Do you know why sex is such a big issue in divorces? Long story short, someone in the marriage wants the sex more than the other and frustration and anger just mounts. He told me ages ago that a lot of disagreements about sex within the marriage would be minimized, if not eliminated, if people actually had a sense of what they do and don’t like in bed, before they settle down with one person. That’s not really something you can get if you save yourself for marriage. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but it stacks the cards against you.”
“But… what about faith in Jesus?”
“What about it? If you find someone who shares your enthusiasm for your faith, more power to you. But if you don’t…”
“I… I’m sorry.” Emily mustered enough courage to keep from bursting into tears in front of her roommate. “I’ve… I’ve got to go.” She quickly left the room and ran down the hall and out of the dorm.
Terry, Will, and Claire were finishing up their dinner in the cafeteria. Claire sighed. “I guess it would’ve been foolish to think that Julie’d be here in time for dinner, huh?”
“Yeah,” agreed Terry. “But what about Steve?”
“He’s probably going to wait for Julie,” mused Claire.
“Well, maybe…” remarked Will, cryptically.
“What do you mean?” asked Claire.
“Let’s just say that he might be … preoccupied. With Julie.”
“Huh?” asked Terry.
Will leaned in over the table and continued in a conspiratorial whisper, “I couldn’t have Julie talking. She seemed kind of … distressed this morning. So I, you know, had to take her over as one of my puppet slaves today. Couple that with the breakthrough I made in my program this morning and …”
“Wait wait wait wait wait,” said Claire. “You took over Julie?!?”
“Just so that I could be sure she wouldn’t talk. If she does that then we’ll all but up shit’s creek. But last time I looked into her head, she was sound asleep so I left her there. But I made sure that when she wakes up, she’ll be really horny. So when she wakes up — if she hasn’t already — she’ll be calling Steve to help scratch an itch or two”
Claire opened her mouth to say something else, but remained silent.
“Anyway,” said Will, “as I was saying. I’ve found a way of uploading information into someone’s head.” He looked up at Terry. “You said Emily wasn’t very good last night, huh?”
Claire fidgeted in her seat.
Will ignored Claire. “Well, I found a shitload of web pages that teach you how to give really good head. So I copied a couple of them into Emily’s head this afternoon. Won’t make her like it better, but at least she’ll know what she’s doing. I also gave her the ability to feel an orgasm and to respond to it appropriately.”
“So are you going to have her blow me again? I’d really rather you chose someone else for her to suck off.”
“As you wish, Terry. As you wish.”
Emily stepped into the darkened church that was located just off of the campus grounds and looked around. With her head bowed low, she walked towards the spot where all of the votive candles were burning, grabbed a match, and lit a candle of her own. She turned to look at the large painting of the crucifixion on the wall of the church behind the altar and whispered, “Lord Jesus, give me strength.”
An old man strode into the church near her and said, “Is something wrong, my child?”
She turned towards him. “I’d…” She saw his collar and mustered up her courage to ask, “Would it be possible to, you know, confess, Father?”
“Of course, my dear. Why don’t we use that confessional booth?”
Her eyes traced an invisible line from the end of his hand, to the dimly-lit alcove where the confessional booths were located.
The two of them walked in silence towards the booths. Emily stepped into a booth, sat down, and began to fidget slightly.
After a moment, the priest opened the window to her booth.
Emily looked down at her knees and willed herself to stop her nervous tic. She whispered, “Forgive me, father, for I have sinned.”
“Yes, my child…”
She took a deep breath and began to speak. “I… I don’t… I don’t know how to put this, father.”
“Take your time… Take your time…”
“I really don’t quite understand what’s been happening, Father, but two days ago, I woke up, naked, in a boy’s bed, and I don’t know how I got there.”
“Well, my child, this is one of the pitfalls of drugs and alcohol on —”
“Oh, no, father. I don’t drink or do drugs.”
“But …”
“That’s a part of the problem, Father. Starting with that, I’ve found strange things happening and I can’t explain it. After that, I ended up taking a shower in the boys’ bathrooms on my dorm floor. I don’t know how that happened either.”
“My child, if you wish to be forgiven for your sins, you have to take responsibility for what you have done.”
“Well, I acknowledge that it happened, and it scares me, to be honest. But I don’t know how it happened. And then it got really scary last night.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, I was in the common room of my dorm floor and we were all watching a movie. Then my body stood up and… Well….” Her voice cracked and she buried her face in her hands.
“There, there. Everything will be all right, my child. You can tell me what happened.”
“It’s just that… I didn’t… I felt like… I… I performed a …” She started to cry.
“Take your time, my child.”
Emily blurted out the rest of her sentence as quickly as she could. “I performed a lewd act on a boy in the room. I hated it, and I cried all night.”
“Are you saying you did it and felt guilty about it later?”
“Yes! No! Wait! Yes, I did it. Yes, I felt guilty. I don’t have a clue why I was doing it, even at the time. I even tried to stop myself but I couldn’t stop. I didn’t have any control over my own actions. I felt like… I don’t know. Some kind of puppet or something.”
“So you did it but not because of any active choices but rather because your body did it against your will?”
“I, um… I guess… There’s one more. Earlier today, I … I still didn’t have any control over my actions. I felt frozen, actually. Well, no. I wasn’t cold. But I felt like a statue. And my roommate, she… Um… She performed a…” Emily started to cry.
“And you were helpless to stop her, right? I understand…”
“Y-yes. B-but… Here’s the thing. I…” She buried her face in her hands. “I enjoyed it. A lot.”
“Well, my child. You know that that was a sin, even if you had no control over your actions, the fact that you enjoyed it was quite immoral and you ought to say three Hail Mary’s and pray for forgiveness.”
“Thank you, Father.”
“Any time.”
The two of them stepped out of the confessional. Emily headed towards the door and the priest strode towards the pulpit.
Will decided it was time to check on Emily and Julie. He typed a few commands into his computer and, in the window that reflected what Julie could see, it was fairly dark. He saw Steve’s face in the shadows, moving closer and further away from her. He had a strange look on his face, which he recognized immediately as the two of them fucking. “I … Think I’d rather not watch this…”
Emily, on the other hand, was in a strange, unfamiliar place, and she was moving. As her line of sight in the dimly lit room or building made it difficult to learn anything specific. He quickly stopped her motion until he could tell where she was. A few keystrokes on his computer and Emily turned around to stare into the sanctuary of the church.
Will leaned in closer to his computer monitor to try and make out where she was. Was there someone else there? He thought he saw movement. He made her walk towards the source of the movement.
The priest saw Emily walking towards him and smiled. “Was there something else I can help you with, my child?”
Emily said nothing but let out a low whimper, hoping the priest could hear her.
“What was that? I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.”
Emily whimpered a bit more loudly as her hands began to strip off her clothes and throw them onto the floor.
“Please! I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you contin—”
She leaned forward into the priest and kissed him passionately. Her eyes widened in horror as she did what her body wanted to do, in spite of the fact that she had no control over her actions whatsoever.
The priest tried to push her away, but she grabbed onto his wrists and held them firmly. “My child! Please! Let go of me!”
Emily knelt down and began to unfasten his pants, lowering them to the ground. She whimpered as she took his cock into her hands and began playing with it. As he grew harder and harder, he tried more valiantly to push away from Emily, but was too concerned about injuring himself to succeed.
Finally, when she felt he was hard enough, she leaned forward and began to blow him. She started by slowly licking his cock and generally moving both more smoothly and more expertly than she had the previous night.
Her newfound expertise was enough to convince the priest not to fight her advances. He occasionally looked at the ceiling, moaning, “Oh, Jesus!” but in a tone that would have made anyone hearing him unsure of whether he was praying for strength or simply appreciating the sensation he was feeling.
He quickly came in her mouth, and she enthusiastically swallowed his semen.
Will reminded himself of the mistake he had made the night before, releasing Emily from his control too soon. He typed a few words on his computer and she stood up, wiped her mouth, cheerfully thanked the priest for his assistance as she gathered her clothes, and got dressed.
He decided to make her forget to put her panties on and made her walk in a near skip out of the church and back to her dorm room.
Will wasn’t sure when he should release his control over Emily. During her trip across campus, he contemplated the commands his program was capable of. Thinking about it for a moment, he typed a command into his computer: “INCREASE OFFLINE CURIOSITY ABOUT SEX TENFOLD.”
After a moment, the computer beeped to show that the command had been successfully instilled in Emily’s brain. Will scratched his head and decided to re-execute this command.
As Emily reached her dorm room, Will decided give Julie a powerful orgasm. Julie let out a yelp that echoed down the hall as Emily opened the door.
“Good timing,” said Emily with a smile.
Steve and Julie both looked at Emily.
“Don’t mind me. Do you mind if I watch while the two of you go at it? I’m suddenly really curious about all of this.”
Steve and Julie looked at each other. Julie whispered, “Don’t stop.”
Steve nodded his agreement before looking at Emily one more time. “Just stay quiet, okay, Emily?”
“I can do that,” she said as she began to play with her breasts, enjoying the show being put on before her.
Julie dug her fingernails into Steve’s back as she came again. Steve grunted and said, “I’m coming!”
As Steve released his seed into Julie, the two of them heaved a deep sigh and collapsed together.
Emily decided against applauding for the show she had just witnessed.