The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The red Ford Mustang pulled into the back lot of the Omega Xi house. The sun was setting behind the edifice, casting an ominous red glow to the already impressive structure. Brittany opened the door and slowly exited, barely able to stand on weak, exhausted knees.

24 hours.

By her best guess, that’s how long she stayed at that warehouse. That’s how long she serviced men, women, couples…all in the name of charity.

It was beyond comprehension that she lasted that long. Every muscle in her body screamed for rest. Every motion, even blinking, seemed to take the utmost effort. Parts of her body were black and blue from some of her more sadistic buyers. She didn’t think there was a single kinky act left that she hadn’t explored. Shuddering with revulsion at the memory of one particular demand, Brittany was just glad that the room was equipped with those showers.

She couldn’t understand it. No matter what they did to her, she orgasmed every time. And every time she thought of quitting, she thought of Mickey in that wheelchair. ‘Just one more,’ she’d think… ‘Just one more.’ And even when she thought she had nothing left, she’d still cum, her body spasming and contorting in pleasure, even if it was just a guy ejaculating in her mouth.

Why did she care so much about that boy? A few months ago she wouldn’t even have allowed herself to know he existed. ‘They’ve messed with my mind,’ Brittany thought, not truly understanding the truth behind that thought. ‘All of them – that hot red-head, Heather…Dr. Walters…Mistress Cheryl – no, she wasn’t Mistress Cheryl any longer. Just Charli. Just a girl upon whose head she’d dumped rotten food, all because she wouldn’t let her copy some test answers…who was laughing now…certainly not me.’

In the end, Brittany Anderson had been seduced by a girl nerd and an even nerdier professor, and willingly submitted herself to all their sick desires…and she couldn’t figure out how she’d let it happen, how she’d let it go so far.

In the end, Mistress Michelle called an end to the event. When Brittany crawled on stage and announced to a mostly empty warehouse that she’d give one more blowjob for five bucks then passed out, Michelle had her drummer carry her back to the showers to get cleaned up and changed. In a half-conscious daze, Brittany had tried to unzip his pants as he cleaned her up, but was too weak to do much more than fumble at his zipper.

The window of the Mustang behind her rolled down. Michelle leaned over the center consol and shouted, “Brittany! You were incredible. You must really love that kid. You easily tripled our door receipts. Listen, here’s my card. I could use someone like you on my payroll.” Michelle held out a business card which Brittany took. She never wanted to see Michelle ever again, but she pocketed the card, too tired to do anything else. Michelle turned her car around and sped away, eager to get to the hospital and see how Mickey was doing, and to share the good news.

After watching Michelle disappear around the corner, Brittany turned back to the house, dragging her feet with every step. On the back door was a small note that simply read, “Britany: President’s Room. –Charli.”

Brittany grimaced. Charli was Mistress Cheryl – she knew that now. Last night Charli said she had one final ‘gift’ to give, but Brittany wasn’t sure she could handle any more “generosity” tonight. She just wanted to shower and scrub herself clean and then crawl into bed. But, she felt compelled to get this one last act over…after all, what more could happen?

She slowly walked toward the back of the house, ignoring the odd looks she was getting from her sisters. She knew she looked exhausted, but they were staring at her as if they were seeing a ghost. At the ornate door that sealed the “President’s Room” from the rest of the house, she didn’t notice anything odd. Why should she, after all, this was the private sanctuary of the Omega Xi President – a place for her to entertain her most elite clientele. Then a horrible thought occurred to her and she dug in her pocket for her keys.

When she opened the door, the first thing she noticed was the smell. The room usually smelled like cigars or perfume…but now it positively reeked of sex. She took a step into the room and accidentally kicked over some bottles that were lying on the floor. She looked down and saw that the empty bottles were from her private stash—very expensive wines and scotch intermixed on the floor with empty Indian take-out cartons. “What the fuck?” Brittany asked, mostly to herself.

“Lots of fuck, Brittany! Or perhaps I should say, ‘Lots of fucking!’” rang Charli’s voice.

Brittany looked up and saw that Charli’s group from last night were all seated in various couches, dressed in the same clothes as last night. They looked like they were all ready to head out again. The pile of towels outside the small closed bathroom indicated that they’d used the shower there recently. The water was currently running, so someone must still be in there…but everyone was accounted for.

E’dan was enjoying one of the precious Cubanos in an oversized leather chair. There were already two butts in the ashtray beside him. To Brittany’s surprise, Rivkah was sitting on the arm of E’dan’s chair reading one of the room’s leather bound books of poetry. It was probably the first time one of those books ever left the shelves. Gregg was sitting on one of the couches and Emily was in his lap, both dressed, with Emily feeding Gregg something from a tin she was holding. She looked incredibly sexy, even with her foot still wrapped in an Ace bandage. Chad was standing behind Charli who sat beside Gregg, rubbing her shoulders while Heather sat on the floor, her head resting in Charli’s lap. They seemed to be waiting for something

“How…how did you get in here?”

“Are you only just NOW getting back?!?” Charli responded, amazed. In all the fun after leaving the warehouse, she had completely forgotten about Brittany. In fact, she assumed Brittany was just avoiding coming home…and that would have suited Charli just fine.

“Y…yes. Michelle just dropped me off…But, how did you get inside here?”

“Wow, you must have raised a lot of money. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Brittany was beyond exhausted and didn’t have the patience for Charli’s evasions…but still, she refused to argue. It may have been Charli she was watching, but it was Mistress Cheryl’s voive she heard in her ears…a voice she was inculcated not to disobey or disrespect.

Charli was enjoying watching Brittany squirm. It gave her such a thrill to see Brittany powerless before her, even without the guise of Mistress Cheryl. Everyone else in the room seemed indifferent to Brittany’s plight. “To answer your question Brittany, the President of Omega Xi let me in.”

Brittany’s mind was a cloud, she didn’t understand. “I think I’d remember that. I didn’t give you a key…”

“No you didn’t…I did.” Brittany turned her head toward the bathroom to focus in on the new voice. Standing in the doorway of the bathroom, Laura was wearing a sexy silver dress. Her makeup was fresh and she was twirling a key around one finger.

“Laura, what are you talking about? What’s going on? How did you get that?”

“I’m talking about me being the President…newly elected. Last night, I was voted in just after we impeached you.”

The icy ball of fear that had already formed in Brittany’s stomach just sprouted spikes. It was all Brittany could do not to throw up. “No…last night’s meeting was cancelled…”

“Yeah, about that…I didn’t cancel it.”

“You…you can’t!” Brittany cried desperately. “You can’t! I’ll…I’ll…”

“You’ll what, Brittany? Open my files and share them with the rest of the sisters? You’ll call in your favors? Well Master was kind enough to hand your files over to me, and I decided to give them back to the sisters you were blackmailing. It turns out that once everyone got their files back, no one felt a strong desire to come to your defense.”

Brittany turned her face to Gregg, realization of the scope of the conspiracy setting in. Laura had called him Master.

“That’s right Brittany,” Gregg said around a piece of cheese Emily had just placed in his mouth. “I turned your files over to my Slave. She’s more than earned it.” Gregg turned back to Emily and sucked the sauce off her fingers while she giggled and squirmed in his lap.

‘Slave.’ Brittany paled at his use of that name…was Laura the same “Slave” that was present two nights ago at the Rec Center? Had Laura been his this entire time? She turned back to Laura who was nodding, Brittany’s unspoken questions clearly written in the worry-lines across her forehead. “But…but…but why?!? You would have been President in another month anyway! How could you betray the sisterhood? How could you betray ME?!?”

“Because you had me raped you BITCH! Remember that night you decided to teach Charli a lesson by dumping rotten food over her head? Well, when I tried to stop you, you sent your goons to get me away…and they did…they locked me in the kitchen and they raped me.”

“But…but it was Natalie’s idea. Why don’t you punish her?!?”

“We did. Isn’t that right Pet?” From behind the bathroom door, Natalie entered the room, naked except for the cast encasing her arm. She knelt down at Laura’s feet and rested her cheek against Laura’s hip. Laura stroked her hair and Natalie purred at the affection. “Natalie has accepted her punishment and has been forgiven. The funny thing is, when you broke her arm for not sucking your cunt that night, she would have. She would have eagerly dropped to her knees and sucked you dry…but I had forbidden her from eating anyone but me out that night. I meant it as a joke, never imagining that you’d try to get into her panties. But she obeyed me all the same – to the letter. She’s such a good Pet.” Natalie cooed at the praise, and Laura rewarded her with gentle fingers running through her hair. Natalie finally turned her head enough to cast her lidded eyes in Brittany’s direction.

Brittany knew that if Laura commanded Natalie to lick the toilet clean, Natalie wouldn’t hesitate and she’d smile the whole time. Her status as ‘Pet’ was as much her identity as her name. “So you took your revenge on me by having a room full of total strangers fuck me? We’re Omega Xi’s! We fuck all the time! What did it matter if two more had their way?”

“Yes, we fuck…but we do so at our own choosing! So be so melodramatic Brittany…you’re absolutely correct. What you got is nothing more than we ‘sisters’ do here every day. Besides, last night was charity – it was very charitable of all those people to let you fuck them.”

Charli burst out laughing at Laura’s last stinging barb. But Brittany was at a total loss for words. The world was spinning and she dropped to her knees. Her exhausted body and brain just wouldn’t let her get her head around what was happening. Her house, it turned out, was a house of sand, and right now a windstorm was blowing.

Heather stood and walked toward the bathroom. “C’mon everybody. We’ve got dinner reservations.” She closed the door to the bathroom to do a final check on her makeup. Everyone else began their final preparations, which included Laura helping Natalie into a sexy slinky dress. She knelt at Natalie’s feet and helped her Pet put on her shoes, since the new fully active Omega Xi sister couldn’t manipulate the slim buckles with just one hand. The only person not getting ready for a night out was Brittany who remained in the center of the room, on her knees, too numb to even cry.

A muted female voice from behind the half-open door to the room was heard “…It’s stocked with the best booze in the house, so I’ve heard. But you won’t be able to get in – only the President has the key.” There were several startled looks when three boys – two with two sorority sisters each under their arms and one with an unfamiliar girl – barged into the room.

“What are you talking about you sexy little cunt? The room’s open!” shouted the one in front as he took in the room’s décor with reddish eyes and a sloppy grin. Even more alarming than their ungracious and forbidden entrance was the fact that the boy in front had blood coming out his nose, forming a horrible red Fu-Man-Chu mustache to which he seemed completely oblivious…as did his companions. “What’s this? A party?”

The room quickly parted into three distinct camps as everyone finally noticed each other. Gregg and his friends were along one wall, Laura, Natalie, and Brittany (still on her knees) in the center, and David and his friends – which included Adam, Brian, and Christine plus the four Omega Xi’s they’d picked up moments ago – were near the room’s entrance.

“Oh shit! The President!” one of the girls squeaked.

“Really, the President? Oh, she’d be a fun fuck!” slurred David, clearly already drunk. “Which one of you hot bitches is the President?”

“Me,” said Laura at the same moment that Brittany said, “I am.” from the floor. They glared angrily at each other for a moment before turning their wrath back at the intruder. Their power struggle would wait until after they got rid of this asshole.

“Shit, TWO Presidents? Well, fuck it, I’ve got enough cock for both of y’all.” David frowned in concentration and then Laura’s head swayed somewhat, like it was caught in an underwater current. She blinked heavily and shook her head until the wave of dizziness passed. David grunted in frustration and then turned his attention to Brittany. She likewise swayed, and also shook her head like she was fighting off a wave of dizziness. “God damnit!” David shouted, scrunching up his face as if preparing to try again seizing the girls’ minds.

“That’s enough David,” came a voice from the wall.

David looked up and finally noticed Gregg, glaring down at him angrily.

“I should have figured you’d be here, Dr. Walters. You got both Presidents, huh?” David’s voice dropped to a low snarl. “Fucking greedy bastard! Why don’t you share a couple of these cunts with your favorite student?” There were startled gasps, but both Gregg and David ignored them.

For their own safety, Gregg reached out mentally toward the Omega Xi’s that David brought in with them. He didn’t know what was about to happen, but the room was getting crowded and it would probably be better if they weren’t in the way. His consciousness flexed outward and it slipped and slid around their heads, one after the other, failing to connect. It was like trying to hold a greased bowling ball in greased hands. No matter what he did, he just couldn’t get a grip. They each swayed drunkenly for a moment while David just smiled.

“You can’t have them. They’re mine. Maybe when I’m done I’ll let you have sloppy seconds.”

Angrily, Gregg lashed out mentally at David, but David just smiled and waved his hand, shattering Gregg’s attack before it even began. Gregg flinched in pain, but did his best not to show it. As far as his friends knew, they were just staring angrily at each other.

The silence was broken by the bathroom door opening. Heather stepped out, curious as to what all the commotion was about.

“Heather,” David whispered, as if looking upon the face of an angel. To Gregg’s surprise, the four Omega Xi’s shook their heads as if waking from a spell and exited the room, scratching their heads in confusion and mumbling to each other. They weren’t sure how they got in the President’s Room but they knew they didn’t belong there.

“David,” she said cautiously, remembering his odd behavior at the hospital. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m better, now that I’ve found you. It’s over now. I’ve come to save you.” Heather looked beyond David and saw Brian and Adam, but didn’t give them more than passing glances. She quickly summed up the situation and saw that they were just secondary characters in whatever was happening…and for a moment she thought back on the good times they had at the dig so many months ago and was sad that whatever had befallen David had somehow entangled the others as well.

“I’m fine David. I don’t need to be saved,” she replied cautiously. While David’s eyes were locked on her in a mad frenzy, Brian’s, she noted, seemed to be watching events unfold with an almost frantic desperation.

Heather’s eyes closed as she fought a sudden wave of nausea and her head swayed. Gregg immediately lashed out to stop whatever David was trying to do, but David simply brushed aside his intrusion like swatting at a fly. In fact, to everyone else in the room, that’s exactly what it looked like – a crazed boy swatting at invisible flies.

Heather stopped swaying when David cried in anguish. “Let her go!” he shouted at no one in particular, his eyes firmly fixed on Heather. Only Gregg knew that the command was for him.

“David, I think it’s time for you to go,” was all Gregg said, stepping forward toward Heather, not sure what he could do to protect her against someone so clearly advanced in his powers. But he’d sooner die than let this sicko take her. He looked around at his friends and quickly confirmed that none of them were aware of the invisible battle being waged around them. All they saw was a wacked-out kid in over his head.

“Careful, Gregg,” Heather whispered. “He’s been taking a lot of drugs.”

David looked at his former teacher with amusement. “The valiant hero protecting his princess. Tell you what, Dr. Walters. I’ll trade you. You give me Heather, and I’ll not only let you live, I’ll even give you my substitute Heather. She’s been broken-in, but she’s still got a little fuck left in her.” He snapped his fingers and the redhead that was holding onto Brian came to his side. Both her and Brian’s eyes were filled with fear. “Like what I’ve done with her? She looks like she could be Heather’s sister. You take her, I take Heather, and we both walk away happy, what do you say? This way, I get what I want…and you get to live.” David’s bloodshot eyes managed to hold an intent focus that made it clear that he wasn’t joking.

The next few seconds seemed to last for hours as time slowed down. E’dan, not sure what was happening, but tired of this pissing contest, stepped forward to grab this insolent boy and teach him some manners. At the moment Gregg shouted “NO!” David turned and cocked his arm back, thrusting forward with a punch that was loaded with his mental energy. It was so fast that E’dan had no chance to block it…he barely even saw it. The next thing he knew, he was flying backward into the wall above the couch. He landed on the elegant leather, holding his stomach, his back covered in white plaster.

No one moved. No one even blinked. The stunned silence was only broken when E’dan’s gaping mouth finally managed to draw a breath. Rivkah was the first to react, rushing to E’dan’s side. The next seconds were filled with chaos that only Gregg managed to fully understand.

David looked longingly at Heather, but her hate-filled stare answered his unspoken plea. She would never willingly be his. Adam seemed to see it too, and uttered, “C’mon, let’s go,” into David’s ear. Adam was the first to leave.

David grabbed Christine by the hair as if grabbing a leash. Her head yanked back and she stumbled in his direction. His self control was hanging on by the barest thread. The hatred in Heather’s eyes were all that were keeping him from following through with his threat. His eyes were filled with disgust at having to settle once again for his Heather-substitute…yet another delay as his prize once again slipped from his grasp. “Let’s go Bitch, before I forget I’m in the presence of a lady…Brian, you can have her back when I’m done.”

Brian opened his mouth to protest, his moment of freedom quickly ebbing away. He’d reached his breaking point and just as his fist began to close and his sneer begin to form, an invisible hand spun him around and knocked his head into the wall, sending him staggering drunkenly toward the center of the room where he crashed into Chad who was rising to give chase. Both men fell to the floor, Brian unconscious and bleeding from a nasty gash in his head. David hadn’t even watched his handiwork. He was already out the door, his ties to his former friend officially severed. He was tired of Brian being such a whiney buzzkill anyway.

Gregg had seen enough. He followed David out the door to the President’s room and started to pursue. He’d only made it halfway down the hall when the four Omega Xi’s that had accompanied David and Adam into the room all simultaneously tripped and entangled themselves around Gregg. Now normally being pinned to the floor by four gorgeous girls would have been a blessing, but right now he just wanted to stop David…if such a thing were possible.

Desperately he reached out with his mind to get them to move, but they were impervious to his attempts, his consciousness slipping and sliding around theirs to no effect. While he attempted to dig himself out from the pile of delirious girls, Gregg watched in horror as E’dan stumbled out of the room and chased after David.

“E’dan! No!” But the big guy paid him no mind. E’dan didn’t like being taken by surprise, and there was no way this insolent little punk was going get in another sucker punch like that.

Gregg finally managed to wiggle free from the net of flesh and got to his feet. A quick glance back into the room saw Rivkah and Emily kneeling beside Brian, Laura handing them a folded washcloth. Only Heather seemed to notice Gregg and her green eyes were locked onto him, silently pleading to not get hurt. Chad moved to run out into the hall, but Heather’s hand reached out and grasped his arm, silently keeping him out of danger.

Racing across the living room and down the front steps, Gregg burst out the front door, quickly searching for which way David and company had gone. To his surprise, David, E’dan, and the girl who sort of looked like Heather were all standing beside the curb. Adam was waiting impatiently further down the block. To the casual observer, it looked as if David and E’dan were engaged in a quiet conversation. Gregg was stunned, but jogged across the lawn in their direction. Only then did he realize the full horror of what was happening.

Christine was crying, begging David to let the man go. “Please David, he didn’t mean to try to hurt you! You just surprised him! Let him go! Take me home, fuck me! Rape me! Beat me! Just let him go!”

David’s sunken eyes didn’t seem to hear her passionate pleas. Gregg would forever remember the girl’s words, her desperate attempt to save the life of a man she didn’t even know.

E’dan was standing, his face contorted in a mask of pain, his arms locked to his side. Only Gregg could see the invisible bonds that were holding his friend up…and more horrifically, the translucent hand that was extended into E’dan’s chest, disappearing at the wrist. To everyone else, it looked as if David was calmly watching with his hands in his pockets, but to Gregg…David literally held his friend’s life in his hand.

“Stop, Gregg. Or I’ll kill him.” Gregg saw the invisible hand give a slight twitch and E’dan’s body flexed as if a thousand whips had just lashed against every inch of his skin.

“Let him go David!”

“Give me Heather.”

“You know that I won’t! Even if I could.”

David’s face screwed up in anguish. “Then your friend will die!” he yelled.

“David! Think about what you’re asking of me! I couldn’t just give away another human being! I could no more give you Heather than you could give up this girl.” Gregg pointed in Christine’s direction. Immediately he realized saying that was a mistake…David had offered her to him only moments ago.

“Her? You think this used up waste of flesh means anything to me?” David’s lips curved upward into a sickly grin. Slowly, she started taking small steps backward toward the street. Cars whizzed by noisily, uninterested in the drama mere feet away.

Christine’s wide eyes were open in panic. “David! Please. No!” But her pleas only made him smile wider. Step by step, she inched closer to traffic. She leaned forward, trying desperately to fight against the force that was puppeteering her past the sidewalk. She stepped unseeingly off the curb between a parked van and a pickup truck. Oncoming cars couldn’t see her. But her eyes were locked onto David – her tormentor, her lover…her Master.

“David, please don’t do this!” Gregg begged, fumbling at that second invisible hand with his own, clawing at it, grabbing at it, but being completely ineffectual. If asked, he couldn’t say how he’d managed to conjure his own – but it was just suddenly there and he desperately tried to use it. Gregg’s face was a mask of concentration. He wished someone could help him, but to the outside world, it just looked like a group of people standing and talking.

Christine blinked and tears rolled down her cheeks, whispering one final “Please…”

David’s smile dropped, an instant of compassion creeping over his face. Her red hair…her green eyes…how could he hurt Heather? But it wasn’t Heather.

David’s eyes closed as if he couldn’t bear to watch what he was about to do, and suddenly E’dan roared out in pain. Gregg rushed forward to catch him before he fell to the ground, and at that moment, the sound of screeching tires filled his ears. He looked up just in time to see Christine’s limp body bouncing off the windshield of a speeding minivan, floating in the air with loose limbs like a straw-filled dummy. She bounced again off the roof of the vehicle as it continued forward beneath her and then finally crashed to the pavement with a sickening thud.

There was a scream from the lawn as witnesses stared in shock. David and Adam were already running away, and Gregg could see that Adam was half-carrying David who seemed to be holding his head in pain. Rage burned inside Gregg and his fist knotted. He could feel his fingers on fire and he lashed his fist in David’s general direction. An impossibly bright ball of light shot from his arm and exploded against a fire hydrant, just missing David. A tower of water thirty feet tall shot into the air. Rather than stopping David, Gregg’s action seemed to provide the perfect screen and the fleeing pair disappeared from sight.

Reality crashed down upon Gregg and he looked around, but no one seemed to have seen his fireball. Briefly he wondered if anyone COULD see it or if it was something only visible to him and David.

He heard a groan from his lap and realized that he’d completely forgotten about E’dan. Gregg put his hand against the big guy’s chest. Gregg instantly felt some of the pain his friend was in enter his own body. Not wishing to repeat the mistakes he made when he was attacked by Vinnie weeks earlier, Gregg stopped when he’d taken all he reasonably could. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to make much difference. The big guy’s heart was beating, but the rhythm didn’t feel right.

“Somebody call an ambulance!” he shouted to no one in particular. Crowds gathered around both him and Christine. But the pain he felt himself was nothing compared to the look of sadness in Rivkah’s eyes. She raced out from the sorority house and wrapped herself around E’dan’s neck, whispering into his ear as tears dropped from her eyes onto his cheek. She had always been a pillar of strength, but without E’dan, the man she loved, the man who had saved her life countless times, the man who was the father of the baby she carried inside her…without him, she was helpless.

The doctors in the emergency room had to shock E’dan’s heart to get it back into a regular rhythm. But until he woke up and underwent further tests, there’d be no way to know the extent of the damage. They’d ruled it a heart attack, not knowing what else to call it. Given E’dan’s impeccable overall health, Gregg was sure even the doctors were dubious about their diagnosis.

As soon as E’dan was wheeled into an ICU room to recover, Gregg tracked down Brian who had already been stitched up and was sitting outside the operating room where surgeons were working to untangle the human knot that was now Christine. So far the doctors refused to guess at her chances of survival. And when doctors wouldn’t give much hope, then not much hope was to be had.

E’dan’s extended family of sorts stayed in the waiting room for long hours. Eventually Rivkah begged them to go home, that there was nothing more they could do here. She smiled weakly at their looks of support, but insisted they try to get some rest. She was going to stay, trying her best to laugh it off by making comments about a short circuit in her husband’s brain must have caused the short circuit in his heart. “One adventure too many, I guess,” she mumbled. “Always the hero…” Gregg wanted to tell her what had really happened, but couldn’t. It was probably best that she not know the truth.

Gregg left with Heather and Emily and retreated back to Heather’s apartment. They hadn’t slept in more than two days and despite their desire to stay awake and worry about their friends, their bodies were telling them to go to sleep.

Numbly, they went through their nighttime routines, brushing teeth and removing makeup. Emily was asleep even before her head hit the pillow. Heather and Gregg shared one final look before sleep overtook them both. Heather’s eyes, normally bright, were dim and sad. Gregg couldn’t tell if she was just worried, or disappointed that events had unfolded as they had. She had been looking at him all evening with different eyes, but he didn’t have the energy right now to explore what that meant…especially with what he knew he had to do now.

With clarity of purpose came a calm he didn’t expect.

In that last moment before sleep overtook them both, Gregg wondered if there was more he could have done…if he could have saved either of them. How could he beat David and protect Heather when the boy was clearly superior in strength. If only there was some way. There was no way in this world he could beat David.

Clarity of purpose. The rules of the game had been set. It was time to roll the dice. ‘Strange. I didn’t think I’d be this calm, knowing I was about to kill someone…’

The last thing Gregg felt as he drifted off to sleep was Heather’s hand closing around his and holding it against her heart.

The halls of the hospital were strangely empty. It was the middle of the night, but still, hospitals usually had some activity even at this hour.

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” thought Gregg, as he shook his head and continued down the hall. Sure enough, several nurses and orderlies began appearing, checking on patients and going about their duties, oblivious to his presence.

Gregg wasn’t exactly sure where he was going, but he knew he was headed in the right direction. Hallway melded with hallway, one door the same as the next. “What am I doing?” he asked himself, chiding himself for always making things more difficult than they need be.

He stopped at one room, as if at random. Slowly he opened the door, cautious not to make a sound. At the back of the small room, a figure wrapped nearly head-to-toe in bandages and plaster lay asleep (hopefully). Long reddish-blonde hair cascaded out from the top of the figure’s head, giving the only clue that the mummy was a female. A nest of wires and tubes sprouted out of her like the roots of some over-sized potato.

There was a soft shuddering sigh and Gregg looked beyond the body. Asleep in a chair beside the bed was Brian, a bandage on his forehead over his right eye. But the sound didn’t come from him.

Standing at the foot of the bed, biting what little was left of his fingernails was David. His eyes were red and Gregg was sure that for the first time in months, it probably wasn’t because of drugs or alcohol. He was just staring at Christine’s broken body, muttering to himself, “Why am I here? I can’t feel her….Why can’t I feel her? It hurts so badly…”

“Admiring your handiwork?” Gregg asked, soft enough to get David’s attention but not enough to wake Brian.

David looked up startled. He seemed more or less unconcerned by Gregg’s presence, more annoyed that he had company than anything else.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here,” David admitted to no one in particular. “Adam said we should go. I wanted to sleep on it. I just had to see…she was my—”

“—Queen?” Gregg finished for him. David looked up again, as if truly seeing Gregg for the first time. Sadness began to twist on his face as his thoughts flew a mile a minute. A hundred different expressions went through his features and Gregg was afraid as to where this runaway train of thought was headed.

“How could you do this to her?” David weeped. He stabbed an accusing finger at Gregg. “This is your fault! If she dies, her blood is on your hands!”

Gregg was taken aback by the sudden accusation. “My fault?!? You gave my friend a heart attack! You gave my boss a stroke! You slammed Brian’s head into a wall! YOU pushed her into traffic!”

“Because you wouldn’t give me Heather! She was supposed to be mine! I should have claimed her at the dig, but I was too slow! I blinked and suddenly she was yours! If you’d just given her back to me, none of this would have happened!”

“Heather is not mine to give! She’s free to make her own choices!”

“Do you really believe that? We’re GODS! They do what WE tell them to do. She only loves you because you made her love you.” David stared at Gregg for a moment, Gregg’s indecision plain across his face. “C’mon Professor. You didn’t really think she actually cares about you? Did you really think she loves you for true and isn’t just a hot little puppet cunt that you’ve been controlling?” Gregg’s secret fear was being thrown in his face…and he had no answer to give. David’s voice dropped low. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m going to kill you now, and soon she won’t even remember your name.”

Before Gregg could appreciate what David was talking about, an invisible wall slammed against him, forcing him out of the room and sending him tripping over his own heels. He shook his head and saw David approaching, a wicked smile on his face. A ball of light formed above David’s outstretched hand and he cocked his arm back and hurled it straight at Gregg.

Gregg closed his eyes and held up his hands, forcing as much mental energy forward as possible. As David’s bullet ricocheted off his impromptu shield, Gregg could feel the heat, the anger, the bloodlust packed into that little ball of light. The ball slammed into him and pushed him back several feet before it exploded against the nurse’s station to his right.

He opened his eyes and saw dust and papers flying everywhere. The explosion filled his ears, so loud that everyone in the hospital must have heard…but the halls were empty. “Shit! Gotta stop forgetting that!” mumbled Gregg as he stumbled to his feet. “As if this weren’t ENOUGH to think about!”

One by one, people began to peek out from their rooms, some running in panic. Almost like an afterthought, the sprinklers came on, quickly drenching him. David stalked closer, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him.

It wasn’t the bravest thing in the world, but Gregg quickly ran. He needed to get out of the hospital and away from where there’d be so many people. He wouldn’t be able to concentrate with them around.

Gregg rounded another corner, headed for the stairwell as a bright explosion blew away part of the wall he’d just passed. David seemed uncaring about the destruction he was causing around him…all the more reason to escape from this building.

Down the stairs and out into the empty corridor, Gregg ran. His heart pounded in his chest as he tried to escape the onslaught of destruction behind him. David’s howls of laughter only added insult to injury.

“C’mon Dr. Walters! Stop running and fight me! What’s the matter, no books to save you?!”

Gregg threw himself through a set of double doors and took a moment to catch his breath as they swung shut behind him. David would be through there in a matter of seconds. Holding his hands before him he focused his energy like he remembered doing when he blew up that fire hydrant. Slowly a ball of light began to form. But it was too slow. Gregg just didn’t have that burning desire to kill that David seemed to have and it was impairing his ability to form the psyonic weapon. Trying to force consciously what he’d done by instinct was taking too long…but it would have to be enough.

He held the golf-ball sized ball of light in his hand as he returned to his feet and ran toward the exit. He heard the double doors slamming open behind him and at that moment Gregg spun, throwing the ball in David’s direction.

A yelp of pain was the only indication he had that he’d hit something. But Gregg knew he couldn’t stay to see what happened. Without looking back over his shoulder, he ran for the exit, the campus quad just beyond the glass doors.

The exit doors were just beginning to slide closed behind him when the entire wall of glass suddenly exploded into a million shards, sending him tumbling forward with the force of the explosion.

Gregg’s ears rang, and his body ached from dozens of little puncture wounds. ‘That shouldn’t hurt!’ he thought to himself desperately, but he could feel the cool air blowing against his blood-hot skin through his shredded clothing. Gathering up his fading strength, he half-ran, half-stumbled toward the quad, David following behind him at a laughable leisurely pace.

It wasn’t working. Blood was dripping down his back and his muscles were threatening to fail. He’d made a serious miscalculation. Gregg was out of breath, bleeding, and in pain…all things he hadn’t expected to affect him here. David was numb and brave with insanity, and Gregg saw that he’d completely misjudged this battle. He wouldn’t be able to kill David…he was barely even hurting him.

The buildings of the quad were like a solid brick wall surrounding them on three sides. The treeless expanse which usually allowed students an unobstructed area to read, study, play Frisbee, or sun themselves, was suddenly a prison, offering no shelter from David’s wrath. There were no passersby, no students studying late in the library, no pizza delivery bikes cutting through campus…Gregg didn’t have the energy to think about them, and David didn’t seem to notice their absence.

Gregg formed another feeble ball of light, no bigger than a pebble, and shot it desperately at David. In the light’s eerie glow, Gregg saw that his earlier attack had managed to slightly burn the side of David’s face. But this time Gregg wouldn’t be so lucky. As if knocking away a gnat buzzing around his face, David swatted Gregg’s attack away, sending the little ball into one of the surrounding edifices, exploding in a small shower of brick and glass that landed harmlessly in the small sidewalk between buildings.

“Is that the best you got? How can you even consider yourself worthy of someone like Heather? You don’t deserve HER! You never should have had her in the first place.”

David reached out with an invisible hand that closed tightly around Gregg’s neck, lifting him off the ground. He gasped for air and clawed at the nothingness that held him aloft. He closed his eyes and thought about Heather’s bed and wished he was there, but when he opened them again, he was still in this living nightmare. Gregg was held aloft, helpless as he watched a second hand fly in toward his face from the right. Stars filled Gregg’s vision and he flew several feet backward, skidding on the sidewalk until he crashed against the base of the fountain at the center of the quad.

Drunkenly, Gregg came to his feet, his vision blurring. One David became three, and back again into one. Feebly, Gregg tried to form another ball of light and it managed to grow into the size of a pea when David flicked his finger from 30 feet away and the pebble flew backward and pushed Gregg over the fountain’s ledge and into the water.

He’d failed. He failed to realize just how much more powerful David was. Only part of his plan was successful…but it was all for naught. David would laugh at his former teacher’s pitiful efforts and then take Heather for his own…probably Emily and Charli, and Laura…and everyone he ever cared about. David would do it…because he could.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said to nobody in particular, pulling himself up enough to rest his head on the fountain’s ledge. ‘I just wish I could have said goodbye. I just with I could have told you how much I love you…’

Gregg heard the sounds of David’s shoes on the sidewalk slowly coming closer to the fountain. ‘And so it ends,’ he thought… ‘I guess I wasn’t worthy…’

There was a flicker of movement at the corner of his vision. Gregg gathered up enough strength to lift his head slightly, the blood and the dirty water stinging his eyes. “No…It can’t be.”

But it was. Laura, his Slave and new president of Omega Xi was walking toward the fountain. It was the oddest thing. She was barefoot. Her blonde hair was long again, not short like she’d been wearing it recently. More amazingly, she was naked.

“No, you can’t be here…” Gregg rasped softly…desperately. But she didn’t seem to hear him. In fact, she hardly seemed to know he was there. Step by step, she approached David, her eyes not seeing anything or anyone else. Then, to Gregg’s horror, she knelt before him, directly between him and Gregg.

“What’s this, Gregg?” David asked amusedly. “Free pussy delivery?”

“Please don’t hurt my Master,” Laura’s strangely hollow voice said. “I give myself freely to you, but don’t hurt him.”

“HA! I appreciate the offer you gorgeous little cunt…but in a few moments, you’ll be mine anyway.” David stepped to Laura’s side, intent on finishing Gregg.

And that’s when Gregg saw it…or rather through it. Laura’s appearance was both surprising…but also wrong. It wasn’t just that she was naked or that her hair was long. When David moved to step around her, he saw the outline of his legs…THROUGH her! It gave him a bit of hope…although he wasn’t quite sure why.

David continued forward but stopped short a few steps further when suddenly Laura was again in front of him, on her knees, asking for mercy for her Master.

“Get out of my way Bitch! I said no!” David swung his hand as if to bash her in the head, but he was thrown off balance when his hand went right through her. He stumbled to the ground and when he looked up, Laura wasn’t there…she was standing in front of the fountain.

“We’re here, Gregg,” she said, but Gregg recoiled in horror. Laura’s face was beautiful, but he realized that it wasn’t odd lighting that made it look like she had no eyes…she really DIDN’T have eyes…or rather, this translucent version of her didn’t. Eyelids blinked, but there was nothing but blackness behind them. Gregg looked closer and realized that what he was seeing through those empty eye sockets was actually whatever was behind her. Whatever she or it was, she smiled, and then disappeared.

“What the fuck’s going on?!?” yelled David, now more intent on killing Gregg than ever. “What the fuck are you playing at?” David barely finished that question when a loud whip-crack suddenly left a deep scar on David’s cheek, sending him reeling back to the ground, writhing in pain. “ARRRGGH!”

Gregg looked up and couldn’t believe his eyes. She was picturesque. Tall and clad entirely in black leather, her generous bosom barely contained in within the tight outfit. Hair that was blacker than night and swirled around her as black flames danced around her torso. Skin so white is was like porcelain could be seen as her body twisted and turned, manipulating the long whip was held loosely in her gloved hand. At first Gregg thought it might have been Mistress Michelle, but it soon became painfully apparent that it was Charli. The whip and her hair danced around her body, and Gregg saw that at times he could see through her. Like Laura, she didn’t have eyes, but her whip unerringly found her mark a second time across David’s shoulder. She was as terrible a vision as she was beautiful.

David spun, a bright glowing ball of light forming in his hand. He’d had enough of that bitch’s attacks and was intent on ending it. Gregg struggled to rise from the fountain, but he was using all his strength just to keep from falling back into the murky water.

Smiling the sick smile of someone who was about to commit murder, David cocked his arm back ready to unleash his fury. The ‘clopity-clop’ of hooves seemed to come from nowhere, as if a stereo broadcasting the sound suddenly had the volume turned up. David turned his head just in time to watch a blunt-tipped lance smash into his shoulder and send him flying forward.

Gregg watched in disbelief as the knight reined in his horse in front of Charli. Clad from head to toe in armor, with the visor down…and yet Gregg knew him. A gauntleted hand was offered and Charli grasped it. She was lifted gracefully up and behind the knight who she held tenderly with one arm while her whip cracked menacingly with the other. And as deep as Charli’s feelings were for Gregg, there was only one whom she loved more. Chad.

“It’s time to get up Gregg. They won’t be able to hold him back for long.” Gregg turned his head and standing behind him in the water was Emily. She was clad all in white, the slave’s robes translucent, her brown eyes shining in the moonlight. Gregg marveled at her beauty, but wondered why she wasn’t a phantasm like the others. She held out a hand and Gregg took it. Her eyes were filled with love.

Like stepping into a warm bath, Gregg could feel all the pain and hurt leave his body. Tiny bits of glass fell into the fountain, forced out from his back as his wounds closed up. It felt as if every muscle was being recharged. He closed his eyes, letting his strength return.

“What the hell is going on here?!” David yelled, spitting a dusty glob of blood from his mouth as he stood again. This time without building any drama, he hurled a small, but powerful ball of light toward the strange knight that had taken him by surprise. The ball exploded in the dirt, but it was enough to spook the horse and send both riders crashing to the ground.

David allowed himself a moment to savor the easy victory, but no sooner had he smiled than heard a soft “pat-Pat-PAT” coming quickly his way. Rather than repeat previous mistakes, he quickly surrounded himself with a shield of light. It was just in time because a half-second later a lithe figure all in black streaked by, twin swords striking his shield with a shower of sparks. The blades may not have cut him, but the force of the blow was enough to send him backward several steps.

“What?— ” Gregg wanted to ask, but Emily placed two fingers over his lips and her soft “Shhh,” stopped him. He looked down at her and immediately tried to rip free of her grip. She may have been solid when she first appeared, but now she was even more translucent than the others battling out in the quad.

“No, Emily! Stop!” Gregg yelled, but despite her fading appearance, her grip was strong and unyielding. Gregg could feel her strength filling him up, like a vampire in reverse. She was draining herself into him.

“Let her finish, Gregg.” Gregg turned a terrified glance over his shoulder and there was Heather. Her deep red hair was piled high on her head, her green eyes practically lighting the night sky. Translucent white robes clad her body much like Emily’s, but the addition of a few jewels and a thin crown of golden laurels gave her a regal bearing. “You must let us help you.” She held his face gently in her hands and Gregg felt something new filling him…hope.

“Fucking DIE!” David yelled, as he hurtled a ball of light at the evasive newcomer. But just before his missile struck home, a second black-clad figure blurred in from the right, absorbing the impact of the attack. The figure had no face, but was huge, nonetheless. Where arms should have been were two shields. David peered closer and noticed that there was a hole in the figure’s chest, right where the heart should be. Two more balls flew from David’s hand and the human shield intercepted them. It was suddenly clear what was going on. “Your friends won’t save you Gregg.” He turned to see if Gregg had heard his taunt and froze when he saw Heather standing in the fountain. “What the—”

He was spun by the whip lashing around his arm. Slightly off balance, the lithe black-clad figure charged him with her twin swords. David dove to the ground avoiding being sliced and sent a ball of fire toward the whip-carrier. Chad jumped in front of her and braced himself behind his shield. The explosion sent him flying backward, but Charli remained unhurt.

“It’s time to end this, Gregg,” Heather said. Gregg looked back once again at Emily, but she was barely there. Only a shadow of a shadow. She’d given him all her strength, and kept only the smallest bit to remain alive. For her sake and for the sake of those that were out there battling for him, it was time to finish this.

He stood and stepped out of the fountain. He blinked and suddenly his clothes were dry. He gave one final look at Heather and her eyes told him everything he needed to know.

“Enough!” Gregg yelled. Everything stopped. His friends took positions behind David while David staggered to his feet. He was cut and bruised and tired, but his eyes still held a dangerous gleam.

A ball of light hurtled toward Gregg but he held out his hand and stopped it before it impacted. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it flying harmlessly to the side. “Thank you my friends…you can go.” One by one, the translucent forms of Charli, Chad, Rivkah, E’dan, and even Laura who had been kneeling off to the side disappeared.

“That was a mistake, Gregg,” David sneered. “Who’s going to protect you now?”

“It’s over David. Just walk away. You’ve caused enough pain and suffering.

“NO, YOU walk away. Give me Heather or I’ll march back into the hospital and cause pain and suffering like you’ve never seen!”

Gregg smiled, a reaction that completely took David by surprise. “Go ahead.”

David couldn’t believe Gregg was calling his bluff. Well, what were those people to him anyway? He turned and started to run back across the quad toward the hospital, somewhat amazed that Gregg wasn’t trying to stop him. But then the most amazing thing happened: the hospital began to waiver and shimmer. An instant later, it faded away and was gone.

David spun around, confused. One by one, the buildings of the quad were disappearing, leaving nothing but blackness behind. Soon, David was surrounded by darkness, the ground was as black as the sky. The only things he could see were the two figures that were Gregg and Heather. She looked so beautiful…like in a…SHIT!!

“You tricked me! This isn’t real! It’s a goddamn dream!” he yelled, limping back toward Gregg. David’s eyes shook, his mind going a mile a minute as he put the pieces together…and then he smiled.

“Don’t do it David. It won’t work,” said Heather. Gregg was confused, not knowing what David was thinking or how Heather knew.

Suddenly a hospital bed appeared in front of David, the bandaged form of Christine lying peacefully upon it. “You’re not the only one who can suck his friends dry of strength.”

“What’s going on?” Gregg asked, mostly to himself.

“He’s trying to draw from Christine what Emily gave to you…but it won’t work. Watch.”

David held onto Christine’s hand and closed his eyes. “Come on baby. Give it to me. Yeah, that’s it…I can feel it filling me.”

Christine’s eyes opened. Her body may have been immobile but she could still flex her fingers. Her grip tightened on David’s hand.

“Yeah..ye…wha? What’s going on.?!? Let go! Let go of me bitch!” David yelled, trying desperately to shake off Christine’s grip. But it was no use, her grip was like a vice and it was only getting tighter.

Gregg took a step forward, but Heather’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. David cried out in agony and moment by moment seemed to become more and more translucent. He sank to his knees, begging for mercy. For a moment it seemed to be working, and David smiled weakly through tear-filled eyes. But then Christine’s eyes shone blue and David screamed, fading away into nothing.

Gregg was horror struck. Had he seen what he thought he’d seen? Christine’s head turned slightly to the side and her eyes locked onto his for a moment. A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek into the bandage that surrounded her head. Her eyes closed, and she disappeared.

A cold chill went up Gregg’s spine, the nothingness that surrounded him was crushing. But a single voice pulled him from the abyss.

“Gregg?”

He spun, and there again in her white robes and golden laurel crown was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Her beauty was as overpowering now as the first time he’d seen her. It was as overpowering now as when he woke in the hospital after being struck by lightning and he saw her face. He’d silently screamed for help at that moment and now it occurred to him – since that moment, she’d never let go. The love he had for her made him want to weep, and still he was afraid. The secrets he’d been keeping…

“You have some strange friends, Gregg.”

Gregg blinked, not knowing what to say, or even what she was talking about for that matter.

“You were sound asleep, having a nightmare, and I couldn’t wake you out of it. There was a knock at the door and I went to see who it was. Some guy in a black trench coat calling himself ‘Deuce X. Mackinaw.’ He gave me his card…pretty funny.”

Gregg started to protest that he didn’t get it, but maybe it was the way she said it…or maybe it was the fact that it was the first time he’d heard the guy’s name spoken out loud, but like a ton of bricks, the truth landed on him. ‘Deuce X. Mackinaw…deus ex machina…Hand of God,’ indeed. “So now you know everything,” he sighed dejectedly. ‘Better to have loved and lost,’ he thought to himself, preparing for the inevitable tirade that was to come.

Heather must have sensed this because she simply approached and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Gregg, he just mostly confirmed what I already suspected. He told me how to help you…and what would happen if David tried to do the same. I think I know why you hid your powers…I think I would too if I were in the same situation. We’ll have plenty of time about that later.”

“So, you’re not mad?”

“I wouldn’t go that far…I’m plenty mad, but I understand where you were coming from. I know this is the student lecturing the teacher, but you’ve grown so much since I first met you…but you still have a lot to learn. I hope you’ll let me help you.”

“Yes!...yes…please,” Gregg said, enthusiastically. “I don’t think I could do it without you…but…” Gregg looked around at the emptiness surrounding them, still amazed that they were still alive. “…but what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. You needed help…we heard you. Deuce guessed they’d come if you called. Your greatest strength, the reason you never went mad with power like David was that you put more faith in your friends than you did in yourself…it’s hard to have a god-complex if you’re always second-guessing yourself.”

“But why didn’t David drain Christine like I drained…oh God!” Gregg looked around, worriedly looking for Emily.

“Let her sleep, Gregg. She needs her rest. She’s fine…and we’ll need to have a talk with her in the morning. But I’m sure she’ll understand. She loves you as much as I do.”

“And the others?”

“Deuce didn’t think they’d remember what happened…they never fully entered the dream. They might remember bits, but he didn’t think they’d realize the significance of what was happening.”

“So, what about David?”

“I don’t know…but I have a guess. When you were ‘recharging’ off of Emily, were you taking or was she giving?”

Gregg thought about it and remembered his reluctance to take from her. “She gave…she practically had to force it on me.”

“Hmm, that’s what I thought. I’d say that what Emily did was an act of love – to give totally of oneself. You love her too, so whether you wanted it or not, you were totally open to her. But there was no love between David and Christine. When he opened himself to take Christine’s strength, he left the door open for her, and rather than give her tormentor anything, she simply took. He’d been taking and taking from that poor girl for months, and after he threw her into traffic, he didn’t have the power to take anymore…that or Deuce was ‘nudging’ things a bit as he said he did from time to time.”

The full import of what Heather was suggesting slowly sunk in. And despite the enormity of it all, Gregg still had one singular concern.

“So, what about us? Knowing what you know about what I can do, how can you even want to be near me.”

“Because I’ve been plagued by doubts from the beginning.”

Gregg’s eyes opened wide. He could only gulp in surprise.

“Because I have doubts…because I’ve ALWAYS had doubts…I now have no doubts that my feelings for you are real and not something you concocted.”

“Huh?”

“If I was your slave, I wouldn’t have doubts. In fact, I know that if I wanted, you’d let me walk away, never to see you again…but I don’t want that. I see it in the way everyone of us loves and respects you…the way you love them. Laura calls you ‘Master,’ but only because she wants to…not because you make her. You don’t control them…us. You just happen to love us in a way that’s a little more special.”

Gregg was near tears and was at a total loss for words.

“We should get going,” Gregg suggested, eager to leave this cold black place.

“Not yet. This is your mind. You can make anything happen here…I say let’s have a little fun.”

Gregg closed his eyes and listened…really listened to what Heather was saying. He smiled.

When he opened his eyes, they were on a small tropical isle. The sea-smell filled his nose and the sun was bright and warm. Softly, small waves crashed rhythmically on the shore. Resplendent in her small black bikini, Heather was looking around and smiling with approval.

“Nice,” she said, letting a small wave crash over her foot. “Very nice.”

Gregg closed the gap between them, pulling her body tightly against his. Their lips met and softly their tongues danced. Heather pulled back a little and gazed into Gregg’s eyes. “Oh, and Gregg, I have a message from Deuce…You were never unworthy…you were the MOST worthy.”