The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

It was the summer after our senior year of college. All of us got back together again for one last trip, before grad school, jobs, and adulting. I didn’t have the same bright future as the others. I just wanted some fun with friends, good food, and some laughs. I forgot that any time our old high school Mystery Club got together, we’d stumble into another crazy case.

I’m sorry, I should introduce myself. I’m Shug: a stupid nickname that had dogged me since I was a kid. That and the sweet tooth that had kids calling me that. My best bud, Scoop, a great dane that had been my only friend, until I met Frankie and the girls in high school.

We met at the school carnival. There had been a robbery. The cash box disappeared and people were blaming the school librarian. None of us that that Mrs. O’Leary would have done anything like that and we tried to help her. Fumbling through separate investigations, we kept bumping one another. Once we decided to work together—Frankie, the football hero; Darlene, the prom queen; Val, the brainiac; and Scoop and I—we found that it was the custodian, Carl, that had stolen the cash box and Mrs. O’Leary was off the hook.

We became friends and the Mystery Club was born. Throughout high school, we racked up newspaper headlines and drove poor Sheriff Sam crazy with our antics. It was a blast, but then it all ended and we went off to college. We all ended up in different places: Frankie went to Clemson, Darlene went to Columbia, Val went to Cal Tech, and Scoop and I went to Salem State. We wanted to stay in touch, but life happened.

This last last summer, we all came home for Mrs. O’Leary’s funeral and Frankie had the idea for a road trip before we left home again. After some initial awkwardness, we all started to fall back into our familiar patterns; we were laughing and it was like we had never been apart.

“Ooh, look,” Darlene said, pointing to a faded wooden sign lit by our headlights. “Haley’s Circus. That sounds fun.” The bubbly redhead leaned against Frankie in the front seat of his old van.

“Darlene, odds are that’s an old sign and there’s nothing there,” Val chided, always the skeptic.

“Then why’s the sign still up?”

Val fiddled with her glasses as she tried to come up with an answer.

Frankie just grinned and took the exit. “Sounds like a mystery, gang.”

Scoop and I slid along the bench in back, as the van sped up on the turn. “Here we go again, Scoop.” He let out a little bark of agreement and slid up against me. It was high school all over again.

The circus, if you could call it that, had a spooky abandoned feel to it. A couple of sad tents dominated a largely empty camp ground. In front of the tents was a beat up pickup truck parked next to a camper trailer.

As we pulled into the lot, an old man, lean and worn out, peered out of the trailer. He stepped outside and drew himself up to his full height, shaking off the world weariness until he looked almost regal in his ratty robe. For some reason, he reminded me of my freshman history class where our TA told us about Emperor Norton.

“Sorry, kids. No shows today.”

“Oh no,” Darlene said.

“What happened?” Frankie interjected, standing protectively a bit in front of Darlene. Val stood quietly on his other side, not missing a thing.

“Strange disturbing things,” he said. “Weird noises, unlikely accidents, and the like. Rumors spread that we were haunted. Before too long, some of the carnies were talking about seeing a ghost clown. Circus folk are superstitious. Now they don’t want to work for me. Without them, I got no circus.”

“We can look around, if you’d like,” Frankie said, puffing up a bit. “We’re old hands at solving mysteries.”

“It’s not really a mystery. It’s a haunting, but help yourselves. Me, I’m going back to bed.”

Frankie turned back to us. “Sounds like we’ve got a mystery to solve, gang.”

I scratched Scoop behind his ear and waited for them to decide what we were going to do next. Frankie wanted to split up. He and Darlene would check out one of the tents and Val would come with the two of us to check out the other one. That’s the way we split things up in high school and from the looks that Frankie had been giving Darlene, he looked like he was hoping for a few more other things that they did in high school, too.

From what we found out later, Darlene and Frankie were the first to meet the ghost clown. As they walked into the dark big top, Frankie put his arm around Darlene. She giggled and slapped his hand away, reminding him that they weren’t in high school any more. He whispered into her ear that he missed her.

Darlene pulled out her phone and used that to light their way. “Poor, Frankie. No cheerleaders at your school fell for your charms?”

“None of them are you, Darlene.” He leaned in to nuzzle her neck.

Intent on their flirting, neither of them heard the figure approaching them in the darkness. The first indication they had that they weren’t alone was when the ghost clown blew powder into their faces and dangled his gold coin in the light.

“You will pay attention for a time and soon your thoughts shall be mine,” said the evil clown. “Watch the pretty coin of gold and you will do as you are told.” He spun the coin back and forth, letting it catch the light, as he went through his induction. “Now, your roles are set. Frankie, you are Mistress Darlene’s pet. Darlene, he’s the sexiest slave you’ve ever met.”

Frankie sank to his haunches and looked up at Darlene with a look of pure adoration. Darlene’s innocent smile became much more lusty and predatory.

“Oh, I’m going to have some fun with you,” Darlene whispered in a husky voice. The bulge in Frankie’s khakis let her know how excited that made him. She snapped and pointed at her ballet flats. Frankie darted forward to kiss her foot and looked up for an indication that She would like him to continue. She let out a lusty moan and spread her legs. That was all the invitation Frankie needed to lick and caress up her legs, lifting her skirt and nibbling at her through her tights. As her moans got louder, he redoubled his efforts and concentrated on the task at hand, nibbling, nuzzling, and caressing, until she let out a scream of release.

That’s when we came running from the other tent.

When we got there, Frankie was on his back, stroking himself and Darlene was riding his face to another screaming orgasm.

Val and I both stared in shocked. “What the actual fuck?”

Neither of them gave any indication that they’d even noticed us. We went from clearing our throats to shouting, before Darlene finally stopped after Big O number three. She didn’t seem to have any trace of shame. “Yes?”

“What the hell is going on?” Val asked, looking exasperated. Me, I couldn’t get over the rapturous look on Frankie’s face as Darlene rolled to the side and he sat back up, but his eyes never leaving Darlene.

Darlene rolled her eyes. “Sometimes when a man loves a woman; the woman will let him pleasure her. I thought you were paying attention in Ms. Cortez’s health class.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Val sputter indignantly like that and she didn’t even have Scoop licking their face like Frankie did at the moment. I grabbed Scoop’s collar to pull him back. “But here in this spooky old circus?” I asked. “This is where you guys wanted to get it on?”

“I want what I want,” Darlene said with a shrug, as she climbed to her feet and straightened her skirt. Seeing Frankie still sitting on the ground, she grinned and scratched under his chin. “Good boy.”

Scoop let out a whine and I scratched behind his ears. “You’re still by good boy, little buddy.” His tail thumping as he wagged it. I think if Frankie had a tail, he’d be wagging it just as hard.

I listened as Val harangued Darlene, until Darlene finally had enough and walked over to the shorter girl and pulled her in for a kiss that left Val’s glasses steamed up. “You know I still love you, Val. Now stop whining, we have a mystery to solve.”

If anything, the bulge in Frankie’s khakis got even harder. Clearly, he’s always wanted a threesome with the two of them. Me, I just wanted Frankie all to myself.

Val pulled back. “But something had to have happened. You’re both acting so strangely all of a sudden.”

“Meh,” Darlene snapped. “Everyone experiments in college. The two of us found things we liked, I guess. Can we look into the mystery now?”

I elbowed Frankie. “How about you? Did you see anything?”

“Just Her.”

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, nothing happened to them. They were just suddenly became sex zombies. I reached down to pat Scoop and realized something was weird about him, too. I squatted down and he didn’t move; he just stared ahead glassy eyed.

“Uh, Val! There’s something wrong with Scoop.”

That stopped the bickering. We all loved Scoop. Val used the light of her phone to get a better look at his eyes and murmured to herself. She then turned the light at Frankie and Darlene and nodded again.

“I think all three of you were drugged. You all have dilated pupils and show signs of having been dosed with something. If you’re missing time, it could have been a hypnotic.”

“They were hypnotized?”

Val shrugged. “Possibly, but hypnotic drugs act like a soporific. Some also lowering the will to make them easier to be hypnotized, but at the moment, there’s no way to tell what’s affecting them. We may just have to roll with it. Right, Scoop?”

He wagged his tail weakly.

“Come on, Scoop. Here, boy,” I called and he moved over next to me.

He was still off, but that seemed to shake him out of the worst of it. We vowed to stay together as we went back to exploring the haunted circus, but really, we had no idea just what that clown had in store for us.

Rather than taking the lead, as he usually did, Frankie deferred to Darlene. She strode forward as if she owned the place, her hand possessively on Frankie’s arm, as he walked at her side, just a step or so behind.

Val and I were a little behind them. “It’s not just me, right?” I whispered.

“Oh no. This is weird as hell.”

“How do we snap them out of it?”

“I’m not sure, Darlene was the one that took the psych classes. I went with the hard sciences. When we have a moment, I can go online and see what I can find. Hopefully, after a good night’s sleep, they’ll be back to normal.”

“What do we do with them until then?”

“Keep an eye on them and keep them out of trouble.”

Easier said than done, I thought.

“Do you remember where you were when you felt the need for Frankie to... um... pleasure you, Darlene?”

She turned and gave me what I assumed was a come hither look. “Why? Are you looking to apply for the job?”

Val turned as red as Darlene’s hair.

“No, just trying to do what you asked and look into the mystery.”

“No, we walked into tent. It was dark. I pulled out my phone. Frankie and I were flirting. It turned me on. I had him take care of me.”

“That line up with what you remember, Frankie?” Val asked.

He looked over at Darlene with a question on his face; I guess this is going to be a thing. After she nodded her approval, he answered, “Pretty much. I think I may have forgotten myself before my Mistress corrected me.”

“Oh?”

“Whoever trained him didn’t teach him my rules,” Darlene answered.

Val stammered for what to say next.

“And what are those rules, Darlene?”

She smiled at me. “I say when I’m ready and what I want.” She ran the back of her fingers along my cheek. “And I’m the one that does the initial touching to let someone know that I’m interested.”

“But who trained you, Frankie?”

He looked confused. “I—” He turned to Darlene for answers.

She shrugged. “Whatever cheerleader that would let him between her legs in college?” she asked. “Back to the mystery. Anything in the other tent?”

“We didn’t get a chance to really look, before we came running when you screamed.”

“What can I say,” Darlene smirked, “he is a very good boy. Val, if you’d like, I can let you put him through his paces.”

“How about we look at the other tent?” I asked, playing the light of my phone in front of us.

“Actually, let’s look over this one more thoroughly first,” Val said. Without much trouble, she found the master panel and turned on the lights.

An empty circus tent is a depressing place. It smelled of sweat, spilled beer, rancid popcorn, and old sawdust (at least within the rings). Sounds traveled strangely, bouncing off the rows and rows of empty seats.

“I think that’s where we found them,” I said, pointing center stage. “Scoop, take a sniff, do you smell any strangers.”

Scoop still had his super sniffer. He plodded around in circles until he shook his head and sneezed. He let out a whine and looked up at me.

“At least you tried, boy,” I said, scratching behind his ear. I dug into my pocket for a treat.

“Well, that’s nothing,” Darlene said.

Normally, this is the time that Frankie usually pushed us to just charge forward and continue investigating, but he was deferring totally to Darlene and none of us were making any decisions.

“Val?” I asked. “Any ideas. What should we be looking for?”

“Obviously someone was here. There’s a drug delivery mechanism. That sort of thing should have left some sort of trace,” she mused, half to herself, as she thought through the problem.

“I wish there was someone else here, they might have seen something,” Darlene said.

Scoop nodded and leaned up against her to get some love. Frankie looked on longingly, as she gave the dog a pat and straightened his collar. As she did it, she made sure that she locked eyes with Frankie. With a snap, she brought him to heel, so that she could take off her scarf and tie it around his neck like an ascot. I don’t think he was this happy, when his got his varsity jacket back in high school.

Val muttered that there wasn’t anything here. “Where did he go?”

“Sounds like we have a mystery, gang,” Frankie said. For a moment, things were normal again, if you ignored the way she patted him like a dog that had performed a trick on command or the needy puppy eyes he was making at her.

Darlene took the lead with Val by her side. Regardless of how strange they were acting, it was nice to see them fall back into the easy flow of conversation. I wasn’t too far behind, when I realized that we’d left the lights on, so I turned and thought I saw movement in the stands. I froze and waited, but there was no more movement, so I figured it was nothing and headed over to the lighting panel.

Scoop started barking and I turned to see a sinister looking clown heading our way. “Why must you confound, you damned hound?” he snapped.

“GANG!” I screamed and started to run out of the tent after them. Barking as he went, Scoop was right behind me.

The gang came running and I was happy to see Frankie front and center charging my way like he was on the football field. I jerked to a stop and pointed back into the tent.

I was kind of surprised that the clown was still there, but I guess he was one of those jerks that liked to gloat.

“Leave while you can; this circus is mine,” he roared at us. When Frankie kept moving toward him, the clown said, “Stop little man, or you’ll cry and whine.”

Whether the threat or Darlene letting out a nervous squeak, either way Frankie jerked to a stop and backed away.

“Why are you doing this to poor Mr. Haley?” Darlene asked.

“You know nothing, girl; Haley is a monster and a churl.”

“Churl?” Darlene asked, bristling at being called a girl.

“Basically a meanie,” Val explained.

The clown seemed to disappear in a cloud of smoke, when it faded again, he was no where to be seen.

Val moved to investigate and Frankie held Darlene, protectively. Scoop and I looked around, unsure what we were looking for.

“Smells like theatrical smoke. We were all in the same area, so an illusion is definitely possible. No sign of mirrors.” Val stomped around a bit. “Not seeing any signs of a trap door.” She looked back toward where we had been standing and then moved to the left and the right, checking sight lines, I assumed.

The top of the tent was hidden by the lights above us, but there didn’t seem to be anything in that directly.

“Sounds like the clown has a beef with Mr. Haley,” Darlene said. “If the clown won’t answer our questions, maybe Haley will.”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be, not today. His truck was gone and his trailer locked. Formerly Teen Detectives™ had a code, even if we didn’t strictly follow the rules.

We continued to look around, but there wasn’t much to see. Empty pens, but no animals, food stands, closed and sealed, a series of locked porta potties, and locked and secured game stalls. Plenty of places for a ghost clown to hide and no keys for us to check that he wasn’t.

There wasn’t much we could do at the moment, so I concentrated on what was important. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m getting a little hungry,” I offered.

“You’re always hungry, Shug,” Darlene said with a smile. Maybe she was starting to come out of whatever the clown did to her.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

“Come back tomorrow morning, when we’ll have more light?” Darlene asked. “We might be able to see more in the tents during the day.”

“Sounds good to me. Frankie, what do you think?” Of course, he followed along with what Darlene wanted. It was a dirty trick to gang up on Val like this, but with the three of us wanting to leave, she’d come along.

Val looked like she wanted to check out the tents, but not by herself. We all piled back into the van. After grabbing a pizza, we found a motor lodge with a vacancy sign a few miles down the road.

Back in High School, we’d have gotten two rooms. Now, we all poured into a single room with two queen beds. Darlene took one of them with Frankie. Val had the other one and that left me and Scoop on the floor. There were a couple of inflatable mattresses in the van in case we ended up camping, so I was fine and this way there was no awkwardness with Val. Our only awkwardness were because Darlene deciding she wanted to be serviced by Frankie again, as soon as the lights went off. Val and I decided to give them some privacy, in a vain hope that they’d work it all out of their systems and we could all get some sleep.

As we walked Scoop, Val and I talked about school. She told me how much she liked Pasadena and was excited for grad school in the fall. I had bounced around majors and ended up with a communications major with some computer classes. Lord only knew what kind of job I’d be able to find with that.

“Can I ask you a serious question, Shug?”

“Anything, Val, you know that.”

“Why didn’t you ever come out to us?”

I froze. “What?”

“I’m not an idiot. I’ve seen how you look at Frankie.” She looked away nervously, “And your student paper had a picture of your LGBT group at last year’s pride parade in your student paper. You looked happy.”

Now it was my turn to look away. “I don’t know. Didn’t seem to matter with you guys. Frankie and Darlene were always chasing each other. We never really seemed interested in each other, so I figured we were all just buds.”

She moved in to give me a hug. “We are, but it must have been lonely. You know we love you and I never want you to feel like you had to hide anything.”

Chuckling, I said, “Maybe Darlene could hide a bit more.”

“Hopefully, they’ll be back to normal in the morning. At the very least, whatever the clown did should fade without him reinforcing it.”

“How about you? That was some kiss from Darlene.”

Val turned red again. “She’d done that since we were kids. If anything, I think I’m more asexual. I’m just not attracted to people like that.”

“Not at all? Not even...”

“Sometimes I get an itch, but I can take care of that myself and don’t have to deal all the drama.”

“So no dating or anything?”

“I have friends to be goofy with or have fun with, but no girlfriend or boyfriend. I tried them, but not for me.”

I flashed her a grin. “You went at it like it was an experiment, didn’t you?”

“I needed to find out and the scientific method works for a reason. How about you? No boyfriend?”

“A few guys at school, but nothing that really worked out in the end.”

When we finally got back to the motor lodge, Frankie was lying back, snoring away, and Darlene was on her phone.

“Good walk?” she whispered, pulling up the sheet as she turned toward us in a nod toward our modesty, I guess. Maybe more of the old Darlene was in there than I thought.

“Yeah, we wore poor Scoop out,” Val whispered back, as she ducked into the bathroom to change. “Find anything online?”

“Nothing definite. The Haley Circus is in debt, but so many businesses are these days. Social media has been talking about weird things there for three weeks of so and then they closed down. I’m not seeing anything in particular about them in the news though.”

She’d saved some of the stories on various tabs on her phone. I read them over and she leaned up against me, like she did to Frankie. When she started caressing my arms, I started to pull away.

“What’s wrong?”

“Darlene, I’ve never been huggy or touchy-feely,” I said. “Why did you think I’d start now?” I extracted myself and stood up.

Val came out of the bathroom in her jammies. “Did you want me to dust off my Google-fu to see what I can find?”

“More information would be useful.” Darlene shifted to give Val some room on the bed.

I left them to it and took a shower and got ready for bed. When I came out, Darlene was cuddling up with Val, as Val worked typed away on her laptop. I listened to their whispered conversation for a bit, but the next thing I knew it was morning.

Frankie had just come out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel and freshly scrubbed. I enjoyed the view from my vantage point, as he leaned over to find his pants and pull them on. I’m not sure if going commando was his idea or Darlene’s.

The girls and Scoop were still conked out.

“Frankie,” I whispered, “want to go grab some coffee and donuts? We can bring some back for the girls.” After a quick glance to make sure Darlene was asleep, Frankie agreed.

I was anxious to see where his mind was, so as we drove, I asked him how he was feeling today. He honestly seemed confused. “I’m fine. I had a good night’s sleep, why?”

“The whole thing with Darlene, yesterday? You’ve gotta admit that was strange.”

“What do you mean? We’re consenting adults.”

“In public? While we’re looking around a haunted circus?”

He nodded. No trace of shame, as he said, “We may have let our hormones do the talking after not seeing each other for so long.”

“And you and Darlene? I didn’t realize you were together.”

“Really? We weren’t that subtle. We were together on and off in high school. I guess we fell back into things on this trip.”

“And the whole thing yesterday?”

“There’s no one like Her,” he said with a grin.

“The whole letting you pleasure her thing?”

“Exactly. All I needed to do was take care of Her. There’s nothing like it.” His cock started to stretch down his leg. Clearly, he was a grower. bit that also didn’t sound like he’s just gone back to normal after a good night’s sleep.

“Can you take me through yesterday again? Did you see the creepy clown before we all saw him? Did he do anything to you and Darlene?”

Yesterday, he’d looked over to Darlene for answers. Today, I had him alone. He flailed for a bit and it was clear, he didn’t really remember, before he shrugged. “I don’t think so. It’s a little fuzzy, though.”

“If he did something to you, how’s that make you feel?”

“What the hell do you mean? How does that make me feel? I don’t like someone fucking with me. I never have.”

That was the Frankie I was used to. “I get that, but if he did something to make you want Darlene like this.”

“He couldn’t have. I’ve always wanted Darlene since we were kids. She’s a fox.”

“And... uh... just letting go and taking care of her. You’ve always done that, too?”

“Not all the time, but I liked it when we did.”

“And did Darlene always take charge like that?”

“Not really, but it certainly gets my motor revving when she does.”

Okay, that makes sense. He’s not snapping out of it, because this is something that he wants. “Gotcha, but right now we’re trying to get to the bottom of a mystery and someone needs to take charge. You’ve always kept us moving when we got stuck.”

He flashed me a grin. “We’re a team. I thought you and Darlene stepped up last night. You guys were great.”

“Yeah, but you know how it works. We all have things we do. You take charge and keep us moving, Darlene charms people and gets them to talk, and Val figures things out.”

“Shug, we can’t do that without you.” Somehow when he said it, it didn’t even sound condescending. “You worry about us, pay attention to what’s going on while we do our thing, and usually do the hard stuff and distract the bad guys.”

Yeah, everyone loves the bait. Especially, when they don’t have to do the job.

We pulled into Dan The Donut Dude’s Donut Den and parked under the logo of the giant bear scarfing down his signature honey glazed donuts.

There were a couple of teens working the counter. The little gay boi hurried over to take Frankie’s order and once again, I wished I had some of Frankie’s charm. I doubted he spent weekends in the library because his roommate had gotten lucky and needed his dorm room.

While Frankie was being aggressively flirted at, the other teen watched her friend with a look of bemusement. Now was my chance to channel my inner Darlene and see if anyone knew anything. “Excuse me,” I said, “do you know about Haley’s Circus outside town?”

“Oh yeah, that used to be fun. I think it’s closed. I think I heard they left town.”

“Do you remember when?”

“A few weeks now. They’d been here most of the summer.”

“How was it?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Normal circus stuff, I guess. Games, clowns, food on a stick: the usual.”

“I heard it was haunted. Did it seem spooky?”

“No, and it’s way too early for Halloween.”

“I heard that there was one clown there.” I described the clown we saw yesterday and asked if she remembered him.

She shook her head. “No, we didn’t see anyone like that. That sounds like a creepy one, though. Maybe they’re getting ready for halloween? Are they doing a haunted circus or something?”

Frankie finished up and handed me the box of donuts and pastries. He grabbed the coffees and a bag with a few breakfast sandwiches in it, leaving me to make sure that something went into the tip jar and thanking them both.

When we got back to the room, the girls were awake. Val was dressed and fussing with the computer, Darlene was in the shower. While we were gone, Val had walked Scoop, so I offered her first shot at the donuts and coffee. Frankie looked like he might have wanted to give first pick to Darlene, but Val already had an apple fritter in hand.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Val asked Frankie, as she grabbed a cup of coffee for herself.

“I don’t know why you keep asking that. I’m fine.”

We heard the shower turn off. Darlene called out. “Frankie, be a dear and bring in my outfit.”

“We’ve got breakfast sandwiches, donuts and coffee.”

“Just the clothes, Pet.”

Frankie picked up Darlene’s outfit, off the back of the chair and brought it into the bathroom.

He closed the door behind him.

“So it didn’t fade at all, huh?” Val whispered to me.

“Doesn’t look it. It seems this is something that Frankie may want. Or at least that’s what he said while we were out.”

She clucked her tongue as she mulled it all over. “This would make a fantastic research paper.”

“No other ideas on how to snap them out of it?”

“A psychiatric professional?”

“I don’t know if we have time for that.” I helped myself to a breakfast sandwich and tossed half of the sausage to Scoop, who let out a happy bark.

Darlene and Frankie come out the bathroom. “What’s the plan?” she asked. She was wearing a tight skirt and a low-cut blouse today. Definitely showing more skin than she usually did.

Once again, her scarf was tied around Frankie’s neck in a sign of her control over him. He looked very pleased with himself as he hung up her towels.

“If it helps, Frankie and I found out that Haley’s Circus has been here for most of the summer. The locals don’t know anything about it being haunted. Or at least the one that I spoke with didn’t.”

“Something recent then?” Val asked.

“Fits with what Haley told us. It’s nice when we have someone that isn’t lying to us,” Darlene said, “but we’ll still need to talk with him again.” Darlene reached for a coffee.

When we got back to the circus, Haley’s truck was back next to his trailer. At Darlene’s nod, Frankie started pounding on the door again. The whole trailer shook. “Coming... Coming!” Haley shouted. He through the door opened. “What do you—?” he started, but his voice trailed off. “Hey kids, what do you want?”

“We’ve been trying to figure out the mystery of your ghost clown,” Darlene said, “and were wondering who might have a reason to destroy your circus.”

He shrugged. “I don’t have any enemies. I’ve always tried to be fair with people that worked for me.”

“No angry employees?” She looked skeptical.

“A few over the years, but no one that could do anything like this. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Business rival or someone trying to buy your circus?” Val asked. We’ve seen more than our share of spooky hijinks that ended up being nothing more than greedy people trying to get an advantage in a business deal.

He shrugged. “Not that I know of, but times are tough for every circus. Hell, even Ringling Brothers hung up their tent and closed. Gone are the days when circuses would conflict or merge. We’re all just trying to survive these days.

“And speaking of survival, I’ve got to go talk with my accountant to find out how bad things are right now. If you kids can figure this out, you’re going to save me.”

We watched them climb into his truck and head off.

“So we know the stakes of the case,” I said. “How are we going to try to solve it?”

All of us turned to Frankie, who saw all of our eyes on him and responded more like his usual self, “Okay, the clown we saw is either our bad guy or our best bet at finding him. We’re going to need to catch him. Clearly, he stalks the circus and he’s got some sort of mad on for Mr. Haley. We’ve done this before.” Whether he wanted to be in charge or not, he could still drag us along and got us all excited with a plan.

“I think I saw a sealed up cage that we could use to catch the clown, if we can get him to chase someone,” Val said. “Frankie, the two of us can set that up.”

Darlene smiled at Scoop and I. “Boys, are you ready to play bait again?”

“Not especially.” Scoop let out a small whine, making it clear he wasn’t down with this either.

“What can I do to convince you?” She reached over and ran her fingers over the back of our necks.

“Just because we’re not ready, doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do it. It needs to be done,” I said, leaning away from Darlene’s hand. “Can you show us where we’ve got to get him, Val?”

The hardest thing about being the bait is trying to be nonchalant, as you walk. You can feel threatening eyes on you, but you’ve got to ignore it, while at the same time, react if the bad guy tries to pull something. It’s a tightrope, but one that Scoop and I have been walking for literally years at this point.

The first indication that I had that someone was approaching was when the hackles on Scoop’s neck went up. He was trained not to bark, when we needed him quiet, but that didn’t mean he liked it.

“Come on, Scoop. Let’s head back.” I did my best to sound like nothing was going on, but my hackles were up, as well, and I was starting to break out in nervous sweat.

I had been expecting the clown to sneak up on us again, but he’d learned his lesson about trying to sneak up on Scoop. The first I learned that there was something wrong was when Scoop let out a yelp and then I felt something sting my back. I slapped at the horsefly or mosquito that I expected, and found a little dart hanging off of me.

Things started to go fuzzy almost immediately. I wobbled. “Scoop, run!” I heard him start to go, but when I tried to follow, I stumbled. My feet just wouldn’t move right.

Before I knew it, the clown was in front of me. “You will pay attention for a time and soon your thoughts shall be mine,” said the evil clown. “Watch the pretty coin of gold and you will do as you are told.” He spun the coin back and forth, letting it catch the light, as he went through his induction. “Always on the outside, looking in; such a good boy, afraid to sin. Not anymore. All you want is to chase amore.”

I stared at him, not really understanding his words as they sank into my mind and bounced around knocking down walls of repression and self-doubt that held me back over the years.

The next thing I knew, he was gone and the gang was there.

Frankie helped me to my feet. Damn, he is a handsome man. “You okay, Shug?”

“Fine, just fell, I think.”

Val leaned in and looked me over. She had me track her finger as she flashed a light in my face. “We found a dart sticking out of Scoop and your eyes are dilated. Could the clown have caught you?”

Leaning against Frankie, I reveled at how solid and strong he was. “Maybe. I don’t remember. Things are a little fuzzy, though.”

“Let’s get you outside. Do you feel any different?”

“A little wobbly.” I always thought Frankie was this hot, so that’s normal.

The fresh air felt good on my face, but I continued to lean on Frankie. His arms around me felt nice.

Darlene and Val looked worried. I was going to have to separate them, if I was going to get some time alone with Frankie. “If he got me in there, do you think there are any clues that might help us?”

That was enough to get them moving and Frankie was ready to trot after them. I leaned heavily against him and stumbled, which meant he had to keep me from falling.

“We’ll catch up in a sec, let me help him.” Frankie was ever the boy scout.

Once we were alone, I whispered in his ear. “You said you like it when someone else takes charge. Just Darlene or anyone?”

“I’m Darlene’s.” But he still held me in his arms.

“And if she told you to take care of someone else?”

“Then I’d do anything she asked to make her happy.” I could feel his bulge against mine. He was startening to stiffen up.

“Even if she asked me to warm you up, so she could peg you? If she told me to lick that hot jock ass of yours? I can see her jilling herself, as she watched. Ordering us around, like we were her personal porno.”

“Anything for Darlene,” he grunted, imagining how he might prove himself to her. He just stood there and let me run my hands over him.

“Have you ever had your ass played with. Some guys are nervous about that, afraid it’ll make them look gay, but Darlene never seemed the type for labels. Did you see how she kissed Val yesterday?”

Any doubts he might have had were eclipsed by any fantasies he had about Darlene and Val together. “No, she was game for anything. We watched all kinds of porn for ideas for things to try.”

I pulled his face toward mine and pulled him in for a kiss. He wasn’t very enthusiastic, until I whispered that I could just see Darlene with her hands in her panties as she watched. “She’s going to whisper, ‘Oh, Frankie!’ as she gets closer.” Then he was all in, lost in his fantasy of doing this to get Darlene off.

I sank to my knees and started to unbuckle his pants. “Darlene’s going to love this,” I assured him.

The girls and Scoop went into the big top, expecting us to be right behind them. When Val tried to turn on the lights, they flickered twice and then the tent erupted in light, but almost immediately there was a pop and darkness reigned again. She jerked the switch back. “Flashlights it is.”

“Do you think someone sabotaged the lights?”

Val shrugged. “Either that or the circuit overloaded, neither of which we can do anything about at the moment. Let’s look around and try to get out of here.”

Scoop gave a low woof of agreement.

The three of them walked over to where they’d found me. Val played her light around until she spotted something on the ground. “Darlene, look, another dart.”

“But we expected that, right?”

“Pretty much.”

Neither of them thought about the fact that Scoop had been dosed, earlier. They didn’t notice his sluggishness, or the dark shape that moved closer, unnoticed by all.

The clown grabbed their arms and turned them toward him. He blew his powder into their faces and raised his gold coin.

“Little Val, so shy. Now, you’ll be bi. Turn off that brain, let me explain. You’ll serve Darlene, your queen. Mistress Darlene, for you, another pet, just the thought of it makes you wet.”

Darlene looked over at Val with a look of naked lust on her face. Val’s eyes wide and frightened.

From what she said, the clown’s eyes narrowed, as he raised the coin as she darted forward and kneed him in the nuts. As he doubled over and gasped, she blew the powder she’d been holding in her mouth in right back into his face and stabbed him with the dart she’d picked up.

He gasped and coughed.

Darlene looked at the clown like he was her next meal. “Little pet, little pet,” she whispered, as she caressed his neck and face. “Down on your knees and look up at me.” Almost in spite of himself, the clown sank to his knees, if only to ease the pain in his balls.

Darlene leaned forward, all but flashing the clown staring up at her. “Deep breaths. In and out. In and out.” As his breathing synced with her, she started to feel a little more in control. “There, that helps, right? The pain isn’t as bad. Just breath in and out. In and out. You can feel yourself starting to relax. Doesn’t that feel good? In and out. In and out. Feeling relaxed and listening to my voice. In and out. In and out. So relaxed, you can feel your eyes getting heavy....”

Val picked up the fake flower that the clown had dropped, ready to try dose him with more of his powder, if Darlene’s induction didn’t work.

The clown’s eyes started to close as Darlene whispered to him. She ran a finger under his nose and flashed a wicked grin, as he sniffed. He opened his mouth and Darlene let him suck her finger clean with relish. “There you go pet, taste your mistress,” she said. “Oh, I’m going to have so much fun with you.”

Val was feeling a bit weirded out watching Darlene have her way with the villain, so she hurried back to get us. She had tried to avoid breathing in the powder, when she saw the clown in front of her, but hadn’t fully avoided being dosed. She felt a little wobbly and more than a little horny.

So you could say she was primed, when she came around the corner and saw Frankie and I sucking each other off. All of the slash stories and yaoi that she’d consumed over the years, and now the boys she knew were acting it out for her. Her hands reached under her skirt as she gawked at a fantasy made real right in front of her.

Thinking Val’s moaning was Darlene, Frankie redoubled his efforts on my cock and I could feel myself struggling to keep control. I pulled back off to jack Frankie’s cock and pant, “I’m so close. I’m going to—”

That made Val let out another loud moan and Frankie grabbed my ass and pulled me closer. Oh god, I could feel my cock going all the way down his throat and his nose buried in my pubes. I shuddered and let go, which started a chain reaction. Frankie slid back and the cum and drool that spilled from his mouth were all Val needed to cum. Her orgasmic cry made Frankie erupt like Vesuvius. I pulled him deeper, so I wouldn’t lose a drop.

He twitched a few times, begging me to let him go, he was too sensitive. We rolled apart, both of us panting. “That was hot.” I patted the top of his head, like Darlene had done the other day.

“Really hot,” Val agreed. “Come on, boys, Darlene needs us.”

Hoisting his pants back up as he went, Frankie was off like a shot. I was a little slower to get my clothes in order. Val waited for me.

“What’s going on?”

“We caught the clown. He tried to dose us, but I was able to turn the tables on him.”

“So you tied him up?”

She blushed. “No, something a little different this time.”

In the tent, we found Darlene sitting on the clown’s face and sucking an ecstatic Frankie. Clearly, she had everything under control. And sadly, we found out a few minutes later that clowns don’t actually cum confetti.

The mind zapped clown answered all of Darlene’s questions in between licking and kissing her foot. She was his goddess and he wanted nothing more than to serve her in any way she asked. It turns out the ghost clown was actually Harry the hypnotist. He’d worked for the circus until they found that he’d been stealing. He went to jail and Haley had thought he was still there.

Hopefully, this time, he’d be there longer.

But the interesting thing from my point of view was what happened to us. Val had a sample of Harry’s powder that she was thinking could help when she had an itch and wanted boys to help her scratch it. Darlene had his gold coin and was looking forward to see if she could expand her cadre of pets. And more importantly, all of us had learned a little more about each other.

Darlene found she liked being worshipped. Frankie found that he got off on being ordered around and that he might be more than a little bi. Val still didn’t see any of us romantically, but she was happy to use us to help her get off. And me, I was happy to finally have had Frankie and I had a feeling that if I played my cards right, I was going to get that tight little jock ass, too.

Case closed. And now our summer of fun can continue.