The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The girl moved through the club with supreme, athletic grace, every step in synergy with her body, pure liquid confluence, not one false move; like a panther prowling the grasslands. She dressed to show off all of her and all of her was something else entirely, something so spectacular it diminished the other pretty young girls sweating and grinding away up on the stages or caging drinks from the customers.

The young girl was poured into a skin tight, very short, one piece shiny pink dress. It was sleeveless and backless and showed off her sculpted forever legs and perfect, strong arms and back. The front showed off her lovely, surgery enhanced boobs that stuck out as though searching, yearning for a hand to grab them or a lucky mouth to suckle. The boobs bounced in perfect tight synergy with every step as though excited to be on such display. Her face was sublime; a vacuous look adorned it, making her look like an animal in heat looking to hump.

Even though there was host of very beautiful young girls showing off their wares right down to their birthday suits to the throbbing music heads turned as though on swivels when this woman strutted by. Some of the habitués of High Lights strip club whistled or cat called to her, others called out her name, Kendra Kelly, but she ignored those, head held high, a haughty look gracing her lovely face, lambent green eyes staring straight ahead. She was the star attraction of the club and damn well knew it.

Kendra glanced at the main stage where her young, wild lover Candi Rizzo was dancing. Candi was great at parties and even better in the sack and she worshipped the ground Kendra walked on. She would do anything for Kendra and Kendra loved that. She made Candi do all sorts of wicked things to her and did many wicked things right back. Like Kendra, Candi had an insatiable appetite for booze, drugs, parties, good times and sex.

She nodded a small acknowledgment to huge Franko Little who was the right hand man of High Lights owner, Robert Maxin. Maxin was away on business tonight and Kendra was about to get down to hers.

But Kendra wasn’t slotted to dance tonight and even stripping didn’t carry half the atavistic excitement or joy of what she was about to do to herself.

She quickly mounted the back stairs leading to Maxin’s office. She used the key he trusted her with to open the door then moved to the wall safe and opened it with the code Maxin had supplied.

Kendra could feel her heart pounding as she punched the code. Only she knew the raging desire inside that betrayed her cool, composed exterior.

Then she saw it: her gear. The most important thing in her life, the miracle that had freed her to be what she was always meant to be, the sweet purple elixir that had changed her life so much and made it so much better than she ever could have ever imagined.

She pulled out the case with the drug with shaking hands then removed the glasses that came with her sessions. The fact that her hands were shaking, a sign of how bad she wanted her fix only turned her on. Being a slave to the drug and what it did to her was sublime.

Robert said he wanted her to have what he called a “dry” session tonight, one without the drug. But Robert wasn’t here tonight. The drug was.

Always calling out to her.

She put the case lovingly on Roberts desk then returned to the safe to get the glasses she wore when under its influence. She glanced at the black box she was supposed to attach to her arm and the ear buds that would relay Robert’s programming to what was left of her very receptive, open mind.

She knew Robert wanted her to absorb his new lessons, it was important for her but she hesitated. He had been giving her lots of shots of the drug lately and along with the amazing rush it gave her something else had been slowly, lately coming along with it; like a passenger, a stowaway in the vessel that was Kendra’s body and mind; at first stealthily hidden down in the hold on her subconscious but now more confident, bolder, just beginning to reveal itself; a stowaway that was learning about her, her engines, what drove them, how to run the wheelhouse, how to maneuver the ship, who was the captain of the vessel -Robert- and…maybe who would be the captain in time, revealing itself in all its spellbinding beauty, just like her, only on the inside of her mind, not the outside.

It wasn’t often that Kendra could session without Robert supervising her and here was a rare chance to indulge in what the beautiful stowaway voice had to tell her. So far only whispers but growing louder, like rain picking up from a soft drizzle. Kendra wanted to understand and decipher the dark, delicious messages it wanted to impart.

Kendra stood, looking at the box, indecisive. Leave the box, let us have some fun together this time, just us pretty girls, the voice of the stowaway whispered in her mind. Kendra could swear the voice sounded just like her own. At that exact same moment the voice in her head had said it, the outside Kendra, the one standing in the office said, “Leave the box, let us have some fun together, just us pretty girls.”

Kendra hadn’t said it to anyone, she was alone in the locked office, she didn’t even know she had said it.

She nodded slightly and walked back to the desk without the box feeling a little guilt but also something else…the excitement of the devious, of reaching for the forbidden. She wasn’t sure why she was doing something to displease Robert; she never would even consider doing so under any other circumstances but some inexorable force was pulling at her. Robert would have been alarmed by this, but as the voice whispered again, he wasn’t here.

Kendra sat back in Robert’s push chair behind his massive oak desk. Kendra thought it the perfect throne for the perfect man she loved more than herself. Despite the little voice in her head that had its own agenda, her love for Robert was a fierce emotion always there.

Kendra opened the case and withdrew one of the syringes preloaded with her dose of purple liquid heaven. She wrapped the leather strap around her strong left arm and made a fist, quickly exposing a forearm vein. Her mouth twitched slightly as she stuck the needle home.

She could feel the drug enter her vein and then spread throughout her body. It started with coolness at the injection that spread up her arm then over her entire body. Then the cool turned to all embracing warmth and then so much more. It felt like someone had distilled perfect love into corporeal liquid form, mixed it with the best opiate on the planet then unleashed it to run rampant on her mind.

Kendra’s head lolled back on her long, gorgeous neck and she moaned deeply, eyes closed. When she opened her eyes they had a purple hue and flecks in her normally all green eyes and her pupils were the size of a pencil lead.

She slowly, very slowly reached out for the glasses, she just had to see those colors that would invade her mind and combine with the drug and take her to sweet places unimaginable.

The first time she reached for the glasses she grabbed nothing but air next to them. “Oh shit, fucking missed it,” she whispered and giggled. She knew the drug was fucking her mind up and she loved it. The second time she made contact, managed to wrap her hand around it clumsily and with great effort place them on her head. She fumbled and hit the switch that was located on their side and sat back, smiling, relaxed, knowing what was coming for the next couple of hours.

The drug worked in strange ways. It gave Kendra a feeling of euphoria unlike any drug she had ever tried; a euphoria not only of the mind but the body. She could feel the wet spot between her legs already and her clit throbbing in cadence like a tamed, trained, obedient soldier on a forced march.

But the drug provided so much more than euphoria. It spoke to her; it put ideas and images in her mind. Sometimes these ideas and images were connected to her life yet at other times it was a pastiche of things she had never experienced nor could she consciously comprehend. But what Kendra did understand was that all of it, every lovely second was meant solely for her, messages, lessons she had to absorb and learn to become what she was meant to be. Lessons from Robert…and now, lately from the Other. The stowaway was getting stronger, becoming increasingly intimate with her; more trusting yet conversely more demanding. Much more demanding.

The voice of the stowaway started to permeate her mind, softly, sibilant, seductive, determined.

Kendra, my pretty Kendra, I want to show you things, tell you things. Things you will like, things you will so very much enjoy.

“Wha…wh..what…th..things?”

Your past, your present, your future.

Kendra cocked her head, concern on her face. “I…I…don’t know. I feel so confused. I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

The voice laughed, like tinkling glass. I am happening to you. Because you want me to.

“But…but Robert’s not here right now. I should listen to him.”

We don’t need Robert here. It’s just some sweet fun. I will show you deliciously beautiful things like you can’t imagine, pretty, pretty Kendra. Trust me. Trust yourself. Come…

Out of the darkness came a hand. Lovely, delicate, pale: a woman’s hand. The first time she could see the stowaway’s corporeal form in any degree.

A hand with long red finger nails just like Kendra’s. It was just there, open, inviting, beckoning....

Kendra reached out and took it.

Suddenly Kendra was in her red sports car, flying down a Florida road. She recognized it immediately because she had traveled it so often. She could practically drive it with closed eyes.

She was on her way home from Simple Charlie’s, the high end strip club she danced at in Miami. As usual, she had stopped off for workout at the gym then a meal, and now looked forward to a peaceful night at home studying her college class work.

She knew the time too: three years ago.

But she wasn’t Kendra Kelly any longer, she was Brianna Brandt. Kendra didn’t want to be Brianna again, even in this purple dream but the drug, the voice was calling the shots and she knew she had to take the ride it put her on.

In a moment she didn’t know she was anything else but Brianna Brandt.

Brianna was staring at the road, enjoying the smooth, powerful engine of the car as she let loose, doing its paces, letting it lull her into that mindless yet aware kind of twilight that drivers get when they are relaxed, running the car by instinct. She was craving some hot chocolate and homemade cinnamon rolls she had baked the day before. It would hit the spot after a few hours of class study.

Then up ahead she saw her, a girl walking up the road as dusk was starting to settle over the sky. Her gait looked worn and so very tired, her movement more a shuffle than steps.

Brianna’s heart caught in her throat. She recognized that shuffle so well. Just a few short years ago it was how she walked, endlessly, mile after mile when she had run away from her alcoholic, abusive father. She could feel the pain in the girls legs and calves and the listless exhaustion of despair in her tepid movements.

Fuck, thought Brianna. She slowed down from the high speed she had been traveling so as not to frighten the girl and slowly eased towards her. When the girl heard the car she turned towards it and did the age old of ritual of the destitute traveler, sticking out that forlorn thumb.

Brianna pulled up beside the girl and stopped. She lowered the passenger window.

The girl sauntered over and leaned in the window looking around. Brianna knew exactly what she was doing. She had done it so many times herself. She was checking her and the car out, looking for signs of danger, red flags telling her to get the fuck away as fast as possible. Brianna knew just how rough the road could be for a young runaway and she could see immediately this girl had already learned that lesson. It was writ all over her face and in her leery posture.

“Hey you,” said Brianna.

“Hey you, too,” replied the girl. Both girls smiled at the little repartee. The first words Brianna Brandt and Angel Blake ever spoke to each other.

Brianna desperately wanted this girl to get in, accept the sanctuary of the ride. She looked at her closely, trying to calculate who she was. The girl had a black leather jacket, sleeves cut off, under it a ragged shirt on with the singer Pink emblazoned on it, snarling in her butch haircut. Below she wore faded jeans and generic sneakers. Her hair was black with purple streaks in it. She had cheap, colored string bracelets adorning both bare forearms. Tough girl. Rocker chick. Punk. Brianna cast about for something to say that that would appeal to her.

She arched her eyebrows and smiled. “Brianna’s taxi at your service. We haul serious fucking ass. You just have to put it in the seat.”

Bingo! Right guess. The girl grinned, opened the door and slid in like a vapor. All she was carrying was a small cloth satchel. Brianna breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as the girl sat back she shut her eyes and took a deep breath in. “Dang, you smell good,” she said flatly.

Brianna was amused by this blunt observation coming from her rider. “Thanks.” Brianna had hit the gym after work and had followed her shower with some perfume. “Just got done working out so it’s kinda fresh.”

The girl nodded. “I like it. What’s the name?”

“Summer Night.”

“Summer Night,” the girl repeated softly.

The fact was the hitchhiker could use some Summer Night. She gave off a pungent odor of days old sweat. Brianna glanced at her and felt her heart sink. She held in a gasp. The girl was so fucking young, couldn’t be more than fourteen or fifteen.

But she didn’t look like a normal fifteen year old; her face was weary, drawn, haggard, exhausted. Her eyes were dull with dark circles holding forth around them and a lifeless sheen inside. Her hair was greasy and her cloths filthy. The relentless, churning meat grinder of being alone on the street was taking its inevitable toll. She was on a direct path to death or something even worse out here alone, in this brutal country filled with so many predators.

But her worn condition couldn’t hide her beauty. Her face looked so sweet, so innocent, like a painting of a cherub. But this cherub’s face also had the unmistakable undertones of sexuality. Her skin was unblemished and so gloriously pale and set off her amazingly dark, thick eyelashes and pale blue eyes. There was a smudge of dirt on her check that looked attractive against her pale skin. Her nose was small and upturned and her pretty, sensuous mouth seemed held in a faint knowing smirk.

When Brianna made sure the girl had fastened her seat belt she slowly pulled out.

“Thanks for the lift,” she said then settled back in the seat, closing her eyes. With her eyes closed she looked even younger and more innocent than she had before. She bet the girl would be asleep in seconds if left to her own devices but Brianna had other plans; she needed the girl awake to try establishing some type of rapport with her.

“Glad I could give you a ride.”

The girl forced her eyes open. “Me too. Had about enough of walkin’ that asphalt.” She cast her eyes slowly about the car. “Bad ass ride.” She smiled at Brianna like she didn’t have a care in the world. “Guess I made the right choice. It’s like I’m rich, right, like you? Stylin’ down the road.”

Brianna laughed. “I make good money but I’m not rich. Can’t complain I guess.”

“Someday I’ll have a ride just like this. Fuck yeah. Gonna be so cool.” Brianna raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah. I know it sounds all crazy cuz I’m out here hitchhiking and all but it’s true. I’m not a runaway or anything.” The girl raised her head high and gave Brianna a look of supreme confidence. “See I graduated high school really early, all those AP classes I took. My parents, like, they are these crazy hippie types who let me do what I want. They are so proud of me. So I told them I wanted to see the country for a while before I start college. You know, no pussy stuff, just roughin’ it. Just me and my thumb. They always back me up cuz they trust me. So they said, ‘Go ahead. See the country, have fun’. They understand cuz they did the same thing.”

Brianna knew this was all bravado and blarney yet the girl said it with such sincerity and belief in her voice that she had to admire her. She knew the girl wanted to believe it and for this small moment in time it had become half reality for her.

“Wow,” said Brianna with equal sincerity. “You are so lucky to have parents like that.”

The girl shook her head affirmatively. “Hells yeah I am. The only thing is they said I had to be home a week before college. So they can see me again…you know.” She looked down and chewed on her lip. “They really love me.”

“That must be so nice,” said Brianna. “My mom left when I was a baby. Stuck with an alcoholic dad whose favorite game was ‘Let’s beat the shit out of my daughter’. I ran away from home as a teenager to get away from his crazy ass.”

The girl glanced up at her. “You did?”

“Yep. It was hard at first. It’s hard out there on your own, with nothing and nobody. Dangerous. I had to do things I’m not proud of. But I made it and things are getting better for me now.”

The girl was staring at her now. “You ran away from home and have this wild ride? Like you have a nice house and all that too?”

Brianna laughed. “Yep, got that too.”

“Wow,” said the girl with a touch of awe in her voice. She continued with a brazen cockiness that amazed Brianna, “I’ll have a car just like this someday. I’m going to college to be a veterinarian. I have it all planned out. I love dogs. Well, I mean all animals.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Brianna.

“I want to help them. They don’t lie or judge you…they don’t…hurt you. They just love you…” her voice trailed off to nothing. The girl looked down again, fidgeting with her hands. For a brief moment she looked so lost and then it passed. Brianna noticed dark red scratches on her hands and wrists, her nails were dirty.

“No, they don’t,” said Brianna softly. She knew terrible things had happened to this girl. She was a mirror image of what Brianna had been not that long ago. Horrible things had been done and she wondered how the girl had survived and how much damage had been done to her young body and mind. Some kids just weren’t strong enough to recover from it and they were doomed.

Angel nodded and smiled her voice happy and confident again. “Yep, so anyway before I do all that college stuff here I am, just checking out the sights, meeting people, having a blast. Coolest thing ever. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Brianna swallowed hard, to choke back a sob. She brushed her eyes to wipe away the wetness springing up.

Keep calm. Keep it together. Don’t scare her off. Be cool.

When Brianna felt she could speak again, she turned to the girl. “Hey, I don’t know about you but I’m starved. There’s a place up the road a bit that makes the very best burgers and milkshakes. I mean to die for. What do you say?”

The girl licked her lips. “Naw, I’m all good. But if you’re hungry do your thing, I’ll just chill in the car.” She said it offhand, like she had steak dinners every night for a month.

Brianna was startled by the girls self control. She was obviously starving. Talk about keeping your cool. This girl had some ice in her veins. What she did understand was why the girl didn’t want to go inside the restaurant. There could be cops inside or someone who had seen a runaway report on the news or the net or flier. “OK. I’ll just be a moment.”

Brianna returned to the car with a bag loaded with food. The truth was she was not hungry at all; she had eaten after her workout, but desperately wanted the girl to have some food in her.

Brianna forced herself to choke down a pulled pork sandwich as the young girl kept glancing at her. Brianna reached into the bag and pulled out a two cheeseburgers and a chocolate milkshake. “Hey, I think my eyes were too big for my stomach. Can you do me a big favor and eat this? I hate wasting food.”

The girl’s eyes grew wide. She licked her lips again. “You sure?”

“Yeah, knock yourself out. Or I’ll just throw it out the window.”

The girl snatched the food from Brianna. “No, we don’t want to litter. Plus it’s against the law.”

Brianna smiled. “No, you’re right. We don’t.”

The girl tried to eat slowly at first, taking two, three, civilized bites. But soon the facade faded; in a few moments she was attacking the burger like a feral animal, stuffing it into her mouth, crumbs falling on her, chasing it with strong slurps of the milkshake through her straw. She finished the first one in seconds and immediately went at the second one.

Brianna reached into the bag and pulled out another box. “Hey, almost forgot the apple cobbler. Oh it’s so nice and warm. Here, have it.”

The girl mumbled thanks through her stuffed mouth and grabbed the box, opening it, sniffing the warm cobbler inside. She closed her eyes for a moment; savoring the scent then tore into it.

When she was done eating Angel Blake wiped her mouth with a napkin and turned to Brianna, taking a good long look at this woman who was treating her better than anyone had since she had run off from her latest foster home.

Angel was no dummy. As soon as she saw the amount of food Brianna had brought into car she knew it was all for her.

Brianna had been nothing but a surprise so far. Often when Angel caged a ride it was one of those people who wanted to ‘help’ her by finding out who she was, where she was running from and getting her back there. Angel thought of them as the ‘thousand question’ people: “What’s your name, where are you from, where are you going, how old are you?” Their intentions were good but there was no way in hell Angel was ever going back from where she came. Those rides turned into polite fencing matches, the driving probing with intrusive questions, Angel countering with smiles, evasions or lies. It became an exhausting price to pay for the ride. She just wished they would shut the fuck up. Sometimes she told them to pull over and got out.

Then there were the others, the dangerous ones. Those who seemed nice at first, they always seemed so nice at first, like her stepfather, but who had designs on her body. You know, a little ride for a little cop of tit, or maybe something more, for money, or sometimes for nothing at all, just the promise of not getting hurt…or killed. The last time it had happened Angel thought she was going to die.

But Brianna had done none of either. She just…treated her nice, like an equal. No intrusive questions, no hand slithering on her leg. Angel had an intense suspicion of people and a raging hate of the human race as a whole. Lessons taught by her stepfather and after his death the money grubbing foster parents the state had fobbed her off with and then by weeks of meeting freaks on the road. What is this girl’s game? What is she really after? wondered Angel, yet so far she couldn’t figure it.

Brianna could feel Angel’s eyes burning into her, she knew the girl was taking her measure, but she just drove on nonchalantly. She knew exactly what she was thinking. She had done the same thing countless times riding in some strangers passenger seat.

Angel looked at Brianna and let out a huge belch. “Ops. Excuse my burgers.” she said in a flat voice, watching Brianna’s face. Brianna turned to her.

The little devil is testing me!

Brianna burped right back at the girl. “Ops. Excuse my pulled pork,” she replied just as deadpan.

Of all the responses Angel was expecting, this was not one of them. She turned away quickly, looking out the window, biting her hand to keep from exploding with laughter. But Brianna could see her shaking and knew. She was laughing too.

Oh my god! She’s a such a goof ball, thought Angel, just like me.

After a while Angel peered at Brianna’s face. It was flat out gorgeous. She was by far the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. She was perfect, breathtaking. Could someone this beautiful really be this nice she wondered? It seemed so unlikely she dared not even hope it.

Her gaze fell on Brianna’s bare arms as they controlled the steering wheel. They were so strong and toned looking, the kind of woman’s arms Angel loved. And she knew her whole body must all be like that. Not masculine big but nice and hard and tight with noticeable curves. Angel wondered what it would be like to touch the smooth warm skin and feel the firm muscles beneath. She watched them flex as Brianna handled the wheel with unconscious ease. Yummy..

Angel knew those arms would feel so good to the touch. She wanted to experience it. And she knew being wrapped up in them would be even better. It would never happen, not with this girl who obviously had her shit together, she knew that, but it didn’t hurt to look, or want it or imagine it, did it?

Looking at those arms Angel slowly faded away, got lost in a vivid daydream. Angel had found her daydreams very powerful lately; when the only entertainment you had, the only escape you could afford was the imagination your mind could provide it was amazing how real your daydreams could get.

In the daydream Angel was Goldilocks but not like the girl in the story. Oh no, Angel was nothing like the Goldilocks in the children’s story nor was she looking for porridge.

Angel as Goldilocks was dressed in a skin tight leather outfit and carried a leather riding crop with a leather cap set at a jaunty angle on her head. She had invaded the bear’s home looking for something very particular and now she had found what she was after. Standing in front of her were three naked, beautiful girls. The middle one was Brianna.

Goldilocks stood in front of the first girl. Her arms were thin. Goldilocks ran the riding crop along the girl’s cheek. “You are a hottie, but just a little too thin.”

She moved to the other end girl. Her arms were huge, manly, bulging with muscle. She moved the crop down the girl’s lovely tummy. “Not bad, you’re a total cutie….but…just too masculine for me.”

Goldilocks then moved to Brianna. She slowly ran the leather whip along those amazing arms as Brianna stood stock still with a pleasant smile on her face. “Now you…Mmmmm…you are just right.” Goldilocks grinned. She took Brianna’s hand in her own. “Now all we have to do is find the perfect bed.”

Immediately the daydream shifted. Goldilocks and Brianna were in a large bed, now both naked, with Goldilocks laying on her back and Brianna on top of her, straddling her body between her legs. On either side of them were two other beds, the one too hard and the other too soft.

Goldilocks moved her butt up and down making both girls rise and fall in unison on the mattress. Goldilocks gave Brianna a lascivious smile. “I think this bed is just right, don’t you?” Brianna smiled that so sexy crooked smile—because it was Angel’s fantasy and she made sure Brianna had just that smile working—and nodded. “Yes,” she said, voice all honeyed invitation, “just right Angel.”

Goldilocks reached out and started running her hands over Brianna’s arms. Ohhh fuck do they feel good. Goldilocks leaned in for the kiss and in moments the two young women were all over each other.

In the car Brianna kept glancing at the girl. She sat stock still, her eyes a million miles away, a dreamy, goofy smile on her face. Where have you gone to? she wondered.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

Angel blinked her eyes, coming out of her revelry. She looked at Brianna who was giving her the same crooked smile in real life she had been enjoying in her fantasy that was so fucking sexy and adorable. Angel couldn’t take her eyes off that smile. She felt like she could just sit here and gaze on it all night. It made her feel all lightheaded and warm. It was nice to feel that way.

Looking at the smile in real life, Brianna’s arms, all of her, the colors so vivid, the flesh so real, it was so much intensified from the once removed faded distortion of the day dream.

“I was daydreaming,” responded Angel.

“Was it a nice daydream?”

Angel nodded. “Uh huh…. I was Goldilocks inside the house looking for….the bed that was just right,” she replied without a hint of self consciousness or embarrassment.

Awwww, such a lovely, sweet day dream, probably because she is so tired. She must want sleep more than anything, thought Brianna. She was amused and impressed that the girl would admit this unusual day dream to her.

“Did you find it, what you wanted?”

“Yeah, oh yeah, hells yeah, I sure did.” Brianna couldn’t help notice the Delphic smile that came with her answer nor the way her eyes danced. She couldn’t help but smile back in return knowing the girl was enjoying some personal moment, some happy thought.

Angel was enjoying more than her secret fantasy. She was also enjoying that smile Brianna had. Keep smiling, please don’t stop, thought Angel, realizing for the first time just how dreadfully lonely she had been these last few weeks. How much she wanted to just be with one nice person even if only for a little while.

“You work out, huh?” asked Angel.

“Yeah, I played a lot of sports in high school. Still do when I have the time.”

“Bet you ride a bike a lot.”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Well you can tell that.” Angel put clear sarcasm in the statement, baiting the hook. She could barely suppress a grin.

Brianna caught the sarcasm. What was that about? “What do you mean?”

“Cuz I can tell how slow you drive this bad ass ride. I feel sorry for the car. I could walk faster than this. I should have stayed on the road.”

Brianna had been driving very slowly, on purpose, so she could have time to get to know this girl. She arched her eyebrows and gave the girl a look of mock hurt. “Wait a second. Did you just take a shot at me?”

Angel’s face was pure innocence. “Me? No way. Just sayin’, you know.” Then Angel burst out laughing. Angel pushed Brianna in the shoulder in a friendly way. “Haaaa, I got you, Brianna!”

Brianna laughed, shaking her head. “You did. I guess I gotta be careful around you. You’re just a little scamp.” Angel laughed again, enjoying herself immensely.

“It’s all good,” said Brianna, “I’ll get you back.”

“Think so?” teased Angel.

“Know so,” Brianna teased right back.

Brianna was pleased. The joke, the nudge in the shoulder, it was only things you did to someone you were comfortable with, someone you liked. She was making headway. Keep going, keep going.

“So you like Pink, huh?” said Brianna pointing at Angel’s shirt.

“Oh god yeah. She’s the shit,” said Angel. “Her music is so good…and she doesn’t take crap from anyone.”

“Yep. She sure is. I think I might have some,” replied Brianna. She pushed a button on her steering wheel and said, “Play music, Pink.”

Pink immediately came on the premium stereo system and Brianna turned it up, rocking the base.

Angel looked at Brianna and smiled. “Oh fuck yeah! Bad ass. I love this!”

The girls’ rode letting the album play out, just enjoying the tunes and travel as the powerful car ate up road. Brianna was driving faster now. She knew Angel wanted to feel what the car could do.

When the last song played Brianna turned to her. “Hey check out this group. I think they might be the best thing going now.”

Angel nodded. “Do it. I wanna hear.”

“Play music, The Pretty Reckless.”

Angel beamed and cupped her hands on her cheeks. “Oh my god, yes! They are fucking great Brianna!”

The first song was ‘You Make Me Want to Die’.

The song started:

Take me I’m alive, Never was a girl with a wicked mind

But everything looks better when the sun goes down, I had everything

Opportunities for eternity, And I could belong to the night…

Brianna started singing and gave Angel that lovely smile. Angel joined in with gusto.

Your eyes, your eyes, I can see in your eyes, your eyes

You make me wanna die, I’ll never be good enough

You make me wanna die, And everything you love will burn up in the light

Every time I look inside your eyes, You make me wanna die..

Both girls’ voices were rising and then melding together in true harmony, as one.

Taste me, drink my soul, Show me all the things that I shouldn’t know..

And there’s a blue moon on the rise, I had everything, Opportunities for eternity..

And I could belong to the night, Your eyes, your eyes..

I can see in your eyes, your eyes, Everything in your eyes..

You make me wanna die, I’ll never be good enough..

You make me wanna die, And everything you love will burn up in the light..

Every time I look inside your eyes, You make me wanna die.

Brianna was banging her hands off the steering wheel, pounding out the beat savagely; Angel watched her then started doing the same to the dashboard, following Brianna’s lead. When they sang they kept glancing at each other, singing to each other, smiling, grinning, laughing, rocking and rolling, just losing it. When the last lines came they both poured their hearts into it, their eyes locked together.

I would die for you my love, my love, I would lie for you my love, my love..

I would steal for you my love, my love, I would die for you my love..My love will burn up in the light, Every time I look inside your eyes, I’m burning in the light..

Look inside your eyes, I’m burning in the light, Look inside your eyes, You make me wanna die.

When it was over Angel thrust her arms up and yelled in pure joy. “Wooo! Woooo! I love it! Fuck that was amazing! You can really sing! Soooo dope!”

“So can you. I thought I was on stage with Taylor Momsen!”

Angel burst out in uncontrollable giggles, her fierce blue eyes on fire, dancing with delight. Watching her, Brianna felt happier than she had in years. The reserved, careful, wary look that the girl had worn during the first part of the drive had been washed away. Her face, her skin, her eyes now glowed with life and merriment. She looked human again. And so fucking innocent and beautiful like a young girl should; just being a young girl doing fun young girl things.

Angel looked right at Brianna, beaming. “Brianna…you’re fucking kick ass!”

“You kick ass too,” replied Brianna.

“We make a good team, huh?” said Angel.

“Fuckin’ right! Soooo dope,” Brianna echoed Angel’s words back to her.

Angel stuck up her hand and Brianna gave her a strong high five. Both girls broke out in giggles.

Brianna knew exactly what the young girl was feeling. She had experienced it too, way too infrequently, when she was a young runaway. Living on the road was an exercise in pure terror. You were always scared, always afraid, always wondering when the next stranger would hurt you, rob you, use you, rape you. It made you neurotic and forced you to retreat inside a hard carapace that slowly become impenetrable.

She knew that for this brief moment, this young girl had come out of that shell, that for this one night she felt friendship and trust and happiness. And she knew when it ended, the girl would be pushed even further into a deep, dark place. Abandoned once again by a person she liked and trusted. The thought of that gnawed at Brianna’s guts and conscience.

From there on it was nonstop talk between them, for the next forty minutes. Words and smiles poured out of Angel as she exorcised weeks of nothing but loneliness and anger and despair. Conversation, observations, jokes, flew back and forth with wild abandon.

The two girls riffing off each other as happens when you meet someone on the same mental wavelength, like you have known them forever, even if you just met them; their excited voices rapid, like machine gun fire as they volleyed each other.

So it was for Angel and Brianna as the world disappeared around them, leaving only the two in that car, traveling down that road together.