The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Robert knelt looking at the still form of Kendra for a long, long time. Then he reached out slowly to Kendra’s hair, gently running his hand through it. Over and over he combed his fingers through it…waiting…watching.

Then her eyes twitched and opened.

He broke out in a grateful grin.

“Hello Kendra. First Lazarus, then Jesus and now you. But I bet none of them looked half as lovely returning from the dead. You have no idea how proud I am of you and what you have become.”

Kendra smiled.

Robert was ready to make his move. He had turned his plan over in his mind so many ways. Yes there was risk but the reward was incalculable…his whole life, lived on his terms. If it worked he would be rid of that pest Angel who he knew would always be clinging onto Kendra and much more importantly, Sarkosian and Sullas in one fell swoop.

It had taken Kendra over half an hour to come out of her orgasmic stupor after she had pulled the trigger on herself. The gun of course had not been loaded but Kendra didn’t know it at the time.

It had been the ultimate test to see if his control over was still tight and strong enough for her to kill on command and conversely not turn on him. Her eagerness to carry out his order and the massive sexual response she gave when preparing for and doing the deed gave Robert the answers he was looking for.

She might be crazy, she might be damaged, she might have trouble responding in certain ways but she was his crazy, damaged girl all the way through to the bone. At least for now and now was all that mattered.

What happened later with her wasn’t consequential.

She was one of the keys to the master plan to kill Sarkosian, Marius and Angel. The other key was Angel herself. She was the lynch-pin. It was one thing to murder someone but something entirely else to get away with it. And many people would be looking for the killer of Marius and could eventually come to him…unless…the killer was known.

As he stood in his office with the gorgeous, mindless instrument of his enemies’ destruction just inches away, her enraptured eyes never leaving his face he felt sublime delight in his deviousness using Angel’s love for Kendra to seal her own fate right along with Marius.

“Kendra, I need to tell you why I did what I did so you understand completely…”

She put her finger to his mouth and gave him the full wattage of that seductive, cocky smile she could call on command.

“Shhhh….no lover. You don’t ever owe me apologies or explanations for what you do to me.”

She closed her eyes, her nostrils flared slightly, she licked her pouty lips and he could see an aroused blush creep into her neck and face. She took a deep, ragged breath before she fixed those brilliant green eyes on him.

“What happened in those last moments..it…it…was so beautiful. I’ve never felt anything like it…it was pure love and the most animal sex and getting off…just feeling so complete.. all magnified into a few seconds.”

She stood there, arms hanging limply at her side, breathing slowly, so peaceful, her face vacant, her eyes heavily lidded, looking so amazingly, beautifully lost in her memories of the his command and the gun.

His could feel his cock begin to grow, its desire to reach out to this incredible vision in front of him, to touch it, her body, all over.

But he had things to tell her before he gave into his lust.

“It’s time to start planning Kendra,” he said as they stood close, still in his office. She was running her hands over his body and breathing hard. He could tell how powerfully aroused she still was.

“Planning what?” she asked.

He put his hands on her smooth, warm cheeks and drew her close, their eyes just inches apart.

“On how you will destroy my enemies.”

Kendra’s green eyes lit up like bulbs and her lips parted in a wolf like grin.

She cocked her head adorably, curious.

“Destroy them?” The raw, naked, sexual undertone in her voice leaving no doubt at all what answer she desired.

He smiled back at her response; just what he expected. Pushing Kendra’s buttons was child’s play now that he knew hurting people turned her on so fucking much, was so heavily ingrained in her psyche.

The drug damage she had suffered was playing right into his hands…now that he knew he had nothing to fear.

“Yeah. Six foot under.”

She closed her eyes and moaned. “Mmmmmmm…..” he felt her body, pressed tight against his, quiver.

His dick got very hard, poking into her thigh.

She leaned in and started to kiss him feverishly with her mouth while her hands began to take the belt off his pants.

Then she started on her own clothes. When she couldn’t get them off fast enough to satisfy the demands of her hot, screaming pussy and rock hard nipples she simply ripped and tore them off her body, the shreds flying around the room like so much confetti as she gasped out fiery warm breaths from her heaving chest and boobs.

And that made Robert even harder. There was no resisting wild, wicked Kendra any longer. The telling would have to wait after all.

They didn’t leave the office for hours.

After the marathon fuck session was over, Robert told Kendra just the bare bones of what he was thinking. How he needed Angel to do something very important in order for the deaths of Marius and Sarkosian to come about.

The second part, the integral piece, the genius of it that would let him get away with it all, he would leave to tell Kendra later.

Robert watched the floor camera avidly and when he saw Sarkosian enter and take his usual seat at the bar he smirked.

Time to bait the hook.

Sarkosian was drinking a whisky and popping peanuts in his mouth when Robert sat next to him and ordered a whiskey too.

“Hey Sarkosian.”

Sarkosian gave him that flat, dead smile as he turned his big wet, brown eyes Roberts way.

“Roberto. Another lucrative Saturday night…..for all of us.” That last gratuitous taunt within a friendly tone. But at this point Robert didn’t care.

“We are lucky men,” Robert replied jovially, holding out his glass. Sarkosian raised his and they tapped them together and drank.

Angel was announced and started dancing on the main stage. He had phoned down to the dressing room and told her to go on now.

Robert nodded to her. “How do you like my new girl?”

Sarkosian watched impassively.

“She’s a big hit. She has some look, huh? Nice body but it’s her face that does it. See how young she looks? That’s what makes her special. She doesn’t even look legal but she is.”

Sarkosian looked for a while longer then turned to Robert. “In all our time together this is the first time you have pointed a girl out to me.”

Shit, he suspects something! But he stayed calm. How could he know? It was just a remark, a simple observation, right? Don’t let your imagination run wild. You are so close now.

“First time I had one look that unusual. So young looking. She could pass for a sixteen year old, hell fifteen, don’t you think?”

Sarkosian turned to his peanuts and started eating again.

That night Robert lay in bed too jacked up to sleep. It was all up to Sarkosian now. If he was as smart and observant as Robert thought then he had a good chance for this to play out just right. It was like rolling the hard eight in craps. So difficult, but man if you did…..you had it made.

Sarkosian relaxed at his usual bar stool at High Lights. Tonight he was not searching the people around him for secrets or opportunities or simple amusement, as he often did. Tonight he was turning his perception inward, ruminating things great and small. Like Marius, he did this often, searching his mind for any chinks in their armor, any possible threat to their massive empire, both the criminal and legitimate branches.

He sat there for over two hours, completely shutting himself off from the noise, the music, the dancing and the yelling of the fools, compartmentalizing himself fully from the raucous hustle and bustle all around him.

Sarkosian was scrupulously thorough in his mental investigation plowing over every inch of ground, every person involved in the grand enterprise, every business, legit and illicit, like a fisherman searching the ground in the dark for night crawlers after a heavy rain. But no matter where he looked, no matter where he shined the metaphysical flashlight there was nothing.

Sarkosian felt at ease. He took a sip of whiskey and felt his shoulders relax. He was a cautious man by nature and he had a knack for looking around corners but try as he might to find problems the truth was his situation never looked so well. Yes, a nasty surprise could always arise, after all, had he not given out so many to others during his career? But right now barring some amazing, totally unforeseen turn of events he, Marius and the organization they had built seemed primed for a spectacular run of years.

He wondered if Marius was even now sitting at home, out back by his pool, giving their business the same once over, looking for flaws. It would not surprise him if he was because he often did. As different as they were, they also were so alike in even more ways. He smiled at the thought. And if Marius was replicating him at this moment, had he come to the same conclusion? That it was becoming possible that they were bordering on untouchable, at least for the foreseeable future?

Yes, Sarkosian surmised, there was not a man alive who presented even a tertiary threat to them, to them to all their expansive plans.

Suddenly a woman sat next to him.

He took her in. She was one of Robert’s newer dancers. Robert had just been talking about her the other night, right at this spot at the bar as she danced.

He had seen her dance before but never had been this close to her. He quickly pegged her features; her face was amazingly young, so innocent looking. She didn’t look capable of removing a bug from her house without help. She looked no older than sixteen but he knew she had to be of legal age, eighteen; Robert would never jeopardize his club hiring a minor.

She was a good earner and he knew it was the allure of a woman’s body and that innocent, young, sweet face that drove men crazy that reached into their minds and pulled out certain desires.

Sarkosian was pleased this girl had taken the stool by him. She had already come to his attention for a very special reason: Marius had a proclivity for young looking girls and he ruminated on what Marius would think of this one. Physically, she fit the Marius bill to a T.

Perhaps he should find out; a preliminary investigation so to speak.

Marius loved young looking girls but they had to be smart, interesting. He would not abide fools. If she was something unusual, not just some dumb stripper, then his boss may want to meet her. It would please Sarkosian if he could make his boss and friend such a valuable gift. But he would not bring her to him if she was a simply a lowly rabbit wearing minks fur. Sadly, he knew the odds of her being anything special working in this place, doing this job, were quit slim.

He had planned on seeking her out for her very unusual unknowing job interview but now here she was saving him the effort.

So convenient and no time like the present.

She ordered an orange juice, no alcohol. She turned to him giving him a once over with very striking blue eyes.

“Hi,” she said and then turned to her drink.

He waited ten minutes for her to make some kind of move, see if she had a stripper’s hustle planned for him but she didn’t. She just sat there, slowly drinking her juice, looking lost in thought.

What was she thinking? Sarkosian always loved to know what people were thinking. Finding out what people were thinking, then making them think things.

In fact, he loved that more than anything else.

What Sarkosian didn’t know, what Angel was thinking at this moment was she was right where she wanted to be, no accidental meeting in a club at all. She knew he was one of the gangsters behind Robert’s ownership of High Lights: The right hand man of The Great Marius Sullas.

Franko had told her all about him and also about his dealings behind Robert’s back with the small man. Dealings that Franko, for very good reason, wanted kept secret from Robert.

She had seen it all herself at the old warehouse.

In scrambling for a way to free Brianna from whatever grip Robert had on her, she had methodically come in contact with every important person who either worked in High Lights or had some interest in it.

Sarkosian was a major player in everything going on here and she needed to know if there was use for him in the vague scheme that was starting to form in her mind.

Angel knew that she had to tread carefully around this man. He had a vicious reputation and her lover Franko was scared shitless of him despite the fact Franko was a genuine tough guy and dwarfed Sarkosian physically.

Let him make the first move. I’m just that young, harmless girl.

And so they sat there, the girl and gangster; both in the exact place in the club they wanted to be, each for a reason, each with a different plan, dissembling it from the other and neither knowing it.

“How was your night?” he asked deciding to get the ball rolling.

“Same. How’s yours?” she replied offhandedly.

That answer gave Sarkosian nothing. He didn’t like not getting answers to his questions. It ruined the fun of the game. It prevented him for gaining traction, knowledge; from starting to get that edge on a person he so craved.

“Same as what?”

She glanced at him with those blue eyes and smiled. The smile was vague too, saying nothing. It could mean, Hi, thanks for the conversation, I’m lonely or Hey, fuck off.

“Same as it ever is. You know what I mean?”

No, I don’t. Once again, nothing for Sarkosian to absorb and run with. He turned to meet her eyes fully.

“Do you always answer a question with a question?”

She turned fully to meet him.

“Do you always ask so many questions? You know you could express a thought, an idea to start a conversation. That can be pretty interesting...” she grinned playfully, “don’t you think?”

Sarkosian was rocked back. Oh clever little girl! Ending it with a question again! But was that lucky? Are you a one trick pony?

He chuckled with amusement. “Bravo.”

Angel smiled, taking the compliment and nodded. “I have my moments.”

This time she started, trying to find an opening. “I see you around a lot. But you never ask for dances.”

“Eh, it is the energy that draws me. The music, the hustle and bustle. All the different people. It is like the city shrunk down small. You can learn a lot here.” He thought a moment. “The girls are lovely, it is true…but….I find my true divertissement elsewhere.”

She had the distinct impression he had thrown that word out just to see if she knew it. But it was one of the many words Brianna had taught her over the years. Even now, despite what had happened to her it seemed Brianna had her back, like always. Angel found strength in that thought.

“Oh so where do you find your amusement?”

He nodded ever so slightly in approval.

“I find my work gives me the most joy. It is my great pleasure.”

“You must really like what you do.”

“I enjoy it as nothing else.”

“What do you do that you love so much?” Angel couldn’t wait to see what bullshit he came with. She could barely suppress a smile.

Sarkosian rubbed his chin. She could see the question had really engaged him. His face was more animated and alive than it had been since she sat down.

“I am many things. My resume is long, varied. But if I were to distill it down, I would say I am a Relations Specialist.”

“Well you got me there. Never heard of it.”

“I solve disputes between parties.”

Yeah, you sure do. Permanently and always to your benefit. “That does sound interesting.”

He nodded, looking faintly amused. “As you say, I’ve had my moments over the years.”

Angel looked back at her drink. Sarkosian found himself a bit frustrated. He still wasn’t sure he could bring her to Marius. He thought he could, that she would pass muster, but he wanted to be sure. Marius trusted his judgment unequivocally. Sarkosian took pride in that and didn’t want to let him down. He needed to test her a bit more.

“Do you like what you do?” he asked.

Her eyebrows arched. Once again that enigmatic smile that he just couldn’t read. Not yet, but he would eventually. He would make sure of it. He always found a way into someone’s head given enough time.

“Would you like it?” she replied with no inflection at all to indicate if she did or didn’t.

This comment made Sarkosian think. Would he like it? Of course not. This girl was becoming a bit of a surprise. That smile, the way she answered, with questions to his questions never really telling him a thing.

Something he did all the time to people.

This time he would turn her question around on her; see how perceptive she was with an oblique insult if she even understood it at all.

“It is not for me,” then smiled like a serpent, “you are strong to do this. I imagine I would rather kill myself than do what you do.”

While Angel was calm as stone on the outside, inside warnings were going off like air raid sirens. Suddenly she could feel a sense of otherness coming off this man. It was like nothing she had ever felt from a person before. It was almost a palpable thing she could touch if she reached towards him.

She had thought to try find ways to use him but now Angel was fully cognizant of the fact he was trying to flip the tables, she was sure he was testing her, looking for something. But why her? What was he after? And if she passed the test, then what? And if she failed?

And the way he looked into her eyes with those strange, wet brown eyes. It was like he wasn’t looking at another human, more just looking at…something that had caught his attention.

She knew this man was trying to get into her head just as she was trying to get into his. She knew her motives, but what of his? She couldn’t fathom them. She had wanted his attention and now she had it, fully. Did I just fuck up big time? Can I really handle him?

She fully understood the meaning of his last remark, couched though it was. On the surface a compliment but underneath he was calling her a loser, something beneath him. But she also understood there was a reason he did it far beyond the veiled insult. He was gauging her response; he was testing her on many levels. She knew something important had sprung out of this simple meeting between two people on a bar stool on this Saturday night.

She rolled his Promethean remark over in her mind: I imagine I would rather kill myself than do what you do.

He waited for her response, eyes glued to hers.

She smiled at him and replied in such a sweet voice. “I think you have a very vivid imagination.”

Sarkosian was delighted! Her riposte was surgical! She was telling him he was as full of bullshit in just as an oblique way as he had insulted her!

She’s fencing with me! Oh this girl has something wonderful going on inside her head. For one of the very few times in his life he was completely surprised by someone. And it was by a child with orange and blue streaks in her hair! He had to find out more. He wanted to drill inside her mind and find out what she was.

Totally engaged now, Sarkosian could feel the full powers of his perception turn on, like radar activated and going out, designed to return with pings of information about the target.

“Your name…your dancers name, Angel I think, no?”

Angel knew Sarkosian wouldn’t know that was her true name.

“Yes. That’s my name here.”

“Such an interesting name you picked. It can mean so much, yes?”

Sarkosian could feel himself getting into a rhythm now.

Angel thought about this and agreed. “It can.”

His eyes widened. He sat there, just looking at her, his face reflecting a thoughtful pose, even an expression of odd contentment?

She waited for him to say something but he did not. He was stock still, like statue made of flesh just taking her in with those brown eyes. Fuck he barely even blinked. Was he even breathing? It was eerie. It was frightening on such a strange level.

A minute passed like that. Then another.

Angel knew anyone else would be uncomfortable in the extreme, coming apart, would say something, anything to end this weird silence, this freaky tableau he had thrown on her like a blanket.

But something inside told her it was better not to. Just act like everything was normal. Don’t give in to his pressure. She turned and took another drink, dismissing him as though he didn’t exist.

“So tell me, are you a good angel or a dark one?”

Angel turned back to him slowly. She understood the undercurrents of his question. He was bearing down on her, trying to read her, start to gauge who and what she was.

Angel thought about her answer for a moment, distilling the two choices he gave her, and the stakes involved in the game she was playing with the person next to her; deadly, evil, strange and intelligent.

But were those really the only two choices? There was another choice, another answer but Angel knew Sarkosian could never imagine it. How could he? And she wasn’t about to tell him.

A truth or the lie: Which should she give? What road should she take? Each had consequences. She had to decide right now. She thought about the last time a truth or a lie could have such an impact on her life, that first night at Brianna’s house.

The bar seemed to blink out, total silence, every square foot of it compacting, shrinking down to just those few feet occupied by these two in the dark, both so invested for different reasons, but just as important in their own way to each.

The truth or the lie?

Sarkosian leaned forward expectantly. So did Angel, her eyes unyielding and alive with challenge against his perpetual stare.

Angel gave her answer.

Angel came home to a sight that stunned her. Kendra was on the couch crying like a baby. It was the first real emotion she had seen from her for weeks. Normally she was just some empty, smiling or sneering self obsessed parody of herself.

Angel flew to her in fright, sat down next to Kendra and immediately the balling girl put her in a vice like hug.

“Angel! Angel!” sobbed Kendra, “I’m so sorry, please forgive me!”

Angel’s heart leapt. “What’s wrong? I’m here for you. I’ll help you whatever it is.”

Kendra kissed Angel all over her face. “I know you will, I know you will. You’re always there for me. Oh god please help me.”

Angel grabbed Kendra’s face gently in her hands. “What is it? Whatever is wrong we’ll fix it. Now tell me. Be honest with me. I have to know everything to help you.”

Kendra’s sobbing slowly abated. Her face was wet with tears. She looked so helpless and vulnerable. It was tearing at Angel to see her this way. Angel pulled her closer and they rested their heads on each other’s shoulders as they talked. It felt so good to feel Kendra on her, to hear her talking like a real person again even in this grim situation.

“Robert…he…he’s been doing something to me. He’s been controlling me.”

“Controlling you? How? How is he controlling you? Tell me!”

“He has this device, these glasses. He makes me wear it. It changes me, puts all kinds of thoughts in my head. He gives me these injections all the time.” She held out her arm and sure enough Angel could see small pin pricks.

If the last few weeks hadn’t happened Angel would have thought Kendra was going nuts. The whole idea of controlling a person with some device was crazy, pure science fiction. But she had seen the changes intimately. She had no doubt at all the Kendra had just given her the answer of what was going on.

But if he is controlling you what are you doing here all of sudden telling me?

“Ok, then let’s just pack up and run, like we did in Miami. Get as far away from him as we can. Just you and me like it used to be. No more stripping. Just regular jobs. We don’t need that club money. People do it all the time.”

“Nooooo,” whined Kendra. “I can’t leave him unless he tells me I can. You don’t understand, I can’t resist him.”

Angel shut her eyes as she held on tight.Oh god, this is worse than I imagined.

“He offered me a deal to set me free.”

Angel’s eyes popped open at this. “What kind of deal?”

“There is this guy, Marius Sullas. He’s a part owner of the club. He’s a gangster.”

Angel knew all about Marius from Franko but Angel allowed her to talk, not letting on.

“He keeps taking Robert’s money and Robert wants him out.”

“Go on,” Angel said concern and curiosity mixed in her voice.

“This creep Marius found out about you. He likes girls who look young like you. Robert is trying to entice him into dating you.”

“What!?” shouted Angel in shock. “Robert wants me to hook up with some gangster?”

“Please Angel, hear me out. It’s so important you understand.”

Bingo! A piece fell into place in Angel’s mind. Ohhh, that’s why Sarkosian was so interested in me. He was checking out the piece of ass for the boss. And no doubt Robert was pointing the way to me…all part of some plan.

“OK, and if this Marius does want to date me?” prodded Angel, not sure where this was going.

“If..if you…if you,” sniffled Kendra, “start to date him, go steady with him..eventually he will start taking you to his house. Then after a while, one night, after he’s comfortable with you….you unlock his door while you are there and I will….”

Bingo! Another huge piece fell into place for Angel. She knew immediately where this was going. It could actually work; killing by double proxy: Angel to set it up, Kendra to do the bloody deed. And he would never be at the scene. It was a good plan. She had to give Robert credit.

“I know what you will do. You will come in and kill him. For Robert.”

Kendra nodded, silently.

Angel thought about what this entailed for Kendra. Killing in cold blood, much easier to say than do. Not hurting someone in self defense like Brianna had done a couple times to protect herself and Angel. Not even out of anger or passion like when Kendra stomped Lisa, but calculated, knowing, murder. Ending someone’s life…forever.

Angel knew that was a whole other league.

“Do you really think you can do that? Kill him? Could you really do something like that?”

Kendra nodded frantically. “Yes, I can. I can Angel. I have to tell you something. Robert made me put a gun to my head and pull the trigger. It wasn’t loaded but I didn’t know that.”

Angel gasped. The thought of Kendra trying to kill herself for Robert showed the total extent of his control over her. The hardest kill of all. Yourself.

“How could you do that?”

“I have to do what he says. It was some kind of test! That’s how fucked up he is. I don’t have a choice. I can’t refuse him. He’s inside my head.”

Bingo! And here fell the biggest piece of all. Angel knew exactly what was going on now; it was perfectly clear to her. The fact that Kendra had tried to kill herself for Robert, on his command told her everything. Her heart felt like it was shattering into a million jagged shards.

“Mother fucker,” said Angel totally stunned from all she was hearing. That bastard Robert has it coming down to this.

It took every ounce of self control she had for Angel to keep her face composed, to hide what she was feeling inside from Kendra.

“But Angel, it turned out to be a good thing! The shock of what he had me do brought me back somehow! I passed out when I pulled the trigger. But when I woke up I knew everything! He had me in a fog. I didn’t know who I was or what I was doing but now I know what’s been going on and what he’s been doing to me.”

Angel watched her closely.

“I still have to obey him but now I know who I am again. And I can fake it with him, so he doesn’t know I’m back. I even fucked that bastard after it was over to fool him. But I don’t know how long I can keep it up. He’ll find out eventually.”

Kendra’s lips started quivering, her voice splitting with the sound of terror; a person just coming apart from the pressure. “And when he puts those glasses back on me….and that drug…I will lose myself again. He will turn me against you again…I…I….can’t do that to you. I won’t. I’ll kill myself if I can’t escape.”

Angel shook Kendra. “No! Don’t do that. Not ever. Don’t say it, don’t think it. I want you to promise me! No matter what happens! I want to hear you say it!”

Kendra nodded, responding though her tears. “I promise. I trust you. But I need to get away from him no matter what. I don’t care what I have to do. It’s going to end horribly for me if I can’t get away from him. He keeps tightening his control on me! I’ll be his slave forever doing whatever he wants….and..I…I’ll…love him…for it. I won’t care about anything, not even you. If he knew I was telling you this that I remembered what he did to me there’s no telling how he would punish me. Oh, god Angel, I’m so scared. I’m running out of time.”

Angel stared at Kendra as a million thoughts went through her mind. She shifted through them trying to make the right calculations.

Kendra continued, the words pouring out. “That fucking Robert, he’s so smart. That’s why he did this to me, to set up some way to get rid of Marius. He made me an offer. Do this for him and he will let me go back to you. He told me flat out: Me for Marius. I’ll do anything to make things like they were before with you. Anything at all. I want to go back with you so much.”

Angel kept watching Kendra, thinking. “Do you trust him, Kendra? Do you believe what he says?”

Kendra smiled hopefully. “He....he’s telling the truth. I know it.”

She wants so much for me to believe, thought Angel. Like a person lost at sea who imagines a ship approaching with every star on the low horizon.

Kendra babbled on excitedly, clinging to hope. “He has no reason to lie, Angel! This was all about Marius from the start. He just wants someone to get this done. I hate what he’s doing to me, what he’s turning me into. Please make it stop, Angel. I can’t do it alone. Please do this for me baby, I love you so much. I need you back. I need to be with you again. I want to be Brianna again…pleaasseee…”

Angel rubbed Kendra’s back talking in a soft, soothing voice as to a terrified child. “I will. I want you back too. I’ll do it, don’t worry. I’ll do the plan like Robert wants. Just as he is asking. It will be alright. I promise. I’ll get you back. I promise you on my life. Whatever has to be done I’ll do it.”

Kendra hugged Angel so hard she thought she would lose her breath. As tears ran down Kendra’s face she whispered “I knew you wouldn’t let me down. I love you so much Baby Bruin.”

That appellation Brianna had coined for her that Angel adored so much. Hearing it again, with Brianna’s real emotion, not Kendra’s cold taunt, ripped into her with incendiary force.

“Brianna, Brianna, I love you too, more than anything,” replied Angel.

It felt so good to say her name again, her real name, to hold her like this, it almost seemed like old times, the two of them, in it together, for each other, like they always had since the day they met out on that road.

And after what she had been through, right now, doing just this, holding Brianna close, talking to her, really taking for once, saying her name over and over, felt like securing a small victory after so many defeats.

But as much as she wanted to experience some true joy out of this, to get lost in this, just for a simple brief moment, she couldn’t.

Angel Blake was not a girl prone to embracing delusions like so many people simply because they wished it so fervently; that was dangerous. She had been thoroughly scoured of that capacity, that weakness, years ago.