The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

April 2nd, 2005

We went to the trial, got his sentence lowered to 40 hours community service, and left Saskatchewan with him. Keith was silent the entire way home, not bothering ever to come out of the driver’s lounge, where he had taken up residence for the time being. It wasn’t a long trip, but the girls still didn’t want anything to do with him. 40 hours of community service was too nice, they complained, but I assured them that they would never hear from Keith again until there was an accident involving him and his powers would re-emerge to help him survive. There was a loophole there, but I had tracked him down the day we arrived home, and fixed it quickly with a ‘You can’t trick your mind to think that your survival is always imminent, so you cannot use it all the time. Only in an unexpected, unknown circumstance.’ He looked so pissed, I think that if the cops hadn’t been there to chauffer him to his destination, he would have started to beat me to death.

He would grow up as kids were supposed to. Speaking of growing up, I was getting married to a girl I loved in less than a month and a week. But more importantly (and yes, there was something more important), after Keith little interlude, we had decided to come back and finish whatever school we could. Kim had her transcript carried over to our High School, where she became good friends with Lauren, Pam, Kat and Michelle very quickly, not surprisingly. We shocked everyone by not staying for the extra two months, but the girls and I really needed to come home. The old house was still in good repair, and closed until we so chose to open it up again.

The time passed quickly for us once we got back into the swing of things. The ‘vacation’ as it was called in a half-ironic, half-lovingly way was taken with good graces, as we would take all the work we had missed since February, and work on it during the March break coming up next week. Plus it had given the girls time to have some quality time with me and each other, and we were all quite happy to just go through the motions for a bit before going back to sex and love.

It was during one of my make-out sessions with Heather in my Music office that I told her about the Aura-soaked card. She took a look at it, but couldn’t see any Aura except mine surrounding it. I could plainly see a dull brown glow, but maybe that was just me. She put it on my desk, gave me one last kiss on the cheek, and left to go start her ‘homework’ early. As soon as the door closed, all sound stopped. The vent stopped making a rattling noise, the room next to me was quiet, even the hall was quiet. I noticed the brown card growing in intensity, and then there was a small hologram of a man standing there. He was the cop who had handed me the card, and he spoke normally.

‘This card has been presented to one Eric _______ to let him know that he is to attend a hearing at his hometown police office, at exactly 12:00 pm April 2nd, 2005. He is to give the card to the person at the desk, who will lead him to the hearing room. If he is not there, he will be taken into custody.’

The hologram disappeared, and the card returned to a white and brown colour. I glanced at my watch, and it was 11:34. I raced out of the school, passing Heather on the way. I waved goodbye, got into my truck and sped into the busy streets. My police office was at the other end of the city, so I had to run a couple of yellow lights to get there. I was thinking over and over what I was doing, and slowed down to a more reasonable pace, when I noticed that the office was right in front of me, and I had 4 minutes to spare. I found a parking space near the doors, and got in at just 12:00. The receptionist at the desk looked up at me, and waited until I presented him my blank card. He took it, waved his hand over it, and led me into the back past other officers doing paper work and talking to people. He led me down a hall, then a left, then a right, down another long hall and into a closed room with a mirror and a camera. He motioned for me to sit, and left the room. In came an officer, who nodded to the receptionist who was on her way out.

He sat down opposite me, and put a small file down on the table between us. He unwrapped it slowly, and took out a single sheet of white paper. He took out a pen, and wrote something down. He held it up to me, blank side facing me.

“Tell me what this says.” His voice was gravelly, like he smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, and then smoked in between those cigarettes.

I couldn’t see it clearly, as his hand covered the part that was written. I moved my head slightly, and caught the reflection of the paper in the mirror. It was partially revealed, so I tried my best.

“Does it say ‘Canterbury’?

He nodded, and then continued to write on the paper, no longer bothering to try and hide what he was writing. Just a few words, but still noticeable like Mirror, Head, Young.

He looked me right in the eyes, and waited for me to speak. I was just as content to let him wait. We stared at each other for a bit, when he asked me,

“What am I thinking?”

“I have no idea. You could be thinking about anything from cats to half-naked women running around playing golf in the snow. You tell me what I’m thinking.”

“You’re thinking that this is very strange, and that the officer might be reading your mind because he’s saying exactly what you’re monkey purple dog.”

That was freaky. He was reading my mind, and I even tried to mess him up, but to no avail. He was too good. But how was that possible? He didn’t even exude an Aura around him. Unless he was so trained that he could hide his Aura away from prying eyes.

He nodded, and then sat back. He called for a coffee, and in came the receptionist. She was slightly taller than me, couldn’t have been more than 5′8″. Nothing too great to look at, but she exuded an Aura around the entire room. Maybe it was just a cover for something underneath. The officer nodded again, and the Aura faded. There stood the same women, except that her chest seemed to grow at least four cup sizes, and her body filled out in all the right ways.

“Tell her to bring you something impossible.”

“Um, can you get me a vanilla cake?”

“No.” Came the sharp reply.

“I said, tell her to get you something,” grated the officer.

“Get me a vanilla cake.”

She left the room, and came back a few seconds later with a tiny vanilla cake, decorated to say Happy Birthday. She set it down in front of me, and then just as quickly picked it up and left the room.

The officer nodded to himself, and I watched as he pulled out a long list of people or items. He ticked one off, and then ticked another off. He finally smiled at me, and made me more relaxed. I noticed that his Aura came out a bright purple.

“Alright, you’re fine. My name is Officer Darke. I’m in charge in policing the people like us.”

“Like us, sir?”

“Okay, don’t play dumb. I can read your mind, so I know what you’re thinking. Please be honest, it saves a lot of time with me,” he said with a tired tone. “You’re here because we got a call from the Saskatchewan Chapter on what had happened. It seems that not only did you take care of another Auratic, but suppressed his powers as well. We were, to say the least, quite impressed. Not the least about what the officers discerned from the testimonies from your…friends.”

“I don’t know what to say. I thought that I was one of the only people with this Aura thing. I found that some of my friends created something like one around them too, so I thought that maybe we were special, or destined to save the world or something.”

“Kid, this ain’t a TV show. We’re here to police the world; why you’re here, I have no idea. Being a mind-reader, I can tell how people respond, what to ask, what to not say, anything that can get in a person’s head. But around people like you, I’m virtually powerless. I can’t force a thought into their heads, just read them and persuade them with my words to agree with what I want. A very helpful gift in a marriage or a domestic disturbance, but overall, pretty annoying and useless. Until I had control over it, I used to have to take pills to help me sleep because I would only be able to pay attention to what my family was dreaming. Hell, I heard crickets dreams once. That was scary enough.”

I didn’t know what to say to any of this. I liked this guy too much to use my power on him, but if he didn’t tell me why I was here, then I was going to have to make him tell me.

“Alright, alright, hold your horses. I’m getting to that. I just wanted to give you some background information of who I am so you wouldn’t want to use your powers on me. And it worked for a bit to. But you have had some dealings with mind-powers before, haven’t you?

“You see, around 60 years ago, human evolution, creation, God, whatever decided that we needed a more advanced way of living. Unfortunately, that led us to near destruction. You remember learning about World War 2, right? Well, Hitler was one of us. Actually, he was like you, in a way. He could command groups of people easily, but had trouble doing it person to person after a while. But he let power go to his head, became corrupt, and tried to control the world through terror and warfare. Thankfully, one of our own Auratics came through and helped bring Hitler down. There are now Auratic Chapters all over the world. You are actually only one in a potential billion who have some kind of new ‘power’. But because of this, we need to keep tabs on whoever has a power of any kind, even if it’s something useless like being able to lift very heavy things. But you never know when a heavy truck or boulder may potentially kill someone and we need to use them to help us. So, in effect, you have been roped into the service.”

“Service? You mean like an Army or something?”

“Nothing so drastic. But if there is a hostage negotiation, or someone is using their powers for domination rather than advancement of human evolution, then we need people like you to help us. And no, it’s not voluntary to join. You were signed up as soon as you entered this office here. I have all the information on you that you thought was top-secret. The only reason we’ve let you carry on so far is that, apart from you, no one in Canada has your exact powers or upbringing. We have kids developing powers all the time to control people, in some way, shape or form. But no one has used theirs like you have. By the by, what did you do with Keith ________? We’ve been trying to evoke his powers for some time, but nothing happens.”

I told Officer Darke everything about what I had done. He looked impressed by it. He seemed even more surprised at my honesty about it.

“Amazing. Not even our top Controllers can do something like that on a first try. It says here that you moved from Saskatchewan to Ontario…4 years ago? Is that when your powers surfaced to you?”

“Yes. I found myself running from some bullies and yelled for them to stop, and they did, at least for a while. When I realized it wasn’t just a joke on their behalf to make me think that it was just to let my guard down, I tried it out on someone else, making them get me a Coke, and poof, here I am.”

“Yes, here you are. A murder, and a Suppression under your belt.”

“Suppression? What the hell is that?”

“You can suppress someone’s power. That’s hard to do for anyone of your Auratic nature, but you seem to do it effortlessly. But that’s not important. What’s important now is what you want to do with your life. Do you have any idea as to what you’re doing for a career after High School?”

“Not much thought, I’m only in Grade 10. I thought acting would be fun, but if I told people how I felt, then they would feel that way, and I don’t want that to happen. Maybe something with computers, or whatever.”

“Well, we could use someone like you on the Force. We haven’t had a Controller like you for almost a year now.”

“Okay, stop. What is a Controller?”

“Come with me. Rather than try to explain it, I’ll show you.”

Officer Darke walked up to the camera, nodded, and pulled out the plug. A section of the wall slid back, and an elevator door opened. He got in, and motioned for me to plug in the camera before coming in myself. I got into the cramped space with him, and he pressed a button about halfway down. But instead of going down slowly, we dropped like a weight. The elevator slowed down as it reached its destination, and opened its doors slowly to let us out into a big lab-area.

As we walked down the lab hall, there were big sections but out with windows showing children in big rooms. Some were filled with big blocks, others with pictures, and some with nothing at all. The children were either playing or sitting still, but nothing about the rooms was right. The first thing I noticed was the almost blinding light of these children’s Auras. The big blocks were made out of steel, and kids were lifting them around like they were no more heavy than a piece of paper. Other kids were throwing things around without touching them – psychokinetic children. One child was talking to himself, while another child, in another room, answered him. We stopped in front of a room with one child in it, all alone. He paced back and forth, walking in a slow, small circle. Officer Darke turned to me, and pointed at him.

“This is Justin. He’s like you in a way, in that he controls people. But he does it by mind, whereas you do it with your voice. That’s what my three tests were to show me. The first one, about the reading, was to see if you could read what I wrote by looking through me. These are called Sights. The second one, about trying to read my mind, was to see if you were like me. I’m a Thinker. You told Laura, the receptionist to get you a vanilla cake, and she did. I stopped the test there, because I knew what you were. You are a Controller. There are others of course; Builders, Sifters, Healers, just to name a few. They all have a particular gift. We can’t discern one from another, but for us it’s trial and error. Justin here, he was put here because he kept trying to get others to do things that they couldn’t do, like typing something on a keyboard in the next room or making one of the girls show him her panties. We keep him here, so he can’t Control us. We need your help, as a kind of test, to help him suppress his Auratic nature somewhat so we can teach him properly.”

Justin sat on a little stool, and looked towards the door, expecting someone to come in, when no one did, I turned my head a little because his Aura grew brighter, and stronger. Darke stopped watching, and headed towards the door. He opened it, and motioned for me to come in. I knew that Justin was controlling him somehow through his mind, because he hadn’t spoken a word. Darke just stood there, waiting for me to enter. I did so, and I felt like someone was telling me to go hit Darke in the face.

But because I was in control of my powers to the extent that Justin was going to be one day, but wasn’t now, I didn’t do it. The Auratic light around him grew brighter, and the force was stronger, but I held on. I spoke in a clear, calm voice.

“Justin, stop telling me what to do. You cannot ever hope to control me. Ever. And stop controlling everyone you see. Grow up as normally as you can, knowing that you can use your power for greater things, not just your own wants.”

The feeling was gone in an instant, and I saw his Aura diminish in size and luminescence. He stood there, eyes shut tight trying to get someone to do something, but the only thing that happened was that he let out a kid size fart. He giggled, as did I, and I left the room. He sat back down on the stool, and looked at his feet, kicking them slowly.

Darke came back to watch Justin with me for a moment, then turned to face me. He spoke in awe of what had just happened, but was trying not to show it.

“Eric, that was most impressive. I was the only one who could control Justin, because I could block him from my mind’s eye. But what did you do exactly?”

“I told him that he would never use that power on me again, and grow up thinking about how he can change the world for the better.”

He started to laugh, a big booming laugh that caused a few of the kids in the rooms to look around in panic and worry, but relaxed with they heard it was just laughter, nothing bad.

“Eric, you really are something. Come, you have to get back to school. Heather and the girls are wondering where you are.”

“How do you know…”

“What, I’m not that stupid. I have one last question for you though. Why, whenever we pass a room, do you shield your eyes?”

“Their Auras are quite strong. Can’t you see them?”

“No. I can’t. I wasn’t born or given the power to see Auras or Auratic people, just study them. I wish I could though, just once.”

I took his shoulder for a second, and said “See the Auras around you.” He immediately shielded his eyes from me, because he was blinded by my sudden explosion of light and white Aura. He looked around when he could, and he smiled for the first time in a while, that was a genuine smile, and not one required by the job or from laughing. He chuckled, and led me into the elevator. We climbed at a normal rate, and were back in his office in a manner of minutes.

He led me out the front door, thanking me.

“Thanks to you, my boy, I can now study the rest of the ‘specimens’ in detail.” He had said specimens, because some normal, non-Auratic people were walking into the building. “Please, give the job some thought, and if you so choose to become a full time Auratic Chapter Officer, I’ll do my best to get you to come work in this city instead of Toronto or somewhere bigger and more out of control. Now, you get back to your lady friends, and make sure to tell them what I told you.”

I opened my car door, and got in. As I started up the car, I saw that only about 5 minutes had passed by. The same Aura that had turned off time in the Music office was in effect down in the basement and in the room where I had been questioned, so time had only gone by when I was travelling to and from there. I pulled out of the parking space, and was turning to go when Darke stopped me again. I opened my window, and he stuck in a card. It had his number on it, and without a word, went back inside to do whatever he had been doing before my arrival.

I turned left out of the parking lot, thoughts whirling around my head. Who were these Auratic Chapter Officers? Was it all a hoax? Am I going insane?

All thoughts were erased from my head as soon as I saw Heather waiting for me outside the school doors, books open, pen going across the page quickly. She heard my truck, and packed her stuff up. She climbed in next to me, threw her bag in the back, and gave me a big kiss. That’s all the inclination I needed to find a shady spot for a while. We didn’t even make it out of the parking lot.

When the bell rang for the next class to begin, she and I put our clothes back on as smoothly as we could, each trying to upset the other with poking and grabbing. Since we didn’t have class, there was no big rush, except for the gym class that was scheduled to come outside and play Frisbee right next to us. We got back inside, and parted ways. I kissed her quickly, and gave her a quick order.

“Tell the girls, when you see them, we are meeting tonight, at my house. And make sure to tell them that though it will not be a sex night, if it happens, make sure to bring a change of clothes or perfume just in case.”

Heather laughed, poked me once in the gut, and ran off to finish some of her old work. I went up to my office to do the same, at least until my last class of the day, Math. I would end up talking to Jess there, as well as Blair.

Math came sooner rather than later, but by the time I was there, they already knew of my meeting tonight. God, how I loved these girls. The teacher stood up in front of the class, and we began a new lesson on Algebra. As I had said before, the teachers were wary of me and my way of suggesting things, but now that I had seen what misuse and even blatant disregard for society’s laws did to people, I didn’t bother trying to ‘suggest’ anything to anyone. There was a new teacher today, probably a substitute for Mrs. Farmer. She was rumoured to be pregnant, so this came as no shock.

After learning the lesson, the teacher sat down, put on a Herb Albert CD, and we worked in near silence until the last bell of class. The teacher, Mrs. Buxley, asked me, Jess and Blair to stay behind.

After closing the door, and returning to sit behind her desk, she started her questioning.

“So! You’re back. Welcome, welcome. You have missed almost a whole month’s worth of work. Is there anything, besides what lessons you missed, that you need?”

“No.” “No.” “No.”

“Just as well, as there was nothing big to catch up on, apart from the work. Now, where were you three?”

There was no point in lying. I opened my mouth to speak, but she instead pointed to Jess. I shrugged, nodded, and folded my arms.

“Saskatchewan, Mrs. Buxley. We were in Saskatchewan.”

“A likely story. And, why were you there?”

“We went to have a mini-vacation of sorts.”

“Uh huh. And, while you were there, did you partake in any extra-curricular activities? Helping the homeless, playing chess with the elderly, volunteer work of any kind?”

“No!” Jess snorted.

“I see. Well, in that case, I am going to have to send you three to the Principal’s office.”

“For doing what? Taking a vacation?” blurted out Blair.

“Well, you leave for a month, no note, no mention of why or where or how, and then poof, here you are, in my class. I have no choice in this matter. It was a consensus vote among your teachers, and the others who went with you.”

“Others?” I asked innocently.

“Yes. I have the full list right here… ah, here we are. Yes, it says you three, Megan, Denise, and Emily. Heather _______ is not in any of my classes, so I cannot say for her.”

“And, what are we being disciplined for? Leaving without a note from, uh, school grounds? Oh no, call the cops!” My sarcasm dripped from my mouth.

“Lucky for you, that has already been arranged. You all are going to spend a little time locked up for bad behaviour.”

This came as a shock to us all. Mrs. Buxley made it look like she was a really nice woman, but she seemed so dark all of a sudden. It was like there was someone controlling her. But, there was no Aura surrounding her. None that we could see anyway.

“So, if you three will follow me, we’ll see about your school punishment. No doubt your parents will be harsher on you than we will be.”

Under her breath, Blair said “Hmph. Not likely. Mine still think I’m a boy!”

Mrs. Buxley glowered at her, and then left the room. We had no choice but to follow. We passed a couple people in the hall, and gave them high-fives or smiles. We all knew that nothing could be worse than spending a few hours a week or so in an office or doing yard work. It was a clear afternoon, and the sun shone down the hallway. The way the sunlight hit the window, it stopped just short of the door to the Principal’s office. Mrs. Buxley knocked once, twice. We waited, until the distinct bass of a deep-voiced man calmly spoke, “Enter.”

I wasn’t too shocked to see some of the girls there. Kim, Michelle, Pam, Lauren, and Kat were all there, sitting with their eyes closed, enjoying the warm office heat. Heather was standing near a water cooler, getting a drink. I couldn’t help but enjoy the view. She was wearing a skirt, (with no underwear, I might add), and a loose fitting blouse that showed cleavage without becoming indecent. The school policy for clothes had been changed earlier that year by me, so there was nothing wrong with how she dressed. The blouse was baby blue, and the skirt a dark purple, perfect Spring colours. The other girls had dressed similarly in colour, but not style. Kat and Pam sported two turtle-necks, beige and red, and had dark black jeans on. Michelle had a spaghetti strap t-shirt on, along with shorts with pictures of flowers on them. Kim and Lauren were wearing a simple t-shirt/jean combo. Jess and Blair wore green and yellow sweaters, with long jean shorts that came to their knees or lower thighs. For myself, I was wearing a simple black dress shirt and a pair of dark blue plaid sweat/pajama pants. They were at least nice and comfortable, if not the most fashionable things.

The Principal motioned us down to sit, not bothering to look at us. I was going to stand by Heather, when Mrs. Buxley caught my arm and sat me down in a chair right next to her. I shrugged again, not really caring about where I sat.

The door rattled, and the Principal once more said “Enter”, without looking up from his notes. Megan, Denise, and Emily came in, and waited behind the other girls. They were all slightly out of breath, and dressed in the red short shorts of gym class with the grey t-shirt, which clung to their frames. Mrs. Buxley sat down in between me and the girls. She also made a hissing noise at Heather, which made my heckles flare. That is, it made me ticked that she would disrespt my future bride by hissing at her. I oh so wanted to make her take it back, but I decided with a look from Heather that nothing was too bad as getting a teacher screwed for life just because she made a derogatory comment or noise to one of the people I loved and cared for.

The Principal finally looked up, and blandly looked over the 11 gorgeous girls in his office. At least, to me, they were gorgeous. He turned to me, breathed deeply, and nodded his head a couple of times. I didn’t know what to make of it, so I just sat there, face impassive.

“Quite a harem you’ve collected, Eric.”

I was so angry right then. I really wanted for him to go jump out his window. But after the flash of anger had passed, I motioned for the girls to be calm, and smiled at the Principal. I tried to remember his name. Henry, or Harry, or something.

“Harem, sir?”

“Well, what else would you call the gaggle of girls?”

“Are you suggesting that my friends here are geese, sir?”

“Excuse me? Did you just back-talk to me?”

“Did you just insult these girls, or was that sexual abuse? I can’t ever tell the difference.”

Heather was shocked speechless, mouth wide open. Pam and Kat were trying to stifle giggles. The others were as impassive as I was at that moment.

“Fine. Rather than bandy insults with you, I’ve called you all here to tell you that you are being suspended for the remainder of the year. Now, is that a bad decision, or sexual abuse? If you were just a girl, then yes, it would be.”

“Just a girl? Boy, have you totally fucked up over that particular comment.”

Heather looked ready to faint. Kat and Pam were glaring daggers at the Principal. Jess, Megan and Blair were holding Michelle’s hands, calming her down. Emily and Denise were surprised, eyes wide open. Only Lauren and Kim seemed unaffected.

“Perhaps my wording was incorrect. You see, because of your new…procedures at the school here, punishment has risen in order to keep the peace.”

“Bullshit. You just want me out of here so you can screw these girls. Well tough luck. They make their own decisions, not me.”

He looked so shocked, it was like he just ate electricity. He looked to the girls, hesitantly.

“Is that true? You are just his…friends?”

“Yes,” said Heather curtly, and pointedly.

“Um, ah, well, this certainly changes things. Maybe for the better…I think that we’ll need help with this ‘negotiating’. Wendy, go and get the officers next door, will you?” That was the last straw for me. I stood, not quickly to show that I just wanted to speak for a second.

“Sir, ma’am, we have no intention of disobeying a direct order from our superiors, but as soon as we are off school property, who gives a fuck what you want?”

The girls spurted in a laugh that was turned into a very fake coughing fit. I continued when the coughing died away.

“So, in answer to your unspoken questions, yes, we will go to wherever the officers next door will be taking us, but not before you hear what they have to say,” I said, pointing at the girls.

There was the door leading out of the office, and I opened it up. An officer stood there, arm raised to knock on the door. Four others stood behind him, straight-faced and solemn. They looked down at me, and I said quietly, “The girls will be out in a moment. They’re having a few extra words with the Principal. Do you want to take me now, or wait until we’re a group?”

One of the officers came up in front of me, and said “Wrists out front.” I did it, and he slapped a pair of handcuffs on me. He pulled me away from the doorway, and the other four officers stood two on either side to apprehend the girls when they came out, single file. Each of them gave the Principal a dirty look, the finger, and in Michelle’s case, a black eye. We calmed her down quickly, because the cops were reaching for their mace, and the last thing I needed was a girl on the floor crying, unable to rub her eyes clear of the muck.

The school was deserted, at least in the hallways. The outside was all abuzz about who was getting arrested or why the cops were there, and when they saw me, they all gasped. The focus was on me mostly, with only cursory glances at the girls. That suited me fine. I raised my hands, and with a wry grin, imitated Nixon with the ‘4 more years’ peace signs. I was pushed into the nearest police car, along with Megan. We held hands for a second, then let go when we got the sternest look ever from the cop who was driving.

The cars pulled away, without any commotion or further fuss, and soon we were driving through the streets of Burlington quickly. We were brought to the front of the office where I was before earlier today, and led in. Officer Darke wasn’t around on the main floor; he must be in the basement, I mused.

Seeing a dozen teenagers led into the building was a thing to see for sure, but not for long. We were sent down a hallway on the right, then a left, and down a long corridor of cells. Other inmates merely gave me a nod, while they stared open-mouthed at all the girls who were, above all things, stacked, young and dressed to flaunt what they had. Thankfully, the officers noticed how the girls were affecting the other offenders, and led us right to the end of the hall, and into another, more secluded, prison corridor.

6 of us were placed in one cell on the left, and the other 6 on the right. I was in a cell with Kim, Jess, Emily, Lauren and Pam. Michelle, Kat, Heather, Blair, Denise and Megan were in the other.

“You each get one phone call,” sighed one of the guards. “I suggest you call your parents, or someone to pick you up. Otherwise, you’ll be spending two nights here until they can come get you in 48 hours. I’ll come back in about 4 hours, so make sure that you spend time thinking about who you want to call.”

We heard his shoes clacking down the hall until he opened and closed the door. There was not a sound in the place, except our breathing. Jess broke the silence by saying, “Damn Michelle! A black eye? You look so soft and innocent!”

We burst out laughing. It was funny, when you thought about it. Michelle looked about as red as a can of Coke, and she was giggling despite herself. I actually couldn’t help but think that this was a lot like that scene from The Replacements, when the football team is incarcerated for beating up some guys in a bar. It was just like that, but we weren’t in that large of a cell. There were two benches and a toilet in each one, without a lot of room to move around in it.

I stuck my head out as far as I could between the bars to look up and down the corridor. It was empty – just as well. I didn’t want anyone to hear what I wanted to tell the girls. I got them quieted down after a few more jokes about how we were going to sleep tonight and how everyone but me could get out by sleeping with the guard. When they were semi-quiet, I started my tale of when I was brought here to see Darke, the underground area, what the Auratic Chapters were, how we weren’t the only ones in the world with these powers, and why they needed me.

When I was finished, they were all deep in thought as I had been. Kat had looked at me like I was crazy, Michelle was pacing, and Heather was lying down on a bench with an arm over her eyes. The other girls were either sitting or leaning on the walls. I sat on the toilet, rubbing my temples, trying to make sure I remembered it all. Pam was the first to speak, and whispered, “So, now what? Do we never use our powers again, or only when we need to? Because, I for one, like being able to walk around with the C-cups I’ve always wanted.”

I smiled in spite of the situation, and looked up to see how the others were taking it. A few smiled at me; the rest were bowing, their heads between their legs or resting on a bench or arm.

“Pam,” I said slowly, “I don’t think that changing your boob size is going to destroy the world.”

“Eric, no joking, please. What can we do? I mean, once they find out that we can do these things, are they going to tag and study us?”

“Well, Darke didn’t really go into details about that. I guess that he just does what I’ve done, and help Suppress powers or help people with Auras come into their own. I suppose that some kids he studies to see if they are born with Aura, or they come into it, like we all did, at separate times.”

“How old were these kids?”

“Young, like 7 or 8. A few toddlers, but their Auras were focused on toys and food. As I said before, Darke didn’t go into any details about his studying.”

“Can we trust someone like him?” asked Pam, worry in her voice.

“Why not? He didn’t try to kill me, even though he could have at any time. I don’t think we need to worry about him for anything drastic. Even if he did turn against us, what good would it do him? I can stop him from hurting me, Kim would phase through him, Heather could make him forget what he was doing. Pam could even change her appearance so totally that she would look like a different person altogether. What do we need to worry about?”

“Well, no one except Kim can dodge bullets. No one except you can control others. If you were taken, and forced to change people, what would the consequences be? Would we be unable to use our powers anymore? Would we even be able to make our own choices?”

These were all good points, and we spent the next two or three hours discussing them. Then, when the guard came back, he took us one by one to use the phone. Kimberly was allowed to bail out because my parents were her ‘temporary’ guardians, at least until Heather and I were wed.

Once we were all back in our cells, a new discussion was held. About pudding, of all things. We all knew it was just to get our minds off of Darke and the Auratic Chapters, but it was hard not to think about them both. I considered letting us forget about it for a day or so, but decided that it was better that we all remembered now than later.

Our parents were all coming together to get us in about an hour or so, to drop us off at my house so we could continue our meeting. I could tell that the only thing the girls wanted to do right now was sleep, so when we did get let out into the cool night air, and into my warm and slightly stuffy room, I didn’t even bother trying to get Heather in the mood for a quickie. I undressed, as did they all, and we all climbed into my bed to try and get some sleep before school tomorrow.