The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

It was a grand meal, though Samuels could always expect that from the small, quiet Italian restaurant she often found herself when she ventured from the facility. Enough people knew about the out-of-the-way place so that business was healthy, but it wasn’t overwhelmed. It was clear to her that patrons knew what they’d found and simply didn’t want to share it far and wide and spoil it. And there was good reason. The food was five-star. She would put it against any place she had been with clients or those within her network that waited for months to get into.

Those that ran it were the other half of the reason it was what it was. Three generations of the same family worked it and were every positive stereotype you could carry with you into such a place. They were interested in their customers and their lives, bantered back and forth with each other with the humor and energy that only a close-knit family can, and created an atmosphere of a home away from home where you were always welcome.

She admitted to herself that sometimes she went there just for that. She went just to have someone give her the illusion that they let her in for a time. Sometimes she went to listen to them be a family. She had made her sacrifices and she’d do it over again because she had done groundbreaking work in any number of fields. Her knowledge and that of her compatriots were decades ahead of anyone else anywhere and that was worth it.

Still…

“There’s my ride,” she said to the full-figured woman who looked like everyone’s grandmother as the gleaming black limousine cruised to the curb, street lights reflecting brightly from it as it slowed then stopped.

A hand touched her back as her other arm held the door open as the older woman watched it slow to a stop, “It’s a pretty ride.”

“Just let me know when you’d like a ride and I’ll take you for a spin around town.”

She dismissed it with a grin, “Those are only for weddings, funerals and rich people who don’t want to drive anymore.”

Samuels smiled, her dark eyes sparkling with amusement as, behind her, an already tall woman that had no fear of heels, a brown bob, unique gray eyes and a black pinstripe business suit move with a dancer’s grace around behind the vehicle to open the door for the doctor. “I’ll have you know that I still drive, I just like to go around my city in style.”

“Your city, eh?”

“Born here, live here, know where the best Cannoli are.”

The restaurateur laughed. It was a sincere and joyous sound. “Yes you do. Next Friday?”

“Of course, my dear.”

Samuels heard, “See you then.” from behind her.

“Thank you, Staci,” she said just after she was settled into the plush leather and before the door closed.”

“A pleasant dinner, I trust?”

She glanced to Traci, happy to see Staci’s near-literal copy in body and literal in attire looking happy to see her. “It was very nice, as usual. I trust nothing unusual happened while I was away.”

“Very routine, Doctor,” she said as Staci took her place in the vehicle next to her sister before the vehicle pulled into traffic once again. Traci glanced once again at her phone.“Nothing of note.”

“Good.” She was happy for the lull. Her work life seemed to cycle that way. Problems would blossom from one end of the operation to the other. A procurement didn’t go as designed and alternate plans had to be made. Sometimes a client got snotty because they were kept waiting when it came to having their wishes fulfilled. Then there was always the ebb and flow of internal politics. There was nothing that she couldn’t handle, but the lulls let her play and enjoy the fruits of her labors, and the night was young.

“Have you made any other plans for the evening?”

“No…” She thought about it before giving it finality. “Nothing really jumps out at me. Let’s just enjoy a drive.”

The car cruised the heart of the city and she took it in. She liked cities best at night. It was calmer, though in cities like hers, it was never asleep. And there was just a different sort of life being lived after the sun goes down. She thought cities at night were almost their own artistry as the lights of the buildings and bridges seemed to paint with light in a way that entertained her eye.

Circling outward from the near center of the city they crossed a suspension bridge to that section of any city that nestled itself between the affluent center and the seedy underbelly. It was still reasonably clean, modern, and respectable, but neon could be found far more often as could the chain restaurants, drug stores and all the other pieces that kept the center running smoothly. Of course, there were other elements that kept the center running smoothly, too, but that being the reason they were there was never talked about in those terms.

It was always couched in terms of “other.” If not for the drug dealers, ladies of the evening, petty thieves and the like, the city would be paradise. They never accepted that nothing existed that there wasn’t a need for. If a city didn’t have people to fill those needs it would create them because the people weren’t examples of paradise. They were rife with vices and those would be fulfilled one way or another. Without those needs met their paradise would implode.

Concessions were made though in order to help keep the illusion going. The young men and women selling themselves and whatever other product they were plying had better clothes and were a bit more sociable. The women walked up and down the street stopped to chat with men rather than just standing on the corner hanging themselves out like meat on a hook.

As the limousine traveled Samuels rolled the window down and surveyed the scenes before her. A Mercedes had pulled up to a dealer and a young woman was chatting up a middle-aged man in expensive casual clothes. Perhaps it was the pristine white tube dress that caught her eye and made the girl stand out and how that contrasted with the straight dirty blonde hair. Perhaps it was how she stood, as if she knew what she had and what she could do, and what she was worth. Perhaps it was the strength of that person that was conveyed in her dark eyes along with a profound vulnerability that Samuels could see even from the distance between them.

Those eyes looked away from the man she was speaking to long enough to make contact with hers. The woman’s lips turned up and, after a moment, she went back to her conversation. Samuels leaned back in her seat contemplating that moment. “Back around the block,” she called out to the unseen driver. She didn’t wait for an acknowledgment that wouldn’t come, instead, simply waiting to come back around.

“Something of interest, Mistress?” There was enough individuality left in the two them that no one would readily know that they had been almost completely remade by the doctor.

“I think so. Let’s just come back around and make sure.”

It didn’t take long to circle even the long block in the light traffic and Samuels found herself smirking at the fact that the young blonde in the tube dress was now alone and smirking back as the limo pulled alongside. It had no more than stopped before the young lady leaned into the window and critically examined the three. “You lost?”

“I always know who where I’m going, young lady. Can I ask your name?”

“Tiffany.”

Samuels’ head tilted in her direction and her eyes seemed to roll without actually doing so. “Anybody ever tell you you look nothing like a ‘Tiffany’?”

She did not miss a beat, “What’s a ‘Tiffany’ look like?”

The doctor chuckled, but not because she didn’t have an answer, rather that she had made more than a few girls with that moniker and everyone that wanted one wanted a certain type of look and action and this girl fit neither. “Not you.”

“Wanna pay me to change it?”

“I’m looking for a nude model. Is that you?”

“Just phone pics or cam stuff? Two hundred an hour.”

“That’s steep.”

Her voice purred, “I get into it, but I get it.” Her tone became all business. Fifty bucks and if you don’t like what you’re getting after fifteen minutes, give me my Grant, drop me off, and all done.”

“Perfectly reasonable; get in.”

Tiffany opened the door and climbed in, sitting in the seat opposite the three. She crossed her legs seductively, letting the dress ride up and letting the older woman look her over.

Her eyes examined the form as she was invited to.“Do you know why I went to ‘nude modeling,’ Tiffany?”

“No,” she admitted, “You don’t seem like that would be your thing.”

“When in doubt, always go to nude modeling. Police need a sex act and a price for said act before they can arrest for either end of the crime. Nude modeling isn’t a crime and police get easily frustrated because the time they waste trying to snare you could be time spent snaring a dumber girl.”

It made sense and she gave a nod, “Thanks.”

“I’m dying to know though, what’s my ‘thing’?”

The girl did one more quick appraisal and decided that her first impressions were correct. “Looking at the clones with not a hair out of place and you with your smarts, vocabulary, and looking cool like water would freeze on your tongue, I’m thinking your thing involves me shackled up and taking a six-foot double-tail.”

“Not bad. I do quite like domination and submission. I find both very arousing, but I employ them in ways it’d take a while to explain. So, Tiff...” She groaned before leaning forward to look at her. “Staci, two hundred dollars, please?”

Silently she leaned forward to reach the drawer under Tiffany’s seat directly in front of Staci and Tiffany went wide-eyed at the sight of it filled perfectly to the top with stacks of wrapped bills. She pulled the crisp bills free and handed them to Samuels who proffered them towards the blonde who moved quickly to take them. Just before her fingers could brush them, Samuels pulled them back to leave them dangle. “Ah… This is separate from any other transaction we agree to. Two hundred dollars for nothing but your actual first name.” She couldn’t help but add with a sense of playfulness, “And if you say it’s “Crystal” with a ‘K,’ “Bubbles,” or anything else that screams ‘porn’ we’re all done.”

Thumb and forefinger took the bills and pulled them towards her but the other woman was not letting go. Tiffany shrugged internally as she decided the other wasn’t asking for her DNA or her life story. “Kayley.”

The woman appraised her carefully and Kayley was almost frozen. Those dark eyes looked bottomless and like they could rip through any lies you told her and even ones you told yourself. The doctor finally found what she sought, or didn’t find it, and let go of the bills. Settling back, “Still sounds a little porn.”

She folded the bills and tucked them under the front of the dress. “I was born ‘Leeloo D. Multipass,’ but I changed it.”

Samuels nodded while grinning wryly, “Best to avoid confusion.” Appraising her body further she noted, “Have much familiarity with submission? I note the scars here and there.”

She watched Kayley go from ‘business’ to ‘hard’ and pull her dress down the little it would go in a futile effort to cover up. “Clumsy since I was a kid.”

“Ah.” She decided not to push.

Kayley looked out the window for the time it took her to shake off the feelings gnawing at her.“Can I ask your first name?”

“Rebecca.”

“Rebecca,” she repeated. “I’ll buy that. It’s not porn-y, and you don’t look like a ‘Becky.’

She glanced at Staci and Traci who looked at her knowingly, “I am no one’s ‘Becky.’” She made zero effort to hide her cold resolve in who she is and what she was about as she spat the bastardization of her name. “Everyone called me that to the point where I was seven before I realized that wasn’t my name. Not since.” Samuels wasn’t sure why she let that bit of her history out except perhaps to make up for bruising Kayley however unintentionally. Moving on, “Do you have a friend you work with?”

She nodded. “Her rate’s mine plus fifty each per hour; a hundred more each if you want the clones to get in with you.”

“I understand. Price isn’t the issue, and I’ll just be watching I like the more...subtle bits about people and their interactions. I like to watch the physicality, but I like the psychology, too, so know that I’m not asking if you have another girl you can work with. I want to know if you have a friend you like to work with?”

Kayley looked out the window to see where they were in the world, recognizing the food truck that was pretty much always at that particular corner. “Left at the next block,” she said, speaking up so the driver could hear. She filled in the blanks for Samuels “Lisa likes where the little artsy theater lets out.”

She scooted to the edge of the seat in excitement at seeing her copper hair from half a block away. Sticking her head out the window she yelled enthusiastically, “Lisa!”

The redhead turned and Samuels appraised her out of reflex. There were exceptions, of course, because such was the variety of life, but in her experience, redheads either carried a chest on the small side or the large. Lisa carried hers large with the tiniest hint of that simply confirmed nature over surgery. Freckles dappled her chest and when they closed the distance she saw they were sprinkled across her cheeks as well. Her eyes were a subtle shade of green with gold flecks and her lips were full and lush.

“Wanna party?”

Lisa seeing Kayley was all the assurance she needed that things were straight. “You bet.” She smiled and hopped in with Kayley sliding in to make room. “Hi,” she said, giving a little wave, “how is everybody?”

Kayley gave introductions with a bit of a game show-hostess flourish, “This is Rebecca, these are her clones, and Rebecca would like to watch us have fun.”

Lisa smiled, already eyeing the best way to get her out of that dress. “Works for me.” Looking to Samuels, “Anything special you want to see?”

She shook her head, “Whatever the two of you like to do is fine. There are toys in the drawers under your seat if you’d like to use them.”

“Cool.” Turning to Kayley, she found those lips and met them before pulling back enough for their tongues to visibly coil together and their hands roam freely. Samuels watched silently and waited for the first inklings of what she wanted to see. Certainly watching them engage would be fun in and of itself, but the whimpers were just slightly exaggerated at this point, the groping a bit too aggressive, and the tongues playing just a bit too out in the open. They were playing a porn scene for her benefit and that gave her no insight into them and that’s what interested, so she stayed silent and waited.

With nothing to prod them and, indeed, no real feedback from their silent audience it began to vanish. Tongues disappeared as mouths met and the touches began to wander more, take their time, and add the occasional intimate flourish, like nails dragging over Kayley’s ass after the panties pulled down and the dress pulled up to reveal it. It was firm with not much give and Samuels noted the additional scars on her body. Seeing the various types, from a bit of road rash, to cigarette burns, to scars along her back from a buckle or wire, it was clear that she had traveled a long, unpleasant road to get here.

Overall, it was a nice body though. It was lean with pert little breasts and a nice contrast to Lisa who was full-figured enough for those large, slightly pendulous ones. Generally she avoided more crass descriptions, otherwise it could color the work, but in this case it was appropriate: those were tits. Both were shaven to smoothness and alluring in their own way.

She listened to their whispers, some sweet, some dirty, and some a mix of both that told her that Lisa could be as clever as Kayley. She liked clever. She liked that they had minds unbroken enough to take moments of fun in their lives and work. Samuels watched Lisa kiss gently down Kayley’s body and nibble aggressively as the blonde’s left leg found the carpet and her right rested against Lisa. The redhead took the tiniest bits of flesh she could manage to grip and tugged upward, making Kayley whimper and hiss. “That’s not the ‘eating me,’ I like.”

“Yes you do,” she challenged, kissing the subtle teeth marks she just created. “If I thought your ‘stop’ actually meant stop… But you like it.” Still, she kissed her way between Kayley’s legs to her thin- lipped pussy and began to feast, licking and suckling and drawing out Kayley’s juices, savoring them on her tongue and savoring them before swallowing. Samuels thought for a moment that her spitting on that slit was more ‘show’ until Kayley moaned at it and the “Nasty little fucking whore pussy.” that came with it.

“You’re the one eating it, so just shut the fuck up and eat it, little fucking cow.”

“Leave my tits alone for ten fucking seconds when we chill and I might be hurt by the cow thing.”

“Slut.”

Lisa ate, attempting to live up to the moniker of slut and she was doing it effectively, Samuels judged by the way Kayley’s toes were curling of their own volition, her breathing becoming more rapid and shallow. The smacking of her lips was real and the fast flicking of her tongue was real. So was the glaze that filled her eyes when her head lolled to look at the doctor. Samuels gave her a little smile to give permission, not that that mattered.

Kayley’s back arched and her head thrashed, and she pulled Lisa’s hair hard, but the girl didn’t miss a beat licking through, slathering her tongue all over that pink, wet, juicy mess. “Mmmmmmmmmmm….fuck…fuck, yes.” She floated in the afterglow for a moment before kissing Lisa fiercely, tip of her tongue, flicking outward like a kitten’s to clean her. “Get on your fucking back, she snapped as they maneuvered around so that the redhead could settle in while the blonde bent over her somewhat awkwardly so that she could open the drawer beneath them. “Ooooh, strapless. Fancy.”

She enthusiastically took the toy and fished under several others after seeing the cap, to retrieve the lubricant. The clear fluid drizzled all over the bulb and then the thick shaft that reminded her of a forearm. The bulb was even wide enough to be satisfying. It surely fit well enough that she could get rough if she chose.

Her arm extended and Lisa shook her head, “Plenty already, just jam that fucker deep, baby.”

With one hand on Lisa’s belly, Kayley used the other to aim the head between those hungry lips and drove home in one sharp thrust that made her yipe. Kayley grabbed those hips hard and drove hard. The toy held nicely even without the muscles she prided herself on having. “Not getting it tonight?”

Lisa groaned and grunted, relishing the sensation, “Last guy was...mmmmm...fucking small. Kept wanting to ask if it was in yet. Made me nuts.”

“Is it in now?”

“Fuck, yes. Keep fucking.”

So she did. She loved why those tits flopped up and down in a hypnotic rhythm. Looking down to see the cock going in and out of her made her nipples hard and her biting her lip. She would grab those tits just to feel their softness and the look of them mashed under them or mashed together as Kayley’s hips piston.

Wanting them to flop for her again, she let go and parted Lisa’s ankles as far as she could and resolved to work up a sweat driving that cock into her as the redhead rubbed her index and middle finger so rapidly her hand would blur. Seeing Lisa ride those electric currentsas she drove herself drove her. And work up a sweat she did, driving hard enough that she had to occasionally re-position her knee to keep up her leverage.

Samuels liked what she saw on many levels. It was hot. She was human and it was hot once they settled into being alone even with the audience. Lisa was a natural submissive, ready and wiling to be directed. Kayley understood power without confusing it with aggression. Indeed, she didn’t seem to have a lot of that and, judging the scars, she probably should have. She should have been either broken or perpetually on the edge of rage, but there was a normal self that she had clung to. She had endured. She had persevered. She was unbowed by all of it. She had genuine strength.

Samuels liked strength.

The doctor looked to the twins and tilted her head towards the scene. “Staci, why don’t you help the young lady out.”

Lust flared within the dutiful slave, not only to play, but only for a chance at obedience; a chance for Dr. Samuels to see her doing as she was commanded. Her own black, lace panties now damp from anticipation and the knowledge that she always carried with her that she was helplessly, hopelessly enslaved, and that that was just so...perfect.

Staci dipped her head between the two lost women, Kayley lost in hypnotizing herself with those breasts and the powerful thrusting rhythm of her own, body, not to mention the panting, dreamy-eyed redhead beneath her. Lisa so lost in her own heat that the only thing on her mind was pushing herself to orgasm. When her endorphin-addled mind felt the soft wet of Staci’s tongue she moved her own fingers away and let the willing tongue push her over the edge. Giggling slightly at the thought, She’s eaten lots of pussy. Lisa let herself be pushed by that sucking mouth and that tongue that seemed to exactly duplicate the fast movement of her fingers just from having watched the motions. That and the vibrations of the combined to be nothing short of wonderful.

Samuels watched Lisa raise her arms over her head in surrender and squeal “Awww, fuck yeeeeeeeeeeeeahhh.” as bliss took her with an arching back and quivering thighs. She watched Kayley’s eyes flutter and let Lisa’s pleasure wash over her, but never quite closing her eyes because she might miss something in Lisa that would stretch out Kayley’s own satisfied euphoria.

Staci pulled away, licking her red lips as she positioned herself perfectly once again.

“Nicely done, Staci.”

She embraced her own small rush at the praise as they watched the two opposite them kiss, “Thank you, Doctor Samuels.”

As the two girls composed themselves Kayley saw the satisfied look on the older woman’s face. “Did you like the show?”

Samuels nodded. Very nice, Kayley. Very hot and there was lots to see.”

She glanced to the twins, “You said no one else was going to join.” She was hardly upset about it, it just meant more money. She was feeling good so she didn’t rush to put her clothes on, letting the doctor look her over.

“Sometimes I break my own rules,” she admitted. “But you’re going to be well paid for your time, so I think you’ll forgive it, no?” Without looking away from the young body, she spoke, “Staci, I think three thousand is fair.”

Lisa was almost giddy, “Fuck, yeah.”

Lisa collected her clothes and put them on as Kayley watched carefully while Staci went back to the money drawer, stuck her finger seemingly at random into the stack her original two hundred came from and handed the smaller stack of hundreds to her with not a word.

“You didn’t count that,” she said.

“It’s three thousand,” Staci replied with complete certainty.

“And you’re going to count it anyway, so what’s the difference,” Samuels wanted to know.

Kayley counted and counted again before counting the third time, stopping at half the stack, and handing that to Lisa. “That’s a neat trick,” she said with a little awe, “just pulling out what you want like that.”

“My associates are supremely focused,” Samuels said with pride. Her dark eyes played with the thoughts, “That’s how I like them. Is there a particular place you want to be dropped off?”

“Where you found me is fine, if that’s okay,” she said loud enough for the driver to hear.

“I wouldn’t have asked you if you didn’t have a choice.”

Kayley dressed as the limo made its way back to the now somewhat familiar street. “Pleasure doing business,” she said as the vehicle rolled to a stop.

“It was that.” Samuels agreed with a nod to each. “Have a lovely evening, both of you.”

They had no more than gotten out of the vehicle with Lisa closing the door behind her before a man who Samuels would only describe as tall, thin, and greasy strutted towards them jabbing his finger in the air toward them with two smaller men who could be only correctly be categorized as lackeys following behind.

“Where the fuck have you been, bitch?” His scruffy beard, slicked back hair and garish love of gold, from belt buckle to rings on his fingers completed, for the doctor, his complete lack of appeal.

She watched him close in on Kayley, finger stabbing at her now, “You hear me? Huh? You got you’re fucking phone off again? You think you can ignore me?”

She reached into her own purse seeing that she still had it. “It’s probably the battery. I told you the battery was shit and I needed a new one.”

“That’s on you. You think I give a fuck? All I give a fuck about is that you answer when I call and you better fuckin’ answer, bitch.”

He pushed her with both hands and the doctor watched physics push her back two steps before the sudden fear that she might hit the ground or that that was only the first strike faded and she stood tall, almost daring him to do it again. Lisa tried to get between them and diffuse the situation, “Relax, Carlos, okay? We weren’t off doing other stuff. We were making money.”

He pushed at her instead, all but yelling in her face as his minions stood next to each of them. “Well, gee, honey, in case you didn’t know you’re supposed to be making my fuckin’ money anyway. Make my money and answer your fuckin’ phone when I call. That’s your fuckin’ job, you fat bitch.”

Samuels inhaled slowly, held it, then exhaled just as slowly. “She’s right.” Her voice while not raised, seemed to cut through the emotion between them all the same. “They were doing their jobs and were paid well by me for their time. Take a breath, Carlos.”

His rage fixed upon her, “And who the fuck are you rich bitch? How about you mind your own fucking business before I teach you how to do it.”

Samuels white-knuckled the door handle an instant before she opened the door. As soon as she stepped out and onto the sidewalk, ignoring the girls and the lackeys to make Carlos the world. “Teach me, Carlos. Teach me,” she begged in a mocking tone that cut him to the bone even as it dared him to make good his threats.

He stepped back and spread his arms, grinning at the streak of white hair amidst the black. “Look at this skunky little bitch acting like she can handle her shit.” There was suddenly no space between them and he looked down on her while she didn’t flinch. He spoke carefully, “Get in your fancy car and get the fuck out before I fuck you up right here on the street.”

“You have no comprehension of how I handle my business, Carlos.” She knew where her twins were without looking, hearing them come up quickly, heels clicking.

Before he could unleash another epithet-laden sentence, he was lifted from his feet by a hand like an iron claw around his neck. He experienced momentary weightlessness before the wind nearly left his body after crashing into the weathered concrete wall of the store. “What the fuck?” The shock came out as a strained gurgle that could barely be heard over the shock of his lackeys and Lisa and Kayley trying desperately to diffuse the situation.

Even with both hands on her forearm, Carlos could budge the woman not an inch. Her gray eyes weren’t dead, really, they were looking through him and beyond him as though she just wasn’t...completely in the moment.

While Staci held Carlos, Traci put a fist into the face of one of Carlos’s friends, a soul who looked like he had pretty consistently lived from the food trucks. He fell to the ground in a heap, while the other, a bronze-skinned man who spent an equal amount of time at the gym looked on in shock at how quickly his friend was on the ground and gone to the world. In a rush, he reached into his black and red football team jacket, but froze when he heard matter-of factly, “Touch that gun and I will crush both your wrists. You will never use your hands normally again.”

He froze. It wasn’t a simple threat to beat the shit out of him or kill him. The specificity of it chilled him, like she’d already settled on the how and what the result would be. And then there were the eyes. He’d seen eyes like that with people who literally didn’t care if others lived or died. What she said would happen would happen or he’d be dead and she simply didn’t care either way. He held his hands up, “Relax, baby. I barely know the dude.”

Traci did not act, but she didn’t relax even slightly.

Lisa and Kayley were now off to the side watching, stunned into silence at what the scene had become. Kayley looked at Samuels’ demeanor. She was relaxed, as though she knew that this would be the precise outcome from the moment she made the decision to get out of her car. She was fearless.

“Let me down you crazy bi…,” he began before trailing off, realizing it might be best not to piss either of them off. “Let me down.”

Samuels came up to him, looking up at him, yet down upon him. “Now that we’ve gotten past the bluster and you seem to be more willing to listen, let me say that your girls were paid well. I dare say better than what they probably usually make, so that wasn’t the problem.”

“The problem, as I see it, is you, Carlos. You’re so obsessed with every nickel and dime so that you maintain your,” she gave his clothes a look as though they stank, “lifestyle, you don’t care that your associates don’t have all the tools they need or even that you want them to have. If Tiffany works for you, and you need her phone to work, and you take most, if not all of her money, whose fault is it that you can’t reach her?”

He clawed at the arm again, it finally registering that the woman holding him up should have at least looked like she was getting sick of holding him up, but she looked like she could hold him like this all night while the woman looked at him with the amusement a sadist might have after ripping the wings off a fly. “It’s mine.”

“I’m sorry, Carlos, I didn’t catch that?”

He tried to raise his voice, and succeeded mostly in scraping his throat, “It’s my fault.”

“And when we transgress upon others like you have, what do we say in an effort to make amends?”

“I’m sorry.” The words came out angry even as hushed as they sounded.

“Mean it.”

His fingers were tingling from the lack of air, so he tried again with a little more whine. “I’m sorry.”

Samuel’s grinned. “Better. My associate is going to let you down and you and your friends are going to move on with your night, all right?”

He nodded in agreement even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Staci more dropped Carlos than let him go and he spent the next few seconds after she stepped next to the doctor coughing air into his lungs, one arm propped against the store. Traci took her place on the other side of Samuels, still keeping an eye on where the weapon was as the taller man was finally able to help his dazed friend lift himself from the street, the smaller man falling back into the other when he tried to take his first step.

Carlos stood and straightened his jacket, trying to reclaim some of his usual swagger and bravado while walking conspicuously away from the scene. “You’re fuckin’ lucky I wasn’t ready for your shit, lady. You stay away from my streets and my girls, lady.”

Samuels raised her voice for the first time that evening. “Or?”

“You don’t wanna know. Just stay away from my girls.” To them, he kissed two fingers and pointed them towards Kayley and Lisa. “She better have paid you a lot and I better see all of it, my honeys.”

When they were a bit more out of earshot, Kayley snapped. “Thanks a fucking lot, Rebecca.”

“No kidding,” Lisa agreed turning away from the three to give herself the peace of being able to put them out of her mind for a time. “He’s gonna kick the shit out of us when we get back.”

The doctor was calm, her dark eyes betraying nothing and her fierce beauty only a reflection of what was inside. “If you’re fine with someone abusing and threatening you, it’s not for me to judge. He threatened me, and that’s not something I put up with.”

“So what?” she snapped, facing the doctor and not backing down. “He wasn’t going to do anything if you just shut up and drove off. And that’s what it is. That’s the thing. You’re all the same. You’ve got your money and your bodyguards and you strut in and do your business, but people like me and Lisa? We gotta live here. We gotta get by here. You leave and...” Her voice trailed off, “we all gotta carry, inside and out, the stuff that happens after you’re done being all brave when it doesn’t matter. You didn’t do me any fucking favors.”

“Then leave.”

Lisa laughed and Kayley wanted to as her nervous energy set her to pacing the street, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that? I could just leave. And go where? From Carlos to Carlos because they’re all Carlos.”

She looked at them both, “You two seem fond of one another and now, between the two of you, you already have enough for a start if you’re frugal. Go to one of the big square states where no one lives anyway. They are all Carlos because you simply do the same thing over and over, so you go to the same type of people. Try something else. If it doesn’t work, well, as you said, there’s always another Carlos.”

“Don’t you think I’ve ever thought of that?”

“Have you ever tried it, Kayley? Even once? Do you have any experience to suggest to you that you will fail, so you may as stay where you are because it’s what you know and that’s how your life is?”

“Or do you take a chance on the unknown and test yourself against it? Yes. You may fail in that you do not get the life that you want. Maybe you still make your living on your back in some broken down trailer in one of the square states where nobody lives. But even that is your power. That’s your body and he craves it and will pay and when you are in your broken down trailer there’s no Carlos counting your money. And isn’t even that better enough?”

Samuels saw her thinking, and that was all she sought. “Well...just something to think about.”

Seeing no reason to continue she headed back to her car, the twins keeping her between them. “Have a good evening you two.”

The limousine drove off and the two watched it blend into the distance.

They waited hours before heading back to where they slept. They made some more money in the usual way, went and got some pizza by the slice and walked halfway back before taking the bus for all but the last couple of blocks. Kayley never called the place home. She never called any of the places ‘home.’ They were only places she slept and occasionally worked, Carlos sending her to one of the rooms in the back or sometimes watching his girls work on one of the pullout beds in the living room.

She avoided being there whenever possible because it just reminded her of everything she hated about life. It was Lisa that gave voice to it first as she played with a string of cheese, draping it over the pile of onions, mushrooms, and peppers on the deep-dish slice. “What if we did?” Her eyes conveyed fear, as though a small part of her thought Kayley might tell Carlos on her.

“Did what? Leave?”

With a little nod. “Yeah.”

She played with the idea and it had more tangibility now than in a long time, perhaps because having to deal with Carlos was unavoidable otherwise. “And go where?”

“Who cares? Someplace cheap. The rich bitch was right, we could go somewhere. If bagging groceries and flipping burgers doesn’t cut it we just...do what we do. The only thing is, what if he comes looking?”

Kayley bit into her own pepperoni and ham version, “He’ll kill us if we try to leave and he finds out, but once we’re gone? Just like our bus goes out, other buses come in. He won’t care long.”

That was enough. The rest of the night came to planning and talking about where they might end up and what they might do when they got there. The more they talked about it the more Kayley wanted to take control of her life, wherever that might lead.

They solidified those plans as they walked the last block through the dark, tree-lined street, past houses that were abandoned or should have been as the breeze rustled leaves, putting them both that much more on edge. “I’ll get your stuff,” Kayley said. You hold onto the money.”

“You don’t have to, it’s my stuff.”

“I know, but if he catches you...”

“You think I’ll cave?”

She looked at Lisa, “You know you, you tell me?”

Lisa withered a little under the gaze. She knew she went along to get along more often than she should or even that she wanted to sometimes.

“You wait in the bushes on the side, I’ll get your stuff and then we’ll be gone. But if it’s not where it usually is I’m not looking for it.”

“No shit, but what if he catches you?”

“I’ll talk it out or ride it out,” she said, the lights from the house on the corner coming into view. “If he does catch me, you run like hell. If you don’t hear from me in a day, just take the money and go somewhere else. If you do hear from me and I say the words that we’re good to go, that means you go. He’s trying to make me get to you.”

“One way or another it’ll be fine. You just wait.”

Lisa lagged a little behind until they reached the half dead shrubbery where she hunkered down, pushing into it a little, the branches scratching her as she did, trying to keep her occasional “ouch” down to a whisper. Kayley hunched down as she approached the house, one hand on the siding so she could balance herself and quiet her steps as she made her way to one of the back bedrooms that Lisa more or less called her own. She tried to listen to the conversations in the living room, but she couldn’t hear much with all the voices at play.

The light was on which meant it may have been being used, so she kept her head low, listening carefully for the sounds of chatting or the sounds of fucking. Hearing nothing she dared to peek her dark eyes through the window.

Empty.

Taking her keys from her purse, she took one and jimmied it in the tiny space that existed because it never did quite close right. Prying it up enough to get her fingers under it, she put her keys back and set her purse to the ground. She tried to lift it slowly because sometimes it squeaked. With each sound from it she ducked back down, muscles tense, ready to bolt. When no one came to check on the sounds, she waited a good two minutes more before she wormed her way in. Once she got halfway in she used the dresser to her right to try to control her fall. Fortunately a burst of raucous laughter piped up at the right moment to blunt the sound of her fall.

She righted herself quickly in case she had to make for the window again as she did, she looked to the little closet, finding Lisa’s backpack on top of a pile of dirty clothes. C’mon, luck, just hold out for thirty more fucking seconds.

Kayley just got her hand around the straps of the little backpack with black and brown horses on it before the footfalls were suddenly just there. The noise that covered her entry now conspired to screw her by not letting her hear the footfalls sooner. She stood there with it in her hand as she heard Ana’s voice draw closer as she spoke with a trick, “You are gonna love my ass, baby. It’s so fuckin’ tight you won’t last five minutes.”

“Bet me, baby,” the nameless, faceless trick said. At some point they all became nameless and faceless. The only ones you remembered were the ones at either end of the spectrum: the ones that were cruel and you avoided or made them pay up the ass or the kind ones that you almost looked forward to because they treated you like a person.

The door opened. It would have to be Ana. The dyed-blonde Latina froze for an instant, not expecting to see anyone else in the room much less her. Lisa was one of her only real friends, but there were people in Carlos’s stable she got along with and there were some that hated her that she hated back. Even among them, few would get in the way if someone else wanted to make a break for it because even if they hated one another they could commiserate on the few things they agreed on; namely that Carlos was a dick and their shared dreams of what they’d do if...

Ana wasn’t even one of those. Past her prime, she kept her place by kissing his ass, figuratively and literally. She helped break the new girls and worked to keep everyone else in their place. Kayley already knew what she was going to say before she said it. “Carlos, baby. Kayley’s home.” It was a happy sing-song that Kayley added to the list of reasons to kill her.

“That fuckin’ bitch,” he roared as he stomped to the room, not stopping until he was right in front of her, his face contorted in renewed rage. He clearly hadn’t let it go. “Can’t use the door, honey? What the fuck you come back here...” He finally saw the backpack and put two and two together, knowing there was only one reason she’d have it or want it.

He grabbed her arm tightly and all but pulled her arm from the socket as she rushed to keep up as he tried to drag her into the living room that was populated by his friends from earlier as well as other hangers on. He wanted them to see how he handled his shit. And the punishment she had coming deserved to be public. Ana followed like an excited puppy.

“Where’s she at?”

Kayley stood her ground. “I dunno. She said she’d call me later.”

“She’s full of shit, baby boy.”

He turned and looked to her. “Do I look like I need your help? Shut the fuck up.”

“So she’s running on me? And you’re running on me.” ‘Caught’ ooooooo’s chorused all around the room.

“I don’t know what she wants her bag for, she just said she wanted it.”

“So she can run is why.” He pushed her hard enough that she had to wobble to get her balance back. “And you’re the one who tries to sneak in and get it because you two little bitches are together is why. In his domain he had his swagger back. “You’ve always been too tight. I should’ve sold that bitch a long time ago. You’re here to get her shit so the two of you can bolt.”

“Stop smoking so much, Carlos,” she said. “You know that shit makes you paranoid.”

He snickered, then paced her. “Okay...okay. Maybe I’m just a dumbass. Maybe I’m just paranoid. Prove it. Where’s my money? Where’s my money for the night? Gimme that and tell me where the redhead is and I’ll give you a couple of pops for not sticking up for me with that rich bitch after everything I do for you and we’ll call it a night. That’s fair. That’s cool, yeah?”

Not surprisingly, everyone agreed. “So where’s my fuckin’ money for tonight?”

Kayley didn’t pause when she probably should have. “She took it.”

“Fuckin’ bullshit.” He gave her the back of his hand across her jaw. She buckled, but he wasn’t the first to hit her like that and wouldn’t be the last. “She stole from you? Even if she wanted to, you’d beat the fuck out of that girl, but ain’t no way she stole from you. Why are you back for her shit?”

A believable thread appeared so she followed it. “She took the money and said if I didn’t get her bag and bring it to her, I wasn’t getting it back.”

He thought about it. She could see the wheels turn. “Okay. Where are you gonna meet her?”

Kayley found her story and she was sticking with it. She could at least buy time for Lisa to put some distance between her and the house.

“She’s crashing someplace else. She didn’t tell me where when I asked. I’m supposed to get her stuff and then call her tomorrow.”

He snickered at her.“Tomorrow? Shit, no. She think I was just gonna let you out after this without me coming with to get the bitch that’s mine? Nah, nah, nah...you know where she is. You two little bitches are gonna meet up and fly away.”

He gripped her jaw so hard she winced, quivering himself. “You’re my fucking property until I kick your ass out and you’re never...never leaving, either one of you; not breathing anyway. Where’s she at?” He again punctuated the question with the back of his hand.

This time her vision swam and she didn’t know how she remained standing especially with her ears ringing like the sound of broken glass, first far away, and then close to her. The spots before her eyes from the hit streaked and smeared like rainbow on top of rainbow, all the colors of the spectrum moving and dancing and pulsing like seven individual strobes. It was coming from a sphere half the size of a soccer ball, and even looked like one in that each segment was divided. One set of hexagons would flare while the others dimmed and the next set would brighten and so on.

Once Kayley found the source on the floor she just stared. There wasn’t anything else to do. It was beautiful and took everything bad away. The pain of the hits faded to nothing. The pain of everything in her life before faded to nothing. The sphere was perfect. Looking at it was happiness itself and the dim part of her mind that noticed anything around her saw that the others agreed. Everyone was fixated on the sphere and if they weren’t breathing slowly and deeply as a sign of their contentment they wore the silliest smiles. She couldn’t blame them as she breathed deeply, as though she could pull the light inside her so that it took everything else away.

Samuels was the first person through the front door, flanked by the twins and followed by men and women in business attire, some suited, some casual, but all would have looked out of place in this neighborhood in this house at any time of the day. It hardly mattered in the here and now because this neighborhood was not one to call the police, nor was it one where the police showed up at night unless it was in enough force to put down a riot.

All of them wore dark sunglasses as they weaved through the enraptured bodies, paraphernalia and filth to survey the house. A woman and a man stood, surveying each individual, cataloging their statistics in the living room while others moved through the house with machine-like precision.

Samuels stood in front of Kayley and sighed, not bothering to hide her disappointment. She gently moved her head to look over the redness there and light bruising beginning to form. She then looked to Carlos, seeing him look dumber than she remembered, which was something of a feat. Kayley, for her part, did nothing but let the rainbows throughout the room keep making everything perfect.

“Can you hear me, Kayley?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you come back here?” The doctor had held out some hope that she might have gotten through on some level, but the girl had just run back to pimp-daddy. There were rare occasions where she was wrong and now seemed to be one of those times.

Answering tweaked the sense of euphoria that kept her warm and safe so she happily answered. “I came to get Lisa’s things.”

Her brow furrowed, “What would she need you to get for her?”

“Things her little brother gave her before she left home.”

“You came to get them? You were going somewhere else? Where?”

“We were going to try living someplace else and see what happened if we did it together.”

Samuels didn’t usually enjoy being wrong, but this time she found she didn’t mind it so much. I knew she had strength

“So you didn’t come back to make amends to Carlos?”

“No. I was trying to leave. He caught me.”

“Relax, now, Kayley. Enjoy the lights.”

One of the technicians, Daniel, who was shorter than her by a head, and with his curly blonde hair and baby face, looked like the technical geek he proudly was, though the sunglasses managed to give him a hint of cool. He typed, glancing up to Kayley now and then to begin her evaluation. “Not a lot in this place that won’t need extensive rehab to be viable, Doctor.”

“We’ll make up the cost.” She glanced his way,“When haven’t we?”

“When you’re right...” He entered more of Kayley’s data as he spoke of her. “There are a few here that are pretty decent starts.”

Samuels let her hand caress the side of Kayley’s face and slide her hair behind her ear. “Yes, I see that. Daniel, nothing happens to this one without my express order.”

There was nothing to question about the order so he simply opened a tab, made a note, then went back to the pages cataloging her, though they now had red banners at the top and bottom of the screen that would follow her wherever she went.

The sunglasses hid the narrowing of her eyes when she finally fixed her gaze upon Carlos. Even in the machine-induced bliss he still looked smug and arrogant. “Staci? Traci? Set up our new friend as discussed please.”

“Yes, Doctor,” they said in unison. She loved when they did that.

Off to her left she saw one of the female techs leading two women from the back of the house, one tall well-formed brunette and a shorter, more plump girl with light brown hair, both dressed in garish heels and next to nothing else. Their makeup was freshly done, so the doctor surmised they were either on the way out or back out.

The tech carried a palm-sized strobe as she walked backwards away from the influence of the sphere in the back of the house to the one in the living room, “Very good. Follow the light. Don’t lose it. Follow it and let it make you happy.” Once the girls were in with the rest, she looked to the doctor. “This is it for the house,” and then retrieved her tablet and got to work without being told and she and the doctor discussed potential.

A few minutes passed and Samuels made the rounds. She trusted her people to do their jobs so she didn’t hover, but she liked to see the cataloging. She liked to see their attention to detail and their own efficiency.

“Everything is ready, Doctor.”

“Thank you, Staci” She went to the ramshackle kitchen that saw saw little food prepared there. Carlos sat opposite her, the node firmly pressed to the base of his skull, gun to his right, and tablet before her giving her readouts from the node and prompting her for instruction.

Before she sat down, she leaned across the table to look into his eyes behind the almost normal looking glasses, the lenses specially crafted for immunity to the strobe. The node was all that was needed now. Samuels watched him blinking normally. She saw that he was in there and she saw that his pupils were wide with confusion and fear. The twins stood on either side of him, hands behind their backs, legs parted and spines straight.

They always have such nice posture.

With a few swipes and touches she settled back in the chair with tablet in hand like it was a cherished heirloom. “I assume you understand me and can talk.” She glanced down and back, “This says you can, so talk.”

“What the fuck is going on?” he tried desperately to move, but thought simply didn’t translate to movement. “What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck did you do to me?”

“I decided our conversation wasn’t over. Kayley was correct. The world is full of men like you and, while I can’t deal with them all, I can deal with the one before me.”

The glasses you’re wearing null the effects of the strobe that had you and has your associates feeling so happy right now. The thing at the base of your skull is in complete control of your body. Do you know what a marionette is? At this moment, that’s you. Let me demonstrate. Pick up the gun.”

He picked up the semi-automatic and that was all he could do. He wanted to jump the table, put it to her forehead and blast the smug look off her face and spread her all over the walls.

“You know the gun is loaded?”

He could feel the difference in weight. He knew.

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to shoot me?”

“Ohhhhh, fuck, yeah.”

“Try, and fail.”

His body let him extend his arm to put the barrel mere feet from her face. He tried to pull the trigger. This time he could feel the muscles of his arm, hand and finger try. He could feel the exertion, but that final bit of force eluded and she just watched and smiled that smug fucking smile.

“Put the gun under your chin.”

He dimpled the skin under his jaw, feeling the barrel. He tried pulling his hand away and this time his face twisted ever so slightly with the effort, but his body wasn’t his. He had his voice so he let out a bitter growl with the trying.

“You know if I tell you to pull the trigger you will, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Fuck you, too.”

She shook her head. “I’d have to be smoothed to nothing to allow that. Put the gun down.”

The gun went to the table with a thud.

“I’d explain how what it happening to you is: neuro-electric overlays, the damping of some signals with the amplification of others and all that. But since I don’t want to try to explain it in ways that your little mind might grasp like adding ‘fuck’ before every other word, and you still wouldn’t understand anyway, I’ll just say that while the node is on your neck I own you. You will do exactly as I say.”

“I assume you deal drugs, yes or no.”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any buys coming up?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent.” She worked and spoke, “This device isn’t capable of fully reprogramming you, but doing that doesn’t suit my plans for you anyway.”

“Reprogramming? What the fu…?

“Be quiet now.”

The words died in his throat.

“While it’s on, I own you. What’s interesting about this particular little toy is the synaptic overlay has a very useful side effect. With it, I can accentuate things you’ve always wanted to do and twist them into irresistible compulsions. If you’ve always wanted to belt your teacher, and I give that a push here, sooner or later, usually sooner, you’ll do it. If you’ve always been a neat freak,” she began, looking around at the mess, “I can make it so that desire turns to something you cannot ignore, so that, in the example, nothing around you is ever clean enough.”

“It will linger with the force of your own will even after I wipe all of this night from your head. You won’t worry much about your missing girls because there are always new girls. That will be something you can take care of after you make yourself a new deal.”

“I have to ask this, Carlos, even though I know the answer because I have met a thousand of you, even if they are well-groomed and in three thousand dollar suits. Have you ever just wanted to take their money? After that, you have the money and the drugs. Ever thought of doing that?”

Carlos tried hard not to answer, but he could no more resist than a feather could resist the wind. “Yes.”

“There’s a part of you that wants to do that, isn’t there?” She smiled wickedly when she saw the fear in his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Of course there is. Because you’re greedy, Carlos. There’s never enough, is there? There’s never enough money to feed your desires. There’s never enough of what your little mind calls power to feed your ego because you know how weak you really are. It’s why you huff and puff and strut and hit.” She prepped him with the tablet while the node beeped its agreement. Then she leaned in. “At your next meeting you will try to take their money. Of course, you might succeed, which is why a few of your friends here will be sending a warning to everyone you deal with.”

“Look at this, Carlos,” she said as she heard behind her the sounds of the first few cataloged individuals were being led out. “This is power. I am taking everything away from you. You will come to in an empty house. You will swagger and huff and puff and go on about your tiny, insignificant life until you meet up with your suppliers that you will be compelled to try to steal from thanks to your greed.”

“But they’ll be waiting for that, Carlos. Do you think they’ll just shoot you in the head? I don’t think so. I have known men like them. I use men like them from time to time, as even they have uses in the world. They will make you suffer. You will suffer for hours, if not days. They’ll make a lesson out of you”

She rose smoothly and handed Traci the tablet. “You will wake up with almost nothing and, by the end of the week, lose everything else, including this petty existence you call a life.”

Samuels turned away from him before she paused, turned back, and walked around the table almost playfully. Leaning over, she put her lips as near his ear as she could stand. Carlos didn’t understand the how, but she was right that he didn’t need to. He knew what would happen and his mind used his few lucid and aware moments remaining to consider which of his suppliers would do what to him, and none of the possible ends would be quick or painless.

Tears began to flow as he could do nothing but stare straight ahead as Kayley and another of the girls obediently walked to the door. He wanted to stop them. He demanded his body work, then he begged for it to. None of his internal pleas went beyond the thought.

“This is how I handle my shit, motherfucker.” She headed for the door herself with the twins behind her content to leave the rest to the technicians. “Have a nice what’s left of your life.”

His spine chilled and tears kept falling as he watched her go, now looking forward to having the night wiped away.