Title: White Holes and Other Problems
by Jeremy Mathews
Chapter 10: Houses of the Rich and Famous
Alice didn’t know where Johnny got his drugs. He kept that secret close and took it seriously. But she explained that, if anyone knew, it would be the bassist Eric. It seems Eric came from money and had been supporting the band’s drug habit in the years when they were trying to get off the ground. Alice figured, since he was paying for it, he would have figured out where it was coming from.
Jeremy figured it was best to pay him a little visit. Alice explained that she and the band were all from the same town not too far away. She said Eric’s parents had died, but he still lived in their house about an hour from the university.
Jeremy decided that finding Anindia would have to wait. The band was actively torturing girls. Since Jeremy kept a Monday, Wednesday, Friday teaching schedule, he figured he would go by himself in the morning, but Alice had other ideas.
“Some ass-kicking might need to happen, and no offense, but your math professor physique isn’t exactly filling me with confidence that you can handle yourself,” Alice explained.
“Please, if anything comes up I can just sto—”
Jeremy never saw Alice’s fist coming. Suddenly he was knocked to his ass and blood was streaming from his nose. He looked up and saw Alice standing still, fist in the air. “She fucking did it again”, he thought. It wasn’t as bad this time, he was sure nothing was broken. He got up, grabbed a wad of toilet paper to catch the blood.
He returned time to its normal speed and stared flatly at Alice.
She started in immediately “I need you to get it. You’ve got a pretty cool power, but you’re not fucking invincible. If anything were to happen to you... I’d kill myself, and I don’t want to die. So forgive me if I am a little cautious. We are talking about drug dealers, serial rapists... generally really bad assholes. If they shoot on site, we’ll see how well your little time-stopping trick works with a bullet hole in your head.”
Jeremy’s anger evaporated. She was right, again. Worse, she even explained this to him before. Relenting, he said “Fine, you can drive me there. Just remember, you’re not bulletproof either, and I ... I want you around for a long time too.”
“Just for that,” she said, “I’m on top first” as she dragged him off to the bedroom. Mei joined them later that night when she got home. Jeremy thought to himself “If this keeps up, he might end up suffering sleep exhaustion. Yeah, like that’s a problem.”
They left early the next morning and drove out to Eric’s place. It was huge, secluded, and clearly occupied. There was a large wall around the property that had a manned guard hut at the gated driveway. There also looked to be a tall guard tower at one corner of the yard that looked to have someone standing in it.
“Shit” Alice exclaimed. “I haven’t been here for a couple of years, but the security is definitely not something I remember.” They had driven by without stopping. As she was making her way around to make a second pass they discussed possibilities for getting in. Jeremy wanted to stop time and go in himself, but Alice still wouldn’t have any of it.
Finally, she convinced him that she could pretend she was still Johnny’s girlfriend for long enough to get inside. Eric had no idea what had changed in the past 48 hours.
When they drove up to the guardhouse a gorgeous blond woman in her twenties greeted them with a stern expression. Alice leaned over and said, “I need to see Eric, tell him Red is here.”
The woman said nothing to them. She just glared and picked up a walkie-talkie. A minute later the gate was retracting, and she was waving them in. As they pulled up the long driveway and got close to the house they saw cars parked everywhere. There had to be at least 15-20 Jeremy thought. They weren’t all new like he imagined a young, rich, rock star would have. Instead, they were mostly the beat-up cars that students would drive. He looked at them again, and sure enough, most were sporting bumper stickers for some university, or sorority, or both.
“Party?” Jeremy offered.
Alice just shook her head. Finally, she said, “Something is not right.”
They found a place to park close to the house. A short brunette woman was waiting for them. She was in her thirties, pretty, and professional. As they got out of the car she said, “I am Mrs. Harriot, Eric’s personal assistant. I am afraid Eric has some business to attend to. Please follow me. I will show you to his study, he will be with you as soon as he is able.”
“Fuck that,” Alice said. “It’s seven in the fucking morning, what business could Eric have that couldn’t wait. You tell him to get his ass out here...“
Mrs. Harriot broke in, “Eric is a busy man. You will wait, or you will not see him.
Before Alice could go ballistic, Jeremy put a hand on her shoulder. “Fine,” he said. “But, let him know we’re in a bit of a rush. And if he misses out on this, he will be missing out on a fuck ton of money. If that happens, I bet you might be out of a job.” Alice shot him a questioning glance, but Jeremy ignored it. Mrs. Harriot scoffed but led them to the study.
As soon as they were alone Alice asked “What the fuck was that about?”
“I am going to follow her to Eric, and try to find out what is going on here. I just needed her to have a message to deliver to Eric,” Jeremy explained.
Alice started “That’s stu—", and Jeremy froze time. Usually, Alice was right, but he knew what he needed to do on this one. He knew she was too overprotective for him to do this. Thankfully, he also knew she was smart enough to avoid making a scene. Letting people know he was sneaking around was only more likely to get him hurt.
As Jeremy stepped into the hall, he saw Mrs. Harriot was already stepping into a door halfway down the hall. As he followed, he passed by a room with an open door. He noticed there was a line of girls, starting at the doorway and snaking around the outside of the room. In the middle of the room, some of the girls were in the process of sitting down at a table. The table had six shot glasses set out filled with a white liquid that looked suspiciously like cum. Then he noticed two of the girls sitting down were Megan and Kristen, the girls from the video.
“What the fuck are they doing here?” Jeremy wondered. He realized he had some questions for Eric, and not just about where Johnny got inflame. Jeremy decided he wasn’t going to figure much from this still scene. So he went back down the hall to where Mrs. Harriot was opening a door. Looking in he saw it was a plush set of stairs leading down into the basement.
Jeremy didn’t trust himself to try to step around the woman without knocking her down the stairs. He wasn’t here to kill anyone. He just needed to give her 30 seconds or so to get downstairs. He needed a place to hide, something where it wouldn’t be suspicious if he were caught. There were clearly a lot of people around, and he had no idea what their comings and goings were like. There was only one option. So he gritted his teeth, went back to the room with Alice, and started up time.
“—pid.” Alice pause. “Oh—you son of a bitch. You have already done it. Do you think I wouldn’t notice you magically shifting spots? Listen the whole reason I came along was to protect you and how am I...”
Jeremy closed his eyes and listened. Sometimes, he figured, you just have to take your beating and move on. After about a minute he decided enough time had passed to follow Mrs. Harriot.
“And another thing...” Alice was saying.
“One moment,” Jeremy cut her off, then he paused time again. He figured this was a bit more polite. Maybe it would save him some grief when he got back.
When Jeremy got downstairs the scene was again perplexing. The stairs led straight down into a large room. Everything was decorated in various shades of purple. There was a huge bed in the center. On the bed, there were two girls. One was a lithe girl with an olive complexion, dark hair, and a stunning ass. She was wearing nothing but a big blue strap-on and fucking a beautiful black girl doggy style. The black girl was amazing, every bit of her was smooth, curvy, and sexual. As Jeremy stared at the pink folds of her pussy being penetrated by the blue dildo, he started to get hard despite himself.
Eric was on the side of the room with Mrs. Harriot standing next to him. He was sitting in a chair, with a black-haired beauty between his knees and a glass of some liquor in his hand. The black-haired girl was working his cock with one hand as he came. With the other hand, she was using a cheap plastic beaker to catch his come.
Jeremy noted all four women were staring hungrily at his cock. Or maybe it was his cum, he wasn’t sure. For his part, Eric was just watching the show looking... tired. On Eric’s other side, there was a table with pill bottles all over it. Jeremy took a closer look and saw they were vitamin supplements. There was lecithin, fenugreek, ashwagandha, among others. It wasn’t until Jeremy saw the words “volume booster” and “bigger load” on one of the labels that he got the point.
Jeremy thought about things for a moment. It seemed Eric was the one building the harem, not Johnny. Jeremy figured he had seen enough. He went back to the room with Alice.
Once Jeremy was back in normal time, Alice just glared at him. Finally, she said, “I was going to say, why don’t you just stop me?”
“What?” Jeremy asked honestly confused.
“Why do you put up with me standing here bitching at you? You could have made me shut up. Or love your idea. Or be so busy sucking your cock I don’t have time to complain. I am not upset. Just the opposite. But I want to know why.”
“It never even occurred to me.” Jeremy said, “But even if it had, I still wouldn’t. I like you. I want you to be... you. I want to get to know you. I appreciate people with brains much more than people following my every word. So, if that means getting bitched out when I do something stupid, then so be it.”
Alice looked like she was going to say more, but Jeremy wanted to explain what he found to her. He recounted everything he had seen on his two trips and told Alice it might be Eric’s sexual appetite driving Johnny and the band instead of the other way around.
“I don’t think so—” Alice began just as Eric opened the door.
“Well look who the cat dragged in,” Eric said wearily. “Look, I don’t know how you found out about my little operation here, but I can’t take you on.”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” Jeremy thought, but Alice responded before he could?
“And why not?” Alice asked
“Don’t be fucking stupid.” Eric shot back “Johnny. That’s why not. You’re his ‘special project,’ and he will find you.” Eric lit up a cigarette and took a long drag, “If he found you with me and these girls, you know what will happen? He’ll kill me. That bet is safe has houses.” Eric stood up and pointed at Red, “But what happens then? What happens to the girls? Think about it Red. You tell me. What would Johnny do to a girl, any girl, that tried to get away?“
Alice went pale.
Jeremy didn’t like the way he was talking to Alice. He cut in with, “What the fuck are you talking about?” before Alice could answer.
“Shut up, boytoy. Alice, explain to your simp here that the grownups are talking, and that he should keep his fucking mouth closed.”
Before Jeremy could do anything rash, Alice said “Tell him.”
“Fuck no. Why the fuck do you—”
Alice made eye contact with Eric. “Tell him. Explain it all. Fuck, we were friends once Eric. Who was your wingman before you could get laid? Who was there for you at your parent’s funeral? Who did you leave with Johnny to be fucked with for YEARS! You fucking owe me Eric.”
Eric’s face took on a defeated look, “Fuck it, fine. Have it your way.” Eric looked at Jeremy. “You know about inflame? You know your girl here is an addict and someone else’s fucktoy?”
“Was,” Jeremy said.
“Is.” Eric cut him off. “There ain’t no cure. Shit, I should fucking know.”
“The ‘operation’ Eric. Tell us how it started. How it works. All of it.” Alice cut in before the boys started swinging their dicks around.
“You remember Crystal?” Eric asked.
Alice nodded, “Your girlfriend from when the band started? Yeah. She took off just before your parents died right?”
“Sort of. But, yeah that’s the one. This operation, it all started with her. I loved her, you know.”
Alice heard the past tense and her stomach dropped. “What happened to her? Is she dead?”
“Yes and no. She is upstairs, but she isn’t exactly herself if you know what I mean. You see, in the beginning, we didn’t know that every hit of inflame left a girl a little more... needy. These days all she can do is fuck, masturbate, and sleep.” He gave Red a significant look.
“Hell, you might have ended up like her. But the shit was so expensive I rationed the rest of the band. But I had the money to afford it, didn’t I? Not long after the first time she flamed out, she was doing it every fucking chance.” Eric snuffed out his half-smoked cigarette looking disgusted. “Eventually, I guess I wasn’t keeping up. She figured out that any dick in the band was as good as mine. She started fucking Steve, Carl, even Johnny for their stash. I can’t be sure how much she did, but it was a lot.”
“When we got our first tour, Johnny started hinting that she was cheating, just to watch me squirm. Then I cornered Steve, and he told me how it was. When we got back, she wasn’t at her home anymore. She’d wiped out her parent’s bank account and disappeared into the streets. When I found her, she was whoring herself out on craigslist, trying to scrape together the cash to buy her own dose. I took her home and tried to take care of her. I was so fucking stupid.”
Eric paused and got up and poured himself some whiskey. Then he continued, “Apparently she had started to see Johnny on the side again. He told her, if she wanted the money for a dose, she should just steal it my parents. ‘It’s how Eric gets the money after all.’ Next time we were out of town, that’s just what she did. Of course, they walked in on her and she panicked. Shot them both.”
“Oh fuck” Alice whispered.
“Yeah, no shit.” Eric went on “So I figured inflame was fucking evil. I tracked down some girls we had... used and discarded. Most were left so horny the would hit anything that moved anytime they could. Pretty much all of them hated the band for turning them into sluts. But all of them were ready, willing, and eager to fuck me for another hit. It turns out the addiction doesn’t fade over time.”
“What did you do?” Jeremy asked.
“At first, I tried to cut off the band. But Johnny is a planner. He knew I would eventually tire of paying for his habit. So he hooked my older sister. He has her locked away somewhere. He reminds me every so often the only way to keep her safe and happy is if I play along. Sends me a Polaroid every month.”
Eric pulled a stack of Polaroids from the draw and throws them on the desk. They are all of the same girl fucking various people. “I think he is worried if he went digital I could get some computer whiz to track her down. None of the PIs I have hired have ever found anything.”
“So what can I do? Johnny’s got me by the balls. Steve and Carl stopped snagging girls after they found out about my sister. They play along backstage, fuck a groupies that Johnny picks out. The truth is though, their fucking terrified Johnny will do to their families what he has done to mine.”
Eric drained his whiskey and continued, “So, I do the only thing I can. I pick up as many of the band discards as I can find. I give them just enough inflame to keep them from running back to Johnny, and of course, if they get inflamed they need a little...” and he gestured to his crotch. “I had to set up security to keep the girls who are really bad from breaking out and running back to Johnny. Luckily some of the one-and-done’s handle that.”
Eric shook his head, “There are so many now I can’t even fuck them. They just milk me for the cum so we can split it between the girls. I’m basically a fucking cow.” Eric laughed. “You know, when my parents left me millions, I thought I’d be set for life. It turns out trying to support a couple of hundred girls burns through the money pretty quick. Some of them work, which is all that’s keeping us going really.”
Alice balked “You’re broke?”
Eric smiled “Near enough. Even if it weren’t for Johnny, I am not sure I have the money to support you Red. Besides, I can hardly get it up anymore, and it seems there is a limit to how much ‘milk’ I can produce. I can barely keep up now. I am not sure how much longer I can keep this going.”
“Wait,” Jeremy cut in, “did you say a couple of hundred?”
“Well, 164, but there is another 42 I am trying to track down.” Eric turned and smiled “You think an old-money family like mine has only one mansion, boytoy?”
Jeremy’s stomach lurched.
Eric shrugged and continued, “In the beginning, a lot of money went to hiring doctors and lab rats to figure out some way to ease them off. But nothing worked, and it is pricey to get a doctor to keep his mouth shut about this shit. Now it’s just Sarah.”
“Sarah?” Alice asked.
“You don’t know Sarah? You’ve met her, but the way Johnny fucks with your memory I’m not surprised he made you forget. She’s the chemist who came up with inflame. She is a graduate student over at your university.”
“Sarah who?” Jeremy asked.
“Sarah Roosevelt,” Eric said. “But I wouldn’t go sniffing around that tree if I were you. Johnny’s marked that territory. If he finds out your screwing with his golden goose, you’ll end up wishing he killed you.”
Jeremy realized he knew everything he needed to for now. He just had to be sure. He paused time, put his hands around Eric’s head, and said, “I will always tell him the truth.”
He sat back down and started time up. “Eric, are tell the truth?”
“Of course I’m fucking telling you the truth,” Eric said annoyed.
“Did you leave anything important out?” Jeremy asked him again.
“No.”
“Finally, are you doing your best to look after these girls and treat them well?” Jeremy asked.
“Yes. It’s like their my own sister. I am just trying to keep them safe.”
“Good enough. Alice, I think it’s time to go. We can deal with this shit after. It seems he is doing the best he can for now.” Jeremy said standing.
Alice crossed the room and hugged Eric. Eric teared up. “I wish I could help you,” he said.
Alice smiled, “I know. Don’t worry. We’ll help you.”