The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The bouncer by the door wasn’t expected.

Edward didn’t think this place needed one, but he supposed there were enough kids at the community college who might try to slip in to justify it. He smiled brightly at them as a couple, it seemed. The embroidered name on the shirt he wore read “Bubbles.” He didn’t look like one should call him Bubbles to his face.

Bubbles’ smile seemed incongruous since he seemed more like a huge wall than a face. He had mutton chop side burns even though his head was shaved bald, probably waxed. His head looked almost half again larger than Edward’s, with a mushed up look giving his eyes, nose, and mouth the appearance of being like a caricature, far too small.

“Sit anywhere,” he told them. “The barmaid will find you soon. If you want there are some nice, kind of private booths on the side,” he pointed to a row of booths. Several looked occupied, and at least one had two men standing next to it talking to whoever was seated there. “If you want a chance to be more intimate than the tables.”

“Thank you,” Edward said. “I appreciate the suggestion.”

The bouncer seemed to be quite self satisfied he figured out the kind of thing they wanted here. Really, he didn’t have any clue what was going on, any more than Edward did.

They started to walk towards the booths. Edward was following Lexi’s lead just now since she was the one who wanted privacy coloration in public. He didn’t want to push her to be more exposed than she might already feel.

As they approached they could hear the voices of the two men speaking.

“Aw, all we’re talking about is a drink, maybe two. Then we’ll leave be if you don’t like our company,” one of the men was saying. The response from the booth didn’t sound positive though. Edward looked back over his shoulder at the bouncer, but the large man was already interested in whatever the two men were doing.

“Eddie?” He didn’t know when she decided calling him that was okay. He was not fond of the name ‘Eddie’ but he would explain later. Right now he was worried about a problem he might have to protect her from.

“Yes,” he said distractedly watching the two men presenting further argument and starting to encroach into the space. “Sorry, what?”

“I see it too. I have an idea. Can you follow me and we’ll try to rescue them?”

Rescue? Since when was he in the business of rescuing anyone? She must be getting a lot bolder with him nearby.

“What did you have in mind?”

She grinned up at him and strolled pointedly towards the booth.

“Excuse me,” she said to one of the men, “you’re blocking my seat. Please move. Eddie! They’re over here!”

No matter where they had gone that day, she started to notice she was becoming more paranoid the way Elaine seemed to be. Elaine was clearly not worried about the bulk of people. The conspiracy mind set seemed to be contagious. Prudence kept seeing shadows where there were none, thinking she saw someone out of the corner of her eye who turned out not to be there, or hear noises behind them that proved to be imaginary.

When they got home, she double checked the windows, pulled the blinds closed and double checked the locks on the door again.

“Damn Pru. You’re getting jumpier than I am.”

“Paranoia is contagious.”

“If it makes you feel any worse, the people involved are awfully normal looking. You won’t know from seeing them who to worry about.”

“Great. Just great. So, it’s like the nasty male sorts keep telling rape victims,” she growled, “you can’t do anything about it so you may as well lie back and enjoy it.”

“Well neither of us will enjoy it if something happens. But I assure you, if it happens, you won’t be able to do anything about it anyway. I wish I could wear something less showy, but like I told you, it becomes physically painful to me. Programmed in.”

“I find that the oddest thing about the entire problem you’re having.”

“If I could do something about it, I would. There’s a certain unintentional OCD that goes with it too. I can’t help it. I was always a bit OCD anyway.”

“If you don’t mind, what kinds of things did he make you do?”

Elaine tilted her head slightly as though to think, though Prudence felt like she’d asked a dumb question. Snooping where she should let it go.

“More like, what kinds of things didn’t he make me do. He took me to a biker bar one night and had me sit on the edge of the table, lift my skirt, then diddle myself until I came. The bikers came over to watch in a semi-circle. I felt so embarrassed inside, but my body was his to command. So he did. I obeyed. When I was done, a couple of the bikers wanted to have a piece of me but Dean did something. I don’t know what exactly. They all stood aside while we walked out. Oh great. I do not want to run into any of them again.”

Elaine shivered. “The things he wanted, I had to do. I could feel a desire to do them while doing so. When it ended, I could feel humiliated or used, but during it, I had to enjoy what he did.”

“Oh,” Prudence had no words all of a sudden. She really shouldn’t have asked she supposed.

“There was one night where?,” Prudence put a finger to Elaine’s mouth.

“No. I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me. I think I have an idea of what you went through.”

“You’re so sweet Pru, but I don’t think I can fully express what I went through. It was not what I expected when I first met him. It still isn’t good even with him gone.”

Prudence gave Elaine a hug. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. No one had any idea and even now, this seems unbelievable.”

It took a moment, but she felt moisture hitting her arm. She looked at Elaine who was leaking tears even if she wasn’t making any sounds to go with it. The makeup Elaine had on started to blur up darkly and was starting to make a mess.

“Good thing we’re home. You’d be getting frantic about messing your face up like that. Let me get you some tissues.” She stood up and moved towards the bathroom, “Do you need a drink too?”

“Not tonight Pru. I’d probably just drink myself into oblivion.”

“And it’s my liquor too, not that I mind buying, but I’d like to be drinking it myself at some point in the future.”

“If that worries you, I brought some cash with me.”

“Some? Sounds like, the way you say it, there’s more than a little,” she handed the tissue box to Elaine who started cleaning up the worst of the wetness. It didn’t do a lot for the dark smears but it did stop them from spreading more. “Hang on, I’ll go get some other things to help you clean that mess up. You don’t really need much on you anyway to look good.”

“Aw. Thanks. Some. Yes, some. Dean kept a secret vault only he and I knew about. He claimed it was his emergency stash and he knew I couldn’t take it while he was around. He gave me the combination because he sometimes would call and ask me to bring him a couple grand when he wanted to join a poker game.”

“Poker? So, for him, the mind stuff didn’t let him know what the other people had when betting?”

“It most certainly did. About a quarter of his income came from pick-up poker games with high stakes. That way, it seemed more legitimate him having money when he wanted to.”

“I see. So. He cheated in a lot of ways. Not just where it came to you and other girls.”

“I didn’t see the other girls as cheating except...”

The pause was a bit longer than Prudence expected.

“Except what?”

“Except for the eerie need to cling to him. When he wasn’t around, it wasn’t easy. I didn’t care about him screwing anyone else. Not really. If I could be there when he did, it was easier. Sometimes he made me do things with the other girls he chose to bring home. It didn’t matter. I didn’t care. I was with him during such events so I could feel my hunger abated by his touch.”

“He made it so you were into girls too?”

“Pretty sure I’m mostly into guys Pru. Compelled by this thing inside my head and body though made it all just more of being with him. Now, I’m having a hard time thinking I can respond sexually at all with him gone. It’ll be a bit before I’d try.”

“Aw, Ellie. So much for any ideas to jump your bones.”

Elaine laughed. Now she was a much better image than the wet mess she’d been a few minutes earlier. She reached out and pulled Prudence close.

“Well,” she whispered, “I’ll snuggle with you at night anyway and if you cop a feel, I’ll pretend it didn’t happen. Unless it wakes something up.”

Prudence laughed now.

“You’re not the same Ellie I knew in school. Where’d you put her in there?”

“Oh, I’m still me. I have the same memories. I have the same education and experience we shared as roommates. I have less inhibition than I did then because of him. I have a number of things I can’t control like how I’ve been dressing or walking. I’ll still be working out three or four times a week, that will probably build into a pressure regularly if I don’t. I’m still me in most of the important ways, except I was a fuck toy, play thing, and property for the last three years.”

“You don’t seem to take it too badly. I suspect I’d be whimpering in a corner.”

“Mentally? I was scared to death inside my head for the first year. Now? I’ve come to grips with what happened. Nothing will change it. Crawling into myself didn’t work then. It wouldn’t work now. He might be shocked really, to know I’m stronger for it. At least, I think so.”

“Well you’re not the quiet, shy girl I used to know.”

“Whatever happened to the girlfriend you had. Annie was it?”

“You mean Abbie? She and I parted ways. We’re both bi, but her less for girls than I was. One day some guy swept Abbie off her feet. As jealous as she tended to get, it was a little bit of a surprise. I’d promised to let her go if it ever happened, so I just kept my promise. It hurt for a couple weeks, but honestly, she wasn’t ‘the one’ if you know what I mean.”

“Floated the man in the boat but didn’t move the mountain of your heart?”

“Hey.”

“Sorry.”

The silence was awkward for a few moments.

“I’m going to sack out,” Prudence finally said. “You’re welcome to the couch again or you can bring yourself in for cuddling sleep. Either is fine by me.”

“I’ll be joining you. There’s comfort in being close to someone I actually like instead of having the fierce hunger eating at me.”

Prudence smiled. “Good ’nuff for me.”

When she finished in the bathroom Elaine went to Prudence’s bedroom where her friend already shut the lights off. Peeling off her clothing she climbed in under the blankets with Prudence. She pulled the blankets over both of them and wrapped her arm around Prudence, holding her from behind.

“Whoa, you’re naked?!” Prudence was a little surprised.

“I should point out this is another one of those things.”

“Compulsion things?”

“Yes. Won’t be able to sleep with anything on other than the blankets, probably ever again.”

“I’m not objecting. You have very nice bits to squish up against,” Prudence giggled.

“Yeah, you’re soft and snugly too. Good night.”

“Good night,” Prudence responded, now a bit more alert because the girl next to her was nude. It took her a bit longer to drop off than usual. Before she did though, she could feel the patterned breathing of Elaine behind her pressed against her back.

A week later Elaine found a job. Just a waitress gig. She could do it without trying to overcome the clothing issues she was having. The reason? Because the standard uniform at the place was pretty much the same as what she wore normally. The place was named the Velvet Hammer, which sounded ridiculous. They were essentially an upper class men’s club. She had no trouble following the place’s “no dating customers” rules. She not only was not interested, but the fear of turning up on a police blotter for any reason tied into the paranoia.

The only thing she worried about was Fire Eaters club members coming around for recruitment of new servants. She tried not to worry about it. Prudence worried about it though. She had asked if it was a good idea. Prudence thought it exactly the kind of place they would likely show up. If only now and then for fresh victims.

Elaine agreed it was a risk. She wanted to stop sitting around being useless. She was sharing the place with Prudence by now, roommates again.

She was getting along well with Prudence. She’d always gotten along with Prudence but in school the issue they’d often argued about was who did what chores. The three prior years had caused her to become far more driven to keep the place she lived tidy.

At first, Prudence liked the way chores and cleaning were magically getting done without worry. Eventually not doing her part started to worry her.

“Ellie?”

“What’s up Pru,” Elaine replied, getting the dinner mess cleaned away.

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning up after dinner, why, did you want to go somewhere?”

“No, it isn’t that Pru. You’ve become even more OCD or something. You never did this much cleaning when we were in school.”

“OCD it is. I can’t help myself. I’m sorry but if you want to help me with this, you’re going to have to get to some of these things before I do. It’s just one more item in the list of awkwardly annoying stuff I can’t stop.”

Prudence wrapped her friend in her arms. She just held her tight. Elaine was no longer under a compulsion to find the guy but the after effects she still dealing with were troubling.

“Let’s go out for a drink. I’ll buy,” she said.

“Let me just get,” Elaine started to say.

“No. Just follow me,” Prudence grabbed her purse, handed Elaine’s to her, then took Elaine by the arm. “Let’s go.”

At the pub later, they were settled into a high backed booth making their presence more private while drinking. The place had a bucket of peanuts for people to munch on. The floor was of course littered with peanut shells.

The crunching of peanut shells under their feet amused both of them at first. That bit of amusement let up after only a short while. The conversation gave way to work things, anecdotal moments with coworkers type of things. Both of them started to feel less depressed.

The crunch of peanut shells by other feet approaching them ought to have tipped them off. By the time they noticed their unexpected company, the two men were blocking the view of the rest of the room.

“Hello ladies,” the tenor voice said, “Let me introduce us, I’m John and this is Jim. We noticed you were sitting alone and wondered if you’d let us stand you to a drink?”

Prudence turned on the heat first.

“No thank you,” said Prudence. “We’d like our privacy.”

“We’re friendly though,” added Jim. “I think we’d get along just fine if you give us a chance.”

“We’re having a rather personal conversation here and you two are interrupting it. Please leave us be,” Elaine said.

The two men were not giving up easily. “No” was not a word they seemed to be grasping.

“Aw, all we’re talking about is a drink, maybe two. Then we’ll leave be if you don’t like our company,” came the restatement from Jim. John didn’t show any evidence of relenting either, he was almost leering at Elaine. She wondered if he had any idea how sickening it made him look.

“Look, you two are starting to be creepy,” said Prudence, “you really should reconsider how you approach women.”

Her comment had no effect on the two men, and it looked as though one of them was about to respond. But he never got the chance.

“Excuse me,” came a woman’s voice from behind the one named Jim, “you’re blocking my seat. Please move. Eddie! They’re over here!”

Both Elaine and Prudence narrowed their eyes a bit. They didn’t let themselves be shaken though. Jim moved slightly aside, looking confused, as a young woman pushed in next to Elaine on the bench. She acted very familiar towards the initial occupants of the booth.

“Hey you two,” came a new male voice, “Weren’t you two bringing Frank and William? Or are they out elsewhere celebrating Frank’s promotion to sergeant?”

Edward was standing where he could see them but slightly behind the one named Jim. Both of the intrusive men turned to look at him. He could see they were trying to process what he’d said, possibly slower on the uptake than he hoped. Considering trying to summon Bubbles, he tapped John’s shoulder and indicated with a hand motion to stop blocking the path to the other bench opposite Lexi.

Elaine was quick enough to immediately pick up on the hint.

“Frank should be here in about ten to twenty minutes. Some of the guys at the station house delayed him. I don’t think William can make it though.”

“That’s a shame,” said Lexi. “I was looking forward to seeing him.”

Slowly, confused, John and Jim started their retreat. Edward saw them belly up at the bar again, but looking around the room for a couple more potential victims.

“Well that was interesting Lexi, but please don’t call me Eddie. It feels like some cartoon character from a Saturday morning kid’s show.”

“Sorry,” replied Lexi. “Edward feels like it’s a lot of name though when in a hurry.”

He turned towards Prudence.

“I’m sorry ladies, we’ll leave you be as soon as the two neanderthals leave the bar,” he nodded towards the two men still looking about for other unattached women. “My name is Edward, this is Lexi. Lexi decided she wanted to rescue you though it’s not clear to me you needed a rescue.”

He offered his hand to Prudence. She shook hands with him, smiling, “You know, you seem familiar.”

He offered his hand to Elaine, looking up at her face. As she took it to shake, he knew where they’d seen each other before.

“At Carlo’s. You were the two at Carlos,” he turned towards Lexi, “these young women were the ones you were comparing your looks to at our lunch. This afternoon.”

Lexi covered her mouth with her hands. She seemed flummoxed to realize it was true.

“Oh, so you’re the guy I thought was eyeing Ellie. It was really Lexi doing the eyeing, is that it?” chuckled Prudence who was now looking Lexi over more closely. “My name is Prudence by the way. Everyone calls me Pru, so don’t worry Lexi. You can use it any time you want.”

“And if Pru didn’t give it away already, I’m Elaine. Only Prudence calls me Ellie, so far. If you start to I won’t complain.” Edward noticed how barely concealing her clothing was of her assets, and was thinking of pointing it out to Lexi. He smacked the thought down as being utterly inappropriate. He took a brief moment of self pride at avoiding immediate foot in mouth disease. The silver chain choker looked pretty on her throat too. He wondered if Lexi might like a necklace like that.

Lexi put her hands back down in her lap and smiled at Edward.

“I guess you were right, making new friends will happen.”

“If you come to rescue us from ogres, we’re gonna give you a chance to be friends, Lexi,” said Prudence.

“Lexi was a bit of a shut in until a few weeks ago,” said Edward, “She had a problem keeping her from leaving the house much. She had a bit of a breakthrough and asked me to accompany her as she explores.”

“I hope more than just a little company,” said Lexi. “You’re my hero and my rescuer.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Yep. A shopkeeper and his Moll.”

“Shopkeeper? What kind of shop,” Elaine asked, “We were shopping this morning. Did we stop in your store maybe?”

“It’s a bookstore and if you’d been in there,” he looked at her, “I would definitely have noticed. With a little help, I think Lexi can be as stunning as yourself.”

Elaine turned red, Lexi turned pink, looking away.

But Prudence laughed. He didn’t mind embarrassing Lexi a little but had not intended to embarrass Elaine. It seemed his mouth spoke the wrong words anyway. He would like to claim it acted on its own.

“Lexi needs help?,” inquired Prudence. “She looks pretty damn attractive to me.”

“We were just going through her wardrobe tonight. She knocked me over with the ones she brought out to show me?”

“So why isn’t she wearing one of those knock out outfits now?” Ellie looked at Lexi as though to appraise her appearance at the moment.

“When he says ‘knocked’ me over, he means I backed into him with a huge pile of them in my arms, and ended up sitting on top of him,” Lexi explained.

“OOooh,” chuckled Prudence again. “There’s nothing like flattening a guy to get him interested in you. Did you do it on purpose?”

Lexi tilted her head down to the left, feeling the heat creep up her neck again as she turned pink again.

“Uh, I hadn’t thought of it? If I had, I might have?” She peeked up with a tiny little smile.

“That makes it even better!”

“If I had to guess, eighty percent of her wardrobe may never have been wearable. Too small, too garish, too prissy.” Edward said. He figured he shouldn’t have mentioned her knocking him over. He kept saying things he probably shouldn’t. Internally as he scolded himself, he felt something odd gnawing at the edges of his mind and he couldn’t place it.

The barmaid came by and took drink orders from Lexi and Edward. She ordered an ale of some sort, he just asked for whatever the place carried on tap.

The women started gabbing with Lexi about clothing for a little bit. His eyes wandered back over to the two men they’d chased away. They were trying to hit on a couple of women at the bar who appeared to be disdainful of their overtures. It looked to him the men were starting to be a little more pushy over there.

He saw Bubbles looking his way, and caught his eye, then pointed at the two guys at the bar. Bubbles looked over and even from here he thought he could hear Bubbles sigh. The large man stood up and strolled over towards the bar.

The women in the booth went quiet as they realized he was watching the events at the bar, then turned to look what was going on too. Bubbles placed one of his big hands on a shoulder of each man at the bar. There was a clear expression of relief on the part of the two women they’d been talking to.

“It appears ‘no’ only works for them with a greater threat,” Edward muttered.

One of them made the mistake of trying to punch Bubbles. Edward imagined they were far more intoxicated than he had thought. It turned out hitting Bubbles must be like striking a brick wall. The man pulled his hand back, shaking it and with an expression of severe pain. To his left Edward heard Prudence chuckle.

“Yeah, like that was going to help him any.” Her utterance drew mild chuckles from Lexi and Elaine as well.

Meanwhile, Bubbles hand gripped both men from the backs of their necks and was dragging them against their will towards the door. There was a round of applause from other tables, mostly the women but also the men, seeing their habitat being rid of the two predatory drunks. As Bubbles ejected them through the door, then moved through it and out of sight, Edward turned back to the ladies.

“I like your company,” he nodded to Prudence and Elaine, “and I am glad to have Lexi find new friends. Now that those two are gone, if you want, we can find another booth.”

The woman serving their table came back just then.

“No,” said Prudence. “Please stay. Lexi is nice and we can put up with you.”

“Put up with me?” Edward’s brow knitted a moment.

“Did you guys want to order something from the kitchen?,” asked the waitress. She had a couple menus in her apron.

“Sure,” Edward took a menu, so did Lexi. “You two?”

“No, we had something already. We were just out to leave the house.” Elaine spoke up.

“Okay, I dragged her away from the zombie fashion zone specifically so she would eat something.”

“Cool by us. We’re just enjoying the company. It’s much better than having a couple drunks hitting on us.”

“Thank Lexi for that. It was her addlepated idea to intervene. She had no idea, nor did I, that Bubbles would have to boot them.”

“Bubbles? Oh, is that the bouncer’s name?” Prudence asked, “I honestly didn’t catch that. That’s kind of funny as a contrast to his appearance.”

The waitress was coming back so the conversation paused again to place food orders for himself and Lexi. The waitress herself made a comment about being glad the two men had been ejected, referring to it as their floor show for the evening.

“What were we, oh, um, Yeah, I think I can speak for Lexi when I say she is really enjoying your company. The jury is out for me though. Apparently you’re only putting up with me.”

Prudence gave him a warm smile, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek.

“Silly boy. We like you.” Lexi’s eyes were on Prudence’s little act of affection, as if they could turn green soon. “Oh relax Lexi. It’s apparent you’ve got your heart set on Edward. You’re not going to fool anyone easily.”

“Hey,” said Edward. “It’s not that. I mean...”

“Shut up big boy. You’re not transparent but one would have to be naive to not see you like Lexi too.”

“You forget, she’s been a shut in a long while. And I don’t go on dates. Until now apparently.”

“What? Never? What the hell happened to your school years.”

“It’s a long story but the question of ‘never’ is answered by, yes, not ever.”

“That’s sad. But you’re seeing Lexi now?” Elaine gave him a pitying glance.

“Uh. I? um. Maybe. I’m not sure. She tricked me into asking her out. I think. No. No, she ended up asking me out. I did avoid being tricked into the bedroom with her though,” he winked at Elaine.

Lexi gave him a tap with her fingertips on his arm. “Bad! Bad! I was not trying to trick you into the bedroom. I was just pointing out my wardrobe was in the closet.”

“And thus by bringing it out you found a means to sit on me.”

“That was an accident!”

“You two are cute,” said Prudence.

“Oh no you don’t. Don’t label me ‘cute’,” said Edward. “It’ll be my demise.”

Elaine was chuckling on the other side of the table. Lexi just grinned at him, liking the idea Prudence had connected the two of them.

“By comparison, it sounds like Ellie and I are loose women.” Prudence was winking at Lexi.

Edward rolled his eyes again. “Ah, the thirty year old virgin story. I’ve heard the joke a number of times already. And thirty is a couple years away yet.”

“I’m sorry, I take it all back,” said Prudence in mock sincerity.

Edward felt a sudden shift in the room. It toke him completely away from the light chatter they were having. He looked over at the door. There was a man entering with two attractive women. Something about the guy had triggered his inner compass about the mental energy in the room.

While Lexi and Elaine were still exchanging comments about her being out and about, his focus had totally reset.

He looked straight at the man. The fellow, possibly in his forties, had on a suit and bow-tie. Huh. A bow-tie? The man seated both of the women at the table with him, making a few statements to them, then getting decidedly affectionate kisses from both of them. Edward had a gut wrenching bad feeling.

Lexi saw his face become serious but kept up light chatter with Elaine and Prudence, reaching out just to put her hand on his arm. He turned back and looked at her, smiling.

“You’re warm,” he told her.

“What?”

“Your hand is warm.” Meanwhile he was opening out his talent, to see if he could get a better idea why the man triggered him. Off hand, it appeared the man was like himself, gifted with the powers of mind that gave access and control of others to him.

He noticed the man taking inventory of the people at Edward’s table. Subsequently the guy started to grin. It’s a public tavern, Edward reminded himself. Anyone has a right to be here, come in, have a drink, and a meal. There does not have to be something sinister about another person with the power coming in. He tried to ignore the guy.

Now he was edgy as hell. He knew the guy had marked him as having the ability too. He felt like his stomach had started to creep up his throat. He let the girls chatter and tried to simply keep his vigilance from becoming paranoia.

Lexi had taken his hand. Somehow she had figured out he had suddenly gotten edgy and nervous. She was thinking he might also have a problem with being out in public like she used to. She was mistaken. He widened his perceptions to cover the entire booth just to make sure the other man was not trying to eavesdrop mentally on their conversation.

He did find he had to cut off a little tendril of thought the man had snaked over towards their booth. He wasn’t sure how he did it, but in a way it was like squeezing a tube of toothpaste. The tendril of thought withdrew sharply. The man gave him a small nod.

He jolted suddenly and looked directly at Elaine. Unexpectedly her eyes popped open and her jaw dropped. She turned to Prudence.

“Pru!,” she stressed her words, “someone is in here.”

Prudence did not catch on right away. “What do you mean someone is...”

“Those people we talked about, remember? I think we need to go, fast.”

Edward’s head tilted slowly connecting the dots between his odd feelings earlier and Elaine.

Prudence caught on. “Oh! Those people. Here?”

She looked around just the way someone who had just been told not to look now but someone was? She caught herself and looked directly at Elaine.

“Do you have any idea which??”

“What’s going on?,” asked Lexi. Edward just focused on Elaine and increased his energy covering the booth. He didn’t know the details, but could tell she’d encountered someone with the talent before. She was the one at Carlo’s who seemed off when he walked by, she had to be. And now, the gnawing feeling at the edge of his mind before the other man walked in, that had to be her too.

“Lexi,” he said in a cautioning tone. She looked concerned at him.

“Be patient Lexi. There’s an explanation.”

“You. You’re one of them, aren’t you,” whispered Elaine. Prudence edged away from him and tried to reach for the knife next to his plate. As if that would do anything. It wasn’t a sharp thing but if she had to attack him, she wanted to be ready.

“It wasn’t me, Ellie,” he responded, “though the answer to your question if I understand you right is yes.”

“Why should we believe you,” snarled Prudence, suddenly very determined to protect her friend and herself from him.

“Because I stopped him. Though how you’d know that, I can’t say,” he replied. “If you leave here without us, you’re going to have him to deal with.”

“Who is...”

By then the man in the bow-tie had risen and made his way over to their booth while they had been distracted. He stood there, looking at Elaine. Then he turned and looked sharply at Edward.

“Who are you?” He growled a bit while he spoke. “Why are you interfering? You have not claimed her.”

“It doesn’t matter who I am. You have no rights here. What do you mean claimed her?”

“I’ve never seen you at the club and I would have. So you’re some kind of free lance job. Didn’t you notice she’d been claimed before? She’s got Dean’s collar on her.”

“Collar? Club?” Edward was collecting points of information without knowing it. Bow-tie seemed to think it didn’t matter what he did with his talent. Mom and Dad had told him there would be people like him. He didn’t take his focus off the man with the Bow-Tie to keep him from distracting him physically. “Who is Dean?”

“Dean is dead. She was his. He owed me so I’m going to recover my losses in unattached goods. Since you haven’t already claimed her, I’m going to.”

“FUCK OFF!” Prudence suddenly shouted. “JUST FUCK THE HELL OFF!”

Her thought was she could be loud enough to get Bubbles over to interfere in the threat. She couldn’t know Bubbles was focused on a woman who was flirting from afar with him, making smiles, tipping a glass at him, friendly and all? behind a veil the Bow-tie guy had wrapped Bubbles in.

“Oh child, since you know about us, I’m afraid you’ll have to be claimed too.”

Elaine grabbed Prudence’s hand. She could feel her friend shaking. Elaine didn’t know what exactly was going on. She could tell Edward had the other man’s attention. He really did seem to be standing up for her. She had no idea how, much less why, but she’d take it.

“No one is being claimed here by you. No one. You need to get your,” he looked meaningfully around Bow-Tie at the two girls at his table. It hit him they probably had no choice about what was going on with them either. “women, and leave.”

“You young idiot. You don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for.”

Lexi had caught on. She pushed herself in against Elaine and set herself in a position she hoped could be protective. She felt the other woman place a hand on her shoulder, something to steady her.

“So you have a club. I bet there are other creatures of your sort there.”

“Creatures? Oh son,” the man smirked at him knowingly, “You have no idea. No idea at all.”

Edward drew his cell phone from his pocket as inconspicuously as he could. He tried to use the bio-id thumbprint activation to turn it on. He couldn’t see it. He gave that idea up. If he could get Uncle Samuel on the phone, he might be able to get some help with this man.

The light suddenly got dimmer. Time as his eyes saw it seemed to freeze. Edward realized the man had tried to stick him with some kind of mental probe. With effort he pushed it aside. Mental combat was something Dad told him happened. He’d only mentioned it a couple times the year before he passed away.

Fighting another person with power was not like a physical brawl. There wasn’t any high ground, there wasn’t a way to simply poke the other person from behind.

More over, being entirely in the head tended to distract from the physical world. Instead of just striking back at the man, Edward reached out to Bubbles and banished the construct which had him distracted. It might take a few moments though before the bouncer realized anything was going on.

So he picked up the fork he’d taken from the napkin bundle and swung it sharply at the man’s groin. The guy was so engaged in not losing his mental grip while in contention in their minds the man didn’t see it coming. If he’d only swung his fist, it might have been blunted by hitting the man’s thigh, but this way the prongs tried to rip open cloth too. No cloth was torn, but the blow struck the right spot harder even than Edward intended.

Bow-Tie doubled over and fell to the ground among the peanut shells. He’d screamed out and Bubbles heard it. Since he was distracted by being in pain, Edward was able to slip into the man’s thoughts and started to shut things down. He had no idea what part of the brain controlled the mental powers, but he was able to put the man to sleep quickly.

Even asleep the man still subconsciously fought for control. He had to dig around in a number of unsavory memories before he found what he wanted. There was a mechanism manipulating other parts of the thoughts within the man’s skull. It slipped from place to place on him. He spent energy on chasing it to find a way to stop the evasion.

During his effort he did consider turning off the man’s entire autonomic nervous system and let him die. It wasn’t as if a dead man could use a mental power to control others. The man certainly seemed to deserve it. So many things he’d brushed against digging through Bow-Tie’s mind left him feeling he’d been crawling through a septic tank. Some of the idea of leaving him as maggot bait felt like it had merit to him, he was so tempted.

He decided there simply not time to consider it long lest the bastard regain enough control to cause him damage.

Finally he’d run through shutting down enough parts of the man’s brain for any kind of thought the little power device within had no where left to run. It was a bit like untangling a small knot of twine. It wasn’t like he could just snip a piece of it either. He knew this thing was supposed to be genetic. It sure felt as thought it was more like a symbiotic guest than a part of the man himself. As he plucked at the bits of it, the bits pulled open slowly. It became a lot more like pulling threads apart, as if unzipping the man’s power once he got to one of the ends.

By the time he was done, Bubbles stood over Bow-Tie.

“What happened?,” Bubbles asked him.

“He thought he knew us. While he was talking he seems to have fainted,” Edward spun the fork in his fingers a moment, then put it down.

He wanted to undo the control effects on the two women at the other table too. Definitely before leaving. He looked over at them, thinking what he could really do. Maybe wipe them to before this guy met them? This was making him nauseated.

“Do you think,” he suggested, “this could have happened in another cube? The ladies are already having trouble. I’d like them to be spared talking about this with anyone. We’d appreciate it a lot.”

Bubbles didn’t know why but he moved Bow-Tie to the side.

“What the hell?,” asked Lexi confused a bit. She’d seen Edward stick the guy in the balls with the fork, but other things happened entirely in ways she could not perceive.

Edward turned toward Elaine. Of the three women, she was the one with the most knowledge about what was happening. “Not here. Not right this minute. You are safe. Please be patient.”

He slowly got to his feet and walked over to the two beauties sitting on their own waiting for the return of the man who was accompanying them. He put a hand on each of their shoulders. Prudence could not see him do anything. After only a few moments the two women got up and left.

By the time he was seated again, an EMT team was trying to revive the man. The bow-tie itself got tossed to the side by their booth. It turned out it was a clip on, after all that. The man’s entire sense of class was utterly phony. Edward shook his head. He bent down to pick up the bow-tie.

Sitting down, he found himself facing one terrified woman, Prudence, one nervous woman, Elaine, and Lexi who was concerned about him. He closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose and tossed the bow-tie onto the table.

“Relax Elaine, I am not like him or the Dean dude he was talking about.”

Elaine nodded. She squeezed Prudence’s hand tighter. Prudence was trying to piece things together and felt like a lot of pieces were missing to the puzzle.

“Prudence, I will do my best to satisfy your fears soon, but please, please, calm down,” he turned and looked at Lexi, “I had to. I had no choice. He...”

Lexi suddenly understood. She knew how reluctant he’d been to use his abilities to free her. She remembered how she had to plead with him. With caution she reached out and put her hand on his arm. His eyes pooled up a bit.

He wasn’t supposed to do these things. He wasn’t. He had no choice but he wasn’t supposed to have to deal with this kind of thing.

Picking up his cell phone on the bench from he’d left it, he thumbed it on again. He found Uncle Samuel’s number and hesitated. Should he call, shouldn’t he call?

Elaine whispered more to herself than to him, “if you helped those women...”

He looked up at her. He didn’t know what she wanted from him. All he knew was she was pleading for something. He turned and looked at Prudence who had transformed from terrified to hopeful. He could still feel Lexi squeezing his arm lightly. He turned to look at her.

“You did the right thing, Edward,” she said.

She gave him an encouraging smile to show she would be there for him if he needed it. Prudence touched his other arm lightly, pulling her fingers back when he turned to look at her.

“Won’t he wake up and be mad? What will you do when he wakes up again and comes looking for you?”

“He’ll wake up. He won’t remember the last ten years of his life. And he won’t have the ability anymore.”

“The ability. That would mean he tried to use the same thing that caused so much harm to Elaine? Somehow you stopped him?”

“Psionics, mental powers. Yes. I don’t know what was done to Elaine. I’ve been trying to treat her mind ? as hers. I was taught it’s wrong to poke around in other people’s heads. Especially uninvited.”

“If I invited you in, could you, maybe, help free me from the things he programmed into me?,” Elaine asked. She was at the edge of hopeful and trying to peer over into the mystery darkness.

“Stop. Just. Stop. Not right now, please,” Edward shook his head, “It’s bad enough I helped Lexi. Now having to confront someone else with the talent... It’s not as simple to me as it might be to others. I need to be able to think, to digest this. I don’t know.”

He felt close to breaking down. Lexi got up and stepped around to hold him. She couldn’t get in the booth on the bench with him without also crushing Prudence into the corner.

Elaine was confused.

“Wait. You,” Elaine looked at Lexi, “control her?”

“No. He. Does. Not.” Lexi didn’t glare at her but she shot a hard look. “I had to beg him to help me with my fear of leaving my apartment. He did not give in easily but finally did. I used to have to take a passel of drugs to go out. Now, nada. Zip. Zilch. If he wanted to control me, he would have right away when I first asked.”

“Can we not have this conversation?,” he was feeling overloaded, “at least not here anyway.”

“We can go to my place,” Lexi offered.

“Um.” Prudence had been following this with both hope for her friend and concern for greater risks. What if the guy with the Bow-Tie had friends meeting him here? He was right. This was not the time and place for the conversation. “Okay. Let’s just get the hell out of here.”

It took only a few minutes to settle their tab, shake Bubbles’ hand to say good night. Then they were out on the street and on their way. Before long they were at the door of Lexi’s apartment.

So the women were all at Lexi’s place. He was sure by now they were talking about the wardrobe all over Lexi’s living room. He stepped out to make a phone call. He really would have preferred not to make the call but after consideration decided he had no choice.

He excused himself and walked down the three flights of stairs. Stepping outside, dark as it was outside, he was still pretty sure no one was around. He dialed his uncle’s number.

“Hello there Edward, what’s going on for you to call so late on a Saturday?”

“There is a little problem I’ve encountered.”

“It happens. Life does dish out little problems with great enthusiasm.”

“I encountered another person who was ability capable only not a family member.”

“Let me guess, he didn’t like you in his territory?”

“Worse than that. Can you come talk to me. I have a few friends who are not like us who have been exposed to the talent now and am not clear how best to handle it.”

“Friends? Without? That’s not unusual, but what do you mean by ‘exposed’ just now?”

“It appears one who had escaped another talent who had manipulated her, her friend, and a friend of mine I helped with a deep seated fear issue.”

“hmmmm. So. You’re looking for what? Advice?”

“Yes, I’d like you to meet them and me to explain all the circumstances. So I can get an opinion of how I can best resolve things.”

“Text me the address. I might be awhile. Your aunt and I were about to turn the lights off here.”

“Thank you, Uncle Samuel.”

“See you shortly,” came the voice back at him.

Feeling a little relieved to get passed the phone call he really had not wanted to make, he turned back to the stairs. Shortly he was seated again in Lexi’s apartment.

Edward had excused himself to make a call. The women were all seated in the living room of Lexi’s apartment. Prudence and Elaine had taken up the couch mostly. Lexi settled into the armchair after playing hostess to get them some juice to drink.

“What is this anyway?,” Prudence asked.

“It’s just one of those generic versions of one of the brand name juice companies. The store carries the generic and it’s cheaper. I thought I’d try it instead of the brand name I had been getting. If it’s not good, I have other options.”

“No, no, it’s okay. I may have to ask where you found it so I can see what other flavors they have,” Prudence responded.

“So did he really use his mind control ability to fix your fears? How can you be sure he didn’t set controls on you?,” Elaine was anxious as she asked.

“I?,” Lexi had to think about how to answer that, “Starting with my fears, I can show you all the pills and bills for medical stuff from trying to be capable of getting out of the house. Doing so without being drugged up caused me severe anxiety attacks, capable of leaving me on the floor.”

“So you’d just lie there trembling?”

“No, I’d literally pass out. It happened a few times. Once it happened because I hadn’t brought any with me when I absolutely had to go to the bank,” she smiled, “I got tired of finding myself at the hospital and they got to know me well enough to manage my episodes.”

“He knew about your problem and told you he could fix it but wouldn’t? How did that happen?”

“I saw him use the ability to keep from being stabbed, maybe killed. He didn’t claim to be able to fix it. Before he could see me when he was being mugged, I ducked out.”

“So, you didn’t really know what he’d done?”

“Oh, it was obvious he’d used some kind of hypnosis or mind bending trick. I thought about it when I got home. If he could do that instantly two a couple muggers, I thought maybe he could do something no one else had been able to do. Hypnotize me and help with my fear.”

“Oh,” said Prudence, “so you really didn’t know really what he’d done but that he’d done something.”

“I thought maybe it was an experimental spray. I had no idea it would be this great. He was able to go into my head and find the problem very fast. He fixed it. I really did beg him once he did explain, because his response was mostly no.”

“Why not? Did he say why he wouldn’t?”

“Yeah,” added Elaine, “what the heck would he refuse for?”

“He told me his parents taught him not to.”

“Seriously? He must’ve had great parents then. For that to stick? Had to be hard for them.”

“It seems they had a method of planting a scolding message into his mind.”

“So his own parents did some kind of control on him?”

“It didn’t sound like that. It sounded like they had rules and put a little messenger to remind him if he broke the rules. Something to tell him his actions were not right.”

“Oh.” Elaine sat there thought fully. If he had moral or ethical constraints, she reasoned he would at least listen to her plead her case to have some of her compulsions removed without turning her into a robot girl the way Dean had.

There was a sound at the door. It was Edward, back from making his call.

“I called Uncle Samuel. He’s going to come over. I’ll explain what’s going on and he will advise me how to handle what’s going on. He isn’t the kind to make decisions for me though. Uncle Samuel will have ideas though.”

Elaine was nervous. Now another thought control person was coming over. While Lexi thought Edward was safe, and Edward felt the man was safe, there were extra layers of trust she’d have to accept or else flee now. She looked at Prudence.

Prudence took her hand as if she could read minds herself. “It’s a risk but let’s stay. I think it’s a bigger risk not to trust Edward at the moment.”

Elaine nodded. Lexi just watched Edward being nervous. She didn’t know how to calm his nerves and she wanted to. She was no better at this social thing than before but she was trying. Elaine and Prudence were trying to squelch their own trepidation. That he had any was not helpful to them.