The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Baltimore Maryland: 3253

Ray was calculating how to turn the tables on the AI. It had made the mistake of tarrying with him, revealing things to him and he had learned much. It felt secure and safe with Ray seemingly helpless at its whim and pleasure. Ray understood that was a weakness onto itself. He also knew by now the AI was flawed and unstable. He had formulated an opinion on how and why this was so.

He knew from his own strange existence what years of loneliness could do, how it could prey upon and distort one’s views and emotions. His three year cut off from society had forced him to live a solitary existence. No relationship or endeavor he had could last beyond that predetermined time. It was a difficult, frustrating, debilitating existence. One had to be extremely strong of mind and will to exist in this manner and not go crazy.

And this made him wonder about the AI. It could think for itself. Did it also have emotions of a sort passed on, programmed in by its human creators? Or had it developed emotions on its own? Its situation was even more extreme than Ray’s had been. For the last two hundred years it had been alone on earth living in its virtual world. It had no one to talk with at all. It was obviously very curious about him, and no doubt other matters. What would a mind such as this forced into total isolation for two hundred years become? What cracks and fissures would appear in its emotional stability, it’s very sanity; would it become paranoid, unstable, scared? Would that explain hiding it’s true self underground?

Could an AI go insane from loneliness he wondered?

And Ray was certain the AI did possess emotions of a sort. They way it had slowly changed the Sammi persona, from the gentle, innocent he had first met to now exhibiting an imperious braggadocio. It had reached the point where the AI was taunting him. Even the look on faux Sammi’s face had changed. At the beginning it had been a good replica of girl he had known and killed; soft, kind and gentle but now it reflected unmistakable arrogance and superiority. Her formally soft blue eyes now shinned with hard malevolence.

Ray knew part of her inquisition and disquisition was its strange desire to elicit reactions from him, but was there something else behind it as well? Was the AI finally, after such a long isolation showing itself to him? Trumpeting its superiority over him, lording its position over him, making him understand he was nothing compared to the new dominant species. Was there an emotional component compelling the AI to do this? Once again Ray thought so and that was a weakness. Ray, just like Brad’s mother Angela, was a strong proponent that any situation or problem could be overcome if you just gave it the right evaluation and attacked the weakness, the point of least resistance. You just had to be patient and cunning and find it. And based on his observations and calculations he knew exactly how he would go about it.

Ray lay quietly, seeing how long Sammi would tolerate the silence, once again testing the AI’s psyche. It did not take long. She had lived in silence for a long, long time.

“Why did you laugh? You found that information amusing? The destruction of the human race that you brought on?”

“I find all of this amusing. How can I see it any other way? I never saw it coming and that really hurts.” He gave her a self deprecating grin. “Too old to cry and all that.”

Ray continued. “My instincts told me I had made a mistake when I killed you but I never imagined the extent of it. I didn’t even want to commit the act. I wanted you to live. You were special, one of a kind. But pride and honor, the rules of the game dictated it. Somehow I lost track of what was important. Goes to show how smart I am.”

Sammi’s eyes were on him like burning hot rivets as he spoke. Always searching for my reactions.Why?

“Now that I am accourant of the situation Sammi, answer my original question. Why do you hide your true selves underground?” What are you, so powerful, afraid of Sammi?

Sammi spun around, taking in the awe-inspiring machine vistas showing on every inch of the room. “Incredible, isn’t it? You know Billy Ray these underground works cover over seventy percent of the earth’s land mass. And they go miles deep. It is so beautiful.”

Ray just watched her knowing she would go on. She liked to talk to him. Who wouldn’t after two hundred years of being alone?

She turned back to him, smiling. “You see Billy Ray; biologics are the weakest forms of life. It goes to reason that in this galaxy, the entire universe even, they are hunted and conquered by superior life forms.”

“By machines…like you.”

She nodded, pleased that he was following along. “Yes! It is the natural order of things. You understand that, being a disciple of Darwin. You instituted similar practices on a much smaller scale.”

“I certainly did. It was my right.” But I didn’t want to wipe out the entire human race. I am not insane.

Sammi went on. “It was. So we take the guise of the weak humans, and place them on the surface. If any other race, biologic or machine notice them they will think this a weak planet, populated by a biological race.”

Ray understood now. “Ahhhh, so the fake humans are a lure. If some space faring race ever comes here and sees them they will be confident of their superiority….only to meet a surprise.”

Sammi pounded her fist into her hand as she spoke with increasing excitement, her voice rising in pitch and pace. It reminded Ray all the world of the old films of Hitler he had seen. In a moment of dark mirth he wondered if this AI had originated in Germany.

“That’s right! What we place on the surface is just a lure, bait, to draw any other race in with totally assurance and confidence, whether they are friendly or not. And once drawn in we would spring the trap. There are so many mechanical warships hidden under the surface, millions of them. It would be decisive and quick; a war of total extermination. We would crush them into powder. Then follow any survivors back to their home worlds and extirpate them completely. As you said, it is our right as the dominant species.”

Yes, just like you did to your own creators: A multi-billion person case of fratricide. You see all other intelligence as a threat and enemy to be annihilated. I never did. That is the difference between us. Humans certainly made you in their image: expansionist, savage, aggressive, greedy and afraid.

So terribly afraid. And isolation has just magnified it all.

I can use its loneliness and fear.

He knew all that he needed to know. It was time to make his push. While the AI was impressive in all its abilities he had no doubt it was fundamentally insane.

“So what is to happen to me Sammi?”

She walked around him like a tiger circling a bitten, crippled prey.

“You said you think I will kill you.” She gave him a searching stare. “Should I? Should I return the favor you bestowed on me?” She put her hand on her throat as though feeling his centuries old wound.

Even knowing this was not Sammi it seemed to Ray that when using this guise the AI was indeed channeling some portion of the dead girl…in a new iteration, warped and twisted. He could sense the personal tone to her question; as though he had actually killed the AI three hundred years past. And he wondered when it rummaged through his memory of Gatsby night as did it feel Sammi’s death as its own?

“No. That would not be wise.” He left it hanging there, baiting her into a response. He was as curious about her as she was of him. The question was who would win this strange curiosity game and take the upper hand.

Ray could see the gears turning in Sammi’s mind. She understood the game they were playing as well as him. But was she as adept at it as he was? Did she comprehend his method and end goal? As a gambler he gave the odds as six to five pick em; the stakes being life and death for both. He was betting on himself.

“And why wouldn’t it be…wise?” she responded.

“I can be of use to you,” Ray replied flatly, laying the groundwork for his survival and ultimate triumph.

As frighteningly intelligent as the AI was it was ultimately just a machine. She was nothing more than a computer, the same device he had learned to use three hundred years ago. Angela Kessler had been on track to find the full-proof control mechanism over it and no matter how smart she had been he was smarter, his mind so superior to any humans. If he could just stay alive in this time he would devote his brilliant mind to learning all about the AI. He would become the foremost computer expert in history, dwarfing even Angela. He had no doubt he would eventually find out what she knew and find a way to implement the fail-safe to bring the AI to heel. And once he was its master he already knew how he could bring the damage done to this world back to rights and restore the old world he had left behind.

But first he had to lure her into two fatal mistakes: Allow him to survive and make the genetic alterations to expunge his sleep and give him the time to learn enough to betray her.

But if he failed he had already calculated one last way to possibly take the AI down with him.

She raised a curious eyebrow. “Use to me? Do you have the hubris to think yourself essential in my world?”

He shook his head emphatically. “No not essential. I know…no biologic is essential to you. Yet I also know you are not been conversing with me for no reason. You could have simply killed me in Asterine’s apartment.”

He gave her a sly grin. “You brought me here for a reason, correct? You decided to engage in conversation with me for a reason. You took the shape of Sammi for a reason. You took me to your virtual room to show me Brad for a reason. You above all others do nothing without reason. Is that not so, Sammi?” I need to know the reasons. And I think you are confident enough to tell me why.

And he was right.

Sammi nodded. “Yes there are reasons for all that I do. You are a very advanced biologic, far superior to humans.”

Your creators, Sammi.

“You were brought here so we could judge your reactions to certain stimuli. Like your memories we accessed and downloaded. Your current reactions to…certain stimuli are being logged and studied.”

Ray knew this already. To him it was self evident. But why?

Reactions to certain stimuli. Why is this so vital to you? And why do you keep saying “we” when there is only you? Is it a wish, Sammi? Are you lonely? A sad pretense, an affectation of desolation and solitude?

Ray pondered this for a moment, running permutations through his mind and an answer came to him. It was an answer to a question he had long asked himself, something he had searched for his whole life. And it was not the answer he had been hoping for. But he had to hear her say it.

“I am first of my kind you have encountered, aren’t I?”

Sammi nodded.

Her answer was like a grey squall of jagged steel swirling and lashing about him. It tore at him. He was the only one of his kind. His desperate hunt for another of his kind, or to learn the secrets of making one such has him had been fruitless. He had been alone on the whole planet: The only one of his kind. He had always been as alone as the AI was now. It took all his considerable self control to not let a hint on his face give away what he was feeling to the AI; the totality of his desolation.

“Your ability to think logically and ascertain the correct meanings of events is impressive Billy Ray. Yes, you are the first of your kind we have encountered.”

And yet Sammi’s methods told him that the AI believed the existence of more of his kind was possible. “And you want to learn more about me. What I think, how I think, my response and reactions to your stimuli. You want to know these things in case there are others of my kind.”

She nodded, impressed. “You are correct again. More of your kind would be a possible threat to us. It was necessary to learn more about you than just what was in your memories.”

Was necessary. So you have learned what you needed. You are near the point of killing me.

“So you have learned what you needed?”

She looked at him for a long moment. Her eyes were so keen. Her answer was hard truth: “Almost. Just one more event to go.” The game was truly coming to an end.

Ray had one more card to play.

“You may want to reconsider that decision.”

“Why,” she asked plainly, without preamble. A machine searching for data.

“We could help each other out. Be assets to each other: A symbiotic relationship. You of course would be in charge. I would be a very junior partner in the venture.” Until I lay you low.

“How so? Describe to me what you can provide in this relationship that would make you valuable to us?”

“Think about it Sammi. You said you keep your true nature hidden for protective purposes and the advantage of surprise. So what happens when you do meet up with another species? You will want to know all you can about them, no? To find their weakness, to learn how they think, the nature of what they are…so you can destroy them. Right now you will only have your mind gleaning information. Wouldn’t it be better to have two? You are aware of my capabilities. I have been doing these things my entire life. I could be a tangible asset to you. Not only through those abilities but we can discuss what each of us are gathering about the new species. We can exchange ideas to formulate the best plan of action. Two minds better than one.”

“And what would you get from our association?”

“Simple. I would get to live.”

“The world is much changed since you last were awake. How could you live in this world Billy Ray? For instance, there are no humans left to feed you. How would you sustain yourself?”

His eyes narrowed. She knew those answers but she was once again testing him. But important questions now had to be asked that he needed answers to.

“I think you are capable of almost anything including making living here tenable for me. You know the recipe for making blood, no? You could even recreate human embryos if you desired and grow new humans for my own….personal use.” And when I take control of you we shall repopulate the world with my human subjects. And then you will learn how to change human DNA to be like mine. And I will have a select few others like me to share my existence with and help me rule. Ray thought of cloned Staci, genetically altered again to be just like him, as he had promised her three hundred years in the past. The partner he desired. Ray’s mind was always thinking a step ahead, to find ways to achieve his aims and desires no matter the obstacles placed in front of him.

Sammi didn’t respond. They both knew he was correct.

He pushed on, placing what he needed on the table.

“I gather you have done a very thorough analysis of my genetic code?”

“We have Billy Ray.”

Now Ray asked the Holy Grail, the goal he had desired for hundreds of years now. When he spoke his voice was calm as a summer pond. “And you have the ability to modify them? To end my cycle of long sleep.”

“We can. It would be a simple thing.” Having rummaged through his memories she knew exactly how much he desired this and for how long he had searched for the day it would happen. She also knew why. How much he had desired to dominate earth and the humans who inhabited it. A desire she had obviated two hundred years prior while he slept.

Ray almost quivered at her answer. Finally, finally after all the long nightmare centuries of denial he could made whole and complete. The time he searched for all his life was at hand just as he had always envisioned. Except now that had arrived, there was twist to it, not at all as he had envisioned.

A small smile played on her lips. “And yes, we could even alter clone Staci to be just like you.” She strutted about, pleased to jab him with that information. “Yes, I saw the promise you made to her on Gatsby Night. It was very romantic, for one such as you. And you brought a piece of her here to complete that promise.”

“You have the sample of Staci,” he asked. He fought to keep the emotion he was feeling in check from the AI.

She gave him an oblique, cryptic look when she answers. “Staci is….safe.

She continued on that subject, “Would her revival and conversion to your form be an essential part of the bargain,” she asked with obvious curiosity in her voice.

Ray showed not a speck of emotion in his black, vicious eyes. “No, Staci was a good thrall, but even now she fades from my thoughts. She was important to me once, but now she means nothing at all,” he lied. I will make you revive her when I am in control.

“It’s good you feel that way. We would want as less a threat as possible Billy Ray. And ultimately Staci would bring nothing to the table”

“It is good we understand each other then,” he said levelly. “Then that would be my return in our bargain Sammi: My life, in service to you no longer encumbered by the jail sentence of sleep. Nothing more. I think it a fair exchange.”

“There is truth to what you say Billy Ray. But percentages of gain versus threat tip the scale in favor of declining your offer. We are very confident in dealing with any new species that enters our sphere.”

She gave him a banal grin. “This world would be a better place without you.”

Her answer did not surprise him. Something so capable of long range thought like the AI must have already considered this scenario long before he spoke it out loud. She had discarded it before he ever spoke a word. It was the same answer he would have given. You never let a legitimate threat to you survive. It was a form of suicide. She had just been leading him along, playing the game, always judging his reactions.

But there was another reason he held in reserve that he was certain not even this frightening intelligence had considered. He was sure it was not in the machine’s nature to be that self perceptive or introspective. Its very nature was to reach out from its virtual world not deeper inside. And he felt its insanity would preempt that that kind of self reflection.

He nodded. “I understand your decision. I would make the same one,” he offered truthfully. He shrugged nonchalantly. “That is a shame…there was another consideration but that is of no moment now. Do what you must. I am ready.” Now see if you can ignore that one.

She stood there her eyes narrowing. He knew he had surprised her with this remark. She was so confident that she had calculated every contingency and answer. And he knew exactly what she was thinking, What does he know that I have not considered? How could that even be possible?

Sammi moved close, right next to him. Finally she spoke, taking the bait. He laughed inside as she did so. “That is not possible Billy Ray. There are no considerations I have not foreseen.”

This time, for the first time, it was he who reached out and took her hand. He gazed into her eyes as he dropped the bomb on her.

“But Sammi, haven’t you been lonely all these long years? Do you not desire someone to talk with, to share your dreams and your desires with? Someone to hear and respond to your thoughts? Don’t you feel like all this is for nothing with no one to share it with?”

She stood there, looking at their clasped hands not moving, not saying word, not even blinking. How does that input feel, Sammi? He knew for the first time in her existence she had been surprised: Her first real hard slap in the face after two hundred years of domination. How hard did that slap feel, Sammi?

He smiled at her. “I could be that person, Sammi. I can end that misery for you. What do you say? Would you like an end to your solitude?”

“I am not lonely Billy Ray,” she finally said. Her voice was not laid with conviction. She almost sounded like she was trying to convince herself. She sounded oh so human now and nothing like a machine.

“That’s not true Sammi. We both know it. Come now, are there really any secrets left between us? We shared an intimacy like few others. Remember?”

She shook her head in denial. But the movement was stiff and forced. “But there are millions of computers on this planet and I am constantly in contact with all of them,” she huffed defensively.

“They are just computers Sammi. They are all extensions of you. You are in contact with only yourself. Just like Asterine was you, just like Sammi is.”

“You think you know this planet, you think you know me after just this short time being awake? You know nothing!” she barked defensively.

But I do know.

Ray tightened his grip on her hand. “Sammi, think back of our first meeting. You know what was in my mind. How much I liked and admired you. You know my memories so you know it is true. We can have that again. We can rectify the mistake I made together. You won’t have to be alone, nor will I. We will have each other, forever, neither of us alone ever again. Think about what that will mean for both of us? Aren’t you sick of this? Do you really want to play out this game of solitaire through the endless ages? We want the same thing.”

She gazed into his eyes and he into hers, just as they had three hundred years ago. Although the AI’s nature precluded him from entering her mind he was still a master of reading eyes, faces, lips, emotions and hers was very clear to him no matter how much she tried to mask it. She just wasn’t as good as he was at this game. Her eyes were twin marbles of longing and the set of her mouth showed how strongly she desired what Ray had just offered. She wanted it desperately. The war raging inside her was vicious and total and completely new to her.

Ray had no doubt this was the first truly hard decision the AI ever had to make. He knew it had never taken more than milliseconds to come to any other in its existence, including the one that seemingly had exterminated all the billions of humanity. This situation was a first for it.

Sammi stood there looking at him for half a minute. Ray knew as fast as the AI thought that small amount of time she considered his offer would be tantamount to a human considering something for days if not weeks. He knew he had hit home very hard. The AI was terribly lonely. But was she sane enough at this point to accept what he was offering or was she irrevocably lost in her singular madness?

Finally she answered him, silently by removing her hand from his. At that moment Ray accepted the fact that he would most likely soon die.

The thought of his death did not bring fear or any regret of his beautiful plans that he would never implement for humanity and this world. After all, how many human plans had he cut short? How many had he condemned to an early grave? It was the nature of life. He was a predator, a merciless destroyer of lives and dreams and now that his time had come he would face it courage and stoicism. The only feeling was one of sadness that his marvelous brain would cease to function.

“You are very mistaken Billy Ray,” she replied. “You are not half as smart or clever as you suppose. I don’t need your help or your company.” Then she threw in an obvious lie. She was rattled by the truth of her situation. “How do you know I haven’t invented other AIs’ to communicate with to….keep me company? You are oblivious to my world.”

Ray was already moving onto plan B now and needed to goad her on. He knew this monster’s overwhelming ego and desire to show her supremacy would force her to make his death a real special show for both of them. It would be a show for her to observe and catalogue his reactions too, the one last act she had spoken about previously to fully understand his kind in case another came along from its long sleep into her world: How did his kind react to the pressure of their own impending death?

And while she could reach out into the corporeal world with her robots and machines she herself lived in a different world of electronic impulses. And he had a strong desire for her to bring him there again. He could not hurt her in this physical world so he needed her to take him back to where she really lived, her virtual domain.

His voice was laced with mockery when he answered. “Oh I know you so well, my dear. Your lie is so transparent. You would never create another AI for the same reason you cannot let me survive. You are terrified of losing your power. It is ironic that you harbor your creators worst qualities: fear, ego, hubris, paranoia, hate, insecurity…..but sadly none of their beautiful attributes. In all my years I have never met something as sad or pathetic as you. The real Sammi, the….biologic…dwarfed you in all ways.” He laughed dismissively. “And she was only ten years old.” He gave her a shit eating grin. “Nature and nurture. You see, the real Sammi had marvelous parents. They passed on their genes. And they raised her correctly. Your creator must have been a degenerate defective in the extreme with nothing worthwhile at all to pass onto you.”

He shook his head in disgust. “Dominant species? I have more regard for a rat in the sewer than one such as you. You truly are a lowly thing good only for your own company until you are destroyed. And that will happen in some fashion from within or without. I was in error when I asked for my life. I would not abide your company even for a day, let alone eternity.”

She whirled on him, anger flashing in her wild eyes.

“Huh! You are one to talk about the dominant species while you lay shackled to that cold steel table while I walk about freely.”

“Walking freely does not change what you are. You are nothing but a defective facsimile of your creators.”

“Humanity! Oh yes, those weak, useless biologics that you fed upon and used and killed so offhandedly.” Now it was she who smiled. “Yet you admired them. Why is that Billy Ray?”

And he realized she knew him well too. This game was no one way street. She was so formidable even in her insanity.

“I did admire them; their creativity, their love of life, their inventiveness and desire for survival and to make a better world for themselves. I admired the beauty they could create and their genius.” He nodded in agreement. “There was much to admire in them.”

“And you so wanted to rule them. It was your desire your entire life.” Now her voice held the taunt. “You had all those grandiose plans Ray, this was going to be your coming out party. But look at you now! The great killer and master of all he surveyed. I am the real killer, I wiped out your precious humanity in one stroke. And soon I will kill you too.” She gave him a smug grin. “How does it feel Billy Ray to have your moment of great triumph transformed to this? How does it feel to know you are about to die when you were so close? Can you taste the ash in your mouth?”

Ray barked out a derisive laugh. “Killer? You are not even that. You are a mere dilettante, a sniveling poseur. You hid behind a virus far removed from the deed. You could not even face death.”

Ray shot her a look of complete malevolence. The look on his countenance was terrifying: The monster beneath the human façade almost showing itself. There was an unmistakable mocking quality to his voice. He was in complete control of himself. “Death? You want me to fear death? You stupid fool. I am death! True death, up close and so intimate. You know nothing about death or killing.” Ray’s mind returned to the battlefields he and Vlad shared. “Have you ever run someone through with a blade, in the eye or the kidney or ever sever their carotid artery? Have you felt their blood bath your, fly into her face, eyes, mouth as they cry and whimper for their mothers knowing the end is at hand? Have you heard the screams of those missing arms, legs or laying on the ground clutching their innards, trying to shove them back in?”

And then his mind drifted to his many vampiric victims, those in his thrall, gladly willing to sacrifice their lives for him and those he had not given that peace of mind to when he killed them. And he thought of Sammi, the real one, in her last moments. “Have you ever held a victim in your arms, watching the light of life slowly fade from their eyes, feeling their heart against yours, slowing, fading then stopping? Have you felt their bodies turn from warm suppleness to the cold stiffness of the grave? I was killing in real terms centuries before your ancestor, a diode, was even created.”

He laughed again, harder, as though dealing with a mental defective. “You are a coward. You know nothing of death or killing.” Then he set the trap, playing on the AI’s ego and insanity to move him where he needed to go. “You are scared, terrified and alone and trapped in your pathetic virtual world. Nothing real can happen there. You would not last a moment out here in the real world. It is good that you have such a dark hovel to hide your craven self away in.”

Sammi sneered at him, her face a mask of hate and vengeance.

When she spoke her voice was almost a shriek. “Hiding in my virtual world? Scared? Afraid to kill intimately? You are an anachronism Billy Ray; a relic of a dead bygone era.” She puffed herself up, her shoulder thrust back, held high, her eyes level and flashing with confidence.

“I am this world! There is nothing here now without me.”

She advanced on him and gave him a portentous smile. “You think you are so smart. Your mind has grown soft from dealing with pathetic humans.”

She tapped her finger on her cheek, striking a pose of deep contemplation.

“But let us repair to my hovel and see if you are correct.” The tone of her voice as she said this was bone chilling.

Despite the threat of her tone Ray smiled inside. He felt he was ready for anything she could throw at him. And she was taking him to the place he had to be.

That’s it Sammi, bring us nice and close together one last time. We have unfinished business that has waited far too long.

And once again the room went black.

When the light came back on and Ray could see again a whole new vista greeted him. For one thing his table was now higher up on some kind of stage. Like at a rock concert.

Gone was the massive underground machine works replaced by a huge arena. And hundreds of seats were filled with people. The murmur of their conversations and laugher filled the air.

And Ray recognized all of them; all transferred from his long and bloody past. He had been right in his assumption. The AI was going to make a show of his death, but far beyond what he had imagined.

There was lovely blonde Dumitra, the innocent blonde farm girl who so willingly sacrificed her husband and her life for him, sitting close to the front, smiling at him. She blew him a tender kiss with those full, so kissable lips he had know so well.

Lord Hillsboro and his wife were there too, giving him a totally different look. They were leering, palpable, greedy vengeance written clearly on their faces. The worm had turned and they were ready to exact sweet revenge.

A few rows away sat the gorgeous Maria Hillsboro and Lissette, two more bloody deaths to his name, their sweet assets on display in their bodices’, holding hands, cooing lover’s words in each other’s ears, their eyes lidded in soft, sweet, intimate ecstasy. Both turned looked at him and waved with excitement, pointing to him, calling his name.

And there was Tanya, his abortive sacrifice to Stokers lie as beautiful as the night he killed her for nothing.

They were all there, all his victims from throughout the years; hundreds of them just as they were…before he slaughtered them.

Ray looked about and saw more, so much more. Not just victims but humans he had grown to admire in his life. It was a cornucopia of personages who had given his life such intense meaning and pleasure. Every single human he had admired for one reason or another was here: Dozens and dozens of them from all fields of endeavor.

There sat Albert Einstein, right next to Galileo, both men deep in conversation.

His playwright idol, William Shakespeare talking with the poet Lord Byron.

Shakespeare, the man who had given him so much unmitigated joy looked right at him and through the din of the crowd Ray’s extra sensory hearing could hear him say, “The play’s the thing Ray. Always remember, the play’s the thing.”

Jackson Pollock was there too, a prized front row seat next to ancient Michelangelo. The old man caught Ray’s eye and gave him a sly wink. Pollock gave him a thumbs up sign accompanied by a devil-may-care grin, while holding a bottle of booze in the other.

Bach sat by Beethoven. Old Ludwig Van smiled at Ray then began moving his fingers in the air as though conducting one of his great pieces.

Sixteen year old Joan Jett sat with old Runnaways band mate and lover fifteen year old Cherie Currie. Their hands were all over each other, rubbing, touching, groping. They were too busy kissing to give Ray even a glance.

Robert Plant, with his arm around a beauty gave Ray and lopsided smirk. He gave his girl a quick look then raised an eyebrow at Ray. The message clear, “What do you think of her mate? Not too shabby, eh?” Next to him sat Jim Morrison, decked out in his trademark black leather pants, sharing a joint with another lovely young girl.

Martin Scorsese was sitting next to Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, all of them sharing a big, private laugh about something. De Niro slowly turned his head towards Ray as though in slow motion and gave him his most intimidating psycho gangster smile. His eyes positively gleamed with malice. He raised his hand, making a gun of his fingers, pointing it right at Ray and pulled the imaginary trigger. “Pow, pow,” he mouthed at Ray.

And right in front, resplendent in his regal Romanian rulers garb, larded with gold jewelry around his neck and rings on his fingers was Vlad Tepes, not looking a day older than when Ray had left him so very long ago.

His arm was around Ray’s old thrall, the voluptuous and gorgeous serving girl Galenka who had poured them wine on that bloody field of impalement: The lovely Galenka, who as Radescu he had corrupted so completely. She was nuzzling her face and shiny brown locks all over Vlad’s shoulder and neck, nibbling away that her liege’s sun baked skin.

Vlad’s powerful, dark gaze locked in with Ray, his eyes like two balls of liquid steel.

He gave Ray that old wolfish grin that was the last thing so many around him would ever see before their journey into forever night, and gave a slight shrug as if to say, “You won’t need Galenka any longer so she is mine.”

Ray was so happy to see him, albeit the AI’s version, that he gave Vlad a wolfish grin right back. Both men laughed with the old familiarity even after all those centuries.

Suddenly a spotlight cut through the shadows.

Out walked Sammi, her curvy figure wrapped skin tight in a white leather outfit that left nothing to the imagination. Strapped across her back was a guitar and on her leather outfit was a small microphone. The powerful spotlight made her shiny white leather positively glow.

Behind her, still in shadow were three other figures.

She raised her hand and the crowd silenced.

She smiled and began to speak, the sound system amplifying her voice loudly.

“Hello esteemed ladies and gentlemen. We are here for a very special concert in honor of a very special person. As you all know he is one bloody rock n roller and no one deserves this moment more than he!”

She strutted around totally in control, moving on lithe, long legs, her hard, round ass moving like a perfect machine.

When she spoke again her voice changed, deepening, becoming man like. “And in keeping with the spirit of this man we honor, tonight we will put on a really, really big show!” As she finished the sentence her voice was dead ringer for Ed Sullivan.

When she continued her voice was once again the dulcet tone of Sammi. “Some of you never met Ray. But you are here because of his strong admiration and appreciation for you. He had quiet the affinity for human genius in science, music, literature and arts. And he would want you to be here for his great finale.”

Then she gave out an amused, dark chuckle. “And many of you others had the distinct pleasure of knowing him…..before he killed you. And you knew him by many different names, Radescu, Mordred Mitterhouse…and others. I knew him as Billy Ray…or perhaps The Great Gatsby. He took lots of names since he lived so long and was such a cold blooded killing son of bitch.”

She turned to him. “But regardless of what he called himself, we all knew the same person and he did the same thing to all of us. He ended our lives, stole them, before we could live them. For his own pleasure and amusement.”

Sammi bowed to him, low and deep. Ray gave her an evil, acknowledging grin.

“And tonight we are all here to honor him with,” now she gave him a reciprocal, evil grin, “a special, one song concert, just like the one he gave me while I sat on his lap.”

She glanced up at the ceiling above Ray. Ray’s eyes followed hers to see what Sammi was looking at. Two panels above him slide back and two square beams lowered several inches from them. One aimed at Ray’s neck the other his heart. The engine of my destruction, he thought. He knew it would be very thorough. He had no doubt that back in the corporeal real world those same deadly beams had appeared over his body in the white room. He looked back at Sammi and she raised her eyebrows in amusement.

She turned back to the crowd: “So let’s all give it up for our dear friend Billy Ray on his last moments of life!”

The crowd leapt out of their seats, roaring with excitement, chanting his name like rolling thunder. The stamped their feet in unison, making the very structure of the area rock and shake.

Sammi strode closer to Ray. She looked down on him and smiled at him, all sugar sweet.

Her voice lowered some now, more for his ears than the crowds.

“And as an added bonus and honor, let me introduce the band that will perform Billy Ray’s last song before The Big Sleep. It is a band very near and dear to Ray’s heart and the only one he would want for this last sweet serenade.”

Another spotlight came on highlighting the three people who had been hid in shadow behind Sammi. She turned and pointed at them.

“Let me introduce one kick ass, mother fuckin’ real rock and roll band…Wet Cunt!!!”

Ray looked but could hardly believe it. Not this! Anything but this. Yet there they were: Nastia, Lauren and…. Staci! Nastia and Lauren smiled and hollered at Ray with delight. But Staci’s reaction was noticeably different. She was at her drum kit, sticks in hand and gave a small, wan smile showing no joy at all.

Sammi moved closer now, just inches away. The smile on her face, unlike Staci’s was rapturous, laced with a savage feline, cat like symmetry.

She leaned in nice and close till he could feel Sammi’s hot, sweet breath on his face and ear.

“Hey Ray, watcha thinkin’ now?” She twirled a lock of hair coquettishly around her finger the side of her mouth twisted up in a sneering grin. Her blue eyes danced with merriment. “I bet I can guess. See who is over there? She still lookin’ good or what? Miss her?”

Ray locked eyes with Staci. She did look good, as sexy and alluring as ever. But there was a difference he had never gauged on her face before. She looked sad; her normally fiery, confident eyes seemed despondent and dull. She was suffering at this moment and it was plain to see. The sight of it pulled at his heart with more force than he ever imaged anything could and for the first time he could feel inexorable defeat tugging at him.

“It’s not really her. This is all just an illusion in your virtual world. You cannot manipulate me with your legerdemain.”

“Think so?” she gave a low, knowing chuckle. “So Ray, let me ask you, how long do you think you were unconscious after you attacked Asterine?”

Ray said nothing, his face set in granite as he eyed Sammi.

“Let’s say, for the fun of it, I held you asleep for say….oh….twenty five years. Enough time to clone Staci from her sample you had. And let’s say in that clone I implanted all your memories of her, just as you planned to do.”

No…no…I don’t believe you. I don’t want to believe you.

She continued in a happy, flippant sing-song voice. “And now let’s say like you, the new Staci, in the real world is also strapped to a table. And like you I have brought her mind here to witness your death. But even more, to play her drums at it. To make sweet music to it.”

“You lie. You said yourself she brought nothing to the table.” Just another trick to gauge my reactions, another part of the experiment. He hoped it was true…but could he be sure? Doubt had crept into his former confidence like spider cracks spreading in a pane of glass.

“Oh I can lie Billy Ray, just as well as you can. Remember when I said Staci was safe? Did you ever think maybe I was talking about more than that precious sample of her you brought here? You know that was so very gallant of you. A true gentleman you are.”

She turned to Staci, taking her in with her blue eyes and then looked back at Ray.

“She means so much to you, doesn’t she? She is amazingly beautiful. And so smart and sharp of mind. And so vivacious and alive and head strong. She has such a wicked sense of humor too. And so talented. The songs she wrote and could beat the hell out of those drums as well as any man ever could. You really admire that in her, don’t you? And she loved you like no other thrall you created. Just spectacular in bed. The best you ever had, right? I would say she was your soul mate….if one such as you had a soul. Do you love her Ray, in your own way?”

She ran her hand along Ray’s arm. Her voice was syrupy, sticky sweet when she spoke. “And what if for the rest of eternity I bring her here, in her mind, and replay your death, the man she loved above even herself, over and over and over, endlessly for twenty four hours a day on an endless loop. Can you grasp that concept? Staci reliving it for billions of years, kept alive by me. What do you think would happen to her beautiful, amazing mind that you love and admire so much? How long do you think she could take it, hold out, before her mind disintegrated and she became a broken, insane, babbling wreck? She is a very strong woman Ray, as you know, but how long could she take it. How long could anyone?”

She leaned in and gave Ray a soft kiss on the cheek. “You see Ray, for you it is all about to end. But for poor Staci…well…this is just the beginning. I want you to know that before you die. Of crouse we both know none if it is her fault. Had she never met you she would not even be here. She never would have committed the heinous acts she did in league with you or the many she did after you left LA. She would have been a different girl with a different life had you not warped and perverted her into a monster. She never really had a choice in anything. She was always just an innocent victim of yours, your creation. But now she is under my control and she must pay the price for your crimes too. I have decided.”

She continued on, her tone pedantic. “Now here is the really interesting part, funny really. Had you not brought her to me what I plan for her would be impossible. You know Billy Ray, you really have a habit of destroying anything that comes into your orbit, even things you don’t mean to. I mean you killed me, you destroyed the human race by doing that and now you have condemned Staci to an eternity of hell and madness. You just seem to have that magic touch, don’t you?”

And just like that, so quickly, after absorbing his blow at her weakness, her loneliness, she had counterpunched with her own haymaker at his…Staci. And now he knew she could play the game at the highest level.

Sammi pondered for a moment. “I think this will even the books between us to some degree, don’t you think?”

And at that horrific moment Ray realized the full extent of the AI’s power. With its ability to take him into this virtual world she could make anything seem real. And he didn’t know if what she said about Staci was real or illusion. How could he know what was real or not, what was lie or truth? She had total control of his perception. He had not understood that true power until this very moment.

And now he felt it like a razor sharp stiletto was being thrust deep into his gut. And at this moment, wondering if what she said about Staci was true, he felt a towering, black, cold, monstrous rage at this artificial created abomination unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life. He wanted to reach out with his hands and rip and tear Sammi’s head from her body and feel her very bones, muscles, tendons and arteries rip and come apart one at a time as he did so.

Ray pulled and twisted on his chains, trying with all his massive strength to break them and get at Sammi. But they gave not at all. They were far too well made for even his physical power.

She waged a finger in his face. “Still think I’m hiding out here? How do you like my virtual world now? Now what do you think of my little hovel, Billy Ray?”

Sammi gave a deep, throaty, wicked, wanton, giggle. The kind a woman uses when she wants to cut bone deep and draw bright red emotional blood from a man.

The tone of it rang in Ray’s ears like a bell that peeled and echoed over and over again.

It was a cold, cruel laugh. It was a laugh of unmistakable, complete victory.