The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Weary and numb, I get off my chair.

“What seems to be the problem, Ma’am?”

“Nothing. That’s the problem. I ended the world with my bullshit psychology and I’m just standing there telling a story to a very doubtful audience. Why would anyone from another world hear me? All I’m doing is running away from my guilt. Well now I’ve hit that point in the Lost Angels story where Kim is forced to kill one of the precious few heroes left to defend the real world. What a fucking shitshow. I wish the Anchored would just come and put an end to this already.”

Bastian gulps and raises his hands in concern.

“Ma’am Draconia, surely you aren’t contemplating death?”

“I contemplate all this shit stopping1 I live in a grand gothic Castle in the Alps, for fuck’s sake1 I should have been busted ages ago1 The only reason I’m still here is because I’ve been defended by some monster that sounded exactly like my girliest, most innocent friend1 I can’t find what happened to her with all these stories in my mind, and I’m not even sure I want to. I turned Mindy into a monster, for ff...”

My voice dies down. Tears are welling up. Even trying to face it hurts like absolute hell. Bastian puts his lean hands on my shoulders.

“Ma’am...I think you are innocent in this.”

“How can I possibly be? I appreciate the support but I am Nightmare itself1”

“You are its source, but not its mistress. Look no further than the castle itself. You are as much of a victim as anyone.”

I heave a deep sigh. Some of the weight is lifted off my heart. He really is a helpful guy. Almost makes me feel alive again.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I don’t know what the fuck it wants from me, but it’s clearly more of a problem than Nightmare itself. Anyway...”

“...Ma’am?”

“Weird.”

“What is?”

“The Hollywood auditorium, I...I’m seeing it through...I...What...”

My knees fail me. Thankfully, Bastian is here to catch me. Hmm...His embrace feels somewhat pleasant. Yet...I also feel something else. I hate it. Get your hands off me you...

“Whaaat the hell is happening to mee?”

Bastian makes me sit down. I grit my teeth. I feel really fucking weird.

“Ma’am Draconia1 Are you sick? Do you...”

“Who the hell are you calling Draconia, bozo? My...My name is...”

My name is Kimberley Tamiyama, and I am in such deep shit right now.

Lieutenant Christopherson is still pouring hot lead on my cover and dreamshaping the shrapnel into an autonomous subweapon. Crafty. I can feel the flying drone thing cutting through my outstretched veins. I doesn’t really hurt, but once it breaks free, Janet is literally all kinds of fucked. I have to find a way to close the distance without getting hit, and fast1 Only problem is, I’ve never been much of a tactician, and spending years as a flighty sex slave relying on spells I no longer have didn’t really fucking help1 I try to think out of the box, but no convenient flash of genius is coming. Oh well, fuck this.

I grab my veins and throw the drone away as hard as I can. Hoping its master is at least a little surprised, I rush out of my cover. He ain’t surprised, and fires a salvo. Two bullets hit my abdomen. I stagger, but grit my teeth and keep running, strafing left and right to shake off his aim. Can’t let him hit me too much. Three or four bullets are fine, but any more and I’m pretty sure Pearl will give Janet one more lover. And goddamit, the look in her eyes’ already slutty enough as it is.

The soldier fires another round, but just after I made a chance dash to the side. Just a little closer1 Aaaand he starts to fall back. Tsk. Right outside my range. Fucker’s got good instincts.

“You’re not escaping me1!”

I throw my veins, not at him but at the rocks. Can’t get much of a good grip on such a hard surface, but it’s enough for me to reel in and get a boost. He’s behind cover now, and likely ready for my attack. I pounce over the rock, and sure enough, he’s on his back, ready for me. Well, I’m ready too. Bullets pierce my lungs, graze my ribs, but I’m ready for my crucial gambit. Boosting my left hand’s strength with my blood reserves, I rip the skin off my right forearm, tearing my radial artery apart. I still have several men’s worth of blood inside me, and it goes off spraying like a ghastly garden hose.

“Urgh1!”

I’m riddled with bullets, but Sammy is completely drenched in my vitae. I fall past him and tumble on the ground.

“Fucking...shitty...argh! Plan1”

I spare as much of my focus as I can to harden the blood covering the soldier while mitigating my injuries. Goddamn this hurts1 I seal my self-inflicted wound as quick as I can to spare my reserves. My lung will heal passively as long as I’ve got blood. Still got about 150% capacity. Should be enough to fight a marine hand to hand. Silent as ever, he gets up, wiping the blood from his eyes and shaking off the parts that dried up. He then takes aim and pulls the trigger, but nothing comes out.

“Heh.” I chuckle. “Not so hot with your deathstick full of dried blood, now are ya?”

He remains quiet, but his eyes scream “Fucking freak”. Fair enough. I get up and assume my fighting stance; he draws his combat knife. His Dreamshaped little drone comes flying back, so I didn’t completely get rid of his firepower, but still. I like my chances much better now.

Only problem is, a glance at the hanging TV tells me Janet’s having fun with two guys and a girl now. I have to finish this quickly..

“Sorry, Lieutenant, but I really need you to croak now.”

And with a yell, I charge.

“Hmmmmh...Yesss...Deeper...I need you...deeper inside me...”

Was this the right thing to say? Orchid the sexy flower thought fleetingly between the powerful thrusts shaking her up and down. It was her first time being fucked hard by a complete stranger, and she felt like he had to be nice. She was the new girl around here after all...wasn’t she? That fact seemed weird to her, but she was so impossibly horny; even now that a fat cock was ravishing her. Who else could she be other than an eager little whore?

Thankfully, there was a colleague now. She was just across the bed, being fucked from behind just like her. She smiled warmly at Orchid, then caressed her heavy yellow breasts with black chitinous hands. She pressed upwards, and a golden, thick liquid oozed from her puffy nipples. Clear wings twitched excitedly behind her.

“Like your new life, flower?” Buzzed the bee girl.

“Huh, I...this is my new life?”

“Of course, Orchid. Now you can finally enjoy the paradise of pleasure. You’re turning into a Changeling. There aren’t many boring thoughts left, aren’t there?”

“What do you mean, boring? There’s a...There’s a mission...”

“Look at me, Orchid. Listen to the dream.”

The slim thread of rational thought she had caught slipped away. The bee girl’s soft buzzing voice had compelled Orchid to open herself. The cyborg’s powerful thrusts was still melting her insides with delight and making her shiver in lust. The bee was beautiful and sexy. And, yes, she heard the Dream. No, not heard...Thought. The ambient sex, the moans, the musky scents, all combined into a sense of palpable purpose that seeped into her mind.

“Symbiosis...” Mewled Orchid.

“Yes. The Queen wants you to be my flower. It is beautiful and right.”

A smile was slowly born on the fading Orchid’s lips. She felt the strong hand of fate guiding her to the bee. The Weave placed her name into her mind. Apolline. Space bent, and the both of them grew closer and closer without any movement. More and more of the Dream penetrated Orchid’s mind, filling her with peace and belonging, converting her material brain into an integral part of itself. The little floral slut understood it was finally her time to meld with the Dreamscape and for her soul to join with Apolline. She already wondered what honey made from her own pollen would taste like.

“Ma’am Draconia1 What’s wrong? Calm down1”

God fucking dammit1 Some cheesy butler guy is blurting bullshit on the sidelines while I’m trying to take down that armored bastard. I’ve been going at him for two minutes but he dodges and deflects all my blows with the back of his knife. I can turn around him quickly enough so his bullet-drone won’t be able to catch me, but...

“Not good, his guard’s perfect1 I can’t ice him without risking more injuries...Dammit, there has to be a way1”

“Ma’am Draconia, this is a suit of armor you are attacking1”

Fuck he’s annoying, but nothing compared to the utter lack of Weave in the theater. I gotta think here1 Without Weave I can’t dilate time, I can’t warp space, I can’t even create a layer...Fuck, I’m sure I can’t take the soldier down by my strength alone, but I will get gored. Which would be fine, if it wasn’t for that fucking cunt’s unfair conditions1 Doesn’t she want me to win?!

Back to the auditorium, the Aspect of Lust glided lazily through the air, looping back and forth while admiring her plan come to fruition. There was only one way out of this fight, and it would take care of all three nuisances. Her beloved Kim just needed a push. And looking at her increasingly fuming expression, the Lady of Lust knew she was just ripe for it. Poor Kim had completely forgotten about saving reality. The Aspect flapped her wings loudly and burst into laughter.

“Haa ha ha ha haaa1 Good show, my love1 Even with the conditions massively in the sterilizator’s favor you gained even footing1 Aah, that’s really too bad, isn’t it?”

“What?!” Growled the vampire.

“Little Orchid is with the Dream now. Well, no, there’s still a bit of organic sludge in her beautiful little slutty brain, but she might as well...”

“Shut up, she’s fine, shut uuuuup1!”

“No, really, I’d like her to be your sex slave, together with her new bee sister. You know, so at least you don’t feel bad for holding out and looosing~ How would you like your little orchid? Dumb? Obedient? Cleared of every skill she ever...”

“RrrrhhhaaaAAAAAAAARRRGHH1”

Kimberley exploded with rage. She had to protect Janet. Janet couldn’t end like this. Janet was a genius. Janet Janet Janet Janet. Ruined. Unable to protect her. No. There’s still time. There has to be. This...This fucker...Just had to...

“DIIIIIIIIIEEEE1”

Kimberley Tamiyama charged toward the Lieutenant, howling, all pretense of tactics gone. Desperate, she plunged right into the soldier’s combat knife.

“DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIEEEAAAARRRRGH1!”

She felt the sting of the drone’s bullets on her back, and the searing pain of the knife twisting, ripping flesh and cracking bone. Yet all she could think about was making the kill, no matter what. Kim cracked her nails open so her veins could come out of her fingers to latch onto and drain the hand twisting the knife. She clawed at his throat like a cornered beast. Life drained from both of them in gushes, But all Kim could think about was Janet. If Pearl had been a lying sack of shit again, the agent could be saved by the soldier’s death. If Janet was lost, the soldier had to pay with his life. Either way. He. Had. To. DIE. Kim bared her fangs again and went to rip his jugular off, when....

“YAMETE1”

The cry gave her pause, enough for Christopherson to block her lethal assault. A girl’s cry in Japanese. “Stop it.” Exactly the way how her adoptive mother would plea for her to break out of her battle trance. It wasn’t her voice, and indeed it was much more authoritative; a solemn order rather than a plea. But it was enough to let Kim hear with a clear head...

“Yokatta, nightmare stopped flowing in you.”

“Wha-what happened? Where’s Apolline?”

Janet’s voice.

Kim leapt off the soldier, ignoring the pain radiating throughout her body, her mind focused on the screen. Janet was standing in a perfectly normal room, still in her plant form. She appeared composed, and instead of the insectoid slut and the man-whores, a small girl stood right next to her. She had white hair, simple blue clothes, and was hugging a teddy bear half her size...from which were protruding sharp blades.

“I cut Nightmare’s influence.” Replied the small child with a heavy accent. “Near tried before but Oto-san say very dangerous. You near died. It was for Mina but only you can help Nene.”

“Wow...thanks, little girl. I feel so much clearer now.” The black woman looked around her. “Damn, no wonder, you cleansed Nightmare again, like in Beverly Hills...”

“Hai. We find Nene onee-chan now.”

“Yeah, we do.”

Oh thank fuck.

I regenerate my wounds. Shit, it’s been a long time since I lost myself like that, and I don’t think it ever hurt that much. My damn hand’s in tatters, fuck1

“Hmpf.”

I look in the air. Pearl’s pretending to rest on her demon tail, flying in place. With a flick of her wrist, she turns off the suspended TVs.

“Agent Campbell, safe yet again” I gloat.

“Perhaps, but no thanks to you.” Answered the Aspect with spite. “She was your new charge. You failed her.”

“Hmpf. Did I? You’re not the only one who can plan, you know. I knew about Ryûjin’s kid. And knowing me, don’t you think it was a little bit strange I didn’t go with Janet?”

Her eyebrow twitches. Of course it’s strange. We were always together back in the day.

“Do you remember what I said after opening the portal, ‘darling’?”

“Hmmh, don’t know. Go, I’ll cover you, or something to that effect?”

“Well, I don’t have the exact quote myself, but I expressly told her to find the fucking Oni.”

Ha1 My psycho girlfriend realizes she’s been outsmarted by me of all people.

“Sooo yeah, I knew I had a trump card.” I smile. “Only problem is...Well, my temper hasn’t improved and I just up and fucking forgot about it in the heat of the moment. Haa...Sorry mom, I didn’t get better after all.”

Having recovered a bit, I stand and limp towards the Lieutenant. His mangled, bloody body sends me back to visions of alleyways sticky with the blood of MS-13 gangsters. Turns out it’s really hard to fight against an opponent that both ignores the pain and goes for the throat. Damn, he lost a lot blood.

“Sorry to you too. Went berserk for fucking nothing. Fuck, what a waste...”

I touch him to control his own blood vessels and at least get him to conserve what he has.

“He’ll live...” I sigh. “If you let him get away from this place.”

“Oh, gladly. We never wanted anything else from him but to GET OUT1”

I’m taken aback. Pearl’s sudden hostility spreads throughout the entire auditorium.

“Give me your selves, brothers and sisters1 It is high time we reclaim what is ours1”

Cheers burst out of the audience before she is even done. Shit, they had been waiting here just for this moment, haven’t they? All as one, the Changelings let everything they are pour through their clamor. They let go of their their individuality, their desires, their cravings, all their experiences in years of being part of Draconia’s dream. But above all, their hatred for having the greatest show on Earth parasited by one stubborn little fuck of a human.

And because we are in the Dreamscape, all this translates to the monsters dissolving into a surreal, searingly bright lightshow that flows into the Aspect of Lust’s eyes. Oh fuck, what is she cooking now? The marbled light builds into the palms of her hands, and predictably enough, she points them at the stage. I wanted some goddamn Weave up in this bitch? Well, here it fucking comes, Kimberley.

It comes as a shockwave strong enough to blow me off my feet and roll several meters away from Christopherson.

“Ow ow OW1 Son of a...”

The air is filled with pure oneiric essence. Funnily enough, the portals I tried to open so I could neutralize the officer just now choose to come alive. In seconds, the Weave shifts from completely desert to thick as inside Pearl’s vagina. Immediately, dozens upon dozens of layers are created to accommodate the great meet of Changeling souls. If Pearl wasn’t allowing the tapestry to relax under my commands, I’d be as unable to move it an inch as Janet is. There goes Christopherson’s brave stand against Nightmare. Goddammit. I hate being a berserk sometimes.

The Aspect stops glowing and smiles like a cartoon villain.

“At last...At last1”

She releases the Changelings she was channeling, and they regain form in whatever layer suits them best. In mine, I only see Pearl, the Lieutenant, and about fifteen of the bastards.

“Get this nuisance out of there.” Orders the Aspect, pointing at the wounded soldier.

“Yes, Lady of Lust1”

The grunts blink onto the stage and are about to take him away. Do I stop them...? Nah, I don’t sense any killing intent, and besides, Pearl is finally in sight. I get up, finish regenerating with the last of my excess blood, and face my ex. Now to come up with a one liner that would make Janet proud. Let’s see...

What?!

Christopherson’s heart rate is surging1 I see him clenching his fists. Oh shit, what’s he...

“I...Will...”

The two wolfmen holding him notice his struggle.

“Rrrrr1 Stay put, human1”

“Hold...The...LIIIIIINE1”

A shockwave blows me away. Again. I briefly glimpse the Changelings going poof before I’m sent flying arse over tit. I manage to Dreamshape a cushion, but it disappears as soon as it’s done. Aaand bam.

“Ow1 Fuuuck1”

He’s trying to dispel the Weave again1 I’d admire his resolve but...his pulse is fading1

“Stop, you idiot1” I yell. “You’re killing yourself1”

“How goddamn persistent1” Shrieks Pearl. “Know your place, roach1”

She sends another blast of pure Dreamscape, thin at first, but immediately joined by her subjects. This time, thankfully, It’s directed square at the soldier so I’m left unblasted. Christopherson grits his teeth and imposes his strong sense of reality with all his might. I hear smaller blood vessels pop one by one. He’s putting his fucking life on the line. And given how my predator senses are shining like a Christmas tree powered by the Enterprise’s exploding starboard...I’m sorry, buddy, but you’ll be KIA real fucking soon. Shit, I’ve got to do something, give him my blood or something I don’t kn...

“GgrrraaaAAAAARGH1”

Wh...What this? In just one instant, his vitals went through the roof. The kaleidoscopic light Pearl’s throwing at him starts sliding over some sort of...Bubble? Oh shit, we’re going full shounen now.

Or perhaps not. The bubble only lasts for one split second. The next moment, the ground is shaken by a fuckhuge tremor, and I’m glad I’m on the ground this time. The Dolby’s stage starts crackling with light crevasses, all diverging from the stalwart officer. Hmmm...No way I’m going to miss this one.

“Okay, this ‘army strong’ stuff is really getting out of hand.”

And then, right on cue, everything just fucking blows up.

Everything goes black. Wait, no, not black; just really dark in comparison. I’m in what looks like a...castle room? There’s suit of armor that’s been knocked down, there’s some food spilled on the floor, and my knuckles hurt. The hell? I know something unexpected was bound to happen, but what the fuck is this place?

No, wait, I know what this place is.

“Bastian?”

“Yes Ma’am?” Replies the butler’s voice behind me.

“...Was I Kimberley for a moment?”

“You were. Is this a...common thing for you?”

“Not really. Ouch1”

I look at my hands. Oh shit, they’re bleeding1 The dreamy butler comes to me, disinfectant and a package of gauze already in his hands. I let him tend to them as I review just what the hell happened to my brain.

“Okay so, I...Ow, that stings1 I was focused on the memory of my dream, but just about as intently as any other time. I wasn’t straining to attain perfect synch with Kim or anything, yet that’s exactly what happened.”

“Maybe it was her who draw you in. She was quite, hmm...Lively.”

“Could be, yeah. Although...I’m still feeling a little strange.”

“How so?”

“Hmm...Destabilized? Something like that. Let me just focus for a moment.”

Kimberley was clinging onto something. She didn’t know what, or why—it was pure instinct, brought forth by the sharp feeling that her bladder was trying to escape through her ass.

“Wooaaaaaah1!”

After a few seconds, she realized she wasn’t falling as she first thought—she was going up. That was unorthodox, even for the Dreamscape. What did the soldier do, dammit?

Looking around didn’t help much. She saw the night sky and debris everywhere. Wood, metal, sliced up slabs of concrete. The only thing missing for a perfect mashup of Hollywood thunder was a big ball of fire. In fact, speaking of explosions, how did she even find herself propelled into the air? She had heard no crash, the Weave had just started going haywire and, next thing she knew, she was going up.

Her mind wandered back to whatever she was clinging onto. It was a large, arced piece of wood. It seemed to flow freely into the air, yet Kim could clearly feel solid ground under her legs. Curious, she tentatively tapped with her feet. There definitely seemed to be some invisible ground here. After a brief jolt of panic, she decided to check it with her Weave senses.

“Woah, that’s a new one.”

There was a huge, thick cloud of Weave all around her, but its structure was unique. Compact, yet flexible, and more importantly, moving by itself. It was clearly in an unstable state, and it was coalescing into some simulacrum of ground, foregoing the visual transformation that would normally be the work of the Dreamscape’s denizens. Kim gave it the impulsion it needed, and the transparent floor turned to asphalt. The streets had always been her favorite.

This gave Kimberley confidence enough to let go of the huge curved beam. Wind was still rushing past her, meaning she was still in motion, but it was slowing down. She looked around some more, and saw the cloud continuing to bind itself to the platform, extending it progressively from the size of a room to that of a street. Curious, she turned around...

“WOAAAAH1”

...And saw Lost Angels from far above. She staggered back to the beam, shocked and awed.

“That motherfucker sent me into the goddamn SKY?!”

No doubt about it. She saw the Dolby Theatre -complete with the brand on a neighboring roof- blown wide open. The bustling Hollywood Boulevard. The distinctive Yamashiro restaurant on a hill to the north. Kim, her mother and Pearl had been there weekly after the first transformations and before Pearl went full maniac. Awesome food and atmosphere. Days long gone by...The Japanese-style restaurant was now just a Geisha house.

But the bloody girl had no time to reminisce, for the landscape was getting even smaller and -more disturbingly- distorted, flashing with odd colors and shapes like an overexposed reel. And it was only getting worse, the recognizable landmarks getting drowned under a jumbled mess as she flew even higher. As Kim struggled to understand, Janet’s words came back to her.

“Well, I can’t show you the satellite pictures” had the black woman said to Griffith, “since I’m not dumb enough to bring sensitive intel into hostile territory, but basically it looks like layers upon layers of different visuals. Like a photo that’s been superimposed hundreds of times.”

Kimberley gulped. She had been sent so high she was escaping Nightmare’s reach.

“But that’s...Impossible...! We all tried that1 Even Dreamshaped choppers couldn’t go high enough1”

Yet obviously, whatever Christopherson had done, it was powerful enough to ignore the limit imposed by the thin high-altitude Weave. Probably fast enough to escape Pride’s one-man embargo, too.

Kim tore her gaze from the fallen metropolis looked beyond the bubble. There was a full military barricade around it. Combat helicopters patrolled the skies. Beyond the cloud, there was no Weave whatsoever. She was back into Normalcy, who knows how high up in the air. There was pretty much only one direction for her jaw to go.

“...This fucking night, man.”

After years of living in distorted time where the mind reigned supreme, Normalcy felt like a cold, still void. Only it was all but silent. The background noise of all the wills living in hiding inside parallel layers, of reality shifting and of minds bending was gone, true. But it only made the few sounds of the old Earth all the clearer. And not only the sound of chopper blades...She heard the thoughts of its pilots, crisp as a solo piece when the theater falls silent.

“Man, this thing really hurts the eyes.”

“Poor Steve, he really didn’t deserve to go down like this. Fucking crazy actor.”

And even some bribes of chatter from the troops down below.

“Man, I love night duty. Californian summer sun sucks.”

“Shit, how do you write ‘occurence’” again?

“Next time that fucker comes out I swear I’ll...”

They hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary yet. Not that the army could be expected to detect some teenager one kilometer high. Still, Kimberley couldn’t help but wonder if she could reach out to them somehow. Meeting the still unadulterated Janet had been a mind-expanding experience, yet she hadn’t quite been herself, and part of the awe had gone with Lilith. She had so much questions1 Had it really only been a few weeks in Normalcy? Did Pride manage to wreck them even without any Weave around? How was it like to live in a rigid world again?

The flow of questions was cut short when Kim sensed something appearing close to her. Even without looking, she knew it was Christopherson, but how did he get here? She turned back to face the metropolis, and saw the soldier stand in front of her, just as subject to the invisible platform’s horizontal gravity as she was. He was facing the shimmering city, his back turned on his killer.

“Not quite back, huh.” He stated with a solemn voice. “Still, good view for a failed soldier.”

“You should have stayed put, dumbass. Okay, it’s my fault I left you half dead, but doing this kind of shit? Only thing you did was spend the last of your strength.”

“What I did was hold the line.”

A riff of electric guitar pierced the silence around them. Kimberley frowned. She hoped that wouldn’t happen.

“What’s that?” Inquired the officer, an eyebrow raised in annoyance.

“You’d know what it is if you didn’t spent years cloistered in an empty bubble fending off living nightmares.”

“I’m in no mood for fooling around, you monster.”

“Just a few moments ago you barely had enough blood in your body to move. Now you’re at peak condition, right after sending us right the fuck out of Nightmare’s reach. You’re burning the last of your lifeforce. And that music?”

Kimberley turned around, palms in the air.

“It’s the Dreamscape throwing you a eulogy. The mental plane hates death. But when you’re stubborn enough to pitch everything you are into a hopeless cause, that sort of shit happens. That phenomenon has a cheesy name, I won’t bore you with it.”

“So I am dying.” Drably acknowledged the Lieutenant.

“Yes. As soon as you’re done burning your last, you’ll go poof.”

The two fighters fell silent. The music in the air was fast and heavy, like a martial hymn for a wild concert. Its melody was focused and catchy, its intense drums echoing with Kim’s beating heart. It was most definitely a battle anthem, so the vampire, frustrated, barked at the taciturn soldier...

“For fuck’s sake, what are you waiting for?!”

Silence.

“I had a plan to fuck Pearl in the ass with minimum trouble, but I got pissed at you and your gun, lost control and maimed you. I was the one who made it so the Aspect and the Heart could claim the Auditorium, so how about you use the last of your strength to bash my stupid head in, huh?!”

“I don’t give a damn about you, freak.”

His voice was calm, matter-of-factly, devoid of anger. His whole attention was set on Hollywood below. The melody invited rage and violence in Kimberly, but it obviously meant something else to its rightful public. The vampire gritted her teeth. What was he thinking? Who in their right fucking mind would waste God Mode by just ignoring their killer? She wanted to charge, snap him out of it and get a final confrontation already, when the soul’s melody finally broke into song.

“Don’t need no medal on that heart of mine

Nor the Stars and Stripes need those twisted dreams

My love for this land bursting at the seams

For the sake of all, I will hold the line”

Four lines. Just one small chorus for a quiet, simple man. Christopherson did not flinch. Kim did.

“For fuck’s sake.” She sighed somberly. “You’re the one burning away the last of your life and here I am asking for my fight.”

She let herself fall on her ass, turning her back to the Earth.

“What do I know about causes? Pearl going insane took whatever little I had left. Now I’m grasping at straws. Anchor, Janet. You. Meaningful stuff, worth protecting with my life, right? But all I know is how to destroy. A woman who destroys more than a man, how fucking sad is that?”

Her voice broken in self-pity, Kim remained silent for a while, ignoring the soul song of her better. Then, in anger, she blurted out...

“So forgive me, hero, but will you fucking stop brooding?!”

Fists and jaw clenched, she briefly considered acting on her frustration, but her mouth ran before her feet did.

“It’s obvious you’re retarded at Dreamscape, but I at least hope you know the mind is everything there, right?!” She snarled. “And if the towering ego of an aging actor can give him the power to fight an army, what the fuck do you think breaking the laws of Nightmare so you can die for you cause will do, soldier?!”

Still, silence.

“We’re up there because you fucked Nightmare’s shit. Hell, I can feel the peace emanating from the center of Hollywood from there; and I can guarantee you there isn’t one clusterfuck of a mind down there who can fucking compare to that. Failure? My ass. You’re a one-track mind, but you’re the only one who did something of yourself in this lost city. You held the line.”

Kimberley turned around, only to see nothing between her and the chaos below.

“...Whatever it was.”

Christopherson was gone, his presence scattering to the winds. The deranged girl was now alone in Normality’s sky. The void left by the soldier’s death was filled by dozens of parallel radio chatter. One jumbled mess she would have ignored, hadn’t she picked up two words.

“Mr. President...”

The asphalt below her feet cracked, but that barely registered. Kimberley realized she was the only, and possibly last, line between Janet and her father. In a hurried, almost panicky move, she wrangled the Weave cloud into a long, narrow tube in the communication’s direction.

“...chopper went down about two minutes ago. Confirmed to be the ‘Aspect of Pride’ again. Might I inquire why you would personally ask for a report, S...”

“Shut up, you1” Blurted Kim, hoping this would help her crapshoot of a communication go through to Randal Miller. “I don’t have much time. Do you hear me, President guy?”

“Wha...Who is this?” Replied a voice familiar to millions.

“Oh, thank fuck. I come from LA’s Nightmare. I met your daughter Janet and helped her. She’s not human anymore, and she knows how to Dreamshape something fierce, but she kept her sanity so far. I’ll do my best to keep it that way.”

“...What about Flora Mèndez?” Calmly asked the President.

“Lost before Janet even jumped in. She’s a loyal minion to the Aspect of Lust. So yeah, your little girl’s mission was...Woah1”

“What’s happening?!”

“My time’s up1 Sorry to cut off, but I’m gonna need all the Weave I got1”

True to her word, Kimberley brought all the Weave she used as a phone line back into the cloud. The invisible platform was crumbling, and she felt the artificial gravity weaken. Facing the Earth from afar was going to become as painful as it should be any second now. Kim briefly considered just enduring the fall, but she evidently couldn’t afford being incapacitated near the Heart of Sin, Christopherson’s post-mortem haven or not.

“Alright, I guess I’ll try that then.”

With a war cry, the vampire thrust her arteries out of her wrists. She needed all the structural support she could get for that one. Then, she reshaped her strongest veins to come out directly from the arteries in a fan-like pattern.

“Urgh1”

Enduring the pain, she then ripped all the smaller veins she could spare to create a weave between the greater ones.

“At...least...AAaargh1 I’m out of Nightmare this time1!”

Lastly, she poured her own blood and congealed it, creating a membrane to complete her makeshift bat wings. Right on time for the ground to give up and gravity to claim its due.

“I seriously hope this is going to work.”

The blood wings certainly did their job of keeping their mistress from plummeting at terminal velocity...But Kimberley had no blood reserves left, and couldn’t hold out all the way on her own vitae. She had made it about fifty meters above the wrecked auditorium before her strength gave out.

When she came to, she was lying on the floor, hurting all over, exhausted. She felt funny, obviously because of the blood loss...Or so she thought.

She was in her old apartment.

“What in the name of sanctified bullshit?”

No doubt about it, it was the apartment she and Pearl shared in Lennox. Just some three-room apartment in a poor, predominantly Latino district. Well decorated, though, thanks to Pearl’s escort job and Kim’s occasional plunder. The vampire immediately thought it was trickery of the Aspect’s doing, but her senses told otherwise. She couldn’t hear her blood flow. There was no Weave whatsoever, not even in herself.

Kim took a look at her hands. She was completely healed, though her right hand bore big-ass scars on the palm and back. She tried bringing out her veins, to no avail.

“...I’m human?”

She didn’t even consider she could be in heaven. Even if she did believe in that sappy bullshit, there was absolutely no fucking way she’d be allowed in. It had to be some Dreamscape shenanigans, but how? She took her head in her hands, struggling for an answer, when she heard a voice she hadn’t dared dream hearing again.

“Mommy?”

Kimberley looked over her shoulder and gasped. No. It couldn’t be. It had been years, and she was well past her grief. Yet, it made sense. The madwoman that took over Pearl had said it: “You should never have left our embrace...She’s still waiting for you, you know?".

“Moooomyyyy1”

The cute, angel-faced little girl threw herself in Kimberley’s arms. Dazed, the vampire only responded with a caress out of sheer instinct.

“But...But...You fled...Away from Pearl’s madness...”

“Mom became too scary. Sorry, Mommy...”

“Shhh, it’s okay, Isa...”

Janet never heard about this critical part of Kim’s life. Then again, she had no reason to. Why tell her about all those peaceful days spent at home, wearing her murderous instincts down by being a soft and tender mother to a cheerful, innocent child? The Nightmare had swept all those moments away. When Pearl went from sexy demonette to power-mad servant of Draconia, the bubble burst. Isa, once the sun of Kimberley’s wretched life, fled to the deepest layers of the Dreamscape, out of adults’ reach. The vampire knew it was the best thing her little girl could have done—the corrupted Pearl could have done unspeakable things to her.

Still, being abandoned by her own child was even more of a shock than seeing her other half go insane. Kim felt like it was her fault, too, for not saving Pearl from herself. Even her adoptive mother couldn’t comfort her this time. The void where her daughter’s warmth once was was just too painful. So painful she threw herself into the arms of the Anchored cult, welcoming the all-encompassing, soothing obedience. She became Lilith Kensington, and she never thought about the life that had grown inside her again.

But now she was back. It was incomprehensible, unexpected, surreal, but here she was. Kimberley hugged the frail little being tight against her chest, tears of joy running down her cheeks.

“I thought you were with me.” Confessed Isa with her cute little voice. “It was like every day, and you were there, playing with me. But it was weird, too. I dunno. And then, you came here just now, and, like, I knew you were the real Mommy. What happened?”

“I have no idea, sugar. I should be in the auditorium right now, with Pearl...”

“What’s an audito-ryom?”

“It’s, huh...You know, Hollywood’s big movie room. They give the oscars to famous people there.”

“Oh1 Like the thing around the room? And, huh, how did you bring Mom back?”

“What?”

Kimberley looked around, puzzled by what her daughter meant. Then she noticed that beyond the windows laid the iconic theater. It looked a bit messy, no doubt from Christopherson’s final outburst, but it was definitely there. She wasn’t in the Lennox apartment, but in a perfect replica of it on the oscars’ stage1

As for Mom, Pearl’s nickname...Kim slowly turned her head to their bedroom. The light was on. Her heart started thumping.

“Stay here, sweetie.”

She let go of Isa and got up, then walked slowly to the door. She heard peaceful humming and the plucking of guitar strings. Pearl had always fancied herself a rocker until Nightmare smothered it under her other passion. Kim feared looking into the room, at who -or what- lay on the bed. But she had to, obviously.

“Hey, here you are1”

Pearl looked into her eyes with a gentle smile. She wore a pretty dress with glittery patterns and ample cleavage, though outright prude for Aspect standards. Her figure was completely and purely human.

“You have any idea what happened?” Pearl casually asked. “There was this blast before I woke up here. I can’t remember anything before that. Is this some new dream thing? Okay, I know this world is strange. Still...”

Kimberley didn’t know what to say. Hell, she wasn’t even sure what had happened. She only knew one thing. If that situation was an illusion, then reality could go fuck right off.

“No idea, honey. How about we help Isa solve one of the big jigsaw puzzles again?”