HOSTEL
Chapter Sixteen — Extended Stay
Snap.
Celeste slowly opened her eyes. Blurs of color caught her attention—glimpses of red, white, brown. Her back hurt, and little bits of crumbs or dirt or something pressed against her skin. She blinked, hoping to make the blurs turn into someone more tangible, but it only seemed to make things worse.
Someone was speaking to her, pulling her back up from the depths, telling her to wake more and more with each breath. “Three,” it said, and the blurs sharpened accordingly. “Two, one.” She closed her eyes and opened them again.
The red and white blur was Emily, pale and naked, staring at the ceiling as if it were a starry night sky. The redhead wore a dreamy smile on her placid face, as if she’d never been happier than right at this moment, lying naked on a hardwood floor in a central European communal kitchen. She sighed happily. “Yes, I understand.”
“Now it’s your turn, Celeste,” said the voice. “Look at me.”
The other blur became Rebecca, beautiful and perfect, sitting cross-legged on the same kitchen floor and looking down on her with loving affection. My mistress. Celeste found herself sighing as well, finally understanding why Emily was so happy. Their mistress was here with them.
“Did you hypnotize us already? Because I feel like you—“
“Sleep, Celeste.”
She did.
Snap.
Celeste slowly opened her eyes.
This time, she was in a comfortable chair, with her legs dangling over one side and her hair spilling over the other. The chair was a welcome respite from the hardwood floor, and her back thanked her for that. Where am I? Not that it mattered much. She was where her mistress wanted her to be—that much was for certain, she knew it—and if Rebecca wanted her to lie in this chair all day, she’d happily do it. As if to emphasize the point, she wiggled her butt until she sank deeper into the chair. This is so nice…
“You’re completely under my control again, Celeste.” Rebecca was hovering somewhere just out of view. Celeste struggled to turn her head, to get a good look at her amazing, beautiful girlfriend, but her head remained in place on the armrest. She quickly resigned herself to staring at the ceiling. Mistress must desire it.
“Yes, Mistress.” The words came out of her mouth like a marching band, proud and loud and full of gusto. She rolled her eyes up as far as they would go, until she could feel the muscles in her face groan from the effort, and managed to catch a glimpse of Rebecca’s head. Yes!
“You’re so cute when you’re like this.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
The head came into full view, and Celeste broke into a huge, goofy smile. “Hi there,” she offered. “I love you.”
Rebecca looked down on her like she was a naughty child. “I think I went a little too far this time. Let me dial that devotion back a little, okay?”
“Okay, Mistress.”
“Sleep, Celeste.”
Snap.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she instinctively looked around. She had a vague memory of spending the day in different places, being hypnotized each and every time, but the images faded away before she could get a good look at them. No matter, really. Rebecca was here. Rebecca would take care of her, no matter where they ended up in the world.
A hand passed over her eyes. “Wakey-wakey, lover.”
Rebecca was sitting right next to her on the couch, looking downright delicious in her underwear. Celeste looked down to find herself covered in blankets; a quick check below them confirmed that she was naked. How nice of Rebecca to keep me warm.
“How did we get into Alice’s apartment?” She blinked hard and made a quick survey of the room. Rebecca, lovely Rebecca, by her side; Alice, tending to something on the stove; Fei, the tall girl, slumped in a kitchen chair and moaning softly as she played with herself; Emily, in a plush chair, eyes closed and lips parted just slightly.
“I invited you all to visit, dearie!” The thing on the stove turned out to be a kettle, piping hot and just about to whistle. Alice quickly turned off the burner and set the hot container aside, perhaps mindful of the noise waking Fei or Emily. “Care for some tea? I know how you girls love your coffee, but I invite you to reconsider.”
Rebecca shook her head and declined. Celeste, on the other hand, suddenly felt a powerful urge to give it a try, and she raised her hand.
“You’re a tea girl now?” Rebecca eyed her carefully, like a stranger on the subway.
“I have a pretty good idea as to why. What other little secret desires did to burn into my brain today?”
“That’s all part of the fun, lover.” Rebecca kissed Celeste on her forehead and rose from the couch. She danced her way over to Fei and knelt beside her. “Fei. Listen to my voice and obey.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Fei’s hands slowly slid from her sweaty, warm body until they dangled inches from the floor. “I hear and obey.”
“Get dressed and go back to your hotel. Remember only what I’ve programmed you to remember. When you hear or see the worlds ’Fei knight,” you will sleep and obey. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mistress. I hear and obey.”
“Good. Go and get dressed. We’ll see you later.”
The girl obediently padded off into the bedroom as Alice placed a cup and saucer on a table next to Celeste. “Here you go, dearie.” She was armed with milk and sugar, and she set these alongside the steaming china. “Once you’ve had a taste of this, you’re not likely to ever go back to boring old coffee!”
“Alice,” said Rebecca, watching them from her place in the kitchen. “How much of your drug do you still have on hand?”
“I’m afraid I’m almost out, dearie. We used quite a bit of it on you just today. And I’m sorry to say that I’ve been putting off ordering more. Not that Pavel is at all timely with his deliveries, mind you.”
“How long before you can get more?”
“Well, let’s see. Given the market these days, If I place an order through Peter today, we’ll have a new shipment in about two weeks. Three, if it’s Pavel making the rounds again.”
“We’ll have to improvise, then.”
Alice took a long and noisy sip and set her cup on the table, as if she were calmly discussing the weather, or a need to buy new bed sheets. “I suppose we will, dearie. What do you suggest?”
“Alice,” said Rebecca. Her voice was firm and commanding. It made Celeste feel warm and fuzzy. This was the Rebecca the world needed. Not scared, not afraid of her own power, but in control. In charge. “When you finish your cup of tea you will get dressed and go down to the club. I want you to hypnotize the first attractive young woman who walks in the door. Bring her back to the hostel and deepen her trance, and program her to obey me.”
“Of course, Rebecca. As you command. I’m always happy to have new customers!”
Then it was Celeste’s turn. Her stomach did backflips as she waited, eagerly, to learn her new role. It seemed like forever ago that she’d had to practically drag Rebecca into doing anything. Now everything was going perfectly. Sure, Rebecca has fought it. But everyone always did. The girls would have fought Alice, too, were it not for the drugs in their drinks and the amazing machine in the basement. No one wanted to be a slave.
Well, one person did.
“Celeste, tell me the absolute truth. You didn’t learn hypnosis from old TV shows, did you?”
Of course it was perfectly safe to tell Rebecca the absolute truth, and Celeste happily obliged. “No, although those shows were hot, especially when you’re just discovering how much it turns you on. I would come home from school and… and… oh, sorry.”
Rebecca shook her head and smiled. She returned to the couch and began to massage Celeste’s shoulders. “Go on. I’m really curious.”
“I told you that I was a psych major. I didn’t tell you about the part where I got kicked out of the program because I practically brainwashed the people in my study group. I… um… got a little carried away.”
“Oooh.” Alice leaned forward. “Do tell us more!”
Celeste felt all eyes in the room on her—except for Emily’s, which were still blissfully closed—and she felt a sense of pride in her work. Pride that had been stamped out of her long ago, back when… “They were afraid it would make the papers, so the deal was that I change majors and never speak to any of them again. Or hypnotize anyone again. So I got into business and numbers and stuff.”
“Okay, but what did you do? Don’t skip the fun part, baby.”
“Mmm,” she purred. “This feels so good, Rebecca!”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow. “Don’t skip the fun! That’s a command, slave!”
The word command hit her just as she began to laugh, and she found herself giggling and fighting the urge to cum at the same time. It was a weird sensation. “Okay, so someone may have programmed Alan to shoot Dean Wasserman with a water pistol during Homecoming. Then that certain someone might have brainwashed that stuck-up bitch Cindy Costman into stripping whenever she heard the words ‘blue bonnet.’ I mean, who knew that was such a common term? Or that her own mother would say it?”
“Not you, obviously.”
“Well, yeah. I was a patsy, just like everyone else. But you gotta blame someone, you know?”
Rebecca tilted Celeste’s head back until the brunette was looking at the ceiling. “Close your eyes.”
Celeste did as she was told, and was rewarded with a lingering kiss that seemed to suck the life out of her. When it was over, she left her eyes closed and her head resting on the back of the couch, utterly satisfied and content. And other things. She was afraid to look down at herself.
“We’ll have to wash this blanket, then,” said Alice, and Celeste groaned. So that dampness wasn’t just in my head. Ooops!
“Don’t be embarrassed, you nut! I intend to make you cum on a very regular basis.” Rebecca had moved again, and was now next to Emily. She whispered into the redhead’s ear.
“Yes, Rebecca.” Emily seemed reluctant to move. Rebecca had to help her from the plush chair, had to give her a slight shove in the right direction. She finished with a light slap on Emily’s taut, toned butt. “Off you go! See you tonight!”
“Yes, Rebecca,” Emily droned. She was still deep in trance as she opened the door to Alice’s apartment. She left it open as she disappeared down the hall, and Rebecca had to cross the room to close it again.
“Well, that’s that. Now team, are we ready to start the mind control?”
“Of course, dearie.”
“Absolutely!”
“Good. Get dressed, Celeste. We’re going out.”
“What did you say to Emily?”
They were walking arm-in-arm through Treptower Park, skirting the tourists visiting the war memorial and enjoying the little pond just behind it. The air was crisp and cool, and they both sought warmth from each other’s bodies.
“Huh?” Rebecca squeezed just a bit more, until there was absolutely no free space between them.
“Why didn’t Emily come with us? You sent her off, but she was zoned out like a zombie. She didn’t go back to our room, either, which is where I thought she was going. You don’t have to tell me, I’m just wondering out loud.”
“Keep an eye out for a lonely young lass and I’ll explain.”
Celeste looked around for what had to have been the millionth time since leaving the S-bahn station. Older folks, families with kids, here and there a guy reading a book or doing exercises on the grass, but not a single pretty young woman in sight. She frowned. “Maybe we could try the train?”
“Too crowded.” Rebecca looked around and frowned as well. “At least here we don’t have to deal with being interrupted, like with Elke. Besides, it’s a nice day, and I’ve got my girlfriend with me. Life is good!”
“You mean your mindless, obedient slave?”
“That too. You’ll always obey without question, won’t you?”
It was both a question and a trigger, and Celeste shuddered as her eyes rolled into her head. “Y… y… yesssss. Yes, Rebecca.” She stopped to regain her composure. “Ooh, that one was good. I liked that one. Please use it on me more often, okay?”
“You will obey without question.”
“Nnnnnggghhh…” This time, she gripped Rebecca’s arm with enough force to cut off circulation. “Whhhhewwwwwweeeeee wow. You’re amazing.”
“I know. And shopping.”
“What?” Celeste was hungry for more triggers, but ‘shopping’ elicited nothing but curiosity.
“I sent Emily shopping. I think she spaced a little because it overlapped with Alice’s old programming. But it keeps her out of the way and it gets her out of the hostel. I’d feel bad if she was stuck inside all day for the rest of… well, however long it takes to undo the damage I caused.”
“The damage we caused. We both did it, Rebecca.”
Rebecca paused, spying something in the distance that Celeste could not make out. She took the brunette’s hand and began to lead them away from the gravel path. “You tried to stop me, remember? I remember that. I don’t remember a lot about what happened after, but I remember that. You were trying to save me from myself and I was dumb. So, thanks.”
“You know what a really good thank you would be? Another sexy hot trigger phrase.”
“Shh.” Rebecca held up her hand until Celeste came to a stumbling halt. “Look over there.”
Celeste followed Rebecca’s hand until it fell upon two impossibly cute coeds at the water’s edge. They were laughing and trying—without success, it seemed—to skip stones across the water’s surface. They were alone, and there was no one else around.
“Bingo,” said Rebecca. She moved in for the kill.
“You have to hold it flat.”
The two girls whirled around with synchronized perfection. They eyed the newcomers warily until it was clear that there were only two of them, girls much the same age, hardly a threat.
Rebecca watched them relax as she approached, hands in the air, a big smile plastered on her face. There facial expressions changed from startled fright to amused curiosity, which was exactly the response she was looking for. Curious girls made the best hypnotic subjects.
“The rock, you have to hold it flat and just kind of… fling it.” She scanned the ground until she found a suitably flat stone and, picking it up, palmed it in her hand. “See? Like this.” Keeping one eye on her targets and the other on the pond, she gave the rock a solid toss and watched it bounce away from the shore.
As expected, their eyes lit up with surprise and delight. They didn’t need to know that Rebecca was by far the best stone-skipper in her town, if not the entire state. Some things just came naturally, and you either had them or you didn’t. Like a talent for hypnosis.
The taller of the girls, beautiful with long, dark hair, was inspired enough by Rebecca to give it another try. She picked up a rock and held it out for Rebecca to see, carefully adjusting it in her hand before giving it a sideways toss. It hit the water with a loud ploonk and vanished immediately, much to her disappointment. “Ahhhh! Nyet! Yo tvayo maht!” She stumbled backwards into her blonde friend and laughed. “Sorry! Sorry! I cannot!”
“It takes practice,” Rebeca reassured them. She motioned to Celeste, and the two of them approached the Russians? Ukranians? What was Svetlana, again? girls until they were standing next to them. They arrived at a slight angle, the better for Celeste to wedge her way between them and force them to break apart. One pairing with Rebecca, one with Celeste.
“Hi,” Rebecca offered her hand. “I’m Rebecca. Nice to meet you!”
“Yulia,” the tall girl responded.
“Anna,” added her companion.
“Celeste.”
The circle was complete. Rebecca took a few steps towards the shoreline and gently tilted her head in its direction, a subtle hint meant to draw the other girl forward. It worked, and Yulia gingerly stepped over slippery pebbles until she was separated from her friend. Behind her, Celeste formed an effective roadblock against Anna, throwing up her hands and chatting excitedly. “Oh, are you from Russia? My mother is from Russia, too! She was born in Leningrad back when it was still the USSR, but then she came out to America and met my dad. Oh, I would love to go there someday! It’s really a long flight, I know, but…”
“How long have you been in Berlin?” Rebecca looked out over the water.
“We just arrived. Our tour group came to see the war memorial, but it is boring. There are a lot of them in Berlin. And it’s too nice outside to staring at monuments. What about you?”
“We’ve been here for a few days. I like coming here. I like this spot, especially, You picked a great place. I like to come here with Celeste on nice days and just look out over the water.”
“And skip rocks? You are very good at it.”
“No, just looking.” Rebecca lowered her voice just a bit with each sentence, slowly sliding into a careful, practiced rhythm. Behind her, she could just make out Anna’s explanation of the modern Russian visa system. Travel nerds unite! Of course, Celeste had her reasons for keeping Anna distracted…
“It is very pretty,” Yulia noted. She was staring at the water’s surface, little flashes of sunlight reflected in her pale, pretty eyes. As Rebecca watched, her facial muscles began to relax and flatten out.
“I love the way the little waves sparkle in the wind,” Rebecca said, watching as the Russian girl’s body sagged ever so slightly. “It’s so relaxing. Out of the city, away from the crowds. Relaxing. Away from the tour groups. So relaxing.”
“Mmm,” Yulia muttered, nodding her head. “After such a long trip…”
“…you can finally get some peace and quiet,” Rebecca concluded, making sure to drag out the words. “Peeeeaace and quiet. The sun on the water, shining, reflecting, bouncing, waves rushing to and fro, back and forth. It’s so peaceful and relaxing.”
Her head and eyelids began to droop. “Yeah. I feel so tired.”
Gotcha. “So tired. A long flight is so very tiring, isn’t it? So stressful. It’s so nice to find a nice, peaceful, quiet spot where you can rest, Yulia. Rest and sleep. Sleep and rest. Relaxed. Totally relaxed, watching the waves drift back and forth. Sparkling in the sun. Little diamonds dangling in front of your eyes. Lulling you into a nice, restful sleep.”
“Well, we should probably get going.” Anna glanced over Celeste’s shoulder, trying to signal her friend to move along, but Celeste moved to block her view and thrust out her hand.
“Thanks! It was so good to meet you.” She wiggled her fingers, inviting—begging, almost—for her new friend to end their meeting with a proper handshake. “I hope we see each other again, Anna.”
The blonde took the bait, smiling as she reached to take Celeste’s hand into her own. As she did, she got a glimpse of Yulia on the shoreline just as her friend’s head dropped to her chest. “Hey, what…”
Celeste lunged forward like a striking snake, wrapping her hand around the other girl’s forearm and pulling forward. Her other hand reached past blonde hair and found the back of Anna’s head. “Deep sleep!” she ordered, as Anna spasmed and collapsed bonelessly into her waiting arms.
Behind them, Yulia was far too entranced to notice anything but the pretty, pretty waves.
“I didn’t think I’d find you here.”
Emily peered over the top of The Fault in Our Stars. A man was staring back at her. Annoyed, she raised the book instead of lowering her head the better to show off the fact that I’m reading a fucking book can’t you see that. She waited, hoping that would be enough to make him give up, staring at the pages without seeing the words.
“You’re late,” the man added. “I thought my text was very clear, Emily.”
She threw the book down. It landed with a clatter, sending a spoon cascading to the floor. “Look, I have a boyfriend, so please just don’t, okay?” He looked like her was at least twice her age, which made it all the more annoying. “I’m just here to read my book and—“
“And do some shopping?” He was looking at her chest, and she shuddered.
If there was any way to be more of a creep… She began to stand up. “You know what? You can go—”
“Sleeping Beauty wakes up.”
Her eyes glazed over as she slowly took her seat. “I awaken and obey.”
“Gather your things. We have work to do.”
“The towels all go into here.” Peter nudged a plastic wastebasket with his foot. “Eventually they go over to the hostel to get cleaned, and Alice will bring us a fresh set every morning.” He looked around, searching for something else he could comment on, but came up empty. “That is everything, I think.”
Grace smiled. “Every bar’s pretty much the same, Peter. Don’t worry! You covered everything I wanted to know.” She swiped a towel from the bar and, with a perfect underhanded throw, dropped it into the wastebasket with a satisfying plop. “Even the little stuff. I feel ready for tonight. Let em at me.”
“It might be dead, it might be… it’s hard to say. Sometimes this place is very busy, other times, it is like this but darker.”
His laugh was infectious, and Grace couldn’t help but join in. Dead nights mean shit tips, of course, and Berlin was already vastly more expensive than she’d anticipated, but a dead night was a great way to get into the swing of things. As she laughed, she made a silent wish for the people of Berlin to stay at home just for one night.
“So, Alice owns the hostel down the street and the club?”
“She is very much an entrepreneur.” Peter, looking for things to do, began to reorder the whiskey bottles behind the bar. “She has other… well, other businesses as well. Very busy. You’ll see! Alice is hard to say no to.”
“It’s a sweet deal. Get em drunk and them shack em up at your… Peter, what are you doing?”
“Alice wants us to ditch the Hillock,” he said, as he continued to sift through bottles.
Grace found the resulting clink clink clink to be oddly reassuring; bottles were the wind chimes of the bar scene. “Is there anything around here that Alice isn’t directly in charge of? Sheesh.”
“Not much, dearie!”
The lilting, happy Irish voice made Grace shudder, as if she’d just bitten down on a piece of aluminum foil. Fucking up on your first day, Grace! She tried to bury the panic, hoping to pull off the ‘tough girl’ bartender look that so many owners were into these days. Inside, however, she was wilting. “You need an assistant, then,” she said, projecting her voice just a bit. Just a little bit.
“Trust me, I’m working on that!”
Alice stepped forward, and for the first time, Grace got a good look at her new employer. Pretty, younger than expected, dark hair looking almost black against the woman’s pale skin. And those eyes… striking, piercing, pale blue, the kind that could look straight through you. Without thinking, Grace held out a hand. “Hi, Grace.” She waited for Alice to follow suit, her heartbeat increasing with every moment that her new employer did not.
“Sorry, dearie. I don’t much fancy handshakes.” Alice smiled, and Grace felt her heart sink back down to normal. “It’s quite the weird ritual, isn’t it? Here, let’s mash out hands together to for some reason, when we could just say hello and be done with it! I suppose I’ll never run for office that way, will I? No matter. I’ve got enough to run as it is, never mind an entire country. Not that I’d be much worse at it than anyone else, mind you. Now, how are you getting settled in?”
It took a moment for Grace to process the avalanche of words. Only then did she realize that there was a question at the end of it. “Um… I’m good,” she said, stumbling over her words and feeling terrible about it. Tough girl, Grace. Tough girl. “No worries. Peter showed me the ropes, I think I’ve got it down. I worked in Prague for a while, I’m used to crowds and clubs.”
“Well that’s simply excellent!” Even while standing still, Alice was a whirl of motion and energy. “Peter, could you be a dear and try out the new lights? Thank you, dearie.”
Grace leaned against the bar. Her eyes caught the offending bottle of German whiskey that Peter had over to the front of the shelf. I could use a little butterfly killer right about now. She briefly considered offering to pour her new boss a drink. Show off her talents and build camaraderie at the same time—there were few better ways to get in good with management, and most of the better ways involved a tolerance for groping hands and… other things. On the other hand, it was still early in the day.
Clunk. The heavy thud drew her eyes upward. Swirling yellow lights filled her vision. Disco shit? Well, okay, whatever.
“Oh, they work! The last set went tits-up at the worst possible time. Not much of a club without lighting, now is it?”
Grace nodded. She did not point out that the yellow lights made the place look like a nuclear power plant during a safety drill. Instead, she let her lips part a bit, pretending to be wowed. “Well, they look great,” she lied.
“Now, dearie.” Alice placed her hands on the bar. “A challenge of working here is the noise and the lights. Some people find it to be quite distracting, especially if they’re accustomed to working in a pub. You’ll be expected to take orders and make drinks under those conditions. Is that acceptable? Have you any experience?”
Prague, Amsterdam, London, Boston… “Yeah, no worries. I worked a punk club, one of those places where you wear earplugs for your earplugs. I did fine. Only left because I wanted to see Europe.”
“Well, then the noise you’ve got,” said Alice. She pointed a finger at the ceiling. “It’s only the lights you’ll have to learn to deal with. The key is—Peter can confirm this—the key is to just ignore them.”
“Mmm. Makes sense.” She glanced up, just in time to catch a beam of yellow light aimed right at her eyes. Flash. Yellow dots echoed through her brain.
“Now, you’ll be tempted to watch them when things are slow, but you simply mustn’t, dearie. You have to concentrate on things. Don’t focus on the lights, focus on the sounds. On the people speaking to you.”
I know, I know, she thought. And wasn’t as if flash any of the other clubs she’d worked at lacked a dance floor and flash a light show. Still, she’d never flash actually tried to ignore the lights before.
“You see? Just now, you looked up.” Alice shook her head, as if chiding a foolish daughter. “They’re quite fascinating, I admit, but you simply mustn’t look at them. Focus, Grace. Focus on the voices, not on the lights. Focus on me, and my voice.”
Flash. The yellow lights burned her eyes, and she gladly redirected her line of vision to Alice’s lovely face. Her piercing blue eyes. Flash. “Listen to you,” she said, nodding her head. It made sense, of course. Look at Alice flash, not at the pretty flash, yellow lights. Then she could do flash her job.
“They’re so pretty, Grace. But you must focus only on my voice. The lights are so pretty, so captivating. But my voice is what really matters, Grace. My voice. What’s important, Grace?”
Somehow, her eyes had shifted to the ceiling again, where flash bits of red and green seemed to mix with the flash lovely yellows. With effort, she managed to drag her gaze back to Alice. Back to those wonderful eyes. Flash. “Your… uhm… your…” Flash. “Your voice.”
“Giving you orders. Giving you commands. My voice. The customer’s voice. You must obey the customer’s voice. You must do what the customer wants, Grace. Always what she wants. Whatever she wants. Compelling, like the pretty lights.”
“Orders… yeah… take orders… I take… orders…”
“You take orders, Grace. You obey orders. You obey my orders. Pay attention to me, and only me. You will obey, Grace.”
The swirling lights went away. Whether it was because Peter shut them off or because she was obeying hardly mattered. She focused instead on Alice’s eyes, letting the remaining bits of her free will drift away. Good bartenders obeyed. She was a good bartender.
“I will obey,” she said, her voice flat and even. “I will obey.”
“Then come with me, dearie. Follow me, and obey.”
Grace felt her feet move, and the blue eyes in front of her became a mass of dark hair. She was leaving—they were leaving—the bar, even though that’s where the job was, where she was supposed to obey. Leaving the bar meant leaving the job and being free from such obedience. The breeze in the street tousled her hair, and suddenly she was just Grace again. She blinked hard and held onto a convenient post for support. “I… what am I…”
“I am your boss and your customer, Grace. You will always obey me, wherever we are. Understood?”
Of course. Even outside of work, the boss needed to be obeyed. She was a good employee. She would obey. She told Alice this, several times, each more emphatic than the last, until the boss was finally satisfied and let her drift into mindless oblivion.
“Anna? Yulia? Go through that door, walk up one flight of stairs, walk through the door at the top of the stairs, and await further orders. Do as you are told.”
“Yes.” The short blonde was gone almost instantly, vanishing into the bowels of the old apartment block. Her dark-haired friend remained rooted to the sidewalk, swaying from side to side.
“Yulia? Can you hear me?”
“Yessss…” Her dazed expression made it seem as if she wasn’t hearing much anything, such less processing what it meant, but Rebecca knew better. “Follow Anna upstairs.” She cupped the girl’s chin and stared her down. “Look into my eyes, Yulia. You are deeply hypnotized. You will go upstairs. Do it now.”
Whatever resistance was hiding in Yulia’s mind seemed to crumble, and the creases in her face smoothed away. “Yes. Upstairs.” She made her way to the door—still more slowly than Anna, who was probably in the lobby by now—but under her own power nonetheless. Rebecca watched her go, admiring her newest slave’s well-toned body.
“One time, I was in Seattle,” she said out loud, mostly to Celeste but also to herself. “They have the fish market there and this guy was just yelling ‘fresh fish! Just in, fresh fish!’ over and over again. I kinda feel like that guy right now.”
“Fresh girls! Just in, hot young women! Fresh from the street!” Celeste giggled. She held her hand to her face and looked up in thought. “That’s a good idea… the more they resist, the more tired they get, the more they succumb, like a fish on a line. I’m going to try that one next time.”
It was a good idea, and Rebecca kicked herself a little for never thinking of it herself. “In fact, I order you to do it.” She began to follow the Russian girls up the stairs. “So there.”
“Yes, Rebecca,” Celeste blurted the words out without pause, and shook with pleasure. Smiling, she tugged on Rebecca’s arm until her mistress fell backwards into her waiting arms. “I love you so much. This has been the happiest day for me! The happiest in a long, long time.” She squeezed Rebecca before releasing her. “And it’s only going to get better!”
They stood still for a moment, noses touching, mouths open, eyes locked. “Kiss me,” Rebecca finally said, and Celeste happily obliged. Their tongues barely had time to do any exploring before Rebecca’s phone loudly interrupted.
“Shit.”
“Please, Rebecca…”
Those eager, hungry eyes nearly convinced Rebecca to toss her phone into the street. Far into the street, the better for a passing truck to run it over. No interruptions, no outside world, just her and her little harem of devoted slaves, with her beautiful girlfriend at her side. Instead, she tapped the screen to see who it was. “It’s Alice,” she pouted. Still time to throw the phone into the… “Hello?”
“Rebecca! So good to hear your voice! Can you do me a solid and please come down to the club for a bit? I’ve got things to show you. I’ve set up a new light show that we might use tonight. Quite effective, you’ll see.”
No no no no no no! ”Okay, I’ll be right down.” Ugh why Rebecca WHY did you say yes you’re in the middle of-
Wet lips pressed against her face. “Go, baby. I’ll watch over your toys for you. Come back soon!”
Rebecca reluctantly turned away, wishing at that moment that there was a hypnotic fishing line connecting her to Celeste. Instead, she began to drift down the street, a victim of her own new responsibilities. She resolved, then and there, to make Alice pay for it later.
Celeste braced herself for the stubborn front door, but to her surprise, it swung open easily. Apparently the warm, dry weather was working its magic everywhere, in this case shrinking the heavy old hardwood frame back to its normal size. Everything’s coming up roses, she thought, taking care to gently guide the door closed.
She turned, expecting to find the two Russians patiently waiting for her. Instead she found herself facing an older couple, a man and a woman. They stared her down with impatient, annoyed eyes. Alice was nowhere in sight, and Celeste scrunched her face. New guests, no help, tempers flaring. This wasn’t going to be fun. Damn it, Alice!
“Hi!” She slipped into her best Alice imitation and boldly walked around the grumpy couple, taking up a position behind the lobby desk and picking up the pen she found there. She gave the pen a satisfying click and got down to business. “What can I do for you?”
“We’d like a room, clearly,” said the woman. Her eyes continued to shoot daggers at Celeste. “We’ve been waiting for someone.”
Well, duh. “Oh, I’m sorry! Alice must have stepped out for a moment. And M… Rebecca… um, she’s the other owner… she’s down at the club. She owns that, too.”
“She owns the club?” The man gave her an odd look. At least he wasn’t angry, like his wife. As if on cue, the woman switched targets and began shooting daggers at him instead. His closed his mouth and took a step back, shaking his head and placing his hands into his jacket.
“Alice and Rebecca are out, then?” The woman returned her attention to Celeste. “It’s only you here at the front desk?”
The mental alarm bells went off. Celeste had seen enough action movies to know that phrases like that rarely ended well. She considered her options. The lobby office left her trapped with nowhere to run. The woman would be easy enough to push past, but the man was another story. He looked overweight, but that still gave him mass that would be hard to counter.
Thinking quickly, she reached for the lobby telephone, holding the headset in one hand while preparing to stab at the keypad with her pen. “Let me call over to the club,” she said, dialing the number that Alice had helpfully post-it-noted to the lobby desk. Calling for backup. I’m calling for backup. She glanced up, giving the odd customers a thumbs-up. “It’ll take just a second.”
“I see,” said the woman, crossing her arms. She exchanged glances with her husband, and they both rolled their eyes at the same time.
Fucking customers! Should she even offer them a room? They would need the space for all of the new girls they were going to bring in, and besides, having witnesses strolling around the hostel hardly seemed like a good idea. She was pondering just telling them that the hostel was full—oh sorry, such terrible luck but you came on just the wrong day—when the handset hissed in her ear.
“Hello?” The voice on the other end didn’t belong to Alice. Much better than Alice. Much, much better.
“Hey, Rebecca!” She looked up again. Both of her would-be customers stepped forward to the desk, as if trying to eavesdrop on her conversation. She ignored their rudeness and returned her attention to the phone. “Hey, guess what? Alice isn’t here, and two customers just showed up. A man and a woman? Could you find Alice or… I guess, come up here?”
“Should we just tell them that the hostel is full tonight? That’s easy enough.”
“I could do that,” Celeste said, grateful that she and Rebecca shared a brain on this issue. “Should I do that?”
“Yeah, and be extra rude, too. I know Alice wouldn’t approve, but I don’t want them coming back. Love you, Celeste. You’re amazing.”
“Love you too, Reb—“
The line went dead, and before Celeste could process that, someone rudely pulled the headset from her hand. Another hand gave her a short, powerful shove, causing her to tumble to the floor. Oh shit oh shit oh fuck! “What the hell?”
“Shut up,” the woman snarled. “Edwin, trance her.”
Celeste looked up just in time to see whatever it was the man was holding in front of her. Something small and black, tiny enough to fit into the palm of his hand. She could make out a faint reflection of herself in its shiny surface.
Oh shit it’s a screen it’s a fucking
Then the colors emptied her mind, and she slumped against the desk.