The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Whoops,” Todd said before breaking into hysterical laughter as a misstep sent beer sloshing out of his red cup and distributed the mess surprisingly evenly between the hardwood floor and the sofa. “Aw shit, boys and girls, looks like I need more beer.”

Trina stepped over it and surveyed the damage on her way to answer the knock on the door. “Jesus Christ, Todd,” she accented his name often to tease him because she always thought it one of the more WASPy names to be had and it just sounded odd on her tongue, “you spill more beer than you drink.”

He never seemed to mind that she slurred his name. “That’s why you keep the beer coming, no?”

It didn’t really matter to her because parties were messy. That’s what stain-guarding and maid services were for. Her parents gave her a hefty allowance and didn’t much care what she spent it on as long as she kept her grades up and they didn’t have to send a lawyer to get her out of jail for anything. She weaved through the bodies with practiced ease and answered the door.

On the other side were two young women that certainly looked like they belonged at a college party. Both were tall, but the one with raven hair edged out the other. Her hair caught a sheen from the porch light that seemed to focus attention on her. Her eyes were pools of brown and her features fine. Her makeup reminded Trina of a goth look with smokey eyeliner and dark red lipstick. She wore a tube dress as black as her hair with a plunging neckline.

The other’s red hair flowed past her shoulders in waves and emphasized her sparkling green eyes with gold flecks. With her full lips, creamy skin, and carefully applied makeup, she looked like a lingerie model out in the world. Helping give that impression were pale gray leggings with four pinstripes creating a diamond pattern from ankle to thigh that fit her like a second skin and a lacy crop top that matched the leggings and put her substantial assets front and center. Both were smiling warmly and looked like they were having a good time just being out and about together.

Her voice was raised to be heard over the music, “What’s up?”

The raven-haired woman spoke up in kind. “Constance invited us, but she didn’t give a house number. Is this where the party is?”

Trina laughed. “Good guess. C’mon in.”

She stepped back to allow them to pass and spoke from behind them as they glanced about, watching the dancing bodies and listening to the raucous reactions to the party games. “Welcome to the party, I’m Trina.”

Kayley looked her over, quite attractive in her own way with her freckled face and eyes so blue they flirted with violet in the right light. “Hi, Trina, I’m Kayley and this is my girlfriend Lyssa.”

“Cool name.”

Lyssa nodded. “My mom was heavy into Greek studies, but I don’t have rabies so you don’t have to worry.”

“Hah. Good to know. Anyway, I’m a pretty hands-off hostess. She pointed to the other end of the room. “We actually have straight punch over there if you’re driving and give a shit about getting busted and beer’s at that end,” her arm stretching towards the back wall. Harder stuff is in the back. If you brought or want harder than that I don’t wanna know about it and don’t do that shit here because as long as the party isn’t too loud, doesn’t spill into the yard, and doesn’t bring the cops, my neighbors are cool with the occasional get together. And I want my neighbors to stay cool. Got it?”

Kayley liked the firm approach to things, as it was one she favored most days. “Got it.”

“With all that out of the way. If you need anything I’m usually not that hard to find. Otherwise, have a good time.”

“See her around?”

Kayley scanned the room and craned to the left then the right. “No, but I’m sure she’ll turn up.”

“No reason to stand around in the corner waiting for her.” Lyssa took her other’s hand firmly and led her into the crowd. “You’ll see her when you see her or she won’t show. In the meantime, we should dance.”

“And just what makes you think I’m interested in dancing?”

One eyebrow went up and she sounded a little pouty. “Fine then, I’ll dance.” Lyssa swayed easily to the music, those leggings leaving nothing to the imagination when it came to the shape of her body. Her legs were powerful in their own right and that ass was so plump, yet firm, quarters would almost bounce off of it. She was every bit as fit and firm as Kayley, but where Kayley wore it more like an athlete, her other wore it like a burlesque dancer. Her arms reached up to the ceiling, her eyes closed, and her head tilted towards a whisper it seemed only she could hear, her hips swayed with fluidity, reminding Kayley of a charmed snake.

When the redhead’s eyes opened there was a knowing look in her eyes, for she knew Kayley would be drawing closer, her shoulders moving to the beat and she knew that look. Her love had decided to let go and enjoy the moment. She was so serious and so driven that once in a while she had to be pulled out into the rest of the world, though Lyssa didn’t usually have to pull very hard. She just seemed to know when Kayley had to be herself and when she could be tempted away.

As the minutes passed and the songs changed, they swayed together, drawing ever closer until their dancing was little more than moving in a circle as they slithered all over one another. A few eyes on the fringes of the crowd were watching the display, but neither really noticed and they certainly didn’t care. She felt Kayley’s hand on her hip and felt it move to take firm hold of her backside as their lips were so close they could feel the other’s breath. Kayley squeezed. “I love you.”

They were so close now that they could speak in a normal tone, though it still seemed like a whisper. “Feels like you love my ass.”

“That, too.”

Lyssa’s hand went up Kayley’s breast, squeezing for an instant before her long fingers traveled to the back of her neck so her nails could caress her hairline, happy when Kayley’s eyes closed to enjoy the feeling. “I love you, too.” It was a phase that encompassed so much, but it was nothing compared to the depth of her feelings. She lived and breathed for Kayley and simply didn’t bother imagining her life without her because it was inconceivable on its face. “It’s okay to love my ass though. It’s a stellar example of a posterior.”

“Mmm-hmm. There’s so much I love about you, namely that I could get you to suck my cunt right here in front of everybody.

Her skin tingled at the thought. “No, you couldn’t.” The statement was resolute, but they both knew how hollow it was in reality.

“Yeah? You’d resist me for as long as you could resist me because it makes your little ginger fuckhole wet to resist me, and wetter when you break.”

She touched that hairline just a bit more. “Like it doesn’t make you hornier than that to break me and see me break.”

There was no point in denying it. “One of the many ways we fit together, sweetheart.” And they did. From the day they met, they had both known they were meant to be.

Lyssa didn’t need to ask what was going on as she registered the other’s dark eyes lock onto something behind her and track as a lioness would a particularly slow and meaty Gazelle. “That her?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, this is a lot of effort for someone you barely know.”

Her tone conceded the point. “Yeah, but it’s worth it. College parties are perfect for pickups, so it’s not like this is a losing exercise.” She gave Constance a sour look. “Besides, she annoys me.”

She frowned playfully and her voice carried just the right amount of pout. “You are such a meanie sometimes.”

Kayley let herself be distracted once more. “Yet you love me anyway. That makes you pretty messed up.”

She shrugged.“Everybody’s messed up, baby, it’s only a matter of degrees. If loving you is messed up, I’m good.”

Kayley grabbed that ass once more with feeling. “That’s my girl. Everything should be in place soon, so let’s go to work.”

“Nine minutes, forty-two seconds,” Lyssa clarified only for herself. Their line of work lived and died on precision, so, at the end of that time, sure as the sun would rise tomorrow, everything would be in place. Anything less and there would be hell to pay. “Promise to pick up where you left off later?”

Kayley kissed Lyssa hard and fast, “I’ll be grabbing more than that ass. Go be where you need to be, honey.”

The redhead scurried away, slapping Kayley’s ass with enough force that even she jerked in surprise and a smirk followed. That’s my girl. She made her way to the kitchen where the harder liqueur was, as she was of the firm belief that all beer tasted like shit. Finding the various bottles taking up every bit of counter space in the kitchen that wasn’t taken up by stacked cups and associated trash she went to a nearly full bottle of Grand Marnier and poured a generous amount into one of those many red cups, noting the smaller speakers in the ceiling. The whole house was probably wired for sound that way, not that it would have mattered. Things would work out fine either way, but it’d still be helpful when the time came.

She watched the people mill about as they got away from the din. They talked, played drinking games and she amused herself watching a young couple making out furiously in the corner. It gave her thoughts of Lyssa, and, to be honest, she had respect for passion so strong that they really didn’t give a damn who might see. They’re probably drunk as hell, but still...

“Hot, huh?”

Kayley glanced at the young man who had sidled up to her with his sandy blond hair and a bit of a belly, but very strong arms. She guessed he played football or something. “A little bit.”

“Want that girl to be you?”

She laughed heartily, grateful for not having coughed up her drink, as she turned and sized him up a bit more. “You’re not a bad looking boy, and while I like a boy now and then, I already have a girl to make out with. Thank you though. As far as lines go, at least it’s honest and not the worst I’ve ever heard.”

The night was young and he sensed room for negotiation. “I’m okay with just watching though if your girlfriend is as hot as you.”

“And if she’s not?”

He shrugged, “Fuck it, I don’t care. Everybody needs love.”

She toasted his chest with her cup. “You know what? That’s a very enlightened attitude. Hang around and if the night goes well you might find some love.”

He liked the sound of that. “Works for me. How will I find you again? And you haven’t even told me your name.”

She headed back out to the living room, sipping as she went. Kayley. And I’ll find you.”

“Clint.,” he called out just before she disappeared. He went back to eyeballing the public foreplay, seeing him and Kayley in his mind and happy at the prospect that he’d find some action tonight after all.

Fortunately, Kayley had no problem finding Constance again, as she was sitting on the sofa with Ginnifer and Brandi, all with cups in hand, giggling like crazy, the sense they owned the place and nothing mattered but them wrapped around them like cloaks. Not to be outdone, Kayley put on her own mask, “Hi, guys.”

Constance’s green eyes were a little watery from the nights drinking and took an extra moment or two to focus on and remember her. Finally, the light came on, at least partly, “Hey...umm, Kayley, right?”

“That’s me. Nice party.”

“Trina always throws a good one. Hey, where’s Mandy?”

“Oh, she had studying she wanted to get to tonight. I figured since you said she could bring me anyway I might pop in and check it out.”

Ginnifer chugged the contents of her cup so quickly that some went down the wrong pipe, triggering a spasm that stifled her laugh in mid-chuckle. “She’s probably online looking for new potato sacks to wear.”

Her two best friends joined her in her laughing mockery, “Do you believe that shit? Flower dresses and sweaters and glasses thicker than the windshield on my fucking car.”

“Like she got her wardrobe from her hippy grandma’s attic.”

More laughter before Constance considered who they were speaking in front of, “Sorry if she’s a friend of yours, but goddamn, she’s a mess.”

Kayley sat down in the plush chair nearest the sofa and crossed her long legs, “Not really. I just met her today.” She took another drink. “She was crying and I was curious what about, so...”

Brandi interrupted by rubbing her eye, “Boo-hoo. Boo fucking hoo.”

Constance had no sympathy. “I’d fucking cry too if I had her life. If I was born in Podunk fucking nowhere with only the change I could find under my couch cushions to my name I’d fucking cry, too. I don’t know how those people even live. Somebody needs to make my lattes, I guess, but Jesus Christ.”

“You could have helped her out, maybe.”

Ginnifer and Brandi huffed while Constance narrowed her eyes, “You said you barely know her. What do you care? You take her out then.”

Kayley held up her hand in surrender. “Hey, I just figure everybody likes puppies. Be nice to her for five minutes and get her to do your homework for you or something. You might as well get something out of it.”

The truth amused her. “She’d do that anyway on the off chance I let her feel me up.”

“Eww,” Brandi said.

Ginnifer was having none of that. “Seriously, I’d let her feel me up if she did my French Lit work.”

Brandi was stunned. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, my grandmother forced mom to make me take that shit and I can’t stand it. Some wallflower dyke wants to do that for me she can third base me and I have no shame saying so.”

Constance wagged a finger in Kayley’s direction. “We’re just toughening her up, Kay. College is cruel. The world is cruel. If crybaby Mandy cries it out and gets herself some new clothes and her eyes lasered and stops acting like such a whiny bitch, she’ll be better off.”

Kayley saw similarities between that and what she’d tried to tell Amanda herself, but “Nobody gets credit for being nice?”

“Nice is for pussies and marks.”

Her grin turned a little wicked, “And, you know the thing about puppies? They keep coming back even if you’re mean to them. They want you to love them and you were mean and maybe she did something wrong and all she wants is for you is is to love her, so she tries again. Sometimes it’s fun to see if they ever give up.”

“And if they do give up?”

She shrugged. “Then you give ’em a pet and ‘Who’s a good girl?’ and they come back until you’re done with them.” She sighed contentedly, “Then they wonder if they were bad and take baby steps toward you, head down, and try again and again.”

“And Amanda’s a good puppy?”

Constance pondered it and all she offered in response was, “Everybody likes a good puppy. The world is made up of things on the leash and things holding the leash; that’s it.”

Again, she noted that Constance wasn’t entirely wrong. “You have a point.” Kayley leaned back in the chair, took another drink, and waited.

All Lyssa really had to do was follow the speaker wires to their source. The path took her down the hall to the bedroom in the back where she found the DJ behind a folding table with his board and his laptop. He was a rugged looking young man with close-cropped straw blond hair with a hint of a tan. Lyssa suspected he was an outdoorsy type when not working parties.

He was laughing, trying to make time with one of the girls, who, judging by her wobbly stance and her need to brace herself on the table as she stood there, she was already well on the way to plastered. Lyssa sauntered over to hear him bluster. “Yeah, I’ve sent some demos out and got some good gigs lined up.”

“How much money can you make doing that?”

Lyssa answered for him, “A couple hundred grand a year if you know what the fuck you’re doing; more if you really know what the fuck you’re doing. So the only question is,” she leaned in slowly to give him a long look at the first things most men noticed when they looked at her, “do you know what the fuck you’re doing or not?”

His eyes locked on to Lyssa’s attributes for nearly a full two seconds before he bothered to look up into those mesmerizing green eyes. That body and her flirty tone had commanded attention. “Unless you just got here two seconds ago you’ve been listening, so you tell me.”

“I’m back here to meet the DJ, so that should tell you something. I’m Lyssa.”

He smiled back. “Mark.”

“Nice to meet you, Mark.” They let their flirtation continue silently until the young lady there first looked as pissed as she sounded. “Yeah, hey.”

Lyssa fixed his gaze upon her as though the greatest thing about her was her insignificance. “Hey,” she said flatly, “why don’t you go back out and party while Mark and I have a chat.” She looked coyly upon him again, undressing him with her eyes. “Have any groupies yet?”

He shook his head slowly.

“Want one?”

That was an outstanding idea. “Maybe. You auditioning?”

“Since it was my idea, yeah..”

The girl huffed, “Jesus fucking Christ, man. Have a good time.” She left as quickly as her heels would carry her, stumbling slightly twice before finding the hallway, grumbling about his loser and Lyssa’s whore status as she went. When they were finally alone she came over to his side of the table and immediately started examining his setup. “Touchscreen board, too. Sweet.”

He was proud of it, “I had to get a part-time job for a couple months to pay for it.”

“It is nice. Tell me all about how you put together the beats playing now, I like ’em. They’re nice and punchy, but not a lot of auto tune. I hate that shit. People play with the voices like that just because they can.”

“I know it. Louis Armstrong to a pixie on Helium over and over and over. I try to enhance what makes the song good and make it more fun to dance to without screwing with what made it cool to start with.”

She let him keep talking, engaging where she needed to to keep the conversation going, not to mention a hand on his shoulder or a brush against his thigh to keep the flirtation at a simmer, but wasn’t as there as he thought she was.. He really did seem to enjoy doing it and was genuinely good at it, but this part of the exercise for her was really just to burn nine minutes and then some in order to be absolutely certain that all the assets were in place.

When she ticked off that time and then a little extra for good measure, she waited until he was finished talking up his process for picking the right notes to cut and to link to from bar to bar so that it didn’t sound too clunky, she caressed his cheek with hers and drew her hand down the other. She pulled back, but only a little.“You’re an artist, Mark. I love artists. It takes skill to take something people have heard a million and make it unique again; make it your own.”

“I could tell you all the ways artists of all types move me, but I think the simplest way to say it is that artists fucking turn me on. “Wanna go somewhere?”

His mouth opened and closed without sound coming out. He started to rise from his chair, some parts rising sooner than others, before he reminded himself of all his gear. It’d probably be gone in sixty seconds or less without him there to watch over it. His voice was pained, “I can’t. I really want to, but I can’t. I gotta watch my stuff. We could get together after the party if you still wanted to.”

It didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. “I get it. That’s cool. Or,” she whispered, “I could show you how much I love artists right here. Show it to me.”

The words barely registered to him at first, “What?”

She rose to her full height and reached down her top to retrieve a shiny, gold container of lip gloss that he watched her apply slowly, as though she wanted him to see every centimeter of of her lips be bathed in that glossy sheen. Then she spoke in a low, dirty tone, the vibrations of which started in his spine and worked their way up to the base of his brain. “Show it to me.”

The switch flipped in his brain. “Shit, yeah.” His belt was pulled open and his pants and boxers down past his knees as fast as he could make his fingers move. His shaven cock sprang free from the confines of his shorts that already held a wet spot from the steady drip that came with wanting to fuck her from the moment she came in and wanting it even more that she actually seemed to get what he was about. She was the whole fucking package and then some.

“Ooo, nice one.” And it was. It traded girth for length, though it was average in length, so it was nothing to be ashamed of there. He was shaved smooth and the balls were heavy and full just looking at them.

“Help yourself.”

He watched, entranced as she dropped to her knees and kissed and caressed each thigh in turn to up his anticipation and it did indeed, making him whimper, that sound coming up a couple of octaves as her long tongue started from one of his balls drawing languidly up the length before reaching the head and hovering over it for a moment to build up a hefty ball of spit to let it spill from her lips and bubble on his cock as it fell almost like icing dribbling on a dessert as she watched him watch it happen.

She descended upon it slowly, letting her tongue swirl the head, then pick up saliva, the string drew upward and broke before she let another ball of spit fall and played with it yet again. Finally, she took it in, sucking hard on the way back up. She worked like a machine, looking into his eyes, letting that and his sounds drive her.

She liked to please men. She liked to please women. Hell, she liked to please. Sometimes Kayley would set her to playing with slaves or the would-be slaves. Kayley loved watching her be the instrument that broke them, beyond which they gave their minds like a slut gave their holes to be filled and fucked and used. Sometimes Kayley gave her to clients while she would sit back and watch Lyssa please. None of the particulars of how or why mattered to Lyssa. Kayley loved her. Of that she was as sure of as her own heartbeat. They would always be together and, while Lyssa knew she would hold sway in her own way because of that, Kayley was in control and it would never be another way.

Just as it was now. She wanted to do what she was doing because it should happen, and, from what Lyssa told her, some of the people it was going to happen to deserved it. But it was what Kayley wanted and whatever Kayley wanted that it was within Lyssa’s power to do, it would be done.

And that felt sooooo good all by itself.

For her, this was a breaking and she would drive him to the edge and over it. Lyssa stopped long enough to stroke him hard and fast, “You liking this, Mark? Is my mouth good?”

“Yeah,” he grunted as his eyes were captivated by the red mop of hair and those eyes that looked like she was having as much fun giving as he was getting. “Yeah, that’s a sweet fucking mouth. You suck a lot of cocks with that mouth, I can tell.”

She pulled away from her sloppy oral milking to pull that meat roughly in the way he seemed to like best and give him a wet smile “That doesn’t seem to bother you much, honey.”

“Fuck virgins, Lys. I like women that know what they’re doing, like you.”

She dropped for another feast on his flesh, coming up for air when she felt his hands in her hair. He pulled away and she sounded curious, “What’s up, Mark. I mean, besides this nasty cock?” Her hand moved from base to head slowly now, palm rolling over the head. “Wanna fuck my mouth, baby? Is that what you want, Mark? You wanna use my mouth like a cunt?”

“Some girls.” He had to stop when that hand twisted around the raging, wet, red head of his cock, “Sssssss...some girls get all...mmmm...feminist creeped out if...”

She looked annoyed. “Do I look like some dainty little girl that doesn’t know what men need to do with women sometimes? I’m using your cock because I fucking feel like it. You wanna use my mouth? Use my fucking mouth, honey.”

She sucked it down to the base again and his fingers wound through her hair to lock to the sides of her head like a vise while his hips started to lift of the chair, slowly at first, wanting to savor it for a moment. She was so willing. Even now her tongue pressed into him and caressed and swirled. It would find a rhythm here and then find a rhythm there in a way that was supremely tantalizing. “Oh, you’ve sucked a lot of fucking cocks, “You’re seriously fucking good.”

He sped up his pace as she hummed in the affirmative. “Cock sucking slut lives to have her mouth stuffed. Could just pull a train with that mouth.”

“Slut.”

“Whore.”

He was holding her head in both hands tightly now, his feet firmly planted on the hardwood floor, and his ass was bouncing up and down on the chair with such force the plastic and metal strained at each fresh impact. And she just took. She was fucking awesome and he found himself hoping that this wouldn’t be a one-off. Though, if it were, it was a helluva high point given that he was only here tonight doing this as a favor.

He felt the seed churn in his balls and his nerve endings come beautifully alive as that ultimate peak approached and he drove himself as much as her mouth did. “Fucking sweet cum guzzler.” he hissed while thinking of her doing a bukakke party while he filmed it. Maybe she would and maybe she wouldn’t, but it was hot as fuck to think about; one cock after another around her, being serviced, just like he was.

“I’m gonna cum and you’re gonna suck it all down like a good slut.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Here it comes...fucking whore.” His thighs quivered, his body shook, “Oh, fuck, yes. Fuck.” His ass slammed into the chair three more times before he howled and erupted, sending his seed into her warm, welcoming mouth as she sucked it down as fast as he bathed her mouth in it.

His head rolled from side to side as the waves of pleasure overwhelmed him, It felt so perfect. There was so much bliss that wouldn’t end that it seemed to sap the energy from him. Mark was beyond resisting. All he wanted to do was feel this feeling and feel her gently suckling mouth.

Mark didn’t care when his hands fell away from her. He tried to lift them again only to find them so heavy that moving them would take effort he didn’t want to expend. The warmth of her mouth enveloped him and he sank into it happily, letting his eyes close and letting himself drift away.

Lyssa nursed his cock, knowing that he would still feel it for a time before his level of consciousness moved beyond it and did it because she honestly liked him. He was a nice boy and deserved it.

When she knew he was out, she rose in a fluid motion and watched as he slept. The drug in the lip gloss was remarkably effective; short-lived in potency but once absorbed through the skin it bonded with the Oxytocin that flooded the body at and just after orgasm to sedate the individual.

Lyssa patted his chest and reached again under her top to pull out a flash drive of the same gold color as the lip gloss case and inserted it into the laptop. A command window popped up and she selected one of the several program options available. A sine wave appeared with a control panel beneath and she entered the mathematical values to the peaks and valleys so that the oscillations would have the desired effect. The difficult thing was modulating them in such a way that the science didn’t bleed out beyond the house.

Once she was satisfied, she dragged it to the folder with the mix files that were playing now. That done, all she had to do was watch over things here while it ran.

Kayley now focused her observational eye around the room. One could learn so much from an individual if they just sat back, watched, and listened to them. You could learn what they thought and felt about any number of things just by watching their micro-expressions as they spoke of them to the point where she could often discard their actual words. Just through that careful observation, she could often tell more about them than they were ever usually willing to reveal, and sometimes even more than they knew about themselves. It’s why she also enjoyed the occasional poker tournament. Who was bluffing her and who was not? If someone bested her, was it just because that’s the way the cards were drawn? Or was it because she missed something in them or revealed something herself?

Skills were gifts and one would be a fool not to hone and maintain them. So she sat back and observed the room, and used them.

Those skills revealed to her the initial signs that the music was in play. It was in the way that the couples, whether they were couples when they arrived or just chose to be for the night, drew closer to one another. She watched as one young woman, her dark hair in a ponytail and in cutoffs, drew closer to her dance partner, her smile fading over time as they spoke to one another, her gaze turning into something far less jovial and more hungry.

Kayley watched her lips move. “On a scale of one to ten, how fuckable do you think I am?”

She couldn’t see what he said from her angle, but she saw, “Good answer.” and she watched her close in and begin to let her hands roam his body. She saw others on the periphery swaying to the beat, Some just stood there and let their eyelids become heavy, enjoying the aroused, dreamy feeling that seemed to be in the very air around them and they breathed it in, wanting it to become part of them. For others, just feeling it wasn’t enough. One woman pulled her teardrop breasts from her dress and alternated between tender touches and insistent tugs on the flesh.

As the moments passed Kayley watched another woman with a frantic hand under her dress and her expensive panties around her ankles with her pursed, red lips in a ring.

Kayley took the dregs from her cup and put it on the coffee table that was already strewn with and surrounded by several dozen. Alcohol did wonders for hypersonics. The waves tweaked arousal and dulled higher brain functions. The mind was muddled by the alcohol to begin with and by the time those people that might have had some resistance realized something was off, they were in too deeply to care.

Deciding to turn her attention back to the one who invited her, she saw Candace still stretched out on the sofa, eyes focused somewhere far away, lips turned up in something of a smile, her right leg draped over Brandi’s lap. Candace’s drink stayed in her limp hand only due to lack of inertia. Kayley took it and set it aside. The action caught her attention and her head drifted in the other’s direction.

“Nice party, huh?”

Candace moaned and the something of a smile became an honest grin, “Trina throws the best ones.”

“Feeling good?”

“Mmm...yeah. Good Mezcal, too.”

“Yeeeah, that’s it,” Kayley agreed. “Just feel and listen and feel, Constance.”

Then Ginnifer caught her attention for the particularly bemused expression and the way her eyes lingered on Constance’s leg and then on Brandi’s black, lacy top. “Somebody has a secret,” Kayley said in a teasing sing-song.

Ginnifer jumped at the words and her cheeks blushed. “What?” She looked at Kayley, not quite registering recognition before the bounty under that lace top beckoned again. No. What?”

The answer was plain.“You like girls.”

Ginnifer shook her head vigorously, which sent her body wobbling from a wave of dizziness.

“Yes you do, Ginnifer. That’s okay though, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Kayley could feel Lyssa close by before she felt the other’s hand on her shoulder.

“Sexy scene,” Lyssa noted.

“Sad, really,” Kayley corrected, gesturing forward. “Ginnifer here seems to like girls, but wishes she didn’t.”

Lyssa watched Ginnfer try not to look at the women she was sharing the couch with.“Why the fuck would you wish you didn’t? I love girls. Tall, short, fat, skinny; they all have charm. They’re all soft and sexy and beautiful. It’s great to fuck girls. Have you ever fucked a girl, Ginnifer?”

“Yes. …No.”

Kayley’s voice was firm. “Which is it?”

“Older. She was a..friend of my Moms. She kissed me. We made out in the kitchen.” She took a deep breath, not sure if she were trying to expel the heat building inside her or fan it. “Kissing so hot and so hard. Was sure I was gonna get, um, caught..” Her hand rested on her lap between her thighs. “Fingered me off three times. I came so hard I saw spots each time. Had to stop and...it never happened again. But...but...”

Kayley picked up the thread. “But it was the hottest thing that ever happened to you, wasn’t it, Ginnifer? It was so wrong, and so naughty and so hot. It never felt that way before or since with boys, has it? You try to recapture that with a boy, but you can’t and it’s so dirty to admit to yourself that all you really want to do is suck pussy.”

The conflict twisted her face. “It’s wrong.”

“Look at Candace and Brandi, Ginnifer,” Kayley commanded again. “They’re beautiful and they’re who you crave. Women are who you crave.”

Lyssa drew closer. “What’s wrong with sucking pussy, honey? It’s absolutely delicious.” Her tone seduced the last word as it came out of her mouth. “I suck pussy every day. See Kaley? I suck that pussy every day. I live to suck that pussy every day, and it’s bliss.” It was lost on neither of them that her eyes found the spot between Kayley’s legs. Sometimes she’ll come home from a hard day and sit on the couch and spread her legs and I’ll lick her until she can’t stand one more lick.”

Lyssa turned Ginnifer’s chin towards Brandi “You should totally find a pussy to lick.”

Taking the cue, she grabbed Brandi roughly by the hair and pressed their lips together. Brandi squirmed in resistance for all of two Mississippis before her mouth opened and her tongue darted inside, the two of them lost in one another now.

Kayley’s eyebrows rose. “She could have licked mine for a while.”

Lyssa shrugged, “I figured you’d be busy.”

“Fair enough.” There would be plenty of time for that when the ones heading to the facility immediately were processed. Putting the temptations of play aside for a while, she tapped small nodule in her left ear, heard one beep, and then a higher tone in acknowledgment. Kayley rose and looked down upon Constance in much the same way in reality as she had metaphorically from the first sight of her.

She watched Constance’s eyes widen to almost their normal level of openness as she felt hands move roughly under her dress and tear her panties away in one motion. She liked everything now, but it felt really good to have her hot skin more exposed to the air.

“I need your brain to be a little extra gooey before we really start, but don’t worry, we’ll talk again. In the meantime, you get to have a fun time getting gooey.” Kayley positioned her in such a way as to expose that shaven slit to anyone that happened by, but there was one person she had in mind. “Ginnifer,” she barked.

The sharpness of the tone made her jump. Even so, she wasn’t quite ‘there.’

Kayley snapped her fingers and pointed. “Pussy.”

Ginnifer literally followed the finger to that wet slit and she looked at it like the sole zombie that ambled into a room of fresh humans tied up and ready for taking. Adding to that vision was Ginnifer openly drooling as she pounced. At the first flick of her tongue Constance screamed in orgasm. After that, another one, just as powerful, was already building. So Constance panted, Ginnifer licked and slobbered that cunt like it was keeping her alive, and Brandi set herself to peeling Ginnifer’s clothes from her body.

At that moment there was a knock at the door that Kayley answered. At first glance there was nothing unusual to be seen by any neighbor that might be gazing out the window There was simply a group of mostly young people looking to party, at first glance anyway.

All of them carried backpacks and small duffles and, under closer scrutiny, a couple were indeed quite a bit older than the rest, including the one at the door in full college-themed garb; jacket, t-shirt, sweats and sneakers all with the school’s logo or at least the school colors. He looked like a grizzled cowboy who lost a bet and had to show up at a Halloween party looking like he did, and was decidedly unhappy doing so.

Kayley appraised him and smiled. “Looking good, Glenn.”

He was not amused and the eye roll showed it. “I feel like an idiot. I stopped dressing like this when I was twenty because I looked in a mirror and all I saw was jock douchebag.”

“Well, it seems that douchebag becomes you.”

He huffed, “So much snark for one so young.”

“We are all precisely who we were meant to be.” Kayley pointed her thumb over her shoulder, “Ready to work?”

He saw the room descending into a scene that would have made Caligula blush with one petite woman with light brown hair against the wall, nearly delirious with feeling seemingly unable to decide whether to push her suitor’s hands away or hold them like they were an anchor for whatever rational thought she had left. “Hey, c’mon...I don’t even know…”

He lifted her effortlessly and so suddenly, one of her three-inch black pumps fell from her foot. Her body jerked when he impaled her and she gasped before any semblance of caring left her eyes to leave her resting her chin on his shoulder, moaning anew every time she bounced on him. She hooked her ankles around him and contented herself with being used.

“Looks like we’re already off to the races.” He stepped around Kayley and he and the other technicians made their way inside. Glenn spoke to no one in particular knowing that everyone that had to hear was already listening. “The place looks to be pretty well contained, but there might be some upstairs not fully subdued. If anybody so much as asks what’s going on, hit them with the pulsors. Stay in twos until the place is secured.”

Several pairs stopped cheering the prospect of a party the instant they passed the threshold into the house and headed upstairs, already strapping the auditory pulsors to their wrists while two other pairs began sweeping the back rooms. None of them spoke or needed to as it was nowhere near their first time doing this. The same was true for the techs downstairs as two opened their duffles and started handing out collars and tablets to the others, so cataloging and programming could begin.

Kayley caught the attention of one of the techs and took her directly to Candace so that there would be zero chance of misunderstanding. “This one goes into a truck for deeper programming regardless; so does a girl named Trina. Lyssa will point that one out to you, so go with her. Otherwise, it’s keep or toss according to the usual criteria.”

“Understood, Miss Samuels,” the young man said, marking her for the specific treatment.

“Nothing happens to either of them until I get there to oversee it, but have this one fully aware once she’s secured.”

Additional taps on the tablet to create a slowly flashing chyron “Yes, Miss Samuels.”

With that done, she began to wander the house to see what bounties she was now in control of. She watched the young woman that had locked herself around the man using her drool down his back, squeaking every few thrusts as another cum overwhelmed her do nothing as the collars were clicked into place around their necks. Immediately, the collars began sending data back to the technicians as the collars modulated the waves Lyssa’s program sent out, gauged reactions, and sent that to the tablet. With it, the techs could measure everything from strength of will, overall aggression, and base personality, to responsiveness to programming so as to suggest the best ways into the core of their minds.

Combining that data with a detailed appraisal of their bodies, the best candidates for programming that fit a client’s needs could be determined. Some would be taken to the semi-trucks placed strategically around the house, some to the facility, and still others would return to their lives only aware they had been to a party for the ages.

Entering the kitchen again, she found the techs already hard at work collaring and processing. Being collared as she entered was the young man who had hoped to make time with her earlier in the evening. Now, he sat on the floor barefoot, shorts completely off, with a dopey grin on his face as he relished the feel of another young man’s mouth on his cock, head working like a piston as his own collar was already being read. It amused her because, while it definitely wasn’t what he had in mind as the apex of his evening, he certainly seemed to be enjoying himself.

Everybody needs love, right?

“Yes!”

The exclamation brought her attention to the female half of the makeout couple who was now completely nude, with the male half of the couple also nude, flat on his back, and mindlessly letting her bounce. The beats still thrumming in his ears, subsuming every thought beyond how good his cock felt at just this moment.

“Yes!”, she heard again.

“That’s weird,” the tech noted.

Kayley peeked over his shoulder and he took that as his cue to explain without being asked. “She’s just into the fucking and pretty out of it, so I was tweaking the modulations to check her resistance, hit between point-six-three and point six-seven and...”

“Yes!”

She examined the woman’s glazed, stupidly happy expression, comparing it to the data she was getting to confirm that she wasn’t in there to the degree necessary to maybe be playing with them. People had natural defenses to some induction techniques, that’s why there were so many to begin with. Kayley turned the tablets sound settings off, stepped back, making sure to stay behind her so that there was no way she might be able to know that the button was pressed and Kayley pressed it again.

“Yes!”

Kayley smiled and tapped the button three more times in succession to get the same response. She knew she had a rare prize. The tech seemed to be at a loss. “Induction synesthesia,” she said. Most of the techniques used were now completely effective, but that was only after years of trial and error, and in part, thanks to rare finds like this one. Her mother had only managed to find less than a dozen like this one out of thousands of subjects and decades of work, and it was from most of them, the greatest leaps were made. She would be most pleased.

“For most people these frequencies just create feelings that dull the higher processes, but her brain processes the frequencies as language. What we use machines to force a mind to do to create a state where the subject sees what we want them to as their own thoughts, she essentially does naturally. She’s going to make induction and programming even more precise and efficient.”

Kayley closed in on her slowly, bending down. “You are very special, my dear, and, when we get back, my mommy and I are going to spend months mapping the living shit out of your brain before we even think about doing anything else with you. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” Her digit stabbed at the tablet rapidly.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

She marked this one for the facility and handed the tablet back. “Keep her completely happy. That’s the least such a prize deserves.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

With that, she continued her tour of the home, taking her time in doing so. Once she came back down, Glenn found her, “We’re wrapping up here. In a few minutes we’ll be able to start taking them out in staggered groups. Sweepers are already upstairs making sure everything is as clean as it needs to be.”

“Excellent.” She took the tablet he handed her and she scanned it, reading more quickly than any non-enhanced person could. She bet she could give that pale-faced android from that TV show a run for his money. The collars, in various colors and styles, shouldn’t arouse much suspicion, the tuned pulses would take place of the music would produce docility and a desire to comply until they could be programmed more deeply while the ones destined for nothing at all were being positioned comfortably to sleep until morning. “Any problems?”

“All nice and straightforward, which is good because I don’t like problems.” With a grimace he put his hat back on and grabbed the jacket from the back of the chair. “God, I feel like an idiot.”

Lyssa’s hand touched her back and a moment later she felt a peck on her cheek and even that held the promise of more. She tilted her head in a show of sympathy with a hint of mockery. “Poor baby.” She lost the mockery after that. “You really do look cute.”

He put his arms through quickly a gave it a snap across his broad chest. “Tease. Don’t say that unless you mean it.”

Their back and forth had always been flirty and teasing. He accepted her at once when she took her position of authority at the facility and within their operations. Some had balked at first, but kept their tongues in check because none of them, as irritated as they may have been at taking orders from a woman younger and with less practical experience than them, they lacked the courage to take their problems with it to her mother. She didn’t truly care what they thought, as their purpose was to follow orders and contribute according to their gifts, but she’d like to think that she had earned her position since.

Glenn had none of that annoyance to offer her, “I’ve watched your mother run this place for twenty years. She knows what she’s doing, and you’ve got everything you need for the job because, if there’s one thing your mom isn’t, it’s sloppy.” She had a special affection for him and a few others that had offered friendship, performed competently, and whose loyalty was beyond question because of who they were and how they behaved, not because the ability to disobey was programmed out of them. And Glenn had always been among them.

“What makes you think I don’t?”

He laughed. “Because I’m not a college guy anymore.”

“So? Attraction isn’t just about that and you should know that by now. Otherwise, all we’d ever take or make are blondes no less than six feet tall and nothing smaller than a double ‘D.’ Bodies are to be enjoyed, I like you, and, unlike my mom, I think there’s value in, shall we say, old school incentives for loyalty. You have a birthday in a few months, so, come see me on your birthday.”

She enjoyed watching the humor mix with confusion, trying to decide whether or not she was still playing with him, “Seriously?”

She was indeed and her voice carried a sultry lilt even as it carried no nonsense.“Come see me on your birthday. My gifts are memorable.”

“Well...hell.” The almost perpetual gruffness disappeared as an extra spring found its way into his step as he headed back upstairs.. He’d always liked that girl, even if she was a little crazy.

“I’m sure you’re going to open yourself up to a sexual harassment suit.”

“If he doesn’t feel suitably sexually harassed after I’m done, he should sue.

“Slut.”

“Shut up, Lyssa, or I’ll make you sit in the corner on your knees and watch.”

She snorted derisively. “You’re slipping, baby. Punishments should entail things the punished wouldn’t find appealing.

“It’s the simple things I forget.” Kayley stepped out into the night air, the breeze still there from earlier in the day, enough to keep the bugs away and just cold enough to have a crisp bite that felt good on the skin. There seemed to be no end to the little things to enjoy in life. Another was driving around in her lovely little sports car. It was royal purple, customized from bumper to bumper and the epitome of sleek. She walked casually around the front and to the right. “Continuing in the vein of not punishments, you get to drive.”

“Aw, you really do love me.” Lyssa had her own adorable and powerful custom job, but she liked driving Kayley’s because she didn’t let anyone else drive it. She sank into the supple, luxurious, glossy, black leather seat and slid her index finger into the reader to the right of the wheel. There was a second’s pause before the sensor under her finger beeped and lit in a neon green as the dash lights came on and the engine came to life. Even at idle it rumbled like a dragon’s chest.

“Where to, baby?”

“Truck number three, if you please.”

She shifted into gear and the dragon purred.

Constance stared into the harsh white light above her because there wasn’t much else to do, as she had largely cried it out, still feeling the remnants of the tears drying on her face. The night was a blur. She remembered pieces of the party, She remembered the good drinks and the music and then things got cloudy. The alcohol seemed to have hit her hard. Things got warm and dreamy and hazy. She realized quickly that someone must have drugged her. Shit like that happened at parties and, as appalling and terrifying as it would be, in a way it would have been at least understandable if she’d come to with her ankles over the shoulders of some total stranger.

But that wasn’t this.

Instead, she woke to white light that stung her eyes and doctors and nurses in white coats who came, looked her over and touched her as they pleased. While it felt like an examination it also felt much creepier for the mechanical, completely impersonal nature of it. She was a slab of meat on the table that couldn’t move and that no one would talk to. She was still in her party dress, but that wasn’t much comfort since her panties were missing.

She’d tried to speak to them; tried to tell them her name, though no one had bothered to ask. They talked to one another in numbers and jargon that sounded medical and technical that they seemed to understand just fine. She’d asked where she was and they didn’t answer. She asked more loudly and they still didn’t answer. When she finally practically bellowed, “Will somebody please tell me where the fuck I am?! Where am I? Where am I!?” a woman responded, but not to her.

“Why are we letting her talk?” a woman, this one with deep, rich voice that suggested she could moonlight as a lounge singer asked.

“Because that was the order and neither one of us is high enough up on the chain to know why”, another woman said.

“The order was that she be conscious and capable of speech, not that she be allowed to annoy the piss out of me.”

Five angry steps and the lounge singer appeared, her skin a dark cocoa, her eyes an almost black brown. She put her fingers close to Constance’s face. “Three button presses, honey. Three button presses and you’re not talking anymore. You think you’re freaked out now, you try thirty seconds of trying to say something when you know you know how, but nothing comes out.”

“Right now, it’s pretty much up to me if that happens. No one here is going to talk to you or answer any questions. No one is going to help you and the only ones that can hear your shrieking bouncing off the walls is us, and, like I said, no one is going to help you. If you want to talk to yourself to hear your own voice so maybe you can pass the time while you wait. I’m okay with that, but if you start shouting again, you get the three buttons. Got it?”

Now that she got attention, she was going to get answers, “Where the fuck am I? Where the fuck is this? If you don’t let me out of here right now you’re all going to go to jail for kidnapping..”

The woman angrily pulled an armature with a terminal attached that was in turn attached to the metal slab she was laying on. “One.”

“...and rape because I sure as fuck had panties on when I went out tonight.”

“Two.”

“So unless you wanna all die in jail, you...”

“Three.”

“Rrrrrrrrrrr.” The word vanished in her throat when the feeling appeared. It was the feeling you get when you turn your neck in just the right way and there’s an almost painless pinch followed by a momentary numbness, except this numbness started from a ball pressed against the base of her skull that she’d mistook as part of some sort of odd headrest when she awake. The numbness penetrated her skull and when she opened her mouth to speak it spiked to the point where she couldn’t manage the last push to make words.

The lounge singer seemed indifferent to the confusion and fear in the expression she saw. “Three buttons.”

So Constance was left there as the time crawled by. She was more afraid than before by miles of course, but oddly, she found the numbness more comforting than her own voice would have been. Indeed, she tried to speak occasionally just so the numbing sensation in her skull would notch up. She thought maybe she’d do it and the numbness would consume her and that’s how she’d wake up.

When that didn’t happen, she did the only things she could do which were wait and listen. They mentioned nothing to suggest where she was or anything that might help her, though she did realize there was someone else behind her that they were doing things to. She didn’t get to be conscious though and Constance kept wondering if the fact that she was was good for her or bad for her.

Eventually the answer came when the gray door in front of her slid back and from blackness behind her emerged Kayley Samuels from the afternoon and a redhead she didn’t recognize. Red disappeared behind her and the lounge singer appeared from the other side, moving quickly to hand Kayley a tablet. “Ma’am.”

“Thank you,” She departed quickly while Kayley tapped and scrolled and tapped and scrolled. It was strange for Constance because she still looked like the perfect party girl in that dress and makeup, but she stood like she belonged there. When she finished, her eyes drew upward from the tablet with glare though the corner of her mouth turned upward. “You were being annoying. It says so right here.” She turned the tablet to face her and spread her fingers outward to enlarge a section without having to look. “Nullified voice with vocal suppression tone because subject was being annoying via the screaming of profanity and threats against personnel.”

“I can totally imagine that. I mean, I haven’t known you all that long and annoying is one of the nicer things I’d call you.” Constance followed her to the terminal. “Can we agree that I can just shut you up whenever I choose?”

Constance thought about it, not that there was much to debate. She nodded.

“Can we also agree that screaming wouldn’t help you anyway? No one out there can hear you from in here, and, even if someone could, we just go back to the previous question and answer.”

That was also probably true enough. Another nod.

“So, if I let you talk, you’re going to behave in a civilized fashion?”

She despised being dictated to by anyone and she despised the loss of control, but she figured there was no other way to find out what was going on or to get out of it. She nodded.

Kayley pressed a button, said, “beep” with the beep and, just like that, the tone bouncing against her skull stopped. “There we go,” she announced as she pressed a few more buttons.

She was startled for a moment as the table she was on angled upward, giving her a better view of things. “Where.” She stopped herself when it came out as a shout, as she was trying to make herself heard over the lingering thrum in her skull. More quietly this time, “Where am I?”

“Inside a truck somewhere in town. See, I can tell you that because it only matters to you if you could get out of here. You can’t, so, so what?”

Constance was a little more confident in her own voice now. “What happened?”

Her tone was casual. “I wanted you here, so here you are.”

“So who the fuck are you, really, and why the fuck am I here?”

“I told you that my name is Kayley Samuels, and I promise that we’ll get to that.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me? You expect me to believe that you own all this?”

Kayley quickly corrected with a wag of her finger. “I never implied that all this was mine, Constance. It’s not. Actually, it belongs to my mom, though I actively and enthusiastically contribute. Unlike some in your little demographic sliver, I don’t park my ass on my parent’s laurels.”

That was it, Constance, saw. Now there was something to work with and she now spoke as though she knew how this would unfold. “Then let’s have your mother talk to my father and we can sort this out.”

Her brow knotted sharply before she laughed heartily and Constance noticed chuckles coming from around her. “Oh, yes, Constance, this is a ransom situation and I have you in a truck on the outskirts of the city surrounded by tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment that is the result of decades of painstaking research, all of it meant to keep you here. You know, as opposed to simply chaining you to a chair in a warehouse somewhere.”

“For a smart girl, that was a pretty stupid idea, but if you want to play ‘schoolyard,’ her voice then mimicked a petulant child, “my mommy could buy and sell your daddy.” Her tone slipped back to normal, “That’s not really the point here.”

Before Constance could ask what the point was, Kayley approached her, tablet in hand once again. “Indeed, you do have a lovely mind. See, it’s right here.” She showed Constance a glowing, almost infinite lattice of neurons, clusters of which glowed with various colors. “This is the point. I’m going to take your mind and rewire it a bit; not too much though, not like some of your friends or some of the other people at the party. There are special plans for you as much as for them.”

“You’re crazy,” she breathed, her skin beginning to crawl as she tried to will her limbs to move once again only to have the effort be as futile as when she first arrived.

“If I were crazy, you’d probably be in some trouble, but I know what I’m doing so you’ll be fine.”

She tried again to move and the fear and frustration caused her voice to break, “But why are you doing it at all? What the fuck did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you.”

“Well, partly because it’s what we do. It’s what actually pays for this. Well, this and all of the other incredibly interesting research we do. People pay us to change minds and bodies and so we change them.”

“If you mean to ask me why I’m doing it to you, the answer is simple.” Kayley began, sweeping a lock of hair away from Constance’s forehead. “I don’t like you and I don’t like people like you. You’re a bitch, Constance. That’s not so bad in and of itself because, hey, I’m a bitch, too, as witnessed by the fact that you’re here because I felt like bringing you here.”

“But it also illustrates our differences. I’m a bitch with purpose. I break a few hundred laws here and there and I quite enjoy moving the goalposts of morality around, but there’s always a greater purpose. Sometimes it’s the search for discovery. Sometimes it’s simply the otherwise banal reasoning that they were mean to me first, payback’s a bitch, too, and I have time to properly devote to it.”

“But I don’t just pick someone to fuck with just to get off on them trying to win my affection and see how long I can manipulate them and see how hard they try. That’s just ego and mine isn’t so weak that that’s what I have to do to feel like I matter. What did you ever do to me? Nothing at all. What did Amanda ever do to you?”

“Amanda?” She could hardly believe her ears. “I’m here because of Amanda?” She was almost stunned by the absurdity. “The only thing I ever did to that girl is try to help her out. Sooner or later she’d have gotten the message that the world isn’t lining up to be your friend just because you’re fake nice.”

Kaylee shrugged and began to orbit her, heels tapping the floor with a snap. “If that was all it was, then you blow off the country bumpkin. She feels bad and learns her lesson. But you played with her feelings for no grand purpose other than furious ego masturbation. You got off on seeing how far you could go and how much pain can I inflict before she finally doesn’t come back and how many scars can I leave before she’s done? And how many times have you done it before? You’re a bitch without purpose.”

She was on the other side of her now. “And that brings us to the second reason you’re here: you need a lesson in humility, Constance.”

“You’re not wrong that humans are divided into predators and prey. The problem is that there are too many people like you that have convinced themselves that they’re the elite, even when they’re nothing of the kind. You’re intelligent, but you don’t cultivate it., you’re fit, but you don’t test yourself. You have money, but you don’t stand on your own. You don’t offer everything you own to get out of this. The first thing you do is tell me to call Daddy.”

She spit the words out of her mouth because the thought behind them was foul. “So you and people like you have all these gifts bestowed upon you by fate, but they wither and die so you can spend your life relishing the fact that the only thing you ever really did was win the womb lottery. I have intellect and I have skills you could only dream of dear, but I don’t take them and sit on my ass.”

She spread her arms outward to encompass everything around her. “You’re surrounded by the efforts of the elite because true elitism is earned. We take our gifts and we hone them and build upon them. No one is born the best painter, writer, or athlete. The elite reach the apex through our own work and our own will, not just based on the luck of the draw.”

“Here’s the part, Constance, where I show you how predators behave.”

Her eyes darted about, trying to catch a glimpse of her after Kayley wandered from her. There was milling around and the moving about of equipment, all of the sounds just ramping up her anxiety. “Look, I’ll apologize to her, okay? I’ll apologize and I’ll mean it and I’ll be nice to her from now on.”

More movement before the steel table on which she was placed angled downward to be closer to flat once again. Then Kayley appeared over her head, seemingly upside down and the redhead was on her left side, fitting a cold steel brace over her neck to hold her in place. “We won’t want your head moving around a lot for this, honey.”

She watched Kayley bring another arm of the metal beast down towards her, placing the tablet just so, apparently to allow Constance to watch what would happen to her. “I’ll make her my best friend, I swear.” She began to tear up contemplating what was coming, each idea more horrible than the last one, “I’ll never make her sad again, I promise.”

Constance then felt a headpiece being placed firmly around her skull. It was so tight that the sides were pressing into her temples, threatening to give her a headache by itself, and it had weight. As soon as Kayley let go of it, it pulled her head down with it. “I’ll be nice to everyone. I’ll study. I’ll do anything you want. I’ll do anything you fucking want.”

“The cry of the false elite,” Kayley groaned, sounding equal parts bored and tired. “Me, me, me. You know, all this time and you haven’t asked about a single one of your friends. You haven’t asked about Brandi. You haven’t bartered for Ginnifer. They’re just gone from your mind because Constance’s world begins and ends with Constance; everyone else is just kind of there to feed your ego.”

Kayley began entering commands on the terminal that took her voice, waiting for prompts before entering more. “Even though you don’t care about your friends, I’m going to tell you about them anyway.”

“But I...”

Kayley cut her off, “Too late. Where was I? Ah. Anyway, Trina is right behind you, by the way and doing well. I’m actually not going to change her much either. She’s still going to be throwing outstanding parties, she’ll just be throwing them for us. Trina’s really going to get off on sizing up product, and, once she’s fully conditioned, is going to get off even more on melting and molding brains for us. But she still gets to be mostly who she was before the party started.

A few more taps and the helmet pressed even more tightly, as though it were melting into a part of her body.

“Brandi is something else. She’s never impressed me as the sharpest scalpel on the table, so she’ll probably be fine with letting some IQ points go. Even if she isn’t now, she will be. That’s the point of this, after all. She’s perfect for a rich, dirty old man I know, but he wants dumb, pouty, and perpetually wet like Marilyn Monroe if she was always the breathy tramp that sang ‘Happy Birthday.’ I couldn’t stand that for more than twenty minutes myself, but it’s not my money, so, whatever.”

A few more taps and tears came again as Constance felt dozens of tiny metal rods moving through her hair feeling like bugs in her scalp before pressing against her skull. Kayley seemed to know what the expression was about. “There are thousands of those things in there. This is just the first stage. Don’t worry about the rods. If I put those in your brain, that’d kill you. The rods are just guide housings for the nano-filaments burrowing in as we speak. A little current here and a little current there and we move the lattice of neurons around and change some colors and, before you know it, there’s a whole new you.” She paused. “Maybe. I’m not leaving that up to me though. You’ll find out.”

“Please don’t do this.” She was close to blubbering now. “I’ll do anything you want. I promise. I swear. Please, please, please.”

“As for Ginnifer? I’m honestly not sure yet where she’ll go. She certainly should go to a woman, don’t you think? That’s the least I can do for a closet case like that. Kayley’s dark eyes found a sparkle at her puzzled expression. “You didn’t even suspect that your bestie ached to suck on girls? I’m not surprised she wouldn’t tell you.” She seemed to make up her mind in that moment. “Yeah, I’ll give her to a girl. I can be nice.”

“Time we get to work, don’t you think?”

The redhead appeared again, pulling another terminal down and she spoke in a way profoundly incongruous to the fact that she looked she was dressed to party and get fucked. “First wave of filaments are embedded in clusters one through forty-five. Feedback from each cluster in the green zone. No physiological anomalies detected.”

“Interrogative pulses?”

Constance saw a river of rainbow color before her eyes.

A pause. “No anomalous feedback. Looks like they’re ready ready to move. Flatten her out to baseline?”

Kayley looked at the readings, satisfied. “Yeah. This is going to take a while.”

“I figured as much.”

And, in much the same way, Constance was simply unable to speak, she simply stopped crying. She could think about where she was and what was happening to her, and when she did she knew she should still be terrified, but she wasn’t. Indeed, now that she thought about it she wasn’t feeling anything at all. She listened to them talk about her and talk about changing her and she could reason terror without feeling it. She felt divorced from her own body.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lyssa didn’t take her eyes from her work, “Nothing at all. I know you enough to know that it’s beyond you to wipe her and be done with it.”

“What fun would that be? Where’s the skill and challenge in programming her to do nothing but eat, sleep, and fuck. Where’s the artistry?”

“I know my lady,” Lyssa began, now looking at the woman who took her breath away just being. “If you just smooth her over there’s no her remembering you’re the one who fucked her. There’s no her remembering in any way at all what she is in the grand scheme.”

She took the comment in stride, her voice mirroring the good-natured humor that she’d heard in Lyssa’s tone. “That’s such a tiny part of this. If you had seen Amanda today and heard the pain, your soft little heart would have broken. I’m the not mushy one of this pair and even I felt for the girl. How about you just help me do something nice for someone?”

“Sure,” she replied. “And help you teach someone a lesson. And give you a chance to prove how good at this you are.”

“Once again.”

“Yes, dear.”

The banter and scientific back and forth continued as Constance stared without emotion at the screen as the pieces of her mind that all looked like bare, gnarled tree limbs tangled hopelessly together began to move one or a few at a time.

As a curiosity, she wondered if she would even know when she started to think differently.