The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Megan surveyed the room with a careful eye.

Fingers twirling her chestnut brown hair, she watched as Amanda moved into position in front of her camera, Master Brian’s hot pole waiting stiffly beneath her and fucktoy Jenny’s heavy bosoms squeezed around her head for effect. Megan made a note to reward Amanda later for her creativity.

Meanwhile, in the dark corner, so known because that’s where the kinkiest and most depraved girls did their work, Abby had tied Becky to a chair and was excitedly giving their viewers a tour of Becky’s insides by pushing the lens of the webcam into the blonde’s dripping bare snatch, spread by a speculum. Megan was sure that was unsanitary, and she should probably be worried about what all that pussy juice might do to the camera, but pushing the limits was the sisters’ act, and who was she to argue with a happy family?

Megan finished scanning the scene and frowned.

She sidled over to Lexi, careful to stay just off camera so as not to disturb the show she was putting on. The hard goth had three fingers buried deep in her cunt, and the chain that dangled between her pierced, puffy nipples perched atop her healthy C-cups shook with her every shuddering breath. Colorful, dark tattoos quivered all over her flesh as she fingered herself, sweat pouring down her taut stomach to the freshest and clearest ink, a flowery little black script just above her womanhood that simply said “YOURS” with a swerving underline that danced down to her slit like a gentle, pretty arrow pointing the way.

All of that was fine. But what was concerning to Megan was that Lexi had a headset resting on her bald-shaven head, the microphone nestled in the crook of her mouth to catch her moans.

“Lexi,” Megan whispered, “what are you doing?”

Lexi didn’t respond right away, but gazed up at Megan as though she were in awe. The reaction was understandable, both because of Lexi’s current sex-drunk mind and also Megan’s position over her, but it still left Megan impatient.

“Lexi,” she repeated. “Why are you wearing that headset?”

Lexi reached forward with her free hand and flipped the ‘Mute’ switch.

“There was too much noise behind me, Mistress,” she said. “I had a hard time focusing on the thought of serving you to get myself wet.”

Megan pursed her supple lips. “Too much noise, huh?”

Lexi nodded.

“Lexi, you know where we work, right?”

Lexi nodded.

“You know that people here have sex, and having sex is noisy, right?”

Lexi nodded.

“So, Lexi, you need to be able to deal with distractions,” Megan chided, as though she were speaking to a child. “And noise is absolutely no excuse for failing to properly think of your servitude while you finger yourself. You know the rules.”

Lexi nodded again, her cheeks flushed red. She looked dejected, and though her fingers never stopped their ministrations, her moans stifled now in her disappointment.

Megan sighed, moved behind her slave, and patted the girl’s bald head.

She remembered when Joy had tried to get Megan to take the promotion to Office Manager, basically second-in-command behind Joy (well, and Master Brian, who commanded everyone). Megan hadn’t wanted the position at first, or at least she’d played hard-to-get. She’d just graduated with her communications degree, and she no longer needed the job to sustain herself through school. Besides, with her body (slim, subtle hourglass figure, luxurious hair, endlessly long legs), she figured she could make plenty of money in more “traditional” modeling.

But Megan was definitely the smartest and most sensible girl in the office, what with all the bimbos and sluts that made up the bulk of their staff, and so Joy had made a counter-offer Megan simply couldn’t refuse. Along with a pay raise, a title bump, and benefits, Joy was willing to offer Megan her choice of not one, but TWO slaves.

It wasn’t hard to decide; with the success of the little team they’d developed for the weekly orgies they attended, Megan, Alexis, and Amanda had become nearly inseparable. Taking control of them would make that bond even stronger, and that was an opportunity Megan just couldn’t pass up.

Breaking Amanda had been easy, and Joy had gotten top professionals to shatter her will, then bind her forever to Megan’s influence and desires. Amanda was dumb enough and slutty enough that she didn’t put up much of a fight, and soon, Megan had her first plaything.

Alexis, however, had been a different story. The young goth was rebellious and anti-social. Even though she’d joined the family business and started working the webcams willingly, she didn’t gel as well with the others, and worked solo almost exclusively, cultivating a loyal but relatively small following online.

Alexis had to be broken down, and not just anyone could do it. For it to really stick, Megan had to take care of her enslavement personally.

It had been a slow process. Megan had basically stolen Alexis in the night and chained her up in an old abandoned barn at the edge of town. The torture had been brutal. Megan had worn a mask and bulky clothes to hide her identity as she worked on Alexis with whips and clamps, with electricity and hot wax, with sex toys bringing her automatically to the edge, and then stopping, so that she could never reach her point of bliss. And through it all, she’d blared the sights and sounds of submission into Alexis’s mind, constantly bombarding her with visions of women submitting to mistresses and masters, women who were nothing but toys to be used, women whose identities were erased but for the markings their owners left on their flesh. Alexis’s thoughts became more and more entangled in the notion that servitude was the only true happiness, that pain was its own pleasure, that she would be made whole only with the permission of a forceful commander.

Then came the night Megan came to “rescue” her.

Megan sighed and her pussy moistened with the memories. Late at night she’d slipped into the barn, in her regular clothes now, without the mask, and “found” Alexis drowsily mumbling to herself as she watched a video full of conditioning phrases. She was just in the middle of saying “I am nothing but meat for my Mistress” when Megan, acting shocked at the girl’s predicament, came to unlock her.

Alexis had been beside herself with gratitude, and while Megan was careful to feign surprise at what had befallen her dear friend, she couldn’t resist grazing a nipple here, rubbing at her shaven pussy there, as she untied Alexis from her bondage.

“Thank you,” Alexis said when her arms were finally free, throwing a hug around her savior, “thank you, Mis—Megan. Thank you, Megan!”

Megan helped Alexis stagger into the woods outside the barn, the girl’s stiff limbs making her trek to safety almost laughably feeble. Megan kept leading her forward. “This way, Lexi,” she kept saying, and in her exhaustion, Alexis was too weak to remind Megan how much she hated the nickname. She just accepted the help she was given until, wracked with pain, she blacked out and collapsed.

When she came to, Alexis was alone on the dirty ground, and terror overtook her. She scrambled about, franticly whispering Megan’s name. She couldn’t understand why she’d been abandoned. And, all at once, she felt an overwhelming need to see Megan again, to be by her side. And in that moment, she swore that if she found Megan, she would be so grateful that she’d drop to her knees and kiss her best friend’s feet.

And then Megan emerged from behind a tree. And Alexis dropped to her knees, and, without shame, began kissing Megan’s toes.

But the love did not end there. Seized by profound gratitude, Alexis’s kisses travelled up Megan’s legs, and the older girl did not fight her off. The goth’s face found its way under Megan’s skirt, and she was delighted to find her delicate womanhood unencumbered by underwear. Alexis had never licked another girl before, she knew, but for whatever reason, everything about what she was doing felt so natural, so right. She had to thank Megan, and thank her properly, and in her addled brain, this was how it should be done.

Her technique was sloppy, but as Megan leaned back against the tree and let Alexis play beneath her skirt, she knew that, with the proper training, she’d be a valuable slave.

As she was being eaten, Megan cooed encouragingly, “Mmm, Lexi, that’s so good. Your tongue’s fantastic. You’re such a good girl. I bet it makes you feel so wonderful to be pleasing me like this. I’ll bet you want to do this forever, just for me. Isn’t that right, Lexi? Don’t you want to just keep eating me out for the rest of your life?”

Alexis just moaned. It sounded perfect, she admitted to herself. That was exactly what she wanted.

Megan put her hand on the back of Alexis’s head and came on the swell of her lips. Then she pulled the girl to her feet.

“Then follow me,” she said.

Guiding her by the hand, Megan pulled Alexis through the woods, and in the moonlight, Alexis felt her emotional attachment for her older friend swelling, as though she were seeing an angel in the darkness. She was enamored. She was infatuated. She was hers. That was the last thing she thought before she looked past Megan’s head and saw where she’d been leading them:

Back to the barn.

Megan turned and smiled, and Alexis screamed before the needle that Megan was shoving into her neck made her thoughts fade into nothing.

When she’d woken up finally, Alexis was strapped spread-eagle to a medical bed, staring into a mirror at her battered reflection. She couldn’t believe everything that had been done to her body, as she examined the bruises that showed through even where she was already heavily tattooed. That’s when she noticed the presence next to her.

To her right, Megan stood as Alexis had never seen her before: A black latex jumpsuit adorned with black lacy tassels, with holes cut in the bust and the crotch for Megan’s sensitive areas to peek through. Long black gloves glinted in the light as she rubbed her hands together malevolently. Despite her menacing attire, however, what unnerved Alexis the most was the charmingly sweet smile which rested on Megan’s beautiful face.

“Megan, please-“ she managed to say before a sharp shock burst through her left breast where she was abruptly whipped.

“Call me Mistress, Lexi,” Megan corrected.

“Megan stop!” Alexis cried, then she screamed, as she received a hard shot to her stomach.

“Lexi,” Megan seethed, “call me Mistress.”

“Meg-“ Alexis started, then grunted in frustration, “fine, MISTRESS! Mistress, please don’t-“

But before she could finish her protests, a happy buzz rang inside her vagina.

Megan smiled and flicked a switch to make the buzzing stop. “A silver bullet, to let you know when you’ve done well, Lexi.”

Alexis squirmed, unable to deny how good the buzzing had felt on her insides.

“Mistress,” she said again experimentally, and another buzz rippled. “Mistress!” she called again, and felt the buzzing grow even stronger. “MISTRESS!” she screamed, and the bliss topped out, taking her gloriously close to cumming. She was almost there, right about to finish, ready to cry out in ecstasy…when the feeling vanished. And just like that, she’d been robbed another orgasm, and she sobbed with the loss.

“Now, Lexi, that was good, but you don’t get to cum without my permission,” Megan said.

Lexi felt tears staining her cheeks, and saw in the mirror as they trailed out of her eyes.

“Don’t call me that!” she snapped angrily. “My name is Alexis!”

She felt a whip strike her and shrieked in pain.

“Silly,” Megan said, “your name is Lexi. I told you it was Lexi, and I’m your Mistress, so that’s your name.”

“My name…my name…” Alexis’s mind was reeling. She suddenly felt stoned, and yet incredibly focused on what Megan was saying. Little did she know that the after-effects of the drug she’d been slipped in the woods were starting to kick in, and that meant her higher brain functions were going to be severely impaired for the time being.

Megan pressed on. “Your name is Lexi, slave. You should be glad; your Mistress lets you have a name because she loves you. I could just call you ‘pet,’ because, really, that’s all you are to me. But you get a name. And that name is Lexi. Say ‘thank you,’ Lexi.”

Lexi felt the words forming before she could chase them out of her head. “Thank you, Mistress, for giving me a name.”

Alexis, now Lexi, felt a pleasant tingling in her pussy when she said this, and she knew she’d done something right.

Megan ran her fingers through Lexi’s raven-black hair, tapered down to her pale shoulders.

“You’re such a pretty little thing, Lexi,” she said appraisingly. “Such lovely hair.”

“Thank you, Mistress,” Lexi said, still struggling to understand why she was going along with what Megan was saying, but finding no fault in her words.

Megan’s hand idly moved into the dark, and Lexi heard a rattling sound.

“But your hair is not yours anymore, Lexi,” she said. “It’s a part of your body, and your body is mine. Say it.”

Lexi was about to comply with Megan’s orders, but suddenly she felt something was wrong. “No,” she muttered weakly, “not yours. My hair is…mine.”

Megan slapped Lexi across the face, leaving her vision briefly blurred. When her sight cleared, she gazed in the mirror at a horrifying sight: A gleaming pair of silver scissors, hovering above her long black tresses.

“You’re being stupid, Lexi,” Megan said. “It’s simple: Your hair is on your body. Your body is mine. Your hair is mine. Say. It.”

Lexi, despite her fear, couldn’t bring herself to say the words, couldn’t believe them, even though her brain was struggling to articulate exactly why.

Megan gripped a handful of hair in her fingers and tugged, making Lexi gasp in pain.

“You don’t believe me? I’ll prove it. If you won’t give me what is mine, I’ll just take it from you.”

With that, she aimed the scissors, and began cutting into Lexi’s pitch black locks, snipping and clipping and sawing until, when she pulled her hand away, a thick handful of hair was squeezed in her grip. She held the clump in front of Lexi’s eyes and waved it around.

“Do you see?!” she shouted. “Your hair is mine! Your body is mine! SAY IT!”

Lexi began to weep. “Noooo, please! AHH!”

Megan tugged again at her mane, her scissors carving out an even wider swath as she cut into the dense tufts of Lexi’s locks. When she came away this time, Lexi could see in the mirror that her head was adorned with something akin to a nightmarish bob cut, short but jagged and hideous.

“You see?! I take what is mine! Your hair is mine! Your body is mine! Say it!”

Lexi couldn’t hold anymore. She still couldn’t fully understand what was happening, some part of her brain just wouldn’t explain why this was wrong, and her heart just wasn’t in the fight anymore.

“Okay!” she cried. “Okay! My hair is yours! My…my body is yours!”

“Say it again!”

“My hair is yours! My body is yours! MY BODY IS YOURS!”

Buzzing filled the air again, and while Lexi felt the warmth spreading from her womb again, she suddenly realized the sound was coming from somewhere else. She looked into the mirror and saw, in Megan’s hands, a large electric hair trimmer. Without warning, Megan dove at Lexi’s head, and before her eyes, she saw chunks of her dark waves falling off her head. Megan worked quickly yet carefully, making sure not to miss a spot. In minutes, all that was left on Lexi’s head was a downy layer of soft fur, hardly hiding her pale scalp from the night air.

“There now,” Megan said with pride. “Isn’t that better? You don’t have to worry about getting a haircut now, Lexi. Your Mistress has taken care of everything for you, and you’re grateful for her ownership.”

Lexi could scarcely recognize herself like this. Her nearly-bald skull looked so alien, and yet, she realized with a thrill at least somewhat tied to the soft vibrations in her loins, she knew the look would fit her position. She was starting to understand just how far she’d fallen. She’d seen it in the videos; her body was no longer her own, and decisions about things like her appearance were now up to her owner.

“Say ‘thank you,’ Lexi,” Megan said, petting Lexi’s head.

Lexi hesitated a moment, then gave in. “Thank you, Mistress,” she sighed.

The torments continued but that was the moment that her will was truly broken. Unable, or unwilling, to fight for herself now, Lexi took her instructions and latched onto them. Megan’s commands became her anchors to reality, her keys to happiness, her gateways to thought and completion.

It was later in the night, near dawn, when Megan finished Lexi’s training.

“You’re my slave,” she said.

“I’m your slave,” Lexi repeated.

“You live to serve me,” she said.

“I live to serve you.”

“Thoughts of servitude bring you pleasure.”

“Thoughts of servitude bring me pleasure.”

“Your Mistress is everything to you.”

“My Mistress is everything to me.”

“You are nothing without Mistress.”

“I am nothing without Mistress.”

“You are mine.”

“I am yours.”

Megan reached again into the darkness and pulled something shiny into the light. “Repeat that as I seal your training, slave,” she said.

Lexi chanted without questioning, “I am yours, I am yours, I am yours…”

A pain shot into her crotch, but Lexi didn’t stop her chanting. She kept at it for what felt like ages, but was really only a few minutes, her mouth and mind repeating what she already knew to be true: She was Megan’s, heart and soul.

When Megan stood back, Lexi saw the new marking on her pelvis, the still-bloody tattoo which said everything in one word: “YOURS.”

Tears of joy met her eyes, and, with her Mistress’s permission, she finally came.

Back in the office, Megan’s memories had made her exceedingly wet, and she knew just how to take care of the problem.

“Lexi,” she commanded, fingers tracing invisible patterns on the soft flesh of her slave’s clean bald scalp, “you need to learn how to handle distractions. I think it’s time I taught you a lesson.”

Lexi was demure and didn’t hang her head too low for fear of looking ungrateful. “Yes Mistress,” she said. “Thank you, Mistress.”

“OFFICE MEETING!” Megan shouted, and the whole office suddenly snapped to attention; Becky stopped devouring her big sister Abby’s dirty asshole, Amanda stopped bouncing gleefully on Master Brian’s pleasurable girth while Jenny roamed through the point of penetration with her slutty, sex-dumb tongue.

They huddled around Lexi’s station. Online, the viewers of their assorted cams scrambled to switch to Lexi’s channel, eager to see what exciting punishments Megan might have in store for the supple young slave.

Megan idly played with the top of her purple stockings, connected by the matching purple garter belt, the only clothing allowed in the office, which denoted her position above the others. She pursed her lips in thought, and then smiled.

“Team,” she began, “it’s come to my attention that Lexi here, inexperienced as she is, has been having a hard time focusing on her work with so much noisy fucking going on all around her.”

Amanda giggled and Megan instantly latched two slender fingers on her blonde slave’s plump right nipple, tugging hard. Amanda yelped in pain.

“Now now,” Megan chided. “Let’s not laugh at our co-worker. This is not something we should take lightly. It’s not Lexi’s fault that she’s easily distracted. After all, she’s just a dumb little slave, and as you well know, Amanda, slaves can’t think for themselves.”

“Yes Mistress,” Amanda replied hastily.

Megan sized up the space she had to work with. It would be a tight fit if she wanted to really teach Lexi a proper lesson. But she was resourceful, and could think quickly on her feet. That’s why she’d gotten promoted, after all.

She unscrewed a knob on Lexi’s office chair and carefully removed the back, leaving only the seat and the armrests. Then she moved Lexi’s camera; its position atop her computer monitor wouldn’t be right to catch all the action. She gave a little smile and wave for the viewers at home, her pussy tingling a little with the thought of all those hard cocks being stroked watching her punish her slave, and then set the camera near the edge of the counter, just to the side of the computer.

Lastly, she snatched the headset from Lexi’s bald scalp and tossed it aside. It would only be in the way for what she’d planned.

She clapped her hands once, and set to positioning her staff. “Now, Lexi, if you’re going to learn to deal with distractions, you’re going to need practice. Remember, who owns your body?”

“You do, Mistress,” Lexi said emphatically.

“That’s right. The important point is that you don’t own your body. It’s out of your control. So no matter what happens around you, or to you, you will do as you’re told. Understand?”

Before Lexi could respond, she felt strong hands on her shoulders. Master Brian was pulling her up, so that she was kneeling on the seat, her dainty pale feet dangling where the chair’s back had previously been.

Megan slid aside Lexi’s keyboard and mouse and sat on the counter in front of her. From her kneeling position on the chair, Lexi had a perfect view as her mistress spread her pink pussy lips apart with her fingers.

“Your task,” Megan announced, “if you can handle it, is to make every person in the office cum.”

“I can do that, Mistress!” Lexi beamed.

“At the same time.”

Megan’s eyes were mischevious, but her expression was stern. She was absolutely serious. Lexi gulped involuntarily. This was no simple exercise. Her mistress was really going to challenge her.

“I’ll try, Mistress,” she said.

Megan smiled, and grabbed Lexi’s bald dome roughly, shoving the young slave’s mouth right into her pussy, where she lapped away in earnest determination.

She was falling into the rhythm of pleasuring Megan which she’d experienced on so many wonderful occasions, when she felt her hands tugged hard in opposite directions, nearly knocking her off her perch. She glanced up, and out of the corners of her eyes, she could just make out Becky and Amanda towering over her, twisting her fingers so they were primed for service, and shoving Lexi’s digits into their slick twats.

Working on three pussies at once was disorienting. Lexi had plenty of experience with multiple partners, but she’d never been in such a position of responsibility, and in truth she was a little scared that she wouldn’t be able to perform to the standards her mistress had set for her. Every time she tried to focus on the tasks of her hands, her tongue would slow, and Megan would gently swat the back of her smooth head. And when she’d make her mouth the primary instrument, she’d hear disappointed whimpers from the sultry blondes at her fingertips.

But, gradually, she started to develop a system, matching the strokes of her hands with the swipes of her tongue, meeting pinches with sucks, plunging inwards into three women at once. The effort was by no means simple, but in time, it was increasingly successful.

‘I can do this,’ she thought. ‘I can do this!’

And then she felt the pressure on her cunt from behind, and her concentration faltered.

Master Brian’s cock was tremendous in girth and hardness, and she had, of course, felt its power inside her womb on many occasions. But no matter how many times she’d been party to the Master’s member, she still had a hard time accommodating such a prodigious rod inside her sex. There was still a bit of pain associated with his entrance. Of course, she’d been trained to associate pain with pleasure, and she was gushing wet in short order, making his invasion easier. Yet still, it was a challenge for her tight little pussy, and combined with the mental gymnastics of triple-teaming mewling women around her, it was enough to cause her thoughts to briefly shut down.

When Lexi came to, moments later, Megan was grinding her groin on Lexi’s maw in frustration.

“Come on, slut, just because you have a cock in your twat doesn’t mean you can stop fucking eating my cunt!” Megan was shouting, and Lexi snapped back into action as quickly as she could. First she dove her tired tongue back into the business of caressing Megan’s clit, then she worked herself back into the system of toying with Becky’s and Amanda’s soft wet holes.

Master Brian, being merciful, took slow strokes, allowed her to find her breath and get comfortable with her position. Getting gently fucked with such a massive cock while she was pleasuring her mistress, her fellow slave, and her wet-dream of a coworker was making Lexi wetter and wetter, and the wetter she got the more confident she felt that she was doing her mistress proud.

Behind her, she heard muttered whispering, and a giggle or two. Lexi paid it no attention. She was learning how to focus and deal with distractions, after all. And she so badly wanted to learn.

There was a shuffling of bodies behind her, and Master Brian briefly stopped penetrating her in order to re-position himself. Lexi tried not to notice, but that became impossible when the sensation of insertion came back, not just to her pussy, but to her asshole too.

She stole a glance over her shoulder despite herself and saw a curious sight: Master Brian had Abby in his arms, her legs wrapped backwards around his waist so that her favorite fat strap-on was pointing directly down into Lexi’s anus. With Brian in control, he slid inside, and Abby was pushed in at the same time. Lexi was dizzy with the bizarre feeling of two nearly identical members sliding in and out of her at the same exact rhythm.

Suddenly, Megan tugged hard on Lexi’s ears.

“Get back to licking my pussy, you bald little cunt!” she screamed.

Lexi complied, earnestly, and soon she was devouring her mistress, fingering Amanda and Becky, and taking two thick cocks in her rear holes (one which was vibrating at high speed), all at the same time.

She was learning.

Wild moans and heavy sighs filled the room. Megan was awash in bliss, her hands rubbing spirals all about Lexi’s scalp. Her toes curled, her feet propped against the pale fleshy hips of Becky and Amanda, who each threw back their heads in ecstasy. She watched Abby turn her head and kiss Master Brian, suckling at his tongue and meeting it with her own.

Megan and Brian locked eyes. An understanding passed between them. He nodded.

Megan grinned down at her prized possession.

“Do you understand now, Lexi?” she said. “Can you handle one more big distraction?”

Lexi’s mind was filled with conflicting thoughts, countless screeching cloudy voices crowding her every breathing moment, and she was sure she’d never find her way out of the fog, when suddenly, with her mistress’s words, a light pierced the wisps, and everything was clear. Her body was an amalgam of independently moving parts, all of which she controlled with perfect finesse. She understood everything. She felt like she could do anything.

She moaned her assent.

Megan signaled Brian.

“CUM!” he cried, and the mere sound of his commanding voice made every woman in the room shudder and quake in orgasm.

Abby, bouncing in and out of Lexi’s twat with each of Master’s thrusts, bellowed as the direct stimulation on her clit from her dildo made her squirt all over Lexi’s round bottom.

Amanda grabbed Lexi’s wrist and shoved as much of her slave sister’s hand into herself as she could manage, her blond tresses dancing sweatily over her perfect round fake titties.

Becky tugged on her bulbous nipples and shrieked in joy, the walls of her twat squeezing around Lexi’s digits so hard she almost broke them.

Megan’s body tensed and she almost involuntarily jammed her pussy against Lexi’s face, smothering her slave to the point of nearly drowning her in gushing hot juices.

Master Brian, for his part, shot a huge, pent-up, potent load of seed deep into Lexi’s tender sex.

Lexi blacked out.

When she came to, Lexi was on the floor, looking up into a forest of hanging tits, dripping slits, bubble butts, horny sluts, and perfect, loving, glorious faces.

“Thank you, Mistress,” she said.

Megan smiled. “You’re welcome, Lexi. I think things are going to be a lot better from now on.”

Brian hung back and enjoyed the sight of his handiwork as the girl’s composed themselves and got back to their stations, one by one. He closed his laptop and patted it in satisfaction.

He heard Becky say behind him, “Wait, what about Jenny? She didn’t get to cum.”

Megan chuckled. “I said every PERSON in the office would cum. Jenny’s not a person, she’s just a fuckdoll.”

The girls all giggled, even Jennifer, who seemed perfectly content with her new position at the bottom of the pecking order. Brian felt a little bad about reducing her this much; he hated her, truly, but he always believed it’s better to make your enemies understand your position rather than punish them for not accepting you. Maybe he could make her smarter again, but just make her a nicer person.

Maybe. Later.

For now, he glanced at the clock and noticed that this shift was almost over, and the next shift would be coming in soon. The thing about working at an answering service was that it had to be open 24/7/365, no matter what. Just because the business model was a bit…different, that didn’t mean the work was over.

Besides, the next shift was full of older women and his fellow loser male coworkers, among them Lexi’s brother Lance. He had plenty of benevolent gifts to bestow on them all.

He took a step out of the main office and across the hall. The door was closed. He knocked. “Come in!” a voice chimed.

Brian stepped into the room, dimly lit, and found his boss sitting comfortably in front of her computer. She wore a simple grey sweater and jeans over her stick-like frame, weathered after years of smoking and raising kids on her own. Her short gray hair was dyed a faded blonde, and it shook about her temples limply as she turned to face him.

“What can I do for you, Brian?” she asked.

He closed the door behind him. He sat across from her, and opened that laptop that he’d been clutching in his hands.

“I’ve got a business proposal I wanted to run by you, Joann,” he said. “I think you’re going to like it a lot.”