Chapter 1

Heather Sovert pounded on the bathroom door. "Melinda!"

Just barely heard over the sound of the rushing water was a curse and the swish of a shower curtain being yanked to one side. "What?!"

"How the hell much longer are you going to take?!"

"Forever!" came her little sister's indignant reply. "If you keep interrupting me!"

"You're going to use up all the hot water!"

"Oh, forgive me, my Queen! You're so generous to allow us peasants the use of the royal hot water!"

"You suck, Melinda!"

"Love you too, sis!" There was another swishing noise, then just the sound of the water running.

Heather was about to make another sharp retort but it died before it could reach her lips. She folded her arms under her naked breasts, pushing them up into two swollen orbs. She tossed her head to one side in annoyance as a strand of her flaming red hair drifted before one of her green-gray eyes.

She tried to maintain her anger towards her little sister and failed miserably. With a forlorn sigh she turned and leaned her back against the frame of the bathroom door.

Heather wrapped her arms more tightly about herself, suddenly feeling self-conscious about her nudity. This was a first for the sixteen-year-old girl. Ever since the House, it seemed that both she and Melinda had become more comfortable with casual nudity, at least in the privacy of their own room.

Heather's eyes clouded. She had been blaming the House for a lot of things over the latter half of summer in the sleepy town of Haven. Not the least of which were her own feelings at the moment.

Her eyes drifted over the bedroom she shared with her thirteen-year-old sister. No, fourteen now, she corrected herself. With as preoccupied as Heather had been the last week or so, she had forgotten that it had been her sister's birthday not long ago.

The room still looked very different to her now. Heather used to have free reign in this room. Everything had centered around her. It was as if Melinda's presence was simply a courtesy that Heather had extended to her. But after everything that had happened between them that summer, Melinda had asserted herself and taken over her fair half of the room. Heather had not stopped her.

Unfortunately, now it made Heather feel like a stranger here.

She forced herself to drop her arms, her shapely breasts falling naturally again over her chest. The nipples were slightly raised. Heather felt a small tingle in her sex. A distressed look came over her face and she closed her eyes.

God, not now, please, she silently begged. She's my sister, dammit. She...

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the shower stop.

"Finally," Heather muttered, and turned around in anticipation.

She passed the minutes impatiently. The silence was again filled, this time with a whirring noise.

"Argh! Melinda!" Heather shouted, pounding on the door again.

The whirring stopped. The door flew open. "What the fuck do you want?! Or are you afraid I'm going to use up all the hot air in the hair drier now?"

Heather paused a moment, and simply stared at her little sister.

Melinda Sovert stood with one hand on the knob of the door and the other holding a hair drier. Her straight, red-brown hair lay limp against her neck and back, brown eyes dark and indignant. Heather's eyes began to slide down Melinda's body. Heather caught herself before they could get much further than the round swells of Melinda's breasts, still smallish on the late-bloomer's chest. Heather's eyes rested briefly on the perky nipples before snapping back to Melinda's face.

"I just want to get ready for school, that's all," Heather said in a weaker voice.

"And you're so hot to go back?"

"Yes, actually, I am. I want to get the hell out of this place for a bit. You know why."

Melinda paused, her face falling. Yes, she knew. Or rather, she knew one of the reasons, the one shared between them.

"Yeah, sure," Melinda said acidly. "School will be soooo much better than this. Right."

She slammed the door loud enough to make Heather flinch. A second later, the whirring of the drier continued.

Heather covered her eyes with a hand briefly and sighed as she turned and leaned against the door frame again.

She had forgotten that this was going to be Melinda's very first day at Haven High School. Her little sister was going to have to deal with a new school on top of what the House had done to them.

Heather knew as the others did. The House had been an extension of the spirit of Mara Sanders, the woman that had been kept as a sex slave many decades ago. After escaping from this fate, a fate that had been induced by a drug that stole her mind and allowed another to command her completely, she had discovered that her mind had been permanently altered. She could see visions, and these visions had told her of the "darkness" that was coming to Haven.

Yet it was easier to think of the House rather than Mara. It was easier to hate something that was a physical entity rather than a ghost. It was easier to blame the House for giving them the same powers to enslave others as a sort of test, only to take it away and give them something else in return, something that made living in their own home a nightmare.

Heather suddenly felt ill with guilt.

Her little sister had it harder than she did. Heather sometimes could not see it, or could make it go away for a short time. Melinda saw it all the time. She saw it in people they passed on the street when Heather could see nothing or almost nothing. And Melinda was terrified of starting school this semester, of what she might see when she looked at the other students.

Yet Heather thought it preferable to seeing it in their own home.

Heather was so lost in thought that she did not realize Melinda was done until she caught Melinda stepping past her out of the corner of her eye.

"There, your majesty," Melinda said in a snide voice without turning around. She padded over to the dresser. "Have fun, Queen Bubblehead."

Heather's gaze lingered on her sister's naked rear as the younger sibling bent over to yank some underthings from the bottom drawer. "Hey, runt," Heather said in a soft voice.

Melinda bolted up and faced her big sister, shooting a glare. "What did I do wrong now?"

Heather paused again. Melinda's breasts had jiggled a bit as she stood. Maybe they were starting to grow some more after all, Heather thought, but quickly pushed it aside. "Um... I'm sorry."

Another long pause. Melinda's anger faded. "Forget it," she said simply.

"Look... if you want, I'll stick close to you today, okay? At least until we know..."

"Until we know what?" Melinda snapped. Like a typical teenage girl, her indignation was on a hair-trigger. "Until we know who the bogeymen are?"

Heather forced herself to repress a smile. She remembered Melinda coining that term for people she saw with the aura. They had laughed at it, though it was just to stop them from being scared. Now Heather doubted Melinda had humor in mind when she said it.

"Maybe it's nobody," Heather said. "I mean, come on, they're kids."

"Yeah, and so were we when we found the House. What's your point? And what about the teachers, huh? Think I want to sit in a class with a teacher that looks like that?"

Heather sighed. "I don't know what to tell you, Melinda."

"Don't tell me anything, okay? No, wait, I take that back... tell me how you do it."

Heather blinked. "Do what?"

"How you can ignore it. How you can make it go away."

"I can't do that."

"Yes, you can!" Melinda cried shrilly. "You can! I've seen you!"

"Melinda, don't shout," Heather said crossly, slipping back into big-sister mode.

"Then how are you able to stay in the same room with Mom for more than five minutes at a time?!" Melinda whisper-shouted.

Heather had been trying to avoid their mother for the past week, but it was hard to get Melinda to see this. The younger sister still was bitter over how Heather had been their mother's darling for so long, how their mother had bent over backwards for Heather and did little for Melinda.

"I don't know," Heather said quietly. "I don't know how I do it. Sometimes... sometimes if I look at her in the right way, it sort of fades into the background."

Melinda shuddered. "I can't even get myself to look at her long enough for that to happen."

She got no response from her big sister, as there simply was nothing more to be said on the subject from either of them. Melinda just sighed and shook her head, turning away.

Heather was about to head into the bathroom when she paused. "Wait, Melinda, turn around again."

Melinda whirled. "What now?"

Heather's eyes drifted down Melinda's naked body. A very small shudder went through her. "You shave?"

Melinda looked puzzled. "What, and you don't shave your own legs?"

"No, I don't mean that, I mean your... "

"My what?"

"Your... your pubes."

Melinda's eyes widened. She blushed. "Okay, yeah, I do. So?"

Heather's eyes lingered on Melinda's bare pussy. She had not had a very thick bush to begin with, but with it gone, Melinda's slot seemed to bulge from between her legs, despite how slim and tight the labia were. "Why are you doing it?" Heather asked in a weak voice.

Melinda's blush deepened. "Jason likes it that way," she said sheepishly.

Heather blinked. "Jason? You and he aren't... ?"

"No, of course not. He asked me to shave it just so it can sit behind my panties without him seeing it. Happy?"

"You're only thirteen!"

"Fourteen. I know it's hard for you bubbleheads to count that high but..."

"Stop it, Melinda," Heather snapped. "You can't do this."

"Why not? I boinked him enough in the House."

"That was different! You were protected."

Melinda's cheeks were glowing scarlet now. "Heather, God, will you stop it?" she cried, flustered. "We're not stupid. Not every guy's like Brad the Wonder Twit."

"Shut up about him."

"Why? You dumped him, didn't you?"

Sometimes Heather wished she had not. It would have given her someplace to go during the last month of summer. And someone to distract her from thoughts she should not be having. "That's not the point. You were only doing it because..."

"Heather, we like each other, okay? Yeah, maybe we did it before because of the... you know... but not now."

Heather swallowed. The slow burn in her pussy that had started when she first saw Melinda strip herself naked before heading into the bathroom for her shower was turning into a raging fire. Her nipples were hard and tingled madly. She squeezed her legs together tightly as heat flashed over her skin.

"Okay, never mind," Heather said shakily. "Sorry I mentioned it. Just get dressed for school, okay?"

Heather quickly turned and dashed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her before Melinda could notice her arousal.

Melinda sighed and shook her head. "Yeah, maybe you don't act like you hate me anymore, but you're still too bossy," she muttered.

"Jason!"

Jason Conner ignored his mother's shout from the bottom of the stairs for as long as he dared. He remained seated at his computer, his web browser opened to nearly ten different pages in as many windows. The one he had before him now, his eyes avidly tracking the text line to line, was a treatise entitled "Bioelectric Phenomena in Human Beings". The window just under it bore the title "Chaos Theory as Applied to Mass Suggestion", and another under it was labeled "Body Auras as Astral Projection -- A Case Study".

"Jason!"

Jason shook his head. Not yet. He had not heard the garage door go up.

He pushed a hand through his disheveled black hair. He had barely finished dressing just minutes before. Much of it had been done in front of the computer, eyes staring at a similar scientific report. It showed. His shirt was wrinkled, and his belt was loose, causing one side of his jeans to slip down and reveal the waistband of his briefs.

He furrowed his brow at something he just read. He uttered a small sigh. This did not appear to tell him what he wanted to know either. He closed the window and began to peruse the one about chaos theory.

Truth be told, Jason was not quite sure what he was looking for. Perhaps he was not looking for anything. He had done this same research several times over during the latter half of the summer and had found nothing to explain any of what he saw.

No, this time it was just a stalling tactic.

"Jason Herbert Conner!"

Jason rolled his eyes and silently cursed. That was as far as he could push it. If he pushed it further, he'd just bring his Mom up the stairs.

He leapt out of his chair, his lanky frame crossing the room in a few quick strides. His jeans threatened to slip further down his hips. He grabbed at it, looking almost comical as he held it from falling. He stepped over to the open door of his room even as he redid the belt. A sign on the outside of the door read "Captain's Quarters." Or it used to, as he had taped the word "Admiral" over "Captain" recently.

"What is it, Mom?" Jason called out as politely as he could muster.

"Get down here, now!"

"I'm getting ready for school, Mom! Give me a few more minutes."

At that moment, there was a soft chime from the PC. Jason turned his head and saw that the IM window had popped up.

"Jason, don't make me come up there, you get down here and..."

In desperation, Jason latched onto the only thing he could think of. "You want me down there naked?"

"Huh? What... you're not even dressed yet?!"

"I just got out of the shower! Give me a few minutes, 'kay?"

"Oh for... If you miss the bus, young man, you're walking!"

Jason shook his head and turned away from the door. The school bus was not due for at least another half hour. It was just an excuse to get Jason downstairs to see his father before the man left for the hospital, where he worked as a neurosurgeon.

Or so he claimed.

Jason's jaw tightened as he crossed back to the computer. He did not want to see his father again until he had some of this sorted out. He wanted to understand what he was seeing and what it meant.

Yes, there was Mara's explanation. Sorry, but this was not good enough for Jason the empiricist.

His expression softened as he plopped himself into his seat and saw that it was "havenprincess1" that had IM'ed him, otherwise known as Melinda Sovert. He grinned and typed a brief "how are you" in response under his handle, "admiralgeek99".

After a few moments, Melinda replied, "Oh miss big bossy bubblehead is being a pill as usual"

Jason furrowed his brow and responded: "Thought she was getting better with all that"

Melinda replied: "yeah she was but shes been on my case 4 the last week." A second later she followed this with "oops sorry :("

Jason smirked. He had told Melinda when they started IM'ing each other that he despised chat-speak. Melinda sometimes forgot, but Jason really didn't mind. He typed: "It's okay. Maybe she's worried about school? You're nervous, too."

Melinda replied: "Don't know what her damn problem is, she can turn it off. I cant :("

Jason sighed. At least with her and Heather it was consistent. His ability seemed to flicker on and off. He couldn't stand being the same room with his father anymore. Sometimes he'd go a long while and everything looked normal, so long as he didn't think about it too hard. The moment his thoughts drifted, there it was. Seeing his father like that made him feel physically ill and emotionally drained.

Just as he was about to type a reply, there was a low rumbling sound under his feet. He nodded in satisfaction. The garage door was going up. His father would be gone in a few minutes.

"Sorry, Melinda, gotta go," he typed back. "Mom's kind of mad at me, so I have to placate her before I go. See you on the bus?"

Melinda sent back a quick reply: "Wait". She then began a longer response. "Heather knows we're doing it. Thought you should know."

Jason felt himself blush slightly, but he was smiling. If there had been anything good that came out of the incident with the House, it was that he now had a sex life. "She okay with it?" he typed back.

"I dont give a shit if she is. She cant stop us."

Jason sighed. "We won't have a lot of time anymore with school."

"yeah i know :( :( :("

Jason paused, then grinned. "Maybe we can 'study' together after school."

":giggle: yeah, study. You'll study me real good wont you? ;)"

"If you did that little thing I asked, yep."

":blush: thats how she found out."

"You mean she noticed it? You shaved it that well?"

":whimper: yes I got it really smooth for you."

Another rumble reverberated through the floor as the garage door went down.

Jason took a deep breath and let it go. He was letting his imagination run a little too wild with this. He already felt a stirring in his pants. He didn't need that sort of distraction right now.

Fortunately, something more pressing came up.

"Jason, if you do not get down here in one minute, your father will hear about this!"

Jason was actually relieved. If the conversation with Melinda had continued along these lines, he was going to need relief of an entirely different sort.

"I'm going to look forward to it. I have to go, Mom's calling. I'll see you later."

"OK. BB."

"I'm coming!" Jason called out. He quickly logged out of his IM and stood. He swiped his hair with his comb a few times and jogged out of the room, grabbing his backpack by the door as he went.

As soon as he turned into the hallway, he saw the auburn-haired woman standing at the bottom of the stairs, her arms folded, her face set hard. Jason paused and sighed. "I'm sorry, Mom," he said softly.

"Your father wanted to see you off on your first day back," said Audrey Conner in clipped tones. "He purposely delayed some appointments this morning so he could."

Jason had wondered why his father had not already been gone by the time he awoke. Henry Conner worked such long hours anymore that it was a rarity that he and Jason were in the house at the same time anymore. For the time being, this suited Jason just fine.

Jason trudged down the stairs, aware of his mother's glare on him the whole time. Jason hated antagonizing his mother like this. He still felt guilty over what he had done to her when he had had the power that the House had given him. Several times he had controlled her to make her rescind a punishment.

Since then, Audrey never dared mete out punishment to Jason herself. It was always "your father will hear about this." And he always did. It was simply that Jason then rarely heard from his Dad past that.

In fact, if Jason started talking back to his mother, she would grow flustered and fearful, as if expecting that he was going to do it to her again. He doubted that she ever fully understood what had happened to her. All she knew was that it had frightened her very badly.

From what Jason had seen, however, he was sure that his father had understood.

"I'm really sorry, Mom," Jason said contritely. He didn't have to fake it. He didn't hate his father. He just wanted to avoid the man until he more fully understood what was going on.

Audrey uttered a suffering sigh. "I guess I should be glad you're not like the other kids and give your parents a hard time about going back to school."

Jason gave her a wan smile. Admittedly, this time around, he was not really that enamored of going back. He hated the idea of his time with Melinda being curtailed so much. It was not just about the sex. He just liked her, period.

And like Melinda, he was a little afraid of what he might see among the other students. Or the faculty.

Jason could not help but be a little cheeky here. "And I'm unlike a lot of students in another way. I pull straight A's all the time."

One corner of Audrey's mouth rose. "I am very grateful for that, young man. Now just make sure you keep it up. Don't let your girlfriend distract you."

Jason blushed at this, even though it was unlikely his mother was thinking about the same thing he was when the word "distraction" was mentioned. He managed a small smile. "I'll try not to, Mom."

The water from the shower hit Heather hard as she stood slightly bent over, the water cascading off her back. It swirled about her feet up to her ankles, the water coming down a little too fast for the slow drain to keep pace. She slid one foot abruptly to the side and back, splashing water almost to the top of the tub. She leaned forward, one hand on the wall of the shower before her, the other between her legs.

Chapter 2 »