Chapter 2

According to the bedside clock, it was just after seven when Brian woke up. He was feeling a little groggy, probably from jet lag and the booze and everything else that happened. But good, I'm feeling good after sex with Helena last night, the good feeling of a man who has pleased his woman.

For a moment, Brian couldn't believe it was true. Charlie wanted him to inherit everything he possessed, including his girls, his harem. He had sex - fantastic sex - with Helena, the most beautiful woman he had ever met. And that was Charlie's doing too, to tempt him.

And then there was Charlie's secret: the artifact. Yeah the artifact, that was where it all came from. Somehow, the artifact could stop time. And while time was stopped people, other humans, could be conditioned and turned into willing slaves.

Of course it was wrong. What Charlie did was immoral, even if those he enslaved loved him and seemed to be happy. I won't do it, I know it's wrong, too wrong. They don't have any choice, they have to believe whatever they're conditioned to. It's immoral, there's no question about it.

Throwing off the blanket, he sat up. He looked around the bedroom, at all the evidence of Charlie's incredible wealth. He thought about last night with Helena. She liked it, liked me. Maybe she'll want to stay with me even if I don't use the artifact. He hadn't thought a lot about another relationship since Linda. The Bitch, she dumped me two weeks after I gave her that expensive bracelet. But maybe with Helena...

He climbed out of bed and found his shorts tangled in the bedclothes. He used the toilet and returning to the bedroom, stood in front of the 'Odalisque' painting. He stared at it for several moments. No, it will just tempt me, better not.

But as though it had a will of its own, his hand reached out. Just once, it won't hurt to see how it works, he told himself as he removed the painting from the wall, opened the safe and took out the leather bag. Quickly, he opened the bag and removed the artifact. Leaving the bag and notebook on the desk, he stood in the middle of the room holding the artifact in his left hand.

Using his right hand, he slid the pin all the way to the end of the slot and released it. The first thing he noticed was the silence. There was no noise at all, no whisper from the air-conditioning, no rustle of wind, he could barely hear the sound of his own breathing. Am I breathing? He drew in a deep breath, noticing how difficult it was, as if he had a great weight on his chest. Of course he was breathing, he wasn't going to be smothered. Charlie wasn't smothered when he used the artifact, he should have known that.

"Shit," he said out loud, his voice sounding strange in the timeless place. The outburst was because he noticed his watch on the desk, where he left it last night. Slowly, he walked across the room, finding movement difficult, like wading through waist-deep water.

He looked at his watch on the desktop. It seemed to be stopped, he couldn't even see the second hand moving. He knew it had to be moving, but so slowly it was undetectable. He reached out his hand, again encountering the resistance, and picked it up. Immediately, the second hand started moving. He put the watch on his wrist, noting the time - subjective time, his time. But he didn't know how much he had already used up.

Slowly, pushing hard against the resistance, he made his way to the room door. Turning the knob wasn't too hard, but he needed to use all his strength to pull the door open. He waded into the hall and headed for Charlie's room.

By the time he got to Charlie's open door his watch said he had used up more than a minute of subjective time. Shit, I've got between two and three minutes, and I've probably used up at least half that. He stood outside Charlie's room trying to decide what to do. His indecision costing him more precious seconds until he thought to look at the artifact. Yeah, the pin was about three-quarters of the way back to its original position. Quickly, he turned and began wading back up the corridor.

As he neared his room, he noticed Suzanne frozen in time on her way up the stair carrying a tray with a silver coffee service. He just managed to get inside his room and close the door behind him before suddenly objective time resumed. There was sound again, the soft whisper of the air-conditioning, the barely noticeable rustle of the wind outside, and his own heavy breathing. He sat down on the bed, panting from the effort of pushing against the force of time. I need to get in better shape.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Hold on," he called, jumping up to stuff the artifact back into its bag, putting it away in the safe, then locking up, and rehanging the painting.

There was another knock. Turning to the door, "Come in," he shouted. When there was no response, he shouted again. This time the door opened and Suzanne came in carrying the tray with the coffee service.

"We thought you might like your coffee now," she said, smiling as she placed the tray on the table. "Breakfast will be at eight in the back dining room, where we had supper yesterday." She stood there, dressed in cut-off shorts and a tee-shirt. All Charlie's girls are beautiful.

"Thank you," he replied, taking a step toward the table. "I'll be right down, as soon as I get dressed."

Her green eyes wandered down to his boxers, then back up to his face. "Okay, I'll tell Helena," giving him another bright smile before turning and leaving the room.

He poured the coffee. Still standing by the table, he quickly swallowed the hot, bitter liquid, his thoughts on everything that had happened, that was happening. He poured another cup and took it with him into the bathroom.

He turned on the shower, dropped his shorts on the floor, and stepped into the luxurious bath. Brian hadn't really thought about it before, but there was room for at least three in the big, oval tub. Quickly he soaped up, rubbing thick lather over himself, over the hair on his chest, then lower, over his pubic hair. He washed his dick, wondering again why Helena seemed so impressed by it. Probably just flattery. Well, can't say I mind a beautiful girl wanting to please me.

While rinsing off, he noticed the paunch he was beginning to develop. He resolved again to get into better shape. When he got out of the shower he weighed himself on the digital scale, almost one-ninety-five. Not too bad for nearly six feet, he decided, but he could probably lose ten pounds. He'd start getting into shape right away.

He shaved, brushed his teeth and got dressed, realizing he would need more clothes - he hadn't planned on a long stay. Downstairs, the girls had already started breakfast. They stood when he arrived, then waited for him to take his seat before sitting down again.

Beside a brief "Good Morning," Helena's only acknowledgment of him was a slight nod of her her head before he took his seat between her and Kristen. When he noticed Tina, Veronica and Vivian weren't at the table, "They had breakfast already," Kristen explained. "They go to community college in town. It's almost an hour drive, so they eat early."

Brian limited his breakfast to coffee, toast and juice. They worried he didn't like the food, but understood when he explained he wanted to lose weight and begin a fitness program. "I can show you the gym," Tamara said, "it's in the east wing."

After he finished, Helena put down her fork and turned to him. "Charlie wants to see you after breakfast."

"Okay, I'm ready now," he said standing. The others stood too and waited for him to leave before retaking their seats.

Charlie looked about the same as yesterday. He ordered the nurse out and gestured Brian into the chair next to his bed. He stared into Brian's face for a second before asking, "Did you use it?" And when Brian didn't answer right away, "You son of a bitch, you did, didn't you? You couldn't help yourself. Well, what do you think?"

Brian lowered his eyes before looking again at Charlie. "Yeah, I couldn't resist. This morning, but I wasn't able to do anything. I didn't know moving would be so hard."

"It's best to get as close as possible before activating it," Charlie chuckled. "Now you can't use it till after sunrise tomorrow."

"Yeah, I should've listened to you."

"What do you think of Helena?" Charlie continued. "Isn't she something?"

"Yeah," Brian said, his voice low, averting his eyes.

"And that ass. You know, she's got those huge tits with a twenty-two inch waist and that beautiful big ass. Did you fuck it?"

"Yeah, I fucked her."

"That's not what I asked. Did you fuck her in the ass?"

"Charlie, don't you know? I fucked her, but not in the ass."

"No, I don't know. She told me she went to your room, but she didn't tell me what you did, and I didn't ask."

"Yeah, she came to my room and we had sex. She said that's what you wanted, to give me a taste of what you're offering. But I didn't fuck her in the ass. I never..."

"Okay, what do you think? Isn't she worth it? Aren't they all worth it? And all this?" waving his hand to encompass the ranch and all that went with it.

"Yeah, she's great, they're all great, this is all great. But I don't know. Don't you think turning people into slaves is wrong, immoral?"

Charlie started to reply, but was overtaken by coughing. When the coughing stopped he looked at Brian, his eyes watery. "Don't give me that, I know some of the things you did over there, in Iraq, things we all did, wrong things, immoral things. Everything I have can be yours, my fortune, this place, my other places, the girls, and with the artifact, anything ... anyone you want. Don't turn all of it down over a few small moral questions, I know you want it. Take it, I'm giving it to you on a silver platter. And if you don't take it, well you're a goddamn fool."

For a long time, Brian didn't say anything, then he asked, "Why do you care? Why do you care what happens after you're gone?"

"It's all I have, the artifact and what I got from it, and I want it taken care of, taken care of the right way. I know you can be trusted with it and that you're good, at least not too bad, maybe not as bad as me."

Brian started to say something, but Charlie ignored him and continued speaking. "And I owe you for saving my life, as worthless as that is now. And I want the girls taken care of. I owe them." Raising his head, his eyes bright as he stared into Brian's face. "But ... but if you decide you don't want the artifact, destroy it, destroy it as soon as you can."

Charlie laid his head down again and continued. "When they learn I'm dead, the conditioning I gave the girls and the others, my ... my other servants, will be transferred to you. It's all arranged, I've had months, almost a year, to set it up. If you decide you don't want them, you can liberate them using the procedures in the notebook. You'll still have everything else, the money, the investments, all my other assets, you're not dumb enough to turn those down, are you?"

Brian shook his head 'no' and started to say something, but Charlie interrupted. "You don't know this, but most of the girls are better off with me, and they'll be better off with you. Helena was going wild with drugs and sex, Tamara was a call-girl, Kristen was close to suicide after losing her baby, and now they're happy and leading productive lives. And if you can give them the children they want - most of them want, the younger ones aren't ready yet - they'll be even happier."

Brian didn't ask why Charlie only helped out beautiful girls, but instead said, "You're right, it would be crazy to turn all this down, the money, the ranch, the investments, but I don't think I can keep the slaves. I guess I'll need to use the artifact if I want to liberate them. But slavery, I think that's one thing I just can't do, but I'll think about it."

"Okay, Brian, you think about it, I need to rest now." With that, Charlie turned his head away and closed his eyes.

Brian walked out of the room, sending the nurse, who was waiting in the hall, back inside. He went into the master bedroom, his bedroom, noticing that while he was gone the bed had been made and the room cleaned, Like a hotel. After locking the door behind him, the first thing he did was make a thorough check of the room, something he didn't get around to yesterday.

The huge walk-in closet was full of Charlie's clothes, most too big for Brian. Gotta get more clothes, he reminded himself. He looked over the bar, containing more different kinds of liquor and wine than he knew existed. Brian was mostly a beer and pretzels kind of guy. He found a jar of salted peanuts, which he munched on while he continued exploring the bedroom.

In the drawer of one of the two bedside tables, the one with the phone and digital clock, there was a laminated card listing the girls' extensions. Helena's was first, with the number 01, which she had given him yesterday. On the back of the card were listed the extensions of the fifteen men working at the ranch.

A control panel was installed into the side of the table. When he pushed the first button, a panel slid away to reveal a flat-screen TV that could be watched from the bed, the remote for the TV in the drawer. Other buttons turned on a stereo, controlled the air conditioning and lighting, and the last button slid aside a wall panel to reveal a huge mirror that reflected the full length of the bed.

On the other side of the bed, the table contained a plastic dildo and a vibrator in a small cloth bag, a long double dildo rolled into a circle and tied so it would fit in the drawer, K-Y lubricant, and a bottle of baby oil. Brian wasn't surprised at finding these objects since the kind of life Charlie was leading before he fell ill was pretty clear.

The desk had been cleaned out, except for a laptop. Probably his business manager had Charlie's papers now. Brian opened the safe and looked through the notebook some more. He found, and committed to memory, the password for Charlie's PC and the laptop. After he called his mother and told her he wouldn't be back for several weeks, he put the artifact and notebook back in the safe and went downstairs.

He was wandering through the big house looking for Tamara, when through the open doorway of the office next to Charlie's den he saw Helena talking to a big Mexican man. He could tell she noticed him, but she made no move to acknowledge him. She even avoided eye contact.

Continuing his wanderings, Brian heard the sound of a vacuum cleaner and followed it to a sitting room where Kristen and Suzanne were cleaning. "Uh," he interrupted, "can you tell me where I can find Tamara? She said she'd show me the gym."

Kristen stopped dusting and turned, her green eyes on him, "She's doing laundry. It's in back, next to the kitchen," pointing.

He found the kitchen by the back dining room, the laundry room next to it. "I'll show you the gym as soon as I put this load in," Tamara said with a smile. He sat down on a stool and watched the voluptuous African-American as she worked, her big breasts flowing inside her tee-shirt, her long legs and shapely bottom drawing his eyes.

And all the time he was sitting there, a seductive voice was whispering into his ear. She seems happy, doesn't she? You can have her too, along with Helena and the others. All you have to do is take what Charlie is offering.

After a few minutes, she turned and gave a little smile when she saw him watching. He followed as Tamara gave him a tour of the house. "The main building, in the middle, is the original two-story house that was here when Charlie bought the ranch. Then he added the two wings, each wing almost as big as the main building, plus the men's dorm, the garage for his antique car collection, and most of the other buildings."

The gym was in the east wing, just before the indoor swimming pool. The much larger outdoor pool was just outside and could be accessed from the indoor pool, the gym and the back patio. The gym had all the exercise equipment anyone could want, including a couple of treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical trainers, weight machines and a host of other equipment.

"Us girls need this to keep in shape," Tamara said. "Not so much the younger girls, and besides they're pretty busy with school, but the rest of us."