Chapter 5: Root Causes

November 10th - December 10th, 1986

Monday morning, during our second hour, Joey and I were on the bed in our room upstairs enjoying getting our tubes cleaned by Linda and Missy while Brad and Joe Mason were focused on drawing the anger and fear symbols. Surprisingly, those symbols didn’t necessarily have to be used to make someone feel them. Instead, we were making people recall a memory of when they had felt them.

That had been Brad’s idea. Drawers were usually the targets of the commands unless we found another volunteer to use them on. The complex details of the shape of the symbols weren’t something you could really keep in your head very long. It really was like visualizing something in the dark while feeling it out with your hands. We had to emit the symbol and then feel it out.

After applying the stimulation treatment to their asses the previous week and had them begin stretching the buttholes, I was looking forward to fucking Missy’s ass at the end of the session. Joey and I had been working on some modifications to the slave programming so the two personas were somewhat interactive. I wasn’t concerned about other voices tracking me down through them. If that were to happen, the twins would go in and zap the shit out of them.

And Joey and I were starting to develop different telepathic games to strengthen each other against a hostile telepath attacking us. Last Friday, we spent nearly the entire day at school attacking each other. We hadn’t paid much attention to anything else. I accidentally headed to my sixth hour class for fifth hour and would have walked into the classroom if Joey hadn’t asked where the hell I was right before I did.

I was getting really good at pushing mental tasks to the back of my mind. I wasn’t even really paying attention to adjusting my focus on the symbols based on where Joe wanted me to. Joey had to use all his concentration to do that which is why I wasn’t going to town on Missy’s ass yet. We wanted to take their cherries together.

Joe was a bright freshman in Joey’s and Suzi’s geometry class. While not technically a ring slave, his mind had been conditioned where he saw the three of us as different people and would obey us if we showed him our ring. That was just a precaution, and it was specifically designed so we couldn’t use him for sex without they agreeing to and accepting a ring like the other ring slaves.

We were planning on installing that into all the Golden Girls with the identities of the three of us and all the ring slaves being part of what the personas would hide from their normal personas. Julie was really looking forward to using her ring on some of the girls in the group. For a girl who didn’t care for girl on girl sex, she sure liked posing other girls like slutty dolls and ordering them around in slutty ways. To be honest, I think Joey and I enjoyed her doing it as much as she did.

Some of my flock were in that group, though only four of them knew my true identity. Part of what Joey and I were doing was making sure the rest didn’t discover that. I’d learned it was better they didn’t know who I was so they didn’t ask for favors later.

Suzi was getting a little jealous about how much time Joey and I were spending together. She kept telling us it was okay, but it still bothered her. Joey and I both kept trying to talk her into letting us share the telepathy ability with her through Joey’s share link, but Suzi was very firm about how one of us needed to stay grounded by not having those abilities until we knew we weren’t going to corrupt ourselves even more.

Suzi was the only person we’d even consider sharing it with. While Brad was our buddy and everything, he wasn’t part of the threesome. We didn’t even tell him about Joey’s share link being able to share telepathy with someone else.

Brad and Zoey hadn’t even lasted a week. Brad broke up with her on Sunday when she wanted him to take her and her girlfriends somewhere else. While we had offered to share the girls with him at the end of the period, Brad was reluctant to do it, worried he’d get used to doing that instead of having a girl of his own to love.

I suppose that’s why Suzi, Joey and I were all comfortable with each of us having sex with other people like that. Unlike Brad, we knew we weren’t going to split up no matter how good of the sex was with others. Our threesome sex was way more fulfilling on the emotional level than anything we could have with anyone else.

Joey and I taking Missy’s and Linda’s other cherries felt right somehow. Dawn was still a virgin and would remain one until her regular persona chose someone besides us to give it to. But once that happened, Joey was taking her ass. I had already taken Julie’s.

We didn’t know what all Suzi did with her boys. Joey and I only arranged for them to have the time together during school in our private room and kept our noses out of it.

Suzi didn’t mess with the girls, and Joey and I didn’t mess with the guys. That wasn’t a rule though. We just weren’t interested.

When Joey and I finally did penetrate and fuck Missy’s and Linda’s asses, we were so in sync with each other, we did it together at the same time, almost like we were twins. As we approached our climax together, I instinctively connected Suzi to me and shared out my senses with her.

That stirred the ever-glowing embers of our threesome, and that night we had the first telepathic threesome in several weeks. I was walking a little funny Tuesday morning and was glad I didn’t have basketball practice after school like Joey did that day.

I was still upset about not making the team and was tempted to do the copy and slip onto it. Joey and Brad were still pressuring me to do that, but Tuesday after school, I was too busy helping out with the afterschool tutoring with Suzi to worry about that.

Suzi took the tutoring very seriously, and despite it giving us the perfect opportunity to mess around, she wouldn’t hear of it. While I didn’t get as much fulfillment out of the tutoring as Suzi did, I didn’t mind doing it with her like that.

During a lull, I thought to her, <I forgot to mention Tracy approached me after fifth hour.>

<Approached you?>

<She stopped me in the hall calling me Shepherd and asked if I could call her later. She’s feeling restless and so is Christine. What do you think about hooking them up with Brad to form another threesome?>

<Doesn’t Christine have a boyfriend?>

<Christine’s been cheating on him with Tracy.>

<Since when?>

<About a week, I think. All your old girlfriends except Mindy have been periodically going back to each other for some girl loving. I’ve thought about using another dose of Timmy loving to get rid of that, but I don’t really want to unless they come to me asking for it.>

Suzi took a few minutes to think about that before asking, <Have you discussed it with Brad or Joey?>

<I wanted to run it by you first, and I wouldn’t want to mention it to Brad unless the girls were interested.>

<I don’t know, Timmy. Unless you do something to bond them together, I doubt it would last very long.>

<I don’t want to do anything besides suggest the idea. You know how the girls respect Shepherd’s opinion.>

Suzi said, <Let me think about it.>

I sent, <There’s something else... >

Suzi looked over at me and gave me her spill look.

<I got a call this morning. Jillian Love - the mall slut as you called her ... She’s pregnant.>

<Okay ... It happens.>

<She doesn’t know who the father is ... It’s unlikely but possible... >

<No, Timmy. You’re not saying it’s yours!>

<Uh, no. But it might be my friend Peter’s. If it is, then I’m indirectly responsible.>

With a patient look at me from across the room, Suzi sent, <Bullshit. Timmy, just because you pushed him to work at the mall where he met her doesn’t make you responsible.>

<I know that, but I used him, Suz. The only reason he even met Jillian is because I wanted someone to give me a lift to the mall regularly. My selfish actions have consequences.>

<Timmy, if he is the father, then that’s on him. You didn’t put them together. You’re not any more responsible than if Joey had gotten me pregnant that first time, or if Brad gets Christine or Tracy pregnant. Just because you played a hand in someone meeting, that doesn’t make you the cause of something like that. Besides, this might be a good thing for Julian in the long term. Look what getting pregnant with you did for your mother.>

As the chaos Julian’s pregnancy had been causing me evaporated, I smiled and said aloud across the room, “I love you.”

While everyone who heard me looked around to see who I was talking to, Suzi laughed and said, “I love you too, Timmy. Now stop flirting. Joey’s already getting grief from the grapevine about how much time you and I spend together.”

I said, “Like he cares.”

Tracy asked from three desks away where she was helping someone, “And you don’t?”

I said, “I’m too busy dealing with my own thoughts to care about what other people think. Like last night I had this urge to dye my pubes blonde. Why the hell would I want to do that?”

Suzi said, “To match Joey’s, maybe? His pubes are so blonde they’re almost transparent where yours are almost brown.”

Snickers in the room made Suzi realize she had said more than she should have, but instead of getting embarrassed, Suzi said, “Oh, for Pete’s sake. Grow up, people. They’ve been my boyfriends for over a year now.”

Jenny Whither asked, “Both of them? At the same time?”

Suzi looked at her and asked in an exasperated tone, “Why would you say that?”

Tory Dallas said, “Because that’s what the grapevine says.”

Suzi, flustered by that, looked at me and said, “Timmy! Did you hear about that?”

I shrugged and said, “You know I don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. The last I heard I was the rich playboy cheater.”

Suzi groaned and said, “That was last year.”

Seeing Suzi was getting upset, I said, “Look, officially Joey is Suzi’s boyfriend, and I’m Joey’s best friend. The truth of the matter is...”

I paused to let the tension build up while Suzi shot daggers at me.

I smiled at Suzi and finally said, “They’re both my best friends. There’s nobody else on the planet I’d rather spend my time with. But I’m too much like my dad and can’t commit to a single girl. So, Joey is Suzi’s boyfriend and I’m their rich playboy best friend. Anything beyond that is simply nobody else’s business.”

That night, Suzi called and told me Christina was interested in forming a threesome, but Tracy wasn’t, so I dropped that idea. I met Tracy before school the next day and learned she simply didn’t want to get involved with a relationship with a guy, just the occasional sex with no strings attached.

I spent the rest of the week after school working with the Golden Girls helping them learn their current dance. The 38 girls who had volunteered for my Timmy dancers met me and Joey Saturday morning at the school and I used one of my dad’s corporate busses to transport them to my mansion to begin working on our own dance routine.

That’s right. I had 38 sophomore, junior and senior girls willing to bare it all for me and a very select group of friends. In exchange, the girls got favors and perks which included a whopping orgasm at the end of each dance. I admit I did do a little pre-conditioning before asking them, but it was just so they weren’t uncomfortable about the nudity aspect. I actually had to exclude girls with large breasts as my dad’s titty tightening methods wouldn’t be very effective on them. Apparently, my dad started working in Vegas right before I was born and his first gig was titty tightening showgirl’s tits before big performances. What a world.

Seventeen girls from my flock were in that group, including Gwen and Robin who Joey was pushing to add to our harem. I was completely against it at first, but Joey pointed out they were both perfect candidates. Sexually experienced, not interested in long term boyfriends, and they both already knew my identity and secret.

But that wasn’t why he reason he wanted them. Gwen was Joey’s first girlfriend from seventh grade, and for a couple of years, Robin had publicly scorned Joey’s attempts to flirt with her. In a way, Joey had unfinished business with them both.

After a lot of soul searching, Suzi and I decided what the hell. If Joey could talk them into it, then we were okay with adding a few more. I had purchased ten women’s and five guys’ slave rings. That was the limit Suzi and I had agreed on while making up the rules. Once those rings were used up, we couldn’t add any more.

Joey somehow talked Gwen and Robin into it, and Suzi and I both verified they had made the choice of their own free will. They and Jen Cunningham, a bisexual junior, were inducted into the ring slaves after our Saturday practice right before Joey had to run off for basketball practice at noon. He and about a third of the girls took the bus back to school.

The twins were there for the entire practice and were surprisingly helpful in both selecting the music and choreographing the dance routine. They weren’t interested in performing in it, but they enjoyed getting involved in working out the motions with the girls. It was a collaborative effort between the twins, the girls, me and Joey.

After Joey left, the rest of the girls had lunch with me and the twins down at the pool. Everyone was still topless, and I kept imagining hearing Brad’s moans about missing out on that. The rest of the non-ring slaves left on the bus around 1:30 and the twins left shortly after that in the large limo. Dawn, Julie, Jen, Gwen, Robin and I kept ourselves entertained playing mixed limbs until the limo returned an hour later with the twins, Suzi, Tracy, Ben, Kyle, Brad, Joey, Sheryl, Missy and Linda. Janos was at work and wouldn’t be off until Suzi had to be back home.

Tracy was there as Suzi’s guest while Brad was Joey’s and mine. Joey had Gwen and Robin, Brad and I had Julie, Dawn, Jen and Sheryl, and the rest went with the twins, Suzi and Tracy to the south study.

Joey, Brad and I were in the north study, Joey taking his two up to the upper tier for some privacy.

As Brad and I got comfortable against the pillows, Julie silently positioned the other three into seductive poses.

Brad said, “Man, this is weird.”

I said, “They’re just roleplaying. They’re not really slaves. If you ask them to do something they really don’t want to do, they won’t do it.”

“But this goes against everything my dad says about women.”

I sighed and said, “No one is asking you to treat them as objects. If you’re not comfortable with this, why did you come?”

“Joey told me I was being a wimp and would miss out on a lot of pussy if I didn’t.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “Joey should know better. Shit, Brad. All that talk of wanting pussy, and when you’re offered some, you don’t want it?”

Brad sighed and said, “Man, I don’t know what I want. Ever since New Year’s, I’ve like been of two minds. I want to make love, but I’m horny for pussy. I’m afraid to have sex with a girl I don’t have feelings for or I might end up...”

When he didn’t finish, I asked, “You think Joey and I are ... what?”

“Man, this isn’t about you two. I mean, you have Suzi, right? I don’t really understand why the three of you need ... them,” Brad indicated the four girls, “But they’re your girls. I don’t have anyone but my sister right now. I think I need someone for myself. Someone I can have sex with that, if not for love, we’re doing it for me and her, not because you want them to. Does that make any sense?”

I smiled and said, “I think it does. If you want to do something else or head home...”

Brad said, “I better head home. Thanks, Timmy. Tell Joey I’m sorry.”

I said, “I think Joey should be the one apologizing to you. This life isn’t for everyone. I’m not sure I’m entirely into it myself.”

As it turned out, that life wasn’t for Tracy either. Brad and Tracy ended up going home in the limo together.

We only had an hour before Suzi had to leave as she and the twins were officially out shopping together with friends and had to be back by five. The limo barely got back in time to take her home.

Joey was frustrated by Brad’s departure and my so-called attitude concerning not tempting our friends like that. I didn’t push the matter until I could talk to Suzi about it. We all probably should have gone in the limo with Suzi, the twins and her guys since I wasn’t in the mood for anything else once Suzi left. But we ended up soaking in the new hot tub together talking about school and the other shit teens talk about.

After dropping off Joey and the girls, the twins and I headed north to join our parents.

I hated to admit to myself I was starting to see the advantages to the hybrid and how it affected people’s lives. How many parents wished they could somehow motivate their child to do well in school and stay away from drugs and alcohol? To be self motivated towards a goal in life and keep their noses clean of all the shenanigans teens liked to experiment with. Hell, their sex lives were rich and safe and were guaranteed a prosperous career they’d enjoy.

It all started with Ben and his coke habit and the ordeal with Scott’s drug dealer. While most teens who experimented with that shit usually go on and live normal lives, but there were always a few that didn’t. Some would be destined to end up on the streets or worse because they simply couldn’t control their habit.

That’s why I decided if I was going to learn how to fully develop hybrid personas in people, I wasn’t going to undo it later. I would take those kids who were destined to live unhappy lives and give them the life they should have had if they hadn’t been exposed to drugs.

I spent most of Sunday working out a plan, my dad getting involved when I explained I wanted to enslave them, but enslave them to the Shepherd or some other identity besides my own. We eventually decided to instead enslave the males to Vicki and the girls to me, using Adam and Eve identities. My mom was going to oversee the recruiting aspect, but Vicki and I, with Wanda’s help, would perform the actual seduction. I’d be doing all the telepathic heavy lifting. The twins seemed amused over the whole situation, but they wouldn’t explain why.

My grandmother was pleased to hear Higgs had arranged for me to work more independently starting on Monday. If that worked out, we were talking about letting me take a couple of extra classes next semester. Joey thought I was nuts, but I missed the challenge of Crow Academy’s eight-course workload. With the knowledge copy, I felt that wouldn’t be that big of a struggle. If I could handle the load, I’d be able to take some courses at Barnhoff College in the afternoon of my senior year.

On Monday, Brad shocked the three of us by stating he and Tracy had hooked up. They weren’t going to go steady, they just agreed to have casual sex whenever they were both in the mood for it. Tracy was also going to help Suzi and Brad come up with things for Sandi to do.

I certainly wasn’t bored that week. Between schoolwork, tutoring, working with the golden girls, having sex in some form with a ring slave each day, and then met Father Coolidge Wednesday evening up at the shelter to start the recruiting process, I went to bed early on Friday right after Joey’s and my Friday night fuck with the twins.

My power-lust was never stronger, too. It kept rewarding me for everything I was doing, and I was startled to realize it had been a year since I first felt the power-lust in that awful dream.

On the day before Thanksgiving, Suzi and I were in our first hour class taking a test. Suddenly Joey sent me an urgent mental message.

<John’s spazzing out! He’s ... Shit. He just fell down. We have to help him!>

Looking through Joey’s eyes, I saw John lying on the floor, twitching, his eyes rolled up into his head. People were panicking around him including Joey. I tried to access John’s mind, but it made me feel sick.

I exclaimed, “Shit!” which drew the attention of the people around me.

As I gathered my things up, I told Suzi, “John’s in trouble. I have to help him.”

I dashed out of my seat and ran out of the room. The teacher was yelling at me, and everyone else started talking at once. I left it far behind me as I reached the stairwell to go to the second floor where John’s and Joey’s class was.

As I climbed the stairs, I notified both the nurse and Dr. Higgs, letting them both know what had happened. The nurse wasn’t sure how she knew, but she didn’t hesitate to grab her medical kit and hustle upstairs.

I reached the classroom finding all the students had formed a circle leaving an open area immediately around John. The teacher was trying to get John to respond to her, but as I probed him, I found his heartbeat was very unsteady, and his thoughts were completely confusing to me.

I thought to Joey, <Share link, but just enough to let me share with John.>

Once I accepted the share link, I made my way through the circle of students. I reached out to John and had to command him to accept the share link I was offering to him. I was quickly was getting sick, and by the time I got to John’s side, I was feeling my breakfast wanting to come up.

I yelled and commanded across the room, “Bring me the Trash can, quick!“

Three people dived for the trash can, but I had sense enough to cancel two before they started to struggle against each other. The teacher was insisting I go back from wherever I came from, so I also had to fix that. The trash can reached me just in time for me to puke into it. Then I realized I could have stopped it from happening altogether with a couple of quick commands.

I had to not only use those commands on myself then but several others near me. The nurse had arrived by that time. I tuned my mind onto John’s, tracking down his problem while the nurse was checking his pulse and stuff.

When I found the answers, I said, “He took two pills, one was some kind of stimulant, but the other was something new. I can’t get his stomach to puke it up!”

I was trying my hardest to make him throw up, but just as I thought I was getting something to work, his rapidly beating heart suddenly stopped.

“SHIT!” I exclaimed as I tried to start it up again. I had to share my own life energy with him, and I was feeling the drain.

The nurse exclaimed a good ten seconds later, “I’ve lost his pulse!”

I began sharing more and more of my own lifeforce, and ended up laying down on my back with my eyes closed. Just as I started to get his heart pumping again, the nurse struck his chest with her fist.

“AAAACCCKKKKKK!” was all I could say, having felt the blow myself.

I gasped, “Don’t do that again,” but only Joey heard it.

Joey told the nurse, “He said, don’t do that.”

“Don’t tell me what to do. Mrs. Holloway, please send the rest of the students out.”

By that time, I wasn’t able to sit up much less follow her orders. I was trying to keep his nervous system working, for it was my only way of controlling the rest of his body. I needed to keep some kind of signal running to his brain. Then I accidentally ran across the source of the whole problem.

“Joey. John. The five-way long time ago. Drugs. My fault. Damnit, heart stopped.”

Joey said to the nurse, “His heart stopped again!”

“What do ... His heart has stopped!” the nurse said, raising her hand to strike again.

Joey cried, “No! Don’t.”

Her hand struck John’s chest, then again, and again. Each time both John and I jerked, but less and less every time she did. The shocks were overloading my senses, causing me to lose what little control I had gained.

Joey grabbed her fist before she could do it a fourth time.

The nurse cried to the teacher, “GET HIM OUT OF HERE!”

Joey said, staring straight into her eyes, “DON’T HIT THEM AGAIN!”

I was starting to slip, finding myself unable to break away from John. His body was pulling my own into a void. I managed to signal to Joey for help.

“SHIT!” he said as people started to try and pull him away. Joey had no choice. He began sharing his own lifeforce.

Dr. Higgs called from the doorway, “Stop! Let Joey go!”

Joey, looking very pale, moaned and laid down himself. Now the nurse had three people incapacitated in front of her, with only one of them conscious.

Joey moaned, “Shit Tim. Don’t kill yourself for him. Oh shit.”

Joey closed his eyes and felt the weight on his next breath increase many times. As he took in the next breath, Joey, John, and I all breathed in a deep breath, all our hearts beating as one.

There were gasps from many in the room, and then Suzi came in.

Suzi asked, “Timmy? Joey! What’s going on?”

I was able to impress to Joey that something needed to be rubbed on both John and me to give our nerves something to send that was normal.

Joey thought fast and said, “Suzi, rub Tim’s chest. Like his mom does. Somebody, rub John’s.”

The nurse said to Higgs, “This is crazy! You can’t expect me to follow the advice of a student?”

Joey remembered his ring and raised it to Suzi and said, “Robin, John’s chest.”

Suzi understood and switched hands where her ring hand was free.

She said, “Robin, go rub John’s chest like I’m doing Tim’s.”

Robin said, hesitating, “But...”

Suzi threw her ringed hand up for Robin to see and repeated, “Robin, go rub John’s chest like I’m doing Tim’s!”

This time, Robin got up and said, “Yes, Suzi,” and scrambled over the others to get to John.

She knelt beside John and began making circles with her hand.

Seconds ticked by, and John’s heart was about to stop again, but the rubbing was helping me slow that down. I knew I was fighting a losing battle, but I was trapped to see it out to the end. I made sure Joey wouldn’t be dragged into it too by making his link only a partial one.

Joey whispered to Suzi. “His heart is going to stop again.”

She said loudly, “Joey said John’s heart is going to stop again.”

The nurse said frustratedly, “How could he possibly know that!”

Both John and I took two breaths, then stopped. Our hearts stopped three ticks later.

Higgs told the teacher to clear the rest of the students from the room.

Five seconds later, Suzi cried, “He stopped breathing!”

The nurse raised her fist up again as she said, “His heart stopped again!”

As her fist slammed into John’s chest yet again, Joey exclaimed, “AAAAAACCCCCCKKKKK!!” then, a moment later, he sat up and said, “I said don’t do th ... OH SHIT!! I LOST THE LINK!!! YOU STUPID BITCH!”

Joey crawled up to me, started trying to force a link from his side. I wasn’t able to respond due to the fact my heart wasn’t beating.

Joey exclaimed, “I can’t get in! Come On Tim ... LET ME IN GOD DAMN ... SHIT ... FUCK!”

Suzi was rubbing very fast, trying to somehow add her own energy to mine. Joey had calmed himself and began concentrating with all his might. But after thirty seconds of rubbing without any response, Suzi started to give up. Her hand finally withdrew, her eyes streaming with tears. The nurse and Higgs were giving CPR to John and me, but the link was preventing me from responding.

Finally, Suzi told Robin to stop, which drew Joey out.

“WHAT! Don’t stop. Tim said to keep it up no matter what!”

Suzi cried, “They’re dead, Joey!”

“Robin, keep rubbing!”

“Yes, Joey.”

“Stop, Robin!”

“Yes, Suzi.”

“Suzi! STOP IT! ROBIN KEEP RUBBING!”

“Yes, Joey.”

“Robin, Stop! Joey, They’re DEAD! Can’t you see that?”

Robin said, “Yes, Suzi.”

Pushing Suzi out of the way and started rubbing my chest himself, Joey said, “Robin, if you want to save Tim’s life, take that ring off and keep RUBBING!”

“Okay, Joey,” a free Robin said after removing the ring.

Robin went back to rubbing.

Joey exclaimed, “Shit! All I am picking up is that stupid coin of ... THE COIN!”

Joey asked Dr. Higgs to let him pull my coin out from around my neck in between Dr. Higgs giving me a breath. They heard the ambulance arrive outside while Joey scrambled over me to get between me and John, coin in hand.

Joey looked at Suzi straight in the eye and said, “Rub, or I will never forgive you.”

Suzi just nodded and started rubbing my belly again. Joey laid down in the remaining space between me and John, took a hand from each of us into his own and placed the coin between John’s and mine while he wrapped his own hands around ours.

Joey focused all his energy on willing the coin to help him make the connection, and suddenly he did it.