Chapter 28

When Richie boarded the school bus Monday morning, Jason spared him only a momentary glance before being forced to look away. Richie's aura was darker and more malignant than it had first appeared the day before. Jason could not look at it without feeling his stomach clench.

Richie appeared to pause at this obvious snub. His eyes narrowed and he tensed for a moment. He eventually subsided and went to sit in another part of the bus.

It was the next stop that Jason was dreading more than this. His heart thumped in his chest when the door opened and Heather and Melinda came aboard.

His breath caught in his throat. He could see the aura around Heather as he had before. What tugged at his heart, however, was the fact that there was a faint one around Melinda as well. He felt something lurch inside of him when Melinda raised her eyes and looked at him.

There was a moment's pause for the both of them as their gazes met. Heather had her arm around her sister's waist, holding her close. She came to a stop a second after Melinda did.

For just a very brief moment there seemed to be a flicker of lucidity in Melinda's eyes.

... struggle... still fighting... must not fight... submit... submit... call Mistress... Mistress come...

Jason's mouth dropped open.

The whisper in his mind had become coherent for the first time. He was hearing a manifestation of the patterns in Melinda's aura. When the realization came to him that he was hearing what amounted to the voice of the Darkness, he shivered violently in his seat.

Heather saw the exchanged look. A thought came to her to let it continue. Jason saw this in Heather's eyes and lifted his gaze to her. Heather's Darkness swam into his perceptions.

... stop... do not allow... she is yours... yours alone... your slave... your pet...

The thought of kindness was banished. Heather's arm tightened around Melinda's waist, and she leaned over to whisper something in Melinda's ear. Melinda shivered and uttered a short, lusty sigh as her eyes glazed over into obedience again before Heather forced her to turn away.

Jason took a deep, shuddering breath and swallowed hard. This new ability was as terrifying as it was fascinating.

The bus ride to the school seemed a lot longer this time. When it finally pulled into the parking lot, Jason lingered and let his friends -- he still thought of them as such even now -- leave the bus first. Heather and Melinda glanced oddly at him as they passed. Richie stopped and even glowered at him briefly before moving on.

Cassie arrived a very short time later. She waved to him and rushed over. Just as she drew close, there was a brief shout off to the other side and Diane came running up a moment later.

"Sorry, Jason," Diane said, panting. "I didn't want to run into Heather, not if she's like you told me." She blinked and glanced over to Cassie. "Er, hi..."

"Diane Woodrow," Jason said to Cassie, gesturing to Diane. He did the reverse and said, "Cassie Kendall."

They nodded and smiled nervously at each other. Each knew about the other. Diane knew Cassie was that "dreamy weirdo" that she and Heather used to snicker about. Cassie knew Diane was one of the people that would make fun of her if given the chance.

Not that any of this mattered to either of them anymore.

Diane glanced at the doors of the school, through which Heather was about to go. "So... you two can see something? You can see something around her?"

"You told her about the auras?" Cassie asked cautiously.

"I told her everything," Jason said. "I had to, she deserved to know. Her mother is affected."

Diane bit her lip. "I can't see anything." She clutched her books to her bosom and shivered. "Maybe it's better that I don't. I couldn't imagine myself getting close to anyone that I saw with something like you described."

"Well, once they have it, it's generally, um, too late," Jason said, stumbling over the words briefly.

"Or at least we think so," Cassie said quickly. "Maybe if we stop Nyssa, they'll be okay."

Jason wanted to believe this. From the whispers of the Darkness, it sounded like it needed to constantly work at keeping control of Melinda. At the same time, he knew if he tried to focus on ways to free Melinda, it would distract him from the greater goal. Yet his voice was strained when he voiced his thoughts. "No, we don't mess with people that have gone over already. Just the ones that haven't finished it. But I think she won't be taking any today, if the pattern from last week holds up."

The two girls nodded. "So what do we do today?" asked Cassie.

"Well, we have to watch anyway for who goes to see Nyssa just in case. But we really need to concentrate on Ned and Becky. We're going to need them desperately later in the week to track down more of Nyssa's victims."

"Jason, I realized this morning why Ned looked familiar to me last Friday," said Cassie. "He's in some of my classes. He's in the same year we are."

"So we'll approach him at lunch."

"Becky's in my year," Diane said. "And I know where she lives. I haven't spoken with her in ages, though."

"Can't you just talk to her at lunch?"

"Well, I can try, but... but I'm not sure she'll believe me."

"She'll have seen an aura by now," Jason pointed out. "That will make it easier. But if you have trouble then one of us can go with you after school. Probably Cassie, since she has transportation."

"And she can see these auras. She'll know more of what she's talking about."

"Exactly."

"Okay," Cassie said. "Is there anything else we should know?"

Jason paused a moment. "I think it would be a good idea to try to avoid Heather, Melinda, or Richie for awhile."

Cassie and Diane exchanged a look. "You don't think they'd... well, spy on us or something?" Diane asked.

"They're under Nyssa's control. If she told them to do it, they'd do it. We can't trust them anymore."

"How do we know who to trust, then?" Diane asked nervously.

"Simple. Anyone who doesn't have an aura... oh..."

Diane sighed. "Now I'm worried I'll be more a burden than a help."

"No, Diane, please, we do need you. Just don't share any information with anyone."

Diane nodded. "All right."

"Let's just meet after school," said Jason. "No point in meeting in the middle of the day anymore like we used to."

The three of them headed off towards the school entrance.

Marcie arrived at the office ahead of her boss as she always did. As she settled into her seat, she could actually feel the scantiness of her new underwear by the subtle difference in the way the seat felt to her now. When she pulled her hips forward to roll her chair to the desk, her panties tugged against her slot slightly.

She felt a small wave of warmth flow over her body. It faded as she signed on to the system and checked her email, though it left a lingering, mild heat between her legs. It wasn't enough to get her wet, but she was close.

A small smile came to her lips. It felt nice. It wasn't overwhelming like it had been the night before. Still, the thought of the continuous pleasure she had felt all evening sent a small shudder through her body.

Marcie looked up when she saw movement at the doorway. "Good morning, Miss Bendon," she said brightly.

Laura stopped by Marcie's desk. "Good morning, Marcie."

Marcie felt another little wave of warmth at the sound of Laura's voice. "Um, you wanted me to remind you, Miss Bendon. You have a faculty meeting at ten this morning."

"Thank you. It should be short." Laura smiled slightly. "Generally the faculty tends not to question my decisions so much anymore. Glad to see they've finally come into line."

"Of course, Miss Bendon."

Laura's smile widened a touch. "How are you feeling this morning, Marcie?"

Marcie blinked a few times. The warmth in her sex was increasing. "Feeling, Miss Bendon?"

"Yes, feeling. You do remember what I told you to do last night, don't you?"

"Oh... you mean when you said I should keeping thinking... um..." Marcie paused and swallowed. The warmth was becoming a liquid heat as her thoughts seemed to slip into another rhythm that she had not intended. It was like dinner the night before again.

"How does it feel, Marcie?"

"Feels good..." Marcie murmured with a soft sigh. Her cheeks reddened. "But I-I shouldn't... I have to..."

"Have to what?"

"Well... do my job, Miss Bendon, of course!"

Laura chuckled. "I'll bet you can do your job better, actually."

Marcie stared. "Better?"

"You just said it feels good. Just a nice, gentle pleasure, isn't it?"

"Mmm, yes," Marcie said softly.

"Well, I can safely say that this is the happiest I've seen you in a long time, and happy people are productive people. So this is for the best. Isn't it?"

It made so much more sense to her now. Laura was right. She could trust that Laura knew what was best for her. Laura always did. Laura was always right. "Yes, Miss Bendon. Of course it is. I'm sorry I questioned it."

"It's quite all right, Marcie. Anything else you need me to clear up?"

"Just... just one thing, Miss Bendon..."

"Yes?"

Marcie shifted in her seat and felt the dampness now in her folds. "H-how are you doing this to me?" Marcie asked in a whisper.

Laura grinned. "That's just it. I'm not doing anything to you. You're doing it to yourself."

"I am?"

"Oh, yes. You wanted to be sexy all along. All I did was help bring it out. And that's what you're feeling now."

Marcie swallowed. She knew there was something wrong with that logic, but pleasure was fogging her mind. She could focus only on it or her job.

Or on Laura's voice.

Laura flashed another smile and turned away. "Carry on, Marcie."

"Yes, Miss Bendon," Marcie breathed.

"Ned?"

He had barely heard the summons. Ned "The Nose" Lussander had holed up in a far corner of the cafeteria, picking at his food. He kept his eyes lowered, trying to avoid looking at anyone for more than a second or two.

"Hey, Ned, got a minute?"

Ned wanted to just melt into the floor and disappear. He risked raising his eyes, then flinched. "What the hell do you want?" he snapped.

He was not looking at Jason, the one that had called his name. Instead, his now angry gaze was held on Cassie, who stood just behind Jason and off to the side. She bit her lip and glanced nervously at Jason.

"Haven't you caused me enough problems, huh?!" Ned cried, clenching his hands into fists.

"Jason, I-I better go..." said Cassie.

"No, wait, Cassie..." began Jason.

"No, he's just going to be upset with me. You can explain things as well as I can. I'll just grab some lunch and sit over where we normally do."

Ned's brow furrowed as he listened to this exchange. When Jason looked back to him, he demanded, "Explain what to me?"

Jason slid into a seat under Ned's wary gaze and looked at him. Jason paused a moment, trying not to let his eyes rest anywhere in particular, for fear that Ned would call him out on it. It was clear how Ned got his nickname, though the boy was nowhere near as ugly as Jason had been led to believe by what he had heard from the other students. Ned's nose was indeed rather bulbous, but not discolored or disfigured in the least. It was simply rather broad and thick, the nostrils high and wide. They flared slightly as he breathed.

"I don't know if you know me or not, but..."

"Yeah, I know you. You're the class brainiac Jason."

Usually Jason could tell if that was meant as an epithet or not. This time he wasn't sure and simply let it go. "I know what happened Friday."

Ned's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah? So what is this? You gonna threaten me with telling people if I don't do something for ya?"

"No, nothing like that. I just need to talk to you about it."

Ned shook his head and bolted up from his seat, sending his chair clattering backwards. "Fuck you, man! Nothing to talk about, see? I got fucked up and that chick that just left helped cause it."

"Ned, wait! She didn't do anything, it was all Nyssa's fault, the school nurse."

Ned shivered at the mention of her name. "Don't... d-don't mention her again... " he said in a scared voice. "In fact, just get away from me. Leave me alone."

Ned edged around Jason's seat and started away.

"Ned! Wait! I can see it too! I can see the Darkness!"

Ned froze. "What?" he said in a low voice.

"The auras. The blackness around some people."

Ned whirled around, his face pale.

Jason nodded and gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah, that was my reaction, too, when I first saw them. Cassie can see them as well."

"Cassie? That's what she did to me?"

"No, Ned. She didn't do it. I mean, she triggered it, but you can see them because you've been touched by the Darkness but didn't fall to it."

Ned shook his head. "Wait, brainiac, you're not making sense." He yanked out a chair and plopped back down into it. "Start from the beginning and assume I don't know diddly-squat. Because I don't."

"It's really simple, Ned," Jason said earnestly. "Nyssa did something to you. She made you want to act out your fantasy. She gave you power to do it. But if you went ahead with that, you would have been enslaved to Nyssa."

Ned blinked and gave Jason an alarmed look. "Enslaved? But she... she promised..."

"Yeah, she promised you power over sometime. I know. That's how she works. She's doing it to other people. Those are the auras you're seeing."

Ned's jaw dropped. He suddenly started looking at himself in quiet desperation.

"No, you don't have it, not anymore. It disappeared the moment Cassie stopped you from... from enslaving someone."

Ned looked back at Jason. His face hardened, though his cheeks grew red at the same time. "I wasn't gonna hurt her. I mean that! I wasn't gonna hurt her!"

"I know. It's okay."

Ned sighed. "I still want her."

"Yeah, I know that, too. Cassie knows it better than I do. She almost did the same thing to someone else. Some friends of mine and I stopped her. That's why she can see the auras, same as you."

Ned swallowed. His eyes shimmered. "Jason, dude... this is driving me fuckin' nutsoid, man!" he said, his voice cracking. "I thought I was going freakin' insane. Shit, man, I saw this crap around people in church for cryin' out loud!"

"You're not crazy. They're really there."

"How do I make it stop?"

"I don't know if you can. But do you want to stop more people from getting it?"

Ned snorted. "You mean stop people from making as big a fool out of themselves as I did? Yeah, I guess so. How?"

"By helping my friends find out who's going to be taken next by Nyssa and stop them like Cassie stopped you."

Ned paused a long moment. Finally he answered it with a question of his own. "If I help you with this, will it hurt Nyssa? Will it fuck with the bitch that did this?"

Jason had no idea if they were having an effect at all, but he thought he could be allowed a lie here. "You bet it will, Ned."

Ned raised a hand and high-fived Jason. "I'm in, dude. What do you want me to do?"

Jason couldn't help but smile. "Give me some contact information. Phone number, instant message, email, that sort of thing. It won't be until later in the week that we can do something, but we're desperate for people to help."

Ned dutifully gave him all the information he wanted. "Man, this better work," he said as he rose from his chair. "I don't want to think about a whole school full of people with that black shit around them."

"You and me both, Ned," said Jason.

Nyssa strolled slowly around her slave, her heels clacking loudly on the tile. She lay a hand against Laura's cheek and felt her slave shudder satisfactorily. She played with Laura's hair as she came around behind her slave. She smiled wickedly as she glanced between Laura's parted knees, just in time to see another drop fall from her slave's pussy and into a growing puddle on the floor.

Laura was on her knees, remaining still and submissive, her body naked save for a thick leather collar about her throat. She panted hard, her body shaking with desire. Her nipples were two hardened points on her breasts.

Nyssa had asked nothing of her since placing the collar on her. She simply drove Laura to higher and higher heights of arousal without allowing relief.

Nyssa walked around her slave one more time. She hooked a single finger into Laura's collar, giving it a light tug. Laura moaned loudly. Another drop splashed to the puddle between her knees.

"This will be our little secret, my pet," Nyssa cooed. "No one else will see it... Well, there were people that could see it, but I've taken care of all of them. Except Jason."

Nyssa removed her finger and bent over to whisper hotly in Laura's ear. "But you'll see it... you'll always see it... and feel it... it will never go away... it will never be removed... even after I'm gone, it will always be there."

"Uhhhnnn..." Laura moaned loudly as she felt herself drowning in pleasure from Nyssa's words.

"No matter how much you control your new slave-to-be, you'll always remember that you're my little toy." She laid her hand lightly on Laura's head. "Mmm, oh yes, I can sense it... you're reveling in the power I gave you... you're having so much fun with little Marcie, aren't you?"

"Yes, Mistress," Laura moaned. "She's a-almost mine... by the weekend, I'll h-have her... I'll... uhhh... uhhhhnn..."

Nyssa giggled. "See how much pleasure it brings you? Oh yes, my pet, you're fully one with the Darkness now. Now I have no worries about leaving you behind when I go."

"Thank you, Mistress."

Nyssa kept her hand on Laura's head as she stepped in front of her slave. She smiled down at Laura. "It was a good harvest today, my pet."

She stepped forward, lifting her uniform up, exposing her own wetness to her slave. Laura's eyes gazed upon it with anticipation as Nyssa's fingers curled into Laura's hair.

"A very good one." Nyssa slid her feet apart and tilted Laura's head back. "Another week, and I will have enough to spread to other students in the school."

She pulled Laura towards her. Laura breathed deeply, shivering as she smelled her Mistress' arousal.

Nyssa grinned. "Mmm, you like that, don't you, slave? You like the smell of my pussy." She tightened her grip on Laura's hair. "The more I keep you from it, the more desperately horny you get and the more pleasure you feel. Isn't that right?"

"Uhhhnn... uhhh!..." Laura gasped. She closed her eyes and shuddered violently.

"Please me, and you'll be rewarded." Nyssa let go of Laura's hair.

Laura leaned forward and buried her face between Nyssa's legs, moaning constantly as she licked at her Mistress' pussy.

"Mmm, nice... very nice, pet..." Nyssa said as she gently stroked Laura's hair. "Just keep thinking of when you'll make Marcie do this for you. How insane will you drive her with pleasure and anticipation before you grant her release? How far into your control will you take her? How mindless a fucktoy do you want?"

Laura breathed heavily into Nyssa's pussy as she licked, probing her Mistress' folds hard with her tongue. Nyssa tilted her head back and sighed in contentment at the sweet, slow rise of her pleasure.

"Mmm, yes," Nyssa moaned. She grabbed her own breasts and squeezed them, sighing in exquisite delight. When she spoke again, it was in a sultry whisper. "With what I've taken from the others, I can give their desires to anyone else... I can spread the chaos faster... infect more of them anew at the same time... harvest even more... doubling each time... no one will stop it..."

Nyssa looked down as she began to pant lightly herself. Laura clutched at Nyssa's legs, pushing her face against Nyssa's sex, tongue lapping hungrily. Laura's own pussy begins to rise, more fluid trickling down the insides of her thighs, a deep ache reaching up into her as her need for release climbed to unbearable levels. Yet nothing would distract her from her Mistress' pleasure. Nyssa's needs came first before her own.

She would so miss this when Nyssa had to leave.

"Mmmm... only two people stand in the way... the Dreamer, and Jason... but she's nothing without him... she's nothing without the ability to see the Darkness. Once I have Jason, it will all be complete... it will... ohhh... oh yes!... oh yes!... ohhh!..."

Nyssa felt her orgasm explode inside her, her body already primed by her own erotic thoughts of her plans for the school. Laura gurgled as she was drenched with a single, large spurt of liquid heat from Nyssa's pussy. Laura drew Nyssa closer and sucked at Nyssa's clit. Nyssa's hips tried to buck from the force of her climax as she screamed in pleasure.

Nyssa finally staggered back from her slave, panting wildly. After a few moments, she gazed at her now trembling pet. Moisture dripped from both Laura's face and her pussy.

"Your reward," Nyssa purred.

The next moment, Laura screamed out her own pleasure as well. When her powerful orgasm was over, she lay on her side on the floor, her chest heaving, her eyes closed.

Nyssa stepped over to her and traced her fingers over the collar. Even as spent was she was, Laura responded, shivering slightly.

"No, my pet," Nyssa whispered. "You cannot be mindless. Yes, I can sense the desire in you... just like you sensed Marcie's secret desires... you'd love nothing more than to lose whatever mind you have left save for my voice and my pleasure.

"But I need you. I need you as you are. I cannot do what I have done today too many more times, for that would surely rob you of your mind. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mistress... " Laura moaned softly.

Nyssa withdrew her hand and stood. She gestured. Slowly, Laura rose to her feet, still panting lightly.

"But... for the one called Jason... for him, I will not be as merciful..."

"We'll have to do this quick, Jason, my bus doesn't have as patient a driver as yours," Diane said as she jogged over to Jason and Cassie.

Jason smirked, as he didn't think his driver was any more patient than any other. "Well, I guess that depends on whether you talked to Becky or not."

Diane sighed and shook her head. "I couldn't get close to her in the caf. She had a contingent of her friends around her. She was crying something awful. Apparently her boyfriend dumped her over what happened."

"Oh, no!" Cassie cried.

"I tried sticking around, but she didn't leave until Karen came over. But then Becky sort of freaked out and ran out of the caf. I couldn't catch her before I lost her in the hallway."