Chapter 36

Cassie felt her chest tighten as the limo pulled into the school parking lot. Harry made no move to get out of the car to escort her when she and Diane proceeded towards the entrance. Cassie glanced back behind her, almost wishing that Harry would deem that she needed an escort this time.

She sighed. She was only fooling herself on that score. Like everyone else, he would trust the school. There was nothing to fear here, in his eyes.

At the top of the steps, Cassie stepped in front of Diane and whirled around to face her. "Diane, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?"

Diane sighed. "You want the truth? No, not really," she said, a nervous quaver in her voice. "But I'm going to feel really bad if I don't see this through to the end. This may sound silly, but... but I feel like being around all of you has protected me somehow."

"Diane, I don't think..."

"Yes, I know, it's silly, like I said, but... but I feel like I have to repay that..."

"I just want to make sure you realize that you're not going to be getting any protection. I can't stop Nyssa from doing something to you."

"I-I know," Diane said. Her eyes shimmered. Cassie could see the fear in them. "But hopefully it will be like Jason said. She's weak. She won't be able to do anything. Or at least n-not much."

Cassie sighed inwardly. She was beginning to think bringing Diane along was a bad idea. She was growing very nervous about the whole thing. But she also knew that there was no deterring Diane at this point.

"All right, let's go," Cassie said, and the two of them jogged into the entrance and down the long central hall of the school. Their footsteps seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet of the building, and Cassie's heart thudded steadily louder in her ears.

The odd feeling she had was becoming a sense of foreboding, and then one of dread. Finally, when they came within sight of the corridor leading to the nurse's station, Cassie grabbed Diane's arm and stopped.

Diane looked at her in surprise and then in concern. When she saw Cassie staring towards the corridor, she glanced that way as well and then back at Cassie in growing trepidation. "Cassie, what is it?"

"Ned's not here," Cassie said in a hollow voice.

"Maybe we got here first..."

Cassie was already shaking her head. "No, he was a lot closer and I called a taxi for him. And I told him to wait outside for me." She looked at Diane, her eyes widening. "I don't like this."

"Wh-what do we do?" Diane asked fearfully.

"There's not a whole lot we can do... except go in."

Diane swallowed and nodded quickly.

The two of the advanced slowly on the door. Just as they got to it, Cassie reached over and took Diane's hand tightly in hers. They took one last look at each other as Cassie grasped the knob of the door. For a moment, Cassie considered peeking inside to see what was in there, but there was no point. Nyssa would know by now they were coming. Stealth didn't matter anymore.

Cassie took a deep breath and threw the door open, the two of them taking a step inside. The next moment, both gasped and froze at what they saw.

Ned was indeed already here. The problem was, so were Richie and Melinda, and they had his arms pinned behind his back. Cassie shifted her gaze when she head a whimpering noise, and her eyes became saucers.

Becky?? she thought incredulously.

It was indeed her. She looked like she had been crying again, her cheeks stained and wet. She hung limply in the grip of Heather, who had her arms pinned behind her as well.

Cassie felt her heart sink. Yet what really chilled her to bone was not so much the situation as the horrible look of complete and utter blankness in the faces of her former fellow Harbingers. It was far worse that what she had ever envisioned happening to them.

Ned looked like he was about to say something, but the next moment Richie twisted one of his arms. He gritted his teeth and winced.

Cassie was about to protest Ned's treatment when she realized that the only one she was not seeing was Jason. Before she could act on this, she saw a blur of motion out of the corner of one eye as her arm was seized. She uttered a yelp, a muscle twinging in pain as she was roughly spun around. Her yelp became a whimper as her arm was pinned behind her just long enough for the discomfort to cause her to stagger and allow her other arm to be taken.

Diane had been so stunned by what she saw that she did not react quickly. When she finally did move to try to pull Cassie away from Jason, Jason was already dragging Cassie further into the room. "No! Don't!" Cassie cried. "Run, Diane! Get out of here!"

Diane staggered back but did not leave, staring with eyes wide. "I can't just leave you like this, I... !"

"Get out, Diane! Before Nyssa..."

"Before I what, my dear Dreamer?"

Cassie felt her body shudder violently at the sound of that voice. Too late she thought to warn Diane. "No! Diane, don't look at her! Don't look at her eyes! Oh no..."

But Diane had automatically turned her head at the sound of the voice, and with her eyes already wide and staring, she could not help but be drawn to the icy depths as Nyssa stepped out from behind the door.

At the same time, Cassie's warning reached her, and her body trembled with the effort to respond. She managed to stumble back a step, even as her gaze felt drawn further into Nyssa's. Nyssa simply smiled in amusement at her. She took a casual step towards Diane and touched her cheek, then trailed her fingers slowly down Diane's neck.

Diane took a rattling breath as her heart pounded, her body shuddering with the pulses of pleasure that shot through her body. Nyssa slid her fingers down Diane's arm, the sensations mounting and multiplying, until it grew impossible to think of anything else.

"So simple," Nyssa said softly. She lifted her hand and cupped one of Diane's breasts through her blouse. Diane mewled as her pussy grew intensely hot. "So weak. And now..." Nyssa reached down and touched the crotch of Diane's jeans. Diane moaned and came, her hips jerking as she throbbed, her mind growing blissfully blank. "... so helpless."

"You won't do that to the rest of us so easily!" Cassie yelled. "You can't! We know you can't! You lost us, so... s-so..."

She trailed off as Nyssa slowly turned to her. Behind Nyssa, Diane's eyes glazed over and her body became still and mute. Now Cassie felt her own gaze drawn into Nyssa's, and for a frightening moment she thought that her immunity was just so much smoke, that Nyssa had been toying with them all this time and was now going to enslave all of them.

Yet if that were the case, why would she need to strong-arm the others, when she was able to so completely entrance Diane with a few simple touches and an orgasm?

As Nyssa advanced on her, Cassie felt an icy chill as she now remembered what she had gone through. She remembered the fall into Nyssa's eyes, a frigid wasteland that froze her mind and made any thought impossible. She remembered the wonderful, delightful pleasure that had radiated through every fiber of her being. She remembered reliving her fantasy in her mind, over and over, until something... something alien... had joined with it and made it her world.

But now as she felt herself drawn in again, her body and mind were feeling something completely different. Her body trembled and then shook, and she cringed.

And Nyssa's eyes were no longer blue.

They were blood red.

"Yes, Cassie," Nyssa spoke in a voice that was almost serpentine. She reached up and cupped Cassie's chin. But instead of pleasure, Cassie felt pain. Not physical pain, but emotional, as if every little fear she had was being drawn out of her psyche and fed back to her all at once. "Yes, now you understand... there is more than one way to control someone... and if pleasure does not do it... then fear will..."

Cassie whimpered pitifully and wanted to run as fast as she could. Her muscles strained to obey her instinct, but somehow Nyssa had reached into a part of her mind so ancient and stirred up something so old and terrible that it paralyzed her.

Dimly, she was aware of Ned and Becky also in similar distress. Fear was flooding over them as well, like a terrible wave, though not as bad as what Cassie was experiencing. In Cassie's mind, it was as if sections were shutting down, withdrawing to her subconscious to escape the horrible torture. It was a simple surrender, a plea to end the torture, her mind growing increasingly blank.

"What are you afraid of, my dear Dreamer," Nyssa cooed as her eyes glowed. "What gives the Dreamer nightmares? Tell me... let me play them out in your mind... let me..."

"NO!!" Cassie suddenly screamed.

Something in Cassie's mind had snapped, and Nyssa seemed to recoil slightly from it. Cassie started to collapse, but Jason pulled her back to her feet. In her mind, the terror was passing. "This... th-this is not real..." she murmured, her body shaking with the effort to force out the words. "N-not real... not real!..."

And her fear continued to retreat.

Cassie was stunned. She had managed to break Nyssa's control. In a few moments she would have done anything to be spared further emotional torture. It was bad enough facing her own fears, but to feel just vague, undirected fear, and at such intensity would have driven her mad.

Yet when Nyssa had tried to focus her fears, Nyssa had entered an area that Cassie had already faced with great success. One who knew her dreams as well as Cassie did knew her nightmares as well, and knew what they actually meant. With that knowledge, they were no longer objects of fear.

Nyssa snarled and yanked Cassie's chin back towards her. "You think your little talent gives you protection. Think again, Cassie. There are some fears so firmly rooted in your mind that they cannot be dismissed. Or... did you not heed what Jason told you? About the patterns he saw around me? About... my form... my true form..."

Cassie's eyes slowly widened as Nyssa stepped back.

"You think me weak, Cassie," said Nyssa. She shook her head. "It is you that is weak. You may have delayed me, Cassie, you and your pitiful 'Harbingers' here. Do not think what you did today has stopped me. Instead, it just allowed me to finally get you all out of the way. Oh, and I know your little secret, too. The ones you 'rescued' today? I'll make quite sure they are incapable of organizing anyone to move against me."

Cassie swallowed hard. "Y-you are weak," she said in a shaky voice. "Or y-you wouldn't have to do this... e-everything you're doing... it's taking energy... you don't have a lot to spare!"

Nyssa's lips curled into a terrible smile. "Then I shall cease to use so much. I shall drop this shell, and show you... what I really am..."

Cassie blinked at her in confusion. That made no sense. Cassie had had no sense from her dreams that there had been any disguise in place. Surely she would have seen...

But before she could continue thinking along these lines, Nyssa transformed, and the abject fear that had so nearly enslaved her will returned with a vengeance.

Cassie was only vaguely aware of Becky's scream, even as shrill as it was, or Ned's cry of anguish. She noted absently that the transformation itself was nothing like she had expected. No smoke or sparks or flames, no slow morphing or mutation. There was simply a brief shimmering effect, like heat rising from a hot road in summer, and Nyssa was changed.

Cassie had seen something similar to Nyssa in movies; she had seen it described in books; she had seen it in pictures and artwork. Yet somehow, seeing it real before her, and knowing from where it came, it filled her with a horror that none of those facsimiles could possibly match.

It had been an offhand comment, but it had been right in the end. Before Cassie's now frightened eyes was a form generally associated with a succubus. Her skin had become the same blood red as her eyes, her hair now black as midnight. Two curving horns emerged from her head. Huge, leathery wings with large, sharp claws spread outward behind her back. A long tail swished slowly back and forth behind her, writhing like a snake. When she parted her lips in an evil grin, long fangs flashed in the light.

When Nyssa now advanced on her, Cassie almost screamed. She bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood to stop herself, her stomach clenching at the coppery taste in her mouth. Nevertheless she struggled against Jason's grip, only to have her arms pinched more sharply behind her until she quieted.

Nyssa smiled and raised a hand to Cassie face, cradling one cheek. Cassie whimpered in distress, feeling dreadful waves of abject terror try to flood her mind. She felt the tips of Nyssa's talons trail along her skin. Cassie closed her eyes tightly, tears beginning to leak from them.

"And now, Cassie," Nyssa spoke, her voice deep and husky, with a diabolical edge to it that sent icy shivers down Cassie's spine. "Now try to block it out... now try to close your mind to the fear... the panic... the terror..."

Every word felt like a lead weight dropping on her. Again she felt her mind trying to retreat into itself, threatening to leave an emptiness far worse that anything Nyssa might have done by sexual means. She had to clench her teeth to stop herself from letting the words out, the words that would have begged Nyssa to stop, that would have doomed her to enslavement to this horrible creature.

"I can hurt you in so many ways, Cassie," Nyssa hissed. "I can cause pain that will make you beg for death let alone enslavement... or..."

She paused for a moment. She remained still, save for a tiny tremor to the hand that still cradled Cassie's cheek.

Finally, Nyssa slid her hand from Cassie's cheek and lightly pressed the side of one talon against Cassie's neck. "I could simply..." she began to trail the nail across skin. Nyssa's finger now trembled as well. "... slit your throat... and take care of the problem that way..."

Cassie felt herself spiraling into despair and defeat. She had led them all to this terrible end. She had let herself be tricked by Nyssa. So many mistakes she had made now replaying in her mind.

It's all my fault! Cassie screamed at herself in her mind. I did this. I was so foolish! I was foolish to ever think that Nyssa was...

The finger against her throat trembled again. "Hurry up, girl!" Nyssa sneered, a slight quaver to her voice. "Tell me what you prefer! Enslavement or death! I will happily give either!"

... weak...

Cassie paused. She mustered every last bit of her remaining will to push against the fear. She had to get a coherent thought into her head. And when she did, she prayed that it was the right one.

"No..." Cassie said in a weak voice.

"What was that? Speak up!" Nyssa thundered. She pressed her fingers more firmly into Cassie's neck, nicking the skin just enough for a single bright red drop to appear.

Cassie had to fight down another surge of panic. "N-no..." she said again, a little stronger. "N-not real..."

"What?!"

"Not real... i-it's not real..."

"I will show you what is real..." Nyssa growled. "I will..."

"NO!" Cassie screeched, her eyes ablaze. "This is not real! It's fake! You don't really look like this! You're burning energy just do to this and make me scared! It's not REAL!!"

Nyssa's eyes became fire and she viciously slapped Cassie across the face, her talons causing four bright red marks. "You little bitch..."

"Not real... not real... not real..." Cassie chanted, even as bright red beads of blood grew on the slash marks. Along the cuts, she felt a burning sensation that grew worse every second, as if her skin were about so be seared away from her face.

"I'll make you cower before me!"

"Not real!... not real!... not real!"

"You will fear me!!"

"Not real!"

"SHUT UP! Submit to me!!"

"GO TO HELL!!"

Nyssa staggered back from Cassie making a frustrated growling noise that quickly turned into a more normal sound of exasperation. At the same time, her body shimmered again, and within barely a heartbeat, her form had returned to the golden-haired, white-uniformed one she had before. The burning sensation on Cassie's cheeks vanished, as did the bloody streaks and the pricking on her neck. It was as if it had never happened.

The fear in Cassie's psyche vanished all at once. Despite the relief, it was such a drastic change that it was like leaving a vacuum in a large space. Her other thoughts rushed in, and for a moment she felt too much of a tumult in her mind to think straight.

When her head did clear, she saw Nyssa clutching one part of the door frame to the corridor, panting as if out of breath, her body trembling badly. Behind her, Cassie felt her arms hanging more loosely in Jason's grip. Diane shuddered, some life coming back to her eyes. Ned was already fighting against his captors, but where there were two of them, it was more difficult.

Becky, however, had fainted, and was hanging loosely in Heather's arms.

Cassie felt her morale rising, and with it, her boldness. "You are weak, Nyssa!" Cassie shouted. "You've even losing control of your slaves. You're burning energy and you don't have enough to resupply it."

Nyssa looked up, still panting, pure hatred in her eyes. "You... you don't know anything... dear Dreamer..."

"I know a lot more than you think I do."

Nyssa forced herself to rise to a full standing position. She tossed her head back and strode over to Cassie. Cassie tried to quell her own natural fear. "I know what you know. I knew you were the Dreamer from the start. That's why I tried to take you first."

Nyssa turned away, just as Ned managed to get free of Richie. Richie staggered back, his eyes unfogging as he made a groaning noise. Melinda's face took on a momentary look of anguish and she whimpered pitifully as Ned was about to pull his arm from her grip as well.

Nyssa made a casual gesture towards her slaves. Richie and Melinda's eyes glazed over completely once again and reasserted their hold on Ned.

"You can't keep doing that for much longer!" Cassie cried. She abruptly yanked herself away from Jason, quickly turning around before he could grab her again.

When Jason began to advance on her, Nyssa raised a hand. "Stop."

Jason did as he was told, though his body was quivering and his eyes unsure. Nyssa smiled and Jason returned to glassy-eyed obedience. There was a sudden soft but heavy noise to the side. Cassie turned her head in time to see Becky slump to the floor, Heather having let her go. Heather hung her head and then slowly joined Becky, as if falling deeply asleep.