Chapter 14: The Ninth Night

When we finally managed to get out of the bed, Angela and I cleaned up and headed over to the hospital. We didn't eat since she was having the PET scan and I didn't want anything to interfere with the test. Even vigorous exercise prior to the scan is usually discouraged, as that can change tissue metabolism, but since we were going to be concentrating on her brain, I hoped that our extended sex session earlier wouldn't interfere too much.

Jonathan met us at the entrance to the radiology department after I called him to let him know we were walking in to the hospital. He, as usual, had everything set up and waiting on us.

For the test itself, we had a couple of different ideas. For one, we wanted to get a baseline scan of her brain metabolism to see if there were any particular hot spots. Then we wanted to repeat the test with me holding her hand, standing right beside her. Finally, Jonathan was going to have her open a vial and take a sniff with the exhaust fans in the room running full blast. Then we would get a final set of images. Since each one took some time and we wanted them spaced apart, we were going to be there for several hours.

Angela was quite the trooper and lay on that cold, hard table for most of the night, being very careful not to move. I had accidentally been the one to tell her to be still and to try not to move. Even as I said it, I realized that it might cause problems for her. No matter how I tried, I couldn't seem to undo the command. It was as if somehow Angela knew I wanted her to be very still, despite what I might say to her. Because Angela lay so still, we were able to get some very clear images.

Otherwise, the night was uneventful. The only problem was the effect that the vial of pheromone had on Angela. The tech was curious as to what we were studying but she knew Jonathan well enough not to ask too many questions. He had a habit of telling you every detail of his research if you asked him about it, so most folks did as he asked and tried to keep quiet. When Angela had a small orgasm and her knees nearly buckled under her as she sniffed the vial, the tech gave me a funny look. I just shrugged and nothing else was said.

The part of the experiment that we hadn't thought through was the reading of the scans. Sure, I knew what a PET scan was and how to use it, but I wasn't a neuroscience person. I hated it, in fact. Jonathan had a bit more of an idea how to interpret the pictures, but we needed someone who did this for a living.

Eventually, we did decide to approach another of our classmates who was a neurochemistry and was generally trustworthy. Besides, we figured that with a vial of pheromone and my presence I could order her to forget everything, or not to talk about it. The only part that did worry me, though, was the fact that she was a woman. I counted her as a friend and I didn't want to hurt her.

As the last scan finished, I walked back into the room to tell Angela she could get up. As I approached her, though, I heard a soft snore and realized that she was fast asleep. I glanced down at my watch and realized that it was 3 am. Jonathan also showed the wear of the late hour. Only the tech seemed unaffected and he was used to working the night shift.

Jonathan chuckled when I signaled him that Angela had fallen asleep. He had gotten the images burned into a CD and had deleted them from the master file on the scanner. As he headed out the door, he promised to take them over to Laurie Walker for her to give them a read. I meanwhile gathered Angela up in my arms and carried her out to my car as the tech finished cleaning the room and getting it ready for the morning rush.

Angela snuggled into my neck when I picked her up, only rousing briefly when I deposited her into my car. The drive home was quite sedate as well, other than struggling to stay alert on the drive.

When we got home, I carried Angela up to the bed and deposited her there. I hoped she would be able to get enough sleep to make it through class tomorrow. In addition, she had to work as an intern tomorrow and I worried about her doing a good job there. I remembered all those sleepless nights as a resident and I didn't want her to have to suffer through a similar experience.

After Angela was tucked into bed, I got ready as well. I was tired but didn't feel very sleepy, something I attributed to my anticipation of getting the results of the PET scans we had just done. I was rather impatient about things like that, not a good trait for a doctor.

As I was fooling around in the bathroom, getting ready for bed, I felt Emily's presence.

"You need to get some sleep, Master," she whispered quietly in my mind.

"Why are you calling me Master?" I asked in reply.

"Because that is what you are," she answered.

I waited for her to expound on this observation.

"I'm not sure how to explain it," she continued when she realized I was waiting on her. "With you, it is different. I don't feel like I need to be there with you, I don't have that craving to touch you like I used to have with my Master. But I do know, somehow, that you are my Master, and that makes me very happy on a very basic level."

"How can it make you happy? To know that I can hurt you with just my thoughts, that you might suffer again like you did when your previous Master died, how can that be a good thing?" I asked.

Emily thought hard about this and I waited for several minutes for her answer.

"Master, I think it is because I am submissive. Some people are natural leaders, some need to follow, some need to feel like they are cared for. I consider myself a very independent woman. I can take care of myself. I earn my own way. I know that I don't need anyone to survive. But I did learn how happy I could be when I was with my former Master and I know I can experience that and more with you. You have a gift that is far more powerful than his was and I can feel that there will be many women around you. I know that I will be just one of those women and I know that Angela will always come first in your heart. I know that, and still I want to be a part of it. Your women share a very special bond, something that I haven't experienced before. My sister and I can communicate now all the time, with just our thoughts. We have always been close, but I couldn't be happier with what you have given us."

I tried to digest what she said. Were the women who were affected by the pheromone those women who were naturally submissive? Were they women who had submissive tendencies, or was this a feeling that was cultivated by exposure to the pheromone itself?

"What's bothering you, Master?" I heard Kayla now in my head and I started to worry that I was going insane.

"You are definitely not going insane!" she exclaimed and I marveled at how I could really hear them talking in my head.

"I agree, you are perfectly sane," added Emily and then I felt a sleepy affirmation of my sanity from Angela.

I walked out of the bathroom to check on her and she was still sound asleep and did appear to have moved since I tucked her into the bed.

"Then how am I talking to you?" I asked Emily and Kayla, "ESP is just science fiction, it doesn't really exist. There aren't any confirmed cases of it, ever, and the few hoaxes that have been tried have been easily discredited. So I ask how can I communicate with you and be sure that I'm not losing my mind."

"Because you've been given a great gift," came Linda's reply. "You are a wonderful and kind person and have helped more people than you can imagine. I have no idea how or why this happened, but as much as I would love to hate you for the effect that you have had on me, I just can't. I can't help loving you and caring for you and even obeying you. Now would you please tone down the broadcasting of your thoughts so that some of us can sleep?"

"I'm sorry," I replied softly, or at least I tried to think softly as I thought my apology toward them.

"There is no need to be sorry, Master," came the reply from all three of them.

"Do you want me to come over there, Master?" Kayla asked. "I just got home from the restaurant and I would be happy to drive over to your place if you need someone to sit up with you."

"No, I'm fine and Angela is here with me, even if she is asleep. I think I just need to get some rest and take some time to think about things," I replied.

"Alright, Master. I hope you get some sleep," Kayla said and then I could no longer sense her presence.

"I'm happy to come over as well," Emily answered somewhat timidly, "In fact I really want to and I am such a night owl that it would be no problem for me, but I know that isn't what is best for you right now. Please know that we all care very deeply for you. And that isn't just the pheromone talking."

"I appreciate your offer, Emily," I said, "But I don't want you out driving this time of night. And I'm a bit afraid of what would happen if you were here. I definitely want to be well rested and at my best when we do meet next time."

Emily giggled and I could feel her rising lust through our link.

"I'll be thinking about you as I help myself to sleep," she replied, "Have a good night, Master."

Then I was alone.

I did eventually fall asleep that night, but it was a troubling night, plagued by dreams and nightmares. Many were just bits and pieces of visions, of horrors, of falling, of being trapped, of people I loved and knew dying or bleeding.

But it was the last dream before the morning that I remembered the most.

I was in a small meadow. There was a circle of oak trees around the clearing and the ground all around me was covered with flowers. Beautiful, delicate flowers of every shape and color stretched from a small bare patch of ground on which I stood all the way to the trees.

I was looking at the flowers and admiring the vast array of colors, when I heard screams that seemed to be coming from beyond the trees. It sounded like a woman screaming, like she was hurt or injured and so I turned toward the sound and started in that direction.

As I took a step, I stepped on a flower and I heard faint screams coming from the ground below. I took another step and the screams grew louder, though they were still faint. I stopped and started to look down when the screams beyond the trees grew even louder and I thought I could hear a woman screaming out "Master!"

I again took a step deeper into the flowers and the screams that arose from around me grew even louder. I now bent to look more closely at the flowers, and what I saw made me sick to my stomach. The flowers weren't flowers at all, but tiny women bound tightly in brightly colored cloths and made to stand on tiny green pedestals.

I looked back at where I had stepped and I saw tiny body smashed flat and obviously dead where I had killed them. I reached down and gently unwrapped one of the small women, setting her free.

She immediately threw herself to the ground, kneeling and bowing her head to the ground at my feet. She was saying something repeatedly, but I couldn't hear what it was over the screams of the other tiny women and her voice being muffled by the ground.

Then I heard the screams coming from beyond the ring of trees again. They sounded like a woman being tortured and I felt the need to go and help whoever it was, but I couldn't kill the bound women between me and the edge of the meadow.

I started to undo another of the bound women, only to have her throw herself at my feet.

"Help me undo them!" I screamed.

The two women looked up at me fearfully and the first woman spoke to me, her eyes never meeting mine as I rushed to unbind as many women as possibly.

"We cannot help you free them, Master. Only you can free them," she said.

"Then go and tell me what is happening beyond the edge of the meadow!" I demanded.

"It is the evil one, Master. He has captured us here and is slowly killing one of our sisters," the other woman said.

I screamed out to the edge of the clearing, "Show yourself. Stop hurting that woman."

I continued to free women so I could make my way across the clearing without killing any more of them, each time I did, they threw themselves to the ground and bowed to me, I was but a few steps from the edge of the clearing when I heard a scream from behind me, causing me to look up.

Standing at the edge of the meadow was me. It obviously wasn't me, since I was still in the middle of the meadow. It did look like me, but it was the angriest person I had ever met.

The worst of it was that he held a bruised and bloody Angela in his arms. She had obviously been beaten appeared to be unconscious.

"So you think you can save all these women?" my evil twin asked. Then he laughed the most evil and maniacal laugh I had ever heard. "But from whom are you saving them?"

Then I realized that I was only trying to save them from myself, and my screams of horror were matched only by the evil glee in my twin's voice.

I awoke screaming, thrashing around the bed, trying to free myself from the covers that had wrapped around me. Angela was screaming my name and as I awoke, I realized that the burglar alarm was blaring and Angela was trying to wake me.

In an instant, I was awake and I ran to the closet and grabbed the shotgun that I kept in the closet. I then grabbed Angela and threw her into the closet.

"Lock the door and get on my cell phone and call 911!" I ordered as I closed the door.

My order had the intended effect on Angela and I heard her dialing the cell phone as I listened to the steps creak as someone climbed them.