Chapter 31

Charles fell silent at the other end of the call. Victor waited with the cell phone held to his ear as he sat behind the closed door of his office, unmoving. Finally came Charles' somber reply, "I am not sure I can do as you ask, Victor."

"You do not need to include yourself in the task, Charles," said Victor. "I will absolve you of any wrongdoing in refusing to assist."

"Let me rephrase that, then. I am not sure the cult can do as you ask."

"I do not see why not. It is unlikely that the Harbingers know of its existence. They would have no warning."

"That is not what I meant!"

Victor remained silent in an unspoken bid for an explanation.

"Forgive me, Victor, but are you sure you are thinking this through?" Charles asked, some exasperation creeping into his voice.

"I think everything through. I make no rash decisions. Even those that prove to be wrong have enough meticulous thought around them to allow me to analyze why they went wrong."

"And what do those thoughts tell you about how your suggested scheme can go wrong?"

Victor allowed himself a small sigh. "I did not say that I was a prognosticator. I can only analyze failure after it has happened."

"Except when you cannot afford to fail," said Charles. "As is this case."

"I am aware that what I am asking is unusual."

"Unusual? Try blatantly illegal. I am not sure even your power could adequately cover your tracks if we are discovered! What happened to working behind the scenes?"

"That was fine when we had the advantage of secrecy," said Victor. "We do not have that luxury now where these Harbingers are concerned."

"It is your secrecy that they have penetrated, not that of the cult," said Charles. "Yet you would have us break ours."

"And are you placing a higher importance of one over the other?"

Charles was silent for a few seconds. "That is not quite what I meant."

"The cult is useless to me unless I can draw upon its resources in time of need. I have a need for them. They will do as I say."

"Then why talk to me about it?"

"Because I had hoped you would coordinate it and free up my time in dealing with Gina."

A sigh came over the call. "Are you truly having that many problems with her?"

"I am overcoming them, but it requires my full attention. I am forced to instill much energy into my avatar to keep her focused. I will do this without you if I have to, Charles, but you are the only one I would trust to command the cult in my stead."

"You are putting me in a very difficult position. It is one thing for the cult to help influence others into doing our bidding, or to prevent them from noticing our activities, or even to permanently change someone who is troublesome, but we have never resorted to outright kidnapping."

"Yet is that not what we ultimately do each year?"

"Once a year, Victor," Charles said, frustrated. "And after careful arrangement and preparation. And this year you tell me it is moot anyway as the girl's mother has somehow already agreed to this."

Victor heard the hint of disbelief in Charles' voice. He had not shared details of his experiment with anyone, not just to cover his tracks but to avoid a backlash. He recognized the possibility that even his own trusted people would find his scheme so revolting that he could lose his influence over them. He could not afford to take that risk.

"This is temporary," said Victor, his voice short. "It is intended to intimidate only. She will be enslaved and sequestered for a short time to make a point, then released from our control with full memory of what happened to her. Nothing further will be done except keep her naked and sexually aroused, but we will maintain the threat that we can and will do more."

"And what if they do not react as you wish? What if they attempt a rescue and force a direct confrontation with you?"

Victor paused and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He loathed the idea of engaging in arbitrary sex with the under-aged, either himself or his cult. The Halloween night ceremony was the only exception and was a necessity. Breaking that unspoken rule with Gina had been as abhorrent as it had been necessary. He had no desire to allow the rule to be broken again.

"You will be forced to follow through on your threat," Charles continued when Victor did not reply. "Otherwise they will call your bluff and do as they please anyway. Or worse, contact the authorities."

"I am not as worried about that. It is unlikely they would be believed."

"Unless the police receive word by then that the girl is missing!"

Victor smiled. "Her mother is unlikely to interfere once I speak with her. And she can take care of her husband with a likely story that she can make him believe."

"Even when one of the children contacting the police is the daughter of the Kendalls?"

"Only if the Kendalls themselves became involved. Considering their self-centered lifestyles, it is unlikely they will give credence to their child's fairy tale, or desire to lift a finger to help a bunch of lower-class peons even if they did."

Charles sighed. "There's still too much that could go wrong. Is this even necessary, Victor, when Halloween is only five days away?"

"This has a dual purpose," Victor said. "One of the Harbingers has something I want. An artifact."

"An artifact? What kind?"

"I am not at liberty to say. But it is important that I get it back."

"And you will ransom this girl for it?"

Victor frowned. "I will do no such thing. No, this will be an example of what I can do. I will let fear and paranoia work for me. To keep her a constant hostage would be to encourage bravery and attempts at rescue. The initial shock of taking her will prevent them from forming a coordinated response and leave them open to negotiation. These are teenagers, Charles. They emote first and think later. I intend to take advantage of that."

Charles was silent.

"This is the only way now, Charles," said Victor. "If I had more time, I would be able to use my power to convince them to hand me the artifact and deter them from further investigation into my true agenda."

"And you cannot use hypnosis? You told me you could combine it with your power to make it more effective in the short term."

Victor's jaw tensed. He was tired of keeping secrets for the Darkness. It wanted no hint to be made of the link that the Harbingers had managed to forge between them, a link that could interfere with his hypnotic techniques. With Diane he had been fortunate enough to implant a trigger before the bond was formed.

"I have my reasons for why that is not feasible. I cannot stay on the phone all morning. I need your answer. Will you do as I ask or not?"

Charles was silent for a few seconds. "I will do it. No one else in your organization would really know how to keep this away from prying eyes. I will prepare a place for the girl in the old church."

"No, not the old church."

"But that is the easiest place to--"

"Anywhere but the old church, Charles. Perhaps if it comes down to Halloween night before this is resolved, I will allow the church to be used, but by then my power and that of the cult will be at their peak, and we can erase their minds of the whole matter."

"All right, I will try to work out something. I will use my own mansion if I must."

Victor smiled. "Thank you, Charles. I will remember this."

"Before you go, Victor, I do have one other question for you," said Charles. "I wish to know if you have sensed anything unusual from your avatar in Lydia."

Victor swung his chair around and watched the snow fall just past the window. "Why do you ask?"

"Her restlessness at night grows worse. Worse than I remember it."

"I did sense a strong presence in her mind early this morning," Victor replied. "The core remnant of her old personality surges like this at the same time every year."

"Should this concern us?"

"Not at all. Lydia is too far under my control. No one else could be in her mind without my knowledge, and any attempt would get no further than that remnant."

"And what of Cassie Kendall, the one you claim has some sort of 'Dream Gift?'"

Victor had considered Cassie in his plans. He had learned from the Darkness all it knew of the girl's power, and from that he had concluded that it was passive in nature. The presence of his avatars in Gina and Lydia shielded them from her ability. Their minds simply did not exist to her.

"I do not believe it will be a problem," Victor said.

"Very well. You know more about how your avatars work than I do. I will begin preparations this afternoon and inform you when we are ready. Good day."

Victor lifted the cell phone from his ear and flipped it closed. He let out another sigh.

Very good, the Darkness thought. It would be best to keep the Harbingers away from the line that runs under the old church.

Victor shielded his true reasons for barring the Harbingers from the church. The Harbingers had no means to discover his plans, as the only possible evidence lay in a moldering cemetery, but he refused to be complacent. No location associated with his cult or his plans would fall under Harbinger scrutiny.

He put his cell phone away and consulted his avatar within Gina. He frowned at the feelings of confusion and doubt. None of these had been present before she had entered Terri's class. Yet the idea that Terri would dare to work against his plans was unthinkable.

The Darkness spoke in his mind with abject lust. I can take her any time. Give me leave and I will. I can make her entertain you as you wish.

"She may still be useful to me," said Victor. "We will wait until after the ceremony on Halloween night."

Heather clutched the sides of her desk, unable to hear anything that Ms. Hollis was saying. The entire lesson flew by her in an unintelligible blur.

The voice that still spoke in the recesses of her mind sounded like a warped version of her own, as if Ms. Hollis had commandeered part of her own psyche to use against her. Heather resisted falling to it, but it would not stop affecting her body.

She leaned forward until her bosom brushed the top of her desk. The shaft of the dildo rubbed her clit hard with each slow and steady pump of her hips, lifting her to heights of straining pleasure.

The link was stronger than she had assumed. The others were feeding her energy despite her refusal to draw it from them. She turned her head and peered through stray strands of hair. She could no longer see anyone else doing it. She had disbelieved that much of her false reality.

But no matter how hard she tried, the dildo would not be wished away.

It's got to be real, Heather thought. I'm humping a real dildo.

She was starting to understand how it worked. If she accepted any part of her altered perception as real, it would feed back on itself and make other parts of the forced fantasy easier to believe as well. Yet if she continued to fight against something that did not need to be fought, it would only waste time and energy.

She had to fight the right battle, and she had to decide what that was before the dildo made her cum, or her rationality would be lost to the ecstasy.

Heather gasped as her pleasure soared. She couldn't slow down. Her hips continued moving as they were expected to do. The rhythm was relentless and maddening.

Oh, God, this is going to be a mess! Heather thought. It'll get all over me and run down ... okay, the dildo is real. It's real! But I have to stop humping it!

(hump like you're supposed to)

Heather shuddered. Her hips paused at the top of their arc and trembled.

(hump it)

Her hips shuddered and inched downward. The dildo squished into her again. "Unnggh... !"

(HUMP)

Not right not right not right ... not ... right...

Heather let out a loud, ragged moan. Her pussy gushed onto the seat, splashing hot cum over the insides of her thighs and onto her blouse. It dripped over the front of her seat and trickled down her calves.

She lost her protests in the paroxysms of her orgasm. Her hips rose one more time and came down, renewing her climax and squirting the seat with another small splash of cum. Her pussy throbbed hard around the thick dildo, and her cunt clenched it like a vise, her climax reverberating up into her body.

For the moment, the sweet ecstasy of her orgasm was her universe. Her mind wanted to rejoice that Ms. Hollis could provide her all the orgasms she could ever want. She just had to keep humping. She could have another one right away. Then after classes...

Then after school...

Then...

Her hips shuddered again. The link burned through the haze of bliss like a lighthouse through the fog.

(Keep humping it)

She understood something else now: when she heard the voice, it meant she was resisting; when she couldn't hear it, it was already one with her.

(Do as you're supposed to)

Heather's hips started to rise again, faltered, and fell back. Heather jerked as her fading climax flared once more.

(Hump)

It would be so easy. The dildo was so nice and thick. She loved how it felt so snug in her tight pussy.

(Hump)

She lifted her hips. She wasn't going to do it. She was going to rise right off the dildo and remove the temptation. She pulled back until only the thick head of the dildo remained in her folds, but that was as far as she could manage. She whimpered as she impaled herself on it again.

(Hump it)

Even that one slow stroke of the dildo against her clit sparked a renewed rise. She buried the dildo inside her once more but then remained on her seat.

(HUMP IT)

Heather clenched her teeth. NO!

(HUMP IT LIKE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO)

Now it was just another voice yelling at her. Perhaps Ms. Hollis had used a real dildo because she knew that an imaginary one wouldn't cut it. Ms. Hollis wasn't getting anywhere with her mind tricks.

(HUMP IT)

GO FUCK YOURSELF!

She waited for another assault, but now even the voice had fallen silent. She didn't dare lift herself off the dildo. The least bit of renewed pleasure and she would slip back into the manufactured reality.

Heather remained as still as possible, despite how messy and sticky she felt. She glanced down at herself and saw several large stains on her blouse.

She twisted her hips and felt the dildo turn inside her. She bit her lip to suppress a moan, and she shook with the urge to hump again. She let out a ragged sigh as a shadow passed over her. She lifted her head and flinched as Ms. Hollis' stony gaze fell on her.

"See me after class, Miss Sovert," Ms. Hollis snapped.

Heather nodded, not trusting her throat to work. She ducked her head as Ms. Hollis passed and looked around with shimmering eyes. She wondered what the rest of the class saw when they looked at her. She glanced at Brad. He was writing in his notebook, oblivious.

She can keep a separate reality going for the class and yet I still fought her off? Heather thought in astonishment.

The other students started gathering their belongings. Ms. Hollis was announcing the homework assignment. She would have to remember it until she got to her next class. When everyone prepared to leave, Heather held her breath and eased herself off the dildo. It issued a faint, wet sound as it emerged from her pussy.

Heather suppressed a moan as she struggled to her feet. Her cunt ached and felt stretched. Her thighs and calves were damp. She had nothing with which to wipe them or her sex. She frowned as she dressed over the wet mess.

She sniffed. I smell like a fucking whore.

"Miss Sovert, please don't dawdle," said Ms. Hollis as the class emptied.

Heather adjusted her blouse as best as she could so the stains would not be as noticeable and picked up her book-bag. Her heart pounded as she approached the desk. "Yes, Ms. Hollis?"

Ms. Hollis glanced towards the door to watch the last of the students leave. She gave Heather a saccharine smile. "I don't know what you think you're playing at here, but it won't work."

"I don't understand, Ms. Hollis."

"You're not playing by the rules."

"By what rules?"

"Whatever rules I happen to invent."

Heather remained silent, though her eyes betrayed curiosity.

"Don't look like you don't know what I mean by that, either," Ms. Hollis sneered. "Let's stop with the games, shall we?"

Heather sighed. "Fine. You're not going to get anywhere with this. I know what you're trying to do to me."

"I don't know how you are resisting, and I don't care. But I will not tolerate it any longer. You have detention tomorrow."

Heather stared. "Wait, what?"

Ms. Hollis smiled. "Detention. With me."

"But why? I mean, you can't just tell the school you're giving me detention because you want to fuck with my head!"

Ms. Hollis raised a finger. "Temper, Miss Sovert. And watch your language before a teacher. You were late for class this morning, that is more than enough."