Chapter 53

The Conners had not been regular churchgoers since moving to Haven. In its place was the ritual of Sunday morning breakfast. Nothing short of an emergency would cause this rite to be skipped, canceled, or delayed. It was the one time that Audrey expected the entire family to be together without question, and this morning was no exception.

The Sunday morning breakfast was conducted like a summit. Whatever arguments or disagreements had taken place over the last week were put by the wayside. The fact that this one inviolate rule of the Sunday morning breakfast had been violated did not speak well to Jason about his parents' marriage.

The entire meal was carried out in silence, save for a few perfunctory questions from Audrey about how Jason was doing in school, delivered in a listless monotone. Only towards the end of the meal did his father try to revive the conversation, but he directed all his words to Jason. Audrey might not have been in the room at all.

Just as Audrey finally signaled the end of this painful rite by standing and collecting her plate, the phone rang. In response to the look of venom on her face, Jason leapt to his feet. "I'll get it!"

He ran out of the room before anyone could object.

Jason glanced behind him as his hand touched the receiver, and only after picking it up did he realize that he should have taken it in his room. He doubted anyone else would be calling on the house line, since the hospital always called his father's cell phone. "Um, hello?"

"Please come down to the corner of your block, Jason."

Jason hesitated. "Uh ... what?"

"The nearest one to your house," continued the voice. "Right away."

"Wait, who is--? Is this Charles Remmer?" Jason asked in a low voice.

A pause. "Yes, Jason, it is. I am here to return your friend to you."

His heart leapt into his throat. He was about to respond when he turned his head and saw his father at the kitchen doorway.

"She is here, and she is safe," said Charles.

Jason wanted to ask him why he insisted on bringing Melinda to him instead of taking her home. But by now his father had folded his arms and leaned against the door frame, scrutinizing his son. "All right," Jason said, his voice shaky. "I-I'll be there in a few minutes."

Jason hung up and stared at his father. The tense silence was broken by an irritated voice from the kitchen. "Jason, so help me, if that is another one of your friends with no respect for a family--"

"It was a wrong number, Audrey!" Henry called out.

Jason waited for a moment to ensure his mother had subsided, then said in a weak voice, "Thank you."

"Son, I have enough crap to worry about right now with your mother than to let her go off on another tirade," his father said. "Whatever this is, take care of it as far from this house as possible. Consider that an order from your father."

"Yes, sir, " Jason said, and managed to resist the urge to snap him a sarcastic salute. Nevertheless, his chest clenched, and it was not until he had raced up the stairs and was safely in his room did he let it go as a small sob.

He took a quick, deep breath and wiped his eyes. He didn't have time to lament over a failing marriage between his parents. He grabbed his jacket from the closet door knob and flew back down the stairs.

He ran down the walk, still putting on his jacket, and skidded on the light dusting of snow upon the pavement. His parents ceased to matter to him when he came around the bend in the road and saw the limo parked by the sidewalk. He shuddered to a stop when he saw Charles and the two women that had taken Melinda. He feared this was just some sort of trap when one of the women stepped to the side.

"Melinda!" Jason shouted, and started running. His feet slipped, almost spilling him to the sidewalk. As he approached, he realized that Melinda had not reacted to him. She stared straight ahead with glazed, empty eyes. Jason stopped, trembling with growing panic. His eyes blazed at Charles. "What the hell have you done to her?!"

"I said she was safe," Charles said in irritation. "She simply believes herself to be asleep."

Jason fought to steady his voice. "Why did you bring her here instead of taking her home?"

"You will have to ask her mother that question. I am only doing what she asked."

Jason stared at Melinda hard. He saw no Aura, only the odd patterns of energy that were the signature of Victor's kind of mind control.

Charles gestured to the others. The two women turned away. Charles back-stepped towards the limo. "She will be released as soon as we are away. I do hope this is a satisfactory demonstration that Victor is serious in his intentions. If he wants something from you, it would be in your best interests to give it to him."

Jason saw and heard the same hint of genuine reluctance in Charles as he had in Victor, perhaps even more so. "All right, fine. Leave, then."

Charles nodded once, his jaw tight. He backed away another step, then dived into the limo. The limo peeled away from the curb even as the door was still closing, one of its wheels spinning on the snow before gaining traction with a lurch.

Jason shifted his gaze to Melinda, his heart thumping. He swallowed hard, his stomach churning when Melinda continued to stand like a statue. He considered grabbing her shoulders and giving her a gentle shake, and had lifted his hands when Melinda suddenly blinked rapidly. Jason let out a gusty sigh when volition pooled back into her eyes. She gasped once, then stared at Jason with wide, glistening eyes.

"Um ... a-are you okay?" Jason asked.

Melinda began to nod, then paused. She gave Jason a wrenching gaze, her lower lip trembling. Her eyes flooded and dripped down her face.

"Melinda, I'm sorry, I wish we--"

Melinda pulled Jason into an embrace, not one of love or affection but of desperation. A single, keening wail burst against Jason's shoulder. Jason hugged her, then grunted when Melinda's legs gave out and forced him to support her.

Jason squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back his own tears until the feeling passed. He clenched his teeth when it refused to stay away. Melinda didn't need him getting weepy-eyed as well.

"Melinda, I-I'm sorry," Jason rasped in her ear, his voice cracking. "We tried. We really, really tried."

Melinda shook her head against Jason's body. "It's not that. It's not ... I just..." She shuddered and sobbed for a few moments before she could compose herself. She lifted her head, rising on her still wobbly legs. Her face was stained and glistening, and tears still trickled from the corners of her eyes. "I-It was ... it was just too much ... a-and I couldn't ... I-I..."

"I know, you couldn't stop them."

"That's not it!" Melinda wailed. "It's that I couldn't feel! I couldn't feel what I wanted to feel! I couldn't get mad or scared or sad, not even in my own head!" Melinda wiped her eyes, pushing herself away from Jason a little, her hands balling into fists against Jason's chest. "Shit. Even when Nyssa made Heather enslave me, or my Mom does something to me, it's like I know they're doing it. It's like some part of my head can still scream at them."

"I know. It's part of the way they alter your perception of reality. It--"

Jason's breath huffed past his lips when Melinda pounded her fists on his chest. "Will you stop fucking analyzing it?!" she screamed. She teared-up again. "Just let me rant, okay?!"

Jason swallowed and tried not to look like a deer caught in the headlights.

Melinda sagged like a balloon deflating. "Fine, just forget it," she muttered, turning away.

"No, Melinda, wait, please." Jason grasped her arm. She shook him free but turned to face him. Jason sighed. "Look, face it, I suck at dealing with girls. Having sex with them doesn't give me any magical insights into their heads. Please, just tell me whatever you want to say."

Melinda folded her arms, but her indignant look failed. She pressed her palms against her eyes until she stopped sobbing. She took a few deep breaths, lowering her hands only when the last one came out without quavering. "I know I sound stupid, okay? It shouldn't make any sense. Control is control, right?"

Jason clamped his mouth shut and fought down the urge to reply.

"I-It's not what they did to me, Jason," Melinda said, her voice hollow. "I-I can live with that if I don't think about it too hard. It's not like I h-haven't already been boinked a hundred times."

The brief, frightened look in Melinda's eyes said otherwise. Jason's throat became tight.

"I got over Richie screwing with me at the House," Melinda said. "Because I could curse the fuck out of him in some little corner of my head when he was doing it to me. I can't do that with Victor's goons until they let me go. God! Jason, you told me Cassie thinks this Stephanie girl is still alive. If she is and she's still being controlled like I was, freeing her after over twenty years of this shit would just fuck her over more than she is now!"

Jason nodded, and something flashed in his head like a nearby lightning strike.

Melinda gasped, staring. "What is it?" she demanded.

"Huh? What's what?"

"You just ... your face, it was like you were boiling mad for a split second."

Jason blinked. What had he been thinking? The last thing he remembered was hearing Melinda's assessment of ... no, he had a brief thought about Diane for some reason, a thought that now lay just beyond his grasp, like an object sitting almost within reach of his fingertips.

"You just did it again!" Melinda cried. "What the fuck? You think I did something wrong?!"

"What?? No! Melinda, I really don't know what you're talking about. I was thinking about Diane for a moment, but I can't remember why."

Melinda scrutinized Jason's face.

"Melinda, why the hell would I think you did anything wrong? You're the victim in all this."

Melinda's eyes threatened to tear-up again, but she shook her head and wiped her eyes and face. "God, I'm so glad they brought me here. I don't think I could look at my mother without wanting to scream at her. I wish I could stay with you."

"Huh? With me?"

"I can't live with my mother anymore! What else is she going to do to us now?"

"I can't keep you here. My parents would--"

Melinda waved a hand. "I know! Stop taking things literally! God, you really do suck with girls."

Jason was not upset. He took the snipe to mean that the old Melinda was back.

"Why they hell did they take me here anyway?" Melinda asked.

"They said your mother asked them to."

Melinda stared. "What?!"

"That's all I know. He said I would have to ask your mother to find out why."

Melinda let out a windy sigh. She blinked when the breeze blew a snowflake into her eye. "Shit, and we had to get snow today. How else can my life get fucked up?"

"The weather report said it was only going to be about three inches and stop by tonight, then it will be just cold. There's an arctic front dropping down out of Can ... um..." He trailed off when Melinda frowned at him. "Sorry."

Melinda sighed. "Look, never mind what I said before. You're a nerd and you're always going to be one." She paused. "I wouldn't put up with it if I didn't, you know, like it or something. A little bit, anyway."

Jason smiled. It seemed like the first time in days.

Melinda's voice quavered when she spoke again, but it did not sound as fearful or despairing. "We better go find Heather and let her know I'm back. Maybe you can get her to come out of the house so I don't have to see my mother right away."

When she looked at him, her gaze was soft and warm, but seconds later it reverted to strained and indeterminate. She snatched his hand. "Come on, church services will be over soon. At least I got to miss that."

"Our slave -- former slave -- has been successfully released," said Kelly from the back seat of the limo.

"Did you really think I wouldn't see it?" Charles snapped, his voice icy. "Do you think me that stupid?"

"Such thoughts would be blasphemous, Prophet. I am unsure what it is you're angry about."

"I saw what you left in her! You thought you had disguised it but--"

"Not from you, Prophet. Of course I knew you would find it. It was not meant to be hidden from you."

"Then why did you not tell me about it?"

"I was given this task by the Glorious One himself. I did not feel the need to apprise you."

"You don't seem to feel the need to do a lot of things anymore."

"Sorry?"

Charles sighed and rubbed his eyes. It was not even noon and he was exhausted. "Kelly, will you and the other cultists be leaving my mansion later today?"

"Of course. We have fulfilled the purpose for which we had gathered." A pause. "An apology if any member of the cult did not treat you or your home with the proper respect you are due."

"That will not be necessary," Charles said in a strained voice.

"The change to her perception is relatively harmless," said Kelly. "She will note it only as an increased attraction. She will not act on it unless the object of her affection makes an advance. Then she will be helpless to resist it. It will not enslave her."

Small consolation! It was an indulgence that Charles felt would jeopardize the secrecy of the cult. Yet he would not argue the point any further. The last thing he needed was Victor believing that he was a hindrance to his plans.

Whatever they were.

"Consider the matter dropped," said Charles.

Heather burst into her bedroom, pulling the buttons of her dress out of their buttonholes with little delicacy. She popped one of them and cursed as it bounced across the carpet and under the bed. She nearly ripped the garment from her torso as her mother stepped into the doorway.

"I don't understand why you are angry with me, Heather," Penny said.

"Pick just about anything you've done over the last month," Heather retorted as she yanked the rest of the dress down her legs.

"I meant that when I told you where I had asked for Melinda to be returned, I thought you might be grateful that she didn't have to face your big bad wolf of a mother."

Heather sneered. "Don't try to be funny, Mom, it doesn't work." She picked up the crumpled dress and threw it on the bed before racing to her dresser.

"Put your dress away, Heather."

Heather slammed her hand on the top of the dresser and glared at her mother. She stomped over to the bed, each foot thudding down as hard as she could. She grabbed the dress and returned to the dresser, yanked open a drawer, stuffed the dress inside, and kicked it closed.

"If I have to send that to the dry cleaner just to get the wrinkles out, you're going to be the one to pay for it," said Penny.

"Stop trying to be my mother, you gave up that right forever yesterday." Heather turned towards the mirror above the dresser and hooked her fingers under the straps of her bra. Instead of removing it as she had intended, she tugged the straps and let her breasts bounce, drawing a low, husky sigh from her lips and a seductive lean towards the mirror so her breasts dangled into the cups. She tried again with the panties and instead tugged them into her sex, gyrating her hips so the material would stroke her clit.

She slapped her arms to her sides and whirled around. "Let me take these things off!"

"You don't want to take them off, Heather."

"Don't give me that. I-I know I don't. But I have to."

"No."

Heather swallowed, trying to push the erotic thoughts out of her head.

"You'll keep wearing them for today," Penny said in a calmer voice. "Just enjoy them."

Heather shivered. She turned towards the dresser and pulled out her jeans and as plain a shirt as she could find. Thoughts of concern for Melinda competed with a fleeting desire to find Laura Bendon and strut her sexy body before her Mistress-to-be.

The other Harbingers can help me with this, she thought. They can help me resist this. They just have to...

Heather shivered again as thoughts of sex intensified her twinges of lust for her Principal. Every erotic thought tended to morph into a desire for Laura again.

She pulled on her jeans, trying to ignore how they made her panties fit so snug against her mound and around her ass. She frowned at her mother. "So why are you still here?"

"Heather ... you can stay out today as long as you want."

"Real generous of you, Mom, especially since I was planning on that anyway regardless of what you want."

"Heather, stop it!"

Heather paused as she was about to put her shirt on. "Stop what?"

"Stop being so disrespectful towards me. I ... I really don't want to punish you any more than this. Stop giving me reasons to do it."

Heather was about to retort, but managed to hold her tongue. She searched her mother's face for any reason to believe that Penny was offering any sort of sympathy or lingering resistance to the Darkness. She thought she saw some hint of sadness in her mother's eyes, but her own emotions were so chaotic that she was not sure she could trust her judgment.

As much as she wanted to rebel against her mother and display her complete contempt, she had to remind herself that the Darkness could work through Penny whenever it wanted.

"All right, fine, " Heather snapped. She pulled on her shirt, pausing while the slide of the fabric across her nipples made her quiver even through the bra. "M-mom, I have to go. Is there anything else?"

Penny shook her head. "There's nothing I can tell you that I haven't already, and I am sure you would listen to it no more now than you did before. I can't protect you anymore, Heather, it's as simple as that."

Heather stared at her mother's face.

"Maybe I didn't protect either of you as much as I believed, but I can safely say that now it is impossible." She paused, then spoke in a lower, more urgent voice that hinted at hidden, gnawing fear, "It's pretty much in control now, Heather. I can't do anything against it."

Some of Heather's anger faded. Her desire to rail at her mother was tempered by her appreciation for her mother's honesty. She just wished the truth had not been so stark.

"I'll try to control my temper," Heather said. Her voice was softer but no less tense.

"Thank you. You better go before my friends arrive for our Sunday social, otherwise they'll insist on wanting to see you if Melinda is not here."

Heather nodded once and edged past her mother. In the hallway, she paused and faced Penny again. "You never told me why you sent Melinda to Jason."

Penny sighed. "I thought it would be less traumatic for her."

Heather nodded again and headed down the stairs.

When she turned onto Green Avenue with Jason in tow and her house appeared in the distance, Melinda wanted to cry again. She blinked rapidly to flick away the tears that had washed across her vision so she did not have to rub her sore eyes. Her urge to cry was not so much in response to her trauma as to convince herself that she could cry.

Melinda felt dirty and violated, but not from the strange men and their cocks inside her. Having her entire mind slaved to a false reality was far more of a "rape" than anything done to her body.

Her eyes watered once more as they were about to cross the intersection. He feet seemed to turn to lead. She knew she would break down in hysterics if it were her mother she saw first, and become weepy-eyed again if it were Heather. She was grateful when the first person she saw barreling towards them was Richie.

Melinda tugged on Jason's hand and stopped him before they could step off the curb. She stared at the sliver of her house that she could see and shuddered like an inmate innocent of her crime returning to prison.

"He shouldn't run like that, not with the snow accumulating on the sidewalk," Jason admonished.

Richie suddenly let out a loud curse as he slipped and fell on his rear. Before either Jason or Melinda could react, he had already stood. He walked with a slight limp for the first few steps.

"You all right?" Jason asked.

"Fuck that," Richie said. Melinda gasped and flinched when Richie suddenly seized her shoulders. "You okay?"

Melinda rolled her eyes. "I was just used as a sex toy for the past day. What do you think?"

"You remember all of them that did stuff to you? What they looked like and all that?"

Melinda was shocked by the question, but the earnest look in his eyes made her hesitate before retorting.

"Richie, what the hell kind of question is that?" Jason demanded.

Richie's head snapped towards his friend. "So I can find each one of those assholes and give him a kick in his fucking balls, that's what!"

Melinda shook her head. "Richie, that's ... that's ... well, k-kind of sweet, actually." She paused when her voice cracked and her eyes flooded once more. She wiped them and sniffled, clearing her throat. "I'm dealing with it. I can't whine about everything. And how did you know I was coming?"

Richie thrust his hands into his pockets, his arms stiff and thrusting his shoulders up in a frozen shrug. "Uh, I overheard Heather arguing with her mother while leaving church."

"Did you hear anything that would give us a clue as to why her mother asked she be returned to me specifically?" asked Jason.

"Huh? Nah, man, nothing like that. Just that it was going down on your block."