Chapter 47

After a wobbly few minutes reminding herself how to ride her bike, Diane felt a lot more secure as she raced across town. Richie had originally wanted her to wait for him to escort her, until she reminded him that her bus delivered her home well before Jason. She would be on her bike by the time Jason had stepped off his bus.

She was grateful to have achieved even that concession. Richie had freaked out when he had heard that Jason had pummeled her with questions. She had to reassure him with a confidence she did not actually feel that Jason had not gleaned anything from her that would make him a threat.

Her anxiety returned in waves as she approached the southeast corner of town. Civilization gave way to dense stands of bare aspen trees all too quickly, standing stark and grim under the gathering leaden clouds. She had to hunt for the little dirt road, passing it twice because she had forgotten it ran near Gina's house, a place she had tried not to notice for fear of dredging up memories she wished would remain buried.

She took the road a little too fast, the rear wheel leaving the ground as the front wheel fell into a dip. The incident was over in a split second, but it left her heart pounding. As she slowed down near the intersection with Old Fairview, she half-expected to see Victor standing there when she turned the corner, waiting for her to return to his control.

Instead, Ned awaited her, standing just outside the ruined gate into the tiny, overgrown cemetery. She misjudged the distance and almost ran him over before she could bring the bike to a sliding stop. Ned jumped back, then grabbed the handlebars when it appeared she would tip over.

"Sorry," Diane said in a sheepish voice as she dismounted. "It's been years since I rode this thing and I'm a little rusty."

"Hey, no prob," Ned said. "Got used ta people tryin' ta do it on purpose back in my old haunts. Got real good at dodging 'em."

Diane looked around as she leaned her bike against one of the few surviving sections of wrought-iron fence. "Richie not here yet?"

"I'm sure he's wheelin' here as fast as his legs will take him." Ned paused. "He got a real big one stuck in his craw over Jason talkin' ta ya."

Diane sighed. "I wish he'd stop making a big deal over it."

Ned smirked. "So I take it that it ain't as bad as Richie makes it out ta be? 'Cording ta him, Jason had ya givin' away enough ta be a threat ta national security."

"I really didn't tell Jason any more than he could've figured out on his own," Diane said. "He was mostly asking about my lessons with Debby, but I'm not sure how that would matter to him."

"Yeah, I've been tryin' ta figger out Jason's angle. Feel like I'm missin' something. Sorry ta say this, but I still think he's gonna be gunnin' fer ya. Yer our high-card-in-our-unintentional-circular-opening."

"If anything, Ned, I downplayed it. He knows I still don't have complete control over it. I would've told him about how I have to be cumming to do anything, but I was right outside my next ... oh, there he is!"

Diane waved as Richie barreled down Old Fairview from the north. Richie skidded to a quick stop close to Ned, who jumped back again. "What, do I have a bullseye on my back?" Ned said, who feigned trying to look at his own back to see. "Or mebbe a sign that sez 'run me over!'"

"Sorry, "Richie said in a curt voice. He threw his bike against the side of a dead tree trunk and reached into his pocket, where something metallic tinkled. "We ready?"

"As much as I'll ever be," said Ned. He gestured across the road. "Lead on, MacDuff."

"Huh? Who?"

Ned smirked. "Never mind. Let's go follow the yellow brick road, instead."

Richie gave him an odd look and shook his head as he headed across the road.

Diane's heart thumped. As they picked their way around the weeds, her memories of that night bubbled to the surface. She glanced behind her and squinted at the sun which peeked out from under a growing blanket of clouds. Sunset could not be far away, the mountains west of town abetting the spreading darkness. She did not want to be here past dusk.

She flinched when they stepped past a thicket and the old church suddenly appeared before them. Diane had not been allowed to feel proper fear when she had first arrived here Halloween night, and now her emotions wanted to make up the deficit.

"You doin' okay?" Ned asked in a concerned voice.

Diane nodded despite her thoughts. "Just ... a little overwhelming to see this place in broad daylight." She glanced up at the cloudy sky. "What there is of it, that is."

Though she admitted that the light helped demystify the place. Now it appeared little more than a moldering ruin. Half the roof had partially collapsed, the other sporting gaping holes through which the occasional bird flew. The steeple had broken off some time ago and lay in splinters just to the right of the building. None of the windows had remained intact, some only bits of grimy colored glass clinging to naked frames.

Diane nearly ran into Ned just short of the door. She peered past him and saw Richie standing at the entrance.

"Problem, kemosabe?" Ned asked.

"Place gives me the fucking creeps, that's all," Richie muttered.

"Heh, mebbe try ta think of something pleasant, like how ya made Terrible Terri inta a bimbo last time we were here. Still think that was inspired, dude."

Diane heard Richie snort, and she decided to keep any comments to herself. She could not think of the incident as any better than what had happened to her, despite the needed expediency at the time.

Richie breached the entrance, pushing aside a door which had been propped up against the entrance. It fell to the floor with a report that made Diane flinch. Inside, most of the pews to the left had been demolished by the collapsing roof, the remaining scuffed and their finish faded and milky. Names, dates, curses, and insults had been carved into the wood here and there.

Richie stepped past a fallen crossbeam, while Ned tried to move it to the side. "This is probably far enough in, don't you think?" Diane asked, trying not to sound nervous or impatient.

Ned grunted as he heaved the crossbeam aside, where it crashed into a pew and raised a cloud of dust from fallen plaster. Richie looked towards the damaged altar. Beyond it was the secret trapdoor to the chambers below, where Victor and his cult held their yearly ritual. "Yeah, I guess," Richie muttered as he returned to the center of the church.

Diane stepped up to him and reached out her hand. He clasped it in his and motioned his free hand towards his pocket. "Wait!" Diane cried. "Ned, did you want to see this? I think it will work if you--"

"Nah, you kids have fun with it," Ned drawled. "I seem ta recall Richie spacin' out a bit when he did this, so someone's gotta keep watch."

"Ready?" Richie said as Ned stepped back.

Diane did not think she would ever be ready for anything so blatantly supernatural, but she nodded just the same, her fingers squeezing around his hand.

Richie nodded, thrust his hand into his pocket, and reality shifted.

Diane's heart skipped a beat as Ned vanished and the lighting suddenly changed. The roof on the left side was once more intact, or at least looking no worse than the right side had in the present. Far fewer windows were broken, and instead of gathering clouds she saw bright shafts of sunlight, slightly milky with floating dust. The detritus upon the floor was lighter and more scattered, and the altar lay mostly intact.

Diane nearly jumped when she heard the scrape of feet wading through broken plaster and glass from the far corner of the room, a flashlight beam zagging past her eyes and leaving a brief purple splotch upon her vision. "That's Heather's mother, isn't it?" Diane asked. "In fact, it looks a lot more like her now. Is this closer to the present?"

"Dunno," Richie said. He looked around. "No, it can't be, unless a friggin' tornado hit this place in the last few years."

Diane stared at the younger Penny. She wore thick corduroy pants, her hands sheathed in work gloves. Her rusty red hair was pinned back in a haphazard lump. "It's her hair. It's not dyed like you said it was before." Diane paused. "What is she doing?"

Penny leaned over the back of a pew and peered down. She shook her head and stepped towards the side aisle, carefully nudging a fallen window pane aside with the toe of her boot. It clattered against the wall and shattered into several pieces. She sighed as she stepped through it, more glass crushed to powder. She swept her flashlight along the aisle, then down the ranks of pews.

"Maybe this isn't long after the first vision you had," Diane said. "You said you thought Jo was feeding her false information."

"So she came down here to look for herself," Richie said. "Yeah, Heather's mother can be a bitch sometimes but she's no dummy."

Diane looked around. "Didn't Jo say she thought kids had--"

"And just what are you doing back here?"

Diane whirled around, ready to spew an apology or a plea for mercy. Standing in the door of the church was Jo. She looked little different from the way she had been described; either she had lost a lot of weight, or she had been nowhere near the "cow" as Richie had depicted. She was indeed filled out a little around the hips and thighs, and she shared the same gene for large breasts as the rest of the female Soverts. The black-framed glasses, she agreed, look incongruous.

Penny did not seem perturbed by her sister's presence and barely acknowledged her save for a tiny and brief turn of her head. She flicked her flashlight down another row of pews.

Jo sighed and picked her way through the fallen debris. "You can't let it go, can you?"

"Look at this place, Jo," Penny said without turning her head.

"I had seen quite enough of it the previous time I was here."

"Someone's given this place a cleaning. Not a single food wrapper. Not a single beer can. This is the third time I've searched the place."

Jo stopped and put her hands on her hips. "So?"

"Doesn't it seem strange to you that someone would go to the bother?" Penny flicked off the flashlight and turned towards her sister. "Especially since you told me the place was just littered with them."

Jo narrowed her eyes, but her voice remained level. "Are you saying I lied to you?"

"Of course not," Penny said in a rush.

"Bullshit," Richie muttered.

"I can't think of any reason why you would," said Penny.

"I can think of a few," said Richie.

"Which means both you and I have been duped."

Jo raised an eyebrow. "Duped? What the hell are you talking about?"

Penny side-stepped through one of the pews and emerged into the central aisle. "It means someone wanted this place to look like it had been subjected to teenage pranking and vandalism," she said as she approached her sister, forcing Richie and Diane to step to the side. It's less than two months until Halloween again, Jo, and now the place is immaculate, or as much as it can be given the circumstances."

"It's only the following year, 1986, then," Diane whispered.

"I really think you're reading way too much into this," Jo said.

"Jo, I'm not blaming you. You saw what you saw because they wanted you to see it."

Richie frowned. "Fuck, she still believes Jo was--?!"

"Shh!" Diane hissed.

"--a little paranoid about this, now," said Jo.

"No, not paranoid, just suspicious." Penny turned away from her sister and clicked her flashlight on. She shone it near the altar for a moment, and then beyond it. Jo's eyes flicked between the flashlight and the end of its beam, following the latter until it fell on the floor around the altar. Jo shifted her weight and scratched her cheek.

"I have a gut feeling about this," said Penny.

"And you're the one who would criticize people for not thinking these things logically."

Penny sighed and glanced at her sister, then jogged towards the altar. Jo's eyes widened in alarm, and she surged forward. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Yeah, that's right, find the trapdoor and prove she's a lying bitch!" Richie cried.

"Richie, please, I want to hear," Diane said.

Penny shone her flashlight down to the floor behind the altar. Jo froze, and Diane swore she was holding her breath. "It's not logical for this spot to be the cleanest of all," Penny said. "I've seen abandoned churches before. People like to vandalize this part the most, or they hold their own mock rituals here."

"All right, Penny, you want me to admit that I think it's a bit strange? Fine," Jo said. "I'll agree with you. But that doesn't automatically mean there's some secret cult."

Penny took another step and hesitated, and then it was Diane holding her breath, for Penny was standing right over the hidden trapdoor. She stepped off it and then the dais. "Yes, you're right, there is by no means conclusive evidence. But combine it with some of the other suspicious activity I've uncovered and I feel it bears investigation. I've made up my mind now. I'm reopening the Stephanie Fowler case."

Penny stepped past Jo, and Jo gave her an incredulous look. "And you have no respect for the dead?" Jo demanded. "Or her parents?"

Penny turned around. "I intend to be discreet. I do not need to involve them any further. Now, are you going to help me with this?"

Jo raised a wary eyebrow. "You still want me to help? After everything I just said?"

"Of course I do, and because of what you just said. I still need you to be the skeptic."

Jo sighed. "All right. As Halloween gets closer, I'll do the leg work for you out here."

"Yeah, I'll bet you'll do that," Richie growled.

Diane felt like she was watching a movie and wanted to scream at the protagonist for doing something stupid. How could Penny not see that her sister was lying? Or did she refuse to believe such duplicity from a sibling?

"And this time I want to be here Halloween night itself," Penny said.

"I'm sure that could be arranged," Jo said in a flat voice.

Penny nodded. "All right, let's go, the plaster dust is starting to tickle my throat and I'll be coughing before long."

She and Jo headed out of the church. Diane blinked as Ned abruptly appeared in their place, his back to them, the church back to its much more ruined self.

Diane let out a noisy sigh as she let go of Richie's hand. Only then did she notice she was trembling. "That was ... God, I can't even describe how that felt," she said in a quavering voice. "I feel little disoriented, like part of me is still left back there."

"Ya done already?" Ned said.

"How long has it been?"

"Dunno 'xactly. Couldn't've been more than five or ten minutes tops."

"So it does happen in realtime."

"These things ain't hell for long," Richie said.

"So any earth-shatterin' revelations?" Ned asked.

"Just that Jo was a lying bitch, and Heather's mother was eating it up."

Diane explained in more detail to Ned what they had seen.

"Huh. Wonder if this has anything ta do with her sad state today."

"It has to," Diane said. "If Jo was working against her this long ago, who knows how much time she had to really mess things up."

"All I'm thinkin' is that if Penny really did poke her pert little schnoz inta The Big V's affairs, he coulda jus' made her forget she was ever innerested in that stuff. Problem solved, no need ta turn herself over to nobody, an' we wouldn't be standing here."

Diane sighed. "I guess we're going to need more visions."

"Well, you gotta decide that," Richie said, thrusting the pendant at Diane. "Because I don't have a clue where to go next."

Diane took the pendant and looked towards the broken entrance of the church, where the first feathery flakes of snow wafted down. She had no insights as well.

"How 'bout the old cemetery?" Ned said.

"I ain't touching no fucking dead bodies again!" Richie declared.

"Chill, dude, no one said anything about that. I'm jus' thinkin' that Heather's Mom might've poked around there, too."

"All right, let's do that," Diane said as her fingers closed around the pendant. "But not today. I really don't want to be anywhere near here when it gets dark, and I promised mother I would be home in time to help get dinner ready."

"I'll follow you home," Richie said, sounding just as glad to be leaving as Diane was.

Ned trotted along behind them, glancing back at the church. "I got a funny feelin' we'll be comin' back here again."

Diane said nothing, and simply hoped he was wrong.

Jason sat at the edge of the bed, his legs spread as Cindy knelt before him, her mouth engaged in a slow glide up and down his cock. Kim lay stretched out on the floor, a pillow beneath her head to help press her eager face to Cindy's pussy. Cindy writhed and moaned as Kim licked and sucked, making up in enthusiasm what she lacked in pussy-eating skill.

Jason had arranged them this way -- Kim's ministrations eager and unrelenting, Cindy's ministrations slow and easy -- so he could keep a clear head while keeping Cindy's thoughts muddied by her lust and desire to please.

Jason closed his eyes and let out a long, contented sigh. He was tempted to let Cindy build him up to an intense, satisfying orgasm. Had he any less sense of responsibility, he might have done just that.

Diane and Melinda weighed heavily on his mind, both in grave concern and lusty anticipation. He so wanted to feel his cock in Diane's tight pussy again, and that lithe frame maneuvering around his like a gymnast. He missed feeling Melinda's perky body snuggling against him, and wanted to know what it would be like to have her now nice big tits wrapped around his cock.

Jason's next breath passed his lips as a husky sigh as Cindy's head bobbed faster, her hips squirming in desperate need, her pussy pressed hard against Kim's face. Kim uttered a gurgling moan and arched her back, a hand sliding between her parting thighs and sinking into wet, needy flesh. Cindy tilted her head back slightly with each back stroke, pressing her tongue and bottom lip against the underside of his shaft.

Cindy's enthusiasm had increased as a result of Kim's, and Jason was content to let it happen. The rising pleasure helped soothe some of his more troubled thoughts. He realized Stacy was right. If the right thing to do was to control Diane and Melinda, he could not be bogged down with Cindy and Kim. The welfare of his fellow Harbingers outweighed those of two girls who were effectively strangers until a week ago.

He did not yet know if he would take that step, but if the time did come, he had to be ready. He could not wait until then to wean these two of their dependency on him.

Cindy trembled, her breathing an irregular pant as she struggled to maintain pace with her pussy ready to explode into orgasm. Jason placed his hand behind her head and guided her to a more steady rhythm, nudging her into taking more of him into her mouth. Jason had Kim ease off, and Cindy moaned as her lips sank towards the base of his cock.

She drew her head back, then tilted it forward and took him deep again, her cheeks dimpling as she sucked. Jason uttered a low moan and shuddered as she teased a drop of pre-orgasmic fluid from him. She drew back and flicked her tongue around the head to lap it up before drawing her tongue along the underside of his cock.

Jason closed his eyes. He had already conceived of how he would change Cindy. It would be very close to her original personality, but with one crucial difference. She would desire sex with other men again, but she would feel compelled to give in to any advance. She would refuse to open her legs to no one. If she did not get enough spontaneous offers, she would flirt and flaunt herself until someone was interested.

Cindy took him inside her mouth again, whimpering as she strained at the edge, while Kim grunted and gurgled as she face-fucked Cindy's helpless pussy. Jason panted softly as his pleasure took a precipitous rise, until he placed his hand on Cindy's head and slowed her down.

Give into any man, Cindy, he thought as he readied to release the hold on her pending orgasm. Let any man fuck you as he wants. You'll want them to fuck you. You will have an absolute need for sex. He paused. And you will be honest with all your partners on how you will fuck anyone at anytime.

Cindy pulled back and let his cock fall from her mouth as she uttered a shrill cry, her hips bucking hard. Her fingers curled around his cock, giving it a slow tremulous stroke as she throbbed. She closed her eyes and shuddered as Jason touched her subconscious mind. She moaned and devoured his cock again, head moving like a piston.

Jason uttered a strained groan as his cock let go, each massive pulse spewing his seed into Cindy's hungry mouth. He was still throbbing, his hips jerking to each one, even after Cindy had already swallowed. One pulse of cum splashed against her cheek before she could take him back inside again.

Good God, Jason thought. Never had one that intense from just a blowjob.

Cindy lapped up the last few drops which oozed from the head. She slid her fingertips across her wet cheek and licked that up as well. She looked up and tilted her head, and for a moment Jason thought her eyes looked troubled and pleading. It disappeared a moment later, and she smiled in satisfied obedience.

Kim drew herself to her knees, her face wet. Jason silently bid them, and they exchanged a lingering kiss. Their tongues slid past one another until he was sure Kim tasted of his cum and Cindy tasted of her own.

"I hope I pleased you, Master," Cindy said with a smile radiant with obedience.

For a moment, Jason wanted to apologize for what he had done to her, but he had no choice. These were the kind of decisions a leader had to make.

"You were just fine, Cindy," Jason said in a soft voice. "Now, go lick Kim's pussy and bring her to a nice orgasm in return for eating you out so well."

"Yes, Master!" said Cindy.

"Thank you, Master!" said Kim.

He wondered now what he would do with Kim, but that would have to wait. Taking care of Cindy would allow him more free reign in deciding what to do about Diane.

"So what did you do in class today, Melinda?"

Melinda gazed up at Jo, who stood with only a robe between Melinda and her curvy, mature body. In her hands she held a small box, like one which might hold jewelry. She had shaken it once when she first entered, and something inside had rattled.

"I showed off my wet pussy to as many boys as I could," Melinda said in a voice both husky and shameful. "I showed them what a slutty girl I am."

"And how does that make you feel?"

Melinda lowered her gaze and folded her hands behind her back. "I'm ashamed of how slutty I am," she said in a quavering voice. Despite the hint of despair behind her words, arousal surged as oozing warm moisture in her bare folds. A small, breathy moan passed her lips.