Chapter 25

"So I grabbed my jeans, went upstairs and called you." Finished Mike.

He looked around and saw everyone staring at him in wide eyed shock. Just seeing that dungeon told us it had been bad, but we'd had no idea how bad.

My best friend had been through a hell I couldn't imagine.

Tiffany, who'd been sitting next to him with her arm around his waist the whole time he told us his story, hugged him tighter.

"I can't believe how horrible that man was. It must have been awful for you."

"Me? What about her?" He asked, pointing to the bottom of the stairs.

We all turned to see Lea standing there, clean and dressed.

Samantha jumped up and went to her.

"You're more than welcome to join us. How long have you been standing here?"

"I came down just as he told about burying the body. I ... I didn't want to intrude."

Samantha led her into the living room and Kirsten made room for her. She paused for a minute, then sat down.

Kirsten moved to put an arm round her, but hesitated.

"Is it okay if I touch you?"

"I ... I think so."

Her arm around Lea's shoulder, she tensed, but quickly relaxed into the smaller girl's embrace, Kirsten continued, "I can't believe you were in that hell hole for five years. I didn't know if you would, or even could be touched."

"It's fine. I don't think I want a man to touch me, though. Any time he touched me it was to brutalize me, have me brutalize them or rape me ... he raped me a lot as the other girls started to degenerate from his treatment of them. Not so much when he brought a new one in."

"That's over now," I said, "and we won't let anything like that happen again."

She looked at me, "You said you were like me, but different, different from him too. How?"

"I am a telekinetic, like you, I can move things with my mind. But I can also see auras."

"Auras?"

We explained the best we could about Psychics, Telekinetics, what they could do and how they were different.

"I've always supposed that since my dad was a powerful psychic and my mom just as powerful a TK, that I got a little of both. Though neither ability is like those who can only do one thing or another."

"He made me practice my power, but always with him in my head, making sure I wouldn't use it against him. I prayed and prayed for one chance to do it ... but he was too careful."

We talked at length about the different ways the two abilities could be used and she stopped me when I mentioned my armor.

"Armor? What the hell is that?"

"It's a telekinetic shield, a standard defensive measure that TK's use. You were never trained?"

"Just what he taught me. I was in a real bad car crash just before I turned thirteen. As I recovered, things started ... happening around me. I eventually figured it out and thought I was getting a handle on it when he saw me at the mall. I wasn't doing anything but he just came right up to me and made me take him to my house. I've already told you what happened there."

Kirsten looked at me, "How would he know she had this ability if he didn't see her using it?"

"Let me check something."

I closed my eyes and called up the sight. The usual fiery auras were there but hers had tendrils flying everywhere, seeking connections. At one point, one of them got close to a matching aura and started sparking, but it immediately pulled back.

Opening my eyes I asked her, "Lea, have you ever thought you were contacting another mind?"

"I think so, early on, before he took me but I didn't know how to control it. Then, after he took me it happened a couple of times when me and one of the other girls were alone. I would feel like there was someone else else in my head, but the thoughts were so ... dark ... tortured ... terrified ... horrible ... I didn't want to feel it. Eventually it sort of stopped happening. How did you know that?"

"Your auras. They are trying to connect but something won't let them. That's likely how he spotted you. Would you like me to help you control it?"

"You can do that? You won't ... have to get into my head again will you?"

"No, and I promise you that I will never do that without your knowledge and permission."

"Well ... I guess ... can I think about it?"

"Of course." Said Samantha for me. "You take things at whatever pace you'd like."

"It's getting late." I said. "How about we get some sleep and take this up again in the morning?"

Everyone agreed and we went upstairs. Lea went with Kirsten and the rest of us to our own, respective rooms.

Samantha and I didn't make love that night, after what we had heard, we just weren't in the mood I guess.

The next morning, everyone trickled into the kitchen, taking a cup of coffee, until there was a full table.

Kirsten stood, "Would my M..." she glanced at Lea, "Friends like some waffles this morning?"

A chorus of yeses came from just about everyone.

Mike watched Kirsten for a moment, then, "I think we should table the game, at least for a little while."

"That's what I just tried to do," said Kirsten with a grimace, "without actually bringing it up."

"What game?" Asked Lea.

He winced, then looked her in the eye, "We have a game where Kirsten is our ... submissive. She cooks for us, takes care of us, and ... well ... she has sex with us. She calls us her masters and her mistresses."

"She's your slave?" She was clearly startled.

"Sort of," said Kirsten, "but it's sort of an on again, off again thing that's totally voluntary on my part. I like it. But I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

"You volunteered to be their sex slave?"

"Oh, it's nothing like what you're probably thinking," Kirsten said in a rush. "there's no rough stuff or anything, it's how we show one another our love. Being ordered about excites me, they know it and play along."

As she spoke, she pulled the first waffle out of the iron, putting it on a plate, she set in front of Lea.

"I hope you like it."

Tiffany put the butter and syrup in front of her. She just stared at it.

"It's been a while, huh?"

"I don't know if I want to eat it, or just look at it. It looks so wonderful. I've had nothing but that fucking soup for ... well I guess for five years."

She picked up her knife and fork, curiously.

"I don't even know if I remember how to use these." She said with a small smile, the first one we'd seen.

"Well, Jake's the one to train you about your ability," said Tiffany, "but if anyone is qualified to teach the finer points of eating utensils ... I'm your girl ... and that means the next waffle is mine." She added, pointedly.

Lea actually laughed, and the rest of us followed.

After breakfast we saw the news about a 'chamber of horrors' being discovered and that the police had found one survivor, who had been able to lead them to a ghastly burial ground where their cadaver dogs were discovering one shallow grave after another.

We also found out the name of the evil mind fucker. Not that anyone cared but Mike told me later that it was on the list I had given him. He was a 'colleague' and, like the other 'colleagues, ' Mike hadn't been able to find him.

That was explained as well.

There was one hell of a scandal brewing in the aftermath of the discovery. The house he had lived in had been purchased by a wealthy career State Senator. The utilities, phone and other household expenses were being kept up by this same politician, who denied any knowledge of the man, despite the house and the money trail that had eventually led to his reelection campaign accounts.

We knew he was probably innocent but couldn't think of any way of getting him off the hook that wouldn't result in the mind fucking bastards finding us.

Tiffany had eased our consciences somewhat by noting, "He's a politician – how innocent could he be?"

Karma. You never know how it will strike, or where it will come from.

Mike was now determined to focus and redouble his hacking efforts at locating the rest of the bastards so listed. But to do so he needed that log in information.

We continued to have the girls apply for jobs while I tagged along and were looking for more than just human resources systems now. He needed financial information that might help us locate the other shady bastards.

We tweaked and padded resumes so they could apply for jobs in comptroller departments and the such and I would make sure they got an interview, which would include someone relatively high up in that department, whom I would be introduced to.

In between, I began Lea's training.

I got quite a surprise when I started to explain to her how to construct a shield.

"You need to make it so it will pass air but nothing else, I almost suffocated the first..."

"I know how to do that, well, something very much like it. But I never knew about this use."

"You knew how to make a shield? You could have done that with the blindfold on, why didn't you?"

"I only did it with my hands. I would touch the girl and extend the 'energy', that's how he referred to it, into their body. The way he taught me to do it, it would pass more than air. The energy ignored skin, bone and other tissues, but not nerves. It caused immense pain." she shuddered, "I hated that so much. Those poor girls ... the things I did to them..."

"You know it wasn't you, you had no choice, no control. You have nothing to feel guilty about."

"But I ... I suppose you're right ... still ... so how do I do this?"

After teaching her to work a shield the way I do them, I helped Lea learn to relax and focus her aura so she wouldn't make inadvertent contact. Teaching her to actually make contact took a while longer.

She had to overcome nearly five years of ingrained, reflexive recoil every time the sparks started. Samantha had volunteered to be a test subject along with both Tiffany and Kirsten so I figured it was just a matter of time. The more focus she achieved, the longer it was able to stay in contact, though she hadn't been able to trigger a shell in any of the volunteers yet.

In that time, we had scaled back the sex in the house to damn near celibate levels. I was only with Samantha, and after about a week, we began to hear subtle sounds from Mike and Tiffany's room that told us they were back in the swing of things, though, like us, they were trying to keep the noise down.

It was nearly three weeks before she was able to sustain a contact.

I was watching her aural tendrils slowly wave across the room towards Tiffany's aura, eventually, one of them, the one matching Tiffany's most prominent aura, lead the the pack. Tiffany's aura stretched toward it and the sparks flew.

It stayed connected.

"Okay," I said, softly, "you're connected, how does it feel?"

"Weird, there's sort of a ... tickle in my head"

"That's fine. Now try and follow it, take part of your consciousness and will it toward Tiffany. You should start to hear thoughts."

"I think ... no ... wait, I think I've got it ... this is ... Jake! How do I stop this? I have to get out of here."

"Just, want to. Will your mind back to you."

I saw her aura snap back and I opened my eyes.

"What was it?"

"What have you done to her? Why is she was wondering what's going on."

"How the hell would you know that?" asked Tiffany.

I chuckled, "I'm sorry, I didn't tell you about the shells. But it's how I know you did it."

"What's a fucking shell?" Asked Tiffany.

"Ynaffit."

"Congratulations, Lea!" She exclaimed, jumping up and giving the brunette a hug. "I knew you could do it."

Lea looked very, very confused.

"And now she seems to know what's going on. What just happened? I heard Mike talking about false personas and shells when he was telling you what happened. He told me a little bit right after he killed that guy, but just that you had done something to protect his real self from guys like that. But I still don't understand it."

"Let me fill you in." Said Tiffany.

While she did that, I wandered out into the kitchen where Kirsten was getting started on dinner.

"You'll be happy to know that Lea just managed a sustained contact."

"Good for her!" Said the the little hotness. "You'll have her ready to do battle in no time."

"I don't know about that. Her telekinesis is pretty good already, the things he trained her to do often took quite a bit of control, bend, don't break, twist, don't shatter, that sort of thing. I've just refocused that control to other things, not involving human bodies. And she's been a pretty quick study at adapting her shield. The way he taught her to do it was just sick."

"Did you know he didn't always force her to do it? She told me that despite being in her head, he would just tell her when to do it and leave it up to her. Of course, there were consequences if she didn't.

"That was the worst thing he did to her. Even though she knew she was inflicting far more pain than she would receive, she did it to avoid his punishment. The guilt and shame she feels over that is going to be her toughest hurdle. It was the reason she stopped talking to the other girls – it made her feel even worse if she got to know them."

"Then it's a good thing she has you to help her. I'm not sure where she is recovery-wise, so I haven't brought up our impending war."

"I did. I told her all about your mom, Alek and Phillip and what happened. How you happened upon that guy in the coffee shop and killed him."

"How did she take it?"

"She wants to help, but I think she scared silly of the chance of getting captured again."

"Can you blame her? Jesus, what she went through. You're the closest to her, how's she doing overall?"

"As well as can be expected, I guess. We talk a lot and the physical contact is helping."

"Are you seducing her?" I asked with a grin.

"No." She said, throwing a dishtowel at me. "But we snuggle in bed, sleep curled up together."

"Now I'm intrigued, since she's been eating your cooking, she's filled out, becoming quite the hottie."

"You may have to wait quite a while for that shot. She may, eventually, be open to sex with a woman, but men? I don't know, that may never happen."

She set down the spoon she was using to stir ... well, something, and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"I, on the other hand, am really missing the cock. Missing you guys, all of you."

I returned the hug, "We miss you too, sweetie. You know that all you have to do is join us, our door is always open."

"I know, I'm not sure I should leave her alone just yet. She has dreams ... bad ones ... it helps if I hug her. What I would like to do is get her some therapy, but if she tells some psychiatrist what happened to her, she'll wind up in a rubber room before you can say Sigmund fucking Freud."

"Yeah," I agreed, "maybe one of us should switch our majors to Psychology so we can help her when we graduate."

"That would be up to your wife, she's already going for a minor in it." She broke the embrace and pushed me towards the door. "Now go, I've got work to do."

I went back out just as Tiffany was finishing.

"That's amazing, Jake," said Lea, "So that's how Mike was able to break the control and take him out. But how do I practice if I will trigger the shell every time I make contact?"

"You just need to know the passwords."

We tried it again, this time Tiffany didn't retreat and her thoughts were natural.

"I'm in," said Lea, "Okay, I'm picking up something, It's hard to make out any real details though."

"Just open yourself up and let it in. Emotions, like her earlier confusion are pretty straight forward but thoughts can be tricky. Try to let her thoughts and emotions flow into you, once they hit your mind, they will make sense. Nobody thinks exactly alike and you have to filter her thoughts through yours."

"Okay," she took a deep breath and let it out, "something ... and more ... this is incredible..."

"Good, you're doing great."

"Uhm ... Jake?"

"Yes."

"Can thoughts lie?"

"No."

Her aura retreated and she regarded Tiffany for a second.

"How can feel like that towards me? You don't even know me."

"I know enough to admire your courage, your tenacity and your spirit. I think you are an amazing young woman and I care for you and I respect you. You haven't done anything other than impress me since I've known you."

"But you know about what I did ... to you your husband. I mean, it makes sense you understand because we were being controlled, but..."

"If I got upset every time another girl sucked Mike's cock, we would have been history a long time ago."

"Oh, that's right, Kirsten."