Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 1 - Flight 689 (no sex) When Joey and I were little, we played all sorts of pretend games with the other kids in the neighborhood. A favorite with the girls was 'house', playing with their baby dolls and kitchen sets, and despite we being boys and all, Joey and I did seem to play it a lot ourselves. But when we were tired of the girls, we and a couple of the other guys would find a big piece of cardboard and make it our 'garage'. We would pull our tricycles or big-wheels up onto the cardboard and let whoever was the 'mechanic' fix whatever ailed our vehicle. Then when we got our bicycles, we started mimicking what we had seen Joey's dad doing to his Olds, and by the time we got our ten speeds, we had learned enough through general experimentation that we could disassemble, clean and lube the parts, then reassemble our bikes without getting too much grease on our clothes. I guess everyone doesn't ride bikes like the kids in our neighborhood did. The best times were in the spring and fall, especially after a rain shower. You know... puddles. Heh... Nothing like the zzzzzzzz sound of rubber going through water. Anyway, we were always thinking up something to pretend to be or do, and our bikes became lots of different things during our ventures into the realm of our imagination. Joey and I used to argue about what we would be when we grew up, and we always ended up racing our bikes or something to prove we would be the best at whatever it was. The memory of Joey and I trying to make our 'jets' jump higher in the air while chasing and evading pretend Soviet bogies from our patrol route flashed through my mind as the F14 Tomcat I was in went vertical. Joey and I watched Top Gun I don't know how many times when it came out in '86, and we had even talked about me using my abilities to get us both a ride in one, but nothing ever came about it with Suzi being around to bring us both back down to earth. Anyway, my dad has this... friend in the Air Force who my dad does favors for from time to time. My mom and dad went to his daughter's wedding about a month before my graduation and somehow they got onto the subject of a graduation present for me... Shit. Up until the moment I felt I don't know how many G's pressing down on me I had been thrilled with the idea of flying in a real F-14 and experiencing some of those fancy maneuvers like in the movies first hand. But then when we started tilting backwards... as in upside down, I started feeling nauseous and yeah... a bit scared. "You okay back there?" Leroy said with some difficulty over the intercom in the helmet I wore. "Uhhh..." I managed to peep out before my eyes caught the horizon just above me and my stomach did a couple of extra twists. I wanted to close my eyes just shut down until it was over, but I could feel Leroy's own excitement over sharing what he felt was the greatest experience a man could have in his life, so I kept my eyes open and tried to keep breathing while my fingernails dug into the seat's material. Man, was I glad I didn't close down. Despite the fact that the entire world was hanging above me instead of below me, I couldn't help but feel that thrill coming back with great force. I had mixed feelings when Leroy continued doing the loop and brought us back to being horizontal... right side up. He was afraid I was gonna lose my cookies in his cockpit, and while there was no chance of that actually happening, I didn't try to stop him for I knew I was going to be late getting to the airport as it was. I gave Leroy the exhilarated response he had hoped for, and I didn't fake it one bit. And I didn't feel as big of a chicken when Leroy explained that you had to get scared in order for you to get the big rush that made it so great. You can imagine how disappointed I was when ten minutes after I had nearly shit in my pants that he radioed the tower and started our decent for our landing. I couldn't believe how shaky I still was when I unfastened my mask and belts and tried to raise myself up to get out of the cockpit. I managed to do it on my own on the second try, and even got down the ladder without a problem, but then my legs started to shake like they were made of spaghetti, and I ended up having to be helped off the airfield after thanking Leroy pathetically sitting on the ground. I felt better when I checked to see how big of a wimp Leroy thought of me as and found that he was still grinning to himself from realizing how big of a thrill it must have had been for me to cause that kind of shakiness afterwards. "About time," Joey said urgently as I passed through the Air force's check point inside the airport's terminal. "Come on. They're probably prying Suzi from the door so they can take off now." When I just stood there gaping at his crewcut, he grabbed my hand and started pulling me quickly down the terminal. Somehow I managed to keep up with him despite feeling the unsteadiness of my legs. "There they are," I heard Suzi's urgent voice just as we turned the corner and witnessed the terminal's door that led to the airplane being shut. I was in a daze while trying to catch my breath and leaning heavily against the wall as the attendant processed our tickets and reopened the door. They had already disengaged the ramp from the aircraft, but there was only about a foot gap open between the airplane's open door and the end of the ramp. Suzi agilely leapt across like a cat, Joey just stepped over like it didn't exist, and I... hesitated. "Come on... What are you waiting for?" Joey said impatiently when he noticed I wasn't directly behind him. "I feel like I'm ready to faint," I admitted, still puffing from the run. "Shit," he said while rolling his eyes and tossing his and my on-board bags to the ground behind him. Everything just suddenly blurred a moment, then I found myself planting my feet to hold myself up while Joey's hand released the grip he had on my shirt just below the collar. It took me a moment to realize I was inside the airplane, and then I dazedly followed Joey down the aisle as they sealed the door behind us. I was staring over at the door as they finished when Joey said something I didn't catch but drew my attention to the fact that they had stopped and I managed to avoid walking into him. "What?" I asked. "Do you want the window seat?" Suzi repeated for him. "No... I've ah... already seen everything I could want to," I said with a weak grin while gently grabbing onto the back of another seat to steady myself. "You okay?" Suzi said as she sat down in the seat they had offered me then motioned for me to sit in the middle. I collapsed into my seat and said, "I will be. Just give me a minute." I closed my eyes and focused on relaxing, and then a minute later felt a cool damp paper towel wiping off my face. I waited for Suzi to finish before opening my eyes and thanking her, then accepted her peck on the cheek and gave her one back in return. When I looked over at Joey from his "echem," he playfully moved his head closer to make his cheek more accessible. "Uhm... Thanks to you too," I said while giving his chin a pretend punch with my fist. "Shit. I was the one who dragged him through the terminal and then had to pull him the door before he could..." Joey muttered, before sighing and saying, "Suz, you sure you don't want first class seats?" "Yes, I'm sure," she said firmly. "It's only an hour and a half flight, Joey." "I know... Oh well. I guess it will just make us appreciate the first class seats on the flight to England and back," he said while running his hand over his crewcut. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but..." I said just before the engines roared and the plane started speeding down the runway. I dug my fingers into the armrests out of excited anticipation, but once we were off the ground and the acceleration tapered off, I sighed with disappointment, then made a "hrmph" sound before noticing they were both watching me closely out of curiosity. "What?" I said with a sheepish grin. "That plane ride must have really been something," Joey said grinning. "Shit. You can say that again," I said while stretching my arms above me. "What took two hours on the train going there only took less than thirty minutes coming back." "What were you going to say before the takeoff cut you off?" Suzi asked. "Oh yeah," I said while putting on my best straight face, turning towards Suzi and taking her hands in mine consolably. "Suzi, I don't know how to say this but.. I think Joey's been cheating on you." "What?" Suzi said surprised. "What did you say?" Joey said from behind me. "No he hasn't," Suzi said with a slight frown. "He couldn't have..." "He couldn't have what?" Joey said a bit alarmed. "I know, I know, it's hard to believe he could, but..." "Hey now!" Joey said sternly. "What am I being accused of? Tim, turn around and tell me before I..." I turned around to face him, then couldn't help but let out a snicker before blurting out, "I seem to remember the last time you got a crewcut, you swore you'd kiss a cow's butt before you'd get another one." "Shit," Suzi exclaimed before slapping me on the side of my shoulder a couple of times saying, "I KNEW you were joking." I ignored the sting in my shoulder as Joey's blush reached his bare legs, then after he sat back in his seat without even a single cuss, I got concerned and playfully ran my hand across his fuzzy head. "I was only trying to joke around," I said apologetically. "It really surprised me. I almost didn't recognize you." All he did was sigh, then kept looking over at Suzi while I waited for him to make some kind of reply. I suddenly understood it had been Suzi's idea and I got the impression he had done it without objection when she had asked him to do it. I crooked my head and put on a thoughtful look while studying his new look, then admitted, "Actually, it doesn't look bad at all now that your ears aren't too big for your head." "What do you mean?" Suzi said, trying to see around me and finally just stuck her head beneath my crooked arm. "I think it's sexy on him." "Yeah, but one summer a long time ago Joey and I both got crewcuts, and Joey got made fun of because his ears looked too big..." "They weren't too _big_," Joey said a bit exasperated. "They just stuck out away from my head more than... others." I had sat back to let Suzi silently study his ears easier which only made Joey blush again, but then he tried to make it seem like he didn't care when she announced his ears looked fine. I was pretty tired from all the excitement, so I just sat back and closed my eyes to relax some more while Suzi watched the scene out the window and Joey silently rubbed his hand over hair, trying not to be too obvious that he really was measuring how far his ears stuck out from the sides of his head. I was in the middle of recalling the cockpit of the Tomcat when one of the stewardesses asked the people in the row ahead of us what they would like to drink. I decided I felt better after I stretched again, then nudged Joey and said, "She's right, you know. It does look sexy." "Yeah?" he said, letting his eyes follow the stewardess's ass as she walked back to the refreshment cart. "So you'll get one before we leave for England?" "Uhm.." I said hesitantly, then bit the bullet and said, "Yeah, sure. Why not. But I don't think it will look as good on me as it does you." "Why's that?" he said while giving the stewardess an enchanting smile as she approached to ask us what we'd like to have to drink. "I just don't have the muscle head build," I said with a little sigh and watched his already smiling mouth twitch a little due to his amusement to my words. "So how was the wedding?" Suzi asked after we were handed our drinks and Joey got us some extra crackers with his charm. "Yeah really. And why were you so late?" Joey inserted. "I can't tell you the ending first," I said amused. "It would ruin the story." "Uh huh," Joey said before munching on a cracker. I took the last gulp of my soda then reached out to the stewardess with my mind to get a refill before beginning. "The train ride over there was neat. I spent most of the two hours in the passenger car talking to this German girl and her mom. I think I'd like to travel and see the world a bit this fall. The images I got from their minds..." "How old was she?" Joey asked. "Jess was thirteen I think, and her mom was in her thirties," I replied. "Oh," Joey said with a little disappointment. "Go on," Suzi prompted me. "Uhm, anyway, when I got to my stop, I didn't see anybody I recognized so I did a pulse to find out who was supposed to be there to pick me up." "I thought Jerry was going to..." Joey said. "He was. And he did, but only because I had done the pulse and hadn't called a cab. Jerry came running in about a half hour after I had gotten there without a shirt on dripping wet with sweat and marks all over his chest and back..." "No shit?" Joey said with a lecherous smile. "Isn't that bad luck?" Suzi said trying to suppress her own smile. "I mean I take it Dana and he... That has to be bad luck, doing it two days before their wedding." "Maybe the day before, but I don't think it's considered bad luck two days before. Hey, you saw them a year ago... Was Jerry... uhm... a little overweight or anything?" "No," Suzi said squinting her eyes like it helped her to remember. "At least I didn't notice if he was. Why, is he heavy now?" "No... Oh, duh... I know what it was. Shit. Why didn't I think of it before?" "What?" Joey and Suzi both said. "Oh, its just that later when I saw... more of him, I noticed what I thought were stretch marks on his legs and stuff. But that must have been from when they burned the tattoos off." "Burned?" Suzi said with a shudder just before Joey exclaimed, "They had to burn them off? How? Why?" "Well, I didn't find this out until I had dinner with her parents that evening. From what I understand, the only way you can remove tattoos is either by surgically removing the skin, or sanding or burning the skin down past where the ink is. They had their faces sanded to get rid of those right away, but then after Dana had her baby, the rest were burned off using some kind of laser." Joey and Suzi sat there stunned for a few moments, and I recalled my own reaction and thoughts when Dana's father mentioned burning the graffiti off in passing at the dinner table and I had peeked in his head to see what he had meant by it. "How long were they... miserable from it?" Joey said, breaking the silence first. "About six months, but they..." "Six months?!?" Suzi moaned. "Did they have it done all at once? Or did they do it a little at a time?" "A little at time. And they didn't really feel much discomfort from it because my dad made them sort of like it. I didn't know this, but my dad's been taking care of their medical bills and stuff. I guess that's why their parents were so nice to me and all." (I had intended to stay at a hotel, but because most of Dana's family lived in town, nobody extra was staying at their house. Dana's father insisted they had room for me and had me cancel the reservations I had made, but if I had known I was going to be taking her little brother's room with the tiny twin bed while he slept on a sofa sleeper, I would have kept my hotel room.) "What do you mean he made them like it?" Joey said after a moment's thought. "He didn't make them like the pain, did he?" "Not exactly, no. I'll have to ask my dad when we get back because I don't understand what he did. Whatever it was apparently worked pretty good because Jerry's biggest complaint about it all was he and Dana couldn't fuck until they were both healed." "Shit. You'd think after all the fucking they did when Steven had them they would have burnt out of it by now," Joey commented. "No chance of that happening any time soon," I blurted out. "Jerry practically yanked me out to the parking lot then handed me his keys and asked me if I could do the driving. He didn't even give me a chance to reply before he ran back to his van and got in the back." "You're not making this up, are you?" Suzi said suspiciously. "I swear this is really what happened. When I got to van, they were in the back on the floor fucking like animals. I mean, they were clawing each other, and if I hadn't known they were both doing it willingly, I would have said it was a rape from all the struggling they did. "I watched them about ten minutes before I got too hot and started the engine and the A/C, then just tried to ignore them as I worked out how to get to Dana's house from the station." "So you didn't... join them or anything?" Joey said. "No!" I said, a little insulted. "Didn't think so," Joey said with amusement. "Shit. I guess the thought did cross my mind a couple of times," I admitted. "But once I got on the road I kind of tuned them out until Jerry asked where we were from the seat behind the front passenger seat. At that point I pulled over so I wouldn't have a wreck after getting a glimpse of him sitting there with his legs spread so wide I could see his hole. "I didn't sense a trace of modesty in either of them. Dana was on the floor half asleep with their juices all over her, rubbing some teeth marks just below her left nipple. She said hi to me, and it took me moment to say hi back. "Jerry put his shorts and a shirt on then told Dana she better get dressed since we were only five minutes from her house. Man, Dana didn't like that for some reason. She told him to fuck off, that she'd get dressed when she was good and ready, then spent the rest of the trip arguing with him before rushing to get her clothes on when we pulled into her driveway." "What did they argue about?" Suzi asked. "Stupid stuff. Like how he was going the long way, how he wasn't paying enough attention to his driving, how she was gonna get us pulled over from standing up front naked like that." "So why was Dana being such a bitch?" Joey asked. "Yeah, what did Jerry do?" Suzi countered. "It's not what he did, but what he wouldn't do," I explained. "Dana wants to have another baby. I mean, she wants one now, but Jerry wants to wait until they can afford it and stuff. Dana's mom explained that one to me. Dana seems to think that they have to have a baby for them to really be married." "Shit. Sounds like Dana's a bit messed up," Suzi said sadly. "Yeah, but I think she's gonna be okay. I mean, her parents and Jerry's parents are practically best friends now and completely support the two getting married. And I found out the next morning that Jerry and Dana are totally faithful to each other. You remember her little brother Sam? He was one of your kids at camp, Joey." "I vaguely do," he said, calling up the time he had caught Dana sucking the ten year old's dick at camp. "Just because she doesn't want to mess with her little brother any more doesn't mean she's faithful." "Yeah, I know that, but Sam's thirteen now and apparently his dad ended up telling him the truth about what happened to Dana, Jerry, and us. I kept getting weird vibes from Sam all evening, then he woke me up the next morning really early and wouldn't tell me why, so I peeked. You'll never guess what he wanted." "It's not hard to figure out really," Joey said, flipping his tray up after discarding his wrappers. "What do all thirteen year old boys want?" "Video games," Suzi said with a smirk. "Besides that," Joey grunted. "Oh, go ahead and tell us Tim." "He wanted me to kidnap him and this girl he's nuts about, brainwash them, then undo it like what had happened to Jerry and Dana. He wants to have that kind of bond with that girl, but when I dug out the memory of him and her doing it, he got really scared and basically started to fall apart on me." "I know what you did," Joey announced. "What did I do?" "You called Dana in and probably played back some of her memories of what happened to discourage him." "Actually, I did think of that, but I had the feeling he was just scared of what would happen if his parents found out after all the lectures they gave him about saving it for marriage. He saw this as the only way to make it okay to have sex with this girl who apparently refused to do it again after the first time." "So what did you do?" Joey sighed. "Tell him to live with jerking off at night until he's old enough to get married?" I blinked at him, then said, "Yeah, basically." "Really?" Joey laughed. "How did he take it?" "Not too good. Sam even tried to threaten me by saying he'd become a homosexual if I didn't help him, then he nearly shit in his pants when I told him about Eric and I. He opened up after that though. He sort of admires what Jerry and Dana have. He's seen them go from yelling and screaming at each other to crying in each others arms in apologies, and a few times watched them make love when his parents didn't know he was there. At some point during our talk I scanned Dana's mind and confirmed she didn't seem to even think about anyone else but Jerry, and later I found Jerry felt the same way." "I guess they've been through even more stuff than we have," Suzi said softly. "It's more than that, Suz. They've both been put through the same things at the same time more or less. Nobody else has as much in common with them as each other. Same thing goes with their parents. They're really good friends because they always have something in common to talk about, namely their kids. It's no wonder Sam felt the way he did. He's like been left out of having someone else who had so much in common with him." "Did you say anything to Dana's mom or dad about Sam?" Suzi asked. "Indirectly, yeah. After talking about sex for so long, the poor kid was really aching to get off, so I told him he could have his room back for a while and closed the door after me. I managed to pull his dad into the master bedroom and asked him to sit down on the bed, then I formed a one way between Sam and his dad and left. I had to make up excuses for them missing breakfast, then about half way through the meal Sam and his dad came out together with grins on their faces." "Sam wasn't pissed at you?" Joey said suspiciously. "Why would he be? As far as he knew his dad just walked in on him right after he had jerked off and they had a man to man talk about stuff. I couldn't think of a better way of making his dad understand what was going on than to just let him experience what Sam was thinking and feeling. I kept the one way up almost the whole time I was there. I think Sam's in good hands. He and his dad spent a lot of time talking those couple of days I was there." "Enough about Sam already," Joey said. "How did you fix Jerry's and Dana's baby problem?" "What makes you think I fixed it?" I said seriously. "Oh come on, Timmy," Suzi said. "You wouldn't leave a thing like that behind without trying to fix it." "Okay, you're right about me trying, but... I made the mistake of trying to talk to Dana about it, and after getting an earful, I had to get her to look me in the eyes to get her to calm down. The only thing I could have done to help her was to command her not to want to have a baby right away, but I think that would have messed her up even more." "You mean she still wants to have a baby as soon as possible?" Suzi asked. "Yeah. And that's sort of why I was late. The wedding was fine, and they even kissed okay at the end, but at the reception they kept smooching and getting wrapped into it more and more until finally they had to be kept apart until it was time to leave for the airport. "Because they were going to Florida for their honeymoon, Jerry's dad was driving the three of us to the airport. Well they were on the floor struggling to get into their clothes before we even got out of the reception hall's parking lot. Jerry's dad just sighed and shook his head, then asked me to try and get Jerry's tux off him before he messed it up since it was a rental. "Heh. I surprised his dad when I came back almost right away with the tux. I guess he forgot who I was and all. But he didn't get to say anything for that's when Dana started screaming for him to get off. I mean, screaming, screaming. Like Jerry was killing her or something. "Jerry was as surprised as we were, and when he got off her, she started yelling 'I want a baby!' over and over with her legs spread open. Jerry tried to talk nicely, then tried to get her to argue with him, and then tried to ignore her. But when we got to the airport, she refused to leave the van and screamed kicked when Jerry tried to make her go." I had to pause to drink the last swallow of my soda, then for a moment thought they both had stopped listening to me from their distant stares into nothing. "So? What did you do?" Joey said finally, shifting in his seat uncomfortably. "What could I do? Nobody was asking me for my help, and I didn't know what I could do that might not make things worse later. But I wasn't about to leave them with Dana in the state she was. She was pretty close to losing it, you know?" "Fuck, Tim. Just tell us what happened," Joey said desperately. "This isn't fun for us, you know." "Yeah, I know. Sorry. Jerry lost his temper and started yelling at her, how she didn't care about anything but having a fucking baby, but he was going to fuck his wife on his wedding day one way or another and just... well, he fucked her. For all I know she could be pregnant now." "Shit," Joey said a bit relieved. "Did they catch their plane?" Suzi asked. "Yeah. Their plane just had problem after problem until they got on," I said with a little grin. "Heh," Joey said. "Well, I guess things turned out okay. I mean, it sounds like their families will get them through the rough times if they need it." "Yeah, I guess," I said, feeling a little disturbed about it. "Timmy," Suzi said, snuggling up against me. "You didn't cause their problems. Steven did." "I know, but," I sighed, but then looked down at her and smiled. We talked off and on about little things for a while, then when Joey got up to go to the bathroom, I decided to do the same and followed him to the back. "Hey Joey," I said, catching him before he closed the door. "Yeah?" "Uhm, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for picking on you." "Picking on me?" "Yeah. You know. The hair." "Oh. That's okay. I'm used to it." He shut the door before I could comment, so I entered the one next to his and made myself go before returning to the seats without Joey. "Tim, I'm worried about what we're going find when we land," Suzi said as I sat down. "You mean if we find Candice messed with Eric's head." "Yes." I sighed, then said, "I talked to Candice over the phone yesterday after she finally got around to returning my call from last week. Yes, she's altered his perspective on a few things, but she swears she was only trying to help him. I agreed not to try and change things back if Eric agrees that he wants to stay the way he is and if I think he is capable of making that decision freely." "You could have called me and told me," Suzi said a bit annoyed. "I worried about what she might have done all night last night." "Sorry. It kind of slipped my mind with all the stuff going on yesterday. We still don't know exactly what she did, and I got the impression Candice isn't going to tell him she did anything until she has to. But I'm more worried about what I'm going to say when I see him." "Well, you'll just have to work that out on your own," she said crossly while getting up. "Where you going?" I asked as I let her by. "Think about it." "Shit," I said, realizing I was in the dog house now. Joey came back while she was gone, and when he asked where she was, I replied, "She said think about it, so think about it." "Oh," he said, looking back down the isle, then sat down beside me. "Joey, what did you mean about you being used to it," I said a moment later when it occurred to me. "You know Suz..." "You mean she makes fun of you?" "Tim, I know you're just being... yourself, but don't worry about it. It's just part of the package." "What package?" "Me being her love slave," he said simply while blushing a little. "Oh," I said a bit dumbfounded. "You know, its strange..." "What is?" "Well, until you mentioned it, I didn't care whether or not my ears looked funny with this hair cut. But then I thought maybe it might make Suzi look bad, and I had to check myself out in the mirror for five minutes to make sure I looked okay... Weird, huh?" I looked at him, and for the first time saw the aura of submission around him that I had been picking up ever since I first saw him in the airport terminal. "You really are, aren't you," I said softly. "When did you..." "I don't know..." he said while blushing deeply. "Sometime before the haircut, but definitely after you left and we broke the share link." "Huh... I knew you were worried about what would happen when Suzi wouldn't be able to take control of you, but I didn't think... You feel okay though? You definitely aren't acting like yourself." Joey smiled and said, "That's because I'm not _my_ self. I like gave that up for her. I'm now her self. If that makes any sense." "Yeah, I guess so. But are you happy with that?" "Happy? I'd have to say I'm content which is something I haven't been for a long time. So yeah. I'm happy with it." "I'm glad someone is," Suzi said, slapping Joey's knees then mine to make us make room. "So you don't like it?" I asked her after she sat down. "Like what?" she said coolly. "Doesn't she know?" I asked Joey. "I don't know. I don't know how she'd miss it though." "Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Suzi snapped. "What are you two talking about?!" I covered Joey's mouth before he could reply, then looked her in the eyes and said, "Ask him later when you two are alone, okay? This isn't the place." "Fine," she said huffily and turned away to give me the cold shoulder. "Suz," I said, not used to her acting this way with me. "I'm sorry I didn't think to call you and tell you about what I found out yesterday. I swear I had every intention to tell you both before we got there. I didn't mean to leave you in the dark." She sighed then turned back towards me and said, "I'm sorry too. I'm just so worried about Eric." I gave her a kiss on the forehead and said, "Believe me, so am I... So am I..." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 2 - Empathic History (mc, mf) Seeing Eric standing with Candice in the crowd brought back all sorts of a bitter-sweet feelings to add to the nervousness I already felt. He looked a little taller, and his features had started to fill out, but the biggest difference in him from the last time I saw him was the smile which radiated through the crowd like a warm beam of sunlight. I had hung back a little, letting Suzi and Joey go ahead in hopes it would help break whatever ice there might be, and despite the feelings of tenderness and... uhm... the slight sexual attraction to him, I was finding it very hard for me to simply walk up to him and say hi. But then I clearly heard him say, "Where's Tim?" and my heart started to race in hope he felt... different about my existence. I didn't even know I was walking towards him until I was practically standing in front of him, but then after an awkward moment, my eyes watered up and I gave him a hug. "God, you've grown," I moaned before letting him go. "Uhm, yeah, I guess," Eric said a bit shakily as he turned red and avoided looking in my eyes. My heart sank as he maneuvered away from me, and even though I only stood there a few moments before turning to say hi to Candice, Joey and Suzi both made sure I was okay before we moved on. Eric was very warm and chatted openly with Suzi and Joey, but he seemed so... not cold towards me. Just... reserved, like I was a stranger who he was unsure of. So I hung back to stay in the rear while we walked down to get our luggage, prompting several queries from Joey and Suzi making sure I was okay to the point where I got tired of it and had Joey initiate the share link so they could monitor my... Well, not my thoughts exactly. I guess you could say they could monitor my emotions telepathically, but that's kind of misleading. I guess I'm splitting hairs about this, but empathy and telepathy are two completely separate things, and while you can read the thoughts generating an emotion and read the physical sensations resulting from that emotion, telepaths can not truly share an emotion like empaths do. Oh, and in case you were wondering what took us so long to reform the share link, before I had left, we had made a bet to see how long it would take them to ask me. I guess you could say I lost the bet, but then I had hoped I would lose when I had made the bet in the first place. While we were catching our bags as they spun around, I sensed Suzi trying to scan Eric's mind and quickly stopped her. She immediately demanded why I had done that, but then she saw Candice's glances of concern and understood. Candice looked good, by the way. You could say she grew up a lot in the past year, and I don't mean just physically either. I sensed a greater amount of maturity from her, and it took me a while work out that she seemed to be carrying a considerable amount of responsibility on her shoulders. And it didn't seem to be concerning Eric either. I was glad to see she had gained a lot of confidence in herself since the day of my parents' wedding. Back then she was afraid of displeasing her father and was very careful to get his approval on anything she did. But now she was comfortable about her own decision making abilities, although she had doubts I would see things her way about what she had done to Eric. In fact, she was worried about what I would demand of her. She knew from last time I was much more powerful than she or her father was, and despite the long relationship between her father and mine, she didn't doubt I wouldn't hesitate to overpower them if needed if I thought they had done some harm to Eric. So I tried to give her some relief while we were walking out of the terminal to the waiting limo by thinking to her, "I have to admit you've made Eric very happy. No matter what happens Candice, I'm grateful for that. And remember it will be his decision, not mine. I don't think you have anything to worry about." "Thanks," she thought back with weak grin. "He means a lot to me." I looked over at Eric as he opened the limo door and announced he wanted Suzi and Candice to sit next to him, then thought to myself, "Looks like the feeling is mutual." I spent the ride to the Cord Estate quietly observing Eric's responses looking for anything unusual or out of place. Apart from the slight southern accent, nothing seemed amiss, or at least as long as he wasn't looking at me or something. It was really bothering me how he seemed to deny who I was. Every time he glanced at me, I could see it in his eyes. "You're not Tim, so don't even try to convince me like you convinced the others." He seemed to accept the fact that he couldn't convince the others, but it didn't matter to him that they were fooled. It was like it was is own personal war or something. I kept going around in circles trying to feel him out about it. "Hello in there," Candice said to me, interrupting my deep thought. "Huh? Yeah?" "Weren't you listening?" Candice said somewhat suspiciously. "Yeah, I heard every word." "So?" Joey asked, enjoying the moment of putting me on the spot. "So what?" I asked as I frantically tried to reconstruct the conversation from the bits and pieces I had caught. "Are you going to accept my dad's gift?" Candice asked. "I guess..." I said, then suddenly something clicked and I immediately added, "not." "Why not?" Candice asked surprised. "I just don't do that kind of thing, that's all." "Oh... Then how come Charlie told my dad you'd love it?" "Charlie?" Joey said with amusement. "Tim's dad," Candice clarified. "I knew who you meant," Joey said, grinning. "I just never heard anyone call him anything but Charles before." "It's his childhood name," I explained. "My grandmother called him that too. Well, when she wasn't calling him Master I mean." "Like father like son, eh Timmy?" Suzi said with a grin. I smiled and said, "Yeah, I guess so." "I thought you and your dad got along," Candice said to me. "We do. He was just trying to... uhm... whatever it's called when a father tries to mold his son into his own image." "Well, I guess the orgy is off then," Candice said without regret. "Some of my sisters sure will be disappointed." "Shit. He uses his own daughters for that kind of thing?" Joey asked. "Not like he used to, but on special occasions he still does. It's a family thing." I caught Eric looking at me just then, and I accidentally made eye contact which resulted in them locking on to each other which the others quickly noticed. "Stop," Eric said firmly, struggling to break away. "Come on Eric," I said pleadingly. "It really is me. All you have to do is..." "NO!" he yelled before jerking himself off the seat and landing on his butt on the floor. Despite his maneuver, I still had his eyes locked with mine, and I was starting to feel something deep down that I knew was going to have to come out. "STOP IT, you FAKE! You SON OF A BITCH!" Eric spat. "Timmy," Suzi said carefully while standing up and moving into our direct line of vision. "Don't you EVER do that again!" Eric spat angrily as he got back up on the seat next to Candice. "Well?" Suzi said, turning towards me for my explanation. I didn't answer her immediately as I tried to sort out what I had sensed from the empathic connection, but I had never felt anything quite like what was embedded deep within Eric's emotions, and three minutes later Suzi got impatient and slapped my right thigh to get my attention. "Well?" she repeated. I looked over at Eric again, and was surprised when he met my eyes and literally dared me to try it again. I tried to sense as much as I could without making a full empathic connection, but when I continued to stare into his eyes without blinking, he nervously glanced away then looked at me again before closing his eyes. I did the best at describing what I had felt to Joey and Suzi over our private link, then on Suzi's recommendation I repeated the whole thing for Candice while Eric continued to refuse to open his eyes for anyone. When we reached the gates of the Cord Estate, Eric announced he was going to go home. That upset Suzi a lot, and Eric finally opened his eyes to say he was sorry and he would be back the next day. But then warned her he would leave again if I even looked in his direction before kissing her and Candice on the cheek and got out of the limo by where his truck was parked. I had just got out myself when Eric's red pickup went up the drive towards the main gate, then as we walked past the lined up servants towards the main entrance, Eric's squealed his tires as he took off down the road heading for home. "I'm sorry Suz," I said, rubbing her shoulders from behind. "It's not your fault," she said. "Just try and not make him mad again." "He wasn't mad, Suzi," I said softly. "He was scared." "Of what?" she said, stopping and turning towards me. "I guess he's afraid to find that I'm really me," I said somberly. Suzi wrapped her arms around me for a hug, then while I was returning the favor, Joey wrapped his arms around both of us from the side. "You two keep leaving me out of all the good stuff," Joey said with a touch of amusement. Suzi put one arm around him, then when I backed out she threw her arms around his neck and hoisted herself up to his face and said, "Not all the good stuff," she said with a wicked smile. "I love you," Joey said with sincerity while holding her up against him. "Says who?" Suzi replied. "Says me." "And me," I said, grinning as I went and stood by Candice. When they finally kissed, I said to Candice, "You and Eric ever kiss like that?" She looked at me, then looked back at Suzi and Joey with a slight smirk. "Why, didn't you two?" "Heh. Touche'," I said, noticing for the first time the foyer we were in was... dignified, and not gaudy. "Nice place you have here." "Mmmm, I suppose. Different from your Daddy's place, huh?" "Yeah. I mean, the servants lining up and stuff, that's the same. But we don't have any plants or benches in the main hall like this. Er.. Or vending machines..." She showed us around a little while explaining the estate was more than just their home, but it was also the family business. What that business was, I hadn't a clue, but there were offices and conference rooms with people in suites walking around in that front building I had mistaken for her home. We passed through a security point before crossing a enclosed bridge to the main house. I was surprised when we had to pass through another security checkpoint before actually entering the building, but then we were greeted by another line up where the women and girls were topless. Oh, and the guys were too. The eldest of the bunch couldn't have been older than twenty five, and as Candice started introducing them one by one, I suddenly realized they were all her half siblings. I shared this with Joey and Suzi as I struggled to also try and remember their names as I shook or kissed their hands, but quickly gave up by the time we reached the six year old girl who wrapped her arms around my neck when I bent over to kiss her hand. "Mandy, let Tim go," Candice said patiently. "Uh uh," Mandy said, hugging me hard. I stood up and moved her over so I could carry her more comfortably as Joey said, "Hey Tim... You get yourself a new girlfriend?" "Sorry about this," Candice said, giving Mandy the evil eye. "I should have warned you she's a bit clingy." "It's okay. My brother's the same way," I said, giving the little girl a friendly smile and looking her in the eyes. When the little girl puckered her lips, I had to chuckle, and say, "And she wants to kiss on her first date. Does this mean MMMPHMNNPF!" "MANDY! NO!" Candice yelled while commanding her to let go. "Shit," I exclaimed when the six year old removed her tongue from my mouth and dropped down to her feet and ran off. "You're picking them kind of young, aren't you Timmy?" Suzi teased as I wiped my mouth. "She picked me, remember?" I said, watching the little girl excitedly talking with her other young siblings while some the older ones started to wander away. "I'm really sorry," Candice said again. "She's hard to predict sometimes. I'll have to punish her for..." "Oh, don't do that," I said, then grinned and added, "I mean, for a six year old, she really knows how to kiss." "That's what daddy says too," Candice sighed. "Well, seeing my daddy isn't back yet, I guess I can show y'all to your rooms so you can relax a while." As we followed Candice down a hall to our right, two of Candice's sisters about her age joined her and were talking to her a few moments before I realized most of her other older siblings were right behind us. I was then distracted by the sudden feeling of disappointment from the two girls who where with Candice, and watched them glance back at us unhappily. Candice motioned for me to join them, so I quickened my pace and said, "Yeah?" "This is Kerry and Allison. They were supposed to be your... gift." "Yeah, I kind of worked that out," I said, feeling a bit put-on-the-spot. "I'm sorry, you're very pretty and all, but I'm ahh... Trying to uhm... Well, cut down on that kind of stuff." "Ohhhh..." they both whined. "But Daddy said," Kerry complained to Candice. "Can't you make him want too?" Allison asked Candice. "No she can't," I answered for her. "And neither can your daddy, or my daddy for that matter," I said abruptly. "He is powerful," Kerry said with awe. "I can tell. It's in his voice." "And that one," Allison said pointing at Joey, "He's your man slave?" "I'm _her_ man slave, not his," Joey corrected. There was a rumble of discussion from the group following us, then the guys slowly started making themselves more visible to Suzi, most of them trying to impress her with the size of the lumps in their shorts. "Now y'all stop that," Candice said without much force. "If they want you, they'll send for you. Now go back to what you're all supposed to be doing. Shew! Shew!" "You too," Candice said to her two closest siblings. "I'll be done in a little while then we can talk about it, okay?" "Okay, Candice," Kerry said. "Come on Allison." "I love you..." Allison said desperately to me while Kerry pulled her away. "Shit, Candice. Now I understand why you were unhappy last year," I said once they were gone. "But they don't seem to be the typical slaves." "Not any more they don't. I got daddy to let me free them, but then he made me responsible for them. It's been really hard to get them to think for themselves... and half the time they still think like... like that. But I'm getting there. Kerry almost actually argued with me. I'm kind of excited about what that means." "I wouldn't be," Suzi remarked. That started a rather complicated discussion between Joey, Suzi and Candice, and after we reached our guestrooms, Suzi and Candice ended up sitting on the bed in Suzi's and Joey's room chatting like they were old friends. I suppose you could say Suzi has a fairly unique perspective of telepathy, enslavement, and the problems which go with them. She's been the Mistress and the slave, and has had to make a lot of moral decisions concerning the uses of my abilities before Joey ever shared them with her. That and the fact that Suzi could make a discussion of a root canal a fun and humorous thing resulted in Suzi's and Candice's hour and a half long talk on their bed while Joey and I unpacked, showered, explored the guest wing a little, and finally just laid down on the bed and listen to them talk about cute guy butts. "Joey's butt's like that," Suzi said at some point. "Joey, stand up and show her." Without comment Joey got up and walked over to their edge of the bed and turned around. Suzi was just about to pat his butt when Joey pulled his shorts and jockey's down with a single motion then waited patiently without looking back at their astonished faces. While Suzi started turning red, Candice licked her lips nervously, then patted Joey's butt cautiously and said, "I see what you mean. Really firm Jell-O." "You know, it's too bad Eric isn't here right now," I said to Joey as he returned to the bed beside me. "I know he'd have a thing or two to say about guy's butts." Candice stopped in mid-sentence when I said that, then after a moment of silence, she turned towards Joey and I and opened her mouth to say something but lost her nerve before uttering a single sound. "I take it he doesn't find male butts all that exciting any more," I said carefully. Candice nodded her head and avoided making eye contact with any of us. "Does he even remember being gay?" Suzi asked point blank. Candice couldn't help but look Suzi in the eye from apparently hitting it on the nose, then unhappily shook her head before glancing at me to see if I was going to get mad. "So he doesn't remember a lot of what he and I..." I started. "He remembers being very close to you and doing things with you that wasn't..." Candice trailed off. "What about James?" I said a bit too calmly. "I know what y'all are thinkin', but Eric was so unhappy when he got here because all his... boyfriends had ended up leaving him in one form or another. We went out a few times, but he was miserable and wouldn't talk about it with me, so I took a chance and made him forget it all to see if it helped, and then couldn't bring myself to undo it afterwards from all the good it did him." "GOOD IT DID HIM!" Suzi exploded. "You make him forget who he was and two of the most important people in his life, and you call that good?!?" "Yes I do," Candice said sternly. "Eric means as much to me now as he ever did to any of you, probably more, but what I did wasn't because I wanted him for myself. You saw how cheerful and happy he was today? Well that's nothing compared to what he's like when he isn't worried about..." "Worried about what?" I said with complete calmness. "Why is he so afraid of me being me when he doesn't even remember what he... I mean what I meant to him at one time?" "I don't know," Candice said while standing up. "But I do know Eric's happy right now, and if you really care about him even a fraction as much as I do, that should be all that matters. I have to go and get my brothers and sisters ready for dinner which will be in forty minutes. I'll send someone to show you to the dinning hall in a half hour." And with that Candice left the room without glancing back. "EwH!" Suzi exclaimed as she stood up and started pacing back and forth. "How dare she make it sound like she did him a favor by making him forget! I was actually starting to like her too!" I watched her pace back and forth a few times as she continued to fume and mutter under her breath, then finally sighed and said, "Suz, maybe she's right." "What?!?" Suzi exclaimed just before she tripped on her own feet and fell flat on her face onto the carpeted floor. When Joey rushed to help her get up, she yelled, "I'm fine, let me go!" then nearly did an instant replay when he did what she had ordered. "Why did you do that!?!" Suzi barked furiously as got up on her own and glared up at Joey like David and Goliath. "I uh... I just wasn't thinking and..." Joey said unhappily. "What's been wrong with you anyway? You've been acting like a big wimp ever since that damn haircut!" she spat. "I..." Joey said weakly and turning a little pale while I started making my way towards the door intending to leave them alone. "Well?!? Speak! Or has all your brain cells gone to muscle?" "Suz, I..." Joey said emotionally before turning away from her, then stifling a sob. "What is WRONG with you?!?" Suzi demanded not as harshly as before, but not gently either as she tried to make him turn around to face her. "NothiNG!" Joey blurted out emotionally before jerking himself away from her, then attempted to calm himself down while Suzi was too stunned to react. "What's wrong with him? Timmy!" Suzi yelled just as I was closing the door. "Timmy, get your ass back here and tell me what's going on!" I sighed, then opened the door and stuck my face in long enough to say, "Nothing's wrong with him Suzi. Just... Feel him out, and you'll see." Suzi yelled my name when I closed the door again, but this time I didn't go back. I knew it wouldn't take her long to work it out now that she's aware that something was different about Joey. Besides the haircut I mean. Heh. The Cord mansion was larger than any of my dad's, but it also housed a considerably larger number of people, most of which were second or third generation slaves to the Cord family. The grounds of the estate crawled with security, and that bothered me a while until I realized they were there to keep unauthorized people out rather to keep the slaves in. In fact every slave I bothered to scan their mind of was perfectly happy with their lives and would never dream of leaving the security of their home. Hmmph. Big surprise, right? The place was brightly lit and buzzing with activity no matter where I went, and the atmosphere was very cheerful to my empathic senses, but there were a few dark clouds which overcastted those sensations a lot. The first of which was the differences between the private quarters of the slaves there verses my father's. I may have mentioned before that my father went out of his way to ensure his slaves have every comfort that he had himself, which resulted in every slave's room being large and well furnished. I got a good look at what a family of seven lived in, and if you excluded the closet they called a bathroom, their entire living area space was no bigger than my own bathroom back in the North mansion. I have to say though the place was spotless and well organized, but I had to step over two kids playing in the entry area to look in their so called living/bed room. Comparisons between those people and the slaves which Steven's and Penny's family had been breeding kept popping up in my mind as I wandered. Whole families of at least three generations lived within the walls of the estate, a great portion of which didn't have a social security number or even a birth certificate to record their existence to the rest of the world. They were all happy hardworking loyal to the grave slaves. But what really bothered me was how there was a strong class difference between the black and white slaves. I found out later that Chuck Cord's father had gotten into really big trouble with the Cabal when he attempted to undo the progress the civil rights movements of the late 50's and early 60's after the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. The Cabal's Inquisitor of the time was a black man himself, and as punishment he made Chuck's father unable to ever use his telepathic abilities again before resigning as the Inquisitor of the Cabal. I didn't really explore the place very long before I made my way back to the guest quarters in hopes of regaining my appetite back for dinner. After changing into my dress clothes, I looked in on Joey and Suzi and was surprised to find them acting like nothing was different. After a few moments of indecision, I knocked on the door and went in when Suzi said, "Come in, Timmy." "I was wondering if you were going to get back before we had to go for dinner," Suzi said somewhat irritated yet not overly so. "I checked out some of the slave quarters... You could say I have a new respect for my dad," I said as Joey closed the clasp of Suzi's necklace from behind her. "That bad, huh?" Joey said sitting down on the bed and unbuttoning his dress coat. "I don't care about the slaves right now," Suzi said before I could reply. "What are you going to do about Eric?" I sighed, then said, "I don't know, Suz. We have five days to figure what should be done, and since Eric doesn't seem to be suffering any, lets just wait and see, okay?" "And what about you?" "What about me?" Suzi stood there with her arms crossed and waited silently for me to answer her question without bothering to explain since she knew I had understood her meaning all too well. I sat down next to Joey and without looking up at her I said, "I'll just find something else to do while you two go do stuff with Eric." "Like what?" Suzi prodded gently as she sat down next to me and squeezed my hand. "I don't know. Heh, maybe I'll help Candice out by showing some of her brothers a good time around town." "You'll probably end up with a six year old around your neck if you try that," Candice said from the door as she opened it. Suzi almost commented on her rudeness for not knocking, but instead only said, "Dinner?" "Not just yet," Candice said carefully. "I'd like to speak to Tim alone for a minute before we go to the dining hall." "I'll be right out," I replied before anyone else could. "She's really starting to piss me off," Suzi said under her breath after Candice closed the door again after her. I took both of her hands in mine and looked her in the eyes and said, "Don't take it personally, Suz. Candice isn't used to having to worry about other's privacy and stuff, and she's just as worried about Eric as we are. If after dinner you and Joey want to check into a hotel or something that's fine, but I have to stay here because of my dad. You can stay cool until after dinner, right?" Suzi sighed slightly then gave me a peck on the cheek before saying, "You better go before the princess gets tired of waiting." I looked at Joey as I got up to see if there was any hint as what happened while I was gone, but got nothing back but... patience. Candice was leaning against the wall on the other side of the hall when I left the room, and when she gave me a weak grin out of embarrassment, I couldn't help but smile back a moment. "You think they will get a hotel room?" Candice asked once we were walking down the hall. "Probably not tonight, but maybe later this week, I don't know." "I'm sorry if I... intruded," Candice said. "Eric keeps telling me I got to pay attention to that stuff." "Candice," I said, stopping and looking her in the eyes. "You love him?" Her surprised expression only lasted a moment before she looked down and nodded her head. "Have you two... done it?" "Now who's being rude?" she said with a little grin, then looked me in the eyes and said, "No we haven't." "Do either of you want to?" I asked bluntly. "Eric does, but he knows I don't want to yet so he hasn't tried. I've offered Kerry to him a couple of times, but he always gets upset when I do. Thank God Kerry's never seen how big he is." "Heh. It's so big it's a little scary, isn't it? But after the first few times you're stretched enough that it doesn't hurt that much." "I'll try and remember that," she said with a slight frown. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" I said after a moment of silence. "Daddy is going to be upset that you refused Kerry and Allison. I thought maybe you could... fake it or something." "I guess I could, if it's that important," I said carefully. "Just this once though." "Thanks. Well since you already answered my other question while I was listening to your conversation earlier, I guess it's time for dinner. I'll just wait here for you to get Suzi and her pet." "He's not my pet," Suzi said walking out with Joey glowing red right behind her. "He's my love slave." "Oh. Sorry," Candice said while I let out a snicker. "I wouldn't be laughing if I had to fake an orgy with two girls," Joey said bluntly. "Oh yeah," I said with a start. "Say Suzi... Could I like borrow your love sl.." "Go get your own," Suzi said while her arms reached above her head and wrapped themselves around the back of Joey's neck possessively. I watched as Joey's arms crossed in front of her protectively, then looked away as they moved to exchange a little kiss. I felt a tug on my heart from the desire to hold Her protectively like that, but I quickly shook it off as we made our way to the dining hall. Chuck Cord sat at the point of a large V shaped table with all his children lined up respectively by their assigned places awaiting our arrival. I had expected Chuck's father to be there as well, but there were only four places left, three on his left and one to his right. "Timothy Grodmen, I welcome you and your companions to the Cord table," the Master of the house said in his deep voice. "Thank you sir," I replied with respect. "My father has mentioned his visits to the Cord estate many times with mucho enthusiasm. I'm very happy to be here." We took our places and waited for him to sit before sitting down ourselves, then I took a moment to gaze down the two legs of our V table at all the faces which grew younger the further down you looked. I did a quick count and if you included the two rug rats in highchairs there were nineteen heirs to the Cord name, all dressed like royalty and carefully watching their father for his signal to begin the meal. You would have never known by looking at them that they were the same lot who had greeted us at the second security checkpoint. The girls were dressed very conservatively, and like the guys they displayed nothing but the utmost respect to their father and his guests, many of them participating in the table conversations quite intelligently. Not exactly what you'd expect from a table of enslaved youths recently set free. The food was good and the mood was surprisingly relaxed despite what I had discovered earlier about the place. Mr. Cord entertained us with stories of his and my father's youth, all of which were surprisingly sex free. "I was very sorry to hear about your grandmother," Mr. Cord said as dessert was being served. "She was a wonderful woman. A real prize as my daddy always says. I've come to the realization that he regrets losing her more than the coin to your grandfather." "Losing her? What do you mean?" I said after nearly choking on my first bite of chocolate mousse. "You mean Charlie never told you?" Chuck said with astonishment. "No, I guess not." "My father and your grandfather were... friendly competitors I suppose you could say. They were constantly competing in one form of contest or another, sometimes lasting for months before one of them would claim their victory and claim their prize. There was always a wager, you see. My father spent several year's profit on purchasing your grandmother, then lost her to your grandfather in a game of cards." "What about the coin?" I prompted him. "He lost it to your grandfather in the next hand trying to get her back. I think if your grandfather hadn't agreed to bring it to test my brothers and sisters for the gift as they came of age that it would have been the end of their friendship. Which reminds me... Charlie mentioned he gave it to you. Would you allow me to test my youngest spouts for the gift?" My ears started turning red as I tried to think of the best way of explaining why I no longer had my coin, knowing he would only see my gift of love as being a naïve act of youth. I didn't really notice Suzi's fork clanking to the floor, and only barely knew it when Joey pushed his chair back to retrieve it for her. But as I opened my mouth to begin my tale, Joey's hand clutched mine from underneath the table and then he pressed his coin into my palm as he stood up, not even looking at me as he went to sit down on the other side of Suzi to begin cleaning her fork off with his linen napkin. "I guess that would be okay," I said after inspecting the coin a moment and handing it over to our expectant host. "I wouldn't want to break with tradition now." "I'm glad you feel that way. To show my appreciation, my two daughters who are closest to your age shall attend to your bedside for the remainder of your stay here. Please feel free to embrace their... offerings as much as you wish." "I... Uhm..." I said nervously as I began to perspire rather heavily. "I can see it all over your face," Chuck said after handing the coin to his eldest son to begin its journey down one side of the table. "You're not happy with my gift, are you?" "Is it that obvious?" I said guiltily. "I mean, I don't want to insult you by..." "The only insult would be to accept something which you are not happy with. Gwen, Julian, and... Nicole... You shall join Allison and Kerry in attending to Tim's every wish and..." The three girls squealing in delight cut him off, and almost immediately following them, Mandy, the little girl who had, uhm, tongued me yelled, "Daddy Daddy! Daddy Daddy!" "What is it, Mandy?" Chuck said as he stood up and rushed to the excited little girl. Mandy stood up on her chair and announced proudly and happily, "It tickles me! It tickles me, Daddy!" "The coin? The coin tickles you?" Chuck exclaimed as the room exploded in excited discussion. "Uh Huh!" Mandy cried joyously and started to hop up and down on her chair hugging the coin to her chest until her father gathered her up in his arms and they exchanged a large hug. The other young ones crowded around their father and half sister attempting to see if they too would feel anything from the coin until Candice shouted, "All right now... The rest of you, line up!" As her siblings all scurried to fall in line sorted by age, Candice patted the back of Mandy's clutched hand and said, "Mandy, let me have the coin so we can see if anyone else..." "No! It's mine!" Mandy shouted while putting her hand between herself and her father protectively. "Mandy, give Candice the coin," their father said gently. "Do I have to Daddy?" Mandy said while already complying with his request. "Yes, sugar. We need to see if any of your little brothers or sisters can feel the tickle too." "Okay Daddy," she said weakly as she dropped the coin into Candice's waiting hand. As they watched the coin being handed down from oldest to youngest again, Mandy suddenly said, "Daddy? Does this mean I can kiss whoever I want?" "No you can't, Mandy," Candice said with a tone of annoyance. "But Daddy..." Mandy whined. "How about this, sugar. Since you've made your daddy very very happy today, you can kiss whoever you want just for today." "I can?" Mandy gurgled in delight. "Anybody? Even him?" she said pointing at me. My eyes made brief contact with hers, and before Candice or their father could say anything, I said, "Sure you can. It's Mandy's kissing day." (She hadn't actually intended to kiss me, just figured I'd be the last one her daddy would agree to letting her kiss.) "Mandy's kissing day, Mandy's kissing day!" Mandy started to sing while hopping up and down in her father's grasp. "Daddy, Benny has it too!" one of the little girls cried out. "He does?" Chuck excitedly exclaimed before putting Mandy down and rushing over to the three year old boy who held the coin out at arms length like he was afraid of it. Suzi, Joey and I just sat there quietly watching the Cord clan celebrate their discoveries from our seats at the table. Mandy almost immediately started making good on her own personal holiday, for once she found that the attention was centered on Benny, she walked over to her oldest half brother, gave his slacks a couple of tugs to get his attention, then said, "Davy, Daddy said I can kiss anyone I want, and I want to kiss you first." "Okay, Mandy, but just for today," Dave said in a deep voice very much like their father's. After watching Mandy and Dave going at it for almost ten minutes, I nearly ran out of the room when Joey announced, "Pucker up, Timmy-boy. Here she comes." Shit, and later I nearly fell over when Suzi said, "Well hi there Mandy," while I was trying to talk my five bedmates out of showing up at my room. About an hour after Mandy's discovery, Candice came over and sat down wearily in her father's chair holding the coin in her hand. She stroked her cheek with the coin a few times, then handed it back to me with a sigh and said, "It would just have to be Mandy." I looked around for Chuck before flipping the coin to Joey, then asked, "Where did your dad go? To tuck Benny and Mandy in for the night?" "Close. Knowing him he's moving my momma and my aunt into his master bedroom." "How come?" Joey asked as he slipped his coin back into the rubber holder attached to the chain around his neck. "Mandy and Benny are sister and brother, and my half cousins," Candice said slowly as she watched Joey slip his coin necklace inside his shirt. "If he wanted telepathic children so bad, why don't you have any full brothers or sisters?" I asked. "Because my momma couldn't have any more kids after she had me, that's why. My aunt was only thirteen when your daddy let me hold the coin and I felt it tingle. But three years later Mandy was born..." Something about Candice's tone drew my empathic sense's attention to the fact that she was very upset about what had happened. I carefully moved so I could look her in the eyes and said, "Your dad isn't the same man he was back then you know." "No, but... The moment he knew Benny had the gift, he forgot all about Mandy. I've worked so hard to prove to him I could take over the family business like he did from granddaddy, but now... Now he has a son, so Mandy and the others will just be his little girls again." I wiped the tear flowing down her cheek away and said, "Only if you let him. I saw the pride in his eyes when he looks at you. You're his right hand, er, well, man. At least you are were the family is concerned. So if nothing else, you can help Mandy become the woman you are, and not the girls Kerry and Allison are." "But..." she says before sighing and shocking me by breaking my empathic connection with the turn of her head. "Thanks Tim, but you just don't understand. And I need to go." It was my turn to say, "But..." as she left without giving me a chance to reply. "Nice try Timmy," Suzi said standing up and rubbing my shoulders. "I guess you just can't fix everyone's problems with your magic stare." "Yeah, I guess," I sighed. "I don't know about you two, but I'm pooped." "Heh, yeah, but not as pooped as you're gonna be after those five girls get through with you," Joey said. "Shit, don't remind me," I moaned and dropped my head onto the table with loud thud. "Come on, buddy," Joey said shaking me gently a few minutes later after I almost fell asleep like that. "If you don't want to deal with them tonight we can just have them go to their rooms to sleep and explain it tomorrow if we need to." "Yeah, I guess you're right," I yawned sitting up, then had to rush to stand up to follow them out. By the time we reached our rooms, we had forgotten all about the girls who were supposed to be waiting in my room, and it didn't occur to me as I got undressed and showered that they were missing. I was in bed almost asleep when my door opened and a single cluster of swirling symbols entered and made their way closer to my bed. When I felt the bed sheets being parted, I opened my eyes and said softly, "I'm sorry, Kerry... I..." "I know... That's why I'm here." "But..." I said as she pressed her naked body against my side. "You're alone?" "Yes. I told the others you picked me to be your bedmate, but I know you don't want me to.... pleasure you, so I'll just sleep beside you if that is all right?" I turned towards her and looked in her eyes to verify what she had said was true, then said, "But your daddy said..." "I know, but I don't have to do _everything_ Daddy says, do I?" I grinned at her, then said, "No, I guess you don't... Does Candice know you're doing this?" "Not yet. I'm not sure if she'll like it." "Trust me... She'll love it. You'll make her day, Kerry." "Then I'll tell her tomorrow," she said as she moved her face closer to mine. "Uhm, Kerry..." I said as she closed her eyes for a kiss. "Sorry," she said with a frustrated sigh and backed off. "Good night, Miss Kerry," I said firmly. "Good night, Sah," Kerry said coolly. The next thing I knew, Joey was standing at the foot of the bed with a grin from ear to ear. "Morning. Sleep well?" he said as I yawned and stretched. "I guess so," I said just before smacking Kerry's naked butt accidentally, shocking her and myself both. "Down boy," I muttered as Kerry silently got out of the bed, then Joey and I both watched her backside as she went into the bathroom. "So... You have fun last night?" Joey said, throwing himself onto the bed sideways and waited for me to squirm with the same grin he had on when I awoke. "Nothing happened," I said. "She told the others I wanted just her but knew I didn't want to do anything and didn't push it." "Awwww.." Joey said after his grin disappeared. "Shit, Tim. Don't you think you're taking this no sex thing a little too far?" I threw him a blank look as I sat up and got out of bed, then found myself being grabbed from behind and drug back on the bed. "Stop it, Joey!" I yelled. He let me go, then he said, "Man, you sure are grumpy when you don't get any." "Grumpy?!?" I growled. "Yeah, grumpy!" I turned around, stood up on my knees on the bed with my hands on my hips and said coldly, "I am NOT grumpy!" "Yes you are! Grumpy Timmy! That's your name!" "Oh yeah?!?" "Yeah!" "Says who?!?" "Says me!" "I'll show you who's grumpy!" I yelled as I dived for his armpits and started making him wiggle and laugh. My attack on his tickle spots only lasted maybe twenty seconds before he was able to overpower my arms and wrestled with me a little bit, then after a couple of minutes he used his superior strength and pinned me to the bed. Joey just sat there on top of me as we puffed for our breaths, then grinned when I said, "Grumpy Timmy, huh?" I screamed with laughter as he sought revenge on my own pits, then suddenly stopped and got off leaving me breathless and hanging halfway off the bed. "Your bath is ready," Kerry said after watching Joey leave. "I guess you won't want me to wash you so I'll..." "Wait Kerry," I said, getting up and hurrying over to the door before she could leave. "Uhm, thanks," I said before kissing her on the cheek. "You don't know how much I appreciate what you did for me last night." She smiled, then nodded and opened the door to leave. "I guess I'll see you tonight then?" I asked before she could close the door behind her. "Maybe," she simply said before the door clicked shut. Breakfast was somewhat an anticlimax to the night before. Candice sent one of her half brothers our age to guide us to the regular dining area, and even though most of the Cord siblings were there, they all seemed to be on some sort of a schedule and didn't dawdle while eating their meal. Jim, the guy who had led us there, was pretty quiet during the meal, but after Candice showed up for only a minute to tell us she had to take care of some business until noon, she assigned Jim to take care of us and he seemed to like the idea. After we finished our breakfast, I asked Jim if we could see where he and his siblings sleep out of simple curiosity. I felt his panic for a moment before he got a grip on himself and agreed, then lead the way to a room which resembled what became my living room, but on a much larger scale. The circular shaped room was at the heart of the Cord mansion with three sets of white and gold staircases swirling up the sides and seemingly holding up the stain glass dome seven stories above us like a crown. The open space was so large that there were full grown trees with a few birds scattered about the gymnasium sized room, along with fountains and a flower garden or two. But what was the most eye popping thing about this room was the large number of nude women of all ages littered about the place. Jim pointed up to one of the many doorways somewhere on the third or fourth floor and said, "That's my room where my ma and I sleep. When Candice talked daddy into letting all the girls have their own rooms, Kerry took the room right next to mine and usually sleeps with us," Jim said with a hint of pride. "You sleep with your mom?!? And your sister?" Joey exclaimed in disbelief. Surprised, Jim hesitated a few moments before asking me, "Is he an orphan?" "Heh, nope. Believe it or not, most people in the world think incest is a bad and evil thing." "In-sest?" Jim repeated without comprehension. "Fucking someone you're related to. Like your mom or your sister," Joey blurted out. "Ohhh.... But that's... That's... Stupid! I mean, don't they love their mommas?!?" "Of course they do," Joey urged. "But having sex with your mom... I mean what if she gets pregnant? Shit, if the kid didn't turn out totally retarded from the inbreeding, the kid would be all confused from not knowing whether to call you brother or dad..." "What are you talking about? I can't get my momma pregnant! It's impossible!" "The hell it is!" "Whoah there guys," I said as Suzi stepped between them from the way they were looking at each other. "Joey, we're not here to teach them our morals," Suzi said firmly. "Yeah but..." Joey said before sighing and lowering his eyes to the ground. "You're right. I'm sorry." "If you can't keep your man servant under control, I should take y'all back to your rooms," Jim said while trying to calm down. Joey's head snapped back up to argue, but Suzi's warning look stopped him before he could open his mouth. "How about we just go somewhere else," I suggested after politely refusing an unspoken offer for sex for the tenth time. "Somewhere less..." "Tempting?" Suzi said with a smirk. "Uhm, yeah, I guess." "Fine," Jim simply said before leading us back the way we came in. "Jim," I began when I felt he had calmed down enough to approach the subject. "I don't mean to offend you, but you can't tell me a son can't get his mother pregnant." "My momma can't have any more kids. When I couldn't feel anything from your daddy's coin back when I was little, daddy had her tubes cut. All my step mommas get theirs cut after their kids get tested and fail. And my sisters. Except Candice. And I guess Mandy too now. It's almost a fucking shame Mandy has it. She would have been good when she got old enough." Joey was biting his tongue to keep quite, and I admit I was having trouble not saying anything myself, but Suzi diverted our attention by asking about the family business. There was still some tension between Joey and Jim throughout our expanded tour of the mansion, but after about an hour, Joey was back to being himself, and Jim realized Joey was a lot more than just a man servant to us, and treated him with more respect after that. When it was time to go meet up with Candice, I asked Jim if he might like to go out and show me the town. I was surprised when he got extremely excited at the idea, but then when we found Candice and I mentioned it to her, she said he couldn't because he had to go to class. "But it's summer vacation," I said, shrugging off Jim's disappointment to keep it from affecting me. "For you and me, yes. But Jim and all my other brothers don't stop their schooling until they have their masters in business and a second masters in another field, so they don't get a summer vacation." "That sucks," I said. "Oh, don't feel sorry for them. They get everything they want, plus some," Candice said with just a touch of bitterness. "That plus some is your sisters and step mothers," I concluded out loud. "Exactly," Candice said, looking me in the eyes. "Kerry told me what she did last night, and what you did. She's feeling pretty proud of herself. Thank you." "No problem," I said with a shrug. "So what are you going to do while we're out with Eric?" Suzi asked. "Uhm, I don't know. If none of the guys can go anywhere... and I take it the girls don't get out much?" "No they don't," Candice confirmed. "But daddy said this morning that granddaddy would like to meet you, so if it's all right with you, you can go out to his plantation and spend the time there." For some reason her suggestion stunned me, and I ended up sitting down in a chair to think it over while Candice called Eric up to tell him they were about to leave. Seeing that I really didn't have anything else to do, I agreed, but I was feeling very uncertain about meeting my paternal grandfather's best friend. My feelings only grew stronger when I found out the trip was a three hour drive to the middle of nowhere, and I was expected to spend the night and next day there before returning the next evening after dinner. You see, after getting to know my own father and seeing how much his father intimidated him, I was starting to feel... intimidated myself about meeting the best friend of the man I had associated with everything corrupt and evil. I was confident my abilities and more importantly my morals would be more than enough to protect me from any possible threat this man could be to me. But yet I feared him in a way I couldn't quite define in my mind, so I was considerably distracted during my goodbyes and getting packed for my little trip. But when I got in the limo and found both Kerry and Mandy apparently going with me, I was jolted back into focus. "I was under the impression I was going alone," I said carefully while having the driver keep the limo in park. "Daddy wanted me to go with you," Kerry explained apologetically. "I want to go see Granddaddy, and I can do what I want," Mandy said stubbornly. Kerry wanted to argue with her, but it was obvious she was intimidated herself by Mandy's new status as a telepath-to-be. "Mandy, I don't think you should go," I said firmly. "I don't care," Mandy said while making the mistake of looking me in the eyes. "I can do what I want..." I instantly saw past her mask of aggravating stubbornness and felt her confusion and how it was upsetting her. The emotions of a six year old are so... open... So direct and uncomplicated, it was easy enough to see what she really needed was someone to simply say... "No." "I'll tell Daddy!" she threatened angrily. "Go ahead and tell him. You're still not going with me." "But.. But.. I don't want to stay here..." "Why?" "Because... It's not fun here any more." "Why?" "I... The others..." she said before she clamped her lips together and her little chin started to wobble up and down in a weak attempt to not cry. "Kerry, do you remember when Candice was tested?" Kerry nodded, so I asked her, "How did you and the others treat her afterwards?" "We did what she said, just like we did what daddy said. She was special, like daddy. I was so happy for her I used to cry." "Did she seem happy though?" "No, not right away. She stopped playing with us for a while, but then one day she just showed up and asked if we wanted to go outside... I had never been outside before and was a little scared, but Candice was so sure we would like it... I just had to go. And she was right." "I've been outside," Mandy whimpered. "I've been outside lots of times." "But only because Candice started taking us out there before you were born. She's taken us places and showed us things that we would have never had done if it wasn't for her." Mandy brightened up suddenly after that had sunk in, then she jumped to her feet and exclaimed, "I know! I'll take them to the zoo! I love the zoo! Bye!" After Kerry and I finished chuckling, I said, "That girl... She is something else." "Candice was a lot like her. Always getting into trouble by doing things she knew she shouldn't do. Even worse than Mandy." "Yeah?" I said with a grin. "If you want to come with me, I guess I wouldn't mind hearing some tales of Candice's early days to pass the time. But only if you want to come, and not because your daddy said you had to." "I really would like to go with you," Kerry said before blushing slightly. I signaled the driver to proceed, then spent the next three hours exchanging stories about our youth. Somewhere in Alabama, southeast of Columbus, there "be" an unmarked dirt road leading up to an old weathered sun beaten shack of a house. An old white haired black gentleman sits rockin' on that there porch, with an old hound dog sleeping besides him and a shot gun laying across his lap. Our car drove slowly by the front porch, and as the old man squinted to see through the darkened glass, I sensed another mind within the shack preparing a telepathic probe. When the black woman initiated her probe, I quickly determined that it was innocent enough and allowed it through to Kerry's and the driver's mind. She didn't attempt to probe me which was somewhat a disappoint. It would have been easy enough to fake the probe's responses without her guessing her probe wasn't really getting through. Hidden behind the old house was another dirt road leading into a dark and lush forest which quickly hid the old house from our view as was intended. The road suddenly widened out and after one last turn Sheldon Cord's plantation spread out before us right out of the blue. I felt like we had traveled back in time to the old South as the car traveled up the long straight road to the plantation house. There were fields of corn, wheat, and cotton, gardens of vegetables, and orchards of fruit carefully laid out on both sides of the road, and immediately behind the main house there appeared to be a stable with a good number of horses fenced in beyond it. And everywhere you looked, there were dark skinned shiny-with-sweat people attending the fields, gardens, and everything else. There wasn't a single white man or woman to be seen. Well... Except for Kerry and I, that is. When the car finally drew to a stop at the main house, I wasn't really surprised by the line up of servants waiting for us. At least nobody was nude, which was kind of a shock when I realized it, but I was too concerned about meeting our host to give it much thought. The head man was a tall black man with just a touch of white showing up at the edges of his hair, and after introducing himself as Jessie, he explained the Master was out riding and would be back shortly. I was somewhat relieved to have put off meeting this friend of my long dead grandfather, and agreed to being shown to our room to freshen up and get out of the summer heat. While it was cooler inside, I quickly realized the building wasn't air- conditioned. In fact as we were led up the winding staircase and down a hall, I noticed the unlit light fixtures on the walls were not electric, but were actually oil lanterns. Our room was very elegant and spacious, and contained among other things, a bathing basin and a very large feather stuffed bed. After making sure we were... uhm, happy with the room, Jessie left for only a minute before returning with a young black girl about eleven or so. "Anna will attends gettin' your bath wata when yous ready, sah. Just lets her know ahead a time so she can fills it up and lets it warm up. Well wata can bes awful cold, you knows." "I can imagine," I said, trying not to show how uncomfortable this scene was to me. I managed to smile at the girl before saying to her "I usually... bathe before I go to bed. Is that okay?" The little girl said in the softest of voices, "Yes sah. I be's fine with d'at." Her voice was so... Well, it wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to think about like that, but despite her trying to hide it by speaking softly, her voice was very low pitched and rough in a way that normally turns me on. I couldn't help but wonder what she'd sound like in the heat of passionate sex when she got older. But she was way too young for me right then. Kerry and I were left alone for about twenty minutes, and during that time I changed into the coolest shirt I had brought while Kerry... Well, she spent the time laying naked on the bed trying to stay cool. It was more humid than I would have liked, but it wasn't unbearable to me like it was to her. After living practically all of her life inside an air conditioned environment, Kerry was very sensitive to the humidity and wasn't about to make it worse by wearing clothes when she didn't have to. A boy about eight delivered the message that I was to go to the stable, alone, to meet the Master Cord. Shit, I couldn't believe how nervous I felt while I was walking towards the stables, and got kind of pissed off at myself for it which kind of helped. I took a deep breath before opening the door, then walked in and didn't see anyone but a couple of horses in their stalls. After letting out the breath I had been holding, I noticed a sort of scraping sound coming from the other end. "Hello?" I said before making my way towards the noise and two sets of clusters of symbols. "Here boy, take over for me," a strong deep voice said. I was about to stutter something about what I was supposed to take over when a younger voice said, "Yes sah." When the senior Cord opened the stall door they were in, our eyes met for an instant and my earlier feelings of intimidation flared to an all time high. This man was anything but a frail old man. His arms were thick with muscle tone and were connected to wide shoulders, his hair may have been whitening, but his face was still relatively young despite the weathered look from years of sun. His chin was... chiseled I guess is the word. Everything about him said he was powerful, confident, and totally in control of his life. I don't remember moving to shake his hand, but I do remember his strong grip, and his probing eyes which he used to gauge my emotional state like a professional empath. "Well at least you're not a cocky son of a bitch like your grandfather was," he said after releasing my hand. "He wouldn't be here more than ten minutes before having half the women up in the guest room sucking or licking him." "No, I'm not like that," I managed to say as I followed him back into the stall. "You're not? But I hear you brought one of my granddaughters with you." "Her daddy wanted her to go with me, and I..." "BOY! Pay attention to what you're doing!" he snapped at the fourteen year old stable boy. "You're brushing her the wrong way!" "Sowy, Masta. I won't do's it agean." "Tell me, boy," he said to me. "You like horses?" "I guess I do. But I really haven't had any pets." "Pets!? Boy, horses are not pets. They are the finest animal on this here earth. No other animal has worked harder for man, and we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for this beautiful animal. Now touch her coat. She won't bite." I hesitated only a moment before reaching out and petting the animal's front neck. The mare's skin twitched slightly with the gentle contact I was giving it, but then the senior Cord grasped my hand with his leather like hand and forced my hand to rub it deeper. "Just like Richard," he grunted after letting my hand go. "Never done a good day's work in your life, have you boy. My closet maidens have rougher skin on their hands than you." I didn't respond for I didn't know what to say to that, so I just continued stroking the animals neck, finding it rather pleasant after all. I could sense the mare was enjoying the brushing the stable boy was giving her, so looked around and spotted another brush and said, "May I?" "There's hope for you yet, boy," he said after a nod. "I've never really paid much attention to horses before," I admitted after getting the hang of brushing the mare's coat. "But I can see what you mean about them being... uhm, beautiful." "Don't suck up, boy. It doesn't go over well with me," he said flatly. "No, really. I've done a lot with birds, and I've checked out dogs and cats and a few squirrels, but I've never felt an animal so calm and trusting... It's kind of beautiful that she can be like that." "That's because we bred it into them. They have the loyalty of a dog, the strength of ten men, and the grace of a fine woman in her prime." "Yeah..." I said, kind of caught up in the emotions he was emitting. The moment was interrupted however when Sheldon noticed the stable boy's prancing around as he brushed. "Boy, if you have to pee, go pee!" "Yes, sah. Thank you sah!" the boy exclaimed as he set the brush down and hurried to the stable's door. "Good girl, Jezebel," Sheldon said affectionately as he motioned to me we were going to leave. "I'll have Wes finish you up then take back out to Rocko." I watched in disbelief as the horse gave him a lick on the cheek, then turned away when he was about to return the kiss. I imagine he only kissed her on the nose, but I really didn't want to find out. Wes was just finishing up draining his lizard on some tall grass when we came out, and before he could tuck it back in, Sheldon yelled, "Here boy. Let us take a look at you." Wes somewhat bashfully walked over to us with his lizard hanging out of his trousers, then sucked in a big gasp of air when Sheldon grasped the thing and felt it and his nuts. "How long you been squirtin', boy?" Sheldon asked after checking the size and shape of each of the boy's testicles. "Sah?" the boy said as his flag pole finished inflating and just stood there waving in the wind. "Answer my question, boy." "T.t.two years now, masta," the boy said nervously. "Your moma been helpin' you doing it? Or one of your sisters?" "Yes sah. Momma does it when she can, sah, but Girtsy and Anna do's it every night for me." "Boy, look me in the eyes and tell me... You ever fuck a girl?" He stared intently as he said, "No sah. I never fucked a girl sah." "You wanted to, right boy?" "Yes sah. Very badly sah. But yous said I can't, so I don't, sah." "That's right boy. Now go on and finish Jezebel before taking her back out to Rocko." "Yes sah," he said with relief. "And boy..." Sheldon said after him. "You can put your spurter away now." "Yes sah," he said before the stable door slammed shut behind him. Sheldon caught my questioning expression, then said, "That boy has some fine breedin' behind him. Loyal, trusting, hard working, but stupid as a post. I gave his pa the job of putting in a new well before I left to visit Chuck a few years ago, and by God that boy had it finished by the time I got back. Worked himself so hard he grew ill and died on me. I've got to breed some more smarts in to them before I get too old to watch over them." I blurted out, "You sound like you're talking about your horses, not human beings." "What?!" he laughed in disbelief. "You heard me. You care more about your horses than you do for these people. I bet you shed tears when one of your mares dies, but you..." "Boy, if you know what's good for you, you just hush up," he said with flames coming out of his mouth. "Why? I'm not afraid you. I can see you for what you are now. A bigot taking his bigotry to the extreme and... and..." I stopped cold as my eyes noticed two horse back riders approaching from behind him... two black nude... twins. I didn't even hear his very loud response, but it didn't take long for him to notice where my attention was and I imagine he was grinning to himself as the two chocolate brown, dripping with sweat empaths dismounted their bareback horses and approached with that synchronized twin walk. Shit, I was in hell. My hormones were making my blood boil, my eyes were taking in every inch of their hot and sweaty female form, my dick was struggling to get out of my shorts, and then my nose caught the scent of their musk... Oh God why do you tempt me so? If the twins had even as much as hinted at something kinky, I would have been lost to the call of my lust. But instead Sheldon gave them some kind of signal, and the next thing I knew I felt the all too familiar tingle of their call to Timmy the Toy Boy. That snapped me out of my daze, and I was able to fight off their powerful call, but only barely. "I'm impressed, Tim," Sheldon said moments after calling his girls off. "Wendy must have taught you very well." I found myself shaking from the drain it had been to fight off the twin's call, and didn't resist his suggestion to go sit down in a covered deck like area which looked out over the horse's running area. "You even have your grandmother's eyes," Sheldon said gently after sitting down in the cushioned chair that had been rushed out to him by a couple of young men. "Don't patronize me," I spat. "I didn't come here to be tested by you or your... Your twins." "No... You came here to learn about Richard, Wendy, and the coin, didn't you." "Maybe. Or maybe I was just honoring my host's request to visit his father. But what I'd like to know now is what you wanted to see me for. From what I gathered, you don't even invite your own son to your.... plantation. So why did you invite me? You're not stupid enough to think nobody would notice what changes your girls would make of my personality. So why?" "Its very simple, boy. You're a God damn freak of nature. Your voice breaks every rule in the book. No bloodline has ever had more than three generations of voice, and the third was always weakest in the chain." "So? Have you ever considered I get it from both sides of my family? Maybe being the third generation twice is..." "You are the FOURTH generation, boy, and all the possible combinations have been tested over and over centuries ago. So you didn't know that your great grandfather had voice. I'm not surprised. Your daddy never appreciated what it meant to be the grandson of one of the most powerful voices fighting in the civil war." "Yeah? Well I'm only the third generation on my mother's side," I countered while I tried not to think about which side my great grandfather must have fought on. "Boy, you don't understand the inheritance principles of voice. Only one of the parents can have voice, and only if the other has no trace of it in their blood line for ten generations will they have a child with voice." "Then how does anyone get it in the first place?" I said after a moment of thought. "It's a naturally reoccurring potential in about five percent of the human population, but that's only the potential. Something has to awaken their voice, and about half of those go insane. The second and third generation usually fair better then the first since they are usually given the guidance..." "You mean brainwashing," I inserted. "Damnit boy! What Richard and I did was for the boys' own good. We were both lucky enough to be taken in by Gladius when we discovered our voices, but there were no openings..." "Gladius!" I said with panic. "You were one of Gladius's..." "The old Gladius, not the one you know of now. Now wait just a damn minute! You get your mind out of my head...." he said before I sent him into dreamland. Wow! Have you ever stuck a fork or something into an electrical outlet? Well, that's pretty much how it felt when Sheldon's twins zapped me with their empathic punch. I was dazed a moment, then discovered I was about to get mobbed by protective workers nearby. Before I could throw out the blanket command I got zapped again, but I managed to save myself by waking their master up before passing out on the next zap. I awoke in the limo alone, finding the vehicle already on the paved highway. The moment I realized Kerry wasn't there, I made the driver stop and ordered him to take me back, but found that this driver wasn't the same who had brought me and didn't know where the place was. After spending several hours trying to find my way back, I had the driver take me back to the Cain estate, hoping Sheldon wasn't the type to hurt his own granddaughter. By the time I got there and explained three times what happened (once to Joey and Suzi, once to Candice, and then again to her father,) I was wiped out. I slept like a log, and must have been really out of it for it wasn't until I was about to cum in Allison's mouth that I woke up. I barely managed to stop it before it reached the point of no return, then I very angrily ordered Allison out which she did so while getting very upset. "Shit, that was close..." I said just before jerking myself off to prevent myself from getting blue balls. Joey, Suzi, and Candice were already gone by the time I got dressed, and I nearly crapped in my shorts when I found out it was already after ten in the morning. I felt a little... self-conscious going down and getting breakfast all by myself, and afterwards I almost joined Mandy's little group of kids when I came across them and she waved. But I wasn't really interested in getting down on all fours and playing zoo animals with them, so I kept moving and eventually got a little lost in the numerous halls and had to stop and ask for directions from an old man hobbling out of a room nearby. "Eh?! Speak up, sonny!" The old man said with a lisp. "Could you tell me how to get back to the main hall?" I repeated out loud and by thought. "Ahhh.... You must be the Grodmen boy," the man said brightly. "Yes... I can see it in your face," he said while looking closely at my face through his bifocals. "Interesting... Very interesting..." "What?" I said, trying not inhale his rather potent breath. "What's that?" he said while lifting up my right hand and studying it. "I said, what is so interesting?" "Eekgad! What's the matter with you, boy? You forget how to use your voice?" "My voice? Oh... Uhm, well, it wouldn't be polite to..." "Polite?!?" the old man hooted. "Great Scott! A voice with manners! Now I've seen everything!" The man crackled and hooted as he wobbled back and forth on his feet, and twice I moved to catch him when I thought he was going to hit the floor, but he somehow he caught his balance both times. He then suddenly became very serious, and while he gasped for his breath he took off his glasses and wiped the lenses with a handkerchief before saying, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alfred Steinbruck, the world's greatest genealogist!" "Ahh..." I said, trying to sound impressed... and failing. "Don't tell me you never heard of me?!?" he said with amazement. "Every voice in the country comes to me when they want to have a child with voice!" "Really? But Chuck already has kids with voice..." "Ah yes, but I must keep records! New births, confirmation of voice inheritance, new raw voices, and of course the mating of voices with mutes. All must be recorded for the future generations, my boy. It is a life's work which my family has been carrying on for three centuries now. So many records, so many names...." His voice echoed down the hall as he walked rather rickety yet very quickly towards the room which he had come from. The room was a small library of sorts with three large tables covered with family trees, birth and death certificates, and some sort of portable computer was humming away on the messiest table of the three. "What is your name, by the way?" he said with a sudden amount of excitement. "Your full name please." "Uhm, Timothy Jasper Brandton." "Timothy Jasper... Mind if I put you down as Grodmen? It makes the tree much more symmetric..." "You can put my little brother down as Richie Davis Grodmen, but my legal name is Timothy Jasper Brandton. B r a n D T o n." "Very well," he sighed as he finished pecking in my name. "Brother... Richie... Richard rather... Davis you said? Ahh... the paternal grandfather's name... "Date of birth?" he queried. I sighed, then started to uncover a chair which he immediately rushed to do for me so the documents would not get... misarranged. "January seventeenth, nineteen seventy one. And before you ask, Richie's was May twenty ninth nineteen eighty eight." "Good, good... Now your mother..." "Samantha Helen Brandton, November eighteenth, nineteen fifty." "Excellent. You have other siblings? Perhaps mutes?" "Nope." "Come now... You may not like to admit their existence, but I must record them..." "I was an only child until Richie was born," I said firmly. "I see..." he said while typing in a question mark into a field on his screen. "Now what about your mother... any siblings there?" "Nope." "Hmmm... Is she currently your father's slave, or yours?" "Neither!" I said with distaste. "Is she immune to voice?" he asked with surprise. "No... She has voice," I said, smiling at what I suspected would be his response. "Do you think this a game, young man? Do you have any idea the importance of having accurate records of..." I looked in his eyes and said, "She has voice." "But that's..." he said weakly from feeling the truthfulness of my words. "Sheldon called me a freak of nature," I said, giving him a moment to recompose himself by examining some of the family trees laying on the table in front of me. "I don't understand why a child of second and third generation voices couldn't have voice himself." "What?" he said hoarsely before turning and rummaging through a stack of papers on the corner of the table farthest from me. "Good Lord!" he exclaimed after holding one sheet out to the light. "But this is impossible! Oh dear..." "What?" I said, looking up from the incredibly wide branching tree of the Cord's family. "Child.... I don't know how to tell you this..." he said with great anguish. "What?" I said with just a twinge of concern entering my gut. "You... are not... That is, your mother and father could not have had..." "Wait... Are you trying to tell me my mom and dad are not my real parents? Because if you are, you're nuts." "I know this must me hard for you to accept, but the evidence is very clear to me..." "Evidence? What evidence? These?" I said waving my hand over the document covered tables. "You said yourself you could see my dad in my face. And I am 101% sure I'm my mom's flesh and blood. I've seen her memories of my birth, for pete's sake!" "Even so, you can not..." he rambled on as I suddenly caught the sight of a familiar name on one of those trees. "Mr. Steinbruck, what exactly are you here for? I can't believe all of this mess is just for updating a few records about the younger Cords." "I fear you are not taking me seriously. You must be made to understand..." "Look! I'm sorry if my genes don't match up for your records, but I AM who I AM! Now tell me what you are doing here, and why you have THIS!" I said with my voice just barely cracking in emphasis as I held out the carefully drawn newly constructed Roberts tree. Alfred paused a moment before letting out a huff of stretched patience and peered through his bifocals at the page in question. "I already told you... I'm here to update my records on new births, voice inheritance, and matings between voices and mutes," he said with an added tone of stretched patience. "And this one is?" He looked at it again, then said, "I was investigating the candidacy for a possible mate for one of Cord's girls. This particular one had some rather... unique physical traits which Mr. Cord was interested in adding to his blood line. I haven't finished my analysis, but my tentative findings are encouraging. A few minor... adjustments would probably have to be made, but over all..." "Adjustments, huh?" I said, seeing how accustomed he was to the practices of his... clients. Despite his constant attempts to prove I was not related to my parents, I spent the entire afternoon learning about the bloodlines of voices and explored my family tree on my father's side as far back as I could. Wendy, my dad's mother, had the most remarkable and complete tree of what I saw that day. Not only did it record all of her ancestors for twelve generations, but all of her masters, including my father where on his thirteenth birthday he became her ninth and final master. Alfred's experience in discussing the complexities of voice inheritance was very apparent in his patience and well structured explanations. I suppose we both lost track of time for we were suddenly interrupted by one of the in-house security guards radioing in that he had found me. "Uhm, I guess I better go," I said when I sensed that my disappearance had been somewhat of a scandal. "Thank you very much for your time. I've learned a lot." "Before you go..." Alfred said while digging around the table a moment, then pulling out a leather briefcase and opening it. "Please take my card with you and call my family's office for an appointment. We must get your birthright straightened out." "Yeah, okay. I'll do that." "And just so you remember," he said, rolling up my grandmother's tree. "Take this too." "I can't take this," I said, sensing how fond he was of it. "Oh but you must. If not for yourself, then for your father. Don't worry. This is just a copy." I accepted the gift and thanked him, then after a friendly handshake I left with the guard to go to the security compound. After they logged my explanation of my whereabouts, I was escorted to my room where Allison was watching TV on my bed. "Daddy said I'm not to leave your room until I make it up to you for what I did," she explained after jumping up, snapping off the TV and turning crimson red. "You don't have to make anything up to me," I said sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to me. "I over reacted, and I'm sorry for yelling at you." "But... You like Kerry the best, and I..." "I would have done the same thing if it had been Kerry and not you," I said. "I don't understand." "For some people, sex is something which should be only shared with only the one person you want to be with the rest of your life. I thought I had found that person, and she believed in this very strongly. She left me, but I want to save whatever I have left for whoever I do spend the rest of my life with. Do you understand?" "No..." "I didn't think you would," I sighed, then thought of something else. "Just think of me being like Candice." "Candice?" "Yeah. She hasn't had sex with anyone yet, right?" "But she's a girl..." "So? Can't a guy save himself for the right girl too?" "Why would you want to? You could have any girl with your voice." "No, not any girl. There are some people in the world who can't be touched by voice." "If you're afraid she might find out, I won't tell anyone, I swear. You can make me forget, or..." "That's not it. I'll remember, and that's..." "Please?" she said, starting to slip off her t-shirt. "Daddy said..." "I'll give you a choice. You can either keep stripping and find yourself outside my locked door, or you can stay here and watch TV with me until Candice and the rest get back." She blushed a bit before pulling her shirt back down and saying, "You won't say anything about the TV, will you?" "What TV?" I said while stepping past her and turning it on only to find it on a evening soap opera. I plopped myself down on the bed beside her, then laid back to watch the TV with my head on a pillow. I have to admit Allison was pretty good to look at. She was laying on her stomach holding her head up with her arms while her legs went up and down, up and down behind her. She wasn't intentionally doing it, but she was giving me some lovely glimpses down her short legs, and even though I had already blew my load earlier that day, I was getting damn hot from it all. Luckily she was too glued to the screen to notice my weakened state, and after a while I got tired of all the stress and fell asleep. I awoke to sounds of my stomach rumbling, and Allison happily went with me to get some dinner which she insisted she should feed to me. After eating with the same fork and spoon, touching each other in innocent and not so innocent ways, I guess you could say my resolution to not let anything happen was a bit worn down by the time we finished and went back to my room. I told myself I wasn't going to fuck, and told Allison the same thing too when I suggested we try out the hot tub together. Well, she was all for that, and I guess I let her get away with more than I should, for it wasn't ten minutes later that she was giving me a hand job while I teased her nipples with my tongue. Luckily for me, Mandy decided to join us in the hot tub just about then, and even though they both tried to talk me into doing it some more, I wasn't about to with a six year old watching close up. I got out of there pretty quickly and went back to my room alone to jerk off again. The next morning, I snuck into Joey's and Suzi's bed and surprised them with a good morning hug and tickling contest. Shit, was I sorry I started the tickling thing. They ganged up on me and had me in tears before letting me go. But all was forgiven when Suzi suggested that Joey and I go out and explore Atlanta together that day. I was really not looking forward to spending another day in that house of temptation, especially after Allison just so happened to walk by my room naked before I had gone to wake Joey and Suzi up. Since Joey had gone to the Six Flags amusement park the day before, we tried to find some other things to do like visiting the zoo and checking out Martin Luther Jr.'s birthplace. But by three in the afternoon, I didn't argue a bit when Joey suggested we go, and we were there until they closed at midnight having the best time together since... Well... So long we couldn't remember. There was a sort of party going on in the parking lot, and because we didn't want to end our night out together so soon, Joey and I joined the fun. Suzi was pissed when we got back around four in the morning. We both had drank a little, I having drank a half a beer before deciding I really didn't like the stuff, and Joey had nursed one the whole time without ever finishing it. I mention this because Joey ended up sleeping with me after burping in bed and Suzi getting a whiff. As you might expect, Joey and I slept in the next morning. I wasn't surprised to find that Suzi had left without Joey, but Joey seemed worried about it and wouldn't give me a positive answer about us going out again that day. It wasn't long after getting ourselves something to eat that one of the early teen Cord girls came to tell me Kerry was back. "I think you like her," Joey teased as we hurried to the huge harem chamber. "You haven't been this anxious to see someone since..." "Since?" I asked when he didn't finish his sentence. "Never mind," he said as we were stopped by the security outside the chamber's entrance. After only a brief delay, we were allowed in, but after seeing who was with Kerry, I turned right around and left before anyone saw me. Joey came running after me several moments later saying, "Where you going?" "Anywhere but in there," I said firmly. "Why?" Joey said, catching me by my arm and bringing me to a halt. "What do you mean, why? You had to have seen the black twins standing there." "Yeah, but... Don't tell me you're scared of them!" "Scared?!" I spat. "Don't make me laugh." "Then what the fuck are you running away for?" "I'm not running, I'm choosing my ground." "Your ground...." "Yeah. I'd rather he come to me than the other way around." "Uhm, so how's this spot?" he said just before I noticed we were no longer alone. "Tim, why did you leave?" Kerry said walking up to us. "I didn't leave. I was thrown out. Are you okay?" "I'm fine," Kerry said before looking over her shoulder at her grandfather a moment, then turned back towards me with a fading smile on her lips. "Of course she's fine!" Sheldon crooned as he walked up and put a more than friendly arm behind her back. "Why wouldn't she be?" "Well," I said with a slight edge to my voice. "Seeing as she had come down with me, but wasn't in the limo after I woke up, I was a little worried as to the reason why." "Well you can just stop your worryin'. I was enjoyin' my granddaughter's company too much to send her back so quickly..." "I bet you were," I said without reservation. "Tim..." Joey said worriedly. "Kerry my dear, would you show my girls where we be staying tonight? I have some unfinished business with our young master Tim he'ah." "Yes, Granddaddy," Kerry said uncertainly. "Now you alls get," Sheldon said when his two faithful companions didn't move to follow her. "I said, GO!" With a momentary questioning glance at their master's face, the two black beauties turned and followed the uncertain girl back to the harem without looking back. "Just because you called off your watch dogs doesn't..." I began. "Now look he'ah sah! I've had just about enough of your disrespectful tongue wagging. If you had any smarts about you, you would realize I wouldn't come all this way just to butt heads with you again. And you wouldn't have come back as you did if I had meant to do you harm." "Then just what are you here for?" I said after feeling him out and found he was speaking the truth for the most part. He glanced over at Joey, then before he could respond, Joey said, "I think I'll just go and check to see if Suzi..." "No you're not," I said, this time grabbing his arm and forcing him to stay put. I looked Sheldon in the eyes and said, "I'll just tell him afterwards, so there's not much point of him not hearing it in the first place." "You wouldn't if it endangered him to know such things," he said with earnestly. Despite distrusting his motivations, I sensed the truth in his words and understood exactly what he meant. "Now wait a minute," Joey said when he saw I had changed my mind. "If it would endanger me, then it will endanger you too. Maybe we all better not hear what he has to say." "Joey," I sighed before looking him in the eyes and saying, "I don't think anything he has to say will put me in any more... danger than I am already in, not that I really think I am. I promise, if there's any way you can help me by knowing whatever it is, I'll tell you, okay?" "Promise?" "Yeah, I said I promise." "All right. Just don't take all afternoon arguing over stupid stuff... Get to the point and get it over with. Got it?" "Yeah, I got it," I said. "Got it?" Joey said firmly while looking at Sheldon. "Yes, sah!" Sheldon responded with a humorous two fingered salute. "Good," Joey said with a slight grin. "Carry on then." "So that was the boy wonder whom you share your voice with," Sheldon said once Joey was out of hearing range. "Boy wonder?" I asked. "What else would you call a being whom can tap the power of a voice and share it with others?" "A pirate?" I said with a smirk. Sheldon chuckled slightly, then became extremely serious and looked up at the ceiling to say, "Damn your luck, Richard. Damn your luck." When he looked back at my stunned expression, he simply said, "My parlor is this way," and started walking down the hall. I followed him in silence while I considered not what it was he felt he must tell me, but why. I almost walked right into him when he stopped at an elevator, and for a moment I could sense the... commitment he felt about what he was planning on telling me. "You're nothing like Richard," he said after the doors closed and we began to rise. "I expect you're pleased to hear that." "I guess," I said, stupidly feeling a bit guilty about it. "He was a selfish bastard. Didn't give a damn about other people or any other living thing. To him life was just one big game. He never had to work to get anything, never appreciated anything he had of value, but never let anything of his go without making it more trouble than it was worth." "I thought you two were good friends?" "Friends?! I hated the man. But I can see why people would say that. Once I understood him, I found I could trust him." "Trust him?" I said as we stepped out of the elevator and entered a sort of sitting room on the top floor overlooking the harem chamber. "There aren't many people a voice can truly trust without having control over them, boy. Richard was a greedy child wanting to have all the toys, but like all children he found it was much more fun to play with the toys with someone else than by your lonesome." We each took a seat and took in the scene below before I looked over at him and asked "So you were playmates?" "Playmates, partners, competitors, co-conspirators. We spent five years watching each other's back, helping each other to gain what we wanted, and sharing in our conquests while working as slaves ourselves in Venezuela." "Gladius," I said under my breath while raising my defenses instinctively. "As I tried to tell you before, the Gladius you know is the son of the Gladius I spent five years working for and learning from. I know what that son of a bitch tried to do to you, and his old man would have castrated him for it if he was still alive. As long as I had known him he never used his girls like that." "My grandmother wouldn't agree with you, and she should know better than anyone." "So she did tell you something," he said, looking me in the eyes. "She told me enough that I wouldn't trust your Gladius anymore than my Gladius." "Wendy?" he said in disbelief. "What did she say, boy? You must have misunderstood her." "I didn't misunderstand her, and I swore to her to never tell." "Tim," he said with a new urgency to his voice. "Your grandmother meant a great deal to me. I met her my second day working for Gladius, and she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen in my short life. You ever experience love at first sight boy?" I swallowed nervously before saying, "Yes, I have." "She was the forbidden fruit in my garden of Eden. I adored her from afar for nearly a year before getting the nerve to simply talk to her, then spent another two years just being her friend while resisting making anything more of it. Then one day I accidentally saw Gladius and her having sex, and afterwards she knew something was bothering me. I don't remember who told who first, but we told each other we loved each other, and almost had sex right there if she hadn't stopped us. She always stopped us from going too far, her loyalty to her grandfather was absolute, even after he sold her a few months later." "You seem to be pretty loyal to him yourself for what he did to you indirectly." "I didn't blame him for anything, boy. I understood his reasons, and above all I believed in him, just as Wendy did. For six years after I left Gladius, I worked to get enough resources to buy her for myself. She was very valuable because of her breeding..." "No voices in her family tree for twelve generations," I commented. "Sounds like you've been talking to Wayne." "No, some old guy name Alfred. Who's Wayne?" "Wayne's Alfred's son. Alfred was here? I thought he retired." "Doesn't look like it. Although I think he almost retired permanently when I pointed out I was a fourth generation voice." "I bet he did," Sheldon chucked. "Probably couldn't accept you being Richard's grandson." "Yeah. He kept trying to convince me I was adopted or something. Especially with my mom having voice to." "Now you understand my reason's for wanting to meet you." "Yeah, I guess. I don't understand why you wouldn't make the same assumption as Alfred though." "You mean you not being Charlie's boy? Oh, I believe you are. No doubt in my mind. Richard always had the damnedest of luck." "Luck? You believe it's all luck?" "Believe? I don't just believe it! I fuckin' have proof!" he shouted. "Six men including myself did everything they could to get your grandmother pregnant, then Richard fucks her once and nine months later Charlie was born..." Sheldon suddenly lightened up and chuckled before saying, "The bastard considered it to have been bad luck. He never wanted to have children, and after all the attempts of getting Wendy pregnant failed before him, he didn't take any precautions." "Chuck said you lost her in a card game? If Richard always had such good luck, why did you bet her?" "Liquor, foolish pride, and a stroke of winning hands made me feel pretty cocky. That and the fact that through the years of being the fuck toy of other men, Wendy had lost her spirit. She was a different person, and I suppose so was I. But when I lost her to Richard, I found I couldn't let her go." "And that's when you bet the coin," I said. "Damn his luck," he said again while ironically looking out at his grandchildren. "You mean damn my luck," I said. "I mean, I'm the freak of nature. I'm the one with the wonder boy as my best friend. I'm the one who inherited the coin. Speaking of the coin, where did you get it? I've always wondered where it came from." "Found it on the street when I was a boy," he simply said. "Never showed it to anyone until I discovered my voice. I knew it was something special, but I didn't know why until I let Richard hold it and we figured it out." I suddenly noticed Sheldon's twins on their knees surrounded by a circle of male grandchildren, and it took me a moment to realize they were giving out blow jobs. I looked over at Sheldon a moment, and it was obvious we had reached the somewhat dangerous part of our conversation. We both went back to watching the women as they worked, bringing each boy to their knees in pairs, then stopping and going to the next before they could cum. They worked steadily for over a half hour before all eight boys were all sprawled out around them, completely under their spell. From the 22 year old man cock to the three year old pencil, all were at attention and waiting for whatever the girls wished to do next. "Do you recall the Tiananmen Square massacre?" "You mean when China's army went in and killed a bunch of students while they were all protesting a couple of months ago? Yeah, how could I forget?" "What would you have done if you had been there?" "I would have stopped them," I said very loudly. "And what would you have done then, Tim? Turned the army around and had them overthrow the Chinese government?" "I wouldn't have gone that far, but... I don't know. I just wouldn't have let all those people die for standing up for themselves." "So you would have simply prevented the deaths and nothing else?" "Yeah, if I could. Why?" "If those people hadn't died, we wouldn't be talking about it right now. The rest of the world would not have felt that slap in the face. A single voice could have prevented a natural moment of history from taking place. You understand the importance of history, boy?" "History: If man does not learn of the mistakes he has committed throughout the past, he is destined to repeat them," I quoted. "The history books do not mention the parts voices have played in our history. The Salem witch hunts were triggered by a voice who didn't understand what voice was. There have been many other instances where a voice is discovered and caused a panic, but the other voices of the time cover it up or completely erase the event from the minds of the mutes involved. But by doing so we lose those lessons and so we repeat them over and over again." "So we have the Cabal to thank for cleaning up our messes?" "The Cabal are only one of several secret organization of voices. But they only take care of the little threats. They are not prepared to take on the greater threats which have been also been left out of the history books." "Greater threats?" I echoed. "Just imagine what it would be like if someone put together an army of voices to take over the world. In the past voices were always limited by their geological location. Take the Roman and Greek gods for example." "They were voices?" "It took over a century before all of their children's children died and left no further heirs with voice, and we don't really understand why other voices didn't take their place after that. If there ever is another voice uprising, the human race will most like end in the largest bloodiest war in our history. "That is what they are here for," he said softly, indicating his two sucking pets. "No male can resist the temptation they represent. If an army of voices ever do appear, one by one the males will be seeded, and when the moment is right they will turn against any female accomplices and end the threat." "How do you know all this," I said after a few moments to reflect. "I mean, the more people who know about it the less likely it will work." "No one can force this information from me without killing me, and I have never told another soul until this very moment. Your father and I were conditioned by Gladius's head twins before we were made the soul masters of our twins. You appear to be a threat to Gladius's son because you broke your father's twin's bond to him. You are a voice with the empathic skills, but you are not invulnerable to another voice's control. And as I had suspected before meeting you, you are able to resist the twin's power. I may disagree on his methods, but I believe he was right that the safest place for a threat such as yourself would be right where Gladius could keep an eye on you and protect you from falling under another's control." "So that's what this is all about?" I said slowly. "You want me to.... go down to Venezuela and hide for the rest of my life??" "Others would prefer to simply... eliminate the threat all together, but I feel I owe it to your grandmother to see if I can make you see reason..." "Are you saying I'm in danger of being... assassinated?" I said, standing up. "Now that's not what I said!" "Well it sure sounded like it to me. I appreciate what all you've told me, and I swear I won't repeat it to anyone, but I think I've heard all I want to hear. Good bye, Sah..." "Tim!" he yelled after me as I left the room and didn't look back. "God Damn it, boy! I'm warnin' ya! If history does repeat itself, I'll come after you myself! And I won't be comin' to protect you! You hear me boy?!" "Fuck!" I spat as the elevator doors closed behind me. "Just what I fucking needed!" I started calming down as I made my way back to my room, having decided to pack my things and leave with Joey and Suzi as soon as I could. As I entered the hall leading to my room, Joey found me and immediately said, "You look pissed. What happened?" "He just threatened to kill me after telling me his life's story, that's all," I growled. "Kill you? Why?" I stopped and turned to face Joey, laid my hands on his shoulders, looked deep into his eyes and said, "I can't tell you that, or anything else he said. But Joey? If I ever disappear, die again, or... or supposedly run away or something, you'll know where I'll really be." I could see the confusion in his eyes clear just before he softly asked, "Venezuela?" "Si amigo. Venezuela." "You mean old man Cord and Gladius are..." "I can't talk about it, Joey. Trust me. You don't want to know anyway." "Shit, Tim. Then what do I do if you do disappear? Come after you?" "I don't know Joey. If you think you can trust him, you probably should go to my dad. Uhm, I don't want to sound paranoid, but whatever you do, be careful. Don't trust anyone unless you know they're themselves, you know?" "Shit... Now I am worried," he said, looking down at his feet I grinned and rubbed my hand over his crew cut a couple times, then said, "Yeah, well... Don't worry about it unless something weird happens to me. And I kind of doubt Sheldon will have to come after me with a shot gun. I'll be long gone by that time." "If you say so..." Joey said as I let go of his shoulder and we started walking again. "Since we're not in danger right now, and Suzi isn't back yet, why don't we go find a barber joint and get that hair cut off of your head." "Damn, I thought you might have forgotten about that," I said with a grin. "Shit, I'd scalp you myself, but then you'd be so messed up you couldn't hang around me and Suzi." "Heh. Thanks a lot." "No problem. Any time." I gave in and got a buzz job like Joey's, then we spent ten bucks in an arcade across the street from the hair cutting place before heading back to the estate to have our last dinner at the Cord estate. When we got back to Joey's and Suzi's room, we immediately knew something was wrong just from the way Suzi said, "Hi." "You have a headache?" Joey asked testingly. "No, nothing like that," she said while sitting down on her bed with a sigh. "I'm still not sure about leaving Eric like this." "Well, you're the one who's spent all five days with him," I said, giving her a kiss on the top of her head and sitting down next to her. "Is he happy the way he is now?" "That's just it. The first couple of days I _wanted_ to see him... I don't know... blanking out or... something that would make it right to undo what Candice did to him. But that day at six flags I gave up because... he _was_ happy, and he didn't seem to be missing anything." "I think you just don't want to leave him yet," I said while watching Joey starting to pack some of their stuff. "No, it's not that. Yesterday, when Joey didn't come with us? Eric... he seemed aggravated about Joey spending the day with you. All day long he made fun of what you and Joey might be doing, and it was just so... Unlike Eric." "Why didn't you say something last night?" I asked with concern. "Yeah Suz," Joey said somewhat stunned, having stopped his packing a moment and was standing there with a couple of Suzi's bras hanging from his hand. "I didn't expect you two to stay out all night drinking!" Suzi said with frustration. "I kept waiting and waiting for you to get back so I could talk about it, and I guess I got so mad that I forgot." "Sorry," I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Yeah, I'm sorry to, mistress," Joey said, sitting down on the other side of her and giving her a kiss on her other cheek. "Well, I'm not mad anymore. I'm just... worried," Suzi said, reaching over and taking the bras from Joey to fold up right. "He was a lot worse today. It's like he's the opposite of what he was. Everything we said ended with a slander against homosexuals from him, and once..." Suzi paused to wipe her eyes and nose with one of the bras before saying, "We were having lunch at this little sub sandwich place, and he kept going on and on about the two guys behind the counter being gay. They weren't, and Candice and I kept trying to tell him that, but... He embarrassed himself and us by..." "I think its time to go talk to Candice," I said, standing up. "Don't you want to know what he did?" "Not really," I said opening the door. "You coming?" "Could you wait a minute? I need to... You know," she said, taking the tissues Joey handed to her and blew her nose. "All right, but hurry up. We're supposed to have dinner in fifteen minutes, and I don't really want to talk about this at the table, do you?" "Uhm, you're not planning to go to dinner dressed in your street clothes are ya?" Joey asked. "Shit. I guess it will have to wait until AFTER dinner," I groaned. "Uhm, I'll be uhh... getting dressed," I said before shutting the door behind me and doing just that. I met them at their door dressed in my snow white tux, then we started walking to the dinning hall together after exchanging compliments on how we all looked. "Why do I have the feeling this is going to be a very long dinner," Suzi said, breaking an extended period of silence during our walk. "You think he'll be there?" Joey asked me. "Probably," I sighed. "Who?" Suzi asked. "Yep, it'll be a really long dinner then," Joey said. "Who will be there?" "Candice's granddaddy," Joey answered. "What'd he do?" Joey and I just looked at each other, then I looked at her and began with, "Trust me," before Joey joined me in saying, "You don't want to know." "Oh," Suzi said with a frown. We walked in silence for another minute or two before Joey asked me, "Are you sure this is the right way?" "I don't know," I said surprised. "I was just going wherever you were going." "Uh, so was I," Joey said. Suzi sighed, then wet her right index finger and stuck it up in the air a moment before saying, "This way," and headed down a hall to our left. "Do you think she really knows?" I asked Joey as we hurried to catch up with her. "Does it matter?" Joey said. "Heh. I guess not," I said with a grin. Ten minutes later, after only having to back track once, we finally arrived at the back door to the dinning hall. We stood there another minute listening to the chatter inside, then made our entrance with the words, "Sorry... We uhh.. got lost." After settling into our seats, I had to divert my eyes to keep Sheldon from catching me staring at him sitting by Kerry in the lower ranks. My attention was somewhat divided between explaining to Chuck what all we had planned for our trip to England and watching Kerry and Sheldon talking and joking and carrying on like a pair of... "Lovers," I accidentally said out loud. "Excuse me?" Chuck said while wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin. "Uhh... Nothing. Sorry," I said while turning a bit red. "You didn't get emotionally attached to Kerry, did you?" Chuck asked quietly. "Huh? Uhm, no not... Well, maybe a little." "She still has that... spirit, doesn't she?" "Spirit?" "Yes. Like every time is her first time. I wasn't a bit surprised you picked her over the others. She has the nicest ass of all my girls. Knowing how fond Charlie was of her ass, I just knew you'd favor her too." "My dad fucked her ass?" I choked out. "A couple of years ago. Kerry had just come of age, so I invited him over for her first fucking party. I'd never seen anyone wear Charlie out like that." "Wow," I said under my breath before taking a big bite of my food. Candice was keeping a tight lip, and other than Sheldon and myself avoiding eye contact, the dinner went pretty well all things considered. Joey somehow managed to get Suzi and the oldest Cord girl Darlene talking about sexy clothing, and I think he kind of enjoyed listening to them as they gave away all their secrets on how to catch a guy's eye. One time during the meal, I noticed Jim staring at Kerry as she fed Sheldon a spoonful of the frozen fruit salad, and if my empathic senses hadn't told me he was feeling rather jealous, I would have probably scanned him without thinking, which would have drawn Candice's and Chuck's attention like a bulls eye on his head. If it hadn't been a possessive jealousy, I probably would have said something to him to let him know he wasn't alone. But his emotions were entirely self- centered, and I reasoned his thoughts were probably about not wanting to give up his other bedmate or something like that. After desert, Sheldon stood up and announced, "Well son, it's time for me to head back now." There was a chorus of awwws, the guys' being the loudest, but he ignored them as he looked me in the eye and said, "It was nice meeting you, Master Timothy. I hope you learned somethin' from our talk." "I did... Thank you," I replied with an even voice as Kerry stood up to go with him. "Kerry? You haven't been excused from the table yet," Chuck warned her. "But..." she said, reaching to take a hold of Sheldon's arm. "Kerry my sweet, your place is here with your brothers and sisters," Sheldon said firmly while untangling her hands from his left arm. "But granddaddy..." Kerry said emotionally. "Can't I go with you?" "NO!" Candice objected immediately. "You can't go." "Please daddy?" Kerry said with tears in her eyes. "I love him, daddy. Please?" "Kerry, don't make this harder than it already is," Sheldon said firmly, yet not authoritatively like before. "I'll come visit you as much as I can, but you can't leave your home just to be with an old man like me." "You're not an old man," she said with tears falling from her eyes. "You're strong, but so very gentle.... You're so powerful, but you only use it to keep order... And you're lonely. You're so lonely. Please DADDY?!? He needs me daddy? Please?" "No daddy," Candice said, this time pleading instead of ordering. Chuck sighed, called Kerry over to him, then wiped some of his daughter's tears away with his cloth napkin as she waited for his response. "You tired of your brothers' fucking?" Chuck asked once he laid his napkin down. "I... No, sah." "Have you thought about who would take over for you if you left?" "No, sah," Kerry said, hanging her head. "Have you considered what would happen to your mother if you left us?" "Momma could... Could move in with Jim?" "You trust your mother with him?" Chuck said with surprise. "Jimmy fucks just like you, daddy. I think momma would like being with Jim." "Daddy," Candice interrupted. "_I_ don't want her to go." "Shut up, Candice!" Kerry said emotionally. "You're the one who's always tellin' me to think for myself and not to want to do whatever I'm told to do. This is what I want. I want to be my own person, and have my own man. I thought you would be happy for me...." "Kerry, don't talk to your sister like that," Chuck scolded her. "And Candice, I'm her daddy, not you. It's my decision, not yours." "But daddy," Candice whined. "Hush girl!" Chuck said with a warning glance before looking over at his father and saying, "Well daddy? Do you want her?" "I would, if I knew she'd be happy down there." "I'll be happy," Kerry pleaded. "I'll be with you." "Kerry my darlin', I know you say so now, but... If you comes with me, I will expects you to dress like a lady all the time, not just for a few hours like yesterday." "I'll dress like a lady. I promise, granddaddy." "And no sex with any of my boys. Even ifs I don't give you any for weeks on end." "I... I... I promise," Kerry said weakly. "Well then, I suppose I'd be willin' to have her." "Daddy?" Kerry said, turning back to her father for his decision. Kerry rushed to fill Chuck's arms when he opened them to her, then gave her daddy a wet tonguey kiss as he slid his hands beneath her dress and apparently fondled her ass vigorously. "You know your granddaddy doesn't appreciate a fine ass like yours," Chuck said a little breathless while Kerry straddled him and smiled as she slowly sank down to his lap. "I'll miss my daddy's lap something awful," she said softly. "And I will miss your smilin' face even more," Chuck said before Kerry rose up slowly and then sank down just as slowly as before. "Shit, he's fucking her ass, isn't he," Joey whispered with a touch of disgust. I only nodded as the entire Cord family watched with partial interest as Kerry started working up her speed on her daddy's lap. Candice left the room without saying a word, and I would have followed if Suzi hadn't have stopped me. "What?" "Eric's here. She left to go meet him." "How do you know?" I said surprised and a little suspicious. Suzi looked over the wall to our right with unfocused eyes and said, "I felt him, okay?" "Oh," I said a little hurt that she could feel him when he was nearby when I couldn't. "I've spent the last five days with him, remember?" Suzi said gently just before Kerry and her father came to a rather noisy climax. I guess we should have expected it, but when the table broke out in cheers and clapping, the three of us looked around clueless to what they were applauding for until Kerry stepped down from her father's lap and used his napkin to wipe her ass. "She's all yours, daddy," Chuck said out of breath as he apparently stuffed his cock into his pants from under the cover of the table cloth. "Well then, lets get you dressed up right before we go," Sheldon said, accepting her arms wrapping themselves around his left one. "You're all excused," Chuck said in a tired voice. Joey, Suzi and I watched as everyone else at the table got up and congratulated their sister while Chuck left with two of the more busty waitresses. Chuck had just walked out the door when Candice burst through them saying "Tim, Eric wants to ta... talk to you." The expression on her face made me jump out of my chair and run past her before she could even catch her breath from speaking, but then when I realized I didn't know where to go, I turned around and ran right into her as she came around the corner after me. "Where?" I thought to her. "Follow me," she thought back to me just as Suzi and Joey caught up with us. I followed behind her as patiently as I could until I felt him, then sped past her and took a left towards where I felt he was. "Tim! Not that way!" Candice yelled out just as I found it was a dead end. "Shit," I spat as I turned and ran to catch up with them. When I finally got to the door where Eric was waiting behind, Candice said between gasps, "If you have to do it..." "I'll tell him why," I gasped, seeing the fear in her eyes. I opened the door and was startled to find the lights off. "Don't turn them on. It's... Better this way," Eric said, his voice filled with stress. "All right," I said, closing the door behind me, sending the room into complete blackness to my eyes. "Something is wrong with me, and it has something to do with you," Eric stated. "Why do you say that?" "Because ever since I fucking looked in your eyes, I've been fighting something I can't even remember. What did you do to me?" "I didn't do anything to you, Eric. I only tried to feel you out." "Feel me out," he said with distaste. "You mean feel me up, don't you?" I ignored the remark and said, "Eric, what exactly are you feeling right now? If you won't let me feel you out, then at least tell me what you're feeling." "I feel... Fucking confused, that's how I feel! How would you feel if someone's been messing with your head, putting thoughts in your mind that aren't yours?" "What kind of thoughts?" "You know what kind of thoughts! Faggy thoughts! Guys fucking guys, kissing guys, sucking guys... I want it to stop! It's driving me NUTS!" "Eric, listen to me. I know you think you've never had these thoughts before..." "You're damn right I haven't!" My eyes were getting used to the light, but then I didn't need the light to see the symbols buzzing around his head like angry bees. There were streams literally colliding into each other, rippling out and disrupting others in a way I had never seen before. I couldn't make much sense of it all, but I knew it wasn't normal and had to be the source of his confusion and strong emotions. "So you think I put these thoughts in your head?" "Yes," he said between gritted teeth. "Why?" "Why? I don't fucking know why!" "Eric, who am I?" "What? I... I don't... I don't know." "You don't believe I'm the Tim you used to know?" "No. You can't be." "Why?" "Because! I saw you... I saw HIM die!" "That wasn't real, Eric. That memory was planted in your mind." "No it wasn't! It was real!" "Why do you even care if I'm Tim or not? You didn't care about me before." "Yes I did! I mean, I cared about Tim. The real Tim." "I care about you too, Eric," I sighed. "When we came back from Southeast State, I would've been lost without you. Joey hating me... and Suzi having found someone else. All I had was you. When I first met you, you were a little kid who needed somebody to understand you, be with you, maybe even look up to. And then when you and I were at Southeast state, I had to watch over you, and I worried about you... But somewhere along the way, between the time we came home and the time you thought I died, you grew up... Because you were watching over me then." "You're not Tim," Eric said between sniffs. "You can't be him." "I loved you. I depended on you. I'm sorry if it hurt you so much when you thought I died. I never wanted to hurt you. Ever. Last thing I wanted was you to get hurt like that. But you did hurt, and it hurt really bad, and I wish I could have taken the hurt away. "Candice tried to, but all that's done now is confuse you. She tried to make you happy, Eric. And for a while I think she did. But it's time to undo the blocks and get rid of the pain once and for all..." "What are you doing?!?" Eric said, somehow sensing I was in his head. "Listen to me, Eric. I want you to think back to when your Tim was alive. Think of some time that only you and he would know of. Something only the real Tim could remember." "Stop IT! STOP!" he said as he started remembering some of the times we had spent together which had been blocked for so long. "I won't stop until you tell me!" I said, letting some of the emotion I was feeling slip into my voice unintentionally. "No! NO!" he cried, trying to cover his head with his arms as if it would shield him from his own memories. "Tell me!" I said just before releasing the blocks holding back the more intimate and sexual memories. Eric sank to his knees yelling "NOOO! STOP! STOP IT!" "TELL ME ERIC! TELL ME!" "DORITOS!" he cried. "DOritos..." "Doritos?" I said, pulling the last block out and disconnecting from his mind. "Only the real Tim would know what that means," he sobbed. "Doritos," I said again while stretching myself to remember anything I could about the nacho cheese flavored corn chip. "I knew you weren't Tim," he sobbed wearily from the floor "I am, Eric.. I really am," I said, kneeling down beside him and rubbing his back affectionately. "Just give me a minute. Maybe I still don't remember everything..." "We ate Doritos in bed once," he said, moving away from my touch and standing up. "Doritos in bed..." I said finding it familiar. "Yeah, yeah... I remember.. I REMember! It was one of those Saturdays nights you spent at my place. I got a big bag of Doritos and had a cooler full of root beer, and we watched the Three Stooges for hours before they went off, then I put some old horror movies in and we laughed our asses off.. Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes, right?" "I.. I think so.." he said shakily with his back to me. "Doritos.. How could I forget that," I said, walking up behind him. "We both were in only our boxers, but didn't fool around or anything until the sun was up. And then we kept having to stop because the damn Doritos in the bed were poking us when we fucked." "I... Remember," he said softly. "I kept trying to brush them off the bed, but you kept stopping me and eating them..." I laid my chin on his shoulder and reached around front of him to give him a hug, and for a second I was panicked when he pulled away. But then he hugged me, and I hugged him back, and we just stood there crying like idiots until someone opened the door and turned on the lights. "Is everything okay?" Candice said emotionally. "I think so," I said while Eric gave her a smile and a nod from my shoulder. Then we moved apart, and as he looked into my eyes he said, "I can't believe it's really...." I've never seen a face go from such extremes before. On second he was happy and joyous, the next... Terror only begins to describe the expression he had as he backed away with a muffled scream. "Eric!? What's wrong?!" Candice exclaimed as his fear slapped me in the face. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" he screamed when Candice stepped closer to him. "Eric?!?" Candice pleaded loudly as I grabbed her arm and kept her from trying to grab a hold him. "Stay back! Whatever you are!" Eric warned as he opened his pocket knife and held it out before him as weapon. "Eric, put the knife away," Suzi said, moving towards him despite his warning. "I said, stay BACK!" he said, taking a swipe at her with the knife and actually cutting her on the arm. "Shit!" Suzi exclaimed as she backed away, covering her wound with her hand and exclaiming, "Eric what's wrong with you!" As Joey rushed forward to protect Suzi, Eric exclaimed, "Joey? What's happening? Look out!" Eric made another slashing motion towards Suzi which caused her to jump further away from Joey, then Eric stepped in front of Joey to protect him from... Well, us. "We'll leave, you try and calm him down," I thought to Joey. Then to the girls who were begging Eric to listen to them, I thought, "He's not going to listen to us, but he might listen to Joey if we left them alone." They both were about to argue with me, but when Eric took another slash at Candice and me, I didn't give them the choice, overrode their legs, and marched us out of the room. "I hate it when you do that!" Suzi said angrily when I released them and shut the door. "I'm going back in there," Candice warned me. "Why? Can't you see he's terrified of us?" I said, blocking the door. "I don't care. I have to find out what wrong with him!" she said as she tried to force me out of the way. "I know what's wrong with him," Suzi said, looking me in the eyes. "I've seen it before." "Then what is it?" Candice said, swirling around, looking as if she was about ready to take a swipe at Suzi herself. A drop of blood from Suzi's clasped hand dripped to the floor making me interrupt to say, "Suz, go get that taken care of. I'll stay here and explain it to her. And here," I said, opening a link between us. "You'll know everything that happens while you're gone, okay?" Suzi sighed an okay, then checked her wound and said, "He only just nicked me though," before leaving. "Well?" Candice said impatiently after attempting to scan Eric's mind and only getting a lot of confusing emotion. "Right before my faked death, I had a sort of empathic breakdown..." "You mean nervous breakdown." "Not exactly, although I suppose I had one of those too afterwards. Anyway, I think Suzi's right. Eric doesn't recognize us through the mask of corruption he senses from us. It's very terrifying at first..." "Are you trying to say Eric is suddenly... Empathic? I'm not buying it!" "I think Gladius's twins messed around with Eric's emotions so much that when I convinced him of who I was, mixed with what he was, it... broke something and caused... this." At that moment, Joey thought to me, "Tim, I've got him calmed down. I'm pretty sure he understands what happened, so I don't think he'll try and hurt anyone again. He seems to trust me, but he won't give me his pocket knife. How's Suz?" "I'm fine," Suz answered on her own. "Is Eric okay?" "Eric, Suzi wants to know if you're okay?" I heard Joey ask Eric. "NO, I'm not okay!" Eric yelled emotionally. "Eric?" Candice called through the door. "Can I come in? Please?" "Who are you?" Eric called back nervously. "It's... It's me... Candice," she replied emotionally. "Candice?" Eric said, somewhat doubtfully. Joey confirmed it was her with a nod, so Eric said, "Okay, but... Just stay by the door... Just in case." "Okay, I'm coming in..." Candice said, looking me in the eyes to tell me to get out of the way. Her eyes were still locked on mine as I put both hands on her shoulders and said, "If he spazzes out, you get out, understood?" "All right!" she said impatiently. "Now let me through!" I stepped aside, then watched her open the door carefully and enter the room. "Eric!? Please, you have to see it's me!" Candice cried out desperately after I heard Eric whimper. When Candice stepped forward intending to rush up to him to some how prove it to him, Eric yelled, "Stay BACK!" before Joey intercepted her, picked her up and carried her kicking and screaming to the door, she basically throwing a fit. I had to help Joey get her through the door, then blocked her explosion of pain commands from reaching our testicles while Joey tried to hand her over so he could go back and calm Eric down again. Unfortunately, when her telepathic approach didn't work, she tried the old fashioned way and kneed me right in the happy sack. Just as I doubled over, Kerry cried, "Candice!" from the other end of the hall, lifted the bottom of her fancy pink hoop dress up and rushed to aid her sister's escape. "Let her GO!" she yelled as she turned at the last second and knocked Joey off his feet with her butt. "You'll only scare him!" I gasped as Candice scrambled away and headed towards the door. Joey exclaimed "OUCH! SHIT!" while struggling to get past Kerry moments before Eric's and Candice's exchange of emotional pleas began. Before I could do anything about all of this, Sheldon boomed out, "What in tarnation is going on 'ere!" "Granddaddy, he was hurtin' Candice, Kerry exclaimed as she rushed over to him for protection. Eric came running out of the room as I opened my mouth to disagree, then we all got hit by Eric's terror when he saw all of us, freaked, and fell back onto his butt. Everyone was frozen for several seconds before Sheldon's twins stepped forward from behind him and Eric caught sight of them. By this time I had gotten back on my feet and had been getting ready to blanket the lot of them with a sleep command, but now that option was out with the twins on the scene. I was ready to literally grab Eric and run just to get him away from the twins if Eric seemed to be falling under their spell, but to everyone's surprise Eric closed his eyes tight and then reached a hand out towards Joey while calling his name. (The looks on the twins' faces were absolutely priceless, and even though I had only gotten a momentary glance, I'll always remember their shocked bulging eyed expressions they had had.) Eric wanted to go outside, but even though the mansion's exit was right around the corner, it only exited out to the bridge back to the office building where a lot of other people were. So Joey led him back into the room where they had been and closed the door. Suzi came out of nowhere and helped me explain what was going on while Candice kept her back to everyone to hide her distraught acceptance of the situation. Kerry shucked her ruined fancy dress before going over to consul Candice in just her underwear, then ended up holding Candice as she had a short cry. Sheldon's twins were very insistent about trying to help Eric. I didn't trust their motives, and I certainly didn't want them left alone with Eric, so there was a long... debate I'd call it, considering no one ever raised their voices, and two of the participants never even spoke a word. I have to admit I was impressed by Sheldon's ability to understand what his twins were expressing. I mean, when a twin is... communicating with someone, it's a very one on one sort of thing due to the large amount of information exchanged through eye contact. But Sheldon could interpret what his twins were telling me without the direct eye contact. I didn't attempt to hide my distrust for their motives, and they didn't try to explain them either. All they would express was that they could help restore Eric's perception, but would not or could not say he wouldn't have a relapse after they had gone. Candice was all for a quick fix, but it was Suzi who rationalized to me that if they could do something to help Eric, even just temporarily, maybe we could learn from what they did and apply it later, perhaps by our own twins. When Suzi contacted Joey so he could talk this over with Eric, Joey opened a more formal link with both of us to hear what Eric was saying. ".. looked at them, they looked normal... like you, Joey. And looking in their eyes made me feel... safe, I guess. But then it all kind of clicked in my head. I _know_ what they can do to me, and that scared me enough to close my eyes. I think you're the only person I can trust right now..." Between Sheldon's impatience to leave and thus taking his twins with him, Candice's insistence, and my own memories of what it was like to have the vision of the damned, I had Joey convince Eric it was his best chance to end his nightmarish condition. I wasn't at all comfortable with the arrangement, but I guess I was just hoping for the best. Suzi and I watched through Joey's eyes as Eric's whitened expression relaxed and then blanked within thirty seconds of looking into the two cocoa brown twins eyes. Once Eric was completely under their control, Suzi, Candice and I entered the room while Joey finished getting undressed and assumed the position beside Eric on the floor. Eric and I both had refused to allow Joey to be the so called "blank", especially when the twins refused to explain why it had to be Joey instead of someone else. I had been prepared to be the blank myself, mostly because I felt I could resist anything they might attempt to do to me within the empathic wash. But again Suzi pointed out to me that Joey had also been able to resist the twin's brainwashing once, and I would be the only one who could monitor what was going on and possibly stop the whole thing if something went foul. Joey was nervous as hell as the twin knelt down to mount his waiting rod of flesh. I almost stopped it before it could even begin when the thought we might lose both of them entered my mind from the nervous glance Joey gave Suzi just before his focus became centered on the twin's empathic call. I'll say this for those twins... They were all business. Not five minutes went by before Eric convulsed with a terrified scream and blacked out, then the twins dismounted the pair of them and left without a single orgasm being shot. Joey was a little dazed, but he shook it off and even complained, "That's it?" "Looks like it," I said, looking him in the eyes and empathetically probing him for a moment. His eyes went a bit unfocused from my probe, but I couldn't sense anything different about him. Well, besides his deep commitment to Suzi that is. "Is he okay?" Suzi said worriedly beside me once I closed the empathic link and Joey blinked. "He's all yours, Suz. Literally." "All yours," Joey echoed in agreement, his eyes going unfocused again as he looked into Suzi's probing gaze. I think Suzi kissed him, but I was a bit busy feeling Eric out at the time so I'm not entirely sure what Suzi did to bring him out of his daze. "Well, did it work?" Joey asked before reaching for his shorts to put back on. "I think so," I said with a sigh. "But I can't really tell with him being unconscious. I guess we won't know for sure until tomorrow." "I wish we weren't leaving tomorrow," Suzi said, brushing a few strands of Eric's damp hair off his forehead. "I've been thinking about that. Depending on how Eric feels tomorrow, I think the best thing might be to take him with us. It's either that or bring Joy and Honey here..." "Then bring them here," Candice said while carefully sliding Eric's underpants up his legs. "I can't leave now, and I'm not about to let him go anywhere without me." We watched Candice as she carefully picked up Eric's deflated monster with two fingers and tucked in under the elastic band of his underpants, then wiped her fingers off before noticing the looks on our faces. "What?" she said while turning a bit pink. "He pees with it!" "Let's just wait until tomorrow to see what happens before deciding who goes to England and who stays," I said firmly before helping Candice put his shorts and shirt on. "Right now the best place for Eric is home in bed." "He can stay here. His parents won't care." "His parents will care once they know what happened," I said patiently. "Don't," Candice said with an unsteady voice. "Don't tell them? Why not?" I said with false surprise. "You know what I mean," she said with increasing hostility. "You're going turn them against me. I won't let you do that." "I have this understanding with my mom and dad that I've been applying with you and your dad. As long as you don't interfere with my affairs or mettle with my friends, I won't interfere with your affairs or your friends. But Eric's mom and dad are MY friends. When I needed Eric's help and wanted..." I wasn't prepared for Candice's telepathic attack on my mind at that instant, but I blocked her commands just in time with reflexes I hadn't realized I had, then just reached through her barrier and disabled her attack without even a pause in what I was saying. "... to take him away with me for several months, Eric's mom and dad trusted me enough to allow it because I was straight with them and I hadn't altered their perspective when I could have. If you had met Eric first, then I probably wouldn't even be here right now. But I met him first, so you knew anything you did to him or to his family I might just undo later if and when I found out." I did pause at that point because Candice's eyes were so wide that for a moment I thought her eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets. It would have been amusing if the color hadn't also left her face. So to take the edge off her shock, I handed her a sock and started putting the other one on, then said, "I'll try and explain why you did what you did, but from now on the only way you'll get their trust is by earning it." I had finished putting the shoe on the foot I had socked, and seeing she still had his other sock in her hand, I gently slipped it out of her fingers and finished getting Eric dressed. Candice remained on her knees staring at Eric for a few minutes before finally sniffling and saying, "Take him home then," then stood up and walked out. "Shit," I sighed after letting out a deep breath. "Serves her right for meddling with innocent peoples minds," Suzi said. "Seems like she's a bit innocent herself," Joey said. "Her? How can you say..." Suzi began. "He pees with it," Joey said while imitating Candice's use of her fingers as a pair of tongs. "It's either innocence or..." "Or programming," I finished for him. "The question is, whose programming?" "What do you mean, whose?" Suzi asked in surprise. "Her daddy's, who else?" "Or Candice's," I simply said as I slipped on Eric's body and had him stand up, Suzi jumping in surprise. "Shit, you startled me," Suzi said after a gasp, then a moment later she raised one of her eyebrows, frighteningly similar to Joey's Mr. Spock imitation, and asked with a grin, "Timmy... Can I try that?" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I pulled up in front of Eric's house and shut off the Toyoda's engine and lights before studying the dwelling a few moments. I ended up studying Eric's reflection peacefully sleeping against the window I had been peering through longer than the two story brick house. "Is that a little stubble?" I said softly with amusement as I reached over and ran my hand over the millimeter high hairs on his chin and left cheek. I caressed every inch of his sixteen and a half year old face until I got teary eyed and had to use the same hand to get rid of the evidence on my cheeks. "Who knew a thirteen year old cock sucker would break so many hearts," I sighed. "I knew," I had Eric say before I had us both get out and walk around to the back door. While the downstairs was dark, I was pleased to find everyone still up. Jodie, Eric's thirteen year old little sister, laid on her bed writing in her diary while listening on her 'broken' speakerphone to Karen's private conversation with her boyfriend. I did a quick scan of their minds for commands, and only found one that very effectively blocked any memory of Eric having been gay. I put a few of my own commands in before canceling Candice's, mine having the same affect as hers but would dissolve once they were asleep. Eric's parents mind's had similar commands, but because they had been more involved with Eric's coping of his previous losses, there were a significant number of commands I had to dig out of their heads, especially his dad's. Once I had put Eric to bed and cleaned up their minds, I headed for the master bedroom. I paused a few moments while taking a couple of deep breaths to steady my nerves, then knocked on the door and manipulated their senses so they believed they heard Eric's voice. "Mom... Dad... Tim's here, and he needs to talk to you." "I don't know a Tim, do you?" Eric's mom whispered to her husband. "May I come in?" I said through the door while altering my decaying memory blocks so they would decay a little faster. "Eric, have your friend come back tomorrow. We're already in bed," Steve said. "Eric's in bed asleep, Spanky," I said. I heard his feet hit the floor before his symbols drew closer to the door. "What did you call me?" he said while opening the door partway, then after a brief pause he frowned and said "Have we met?" "I was one of Eric's friends before you moved," I prompted. He blinked a few times in rapid succession, then said, "Weren't you in an accident?" "Kind of," I said, unconsciously shuffling my feet. "Who is it?" Eric's mother said. "Now Mary, don't get up," Steve said, turning away from the door and walking towards the bed. "Whoa, you're pregnant," I said with sincere surprise when I got a look at Mary struggling to sit up. "I've noticed," she said with a strained voice as she reversed her attempt to get out of bed and allowed Steve to help her lay flat again. "It's nice to see you're okay, er, Tim, but as you can see it would be better if you came back tomorrow," Steve insisted. "Wait Steve..." Mary said while staring at my face. "You're close to being due," I said, having been feeling her body out ever since I saw her enlarged abdomen. I felt the little monster's kick from across the room, and it made me forget all about the situation at hand. I walked right up to her with this fascinated/amused look on my face saying, "Wow, she's got a lot of oomph in her. Does she always kick with both feet?" "Kick?" Steve said with confusion just as the unborn Roberts sibling kicked again. "Whoa, that was... Cool," I said pleasantly surprised, then looked up at Mary's incredulous expression and asked, "Did Eric kick like that?" "You... You felt that..." Mary said with astonishment. "Uhh... Yeah, sorta. Uhm... I didn't mean to uhm... invade your privacy like that..." I said while turning red and backing off. Steve startled me by grasping my left shoulder and turning me around towards him, but I sensed no hostility and managed to control my instinct to jump away. He only studied my face a couple of moments, then he looked in the direction of Eric's room with concern. "Eric's asleep," I said when Steve started walking towards the door. "I don't think it'd be a good idea to wake him up." Steve took hold of the door handle and opened the door the rest of the way, but then after a moment's hesitation he slowly reversed his action and finally clicked the door shut, then leaned against it as more blocks broke free in his mind. "I remember asking you..." Mary said distantly. "Asking me?" I said while sitting down on the edge of a chair filled with their bed spread. "Yes," she said, looking over at her husband and saying, "I wasn't sure how you felt about having another baby, and he... Steve... What's going on?" "I don't know," he said while wearily coming over to the bed and sitting down. "How could I forget... How could I forget..." My unintentional sigh drew both their attentions towards me, and as they struggled to piece together their reemerging memories to construct the obvious questions, I formed a partial two way between themselves and their unborn child. Steve's gasp and Mary's "Oh my god..." was the only thing they said for the next five minutes as they experienced the sightless yet very comforting life in the womb. Steve was nearly in tears as he caressed Mary's exposed abdomen, and they both were silent for some time after I had slowly decreased and finally cut the sensory streams I was feeding to their brains. "Thank you," Mary said while reaching down to stroke her husband's head now resting on top her swollen tummy. "That was... precious." "It was the least I could do," I said with some guilt in my voice. "Why?" Steve said while raising his head to look me in the eyes. "You didn't have anything to do with this, did you?" "No, but... I can't help but feel I could have done something sooner. Or... something." Steve put his face in his hands, then carefully rolled onto his back as the last few blocks broke and spun his mind around in circles. "Is Eric okay? What did she do to him?" Mary asked, struggling to get up again. I immediately went to her side putting an arm behind her shoulders and taking a hand, then overrode her control of her body to make her lay back down while saying, "Candice did what she thought was best. She tried to take what she thought was the cause of Eric's pain away. Anything she did to you was just to keep things... er, sane I guess is the best word. And I hate to say it, but for the most part it worked. At least until I showed up." "I said he was acting strange," Mary said with some agitation. "If I ever see that little... bitch," Steve said with growing anger. "I've literally been ignoring everything that Eric..." He sat up with a snap and scrambled off the bed saying, "Something is wrong with him. I can feel it." "Just don't wake him up," I said desperately, seeing they weren't going to be happy until they saw Eric with their own yes. I helped Mary get out of bed then walked down the hall with her to Eric's room, finding Steve laying behind his son, holding him in almost a lover's embrace. After explaining what had happened earlier that night, they were only that much more confused since they didn't know the details of what happened leading up to it all. So after helping Mary sit down in the chair at Eric's desk, I leaned up against his dresser and began verbalizing what I had been piecing together all night in my head. "When Eric and I came back from Southeast State, my dad's adopted twin daughters, Joy and Honey, convinced me to talk Eric into letting them... empathetically seed him. It's a different kind of control than what Candice used, and in this case the idea was to try and condition Eric to be able to resist that kind of control if he needed to. Or at least that's what they told me. "We're still not sure how much Joy and Honey had to do with my supposed death. All I know is the man who kidnapped me used the controls the twins had placed in Eric to blank his mind when they must have grabbed me, then probably used another set of twins to implant the memories of the crash in his head. "Their control is all based on emotions. The memories Eric has of my death, the images, the sounds, everything, were all generated by his own mind while the twins inflicted on him the emotions that went with them. To Eric it was all very real. Too real, in fact. That's why when I came back, he emotionally couldn't accept that I was alive and was constantly struggling to deny my existence. "When Candice blocked his memories of his sexuality, it blocked out a lot more than just his past boyfriends and the heartache that went with them. It created a hole in the twins' emotional controls. Well, maybe not a hole. More like an imbalance. He still emotionally denied my existence, but many of the memories that went with the emotions were blocked. He started to search for other reasons to deny who I was, one being the concept I was bi which he had no... sympathy for any more. "I'd like to think somewhere deep inside him he's been fighting all this, and maybe that's what caused him to seek me out tonight. But when I removed Candice's memory blocks and controls, then helped make him fully accept who I was, it was too much for him. His emotions were so stretched and bent out of shape, his mind went super sensitive to the emotions people broadcast in their body language. Hopefully what Candice's Grandfather's twins did to him tonight restored his emotional balance to somewhat a more normal level. But we won't know how much until he wakes up tomorrow." "He's been through so much," Mary said sadly. "It was such a relief when he started acting happy again that I didn't want to think something else was wrong." "We didn't have the choice," Steve growled as softly as he could. "Ever since I met Tim I've feared something like this happening. Someone altering us. Altering Eric..." Just as he had done several times while I had been talking, Steve gave his son another loving kiss on his cheek from behind. He had always been very protective of his son, but now there was a strong sense of possessiveness riding on top of the wide range of emotions he was transmitting. Love, desire, tenderness, lust, sorrow... The next kiss was more of a wet smooch, but despite Steve's longing to relive some of his bittersweet memories sharing a bed with his brother, his love for his son overruled the other emotions at play, and he carefully untangled himself to get up. I was offered a couch for the night which I gratefully accepted. Joey and Suzi had gotten us a room at a motel for the night, but I wanted to be there when Eric woke up just in case he needed me. I think I was asleep before my head reached the pillow, and I'm pretty sure I didn't move an inch all night I was so tired. Man was I stiff getting up off the floor. Of course that might have been partially due to having jumped horizontally off the couch when Jodie let out a high pitched scream from seeing a stranger sleeping on her couch. I had just gotten Jodie to calm down when Steve shouted, "Eric! Wait!" and I turned to find Eric slamming on his brakes and his face turning pale at the sight of me. It was obvious it was too soon for him see me, so I did the only thing I could think of. I dived over the back of the couch to get out of sight, braining myself good on one of the metal frog statues they had behind it. "Are you okay? Why'd you do that?" Jodie said a minute later, hanging over the back of the couch above me. "Ughn," I groaned as I checked my poor head for holes and cracks. I laid there a good minute trying to rub away the pain in the side of my skull, then laid still a while listening to Eric nervously talking to his mom and dad about what had happened the night before. His side of the story was a little different than mine, but not significantly so. Okay, so it bugged me a little that Eric believed Joey had taken charge of the whole situation, defending Eric when he was scared out of his wits and stuff like that. "I remember you," Jodie said after staring down at me from the back of the couch a while. "You and Eric were... Uhm..." Her smirk didn't quite go with her embarrassed red cheeks, and it didn't stop her from turning around and saying to Eric, "How come he slept on the couch and not in your bed last night?" "Jodie, why don't you go help Karen make breakfast like you're supposed to," Mary said with an increasingly strained voice. "Mom, you okay?" Jodie asked concerned. "I..." she grunted followed by a lot of sudden movement. "Oh God, not now..." she gasped out. I sat up and looked over the couch, finding Mary sitting on the floor with her legs spread strange with Steve, Jodie, and Eric all trying to talk to her at the same time, all asking the same question differently. Suzi once told me that when I'm hurt, confused, or otherwise emotionally distressed, my eyes seem to attract other people's attention. I guess that's why with all the commotion going on around her while she struggled to control the already fading contractions, Mary noticed me looking over the back of the couch and stared back with this slightly panicked expression on her face. I instinctively formed an empathic connection to calm her, then felt her out to ascertain her condition. I hadn't had any experience with women _going_ into labor, so the sensations I was getting back from her were new and unfamiliar to me. She was hoping it was just another false alarm. The empathic link broke the moment I felt Eric's eyes on me, and it was really hard not to look him back in the eyes before taking cover again. As the family followed their well rehearsed plan for the trip to the hospital, I could feel Eric's unsteadiness, his uncertainty... His instability growing. I was in the middle of relaying what had happened that morning to Joey and Suzi when Eric sat down on the couch and said shakily, "Is Joey coming over?" "Do you want him to?" I asked carefully. "I think I'll need him... I don't feel... right." "He's on his way," I said as Joey scrambled out of bed, almost knocking Suzi on the floor in his wake. "Eric? Are you coming?" Karen exclaimed after flying down the stairs from having gone up to her room to change into some street clothes. "I don't think I can," he said honestly after everyone else in the house had stopped what they were doing to hear his response. "Are you sure," Steve said with urgency, torn between the two immediate problems. "Joey's on his way," was all Eric could say as the females filed out to the van. "It could be just another false alarm," Steve said from the door. "But if it isn't... I'll call. Just..." "Go dad... I'll be all right." "I love you son," he said with emotion before slamming the door behind him. "Tim?" "Yeah Eric?" "I felt something from my dad..." "What?" I said, looking over the couch at the top of his head. "What do you mean, you felt something?" "I felt how he bad he wanted to stay... I could feel everything he was feeling... Am... am I..." "Empathic?" I said while searching my senses for an answer. "Yeah." "I don't know," I said after a long pause. "Is Joey almost here?" "About another ten minutes," I estimated out loud. "Good," he said with relief, then looked up at me and said, "Sorry." "Sorry? For what?" "About Joey. I don't know why, but I just feel better with him around." His eyes met mine a moment, and I could feel him pulling me in... "Eric, stop," I said, turning away. "I couldn't help it," he said shakily. "Oh God... It's starting to happen again." "Close your eyes and hum," I said firmly while taking cover behind the couch again. "Hum as loud as you can, and try focusing everything on your humming. Feel your humming, hear your humming, Don't let anything else in but your humming. It used to help me when I felt it starting to get worse." He hesitated before trying it, but after gently humming in a single breath, he took a really deep breath and hummed really loud. Eric hummed so long and so hard he was making himself dizzy, but it didn't slow him down at all when we heard the car pull up outside. He was opening the front door before I could even call out to tell him they were there. "Hi," Eric said cheerfully to Joey as he strolled up the walk. "Hi Eric. You feeling better?" Joey said cautiously. "Now that you're here," Eric said with a sigh. Joey gave me a questioning look, but all I did was shrug before going back to the kitchen to finish eating my bowl of wheaties. The phone rang almost immediately after I had sat back down, but I didn't get up since Eric had already yelled he'd get it. I did end up having to get on the phone though. Mary was in labor, but it didn't look like it was going to be a fast birth despite this being her fourth child. I had to explain that our flight to Washington DC was scheduled for noon, but Eric nearly broke down with the thought of Joey leaving. Over the next hour, Eric's emotional state kept bouncing from chirpy enthusiastic to pitifully depressed and back. And one time when Joey left to go to the bathroom, Eric became so nervous and uncomfortable, he ended up waiting outside the bathroom door talking to Joey as he finished taking his dump. And to make matters worse, I couldn't go into the room with Eric without his eyes locking onto mine and we'd start drawing each other into an empathic link. I was very tempted to let it happen, but after what happened the previous night, I was afraid it would backfire and push him over the edge again. So I stayed in the kitchen for the most part, spending a good portion of the morning trying to get our tickets changed for later that week without much success. Noon came and went, and finally after Eric's sixth depressive mood had passed, his emotions seemed to level out a bit for a while. By that time I was convinced I needed the twin's help to fix his unstable emotions, and despite having rescheduled our flight for that evening, I couldn't get a return flight any sooner than our scheduled flight two weeks later. I had planned to go to England by myself to get the twins and bring them back with me, but no matter what strings I tried to pull, I couldn't arrange it. I don't care what they say. Trying to manipulate a stranger's mind on the other side of the ocean is pretty damn impossible even when you have them on the phone. I was slowly banging my head against the kitchen table after trying yet another airline without success when Suzi came and wrapped her arms around me for a hug. "How's Eric?" I asked after relaxing in her firm hold from behind. "Asleep. He passed out with his head on Joey's lap watching TV about twenty minutes ago. I think it was that last cry that did it. Have you found anything yet?" "Nope," I sighed as she let go and started massaging my shoulders. "I can get there, but I can't get a flight back before mid June. Mmmmmm..." "Timmy, can't you do it yourself?" "What, you mean... do what the twins did?" "Well, it isn't like you two haven't..." I turned around and looked her in the eyes and said, "If I thought I could do it, them maybe I'd consider it. But I don't know how. The twin's have always guided me when I did anything like that. Without their fine control, I'd just make things a whole lot worse." "Oh," she said with more than just disappointment. "What's wrong?" I said, catching her arm before she could turn to walk away. "It's just... How do you know you can trust them?" "Who, the twins?" "Yes. You've said it yourself you're not sure how involved they were in your kidnapping. What if they play along just long enough to get you under some sort of..." "Sheldon's twins couldn't control me, so I doubt Joy and Honey can. It's a risk I'm willing to take to help fix Eric. Besides... That's why I need you and Joey..." "But we were going to stay here while you went to get the twins, remember?" "Yeah, you're right," I sighed, letting her arm go and watching her butt as she checked out the fridge. "It would be simpler to just take him with us." She turned around with a thoughtful look on her face, then said, "Well, why couldn't we?" "I'll tell you why. Steve would never go for it, and I doubt Eric could handle being in such close quarters with so many people. Did I ever tell you about my first day at college?" "I think so. You had a severe claustrophobic attack or something." "Yeah. Pretty much." "But maybe being with Joey... You know I still don't get that. Why Joey?" "Yeah, why me?" Joey said coming into the kitchen and heading for the fridge. "What are you doing in here? Get back in there in case he wakes up," Suzi hissed. When Joey complied without a hesitation or complaint, Suzi and I just looked at each other with the same conclusion. "I still don't get it though," Suzi said after going back to the fridge and looking for something for Joey to eat. "If that's the reason, why that?" "The twins," I suddenly realized. "That has to be it. When I first met Honey and Joy, anything my dad said they did without hesitation or argument. They were completely dependant on my dad to decide what they should do. Gladius must have had his twins implant this deep trust for that trait into Eric in case something went wrong. He must have thought no one but his girls would have that kind of loyalty to another person. Looks like he was wrong." "I'll be right back," Suzi said softly as she rushed out of the kitchen. A minute later, Joey walked in with a bewildered look on his face. "What's wrong?" I said with a grin big enough that Joey could probably see my molars. "Women. They're so unpredictable," he said with a shrug while opening the fridge door. "Man, I'm starved. I haven't even had breakfast, you know." "You know, maybe you shouldn't take Suzi's requests so literal," I said while getting up to get him a plate and glass. "When she told you to stay in the living room with him, she didn't mean you couldn't have breakfast. We thought you weren't hungry because you didn't ask for anything." "Yeah, well, I just didn't think about it. It isn't important anyway," he said as he started putting a huge sandwich together. He was just putting the finishing touches on his sandwich when we heard Eric ask, "Where's Joey? He didn't leave, did he?" "I'm here," Joey said, putting down the knife full of dressing and walking out empty handed. I finished putting his sandwich together, then placed it and his drink on the kitchen table before slipping through the dining room and announcing Joey's sandwich was on the table. A little while later, Steve and Jodie came home, Steve using Jodie's karate lesson as an excuse to come back and check on Eric. When Steve asked about our trip plans, I said, "I'll leave tonight and bring the twins back with me somehow, Suzi and Joey can stay here." "You're not going by yourself," Suzi said firmly. "I'll go with you, Joey can stay." "But you won't be able to defend yourself," Joey said to Suzi with concern. "I should go with you too." "Then I'm going too," Eric said with anxiety. "No," Suzi, Steve and I all said. "Why not?" Eric said with a sound of stubbornness in his voice. "That would be the fastest way." "Your mother is having a baby, Eric," Steve said firmly. "I don't want her worried about where you are and what's happening to you while she's trying to recover from giving birth. And I don't want to be either." "But what if I get worse and Tim can't get back in time?" "Eric, remember how you felt what your dad was feeling when he left and how upset it made you feel?" I said gently. "Think what it would be like to be in an airplane for seven or eight hours with a couple hundred people around you. Sensing every little sound, every little movement anyone makes..." "But I'll be with Joey," Eric insisted. "And you could always lock me up in a toilet... Or knock me out. That would work, wouldn't it? If you made me sleep through the trip?" "Uhh, yeah, I guess so," I said hesitantly. "Dad, I need to go with them. I can't just let Tim and Suzi go by themselves without Joey to protect them. It would just be safer for me to go with them, and if I get worse, then I'm that much closer to getting help." "Eric, it feels like I just got you back," Steve said emotionally. "I can't let you go without me, and I can't leave with your mo..." I stood up with a start when I realized Steve and Eric were looking in each other's eyes, but I didn't intervene out of the fear it might be too great of a shock to Eric if I did. My heart was pounding as father and son joined their lips together and gave each other a deep french kiss, making Suzi also get up and say, "Oh Timmy... Do something!" "Like what?" I said as Steve reached up to get a firm hold of Eric's head to steady it as they raped each other's mouths. "Should we pull them apart?" Joey offered, changing his position next to Eric in preparation to take hold. "I don't know!" I whimpered as I tried my best to comprehend what I was sensing from them. "Eric's tapped into Steve's mixed feelings for him and his dead uncle, and they've both been swept away by it! But breaking them apart might cause Eric to go over the edge again..." "And this won't?" Suzi yelled. The next moment we heard a loud SMOCK like sound, and my jaw nearly fell off from the realization that Steve had pushed Eric's head away and was holding him back. "Take him," he gasped, and once Joey got a hold of him, Steve scrambled to his feet and dazedly made his way to the door. He leaned heavily on the door handle after opening it, then paused and said between gasps of air, "Do what you have to, but you bring him back to me when you've done all you can do, no matter what his condition is! In the CAR Jodie! NOW!" And that as they say was that. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 3 - Love's Slavery [Told by Joey] (mf) It must have been some turbulence that woke me from a disturbing dream, and for a moment I felt disorientated and confused to where I was. But when I opened my eyes, the urgent feelings I had from the dream I already had forgotten left as I turned to make sure Suzi was still safe beside. I tried to adjust my position to help ease the intense stiffness in my back without disturbing her, holding my breath when she stirred, but then smiled when she place more weight against my upper arm that she was using for pillow. I must have sat there for a half an hour watching her sleep while ignoring my aching back. The peace I felt with myself was completely... Complete. Only Suzi mattered to me. Only Suzi. ::but what about Tim?:: My back was becoming unbearable, but I refused to move in case it awoke her prematurely. I tried to form the commands to block the discomfort, but without my share link with Tim, I couldn't hold the pattern together long enough to complete the sequence. I bit my tongue after letting out my sigh of frustration, but to my relief Suzi didn't stir. I sensed a probing pair of eyes looking at Suzi and I immediately put up every defense I could muster and prepared to protect her at all costs. But when my eyes connected with the fourteen year old girl sitting across the isle and she turned her head blushing just a bit, I relaxed slightly while thinking to myself, "I feel so defenseless. I wish Tim had come back with us." ::why did I leave without him?:: I distracted myself from the stray thought by studying the girl who kept taking quick glimpses back at us to see if I was still watching her. I looked away so she could do so in peace, but then noticed I could see her in the window's reflection. The girl was actually more interested in me than Suzi, so I let her stare for as long as she liked without concerning myself with her invasion of my privacy. The jerk in the seat behind Suzi woke her up by putting his tray up, and I was ready to go beat the shit out of him when Suzi's hands reached behind my neck and used me as a human handle while she stretched. It just makes me feel so good to know she would use me like that. She was finally accepting my self-enslavement to her, but she still wasn't entirely used to just demanding what she liked from me without asking me first. "Joey, would you rub my back a little?" she asked while making her back accessible. "Yes ma'am," I instantly said, jumping at the chance to do something for her. "I must have been sleeping crooked," she said with relief after I began my rubbing. "My back is all stiff." My own back made a point of reminding me it too was feeling rather stiff, but all I said was, "Must be the seats." "MMmmmm.. Must be," she purred. I rubbed for a good ten minutes before she thanked me, then thanked me again with a brief but wet kiss. My cock stirred knowing what that kind of kiss meant. I wondered where she was planning on doing it, for we were only about an hour away from landing and then we'd be with our families for the rest of the night, not to mention the whole week. "Can I have my purse?" Suzi asked sweetly. I lifted my arms up so she could take it off my lap, then felt a little exposed with the lump in my shorts having been uncovered while she rummaged through her purse. "Good. I still have a few," she said to herself, putting her keys and wallet back in her purse and zipping it back up. "I need your help with something," she said seriously while taking my hand and standing up. She led me back to the toilets, then while no one was looking, she pulled us both into one of the little rooms and shut the door. "Hi stud," she said before closing her mouth over mine and inserted her tongue. I returned her tonguing with my own, then found her hand slipping into my shorts and pulling out my hard dick. She broke away and asked with a husky voice, "Want some head, stud?" "I want whatever you want, my mistress," I cooed. She hesitated a moment and asked, "So you don't care whether I do some of this..." She knelt down as best she could and gently swirled her tongue around the rim of my cock's head before giving the shaft a few licks up and down. "... or not?" she finished and looked up. I swallowed hard before reaching down and lifting her up to my face and saying, "I feel the pleasure just as I always have, but all that really matters to me is doing what you want and making you feel good. But don't get me wrong. Your tongue is like a hundred blow jobs, your lips are better than a thousand virgin cunts impaling me. But it's your pleasure I want, not mine." She melted in my arms and we ended up cuddling a few minutes before Suzi wrapped her hand around my limp cock and said, "I want you hard and ready." "Yes ma'am," I said with enthusiasm as my cock instantly replied on its own. She grinned evilly while stroking my cock a few times, then said with beautiful sparkles in her eyes, "Now you can't make any sounds that would let people know what we're doing in here." "Yes mistress," I said with confidence. "And whatever you do... Don't cum until I say," she said getting down on her knees. "Yes ma'am," I said without the confidence I had a moment ago. Shit, I knew I was in for a rough ride. Suzi has this cruel streak in her that she lets show once in a while, and I could tell by the way she slowly sucked the precum out of my dick's red lips that her cruel streak was positively glowing right then. Now I'm not a moaner like Tim is during sex, but I guess do have the tendency to verbalize my pleasure in words, usually rather loud words. Suzi slowly ate my cock millimeter by millimeter, and usually the frustration would have broke me somewhere in the first three minutes. But I was pretty damn busy biting my tongue to stay quiet all while watching her lips creep up my dick further and further. When my cock's head reached the back of her mouth, she rested a moment, then pulled back, then pushed forward, then back and forward a few more times. I thought she was giving me a break when it seemed she was falling into a rhythm, so I wasn't prepared when she suddenly took a deep breath and thrust her mouth forward harder, my cock's head entering her throat with a gasp escaping my lips. Fuck, was I in serious peril. She went full out, using her throat muscles on my penis's most sensitive pleasure points, her tongue squirming like mad along my throbbing shaft, and then her left hand started sliding down my crack, looking for my hole to tease and probe. My toes were curled up into balls, my parted legs and outstretched arms shaking with the strain of trying to keep myself from falling over, and then when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I felt myself start to shiver from the orgasm already in progress. I couldn't stop it. I was horrified that I failed her so totally, so completely. I lost my balance, my butt landing on the toilet seat, causing Suzi's finger to go so deep inside that her fingernail clipped my prostate. At that point I convulsed in a white blinding flash of pleasure, my teeth drew blood from the effort to hold in my cry as my testicles emptied their contents into the vacuum attached to my dick. I started crying when I came to my senses, making Suzi look up in surprise and ask, "What's wrong?" "I failed you," I blurted out. "I couldn't stop it." "Oh Joey," she said, reaching up to grasp me behind the neck with both hands, then thought better of it and quickly washed them off at the sink. "You did exactly what I wanted you to do." "I did?" I croaked with confusion. "Of course you did," she said while unzipping her purse and pulling out a condom still in its wrapper. "I wanted to see if I could make you cum against your will. Don't you see? It just proves you can't resist me." "But," I started to argue as she slipped the condom over my cock and then slipped her shorts and panties off. "I never asked for your enslavement. I tried to accept it because you wanted it so badly, remember? But now I understand it enough to enjoy it the way you want me to, and I think I'm ready to fully accept your... gift. "So..." she growled as her cunt slid down my pole and came to a rest. "Do you Joey Theodore Conner abandon your free will to serve mine?" "Yes," I said without any doubt in my soul. "Do you swear to hold no grudges, no ill feelings of any kind for anyone who I may give attention to?" "Yes. I swear on the blood running through my veins." "Do you vow to protect me, watch over me, pleasure me, and above all, love me for as long as we are together?" "I solemnly vow all this and more." "Then for this moment on, you will not concern yourself with always blindly following my orders to the letter, but instead be the intelligent, forward thinking, self motivated lover I desire the most from you, and you always give yourself to me completely whenever we make love." "Yes mistress," I said with all my soul. After signing the contract with a heavy kiss, I proceeded to carry out my new objectives by standing up with her still impaled on my cock, turning us around, setting her butt down on top of the toilet's reservoir then pinning her up against the curved exterior wall and fuck her as hard as I could. We got an assortment of different looks from the other passengers as we made our way back to our seats. There were some who were obviously discussed with us, while many were simply amused and other slightly envious. But none of their looks bothered me in the least, for I no longer had any pride or modesty to feel. I had given it all to Suzi to guide and care for. But when I sat down and noticed that girl across the isle looking at us with fascination, I couldn't help but nod my head, grin at her, and then wink, which she hesitantly did like wise to me a second later. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Whenever we came home from a family vacation, my dad would always say there's no rest for a weary traveler while we unloaded the car and unpacked. After stepping over the empty boxes waiting outside my bedroom door the next morning, "There's no rest for a weary traveler," was the first words out of my mouth when I strolled out to the kitchen and gave my mom a hug from behind. "Don't expect any sympathy from me," my mom snorted. "If you think you can go traipsing off to England leaving your poor mother who's never even been to a foreign country and expect her to pack up your shit up for you when you get back, you're full of shit." "Shit, ma," I said before giving her a healthy kiss on the cheek. "You missed me that much?" "Of course I did," she said, with a smile. "But not as much as your father. You should have heard him cussing you out for not being here to help with the packing all week." "Heh, I think I can still hear it bouncing around the walls," I said sitting down and taking the rather bare kitchen in. "When does the van get here?" "Noon, so you better get off your ass and start packing your shit up if you don't want it left behind." Not one to argue with logic, I stole a finger full of blueberry biscuit dough she was mixing up before going back to my room, carrying the boxes in with me to start filling. It was strange. The whole time I was sorting through the years of junk I had collected and deciding what to keep and what to throw out, not once did I think about why Tim hadn't come back with us, or even recall his promise to help me pack before we had left on our trip. Another thing which later struck me odd was how content I had been packing up to leave the house which I had lived in all my life. I did everything but cry when I helped Tim and Samantha move out of the house just down the street. And I always tried to avoid looking at their old house because to me it was still their house, not the Hussain's who moved in after them. I admit I was excited about moving to Kenton County and being around my sister and Tommy, and the house we were moving into was a lot nicer than my childhood home. Shit, like having a private bath all to myself excited me. But come to think of it, that's pretty weird too since the past twelve years I had been the only one to use the bathroom that Sarah and I shared when I was little. After the moving van and my parents left around four in the afternoon, I sat in the middle of my furnitureless room finishing packing up a few things left in my closet. I had to go pee, but I was trying to hold it off long enough to finish, but finally gave in and got up to go take a leak. When I came back from the bathroom, I got caught up in the memory of the time Tim and I had wallpapered my room when we were eleven. The Mustang wallpaper had faded a bit making some of the cherry red convertibles look more like hot pink. At first it was a little eerie remembering the argument we had about me getting a Mustang when I got my license, but then I noticed one strip had curled up at the base where my bed had been and I had this overwhelming urge to peel that piece off the wall and take it with me to frame. "Shit.... Fuck!" I cursed when the tiny piece tore. "Damnit Tim. Why the fuck did we have to add Elmer's glue to the paste!" I tried a couple of other strips with similar results, then nearly kicked myself for not remembering we had hid the scraps in the ceiling of the basement in my safe. So I went downstairs and went over to the laundry area which was the only part of the basement that had been finished. "Shit, I can't believe I almost forgot to empty out the safe," I said to myself as I struggled to reach up into the joists above the laundry room's wall and searched for the homemade combination lock. Tim and I had build it out of wood, paperclips, and the UHF knob off our old black and white TV set which was long gone by then. The lock wouldn't have actually kept anyone out, but it was still our secret safe, and if you were careful not to twist the knob off, it actually did act as a lock. Sort of. I couldn't feel the lock anywhere, and just a glance around the empty basement told me there wasn't anything to stand on so I could climb up and see. So I pulled myself up as best I could and found the reason why I hadn't found the knob. "So much for Tim's 200 year guarantee on his tape job holding up the door," I chucked to myself as I pulled out the flattened safe's door, frame and all, and put it on the step to go up. I felt a knot in my throat when I pulled the ancient paper grocery bag out as I recalled what else was in there. Somewhere in the scraps of wallpaper was the very first centerfold Tim and I had ever seen. Tim had found it folded up in a library book, and to an eleven year old, it was like finding a gold coin in your pocket of change. Also inside the bag was the Barbie doll Tim and I had stolen from the girl down the street because it had looked a lot like the girl in the centerfold. I remembered us spending hours on end drawing nipples on the doll with pencils trying to match the girl's picture. You just try drawing perfect circles on curved hard plastic and see how easy it is, wise ass. The Barbie and the centerfold had been in the 'safe' because they had been something we wanted to hide from everyone, and the wallpaper was just a perfect cover for them. But there was one item I had valued so much that I had put it in the bag and into the safe six years previous. But my Hot Wheels classic 1968 cherry red Mustang convertible with doors that opened and a trunk that didn't want to stay shut wasn't in the bag. After trying to see into the darkness of what remained of my childhood safe, I carried my valuables upstairs and out to my real cherry red Mustang convertible wondering if Tim had taken my favorite toy when I had my back turned. I didn't really care about the toy itself any more. I just had to know whether or not Tim had betrayed me all that time ago. So I dumped the contents of my glove compartment to get the flashlight I had in there, borrowed a stepstool from my neighbor, then went back downstairs thinking, "I bet that's why Tim didn't come back with us. He didn't want to be here in case I emptied my safe." But sure enough, when I shone my flashlight down the dusty hole, there was my little car turned upside down against one of the joists making up the wall of my safe. "Shit," I said feeling guilty as hell. "Maybe I should leave you up here to punish myself.... Nah... I'll just give it to Tim when he gets back." After taking the rest of my stuff out to my overflowing car and returned the stepstool, I locked the door to the only house I'd ever called home, then walked away with slowing steps before turning around and taking one last long look. I sighed and wiped away a rebelling tear before turning to get in my car saying out loud, "Damnit Tim... You should have been here." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ One week later, I was busily straightening my new room in preparation for Suzi's first visit. We had still been taking things out of boxes that morning, and my dad and I still hadn't gotten around to setting up the garage with our tools. But for the most part we were pretty much moved in, and I couldn't wait to try out my new shower with Suz. Before I left my room, I grabbed the colorful plaid hat I had found in my suitcase from our trip and hung it on the corner of my dresser's mirror, then gave my newly framed patch of Mustang wallpaper a friendly pat, grinning at the thought that I had probably patted the centerfold hidden behind it right on the tits. Shit, I could barely contain myself when Suzi's parent's car slowly came around the corner and finally pulled into our driveway. "Hi," Suzi chirped when she hopped out of the Lincoln Continental and leapt up to pop me a kiss. I caught her before she fell away and explained how much I had missed her with my lips. "Joey... Stop," She mewed after I had worked my lips to where her left shoulder and neck met. I gave her one last kiss on her now bare shoulder before easing her to the ground and helping her straighten her shirt, blushing along with her. My mom and dad had come out and greetings had already been exchanged, so we all headed into the house, Jason bringing up the rear. Suzi, Jason and I went around with the rest for the grand tour, but got off when we got to my room, Jason not immediately taking the hint we wanted to be alone until Suzi suggested he go make sure their dad hadn't left the car's lights on. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face as she slowly closed my bedroom door and then asked with her teasing voice, "Did you miss your mistress Joey?" "Ever hour of everyday," I said sitting down on the edge of my bed while anticipating she was about to do something, like maybe leap on me. But instead, she slowly walked around the room inspecting every little detail, then noticed the hat on my mirror and broke out of her teasing mood saying, "Eric's hat. Why do you have it?" "That's Eric's?" I said surprised. "I thought you bought it for me and snuck it into my suitcase or something." "No I..." she said with a confused look spread across her face. But then she shrugged, put it on her head with it tilted slightly, and turned towards me with her cheeks sucked in saying, "Do I luke like a European model?" "More like a goldfish with a funny hat," I joked. "Oh you," she said, tossing the hat in my face, then knocked me on my back while I was distracted and plastered herself on top of me. "Joey," Suzi began after we had traded all of our spit with each other. "I think I'm addicted." "Addicted? To what?" I asked while aiding her to remove my shirt. "To having you at my beck and call," she said breathlessly as she started sucking on my chest. "All I've thought about," she said while working her way down my chest to my stomach, "this past week, is how I can, make this hard, with a simple word. I've been fucking wet ever since we fucked in the plane." "Oh shit, Suz..." I moaned as she swallowed my cock and started to swallowing over and over. She brought me off so hard and quick, I was still in la la land when she mounted me and told me to fuck her brains out, but not to cum inside her. Without a condom on, I understood this wasn't a test, or at least one we couldn't afford I fail. But really, it wasn't that difficult to do. I had already cum, and I had cum really hard. So I guess between that and my desire to pleasure her for as long as I could, I was able to keep my cock as hard as she wanted while I banged her seven or eight times at different speeds without getting the urge to spurt my seed. By the time she called it quits, we were both exhausted, covered with our sweat and other juices, and I was feeling the strain on my balls from holding back so long. She was laying on top of me as usual with my dick still inside her cunt on the verge of falling asleep. But when my cock gave up and started to soften, she stirred, then looked up and said, "Stay hard for me a little longer." It wasn't a request. It was an order. An order that sent a shiver down my entire body and resulted in my fulfilling it without needing to consciously try. Unfortunately, at that moment Tommy burst into the room making airplane noises with Richie on his back, then froze when he saw us. I squawked "GET OUT!" then barely got a glance of Richie's face breaking out in a grin as Tommy panicked and fled. "Maybe we better get dressed," Suzi said after leaping off me and shutting the door. "Shit. Shit. I can't believe Tommy saw us like that. He's too damn young to..." "Oh come on, Joey," Suzi said while wiggling into her panties and shorts. "Surely he's seen your sister or his dad..." "No he hasn't. They've been really careful about keeping all of that stuff away from him. Sarah's gonna explode when she finds out," I moaned as I finished dressing by putting on my shirt. After Suzi straightened her hair, she left while I straightened up my bed. But when I turned to leave, I nearly jumped out of my sandals from Richie standing in the middle of my room watching me. "Uh, hey, Richie," I managed to say while he broke out in a grin. "Hi," he said before darting out of the room giggling. "Weird kid," I sighed to myself, then followed him out to face the heat. I was surprised when Sarah gave me a warm hug hello, but I played it cool like nothing had happened seeing she didn't have a clue at what had gone on. Samantha was in the kitchen with my mom, while Charles, Frank, and my dad were outside sitting on the porch, probably listening to my dad's landscaping plans for the back yard. "Stan and Gina couldn't come?" I said to Sarah while trying to figure out where Suzi and her mom had gone. "Stan wouldn't come after finding out how mom feels about him," she said sounding slightly exasperated. "And Gina's new boyfriend works tonight and she had to make sure nobody touches him." "Touches him?" "He's a male stripper." "Ahhh..." "RRROOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!" Tommy screamed from the front entry hall as he chased Richie in from outdoors. He's gonna eat me!" Richie yelled excitedly as his one year old feet ran as fast as they could towards the kitchen. "Tommy! I told you to take it out doors!" Sarah yelled when Tommy picked Richie up and made loud eating noises while Richie screamed and giggled some more. Richie screamed in joy before yelling, "Mommy! Mommy! I'm be-en eaten'! Help me mommy! Help me!" "Tommy! Did you hear me?" Sarah yelled over the frantic giggles as my mom and Samantha appeared at the doorway watching the two boys' fun. "Oh Sarah... Let 'em be. They're not hurting anything," my mom said. "Mo-ooooo-mmy!" Richie screamed from on his back while Tommy took a break from ticking him and gave him a wet raspberry. "I'll save you Richie!" I cried as I grabbed Tommy, tossed him up in the air a few times (high ceiling in there), flipping him upside down in the process and finally giving _him_ a really loud and wet raspberry. "Do me! Do me!" Richie yelled after I swung Tommy around a bit and tossed him onto the couch. "No sir," my mom objected. "Outside if you're going to roughhouse like that!" "What?! If Tommy does it, that's okay? But if I do it..." I objected to her objection. "Tommy wasn't tossing Richie around like a football," my mom huffed and went back to tending her kitchen. "Mommy, make me a foa-ball?" Richie asked Samantha. "Do you want to be a football?" Tommy asked while getting off the couch and leaping towards Richie. "No!" Richie shouted in amongst giggles as he rushed to his mother's legs for protection. I started to follow Richie and Tommy into the kitchen, but stopped when I heard Sarah sigh unhappily to herself. "What's the matter, sis?" I said sitting down next to her on the couch. "You and Stan still not getting along?" "Who say's we're not getting along?" Sarah said defensively. "Mom," I said after grimacing over my big mouth. "She's had the feeling you and Stan haven't..." Sarah cut me off by standing up and calling into the kitchen, "Tommy, you better not be pestering Richie in there." "He's being good," my mom yelled back. "Leave the poor boy alone, Sarah!" "Yes, mother," Sarah said between her teeth, walking towards the French doors leading to the back patio. I walked up behind her, put a sympathetic arm over her shoulders and said, "I'm told I'm good at keeping secrets." "You?" Sarah said with amusement. "I remember when you used to peek at your Christmas presents, you would announce what they were before you opened them Christmas morning." "Shit, Sarah. I was just a little kid," I said turning red. "But I never told anyone about that dirty joke you told me." "What dirty joke?" she asked with a frown. "The one about the teacher and the stick... You know... Deeper, deeper!" "I told you that? When?" "Sometime before you left for college. I didn't understand it at the time, but I always remembered it." "So you never told anyone the joke? Not even that Tim?" "Okay, I've told others the joke, but I never told anyone who it was that told it to me." Sarah had been staring at the trees on the edge of our yard without as much as blinking, but then chucked and looked at me saying, "It wasn't very funny of a joke, was it?" "Nope," I said with a chuckle of my own. "But you know, until you said so, I always thought it was just too beyond me to understand the funny part." Sarah looked down a moment while her smile sagged, then glanced up and said, "I'm sorry I wasn't around to explain it." Not knowing what to say, I hugged my big sister, then picked her up and attempted to toss her up in the air like I had done Tommy. "Shit Joey!" she laughed after I nearly dropped her. "Don't try that again." "Aw... You used to do it to me all the time," I said before checking to see if she had any ticklish spots. I didn't have any luck until I tried under her arms, then I straddled her so she couldn't get away and started to take out my revenge for all the those times she had tickled me silly when I was little. "Joey! Stop!" she suddenly screamed with panic. "What? What? Did I hurt you? I wasn't..." "Get off me," she gasped with urgency, then after I complied she laid real still carefully feeling her abdomen with her hands. "Sarah," I whined with anxiety. "What's wrong? Does it hurt or what?" I could see in her eyes she was afraid to tell me, but yet she was afraid not to at the same time. "Tell me, or I'll get mom and then you'll have to tell her," I threatened. Sarah let out a long sigh, then after carefully sitting up, she whispered shakily to me, "I'm pregnant, but I don't think it's Stan's." There was a commotion out on the porch at that instant that distracted me a moment from the shock of her words, and while we watched Charles coughing and gasping for air from apparently swallowing some of his ice tea the wrong way, I suddenly understood what had panicked her a minute ago. "Is it okay?" I said, looking down at her tummy and lightly touching it with my right hand. "I think so. I felt a pinch when you were tickling me, but nothing else since." "Could it be Stan's?" I said after a long pause. "It's possible, but... unlikely," she said unhappily. "Mom was right about us not getting along. Ever since Denise undid my enslavement to him, he hasn't... I mean I haven't... (sigh) all we do is argue. If it wasn't for Tommy, we'd have gone our separate ways by now." "What do you argue about?" I asked, daring to probe deeper at the risk of her shutting up. "Everything. But the biggest is he still expects me to program his girls for him. I was willing to give up my men and try to do it like mom and dad, but Stan... He wouldn't even listen to me when I was trying to talk to him about it. So I guess I tried to make him jealous by taking on a few... lovers." "I take it didn't work?" "If anything, it made things worse," she sighed miserably. "I'm nearly three months pregnant. I'm not going to be able to hide it much longer, but I don't know what to tell him or anyone else why I've not said anything to anyone... You're the only person besides Gina who knows." "Gina knows? Weren't you afraid she'd tell her brother or something?" "Gina would never betray me like that," she said, looking me in the eyes to make sure I understood the true meaning of her words. "I won't tell anyone, but shit Sarah... I think you should at least tell mom." "Mom is the LAST person that should know. She might not like Stan, but she'd never understand why I could be carrying another man's..." Samantha interrupted us by coming out and announcing, "Dinner's about ready. Could you tell the boys outside to come in and wash up?" "Yes ma'am," I responded instantly. "Thank you dear," Sam said turning around and going back to the kitchen. Before I could open the door to do so, Sarah put a hand on my shoulder and made me look at her before saying, "Until I'm ready, you can't tell anyone. Not even Suzi. Understand?" I felt like she was ripping my heart out with that bit about Suzi, but I saw if I didn't keep my word Sarah would never trust me again. "Okay," I sighed while my heart sank. "I won't tell Suz even if she begs me." Then I opened the door and yelled with frustration, "DAD! DINNER!" "Shit, Joey! You don't have to fucken' yell!" dad said while I held the door open for them. "Daddy Daddy!" Richie cried as he came toddling out from the kitchen with his hands in the air. "Mommy says wash me!" "Tommy, go wash your hands too," Sarah called into the kitchen. "But I've already eaten," Tommy complained, indicating Richie with a wicked grin. Sarah called him over and said, "Let me see how full you are," before leaning over and giving him a raspberry on his stuck out tummy. Then to my surprise, she lifted him up and carried him out following Charles and Richie to the bathroom saying, "I better wash my baby's hands myself to make sure they get clean." "Aren't Jason and the others back yet?" Frank asked me as I washed my hands at the kitchen sink after him. "Not that I know of. Where'd they go anyway?" "Jason needed to stop by the fraternity to pick up his return application from someone, so Suzi and their mother went with him to keep him out of trouble. It was supposed to be just a quick trip there and back." "Want me to find out where they are?" I asked. "I thought you needed Tim for stuff like that?" Frank said a little uncomfortably. "I could ask Sam to let me link with her long enough to feel Suz out," I explained. "Well, I..." he said before pausing, then let a grin spread across his face before saying, "That won't be necessary. They just pulled into the street." "How could you know that?" I asked as he walked towards the dinning room entrance. "Don't believe me? Go look and see for yourself," he said as Tommy carried Richie on his back into the dinning room making horse noises. I was just about to open the front door when Suzi burst in and said to me, "Sorry... Are you waiting on us to start eating?" "You're just in time," I said as her mom and finally Jason came through the door. "How'd your dad know you were on the street?" "He must have heard the brakes," Jason explained while taking off his shoes so he wouldn't dirty the new carpet. "Dad says he can hear them squeaking, but as far as I know nobody else ever hears them." I went with them to the bathroom to wash their hands, Suzi letting her mother and brother go first before letting me wash her hands for her. "So what did Sarah say?" Suzi asked me once we were alone. "What.. What do you mean what did she say?" I said as my stomach took a nose dive. "About Tommy seeing us... Is something wrong?" she asked with concern. "She didn't find out about it, and I think Tommy already forgot it happened," I said while drying her hands with the hand towel. Suz took the towel from me and hung it up before looping her hands behind my neck and saying, "So what did she say that upset you?" My heart started racing as I struggled to settle my conflicting loyalties, and finally I just said, "I swore to Sarah I wouldn't tell anyone, but I'll tell you if..." She put her finger over my lips to shush me, then returned her hand behind my neck and lifted herself up to give me a kiss on the lips. "I love you, Suz," I said with relief while hugging her as tightly as I dared. "I love you too," she gasped out, then when I released her from my hug, she said, "Carry me to my seat, my love slave." "Yes ma'am." "There you are," my mom said a bit annoyed when I carried Suzi into the dining room. "Now where's Sarah?" "And Charles," Frank pointed out while giving my dad a rather alarmed look. "They'll be right in," Samantha assured us after apparently having telepathically checked on them. "What were they doing?" my dad said getting up from his chair. "Who daddy?" Sarah said while giving dad a hug from behind. "You and uh... Charles." "We were just... talking," Charles said as he sat down beside Sam. "What about?" my dad asked as he and Sarah also sat down. "Oh, just little things," Sarah said beside me with a smile, her hand finding mine and giving it a squeeze. "Like?" I asked. "Well..." Sarah said slowly. "Things like marriage... telepathy... and the things that go with them." A single green pea went flying across the table and landed in Tommy's mashed potatoes, and as Richie giggled his triumph at his accomplishment, Tommy excitedly asked, "Could someone pass me the peas?" "Here honey," Sarah said absent mindedly as she complied with his request. "I know everyone has problems in their marriage, but recently mine has been... especially difficult." "Sarah, maybe we should talk about his after dinner," my mom said with a sound of tension in her voice. "Oh... I'm sorry," Sarah said to Suzi's parents. "I was forgetting..." "Tommy..." my mom said warningly as Tommy loaded his spoon with a few carefully selected peas. Tommy sighed and said, "But he fired the first shot..." before popping the spoonful of peas into his mouth. Frank and Betty exchanged glances before Frank cleared his throat as if to say something, but then he let Betty speak instead. "We don't mean to pry into other peoples affairs, but... Well, with Joey sharing his and Tim's... abilities with Suzi, and Jason being... involved with your activities at the university, we feel a bit... unprepared to handle what's to come. We can understand it if you don't want to talk about it in front of strangers, but Margaret and Tom are not the only parents with these kind of problems." "Then... (sigh) This isn't exactly the way I imagined on telling you," Sarah said a bit nervously to mom and dad. "But..." I held my breath as she turned to Tommy and asked, "Tommy, how would you like a little brother or sister?" "Yeah!" Tommy exclaimed. "A little brother, mom! I want one like Richie!" "Sarah, are you..." my mom asked. "Eleven weeks pregnant, give or take a week," Sarah said as she turned to look over at Charles and nod. "The reason Sarah hasn't told anyone before is because she doesn't think it's her husband's baby," Charles explained while pouring gravy over his mashed potatoes and roast beef. "There are at least seven other possible fathers, all which are more likely to be the father. This happens a lot with married voices, and even more with unmarried voices. Hmmm... Come to think about it, it even happened to me once." "But if it hadn't, we all wouldn't be here now, would we?" Samantha added. "Do you consider Tim to be a mistake?" Sarah asked as everyone else in the room tried to recover from their shock, including me. "Yes, dear. Do you?" Samantha asked while stopping Richie from another attempt to throw another pea at Tommy. "Back then if I had known, I definitely would have called it a mistake, and I probably would have done everything in my power to abort the pregnancy. But by the time I did find out about it, I felt differently, and as you can see I liked being a daddy so much I had another." "You say it like you did all the work," Sam scolded while struggling to get Richie to take his last spoonful of ammunition into his mouth. "Well, it _was_ harder for me. You've done all this before, I haven't," Charles said before stuffing a big forkful of potatoes into his mouth. Sam threw up her hands and shook her head with a shrug before getting a glint in her eye and handing Richie a pea off her plate. "Daddy..." Richie called. "Hmmm?" Charles said turning towards him. "Here," Richie said while tossing the pea at his face. To our surprise he caught it in his mouth and said, "Thanks son," before turning around and continuing his meal. "Sarah, you're not thinking about... ending the pregnancy, are you?" mom asked. "I don't want to, no. But," she said before choking up and covering her face with her hands. I put an arm around her and said softly, "It's okay, Sarah. We'll help figure something out." "You don't understand," Sarah said, uncovering her face just in time to see a spoonful of peas flying across the table and hitting Sam and my mom. "Opps," Tommy said while shrinking down in his seat. "TOMMY!" Sarah screamed, standing up, seizing him and then dragging him out of the room in a rage. "Sarah, it was my fault for encouraging Richie..." Samantha cried as the first blow to Tommy's butt was heard. My mom rushed into the kitchen, then as she started yelling at Sarah to stop, my dad and I got up to go back her up. But by the time we got there, Tommy was trying to wiggle out from between Sarah and my mom as Sarah started bawling into my mom's shoulder. The only person who spoke during her brief but intense shower of tears was Tommy saying "Mommy, I'm sorry," after pulling his britches back up over his reddening butt cheeks. "Oh Tommy," Sarah gasped as she let go of my mom and hugged him. "I'm the one whose sorry." "See Tommy, when woman has a baby inside her, she has these mood swings..." my dad stuttered out. "Tom, hush. Don't confuse him any more than he already is," my mom said while standing up. "You two go back to the table and finish your dinner." "... if you would help discipline your son a little more," Sam finished saying as I sat down at the table. "I wasn't the one who had him throw the pea at me," Charles replied. "If I hadn't had all that practice catching grapes all those years..." "Daddy... peas?" Richie said while stretching forward in his highchair towards the bowl. "No more peas, Richie," Charles snapped. "Here, try some potatoes," he added while stuffing a huge spoon of his mashed potatoes into the little boy's mouth. Richie's eyes bulged as his mouth closed against his will, then the moment Charles released his control, Richie immediately started pushing the excess out of his mouth as his eyes started filling with the impending tantrum of tears. "Charles!" Sam yelled while trying to capture the potatoes with her fork before Richie could send them flying. "You could have choked him!" "Not likely," he said as Richie finally was able to scream. "Well you're the one who insisted we come," Suzi's dad suddenly objected. "I was just saying maybe we should go... Just so the Conner's can take care of their family matters without worrying about us." "What about all that stuff about Jason and Suzi? We can learn from the others, you said." "Well we can," Betty replied with agitation. "But of course you're to afraid to.." "To what?" Frank said, throwing his napkin on his empty plate and turning towards his wife. "You know what?" Jason said loudly to Suzi and I above the two sets of arguments and a howling one year old. "What?" Suzi replied. "If this is what it's like, remind me never to get married." "Yeah, really," Suzi said as everyone but Richie shut up. "Here, let me take him so you can finish your dinner," Charles said gently to Samantha while reaching for Richie a minute later. "I'm fine, thank you," Sam said sharply, but then handed him over anyway when Richie held his arms out to his dad. I suddenly noticed Tommy standing beside his chair, and I said, "Hey Tommy. You gonna sit down or stand there all day?" He silently slinked into his chair, then softly said to Samantha, "I'm sorry for hitting you with those peas." "That's alright, dear. I know you didn't mean to hit me," Samantha said. "And I'm sorry for making you all argue," he said unhappily. A chorus of "No"s and jumbled explanations immediately followed, all which just resulted in Tommy saying, "Well, I'm sorry anyways." Richie had settled down on Charles' shoulder while sucking his thumb, but then looked up and said loudly, "Tommy, I wanna eat you." "You do?" Tommy said, lightening up. "Roooaaaaarrrr!" Richie said squirming to get off Charles lap. "But I can't leave the table. Mommy said.." "Go ahead," Sarah said meekly. "That is if Richie can play." "Daddy, let go!" Richie complained very clearly and precisely, or at least it was for a one year old. "Might as well. We won't have any peace if we don't," Samantha said when Charles looked at her. "Be careful. He's still just a baby," Sarah said, giving Tommy a kiss on the cheek. "I know, I know..." Tommy moaned as he got up off his chair and started to jog in place. "Come on Richie... I'm running away from ya!" "You okay?" I asked Sarah as she sat back down with a sigh. "No, not really. But I'm ready to talk if you all still want to hear it." "Apart from the meal, this is sort of what we came here for," Frank admitted. "To talk." "It's hard for me to separate what I really feel for Stan and what's left over from me being his..." "Slave, Sarah. There's no other word for it," Charles prompted. Sarah let out a quick sigh then said, "He used to be like a god to me. Just being near him excited me like I've never felt with anyone else. When I would get upset because I thought my family was dead, Stan would hold me and tell me it was all right, sometimes spending hours with me to try and make me feel better." "Sounds like he had a guilty conscience to me," my mom snorted. "He probably did, especially since he had lost his mom and dad too. He knew what it felt like, and more than once he cried with me. But Stan spent a lot of miserable hours with me when he didn't have to. I guess that's why I still have feelings for him." "If he was such a compassionate man, then why did he let you go through all that pain in the first place. It sounds like he knew very well what you'd go through, but he went ahead and made you believe your family was dead anyway," Frank pointed out. "I can't begin to explain their reasons for what they did to me or my family, simply because I don't know. Yes Denise and Stan did a horrible and selfish thing, but then they became my family, and I became a part of theirs... "And then... I was the one who broke the taboo of me having sex with Stan, I was the one who purposely let myself get pregnant with Tommy, _I_ asked Stan to marry _me_, and..." "You didn't..." my mom gasped. All Sarah did was nod, causing my mom to moan, "Oh Sarah... How could you do such a thing?" "What?" my dad and I asked when neither of them elaborated any further. "It wasn't accident," Sarah said emotionally. "You mean," Betty gasped. "I fucked all those men with the intention of becoming pregnant so I could... Shit, I don't know any more what I thought it would get me! But now I do know I've ruined my life... and Tommy's..." "Nonsense," Charles objected. "If this had happened between Sam and I, I would have understood it was her last resort at trying to patch things up between us. Of course I wouldn't have rested until all seven men were... never allowed to bare children again, but I would have accepted her back and cared for the child as if it was my own." "All I ever wanted was to have what my mom and dad have," Sarah sighed. "What do we have?" my dad asked. "Tom?" my mom said with shock. "I know what we have. I want to hear what she thinks we have," Tom explained. "I don't know," Sarah said looking my dad in the eyes a moment, then glancing towards Suzi's parents and saying, "They have it too." "But what do they have?" Samantha asked with a puzzled look after not being included in the category. "Whatever it is that keeps them together even after the sex and love gets old and the magic is all gone." "Well now I don't feel so insulted," Charles smirked. "The day sex with Sam gets old is the day I curl up and die." "Echm, excuse me a moment," Samantha said before slipping under the table. "Samantha!" my mom yelled with disgust when we heard the sound of a zipper being undone. Charles just sat back with a smile widening on his face, and finally said, "So what were we talking about?" "Sam!" my mom said between her teeth while looking under the table. "You're making a bad example for the children... Oh my..." "Shit, Margaret," my dad said after she continued to stare. "Now who's setting a bad example?" "I just... Shit. I've never seen it done so..." she said before closing her mouth, sitting back down, then fan herself while Frank and Jason tried to steal a peek. "Getting back to Sarah's question," Betty said after slapping both Frank and Jason on the backs of their heads. "What question?" I said shivering while Suzi's hand found its way into my lap. "About what mom and dad have that Stan and I don't," Sarah said, looking at me critically. "What's the matter? You cold?" "Cold? No, I'm not cold," I said as Suzi's finger simply tapped on my dick a few times and triggered an all out hard on. "Every hair on your arm is standing straight up," Sarah pointed out. "Maybe a little cold then," I said as I felt her hand leave my lap and I wiped the few still forming beads of sweat off my forehead in relief. "Raising two children may have a lot to do with it," Betty offered after giving Suzi a displeased look. "But we're raising Tommy together," Sarah sighed. "Shit," my dad gasped after nonchalantly looking under the table a moment. "Isn't she great?" Charles proudly asked my dad. "Uh, yeah..." my dad said, turning red in the cheeks while Jason and Frank both looked. "Why doesn't she just do it on the table so everyone can see!?!" Sarah spat. "Sorry," Frank said, sitting up. "Holy shit. Now that's how to give ARRGHHH" Jason cried as his mother pulled him upright by his hair. "Sam, your idea isn't working," Charles said. "Her idea?" Suzi repeated. "Just a moment," Charles gasped as he and the table shook a few moments, then he went limp with an "Ahhhh." A few moments later, there was decisive zipper sound, followed by Sam climbing back up on her chair and let out a relaxed sigh. "I can't believe you did that," mom said with annoyance. "In my fucking new house, in my fucking new dining room." A flash of inspiration struck me right then, and I blurted out, "That's what's different!" After a round of whats, I said, "Mom, dad, when you got married, you both decided you would only have sex with each other, and never really strayed from that. Same thing with Suzi's mom and dad. But with Sam and Charles, it's different. They have sex with others like they always have had." "I already know all that," Sarah said exasperatedly. "That's why I wanted to change what Stan and I have to what mom and dad have." "Oh," I said while my blush traveled down into my legs. "What idea?" Suzi asked Samantha. "Maybe now isn't best time to..." Samantha began. "No, I'd like to hear what your idea was," Sarah said offensively. "Sarah," I whimpered. "It's okay, Joey," Samantha said. "Sarah, you enjoy the sex you have with your slaves." "Is that a question?" Sarah asked defensively. "No, and I wasn't finished. You've explored as many of the fetishes and different styles as you care to, taken the virginities from countless innocent boys, and have received all the pleasures an experienced man can give a woman. You're reached a point where one man's cock resembles another, and you simply can't find the excitement in it all any more. You miss the pleasure, the excitement, the thrill of it all, and it leaves you feeling lonely, empty, even used." When Samantha didn't continue, my mom exclaimed, "That's supposed to help her feel better?" "No, Margaret. It's supposed to make her think. When I was released from Charles' enslavement, I didn't have anything or anyone besides a few million dollars that I couldn't keep. I had embraced the advantages and power my abilities had given me for three years, and it was a very hard lesson to learn how to live without using them at all. "But the thing I missed the most those first few years was the sex. My naivity coupled with my already overactive sex drive resulted in my aspiring to be the most sexual creature on the planet, and before I was released, Charles forced me to complete the conditioning I had developed to make my body the most sexually pleasurable to not just myself, but to the men I had sex with. "So after attaining the thing I had desired most, I had to resist experiencing the results for fourteen years. But after the first few years, I realized that there was something else missing besides the sex. Despite all the boys and men I had bedded in my young life, the only one I continually thought of was Charles. It took me a long time to realize I had fallen in love with him that went beyond anything sexual." "Well I'm glad everything worked out for you, but I don't see how this relates to me," Sarah said smugly. "Bottom line it, Sam," Charles simply said. "The bottom line is... Well this won't make any sense unless I finish..." "The bottom line is," Charles interrupted her. "Enslave the bastard for a year and force him to live like you want, then let him go and see what sticks." "Sarah can't do that!" my mom shrieked while other comments were expressed opposing the validity of their idea. But Sarah was quiet. Too quiet. Like it had opened up a whole a new realm of possibilities which she hadn't considered. I guess I stared at her so hard that my eyes were starting to burn her skin, for she suddenly looked at me with a start, and then I suddenly was sensing her thoughts. "Sorry," I managed to say as I killed the unintentional link. But Sarah didn't seem to care for her eyes were glowing with all sorts of new ideas forming inside her head. Suddenly Sarah snapped out of it and said, "Mom, can Tommy stay here tonight? I need to talk to Wally and I can't take Tommy over there." "Wally?" I repeated, then understood he was the perfect person to talk it over with. As Sarah, my mom and my dad argued over that, Suzi whispered, "Who was Wally again?" "He's the guy who helped Tim and I find Sarah without actually helping us," I said, then when she shook her head I added, "The really gay voice." "Oh... Oh yeah... That Wally." "You mean Richardson?" Jason suddenly exclaimed after Suzi whispered something to him. "Yes, Wally Richardson," Sarah said, tuning my mom out and focusing her attention on Jason. "I remember you now... You were one of Gina's pets, weren't you?" "Uh, yes, mistress," Jason said meekly. "He's nobody's pet now," Betty said while standing up and placing her hands on his shoulders somewhat protectively. "No of course not," Sarah said with slight smile. "Well, it was nice meeting you all." She didn't wait for any like replies, and I had the feeling everyone was glad to not have had to make the effort. "Well..." My mom sighed as she sat down wearily. "My daughter is off to plot her enslavement of her husband.... Anyone want desert?" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Even though there was plenty of chit chat the rest of the evening, there was this tension in the air that made everyone watch what they said, and even think to some extent. After Samantha and Charles took a few cracks at trying to loosen everyone up so they would just talk freely, they decided to leave, hoping to take the tension with them. "I'm starting to regret moving out here," my mom sighed once they were gone. "Now Marge.." my dad said with compassion. "We knew Sarah wasn't the perfect little angel." "No, but... I'm not sure if I want to be around to see Joey following in her footsteps if that's where they lead." "Awe, mom..." I groaned. "Don't worry, Mrs. Conner. I won't let him," Suzi said smartly. "And who's going to stop you from following right along with them?" Betty said. "Don't look at me," Jason said when Suzi glanced at him for support. "Once I'm back in the frat house, I'll be too busy pumping up and studying to care about anything else." "Unless you become someone else's pet like last time," Frank pointed out sourly. "If I'm so lucky, yeah," Jason shrugged. "Jason, you really don't care that you'll be under the control of someone else, do you?" my dad asked. "I guess not. I mean, there's nothing really bad about what they do to you. I'm guaranteed good grades, a great body, and the parties... Whew! And the best part is every night I have the biggest orgasm after working my body as hard as it can go. I'm still me when its all said and done. Being a pet for one of them is just the icing of the cake." "He's right," I said when Jason's words didn't impress them in the least. "I know how scary it seems to you, but there are a lot worse things that could happen. Getting into the Eta's means no drugs, hardly ever any booze, no skimping on school work, and any sex that's mandatory you don't remember having once you're out. I've thought about it a lot, and having been through it myself, I think it's worth them using your body like that for what you get in return." "I guess you just can't appreciate something you haven't tried yourself," Betty sighed. "Was that a request?" Suzi teased her mother. "No!" she exclaimed slightly panicked, then said, "Suzi, don't ever joke about something like that again. I'm already a nervous wreck." "Well, I know one good reason why we can't leave," my dad said. "What's that?" my mom snapped. My dad pointed at Tommy who was curled up fast asleep in the corner of the couch next to my mom. "Damn you," my mom cussed softly. "You're right." Suzi and I took everyone's empty ice cream bowls back into the kitchen a while later, and after Suzi sat down at the kitchen table without having said a word besides a sigh, I sat down next to her and waited for her to speak first. "I wish parents didn't worry so much," she finally said. "It's their job. Besides, somebody has to do it." "Joey, do you think we're turning out like Sarah and Tim's parents more than our own?" "Maybe. But I doubt we'll turn out like any of them really. Probably a mix of some sort." "I think I'm turning out like Samantha," Suzi said sadly. "All week long I've been dreaming about all the sex I could have... And not just with you, but with some of those frat guys too." "If that's what you want, then that's what you'll have," I said honestly. "I think I've already passed that point that Sam talked about. I don't care about having sex with as many different people as I can any more. All I want is to be with you, to make you happy. If that means sharing you with a thousand guys, so be it. I'm positive you'll reach that point too, and then we'll be together forever. Just like our moms and dads." "That does make sense, in a perverted way," Suzi said, crawling onto my lap. "But before I start my quest to fuck every stud in the school, I want to make sure I've had my fill of this stud right here. Day after tomorrow, you and me... Road trip." "Road trip?" I said while she teased my ear with her tongue. "I have a few places I want to make love at." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Shit, I had thought those places would be romantic, maybe expensive, and most of all, private. But when we arrived at the mall two days later, I shivered when it hit me she meant to take her voyeurism to a new level. Suzi wasn't stupid. She knew what she was about to get us into would be dangerous, especially without me linked to someone in case of trouble. Yet the concept of having sex in a public place was so alluring, so stimulating to her, I couldn't object. We started really small at first. Making out in corners of shops, openly fondling each other's privates at random times, all while being very careful at doing it when nobody was looking. God it was hell. Exciting, but still hell to me. The object was to get away with as much as possible without anyone noticing. We had a few close calls, and several dirty or blank looks, but by dinnertime we had mastered the safe stuff, and Suzi was ready to go a little further. Suzi gave me head in the men's room, then I returned the favor in the women's, our fun being interrupted three times, but as far as we know nobody knew there was more than one person in the stalls we occupied. She masturbated me at the back of a bookstore, shooting my wad all over the romance novels before we rushed out with my zipper still undone. I sucked her tits from the center of one of the racks of blue jeans in the men's department, then from within a rack of short skirts we traded underwear, knowing full well our legs were totally exposed for anyone to see what we were doing if nothing else. After that rush went to her head, she started conjuring up all sorts of crazy and reckless things to do, all which I vetoed for the risk being too great to take. Our finishing act was by far the riskiest, yet wasn't too reckless for me to say no. We hid inside two separate racks of jeans and waited for over an hour for the mall to close and the place to empty out. After the lights were out and everything was quiet, I carefully slipped out and looked around real good before sounding the all clear. Damn her motor was really running. When she came out of her rack, she leapt up and gave me a super wet kiss before jumping back down and leading me out into the mall, naturally choosing the least concealing bench for our fuck. She was shaking like a leaf while I undressed her, but she also was wetter than I ever had seen her before, and I couldn't take my clothes off fast enough before burying my cock in that nectar filled cunt of hers. After our fuck in the middle of the mall, we snuck out and ran like hell. Over the next week, Suzi and I separately looked for summer jobs to help pass the time before we'd be together at Central State. Suzi found one first at a local drugstore, and I got a job the next day at a restaurant as a bus boy. Every morning since I came back from our trip, I woke up thinking I had to do something, something important, but I never remembered what it was. It didn't really bother me until I got a call from Samantha before leaving for work on my third day. "Hey, what's up?" "I forgot to ask you last week at the dinner about Eric. His parents have called here three times asking about him, but I can't get a hold of Tim at the Birmingham..." "Why are they calling you about Eric? Did he have another empathic attack?" "We don't know. Like I said, we can't get a hold of Tim to find anything out. Any idea where Tim would have taken Eric and the twins?" "Sam, Eric didn't go with us to England," I said slowly. "After we got to the airport, Eric decided he wanted to stay because his dad needed him. He said if he got worse, he'd call and then we'd figure something out." "Are you certain Eric didn't get on the plane with you?" "Positive. His seat would have been right next to mine." "Joey, no one has seen Eric since the morning you all left Atlanta. Are you sure Eric couldn't have somehow gotten on the plane without you noticing?" "As sure as I can be. But even if he had, why would he hide from us?" Samantha sighed, then said, "I don't know. The girl Candice has also been calling us to find out when Eric would be coming back ever since you and Suzi came home and Eric didn't. Now I really do need to talk to Tim. Any idea what his plans were?" "I uh... well, you see... When Tim said he was going to stay with the twins to help them remember their old selves, Suzi and I thought the twins had done something to him and sort of ganged up on him... He got really pissed and told us to go home, and wouldn't talk to us about what he was going to do. He was pretty moody from all what he was doing with the twins." "Joey, why didn't say something before? What if the twins have done something to him?" "I don't know..." I said as I struggled to retain the concern I was feeling. "I guess because it was Tim's decision, and Suzi didn't want to upset him any more than he already was about it. And Sam... He is all right. I just know he is." She sighed again, then said, "Maybe he is, but what about Eric? What do I tell his parents? (sigh) Is there anything Eric said or did before you left him that might have indicated what he was going to do?" I hesitated as I attempted to remember what Eric had said when he had decided not to go, but all I could recall were the jumbled emotions he had expressed about not leaving his dad, and told her so. When I got off the phone with Samantha, I called Suzi to tell her, but nobody was home and I didn't feel like leaving message on their answering machine. By the next time I did talk to Suzi, I had forgotten all about it. Sarah and Wally dropped Tommy off the following Friday before heading over to Stan's private palace to settle things. My mom was biting her lip to keep her tongue while they were there, but she managed to distract herself with Tommy after they left. After she put Tommy to bed, though, she was worried to the point of tears, and after an hour of hell, I told my dad I was going out and headed over to Stan's so called palace to find out the answers to my mom's worst fears. From the outside, Stan's 'palace' still looked like the old brick shoe factory it originally had been when they had bought the place. Even part of the ground floor on the inside had been left in its original condition just to mislead anyone who might wander in off the streets as to the true purpose of the building was. But beyond a particular door which was guarded around the clock by these huge mean looking security guards, the building resembled the palace which it's name implied. Beautiful women, expensive decorations and furniture, beautiful women... Heh. Well, I never did really look at the paintings and other shit. Anyway, having gone there several times my Junior year to enjoy the hospitality of my brother-in-law, I didn't have any problems with the guards letting me in. And even though I swear I didn't remember having seen any of the girls in there before, they all seemed to know who I was and did everything they could to tempt me to one of the many rooms designated for having sex. My mom's worries, and I guess my own too, kept my mind off of the temptations presented all around me. Even if that hadn't had done it, I still wouldn't have fucked any of them simply because Suzi hadn't wished me to. It took me a good twenty minutes to find Sarah, and when I did all of my mother's worries suddenly became justified. Sarah was on her knees as naked as the day she was born, sucking Stan's cock like it was the candy of the gods, while Stan just stood there with his eyes closed softly moaning in pleasure. My shock turned to rage, and just as I was about to run up to the bastard and strangle him with my own two hands, Wally said from the corner, "Sarah, you have a visitor..." Sarah slowly pulled her mouth off Stan's rigid cock before kissing her way up his chest while standing up. When she turned around with this satisfied smile on her face, I exploded, "Sarah! WHat the FUCK is going on!?" "Oh Joey!" Sarah exclaimed with happiness while Stan began suck his way down her neck to her left shoulder. "It's the best of both worlds... I'm his, and he's mine." She then turned around and met his eager lips with her own, then they both slowly lowered themselves to the padded ground and slurped on each other's faces for a while. "Wally? What does she mean?" I said confused as Stan obediently moved to suck on her left nipple at her request. "Did she enslave him, or is it the other way around?" "Both, and neither," Wally said with a sigh. "Stanley wouldn't agree to being Sarah's slave, making the excuse that your mother had turned her against him and she wouldn't let him go after getting her so called revenge. I got rather impatient with them after they started arguing again..." "You? Got impatient?" "I have very little patience when it comes to people not getting along, especially when it's their own stubbornness at the cause of it all. So when I couldn't take it any more, I stepped between them and suggested that if Stanley wouldn't be Sarah's slave alone, then what if I enslaved Sarah to Stanley also." "And he went for that?!" I said while Sarah's moans grew stronger from Stan's mouth on her... swelled breasts due to her pregnancy. "You could say he agreed to a test period, which just ended," Wall said, having increasing his volume so they would hear as well. Sarah's moans immediately decreased in volume, then Stan slowed his sucking down until he finally rolled off her, panting for breath. Sarah rolled onto her side and propped her head up with her arm and watched Stan with a calculating gaze as he regained his breath. "Shit, Sarah..." Stan finally said when he looked at her. "Well?" she said with a touch of anger in her voice. "Well what?" he snapped back. "I got to think about, damn it. You can't expect me to agree to something like this without giving it some thought!" "At least I'm giving you the choice!" she huffed nastily, sitting up. "What is that supposed to mean?!" he said defensively, also sitting up. "Don't start that again!" Sarah snarled. "Here we go again," sighed Wally. On an urge, I stepped forward and knelt down between them, but before I could say anything, Sarah yelled, "Stay out this, Joey!" "I came here to find out what's going on so my mom could stop having her crying fits. Normally she does a lot of screaming and yelling in between, but she can't without waking Tommy, so she just cries twice as hard. And do you know why she's crying? I'll tell you why. Because her grandson blames himself for his parents arguing all the time." "What?" Sarah gasped. "That's impossible. We don't argue around him," Stan said unconvincingly. "That's because he doesn't let you know he's there. "Tommy walked in on Suzi and I after having sex that day we had our open house. It bugged me that he never asked me about it, and I don't think he's gone in my room since. So after Sarah dropped Tommy off today, I managed to link with him and found the reason he ran out so fast was because he thought Suzi and I were about to start arguing. "All this time you two thought you had been keeping this shit away from Tommy, but guess what? Not only does he know what goes on behind your bedroom door every night, he suppresses it because how much it upsets him. Maybe if you two stopped being so God damn selfish and started thinking about others for once in your life, you wouldn't be so unhappy. Or at least maybe the people who care about you wouldn't be." I was shaking from emotion as I waited for their response, then when they apparently renewed their arguing telepathically, I got up on my feet with a huff of disgust and said to Wally, "Good night, Wally. I hope you don't go out of your way for these..." "Joey... Wait," Sarah called from the floor. "We're just..." "Fuck it Sarah," Stan said angrily. "You know we can't get along unless at least one of us is the slave. I'll agree on one condition." "What?" Sarah said, bracing herself for the blow. "We test to see who the real father is, and if it's not me, you abort it and..." "Absolutely NOT!" Sarah yelled. "Then the deal is OFF!" "STOP!" Wally screamed, getting up and walking over to Sarah "It's a deal, and NOT ANOTHER WORD!" "But Wally, I'm NOT going to..." Sarah said aggressively. "You can't force her to give..." I said at the same time. "The baby IS Stanley's," Wally explained. "Sarah, you had me alter your mind after you first became pregnant to think otherwise to try and shake Stanley up, but I've had enough of this! Sarah, lower your barrier." "How do I know you're not just making her believe it's mine and it isn't?" Stan said as Wally concentrated on Sarah's mind. "Have the child tested once it's born if it matters so much to you," Wally said. "But I'm not making this up. I have never lied to you before, Stanley. Mislead perhaps, but never outright lied." "It's true, Stan," Sarah said apologetically. "After I confirmed I was pregnant, I tried to tell you, but you... we got into another argument and I was so mad at you afterwards I went to Wally and talked him into it. I'm sorry. I've been miserable ever since, I've made my parents miserable, and if Tommy..." "Okay, all right, I believe you," Stan said frustrated. "Sarah, break your link with Wally and link with me so he can go home." "But you can't do me after I..." "Then don't. I've been so damn selfish about what I thought I lost when Denise freed you, I didn't see what I was losing since then. I surrender myself to being your... plaything. I just don't want anyone else around when it happens, okay?" "Well Sarah? Do I leave?" Wally asked after no one said anything for a minute or two. "No, not yet." "Fuck Sarah," Stanley groaned, laying down and rubbing his face out of frustration. "Even when I give you what you want, you have to argue about it?" Sarah looked up at Wally to make sure he wasn't going to leave, so Wally went back to his corner and sat down, then patted the spot beside him while looking at me. I glanced at Sarah to make sure it was okay, then took Wally up on his offer. Once I was settled, I found Sarah climbing on top of Stan which triggered Stan's cock to partially inflate. "Wally, make me... Make me so I see him as the god I once believed him to be... Make me feel the magic that his touch used to carry... Make me desire him and only him till death do us part, and even after." Wally looked at me with a questioning look, then after I shrugged, he said, "What about you, Stanley?" "I uh... (sigh) Awe fuck it. I was getting bored with all these girls anyway. Make me feel the same way about her, Wally. But when she gets herself buried in her work like she always does and doesn't have time for me for weeks on end, I'm going to be a bear to work with." I frowned and whispered to Wally, "What work does he do?" "Don't you know? He's the Dean of the School of Medicine at Central State," Wally stated before frowning and saying, "Well, if you two would stop sending thoughts to each other, it'd make things easier." "Sorry," they both said. "That's better," Wally said under his breath as he focused his mind on his work. "Joey," Sarah said a moment later. "Tell mom and dad I'm sorry for making them worry like that. I never meant to hurt them." "I'll tell them, sis. Uhm, do you want us to keep Tommy for the weekend?" "No, thanks, but no," Stan said firmly. "We need to spend some happy time together around him, don't we my beautiful, beautiful Sarah?" "Oh Stanley," Sarah said, melting on top of him. "I've missed you so much." "Time to leave," Wally said gently to me. I stood up, then when Wally didn't immediately rise himself, I looked down and found him waiting for me to help him up. "Same old Wally," I said with a grin as I took his soft hand and pulled him to his feet. "Well, someone has to be predictable around here. First Denise moves to California, then Gina falls in love with a stripper, and now this. What's next, Joey?" "How about... You decide that you like girls after all and go fuck those three girls over there?" "Tempting.... But I don't think Alex would approve. He's become very selfish himself when it comes to me." "And you love every moment of it," I said while opening a door for him. "Yes... So incredibly selfish," he sighed dreamily. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 4 - The Pieces to a Vanishing Puzzle [Told by Joey] (mf oral anal) I don't mean to make the impression that everything Suzi and I did together that summer was in some way sexual. Hmmm... Actually, I can't think of anything we did do that wasn't somehow related to sex, but I know there had to be as many nonsexual occasions as there were sexual ones. I guess they just weren't memorable enough to remember them. Okay I got one. I helped her wash her car the night after we got back from our two day camping trip together. Wait minute... Shit. Suz sorta didn't wear a bra that morning, and after I shot her with the hose I guess... Well, she got all wound up from the being out in the open in front of her house with her breasts showing through her wet T-shirt. It started innocently enough, but... Hmmm.. Bad example. Hey.. I know... On the Fourth of July, Brad, Gloria, Suzi and I all went to watch the fireworks at the same shopping center Suzi and I had fucked in. No sex there... But... Shit. The next night, Suzi talked them into hiding in the mall past closing time and we took turns fucking by this fountain by the main doors. Gloria couldn't cum from the stress of possibly being caught, but I think Suzi came enough for all of us that night. Okay, okay... So all Suzi and I did together that summer was either have sex or plan on having sex. Is that so bad? Anyway, the week after the fireworks, Suzi and I were again hiding in the racks of clothes waiting for the last of the sales people to leave. While this was only the third time we had done this, I was pretty comfortable with doing it, and actually I was probably as eager to do it as she was that night. It was such a rush to get away with it, plus the sex was always outstanding. It did kind of shock me when after I called the all clear, Suzi came out of her rack already naked. I didn't say anything of course, but for a moment I wondered if we were too comfortable about the whole thing for our own good. When the moment passed, I stripped as fast as I could, then let her lead me out into the main mall by my hard handle. She walked us up and down the entire mall twice before deciding on a spot in front of the toy store and laying down with her legs up in the air. "Joey, my love slave, tonight I am a whore. I want you to use me, fuck me like a dog, lick my shit hole until I beg you for your cock in my ass. Do every kinky thing you can think of and cum inside my holes as much as you can. Do it, slave. Make me your whore. Do it now!" Shit, was she ever horny that night. I licked her cunt and ass until I couldn't lick any more, then fucked her cunt, her face, her ass over and over again, cumming three separate times before my balls were empty, all while she had me call her a whore, a tramp, a fucking bitch in heat. She fucking wore me out, and she still wasn't satisfied. I was having trouble staying hard for her as she rocked back and forth on top of me with my cock up her ass. I was so far out of it that the first indication we were no longer alone was hearing someone else's voice answer Suzi's question of, "Who are you?" "Mall security," the raspy male voice said from somewhere to my right. I felt like I had licked a light socket when I realized we had been caught, but my first instinct kicked in immediately, making me sit up and prepare to protect Suzi at all costs. "You're under arrest," a second man said as he slapped a cuff on my left wrist while I struggled to stand up. "Under what charge?" I managed to say as he maneuvered my other wrist behind me and slapped the other cuff on it with a loud click. "Well that depends, doesn't it..." the first man said as I got a good look at him. Rusty was a tall and very overweight mid thirties man with a short sloppy beard and hair to match, while his partner Gerald was average height and fairly skinny but otherwise a duplicate of Rusty. "What do you mean, depends?" Suzi said while attempting to cover herself as best she could with her arms and hands. "He's secure, Rusty," Gerald said as he stepped away from me. As I discovered my cuffs were attached to some kind of steal bar embedded in the concrete wall behind me, fear beyond anything I had ever imagined feeling passed through me when Rusty said, "Depends on how cooperative you are, pretty thing." "You FUCKING LEAVE HER ALONE!" I screamed in rage as I threw all my weight against my restraints and found myself unable to defend her at all. "What do you want," Suzi said with a cold calmness to her voice. "Tell her what we want, Gerald," Rusty said while spreading her arms away from her body and getting a good look. "The whore Suzi Marie Aster, that's what we want," Gerald said while sliding his hands against her ass cheeks. I went into a frothing rage at that point, and probably would have knocked myself out against the concrete if one of them hadn't knocked the wind out of me with a night stick. As I gasped for my breath, I heard Suzi say, "... just don't hurt him again." "Suz..." I gasped desperately as she knelt down and started undoing Rusty's pants. "No...." "Joey, it's my fault," she said coldly. "I dragged you into this, and now I'm paying for it." "That's right, Joseph T. Conner, two arrests for disturbing the peace, one arrest for rape that the victim dropped the charges the next day. Your little whore here is going to pay for her mistakes in exchange for us letting you both walk out of here in the morning," Gerald sneered as he removed his pants. "I just love this job," Rusty said as Suzi teased his cock through his underwear. "See Gerald? I said she'd go for it when we watched her fuck him last week." "Just remember I was the one who searched the whole mall looking for their IDs while you sat in the office and watched them fuck. I get to fuck her first." "Fine. Oh, there's just one last thing, whore," Rusty said as Suzi took hold of his fat cock and moved to give it a shaky lick. "We don't want to leave any evidence so you can later claim we raped you," Gerald said as he handed a condom to Rusty who immediately handed it down to Suzi to put on. I struggled in vain to free myself as Rusty sat his large ass on the ground while Gerald guided Suzi onto all fours. I sat there feeling a bit numb as Gerald entered her cunt from behind, then hung my head in defeat when he exclaimed, "She's fucking wet, Russ! She really is a fucking whore!" My adrenaline was gone, my body exhausted from the long fuck and my struggles to break free, but I refused to let myself just sit there and watch them use her... My Suzi. The center of my life. "No," I growled hoarsely as Gerald penetrated Suzi's ass. "I'll fucken make you suck the shit out of her ass," I whispered as I struggled to form the commands in my head. I strained, pushed and surged my pathetically weak telepathic abilities until my head hurt from it all, then as I rested a moment to try again, Rusty decided it was his turn to fuck her and had Suzi lay down on her back. "You'll hurt her!" I gasped as Rusty moved to straddle her. "Don't worry, she won't make any noise with my cock in her mouth," Gerold said as he pulled the shitty condom off is cock and replaced it with a fresh one. I saw the fear in Suzi's eyes as Rusty's mass covered her small body, making me redouble my efforts to render him a shit eating slave as Gerald slipped his cock into her already strained looking mouth. They were hurting her, and they didn't care. I was in agony for failing to protect her, to know that there was no pleasure in this for her this time for she was having to strain for every breath when she could before it could be pushed out of her lungs by the shear weight behind each of Rusty's thrusts. My desperation and anger came to a violent peak when I saw Suzi's eyes rolling up as she struggled to remain consciousness. I realized that my fears for enslavement of my family or the natural fear for intense physical pain was nothing to the fear of losing Suzi forever. "NO!!" I cried at the top of my lungs while putting every ounce of my being into commanding them to get off her and let her breathe. I went completely limp and hung from my shackles as they continued to fuck their merrily way, my head burning with pain as I watched her for the third time roll her eyes and pass out for several moments. I started to beg them to let her get her breath, offering them as much money as I could think of, girls from Stan's harem, and even my own life for hers. But they weren't listening, for they were working up to another orgasm, and just as Suzi passed out again and then she didn't awaken again on the next thrust, I felt the familiar telepathic touching of my mind that I instantly grabbed onto and formed the link. The link only lasted a few seconds, but that was all I needed to enslave the two animals and order them to get off her and help her breathe. As Russ helped Suzi to sit up while she coughed and gagged for her breath, Gerald finally found his keys and rushed over to unlock my cuffs. "What happened?" Suzi croaked out as I rushed to the floor beside her. "I... I enslaved them," I said as I wiped a small smudge of her shit off her cheek that must have come off of Gerald. "Are you okay?" "I think so," she said, carefully moving her arms and legs. "My tits are a bit flatter than I remember, but other than that... Wait. Did you do it... by yourself?" "Someone linked with me long enough for me to do it," I said, turning towards the two blanked faced blank minded zombies. "I'm gonna fucking make them eat each other's shit. They almost killed you." "Don't," Suzi said weakly, putting her hand on my shoulder to stop me. "Joey, make them forget and make them never do anything like this again. They don't deserve..." "Why!?!" I said, with mixed emotions. "They almost fucking killed you, Suz! They deserve anything I can think of to..." "IF you did, you would be a greater monster to me than they ever could be. And I meant what I said earlier. This was all my fault, and I deserved what came to me. I'm sorry I got us both into this. Now fix them and take me home." "But Suz..." "DO what I SAY!" "Yes, mistress," I sighed obediently. As it turned out, I couldn't snap them out of their mindless zombie states until I linked with Wally, and then at least I had the satisfaction of knowing they were going to get what was coming to them when Alex decided they would be fine toys for him to experiment with for a week. Alex assured me nothing excessively cruel, just a bunch of tricks on their minds to confuse the hell out of them. Before Suzi and I left, Rusty was already dressed in a tutu trying to do a sexy dance for a few couples staying with Wally and Alex that night. On the drive home, Suzi shocked the hell out of me by stripping out of her clothes and ordering me to check us into a hotel for the night. I did as she said with beads of sweat forming on my forehead from worry, but she explained that she stank so bad that she didn't want her clothes to get too smelly so she had took them off until she could shower properly. After I came back from the lobby with the key to our motel room, Suzi unhurriedly got out and walked to the room stark naked, and then just waited there for me to open the door while this truck driver ogled her body five doors down. When I closed the door behind us I said, "Suz, you're scaring me." "You don't need to be," she said as she headed straight for the bathroom. "I'm just too tired to care about anything but taking a shower and going to sleep. Are you going to wash me or am I doing it myself." While she started the water, I stripped and then found her sitting on the can trying to shit. "Shit, I'm sorry," I said, turning to leave. "Joey, it's okay. Come stand over here." I stood where she had indicated with her finger, then watched her strain for several more minutes before she stood up and said, "Wipe please." Suzi had never ever willfully allowed me or Tim or anyone to be in the bathroom with her when she pottied before, let alone have someone else wipe her bottom afterwards. But never the less I did was she asked, wiping her bottom as gently and thoroughly as I could while examining the damage to her ass hole from my cock and others stretching it too far. "I think that's enough," Suzi said after I used the fifth wad of tp on her poor bum hole. She stood up straight and flushed the last wad of paper, then turned to me and sighed at my worry racked expression. "Joey, I'm fine. Really I am. It's been a long time since I was used like that, so I'm just drained, that's all." "You mean... Steven." "Yes," she sighed, stepping into the tub, then waiting for me to follow. Once I closed the shower curtain, Suzi flipped the showerhead on and then stood there without moving as the water sprayed us both with its warm cleansing power. "Wash me?" she said after several minutes of us just enjoying the feeling of the water. After I began washing her as gently and thoroughly as I could, Suzi complained she was too tired to stand much longer, so I eased her down to sit in the tub and continued my cleaning that way. It was a bit cramped for me, but she was as comfortable as I could make it for her. I avoided her vagina and anus figuring her ass was as clean as it was going to get and she'd want to do the rest herself. But when I said I was finished, she simply said no I wasn't, slid herself down into the tub and stuck her cunt up in the air with her legs spread as far as they could go. Once I had done all I could to her sad looking puss, I gave it a gentle kiss and again said I was done. "Now wash yourself, silly," she said with her eyes closed. I did so as quickly as I could, then shut off the water and helped her up before drying us both off. "Do you ever think about what it would be like if we were still Steven's slaves?" Suzi asked out of the blue as I carried her to our bed. "Sometimes," I admitted. "But I try not to." "I haven't thought about it for a long time until tonight, but you know what?" she said as I laid her down on her side of the bed and crawled over her to get to mine. "What?" "It doesn't scare me any more," she said, snuggling up to me and intertwining her leg with mine. "You were scared. I saw you." "But not because of what they were doing or going to do to me. I was afraid of what they might do to you, or what you might do to them. I don't think I can be raped anymore Joey. It just doesn't... scare me to be forced into having sex with someone else. What do you think of that?" "I think we're too tired to think. Right now all that matters is that you're safe." Suz gave me a kiss on the chest and then said, "Then go to sleep, my faithful pet. Go to sleep..." As usual, I did what she said. In the morning, I awoke with her words "What do you think of that?" still ringing in my ears. We apparently had forgotten to turn on the air conditioning and the sun shining brightly in through the shaded windows had heated the room up to the point where we both were covered with sweat. I'll never forget how beautiful she looked laying beside me on top of the covers all spread out and sweaty like that. It would have been sexually invigorating if she hadn't looked so defenseless, so innocent, and just so nakedly beautiful. I carefully got up and turned on the air before getting back in bed and watching her as she slept. "What do you think of that?" kept echoing around in my head while I tried to form some kind of answer besides, "I don't know what to think about that." When the air became cool enough to give her a bit of a chill, Suzi turned onto her side, then felt my body's heat beside her and snuggled up against me. When she went back to sleep huddled up against me like that, I felt so at peace that I too fell asleep. I was awake the instant she stirred, and I was watching her closely when she finally opened her eyes. "Good morning," I said gently. "Mmmmmm," she said in agreement while stretching. "How do you feel?" I said after she relaxed and closed her eyes with a smile on her face. She opened her eyes and looked at me a moment, then reached over, pulled herself up to my face and kissed me tenderly before running her right hand across my soft cock and saying, "I feel good, and a little horny." "You're kidding," I said astonished. "Wouldn't you feel a bit horny if you woke up with a hot naked woman laying in your bed who will do anything you say?" "Only if her name was Suzi," I said as my cock finished filling out to its hardest form. "Good. Now go get dressed and get my clothes out of the car, please?" she said with her lips hovering over mine. "Yes Mistress," I whispered before she rolled off with a grin on her face. I took her home, then turned around and headed home myself after explaining what happened to Jason so he could watch out for her the next few days. When I finally got home around one in the afternoon, the first thing I did was shower to get rid of the smell that had clung on my clothes from the night before. My phone was ringing when I got out of the shower, and when nobody answered it after the first couple of rings, I went ahead and did so thinking it might be Suzi. "Hello?" "Joey? Whew, man... I've been trying to get a hold..." "Tim?" "Yeah. Look, are you okay? I felt something was wrong last night and I've been..." "I'm fine, and Suzi's fine too, thanks to you. Where are you?" "What do you mean thanks to me?" "I mean if you hadn't let me link with you for a few moments last night..." "Link with you? Joey, I didn't link with you." "You didn't?" I said a little confused. "But you said you felt something was wrong..." "I did. What happened? Why did you need me to link with you?" "Long story, but everything's okay now. Er, no wait. I just remembered. Your mom has been trying to contact you for a couple of weeks now. Tim, Eric's missing. Everyone thought he went with us to England and he hasn't been seen since." "Eric is missing..." Tim said slowly. "Yeah. Where are you? Your mom is worried sick that the twins..." "Joey, listen to me. I'm fine, Eric's fine, and you don't need to come looking for us. Okay? I got to go." "But where?" I said just before the line clicked and he was gone. I hung up the phone while trying to sort some very strange feelings out. I had this strong urge to go be with Suzi, but I had just come back from having been with her. And damn it, Tim's phone call was trying to slip from my mind from the moment I hung up. It was like I wanted to forget it, and if I hadn't had kept feeling the same sensation that I felt every morning when I woke up knowing I had forgotten something important, I would have never given his phone call a second thought unless directly asked about it. I knew I had to call... Someone. Someone about something... Now what was it... Shit... Tim... I got to call Samantha and tell her... I picked up the phone and dialed, but then Betty's voice answered and it took me moment to realize I had called Suzi's house instead of Tim's. "Sorry, wrong number," I said before quickly hanging up and carefully dialing the number again. "Hello?" Betty's voice said again. "Shit, I did it again," I said, breaking out into a sweat. "Joey? Is that you?" Betty asked. "Yeah. I'm.. I'm trying to call Tim's mom, but I keep... dialing yours." "Do you want to talk to Suzi?" she said after a pause. "Yeah," I said feeling relieved just from the thought. "Er wait. No. I..." "Joey, are you okay?" "Yes. No... I got to.... write this down... before I forget again," I managed to explain before hanging up the phone, literally dripping with sweat as I struggled to keep the word "Tim" in my head. I became so disorientated that I couldn't find anything to write on in my room, but when I stumbled into the bathroom by mistake and saw the steam still clinging onto the mirror, I knew it was my only hope. A minute later, the phone rang again, and this time it was Suzi. I instantly forgot the whole thing ever happened at the first sound of her voice. The following Saturday night, Suzi came over with her set of pictures she had taken on our trip for my mom to see after mine having been ruined by what I figured had been the x-ray machine or something at the airport. Actually, the pictures were just an excuse for her come over that night, for my mom and dad were going out for the evening. The moment my parents had pulled out of the driveway, Suzi pulled her shorts down, spread her legs and simply said, "Lick." Oh, she had never tasted so good to me before. At least that's what I kept thinking to myself as I licked every inch of her cunt that I could reach with my tongue. But somewhere in the back of my mind I was wondering why it was so much better. I had done this a thousand times before with Suz, and there wasn't really anything different about it besides the fact I was following her orders... I wanted to believe that's what made it so great, but something about it kept bothering me. "Oh Joey... I can't get enough of you," she moaned as she humped my face. "I've never been so hot for you for so long before." I circled her knob with my tongue for the millionth time, then paused long enough to say, "Doesn't that seem a little strange?" "Mmmm... Maybe, but I don't care. I hope it never stops. I want to fuck you till the end of time. Now carry me to the shower. I want you to clean out my ass so you can lick it out as good as you did my pussy." "Yes, Mistress," I obediently replied as I picked her up off the recliner and carried her to my bathroom. Suzi changed her mind by the time I had finished cleaning her ass up with the bar of soap. Instead, I fucked her ass for a bit, then fucked her cunt a while longer, then finally after her fourth orgasm, she jerked me off and then washed me up for a change. We were both feeling fairly sedated by the time we climbed out of the shower, and it was while she toweled me off that I noticed the letters T I M on the mirror. "Tim..." I said out loud. "Hmmm?" Suzi said as she finished doing my legs. When I didn't answer, she stood up and asked, "What did you say?" I just pointed at the mirror as I struggled to remember what it was that was so important about Tim. "Tim... What about him?" "I don't know..." I said with difficulty. "Something about Tim I needed to remember." "Well, whatever it is, it couldn't be important, now could it?" "It is important. I think." "Joey, don't strain yourself over it." "But it is a strain. Why? Why can't I remember?" "Stop it. You hear me? Stop it, that's an order." I blinked as I let my hold on the vague memory go, then found her frowning at me. "What?" "What?" she said as her frown disappeared. "Why did you do that?" "Do what?" "Stop me from trying to remember." "Remember what?" she teased. "Suzi, please. Ever morning since we came back, I've been trying to remember something when I wake up. Why did you stop me?" "What are you talking about?" she said a bit confused. "You just order me to stop trying to remember what I've been forgetting, don't you remember?" "Say that again?" she said with a chuckle. "I... Oh never mind. What were we talking about?" "I don't know," she giggled. "I don't remember." I laughed, then hugged her tightly as I felt those strange feelings leave again as they did every morning. But when I let her go and saw the word TIM on the mirror again, it all just suddenly hit me. "Tim called. Suzi. I remember! Eric is missing, and Tim said not to worry about him or Eric. I have to call Samantha." "Joey, wait!" she said as I opened the bathroom door to leave. "What do you mean Eric is missing?" I came back, leaving the door open, and said, "No one has seen him since we left for England. Everyone thought he left with us. He didn't, did he?" "Eric?" "Yes, Eric!" I said a little frustrated. She frowned and then suddenly reached out and took a hold of my arm to steady herself. "What? Are you dizzy?" I asked, forgetting everything but the strange look on her face. "Yes, but I'm not dizzy," she contradicted herself. "You said something about Tim?" "I did?" I said, fighting the feeling I was forgetting something. "Eric... Something about Eric..." Suzi repeated her legs started to wobble. "Suz..." I said desperately as I caught her just before her legs gave out. "Eric... Tell me again... What about Eric?" My mind felt cloudy, and after I shook it, I had this sudden urge to look at the mirror. "The mirror," I said as I looked in the clear reflection. "What about it?" Suzi said standing up on her own two feet again. "I don't know. What were we going to do?" "We _were_ going to get dressed, but now I'm not in the mood" Suzi said as she pet my cock while wearing an evil smile on her face. "Again?" I said as it faithfully responded to her touch. "MMmmm hmmmm" she said as she got down on her knees and took it into her mouth. "Damn if this isn't the best blow job she has ever given me," I thought to myself. "Everything she does is so much better than before. And she's always so horny. It's almost as if..." My thoughts were interrupted by her hands spreading my legs and her tongue moving farther back after lapping at my balls. "Oh my God, Suz," I groaned as she probed her tongue between the hairs on my ass, seeking the tight hole she had so carefully washed out a half an hour before. "Bend over so I can do this right," she commanded after a second try at finding my rose between my firm ass cheeks. I did as she said, and she struck gold on her next probe, and after wetting the hairs back there with her spit enough that they laid aside, she began rimming me for the first time. She didn't last long, for my ass was pretty damn tight and her tongue wasn't used to having to work so hard. But that was okay anyway, for by the time she finished, I was ready to nut, and after fucking her ass one more time, I was pleased as punch to lick it all out like I had done to Tim so long ago. My mom and dad came back while we took our second shower, and it was a shock to us to realize we had spent four and a half hours in the bathroom fucking. Or at least at the time that's all we remembered doing in there. When we finally got dressed and left my room, we found my mom looking at the pictures again. "What's the matter, mom? You want to go to England so bad you can't stop looking at pictures of it?" "Very funny, but no. It just occurred to me after we left that I didn't remember seeing a single picture of Tim in them. Didn't he go with you to see the sights?" Suzi and I looked at each other while I struggled to recall which outings Tim had gone on. I felt that feeling again, and it was really strong, but it was Suzi who suddenly gasped and snatched the picture my mom was currently looking at out of her hands and stared at it in disbelief. "What is it?" I said as my heart started to race. Suzi turned pale, then when she opened her mouth to reply, she fainted. I somehow managed to catch her before she hit the floor, then held her in my arms until my mom got the smelling sauce out and waved it under her nose. "What happened?" Suzi asked when she came around. "You tell us," my mom said, holding up the picture of me posing with my muscles flexed in front of some statue called Nelson. "I don't understand," she said while strangely resisting to look at the picture. "Suzi, look at the picture," I said, after examining it myself and not seeing anything. "No... I don't want too," she said irrationally. "Suz, for God's sake look at the picture!" I said with emotion. "But..." she said, not resisting my hands turning her head towards it. She looked at it, then after a moment she relaxed and said, "I don't see anything." I looked at my mom and said, "Are you sure it's the right one?" "No, I'm not," my mom said while sorting through them again after having picked the rest off the floor from Suzi's fall. "Try this one," my mom said, holding another out. Suzi cautiously looked it over, then sighed with relief and said, "I must have imagined... whatever it was." "Well then look through the rest of these anyway. Both of you," my mom said as she went over to the kitchen phone and started dialing. "Who are you calling?" I asked. "Samantha. She wanted to know immediately if you either of you started acting strange, and I'd say... Sam? Margaret. Suzi just fainted from looking at a picture she took in England.... Yes, she's fine.... Suzi, do you remember grabbing the picture out of my hands?" "Grabbing the picture?" Suzi repeated with confusion. "No, she doesn't... Joey, do you?" "Of course I do. I was standing right here," I said with a frown. "Oh really? Uh huh.. All right. What time do you think? Okay. See you then. Bye bye." "What was that all about?" I asked as my mom wrote something down. "Joey, do you remember making two wrong phone calls last Thursday?" "Wrong phone calls," I repeated as I searched my memory. "Yes. You accidentally called Suzi's house twice. Betty said you sounded very confused, that you said you were trying to call Samantha..." "YES! I WAS! But... But.." I said as the memory faded before I could get a firm hold of it. "Shit," my mom sighed. "Then Sam is right. Something happened while you were in England and you both have been... conditioned was the word she used. Conditioned to forget anything that might help figure out what." "We're not forgetting anything," Suzi said carefully. "I remember very clearly everything we did in England." "Let's sit down at the table and we'll see what you two do remember," my mom said. My mom got one of those yellow legal pads and had us reconstruct what we did day by day as best as we could. I was surprised at how little I did remember, but then again it had been over a month, and it all did fall into place once we got it all on paper. The next thing my mom had us do was to place when each picture was taken, and after about fifteen minutes we had several pictures assigned to each day of our visit, and Suzi and I felt quite proud of ourselves. "So you still think something strange happened on our trip?" I said to my mom. "Yes I do. It just now jumped out at me. Explain to me why in every picture over the two weeks you were there you wore the exact same clothes in every one of them?" "What?" Suzi said as I suddenly felt the urge to say, 'I didn't think of that'. "Uhm, I didn't think of that," I said shakily. "I just had to say that for some reason. I didn't think of that." "Oh my GOD!" Suzi gasped and pointed at one of the pictures. "It's ERIC!" "Where?!" I exclaimed then followed her finger to the picture. "I still don't see him," I said confused. "Right there! It's his hat! I think. I mean... Oh, I feel sick," she said as she suddenly leapt towards the sink and threw up. "Suz, are you okay?" I said, rubbing her back as she washed her mouth out and then turned the water on hot to wash what was left of her dinner down the drain. "I think so. I don't know what came over me," she said. I suddenly noticed how the steam from the hot water was fogging up the kitchen window above the sink, and I remembered... "Mom! Come here! QUICK!" I yelled as I rushed to my bathroom and started the hot water in the sink. "What? What are you doing?" she said as she walked in. "Close the door! I don't know what I'm doing, but I got to do it!" "But do what?" she said while turning on the fan. "NO!" I said, leaping towards the switch and turning it off. "It has to be off, understand?" "No I don't, but all right," my mom said while my dad knocked on the door asking what was going on. As my mom tried to explain through the door, I went over to the mirror and tried to hurry things up by breathing on it. "That's it! MOM! What does this SAY?!" I yelled before passing my breath over the mirror's surface again. "It says... Tim." "Tim.. Tim..." I said while trying to force the memory to the surface. "Tee I Em..... Tim.... Tim... Tim.. TIM! That's it! Mom! He called me! He said.. He said... SHIT! I'm forgetting AGAIN!" "What did he say, Joey... What did Tim say?" "Yeah, Tim.. He called. He wanted to know if I was all right..." "What did you tell him?" "I told him... I told Tim... I was okay... and that Suzi was okay. And then... And then.. I told him his mom was trying to get a hold of him.... Trying to get a hold of him... And something else.." "Did you tell him someone was missing?" my mom asked anxiously. "Yeah.. I told him Eric was missing. And then he... And then he..." I gasped, finding it difficult to breathe. "Joey honey, stay with me," my mom said, holding my face in her hands and making me look at her. "Breathe with me," she said as she animated her own breaths in a way I could follow. After three or four slow steady breaths, I said, "I'm okay now." "Good. Now what did Tim say to you?" "Tim? When?" I said with confusion. My mom groaned, then noticed the mirror and turned my head towards it. "Remember now?" she asked anxiously. "YES! Tim called me!" I said excitedly. "I know that.. What did he tell you after you told him Eric was missing?" "I... I.... I think... I... He said he was fine, and Eric was fine, and... and for me to come looking for them! THAT'S IT! That's what I've been trying to remember!" I yelled before feeling my stomach reverse and I upchucked my dinner all over my brand new bathroom floor. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ complete shock as my mom told them what we had worked out earlier, for Suzi and I both had forgotten everything again. Or I should say we were remembering it again. Remembering and throwing up again. This time Suzi and I did it almost at the exact same time, Suzi beating me by maybe ten seconds. After that, Suzi went and got Eric's hat to remind her, and I wrote T I M on a blank page of my mom's legal pad and held on to it like Suzi did with the hat. Shit, Suzi and I spent so much time just trying to keep from forgetting that we basically ignored the conversation unless someone asked us a question. But I couldn't help but hear when my dad sat back with a sigh of frustration saying, "If you're so sure they're not in England, then where are they? France?" "I know," I said. "What dear?" Samantha asked me. "I said know where he is. When we were in Atlanta, Tim said if he ever turned up missing, I'd know where to find him." "And where would that be?" Charles asked, leaning forward. "I'll tell you on one condition," I said, looking him, and then Sam in the eyes. "What's the condition?" Samantha asked me patiently. "That I and someone else go to get them alone." "Abso-fucking-lutely not. You're not going anywhere," my dad began. "Where is he?" Suzi asked me directly. "Uh..." I said trying to resist telling her. "Uh... Venezuela." "Of course... Gladius. That son of a bitch," Charles growled. "I have to go," I explained to Suzi. "I'm the only one who's ever been there and..." "I've been there too, Joey," Samantha said patiently. "Not as recent as you, but I know where it is." "But you don't know the layout like someone who worked there," Charles said while looking me in the eyes. "Someone who was one of Gladius's teen voices and who helped run the place." "Exactly," I said. "I think Samantha and I should sneak down there and with a little luck and some inside help..." "I agree," Charles said before glancing at Samantha and saying, "But not Sam. Me." "You?" I said startled. "No offense, but Sam's a lot stronger than you are and..." "A month after my abilities showed up and right before my father left to start his own church with himself as the role of God, he arranged for me to be accepted into Gladius's er.. teen voice program, and allowed me to take my mother with me to be my slave. I spent two years there before my father's mass suicide, after which Gladius allowed me to leave. I may not have the strongest voice, and my knowledge of the area may be a bit outdated, but I know a lot more than Samantha does, and with your link, I dare say I might be more powerful than you imagine." That was the beginning of a long and tedious uphill argument. My mom and dad didn't want me to go at all while Samantha didn't help me at all with her doubts of my mental state. The only person who was on my side was Charles, yet even that was a battle because quite frankly I wanted Sam to go, not him. It was after three in the morning when we called it quits without having anything decided at all. Suzi had left a few hours before without saying much, and despite this having worried me at the time, I wasn't too concerned for I knew we'd have our own private discussion about this in due time. My mom must have called Sarah pretty early the next morning, for I was still asleep when Sarah flung open my door and said, "What the hell has gotten into you?" "Wha?" I said after sitting up with a start. "You talk about me being selfish!" she said slamming the door closed again and angrily coming over to side of my bed I was laying on. "Do you have any idea how upset mom was when you ran off last time?" "Shit, Sarah. I'm not running off this time. I'm going on a..." "I know! You're going to go save your sweet and loving Timmy!" she spat. "Why do you have go save his ass every time he gets into trouble? You're not his body guard! And he certainly doesn't deserve your loyalty after the shit he..." "Who the fuck are you to tell me who I give my loyalties to?" I said angrily. "And I owe Tim a hell of a lot more than just my loyalty." "Oh really? Why? Seems to me you saved his fucking life a year ago. What has he done to return that debt? Hmmm?" "If it wasn't for Tim, I wouldn't have gotten you back, I wouldn't have gotten Suzi back... Shit I wouldn't have even come back if he hadn't made me. Damn it Sarah. I owe him everything. You, mom and dad, Suzi, everything..." I said with tears suddenly forming in my eyes. "And so you're willing to just throw all of that away in an attempt to rescue him from something you had nothing to do with?" Sarah said gently after a long pause. "How do I know I had nothing to do with it? Maybe he made some kind of deal with Gladius to protect me and Suzi in exchange for whatever Gladius is doing to him? And he called me, Sarah. Me. Not his mom or dad. Me. He knows I'm the only one who can bust him out of there. I can't just ignore that and let myself forget it again. He needs me. I have to go. I just have to." "Damn it kid..." Sarah said getting emotional. "I didn't think there was any way in hell you could..." The hug she gave me right then signified that I was doing the right thing. If Sarah could be swayed to see it my way, everyone else could be too. Well, everyone but maybe the most important person I needed to convince, that is. By the end of the day, everything was settled with my parents and Tim's. Charles and I were leaving the next evening to catch a flight to Miami, before taking a plane to Barranquilla, Columbia, the closest international airport to Venezuela as we dared to fly into. There was still a lot to do, and I still wasn't too comfortable with taking Charles instead of Samantha, but there was this other matter I had to attend to before I could concentrate on the trip any more. Suzi and I went out dancing that night, neither of us wanting to talk about what we had to talk about so we didn't really say much as we danced. While we weren't all comfortable with this thing hanging over our heads, I wouldn't have missed spending that last night with her for the world. When we danced the last slow dance for the night, she clung to me as hard as I held her against me, and it was just so... Damn, I'm tearing up even now. I guess you can figure it out. Anyway, after we left the dance club, I drove us to the most expensive hotel in the area and checked us in without either of us saying a word to each other, but holding hands the whole time, even after we were in the room with the lights off. "Well? I guess this is it," I said sitting down beside her on the bed. "I guess so," she said, giving my hand another squeeze. "You want to talk about it?" I said uncertainly. "Is there anything to talk about?" Suzi said, lifting our hands up to her mouth and giving my hand a gentle kiss. "Well, yes. I can't leave without you saying I can," I said hesitantly. Suzi sighed and let our coupled limbs fall back between us, then leaned her head against me and said, "And if I said no?" "I don't want to have to consider that," I said with my heart sinking in my chest. "But _I_ need to know, Joey. Up until yesterday, I thought you were my love slave. I don't really care that you are or not, it's just... Hard for me to see that... you find this more important than..." "No, Suzi... no..." I cut her off while turning and hugging her. "Nothing is more important to me than you. Nothing." "But..." she said with a cold calmness that ripped through my soul. "You will still leave me to rescue Tim even if I don't want you to." And she was right. I couldn't deny it to myself any more. I couldn't let Tim down like that even if it meant losing Suzi... I did love her more than anything else on this Earth, but my feelings for Tim, guilt, loyalty, trust, and yeah, I guess love too, all combined and ran deeper than my feelings for Suzi at the time. I didn't realize I was crying until Suzi leaned backwards pulling me with her and stroked my hair comforting as I cried a little harder. I didn't cry very long, but it was long enough for Suzi to get a little teary too. But when I looked her in the face after wiping what was left of my tears away, she said, "You don't need me let you go. You already freed yourself on your own." I was as stunned as if she had slapped me in the face, but there was no malice, no intention to hurt, and worse of all it was true. I had freed myself. I would go even if she did order me not to. The love we made that night was gentle, tender, and sweet. I swore to her when I returned I would be hers again for as long as she wished, but all she would say to that was, "Just come back. The rest doesn't matter to me." Charles and I said our farewells at the North mansion the next evening before going to the airport alone to prevent making a scene. I had never left like that, everyone I cared about being there to say goodbye, not knowing whether I would ever see them again. But Suzi's confident words before her goodbye kiss made it all possible. "I want you to bring all three of my men back to me. You hear? Don't fail me." "I won't, Mistress... I won't ever fail you again." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 5 - Return to Witch Mountain [Told by Joey] (mc, mf) "No, not like that," I moaned as Charles tried to use brute force with his new increase of telepathic strength to penetrate my shield. "You have to be a lot more subtle." "I don't need to practice being subtle, Joey," he said with difficulty. "I have a life time of experiences in being subtle. What I need now is practice control of my new strength." "All right, all right..." I said, throwing up my hands and then checking the time. "We have twenty minutes left before we have to check out and head for the airport. How do you want to do this?" "Hmmm... Let me see..." he said as he stopped his assault on my mental barriers and scanned the surrounding area. When his expression changed to amusement, I quickly traced where his telepathic focus was and rolled my eyes at finding two young women digging their hands into each others clothes as they kissed passionately. "If you try something like that while we're in Venezuela, we're toast," I said as I began undoing his commands in their heads. "What the fuck," I said after finishing my cleansing work and discovered they were still at it. "Remember Joey. You have to be more subtle," Charles said with amusement. "You removed my commands, but you didn't check their long term memories for tampering." I did as he implied, and after three tries, I still hadn't found any obvious signs of tampering. I did find the reason they were currently moving into a sixty nine position, but their distant memory of having had a lesbian experience before simply didn't feel... unnatural. Well, besides the fact that they both had the exact same memory of the exact same girl, that is. "How did you..." "Like I said. Life time of experience at being subtle," he said as he let his mind wander again. Instead of him practicing his control, I ended up practicing how to implant a memory into a person's long term memory without it sticking out. There was a particular procedure to follow which is what I practiced applying, but I saw what he meant about a lifetime of experience at being subtle. He found every one of my implanted memories easily, yet I only found one of his, and that was by chance more than skill. On the way to the airport, I did help Charles gauge his control over his additional telepathic strength. He was having a lot of trouble keeping his focus on a particular mind, and whenever he used a command on someone, it was like he shouted it at them rather than discretely emitting it. I suppose he had always had to use his abilities at full strength for them to work before being linked with me, and it was a hard habit to break. I was surprised to find we were boarding a modern commercial airplane for the flight to Barranquilla, for the plane Kain had taken me down to Venezuela on had been a much smaller and older plane... Of course now that I think of it, that memory with Kain was implanted. It never actually happened that way. But still, it had to come from somewhere, hadn't it? Charles continued practicing his control on the passengers, surprisingly agreeing to limiting his exercises to simple itching sensations or other innocent everyday things. About an hour after we took off, however, Charles suddenly jerked in surprise saying, "I don't believe it." "What? Something wrong?" "No. Just the contrary," he said, nodding his head towards a middle aged stewardess. "Scan her and see if you can find anything unusual about her." I hesitated at the nature of his request, but did it anyway and didn't find anything at all. Charles was smiling when I turned to report, and before I could say a word, he said, "You found nothing. Good. Now, if she was say... Twenty years younger and you were checking out the stewardesses for a suck and fuck, would you be tempted by her?" I suspiciously rescanned her mind, checking her for her sexual details and practices, and quickly concluded, "Not on your life." "Oh? Why?" "She's a regular slut. She wears her panties out just from all the times she raises and lowers them. Never uses protection, she keeps a steady supply of penicillin with her. Basically I'd rather French kiss a cow's butt than contract the latest VD she's got." "Excellent. Truly excellent," Charles purred to himself before motioning to the woman and saying, "Stewardess, I need servicing." "Yes, may I help you?" she said with a slight Spanish accent. "Yes, would you do me a favor and service my cock with your slutty mouth?" "Excuse me?" she said with shock and offense while the woman next to me also turned toward us with surprise. "I... I... I don't understand," he said as I made them forget what he had said. "I must have forgotten something." "Do you need something sir?" she said with the sound of stretched patience in her voice. "No, go away," he said, waiving his hand while deep in thought. "What was that all about?" I asked once she went to attend someone else. "Oh I wish mother was here," he sighed before looking at me and adding, "She always did remember things better than I did." "Remember what?" I asked. "That was Maria," he said, nodding his head towards the stewardess. "She was my first... enslavement after I left Venezuela when I was eighteen. I spent weeks programming her before sending her back to her own life to test how my alterations would hold up. I lost track of her though and didn't think I'd ever see her again." "What programming?" I asked as I scanned her much more closely looking for any signs of commands buried beneath two decades of her life. "You won't find anything Joey unless I remember my trigger and use it on her," he assured me. "Of course if you followed her around and watched her mind carefully, you would realize her mind conjures up all sorts of interesting sexual experiences that never actually take place." "You mean... She's not really..." He patted his crotch and said, "This is the only cock which has ever been in that whore's cunt." He then lit up and said, "That's what's missing," he said as he unbuckled his pants and unzipped his fly. "Joey, lean over my lap and pretend you're sucking me," he said. I gave him this look that basically said 'no way in hell', but he just smiled and said, "You don't have to touch it... Just lean over and I'll do the rest. Trust me." He had this twinkle in his eyes that I've seen in Tim's when we're having fun doing something... secret together, so I looked around with just my eyes to make sure no one else was watching, then leaned over and waited. "Make some sucking sound when she comes over," he said while I avoided his cock from hitting me in the face as it bobbed up just a bit. The damn thing slapped me on the right cheek when he turned around slightly to call her over again, but after he turned back he whispered, "Here she comes," so I started making slurping sounds like he had asked. "Yes?" I heard her slightly agitated voice say. "Yes, could you do my mother a favor and service my cock with your slutty mouth?" "Why certainly, sir. I _am_ here to service you." Looking up at her I couldn't tell anything was different, but when I scanned her mind... "Holy shit," I gasped as I discovered what had to be one of the most complex rats I had ever seen. "You did that?" "Not bad for a weakling voice, eh?" he said as he lightly scanned her mind like running his fingers over an old familiar instrument. "It's... It's... Very impressive," I said as I focused my mind on the mechanism which controlled her subconscious and generated her imaginary slutty life. "Joey, would you mind sitting up so Marie can take your place?" Charles said humorously. "Uh, yeah," I said as I realized his dick was touching my cheek again and sat up in a flash. "Marie, you may service me now," Charles said as he sat back and relaxed. "Yes master," she said with overwhelming excitement. I was so immersed in the sophistication and the fine details of her programming that I didn't hear what Charles said to me a few minutes later, so he waved his hand in front of my eyes to get my attention. "Sorry. What did you say?" "I asked you if you wanted her to service you while I fuck her virgin ass." "What, here?" "Why not? Just do that blanket thing and we can see what twenty years of being a virtual slut does to a woman's performance." "Yeah, sure. Just..." I began before Suzi's face popped into my head. "On second thought... Thanks for offering, but..." "Oh come now Joey. Do you really thing Suzi will mind something as little as a blow job?" "Mr. Grodmen, I appreciate what you're saying, but _I_ mind. Suzi's the only one for me." "Very well... But Joey, do me a favor..." "Sure... Blanketing the crowd now," I said. Charles squeezed my arm with his hand to make me look at him, then he said with a slight smile, "Please don't call me Mr. Grodmen again. It makes me feel... Old. Call me Charles, all right?" I grinned at him and said, "Okay, Charles. I will. And you can fuck her brains out anywhere in the plane now without anyone noticing a thing." "Thank you. Marie, take off your clothes and get on your hands an knees in the isle." "Yes master," she said as she struggled to stand up after having crammed her body between his legs and the seats. Charles did have style when it came to fucking his fuck slaves. I mean, I've fucked quite a few slaves myself, and the biggest problem I had was when it got old after fucking the fifth or sixth girl a certain way. I remember going through an ass fucking phase where that's all I wanted to do, but once I had gotten my fill, I never really found it all that great again. Okay, so a nice tight ass is a nice change after fucking a lot of pussy, but I get really tired of ass if I do it more than two or three times a week or so. But Charles was an ass man. He loved fucking women's asses, especially women who loved getting fucked in the ass which naturally all his slaves were programmed to be. Charles was good at it too, but that was probably because of all the experience he's had at doing it. Yeah, I can see why Samantha liked him. She loved getting fucked in the ass almost as much as getting fucked in the pussy. I find it strange that neither of them had perverted their ass fucking pleasures to some form of analingus, but I suppose even they have their morals about some things. Tim laughed when I told him that. I tuned them out after Charles had skillfully loosened her up with his finger and worked his seven inch cock into her virgin rose. I spent the hour while they fucked in the isle scanning the minds of the other stewardesses, finding two of the four had encountered telepaths before, one having purposely made the woman pregnant with his child before letting her go without any recollection of that month of her life. Those two women's programmers were complete amateurs compared to what Charles's had done with Marie. I was actually in awe of his skill when Charles had satisfied himself with her performance, made some very dramatic changes in her main controls, then reactivated her mind's cloak and watched her walk off without a trace of those same controls having ever been there. So when he sighed unhappily after washing up and sitting down beside me, I said, "Don't tell me she disappointed you?" "Hmmm?" he said, bringing his attention back from somewhere far away. "Who, Marie?" "Yeah, who else?" "No, she was excellent. Truly excellent," he said sadly. "Then why the long face?" He shrugged slightly before saying, "I just wish my mom could have seen her. She would have been so proud of me." It took me a few moments to absorb that, then said, "Well, if it helps any. You sure impressed the hell out of me." He looked somberly at me while tears welled up in his eyes, then he said "Thanks Joey. I just wish I could hear my own son say something like that." Charles looked away from my surprised expression to recompose himself, and despite feeling I should say something either in Tim's defense or just to comfort the silly man, I remained silent and just continued scanning the minds of the other passengers for anything interesting. Rosalind, the woman sitting on the other side of me, was returning from her trip to the states which was her fortieth birthday present to herself. The interesting thing about her was the fact that she was very interested in me personally, yet was cursing her luck for having to sit right next to me where she couldn't watch me unobserved like she could if say sitting across the isle a row or two behind ours. Rosalind was strongly attracted to young muscular American men, and in fact her whole vacation had been spent hopping from one male stripping club to another. I traced her memories back to when a young muscular American man saved her from a mudslide when she was about nine or so, and had spent two days and nights with the man while he tried in vain to find her parents who had been buried alive in the slide. Roger, the man who had saved her life, spent the rest of his two weeks in Columbia with Rosalind as he tried to ease the pain of losing her family. During that time he infected her with her fascination for the US and body builders, and even though she felt deeply betrayed by him when he dumped her off at the orphanage before going back to the US, she never felt safer than when she was within Roger's bulging arms. Rosalind married an American body builder ten years older than she when she was only seventeen, and the marriage lasted almost two years before it ended rather nastily. After that, she went back to Columbia, and while having a few other flings with several men her ex had introduced her to, she never married again and now the strip bars was as close as she can get with her middle aged status and very little cash to tip them with. Her discomfort at being so close to me made me uncomfortable as well, but after about twenty minutes had gone by, Charles asked me to help him practice his control again which took my mind off her presence for a while. Charles and I spent probably two hours working on tempering his wild power, and despite it having drained us both, Charles didn't hesitate to call Marie over and had her and another woman about twenty three take turn riding his cock in the middle of the isle. I dozed off after Charles had finished his fuck, and I'm not sure how long I slept, but when I woke up I was leaning up against Rosalind who's hand was leaving my chest. Curious to see how far she would go, I feinted sleep and waited nearly ten minutes before her hand crept back across my chest to feel it's way down to my tummy. She felt my muscle tone through my light T-shirt, her breath barely audible to me as her excitement increased the longer she probed. At least three times I thought she was about to feel her way down to my crotch, but she never did, and I was actually slightly disappointed she didn't when she finally pulled her hand back and sat still as best she could. I continued to wait to see if she would try anything else, but dozed off again and didn't awaken for another half hour or so. By the time I woke up, I had moved away from her supportive shoulder and wasn't in physical contact with her anymore. I went to the bathroom to take a leak, then when I returned I struck up a conversation with Rosalind, I speaking in my broken Spanish, and she speaking in her broken English. She was very interested in my life, particularly in my workouts, and despite having reserved feelings about her fondling of my muscles in my sleep, I went ahead and let her feel my arms while I tensed them, and generally had a pleasant conversation with her until Charles woke up and decided it was time for another fuck. Charles and I had a slight disagreement about that, for I felt he needed to slow down since we couldn't really indulge in a quick fuck at every town we stopped at if we were to stay inconspicuous. But Charles swore up and down he was just getting it out of his system while he had the chance, and he pointed out that no one was going to dig out what he did with Maria which I had to admit he was right. So while Charles fucked Marie in the isle again, the smell of their sex became thick in the air around them. Even though Rosalind's mind completely ignored the sights, sounds, even the vibrations they made beside her, her body was very aware of their scent. Shit, my body was very aware of it too, and with Charles's three fucks and my own digging into the sex lives of several other passengers, I was pretty fucking horny myself. "Senior Joey," Rosalind suddenly spoke just as Charles came with a grunt and a groan. "Could you, ahhh, assist me with, ahhh, with my, ahhh... remojado tapón?" "Your what?" I said, not familiar with her words. "Please, come..." she said standing up and motioning me to follow. "I don't think..." I began, then looked around nervously and followed her anyway. Not surprisingly, she lead me to the bathroom, and even though I was feeling very uncomfortable about being in close quarters with this middle aged woman who had the hots for guys like me, I felt... obliged to comply with her requests until she went too far. "What is a remojado tapón?" I said once we were in the bathroom with the door shut. Rosalind began having a serious reality check, and immediately started apologizing for misleading me and that I should go before she couldn't stop herself. "Stop yourself? From what?" I said, feinting naivete. "From taking advantage of you, you mucho sex boy," she sighed, her hands reaching out to my belly before stopping and returning. "You mean you like my muscles, huh?" I said, hiding my evil grin as I pulled my shirt over my head. "Please, senior Joey. I am... powerless to resist my temptations," she said as her right hand gently touched my left breast. "Hmmm... what kind of temptations?" I said, standing still while she began feeling my chest and stomach with her shaking hands. "Oh Senior... Very pleasurable temptations..." she moaned as she ran her hands down my shorts and thighs, then dragged her ample chest up against my lumpy crotch and lightly kissed the hair just above my belly button once, twice, and then a third time. When her tongue slipped into my belly button, I put my hands on my hips, closed my eyes and let her lose herself in her temptations without having to say or do anything. She took her time exploring my chest and stomach with her mouth and tongue while slowly coaxing my shorts down my legs with her hands inside them. I have no idea when she had taken off her top and bra, but when she had my shorts and underpants down past my knees, I nearly fell over from the first touch of her hot sweaty breasts against my cock's head. Shit, I had never had a woman use her breasts to explore my body like that before. Rosalind's tits were like loose mounds of hot velvety flesh in her hands, and after she rubbed my chest, stomach, legs and face with them, she wrapped those two knockers around my cock and jerked me off with them, catching every drop on her chest and spreading it around with them. While I was still a bit dazed from my release, Rosalind arose slowly while pressing her cum covered breasts against my sweaty skin, shocking me back to reality when her face closed in for a kiss. I guess I was slightly repulsed by her age. I mean, she was old enough to be my mother for God's sake. Anyway, she saw it in my face and jerked away at the last moment, then as she scrambled for her bra she said shakily, "Please, go! I do not wish you to see my shame!" I was still in shock a little and didn't respond right away, but when she turned and said, "GO! Please?!" while her left strap slipped from her hands and exposed her breast again. "I..." I sputtered, completely unsure what to do or say. "Go?" she said while sagging to her knees, about to burst out in tears. "No," I said uncertainly, "I'm sorry, Rosalind. I... Shit." I reached down, pulled her up to her feet, then kissed her gently with just a little tongue before pulling back and saying, "You're mucho sexy woman, it just took me a moment to see how much of one you really are." She carefully pulled herself away from my grasp, then turned her back towards me and said, "You say this because you feel guilty. I am old, you are young. I took advantage, and now I..." "Shit, Rosalind. Who took advantage of who? I just had one of the most erotic... shit, I don't even know what to call it. Besides, I pretty much knew what you had in mind when you brought me in here. Especially after feeling me up while you thought I was asleep." "So now I am fool as well as old..." she sighed pathetically, yet still not attempting to dress while she stood there with her back towards me. "You're no fool, and you're not old," I said, carefully embracing her from behind, purposely flexing as many muscles as I could that made direct contact with her skin. "If you were, my cock no sea tan duro como una roca, sí?" She felt my hard cock pressed up against her clothed buttock, and after giving her a few kisses on the neck and cheek, she returned them with a frisky tonguey one of her own. "Okay?" I asked her after she broke off the kiss and hugged me with exploring hands on my back and ass. "Si, mucho gracias," she sighed before giving my cock one last feel and stepping away to get dressed. We went back to our seats separately, and didn't say much the rest of the flight. But after we landed I gave her kiss on her cheek goodbye which brought a smile to her lips and I think added some pep in her steps as she walked away. "Ahhh..." Charles said stretching his arms out in the Colombian sun once we had left the terminal heading for our rental car. "I've forgotten how invigorating the weather here is." "Invigorating?" I said, wiping the sweat out of my eyes. "It's so fucking humid I think I'm already pruning up." "Oh come now, Joey," he said as he unbuttoned his casual button down shirt. "When I was your age, I didn't mind the humidity at all. When mother and I got warm, we'd take off our shirts and tie them around our waists. Actually, most of the time we never bothered to put them on." "If I didn't wear a shirt, I'd be scorched by dusk. I peeled like crazy for a week last year." "But you were golden brown after that, weren't you?" "Yeah, I guess, but we don't have time for me to shed my skin. We have to find Tim as soon as we can, remember?" Charles sighed, then said, "Yes, of course... You're right. This isn't a vacation after all. Something about just being here... So many fond memories." We reached our rental car, and after I tossed my coin and he called it, I took the keys and got in the drivers seat. "So how many times have you come back after leaving the first time?" I asked after starting the car and pulling out. "Only once," he said. "A couple of months after they made me free Sam, I took her male slaves she had bought from Gladius back. I witnessed Joy's and Honey's birth while I was there, and Gladius Junior offered them to me saying his father would have wanted me to have them. I didn't really want them at the time, but in many ways Gladius was like a father to me. So I went through the bonding ritual, then six years later they were delivered at my door. <sigh>." "You miss them," I simply said. "Of course I do. They were my girls. I miss them as much as I do my mother. But despite what Tim thinks, they're gone. The two women who I banned to live in my English mansion are not the two girls I raised, and I doubt even Gladius could bring them back. They were... unique." "You okay? I'd like to ask you some questions but..." "I've been dealing with my mother's death and having let the twins be taken from me for a year now... Go ahead and ask, Joey. I'll be all right." "Okay, but just say if you want to stop a while, 'kay?" After he nodded, I asked, "When did Gladius er... Senior die?" "Right before I left. That was the biggest reason I left. I wasn't exactly on best terms with Gladius Junior. In fact, I was somewhat an outcast among the other voices. If Gladius Senior hadn't taken such a liking to me, I probably wouldn't have been allowed to leave after he died, but enslaved as a toy instead. I owe a lot to that old man. He taught me a lot before his death." "Hmmm... You know, Gladius Jr. made everyone believe Tim was really weak when he was Nathan. I wondered why he had done that when Tim's probably as strong or maybe even stronger than any of the other voices there. It can't be just a coincidence, could it?" Charles shrugged, then said, "I don't know. Gladius Senior took pitty on me because my father didn't appreciate me just having the gift, and personally helped me develop my techniques to the best of my abilities would allow. I didn't participate in the activities the other teen voices, and Gladius Jr. probably treated me the best among them, but he never respected me as a voice until after his father died and he took his place as 'Grandfather"." "Any idea why he did afterwards?" "Maybe because we had both lost our fathers about the same time. Or maybe the responsibilities his father left for him made him grow up a little more. All I know now is that he took my son, he took my girls, and I'm nearly positive he was responsible for my mother's death." "So.... You're out for revenge as much as to rescue Tim?" He looked at me with a slightly surprised expression, then snorted and said, "Revenge? No. Revenge is for children who don't know any better. All I desire, besides getting Tim back, is to know why. WHY he betrayed them like that." When he didn't add anything to that, I considered asking why he felt there was any trust there to betray in the first place, but then I suspected it must have something to do with what Tim couldn't tell me before. So I changed gears a little and asked, "What was the bonding ritual?" "You mean for the twins?" he asked with a slight grin. "Joey, if I told you that, I'd have to kill you." My response was just a simple, "Heh," but then he looked at me with this amused yet serious expression... "You're serious?" I said with a start. "Yes, but if it helps any, I don't actually consciously remember it myself. If someone ever tries to force it from me, my options are to either die or kill them if I am unable to stop them. It's just part of the twin's package, you see." "So is there anything you can tell me about it without one of us dying?" I half joked. "I suppose so, but it may only be relevant to my specific case and not other twins and their masters." "Like?" I prompted. "Joy and Honey had to absorb all their empathic knowledge in their first six years of their life without being able to test their knowledge until after they were shipped to me. When I first received them, they were a pair of expressionless, personality-less, obedient pets, and for several years I treated them as such until they began taking on the personalities of a pair of hounds I used to have. "They were nothing to me back then. Just two mindless slaves too young for me to enjoy, but worth keeping around for when they matured. They were about nine when I first took a little more interest in them after they gave me a superb blow job after years of their mouths being to small to take anything more than my head in. I suppose you could say they grew on me after that. By the time they were thirteen and capable of fucking me like I had always envisioned, I couldn't bare to think of the physical pain it would cause them to take my girth. "So I waited. Two years later, I found I had a son and planned to have the twins break themselves in on him, both physically and with their empathic brainwashing skills. I'm still not sure what it was about Tim that stopped them from completing their... task. It certainly was nothing that Tim said or did that night. It must have been something they felt from within him..." "Charles, have you actually ever... you know... fucked Joy or Honey?" "No. Never. And before you ask why, as absurd as it may sound, my mother told me not to." "Your mother?" "My mother." "But... But why?" "She never said. You see Joey, my mother knew things about the first empathic twins and Gladius himself from when she was growing up. Things Gladius didn't want others to know about. She was conditioned to never reveal any of it to anyone, just like I or anyone else who lived within his fortress's walls." "Except me," I pointed out. "No Joey... What you remember is what I call a self filtering memory. You can examine your memories as thoroughly as you want and never find anything wrong with them, but anything which Gladius would wish to hide from the outside world is hidden from you or anyone who tries to probe your mind, much like Tim's phone call last week." "What phone... Oh.. Oh yeah. Shit. I see what you mean." "Getting back to the twins, there is one thing I can tell you which I couldn't have before Gladius betrayed me." "Yeah?" "When the twins seeded you and Tim, they were under direct orders from Gladius to do so, and had my consent." "What?!?" "Gladius assured me it was purely a preventative measure, Joey. The only reason I agreed was to prevent something like this from happening, and he was never to use the embedded controls on either of you without my knowledge." "Shit, and that's supposed to make me feel better?" I spat. "If I hadn't agreed, he would have found another way to do it without my knowledge, and then I wouldn't have had any control over the circumstances. And ever since they had seeded Tim, Joy and Honey activated their controls in him to acclimate him so he could eventually resist it. Unfortunately I believe that is why Gladius staged Tim's death and kidnapped you both." "But why? What is Gladius so afraid of to go through so much trouble? Do you know?" "Yes. And by now, so does Tim, I imagine." "Shit. But you can't tell me, right?" "Right." "I can see where Tim might, _might_ appear to be a threat to Gladius, but why did he kidnap me? He didn't know anything about my encryption until after he had me." "Why are you here, Joey?" "What do you mean, why? I'm here to rescue Tim!" "Precisely. And that's the same reason why he kidnapped you." "Boy, was that stupid. I hated Tim's guts at the time. No way in hell would I have risked my neck for him back then." "No, you're probably right about not risking your neck to rescue him, but you would have sought him out, even if you believed he was dead. Did they ever explain to you why Gladius prefers teen voices, and why he always groups them into pairs of the same sex?" "Uhm... No. There's a reason?" "Of course there is. Voice is a very complex phenomenon, and one of the greatest mysteries is the lifetime link between two voices who bond on the mental level while first exploring their gifts. I recognized that bond the moment I met you, Joey. Nothing would have stopped you from seeking Tim out, and that's why I believe Gladius isn't planning on keeping Tim this time." "Oh really?" I said with disbelief. "Then why are _you_ here?" "To find out why, of course." "But you said you knew why!" "I know why Gladius kidnapped my son, but I don't know why he took my girls, or whether he is truly responsible for my mother's death." "You fucker! Then what the hell am I doing here?" He turned towards me and said with a smile, "In case I'm wrong, Joey. In case I'm wrong." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Charles took another nap while I drove to the boarder, and I quite frankly was happy for the peace and quite. His last revelation started me thinking, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed he was right about Gladius not planning to keep Tim. First of all, there was the fact that Tim had been able to call me in the first place. If he was in trouble, why would he only call me and not his parents too? And why would Gladius let me go after obviously having been able to hold on to me if I was destined to seek Tim out if he really was in serious trouble. And what about Eric? Why did they go through all the trouble of making Suzi and I believe Eric hadn't gone with us when he obviously had, despite us having no memories of him doing so? And then there was Charles. What were his true motivations behind coming here? He said he wasn't seeking revenge, but if that was true, then what's the point of learning the truth behind his mother's death? What if Tim really isn't in any trouble and he's just using me somehow? But the last thing I needed on this trip beyond doubts about my so called partner were doubts of my own instincts, and my instincts were telling me Tim needed me. So I pushed those doubts out of my mind for the time being and concentrated on the plan to get inside the fortress without detection. After entering Venezuela, we stopped for fuel and to eat, and then Charles angered me when he went off and fucked a woman in the backroom who had been sitting at the table across from us. He argued that he had been totally discreet and that there was no chance anyone would uncover his fuck before we were long gone from Venezuela, but I still insisted that any telepathic activity can be detected by another telepath, and that he was taking unnecessary risks by using his voice without any real cause to. Shit if he didn't have a hissy fit about that. He told me I had no right to say how he was to use his abilities and that he was perfectly aware of the risks and that they were minimal at that time. Needless to say when we got back in the car, I went to sleep while he drove, feinting it for a while just so I wouldn't have to talk to him. When I finally woke up, it was getting dark and raining a bit. Charles looked fairly tired, so I offered to drive, but he said, "Thanks, but we're coming up on a town that should have a decent hotel to hole up in for the night. It's not safe to drive at night in the rain with the shape these roads are in." I bit my tongue to keep from arguing that point, but after a few minutes I saw he was right. It's amazing how big of a difference those painted stripes down the middle of a road make. Charles was having trouble just staying on the road from the way the rain made the uneven shoulder look smooth like the rest of the road. When we reached the town he spoke of, we found quite a few hotels and had trouble deciding on one. Actually, Charles had the trouble, I didn't care. He just had to make sure we got the best one, which was pretty hard since they all looked alike from the outside. He didn't get any argument from me when he suggested getting separate rooms, and later I was glad that he had taken the time to check the hotels out because after having slept in the car for several hours, I wasn't feeling very sleepy and spent some time watching old reruns on T.V. Charles didn't even attempt to hide it when he enslaved two women to attend his bed for the night. Oh, did that piss me off, especially when I finally turned in for the night, then listened to his two fuck slaves moan in the next room for another hour. We got a late start the next morning after both of us having been up so late. I drove while Charles practiced his telepathic control again, but about three hours down the road we stopped at a very small village for bite to eat and another fuck for Charles. "I hope you're not planning on doing this the whole drive," I commented when we climbed back in the car. "Once we cross the Rio Orinoco, I'll stop," he simply said. "The Rio Orinoco!" I said, grabbing the map and looking for it. "What are you talking about? That's way out of our way..." "You don't remember how to get there, do you?" "Well, I guess not precisely, but..." "I know where I'm going, Joey. You need to consider your memory may not be entirely trustworthy when it comes to anything about Gladius." "Well, we're going to have to hope it is if we're going to get inside undetected," I reminded him. "Not necessarily. We're going to see an old friend of mine first and see what he can do for us before we attempt to sneak in." "A friend whom you haven't seen in twenty years? Do you really think he'll still be your... friend?" "As sure as the moans of the next woman I lay..." he said with a chuckle. Twenty minutes later, Charles suddenly asked, "How is your sister?" "My sister?" "Yes. Did she enslave her husband?" I explained what happened, then asked him, "How did you find out about her pregnancy anyways? Sarah almost didn't tell me, and I'm her brother." "By chance, I glanced inside from the porch just at the moment she told you. Lip reading is an old hobby of mine..." "Lip reading? Why would a voice need to learn how to read lips?" "I wasn't always a voice, remember? I learned how to lip read after my father... Let's just say I learned it to impress him, shall we?" "Shit. So what did you say to Sarah to get her to open up to you?" "Well, after we washed the two boys' hands, Tommy offered Richie a piggy back ride, so I simply asked if she knew whether it was a boy or girl yet. Her expression was truly priceless..." "Shit, I bet. Now I know where Tim gets his kicks at seeing the shock on peoples faces," I mumbled. "Joey, being blunt and to the point is always more productive than trying to get someone to admit to something they've taken great care to hide." "Oh, and that's why you blurted out you having a tape of Tim, Suzi and I having sex?!" "Precisely. It was only a matter of time before your parents found out the whole truth, and with Sam, myself and Suzi's mother being on your side, Sam and I figured it was the best time to deal with it." "Shit, you know what? In a lot of ways, Tim's just like you. He's always doing shit like that. It really pisses me off when he does it too!" "It seems you have that in common with your sister. If I hadn't been prepared for her assault... Well, she calmed down very quickly when I explained Sam already knew and would tell her mother if she didn't hear me out. "Joey, not to get off the topic, but... Have you ever had sex with her?" "Who, Sarah? NO WAY!" "I wasn't trying to imply you should," he said after noticing my hostile glare. "Oh, so if you had a sister, you wouldn't have sex with her?" "I didn't say that... I don't really know what would have happened if I had a sister. I suppose it would have been up to my father whether or not... <sigh> I'm glad I don't have a sister. I wouldn't wish anyone else to have to grow up in that household like I had." "Charles... Do you hate your father?" I asked. "Sometimes I say I do, but no, I don't really hate him. Despite all the humiliations he put me through and his uninhibited use of his voice on me, I wouldn't be the man I am now if he had pampered me my whole life. And he always made sure my mother was with me, and for that single reason I forgave him a long time ago." "Oh... Well, I guess that's good." "I would hope so. If it wasn't for my father dictating every aspect of my life all those years, I'm sure I would have never accepted the... relationship between you and Tim when I first met you." "So... If Richie decides he liked guys better than girls when he gets older..." Charles' choked before saying, "Over my dead body!" "Heh... Thought so." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Seven hours and two fuck stops later, Charles finally announced, "Yes, this is it," and turned our rental car down a gravel road that had a sign hanging over it saying, 'Welcome Friend' in plain English. We had spent the past two hours driving on this crummy road in the flatlands three hours out of our way, so you could say I wasn't in the best of moods, especially after Charles pointed out I need him more than he needed me when I complained. The car rattled and bounced noisily down the pothole infested gravel road, Charles apparently being so anxious to see his old friend he could bear to slow down at all. The farm we drove up to consisted of a cluster of ten or so houses with a number of other buildings surrounding them, and fields of corn and rice as far as the eyes could see. As we drove up to the houses, children came running out into the rain to greet us, then scattered when we pulled to a stop and Charles hopped out. "Miguel! Where is my old friend Miguel?" Charles cried out to the children dancing about all around us. Several of the older children excitedly went on about something, then one boy was elected to ask Charles, "You amigo del papa?" "Yes, I'm Miguel's friend, Charles. Where is he?" The entire crowd of children stopped in their tracks like they had misheard him, but then the boy who had spoke turned around and said shakily, "Amigo del papa... Amigo del papa Charles!" Most of the children took off in all directions, yelling his words as they ran, leaving us standing there looking stunned with only a few of the youngest children remaining behind looking almost as bewildered as we did. Within minutes our hands were being shaken nearly off our arms as young man after young man came running up to greet Charles and introduce us to their wife and children. None of them could have been older than twenty-two or so, and at least half of them were younger than I was. They spoke so quickly I had difficulty following their words, but from what I gathered they were either Miguel's son's or son-in-laws, and while the women were very talkative themselves, they let their husbands do all the talking when addressing Charles or myself. Suddenly a large overweight mustached man appeared and bellowed, "Charles!" "Miguel!" Charles bellowed back. "You sexual demon!" "You hymen-buster!" "Good to see you, amigo!" they both cried as they hugged and noisily patted each other's backs. "Look at you! And your family! You have done well, Miguel! I am impressed!" "Si, I have been very fortunate, mucho thanks to you," Miguel said while surveying the crowd of anxious people surrounding them. Miguel suddenly stepped forward and picked up the boy who had spoke to Charles when we arrived. "Charles Grodmen, this is Charles Enriquez, my youngest son." "Well, nice to meet you Charles," Charles said joyfully as he held out his hand to the boy. The boy timidly held out his hand but then shook Charles's hand quite vigorously as he chanted on about how he loved hearing his father's stories about Charles and his wonderful mother. "Where is your mama, Charles? And who is this? Your son?" Charles' expression lost its glow before saying, "No, this is Joey, my oldest son's best amigo. Mom died about a year ago." Miguel, put a consoling hand on Charles' shoulder and said softly, "I grieve for your loss, amigo. She was wonderful person, and a wonderful mama. Come, let us go inside out of this rain and drink to her memory. Then afterwards we fuck a few of my wives just like old times, eh amigo?" "Thank you, Miguel. You always knew how to cheer me up," Charles said while they put their arms behind each other and led the way in. Bottles of their best whisky were opened up and passed around to commensurate Charles's mother's passing away, everyone over the age of ten getting a drink from one of the bottle before most of them left to go back to their work. "So how many children do you have now, Miguel?" Charles said after Miguel introduced us to his twelve wives. "Thirty boys, thirty three girls," Miguel said while six of his wives left and the remaining six got undressed. "How about you, amigo?" "Two boys," Charles said glancing at my disgusted expression. "Miguel, Joey prefers women his own age..." "Is he so closed minded not to see the beauty of my wives?" Miguel said smartly. "I'm not closed minded. I'm just not interested. Excuse me," I said as I squeezed past the two women who were approaching me and went out the nearest door. I headed back out to the car to try and figure out exactly where we were on the map, but the boy Charles ran up and walked next to me in silence until I stopped and asked, "What do you want?" "You hijo del amigo?" he asked. "No, I'm not Charles's son," I spat. He frowned, then asked, "You no like mama?" "Whose mama? Mine or yours?" I repeated the question in my broken Spanish, and he responded simply by pointing at himself. "I like girls my own age," I repeated Charles somewhat. He accepted my explanation, then after thinking a moment, he took my hand and said, "Come. Come." "Look, I know you're just trying to help, but I'm really not in the mood to play," I said while allowing him to lead me. After repeating it as best I could in Spanish, Charles broke out in a grin and said, "No play... Fuck." "Fuck, huh?" I said, frowning at his humping jester, which in turn caused him some concern. "You no like fuck?" he asked in Spanish with surprise. "Sure I like fucking, but I'm not interested in fucking anything you got to show me," I said while turning around and heading back to the car. I was a little surprised when I reached the car and found he was gone, but I just put the whole thing out of my mind and focused on the map. The map was fairly detailed, but even though I had been keeping track of the turns as Charles made them, I was totally lost as to where we were. After an hour of frustration with the map, I took a long walk in the rain in my bare feet, taking off and tying my shirt to my waist after having my fill of being hot and wet at the same time. I ran across a group of children playing in the mud at the corner of one of the corn fields. While I didn't join them in their game of mud flinging, I did find a nice private spot in another field to let my feet sink in the soft wet mud and sat down on a rock while swirling my feet in the soothing wet mother earth. My mind wandered to thinking about what Suzi might have been doing then, but didn't let myself get so distracted that I didn't notice the kid Charles walking towards me with a pregnant girl... about my age. I pretended not to see them, hoping they were just heading to the next field or something, but when they stopped behind me and Charles said, "Amigo like talk?" I turned and felt guilty about how I was acting with him. "Yeah, talk is okay. Pull up a rock or something." "Pull up a rock?" the girl repeated in well practiced English a bit puzzled. "I mean... You can sit down if you want," I said with surprise. "Gracias," she said, then sat down carefully on a grassy spot next to me. "Uhm, I'm Joey," I said, offering her my hand in greeting. "Gloria," she said, lightly grasping my hand and giving it a gentle shake. "My brother believes you are... unhappy being here." "I'm not unhappy... We're just supposed to be on our way somewhere else, that's all." "May I ask if you are... voice?" "Yeah, I have voice," I said with a touch of surprise in my voice. "Why do you not use it?" "Who says I don't?" "You do not use it on me or Charles when we come." "Maybe I did and you just don't realize it." Charles juts in saying something about her shirt, which Gloria simply says, "Si," and holds her arms up. Charles jumps to his feet and carefully but swiftly pulls her shirt off to expose her stretched stomach and swelled breasts to the hot muggy air. "What did you do that for?" I said, steering my eyes away from her swelled out body parts as she laid down on her back. Charles took my hand and firmly pulled it towards Gloria's stretched stomach, causing me to lose my balance on the rock and I nearly jerked Charles into the mud when I instinctively used my hands to catch myself. "You little shit!" I spat as I pulled my hands out of the mud and stood up. The boy started apologizing desperately, and if he hadn't been so close to Tommy's age, I probably would have stomped off cussing. But I knew that, like Tommy, he was only trying to gain my favor by trying to offer me something he thought I would like. So I allowed the boy to help clean off my hands, then after he swore up and down he would let me be if I just did one thing, I allowed him to guide my hand to Gloria's stomach and feel around. "Papa like baby in girls," Charles mentioned while I stroked Gloria's tightly stretched skin. "I like. Joey like?" "I suppose so," I admitted as I gave her tummy a gentle kiss, then recognized the scent of an aroused woman. I glanced up at Gloria's face and found her cheeks slightly flushed with her eyes closed. Charles was watching me with great interest with a serious bulge in his shorts, and after a moment I scanned Gloria's mind to confirm a suspicion I had. "Shit," I breathed as I slipped my fingers under her shorts and found the wetness there. "You people are sick!" "No like?" Charles said with disappointment. "No, I no like!" I said while standing up. "God, and I thought you might actually be a little normal." "You LIKE!" Charles suddenly said, nodding his head down and looking at me at the top of his eyes, casting a telepathic command of such intensity that stunned me for several moments, then did so again before I could recover and strengthen my weakened barriers. "You like," he said as I was overcome with the need to suck the juices out of her pregnant pussy. "You like sister with baby inside." The image of a pregnant Sarah flashed through my mind when he spoke those words, triggering a wave of revulsion and anger within me that caused me to jerk my face away which had been descending on Gloria's mound, grab the little shit by his leg and pulled him off his feet. I had a hell of a time resisting the urge to return to her cunt, but I managed to hold it off long enough to undo the simpleton command, then made the squirming boy unable to use his voice as long as I was around. After I sent the sniffling child and his disappointed sister on their way, I marched right into the room I sensed the real Charles in and found him still fucking one of Miguel's wives in the ass. "Joey!" Charles exclaimed before grunting his release in the woman's ass. "Looks like you've been enjoying yourself." "Enjoying myself?!?" I exclaimed. "I almost got enslaved by a nine year old kid with a thing for pregnant women, and you think I'm enjoying myself?" "Miguel, you didn't tell me any of your kids had voice," Charles said with passing interest. "Hmmm?" Miguel said, rousing himself from a drunken slumber. "I said you didn't tell me you had any brats with voice," Charles said with a touch of humor. "No.. No children with voice," Miguel said distantly. "I hate to break it to you, but your son Charles has voice. He just.." "No son Charles..." Miguel said distantly. "Shit, he's so drunk...." "Miguel," Charles said, gently slapping Miguel on the cheek to sober him up a bit. "Miguel, your youngest son... The one you named after me..." "NO SON Charles!" Miguel said strongly. "He favor for... for... someone..." "What do you mean, favor?" Charles asked patiently. "Boy had bad papa. Papa dead now. Boy needed new papa, I be new papa." "But what about the name?" I asked. "Charles isn't your everyday Venezuelan name." "Boy wanted new name," Miguel said with a lazy shrug. "When he learn about Charles, he wanted that name." "Miguel, you said you took the boy as a favor. A favor to who?" Charles said, holding the bottle out of Miguel's reach as he tried to grasp it with a sloppy hand. After rolling onto the floor on the third attempt to get the bottle, Miguel chuckled, "Charles... You no play fair..." "Come on, my friend," Charles said patiently, helping him back up into his chair and handing him the bottle. "Now who's favor was it? The boy's?" "No no... Your old amigo.... Gladius." "Gladius?!?" Charles and I both repeated in alarm. "Si. He bring boy to me and ask very nicely. Promised boy would be... asset to my retirement when he grow. Boy needs firm but gently hand, he said. He right. Boy no problem. Care as he was my own, but he not." "Shit, we sure stepped in it this time," I said, getting nervous and angry at the same time. Miguel threw his head up while drinking deeply from the almost empty bottle and rocked himself backwards onto the floor with a crash. Once he recovered from the stun of the fall, Miguel simply looked at the neck of the broken bottle still in his hand, cursed, then closed his eyes and let himself pass out. Charles carefully checked Miguel over to make sure he wasn't injured while we both scanned his drunken mind for any signs of tampering. "He's a voice?" I suddenly realized when I ran across a memory of using his gift on a neighbor. "Yes, but his strength is even less than mine," Charles said slightly mumbled. "Joey, I'm going to break this link between us for a minute. I don't have the precision I need to detect anything." "We need to get out of here," I said, taking his arm to tug him firmly towards the door. "Gladius could already be here with an army of twins..." "If he is, then nothing we do will matter. But if he isn't... Then we need to contain this here and now before it gets out. Agreed?" I stared him in the eyes for a good minute while that sank in, then I said, "Alright... But don't break the link until I can round up the little runt. He could be on the phone right now with Kain." "Kain?" Charles asked. "Gladius's son," I thought back to him as I ran out the door. I found 'Junior' playing with some of the other kids in a barn, basically acting like any other nine year rather than a spy. Maybe I was being overcautious, but I couldn't take the chance of him being a plant of some kind, and easily took him over and marched him out before the others could even guess something was wrong. I took him back to the main house where I had left Charles, finding him back in his britches and had gathered Miguel's wives to inspect their minds. When Charles insisted he needed to break the link, I simply linked with Charles Junior and started scanning his mind. Shit, the kid had had it pretty rough. His father was a drunken brute who periodically beat the shit out of the little boy. The kid didn't know any better than to take it, but when his father cornered his best friend and started beating on him, something snapped in the boy's mind and he made his father run away and never stop. The man couldn't stop running away from everyone or everything, and apparently died somewhere from not even stopping for a drink of water. How Gladius found out about him, the boy didn't know. Gladius just showed up one day and asked him if he would like a new and better papa. That was two years earlier, and during the time the boy had been with Gladius, I could sense there being fuzzy spots where I imagine the boy was under the control of a pair of twins. I scanned him as best I could and found nothing that could point to the boy being a mole. Perhaps it was just coincidence that Gladius just so happened to show up on Miguel's front doorstep with the boy two months before Tim and I were abducted by his twins. Yeah, right. "I can't find anything," I relented to Charles. "How's the women?" "Clean," Charles said distantly, then turned and said, "Miguel is too drunk to do this right. Let me try the boy." "I said I didn't find anything," I repeated while allowing his probes to pass into the boy's mind. "You might have missed something," he said softly from the strain of the probing, but then paused his telepathic scan and said firmly, "And I might have missed something too. Do the women." "Yeah, all right," I said, not really believing it would do any good. I guess you could say I got a little side tracked. Those women had been Miguel's wives ever since Charles helped Miguel develop his abilities when they were teens. Shit, Charles Junior was right about Miguel liking pregnant women. Miguel carefully chose each one of his wives from the entire region based upon not just their looks, but the number of siblings in their family. Miguel then kept half of them pregnant at all times for the first several years, then tapered it down to three at a time from having so many mouths to feed. At least Miguel wasn't into incest like Candice's father was. The closest he came to incest was checking out some of his son's wives while they were pregnant, but he never touched them. Or at least _his_ wives didn't believe he did. Charles took a long time with the boy, much longer than it took me to scan the women and even do a little digging in Miguel's head too. The boy just sat there looking slightly limp, his eyes staring at nothing in particular while blinking like they normally did. I guess it spooked me a little seeing this little boy mindless like that. We weren't hurting him, but it was unsettling just the same. I guess the thought of someone doing something like that to Tommy scared me to death. "Well, I'm not sure why, but..." Charles said suddenly. "Gladius had his girls imprint a fascination for me into the boy. The only reason he tried to please you was to get closer to me." "What, did you find a hidden memory?" I said, probing the boy's mind again. "No... It was right out in the open," Charles said while having the boy recall his thoughts at the time he approached me. "See? Some kind of hero-worship..." "So you really haven't found anything..." "Hidden? No. But this cinches it for me. We best make them all forget we were here and be on our way." "Now you're thinking my way," I said as I began forming a very large blanket command. "It's a shame we have to leave so soon," Charles sighed as we climbed into the rental. "We should have never stopped here in the first place," I pointed out. "Perhaps, but I thought Miguel might have some information on Gladius's activities... Well, it was worth the shot. I don't have any other friends here I can trust, so I suppose we'll have to try your plan now." I kept my mouth shut, not wishing to start an argument right then. But once we were back on the main road and I had reblanketed the area just incase someone noticed us leaving, I started outlining my ideas to him. "You're forgetting one thing," Charles interrupted suddenly. "The Okicutians." "The what?" "The tribe of people who live on the mountain. Voices can't detect them, and they guard the mountain from intruders. I thought you saw them..." "I did, but... Shit, you're right. I didn't think of them... But actually they might make things easier for us. I'm pretty sure they're loyal to Lea and Zoe, not Gladius. If we can convince them to take a message to Lea..." "What makes you so sure Lea and... Zoe will help us?" "I'm not sure, but... Well, they were the ones who helped me and Tim escape last year. Why wouldn't they help us now?" "Because helping you escape is very different than helping us break in. What kind of relationship do they have with Gladius? You don't really know what their motives were for helping you last time, but they must have believed Gladius could be made to see reason afterwards. There's too many unknowns, Joey." "But without inside help..." "Don't get me wrong, Joey. I'm convinced they won't turn us over to Gladius the moment we make contact, but we can't rely on getting their help either. We must have a backup plan, and whatever we do, we can't trust anyone, even Tim when we find him. Clear?" "Not even..." I repeated before comprehending his meaning. "Yeah... Clear as crystal." We stopped for the night in a village on the banks of the Rio Orinoco, and to my surprise Charles didn't round up any bed companions that night. He had fucked every one of Miguel's wives, so I figured he had just had his fill of fucking ass for the day, but I still had expected him to enslave a couple of women for the night before we crossed the river. The next morning, Charles had me drive while he... daydreamed, or at least that's what it seemed to me. At the town we stopped for lunch, I was surprised when Charles didn't offer drive, but after he got in on the passenger's side, I went ahead and took the captain's chair again. "We probably should discuss that otehr plan," I prompted him after another twenty minutes of silent driving went by. "Hmmmmm..." he said noncommittally. "We're only a couple of hours away... We really should talk about that backup plan," I said a few minutes later. "Go ahead," he said distantly. I paused a moment, then asked, "You thinking about your mom again?" "What?" he said, snapping out of his self induced daze. "Why do you say that?" "You've been somewhere else all morning. I just thought that maybe you were missing your mom again." Charles sighed, then said, "I do, but I've been trying to remember everything I can about Gladius and his keep." "Remember anything useful?" "I'm not sure. I seem to have a blank spot in my memories shortly before Gladius Jr. allowed me to leave. I've been picking away at it, but I haven't recalled anything substantial yet." "Isn't that sort of dangerous? I mean, what about your suicide conditioning?" "That's only if I allow someone else to access it." "So even if you do remember something important, you're not going to be able to tell me, are you?" "No, probably not. But it won't stop me from using the information to our advantage." "Shit. In other words, I have to trust you." "Precisely. But for now, I know nothing new of consequence, so we will proceed with your plan for now." "All right. So we sneak in and try to reach Lea on our own, but if we get caught by those jungle people, we try to convince them to let Lea know we need to see her, etc, etc. If that doesn't work, one of us will probably have to make a distraction while the other tries to slip away or something." "I'm not sure what that would accomplish considering you don't know where this Lea's cave is." "I know, but I'm counting on Lea finding us if she just learns that we're there." "And if she refuses to help us and they turn us over to Gladius?" "She won't turn us over. I know she won't." "All right, but what if Lea isn't there and the Okicutians have no choice but to turn us over to Gladius?" "I don't think that is very likely. From what I gathered, Zoe never left until after Lea was... Shit... I wonder how old she was when Zoe left her. I mean, none of the other voices knew anything about Zoe, and a few of them had been there at least four years." "Zoe..." Charles said with a shiver. "What? You know her?" "I'm not sure..." Charles said in a strained voice. "I think I may be on to something..." When Charles didn't say anything else, I let him pick at his brain without disturbing him. I started to get worried about us finding the lone road leading down from the opposite side of the mountain as Gladius's keep was on after three more hours of driving and having seen no sign of it. If I hadn't already been sweating from the heat of the day, I would have been from the strain I felt while driving farther and farther around the mountain, expecting to see Gladius's keep pop into view from having gone too far. The worse part of it was, we were getting low on gas and there hadn't been any sign of a fuel station that last hour or so. But then I saw the cliff we had to have come out on that day we left Gladius's keep, and decided I was close. So I stopped the car under a sparsely shaded area and got the binoculars out to scan the area underneath great cliff. After about twenty minutes, I put the binoculars down and rubbed my eyes, then jumped when Charles said, "Let me look." "Go ahead," I said, tossing him the binoculars. "Everything's covered with trees and shit. I can't see anything that even resembles the path we took last year." "Gladius loved hiding things through deception and decoys... Do remember if the path zigzagged a lot?" "Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't," I recalled. "We came out on that cliff then started making our way down the left side where the trees go up to meet it. See it?" "Yes, I see it... The path you can see from here... I don't think it's the path you took. Yes... The one you took goes straight down the side then banks left." "Let me see..." I said, reaching for the binoculars. He handed them over to me, then guided my line of vision to where the faintly detectable line going straight down the face of the mountain ended and two other faint traces of paths branched off in opposite directions. It took Charles and I about an hour and a half to work our way all the way down the mountain through the binoculars. We kept the sun at our backs so the glasses wouldn't make our presence known, and after another half hour of driving back the way we had come, we found the mouth of the path we were looking for. Shit, it was a long way up. We took only the essentials, food, water, first aid kit, a small plastic tent, and of course my coin, and after Charles having stopped to rest way too many times, I carried his pack and mine in the hopes he'd make better time. I could have climbed that damn mountain three times in the time it took Charles, but we at least made it up to the cliff before dark. I felt a little exposed camping out right there at the edge of the cliff, but at least we could see someone coming and hide if need be. Charles could barely keep his eyes open by the time we set up our little tent and ate our dried meat and canned fruit for dinner in the dark. We didn't dare build a fire, not that we could have with the rain still coming down. And without a fire, everything outside that little pup tent was lost in darkness. I just hoped that if we couldn't see anything beyond two feet outside the tent, then anyone who was crazy enough to be walking around a cliff in the middle of the night in the poring rain wouldn't see our little tent just off the beaten path. I woke at first light with Charles curled up against my backside. I carefully disentangled myself from him and wiggled my way out of the tent, finding that while the rain hadn't quit, it at least wasn't poring like it had most of the night. Once I was sure no one was around, I woke Charles up long enough to get the share link back up, then let him sleep another half hour while I scouted around and checked things out. On the way back to the tent, my attention was captivated by the sun shining through a parting of the clouds onto the flatlands below. I've never seen anything look so... divine, I suppose. Like God was looking down on that particular patch of Earth, or even maybe He was trying to tell me where to go. But my instincts told me otherwise. Tim was here. I knew he was. I just knew it. Have you ever tried to get a middle aged, out of shape voice who had climbed halfway up a mountain the day before out of bed early in the morning? No? Do you have any idea how hard it is? Charles complained he was sore from head to toe, that given another hour of sleep he'd feel a lot sharper, and basically made up all sorts of excuses to go back to sleep. I got him some aspirin out of the first aid kit and let him sleep another forty five minutes to give the aspirin some time to take effect, then when he refused to come out of the tent after that, I got pissed and collapsed it on him. Unfortunately, Charles didn't seem to mind the tent like that. But then I remembered my mom telling me how she used to get dad up when they went camping together, and started looking for some dry wood to build a fire. Charles got up on his own about twenty minutes later, however, when the sun came out and started heating up the tent with it's light. While I was grateful that the rain had stopped and the sun had gotten Charles moving, I was cursing the sun by the time he finished his breakfast and I had broken down camp. The humidity was really getting to me by the time we reached the cave like crack in the rock that lead to another path farther up the mountain. That path wrapped around to the other side where a gate was embedded in the huge wall surrounding Gladius's keep at its highest elevation on the mountain. The path had several forks in it along the way, so naturally we took a few wrong turns. On one such occasion we came across a cave that had to have been man made, and had an intricate gate about ten yards inside that appeared to be easily opened from the outside. I was about to open it just to see what would happen, but Charles stopped me before I could grab the lever saying, "No, Joey. Something tells me this gate shouldn't be opened. Let's go back and take the other path." By mid-afternoon, we were still unsure if we were on the right path, Charles was exhausted, and I was starting to feel a bit tired myself. I was sure we were close to the right elevation just for the fact that the air was cooler and even felt relatively dryer, but with the sun being right over our heads and thus no hint as to which way was north, east, or west, we could have been turned around a number of times and had been on the wrong side of the mountain by then. So once we reached another fork we hadn't been to before, I climbed up a tree to try to get a better perspective, and nearly fell out of it when I saw not only the wall below us, but the entire keep as well. Charles suggested we leave the paths and head straight down the mountain to the wall, then just follow it until we found the gate in the wall. We attempted to do that, but quickly came to another cliff that was impossible to climb down without ropes and other climbing shit. At least we could see the wall pretty good from the cliff, and I thought I could see the gate in the distance to our left. So we made our way back up to the paths and eliminated a lot of wrong turns just knowing exactly where we were going. Finally, around six o'clock, we found the path that lead up to the gate, and even had it in our sights just before thirty or so naked camouflaged painted men popped out from the trees all around us. Shit, did I jump. Charles hadn't been kidding about voices being unable to detect them. If I couldn't see them with my own eyes, feel their hands as they stripped our packs from our backs and roughly forced us to strip our clothes, I would have thought they were illusions from the empty space my telepathic senses reported them to be. I tried to explain to them I needed to see Lea, but to my dismay, once our clothes were off and they had satisfied themselves we hadn't brought any weapons beyond a Swiss army knife and the scissors in the first aid kit, they tied our hands behind us and lead us back the way we came without uttering a single word. Charles was really having a rough time keeping up with the pace they made us go. Despite the fact they were carrying our gear and we were always either on level ground or descending, Charles was so tired he kept falling to the ground. At least they had the decency to release his arms so he could catch himself. It was nearly dark when we reached a hidden cave opening very similar to the one we had found earlier that day. In fact if the entrance hadn't been hidden so far off the path within a dense area of trees, I would have said it had been the same cave. Even the gate was identical to the first one, and I was very careful to watch how they opened it for obvious reasons. I was rather surprised when they flipped a couple of flashlights on to light the way. I mean, their appearance didn't suggest they would use such things. And where the hell did they get new batteries when the old ones run out? Again, the cave was obviously man made, for no natural cave would be so straight. Yet there were stalagmites poking up from the floor and stalactites hanging about, and the Okicutians took every opportunity to remove them and lay them off to the sides without breaking their stride. At one point the cave actually opened up into a real cave that was filled with water, the drips from the ceiling becoming almost deafening as we carefully wade waist deep in very chilly and slow moving water to another opening on the far side of the cavern. This cave was man made also, but unlike the first one, I noticed a steady breeze blowing through it. Perhaps because the water had chilled me slightly that I noticed it, but the breeze was definitely there, and it definitely felt warmer than the other passageway. We must have been walking for over an hour before we finally reached it's sudden end after a ninety degree turn and a short decline. The Okicutians herded us into this wooden cage just to the right of the opening, then surprisingly returned all of our gear to us, minus the knife and scissors of course. After we took our wet shoes off, put our shorts on, then ate half a granola bar each, Charles was so tired he just curled up in a corner and immediately fell asleep. I spent another twenty minutes trying to get one of the two new un- camouflaged Okicutians guarding us to tell me what was going to happen to us, but couldn't get anything out of them but a single "Shhhhhh." The sun was shining in my eyes when I opened them next morning, but that wasn't what had awakened me... "You shouldn't have come here, Joey." "But I had to," I said, shielding my eyes from the sun as I sat up, then took a moment to blink away the spots while Lea stood outside the cage watching me carefully. "You've grown," I said, finding myself feeling slightly humbled by her presence. "A few centimeters," she said without interest. "You said you came here to see me." "Yes. Gladius has Tim again and I hoped you'd..." "I'm afraid you're mistaken. Tim is not here. You must leave." "Are you sure?" I said a bit shocked. "I mean, I'm certain Gladius has Tim and a friend of ours. If they're not here, then where could..." "Who is that with you?" Lea interrupted when she suddenly noticed Charles stirring in the corner. "Tim's dad. Look, are you sure Tim isn't here?" "You brought Charles? Here?" Lea said, stepping back away from the cage. "I can not help you, Joey. You must leave." "Wait!" I cried as she stepped out of my sight. "But where is Tim?!?" When she didn't reply and I was sure she wasn't going to, I shook Charles awake and explained what happened. I barely had enough time to stress the fact that Lea had been disturbed by Charles being there before our escort party arrived and we were rushed to pack up our shit and were lead away from the cave we had arrived through. At first I was seriously worried they were going to hand us over to Gladius, but we were going up rather than down, and I quickly realized we were heading towards the gate at the top of the wall. I kept trying to get one of our painted escorts to tell me why they weren't taking us back the way we had come in, but the only person who would say anything was Charles, and he wasn't saying much at all during the climb. The gate was actually an series of four interior walls made out of metal, rock, and wood, that slid out of the way one at a time, all to protect a two foot square hole in the wall. I guessed from the way the gate worked that you simply couldn't come in that way, and I kicked myself for having not realized it until then. Once Charles and I entered the space where the second wall had been, the third wall/gate began to open while the first started to close. Shit, when I had been through it the year before, Benjamin had made it seem like he was the one responsible for deciding when the gates would move by walking up to a wall and tapping it. It was a bit unnerving having those four foot thick massive walls sliding open and closed automatically without there being anyway for anyone controlling them to know if we were out of the way or not. "Now what do we do? Go home?" I sighed as I sat down beside Charles underneath a tree just outside the closing gate. "Go home?!?" Charles exclaimed wearily. "I haven't worn myself out walking up and down this damn oversized rock to quit now." "But Lea said..." "Forget Lea, Joey. If she didn't know I was with you until she saw me, she must not be as omnipotent as you believed her to be. You're only person who can tell us where Tim is. Feel him out, Joey. If he's nearby, you'll know it. I closed my eyes and tried everything I could think of to 'feel' Tim out without success. I even tried imagining back to the old days when Tim had just figured out how to form our two-ways, and it was in the middle of recalling our first dual jerk off that the share link suddenly broke and I found Charles fast asleep beside me. I got the tent out and laid it out so we could lay on top of it, then decided I was starving for something besides granola bars and the other rations we had been eating and broke out the can of refried beans and my boy scout cooking kit. By the time Charles woke up, I had a modest if a bit smoky fire going and was dumping the beans into the aluminum frying pan/plate. "You look as if you've done this a few times," Charles commented as I carefully placed the pan on top of the rocks I had put in the fire. "You know how my mom and dad like camping," I simply said. "I don't really enjoy it as much as they do, but I don't mind roughing it once in a while." "Has Tim ever gone camping with you?" "Yeah, lots of times. Sometimes I wondered if I got sick before a trip that he would go with my dad without me anyways. How about you? Did you go camping when you were a kid?" "I had never even seen a campfire before I met Miguel and he built one for us. I remember how badly I wanted to show Mother I could rub two sticks together to start a fire like Miguel could... I never got it work though." "That's too bad... I have a feeling we that trick might come in handy sometime soon," I said, showing him the nearly depleted package of matches which had been full the day before. Charles chuckled, then said, "I'm surprised you got anything to burn as wet as everything is." He noticed me starting to turn red, so I said, "Well, it wasn't really all that dry, but I used something to get it started that I figured wouldn't matter if I went without..." "What's that?" "My jockey's..." We both laughed at that, then Charles said, "You must really like your refried beans." "Heh. You bet your ass I do. A camp out just wouldn't be the same without them." "Hmmm..." Charles said before going over to his back and rummaging around in it. He brought over one of those shiny metal containers you see people drinking hard liquor out of in westerns and said, "A souvenir I picked up from Miguel before we left. It's his secret ingredient," before pouring some into the pan. "Shit," I muttered when I started stirring it in and accidentally slopped some over the side. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed the moment afterwards when the alcohol I had dumped over the side burst into flames. Charles and then I started laughing again, both seeing we wouldn't have to burn his jockey's to start our next fire. By the time the beans were ready and cool enough to eat, we were both so anxious to eat them we didn't bother to use a second plate and just ate it straight out of the pan. "Mmmm... Miguel sure knows his secret ingredients," I commented as we ate. Charles chuckled then said, "It's not really a secret. Miguel puts this in everything he eats." "Heh... Somehow I knew you were going say that." After we finished eating and I cleaned my gear with wet leaves and a small portion of our drinking water, we packed up our stuff and started heading up the path. Once we were out of sight of the wall, I asked, "Well, if we're not leaving, then what are we going to do?" "Did you feel Tim?" "No, but that doesn't mean he's not here. But I don't know what we can accomplish without Lea's help." "I didn't believe she would help us from the beginning," Charles stated. "Luckily, I know exactly where Tim is for you not to sense him, so all we really need now is a way in and out without being detected. Do you think we could find that other cave again?" "You mean the one you said we should leave alone?" "We know more now than we did, don't we? It should be worth a second look in any case." Seeing there wasn't any better options presenting themselves, I agreed. We spent most of the afternoon looking for it, and it was around five before we finally found it. "Remember the cavern with all the water?" Charles said as carefully examined the metal gate blocking our path. "Yeah. What about it?" "Don't you find it odd there is an unlocked passageway in? It's not like Gladius to leave the backdoor open. I believe if we somehow find the entrance to it now, we'd find the cavern completely flooded." "That would explain why we didn't step on any stalagmites on the floor, and why it was dripping so much," I analyzed. "But even if it was flooded, someone who wanted in bad enough could bring some diving gear or something to get past it." "Hmmm... True..." Charles said thoughtfully as he felt around the walls. The mechanism which opened the gate was simple enough to work out. Squeeze the handle, pull it back, and it would release some sort of counterbalance to lift up the heavy iron gate. "Why would you have a gate you could open from the outside and not the inside?" I said out loud. "Probably to trap the unwary. Look at this. There's another gate in the ceiling here." Sure enough, what at first appeared to be a crossbeam near the entrance was in fact another cast iron gate which looked even thicker than the other. "Well I don't think we're gonna get anywhere here," I said after feeling the walls for any other hidden tricks. "This cave has to be a trap. It probably doesn't even have another opening." Charles stuck his finger in his mouth a moment, then went over to the gate and held it out by one of the many tiny holes in the gate. "There's too large of a breeze for there not to be another exit," he announced. "Then it's an exit on a cliff to nowhere. Surely you can see that this can't possibly be a way in." "I'm not so sure, Joey. Anyone who would be looking for a way in and go to the trouble of finding this cave wouldn't go blundering in without looking for traps. I agree we should be cautious, but this is very likely a way in, and if we rig it up right, very probably our way out as well." So I went out and found some large rocks and some dead branches to put in the way of the hidden gate while Charles stayed in the cave, shining his flashlight through the holes and trying to see what was beyond the gate. He helped me with a few of the big ones, but for the most part I did all the work. It was getting dark by the time I was satisfied by the rubble I had collected, and after eating a pretty skimpy dinner, checking our gear and hiding our trash, we entered the cave and tried opening the gate. The squeeze handle didn't want to move at first, but when it did, the lever jerked from my hands and to our surprise nothing else happened. "Shit! Something must be stuck," I said after attempting to return the handle to home without success. "Lets try to wedge the gate up," Charles suggested, pulling out one of the more sturdy looking branches from my pile of debris. I did likewise, and once we broke enough of them, I got frustrated enough to give it a big kick and ended up flat on my back from the thing shooting up and catching the heal of my shoe a moment. The crash behind us was deafening, and for a moment I though the whole cave was collapsing on top of us from all the rock flying through the air. But as we came to our senses and found ourselves still in one piece, we discovered something almost just as bad. The gate behind us was closed. All the way. The damn thing came down so fucking hard it had pulverized my modest pile of rock and wood, sending the remains everywhere. "Oh shit, oh shit, ohhhhh shit," was all I could think to say as Charles scrambled around the debris to find a flashlight. When he found one, he flipped it on and shown it around the massive solid iron gate before turning it down the dark hole which looked to be a one way road for us now. "Are you all right?" Charles asked me as I tried to get up on my feet. "I think so. I'm just half buried in gravel... Shit. Where's the other flashlight?" He shone it around the immediate area, but I found it first by stepping on it and almost landing on my face. Once I was back on my feet again and had my light ablaze, Charles said, "Well, now that we've sprung the trap, let's go get the cheese." "If there is any cheese," I couldn't help but say. We didn't say much else as we walked down that black hole. Charles shut off his flashlight after a while to conserve the batteries, and it just kind of amplified my feelings about whether or not we'd get out of there. We must have been walking over an hour before we reached a small natural cavern with several naturally formed passageways going off in different directions. "Well, which way now?" I sighed, sitting down on a large broken off stalagmite, then jumping to my feet with a yip when it moved with a loud grumble. "This way," Charles said, pointing the light at the foot wide crack in the wall which had appeared behind me. "You must be good luck, Joey." "Maybe my ass is. It did all the work," I joked before sticking my head into the crack for a look. "Oh my God," I gasped, backing away a little shaken while trying not to throw up. "Something's dead in there." Charles took a deep breath before taking a looking inside himself, the after a few moments he stepped away, took an even deeper breath, then slipped his way inside. I could see his light moving around inside, but it kept getting dimmer until it was gone. I took a deep breath and stuck my head in the hole and yelled "Charles?! You all right?!" I heard what I thought was something stumbling on some rocks, and after a moment of carefully listening to nothing, I took several deep breaths and slipped through. The passageway wasn't much bigger than I was, and there were a few spots I had to squeeze through sideways before I reached a small decaying animal of some kind by a pile of rubble. My lungs were starting to convulse for the need for new air, and just as I was about to turn and run back the way I had come, I realized I felt a breeze coming from the way Charles must have gone. So I rushed forward a ways, slightly stumbling on the rubble but not enough to slow me down, and just as I was about to go around a corner, Charles came around it and scared me half to deaf. "Shit! Why don't you have your flashlight on?!" I complained after getting enough of my breath and my wits back to speak. Charles reached forward and clicked mine off, then smiled in the dim red light saying, "That's why." I looked around the corner and found another small cavern with a man made tunnel at the other end emitting the red light. "What could be making the light?" I said as we walked through about a foot of slow flowing water towards the tunnel. "I mean, it's dark outside, so it can't be sunlight shining through something..." "We'll soon find out," Charles said before noticing the cave's steep incline and muttering, "Damn. Another climb." "Well at least we have stairs this time," I said when we got close enough to see the steps. "It's a good thing too. As wet as everything is and as steep as it is, we'd never get reach the top without spiked shoes or something." "Just be careful, Joey," he said as we stepped out of the water. "Those steps will still be pretty slippery." "Spoken like a true parent," I said as I took my shoes off and tried wringing them out. I didn't put them back on right away after finding I had much better traction without them, but thirty or forty steps up I reconsidered and sat down on the steps from stepping on too many sharp points. Charles had kept going while I was nursing my feet and putting my sneakers on. He was about fifty steps ahead of me by the time I got up, but when I tried to hurry and catch up, my sneakers couldn't keep enough traction and I ended up actually going slower than he was. Charles had just yelled down that he could see the top when I first noticed the whispery like sounds. "You hear that?!?" I yelled up to him. "What?!?" "I said do you hear that?" "Hear what?!" "You don't hear them?! Sound's like someone whispering." "Whispering? I don't hear anything but us and our echos." As I kept going, the whispers became a little louder, and just as Charles reached the top and exclaimed something I didn't understand, I realized what it was I was 'hearing'. "CHARLES!" I yelled when I heard him speaking but couldn't make out what he was saying. "CHARLES! Come back to the stairs! I can't hear what... CHARLES!" Something about what I could hear of his voice combined with some strange surges in our share link told me something was very wrong. I instinctively sped up and ended up skinning my knee before I took off my shoes and tried desperately to avoid cutting up my feet anymore than they were as I rushed up the last thirty steps or so. When I reached the top, Charles was on his hands and knees directly underneath a... cluster of luminescent veins of a red amber like substance. The whispers were no longer whispers, but screams, screams of gibberish, yet not entirely gibberish for I swore I could hear my name... I instinctively grasped my coin hanging from my neck with my right hand and tried to raise some kind of shield against the assault of symbols flooding the passageway before Charles's scream made me bear down and rush into the maelstrom before me. When I reached Charles, he grabbed onto my legs sobbing, "Grandfather... Don't leave me..." and nearly made me lose my balance. I could barely think, but somehow I managed to grab Charles by the neck of his shirt and lifted him partially to his feet before bending over and taking him over my shoulder as I rushed us both out of there. I think I fell after stepping on something sharp, but I don't really remember what happened. The next thing I can recall is Peter pouring my canteen of water on my face while Chris and a pair of twins stood behind him, probably ready to zap me if I became hostile. "In case you don't know it, you're in deep shit," Peter said as I sputtered and sat up. "Nice to see you too, Peter," I said. Their reaction was one of shock, and as I started to realize what this meant, Chris confirmed my suspicion by saying, "Who are you?! How do you know his name?!" "My name's Joey, but of course you don't remember me. They made sure of that after I left," I said, nodding towards the twins. "What do you mean by that?" Peter said as I felt Chris attempting to probe me. "He's got voice, Peter," Chris said. "Where's Charles?" I said as I noticed for the first time he wasn't there. "Lower your shield or we'll break it down and enslave your ass!" Peter said after also probing me. "Tell me where Charles is first," I said, knowing I didn't stand a chance without the share link. "He's being taken to the infirmary. Now this is your last warning!" "Alright, alright," I said, lowering my pathetically weak shield when I saw he meant it. "But I'm warning you not to go looking into my memories from last summer. Unless you like throwing up or fai..." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 6 - Twinnocence (mc, mf) Like every morning for the past month, a gentle pair of lips sucking on my dick brought me out of my night's slumber. When I looked down to see which twin it was this time, I automatically smiled at the seven year old, part of a friendly empathic good morning which she echoed back. As usual, my back was complaining from having lain on it so long, but waited for the twin to finish before getting up and doing my morning stretches. Some men would consider my position to be one of pure bliss. Day after day having nothing to do but eat, sleep, and lay flat on my back while a pair of twins used their brainwashing fucks to re-enforce their master's conditional implants that I had willingly agreed to have done. But I wasn't really there for my own sake. You see, I had made a deal with the devil. Well, Gladius, I mean. Obviously the part about Eric staying behind wasn't true, but for the most part, Suzi's and Joey's memories were correct. Only the first day after we arrived at the Birmingham mansion did Eric and I go out with them to see the sights. But Eric had another emotional attack that evening, and despite what I had learned from Sheldon's twins, I couldn't do anything to help him alone. So with Eric's consent, I enlisted the help of Joy and Honey. It had disheartened me to find their individual ness gone to where even I couldn't distinguish which twin was which, but at least they were temporarily able to restore Eric's emotional control in a manner similar to what Sheldon's twins had used. I spent a week struggling to find a way to restore both Eric and the twins to their formal selves while constantly having to reassure Suzi and Joey everything was all right and that they should go out and have fun since they couldn't help. Imagine our surprise when Gladius himself showed up at the front gate with only his one head pair of twins with him claiming a truce. Joey was completely against letting the man in, but I overruled him and agreed to speak to Gladius alone in that mansion's north study. Believe me, I didn't trust Gladius any more than you do, but after having spent a week attempting to do something which I knew was beyond my understanding at the time, I was willing to hear what he had to say just to see what insight he might offer me. Gladius started out by apologizing for kidnapping Joey and I, explaining that even though my emotional condition had somewhat stabilized just before he kidnapped me, it had only been a matter of time before something would have triggered a complete collapse. I would have probably taken Eric along with me since I had become so emotionally dependant on him, and he never foresaw Eric having such a reaction to exposing the implanted memory like that. Despite my empathic senses reporting the truth of his words and feeling his somewhat honest intentions, I couldn't help but believe he was deceiving me somehow. When I asked why he had kidnapped Joey, he explained that no matter what Joey's feelings were at the time, Joey would have sensed I was still alive and sought me out, and seeing how he could give Joey what he was seeking at the time, he decided to take Joey into his keep and evaluate what his sharing link might have to offer. I bitched him out a bit about what he attempted to do with Joey and I, and I'm not even going repeat his responses since they have never seemed valid to me. So when I had had my fill of his distorted views of what Joey's and my lives would have been like, I started going off on him about how he had ruined my twins' lives, and all he really cared about was his plan to use his 'girls' in some kind of power quest. Shit, did I ever open a can of angry worms when I said that. Up to that point he was tolerant of my accusations and angry attitude, but he wasn't about to let me call his and his father's life's work something as petty as obtaining greater personal power. And despite everything he had done, I couldn't help but believe he was truly _trying_ to save the world from some unknown future foe. It wasn't his words which rang true, but his dedication to his task, his anger at me for staining his work, and most of all his fear... Fear of what would happen if he was to fail. I sensed how he felt the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, and how he would do anything within his abilities to carry out his inherited mission to save that very heavy world. Gladius got right to the point once he saw I understood his motivations for what he had done. That doesn't mean I agreed with him on his methods, but I guess I did understand why from his perspective he had done those things. Anyway, he admitted he had asked Sheldon to talk to me to hopefully make it easier for me to understand the position I was in, and then spelled it out for me just to make it clear. My ability to resist his twin's empathic power combined with my limited knowledge of how the twin's empathic controls worked made me a threat to his work. He pointed out that even if I was able to protect my mind from a combined attack of every telepath on the planet, my sacrificial tendencies when dealing with someone I care about was a greater weakness than if I had no voice at all. But because of those people who I cared for would seek revenge if Gladius took some kind of action against me, Gladius realized the simplest way to solve the problem was to try and work it out privately with me. Gladius offered to devote the time and resources necessary to restore Eric's emotional stability and the twin's original personalities if I would allow myself to be thoroughly conditioned to prevent anyone from taking me over, effectively making my empathic abilities kill me if I was unable to resist another person's control. When I asked what he would do if I refused, he simply stated I could either come live within the walls of his fortress town for the rest of my life, or wake up one morning with a bullet passing through my brain. He left very little doubt in my mind he would attempt to do just that if I said no. He permitted me to talk it over with Joey and Suzi when I refused to agree to anything without doing so, and I understood that by involving them their memories would have to be... touched up later. Seeing that Suzi and Joey wouldn't be allowed to remember anything important afterwards anyways, I told them everything I had been afraid to tell them before and what my choices were. Joey was at first set against going along with anything that Gladius suggested, but eventually agreed to cooperate when I verbally explored what my life would be like wondering if I would wake up the next morning to the sound of a gun that was pointed at my head. When we went back to the study to accept Gladius's offer, Suzi and I were almost as surprised as Gladius when Joey seized him by neck, lifted him off the ground about an inch, then explained to the choking middle aged man that even if his twins made Joey forget everything about him and his plan, if I didn't come back the same person I was right then, Joey would hunt him down and finish ringing his neck. At that point Joey set him back on the ground and probably would have punched him in the jut if Suzi hadn't been there to stop him. I still don't understand why those twins of his had let Joey get away with that. Joey and Suzi spent the entire next day retaking all the pictures Suzi had taken of their trip after Joey realized they had taken a few photos of Eric that first day and a few later of him with the twins. Despite the fact I knew I wouldn't be able to physically maintain my vow of celibacy while undergoing the conditioning, I didn't offer my services to be the... conduit for the twin's conditioning of Suzi's memories the night before they went home. I later regretted not being directly involved in that, for until I had spoke to Joey on the phone, I had no knowledge that they had made Suzi and Joey believe Eric hadn't come with us. That one fact produced a new stirring of distrust for what Gladius's true intentions were. Eric was better, but he wasn't fixed, and I hadn't seen the twins since I had arrived to what Gladius called the nursery. I had no idea where I was, for I wasn't allowed to leave the windowless building, and my telepathy couldn't sense anything beyond it's exterior walls. How I ever sensed Joey was in trouble that one night from within those walls still mystifies me. Anyway, for the past two weeks, I had been resisting the twin's conditioning, and had planned to continue to do so until I saw some improvement in either Eric's condition or the twins'. And while Eric's eagerness to partake in the daily mind-washing fucks hadn't diminished since his first one, I quite frankly was very tired of the fucks and would have rather spent my afternoons and evenings playing with all those young twins like I did every morning. I had never seen a pair of male empathic twins before entering the nursery, and despite there being nearly twenty pairs of female twins, most under eight years of age, there were only two pairs of male twins, one set being about fourteen and another in their mid to late thirties. They shared all the traits the girl twins had in common, minus the cock sucking ones, and even though they seemed to be as free willed beings as any set of Gladius twins could be, they always submitted themselves to whatever the female twins wanted, which for the most part was to practice their enslaving fucks or entrancing sucks. Anyway, getting back to that morning, I suppose I had gotten used to waking up to the sour and sweet sensations of an aching back and blow job and pretty much ignored my back as I looked over to see if Eric was awake After exchanging another empathic good morning with Eric, I said, "Sleep good?" "I guess you could say that," he chuckled. "From how my back feels, I must have been under pretty long this time." "A day and a half," I said very softly as I felt the pair of twins complaining we were disturbing their work. Eric sighed, then we both let ourselves be pulled into that wonderful mind numbing state the two girls were practicing to put us in. "A day and a half, huh?" Eric moaned an hour later after we had come and regained our senses. "Feels more like a week and a half." "Roll over then, and I'll see what I can do," I said. "Thanks," Eric sighed as I applied my magic fingers to his aching back. After I carefully worked out the stiffness in his back, I ran my hands up and down his body like I always did, then let my right hand linger on the small red heart tattoo on his left buttocks, circling it a few times before saying, "You know I still can't believe Candice talked you into getting this." "Who?" Eric said softly. "Candice. You know..." "Oh yeah... Candice," he said before rolling over and stretching lazily. "I'm hungry. Let's go eat." "Fine by me," I said, standing up and holding my hand out to help him up. "I'm so glad I came," Eric said after we left the sleeping chamber and reached where the women who took care of the twins were serving breakfast. "Really? Why's that?" I said in good humor. "I just love the service around here," he said, accepting the five year olds' offer to suckle his monster cock while we ate. "Heh. I just hope you don't expect this kind of service from your sisters when you get back." "Oh yeah... For a moment I forgot I had sisters," he said between taking a bite of his food and holding his huge cock up so both pair of tiny mouths could get to lick. As usual, I finished eating first, then ended up feeding Eric the rest of his oatmeal while he struggled to allow an additional pair of young twin lips equal opportunity to his towering dick. "I think you like being a celebrity," I kidded him after he got his fill of the twins' competitive licking and gone soft. "Yeah? Well, I think you're jealous," he kidded back. "Nah... I mean, if I'd let them, they'd be all over me like they are you," I said, somewhat serious. "I didn't mean jealous of me." "Then what... Oh.. Heh," I said, looking down at his meat and considering it for a second. "Now you're sounding like the Eric I used to know." Eric's attention was diverted to the other side of the room, and as I looked over and saw the Brady twins standing there, Eric said, "Man, they sure are early this morning. Well, see ya later, alligator." "After while, cock-a-dile," I said, giving his already stone hard monster cock a telepathic squeeze as he got up to join them for his daily fuck. For a moment I sensed something different about the way the Brady twins were leading Eric away, but I just accounted it to the earlier than normal time. I didn't worry about the change in schedule since they had done it before, once even waking us both up and not even letting us have breakfast before the fuck. Eric had named them the Brady twins because they reminded him of the girl Jan from the Brady Bunch, which they did look like to a point. I just don't recall ever seeing Jan's lips looking as pouty as the Brady twins', not to mention ever seeing her naked ass. Seeing that I wasn't going to be hanging around with Eric this morning, after doing some exercises to help my back, I went and checked on the two month old pair of twins before meeting my three favorite pairs in the common room to play our little friendly game of empathic tag. I was 'it' (again) when a different pair of adult twins I had never seen before entered the room and broadcasted what was basically a call to line up for role call. Our game was terminated instantly, and even though no one had ever told me to participate in those type of things, I lined up with the rest of them with a grin on my face which the adult twins ignored. As pair by pair turned and left towards the nursery's exit, I started getting concerned that something was wrong. By the time the last pair of youngster twins turned and left, I was frantically seeking Eric's mind out telepathically and discovered that not only was Eric not there, even the nursery's caretakers were gone. "What's going on?" I asked the pair of adult twins who were now monitoring my every emotion. "Where's Eric?" Their response was a reassuring feeling that all was well and that I would not be disappointed. I also sensed they were very excited for me, like I was going to love whatever was going to happen next. In the time spent in the nursery, I had learned one thing about Gladius's empathic twins. If they had a weakness, it was their strong loyalties with their empathic brothers and sisters. And even though I wasn't a full fledged twin, I had a special status beyond what other singular empaths would have. I wasn't really sure why I had that status, but I wasn't looking a gift horse in the ass. Looking one of them in the eyes and forming an empathic connection, I asked with my heart, "Where's Eric? Please tell me whether he's all right or not?" The smile and the dual handed caresses of my cheeks calmed my concerns and warmed my heart to the point where I had a few extra tears in my eyes. It was like they were embracing me in a large empathic hug, sharing their excitement with me that just couldn't be a deception. I mean, if Gladius's twins could speak, they'd never tell a lie. So I waited there in the common area with a touch of apprehension mixed with excitement I couldn't deny, waited what seemed to be an eternity, but I think it was more like ten minutes to the rest of the world. Gladius's head twins entered the room carrying a crystal goblet and a sapphire colored glass-like egg, and as I was lead to the center table the excitement in the air intensified. I sat down at the table before the goblet was placed before me, the egg was snapped in half and the cool blue thick liquid contents was poured into the goblet with a practiced pair of hands. "I take it I'm supposed to drink this?" Yes, was the response. "What will it do to me?" I said, carefully sniffing the substance and finding it's odor unlike anything I'd ever encountered before. Their responses were... not confusing, just mostly beyond my understanding, I suppose. But I got the gist of what it was for, namely to aid me in fixing Eric's problems once and for all. After several more queries about what it would do and if it was safe, their open and reassuring empathic responses convinced me that it couldn't be a trick and quickly gulped the vile and nasty tasting stuff down. When the head twins were satisfied that the goblet was empty, they picked it up and left, but not before shocking me with a short but definitely telepathic message, "Welcome." I was so stunned by this, I sat there several moments after they had left my telepathic vision before noticing how sharper the symbols whirling around the remaining twins appeared to be. The moment I sensed Gladius and Eric entering the building, those twins turned and headed towards the exit as well. But my attention became completely focused on Eric's mind, for there were drastic differences in his streams than before he left. It only took me a few moments to recognize the patterns as being... Twin like... "What... have... you... done to usss..." I said with increasing difficulty. "I'm completing our deal the only way I can," Gladius said as he pulled the chair beside me out and directed Eric to sit down. "You... broke... our deal..." I said, fighting to keep my thoughts working while noticing how all my senses were sharper, much more sharper than ever before. "I have not. If anyone broke our deal it was your amigo Joey, and your father." "Joey?... Dad... here?" "Our agreement was no one would know you were ever here. If you hadn't insisted on making that phone call, or resisted the twin's attempts to finish your conditioning, I wouldn't have to be rushing this now," he said, turning my increasingly stiff body towards Eric who formed a powerful empathic connection the moment our eyes met. My hyperactive senses told me everything I wanted to know about Eric's condition. Eric's mind was wide open empathically speaking, his personality and free will having been pushed aside and now awaited something to take their place. Already there was a deep loyalty to Gladius and his work deeply implanted at the base of his being, but Eric's mind was eagerly awaiting to merge with another's mind... to be one with another, that other being me. "Never.... Eric..." I whispered just before my thoughts stopped being verbal and switched over to being purely emotional. I could feel Eric's mind already absorbing my emotions as they started pouring out. I had this instinct telling me I would retain my own individual characteristics, but would be bonded to Eric in the same way Gladius's twins were bonded, and that required one of us to become a matching copy of the other emotionally so we would be of one mind. My emotions at that point turned to the grief of Eric's sacrifice. Visions of the things Eric would never do again, never get to try, all the things I knew he loved, and the things I had loved about him... These emotional images flooded out of me with decreasing intensity. My senses were continually sharpening to the point I was sensing the blood flowing through Eric's and Gladius's veins, detecting the slight shifting of weight of the building, and even reading the thoughts in Gladius's shielded mind as they formed. The clarity of my senses were incredible by the time my outputs stopped flowing due to the incredible number of inputs coming in. The empathic connection between Eric and I broke from my body's transmitters going dead, and as I sat there unable to think or experience even the most basic of emotions, Gladius finished implanting the protective suggestions into the very core of my being, then realized I was reading his every thought right through his protective barrier. Eric and I both felt the fear Gladius transmitted as he instantly attempted to block my mind's access to his thoughts. He tried commanding me, ordering me, even begged me a moment to somehow block what I could sense from his mind, but my mind had no control over it's inputs, thanks to the drug I had stupidly drank. Gladius was on his hands and knees from the strain of trying to shield his thoughts from my mind when he ordered Eric to kill me before his own mind would kill himself. There was no hesitation in Eric's rise to his feet to carry out his master's desperate order, but when Eric closed his hands around my neck, I felt his heart beginning to race, his eyes becoming distant, and several long intense moments went by as my lungs struggled to pull fresh air in through a blocked passage. Then suddenly Eric's eyes focused on mine, and the next moment he parted his lips to utter a rather strangled sounding, "No," as his hands snapped open, releasing me. I remember every sound, every shudder, every moment of terrified fear Gladius felt, and worse of all, I could read every damn thought in his head as his own emotions drove his panicked mind to the point of inducing a heart attack. I had never watched someone die before, let alone experience it. At the time it all happened, I had no emotions to feel and no thoughts except the processing and absorbing everything at my body's inputs for storage in my short term memory. Eric, however, experienced all the emotions possible for that situation, and by the time the last breath left Gladius's lips, Eric was beyond any form of a rational state of mind. After barricading the room's entrance with the tables and other furniture, I clearly remember him dragging me to the far corner of the room and covering me up with a blanket to hide me, thankfully muffling several of my overactive senses for the duration of a very long wait. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 7 - Hidden Memories Revealed [Told by Joey] (mc, mf) "Come on, sleepy head. Time to get up and go to school," my mom said, gently rubbing my shoulder. "I don't want too," I mumbled, not opening my eyes. "Breakfast is on the table, so get your ass up before I get your father to drag you out," she said, sounding like she was already down the hall. I could smell the bacon in the air, and I suddenly realized I was really hungry, so I opened my eyes, expecting to see my old room... "Shit," I moaned, finding myself in some sort of holding cell. I only had taken a quick glance around since I was feeling pretty sore from all the climbing the past few days, and just closed my eyes and tried to ignore the hunger I felt. But the damn bacon smell didn't go away. It was almost like there really was some bacon... I opened my eyes and sat up with a start when I felt an impatient empathic touch, then kind of sat there a bit disorientated staring at the pair of albino twins holding a plate of bacon and eggs and a large glass of milk just like I had envisioned in my dream. "Uhm, thank you," I said when I recovered enough of my senses to take the plate and glass from them. They watched me as I wolfed down the generous portion of eggs and inhaled the juicy bacon, then as I was gulping down the milk, I heard a door being opened followed by the sounds of a man's struggling. "No.... You don't understand..." Charles said weakly as another pair of twins escorted him and the two Venezuelan men carrying him by the arms entered my view from my cell. "We must stop him before he destroys himself!" "Charles!" I yelled, leaping to my feet and rushing up to the bars of my cell closest to them. "Are you okay?!" "We must save my son before he destroys himself..." Charles said desperately to me. "I need my girls!" His eyes were filled with confusion, emotion, and a look of dazed madness. I was stunned by his obvious loss of his facilities, and helplessly watched him struggle against the two men carrying him into the cell beside mine and force him to remain inside as they left. "Girls! Don't leave me!" he begged as the set of twins who were in my cell were let out, then both pairs left with the men. "Charles, what happened? Did they do this to you?" "Be-gone, spy!!" he said with emotion, half falling, half crawling to the furthest corner of his cell from me to sob. After unsuccessfully trying to get Charles to talk to me, I took a good look around through the bars of my cell. There were two other identical cells across from mine, each with three solid walls with the fourth naturally being steel bars with a steel bar door. While I couldn't see into Charles' cell, I had no reason to believe it was any different that the other three. Each had a cot, a toilet, and a sink, but no windows, tables or chairs. I couldn't see far enough down what appeared to be halls on either side of the cells to know if there were any other rooms or cells in that place. I hadn't heard anyone climbing steps, but I could hear rain falling on the roof above me, so I assumed we were inside a single floor building. I think I must have dozed off listening to the rain, for the next thing I knew, Kain was standing outside my cell with those old twins on either side of him. "Where is HE!" I said, leaping up to my feet and rushing forward, intending to grab him through the bars and.... There was a flash, then suddenly I found myself standing inside some sort of glass cylinder like in one of those science fiction movies. In fact, the room I was now in appeared to be a strange mixture alien and human technology, and the giant wasp like creatures who entered the lab were definitely from a B type movie. I didn't notice the other cylinder chambers beside me until one of them raised up, releasing the little girl trapped inside who surprisingly didn't run, but actually walked over to the giant bugs rather stiffly. I shivered seeing that mindless empty look on her face when she turned towards me, pulled off her pants and underpants, then remained bent over while one of the wasps approached her naked behind and... I couldn't watch... It was too horrible. I closed my eyes and threw my weight toward the glass cylinder wall, then found myself falling to the floor. "That was a warning," Kain said, partially amused. "You sick son of a bitch," I said, desperately trying to stop the shakes I felt while picking myself off the cell floor. "What have you done to Charles, and where is Tim?!" "I'm sorry to disappoint you on both accounts, but Tim hasn't been here since he left with you last year, and as for his papa... We're not really sure what's wrong with him, but other than giving him a sedative, he's exactly as we found him." "Liar!" I spat, having successfully gotten back to my feet and was slowly approaching the bars. "I know he's here. I can feel it." Kain studied my face a moment, then said, "I'll be honest with you, Joey. I was against my father's idea on bringing you and Tim here last year. If you were such a threat, you should have been conditioned and released, not wiped. But make no mistake. I'd have you killed in a moment if I believed you were dangerous to us in some way. "This building's walls, ceiling, and floor contain a wood which absorbs telepathic energy. No voice has ever been able to penetrate it, and so you can not possibly be feeling Tim or anyone else except for the four of us and yourself, and even that is dampened within these walls. You have made a mistake. Lucky for you, I have convinced my father to allow me to... Girls?" I hadn't noticed his two escorts having left his sides and walked over to Charles' cell until that instant, but I really didn't care about anything but what he planned to do with me and Charles. "Exactly what is going to happen to us?" I said, reaching through the bars and snapping my fingers in front of his face to pull his attention away from the twins a moment. "You will be conditioned and released unharmed. That is if you don't give me reason to do otherwise." "Why?" I blurted out. "I mean, you're the last person I expected to just let us go." He glanced back at the twins a moment, then said softly while looking me straight in the eyes, "Because of you, I now have a son to pass my inheritance on to. While you had no direct control over this, you were still the... catalyst, and for that reason alone I will overlook your... your..." "Trespassing?" I offered. "Trespassing... gracias, that was the word I was seeking for," he said, looking back over at the twins, then glancing down at his watch with a slight frown. "Girls, you are expected at the nursery." When they didn't move, Kain walked up behind them and gently placed his hands on their shoulders before repeating his message in Spanish. They seemed hesitant to leave for a moment, but then as another pair of twins walked in, there was a brief exchange of looks between the empaths before the elder pair left the way they had came. Just as I heard the door close, Charles suddenly woke up and yelled, "GIRLS! GIRLS! Come back! Please come back!" "Calm down, Charles," Kain said as the remaining twins took position on either side of him. "No! You don't understand! He's doesn't know! He doesn't understand! GIRLS! Remember! Zamdiri!! Zamdiri!!!!" "Zamdiri?" I repeated questioningly to Kain after he had let the twins in with Charles. "No idea," Kain said as the twins used their empathic power to sooth Charles back to sleep. "At least his mind is starting to form more coherent thoughts than when we first found him. I'm afraid there's very little we can do for him until he's in a more... sane state of mind. Perhaps if you could talk about his family or job it might help him recover faster." "So he will recover?" I said, hearing Charles's gentle mumbles as Kain opened Charles's door to let the twins back out. "Time will only tell. Speaking of which, I must go. The girls will bring you your lunch in a couple of hours, then if you cooperate, they will begin reconditioning you to where I can trust you enough to let you out." "I'll have to think about that," I said honestly. "You have my word your personality will not be altered, only your... perspective. It is either that or remaining in that cell until Charles is well enough for the conditioning and you're both done at the same time. At least I've given you a choice," Kain said as he left. "Some choice," I muttered. I jumped away from the bars when the twins sent an empathic message to back away, then watched with surprise as they used the ring of keys which they had retrieved from down the hall to unlock my cell and came in. "Uhm, I thought Kain said after lunch," I said a bit nervously after they indicated for me to strip. Their empathic response didn't answer my indirect question, but I still pulled my shorts and shirt off just the same, cursing my inability to prevent my cock's full woody just from feeling their empathic call. "You want to suck me?" I said with even more surprise after they indicated for me to sit down on the cot, not lay. They didn't bother to answer me that time since they were already on their knees and crawling up my spreading legs. I shivered with anticipation from their hot soft skin making contact with my legs, yet I was not so lost in my lust as to not wonder what I had done to deserve this kind of treatment. Within minutes, I was drifting in nothingness as they alternated their mouths on my cock in such a way I forgot there were two instead of just the one I felt. Despite the fact I was completely unaware of my surroundings at the time, I still retained a thread of conscious thought that was trying to figure out what was going on and what to do next. So when my left hand accidentally came across the keys on the floor, even though I never realized they had moved us to the floor, that thread of thought recognized an opportunity, and thanks to the time I spent playing poker with Tim, I managed to pull off what I believed was the key to my cell (they had different shapes to them since twins can't read) without letting on to the twins I was doing something covertly like that. Once I had the key off the key chain, I had the difficult task of locating a hiding place for it that was in reach so I could simply forget about it until after the twins left to get my lunch. The floor had no cracks to stick it in, my clothes were too far away, and I couldn't risk reaching up over my head to hide it in the cot somehow. I considered putting it in my mouth, but even that might draw too much attention, especially if I accidentally choked on the thing when they made me come. So I just held onto it for a while, that thread of thought attempting to make itself as inconspicuous as it could while waiting for an opportunity to stick it somewhere out of sight, and more importantly, out of mind. Shit, I did such a good job at forgetting what I had done, I totally forgot all about it, even after they got up and shut the self locking door behind them to go get our lunches. I was laying on the floor, enjoying the post come relaxation, and just happened to run my hands up my sweaty chest and abs before lifting them up over my head and catching a whiff.. I cautiously smelled my left index finger, trying to recall if at any time I had run it across one of the twin's ass, then suddenly became aware of the poop in my chute was ready to go. It wasn't until I heard the "clink" right after the "plop" that I remembered anything about the key. I still don't remember doing it, but I think you can piece it together like I had moments before I was about to flush. I think I broke my own record of how many times I could say "shit" in one breath while I was washing my hands and the key in the sink. But the strongest "shit" I made that day was when I tried the key in my lock and discovered I had the wrong one. "Girls," Charles moaned from the cell beside. "Come to me, my girls..." "Charles? You feeling any better?" "You...." Charles said with a sound of recognition and desperation. "You would help me?" "Of course I'll help you. Kain said..." "Kain!" Charles spat in annoyance. "Betrayer.... Betrayer of his own blood. You must help me. Help me save him before he destroys himself!" "Help who? Tim?" "My son! I must save my son before... Zamdiri! ZAMDIRI!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Charles, calm down, please. Tell me what, or, or who is zamdiri?" "You can not understand. Only my girls understand. My son, my only son does not know..." "He's not your only son," I said, seeing a chance to bring up the rest of his family like Kain suggested. "Richie. Remember Richie?" "Richie?" Charles said in a squeaky voice. "My baby boy..." "Yes. And Samantha? Tim's and Richie's mom, your wife?" "Oh mother..." Charles moaned, followed by a sob. "Mother, my brave mother... She gave her life for his..." "For whose life?" I asked very cautiously, uncertain if this was really the right direction to go in his current state. "My son's... No... Not my son... My son... I... I must save them.. From his... He doesn't know... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" he screamed as he violently shook his cell's door. "LISTEN! Charles! Listen to me!" I yelled, holding the key out beyond the bars where he could see it. "I think this key will open your door. It doesn't match the symbols on the two locks across the hall, and it won't open mine. Take it and use it on yours. If it opens yours, then get the ring of keys and..." He snatched it from my hand so fast the key stung my fingers, and a few moments later I heard it click in his door and the lock turning. "Great! Now go get the ring of keys down.. No! Charles! The other way. Charles! CHARLES!!!" "I must find my girls!" he said desperately from down the hall, opening the door to leave. "I can... I can help you find them!" "You can't help me," he said in a hushed voice. "You don't know how to find them, but I still can't feel anything..." I heard the door shut, and my heart sank believing he had left me. I nearly brained myself on the damn bars when he walked into my range of view with a deeply worried expression on his face, and as he stood there studying me, I said gently, "I can help you. I'm here to save Tim too. I'm not your enemy." His eyes suddenly became a bit more focused a moment before he pointed to me and said, "Joey." "That's right. Remember? Uhm... The campfire? The bottle of gin, and the beans?" "How can you help me?" he said very carefully. "I... uhh.. I can form a share link with you so you can feel your girls out better." "Yes... Yes, you can help that way. You helped him that way..." "That's right. I helped Tim that way, and you." "Yes. Do it. Help me now." "First get the keys and open my cell. Then I'll do that and help you find Tim." "No, no, no, NO! First you help me find my girls! I can not go anywhere without my girls!" "Look, we don't time to argue! The twins will be back any minute with our lunches, and if we're not out of here by then, we're toast! Now open my door!" "First you link, I call my girls, then I let you out while I wait for them." "All right!" I spat nervously. "Just make it fast!" I formed the share link, then paced back and forth anxiously while Charles stood just outside the door. After a few minutes, Charles closed the door and came back, saying, "They are coming for me." "They are?" I said, wondering if he really knew what the hell he was talking about. "Uhm, well that's great. Now go get those keys down there and open my door like we agreed." "I don't believe I can do that," he said after taking a couple of steps then stopping. "We HAD A DEAL!" I exploded before Charles started backing up with slow and careful steps, his eyes appearing frozen in their sockets. "Shit!" I exclaimed as the pair of twins, each carrying a tray of food, stepped into my view, their eyes looking just like Tim's when he held someone with his empathic stare. They backed Charles all the way into his cell and had him take his tray from the twin on the left before backing themselves out, closing the door, and removing the key from its lock. "Well, you can't blame me for trying," I said with a weak grin as they turned their powerful gaze towards me. After I too backed up, took my tray, then stood there unable to move until my cell door was also closed tight, I sighed and set my tray on the cot, finding my appetite gone for the time being. Charles, on the other hand, was eating his lunch, or more like he was inhaling from the sounds I heard coming from his cell. "Want seconds?" I said, holding out my bowl of cut fruit out in the space between our two cells. "Gracias, amigo," Charles said while taking the bowl. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you in time." "Well, it's not like we really had much of a chance anyways," I said. "I mean, I doubt we would have made it to the mountain before they realized we were missing." "Hmm, you probably wouldn't have," Charles said, holding the bowl back out with only a few slices missing. "You can have this back now." "Full?" "No. I don't have time to eat them now." "And why is that?" I said, half expecting his reason to be something ridiculous. A door at the other end opened, and as the twins guarding us openly showed signs of confusion and distress, Charles said, "Because my girls are here to take me to my son." "Your girls?" I exclaimed as I caught sight of the elder twins walking up to Charles's cell. "What is going on?" I had missed the fact the other twins had fetched the key ring until they passed my cell, then with my mouth hanging open, I could only listen to the sound of his cell door opening and Charles walking out. "Charles, what the hell..." "I'm sorry, Joey. You see, I'm not who you think I am. Of course before you formed that... link with me, Charles and I were pretty mixed up. But now I'm in full control and I have to save my son if I can." "WAIT!" I cried, realizing they had already walked out the door when the share link broke. I turned to the twins who were still guarding me and demanded, "What the hell is going on? Why did you let him leave? Can't you see he's not normal?" The uncertainty on their faces as they glanced to each other only added to my own confusion, and out of frustration I kicked the cell door hard and nearly broke my toe in the process. I hopped over to the cot in pain, sending my tray of food to the floor at first by accident, but once it was on its way, I actually helped it along by giving it an additional shove. As the bowls and dishes scattered their contents across the floor with a loud crash, I flung myself on my back onto the cot, flung my shoe off, then babied my poor toe a few minutes, reciting every cuss word and phrase I knew in the process. I think I was on my second pass at the Christian cusses, (you know, using God's and/or Jesus's names in unpleasant ways) when we heard a faint scream. The twins were already walking towards the exit to the left of my cell when I looked up, and while they had the door open, I could hear what sounded like a school yard bawl. "Fuck, this is so fucked up," I said, laying back down on my cot and covering my face with my hands. "Shit," I said, finding my hand still smelling like shit, and got up to give it another scrubbing in the sink. I didn't even realize I wasn't alone until I heard the lock click, and when I turned to see who it was, all I saw before my mind was switched off was the back of some kid's blonde head as he looked down the hall holding the door open. "...hope he's worth all the trouble," a young male voice said when my mind was switched back on. "Jonas and Peter must think so," a familiar female voice said. "Come on, Joe. Stop pretending. We know you're awake." I opened my eyes and for a moment didn't recognize the... girl/woman sitting beside me on a plush bed. The girl was in her final stages of pregnancy, and her hair was cut very short compared to what I was familiar with. "Whitney?" I said in surprise when I finally placed the eyes. "I... Yes, it's me. But... I'm sorry, but I don't actually remember you." "That's okay. I half expected that. But who's this?" I said, sitting up and indicating the young, barely in his teens if even that blonde boy sitting beside her. "This is Jack Ladbrokes. He's our newest voice." "You can call me Squeak," he said, holding out his hand to me. "Don't let his nickname fool you. He's no squeak when it comes to his voice. He's stronger than any of us." "And I'm cute too," Squeak added with a wicked grin. "Uhm, I don't mean to be rude, but, why am I here? What are you planning to do with me?" "That's what we want to ask you," Whitney said, shifting uncomfortably. "But first would you mind moving over so I could lay down?" "Sure," I said, getting off the bed entirely, then crawling back on to help her lay down. "I guess I don't have to tell you the risk we're all taking by bringing you to the garden house. But Chris, Peter, and Jonas say you were one of us, and you had something to do with bringing us all together." "So they took the bait after all," I said, grinning to myself. "Bait?" Squeak squeaked. "It's nothing," I chucked, but when I saw they didn't see the humor of it I added, "I mentioned they shouldn't go looking into my memories of last summer just before they zombified me, hoping they would and maybe bring some of their memories back to the surface." "That's not all it brought up, too," Squeak commented. "Heh. They puked a few times?" "More like ten or twelve times," Squeak said before jumping off the bed, exclaiming, "I remember now!" then running for the bathroom and making puking sounds. "What were we talking about?" he said when he came back out. Squeak and I cracked up laughing while Whitney only smiled before saying, "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not try to remember anything if that's what happens." Looking at her deformed body a moment, I could only say, "Yeah, I guess you're right." "So why are you here?" Whitney said, blushing slightly. "I came looking for my best friend. I thought Gladius kidnapped him again and was holding him and another friend here." "Does he have voice?" Squeak asked. "Yep. And he's an empath." "A what?" "He's like all the twins," Whitney explained for me. "Really? Wow. I wish I could meet him." "Maybe you will. That is if I can figure out where Gladius is holding him." Someone knocked on the door just then, and before I could even react, Whitney said, "Come in, Gordon." "Hi," Gordon simply said when he saw me. "Hey Gordon. So... Do you remember me?" "He better," Squeak said seriously. "Shut up, Squeak," Gordon said, giving him a partial noogie before saying, "Yeah, I remember you, Joe." Then he leaned over Whitney and exchanged a quick tender kiss on the lips with her, they apparently filling each other in telepathically as they did so. "What happened to Peter and Jonas?" Squeak asked Gordon. "Twins got them in Kain's lab right now," Gordon said before looking me in the eye and said, "They're there because of you, you know." "What do you mean?" I said. "A lot has changed since you and Nathan left," Gordon began. "Ever since you showed us how to share our bodies with each other, we've become dependant on it. We all kind of paired up and did it separately at first, but when that got old some of us started playing around with someone else's, er, mate, and for a while someone was always fighting with someone else and... Well... It wasn't pretty." "And then when I realized I was pregnant, things really got bad between the guys. They all knew any of them could be the father, but they all pointed the finger at each other." "Anyone but me," Squeak pointed out. "Squeak couldn't come yet," Gordon explained. "I can now, though. Better than any of them too." "Shut up, Squeak," Gordon snapped. "Anyway, like two months later, Annette started having morning sickness too, and that's when everyone started getting serious about each other. We're like one big family now. But Jonas and Peter still get a bit ticked at each other over Annette's miscarriage, so Peter thought it seemed only natural to use that as an excuse for a diversion to get the twins out of the building long enough to get you out of there and find out why you're here." "I can't believe you guys did all that for me," I said honestly. "So where's Chris, Beatrice, Liz, and, uhm.... Connie?" "They're all covering Squeak's and my shifts while doing their own. We don't have much time, Joe. You're going to be missed once Kain finishes correcting Peter and Jonas and realizes where the twins who broke up the fight had been assigned. I just hope that memory trick Nathan taught me last year holds out under the twin's inspection." "Nathan taught you?" I said with surprise. "Why that little... He wasn't supposed to show anyone... Shit. Look, I don't want to get you guys into any more trouble than you are now. I came here to find Nathan. Have you seen him?" "I thought his name was Tim?" Squeak pointed out. "Shut up, Squeak," Gordon said again. "You shut up, Gordon! You forget I can kick your butt!" "We don't have time to explain everything to you, all right? We all knew this Tim guy as Nathan." "Okay, that's better," Squeak simply said. "Joe... Nathan or Tim, or whatever name he goes by now... He isn't inside the wall. There's no way a voice could be inside the walls without one of us detecting him during our nightly sweeps. There's only Kain, Grandfather, the teen voices, you and that guy you were with." "But we couldn't detect them this morning," Squeak pointed out. "Shut up, Squeak. That's because they were in the holding tank." "You said there's no way, but there is." "Look, you moron. Did you see anyone else inside the tank with him?" "No, but..." "Gordon," I interrupted. "I think he has a point. Is there any other place inside the walls a voice could be where you can't detect them?" "No. Just the tank." "Ugh! And the nursery!?!" Squeak argued. "Have you ever been in the nursery?" Gordon snapped nastily at him. "No, I haven't!" "Either have I! Either has any voice besides Grandfather!" "Why? What's so special about the nursery?" I asked. "Well it is the nursery. You know. Where all the twins are born and live until they're ready to be bonded with their master or something like that." "I still say this Tim guy could be in there," Squeak muttered. "Duh.... Look you moron. Even Kain's never been inside. Only twins and Grandfather." "Duh...." Squeak repeated an octave higher than Gordon had. "But this guy is a... What did you call him? M something?" "That's right," I exclaimed. "Tim's an empath. And Eric was showing signs of being one too before... Holy shit. That's where they are, Gordon. That has to be where they are." "Duh...." Squeak echoed again, but then gave Gordon a twinkling smile that made Gordon sigh, grab him by the head, then gave him another noogie for his trouble. "Something's wrong," Whitney interrupted, struggling to sit up. "Are you sure?" Gordon said, releasing Squeak and reaching out with his mind to the surrounding area. "Well?" Squeak said impatiently, straightening his hair up before pinching Gordon on the leg. "Squeak, you better get in on this," Gordon said urgently. "What's going on?" I asked. "Just give me sec and I'll tell you. They've probably lost another kid in the fields again and... I... Oh..." "Shit I hate it when people do this to me!" I said frustrated. "Just to warn you, I beat the shit out Tim once for ignoring me like this!" "Chris says... Do that link with... Squeak. Help," Gordon said with difficulty. "Shit. What? Are we under attack?" I said as I formed a share link with Squeak as requested. As soon as I felt the extra senses come online, I reached out with my mind and found... Chaos. It took me a few minutes to comprehend what the hell was going on. The slaves were all... grieving. It was all very confusing until I used a woman's eyes to look around and found a pair of twins huddled in each other's arms crying and looking like two lost children in the middle of nowhere during a thunderstorm. "Tim," I gasped, recalling the warning's Charles had been giving about saving his son before he could destroy himself. "Gordon!" I yelled in his face as I shook him by the shoulders. "Where's the nursery! I have to go there!" "No..." Gordon moaned distantly. "No no..." I slapped him once just hard enough to sting, then slapped him again really hard before giving up and turning to Squeak. "Squeak. Can you hear me?" "Uh huh..." he said softly with tears running down his child like face. "I need your help. Can you show me where the nursery is?" "Nursery?" "Shit," I muttered, realizing if someone experienced as Gordon was so lost in the emotions not to respond to pain, this newbie would be hopeless. "Jack," I said softly. "Listen to me. Come back to the room where Gordon, Whitney and I are in. You can't help anyone like this." "Can't... Must help.." "But you look like a mindless zombie," I commented while trying to think of a way to get his attention back to the here and now. "Zombie?" "Yeah, like a brainless, helpless little squeak child who doesn't know jack shit about how his dick really works." "I do too know how it works!" he said, snapping out of his daze and frowning at me. "Good for you, Jack," I said grinning. "I knew you could do it. Now stay with me. I need you to come with me to the nursery." "Okay, but why?" he said, glancing at Gordon's empty expression, then realizing his own face was wet just like Gordon's. "Because the share link doesn't work through that shielded wood the nursery is made of, that's why." "Oh. Hey, did I look like that a minute ago?" "Yes. Now come on," I said, taking his hand and dragging him out of Whitney's suite with me. The moment we stepped out into the street, we were both overcome by the ocean of grief flowing throughout the immediate area. I barely had enough sense to pull myself and Squeak inside and shut the door, and then it took a minute or two for us to calm down enough to think straight. "Shit, we're trapped," I said first. "I wish you wouldn't cuss so much," Squeak said while wiping his face off with his shirt sleeve. "Shit, that's just how I talk. Shit, see? I can't help it." "I bet I could cure that real fast with a single..." "What?" I said when he looked at me with this new sparkle in his eyes. "Do you know how I got you here without any of the twins picking up on it?" "Yeah. You zombified me." "Well yeah, I did that to you. I was talking about me. Those twins can sniff you out faster than a dog searching for the hotdog in your pocket." "Okay, so how did you do it?" I said patiently. "Simple. I ordered you to follow me no matter where I went, then ordered myself to forget what I was doing until I got back inside the garden house." "So how does this help us?" I said, finding myself understanding why Gordon was so short tempered with this kid. "Isn't it obvious? We just order ourselves to go there and not stop for anything until we're inside." "Shit, it is obvious. Shit, Jack. How did you get so smart?" "Just always have been. But I like to think I'm cuter than I am smart." "Shit," I chucked, then for a moment wondered if he was serious about that. "So now all we need is someone who knows where the nursery is," Jack stated. "I thought you knew!?!" I exclaimed. "No... Gordon was the one who knew. I've never been there, remember? Here. Let me ask him." "No wait!" I said when I realized what he was going to do, then groaned as his face went slack. "Jack... Oh Jack... Your fly's open and your mom can see your dick hanging out." "Ha ha," he said distantly. "Don't get lost in there," I warned. "I'm not..." "Well then what's taking so long?" Jack's face came back to life before he said, "Whitney's contractions were getting too close together. I didn't think we wanted her to go into labor right now, so I spaced them out a bit and snapped her and Gordon out of it to take care of that." "Shit. You did all that while getting the directions to the nursery?" I said, truly impressed. "Well, no. Someone kept distracting me and I forgot," he said with a huff before closing his eyes again. Ten minutes later, we were wading through our own tears as well as the pouring rain as we hurried down the streets of depression-ville. Damn it was hell. It was like the air was saturated with grief and despair, people just sitting out in the rain gently sobbing, the rain partially drowning out the wails from every direction, but adding to the grief in its own way. We cried the whole way to what looked like the entrance to a subway, and it wasn't until we were inside with the heavy reinforced doors closed behind us that our self programming ran out and we collapsed to the floor out of breath and out of tears. "It's cold in here," Jack said softly after we got up and started looking around. "And quiet. Dead quiet." "Shhh," I said, sensing we weren't alone. "You. What are you doing here?" Kain's voice boomed out from the next room. "Uhm, trying to get out of the rain?" Jack offered. "Shut up, Squeak," I said without realizing it. "Kain, you know why I'm here." Kain sighed, then said, "I looks like you were right after all. Somehow my father sneaked your friend and another into the nursery without me or anyone else knowing. And now for some reason they have locked themselves inside a room and won't come out." "You might as well tell him the rest, Kain." "Charles?" I said with surprise, finding him leaning up against a door with his ear pressed against it while the two eldest twins stood on either side of him protectively. "But Grandfather, he shouldn't be here in the first place." "Grandfather?!?" I exclaimed. "Look, what the hell is going on? The whole village is a sea of crying people, all the voices have their hands full just keeping people from committing suicide I think, and all the twins act like they've lost their mommy." "We know," both Kain and Charles said at the same time. "Well?" "Tell him, Kain," Charles said. "We may need him." Kain pursed his lips in a sign of silent disagreement, but then said, "My father attempted to bond Tim and someone else together using the same... method as bonding a pair of twins together empathically. The bond would result in their life long loyalty to my father, and that's the only reason why my father would have done something like this. But..." "But what he didn't take in account for was how the drug would effect a voice," Charles said. "It appears we're too late to save them. One of them is already dead, the other may be permanently damaged, but can't tell who it is from out here." "You can't know any of that for sure," I said after swallowing my heart. "If I can't sense anything beyond the door, how can you?" "There is an infrared scanner built into the ceiling of the room for monitoring the emotional states of the girls during their training," Kain explained. "There are three human shapes inside, one which is not emitting enough heat to still be alive. One of the other two's cerebellum is emitting twice the normal amount of heat, which to me indicates severe mental trauma. The other we've identified not being Tim or my father, and by his movements he's extremely disturbed and possibly violent." "How do you know it's Eric?" "By the size of his.. uh.." "Oh, I see." "What?" Squeak asked. Out of annoyance, I said, "His fuck stick." "His what?" "His dick. His penis. His cock." "Oh." "So don't you have a spare key to the door?" I asked. "The door doesn't have a lock," Charles stated. "Someone has barricaded the door with the room's furniture." "So, lets force it open," I said, leaning up against the door beside Charles. When Charles moved away from the door, I gave him a dirty look before throwing all my weight and strength against the door. "SSHHHITT!" I groaned after my third go without the door budging a single inch. "What kind of furniture does this place have? Leftover parts from world war two tanks?" "Are those the only doors in?" Squeak asked as I slid down the door panting for my breath. "Maybe you should go help the others, Jack," Kain said. "Nobody ever thinks I know anything," Squeak said, turning around and heading towards the exit shaking his head. "I'd like just once, one single measly time before I turn thirteen and start thinking with something other than my brain for someone to say, 'That's a good idea, Jack. Why didn't I think of that.'" "You know, he may be right," I said, having at least gained enough respect for Jack's childish sounding ideas to consider it. "Charles, you once said Gladius loved to misdirect or deceive people by hiding things in plain view." "There are no other doors to this room besides these," Charles said firmly. The confidence in his tone of voice made me wonder how the hell he could possibly know that, but when he offered no explanation, I said, "Okay, maybe not a door. But this place is air conditioned. Surely there's an air vent leading into the room from somewhere we can get into." "Kain?" Charles queried. "I've never been in here before," Kain said with a shrug. "When I had the nursery built, there was no such thing as air conditioning. My son must have had it added on later." "Okay, what's going on..." I said, getting a bit spooked out by the way Charles was talking. "Who do you think you are?" "That's precisely his problem," Kain said. "Who do you think I am, Joey?" Charles said with a cold serious expression. "I don't have a fucking clue. You talk like you're Gladius's old man, but how could... Oh shit. The cave..." "Enough questions," Charles/Gladius Sr. said. "We need to find the air vents leading to that room." The place was a lot bigger than I thought. There must have been at least twenty other rooms beside the one we were trying to get into, and while they all had air vents, none were large enough for someone to crawl through. "Well, so much for that idea," I said, joining the other two by the doors again. "I take it we just can't knock a hole in a wall somewhere." "They're seven inch concrete with three inch diameter steel rods reinforcement," Charles confirmed. "Shit, you weren't a little paranoid, were you?" "The day I heard about Hiroshima, I started designing this structure for I knew the day would come other nations would obtain the weapon for themselves. This was the very first private atomic bomb shelter built, not that I ever announced its existence to the public for the record." "So, mister architect, how did you plan to get out if the doors were melted shut?" "Don't be ridiculous. These are interior doors. They are purely here for ascetic reasons." "They sure don't feel like they're here for ascetic reasons." "These are not the original doors," Charles said, noticing the fact for the first time. "My father was constantly adding improvements to the nursery," Kain offered on his own. "I was constantly having to schedule girls to wipe the workmen's memories." "Makes you wonder what other enhancements he had done," I said as I got up and started walking around, looking at things, Charles doing the same after seeing what I was up to. "What's this?" I said, having found a strange two foot square indentation in the wall. "I don't know. I don't remember that," Charles said. When I tapped on it, it sounded hollow, so I carefully felt around it's edges, then finally just gave it a shove. "Bingo," I said, finding it to be some kind of crawlway. "I don't suppose either of you turkeys have a light on you." I found two small flashlights being stuck in front of my face when I looked back at them, then after probably giving them a really weird look, I took one and shone it down the passage way. "Well, I'll let you in as soon as I..." "And what makes you think you're going alone?" Charles said. "That's probably my father's body in there," Kain added. "I have to be the first to see." "But Eric doesn't know either of you well enough to trust you. Look, let me go in alone so we don't frighten him any more than we have to, and I swear the first thing I'll do when I'm sure he won't hurt whoever is left is open the door. All right?" "He may not even know who you are," Kain pointed out. "And without your link, you will be mute," Charles pointed out. "But then if my son did what we believe he did, your friend will probably be immune to voice, if only temporarily." "Then I'll just have to grab him and hold on if he tries something. I'm in better shape than either of you, and I'm already half way in this hole now," I said, wiggling my butt through the hole before pulling my legs in the rest of the way. I crawled about fifteen feet before reaching the end, then checked the ceiling looking for a trap door or something. When I didn't see anything but plywood, I wiggled myself sideways, put my shoulder up against the wood, planted my feet against the wall and pushed with all of my two hundred and thirty four pounds of mostly fatless muscle. The wood was creaking a lot, but wasn't giving yet when Kain yelled to me, "What are you doing?" I turned myself so that I was laying on the ground and raised my feet up before saying "I'm making myself a new DOOR!" while kicking a hole clean through the wood. Two more kicks and one big shove, I was standing up in another room. A room which was empty of people. I carefully lifted myself out of the raised floor of the kitchen area, then as quietly as I could, I snuck up to a larger room where I instantly saw a pile of furniture stacked up as high as the ceiling along one wall. Not forgetting there were supposed to be two people and a corpse in the room with me, I carefully bent down below the level of the table tops and spotted a bare foot disappearing behind a table turned on it's side in a corner. I carefully approached the table, not exactly trying to sneak up on him, I just didn't want to startle him. "UGHHHH!" Eric cried, startling me while he pushed me away from the corner he was blocking with the table. "Eric, it's me. Joey," I said as he frantically tried to keep himself between me and the corner. "Come on, Eric. Look at me. I'm your friend. Remember?" "UGGHHHH!" he again cried as he rushed me with his head down, attempting to head butt me in the gut. I grabbed him and held him as he violently struggled to get away, talking to him and finding every time I mentioned Tim's name, he shuttered or let out a brief sob. After a minute or two, I thought he was starting to listen to me by the way he had calmed down and was trying to look at me, so I loosened my grip and carefully released him. The moment he realized he was free, he knocked me off my feet and jumped over the table. When I got back to my feet, I found him desperately trying to find something else to cover what was obviously a person's body under a blanket. Something in my gut told me it was Tim, and I swear I stopped breathing when the top of the blanket fell off his head and I saw his expressionless face. The next moment I was falling to the ground from some kind of jolt. It wasn't electrical, yet nothing else comes close. When I tried to get back on my feet, I got hit again, and this time I blacked out for just a moment. "Eric..." I said, realizing he was somehow doing this to me. "Please... I need to help Tim." At the mention of his name, I saw Tim's eyes move towards me. Then as Eric tried to cover his face back up, Tim's eyes looked at him before he said a very hoarse, "No..." Eric seemed to accept his word, and actually probably accepted a lot more than just what he said right then. When Tim again looked over at me, I sensed he was telling me I could get up and let the others in. I carefully picked myself off the floor, finding Eric clinging onto Tim like he expected to be ripped away from him at any moment, but he didn't make any moves to stop me from what I was about to do. It took me a good five minutes to disassemble the barricade only to find nobody outside the doors when I opened them. After calling Charles's and Kain's names a few times, I had to help get Charles get unstuck from the hole in the floor when I guessed where they had went. When I came back to where Tim and Eric were, I found Eric had managed to cover them both up with the blanket. Nevertheless, Tim knew I was there, and when he croaked out my name, I was smiling with tears in my eyes as I knelt down beside him and carefully uncovered his face. I've never had a greater shock in my life than when Tim angrily said "I... told you NOT... to come looking for us! This is... all your fault!" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim, the Teenage MC By Rass Senip Chapter XX: Summer 89 Part 8 - Filling the Needs of One (mc, mf) Now before you get your panties in a bunch, let me explain what I was going through before Joey showed up. Hell, that's what. I couldn't move, couldn't see, I barely could blink, and while I was starting to think again, my thoughts weren't normal to say the least. I kept running the whole experience through my head over and over again because that's what Gladius had suggested for me to do when I started thinking again. I also had this deep motivation to be one with Eric, and without even having to think to do it, the moment Eric had covered my head up with the blanket, I formed a telepathic connection with him to replace the lost visual sensory information I was receiving about him. Poor Eric. He was lost in his emotions, literally scared witless, his mind in complete turmoil from breaking the conditioning Gladius had imposed on him and then watching Gladius die because of it. And with me recalling the scene over and over in my head while our minds were always trying to get in sync with each others, Eric couldn't rest a moment from the emotions he experienced for both of us. I knew the moment Joey arrived in the nursery. My sight for the symbols saw his cluster of streams suddenly appear at the edge of the void, along with another cluster, and a much smaller and different kind which I immediately recognized as Joey's coin. Something remarkable happened at that instant. Something I would have never believed without seeing it myself. Gladius's streams of symbols had long slowed and faded from my telepathic sight even before my father and then Kain had showed up. But the moment Joey entered, Gladius's streams suddenly reappeared, broke away, and were... pulled to Joey's coin like tiny iron fragments near a powerful electromagnet that had just been switched on. If my senses hadn't been so sharp, and the walls of the nursery hadn't been shielding them from all the telepathic background 'noise', I probably wouldn't have noticed it... It happened so fast too... Like in a blink of an eye. While Joey was punching his way through the floor in the adjoining room, Eric was going nuts from the noise and the threat it seemed to him to be. I hadn't felt any emotions per say until Eric was so scared he urinated momentarily, and at that point Joey broke through the floor and I started feeling angry as he was making Eric feel that way. My mind was regaining some of it's cognitive functions while Joey and Eric were playing cat and mouse, and it was when Eric started projecting his emotions in short bursts at Joey that I reached a point where I could take some kind of action to end the whole mess. The brief empathic contact I had with Eric after telling him no was the most intense empathic connection I've experienced in my life. For a brief moment, Eric and I were one being, our minds in perfect sync and clear of the emotional chaos running rampant through Eric's soul. So after that moment passed, Eric understood Joey was not a danger to us, but because of that moment of clarity and freedom from his untamable emotions, he instinctively clung to me knowing only I could give him the calmness he so desperately needed. From my perspective, everything had been going fine until Joey and my dad had showed up. Okay, so it hadn't been perfect, but Joey's somewhat violent intrusion of punching a hole through the floor caused a series of thoughts and emotions to be linked together, all concerning Joey and the negative results of his actions. So by the time Joey came back after helping the others in, I was fairly angry, and Joey just happened to be the perfect target for that anger. I knew it hurt him, and at the time I felt it would teach him a lesson. What lesson, I don't know, but I wasn't exactly running on all eight cylinders at the time. After both my dad and Kain examined us, Joey helped Eric take me into one of the sleeping chambers and then left Eric and I alone to recupe. We both were exhausted from all the energy we had expended, but I wasn't able to fall asleep until several hours after Eric simply because I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. For the next couple of days, Eric was the center of my life, as I was his. Part of the reason was I just didn't feel like I wanted to associate myself with anyone else, but more than that I couldn't stand how upset Eric got when someone else was around us, and couldn't bear being away from me even an instant. So for the most part we were left alone, my father being the only one to check in on us besides the Brady twins bringing us food and the elder twins who never left my dad's side. I knew my father was not himself, yet I could feel his fatherly feelings towards me hadn't changed. When I asked him who he believed he was, he said, "I'm still trying to sort that out myself. For the most part I am Gladius, Grandfather of all the empathic twins. But I also know all that Charles knew, and feel some of his feelings. But right now you need to focus yourself on Eric, not me. And I have a lot of work to do before I can let go of who I am right now." I had a hard time convincing my mom everything was all right when I called her the next day, and nothing I said would change her mind about coming straight down to make sure both my dad and I were really all right. That was the first time I ever gave my mom a direct order with a threat behind it if she didn't comply. Oh, she'd done it to me hundreds of times, but nothing like this, and never something so serious before. But it was just another worry to stack up on the pile of worries while I was nursing Eric back to something like his old self. I didn't see Joey again until the week after Gladius's death, and that was only briefly since my mom wanted to talk to him after me. I listened to his description of what he had been doing the past several days, which mostly sounded like he was having a pretty good time with his old teen voice friends. For some reason he left out how he had just finished helping restore Joy and Honey. I didn't find that out until Kain told me the morning before we left for home. Speaking of Kain, he brought Jack into the nursery to meet me the day after I heard Joey telling my mom about him on the phone. One look at the kid and I could tell he was different than any other voice I had met. He had an aura of preserved innocence about him, like he was immune to the corruption he was constantly exposed to. Even Eric felt it, and that's probably why Jack was the first person Eric felt comfortable being around besides me. The three of us spent the whole afternoon talking about, shit, everything I think. And that included the symbols which Jack could see as well. When Jack challenged me to a telepathic duel, I tried to blow it off saying I didn't want strain myself after all I had been through. Jack really knows how to get under your skin when he wants something from you. I ended up agreeing to the duel just to shut him up, and Eric was grinning like a fool the whole time since it was pathetically clear to him I really hadn't had a choice from the start. The duel lasted about thirty seconds before I overcame his defenses and made him do a little dance before letting him go. He was a good sport, and while he was disappointed, I sensed he really hadn't expected to win. And by the time he left, I had the distinct impression he had realized something. Like he knew a secret I would have been interested in knowing, but he didn't dare tell it to me for some reason. The next day, Kain took Eric, Joey, and I up the mountain to meet Lea, Zoe, and their month old baby boy Ian. The moment I sensed Lea approaching our position to meet us, I felt my heart sink from the way her remarkable symbols were different than everyone else's. They didn't have the crystal like quality that Jennifer's had, but they were uniquely different enough to bring back a lot of old feelings concerning Her. Zoe's symbols were pretty much like her daughters, yet Ian's were for the most part normal. There was something different about the infant's swirls and streams, but they definitely didn't have the... unique energy intensity like the females had. I still grin at all the little hints and teases Zoe made that day without any of us having a clue that's what they were. I did sense a great deal of wisdom from both Zoe and Lea, and that there was something more going on that just a simple meeting of past acquaintances. Little did I know how much in common I had with those people in that cave. Things had happened over those two weeks that I still feel I should have been a part of. First of all there was the matter of my dad and his... confusion of who he really was. As I found out from Kain later, my dad had been carrying Gladius senior's memories around with him since the day of Gladius's death in 1967. The fifty nine year old man had become very attached to my dad, and after breaking the news of my parental grandfather's mass suicide, Gladius senior had followed my dad when he ran out into some of the caves underneath the palace. Venezuela has a history of having fairly serious earthquakes, and despite the fact they were nearly two hundred miles from the epicenter near Caracas, there was enough of a shake to cause a catastrophic cave in. My dad found Gladius half buried in the rubble, still breathing, but with serious injuries. Gladius Jr. was in Mexico City at the time, and despite there being other teen voices in the area, my dad wasn't strong enough telepathically to contact them through the panic of all the inhabitants. When Gladius regained consciousness, he was able to contact one of the voices who immediately organized a rescue party to dig them out. But as the hours went by waiting for them to reach them, Gladius grew weaker and weaker and knew he might die before help arrived. Nothing was more important to him than the continuation of his work, and the only person he truly trusted to take over his work was his son who simply wasn't ready to do so. He realized his only hope was to transfer his immense storehouse of knowledge to someone else before he died, and the only person who knew enough about how to do that was thankfully someone he trusted and was there at his side. My dad's memories of Gladius's death along with the following week and a half were purposely hidden from him to protect what was implanted deep within his mind. Even my mother while going through his mind two years later completely missed the hidden store of memories and knowledge. Only the people directly involved in transferring the bulk of the knowledge into Gladius Jr. knew of this secret at the time Joey and my father had began their quest. There had been one other person who knew of the secrets stored there, but she could never betray her Grandfather and son by revealing it to anyone. My grandmother took that information to the grave with her, and my father will never know what truly caused her death. Was it her breaking of her oath to her Grandfather by tell me of the twin's true loyalties? Or was it something else like old age, or the sense of being redundant in her son's married life. Zoe and the eldest twins were the ones who had made the transfer back in 1967, and did so again this time. But what happened leading up to this is best told by Joey who was responsible for making it all happen. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Shit. I thought my part was done already. Well since he gave it back to me, I'll just take it all the way to the end. Before I get to the part about Charles though, I want to cover what went outside the nursery that week. Ever since I remembered Tim's phone call, I felt like that was my chance to make it up to him, to prove to him I'd never let him down again like I had at Northwest State. I wanted so badly to... Shit, this sound's pathetic, but I wanted to be the one to find him, and to be able to hold him as he cried because I had come to rescue him. But instead of being the knight in shining armor, I was the blind fool who had continued on my quest for glory even after realizing that Tim's life probably wasn't in danger, receiving Lea's advice to return home, and basically allowed myself to go along with Charles even after seeing his goals were not the same as mine. I felt like I had betrayed him again, irrationally as that may sound. That I should have resisted my urges and trusted in his abilities and judgment until it was obvious something had gone wrong. But most of all, I was hurt by the fact that he hadn't needed me. After helping Eric carrying Tim into the sleeping quarters, Tim made it clear that he needed to be left alone with Eric as much as possible. So as much as it pained me to do, I left their room, then found myself locked inside the nursery while Kain, Charles, and the eldest twins, who all seemed unaffected by the chaotic grief outside, went out and quickly gathered all the twins together. Just like <snap> that, everything became calm again outside. I, however, had felt like doing some crying, but they had stopped what would have been perfect cover to so before I could take advantage of it. After they unlocked the nursery and twins started flooding in, I avoided Kain and Charles, not wanting to draw their attention to me while they were so busy with all the twins, and eventually drug myself through the rain to the garden house, seeking the comfort of the friends I hadn't realized I still had until that afternoon. After Jack had made them aware that the emotional strain Whitney was under had triggered the start of the birth process, Whitney and Gordon struggled for over an hour trying to hold it off until they could get help. When I arrived, Whitney had four women from the surrounding buildings helping her as she struggled to bare down again for another round of strenuous pushing while Gordon was in the bathroom trying to recover from throwing up and passing out. He had been trying to help remove Whitney's shorts and panties when he witnessed the baby's mass moving downwards moments before her water broke and it spilled out onto his hands. I had never personally witnessed a birth before, but Tim once shared some of his memories of when he had telepathically experienced a couple of births from both a baby's perspective and the mother's. So I guess you could say I had an insider's grasp of what was going on. But seriously, after watching Whitney struggle and strain for several long hours, I just wanted to reach in and pull the baby out for her. I knew that really wasn't possible, and after Peter, Jonas, Beatrice, Connie, and two new girls I hadn't met before showed up, the women had me and Gordon leave and only let the others in two at a time. When Peter's and Connie's turn was over, they came out with their arms behind each other supportively, both with worried expressions while Peter said, "She's so worn out, I wish I could just reach in and pull it out of her to get it over with." "So did I," I said as Beatrice gave him a hug. "I probably would too if I could stand to be that close to it," Gordon admitted. "If anything happens to her..." Jonas said, running his hands through his hair before clasping them on top of his head and leaving them there. A round of murmured agreements circled the group, making me feel like the outsider I was for not having joined them. "Uhm, I want to thank you guys for doing what you did to help me out," I said a few minutes later to Jonas and Peter. "If there's anything I can ever do to repay you, just say so." "How about having Whitney's baby for her," Jonas kidded. "I would if I could," I said seriously. "Me too," Gordon and Peter said almost at the same time. "I wish Chris was here," Connie said. "I can't believe he's missing this." "Where is Chris?" I asked. "He and Squeak are still helping the others sort out the mess and figure out who all's dead," Peter answered. "Dead?" I repeated. "You mean people died?" "Shit yeah. Didn't you see what we were doing when I asked you to help?" Gordon asked. "Well, sort of. I mean, I though you were all doing that and trying to stop the grief somehow, but then got so caught up in it that you couldn't break free." "We couldn't break free without letting more people kill themselves," Gordon said. "You were just lucky that Squeak was able to wake up Peter and Jonas so they could take up his slack while he went off with you." "Shit. You mean because of me, people died?" I said, horrified. "Nah," Jonas said. "Squeak may have a big voice, but Peter and I can cover five times the area working together than Squeak can by himself." "Yeah, we did do good, didn't we," Peter said before suddenly throwing a powerful punch at Jonas's face, but stopped it before it hit and just gave him a playful tap on the chin. "So who won the fight, anyway?" Beatrice asked after Jonas and Peter tapped their fists together in a show of friendship. "The twins," they both said before shuttering at the memory of their 'correction'. Drew, one of the two fourteen year old blonde newbie girls, came out saying, "Bea? I think you better talk to Whitney. She doesn't want to push anymore." "Shit," Peter and Jonas muttered as Beatrice got up and went in. "She's so damn tired," Gordon added a moment later. "I wish I could give her some of my energy." Peter saw the look on my face and suddenly recalled what my share link had done for him while battling the girls last year. When I noticed his questioning stare, I said, "Alright, I'll do it. But don't blame me if she shoots the kid across the room when she gets a jolt of the Joey Conner super pick-me-up share link." "The what?" Drew asked as I got up. I thought I had left the others behind to explain, but after I entered the room and tried closing the door after me, I found them all following me in. I realized her contractions had just subsided again for the hundredth time from the way she laid there limp while gasping for her breath. Knowing I didn't have much time before the next round, I ran to the bathroom and washed my hands as best I could before stepping up to home plate. I figured between my share link, the memories Tim had shared with me, and my textbook understanding of the procedure involved, I would be the best one to deliver the baby. The surprising thing was, nobody tried to stop me. I nearly passed out from the sight of her vagina and the little bit of fluid still coming out of it. I had to close my eyes and mentally brace myself before I could go on, and couldn't stop the shakiness when I said to her, "Tell me when you feel you're about to start pushing again, then after I form a share link with you, push as hard as you can, all right? It should give you a big enough boost of energy to pop that watermelon of yours right out." "Then get ready to catch, cause here IT COMES!" Whitney groaned out as her body tensed up again. I actually had a little trouble forming the share link with her since I hadn't mentioned she had to accept it by consciously sharing her... uhm... life force, I guess, with me. She eventually did do it when she tried to ask me where the help was I promised, and shit... Did she suck the juice out of me when she did. Of course nothing is ever as easy as it first appears. Child birth isn't just a matter of pushing hard enough to push the baby out. The cervix, the muscular entrance to the uterus where the baby resides, has to be pulled up into the walls of the uterus and then dilate open to allow the baby to pass out through the vagina. Only at that point does it actually become a matter of pushing the kid out. I spent over an hour probing her body and trying to focus her contractions to open up her birthing gate, and I can't tell you how happy I was when we finally felt the baby was finally moving down the birth canal with each push and then suddenly I could see the head between her vaginal lips. But when I saw that head emerging from her like a... damn, nothing really comes close to it. Anyway, I just got so excited. At first I just tried to help open her up with my fingers, but before I knew it, I was holding the whole head in my hands. I panicked when Whitney paused in her pushing a moment, thinking she was going to stop and the baby would die from lack of blood flow to its head or something. But before I could do anything about it, Whitney took another raspy deep breath and shoved the kid out another three or four inches. I had to resist my urges to pull the baby out by its head, but once its shoulders were out and I found its armpits, I slipped my fingers partially inside Whitney one hand at a time and managed to help pull the already wiggling creature from its mother's womb. It came out so fast at that point, I found myself holding the baby in front of me for several seconds before one of the women started to take it from me while another snipped it's umbilical cord with a pair of scissors. I was pretty overwhelmed by what I had just done, and just kind of stayed at the end of the bed on my knees while the women got the baby breathing and started cleaning it up as it screamed. It wasn't until after the baby had been bathed and wrapped up in a towel that I looked back at where it had come out, then leapt backwards and knocked Gordon down on top of me from seeing... blahhhchk... Shit... Sorry. They said it was just the placenta, but for a moment I had thought she had pushed so hard her guts were coming out... heh.. "You all right?" I asked Gordon, lifting him off and setting him down beside me. "Yeah, I'm.." he began as my hands released his bare arms, the gunk on them having dried enough to make them stick to his skin. "OH GROSS! Uuuaaahhh YUUUCK!" Gordon said, scrambling to his feet and rushing to the bathroom to wash his arms off. Jonas laughed so hard he fell down, but the others had missed what happened since they had clustered around the bed as the newborn was given to her mother. I was feeling the drain on my body from the share link with Whitney, and after Gordon had finished in the bathroom, I washed up and then made myself comfortable on the couch on the other side of the suite. I dozed off pretty quickly, but woke up when the rest of the teen voices arrived. I laid there listening to their exclaims and arguments of who the baby looked like, and for some reason held my breath as Peter described what I had done. When I felt Chris probing for my whereabouts, I started to get up, but then felt a little dizzy when I tried standing up. "You look almost as bad as Whitney," Chris commented from bedroom's doorway. "How is she?" I said, sitting back against the couch's plush cushions. "Pretty perky for someone who just went through six hours of labor," Peter answered for him as he emerged and Chris disappeared back into the bedroom. "Shit, no wonder I feel like a depleted battery," I somewhat joked. "You hungry or want something to drink?" Peter offered, walking towards the kitchen. "Actually yeah. I wouldn't mind something wet. My tongue feels like I've been licking the bathroom floor. Is there any juice?" "Yeah. Orange and apple." "Apple. No wait. Orange. Shit. Either one, I don't care." I closed my eyes as he poured me a glass, then it seemed like the very next moment he was pressing the cold glass against my cheek. "Thanks," I said sleepily as I reached to take it. "Hey, don't give him that," Chris said coming from the bedroom carrying the baby in his arms. "Why not?" Peter asked. "Because then he can't hold this," he said, sitting down next to me and gently transferring the baby to my arms. "Shit, she's so small," I said gently. "Hey!" Peter exclaimed softly while slapping the back of my head. "Don't cuss around my little girl." "Our little girl," Chris said firmly as I examined her little hand with my right thumb and forefinger. "So you're both going to be the daddy?" "And Jonas and Gordon," Peter said. "Shit she's got a grip too!" I exclaimed when the little hand squeezed my forefinger, then added, "OW! Stop that!" when Peter slapped my head again. "Stop cussing then," Peter hissed. "Shi... Fine, then I can't talk," I said with frustration as the little girl started to cry. "Okay... baby want's her mommy," Liz announced as she rushed over from the bedroom after my pathetic attempts of hushing the child failed. "Uhm, yeah. Please," I said as she took her out of my arms. "Did those men make you cry? Shame on them," Liz said soothingly as she headed back to the bedroom. When Chris or Peter didn't move to follow her in, but also didn't say anything after a minute, I asked, "I haven't heard anyone mention what you're all going to call the kid." "Amanda," Chris simply said. I sensed they were telepathically discussing something with each other, but from the way they were just sitting beside me, I had the feeling they were planning on including me in on whatever they were thinking about. "So Joe..." Peter finally began. "You got back together with that girlfriend, right? The one you were all broken up about last year?" "Yeah," I said cautiously, sensing he was going somewhere with it. "What about it?" "Just wondering," Peter said hesitantly. "So what about you two? Are either of you serious with someone?" "As a mater of fact..." Chris began. Peter cut him off saying, "That's actually kind of complicated." "Relationships usually are," I said looking Peter in the eye a moment. "But you guys seem to have smoothed things out between you and the girls. I can't even guess which of you are going with which right now." That kind of disturbed Peter, so I said, "So what makes it more complicated than normal? What are you guys trying to tell me without wanting to tell me?" "The nine of us... Beatrice, Liz, Whitney, Connie, Annette, me, Peter, Jonas, and Gordon... We don't want to forget each other," Chris said a little shakily. "What he means is, when we're made to leave, we don't want to lose each other. Especially now that we just finally worked things out," Peter said. "We were hoping..." Peter didn't finish his sentence when Chris suddenly got up and went over to the window, so I said "Hoping for what?" "Would you... Take us with you?" Peter whispered like he was afraid he'd be overheard. "What, all of you?" I said softly, yet not so soft Chris couldn't hear. "Just the nine of us. The newbies aren't part of... uhm... us." "Shit, Peter... What makes you think I can help you guys get out of here? I mean, I'm pretty sure my memories will be edited before I can leave myself." "Yeah, but you have a family and... your girlfriend to go back to. All we have is each other. Or at least that's all I have," Peter said, getting up and joining Chris at the window. Chris put his arm across Peter's shoulders, and for a minute they both stood there staring out the window, never even glancing at each other. I could sense they were communicating telepathically again, but they didn't offer to share their thoughts with me so I didn't pry. Beatrice startled me when she sat down beside me without me noticing she had entered the room. She smiled gently at me a moment, taking my hand in hers and saying "Chris is scheduled to leave in two months, and I'm supposed to leave in five. But we've all come so close that we stopped having sex with anyone but each other, got rid of our slaves..." "Leaving them..." Chris said emotionally from the window. "Just the concept of it is killing me. I can't stand thinking that in two months time I'll forget every...." "Awe, Chris..." Peter said as Chris buried his face into his best friend's shoulder. "Come on, man... You said you wouldn't do this." "I'm sorry... I can't help it," Chris said muffled from Peter's shoulder. All the other veteran voices except Whitney gathered around them and formed a big giant group hug, most of them sniffing, especially the girls. Squeak, Drew, and the other newbie named Vanessa, all kept their distance from the bedroom entrance, but apparently weren't oblivious to what was going on. Once they all had regained their composure a bit, I said, "Look I... Shit, you guys. If you're asking me to help orchestrate some kind of escape plan for all of you... You're talking to the wrong person. The only reason I got out of here last time with all my marbles intact was because of Lea and Zoe. My own escape plan didn't work." "But it was Lea who told us to ask you," Liz said. "She did?" I said, completely surprised. "But.. But... But why? And when?" "After Chris and I went through your memories and kept getting sick, Liz and Bea went to her for help," Peter explained. "We thought you had somehow made Chris and Peter sick or something. But Lea said it wasn't a sickness, but just opposite, and to trust what they remembered because it was our key to prevent ever losing what we've gained since your last visit." "But that doesn't mean _I_ can help you all to escape," I pointed out. "No, but she also said that you were responsible for bringing us together, and that you could help us stay together if we trusted you." "Shit. She really said that?" I said, sliding down the back of the couch to lay down. "I don't know guys... I mean, I'll try my best, but..." "Joe, this is why we're so desperate for your help," Connie said as they all stepped up to the couch, the guys behind the girls, all holding hands but Liz and Connie who offered their free ones to me. I hesitantly took their hands, then felt their minds inviting me to join them in what I instantly recognized as a partial three way... er.. Well, in this case it was a partial nine way. Although it wasn't anything I hadn't done before, I admit it was neat to have the choice of four different female bodies to choose from. And it wasn't as... easy as when Suzi and I had done it with Tim, simply because Tim had done all the work of forming the links and keeping them straight, while here it was more or less every man or woman for themselves. But what I didn't expect was finding they were not just sharing their bodies with each other, but their minds as well. Annette surprised me when at her invitation to look in her head, I discovered I had full access to every memory, thought, and desire she had. I felt like I was running my fingers through her soul before coming across her memories of her miscarriage and needing to step back to take a breath as it were. I fell asleep on them soon after that, but they didn't mind since they knew I was still linked with Whitney, sharing my strength with her to help her recover faster. When I awoke the next morning, I was in bed in one of the other garden house suites, and it took me a few moments to realize the share link had broke during the night. I found Whitney's mind awake and attempted to form the share link again, not listening to her when she attempted to convince me she didn't need it any more. Whitney finally admitted she would probably benefit from the link, but didn't want to impose on me, especially if I wanted to join the others in another group link. She wasn't trying to deceive me, yet that set off an alarm in my head. The main reason Tim, Suzi and I had stopped having three ways was because they were so damn addictive and didn't let us enjoy having sex in a regular way as much. When Annette and Liz brought me breakfast, insisting they were doing it because they could see I was still tired from the share link with Whitney, I could see there was another reason from the glints in their eyes. I pretended to not notice their suggestive feels and looks, but when Liz outright felt my admittedly aroused cock through my shorts, I said, "Don't." "What? Why not?" Liz said, Annette pausing to deliver another bite of toast. "Because I know if you do, I'll end up joining in a three way with you, and eventually I won't be able to say no to any of you. I understand what you're trying to offer me. But I already have that back home. I'm sorry." "But..." Annette stuttered. "We can make you happier than she could." "I doubt that," I said honestly. "Look, what you all have now is something special, I admit. But it isn't permanent. You're not always going to feel this way about each other. Sooner or later, one by one you'll meet someone else, someone you can have all to yourself, who doesn't want anyone else. I know you can't imagine ever giving up the group for just one person, but... Well, Lea said to trust me, and this is what I'm feeling in my gut." "Lea said if we trusted you, you'd help us stay together," Liz said accusingly. "What you're suggesting is just the opposite." "Are you sure that's what she said?" I said gently. "I mean, those weren't her exact words, were they?" "No, but..." "I bet you if you asked her to repeat what she said, you'd perceive her meaning differently now. I think she likes to talk in riddles, you know?" "So you're not going to help us," Annette said coldly. I looked at her a moment, noticing for the first time how much her breasts had grown over the year, and couldn't help ogling them when I saw she wasn't wearing a bra and I could see her nipples through her thin t-shirt. She had this... seductive look in her eyes when I looked back up to her face, but that disappeared when I said, "I never said that. I just don't think we really know what kind of help you guys really need yet." They left me alone when they saw they weren't going to get anywhere with me, but while I took a shower, Annette slipped in with me, and after explaining it was her suite we were in, I gave up on trying to get her to leave. Okay, I couldn't resist not messing around in the shower like that, so sue me. She knew exactly what guys liked, probably out of months of experimentation and probing her male voice partners' minds, and quite expertly used her body to get my full cooperation. But I didn't fuck her. Once I turned down her offer the first time, she didn't try to tempt me into doing it again. Instead I explored her breasts, then stood there patiently letting her explore mine along with the rest of me, discovering she was still trying to get the hang of deep throating when she tried swallowing my cock and choked pretty badly a few times. When I tried returning the oral favor, nothing my tongue did to her clit or cunt satisfied her. I felt kind of bad about being unable to get her to orgasm, but I knew the only way I could do that would be to have a two way with her, and I wasn't going to start doing that. Annette didn't receive her satisfaction until Peter, Chris and Gordon got off their shifts and gang banged her three ways. While it was only Annette getting fucked, they all experienced it, and that included Whitney. I was feeling pretty down by that evening, especially after talking to Suzi. Fifteen minutes wasn't near long enough, but the line wasn't that great and since it was a really long distance phone call, we didn't want run up the bill too much. Shit. I still can't believe we worried about that. And don't get me wrong. I liked all the teen voices, and we did have some fun that week. But I wanted to go home, and the weight of somehow fixing their problems didn't help. Unfortunately, Charles insisted that I waited until Tim and Eric were ready to return also, and that meant I had to stay for at least a couple of weeks. Strangely enough, I still had some vain hope that Tim would need my help somehow. Funny how I wanted to help him, but didn't want the responsibility of having to help the others. Well, at least I didn't have to worry about the three newbies. Vanessa, Drew, and Jack weren't part of the group nine way thing. The girls had had sex with the four veteran male voices, but hadn't been interested in the group thing since everything was still pretty new to them, especially the concept of having slaves. And Jack... He just wasn't interested in sex. Well, that's not true, for he did have sex with Drew once while I was there, but it didn't consume his free time like it did with all the other voices. Oh, Jack could talk the dirty talk, yet always somehow avoided cussing or having to demonstrate anything to prove what he said. Not that the others didn't try. They were constantly trying to corrupt him with their ways. Even I tried talking him into try fucking a girl in the butt sometime. As the week drug by, I tried to stay busy, doing my work outs, always waiting for that fifteen minute conversation with Suzi each day which always seemed too fucking short. I spent a lot of time just walking around the village, sometimes even stopping by the pit or the branding station, the pit equivalent for male slaves. I never really stayed very long because of the... temptations and the bad memories those temptations liked to bring, but I didn't really find anything else to do during the day until the following week. Oh, I did join them Saturday in their weekly game up on the mountain. The rules were a little different than before. The whole purpose of the game was to strengthen their abilities to work as a team while exposing each other's weaknesses. But without the threat of something nasty happening to them if the other side loses, they didn't have the... deep motivation behind their offensive attacks. But they still had enough reason to play the game (Lea), and they played it well enough to keep them from going soft in the mind wrestling department. Everyone would pull a marble out of bag, and the team you were on depended on whether you had a blue or red marble. When Jack mentioned he had come up with the marble idea, I said, "That was a good idea, Jack. I wish I had thought of that." He stuck his tongue out at me, but then gave me this sparkling smile that kind of reminded me of Tim's at his age. I had wanted to take it all back when the first thing Jack did when we started the first round was take me out. Shit, he was a powerful little shit. He single handedly took each one of my teammates out before his teammates started yelling at him for showing off. It didn't surprise me in the least when Peter mentioned Jack had never been selected by Lea, but you could have struck us all down with a feather when Jack let it slip why. "Don't be gross. She's family." "What?" everyone of us who had heard him exclaimed. "Uhm..." Jack said, turning red. "What do you mean by that, Squeak!?!" Gordon said, easily overpowering him physically and putting him in a headlock. "OW! Stop, Gordon!" Squeak squeaked from inside Gordon's arm. "Gordon, let him go," Jonas said commandingly. "But this is the only way to get straight answers out of him," Gordon complained while complying. "No it isn't. You just never asked very nicely, you bone head," Squeak said, rubbing his neck then straightening his hair. "Jack, what did you mean by Lea being family?" I said calmly. "See? Now if you could just ask me plain out like that without..." "SQUEAK!" practically everyone yelled at the same time. "Okay, okay..." he said, turning red again. "Lea is sort of my cousin..." "By Kain or by Zoe?" I asked after a few of the others exclaimed their disbelief. "Gordon, stop! I'm warning you!" Jack said as Gordon tried to grab him for another head lock. "You're making this up!" Gordon said, chasing Jack around the campfire. "Okay, fine! I'm making it up! Now leave me alone!" Jack said, apparently commanding Gordon's legs to cross to trip him, then ran off into the darkness around us. "Told ya," Gordon snorted after picking himself off the ground. "I new he'd break sooner or later. He's always flapping his lips about something he's done or has, but no way that twerp is related to Lea. No fuckin' way." From the way Jack didn't come back to the campfire until after our second round and Lea taking Liz with her as her pick, I wondered why Jack put up with Gordon's bullying, and wasn't convinced that Jack hadn't been telling the truth. But I didn't ask him since it was obvious Jack didn't want to discuss it from the frown he wore the rest of the night. After my daily phone call to Suz that next Monday, I ran across Joy and Honey going in as I was going out. They were as cold as any other pair of twins, and I think the only reason they went with me to see Charles was because they couldn't resist the opportunity to be with their master like that. Charles was sitting at Gladius's desk when we arrived, and to my surprise the eldest twins weren't anywhere to be seen. Of course there were another pair of twins standing on each side of his chair, but I think it had been the first time since the day Gladius died that I had seen him with out the elder twins. "I'm kind of busy now, Joey. Can't this wait?" Charles said. The desk was clear of papers, and he wasn't on the phone, so I said, "No it can't. What do you intend to do about Joy and Honey?" "I don't intend to do anything. They are as they were intended to be." "But that's not what you told me before," I said, sitting down. "That isn't important now." "I doubt you'll feel the same way when you go back to being Charles again." "But I am Charles now." "Oh really?" I said with a mocking tone. "Then tell me, _Charles_. Do you still miss your mother?" "My mother?" Charles repeated unsurely. "Don't you remember why you really came here?" "We came here to find Tim." "_I_ came here to find Tim. You used my desire to find Tim as an excuse to find out why, and this is how you said it, why Gladius took your girls from you forever, and if he had anything to do with your mother's death. So, Charles... Do you know the answers now? I'd sure the hell like to know the answer to the first one, since I loved the way Joy and Honey were before they turned to ice like this." Charles just sat there silently staring at me, so I stared back to wait for his answer. Our little stare-fest ended when several minutes later Kain walked in saying, "You called me Grandfather?" which diverted my attention, and my eyes, to him. "Yes Kain. I've had a change of heart concerning my original bonded twins. I'd like you to try your theory out on them to see if you can restore them to their original personas." "Are you sure?" Kain asked surprised. "They will lose their full potential again." "Joey has reminded me I won't always see everything the same way as I do now. I owe my... benefactor at least to attempt to give him back some of what I... he lost because of my son's actions." "I understand. But in order for me to restore these twins, I'll need someone who knew them intimately. That should be you, or perhaps Tim." "I'm afraid the Charles you need isn't available right now, and Tim needs at least another week with Eric before spending any time away from his bonded pair. "Joey. You said you knew them, and you don't seem to have anything constructive to do with your time. Go with Kain and do what he tells you. If you are not what they need, we will just have to wait for Tim." I left with Kain and the twins to go back to his lab, and as we left the palace I asked him where the eldest twins were. Kain smiled slightly a few moments before saying, "They were in the office right in front of you, Joey... Under the desk." "Oh... Heh. Shit, I guess he was kind of busy after all." Once we reached lab, Kain had me stay there with the twins to see if I could feel out anything familiar about them while he went to the nursery for a while. After about an hour of getting nowhere with the twins, Kain finally came back and started explaining what I was going to have to do. I don't mind telling you his instructions were way over my head, and after stating that fact to him, he said he didn't have the time to oversee everything himself. So he gave me a choice. I could either wait another week for Tim, or he could just download the knowledge into my persona via the twins and then allow me to take care of it all on my own. The idea was extremely tempting, but at the same time it was also very frightening. I ended up agreeing to do it, but I was shaking like a leaf when Kain and I laid down and waited for Joy and Honey to mount us to do the transfer. Unfortunately I have no memories of the next three days in which I apparently spent day and night with the twins. Jack said later I never left the lab, and when he had gone in to visit me, I wouldn't let him stay long enough to see anything I was doing. To my dismay, I couldn't tell much had changed about them afterwards. But when they had been very... insistent about letting them wake me in the mornings in their usual way, I took that to be a good sign that they were on the road to recovery. And after I took them back to see Charles, Charles seemed so pleased with the results that he named me as their guardian. I had just learned several days before that almost all the twins within the walls of the fortress/village were permanently bonded to Gladius junior, only a few of the older ones having been bonded to Gladius senior way back when. Whoever they were bonded to was their only true master, but they also had a single guardian who retained all the privileges of their master and whose orders could only be overridden by their master. This was so if their master died, they couldn't be transferred to someone who their master or Gladius hadn't approved of. Gladius was always the guardian in cases of twins like Joy and Honey who had been bonded to Charles when they had been young. Naturally Kain was the guardian of all Gladius junior's girls, but Kain was still pretty damn busy for a couple days having to rebond all the older twins originally bonded to Gladius Senior to himself. So as you can see, I was extremely flattered by Charles's pronouncement, and certainly didn't think twice about accepting his gift of gratitude. I can't tell you how excited I was taking the twins back to the slut house just to show off my newly acquired position. That day was the only day I remember not feeling down or wishing I could go home. None of the guy voices had ever experienced a genuine twin blow job, and even little innocent Jack couldn't resist accepting my offer after hearing about it from the others. I think the power I had over the twins must have went to my head. I mean, the twins loved doing everything I asked them to do, so I don't feel the least bit guilty about that. But the fact that I had so easily accepted the role of being their master like that, and had used them for my own satisfaction, I couldn't believe I had done that with someone whom I had known as long as the twins. So after fucking just one of them and then letting the other suck down the results, I went on a bit of a guilt trip while they slept on either side of me that night. As if that wasn't enough, the next morning Jack woke me up to tell me Zoe had invited me, Tim and Eric up to the cave that afternoon, and that Kain would be taking us up there around noon. I admit I was excited about seeing Zoe and Lea, but after the way Tim gave me the cold shoulder the day before when I had talked to his mom on the phone before I had taken the twins back to Charles, I felt uncomfortable about spending the whole afternoon with him like that. But while we were climbing the mountain, both Eric and Tim were as warm as the sun was, and believe me, it shone really bright that early afternoon. I was actually feeling pretty good by the time we made it to the clearing where the voices still had their weekly game, but that's when Tim and Eric started acting... love sick, I think. Lea met us down the path a ways, and I couldn't help but give her my hand when she held hers out to me. I could see Kain knew it was Lea who was holding my hand instead of the opposite, but I don't think Tim or Eric did. After introductions had been done, Zoe gave Tim and Eric a small sample of her own powerful magic touch as Kain rocked his son in the rocking chair a while. Lea invited me to walk with her outside, probably sensing the hundreds of questions I had for her. Yet the only one I ended up daring to ask was about what Lea had told Beatrice and Liz about me helping them and the other teen voices. "I told them to trust you because you are the only one who can help them retain everything they have gained since you left us last year." "I know I'm not going to get a straight answer, but how am I supposed to do that?" Lea paused in her steps, gently tugged on my arm to make me kneel before her, then smiled in her misleading childlike way for a moment from the anxious and excited expression I must of had. She ever so gently rubbed my right cheek with her feather soft fingers, but then brushed my lips with them before playfully probing between them. I opened my mouth to allow her passage, then allowed her to take a hold of my tongue and stretch it out as far as it could go. When she eventually let it go, she watched me slide it back into my mouth, then smiled again with a twinkle in her eyes. "Why did you let me do that?" she stated. "I don't know... I guess because... Uhm.. I don't know... Does this have to do with the answer to my question?" "No," she said with another smile. "Then why did you..." "Because I wanted to." "Oh. So you're not going to answer my question at all. Not even going to hint at the answer?" "I've already told you everything you need to know, Joey. You will know the answer when it is time to know. But don't fret. Just trust yourself as they already do, and as I do." I blushed from her saying that. And I mean I really blushed. I felt it all the way to my toes. I hadn't blushed that hard since Junior high. I wish I could say I had a nice time visiting them, but Tim and Eric's mood was contagious, and by the time we said goodbye, I wanted to go home right there and then, to hell with waiting for Charles and Tim. Of course the last thing I expected was for Charles to agree so easily when I went and saw him afterwards. "Why are you letting me leave by myself now?" I demanded after getting over the shock. "You wouldn't even consider it before." "Because it is going to take me longer than I originally expected before I can leave everything to Kain, and I don't believe Tim is ready to leave just yet either. After you are conditioned, you may return home and take the twins with you if you like." "What about Tim and Eric?" I said after a few moments of indecision. "They will follow you when Tim decides they are ready." "And you?" "I will... Remain here until I feel Kain is capable of continuing our work alone." "And how long will that take? A month? Two months?" "Joey, you simply don't understand what is at stake here. I can not leave until I am certain Kain won't make the same mistakes his father made. The only way to do that is by instructing and observing. In a month's time I will have only scratched the surface..." "How long?" "Time is unimportant. Only..." "HOW LONG!" I said, slamming my hands down on his desk demandingly. The eldest twins stepped forward protectively and I shivered from feeling their empathic warning transverse through my very soul. But despite this, I kept my eyes pinned on Charles, praying I wasn't pushing my luck... "A year, probably two," he finally said without any trace of uncertainty. I fell back into the chair behind me in shock, but then after the surprise past, I leaned forward and made direct eye contact before saying, "Two years?!? Do you really expect us to agree to that?" "You have no say in the matter," Charles stated flatly. "You, Tim, and Eric will return home without me. I will not leave until my work here is done." "And when the fuck do you think that will be? Huh? I think the longer you live with this... persona in charge, the harder it will be for you to let go of it, and in a year's time, let alone two, you will have decided that you can't ever leave, and you won't go back to being the real you." "That is definitely a possibility, but as I said, you have no say..." "Fine. You're right. I don't have a say. But doesn't Tim have a say in what happens to his father?" "He will understand the consequences if I do not leave Kain fully prepared..." "What about Sam? Or Richie? They won't understand why you abandoned them for this... this... work. And you can't tell me they don't have a say in this, because they do." "They will survive without us," Charles said confidently. "Listen to you. You don't even know who are. Gladius is dead, man. You can't go on living the life of someone who died twenty fucking years ago. Charles has a life, one that he had every intention of going back to before that damn cave screwed you up. To go on like this... To let yourself deny who you really are... Well that's like murder itself. You'd be killing Charles if you..." "I can not risk my work going unfinished when the time is so near!" Charles exploded, standing up and leaning forward over his desk. "I have considered all the possibilities already! The life of one man is insignificant to ensure the safety of the entire human race!" "You're fucking nuts!" I exclaimed, getting up myself and getting in his face. "Do you really think the memories of a man who's been dead for twenty years can be so God damn important that you have to ruin another man's life? You of all people should know your twins can transfer all of that into Kain where it belongs anyway!" Charles sat back down, then said evenly "But Kain doesn't have the perception or the experience we have. The combination of Gladius and Charles is more than what the girls could implant into Kain. And even if they could, that would be the end of Kain as he is now. That also would be like murder." "This... merger of Gladius and Charles is unnatural, and was not meant to be. It is wrong for Gladius to make Charles give up his wife, his sons, and the rest of his life just to oversee whatever it is you believe you're doing here. Charles has given you this chance to give whatever you can give to Kain so he can complete your's and your son's work, but you must let Gladius go so he can rest in peace. Gladius's work here on Earth is done. Charles's and Kain's are not." Charles stared at the center of the desk for over a minute while I remained leaning over the desk watching him, then finally he said, "You have convinced me, but only for the moment. This must happen immediately if it is to happen at all. I have summoned Kain, but we will need Zoe to complete the transfer just as she did the first time with my son. Joey, go to her and bring her to the nursery." "But what if you change your mind before I get back?" I said hesitantly. "By the time you return with Zoe, I will no longer have this mind to change. And even I am not immune to their witchcraft, Joey. If for some reason I am not flat on my back underneath my girls when you return, I trust you can convince Zoe to do what is best for all of us." "Okay... I'll be back as soon as I can," I said heading for the door. "Oh and Joey..." "Yeah?" "Goodbye. You've been a good... friend." I hesitated a moment before saying, "Adios, amigo." Then just before I left the room, I paused and said with a grin "You know, for a dead guy, you're all right." For the second time that day, I climbed the paths up the mountain, and by the time I reached the clearing where the voices held their telepathic matches, it was getting dark and starting to rain again. I did manage to find where Lea had first met us that afternoon, but as usual I had no clue as where to go from there. I spent fifteen minutes wandering down three different paths in the rain calling their names before finding Zoe standing under an umbrella in the middle of the intersection. "Charles... Kain... Transfer," I gasped when I reached her. Zoe's eyebrows shot up in surprise before she said, "This zis... unexpected. Are you certain?" "Yes! They should already be doing it now. But Charles said they needed you to finish the transfer." "Then we must go," she said, turning and walking briskly in the wrong direction. "Yeah but WHERE are you going?" I called after her. "The nursery is this way!" "... in the rain," Zoe yelled back, the first part of her sentence lost in the rain which was now steadily pouring down. "What?" I said, scrambling after her, but then suddenly I slipped on a smooth rock and found myself sliding in the mud sideways towards the edge of a cliff. I managed to grab onto the base of a shrub of some kind just before my torso went over the edge, but then my weight began pulling the bush's roots out of the rain softened earth, and before I could find something else to grab onto, I found myself in freefall. Seconds later, I was crashing through some treetops, and even though my balls got a beating from all the branches snapping when they went between my legs, I landed on my feet relatively intact. As I laid there in agony in the mud with the rain still pouring down, all I could think about was how bad Suzi, mom, dad, Sarah, and even Tim would hurt if I died there. There was so much I wanted to do yet, so much I wanted to tell them, and I was scared I wouldn't get to do that. I couldn't bare the thought of not seeing them again. By the time I had recovered enough of my senses and was able to move without too much discomfort, I was feeling a little more positive about what would happen to the others if I had died. I guess contemplating one's own mortality is something everyone does at one time or another. While I didn't want them to ever go through it, I knew everyone would eventually get over my death and move on with their lives. But like they wouldn't forget me. And even if for some reason someone made them forget me, I knew I was apart of them just as they were apart of me. If I had died, parts of me would live on through them in their actions an personality. I'm thinking like how Suzi had started imitating my Mr. Spock's "Fascinating" raised eyebrow, stuff like that. That's when I knew the answer to the teen voice's problems and Lea's riddle. They wouldn't lose what they had gained because it simply was part of who they were now. And it was clear to me that in order for them to live some kind of normal life, they would need to forget some of the things they did there so they wouldn't be haunted by the experiences later like I was. I was trying to find myself a dry place along the base of the cliff to hold out for the night when suddenly, like a beacon shining through the night, I felt Tim's presence in the distance to my right. I tried reaching out to him for help, but I couldn't form a telepathic link without his aid. But yet just knowing where he was was all I really needed, for I simply followed my beacon until I came across a path, then followed them both back down to the village below. Tim actually contacted me when he sensed me at the edge of the village, informing me we were going home tomorrow afternoon and that I should get some sleep since I would be conditioned first thing in the morning with Eric. I sensed he was in the middle of something, so I didn't try to explain what happened, and just told him I was glad he was all right. "Chris," I said, dripping wet and gasping for breath when he answered his door. "I know the answer!" "What? Joe, it's three A.M..." he whined. "Couldn't this wait until morning?" "I won't have time before the twins..." I trailed off. "You mean... you're leaving? Tomorrow?" he said with anxiety. "Yes," I said, stepping into his suite and closing the door. "I'm going home, Chris. Back to Suzi. Back to my family. But not before I do a special two way with you. You, and just you." "I don't understand..." he said confused and still a little groggy as I led him over to his bed. "What about the others?" "Before you leave, you do a two way with Beatrice and share what I'm going to share with you. Then she'll pass it on to Peter, and he'll pass it on to the next person to leave after him." "But I can't have a two way with you," he said, torn between his disgust and his trust. "We're both guys..." "We don't have to have sex to have a two way. Besides, you can't tell me you guys have never shared each other's bodies with each other." "Yeah, but we've always had at least one of the girls in on it..." he said hesitantly. "Chris," I said, taking his hands in mine like I had seen them all do with each other when forming a two way. "All you have to do is trust me, and I'll do the rest. Lea said you would trust me when I figured it out, and now I have. You won't regret anything. I promise." When he looked in my eyes, I could see his fear, and his hope. Thank God I didn't have Tim's empathic senses. I'd felt the way Chris felt before, and I didn't really want to experience that kind of fear of loneliness again. I formed a share link with him, then after a brief moment to prepare myself, I initiated my side of a full two way and sighed with relief when he did the same. Basically, I took him through everything I had been through since I had woke up in that top bunk and met Nathan the year before. Two ways can be very intimate, sharing memories and feelings along with your body, and by the time I finished with how I realized the answer, Chris was seeing things a little different than before. That's not to say he saw things like I had. In fact, he had formed a completely different answer to the problem than mine. He believed that if the twins did make him forget all about the others before he left, he would seek them out one by one like I had with Tim, and eventually they would all be together again with or without their memories of how it all began. When I left his suite to be conditioned that morning, I wasn't sure who's answer was right, but either way I figured I wouldn't remember anything about it to find out later. I awoke on the plane, which from the window before me I saw was already flying over the ocean, my back complaining of stiffness as usual. "Joey?" Tim said beside me, startling me. "Uhm.. Hey," I said, blinking sleepily as I took in my surroundings. We were in a small private plane with only about thirty seats or so, but the six of us were apparently the only passengers. "Joey, I wanted to say I'm sorry, and thank you." "Sorry? What for?" "For hurting your feelings. For not trusting your judgment. For letting myself blame you for everything when none of it was your fault." "But it was my fault. If hadn't come looking for you, Gladius would still be alive, your dad..." "No..." Tim said, shaking his head and putting his hand on my chest. "You were already under lock and key when he ordered Eric to be bonded. Gladius just used you as an excuse to do what he probably intended to do all along. And if it wasn't for you, my dad wouldn't be himself again. "While you and Eric were being conditioned, your friend Chris came to me and told me why you came looking for me. That's what I'm sorry for. When you found me, I was angry, and you were just the first available target for me. But Joey? I didn't know it, I really did _need_ you." "You did?" "Yeah," he said, looking down, then back up and into my eyes. "I was so involved with Eric that I didn't even think about my dad, or the twins. But you did. I don't know how, but you fixed the twins enough that I can tell them apart again. And dad is... well he's dad again." "I just did what I could," I said honestly, floating in the flood of tender emotions he was projecting through his eyes. "Yeah, and that's what I mean. I needed you to take care of things I couldn't. I needed you to watch over them, and me... I even needed you to come rescue me, even when I didn't think I needed rescuing." He kissed me on the lips at that moment, then backed off and softly said, "So thank you. Thank you for being where I needed you to be." I gave him a hug and we ended sniffing and giving each other a couple more pecks on the cheeks before Tim backed off with a grin and said in a whiny sounding voice... "Joey Conner.... You're my hero." "Shit...." I said, flushing down to my toes again. "Tim..." Eric's voice called from somewhere behind us. "Uhm... I gotta..." Tim began, looking longingly over his shoulder towards where Eric's voice had come. "Go on," I said with a smirk. "Your twin is calling." "Shut up," he said, giving me a gentle punch on the shoulder before getting up and joining the sleepy eyed Eric two rows back. I stretched a moment, then as I looked back out the window, I felt a calmness settle within me, something I hadn't had since before we had left for England. I let my mind wonder a bit, recalling all I could about what had happened and wondering what all I had forgotten, and ended up deciding it all had been worth it when I realized I had fulfilled my promise to Suzi by bringing them and myself back to her. As I drifted back to sleep, my thoughts turned to my wonderful loving and sexy Suzi, feeling my need to do whatever my mistress wished or said fill the very center of my heart where I was sure it would never leave again. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++