Laura was not aware that anything was wrong, or that anything had transpired of note in her school late that afternoon until she suddenly sensed a presence in her office. She looked up and gasped in surprised. "M-mistress ..."

"I don't have time, my pet," Nyssa said in a low voice. "I have to go."

Laura's mouth dropped open, her lower lip trembling. "But ... h-have I displeased you, Mistress? Have ...?"

Nyssa came around the side of the desk and cradled Laura's cheek. Laura shuddered as soft pleasure suffused her. "Oh, no, my pet, my wonderful little slave," Nyssa cooed almost lovingly at her. "You have been one of my best."

"Th-then why ..."

"Things did not work out," Nyssa said, withdrawing her hand and taking a step back. "I must leave, before Haven grows angry enough to strike at me."

"It failed," Laura said darkly. "Your plan."

"Yes. But I cannot dwell on that now. I have released the others. I had no choice. Now, as for you ..."

Laura bolted out of her chair and fell to her knees. "Please! Don't free me! Please, Mistress! Don't make me go back!"

Nyssa placed her hand on Laura's head. Laura moaned as her pussy throbbed, silencing her protests with blissful pleasure. "No no no, my pet," Nyssa said soothingly. "I could not release you even if I wanted you. You gave of yourself, remember? It was by your choice in the end. You are permanently bound to me."

Laura looked up in adoration, her eyes shimmering. "Take me with you ..."

"I cannot, my pet. You know I cannot. Besides ... " Nyssa grinned wickedly. "You have a task to finish."

"But I can't do it without the power!"

"You still have it. It's yours forever. In fact ... if you grow bored of Marcie and wish another pet ... you can take another in the same way."

"Thank you, Mistress. But ... but you still won't be here to command me ... I won't be able to obey you ..."

Nyssa smiled and bid her slave to rise with a single gesture of her hand. As Laura rose to her feet, Nyssa gazed into her eyes. "You will be able to obey me, for I intend to give you a command that you will need to continuously obey."

Laura nodded eagerly, her eyes wide. "Tell me, Mistress, please. How may I serve you?"

"Haven needs to be appeased, slave. So that it does not grow too angry with me, in case ... well ... let's say I wish to leave my options open. So I want you to make sure that whenever you see signs of the Darkness stirring again that you smooth its way as much as possible. You make it easier for it to operate."

"Yes, Mistress. Yes, I will do that."

"And I will be back again, my pet." She stepped up to Laura and cupped her chin, looking deeply into her eyes. "Count on that."

Nyssa kissed Laura. Laura's eyes slid closed and she shuddered, moaning as she came again, her hips jerking from the intensity of it.

Nyssa slowly broke the kiss and backed away. "I am very pleased with you, slave. You have done very well with little Marcie. Now ... give her the final little push ... give her something to occupy her every waking thought ... and every dream ... she has over this weekend. And then Monday ... take her ... she will be yours forever."

Laura opened her eyes and watched her Mistress with longing. "Please ... please come back again ..."

"I will, my pet. I never abandon such good little slaves."

Nyssa smiled wickedly one last time and then vanished before Laura's eyes.

Laura uttered a pitiful whimper and shed a single tear. She paused and wiped it from her cheek, taking a deep breath to steady herself. She would be Nyssa's good slave. She would do as she was told, and run the school so that the Darkness could have free reign.

She smiled. She had a purpose now. She finally had a purpose, something that actually mattered. Something that would be appreciated.

"I will not fail you, Mistress," Laura whispered.

Linda was gasping for breath, her body sheened in perspiration. Her hips continued bucking under what was now the largest dildo of the set. It stretched her pussy so wide that she would never have gotten it inside her comfortably had she started with it. Even now it was taxing her, her cunt growing almost as sore as it was excited.

"Uhhhnnn! ... Ohhhh! ... Yeah ... oh yeah! ..."

Her arms and hands ached badly, almost as much as her pussy. Her legs and back ached from pumping her hips so long and so much. She was almost incoherent with the need to climax, held back as long as she had been.

She longed to hear her Master's voice again.

She longed for him to command her.

She longed for his cock in her pussy.

She ...

...

"Uhhh ...?" Linda's movements slowed and faltered. She started to lift her head, her eyes betraying steadily more confusion and steadily less lust and desire. The fog began to lift from her mind as her old personality reasserted itself.

But with the lift of the fog and the release from control came the removal of the block on the consummation of her pleasure.

"What ... what am I ... ohhh ... uhhhh!! ... AHHHH!! GOD!! ..."

She threw her head back, teeth clenched almost painfully as her hips jerked violently, her orgasm overwhelming her and making it impossible to move or think clearly for just a few more moments.

This time when the orgasm faded, so did the fog of pleasure, never rising to the absolute bliss that she had enjoyed under Richie's control.

She yanked the dildo from her fast enough that it slipped from her wet fingers and arced from the bed and onto the floor. It bounced twice on the carpet and fetched up against a wastepaper basket next to her desk before it came to a stop, still glistening with her juices even in the weak light of failing day.

Linda lay still, panting. Now her body aches asserted themselves, making her wince when she first tried to move. She raised a shaking hand to her head, placing it against her temple. "Oh my God ..." she moaned. "What ... I can't believe ... h-how did ...?"

She drew her legs under her as she sat up and dropped her face into her hands. Her emotions were a tumultuous mix of confusion, horror, and fury.

And, to a small degree, though it was lost in the mix for the moment and never quite made it into her conscious thought ... disappointment.

She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to beat her fists against the wall.

She did none of these things.

Linda took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm. She was stronger than this. She was not sure what had happened, only that she had not been in her right mind for over a week, and Richie was somehow to blame. It seemed impossible to her, but she could not disregard the truth.

Nor could she forget the memories of what she had experienced during that time.

She shivered violently for a moment. Again, briefly, came the desire to cry, to rant, to scream in frustration. She again pushed it down. Instead, she decided to be more practical.

She went and ran a shower for herself. A nice, hot, long one.

"I don't know how you did it ..."

Sally took her earrings off and threw them at Gary.

"I don't know where that power came from ..."

Sally yanked off her ankle bracelets and threw them as well.

"I don't know why a loser like you was given it in the first place ..."

Sally grabbed a tissue and wiped the pink lipstick from her mouth. She wadded up the tissue and threw that at him, too.

"And I don't know what got in your head that I would enjoy becoming a fucking air-headed bimbo ..." She turned her head towards the mirror and made an "ugh" sound as she ran her fingers through her bleach-blonde curly hair. She turned back to him with fury blazing in her eyes. "But if you ever ... EVER ... so much as even look in my direction ever again for the rest of your miserable little life, I will find out the one thing that would put you in the most pain you could possibly imagine ... and then do something to you that's TEN TIMES WORSE!!"

Sally stormed out of Gary's house, slamming the front door so hard that a vase on a nearby table tipped and crashed to the floor.

Gary sighed and shook his head, his face betraying a combination of relief, disappointment, and embarrassment. Like Melinda, he now remembered everything that had happened to him with Nyssa. He felt some shame for what he had done to Sally but knew she would not hear of any apology from him.

At the same time, he would miss it. He felt guilty for that as well, but he could not ignore it. The idea of having her as his bimbo was still very appealing to him. Nyssa had done nothing to change that. If anything, it had left him now with a full realization of a fantasy that he would never have come true again, no matter how much he wished it.

As for Sally, her thoughts now were little more than rage and anguish over what had happened. She dreaded how much her grades would suffer from that week of having a two-digit IQ. She shuddered with revulsion at what he had done to her and what he had done with her during that time.

Yet later, when she had a moment alone to herself, and the initial anger faded, her thoughts would return to her time under his control. She would remember the sex and the intense pleasure she felt at being what he wanted her to be. Some part of her would want to return to that. It would excite her in ways she would not be able to understand.

And as the weeks pass, she would become keenly aware that remaining a straight-A student would take a lot more effort than it ever had before.

The silence was leaden in the Sovert family car, save for the rain that beat steadily on the windshield and the occasional low peal of thunder.

Heather and Melinda both sat in the back. Neither had vied for the shotgun seat as they usually did. Neither wanted to be anywhere near their mother.

Penny watched the road with a forlorn look. The silence was starting to get to her as well. Her emotions were mixed over what had happened, and a small part of her hated herself for that. Finally she had to venture a comment.

"Um ... I'm ... I'm glad things turned out the way they did," she said.

Heather glared at her mother's back. Melinda folded her arms and gave an indignant grunt.

Penny took a deep breath. Haven was not trying to control her thoughts as much that day. She had more freedom than she had had in a long while. She was not entirely happy about that right now. It was so much easier when someone could do her thinking for her.

The main problem was that with thinking came responsibility. This was not one of those times that she wished for the responsibility.

"I ... I did whatever I could to insure your safety, please know that," Penny finally blurted. "I ..."

"You turned us over to Nyssa!" Heather finally yelled.

"You let Heather take control of me!" Melinda screeched.

"You let someone fuck with both our minds!"

"You didn't care! Heather was forcing me to do these things and you didn't care!!"

The two of them were startled into silence when Penny suddenly wrenched the wheel and pulled the car over.

Penny turned in her seat. "I DID CARE!" she exploded at them.

Heather and Melinda simply stared.

Penny forced herself to take a deep breath. "There was only so much I could do," she said in a more contrite voice. "Only ... only so much leeway that I'm allowed."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you started working for Haven!" Heather shot back. "How long has it been, huh? Since you've been at the Li'l Missy Inn?"

"Heather, never mind that, that has nothing to do with ..."

"It has everything to do with it! We were told that's the focus of everything going on around here! Don't give me this bullshit about ..."

"Heather, you will not use that language with your mother."

Heather gaped at her. "My mother? Since when are you my mother anymore?!"

Penny's eyes widened and shimmered. Melinda gasped softly and looked at Heather with a combination of horror and satisfaction.

"You stopped being my mother the moment you let me take control of Melinda."

Penny swallowed. "Y-you were just acting out a fantasy ... one that you had ..."

"I refuse to believe that! I never had a single goddamn feeling like that towards Melinda until the ... until the summer."

"She just made people live their desires, honey, and ..."

"You're not listening to me! It wasn't mine! What Nyssa found had been planted there, it had to be!"

"You weren't hurt by any of this, Heather. You were safe while you were ..."

"Safe?!" Melinda piped. "How can you say that?! I-I couldn't have a single thought in my head that didn't have something to do with pleasing the bubblehead here. I couldn't even think about my boyfriend unless she allowed it! You got a weird idea of what 'safe' means, Mom!"

"And I couldn't stop thinking of ... o-of using Melinda ... I was fucking programmed! Like I was someone's robot or wind-up toy! That the kind of daughter you want?"

"Or is that what you are now? Someone's little slave who does only what she's told?"

By this time Penny had turned away from them, and now a single tear trickled down one cheek.

"I'm sorry," she said very softly. "I wish ... I wish I could have done more for you."

"Yeah, so do we," Heather said darkly.

"Honey ... if there is anything I can do now, please ..."

"You had your chance," came the bitter reply.

"Yeah," Melinda added. "You blew it. Big time."

"Don't do us any favors anymore."

"Just leave us alone."

Penny sniffled. She took a deep breath and let it go. Her eyes welled up with tears and she blinked them away. Distantly, she could feel Haven starting to reassert itself. It would take a little while, but by the late evening she would be back to being her content self again. She would look forward to it, like an alcoholic looked forward to his next drink.

Without another word, she slowly put the car in gear and pulled back out onto the road.

Others were not with the ones they had captured when Nyssa left. Yet they knew something had changed. They felt the surge of repressed memory come back to them. They felt the mixture of horror over having been controlled themselves and the embarrassment at their darkest fantasy made real.

But for those first ones, like Frank, James, or Kathy, there was the additional shock, the one of disappointment when they found that their control over the targets of their fantasies was gone.

Of them all, Frank was the least surprised. He had a bad feeling that this was going to be the case. It was confirmed when first Mindy came home and did nothing more than glare at him before heading into her room and slamming the door behind her. She would not come out the rest of the day, and Frank would hear occasional sobbing inside.

Jenny simply gave him the silent treatment when she got home. She would not acknowledge his presence in the room, and when Frank tried to talk to her, she simply gave him the cold shoulder and looked away. If he persisted, she would leave the room.

Debby and Karen took the time to tell James off and make him feel as bad as they possibly could. They went so far as to claim that they would tell every girl they knew what had happened so that he would never get a date so long as he lived in Haven. All through it, James had trouble accepting what had happened. He kept trying to command them as if they were still his slaves. Reality did not truly set in until Karen slapped him hard across the face.

Irene was also no longer interested in being Kathy's "friend." She threatened to make Kathy's life a living hell at school if she ever revealed anything about what had happened between them. In this case it was Kathy that broke down and cried, but it only fueled Irene's ire, and she kept lambasting Kathy until Kathy finally had to run away to stop the torrent of vile epithets.

"You were goddamn lucky," Sandra said, her face set hard as she peered at the road before her. In front of her face the windshield wipers worked at top speed, barely keeping up with the sheetlike rain. "Or you got really good friends after all. Hope it's the latter, frankly."

Richie said nothing. He simply seethed quietly in his seat.

Sandra risked taking her eyes from the road briefly to glance at him. "Don't know what they did, but they did something. Something big. You should appreciate it."

Sandra was purposely low-keying her enthusiasm. Not only had Nyssa been defeated and her son freed from Nyssa's control, but Haven's power seemed lessened. It was only slight. It was not so much a weakening as it was a shift in Haven's focus. It was as if Sandra for the time being did not matter to it quite as much now. More of her thoughts and emotions were her own for the time being.

She knew it would not last. But it had been enough to give her some hope.

She looked at Richie again and frowned. "So what the hell is eating you, huh?"

Richie glared at his mother. Yes, he was angry. Furious, in fact. He simply was not sure what he was angry at. Or which of the things he was angry at he should mention first.

Ultimately he was angry at Nyssa herself for luring him with her promises of power and then making him a mindless thrall for the last hour or so of her time in Haven. He was angry with the others for forcing Nyssa to leave and removing his control over Linda. He was angry with his mother for trying to make everything sound nice in the end.

Most of all, he was angry with himself. Yet despite the fact that this was where most of his ire was directed, he refused to acknowledge it for the time being.

Finally, Richie said, "Yeah, you're one to talk, huh?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean!" Richie yelled. "You already made your decision! You're already involved in all this!"

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Sandra demanded, genuinely perplexed.

"I made my decision, too. And someone had to go screw it up."

"What? Are you serious, Richie? After what Nyssa did to you?"

Richie shuddered. "Maybe ... m-maybe it wasn't all that bad."

"Before I left with you, Jason told me she had made you into a fucking little robot! No mind of your own at all! It's one thing to have to do what she tells you and have to call her 'Mistress' all the time, but not being able to think at all ...!"

"She wasn't going to keep me that way!" Richie wailed. "Just until she was done, then she was going to release me. She promised us!"

Sandra laughed. "Richie, wake up! Someone who controls minds doesn't have to keep any promises they make. They can just walk through your tiny mind and make it like you never heard the promise in the first place. Or she could just plant the desire in you to want to go back to being a robot. Either way, she could have screwed you over so badly you would have been lucky to remember how to use the goddamn bathroom!"

Richie just folded his arms and seethed in silence.

Sandra sighed and shook her head. "I don't know why I bother. You got the taste of power yourself and now you want more. That's how it is with this. That's what hooks you in."

"Oh, yeah? Is that what hooked you in?"

Sandra's face took on a dark look. "No," she said firmly. "In fact ... I was offered the power once."

Richie stared at her. "You were?"

"Yes. I was offered it in exchange for some of the control lifted from me. To let me go get a regular job for one thing." She paused a long moment. "To not have to spend most of my time horizontal. To ..."

"And you didn't take it?!"

Sandra risked another look at her son. He was staring at her with an expression that was both incredulous and accusing.

Sandra returned her eyes to the road. "You haven't heard a word I said, have you?" she asked with a despondent sigh. "No, I didn't take it. I had already seen what having that power does to someone. In a way, it's worse that what happens to the ones that they control."

Richie looked dubious. "Oh yeah? How's that?"

For once, Richie's voice betrayed little of the wiseass mentality he had been exhibiting for a long while now. Sandra bit her lower lip as she pulled the car off the street and up the driveway. Was she finally starting to get through to him after all this time?

As she paused for the garage door to go up all the way, she turned to him and said, "When you have that power, Richie, it ... it does something to you inside. Makes you not care about what people think."

Richie snorted. "Like I already cared."

Sandra pulled the car inside and killed the engine before turning sharply to him. "I'll tell you something, Mr. Tough Guy. You like to think you're so fucking hardass, but it used to be that when push came to shove, you gave a shit what someone thought. Or did you forget how you got everyone to stop beating up on your friend Jason?"

Richie remained silent, biting at his lower lip slightly.

"Yeah, maybe I should be grateful that you haven't forgotten that. Amazing what people forget when they get that power, Richie. Friends. Family. Just so much fodder to them. I mean ... well, you've had the power. Twice now. You tell me what you feel when you have it. What the hell is going through your little head, huh?"

Richie's eyes hardened, though they shimmered with unshed tears as well. "I feel like I'm calling the shots! Like I know what the fuck is going on! I don't have to keep fucking guessing at it! I can just make it happen the way I want and not have to worry about it."

Sandra sighed. "Yeah, that's another thing. Real easy, huh?"

Richie swallowed and took a deep breath, choking back a sob. "Look, why are you telling me all these things? You never did before! You never told me all this stuff when everything with Nyssa was going down. Why now? Why after it's over?"

Sandra gave him a heartfelt look. "Because I can today, Richie, that's why," she said softly.

"Huh?"

Sandra swallowed. She knew the respite was going to be very short. Already she could feel it starting to reassert itself in her mind. "Haven ... c-controls me, Richie. You figured that out by now, I hope."

Richie remained silent for a long moment. Despite the fact that he did know this, it was still something of a shock to hear his mother come out and say it. He finally nodded slowly.

"It's ... it's not as bad today. I have a little more freedom today. It must be from what your friends did." She took a deep breath. "Even now I-I can feel it c-coming back. It didn't last long, but ..."

"But what?"

"But it was something!" the words exploded from Sandra' mouth. She spewed her next torrent of words as fast as she could before the window closed. "They managed to fight it and push it back, they managed to delay it, to stop it from getting what it needed, from ..."

Richie's eyes widened. "What it needed? What does it need?"

Sandra swallowed hard. "M-more slaves," she croaked. "And ... a-and more people willing to be corrupted into making more. That ... th-that feeds it ..."

Her voice dropped to a whisper. She paused and then shook her head violently. She took a long, slow, deep breath. "We better get inside, Richie," she said in a calmer tone of voice. Any remaining thoughts she had on the subject remained locked in her core self, unable to express themselves.

"Um, yeah, okay," Richie murmured, still staring at her mother.

He was not sure what to think anymore. Haven was too big. It couldn't be fought. When he had been under Nyssa's control, the Darkness constantly whispered to him that Haven was all-powerful and not to be considered an enemy. Yet it was not too far from his own thoughts. What he had told Jason had been the truth as he knew it. How was he expected to fight against something like that?

Yet now Nyssa was clearly gone and his mother claimed that Haven's power had diminished slightly. At the same time, he longed for the power that he had enjoyed. He hated the idea of having to go back to a normal life, with normal responsibilities and having to guess at what people wanted from him, or how to get people to do what he wanted.

But now he was unsure whether getting the power back would truly solve anything.

Richie followed his mother into the house. For the first time in awhile, he had no idea what he was going to do that weekend.

Jason hung up the phone on what was Nyssa's desk. "My Mom should be here in a little while to pick me up, once the storm passes." he said.

"You know, I could have called a taxi for you," Cassie said with a small grin. "And paid for it."

Jason shook his head. "No, you've done so much for me already, Cassie. For all of us."

Cassie blushed at this but smiled nevertheless. She and Jason were the last ones left in Nyssa's office. "I can't believe no one has come down here yet. Surely Principal Bendon is still here."

"Maybe she was released along with everyone else?" Jason suggested.

"Then she should be down here helping us."

Jason shrugged. "At this point, I'm just glad everything is over. We can sort out the rest later."

"Jason, is it really over? With Nyssa, I mean. You heard what she said about there being some sort of lingering effects on people."

"We're just going to have to see. I know about as much as you do right now."

"Well ... do you feel anything? Any lingering loyalty to Nyssa?"

Jason paused a moment and let his thoughts wander to see where they went. He was relieved to find that the first thing he thought of was Melinda and how she was going to deal with this in the days to come.

He shook his head. "Not that I can see. But I was under her control for no more than a few days. I'm actually more worried about Becky. She was still pretty pale when she left."

"She's not handling this well. I don't know if she would make a good Harbinger or not, to tell you the truth."

Jason grinned. "You kept the name?"

"Of course. You started it, not me. Wasn't up to me to change it. But ... if it's all the same to you ... I don't think I want to lead it anymore."

"No, I understand." He sighed. "Much as I hate it, I guess people will go back to seeing me as the leader again. All right, I'll just deal with it. Maybe if I had before I wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble."

"So do we include all the others now in the group? Becky? Ned? Diane?"

"Diane still can't see the auras, right?"

"No ... well, we haven't checked after what happened. I don't know whether what Nyssa did to her briefly counts as enough control to give her the ability."

"We'll make a point of checking with her Monday on that."

Cassie nodded. There was silence between them before she finally asked, "So what now? What do we do next?"

"With regards to Nyssa, nothing," replied Jason. "Since the auras are gone, she must be gone as well."

"I guess I meant more where Haven is concerned."

"That's the frustrating thing about it now, Cassie. We know there's something out there, but we can't get at it. We have to wait until it decides to find a new way to strike."

"Jason ... Nyssa said something about it ... a word she used ..."

"Awakening?" Jason said in a somber voice.

Cassie shuddered. "Yes, that. What do you think she meant?"

"It can't be anything good, that's all I can tell you."

Cassie nodded. She paused and looked out into the hall through the open door.

"Something the matter?" Jason prompted.

"I keep having this feeling like we're missing something. I keep thinking there's a loose end somewhere that we're not seeing."

Jason thought for a moment. "Maybe you're thinking of the others that Nyssa had taken? Seeing if they're all right?"

Cassie shook her head. "No ... I mean, yes, that's sort of a loose end but I know we have to wait until Monday before we know, unless we're lucky enough to run into some of them over the weekend. But that's not what I mean. It's like there's something we haven't thought of. Some detail we overlooked."

"Well, if you think of it, feel free to call me anytime over the weekend," Jason said. He smiled slightly. "Though if I'm not home, you may need to call over at Melinda's house. I intend to be spending a lot of time with her if I can."

"You don't think her mother would give her a hard time?"

"You saw how Heather and Melinda reacted to their mother when she came back to pick them up. I doubt they're going to be listening to her and her rules anymore." He paused. "And we have a lot to catch up on."

Cassie grinned at this. Melinda had clung hard to Jason the whole time until her mother had arrived. From some of the things that Cassie had accidentally overheard between them, it sounded like Melinda had some of her own ideas on how to "catch up" with him. "Actually, I was going to try and not disturb you at all," Cassie said with a knowing look.

Jason's cheeks grew slightly pink at this, but he smiled. Cassie was simply happy to see normal emotions in his face and eyes again.

"I do have one question, though," Cassie said. "Though I know you probably don't know the answer."

"That's fine, I'm interested anyway. What is it?"

"Just what was Nyssa?"

"Well, that shape-change thing she did suggested a succubus. Or a demon of some sort."

"Yes, but that wasn't her real form, she was just using it to generate fear."

Jason shrugged. "I don't know, then, other than that she was a supernatural being of some sort. Only way to explain how powerful she was and how fast she was able to get into my head."

"That's what I'm a little worried about, Jason. She was rather powerful. No one could resist her on their own. And she's only the first. What will be sent after us the next time?"

"I guess the Harbingers will have to keep meeting from now on," said Jason. "So we can report whenever we see something odd going on."

"Think we might get some others to join? Maybe Frank, since he'll likely start seeing the auras now, too?"

"We'll see. Everything is up in the air at this point." He sighed. "To tell you the truth, I'm going to try and not think about it this weekend. I need some time off from this."

Cassie nodded. "I understand. Let's hope Haven feels the same way." She turned away from him. "I better get back down to my driver before he thinks about coming in to find me."

"I'll walk out with you. I told my Mom I'd be waiting outside."

As Jason fell into step alongside Cassie, Cassie sighed again. "I still think we're missing something, Jason. It's frustrating. I just can't put my finger on it."

"Well, think about it over the weekend. Maybe it will come to you."

Cassie nodded slowly. In all honesty, however, she had a feeling that she was going to be doing everything she could to forget about all this for a short while. She needed a break herself.

Marcie approached Laura's desk, her heart thumping. Her pussy felt very warm and wet, her thighs quivering. "I was about to leave for the day, Miss Bendon," she said. There was a hint of disappointment in her voice. "You wanted to see me before I left?"

Laura rose without a word. She came out from behind the desk and placed a hand lightly against the side of Marcie's face, a gesture very reminiscent of Nyssa. It had the same effect as well. Marcie shuddered and moaned as warm, sensual pleasure swept over her body, her eyes half-lidded with delight.

"You remember my offer?" asked Laura softly.

"Yes, Miss Bendon," Marcie said in a husky voice. "I-I'm still not sure ..."

Laura smiled and gazed into Marcie's eyes. There was still some of the old Marcie left. Laura could see that now. Nyssa had given her the ability to peer into someone's psyche and understand what she saw, or at least she could do it to those with whom she was so tightly bound, such as Marcie.

Nyssa had been right. Marcie was right at the edge, but needed a final push.

"Of course, I understand your reluctance," Laura said softly.

"You do?"

"Indeed. Now ... I want to make sure that whatever you decide, it's what you want."

Marcie was nonplussed for a moment. "What ... wh-what I want, Miss Bendon?"

"Yes, indeed."

"But ... b-but I thought it was a-all about what you wanted, Miss Bendon ..."

Laura smiled. "You're a good girl for saying that, Marcie. You really are."

Marcie mewled and felt her pussy throb softly.

"But for this, I need you to decide yourself."

Marcie swallowed, panting as her orgasm played out, her eyes still locked to Laura's. The emotions racing through her head were making it difficult to think coherently.

"And I want you to think about it this entire weekend."

"Yes ... yes, Miss Bendon, I promise I will ..."

Laura chuckled softly. "No ... I don't mean that ... I mean, I want you to think about it ..."

"I-I don't ..."

"Think about it now, Marcie," Laura said in a whispery, sultry voice. "Think about the idea of pleasing me whenever I want it ... whenever I need it ..."

Emotions now spun in a whirlwind in Marcie's head, making her utter a soft gasp. She tried to regain some control over it, to calm herself and let her think straight, but it was like trying to stand against a hurricane.

"Think about ... giving me pleasure ..."

Marcie shuddered again as the gate was unlocked, the one she had set against those forbidden feelings and images that she knew all along were just at the edge of her consciousness, but that her old, prudish ways would never allow free reign.

Now they came crashing into her head in a rush. She moaned and shivered, her cheeks blushing brightly at the same time.

"Keep thinking about it, Marcie," Laura said as she slowly withdrew her hand. "Think about it all weekend. Dream about it. And always remember ... the pleasure I get ... how pleased I am ... will mean equal reward for yourself. Always."

Marcie clutched at the side of the desk, panting hard as the vivid images in her mind settled into her consciousness. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get herself to think of anything else. The more she fought them, the stronger they became.

"Easy, Marcie," Laura said soothingly. "Don't fight it. Just let it settle in your mind and you'll be able to think again."

Very slowly, Marcie complied. She quieted the self-censor that was trying ruthlessly to stamp out the thoughts. As she did, their intensity lessened and she began breathing more normally. Yet they did not go away. They remained as a constant background thought, like someone contemplating what she was going to do for dinner while performing other tasks.

"There," Laura said with satisfaction. "Dwell on that this weekend and give me your answer Monday."

"Y-yes, Miss Bendon," Marcie said in a shaky voice.

"Oh, and one last thing," Laura said as Marcie was about to turn away. "Another thing for you to remember. Any pleasure you receive ... it will never be as good as what you would get for pleasing me."

Marcie uttered another low moan, trembling. "Yes, Miss Bendon," she said in a barely audible voice.

"Very good. Now, run along." Laura smiled. "Have a nice weekend."

Marcie swallowed and straightened up, taking a few deep breaths. "Thank you, Miss Bendon," she said in a more normal voice as she let the thoughts Laura had implanted in her settle into her psyche. "I-I'll try."

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