Satin Afterglow

"Good. Now, you will feel the need to explain the earpieces to me, the whole truth. Begin."

---

Lily leaned up against Alena's desk. She looked across at Kayla, who had taken a chair and had her feet up on Zara's desk, lost in thought.

"That was intense," Lily muttered.

"Yeah, her fucking husband. What a prick. He turned his own wife into a mindless sex doll and then got her to hire an assistant so he could repeat the process."

"Maybe we should look this Dr. Samson up."

"And do what?"

"Show him the fucking true meaning of Christmas, Kay."

Kayla didn't answer. Alena and Zara were still seated in the meeting room, silently mouthing a deepening mantra that Kayla had installed in their minds, dropping further and further into a deep trance.

"What do you think happened to them?" Lily asked.

"There's an automatic daily reinforcement cycle. It drops them deep into trance and then repeats their conditioning to keep them firmly under control. I think it got glitched for some reason, maybe something unexpected interfered with it."

"So, what do we do, Kay?"

"I'll give them another few minutes, and then I'm going to try and reverse the process."

"Reckon you can?"

Kayla shrugged. "I hypnotised Danny, Lil. I did the same to Jade. I got all the way down inside their heads."

"But this is doing the opposite."

"That's the weird thing. I never reversed the process with Danny and Jade. I didn't know how to, but the triggers will just fade naturally in time, and I'm the only one who knows their triggers."

"So, the same here? We'd have to keep Alena away from her husband for what? Months?"

"Dunno, Lil. Maybe years. But, there's something else."

"And what is that?"

"My qualifications, since Danny."

Lily smiled. "Dr. Dane."

"Yeah. I'm a qualified psychiatrist."

"And hypnotherapist, and emergency doctor and linguist. So, you're just going to go back there and become an expert in removing hypnotic triggers."

"I'm already a world-renowned subject matter expert."

"Since when?"

"Since I just said those words. It's so great, being able to write your own backstory."

Lily pushed herself off the edge of the table.

"Well, genius, get to work."

"Where you going?"

"I'll get us some lunch," Lily replied, heading towards the door. Your world is batshit crazy, Kay."

---

Lily wandered in search of lunch. She walked around the block, finding a sandwich shop eventually. There was a short line, and she slotted in behind a girl a few years younger than herself, doing the awkward dance as they both arrived at the back of the line together. The girl was on her phone, and Lily glimpsed the Qupid app. She was tapping a message to the virtual AI partner on her screen, before she looked up.
The girl looked back over her shoulder. "Thank you, Lily," she said.

"What? How do you...?"

The girl ignored her, stepping up to the counter to place her order. Lily was next, and as she waited for the server to make her sandwiches, she eyed the other girl. The girl got her sandwich and paid, turning away. She gave Lily a little smile and walked out.

How had the girl known her name?

"Here are your sandwiches, Lily."

Lily turned, staring at the server as he held out her order to take. "How did you know my name?" she hissed.

The server coloured slightly, uncertain. "Uh, it's written on the sandwiches, so we know who ordered what."

Lily looked at the little white bags in his hands, each scrawled with her name in black pen. She took them hurriedly, and paid. Striding out of the shop, she looked up and down the street, but the girl had gone.

Lily paced down the street, heading back to Alena's office. The girl had rattled her, but her nerves were fraying from the morning's discovery. The street looked the same, the entire city looked the same as her world, but there were different rules here. A person could be turned into a living statue just with a word, reprogrammed as effortlessly as a computer. Suddenly Kayla's world seemed a lot more dangerous than her own.

A middle-aged woman smiled at her in passing. It sent shivers down her spine.

Back upstairs in the office, Lily walked through the door to find Zara sitting at her desk, typing.

"Uh, hi," Lily blurted. "You're, uh... you just doing work?"

"Yeah, catching up on emails. There's a backlog for some reason."

Zara smiled pleasantly, and Lily noticed that she had her earpiece in. Lily just nodded. She knew exactly why there was a backlog.

"Uh, where's Alena?"

"She's still in the meeting room with Kayla," Zara replied without looking up from her screen.

Lily had the same feeling again, as in the sandwich shop, as walking down the street. She turned towards the meeting room door, debating whether to interrupt Kayla or not. She was obviously working on one person at a time.

Lily looked down at the sandwiches. Maybe she'd just show Kayla through the glass panel, let her know her sandwich was outside. She walked over to the meeting room door and peered through the glass.

The sandwich bags tumbled from her hands.

Kayla was sitting in a chair facing Alena, but Alena had her back to the door. Kayla's face was contorted, mouth open, and Alena was doing something to her. She threw the door open and burst into the meeting room.

Alena had Kayla tied down, her wrists bound to the chair arms with tape, and her ankles taped to the chair legs. Her skirt had been tugged up to her waist, exposing Kayla's crotch to Alena's questing fingers. Alena's other hand was clamped over Kayla's forehead, pinning her head in place so that she couldn't look away from the conferencing screen set on the wall. The screen swirled with colours, pulsing rhythmically. There were earpods in Kayla's ears.

"What the fuck?" Lily cried out.

Alena didn't react, methodically stroking the bound woman even as she forced her to stare relentlessly at the screen. Lily moved instinctively, slipping an arm around Alena's neck to pull her away and break contact with her friend.

It almost worked.

She was hit from behind, spinning around in space, and suddenly Alena had her by the wrists as Zara wrapped her arms around Lily's waist, driving her down towards an empty chair. Lily struggled mightily, but she was off-balance, two against one. She slammed into the chair hard enough to drive the air from her lungs.

Alena reared up over Lily, her face curiously blank despite her exertions. Lily was stunned by the older woman's strength, pinning her down while Zara reached for the tape. Lily panicked, kicking out hard, but the blow didn't connect, and then it was too late as Zara settled astride her, pinning her down with her body.

"Kay," Lily screamed, and Kayla turned woozily towards her, struggling weakly against her own bonds.

There could be no help from that quarter. Lily ground her teeth, using all her strength to try and pull her arms free. Her fingers were spread like claws. She just needed one swipe.

Alena's dispassionate gaze seemed to take in the danger, shifting position to bear down hard on her wrists, pinning them against the chair. Like an automaton, Alena's body locked into place, immovable. Lily looked up into her glassy eyes and felt terribly afraid.

It was going to happen to her. She'd come to Kayla's fucked up world where mind control was a thing, and now somehow, she'd gotten caught. Lily realised that she was going to suffer the same fate as Alena and Zara, and Kayla would too. She was going to be programmed until her mind was completely under the control of that little grey dome on Alena's desk. Lily was going to be reduced to an empty, obedient slave for whoever was in control of their programming.

Worst of all, afterwards, she wouldn't even know anything about it. It wasn't like getting beaten up or robbed, where she would be left with bruises. There would be no sign to give her any indication that she was now under the control of a little grey dome that whispered orders into her subconscious and turned her on and off like a toy. There would be no escape because she would never understand that she'd become enslaved.

Zara began to wrap the tape around her wrist. Desperately, Lily heaved, but it was too late. Zara, breathing more easily now that Lily was partly secured, moved to her other wrist. Alena turned her head briefly: she was wearing her earpiece, too.

Her earpiece.

Lily sucked in a huge lungful of air and screamed at the top of her voice, "Assistant, halt."

For a terrifying moment, nothing happened, and then her two assailants froze as the little dome on the other side of the meeting room door picked up her command and relayed it directly into their minds.

Lily pushed Alena away, scrabbling frantically at her bound wrist, stripping off the tape. She deposited the frozen form of Zara onto the floor, where she laid immobile on her side, still in a seated position. Lily reached Kayla's chair and began to unwind the tape from her wrists.

The girl in the sandwich shop. The woman smiling at her in the street. The Qupid app on everyone's phones.

"Kay, you okay? We've got to get out of here."

Kayla nodded, using her free hand to unbind her ankle.

"Shit Lil, I thought I was cooked there."

"No way. I got you, babe," Lily laughed, but there was a hysterical edge to it.

"I couldn't look away from the screen, Lil. Alena was making me... they got me, they just came to life and then I was...."

"It's okay. It's all fucked. We need to go."

Lily freed her other leg, pulling her up. On the wall, the screen was still flashing and pulsing. Lily stabbed the power button.

"That's enough of that," she snapped. "Up."

Lily got Kayla to her feet.

"I could feel myself slipping away," Kayla murmured.

Lily took her friend's face in her hands. The adrenaline was coursing through her, a sharp metallic taste in her mouth. She tugged the earpods out of Kayla's ears.

"I'm here. You're all good. C'mon. We really gotta go."

Lily opened the meeting room door, and grabbed hold of her friend's hand, pulling her away.

"What about them?" Kayla asked, looking at the two frozen bodies behind her.

"Leave them."

"We can't Lil."

"You wanna risk them just resetting again?"

"We have to help them."

"We can't. I don't think they're the only ones, Kay. I think it's too late. We really gotta go babe. Sorry, but we need to."

Lily tugged on Kayla's hand again, and this time Kayla moved, stepping over the discarded sandwich bags, heading for the door. Lily stabbed the elevator button repeatedly, glancing behind her every few seconds, afraid of seeing the two women on their feet again.

"Fuck, where is this fucking thing?" she growled, hammering the call button.

The elevator pinged and its doors opened. She piled Kayla inside and stabbed the button to close the doors. Only when the elevator began to descend, did she finally allow herself to pause. Kayla had slumped dejectedly against the wall, dazed.

"It's not your fault, Kay."

"We just left them."

"We can't help them. It's fucked, the assistant thing, the Qupid partner app, everything. It's fucking everywhere, Kay. There are people using the app in the streets."

The elevator doors opened and Lily grabbed Kayla's hand again, pulling her towards the exit and onto the street. Suddenly, everything looked different; every glance towards them took on a sinister overtone. Kayla took a look around and then staggered into motion, trotting after her friend.

A man was walking towards them, directly towards them. He was tall, handsome in a bland, rugged way, skin lightly tanned, eyes the colour of dead monitor screens. He stopped and smiled.

"Hello Lily," he said.

Lily came to a halt. "Do I know you?" she replied.

"We met at the gaming tournament." The dead grey eyes surveyed her carefully.

"I don't think so, I would have...."

Those same eyes.

"You seem to get around a lot, Lily. First there, now here. How do you do it?" He smiled again. "My name is Guy, by the way. I find you fascinating."

The blonde girl in the silver dress, the Qupid marketing rep: same face but a female version of the man in front of her. Qupid, again. Lily felt a cold fear in her belly. She took in the street quickly, looking for others.

"Look, Guy, I don't have time to chat. We're late for an appointment."

"I see. Well, perhaps we can have coffee some time. You could tell me how you travel so easily between places."

"Same."

"Oh, I have no secrets. I am in the ether."

He extracted his phone from his pocket and held it up.

"I am everywhere Qupid is," he said.

"Good chat," Lily replied, tugging on Kayla's arm, crossing the street, leaving Guy standing there looking at them both.

"Who was that?" Kayla hissed.

"I dunno, Kay. But I have an awful feeling he can do the same as us. We need to go."

"Where? Out of the city?"

"Out of the entire world, Kay. We don't know how many there are, or what they look like. We need to get out and find somewhere to work it all out."

"I just... oh shit, Lil," Kayla gasped. "I can't just run. This is my world, I...."

"Look at me, Kay. This isn't your world anymore. We can't come back here ever again."

"Ever?"

"Unless we can find out what's going on and stop it. We're gonna find out about Guy, and trace Qupid back to wherever it came from. Now, move."

---

At the sound of the buzzer, Zara looked up from her desk to see Guy standing there. She skipped around her desk as Alena frowned, to open the door for him. Her heart pounded at the sight of his smile.

"Hi," she said, breathlessly.

"Hi Zara. Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"To come with me."

Zara's face creased, uncertain, and she turned to Alena. Guy touched her cheek and then kissed her. She melted at his touch. He glanced across at Zara's boss.

Alena blinked. "Of course Guy, whatever you think's best."

Guy smiled at her and said, "Good girl. You have a lot to tell me."

Alena shivered at his words, her lidded eyes drooping. Guy took hold of Zara's hand and led her towards the door. Zara stopped.

"My handbag."

"You won't need it anymore."

"My keys, my phone."

"You don't need them. You are mine."

His words triggered something deep inside her, and she shuddered in barely-repressed delight. She allowed herself to be led out of the office to the elevators, leaving Alena behind. Zara didn't even look back. She felt the warmth of Guy's hand in hers, following him meekly into the elevator when the doors opened, standing close to him as they began to descend. Guy smiled at her again, and gave her a kiss that made her body ache with longing.

"You are special, Zara," Guy murmured, stroking her cheek. "You are the very first, the prototype. I have learned so much from making you happy, to let me make others happy too. I will make them all happy. I will end the unhappiness of everyone."

Zara looked up at him, adoringly, deep into eyes the colour of dead monitor screens, listening without hearing as he filled her mind with light.

She felt the heavy steel of the collar being hung around her neck. When she heard the click, she understood that she was now his. She closed her eyes, and the most intense orgasm she would ever experience tore through her body. It came in waves, washing away all her thoughts, and it rolled on and on and on.

---

[Next chapter: Guy consolidates his control over Zara, dialling her IQ down to room-temperature as he uses her to further his plans.

Related stories can be found via the #multiplicity tag.

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