That was a lie. It was really to distract her. To give her a reason to be nervous when James arrived.
âHeâll see my butt,â Flora said.
âAre you wearing a thong?â
âYes.â
âTurn around.â
She did. The sweater covered most of her ass, enough to give the illusion from behind that she wore no panties at all. James didnât have it in him to remain objective after seeing Floraâs butt cheeks peeking out below the back of her sweater.
To calm her nerves, I took off my jeans. I also wore a thong, but my t-shirt barely covered my belly button, so I was more naked than she was. Not that it did anything for her. She was mortified.
But I called James to take the food cart anyway, and when he knocked, I stuck the laced banana in her hand and pushed her toward the door. Snatching a cold piece of bacon off the cart, I sat at the table with my back to the room.
This was like fishing. All I could do was sit quietly and hope James took the bait.
The door swung open.
âHi James.â She sounded so sheepish. I wondered what that did for him.
Silence for a moment. Then, âAlmost bedtime?â
âYeah, weâreâitâs getting pretty …â
She was fumbling for words. I had to interject.
âFlora, come here,â I barked. I heard the pitter-patter of her feet, imagined the look on Jamesâs face as his eyes bounced with Floraâs butt. When I felt her behind me, I said, âGet me a glass of water.â
James strolled in, as I expected he would when I pulled Flora away. I must admit, watching her stand at the sink, barefoot, barelegged, and halfway bare-assed, it was hard to concentrate on anything else.
I popped the last bite of bacon in my mouth and spun around in my chair to find James walking slowly with a hand in his pocket, like a potential buyer at an open house. He was circumnavigating the table, giving itâmeâa wide berth, and moving closer and closer to Flora.
Flora brought my glass of water, passing James, who spun to face me directly. That was when I noticed he was holding the banana. Flora must have handed it to him, maybe asked him to hold it in a whisper I didnât hear.
Now he was handing it back to her with a smile, like a boyfriend who fucks up and comes back with flowers the next day.
âThank you,â Flora said, accepting the banana with both hands. To me she looked suspicious, but James seemed to think she was flirting, a condition all nice, bashful girls suffer: every guy thinks you want to fuck himâand if not, youâre at least too polite to say no.
âYou like bananas?â James asked.
Come here often?
âYeah,â Flora said. âTheyâre my favorite.â
Good girl.
âI love bananas,â James said.
Flora looked down at the one she held. Then she raised it up to him, putting on a smile even I believed.
James swallowed nervously. âWell … thank you, Flora.â
He accepted the banana, and Iâd be damned if he wasnât peeling it open.
Youâre a fucking genius, Flora!
What he did next scared the shit out of me. He didnât take a bite. He broke off the top piece and held it out to Flora.
Flora reached up, and all I wanted to do was scream, but instead of taking it, she grabbed his wrist delicately, stepped in, and took a bite from the whole banana.
James reacted physically. He began to breathe deeply, likely overcome by the desire to feel her lips on his penis. Men are simple in that way. A girl and a banana and heâs lost to the world for the rest of the day.
Flora stepped back, chewing, staring up at him expectantly. She even ran her hand up her thigh, drawing up her sweater to expose her stomach. What an effective little co-conspirator she turned out to be.
James popped the top piece of banana in his mouth, chewing vigorously at first but slowing down fast, so that by the time he swallowed he looked like a cow chewing cud. Tears were streaming down his cheeks by then, too, and he offered us both a wide, open-mouthed, banana-pasted smile.
âIâm s-sorry,â he said. âYou two are the most beautiful women Iâve ever seen. I justâ¦I donât know. I donât know what to say. I feel really weird all of a sudden.â
Then the sobbing set in, and he took a seat at the table, covering his face with his hands. After a moment he began to hiccup.
I was lost as to where to go from here, so I stalled by running to the closet for a pair of pants, bringing some for Flora, too. She accepted them graciously and eagerly.
With my legs and ass warming up I was able to collect my thoughts.
I approached James, who sat there mumbling apologies into his hands. Good thing I hadnât used enough to render him comatose like they did to me once a week.
âJames.â
He looked up. âIâve done so many things to you and Flora. Cruel things. Iâve had cruel thoughts, intentionsâ¦I donât know why Iâve been like this.â
Flora took a seat next to him. âWhat intentions?â
He turned to her and without delicacy told her that heâd planned to rape and murder her.
âWhy would you do that to me?â
âBecause,â he said, âit would have been exhilarating … then, not now. I donât want to hurt you anymore.â
âDo you want to help us?â I asked.
He straightened his back like a soldier and nodded emphatically. âWhatever you needâjust tell me and Iâll do it.â
This was much less complicated than I imagined. If only Iâd sliced open Floraâs arm months ago, when they first gaveâloanedâher to me.
I had plenty of instructions to give, but first and foremost I craved information.
âWhat are they doing to me?â
He cocked his head. âWho?â
âPatton!â I shouted without thinking. Then I added, âAnd Mr. Shriver. And Sean. Kateâall of them.â
âTheyâre brainwashing you,â James said. He sounded timid now, very much out of character for him.
âWhy are they brainwashing me?â
âSo they can make you production manager.â
âProduction manager?â
âIn the warehouse. Youâre going to oversee the pre-production Favorite Girls, as long as Judyâs theory proves out. About the Love Drug. Some of us think sheâs full of it. It was her idea to keep you alive. She actually convinced Mr. Shriver that youâre the perfect subject, being Your Favorite Girlâs worst nightmare and all.â He chuckled a little. âNow Mr. Shriverâs convinced you were meant to work for him. He thinks youâre his lucky charm.â
âHow are they?â Flora asked.
âThe girls?â James said. âI donât know. Right now Seanâs guards are running things down there. Donât worry, theyâre on strict orders not to lay a finger on the girlsâthough I do hear theyâve been verbally abusive. Threatening and so forth. Iâve only seen them in passing, when they were being escorted back to Level D for the night. They all looked tired and scared.â
Now I wanted the job. As production manager in the warehouse, I would have an open dock to the outside world, with most of the Favorite Girls at my disposal. Then again, if the brainwashing did take root …
âWhatâs it like outside?â
âWeatherâs nice today, I hear. I havenât been out.â
âI mean after what Judy did. What state is the city in?â
âOh,â James said. âOrder has been restored for the most part. Everyoneâs in a big uproar about it, though. Imagine all the crime committed that day. How can a police department deal with that? A few government agen
cies have been investigating. Weâre taking care of that next week.â
âWhat happens next week?â
âA meeting with the president.â
âYou mean Mr. Shriver?â
âMr. Shriver is conducting the meeting, yes, with the president.â
âThe president of what?â
âThe United States.â
It could only mean one thing. Mr. Shriver was making his move.
I sent James to speak with Judy. It was a big risk clueing her in on my activities, but I had nowhere else to turn.
While we waited, I removed Floraâs bandage, cleaned her stitching with a warm washcloth, and rewrapped the wound with fresh gauze.
Flora only spoke once to say, âIâm worried about them.â
So was I.
James returned quickly, scaring us both when he pounded on the door. For a moment I thought the drug had worn off and he was coming back with violent urges, but when I opened the door I found him fidgety with excitement, like someone on the brink of pissing himself.
He held a folded piece of paper. âShe wrote you a note. She said she doesnât trust me to remember.â
I motioned for him to enter, closing the door behind me.
âDid you tell her exactly what I said?â
âYes.â
âRepeat it to me.â
âNo problem. I said, âJudy, Melissa slipped the Love Drug into a banana and I ate it. She sent me to ask for your help. On the next round, she wants you to use a placebo. She wants you to tell her how to fake the results youâre looking for.ââ
âDid she believe you?â I asked, taking the note. It was stiff. I unfolded it to find a CD tucked inside.
âNot a word,â James said. âI had to let her drug me again so she would know I was telling the truth.â
âSmart girl,â I murmured, beginning to read:
Melissa,
You shouldnât have done this. Now Iâll have to keep James drugged at all times. If I slip up just once, heâll come out of it. Did you think about that?
Seeing how thereâs no going back at this point, Iâve sent along the video footage of your last round of testing. You will need to mimic your own behavior for the first five to ten minutes. Then you will need to suddenly regain consciousness. At that point, you have to do whatever you can to make them believe youâve transformed into what they want.
Personally I donât know what that is. I sure hope you do.
Judy
P.S.âIâm working on a solution.
The postscript threw me off. A solution to what? Did she mean Brianâs researchâwhat was effectively her research? Did she know a way out?
âGet out,â I told James, who had turned to stare at Flora. New James found Flora alluring even with pants on. Old James would have been disappointed.
âCan I have a hug?â
I turned to him, grimacing. âJames, get the fuck out. Go back to Judy. And donât fuck her unless she tells you to. No, in fact, donât fuck anyone ever again.â
âOkay,â he mumbled, eyelids filling up with tears. âI love you, Melissa.â He glanced back quickly. âI love you, Flora.â
Flora said nothing. She was an honest person.
I sent Flora to take a bath, instructing her to keep her wound dry. I didnât want her watching the video. Something told me it might contain things I didnât want her to see or hear.
Turns out I was right.
A few minutes in, I realized this wasnât just about brainwashing me. It was also about torturing Patton. He sat in a chair in the corner of the room, covering his face with his hands. I couldnât tell if he was crying. It was hard not to focus on what was happening in the foreground.
After strapping me in what looked like a dentistâs chair, Sean pulled down my pants and underwear and stuck two fingers inside me while I struggled. Then he started pinching me hard in the side, squeezing my breasts, and he didnât stop until I was hysterical.
That was when Judy approached with a syringe.
Sean ceased violating me and put all his weight on my arm to keep me still while Judy plunged the needle into my bicep.
Then I seemingly fell unconscious, only my eyes were half-open, lids fluttering, my mouth turning up in a creepy smile.
Five minutes passed with no one doing anything. Kate ran her mouth incessantly while everyone in the room tried hard to ignore her. Mr. Shriver stood there looking grumpy and inconvenienced. Once Patton stood and walked over to me. He put his hand on the armrest and hovered over me like a mourner staring into a coffin.
On Judyâs instruction, Kate picked up a script that she would spend the next ten minutes whispering in my ear, the nightmare I awoke from last time, everything I feared all bundled up into one cute little anti-fairytale.
The more I watched, the more my disdain for Kate grew. I made a commitment right then and there, and as many angry women are wont to do, I said it aloud. âMark my words you fucking skank. Iâm going to kill you.â
I broke the CD in half and threw it in the trash. Then I burned the note in the sink, washing the ashes down the drain.
With that done, I went to the shower room to check on Flora. She stood in the middle of the Jacuzzi pool, the water surface lapping at her knees, her entire bodyâminus the one armâlathered in soap, hair matted into a ball with shampoo. She had her back to me and must not have heard me enter. I sat down on the ledge and watched her work the lather on her thighs, her sides, her butt. Someone had taught her to be thorough.
I slipped out of the room without her noticing.
No matter what, this would be the last time they experimented on me. From here I would either accept the position as production manager and go about the task of enforcing child labor, or I would die feeling Seanâs blade poking around in my intestines.
Having James on our side made the days a lot easier. He began to sneak us whatever we wanted, starting with wine and bourbon. We made a list of movies we wanted to watch and he delivered every single one. That night we got drunk, ate popcorn, and cuddled together on the bed watching comedies. It even became easy to laugh. Liquor will do that.
In case these were our last few days, I tried to have as much fun with Flora as possible. We quickly reverted to children, crawling around on the floor and building tents and tunnels out of bed sheets.
On the final nightâthe night they would come take me awayâFlora and I crawled into the largest tent, built from the top of the broken stereo system and sloping down to the coffee table, to play strip checkers.
Flora suggested the game. I added the stripping part. To my surprise, she accepted the challenge without modesty or hesitation.
A few rounds in, I realized why. Flora was ridiculously talented at checkers. She had me buck naked at the end and all sheâd lost was a t-shirt and a sock.
As the game progressed, I started to notice her stealing glances at me the way a guy zones in on cleavage when a girl turns her head. It was cute, and at the same time I started to feel an inexplicable enchantment developing in the air. Flora was crushing on meâI could see it clearly nowâand I was excited about it. We began the game sitting on opposite sides of the board, but by the end sheâd inched her way around to be right next to me, so that by the time our shoulders touched, I was already naked.
âThe Floras play a lot of checkers,â she explained, leaning into me playfully, some of her hair falling across my bare chest.
âNo strip checkers, I assume.â
She shook her head. âWe showered together, though.â
âReally?â
âYeah. I mean we had an open shower room, so a few girls might be in there any given time.â
âJust Floras or all the girls?â
&n
bsp; âAll of them.â
She seemed excited to share this information, like she had a dirty little secret. Some soft sexual encounter with another Favorite Girlâwhich one?âwho happened to be standing under the showerhead next to her late one evening when the others were long asleep.
Did Flora once have a girlfriend?
âSo youâre used to being naked around other people,â I said.
âJust girls. Never a guy.â
âIâm a girl.â
She blushed and dropped her head, but she was smiling.
âIf you want me to take my clothes off, you have to get better at checkers.â
âWell how about we play another game?â I asked. âOnly this time I get to pick.â
âOkay,â she said.
âStrip Wrestling.â
âWhatâs Stripââ
I pushed her onto the bed of pillows weâd made and fought with her to pull her clothes off. She giggled and squealed and squirmed away, inevitably driving us to the edge of the tent. In our thrashing and rolling we pulled the tent down on top of us. Before long we were rolled up in it, like two flies bound together by a hungry spider, me tugging at her jeans, which Iâd pulled down to her knees, Flora clinging to them for dear life. In order to pretend to resist, you must participate in resisting.
Then suddenly we stopped moving and lay with our bare stomachs pressed together, me naked, Flora with her pants pulled down and her shirt hiked up to just below her breasts, both of us breathing heavily.
I felt her breath on my neck. Then a cold, wet sensation. Her tongue, barely grazing my skin. Her whole body vibrated and I realized she was giggling. I felt her wiggly tongue again, only this time she licked downward and put her soft lips on my collar bone. She kissed me in a line up my neck, through the spot where the nurse checks your pulseâthis I could hardly standâand up to my earlobe.
She bit it gently but just a little too hard, and when I reacted she snaked her hand quickly through the tangle of bed sheets and cupped my face, whispering so quiet a person standing over us wouldnât even hear it, âI didnât mean to hurt you.â
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