[Author's note:
Lily
has recruited
Kayla
into a new adventure. They have been given the
power of free will
, able to break through the fourth wall and jump from story to story, to go anywhere. After making a pact in the
Meta Cafe
they have escaped out of their own story worlds and into the unknown, determined to write their own endings.
But each story universe they visit has its own rules. Kayla's universe allows mind control, other universes allow people to be turned into sex dolls, or live like billionaires, or on spaceships or in the perfect female society. Now, Lily is finally putting her plan into motion to pay back the people who made her life so very shit. She has the power. She wants revenge.
Alena and Quinn
and
Cassie
are from Lily's original story,
read more here
if you would like the background.]
---
LOST, AND FOUND
Alena fidgeted in the back of the limousine. Maybe there were some jobs she just shouldn't have taken. She looked down at what she was wearing again. Maybe this was one of them. Across from her, Lily smiled.
"How're you feeling?" Kayla asked.
"I, uh, this dress is... it's pretty unusual. I don't ever wear things like this, usually."
"You look amazing, though," Lily replied.
"I feel a little, I don't know...."
"Kinky? It's camouflage, so that we all fit in."
Lily stretched out in her seat, crossing her long legs, showing off the figure-hugging leather catsuit she was wearing. Lily had unzipped it, just enough to show the valley of her cleavage, the black leather contrasting with her pale skin, glinting with a touch of shimmering body make-up for effect. She was wearing toeless stiletto heels with an improbably-thin heel, showing dark red nail varnish that matched her glossy red lipstick. She had teased her long blonde hair into a set of braided pigtails that hung in two rows of four down her back. She looked very different from the woman who had entered Alena's PR agency the week before. Alena suspected that this was the real Lily, somehow, and the woman she'd met in the meeting room was a front.
Kayla was dressed more conservatively, but only just. Her long, dark tresses had been gathered up in a plait, her ample cleavage contained in a black velvet corset that pushed up her décolletage into plump, soft pillows. She was wearing a leather miniskirt over fishnet stockings and thigh-high glossy black vinyl boots.
Alena had been provided a dress, opting for bare legs and low black heels. The dress Lily had found for her was strapless, made of soft, supple black leather that cinched tightly around her waist and flowed down almost to her ankles. Compared to the other two women in the limousine, she was dressed demurely.
Richard hadn't liked it, his wife disappearing on a business trip and being gone for the entire weekend. She had shown him the retainer that Dr. Dane was paying for her services, though, and that had softened his attitude. Still, if Richard had known where she'd be visiting, what she'd be wearing, he'd have thrown a fit.
"Will there be a lot of people there?" Alena found herself asking, more to break the silence than anything.
Kayla shrugged, but Lily answered. "It's Friday night. It should be full of the regulars."
"And what are we expecting to see when we get inside?"
Lily laughed. "I have no idea."
Alena shifted in her seat again, agitated. "I guess that's the point of this though, isn't it?"
"Yes," Lily agreed. "It's reconnaissance. Dr. Dane needs to familiarise herself with all the tenancies in the block before she invests. We've done the rest, so it's just the club."
Alena looked over to Kayla, who smiled sweetly back at her.
"What's up?" Kayla asked.
"Nothing. It's just, and I mean this as a compliment, you're young and already able to invest in property. Your practice must be a lot more lucrative than mine."
"Oh, you'd be amazed. Clinical psychology is quite a lucrative field, but not unlike yours."
"In what way?"
"We're both trying to change people's minds."
"We're here," Lily called out.
The limousine slowed down and came to a halt by the curb of a downtown block of mid-range storefronts. The area had seen better days, but the lights of the convenience store shone brightly into the night, its insides lit like midday. Next to it was a set of doors in the sandstone façade, opened to show a neon light inside. There was a velvet rope out the front and a small queue of people.
Lily was the first to get out, stretching like a cat as eyes turned towards her. "Ladies, show time."
Kayla followed her, and Alena stepped out of the limousine last, feeling self-conscious in the night in her strapless leather dress in front of the people waiting to enter the club. She needn't have worried though: all attention was on Lily.
Lily strode towards the doorwoman, hips swaying in her outrageous heels, her body moving sinuously beneath the tight leather catsuit. She smoothed a hand over her bottom, tracing the curve of her cheek, and looked back over her shoulder at Kayla, giving the dark-haired woman a little grin. Alena didn't know what that meant, other than an uneasy feeling that there might be trouble ahead. They breezed through the door, skipping the queue, plunging into the humid, throbbing heart of the club.
The night was already underway, bodies pressed together on the dance floor, a cacophony of noise over the relentless thump of the music. Alena glanced at the faces as they pushed past, feeling suddenly very old. Eventually, they managed to work their way through to the back, to a huge Pacific Islander in a dark suit standing in front of a velvet rope. One side of his face was decorated with a dark pattern of tribal tattoos.
A tiny red-headed girl was standing in front of him, toying with her hair idly, as they approached.
"But, I am special," she was telling the huge doorman.
"I'm sure," he laughed, "But the answer's the same."
She parted her lips suggestively. "I could show you. You've got no idea what I can do with my tongue."
"You have no idea what the missus would do with my neck. You'd find yourself on a true crime podcast, no mistake."
He turned towards Lily, scanning the three of them with a practiced eye before turning back to the girl.
"Sorry, love. Not your night tonight."
"Your loss."
She flicked her hair and walked away. The doorman turned to Lily.
"Now, how can I help you?" he asked.
"You're Tony, right?"
"Yep, and you are?"
"Lily. I know Cassie."
Tony's expression changed fractionally, the tribal tattoos down the side of his face wrinkling momentarily. He unhooked the velvet rope.
"Come through ladies. Welcome to the Lost and Found," he said.
They stepped through and pushed open the door into a new area. Alena glanced back over her shoulder, catching Tony speaking into his earpiece. It made her touch her own ear, conscious of something missing. That was the strange thing about it too, the quiet. She had become so used to little voices whispering in her ear that she found the silence unnerving. Ever since Lily had picked her up from her office, the voices had been gone. She'd taken her earpiece out, the one she always wore because she was always working, to find that it had become inactive as soon as she'd entered Lily's city. Alena would probably need to swap its batteries out when she got home, or something. Richard could help, he was always good at fixing it.
They entered a low-lit space, much smaller than the sprawling, packed club they'd left. There was a central area with cocktail tables, ringed by booths with black vinyl seating around two walls, all occupied with people. To her right, the entire end of the room was set up with a stage, and facing her was the bar. But that wasn't what drew her attention.
Spotlit in the centre of the room was a sculpture suspended from a set of steel rigging with tiny wires that were so thin, they were almost invisible, giving the object the impression of floating free in space. It was the centrepiece to the club. Then, it moved.
Alena blinked, not trusting her eyes, but then she saw it. The smooth pale curves were twisted around themselves, threaded through with black rope, and in the middle was a long plaited braid of pitch-black hair. She followed it with her eyes and the shape sprang into view, the tangle of limbs resolving itself into a completely naked woman facing away from them. She had been folded in half, her knees tucked under her armpits, her heels behind her head. Her hands were tied tightly behind her back, the rope crisscrossing her body, wrapping around her neck and her ankles, securing her in an elaborate human knot.
As Alena stared at the woman on display, she rotated slowly in space, caught in the spotlight, her face in profile now. Her mouth was wide open, her tongue darting out eagerly to bury itself in the warm, wet folds of her own vagina, tucked under her chin. A woman with coffee-coloured skin and wearing a little black dressed stepped up to her. There was a wand in her hand and she applied it to the bound woman's puckered rear opening, setting off a riot of convulsions in her limbs. The bound woman began to lap at her own pussy furiously.
"You see why we needed to bring you here."
Startled, Alena turned to the source of the interruption. Lily was watching her intently.
"I suppose, uh... yes," Alena stammered.
She was still trying to process the naked display of lust in the middle of the room, the way that everyone else around seemed to just carry on as if it was normal. The way the bound woman had started to lick herself with such desperate vigour made Alena queasy inside. The woman had been given no choice, she'd been so helpless.
"Kayla's found a spot in a booth. Want a drink?"
"Yes."
Alena roused herself, glancing back at the suspended figure being teased mercilessly by the petite woman in the dark dress. She hurried over to the booth. Kayla was sitting there, looking out. Alena joined her, glad to be able to tuck herself away. There was a nervous, fluttering feeling in her stomach.
"I can see what you meant," Alena started. "Your medical reputation, this club, I can see compatibility issues. If you invested, would you be looking to shut this down?"
"I'd need to be a majority holder to do that, which is unlikely. Ms. Lane wouldn't give up control. She's very much into retaining control."
"So why look at this investment? It seems there's a lot of reputation risk and not enough upside."
Kayla just shrugged. It was an odd reaction, and once again the youth of the dark-haired woman sitting opposite her occurred to Alena. Just then, Lily arrived, carrying an ice bucket with champagne and three glasses.
"Did you get the expensive stuff?" Kayla asked her.
