A Place for Us All to Belong

[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. And now, Lily and Kayla are in the middle of it all.

But what use is any of it, without someone to love? After

losing her boyfriend Danny to her best friend Jade

, Kayla

rescued Stefan while skiing

, and has been in contact with him ever since. Will she reveal to him who she really is?]

---

THE HIGH PASTURES

Stefan stopped the car outside the apartment block.

"Coming up?" Kayla asked him.

"It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, isn't it?" he replied.

"That only applies to Danny."

"I think I'll leave you two to it. See you back at the hotel?"

Stefan leaned across and gave her a peck on the lips.

"Good luck," he said.

"Why?"

"Oh you know, what's that English word. Brides that are monsters."

"You mean Bridezillas," Kayla laughed, lapsing back into English.

She switched back to German again. "She'll be fine. I'll make sure she doesn't freak out."

"Like you have superpowers. Like you're able to change people's minds with a click of your fingers. Like I said, good luck."

He kissed her again and Kayla got out of the car. She watched him drive away, until he was out of sight, and then she looked up at the apartments. If only he knew, she thought. Her mood darkened.

She went to the front door, punching the access code from memory, seeing that neither Danny nor Jade had updated it. It felt surreal, to be standing in the lobby again, after everything that she'd done since the day she'd left, the places she'd seen. It felt like a lifetime ago.

She went up the stairs, along the hallway, to her old door, and knocked. She suppressed the little dark feeling that was still lingering there, after all this time, and waited for the door to be answered. There was a click and it opened.

Jade looked out, and her face lit up seeing Kayla. She grinned happily and Kayla did her best to respond, stretching her face into a smile. Jade looked beautiful, a double flash of recognition for Kayla as she saw her best friend again, but there was something else too. Jade was in a fluffy bathrobe, her hair teased into immaculate blonde ringlets, her face made up perfectly: subtle eyeshadow, rouged cheeks, soft pink lips and long dark eyelashes. It was a studied look, and Kayla was struck by her similarity to Lily.

Then Jade moved, wrapping her arms around Kayla, squeaking with delight, and the illusion of similitude was shattered. Jade was nothing like Lily after all.

"Kay!"

"Hey Jade."

Kayla hugged her friend back and then waited for Jade to disengage.

"Can I come in?" Kayla asked.

"Yeah, come in, come in. The stylist just left. I'm getting dressed. Do you want champagne? I've got some open, waiting. Want to pour yourself a glass? My nails aren't dry."

Jade stepped backwards, fanning her hands in the air.

"You look so good," she exclaimed, emphasising the last word. "Didn't you bring anything to get changed into?"

"Nah, I'm gonna go back to the hotel and do all that. Stefan's heading back there now."

They were in motion now, walking through the apartment. Kayla took in the little details, new things in different places, furniture shifted around. It still felt like home, in a strange way, but also different. The couch was still there. It triggered a flashback of curling up naked in Danny's arms on that couch, of that feeling of contentment, being held. She forced her attention back to Jade.

"You okay, babe?" Jade enquired.

"Yeah. Just, you rearranged things since I was here."

"Yeah, I guess we moved stuff around. The layout wasn't quite working. Danny thinks it's nesting syndrome."

"He said that?"

"Yep."

Jade's smile faded suddenly, replaced by something that looked like nervous excitement. She stood perfectly still, her eyes fixed on Kayla.

"What?" Kayla asked, but her intuition crossed the gap before she was ready for it. "Shit. Are you?"

Slowly, Jade unfastened the belt of her robe, opening it up and then taking it off. She stood before Kayla in a silky nightdress that came down to her knees. With her hair and makeup, she looked effortlessly stunning. Her hand settled on her tummy.

"Shit, are you?" Kayla repeated. "Really? How long?"

"Eight weeks. No-one knows, Kay. We had a talk and I came off the pill a couple of months ago, because you're supposed to, right? Do a few cycles until your body comes right. There was no point waiting once we're married, he said. I guess I got a little too impatient. It doesn't show, does it?"

Kayla's throat contracted, and all she could do was shake her head. Then tears spilled down her cheeks. Jade rushed over to her, catching her up in a hug.

"Crap, Kay, don't cry," Jade murmured.

"I'm... I'm not. Uh, happy tears. That's really great, Jade. That's so wonderful."

"Don't. You're gonna start me off. I just paid a fortune for this makeup."

Kayla blinked rapidly, trying to get it all under control. Jade pulled back and Kayla had the awful taste of forcing a smile for her best friend.

"I think... let's... where's that goddamn champagne you promised?" she stuttered.

Jade turned quickly, floating over the polished wooden floorboards in her bare feet, heading for the kitchen.

She'd done that before, after Kayla had dressed her up in a maid costume to demean her, doing the cooking and tidying and fetching whenever Kayla needed it. She had been able to go deep into her blonde best friend's mind and turn her into a willing house-slave. Kayla had told herself that it was only fair, after how Jade and Danny, the two people she loved most in the world, had betrayed her. It had been a particularly fitting revenge, taking control of her like that.

Now, the bed that Kayla had shared with Danny, the bed that he'd fucked Jade on behind her back, was Jade's bed. Danny was Jade's fiancé and soon to be husband. Soon to be father to her child. Kayla had tried to control them both, burrowing deep into their minds, but all her efforts had been powerless in the face of one simple thing: love. In the end, she had been forced to admit defeat, pushing them both deep into trance one last time and rewriting their memories. On that day, she had turned away from her entire life, leaving behind everything to follow Lily into the unknown.

Now, standing in the apartment she had made her home for years, talking about the man she had had to give up, the betrayal reared its head again. Lily had told her it would, but Kayla had been convinced she would be able to keep a lid on it. She had said to Lily that she needed to go back to her old life and face it, expunge the hurt at last.

The rational part of her, the part that she'd summoned into existence the moment she'd written a psychiatry degree into her backstory, knew better. That little voice was talking about emotional trauma and displacement, and she just needed it to shut up. It wasn't betrayal that was making her cry, it was having to stand in this familiar place and face everything she'd lost. But, there was also the guilt. Taking away their autonomy because she discovered she could, turning Danny and Jade into mindless puppets, it had been wrong. Despite their infidelity, they hadn't deserved what she'd done to them.

Jade came back through to her, a champagne flute in each hand, one only part filled. She passed the full one to Kayla and chinked glasses.

"I'm allowed one glass on my wedding day, right? Half now, half at the speeches. Reckon anyone would notice? Anyway, talk to me, Kay."

Kayla took a mouthful of champagne, drying her eyes with the back of her hand.

"It's just, it's a lot all at once."

"But, you're okay, right? You look fabulous. I don't know what you've been doing, but it's working," Jade said, "And, new boyfriend too. Where'd you find him?"

"Skiing. We sort of bumped into each other."

"He's German, yeah? How does that work?"

"I, uh, I've been learning German. He's been learning English too. We're getting on okay."

"You happy?"

Kayla froze, her glass halfway to her lips.

"You need to let yourself be happy, after what your boyfriend did to you," Jade told her.

The boyfriend story: the last little piece in the jigsaw. She had implanted that as the end of her story in their minds, about a cheating boyfriend and going out to see the world, getting over a messy break up. Kayla nodded slowly.

"You messed up," Jade said.

"I messed up? How?"

She picked up her phone and tapped on the screen a few times, then she held it up for Kayla to see.

It was a picture of the three of them, laughing, drunk, out on a night somewhere a few years ago. Jade was on one side of Danny, laughing as she stared up into the camera lens. Kayla was sitting on Danny's lap, kissing him deeply.

"I'm guessing you made Danny delete all the pictures of the two of you together, there's nothing on his phone."

"Jade, wait."

"That's the funny thing about a picture, the way it jogs the memory. You can go back in time, almost, and feel what you were feeling."

"It's not... can we just talk?"

"Danny was the bastard boyfriend, wasn't he?"

"Wait, Jade. He wasn't... we weren't...."

"Going behind my back, Kay?"

The words hung in the air, and Kayla found herself rendered mute by the unreadable expression on her best friend's face.

"Is this why you invited me over?" she croaked at last. "For this?"

"Why don't you come with me?"

Jade turned and Kayla found herself following along behind, into the bedroom that Kayla had shared with Danny before Jade had intervened. She couldn't read Jade's mood, and a fatalistic chill settled over her. It would be poetic justice that Jade had put two and two together and now believed that it had been Kayla and Danny in a secret tryst behind Jade's back. The irony was almost too much to bear.

Jade opened the wardrobe, rifling through the hangers until she found what she was looking for and pulled it out. Kayla stared at the black latex maid uniform.

"I've still got it, Kay. I put it on for Danny sometimes," she said, her voice curiously flat. "It spices up the bedroom, or the kitchen, or the lounge. We have a lot of fun with it."

"Jade, I dunno where you're going with this, but let's...."

"I know what you did, Kay," Jade interrupted.

Kayla's response died on her lips. Jade surveyed her for a moment, and then slid the maid uniform back into the wardrobe. She went over to her drawers that used to be Kayla's drawers, and pulled out a package, laying it carefully on the bed. Kayla stared at it in silence, waiting for Jade's veneer of calm to crack open, and for the anger to spill out, and all Kayla could think about was how it wasn't fair, how hard she'd tried, and how much she'd given up, to have it all come to nothing. She discovered that she was holding her breath.

Jade unwrapped the bundle, laying the items inside out on the bed. It was a bridal lingerie set: a corset, with straps dangling beneath, a tiny g-string and sheer stockings, all in white. The material gleamed in the light and Kayla realised it was all latex.

"I had to order it especially, from a place overseas. Where your boyfriend's from, ironically," Jade murmured, looking down at the latex lingerie. "Danny is going to get such a surprise tonight."

"I don't understand. Jade, why am I here?"

Jade turned then, and there was a distant look in her eyes.

"You're my best friend, Kay. I wanted you to dress me."

Kayla gaped at the blonde woman. Her limbs felt like lead, glued to the spot in the full beam of Jade's gaze.

Jade stalked over to her, taking Kayla's wrist in her hand and bringing it up to her own neck.

"It was just the one picture, but it unlocked everything, Kayla. What you did, what Danny did."

Jade came close, bowing her head. "What I did," she murmured.

Jade pressed Kayla's fingers to the back of her neck.

"I didn't go behind your back with Danny."

It was all the words that Kayla could force out.

"At first," Jade said, "It was little bits, then more. Danny and I talked and talked, putting the fragments together, unlocking it all. Then it all just came apart, your elaborate little world for us. I know what you did to us both, Kay."

"But, Jade...."

"And what we did to you."

Jade drooped, resting her forehead against Kayla's, a little intimate gesture.

"I'm not angry, Kay. Neither's Danny. That's the strange thing, being able to see it from all sides. I don't know how you learned to do what you do, but that was one of the things you left behind in our heads. There were other things too."

Jade raised her head again, staring directly into Kayla's eyes.

"Like what?"

"Being dressed up. Letting go."

Jade's mouth turned up into a smile.

"And the sex is fucking unbelievable."

"I didn't... I wasn't thinking straight."

"No, you weren't, and what you did was unforgivable. But what I did was too. See? All are punished."

"What are you saying?"

"What you did to me, it changed me. I'm not the same as I was. I've had to learn to live with the way I feel now, the little things that are the new me, after what you did."

"I'm sorry," Kayla replied, in a tiny voice.

"I guess two wrongs make a right, or something like that. What you did to me worked, because it gave me something I wanted, something I missed. I felt like I belonged. I felt like I'd found people I could trust, and that's the thing Kay. You weren't the only one with the guilt burning a hole in your stomach."

Jade's face shivered with a sudden violent emotion, taking a little shuddering breath.

"Can I trust you, Kay? Can you trust me? That's the thing I need to know. Are we past it all?"

Kayla stared at her best friend, feeling the anguish welling up inside her again.

"What do you want me to do?" she gasped.

"Dress me, like you used to do."

Kayla could feel Jade's fingers over hers, the soft skin of the back of her neck.

"I'm in your hands, Kay," Jade said, her free hand moving down to her belly. "We both are. Can I trust you?"

Kayla began to stroke the back of Jade's neck, and the blonde girl's body relaxed. She could feel the tension ebbing from Jade's shoulders as the long-dormant trance trigger began to take hold of the blonde girl's awareness.

"Down and down, relax for me," Kaya murmured, as Jade's forehead settled on her shoulder. "Deeper and deeper."

Jade dropped, remaining standing, but loose-limbed and docile. Kayla continued to stroke the back of the supine woman's neck, lowering her deeper and deeper into trance. Jade succumbed rapidly, as if eager for it, soaking up all of Kayla's murmured words. Her breathing became shallow, her eyes closed, her face slack, surrendering herself to her friend's control.

At last, Kayla gave her the command to lift her head. Jade complied.

"Open your eyes for me, Jade. Tell me how you feel."

"Relaxed... floating," Jade murmured.

"Good girl. All your thoughts are just evaporating away, aren't they? Let them drift away, you don't need to think anymore. Let you mind go completely empty."

Kayla's hand drifted from the back of the vacant woman's neck, down to her belly. She spread her fingers over Jade's taut stomach, seeing no reaction in her empty expression. A life within a life, Kayla thought. She felt the tears pricking her eyes again, going back over her friend's words, her bravery to allow herself to be put under again, to render herself defenceless against whatever Kayla chose to do: the ultimate act of trust. Kayla dropped her hand from Jade's motionless body and stepped back.

"Undress," she commanded.

Jade obeyed immediately. She slipped the straps of her nightdress off her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor, revealing her naked body. She had kept up the exercise regimen that Kayla had instilled in her, and her grooming. Her polished mons was pink and clear of all hair. The elaborate fantasy had come to pieces as contradictory evidence surfaced, but deep down in her subconscious, Jade had kept the parts she wanted to. Like her body maintenance, like the latex fetish that Kayla had instilled in her. Even now, deeply in trance, Jade's pussy lips were flushed with a warm glow of anticipation. Deep down somewhere behind those glassy, sightless eyes, Jade wanted to feel again the connection of being dressed up for Danny by her best friend.

Kayla took Jade's wedding dress from where she had hung it, inspecting the workmanship in the little lines of pearls sewn into the front panel and was struck all at once by how much Jade's life was about to change. She was going to become a wife and a mother, while Kayla remained... what? She was seeing new things, travelling to other universes with Lily on a fantastical romp through worlds. Unlike Jade, or Danny, or anyone here, she had been shown the world as it really was, and their places in it. At that moment, she envied Jade her life and her future, her marriage and her babies. There was something fulfilling and worthwhile in it, to enter a single story and stay.

But Kayla knew she wouldn't be able to do that anymore. After seeing the real shape of things, she couldn't go back to living in a little snow globe that some giant hand shook every once in a while for their amusement. For the first time, looking at Jade's wedding dress and everything it represented, Kayla considered what her own future held. What had she traded to gain her freedom?

Jade sighed, a contented little sound.

Kayla laid the dress down on the bed and picked up the stockings, letting them run through her fingers. The dress was ankle-length, covering them almost completely. Danny might notice, and wonder what his new wife had in store for him. She might casually flash him a glimpse of her shiny ankle, hinting at the delights beneath her dress.

"Sit on the bed."

Jade sat down and Kayla knelt at her feet, gathering up one glossy stocking and pushing her foot all the way down to the end. Her red toenails gleamed through the translucent latex. Kayla rolled the stocking carefully up the unresisting woman's leg, feeling the way it enclosed and shaped her calf and then her thigh. Jade had been working out, Kayla noticed, her legs toned and shapely. She arranged the stocking top so that it was banded snugly around Jade's upper thigh, and then repeated the process with the other stocking.

"Stand."

Jade stood, still completely blank, but the gleam between her pussy lips gave her away. Kayla went over to the bed and picked up Jade's corset, turning her around to face away. A thought occurred to her.

"How long has it been since you last had sex?" she asked.

"Two... weeks," Jade slurred.

"Are you saving yourself?"

"Yes."

Jade's voice lifted, coloured by her excitement, even deep within her trance.

"Would you like a wedding present?"

Kayla reached around her friend's front and pressed the corset against her breasts, adjusting until they were securely in place before beginning to lace the corset closed over her back. Jade hadn't answered the question, so Kayla asked another way.