Note: This is the final part of this series. Sorry it took so long to come out. I do appreciate the kind comments I've received on this series so far. I even appreciate the critical comments (just keep it constructive, please). I hope you enjoy this final part.
"Sarah, what are you saying?" said Gabriella over a cup of coffee. "Are you telling me that Tom fucked you so hard, you had an out of body experience?"
Gabriella was sat with Sarah in Juliette's lounge, watched over by Juliette on an adjacent leather seat.
"I don't know what he did," Sarah replied. "I don't even know if he did anything. Why are you so convinced it was Tom?"
"And how have you been since?" continued Gabriella, focusing on Sarah as if trying to see her aura. "Do you feel different?"
Sarah sighed, and met Gabriella's intense gaze.
"I do. I can do things now, that I wasn't able to before."
"Go on," said Gabriella.
"I seem to be able to...leave my body. Float around. Look at things. You know?"
Sarah bit her lip. Gabriella was weird, but she wasn't stupid. She didn't want to come across as a bullshitter.
Gabriella looked at Juliette, who was still quietly observing over her cup of tea.
"I don't know," said Gabriella. "Did you try it again?"
"Yes," Sarah replied. "Last night. I lay on my bed and tried again. And it worked. I just got up and walked out of my body."
"Where did you go?"
"At first I was in my bedroom. I could see myself lying on the bed. It was weird, but it wasn't as scary as the first time. I decided to leave the flat, go and spy on my neighbours.
I walked through the walls, and walked straight into my neighbours apartment. I caught her in the middle of a...private moment."
"Go on," said Gabriella.
"Well. The lady next door. In her forties, lives alone. Nice enough, she keeps herself to herself. I found her in her bedroom. It was dark, but her PC monitor was on.
She was lying on her bed next to the screen. She was completely naked, watching porn. It looked like a vintage porn scene from the seventies: some hairy guy with a moustache, who looked like Burt Reynolds, fucking two women with huge bushes."
"So you found out that your neighbour is a vintage porn connoisseur," remarked Gabriella.
"Yeah. Well, she wasn't just watching. Both of her hands were moving, down below. She had a dildo inserted up there. She was moving it slowly, and I could hear her breathing. She was restraining herself, trying not to be loud, but she was getting herself off.
I was surprised. She was actually quite hot. She had nice tits. If she didn't cover up that body of hers under several layers she probably wouldn't need to rely on porn and sex toys."
Gabriella and Juliette both grinned. Sarah coughed slightly and got back on topic.
"Anyway, it felt amazing, that I could do this. I decided to take it further. I wanted to see what Tom was doing."
Gabriella raised her eyebrows.
"You tried to spy on Tom?"
"I did spy on him."
"So what was Tom doing?"
"All I did was think about Tom, decide that I wanted to see where he was, and suddenly I just rushed halfway across the City in seconds. Maybe less."
"You travelled in the speed of thought," Gabriella smiled.
"Yes! That's a good way of putting it," said Sarah. "In a second, maybe less than a second, I don't think time was even relevant. I was in one of those flash apartments near Millbay docks. And I was in the room with him."
"And what was he doing?" said Gabriella.
"Alright. Tom was in a bathroom. A pretty nice bathroom too, with a walk-in shower. I thought to myself, he's not doing badly for himself.
And he was in that shower, just casually washing himself."
"So you watched Tom showering?" commented Gabriella.
"Not intentionally."
"How long were you watching him shower?"
"A few minutes. That's all."
Gabriella and Juliette grinned at each other. Juliette chimed in:
"A few minutes is a long time to hang around when you have caught someone in the shower."
"I've already seen him naked! It's not a big deal," Sarah replied, red-faced. "It was just a novel experience, being out of my body, that's all."
"Okay," said Gabriella. "So then what happened?"
"A woman walked into the bathroom. Blonde, pretty, in a tight T-shirt and jeans. She just walked right in and opened the shower door. Tom didn't even try to cover himself, they both just laughed. I'm guessing they're more than just friends."
"Interesting," commented Gabriella.
"Then she got undressed. She whipped off her T-shirt, then her bra right in front of him. God, those tits of hers. She had a fantastic body."
Sarah stared off into the distance.
"She got completely undressed, walked in and threw her arms around his big, muscular shoulders, wrapping her body around his. He held her, running her hands up and down her body, grabbing her ass. At that point, I thought I should probably leave. I woke up back in my body, in my crappy apartment."
"Well, this is all very interesting," said Gabriella. Sarah felt herself go red.
"But there's a reason we called you here," Gabriella continued. "When Juliette told me about your experience, we wanted to test you. And I'm glad that you can do all this at will, because this means that we won't have to spend so much time training you."
"You want to test me?" Sarah asked. "For what?"
"You remember the demon summoning we did with Kathy in the theatre that night?"
"Of course."
"What you witnessed was only the tip of the iceberg. You could be very useful to us. And in turn, we could be very useful to you."
"Who is "us"?" asked Sarah.
Gabriella smiled.
"We are a small, clandestine network of local business owners and professionals. But what makes us unique is that we don't shy away from using occult powers to further our interests, financial and otherwise. You could be a part of this group, if you wanted."
Sarah didn't know what to make of this. But so far, the things she had seen suggested that she might not be full of it.
"Okay," said Sarah. "So what is this test?"
"You will leave your body again, and this time, I want you to travel to a particular part of Celia's estate. In the east wing there is a martial arts gym. There is a door leading down into the basement level. I want you to go down there, and tell me what you see down there. In as much detail as possible."
"Fine," said Sarah, still going along with this. "Are we doing this now?"
"Yes," said Gabriella, standing up. "Stay with Juliette. I'll go out to the car for a moment. I have a phonecall to make. Good luck."
Gabriella left the room. Juliette gestured to the now vacant sofa.
"This should do," said Juliette. "Lie down on the sofa. I'll just head into the kitchen and make a cup of tea."
Sarah went over to the leather sofa and lay down. It wasn't comfortable enough to sleep on, but that was ideal. She didn't want to risk falling asleep during this "test".
She closed her physical eyes, opened her non-physical eyes, whatever they were, and sat up out of her body.