Two weeks passed since the Beef Barn restaurant episode and Cassie hadn't heard anything from the Jacksons. As time when by she began to think that not hearing from them was the worst alternative.
Thursday evening the end of her wait arrived. Mrs. Jackson called and told Cassie to come by the next afternoon at 2PM.
The next day Cassie was once again on the dreaded porch knocking on the dreaded door and expecting it to be answered by the same dreadful man. She was a little surprised when Mrs. Jackson opened the door instead.
Without so much as a hello she motioned Cassie to get inside. Once they were seated Mrs. Jackson got right to the matter at hand.
"You need to be here Saturday morning before eight o'clock. Don't be even a minute late or the videos go public."
"What did I do to get you so upset? I'll done everything you've demanded."
"It's not you this time. Doug put his mouth in motion before his mind was in gear. Again. He promised his boss a girl to ride on the back of his Corvette at the annual car rally downtown. He also promised she'd be topless. His boss promised him a new office if he could pull it off. So you're next task is to be that rider."
Cassie stared back in disbelief. "You expect me to ride through downtown on the back of some guy's car with my boobs hanging out for everyone to see just so your husband can get a different office? Are you crazy?"
Mrs. Jackson stared back with a cold look on her face, "Would you rather have everyone you know get copies of the videos of you masturbating in my bed?"
"Shit."
"Those are your choices, videos playing with yourself or tits in the wind. Be here by eight or the videos go out at 8:05."
"At least let me meet you downtown instead," Cassie pleaded.
"Alright. But the ride starts promptly at nine. If you're not there on time you'll be on the internet at one minute later."
Cassie went home and brainstormed what Mrs. Jackson wanted her to do. After about a half an hour she called her friend, Janice. "I need your help. Can I come over and talk to you about it?"
Knowing it had to be something important from the tone of Cassie's voice, Janice told her to come on over.
Once inside Cassie laid out her predicament, "I'm being blackmailed into doing something I don't want to do. But I think I may have figured a way out. I need you to make me look like a zombie."
"And the way out involves me making your face look like a zombie?"
Cassie hesitated. "Not just my face. I need you to paint me from the waist up."
"I think I'm going to need some more information."
"I'm being forced to ride around topless on the back of some guy's car. I'm hoping the guy whose car I'm supposed to ride on won't want me, but still has to concede that Mr. Jackson fulfilled his end of the bargain by getting me there."
"You're being blackmailed by the Jacksons?"
"Shit. I didn't mean to tell you that, but yes, I am being blackmailed by the Jacksons."
"Why don't you go to the cops?
"They have videos of me in a," she paused, "a very embarrassing situation. Please don't make me tell you what."
"So what if the guy still wants you in his car. Aren't you afraid he'll try to rape you?
"The ride is tomorrow morning at the car show. I'm hoping that in case he does still want me in his car that I'll be so terrifying that nobody watching will notice who I am. Do you think you can you do it?"
Janice leaned back, "Let me get this straight. You have to do a topless car ride?" When Cassie nodded Janice added, "Downtown tomorrow, in front of everybody we know?"
Cassie nodded again.
"I have to tell you," she paused then grinned, "you are going to be one ugly zombie tomorrow."
Both burst out laughing.
The next morning Cassie was on the porch waiting when Janice arrived. With scarcely a hello Cassie lead the way around back to her father's workshop.
"Take a seat and I'll get started. You are going to be so horrible looking."
"Please get started. If I'm late I'm screwed."
Seeing the distress her friend was in caused Janice to want to help even more. "It's your show, literally. If you're serious about going through with this you need to strip so I can paint you."
Cassie quickly removed her blouse. She wasn't wearing a bra to prevent skin lines being present.
"No. If I'm going to be painting you from was waist up you need to strip completely so I don't get paint on your pants. I can't do a good job if I have to worry about drips. But it's your call," Janice warned.
Cassie quickly slipped out of her jeans and panties. Cassie took a seat on a stool her father kept in the shop. Janice handed her a rag off a nearly table to put in her lap like a napkin.
"I'm going to start with your face so if there's a drip it won't compromise what I've already done. However when I finish your face you have to tell me what this is all about. Agreed?"
"I'll tell you almost everything. There are some things I have to keep quiet about, at least for the time being," Cassie replied.
"Alright. Put this tube in your mouth and don't breathe through your nose." When Cassie was ready Janice added, "Close you eyes and keep them closed until I tell you to open them."
For the next half hour the only sounds were the hiss of Janice's spray gun.
At last she told Cassie to relax, but keep her eyes closed. After a few minutes she took the tube from Cassie and placed a curved piece of metal in Cassie's hands and told her to hold it right under her nose. The she told Cassie to only breathe through her nose.
