The snow fell slowly, in big downy flakes. It wasn't a blizzard by any means, Ashley had seen far worse, but it was more than enough to mess with traffic. Between that and the regular Friday evening exodus heading north now that the skiing was good, her car moved at a crawl. Actually, a crawl would have been an improvement. At the moment she wasn't moving at all. At this rate, it was going to take hours to get to Leslie's place.
She considered giving up, and might have if she was going to see anyone other than Leslie. Of all the girls she'd gone to Rome with, of all the girls she'd been inducted into The Association with, Ashley thought Leslie the most misunderstood. It was true Leslie could be hard to deal with, a little too convinced by her intelligence, a little too blunt and unyielding. But Leslie meant well and had proven to be a good, loyal friend. All Leslie really needed was a little help in learning how to turn it down a thousand or so. Ashley considered it her Christian Duty to help Leslie do that. Plus, her raven haired friend was absolutely awesome in bed.
Ashley had long since resolved the apparent contradiction between her religion and the secular delights offered by people like Leslie. Simply put, her fortuitous trip to Rome had taught her the world was more complicated than her pastor or her parents wanted her to believe. All The Association really did was help its members to help themselves, and what could be more pleasing to the Eyes of God? The Association never told her what to believe or how to do it. The same could not be said of her pastor or her parents. In the years since she'd come back from Rome, she found her spiritual community's insular world view more and more confining, but that wasn't God's fault. The fault lay with the imperfection of Man generally, and specifically with the imperfection of the people who claimed to know what was best for her. Ashley forgave them their trespasses, just as she knew God forgave her own trespasses. Given all of that, she chose the only path available to her ... she kept her life with The Association absolutely separate from that part of her life dominated by her parents.
None of which meant keeping the two lives separate was easy. Especially at first, it had been hard work to be the dutiful, God fearing daughter on the one hand while indulging her new found passions on the other. Gradually, it became second nature and as it did, she discovered how many others in her congregation, how many women, felt as she did ... such as the church's treasurer, a beautiful 38 year old woman from Mississippi who was in every way an upstanding member of the congregation and a wildcat of a snatch eater.
But at the moment, Ashley's biggest challenge was finding the patience to finish her current trip. She thought of Job, but then, he never had to deal with a winter traffic jam. She focused on Leslie, with the additional benefit that Tammi was already up there. Though they went to school less than 12 miles from each other, she hadn't seen Tammi since forever. All she had to do was get through the traffic.
But there was no getting around the fact that she was going to be late. Since she wasn't moving anyway, she didn't feel bad about whipping out her cell phone and calling ahead. Leslie had sounded breathless and flustered when she'd answered and Ashley didn't need to be a genius to figure out what had been going on when the call came through. They'd started the party a little early. Leslie took the bad news with good nature and promised they'd stay in until Ashley arrived.
And then things had gotten weird. There'd been a shuffling noise, then a bump when the phone was put down. But the call did not disconnect. Ashley yelled into the phone, twice, to get Leslie to hang up. No one paid her any mind because they'd gone back to what they'd been doing before she called. Ashley felt a little funny, listening in as Leslie and Tammi did it, but it was more entertaining than just sitting in traffic and she'd be joining in with the fun soon enough. She took a look around, made sure none of the other drivers were taking any particular interest in her. The she let a hand slip between her legs. She gently rubbed herself as she eavesdropped.
The connection wasn't perfect, so Ashley wasn't sure what she heard at first. Among the gasps and moans and sounds of pussy being licked, she heard Leslie say something that sounded like ... "capture"? Ashley shrugged ... dirty talk was sometimes something less than cogent. But Leslie kept talking, about The Association, about the other girls and what Ashley heard was enough to make her turn around, once the cars started moving again, and head back home. * * *
Victoria had been vague, but urgent, on the phone. She made it very clear, however, she needed to see Bridget right away. When she reached the office, she was surprised to see Ashley there, along with Victoria.
"Hey, how are you?" Bridget asked as she hugged her blond friend.
"Not so good."
"Ashley has a rather disturbing story to tell, I'm afraid," Victoria said seriously, then indicated everyone should sit. "Tell Bridget exactly what you told me."
"Well," Ashley took a deep breath, "I was driving up north to spend the weekend with Leslie. Tammi was going also, but she got up there before I did. I was running late, so I called ahead to let them know. After we got through, they didn't hang up or something because I could still hear them talking."
Bridget looked at Victoria, then back to Ashley, "They were talking about us ... The Association ... and how they were going to get us, all of us, and make us belong to some Professor of Leslie's."
"Wait a sec," Bridget interrupted. "Who is this Professor?"
"Prof. Karen Sawyer," Victoria answered.
"You know her?"
"Her reputation precedes her," Victoria opened a leather bound book of the type she used to take notes in. "About a week and a half ago I got a call from someone in The Association who works for the FBI. She's worried this Prof Sawyer has built some sort of mind control device and she wanted to know what I thought about the possibility."
"Right around the time we started getting those funny feelings," Bridget said. "What did you tell her?"
"I told her it was crazy."
"Maybe it isn't so crazy after all."
"That's what I'm beginning to think."
"Whatever it is, it works," Ashley said softly. Bridget and Victoria looked at her. "You guys didn't hear them. They were using a lot of scary words like "capture" and "slave", but the really scary part was how into it they were. It was like they knew they were slaves and they didn't care. They liked it!"
After an oppressive silence, Victoria said, "Thank you, Ashley. You did the right thing bringing this to us so quickly. Go home and try to relax. But be very careful. Don't let yourself be alone with Leslie or Tammi."
"In fact," Bridget jumped in, "don't let yourself be alone with anyone, especially from The Association. Just be careful all the way around."
"I will," a scared looking Ashley said. She let herself out.
"Why did you tell her to stay away from the rest of us?" Victoria asked.
"Because it seems pretty clear those spells we've been having lately have to do with this Prof. Sawyer woman. Every time she gets one of us, we feel it," Bridget explained. "We know of two people who they've got, but I've felt 'it' three times. If I'm right, then we've got a problem because we don't know who number three is. It could be anyone."
"I agree."
Another silence, "So what are we going to do?"
"I've already called Maura back and told her I changed my mind," Victoria explained. Bridget assumed 'Maura' was the FBI agent mentioned before. "She said she'd get everything she could on this Prof. Sawyer and her mind control machine. In a couple of minutes, I'll call the heads of the other covens and let them know what is going on."
"What about Leslie and Tammi and whoever else? How are we going to help them?"
Victoria looked grim, "Until I hear back from Maura, I'm not sure there's anything we can do to help them."
"But ..."
"But what?" Victoria snapped, then caught herself. Bridget wasn't the problem here. "What are we supposed to do here? We don't really know what we're up against. It's obvious their plan is to pick us off piecemeal. If we go charging after them, we'll just be playing into their hands."
