Madeline slid her phone across the coffee table to where Shaylene was sitting, her elegantly manicured red fingernails pressing lightly against the glass surface to prevent even the tips of her pale fingers from activating the touch screen. "Please, go right ahead," she said, her voice as smooth and perfect as her carefully made up face. "You can use my phone if you want. Tell them that your best friend has been brainwashed by a sinister hypnotist into becoming a lesbian sex slave, and that you need to rescue her from Madame Josephine's evil clutches. Tell them and see what they-"
Shaylene scooped up the phone and stabbed out a single mahogany brown finger at the 'Call' icon, then went to the keypad and pressed 9-1-1. She put the phone to her ear and as soon as the operator answered, she said, "Hello, my name is Shaylene Wilsburg and I'm currently at 400 West Peachtree Street NW, Unit..." She paused, struggling to remember the number on the door of the ritzy condominium she followed Tia up to. "Unit 499B. My friend is here and she seems really out of it, like I think she might have been drugged or something, and the woman who owns the place won't let her leave. Can you send an officer to help her get home?"
She favored 'Madame Josephine' with a wide, innocent smile that showed every single tooth. Her big brown eyes crinkled in an 'oops, did I do that?' expression of mischievous amusement. "Thank you," she said, in response to the woman on the other end of the line. "No, I understand. I'll just wait here with my friend. No, I don't think there's any danger. She's not threatening us, she just won't let us leave. No, I don't mind waiting on the line at all. I-no, I'm afraid I don't know what she took. Her eyes look kind of glassy, though, and she's not really responding when I talk to her. She's acting..."
Shaylene trailed off into silence, trying to find an accurate and tactful way to describe Tia's behavior. Her best friend was down on her knees on the immaculate hardwood floor, naked with one hand down between her legs and the other pinching and squeezing her dark brown nipples. Her jaw hung slack, and drool spilled down her chin as she mumbled something too incoherent for Shaylene to make out properly. She didn't seem to notice either of the woman currently arguing over her. Her eyes had rolled back in her head until only the whites showed, and her warm brown eyelids fluttered in exquisite, mindless pleasure.
"She's acting funny," Shaylene said at last. "I'll be really glad if you can get someone here just to help her get home. I'll make sure her family takes care of her." That last bit wasn't quite true. Shaylene didn't have any intention of mentioning that they were even out at a lesbian club, much less that Tia wound up leaving with some rich white chick who spoke to her in low, soft tones until Tia's eyes glazed over and she sleepwalked her way to the ritzy condos six blocks away. She was just going to get Tia home, sit on her goddamn chest until she snapped out of all this hypnosis bullshit, make her promise to keep her distance from this crazy bitch, and hope that was the end of it.
Judging by the way Josephine was looking at her, it probably wouldn't be. The tall Caucasian woman sat in her high-backed velvet chair, tapping her fingers on the wooden arm as if she was waiting for a particularly inept high school play to finish. She didn't look angry, though. That was the scary part to Shaylene, the bit that made her really fucking happy that the 9-1-1 operator wasn't hanging up on her. She didn't look like she was furious at Shaylene for taking her toy away or unhappy that some dumb bitch from Lakewood Heights who should be cleaning her toilets was sitting across from her like an equal or even that kind of desperate, scared mad people sometimes get when they're trying to bluster through a bad situation. She looked...
Shit. She looked like she thought it was funny. Shaylene didn't like that at all. Josephine looked like she thought the whole thing was going according to plan, like this was just the boring bit she had to sit through before the real fun could begin. She looked like she knew something Shaylene didn't. And that made Shaylene very grateful for the calming presence of the woman on the other side of the phone. Not so much to have someone to talk to, although she was glad to answer questions like, "Is there anyone else there?" and "Is the woman armed?" No, she was glad someone else was listening.
Because if Josephine knew there was someone else paying attention, it made her a little less likely to try to... well, not that she probably could, not with Shaylene on her guard, but-but Tia was no dummy, she was going to community college, and she didn't seem to be able to stop herself from sinking into a daze while Shaylene was off talking to the leggy blonde with the bunny ears and the glowstick necklace. If this woman was some kind of weird hypnotist who could make someone play with themselves, maybe she could do it with Shaylene? Even when she was watching for it. Even when she tried to stop it.
The idea gave her shivers. She was really grateful when the dispatcher said, "We've got an officer on site and coming up in the elevator now." Even when the sound on the other end of the line cut out, and Shaylene pulled the phone away from her face to see that the battery had died completely, she still couldn't hide her expression of relief. She never thought she'd actually be fucking happy to see a police officer, but this whole damn night was full of the kind of weird shit she never thought would actually happen to her.
Even when Josephine forced her features into her own wide-eyed, innocent stare and said, "Oh dear! I must not have realized how low that phone was on battery when I gave it to you! It's just lucky it lasted as long as it did, instead of disconnecting right after you told them my address." Her deep brown eyes betrayed nothing but sincere concern, but Shaylene involuntarily shuddered at the thought of spending the last twenty minutes by herself with the sinister, charismatic woman sitting across from her. "I'm sure you could call back on your own, but there's no need, is there? Not with the police already on their way and everything."
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Josephine stood in a swift, graceful motion and made her way to the small foyer in four strides of her long legs. She slid back the bolt and the chain, then twisted the handle and stepped back. "Come in, officer!" she said, her expression suddenly so refined and charming that Shaylene almost wondered if she hadn't imagined the cold, calculating woman who'd been staring at her just moments ago. "I'm afraid there's been a bit of a misunderstanding. I'm very grateful to you for stopping by and clearing it up."
