Sorry this story took so long. Life happened
Things were all in place now, and all Danny had to do was wait. He paced around the house impatiently, his mind abuzz about his plan, and what was about to happen.
When Valeria had told him that her mother, Karen, had orchestrated his father's death, as well as the attempt on his own life, Danny had been blinded by white-hot fury. That was a week ago.
After spending years being mistreated and abused by this woman, his stepmother who was supposed to take care of him and nurture him, finding out about her plans to have him killed, just to get his father's money, was too much to bear.
Before, his plan had been to use his power to subjugate Karen, just as he'd done with Valeria and Brenda. An opportunity to punish her for her treatment of him, by giving him control over her body to do with as he wished. After Brenda, and then Valeria, had gone through their respective punishments, their resistance to his mental influence had been worn down, and he was able to delve deep into their minds and not just command them, but change who they were deep down.
Danny wasn't cruel, or a monster. Some might have taken the opportunity to turn his bitchy stepsisters into mindless slaves, empty husks that lived only to serve his every physical need. But that wasn't what Danny wanted. He knew that their behaviour was only a result of their upbringing, of their mother's attitude. So, instead he made a few tweaks to their personality, making them more supportive and less negative, and changed their attitude towards him to be more positive.
Now, they were his friends, his willing lovers, and no longer the bullies that they'd been before. Originally that was his plan for Karen as well.
But then he'd discovered the truth, about what she'd done to his father, and what she still planned to do to him.
Eventually, after days of grappling with this revelation, Danny decided that his original plan wasn't going to be enough to make up for what she'd done. She didn't get to walk away from taking a man's life just for his money, for treating Danny like he was scum purely because his dad had left his fortune to him instead of her.
No, Danny decided that he was going to do more than just lightly influence Karen. He was going to punish her properly. One night of passion wasn't going to be enough. Danny was going to turn this proud and arrogant woman into his personal slave. She would belong to him, body and soul, and be compelled to do whatever he asked of her, regardless of whether she wanted to or not.
As far as he was concerned, there was no punishment that was too severe for what she'd done. While part of him felt bad about taking away a person's humanity, their free will, it was overwhelmed by the knowledge that he would never see his father again because of her.
So, he'd made a plan, and made the preparations, and finally set things in motion this morning. Although his power was growing, Karen's resistance to his suggestions was still too strong. Brenda and Valeria both needed to have their resolve weakened before their minds were truly open to him. That meant that Danny needed to weaken Karen's resolve before she would be his.
First of all, he'd tracked down the man that she'd hired to try to kill him. After a brief conversation, and a gentle push into the would-be assassin's mind, Danny learned what he needed about Karen's little 'arrangement' with the man. She'd agreed to pay his exorbitant fee in exchange for his services, but only after the job was done. She was a real bitch about it, just as she was with just about everything else in her life. All it took was the smallest nudge to convince him to call off the hit, and to make a little phone call giving Karen the bad news, as well as a couple little white lies.
Meanwhile, a visit to Aurora Neon to see Holly secured everything else that he needed. Holly, surprisingly, didn't require much in the way of mental suggestion to agree to what he had in mind. Apparently, she was used to the 'involved' form of roleplay that happened in and out of the club, and was one hundred percent on board.
Now, Danny waited at home, in his room, listening to his stepmother moving to and for downstairs and waited for his former hitman to make the call.
When he heard her cellphone ring, Danny shot up out of bed, and rushed to the top of the stairs so that he could hear.
"Hello?" Karen said, her voice tight with impatience. There was silence as the person on the other end spoke.
"What!? You can't be serious!"
He'd just broken the news that the hit was off. Danny smiled as he listened to the anger rise in Karen's voice.
"Absolutely not! We had an agreement!"
Telling her why, saying that he 'didn't like her attitude'. Everything was going just as Danny had planned. Now came the last part. The best part.
The hitman was going to tell Karen that he had paid out of his own pocket for a hit on her, and that he'd given his colleagues her information, such as her address. All of that was fiction, of course. It was just part of the script that Danny had given him. There wasn't actually a hit out on Karen. But she didn't need to know that.
Karen's tone turned around real quickly after that. She began begging, pleading for him to reconsider. It was the first time that Danny had heard her use the word 'please'.
"You don't have to do this," she begged. "Please, you're overreacting. I can pay you now, that's what you want, right? I can pay, I CAN PAY!"
And then, just as Danny had instructed, the hitman hung up.
"Hello? HELLO!? Oh my god, no. Oh fuck."
"What's going on?" Danny asked as he came downstairs, pretending like he hadn't been upstairs listening the whole time.
"Fuck off, you little shit!" she shrieked. "I don't have time to deal with your pathetic whining right now."
Aside from the desperation and panic in her voice, this was the usual kind of reception that he got from her.
"You're the one screaming, Karen," he said coolly. Just as she spun around and was about to yell at him some more, a car pulled up in the driveway. Karen glanced out the window, and her face fell, her skin went pale, and she shook with fear.
"Oh no," she whispered, "oh no no no nononono, they're already here."
"Who is it?" Danny asked innocently. He knew who it was, of course.
"I can't get out, they're going to find me," she said, talking to herself and desperately trying to come up with a way to escape. She turned to him, eyes wide and lips trembling.
Then, she rushed towards him, and grabbed him by the shoulders, looking into his eyes with an expression he'd never seen on her before. She was terrified.
"Listen, um, sweetie," she said, and a false smile flashed across her face. Danny raised his eyebrows, incredulous. Was she truly trying to appeal to him right now? "Mommy's in a lot of trouble right now. Those people out there want to hurt mommy, do you understand? But it's all a misunderstanding, and I'm going to clear it all up, but they can't find me here."
Danny frowned, feigning confusion, and heard the car door slam closed outside. They'd gotten out of the car, and were on their way to the front door.
"Well, do they know what you look like?" he said, making it sound like he'd just thought of it. Of course, he knew that the hitman had never met her, and therefor didn't know what she looked like. He only had her phone number and her address.
Hope lit up in Karen's eyes, and she shook her head.
