This is Chapter 03 of Primrose High. The story is heavily plot and character focused so I would suggest starting at the beginning if you want the full impact. There is a long build up that finally starts to pay off with more erotic content in this installment, with even more to come in the next chapters; hopefully it was worth the wait. There will likely be 2-3 more chapters before the story reaches its conclusion.
Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions, ideas and encouragement. It's a great motivator to continue writing. I'm writing this in hopes of others enjoying the story, and if I don't hear from you then I can't know that I succeeded in that. Please comment and let me know what you thought, any suggestions on ways I could improve my writing, and anything you would like to see in future chapters.
I hope you enjoy.
As always, all characters are over 18.
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"I don't know what's going to happen next. I feel like this is my will or a suicide note. It feels," The person in the video closed his eyes and let out a long breath. Josh leaned in and stared at his computer and himself, a person he didn't know, brows furrowed, his mouth hanging open. "It feels very final. I want you, me, whoever, to know what happened, just in case." The doppelganger was serious now, and stared levely into the camera. "They got to Imee. She was right all along; she was right and I didn't listen. After I talked to her I drove to the school and searched the dumpsters, everywhere I could think. Thank god for the eco-conscious zombies. There was a bin specifically for e-waste and I found Imee's phone. It was smashed to pieces, didn't power on, but buried in the mess I found the microSD, and it still worked. I found the audio file of the interview with Willis and it started just like Imee had planned. The sound of the school halls, the sound of the office doors closing and the normal pleasantries. Then something weird happened. Then this... sound played. Willis mumbled something and told Christie to sleep; I guess she was in the office too.
"This sound, I don't know how to describe it. Mostly because I can't remember. There's this demo on YouTube from years ago with a virtual haircut where you hear 3D sound and it's as if someone is walking around you, talking, doing things. It felt an awful lot like that; a low melodic drone, rising, falling, pulsing. It was almost musical, or maybe like whale song, there was this hint of a rhythm or chords you couldn't quite follow as it was circling and rotating around your head. If you only listened a little longer you could figure it out. And then I jerked awake. I mashed my keyboard as I fell forward and that's the only reason I didn't get wiped right there. I worked my way back from the end of the recording. "You want to be a good girl. You'll feel so much better and be so much happier if you are. You'll be so much better off if you listen to me, Bethany." That's all Willis said, and that's all it took to erase Imee. Christie and Imme were ordered to wake up forget what had happened. I heard rustling and Imee stood up, cheerfully thanked Ms Willis and told her she would be reading over everything and she was so thankful. Christie sounded overjoyed. What a happy ending."
The Josh in the video sighed. "Now, my part of the story. I think this is going to work. Christie didn't just shut off when the sound started, she was ordered to sleep. I'm assuming, and it's a big assumption, but people who have been wiped must not be susceptible. I edited out Willis command's from the audio and put in my own."
Josh shook his head staring at his laptop, unable to think of a thing to say. This couldn't be real. Ms Willis hadn't done anything to him. It was a lie. He went to close the video but his hand wouldn't move to touch the screen, he tried touch the keyboard and his hand hovered in the air and slid away like there was some invisible bubble. Josh he tried desperately to throw the computer away from him but found to his horror that he couldn't move--his body betraying him--he couldn't take his eyes from the screen showing the doppelganger and its terrible lies.
"Now, I hope this doesn't kill you, me. In theory this is going to act like restoring from a partition. I don't have much time and I don't know anything; if contradictory commands might cause my brain to... crash, if commands given too close to each other can cause problems. I might be going to give myself a stroke or be turned into a vegetable. I don't know. I hope this doesn't hurt. And I hope this works. Not just for me, for Imee. She's gone and I have to save her. Maybe nothing will happen and I'll still be the newest of Primrose's alumni. If that happens I'm begging you to help. You have to realize that this is wrong. People are having their entire being stripped away without their choice or consent. It's evil. You can't let this happen. Please, please don't let it go on. Whoever you may be now, you were me a few days ago. Please, try?" the video pleaded, Josh bit his lip, fighting with all his willpower to just... hit... "Okay. Here it goes."
And Josh went limp.
Time passed.
He woke up.
And remembered.
He blinked, his eyes finally focusing. It was like waking up from a dream where the bizarre rules and world was accepted without a thought until something tilted and suddenly he was lucid and had the ability to question, to think critically, to see the truth. Josh slowly put himself back together like you do every morning climbing from that deep well of sleep, grasping at memories to pull you into the real world. And remembered...
...the walk to the office and the droning sound, his head dipping as Ms Willis told him to be good and obey.
"Fuck." Josh whispered.
...feeling so warm and soft and comfortable as everything went sliding away as Josh read from the school handbook. All his burdens and cares and worries, all his own hopes and dreams, fears and joys, one by one ceased to matter or to have any weight. The tiniest breeze from the turn of a page blew them away. To be good, it seemed, was to be a copy, a slate wiped clean.
Josh gritted his teeth. "Fuck..."
...Imee, sitting next to him on the bus. She was happy and smiling, only it wasn't her. That face didn't wear Imee's teasing smile or her mischievous eyes. The girl that stole Imee's body didn't have her flaws and fears, the little cracks that opened when she smiled and some of her inner self shone through. There was only the veneer, the thin, pristine coating of a prim, upright girl with nothing beneath the smile and nothing behind the eyes.
There were tears in Josh's eyes he rocked forward and grabbed his hair, "Fuck!"
He remembered his commands to himself. Programming languages were developed by people, and therefore human thought must have some similarities, he'd reasoned without any evidence. It was all coming back to him now, 'Go to the meeting with Willis, pretend to enter a trance and follow all orders you are given. Keep this computer safely in your possession until Saturday morning. Do not delete this video or realize it exists. Watch the entire video alone and with no chance of anyone interrupting or overhearing. Forget about anything that happened after you went to Imee's house until you went to sleep.'"
Josh remembered other things, things he didn't mention in the video, for his own safety. The hidden email set on a dead man's switch with the scant evidence he'd put together. The wiping process and its simplicity was terrifyingly dangerous, but if he was gone then someone must know about it. Josh walked to the back of the room and pulled two small folded slips of paper from behind the water heater. One had his name written on it, in his handwriting. He did not know what it said inside. The other sheet said, 'Imee'. Josh held in his hands the keys to both their souls and they felt so small. And yet looking at them felt like staring down the barrel of a gun. The smallest word or phrase could destroy their personality, change it totally and forever. Carefully he tucked the papers in his pocket. Josh let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding and sprinted from the basement.
It took only minutes to get to Imee's apartment in Beth's car. Josh screeched to a stop outside the apartment building and bumped up onto the curb. He was out and running before the engine had time to clunk to a halt. Two long bounds and Josh was up the stoop and his finger about to jab the button with Imee's number. He stopped short, breathing hard. She might report him if he was suspicious, and then everything would be over. Calm, he needed to be calm.
Josh closed his eyes and tried to recall what it had been like the past few days. The warm, safe, empty feeling washed over him and he felt himself slipping back into character. In a corner of his mind Josh could feel his true self nervous, jabbering, terrified to be trapped. But he wasn't trapped, he was safe, he was fine. He was a good boy. Josh tucked in his shirt and smoothed his hair before pushing the button.
Imee answered groggily, "Hello? What is it?"
"Bethany, it's me, Josh, I need your help. Can I come up?"
"Josh! What is it?"
