The Ritual Ch 08

All good things come to an end, and that included summer.

Derek sat with three of us girls at a table at Kriegmann's Deli. Having money hadn't spoiled him, and it was typical of the places he took us. He went out on a date every night, always with at least two women, dressed to please. Tonight he was with Kelly, Claire, and I.

Kelly wore a green cocktail dress with sparkles, bare shoulders, and a dip in the front to show some extra cleavage. Claire wore a thin sweater a size too tight. Me, I'd gone for the schoolgirl look, with a short pleated skirt and a white shirt tied up under my breasts. I hadn't done any of the buttons, so anyone could see the lacy edge of my black bra. I didn't care about anyone else, I cared about Derek.

That was a lie. I cared about what people saw when they saw Derek, too, and there were a dozen other people in the Deli. Derek was relaxed, in a D&D themed T-shirt and blue jeans, munching on a hoagie and drinking Coke from a glass because it was a class joint. The other diners probably saw a typical geek, but a geek surrounded by three hot women. Looking at us, dressed the way we were, they couldn't doubt that he was getting lucky. They probably imagined he was getting a threesome or a foursome when we left the restaurant. I liked that. Also, they were right.

"I'm staying," Derek said.

"We're not going home after this?" I asked. That meant my home, or Kelly's. Our parents both served Derek too, so they were very understanding.

"Oh my god, are we going to fuck right here?" Kelly asked. A week ago, Kelly didn't much like men. She'd had some experiences I'd rather not describe. But now she didn't have any sensible boundaries at all, at least not when it came to Derek.

Okay, I'd fuck him right here and now if he ordered me to. I just wouldn't think it was a very good idea, and I'd let him know. Then I'd do what I was told. Boundaries were for other people, not for me when it came to Derek.

"No," Derek said. "That's not what I meant. I'm not going back to college. What's the point? I have this gift, and taking care of all of you takes a lot of my time and always will. I can't honestly say I'm going to do anything with the degree I get. I think I'll stay here and write a novel."

"And have lots of sex with the townies," Claire said, grinning. The townies were Akane and Eloise, who worked in the library, and Sally, who was a waitress. And my Mom. Oh, and Candi, Kelly's Dad's secretary. I suppose Kelly's Mom counted, too, but I'm pretty sure that Derek hadn't banged her yet and probably wasn't going to.

"Sure," Derek said. "That too."

"Well, then I'll stay, too," I said.

"No, you won't," Derek said. "I've thought it out. You need to get a college education. I love how you're all different people, and will pursue different things. But what I really want to do is write, and I don't need to go to school for that. And managing you girls keeps me pretty busy."

"You know, we'll all stay if you want us to," Claire said. "Annie speaks for all of us."

"If you want, you can just knock us all up and keep us barefoot and pregnant," Kelly said, going overboard as usual.

"No, Kelly. You're pre-law, right? You can go get a law degree, and help people."

"Is that what people do with law degrees?" asked Claire.

Kelly glared at Claire. Her father hadn't cared one whit about helping people, just about making money, until he fell under Derek's control. Now, as punishment, he worked long hours, seven days a week, helping people with their divorces whether they could pay or not, and even encouraging them to get back together if that seemed called for. "It's what

I'm

going to do with a law degree."

Claire was looking at a Philosophy degree, and a life in academia. I was pre-med. We both had been excited about our futures, and I kinda still was. But it just wasn't as important as keeping Derek happy. But who was I kidding? It's not like Derek wasn't going to get sex anytime he wanted. The townies would take good care of him. I wasn't necessary.

I had a hard time with that, even if I was happy that Derek was taken care of.

"If I see hot girls on campus, should I convert them and send them to you?" I asked.

Derek looked at me. "What campus does not have hot girls? No, you may not convert the student body into my sex slaves. It'll be okay, and you'll be back for fall break, winter break, spring break, and summer. We have long lives ahead of us, Annie, and I love you."

I blinked at the words, directed so forcefully at me. "I love you, too, Derek."

He quickly took in Claire and Kelly. "I love all of you," he said.

I think he was telling the truth, too, but Claire shook her head. "It's okay, Derek. We know you care about us, and we also know that Annie is special. We know that fighting amongst ourselves for the number one position would not make you happy, and we want you to be happy."

"Even if we are just your fleshlights, we enjoy our purpose," Kelly said.

Derek frowned, showing that Kelly still didn't quite get what made him tick. "I want you girls to come home on weekends some, too. And for breaks. Work out a schedule with Annie so that you don't all descend on me at once."

"Because that would be awful," I said sarcastically. "You'd hate that."

Derek laughed. "No, I wouldn't, but if it meant none of you coming the next weekend, I'd hate that."

"Oh, there's no doubt with you that we'll be cumming," Claire said.

I groaned. Kelly grinned and nodded.

"Seriously, I have something we need to talk about," Claire said.

Derek looked surprised by something for a moment. And then he relaxed. "That's nice, Kelly," he said. He put one arm around Claire, and one around me. Kelly was sitting opposite him, looking cute, but I noticed that rather than leaning forward to give him a view down her dress, she was leaning back.

I peeked under the table, and her stockinged feet were massaging Derek's cock. That explained his odd look. Well, good for her. He'd tell her to stop if he wanted her to.

"So, Claire, what's up?"

"It's about Fred. He's seen what you did with Annie, and with Kelly's Mom."

"And he wants even more muscles or something?" I asked.

Claire shook her head. "No. He notices that you mostly add women to the group, and he wonders if he could serve you better if you made him a girl."

Visions of Fred turned into a blonde bimbo danced through my head. But Derek shook his head. "I have plenty of girls. Sometimes Fred's brawn comes in handy, like with my Dad and that one time at the Carter house."

"At our house?" Kelly asked. "When?"

"During the little bit you don't remember," Derek said, not bothering to explain that she didn't remember because he'd wiped her memory. She hadn't seen him do that trick, so she hadn't been able to put two and two together.

"Oh."

"Of course," Claire said. "He'd like out of his cage. Especially with me off at school."

Derek thought about it.

If Derek had a flaw, it was that he was too nice sometimes. So I reminded him, "He tried to kill you, Derek. The only reason he serves you well now is because he has to."

Derek cocked an eye at me. "Are you trying to tell me that none of you have free will?"

That was dangerous territory. He really wanted to believe we did. I got that - it's one thing to have a harem of hot chicks who will do anything you want, but it's clearly better to have a harem of hot chicks who want to do all of it.

"Of course we have free will," I said quickly. "Didn't I prove it to you once?"

He nodded, slowly. "Yeah. I guess. So why doesn't Fred break free?"

"Because you've given him a purpose," I responded quickly.

"But if he has free will, then there's such a thing as pushing him too far."

"Okay," I argued. "He can't do anything he wants. He can't violate your orders and work against you. But he has wiggle room."

Claire giggled. "Not in his latest cock cage, he doesn't."

"Did you get the one with spikes?" I asked. We'd been talking about it.

"I did," Claire said.

Derek looked at Claire. "You like torturing him, don't you?"

"Well, yeah."

"And is that because you think it's serving me, or is it because ... of something deeper inside you?"

Claire thought about it. "Well, it's hard to be sure. A part of it is definitely that he tried to kill you, and I think he deserves to be punished for it. But no. I have a sadistic streak, to be perfectly honest. It's why I like playing with Eloise."

"But Eloise likes being degraded," Derek said.

"Yes, but thanks to you telling Fred that he's serving you by being punished, Fred likes it, too. Which is one of the interesting things about the spiked cock cage. You see, it hurts him to get hard. And he wants to be punished. So the idea of it hurting him turns him on. And then... oh, it's delicious." Claire grinned.

"Ouch," Derek said. "I'd rather not think about Fred's dick, honestly. Tortured or otherwise."

"Sorry. Do you want me to take the cage off?"

"Nope," Derek said. "Change of subject."

"I'm focused on Derek's dick," Kelly said.

Later, at my place, we all focused on Derek's dick. We didn't even make it all the way to my bedroom. We started off with a three girl blowjob, licking and sucking and making sure his balls got plenty of attention. He sprayed his cum all over our faces, and my mom brought us towels, snickerdoodles, and milk "to keep our strength up."

Then we lined up with our asses in the air and let him fuck us doggy-style, spending maybe a minute with each of us before moving onto the next girl. Every helpful, Mom brought down lube just in case he wanted to use the other hole. It was beyond weird, having her hover over us like that while we were openly having an orgy, but the weirdest thing was that I was getting used to it.

In fact, I almost told her to get in the line with us, and I didn't doubt for a moment that she wanted to, or that she would if Derek so much as hinted that he wanted her to. But as my Mom liked to say, Derek was "such a nice boy." Which so far, at least, meant that he didn't fuck my mother in front of me.

The next day Derek took Eloise and Sally out for dinner, and directed Akane to have a date with Claire. Knowing Claire, the two girls were probably hamming it up and making Fred watch, just to torture him in that cage. My Mom was out doing something or other, I don't know which, and Kelly and I weren't close. So rather than spend the evening alone, I decided to go talk to Blake. I guess I was depressed about the end of summer.

"It doesn't have to end, you know," said my weirdest friend.

"What, you have a ritual to stop the earth from rotating around the sun? That's a very bad idea."

"No, no. Not summer the season. Summer the experience. You know. The whole thing."

"Well," I said, "I think that's a way to look at it. We have our whole lives to serve Derek."

"Yeah," he agreed. "We are the servants of our Lord Baaruleth, and it is our mission to serve our demonic master."

"Let's just call him Derek. He's the same guy we've always known, just with a harem of women and an inexhaustible cock. God I'm going to miss that. I've packed vibes but I just don't think it's going to be enough."

Blake made a face. "TMI, Annie. TMI."

"Okay, so what do you mean that it doesn't have to end?"

"Come with me," he said.

I followed him into his bedroom, hoping he didn't have anything skeevy in mind. But he didn't head to the bed, he went to the desk in the corner where his computer was. He unlocked the screen. His browser was open to a gangbang porn site. He had a gazillion active tabs, scrunched in so small I couldn't even read all of what he had open. He quickly clicked on one of them, revealing some sort of esoteric occult thing, and then another, and another. It took him five tries to find what he wanted and in the meantime I had an image of tentacles violating some poor anime girl imprinted on my brain.

The destination was an internet forum for religious seekers, I guess. Blake was in the process of starting a new thread, called, "Looking for a purpose?"

"I was looking for a purpose in my life, when I found it by serving a greater power. All you have to do is say these simple words aloud. What do you have to lose?"

And of course, the words were the same ones that I had gotten my Mom to read, and that all the other new converts to Derek's service had read.

Blake grinned at me. "Once this gets out, even if only a dozen people read the words aloud, they'll share it with their friends. Just like you hooked your Mom, and she left it in the book, and Akane showed to Eloise. Soon, the whole world will serve Baaruleth!"

"Does he want the whole world to serve him?" I was pretty sure the answer was no.

"It's his right and mission. He, too, has a greater purpose," Blake said.

"No, Blake. No. I won't let you do it."

"And you know, Annie, if he's got lots of new converts, he'll need someone to onboard them. And that's your job. He'll need you at his side, rather than going off and becoming a doctor or something silly like that."

I winced. He knew my weak spot, the one thing that would tempt me into doing something I knew Derek really wouldn't like. And I knew his. Blake wanted to do something big, world-changing. That was why we did the ritual that gave Derek his powers in the first place.

He turned, and moved his mouse. The cursor glided over to the button where "Post Message" was in white letters in a red rectangle. All I had to do was let it happen and I'd never have to leave Derek's side.

And all sorts of people would read it. Not a carefully selected group, just random weirdos. Derek already found it awkward to have guys like Blake and Fred serving him, although he'd tried to make sure Blake was happy by hooking him up with Eloise occasionally.

Blake grinned at me. "Today, Springvale, tomorrow, the world!" he said.

I tackled him. It wasn't graceful. The chair, on wheels, took us up against the wall, and then keeled over, spilling us onto the floor with me on top. "No. No you're not going to do that."

He struggled, and I realized that geeky nerd though he might be, he was still stronger than me. I suppose I was a geeky nerd, too, of the female variety. But I held on. "Derek doesn't want this," I said.

"How do you know," he said. "Even he doesn't know what he wants." He got his arm free and used it to try to push me off. At least gravity was working for me, and I wasn't that easy to push, especially because he chose to push me in the chest. Thanks to the D cups Derek had given me, that wasn't a very energy efficient place to push, as they squished rather more than they used to, absorbing some of the force.

Even so, he was about to roll me over. And part of me wanted him too, because he was right. If he pushed that button, Derek would need me.

Then I felt something between my legs. Blake was getting a boner. Derek hadn't told me to make out with Blake, and while I'd probably fuck anyone in the world if he told me too, without direction I was one hundred percent his. Blake had no business getting a boner from rubbing up against me, or from groping my tits. Derek's tits, really.

Without really thinking about it, I punched him in the face, and the back of his head hit the floor. His arms went limp, and for a moment I thought I'd killed him, but his eyes fluttered.

"Whoa, Annie."

"I'm Derek's property," I told him. "Do not violate the woman of Lord Baaruleth. He loves me."

"Ugh. But we need to spread the word. The world needs him, Annie."

I shook my head, thinking more clearly now. "Let's call him, and have him settle this. We'll do whatever he says." I knew a bit how his control worked, and I was pretty sure Blake couldn't say no to that.

He didn't. "Okay."

"Don't get up off the floor, or I'll kick you in the nuts." I got up off him, because I did not want to give him any more frottage than I already had, and then I got my phone. I called Derek.

To my relief, he picked up. "Uh, Annie? Kinda busy right now?"

I picked up squishing sounds on the other end. And a couple of giggles. Crap, was that my Mom? I pushed it out of my mind. "It's an emergency, Derek. Sorry. You need to come to Blake's house, pronto."

There was a moment of silence, which wasn't surprising. He'd been balls deep inside someone. I chose to imagine it was Sally. I could understand that it was hard to switch gears.

"An emergency? Can't you handle it?"

"No. I would if I could."

"Is Blake okay?"

"I hit him pretty hard."

"Oh! I'm sure you had a reason, but - on my way."

Eloise had a car. He'd be here in minutes. Blake rubbed the back of his head.

"You wouldn't, really, would you?" he asked.

"Kick you in the nuts? I would totally do that. Halfway tempted to get Claire here, because I understand she's become really good at that."

Blake stayed very still, until the doorbell rang.

"You get that," I told him.

Then I reached over for the mouse. It was tempting, even for me. But no. I moved the cursor away to the corner of the screen, carefully avoiding touching the mouse button, feeling a bit like I was defusing a bomb.

"You're fine," I head Derek said. "Annie said she hit you and hurt you."

"In here!" I yelled.

Derek came into the bedroom, followed by Eloise and Sally. Sally's lipstick was smudged. Eloise had something white all over her face and soaking through her shirt. Well, at least Derek had gotten off once before I called, and he'd probably ordered Eloise not to clean up because he knew that degradation turned the MILFy librarian on. He wasn't very good at calling her names, and I didn't have time to waste on that now.

"So what's going on," Derek asked.

I showed him the screen, and filled him in. "So. It's your decision."

"Erase the message," Derek said. "We could have done this over the phone, Annie. Hell, you knew what my answer would be."

"Yes. I knew. But there's a part we couldn't do over the phone."

Derek looked at me, and then slowly nodded. "You're right. I don't like it, but it needs to be done." He turned to Blake. "Blake, sit on the bed."

Blake sat on the bed. Direct orders were really hard to resist. I deleted the message.

"You're not going to make me blow him again, are you?" Eloise asked. "I mean, it's fine, but I - I mean, he's an underling."

Derek shook his head. "No, that's not what we're doing right now. Blake, I can't trust you with knowing the formula. You get that, don't you?"

"I do everything I do in service to Lord Baaruleth, which is you."

Derek sighed. "I'm Derek. And I never asked to be served by you."

"It cannot be undone," Blake said.

"No. But some things can. Where have you kept copies of the magic words?"

Blake started to tell him. He had them all over his computer, in all sorts of places. "Honestly, I'm not sure I even remember them all."

"We'll buy you a new computer, Blake. Sally, unplug that one and load it in the car. We'll figure out how to destroy it later."

Sally hurried to obey. Blake looked a bit put out, but he couldn't go against what Derek ordered.

"Any paper copies? Or anything not on your computer?"

Blake had printed it out repeatedly. He'd stuck copies in books, so that he'd come across it later. "Alright, Blake. When we're done here, you're going to leave with Eloise, and she's going to take you to her house. She is not going to blow you. Maybe sometime. Do you have the words memorized?"

Blake said them aloud, proving that he did. I wondered if it deepened his submission, to say it aloud like that. It was tempting to experiment, but Derek liked me having free will. I wasn't sure I had it, but maybe a little, around the edges, and what Derek wanted, I wanted, even if it was my freedom.

"Alright, old friend," Derek said. "I'm sorry." He reached out his hand, and pressed it against Blake's forehead. For a minute, he just stood there, and then he put his hand down.