Comments welcome as always!
*****
An hour later, Levi and Tyler walked back across the lawn to Tyler's house. The dynamic had changed between them.
Tyler left his naivety in Stacie Fuchs's house.
Levi left more.
"Want to come in, man?" Levi said. "Margaret is probably cooking dinner. Meat loaf night." He smiled. He was cheerful.
Tyler stared at him. For Levi, it was like nothing had happened.
"No. I gotta get home," he said as he turned toward the driveway.
"Later," Levi said as he ran toward the back door to his house.
Tyler frowned after him. "Yeah, later."
He opened the door to his Prius and sat down in the hot interior. He looked back through the hedges at the Fuchs house. He sighed. Was it just a house? Or, was it some dark castle with a princess locked inside?
Were Stacie and Emily sitting in there right now, laughing at how they had made Tyler believe Emily was some kind of brainwashed abductee? Were they simply playing a game with two gullible teens?
Or, was Emily really in danger?
He closed the door and started the car. He backed carefully down the drive and headed home.
***
Emily knelt on the bedroom floor. She held the lobotomizer - a long steel needle attached to a pistol grip, in her outstretched hand. "I'm defective, Mistress." She kept her eyes on the floor.
Stacie stood over her with a horrified expression. "Emily, what are you talking about?"
Emily sobbed. "My mind. I hear voices. I can't make them stop. She screams at me." Emily's right hand shook.
"What do the voices say?"
"They say my name is Emily Cray and that you've turned me into a monster. Oh, Mistress, I'm so afraid!" She leaned forward and kissed Stacie's feet, wetting them with her tears.
Stacie knelt down and took the lobotomizer from her. "Now, now, it's alright. Don't cry. It's not you, it's the hypnosis drug. The same thing happened to Margaret. She just needed a second dose and she was fine." She put her arms around the girl and Emily cried with her head on Stacie's thighs.
Stacie stroked her hair. "It's alright now. I would never use this nasty lobotomizer on you or anyone else. You throw it away. I don't want it in this house."
"Y... Yes, Mistress."
"Now, straighten up. You have duties to perform."
"Of course, I'm sorry, Mistress." She started to rise, but Stacie held her down.
"You like the boy, don't you?"
"Master Tyler? Yes, he's kind..."
"Kindness is weakness. You and I will make him strong." She leaned down and kissed Emily's platinum blonde hair. "He loves you, doesn't he?"
"I... think so, Mistress."
"We'll use that against him. Control him with it." She smiled down at Emily. "You do understand he could never accept you? If he knew all the things I've done to you? He couldn't accept you. He could never love you like I do."
Emily nodded. "I know that, Mistress."
***
"Mom, I'm home," Tyler said as he came in the front door.
"Kitchen," his Mom called.
He walked into the kitchen to find his Mom putting away groceries.
Christine McGee was a tall brunette of about forty. She was dressed in her 'Church Outfit': long business skirt, white blouse buttoned to the neck, with her hair done up in a bun and librarian glasses perched on her nose. She was the head secretary at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
She turned and smiled at her son. Looking both ways, she handed him a bag. "Nacho Cheese Doritos... don't let him see you with them."
"Thanks, Mom." Tyler smiled and took the chips from her. "I won't." He turned and headed for his room.
"And, don't eat those before dinner? You'll spoil your appetite."
He took the stairs two at a time, passing by the crucifix complete with painful looking Jesus midway up.
Tyler looked into the sorrowful, heaven turned eyes. "Might have to talk with you later, old buddy. Fucking weird day."
He ran up the stairs, pausing by his sister's closed door.
Tyler almost made it past the study beyond.
"Tyler?" His Dad called from inside.
Fuck
, Tyler thought. He tossed the bag of Doritos down the hall toward his bedroom door and then opened the door to the study a few inches.
Nathan McGee sat in his study in his leather chair with his eyes on his computer monitor. He looked up, and, as usual, his eyes looked directly at Tyler's gut.
Behind Nathan on the walnut bookshelves were his numerous high school and college athletic trophies: football, track and field, basketball. Nathan McGee had been an all state athlete in multiple sports.
Tyler, not so much.
His father looked at him with his usual look of disdain. "Where were you today?"
What he wanted to say was:
Assfucking this beautiful blonde. She had tits like volleyballs, and a face that would make an angel weep. Afterward, I held her in my arms while we both fell asleep. It was a good day, you motherfucking asshole.
But, he didn't say that.
"Hanging out with Levi," he said.
Nathan shook his head. "Video games. I might have known. Tomorrow, you're coming down to the brokerage with me. If you're not going to exercise your body, you can at least exercise your mind. How does that Kent kid stay skinny? You should find out. Might get a pointer or two." He turned back to his computer, dismissing him without a further word.
Tyler slunk out the door into the hallway. His Dad had always been a dick, but after Tyler had failed to get accepted at any of the Ivy League schools, he had become unbearable. Tyler wanted to go to Ithaca College, which Nathan had grudgingly agreed.
Of course, he agreed too late for Tyler to start this semester.
Tyler had a feeling Nathan had dragged his feet so he could keep Tyler under his thumb for an extra year.
Tyler scooped up the Doritos and went into his room, closing the door behind him.
He sat down in front of his computer and opened a browser.
"EMILY CRAY", he typed. He thought for a moment and then added, "ITHACA, NY."
The search engine filled the screen with info.
He clicked on 'images'.
The first picture was of a plain looking girl with strawberry blonde hair. He almost switched to the next image, but then he looked at the eyes.
Big green eyes.
Emily's eyes.
But, his Emily was a platinum blonde. The Emily on the computer screen had a larger nose and darker skin with freckles. He clicked the link for Facebook.
Emily Cray, Ithaca College.
What he could see of her profile was a handful of photos. Emily at a women's rights march. Emily smiling in a library.
It was her. It had to be. His Emily had those eyes, that smile.
Women's Studies? Her major was Women's Studies at Ithaca? How do you go from Women's Studies to sex slave?
He pulled up a 'people search' page and entered in as much information as he could. His bank account was soon $10.00 lighter, but he got a phone number.
Tyler pulled out his cellphone and punched in the number.
"Hello?" A woman asked.
"Hi, is Emily there?"
"No, sorry."
"Do you know when she'll be back? I'm a friend of hers," Tyler said.
The woman sighed. "Hopefully never. She's hiding from me. The rent is way past due and I'm going to be stuck with her part! If you see that sneaking, uptight, closet lesbo, you tell her Andrea is pawning her fucking Mac for reimbursement."
"I... look, did she go somewhere today?"
"Yeah, she left this morning saying she was going for a job interview. I haven't seen her since. You tell her what I told you." The woman hung up.
Tyler stared at the phone. Then he opened the Doritos.
***
