Editor's note: this story contains scenes of incest or incest content.
A strange buzzing sound pulled Jason out of his deep, dreamless slumber. Confused and disoriented, his sleep-addled mind struggled to determine what the sound was and from where it was coming.
Only as Evelin, Jason's eighteen-year-old younger sister, began to stir next to him did he begin to orient himself.
Slowly, as his sister, lover, and pseudo-business-partner stretched and started crawling out of bed, the events of the previous evening returned to his consciousness.
After several days of absence and silence, Evie had returned home. With the help of their older sister Beth, she had interrogated Jason as to his "true intentions" regarding their relationship.
Then, after Beth had left them alone, Evie confronted Jason about his attempts to brainwash her.
Thankfully, years of living under the heel of his scornful mother, Janice, had taught Jason to be quick on his feet. The bitch was always trying to "catch" Jason and manipulate him into admitting some sort of fault. (Her goal being to heap on another punishment.) The frequency of this tactic had taught Jason to avoid the intended punishments by being a master of doublespeak and gaslighting.
Using those skills, he had managed to both admit that Evie was correct and at the same time convince her that he hadn't done anything all that wrong.
She seemed to accept his explanation/apology. However, she indicated that perhaps all was not yet forgiven and that they would need to talk more.
Then, throwing Jason a total curveball, his sister had given him her attempt (a rather good attempt) at a hypnotic script to use on their mother.
Finally, after Jason had already gone to bed, Evelin came into his room, cuddled up with him, and fell asleep.
After days of anxiety, the comforting presence of his lover had given him the best night sleep he could remember in a long time.
Now it was morning, and the alarm on her phone had vibrated her awake. Clearly hoping not to disturb Jason, Evie made to tiptoe out of his bedroom. But before she made it even two steps from his bed, she was startled by her brother's groggy voice.
"Good morning, beautiful."
Jason hadn't intended to add the compliment, but staring at her ass in the dim morning light stirred something inside, and it compelled him.
"Oh, sorry," she responded. "I didn't mean to wake you."
"No, it's fine. It was nice waking up next to you..."
For a moment they just looked at each other in silence. Evie had slept in Jason's bed numerous times over the past few weeks. But, she always slipped away in the night to avoid anyone noticing their dalliance.
Spending the entire night was something new, and Jason was unsure what that might mean. Was it the next step in their relationship? Or was it a sort of goodbye?
The slightly sad look in Evelin's eyes seemed to indicate it might be the latter, causing Jason's heart to sink.
"Evie," he asked, "Are we okay? Are we gonna be okay?"
She sighed, and the look on her face told Jason that avoiding this conversation was a big part of why she was trying to sneak out of his room without waking him.
"I'm not ready to have this conversation yet, Jason. I said we'd talk tonight, and I promise we will," she turned back toward the door but paused for a moment before continuing.
"Something feels different, big brother. And I don't know what that means just yet," she paused again.
"But... I think we're going to be okay."
With that, Evelin moved to the door, opened it, and made to step into the hallway. Abruptly, however, she stopped and turned back to look at her brother.
Then, in a completely conversational tone utterly devoid of any of the emotional heaviness present just seconds ago, she asked, "Where's your computer?"
The tonal shift was so sudden it actually caused Jason to chuckle briefly before he quickly responded to his little sister, "Oh, yeah. Mom confiscated it a couple of days ago."
"She what? Why? Wait, so you haven't been working for a few days now?" she wasn't panicking, but she was clearly concerned.
"No, I've been twiddling my thumbs for the past few days," Jason replied.
Evelin's back straightened as she went from hurt lover to full-on businesswoman mode, "Alright. She probably hasn't left for work yet, so I'll speak to her. There's a lot of work that needs doing, and we're behind schedule.
"I was going to wait till after our talk," she continued. "But there's no time. I'll send you a list of changes we need as soon as I get to school."
With that, Evie took off down the hall.
Generally, Jason tried to sleep until everyone was out of the house, so he got comfortable in his bed, closed his eyes, and hoped to get another hour or two of sleep.
---
True to her word, Evie sent her brother a series of text messages later that morning.
The requests were interesting, nothing that Jason had considered for his application, but they made sense.
First, Evie wanted an "activation code" type system. She wanted to sell access to her recordings on the app via a different platform, then use the activation code to grant access within the app.
It seemed overly complicated to Jason, but he liked the idea of circumventing the 30% fee that Apple and Google take for in-app purchases.
Second, Evie said she needed an affiliate system to allow third parties to sell access to their own recordings on the app.
Jason spent a few minutes thinking about what would be involved in making this happen. He then tried to calculate how many hours of work this might be. Finally, he doubled his estimate... because experience had taught him that he consistently and grossly underestimated how much work a project would take.
Jason's final estimate was somewhere in the four-week range. Far too much work. He'd decided he'd just tell Evie that it was too much for now, and he'd think about adding these features if they actually managed to sell any subscriptions to the app.
It was about that time that another text came through from his little sister, [ Need these features ASAP! We already have multiple sales waiting on them! ]
'Well shit,'
thought Jason.
Making his way downstairs to begin his daily drudgery, Jason discovered a note from his mother written on the refrigerator whiteboard.
"Jason, Evelin needs your help with a school project. Get your computer and do whatever she needs."
'Sweet!
Jason thought.
'Evie, really came through.'
Several hours later--his morning chores done--Jason found himself sitting at his computer and logged in to the app backend.
As he had been dreading, there hadn't been a single sale.
His next rent payment was coming due very soon. What had been elation and joy at the thought of finally being free from the grip of his mother drained away. Without some sales, he wouldn't be able to pay her the rent. If he didn't pay her, she'd just find more ways to keep him trapped in this miserable life.
