Wednesday — Three Days Until Rematch

“E IS FOR EXCEPTIONAL, WHICH YOU ARE SURELY NOT!!!”

Oh god, not again. I pulled my pillow over my head in a sleepy daze.

“V IS FOR VICTORIOUS, DON’T TELL US YOU FORGOT!!!”

Was he gonna do this every morning?

“A IS FOR ATTRACTIVE, AS ALL OF US CAN SAY!!!

I glanced at the clock and saw 5:30 illuminated on its display. Motherfucker moved it up even earlier.

“N IS FOR NO SLEEPING IN, GET OFF YOUR ASS TODAY!!!”

I clapped my face to wake myself up. My tormentors were right, no time to sleep in.

“GOOOOOOO EVAN!!!! WOOOOOO!!!”

I yanked the blinds open, ready to once again see a row of cheerleaders at my window. I was right of course, but immediately caught off guard nonetheless. In addition to his eight cheerleader pawns, Evan had dressed Abby, Denise, Dr. Mallory, and even Ms. Holbrook in cheerleading attire. It looked completely alien on the four, whose personalities were far removed from that of a typical cheerleader. Poor Ms. Holbrook barely even fit in her uniform with her giant tits, it was cartoonish.

Denise looked especially unnatural. She would normally wear pretty much exclusively baggy, dark clothing and carried a calm, down-to-earth demeanor. Now, however, she was dressed in a colorful cheerleading uniform that showed off her pale legs, midriff, and tits in a way I truly never expected to see. Most unnatural of all, however, was her bright-eyed cheerful smile. At least Abby was already a cheerful person.

“You done?” I called from the window. The women simply dropped their pom-poms, flipped me the bird with both hands, and strutted off in tandem, the smiles never leaving their faces. I noticed, with a level of concern, that Evan wasn’t among them. Perhaps he was too busy preparing his strategy to accompany his puppets. Or he just couldn’t be bothered to get up so early.

I heard a rapid knocking on my door and buried my face in my hands, knowing it had to be a royally pissed off neighbor. I trudged over and opened it, preparing for the worst, only to see Mikayla, one of the RAs. “Jesus, you okay?” she asked. She was clearly tired, but didn’t seem particularly angry.

“Yeah just… dealing with a situation,” I muttered, knowing I couldn’t provide any follow-up without sounding like an insane person.

Mikayla raised an eyebrow. Her wavy red hair was slightly unkempt, no doubt fresh from a deep sleep that had been rudely interrupted. She was wearing a pink v-neck t-shirt and a comfortable pair of gray shorts, giving me an unexpectedly nice view of her legs. “This is the second time this has happened, Nate. Can you at least tell me what’s going on?” I prepared to deflect, but realized I may need this chance.

“Yeah, come on in and I’ll tell you the full story,” I said as Mikayla walked casually into my room. I wandered over to the bag of devices on my side table, picking up the one with the knight insignia from the night before.

“So, what’s the deal?” Mikayla asked, crossing her arms.

“Go look out the window and see for yourself,” I responded dryly. It may have been a blessing I was so tired, otherwise I might have thought twice about what I was about to do.

Mikayla narrowed her eyes and peered out the window, but the cheerleaders were already out of sight. “I don’t see anyt—” she began, cut off suddenly as I attached the device to the nape of her neck. I panicked as her body spasmed and her face distorted, only for any movement to suddenly cease. Without a word, Mikayla slowly adopted an upright posture, staring straight ahead. The LED light on the device began to emit a faint blue glow.

“Mikayla?” I asked, trepidation in my voice. No response. I waved a hand in front of her face, still nothing. I tapped her shoulder and poked her face, but she offered no feedback whatsoever. Testing my limits, I gently touched one of her breasts. When that elicited no reaction, I knew she was genuinely under the device’s control. My heart raced as guilt and anxiety coursed through my body, but I pushed it aside. This was for Abby and Denise, and the others too.

I dove into the bag again and pulled out the headset, switching it on and placing it gently over my head. “Raise your left arm,” I said, testing its capabilities. Mikayla’s left arm shot up, like the limb of a puppet being tugged by a string. “Now lower it,” I followed, watching her arm return to its side. I sat down on the bed. “Come sit next to me,” I commanded. Mikayla sat at my side, her face still neutral. I didn’t know how to react to having this kind of power, but I pushed any more doubts I had aside.

“Tell me, would Sophie come down here if you asked her?”

“Yes,” Mikayla responded flatly. A moment of silence passed before I realized that pushing for information would be my responsibility. “Can you bring her here now?”

Mikayla remained neutral as she answered. “Yes, she’s awake too, I talked to her before I came down here.”

I let out an anxious sigh. “Text her now, tell her to come down.”

I was sitting on the bed, waiting in nervous anticipation when I heard yet another knock on the door. I walked over and opened it, revealing a tired-looking Sophie. She was wearing baggy, comfortable-looking pajamas. “Hey, thanks for coming,” I said.

“Whatever, where’s Mikayla?” Sophie responded curtly. I couldn’t blame her for the snappy response, I’d be just as pissed to be up this early if the roles were reversed.

“Just inside, come on in,” I answered, doing my best to hide my nerves.

The door shut behind her as Sophie stepped inside, initiating my plan. Mikayla, who I had ordered to hide behind the door, quickly stepped forward and placed a device onto the nape of Sophie’s neck, catching her completely off guard.

“Wha—” what all she could get out before her face and body began twitching. Her movements ceased and her posture straightened in little time, leaving her vulnerable to my control.

“Can you hear me, Sophie?” I asked into the headset.

“Yes,” she responded emotionlessly. Her wavy brunette hair was dangling over the front of her face, giving the typically put-together young woman a slightly disheveled look. Between that and the baggy pajamas, I was seeing a side of Sophie I don’t think I ever would have normally. She was generally quite careful about maintaining her elegant appearance.

No time to worry about that though, I needed to test the technology some more. “Both of you, act like you normally do” I said, not sure how they would react. Life immediately returned to their faces in the form of disgust and rage.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU-” Sophie began screaming before I shouted “STOP!” into the mic. Immediately she froze in place, her finger still pointed accusingly at me and her face distorted in anger. Mikayla was frozen mid-stride, seemingly trying to make a break for the door.

I sat down on the bed, burying my hands in my face. Obviously they wouldn’t be okay with this, but what other choice did I have? I looked back up at the two frozen women, trying to decide what to do next. Standing up, I ordered them to sit on the bed in front of me. All anger and fear left their faces as Mikayla and Sophie sat next to one another and faced me.

“Listen to me very carefully: You are both going to completely forget anything unusual I did to you. Any anger or panic you felt is gone. You’re just here to help me with a problem I’m having. Most importantly, you’re going to believe whatever I say, no matter how strange it sounds, and you’ll want to help me however you can. Do you understand?” 

"Yes,” they responded in unison.

“Okay,” I said, uncertain if my commands would stick, “Go back to normal.”

Just like that, both Mikayla and Sophie put on friendly smiles. “So what’s the problem you’re having?” asked Mikayla, “No matter what, we’re here to help.”

“Yeah!” responded a much more amiable Sophie. “Whatever you need, we’ll do our best!” I chuckled a bit, this was the first positive affirmation I’d had since the night I beat Evan.

“Okay,” I started, “Where to begin…”

By the end of my story, Mikayla and Sophie were shocked and horrified. “So if we can’t go to the police, what are we supposed to do?” Asked Sophie.

“I think my only chance is to beat him,” I answered, "But to do that I need people to act as my pieces. So, I would need you two to be my knights."

Mikayla looked troubled. “You said the winner takes the loser’s pieces, right? So if you lose, he’d get control over us…” I hesitated, trying to find any way to soften the blow.

“Yes, he would. That’s why I can’t lose.”

Unexpectedly, Mikayla smiled. “Okay, we’ll do it. We’ll do anything to help you!” Sophie smiled and nodded along with her friend.

It was then that I realized that no amount of “normal” treatment could undo the fact that these women were under my control. No person in their right mind would agree to this, no matter how altruistic they were. As Evan had shown me time and again, there was no limit to what I could make them do. Any morality I was trying to demonstrate was a wasted effort serving only to alleviate my own conscience. If I really wanted to help them, I needed to win.

“Okay, good. I’ll need a lot of other people to be pieces too, and they have to be women. Do either of you have any ideas? I need to sneak up on them to apply the device.”

After a moment of thought, Mikayla excitedly interjected. “I’m part of a meditation group, there’s nine of us including me, so the rest could be pawns!” It was a little fucked up seeing Mikayla so excited to enslave her friends, but it’s not like I had much room to be uncomfortable.

“I go to church a lot, I know a few other Christian students that spend time praying in the chapel, we could try there!” Sophie chimed in. Damn, and I thought Mikayla was willing to disturb something sacred with her meditation group. Sophie was absolutely beaming as she described how easy it would be to take control of her friends while they prayed.

“Both of those work great, thank you guys!” I said in perhaps the strangest show of gratitude in my life. Fishing through the bag of devices, I handed the two devices with the bishop insignia to Sophie. “Get two of your church friends, tell them you have a big exam coming up and invite them to a prayer circle. Go somewhere where you won’t be disturbed, you might have to wait a bit. When they’re distracted, place these devices on the napes of their necks. Text me when you’re done."

Sophie shot me a grin. “Understood!”

I returned my attention to Mikayla. “When is your meditation group meeting next?”

“We’re set to meet up in the fitness center at 1:30 today,” She answered.

“Okay, I want you to meet me outside the building at 1:00. Understood?”

“Understood!” Mikayla responded, beaming.

“Alright, get to it,” I said, prompting Mikayla and Sophie to get up and leave, setting about their days with their new goal in mind. I laid down on the bed, decompressing. It was so fucked up what I had done to them, but I couldn’t help but feel relieved to have some people in my corner for this whole thing. Even if I had to force it.

No, there was someone who was in my corner. Talia had gone into hiding, but she wasn’t the type to sit by idly. No, she had to be up to something. I wanted to believe in the future where Talia swooped in at the last moment with some sort of miracle solution, but I knew better than to toss away my own agency. Winning the match was the most solid way for me to secure everyone’s freedom. I owed it to everyone Evan had taken control of, and now to my own victims as well.