Melanie was used to slacking off on the weekends with just a single-mile run, but she ended up doing three or four, and a bit of meditation once she'd gotten to a clearing with a nice view. The cool breeze was mercifully light, taking her time to try and temporary detox from everything happening. The bigger problems weren't solved, but time to herself kept it from weighing on her heavily. Many nagging questions were shuttled to the back of her mind, but some were still loud enough to echo and make her think. The big mystery of who had brought the pants with them in the first place nagged like no other. But approaching the huge cabin, she put it aside, not even bothering to look where she'd stashed the pants that morning.

Figuring her friends would be preoccupied or resting, a long shower, and a snack from the fridge, enjoying a quiet moment in the kitchen area wrapped up the morning. By the time she was finished, Melanie found herself a little concerned about the lack of noise coming from anywhere, even towards their bedrooms. Logic told her they should be sleeping after another round of sex, and probably didn't need disturbing. Curiosity winning out, she quietly opened the door, afraid knocking would wake them in-case they were sleeping, or looking to ambush her; that last thought was quickly dismissed as paranoia, as soon as she found them in bed like she had earlier that morning, until something shiny from the floor caught her eye.

Covered up amongst what Gerry was wearing earlier, Melanie audibly gasped as she'd found the supernatural pants exactly where they shouldn't have been, back inside the house and recently worn. Standing in near-shock in their doorway, she tried to put it together how this happened again. Questioning how they'd found them, what happened while she was gone, and was it Sasha that wore them recently with how she cradled Geraldine rather dominantly for once, Melanie's head was flooded with unsolvables.

"Like deja vu, isn't it?"

Melanie nearly yelped, hearing Serpentina's voice as soon as she picked up the pants.

"How the hell did you get back here?" Melanie’s sharp whisper was loud, but fortunately not loud enough to wake up either.

"I told you that you'd be hearing from me sssssooon."

"What did you do?"

"Me? They put on the pants, their hearts wanted guidance towards their deepest desires. I was just obligated to assist whomever put them on."

"Sasha?"

"Oh yes, a ravenous spirit beneath that shyness; how happy she was to make her debut. Honestly they both were."

"Shut up; you coerced them somehow."

"You give me too much credit, and not enough to your friends. All of you are brave enough to explore your deepest desires in a way most of humanity won't ever indulge in. Wearing pants like these isn't that far a next step."

Melanie moved to wake them up to help prove Serpentina wrong, until she received a sharp warning.

"I might not do that if I were you."

"What?"

"Waking suddenly sex-crazed young women with hypnosis skills, turned ravenous with a little help from yours truly? They'd eat you alive. And you don't seem ready for that kind of attention."

Wide eyes scanned their bodies, the level of comfort she'd found them in that never matched the deepest trances either had reached. Imagining them aggressively taking her under wasn't that far-fetched, especially if the suspected coercion lingered in them.

"But by all means, wake them up, and see what they might...awaken in you," the voice snickered.

The words made Melanie take a step back, and then other, and finally made their solely-awake friend quietly close the door behind her, grab her car keys, and drive the path they'd taken to get there. As she started the engine, she could still hear the Serpentina spirit still present.

"Do you think taking me further out will truly get rid of me this time?" The invisible spirit queried, obviously smiling as she asked.

Next to her in the passenger seat was the shiny pants, but it might as well have been Serpentina herself in the seat.

"That's my hope," the scientist freely admitted.

"I wonder if that will work this time," the mirth in her voice, knowing it likely wouldn't, annoyed the driver to no end.

"I wonder if you ever shut up."

"In all the time I've existed, no one's truly ever wanted that from me."

"All the time?"

"Exactly my point, Melanie. The scientist in you, or your latent curiosity, you have so many questions that could go unanswered, and yet all you have to do is have the courage to ask."

"And you'll just tell me?"

"If knowledge is what you desire, I will be happy to give that to you."

Oddly enough, Melanie believed that statement, or the curious scientist deeply wanted to believe. But either way, it was a long, silent trip out to a cliff area around the mountain path it took to get there. The pair of pants laid in that seat undisturbed, and yet the Mel could feel the spirit of Serpentina sitting in the seat in place of the pants. It was weird, wanting to glance to her right ever quarter mile or so, sensing driving with a passenger, invisible but clear-as-day enjoying being there. Just as clear was also how much Serpentina enjoyed the silence, grinning knowingly, waiting for the silence to break finally, surely knowing it would happen, and that the extraordinary presence would have so many fascinating things to educate her on.

Before getting to that cliff she remembered, Melanie decided to stop by the convenience store nearby, satisfying her lust for snack food, silently still trying to ignore her hunger for knowledge. Locking the car and leaving it unattended, she looked back to make sure the pants stayed there, and that no one else was around. The only person around seemed to be the cashier reading a magazine, doing something with her nails. Grabbing a basket, the still-relenting scientist start loading it with random tweets she and her friends loved.

"All those goodies, and yet I still think none of them will satiate your true hunger." Serpentina's presence whispered, almost giggled near me. Irritated disbelief rose up in how the presence could extend away from the pants direct proximity. "Especially when you try to convince people they're starving for what you're serving," the biologist countered.

"Sssilly Ssscientist, everybody wants this. Everyone. I've yet to meet a living being that wouldn't instinctively seek out the greatest pleasure they're senses could barely contain. No matter what upbringing, culture, or station you occupy, everyone seeks out exactly what I serve, even our little store attendant over there."

"No she wouldn't," Melanie declared, looking towards the cashier that turned her head away quickly. She grimaced at how Serpentina was making her look crazy in-front of complete strangers; she tried to bring her cellphone up to her ear to make it seem like she wasn't just talking to herself. Once finished with her shopping, the basket was set near the register, items pulled out to be rung up. She smiled nervously at the cashier, hoping to not seem like some kind of weird customer, and hoping it the spirit could be heard by anyone else.

"I love your nail polish," the cashier commented, "what color is that?" The question shook Mel from her reverie. "W-uhh, prism blue, I think."

"Where do you get that from? All the local places barely stock any of the sparkly stuff."

"See?" the spirit wheedled, "I told you she liked it. She might like it more if she saw how sparkly it really is."

Melanie tried to laugh off what she heard.

"But I guess you can't; some just highlight it better, like Geraldine and Sasha. Shame."

The jab at her pride hit surprisingly harder than expected, highlighting how everyone was a better hypnotist all of a sudden. Always being outdone by her friends, and now this mystical spirit, she had forgotten how much she'd wanted to show her own prowess.

"Do you really think it's sparkly?" a more engaged voice asked, surprisingly accepting the posed challenge. Setting the last item down closer to the younger cashier, she let her hand hover above the counter, beneath the overhead light. The tone of her voice subtly began to change from curious to a tone of wonderment. "It's hard to see if it really is sometimes, like it really needs the right lighting to get that prismatic effect."

Extending her hand outwards, she let the cashier's hand lightly hold her own, letting her attention filter down to the shiny nail polish and subtle suggestions. "I love the color blue, especially the shiny kind that glistens like a crystal flashing lights everywhere. I was really hoping this polish would have the same effect, flashing fascinating lights in the direction of admiring eyes. Something so drawing, so calming about that, seeing soothing flashing lights, being able to stare at the color and appreciate the gleaming, the glistening, the way they take you away for a little while."

The challenged hypnotist smiled at how the girl raised her own hands to bring the lit polish closer to her own face, soothingly taken away by the scientist's induction.

"And you want to go away for a little while sometimes. Those wonderful, beautiful moments taking you away from the mundane, where you can stare, indulge, and rest in something beautiful that wants to absorb you, that wants you to drift in it, and let you be a part of it. Nothing else to do, nothing else to think, nothing else to be, except in this crystallized, blissful world, to be in my hands, in my power. Feels so very good; so good, that you'll just enjoy this for as long as I allow."

Lost in her own impromptu induction, trance came upon both speaker and listener, both happily drifting in Melanie's sense of soft dominance.

"And the wonderful thing about this is, this feeling you're feeling can last past this experience right now. If you were to look away, the good, glowy feeling inside can remain and have you smiling for the rest of your day. You can feel that, if you follow what I tell you. You want to follow, to do what I tell you, it's why you feel so good right now. When I wake you, by snapping my fingers, it will be easy to call me Mistress. That's my name. I've been introduced as Mistress to you, and you think it's a fantastic name for me; you can reverently call me this for as long as I stay in the store. When I leave the store, the memory of my nail polish or calling me Mistress will go away, but the good feelings will stay with you for the rest of the night."

Moments later, Melanie snapped her fingers, and the cashier blinked profusely while shaking her head lightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mistress. Got a little lost there."

"That's okay, boring cashier shifts got me too when I was younger. Hopefully yours doesn't last much longer, and you can feel great the rest of the night."

"I really hope so Mistress, and I hope you can have a good night."

"You too, but try not to get too...distracted." Wily fingers waved almost teasingly in-front of the younger woman's eyes, causing a rather-effective butterfly induction, before the fingers snapping quickly stopped a second trance from deepening.

"Have a good night," she told the girl after paying. She'd had a spare bottle of prism blue in her purse, and left it as a souvenir for the cashier, a reward for letting her dominant out.

"Thank you Mistress!" the girl called out as Melanie finally left the store.

Walking back to her car, getting in the driver's seat, she took a moment to reflect what'd just happened, how easy it was. Looking to her right, down at the unmoving pair of pants, all she heard was "Thank you for proving my point."

"That wasn't about you, Tina," she tried rebuking using a nickname she hopes was considered degrading.

"Partially right, sssilly ssscientist. It was about you, but also those like you. You, Geraldine, Sasha, even lowly old Tina," she unfortunately mentioned her nickname laughingly. "We all share love of the same thing; the power of the mind."

"It's a hobby for us; we don't love it to the depths that you do."

"Yet, not yet" came the gleeful correction. "You all have only begun to discover the kinds of things my kind knows."

"Your kind?" Melanie couldn't help but ask with equal parts fear and fascination.

"Yes, lamias, who've known about the powers of the mind long before humanity knew the mind held such power. I imagine such a statement would take your cute, analytical mind far back into the past, perhaps deep into ancient jungle cultures in-touch with the surrounding foliage and wildlife. Perhaps your mind could imagine a time when lamias were not mythical creatures not to be believed, but lively, imposing, persuasive forces of nature that determined what was and was not to be believed..."

It was hard to fathom how believable Tina was, but every other word spoken gave a hint as to arresting origins, filling in gaps of her understanding. So focused on filling those gaps with her words, other concerns took a back seat, like how comfortable the driver seat felt to Melanie's body, the care the spirit took with telling her tale, reclining her seat, stroking her face, whispering the old tale into waiting ears crooningly. Everything put together equated to a time traveling to a period of perhaps unrecorded history, when many humans were ruled by few, powerful lamias.

Floating from her seat, drifting into the past, visions of people traveling past village outskirts came into view. Each of them ran into a lamia, a gorgeous hybrid creature, taking on the most seductive qualities of each species. Feelings of fear were easily corrected with deep gazes and hisses promoting all their fears fall asleep, and their pleasures awaken to heights never known before. One by one, a single lamia could gain favor over an entire village in a manner of weeks, or even days, becoming a worshiped idol and living goddess to them based on the heavenly pleasures imbued upon their minds. Carnal desires once considered forbidden were transformed into religious rewards, as a lamia's influence could base a village's new way of life on that of an operating harem.

Melanie didn't care much for anthropology in school, but she would've majored in it if it focused on lessons like this, as lewd scenes of mental and sexual freedom were unfurled in the coils of Serpentina and her sisters. She could see Serpentina toying with her village slaves that begged on a daily basis to be hypnotized and taken advantage of at her whims. A naked smile covered her face as she watched scenes play out, and how converted villages were organized. There were even times when lamia-controlled villages competed against one another for sport, for their owner's honor. Not unlike the Olympics, it was all in good fun, and compared to how some villages violently rivaled one another, civility happiness was an assurance with Serpentina at the helm.

She even learned that some humans in awe of her wanted to take it a step forward, to learn how to control minds somehow like lamias could. It was something that lamias themselves encouraged, promoting understanding of them mind and silently grooming those that showed great promise in hypnosis to become unwritten enforcers for Serpentina. It excited the sexy deity how far humans would go to learn more about themselves and further their own enslavement. Almost like a cult initiation, they would venture deep into the jungle, as predator and as prey, dominating and being dominated, fully understanding the role the mind can play in their desires. Melanie wanted such events to play out as long as Tina did, but then history took an uglier turn, with unaffected villages coming to "liberate" the ones happily taken over, and the ungrateful humans attempting to wipe out lamias from existence, so much so that some took on using their abilities to hide in plain sight, as other animals and other forms throughout history.

Eventually, Melanie came back to her seat in the car, softly waking, yet jarringly once she found herself perspiring, and her jeans zipped open, apparently fingering herself throughout Tina's history lesson.

"History can be such a fabulousssss topic, can't it?" A sensual whisper touched her earlobe, making her eyes roll back before she woke herself again. In a slight panic, she fixed her pants, grabbed the lamia pants, marched to the edge of the cliff, ready to do away with them once again.

"I have to ask again, are you truly ready to let go this time?"

Melanie's answer was to throw the pants as far as she could over the edge, unable to see where they fell in the night's darkness, but just happy to be rid of them.

Walking to the car, taking as many deep breaths as it took to center herself, she finally started the engine and headed back to the cabin, hoping she could forget everything along the way.

***

Geraldine and Sasha had nearly spent most of their uninterrupted day in bed together, joking, talking, making love, discussing possible episodes of "the Georgians," simply enjoying their company. The sexual heat came and went each time, but the feelings between them only got stronger. Bubbling beneath the surface, something else got stronger as well. Neither could explain what it was, or knew the other was experiencing it. But they could tell it was there.

As the sun was setting, by their third or fourth orgasm together, they had fallen asleep. Within sleep, dreams of thick, green foliage shaped happy sleep. The temperature was perfect for their naked bodies to roam through. With every step taken, it was known that the purpose was to search. The what was unknown, but stopping was not an option until it was found. Eventually, in a beautiful clearing, Geraldine and Sasha had found one another. Mutual smiles greeted one another from a distance, as they approached each other with careful steps. Never taking eyes off one another, they realized they were hunting one another.

The closer they got, the more they began drawing attention to their hypnotic focal points, Geraldine with her red highlights, and Sasha with her yellow jewelry somehow still on her person. They circled, caressed, cajoled, and practically sang hypnotic lullabies to one another, willing the other to sink into trance first. Evenly matched, neither could tell who'd won at first, as deeply as both had sank. They knew that whomever had won, the winner went deeply under once the first one to be hypnotized had emerged from trance. No specific suggestions of control were given, no lasting triggers established; both women had found and tranced one another, and knew deep inside that this was their calling, heralded by the one that gave them immense power and appreciation for the power of the mind.

As they awoke from their dream simultaneously, looking at one another, the couple silently knew, they wanted, needed to share their power, their calling, with the one that had yet to join. Melanie would be part of their collective soon, once the couple could get some well-earned rest.