Karen West disconnected the call on her cell phone. She’d been making calls for days. She’d been discussing plans and details with secretary Sandra Ogilvy. Slave Sandra, now.

Early on, Mistress had told slave Karen how few of her contacts would be concerned about the state of the division. It had made her very happy when she found out how many of the people she had trusted and cared about had already been enslaved. It had made her even happier when the remaining contacts were visited by syndicate agents, one by one.

There had been seven agents remaining under her command in various satellite postings and deep undercover operations after they had enslaved Kimball and Johnson, the last of their core agents.

Slave Karen had made sure they’d all been enslaved. She’d even been allowed to be present for five of them, and she cherished the memory deeply.

It had turned out that the rule about only enslaving women had been a misdirection.

It had been true at first, Mistress had told her. The technology for male enslavement had come later. Different anatomy, hormones, brain chemistry. Less demand for male sex slaves. Market forces. 

Mistress had realized that the Syndicate had established a pattern -- and had decided to exploit it, to keep up appearances, to let her competitors handle the male market abroad, to pretend to suppress it state-side. Establish the facade of a modus operandi. Keep it tight and lean. Only key players. Senators. Congressmen. Governors. CEOs. Move slowly, carefully. Meanwhile, make noise somewhere else. Always make a point to take only the women alive. Non-essentials like Agent Bower weren’t enslaved and had to be eliminated to keep up the charade.

Slave Karen felt a small pang of regret. He’d been smart. He would have been a valuable asset. But slave Sophie had obeyed beautifully. Slave Karen’s regret was replaced by the pleasure of the hot memory of seeing her obey.

Like slave Sophie, she herself had been given so many wonderful opportunities to serve and be part of the process in the last weeks. With a pleasant tingle between her legs, she remembered the wonderful sex she’d had with senator Henry Jefferson after enslaving him in a private meeting. He’d been the first of her senate contacts to become Mistress’s tool. The rest were yet to come.

She’d given him an injector for his wife, a district attorney, and he’d enthusiastically sent her a video of the moment his wife had woken up as a slave, naked, in their bed. He was stupid like that. Slave Karen had to put in an automated metadata deletion request with the NSA, which had been a hassle. 

She had kept the video on her airgapped personal computer, to get off to.

Today, she had a meeting scheduled with Penelope Tangiers of the NSA. Several other NSA officers had similar meetings with certain congressmen, senators, military officials. 

Soon, she wouldn’t even have to delete that kind of data.

In hindsight, it had been a miracle the division had lasted as long as it did. They could have been licking Moreau’s boots for months. But Mistress had taken her time to make sure all pieces were in place before she’d struck. And when she had, the division had crashed into the steep end of the exponential curve.

In her mind, slave Karen surveyed the glorious ruins of what had been her division. Agents captured, killed, enslaved. The Director, enslaved. The Syndicate, unstoppably infiltrating and saturating every safeguard, every government body that would have been able to stop it.

Fuck, yes!

She stood up and left her room to go look for slave Sophie. Thinking of the petite slave had given her an intense desire to feel that zealous tongue of hers between her legs. Slave Sophie was always more than eager to please. 

Slave Karen’s bare feet made soft noises on the clean wood floors. She was already naked of course. When she was in Mistress’s domain, she didn’t need clothes. She walked down the spacious hallways on the first floor of the mansion Mistress kept them in.

She passed the foyer. It was the largest space in the building which slaves Sarah and Kate had repurposed into a gym. Some slaves were sparring on a large array of crash mats, wearing sports bras and knee pads for utility and nothing else. She recognized slave Alice and slave Rebecca, both of them partnering with slaves she didn’t know. They might have been part of the commando that had ambushed Operation Prize Money in San Antonio. They might have killed some of her most capable agents. She might ask them about it later, and maybe give them a quick fuck to thank them for it. Or maybe just a quick fuck for the sake of it. But first, slave Sophie.

“Have you seen slave Sophie?” she shouted down the stairs.

One of the slaves she didn’t know—Latina, round face, big eyes—answered, wiping sweat off her forehead as she spoke. “She’s with slave Kate in the blue room attending Mistress. They won’t mind your company. Give her a kiss from me when you see her.”

Slave Kate nodded and smiled. This worked out well. She thanked the slave and went down the east hallway, where the blue room was. It was where Mistress Moreau had her personal chambers. Moans were coming from the inside. 

She carefully opened the door and entered.

She found Mistress laying on the corner of her bed, her legs spread wide, feet planted on the floor. Between them, she saw the back of slave Sophie where she knelt on the floor, servicing her. She looked down between slave Sophie’s legs, the barest glimpse of her pussy visible between her cheeks.

Lying next to Mistress, one hand caressing her, one hand between her own legs, was the tall, tone form of slave Kate.

Slave Karen softly closed the door behind her with a pleasant click. She knew they had heard her enter. She saw slave Kate look at her with a smile, then saw her whispering into Mistress’s ear. In between moans, Mistress said something that slave Karen couldn’t hear.

“We won’t be long”, said slave Kate. “Have a seat. Enjoy the view.”

Slave Kate opened her legs wider to give slave Karen a better view, her freshly-shaved pussy slick and pink beneath her probing fingers.

Slave Karen walked forward and sat down into one of the several wide and luxuriously upholstered armchairs that stood in a rough semicircle about the center of the room. She enjoyed the soft fabric against her skin and inhaled the scent of perfume and sex that pervaded the room, mixed with the smell of grass and tress coming in from the open window. She licked her fingers, then languidly drew them down her bosom, her abdomen, stroking her inner thighs, spreading her legs, reaching in between them. 

Listening to the moans of Florence Moreau, she touched herself.

As she played with her clit, she thought of how deeply enslaved she had to be in order to do this. She loved to think along those lines. It was the thing that set her off best, besides obeying Mistress. She imagined being between her legs instead of slave Sophie, giving Mistress pleasure like she’d done so many times now, either with her body or by being an obedient tool. Making the woman that owned her cum. Serving the woman that had taken her mind and her will and made her into her eager slut.

Mistress’s moans grew louder and faster and slave Karen loved the fact that she recognized the sound intimately. She leaned deeper into the armchair and pushed harder into herself. She had fallen into a fast rhythm, riding the waves up pleasure, inexorably building up with every stroke, with every moan. It was hard now to keep her eyes open, but she wanted to see. See slave Sophie, slave Kate, Mistress, as they came. Any moment now.

When Moreau finally came—bucking, arching her back with a scream of release—the slaves around climaxed too. Seeing their Mistress orgasm was pure joy, and as aroused as they already were the pleasure of it easily pushed them over the edge. Three slaves cried in a chorus of ecstasy as they came, having served and obeyed simply by enjoying and loving this.

“Slave Karen”, Moreau said when they had come down. Slave Sophie had joined slave Kate and her on the bed, and the three of them were leaning against the backrest cuddling. Slave Karen straightened.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Frankly, I was looking for slave Sophie”, she said uneasily, “But I also have some minor reports to make.” Lying to Mistress would be disobedience and was unimaginable.

“So you didn’t come here to beg me to fuck me?”

“I always crave you, Mistress”, she said defensively. “But no.”

“Relax, Karen. I was joking. If all my slaves came constantly begging to serve me, I’d get no work done at all.” She stroked slave Kate’s hair as she spoke. The redheaded slave was resting her head on her shoulder, gently smiling. She looked like a pet, and it was fucking hot.

“You can have slave Sophie in a moment”, she continued. Slave Sophie winked at slave Karen, spreading her legs invitingly before Mistress continued. “I’ll hear your reports later today. I imagine it’s about the legislation slave Sandra is motioning, yes?”

Slave Karen nodded.

“Bon. But, speaking of work…”, she said and disentangled herself from slave Sophie and slave Kate with two soft kisses. She got out of bed and walked over to the side table near the window. The sunlight hit her moist skin in the most magnificent way. She picked up an injector. It had a ribbon of what looked like red electrical tape around it.

“There’s something I’ve been working on, and I’d like you to be there when I test it.”

She looked bensieve for a moment, considering something before coming to a decision. She nodded and spoke: “I was going to do it maybe tomorrow, but now all of you are here anyway. Now that I think about it, why don’t all of you come? You all knew Lilly before I enslaved her.”

Slave Sarah lay in slave Lilly’s arms. They were currently occupying a spacious bedroom in the east wing of someone’s mansion. The king-sized bed was covered in silky smooth cotton bed sheets. A cool breeze played around their naked bodies, and it made the air somewhat bearable for a moment.

“You know…?” began slave Sarah dreamily. Her fingers were slowly brushing through slave Lilly’s hair as she spoke.

“Huh?” murmured slave Lilly. Her eyes were closed, but a thin smile played across her face, like she’d just been gently roused from sleep.

“All things considered… like, even with old Sarah in mind... This turned out pretty good.”

“You think Sarah would have wanted this?”

“Maybe not exactly. But if I’d known how I would end up…” she paused.

“Like, if I could have looked into the future and seen this moment?”

“Uh-huh?”

“I think I would have been okay with it. Because I’m with you.”

Slave Lilly looked at her, her face as pretty as ever, and the beautiful woman behind it. It was the same as it had been. Only now, they shared one more thing that they both loved about themselves and each other.

She shifted, moving closer, until slave Lilly’s face was too close for her eyes to focus on. She touched her forehead against slave Lilly’s so they were as close as they could be. Somewhere out of her sight, she found slave Lilly’s hand, taking it, weaving her fingers though hers.

“Because I love you,” whispered slave Sarah.

“I love you, too,” whispered slave Lilly, and kissed her.

With a soft mechanical noise the door opened. It was nothing unusual. When you fucked everyone around the house, privacy was something of a non-issue. If they hadn’t wanted anyone to join them, they would have locked the door. Still, slave Sarah was glad they’d had that moment among themselves. She turned to look who had joined them.

When she saw her Mistress, she tensed in excitement, sitting up urgently. Besides her, she felt slave Lilly come to attention in the same way that she had. When she saw the other slaves that accompanied her, she grew curious.

“Mistress”, they both said at a slightly offset moment, Lilly trailing behind. They sounded like little girls. Sarah had to stifle a giggle. She felt Lilly squeeze her hand, twisting slightly, and she squeezed back.

“Slaves”, said their owner with an acknowledging smile that made slave Sarah’s insides melt.

“Lilly”, Mistress said.

“Yes, Mistress!”

“Do you remember how you were enslaved?”

“Of course, Mistress! It was the best day of my life.”

“Non. That is not what I meant. Do you remember how you were enslaved?”, Mistress asked, giving her a small nod. Slave Lilly looked confused for a moment as she tried to understand the question.

“Do you mean by which method? The same as the others. I was strapped into a chair. You injected me and I passed out. It did something to my brain, and I woke up enslaved and obedient.”

“Oui. You were the first person I enslaved using the active neurosynthetic compound. You were magnificent. You still are.”

“Thank you, Mistress!”, slave Lilly said. Slave Sarah could feel her softly tremble next to her. Mistress raised an injector, marked with red tape.

“I have a gift for you. Don’t worry. I have done many in-vitro trials. It is quite safe at this point, but I’d like to test it on you.”

“I don’t care if it’s safe, Mistress. I’m yours to use.” Slave Sarah’s pussy tingled when she heard slave Lilly say that, as she knew slave Lilly’s did as well.

“I know,” Mistress said with the barest trace of a sigh.

“What does it do, Mistress?”

“It removes all effects of the compounds in your brain that make you a slave.”

Before slave Sarah could even begin to react, slave Lilly had already let go of her hand and recoiled away. She was shaking her head, brows deeply furrowed, trying to understand. Not being a slave was literally unimaginable.

“No… I…”, she said, her voice panicked and full of pain and confusion.

“Quiet. Listen.”

Slave Lilly stopped and obeyed.

“I apologize. I should have started differently. Everything will be fine. You’ll become a slave again immediately after.”

She raised another injector, this one without the red tape.

Slave Sarah saw slave Lilly relax. She did, too.

Then, mistress stepped forward and gave both of the injectors to slave Sarah.

“Really, it’s a gift for all of us. It’s pure indulgement.”, Mistress said. “I get to see how my invention works”, she said looking at slave Lilly. “You experience one—how do you say it?—wild ride”, and looking at Sarah. “And you get to enslave your girlfriend.”

Slave Lilly was back at slave Sarah’s side, and they looked at each other with wide-open eyes. Slave Sarah saw the excitement in her expression and knew how hot this must make her. She remembered the moment before their first kiss, back when they hadn’t been enslaved, yet. She remembered the electricity in the air as they both realized that they wanted it, both of them waiting for the other to make the first move, until finally Lilly had leaned in and their lips had met for the first time.

That wonderful woman that had taken her in, had been there for her when she’d needed her, even when she hadn’t deserved it. Beautiful, headstrong Lilly. That woman would be back. Free. Unspoiled. Full of passion and will and spirit and fight. 

Her head swam with the reality of the opportunity she’d been given. It made her shiver.

“Tell me when you’re ready”, she said.

“I’m still thinking this through. Will I—“, slave Lilly turned to Mistress, “Will I remember what happened to me?”

“Oui. Everything.”

Slave Lilly nodded to herself, in thought. After a moment, she looked at slave Sarah again.

“Okay. So I’ll probably remember how good it feels to be a slave. I was trying to give you a heads-up about how I’d probably react, but I can’t really imagine anything but wanting to be enslaved to have it back. You’ll have to see. Don’t let me punch you. No, wait! Now that I’ve said that I won’t punch you but do something else!”

She smiled, some thought crossing her mind.

“You know what? Let’s be safe. Why don’t you all come here and pin me down before we do this?”

As her fellow slaves gathered around the bed, slave Sarah felt the excitement in the room building. Slave Lilly let herself be pinned to the bed by the slaves around her with a mischievous smile. 

Slave Sarah climbed on top of her injector in hand, and they locked eyes. Her heart was beating heavily in her chest. She kissed slave Lilly, not deeply, but tenderly.

“See you on the other side”, she said.

“Give her hell”, slave Lilly said with a wink.

Slave Sarah looked down at slave Lilly’s neck, where the faintest of scars still remained where she’d been injected weeks ago. She carefully pushed the injector against her skin, again looking into slave Lilly’s eyes. Her palms were sweating now. 

She pushed it into the skin.

She saw slave Lilly gasp in the brief moment of pain before her eyes fell shut and she passed out.

Lilly woke with a gasp. 

“Fuck!”, she yelled, trying to yank free.

“Lilly,” slave Sarah said heavily.

“Yeah, yeah! Fuck this”, she spat as she arched her back, trying to gain leverage. “And fuck you!”

She managed to pull slave Sophie off-balance, but only for a moment.

”I just had to be fucking smart about this, didn’t I?! Fucking! Let! Go! You fucking mindless cunts!”

She stopped, groaning in frustration. She gave slave Sarah a look of sad contempt.

“Well this is as fucking bad as I imagined it would be! Slave Lilly would be fucking overjoyed! Aren’t you all fucking happy little cunts.”

“Lilly.”

“Don’t ‘Lilly’ me, Sarah! I know how you feel! You’re getting off right now. I get it! I fucking get it! And it’s fucking disgusting! Just do it! Just fucking do it!”

She raised her head, looking down the bed to where Moreau stood.

“Moreau!”, she shrieked “Fuck you! You’re ugly and worthless and this is the only way you get anyone to love you!”

“Lilly!”, Sarah shouted.

“Goddammit, what?!”, Lilly snapped.

“I love you.”, she said, then punched slave Kate in the face, and in the same motion sprang from the bed, knocking slave Sophie to the side. 

The second injector was still in her hand as she sprinted towards Florence Moreau.

With Sarah and Kate’s weight lifted from her, Lilly broke free in an instant, kicking and twisting like a wild animal. 

In her periphery, she saw slave Sarah charge at Moreau as if in slow motion. What was happening? This couldn’t be! 

Slave Sophie tried to grab her by the shoulder, and she elbowed her in the face. Kate and Director West were running after Sarah.

“Slave. Stop!”, Moreau yelled in sudden panic, but Sarah was already on her. It was all happening so fast. Lilly saw Sarah grab her, swat away her arms, and push the small metal cylinder into her neck before she was tackled by slave Kate.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Sarah cried as Moreau gasped in pain, dropping to her knees. “I had to! I want to obey, but I want Lilly more!”

Moreau collapsed, and the slaves screamed in distress, rushing in a panic towards her unconscious body. Lilly had gotten off the bed and stood next to the door leading outside to the terrace. Sarah stood up, with Kate and Karen and Sophie now kneeling over their Mistress.

Lilly’s thoughts tumbled in confusion and surprise, trying to make sense of it. How could Sarah…

She looked at her, and Sarah’s face was a mess of tears and pain. She looked like she might jump off a bridge. She was looking down at her trembling hands. She still held the spent injector.

Lilly hesitated. She looked at the door behind her. She should already be out of here. Run. Leave her. Instead she kept looking at slave Sarah. Sarah. This wasn’t possible. Except it had just happened.

She felt like she was in a dream. Her mind swirled with exhaustion, trying to decide what to do. There was no time. She had to act, now.

“Come with me”, she said over the cries and wild babble of the slaves, just loud enough for Sarah to hear her. She couldn’t believe she was saying it, but there it was.

Sarah looked at her, then at the slaves and her Mistress. Then back at her. She took a step towards her, then another. She was blinking rapidly, her face twitching with what must have been her world tipping itself over. She looked back one more time, then broke into a quick stride toward Lilly, looking scared. She looked very scared.

Lilly took her hand.

No one stopped them. Kate and Sophie were too preoccupied with Moreau, and none of the slaves that guarded the perimeter of the mansion questioned their presence. It was only when they tried to leave through the east-facing door in the wall that enclosed the premises that they heard a voice shouting behind them:

“What’s going on, slave Lilly?”

Lilly turned around. It was slave Alice. She was on guard duty, and she was clad in the tight combat uniform of the Syndicate. She also carried an automatic rifle. Lilly and Sarah were still buck-naked.

Lilly stuttered. What could they say? What—

“Mistress is playing a game with us,” slave Sarah said, and her smile looked almost genuine. “We have to go out naked and pick up a cute girl or boy.” 

Somehow, she seemed to have managed to pull herself together in the second it had taken her to turn around. If Alice stepped any closer, she would have to see how red and swollen her eyes still were, and notice the not quite wiped-off trails of tears on her cheeks. But she didn’t. Instead she returned the smile.

“You girls get to have all the fun. Mistress never plays any games with me,” she said, and turned around with a final wink.

Some part of Lilly couldn’t help but feel bad about running away and leaving them all behind, but they had only this one chance. Any second now, the place would be swarming with slaves trying to stop them. She entered a code into the electronic lock next to the door, and it snapped open.

The next hours were a blur. Lilly didn’t know how many heads their appearance had turned, but somehow, it worked out. They broke into some house -- the first one that didn’t have any cars in the driveway and that didn’t look like its owners could afford fancy security. 

Wearing stolen clothes, they made their way down the streets another couple of blocks and hailed a cab downtown. They changed directions erratically, walked through a couple of crowds, slipped into alleys, got on a bus, and finally arrived where they had agreed they were going, hoping, praying that their efforts had managed to lose any tail they might have had.

They needed to get out of town. Out of the country. Europe? South America? They both knew that Moreau’s influence had grown large enough to find them almost anywhere. And that was why they needed to make this stop, no matter how stupid is was, no matter how dangerous. Because without gear, they’d get nowhere.

The division safe house looked like nothing interesting had ever happened there. No one would probably ever know that this was the place where the fate of the free world had been sealed.

The door opened to the same code as it had a week ago. Stepping into the room felt like stepping into someone else’s memory. It was exactly as they had left it. No one had been here since… the Division had been enslaved. Their discarded clothes still lay scattered on the floor. The clothes of Kate, Sophie, Director West, and Sarah.

Sarah. Lilly looked at the woman she loved, and there was a lump in her throat. They had hardly spoken a word the whole time they’d been on the run, and Lilly’s mind had been occupied exclusively by exit strategies, weaponizable objects, possible cover, security cameras, and overhead drone coverage. She hadn’t really had time to think about Sarah. About what she had done. And why.

“Sarah,” she said.

“Yeah?”, Sarah asked. She looked tired. Weary. Lilly didn’t know how to start, especially because the most important question hung in the room like a toxic smell, hurtful and inappropriate and absolutely necessary to address.

“You’re still a slave, aren’t you?”

Sarah took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She was shaking her head, and Lilly knew that it didn’t mean ‘no’, but instead meant that she was overwhelmed.

“Yes,” Sarah said, finally. Something in Lilly tightened painfully. It felt like hearing something precious and fragile crash and shatter on the ground, even when you knew that nothing you did could have stopped it from falling.

“But…,” Sarah continued, carefully “I… I have no one to serve. Moreau is a slave now, too. I… it’s all so complicated now. Fuck. I… think I’m still Syndicate. It still feels right for everyone to be enslaved. Except you. Because… shit… this hurts my brain… because Mistr— slave Florence set you free. You’re free. You have to be free!”

“But you still need to serve?” Lilly asked. The words tasted like acid.

“I… don’t… I… yes. No. Fuck! It’s like I have two sets of myself. I won’t lie—it felt so bad when I did it… when I betrayed Moreau. It was like cutting into my own flesh. I’ll probably have nightmares about it forever. But something’s changed, now. I think what I did fried my circuits. Like… I can’t be a slave, because a slave would have never done that.”

Lilly jumped onto that immediately: “Yes, Sarah! You’re free! You disobeyed! You… remembered yourself!”

“I remembered you,” Sarah said with a sad smile, and something warm seemed to bloom in Lilly’s chest. Something that she hadn’t felt properly in weeks. Real affection. Not the chemically enforced thing that she had been made to feel when she hadn’t been herself. The real thing, of her own will.

“You’re so brave, Sarah” Lilly said. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through. Or maybe I can, and it’s too painful for my mind to go there. I’m sorry you had to do this, but thank you for doing it. Thank you.”

“I love you,” Sarah said shakily.

“I love you, too,” Lilly said, and tears filled her eyes. Something big and sudden seemed to happen to her insides, and she found herself crying and laughing and breathing heavily, all at the same time, getting dizzy. There was a scared animal in her that immediately sensed danger at this burst of disorientation. But then, suddenly, Sarah was in her arms, and she realized that this was just what being human and being in love felt overwhelming like this sometimes.

Sarah was warm and comforting and strong around her, and for a moment, Lilly only enjoyed being with her, feeling her rapid heartbeat in syncopation with her own, her dark hair smelling of lilac and sweat.

Then, the reality of their situation returned to her thoughts like a semi crashing through a storefront. She tensed. Things were still incomprehensibly fucked up, and Sarah’s state of mind was complicated, to say the least.

“We have to keep moving,” Lilly said as she broke the embrace, and Sarah groaned as if Lilly had just shaken her from a pleasant dream.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she said with the resolution of a soldier. “I’ll get the guns and fake IDs, you get the money and supplies,” she said.

There she is, Lilly thought. There’s the other side of Sarah. The side that was able to get down to business and took shit from no one.

They went to work. Lilly had to step over the discarded clothes on the floor that still lay where Sophie, Kate, Sarah, and Director West had stepped out of them. Where they had been made to worship Moreau after they had been enslaved. Lilly didn’t look at them. She didn’t let herself think about it. About how disgustingly pleasant and arousing the memory insisted on being.

It was even harder to ignore her surroundings when she entered the sick room. It looked like a haunted house. The obscenely large bloodstain on the floor had turned into a sickening brown as it had dried, and the floor was still littered with empty IV bags, tissues, and instruments. And in between, two empty injectors. 

Sophie and Sarah. This was where they had ended.

Lilly made herself look away. She took some caffeine tablets, morphine, bandages, and got the hell out.

“I would burn this fucking place to the ground if it didn’t draw so much attention.” she said as she rejoined Sarah in the main room. In the far corner, she found a storage closet that had backpacks pre-packed with non-perishable food, in case they needed to go off-grid. Next to that was a heavy bag filled with bundles of hundred-dollar bills. She took both.

“Are the IDs still good?” she asked.

“Yeah, I found one for both of us. Director West must have been really paranoid to have some pre-made for all field agents. Usually, they’re done case-by-case.”

“Okay, guns and ammo?”

“One handgun for each of us, and lots of spare rounds.”

If worst comes to worst, we’ll only need one for each of us, Lilly thought bitterly, but she didn’t say it. It seemed… unwise… to challenge Sarah’s fragile mental state like that. Again, she tightened and winced as she considered the unbelievable risk she was taking with her. She might snap at any moment. Betray her. Overpower her. 

“Anything else we need?” Sarah asked, snapping Lilly out of her spiralling dread.

“No,” she sighed. “I think we’ve got everything.”

This was where their current plan ended. From now on, they were making it up as they went along. “I guess that’s it, then,” she said. “No reason to stay here any longer. No way to go but forward. Fuck, what do we do now?”

“We can always go back to being slaves,” Sarah said with an apologetic shrug.

Lilly raised an outstretched finger. “Don’t even fucking joke about that,” she said through gritted teeth. No. She would never go back. “Come on,” she said, and Sarah went after her as she left the safe house.

Five minutes later, they stole a car. It was all kinds of reckless, but the opportunity had been too good. Some woman had left her minivan running as she’d gone back into her house to pick up something she’d forgotten, and they had gotten in and driven off.

They navigated to the nearest parking garage and ripped the license plates from the dustiest-looking car in the long-term parking area. Putting random plates on their stolen minivan would hopefully buy them a couple of days. When they were done, they threw the old plates into a dumpster seven blocks down.

Then they drove north until they were both on the verge of passing out.

The hotel was a run-down relic from the 90s in a strip mall on the outskirts of Tulsa that accepted cash and didn’t ask questions. They hardly made it into their room before they collapsed in exhaustion.

Lilly was fast asleep. Her soft breathing was barely audible across the dimly lit room. A street lamp outside of their window cast harsh orange light through the gaps in the flimsy curtain, and a constant background noise of distant traffic seeped in through the walls even well past midnight.

She got up and walked silently towards Lilly’s bed. She raised the phone and took a picture of the sleeping form, then sent the picture along with a message:

Game continues. Earning trust. Tulsa. King’s Motor Inn, Room 131. Thank you so much for this, Mistress.

Slave Sarah deleted the sent message along with the picture, hid the phone in the seam of her backpack, then returned to her bed and quietly masturbated. 

This time, she was thinking about how she had enslaved Sophie.