“We’ve got all the bases covered, girls,” said Susan Radson as she
 locked the front door to the house. “My parents are out of town, all
 your parents think we’re having a sleepover at my house, and its after
 ten, so no one’s going to be calling us for fear of waking us up.
 Aaaaand, it’s a Friday night, so no school to get up for early in the
 morning.”
Ann Went nodded and grinned. “Not that my parents are going to
 really care one way or the other,” she said. “I argue with them so much
 anymore that they’re glad to get me out of the house for awhile.”
Susan chuckled, and then looked over to the other girl standing
 next to her friend. “What about you, Melissa? Still think you’re okay
 to go through with this?”
Melissa Hendell glanced nervously from Susan to Ann and back again.
 Both were looking at her expectantly with small smiles on their faces,
 the kind that told her that she was at risk for being cruelly derided
 if she did not give them the correct answer. She was not simply
 nervous, she was terrified. “I think so,” she said tentatively. “I-I
 mean, if this is the only way …”
“It’s the only way,” Susan said firmly. “If you want to be part of
 the Circle.”
“Yeah, Melissa,” Ann said with a slight smirk. “Otherwise you can
 forget about trying some of that stuff we taught you, since we don’t
 let people do that outside of the Circle.”
Melissa nodded mutely. She hated being the new kid in town. This
 was not the first time it had happened, as her parents moved around a
 great deal in the last five years. Unfortunately, their penchant for
 moving came right at the time that she entered puberty, one of the most
 turbulent times in a girl’s life.
Melissa had trouble fitting in. She did not like many of the things
 other girls did, like dating, makeup, and popular music. Her tastes
 were far more eclectic than this. For these reasons, she rarely made
 friends, and her timidness made her the victim of much humiliation at
 the hands of her peers.
But things seemed to be different in Haven. Her family had moved
 there during the summer, and almost immediately she had met up with
 Susan, and later Ann, and something clicked. They seemed to accept her,
 though they occasionally sent some barbs her way that hurt at first,
 but when they kept it private and did not actively seek to embarrass
 her in public, she learned to accept it. Ann tended to be worse than
 Susan in this regard.
“So come on,” Susan said as she fished out her parents’ car keys.
 “Let’s get going.”
“Hey, I thought you just had a learner’s permit,” Ann said to Susan
 with a grin.
Susan waved a hand of dismissal. “Big deal. It’s not like there’s
 going to be a lot of traffic at this time of night. This is Haven,
 after all, where they roll up the sidewalks at night. So long as we
 drive slowly and don’t attract a cop’s attention, we’ll be fine.”
Melissa smiled weakly at Susan’s joke. She had spent most of her
 life in Denver. Living in small towns like Haven was new to her. It was
 still taking some getting used to.
They all piled into the car, Susan and Ann up front, Melissa in the
 back. She felt her anxiety as a knot in her stomach. Part of her
 questioned the wisdom of agreeing to do this. She tried to tell herself
 that Susan and Ann were her friends and that they would not let
 anything bad happen to her. If they said this initiation was required
 before she could become a full member of the Circle, then this is what
 she needed to do.
The Circle. Susan and Ann had let her in on this secret of theirs
 as they started the fall semester at high school. Melissa was a
 sophomore, not quite due to turn sixteen yet until after the start of
 the new year. Susan and Ann were seniors, which was why Melissa was so
 surprised that they actually wanted to associate with her. She was
 doubly surprised when they told her about the Circle.
Susan and Ann were pagans. Melissa had learned this early on. But
 what they had not told her until recently was that they were also
 witches. Or attempting to be. They had obtained several old books on
 magic and spells from some obscure publishers and were attempting to
 teach themselves the arcane arts. Melissa had been skeptical at first,
 until she was invited to one of their ceremonies. To her astonishment,
 Susan and Ann, wearing strange robes and jewelry and after much
 chanting over burning candles, conjured up several ghostly images in
 the center of a pentagram drawn in chalk on the floor of Susan’s
 basement.
That had convinced Melissa that whatever they were doing, it was
 real. And the more they told her about it, the more she wanted to be
 involved.
“These spells really work, Melissa,” Susan had confided in her at
 one point. “There’s spells that can make other people do what you want,
 without them even realizing that you’re pulling the strings.”
She proved her claim, too, or at least as far as Melissa could
 verify. Susan was enamored of a particular boy named Jim Haynes that
 was already going steady with another girl. She let Melissa watch as
 she went through the motions of casting a charm on him. Several hours
 later, as Melissa was leaving Susan’s house, who should arrive on the
 doorstep but Jim, claiming that he needed to get some class notes from
 Susan. Susan later claimed that she went over to his house with him on
 the pretext of offering to tutor him in the class he missed, only to
 wind up having sex.
“You can do things like that, too, Melissa,” Susan had said with a
 conspiratorial grin. “If you were in the Circle.”
This had been too tempting for Melissa to pass up. She had wanted
 more control over her life than she believed she had, and this seemed
 like the perfect way to go about gaining just that. She was not sure if
 she would use it to the same ends as Susan, however. She was interested
 in sex, there was no doubt about that. At fifteen, she had filled out
 very nicely, having inherited her mother’s large breasts, long legs,
 and honey-brown hair, and her father’s deep blue eyes. But she did not
 care for many of the boys she often found around her. She was attracted
 to them physically, but their personalities put her off. Worse, she had
 begun to suspect in the past year that she had bisexual tendencies. She
 felt an attraction for Susan, and a lesser one for Ann.
Melissa was desperate to be accepted into the Circle. She was
 desperate to feel like she belonged. So when she had informed Susan and
 Ann of this, they promptly told her that there would be an initiation
 first. It was not until a few days ago that they told her the details
 of the initiation. Though there were one or two details that Melissa
 still did not know even now.
Susan revealed one of them as they drove towards the outskirts of
 town. “Melissa, the ceremony will take place in the Gilded Forest just
 on top of the hill,” she said. “Hope that doesn’t spook you too much.”
Melissa shook her head. The name meant nothing to her. “Why should
 it?”
“Oh, she probably doesn’t know about it,” Ann said, turning her
 head towards Susan and grinning. “She’s new to town.”
“How much do you know about Haven’s history, Melissa?” Susan asked.
“Not very much.”
“Some years ago, there was some sort of pervert loose in the
 forest,” Ann explained. “They said he would kidnap girls from the town
 or from the campgrounds and fuck them while slowly strangling them.”
Melissa blanched, and her hand flew to her bosom, where a small
 pentacle hung from a chain under her blouse. She clutched at it through
 the fabric, popping two buttons open. Susan and Ann had given her the
 pendant soon after revealing the Circle to her, claiming it was a
 protective charm. Indeed, Melissa did feel a little more secure and
 confident when she wore it, though she had to keep it hidden from her
 parents.
“That was, like, ten years ago,” Susan said. “So not all that long
 ago, actually.”
“Did they catch the guy?” Melissa asked, eyes wide.
“Nope, never,” Ann said. “Though I haven’t heard of anything
 happening recently.”
“If there was anyone there, he probably moved on when they started
 hunting for him,” Susan said. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Just makes a
 great tale to tell people. Kind of like the hook on the car door handle
 or the guy in the back seat.”
“But those are urban legends,” Melissa pointed out. “They’re not
 true.”
Susan just shrugged. “Maybe this one is too, I don’t know.”
“Oh, no,” Ann said, shaking her head. “My Mom told me that she knew
 a friend who’s cousin died because of him.”
Melissa opened her mouth to point out that that was the mark of an
 urban legend, that it always happened to a friend’s relative, or a
 relative’s friend, or any number of combinations of indirection. She
 decided to remain quiet, knowing that Ann could be a real bear when
 someone disagreed with her. Melissa did not want to do anything to
 jeopardize her acceptance.
It was also possible, she admitted, that Ann was purposely trying
 to scare her. Ann did things like that, though she claimed that she was
 simply testing Melissa and “keeping her on her toes”. “Magic is not
 something you fool around with unless you know what you’re doing and
 you keep your head about you,” Ann had told her once after Melissa had
 admitted that something Ann had said to her had not gone over very
 well.
“We’re almost there, girls,” Susan said. “Melissa, you’ll have one
 last chance to back out of this.”
Melissa nodded without a sound. She saw the trees loom up on either
 side of them, dark, shadowy monoliths barely visible, outlined against
 a moonless sky. Her heart started to pound and she shivered slightly.
Susan took them off the main road and down a graveled path. She
 took them past a sign that clearly stated that the picnic areas were
 closed at dusk, though there was no gate across the road. Melissa tried
 to peer between Susan and Ann to see what was up ahead. She looked up
 in time to see Susan flip on the brights and a split-second later lean
 heavily on the brake as a deer appeared in the headlight beams.
Susan clicked her tongue as the deer stood staring at them. She
 flipped her lights completely off and tapped the horn, then flipped the
 lights back on. The deer had vanished.
“Damn things get dazzled by the headlights,” Susan explained. “But
 the sound they understand.”
Susan went a short distance further and pulled over to the side of
 the road, killing both the engine and the headlights, plunging them all
 into darkness. Melissa heard someone open the glove compartment, then
 there was a click as a flashlight was turned on.
“Okay, Melissa,” Susan said, turning around in her seat. “This is
 your last chance to back out. You give the word, we’ll take you back to
 town.”
“But you can’t be in the Circle,” Ann said. “And we can’t be
 friends with you anymore. It wouldn’t work.”
Melissa took a deep breath. Her heart was hammering in her chest,
 and she was scared, but she was more frightened of being bereft of
 friendship and missing an opportunity to belong. “I want to go through
 with it,” she said in a shaky voice. “Please.”
Susan and Ann exchanged glances. “Okay, Melissa, we’ll do it,”
 Susan said. She took the flashlight from Ann’s hand. “Let’s go.”
The air felt a lot more chilly up on the hill than it had in town.
 It made the skin along Melissa’s bare arms prickle. A breeze blew up,
 rustling the leaves in the trees, and sending a shiver through
 Melissa’s body. “It’s colder than I thought it would be,” she commented
 forlornly.
“It won’t get really frigid tonight,” Susan said as she stepped up
 to Melissa. “It’s too early in the season.”
Ann came around the back of the car and stood on the other side of
 Melissa. “Did you wear what we told you to?” she demanded.
Melissa nodded. “I have it on already under my clothes.” She
 swallowed and looked around nervously, though there was little to be
 seen past the small circle of light that Susan shone on the ground from
 her flashlight. “A-are you sure there won’t be anyone else around
 here?”
“Except maybe that strangling pervert,” Ann said with a grin.
“Shush, you,” Susan said, though she was smiling herself. “Don’t
 make Melissa any more nervous than she already is.”
“I don’t think that’s possible, actually,” Melissa said, her
 anxiety so great that she felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. She
 quickly blinked them away before anyone could notice.
“No, there’s no one else up here but us,” Susan said gently.
 “You’ll be all alone until we come get you in the morning.”
The prospect of being alone was almost as bad as not being alone,
 but Melissa accepted it and simply nodded.
“Let’s get the stuff out the trunk, Susan,” Ann said jerking her
 thumb behind her.
“Melissa, you get your jeans and blouse off while Ann and I get
 ready,” Susan told her, then she and Ann went around to the back of the
 car.
Melissa took a deep breath to try to calm herself as she reached up
 to undo the remaining buttons on her blouse. Her hands trembled so
 badly that this simple act seemed to take her forever to do. As she
 reached the last button, she glanced over to Susan and Ann, who stood
 before the open trunk of the car. They were each slipping into their
 witches’ robes of dark blue. She swallowed and pulled her blouse open,
 revealing a lacy black bra one size too small for her. She had had
 trouble finding a full-figured bra size of this style and had to make
 do, which had the effect of squeezed her breasts against her body until
 it look as though they would spill over the tops of the cups.
A thin chain ran from around her neck to between her mounds. She
 tugged on the chain and plucked the pentacle from where it had been
 trapped between them.
Melissa shed her blouse and put it on top of the car. She then
 undid the button and zipper of her jeans and slid them down her legs.
 She felt the cold air bite at her as more of her bare skin was
 revealed, and she visibly shivered. At the same time, the cool air had
 a mildly stimulating effect on her. Combined with the excitement over
 what was about to happen to her, it had actually aroused her somewhat.
 She was now at least glad that her panties were black as well. This was
 the only think she liked about them, however. They were very tight,
 hugging her crotch such that the fabric threatened to be drawn into her
 slot if she moved the wrong way. They were also very skimpy, leaving
 much of her buttocks bare. In her efforts to get her sneakers through
 the pant legs, she accidentally backed into the car and gave a small
 yelp at the feel of the cold metal against her rear end.
She finally got her jeans off and put them aside as well. She
 reached down and tugged the top hem of each of her black fishnet
 stockings to smooth them out. One garter had become undone. She
 stretched it down and pulled up more on the stocking until she could
 get the two of them connected again.
Susan came up to her. In addition to her robes, she had a coil of
 rope draped over a shoulder and several large pieces of foam rubber
 rolled up under one arm. “You ready, Melissa?” she asked.
Melissa nodded, then realized that it was dark enough even with the
 flashlight that she might not have been seen. “I think so,” she said.
“Nervous?” Susan said with a grin.
Melissa swallowed. She wrapped her arms around her, chafed her
 hands up and down her arms. “And c-cold.”
Ann came over and grabbed Melissa’s clothes. “I’ll put these in the
 trunk.” She stopped, and stared at Melissa. “Hey, Susan, shine your
 flashlight on her.”
Susan lifted the beam of light and drew it slowly up Melissa’s
 body. She squinted and averted her eyes when the beam struck her in the
 face. Susan lowered the beam back down.
“Hey, Melissa, nice bod,” Ann said with a grin. “I mean that. I
 don’t know why you go around in such unflattering clothes all the
 time.”
Melissa blushed crimson but smiled weakly. She was indeed rather
 attractive. In addition to her ample breasts and long legs, she had a
 slim waist and gracefully curving hips. Her buttocks were tight and
 firm. She knew on some level that she was pretty, but she had trouble
 bringing herself to show it off a little. Plus she liked to wear things
 that were comfortable, and many of the things other women wore to show
 themselves off looked uncomfortable.
“Do you have the shoes, Ann?” Susan asked.
“No, I’ll get them, and the tape.” Ann rushed off to the trunk of
 the car again.
Melissa looked confused. “Shoes?” she asked.
Susan smiled wanly. “Um, something we didn’t tell you about, sorry.
 We want to make sure that you don’t decide to chicken out at the last
 minute and try to run away from us.”
“I won’t do that,” Melissa protested.
“I know you probably won’t, but we really have to make sure. It’s
 … it’s important for the ceremony.”
Melissa hesitated a moment, then said tentatively. “Okay.”
Ann returned carrying a pair of black shoes which she held up for
 Melissa to see, grinning widely. They were angled very steeply, the
 heel at least four inches high if not more, though the heel was thick
 and had a flat base.
“I … I can’t wear those,” Melissa said, stricken. “I’ve never
 worn high heels before.”
“Well, that’s sort of the idea,” Ann said. “Anyway, this thing is a
 little easier than most, see?” She tapped a finger against the base of
 the heel.
The two girls crouched down at Melissa’s feet. They helped her off
 with each of her sneakers and eased her feet into the shoes. Melissa
 winced as she felt her toes pinch together near the front of the shoes
 as she put her weight on them. Despite the wider heel, she still felt
 like she was about to tip over. She looked down at herself, and
 discovered that the shoes made her legs look even longer than they were
 before.
Susan shone a light on her legs and smiled. “Too bad you don’t wear
 them, Melissa,” she said. “They look good on you.”
Melissa heard a noise to the side and turned her head. Ann was
 tearing off a piece of tape from a roll of duct tape. “Just to make
 sure you can’t slip them off,” Ann said. She wrapped the tape around
 the top of Melissa’s foot and the bottom of the shoe between the toe
 and heel. She wrapped a few more pieces in layers before doing the same
 to the other foot.
Melissa took another deep breath, though it did her little good. In
 these shoes she was as good as helpless, as she could not take more
 than a few steps quickly without falling over. She was definitely past
 the point of no return.
Ann slipped the tape into a large pocket of her robe. She reached
 into the trunk and retrieved four large metal stakes and a mallet
 before closing the trunk. “I think we got everything,” Ann said.
Susan and Ann took position on either side of Melissa. Each took
 one of her hands firmly. “I … I’m ready,” Melissa said.
Susan smiled at her. “Better be, since this is it. No turning back
 now.”
“That’s right,” Ann said. “Not even if you wanted to. Come along
 now.”
The two of them led her around the front of the car. Melissa had a
 great deal of trouble keeping her feet moving straight on the gravel,
 even with guidance from either side of her. They moved a little too
 fast for her, and she stumbled, saved from a fall only by virtue of the
 fact that both her hands were being held tightly. When the left the
 road and started down a path of packed earth, it was a little easier,
 though there were still plenty of rocks and holes to trip her up. The
 flashlight that Susan held danced crazily before them, as she held it
 with the same arm that was holding the foam rubber sheets.
Melissa started to get the hang of walking on high heels, though
 they still pinched her toes painfully. The shoes felt tight around her
 feet, so it may have been simply that the shoes were not the right size
 for her. The path curved sharply one way and then the other, which
 meant that she would not be visible from the road. Assuming nothing
 went wrong until they came for her in the morning, this suited her
 fine. The last thing she needed was someone finding her here.
They finally came upon a small clearing surrounded by trees on all
 sides. Melissa glanced up and could see a patch of sky against the
 dark, spire-like shapes of the pines, where hundreds of stars twinkled.
 The setting was so peaceful and lovely that she was able to relax for a
 moment and forget her predicament. It was short lived, for the next
 moment the trees rustled as a wind blew through the forest, chilling
 her to the bone as it touched her bare skin. The thin, porous material
 of her undergarments did little to insulate her.
“Right here,” Susan said, and she and Ann stopped walking. She
 turned to Melissa and asked, “Think you can stand by yourself?”
Melissa adjusted her stance, moving one foot a little further from
 the other. “Um, I think so.”
Susan slowly let go of her hand, Ann following more quickly.
 Melissa paused a moment and then nodded.
“Okay, now you stay right there. Don’t try to go wandering off.”
“We mean that, Melissa,”Ann said, her expression dead serious. “We
 won’t go chasing after you, you’ll just have to get back to town
 yourself in your underwear.”
“I-I won’t move,” Melissa said sheepishly.
“Good girl,” Ann said.
Susan and Ann left her, walking a short distance to roughly the
 center of the clearing, where a picnic table stood. They conferred for
 a moment and put down what they were carrying, including the flashlight
 so they could pick up the table and move it to the edge of the trees.
 With that out of the way, they set about preparing for Melissa’s
 initiation.
Susan unrolled the pieces of foam rubber on the ground, using rocks
 to prevent the wind from moving them. She pointed, tracing a rough
 rectangle around the the spot, Ann nodding as she took the first of the
 stakes and the mallet in her hand. She then walked to a point a few
 feet from the foam rubber, to one of the corners of the rectangle. She
 knelt on the ground and began to pound the stake into the dirt. It
 sounded very loud to Melissa, echoing slightly among the trees.
Melissa’s heart began pounding again as she watched the
 preparations unfold. When Ann had finished driving the stake, leaving
 about six inches above the ground angled away from the mat, Susan came
 over and tied the end of the rope to it. She lowed the rope to near
 ground level and tugged on it hard several times, and nodded when the
 stake held. She measured off a length of the rope back to the mat and
 cut it with a switch blade knife she had had in her pocket.
They repeated this for each of the three other corners, first
 placing the stake, then tying a length of rope to it. Her eyes fully
 adjusted now to the darkness, Melissa could start to see the setup as a
 whole rather than just the pieces upon which Susan’s flashlight shone.
 Part of her wondered why she had let herself be talked into this.
Susan and Ann approached her. “It’s all set up, now, Melissa,”
 Susan said. “Come along.”
Melissa took another deep breath as Susan grasped her hand and
 pulled her towards the center of the clearing. Ann took her other arm
 as she grew closer, their grip on her a lot more firm than it had been
 before, as if they wanted to take no chance of her escaping. They
 helped her down onto the foam rubber mats such that she was lying on
 her back along its length, looking up at the stars.
“Put your arms above your head, Melissa,” Susan said. “Spread them
 and your legs.”
Melissa complied, fashioning herself into an “X” shape. Her anxiety
 began to turn to fear as she felt Susan pull an arm straight and begin
 wrapping the loose end of the rope about her wrist. Ann did the same
 with one of her ankles, forcing her to spread her legs as wide as she
 could, until she could feel the tendons in her groin and thigh stretch.
 Somewhere in the distance an owl hooted and made her flinch, nearly
 pulling her foot from Ann’s grip as she prepared to finish tying down
 her legs.
“Hold still!” Ann said crossly.
“S-sorry,” Melissa said. “The owl startled me.”
“Fraidycat,” Ann muttered as she tied the rope tightly around
 Melissa’s ankle.
Susan finished with Melissa’s remaining wrist, and she and Ann
 stood up and came around one side of Melissa. Susan shined her light
 down on Melissa, starting from one end and slowly moving it to the
 other. Melissa had been thoroughly staked down, her arms and legs
 spread and stretched. The two of them smiled at their handiwork. “Can
 you move?” Susan asked.
Melissa tried to pull at the ropes. There was no slack on them at
 all. She could not even move her limbs from side to side on the ground.
 “N-no, I can’t,” she said. She felt tears threaten to well up in her
 eyes again, but blinked them away. She sniffled once, and tried to
 cover it by clearing her throat. She tried desperately to ignore the
 fact that she never felt so vulnerable and helpless in her life.
She felt something slide off one breast and a light tug at her
 neck. Her pendant was dangling off to the side near her armpit.
Ann spotted the glint that the pendant made in the light of the
 flashlight beam and crouched near Melissa’s head. She reached down and
 picked up the pendant in her fingers. “I don’t remember us telling you
 that you could wear this.”
“But I always wear it, ever since you two gave it to me,” Melissa
 cried in a pleading voice.
“Melissa, I told you what to wear to this, and that’s all I wanted
 you to wear,” Susan said reproachfully.
Ann grasped the chain and shifted it around Melissa’s neck until
 she found the clasp. “Here, I’ll just take care of this.”
“No, please!” Melissa nearly screamed. “Don’t take it off! Leave me
 that!”
The thought of removing the pendant terrified Melissa far more than
 her predicament itself. She was not sure why this was so. Perhaps she
 felt that the protective charm would help prevent anything bad from
 happening to her until morning. Or it was simply something to provide
 her with a little emotional solace as she lay there through the night.
 Whatever the reason, its absence would turn her into an emotional and
 perhaps a mental wreck as well long before her initiation could be
 completed.
“Oh, stop being a baby, Melissa,” Ann snapped and started to undo
 the clasp.
“No, wait, leave it be,” Susan said.
Ann looked up at Susan and frowned. “Why?”
“It’s not really all that important. Here, just move it off to the
 side so it won’t interfere with the ceremony.”
Ann sighed and gave Susan a dirty look, but turned it to an
 ingratiating smile when she looked back at Melissa. “Fine, you can keep
 it,” she said. She moved the pentacle such that it rested on the ground
 beside Melissa’s neck.
Melissa swallowed and let out a rattling sigh, a few tears
 trickling down her face. “Th-thank you.”
Ann stood and frowned at Susan again, petulantly mouthing the
 words, “Why did you do that?” Susan made a face and raised a hand
 briefly, mouthing back, “Later.”
“We will now begin,” said Susan.
She stepped over to a point between Melissa’s splayed legs. She
 placed the flashlight on the ground carefully, aiming its beam directly
 at Melissa’s crotch. In moving Melissa into position on the mat, her
 panties had been tugged into her slot, a deep indentation down the
 center of the material. Enough of it had been pulled away from her
 thighs that a few tufts of pubic hair were visible. A breeze blew on
 Melissa, and tickled the hairs. Melissa bit her lip and squirmed in
 embarrassment, both for the fact that they could see her partially
 exposed, and the fact that the breath of air on her hairs felt mildly
 arousing.
Susan stood straight and extended her arms. She looked skyward. Ann
 knelt on the ground at Melissa’s waist and withdrew a long feather from
 her pocket.
“We are here to bring a new member to our Circle,” Susan intoned.
 “We present her to the goddess in hopes that she will be found worthy.”
Melissa’s breathing steadied. Hearing the actual words of the
 ceremony formally spoken in such reverent tones made her feel better
 about it. Until that point, she was starting to have her doubts about
 the whole thing, as none of what they were doing to her seemed to make
 sense to her in this context.
After a pause, Susan continued. “We have prepared our young
 initiate, Melissa, rendering her helpless before you, so that you may
 accept her as she is. She has been laid bare before you, so that you
 may touch her with your power and your grace.”
At that moment, Ann started to lightly stroke the feather along the
 inside of one of Melissa’s legs. Melissa drew in a short gasp, her body
 trembling at the extraordinary soft and sensuous touch of the feather.
 She bit her lip to suppress a moan as the feather was drawn up along
 the inside of one thigh and then down the other, and then back again.
 She felt a tingling in her sex as Ann’s touch aroused her.
“Your touch will be as light and gentle as this symbolic feather,”
 Susan continued. “It will bring the wisdom that she needs to use her
 power wisely.”
Ann drew the feather up Melissa’s abdomen and across her breasts.
 Even though the fabric of the bra Melissa felt the feather’s touch, and
 was unable to suppress a soft moan. Ann paused for just a moment,
 smiled to herself, and continued to ply the feather around Melissa’s
 body, touching her arms and face before bringing it back down to her
 legs, where she very lightly played about Melissa’s panties.
Melissa was fully sexually aroused now. She could feel the dampness
 in her pussy when the breeze blew on her. Her skin tingled and she felt
 flushed despite the chill in the air. /Oh, no, was this supposed to
 happen?/ she thought, wishing she felt brave enough to ask.
“But to judge her worthy, goddess, you must see her as she is,
 naked before you,” Susan said.
Melissa’s eyes widened at the word “naked”, and hoped that Susan
 had meant that symbolically. This hope was dashed when Ann put the
 feather away and took out the switchblade. Melissa whimpered and
 shuddered when she felt the blade slid carefully between her breasts,
 the sharp edge upward. Ann raised the knife and gently sawed through
 the black material. After only a few seconds the remaining threads
 snapped and Melissa’s breasts came spilling out over her chest. The
 nipples were raised and erect, the skin around them taut. The cool air
 blowing across them made her shiver with desire as much as with the
 cold.
/They didn’t tell me about this!/ she thought desperately.
Ann pulled the remainder of the garment from Melissa’s body and
 tossed it unceremoniously to the side. She proceeded to slide the knife
 blade under the band holding the panties in place, feeling Melissa
 shudder under her touch. Tears began to flow freely from Melissa’s eyes
 as the band snapped, first around one leg and then the other, exposing
 Melissa’s moist sex to the flashlight beam, shining on it like a
 spotlight.
Ann noticed Melissa’s state of arousal, and a positively wicked
 smile came upon her face.
“We leave her now,” Susan said, lowering her arms. “We leave her to
 the trusted care of the goddess.”
“Oh, but you forgot one last part of the ceremony, Susan,” Ann
 said, grinning up at her friend.
Susan looked nonplussed for a moment, until she caught sight of
 Ann’s unobtrusive gesture towards Melissa’s exposed pussy. She smiled
 slightly, though there was a hint of unease to it. “Um, yes,” she said.
 “Be so kind as to do the honors yourself, Ann.”
“With pleasure.”
Ann took the remains of Melissa’s panties and began rubbing them
 against Melissa’s slot. Melissa gasped and her muscles tensed, pulling
 uselessly at the ropes that bound her to the ground. She moaned loudly
 and then cried out, “Wh-what … what a-are you doing??”
“Be quiet until the end of the ceremony, Melissa,” Ann said. “If
 you want it to go right.”
“Ohhhh …” Melissa moaned piteously. She was so slick with
 lubrication that even the rough surface of the outside of her panties
 could stimulate her without chafing her. But just as she started to
 rise, Ann withdrew the panties from her slot, leaving Melissa engorged
 and sexually frustrated, as well as embarrassed beyond belief. Yet it
 was nothing compared to what Ann did to her next.
Ann appeared at Melissa’s head, holding the wadded-up panties in
 one hand. With the other she reached down and pinched Melissa’s cheeks,
 forcing her mouth open. “Open wide!” Ann said, stuffing the panties
 into Melissa’s mouth. Melissa’s eyes went wide and she screamed through
 her nose, trying to force the panties from her mouth with her tongue.
 Ann stuffed them completely inside and snatched the roll of duct tape
 from her robe. She tore off a piece, pushed Melissa’s mouth closed and
 sealed it across her lips.
Melissa was crying. Everything had gone disastrously wrong.
“It’s okay, Melissa,” Susan said soothingly and with some haste.
 “It’s okay. This is part the ceremony. We … ” She glanced at Ann, who
 smiled smugly at her. “We simply had some, um, disagreement over
 whether to include it.”
So desperate was Melissa still for acceptance that she looked up at
 Susan with a hopeful expression in her eyes.
“You’re, um, sexuality is tied to your magic power,” Susan said.
 “And accepting your own sexuality it sometimes not an easy thing to do,
 so this is symbolic of that.”
Melissa’s tears had stopped. It sounded almost plausible to her.
“Yeah, that’s right, Melissa,” Ann said. “Sorry we didn’t warn you
 about it.”
“Everything is okay,” Susan said, smiling easily. “This is just …
 a modern variation on the original ceremony.”
Melissa wanted to believe this. But the taste of her own sex and
 the musky odor that rose into her nostrils each time she exhaled made
 it difficult for her to concentrate. While part of her was disgusted at
 this turn of events, another part of her thought it was extremely
 erotic, and it was this part that kept her in such a heightened state
 of arousal that it ached.
Ann stood up. “We better be getting back,” she said.
Susan nodded. She picked up the flashlight. “Melissa, we’re going
 to leave you now,” she said. “We’ll return for you shortly after dawn,
 and then you’ll be a full-fledged member of the Circle.”
Melissa took a deep breath through her nose, her anxiety at the
 prospect of being left along returning. Nevertheless she snuffled back
 fresh tears and nodded.
Susan and Ann smiled at her one last time. They picked up the
 remaining rope and the remains of Melissa’s bra and left the clearing.
 Melissa listened to their footfalls as they went away, growing fainter
 and fainter until she could no longer hear them. A few moments later,
 there was the sound of a car engine starting, the crunch of tires
 across gravel, and then nothing but the wind and her own labored
 breathing.
She was totally alone, helpless and naked in a forest under the
 open sky.
She began to cry.
Susan and Ann remained absolutely silent until Susan had turned the
 car around and was heading back to the main road. Then the two of them
 looked at each other, and burst out into hysterical laughter.
“Ohmigod,” Ann cried. “I was sure I was going to lose it a few
 times.”
“You! I was the one coming up with that song and dance number on
 the spur of the moment.”
“Oh, Susan, you were wonderful!” Ann exclaimed. “And the bit with
 you opening your arms and looking up, oh that was great. I
 half-expected a shaft of light from heaven to shine on you.”
“Well, not all of that was made up, you know,” Susan said more
 seriously. “I mean, I was raised pagan after all.”
“Yeah, but you don’t believe half that stuff, do you, really?”
Susan just shrugged. She smiled. “But it sure comes in handy for
 times like this.”
The two of them went off in peals of renewed laughter. “Okay,
 okay,” Ann said, grinning hugely. “Now you have to agree with me:
 Melissa must go down as the most gullible little cunt in all of
 history.”
“Jeez, she fell for the whole thing, didn’t she?”
“That bit you arrange with Jim was sweet,” Ann said. “You had her
 convinced you really did lay a hex on him. Oh, man, I’m glad his
 girlfriend was such a peach about it. She even pretended to be angry
 with Jim as if he’d really had sex with you.”
Susan gave Ann a smug little smile.
Ann’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. “You /didn’t!/”
“Let’s just say that Melissa is not the only gullible one,” Susan
 said. “And believe me, I did not have to use a spell on Jim to get him
 to get into bed with me.”
“Does Linda know?”
“No, she doesn’t. Let’s keep it that way.”
“Oh, you bet. And Melissa will believe us, so there’s no worry
 there.”
Susan sighed. “Yeah, but we almost lost it when you pulled that
 little stunt of yours with her panties. What the hell was that all
 about?”
Ann shrugged. “Spur of the moment. Can you believe that that little
 slut was actually getting off on it? I had intended that feather to
 tickle her senseless and it just made her horny. Thanks for covering
 for me, by the way.”
“You’re lucky I can think fast.”
“So what’s next, then?” Ann asked.
“Oh, we fetch her in the morning,” Susan said. “Like we said. We
 have to, else if we’re get up there too late, someone else will find
 her and we’ll be in deep shit.”
“Yeah, I figured that out,” Ann said. “But what about after that?”
“We accept her as a member of the Circle,” Susan said. “Then we
 figure out some excuse later to kick her out. Maybe she’ll displease
 the goddess somehow.”
Ann grinned. After a few moments her grin faded. “Say, Susan, why’d
 you leave her the pendant? I think maybe one of the reasons I did the
 thing with the panties was because I was mad at you for that.”
Susan paused a moment. “I’m not sure, actually,” she said. “I don’t
 know, maybe … maybe I just wanted to be a little nice.”
Ann made a face. “Why? It’s not like she really matters.”
“I guess I just thought that taking the pendant might be taking it
 too far,” Susan said. “Plus she thinks it really protects her, so maybe
 it will.”
Ann frowned. “You don’t think she’s, like, in danger up there.”
“Probably not. No one goes up there at this hour.” She smirked at
 Ann. “Unless you really believe in that sex strangler character.”
“I’m telling you, he was real,” Ann insisted. “I mean, he’s not
 there now, but he was in the past.”
“I think it was as real as the bloody hook story, if you ask me.”
Ann folded her arms and pouted. “And who says that one is not real
 too?”
Susan sighed, rolled her eyes, and promptly dropped the subject.
It was not very long before Melissa stopped crying. Partly this was
 because she finally realized that no amount of histrionics was going to
 change the situation she was in, and partly due to the fact that she
 was sliding into a depression that was far beyond the ability of mere
 tears to express.
It was slowly dawning on her that she had been a complete and utter
 fool. This could not possibly be any initiation. It was simply an
 excuse to humiliate her. She was surprised that someone else had not
 already shown up to take advantage of her sexually, or worse, take
 pictures of her to show the rest of the school or her parents. Yes, she
 considered public humiliation to be worse than rape. For all of her
 crying and all of her despair had failed to douse the flames of desire
 that still burned inside her, ignited by a combination of her initial
 excitement and the touch of that damnable feather Ann used on her.
 Melissa had no idea she would respond to that kind of a touch in that
 manner.
Melissa was willing to accept the possibility of sexual release in
 exchange for her virtue if it meant that her experience would be kept
 quiet.
The night air had grown even colder, and she was shivering
 constantly now. If it were not for the tape over her mouth, her teeth
 would be chattering. Even in the darkness she could see her breath as
 it briefly fogged her view of the stars overhead with each exhalation.
 Melissa wished she knew why she was still aroused, why her pussy still
 felt hot and engorged, why her nipples tingled with each breeze that
 blew across them. First her so-called friends had betrayed her and now
 her own body did as well.
Melissa tried to stretch her neck and turn her head to see the
 stakes that held her arms in place, but her hair blocked her vision.
 She clenched one of her hands into a fist and tried to pull at the rope
 that held that arm in place, then stopped. She repeated this several
 times, hoping to work the stake loose, but after keeping at this for
 several minutes, there was still no slack on the rope. She sighed and
 attempted the same with one leg, again to no avail.
Melissa wished Ann had placed the pentacle from her pendant back on
 her chest. She hated not being able to feel it against her flesh.
 Occasionally she shifted her head and shoulders just so she could still
 feel the chain around her neck and convince herself that it was really
 still there.
A realization that Melissa had come to while she lay there was that
 the forest was anything but silent at night. The trees rustled in the
 slightest breeze. Insects buzzed and clicked in the thick grasses.
 Occasionally some nocturnal critter scampered through the underbrush.
 The first time this last one had happened, Melissa gasped and her heart
 raced, as she was sure that it was someone about to walk into the
 clearing.
After this had happened several times, Melissa grew inured to it,
 no longer reacting to the brief crackle of twigs and rustle of
 underbrush. Thus she was not alerted when she heard a similar sound
 somewhere behind her head, a single soft crunching sound of something
 pressing down onto the sand and brush that littered the floor of the
 forest beyond the clearing.
Yet in the moment that passed after this sound, Melissa became
 slowly aware that something was quite wrong. The other sounds of the
 forest, save for the wind, had ominously fallen silent. Then even the
 breeze died, leaving her in a silence so complete that she could hear
 her own heartbeat.
Melissa became aware of a presence. The feeling that she was not
 alone crept over her and made her skin crawl. She shuddered and
 whimpered, wishing she could at least call out and ask if there was
 someone there. Worse, she was sure that whoever it was now watched her
 intently, taking in every detail of her naked form.
Finally Melissa heard the sound of someone taking a step onto the
 hard, dry ground of the clearing. Then another. They grew closer with
 each step.
Melissa was terrified beyond any ability to think rationally. She
 pulled desperately at her bonds, ignoring the pains that shot through
 her tendons. She only knew she had to get away, before whoever it was
 could harm her. But when the steps had approached close enough to her
 for her to see her would-be assailant, she stopped struggling and
 looked up with widening eyes mixed with fear and fascination.
Looming over her, standing not two feet from her torso, was a dark
 figure. It was clad in slightly ragged gray cloak and hood. But these
 were the only identifiable features on the figure, for under the cloak
 and hood was nothing but utter darkness. It was not simply the darkness
 of the night, but a blackness so inky that it was like a hole torn in
 reality. It was as if the figure were there, but also not there.
The figure leaned forward. A tendril of the darkness in the shape
 of a human arm emerged. The hand splayed its fingers and hovered over
 Melissa. She saw it silhouetted against the stars above her. Despite
 the fact that the hand was several feet in the air above her, she
 shrank back from it in terror, as if trying to sink herself into the
 earth to get away from it.
The hand was withdrawn. There was the sound of shifting dirt and
 sand as the figure’s leg-shaped appendages lowered it to its knees.
 Melissa heard something like a deep, guttural groan from the
 featureless face of the figure and shuddered. Its head appeared to
 turn, as if shifting its gaze over to her feet and drawing it very
 slowly up her body and back up to her face. Melissa thought she could
 actually feel the specter’s gaze on her, like ice just barely touching
 her skin.
The figure’s hand reappeared. It reached for her face.
Melissa lost what remained of her rationality and screamed against
 her gag and through her nose. Yet instead of snuffing out her life as
 she had expected, the fingers of the hand grasped an edge of the tape
 sealing her lips and slowly peeled it off.
Melissa stopped screaming and dared to open her eyes. The hand
 still appeared in form only, with no discernible details, as
 featureless as a bottomless pit. Where the tips of its fingers touched
 her skin, it was like being brushed with the smoothest satin, not at
 all unpleasant. The hand finished peeling the tape from her face and
 let it drop to the dirt alongside her neck. It then hovered over her
 mouth, as if expectant.
It took Melissa a moment for her to pull her mind back from her
 terror and panic and realize what he was waiting for. She opened her
 mouth. The figure’s fingers reached inside and pulled out the wadded
 panties, dropping them to the side as well.
“Th-thank you,” Melissa said in a slightly slurred voice, her jaw
 muscles having trouble responding from the combination of being
 stretched and the cold. “Wh-ho are you?”
But the figure did not respond to her. She heard only another
 guttural groan, this one more urgent in tone then the previous.
“P-please, you’re frightening me,” Melissa pleaded.
The figure’s hand was still hovering before her face. The fingers
 clenched briefly, then unfolded again. It moved slowly over her torso
 and lowered itself over one of her breasts.
“N-no, please …” Melissa begged. “D-don’t hurt me …”
But when the figure’s hand cupped itself over her breast, Melissa
 gasped, and felt anything but hurt.
Like it had against her face, the hand was silky-smooth against the
 skin of her breast. It slid over her mound as if oiled, the fingers
 reaching around and squeezing the firm flesh, sending a shiver through
 Melissa that was not at all related to the cold. The fingers probed her
 breast everywhere, finally finding her nipple and caressing it until it
 grew even more erect than it had been before. It then touched the very
 tip of the nipple, her most sensitive spot, and teased it with its
 fingertips.
Melissa moaned as these ministrations excited her almost as
 powerfully as she had been frightened by the appearance of the figure.
 Her body now begged for sexual release more than ever, her want so
 great that her pussy ached with unrelieved arousal. Had she not already
 been in a heightened state of arousal, she might not have responded as
 strongly, but she was not sure of that. So soft was his touch and so
 expert was his stimulation of her that he might very well have been
 able to arouse her fully from scratch.
The figure’s hand moved to her other breast and began fondling it
 in the same manner. A second arm emerged from under the cloak, its hand
 resting on the first breast, so that it now stimulated both of them at
 once.
“Oh my God … ” Melissa cried softly. “P-Please … please don’t
 stop.”
The figure turned its head abruptly towards her face, and now she
 could see two tiny, burning red points of light under the hood. She
 gasped and bit her lip to suppress a scream, and for a moment she could
 not feel the sensuous massage of her breasts.
And then Melissa heard something. It was like a ragged, hoarse
 whisper. Yet it did not come through the wind so much as it was the
 wind, shaped into sound for her to hear. /You wish me to continue?/ the
 voice said. /You wish me to give you pleasure?/
Melissa swallowed and hesitated. Was she getting herself into
 something else again that she could not get herself out of. Yet now the
 figure had stopped fondling her breasts, leaving her desperate for his
 touch again. Finally she nodded.
/You … are willing?/
“I … I am willing. I-I need it.”
The figure paused, partially withdrawing its hands. Despite the
 lack of facial expressions, Melissa thought she sensed hesitation and
 some confusion from it, as if this were a new situation for it. /Are
 you for me?/ she heard it ask of her.
Melissa was not sure how to answer that question. She had no idea
 who – or what – this figure was. For all she knew, it could be part of
 the elaborate ruse that Susan and Ann had set up. Though that would not
 explain the eerie look to the figure, or its unearthly voice.
“I’m not sure,” Melissa finally responded, deciding that honesty
 was the only option here. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
Another groan emanated from the figure. Finally it said, /I will
 pleasure you. Then I will decide./
Melissa wondered exactly what it was to decide, but before she
 could think to ask it, she felt one of its satin-like hands slide down
 her abdomen. It moved like molasses, oozing with glacial speed. When it
 reached her pubic mound, it sifted her hair through its fingers,
 sending shock waves of pleasure through her body and making fresh
 moisture drip from her already sopping slot.
The hand stopped moving and Melissa cried out in desperation.
 “Please, t-touch me … ” she begged. “Touch my p-pussy.”
It was the first time that Melissa had ever managed to bring
 herself to say the word aloud, even in private, showing the depths of
 her desire, as well as her realization that modesty was no longer
 something she could hope to preserve any longer.
She felt the figure’s fingers descend into her cleft of her sex,
 her swollen clitoris stroked firmly and rhythmically. Melissa moaned
 deeply and began to pant as the strokes were increased in intensity and
 speed. She felt its fingers plunge into her vagina, penetrating her
 deeply, two fingers at first, then three, coaxing her slot open wider.
 With her legs spread as far as they were, there was little to stop him
 from finger-fucking her into a frenzy. Melissa felt herself rise
 quickly, like a rocket.
“Oh, God, yes … ” Melissa cried. “Please, don’t stop … don’t
 … ohhh … /ohhhhhh!/”
Melissa cried out loudly as she crested over into orgasm. Her pussy
 throbbed hard around the figure’s fingers, feeling as solid inside her
 as any normal man’s might. He kept rubbing her slot, driving her orgasm
 upwards, until she was climaxing more powerfully than she ever had
 before. Her genital muscles were spasming so hard that she saw stars in
 front of her eyes when she closed them. She was ready to scream for the
 figure to ease off when it did just that, slowing its strokes and then
 removing its hand.
Melissa’s head lolled to one side. “Th-thank you,” she said weakly.
The figure groaned, more urgent than ever. /Now there is my
 pleasure to see to,/ she heard it say.
Melissa did not see the hand until it was before her face again,
 and before she could ask what it was doing, the hand gently alighted on
 her neck. She felt her fear return as her mind filled with horrible
 visions of her throat being cut. Yet after a few seconds and a brief
 tingling around her throat, the hand was withdrawn.
What Melissa could not see was what the figure had left behind.
 Encircling her neck was a band, as impossibly black as the figure
 itself.
The next thing she knew, the darkness was atop her.
She felt its body slide atop hers, like a silk sheet being drawn
 over her skin, its touch light and sensuous. Despite having just
 climaxed, her pussy was still wet, and she felt the sexual desire
 renewed inside of her. She heard its guttural groan again, a rumble
 hinting at powerful, barely restrained passion and lust. As its body
 slid further over her, she was aware of something gently probing her
 labia, still slick with her juices.
Melissa’s eyes opened wide. “Oh my God …” she breathed. Terror
 mixed with her desire, and for a moment, terror one out. “N-no! Please,
 no! Please don’t …”
In mid sentence, she opened her mouth and cried out in surprise and
 ecstasy as she felt the figure penetrate her, its cock sliding inside
 her like a hot knife through butter, sliding into her as if into warm
 oil. She gasped as she felt his incredible length fill her completely,
 more than any sex toy dildo she had used on herself in her
 self-explorations. She did not think it was possible for anyone to have
 a penis that long, and it convinced her that there was nothing at all
 earthly about this figure.
/So you are not for me after all,/ she heard the figure communicate
 to her, in a tone that was both mocking but questioning as well.
Melissa was too confused to reply at first. She felt the figure
 slowly slide its cock outward again, the angle just right to stroke the
 tip of her clitoris. She drew in her breath sharply and held it,
 letting it go as a moan when he reversed and sank into her again.
Desire began to win out over terror again. He drew outward and
 forward again, starting a slow but steady and firm thrusting. Each
 penile stroke of her clitoris was like electricity crackling through
 her. In all her fantasies, she had never thought her first time would
 be anything like this. The realist in her never thought it would be
 this /good/.
So taken with the experience that she failed to note a tightness
 around her throat.
The figure began increasing the speed of its thrusts into her, each
 thrust burying its cock as far as it would go and then withdrawing it
 almost complete from her, as if maximizing her pleasure. Melissa moaned
 loudly and deeply, giving her entire body and mind to the figure’s
 lovemaking, no longer caring who or what it was.
It took less than a minute, however, before her fear returned as
 she finally became aware of the constriction around her throat. She
 tried to draw in a deep breath and wheezed instead. Fear became panic,
 panic became terror, and she tried to scream, but the band around her
 throat only closed more tightly.
/No, /she heard the figure say. /No, you are enjoying this. You are
 for me./
Melissa then made the connection. The one that Susan and Ann had
 told her about. The so-called sex-strangler. She was about to become
 its next victim. But even as the band around her neck began to shut off
 her air, she felt herself rising towards another climax as his thrusts
 continued to build uninterrupted. The intensity of the stimulation in
 the midst of her suffocation was almost excruciating.
/No, you will not die, for you are mine./
Suddenly the pressure around her neck was gone, and Melissa gasped
 in air. At the same time, she exploded into an orgasm so intense that
 it hurt for the first few seconds, then became an all-consuming ecstasy
 that rattled her to her core. Her throbs reverberated up her vagina,
 into her cervix, into her womb, and from there seemed to radiate to her
 hips. It was as if her entire body were trying to participate.
In the midst of this, the figure plunged into her and climaxed. She
 felt hot seed fire into her depths, his throbs prolonging her own
 orgasm until it felt like it would never end. She screamed her pleasure
 and desperation into the night, until her climax finally started to
 fade. She panted and gasped, trying to catch her breath from both her
 near-suffocation and her mind-numbing orgasm. Tears flowed from her
 eyes in relief as she discovered that the fires of her desire had
 finally been doused.
The figure slid off her body. It reached a hand over her neck and
 the band that encircled it disappeared. It then paused a moment. The
 figure’s pinpoint red eyes appeared, and it leaned in closer, its groan
 questioning in nature. It reached down into the dirt and picked up the
 pentacle pendant.
/Yes,/ it said. /Yes, I see. I understand./
Melissa swallowed and looked up at the figure. She did not dare say
 a word. Something told her that the best thing she could do now was
 stay quiet.
/You wish the Power./
Melissa’s eyes widened. The wind-shaped voice conveyed the
 capitalization of that word to her mind. Could Susan and Ann have been
 truthful after all? Was this really what she was waiting for, for this
 mysterious figure to come to her and bestow upon her what she needed to
 become part of the Circle? Maybe mentioning the so-called sex-strangler
 was just a way of giving her a hint of what was to come.
/Is this what you want?/ the figure asked her more insistently.
“Yes!” Melissa cried. “Yes, that is what I want. That is … that
 is what I have been prepared for.”
The figure appeared to consider for a moment, then let the pentacle
 drop from its fingers. /If you wish to receive the Power, you must give
 me your innocence and virtue,/ it told her. /I already have taken your
 virtue. Will you give me your innocence as willingly?/
Melissa swallowed, feeling her fear return as the figure began to
 loom over her. There was no choice as to her answer. Her answer had to
 be yes. She did not come this far to turn back now. “Yes,” she said.
 “Yes, I will give you my innocence as well.”
The figure uttered another groan, this time a mixture of
 satisfaction and pleasure. /You are the first,/ it said, and she sensed
 joy in its “voice”. /None before you have been willing. It has been a
 very long time since I have had anyone./
It was then that Melissa realized that there was something going on
 that was not what Susan and Ann had intended. This figure might very
 well be the mysterious sex-strangler, but that his nature and his
 motives were completely different from what everyone had assumed.
Before she could go any further with this reasoning, the figure
 rose to its full height and extended a hand over her. There were two
 loud snapping sounds from above her, then two more below her. At once,
 the tightness on her extremities vanished. She was too astonished to
 move at first, but when she finally did, she saw that the ropes no
 longer held her limbs in place. She slowly drew her arms and legs
 inward, wincing as her strained muscles protested.
She looked up at the figure. It was turned such that she could see
 it almost in profile. She could see a single, long protrusion from its
 shape at roughly waist level. She understood at once that she was
 seeing the figure’s penis. The figure now turned to her and gestured
 silently for her to come forward.
Melissa understood now what was being asked of her. Her fear spiked
 briefly, but it was more fear over her lack of experience in this area
 than anything else.
She drew herself up to sitting position. Each of the four ropes
 that had bound her had been broken in the center, so that she still had
 a piece tied to each ankle and wrist. The knots did not look impossible
 for her to undo, but the figure stood before her, continuing to gesture
 for her to come to him.
Melissa was eager to complete her “initiation”, though it had
 turned into something quite different from what she was sure Susan and
 Ann had intended for her. Pausing only to rip the tape from her feet
 and chuck the shoes she hated to the side, she crawled over to the
 figure on her hands and knees. She knelt directly before it, her heart
 starting to pound. Despite how benevolent the figure had been to her
 now, she still remembered that it had been about to kill her, and only
 her enjoyment of his “rape” of her had saved her.
The figure stepped closer to her, and for the first time, Melissa
 thought she could see some detail in the absolute blackness. She was
 not sure exactly what she was seeing. It was as if she were seeing
 patterns of energy, as if she were tracing the flow of the figure’s
 life force. In all of this, the shape of his massive penis appeared.
Melissa reached up with a slight trembling hand and cradled the
 erection in her fingers. Like the rest of him, his skin was very smooth
 and slippery, as if she were touching one of her dildos after she had
 lubricated it. She let her fingers trace its shape. She drew her
 fingertips along the underside, and was rewarded with a deep groan from
 the figure.
/Remember,/ she heard the figure say. /You must swallow my essence
 to complete your task./
Melissa had surmised that herself, and she wasted no time in
 touching her tongue to the figure’s erect member. She ran her tongue up
 and down the underside of the shaft, feeling the skin ripple against
 her tongue. Her hand sought out its testicles and cradled them gently,
 massaging them slowly and carefully. She heard what sounded like heavy
 breathing from above her, and hoped that meant she was doing it right.
She opened her mouth and took his erection inside, wrapping her
 lips tightly around his thick shaft and drawing it inside with an
 intake of breath, squeezing her cheeks around his penis as it slid
 further inside. She could smell his musk as she felt the figure begin
 to slowly thrust his hips back and forth. Melissa pressed her tongue
 against the underside as it slid past, hoping to stimulate his more
 sensitive areas more thoroughly.
/You give me great pleasure a second time,/ the figure told her
 approvingly. /You do me a great honor./
Melissa was relieved, and it encouraged her to continue her
 ministrations. She used her hand to caress the bottom half of his
 shaft, as she could only accommodate about half of him inside her mouth
 at once. She stroked the underside of the shaft at the same time that
 she lashed at him with her tongue, letting his penis rest in her mouth
 as she lapped at what she believed to be the most sensitive spot just
 past the head.
She heard a low groan from the figure and felt its cock shudder
 inside her mouth as it started to throb powerfully in orgasm. Large
 globs of hot semen splashed over her tongue. Melissa moaned softly as
 she felt her mouth fill with his seed. Eagerly she swallowed, feeling
 the strangely spicy and sticky fluid blaze a trail down her food pipe
 and into her stomach. Still more of his essence spewed into her mouth
 as he continued to climax, and she lapped it up as quickly as it was
 produced, swallowing as fast she she could.
Finally the orgasm began to fade, and the figure withdrew its penis
 from her mouth. She swallowed the last bit that was in her mouth, and
 slowly rose to her feet.
Melissa closed her eyes. After a pause, she opened them, and saw
 the truth.
“They lied to me from the start,” Melissa said. She looked at the
 figure. “Susan and Anna. They lied. They were never my friends. Then
 never intended me to be part of their little clique. This was all just
 a joke to them, a sham, bogus! They /lied!!/”
Her voice had been steadily increasing in volume as she spoke, and
 the last word was screamed at the top of her lungs. Her eyes blazed
 with raw fury, an emotion that she never let herself feel. Until now.
/Innocence lost,/ the figure said.
Melissa felt like she was seeing everything that had happened in
 her life from a totally new perspective. “I can’t believe what a fool
 I’ve been!” Melissa ranted. “All through my life! Now I see it. Now I
 /really/ see it. Not one of the people that claimed to be a friend
 really was a friend. There was always some ulterior motive. And I knew
 it. On some level I knew it, and I just took it! I took it because I
 could fool myself into thinking that just maybe I was wrong, and
 someone thought I was worth knowing. I took solace in that, and
 rationalized my way to happiness. But you know what? That was all
 bullshit! Well, /fuck that anymore!/”
In her rage, the result of years of pent up emotions from the abuse
 she felt she suffered at the hands of countless peers, she picked up a
 rock that lay on the ground and hurtled it at a tree on the other side
 of the clearing. The rock struck the trunk and exploded like a small
 bomb in a flash of blue-white light, sending pieces of bark and
 splintered wood in all directions, leaving a large crater in the side
 of the tree.
Melissa’s jaw dropped in astonishment and she stared, her fury
 curbed for the moment.
/And with the loss of your innocence,/ said the figure, /you now
 have the Power./
“Yes …” she said softly as she searched her inner being. “Yes,
 you’re right, I … I can see it … I can feel it.” She lifted her
 hands before her face. She cast her gaze on the pieces of rope that
 still were wrapped about her wrists.
After a few seconds, first one, then the other of the ropes
 loosened and untied itself, dropping from her wrists into heaps on the
 ground. Melissa viciously kicked at them. She willed the rope to
 released her ankles, and they too fell from her body.
Melissa felt a rush of renewed excitement. She slowly closed her
 hands into fists, She could literally feel powerful currents of energy
 like electricity surging through her body, waiting for her to release
 them, to command them to do her bidding.
“I have control,” Melissa said, a smile spreading across her face.
 “I finally have control of my life. I have control of it all! Whoever
 or whatever you are, thank you for …”
But when she turned her head towards where the figure had stood,
 there was only the ordinary darkness of the night. She whirled around,
 sweeping the entire clearing with her gaze, but the figure had
 vanished. And as she stood and listened, the noises of the forest had
 returned. It was as if nothing had happened.
But something /had/ happened. She was standing, freed from her
 ropes, and with a new realization, a new outlook on her life. And she
 had the Power. She could still feel it inside of her. She could still
 see in her mind how to use it, and what its limitations were.
 Nevertheless, a creeping dread came over her that she had dreamed or
 hallucinated the entire thing.
Melissa looked down on the ground where the remains of her ropes
 lay. She stretched her hand out over them and concentrated. After a few
 seconds, one of the ropes started to twitch, then flew upwards and into
 her hand. She held it in her grasp and made the rope slither and coil
 like a snake as if it were alive. Then she let it go limp, where it
 swung impotently in the breeze.
And now, as she stood alone, free from all physical and emotional
 bonds, she pondered exactly what she should do next.
She looked down at the ropes on the ground and the piece still tied
 to the stakes in the ground. She realized as she did this that she
 could see far better in the dark now than she could earlier, much more
 than she could account for by mere dark-adaptation. Either that, or she
 was simply sensing everything around her in ways that she could not
 earlier.
The answer came to her. Susan and Ann had to be dealt with.
The old Melissa would have simply let it go and seek to avoid any
 further contact with them. But to the new Melissa, this was
 unacceptable. Now she had the ability to set things straight, to even
 the score, even to take revenge if she so desired.
Melissa smiled, as evilly as Ann had when she had conceived of her
 maneuver with Melissa’s panties. The realization that she now had the
 power and the freedom to make these choices excited her. It even
 aroused her, even though she had already had more sex than she had
 experienced in her entire life up to that day. Yes, there was
 definitely something strangely erotic about having this power.
“Perhaps they were right when the said that sex is power,” Melissa
 said aloud.
Yes, she would deal with Susan and Ann. Many ideas were coming to
 her mind, things that she would have been horrified to hear from others
 before that night, things that she now allowed herself to contemplate
 freely with no pangs of guilt or remorse.
She looked towards the center of the clearing where she had been
 tied down. As much as she might have wanted to see the expression on
 their faces when the saw her free of her ropes, she knew that this
 would put them off, either by claiming that she had cheated somehow, or
 by becoming frightened of her. While Melissa might have wanted them to
 be frightened of her at some point, that would come in due course.
Melissa took the rope that was still in her hand. She brought it
 over to one of the frayed ends of a piece attached to a stake. She
 pressed the two torn ends together and concentrated.
The strands of the two ends of rope twitched. At first the motion
 was random and chaotic, like snakes slithering around each other.
 Finally, slowly, the strands of rope began to twine about each other,
 knitting the rope together. After about a minute it was done, and the
 rope looked as though nothing had happened to it.
Melissa did the same with the other three, until she now had four
 whole pieces of rope again, just as Susan and Ann had laid them out
 earlier.
Melissa smiled and calmly assumed the same position she had when
 bidden before. She stretched her arms and legs, spreading them apart.
 She closed her eyes and reached out with her mind to the ends of rope.
 She lay quiet and still as the ends of the ropes slithered around her
 ankles and wrists. She felt them pull her limbs into the same positions
 as before as they knotted themselves. When it was done, Melissa
 appeared exactly as she had before the shadowy figure had descended on
 her.
Unlike when she was first placed into this position, she felt
 relaxed, and she looked up at the stars in admiration of the clarity of
 the sky. She knew she could free herself with a thought at a moment’s
 notice. She was now in control.
She turned her head and glanced over to where her panties lay on
 the ground and she frowned. As much as she wanted to avoid anything
 appearing out of the ordinary, she refused to put the panties and tape
 back on her mouth.
Melissa willed one of her arms to be released. She picked up the
 tape and stuck it on the panties. She then grasped the panties and
 threw them into the underbrush. She let the rope entwine about her
 wrist again.
She waited.
The car raced through the flashing yellow light of the intersection
 without slowing down, tires squealing as it took the turn in the road
 beyond it still traveling at the same breakneck speed.
“Jesus, Susan, are you trying to get us killed?!” Ann shouted, her
 left hand over her pounding heart, her right hand holding the door
 handle with a white-knuckled grip.
“Maybe I should be asking you that question!” Susan retorted. “That
 was just brilliant, Ann, simply brilliant.”
“Well, fuck, how the hell was I to know he’d let it slip?”
“Ann, your boyfriend Brad’s age is higher than his IQ. And thanks
 to you and him, we have exactly twenty minutes to collect Melissa, calm
 her down into a semi-coherent state, and hope to God that she`ll cover
 for us with her Mom.”
“Why are you always picking on Brad?” Ann cried.
“I’m not, I’m picking on you. How stupid can you be, Ann??”
“All right already!” Ann screamed. “I said I was sorry! What the
 fuck more do you want?!”
Susan took a deep breath and forced herself to ease off the
 accelerator as they headed up the road into the forest. She almost
 wished Ann had not come clean about her spilling the beans to her
 boyfriend about what they had planned for Melissa. She would have
 preferred to have lived in blissful ignorance of why Susan had been
 rudely awakened to the sound of the telephone a full hour before dawn
 and forced to deal with Melissa’s distraught mother.
Melissa’s mom had gotten the idea that Melissa was in some sort of
 trouble, that Susan and Ann had perhaps taken her someplace they
 shouldn’t have. Susan had tried to reassure the woman that this was not
 the case.
/”If she’s all right, then let me talk to her,” her mother demanded
 at that point./
/”Melissa is still sleeping,” Susan had said./
/”My Melissa has always been an early riser. She’ll be getting up
 soon anyway.”/
/”We … we were up late last night.”/
/”What were you doing to all hours of the night?!” Melissa’s mother
 demanded in a panic-stricken voice./
/”Nothing! I mean, nothing bad, just talking,” Susan replied. “We
 just … lost track of time. She was really tired.”/
/There was a long pause. “All right,” Melissa’s mother said
 cautiously. “I’ll give her another half hour before I call back. But if
 you won’t let me talk to her, I’ll be over there like a shot!”/
“Ann, you better hope that the little stunt you pulled with the
 panties didn’t, like, send her over the edge,” Susan said darkly.
Ann frowned. “You really didn’t like me doing that, did you?”
Susan sighed. “No, I didn’t. You were way too hard on her.”
“I didn’t see you stopping me.”
“Because it would have screwed everything up even worse. Look, I
 don’t want to argue anymore. Let’s just get up there and fetch her. And
 listen to me, Ann, listen real hard. We treat her like a queen this
 morning. She did what we asked of her and she’s in the Circle. We make
 her feel really good and maybe she’ll convince her Mom she’s okay. Got
 it?”
“Yeah, I got it,” Ann grumbled. “Treat the little cunt like the
 belle of the ball.”
The light of false dawn was just starting to brighten the sky as
 they pulled off the road and up the gravel path. Susan drove a little
 recklessly, the back end of the car fishtailing and sending up plumes
 of gravel and rock behind them.
When the reached the path that led to the clearing, they scrambled
 out of the car, grabbing the robe from the back seat, and ran up the
 path. In the back of her mind, Susan felt a twinge of fear over what
 she might find. Sometime during the night, she began having a severe
 attack of conscience. She had several bad dreams where they came up to
 fetch Melissa only to find a bloody corpse, or a skeleton, or nothing
 at all. Now she entered they same notions, but with the addition of
 Melissa’s mother crying over Melissa’s dead body.
None of these things greeted her when the reached the clearing.
 Instead they found Melissa as they had left her, staked out naked on
 the ground. Both Susan and Ann came to a stop at the edge of the
 clearing, staring. Susan held her breath until she saw Melissa’s chest
 rise and fall steadily.
Susan paused, took a deep breath, then put on her best smile and
 strode forward, Ann following her, but mustering only half a smile that
 was not very convincing. “Oh, Melissa!” she sang. “We’ve come for you.
 We’ve come to free you and accept you into the Circle! You’ve made it!”
There was no response for a moment, and Susan’s smile started to
 fade and her panic mount. Ann gave her a worried look.
“Good morning. You’re a little early, aren’t you?”
Susan and Ann exchanged glances. They were not sure what it was
 about Melissa’s voice that frightened them. Her voice had been
 perfectly calm, even serene. Or perhaps that was it. It was certainly
 not the kind of voice they expected to hear from a wuss of a girl that
 had just spent the entire night in the forest tied up and naked.
Or perhaps it was the realization on Susan’s part that they should
 not have expected a response at all from someone that had her mouth
 taped shut.
“Um …” Susan said, having lost what she was going to say. “Um,
 yeah, we … we came early for you.”
“We were just soooo eager to welcome you into our ranks, sister,”
 Ann said in a lilting, sarcastic voice.
Susan slapped Ann in the arm and gave her a dirty look. Ann stuck
 her tongue at her friend.
“Yes, the Circle,” Melissa said. “You were right, Susan, this was a
 wonderful experience.”
“I was?” Susan said, confused. “I mean, um, yeah, of course.”
“Ooo, did the goddess come to you?” Ann asked, grinning.
Melissa paused. “I was visited,” she replied. “And was shown
 power.”
Susan felt nervous. She was not sure what to make of that answer.
“So are we going to stand around or are we going to free our newest
 member?” Ann said in a low voice to Susan.
Susan blinked. “Oh, Jesus. Yes, let’s untie her quickly … so we
 can get this warm robe around her.”
Susan started to untie Melissa’s feet, while Ann did her hands. Ann
 looked over to Melissa, who smiled at her. Ann felt a shiver pass
 through her as she saw that smile. It was not a pleasant smile, or a
 humorous smile. It was the smile of someone that was entertaining a
 private, amusing, and unflattering thought of another. Ann knew it
 quite well, for she herself was very good at such smiles.
“What are you looking at?” Ann snapped in a soft voice.
“One of my Circle sisters,” Melissa replied. “Am I not?”
Ann swallowed, then suddenly came to a realization. “Hey, what
 happened to the tape and your panties?”
“Ann, please hurry up!” Susan hissed.
“All right, all right.” Ann gritted her teeth and set her face hard
 as she struggled to untie the ropes from around Melissa’s wrists.
“Is there a problem?” Melissa asked.
“Um, no, not really,” Susan said as she finished, picking up the
 robe again.
“You just seem in a terrible hurry. I was hoping I’d be left for a
 little longer. I was starting to enjoy it.”
“Figures you would,” Ann muttered. She looked up at Susan, pointed
 to Melissa, then encircled a finger around one ear.
Susan pressed her lips tightly together. As soon as Ann finished
 releasing Melissa, Susan stepped forward and held the robe open for
 Melissa.
Melissa slowly stood up, moving as effortlessly as if she had never
 been tied up. She did not appear in any hurry whatsoever, looking up at
 Susan and the robe for a few moments.
“So what are you waiting for, your majesty?” Ann sneered.
“Ann, shut up!” Susan exclaimed.
Melissa gave another of her strange smiles. “Such contention among
 the Circle. Has something gone amiss?”
The more Melissa spoke, the more anxious Susan became. This was not
 like her at all. Even before they had taken her here Melissa did not
 speak like this. The hesitation in her voice was gone, as was the
 perpetual submissive undertone they had found so endearing. She did not
 even seem the least bit nervous about her nudity. She even appeared
 comfortable with it. Had Melissa actually lost it sometime during the
 night? Was she actually sane any longer? Was it just a matter of time
 before she exploded?
Susan decided that the only way to get Melissa moving was to tell
 her the truth.
“Look, Melissa,” Susan said urgently. “I think something got back
 to your Mom about all this and she’s going to call the house really
 soon. If you’re not there, we could all get into deep trouble.”
“And I for one don’t want to get into trouble just because you’re
 still communing with the goddess,” Ann said sharply. “So get up and
 let’s /go!/”
Melissa looked up at Ann and flashed a grin and a wink. Ann’s mouth
 dropped open slightly and stumbled back a step when it felt as thought
 an ice-cold wind had drilled into her to her very core.
Melissa stood and let Susan help her into her robe. “All right,
 let’s head out,” Susan said. She placed an arm around Melissa’s waist
 and hustled her down the path.
“What about the stakes and rope?” Ann asked as she jogged to catch
 up.
“Leave them! We’ll come back later and get them. We’ve got less
 than ten minutes to get home!”
They put Melissa in the back seat before spinning the car around in
 a U-turn that made smoke issue from the tires. When the car bumped back
 onto the paved road leading back to time, Ann turned around and frowned
 angrily at Melissa. “You better not cross us on this, Melissa,” she
 said darkly.
“Ann!” Susan cried, exasperated. “Look, Melissa, we told your Mom
 we were up late talking and you were tired.”
“Yeah, and you better say you had a wonderful time,” Ann added.
“Oh, but I did,” Melissa said. “I had a most wonderful time after
 you two left last night. That was the best thing that had ever happened
 to me.”
Susan glanced briefly at Ann. Ann took one more look at Melissa and
 her strange, secretive smile, shuddered, and remained quiet the rest of
 the trip home.
“Oh, Jesus, the phone is ringing already!” Susan cried as she burst
 through the front door of the house, panting. “Melissa, you better get
 that.’
Melissa calmly strode past an anxious Susan and upset Ann, in no
 particular hurry, letting the phone ring another three times before she
 finally reached it and picked it up. “Hello? … Hi, Mom.”
Susan blew out her lips in a relieved sigh. She shut the door
 behind them and collapsed into an easy chair. Ann passed her and
 plopped herself down onto the sofa, making a face as she stretched
 herself out, her back up against one of the hand rests.
“Of course I’m okay, Mom, why wouldn’t I be?” Melissa asked as she
 twirled one of the ends of the terrycloth belt on her robe. Her voice
 was completely calm and self-assured. “I’ve been here the whole time,
 with my friends.”
Melissa turned her head towards Susan and Ann and smiled, dropping
 a wink. Ann rolled her eyes but looked relieved nevertheless.
“No, Mom, I haven’t been out at all, not since I got here
 yesterday,” said Melissa. “Why would you get the idea that I was out?”
Susan gave Ann a dirty look. Ann sneered back a response.
“Why, what did you hear? … Oh, /really/ now,” Melissa said with a
 grin. “What a fantastic story. I mean, the very idea that my friends
 would be so cruel as to take me out into the forest and leave me
 there.”
Susan shifted nervously in her seat. There was something in
 Melissa’s voice that made her uncomfortable. Moreover, she felt an odd
 sensation along the back of her neck. The only other time she had felt
 something like that was when she was practicing magic, and believed she
 had come close to actually achieving the effect she had wanted. It had
 started soon after they had picked up Melissa.
Ann just rolled her eyes again, but even she started to look a
 little nervous. She did not feel any of the odd sensations that her
 friend did, but she was growing increasingly uncomfortable having
 Melissa around. She intended to go home very soon after Melissa got
 done with her call.
“Now, mother, do I /sound/ like someone that just spent the entire
 night alone in the forest?” Melissa asked.
/No, you don’t,/ Susan answered in her own mind. /And that’s the
 problem./
“Well, I was late in getting up because we were up late last night.
 Yes, I know that’s unusual for me, but how often do I do things like
 this?” said Melissa, sounding slightly annoyed. “Look, everything is
 obviously okay with me, so why not just drop it? … Really? I
 certainly don’t think so … Anyway, I’m fine, and I’ll probably be
 over her for awhile longer.”
Susan tried to hide her distress at hearing this. She had hoped
 that Melissa would be eager to leave. The longer Melissa stayed in the
 house, the more nervous it made Susan feel.
“Okay, I’ll call if I’m later than that. I’ll see you later.
 Good-bye, Mom.”
Melissa quietly hung up the phone and turned towards the others
 with a smile. “Well, that’s all taken care of.”
“Thank you, Melissa,” Susan said sincerely.
“Yeah, thanks,” Ann said half-heartedly.
Melissa came around the other end of the sofa and sat down. Ann
 drew her legs towards herself, as if afraid of being too close to
 Melissa. There was total silence in the room for the next few seconds,
 so heavy that Susan could almost feel the weight of it upon her
 shoulders. She finally broke the silence when she said in a contrite
 voice, “Hey, Melissa, you … you’ve been really good about all this.”
“Well, it’s not like she didn’t agree to do it,” Ann said.
Susan sighed. “Yes, Ann, but we could have been a little nicer
 about it.”
Ann just shrugged and folded her arms.
Melissa simply smiled. “Oh, no, please, I should be thanking you
 for that experience,” she said. “I quite enjoyed it.”
Susan leaned forward in her chair. “Um, Melissa …”
Melissa fixed her steady gaze on Susan. “Yes?”
Susan paused a moment as she locked eyes with Melissa. She felt
 that tingling on the back of her neck grow worse. “What, um, exactly
 happened to you in the forest?”
“Oh, what I’m sure you had expected, at first,” Melissa answered as
 she turned herself to face Ann more, her back against the hand rest. “I
 was cold, I cried my eyes out, I was terrified, I was humiliated.”
Susan swallowed. Though Melissa’s voice was calm, her eyes had a
 hard edge to them that sent a shiver down her spine. “I’m … I’m sorry
 about that.”
Melissa shrugged. “Like I said, that’s how it was at first. Then
 the power came to me, and I was no longer upset. It was a wonderful
 experience.”
Susan nodded slowly. She both wanted to know and didn’t want to
 know the details about how this “power” came to her and what exactly
 she was talking about. For the moment, the latter won out.
Ann, however, was not smart enough to keep her mouth shut in
 similar fashion. “Melissa, what the hell are you talking about?”
Melissa turned her steady gaze to Ann. Ann appeared to grow nervous
 at this scrutiny but did not flinch or retreat. Part of her mind was
 still trying to believe that Melissa was the same weak-willed wimp that
 she was the day before. “What do you mean?” Melissa asked.
“What’s this power that you keep talking about?” Ann demanded.
 “What, you can work magic now?”
Melissa smiled. “Wasn’t that the whole idea?”
“Yeah, sure. So show us some magic then.”
Susan’s eyes widened. “Ann, please, stop it,” she said softly but
 urgently.
“Don’t tell me to ‘stop it’!” Ann snapped. “We go through all this
 trouble for Melissa to get her into the Circle, so I think we have a
 right to see a little proof that the ‘power’ really came to her.” She
 grinned malevolently. “And if not, she’s out.”
Susan felt control of the situation completely slipping away from
 her. She looked to Melissa to try to discern what the girl might do
 next. Was this where she blew up at them when she could not produce
 anything? Though at this point, with the way Susan felt herself
 reacting, there was no guarantee that Melissa would not be able to
 demonstrate some sort of ability.
“So you want proof of my power, do you?” Melissa asked darkly.
Susan never felt more frightened by a single sentence, spoken in
 that way, in her entire life.
Ann faltered for a moment, hesitating, shifting nervously in her
 seat. She drew her legs up, her knees to her chest, as if going into
 some defensive posture. “Yeah,” she said in a lower voice. “Show us
 something.”
“What about you, Susan?” Melissa asked. “Do you need a
 demonstration too?”
Susan shook her head. “No, you don’t need to prove it to me any
 further.”
Ann gaped at Susan. “What the hell are you talking about? It was
 your idea to think of some reason later to kick her out.” Susan gave
 Ann a stricken look, and Ann’s mouth dropped open. “Why … why did I
 say that?”
“Ann, tell me,” Melissa said. “That bit you did with my panties,
 was that part of the ceremony like you said?”
“Y… Ye … N … No,” Ann sputtered, as if struggling against her
 own mind, trying to repress the words tumbling out of her mouth. “It
 … I … I did it because I was just being mean to you … Why am I
 saying this??”
“You said you wanted a demonstration of my power,” Melissa said
 with a serene smile.
“She can’t lie to you?” Susan asked warily.
“She can no longer lie, period,” Melissa said.
“Stop it, whatever you’re doing to me!” Ann shouted. “You’re …
 you’re scaring me!”
“If you don’t want to be scared, I can arrange that.”
Ann stared at Melissa, her eyes widening. “What … what do you
 mean by that?”
Melissa smiled evilly. “What it means, dear friend, is that I have
 complete control of your mind right now, and I can make you feel or
 think anything I wish.”
Ann did appeared frightened, but when she heard this, defiance
 mingled with the fear in her face. “You … you can’t do that. I don’t
 believe you.”
“Oh, jeez, Ann, don’t provoke her!” Susan cried.
“So you believe I can do it, Susan?” Melissa asked.
Susan stated at Melissa, and felt fear clutching at her as well. “I
 … I can feel something happening, Melissa,” she said cautiously and
 in a very soft and deferential voice. “I’m not sure I can explain it
 completely, but I know you’re doing something.”
“You’re just as nuts as she is, Susan,” Ann snapped. “If you really
 believe Melissa can … ” Ann paused and sniffled. “That she can …
 make me … ” Tears welled up in her eyes and began to roll down her
 face. “Th-that … I … oh, God !”
Ann dropped her face into her hands and began to cry hard enough to
 make her whole body tremble, tears pouring out of her eyes. She wailed
 in anguish as overwhelming feelings of sadness and despair flooded her
 consciousness. Every bad thing she ever did in her life came back to
 her in cruelly crystal-clear images in her memory, and intense feelings
 of remorse now engulfed her psyche.
“I’m so sorry!” Ann wailed. “I’m so sorry for anything I ever did
 to you, Melissa! Oh, God, please forgive me!”
Melissa smiled. “Much better attitude, Ann. Much better.”
Susan could not stand looking at Ann suffer any longer. “Melissa,
 stop it!” she cried. “Please! Don’t do this to her!”
“She did it to herself,” Melissa snapped, her eyes like ice. “She
 brought it on herself. But don’t worry, I have no intention of letting
 her cry her little eyes out for much longer, not when there’s much more
 useful emotions for her to be feeling.”
Slowly, Ann’s crying abated. She sniffled and wiped her eyes on the
 sleeve of her shirt. “I’ll … I’ll never be mean t-to you again,
 Melissa,” Ann said. “I … I realize now what … what a wonderful
 person you are.” Ann smiled weakly at Melissa, her eyes betraying only
 a small amount of residual fear, and a great deal of dreamlike
 admiration.
“So, Ann, am I still a ‘stupid cunt’ in your mind?”
Ann cast her eyes down. “No, Melissa,” she said, hunching her
 shoulders and appearing submissive. “I should not have called you that.
 If anyone is a stupid cunt, it’s me.”
Melissa looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yes, you’re right,” she
 said. “Yes, Ann, /you/ are the stupid cunt around here.”
Ann smiled more broadly. “Yes, I am. Th-thank you.”
A sycophantic, submissive Ann was even harder to deal with for
 Susan than an arrogant, stubborn one had been. “Melissa, is this … is
 what you did to Ann permanent?”
“For as long as I choose to leave her that way,” Melissa replied
 smoothly. “Considering her old personality, why would I want to change
 her back?”
Susan felt her heart pounding loudly in her chest as Melissa kept
 her unwavering gaze on Susan. She took a deep breath to try to calm
 herself before asking, “Melissa, do you intend to do the same thing to
 me?”
“You were kinder to me that Ann was,” Melissa said. “And you left
 me my pendant. You’ll be interested to know that it was the one thing
 that allowed me to acquire the power that I did, so in a way I owe you
 for that. So no, I will not do to you what I just did to Ann.”
Susan nodded. “I … appreciate that. And I am sorry for what we
 did to you. I hope you can tell I’m being sincere.”
Melissa paused a moment and then nodded once. “You are. But it
 still does not take away from the fact that you did do it to me, and
 you will have to suffer for that.”
“Pl-please, Melissa,” Susan pleaded. “Think about what you’re
 doing. Think …”
Susan stopped. All of a sudden, her entire body felt flushed. Her
 heart hammered in her chest, and she felt a tingling in her nether
 regions. Her emotions began to swing wildly, distracting her from
 coherent thought. Whatever she was going to say to Melissa next, it was
 quickly lost among the chaos.
Ann was also reacting to something similar. She let her breath out
 in a long sigh and closed her eyes. She spread her legs slightly. “Oh,
 Melissa …” she said in a breathy whisper. “Something’s happening to
 me … I’m … ” She sighed again and placed a hand lightly over the
 crotch of her jeans. “I’m … I’m getting wet …”
Susan groaned as she shifted in her seat, her thighs rubbing
 against each other with a faint squishing noise. She felt heat in her
 sex, and dampness in her panties. There was a tingling in her breasts,
 and her nipples rose to erect points, poking at the fabric of her bra
 and shirt, causing two prominent little knobs on the surface. She felt
 the words form in her mind and travel to her mouth despite her attempts
 to suppress them. “I’m … g-getting wet, too … my pussy feels really
 hot …” Susan looked over to Melissa with languid eyes. “You’re …
 you’re not making me say that, are you? You’re just … just taking
 away inhibitions.”
“Oh, must you analyze everything, Susan?” Melissa said with a
 smirk. “Yes, that is what’s happening. But I can choose to make you say
 something simply by planting the thought in your head. Like this.”
Suddenly Susan blurted out, “My pussy is so hot, I want to stroke
 it over and over again until I cum. I want to cum again and again until
 I go insane!” She shuddered and blushed bright red. “Oh, Jesus,
 Melissa, please don’t do that to me again.”
“I will do as I please, Susan. And what pleases me now is for Ann
 to take her clothes off.”
“Yes, Melissa,” Ann said obediently. “I do whatever you want me to
 do for you.”
Susan watched as Ann stood and slowly stripped off her clothes.
 Susan felt the urge to touch herself, desperate as she was for sexual
 release. So sensitized was she and so engorged was her sex that the
 least movement in her chair was enough to stimulate her. She resisted
 the urge to masturbate, yet she found herself unconsciously squeezing
 her thighs together and rubbing them against each other and her pussy,
 giving her a low but constant level of stimulation.
As more of Ann’s body was revealed, Susan felt her thoughts swing
 in a new direction. It was as if she were seeing Ann in a completely
 new light, like looking at her for the first time. With all of her
 mental barriers down, she was helpless to prevent her from speaking
 thoughts as they came to her mind. “You’re rather sexy-looking, Ann,”
 Susan said. “Nice tits … I like your ass … Oooo, look how wet your
 pussy is.”
“God, yes, isn’t it?” Ann cried softly as she sat back down. She
 spread her legs and started to slowly stroke herself. “Mmmm, that feels
 really good …”
Susan felt mortified beyond belief, both at the things she heard
 from her mouth and from having to watch Ann masturbate, yet at the same
 time feeling very aroused by all of it, having to fight the urge to do
 as Ann was doing. Susan wondered if Melissa had purposely left her this
 tendril of reason, able to still think independently to some degree.
With her inhibitions lowered, she did not hesitate to make her
 thoughts known. “You’ve turned Ann into a mindless slave,” Susan said
 accusingly. She felt her pussy ache and groaned, adding in a softer
 voice, “Which really turns me on …”
“She’s not completely a slave,” Melissa said with a sly grin. “I’ve
 left her old personality intact, tucked away in the back of her mind,
 forced to watch what’s happening to her. It would not any sort of
 punishment whatsoever if she did not know what was happening to her.”
This sent a shiver down Susan’s spine. “You really are cruel, you
 know that?”
“No more so than the two of you were to me.”
“Ohhh …” Ann moaned. “Ohhh, this is nice … I love stroking
 myself …”
“See how wet she is, Susan?” Melissa asked in a husky voice.
Susan swallowed, her eyes drawn to Ann’s hand as it slowly stroked
 her sopping slot. “Y-yes,” Susan breathed. “It’s really wet.”
“Remember what Ann did to me before you both left me?”
Susan’s eyes flickered to where Ann’s panties lay on the floor.
 “Yes, I do.”
“Do it to me!” Ann cried. “Please, Susan, do it. Make me suck on my
 panties.”
“I … I ca …” Susan tried to speak, but the words would not come
 out.
“Oh, yes you can,” Melissa said. “You want to. Look at Ann’s pussy,
 Susan.”
Susan stared at it. She slowly licked her lips. “It’s … it’s
 really nice … I l-l-ove her pussy.”
“Please, Susan, “Ann begged. “Wipe my panties on my pussy and make
 me eat them.”
Susan groaned and stumbled out of her chair, falling to her hands
 and knees. moaning when she felt her thighs rub together and send a few
 dull throbs through her pussy. Her panties were completely soaked, the
 crotch of her jeans becoming damp as well. She crawled over to where
 Ann’s panties lay and picked them up with a trembling hand.
Ann took her hand away from her pussy and spread her legs wide,
 looking eagerly at Susan.
Susan crawled forward. As she neared Ann’s glistening crotch, she
 caught the aroma of Ann’s aroused sex. She breathed it deeply, savoring
 the odor, the most delightful thing she had ever smelled at that
 moment.
Susan slowly pressed the cloth of the panties into Ann’s slot and
 ran it slowly up and down. Ann threw her head back and moaned. “Ohhhh
 … that feels so nice, Susan …”
Susan started to pant. The urge to stroke herself was overwhelming.
 When the panties were soaked with Ann’s juices, she brought it to her
 own nose and sniffed deeply before lifting it to Ann’s face. Ann
 eagerly opened her mouth and allowed Susan to wad and stuff the panties
 into her mouth.
“Mmmm!” Ann murmured in pleasure.
Susan stumbled back and started to remove her clothes. “I’m too
 horny now,” she cried softly. “I have to stroke myself as well.”
“See how much fun Ann is having, Susan?” Melissa asked.
Ann’s jaw moved as she purposely squeezed her panties, milking all
 the absorbed juices from it as she resumed masturbating. “Mmmmm …
 mmmm …”
“Oh, yes, I do … Look how wet my panties are …” Susan murmured
 as she stripped. Once she was naked, she took her wet panties, inhaled
 deeply of them, then wadded them up and stuffed them in her own mouth.
 She then laid herself out on the carpet and started masturbating in
 earnest.
Melissa watched the two of them, smiling broadly. “So this is what
 it feels like to be in control,” she mused. “I like this feeling much
 better than what I had felt in the past. It’s too bad that neither of
 you will ever feel in control again.”
Susan felt despair despite the intensity of her arousal and the
 sensations generated from her pussy. She wished she had never thought
 of the idea of Melissa’s “initiation” in the first place. She wished
 things were the way they had been only a day ago. She felt foolish that
 as close as an hour before they were to take Melissa to the park that
 she had been reconsidering this whole course of action.
Susan had been rising quickly as she stroked herself, but suddenly
 the level of stimulation dropped precipitously, as if her pussy had
 become numb. She groaned with unsatisfied need and gave herself firmer
 and faster strokes to gain back what she had lost. Ann was also making
 desperate noises through her nose and rubbing herself so fast that it
 could actually be heard.
“Oooo, now I didn’t expect this,” Melissa said. “I can even control
 your pussies directly. I was just thinking what exquisite torture it
 would be if you were this horny but you couldn’t get yourselves to cum.
 Now you’ll feel a little like I did when I was left aroused by Ann’s
 little stunt and no way to satisfy it.”
Susan panted as she stroked herself so quickly that her hand
 started to ache. She could barely feel herself rising again. Ann had
 tears coming out of her eyes as she resorted to using both hands in a
 vain attempt to get more stimulation.
“But I actually have a better idea for you two. Stop masturbating
 and take your panties out of your mouths.”
The two girls did as they were told, albeit reluctantly. Ann
 started crying again. “Please, Melissa, let me cum!” she wailed. “I’m
 so horny it hurts!”
Susan tried to catch her breath. She drew her legs under her and
 moaned, her pussy still hot and dripping with moisture, begging to be
 touched again. She brought her hand to her face to wipe a strand of
 hair out of her eyes and smelled her sex on her fingers. She licked
 each one of them clean, which only increased her arousal to painful
 levels.
“I have charmed the two of you so that hand will no longer work,”
 Melissa said.
“Then how can we cum?” Susan asked. “Please, Melissa …”
“You know, I just adore it when you two beg. Now think, you two.
 Only hands will not work. What else may you use that you have on your
 person?”
Ann’s eyes widened and she gasped. “You … you can’t mean …”
Susan felt a shudder pass through her. “Oh, God, she does,” she
 groaned. “You … you want us to … l-lick each other.”
Ann slipped off the sofa and came over to Susan. “We have to,
 Susan,” she panted. “If we want to cum, we’ve got to eat each other
 out.”
“B-but … n-no … I …”
“You have to, Susan,” Ann said huskily. She slid her arms around
 Susan.
“No, Ann, s-stop, I …”
Susan was interrupted when Ann suddenly planted her lips on hers,
 moaning deeply. Susan fought it at first, until Ann pressed herself
 against Susan, forcing her back down onto the carpet. Susan felt her
 desire rekindled and wrapped her arms around Ann. She opened her mouth
 and thrust her tongue into Ann’s mouth.
Ann was the first to break off the kiss, panting. “Let me eat you,”
 she begged. “And you eat me.”
Susan felt her will collapse. Her body’s needs were too great.
 “Then turn yourself around,” she said. “So I can taste that wonderful,
 wet pussy of yours.”
Ann smiled and quickly turned herself around. Susan eagerly
 extended her tongue as Ann’s pussy descend on her, feeling Ann’s tongue
 probing her at the same time.
“Oh, you’re delicious!” Ann squealed.
“Mmmmm, nice … ” Susan moaned.
Ann and Susan lay on the floor entwined about each other, their
 faces buried in each other’s mound as Melissa looked on with glee. “Oh,
 this is delightful!” she cried. “You two are so entertaining. I could
 watch this all morning. Or at least long enough for me to tell you
 exactly what I intend to do with you.”
“Mmmpph! … Mmmm …” Susan cried softly. Ann’s juices were
 trickling down her face as she licked and sucked at Ann as if starved.
 Her nose was filled with the strong aroma of Ann’s arousal. She tried
 to listen to Melissa to find out what was to become of them, but with
 as overwhelmed as her senses were, it was difficult.
Melissa steepled her fingers and looked thoughtful. “Hmmm …
 First, I believe a curse is in order. An extension of the charm I
 placed on your pussies. How about this: The both of you will not be
 able to cum unless its by the other’s tongue. You’ll never cum by any
 other means. Oh, and your pussies will not be able to make anyone else
 cum. What does that mean? It means you can kiss your precious
 boyfriends good-bye. No matter how much you let them fuck you, you’ll
 never get off and he’ll never get off. How does that sound for
 starters?”
Susan felt tears welling up in her eyes for the first time since
 this started. Melissa just ruined her sex life. Susan was very sexually
 active, having sex with her boyfriend at least twice a week, plus the
 occasional affair outside their relationship.
Ann made a distressed noise but did not cry. The two of them
 continued to lick each other, both slowly rising now.
Melissa smiled evilly. “And to be even more cruel to you two, I
 also place a second curse on you two. From now on, you two will be
 horny little bitches in heat. You’ll get massively aroused at least
 once every day or two. Since the only way you can satisfy it is by
 doing what you’re doing now, you two better get used to being
 passionate lovers from this point on.”
Ann and Susan began moaning in earnest as they rose higher, swiftly
 approaching climax. At the same time, there was a despairing tone to
 their voices as Melissa’s words reached the parts of their mind not
 under her control.
“I won’t be so cruel as to say that this is a permanent
 arrangement,” Melissa said. “I’ll give you two a chance to have me lift
 the curses. It was all depend on how nice you are to me from this point
 on, and how willing you are to do as I ask of you. And never, but never
 beg me to lift the curses. The first one of you to do that will make
 the curses permanent for both of you.” She smiled and leaned back in
 her seat. “Now that that’s taken care of, you two may cum.”
The two of them had been hanging just short of orgasm, moaning and
 whimpering, licking each other with abandon, trying desperately to push
 each other over the edge. Now finally they each crested, their bodies
 spasming and writhing, their pussies throbbing hard and strong. They
 each gave guttural cries through their noses, still clutching each
 other and licking, prolonging their orgasms. After nearly a full
 minute, they finally slowed and stopped, and fell away from each,
 panting, exhausted, and spent.
“Oh, God …” Ann groaned in despair, tears rolling down her
 cheeks. “M-my life is over …”
“No, Ann … ” Susan said. “We’ll … we’ll get out of this. We’ll
 do as she says and we’ll be okay.”
“Very good attitude to have, Susan,” Melissa said. “And I have
 indeed eased my control of Ann. I daresay, however, that she had been
 humbled by this experience.”
Melissa stood. She strolled over to where her clothes sat on the
 table, sans her underwear. She shed her robe and slipped into her jeans
 and blouse.
Susan struggled to sit up as Ann continued to cry softly into the
 carpet. “Are you leaving now?”
Melissa finished buttoning her blouse before she replied. “I think
 I’ve had enough of your hospitality for now,” she said. “Oh, believe
 me, I will be in touch very soon.”
“Just what … what are you going to ask of us?”
Melissa smiled. It was a smile totally devoid of warmth or
 friendliness, a smile that sent a chill through Susan, making her
 shiver, fear clutching at her heart. “I have a great many things to
 explore about my new power,” she said as she moved to the door. “I have
 to have someone to practice on, don’t I?”
She waved at them and showed herself out, closing the door behind
 her.
END (?)