Much Mightier Than the Sword

The coin fell from his fingertips and into the slot cut out of the plastic paneling. The screen of the game machine instantly changed as a new game began. Bobby Rogan was pretty decent at these shooting games. The young adult gripped the plastic prop gun with his right hand and steadied his aim with the left, angling the crosshairs toward the large inset screen of the arcade machine. First he encountered a small wave of enemy soldiers, but he quickly dispatched them with his virtual bullets. Not soon after, he was battling some sort of zombies sucked straight out of a George Romero film. But he defeated most of them with ease. Yeah, he was pretty decent at these games. He came down to the arcade maybe once a month, but he hadn't seemed to have lost the touch. He would only pop in to play a few rounds, blowing off polygonal heads and watching the nonexistent blood coat the pre-rendered backgrounds, and then leave once his craving had been satisfied. Just as he squeezed off another lifeless round and blew a gasmask-wearing soldier to pieces, his cell phone went off inside his pants pocket. "Shit," he mumbled, and quickly fished it out. As soon as he flipped it open, he realized it was too damn small to hold with his shoulder and play the game at the same time. He glanced at who was calling, and placed the plastic firearm back in its metal holster with a sigh.

"Hey," he greeted, already knowing who it was. It was, in fact, his girlfriend, whom he had parted with an hour earlier so she could peruse the clothing at every retail outlet in the building.

"Where are you?" her small, feminine voice filtered through the cell's speaker.

"The arcade. You ready to go?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm outside the main entrance."

"Alright, I'll be there in a minute." Bobby closed his clamshell phone and dropped it back into his baggy pants. The girl waiting for him at the main entrance of the mall was Alexis Mahoney, a 24 year-old ice princess. A stone-cold ice princess bitch. But she was beautiful, and that was the main thing that kept Bobby from telling her to shove a pineapple up her cunt. He exited the arcade and made his way toward the wide arching entrance they had passed through not too long ago. The glossy tiled floor squeaked beneath his sneakers as he examined each and every hottie within viewing range. There was a short red head standing at a cell phone kiosk, exhibiting her washboard stomach with a tight, low-cut "belly shirt" and a long skirt with a high slit up the side. A long strip of tanned, leg flesh peaked out and made Bobby stifle an approving moan. On the opposite side of the floor, he noticed a girl working at the Baskin Robbins that looked particularly sweet and delicious in her own right. Shoulder-length brown hair curved around to frame an impossibly cute face that held large, glowing eyes and thin pink lips that were begging to be kissed. She was wearing a tight green sleeveless shirt that displayed an excellent rack and delicately thin arms that were just as well tanned as the redhead's exposed thigh. Bobby shook his head and tried to stop looking at all of the attractive women in the place. The mall was a magnet for them, and he knew it.

He finally reached the front entrance and immediately spotted Alexis standing by the curb, spewing some diatribe into her small, purple cell phone. He opened the front doors and walked over, hoping she was successful with her search. It might have saved him from her bitching for the rest of the day. But he immediately knew she had failed due to the number of store bags in her other hand; there were far too few. He stood beside her and absent-mindedly scanned the entrance area while she finished screeching into her phone about not being able to find "those fucking pants, like, anywhere". She finally signed off curtly and hung up. Bobby feigned interest in her quest.

"No luck, huh?"

She looked at him and rolled her large brown eyes before starting across the parking lot. He watched her ass as she stiffly sauntered toward the brand-new SUV her father had just bought her. If it weren't for the money and the body, Bobby thought, he would have had nothing to do with her. Her father was the vice president of some successful dot com based out of Little Rock, and he picked up a healthy annual salary, to put it mildly. Alexis had never had to work a day in her life and you could certainly tell. Bobby came from a middle-class family that did alright, but they were nothing compared to the Mahoney clan and, quite frankly, he was surprised she ever expressed interest in him in the first place. He wasn't the best looking guy around and his reputation was almost non-existent. With her looks and her money, she could have any guy she wanted. He supposed his charm won her over initially, but he was stumped why she had kept him around as long as she had. He figured that he would've been tossed aside long ago, but he was still here, somehow. So he accepted her constant bitter attitude. At least for now. She was too damned hot. So he followed her to the car and got into the driver's side.

"Ready?" she asked sarcastically from the passenger seat as soon as he shut the door. He put the key in and started the engine. It was going to be a long day.

For a Saturday, the streets were surprisingly empty. Bobby noticed this as he drove the large vehicle around aimlessly while Alexis picked up clues over her cell phone. She finally hung up, exasperated at the ineptitude of her friends.

"Where to, Captain?" he asked, knowing full well she wasn't in the mood for cute little nicknames.

"If you didn't want to come along, then why did you?" she spat at him.

"What? Youorderedme to!"

"No, I didn't. I just suggested it." She eyed him maliciously.

"Yeah. You suggested it, alright. And if I said no, you wouldn't have spoken to me for a month," he shot back.

"Whatever." She looked out the window, apparently finished spewing her venom for the moment. He looked out his window as well, and saw a small shopping center approaching them. A few clothing outlet stores names made up the large sign in front of the plaza.

"What about there?" he offered, lamely. She barely moved her eyes to glance at his referral—and immediately lit up.

"Yeah! Stop here!"

He quickly slowed down the SUV, surprised by her sudden agreement, and turned into the parking lot. By the time the car came to a stop, she had already undone her seatbelt and was opening the door. "You weren't completely useless after all," she grumbled before slamming the door.

"Bitch," Bobby said loudly in the confined space. He got out and jogged to catch up to her. "You think they're here?"

"Drew said she thought they were from an Elliot's," she responded without looking at him. "I just didn't think there was one in town."

Sure enough, one of the stores in the center was an Elliot's. It was a small chain of expensive department stores that catered mostly to rich women. There were probably only two in the whole state. Bobby came to a stop while Alexis kept marching toward the entrance. She noticed he wasn't with her anymore and turned around.

"What are you doing? Let's go!" she commanded, impatiently.

"I think I'm gonna look around the other stores while you look for your pants." She sighed heavily, threw up a hand, and turned back on her journey to the store. He watched her until she disappeared inside, then began patrolling the sidewalk in front of the stores, casually looking inside the large windows for anything of interest. He came upon a small shop that looked very different from all the other ones. There were no promotional posters hung in the windows or neon signs. The only sign here was an old-fashioned "OPEN" sign hanging from the inside of the door. Bobby put his face up to the glass and peered inside. The walls were lined with shelves that held strange-looking antiquities, masks, costumes, magic items, and objects that Bobby didn't recognize at all. The name of the shop was "The Forum", and, deciding it was by far the most interesting of the stores he had seen, he went inside.

There was a short counter against the back wall. Old, small dolls dangled above it. But the dolls didn't look like anything a child would want. They were dressed in strange clothing and their faces were contorted into painful and angry expressions. One of the dolls' eyes were sewn shut. No one was behind the counter. The whole shop appeared empty. Bobby turned away from the gallows of evil dolls and started browsing through the items on the shelves. Everything was extremely dusty and when he picked up some of the artifacts, a clean spot of wood was left beneath them in their shape. It was as if nothing had been touched or sold here in years. Next, he perused the costumes hanging on a rack. They seemed odd, as well. Some were bondage-type outfits like gimp suits, while others looked like ordinary clothes. One costume was simply a white T-shirt with some orange shorts. What the hell was this place?

"Can I help you?"

The sudden voice startled Bobby. He spun around to see an old man standing behind the counter that was empty only moments before. He had to have come from the back, Bobby thought. The guy looked like a normal man of his age, which looked to be about sixty. He was dressed casually, much like Bobby's grandfather would dress, and his face contained a warm, friendly countenance. A bushy, white mustache sat atop his grinning lips.

"Uh, I was just looking," he finally replied.

"She's a bitch, isn't she?"

Bobby stood silently for a moment, eyeing the old man. He still stood behind the counter, smiling, with his hands in his trouser pockets. "Excuse me?"

"Your girl, Alexis. She's a bitch. Am I right?"

Bobby put the item in his hands back on the shelf and approached the counter.

"You know her?"

"Oh, yes. I know you, as well, Bobby," the old man said, still casual in his posture, as if he were having a normal, mundane conversation with his best friend.

"How's that?" Bobby asked, now standing just on the other side of the counter. The man didn't look familiar at all to him. But somehow, the man knew him. Maybe he was a relative of Alexis. Her grandfather? Her great uncle? If that were the case, it was a hell of a way to talk about her.

"I see you," he simply said, and pulled his hands out of his pockets. In each hand, he held something. Bobby could see that one item was a black pen, but the man's fist was concealing the other item. "I see her," he continued.

"Are you related to her, or what?"

The man shook his head and placed the items on the counter. "I see that you need this, Bobby." He removed his hands to reveal that he had placed an old, black fountain pen and a canister of ink on the counter.

"What is it?" he asked, somewhat frightened and intrigued at the same time. Of course, he knew what it was. But why would this strange old man give him an old-timey pen and some ink? There had to be something else to it.

"This pen will give you the ability to control free will," he explained, placing his hands back in his pockets. He smiled. "It will allow you to make Alexis more...pleasant." Bobby shook his head.

"What? Are you being serious? How does that work exactly?" Bobby shot at him, his sarcasm dripping with skepticism. This man had to be out of his mind!

"Just write a message to someone using the ink and the pen. Whatever the message contains will be followed explicitly by whomever the message is addressed to. If you write a command, it will be obeyed without question. If you write a question, it will be answered with the absolute truth. If you make a suggestion, the reader will instantly agree with you."

"I see," Bobby said, still unbelieving. "And why would you give this to me?"

The man's smile faded and he looked away, almost saddened. "I can't use it anymore. Once you reach a certain age, it stops working. Besides, I've gotten all the use out of it that I need. I saw you, and I know that you could definitely use it."

"What age does it stop working?" Bobby humored him.

"Don't worry, my boy. You've got many, many years ahead of you," the old man cryptically replied, his grin returning to his face. Bobby scooped up the pen and the small canister of ink, still doubtful of its magical propensities.

"What happens when I run out of ink?"

"It never runs out. Have a good day, Bobby." With that, the old man casually walked to a door behind the counter, opened it, and disappeared behind it. All was silent again. Bobby looked down at the pen and ink in his hands, pondering whether or not he should throw it in the trash. At that moment, he heard Alexis' shrill voice coming from outside.

"Bobby, where the fuck are you? Let's go!"

He looked back at the pen. What the hell? It was worth a shot. He quickly looked around the shop for any kind of paper. He spotted a few sheets lying on the other side of the dusty old cash register. They had some writing already on them, so he tore off a small section that was free of writing, opened the ink and dipped the fountain pen inside. As soon as he did, he felt a strange surge flow through him, almost like a shiver, and sort of like a head rush. He paused for a second, letting that feeling sink it. Then, he wrote a message on the torn section of paper.

Alexis Mahoney,

Stop being a bitch to Bobby Rogan. Admire him and treat him like a king at all times.

He folded up the small piece of paper, stuffed it into his pants pocket and grabbed the pen and ink before exiting The Forum. Outside, Alexis was waiting impatiently by the SUV, an Elliot's bag slung over her arm. She had found the pants. Thank God. He trotted up to her and fished the car keys out of his pocket.

"Where the fuck were you?" She demanded, her arms crossed and her eyes accusing.

"Just looking around," he said nonchalantly before climbing into the car. She got in as well, slamming the door after her. He started the engine.

"What's the problem? Didn't you get the pants?" he asked as he put it in gear.

"Yes, I did. But I expected my boyfriend to be waiting for me when I got out. That's why I wanted you to come in with me in the first place." Bobby clenched his teeth, hoping beyond hope that the pen did everything that crazy old man said it did.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't feel like browsing for hip-huggers in a store for little rich girls." He immediately regretted that.

"What isthatsupposed to mean? I'll have you know that..." She started and continued on for five minutes, her bitching grating on his nerves more than ever. He had had enough.

"I've got something for you to read," he said, quickly cutting her off in the middle of her rant.

"What?" she hissed, her eyes squinting at the gall of him to interrupt her.

"It's a message. I think you should read it," he told her, and lifted up his butt to dig into his pocket. He withdrew the folded section of paper and handed it to her. She snatched it from his hands and opened it. Her eyes quickly darted over the short message...and then she changed. Her annoyed and pained expression immediately regressed into a smiling, friendly façade. It was a look he hadn't seen on her since—well, he had never seen that look on her before. She looked up at him and her brown eyes were somehow more beautiful than they'd ever been. She handed the note back to him.

"Here you go, baby."

Baby? Bobby was floored. This might actually be working.

"Who wrote that anyway?" she asked him, her voice nowhere close to the shrill screeching that was issuing from her mouth only moments ago. It was now the high, cute and completely innocent feminine tone he had not heard from her since after they first met.

"I just, uh, found it. Weird, huh?" he replied, not sure if she would care at all if he had told her that he wrote it.

"That is weird," she said, a hint of apathy in her voice. She continued to look at his face, as if examining it closely. He forgot how beautiful her smile was. She finally leaned back, happier and more content than she had been in months. "You're such a good driver," she exhaled, glancing back over at Bobby as he drove. She was captivated.She admires me, he thought. She looked at his crotch and noticed he was getting hard. What she didn't know was why. He now had a power with limitless possibilities, and all that power was arousing. She leaned over toward him and started to rub him through his pants. She smiled at him, flirtatiously. He smiled back at her. She leaned in even closer to speak right into his ear.

"You want me to blow you, baby?"

He couldn't believe this! She hardly ever gave him a bj, and if she did, it wasn't her that requested it.

"Go for it," he breathed, excitedly. She smiled sexily at him as she undid her seatbelt and reach over to unzip his jeans. Her small hands pulled his throbbing member out of the zipper hole and she started licking up and down its length as she jacked him off slowly. Eventually, she put just the head in her mouth, sucking it while flicking her tongue over his pee hole. Bobby moaned and involuntarily closed his eyes. The car veered off the road for a second before he managed to get it back under control. She pulled her mouth of the head for a moment to look up at him, licking her lips.

"Mmm. Thanks for letting me do this," she commented and then lowered herself back onto his dick, this time taking all of it in her mouth. His breathing became much heavier and his concentration on driving was slipping away. Luckily, they were on a back road with no other cars in sight. Alexis started bobbing up and down on his shaft with ever-increasing speed. She then let it slide out with a pop before starting to lick and suck on his nuts.

"Oh my God," he moaned, trying desperately to keep the car going straight. She was now licking his entire package like a large candy treat, from his scrotum, all the way up and around his shaft, to his head where she swallowed his member once again and went back to bobbing up and down. With one hand, Bobby held the wheel. With the other, he held the back of her head, rubbing her hair around. It was not much longer after that when he felt his orgasm approaching. He had taken most of the pressure off of the gas peddle and the SUV was now rolling down the empty street at about ten mph. "I'm almost there," he hissed, closing his eyes. She brought her mouth up to lock her lips just around the head and continued jacking his shaft with her hand, while flicking his pee hole again with her tongue. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god..." he chanted just before exploding in her mouth. He arched his hips and butt off the seat and latched his hand onto the back of her head as he emptied his seed into her cum receptacle.

She sucked that last few drops from his dick and licked its entire length again to make sure it was completely clean. Alexis leaned up and looked him in the eye while licking her own lips clean of his spunk. Bobby tried to regain his breathing and his composure as he tried to regain proper control of the vehicle, speeding back up to a normal velocity.

"You taste so good, baby," she said in her sluttiest voice, while placing his dick back in his pants and zipping him up. She leaned back in her seat, still looking at him with admiring eyes. Bobby took another deep breathe and smiled wide. This was too good to be true.

Bobby pulled the sleek new SUV into the parking area of Alexis' apartment complex and shut off the engine. Alexis had been highly enjoyable and respectful the whole rest of the way home. She had kept silent most of the time, instead of droning on and on about trivial gossip the way she usually did...and the bitching had stopped completely. She was a completely different person.

"Thanks for taking me shopping, baby," she said sweetly, and leaned over to give Bobby some more tongue before he could even get out of the vehicle. They broke the kiss and got out. She grabbed her bags and took off up the stairs to her apartment on the third floor, giddy with anticipation for her new clothes. Bobby was right behind her, looking at her heart-shaped ass as it bounded up the flights of stairs toward her door. She stopped halfway up the stairs and playfully stuck her tight ass right in his face. He stared at it happily, thinking that he liked the fact that her jeans were so tight, they looked practically painted on. Then he reached up and squeezed it. He couldn't resist. She moaned invitingly and wiggled her butt some more before continuing up the stairs. She was never like this before. She had never been into teasing. It was completely alien to Bobby...but he certainly liked it.