Burning Man Ch. 07

In many ways Collodi credits Nadia with his awakening. Nadia was a Slavic beauty with natural near platinum blonde hair and a dazzling smile. Collodi was someone else then, but his old name didn't matter, Collodi killed that feeble nerd when he made his discovery.

He and Nadia had been friends and even considered dating, he wanted to, but that changed when he began following her around like a puppy in Junior High. He was never popular and never got attention from girls so when Nadia seemed to like him he lost his mind and couldn't fathom not being near her at all times. After some frustrating conversations they settled into friendship. Nadia considered herself a medium and practiced witchcraft all through the years. Collodi never put much stock in it until he started hearing people's thoughts. Of course she was ecstatic. She shoved books at him and told him it was important for him to hone his abilities.

It started as experimentation but changed one day in his Senior year when Nadia was agitated with him. She started dating a college boy and Collodi felt enraged by it, ferocious really, and he held it in for as long as he could until an assembly at school brought it all to the front. She yelled, he yelled, and soon he found himself in the bathroom. He jumped and kicked a stall door hard enough to bend it off its hinges, but the rage boiled in him. He left the bathroom still fuming and shattered the glass front of a fire extinguisher case. He cut his hand and dripped blood down the hallway. His hand throbbed in pain and his mind felt like it was about to snap. All the voices in the school hit him simultaneously and it dropped him to his knees. As he felt his sanity about to leave him and there was a spasm followed by blessed silence.

A janitor followed the trail and yelled behind him, "Hey you!"

Collodi could feel the janitor's thoughts, he was about to grab him by the scruff and drag him to the office. Collodi went deeper, the anger held him off for a moment, but it was an ever shifting tapestry of emotions. He was mad that he had to clean up blood, but he didn't really care about it or the student in his custody. Collodi saw the janitor's wife and three daughters, one went to school with him. He saw his disdain for his job, for the kids he cleaned up after, and especially for the vice principal. "I'm sorry," Collodi said meekly and he felt the janitor's anger subside further.

As he was escorted he stayed in the man's head. The sudden rush of arousal when he saw one of the English teachers struck Collodi. Talk to her, Collodi thought to himself and the janitor stopped and said, "hey Janine," he smiled at her, "I mean Ms. Marrow."

Collodi stepped into Janine's mind just as easily. She had little interest in the janitor except as an acquaintance and didn't even know his name. He informed her and said Carl, in her mind, "hi Carl," she smiled back at him. Collodi was intrigued that they both followed through. Carl was at least twenty years older than Ms. Marrow, but was still in good shape for a janitor. You like older men, Collodi thought to Janine. She flushed. "What happened?"

The janitor still held Collodi by the arm, "He busted out some glass, just taking him to the vice principal."

She nodded and Collodi thought, ignore me, to the janitor and Ms. Marrow and to his wonderment they did. Carl released him and turned his full attention to Janine. You're a cheater, Carl, and you desperately want to cheat on your wife with Janine. The janitor shifted uneasily as he and Janine continued their small talk. Janine seemed to be flirting, but Collodi wanted to see more. Touch his arm, he told her and she did as they spoke. Picture him naked and enjoy the image. He found resistance there. Janine had a boyfriend, but she was picturing Carl naked and was enjoying the image in spite of herself. Collodi was feeling the power and decided on the spot to erase the boyfriend. Janine was suddenly a single woman flirting with an older man. Carl leaned in and the conversation was becoming increasingly intimate. "I'm free after school," she admitted.

"What are you doing right now?" Carl asked.

She bit her lower lip and felt her tummy flop, "Free hour because of the assembly."

"Oh yeah?" he asked and she nodded.

Do it, Collodi thought, and followed them in, Janine you've never been more attracted to a man than you are to Carl right now.

She opened the door and brought Carl into the class room. Collodi followed after still ignored, hand still bleeding. "Come inside," she said lustily. Collodi closed and locked the door.

Janine's phone rang, but she didn't recognize the name on the ID so she ignored it. They kissed as her hands reached for Carl's pants. He picked her up and placed her on her desk while she released him. He pulled at her panties, both were still clothed, but Collodi could smell her obvious arousal.

It wasn't romantic. He speared into her wet snatch as she clutched closer to him and moaned at the sudden sensations. They were relentless and Collodi in his hormonal haze kept nitching up their desire. Each thrust was met with increased pleasure on bith sides. After two minutes they were completely addicted to each other. They rutted on the desk as they both came loudly again and again while he continued to pound into her. Collodi watched with fascination. Janine's shirt torn and her youthful breasts juggling with each motion. Carl's ass was exposed, it clenched and quivered as he cummed inside her.

Collodi was born in that moment. He was the writer and he could do anything he wanted.

He left the new couple there and heard the next day they had both been fired. Ms. Marrow apparently filed a restraining order against her former boyfriend who she had no memory of knowing and Carl left his wife unable to stop himself from fucking the English teacher at every opportunity. Collodi stopped paying attention. He was more interested in how to use his new found abilities. He punished Nadia by making her quit school and become an escort which was just as well since she had become a chronic cheater. After he fucked her for a few months, of course. She became pathologically incapable of staying faithful and refused open relationships. After that he just played and learned how to use his abilities over the next five years.

In his reverie he realized he had released his grip on everyone in the compound, but quickly reasserted his control. "Noami," he said to himself.

* * *

Noami's eyes shot open and she bolted upright. "Where am I?" her head searched the room. She was dressed in a pink bustier and matching panties. She looked down at her new clothes with confusion. "Something's different," she looked over to Morgan who sat on the edge of the bed smiling seductively at her

"I'm glad you're awake," she purred and crawled towards Noami.

"No, wait," Noami whispered, "I can't feel him in my head and you're Morgan Primrose," she said and tried the door but found it locked. "Key was hired to look for you," Noami said. "I don't know how long before he'll come back but we have to remember who we were. Collodi changed us, made us forget and he's going to sell you," Noami explained.

Candy reached out and touched Noami's shoulder, "No, silly. Collodi is my lover."

"No, Morgan, you have to fight it, get mad," Noami pleaded but she could feel the heavy presence of Collodi once again moving in her head. She tried to conjure the anger again but it was hard, she was tired, and being Ilsa hadn't been unpleasant. She even liked parts of it, the warm feeling that she didn't care about anything but pleasure.

Candy seemed to sense her struggle. She leaned in and kissed Noami on the lips. Noami's eyes closed as she reveled in the kiss. Candy smiled as Noami became Ilsa and melted into Candy. The fight was over and the warm feeling of surrender washed over her as she bit her lower lip. "You and I are about to become lovers," Candy said in a husky voice as she grew more aroused.

"I would like that," Ilsa smiled and kissed Candy back. Their hands exploring each others exposed flesh as they moved closer to the bed. Ilsa's fingers moved to Candy's delicate folds as their kissing became more feverish. Candy grew tired of their clothes and broke the kiss to frantically pull Ilsa's bustier. Ilsa's hand pushed Candy's panties aside and found her engorged clit. Candy moaned and sucked at one of Ilsa's nipples as her hands started their own ministrations against Ilsa's sex. "God damn it," Ilsa cursed as Candy fingered her. They soon became a tangle of limbs as they masturbated each other as their lips and tongues melted into each other. Ilsa's mind was on fire but there was something in the back of her head. She saw a punk girl in her mind's eye she saw her screaming but there was no sound coming from her mouth. The punk girl had a name but Ilsa couldn't quite bring it to mind, it was on the tip of her tongue as she seemed to watch her new identity fuck Candy. Ilsa made eye contact with her other identity.

Soon the door opened but the two women didn't stop, they were too engrossed in each other's bodies to see or even hear as Collodi entered the room. His body still felt weak so he stood and watched as his newest creations writhed in front of him. He thought about Key and wondered for the briefest moment if this Morgan girl was worth all the trouble she had caused. He would sell them both soon since Candy was ready to be moved out to the highest bidder. The beauty of his power was that their minds became addicted to the dopamine caused by the new identity so in the end they changed themselves. "Certainly a guilded cage," he said to himself as he watched Ilsa and Candy live out their own hidden fantasies brought to life with his nudging. "Really they should thank me. So many people wish they were a different person and now they don't have to be themselves ever again."

Ilsa moaned ecstatically as Candy tongued her slick pussy. "Just like that," she said as more of a ragged breath than actual words.

"Tell me about Key," Collodi asked her while Candy continued her work.

"He's my lover," she gasped. "He fights demons, um, he, oh, he was looking for Morgan."

"Demons?" Collodi asked.

"Oh god, yes!" She screamed as Candy worked her fingers into her and licked at her vulva.

"How is that possible?" Collodi flustered.

"I, ah, found out. He kept it from me, oh..." she quivered and shook as an orgasm crested in her body. He watched his girls writhe for a few moments more before leaving the room.

He walked along his warehouse looking in on the other women he had stolen from their lives. Key was at the forefront of his thoughts. He was colorful and eccentric, but demon hunter wasn't something he would attribute to the man he met. He reran the scene in his mind looked over the details that were preserved in his formidable memory. The tattoos that ran down his left side from his head to foot were tribal but upon reflection he saw some details, a Celtic cross on his neck, a veve on the back of his hand. Aramaic lettering, Sanskrit, and pagan runes were all there set together in a scrawl. Collodi stepped into his office and closed the door. The bottle of gin on the bar was easily the best course of action at the moment while he pondered the potential reality of what she was saying. It was impossible of course, demons don't exist, but there again he was an anomaly. Why wouldn't other creatures exist?

Collodi heard banging on one of the outside doors. It was as if a battering ram pounded against it. The sound shook him from his thoughts and he felt dread washing over him as whatever it was banged again. Collodi's eyes darted down the long corridor. His bodyguard was dead and there was no one nearby for him to control apart from the naked women lost in their own lust. A third bang and door sounded as if it were wrenched free. Collodi ran from his office and down the corridor and saw it, the thing with a hole in its chest and charred flesh sloughed off a blackened skull where a face should be.

"Where is Key?" it bellowed loud enough to make the hall shake. Collodi tried to speak, but his throat held onto his voice. Reflexively Collodi tried to enter the monster's mind, but found only pain there. It was like crawling naked through broken glass and the exit barbed and held him fast stuck in a universe of torment for what seemed like infinity. "You dare enter my mind feeble child."

"No, no, I wasn't..." Collodi managed to say before the pain coiled tighter around his nervous system. He felt the beast in his mind trying to bend him to its will, but he twisted away and finally pulled his mind free from the creature.

Hotspur lowered his head and what little muscle tissue remained around his mouth formed a kind of horrific smile. "I will use you."

"I won't be..."

"You know and hate my enemy and that makes you my ally for now," Hotspur stepped into the hallway and breathed into the cavity where his nose once was. "I smell him here."

"He was here before, but he's gone now," Collodi's stomach churned as he looked at his monstrous form.

"He will return," Hotspur growled and moved deeper into the compound.

Collodi stood up and did his best to compose himself in light of his new reality. The teenage girl behind Hotspur looked ready to fall over. It took almost no effort to read her, she was completely hollowed out.

The demon sensed his intrusion. "Kneel!" Collodi shivered as the demon's power hit him. He tried to resist but found his body responding automatically. He felt the horrors of the demon's mind enter his consciousness, "you were so eager to see inside my mind moments ago, yet now you flinch away," Collodi's mind was assaulted by blood, pain, and a endless parade of inhuman depravities each one more terrible than the last. His mind was cracking under the pressure. He thought back to school, to that moment when his mind nearly broke and started him on his path, and five years later here he was confronted by another impossibility. It made him laugh.

* * *

Ilsa gasped as Noami slammed back into her own identity. Morgan was rocking in the corner and throughout the compound she heard female voices crying out. "He's dead," Noami said to herself and felt a deep well of grief at the notion. It felt strangely lonely without him hovering in her mind. "Morgan, are you alright?"

She shook her head emphatically. "I'm Candy..." her voice was choked off by tears and she shook her head again.

Noami suddenly felt very naked both figuratively and literally. She looked around the room for her clothes, but only found the lingerie. She reluctantly put it on and padded out into the hallway. It wasn't long before she saw him, the demon, Hotspur, the source of Key's nonsense written out long hand in a composition book. Before that moment the notion of demons was academic. There was no confusing what this creature was. The collection of meat and bones in front of her would instantly conjure the word demon in her mind. In front of him Collodi knelt like a marionette with his head and arms hung low. "Would you like to see a show?" The demon asked with a voice that sounded like a dental drill.

"No," Noami said quietly as she looked on the horror in front of her. Collodi was still breathing.

Noami could feel the demon's influence from where she was. He was imposing and seemed to fill the hallway in a way that was as much physical as it was psychic and reminded her in a way of walking into Key's office when he was away. Collodi turned and stood in front of the monster with a wide vacant smile on his lips and dead unseeing eyes. There was no other thought in her head but to run.

Women, maybe seven, were leaving their rooms awakening to their new realities and suddenly lost without Collodi sedating them. Some were dressed in skimpy panties and corsets, but a few were completely nude. She spotted Candy/Morgan who had also wandered from her room and grabbed her by the wrist, "We have to leave, now," Noami ordered.

Candy snatched her wrist away, "No!"

Noami held in her frustration and looked at the young girl. "Do you want to go to a party?"

"Party?" Candy asked with suspicion.

"Yes, Collodi will be there."

"Really?" She perked.

"Yes, if you come with me right now you'll see Collodi. Can you get some clothes on?"

She nodded and wiped her tears away, "okay," she skipped down the hallway towards another room and Noami had to move quick to catch up with her. They both stopped dead when they saw him. Collodi stood in front of the massive demon and a young girl was at his side. Noami felt the dual assault of Collodi and Hotspur on her mind like a brick had suddenly been lodged between her hemispheres and it was all too much as she collapsed into a fugue state.