Edge Pt. 10

This installment covers chapters twenty-four through thirty out of thirty chapters. The entire story of Edge is a 73K word novel, detailing the experiences of the girls forced into a twisted augmented reality game called Edge. Through the use of enforced chastity, denial, manipulation, blackmail, and a generous system of real and virtual rewards, the Edge girls are made to compete in slutty challenges. As their ranks increase, though, these challenges take on new forms, ones that have goals with significant societal implications.

Author's note:

In this final installment, you'll find some appearances by characters from previous stories in the DomCo series. The first is Angela from Doppelganger, who discovered a Recoder cure on The Othe Side. The second is John Hamlin from The Second Place Sister, a callback to the first book in the series. The final appearances are from Dave and Erin Marrin from Love, Lust, and Erin. While you don't necessarily need to have read these stories, it does fill in back story for these appearances.

Edge itself makes further appearances in the side story The Penalty for Failure and in the upcoming second installment of Korrupting Kayla, which I'll begin posting on March 6th.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Angela

Jenna's body ached all over as she fought for awareness through a haze of arousal and thick, groggy fog. It was dark and she had no idea where she was. She rubbed at her eyes, heard Kara groan, and finally, she found the strength to sit up. A wave of relief washed over her as she realized that they were no longer in Lain's torture chamber. They were in the back of Jenna's car, outside, but no longer near the cabin.

"Kara?" Jenna said, shaking her naked friend.

"Hmm?" Kara replied, sleepily.

"Are you okay?"

"Fuck," Kara hissed, sitting up and looking around in confusion. "Where are we?"

Jenna shook her head, swiped up her HUD, and took stock. She assumed that one of Lain's thugs had driven the car somewhere and left them. The map showed them well outside of the city, still, parked in a secluded field.

"Anywhere is better than... that," Jenna said.

"You... are you alright?" Kara asked.

Jenna nodded, settled back in the seat, and said, "Erin, take us to the shop."

The car started up and hummed, bumping along over the uneven field until it pulled out onto a dirt road and accelerated.

"Jesus Christ," Kara swore, "What the fuck was that?"

"Not any church I want to be part of," Jenna said tiredly.

She stopped her recording and submitted it to the server, watching as Kara did likewise.

"I honestly do not feel bad about blackmailing this guy," Kara said, slumping in the seat.

Jenna had to agree. She rested her head on Kara's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry... for what I had to do back there."

"It wasn't up to you," Kara said, finding her hand, "Sometimes, this game sucks."

"All the fucking time," Jenna said.

***

Jenna and Kara found Leanna laying on a couch in their makeshift headquarters. Jess lay sprawled on another, dead to the world.

"Shit," Leanna exclaimed, taking stock of their exhausted faces, the bruises on their bare tits, wrists and ankles, "What the fuck happened to you?"

Jenna shook her head, which was surprisingly clear of fuck fog. Apparently, even the Recoder effects could be quelled by a long session of torture and forced orgasms. The two of them collapsed on the couch, blessedly free of the belts for the next three days, and now at rank thirty-one. They heard Leanna bustling about in their improvised kitchen, and a moment later she brought them each a steaming bowl of soup.

"Thank you," Kara said wearily, cradling the steaming stuff in her hands.

"Tough challenge, I take it?" Leanna asked.

"Let's not talk about it," Jenna said, "Any news on my contract, or this Recoder thing?"

Leanna nodded, "The contract is a pretty standard slave arrangement, but it's perpetual. If you agree to it, you're essentially giving up your human rights. Harder owns you."

That was not the news that Jenna wanted to hear. In one day, she'd have to decide if she was going to sacrifice herself for the good of the other girls or try to fight back. Unless, there was another option, like getting Harder to fuck himself.

"There is some good news, though," Leanna continued, and Jenna raised her brows, "Harder is an emotional fuckhead. Either he didn't know about the rule, or he's just such an egotistical prick that he thought he could get away with it."

"What?" Jenna asked, setting her bowl aside.

Leanna grinned, "The belts are one of the primary means of control for the game. Stealing one is a big deal. Think about it. If a player ditches their belt, they have to be given a new one. If they ditched it of their own volition, that means forcibly tracking them down and getting them back in line. If someone stole it, and the player reported it and came back to the game willingly, that's good on you and bad on the thief. It means dispatching an Enforcer, like the one you met, and that is something that is, apparently, frowned upon. You have the right to submit a penalty request."

Jenna was shocked. She had rights?

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"Whoever is in control will decide the penalty, of course, but you can submit the request," Leanna explained, "The rules don't go into any more detail."

"I'll do it," Jenna agreed, "What about the Recoder? I don't know how long I can live like this. If I'm not having constant orgasms, it just builds up until it feels like I'm going to die."

Kara put her arm around Jenna's shoulder.

"I have something on that, too," Leanna said, "It took some searching, but I found one reference to it by name and one case that sounds like something similar."

"Go on," Jenna said, hopeful.

"A few months ago, someone put out an ad, looking for experts in gene manipulation. He's been searching for someone to cure an ailment that sounds a lot like what you described. He called it 'artificially-created, overwhelming arousal,' and the ad is still open. Apparently, he hasn't found the expert for it, yet. The other reference I found in a message board. It was submitted only a few days ago. It's from a user calling herself Not-eNerd, and it was published on a conspiracy bulletin board, asking for information on something called a Recoder."

"Is there any way to contact her?" Jenna asked.

"I already did. She's local, and we're going to meet her tomorrow."

"Thank you!" Jenna said, throwing her arms around the other girl.

Leanna stroked her back kindly and said, "Don't worry, honey. We'll figure this out."

***

Jenna, Kara, and Leanna waited at a picnic table in a local park, enjoying the summer sun and attempting to appear as though they had normal lives. A frightened-looking girl approaching drew their attention. The girl wore glasses and her blond hair spilled loosely over her shoulders. She wore a slinky white top with cut-off sleeves and a sexy miniskirt. The girl looked familiar, and Jenna's eyes widened as she approached. She knew her. Kara perked up, next to her. The girl, nervously, joined them at the table.

"Angela?" Jenna said.

"Jenna? Kara?" Angela replied, equally surprised.

"You look... different," Jenna said.

The Angela she knew from school had been a very quiet girl, who dressed like a nun and kept her hair pulled up into a bun.

"I'm a little different, since school," she said, and there was a trace of sadness in her voice as she said it. She shook her head, brightened, and said, "You're the last people I expected to see."

"What do you know about the Recoder?" Jenna asked bluntly.

Angela's eyes shifted about nervously and she said, "Were you followed? Are we safe?"

"Safe?" Kara asked.

"Have you heard of a company called DomCo?" Angela asked.

Jenna and Kara shared a look. They had. Recently. In fact, the news this morning had told the tale of a shocking turn of opinion on the part of Father Lain, who had declared that he would be turning away from the fight against the new legislation, in order to focus on his ministry. He had, "faith in the members of Congress to make the right decision for their country."

"I..." Angela began, then lowered her voice, "I found something, recently, but I don't know what to do with it. When your friend," she nodded toward Leanna, "reached me, it was the first time I'd heard confirmation of it on our side."

"Our side?" Jenna asked, confused.

"Nevermind," Angela said, waving a hand, "Look, I don't know enough about DNA, chemistry, or biology, but I have some papers on something called an Anti-Recoder. There was this place, somewhere I went, where that company had used a Recoder on a bunch of girls to turn them into some kind of slaves. I thought it might be useful here, so I brought it back."

"Back?" Kara asked.

Angela shook her head, "If I told you, you'd think I'd lost my shit," she said.

Kara laughed and said, "Fucking try me."

"Can we... go somewhere else?" Angela asked, looking scared.

"Let's take a drive," Jenna suggested.

The four of them piled into Jenna's car, and when Jenna directed Erin to start a route out toward the countryside, Angela immediately became very animated.

"Full self-driving?" she asked, "I didn't think anyone had actually done it yet! Is that AI based on a neural net? Is it reactive? Limited memory? Theory of mind? Is it actually self-aware?"

"Um, I have no idea," Jenna admitted.

"Fascinating!" Angela exclaimed, "Is it purely voice control, or do you have some sort of alternative interface?" she began looking around the dash, examining the console.

"The Recoder," Kara prompted, "You were telling us about the Recoder."

Angela, reluctantly, pulled her attention from the car's computer screen and shook her head.

"Sorry," she said, "There was this guy, Dale, he was my dad, only not really my dad. He was... it doesn't matter. He'd managed to crack some kind of anti-Recoder treatment to counter the effects of whatever a Recoder does to people."

"It makes you... it makes you want to be a slut," Jenna said, "like the only thing that matters is getting off, and you feel like you're going to die if you don't."

Angela flushed and seemed as if she had something to say, but then she stopped and nodded.

"Someone used one on me," Jenna admitted.

"You?" Angela asked, "DomCo?"

"No. Someone else," Jenna said.

"I have a call," Leanna said suddenly, "I think it's him! The guy!"

They fell silent and then Leanna was speaking to someone, the call happening in her Halo earbud. Angela looked at her strangely, but then figured she must have a hands-free.

They could hear only Leanna's side of the conversation, but she was excited, saying, "Yes... Yes... It's true... Of course... Uh huh... Okay. We'll see you there."

She ended the call and looked happy.

"Take us to this address," she said, tapping and swiping, and a moment later an address appeared in Jenna's Haloes.

"Erin, can you take us here?" Jenna asked, tapping at the address as Angela cocked her head curiously.

"Guidance altered. Initiating Route," The AI complied.

"What's all the?" Angela, asked, making little tapping motions at the air, "And how did you know what address she was talking about? She didn't even say anything! Are you all aliens or something? Cyborgs?"

Kara couldn't help but laugh at how serious the girl seemed in her question, but then she stopped laughing when she saw that Angela was, actually, very serious. And scared.

"No!" Kara said, "Angela, are you alright?"

"They're called Haloes," Jenna said, "They're smart lenses."

"Haloes? Those things are at least five years from market," Angela said, "I've been following the development. How did you get them?"

"It's... a long story," Jenna said, "and I wish I could tell it to you, but I can't."

Angela laughed and said, "Boy, I know that feeling."

As they drove, Jenna felt more hopeful about her future.

Chapter Twenty-Five: John Hamlin

The AI parked the convertible in a vacant lot on the outskirts of town, which made Jenna wonder just how many abandoned lots there actually were on the outskirts of town. The place was little more than some kind of steel bunker and, judging by the number of security cameras around the lot and on the building, it was the bunker of someone very paranoid.

The four of them approached the metal door, Jenna raising her fist to bang on it, but she stopped short when the door opened. A man emerged, dressed in loose khakis and an expensive polo. He was big and gorgeous, but he looked haggard and tired, like all the weight of the world rested on him and had for far too long.

"Um, hi?" he said.

Leanna stepped forward and said, "We spoke on the phone."

The man seemed perplexed and replied, "You... seem a little young. Are you sure this is about... that?"

Leanna nodded. The man nodded back. He allowed them to come inside.

"John Hamlin," he said, and stuck out his hand.

Kara, Jenna, and Angela all shared a look.

"Hamlin?" Angela said, "Like Stephanie and Tori Hamlin?"

John's brows raised in surprise.

"My daughters," he said.

"We go to the same school," Jenna said, "Er, went. We just graduated, too."

"Small world. Follow me."

John Hamlin took the three of them down a short hallway and into what looked like some kind of laboratory, where another man in a white coat peered into a microscope. Angela looked very excited, bouncing on her feet as though someone had just handed her everything on her Christmas list.

"This is Kenny," John said, motioning toward the man in the coat, who looked up and nodded at the four gorgeous young women, his cheeks flushed.

"Pleasure," he said.

"You said you know something about this business," John said, clearly hopeful, "I hope to God that's true, because I've been looking for a long time."

"Did," Jenna started, "Did it happen to someone you know?"

John looked sad and nodded but didn't elaborate.

"It happened to me, too," she said, and John took a step back, his eyes widening.

"How do you... feel... right now?"

"It's getting hard to think," Jenna admitted, and it was true. It had been hours since her last orgasm and the feeling had been intensifying.

"Kenny, do you have any of that stuff ready?"

The scientist nodded and opened a cabinet, taking down a pill bottle and dropping one into his hands. He handed it to Jenna, saying, "It's not a cure. To be honest, you're the only other person I've actually met that it happened to, so I can't say for sure it's going to work. If it does, it will help tone down the effects for a little while."

Jenna swallowed the pill without hesitation, praying that the man was right.

"Were you at NewYou?" John asked, carefully.

"NewYou?" Jenna asked back.

"The clinic," he said, spitting the words.

"No," Jenna said, "I've never heard of it."

Angela stepped forward, pulling something from her purse and passing them to Kenny, saying, "This is what I have. I tried to get copies of everything I could find on it."

Kenny took the papers and began to flip through them, his eyes widening with every page, until finally, he snapped his gaze back to Angela, his jaw hanging open.

"Where in the world did you get this?" he asked.

"More like which world," Angela said, and then shook her head and continued, "Trust me. If I told you, you'd think I'm fucking crazy."

Kenny raised one eyebrow and said, "As a scientist, I don't dismiss anything that sounds crazy at first. I'm working on finding a cure for a DNA-altering injectable that recodes a subject's genetic makeup to turn them into a constantly aroused sex toy. I work in a bunker in the middle of nowhere for some rich computer scientist. So, yeah, I'm pretty comfortable with crazy."

Angela looked as though she might be in love.

"Do you have something that can measure quantum vibration?" Angela asked.

"Not really my field," Kenny said, now more curious.

Angela fished in her purse and handed the man a phone and a couple of dollar bills. He took them, looked at them, and furrowed his brows.

"What is a WozPad?" he asked, turning it over, "The Independent Republic of China?" he asked again, then looked at the bills, "Where... where did these come from?" he asked, finally putting the question and the objects together.

"The same place as the papers," Angela said, and it looked like some kind of weight had been lifted off of the girl.

"You..." Kenny said, then he seemed to struggle, looking back at Angela, then at the objects he held, then back to Angela, "You didn't. Did you?"

"I did. If you ask me how, I'm going to say, 'magic' and then your cheese is really gonna slide off your cracker, because that's the truth, too," Angela said.

"What are you two on about?" Kara asked, voicing the confusion of everyone else in the room.

"If I told you," Kenny said, smiling at Angela, "You'd think I'm fucking crazy."

John Hamlin coughed, catching Kenny's attention.

"Right. Sorry, John," Kenny said, handing the objects back to Angela before he continued, "It'll take me some time to go through this, but I think she just brought you a cure."

Before she knew what was happening, Angela found herself being crushed in a bear hug by the big man. In a voice so sincere that it made her want to weep, John said, "Thank you so much. Tell me how I can repay you, and it's yours. Anything on earth, and it's yours."

Angela shook herself out as John let her go, flushed, looked at the floor, and then asked, "Well, do you think I could help Kenny? I... kind of like science," she asked.

John nodded, grinning.

"And," Angela continued, "if you know of somewhere that's hiring, I'd really like it if my dad didn't have to work two jobs."

"I'm sure I can arrange something," John agreed, then turned to the other three girls, "And you, ladies? While I'm playing the genie, is there some wishes I can grant for you?"

The three of them looked at one another. Jenna opened her mouth to speak, shut it, and shared a look with Kara. Kara gave a slight shake of the head and said, "Don't trust anyone."

Jenna flushed, amazed that Kara had read her mind, but there was something about John Hamlin that made her inclined to trust him. She opened her mouth again.

"Jenna," Kara said again, a note of warning in her tone, "Hush, hush."

John watched the other two girls visibly pale at the words.

"What?" he asked.

"Mr. Hamlin," Jenna said, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Honey, I sign NDAs all week long. I probably have more secrets than some governments," he said.

He watched as the girl removed something from one of her eyes and handed it to him. Curious, he took it, then looked at her with raised brows, asking, "Is this a Halo lens?"

Jenna nodded.

"Where did you get this? I know there's a public beta happening, but these are years away from release. Forgive me, but I find it hard to believe that one of you, let alone three of you, got into the test."

"Do you have some time for a story?"

"For this, I think I can make time."

Jenna began, "It happened to me a month ago..."

Chapter Twenty-Six: Outside Help

John Hamlin paced back and forth in the lab, stroking his chin as he thought. The first story he'd heard, from the girl named Jenna, had bordered on unbelievable. In light of what NewYou had done to his daughter, though, the unbelievable was something that he'd come to accept as very possible. The idea, though, that there was some kind of social engineering project going on, under the guise of a twisted game, and on such a large scale was horrifying.

The story that came next, from Angela, was a lot tougher to swallow. At the conclusion of Angela's tale, everyone in the room was quiet, nearly unable to process the fact that this girl had actually traveled to a parallel world, much like their own. The evidence, though, was right in the lab with them.