Long Story Short Pt. 05

Another POV. All characters in sexual situations are over eighteen years of age.

Apologies for anyone genuinely religious for what you are about to read.

***

I cleared my throat, squared my shoulders, and said to all assembled, "Ladies. I have brought you here with one goal in mind- to expose the lewd warlock known as Jim!"

Silence. I looked around at the assembled ranks of the purity club.

"Sarah," said Tamika, her chubby frame leaning back, "I, um, I think that he prefers to be called an erotic mind controller."

"I'm not interested in what he calls himself," I said, as the plump girl blushed beneath her brown hair. "What's important is that his corruption of this school needs to end!"

"Um. It's...just...I thought it was all voluntary?"

"We only have his word for that, don't we? It's not like we can be sure. And even if that's the case- so what? This club," I said, touching my purity ring, "was founded to show the people of this school that chastity is not a mistake- and that lewdness and depravity will not be tolerated!"

Tamika spot up again. "Um. But most of the girls aren't virgins anyway-"

"Most of the girls are sluts," said Jenny, the olive-skinned girl sneering.

"We're the select few," said Kristen, the slim, pale girl giving a fierce grin.

I nodded at the two of them. They members of the purity club in good standing- and close friends of mine. "Just look around at the state of this school! It's only been a couple of months and nearly every senior girl is completely under the spell of this 'erotic mind controller.' We're a school of- of harlots."

"I mean- I know it's kind of bad-" started Tamika.

"Kind of bad? Kind of bad? A line of boys forms outside the girl's locker rooms every time they have cheer practice! We have blowjobs being handed out in every empty classroom! Tanya has started a love cult to some dumb Egyptian goddess! Girls moan at their desks during math classes! Our valedictorian holds orgy study sessions! We have the only school marching band in existence with an OnlyFans page!"

"But how do we stop it?" said Jenny. "Most of the senior girls are all corrupted-"

"Enslaved," muttered Kristen. "Let's call it what it is."

"The teachers are useless," I said. "Half of them are going along with it."

"And we don't dare confront him directly," said Jenny. She looked at Kristen. "We talked about it."

"You have?" I asked.

Kristen nodded. "There's no way we could stop him face to face," she said.

Jenny added, "Imagine what he could do."

"He could get into our minds in a heartbeat," said Kristen.

"He could make us to anything."

"I guess," I started-

"H- he could make us drop to our knees and worship him," said Jenny.

"Make us s-suck his thing," said Kristen.

"Touch our bodies while we were frozen in place."

"Make us want to do anything."

"To other boys."

"To lots of boys. All at- at once."

"To other girls."

"To each other."

"Um," I said.

"It might already be too late," said Jenny whimpered, gazing into Kristen's eyes.

"We might already be programmed to do all sorts of depraved, slutty, sexy things," said Kristen breathlessly.

"It was hopeless from the start!"

"There's no point resisting!"

They rose together, shouted "It's too late!" in unison and ran out of the room. A half-second later Tamika rose and, eyes lowered to the floor, walked out.

I groaned and closed my eyes.

"I did tell you," said the newest member of the purity club. I opened my eyes and glared at her.

Paula Jenningstone. Jim's first victim and- apparently- the only one who had been able to break free of his satanic grasp. She'd come to me a little while afterwards. It was really only through her help that I was able to see the sheer nightmare that the school had become- and kept myself from becoming a part of it.

Paula kept talking. "Kirsten and Jenny are only in the club because you joined- they just wanted the popularity boost. If they're genuine virgins I'll personally be shocked. And Tamika? Well, purity of her soul isn't the reason she isn't sucking dick with the rest of the girls. She's just sad and shy because she's fat." She leant forward. "You and I are the only two girls that really care about our purity."

I narrowed my eyes. Mother always said that we were meant to offer God's mercy to repentant sinners- it's part of the reason she married dad, after all- but Paula's conversion and her membership in my club always struck me as... well, not entirely sincere. But what else was I to do? We needed every person for this fight.

"Thanks," I said. "But right now we need to take action. If the students won't do the right thing, then the teachers will. If the teachers won't, then the parents will. And if the parents won't- then there's always the police."

Paula nodded. "Good ideas. But you might need to be prepared if this all doesn't go according to plan. Take more...direct action."

"What do you mean?"

She just shrugged. "Just that the laws of God are more important than the laws of man, right?"

"I won't do anything illegal."

She smiled, a lazy motion. "I just would have thought you would want to try anything to save the souls of your fellow classmates. Especially Jim's girlfriend."

I didn't move.

"Didn't you and Gabby used to be good friends?" she said.

I didn't speak.

"Before she came out as a lesbian," she said.

Not a muscle.

"It must have been hard, hearing that she stopped dating girls- only to find out she was dating an agent of Satan," she said.

I finally managed to speak. "Gabby made her choice."

"Of course. She's dead to your Church, right? I heard that her own parents nearly threw her out. And of course you had to drop her as a friend. You two used to be so close, didn't you? Like sisters."

I stood up, rubbing my purity ring. "Paula. Thanks for your help. I'm going to go and fix this. Mark my words, the next time this purity club will meet up, the threat of Jim the Erotic Mind Controller will be finished for good."

And then I left, my head held high.

***

"I'm sorry," said Vice-Principal Chambers. "I can't help you."

I glared at the teacher. She just folded her hands and looked back at me with the calm gaze of a fifty-year old woman who'd been glared at by teenagers for more than half her life.

"Why not? Don't you know what's been going on in this school? All of the sinning?"

"All of the people involved are over the legal age of consent. Academic performance have surged, along with sports, music...even our chess club is performing brilliantly!"

"Don't you mean our strip chess club?"

"Not at regional competitions, they aren't."

"They're only doing so well because everyone's been brainwashed to do well!"

"Consensually brainwashed," she replied smoothly. "With the right to undo the effects any time that they want."

"What about Principal Bendict?" I asked. "I want to speak with him!" Bendict was a member of my congregation- there was no way that he'd take this lying down!

"Principal Bendict has stepped down from active teaching. He's taking on a career change," Vice-Principal Chambers responded.

"Why?"

She didn't so much as blink. "He made some requests of Jim and then Jim felt he needed to share the particulars of said requests with me and then I asked Jim in my official capacity as vice-principal to do some things. And now Bendict has decided to find other employment not associated with teenagers. And Jim made sure- on my authority, you must understand- that he's very sorry and the police don't need to be called in. I'm sure you understand." And with that I was dismissed.

***

"So?" asked Mother.

We sat around the table. Dad listened in. The meal sat in front of us, with prayers of thanks out of the way.

"Nothing," I said. "I went to the police."

"And?"

"First they asked what an ero- what a mind controller was. Then they wanted to know that laws were being broken. Then they said that teenagers being horny was 'pretty much standard'."

"It's a crime in the eyes of the Lord," mother said. "I blame the depraved liberals for this."

Dad said, "They're just following the law." Mother gave him one of her looks and he stopped.

She continued. "The parents committee have been useless, too."

"Why?"

Her expression turned sour. "Due to the vile lies about Principal Bendict, they say that they aren't 'in a position' to take action- a bunch of gutless cowards," she said. "If I had my way we'd picket the school. But the witchery this Jim has woven has stopped us. It's disgusting. All those sinners." She stabbed her plate, spearing a piece of pork. "Don't you agree?"

"Right."

"Right?" She cocked her eyebrow. Across the table Dad threw me a warning look.

"It's just, Gabby was-"

Mother sneered at me. "Gabby! Oh, that little serpent! I can't believe you'd still talk about her in this home, after what she did."

Dad spoke quietly. "They were friends, once upon a time."

She snapped her head towards him and he looked away. "You have to make sure that he knows what she did was wrong. You need to make them know what the consequences of sinning are." She smiled suddenly and put her hand over Dad's. "That how you bring them back."

I nodded. Mother was right- mother was always right- but it was hard sometimes, to be strong. "I'm going to go upstairs," I said. "I need to pray."

I walked upstairs, leaving my meal half-eaten. I shut my door and knelt in front of the bed, my head clasped and my hands clasped in front of me. I began to pray.

It'd always enjoyed prayer, even as a child. No matter how bad things get, I could always close my eyes and let myself go, drifting away into a closeness with God. Sometimes I could feel his love as a tangible thing; warm and gentle, calm and true, wrapped around me like a hug. I remembered when Gabby and I were younger and we'd pray together, smiling as we both spoke to God. Then we'd fall asleep like two angels, curled up in each other's arms.

I shook my head. Gabby was- it was just that I missed her. We'd grown up together, close as sisters- closer, even. We'd played and talked and grew up and joked and slept and bathed together. It was so easy, being with her; both of us sneering at the boys who'd try to approach us because we were so pure that boys never tempted us to sin, and then-

And then she confessed to me.

And I didn't know how to- I mean, I did the right thing by telling Mother. And we removed the sinner from our lives. And things were never the same.

Oh, there were other friends. Members of the congregation and the purity club. Boys, too, picked out by Mother. But none of them were Gabby.

And now she was at the centre of this- this cult. This demonic plague spreading through the school. I knelt and prayed as though she as beside me still, prayed for her to turn away from sin, to see the light of God. To come back to us.

So we could be together again.

***

I sat in the club-room, waiting to confess my failure. My utter inability to stop the corruption of the school. It was ten minutes past the start of lunch.

No-one was there.

I mean, I wasn't exactly looking forward to the meeting. Graduation was only a few days away and I had done nothing- nothing at all- to save the souls of this school. But those girls were pretty much the only people that I could still rely on. At fifteen minutes past lunch I gave up and left to look for them.

***

I found them soon enough.

"Kristen? What in heaven?"

Kristen looked up at me with an expression that said that this was all a misunderstanding; that she wasn't on her knees with her shirt and bra off, that she wasn't holding a boy's penis in her hand and she definitely hadn't been sucking on it before I came in. "Sarah! I can explain."

"What is there to explain?" I looked around at the half-dozen or so other people that were- were just openly sucking penises in front of each other, getting their penises sucked or waiting patiently to get their penises sucked and there were just too many penises in front of me. "I thought we were resisting Jim's influences!"

"We tried!" she said, eyes downcast. "We really, really tried-"

***

Jim's mother opened the front door and stared at the two girls- naked and wearing dog collars- that lay kneeling at the doorway.

"We're sorry we ever tried to resist you!" one of them yelled.

"We submit to your demonic power!" the other sobbed.

She sighed and, turning, spoke in the voice of put-upon mothers everywhere. "Jim! It's happened again!"

***

"-You- you're really doing this out in the open?!" I waved my hands at the assembled girls and boys. "What if a teacher comes in and sees?"

Just at that moment, Ms. Nillus walked in, applying lipstick. "Alright, momma needs some vitamin D- oh, hello Sarah." She buttoned up her shirt and then said, "What are you doing here?"

I pointed at the young history teacher. "I- I need you to put a stop to this!" There was a chorus of groans from the rest of the room. "This is an outrage! Aren't you duty bound to create a chaste learning environment?"

Ms. Nilus glared at me and then sighed. "Fine. Everyone, the party's over."

There were more groans and more than a few dirty looks thrown in my direction. I said, "Surely they must be punished!"

"Fine." Ms. Nilus thought for a moment and then said, "Detention. Yes." She perked up. "All of you have detention with me today. After school. Mmm."

"All of us?" said one of the boys.

"Oh yes," Ms. Nilus said, smiling again. "And bring some friends."

Groaning, I left them to their depravity.

***

I found Jenny a little while later. Except that she wasn't Jenny.

"You are speaking," she said, "To Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men- uh- Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea- oh, yes- the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains. What is your- mmmph- business, peasant?"

I stared at the girl as she bounced atop a man's groin, entirely naked, her boobs big and distracting, her skin flushed and sweaty. "You're name is Jenny."

"Who is this Jenny? If you cannot make sense, begone! The Long Night is upon us." And she began to redouble her efforts.

I turned to one of the two naked boys she was currently pleasuring with her hands. "What did you do to her?"

"We didn't do anything," one of them said. "She booked this fantasy session and invited us."

"We're re-writing the last season of Game of Thrones," the other said. "It's a public service, really."

"Uh!" Jenny shuddered. "Fill my Targaryen womb with your seed, Lord Snow! Our child shall complete the prophecy!"

"This is sick," I said. "Horrific."

"It's fanfiction," one of the boys said defensively. "Are you sure you don't want to join in? Only there's a scene coming up involving her and the Stark sisters and we're short-"

I stormed out of the room.

And nearly slammed into Tamika. The girl's fat body had been crammed into a tiny set of sports gear. Her face was tomato-red and she was drenched in sweat. "S- Sarah?"

"Tamika!" I groaned. "Not you too?"

"I um- I just thought I might lose some weight- I mean, it can't hurt to be fit, right? Right?" She looked at me beseechingly.

A moment later Hsin- wearing a skimpy parody of sportswear- ran up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Nice going, Tamika," she cooed. "One more lap and then we can hit the showers."

With that the two of them ran off, Tamika lumbering behind Hsin.

***

I walked back into the meeting room to find Paula sitting in my chair. "Have any luck?" she smirked.

I glared at her. "You knew?"

She shrugged. "Think of this as an important lesson. You shouldn't rely on people, Sarah. They always let you down."

I sat down next to her. "It's over. There's nothing left."

Paula lent forward. "There's you."

I gave off a despairing laugh. "I'm just one girl."

"So? One should be enough. With the right approach." She leant back and pulled a brown bag out of her backpack. She put it on the table.

It made a horrible thunk sound.

I stared at it with rising horror. "Is that what I think it is? How- why?"

"I got it from someone who owes me a favour- and who's girlfriend decided she could afford to leave his ass since getting Jim's upgrades meant she didn't have to settle for him. Spoilt little bitch decided she only liked being hit when safe words were used. But you don't need to know the details. All you need to know is that the solution to all your problems is right there."

I swallowed. "That's- that's a sin. It's a big sin."

"Oh?" She got up from her chair and stood over me, her blonde hair framing her angelic face, her lips pouty and soft. "And here I thought you were a committed Christian."

"I am."

"So what's the problem? Once you're done Gabby will thank you. She'll come back to you as soon as his control is gone. You want her back, don't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Besides, don't you know your Bible?" She murmured, her breath tickling my ear. "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live."

***

I sat on my bed, praying with all of my strength. The- the horrid thing sat underneath my pillow like a hidden curse.

I prayed and prayed and prayed until my throat was raw with beseeches, but the peace of the Lord did not come. I felt alone and adrift, the path towards salvation lost in the gloom of my uncertainty.

There was a knock at the door. Dad stepped into the room. "How are you doing, Little Flower?"

Any other girl would have been upset at their Dads using the same name that they had used when they were a kid. I never did. I turned and tried to smile. "Dad, I- I'm not sure what to do."

He came and sat down on the bed. I rose and sat next to him. Even if Dad was a sinner- and Mother was very clear that he always would be, no matter how hard he worked to undo his mistakes- he was Dad, and while he would never have the grace of the Lord I knew I could always come to him for advice. "I feel like I have a decision to make- an important one, but I'm not sure which path to take."

"What does your mother say?" he asked lightly.

I looked away. "I think- I think I already know what she would say." Which was why I had put off asking her, like the weak little sinner that I was.

He reached down and clasped my hand. "What does your heart say?"

"I don't know-"

"Well," he said. "What was your first instinct? Most of the time when people aren't sure about having to make a difficult decision, they know deep down what choice they need to take- they're just worried about the cost involved." He paused. "So what was your first instinct? What did you first want to do?"

I closed my eyes. "Something horrible."

He clasped my hand harder. "I don't think that's possible, Little Flower. Not with you."

He left a little while later. I knelt and prayed again, seeking an answer from the wisdom of the Lord God.

Just for a moment I felt a touch of his divine grace filling my soul, and I realised that I knew what I should do.

What I had to do.

***

It was the night after graduation and I was parked outside of Jim's house. I opened the door and walked to his front porch. I felt the ugly clench of anticipation in my gut.

I stood at the doorway and took a moment to pray to God to give me the strength to do what needed to be done. And then I knocked at the door.

No response. I tried the handle; the door was unlocked. A sign? I sighed and walked into his living room. There were voices upstairs and I felt a terrible thrill as I recognised Gabby's. Good. This would make things all easier.