Pneuma - Ch. 01

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Hey everyone. New writer here. Finally took the plunge and happily accepting any and all feedback. Please and thank you.

There is some experimentation with this first chapter. The pacing and hazy detail of much of this chapter is meant to reflect the altered state of mind of one of its characters. Hopefully the writing comes across as doing just that, and not as a story that doesn't know how to take its time!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy. Cheers. - Kyriel

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Pneuma: For Wellness. For a new you.

Pneuma is the new up-and-coming meditation and sleep aid on the app store, and is the most comprehensive. Consider joining the millions out there who are getting REAL help in easing stress, improving their sleep deprived schedules and gaining an overall better outlook on life. Pneuma is different: it is designed as a rigorous yet perfectly paced tool for a gradual re-training of the brain whose impact dramatically improves with time. It utilizes clinically-focused sound frequencies and cues to actually alter your brain waves and prime it for an ever-improving quality of sleep and relaxation. This is serious science and the app requires the use of advanced headphones (see the compatibility guide below) as well as a dedicated 5G or Private internet connection at all times. It is also primed specifically for adult physiology, and so can only be utilized by adults who are 18+.

Take control of your wellness and stop wasting time with superficial apps on the market. Rest assured that we are as committed to your well being as you are! Try free for one week, then $9.99 per month.

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Cassandra Dawn (or Cass, to her friends and one of two ex husbands) scrolled through the app's description, and then checked the specifications/compatibility table, which was extensive. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she chewed the back of her pen. Christ, why does everything have to be complicated? She more or less glossed over it and clicked purchase... What the hell. She's probably good - Sophia gets her a new piece of tech every birthday (sometimes she wishes her daughter had a softer and less pragmatic touch), and Sophia knows to get the good stuff. And Cassandra could use a change. Life in her mid-fourties, now freshly single again, is bringing back out all of those restless qualities that rarely lead to anything good. So what the hell. Here goes....

The first few days were ok. The app seemed to do its job but not with much aplomb. She would feel generally relaxed after 20-30 mins to the male voice prompter (not the best dulcet quality, but not bad either) and drift off to sleep. Nice, but nothing revolutionary. Before the week was through, though... something changed. She started waking up and not able to remember the point at which her head hit the pillow. The sounds coming through with headphones changed. There wasn't even any voice prompt anymore, just layered sounds of crackling electricity interspersed with sounds of gentle gales and waves. And she was starting to notice that the sounds of crackling energy from her speakers would start to travel up and down her spine...

Days blended into weeks and the changes kept coming. She vaguely recalled Sophia's critical gaze and questioning remarks but that was just her usual questioning nature. Cassandra mind was abuzz with energy. She listened to the world so much more intently now and regularly heard things previously unknown to her. Her body became a dynamo of warmth and she could practically feel it emanating off her every minute. She now found her body hot to the touch upon waking and would now regularly fetch ice cubes, tracing them teasingly across the soft, responsive curves of her body. She always laughed at first, at the coldsnap sensation taking her by surprise, but by the time the cube was near melted she could feel her body writhing against her silky sheets. When the ice cube inevitably found its final destination at the outline of her pussy lips, her moan was always deafening.

This IS a new her, she thought. She felt like she was in effortless, frictionless sync with the world's rotation. The dull parts of her day at work barely register, with nary an imprint on her memory except for those moments where she gets those stares. She noticed it more and more, hungrier and hungrier eyes following the trace of her ever shorter skirts and teasing busts. She recalled a sideways glance and some mumbled talk from her boss about dress code, but then she pulled him into the copier room and sucked off his cock. She smiled coyly as she told him to grab her hair and guide her... it was strange to see such a normally assertive man suddenly sheepish, but he soon found his gusto again as he shot a steady stream of cum straight into her throat. What a strange and rich world this is, she thought, leaving the office as if on a cloud...Not only was she in this rapture but she could share of it with others. She would later text her boss about how she needed to borrow his creamer from the copier room soon. And she paid no mind that she would spend the rest of the day smelling faintly of "creamer," either.

Others, too, were like her. In the office. On the subway. She just knew. They had the same look. Their ears perked up at those same invisible cues. They all crackled with the same energy that practically leapt of their skin when they touched.

And then Cassandra had to laugh because, since when did she take the subway? She cannot even rightly say when she started. But she just walked on... she lived only in the present, after all. She would just hum a tune and drift along the world's invisible, magnetic tunnels... She fancied herself a bird in migration, guided by raw instinct.

Life was not yet perfection but she was getting there. Sometimes she would stumble back into her apartment on someone's arm only to find the lover from the previous night still there. Ugh. She would soon find that she preferred woman lovers who aren't as prone to lingering about. Funny how she had spent so much time on this earth without even realizing how much she enjoyed the taste of pussy. She giggled at the thought until the 20-something beneath her asked her what is wrong, snapping her back into the moment. She looked around... how had sh gotten here, again? Cassandra then shrugged, and lowered her ass onto the girl's face while artfully tonguing the girl's sweet, tingling clit until she teased out those aromatic juices. The evening ended with the girl suggesting at the door that they go out for coffee sometime, and Cassandra promptly forgetting her name by the time she rounded the street corner.

Then came a dark day where it all came to a halt. Cassandra came home to find the figure of a younger woman awaiting her, with arms crossed. Not another lover... this time it was Sophia. And Sophia launched into a cavalcade of barbs and accusations. This conversation was different - so different. T he words had actually punctuated Cassandra's warm plushy barrier, leaving ugly footprints on her mind.

"Mom? What the fuck? I look at you and I hardly recognize you...

....

"That app, I don't know what is going on but I am looking at your data usage and it's an obscene amount being used ALL day and night. Oh don't look at me like that, you know I helped set up your phone...

...

"...mom, can you at least just look at me? Just look at me!! I'm concerned about you, y'know? Scared even...

...

"I'm afraid to even come around here because half of the time I see some random ass skeez I don't even know! This is not you, mom! Are you listening??!"

Cassandra collapsed into her sofa and softly cradled her neck with her fingers. She felt cold and empty and throbbing. She felt broken, in all the places where she thought she had been fixed. Suddenly, she felt Sophia reach out for her hand, and she instantly swatted her hand away. She heard herself yell to get the hell out. She just could not understand why her daughter had so much meanness in her. Last thing she remembers is the crushing sound of the door slamming behind Sophia. It was a sound that ping ponged inside her mind until Cassandra at last blacked out into empty sleep at last. She felt so cold... but prayed she would feel warm again upon awakening.

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{Three weeks after Cassandra's disappearance}

Mercer powered down his whirring, tinny computer tower at last, and then struggled to find his desk lamp (having forgotten that the computer monitor had been the only source of light in the room for some time). It was fast becoming winter, and Mercer had already forgone any chance of seeing dusk by the time he left his office. Even so, it's 7pm...

And yet as he was shambling to get himself organized and on his way back home, he could hear footsteps from down the hall... footsteps on the approach. He was not amused. The footsteps of a thin framed woman in heels... he would normally be curious, were he not so goddamned tired. The door opened, and Mercer stood from behind his desk, arms crossed.

And... as much as Mercer wasn't inclined to be having any of this, the figure that drifted into the room activated that itching, lizard part of his brain. She stood at maybe 5'5 but still conveyed a striking, commanding presence. Fierce green eyes, toned athletic body. They were the features of an early twenty-something, though the level-eyed gaze did not convey the usual carefree nature that such twenty-somethings ought to have. He wanted to look more but he dare not break her gaze. Besides...

"This is long past welcoming hours."

"I know... I apologize, but I need to speak with you, if only briefly. Mercer Grayson, right? My name is Sophia Dawn."

"Excellent - I'll write your name down. Now how about a number to go with it? I'll consider ringing you some time tomorrow."

"No. Please." Her body remained just as rigid but her voice was almost pleading. "I need to talk with you. Right now. I won't be long."

Mercer studied her features, still waters hiding raging currents underneath. There seems to be something real behind this, and yet she didn't seem ACUTELY afraid... at least not for her immediate safety. He decided to not sit down just yet.

"Well Miss Dawn, I am a private investigator. What I do takes time. Bending my ear when all daylight has since burned out will not yield much result."

"Please I just... need to run something by you. I need to know I am in the right place. That my case is of interest to you."

"If you're paying money for a legal investigation, the interest is there."

"It's more than that... I need to look into a disappearance. One that could well be connected to other disappearances..."

"Then I have to wonder why you thought to come to me for this. Connecting the dots between multiple victims is usually a job for the police."

"Yes, but with this case different. This..."

"Why don't you try the police first and have them determine just how different your case is..." Mercer says, cutting her off. She was exhausting him of his patience... conspiracy theorists don't strike him as the reliable sort of customer.

"NO." Sophia says flatly, arms akimbo. "In this case, the common denominator between the missing cases is something more unusual. More... technical. Not something that the police are suited to look into."

Sophia is met with only silence and a raised eyebrow. She throws up her hands.

"I know how this sounds. Have you ever heard of Pneuma?"

"What the hell is Pneuma?"

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{The night of Cassandra's disappearance}

Cassandra awoke in the dark, and the feeling of cold emptiness clung to her. She cradled herself and tried to breathe, though nothing seemed to slow down her heart. That door was still a fresh thunderclap in her mind... she could barely hear the phone dialing over it.

Wait.

Why was she holding her phone? Who was she calling?

"Hello?" That voice. Casandra knew who it was and yet... why can't she recall the name? Or face? Why was she so strangely happy to hear this voice? How long has she known this voice?? It seems so familiar...

It was okay, the voice would do most of the talking for her, asking her why she is upset. What happened? Has she been a good girl lately? Cassandra instantly fell into a warm happy groove giving almost rehearsed answers, and could sense she's had many similar conversations in the past...

Then the voice asked if she called from a payphone, and she faltered. She confessed that she called from her own phone. Apparently she had never messed up like that before. How awful. How awful for Master. She begged him not to hang up and tell her what to do. She was desperate as that briefly returning orb of warmth or centeredness started to drift away from her. She listened very intently until...

She was rocked to consciousness at the gentle nudging of a train. Not the subway - a proper train. She couldn't quite put her finger on the exact destination, but... she knew she was going back to find herself again, get back to where she was. The Warmth.

The blackness of night outside the window seemed to block out everything except the train... and Him. Him. About halfway down the car, looking at her. Intently. Her eyes met his gaze and it was arresting... She felt her chest start to heave along with shallow breaths. Instinctively she felt her legs part beneath her skirt and she felt a chill chasing up her thighs... She hazily realized that she wore no panties as her sensitive little cunny registered each whispy draft wafting against her exposed skin. The sensation was too much as she started gently tracing her manicured fingernail along the curvature of her pussy. She vaguely registered the presence of two others in the train car behind her but they didn't seem to take notice, unlike Him, now making his way toward her. Him, now sitting directly next to her while her finger lingered between her legs, unsure of what to do in His presence.

"Cass... you've been such a good girl." he said, staring at her with the faintest hint of a smile, taking in her scent. "You know who I am..."

"Master..." Cass audibly gasped as her finger slipped inside her aching pussy without notice, biting her lip. She felt his lips brush across her neck and kiss her, and she moaned again, louder. The Warmth that seemed to have abandoned her before has been rushing back, welling up inside her like a torrent.

"You and I have met before... this is why I didn't have to give you a picture of me for recognition. Do you remember? No I guess not..." His left hand gently and patiently massaged her thighs as the other hand cupped her ass, pulling her closer, continuing his barrage of rough kisses on the neck. Then she felt hot air at the entrance to her ears, breathing words into them.

"I made sure to condition you not to remember our past... good thing, too. You used to have such hatred for me. White. Hot. Hatred." Somehow, each punctuated word made Cassandra gush, right onto Master's hands, who started tracing the outline of her pussy lips while the other hand deftly unclasped her bra. Her tits tumbled out and the ensuing chill made her arch her back. It was then that she realized that she now had the full attention of the two other men on the train. Typical businessmen types - one white and one dark skinned. They were in astonishment but the intent behind their stares was unmistakable and so they needed minimal cajoling. The Master waved them over, not bothering with verbal cues. They were spectators. For now. The Master generously licked and sucked on Cassandra's acutely erect nipples, slooooowly drawing out the sensations and whimpers from the gorgeous brunette. He enjoyed making her squirm in full view of this new company. What a contrast from the prude bitch he had known a lifetime ago...

Then he stepped away, seeing Cass look up at him hazily. Expectantly.

"Choose." He said simply, and watched. You can tell alot about a person by seeing what they do with minimal instruction. He knew firsthand how the same set of instructions could yield very different results on two different, hypnotized subjects. He smiled delightedly when she immediately popped up and pulled both men onto her heaving chest, moaning loudly as they sucked and manhandled her. He laughed.

"Cass, my dear... you surprise me. So insatiable... moreson than someone even half your age. Say... how is Sophia, by the way?"

Cass's transformation was delightfully immediate, that lurid expression instantly washed away and replaced by terror and confusion. Certain conditions can knock even a moderately conditioned subject out of trance. He could have taken precautions against this, but the Master preferred it this way... there can be no real victory without the look of defeat in your opponent's eyes. The two other men must have instinctively picked up on this moment of weakness/shock, as one proceeded to roughly shove his tongue down her throat while the other cast his attention lower... tongue at her thighs, and fingers working her dripping pussy. Cass's body couldn't help but respond.

"Oh yeah, you gentlemen ought to see this woman's daughter... real fine specimen. Still in college, I think? But shit... they two could pass as sisters, I tell you."

Seemingly Cass tried to make some sort of retort, but with a cock now shoved in her throat, all she ended up doing was groan against it. Cassandra's consciousness tried desperately to resurface and fight against the sensations, especially at the mention of her daughter's name... Especially because this seemed to excite her base nature even more, she was ashamed to find.

But it was futile... As if her consciousness was a mile beneath an ocean of sleepy waters. Trapped, dim and mute until...

"Oh FUCK!" she cried out as she gushed out an orgasm against a greedily rasping tongue. Her whole body was electric and she didn't want it to stop. When the Master threw her against the seat she instinctively raised her ass in the air and felt the Master's cock enter her at last. She purred. Part of her had drowned in that sea, it seemed. There was no defense for what would come next as she timed the gyrations of her hips to be in rhythm with Master's cock.

"You are mine, Cass..."

"Mmmmm yessss..."

"You would do anything to please me, wouldn't you."

"Ohhh yes Masterrrrrrrr...."

The thrusting picked up to a frenetic pace as the two other men stand by, stroking themselves inches from her face.

"Good. You have alot to learn, Cass. All the ways to please Master. Isn't that right?"

"Mmm yes, Master. Anythiiiing."

"And then you're going to help me teach those things to Sophia, won't you."

Relative silence, besides the uncontainable moaning. But, his victory mounting, Master grabbed a fistful of Cass's hair and mounted her ever harder, bucking her mercilessly.

"SAY IT CASS, SAY IT. SAY YOU'RE GOING TO BE THERE WHEN I FUCK SOPHIA, SHOW HER HOW TO BE A GOOD LITTLE WHORE LIKE HER MOTHER. SAY IT."

"Oh fuuuuuuck yes, make her you're fucking whore. We'll do it together, oh fuuuck."

"Tell me to fucking cum in her like I'm going to cum in you right now."

"FUUUCK yesss, Master, fucking cum. Cum right now, fill us up we both need it. Mmmm such good little slutsssss..."

And with that, the crescendo to everything. Cass could feel the waves flood inside her, followed by the splashes of cum onto her crazed face. Her bliss was restored anew, fixed and permanent. She knew no doubt as she followed her Master off of the train. She had another go with him and the two gentlemen at the train stop, and then she followed him off into the darkness of night. Again she recalled the image of being a bird in instinctual migration, and that there were others that seemed to just like her.