Chapter 5: The Second Coming
The black throne waited at the heart of the bell room like a wound in the white light. Ali's knees trembled as Hypnotica's hand found her elbow and drew her upright, and the plug shifted inside her, a slow, deliberate pressure that made her gasp.
"Come," Hypnotica said. "Sit for me."
Ali walked. Each bare step across the cold marble was a lesson in what filled her. The quartz still pressed against her inner walls from beneath, and the obsidian plug sat deep, a weight she could feel in her belly. The harness pulled at her nipples with every stride, the cream straps shining in the low blue light.
She reached the throne and turned. The obsidian surface drank the light, a black so deep it seemed to swallow the room around it. She lowered herself onto it, and the cold shock of the stone against her thighs made her cry out. The plug pressed deeper, and she felt herself clench around it, her body already hungry for the fullness to become more.
Hypnotica stood before her, a dark figure against the white walls. She wore a gown the color of deep wine, and the fabric moved like liquid as she stepped between Ali's spread knees.
"Tell me what you feel," she said.
"I feel full," Ali breathed. "I feel like you're inside me. I feel like I can't remember anything except this."
"Good." Hypnotica's hand found the harness strap where it crossed Ali's hip, tracing it down to where the plug's base sat flush against her entrance. "You've carried my gifts so beautifully. But I want to give you something warmer now."
Ali's breath caught. "What do you mean?"
Hypnotica didn't answer. Her fingers found the base of the plug, and she pulled.
The withdrawal was slow, deliberate. Ali felt the obsidian slide out of her inch by inch, felt the stretch of her body around the widest part, and then the sudden, shocking emptiness when it left her entirely. She gasped, her hips tilting forward on the stone, the absence of the plug a hollow ache that pulsed in time with her heartbeat.
"Empty," she whispered, and the word was a wound.
"Yes," Hypnotica said. "Empty. And I'm going to keep you that way for a little while. I want you to feel the want. I want it to build in you until you can't remember a time when you weren't desperate for me."
Ali nodded, her eyes wide and glassy. The quartz still pressed against her from within, a smaller fullness that only made the emptiness more acute. She could feel the shape of what had been taken from her, the exact circumference of the plug, and her body kept clenching around the absence, searching for it.
Hypnotica knelt before the throne. Her hands parted Ali's thighs wider, the touch light but possessive, and Ali felt herself open under the pressure. The cool air against her wet skin made her shiver.
"Look at you," Hypnotica murmured. "So open. So wet. You've been waiting for this all night, haven't you?"
"Yes," Ali breathed. "I didn't know I was waiting. But I was. I am. Please."
Hypnotica's fingers found her. Two of them, sliding through the slickness of her cunt, circling her entrance with a lazy expertise that made Ali's whole body clench. The quartz shifted inside her, pressing against her inner wall, and she moaned.
"You want more," Hypnotica said.
"I want everything. I want you inside me. I want to be filled with you."
Hypnotica slid her fingers into Ali's cunt, and Ali cried out at the sudden fullness. The fingers were slimmer than the plug, but they were alive, moving, curling against her inner walls with a knowing pressure that the obsidian had never offered. They pressed and withdrew, pressed and withdrew, and Ali felt herself opening around them, her body learning a new rhythm.
"That's it," Hypnotica said. "Feel me. Feel how warm I am. You carried stone inside you, but stone doesn't move. Stone doesn't know what you need."
"I need you," Ali gasped. "I need you to keep going. Don't stop. Please don't stop."
Hypnotica's fingers drove deeper, and her thumb pressed against the place where the harness had been grinding, the swollen nub of Ali's clit. The touch was electricity, and Ali's hips bucked against the throne, her cries echoing off the curved walls.
"Please," she sobbed. "Please, I'm so close. I've been so close all night. Let me come. Let me come on your fingers."
Hypnotica smiled, slow and terrible and beautiful. She withdrew her fingers, and the emptiness returned, a gulp of loss that made Ali whimper.
"Not yet," she said. "I want to taste you first."
She lowered her head between Ali's thighs, and her tongue found her. The first stroke was long and flat, from the bottom of the emptiness to the top of the swollen bud, and Ali's entire body convulsed. A sound tore from her throat, high and animal, and her hands flew to the back of Hypnotica's head, tangling in the dark silk of her hair.
"Oh, god," she heard herself say. "Oh, please. Please."
Hypnotica's tongue circled her clit, slow and deliberate, then pressed inside her, filling the emptiness with wet, living heat. Ali felt herself open around it, her walls clenching against the intrusion, trying to pull it deeper. The taste of herself was on Hypnotica's mouth, and the thought of it, the image of it, sent another wave of heat through her.
In the dark behind her eyes, something stirred. A shape, a name, a life. Alistair. The word surfaced against the tide of pleasure, and Ali felt a twinge of something cold, something old. She tried to grasp it, to hold it, but Hypnotica's tongue curled inside her, pressing against a spot that made her vision shimmer.
The name dissolved. She felt it go, a thread snapping, and where it had been there was only the wet heat of Hypnotica's mouth, the pressure of her tongue, the way her lips closed around the swollen bud and sucked.
"My name," Ali tried to say. "I had a name. I was... I was..."
"You are Ali," Hypnotica said, her voice thick and low against Ali's skin. "You have always been Ali. There is no other name."
Ali's mind went quiet. The protest died in her throat, and she felt herself sinking into the pleasure, into the wet heat, into the endless wanting. She was Ali. She had always been Ali. There had never been anything else.
Hypnotica's tongue worked her relentlessly, and Ali felt the orgasm building again, rising from the place where the quartz pressed and the emptiness ached. It was enormous, swelling inside her until she thought she would burst with it.
"Come for me," Hypnotica said. "Now."
Ali came. It tore through her like a breaking wave, a white wall of pleasure that erased every thought, every memory, every shred of who she had been. She felt her body arch off the throne, felt her walls clench around nothing, felt the orgasm rip through her in long, convulsing pulses while Hypnotica's tongue drove her through it and beyond.
She was still trembling when Hypnotica pulled back. The emptiness between her thighs was raw and open, and Ali felt a sob rise in her chest.
"What happened?" she asked. Her voice was small and strange. "I thought I remembered something. A name. A boy's name."
Hypnotica's smile was gentle and patient. She reached up and brushed a strand of golden hair from Ali's face.
"That was a dream," she said. "A last fragment of something old. It's gone now, isn't it?"
Ali frowned. The thought was there and then it wasn't. She tried to catch it, and found only the lingering pulse of her orgasm, the warm weight of Hypnotica's hand on her knee.
"Yes," she said, the frown smoothing away. "It's gone. I don't remember it anymore."
"Of course you don't. There's nothing to remember." Hypnotica rose, and her gown whispered against the stone. From the folds of the fabric she drew a small brass pocket watch, twin to the one she had used before. It caught the blue light, and the crescent-shaped scratch on its face glinted like a half-moon.
Ali's eyes fixed on it. The ticking reached her ears, soft and insistent, and she felt herself go soft and quiet, the way a settling bird grows still.
"Do you know what this is?" Hypnotica asked.
"No," Ali breathed. "But I like it. It's pretty."
"It's mine." Hypnotica held it before her, and the chain swung in a slow, steady arc. The watch moved side to side, side to side, and Ali's gaze followed it. "And it's going to help me plant a little seed in you, Ali. A seed that will grow into something beautiful."
Ali's eyes were fixed on the brass circle. She felt the world narrowing, the white walls of the bell room falling away, until there was only the watch and the woman who held it.
"Watch it swing," Hypnotica said. "Breathe with it. In on the left, out on the right. Let go of everything else. There is nothing else. There is only this."
Ali breathed. The watch swung. Her mind emptied like a cup upturned.
"Whenever I say the words 'good girl,'" Hypnotica's voice came, soft and layered, "your body will remember this moment. It will remember how it felt to come apart on my tongue. It will remember the emptiness after the plug left you, and the want that followed. And all of that remembering will become a need. A deep, hungry, aching need for my touch."
Ali felt the words sink into her like stones dropping into still water. Ripples spread, and then the surface settled, smooth and deep.
"Do you understand?" Hypnotica asked.
"Yes," Ali said. Her voice was dreamy and distant, coming from a far place.
"Good girl."
The words landed like a hand on her clit. Ali felt her cunt clench, felt her thighs press together, felt the rush of heat between them as the need Hypnotica had described bloomed into life. She gasped, her hips tilting on the throne.
"Oh," she said. "Oh, that's..."
"That's what?" Hypnotica smiled. "Tell me."
"It's like you're touching me. I can feel it. I can feel you inside me, and I want more. I want you to put your fingers back inside me. Please. I need it so badly."
Hypnotica's laugh was low and satisfied. She set the watch beside the throne, the chain pooling on the black stone, and knelt once more between Ali's thighs.
"Good girl," she said again, and Ali moaned, her body answering the trigger before her mind could.
She felt Hypnotica's fingers slide into her, filling the emptiness, and she came apart all over again. The orgasm was quicker this time, sharper, driven by the need the words had planted. She sobbed against the black stone, her body convulsing around the intrusion, and when it passed she lay limp and shattered.
Hypnotica withdrew her fingers and licked them clean. Ali watched through heavy-lidded eyes, her breath still coming in ragged gasps.
"Now," Hypnotica said, rising. She drew Ali to her feet, and Ali swayed against her, her legs weak. "Let's get you dressed. You've earned a rest."
Ali looked up at her, and the face she saw was the only thing in the world she knew. The white walls, the black throne, the smooth curve of Hypnotica's smile. She reached up and touched Hypnotica's cheek.
"I love you," she said. The words came out unplanned, unbidden, and she meant them with every empty, open inch of herself.
Hypnotica's smile deepened. She caught Ali's hand and pressed a kiss to the palm.
"I know," she said. "And you'll be a good girl for me, won't you?"
The words washed over Ali like warm water. She felt the need spark between her thighs, felt her cunt clench around nothing, felt a whimper rise in her throat.
"Yes," she breathed. "I'll be anything you want. I'm yours. I'm only yours."
Hypnotica's hand found hers, and she led her out of the bell room, away from the black throne and the brass watch ticking on its chain. Ali followed without looking back. She didn't remember there had been anything to look back at.