I don't mean to make the impression that everything Suzi and I did together that summer was in some way sexual.

Hmmm... Actually, I can't think of anything we did do that wasn't somehow related to sex, but I know there had to be as many nonsexual occasions as there were sexual ones. I guess they just weren't memorable enough to remember them.

Okay I got one. I helped her wash her car the night after we got back from our two day camping trip together. Wait minute... Shit. Suz sorta didn't wear a bra that morning, and after I shot her with the hose I guess... Well, she got all wound up from the being out in the open in front of her house with her breasts showing through her wet T-shirt. It started innocently enough, but... Hmmm.. Bad example.

Hey.. I know... On the Fourth of July, Brad, Gloria, Suzi and I all went to watch the fireworks at the same shopping center Suzi and I had fucked in. No sex there... But... Shit. The next night, Suzi talked them into hiding in the mall past closing time and we took turns fucking by this fountain by the main doors. Gloria couldn't cum from the stress of possibly being caught, but I think Suzi came enough for all of us that night.

Okay, okay... So all Suzi and I did together that summer was either have sex or plan on having sex. Is that so bad?

Anyway, the week after the fireworks, Suzi and I were again hiding in the racks of clothes waiting for the last of the sales people to leave. While this was only the third time we had done this, I was pretty comfortable with doing it, and actually I was probably as eager to do it as she was that night. It was such a rush to get away with it, plus the sex was always outstanding.

It did kind of shock me when after I called the all clear, Suzi came out of her rack already naked. I didn't say anything of course, but for a moment I wondered if we were too comfortable about the whole thing for our own good.

When the moment passed, I stripped as fast as I could, then let her lead me out into the main mall by my hard handle. She walked us up and down the entire mall twice before deciding on a spot in front of the toy store and laying down with her legs up in the air.

"Joey, my love slave, tonight I am a whore. I want you to use me, fuck me like a dog, lick my shit hole until I beg you for your cock in my ass. Do every kinky thing you can think of and cum inside my holes as much as you can. Do it, slave. Make me your whore. Do it now!"

Shit, was she ever horny that night. I licked her cunt and ass until I couldn't lick any more, then fucked her cunt, her face, her ass over and over again, cumming three separate times before my balls were empty, all while she had me call her a whore, a tramp, a fucking bitch in heat.

She fucking wore me out, and she still wasn't satisfied. I was having trouble staying hard for her as she rocked back and forth on top of me with my cock up her ass.

I was so far out of it that the first indication we were no longer alone was hearing someone else's voice answer Suzi's question of, "Who are you?"

"Mall security," the raspy male voice said from somewhere to my right.

I felt like I had licked a light socket when I realized we had been caught, but my first instinct kicked in immediately, making me sit up and prepare to protect Suzi at all costs.

"You're under arrest," a second man said as he slapped a cuff on my left wrist while I struggled to stand up.

"Under what charge?" I managed to say as he maneuvered my other wrist behind me and slapped the other cuff on it with a loud click.

"Well that depends, doesn't it..." the first man said as I got a good look at him.

Rusty was a tall and very overweight mid thirties man with a short sloppy beard and hair to match, while his partner Gerald was average height and fairly skinny but otherwise a duplicate of Rusty.

"What do you mean, depends?" Suzi said while attempting to cover herself as best she could with her arms and hands.

"He's secure, Rusty," Gerald said as he stepped away from me.

As I discovered my cuffs were attached to some kind of steal bar embedded in the concrete wall behind me, fear beyond anything I had ever imagined feeling passed through me when Rusty said, "Depends on how cooperative you are, pretty thing."

"You FUCKING LEAVE HER ALONE!" I screamed in rage as I threw all my weight against my restraints and found myself unable to defend her at all.

"What do you want," Suzi said with a cold calmness to her voice.

"Tell her what we want, Gerald," Rusty said while spreading her arms away from her body and getting a good look.

"The whore Suzi Marie Aster, that's what we want," Gerald said while sliding his hands against her ass cheeks.

I went into a frothing rage at that point, and probably would have knocked myself out against the concrete if one of them hadn't knocked the wind out of me with a night stick.

As I gasped for my breath, I heard Suzi say, "... just don't hurt him again."

"Suz..." I gasped desperately as she knelt down and started undoing Rusty's pants. "No...."

"Joey, it's my fault," she said coldly. "I dragged you into this, and now I'm paying for it."

"That's right, Joseph T. Conner, two arrests for disturbing the peace, one arrest for rape that the victim dropped the charges the next day. Your little whore here is going to pay for her mistakes in exchange for us letting you both walk out of here in the morning," Gerald sneered as he removed his pants.

"I just love this job," Rusty said as Suzi teased his cock through his underwear. "See Gerald? I said she'd go for it when we watched her fuck him last week."

"Just remember I was the one who searched the whole mall looking for their IDs while you sat in the office and watched them fuck. I get to fuck her first."

"Fine. Oh, there's just one last thing, whore," Rusty said as Suzi took hold of his fat cock and moved to give it a shaky lick.

"We don't want to leave any evidence so you can later claim we raped you," Gerald said as he handed a condom to Rusty who immediately handed it down to Suzi to put on.

I struggled in vain to free myself as Rusty sat his large ass on the ground while Gerald guided Suzi onto all fours. I sat there feeling a bit numb as Gerald entered her cunt from behind, then hung my head in defeat when he exclaimed, "She's fucking wet, Russ! She really is a fucking whore!"

My adrenaline was gone, my body exhausted from the long fuck and my struggles to break free, but I refused to let myself just sit there and watch them use her... My Suzi. The center of my life.

"No," I growled hoarsely as Gerald penetrated Suzi's ass.

"I'll fucken make you suck the shit out of her ass," I whispered as I struggled to form the commands in my head.

I strained, pushed and surged my pathetically weak telepathic abilities until my head hurt from it all, then as I rested a moment to try again, Rusty decided it was his turn to fuck her and had Suzi lay down on her back.

"You'll hurt her!" I gasped as Rusty moved to straddle her.

"Don't worry, she won't make any noise with my cock in her mouth," Gerold said as he pulled the shitty condom off is cock and replaced it with a fresh one.

I saw the fear in Suzi's eyes as Rusty's mass covered her small body, making me redouble my efforts to render him a shit eating slave as Gerald slipped his cock into her already strained looking mouth.

They were hurting her, and they didn't care. I was in agony for failing to protect her, to know that there was no pleasure in this for her this time for she was having to strain for every breath when she could before it could be pushed out of her lungs by the shear weight behind each of Rusty's thrusts.

My desperation and anger came to a violent peak when I saw Suzi's eyes rolling up as she struggled to remain consciousness. I realized that my fears for enslavement of my family or the natural fear for intense physical pain was nothing to the fear of losing Suzi forever.

"NO!!" I cried at the top of my lungs while putting every ounce of my being into commanding them to get off her and let her breathe.

I went completely limp and hung from my shackles as they continued to fuck their merrily way, my head burning with pain as I watched her for the third time roll her eyes and pass out for several moments.

I started to beg them to let her get her breath, offering them as much money as I could think of, girls from Stan's harem, and even my own life for hers. But they weren't listening, for they were working up to another orgasm, and just as Suzi passed out again and then she didn't awaken again on the next thrust, I felt the familiar telepathic touching of my mind that I instantly grabbed onto and formed the link.

The link only lasted a few seconds, but that was all I needed to enslave the two animals and order them to get off her and help her breathe.

As Russ helped Suzi to sit up while she coughed and gagged for her breath, Gerald finally found his keys and rushed over to unlock my cuffs.

"What happened?" Suzi croaked out as I rushed to the floor beside her.

"I... I enslaved them," I said as I wiped a small smudge of her shit off her cheek that must have come off of Gerald. "Are you okay?"

"I think so," she said, carefully moving her arms and legs. "My tits are a bit flatter than I remember, but other than that... Wait. Did you do it... by yourself?"

"Someone linked with me long enough for me to do it," I said, turning towards the two blanked faced blank minded zombies. "I'm gonna fucking make them eat each other's shit. They almost killed you."

"Don't," Suzi said weakly, putting her hand on my shoulder to stop me. "Joey, make them forget and make them never do anything like this again. They don't deserve..."

"Why!?!" I said, with mixed emotions. "They almost fucking killed you, Suz! They deserve anything I can think of to..."

"IF you did, you would be a greater monster to me than they ever could be. And I meant what I said earlier. This was all my fault, and I deserved what came to me. I'm sorry I got us both into this. Now fix them and take me home."

"But Suz..."

"DO what I SAY!"

"Yes, mistress," I sighed obediently.

As it turned out, I couldn't snap them out of their mindless zombie states until I linked with Wally, and then at least I had the satisfaction of knowing they were going to get what was coming to them when Alex decided they would be fine toys for him to experiment with for a week. Alex assured me nothing excessively cruel, just a bunch of tricks on their minds to confuse the hell out of them. Before Suzi and I left, Rusty was already dressed in a tutu trying to do a sexy dance for a few couples staying with Wally and Alex that night.

On the drive home, Suzi shocked the hell out of me by stripping out of her clothes and ordering me to check us into a hotel for the night. I did as she said with beads of sweat forming on my forehead from worry, but she explained that she stank so bad that she didn't want her clothes to get too smelly so she had took them off until she could shower properly.

After I came back from the lobby with the key to our motel room, Suzi unhurriedly got out and walked to the room stark naked, and then just waited there for me to open the door while this truck driver ogled her body five doors down.

When I closed the door behind us I said, "Suz, you're scaring me."

"You don't need to be," she said as she headed straight for the bathroom. "I'm just too tired to care about anything but taking a shower and going to sleep. Are you going to wash me or am I doing it myself."

While she started the water, I stripped and then found her sitting on the can trying to shit.

"Shit, I'm sorry," I said, turning to leave.

"Joey, it's okay. Come stand over here."

I stood where she had indicated with her finger, then watched her strain for several more minutes before she stood up and said, "Wipe please."

Suzi had never ever willfully allowed me or Tim or anyone to be in the bathroom with her when she pottied before, let alone have someone else wipe her bottom afterwards. But never the less I did was she asked, wiping her bottom as gently and thoroughly as I could while examining the damage to her ass hole from my cock and others stretching it too far.

"I think that's enough," Suzi said after I used the fifth wad of tp on her poor bum hole.

She stood up straight and flushed the last wad of paper, then turned to me and sighed at my worry racked expression.

"Joey, I'm fine. Really I am. It's been a long time since I was used like that, so I'm just drained, that's all."

"You mean... Steven."

"Yes," she sighed, stepping into the tub, then waiting for me to follow.

Once I closed the shower curtain, Suzi flipped the showerhead on and then stood there without moving as the water sprayed us both with its warm cleansing power.

"Wash me?" she said after several minutes of us just enjoying the feeling of the water.

After I began washing her as gently and thoroughly as I could, Suzi complained she was too tired to stand much longer, so I eased her down to sit in the tub and continued my cleaning that way. It was a bit cramped for me, but she was as comfortable as I could make it for her.

I avoided her vagina and anus figuring her ass was as clean as it was going to get and she'd want to do the rest herself. But when I said I was finished, she simply said no I wasn't, slid herself down into the tub and stuck her cunt up in the air with her legs spread as far as they could go.

Once I had done all I could to her sad looking puss, I gave it a gentle kiss and again said I was done.

"Now wash yourself, silly," she said with her eyes closed.

I did so as quickly as I could, then shut off the water and helped her up before drying us both off.

"Do you ever think about what it would be like if we were still Steven's slaves?" Suzi asked out of the blue as I carried her to our bed.

"Sometimes," I admitted. "But I try not to."

"I haven't thought about it for a long time until tonight, but you know what?" she said as I laid her down on her side of the bed and crawled over her to get to mine.

"What?"

"It doesn't scare me any more," she said, snuggling up to me and intertwining her leg with mine.

"You were scared. I saw you."

"But not because of what they were doing or going to do to me. I was afraid of what they might do to you, or what you might do to them. I don't think I can be raped anymore Joey. It just doesn't... scare me to be forced into having sex with someone else. What do you think of that?"

"I think we're too tired to think. Right now all that matters is that you're safe."

Suz gave me a kiss on the chest and then said, "Then go to sleep, my faithful pet. Go to sleep..."

As usual, I did what she said.

In the morning, I awoke with her words "What do you think of that?" still ringing in my ears. We apparently had forgotten to turn on the air conditioning and the sun shining brightly in through the shaded windows had heated the room up to the point where we both were covered with sweat.

I'll never forget how beautiful she looked laying beside me on top of the covers all spread out and sweaty like that. It would have been sexually invigorating if she hadn't looked so defenseless, so innocent, and just so nakedly beautiful.

I carefully got up and turned on the air before getting back in bed and watching her as she slept.

"What do you think of that?" kept echoing around in my head while I tried to form some kind of answer besides, "I don't know what to think about that."

When the air became cool enough to give her a bit of a chill, Suzi turned onto her side, then felt my body's heat beside her and snuggled up against me. When she went back to sleep huddled up against me like that, I felt so at peace that I too fell asleep.

I was awake the instant she stirred, and I was watching her closely when she finally opened her eyes.

"Good morning," I said gently.

"Mmmmmm," she said in agreement while stretching.

"How do you feel?" I said after she relaxed and closed her eyes with a smile on her face.

She opened her eyes and looked at me a moment, then reached over, pulled herself up to my face and kissed me tenderly before running her right hand across my soft cock and saying, "I feel good, and a little horny."

"You're kidding," I said astonished.

"Wouldn't you feel a bit horny if you woke up with a hot naked woman laying in your bed who will do anything you say?"

"Only if her name was Suzi," I said as my cock finished filling out to its hardest form.

"Good. Now go get dressed and get my clothes out of the car, please?" she said with her lips hovering over mine.

"Yes Mistress," I whispered before she rolled off with a grin on her face.

I took her home, then turned around and headed home myself after explaining what happened to Jason so he could watch out for her the next few days.

When I finally got home around one in the afternoon, the first thing I did was shower to get rid of the smell that had clung on my clothes from the night before.

My phone was ringing when I got out of the shower, and when nobody answered it after the first couple of rings, I went ahead and did so thinking it might be Suzi.

"Hello?"

"Joey? Whew, man... I've been trying to get a hold..."

"Tim?"

"Yeah. Look, are you okay? I felt something was wrong last night and I've been..."

"I'm fine, and Suzi's fine too, thanks to you. Where are you?"

"What do you mean thanks to me?"

"I mean if you hadn't let me link with you for a few moments last night..."

"Link with you? Joey, I didn't link with you."

"You didn't?" I said a little confused. "But you said you felt something was wrong..."

"I did. What happened? Why did you need me to link with you?"

"Long story, but everything's okay now. Er, no wait. I just remembered. Your mom has been trying to contact you for a couple of weeks now. Tim, Eric's missing. Everyone thought he went with us to England and he hasn't been seen since."

"Eric is missing..." Tim said slowly.

"Yeah. Where are you? Your mom is worried sick that the twins..."

"Joey, listen to me. I'm fine, Eric's fine, and you don't need to come looking for us. Okay? I got to go."

"But where?" I said just before the line clicked and he was gone.

I hung up the phone while trying to sort some very strange feelings out. I had this strong urge to go be with Suzi, but I had just come back from having been with her.

And damn it, Tim's phone call was trying to slip from my mind from the moment I hung up. It was like I wanted to forget it, and if I hadn't had kept feeling the same sensation that I felt every morning when I woke up knowing I had forgotten something important, I would have never given his phone call a second thought unless directly asked about it.

I knew I had to call... Someone. Someone about something... Now what was it... Shit... Tim... I got to call Samantha and tell her...

I picked up the phone and dialed, but then Betty's voice answered and it took me moment to realize I had called Suzi's house instead of Tim's.

"Sorry, wrong number," I said before quickly hanging up and carefully dialing the number again.

"Hello?" Betty's voice said again.

"Shit, I did it again," I said, breaking out into a sweat.

"Joey? Is that you?" Betty asked.

"Yeah. I'm.. I'm trying to call Tim's mom, but I keep... dialing yours."

"Do you want to talk to Suzi?" she said after a pause.

"Yeah," I said feeling relieved just from the thought. "Er wait. No. I..."

"Joey, are you okay?"

"Yes. No... I got to.... write this down... before I forget again," I managed to explain before hanging up the phone, literally dripping with sweat as I struggled to keep the word "Tim" in my head.

I became so disorientated that I couldn't find anything to write on in my room, but when I stumbled into the bathroom by mistake and saw the steam still clinging onto the mirror, I knew it was my only hope.

A minute later, the phone rang again, and this time it was Suzi. I instantly forgot the whole thing ever happened at the first sound of her voice.

The following Saturday night, Suzi came over with her set of pictures she had taken on our trip for my mom to see after mine having been ruined by what I figured had been the x-ray machine or something at the airport.

Actually, the pictures were just an excuse for her come over that night, for my mom and dad were going out for the evening.

The moment my parents had pulled out of the driveway, Suzi pulled her shorts down, spread her legs and simply said, "Lick."

Oh, she had never tasted so good to me before. At least that's what I kept thinking to myself as I licked every inch of her cunt that I could reach with my tongue. But somewhere in the back of my mind I was wondering why it was so much better. I had done this a thousand times before with Suz, and there wasn't really anything different about it besides the fact I was following her orders... I wanted to believe that's what made it so great, but something about it kept bothering me.

"Oh Joey... I can't get enough of you," she moaned as she humped my face. "I've never been so hot for you for so long before."

I circled her knob with my tongue for the millionth time, then paused long enough to say, "Doesn't that seem a little strange?"

"Mmmm... Maybe, but I don't care. I hope it never stops. I want to fuck you till the end of time. Now carry me to the shower. I want you to clean out my ass so you can lick it out as good as you did my pussy."

"Yes, Mistress," I obediently replied as I picked her up off the recliner and carried her to my bathroom.

Suzi changed her mind by the time I had finished cleaning her ass up with the bar of soap. Instead, I fucked her ass for a bit, then fucked her cunt a while longer, then finally after her fourth orgasm, she jerked me off and then washed me up for a change.

We were both feeling fairly sedated by the time we climbed out of the shower, and it was while she toweled me off that I noticed the letters T I M on the mirror.

"Tim..." I said out loud.

"Hmmm?" Suzi said as she finished doing my legs.

When I didn't answer, she stood up and asked, "What did you say?"

I just pointed at the mirror as I struggled to remember what it was that was so important about Tim.

"Tim... What about him?"

"I don't know..." I said with difficulty. "Something about Tim I needed to remember."

"Well, whatever it is, it couldn't be important, now could it?"

"It is important. I think."

"Joey, don't strain yourself over it."

"But it is a strain. Why? Why can't I remember?"

"Stop it. You hear me? Stop it, that's an order."

I blinked as I let my hold on the vague memory go, then found her frowning at me.

"What?"

"What?" she said as her frown disappeared.

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Stop me from trying to remember."

"Remember what?" she teased.

"Suzi, please. Ever morning since we came back, I've been trying to remember something when I wake up. Why did you stop me?"

"What are you talking about?" she said a bit confused.

"You just order me to stop trying to remember what I've been forgetting, don't you remember?"

"Say that again?" she said with a chuckle.

"I... Oh never mind. What were we talking about?"

"I don't know," she giggled. "I don't remember."

I laughed, then hugged her tightly as I felt those strange feelings leave again as they did every morning.

But when I let her go and saw the word TIM on the mirror again, it all just suddenly hit me.

"Tim called. Suzi. I remember! Eric is missing, and Tim said not to worry about him or Eric. I have to call Samantha."

"Joey, wait!" she said as I opened the bathroom door to leave. "What do you mean Eric is missing?"

I came back, leaving the door open, and said, "No one has seen him since we left for England. Everyone thought he left with us. He didn't, did he?"

"Eric?"

"Yes, Eric!" I said a little frustrated.

She frowned and then suddenly reached out and took a hold of my arm to steady herself.

"What? Are you dizzy?" I asked, forgetting everything but the strange look on her face.

"Yes, but I'm not dizzy," she contradicted herself. "You said something about Tim?"

"I did?" I said, fighting the feeling I was forgetting something.

"Eric... Something about Eric..." Suzi repeated her legs started to wobble.

"Suz..." I said desperately as I caught her just before her legs gave out.

"Eric... Tell me again... What about Eric?"

My mind felt cloudy, and after I shook it, I had this sudden urge to look at the mirror.

"The mirror," I said as I looked in the clear reflection.

"What about it?" Suzi said standing up on her own two feet again.

"I don't know. What were we going to do?"

"We were going to get dressed, but now I'm not in the mood" Suzi said as she pet my cock while wearing an evil smile on her face.

"Again?" I said as it faithfully responded to her touch.

"MMmmm hmmmm" she said as she got down on her knees and took it into her mouth.

"Damn if this isn't the best blow job she has ever given me," I thought to myself. "Everything she does is so much better than before. And she's always so horny. It's almost as if..."

My thoughts were interrupted by her hands spreading my legs and her tongue moving farther back after lapping at my balls.

"Oh my God, Suz," I groaned as she probed her tongue between the hairs on my ass, seeking the tight hole she had so carefully washed out a half an hour before.

"Bend over so I can do this right," she commanded after a second try at finding my rose between my firm ass cheeks.

I did as she said, and she struck gold on her next probe, and after wetting the hairs back there with her spit enough that they laid aside, she began rimming me for the first time.

She didn't last long, for my ass was pretty damn tight and her tongue wasn't used to having to work so hard. But that was okay anyway, for by the time she finished, I was ready to nut, and after fucking her ass one more time, I was pleased as punch to lick it all out like I had done to Tim so long ago.

My mom and dad came back while we took our second shower, and it was a shock to us to realize we had spent four and a half hours in the bathroom fucking. Or at least at the time that's all we remembered doing in there.

When we finally got dressed and left my room, we found my mom looking at the pictures again.

"What's the matter, mom? You want to go to England so bad you can't stop looking at pictures of it?"

"Very funny, but no. It just occurred to me after we left that I didn't remember seeing a single picture of Tim in them. Didn't he go with you to see the sights?"

Suzi and I looked at each other while I struggled to recall which outings Tim had gone on.

I felt that feeling again, and it was really strong, but it was Suzi who suddenly gasped and snatched the picture my mom was currently looking at out of her hands and stared at it in disbelief.

"What is it?" I said as my heart started to race.

Suzi turned pale, then when she opened her mouth to reply, she fainted.

I somehow managed to catch her before she hit the floor, then held her in my arms until my mom got the smelling sauce out and waved it under her nose.

"What happened?" Suzi asked when she came around.

"You tell us," my mom said, holding up the picture of me posing with my muscles flexed in front of some statue called Nelson.

"I don't understand," she said while strangely resisting to look at the picture.

"Suzi, look at the picture," I said, after examining it myself and not seeing anything.

"No... I don't want too," she said irrationally.

"Suz, for God's sake look at the picture!" I said with emotion.

"But..." she said, not resisting my hands turning her head towards it.

She looked at it, then after a moment she relaxed and said, "I don't see anything."

I looked at my mom and said, "Are you sure it's the right one?"

"No, I'm not," my mom said while sorting through them again after having picked the rest off the floor from Suzi's fall.

"Try this one," my mom said, holding another out.

Suzi cautiously looked it over, then sighed with relief and said, "I must have imagined... whatever it was."

"Well then look through the rest of these anyway. Both of you," my mom said as she went over to the kitchen phone and started dialing.

"Who are you calling?" I asked.

"Samantha. She wanted to know immediately if you either of you started acting strange, and I'd say... Sam? Margaret. Suzi just fainted from looking at a picture she took in England.... Yes, she's fine.... Suzi, do you remember grabbing the picture out of my hands?"

"Grabbing the picture?" Suzi repeated with confusion.

"No, she doesn't... Joey, do you?"

"Of course I do. I was standing right here," I said with a frown.

"Oh really? Uh huh.. All right. What time do you think? Okay. See you then. Bye bye."

"What was that all about?" I asked as my mom wrote something down.

"Joey, do you remember making two wrong phone calls last Thursday?"

"Wrong phone calls," I repeated as I searched my memory.

"Yes. You accidentally called Suzi's house twice. Betty said you sounded very confused, that you said you were trying to call Samantha..."

"YES! I WAS! But... But.." I said as the memory faded before I could get a firm hold of it.

"Shit," my mom sighed. "Then Sam is right. Something happened while you were in England and you both have been... conditioned was the word she used. Conditioned to forget anything that might help figure out what."

"We're not forgetting anything," Suzi said carefully. "I remember very clearly everything we did in England."

"Let's sit down at the table and we'll see what you two do remember," my mom said.

My mom got one of those yellow legal pads and had us reconstruct what we did day by day as best as we could. I was surprised at how little I did remember, but then again it had been over a month, and it all did fall into place once we got it all on paper.

The next thing my mom had us do was to place when each picture was taken, and after about fifteen minutes we had several pictures assigned to each day of our visit, and Suzi and I felt quite proud of ourselves.

"So you still think something strange happened on our trip?" I said to my mom.

"Yes I do. It just now jumped out at me. Explain to me why in every picture over the two weeks you were there you wore the exact same clothes in every one of them?"

"What?" Suzi said as I suddenly felt the urge to say, 'I didn't think of that'.

"Uhm, I didn't think of that," I said shakily. "I just had to say that for some reason. I didn't think of that."

"Oh my GOD!" Suzi gasped and pointed at one of the pictures. "It's ERIC!"

"Where?!" I exclaimed then followed her finger to the picture. "I still don't see him," I said confused.

"Right there! It's his hat! I think. I mean... Oh, I feel sick," she said as she suddenly leapt towards the sink and threw up.

"Suz, are you okay?" I said, rubbing her back as she washed her mouth out and then turned the water on hot to wash what was left of her dinner down the drain.

"I think so. I don't know what came over me," she said.

I suddenly noticed how the steam from the hot water was fogging up the kitchen window above the sink, and I remembered...

"Mom! Come here! QUICK!" I yelled as I rushed to my bathroom and started the hot water in the sink.

"What? What are you doing?" she said as she walked in.

"Close the door! I don't know what I'm doing, but I got to do it!"

"But do what?" she said while turning on the fan.

"NO!" I said, leaping towards the switch and turning it off. "It has to be off, understand?"

"No I don't, but all right," my mom said while my dad knocked on the door asking what was going on.

As my mom tried to explain through the door, I went over to the mirror and tried to hurry things up by breathing on it.

"That's it! MOM! What does this SAY?!" I yelled before passing my breath over the mirror's surface again.

"It says... Tim."

"Tim.. Tim..." I said while trying to force the memory to the surface. "Tee I Em..... Tim.... Tim... Tim.. TIM! That's it! Mom! He called me! He said.. He said... SHIT! I'm forgetting AGAIN!"

"What did he say, Joey... What did Tim say?"

"Yeah, Tim.. He called. He wanted to know if I was all right..."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him... I told Tim... I was okay... and that Suzi was okay. And then... And then.. I told him his mom was trying to get a hold of him.... Trying to get a hold of him... And something else.."

"Did you tell him someone was missing?" my mom asked anxiously.

"Yeah.. I told him Eric was missing. And then he... And then he..." I gasped, finding it difficult to breathe.

"Joey honey, stay with me," my mom said, holding my face in her hands and making me look at her. "Breathe with me," she said as she animated her own breaths in a way I could follow.

After three or four slow steady breaths, I said, "I'm okay now."

"Good. Now what did Tim say to you?"

"Tim? When?" I said with confusion.

My mom groaned, then noticed the mirror and turned my head towards it.

"Remember now?" she asked anxiously.

"YES! Tim called me!" I said excitedly.

"I know that.. What did he tell you after you told him Eric was missing?"

"I... I.... I think... I... He said he was fine, and Eric was fine, and... and for me to come looking for them! THAT'S IT! That's what I've been trying to remember!" I yelled before feeling my stomach reverse and I upchucked my dinner all over my brand new bathroom floor.

Or I should say we were remembering it again. Remembering and throwing up again. This time Suzi and I did it almost at the exact same time, Suzi beating me by maybe ten seconds.

After that, Suzi went and got Eric's hat to remind her, and I wrote T I M on a blank page of my mom's legal pad and held on to it like Suzi did with the hat.

Shit, Suzi and I spent so much time just trying to keep from forgetting that we basically ignored the conversation unless someone asked us a question.

But I couldn't help but hear when my dad sat back with a sigh of frustration saying, "If you're so sure they're not in England, then where are they? France?"

"I know," I said.

"What dear?" Samantha asked me.

"I said know where he is. When we were in Atlanta, Tim said if he ever turned up missing, I'd know where to find him."

"And where would that be?" Charles asked, leaning forward.

"I'll tell you on one condition," I said, looking him, and then Sam in the eyes.

"What's the condition?" Samantha asked me patiently.

"That I and someone else go to get them alone."

"Abso-fucking-lutely not. You're not going anywhere," my dad began.

"Where is he?" Suzi asked me directly.

"Uh..." I said trying to resist telling her. "Uh... Venezuela."

"Of course... Gladius. That son of a bitch," Charles growled.

"I have to go," I explained to Suzi. "I'm the only one who's ever been there and..."

"I've been there too, Joey," Samantha said patiently. "Not as recent as you, but I know where it is."

"But you don't know the layout like someone who worked there," Charles said while looking me in the eyes. "Someone who was one of Gladius's teen voices and who helped run the place."

"Exactly," I said. "I think Samantha and I should sneak down there and with a little luck and some inside help..."

"I agree," Charles said before glancing at Samantha and saying, "But not Sam. Me."

"You?" I said startled. "No offense, but Sam's a lot stronger than you are and..."

"A month after my abilities showed up and right before my father left to start his own church with himself as the role of God, he arranged for me to be accepted into Gladius's er.. teen voice program, and allowed me to take my mother with me to be my slave. I spent two years there before my father's mass suicide, after which Gladius allowed me to leave. I may not have the strongest voice, and my knowledge of the area may be a bit outdated, but I know a lot more than Samantha does, and with your link, I dare say I might be more powerful than you imagine."

That was the beginning of a long and tedious uphill argument. My mom and dad didn't want me to go at all while Samantha didn't help me at all with her doubts of my mental state. The only person who was on my side was Charles, yet even that was a battle because quite frankly I wanted Sam to go, not him.

It was after three in the morning when we called it quits without having anything decided at all. Suzi had left a few hours before without saying much, and despite this having worried me at the time, I wasn't too concerned for I knew we'd have our own private discussion about this in due time.

My mom must have called Sarah pretty early the next morning, for I was still asleep when Sarah flung open my door and said, "What the hell has gotten into you?"

"Wha?" I said after sitting up with a start.

"You talk about me being selfish!" she said slamming the door closed again and angrily coming over to side of my bed I was laying on. "Do you have any idea how upset mom was when you ran off last time?"

"Shit, Sarah. I'm not running off this time. I'm going on a..."

"I know! You're going to go save your sweet and loving Timmy!" she spat. "Why do you have go save his ass every time he gets into trouble? You're not his body guard! And he certainly doesn't deserve your loyalty after the shit he..."

"Who the fuck are you to tell me who I give my loyalties to?" I said angrily. "And I owe Tim a hell of a lot more than just my loyalty."

"Oh really? Why? Seems to me you saved his fucking life a year ago. What has he done to return that debt? Hmmm?"

"If it wasn't for Tim, I wouldn't have gotten you back, I wouldn't have gotten Suzi back... Shit I wouldn't have even come back if he hadn't made me. Damn it Sarah. I owe him everything. You, mom and dad, Suzi, everything..." I said with tears suddenly forming in my eyes.

"And so you're willing to just throw all of that away in an attempt to rescue him from something you had nothing to do with?" Sarah said gently after a long pause.

"How do I know I had nothing to do with it? Maybe he made some kind of deal with Gladius to protect me and Suzi in exchange for whatever Gladius is doing to him? And he called me, Sarah. Me. Not his mom or dad. Me. He knows I'm the only one who can bust him out of there. I can't just ignore that and let myself forget it again. He needs me. I have to go. I just have to."

"Damn it kid..." Sarah said getting emotional. "I didn't think there was any way in hell you could..."

The hug she gave me right then signified that I was doing the right thing. If Sarah could be swayed to see it my way, everyone else could be too. Well, everyone but maybe the most important person I needed to convince, that is.

By the end of the day, everything was settled with my parents and Tim's. Charles and I were leaving the next evening to catch a flight to Miami, before taking a plane to Barranquilla, Columbia, the closest international airport to Venezuela as we dared to fly into. There was still a lot to do, and I still wasn't too comfortable with taking Charles instead of Samantha, but there was this other matter I had to attend to before I could concentrate on the trip any more.

Suzi and I went out dancing that night, neither of us wanting to talk about what we had to talk about so we didn't really say much as we danced. While we weren't all comfortable with this thing hanging over our heads, I wouldn't have missed spending that last night with her for the world.

When we danced the last slow dance for the night, she clung to me as hard as I held her against me, and it was just so... Damn, I'm tearing up even now. I guess you can figure it out.

Anyway, after we left the dance club, I drove us to the most expensive hotel in the area and checked us in without either of us saying a word to each other, but holding hands the whole time, even after we were in the room with the lights off.

"Well? I guess this is it," I said sitting down beside her on the bed.

"I guess so," she said, giving my hand another squeeze.

"You want to talk about it?" I said uncertainly.

"Is there anything to talk about?" Suzi said, lifting our hands up to her mouth and giving my hand a gentle kiss.

"Well, yes. I can't leave without you saying I can," I said hesitantly.

Suzi sighed and let our coupled limbs fall back between us, then leaned her head against me and said, "And if I said no?"

"I don't want to have to consider that," I said with my heart sinking in my chest.

"But I need to know, Joey. Up until yesterday, I thought you were my love slave. I don't really care that you are or not, it's just... Hard for me to see that... you find this more important than..."

"No, Suzi... no..." I cut her off while turning and hugging her. "Nothing is more important to me than you. Nothing."

"But..." she said with a cold calmness that ripped through my soul. "You will still leave me to rescue Tim even if I don't want you to."

And she was right. I couldn't deny it to myself any more. I couldn't let Tim down like that even if it meant losing Suzi... I did love her more than anything else on this Earth, but my feelings for Tim, guilt, loyalty, trust, and yeah, I guess love too, all combined and ran deeper than my feelings for Suzi at the time.

I didn't realize I was crying until Suzi leaned backwards pulling me with her and stroked my hair comforting as I cried a little harder.

I didn't cry very long, but it was long enough for Suzi to get a little teary too.

But when I looked her in the face after wiping what was left of my tears away, she said, "You don't need me let you go. You already freed yourself on your own."

I was as stunned as if she had slapped me in the face, but there was no malice, no intention to hurt, and worse of all it was true. I had freed myself. I would go even if she did order me not to.

The love we made that night was gentle, tender, and sweet. I swore to her when I returned I would be hers again for as long as she wished, but all she would say to that was, "Just come back. The rest doesn't matter to me."

Charles and I said our farewells at the North mansion the next evening before going to the airport alone to prevent making a scene. I had never left like that, everyone I cared about being there to say goodbye, not knowing whether I would ever see them again. But Suzi's confident words before her goodbye kiss made it all possible.

"I want you to bring all three of my men back to me. You hear? Don't fail me."

"I won't, Mistress... I won't ever fail you again."