November 2

She still dreamed of spirals. By now, the black lines were almost as thick as the white.

November 3

Melissa stared at her reflection, the Black Pearl's music thumping in the background. She probably shouldn't have bought this second costume; Halloween was a whole year away, and no one but Doug would get the reference. But the red leather just looked so hot, and those flaming contacts - Melissa liked them even better than the black and white ones.

She twiddled the marker in her hand, wondering why it seemed so presumptuous to draw a tattoo on her leg. Then she put it away.

November 4

Melissa jerked upright in bed, heart hammering, body sweating. Ohhh, that dream! Black Pearl's eyes, flashing in her head. Black Pearl's hand, reaching out across the miles. Black Pearl's voice, commanding her to come. And Melissa had. She'd come right here, in her leather thong.

She stared blindly around her darkened room, gasping, sweating, rubbing her hands against her clit. Was she here? Was Black Pearl here? No, but Melissa could swear she knew which direction to look for her. The hypnotist's power pulsed out at her like sonar, penetrating flesh and bone and even brain. She could practically feel it, stirring the thoughts in her head.

For the first time Melissa considered the idea that Black Pearl really was an ancient sorceress. But, no, that was impossible. She shook her head to clear it, and the idea vanished.

November 5

"'Morning, everybody," smiled Melissa, bouncing into the kitchen. Several sorority sisters looked up from their breakfast.

"What are you doing up so early?" asked Rachel, the chapter President.

Melissa grinned and waggled the CD player at her hip. "Power walking," she said. "See you later." She skipped out the door, thrilling secretly at the trick she'd just played on her sisters. Not a one of them had noticed the contacts she wore behind her sunglasses.

November 7

Melissa didn't remove her sunglasses or headphones when class started, but old Dr. Peldon wouldn't care. He had 105 students in this section, and three more just like it. As long as everyone sat quietly and showed up for tests, they could do as they pleased.

And Melissa was very pleased, indeed. She sat quite still, eyes wide, face immobile, cunt squeezing rhythmically around the dildo. If she was a lesbian after all - and by this time she'd decided she must be - she wished she could have figured it out sooner. Melissa had never had so much fun in all her life.

November 10

Another wet dream. She woke up panting, and felt an uncontrollable urge to stare at the eastern corner of the bedroom. Yes, that was the way toward Black Pearl. She was out there somewhere, calling Melissa into thralldom.

Melissa tossed and turned for awhile, unable to shake the idea and unsure she even wanted to. But she had an eight o'clock class tomorrow morning, so she'd better try to get some rest. Maybe music would help. She reached for the stereo button, then thought better of it and grabbed her headphones. It was one thing to subject herself to subliminal programming; she was a willing subject. Debra, on the other hand....

November 15

It must be all that sleeping with the headphones on.

The dream started as it had for the last fight nights running, with black curves spreading across a white background. But at last the colors had reached equilibrium; and even as Melissa watched, the balance shifted. Now she stared at a white spiral on a black background, and black was still growing. What would happen, she wondered, when dark took over light entirely? In her sleep, she twisted the bed sheets into a rope and sawed them between her legs.

Now came the red, drowning the spiral in whorls of light and shadow, absorbing all colors into its own. Melissa bucked in her sleep, shrieking, and rattled the bed frame with the force of her orgasm.

"Dammit, Missy!" A light clicked on, and Missy squinted into the groggy face of her roommate. If only Debra knew how beautiful she looked, with her eyes at half-mast and her face more slack than annoyed. But even now, despite herself, she had started to smile. "That must have been one hell of a wet dream, Missy."

"It was." Her roommate ground the sheets against her crotch and sighed. "But it's melissa, not Missy."

November 20

An hour and forty-five minutes. That was how long she could pose now, moving only to breathe and blink. melissa was prouder of this accomplishment than she'd ever been of her dancing skills, her journalism awards, or even her acceptance into Omega Pi.

she had no more illusions about her situation. Black Pearl really was an ancient sorceress, and melissa really was Her thrall. It had all come clear in that dream, when black overtook white and changed her perspective forever. Both colors had always been a part of her: the sub and the dom, the slave and the free, melissa and Missy. But Black Pearl had taken the part of her mind that wanted to submit and enflamed it until it became the majority voice in melissa's head. Missy hadn't even realized what was happening until it was too late. Now the slave held control.

This new arrangement had several advantages. For one thing, melissa had access to memories Missy lacked. She could recall her first induction now, the sweet dark words Mistress had whispered on trancing her: "You are chosen." And now that she knew who and what she was, she could pursue thralldom more intentionally.

Sadly, Missy still raged in the back of her mind. What the hell are you doing?! she screamed, resisting even now. How can you just roll over and let this bitch steal your mind? Get some help, for fuck's sake!

Help from whom, answered melissa, her inner voice robotic. The campus psychologist? The police? Our parents? Do you really think any of them could compete with a twelve-thousand-year-old sorceress? Besides, we've had more orgasms in the last two months than in all our life previous. You can't tell me you haven't enjoyed that.

Missy started to reply, but something flashed across her eyes and distracted them both. "Miss-y!" came Debra's voice, right up against her ear. She waved her hand again across the thrall's blank face.

Wow, I didn't even hear her come in! I didn't even see her! "Not Missy," she answered blankly. "melissa." she knew Debra wouldn't hear the lack of capitalization, but that didn't matter. melissa heard it - and felt it, too. her crotch spasmed, and she smiled inwardly when Debra wrinkled her nose. She could smell her!

"Whatever. Missy, what the hell are you doing, standing here like a zombie in this ridiculous getup? There's a chapter meeting starting downstairs right now!"

Missy had always been careful about posing, waiting until she knew Debra would be in class or at a meeting. Now she wanted to crawl under the bed and die of embarrassment. But melissa was in control, and nothing pleased her more than being exposed as a thrall. If she could, she would have climbed to the roof of the sorority house and shouted it to the world.

melissa made no outward sign, but fireballs shot out from her clit and raced up and down her spine. "i will not attend," she said, and suppressed a shiver at her own lack of expression. Mistress isn't even here to see me, and still i behave this way. i am hers.

Debra's mouth opened, closed, opened again. "Everyone's talking about you, you know. How weird you've gotten lately. They think you're doing drugs."

"i am not doing drugs."

"Then what are you doing, Missy? What's wrong with you?"

Missy clamored within her, begging again for her to get help. She might think we're crazy, but hell, maybe we are. Maybe this is all in our head - in your head - in my head. See? We really are crazy! Please, please, let's get some help. Before our brain turns completely to mush.

melissa's clit spasmed at the thought. "Nothing is wrong with me," she told Debra, with an inward smirk at Missy. "i am happier than I have ever been in my life."

Debra stared at her with pure, incredulous disgust. Then she stormed from the room.

November 24

"Missy, hon, is everything all right?"

"I'm fine, Mom." It was an effort now, to use her "normal" voice, to talk like a free human being. There was so little left in her that was free.

"We expected you home for fall break two days ago. You're not sick, are you?"

"No...well, maybe just a little. I think it's an inner ear infection. I feel dizzy, so it's hard for me to get around. Mostly I've just been staying in my room."

"Oh, poor dear. Well, we certainly don't want you to miss Thanksgiving. One of us can drive out there and pick you up."

"No, Mom, really. I'll be fine. I'm just going to stay here and sleep, and maybe catch up on the homework I've missed. You guys have fun."

"I don't know, Missy. I hate to leave you up there all by yourself."

"I'll be fine, Mom. Goodbye."

She hung up without looking away from her reflection.

November 30

At last! melissa knew the announcer hadn't lied. she just hadn't been open enough, until now, to receive her Mistress's invitation. But here it was at last: a black-bordered card engraved with flowing script: "Her Ladyship, the Black Pearl of Thailand, commands your presence at The Nethermost Pit on Friday, December 16, at 12:00 midnight. Come prepared."

The thrall sighed in her sleep, caressing the dream document as though it were Mistress's own flesh. It seemed like forever since she'd seen Her, and twice forever since she'd felt Her reins on her mind. But melissa had been proven worthy now. she'd see her Mistress again, and submit more fully than Missy could ever have done.

So...The Nethermost Pit. That was a South Side club which had folded last month, after its third and final vice raid. No O-Pi would be caught dead in a place like that.

melissa couldn't wait to see it.

December 9

"Missy, we need to talk."

The thrall turned her head slowly, keeping the rest of her body still, as Susan slid onto the bench beside her. She relished the brush of earphone wires under her loose black hair. i am hooked to a machine. i am being programmed like a robot.

melissa had bought the smallest, most discreet set of earphones she could find and wore them constantly now, tucking the cord down the back of her shirt and the CD player into the top of her pants. If she kept the volume low enough, she could still follow most conversations...when she wanted to, anyway. Mostly she just stared at the person before her and wished he or she were Black Pearl. melissa's clit burned constantly with longing for her Mistress.

"All right," she said. "Talk."

Susan squinted, trying to peer through the lenses of melissa's sunglasses. She didn't know how lucky she was that melissa wore them. "You've missed a lot of meetings lately, Melissa, and you're acting pretty strange. Is something bothering you? Are you depressed about something?"

"i have never been happier in my life."

Susan brushed that away with a snort. "It's not drugs, is it? Because we can get you help for that."

"It is not drugs, Susan. i have simply discovered my true self. You should be happy for me."

The Personnel Chair looked anything but happy. "Your true self. Ooooo-kay, if you say so. But I have to tell you, Missy-"

"melissa."

"I have to tell you, Melissa, that your true self doesn't seem very compatible with Omega Pi sisterhood."

"It is not," said melissa, and orgasmed quietly. The smell of her sex wafted up, and Susan sniffed and backed away. melissa came again, even harder.

"Well, that's a - that's - that's a shame, Missy. Because we really care about you. We'd hate to lose you as a sister."

"Yes."

she could practically see the wheels turning in Susan's head, trying to make the "yes" say what Susan wanted it to say. "Um, well, good. But I still have to warn you, Missy-"

"melissa."

"Melissa. I have to warn you that you're this close to being put on probation. I'd hate to have to do that to you, but-"

"i understand."

"Um, okay, good." And because it was the kind of thing O-Pi's did, she reached out to hug her "sister." melissa returned the embrace, mechanically.

December 16, 9:45pm

m stared at her reflection, the Black Pearl's music thumping in the background. she wasn't free enough even to call herself melissa now, and soon she wouldn't even be "m." But the initial would do, for the moment.

m had a whole new look tonight, courtesy of her Dark Forest sisters. she'd gone back to the store today, wearing her red and yellow contacts over her pink and white Omega Pi jersey; and when the sales clerk noted the clash of colors, she'd torn off her shirt and bared her swollen breasts to the store, begging to be re-dressed. The clerk had been happy to oblige. Now m stood in a buckle-and-chain contraption which had taken two other people to fasten, and which she couldn't undo on her own even if she'd wanted to.

m's breasts were newly pierced, each with a silver hoop and a jet-black pearl: replicas of her Mistress's ring. her eyes, too, were new. m had looked hard to find the contacts that best reflected her state of mind, and had finally settled on a pair of almost-all-black lenses, with a few faint streamers of white.

she drew on her trench coat, enjoying the feel of fabric on her nipple rings. The sunglasses were next, despite the lateness of the hour. Then she gathered up her car keys and driver's license, and she was on her way.

December 16, 10:30pm

The Nethermost Pit was closed, its neon sign unlit, but dim light crept through the boarded-up windows. And there was the announcer, waiting at the door in a black leather bustier and frozen smile. Indeed, all of her must be frozen, standing out here on a December night in a getup like this. But she seemed as collected as ever. "Come in, thrall," she said, and m shivered despite herself. That's the first time anyone else has called me 'thrall.' It's all real. It's absolutely real.

m kept her face immobile as the announcer unlocked the door. she strode in slowly, smoothly, and stopped dead at the shock before her. The stage was lit with candles, and bounded at either end by a steel pole - for the onetime strippers, m guessed. A rope of black pearls was strung between them; and attached to that rope - by their nipple rings, no less - were three girls dressed much as m was. The truth hit her like a brick: i thought Mistress had singled me out, but i'm just one of many.

Missy whimpered inside her mind, and m whimpered back. All this time she'd fantasized about being Mistress's personal slave, licking and kissing her, submitting to whatever pain or pleasure She saw fit to dole out. But the truth was something darker. m's fate, if she continued to submit, was to lose herself in a crowd of mindless zombies. For all she knew, she might not even become an assistant. she might never even see her Mistress again, or hear Her voice, or feel Her touch. And she wouldn't have enough mind left to complain.

m was surprised to find her clit tingling at the thought. But after all, that was what it meant to be enthralled: to lose your individuality so completely that you didn't even notice it was gone. To be one link in a chain of slaves. To be so thoroughly stripped of will that you'd be just as happy standing in a corner for ten years as eating out your Mistress's snatch.

"Do you want to be chained?" whispered the announcer, breathing in her ear, and m's clit pulsed so hard she almost lost her balance. Maybe she'd found what she came for after all. Taking care to keep her motions smooth, her face expressionless, m turned back to her questioner. "Yes," she said, and rejoiced at the screams from Missy. Yes. Forever yes. i am indeed a thrall.

None of the others turned when the announcer led her onstage and unfastened the rope. They just stared straight ahead, unmoving - exactly as m would have done in their place. Already, we're all the same. But that wasn't quite true. The thralls' costumes were different, their skin tones even more so. But they'd gotten the message about the nipple rings, loud and clear.

The announcer threaded the rope through m's rings, click, click, zip. Then she pushed her along like a bead on an abacus, until m lined up perfectly with the other thralls. It was all she could do not to collapse in ecstasy. Yes, this is where I belong. One link in a chain of wall-eyed zombies. Their jailer left them, returning to her station in the cold, and the four girls stood just as before. They didn't move or speak or even look at one another, but the scent of sex hung over them like a cloud.

Over the next hour six more thralls turned up, each stopping dead in her tracks, just as m had done, when she caught sight of the other girls. m learned to relish the horror on their faces, the reluctant arousal, the inevitable robotic "yes." Then click, click, zip, and her own significance diminished even further.

By 11:30 their number was complete: ten thralls chained in a line. The announcer returned and stood before them, demonstrating her own thralldom by remaining as motionless as they were but with that beautiful, horrible, unchanging smile.

At 11:45 the music began. m slipped into it like a warm bath.

At 11:59 the announcer went to her knees and began to speak, just as she had at the other shows. "ladies," she said, "you are about to meet the greatest sorceress our earth has ever known. But you know that now, don't you? The Black Pearl came to you, hiding in plain sight, and openly declared her intent to make you slaves. But you took her truth for lies and gave yourselves up to control. Now you submit even further, knowing She's made you do so, and loving Her all the more for it. The Black Pearl controls your minds; the Black Pearl controls your lusts. And very soon now, the Black Pearl will control every particle of your beings."

The announcer bowed her head and raised one arm. "thralls," she intoned, "I am pleased to welcome you into the presence of my Mistress, the Black Pearl of Thailand."

And there She was at last, the woman who had captured m's mind and twisted her body, who had made her love the feel of chains and piercings and wanton submission. She was more stunning than ever: almost nude, with gilded silver nipples and a chain around her waist supporting two long, thin strips of silk that barely hid her crotch. Her feet were bare, and Her hair was braided into a thousand shining whips.

m wanted to stay motionless, expressionless - to show her Mistress how she'd progressed. But at the first sight of those mica chip eyes, she swooned over the chain, mewling, twitching and foaming. At least the chain held firm, though the other nine thralls were affected just as she was. One girl's hand slipped into her crotch, and the scent drove the rest of them into a frenzy. m grabbed her own breasts and thrust them up toward her face, licking and sucking as best she could. The pearls clicked against her teeth.

Mistress snapped a command in her beautiful spell-tongue, and the ten jerked more or less to attention. But it was so hard to stand still with volcanoes between their legs. m dropped her hands and felt them twitch toward her crotch. No, i am a slave. i am a thrall. i exist only to serve the Black Pearl of Thailand....But how can i keep still in the face of such magnificence?

Black Pearl's lips curled into a sneer. "Pathetic," she spat, and m's stomach curdled. i know, i know. i can't help myself.

Their Mistress stalked up and down the line, pinching a nipple here, slapping a flank there. Her hand thrust between m's legs, and m collapsed again, smearing the chain with her drool. Mistress touched me. She touched me!

"Pathetic," said the hypnotist again, from the end of the line. "All of you." She stalked back to center stage and crossed her arms. "All those hours of posing, submitting, imprinting - and still you wilt the moment your Mistress comes near? You'll need more control than that, if you want to be worthy of thralldom!"

"We do, we do," whispered m, the others murmuring around her. "Please, Mistress!" They tried their best to pull erect.

Black Pearl was unimpressed. "The problem," she said, tapping one foot, "is that you have entirely too much will. You serve me because you want to serve me, and even then your wanting is flawed."

It was, oh, it was. Will you fix me, Mistress? i know i don't deserve it, but will you fix me?

Black Pearl's eyes flashed down the line of thralls, and when they met m's, she felt sure Mistress could see straight into her mind. "I can take the wanting from you - take your will itself. But only if you give it to me. Are you ready to do that, my pets? What is it you want most: self control, or my control?"

"Your control! Yours!" m didn't know which of them had spoken, or if all of them had. She collapsed again and felt soft bodies pile on top of her. Amazingly, the chain held firm.

"Very good," said the Black Pearl, and her teeth glittered like diamonds. "I will remake you, though it will be hard even with subjects as willing as yourselves. In three days' time you will as blank and indistinguishable as my assistants here." She gestured and they came out single file, dressed in nothing but silver duct tape. One strip covered their vulvas from front to back; one strip bound their breasts across the nipples; and one strip after another turned their hands to useless paddles. But that was nothing compared to their heads: taped solid from throat to crown, with just a square of open flesh for nose and eyes. And of course their eyes were covered, too, in their own way. Tonight the assistants' contacts were silver: all the better to reflect the thralls' faces back at them.

Black Pearl spoke again. "You have far to go," she said, "but you are much too...animated...to begin your journey yet. Take out your pleasure on my assistants, and when you are sated, I will lead you on."

m looked at the woman before her, no different from any of the other nine assistants. Even their bindings were identical. This is my future, she thought, and embraced it joyfully.

The assistant's body thrummed with a hidden power - Mistress's control, m thought. she couldn't move much, in the confines of her chain, but she kissed the slave's slick wrappings and painted them with her tongue. The assistant stared straight ahead, unblinking.

m moved on to the bound breasts, plunging her tongue between them and tasting the sweet, salt sweat. It occurred to her that she'd never kissed a woman before, though she'd fantasized about it often enough. m let herself giggle. Go ahead, get it out of your system. It's what Mistress wants.

"You may remove the strips at breast and crotch," said Black Pearl, and m tore into them like a child with a Christmas present. The assistant's nipples popped instantly to attention. m pounced, sorry she could only taste one at a time, and gathered almost the whole breast into her mouth. she sucked and squeezed and even chewed - but softly; she didn't want to damage Mistress's property. And then, when she could bear the wait no longer, she dropped to her knees.

This was only possible because the other nine thralls were dropping to their knees, and even then their rope bound cruelly tight. m's breasts drew up toward either side of her neck as she pressed forward, tearing off the assistant's crotch-strip with her teeth. Ohh, the smell was heavenly! She buried her face in it, rubbing her nose back and forth along the folds of the vulva. And there was the clitoris, swelling at her touch. You see? They do feel ecstasy! m wrapped her lips around it and sucked, then sent out her tongue, delicately questing. The cunt above her shuddered, and she felt taped hands press down on her head. Yes, she'd pleased the assistant! This was almost as good as pleasing Mistress herself. m wrapped her hands around the woman's ass-cheeks and pulled her closer. Her legs spread and m moved inside, tilting her head backwards to tongue straight up into heaven. Ah, that was the spot - there! The assistant made no sound, but she shuddered and bucked and slapped taped hands against m's head.

m had done it. her own cunt sang victory, sending bright trills of pleasure up her spine and all the way down to her toes. For that one moment she was mindless; and she fell back into the chain, sighing, sated.

Mistress's voice recalled her from her ecstasy. "Much better," she said, and m's heart glowed in her chest. "You show great promise. Perhaps one day you will please even me." The thralls twitched weakly on their chain, too spent to do more. But "Stand, my pets," said the Black Pearl, and they leapt to attention.

It was easier to hold still this time, even as their Mistress stalked the line and raked her silver nails across their breasts. "You have learned," she said. "You are ready for the next step." She returned to center stage and crossed her arms. "The assistants before you have no memories, no personalities - no fingerprints, even. They are completely interchangeable. As you will be, by the end of the week. But not tonight. I will hypnotize you again, and then I will send you back to your pitiful free lives, so that you may demonstrate your readiness to abandon them."

No! screamed m inside herself. Don't make me go back! Not when i'm so close to losing myself for you! But she didn't dare plead aloud. she didn't dare move at all.

The Black Pearl eyed them sternly. "As I told you before," she said, "I can only hypnotize a willing subject; and I can only destroy the will of a willing subject. Therefore, you must prove that willingness beyond all doubt. Only then can you know true thralldom."

i am willing, i am willing, m thought; but she knew it wasn't entirely true. Even now Missy had woken from her stupor and started wailing again. What do i have to do to get rid of you? m snarled. What do i have to do to get rid of me?

Black Pearl spoke a command, and the tape unwound from her assistants' hand and spiraled to the floor. She strode to center stage and stood behind them, eyeing the chain of thralls. "I have asked you before, and I will ask you again: do you want to be hypnotized?"

"Yes!" screamed the ten, in perfect unison.

Clearly, the Black Pearl had expected no less. "Good," she nodded. "Then I will show you a bit more of your future." She raised her hands, and the assistants raised theirs, as well. "Do you want to submit?" Again the chorus of yes's, and this time the hypnotist smiled. "That is the last word any of you will ever speak."

She dropped her hands, the assistants dashed the contacts from their eyes, and m learned a new truth about thralldom.