“You have a boyfriend?” Meredith raised an eyebrow as she observed my limp, lifeless body on the bed. “That looks like a – oh yeah, I see now. You had a boyfriend and didn’t tell me?”

“It was like a decade ago,” Angela shrugged. “I kind of left him here to teach him a lesson. I used a low level mind control technique and told him to clean the house, like a Roomba.”

Meredith took a step forward, striding over to the bed and bend over, placing her hands on her knees to support herself as she peered into my eyes. The first thing I noticed were her freckles, and then the paleness of her face. It looked like she hadn’t seen the sun in years.

“A low level mind control technique, huh?” She smirked a bit. “Why didn’t you just walk away, dumbass?”

“Steve might be an instance of an actual submissive,” Angela said thoughtfully. “Most people, like ninety percent of people have an instinct to fight back; even people who say they like to be controlled, they have it in them to walk away when they don’t like it unless you physically restrain them. I think I’ve met maybe fifty people in the last thousand years who literally don’t have the ability to say no.

“Hm…” Meredith said, looking me over further. She laid a hand on my head and brushed my hair out of my face. “I think we know of some people that would pay a lot of money for an actual submissive, it’s hard to find people that will just follow orders without question.”

“No doubt,” Angela nodded. “I’m going to make a store run. Steve here might not need to eat per se, but after eleven years of not eating ANYTHING he’s got to be in bad shape.”

“Might help him get up and moving,” Meredith nodded. “I’ll keep him company while you go shopping.”

“Or is it…’she’, now?” Angela turned to look at me. “Why don’t you want me to change you back?”

“I…” I started to say, and then a stray thought ran through my mind. “Why…could I still fee the gag after you changed my body? Why did it still…hurt?”

“That’s your first question?” Meredith snickered. “It’s because your ‘other’ body is still there. When she changed you, you sort of melted away into an alternate dimension. You’re still there, this is just what’s being presented. It’s the same with any body, really. When the body dies, the energy that is connected to it is released and moves on to another body. Here on Earth…or somewhere else. For you it’s different, your body doesn’t die.”

“I don’t understand,” I tried to raise my head a little. “Why doesn’t it die?”

“Changing your essence and your body to make it…immortal…” Angela said, almost as if she were irritated. Maybe she’d explained this a few times before, just not to me. “It’s like uh…glue. You can wipe it away after you first put it on, but it kind of hardens after a while. I didn’t expect you to be here long enough for it to set it. Sorry, that’s really the best way to explain it, at least to you.”

“When can I go home?” I looked at her pleadingly. I wanted out of here, there was nothing I wanted more.

“You don’t have a home to go to anymore,” She said, laying a hand on my arm. I winced at the contact. “Your apartment isn’t even there anymore, I passed it on the way up here. It’s a shopping mall. You don’t have a job, at least I don’t think you do…unless they grant eleven years worth of sick leave.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” I wanted to cry; I thought I’d only been here for a few months, but it had been eleven years. Literally eleven years.

“Even if it hadn’t been that long, even if your life WERE intact,” Angela said to me. “I wouldn’t let you leave. You’re a natural sub, you can’t say no. Think about it, how easy is it for you to say no to people?”

I had to think for a moment, did I have trouble saying no to people? I think…maybe she was right.

“I don’t…I can’t…I don’t remember,” I muttered, trying to sit up and grunting as my muscles failed me.

“If you really can’t say no to people, if you really are a natural sub,” She said, staring at me intently with her piercing blue eyes. “Then you’re just going to do whatever anyone says, normally not a problem but we live in a dangerous world and…you have the taint of immortality on you. It’ll bring people to you like moths to a flame. No, you’re staying with us, not giving you a choice.”

“You…can’t do that,” I protested, trying to sit up again.

“You just spend eleven years cleaning my house because I told you to,” Angela gently pushed me back onto my side. “You’re mine now, deal with it.”

“Go get the food,” Meredith sighed. “I’ll stay with him. He’s not going anywhere.”

Angela smiled a bit and strode out of the room, leaving me with Meredith who grinned and easily pushed me over toward the middle of the bed. She immediately laid down beside me, facing me and resting her head on her hand, her black hair filling down around her forearm as she set her face mere inches from mine.

“So, Steve, is it?” Her words here kind of spoken in an upward inflection. “So tell me something, did you kiss my girlfriend?”

“Well yes but—” I started to protest, but she quickly pressed a finger to my lips and I fell silent.

“Did you…touch her?”

“You weren’t even with her!” I said, now truly terrified.

“I’m with her now, though, aren’t I?” She said, staring at me with a very serious look on her face. “You have to be punished.”

“Oh god, Meredith, I’ve been punished enough, please…”

“Shhh,” She giggled and clamped a hand over my mouth. “I’m glad she’s going to keep you around, because I’m going to do all sorts of horrible things to you, and you’re just going to sit there and take it. You’re not going to tell her either, are you?”

I shook my head violently, I didn’t dare protest, I could end up in another house, wearing another ball gag and no one would ever find me.

“Let’s start with the basics, get off the bed, kneel on the floor.”

My body immediately responded to her voice, I couldn’t even stop it. She laughed as I dropped from the bed and onto the soft carpet, my muscles begging for mercy. I was in too much pain to move under my own volition but at her command, my body just went along with it.

“You look at lot better down there,” She said as she sat on the edge of the bed, bouncing a bit as she did. Suddenly she shoved one of her pink sneakers into my face. “Untie it, and then make out with my foot like you made out with my girlfriend.”

I wanted to ask her what the fuck but my hands began to immediately untie her sneaker. It was on the floor and I was peeling her sock off before I knew what had hit me. No, this couldn’t be happening. Sure I’d fantasized about something like this happening a decade ago but now, here before her, trapped in this room, I didn’t feel excited, I felt small. I began without any hesitation whatsoever.

“She’ll probably be gone for an hour,” Meredith assured me. “It’s good exercise for your tongue. Oh, and don’t worry, this is just the beginning. I have a lot more planned.”