WAITING ROOM

“If you’ll just wait here, Ms. Finch. Mr. Horvath will be with you in a moment.” The tall, dark-haired receptionist flashed a very professional smile as she spoke these words, her white teeth sliding into view for a moment, then vanishing smoothly back behind a set of perfect pink lips, a polished sword being stuck back in a frilly scabbard.

“Thank you.” Polly smiled back, a movement of facial muscles that was exactly as genuine. The receptionist must have known how long Polly had pushed for, demanded, this meeting, and how long Mr. Horvath had put her off. Now he was doing it one last time, it would seem.

“Are you sure that you wouldn’t like some coffee while you wait?”

“Yes, quite sure. Thank you.”

The receptionist unsheathed the blade again and withdrew, closing the door behind her.

Polly straightened her business jacket and cast a calculating and cautious glance around the room. She had to assume it was specifically designed to put any trouble-makers like herself at a psychological disadvantage before Horvath pounced. Still, it seemed harmless enough. An understated, elegant chamber, with some low soft chairs scattered tastefully around a large circular coffee table. A swath of magazines spread across that table, looking very much as if it had been permanently shellacked in place. A sofa (which naturally matched the chairs) standing suavely against the far wall, over which loomed a brass and steel copy of the HorvathCo company logo. Abstract oil paintings lined the other walls, colorful but muted swirls sunk into carefully lit and framed niches.

The only sound in the room was the slow ticking of a clock, standing on another, higher, wooden table. This table was a heavy highly-polished piece of work, with gold inlays and sturdy curved legs that sank deep into the dark bluish carpet. It had been positioned against one of the longer of the silver-gray walls, at right angles to the sofa. The clock stood in the center of the table, pushed clear back against the wall. Or rather against the large mirror hanging behind it on the wall. Polly took a step closer to get a better look, clutching the comforting weight of her purse (and the copies of the evidence that she had collected, and the can of mace...) firmly to her side. As her months of investigations had proven, Horvath was a complete and utter bastard, but she had to admit he had good taste in furnishings. Or more likely, one of his minions had been sent out to hire someone who had good taste in furnishing. At his societal level, the petite blond-haired women thought grimly, there wasn’t really any difference between the two.

Whoever it was who had chosen it, the clock was a striking piece of artistry; somehow it operated with a pendulum was like that of a metronome, a long narrow rod sticking up in the air above the main body of the clock, instead of swinging down below. A phallic symbol either way... It rose up out of a smooth, squat, pyramidal base which had been fashioned out of thick twists of polished gold and silver, intertwined with... glass? She frowned a little, considering. No. More something solid and less translucent. Quartz, perhaps. The actual clock-face, seeming to be almost an afterthought, was composed of two small white hands surrounded by thin-spun strands of the same color, a methodically broken web of threads that marked off the hours and minutes. Behind all of that, parts of the clock’s mechanism were vaguely visible, gears and cogwheels silently spinning... whirring, reflecting in the mirror...

There were also lights down in there, flashing red on one side to blue on the other and back again. The pendulum ticked back and forth, the rounded weight at its tip strongly resembling a yin-yang symbol fashioned out of, again, gold and silver. Polly took another step closer. She realized that the pendulum’s passage back and forth through the airspace above the clock was synchronized with the alternating flashes of red and blue light. Red... tick... blue... tick.. It was almost as if the light was a fluid, oozing back and forth from one side of the pyramid to the other, changing color as it went... red... tick... blue... tick... Polly’s eyes were drawn to the pendulum as it went back and forth.. red.. to blue... and back again.. Passing in front of the mirror, the rod seemed to shimmer, shimmer the same way that your hand does when you wave it in front of a television or computer screen. The weight at the rod’s tip seemed to blur out into the surrounding void, leaving no sharp edges... as both went back and forth... tick... red... tick... blue... But it wasn’t just red and blue, Polly realized with a blink... at the moment the pendulum reached the highest point in its arc, the colors somehow blended together.. became a third, new, entirely different shade... a platinum-white which was simultaneously tinged with all of the colors around it... silver... tick... red... tick.. gold... tick... blue... It was only there for the briefest of seconds, this new color, flashing around the rod as the red.. tick... and blue... tick... slowly came... and went... and came again... red.. tick... flash... blue... tick... flash... Polly realized something further as she stood and watched the pendulum tick... red... flash... blue... back and forth: the ticking wasn’t the only sound the clock was making; there was a very faint hum as well, a soft, soothing hum that rose ... and fell... as the pendulum swung back... tick... red... tick... flash... tick... and forth... The pendulum’s tick... (blue... tick... flash..) neatly bisected the hum, chopping it into bits.. uniform smooth-edged bits, easily digestible, that almost sounded like words... words that whispered just below her hearing, beckoning, teasing.. She took another step closer, her low-heeled shoe moving almost jerkily across the carpet, leaving a streak of disarranged fibers behind it, trying to hear what the tick... red... tick... flash... tick... blue... tick... hum... words were saying... but that was silly... there weren’t really any words... just a hum... chopped up by the tick... red... tick... flash... tick... rest... tick... watch... tick... just a soft... soothing... harmless... hummm... split apart by... tick.. blue... tick... rest... tick... watch... tick... blue... FLASH... listen... tick... blue... tick... and sleep... and FLASH and she slowly... oh so deliciously slowly... became aware that

the FLASHES were gradually speeding up.. coming FASTER now... less and less TIME between the FLASHES of color, each of them all COLORS all at once but still she could LISTEN and SLEEP and REST and WATCH(asleep) to the words (horny) BETWEEN (deeper) the FLASHES, (and deeper) yes LISTEN (Horvath) to the WORDS (love) even as THE FLASHES (sex) came FASTER AND FASTER became (obey) EVER BIGGER AND EVER BETTER (worship) MORE AND MORE (obey) ALL (Horvath) CONSUMING (obey) AS THEY CAME (obey) FASTER AND FASTER

AND THEN (obey Horvath obey) THERE WAS (Horvath obey obey) ONLY ONE FLASH ONANDONAND

(obey obey obeyobeyMASTEROBEY)

The clock had stopped ticking. She gave a strangled little gasp of dismay, and staggered forward again, her purse sliding out of her nerveless grasp. A hand had stopped the pendulum in mid (tick red blue gold watch obey obey obey OBEY...)

The hand was still there, connected to a jacket sleeve. Polly forced her eyes along that arm, and up to the neck.. face... it was attached to.

Mr. Horvath. She stared at him in lust.. terror... misery... as the last few weeks snapped into sharp focus... how she had harassed and persecuted this wonderful man, making demands of him, like he was some... some ordinary person... He smiled, a dazzling, real smile, and spoke, verbalizing her very thoughts.

“You’ve been very naughty, Polly.”

“Yes, Mr. Horvath.” She bowed her head and waited for him to decide her punishment. Shuddering. Still watching the flashes in her mind. Flashes that she would be watching every second for the rest of her life.

“But I forgive you.”

“Ohhh...” She gazed at him, her knees going very weak at his words, her whole body simultaneously limp and clenched into knots. “T.. thank you, sir.”

He smiled again and released his hold on the pendulum, which resumed its relentless swing. Instantly Polly’s eyes swung as well, locking on the weight as it went back.. and forth.. tick.. red.. tick.. blue..

In between her eyes in the mirror. Forever.

“Assuming of course, you’ve learned your lesson.” Mr. Horvath’s voice came somewhere far, far overhead, compelling.. utterly dominating.. rolling through her mind and smashing all resistence like a tidal wave...

“Y... yes... sir.”

“And what lesson have you learned, Polly? What have you been taught?”

“That... that I want to..” (tick FLASH tick please) “.., please... and (pleasure)pleasure... you, sir.”

“And?”

“And..” (blue tick FLASH tick fuck) “...live for you...”

“Aaand?”

(die)“Die for you. Obey you... Obey only you...” Her legs finally gave out, and she crumpled to her knees on the soft... soft carpet... floating on (blue and red and GOLD) air... still staring... at the FLASH... and hearing... the TICK... and falling forever intothemirrorandthelights..

“Very good, Polly. You will obey. Obey my every order, my every command.” (long pause hideously long tick FLASH red...) “And here is your first order to obey. Are you ready for your first order, Polly?”

“Ooooh.. (yes)yesss srrr... sssready...”

He issued his first iron word of command.

Tina paused in her typing for a moment. Yes. The Intruder was dead, and she could now hear the unmistakable sound of the Master’s newest fem-slave, even through the thick walls of the waiting room.

Even through the endless ticks of the clock. A warm glow filled the receptionist, starting somewhere in back of her bellybutton and spreading... spreading... slowly.. hot and golden between the FLASHES and the TICKING.... She smiled, a real smile this time, her mouth and her eyes and her brain.

Then, between two ticks of the clock, the smile and the glow were switched off, and she resumed typing.