5. The Opening Ceremonies

Caroline met me outside the house when I showed up at a quarter to six. She looked positively amazing, obviously excited at the prospects of what was to come (almost as excited as I was). She wore a little black mini-dress and knee-high black boots. I wore jeans and a black T-shirt that said "Blog for Freedom". (It was the only thing black I owned, and black seemed to be the right color for the Charon.)

 

"Tommy," she said when she saw me. "Are you ready? You know there's a lot of carrying to be done..."

 

"You're kidding me, right?" I asked. Her smile told me that she understood.

 

"OK, I've got a few surprises for you, Tommy." Caroline put a hand on my shoulder. "Your friend Lianne is here. We've made a few changes to the Opening Ceremony with her help."

 

"Uh.. great!" I said.

 

"Tina was a bit upset when I showed up with her," Caroline continued, "but they worked things out over lunch."

 

"Good," I said. "These changes, they don't involve..." I was imagining passing out in front of everyone again.

 

"No, silly, you'll love them." Caroline said. Can she read minds? "Pick me up."

 

"Huh?" I wasn't quite expecting that.

 

Caroline opened the front door. "It's the first surprise, you goof. Pick me up!"

 

"OK," I said, and lifted her in my arms. She's very light, but I was so pumped with anticipation that I hardly felt her weight at all.

 

She looked into my eyes. "Now count backward from five," she said. "And hold on!"

 

"Five," I said. Caroline continued to look me in the eyes.

 

"Four." Still she rested in my arms, eyes on mine, one arm on my neck, the other resting across her waist.

 

"Three." Now her face went gently slack. She was going under hypnosis! Lianne must have set this up. The arm on her waist began to slide, ever so slowly.

 

"Two." Even though I still held her gaze, her eyes were focused well beyond me.

 

"One." Suddenly, as if someone hit her off switch, Caroline went completely limp in my arms. The arm at my neck fell free. The arm at her waist dangled down. Her weight shifted as her head fell back, behind a spray of her long hair. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth gently open.

 

I stood there a minute, holding Caroline. I tossed her up a few times, jostling her, and she fluttered like a rag doll. I raised her back so I could see her very fine neck.

 

It was then that I realized she hadn't told me what I should do next. I supposed that I had to take her somewhere, but where. She had opened the door before I lifted her, so I supposed that I was to take her inside.

 

When I entered the house, I saw a line of small votive candles on the floor leading from the front door to the parlor. There was strange electronic music playing. I kicked the front door closed, and followed the candles holding Caroline's limp form in my arms.

 

When I entered the parlor, I saw that the couch which usually sat near the center of the room had been pushed back against a wall, leaving a lot of space in the center. Gathered in a large arc there were the women of Sigma Sigma Gamma, each dressed in a floor-length white satin robe. Their heads were all bowed. From those with short hair (like Kim), I could see that their eyes were closed. I paused in the doorway.

 

Lianne stepped through the door behind me, so quietly that she startled me when she touched my shoulder. Caroline's limp form swayed in response.

 

"Tommy," she said. "Walk to the center of the room and set Caroline down."

 

I did as I was told, laying Caroline down on the hardwood floor. She ended up on her side, the blackness of her dress and redness of her hair accentuated by the sorority sisters' white robes.

 

Lianne whispered in my ear, "I've been working on this a while. I'm quite proud of it." She handed me a large hand-chime. "Ring it once, and once more each time someone says the word 'now', and each time you enforce a penalty."

 

I rang the bell, and its low, clear tone filled the room.

 

In airy voices, the women of Sigma Sigma Gamma said in unison, "We, the lovely ladies of Sigma Sigma Gamma, strong and beautiful maidens of hope, arise again for the Game begins now."

 

With a nod from Lianne, I rang the bell again.

 

Stephanie then raised her head. Her eyes opened, but it was clear that she was still entranced. She undid her satin gown, revealing that beneath she was dressed in what for all the world looked like only a white terry bathrobe. Her feet were bare.

 

"Virgin Stephanie Washington accepts the penalty of her robe now," she said in distant monotone.

 

On cue, I rang the bell again, and Stephanie collapsed forward onto Caroline's form. They lay there in a little pile.

​

I'd seen in The Book that "virgins" (or first time Game victim) and "corpses" (or previous winners) are handicapped in that they each have an article of clothing removed without scoring. That is, they are only scored on two scenes. I was apparently supposed to remove Stephanie's robe.

​

I set down the bell and walked over to where she lay on Caroline, rolled her onto her back, and undid the tie on her robe. As I opened it, I saw that underneath Stephanie was wearing very sheer, very lacy white baby-doll lingerie: tops and bottoms. Through the baby-doll, I could see that she wore frilly white panties and an underwire bra.

 

After a moment to regain my composure, I rolled Stephanie onto her stomach again and pulled the robe from off her limp arms. I dropped the robe onto her discarded gown, walked back to my position and rang the bell again.

 

Melanie then raised her head, opened her eyes, and removed her white gown. Beneath, she wore white socks, blue jeans, and a plain white T-shirt. "Virgin Melanie van Stott accepts the penalty of her jeans now."

 

Had I heard her right? I rang the bell nonetheless and Melanie dropped to the floor, landing on her side next to the Caroline/Stephanie pile, her breast brushing Caroline's face. Figuring that Lianne would correct me if I was wrong, I set down the bell, walked over to Melanie, and undid the buttons on her jeans. Lianne did not correct me.

 

When I finished removing Melanie's jeans, I saw that underneath she wore a black thong, which, as I would see, did a wonderful job of showing off her beautiful, bounteous posterior. She now lay in her white T-shirt, white socks, and black thong.

 

I rang the bell again. Sarah was next, wearing a green miniskirt (which looked great against her red hair), green leather sandals, and a wide yellow belt. She spoke in a monotone version of her usually light British accent, "Virgin Sarah McCain accepts the penalty of her belt now."

​

At the sound of the bell, she fell backward across Melanie's legs and Stephanie's back. I undid the belt, set it aside, and rang the bell again.

 

The last of the virgins was Lacey. She revealed that she wore a light blue tank top with spaghetti straps, a matching short skirt, and black heels. Her penalty was her heels, and she fell face down atop the pile of unconscious women, her long, curly blonde hair falling over Sarah's face, hiding it completely from view.

​

Tina was the first of the corpses, or former winners. At the sound of the bell, she showed me that she wore the same sleeveless white mock-turtle sweater and knee-length plaid wrap-around skirt she had worn when I had helped her drive her abusive boyfriend Jim away. She was also wearing hose. "Corpse Tina Stallworth accepts the penalty of her skirt now."

 

At the sound of the bell, she fell face-down almost directly upon Lacey. I undid the button on her skirt. As I pulled it off, she rolled down the pile so that she now lay face-up next to Lacey. I could now tell that they were not just hose she wore; they were pantyhose.

 

The final corpse was Tammy. When I saw what she wore, I found it hard to do the math: she was wearing a bright yellow one-piece swimsuit and flip-flops. "Corpse Tammy Cohen accepts the penalty of her yellow swimsuit and her shoes now," she said in a distant monotone. What would be left?

​

As I sounded the bell the penultimate time, Tammy fell forward onto the body pile, losing one of her flip-flops in the process. I removed the other one, and then noticed a rather unusual feature of the swimsuit: there was a little tag on the back that said, "TOMMY PULL HERE."

 

I pulled on the tag and found that it tore straight down the suit from back to crotch. Beneath the yellow suit, she had on a little pink bikini. I should have known!

 

I lifted her up a bit and rolled her over so that I could remove the rest of the one-piece. Jessica, Kim, and Lisa were the only ones left standing, and they stood where they had through the whole ceremony so far, in their white robes, their heads bowed.

 

When I rang the bell the final time, the three non-virgin non-corpses lifted their heads and spoke in unison: "Leave this room immediately, Charon, and await the Mistress of Death." The voices actually sounded slightly menacing, and, hoping that Lianne was going to take some pictures, I stepped out into the hallway. Lianne closed the door.

​

In a few minutes, a very peppy looking Caroline slipped into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

 

Despite her big smile and bright eyes, she was rubbing her hip. "I'm gonna have a few bruises from that," she said.

 

"What's next?" I asked.

 

Caroline handed me a scoring card similar to the ones John had given me when we played the mock game in my apartment. On it was written:

 

Tammy at the Pool (pink top)

​

"The girls all decided she should have the disadvantage of going first," said Caroline. "Otherwise, she might just smoke them again. " She grinned a bit. "Now we can't have that, can we?"

​

I remembered that if Tammy did win, she'd have tied Caroline's record of three wins.

 

"Where's the spray?" I asked. "Won't I need it in a minute?"

 

"It's in the kitchen," said Caroline. "We'll fill up a bottle on the way out so Tammy has a chance to get set."

 

"Wait," I said, looking at the card again. "Does Tina know I'm supposed to take off Tammy's top?"

Caroline just smiled.

Continue The Game (6. Tammy Dies)

​

Please write me if you have any comments about this story.

Copyright 2007-2019 DPsleepy.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.