12. Trouble

Even though we'd changed the locks at the house so that Jim no longer had a key, we'd left the front door unlocked after I carried Caroline in before the opening ceremonies.

​

Jim and his friends Greg, Steven and Lawrence stormed the place. Steven grabbed the bottle of Sleep Spray on his way through the great room and headed for the kitchen, Greg jumped the fence to the pool and headed for the back door, looking for me. Jim and Lawrence went for Tina, who was helpfully standing right there in the hall, carrying the clothes from the last scene, and only wearing a bra, floral-print panties, and pantyhose.

Jim grabbed her arm, spilling the clothes on the floor. Tina screamed. Lawrence clamped a hand on her mouth., "Shut up, bitch!" he whispered.

 

Jim slammed an elbow into Lawrence's side. "Don't you talk to my angel like that!" he said in a hushed tone. Then, into Tina's ear, "It's OK, honey, I'm back. You didn't lose me forever."

​

The fear in Tina's eyes was near complete, and seeing it, Jim felt good, and Jim felt powerful.

 

Lawrence took his hand away, but Tina didn't scream again. She was nearly paralyzed. To Jim, she looked seriously hot.

 

Jim led her down the hall and to the front door. Greg and Steven joined them there. They proceeded out. Greg and Steven first, then Jim and Tina, with Lawrence last, backing out.

 

After a few steps, Caroline raced out to them, wearing nothing but her black bikini. "Let her go," she called.

 

Lawrence dropped his straightened hand edge down on Caroline's neck, and she crumpled to the ground. Tina screamed again, but at a glance from Jim, stood silent.

 

"I didn't think I hit her that hard," said Lawrence. They were only a few yards from Jim's car.

 

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, I dropped to my knees, the Sleep Spray wet on my face. How long did I have? I saw Jim's goons spray Jessica, Kim, and Sarah, even before they could fully rouse to the situation. They dropped back in heaps.

​

They left the room, and I sat there, trying to think what I could do before I passed out from the spray.

 

Just then, Caroline's husband John came in through the outside door. "Get up," he said. "Jim's got Tina out front!"

 

"I've been sprayed," I said. How long now? Tina, I'm sorry.

 

"It won't affect you," he said. "Just get up and help me stop them."

 

It was true that the women had all gone under almost instantly after they were sprayed. What was going on?

 

Still, Tina's safety was more important than my curiosity. I jumped to my feet and sprinted for the door. I passed Lianne as she came out of the parlor/morgue and headed for the kitchen. A look at her face told me that she knew what was happening, and doing her part.

 

As I reached the front door, I saw the scantily-dressed Tina walking beside Jim. If I didn't know her well, I'd think she was just walking with him, but I could tell from her step that she was really frightened beyond any reason.

 

Caroline lay still on the grass.

 

"Tina!" I called. She hesitated a moment, but just kept walking. They were almost to Jim's car.

 

Then, I decided on a gambit. If Jim wants her, how about we let him have her?

 

"Ugmortigen!" I shouted. It was the secret word I used to induce Tina into a deep hypnotic sleep.

 

My love's knees buckled and she fell to dead weight, dragging Jim's arm down, until he let go of her and she slid down to the ground at his feet. Jim had a priceless look of confusion on his face, before his megalomaniac side kicked in and he started barking orders.

 

"Lawrence, take care of the little boy," he said.

 

Lawrence started to walk toward me, smacking his fist into his palm, when there was a sudden flash of light.

 

"Where'd that come from?" asked Jim while he tried to get enough of a grip on the rag-doll Tina to lift her.

 

Greg and Steven ran past him and fanned out, looking for the source of the flash. Since they were facing the car at the time, they didn't know where to start looking. After a few seconds, though, they found John at the side of the house, holding his cell phone.

 

Greg snatched the cell phone, and Steven grabbed his new prisoner's wrists and dragged him back across the lawn. When they passed his wife's prone form, John froze a minute against Steven's pressure, but he soon continued allowing himself to be dragged.

 

Lawrence managed to regain himself, grab my wrist, and pull me over to where Jim stood with Tina up over his shoulder.

 

"Well well well," said Jim. "It seems Tina's got some photographer friends too."

 

He threw the phone to the ground and stomped, breaking it into pieces.

 

A moment, and then another cell phone rang, this one in Jim's pocket.

 

"I'd take that if I were you," John said.

 

"Shut up!" shouted Jim, but he checked his phone. His jaw literally dropped open.

 

"What is it?" asked Lawrence.

 

"The picture he took," said Jim. "You can see both our faces."

 

I heard sirens wail off in the distance.

 

"It's from her lawyer," said Jim.

 

The phone rang again. Jim answered it, but it was loud enough that we could all hear Kelly's voice.

 

"As you know, my client has a restraining order against you. I'm sure you know the consequences of your actions tonight will be severe. I have also taken the liberty of notifying your father through your mutual counsel. Though you are not my client, I'd suggest you give yourself over to police custody at your earliest convenience."

 

Jim's earliest convenience would be in about thirty seconds, if I guessed correctly from the sound of the sirens. Jim turned in confusion back and forth, Tina spinning with him.

 

Caroline chose this moment to stand up. "For the record, my good man," she said, to Lawrence, "You didn't hit me that hard."

​

When the police arrived, Jim did not, however, take Kelly's advice.

 

"I was just trying to remove Tina here from a place where illegal drug use was going on," he said to the officer.

 

"And is she high?" asked the policeman, pointing to Tina, still on his shoulder.

 

"No, officer, she just fainted in relief. There are a bunch of passed out, drugged out women in there, though." Jim said. He pointed at the house.

 

Some anxiety must have shown on my face. (I certainly felt it. What if they found the Morgue?) The policeman decided to investigate.

 

We followed him into the parlor, where all the Sigma Sigma Gamma girls were...

 

watching TV in their bathrobes. All of them. And Lianne. They jumped up when they saw us enter, pulling their robes tight. Lianne took Tina off Jim's shoulder and lay her on the couch.

 

"I think I've seen enough," said the officer, and took Jim by the wrist and led him to the door.

 

After we heard the front door close, and Caroline and John came in to say, "They've gone," the girls all jumped up and hugged and kissed me and John.

 

"Wait a minute," I said. "Weren't a bunch of you under the Sleep Spray? And why didn't it work on me?"

 

"It didn't work on you," said Lianne, "because I didn't hypnotize you this afternoon, and you don't fall asleep when sprayed with water mixed with a little essence of lilac."

 

"We figured using the real Sleep Spray would be too risky, given Tina's situation," said Melanie.

 

Caroline knelt beside Tina, who still hadn't stirred. "Is she OK?" she asked.

 

"She needs to sleep it off," I said. "I used a hypnotic trigger I gave her to help her rest without worrying about Jim."

 

"In that case," said Caroline, rising to her feet, "I think you boys deserve a reward. Now go into the kitchen and get yourselves a beer or something while we figure out what it will be."

 

Our hearts pounding from both the excitement of what just happened and the excitement of what would probably happen soon, we did as we were told.

 

About half an hour later, Caroline reappeared in the kitchen. "We've decided that Tina would want to be a part of this, so we're going to wait until tomorrow morning or afternoon, depending on how long she sleeps."

 

We must have looked desperate, because she continued, "In the meantime, Lianne has some interesting video footage of this evening's entertainment, so rudely interrupted. Perhaps you'd like to review it with us?"

 

We didn't have to be asked twice.

Continue The Game (13. Waking Up)

​

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.