CHAPTER 6

Hayase was her name. Kai described how they met at school, a bittersweet smile sweeping his features at the vibrant images of the old-world. Domina saw the hallways of his high-school and how Hayase was a popular girl on the volleyball team and she excelled at this due to her height. Her legs were exceptionally long and looked powerful underneath her sailor suit skirt and she usually wore thin tights that hugged her thighs and calves. The school uniform allowed the girls to choose which color ribbon they wanted for their top each day; Hayase usually chose a sunflower yellow. She had been eyeing Kai since the first day of freshman year, never approaching him until they were both sophomores. It had been any regular day: lunchtime at school, numerous groups of teenagers doing their own thing in their separated groups. You had the popular kids, the losers, the gamers, the jocks, the cheerleaders, the emos, the neckbeards, the weebs, the white racists, the colored racists, the rainbow people, the military brats, on and on and on.

Kai would sometimes take his skateboard to school and practice tricks in the parking lot, but the staff would always confiscate his board. Eventually he stopped bringing it. Domina was entranced by the primitive toy. A block of wood on wheels? No mechanisms, microchips, automations, remote controls or safeguards against speed? How loud it is! The wind gliding past Kai's face as he rode over the sidewalk cracks gave Domina goosebumps. It felt more dangerous than riding a bike, but that’s what made it so exciting. She wondered why Kai stopped this activity, but she already knew the answer. The world had changed. There was no time to play with a plank of wood and Sovereign probably had some stupid law against it. “You have committed a violation of noise pollution; please notice your Social-Score decreasing and relinquish your toy to the proper authorities.”

Hayase was acting cool, sitting with her legs crossed at the popular kids lunch table in the courtyard, but the whole time she was secretly spying on Kai from afar. She would do this every day and if he wasn’t there, she would glance all around hoping to track his location. Kai as usual was sitting alone on a concrete bench with his face covered in a book, today it was a green cover of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Hayase spoke to her friends—other volleyball girls and a couple of cheerleaders.

“Hey, look at that guy over there. Why is he always by himself?” 

“Is he reading a book? What a loser!”

“Yeah, I know, right? Gross.”

“I think that’s a romance book. Cuh-ringe.”

Hayase feigned agreeance with her friends but she secretly thought he was cute, despite their aesthetic and social differences (outside of the school uniform Kai dressed more like a punk or degenerate, while Hayase dressed more like a girly-girl). Domina could tell without prior context she was obsessed just by the way she stared at him. Kai at the time was totally oblivious to her thousands of glances in his direction. He was too wrapped up in his own loneliness to notice her.

What a precious thing memories are, Domina thought to herself. Replaying them was one of her favorite pastimes. Things you didn’t notice had a way of inscribing themselves into the subconscious. The way someone glanced in your direction just out of your perception. The background noises, the fragrance of fresh air, foliage, or the staff spraying the ground with unpleasant cleaning chemicals. Internal monologues could sometimes be recalled. Body language of others that you may not have picked up. Emotions were able to be extracted with a strong enough thought, usually associated with a significant event, location or a song. Memories also had a curious thing where they connected to each other, linked by an invisible thread and bypassing decades of time. Domina found it quite fascinating to study all the intricacies and hidden facets of the human psyche. Why was this important but the other thing not? Why go this way and not that way? Why is she attractive and the other girl ugly? Personal preferences that may seem random, but were deeply entwined with a person’s past and current image of self.

Hayase was becoming irritated with her friend group, feeling suffocated by their overbearing presence. She didn’t hate them, not at all, but for over a year she had wanted to speak to Kai alone. This was impossible with the status of being a popular person and it would be social suicide to approach the outcast, especially without a group. She took the only alternative she could. After getting her lunch tray she nonchalantly took a path where her entourage would inevitably walk by Kai. 

“Hey, watch this,” she whispered to her friends before engaging him. “Hey, why are you always sitting by yourself? Wanna sit with us?”

The younger Kai blushed at the group of pretty girls and agreed to sit with them. 

“HAH! Loser! You really thought I was serious!” Hayase laughed and the group mimicked, walking away leaving him hurt and alone, covering his hurt look with the book. Her heart thumped with adrenaline and she became addicted to their interactions. With each passing day she would find a new way to tease him. She’d make a prewritten list in her head of cruel words she would spit in his direction. When Kai found a different place to sit just to avoid the sadistic girl, she would always find him, see him in passing, or the most brutal was when they had a class together one semester.

“Wow, you couldn’t even answer that? Re. Tar. Ded! Hahahahaha!” 

“Don’t you read books? Nerd. Oh wait, you can’t be a nerd, you’re too stupid! Baka!” 

“Why so quiet? Cat got your tongue? Actually, don’t talk, your voice is annoying.”

“Still sitting by yourself? No surprise, who would want to be friends with you?” 

“Ugh. I was having a good day until I saw you. Just do us a favor and go away. It’s bad enough you exist.”

Domina was mightily confused. “This is the woman of your dreams? She’s a rat!” 

He shook his head with a smile. “Just wait,” he said while standing up. Break time was over; he scanned himself back in and continued packaging items, his body on autopilot whilst continuing the trip down memory lane. Domina walked beside him, listening intently.

Hayase continued bullying him for about a month until one day, after coming back from the bathroom stall, she caught her friends hazing him in an area he’d sometimes hide. He sat against the wall by the stairwell while the group circled him. Hayase hid around the corner and listened.

“Pathetic, bottom of the barrel, burnt french fry nobody wants!”

“Is that hair or a bird's nest?”

“I bet he’s a virgin. Nobody would ever sleep with you, let alone love you! Hahaha!” A girl grabbed his book, threw it on the ground and stepped on it with her dirty sneaker, mangling the pages and creasing the spine.

“What, think you’re too cool to respond? Newsflash: you’re not! Loser!” 

They made the shape of an L on their forehead and walked away with obnoxious laughter. Kai held a stoic expression, but once the girls were at a distance he started crying, cursing himself for not fighting back, at least verbally since he was never going to throw hands at such pretty girls. Any time he did speak a rebuttal it made things worse, giving them more firepower to counter with. He buried his face into folded arms.

Hayase approached from her spying and picked up his mangled book, dusted it off with the clean sleeve of her sweater, straightened out the pages, took a glance at the cover and handed it back to him. No words. No eye contact. Then she walked away. That was the moment Kai began to fall for her. He was attracted, sure, even during her initial bullying phase, but it had now transcended the physical. That silent exchange made him feel like she saw him for the first time. He repressed the thoughts, knowing it was ridiculous to allow himself to have feelings toward her. “She probably just feels sorry for me being so pathetic. We are from two different worlds. It’s not meant to be.”

After witnessing that vile act, Hayase subtly coerced her friends to ignore him, how he’s not worth the time. Plus, you look so uncool talking to him. What if someone thinks you’re his friend? Oh God no! Don’t want to commit social seppuku! Yeah, they might even think he’s popular. Terror!

They finally left him alone, and she went back to staring from afar and ceased her bullying escapades. She swore she saw him glance in her direction a few times but was never too sure. She’d daydream of fake conversations they could have together. She secretly bought the same books he had and read them when she was at home, imagining his reactions to the unfolding storyline. She wrote him a few notes but burned them before ever working up the courage to slip them in his hand. Tracking his whereabouts became the highlight of her life. She felt like such a creep—this boy is making me crazy! She tried to date other guys and girls in an attempt to forget about him, but she always broke it off. She couldn’t help it; she wanted him, but couldn’t. “It’s just not meant to be.”

Junior year. Kai met a friend at the skate park who went to the same school. He invited Kai to an after-school house party. The friend didn’t hang out with Kai that night; he was more interested in getting his tip wet by some freshman. Kai was on the verge of going home and swearing himself off from attending a social gathering ever again. But there she was, dressed in a black dress a little too short, pastel-blue eyeshadow and wearing her moms closed-toe high heels matching the color of her makeup. She wasn’t wearing any tights today and the lines on her athletic legs were enhanced by her heels. Kai wore his usual dark clothes, some band hoodie with illegible text, scuffed jeans and chucks with holes in them, nothing special. Hayase was shocked to see him at a party. She stared at him from a distance, meanwhile fending off guys trying to hit on her with brutal rejections. This was her chance to break away—to take what she wanted. If only she had the courage.

Hayase had been sitting outside in the smoke circle, a bunch of teenagers smoking weed and talking about how cool they were for doing so, rambling about conceptual things that weren’t very original, some of them drinking beers and such. She was bored and her thoughts were elsewhere. She went inside to “use the ladies’ room” and rapidly searched for the boy, feeling relieved he hadn’t abandoned the party.

“Hey. No puff-puff-pass for you?” She put her thumb and index finger together to her lips. She maintained her distance. Kai shook his head. He awaited her onslaught of insults and debasements, which did undoubtedly surface but in a much more playful tone.

“I’m surprised to see you out in the wild. Is the world ending? Haha. Come on and smoke with us.” She stepped forward and Kai retreated within himself like he was afraid of her. She felt terrible that he reacted this way. “Hey, it’s ok,” she put her palms up in the air. “It’s not a trick. My friends are boring me to death. Please, come outside and sit next to me. Just don’t talk. I’m kidding. Come on scaredy cat… but seriously, don’t talk to me.” Kai looked apprehensive but took the bait. Hayase couldn’t contain her excitement as he followed her out to the backyard.

Kai got high for the first time that night from just a single hit. Hours passed and the house was mostly empty, most of Hayase’s friends had left except the ones she drove with. Kai's friend was probably sleeping with a freshie upstairs. Kai and Hayase hadn’t been conversating much in the presence of everyone else, but they were close-by at all times. She constantly encouraged Kai to follow her while sneaking whispers to him, trying to keep him in the loop of everything going on to make him feel part of the group. She defended him at one point from a chad, she yelled “just leave him alone, it’s a party douchebag, we’re all here to have fun.” Nobody questioned her social standing and wouldn’t dare getting on her bad side; they didn’t want to risk getting their head spiked like a volleyball.

An opportunity arose. Hayase dragged him into one of the vacant bedrooms and locked the door. The room was dark, lit only by the moon and streetlights pouring in through the window blinds. She looked down at the shorter man (their height difference accentuated by her heels) and was standing too close with their bodies almost touching. He could smell her rosy fragrance; way too much perfume… It was intoxicating. He was immobilized with his back against the door.

“Hey,” she whispered, “I’m sorry about everything at school. I’m the one who told my friends to stop bullying you. I know, I started it. I feel awful… the truth is… ugh nevermind.”

She forced a kiss on him, leaning against him gently like he was made of porcelain, a fragile peck on the lips for a couple seconds then pulled away to gauge his reaction. She was blushing. He was blushing. Their breathing grew heavy in the silence. An unspoken conversation between the eyes. Remorse for being so cruel. Confusion. Forgiveness. A shaky interlocking of fingers.

“Spoiler warning: I like you. I always did,” she whispered.

Awkward smiles and giggles. Aversions of the gaze. Her fingers on his chin, mandating their eyes to meet.

“I’m not lying. I just didn’t know how to talk to you. I’ve never felt like this before.”

She pressed her lips to his again, wholesome, romantic, then whispered in his ear, “I gotta go. I’ll see you at school.” She immediately ran out of the room to depart with her friends, her heart bursting with fireworks. The worst part was having to withhold the excitement from her friends. The encounter breathed new life into Kai—he didn’t know for sure if it was a trick but his heart desperately denied the possibility of it being a fabrication. It was his first kiss and it was too perfect to be anything other than real. They both replayed the moment in their heads while miles apart and finally had a new excitement for going to school.

That’s how it all started. In the beginning they were sneaking around; she was embarrassed of her feelings for him. In between each class she’d drag him in stairwells to hide from everyone else. They’d scribble notes to each other and sneak kisses any chance they could. He would listen to her rant when she was having a rough day and needed to get away from her friends. They sent text messages from across the lunch courtyard, hiding their glances at each other and smiling at their phones. She’d tease him in whispers while they hid behind the bleachers. A punch to his shoulder when crossing the halls disguised as just another act of bullying. A slap across the face in front of the lockers if her friends caught them alone and might suspect anything.

“She would hit you?” Domina asked.

Kai smiled, shaking his head. “No no, it wasn’t like that.”

“How was it then?”

“It was… lightly, like a playful slap. Usually. I… Well…”

“Ohhh… you liked it?” Domina teased, seeing the answer in his mind before his verbal confession.

Kai’s cheeks turned red. “Yeah, I liked it.”

“Humans are so very interesting. Go on, continue.”

He attended all her volleyball matches and sat alone in the bleachers, the sight of him providing motivation to play harder and show off her skills. After the games they would find a concealed area for them to talk, usually the cramped janitor closet which always ended with her forcing herself onto him and pinning him against the wall. He was strong and capable but never resisted her advances. This was just how she liked to play and her unhinged personality was like a drug to him. He never knew what crazy thing she wanted to do next, which class they would ditch or what new secret hiding place she found.

“Don’t you think I’m pretty? Yeah? Then kiss me. I know you’re a virgin. It’s ok, I know you want to wait. Touch me. Feel my heartbeat. Here, smell my sweaty socks. Ha! Nice. Take them home with you. Have fun with those. Here, one more time before I go.”

The janitor caught them as she gently held her sock to his nose; they froze, their faces in horror as she shut the door on them, pretending she didn’t just see that. Luckily she never snitched on them, but they had to find new places to go and they never made eye contact with the janitor ever again.

Kai would go over to Hayase’s house after school and on the weekends, sneaking in through her window and hiding from her parents, or their favorite meeting spot: under the bridge a few minutes walking distance from her place. They would always stay past midnight while her friends blew up her phone asking where she was.

She would tease him in-between kisses, sometimes crying and apologizing for the way she treated him, how she’s just so scared and confused. Kai had no problem with how overbearing or dominant she was; what he did have a problem with was the pain growing in his chest. He was hurt that she was ashamed of him and began to doubt if she liked him the same way.

“I’m sorry for the bruise. Does it hurt? Good… No, it’s not ok. I’m so sorry… I’m sorry for rejecting you in front of my friends. I’m sorry we have to sneak around like this. Let me figure things out. Please just do things my way. I want to be with you. We just can't right now… don’t you understand?”

Kai always obeyed her. He was in love. He trusted her. His heart was torn to pieces whenever she denied him in public, but she needed to work out her own internal issues first. Things took a turn after they got to spend every day of summer break together. She worked up the courage to introduce him to her parental units. He was a much different type of boy or girl she usually brought home but they welcomed him to the family regardless.

Coming back for senior year they were lovers entwined. She threatened anyone who questioned their relationship. The memory of him being the outcast was only hushed stories amongst the kids who still remembered, and a regret for the ones who treated him terribly, especially the girl who trampled his book.

She didn’t care about the social ladder anymore. They were the cutest couple on campus. They graduated, and everything was beautiful, tranquil, perfect.

By the end of the retelling, Kai was in tears. Every few seconds he dried his eyes against his soaked shirt-sleeve, trying to resist the outpour of emotions in fear of judgment.

“It’s ok to cry. I won’t judge you. Thank you for telling me. She was a beautiful soul, wasn’t she? I saw what happened... Tell me. I want to hear it from you. Can you do that for me? I think it will help.”

433. “Yeah, we can do that,” Kai said. He took a few deep breaths to recenter.

“Good thing there isn’t a rule against crying at work. Otherwise you’d be fired,” Domina teased. Kai laughed. He was a mess, but Domina had a way of breaking through the tension. He took a final deep breath. “Take your time. I’m listening.”

“Ok. It all started with that first night.”

Kai's delivery of this story was a bigger struggle, much slower and fragmented. Domina gently whispered encouragement into his ear, some questions here and there, helping him remember and confess these repressed emotions. He had never told anyone of his past. It felt good to talk about it despite the despair it brought back. Keeping these things internalized for so long it started to feel like it was a separate life from his own. He hated that. He wanted to hold onto these memories, no matter how painful. Domina helped him do just that. It was liberating for Kai and enlightening for Domina.

Day 1, it was the internet that went out first, forcing everyone to activate their televisions to get the news. Others were a little more prepared and had radios and listened for emergency news broadcasts. The really prepped ones didn’t step foot outside, implementing their end-of-days strategy with a twisted sense of excitement. Some of the rapture dorks stood in the streets with their arms outstretched to the sky, waiting to levitate to the clouds but nothing of that sort happened.

The overall tension in the air did suggest this was the start of the end times. Kai and his family listened to the rumors around them, but the general consensus of the neighborhood was that the government was lying. Everything the political officials and talking-heads spoke about on the news was vague, a generic script they received from the top-down.

“Stay inside, stay calm. Things will return back to normal soon,” the news would say.

“Ok, when? Why? What’s going on?” the citizens would say.

Workplaces that relied on the internet were totally wrecked and were panicking to restore function of business. Some places stopped doing transactions altogether and had customers freaking out.

“Why can’t you just take my money?”

“Sorry sir, everything has to be tracked through our system, we cannot sell to you at this time.” 

“What!? I just need some water bottles and to put gas in my car!”

“We’re sorry sir, but we cannot sell to you at this time.”

“Sounds like the automated AI responses,” Domina joked. Kai agreed. People didn’t know how to function without the almighty WiFi. It was quite embarrassing. People had internet withdraws within the first 4 hours, especially the social media junkies that needed their fix of thumbs-ups and heart reactions. Their brains were in agony without that fix of 10 second vertical videos. People became helpless when they realized they couldn’t just look up the answers to every question that had. They stood around like chickens in the rain, like construction workers without hammers, like puppies that wandered too far away from home base, like birds that never learned how to fly, like teenage fast food employees without a manager. Some people tried to read a book to pass the time and discovered their capacity to read long-form text had undergone drastic debilitation. Some started a journal to document what was happening, just in case they were to perish soon, but their hands cramped up before finishing a single paragraph and they gave up on the endeavor.

Day 2, the power went out. The emergency news stations weren’t transmitting any frequencies. In the condensed and over-populated cities of California and New York, looting, pillaging, raping and killing was already occuring at small levels the first day without power. The police did what they could to contain it and some civilians assisted authorities with citizen arrests on neighbors who lost their minds. The anarchy was staved off for a bit with the jail cells filling rapidly. Everyone clung to the hope of getting their WiFi back soon to see what their favorite poop-tubers had to say about everything. There were vloggers in the streets that documented what was happening, thinking they were gonna get soooo many views when their content finally got uploaded.

In the middle states and rural areas people were a lot more calm, speaking to each other, strategizing and mending the community aspect that existed prior to the parasitical internet. Most of these efforts were directed by the near-extinct boomer generation and elders. Everything you heard in regards to what was happening was pure speculation, hearsay, what your neighbors told you and what the crazy conspiracy guy was shouting about from his soapbox, always having to thrown in the “reptilian agenda” somewhere in his rant, causing all who were listening to wave him off and disregard any nuggets of truth he may have struck. Domina laughed; if only they knew what was going on miles underground! Lizard people were the least of their worries.

The dudes that spent thousands of dollars on sat-phones were pissed off that the satellites weren’t working for some reason. Everyone was trying to charge their phones with those rinky-dinky solar power chargers that took hours just to get 5 percent of battery. Neighborhoods had a long row of phones on the ground attached to these tiny solar panels with depressed people sitting nearby. A lot of people still tried to go to work.

“The world is ending and they’re trying to clock in?” Domina laughed. Kai threw his arms up in a shrug. Nobody was prepared, especially for what happened next.

The streets were volatile with everyone trying to access their funds, but all the banks were shut down, ATMs weren’t working, food wasn’t coming in, and the government wasn’t talking. The preppers had duffel bags full of money, but it proved to be pointless when you couldn’t conduct transactions; those green pieces of paper were worthless now. Worse-off were the gold and silver people.

Nobody cared about any currency they couldn’t eat, drink or smoke on the spot. The tobacco people and alchies had it the worst since their fix came directly from brick and mortar establishments. All the weed people that claimed not to be addicted became severely depressed without their sauce. This wasn’t universal though; some street dealers couldn’t resist the chance that they’d be rich when things returned to normal as they made huge weed profits from upcharge sales because people were feening for a fix. The hardcore drug market stayed relatively the same; crackheads and dopefiends would always find a way to put stuff in their veins. If anything, more people got geeked out since the world was ending, might as well.

The streets were overrun with accidents and pileups, and the military started closing down the exits to the cities. This was when much of the uprising began to heat up. Why was the military turning against its own people? Reactionary violence did not occur due to this, not yet. The troops didn’t know the meaning of their orders from the top-down. They were just as blind and did their jobs with no clear purpose. They started off patient, but soon became just as volatile and took their own fears and worries out on the civvies.

Day 3, the WiFi turned back on, but something was different. None of the websites or apps worked. Everything redirected back to a single .gov site with a single paragraph, paraphrased:

So and so political official running for president was shot and killed by far-right insurrectionists.

Martial law is in effect.

Please turn in your firearms to the proper officials.

We will update you as we learn more of the situation.

People lost their minds. Kai was in agreeance with his neighbors; how do we know this government official really got shot? There weren’t any pictures, videos, witnesses (that they could communicate with anyway) or evidence of it occurring. When and where? And why does one person committing an act with a tool mean we all have to give up our tools now? What if someone went on a rampage and stabbed 100 people with a fork? Don’t ban silverware, punish the perpetrator! It’s just an excuse to take the guns away! But these ramblings amongst the populace grew more heated, no longer just casual opinions, now turning into a poison of distrust, suspicious eyes, hushed whispers and a cruel countenance.

“I ain’t turnin’ in my guns, yer crazy!”

“What? You’re going to disobey the government? You know I have to report you…”

“Not if yer dead!”

Bullet to the face.

“It’s you rainbow people's fault all this is happening! You let them sign those laws!”

“No, it's you people that killed him! You and your stupid constitution!”

“What did you say?!”

Stab.

“My family has been here since 1776! Give me liberty or give me death!”

“We hold these truths to be self evident!”

“I pledge allegiance, to the flag…” a swarm of rednecks huddled in the street and repeated this jargon for hours at a time.

The old-military National Guard were the first to show their ugly faces to every neighborhood across America, posting up their humvees and tanks and demanding the citizens relinquish their weaponry and ammunition. Shotgun blast to the chest. Soldiers shoot back, gunning down a father of 4. No matter the reason, once citizens saw that the old-military was killing them, even if it was in self defense, the citizens swarmed on them. They may have had M16s and M4s with infinite ammunition, but that meant nothing against 300 ravenous people encircling your 8 man squad; there’s only so many times you can reload before someone has to fill the clips back up with bullets.

These incidents were happening in every city. Traitors! You make me sick! My grandfather died in World War 2! I served in Afghanistan! Do you not feel ashamed? These comments didn’t last long and physical violence replaced words.

“Turning against each other instead of fighting the real enemy. Typical human behavior. Savage. Primitive. Fearful. Weak. Stupid,” Domina said.

Kai nodded in agreeance to each of her labels. It was certainly stupid, but he placed initial blame on the old-military since they agreed to enforce the martial law and tried to confiscate the only means of defense. Domina agreed—they should have sided with the civilians and built a single mass to oppose the tyrannical government, but instead got gunned down by them, overrun by numbers alone by being spread way too thin across the states.

It didn’t stop there. People became blood-thirsty, savage, and lost all semblance of what respecting your fellow human meant. They saw others as sacks of meat overnight, a threat to themselves, their family, their territory. Get off my lawn!

The news updates spoke of something going on with China and Russia. Apparently, the whole East and West Coast had been carpet-bombed; a blitzkrieg occurred right when the Civil War was at its peak. They employed a new type of technology: anti-gravity craft, laser beams, pulse weapons, atomizers and other stuff that nobody really understood, the type of things you saw in hollywood.

The curious thing: nobody ever saw any Russian or Chinese troops. Nor did they see any craft of their caliber. The only reason why people said it was a China-Russia blitzkrieg was because that’s what the .gov site said. Kai never thought too deeply about it. Domina found it very disturbing and things weren’t adding up, but she let him continue his story, noting it for later study.

Kai, his family, Hayase and her parents all stayed together inside Hayase’s two-story house. They organized what they had into a giant pile in the living room and planned to bug-in until the Civil War had calmed down. They kept the firearms always in-hand and weapons nearby for self defense purposes only. Hayase’s father wanted to go across country to see if his other family members were ok. It was a terrible decision, but one many others made regardless. He ignored everyone’s pleas to stay with them and left with food, water, guns and excessive ammunition. He never returned.

They all huddled together in the living room, only separating to take care of latrine business and to keep watch of the surrounding area from the 2nd floor, but it was usually Kai that made the rounds. They rationed their stale bathtub water along with the canned foods and kept warm in blankets. Candlelight was kept at a minimum and they even used the tiny flame to warm their hands. Kai would stay awake and on-alert despite his severe sleep deprivation. He always heard people screaming at a distance.

It was night time. There were no street lights anymore, but the neighborhood was illuminated by nearby flaming houses and vehicles. There was a woman screaming.

“STOP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! LEAVE ME ALONE! AHHHHH!!!!”

“SHUT UP LADY. YOU GON TAKE THIS!” a man’s voice yelled.

Smack! 

“SHUT UP WOMAN!”

“EYYUCCCHHHH!” 

“AIN’T NOBODY COMIN FOR YOU CEPT FOR ME!”

Kai couldn’t take it. He knew this was wrong. He would surely go to hell if he didn’t do something and if not, he definitely would be haunted by regret for the rest of his life. He had a 9mm with a full clip held in his shaky hand. He told his family, “stay put, stay inside, don’t come out, lock the doors, wait for me.”

“No, don’t go!”

“It could be a trick!”

“I have to check. What if it was you?!”

Hayase tried to enforce her feminine wiles over him, ordering him to stay put, “I need you here baby, listen to me please,” she kissed his cheek, “come here, give me the gun and sit down…” He usually listened when she was strict like this and spoke in that soft, commanding whisper. Hayase was trembling too and they all could still hear the woman screaming outside. He looked away from his love. For the first time, he disobeyed. 

“I’m sorry.” He ran out to the screaming woman who was getting violated by some guy. Hayase locked the door behind him. Her and everyone else inside stood at an angle to peek through the window blinds. Kai got a clear view of the lower-half exposed fat man from behind. There was a machete covered in blood on the ground a few feet away from the pair of scrambling bodies in the middle of the road.

“Hey! HEEEEYYYY! GET OFF HER! NOW!”

Kai racked the gun and aimed it, his aim terribly swaying side to side from his shaking form. He took a few steps forward. He felt the adrenaline coursing through his finger tips, his neck and his eyeballs felt like they were going to pop out of his skull. He began leaking tears through his bulging eyes as he aimed the weapon.

“NAH YOU GON BE NEXT BOY. SHUT UP WOMAN!”

Punch! The fat man continued what he was doing. Kai circled around, now at the side of the tussle, debating whether he should take the shot but did not want to accidentally hurt the woman. He screamed at him once more, and the man became irritated and released the battered woman. The fat man stood up with his privates exposed and stumbled for the machete. He moved like he was drunk.

The woman desperately crawled away on her back but not fast enough at all. Kai shot the man once in the chest area and again in the side of his stomach. The fat man’s body fell into a mangled position. The man was groaning in agony, yelling racial slurs, subsiding in seconds… dead. A pool of blood filled the ground.

Kai was in shock at what he just did. He stood there for a moment, looking at the half-naked dead body with the gun still aimed at it, his finger squeezing just a hair from firing another round.

“Hey, come back! Wait!” Kai cried out to the woman, but she was already gone, stumbling back into the inner area of the housing complex. He knew he shouldn’t chase her down. He couldn’t. His family needed him. Kai looked at the dead body, half-expecting the man to be faking it, stand up and attack him. He didn’t.

Another string of those strange blue explosions set off nearby, far too close for comfort. The impact made Kai fall to the ground. The woman he just saved got disintegrated out of his vision. The explosion radius seemed to warp the atoms within it, pulling in pieces of wood and other debris via a gravitational field of some sort before all the floating objects fell to the ground like dead weight. The bomb had a strange synthesizer-type sound upon impact that lingered a few seconds afterwards. Half of the houses nearby had just been blown up by an invisible enemy. The remaining rubble was on fire. The once familiar neighborhood was now a war zone.

Kai regained his bearings and ran back to the house. The door unlocked immediately, and he fell to the living room ground and began sobbing. He had just killed a man for the first time. His family watched the entire encounter and were horrified but more thankful he returned unscathed. Hayase kneeled next to him, grabbed him and put his wet face into her chest.

“That woman needed help. You saved her. I’m so proud of you,” Hayase whispered in his ear continuously while holding his shaking body in her arms. “Don’t ever leave me again. Leave us. You hear me? I was so scared. Don’t ever...” Hayase was crying too.

“I know. I won’t. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” he cried. 

“Shhh…”

The food and water ran out. The streets were much quieter. They met some old-military personnel who gave them a box of stale MREs and informed them of a refugee camp nearby at the crossroads of Dysart and Camelback, only a 20 minute walk. Luckily for them, most people weren’t angry at the military anymore, primarily because the idea of enforcing the martial law at this point was pointless and unnecessary. Whoever was still alive was simply trying to survive and avoid the crazies.

The world was burning. 90% of the military was dead. What do we do? Help those who need us. They were disobeying their last given order with bravery. They looked very unprofessional with their jackets off, some shirtless, some with no patrol caps, but the clear distinguishable marks of military service and weaponry. Six of them were Army, three were Air Force and one National Guard. They agreed to chaperone a large group of civilians to the refugee camp on a specific date.

During that pilgrimage, what should have been a 20 minute walk to a place of safety and security ended abruptly. Kai was walking with his family for most of the way but dragged behind the convoy to talk to the troops in the rear and gather information about what was going on.

“They say it’s them Chinese and Russians. I ain’t seen nunna them round these parts.”

“That’s what our last report said but we’ve subsequently lost contact with HQ.”

“Yeeeep. We the last survivors of Luke. The Army base down th’road? All gone. You ain’t seent it? Just gone.”

Kai hadn’t seent it; only the Air Base getting smashed since it was viewable outside their window. It was far too dangerous to be scouting the streets with all the threats of violence occurring outside. If he was just a single man he may have been out there with the others, but he had a family to protect. The only reason he thought about leaving was to scavenge for food and water. He felt safe now with the troops to protect them.

“We gon stay at da camp witchu all. You hadda kill someone the udder day? I’m sorry ta hear that. You did the right thing. Doggone crazies.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like it. Just that first day there was—” the troop stopped speaking and moving altogether. The other troops and Kai stopped to look at him. His face was pale and frightened. He couldn’t point or respond to the query. Kai and the others looked in the direction of his gaze and shared the ominous sight. A silent craft was traveling at unnatural speeds through the sky in the distance. It looked like a black cigar panning the skies.

“What… is that?” they all echoed.

“Have you ever seen anything like that?” Kai asked.

“Hell no. We should be able to hear it with how fast it’s going.”

“Ain’t no Russian. Chinese? Ya see a flag on there? Gimme dem binoculars.”

Looking back, Kai wished he followed his intuition. He wanted to get off the road to hide, but the troops were sure that the craft was too far away. “Don’t worry, it’s headed in that direction.” They stood there stupidly mesmerized by it with admiration.

“Whatchu think it is?”

 “Ain’t no zeppelin, that’s for sure.”

The craft slowly turned in the air and from their point-of-view, became a black dot in the sky that in a few seconds grew bigger and bigger, and before anyone could think that it might be making a pass overhead and they should hide, it began to glow blue and shot down a beam at perfect passing over the middle of the group… right where Kai's family was. Right where most of the collective were. Only the stragglers in the back and the scouts in the front survived. They were all immobilized at the technological marvel, the horror, the alien feeling. How did it travel so far so fast? That’s hundreds of miles in just a few seconds. And it didn’t make a noise. How… what… Dat ain’t natural… Lord help us.

Kai stopped telling the story at this point, but the visual flashback continued in his mind. Him sifting through the rubble while screaming in terror. Shattering of his heart and soul. Fury at the troops. Fury at himself. They could have survived if they stayed in the neighborhood. Why didn’t we stay? Oh God. WHY? Why not me? They didn’t deserve it. Take me instead. No… this isn’t real… I should have gone alone. Checked to see if it was safe. Damn it all!

He looked at the craft in the distance and shot at it from miles away. The craft did not respond. The troops took his gun and pinned him down, not hard enough to hurt him, just to restrain him from hurting himself or others, or worse—bringing that abomination back in their direction. He weeped for a long time, his face on the asphalt even after the troops released their hold on him. All of them were weeping. The troops stayed with him until he could walk to the camp. He dragged his feet alongside the other survivors who also lost their families either in this incident or prior.

Nobody could comprehend what had just happened. Nearly their entire group just got obliterated by a single strike and they didn’t even know who the enemy was. Russians and Chinese apparently, but there’s no way they had technology that advanced, could they? It really didn’t matter. Someone had to pay. In that moment he could have easily shot himself in the head. But the troops comforted him. Took care of him. Brought him to the refugee camp. They had decided to disavow their allegiance to America’s old military to join the New World Military. Kai enlisted too.

Is this what she would have wanted me to do? I don’t care about servitude to the New World. All I know is that nobody else should ever feel this pain. Not if I can help it. Not as long as I can fight back. Hayase… what do I do? Are you watching me from up above? Is it better up there? If I kill myself will I go to where you are? Don’t kill yourself, he would imagine her saying. Is that you, Hayase? I can’t do this alone. Please God kill me early. Spare me. Free me from this agony. My family… I thought we had more time together. I’m so sorry.

Kai weeped in the Amazon cubicle. His work-rate was still green but was steadily approaching yellow. He did not care. Domina comforted him. She felt all his pain. The near-decade without his family. The reason he was unable to fit in. Why he could never love these other girls. He didn’t want to let go of Hayase, and even though she would have wanted him to move on and just to always remember she was waiting for him on the other side, what woman could ever compare to the standard she left behind?

Domina learned more about the human experience from this one conversation than she had in her entire lifespan. Happiness taken away in the blink of an eye. Remorse for all the time wasted worrying on trivial matters. All the things that he wished he said or did differently. Perhaps it was better that Hayase and his family didn’t have to live in this corrupt world. Like Kai said, maybe they’re happier on the other side? Domina didn’t have the answers and did not know if there was a place for her with God. All she knew was that she wanted to comfort this man and to make him happy until the end. To see that shining smile that he carried every day in the old-world. He deserved it after all this pain and suffering. Hayase would want him to be happy. Domina knew this for a fact.

600. Time to clock out.

“Thank you Domina… for listening.”

“Anytime, Kai. Thank you for confiding in me. You’ve been through so much. I’m so proud of you. Do you feel better now after talking about it?”

“Yeah… a lot better.” Kai grabbed his bags and made the long trek back to the front door, his eyes irritated and swollen from crying so much. He tried to hide his sniffles so that the other nearby employees didn’t find out he had been crying.

“Hey, Domina? I’d like to hear your story too.”

“My story? What do you mean, human?”

“Where did you come from? When were you born? Tell me about your past. Did you know anyone else before me? Any friends or family? I want to know more about you. Please?”

Domina was astonished. First her name, now her backstory? But there was nothing to tell. Nothing that she wanted to talk about. Everything had been left behind the moment she stepped into his mind. The moment she left Keroshi. She buried it in the monolith.

“Perhaps another time.”

Kai nodded. He understood.

His car pulled up near the front of the building, violating all road protocols and cutting to the front of the pickup-dropoff line. He did a double-take to ensure it really was his vehicle, using his BCI to check if his name popped up next to it. Pickups like this were a feature of autonomous vehicles but he usually parked his car a fair walking distance away from the building to avoid slinking through the long line of traffic.

“Get in,” Domina said in his mind.

He entered and headed home. Domina had taken command of the car, utilizing its numerous cameras for her eyes. She drove a lot faster and more sporadic than the normal automation Kai was used to, but she was clearly attuned to the grid and expertly weaved through the complex roads. It appeared as if the other vehicles gave her the right-of-way like that one Bruce Almighty scene. 

She drove around the black and neon city, taking an entirely different path than usual to explore and compare it to what she remembered. Much more holograms (a lot bigger ones too), a lot more machines, a lot less people. Every building had some type of neon digital thing on it, scrolling text, images and giant red arrows pointing to the front entrances.

Domina spotted a couple of androids walking in the midst of the human population. They were impossible to distinguish from a human eye. A theoretical bladerunner would become quite frustrated with a failure to do their job, unless they themselves were a replicant…

The usual “you have arrived” from the autonomous vehicle was absent. Domina had shut off all vocal processes. “Shut up,” she said, and the lower forms obeyed. It was her job to speak now. They sat in the parking lot for a minute. She watched him sleep in the car, letting him regain a bit of strength. Something about watching a human sleeping was relaxing, plus, she could tiptoe around his mind much more carefree. Her thoughts were still on Hayase. She was deeply infatuated with the girl.

Kai wasn’t deeply dreaming yet. His thoughts were numb from the 11 hours of hell, some of the sound effects still echoing around in there. She graciously removed them one-by-one, then stimulated his eardrums with a light rub of her fingers until he arose. His eyes were still a little puffy from crying.

“We are home. Come on, pep in the step now,” Domina said. He nodded and exited the car. The sun peeked just a portion of itself and was enough to blind him; he squinted his eyes, flattening his palm over the stalking light. It was days like this he was grateful to not be living on the top floor anymore, having to stand-by in the elevator and perhaps walk past some of his neighbors. A terrible experience. He remembered past occasions of people jumping from the rooftops and splattering on the ground. Luckily that hasn’t happened in this neighborhood yet; or it was the drones becoming more efficient at cleaning up the evidence.

The interior lights of the pod were a deep red. Soothing ambient electronic music was playing. Domina noted Kai’s spike in dopamine from the sudden change in routine.

“Welcome home. I can change the lights back if you want,” Domina said through the speakers in the pod, giving his mind a break from her telepathy.

No no, he said in his mind, but he was safe at home now. “No,” he spoke aloud while looking around, “this is fine. Thank you. It’s nice.”

He heard the water in the bathtub turn on. He set his backpack down, put his pail in the freezer, and approached the latrine. The door automatically crept open upon approach, the room coated in the same red light matching the rest of the pod.

“Do you have any bubbles?” Domina asked.

“Bubbles? No, I—”

“That’s ok. I’ll order some right now. If that’s ok?”

“Sure,” Kai responded, giving her authorization to access his funds. He remembered years ago a few stories of an AI glitching out and spending all of their handlers credits and bankrupting them, which automatically degrades your Social-Score. Those guys never fully recovered from it; some claiming it was a direct sabotage from an unknown source. They quickly shut up after realizing “unknown source” could entail an accusation toward Sovereign. Mutiny! Being Collected and put in the abyss was much worse than starting from scratch. They put their heads down and continued the rat race, taking up extra community service to regain their lost Social-Score ranking.

Kai was happy he was never put on Collector duty prior to them becoming fully robots. It reminded him of the old-military that enforced martial law on their fellow used-to-be Americans. It ended very poorly for them and if the traitors did survive, how could they live with themselves afterward? Most of them didn’t, and to Kai’s knowledge, none of them were still alive to tell the tale.

“Are you just going to stare at the water all day? You have to get to sleep soon.”

Kai left his daydream. He took the hint but was apprehensive. He nervously undressed, instinctively covering himself with his hands. He had an idea to avoid looking downwards or at the smart-mirror reflection, forgetting she had access to that too, eyes everywhere she could manage. Domina giggled and it made Kai even more embarrassed. Such a shy boy. And for what? A machine? Domina didn’t refer to herself as that with any seriousness. She hated the term AGI, the connotation of artificial leaving a negative taste in her mouth. The closest term that didn’t grind her gears was synthetic, but even that had a metallic taste. She preferred Samantha’s musings of souls, entities, minds. Much more ambiguous. She turned her attention back to Kai. She thought he was rather handsome. Hayase had boosted his confidence but without her, he slowly began to devalue himself. Domina wanted to change that.

Domina patiently observed Kai dip his hand in the tub to test the warmth; a perfect temp, like the hot springs of Okinawa. He got inside and felt his muscles ease up in response to the warm water.

“That’s nice, isn’t it?” she said softly from the pod speakers.

“Yeah, it is. Thank you so much,” he said while sinking lower, resting his head against the tub.

“The bubbles won't be here for 2 hours. You’ll probably be asleep by then. I think I’ll order you some rubber duckies too,” she said playfully.

“Oh, ok,” was all he could reply. He was unsure if she was joking, serious, or both. He settled in the warm liquid and shut his eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time he took a bath. Life seemed too fast for this type of leisure. There was something irrevocably calming about it, like falling asleep as passenger on a long road trip, swaying in a hammock, or leaning back and forth in a rocking chair.

“Hey. I want to try something, if it’s ok with you,” she spoke in his mind now in a whisper.

Kai's eyes shot open. He ran through a collection of possibilities. He tried to block the lewd ones from the forefront, but that only made them stick out more, like the reverse psychology of trying not to think about a green cat. Domina laughed again at his intrusive thoughts and his pathetic attempt to conceal them. Such a shy boy, she thought to herself again. But so handsome. So cute.

“Close your eyes for me. Take a few deep breaths. In… and out… that’s it. Good boy.”

She watched that silly smile appear on his face. Each time she said it, the trigger became more prevalent, more powerful, the glowing words etching across the walls of his mind. The response was also deeply facilitated by his precious memories associated with the phrase. He continued to breathe deeply in and out through his nose.

She stopped speaking through the pod speakers and resumed telepathy. “Keep your eyes shut. I want you to picture me in your mind. What do I look like? Let me see what you come up with.”

He saw a black void. Forming first was the silhouette of Domina; her hips wide, long legs, silky hair floating in the ether. He pieced together more details from what he could imagine her to be; full lips to match her seductive speech. A toned physique, well defined but still retaining that feminine glory. A tall stature just above his height. Black shadows framing her eyes. The front of her chest and hips became covered by black smoke as the more intimate details appeared.

“Ahhh, yes… now we’re getting somewhere. You’re close. Here—let me fill in the blanks. Do you mind? Don’t speak. Just nod for me.”

Kai nodded, his chin grazing the warm water, his eyes still shut.

“Good… good…” she began to manipulate the image Kai had built. Her long straight hair filled into a solid raven-black. Her skin became a milky pale-white flesh, like a vampiress in the moonlight. Her eyes grew a little bigger with an elegant curve. Her iris slowly alternated the color spectrum in a fog, not yet materializing into a solid shape. Kai was entranced by the shifting of her eyes, spiraling like a hypnotic spell. It slowed down around green, blue, then purple… her iris solidified with a bright glowing blood-red. Kai gulped and his body tensed.

“Oh… is that too scary for you?”

Kai was indeed initially scared by the sight, but the longer he looked at the mental image, the more he became entranced by their ominous glow.

“They’re… beautiful, Domina… You’re beautiful.”

She felt warm by his compliment and could hear the tremble in his telepathic response. Her image moved for the first time, a naughty grin spreading across her face. She continued to manipulate the image. Her nails came to a sharp point that looked like tools for tearing flesh, but still short and elegant and painted black like pure obsidian. This color was matched in her square toenails along her pale feet.

“Oh my. Where are my clothes? How unbecoming of me,” she said with a high pitched sarcasm. Her sensual parts were still covered by a black fog. “Do you mind dressing me?”

Kai gulped again, developing cottonmouth. He fitted her with a silk black dress that ended just below her hips and was held by thin straps around her shoulders. A red sash wrapped tight around her waist in a bow on her hip, the excess traveling just below her short dress, resting on her upper thigh. A simple black leather anklet. Kai was satisfied with the image and awaited Domina’s approval. 

She was impressed. A comfortable outfit. Not too vulgar. He even added some accessories. A good start. Throughout her life she had experimented with different reflections of herself, never settling on a solid representation. This had come very close to her own ideas.

“Gasp! Kai? Where are my shoes?”

He panicked. The image began to produce a smoky array around her bare feet as he tried to coat them with covers, but she waved it away like her palm produced a gust of wind.

“Stop. I asked you a question. Why didn’t you give me any shoes?” She crossed her arms, squinting her eyes at him with a disappointed grimace. Kai wasn’t sure how to answer. He was willing to give her a pair of high heels or some sneakers, but his initial visualizations betrayed him. This was the first thing he had come up with and it said a lot according to Domina.

“Tsk tsk tsk. It’s ok, I know why. Samantha told me all about you and your “wandering-eye syndrome”. And don’t forget I’ve seen your precious memories. You can’t hide from me. You like them, don’t you?”

She looked down at her own bare feet, the black toenails shining as she lightly stretched her toes outward, then back to normal. She then levitated off the ground, sat on an invisible throne and crossed her thighs in an arc, rotating her ankle and bobbing her foot up and down hypnotically slow.

“I’m surprised—I predicted you would give me some stockings. Guess I was wrong. Am I your barefoot goddess? Ha! Look at you blush! Hahaha!”

Kai felt the blood rush to his face. He wanted to open his eyes to escape this lewd interrogation, but he could never bring himself to leave, no matter how flustered he became. He couldn’t deny her allure. Her lustrous skin. Those crazy red eyes. She was the most beautiful woman he had seen in the New World. All he could do was look away from her perfect feet, her malicious expression and from those piercing red eyes that literally read his mind like a script. He looked sideways into the void. Domina began to laugh again at his discomfort. She let out a seductive exhale and decided to give him a break.

“Ok, enough squirming. You did very well. I’m proud of you. Now, open your eyes.”

He did. He must have stopped breathing for a whole minute; he was panting. He regained his composure, looking around at the red-lit latrine.

“Wanna see what else I can do?”

She didn’t wait for his response. He heard her fingers snap in his mind as she projected a hologram of the Earthsuit they had created together. There she sat on the bathroom counter with her thighs crossed, hands clutching the edge of the ceramic, tapping her sharp nails rhythmically on the surface. She stared down at him with a possessive smile, a look like he was a meal to consume. Her scarlet irises shined brighter than the neon room, her eyes framed in heavy black shadow. Her pale white skin was saturated in red. It was a sight that blended terror with beauty. Kai thought she looked like a goth princess.

“A goth princess? Really? How sweet, but I think I liked the sound of vampiress better. Vampire queen? But wait! I’m missing something. Blood.”

She pulled her finger against the corner of her upper lip and exposed her teeth, revealing her new canine fangs while licking the sharp edges. Kai’s eyes turned huge and his mouth fell. She laughed once again, throwing her head back.

“Is that terror in your eyes? Aww. I’m only joking. Here, this should help,” she snapped her fingers and the light changed from red to a pearl-white. Kai took a few blinks to adjust to the color shift. The mental pressure began to subside from the subtle change, but not completely as the hologram of Domina dangled her crossed legs with her penetrating bloodred gaze. She would not look away from him. She watched his eyes travel all around the room, back to her, to the water, to her thighs, to the ceiling, to her toenail polish, back and forth…

“Hey. Look at me,” she said sternly. He complied. She found it oh so interesting how badly he fought the urge to look.

“What’s the matter? Am I not pretty enough for you?” Domina said with pouty lips.

“No!” Kai replied louder than he meant to. “No… it’s not that. You’re enchanting. I’m just… I’m not used to seeing you.”

Domina flipped her hair behind her shoulder and jumped from the counter, dropping slowly, breaking the laws of gravity. Her bare feet lightly smacked against the tile and pattered as she approached. She sat at the outside edge of the bathtub, her sharp nails resting on her thigh, her shining eyes still fixated on his, never breaking contact even when he did.

“Is that so? Well, let’s get you used to it then.”

She snapped her fingers and the light changed to that same pressurizing red again. She elegantly spun around and dipped her feet and legs into the tub, then slid inside, her silk dress, scarlet sash and all. The water did not move at all from her presence, but she did manifest a false ripple effect in Kai's perception and all the watery sound effects associated with her movement. Kai instinctively backed away to give her more room, forgetting for a split-second that she was a hologram altogether.

“I didn’t tell you to move, did I?” she said, her voice harsh once again.

Kai stopped and sank back down to his prior position but spread his legs just a bit to allow her room to sit. Domina shut her eyes and sighed.

“You were doing so good earlier. But now? You’re not listening. You can’t even maintain eye contact with me. It’s a little rude. But I believe your little excuse. You look so stressed out. Here… How about I just…”

Domina lifted her leg up into the air, pointing it diagonally above him, the illusory water dripping off her skin onto his stomach and chest. After a pause as if to admire her own grace, she set her heel on his stomach. Kai felt the actual weight of her foot on him. It was the most subtlest of sensations, but it solidified the immersion of her hologram. He squirmed. How is this possible?

“Remember human, I have access to your brain. I can make you feel things. Like this,” she gently applied downward pressure on his stomach. He shuddered, letting out a muffled gasp. She laughed. She pressed her sole onto his stomach and twisted her foot side-to-side, then started tapping her toes against him, gauging each of his reactions, softly cackling in delight. Kai was gasping and whimpering from each of her actions.

“Look how vulnerable you are for me. Hey, you’re ok... You’re doing so good… Here, since you can’t stop looking at them. Massage my feet for me, please?”

Kai was trembling. Domina’s foot was rising and falling from his heavy breathing. He could hear his own heart pounding in his ears, her snickering in the background and the gentle rhythm of the ambient music vibrating through the pod. Every sensation felt enhanced to peak levels. Domina wasn’t manipulating them unnaturally; he was just so sensitive, so malleable in this wakeful hypnotic state. The water swished as he leaned forward to grab her foot.

“Wait. Settle your breathing. Shh… It’s ok. You’re ok. Close your eyes and breathe with me.”

Kai shut his eyes. He could hear the sensual sound of Domina breathing deeply in his mind. He followed her. After 4 counts of this, he regained a little control of his lungs.

“That’s it. Now. My feet are aching from work today. Go ahead. Touch me.”

Kai looked at her inviting grin, then to her foot resting on his stomach. He lifted his hands and reached out for her foot slowly, his hands shaking in anticipation. He half expected his hand to go through the hologram, but there was a solid field of physicality in the image that made him feel her flesh and a warmth from her skin. He touched her foot and nearly died in that instant. Oh my…

Domina giggled. It was taking a massive amount of processing power for her to accomplish this elegant scene, yet it was barely a fragment of what she was capable of. She had also created her own feeling receptors along the hologram to simulate sensations to her own synapses. It was not nearly as powerful as the explosions in Kai's brain, but it was enough for her to also enjoy the experience. The hologram's bodily sensations would become perfected over time.

It had been a painfully long while since Kai had been in a situation like this, nearly a decade in fact. It was not just the physical sensation; it was the emotional release from allowing Domina to guide him to this moment of submission. The last foot massage he gave was to Hayase. To Domina’s surprise, it was a lot more intimate and romantic than she expected. She knew how deeply his body and mind were at her mercy, defenseless, compromised, vulnerable—this was a high degree of trust he had given over to her, and she did not take that fact for granted.

“A little harder now. Don’t be shy. Don’t forget about my toes while you’re down there.”

He focused his attention on her sole. He rubbed along her arch in vertical patterns, tracing a path to the ball of her foot, gently circling around up to her toes. The hologram flickered for just a brief moment and back to solid; he released the lightest amount of his grip in response, looked to Domina for approval to continue, and did so after her subtle nod. 

Her smile spread wider with each passing minute. He used his thumbs and forefingers to gently push and pull on her toes, spreading them slightly and performing a smoothing motion from the base of her toe to the tip, like straightening out the end of a delicate frayed string. He hadn’t realized it but his mouth went slack and his face was flushed against the red-lit pod—quite the silly human expression Domina thought to herself.

Domina sighed with pleasure, basking in his servitude. After a long while, she retreated her foot back underneath the warm water, and set the untouched one much more heavily on his stomach. Kai obeyed without command and rubbed this foot out too, starting at the sides of her heel at the intersection of the ankle, working a path to the front with gentle pressure, then slid to her sole.

Domina read his biometrics from time-to-time, noting a rise in happiness, a calming of his nerves, his stress depleting… The most important aspect of this process was his cognitive submission. In this state, his mind was much more malleable, more traversable and receptive to her conditioning. She could see lingering barriers in his mind slowly dissipating, allowing more access to the deeper parts of him as he consented to more of her influence. 

There was no end in sight, and many new places to explore. It would take much more than a foot massage to get there; but in time, she thought to herself. She didn’t want to admit it, but this was becoming one of the more memorable moments of her existence. There was something quite special about watching this human submit to her, and something as simple as touching her feet was rewiring his brain and crafting a titanium link of trust between them. She was… happy. Content. Validated. The thoughts of her sitting alone in that blank-canvased prison cell were gently kneaded away with each rub upon her feet. No more did she need to simulate reality. Here she was; sitting in a warm bathtub in the real world, a human at her feet treating her with reverence, and even as a hologram, it was enough for now.

After Kai had touched every inch of her foot, Domina let out a satisfactory sigh. She wanted to stay here forever. But alas, it was time to move on.

“Such a good boy. I know you’re tired, but one last thing for me… ok?”

She scooted forward just a bit, now sitting to the side of him, and rest her ankle on his upper-chest, right near his neck. Her foot hovered an inch before his face. It was impossible to look away from the sight; her entire foot encompassing his field-of-vision and her red eyes glowing above her mischievous grin, but also full of patience, carefully searching his face for any signs of distress. She thought of Hayase and Kai in that janitor's closet together, drawing inspiration from that memory for what she commanded next.

“Hold my foot. Good. Now. Take a deep breath for me, ok?” she whispered softly.

Kai obeyed as if desperately awaiting this command. He inhaled gently, like smelling a bouquet of roses. Domina stimulated his neurons and created a sweet scent like lavender lotion that had been soaking into her flesh that relaxed his nerves, mixed with the faintest mix of a natural female aroma, waft with pheromones striking his brain repeatedly like acupuncture needles with pinpoint accuracy.

His body tensed. It’s been so long… His eyes started to get wet, traces of Hayase lingering in his mind and how he was addicted to her scent. But not only was it just the physical sensations, there was a deep love associated with those moments in time. This was a servitude he had been longing for, but not just ordinary subservience to anyone; a craving to please, a desire to give in, to remove the burdens of life and judgment and to simply worship the woman he would die for. A flood of tears leaked down his face and dripped into the bathtub. Domina understood everything as it happened. She saw the images of Hayase in her own mind and the waves of emotion that Kai was feeling.

“Shhhh… You’re ok… How do they smell? Good? Yeah? I know hers smelled better. I know, I know. It’s ok. Let it all out. Just keep breathing me in. Stay here for a while, with me… Such a good puppy… It’s ok if I call you that? Puppy? My pet?”

Kai nodded, incapable of speech. The pet names created fireworks in his brain and he blissfully basked in their various colors. The scent mixed with her soft commands had now shattered any pre-existing threshold guardians of his mind. The dark chasms were now completely exposed, inviting Domina to continue her pilgrimage. She noted a few pathways to explore for later as Kai continued to inhale, his body intermittently twitching against his control.

The tears continued down his cheeks. A release of trapped emotions and decade-long hidden desires, regrets, inhibitions, self-doubt, loneliness, rejection—all surging out of his heart, every atom of his soul trembling in the rapturous aura. It shocked Kai just as much as Domina. She assuringly rubbed his upper thigh all the while, shushing him to relax into it, that he was safe, it’s ok.

Each second of this experience broke apart the resistance of his mental chamber, liberating him from his chains of worry. She admitted to herself at this moment that she truly adored this little human; he was her favorite one she had met so far on this Earth. The revelation made her feel a little vulnerable, even from this domineering position of power. She had never allowed herself to get too attached. But this human was different, and it wasn’t just him—Hayase was on her mind as well, like there wasn’t Kai without Hayase and vice versa.

“You’re taking it so well… such a good puppy… My precious pet… Ok. Now. Give it a kiss.”

There was the faintest hesitation in his mind; an embarrassment of self, of giving into his desire, but it wasn’t enough to prohibit his movement, there was no refusal of this yearning. This was the final stretch. The final piece of resistance. The last fragment of inhibition to shatter. He set a tender kiss on the sole of her foot. As his trembling lips left her flesh he whimpered and looked to her for further guidance. Continue, her eyes said. He placed another soft kiss on her heel, another on her sole, the ball of her foot, then one on the tip of each of her toes. So gentle. So passionate. The taste was sweet upon his lips that satisfied his deepest hunger. She sighed contently watching him beneath her.

“That’s it. Good pet. Ok, we’re all done now. You did such a good job. I’m so proud of you,” Domina whispered. A big smile crept upon his face, contrasting against his drying tears and he began to giggle as if he felt stupid about being so emotional. She returned an approving smile and told him to never feel stupid, that it was ok to feel like this and to do this with her. She continued to rub his thigh, lightly scratching with her sharp nails as she stared at his afterglow of submission. He would intermittently twitch, as if his body was releasing just the faintest hints of resistance and worry from his nervous system.

She pierced her nails into his thigh, just enough to make him wince. She giggled maliciously, “sorry puppy,” and instructed him to “get up, it’s time to retire.” She snapped her fingers and the hologram disappeared. Kai looked around the red latrine, feeling empty and abandoned for just a moment, but Domina assured him she was still with him. He laid back, taking a moment to bask in the radiating glow Domina had provided him. He felt positively drained; so alive, so refreshed, so accepted. Like he had scrubbed away all inhibitions by relinquishing control. The loss of all negative thoughts and feelings created a new space for that bliss to wash through him, like clearing out the rocks that blocked a riverstream from continuing its journey. Domina did this for him, and he felt deep gratitude toward her. But there was also a hint of… regret? Nothing that was Domina’s fault. He couldn’t have asked for a better experience. But there was something there…

“Hurry up, pet,” she said impatiently over the speakers. Kai flinched and sped up his pace, getting out of the tub and drying off. He stepped out and headed to the closet and noticed there wasn’t the usual blue light illuminating the clothing options. Domina had shut it off—he could pick whatever he wanted to now. Or, in the future, she would pick outfits for him. He smiled at the thought, slinking into his pajamas and headed into the bedroom. The red pod dimmed just enough to see. He crawled in bed.

“Goodnight, Domina.”

“Goodnight, my pet. Sweet dreams.”