Following Her Dream Ch. 07

Violet listened to the girl as she rattled off all the details, a mischievous glint in her eye. When Rachel had finished talking, she paused for a moment, contemplating what she had been told. "That's a fascinating story, but I don't appreciate you wasting my time like this." She stood up, dejected.

Rachel stared at her, exasperated. "It's true! It has to be!"

"Either the both of you are trying to play a joke on me, or she's trying to play a joke on you. Either way, I want no part in it." Violet approached the door, opening it and stepping to the side. When Rachel made no move to get up, she sighed. "Mind control? Really? That's science fiction. Your friend is playing you. She wrote those things in your journal, or paid someone to do it. Shouldn't be hard to find out who your teachers are, either. And to mention that same teacher after she wrote it? Nah, it's too convenient, and you're falling for her act."

Rachel's ears perked up at the last sentence. She thought about last night, when she had to console Janet during the movie. Rachel smiled. "That's evidence right there," she said with a short exhale of breath. "Janet couldn't act to save her life. I've seen her try, it's awful."

"Well, I still don't believe you, so if you don't mind, I have a store to open." Violet once again gestured towards the door.

Rachel scrambled off the couch. "What if I can get proof? The program is on her tablet, I'll just bring the tablet. Although..." Rachel paused in thought. Her diary said she wasn't able to get past the password. She certainly couldn't just ask Janet for it. There had to be a way. She began pacing the room.

Violet grew visibly annoyed as she leaned against the wall by the door, her head thudding softly against it. She watched Rachel move about, hearing the girl muttering, the words incomprehensible from this distance.

"Could work...," Rachel spoke to herself. She turned to Violet. "I think I can bring it, but it'll be late."

Violet sighed again. "Do what you want. At the very least, maybe she'll have some interesting porn on there. For now, we're done."

Violet watched as Rachel descended the staircase. When she heard the front entrance door close, she plopped down on her couch, a grin spreading across her face.

Part of Rachel was relieved to finally be out of that place. She found Violet to be unpleasant, and under different circumstances would be happy if she never saw the store owner again. She was so convinced that her assumptions were correct, and Violet refused to believe her. Rachel would show her she was right, even if it meant 'borrowing' Janet's laptop to do so.

For now, she just had to pass the time until she could enact her plan. Rachel glanced at her phone. A lot of time. She whimpered as the anxiety crept back in, now that she was once again alone with her thoughts.

***

Rachel had decided to attend what remained of her courses for the day, and seeing her friends helped some. Pretending that everything was fine around them, however, was exhausting. Faking a smile and dismissing their concerns with a simple explanation that she was 'just tired' seemed a far better option than telling them the truth, though. Not that Rachel thought anyone would believe her. Violet didn't, but she would fix that.

After classes, she caught a movie, picking the first one she saw on the screen. It didn't matter what the movie was, just as long as she had something to distract her. She watched it passively. She was brought back to reality as the ushers began cleaning up. The lights had already come on, the other viewers long since dispersed. By the time she left the theater, the sun had gone down. Out of ideas of how to pass the time, Rachel began heading home.

She carefully listened outside her dorm door. Hearing no discernible sounds coming from inside, she cautiously entered. The lights were off. Janet must not be home yet. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure what would happen when she finally saw her. It was inevitable, but for now, the longer she could hold off confronting Janet, the better. Hopefully by then she'll have figured out what to say, what she needed to do.

Rachel climbed into bed, leaving her door cracked slightly as she positioned her back to it and waited. She did her best to shut her brain off, but wasn't faring too well in that regard. She resigned herself to it. An hour passed. It felt like more.

At last she heard the front door open. A vaguely familiar voice was speaking. She then heard Janet's voice, causing her to stiffen up. She couldn't quite make out the words. There was a thud, followed by more words.

Rachel listened as the two began approaching the hallway. She could hear them kissing now as they stumbled closer. Every now and then, there would be a bang on her wall, followed by Janet growling in frustration.

When the two passed her bedroom door, Rachel carefully let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't aware that she had been holding her breath.

The other girl had to be Melanie. It was the only thing that made sense. Janet had done it. She did exactly what her diary said she would do. She is controlling the girl's mind, and fucking her in the other room. 'Why does she want Melanie over me?' The intrusive thoughts returned.

Part of Rachel still held out hope that there was another explanation, that Janet was the same Janet she always knew. With Melanie here, Rachel finally understood. The words in her diary weren't her words. They were Janet's words, written by Rachel's hand. Janet used her, manipulated her. 'I think I might love her'. Rachel felt sick. Her mind tried coming to terms with everything while she could hear the screams from Janet's room in the background.

***

Rachel opened her eyes. Despite everything, she had managed to fall asleep. She sat up. For the first time today her mind was quiet. She glanced at her clock. It was as good a time as any. She left her bedroom.

Janet's door was left open. Moonlight flooded the room, casting shadows over the naked bodies asleep on the bed. Rachel stood in the doorway, one hand placed casually on the frame. Janet was facing her, laying on her right side. Behind her was Melanie, her left arm draped over Janet's stomach. The two slept peacefully, with barely a movement aside from the slow rise and fall of their breathing. Rachel stared at them... and felt nothing.

She quietly entered the room, careful to not make any sound. Almost immediately she spotted the tablet placed upon the nightstand. She approached it and carefully picked it up, examining it closely. Rachel flipped open the keyboard attached to the tablet, searching diligently for the sensor. Without it, her plan wouldn't work. She breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted it.

Rachel glanced over at Janet, carefully working out how next to proceed. She looked down at the sleeping-girl's hands. Laying on her right side, Janet's right arm emerged from under her stomach at the elbow, her left arm laying on top of it just below the wrist. Her open palm was facing upwards.

Rachel laid the tablet face-down on the bed, opening the keyboard 180-degrees. She turned the tablet on, hoping the light would be blocked enough to not wake the girl. Carefully, she reached down to grab Janet's index finger.

Janet shifted slightly, a light moan escaping from her mouth, as she brought her arm further under her stomach. Rachel froze. She studied Janet's face for an entire minute before allowing herself to relax. Janet was still asleep.

Using her left hand, Rachel carefully extended Janet's finger, raising it slightly. With careful maneuvering, she held the keyboard above it. Using her own thumb to feel for the location of the sensor, Rachel adjusted the keyboard slightly. She watched for a change in the light, as she slowly lowered the device.

Nothing.

Rachel frowned, feeling the pressure of her concentration. She kept making quick glances at the two figures on the bed. She tried a different alignment of the keyboard, daintily pressing it against the finger in her hand. Waiting patiently, she almost shouted out in joy when the color from the screen changed as it threw its light upon the bed sheet.

She slowly released her grip on Janet's finger, once again studying her face for any reaction. Seeing none, she stood up, turning the laptop over to face her.

Rachel saw the puppy wallpaper of Janet's desktop as the glow from the device washed over her face. She tapped the screen, making sure the tablet didn't go to sleep. With one last furtive glance at the two on the bed, Rachel made her way out of the building.

***

Violet yawned as she opened the door for Rachel, her eyes half lidded. She grimaced when the tablet was shoved in her face, the light blinding her in the darkness of the night.

"I got it!" Rachel exclaimed proudly. She pushed past Violet as she entered the store.

"Come on in," Violet spoke to where Rachel had previously stood while performing an exaggerated gesture of invitation. She shut the door and turned to follow Rachel, the other girl already proceeding up the stairs. By the time she entered the studio, Rachel was seated at a table, the tablet set upon it facing her. She saw Rachel look up to her, tears wetting her cheeks.

Violet frowned. "What's wrong with you? I thought you'd be happy after finding your supposed proof."

Rachel's lip quivered, her voice trembling as she tried to speak. "I saw her. She was there, and... and Melanie. They were... were... it was just like the diary..." Rachel sniffled. She reached up to wipe her face. "It's all true. Everything. She... she..." Rachel looked back at Violet with blurry vision. "How could she do this to me?!" Her shoulders shook as she sobbed. She tapped on the screen of the tablet, the device sliding slightly from the force. She propped her head on her arm, holding her hand over her eyes.

Violet approached the table, sitting down at the other end. "If you're looking for me to console you, you've got the wrong idea," she said with a frown, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She watched as Rachel shook her head in her hand. "So your friend used you. Big deal. You'll get over it." She looked away from the crying girl.

Rachel attempted to compose herself, with little success. She tapped the screen again. "What am I supposed to do? I just... I don't understand."

Violet remained silent, keeping her gaze directed at the floor, the walls, anywhere but towards Rachel.

Rachel sniffled. "This just isn't like her. She was always so sweet. So kind. I looked up to her. I respected her. She was my best friend." Silence. She let out a puff of air. She began speaking with a deeper, raspy voice. "It was the cutest thing, you know, when we met," Rachel explained matter-of-factly. Violet glanced up at her. "I found out about her crush." She furrowed her brow. "About Melanie. God, I teased her so much about it. The little thing, she just took it in stride. Didn't huff, or puff, or fight back. She would just blush. She was like a tiny mouse, eyeing the most extravagant cheese inside a shop. I never questioned her aspirations. If I had... if I had known what she was planning..." Rachel stared hard at the ground. "And I'm just left wondering... why did she have to mess me up so much just to get what she wanted? All these fond memories of her, and they just don't connect with the kind of person that would do this to me..." Rachel looked up when she felt the hand on her shoulder.

Violet was standing over her now, a look of sympathy in her eyes. "I suppose you can take solace in the fact that you're back to..." she began, before quickly pulling her hand away, staring at Rachel.

Rachel looked up at Violet, noticing the look of foreboding in the girl's eyes. "Back to what?"

Violet averted her gaze. Speaking quickly, she added, "It's nothing, don't worry about it." Rachel pleaded to her to explain. With a crestfallen tone, Violet explained, "I was just thinking, you were saying you had all these nice memories of this Janet, and they don't match with what you said Janet has done to you." Rachel nodded. "How do we know these nice memories are actually real? You seem to have implied that she can erase your memories, who's to say she can't create ones as well? It might be impossible to know which of your memories are true, and which are fabrications. Maybe the you that you feel you are... is nothing but another diary entry?" Violet tapped the screen.

The color drained from her face as Rachel listened to Violet's concerned words. "No..." she cried out. She lowered her head as she clutched her stomach in her arms. "No... I..." She began rocking back and forth. "That can't be..."

She thought back to her childhood, back to the time that she tried to climb a tree before falling, breaking her arm. The memory became nothing more than a date and some words in her mind. She jumped forward. Her first kiss in middle school, now reduced to a string of numbers and sentences. The family vacation after she graduated. Were there actually any pictures, or was the vacation just a collection of letters on a page?

Rachel held her head in her hands, the room seeming to spin around her. "Please...," she whimpered. She fell to her knees, reaching up and grabbing Violet roughly by the wrist. "Make it stop."

Violet stared down at her, expressionless. "Tell me what you want me to do."

"Something. Anything. I don't know," Rachel pleaded, her voice choked. "I can't go on like this. How can I if I don't even know who I am anymore. What if I were to go home to see my family, my friends, and they're not there. Replaced by some strangers who don't know me, because the family I thought I knew is just some falsification created by Janet and her..."

Rachel's eyes went wide with a sudden revelation. She scrambled frantically back into her chair, grabbing the tablet and turning it towards Violet. "We can use this," she exclaimed, her voice suddenly full of hope.

Violet scoffed. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Do you know how dangerous that can be? We don't even know how it works." She tapped the screen. "We could end up doing more harm than good. No, I think you should try to think of another way." She studied Rachel's face intently.

"What if this is the only way?" Rachel cried out. "Please, I'm begging you. You don't know what it's like to question your entire existence like this. Please..." Rachel's vision began to blur again. She watched Violet's cold stare. "Please..."

With a sigh, Violet plopped down in the other chair, rotating the tablet back towards Rachel. "I'll try, but I'm not responsible for anything that happens, ya hear? You asked for this."

Rachel nodded as she turned her attention to the screen. She scanned through the computer looking for where the program might be. It didn't take long to find, with an executable contained in a folder titled Melanie. She scrolled the mouse over the file, her finger ready to tap the touch-pad to open it. She glanced up at Violet, unable to read the other girl's face. With a deep but shaky breath, she looked back down and tapped the keyboard.

The screen went blank momentarily before bursting to life in a vivid array of colors and shapes that flitted about. Rachel studied the screen. She felt a dull sense of nostalgia, but wasn't sure if it was anything more than an expectation in her mind.

"Is it running?" Violet asked.

With a nod, Rachel replied, "I think so."

"Talk to me. What do you see? Do you feel anything?"

Rachel swallowed before letting her mouth hang open slightly. "It's so beautiful... I've never seen anything so beautiful... it makes me feel... safe..." Her breathing calmed down, becoming more even and steady. Her face relaxed, no longer distorted by an expression of abject despair. "It's nice... I don't have to... don't...," she trailed off, her voice losing some of its character.

Violet leaned forward, analyzing Rachel carefully. "Don't have to what, Rachel?"

Rachel's eyes had been ever so slowly slipping closed. At the question from Violet, they widened almost imperceptibly. "Don't have to... worry...," she began, her mouth curving into a gentle smile. "About... anything..." Her mind was slowing down. Her thoughts came to her as if they were trying to gently crawl through honey.

A realization came to Rachel. She struggled against the pull of the program. Her smile faded to nothing on her face as she fought. She couldn't let the program turn her brain off. With every ounce of strength left in her, she spoke out, her speech slurred. "Th... thank...you..." Her expression went completely slack. Her left hand that had been resting on the edge of the table slipped off. It tumbled limply to her side, swinging to and fro through its own momentum before coming to a full stop.

Violet looked on with rapt attention. Was this it? She didn't quite know what to expect. She waited for something to happen, but Rachel had stopped moving. The girl's eyelids were half-lidded, her body slumped in the chair, her head leaning slightly forward. Violet could almost see the dance of light as the screen played across Rachel's face and reflected off what little was still visible of the girl's eyes.

"Rachel?" she called out tentatively. No response. She rose from her chair, approaching the oblivious girl. As she rounded the table, she glanced down at the screen of the tablet. Momentarily taking it in, she quickly redirected her gaze. As a precaution, she backed up a bit to avoid further exposure. She ignored the part of her softly badgering her to look again, refusing to even acknowledge its existence. She was stronger than such things.

"Can you hear me?" she called out.

With more breath than anything, Rachel responded, "Yes."

"Je~sus, about time you stopped crying. So irritating," she said out loud. Violet contemplated on how to go forth. Was there a procedure for this? Were there limits? She didn't want to ask Rachel too much about it beforehand and risk making the girl suspicious. Such interrogations would probably be okay now, she decided.

"Rachel, if I told you to do something, right now, would you do it?" Harmless enough.

"Yes."

"Is there anything you wouldn't do?"

"Yes."

"Explain," Violet commanded, disappointed in the answer.

"I would only do things I am capable of doing," Rachel intoned.

Violet rolled her eyes. "Obviously," she spoke, more to herself than to Rachel. "If you were capable, though, you would do what I told you? Anything at all?"

"Yes."

Violet leaned against the table, her hands grabbing the edge. A chilling grin spread across her face as she continued to regard her victim. "Slap yourself." Her full attention was on Rachel as she awaited the girl's response.

Rachel lifted her left hand up and brought it across her cheek with a soft smack before slowly allowing it to return to where it was. Her expression remained the same as before as she continued to stare at the tablet, unthinking.

Violet's eyes were wide with excitement at the display she just witnessed. "Harder."

Once again Rachel's hand rose up and connected with her face. Once again she returned to the same neutral position.

"Harder!" Violet shouted.

A loud crack echoed through the room. Rachel's cheek flared red, but the girl made no reaction to the pain.

Violet gave a short laugh as she drummed on the table. She trembled, her blood pumping, as she felt the adrenaline run through her. "Oh, my my my. Such a wonderful gift you have brought me." She walked up to Rachel, making sure to keep the tablet behind her and out of sight, before sitting on the edge, her right leg still supporting her on the floor.

She caressed the girl's tender cheek delicately. "Right then, let's get you ready for tomorrow. I can't wait to see the look on Janet's face." She squeezed Rachel's cheeks between her fingers, scrunching the girl's lips, before dragging her thumb sensually across them. "I'm sure it will be quite... delicious."