Darkest Before the... Sarah? by AAGGRESSS

Dawn crept into the last untouched bedroom, that of Fawn. With her powers strained right now, Dawn would have to take a different approach to capture the idol singer. Luckily for her, Fawn had fallen asleep listening to a sample CD of her own latest album. Dawn chuckled to herself quietly, thinking how self-indulgent the hypnotic singer would look if Jake ever found out.

The thought of Fawn’s hypnotic voice gave Dawn an idea. She held a hand over the CD player, being careful not to make any noise that might wake Fawn, and with a small flex of her new power, cast a demonic hex on the CD contained within. The player’s usual lights changed from their usual greenish yellow to a hellish blood-red, as the song it played softly to Fawn’s sleeping form became more sultry and dark. Dawn’s demon magic had turned the CD into a self hypnosis CD, slowly feeding thoughts of obedience and devotion to her soon-to-be slave.

… … … …

In her dreams, Fawn had just come off a huge concert with the fans cheering, when suddenly their cheers changed from her name to that of Dawn. Fawn looked behind her to see Dawn standing center stage and posing, receiving all the praise. At first, Fawn was furious, but then Dawn began to sing her own song. She sang in an ancient demon language, her voice amazingly smooth. In the back of her mind, Fawn wondered how she had gotten this skill. She knew for a fact that Dawn could neither dance nor sing, but that thought faded as she noticed herself losing focus. She tried to cry out at Dawn, but found that her voice was gone, not a sound escaped her lips. To her horror, she realized that Dawn was using the very same power of her hypnotic voice against her…

“Aww, what’s wrong, Fawn? You certainly never had a problem using the voice on your audience. Or poor little Jakey-poo. Without you I never would have gotten my full power back. And just look at all these adoring fans, helplessly worshiping you like a goddess. Not that they had a choice. Even if your music was the worst in the world, the voice would still captivate them. But now you don’t have the voice anymore, do you? It’s mine. And that means that they are my fans. You are absolutely nothing without the little cheat Mato gave you, and your fans know it. They worship me now, and so do you.

Fawn’s mind swam with Dawn’s words. She felt great pangs of guilt over her use of the voice for fame, all the times she had used the voices hypnotic powers for her own ends. Not only that, but a vision of herself hypnotizing Jake for Dawn played inside her head. Though she couldn’t remember such an event, deep down, she knew it was true. She felt stupid for letting Dawn manipulate her into hypnotizing Jake for her own ends. Had her mind been fully conscious, Dawn’s words would have weighed heavily on her, as she thought of the fans, wondering if they loved her, or just the voice. But in the end Fawn succumbed to the sweet sound of the voice coming from Dawn’s lips, and began cheering just like the rest of the mindless crowd.

Satisfied with her work, the succubus slid down the banister and to the foot of the stairs. She strutted out to the middle of the entryway, where awaited her other slaves. In short order, a completely zoned out Fawn shuffled down the stairs and joined them, the CD player still hanging from the ear buds and swinging in the air in front of her.

Dawn addressed her brainwashed servants, “Alright girls. My new master has made me an offer I can’t refuse. Trading all of you, for enough power to make this city my playground.” Dawn seemed to speak on instinct, even she did not know just how she knew all this, but the speech flowed naturally, as if she had rehearsed it a hundred times.

“Now I am sure I would be rewarded rather handsomely for just you all…but it just wouldn’t be proper to send you off without dear old Sarah. She is picking Mato up from the airport and she should be arriving back in just a little while, so you all are going to help me get her.”

The girls nodded eagerly, all except Fawn, who just nodded blankly. Dawn’s power was stretched too thin, keeping the others under control with their malevolent independence, to use against Fawn too. Still, she was sure there was just enough left to get her favorite plaything under her control before the night was done.

“I suppose you all have had this coming. I don’t know if I’ve just been granted this wonderful opportunity, or if my master has given me the malice and courage to go through with this, and personally, I don’t really care. Some of you have stood in the way of my fun and some of you have played a hand in my humiliation. I had to restrain myself from making you streak through town naked after that Christmas party caper. But now…now it’s my turn to be as bad as I want, and this time I am not getting punished. No Jakey-poo to bail you out with his magic pendant, no Mato experiment to spring up at the last second. Just Sarah going down and I finally get exactly what I want. Now let’s go set up the final round of this game, girls.”

Like a well-trained army platoon, the parade of beauties in their jammies marched out the door, behind them, Jake sat, still in a world of his own, melding to the couch and watching the mindless gore fest the TV continued to vomit at him. Ironic that the greatest hypnotist in the world would himself be entranced by the idiot box.

The girls walked out into the front yard of the house and stood fanned out, deliberately set up to catch Sarah’s attention. Dawn could no doubt have them zerg rush the cyborg, but she wanted to try something a little more hands off, and needed the girls only as a distraction. After a brief wait, she could see at the end of the street: Sarah’s police cruiser pulling around the corner with the professor in tow. Her final move approached rapidly…

As Sarah pulled up towards the Mato residence drive way, she saw something positively spooky catch her headlights. Her housemates were standing out on the front lawn in their pajamas, just standing there like zombies. As her headlights passed over each of them one by one as she made the gentle turn, she knew immediately something was wrong. She quickly locked the car doors and backed out into the street, before disembarking and running up towards the stationary girls. As Sarah approached, she could see that something about their eyes wasn’t right.

She ran right up to her closest friend, Jessica, and grabbed her, shaking her and telling her to snap out of it. Suddenly Jessica grabbed her arms and looked at her with a terrifying grin, her eyes were all wrong; they looked unnatural and crazy. Sarah quickly tried to break out of her corrupted friends grip, but Jessica was too fast and spun the cyborg cop around, putting her in a choke hold and bringing her down to her knees.

Dawn stepped out from behind the hedges, strutting with an unusual confidence and grinning with sadistic glee as she looked down on Sarah, who was still struggling, to no avail, to escape from Jessica’s grasp. Sarah looked up, seeing Dawn and spat “Dawn! What did you do to them!?”

Dawn couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at Sarah’s defiance and responded, “Oh, I just gave them a new purpose in life. Obeying and worshiping their new demon goddess… namely, me. But don’t feel left out, Sarah. I saved enough room for you. Now Sarah, it’s been a long day for you, why don’t you just sit back, relax, and let me take the weight off your shoulders…”

On cue with her statement, Dawn’s hand began to glow as she held it out. A pair of orbs formed on the tips of her 2 foremost fingers as they reached towards Sarah’s face…

Sarah’s eyes immediately locked onto the orbs, even as she tried her hardest to look away, to close her eyes, even to speak, she couldn’t; the swirling, flowing colors carried her away like a river. She was floating on that river, soft like floating on the water naked, feeling it wash all her cares and her resistance away. She sunk deep into the orbs, falling into the endless swirls of color. No up, no down, just an endless world of color pulling her deeper and deeper…

Dawn giggled at Sarah’s surrender, as the cop fell into a trance. “All this time, all these cases and chases and yet you still fall for the same old trick every time. Why do you chase me even though every time you wind up humiliated and red in the face? Do you really want to catch me…or do you want something more?” Dawn pushed the orbs into Sarah’s eyes and they entered like passing through water. And in that moment, their minds were one…

… … … …

Sarah kicked in the door to a rundown building in a seedy district of Yoto. As the door splintered, she saw Dawn in the back of the room, going over her stolen goods. In just a quick scan, Sarah could make out much money, jewelry, and a few personal items of Sarah’s, including a poster of Captain Anime, electing a quick blush from the cop as her mind returned to focusing on the task at hand.

“Hands up, Dawn! I got you this time!” Sarah held out her gun, aimed directly at the succubus. She expected Dawn to come up with a witty retort or brandish her orb but, to her surprise, Dawn simply turned around with her hands in the air. “Ok copper, you win. I surrender.”

Sarah was exceptionally confused by this, so she kept her wits about her as she approached Dawn, wielding handcuffs. Suddenly, Dawn sprang up, moving faster than Sarah had ever seen her move. Dawn grabbed the handcuffs and dangled them from one finger. “Is this really what you want? Will putting me away make you happy? You have chased me so long, what will you do with yourself? Do you really just want to lock me away behind bars and forget about me? I don’t think you do. I think you want something different out of this. Does the thrill of the hunt make you hot? Does the thought of tracking me down just to get hypnotized again make you a little bit exhilarated? Does it excite you? I think what you really want out of this…is me.”

Dawn put her arms suddenly around Sarah’s shoulders. Sarah dropped her gun out of sheer surprise at the succubus actions. She found herself unable to look away from Dawn’s face, as her eyes began to glow. “Just submit Sarah. Be mine. It’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? Why else would you keep up this futile game of cat and mouse?” Dawn’s lips pursed as she leaned in, preparing to kiss Sarah…

*click*

Dawn opened her eyes to see that Sarah had slipped from her grasp and closed the handcuffs on her wrists. “What! But how…? I had you right where I wanted you!” Dawn screamed in confused anger. Sarah gave a stern but triumphant look at the captured succubus, as the technologically advanced cuffs she had thought to bring with her locked down Dawn’s hypno powers. “You’re losing your edge, Dawn. That attempt at hypnotizing me was way too easy to break out of. I guess you pushed yourself past your limit.”

… … … …

The dream shattered around them as Dawn screamed in anger. The shock of her mistress’ plight caused Jessica to loosen her grip long enough for Sarah to elbow her in the gut, knocking her back onto her rear. Dawn turned from Sarah and desperately cried to the others “Slaves! Defend your Mis…” When suddenly she felt a sharp sting in the back of her neck. Her vision blurred as she fell to her knees, consciousness leaving her rapidly, as the succubus passed out. There behind her stood Sarah, still holding the pose of giving a chop to the back of Dawn’s neck. “And you said I was predictable.”

As Dawn fell forward into unconsciousness, the girls shook with a strange feeling. Their eyes began returning to normal, all except Fawn, who remained in her deep trance, the self hypnosis CD still playing in the swinging player. They held their heads as they slowly came out of the trance, like waking from a bad dream.

Jessica stood back up, shaky on her feet and holding her head as her senses returned to her. “What…happened? I was in Lucky Lady and…”

Sarah pointed at the unconscious Dawn “That happened. She somehow got you all under her spell. Good thing she got sloppy with me.” Sarah knelt down and cuffed Dawn, but the succubus began to stir a second later.

Dawn opened her eyes, now returned to their original color, and looked around in confusion. “Um… anyone care to answer what the heck is going on!?” Dawn struggled with the cuffs, but Sarah kneeled down on her back to pin her.

“You know exactly what’s going on ,Dawn. And now I have you with all these witnesses, and thanks to the power blocking cuffs, you can’t hypno your way out of this one.”

“Actually…” Yuta pointed out “I can’t remember a thing. The last I remember is going to bed.”

“Me too,” said Katia. One after another, all the girls except Fawn responded in kind, none having any memory of the night or Dawns actions, leaving Sarah with no witnesses to prove Dawn’s guilt, except maybe…

Sarah dashed back to her police cruiser, hoping the professor had seen the whole thing. She unlocked the door and flung it open to find that the professor was taking a nap. Sarah’s heart sank as her perfect arrest fell to pieces around her.

Moments later, Sarah begrudgingly unlocked the cuffs from Dawn’s wrists. The succubus rubbed her wrists before giving a very displeased look. “I told you, Sarah, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Last thing I remember, I took a nap on a roof and then I had your fat butt holding me down. I’m all for experimenting but give a girl some warning next time you want to play.” She quickly dodged out of range of Sarah’s fists, and took to the sky. Sarah just sat down on the porch and held her head in her hands, a look of exasperation on her face. Jessica patted her on the back and tried to comfort her, as the others woke up a very confused Fawn from her trance.

The girls walked back inside, intent on getting some much needed shuteye, as Yuta did her best to explain the situation to a very intrigued Mato. “Sarah claims that Dawn entered her dream somehow and tried to control her from there.”

Mato became ecstatic. “A way to enter people’s dreams! That sounds like a fantastic project! I must begin work immediately!” At this, Sarah was about to bang her head into the wall, when everyone heard shuffling coming from the living room. The TV had finally gone to a commercial as the horror movie marathon concluded, and Jake finally rose from his stasis on the couch.

Jake stretched his arms and mused about the cheesy effects of the movies, before turning to see all the girls standing in the entryway in their pajamas. He looked puzzled for a second before asking, “Did I miss anything important?” causing the girls to all fall flat on their faces.