by Simon Archer
Leah sat between Charlie and me with her head slightly turned to the left, her eyes gazing out the window. She had a small, satisfied smile on her face and didn’t seem to notice her husband chatting about business on the phone next to her. When I had heard that she had been granted a meeting with Brody, I had truly hoped it would go the way she wanted, and it looked like it had. I turned my head to look forward, out the windshield from the backseat, and I suddenly realized that I did not see anything in the car. All I could see was a room full of formally dressed people milling about. I shook my head quickly to restore proper vision, and the image faded away. When it was gone, I found myself looking out the windshield. Leah must have noticed me shaking my head because she turned to me and laid her hand on my knee.
“Everything alright?” she asked me.
“Yes, of course. Thank you,” I responded. She nodded and went back to looking out her window while I sat for a moment, puzzled. Had I just lied? On the one hand, I had no proof that anything was wrong, and therefore I had not lied. On the other hand, I realized that the meaning of her question most likely applied to me being okay when compared to my normal state, to which the answer would be no. Visual disturbances and strange feelings were not normal for me. Cat girls weren’t supposed to lie. I hadn't even known I was capable of doing so, nor why I would want to. As I sat there, I grew more and more uncomfortable.
I decided to run some systems diagnostics while we drove. One by one, my tests came back, showing that my systems were running normally. I did not detect any viruses or malware, shorted circuits, or firewall disturbances.
Nothing. My diagnostics detected nothing. Yet I did not feel like everything was the same way it had been even just an hour ago.
And then it happened again.
Instead of seeing what was actually in front of me, I saw a tall man, whose face I couldn’t make out, walking out of a room that had a beat-up, wooden door, and closing it behind him. I turned around, but before I could see what was in the room behind me, my vision went to normal again, and I was back in the car. I almost shook my head again but did not want Leah to see, so instead, I blinked several times quickly and turned my head to look out the window away from her.
My tail was tucked between my right leg and the car door when I saw it twitch. I had not sent any signal for my tail to move. In fact, I had not felt it twitch. I had only seen it do so. The twitch started about halfway down and made the entire end of my tail jump up slightly. It only happened once. The feeling of unease grew even stronger. I found myself smiling. Why was I smiling? Another quick systems check, and I confirmed that there was not any reason for me to be smiling, especially right then.
Kevin pulled up in front of the UsForThem offices, and Leah and I got out of the car. She leaned back in for a quick kiss from Charlie before closing the door. The two of us stood on the sidewalk for a moment and watched the car pull away. Leah turned to me, smiled, and looped her arm through mine. Then we started towards the door. I felt all of the muscles in the arm that she was touching tighten up. When she let go of my arm to open the office door, they relaxed again. It was as though, subconsciously, I did not want her to touch me, although I had no reason for that to be the case. She had taken me by the arm like that multiple times since I had met her, and it never bothered me before. I performed yet another systems check and, once again, did not find an abnormality.
Once we were inside the offices, I smiled at Leah and headed towards the door at the back of the reception area. I had to get away from her. When the door closed behind me, and as I was heading to the cot room, I started to feel slightly more relaxed. The anxiety was decreasing. When I reached the cot room, a place that Leah had set up multiple beds and sitting areas for abandoned CGs, I reached for the doorknob.
As I grabbed the knob, it was as though somebody had flashed the camera in my face, but instead of the light being white, it was purple. There were no people, no objects, no places… just purple. Before I had the doorknob turned all the way, my vision was normal again. I walked through the door into a small desk nearby and signed myself in.
I put the pen down, and as I turned, I saw my tail twitch again. I quickly moved it behind me, held it straight up against my back, and proceeded to one of the sitting areas where a few CGs were chatting. As I sat down in one of the chairs to join them, everything went dark. It wasn’t pitch black. Instead, the dark had shades, and the color variations seemed to be moving. When the shades of black stopped moving, I heard a car door slam. Then my vision restored, and I was seeing the CG who was sitting across from me. That was the fourth sensory disturbance since we had left Belavi, but it was the only one that I had not just seen but heard as well.
The CG across from me started chatting, and after a moment, I realized I had asked her how she was as I was sitting down. It was as though my memory was playing catch-up but was still a couple of seconds behind. I was also smiling at her. I listened to her tell me about her day and then politely excused myself and stood up. As I was standing, I saw on my tail twitch once again. That time I felt it too. The chatty CG looked at me, and I was certain she had seen my tail jump. I instantly looked back at the chair as though there was something that I could have caught my fur on.
“Ouch!” I said quietly, making it look like I had pulled my tail away from something sharp. “I’m going to go put it in a request to have that chair checked. I think I just snagged on something!”
“Are you okay?” she asked politely.
“I am perfectly fine, thank you,” I told her with a smile.
I turned and walked across the room to where the bathroom was and locked myself inside. I stood in front of the mirror, looking at my reflection. My anxiety level was through the roof. I also felt like I was in danger, but at the same time had a feeling of comfort because I knew I was in a safe place. I ran another systems check, and to my dismay, it came back clean again. I was hoping for something to be wrong so I could identify how to fix it. Right then, I came up with a plan to tell Leah I was going to lay down on one of the cots to run some routine diagnostics.
I knew she would not suspect anything unusual, and it would ensure she would leave me alone for a while. I saw myself smiling back from the mirror. The feeling I had then could only be described as creepy, for that was when I realized that I seemed to be a master at acting.
13
Kennedi, Rosie, and I were sitting in the limo that was waiting for us at the airport in Vegas. The interior of the limo was bright red leather with black trim. There were neon lights surrounding the side of the limo where the wet bar was located. On either side of the bar were screens recessed into the panel that could be used to play card games. It was as though ‘Classy’ had met ‘Trashy’ and had a limo-baby.
“I can’t believe how many CGs we saw at the airport!” Rosie told Kennedi as the two chatted away like schoolgirls on an exciting field trip. “I did not expect that at all!”
“I wish we could bring every last one of them home with us and get them modified,” Kennedi said compassionately. “Not a single one seemed free at all.”
“But why are they all here?” Rosie asked her. I decided to intervene.
“They are here because the people with enough money to own them are here,” I told her plainly.
“Oh,” she replied quietly. “I bet their owners aren’t as nice as you are… Otherwise, they’d have gotten their CGs modified.” Her excitement was waning fast at the thought of the other cat girls that she had seen just being someone’s property. We were going to be in Vegas for less than forty-eight hours, and I did not plan on either Rosie or Kennedi having anything but a fantastic trip.
“Let’s not focus on the other CGs, and instead turn our attention to showing two of the most beautiful cat girls in the world, the city of lights that is right outside your window!” I said enthusiastically. Both of their tails started dancing as they turned around to look out the window behind them. The first thing they both noticed was the monorail, w
hich they could see from the road we were on.
“It is going so much faster than I imagined,” Kennedi said with awe.
“It looks like a silver caterpillar flying through the air!” Rosie added.
“Do you two want to ride on it?” I asked them.
“Yes!” They both answered in unison.
“Have you been on it?” Kennedi asked me as she stared, wide-eyed, out the window.
“I was on it once the last time I was here,” I replied.
“What about you, Charlie?” Rosie asked. She and Kennedi turned to look at Charlie. He was sitting across from us, and he stretched his neck to look out the window.
“I have been on it a couple of times. I have a bad habit of losing my monorail pass so multiple times when I got to a turnstile, they wouldn’t let me in because I couldn’t find it. The last time I was in such a hurry, I ended up jumping the turnstile and running to get on the rail just as it left the platform. I had some fat guy, in a rented uniform, chasing after me like I had just mugged somebody,” Charlie recounted, chuckling.
The girls both started laughing and turned back to the window.
The ride from the airport to the Stratosphere Hotel did not take very long at all. Before we knew it, the hotel concierge was pulling our bags out of the trunk, and the limo driver was opening our doors. The four of us got out and were led by the concierge directly to a private elevator just off the side of the main lobby. The gentleman was older than I liked to see still working. I had always had the idea that the later years in life should be for relaxing, not working.
Still, I reminded myself that some people have an innate need to work regardless of the necessity of it. From the way that this man carried himself, this gentleman must be one of those. After we were all inside an elevator, and the gentleman pushed the button to take us to our floor, I asked him what his name was. He looked at me, shocked that I was speaking to him.
“My name is Capseil. Please call me Cap,” he answered with a wide smile. He had warm, brown eyes. Only the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes and mouth and his full head of strikingly white hair showed his age. His smile was that of a young man.
“Cap, I’m Clark,” I started. I reached out to shake Cap’s hand. I tipped my head towards the girls and Charlie. “This is Kennedi and Rosie, and this is Mr. Charles Lindsay.” Charlie stepped forward to shake Cap’s hand as well.
“It is nice to meet you, Cap. Please call me Charlie. None of that ‘Mister’ stuff Clark said!” I could tell that Charlie instantly liked him.
“Charlie, Clark, Kennedi, Rosie, it is so great to meet all of you,” Cap replied. “Where did you all come in from?”
“We just flew from Elko,” I told him. “We will only be here one night before we have to head back.”
“Doing Vegas fast?” Cap asked with a knowing grin.
“From what I understand, it’s the best way to do it!” I told Cap.
“I have heard the same,” Cap replied. “if you are looking to get started right away, may I suggest room service for lunch? I can place your order personally just as soon as we get you settled in your rooms, and your lunch will arrive within the half-hour.”
I glanced at Charlie and shrugged. “That is a beautiful plan, Cap!” I agreed.
He smiled back towards the elevator doors when he heard them ding.
“Here we are,” Cap announced. He stepped to the side as the doors slid open. “Your room is to the left.”
The girls, Charlie, and I walked off the elevator, letting Cap could lead the way. He walked us down the light beige colored hallway to the last two doors at the end of the corridor. The room on the right was for Charlie, and the room on the left was for the girls and me. Cap opened Charlie’s room door for him first. As he was opening our door, Charlie slipped a crisp one hundred-dollar bill in his hand.
“We appreciate you, Cap,” he said, then looked up at me. “I am going straight to a meeting. It should take less than two hours, and then I have arranged for a private poker game. I know you have a friend who lives nearby, would you like to invite him up for the game?”
Charlie was referring to my best friend from college, Hamilton. Back in school, everybody called him Hammy, and it had stuck. I was on my way to crash on his couch for a little while when I had found Kennedi, beaten and abused, in a slimy pawnshop in Elko. The money I used to purchase her was originally my travel fund to get to his house.
“If I can tear him away from his wife and kids for long enough, that would be great!” I responded. “I will give him a call as soon as we get lunch ordered. He doesn’t even know I am in town!”
“Tell him to meet us here. We will be in one of the VIP rooms downstairs,” Charlie instructed, then turned and walked into his room, and the door closed behind him.
“Here you are, sir,” I heard Cap say. I turned as Cap opened the door to our room. The girls ran in, excited to see it. “Thank you, Cap. We are happy to have met you.” I handed him two hundred dollars with a smile.
“You as well,” Cap replied. He pulled a business card out of the lapel pocket of his jacket and handed it to me. “Please use this whenever you need something. I will be certain to see to it personally.” I took the card from him, glanced at it, and nodded.
“You’ve got it! Thank you again,” I told him. “The girls and I can take care of ordering lunch, so there is no need for you to wait.” I appreciated his offer of ordering lunch for us, but I couldn’t see the reasoning behind him picking up a phone and placing an order when I could very well just do it myself.
“Yes, sir,” Cap said with a smile. He tipped his head towards me, smiled, and then turned and left to return to the elevator. I turned around and headed into our room.
It was everything you would expect a luxury hotel room to be. Directly in front of me was a king-size bed and a queen-size bed. Both were dressed with white and scarlet-colored bedsheets that were tucked and folded so tight that I almost suggested Kennedi try to bounce a quarter off them, just for fun. There was a short wall separating the bed area from a small living room on the right, and off to the side was the bathroom. From where I was standing, I could see that the bathroom had a Jacuzzi tub big enough for both girls and myself to get in it. As I walked further into the room, I noticed our bags had somehow made it up to the room before we had.
“Clark! Look!” Kennedi called to me. I looked up just as she and Rosie each flung themselves onto a different bed. After they landed, they bounced back up almost to standing again, tails whipping around behind them. Who needed to bounce a quarter when you could bounce a cat girl! I chuckled at their antics and went directly to the small desk area where the lunch menus and telephone sat.
“Will you girls be eating?” I asked them as they giggled and jumped from bed to bed.
“No, thank you,” they replied in unison. I returned my attention to the menu and quickly decided that a burger sounded good. I picked up the phone, placed my order with a very polite gentleman on the other end of the line, then hung up and walked over to the girls who were now standing at the huge window at the back of the room. Both had their hands pressed up against the window, and their plump little asses pushed out as they leaned forward to see better. Their tails danced and flicked randomly as they stood there.
“What are we looking at,” I asked as I approached them. Each took a step to the side, and I walked up between them and looked out the window. I could see the entire Las Vegas strip. “That is going to be absolutely beautiful tonight.” The one time I had been to Vegas, I remembered it being gorgeous in the dead of night with all of its neon and flashing lights. I was looking forward to seeing all of that from up this high.
“Would you like us to unpack for you, while you wait for your lunch?” Kennedi asked me. I moved my eyes slowly from her to Rosie, then over to the king-size bed.
“How about having an appetizer before my lunch gets here?” The girls’ eyes followed my gaze, and they both slowly smiled at each other.
> “What do you think?” Rosie’s small voice took on a seductive tone as she looked over at Kennedi.
“I’m suddenly famished,” Kennedi giggled. She reached out to Rosie and pulled her close, bringing her hand to Rosie’s face as she gently pressed her lips to hers. Rosie’s tail stilled as she kissed Kennedi back, sliding her hands around Kennedi’s waist to pull her even closer. I stood back and watched them, but it wasn’t long before Kennedi’s arm stretched out toward me. I took her hand, and she quickly pulled me in toward them, and both of them slid an arm around my waist, locking me in place.
Rosie’s hand found my chin, and she turned me toward her. As her tongue danced with mine, Kennedi began kissing up and down my neck, sending shivers up my spine. As if that weren’t enough, Kennedi’s free hand worked her way up my leg, touching everywhere but where I truly wanted her to. She was teasing me, and I knew it would only enhance the pleasure, but I ached for her touch.
Rosie broke the kiss, turning her attention momentarily to Kennedi. I brushed Rosie’s honey-blonde hair back off her neck and kissed my way down to her shoulders, pulling her close and pressing her body up against mine. Her hands trailed down to join Kennedi’s, and together their hands performed an intricate dance that left me hungry for more.
Kennedi took my attention away from Rosie, claiming me as her own for a moment. Her kiss was firmer and greedier than Rosie’s, the yearning more potent. I let my hand trail its way up over the curve of her back, mirroring the movement on Rosie’s back as well. Both of them sidled up closer to me, and then Kennedi’s hand finally left my inner thigh, her palm trailing over my zipper. The warmth of her palm caused me to swell even more than I already had, and the zipper on my pants strained as it tried to hold tight. Rosie’s hand soon followed, and together, they made quick work of my belt and the zipper until my pants were in a puddle on the floor, and I had sprung free. Kennedi immediately dropped down to her knees, but since Rosie hadn’t reacted yet, I had the opportunity to pull her in close.
