Confronting the Truth

“A hivemind?” John lets the question hang for only a second before he qualifies it with some comparisons.

“Hive as in bugs like a bee queen, or as in like a collective like Unity from Rick and Morty? Or like the Thing, from the Thing. Because all three are a little unlikely from where I’m at.” John is unserious, it can’t be real so why take it like that.

Laura takes a second to respond. “Second one. Unity. I’m effectively Unity.”

John laughs for a second. “So you’ve got the whole planet? Am I the only soul you haven’t taken over O planet conqueror?”

“John I’m being serious here. And no, I don’t control the entire planet. But I am every single female on the globe.”

“You’re every single female. Simultaneously? So you were my uber driver, and the maitre d, and the waitress. And every woman I saw who passed me on the street?”

“Yes to all of those. And every other female around that you didn’t notice.”

Laura turns beet red as she says the next bit.

“I’m a little embarrassed to say I was spying on you from basically every angle and altitude. Including from a bunch of satellites operated by intelligence agencies. They were tracking you under control of some of my bodies. And also an astronaut in the ISS, she was staring down at you too.”

John lets Laura go on the rant. He sparsely believes her, and maybe she’s gone mad he thinks.

“Ok, say for a second that I believe you. I really do need proof beyond you just saying this to me. My driver was named—”

“Mindy.”

John is shocked, but one lucky guess isn’t enough.

“Lucky guess. I need more.” John folds his arms on his chest.

“Ok. Answer your phone.” Laura is quick to counter his request.

John doesn’t understand. “My phone isn’t—”

It’s at that moment that John’s ringtone goes off. He hurries to it on the nightstand and sees it’s from his oldest sister Samantha.

John is annoyed, not the time to hear from someone he’s not on good terms with. “Hey Sam, uh, now’s not a good time.”

Before he can hang up. A synchronized voice rings out. From Laura and from the phone. “John, listen to me. I’m telling the truth.”

He hears it distinctly in Samantha’s voice while hearing Laura speak the exact words, no delay whatsoever.

John freezes, his mouth quivers. “You’re starting to freak me out Sam. Um.”

It happens again, the exactly synchronized voices. “John, calm down. I mean you no harm.”

John hears it again in both Laura’s new reassuring voice and the exact same tone in Samantha’s usually terse voice.

John’s mind can’t handle it and he drops his phone. He’s freaking out. This is beyond any reality he can possibly understand. “Laura I don’t know what you’ve done to her but—”

John is panicking, but what prompts him to kind of reassess is that Laura is scared too. He can see genuine worry on her face, even though the situation is beyond his understanding. He can get that Laura is actually worried about this.

Is she really? Really this kind of being?

John is still freaking out, but he can sense Laura doesn’t have control of this moment. Like she feels uniquely powerless.

Laura tries to explain, her voice shaking. “I haven’t done anything. I just am. Please pick the phone back up, I’m sorry for freaking you out.”

John slowly bends down and grabs the phone, he pits it back to his ear. Laura stays quiet as he hears more from Samantha.

“John. Please, I’m sorry for doing the synchronized speech thing, I thought that would help you understand. I’ll just speak with one voice for now.”

“Sam are you alright?” John is worried for her more than himself.

“I couldn’t be better brother. Laura is telling the truth. I am Laura. Every woman on the planet is Laura.” It’s getting through to John slowly.

Sam adds in the silence. “You can hang up, I’ll always be here for you, because—” Sam stops and Laura finishes the sentence. “—I am everywhere.”

The call ends. John can barely move. His eyes stare at Laura.

John falls to his knees. “This can’t be happening. None of this is possible. I’ve lost it. Some kind of prolonged trick.”

A couple moments of silence later, a knock on Laura’s apartment door is heard. Muffled but still able to be heard, a woman’s voice says. “John, it’s the truth. Nobody is tricking you.”

Three separate signs, any one of them had holes, but all of them together, irrefutable at this point. John collects himself and slowly goes back to the bed, he sits on the corner. Unable to make eye contact yet.

“Laura, umm. If that’s what I should be calling you. Please don’t hurt me. Or anyone I care about. I’m sorry for not believing you. I’m sorry for being afraid. Because I am afraid.”

John sheds a tear. This whole exchange, this entity controlling the women could be annoyed with John and exact revenge on him for a lack of respect.

“John, baby. I am not angry. I am not annoyed. I am not disappointed in you. I’m disappointed in myself. I set you up for failure. For that, I apologize deeply.”

The Laura body slowly rises and comes to hold John from behind. Her chest presses into his back. Her hands wrapping around his, lovingly, slowly, without judgement.

“Please understand that every body I control, I respect. Because they are all me. Extensions of me everywhere. Your mother, your sisters, friends, all who are female are me. I will never ever hurt you or betray you. Because I love you. Because I’m not a monster.”

John slowly turns his body, inch by inch until he is facing Laura. Fear still on his face, but a refreshed resolve to hear her out burgeons from him.

“I promised you earlier I would understand. This IS really hard to understand. But I don’t intend to break that promise now. Laura… I believe you. It was love at first sight.” John slowly closes his eyes and goes in for another kiss. Laura reciprocates.

John’s breathing returns to almost normal. “I think I’m calm now. Everything you said. It’s all true? Even the uh, the spy satellites?”

Laura blushes in embarrassment. “Even the spy satellites.”

John reflects on what just happened. Laura was worried, actually worried, but she seems basically all powerful. “You seemed genuinely in fear just a couple minutes ago, that’s what really broke through for me. I was kinda losing it. I’m sorry.” His hands hold Laura’s tightly.

“John… I could engineer a lot of this night without effort. A pleasant uber ride for you. Upgrading the reservation. Speedy service from a lovely waitress. A free bottle from the owner. Wowing you with an expensive car. No traffic on the way back. But, I couldn’t control how you would react, what proof you would need, and of course, if you could handle the reality.”

Silence fills the air as John listens intently.

“I was very afraid and nervous today. It was enough to nearly make half the planet call out of work today.” It’s seems like a joke, but John doesn’t know if she is actually being completely serious.

“That you would run, or pass out from stress, or jump out the window. Or, I was even possibly expecting you to attack me because let’s face it - an actual hive mind? Depicted many times as a world ending threat. A monster to be taken out before it’s too late. I was knowledgeable of the possibilities, I wasn’t necessarily prepared for them.”

The quiver in his voice returns slightly that his date would even possibly think he’d do something like that to her, even if she is a world spanning hive mind.

“Laura, no matter what, attacking you never crossed my mind. I could never. I’m shamed that it even crossed your mind as a possibility.”

“It means more than you know.” Her hand grips his a little stronger.

John can’t help but ask questions. “So you are truly every female on the planet. Even old people, children? But, how? I remember the girls in my life to have been independent. Were you always there?”

“My original body is not Laura, you see. I have no singular origin body. I have existed within every woman for a very long time. I’ve never used my presence to upend society, well, except when I was sick of my bodies not being able to vote in this country so I… but that’s besides the point.” Laura steadies herself.

“To answer you. Yes, I’ve been every woman or girl you’ve ever known. With very young bodies, my connection is not absolute, but from puberty onwards, I am in full and absolute control. I was and am your mother, your sisters, your female friends, crushes, teachers, and so many other roles and bodies in your life.” Laura blushes again in embarrassment and continues with an apology.

“I’m sorry for being prickly as your sisters to you, it was not to spite you. I had no idea I would later find such an all encompassing connection to you. I find it best to not have my bodies act as a monolith. Personality traits must be diverse to maintain the illusion of female individuality. Too many problems arise otherwise. You’re the first person ever that I’ve revealed this to.” John’s mind is racing as Laura’s somber words are spoken.

John has a realization and turns white. “Did I…just give half the planet blue balls?”

“Ahahaha! John, I assure you, if you want that, it can be made so. But I have a considerable amount of dispersion of feeling. Four billion bodies after all. Only an extremely critically horrific or joyous feeling can radiate out to every body simultaneously without my directive. Like how I described my worries about how you’d react.”

John comes to a true point of understanding. “I’m never gonna be able to ask every question I could possibly have for you. But I think I’m okay with that. Thank you for answering these questions, no matter how tough they were.”

Another realization, another immediate question. “But one more urgently, doesn’t this mean I’m… effectively in love with and making love with my mother and sisters, isn’t that incest?”

“John. Try not to think of it that way if it bothers you. Incest is genetic, there will be no issues with that if you procreate with any of my other bodies.” She speaks gently, reassuring a major worry.

Then her tone shifts radically. “But if you want… I can certainly arrange it, I am them after all.” She speaks seductively, putting forth a fantasy.

John’s penis stands up at this answer. He can’t help but think it extremely hot, extremely wrong but also undeniably hot, that his girlfriend is also his female family.

Laura grabs John’s now erect penis and nuzzles at it. “Oh you dirty man. I think you’ll come to enjoy this arrangement a lot. No more questions for now. Let’s continue, just this one body and yours tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll show you so much more in your life.”