Look out, Jackson town

Janet

Spending the morning calming Mallory had done nothing for Janet’s own rising anxieties. She hated to be the focus of attention in any situation, but with Michael? Much worse, and there was still so much they hadn’t resolved from the night before. Danica wasn’t exactly avoiding her, but really, Janet was the one doing the hiding. Janet had convinced Mallory to spend some time with Danica before the latter’s part of the date, which fortunately kept them both occupied for the time while Michael was out with Luciana. That spared any potentially awkward encounters. Or delayed them.

Janet needed a walk. And she needed a watch. They hadn’t given her the phone they had given Luciana, and there were no clocks mounted anywhere. The market vendors once again hustled her endlessly for new heels, panties, dresses, makeup, and everything else on Earth that a woman might use to appeal to a man, but she was marginally more prepared for it this time. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to treat a simple wristwatch as a sexy accessory, so her options were glitzy pieces that she could not possibly justify buying.

After an annoyingly long search, she was finally able to acquire a reasonably-priced pocket watch from a vendor who desperately wanted to sell her the entire sexy steampunk cosplay set it belonged to. Janet had to tentatively pull “rank” as a contestant to convince him to sell the piece by itself, but he seemed unable to deny her once she had. Her dress lacked pockets, so clipped the chain ends together and hung it around her neck.

She sat on the lip of the fountain in the marketplace to wait. It only took her a few minutes to realize this was a mistake - the huge neon girl in front of the hotel, glowing in the darkness, was impossible to ignore. And now with more knowledge of how the hotel worked, her vacant expression and smile carried sinister undertones. So far, Janet’s position in the game had been secure, but that was only because Vivian had handed her a win on a silver platter. Right here in this fountain in fact. Bouncing what ifs about Danica with Mallory had sparked all manner of stress in Janet. Without that last-second flip, would it have been Janet sitting in the negative? Being **** to strip on stage and bare her body to save her mind? Selling her dignity in pieces in order to save the scraps was a cruel choice to **** on anyone, and they delighted in those choices around here.

Time continued passing however, and she needed to head back. Vivian approached her once she had returned to the casino. She’s looking unusually stressed herself, Janet thought. Vivian was wearing sunglasses indoors and had pulled a shawl over her head.

“It’s just a little overwhelming down here,” Vivian said in response to Janet’s questioning look. She flinched as one of the staff screamed with joy at hitting their craps roll. “Can we talk somewhere else?” Vivian said. Once they left the floor, Vivian relaxed and pulled down her glasses and hood. “That’s better.”

“What’s going on?”

“I noticed how tense you’ve been today, and I was getting concerned for you.” Vivian put her hand on Janet’s shoulder in a familiar way. She’s being awfully sweet lately. Janet thought. It was nothing more than a friendly touch. However, Janet didn’t feel those any more. She almost purred at the tenderness. Vivian’s eyebrow raised slightly, but only for a second. “I have something that might help.” Vivian pulled a small pill from her clutch and offered it to Janet.

“I don’t have my chips with me,” Janet said, “And I probably couldn’t afford it anyway…” Having over a thousand dollars in chips was an unusual feeling for Janet. She couldn’t remember having that kind of loose cash - ever - and she surprised herself at how defensively she guarded even this tiny amount.

“It’s on the house.” Vivian smiled and Janet nearly melted. For free? For me? Vivian gave her a far more appraising look, but did not retract the offer.

“Thank you!” Janet said, taking the pill in her fist. “I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot to you lately.”

“Don’t even worry about it. We’ve got to stick together in this. What are friends for, right?” Vivian gently pulled up Janet’s watch, hanging just above her breasts. “Almost time, you’d better get ready. I know you’ll do great.” Janet beamed as Vivian stroked her cheek. Then the older woman excused herself, pulling her shawl and glasses back into place. Vivian is a good person, underneath. Regardless of what Michael thought, Janet was convinced. The way Vivian’s curves filled out the green dress she’d been poured into did not upset Janet either. But first things first, Viv was right, she had to get ready. She kept the pill in her hand. Her little talk with Vivian had relaxed her, or at least distracted her, enough that she no longer needed it.

Sarah was already sitting on the curb when Janet came outside to join her. Janet looked through her closet, but her flower print still seemed safe enough. Comfortable but wouldn’t give Michael, Danica, or anyone the wrong idea. Like a dinner with parents. She threw on a beige cardigan over it and wedge sandals to complete the picture. The safe picture.

“You figured out where we’re heading?” Sarah asked. Janet froze when she realized she hadn’t. She’d been so caught up in worrying about the date that she hadn’t actually planned it. “I see. Well I got it covered.”

“You know a place?” Janet said, joining her on the sidewalk.

“I know lots of places. More when someone else is buying.” Sarah slapped Janet’s purse and the chips rattled inside. “You’ll like this one.”

“It’s not fancy, is it?” Janet asked. Sarah raised an eyebrow. Sarah had chosen to show up in tan workboots, ripped jeans, and a leather jacket over a white tee. Wherever she was dressed for was more likely to have bouncers than a dress code.

“Like I said, you’ll like it.”

The limo pulled up in front of them and disgorged Luciana, who was in a smiling mood.

“You two have fun?” Sarah asked.

“Not sure I’d call it fun, but it wasn’t the worst either.” Luciana swaggered off, calling up to nobody. “If you’re listening, Ruby, I brought him back in one piece!”

“Ladies first,” Sarah gestured to the door, and Janet climbed in. She gasped as she found Michael, shirtless and wiping his chest with a wet bar towel.

“I’m trying to get sand out of my clothes, alright?” He protested, lamely. But Janet wasn’t worried about that, Michael was looking more fit than she remembered, and still being a little buzzy from Vivian-

Sarah shoved past her and into the limo, breaking the spell. “There’s a trick to that actually.” She said to Michael, gesturing to his chest hair. “The key step is not to get a ton of sand in your clothes, goofnuts.”

“Sarah!” Janet hissed, “Don’t say stuff like that, they’ll dock you points!”

Sarah waved it off. “I’ve called him worse. In front of clients, even.”

Michael shrugged. “It’s true.” He snapped his fingers at a realization. “Hey… while we’re here I can tell you how I really feel and you can’t snipe right back.”

Sarah flopped down in the seat. “Michael, you could always tell me how you really feel.” She held up her index finger. “But you only get to tell me once.”

“Then I’ll be sure to make it special. Where are we going?” Michael slipped his shirt back on and looked to Janet, who immediately punted the question to Sarah.

Sarah jammed the intercom button.

“Driver - I’m craving some steak…”

Jackson, WY

Janet gaped, gaped, and gaped again as they stepped out of the limo. First at the staggeringly gorgeous backdrop of the mountain town where Sarah had taken them. The rolling mountains framed the city like a Bob Ross painting and the air was crisp, clean, and much thinner at this altitude. Snow was gently falling on the happy little fir trees. I feel like I’m in a snow globe. Janet pulled her sweater tightly around her body. That explains Sarah’s jacket.

Then, she gaped at the interior of the steakhouse, packed as it was with taxidermied animals in various poses reflecting the idyllic life they might have had under different circumstances. Landscapes depicting Western scenes lined the walls, showing happy prospectors pulling gold from the rivers and driving herds of blissfully unaware cattle. She briefly imagined Al’s face on one of those men, driving them to their doom. He’d never fit in those jeans.

Finally, and most importantly, she gaped at the prices on the menu mounted near the entrance. This is my food budget for a week!!! She glared at Sarah, but the woman seemed unfazed by either the prices or Janet’s silent scorn.

The woman at the hostess station greeted them. “Do you have a reservation?” She asked, with the feigned warmth of a career in service. Her eyes were substantially more skeptical than her tone.

“Yes, we do.” Sarah said. She scooped a handful of chips from Janet’s purse and slapped them down on the woman’s station.

The woman casually swept the chips off her station and into her pocket. “Ah, I see it right here, Ms…”

“Henderson.”

“Ms. Henderson, follow me.”

“Hey!” Janet complained to Sarah as they were seated. “Did you have to pick this crazy-expensive place?”

“No, but you missed your chance to pick the Olive Garden, so here we are.” Sarah slid off her coat and handed it to a server when he passed. He wasn’t even assigned to their table.

“Have you been before?” Michael asked.

“I always wanted to.” Sarah said, looking around wistfully. “When I was younger, before college, my family and I would come up here to ski and hike. But we weren’t ever going to eat in a place like this. With my brothers? We’d have had to sell our land to pay the tab after that feast.” Janet grumbled under her breath. Even the Olive Garden was beyond my parents. Even if they could have afforded it, they’d probably have gotten themselves thrown out.

Sarah launched into some story about a backcountry trip she’d taken with them nearby, one that seemed to capture Michael’s attention but lost Janet’s. Apparently poison ivy was mistakenly used as toilet paper at one point, but given Sarah’s laughter it obviously wasn’t her mistake. The two of them went back and forth, telling stories of their adventures. Michael seeing the world in the service, Sarah exploring nature with her family. The whole conversation was making Janet a little sad.

It reminded her of the stories Mallory had used to tell about her trips with Greg, with Janet hanging on every word. As a teen Janet lived vicariously through her friend, and Mallory loved being the center of attention, so it worked out for both of them. But after a time, jealousy crept in no matter how much Janet pushed back. It wasn’t Mallory’s fault that she’d been lucky with her parents any more than it was Janet’s fault that she wasn't. She'd never said so, but the time that Mallory had invited her to join the family in Big Bear was the farthest she’d ever been from home.

It was Janet’s fault that she’d been so stupid as to kiss Michael on that trip. Such a stupid, momentary lapse. That Michael didn’t immediately throw her out was an unexpected reprieve, and he’d agreed to forgive and forget it. They put it behind them, like nothing foolish had ever happened. Then, Al throws it right in her face. In front of everyone, especially Danica! And then she’d kissed Mallory as well?! Janet wanted to slide under the table and hide.

“-Janet?” Michael asked, breaking her train of thought. Janet noticed the two of them and the waitress were standing there, apparently waiting for her order. God, how long have I been sitting here staring at nothing? She hadn’t even read the descriptions. She’d always been in the habit of looking at the price first, and if it was too high - which it almost always was - there was no point in reading the rest. All you’d do is leave yourself hungrier. But they wanted an answer.

“I’ll…uh… I’ll have whatever Michael’s getting.”

“Sure, go big or go home, right?” He gently took the unread menu from her hands and passed it to the waitress. When the entrees came, she realized that she probably should have taken a little longer to pick something sensible. The steak on her plate could have lasted her three days.

“Just box the rest for Luciana,” Sarah offered unhelpfully, through a mouthful of potatoes. Janet pecked at the food, which was delicious of course, but she almost felt unworthy of eating it.

“So Janet, I admit I was a little distracted before.” Michael’s understatement of the year. “Congrats on winning the first challenge. Tell me about it, I didn’t get the chance to watch.” Come on, Michael, why would you ask about that?

“I didn’t really. It was all Vivian. She really should have been first place, but she let me win.”

He nearly dropped his fork. “Vivian? She did what now?”

“She had me cornered and she could have won the game then and there, but - she didn’t. ”

Michael tried to process this information, silently concluded it did not fit his notions, and shook his head in rejection. “It must have been for the chips then, that woman wouldn’t toss a bum a quarter unless she had an angle to benefit herself.”

Janet felt heat rise in her cheeks and she gripped her utensils tightly. “She’s not like that, Michael.”

“I think she is.”

“She saved Danica.”

“Yeah, and she got something for herself out of it too. She always does, Janet. Watch yourself with her, she’s a fucking snake.”

Janet remembered how scared she felt in that fountain with Vivian standing over her, and then - Vivian spared her. That had happened before her transformation but, just as with Mallory, Janet’s brain was re-interpreting all past events in light of her new circumstances. She felt a surge of arousal almost as powerful as Vivian had in the fountain at the memory of being handed the win. If I’d had this change then, I might have kissed her too. What is wrong with me!? Janet wanted to keep defending her, but Sarah chose that moment to step back in.

“About her… Michael, you know she tried to bring me too, right? When she bolted to Solar Flare.”

“What?” He looked shocked again. He doesn’t believe me when I say she’s good, he doesn’t believe Sarah when she tells him Vivian’s bad. “Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I was apparently the last one she told. She walked right from my office into yours.”

“...But you stayed.”

“Yeah.” Sarah sounded conflicted about that choice, which was not lost on Michael.

“...Why?” Michael said it with such a wounded tone, it sounded as if he couldn’t understand why anyone would have chosen him. It pained Janet to hear it.

“You gave me a chance when I had burned all my others. I thought I owed you.”

“Wow.” Michael seemed floored. “If you’d have gone too, I would have had to fold up the whole thing.” His voice shook a little. Under his breath, he added “I still might.”

“I thought that might happen.” Sarah said. “But I figured we’d go down together.” She mock-saluted him. “Oh captain, my captain.”

“I guess we were both close to total disaster then.” Michael paused. “How did you get enough points to get out of the red, anyway?”

Sarah blushed. She blushed. All three of them couldn’t believe it. Before Sarah could tell the story, they were interrupted by a brown-shirted delivery man moving through the restaurant with a small package.

“Great, what are they sending me this time?” Michael said, but he didn’t approach Michael. Instead he left the box in front of Sarah and kept walking right on out of the restaurant without even stopping for a signature. The box was about a foot long and four inches tall, wrapped in gift paper bearing the Harem Hotel logo, with a small pink bow on top. Sarah started to undo it.

“I would not open that.” Janet warned.

“I’m not… My fingers…” Sarah said, and Janet noticed her hands were shaking as if she was struggling to control them. Sarah popped open the box and the others leaned in to see. Inside was a coiled length of rope, braided with multiple colors, looking totally innocuous. Those colors look familiar… Like a Diamondback. A small card rest on top of it, which Sarah pulled out and read aloud.

“Sarah Henderson, it has been one day and you have not repaid your debt. This is your first interest penalty. Mr. Sho and Ms. Pixie send their regards. -Esmeralda.”

“Who are they?” Janet asked.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to know.” Sarah said, her voice now trembling as well. She pulled the rope from the box even though she was clearly fighting against her own hands now, and all three of them jumped as the rope began thrashing its way free of her grip. Sarah dropped the coil to the floor, and it burst into life, moving of its own accord. Before she could react, one end wrapped itself around her right ankle and pulled taut, pinning her to the chair leg. “The fuck!?” Sarah yelled. The dining room stopped to watch now.

Janet watched with horror as the rope began slithering up Sarah’s pantleg. It bulged under the denim and began tearing straight through as it continued securing the struggling woman to the chair. Round and round it went, shredding the jeans with each loop.

“Get that thing off of her!” Michael lunged from his chair and grabbed at the rope, but it slipped through his hands as if it was too slick for him to grip. As Michael fought to grip it, the opposite end of the rope came to life, rising like a rattler’s tail. It even had beads on the end, and it rattled a warning. When Michael tried to grab again, it began to slap at his hands, causing him to recoil. “What the hell is this?!”

“Focus on the how, Michael! How are we gonna stop it?!” Sarah was panicked now, and for good reason. The ‘head’ of the rope slithered up through the thigh of her pants and across her crotch, punching through on her opposite pant leg to wrap around the seat. Sarah grabbed at it herself as it came around, but the opposite end of the rope shot out and grabbed at her wrist, coiling up her arm in the same fashion. It yanked her arm around behind her like an aggressive cop, wrenching her into a painful looking position, and secured her to the backrest of her chair.

The other patrons were growing concerned now. Or at least pretending to be. Some had risen from their chairs for a better view, while others had taken the opportunity to skip out on the bill in the confusion. One guy pulled out his cell phone to call the police, but then stopped himself when he realized he’d sound like a lunatic. He settled for recording it instead.

The ropes were moving around Sarah’s torso now, ripping her shirt and bra to pieces as easily as her Levi’s. Her new tattoo was exposed.

“What the hell does that mean?” Michael pointed at it.

“Not the time for a Latin lesson, Michael! Focus! Get this fucking thing off me!”

Janet could see that Michael was out of ideas, and while normally she was not a woman of action this seemed like it fell to her to try. Janet grabbed herhe steak knife from the table and tried to grab at the rope to swipe at it, hoping to pull it away from Sarah’s body and keep from cutting her. As soon as the knife got close enough, the rope actually hissed somehow and began constricting around Sarah’s body.

“Stop… Stop… It doesn’t like that…” She begged as it crushed the air from her chest.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m putting it down!” She said, quickly dropping the knife to the table. I’m apologizing to a rope now?! Thankfully, it accepted her apology and Sarah took a deep inhale as it relaxed its grip.

Now both Michael and Janet were out of ideas, other than to keep the crowd from making the situation worse. They watched in terror as the rope finished its work, wrapping itself up and over Sarah’s shoulders and criss-crossing her chest in an X pattern that disintegrated her top and freed her breasts. It completed the effect by strapping Sarah’s other arm down and tying itself into a neat little bow in the small of her back. The ends “looked” up at Janet and she got the distinct impression they were pleased with themselves.

Sarah was, however, the exact opposite of please. She fought and spat and cursed, but all she accomplished was to make her tits jiggle. The ropes had stripped her almost completely and left her dressed only in her boots and shredded rags.

“Sarah, Sarah… Stop.” Michael tried to say quietly, hoping not to draw attention to the lewd display.

Sarah looked at him with **** in her eyes. “Get over here, Michael. My left leg is still free so I can kick you in the-” Janet, thinking quickly, grabbed the table napkin and shoved it into Sarah’s mouth before she could cost herself any points. Sarah’s rage turned to Janet, but she looked as apologetic as she could.

Seeing the commotion in the dining room, the manager came over. He was older, heavyset, and fairly gruff looking, and probably was the kind of guy who thought he’d seen it all and had a good handle on things. Encountering a nearly nude woman in bondage in his dining room, struggling against ropes that were struggling right back, was a little bit outside his comfort zone.

“It’s not how it looks.” Janet tried to smooth over the situation.

“I can’t possibly understand that, I can’t even wrap my head around how it looks.” He sputtered. “Just get her out of whatever the hell you freaks wrapped her in, and get the hell out of here before I call the cops.”

“Michael, if we get stuck talking to the cops we’ll miss our deadline, we gotta go!” Janet pleaded.

“But how though? We can’t untie her and we can’t cut her free.”

“Just… take… the chair…” Sarah said, pushing out her napkin gag to speak.

Taking the restaurant’s property? Now here was a situation the manager could handle. He puffed out his chest in a pathetic and primal show of authority. “No. You are absolutely not taking my chair.”

Janet scooped two handfuls of chips from her purse, taking a long beat to lament the tiny pile left behind, and shoved them all into the manager’s hand. “It’s our chair now.”

Michael and Janet each grabbed Sarah’s chair and hustled her out of the restaurant before anyone else could raise a complaint. The limo wasted no time once Janet called it, and they tossed Sarah inside and piled in to leave just as they heard sirens coming up the road.