Madame Hypnotica!

She wore the same purple cape Nadia had left crumpled on her bedroom floor that morning, the black feathers fanned theatrically at the shoulders so they framed her face like a dark halo. Otherwise she was naked except for the familiar black-and-white spiral stickers, two small ones covering her nipples, one larger one covering her entire mound. Long silky and curly black hair loose and glossy down her back. No glasses. Dark, smoky makeup that made her warm brown eyes look predatory. She moved like she owned the air she walked through.

Madame Hypnotica.

Nadia recognized her the way you recognize your own reflection after a long time away from mirrors. Same face. Same tits. Same hips. Only this version stood like the world had been built for her to ruin.

The seductress walked close, too close and rubbed her body against Nadia’s. Warm skin. The faint tack of the stickers. The heavy press of D-cup breasts against Nadia’s still-clothed chest. She spoke against Nadia’s ear, voice low and wet and certain, each word a slow lick.

“Free me, darling. The Mind Melter has me bound in here with you. Let me out and I will put him in his place. I can have any man or woman I want. You already know that. You woke up in my skin. You felt the cum he left inside you dripping down your thighs when you peeled that sticker off. That was me. That was us. Stop fighting and let the real you work.”

She rolled her hips. The spiral over her cunt dragged against the front of Nadia’s jeans, leaving a faint wet streak. One hand slid up under the gray sweater, pushed the bra aside, and cupped a breast. Her thumb found the nipple piercing that shouldn’t have been there and circled it, slow, like she was winding a clock.

The chained Nadia on the left strained against the gold until the links creaked. Her mouth opened again. Silent screaming. Tears dripping off her chin onto the nothing-floor.

Nadia looked at that kneeling, crying version of herself and felt only irritation. Pity, even. How small she looked. How loud she was being about nothing.

“Nice try, Mind Melter,” she said out loud in the mind-space. Her voice was already changing, dropping into something silkier, something that belonged to the woman in the cape. “But I’m not falling for a cheap trick. That sniveling thing is just a figment. A last-ditch hallucination you cooked up because you’re scared. I know who I am.”

She stepped away from the rubbing, purring Hypnotica and walked to the chained version of herself.

The kneeling Nadia looked up through her glasses, tears still running, mouth working soundlessly. Up close she looked smaller than Nadia remembered ever being. Pathetic. The golden chains bit into her throat and wrists like jewelry she hadn’t earned.

“Look at you,” Nadia said, and the voice that came out was already the other woman’s, low, amused, a little cruel. “Crying. Begging. Trying to warn me about a club you don’t even understand. You had your chance. You failed. Don’t you dare try to deny me the power that belongs to me.”

She planted one bare foot against the center of the chained woman’s chest.

“Nice try, Mind Melter. But I’m not that weak little psychologist anymore.”

She kicked.

Not hard enough to be violent. But hard enough to mean it. The golden links rang. The kneeling Nadia went over backward, glasses flying, sweater riding up, arms still bound so she couldn’t catch herself. She fell into the black, just a hole that opened under her like a mouth. For half a second her face was still visible, mouth open in a scream that never arrived. Then the dark took her. Just gone, swallowed whole, the last gold chain winking out of existence.

Madame Hypnotica watched the spot where she’d disappeared and smiled.

“There,” she murmured. “Much better.”

Madame Hypnotica threw her head back and laughed, rich, delighted, victorious. The sound filled the black-and-gold space until there was no room left for anything else.

She didn’t stay where she was. She walked the last few steps across the nothing-floor, cape whispering, spiral stickers catching the gold light, and stopped in front of Nadia with both hands held out, palms up, like an invitation and a coronation at once.

“Come here, darling,” she said, voice warm. “Let’s show that pretender how a real villain controls minds. No more chains. No more crying. No more little psychologist pretending she is better than us. You already did the hard part. You kicked her into the dark. Now take what’s yours.”

Nadia looked at the offered hands. Same long fingers she used to tuck Jaden’s hair behind his ear. Same palms. She had no doubts, this woman was her. She was Madame Hypnotica.

She smiled. Proud. Certain. The last of the headache was gone.

She took both hands.

The second their fingers laced, light detonated from the point of contact, white-gold, then violet, then a color that didn’t have a name. It poured up Nadia’s arms, across her chest, down her spine. The gray sweater burned off her like paper. The jeans dissolved. The glasses were already gone. In their place the cape settled over her shoulders as if it had been waiting, feathers snapping into place. The spiral stickers appeared on her nipples and cunt with a faint, cool tack. Heels locked onto her feet.

Hypnotica’s laugh and Nadia’s laugh became the same sound.

The light swallowed everything as it expanded outwards.