My Demonstration

Uh oh. I wasn’t looking forward to this. I took a deep breath and stepped forward, feeling completely naked as I stood in front of an audience dressed only in tight black latex, every line of my body completely visible.

Millicent laughed. “Relax, Nicole,” she said. “You’re not going to be injected, and you don’t have to drink anything.”

I still didn’t relax. “Oh, good,” I said.

“In fact,” said Millicent, “all you have to do is smile.”

“Huh?” I said.

Then Millicent blew a handful of dust in my face.

A wave of bovine serenity swept over me. I knew I was still standing in front of an audience practically naked, but it didn’t seem to matter. I could hear Millicent speaking, though she sounded far away.

“That was just a little something to calm Nicole down,” she was saying. “Nicole gets a bit anxious in front of crowds.”

The audience laughed, then went silent as Millicent cupped my jaw with her hand. In her other hand she held a lipstick.

“Nicole is such a pretty girl,” said Millicent. “She just needs a little color, I think. This red matches her complexion perfectly.”

The dimming effect of the dust passed just as Millicent finished applying the lipstick. I blinked as the fog lifted.

“Grrrrrrr,” I said. “You didn’t have to hit me with spooky dust to put lipstick on me, you know.”

“I know,” said Millicent, “but it’s more fun this way.”

I loftily chose not to answer that.

“So, it’s a pretty color,” continued Millicent, “but this particular lipstick has certain properties that make it more interesting than traditional lipstick.”

My heart started pounding. That sounded ominous. I pressed a finger to my lips, but the color had already set.

“Don’t bother,” said Millicent. “Once it sets, it stays in place until it’s rubbed off.”

“Rubbed off?” I said.

“Yep,” she said. “You’ll understand in a moment.”

And then the burning need started.