Natalie wants to try something a little dangerous.

"What happens when you touch another person?" Natalie asked. "Like, do you instantly change?"

"Immediately," Naomi replied as she applied pressure to a knot above her left shoulder. "When you touched me earlier, it felt like the whole world turned upside down. It was very disorienting."

"I wanna see," Natalie said. Naomi frowned.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. Remember, the instant I touch somebody else I become their devoted servant. I- I won't wanna be yours again. I don't like that."

"You said yourself I could always ditch you if I didn't want you, right? I don't want to ditch you, I just want to get somebody we trust to see what it's like when you switch."

Naomi thought for a second. "Ok, it needs to be somebody we really, really trust. Sophie?"

Sophie was Naomi's oldest friend. Naomi had drunkenly told her about the family curse several times, and she appeared to take it seriously.

"Perfect," Natalie said.

the curse kicked in read Naomi's text to Sophie. Less than thirty seconds later, her phone chirped; less than ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Naomi let Natalie answer it. The last thing she wanted was a hug from her best friend. Even so, she still smiled when Sophie appeared in their living room.

"Oh my God, did it really happen? Are you ok? What's it like? Are you a ****?" Sophie spit a rapid-fire series of questions at Naomi before Naomi cut her off.

"Yes, it happened, yes I'm ok, it's not that different from normal, and no. I'm currently Natalie's servant, which works out great since we were dating anyway."

Sophie turned a suspicious eye to her girlfriend. "Did you make her do anything?"

"What?" Natalie sputtered. "Of course not! She keeps saying she wants to do stuff-"

She was interrupted as Naomi jumped back from Sophie. "Don't touch me!" she cried. "You tried to touch me! Don't you fucking dare!"

Sophie had tears in her eyes. "Naomi, it's me. Why can't I touch you?"

"Because then she'll end up your servant instead of mine," Natalie explained. "That's sort of why we wanted you to come over. I wanted to see what it would be like if she was somebody else's."

"For the record, I'm still against this." Naomi stood warily in the corner, never keeping her eyes off of Sophie. "I want you tie me up."

Natalie snorted. "With what? Come on, don't be dramatic. She'll touch you, you'll get bonded to her for a few minutes, then she'll tell you to let me touch you and we're back to where we started. Deal?"

Naomi gulped and nodded nervously. Sophie cautiously approached her and extended her hand. Naomi winced as it approached, then gently landed on her forearm.