Beneath the Mask

Exe watched from a distance as they gathered in the pool courtyard for the big announcement, still observing rather than engaging. The others came slowly, in pairs, then all at once as their little cliques who’d congregated elsewhere arrived as a unit.

Exe knew she should have joined; knew she needed to make an effort to make some friends here. But she was tired, cranky, and still inexplicably horny even after two days and trying every trick she knew short of sleeping with someone. The thought of facing another of Loretta’s lectures, Emily’s jealous glances or Lacy’s nervous, almost apologetic eyes was too much.

So she found a bungalow that overlooked the central pool and courtyard (she had no idea why a resort that only housed 14 people would have so many rooms), and camped out in its shadow, watching as the others came in.

Leah, unsurprisingly, was the first to arrive, followed shortly by AJ. Exe could barely hear the jibes they traded, only seeing that Leah looked annoyed while AJ seemed impish.

Shortly behind them, one Farra emerged from a far alley. She looked around, then made a signal. From an opposite pathway, her double emerged with Loretta, the two women holding hands. They were both wearing bikinis that were obviously wet from the ocean. They exchanged a quick kiss before Loretta continued on ahead. The Farra who’d been with her waited for her to get close to the pool courtyard, then headed off to join her double.

Oh, ho ho, Exe mused. Not only was something going on there, but they were apparently still a little secretive about it.

Four of the girls then arrived together, all having come from the direction of the gym. Emily, Julie, Hannah, and Rachel herself. That was an interesting trend, too; the gym was becoming one of the most popular hang out spots on the island. Exe hadn’t been herself, and not for the first time, as she watched the girls laughing and talking together, she found herself second-guessing that decision.

Finally, Lacy arrived with Lindsey, and Exe was struck again by the boy-turned-girl’s appearance. She said something to Lindsey, who gave one of those cackles she did that was endearing and obnoxious in turns.

They gathered down in the bowl, socializing and mingling, and Exe felt a pang of something indescribable. She let out a sigh and pushed herself off the wall, trying to brush aside whatever was troubling her.

“Roomie!” She heard when she was about halfway down to the bowl.

Exe turned to find Megan cresting the hill from the main lobby. Jake was by her side, and gave her a cautious wave.

Megan broke off from him and bounded up to her.

“Hey,” Exe greeted, tiredly. “How’d your evening with our ‘master’ go?”

Next to Megan, Exe looked downright slovenly. She’d thrown on a pair of jogging shorts and a light, zip up hoodie. Megan, though, was prim and proper as ever, wearing a loose tartan skirt, breathy leggings and a sleeveless blue blouse that brought out her cheerful eyes.

Megan wrinkled her nose at the comment.

“He’s my brother. Don’t be weird,” She said, then stretched. “It went great, though. Got some good stuff off my chest. And I made some decisions I’m rather excited about.”

Exe raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah?”

But Megan only shook her head.

“We can talk about it later. We’re already late for the announcement,” She said, then paused. “Wait, are you Jake’s guest tonight?”

Exe nodded.

“Shoot!” Megan swore. At least it was as close to swearing as Exe had ever heard from her. “I wanted to talk to you about some stuff.”

“Plenty of time for it, I guess.” Exe said. “You still horny as hell?”

Megan nodded.

“Yup! It’s really annoying!” She said, but was smiling in spite of it. “But I’m not so worried about it.”

Her eyes darted toward something…or perhaps more accurately, someone down toward the bowl. Packed together as they were, Exe couldn’t tell who, but her curiosity was piqued.

“How about you?” Megan asked. “Any better?”

“No…” Exe sighed. “I don’t know how you can stand it. It’s like **** at this point.”

They were almost to the bowl themselves now. Was that impatience on Leah’s face? They were about 20 minutes late, but after all they’d put them through, Exe figured these people and their schedule could go fuck themselves.

“Thank you for joining us,” Leah said with a glowing smile. “I believe that you two and our master arriving means we have everyone.”

Exe was somewhat heartened to see that Jake was no more comfortable with the term than Megan had been. He shifted as she said it, running a nervous hand through his hair. Leah watched him expectantly, but he just quietly made his way up to his spot above them. He seemed embarrassed to be there.

When it was clear nobody else was going to say anything, Leah spoke up brightly.

“Alright,” She said, clapping her hands together. “I suppose you’re wondering why I gathered you all here today.”

“I’m guessing you’ve got our next challenge,” AJ guessed.

“Correct!” Leah said.

She gestured to one of the television screens behind her, which shifted to show some science fiction looking pods similar to those which they’d used in the clothing store.

“These are simulation pods,” She explained. “They’re used to create a dreamlike experience with full sensation. Auditority, visual, physical…They induce a state of deep sleep and allow users to project whatever sort of visions into one another’s head that they please.”

Farra nodded, taking the point.

“And we’re to use these to…what? Project an experience, or receive one?”

“Project,” Leah answered. “Jake will receive. Your challenge in this round is to curate a dream for Jake. A fantasy for him. At the end, he’ll get to rate how much he enjoyed them, and so will the audience. The winner will be the contestant with the highest average between the two scores.”

“Woah, hold up,” Jake spoke up. “If I go into this knowing everyone’s going to be tailoring a fantasy for me, how will they be able to do it? Isn’t it kinda…I dunno, leading the witness?”

“Not a bit,” Leah said. “To you, you’ll experience these visions in a sort of dream logic. You’ll only know you’ve had a dream once you’ve woken up. Though there might be a sense of oddness, for the most part you’ll accept these micro-realities as you experience them.”

“But…how does this work?” He asked. “I take in 12 different dreams at once? Sounds like kind of a lot.”

Leah put her hands on her hips.

“Let. Me. Finish.” She said.

“Please,” Hannah agreed. “We need to know what we’re supposed to do here.”

“Thank you,” Leah said with a smile, then continued.

“The dreams will be limited to four hours of lived experience. The contestants can split that up however you like. You can give our master a four hour continual experience, or set up a handful of ‘scenes’. But you will be limited to four hours, one way or the other.”

Exe frowned. She didn’t know Jake. She supposed she could seduce the crowd, but Jake was still something of a black box to her. And if he gave her a low score, it would crater her final score no matter what she did.

“In addition to that, you are limited in the changes you can make to yourselves. While you can appear as different versions of yourself, you must still be recognizable as yourself. And you can’t use your influence over the dreamscape to erase any of the existing changes the game’s imposed on you.”

She gave them a moment to absorb that before she delivered the final rule.

“You have several days before the contest kicks off. Six, to be precise,” Leah said. “We wanted you to have some time to consider your approach, but also…”

Her dark eyes darted around the group, before her lips curled into a dangerous smile.

“You’ll be allowed to team up on this one,” She said. “If you do, you’ll rank together. So choose your partners carefully. But you can brainstorm together and appear in the dream side by side, which should give you all sorts of advantages.”

Exe’s heart sank. Bad enough that she was supposed to project a dream for a guy she barely knew. Now every one of his friends who already did know each other could align themselves to do it.

“That’s all!” Leah said with a final clap of her hands.

Several of the girls moved to speak, and Megan (god bless her) even raised her hand. Naturally, though it was Loretta who spoke up first.

“That’s all? You aren’t gonna answer any questions, or flesh this out at all?”

“No. And frankly, loves, I don’t know anymore than you do,” Leah said.

She shot a reproachful look at AJ, who responded with a wink, a big grin and a click of her tongue. She continued, only mildly phased.

“By now, we’ve all gotten emails with the specifics,” She said. “They’ll spell out the rules in more explicit detail than I could. So for now, yes. That is all.”

Great. Even in a fantastical, alternative reality, they still had meetings that could have been an email.

Leah took her leave. Jake hung around briefly as though he were reaching for something to say, but eventually he retreated behind her. Exe frowned. This was their master? He struck her as a wuss. A mannequin. A mannequin she had to impress, but still…

Lacy stood up, looking around.

“Hey, so, I was thinking,” Lacy said. “Since we’ve got our date for the next challenge…Maybe we should get together the night before like we did last time. Get some drinks. Drop some truths on each other. Y’know, make it a little tradition.”

Assent from most. But Exe felt bitter. She’d only even been asked one question that entire time. She’d even been honest in answering it. But the rest of the game had passed her by while the players who went back years needled secrets out of each other.

Nobody likes a stuck up bitch, a phantom voice echoed in her head.

“Sounds good. It was fun last time!” Exe said aloud.

The comment went ignored.

They began to disperse, and Exe retreated quickly. Did they think she was a snob for taking off so fast? Probably, but screw it. She was tired, sexually pent up, and blackly unhappy.

At first she walked aimlessly. But after a few minutes, she decided on a walk along the beach. Take a swim. Maybe it would help. She’d gotten as far as a wooded path out to one of the more isolated beaches when a voice called to her.

“Hey there! Do you have a moment?”

She turned to find, of all people, Farra approaching. She was still bikini clad, but she carried a messenger bag slung over her shoulder as well.

When she’d first sized up her competition, Farra had been a curvy, older woman whose beauty was behind her. That was obviously no longer the case. Though her body (Or bodies, she supposed; though there was only one of them here at the moment.) was young and beautiful now, she carried herself with the confidence and poise of a much older, more mature woman.

For someone like Exe, who had a certain proclivity for the fairer sex, that combination was tantalizing.

“Not really,” She said, then thought better of it as she struggled to get ahold of herself. “I mean, sure.”

Farra tilted her head, her full lips showing the ghost of a smile.

“Not really, or sure?” She asked.

Exe sighed.

“Look, I’m having a rough fucking week,” She said. “I really just kinda wanna be alone right now.”

“I hear you’re doing a lot of that,” Farra observed. “Competing with Jake for self isolation.”

“And what do you care?” Exe asked, a little more sharply than intended. “Sorry, but like…isn’t that kind of my problem?”

“I don’t, strictly speaking,” Farra said with a shrug. “Observing people is what I do.”

She reached down and patted her bag.

“I’ll leave you be if you like, but I have something that might interest you,” She said. “If you’re willing to make a deal with me.”

“Alright,” Exe said warily, “What have you got?”

“A copy of your cheat codes,” Farra said. “Taken from the master book in Jake’s suite.”

Exe tried, with only marginal success, to contain her excitement.

“And how did you get those?” She asked, feigning a mildness she didn’t feel.

Farra shrugged.

“I seduced Jake. And after I’d fucked him into a mild coma with each body, I had one keep him company while the other hunted the book down,” She said. “After that, I took a bunch of pictures and stored them on one of the thumb drives I have in here.”

It was so plausible that Exe had **** but to take it seriously.

“And now you’re willing to give them to me?” She asked. “I’m guessing that’s not for free.”

“Not for free, no,” Farra agreed. “But I think you’ll find my condition reasonable. I want to use one of the codes I found on you first. Specifically one that lets me issue one single, undeniable command to me. It’s a one-time use, and I promise not to use it on anything that might sabotage you.”

Exe shifted uncomfortably. It was a huge risk, but the payout was potentially enormous. The cheats could buff or debuff her. At a minimum, she’d know their full potential, so she could defend what others might do. At best, she might be able to give herself boosts at critical times.

“Alright. Deal,” She said. “How do you go about it?”

Farra frowned a bit.

“Stand up straight. This part is…somewhat awkward.”

She did as the older woman asked, and Farra stepped up. She groped Exe’s left breast, then her right ass cheek, then repeated the sequence. Exe wriggled and moaned, her arousal of the last few days suddenly and dramatically intensifying, until she felt like everything in the world except the beautiful woman fondling her was very far away. Farra then tweaked her left nipple, and then her right one, reaching up beneath her shirt to do so.

The world became a blur as Exe’s body exploded in fireworks of pleasure. She dropped to her knees, crying out with her head back as all the pent up excitement released itself one orgasmic wave after another. She’d never experienced a truly earth-shattering climax before, but her ecstasy in that moment was so intense that she lost all track of time, place or propriety.

“Damn. I knew it was going to happen, but I’m a little jealous,” Farra said, though Exe didn’t really hear her.

As she struggled to recover her senses, Farra leaned down and whispered in her ear.

“Answer my questions honestly.”

Exe didn’t register the command, but in her orgasm befuddled haze, it implanted itself firmly and irresistibly into her brain. She could no longer lie to Farra about anything.

Shakily, she stood up.

“You alright?” Farra asked, helping her up.

“Better than alright,” Exe cooed, her powers of speech finally returning to her. “You have no idea how badly I needed that.”

“Interesting…I don’t suppose you’ve spent any time around Lindsey lately, have you?” Farra asked.

“I did, yeah. When we took Lacy shopping the other day,” Exe said.

Farra gave a knowing nod.

“She probably touched you at some point. Lacy tells me she picked up some sort of Midas touch of arousal as one of her crowdsourced challenges.”

Exe crossed her arms, temper flaring.

“That little shit. I’ll get her back for that!” She swore, then remembered what had caused her to cum like that in the first place. “Hey, what did you just do to me anyway?”

“Used a code to push a command into your brain,” Farra said. She was eying her suspiciously now. “I’m afraid you can’t lie to me anymore.”

Exe nodded. Her brain was a little foggy, still, but she knew where this was going.

“I didn’t sabotage your fucking kid,” She said crossly. “Although I fucking should have. He was a little creep who was going to cause problems for me because he didn’t have anything of his own going on, and he was an ass when the game started.”

“I know that,” Farra said coolly, “That’s why everyone suspects you of it. Although for the record, I never did. At least not until you blew up like that just now.”

She eyed Exe carefully.

“You didn’t do it though, did you?”

“No,” Exe said flatly.

Farra considered that.

“I suppose I probably should ask you some sort of control question to confirm it worked.”

“Ugh. If you don’t think I did it, do we really have to go through this?” Exe asked.

“Don’t be petulant,” Farra said. “This is in your best interest too, you know. If I’m convinced of your innocence, everyone else will be, too.”

On that, she had a point. Exe sighed.

“Alright, fine. Ask whatever.”

Farra gave her a long, searching look. There was something in her eyes that made it feel like she could see inside of Exe, and it made her shiver. She was sure the older woman was going to ask her something devastating, but what she settled on was the last thing Exe had expected.

“Are you doing okay here?” Farra asked. “You put on this air about you of indifference. I wonder, is there any legitimacy to it?”

“No,” Exe admitted miserably. “The audience hates me, even though I didn’t really do anything. I thought I was a good enough showman for this, but it’s been so long since I’ve performed for people who didn’t already worship me that I don’t even know what I’m doing.”

She sighed. It was only part of an answer. She didn’t want to get into the other part, but she couldn’t seem to help herself, under Farra’s influence as she was.

“Also, I’m fucking lonely here. You all know each other, and everyone seems to think I’m a bitch. The only one who’s given me a chance is Megan. And I really, really like her. But…”

She paused.

“It’s just hard. Watching you guys all click while I’m just so…”

Exe groped for a word.

“Isolated?” Farra tried softly.

Exe looked up at her sharply.

“Yes! That’s exactly it.”

Farra reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. Exe pushed down her immediate instinct to swat it away.

“I believe you, about Lacy. And I’ll be sure to tell everyone, too,” She said. “I don’t know that it’ll make everyone like you any better, but it’ll at least make them less suspicious.”

“Sure. Thanks.” Exe said. “But like…should we be getting all attached and stuff? I don’t ask in, like, some kind of bitchy, ‘I’m not here to make friends’ way. But also, we’re kinda not. This is still a contest. And anyone could get eliminated, y’know?”

Farra shrugged.

“We all need to find our own balance between ambition and affection,” She said. “But I think you’d profit from following some of your own advice.”

Exe tilted her head.

“What do you mean?” She asked, unsure of when she’d presumed to give Farra anything of the sort.

“You told Megan to charm the audience if she couldn’t charm Jake. You’ve got some of that experience. Have you considered some sort of show to put on for them?”

“No,” she said immediately, then blinked, surprising herself with the immediacy of her answer. It must have been the cheat. “I mean, I hadn’t really.”

“Food for thought,” Farra said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should get going. I really ought to rendezvous with my other body.”

And Loretta, too, I bet, Exe thought, but didn’t say. She didn’t know why Farra was playing that so close to the vest, and thought it best to keep her knowledge of it to herself until she did.

“What about the other part?” She asked instead. “Getting to know people and all that.”

Farra’s plump lip curled.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” She said. “There’s only twelve of us, and we’ll be here a long time. I suspect we’ll all gravitate together in one form or another eventually.”

She reached into her bag and pulled out a flash drive, slipping it into Exe’s hand.

“Here you go,” Farra said. “Browse them at your leisure.”

“I better get going too. I’ve got Jake tonight. But…thanks,” Exe said. “You really didn’t have to give me these. You could have just cheated and gotten the same thing out of me.”

“You helped Lacy. I helped you.” Farra said simply. “So I’m paying it forward. I’ll have to take it on trust that you’ll keep this between the two of us.”

“I mean, this shit is plenty embarrassing,” Exe said. “And I don’t really want it to like, get around that I’m free to fuck with or whatever. So, yeah, I’m cool with that.”

Still, a part of her wondered even as she said it why exactly Farra would want to keep so mum about the encounter. Someone she’d risked offending?

The older woman held out a hand, and Exe shook it.

“If you’re interested, some of us are getting together tomorrow for a sort of girl’s night out. Dinner and drinks,” Farra said. “I don’t know if you’ve gotten the invitation yet, but you’re more than welcome to join us.”

“I might do that,” Exe said. “We’ll see how tonight goes.”

She certainly had her plans for that.