MAIN Sara faces Jennifer

Day 98

Sara and Olivia had spent the last two weeks interviewing Masters and mapping out the house and the secret passages in it. They had found seven openings on the second floor. Three were blocked by furniture, no doubt one of the large armoires in the rooms that were originally bedrooms. The other four opened up and were accessible. The rooms they led to had all been converted to bedrooms as all the rooms on the second floor had been by Jennifer and her followers. There were only two openings on the first floor, one led to the ballroom and the other to a secondary kitchen. A set of stairs led to the basement but dead-ended in a small space with a ladder up to a basement window. It opened upwards on a hinge and was large enough that most people would be able to squeeze through. It came out at the back of the house and was partially screened by an old abandoned gardening storage shed. Another shed was nearby also, this contained the mansion's central air unit which had to be retrofitted to the old house. Now that they had found that one of the three blocked entrances led to their room they could sneak around and out of the house without having to be seen going to the third floor.

They found that all of the secret doors on the first and second floors had small handles on them. They were old but had no doubt been added as an afterthought and probably after the third floor had been abandoned. The two also found what looked like peepholes in the walls. All of the ones on the second floor had been wallpapered over. The two by the secret doors on the first floor were still usable thought and cleverly hidden from anyone in those rooms.

Sara was prepping a canvas as Olivia went through a box of Sara's things looking for the book she had mentioned about wardrobes. Olivia began eyeing Sara and finally said, "So when are you going to talk to Jennifer?"

Sara bounced away from her canvas and said, "Oh, right, Jennifer." As if she could possibly have forgotten about the task that she had put off so well by exploring the house.

"I still need to think about what to ask her," Sara said getting back to her new project.

"Stop putting it off and just do it. Trust me I was well on my way to putting off my whole life. It's better to just jump in." Olivia said.

"I suppose," Sara said tepidly looking down at her fresh easel and old tubes of oil paints.

Olivia jumped out of her chair and closed up the box of Sara's things saying, "Just grab your notepad and sit your pretty ass down in your chair by the window. I'll have Jennifer here before you finish sucking on one of those icky cough drops of yours... well maybe two."

Sara felt a twinge of horror as Olivia walked across the room purposefully and left. She then grabbed her pad and a few lozenges and sat down and braced herself for what was to come.

"You want me to what?" said Jennifer from her throne.

Olivia was unworried by Jennifer's tone, "I want you to put some clothes on and come with me to Sara's room. It's your turn."

Jennifer looked from Olivia to Hannah to Samantha and pouted. "I have more important things to do. There is always so much to be done." she finally said.

"Haven't you and Lana fucked yet today?" Olivia said without fear. Jennifer just gave her a dirty look. Samantha, Hannah, and Monica gave Olivia knowing smiles. "Sara is interviewing EVERYONE, and you're up"

Jennifer glanced one more time around the room and then said, "Fine, Samantha you are with me."

Even as she got up to go to her bed chambers to put on some clothes Olivia stopped her, "Just you, I don't even get to listen to these interviews."

Jennifer looked at Olivia with a tiny flash of anger for talking to her that way then said, "Lana or Samantha are with me at all times."

Olivia was undaunted and said, "Sara asks some interesting and personal questions, or so she tells me. My guess is she might ask you a few things that you want to keep to yourself. Since as a loyal member of the collective you are required to answer all of her questions," Olivia paused. "AND answer them honestly. You might want to keep some things just between you and her."

Jennifer narrowed her eyes and then stopped and sighed, "You are one of my most loyal servants you know."

Olivia replied, "Yes I am loyal to you, AND Sara, AND Crissy, AND most importantly to the Hive. Now let's go."

Jennifer didn't argue any further.

Jennifer was trying to sit in the chair like she did on her throne, but it just wasn't the same. Wearing a faded old sundress and looking at Sara who was not kneeling before her. Jennifer had lost most of her imperious edge. She had accepted the offer of what she thought was a candy and now regretted it. She refused to spit out the vile lozenge and instead acted as if she enjoyed its flavor.

Sara started with a soft question, "How difficult is it to run the mansion?"

Jennifer wanted to tell her that it was difficult but found herself instead saying, "With so many drones it is pretty easy. I think up projects and they work hard on them. I have kind of run out of ideas really." Jennifer snapped her mouth shut. She was still a **** to her Master and it now dawned on her how right Olivia had been. It was her duty to serve the Hive and right now that meant answering Sara and answering her honestly.

Jennifer folded her hands in her lap to keep from fidgeting and added. "Of course, there is still much to do. Once Crissy lifts this annoying moratorium I will have many more projects that need to be done."

Sara quickly followed up, "And more followers to do them."

Jennifer sat up at the thought of this, hundreds, no hundreds of thousands of followers at her command, "Indeed, the more the better."

Sara wrote furiously in her notepad for a moment, then asked, "So who am I talking with now? GreaterJennifer or lesserJennifer.

Jennifer's eyes narrowed, "There isn't much difference between us, we are simply Jennifer."

Sara was looking for an opening now, "So you let an inferior speak for you? Does she do everything?"

Jennifer sat back now and looked hard at Sara, "I already told you we are Jennifer. I am superior, like all Masters, we just see no point in separating ourself, we are one. Old Jennifer's goals are compatible with the goals of the Hive, so there is no need to fight for control. We just are Jennifer, I can't explain it any better."

Sara was stumped now. She had thought to cause some inner conflict. She had thought that Queen Jennifer was just the old Jennifer coming through, but it didn't seem like that was the case.

Sara thought for a minute, "You are queen, correct?"

Jennifer replied, "Yes."

"But how can a collective have a queen or any other leader for that matter?" asked Sara.

It was Jennifer's turn to think, "Every hive has a queen." She said after reflecting. "Ants, bees, aliens on TV. Everything needs a guiding center, I am that center."

Sara leaned forward, "I'm fairly new, please tell me when it was decided that you would be the center?"

Jennifer knew that Sara thought she had found a weak point and laughed, "I decided, that I am the queen. I saw a Hive struggling to find direction and I gave it to them. If Crissy or Ashley or Amanda were a queen things would be different. They would have been in charge. But in the end, they are just drones. Specialized drones perhaps, but not queens."

Even if Sara had taken a month to prepare she would never have been prepared for this. Perhaps Jennifer's Master was special, perhaps she really was a queen. Then she remembered something, "What about Barbara? You have been sending her extra Masters for a few weeks now. She could have a couple of hundred drones by now. Perhaps she is a queen also?"

Jennifer sat up straight now, trying to be as regal as possible saying, "I have never met GreaterBarbara, but I do suppose that it is possible. But she has her own nest, her own Hive, for now," Jennifer looked around the room and then looked back at Sara and said, "Are we done now? I have important business to attend to."

Sara never had a plan and felt that Jennifer was so different from the rest that pushing her would be dangerous, so she said, "That's all I need, thanks." As Jennifer got up Sara picked up another of her eucalyptus cough drops and offered it to Jennifer. Jennifer was the only Master who seemed to like them.

Jennifer just looked down on Sara, once again a Queen looking down on a peasant, and said, "No," then walked out.

As soon as the door closed in her throne room Jennifer said, "Lana, with me to my chambers, we need to speak."

Crissy and Ashley were at Cheryl's apartment, one of Crissy's 'safehouses'. They were in the living room talking, Cheryl was sitting on the floor meditating.

Ashley said, "I just don't trust her. As a matter of fact, I don't trust Barbara or Candy either."

Crissy nodded her head but said, "I know but we are all comrades. We must work together, it is our nature."

Ashley just crossed her arms across her chest and harumphed. She had been less and less happy as the weeks went by. Things had been so much simpler when it was just her and Amanda and Becky. Now she felt like the world was back to being an out-of-control scary place.

Cheryl, even with her eyes closed, sensed the tension in the room. She opened her eyes and said, "You just have to let go. Whatever happens, will happen. We should stop spreading and just make love, there are more than enough of us for that already."

Crissy just smiled at this. Cheryl had gone from a rebel without a clue to some sort of hippie mystic since she had gotten her Master. Now she had found some way to defeat the urge to spawn and was happy just having sex with other Masters. For Crissy, who had perhaps spawned more times than anyone else in the Hive, the desire to convert someone felt like it was burning a hole through her stomach. She no longer liked going out in public because she didn't trust herself to not seduce or just plain jump some unsuspecting free host.

After a long pause, Ashley said, "We need to get a handle on the situation. I only trust a few of us lately. We just need to keep an eye on Jennifer until we can spread the Hive and drown out her little cult with sheer numbers of new hosts. We should probably figure out a way to keep an eye on Barbara and Candy too."

Crissy said, "Very well, perhaps I will convert a new Master. One that no one knows about, to check in on Barbara. Do you still trust Olivia?"

Ashley thought about that, she had heard little from the rascal lately, "Yeah I trust her, I just hardly ever hear from her. She kind of goes bouncing off and forgets that she is supposed to be spying on Jennifer."

Crissy then got to what she had wanted to talk about before Ashley started her tirade on Jennifer. "How are things going with your research? I know that without taking new hosts it is difficult."

Ashley sat back now before saying. "It's going. I have figured out a few neat tricks. But as far as males go, until we take another male I can't really see how effective my ideas are. I'm afraid that we may never find a way to control them as continuously and completely as we do females. I have done the math though since Sara pointed out how quickly we could grow if we were methodical. With one hundred hosts we could take over every human in this town of 20,000 in six weeks. Of course, that would mean burning out quite a few men if we just brute-**** them all. But we almost have one hundred in town now between us and Jennifer so it is possible. Then if we did that undetected we might be able to fool outsiders for quite a while if they aren't looking too hard."

Crissy let that sink in, so many ifs and maybes, she didn't like it at all. But it might be the best option. The heat from the original Hive Crissy had come from had died down lately. Julie said that the government briefings had gone from daily to weekly and would soon be monthly.

Cheryl had closed her eyes again, she said, "Make your home only as big as it needs to be. Then just live in it and enjoy."

Day 99

Jennifer had her own ideas about how to tame males. It came as much from the old Jennifer as from her Master. She was sitting in her room watching a live feed from a camera in cell number two in the basement. Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes were in the cell together. She was scared and telling him to find a way to break out. He told her that there was no way out and he wanted to make love. She grew angry at this and started beating on the strong new door to the room herself. As she did he took off his shirt, Jennifer could see the slightly off patch of skin on his back. Mrs. Rhodes now got angrier and told him to stay away. But he pushed her down on a mattress and held her down. As he did so he reached into the ceramic jar that had been left by the bed. His wife beat on his chest as he slid his wet hand up her skirt and only stopped once the Master in his hand had found the back of her womb and bored through her to connect to her spine. He was allowed to have sex with her once before being escorted to Jennifer's throne room.

Once in the throne room, he stood before Jennifer. Samantha shouted, "Kneel before your queen."

The mentally beaten guidance counselor did as he was told, then said, "I did what you told me to, now what?" he was on the edge of tears.

Jennifer looked down her nose at him, remembering the smell of his breath from when they fucked in his office weeks ago. "Now you belong to me. I had video, then I had control through the Master on your back. Now I have your wife. If you tell the authorities they will certainly kill her and probably also you, leaving your sons orphans. If you decide to just not obey me your wife will divorce you for cheating, we have the video. She will take your sons and you will never see them again. Do you understand what I want now?"

The tears began to flow now from the broken man, "Yes, it doesn't matter what you want. Whatever you ask for I will give you."

Jennifer smiled and said, "Go home to your boys, your wife will be home soon enough. From now she is in charge, whatever she says should be like a command from my lips. Now go."

He left more broken than he had been when he drove his wife to the mansion that morning and saw her thrown in a cell. And then was told to put a Master in her. But he had passed his test. Even though he wasn't controlled completely, like his wife was, he was still a loyal member of the Hive.

Day 102

Lana was at Trina's apartment and lay next to Trina in her bed. Lana had slipped back into her hometown after a few days in the town near the hospital. What she had seen there had started wheels in her head spinning. Barbara clearly was doing more than just securing the hospital and had been branching out into the town Lana had been staying in. As she lay there letting Trina catch her breath Lana asked, "Didn't you say that you had put a Master into Donna Williams?"

"Yes," Trina said as she felt the last lingering tingle of Lana's Master cock fade from her belly.

"She's the chief of police's daughter, isn't she?" Lana said as the wheels in her head turned furiously.