FUBAR

It was obvious what I needed to do next.

I pulled up to the office parking lot. Happily, things seemed to be fairly quiet around here.

I had to find out if Miranda's visit with her sister had been as uneventful as I hoped.

And, as usual, I needed to deal with Reagan.

I really needed to figure out what to do with her next.

Her newest lock had really changed the playing field. Now that I had activated that, she would have no previous memories of her life. She only retained her skills and such, which in her case probably meant her abilities to kill people and be a general pain in my ass.

What's the best option with her? One option was simply to somehow make her believe she was my servant, and had always been my servant. If I failed at that, I could always reflush her mind by deactivating and activating the lock again. Slowly get her to +100, and at that point, I wouldn't mind returning her memories and doing whatever the fuck I wanted with the original Reagan.

Reagan... Reagan...

Something about that name was still tickling my skull. Yeah I know it was weird she didn't have a last name, but right now, for some reason, it was bothering me more than it had before. And the way her name had flashed as "Sue Mitchell" once I deactivated the lock. And why had that lock been active in the first place?

It was all needlessly weird.

It was as if she wasn't-

I stopped on my heels.

A silly thought was bothering me.

The silly thought had always been there, but I just refused to acknowledge it. I had been so preoccupied with other stuff.

I played around with the thought. I wanted to dissolve it right now so I could move forward, but...

It just kept getting sturdier. And stronger. Until it preoccupied the very forefront of my mind.

I had to acknowledge it. I had to let it make its case.

She...

She wasn't Reagan.

She had never been Reagan.

She was Sue Mitchell.

The eerie, silly thought was now laughing inside my head.

It was winning.

The moment I deactivated the identity lock... Her fake persona of Reagan was flushed out.

And for a brief moment... She had been her real self. Sue Mitchell. Before I wiped her memory again.

That's why... That's why Reagan didn't have a last name.

It wasn't a real name in the first place.

And that would mean...

A deep cold chill ran down my spine.

I couldn't take another step. I clutched the building wall next to me, feeling its cold jagged edges against my palm.

I didn't want to finish the thought, but it was unavoidable.

Because... if Reagan wasn't her real name... It had to mean...

That somebody had given it to her.

Which would mean... There was at least one other user... of The Submission Accelerator.

Someone else had activated that very same lock on Reag- Sue. Sue Mitchell.

For whatever reason... that person had named Sue as Reagan.

Therefore... Somebody other than me was also controlling Sue.

Which, once again, lead me to another, even harsher conclusion. My breathing nearly stopped.

Who was Reagan's current boss? ...Maria.

...

...But logically, there was absolutely no fucking way Maria was a user. Absolutely not. She would have realized like a billion years ago that I was a user as well, and... easily eliminated me.

And after all the humiliation she had put me through while I worked here... She would have had dozens of intricate ways of controlling me to do whatever she wanted. Not to speak of all her employees. No, by any estimation, Maria was rapidly losing control of her life.

It couldn't be her. She couldn't be a user. If she was, she was the worst ever.

There had to be somebody else.

Somebody... Reag- Sue had contacted. At some point in her life. Most likely... Well it couldn't have been before cellphones and apps, obviously, so... Timeframe of 10 years? Or... I mean I knew nothing about the history of this thing, maybe it wasn't originally an app, and-

This was a needless highway of thought right now. I was freaking out. It felt like the ground was caving in under me.

How could I have been so stupid? I should have come here the moment the Sue-thing appeared. No, I should have never left in the first place.

Once again, I was just assuming this omnipotent magical power that some entity had given me was fully under my control. Like a moron. And yeah, maybe I couldn't do anything about that, but I shouldn't get complacent like this.

Everything I now knew, was this. There had to be another user. And just the very existence of this mystery person was a bigger threat to me than Maria or Reagan had ever been.

I needed to find out who it was.

And the only person who could help me with that... Was Sue Mitchell.

I somehow **** life back into my feet. They woke from they slumber of fear, and got moving.

Faster and faster.

Before I knew it, I was running into the building and straight down to the cellar.

There was no reason for me to assume that things were actually that dire, but I didn't care.

...or were they?

Another horrifying thought crossed my mind.

If, indeed, me and this mystery person both held control over Reagan... and obviously our apps both shared at least one common effect over her, the "Identity Lock"... That would mean that the mystery user could also see that her lock had been... deactivated and activated?

Worst possible scenario: I was already on the mystery user's shitlist.

Every second counted now.

I cursed my own stupidity as I steadied myself in front of the cellar door.

Fuck Miranda. Fuck Kara and Abigail. Fuck my ex-wife. Fuck my endless libido. Fuck every single distraction that made me leave this place.

I was no longer playing subtle defense strategies. I had to attack before somebody attacked me.

And the way to start that was torturing Reag- Sue until she blurted out the name of-

The cellar door opened with the familiar creak.

Yet the sight in front of me... was anything but familiar.

Three gorgeous asses. Chained against a wall.

...Three?

It should be four- No wait, fuck, only one person should be chained!

I directed the bloodflow from my cock back to my arms, and closed the cellar door with all my might. Like my life depended on it.

Because it probably did.

Sue was loose.

With no better plan in mind...

I ran again.

Back up the stairs.

And I didn't plan on stopping there. I didn't plan on stopping.