Anne Riviera and Zarina Ahmadi

I was walking back to my dorm after class when the message was sent to all cell-phones worldwide, including mine. The synchronized buzz in everyone's pockets, bags and phones, everyone checking to see if this was some kind of alert or a prank, no real fear or uncertainty in anyone yet... Only idle curiosity. Anne even considered ignoring whatever message this was until she got into her dorm. But curiosity also got the best of her and she took her smartphone from her pocket and read the message, her eyebrows increasingly rising the further she read.

What the hell? Men claiming women? Nature's way? The Source? What kind of sick prank was that? And in the wake of that global disruption caused by the solar flare? Anne still remembered waking up and finding that six hours had suddenly passed, and she as well as countless other women had been paralyzed, as if in a coma or a trance, unresponsive to the world. Her father had been so worried, for her mother as well as for her. And she was lucky. There were a few women who had gotten hurt during the Flare Incident, and she heard rumors that one woman had drowned in her own bathtub without anyone nearby to help her. A shiver ran down her spine and she shook her head. What an irresponsible prank. Surely...?

Around campus many had a similar reaction to mine. Nervous laughter, some rolled their eyes and continued what they were doing. Some hesitated.

Anne saw a couple lying down on the grass under a tree, right next to the dorm entrance, laughing it off.

"It has to be a joke, right?" Chuckled the woman.

"Who knows, maybe the illuminatti is real," joked the man, sarcastically. He had one arm wrapped around her waist and used the other to mime casting a spell. "By the power of alpha-male bullshit, I claim you as mine!"

The reaction on the woman was visible, even as Anne watched only from the corner of her eyes. She suddenly straightened for a moment, as if surprised by something, only to melt in his arm, leaning in and almost moaning in response. "I'm all yours, baby," her voice was still the same, yet different. There was a breathy, eager tone to it that wasn't there before. "You can do whatever you want with me."

The last thing Anne saw as she went inside were the two lovebirds making out, and aggressively so. The woman practically humping the man as she kissed him. Anne shook her head, frowning. They were taking the joke a bit too far for her tastes.

Inside she heard the murmur of soft conversations, hushed activity in each of the individual dorm rooms, muffled and spread throughout the building. It couldn't be true, right?

Then, a high-pitched scream disturbed her thoughts. She turned in time to see a young woman, still a barely legal teenager with slender frame and wide, terrified eyes, her wrist held firmly by a man Anne recognized as one of the janitors of the campus. An old, balding man still holding a mop in one hand, his gut stretching the janitor uniform to its limits.

"L-let me go!" Shouted the girl, pulling her arm away, ineffectively.

The janitor had a tight grip on her, and a panicked gleam in his eyes. He hesitated for a moment, uncertain and terrified, but then opened his mouth and shouted back, "I claim you! You're mine now!"

The young woman's next scream died in her mouth as her attitude shifted immediately, as if splashed with cold water. First the slight shock, then relaxing, no not relaxing... surrendering. Anne saw the girl smile, looking eagerly at the old janitor. "Sorry I shouted at you," she said, her voice low and apologetic.

"Did it work?" Muttered the janitor, as if disbelieving what was happening in front of me. Then he smiled, and chuckled. "Holy shit... It really worked?"

She giggled back "Of course it did. I'm yours now." And she bit her bottom lip, looking the old man up and down as if he was her teenage crush, and added, "do you want me to prove it to you?" Her hand roamed down, under the old man's gut, and fondled his crotch as she pushed her body against him. She was young enough to be his granddaughter, and the contrast was grotesque. Anna blinked at this, uncertain.

"Yeeees," groaned the old man, his eyes drunk with the sudden rush of power and lust, before they focused again on Anne. He looked at her body hungrily, and Anne felt another wave of fear, but this was deeper, not just an uncertain shiver. This was a pit in her gut, a deer-in-the-headlights moment as this horror unfolded before her eyes. She could almost see in slow motion the old man take a half-step towards her, the young girl still clinging to him and open his mouth eagerly. But then the girl's hand slipped inside his pants and began fondling more aggressively, and when the old man grunted with pleasure and stumbled she let out her own soft, contented moan as she kept him upright with one arm and stroked him with the other.

Then the moment of frozen panic was over and Anne turned and ran towards the stairs and away from the old janitor and the young woman as fast as she could.

"Hey, wait up - " She heard him say behind her, but she didn't even turn her head, reaching the stairs and taking them two or three at a time as her heartbeat thumped in her chest, inside her ears, crowding out all other noise. She reached the second floor and raced towards her dorm room, out of panicked instinct more than anything else. Outside she heard another woman scream, which was cut short. Another voice, male, shouting something far away. Her steps echoed on the hall, too loud.

And while she ran all Anne could think was: 'this can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening' her mind refusing to comprehend it even as her legs ran as fast as they could.

When Anne reached her dorm's door she was out of breath, steadying herself before pounding the door while catching her breath with a gasp. "Zarina? Zarina! Open the fucking door!"