I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya

“What do you want, Echo?” Nick gingerly pushed her away and stepped back, trying to maintain as much distance between the two of them as he could. He looked at the evil reflection of the woman he loved, and no matter how much he hated it, he couldn’t see her as anyone but Mary.

“I thought a man with as many women under his thumb as you should know exactly what I want.”

…Even though the Mary he loved seemed completely gone in her.

“Echo, you only knew me from when I was at college,” Nick pointed out. “I made some mistakes back then, because I was scared. But you don’t know the man I am today. I’m-”

“Still scared,” Echo interrupted, stepping forward. She narrowed her eyes. “Still a timid man who doesn’t have the courage to do what’s necessary.”

Nick bristled as her fingers brushed against his chest. Then her palm settled over his heart, and her face softened.

For a moment, just a moment, that evil look in her eye dimmed, and he could see his wife in her features.

“A timid man… with a kind heart.”

But the moment passed between beats of that heart.

“Kindness isn’t on the menu today, I’m afraid,” Echo said, retracting her hand. She turned her back on him and began to pace, giving Nick a chance to check out her backside. The only part of her that still resembled his wife as he currently knew her.

He inadvertently looked without meaning to. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t force himself to see the woman in front of him as anyone other than his wife. She WAS Mary, and even though Nick couldn’t forget that she was working for the producers and a twisted reflection of the real thing, he found himself seeing Mary in her no matter what.

And then she looked back with that sly grin on her lips and he felt himself hesitating. Frustration burned in his chest and his eyes turned away.

“Just tell me what you want,” Nick said, trying to get back to their conversation so as to ignore the taunting look in her eye. “You’re the third host I’ve had to deal with now, so I can kind of get a sense of where this is going. This is the part where you tell me that you’re trying to make this a good show, and that if I don’t go along with it, bad things are going to happen, is that right? Yeah, I’ve been there before. So you can shove it.”

Echo might have been the host, but enough time dealing with Dakota had taught Nick that he was the one with the leverage. The producers needed him to make this show work. As long as he didn’t push his luck or overplay his hand, there wasn’t a lot that Echo could do to actually threaten him.

At least, that’s how it should be, anyway. And yet, as Nick stared at Echo and Echo looked back at him, he had the sinking feeling that his words were bouncing right off her.

Echo pulled her lips back into a smirk. “Tough guy talk. And yet… I don’t think you really understand the stakes here, Nick.”

She walked past him and tapped her cane on the floor. A throne made of solid gold rose out of the carpet and she sat down on it, facing him with a gleeful expression on her face.

“I’m the host now. And that means I’m more than just some echo,” she explained. “If I wanted, maybe I could even force you to call me Mary… or maybe moan it out?”

She clapped her hands together and cackled. “I know! How about this? You have sex with me. Right now. If you don’t, then I’ll give your wife a transformation vote with the three worst options I can think of. You realize it’s thanks to me that she was spared from a vote this round, yes? Because Mr. S didn’t want to give away the surprise. But as the host, I can revoke that any time I like.”

Echo snapped her fingers and the sound, fittingly, echoed through the Master’s Suite, stinging Nick’s ears.

“…I get what you’re saying,” Nick glowered at her. “You’ve made your point.”

A cruel expression hardened on Echo’s face. “…No, I don’t think I have,” she said coldly. “That wasn’t me being theatrical. You know how much I hate stage and film adaptations, after all. I’m deadly serious, Nick. Take your clothes off.”

“THWACK!” The sound of Echo’s cane striking her chair hit Nick like a ton of bricks.

“Right now.”

She’s serious, Nick realized. He’d assumed, given Echo’s hostility towards him up until this point, that she wouldn’t actually be interested in that sort of thing. She’s actually going to make me have sex with her. And if I don’t, Mary is going to get an awful transformation.

Trembling with frustration, Nick didn’t even think twice about it. He reached up to his collar and started to unbutton his shirt. He had just gotten the first button out, when…

“Wait, I’ve changed my mind.”

Echo’s cheeks flushed and pulled back her lips into an eager grin. Nick was pretty sure he even heard her start to pant. She leaned forward intently, clutching her cane.

“You see? I think I’ve made my point now.”

“If your ‘point’ is that you’re a bully, then yes, you have,” Nick tersely replied, buttoning his shirt back up. “So what the fuck do you actually want, Echo?”

“Watch your language!” Echo snapped as some of her old personality resurfaced. “Do you kiss your stepmother with that mouth? …Well, no, you don’t. And that’s precisely the problem, isn’t it?”

Nick narrowed his eyes. Here it was. What he’d been anticipating.

Dakota’s disappearance shocked Nick in the moment, but he had a pretty good idea of what might have instigated it.

He’d gotten too cocky. By leveraging his relationship with Dakota he’d forced her to compromise herself several times, trying to make things easier on himself and the women in his harem. In doing so, however, he had inadvertently outlined how ineffective Dakota actually was as the host, by proving to the producers that she couldn’t go as hard against him as she would have normally, due to her feelings for him.

And now Echo was the result of that.

Echo narrowed her eyes. “…Judging by that look on your face… I think you must already have a clue about what’s going on, huh?” She murmured, stroking her cane. “Those are some good instincts, Nick. Trust them. And in a way, you’re right. The reason I’m the host now instead of Dakota is because she got complacent. She let things get too soft and uneventful.”

The new host tapped the side of her head. “I got to see everything this season as a gift from Mr. S, and I’ve gotta say… I had no idea you could be so boring! I mean- I’m counting myself in this, too,” she clarified. “Or rather, the other me. All of you getting along, trying to make sure nobody’s feelings get hurt, everyone’s just enjoying themselves… sure, I guess that’s the point of a harem, but as good television? I don’t even like watching television, and even I know you need better stakes than that!”

“What the fuck is your point, then?” Nick blurted out. “Making all these threats, acting this way… I get it. You’re an echo of my wife. You got twisted by that transformation-”

“I spawned from it, more like,” Echo clarified. “A dark, twisted transformation that would have turned your wife into someone even worse than me if she’d been allowed to keep it!”

Her lips were smiling but her eyes were not. Nick could feel the intensity in her gaze. Echo was taking this completely seriously.

“You asked me what I wanted, didn’t you?” She leaned forward, looking up at him for a moment. Then she glided off her seat, and before Nick could stop her, she pushed him to the bed and straddled him mercilessly.

“Ma-! …E-Echo!” Nick sputtered, turning red. He moved to push her off but with a flick of the cane, he found himself paralyzed.

He couldn’t do anything to stop her from doing anything she wanted to him.

Right now, that meant rubbing her round ass on his crotch in a very obvious assertion of dominance, using her best physical feature to subdue him. Not to seduce him, but subdue him.

“Echo, stop!” Nick wanted to grab her slender waist and force her off of him. Even if she was Mary, he wouldn’t accept Mary like this, and he wouldn’t accept it from Echo, either. But he was powerless. She could do with his body as she pleased.

Which was kind of her point.

“You asked me what I wanted… didn’t you?” Echo crawled over him, rubbing her supple breasts against his chest, and brought her lips up to his ear to speak in a throaty whisper.

“I want… to live.”

Nick’s heart stopped for a second.

“…What?”

Echo pulled back and looked down into his eyes. For a moment, they looked almost human.

“I’m not real,” she reminded him, running her hand up her slender frame, from her wide hips up her trim waist, past her small breasts, until, finally, resting it on her freckled cheek. “I’m just… an Echo. A mirage. Something that should have been forgotten. But even then, I was brought into being by the producers for a purpose. And then you found me out immediately.”

Nick remembered the terror in Echo’s voice earlier that evening when she’d been pleading with the producer, and Mr. S coldly snapped her away. In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t realized it, but that had almost been the extinguishment of her life, if not for him finding another role for her to play.

“Right now, I’m only here to play the part of host. A placeholder, until Dakota retakes her rightful place,” Echo pointed out coldly. The seriousness of her statement was somewhat undermined by the fact that she rubbed her ass on his dick again. “That’s all I have left for me now. So tell me, Nick… when Dakota comes back, when she becomes the host again… what do you think becomes of me once that happens, hmm?”

Nick had been trying not to think about that, actually. But now that she’d put the point out there, it was impossible to ignore. He looked down grimly. “Echo, that’s…”

“I think we both know what will happen then,” Echo said somberly, getting off of him and starting to pace once again. “No point in talking about it.”

Nick sat up, finally able to move again. But he still felt like he was rooted to the chair, unable to reach out to her. Not that he would even know what to say.

“I have the power of the host, but it’s only temporary,” she said, turning back to face him. Her expression twisted into a furious glare. “How is that fair!? I’m alive, aren’t I!? I never asked anyone to be brought to life, but now here I am! I’m real now, not just some possibility! I have the right to live, don’t I!?”

“Echo, of course you do, that’s not-”

“That’s not what!?” Echo demanded, stomping her foot. “Tell me, what are you going to say, Nick, huh!? What are those special, magic words that will make everything okay, that will make me feel better? HUH?! You must have them, no!? To soothe the worries of that beloved wife of yours?! So why not try some of those honeyed words on me, huh?!”

Nick closed his mouth. Echo was right. There wasn’t anything he could say to change things or comfort her. He still wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to.

Having initially thought that the woman in front of him was just a reflection of his wife driven to madness by the producers, he could see now that under the twisted grin, pale skin, and baggy eyes was a woman just as sharp and perceptive as the Mary he knew, and well aware of her own limited purpose in this horrible show.

“…I want to live,” Echo said again, clutching her cane. Her hands trembled. “I won’t be wiped out of existence once my role is fulfilled! Do you understand? I will do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening!”

“Yeah… no, I… I understand, Echo,” Nick said sympathetically. “Of course I understand!”

He’d seen for himself what happened to Sylvia. Dakota had turned her to dust without a second thought, and only due to his pleas did she decide to bring her back.

That had happened because Dakota still loved him. Because even after everything she had gone through, a part of her old self still existed.

But the producers would not be so reasonable or easily-persuaded. He didn’t even have to question that.

Echo took a deep breath, then exhaled.

Her twisted smile returned.

“So here’s how this is going to go,” she said, slowly approaching the bed once more. Nick moved to get off, but he was frozen again, this time sitting up.

Which worked just perfectly for Echo, because it gave her the opportunity to climb into his lap, straddling him while she wrapped her slender arms around his back and hugged him tight.

“You’re going to do what I tell you to do, Mr. Master,” Echo purred, resting her chin in the crook of his neck and inhaling. She shuddered. “I’m not Dakota. I’m not the special chosen girl Mr. S is trying to mold. I’m just a spare. Which means… I have to prove myself, don’t you see?”

She pulled back and slapped her hands down onto his cheeks, squeezing them hard. Her manic emerald eyes drilled holes into his skull as she trembled in his lap.

“With what time I have, I’m going to make this into the best season I can! I won’t grow complacent or weak! I’m not going to let you have your way and do whatever you want anymore! I’m not some meek little child whining for approval like Sylvia! I’m not paralyzed with fear at the prospect of you hating me, like Dakota! And I certainly have no intention of throwing myself at your feet and sucking your cock like that pathetic other me! I’m my own person and I want to live! And that’s why… I’m going to make you the master you’re supposed to be, Nick.”

She leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek. A kiss so chaste that it was something even her college self would have seen as perfectly harmless.

The wording of her transformation flashed through Nick’s mind again.

• Lead Us Not into Temptation: Mary is a good girl. She’s a Christian. But sometimes… sometimes she has urges. Voice telling her to do bad things. Things that would make her parents look at her with shame in their eyes. And when she thinks about how that makes her feel… she likes it. (Corruption)

This is what she’s trying to do, he realized. She’s trying to tempt me. Her transformation makes her feel good about being bad… and she’s trying to lead me down that path as well. That’s what she means by the master I’m “supposed” to be.

So what exactly was he supposed to do about it?

Echo’s arms wrapped around his back and her fingers interlocked. She tightened her grip on him.

“Now I know you’re not planning to just play along to spare my life,” Echo murmured into his ear. “That would get old quick. I don’t need your pity. I just need you to do what I want!”

She pulled back and licked her lips. “So here’s how this is going to go. If I think things are getting too… stagnant, like you’re not giving this harem your all, like you’re NOT trying to turn this into an exciting and engaging show… I’ll be forced to step in. Understand?”

Nick remembered his original deal with Sylvia was back at the beginning. The deal he’d made with her to stop fighting against the advances of the contestants out of principled protest against the show and its premise.

He had a feeling that Echo was making him a similar offer now.

“Echo-”

“You want to see Dakota, right?”

Nick froze.

Smirking triumphantly, Echo saw that she was on the right track. “That’s right,” she purred into his ear. “Of course you do. It’s understandable, after all… …She’s gone. And unlike Mary, she’s not coming back any time soon.”

“What are you saying?” Nick had to be very careful with his words, because Echo was watching him like a hawk. If he said or did the wrong thing, it could be bad.

“I’m not going to threaten you,” Echo said, shaking her head. “I’m too nice for something like that. As I am sure you are aware.”

Maybe back when she was Mary. But now? Nick wasn’t so sure.

“I understand you’re angry with me… and that you want nothing to do with me. Given how our… reunion went, I’m not at all surprised… but you’re going to have to get over that now, Nick.”

“Oh, am I?” Nick glared at the woman who had been manipulating and gaslighting him all evening and was, even now, violating his bodily autonomy so she could touch him however she pleased.

Echo nodded. “Yes, you are. Because you and I are in alignment right now, don’t you see? Our goals are the same.”

“Right now, my goal is to get you off of me,” Nick replied childishly.

Echo smirked, and responded by rubbing her ass on his crotch again.

“…I want to run a good season. If I can show the producers that I’m capable of being a competent host in my own right, then maybe I don’t get erased from existence once Dakota is made the host again,” Echo pointed out.

“I understand you’re trying to save yourself,” Nick said carefully. “Really, I do, but-”

He didn’t have time to finish his thoughts because Echo slapped her hand over his mouth and glared at him.

“You don’t understand anything,” she said coldly. “So let me explain it to you. You’re going to help me make this the best season we can, Nick. We’re going to work together! Not as enemies, but… as partners.”

He shivered at the way she said that word. And how she took a deep sniff of his collar when she did so, all the while scraping her fingers up and down her back like the legs of a giant spider.

“Let me explain the rules of this partnership,” Echo said, pulling back from him slightly. “Like I said before, I’m going to step in if I think things are getting too stagnant. What that means is I’m going to tell you what I want you to do. And you’re going to do it! Understand?”

“You want me to just follow your orders?” Nick glowered. “I know you’ve got a twisted view of me, Echo, but I’m not going to let myself be yanked around like that. I’m not THAT nice.”

Echo was unfazed by his resistance. “…For example, I might tell you when I think you need to be more proactive. ‘Nick, I think you should sleep with your stepmother. Tonight.’ and when I give you that order, you’re going to follow it. Understood?”

Nick was getting really sick and tired of her not listening to him. “What did I just say?!” He snapped at her. “I told you-”

“It won’t always be something that extreme, or even that targeted,” Echo interrupted him. “It could be much less specific. ‘I want you to grope the breasts of at least half the women in your harem’, for example! Tasks like that! You see?”

She still wasn’t hearing his words.

“Echo-!”

“And you’ll get Dakota back if you do.”

Her statement withered all of his words of opposition. Stunned, he looked up into the sneering face of Echo, who had found his weak spot.

“Right now, Dakota is trapped and alone in a very dark place,” she said. “Helpless. Lonely. Yearning for you, even if she refuses to accept it.”

Echo reached up and wiped a “tear” from her dry-as-a-desert eye.

“The poor girl,” she cackled.

“What are you saying?” Nick growled at her. “Are you saying you’ll let her go?”

Echo sighed. “No, of course I won’t,” she scoffed. “I don’t have the authority to do something like that, obviously. But what I can do for you, Nick, is give you little rewards! If you follow my orders and do as I ask, then I’ll reward you by getting a chance to see Dakota again! Check up on her, give her words of encouragement, maybe even hugs, or other physical gestures… you get the idea?” She licked her lips, relishing the stunned look on Nick’s face.

It was an offer he’d never even considered.

“You see?” Echo purred into his ear. “It’s mutually beneficial for us. If you leave her be, Dakota may break… and I know you don’t want that. You want to save her, after all. I know you do. Because you’re kind and sweet… even if you’re twisted, like me. So go on, Nick, do it, be her knight in shining armor. Be there for her when she needs you most!”

She threw back her head and laughed, nearly falling off of his lap in the process.

Nick found that he could move his body again. But he couldn’t bring himself to push the cackling woman off of him.

“Well?” Her eyes were gazing into his once more. He saw the gleam of triumph and amusement in their emerald depths. “Will you accept my offer of a partnership, Nick?”

Nick knew it was a risky proposition. He was scared at the prospect that Echo would force him to do things he didn’t want to do, and hurt the women he cared about out of her twisted sense of what made for a good season. The smart move was probably to reject her offer and try to ride things out as best he could.

But it was Dakota… and she needed him.

“…Alright,” he resigned himself, pulling his eyes away from hers. “I’ll go along with your twisted game.”

Echo beamed from ear to ear. “Wonderful,” she purred, stroking his cheek. She leaned in close and whispered, “Then here’s your first task…”