At the beginning with you

Nick woke up feeling as though a massive weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. For a minute, he wasn’t quite sure why. Then he heard a soft murmur in his ear, almost like a purr, and he remembered what he’d been doing for the last several hours.

“Ah!” He sprung up out of bed, surprised, and threw off the blanket to see Holly curled up beside him, stained in bodily fluids, and wearing nothing more than a content smile.

She looked so soft and fragile, and, for the first time he could remember, truly at peace.

“She’s happy, isn’t she, Daddy?”

Nick gasped. He turned over and saw Sylvia on the other side of the bed, smiling gently at him.

“I had to climb in once you guys, err, ‘finished’,” Sylvia informed him. “Remember? I have to sleep in the bed.”

She raised a valid point. Now that Nick was thinking clearly, was this the first time where the woman he was supposed to spend the night with hadn’t been the one he’d taken to bed? The Dani/Carly “threesome” kind of played with that a bit, but then, those two had been a slightly different dynamic, and Dani had still ended up on the bed in the end.

He blushed.

“Um… thanks for that, last night,” Nick said quietly. “Holly and I… well, that was certainly…”

Words couldn’t describe his feelings on the matter. They wouldn’t do justice to the swell of his heart. He just smiled like a fool.

“Thank you,” he said finally, even though he’d already told her that. “It really meant a lot. To both of us.”

“It meant a lot to me, too, Daddy,” Sylvia informed him. She glanced longingly over at Holly. “I owed her quite a lot, you know. And she really… after all the help she gave me this week, I knew I had to do something for her, Daddy. It’s as simple as that.”

She glanced at Nick, wearing a beaming smile on her face. It really was as simple as that in her mind.

Nick sighed. “Well… in any case, thank you, again.”

“Plus… if this is my last night with you, Daddy, then that means it’s my last chance to repay her kindness. I couldn’t just not do so. It wouldn’t be right.”

She placed her hand over her heart, and her blue eyes took on a glassy stare.

Nick winced. That… it wasn’t what he’d expected, coming from her. “I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he said quietly.

Sylvia’s expression shifted from gentle to serious. “Remember what we talked about, Daddy,” she said quietly. “Someone is going to be eliminated. It’s just a matter of who. And if it’s not me… it’s going to be someone else.”

Sylvia didn’t want to be eliminated. Especially not when she knew that Dakota would craft the harshest punishment she could, if not destroy her outright. Whether she deserved that or not, it wasn’t what she wanted.

She wanted to fight for Nick’s affections and win. The letters of encouragement she’d received were filled with support. She didn’t want to let them down.

But she didn’t want to hurt anyone, either.

With a heavy heart, she got out of bed, and looked down at Nick. “We have to go now,” she murmured. “It’s time for the next challenge.”

“Right you are.”

Nick and Sylvia gasped, and turned to see Dakota standing over the bed with a cold gleam in her eye. Her lips curled up in a wicked smirk, and she held up her cane. “Nick… throw some clothes on. As for you…”

With a flick of her cane, she warped Sylvia out of her sight, leaving her alone with Nick and the slumbering Holly.

Nick tensed, and looked warily at her as he finished putting on his clothes. But she just smirked all the while, as she watched him get dressed.

“What’s the matter, Nick?” She asked. “That’s a dreadful face you’re making!”

“Dakota,” Nick said quietly, trying to smile, trying to reach the person he knew was in there. “Dakota, please… you… you have to be able to see, right? That this is wrong?”

Dakota blinked. “Wrong? What’s wrong about it?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Do you not understand? This is the entire point, Nick. To find you a harem. Haven’t you seen how happy the women in your life have made you? How happy you’ve made them? You aren’t seriously suggesting that we put a stop to this at this point, are you?”

“No!” Nick shook his head quickly. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not talking about the show itself… although that has its own problems.”

He bit his lip.

“What I mean is… Sylvia.”

A shadow crossed Dakota’s face and she tensed.

“What about her?” She asked coldly.

“This next challenge… it’s gonna be rigged, isn’t it?” He accused her. “You’re going to rig it so that Sylvia can’t win. Aren’t you?”

He didn’t want to say something like that. He didn’t even want to put that thought out there! He wanted to trust the girl he loved, the girl he’d grown up with.

But he didn’t know if he could trust her or not. Even if he really wanted to.

Dakota stared coldly at him, her face an unreadable mask. “So that’s it, then,” she muttered, shaking her head. “You really think that I’m planning to rig this whole challenge against Sylvia, aren’t you? And why would I do that?”

“I don’t know why!” Nick exclaimed. “Dakota, I’m trying to figure out why you have it out for that woman, and I don’t understand! Why? You-”

“No, not what I meant,” Dakota cut him off. She narrowed her eyes. “Why would I have to rig the challenge against her, Nick? You remember the rules, don’t you? It doesn’t MATTER how good she does in the challenge. It won’t save her. That’s not how this works. Win or lose, she’s still the Auditionee. She still has to earn her place in the harem. She could get first, and it wouldn’t matter. So again, why do I have to rig things against her?”

Nick winced. Said like that, Dakota’s words made complete sense. But he didn’t like it. He didn’t want to face that.

“So… it’s going to be a fair challenge, then?” Nick pressed. He needed to make sure.

The smirk on Dakota’s face wasn’t a reassuring one.

“Of course,” she purred with a silky smirk on her lips. “It will be completely fair. Because the people who decide the winners won’t be me. Or the rules, even. The girls’ performances will be judged… by the audience.”

Nick tensed. “The… audience?”

“That’s right,” Dakota nodded. “What’s the matter? Are you surprised? In the previous challenges, the ones Sylvia devised, the women in your harem would compete against each other in specific events, to emerge victorious. Or you would be the final arbiter. But this time, the audience will decide who wins the challenge. That sounds fair, don’t you think?”

Nick thought back to the popularity polls. “That doesn’t sound fair at all,” he replied. “That sounds really bad for a few people.”

“Popularity shouldn’t play a factor,” Dakota assured him with a shake of her head. “The important thing is that the girls in question… complete their roles as expected. And they already have a bit of experience with that, remember?”

Nick thought to the party, as well. So that’s what this was setting up.

Not a great sign, unfortunately.

Seeing the apprehension on Nick’s face, Dakota narrowed her eyes, and raised her cane.

The next thing Nick knew, he was back on the beach. The world spun around him, and it didn’t stop spinning until he was back on the stage, sitting in that garish throne designed for the master. He cringed.

“Welcome, everyone!” Dakota chortled, standing beside him with her head held high. She held out her arms like the ringmaster of a circus, her cane clutched tightly in her gloved hand. “It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The end of the round, and with it, the challenge for this round! So tell me, are you ready?!”

The girls had all been assembled in the sand, each one sitting in their assigned chair. Judging by the confused and startled expressions on their faces, they’d all been summoned at the same time as Nick.

The sole exception to this was Sylvia, who was kneeling in the sand, not having a chair of her own to rely on.

“Sylvia…” Mary murmured, staring solemnly at the prostrating former host.

“Are you okay?” Marley asked. She felt a little uncomfortable, being **** to share a seat with her sister. Nick noticed that Carly’s cosplay for today was rather subdued; a green shirt and white skirt, with an apron. Her hair was blue and tied in a side-plait over her shoulder, which made her look a lot like Dani. Nick assumed that meant she knew who she was cosplaying as, because he sure didn’t.

“We’re ready for the challenge,” Dawn said. “You can skip with the theatrics. Let’s just go on with it, alright?”

Dakota stared blankly at her, looking a little miffed. “…Fine. You all can’t appreciate my brilliance, I understand. But it doesn’t really matter.”

She narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on her cane. “Right now, before we get to the rules of this next challenge, shall we present everyone their rankings in the VP?”

With a tap of her cane on the stage, a large black screen appeared in the air over the beach. Their names appeared on the screen, showing who was ranked where.

1st: Mary – 62 VP

2nd: Morgana – 61 VP

3rd: Rose – 57 VP

4th: Carly – 54 VP

5th: Kim – 53 VP

6th: Gina – 46 VP

7th: Dawn – 42 VP

8th: Dani – 35 VP

9th: Sylvia – 30 VP

“It’s a pretty big shift, at least for some people,” Dakota mused with a smirk. “Mary is still right on top, of course, but look at how high you’ve risen, Morgana and Rose? What a surprise, the two women who have lost their virginities with the master this round have rocketed to second and third place, respectively!”

She clapped her hands together in mocking applause, and narrowed her golden eyes into a smirk.

“Now then, also as expected, certain people are right at the bottom where they belong,” she chortled, looking past Sylvia. “But we don’t have to focus on that. It’s clear that things are shifting, and certain girls have a higher probability of winning than others. Which means this next challenge… I imagine it will be very serious. The sort of challenge that sets the stage for who will pull ahead and be a likely winner, and who is a loser just trudging along!”

Nick tensed. He really didn’t like the way that Dakota was talking about the other women in his harem. But he expected that from her.

She was that sort of person, after all.

“So what does this challenge entail?” Dawn pressed. She was the one with her eyes most focused on the prize.

“I also want to know,” Dani nodded. Nick admired the adamant expression on her face. Even as far down in the rankings as she was, she still refused to yield.

“This challenge… is a unique one,” Dakota smirked. “It’s not like any of the challenges you’ve done before. For starters… each of you will be taking this challenge on, on all on your own…”

A tension fell over the crowd.

Dakota glanced at Carly and Marley. “Well… with one exception, I should say,” she clarified. “No, you two, you’ll be together. But everybody else, you’ll be doing this challenge solo. Which means you’ll have no way of knowing how well the other girls in the competition are doing, including your buddies. That should help add to the tension.”

“Oh, I think I get it,” Rose nodded. “So it’s kind of like the cooking challenge?”

“Hey, yeah, that WAS how the cooking challenge went,” Kim nodded.

Dakota clearly didn’t appreciate the comparison, judging by the scowl on her face. But she quickly calmed down.

“It’s not like the cooking challenge at all,” she assured them. “In fact… you could consider it a return to the roots of Harem Hotel.”

She tapped her cane on the stage again. “Nola? Be a dear and bring it over here, if you would?”

“R-right away, mistress!” Nola rushed up onto the stage from wherever she’d been hiding, and was pushing a cart in front of her. Quite a feat, getting that through the sand and up the steps, but Dakota’s magic provided a bit of an assist.

The cart was covered with a white cloth. Several lumpy objects could be seen under the cloth.

“These right here, will be the tools you’ll need for the challenge,” Dakota said, uncovering the cloth to reveal…

A bunch of ray guns.

“What the heck!?” Morgana squeaked in surprise, her eyes growing almost as wide as her ears. “It’s a ray gun!”

“From a sci-fi movie?” Dani was shocked.

“What are we going to do with those!?” Mary asked worriedly. “We’re not going to shoot each other, are we?!”

“No, we’re not,” Dawn said. “Remember what Dakota just said. We aren’t going to interact with each other for this challenge.”

“Exactly correct, glad someone was listening,” Dakota purred, picking up one of the guns and inspecting it. “Now, let me give you a bit of history about Harem Hotel. You see, it’s somewhat of a tradition that the first challenge in a show uses guns like these. They’re transformation guns, you see!”

Rose gasped. “A gun that you can use to transform someone?”

“That sounds really dangerous…” Morgana paled.

Sylvia’s lips formed a thin line. She could feel the pressure of Dakota’s stare.

“As I was saying,” Dakota continued, “traditionally, the first challenge involves the contestants of a season using these guns. And since I’m finally the host again, it only makes sense that we do things by the book now, wouldn’t you agree?”

What Dakota said made sense on the surface. But Nick was skeptical. There was a lot about this that he found questionable, for sure.

“So how do these work?” Dani asked, trying to study the gun from where she was sitting as best as possible. Dawn was doing the same thing.

“The guns are somewhat psychic,” Dakota explained, twirling it around in her hand. “These carry a bit of the energy of my cane. They read psychic impulses, knowing exactly what you want. So just point the barrel at someone, and think really, really hard about what transformation you want to give them, and… well, zap!”

To prove her point, Dakota turned and fired the gun at Nola, hitting her point-blank with the black beam of light.

“Uwaaagh!” Nola screeched as she began to glow, just like when Dakota used her cane. When the light faded, she was still Nola, but she’d changed.

Dakota smirked. “Seeing as how our resident goth girl is now transformed into an amusement park mascot, it’s only fitting that we replace her with someone knew,” she said, winking at Morgana. “Oh, and by the way, while the transformations may be permanent, these guns have unlimited uses. You see?”

She opened fire again, hitting Nola with several more blasts. One blew up her chest to comedic proportions, while another made her grow a second head. Then she grew a penis, and then, after a few more shots, she finally reverted back to her normal look.

Before she could get comfortable with that, though, Dakota fired one more time, and turned her into a goth again. By the end of it, the leprechaun was just done.

“As I was saying,” Dakota continued, turning back to girls, “unlimited uses. In theory, you could transform every person on the planet if you had enough time… but you don’t. You only have one day. Which, frankly, should be MORE than enough time. I can’t imagine anybody needing more than an hour to complete their assignment.”

“Assignment?” Kim asked suspiciously.

“Wait, what do you mean by transforming every person on the planet?” Dawn asked, frowning. “How does that work? Wait… you aren’t saying…”

“Ah, yes, you catch on quickly!” Dakota laughed. “Exactly! For this challenge, the task is a simple one. You will take this gun, and be sent back to earth. Once there, you will transform one person, giving them whatever creative, twisted transformation your brain can think of. Once you’re done, just push the button on the back of the blaster, and you’ll be brought back home! Sound good?”

“I-I can’t transform someone!” Mary exclaimed. “You… you want me to take an innocent person, and subject them to… to this?!”

“Dakota, that’s going too far,” Nick agreed. “You can’t drag innocent people into this!”

“And why not?” Dakota snapped. She turned back to Nick, and the look on her face was so fierce it gave him pause. He actually backed off, not sure what to say.

The other girls were looking pretty uncertain themselves, though. Dakota took a deep breath, and exhaled.

Her smile returned.

“You will do it,” she said, her tone dark and filled with edge, “because that is your challenge. If you fail to give your target even one transformation… then you automatically fail. NO Victory Points, no nothing. Perhaps I may even give YOU a penalty transformation yourself…”

That was enough of a threat to motivate the girls. Nobody wanted to do it, but they didn’t see themselves having much choice, with a threat like that hanging over their heads.

“S-so… we really don’t have a choice?” Kim winced.

“That’s just sick,” Dani spat, shaking her head in disbelief. “Accepting a transformation ourselves is one thing, but transforming someone else?”

“I-I don’t know if I can do that,” Carly admitted.

Mary looked almost catatonic.

“I-I suppose… if we don’t have a choice…” Rose’s hands were shaking. She was trying to be pragmatic about this, but transforming another person…

“Wait! What about if we do something good with it?” Sylvia asked. She looked hopefully up at Dakota. “Like, say if someone can’t walk, we could transform them so they had working legs! That would work, right?”

Dakota glared at her, and the malevolent aura that emanated from her was enough to push root everyone in their seats. Sylvia herself nearly collapsed.

“…You could,” Dakota admitted. “But… I wouldn’t recommend it. Keep in mind… the audience will be judging your performances. And such meager, pathetic actions like do-goodery and altruism… I don’t think that’s quite what they’re looking for.”

The girls winced. So they really didn’t have a choice.

“We have to…” Morgana mumbled.

“Come now, don’t be that way,” Dakota chortled. “We’re just trying to get you all in on the fun! Instead of thinking of this as a challenge, think of it as an opportunity!”

“An opportunity?” Nick demanded. “How is it an opportunity?”

Dakota ignored him. She didn’t even give him a second glance.

“Wait…” Dawn had been trying to decipher her language, and remembered something Dakota had said. “What you just said, before, you said ‘target’ didn’t you?” She demanded.

Dakota blinked innocently. “Did I?”

“Answer!” Dawn demanded, standing up in her chair. “You said ‘If you fail to give your target even one transformation’, that implies that we’re not just transforming random people, isn’t that right?”

That added a whole new layer to things.

Dakota smirked. “…There it is. Exactly!” She clapped her hands together and twirled, facing the guns. She picked one back up and turned back to Dawn. “Perfectly deduced! I’d meant to keep this as a slight surprise, but I’ll spoil the whole thing now. Yes, you are going to be targeting ONE specific person with this gun. That’s it. Each of you nine will have a specific target, who you must subject to the most intense and scandalous transformation possible! The audience will be judging you, of course.”

She narrowed her eyes. “And now, for the best part… these targets, they won’t just be random people. They could be anyone, yes, but we chose specific ones. It could be people from the past… from the future… even from an alternate timeline! You could end up having to transform your best friend, or the president, or even your favorite teacher back in elementary school! There’s truly no limit to this game… but keep in mind, whoever your target is, you’ll recognize them. They’ll be identified by a bright glow. And when you see that glow, well…”

She pointed the gun at Sylvia and mimed pulling the trigger. “…Zap.”

Sylvia flinched, half-expecting Dakota to actually shoot her.

But she didn’t.

“Pick it up,” Dakota snapped, tossing the gun into the sand. “As for the rest of you, when I call you up, come pick up your gun from the stage, and I’ll send you to where you need to go, alright? Mary!”

Mary stood up and approached the stage, and grabbed her gun. When she did, Dakota warped her away with her cane.

“Dani! Morgana!”

Dani went up next, then Morgana. They were both teleported away.

“Dawn, Rose, Gina, Carly, and Kim,” Dakota finished going down the list, sending each person off to where they needed to go. And that just left one person. Sylvia picked herself up out of the sand and clutched her gun tightly to her chest, holding it so closely her fingers turned white.

With a disdainful sneer, Dakota flicked her cane. “And finally, you.”

And Sylvia disappeared.

The beach was silent.