You and Me Against the World

The rest of the meal passed without much incident. Perhaps everyone could sense that everyone else was on edge, and nobody wanted to make any sudden moves. Kelly had managed to warn Tammy just how deeply Haley had fallen under Carl's spell though, so the plan for the meet up afterwards had been quickly altered.

"So what's up?" Haley asked once everyone had arrived at Maisie's place "What do you guys want to talk about now that we couldn't over dinner?"

"Nothing really" Holly, who had been brought up to speed on the whole 'don't say anything in front of Haley' development began "We wanted to check in and make sure you two are okay. You know, away from the gaze of your masters"

"I could do without all the fucking video games they make us play, but they aren't total dicks. Neither of us are sex **** or anything like that" Haley answered.

"Yeah, it could be a lot worse, all things considered" Kelly added.

After some pleasant but bland small talk, Haley, Kelly, Philip, Tammy and Holly all took a taxi together. But after dropping Haley off, it turned around and headed straight back to where it had come from.

"God, I felt awful doing that to Haley" Tammy remarked sadly as they arrived back at Maisie's place.

"It's for her own good" Kelly responded "I need my bestie back. She isn't herself when she is being controlled by that nerd. She seems like she is, but something is missing. I hate it. Oh and Aunt Maisie, awesome disguise, you had me totally fooled"

"Oh shit, so you know?" Maisie asked "Does anyone else?"

"No, I was an invisible naked spy in the men's washroom listening in to Philips' conversation with Aunt Holly earlier. I'm actually still naked now. You just can't tell"

"Okay..." Philip was suddenly looking a little flustered "So do you know about secondary commands?"

"I didn't think you could do them?" Kelly shrugged.

"Well, that's what we thought too.." Maisie began with a smile on her face.

---

Tina's Auntie Rita had always been her favourite. She had only actually met her once, on a family trip to the UK when she had been fourteen. But the pair were natural kindred spirits who hit it off instantly. They were just as delightfully weird as each other, and both of them could be extremely tenacious when they set their sights on something.

Rita had driven to Lincoln almost immediately after her conversation with her beloved American niece and talked to anyone she could find there who might know about the curse - though females only, she didn't want to cause any unintended consequences..

After a while the general consensus of the people of Lincoln was clear - the whole thing was bollocks and she was batshit crazy. But Rita was not to be deterred, and there was one other line of thinking that cropped up occasionally but consistently - the witch, who was named Rosalind - had fled to the US and may still be alive. There were rumours, admittedly impossible to substantiate, that she had been seen in the Boston area at a time when she should have been well into her seventies but still resembled a beautiful twenty five year old. There was also what looked like a quite realistic portrait of her from the time that Rita was shown by one local historian. She took a photo of it and sent it to her niece alongside all the other information she was able to gather.

Tina's online detective skills were extremely well honed, but this would be by far the biggest challenge she had ever set herself. Rosalind, even if she was still alive and hadn't moved to another country in the past several hundred years, would still be a mere needle in the giant haystack of America. She would have a different name now, that had apparently been changed centuries ago, and likely several times since. So Tina had a strategy. She would use AI to turn the portrait into a photorealistic image and use that as the starting reference point for her searches. If she came across anyone who even vaguely resembled the witch, she would send them a simple two word message "Hey Rosalind!". Most people would just ignore it of course, but she hoped the real one might bite. It was still a long shot, but if it came off the pay off could be huge for those suffering at the hands of the curse. Plus, as a reward for her diligent work, the witch might be persuaded to make Tina's life long dream of becoming Nina Williams from Tekken finally come true.

---

Something really didn't feel right to Haley about the meeting she had not just been invited to but commanded to attend. She had basically gone there for nothing, a "How are you?" that could have been asked of her by Tammy at college tomorrow. And she couldn't understand why her aunt had instructed the taxi to drop her off first when Kelly's place was closer and the driver would effectively have to double back there at extra cost afterwards. So she booked herself another cab and was soon on her masters doorstep.

"Oh, hey. Are you staying the night again?" Carl asked hopefully after opening the door.

Haley nodded at him. Carl then followed her through to his bedroom where she once again stripped down to her underwear and climbed into his bed to make herself comfortable.

"So what did you find out at your Aunt's?" Carl asked as he tried to find something to stand behind to cover his erection.

"Nothing. except that I don't think they trust me anymore" Haley told him "Something must have happened during the meal after I got invited there, I don't know what. But I'm not even sure Kelly is being straight with me now. I feel like it was probably her who said something to the others for them to change their minds about telling me whatever it was they were planning to. We have to be careful even in front of Kelly and Martin after this. I think it might just be you and me against the world from here"

"Well, that's kind of how I like it" Carl told her, pausing a moment and looking at her nervously before speaking again "I love you, Haley"

"No you don't" she smiled up sympathetically.

"Yes I do. You are beautiful, and smart and everything I ever wanted in a girl. When you were sat next to me at dinner tonight and it felt like you were my date, I've never been more proud. I know I was a bit of a dick when we first ran into each other. But you were someone I had wanted to get to know for years, and you didn't even know my name"

"I do feel bad about that" Haley admitted.

"Well you shouldn't. There is no reason for someone like you to ever want to talk to someone like me. I'm nothing. I don't even like myself. so why should you? I don't have anything I could ever possibly offer you. Just the treats I can give you because of the curse, and even those aren't really down to me. But I do care about you, Haley. Honestly, so much"

Haley could see her master was in pain, and knew she needed to help him.

"Why don't you get into bed with me" she offered, after pulling the duvet off her.

For all of their faults, both Carl and Martin had been adamant they would never command their girls to sleep with them, which probably put them in the top ten per cent of the most decent masters historically. But if it was Haley who was initiating, that was a different matter. And even if Carl knew deep down this offer would never have been made without so much magic in play, he was only human.

He nervously removed his jeans so he was down to his T-shirt and boxers and climbed into bed, his larger than might have been expected hard on painfully visible.

"I have to warn you, I've never done anything like this before. I'm a virgin" Carl almost apologised with more than a hint of shame.

Haley smiled sweetly at him, like that was supposed to have been a shocking revelation to her.

"I think that is more normal for a guy of your age than you probably realise" she told him as she ran her finger down his chest "Anyway, you aren't going to be one for much longer"