The Night of Horns

I fumble with the keys to the cabin, nearly dropping them twice before I finally manage to get them in the lock. My head spins from the vodka, and I giggle at my own incompetence. By the time I turn around to follow the others, they're already halfway down the street, although Christ knows how given that everyone else drank at least as much as I did.

"Wait up!" I yell as I set off after them at a stagger.

"Keep up, biatch," Amy shouts back, before basically collapsing against Freddie in laughter.

I roll my eyes - which turns out to be a big mistake. I lean against a nearby picket fence and suck in a couple of breaths, the sidewalk heaving beneath me, but thankfully all that comes out is a small burp. Anything more than that would have gone all over my crop-top. With a sigh of relief, I chase after them.

The walk to the club should take about ten minutes. By the time we reach the queue, at least half an hour has gone by, delayed by Elijah and Dani arguing over which way to go. Both of them were wrong. We wait in line in frosty silence, until it's our turn to pass the bouncer.

"IDs, please," he says, looming over us and holding out a meaty hand. I place my fake ID into it, and the others quickly follow suit. All except Jack.

He flicks through the IDs and scrutinizes our faces one by one. My stomach sinks. If he's paying this much attention to those of us with IDs, there's no way Jack is making it inside. Sure enough, after he nods us through, he stops Jack with a hand on his chest.

"I didn't see yours," he says.

Jack looks at me for a split second. There's a strange glint in his eyes, the same one I saw at halftime during the volleyball game - a mixture of nerves and excitement.

"Sorry, man," he says, smiling at the bouncer and extending his hand. The bouncer frowns but goes to shake it, and Jack leans in and murmurs something.

The bouncer pauses, and Jack steps back, examining him the same way he examined me in that brief window between putting me under and ordering me to take my top off. Like he was checking it had worked. Holy shit. Has he really just hypnotized the bouncer?

"You don't need to see my ID, right?" he says. His tone makes it more of a statement than a question.

I hold my breath.

Then the bouncer blinks, and laughs. "No ID, no entry. Nice try, kid."

Jack's face falls. Glowering, he glances up at me for a split-second and shrugs. "Well, have a nice night, guys."

My stomach tightens guiltily, and I take a couple of steps towards him. "I can come back with you, if you want?" I can hear the music pulsing from the club, drawing me in, but leaving him on his own while the rest of us have a blast seems a bit ... callous.

He hesitates for a moment, then shakes his head. "Nah, you're good. Have fun, I'll catch up with you guys in the morning." He gives a quick, lackluster smile, then turns on his heel and begins walking unsteadily back to the cabin.

"Jack!" I call. Jack turns just in time to fumble the keys for the cabin. "You might need those."

"Thanks."

I linger in the doorway, watching him walk dejectedly back up the hill towards the cabin, until Amy grabs me by the hand and yanks me into the club. Instantly, the loud music and the sweaty room drive all thoughts of Jack from my head, and I start to sway to the music as we weave through the crowd to a space where we're not getting crushed on all sides.

Surprise surprise, Amy takes the lead, singing along to songs she's never heard before and bouncing between us like a pinball. Her enjoyment is infectious, and I lose track of how much time we spend dancing in the same spot. A few times, I notice her getting a little handsy - not with Elijah, thank god, but she spends a good few minutes with her hands around the back of Freddie's neck, and at least a minute twerking in front of me when W.A.P. starts blasting from the speakers. Even Dani receives a cheeky slap on the ass at one point, which she just giggles at.

Somehow, a couple of random girls join our group, and it doesn't take long until we're dancing together like we've known them for years. One, a bubbly redhead whose name is lost to the music, goes back to back with Amy and together they see how low they can go. Naturally, they both end up in a giggling mess on the floor. I watch, smirking, right up until they start making out right there on the sticky club floor.

I wolf whistle, and Amy blindly gives me the finger while sticking her tongue down the redhead's throat. I can't fault her dedication, at least.

Beside me, Elijah leans over and whispers something in Dani's ear. She shoots him a look and swats him on the shoulder, but I notice her shuffle a little closer to him as he slips an arm around her waist.

The redhead's friend, a goth girl in a strappy black top, lingers by Freddie as she watches the lesbian make-out session in front of us. She quips something, which again I can't hear over the music, and Freddie laughs. She smirks, and I swear I see her bite her lip as she looks at him.

Ooh boy. Everyone's pairing up. Everyone except me.

Suddenly overwhelmed by the volume and the crowd, I slip away to the smoking area where I can actually hear myself think. I picture Amy and the redhead on the ground, Dani and Elijah with their arms around each other, Freddie and the goth girl laughing, and a splash of jealousy runs through me. Damn, if only Jack had made it in.

At that thought, I check my phone, and my eyebrows shoot up when I realize we've already been here an hour. Guiltily, I text Jack to make sure he got home okay.

Alicia: Hey, you still up?

Sighing, I lean against the railing and close my eyes with my phone still clutched in my hands. I hear footsteps, and the railing wobbles as someone else leans against it.

"Long night?"

I open my eyes to see a tall guy with a nose-ring looking at me. He's wearing a casual smile that tells me he knows how I feel, and I relax a little. "Not really," I shrug. "Just ... clubbing."

"Tell me about it," he smiles. "Most of my friends bailed before we made it inside, and I'm starting to think I should have done too. Or I need another five drinks."

I laugh. "Yep, I can relate to that." He looks like he's about to say something when my phone starts vibrating in my hands, and I almost drop it in surprise. Jack's profile picture flashes up on my screen. I give the guy an apologetic glance and swipe to pick up the call. "Hey, Jack. Old school much?"

Jack's voice crackles a little down the phone. "Old school?"

I giggle. "You know, an actual phone call. Very retro." I can almost hear him roll his eyes, and I keep talking before he can argue back. "Anyway, what's up? You make it back ok?"

"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, all good."

I frown. He sounds like he's breathing is shallower than normal. "You ok? You sound ... off. I can't tell if it's the call, or ..."

"Sorry, just a little distracted. I'm looking at some pictures."

There's a sly tone in his voice, and something tells me I shouldn't bite. As usual, I ignore my better instincts. "What pictures?"

His grin of triumph is clearly audible. "Oh, you know ... Some slut used my phone to take a couple of nudes, so I'm just admiring them. Vigorously."

I flush red. "Hey, Jack, that was a bit uncalled for -"

"And now that slut is gonna come over and beg for me to fuck her."

My breath catches in my throat. The certainty in his voice tells me he's thought about this, planned this, and that can surely only mean one thing. "Is she, now?" I ask, biting my lip.

"Yep. Blank."

SNAP

The snap of his fingers echoes into my ear and pushes all my thoughts out the other side of my head. I freeze, holding my phone against my ear and staring blankly at the building opposite. I'm pure obedience. Pure emptiness. Waiting to be filled.

"Good girl." Jack's words slither into my mind and become my entire world. "So blank and empty for me. It turns you on to be in trance. To know that you have no control. Doesn't it, ****?"

"Yes," my mouth moves mindlessly.

"Good. When you wake, you will come straight back to the cabin. You will only stop to say goodbye to the others if you have to, and you will come back to the cabin alone. And with every step you take, you will get ever so slightly hornier. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

He chuckles. "Good. Now, wake."

SNAP

My body unfreezes, and I take a deep, shaky breath. My pussy is already aching after being snapped down in public - if I'm only going to get hornier, I'm going to end up an incoherent mess by the time I reach the cabin. Which is probably the point.

"You're a bastard, Jack," I say.

"I know."

And the line goes dead.

True to his commands, my feet carry me back into the club, heading for the exit. The pulse of the music envelopes me, and I'm already finding it hard to think. Bodies writhe against each other in the sweat-filled room. Through the crowd, I spot Dani pressing Elijah against the wall with her lips, her hand grasping at the front of his pants while he squeezes her ass. Meanwhile, Amy and the redhead are nowhere to be seen.

A hand grabs me by the arm, and I jump and swivel. Freddie smiles apologetically. "Sorry!" he yells over the music. "Are you going back to the cabin?"

I nod.

"Good! Me too!"

My stomach drops. I have to go back alone. Not only because of Jack's commands, but also because I know I'm going to be loud tonight and I don't want anyone hearing me again. How do I get rid of Freddie, though? The horny haze in my brain is making it hard to think.

"Okay," I say, before making the universal sign for needing the bathroom. He nods, and I weave through the crowd to the ladies and lock myself in one of the stalls to try and think.

It's only then that, from the stall nextdoor, I hear the wet sounds of making out, and the hitched breaths of a woman being touched right where she craves to be touched but who's trying to be quiet. The scrape of skin on denim, the barely contained moans, the sharp, husky breaths, they all combine to make me way too jealous and even hornier than I already was. I can't help imagining hands on my body, teasing me and pleasuring me in equal measure.

Before I can stop myself, my jeans are undone and my hand is rubbing myself through my panties.

The sounds from the stall next to me don't stop. There's the sound of a zipper, and a sharp intake of breath that is quickly muffled by a kiss. Then slivers of moans begin to echo off the tiled walls, along with **** whispers as whoever is being touched urges the other on.

My fingers find my clit, and I bite my lip to suppress a moan.

Suddenly someone taps on the stall partition, and a voice echoes around the bathroom. "Hey, if you're not gonna pee, you're welcome to watch."

My eyes fly open in a panic, and my hand shoots out of my panties like they just reached the temperature of the sun. I recognize that voice. "Amy?"

"Alicia?"

"Eww!"

"Ewwww!" Amy cackles. "Pervy bitch, were you fingering yourself?"

"No!" I say a little too quickly. "I was just thinking you two need to get a damn room!"

I hear them shift in the stall, and a couple of whispers that I can't quite make out the meaning of. Then a giggle, and a kiss. "Getting a room is a great idea," Amy says, her voice husky. There's a clink as the lock on their door slides back.

An idea pops into my head. "Hey, Amy?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you run interference on Freddie for me on your way out?"

"... Sure?"

"You're the best!" I say gratefully. "Have fun!"

The redhead giggles, and I hear them stumble out of the bathroom together. I take a moment to do my jeans back up, then follow them out.

Amy is true to her word. As I come out of the bathroom, I see her chatting to Freddie even as the redhead hangs from her arm. She spots me out of the corner of her eye and nods, and I give her a grateful thumbs up before slipping away through the crowd.

Outside the club, a thrill goes through me. I've made it out, alone, and now every step carries me closer to the cabin. Closer to Jack. Closer to what I'm starting to hope is the pounding of a lifetime.

God, I need it so bad. And I'm only going to need it more by the time I make it to the door.