Chapters The Service Model Chapter 8
Sarah had grown to like the new girl quite a lot, well, after they fixed the front door hinges from the first week. Ever since that night she had been as docile as a lamb, just roaming around the office, keeping the men company. Sarah herself was still getting her strange migraines, but something deep within her told her not to tell Andy or Jasper. She guessed it was just her fear of losing her job, as she couldn’t really remember her terms of employment very well, but the secrecy was hard on her because Andy was her rock: the most loyal, caring man, and she wanted to be honest with him, like she usually felt compelled to do, but she was just too scared this time. The dreams too came in waves, and so Sarah hadn’t been getting the sleep she needed, which together with the migraines was actually impacting her work.
Only last week, she had fallen asleep while bathing Asa, for how long she didn’t know, but when she came to, the girl was looking around desperately with her masked face, shivering from the cold water. Sarah remembered how she had brought her favorite patient into her arms, wrapped her up in a towel, and hugged her for ages, just crying and telling her how sorry she was for everything she had done. And something about that experience had been about more than just leaving her in the bath where she could’ve easily drowned, but later on, Sarah couldn’t imagine what she was really apologizing for. Hadn’t they done all they could to save her life from… from… whatever horrible affliction she had contracted? Why couldn’t she remember why they conducted such drastic operations on her? Wasn’t there a reason?
These blanks in her reasoning were coming on more often, and so was the fear she was losing touch with reality. It came to a head about two weeks later, the night before the Investor’s courier was coming to pick up Asa, while Sarah and Andy were out on a date. “Actually quite a nice restaurant for this weird little town,” Sarah mentioned with a smirk, when her flirty exterior suddenly faltered for a moment. “Wait. Why do we live here again? Before I met you I was kind of a big city girl.” Andy looked at her quizzically. “We met at work, silly, don’t you remember? You’ve always lived around here.” he stated simply, eyeing her as he sipped his wine.
This didn’t sit right with Sarah, who knew this to be false, deep down. She had always lived in…where? Where?!? She looked down at her dish and started to panic. “Where… where are we? And what’s your name again? I need to go home, now. Lakeview, Chicago. I don’t know where I am.” Her head suddenly felt like it was splitting open, and the man she was having dinner with looked at her, aghast, before taking over the situation. At some point Sarah blacked out from the pain, and before she knew it they had paid, were in the car, and when she woke up they were on their way… to the office?
Feeling slightly better, Sarah was still confused, “Andy why are we going back to work? It’s nearly 10 at night.” He was oddly quiet, writing her concern off with some excuse she half heard before dozing off again. When she next woke up, her husband was carrying her up the stairs to…someplace new… a strange office. “Kyle… where have you been all this time?” He didn’t respond and his pace quickened. She nodded off.
When she awoke again it was morning, she was on one of their recovery beds, and her head was clear. Clearer than it had been for years. She knew what they had done to her, the mind games, the implant, and Sarah finally remembered Andy for who he really was: the man who had tried to bribe her in the cold carpark after abducting her patients. The last thing she remembered saying as a free woman was, “Not a fucking chance.”
She started crying, then bawling when she realized all the people she had personally hurt, maimed, erased for these god-awful men, but struggled to stop herself, knowing she had little time to reflect.
With not a moment to spare, she opened her eyes, and slipped out of the bed. She had to get out, get away, fast!! Today was delivery day, and no one would dare come in late. If Jasper or Andrew, or anyone else found her, she would be back in the rewrite machine, and who knows, maybe this time they’d fully erase her like she had to so many others. Rummaging desperately through the acquisitions supply cabinets she found some of the darts they used in the field, and a dart gun which she loaded. She knew that, as potent as these were, two, maybe three of them all at once could kill a man, which she had no problem doing after two and a half years living this forced lie, being fucked by that creep.
That’s when she heard it. The noise from the back room where Asa’s corner was, a noise she knew. Edging toward the hallway, a figure approached and she shot twice!!!! The office bimbo collapsed with a yelp and Sarah tried to calm herself as the adrenaline coursed through her. She knew it had been a false alarm… but the noise continued. Sarah snuck into the hall, tiptoed closer, and looked through the door’s window. Just as she thought. The amount of fucking she had seen in her time here was appalling, degenerate. “Testing the merchandise” Andy used to call it, when she hadn’t understood. Ugh, prick! And still Sarah remembered the feeling of peace she had felt whenever the implant would reinterpret the scene for her, glazing over her mind until she walked on to continue her business.
This was not glazed over in the slightest.
She watched the man she had been programmed to love fuck what was left of Asa Sumimoto. That poor girl! Of all the women in the storage bays, ready to be shipped off, Asa was the only one who hadn’t been wiped, erased. She was the only one who had anything left to live for, who would feel every day of her imprisonment first-hand. In that moment, Sarah knew she couldn’t abandon the girl. She burst into the room just as Andrew clenched the limbless ToyGirl’s ass and unloaded himself into her, and she shot him twice, three, four times with the tranquilizer gun. “What the fu…” he managed before he slumped to the floor.
Sarah dropped the gun and rushed over to Asa, speaking into the camera plug. “We don’t have much time. I’m so sorry for everything, you have to trust me now, I’m here to rescue you.” Unbuckling the straps, seeing the skin impressions from how tight she herself had fastened the young woman into this foul machine, she was filled with regret; she had to get herself and Asa out of here. Jasper would be here any moment. But as the last strap came undone, Asa started shaking and squirming in a way Sarah could recognize from months of being her caretaker.
“Wait. Do you… don’t you want to leave?” she asked, appalled.
Assa wagged her “face” back and forth in her lethargic cloud, trying her best to say no. This is exactly where she should be, why did Nurse hurt the man who was using her? She had been a good girl for him, she swore! All she wanted was to serve, and live in this post-orgasmic bliss for as long as possible! All she wanted was Julio. Didn’t Nurse know she was crushing her high right now? She had worked hard for that peace of mind! Given everything she had left! Go away! She tried to think away Nurse’s endless questions, and as she did, her unceasing eye watched Doctor walk in behind, set down his coffee, and pick up something from the floor.
Sarah felt the dart pierce her neck, and knew it was over, hopeless. She had wasted her precious time, her freedom, trying to reason with a damaged mind through her asshole. The bitter humour wasn’t lost on her, but before she faded away, she managed to look up at Jasper’s cold expression with the seething anger he deserved. “Don’t you dare bring me ba…”
Assa rolled around the two unconscious bodies on the floor and tentatively approached the Doctor, wondering if now was a good time. Desperate to get filled again, she committed to it, wagging her face to offer herself to him as if the entire showdown had not just occurred. Disappointing her, he dismissively walked on to check if the tall man on the floor was ok.
Only then, about 15 seconds later, did the spell break, and only then did the realization of what Assa had just done dawn on her. The realization that she had refused… REFUSED her only chance at going home. As Jasper steadied his beating heart so he could check for Andy’s pulse, he faintly heard a ragged, anguished whistling breath from the ToyGirl.
