PART 1
ANN

Who would think my life had come to this? That I really was crawling home at daybreak carrying a goodie bag that included a vibrator? And that I actually thought it was pragmatic rather than pathetic that I hadn't left the goodie bag behind in Uma's place rather than figured maybe it'd come in handy?

Actually, that wasn't even the most pathetic thing.

Nope. The most pathetic thing was, in reality, that I was honest to God wearing a vibrator. Wearing as in being clad in one of those remote controlled vibrator panty things that some wise ass had decided we should take out and look at while drinking at that party and while no one was looking I had thought it would be hilarious to go in the bathroom and put it on so I could model it for everyone but by the time I got back we'd moved on to other things so I'd just kind of flitted across the room and acted as if I was using the remote control switch on myself. Which I wasn't.

At least I am not that pathetic.

Yet.

I'd had my fair share to drink. Hell, why not? At least I'd taken a cab home rather than drive even after sleeping it off. Sleep? Yeah, you can picture any of us women getting any sleep after the pajama party, right? Nope. I was dog-tired and still had the slightest of buzzes. Actually, I hadn't drunk that much, truth be told. I make a bad sad drunk, this I do know, so I tend to not want to get drunk around other people when I'm down.

Hey! You know what? I heard the damned alley cat when I was paying off the cabbie. He heard it, too. The cabbie, I mean. In fact, he's the one who remarked on it. Said it sounded like there was a tom on the prowl and that he felt sorry for any little pussy he caught when he was sounding that aggressive. I'd frowned hard at his little pathetic excuse for sexual innuendo.

But, he was right. The alley cat did sound pretty raunchy. He even kind of hissed at me when I was putting my key in the front security gate. I hissed back. Oh, you betcha I did! I am rather sick of the cats in this town. It's like they've decided to torment me lately. First at the pub, then the other apartment and now this one.

So I hissed at the cat. I heard some guy laugh at that. It made me giggle to be caught by one of the other tenants. Just hoped he didn't ever see who it was he was laughing at for hissing at some cat.

Inside the apartment, I grabbed Buck and dove into my bed. Buck's a good cuddler when he's in the right frame of mind. But he wasn't in the mood that morning. He was snuffling and shifting and growling and giving these little yips. I finally realized I wasn't getting any sleep with him around because he was ready to be up playing ... he'd had his night's sleep. So I tossed him in the bathroom to keep him confined and to keep him from trying to get me to wake up and play with him.

And then I dove back under the covers.

Don't know how long I'd been asleep. It felt like five seconds. All I know is, what woke me up was when Buck started barking like the world was coming to an end. I tried to stuff the pillows over my head but it did no good. He was going berserk. I could hear him clawing at the bathroom door.

I felt like strangling his little ass. Imagine him getting all mucho macho just because I had the effrontery to want to get some sleep rather than tending to his need for companionship. He'd probably heard a neighbor heading for work and decided that gave him just cause to launch the red alert alarm.

I stumbled toward the hallway, heading for the bathroom. I was really pissed, right? As in angry for all you Brits, not as in drunk. I was going to whip the door open and scream at him for his shenanigans. But just as I reached my bedroom door ... I heard the alley cat. He sounded so close.

Like he could have been inside my place. I mean, as in right there, inside my apartment with me.

I stopped in my tracks. Was it at all possible that I'd left the door open and he'd gotten in? I looked at the alarm control panel. All the green lights were on. It was armed and the door was locked and ... and well, there was no way that anything could have gotten in there. Well, maybe Terry could have ... surely Dino ... but no cat.

Still ...

It hissed.

Man ... it really sounded close. The hackles on the back of my neck rose. I walked gingerly down the hall. Peeked around the corner into the living room. Nothing. Another low meow. I swear ... this wasn't my imagination. It was so damned spooky. I looked at my hands and could have kicked myself when I saw them shaking. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and reminded myself that it was only a cat. A cat. That was all. If it was inside here with me ... I mean, it had to be to sound so close ... but even if it was right there, what was the worse a cat could do to me? Scratch me? Bite me? Yeah, okay, I'd survive, right? Why did this scare me?

Just because it shouldn't be in there? I mean, what about that durn cat that had gotten into the Pub that night I was there? I figure it got in the kitchen when I was in the alley ... but how it got upstairs and how I missed it up there only for it to be back inside the bar when the cops got there ... I never had figured that out but ... but still ...

This didn't seem right ... but it also seemed pathetic I'd be scared of one cat, no matter how big a tomcat he was ... so ... so I kept investigating. I walked from the living room, bold as you please, into the den ... heard the cat meow and it sounded like it was in the kitchen so I went in there ... nothing ... and I walked out the other entry and I was back in the living room and I just stood there wondering if I was going to go in that circle all day before finding the cat

"Meow."

It was right behind me. But somehow, I knew.

This was not a cat anymore.

Maybe it never had been.

I whirled around ...

"Meow, baby."

"Oh God."

"Very good. Proper veneration earns you points, my dear."

"S - Sid?"

"That didn't take you long, Annie." 

He was right there. I felt the level of panic begin to rise when I thought about just one tiny bit of what this could mean that he was here. It was impossible. Wasn't it? I mean, not that there'd ever really seemed a rhyme or reason for when the men appeared ... but they'd always showed up at the pub first where Uma would help get them acclimated ... except ... Oh God. Maybe he had shown up at the pub first. Only maybe he'd shown up that time she was gone to Hawaii ... maybe even that one night when I was all alone at the pub and the ghost had first appeared ...

"How did you get in here?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." He wagged his finger at me, pouted and moved in while I moved back. "Anything Commando Roofucker can do, you can be damned sure I can do better, love."

Which must have meant ... "You've been stalking me, haven't you? It was you that night at the pub ... Why are you doing this?"

"Little Orphan Annie. I've missed you."

I don't have a clue why I said it except that it was true and it popped into my numb, disbelieving brain ... "We've never met."

"Yes, we have. You wrote about it."

I shook my head and stepped back again. He stepped forward, keeping the distance between us exactly the same. "No, I wrote a story."

"You wrote about us in your diary."

"No. That was fiction. It was a made up game on the Internet. It never really happened."

"Don't make me angry, Annie."

"What do you want? How did you even get here?"

He adjusted the sleeves of his green suit and pursed his lips in concentration. I was looking around for an escape route. I heard Buck barking in the bathroom and jumping into the door like he was going to rip it down. 

"No more little box, Annie. You never really thought that could hold me?"

"I never really thought one way or the other," I said. His eyes narrowed and he peered at me. He advanced. I retreated. "I never thought you existed."

"No?" He suddenly moved very quickly between me and the door. "You're about to find out differently, Annie."

And then he touched me. I wasn't wearing very much ... just a flimsy little chemise that didn't cover much ... he gripped in on my forearm and I felt cold, tough flesh touching my bare skin ... and I started seeing darkness ... and then his other hand touched my cheek and I swear I am not someone who faints ... but the impossible was possible and maybe it was the realization that all these weeks I'd been tormented by a cat and a ghost ... and the idea that maybe Sid had been that close to me all these awful weeks and he'd been laying in wait for me ...

Everything went black.

I remember nothing until ...

"Hey, baby, you okay?"

It was this soft Australian burr. The mattress dipped; a body near me shifted and touched my leg through the blanket that covered it.

"Annie? Wake up for me, love."

"Oh ... Oh my God," I whispered as I opened my eyes to find Terry sitting there next to me and looking at me with that expression of concern that slowly turned into a little grin when he saw I was awake. "Oh, Terry! I had the worst nightmare! God, I am so glad you're here!"

I sat up and snuggled into his lap while he rocked me back and forth and cooed at me.

"I dreamed Sid had come here. That he was the cat. And I ... oh, it was so horrible and so frightening! My heart's still beating so fast."

"Sid ... was the cat? What cat?"

So I told him about the dream. And he said he could tell it had scared me because I was still shaking. And he said he could make it better. Only I felt really awkward that he'd say that in that sex voice of his. So I asked him why he thought he could come around there like that after all this time when he'd been so rude to me and blown me off ... and how could he just think that he could sneak in my apartment like that ... and that just because I was genuinely glad he was there when I'd had a nightmare did not give him the right to think I was really going to be that easy for him.

"I'll make it real easy. For both of us," he said, his mouth near my ear as I shifted and tried to push myself away from him. "Sometimes, a man's just gotta do what a man's gotta do ... and the woman needs to learn to just submit."

"What?"

"It's not like you don't like it a bit rough sometimes," he said.

"Ow! My God, Terry. What the fuck's wrong with you?" I said as I climbed up off the floor after he very unceremoniously dumped me off his lap so he could go rooting around inside my dresser.

When he turned back to me, he was grinning and he was holding two scarves. "I know they're not leather, Annie ... but since you've got such a thing for leather fantasies, I'll keep my leather jacket on. How's that?"

I don't know why I didn't fight him. I think it fascinated me to see him this way. I always have trusted him, though, so I imagine that's most of it. He'd never done any kind of bondage things with me. But he is right, isn't he? Or am I the only woman who harbors some secret thrill at the idea of having a trusted lover tie you up for a bit of horseplay?

And he was wearing a leather jacket ... that's when he told me about overhearing the fantasies the women had discussed that night. He asked me if any of the ones the other women had talked about had turned me on.

I didn't say anything ... not at first. At first, it just raced through me that he would ask me that. Like maybe he'd known that some of the things those other women had said ... that I really had rather thought some of them had some pretty inspiring fantasies. But after he had both of my wrists bound to the headboard's railing ... he'd looked down at me, stroked a finger down my jaw and asked me again ...

"Which ones turned you on? Tell me, Annie ... I'd like to know."

So I told him ... well, I told him three of them ... He just sat there, right up against me, touching my breasts through the chemise I wore ... listening ... his face serious, his eyes getting this unusual glint of sexual daring in them.

"Good girl," he whispered to me when I stopped talking. And then he leaned in over me to say, "Now, since I like it as much as you ... let's do Erycina's sweet fantasy about the trip to the S and M resort ... we'll start with you ... tied up ... just like this ... you're totally helpless ... at my mercy ... I want to see you tremble when I hurt you ... No more nightmares, Annie, this time, it's for real ..."

I could feel the weight of his chest against mine. I was so caught up in him ... in the sensations ... maybe that's the only real reason that I made note that something was off ... It was the sensations that first got my subconscious to alert my conscious, but it should really have been easy for me to see ... but I was slow.

Until he pinched the skin near the top of my thigh ... pinched it so hard that I cried out and tears leapt into my eyes.

"Yeah, that's right, love. Just like that," he said. There was something about the feel of his fingertips and I don't mean that they'd just hurt me.

"Terry?" I could hear my voice trembling. I think I kind of knew what was really going on but I was so badly wanting to be wrong. He gave me this slow, delighted grin just before he put his hand over my mouth and shook his head.

"The only way you can say my name is to scream it out when you're coming. Got it?"

That's when I really knew. I just didn't want to believe it. It was the feel of his palm that clinched it for me once I'd started having suspicion bloom inside my reluctant consciousness. I am sure he could see it in my eyes ... that I knew I was in trouble.

His hand grabbed in around my neck. "I asked you a fucking question, love. Shake your fucking head yes. You got that you ain't to talk? You can scream ... that's all. Got that?"

I nodded my head ... because now I believed this might be really bad for me. Just then. Just when he'd really shown me who was here and had scared me with that demonstration.

"Know what this is?" he said, his voice now smooth as molten chocolate.

My eyes widened as I saw the small box in his big hand.

It was the remote control ... to the ... Oh God. My eyes darted down; he dropped his hand so I could look down my body and see ... Oh God. "No. Please don't ..."

"Bad girl. Oh, such a bad girl. Only one lousy rule you had to remember in our little game and you went and broke it, love. You know how much I want to play, don't you? But you have to play the right way, Annie. When you break the rules in this game, you get an instant penalty. Now ... Let's see what this button does."

I think that Heather had called them butterfly panties. They were panties ... with a vibrator built in ... with a remote control ... it was supposed to be a lover's game ... give the remote to your boyfriend and he could torment you from across the room ... in public ... but it was never supposed to be in the hands of a homicidal sadist.

The first button ... it was low intensity ... so I squirmed a bit ... more fear than anything stimulating my clit enough to make me aroused.

"Mmm. Maybe this button, Annie?"

"Please ... oh, please don't ..."

"Keep being such a bad girl and I'll press this button ..."

And that button ... it was the one that made me squirm and thrash around ... I tried so damned hard not to ... it didn't seem right I would ... but some things are just physiological ...

And I did scream ... his name. I did.

"Sid! No!"

Everything kind of went black again a few minutes later. He stopped the damned remote control, his handsome face contorted in a fit of anger ... he was furious I'd figured out it was him, not Terry. He was looking forward to playing that game a bit longer with me, he said.

 "What do you want with me?" I whispered to him.

He was up moving around the bedroom, touching things, neatening things up ... it made me think about how objects kept getting shifted around at my old apartment ... about how I'd get up in the morning and what I'd thought was a poltergeist had moved knick-knacks around ...

"Why were you pretending to be a ghost?" I asked him. "Have you been following me this whole time?"

He smiled down at me, like he was indulging a pet. "I like to play. I've been having such a good time."

I sighed with relief when he turned and left the room. Then I tried to pull my hands free; the knots wouldn't give. I started thrashing and yanking ... trying to pull the headboard down ... anything to get free ... so I wasn't watching when he came back in. Suddenly, he was just there, looming over me ... holding a hypodermic needle.

This unexpected whimper came out of me. "What are you going to do to me?"

He gave a big laugh and jumped on the bed with me. "I'm going to start making your fantasies come true. I liked several of the ones I heard tonight. Yeah, I was listening in. So sue me. Seems it's time to bring you into my world ... where you'll have such fun ... though for a little while, you'll be dealing with a stand-in ... my virtual clone, so to speak. But soon, I'll bring some of your friends to join you ... and me ... and we'll play by my rules ... all of my rules ... including ones I've yet to invent."

I do know I begged him to let me go ... but of course, he didn't. Instead, he slid the needle under my skin and I believe my last words were that he wasn't going to get away with this ... I think his only answer was that gleeful giggle of his.

When I came to, I was strapped in a chair that seemed a lot like the one in my dentist's office. Sid was sitting at a desk, typing on a keyboard. I couldn't see the PC's screen but above his head, there were 12 large blocks of LCD screens and inside them ... another Sid was sitting on a yellow couch, clad in neon blue leather, holding a whip and watching me.

"She's awake," the Sid in the screen said.

The Sid in the room turned and smiled at me. "Welcome back, Annie. It won't be long now."

"You're not possibly thinking you're sending me into virtual reality? That was your crazy movie, Sid. Things like that don't happen here," I blurted out.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You'll be singing a different tune soon enough, girlie girl."

"At least tell me why you're doing this. What have I ever done to you?"

"I've been watching some of you. For a while now. You don't think I would be without a plan, do you? If I'm going to take over here, which I am, had to get a few of you women occupied with other concerns while I put my plan in action. You were just in the wrong place at the right time, Annie, but you have ended up being most instrumental in bringing the others down."

"Who else?"

"Now, now. All in due course. Isn't there anything you want to know before I send you to see my cousin? Maybe you'd like to know the rules in there?"

"You were watching me? And ... shit. It was you all along, wasn't it? Just tell me that ... I want to know." Somehow, I knew he'd want to brag. I'd seen his movie, right? I knew I was stalling for time; so did he. I also knew I didn't have a chance anyone would miss me; so did he. I suspected many things in that moment.

"You already know I was the alley cat and the poltergeist. So sure, that was me at the pub that first night. I hadn't expected anyone to be there ... thought you were all in Hawaii."

"But after that night ... I kept thinking I was being followed."

"Oh, baby, like you cannot believe. I wanted you on edge, nervous. But ... that wasn't the best thing I did."

"What else? That was the only weird stuff going on, Sid."

"Love, it's a shame you stopped going to the pub. Mighta seen through my charade." He said it ... but it wasn't his voice that came out.

"Oh my God!" My eyes opened wide and he did this little jig, giggling in pure delight at having surprised me that much. "It was you! You were East in the coffee shop! My God, that is ... you have no idea how much that hurt me ... the things you said ... I thought ..."

"Oh, Anna! Do not be so slow. Did you think East was the only voice I can do?" A more cultured voice ... using the one voice that made me cringe in instant understanding that so many things lately that had not made sense were never true, never real.

"You bastard. You complete and utter bastard. It was you on the phone and not Maximus? If I ever get my hands on you, I will fucking kill you!" I screamed it at him ... I struggled against the bonds ... But when the fury was expended, I felt tears well up.

It hadn't been Max who'd told me all those awful things. How could I have ever believed he would have lied about how he'd felt about me? Not Max. I should have known. The only way Max would be a liar is if he was a fake Max. Shouldn't I just have known that because it is such an essential element of his character? And maybe I had ... hadn't I said to myself that I couldn't believe he'd do that?

"You were so easy to manipulate, Annie," Sid whispered, now with his mouth against my ear as I laid there in that chair and just stared into the recent past and wished I hadn't been so stupid. "Your insecurities are so exploitable and so predictable. It didn't take much to isolate you from all your buddies at the pub, did it? It'll be a long while before any of them wonders about you ... even longer, if ever, before they look for you."

He was right, of course. No one would miss me. Not Max, who would not even know I was upset with him. Not Terry, who was still holding it against me that I had gotten so close to Max. Not Uma or Heather, who wouldn't think it odd that I didn't come by the pub, of course. The only one who'd miss me was Buck.

"Will you take care of my dog?" I asked him in this tiny voice as he lowered blackened goggles over my eyes.

"Already got him a playmate, Annie."

The next thing I knew, I was in a blood red room and I knew this was VR. I put my hands before my face and wiggled my fingers. I turned a full circle to see where I was. As I circled, the Sid in the screen walked around to try to get eye contact with me. I refused to grant it.

He was holding a yellow tulip. It made me think of Tulip from the pub. And then I realized ... the red room ... scarlet ... I was supposed to think of Scarlet, wasn't I? I was getting Clarity. I smelled the heady scent of Heather. This was Wild.

I glanced down at what I was wearing ... a white, Grecian-style gown. Wonder if I was supposed to think of Gaia, Eris or Erycina? Or maybe even Uma? I wished I had a sword ... I would have gladly had that reminder of Bou. Then my mind flashed to Marie as I realized the gown's color ... white ... would I find out I was a virgin? Or an Angel?

"Isn't that a rather classic fantasy? The perfect deflowering?" he said to me.

"I have powers here, too, I believe," I said. "I can use my imagination."

"Your imagination's what got you into this trouble in the first place, Annie. Why you think he went after you? You ... and Uma ... and Heather ..."

I looked out the screen and saw the other Sid out there. He was watching us; he looked so proud. From here, I could see my own body. The chair it was in was in a circle ... there were five other chairs ... and one of them was occupied.

"Who is that?" I asked Sid. Either Sid. Both of them wanted to brag to me.

"I needed to be sure I wasn't interrupted for the rest of my doings," Sid in the room said. "Young Arthur makes such an inspired choice, don't you think?"

"Angharad will know it's not him. She will rip you a new one if she thinks you hurt Artie."

"I don't think so. I rather think she'll like the change in her boy."

Before my eyes, the Sid out there in the control room seemed to shift and change ... the transformation is hard to describe ... but he became Arthur dressed as Sid. And then he shifted back to Sid.

"Why do you have to masquerade as Arthur? Who are you going to use him against?"

"Now, now, Annie. Only in the movies does the bad guy tell his evil plot beforehand so the good guys can stop him. Doesn't work that way in real life."

Just then a cell phone started ringing. I recognized the tone as mine. Sid pulled it out of my purse and answered it ... in my voice ... to perfection. It took me a moment to realize he was talking to Heather.

From what I could gather from his side of the conversation, Heather was upset at Uma ... felt she'd screwed up the website ... Sid, as me, told her she was a real fool for ever trusting Uma ...that she could only blame herself now for being so stupid ... And he sounded so much like me. Had my cadence down, all those little idiosyncrasies of conversational patter. It was incredibly spooky.

He giggled delightedly as he hung up the phone.

"You really have been doing more than just following me, haven't you?" I asked him. "You've spent a lot of time being close enough to listen in on how I talk to people."

"But to do that ... I'd almost have had to be able to be inside your place ... spying on you ... close enough to hear you when you were talking ... and doing other things ... with others," he said, waggling his eyebrows at me. "Now, do you really think that's possible?"

"Jesus," I whispered as he grinned at my dawning realization of the scope of what had been happening without me having even a clue while it was going on. "You watched me ... when I was ... You sick bastard. Is that what passes for your sex life? You really are pathetic."

That made the grin disappear and the giggle turned into something a lot more sinister and threatening. He tilted his head and looked to my right ... I knew he had to have been looking at his other self inside this VR room with me. His rigid voice betrayed his fury with my smart comment: "Commando Roofucker ... Minimus ... Little Johnny ... And now I'll watch you with my stand in ... just until I have the requisite time for you to do me justice ..."

I felt a warm hand on the back of my neck. I watched as my body in the chair gave this little twitch of surprise ... and I realized I had felt that in my body both out there in the real world and in here, in VR world.

If he hurt me here, I thought, would I feel it there, too? If I died in here, would I die out there, too?

It was as I heard the Sid out there make another phone call, using my voice and my cell, that I began to plot out how I'd survive. Because hearing him as he talked to Uma, and the things he said to her as me ... to find out via his side of the conversation that she was pregnant and had needed my help only to have it appear I was so heartless as to desert her in her time of need ... I realized what he'd been up to, really.

What he was doing was isolating Uma and Heather both. And I was part of the way he was doing it. His actions had caused my response to back away from the pub, to cut off the men who cared about me ... and now he was doing it to them by making Heather and Uma turn on each other.

Jesus. She was pregnant. It had to have been Alex and he was gone now. 

I felt focused for the first time in months. I was going to stop sitting back and taking this shit. I was determined to hold it together in there long enough to find the way out of VR. If I didn't, I wondered what Sid was planning for the others.

What Arthur's part in it all was, I had no clue. But ... realizing that Arthur was the key to whatever Sid was planning, I did come up with my first idea ... I had to find Arthur in VR. Together, we might stand a chance.

PART 2
TERRY

Even before I left Uma and returned to man the bar, I had this sense that things were somehow not adding up. But it was only in putting a little distance between us, in taking time to breathe in with the new reality of the need to openly protect and support her ... that I really thought about some of what she'd said.

Now, nothing gets on my tits more than a man who'd treat a woman like Ross had done to Uma. It was more than inexcusable ... he'd shared a part of her ... he knew what that meant to a woman like that ... and then he turns out to be a bastard when she needs him most?

So, yeah, I was looking forward to finding him. I'd rip him a new one. And that was for starters.

Called Dino to start tracking Ross. As I tended bar while Uma rested upstairs, I chain-smoked. For some reason, it helps me think clearer. And I needed that because I kept having this irritating, nagging sense that there was something important I was missing in what Uma had told me about what had been happening to her, about what other people had done. So I smoked and I brooded over all that Uma had said to me.

She hadn't made total, linear sense. She rarely does but she's a woman, so there's that to contend with. But it dawned on me that it wasn't just Ross who'd been a shit to Uma when all she'd needed was support when she had thought she was pregnant and alone. So had Heather. So had Ann.

Not that she'd gotten around to really telling Heather anything. Which reminded me that I needed to ask Dino next time we checked in about this shit he'd dumped on Heather. Wasn't his style. Not that I wanted to interfere ... no, I probably should leave that alone. Right. Am I me or what?

But, now, Ann was a different story. It just really didn't seem like her to be that mean to Uma when she was in trouble and reaching out. Uma tried to excuse it; she'd seen it had bothered me to hear that about Ann. Uma said Ann must have been upset about what Max had done to her.

As luck would have it, the General sauntered into the pub just as I was mulling that bit over. Looked at him as he took a stool at the bar; thought about what Uma had said he'd said to Ann. Frankly, he got on my tits ... but he had never seemed a man to use a woman. Something was off.

Something ... and with that, came a leap ... and I thought for a moment that I saw a pattern. Uma and Alex ... Dino and Heather ... Ann and Max. It just didn't make a lot of sense and it was nothing I could put into words. So I decided to probe a bit.

"I believe you upset Ann," I said to Max as I placed his order before him.

He gave me that look of his ... you know the one ... like he's about to stoop down and rub some dirt between his hands. "Ann?" I nodded. His eyes narrowed as he took a sip of ale. "In what way?"

It was clear as mud ... he didn't have a clue what I was on about ... which meant ... what?

"Must have heard it wrong, Max. Sorry."

Not too long after that, I took a break out back. Called Dino more out of some sense of morbid need to prove I was just imagining things. "You and Heather have a blue?

"What?" I repeated the question. I could hear his teeth grinding. "No. We did not have a fight. I haven't talked to her since yesterday. What the fuck's with that question anyway?"

I changed the subject. Got an update on his search for Ross.

Later that night, I let Scarlet take over bartending duties and I joined in a poker game. When Uma wandered down looking fragile and making me feel nothing so much as the need to care about her, I forgot my intentions to quiz her about these fights she was telling me about between Heather and Dino, Ann and Max ... and yet that the men involved knew nothing about. I just didn't want to upset her ... or the new balance in our relationship.

Playing poker has always helped me clear out cobwebs. Must be that you're always trying to figure out what cards the other guy's holding while keeping your own game face in place. Awareness started clicking in me.

Things were off ... let's just start with Uma being under attack from her two close friends, Ann and Heather ... as well as Alex. And then Ann and Heather being under attack from men they were close to. Uma was perched on my knee and I absentmindedly was rubbing on her tummy when I remembered another nugget from that day's conversations with Uma ... not once, but twice, she'd made some obscure reference to me remembering to take a bottle back to Ann's for lunch that day. I'd let it pass each time because there had been more important issues to deal with. But it annoyed my logical mind when I thought about it then. Had Ann not only attacked Uma but then lied about the two of us supposedly having a planned liaison that day? Why would she do that?

There was really only one person I could confront and it wasn't Uma. So when I left the pub late that night, I drove past Ann's apartment building. I didn't see any lights on ... I was half-way up the front walkway when I stopped and realized that I really couldn't just show up like I used to with her. Used to be something she enjoyed ... me slipping into her place late at night or early in the morning to snuggle with her as she slept, all warm and soft. But ever since the last time I'd walked in on her and Max, I'd kept my distance ... punished her because it had annoyed me.

So it wasn't until the next morning that I returned to Ann's place to start getting some straight answers about things that were bugging me ... but there was no answer when I rung the bell and pounded on the door.

I could hear Buck in there barking. He sounded odd. Her neighbor stuck her head out; said the dog and cat barking and hissing at each other inside there since the day before was driving her around the bend so could I please tell Ann to put a muzzle on them.

Dog and cat? Ann did not own a cat.

Something felt wrong.

So I slipped inside ... noted that Dino had not made any changes to the security system even though I knew Ann had told him about my last subversion.

The cat was in the midst of spraying on the couch when I got inside. We sized each other up. He arched his back and hissed at me. I heard scratching at the bathroom door and figured Buck was cooped up inside there. I wandered back to the bedroom, giving the cat a rough nudge with my foot to get him out of my way as I walked past.

The bed was unmade. Everything else was neat, tidy. Except ... on the floor by the bed ... a syringe. I used a silk scarf laying on the bed to pick up the syringe; sniffed it; odorless. Putting it gently on the bedside table, I walked back out, down the hall, opened the bathroom door.

It was pretty obvious Buck had been in there a while; at least a day. He nearly wet himself when I opened the door. But he only let me pet him a few seconds before he seemed to remember his job as protector of this space.

He took off between my legs before I could catch him.

I heard the fight start; by the time I got to the living room, they were going at it. The only one of them I could get hold of was the cat so I grabbed it and lifted it up out of Buck's leaping reach. Ungrateful bastard of a cat scratched my face. Barely missed my eye. Shook him hard; he was wearing a collar. Took it off so I could really look at the identity tag after I tossed the cat into the bathroom and shut the door ...

My name is Parker. I belong to Stano Iqbal Dahmer. 67 Daryl Terrace, Madison, Wisconsin.

That's the moment it dawned on me that there was something a whole lot more sinister going on here. 

And I don't believe in coincidences. This had to be connected in some way to all the other truly odd things happening to Uma ... and the weird things that had haunted Ann enough for her to move ... and then when you talk about haunting, who can forget the ghostly visits to the pub, including the one I witnessed? And what I knew it had to mean was that someone truly sick was manipulating events for a yet-to-be-known reason. He'd left a trail of clues inside Ann's apartment ... the cat, the hypo, the tag ... Whatever was going on, the fact that it seemed to make no logical sense just then actually made perfect logical sense considering who had to be behind whatever was going on.

I felt a sense of real foreboding as I stood there, knowing Ann was gone ... kidnapped. I ran my fingers over the tag.

He thought he was so cute. The clues were so obvious; too obvious for a thing like Sid 6.7 to leave unless he thought no one would find the cat until much later. Or unless he wanted me to find it and knew I'd come after him. I figured it was best no one know about the cat ... or what the data on this tag told me. Not until I could check it out a bit more and figure out what the creep was up to.

Dino's plane made it back into town a few hours later. By then, I was ready and knew where we were going. I showed him the tag.

"Parker, as in Parker Barnes, the cop hero in the movie. Look at the owner's name; it's composed of all serial killers ... and the initials: S. I. D. Sid. The 67 is obvious."

"Daryl ... as in his creator," Dino said quietly. "Terrace ... awfully close to Terrence, my man. Seems aimed at you."

I nodded in agreement. "Madison ... the woman, the psychiatrist, whose daughter he kidnapped to terrorize her and Barnes."

"Now what?"

"There is a 67 Daryl Street here in the city. It's in an industrial area of town. Owner says he rents it to one S. Dahmer."

"You're not seriously considering going there?"

"I've looked at it every way I can. He's probably got it rigged ... we're undoubtedly walking into a trap ..."

"But he's got her."

"So we're gonna do this?"

"When do we leave?"

ANN

"I was so sure you'd be one of the ones with a Hando fantasy," Sid said to me. 

"Why is your skin warm in here when his is so cold out there?" I asked him.

"This is my world in here. I make the rules. In this case ..." I turned to look at him; he gave me this little bow. "In this case, I want you to feel welcome. I may be a murderer, but that's just how I was programmed. There are other parts of me."

"Oh, sure. That makes such sense," I laughed at his face ... because he looked so sincerely like he thought I was going to drop my guard. "I mean, why would a murderer ... even hundreds of them like you ... have to be one dimensional? You know, I bet there are some inside you who were kind to their mothers."

"Exactly. Speaking of my ability to be kind and multi-dimensional, I understand there are a few other fantasies you wish to enact."

"You got that wrong, boyo. I was just telling 'Terry' what I thought he'd want to hear. I didn't mean any of that."

"That so? Then you won't mind if we engage in my personal fav Hando fantasy from last night's list ..."

Just then, everything surrounding me changed. Instead of that otherworldly place, I was now standing in the middle of some cheap bar with cracked linoleum tile beneath my feet, tattered posters of long ago concerts on the walls, neon lights advertising beer, loud head banger music blaring out of some cranky jukebox ... the light was so low in there that the cigarette haze was barely penetrable up by the bar, which was about the only place in the joint with any real degree of lighting.

Someone grabbed me from behind, twirled me around ... and I was facing Hando. He shoved me toward this crowded area where people were doing something they must have thought was a form of dancing. I kept getting bashed by men jumping into me ... until Hando moved me over toward a corner.

You couldn't call what he was doing really dancing. I think Sid wanted to dance ... I mean, he's a good dancer in his film ... but he wanted to stay in character. So instead of dancing, it was like rhythmic grinding of his pelvis into mine while his tongue kept doing naughty things to my neck and ear. I tried to shove him off me ... he loved it.

A few whispered threats later ... and I had myself a good think ...

It might have been Sid's world and in that he could manipulate the scenery ... but surely my own imagination was a potent weapon here, right? Probably not ... but it was worth a shot.

I tried to remember this fantasy ... there were several Hando ones from the other ladies that night at the pajama party ... what is it with women and Hando fantasies? Couldn't one of them have thought of something different ... like say ...

And I kind of blanched in mid-thought when I remembered that they'd also had a healthy number of fantasies of two men at the same time ... let's see now ... two Handos ... Terry and Zack ... Hando and Max ... Oh good Lord, I thought, I hope he won't do those because, I mean, it doesn't take a genius to know in Sid's hands, those kinds of fantasies would be ... well ... you know what I'm trying to say, right?

But I needed to concentrate just then on the particular fantasy he was playing out just then. It was a Hando one, of course ... I wondered which one this was ... and then I recognized it when he moved me away from the corner, through an open doorway, back into an even darker area of the crowded bar, and against a laminate-topped table. His hands shoved my skirt up ... I wasn't wearing panties ... I had this instant insane thought that I didn't remember that detail from Cassie's description of this ...

There was a part I was supposed to play here ... I was supposed to want this ... I was supposed to be hot for it ... Another time, I might have been ... if I could have closed my mind to what was happening away from us ... if I could have forgotten that the other Sid was probably watching ...

"You know what would make this better?" I whispered against this Sid's ear as he lowered his zipper and shoved my hand down his pants.

"My cock up your cunny?" 

I licked his neck and brought him close to me. He shivered in my hands. "No ... I want to go to Erycina's resort with you. You know that's the fantasy I really liked."

We were inside a bondage room ... at least, I figured that's what it was. There were all kinds of restraints. He showed me how a few of them worked so I could choose which one I wanted. I tickled him with a whip and convinced him to strip for me. I told him this story I'd read once about a strong man being tied up and the overwhelming orgasm he'd had after ... of how the woman had not dominated him but had pleasured him over and over, stopping each time until he came with such a force that she'd never witnessed before.

Okay, so I was desperate. I didn't think he'd really do it. But apparently, hidden somewhere inside Sid, is some kinky guy who really gets off on being bound. And the funnier thing was that the other Sid, the one in the real world, really disliked this personality because he walked off in a huff. I heard the door bang behind him and the sound of him locking the joint up tight.

But the Sid inside the VR with me let me bind him to this rack that leaned at about a 45-degree angle. I belted his wrists and his ankles and his neck to the grid of the rack.

And then I ran.

Not a great plan, I grant you. But I figured it was my best chance. And I also figured that I had to have some control in VR. So I imagined Arthur and made myself run toward where he was. I was inside a long hall. Doors opened from it and I raced past them. I slid to a stop as I passed one that had sounds ... unmistakable sounds ... coming from it.

"Arthur!" I bellowed. "You naughty boy! You just wait until I tell Angharad."

"Just give me a moment, Miss. I'm at the point of no return," he whimpered out.

"Stop that this instant! You should be ashamed of yourself, taking advantage of Sheila like that."

"He's not taking advantage of me. He's my big sweet Super Dick," Sheila cooed out. "You could come join us if you'd like."

Arthur's head snapped up. I saw that eager look on his face at this idea. "Arthur, if you hope to survive, you will wipe that smirk off your face and you will zip up. I don't know how much time we have before Sid finds us."

I imagined us in a coffee shop and the three of us tossed ideas for how we kept Sid busy ... I think we all figured it'd be Angharad who'd rescue us ... Artie and I were pretty sure she'd see through Sid right away. Okay, well, I think I did most of the talking and thinking because Artie was having a tough time concentrating on anything but the way Sheila was heaving her breasts at him and telling him all breathy about what she was going to do to him next.

"Arthur! If you don't start helping me ... what would Angharad say if she saw you?"

"She might want to join us," Sheila breathed out.

"Shut up," I snarled.

"She would not want to join us, Sheila. Angharad is not that kind of girl. She's a very proper kind of girl ... with high spirits, I will grant you that, but she would not want to ..." Artie lectured her.

"Then again, didn't she have a Hando fantasy that she told us about at the pajama party? She might think ..." I put a hand over my mouth and wished I'd not said that aloud.

His eyes opened wide. "Think what? Come, now. Tell me quickly. What might she think?"

"Er ... nothing."

But Sheila piped up with, "Well, if she's harboring fantasies about Hando ... I rather liked that movie ... then she may like her bad boys a bit more than you wish to admit, sweet little Arthur. And Sid's the ultimate bad boy. She might really enjoy the change."

Arthur sputtered out, "Not Angharad! Never her ... Oh, do you think it's possible? She is a bit of a wild girl, isn't she? Maybe she wants a bit more of a commanding man?"

"No, no. She quite adores you, Arthur," I said, kicking Sheila under the table. She mouthed this big "O" and then slowly and very suggestively smiled at me. Jeez ... was Sheila designed to appreciate pain, too? That gave me an idea ...

So it wasn't too big a leap ... not really ... I simply mentioned the idea to Arthur, he did this detailed analysis and some kind of cost/benefit ratio forecast and a probability index ... And by then, we were standing inside the bondage room and Sid was no longer bellowing out for me to return.

Now he made threats. I promised him Sheila would make him forget me. Sheila promised me she'd take advantage of his helpless state. They were smiling at each other when I grabbed Arthur's hand and imagined us inside a maze.

It was the best I could come up with. How long we stayed lost was hard to tell. Every time one of us got nervous, thinking maybe Sid had gotten loose and was tracking us across platforms, we'd take turns imagining ourselves in another place, another situation.

I got a nice tour of Wales. Saw more churches and factories than I'd care for. He saw a lot more beaches and ships than he liked ... said he got seasick too easy.

But I made the mistake of wanting to go back to check on Sid. I just wanted to be sure he was still tied up.

He wasn't.

Long story short? Okay. Sid dispatched Arthur and Sheila to points unknown. Poor Artie. As for me, Sid decided to stay at the resort. Poor me.

TERRY

By the time we got to 67 Daryl Street, it was night. Darkness helped give us cover. Getting inside was a little tricky; the bastard had a security system that made Dino curse in frustration until he finagled his little electronic gizmo to find a way round the coding.

It was a rather large warehouse. We kept to the cover the walls gave us as we recon'd the joint. The last door we tried led to a smaller room; we knew we'd hit pay dirt when we saw the computers ... but then we saw the huge screen along one side wall.

I felt the blood in my body drain away from my brain for just a moment. In its place was a much darker force.

For a few moments, all we could do was stare at what was happening on the screen. I suppose we both had known it was possible this was what Sid was up to. It just took us the chance to get our second wind to get back in gear. Dino tapped me on the shoulder; pointed over toward the far wall. There was a rough circle of large reclining chairs. And two were occupied. Ann and Arthur.

Bodies in one place; some form of their consciousness was in another.

His body in the chair was languid; on half the screen, he snoozed while holding the sex kitten Sheila from the movie. Naughty boy, I thought.

Her body in the chair, however, was not languid; on the other half of the screen, she was facing away from us, nude, bound at the wrist to a rack on a wall. I could hear her crying ... these soft mewling sounds that broke my heart. He was using a cushioned paddle but her bare cheeks were streaked in red.

I went to where she was and tried to figure out how to get her out of the chair and the goggles and the straps.

"Careful over there, man. Remember nothing's ever as easy as it first appears. Don't want to do any damage to her mind if you unhook her wrong," Dino said softly. I glanced over my shoulder at him; he was seated before a computer and it looked like he was going to see what he could do from there.

Movement on the screen drew my attention. The man who turned to face away from Ann ... he looked ... Christ ... he could have been me. We just kind of stared at each other for a second until recognition dawned.

"I wasn't finished," he growled to me. The scene changed before my eyes. I recognized it ... her old apartment. The living room. I recognized the scene. Last time ... with her ... we'd not made it as far as the bed at first ...

I turned and looked down at Ann's body. She was wearing a black, silky chemise that clung to her ... and that didn't really cover so much as emphasize the sweet curve of her breasts, the obvious arousal of hardened nipples. But that little piece of lingerie was hiked up almost to her belly button ... it fell far short of giving her any degree of modest coverage of her mound. I fought the virtually instinctive desire to touch her while she was in this helpless state of stimulation. Her display of unconscious, erotic provocation was seductive; I felt ashamed of how witnessing this brought me back into the visceral memory of that moment with her in a way that made desire course through me. She spread her legs. Her back arched. She was breathing in that rapid way she has when she's close to giving in to what I can make her feel with me. Her lips were moving ... I didn't even have to lean in to know what she was whispering because it hadn't been that long since she'd been whispering that to me.

How in God's name did he even know about that occasion? What was he trying to tell me by showing it to me?

"The fucker's been watching her ... watching us ... when we were together," I growled to Dino as realization swept over me.

I started yanking on straps, freeing her legs and arms, taking the chance I might do something wrong ... but I was not going to let that bastard do what came next. I touched the goggles. Her hands touched mine; the grip convulsed. I turned to look back at the screen.

He was watching me with this grin on his face. 

"I'll fucking erase your program if you do it," I told him.

"You're losing your sense of humor," he giggled.

"I never have had a sense of humor. You should have known that before you took me on."

"Hang on, man," Dino said.

And just then on the screen, first one bright puff of light and then another ... and Annie and Arthur's avatars disappeared. I prized up the goggled from her face and she was momentarily dazzled by the overhead lights.

"You're safe, Annie," I told her. But I could tell, she just wasn't sure anymore if she could believe I was who she hoped I was. I put my lips to her ear and told her something from long ago ... something no one would know but us. We held each other tight after that.

"Your face," she said eventually, when she was letting me help her sit up in the chair. She touched at my temple; it stung; I remembered then ...

"There was a cat in your apartment. It scratched me." I told her about the cat, about the clue Sid had left behind that led to her.

For a while, the four of us just watched the big screen, as Sid erupted into hundreds of Sid faces on a background that was shades of orange and black. Annie shivered and I reached my arms around to hold her.

"Appropriate color scheme," the red head said.

"Why is that?" Ann asked.

"It's Halloween," I said. And I made this totally lame comment just because I could never have really said what I was thinking at that moment. "Hey, cheer up. We're through with Sid in plenty of time for the masquerade party at the pub."

ANN

It wasn't for a little while until I happened to mention that the Sid in the VR wasn't the real Sid. That there was another Sid. That the real Sid was the one who'd been terrorizing me for weeks. And I told them all the things I'd learned and deduced. And we sat there, the four of us, and wondered what he was up to. I could see on Terry and Dino's hard faces that they were very worried about the danger he presented unless they could find him and deal with him.

"Wasn't this pretty predictable, though?" I said.

Dino glanced over and frowned. I think he was understanding what I meant. But Terry was too trying to make me feel safer and I knew at least part of it was he felt guilty because he'd obviously been used by Sid to find a way into my apartment... and then there was the whole matter of his guilt that I read on him because I knew he wished like anything he'd not cut me out of his life for the last few weeks over the thing with Max.

"Terry?" I touched his arm and he stopped futzing about. "Think about this. Why did Sid leave you a clue in my apartment?"

"Because he's a show off. He thought he was too smart for us. For me. Didn't think we'd find it 'til later. Then he wanted us to know he'd outsmarted us. It's all a game to him, always is."

"Yeah, but he also maybe wanted you to find it so you'd come here."

He tilted his head at me. "I thought of that. But if so, he would have set a trap for us ... otherwise, he knew we'd let you out. Wouldn't that rather go against his plan?"

"I don't know. It's just ... I don't know. It gives me the creeps that he did this. And that it's Halloween and all this is happening and ...and him talking so much about Uma and Heather ..."

"The party," Dino said suddenly. "Terry ... none of them know that Sid's here now. That it's been him behind all this all along. What if ..."

"Oh no. He said ... he said he took Arthur for a reason ... what if that's his costume? To go as Arthur going as him?" I voiced it but I think they'd already both realized the implications ... and I hated the look on their faces.

"Call the pub," Terry said.

But there was no answer when Dino tried. And there was no answer on Heather's cell or Uma's cell or Scarlet's ... or Bud's or ... well, after that, I think they gave up.

"The party's his real goal," Terry said. Dino nodded. They both looked worried. "It's where everyone is. He wanted us out of the way."

"Maybe he's just wanting to play ..." I offered.

"His game's no fun, Annie," Terry said softly, his hand unconsciously smoothing down my calf. "We have to get there. Now."

"Call the cops," I said.

Dino rolled his eyes. "Can you imagine that? They get there and every man in there is a Russell Crowe impersonator and we say look for the guy who looks like Russell Crowe? No way could they figure out which one he is."

So that was a good point. "Then you better get there. You're their only hope now," I said.

But Terry was in another mode. "I'm not leaving you behind. Can you walk? Here, let me ..."

I imagine I could have walked. It wasn't like my legs were broken. But I was still shaking. And it did feel like you cannot imagine to just let him drape his jacket around me so I wouldn't be cold outside, then pick me up and carry me out of there.

It took us maybe twenty minutes to pull up to the Pub. It was just minutes before midnight. The party was in full swing; we could hear it from the parking lot. It never really dawned on me that maybe I should stay in the car. I whispered to Terry that I wanted to come in with them ... that whatever was going to happen, I was a part of it by virtue of having been the first target and I wanted to be in there with everyone else even if it turned bad.

He gave me that half goofy, half he-man smile that he knew devastated me. But then he blinked and a frown washed over his face.

"Hey, Annie, I just thought of something. What was it that Alex gave to Uma before he left?"

"His hat. I thought that was kinda cute of him."

"Fuck! I missed that," he growled out, looking up to catch Dino's eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Missed what, man?"

"I saw it in her bedroom. If he gave it to her before he left, and it was still upstairs, how could he have been wearing it when he came in to see her yesterday?" Terry said in this angry voice.

He took my hand as he led the way to the pub's front door. Just as we got there, he reached for me and buttoned up his leather coat that I was still wearing. I realized only then that I'd been rather on display but that even in the midst of all the other worries he had about what we'd find inside that pub, he was watching out for me in so many ways.

His eyes caught mine just before he put a hand on the door. He shook his head and muttered, "The fucking hat."