Happy New Year, everyone! When I released Erica's Experiment, I mentioned that I'd be dropping some preview content for Korrupting Kayla, Book Three: The Traitor's Council. Despite a lot of setbacks due to personal issues in the last several months, I am still chugging through Kayla 3 and finally getting to a place I'm happy with. I don't have an exact date for release, but I can say it's not far off.
This chapter excerpt is from the opening of the book, where we'll take up the mystery of weird bald Stephanie. As the series gets closer to its conclusion, you'll see a lot more crossover and interaction from previous characters. In this one, Stephanie and Tori Hamlin make their reappearance in the series, alongside Jenna and Kara from Edge. I hope you'll enjoy this look at what's to come, and I'll be dropping more preview content as we get closer to release. Enjoy!
Chapter One (excerpt): You, Me, and Stephanie
The boarded-up building sat lonely and disused, centered in a cracked and pitted parking lot. Nothing grew in the dry patches of dirt, save the weeds that had also pushed their way up through the cracks. The surrounding neighborhood looked much the same, desiccated husks of commerce that hadn't seen a customer in a decade.
To Stephanie Hamlin, it brought back memories of another recent trip to an abandoned bit of the city, and she shivered despite the late summer heat. Her sister and father observed the place quietly. It didn't seem like the kind of place you spoke in front of. But Stephanie was never one to keep quiet.
"It looks like a porn shop," she said.
"It is a porn shop," Tori added.
"It was a porn shop," John Hamlin corrected.
From the side of the unsavory place, a thin girl with breasts that seemed too large for her frame rounded the corner. Her fine black hair blew into her face, and for a moment the three of them stared across the lot at her as if she were the ghost of some long-forgotten porn princess haunting the ruin. Then the girl waved them toward her. Stephanie and Tori shared a look and started forward with their father behind.
When they were within touching distance, the girl said, "I'm Jesster."
"Jesster?" Tori asked.
"These days," the girl said and shrugged.
"Aw, Daddy," Stephanie cooed and hugged her father's arm, "Why didn't you name me something cute, like Jesster?"
She batted her eyes playfully.
"Lord knows you juggled enough balls," Tori muttered.
Stephanie stuck out her tongue.
"Don't get that near me," Tori said. "I know where that thing's been."
The girl, Jesster, nodded toward the rear of the place and said, "We come and go through the back door."
Stephanie giggled.
"You are such a child," Tori said and rolled her eyes.
"Am I? Well, that must make Daddy a child mo—"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence, completely legal-age daughter of mine," John warned.
"Are you two finished?" Tori asked as she started after the thin girl.
Following Jesster took the three of them to a wooden fence that enclosed the rear of the building. Jesster showed them through the gate and shut it behind her. A padlock clicked, and the girl led them to the rear door of the shop. In the rear lot, were parked half a dozen high-end sports cars in a neat line.
The doorway brought them through a stockroom, neatly organized, and holding things Stephanie did not expect to see in a porn shop. Some items seemed to fit the place; bondage gear, various toys, and costume lingerie on racks. Aside from these, however, Stephanie noted an inordinate number of first-aid kits, and strange-looking items in glass cases. The cases were locked. Some of those things looked like jewelry. Others she couldn't tell what their purpose was.
"You guys do a lot of rough stuff?" Stephanie asked, gesturing at the first-aid kits.
"You have no idea," Jesster said.
Through the stockroom, a short hallway with closed doors to either side brought them into an open-floor design that was certainly not a porn shop.
"Whoa," Tori said.
The entirety of the former shop had been gutted. What replaced it was something of a mix between a command center and a… girlcave? On the far end, the front door was covered by a metal plate, barring any entry from that side. A long walnut bar top ran the length of that wall, behind which was a full stock of liquors. In neon white, a sign with the word, "Angels" hung on the back wall.
Beyond the bar was a lounge area with a wrap-around leather couch, where three women were seated. One of them was asleep. The other two looked almost there. It was the opposite side, however, which had Stephanie and Tori's attention.
That end was dominated by a long conference table, behind which hung three large flat-panel screens. The center one showed a city map from a satellite view. Two dozen points on the map had red dots, each tagged with a name. Lustyanna, Pretty-Brit, Suzy_Sucks, and others. To either side of the center screen, the additional panels were broken into grids, each of them showing a first-person POV. Stephanie noted the same names displayed on each of the smaller windows.
The setup reminded her of war movies, in which a central command watched over a military squadron via body cams. Only these weren't body cams. The view was right through each member's eyes. And seated at the table, watching the monitors, were three other women. And Stephanie knew two of them.
"Is that—" she started.
"Jenna Lincoln and Kara… I don't remember," Tori finished.
Jenna and Kara turned from the monitors.
"Look Jenna," Kara said. "A pair of cute twins, lured right into our trap!"
Jenna swiped at the air with her hands, like she was pushing something away.
"Stephanie. Tori. Long time no see," she said. "Mr. Hamlin," she added and nodded.
"You girls have been busy," John said and waved at the environs.
Jenna and Kara got up from the table.
"You look… different," Tori said.
"I didn't use to dress like a sex toy if that's what you mean," Jenna said and grinned.
"Yeah, that's part of it," Tori agreed.
"You didn't either," Kara added and gave Tori an appraising once-over.
"A lot's changed since high school," Tori said.
"Understatement of the decade," Kara said.
"Your message said you had something important to show us. Specifically, all of us," John cut in.
"No time for high school reunions," Kara grumbled.
"Right," Jenna said. "Pleasantries later. How are you at dealing with weird shit?"
Stephanie and Tori shrugged.
"How weird?" Stephanie asked.
"For you… really fucking weird," Jenna said.
"Do I have a choice?"
"Sure, but I think you'll want to see her."
"Her?"
"Follow me," Jenna said and started back toward the hallway.
She led them back through to one of the closed doors, where she paused.
"Mr. Hamlin," she said, "you didn't have triplets did you?"
"Triplets? No."
"Pretty fucking weird," Kara said from behind.
"Jesus, just show us already," Stephanie said.
"It's your sanity," Jenna said and opened the door.
She walked in and stood to the side, saying, "Stephanie, just you first."
Stephanie walked through the door. In the room sat a small bed. Seated next to the bed was a red-haired woman with a tablet. Sitting on the bed, was a bald-headed girl with only a few strands of newly grown blond hair. The girl was completely oblivious to their presence. She stared ahead, right through Stephanie, and gestured in the air as she muttered to herself. It sounded like numbers.
Stephanie, not one to be at a loss for words was, for once, utterly speechless. The girl on the bed was her.
"Pretty fucking weird," Jenna said again.
The girl on the bed trailed off, and her gesturing ceased. Her gaze, which a moment ago had been fixed on something only she could see, now fixed on Stephanie. The red-haired woman blinked in surprise. Jenna gasped. The girl on the bed stared at Stephanie.
Behind Stephanie, Tori and John peered around the doorway. The bald Stephanie's eyes shifted from her counterpart to John, and then to Tori. And then the girl wailed and began to cry.
"No. No. No. No. No," she screeched and covered her eyes.
She repeated the word over and over as everyone else looked on, dumbfounded. Then Stephanie whipped around and said, "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Tori said.
"Well, back the fuck out."
Tori and John ducked around the wall. The red-haired woman put a hand on the girl's shoulder and whispered to her. Stephanie took a step forward. She took another and carefully sat on the bed. The girl continued to cry and repeat the one word.
"I don't understand," the red-haired woman said. "She's never said a word. Can you do something?"
Stephanie frowned and said, "Like what?"
"Talk to her?"
"You realize how weird this is, right?"
The woman shrugged. Stephanie reached out a hand toward the crying girl.
"She doesn't like bite or anything, right?"
The woman shook her head. Stephanie put her hand around the girl's wrist and she stopped talking. The fingers on one hand parted, and she looked between them at the hand on her arm. That one vacant eye followed the hand up Stephanie's arm until they were looking at one another again.
"Hey," Stephanie said. "Um, it's okay. You're okay."
The girl snapped her fingers back together and sobbed.
"No, sissy. No, sissy. No, sissy…" she began on repeat.
"Jesus," the red-haired woman muttered.
Stephanie looked toward the door, then back at the girl.
"She's gone," she said. "Sissy. She's gone. You're okay."
The girl trailed off, parted her fingers again, then looked from Stephanie to the doorway. When she seemed convinced that Tori was in fact gone, she shifted that single eye back to Stephanie. Stephanie took the girl's hands in her own and slowly moved them away from her face.
What she saw was herself, but utterly broken. There was no other way to describe it. This girl, this Stephanie, carried a weight of misery that was soul-crushing to behold. Stephanie Hamlin was not what anyone would describe as soft-hearted, sympathetic, or nurturing. The sight of the girl, though, brought tears to her own eyes.
She wiped them on her arm and said, "You're… really pretty."
It sounded stupid but she couldn't think of anything else to say. The myriad questions setting off alarm bells in her head didn't seem appropriate. However, it seemed it was the right thing to say because the girl sniffled and stopped crying.
"My name's Stephanie," Stephanie said. "Is that your name, too?"
The girl blinked. Her eyes seemed to glaze over. Her fingers began to move, and just as suddenly as she'd stopped, she began muttering numbers once again. As if she'd completely forgotten Stephanie was there, she resumed her weird muttering and tapping at the air.
"Okay, then," Stephanie said.
(To be continued...)
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