ACADEMY GIRL - Book 4: Departures

Chapter 17 - Conclusion


Amy rubbed her eyes again, and swallowed the last of her buttered microwave biscuit. Megan had allowed her an extra half-hour again, a favor Amy would try to find a way to repay her as soon as possible, but she still felt like a zombie. She sighed. "Last day, anyway. Tonight we'll go home and sleep for eighteen hours." She waved her arms, trying to get her blood circulating. "I don't want to be semi-conscious for Linda's hanging!"

Megan grinned. "You won't be. You know that. If that doesn't give you an adrenaline rush, what have you been doing at the Academy all this time?"

Amy laughed and hugged her roommate. "I know. I'm just talking to get my brain working." She caught movement in the monitor out of the corner of her eye, and quickly released Megan, pointing to the screen. "Okay! They're moving."

Actually, the movement was Steffi's -- Linda wasn't in a position to do much stirring. Steffi wriggled against the soft body underneath her, and then raised herself onto her elbows and knees above her. She slapped Linda's buttock softly. "Time to get up for your big day, Zoey."

Linda mumbled sleepily, "Yes, Mistress."

Steffi laughed. "You can drop that now. We're done with that." She began unlocking Linda's restraints. Moments later, as Linda sat on the side of the bed, flexing her arms and legs to work out the stiffness, Steffi patted her on the back. "We're going to be civilized for awhile this morning. Go take a shower and do whatever else you need to do in the bathroom, and I'll get us some breakfast. Then I'll explain your last role."

*   *   *   *   *

Linda came out of the bathroom, still vigorously drying her hair with a towel. "I knew there wasn't a blow dryer, but I thought at least there'd be a brush or a comb or something."

Steffi watched her from her seat at the dining table, holding a mug of girlmilk. She laughed. "Just run your fingers through it, Zoey. You look cute when you're a little disheveled. Sit down and have some breakfast."

Linda tossed the towel away, sat with a frown and picked at her food. As Amy had expected, Linda was too excited to have much appetite, despite this probably being her last meal. Luckily, her behavior fit with the sulky mood of her character.

After a few token bites she pushed her chair back, sighing. "So what's the new humiliation for the day?"

Steffi raised an eyebrow. "You've forgotten?" She turned to look up at the noose behind her, then looked back at Linda with a smile.

Linda stiffened. "Stefanie, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever did that to you, back then. Haven't the last two days been enough to make up for it?"

Steffi smiled and shook her head immediately. "The last two days have just been an appetizer. I still want the main course."

Linda's eyes went wide. "You're going to eat me? I thought..."

"Relax, Zoey! It's just a food metaphor. I'm still going to send your body back to your friends. As long as you're good. Right to the end."

Linda said in a forlorn voice, "Isn't there any other way? I'm not ready to be food. Not even for my friends. Maybe it's wrong to feel that way. Antisocial or whatever. But I've still got so many things I want to do! No, it's not wrong!" She scowled at Steffi defiantly. "I still have lots of time to do things, and I want to do them! As long as people still eat me in the end, there's nothing wrong with that!"

"What kind of things?" Steffi snapped. "Make-Zoey-happy kinds of things? Like what you did to me?"

"No! I said I'm sorry! I'll never do anything like that again."

"But it's still all about Zoey, isn't it? No, Zoey, it's time to do something for somebody else. It's time to do what I want, because you owe me!"

"Isn't there some way out of this?"

Steffi sat back, relaxing suddenly, looking at Linda thoughtfully. Though Amy doubted that anything during the entire show was spontaneous, Steffi acted as if a thought had just occurred to her. "That would be fair, wouldn't it? Oh, and I guess we can kill two birds here. Come with me." She gestured brusquely for Linda to follow her to the back wall, the restraint wall. As they arrived, Steffi picked up the discarded chains.

Linda took in a sharp breath. "No! You know I don't..."

Steffi laughed. "Don't like the chains? Thanks for proving my point again. It always is all about Zoey to you. Lift your arms up." She began replacing the chain around Linda's waist.

*   *   *   *   *

Steffi clicked the last padlock in place and stood up, returning Linda's glare with a smile. "There. That should hold you. But who knows?"

Linda tried to jerk her wrists free and grimaced. "What does that mean?" She was secured in the same manner as when she had "awakened" -- sitting on the floor, her wrists held behind her, secured to each other, to the wall, and to her waist chain, her collar secured to the wall, chains from the wall to her ankles, too short to allow her to straighten her legs, though she now tried to do so with a violent kick aimed towards Steffi that fell far short.

"You wanted a way out of your fate. Here you go. I need to go back up to my house for a few hours. I'll leave the door..." she turned and pointed to it, "...unlocked, and the one out there up at ground level too." She waved her arm vaguely towards the anteroom. "If you can get yourself loose, you can get to safety. Of course, you've got about a mile to go through the woods to get to the boundaries of my estate, and you'll have to flag down a passing motorist naked." She giggled. "That'd be the thrill of their lifetime, for sure. But if you're still here when I get back, we'll get right to Zoey Hillcrest's final role."

Linda's eyes widened. "Stefanie, let's keep talking. There has to be something that would satisfy you besides hanging me. I could... I could keep being your lover! For as long as you want! We'd go out in public together, you'd come with me to all my shoots. I'd tell the mags how much I'm in love with you! The paps would get all the pics of us holding hands and smooching in limos and night clubs. And we'd get married! Think about it, the biggest wedding in history! Wouldn't you love that? You can have all that!"

Steffi's grin widened. "You've given me some nice mental images. Really! But let's see..." She held up the fingers of one hand and began ticking them off. "A, I'd have no hold over you to make you keep up the pretense, B, I'd never trust you for a second, because you're Zoey, and C, even if, for whatever unimaginable reasons, you did keep it up and everything went exactly the way you're saying, as soon as people started seeing us together, it wouldn't be a week before somebody managed to dig up the story about what happened between us in high school, and start coming up with some fairly accurate blackmail theories, and it'd all fall apart." She shook her head. "Anyway, you were very sweet for a whole day, and it gave me enough memories for a lifetime. I've got all I need along those lines."

"Wh-what about... the other..." Linda stopped, and bit her lip.

Steffi laughed. "Yeah, I can see how much you'd love that. Being the helpless slave? You already know how I'd want to run that fantasy if we kept it up, right?" She cupped her right hand under her breast, and used it to playfully shake her nipple at Linda. "You know, Zoey..." She looked at Linda thoughtfully. "I was talking with a psychologist friend of mine, about that fantasy. Just hypothetically, you understand. 'What if somebody could make an unwilling slave play that role in the long term?' She said she thought that within three months, tops, the slave's independent mind would be gone, and the role-playing would become her reality. You want that, Zoey? No more Zoey, just a mindless slave who exists only to lick and suck on command?"

Linda gave a tiny headshake, and in an equally tiny voice said, "No."

Steffi clapped her hands together. "Well, then. Hanging it is." She turned and walked to the door. "I'll see you in a few hours, Zoey. Unless you can make good your daring escape." With a last friendly wave, she was out the door.

*   *   *   *   *

Amy watched Linda struggling violently against the chains, her grunts of effort alternating with moans of frustration, and choking gasps as the collar pulled against her throat. Amy could hardly contain her joy that Linda had been left alone. She looked at Megan, who was more directly in front of the camera controls. "Honey, turn it off a minute, I need to go out and talk to her. No! Wait!" Amy reached out and stopped Megan's hand a few inches from the switch, and pounded her own forehead with the heel of her hand as if to knock some sense back into herself. "I'm being an idiot! This is exactly what Steffi will want to see later, Linda trying to get free. Steffi left her alone just so she could do what she's doing now. Steffi'd notice any cuts later if we turned off the camera. We need to wait until Lin stops moving." Megan nodded, and they both watched the screen, giggling occasionally at Linda's histrionics in chains.

Just as Amy was starting to wonder if Linda would ever run down, Linda finally gave out an exhausted sigh and slumped back against the wall, the patch of floor under her now puddled with the sweat that was streaming down her body. Amy opened her mouth to say, "Okay, now," but Megan's fingers were already flipping the switch. "Thanks. Back in a minute." She jumped up and ran to the door.

Linda looked to her side in astonishment as she heard the nearly invisible door open, then started laughing. "I'm sorry, I totally forgot you guys were there!" She looked down at herself, and asked hopefully, "She didn't give you a key, by any chance?" She twisted uncomfortably. "I wish she hadn't put the crotch chain back yet. I'm glad it's there, but not right at this moment." Resting on her left buttock, she winced as she shifted to the right.

Amy laughed. "Sorry, babe. You're stuck there till she comes back."

Before Amy could say any more, Megan, coming out through the door behind her, said, "Linda, you've put on..." She seemed to struggle for words. "...the greatest pre-show any Hanging Girl ever did. I just... I could never do anything like that. Being somebody else, like you're doing."

Amy blinked. That elusive idea about Megan's hanging... it seemed to dance near again, and out of reach once more. She shrugged. It'll come, she told herself. Don't force it.

Linda smiled at her warmly. "Thank you! I didn't know if I'd get to hear any reviews. But Megan, listen." She held Megan's eyes with her own. "At your hanging, whatever performance you put on before your hanging, nobody's going to remember that part afterwards. What they'll see when you hang -- when you hang -- is going to drive everything else out of their minds." She shrugged, still smiling. "I'm glad I don't need to come up to your standard on that. For Stefanie, just watching me hang is its own reward, and it hardly even matters how I do it. Oh, of course, I'm going to put everything into it. But nobody else can blow people away with the hanging alone, the way you can."

Megan smiled, suddenly tearing up. She dropped to her knees and hugged Linda tightly, giving her a long kiss on the cheek. "Good-bye, hon."

Amy stood to the side, almost dancing with impatience to talk to Linda, but respectful of Megan's unusual emotional display. When Megan at last backed away and wiped away the tears, Linda looked up at Amy and laughed. "So tell me." Without knowing the specifics, she could easily read Amy's behavior to know that Amy was aching to say something.

Amy wondered briefly how this idea for Linda had come so easily, while the one for Megan hung coyly out of reach. "Lin, how would you like this...?"

As Amy explained, Linda's eyes grew wider, and she started bouncing on her buttock. Finally she burst out, "Yes!! Yes!! Oh, Amy, that would be so cool. Talk her into it, please, please?"

Amy laughed. "I don't think it'll take much convincing. I just don't think she knew about it. But I promise, before we take your body back, I'll tell her."

"I am so pumped! Amy, I'll even hang better because of this. I feel like I've got so much energy!"

"Oh, yeah, right, Lin, that's been your problem, not enough energy." Amy grinned.

"Well, it's always good to have more. At just the right time."

As Megan had, Amy knelt and hugged Linda, kissing her on the mouth. "Bye, hon." She looked up at Megan. "Can we get up the last image we had on the monitor? So she can get in exactly that same position? I want it to look like there's no break in the video."

Linda interrupted. "Let me wriggle around a few minutes. I think some of the sweat dried."

Megan returned to the side room. A few minutes later, she called out, "Okay, I got the last still from where we left off. I can toggle back and forth between that, and what's on camera now. Linda, you ready?"

Her skin glowing again, Linda stopped moving. "Yup."

Amy retreated to the room, and left the door just slightly ajar, so Linda could still hear Megan. Megan called out, "Lin, lean just a little farther left -- no, go back about halfway. Now tilt your head back to the right. And look with your eyes just a little farther up, and left."

Linda followed instructions, and said without moving her jaw, "Okay?"

"Perfect. I'm going to start recording in ten seconds."

Linda, frozen in position, stared straight ahead. Amy gave a thumbs up, but knew Linda couldn't see her. She whispered, "Love you, hon," and closed the door.

*   *   *   *   *

Linda, after a second round of struggling with the chains, accompanied by squeals of frustration through gritted teeth, had subsided once more. She now sat in still, staring vacantly across the room. Amy suspected she was using the trick she'd learned in high school of sleeping with her eyes open.

Amy, her attention wandering, sat bolt upright at the sound of the bell, indicating Steffi's return. She pounded Megan's shoulder excitedly. "This is it!" After three years of training, after two months of detailed preparation, this, for Linda, was what it had all been for.

Moments later, Linda jerked herself out of her stupor as the door from the anteroom opened. She turned a grin of excitement instantly into a teeth-baring grimace of tension, so smoothly that her joy would probably not be noticeable in replay.

Steffi had no need to hide her own gleeful anticipation. Shedding the sundress with which she had apparently covered herself for her walk across her grounds, and tossing it back into the anteroom before closing the door, she stood, naked again, her hands on her hips, regarding the girl in chains in front of her. "Well, Zoey, I guess you didn't manage to get loose."

Linda snarled, "You knew I wouldn't."

Steffi shrugged. "I assumed you wouldn't, but the best-laid plans, you know. It was fun taking a chance on everything coming apart. But now it's time for you to play one last role for me."

Linda gave her a resigned look, silently.

Steffi stopped looking at Linda and started pacing left and right, her hands clasped behind her, looking very much like a film director at an initial cast meeting. "You're going to be Zoe Hill. The real you, not the plastic movie star. Just a girl who's a little full of herself, who suddenly finds that the guilt from something she did years ago has been haunting her all along. Her guilt has surfaced now, and she feels sorry, very sorry."

"I already said I'm sorry. I really am, Stefanie."

Steffi continued as if uninterrupted. "But you find that being sorry is not enough. You are obsessed with fixing it. And the only way you can do that, you realize, is to give your life up to the person you wronged so badly. The person whose own life you risked so thoughtlessly, just so you could have a laugh."

Steffi was breathing hard now, her jaw clenched. Even over the monitor, Amy could see her trembling as adrenaline rushed through her system. Amy knew that Steffi had spent a considerable part of the last two days lost in the fantasy, only marginally aware that the girl in front of her wasn't the real Zoey. But never so deeply immersed as now.

Linda's own adrenaline gave her voice a useful tremor. "S-Stefanie? I'll... I know I have to do this. I won't give you any trouble, if you can just tell me one thing."

Steffi stopped pacing and looked back at Linda. "And that is...?"

"How do I know... how do I know you'll give my body to my friends afterward? You've said if I do what you want, then you'll do that. But I could do everything you want me to do, and there's nothing to stop you from throwing my body in the river anyway, after it's done. I'm a woman. I was born to be eaten by people, and no matter what I've done with my life... I can't lose my birthright! Please, Stefanie, how do I know?"

Steffi sighed in exasperation. "We've been through all that."

Linda thrust out her lower lip stubbornly. "Tell me again."

Amy smiled. She knew Linda was offering Steffi one more opportunity to say, to Zoey's face, what she thought of her.

Steffi faced Linda fully, her fists clenched. "Why won't I just break every promise I've made and toss you to the fish after you've done everything I asked? Because that's something you would do, Zoey. No wonder you're worried about it. You think everybody is like you!" Steffi pounded her own chest, hard. "Well I'm not! I've built my entire adult life around not being like you! If I could see anything like you within me, do you think I'd still be this mad after all these years? You left me to live with this anger burning inside, all this time. You owe me this one last thing, Zoey! And you can rely on me keeping my promise afterward, because," she pounded her chest again with each word, "I'm NOT... ZOE... HILL!!"

Linda stared at her, real tears streaming down her cheeks. Amy understood where they came from. She was crying herself.

At last Linda looked at the floor and sighed. In a barely audible whisper, she said, "Okay. I'm ready." She jingled the chains holding her. "Unlock me now."

*   *   *   *   *

To Amy, it seemed the hardest part of Linda's entire Zoey act was taking place now, as she tried to appear subdued and resigned, standing naked in front of Steffi, ready to hang herself. Amy knew how Linda's heart must be singing.

Linda sighed as she stood with her hands clasped behind her, a pose symbolically offering control of her body, and her life, to Steffi. "What do you want me to do?"

Steffi pointed to the platform. "Go get that and push it underneath the noose." Suddenly as excited as a child opening birthday presents, Steffi's movement towards the door was almost a dance. "I'll be right back."

As Linda grunted, pushing the heavy platform along the resistant floor, Steffi returned, carrying a bowl carefully so as not to spill its contents, and wearing a metal ring loosely around her wrist. On her way in, she threw a switch that focused two spotlights on the central area of the room, where the noose was hung.

Amy stopped Megan's hand, as it reached towards the console to turn off the camera. "We're okay until the platform starts going down. Oh! Could you hand me the cell phone?"

Megan looked at her curiously and gave her the phone. Amy quickly punched the number of Bill's phone, not ten yards away. "Bill? We're all set to turn off the cameras. Take action if somehow Linda gets into the air with the cameras still on, but I promise that won't happen. Okay?"

It had always been so clear that the hanging wouldn't be recorded, beyond any argument or discussion, that somehow they had never thought to talk about exactly when, in the proceedings, the cameras should be turned off. Clearly it wasn't necessary to do so until Linda was nooseborne and performing the movements of a Hanging Girl, but the girls simply pictured the moment of ceasing recording as "sometime before that." But Amy could see that, of all the moments Steffi would want to relive later, this pre-hanging time would probably be foremost. The actual hanging, of course, would no doubt burn itself so vividly into Steffi's memory that reliving that wouldn't require any mechanical assistance.

Steffi set the ring and the bowl, which had a sponge floating in it, on the floor beside the point towards which Linda was still pushing the platform, and ran to the overstuffed chair. Turning it slightly to face the noose more directly, she threw herself into the chair, in time to see Linda giving the platform a last nudge, looking upward at the noose as she centered the platform below it.

Linda stood upright and looked questioningly at Steffi. Steffi waved towards the bowl. "That's cooking oil. Spread it over your body up to your neck."

Linda bent to pick up the sponge, squeezed excess oil out of it, and began with her legs, running the sponge lightly over her skin. She kept her face blank, her eyes constantly on Steffi as she oiled herself. There was nothing playful nor overtly sexual about her performance. She brushed the sponge over her skin very prosaically, but Amy knew that, by looking directly at Steffi as she prepared herself for her hanging, Linda was trying to make the act more personal for Steffi, to show that what she was doing was for Steffi alone. Somehow, it was all the more erotic.

When she finished, her skin gleaming in the spotlights, she dropped the sponge back into the bowl, still with her eyes on Steffi.

Steffi smiled and nodded. "Pick up the ring. You can use it to secure your hands behind you when you're ready. For now, just hook it to your waist. Then step up onto the platform."

The ring was composed of two metal semicircles, connected by a hinge. Linda did as ordered, and looked at Steffi once more, now standing on the hanging platform, the noose brushing her upper arm, the ring hanging from her waist chain.

Steffi gave her an impatient gesture. "You know what's expected of you now. I shouldn't have to say anymore."

Linda turned to stare at the noose beside her. She bit her lip and whimpered softly. "Is this going to hurt?"

Steffi glared at her. "Trust me, Zoey, you'll never know as much as I do about what hurt feels like."

Taking a deep breath, Linda reached out for the noose. She tried to put it over her head, and found the loop was too small. Fumbling, as if the assemblage of rope around which her life had been centered for years were something unfamiliar to her, she widened the loop and tried again.

The girls had talked for days about how to set the noose around Linda's neck. Steffi herself, of course, had no training in placing the rope for hanging, which, to make the show last as long as possible, had to be done just so. Amy had suggested teaching Steffi to do it, but they decided that too much of that type of preparation beforehand would take away from Steffi's ability to lose herself in the fantasy. It seemed unavoidable that at some point Amy or Megan would have to emerge to help, though it would interfere with the illusion that Steffi was settling her score with "Zoey" alone. At last, Linda herself had proposed that she adjust the noose herself. The only reason it was never done that way during a show was that, in any of the standard scenarios, the Hanging Girl was led to her fate with her hands already tied, yet in this case, as seemed obvious once they had thought of it, the girls realized that Steffi would be happiest of all with the idea that Zoey could be made to hang herself. Steffi, when it was proposed to her, had enthusiastically agreed. Exactly how she would manage to force Zoey to hang herself was left to her.

Still managing to look as though she had no idea what she was doing, her careful adjustment of the rope seeming to be a stall for time, Linda at last tightened the loop of rope around her neck, and whimpered again, giving Steffi a pleading look. Steffi simply smiled, gestured towards Linda's waist and said, "Hands."

Linda had had some opportunity to familiarize herself with the metal ring, which Steffi had sent to the Academy along with the cuffs, for purposes of practice. About four inches in diameter, it was meant to be threaded through the rings in the cuffs and then snapped closed. Once closed, it could only be opened with a key.

Linda removed it now from her waist belt and looked it over carefully. After a minute or so, she took it behind her back and inserted the open ends through not only the handcuff rings, but also through a link in the crotch chain. She stood, then, her teeth moving back and forth across her lip so as almost to wear a hole in it. "S-Stefanie... please...?"

Steffi had been steadily breathing harder in the last few minutes. Amy suddenly wondered if the woman was going to faint. She managed to gasp out, "You've been a good girl. Don't blow it now."

Almost convulsively, Linda brought the two ends of the locking ring together. The loud snap of the lock engaging seemed to echo in the room. Linda moaned and tried to jerk her hands apart as if she'd changed her mind.

Steffi, her voice a little higher as her excitement grew, twirled her finger. "Turn around. I want to make sure you've done it right."

Linda turned, holding her hands as far apart as she could get them and trying to yank them free, in a demonstration that they were, indeed, trapped behind her.

Steffi's right hand was already between her legs, her mouth open, her eyes wide. Her left hand wandered up towards her breast, a little clumsily, as if it were blindfolded.

Amy's hand, equally blind, reached and found Megan's arm. She whispered, "Honey, do you mind if I go up to watch through the door?" She felt a strong need to see it really happening, not through a video monitor.

Megan smiled and kissed her cheek. "Go. I'll finish up here and join you."

Amy sat on the floor facing the door, seeing Linda from the side, Steffi in her chair to the right. From this angle it was easy to see how erect Linda's nipples were, a manifestation of her excitement she was helpless to suppress. As Amy settled in, Steffi was pointing towards the platform. "When you're ready, kick that lever forward. The surface will sink slowly."

Linda considered the lever and whimpered once more. "I know. I saw a hanging like that." Amy smiled at the understatement.

Linda went on, "Stefanie..." She paused for several seconds. "I just need to know one thing."

Stefanie grinned, her hand stopping, giving her crotch a momentary rest. "One last thing, Zoey?"

Linda gulped and nodded convulsively. "Will this... Will this make things right?"

Steffi started to laugh, and stopped herself, giving conscious thought to the question. "I'd have to say yes to that, Zoey."

"Zoey" seemed to relax. "Will you tell my friends that? Leave a note with my body or however you want to do it, that says I made things right?"

Steffi nodded. "I'll do that."

"Really. Promise me you'll do that."

Steffi nodded again, solemnly. "I promise."

Linda looked down at the lever again. "And... and leave my body close to Samantha's house. I want her to be the one that finds me. She's the best cook."

Steffi smiled again and resumed rubbing, moaning softly as her fingers found just the right spot. "Will do."

Watching through the door, Amy laughed suddenly, as she saw something that neither Steffi nor the camera could see. Linda was wriggling her fingers behind her in the "everything's cool" signal, and, as if to put an exclamation point on her communication, she clenched her right fist, holding her thumb straight up.

Amy would have to tell Megan later.

Linda's face though, showed nothing but resignation, as she reached to the side with her left foot and kicked the lever.

Amy flicked a glance over at the camera, and saw the small red light on it wink out. From behind her she heard a rush of action, and seconds later Megan joined her in front of the curtain. As she sat beside Amy, Amy quickly took Megan's left hand, covering it with both of hers and pulling it into her lap, twining her fingers through Megan's, all without taking her eyes off the sinking figure of her longest-surviving friend at the Academy.

As the platform sank away and the rope went taut, Amy heard the slight choking sound that accompanied the noose tightening around Linda's neck. It suddenly occurred to Amy that she would never hear that uncanny impression of Zoey Hillcrest's voice again.

There came a sighing gasp from Steffi, who leaned forward briefly and then settled back once more into the cushion, one hand now working industriously between her legs, the other playing with her right nipple. As Linda began kicking, each of Steffi's breaths came out as a high-pitched moan.

Linda quickly began making the moves she had worked out with Megan and Shawna, emphasizing her desperation to find something solid to stand on underfoot -- first swinging her legs back and forth, holding them stiffly straight and bending only at the hip, her toes pointed downward, then keeping her whole body straight for a time, her only movement a quivering from the strain of trying to reach just another inch further downward, though the top of the platform was much farther than that out of reach, then doing small scissor kick with her legs, then lifting her legs as if she were trying to climb a stairway of air to lift herself. During the scissor kicking she gradually turned herself, letting Steffi see her from behind, her back and arm muscles rippling with the straining effort to free her hands. Slowly she turned back to face Steffi again. The girls had discussed whether Linda should do the traditional turn at all, knowing Steffi would want to keep her eyes on Linda's Zoey-face as much as possible, eventually deciding that the added stimulation of giving Steffi a more complete look at Zoey's struggles would more than make up for a momentary loss of the frontal view.

Indeed, it was all nearly too much for Steffi, whose twitching hips were nearly throwing her out of her chair, her moaning continuous. Just as Amy was again worrying that Steffi would faint and miss a crucial part of the show, which was after all not being recorded, Steffi suddenly snatched her hand away from her crotch as if she had literally burned it, and used both hands to grip the arms of the chair. She couldn't stop her hips from doing their own dance, but obviously her conscious mind had won the struggle with her instincts, dragging her away from the orgasm she wanted to postpone. Her fingers nearly ripping through the fabric of the chair arms, she sat stiffly, breathing raggedly, watching her dangling nemesis through wide, unblinking eyes.

Linda cycled through her sequence of desperation moves a second time, and then, about sixteen minutes into her show, she began Act 2.

The girls had agreed that, though watching Zoey in a losing fight for her life would be Steffi's fondest wish, and that Linda should give that the highest priority, there would come a point where Steffi's sexual arousal would overwhelm all rational thought. Amy had stolen a look at Megan and nodded when Steffi had suddenly ceased masturbating earlier, evidence that she had, as expected, not yet reached that point. The timetable that Linda and the others had set out for Linda's show had anticipated that the tipping point would occur about... now.

Linda was one of the best, other than Megan herself, at performing Megan's sensual noose-dancing, though Amy could easily see signs that Linda, this far into her program, was very tired. But she seemed to reach deep within herself for a burst of renewed energy, and her first hip thrusts drew a sudden strangled gasp out of Steffi that was unlike her earlier moaning. Her mouth dropping wide open, Steffi suddenly slapped her left forearm across her breasts, her hand cupping her right breast and kneading it, while her right hand dropped once more between her legs. Amy felt sure Steffi would not be able to stop herself this time. That effort of will was far beyond her now.

Linda, with the advantage of her unprecedented audience of one, was able to focus her performance exclusively on Steffi. Once again she was Steffi's extra-attentive lover, and once again the mindless slave existing only to stimulate her mistress. Amy felt sure, watching Steffi's face, that images from the last two days were rolling past her mind's eye.

For Linda, sweat streaming down her body already glowing with cooking oil, dripping from her toes, it was now time to channel her last energies into her own satisfaction. Amy could see her pulling rhythmically now on the crotch chain, her legs stiffening with each pull, their muscles standing taut, her back muscles rippling with the effort.

A sudden change in Steffi's movement drew Amy's eyes towards her. Steffi tensed, her entire body quivering, and let loose the loudest scream yet, as a spray issued from between her legs, to splatter as far as five feet from the chair. Then Amy's attention was caught by Linda again, as a final convulsion of orgasm shook her from head to toe, and Amy felt it... felt it... lived it... her own body quaking, her mouth wide open in a silent version of Steffi's characteristic scream...

As the fire of the orgasm burned slowly down, Amy became aware, for the first time, that she had been using Megan's hand, imprisoned by both of her own, to rub herself between her legs. Looking to her right, she saw that Megan, breathless and sweating from her own climax, was just now withdrawing her free hand from the crotch of her own shorts, which were as soaked as Amy's.

Out in the room, Linda's legs twitched listlessly a few more times, and the usual stream of urine cascaded down her legs onto the platform. And then she was still, hanging limp at last, the residual swaying and twisting starting to die down. Steffi was slumped in the chair, equally limp, her arms on the armrests. Her eyes were wide, blinking slowly, still looking at Linda, her lips parted as she breathed raggedly and deeply.

Megan, her voice shaken and raspy, speaking in bursts as she tried to catch her breath, said, "Twenty-three... minutes... that's really pretty... good for all the... extra energy she... had to use up... at the start with... that choreography... and I'm pretty sure she... timed her orgasm to... go with Steffi's... that was really..." She groped for an adjective.

Amy completed Megan's thought, choking out the word, "Fantastic." Beside her, Megan nodded.

Slightly more recovered, Megan gestured towards Linda with her head. "Should we go out there now?"

Amy bit her lip. "Not sure. Steffi's kind of in a trance. Let's not break it." Megan nodded.

Megan suddenly sat up. "Oh! Camera. We can turn it back on now."

"Yeah. Wait! It just came on. I guess Bill did it."

"Good." Her face regaining its normal color as the flush of orgasm departed, Megan rested her head on Amy's shoulder. Amy lifted Megan's hand to her lips and kissed it. "I guess we just wait."

*   *   *   *   *

Linda's slight pendulum swinging eventually ceased, and time itself seemed to stop with her, with Steffi as utterly motionless as the hanging body before her. At last, after the timeless interval, with only the stiffness of Amy's muscles suggesting to her how long it must have been, Steffi finally roused herself, looked towards the door behind which Amy and Megan waited, smiled and made a vague come-here gesture.

Emerging tentatively, Megan following behind, Amy asked cautiously, "So... how are you feeling?"

Steffi gave her a tired smile, remaining seated. "Oh, very nice. I always worried that when it came time to do this, it would be less real than I'd imagined. But it was more real. Much more. Thank you."

Amy, coming up beside Linda, reached up to stroke her hip fondly, setting her into a slight swinging motion again. "You don't want to stab her or anything?"

Steffi shook her head. "I understand that's the usual thing, but really, I'm fine." She clearly did not, at present, have the energy for such an effort.

Amy looked at Megan. "Did you bring the heart monitor?"

Megan shook her head. "Still in the room." She turned to go retrieve it.

Amy said, "Never mind the monitor, but could you get me a knife?" Megan nodded and disappeared into the room.

As she heard Megan rummaging around in the utensil drawer, Amy took Linda's wrist, and found no pulse. Linda's chest was at the level of Amy's head, so Amy put her ear against it. Linda's skin, clammy with sweat, had not yet cooled noticeably. There was no sound of a heartbeat. Amy nodded to Megan, returning with a relatively sharp knife. "She's gone."

Megan offered the knife to Amy. Amy gestured for Megan to go ahead, and Megan quickly plunged the knife into Linda's stomach. A small stream of blood issued from the wound, with no reaction, of course, from Linda. Amy wasn't sure why it seemed so important -- obviously Linda would never know -- but clearly Megan felt the same, that Linda should have the complete Hanging Girl experience.

Withdrawing the knife, leading to a renewed flow of blood, Megan asked Steffi, "Are you really sure you don't want to cook her?"

Steffi smiled again. "I wouldn't mind eating the real Zoey, but this just wouldn't be the same. But the main thing is, I promised her to her friends. That would be you."

Amy blinked. "That was just part of the story, I thought."

Steffi shook her head. "It's like I told her. I'm not Zoe Hill. When I make a promise, I keep it. That's important to me." She looked back and forth between Amy and Megan. "I promised her another thing too. That I'd tell her friends she'd made things right." She flashed a tired grin. "Well, your friend Linda made things right. I can't say all of the anger is gone, but... it feels more in balance now. The world has terrible people like Zoey in it, but now I know, it has people like Linda too. The way she worked so hard, even gave her life just so someone she didn't even know would feel better... like I said, there's balance."

Tears rolled down Amy's cheeks. She stroked Linda's hip again. "Yes. That's Linda."

Steffi stood up at last. "Anyway, thank you again. While you're taking her... well, home, I've got something up at the house for you to take along with you. I'll go get that while you're taking her down. You can get her head back to me later."

Amy had been waiting for the right opening. "About that. I had an idea, while we were waiting, that I think you'd like."

Steffi looked at her curiously. "What's that?"

Amy smiled. "Well, you talked about what you were going to do with her head. That's what made me think of it. Instead of having just her head to sleep with, would you like her whole body instead?"

Steffi frowned. "That's impossible. It'd be so immoral to preserve her. She'd be inedible." She looked shocked.

Amy shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I'm guessing you've never heard of a company called Full Body Associates? They don't advertise, but word gets around. I know about them because my dad knows some people who have used their services."

Steffi was still frowning. "What do they do?"

"Basically, they would make a life-sized doll out of her. They start by processing her for eating. They give the meat back to you, and they keep her bones, along with her head intact, preserved. They clean the bones, wire them back together, they make new life-like muscles out of a special substance they've developed, and they use skin cells from her neck to grow a whole new skin covering -- her real skin, genetically hers." Amy smiled. "They can even give it the freckles. The skin takes a few months, but in the end, you have... well, it's not right calling her a doll, because a doll is fake. This would really be her." Amy looked up, and gestured towards Linda's head. "And of course, this would be her face. Zoey's."

Steffi looked up at Linda's face, wide-eyed, and gulped. "You're not just making this up?"

Amy shook her head vehemently. "No, ma'am! Do you think you'd want to do this?"

Steffi stood frozen, staring at Linda. "Is this... would she really be okay with this? I don't want to do anything with her body she wouldn't like."

"I talked to her about it, ma'am. While you were out, earlier this morning. Don't worry, you won't notice a gap in the videotape, but we did shut it off briefly. She loved the idea! She begged me to please ask you if you'd do it."

Steffi looked at Megan, who nodded in confirmation.

Amy could tell Steffi was still skeptical. She went on, "Ma'am, Linda is my oldest, dearest friend. She wanted me to be here because she knew I'd look out for her like nobody else would."

Steffi shook her head, not in negation but in wonder. "She wants to spend forever looking like someone else?"

"Ma'am... for the last two months, she's devoted every minute to trying to become Zoey Hillcrest for you. When I asked her about this idea, she said the thought of still being Zoey, for the rest of your life, after hers is over... well, like I said, she begged me to try the best I could to talk you into it."

Steffi couldn't tear her eyes away from Linda. "So what do I do? How do you contact this company?"

Relief flooded through Amy as she saw she could carry out Linda's last wish. "I'll call back to the school and get their number. Ma'am, I need to warn you it's kind of expensive. All the processing, the special materials, the time, the equipment, the patented technologies..."

Steffi laughed. "I don't usually ask this, but how much?"

Amy tried to recall. "I think their starting price is three quarters of a million. That's why the company isn't really very well-known -- most people couldn't afford it anyway. It goes up from there, depending what kind of processing you want. Her joints can be limp, like a rag doll, or stiff so you can pose her... that's all something you'd work out with them."

Steffi's eyes were alight. She gestured. "Make the call."

"Yes, ma'am!" Excitedly, she wrapped her arms around Linda's still-suspended body, and kissed her breast. "You got it, hon!"

*   *   *   *   *

Amy insisted on carrying Linda to the Full Body van. Megan, understanding, walked beside her, with Bill a few steps behind. Amy had Linda's legs draped over one arm, her back cradled against the other arm, and her head snuggled against Amy's breasts. Amy smiled at the sudden thought that it probably looked as though she might be carrying Linda back to their room after Linda had partied a little too hard and fallen asleep. In a way, she thought, that image was appropriate.

Amy grunted as she stepped up into the back of the van after the driver had opened the door for her, and waited as he opened the top of the ice chest. She laid Linda gently down on the surface of the ice, straightened her legs and crossed her hands over her stomach, and ran her fingers through Linda's red-dyed hair to adjust a small cowlick.

The driver was fascinated. "They told me who she'd look like, but that's pretty amazing. She's really not the real one?"

Amy smiled. "She's not. I promise."

She wanted to say one more thing to her closest friend, but she couldn't think what. At last she bent, kissed Linda's lips, quickly cooling under the influence of the ice, and said, in a husky voice, "You could never have been such a great Zoey if you hadn't been so much Linda." She backed away then, allowing the driver to empty another bag of ice over Linda. She remained in the van until Linda was completely covered, her face last of all, and the lid closed. Then she stepped out of the van, took a deep breath with her eyes closed, and took Megan's hand. "Let's go home, hon."

*   *   *   *   *

Amy stood up, as did Megan beside her, as Dean Porter entered the conference room. Amy tried to look more awake than she was, hoping this meeting would be over soon so she could fall into bed with Megan and sleep for... well, it was fourteen hours before she needed to get up.

She sat gratefully after the dean had taken his chair and waved them both down into their seats.

He smiled. "I trust it went well?"

Amy sighed at the memory. "Oh, Sir, you have no idea. You would have had to be there. But I mean yes, it went really well."

Megan added, "She was wonderful, Sir."

Amy went on, "Her meat will be delivered here tomorrow. She's..."

The dean nodded. "Yes, Full Body Associates called here. It's all arranged."

Amy reached into the pocket of her shorts and handed across the folded piece of paper to the dean. "Ms. Bloom wanted me to give you this, Sir."

The dean unfolded the paper, and blinked. "I don't understand. She already paid in full."

Amy grinned. "Yes, Sir. She just wanted the Academy to have a little extra."

The dean continued looking at the check. "Ummm. Quite a lot extra."

"Yes, Sir. She asked about creating a scholarship, but I told her the girls don't pay tuition anyway. She said she hoped this would help with operating expenses, and also wants part of it to go to doing something nice for the girls."

The dean nodded, smiling again. "I'm sure I can find a use for this."

*   *   *   *   *

THREE WEEKS LATER

Jackie looked into Amy's and Megan's room, Erin looking in over her shoulder. "You guys coming?"

Amy laughed. "You kidding? Wouldn't miss it."

As they walked down the hall, Megan asked Jackie, "Any idea what's playing?"

Jackie looked at her in surprise. "I thought you guys would know, if anybody did."

Amy shook her head. "All I know is what Megan and I voted for."

They arrived at the door of the library annex, now converted into the Linda Moran Theater. A plaque at the door, bearing a likeness of Linda in bronze, said, "Dedicated to Linda Moran, whose efforts upheld the best traditions and standards of the students of the Hanging Academy. This theater made possible by a gift from Miss Stefanie Bloom."

The idea of the movie theater had occurred to Amy, after a full night's sleep, as the best way to honor Linda -- though the students could watch any movie in their rooms, they all missed the experience of sharing the entertainment with more friends than could be squeezed into a single dorm room.

Jackie picked up a huge bucket of popcorn at the entrance, and Amy and Megan followed Jackie and Erin to a row about one-third of the way up from the front. They took places in the huge, softly padded, partly reclining seats, as other girls took seats in front of them and behind them.

The moment the feature started, Amy covered her eyes with her hands, laughing helplessly. She'd instantly recognized the opening of "The Bank Job." She finally sputtered to Megan, "Do we want to stay? How many times did we watch this?"

Megan was laughing as well. "How many times did we see every Zoey Hillcrest movie?"

Amy sighed. "Well, it'll be like seeing Linda again." Megan nodded.

Amy reached towards the popcorn bucket, currently in Erin's possession. "Could you pass it this way?"

End of Book 4

Read about Amy's post-graduation adventures and hanging in Book 5, "The Graduate." Click here to go to Chapter 1.



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