FOUR WEEKS LATER - FRIDAY The heavily shaded windows had allowed Amy and Shawna to sleep in. At last Amy, in that half-awake morning state, felt Shawna stir slightly in her arms. Amy shifted her head a tiny bit to bring her lips in contact with Shawna's, and felt, rather than saw, them curl into a smile. Sleepily, her eyes still closed, Shawna mumbled, "Thank you, Amy." Amy laughed, exasperated. For the hundredth time, she said, "I've told you you don't have to keep doing that." Shawna tightened her arms around Amy and kissed her again. "Yes, I do. I'm never going to stop thanking you. I'm only a graduate because of you." Amy sighed. "Shawna, everything you needed was inside you." Shawna scrunched down enough to snuggle her head against Amy's chest. "And it never would have come out. I was going so crazy... Look, you know better than anybody what Megan was like when she first came here. I was just never up to rooming with her. What you did, when you got me out of that situation, it's just... I don't have any words for it, except 'thank you.' So I'll keep using those. And then, getting us back together again..." "Okay, that I'm not going to take credit for at all. That was totally her idea." "Well, I know. But she's just changed so much from when we started here, and I'm not going to let you tell me you didn't have anything to do with that." "Not as much as you'd think. When she decided she needed to change, she made herself over the way she thought she needed to be. She's like that." Shawna wrinkled her nose and elbowed Amy playfully in the ribs. "Thank you again. See, you won't stop me." Amy laughed and kissed her again, then turned to look over her shoulder as the door opened softly behind her. Megan and Jackie were there, Jackie with her arm around Megan's waist. Jackie gave the girls in the bed a small wave and rubbed her head against Megan's shoulder. Amy hadn't seen Jackie this visibly affectionate with Megan outside of bed, but the fact of Jackie having just spent her last night with Megan probably had a lot to do with it. Megan had only a few of the girls to say intimate goodbyes to. She would be spending Saturday night with Jana, and she and Shawna would take advantage of Shawna's class-free day on Tuesday to spend all day and all night together -- the last of Megan's official teaching duties had ended yesterday, to give her a week to prepare for her hanging. Other than her dates with Jana and Shawna, the rest of Megan's remaining time, before her hanging next Saturday, would be spent with Amy. Megan grinned and said, "Going to breakfast. Want to come?" Amy nodded eagerly and pulled Shawna out of bed, towards the shower. "Just give us a few minutes, and we'll meet you down there." Minutes later, with Amy putting on her uniform as Shawna was still toweling dry, Holly appeared at the door, looking apologetic. Megan and Jackie were still there. "Megan? I didn't mean to interrupt." Megan smiled at Holly and shook her head. "We're just going to breakfast." "I just wanted to ask... Not right this minute, but could think about... if you've told me everything?" Megan looked puzzled. "About what?" Holly bit her lip, obviously feeling she was being a little pushy, but unable to resist asking a crucial question. "I mean, do I know everything I need to know about hanging, before you go?" The concern that she could miss an opportunity in the last week of an important teacher's life was scaring her a little. Megan gave her a serious look. "Holly, you don't know how hard it's been lately to find things to tell you that you haven't already figured out." She laughed suddenly. "It's a good thing I'm getting out of here. In another week you'd be telling me stuff I don't know. But listen..." The serious look again. "Anything, anything at all I could be telling you, I know you'd be able to work it out before long." Holly gave her a small smile. "I'm just..." Megan stopped her, smiling. "I know what you are. You're as obsessive as I am. That's all you need." Megan gave a quick look around to the rest of her friends, then back to Holly. "Come with us to breakfast?" Holly's eyes went wide, her mouth in an open-faced grin. Amy knew how much it meant to Holly to be included in a group of her idols as an equal. "Sure!"
TUESDAY MORNING Shawna had arrived early in the morning for her twenty-four hour goodbye to Megan. She had spent the night with Jackie, then gone to the cafeteria as soon as it opened up, filling a cooler with a full day's food and drinks for two, including the breakfast Shawna, giggling, insisted on sharing with Megan in bed. It had been Megan's idea to spend the entire time alone with Shawna in the room, even eating their meals there, with a sign on the door to turn away visitors, directing them to Amy. Amy had kissed both of them, and gone over to Jackie's room to shower. From there, she had gone to the dean's office. Tina, the dean's secretary, a little surprised at Amy's request, had nevertheless relayed it to the dean, who gave his approval. Tina had then ushered Amy into the dean's conference room, and had simplified things by lending Amy her own personal cell phone. Amy, alone in the room now, and equipped with Paul Sadler's phone number, hesitated, her heart suddenly fluttering in a late attack of nerves. She had maintained a constant inner attitude of optimism that had prevented Megan from discerning her worry, one of the very few times Amy had ever managed to hide anything from Megan. But the optimism was dissolving quickly now that the moment had come. Kathleen was twelve... no, Amy reminded herself, thirteen now. Amy knew how flighty kids that age can be. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Amy punched the number into the phone. Megan's father himself answered the phone. Probably rings into his office, Amy decided. She cleared her throat. "Mr. Sadler? This is Amy, Megan's roommate. From the Academy." Paul Sadler made no effort to hide his astonishment. If he'd had a list, thought Amy, of people he might expect to call him, her name was probably near the bottom, if it was present at all. "Amy! Hi!" Suddenly he sounded worried. "Is Megan okay?" Amy responded quickly, "Oh, yes, sir! She's really excited about her hanging. You're still going to be there, right?" "Oh, absolutely! I wouldn't miss that for anything." Sounding puzzled now, he said, "She does know I'm coming, right? This isn't... sort of a surprise party, or something like that?" Amy shook her head, as if he could see that. "No, sir. That is, yes, she knows you're coming. You and..." She hesitated, and plunged in. "Kathleen? Is she coming too?" Amy held her breath. Her heart began sinking even before he spoke, as she timed the pause. "No, she and some of her friends are planning to go to a concert..." There was more to the sentence after that, but Amy couldn't hear it over the pounding sound in her ears. She doubled over in her chair suddenly, feeling as if a massive hand were gripping her stomach, trying to rip it apart. She fought back a wave of nausea, knowing it would never do to vomit here. I should have called earlier!! she screamed at herself. But no, she had decided this was the right time. Calling any earlier would have given Kathleen time to change her mind again later. Amy took several slow, deep breaths, fighting for calm. In a voice only slightly shaky, she managed, "Sir, Megan is really hoping for Kathleen to be there. And you too, of course, but you're already coming. This is really important to her." In a sympathetic voice, he said, "I'm sure it is, Amy. I'll try to give her enough support for both of us." No, Amy said to herself, wishing she could scream it at him. That's not it at all! Her right hand gripped the arm of the chair hard enough she thought the wood might splinter, as she tried to keep from crushing the phone in her other hand. Kathleen has to be there. She has to be there. Amy had never seen any emotional concern interfere with Megan's ability to hang. But if Megan's show started and she saw Kathleen wasn't there... Hopelessly, Amy realized there was nothing she could say. Paul Sadler was a good father, an excellent one by many standards. He cared about his daughters, he listened to them, he set rules and boundaries for them. No sleepovers on a school night. No going anywhere if he didn't know where they were going, whom they would be with, when they would be home. No going anywhere if it would interfere with schoolwork. But while he was perfectly capable of telling them what they couldn't do, he was constitutionally unable to do the converse -- ordering them to do something they didn't want to do. It wasn't in his nature. At least, it wasn't now. Amy had wondered if he had tried that, early on, with Megan. Megan would surely break any parent of that habit. For Amy to try speaking directly to Kathleen, she was sure, was pointless, even if Kathleen were home now rather than in school. Kathleen surely had seen, when Megan had been there a few months ago, how much Megan wanted her to be at the hanging. It hadn't mattered then, and wouldn't matter now. It had been clear that Megan had very little influence on her sister. Megan's absence of several years was no doubt a major factor in that. She couldn't just breeze back into Kathleen's life and start telling her to do things. And Amy was even further removed than that, a total stranger. If only, Amy wailed inside, Megan's mother were still around. Maybe she could do it. She may have had the kind of relationship with her daughters that... Amy blinked as a new thought came into her head. There was another person in the Sadler household. One whom Kathleen loved and listened to. Hardly believing what she was about to ask any more than Paul Sadler was going to, Amy said, "Mr. Sadler... Is Maya there?" In his voice in response, Amy heard a higher level of astonishment than the one previously reached when she'd introduced herself at the start of the call. "Ummm... Well, yes, of course." "Could I... speak to her? You could listen, of course." Amy was feeling her way along in a situation for which there was no standard protocol. A slave didn't just phone up and ask to talk to another man's slave. "Oh... I... Well, that wouldn't be necessary. She's doing some dusting right now. Let me go get her." Amy was breathing a little easier now, as hope, completely buried moments earlier, began to sprout anew. She heard a bumping sound as the phone was picked up again, and then Maya's voice, no less amazed than her owner's. "Miss Amy? You wanted to talk to me?" "Yes, thank you, Maya. It's about Megan..." Maya interrupted, alarmed. "Is Miss Megan okay?" The reaction was certainly promising. Though barely knowing Megan, Maya obviously cared very much about her, as a member of the family. "She's fine, Maya. But she needs you to do something... I'm not sure how to explain this." Amy thought a moment. "Maya, if you could do something that would really help Megan, and also would really help Kathleen too, even if Kathleen might not realize it -- you'd try to do that, wouldn't you?" Maya's answer came quickly. She didn't need to think about it. "Of course, Miss Amy. If it's something I can do." Amy paused again, seeking a direction to go. Yes, she thought, that's a place to start. "Maya, you've seen that picture on the wall in Megan's workout room, right? The one of Megan with her Aunt Serena?" "Whenever I dust in there, sure." "That picture... it's really important to Megan. Well, not the picture itself, I mean, but it... kind of lets her touch Serena. See..." Hesitating again, then taking another direction. "We Hanging Girls... the way we look at it, we're kind of born with something inside us, something that makes us what we are. We need to do this. There's nothing else we can imagine ever wanting to be, other than a Hanging Girl. I think you know something like that yourself. I remember you said... I don't remember exactly how you said it. But that once you decided to be a slave, it was somehow just the right thing for you. Right?" "Kind of like that, yes." "Well, we Hanging Girls have that inside, like a voice, but for us it's really strong. We're doing something that takes a lot of commitment, but... we're so driven from inside. We often say we were meant to be Hanging Girls from the day we were born. But sometimes it takes a long time to find out. We don't hear the voice, for years. Maybe some women never do hear it calling to them, and they never find out what they were meant to do. For some of us, it takes another person, showing us what a Hanging Girl is, before we can hear that inside voice. For me, it was a girl named Miranda. I met her, and meeting her somehow turned my ear inside and I heard the voice. And my whole life changed." A tear ran down Amy's cheek, as she remembered that day. She went on, "For Megan, it was Serena. Serena changed Megan's life, she released the inner voice, and the voice could finally tell Megan what direction to go. And it's just... such a fulfillment. Such a... completion, when you can be what you're made to be. "That's why that picture is special -- why Serena herself is special, to Megan. And Megan does feel... almost complete. Almost, but not quite. Because there's one more thing she wants to do. This... gift that Serena gave her, revealed to her... Megan wants to pass that on, if she can. To Kathleen. If that voice is in Kathleen and Kathleen never hears it, never finds out what her life could be... That would be a loss Megan can't bear thinking about. "Megan doesn't know whether Kathleen has the voice, buried somewhere inside her. But she does know how to release the voice, if it's there. If Kathleen could just see Megan hang, see firsthand what a Hanging Girl is, what a Hanging Girl does... that's what it would take." Maya sounded a little doubtful. "Miss Kathleen's seen Miss Megan practice hanging, right here in the house." "I know, but that's really not the same. In practice, you're not giving your life to thrill people, to amaze people, to excite people, to show them what years of training have taught you to do. If you haven't seen a Hanging Girl show yourself, I'm not sure I can explain it any better than that. But... well, in my case, for example, I'd seen women hang on TV. They weren't trained for it, and they didn't have any skill at it, and of course, mostly they didn't even want to be doing it. And it really didn't do anything for me. I mean, we've all seen that, and you have to trust me when I tell you it's not the same. Amateur hangings, practice hangings... none of that is like what a Hanging Girl is doing when she's performing in her big show. I didn't hear the voice until I saw Miranda do her show. And I was already eighteen then, Maya! It was almost too late for me! I heard the voice barely in time." Tears were streaming down Amy's face now, and she struggled to speak as her throat kept trying to close. "Maya, Maya, please. For Megan and for Kathleen. Kathleen will listen to you. If she doesn't have the voice inside, then nothing will happen at the show, but she won't be any worse off. She'll still enjoy the show. She'll remember years later that she sacrificed going to a concert for her sister, but a grown-up Kathleen will know that was the right thing to do. But if she doesn't go, and if this is in her, if she's meant to be a Hanging Girl, and she never finds out... Maya, Megan can't die knowing Kathleen might never hear the voice. Please, whatever it takes, somehow convince Kathleen that she needs to go. That you expect that from her, because Megan is her sister. That she told Megan she would be there, and that that was a promise. And if Kathleen does have the voice, you'll see it in her eyes when she comes home from the hanging. You said she wants to be a different thing every week. But if she has that voice, if she can start hearing it, she'll know what she is. And she'll always, always, always be grateful to you for helping her know." Amy stopped speaking, because her body would no longer let her. With her hands shaking, her stomach churning, her throat choking the words away, she could only listen. Seconds seemed to turn into hours as she waited. At last Maya said, "I'll do whatever I can, Miss Amy. I promise. Where can Mr. Sadler reach you, after I talk to Miss Kathleen?" Amy closed her eyes, taking several deep breaths through a wide-open mouth, her nose clogged from crying. Her stomach began unknotting. Her voice still slightly choked, she gave Maya the phone number to Tina's desk.
TUESDAY AFTERNOON Amy sat on the bed with Jackie, pretending to watch a movie. She could tell that Jackie knew something was wrong, but most likely Jackie simply attributed it to spending a day away from Megan, who was still alone with Shawna, as she would be until morning. Amy's body convulsed, nearly sending her flying off the bed in one move, when the speaker in the room crackled, just before Tina's voice came through. Amy had told Tina she should be able to reach her in Jackie's room. "Amy, I just got a message from a woman named Maya, at Paul Sadler's house." Amy bounded towards the speaker and pushed the button for return-voice. "Yes?" Tina sounded puzzled. "The message was just, 'Everything is okay.' It sounded like you would know what that means. Do you?" Amy dropped to her knees, pumping her fists, yes, yes, YES! Sniffling as the tears started again, she said, "I do, Tina. Thank you. Thank you so much." Amy looked up at Jackie, now standing over her, looking worried. Jackie said, cautiously, " 'Everything is okay.' Does that mean... everything is okay?" Amy stood, palming the tears out of her eyes, smiling shakily. As an answer, she threw her arms around Jackie.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON Amy had had no idea seventeen girls could make this much noise. The seventeen, the remaining members of Amy's graduated class, were talking and laughing in groups in the cafeteria for Megan's party, mostly gathered in small knots around the pizza boxes and soft drink table. Several were still grouped around the table on which Jana was once again tied in the butt-up position, again blindfolded and gagged. That Jana had never before been helplessly exposed to so many girls at once, all of them two years older than she was, had obviously raised her arousal level to new heights. There was no vibrator this time, simply a sign taped to the edge of the table that read "Lick Me Everywhere". At present, Rita was doing so, her tongue running up Jana's left side just west of Jana's breast. Jana was breathing rapidly in grunts, wriggling spastically. Amy had seen Jana come three times so far, and clearly more orgasms were on the horizon. It was a tribute to Megan that so many girls remained at this point in the year. Jackie, Amy knew, had been lucky enough to find a buyer willing to postpone her hanging a few weeks. A couple of the other girls had managed something similar. It was hard for any Hanging Girl to put off her own show, but as Megan's show had come closer, most of the girls wanted to stay for it. That was a lucky thing for Amy. She would have found it impossible to maintain her resolve to remain on the Academy grounds until after Megan's hanging, if Jackie's show had intervened. Wendy, now sharing her dorm sister duties with Rita following Lucy's hanging, turned from watching her roommate pleasuring Jana, and faced Megan, grinning. "I just had a mental image of your hanging. About two hours in, the kitchen staff will be standing there with their hands on their hips, waiting for you to finally stop kicking so they can cook you." Megan and Amy both laughed along with the rest of the girls, though Amy sensed they were all having the same thought Amy was. None of them, not even Amy, had a clue how long Megan was capable of going. Maybe Wendy's joking exaggeration would turn out not to be one after all. Amy decided, nevertheless, to embellish on the joke. "After they cut her head off and get her over the fire, she'll give another kick, and they'll say, 'Oopsy!' " Megan laughed harder, and covered her face. "You guys. Promise you won't end up disappointed." Surprised looks all around, and quick denials. "No way!" Amy laughed again, knowing Megan wasn't really worried. Megan's well of belief in her hanging abilities was bottomless. Out of the corner of her eye, Amy saw that, in addition to Rita, Jana was now dealing with Tricia as well -- Tricia's tongue was slowly licking its way up the back of Jana's thigh, riding Jana's frantic muscular contractions. Amy grinned, knowing she and Megan would probably have to carry an exhausted Jana back to her room this time. Amy turned back to Wendy. "How about your hanging? Is that set?" Wendy nodded excitedly. "Well, almost. We're having a final meeting Monday, for them to sign the contract. It's this family of six sisters. They're all really successful -- doctors, lawyers, that kind of thing. They get together once a year for a reunion, and this year they're inviting a lot of friends, and they wanted a Hanging Girl. It's the last time they'll spend a whole reunion together. Next year they're going to eat the oldest sister. Anyway, I'll be really busy with them in bed the day before they hang me -- four of them are married, three with wives and one with a husband, so I'll be doing some threesomes. It's really going to be fun." She beamed happily at everyone, accepting their congratulations. Amy sighed. She was glad of Wendy's happiness, but couldn't help wishing she could have her own hanging as near in the future as Wendy's was. She had to keep telling herself, it will come, it will get here. She pushed the thoughts of herself out of her mind. She now saw, unexpectedly, that Wendy had tears in her eyes. Wendy suddenly threw her arms around Megan, digging her chin into Megan's shoulder. In a shaking voice, she said, "I'm here because of you. I passed the Fifteen because of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you." She backed away far enough to give Megan a kiss, then farther as she felt Sheila tap at her shoulder. Sheila moved around Wendy to give Megan a hug of her own, kissing her neck and murmuring in her ear, "We're all so much better Hanging Girls because of you." She kissed Megan on the lips, and then realized that, somehow, the rest of the girls had started forming a line behind her. Rita and Tricia, seeing what was happening, each gave Jana a pat and came over to join the line to hug Megan. Amy had been to a lot of goodbye parties over the last three years. She had never before seen the type of spontaneous, heartfelt display of gratitude that the girls, one after another, gave Megan. Megan herself was sniffling, tears running from her eyes. She had just never imagined that her classmates felt this way. Jackie and Shawna gave her especially long hugs, receiving teary kisses in return. At last the girls stood in a single knot around Megan, looking as though they expected a speech. Megan, as was her habit, her need, when socially pressed, gave Amy a long look, took a deep breath, palmed some of her tears away, and looked around the group in front of her. "I'd tell you I'll never forget you, any of you, but 'never' will only last me three more days..." She paused as the girls all laughed, and she giggled in return. "But for the next three days, I'll keep thinking about you, and how much all of you mean to me. I..." Her improvisational abilities failed her. "Thank you. So much." Her tears started again as the girls applauded. |