Essie blinks, her vision coming into focus.
"No, I know, Hari. I'm asking why the background check didn't show this shit."
Essie recognizes the voice. She sees the same dark trousers and shoes, this time with a blue button down on top. His hand is to his ear as he speaks into his phone.
"Benjamin Gardner. One of the... the interns. He just attacked our most valuable project, and you don't know?"
Essie holds still. She listens, though there's not much she understands.
"Look, no, I know it's not your fault. I'm sorry. But obviously it shouldn't have happened the first time, and it can't happen again. Go through all the new personnel files again with a fine-toothed comb. None of them see Essie until they've worked for... I don't know, six months, at least."
Her? Why couldn't they see her?
"Alright. I know. Yeah, I have her in the playpen. I'll do the psych eval myself. Don't send Amelia, she's seen enough people for the day. Yeah. Bye."
He hangs up, slides his phone into his pocket, and sighs. His shoulders hunch with what could be the weight of the world. He turns to Essie, and she's not quick enough to hide her open eyes, though she tries. His footsteps draw closer, slowly.
He comes to her side and kneels beside her. "Essie. Look at me."
She's powerless to disobey. Essie looks at him fully, for the first time. He wears his black hair in a short cut, slick and professional. His mouth is set in a thin line against his squared jaw. Essie can see how someone might find him intimidating, but there's something in the deep pools of his brown eyes as they droop beneath his thick brows. She feels as if she knows him, as if she's seen his face thousands of times before in her mind.
"Hello," he says, and Essie feels his voice reverberating through her bones. "You can call me Jason."
"Jason." Essie's voice cracks on his name, hoarse.
"Essie, you don't know where you are right now."
She shakes her head. No, she doesn't.
Jason nods. It's as if he's staring at her under a microscope. "This is the playpen. Normally, we bring girls here to, um, play with each other. Or to work through a silly argument. But sometimes, we use it for emergencies. To make our girls feel all better."
Essie nods. She lifts her head for the first time. The room is octagonal with plush, green carpet. The walls are split in half, the upper made of mirrors and the lower painted sky blue. Essie rests on mattresses piled haphazardly in the center of the room. As she summons the strength to sit up, Jason helps her right herself.
Jason speaks softly, "Now, you've just had a very hard day. I want you to let that feeling wash over you."
Essie shudders, not taking herself away from Jason's face as tremors of fear wrack her body. She sees flashes of Ben in her mind, of his cruel smile and of his hands flying.
"Yeah, I know," Jason murmurs. He inches his hand towards hers until she allows him to hold it. "It was a horrible thing. I'm so sorry, Essie. That's all my fault."
"No," Essie starts, eager to defend him. Something inside her stubbornly refuses to let Jason be wrong. "No, not you. Ben. Ben's fault."
Jason smiles slightly at that. "You're too kind. But no, I let Ben go in with you. I'm responsible. And I want to make it right."
Essie waits, curious.
"Essie, take a slow, deep breath, pretty girl."
Essie does as she's told. Jason has her focus on her breathing, following it in, and out, in, and out, until she's reached a deep and steady calm.
"And, listen closely, Essie."
As Jason voices the trigger words, Essie's mind swirls into blank nothingness. She hears Jason's voice as if it's her own thoughts, as if it is the only sound in the world. Her breathing slows to nearly nothing, her body stills, and her eyes fog like glass.
Jason runs his fingers down the side of her face so gently. Essie leans into his touch subconsciously. He says, his voice deeper than it was only moments ago, "We're going to take a trip, Essie. A trip into your past. Look around you, and see doors. Doors to rooms you haven't touched since you were a child, and doors you use in the present."
Essie nods.
"See that we open the door closest to us. We see your life now. The pleasure you experience, the pleasure you desire. That you crave. Can you look inside this door, Essie?"
Essie shakes her head, no. No, she can't.
"Yes, I know. The closer we get to your own desires, the more you hide. The more you fear."
Essie stills. She bites her lower lip.
"Essie, only tell me the truth. Promise me."
"I... will only tell the truth," she repeats vacantly.
"Yes, good girl." Jason waits as a soft whine escapes her lips, as she clenches her legs together. A trigger all the more powerful coming from him. "Essie, did you... deserve what Ben did you today?"
Essie pauses. Her far-off stare comes a little closer to home, locks onto the hand Jason still holds.
"Answer, Essie. Did you deserve Ben's punishment?"
Essie nods.
"Tell me why."
"Because..." Essie fumbles. "Because I'm not supposed to be like this."
"Like what, Essie?"
"Like... Like a whore. Like a slut. I'm supposed to be good. And this is bad."
Jason nods. "Let's close the door to now, Essie. Look at all those doors in your mind again, waiting for you to open them. Find the one where you learned who you're supposed to be.
"Did you find it?"
Essie nods. She grips Jason's hand tighter.
"Open it very slowly, Essie. Who is inside?"
"Mom. And Dad. And the church."
"Right, Essie. Good. And are they safe?"
"Safe?"
"Do they make you feel good? Happy? Do you want to be with them?"
"No," Essie answers quickly. "No. They make me..."
"They make you what? Tell me the truth, Essie, like you promised."
"They make me scared and angry and hurt. They told me I was bad for being me. They told me I should be like them. They said I can't do anything right, so I should be fixed."
Jason swallows the anger bubbling in his throat. He remains level. "And did they fix you the way Ben fixed you?"
Essie nods.
"I know, Essie. And they were wrong. They were wrong and they're holding you back, pretty girl. They're stopping you from being truly happy, even now."
"No," Essie insists, "I escaped. I ran away. I came to Shaw Farms, just like Vic told me."
Jason rubs circles over the back of Essie's hand, and watches her melt at the contact. "Yes, you did. But see how their door remains in your mind? See how open it is? That's what keeps them with you. I want to put them away, so you don't have to worry anymore. Understand, pretty girl?"
"Yes, I want them to go away," Essie says, her voice just a whisper as she gives in to Jason's touch and his words.
"Very good, pretty girl. Now listen to me very carefully. We're going to close the door. Watch as it shuts, and they are gone behind it. We want to keep them locked away, far away from who you are now. Look at this. I have a lock."
"A lock?" Essie asks breathlessly.
"A lock. I've put the lock on their door. And here's the key. I want you to lock them behind."
Essie's face crinkles. "I... I can't. They did it all for... for me."
"And this is for you, too. We're going to lock them in, and you're going to be a new kind of good. This time, you're going to be a very good girl."
Essie moans and arches her back. "I... I am? I can't, I can't–"
"My good girl can," Jason says, watching as the logic warps around Essie's pleasure.
"Your... your good girl can," Essie pants. The wetness in her paper shorts grows. "Can lock away..."
"My good girl can lock away her past to save her future," Jason says, and Essie nods as she moans through her closed lips.
"Here, Essie. Take the key. Do you feel it?" He presses his fingers to her pussy, her shorts nearly tearing at the pressure.
"Mhm, mhm, mhm," Essie hurries. "But... but what now? Am I good?"
"You're very good, Essie," Jason says. He watches three weeks of edging building inside her as she finally closes in on climax. The subliminals in her pod have kept her from orgasming until she knows she is her truest self. Sweat dampens Jason's lower back as he finally has his project on the verge of completion. He is so close, and so is she.
"Now take your key, and twist it in your lock."
"I... I can't do that to them," Essie mumbles, frowning against Jason's touch though she presses herself against it. "They're family."
"Family," Jason nearly spits. He can't help it. "Family that don't help you now. They don't want you to be who you are. Is that 'family'?"
"I... no," Essie answers shamefully. "But it'll hurt them."
"Essie," Jason lowers his voice, brings in a more authoritative tone, "It's time to let them go. They will always be there, should you need to go back. But for now, we are locking them away where they can't hurt you anymore."
Essie perks up at that. "Where they can't hurt me?"
"Exactly. We are keeping you safe by turning this lock. Can you do that for me?"
Essie pauses, before she slowly nods along. "I...can."
"Good, very good. Let's turn the key in the lock. Let's protect you."
Essie breaks out in a sheen of sweat as she grapples with her mentality. She fights herself and clenches her muscles. Her hand in Jason's becomes firmer. "I'm protecting me," she grinds out.
"You're protecting you," Jason affirms. He watches the anguish as it washes over Essie, back and forth as she struggles with her own mind. At long last, she lets her body go limp.
"I... I locked them away. They're gone," Essie gasps, a delirious grin spreading. "I'm free," she giggles.
"Very good girl." Jason watches the pleasure continue to fill Essie to her limit. "And now, now look at you. You're able to be who you really are. And who are you really?"
Essie feels a rush pump through her chest as if she were shot with adrenaline. Her breathing becomes frantic and her eyes, though sluggish and half-lidded, are wide and dilated. She grips Jason's hand harder.
"I'm... I'm free. I'm a good girl and I want to feel...good. I want to feel good, so good, I want to feel so good," Essie rambles. Three weeks of intense training are crawling inside her, and Essie's leaning forward in her fogged, drowsy state, angling for Jason's hands and body. Jason looks at her with anxious eyes as he understands the many processes coming to fruition. The effort put forth for such a low OSS score was enormous and the results are about to match in size.
Jason thinks back to the rig his other girls used to finish - the standard machine Essie first practiced on all that time ago, one that can be adapted to fuck a girl for hours until she finally gives in and let out her first of many moos. The distance from the playpen to the training room is too great to haul Essie in this state, and not to mention Jason fears she might find a way to bury herself in all that shame once more, losing the progress he'd finally made with his most difficult subject. Leaving him very few choices.
Jason barks, "Essie, down."
Essie comes down to the carpet and gets on all fours with a hungry, drooling look about her, and Jason knows it's only through her deeply conditioned state that she has this much stability. He will have to wake her fully to complete her training, and when he does, all the stages of her programming will collide into Essie's insatiable desire. In the time he has, Jason quickly clears himself of his shoes, pants and belt, and finds he's inexplicably hard. Interesting.
He stands above Essie and looks into her face. She is beautiful, after all. He's known and carefully kept himself aware of the fact since she first came to their facility. But Jason very strictly is not in the business of keeping girls for himself. Not as the lead of the company. And this is... merely an emergency.
"Essie," he commands, readying himself behind her. He slowly enters her, groaning against her slick, wet walls. "Wide awake."
Essie's body goes rigid for a moment before she lets out a high, keening whine. Jason takes that as his sign to start, and he thrusts into her. As he settles into a rhythm, Essie's eyes nearly roll back into her head. She feels her breasts knocking against her arms, and the warmth of Jason's body as he fills her so completely. With every pull, she longs for him to lunge into her once again. She can't process anything other than how desperate she is to feel this forever. This is all she wants for the rest of her life. She craves his cock, she needs it inside her, she can only be truly happy with his hands on her waist and his dick in her pussy. She moans and moans and it's not enough. It's not right. She moans again and again with each plunge and it's closer but she's not satisfied. Sweat pours from her body as she feels heat building inside her, her insides tightening and her mouth slack with pleasure. She groans, and it's closer, but it's not right either. Her fingers are twisting in their grip against the green carpet, and she feels a pleasant emptiness filling her mind. She doesn't need to think, she only needs this. She only needs to be filled and felt and touched and fucked. She will eat, sleep, and fuck for the rest of her life and she will be happier that way. This is all she needs. This is all she needs. This is all she needs. She is just an animal ready for fucking, a creature made for pleasure and happiness.
Essie knows this is her perfect life, now and forever. As she orgasms, shuddering around Jason's dick, her clit throbbing, Essie lets out a perfect, sweet, "Moooooooo."
Jason drags himself from Essie's body. He rolls her onto her back as she pants, her eyes fat and dull with euphoria. He pumps up and down his dick once, twice, three times until he cums across Essie's chest. As they both breathe heavily, Essie finds Jason's eyes with hers, and a slack, dopey smile falls across her lips. She mumbles, "O...owner," before she cries out once more, another orgasm shaking through her core.
And Jason furrows his brow. "No, no, no," he mutters. Knowing there's nothing he can do to change facts; Essie May imprinted on him. And he is destined to become the kind of boss who does, in fact, own one of his girls.