Phoenix ch 10
Introduction:
2017 a.d. – A Day in the Life of…
Fifteen-year-old Katie flinched back anyway as she glared at that wicked-looked âthingâ held delicately in the doctorâs white-gloved hand.
âNow, sweetie,â Tanya said in the sugary voice she often used on her youngest daughter. âFrankie had his last year; now itâs your turn. I have an implant, and it doesnât bother me at all.â
âI donât want it!â Katie insisted. âDonât I have any rights? You canât force me â itâs against the law.â
Tanya sighed. Katie was always the rebellious one. âSweetie, in this day and age, Iâd feel a lot better if youâre wearing a Body Monitor. Itâs not a snoop like your friend Carrie says. Itâs a tool, and itâs for your protection. If you come up missing, I want to know how to find you.â
âMom,â Katie argued, âIâm not going to run away again! I promise!â
âHoney,â Tanya replied, her voice sounding a little more tired, âThereâs somebody out there who is murdering your friends. This newly developed Body Monitor is the only defense we have until we catch him.â
âHe hasnât murdered anyone I know,â Katie sulked. âBesides, what makes you think I can beâŠâ
Her motherâs sudden frown silenced the young girl. She was special, as were all the members of her family, and that âspecial-nessâ was a secret among them. Not even their family doctor knew.
Katie had been about to say, âWhat makes you think I can be killed, anyway?â After all, neither her mother nor her older brother and sister knew what she did in private. In fact, the tiny incision in the side of her neck where the Body Monitor would be placed would be a minor trauma compared to some of the things sheâd privately done to herself while exploring the capabilities and sensations of her sexually developing body.
âAlright, fine!â Katie said angrily, suddenly changing her mind. âPut it in!â
The doctor moved smoothly, but quickly, before the moody young teenager changed her mind again. A tiny sting, and it buried itself in the side of her neck. Dr. McCarty quickly put a bandage over the tiny hole to prevent any blood from leaking down the girlâs neck and upsetting her further.
âNow check the point of insertion tonight before she retires,â Dr. McCarty said to Tanya. âIf there is any redness or swelling, call me and Iâll meet you here in my office.â
âThank you, Doctor,â Tanya said, smiling.
She knew, as well as Katie, that the wound was already healed under that bandage. That was their family secret.
âAlright, then,â the doctor replied, then to Katie, âOkay, sweetie, letâs see how itâs working, shall we?â
She handed Katie what appeared to be a purse. Katie opened it. On the inside was a surface that was camouflaged to look like a mirror.
âI can use this like a regular purse, right?â Katie asked, deciding to cooperate with the bullying grownups.
âOf course!â the doctor said cheerfully. âNow, you need to imprint your voice pattern. Press on the corner of the mirror⊠thatâs right⊠Now, give your monitor a code name.â
âHot Dog,â Katie replied, saying the first words that came into her mind. That was her nickname for her brother, Frank, when she was feeling friendly toward him. She had nicknames for everyone â usually more than one nickname per person depending on her mood at the moment.
âGood! Now, let go,â the doctor said. âOkay, letâs test it, shall we, sweetie?â
Katie grimaced at that old woman calling her ‘sweetie’, then nodded her head. âWhat do I do?â
âWhen you want to check your Body Monitor,â explained the doctor, âjust open your purse, look into the mirror and say the code word.â
Katie sat down and reopened her new purse. âHot dog.â
A display appeared, showing her heart rate, blood pressure and GPS coordinates.
âWhereâs Mom?â she asked it.
Another line appeared, showing the same GPS coordinates.
âWhereâs Dad?â Katie asked, knowing that her father didnât have one of these devices implanted on him.
Nothing happened. She looked up at her mother.
âWeâll see that he gets one, Honey,â Tanya promised.
Katie smiled, realizing that she could keep track of everyone in her family with this little device. The downside of that, of course, was that anyone who had one of these could also keep track of her.
âWhereâs Frankfurter?â she asked it.
Another line showing her brotherâs coordinates replaced the line displaying her mother.
âHow come it knew who to look for?â Katie asked, perplexed.
âThis is connected to your home system,â the doctor explained. âYour Body Monitor probably asked your home system who âFrankfurterâ was, and got the information that way.â
âHmm,â Katie replied, thinking. âOkay.â
She got up and walked toward the door. âPleaseâ and âThank youâ were no longer part of the teenagerâs vocabulary â not for the last year or so, anyway.
âOh,â Katie said, suddenly remembering why her mother was insisting on this invasion of her privacy. âWhat happens if I get attacked or something and Iâm not carrying this purse?â
âYour Body Monitor continually transmits your location and your vital signs to your home system,â the doctor explained. âThe transmitter is in your purse. So long as that is within fifty feet of where you are, your location is known. That way, you donât have to carry your purse around with you at home. An alarm will signal if your home system decides that you are in danger.â
âWild,â the young teenager replied, bored again. Then she turned and left.
Tanya caught up with her at the elevator. âThat wasnât so bad, was it, sweetie?â she asked in her sugar voice.
Katie turned her head and looked up at her mom. âIt feels funny.â
âI know,â Tanya admitted. âMine does, too.â
âI donât get it,â Katie said. âYouâre always like â Itâs us against the world donât invade our privacy go way and leave us alone! Now, youâve hooked us into the citywide system that monitors everybodyâs locations! You canât even drive your own car anymore! And Iâve always looked forward to that! They come up with these Monitor devices and suddenly you just lay down like a whipped dog and do what they say! Thatâs really disappointing, Mom.â
âKatherine,â Tanya replied quietly, using her daughterâs full name to let her know that she was being very serious. âThis is the price we pay for living around other people. There has to be some control. The reason for that is there are people out there who arenât as responsible as we are.
âPeople are not allowed to drive in the city anymore because there were too many independent acts of selfish behavior that were getting people injured and killed. Now, hardly anyone gets killed in a traffic accident, and traffic jams are a thing of the past.â
âBut, Mom,â Katie said, trying not to sound like she was whining, ânow anybody can just punch up your numbers and find out where you are! Isnât that invasion of privacy?â
âOf course it is!â Tanya agreed. âBut look at it this way â every time you use the phone or activate your personal system, your location becomes public knowledge anyway. The only advantage here is, your can always be found, no matter what kind of trouble you get into. You can be rescued without having to call 911.
âPlease try to understand that this is an incredible load of worry off my mind, will you, Honey?â
The elevator arrived. Mother and Daughter were silent again until they were alone and walking out toward the car.
âI still donât like it,â Katie murmured, almost to herself.
âYoung lady,â Tanya said, stopping in the middle of the aisle. She smiled at her favorite daughter, then squatted down on her heels and looked up at her. âYou know what I use mine for?â
Katie shook her head.
Tanya leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, âIt keeps me from getting pregnant!â
Katieâs eyes widened in shocked surprise. âIt can do that?â
Tanya nodded, grateful that she had her daughterâs complete attention. âItâs more foolproof than a morning-after pillâŠâ
âWhen we get home,â she said, rising back up, âpunch up the instructions for your monitor. It can do a lot of things, including letting you know if someone is spying on you. That should take care of any concerns you have about your privacy. Okay?â
Tanya felt relieved and happy. She and her daughter were friends, again. They hadnât been friends for the last year â ever since she walked in on her daughter during one of Katieâs self-exploration sessions.
It wasnât just the fact that the child was masturbating â it was the two dozen safety pins carefully poked through her barely-developed breasts and nipples, traveling in a shiny line down the childâs stomach and decorating the soft tissue around her little labia.
The blowup between them had been so intense that it was months before either of them could even speak a civil word to the other without war breaking out all over again.
When they got home from getting her implant, Katie went directly to her room and sat down at her console. She punched up her privacy code, then read the instructions on her Body Monitor as the text and diagrams scrolled across the screen.
As she learned how to access the deviceâs features, she programmed them in. She set up a âsafety zoneâ outside her room. If anyone approached her bedroom door within five feet, her Body Monitor would go into âAlarmâ mode.
She tested it to see what the Alarm Mode felt like. It was a tiny, but very noticeable vibration in the side of her neck where the device was implanted. She had no doubt it could wake her up if she was asleep.
She also programmed it so that it wouldnât alert other family members if her vital statistics changed suddenly unless she also spoke the word âhelpâ. Now she could âexperimentâ without alerting the entire family. She also set it so that if she sub-vocalized the word âhelpâ three times in a row, the alert would be sounded.
When she got to the question, âDo you wish to be included in the Citywide Grid?â, she entered, âNoâ. Then it asked if she wanted to be notified if someone nearby was in danger or was calling for help. She entered, âYesâ, figuring it was her civic duty to help someone if they were having a heart attack or something.
âIt is required that you be included in the Citywide Grid to be notified if someone nearby is in danger. Do you wish to be included in the Citywide Grid?â
Katie thought about it, feeling that sheâd been tricked by the previous question, then gave in and entered, âYesâ.
She was finished. Her Body Monitor was programmed.
âLocate family members,â she said to the little mirror in her purse. A three dimensional diagram of her house appeared with different icons representing each person positioned somewhere in the diagram.
âWhenâs dinner?â she asked it. There was a delay of several seconds. Then it responded, âone half-hour from nowâ.
Katie wondered how it knew, then realized it must have accessed the home computer and calculated dinner by determining what devices were activated in the kitchen and for how long.
It was getting dark. Katie didnât like showering then going to bed slightly damp, so she usually did it before dinner. The simple act of showering before dinner also put her in a better mood to tolerate Brother Brat-Worst and Sister Slut while she ate.
âShower â one hundred degrees,â she said as she doffed her clothes and bounced through the door to her own private bathroom. The shower came on, controlled by the home computer, while she pulled off her socks and threw them into the hamper. When she climbed into the shower, the water temperature was perfect.
Sheâd hardly soaked down her hair when her Body Monitor Alarm tickled the side of her neck.
âCrap!â she exclaimed. âShower off!â
As the shower trickled down to nothing, she wrapped a towel around her wet body and stepped out of the bathroom. Someone was knocking on her locked bedroom door.
âWhat!â she exclaimed angrily. âIâm in the shower!â
It was her favorite Brother Brat-Worst. âMom sez not to get your implant wet!â
âShit!â Katie exclaimed to herself, then stormed over to the door, unlocked it and pulled it open.
âTake a look!â she snarled, turning her head and displaying the skin where the Body Monitor was implanted. âAnything sticking out?â
âNope,â Frank Junior said, too cheerfully. âNice ân smooth.â
âGood! Now drop dead!â Katie sneered, then turned to slam the door in her brotherâs face. She shrieked as Frankie yanked the towel away and bolted down the hallway toward the stairs, cackling wildly.
âGod-damn-you-Wienie-Brain!â Katie screamed at his departing backside. She wasnât about to chase him downstairs naked just to retrieve her towel. It would be just her luck they would have company. Frankie was an expert at setting her up to display her absolute worst behavior whenever company showed up.
She slammed the door behind her.
âPrivacy Mode!â The door locked.
âShower on!â She heard the water start running in her bathroom.
âOne hundred degrees!â
âFuck Frankfurter!â
She snarled loudly to herself as she stomped stark naked back into the bathroom so she wouldnât hear the home computer:
Unable to comply with âFuck Frankfurter.â
Twenty minutes later, she stepped out of the dryer and pulled her still-damp hair into a high ponytail. Slipping on a simple smock, she headed out of her room and toward the stairs, determined to do her very best to have a civil meal with her uncivil siblings.
At least, Mom wasnât picking quarrels with her now. Maybe she had an ally, but she wasnât going to count on Mom to side with her. Mom bent over backward to prove to the rest of the family that she loved her children all the same. Katie smiled to herself, knowing the truth. She would always be Momâs favorite, despite that horrible war they had. Maybe that was why they’d had it…
Halfway down the stairs, she stopped, frozen in position with her mouth hanging open. There was a really hot guy sitting on their couch! He was looking right at her! Then Katie realized whyâŠ
Holy fuck! Iâm not wearing any underwear and he can right up this stupid smock!
She turned bright red from head to toe, then bolted back up the stairs, knowing full well that she was showing off her bare backside as she fled. The last thing she saw before she turned and ran was her Brother Brat-Worstâs smirking face. And Sister Slut was perched on that gorgeous guyâs lap!
âKatie, please unlock the door,â Tanya called out softly.
She could order the home computer to unlock the door, but that wasnât how she wanted to handle her little girl.
âGo way!â Katie muttered, raising her head from her pillow to speak, then burying her face in it, again.
âCome on, Honey, let me in,â Tanya said, unwilling to break the now uneasy truce they still had between them.
After another moment, Katie got up and unlocked the door, evidently feeling the same way about her mother â their newly found truce was too fragile to throw away on some temper tantrum.
âWhy did it have to be you?â Katie whined, flouncing back down on the bed as her mother entered the room.
âWhat do you mean?â Tanya asked, perplexed.
âWhy couldnât you send Wienie-Brain or Alice-the-Wonder-Slut up to get me?â Katie expounded. âWhy did it have to be you?â
âBecause I didnât think youâd leave me standing in the hallway locked out of your room like you would them,â Tanya said softly.
âI would have, yesterday,â Katie admitted. âSometimes I feel like locking the whole world out â even Carrie!â
Tanya sat down at Katieâs desk. The display on Katieâs console told her that Katie knew who was downstairs. Jake Pestovaâs profile was displayed on the screen. She wasnât about to discuss the settings her little girl had programmed into her new Body Monitor, though.
âItâs not easy keeping secrets from everyone, darling,â Tanya said, understanding the true root of Katieâs social problems. âBut thatâs why Uncle Jake is here.â
â âUncleâ Jake?â Katie asked, looking up at her mother with âthatâ look.
âThatâs what your brother and sister are calling him,â Tanya confessed, ânow that they know who he is.â
âWhat secrets does he have?â Katie wanted to know.
âWell, Honey,â Tanya said, âHeâs going to talk about BĂ©la after dinner. Thatâs why we invited him to come. We need to know more about what she gave us all those years ago.â
Katie remembered the stories sheâd heard as a child â about the vampire girlâs last night on earth. She also believed that her father privately resented this âJakeâ fellow. After all, Dad had known this BĂ©la character for thirty years, but she only lived three more months after pairing off with Jake.
She also remembered her father visiting in the middle of the night after her big blowup with Mom about those damned safety pins. He told her about the weird cravings she could expect to have and that these were some of the side effects of being infected with vampire blood.
His explanation helped her to understand the need she felt to âplayâ and with her understanding came some ability to control it better. Her mom thought that Katie was over that rather gruesome âphaseâ, but her father knew better.
His wife never got over that phase and he knew his daughter wouldnât, either. He helped a lot by making sure Katie had enough privacy to experiment by adding this new section onto their house just for her. Then, much to Katie’s disappointment, he left her alone.
Katieâs curiosity about her vampire heritage barely outweighed her embarrassment at being caught on the stairs sans panties, so she allowed her mom to persuade her to come down to dinner.
Once downstairs and at the table, Katie didnât taste any of the food she ate. Most of her attention was on ignoring her brotherâs laughing stares and her slut sisterâs breathy comments and those eyes that were just all over âUncleâ Jake.
Katie couldnât bring herself to look at Uncle Jake at all. Just thinking about him looking at her naked bottom made her blush bright red, and thatâs how she spent most of dinner.
After dinner was ever worse for Katie. Her sister Alicia was almost twenty and looked full-grown. She had incredible hair, just like her mom, and a rack that was to die for. And she really poured on the charm for Uncle Jake, sitting on his lap and teasing him, blowing in his ear when she thought no one was looking. No one looking didnât include Katie â Alicia always went out of her way to show off how much sexier she was than her bratty, flat-chested, kid sister.
The worst part was that her parents didnât seem to mind â almost like they encouraged her sister to behave like the slut she was. Maybe they were tired of feeding her and were trying to get her married off. Katie didnât know which one it was, but she uncharacteristically kept her mouth shut so she didnât ruin the evening for everyone else.
Surprisingly enough, her brother Frankie, ratfink that he usually was, didnât try to get her to blow her cool. He was actually nice. That screwed with Katieâs mind as much as everything else did.
Those two hours were really educational, though. She, along with her older siblings, was told she could expect to live several hundred years, and any children she might have would live nearly as long as she did.
Mathematically, she calculated that if she had children at a certain young age, then her children had children at that age, by the time they were back down in longevity to the single century life span, the entire family could die out in the same decade, except for the last generation, which would continue like normal people with average life spans.
Later that night, she was in her bedroom and almost asleep when her privacy alarm went off in the side of her neck. That was going to take some getting used to â but it beat the alternative of being caught with her pants down (or in her case, with her pins in). After checking her console and realizing it was her dad, she met him at the door in her nightgown.
âI just wanted to tell you how proud I was of you tonight, sweetheart,â Frank told her. âYou and Frankie were both on your best behavior. Iâm really pleased with both of you.â
Katie snorted derisively, then said, âSorry, Daddy. I was thinking of Alicia.â
She didnât call Alicia the âWonder Slutâ to her father. He wouldnât have it. But she really proved that was who she was tonight.
Frank smiled. âI know, darling. She laid it on pretty thick. But Jakeâs smart. He can handleâŠâ
âNo, Dad!â Katie interrupted him. âHe canât! Heâs just a man, and nobody can resist Alicia. DadâŠâ
She sighed, knowing that her father wasnât going to want to hear what she had to say.
âAliciaâŠâ she faltered for a moment. âMy sister isnât exactly a virgin, Dad. She hasnât been for a long time.â
Surprisingly, her father didnât get mad. âI know, Katie. She’s fought her own inner war just like youâre fighting yours. She has vampire blood in her veins, too. She’s more outgoing than you are, so she found other, less self-destructive outlets for her needs and desires.â
Katie smirked. âDad, are you saying Aliciaâs a slut?â
Frank chuckled quietly, enjoying the look of pure delight on his daughterâs face. They shared another secret, bringing them a little closer.
âYeah, I guess I am. She certainly acted the part, tonight.â
âShe sure did,â Katie agreed wholeheartedly. âIf you donât lock her into her room, sheâll be in Uncle Jakeâs room before morning.â
âCheck your monitor, sweetheart,â her father said. âDonât be too upset at what you discover. She’s five years older than you, and Jake would be a good catch for her.â
âSister Slut and âUncleâ Jake?â Katie asked, a look of disgust on her face. âUgh!â
âSweetheart, I donât think Alicia is his type,â her father assured her. âYouâre right that he is just a man, and he probably canât resist your sisterâs considerable charms over the short term. But I donât think heâll marry her.â
âGood!â murmured Katie. âMore meat for the rest of us⊠Girls, I mean.â
âKatie!â Frank jested, laughing with her and picking up the jest.
Then he hugged his daughter good night and left. She closed the door, once again alone, wanting her father and knowing she could never have him.
âPrivacy Mode,â she instructed the console.
She took off her nightgown and draped it over the back of the chair. It was convenient for answering her door, so that was its permanent location between washings.
Pulling a box out from inside the headboard drawer, she picked out a wide stretch belt and draped it around her skinny waist, then fastened it, pulling the straps as tight as theyâd go. Her body was starting to buzz already from her sexual anxiety and the squeezing sensation of the elastic belt. As aroused as she was, she wouldnât need much stimulation, so she only put one pin through each hard little nipple, hissing with her pain and her pleasure as she did so.
Grabbing a handful of flesh around her belly button, she shoved a two-inch pin through, gasping at the fiery sensation of the cold pin puncturing through her soft, warm flesh, then fastened it.
She repositioned her stretch belt so that the buckle was right over the pin, pressing it even more tightly against her delicate skin. Another belt went around her ribcage, squeezing her already-pinned nipples beneath it, giving her even more sensation.
Lying down on the bed, she wrapped her legs around her body pillow â a long, thick pillow that was almost as long as the mattress was, and hugged it tightly, pretending that it was her personal lover. Reaching up with one hand, she set the bed to vibrate for its maximum time, which was only twenty minutes.
In only five minutes, she had her first orgasm for that nightâs session, humping the body pillow and imagining that Uncle Jake was ravaging her.
Or her dadâŠ
Yes! Her dad! That was her favorite fantasy.
âFuck me, Daddy,â Katie whispered quietly in the imaginary ear of her body pillow as she humped away, feeling the emptiness of her young body needing the touch of a lover so badly.
âFuck me⊠fuck me⊠fuck meâŠâ
Then she was coming, squirming against the loving body of her pillow lover and pulling on her tight belts to move the pins around in her tender flesh, accepting that pain and the squeezing pressure of the belts in the place of a loverâs caress.
She fell asleep still wrapped around her body pillow. That was how she fell asleep most nights, but this night she still wore the pins and the belts, secure in the knowledge that her newly inserted Body Monitor would wake her if someone intruded into her fantasy world.