1:23 Ch. 04

"Alice, please," Neffie said in a tone both pleading and soothing.

It worked. Alice reverted to her slim form and sat down heavily.

Neffie looked at Kent standing a few feet away. She patted the spot next to her urging him to sit down again. Reluctantly, he did.

"This dark place," Kent said, "can it happen to me?"

"Only if you die, Alice said taking a savage bite out of the Portuguese sausage at the end of her fork.

Part three-Hello Darkness

"Holy shit!" Kent barked. "The real Alice died while using the helmet? I could die too!"

Alice kept eating and didn't appear she was going to say more on the subject.

"The other Alice was fine," Neffie said. "Well kinda ... she didn't die anyway. The real Alice was spazzing out in Harriet's lab. Harriet panicked and pulled the helmet off her head."

"I wasn't spazzing! I was having an orgasm!" Alice said with a mouth full of sausage. "I was in the middle of a threesome with brad Pit and Hugh Jackman for Christ sakes."

"Not Brad Pitt," Neffie said. "It was Orlando Bloom,"

"Yes! Legolas pointy ears and all! What a night that was!"

Neffie cracked a smile.

"Anyway, that idiot Harriet thinks I'm having a fucking seizure and pulls the helmet off my head. The world goes black and I'm falling like ... forever!" Overwhelming Images of Alice falling and screaming filled Kent's head. The Beatles 'Helter Skelter' started up again somewhere in the cafeteria and the images went away. Alice went quiet, put her sausage down and pushed her breakfast plate away. "I thought the falling would go on forever." Tears drifted down her face. In a soft voice, she continued, "Then someone was gripped my hand." Alice looked at her hand like she was seeing it for the first time. She reached over and gently brushed Neffie's cheek and gave the girl a tearful smile. "Neffie saved me from the darkness."

Tears leaked from Neffie's eyes too. "I was falling too," Neffie said. I wanted to give up but I knew that if I did I'd wink out of existence ... die I guess. Then I saw a light. Don't ask me why but I was sure that it was Alice. I willed myself in her direction. The closer I got, the brighter the world became around me. Things became solid ... at some point I stop falling and found myself standing on a floor ... then a grassy hill ... then a beach. It kept changing but it was always solid and calming ... I was scared that it would all go away if I didn't get to Alice."

"You found me," Alice said now gripping one of Neffie's hands.

"We created a world together," Neffie said with a fresh radiant smile.

Alice laughed. "It took a little while in the beginning. I had to get used to the fact that the real Alice went away with the helmet and I was just some computer doppelganger, some freak psychic echo left behind. When I learned to embrace this world we had a fucking blast!"

"Legolas was around a lot in the beginning," Neffie said with a giggle.

"Until I dumped his for Jude Law," Alice said.

"Legolas was pissed!" Neffie said. "He was gonna put an arrow through Jude's head."

"Fortunately John Steward was there to talk sense into him!"

"It was fucking crazy!" Neffie said her eyes full of tears but she was laughing too.

"John Steward? The Daily show guy?" Kent asked.

"The guy is sexy!" Alice insisted. "I'd fuck him!"

"And that you did!" Neffie said.

"So you didn't die?" Kent said with relief.

"I did,Kent," Alice said losing the mirth in her voice. "But I was lucky to have my own private Vergil to guide me out of the darkness."

Kent didn't find anything she said to be reassuring. "So you were a friend of Harriet ... you know ... before all this?" Kent asked Alice.

"No, we shared a mutual friend in Ashley Grant thought."

"No way!" Kent said. "I used to date her back in Ohio! She a student here?"

"A grad in the genetic science department. You must know Joy Maeda then?" Alice said.

"Yeah, she was Ashley's friend. They were inseparable."

"I should look Ashley up," Kent said.

Alice's eyes, whites and all, went totally black.

"Whoa! What did I say?" Kent asked in a panic.

Alice's eyes returned to normal. "I gotta go," she said. "My fold in under serious attack." She gave Kent a hard look. "Stay clear of Harriet. We'll talk more when I get back." She got up and weirdly took her tray with her, dumped her trash and put the tray in the bus area. Kent watched her walk out of the Cafeteria.

Part Four-Visitor from the West

Kent looked at Neffie. "Is she crazy?" he asked

''She's been under attack for years ... maybe a little bit," Neffie said.

"And MAYBE I should find Harriet and get out of this madhouse."

"You could," Neffie said. "But the moment you leave, Harriet will turn off the brain tube probably for good. Me, Alice, everything," she waved her hands at the interior of the cafeteria, "will be gone like it never happened."

"You said I'm the second person to use the helmet," Kent said. "You're still here. Clearly you survived turning off the first time."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Neffie said sounding cross. "Harriet didn't turn the first helmet off immediately. She downloaded the data into her laptop. At the same time she engaged an organizing program. That program became Huxtable. I hate that fucking bird. The reorganizing of the data was horrible. Alice and I were the only personalities to survived the download. I think I survived because I just happen to be on Alice's mind during the purge. Huxtable couldn't destroy Alice for some reason. Everyone else in the world was torn apart before my eyes, reassembled then compressed." Neffie's eyes dropped and she fiddled with her cup of Sumatra.

After a long pause, Kent asked gently, "Alice said you saved her life."

"Other way around, Neffie whispered. "I was alone for a real long time though ... I refused to die ... I searched until I found her ... can we talk about something else?"

Kent wanted to know more about download but she looked so miserable that he decided to back off on the subject and asked instead, "If I told you to take me to Harriet would you?"

"No. Not until Alice comes back."

"What if she doesn't?"

She didn't answer and kept playing with her coffee cup.

"If I told you that I'd keep Harriet from shutting down the brain tube or downloading the data the way she did the first time. Would that make you happy?"

"Big time," Neffie said giving him one of her dazzling toothy grins. "I still wanna wait for Alice if that's okay."

"Sure, as long as Huxtable don't find us."

"I'll keep an eye out for that dirty bird," Neffie said.

"So Donny's dead?" he asked her. The Donny he was referring to was the brain tube version of his best friend. The real Donny was back in Ohio probably stoned and watching the Comedy Channel.

"Sorry," Neffie said. "I liked him."

"So what's keeping me from conjuring him up again?" Kent asked.

"I wouldn't," Neffie said seriously. "Alice tried that with a friend that died here. He came back a zombie. He was really scary. Alice had to cut off his head and burn the body."

Kent contemplated what an undead zombie Donny would be like and cringed. A slim pretty girl with creamy brown skin standing in line at the breakfast buffet caught his attention. The girl looked familiar. "Should we go somewhere to keep Harriet's peacock from finding us?" he asked half distracted by the girl at the breakfast buffet line.

"Doesn't work that way," Neffie said. "When Huxtable starts looking he'll find you no mater where you think you are."

"So we just sit here and wait for Alice?" he asked. The girl in line paid for her food and walked in their general direction.

Neffie saw how distracted he was and followed his gaze. "Kent, really? Is this the time for one of your sexual fantasies?"

"What do you mean? It's just some girl I know," he said with an innocent shrug.

The girl walked passed them and sat at a table close by.

"So you how do you know Mila Kunis?" Neffie asked.

Oh," Kent said intrigued. "Donny is a real fan of hers."

"Clearly you're a fan too," Neffie said with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, but I never stalked her on line the way Donny did." Kent said looking at Kunis with great interest.

"We should REALLY stay focused and wait for Alice's return," Neffie said with a roll of her eyes.

Kent nodded but his eyes were stuck on Kunis.

"You're thinking with your dick," Neffie said with a sigh.

"It would be rude to ignore her," Kent said.

Heavy sigh. "Okay, Let's figure out who she is. Recall all the Kunis movies you've seen and call out names of the characters."

"It could be just Mila Kunis," Kent said.

"Not how you work," Neffie said. "You have crushes with the characters on the screen not the real people who play them."

"I would HARDLY call my interest crushes," Kent protested.

"You mooned over Natalie Portman's character from 'Thor' for months. Then there was the blond chick from 'House of Lies,' then the the animated version of Gazelle from 'Enchanted'—"

"I did not have a crush on a CARTOON character," Kent denied adamantly.

"I've been in your head and I beg to differ. Do I need to bring up a certain ice princess' sister from 'Frozen,' voiced by said 'House of Lies chick?"

"Never mind," Kent said quickly. He focused on Kunis. "I'll start with the old TV show she starred in." He looked at Mila and said, "Jackie?" She didn't look up from her food. "I saw 'Friends With benefits' but I don't know the character's name."

"Yes you do," Neffie said. "If you've seen the movie, you know every scene, every line. With the brain tube, you can recall every experience from your life if you chose to."

"The brain tube can do that?" Kent asked surprised. "That's kinda of cool."

The possibilities of Harriet's invention appeared boundless. But the more he thought about it the less cool it seemed. This could lead to some serious privacy issues, he thought.

"It would be the end of all secrets," Neffie whispered back reading his mind.

Her comment seemed WAY more sinister than his thoughts. "Hope Harriet ain't talking to the NSA," Kent said with a chill.

"Tell me the name of Mila's character from 'Friends With Benefits,'" Neffie said.

Just like that, he was watched the movie from beginning to end on the sofa in Donny's parents' basement back in Ohio. They were eating hot chicken wings and drinking Rolling Rocks. Donny kept making rude comments about Justin Timberlake's character calling him dickless and worst.

"Jamie!" Kent said. Mila didn't respond again. "I didn't see Black Swan even though Donny went on about the lesbian sex scene with Natalie Portman. I saw Ted on Netflicks." He had the name instantly. "Lori?"

No response from Kunis.

"Did you see Jupiter Rising?" Neffie asked.

"No," Kent said and pondered a bit more."

Mila Kunis stood up from her table and picked up her tray. Her eyes met Kent's and she beamed him a smile.

"I think she's coming our way," Neffie said.

Mila walked toward them. She wore a simple white summer dress tight at the waist accentuating her pleasing slim figure. She plopped her tray down on the table and sat next to Neffie across from Kent.

As he admired her beautiful exotic face, kent had a disturbing thought. He swallowed and whispered, "Theodora?"

Mila gave him a radiant smile. "The one and only," she said batting her huge eyes.

"Really? You have a thing for the wicked witch of the west?" Neffie asked incredulously.

Part Five-The Wicked Witch.

"Um ... shouldn't you be green?" Kent asked lamely.

"Not fully wicked just yet. You see before you the version of me before eating the evil apple," Mils Kunis AKA Theodora the wicked witch of the west, said with a small crooked grin as she stabbed a home fry potato with her fork.

After a brief pause to organize his thoughts, Kent asked, "You know what you are?"

"Yes I do, but more importantly, I know what YOU are," Theodora said as she ate her potato.

"What is he," Neffie asked sounding a little haughty. Clearly, she didn't care for the woman.

Responding to Neffie's tone, Theodora gave a fake smiled and said, "We witches are like spiders, people instinctively fear us."

"I'm not afraid of you," Neffie said. "And it so happens that I LIKE spiders. Answer the question. What do you think Kent is?"

"Theodora's smile lessened a touch. She was disliking Neffie right back. "Kent is the imagined creation of Harriet's enhancer device that represents the real Kent Orlando.

"We call it the brain tube," Neffie said.

"How droll."

"Why don't you tell us what YOU are?" Neffie asked sternly. It seemed to Kent that Neffie was going out of her way to piss the woman off. He hoped to HELL that this Theodora didn't have magic powers like the character in the movie.

"I am a simmering sexual fantasy cooked up by Mr. Orlando's hormonally poisoned male psyche."

Kent squirmed at the blunt description.

"Then shouldn't you be playing the roll instead of straying off character like this?" Neffie asked maintaining her disdainful tone.

"Such a bother," Theodora said. "Why don't we simply cut to the chase? This is a sexual fantasy, right? Mr. Orlando has imagined fucking me ever since he saw the Oz movie." She gave Kent a classic Kunis smile that warmed his blood and thickened a certain part of his anatomy. "But if you insist that I stay in character, I could turn him into a frog first ... or a grunting pig."

Kent looked at her wide eyed, trying to figure out if she was joking or not.

Theodora laughed as she forked another potato wedge. "No? A pillar of salt? Or is that too biblical? Flay you alive perhaps?"

"We really don't have time for this," Neffie said.

Kent leaned in and said to Neffie in a stern whisper, "Stop pissing her off."

"What is your scrappy little friend's name?" Theodora asked Kent without taking her eyes off Neffie. "Never mind. You clearly don't know how to block your thoughts. I'll just take a peek." Seconds later, Theodora said, "Nice to meet you Nefertiti Ulamat. Kent has certainly had fun with you."

With the wave of her hand, Theodora produced a smoked fill glass ball out of thin air.

Oh great, she has witches powers just like in the movie, Kent thought with a sinking heart.

The glass ball floated in the air just above the cafeteria table. The image of the actress Sandra Oh appeared in the smoky depths just as Kent unloaded sloppy lines of jizz onto her beautiful upturned face. "There was the gangbang cum facial with Sandra Oh." The image switched to Neffie getting the same from some random guys. "How charming. Then there was the group screw with Grace Park of Hawaii Five-O." The image in the glass shifted to Kent banging away at Grace Park underwater with Neffie floating nearby wearing tight silver spandex. "Seems you missed out on a gangbang fuck with Lucy Liu as the intrepid Joan Watson and featuring the beautiful Devon Aoki supermodel, actress extraordinaire. Seems Mr. Orlando is growing bored with our queen of the lower Nile." The glass ball showed Kent Fucking Devon as several totally blue dudes went at Lucy in a scrum on the same bed. "Mr. Orlando certainly likes Asian celebrities. My exotic Ukrainian eyes and swarthy complexion is right up his ally it would seem." She batted her long lashed eyes for effect.

Confused by the witch's banter, Kent looked at Neffie and asked, "What's happening here?"

"The longer you stay in the helmet's world, the more chaotic things get," Neffie said. "Same thing happened to Alice. Her fantasy characters became quirkier with each new adventure."

"Chaos befits me more than quirky don't you think?" Theodora said as she tossed the glass ball into the air. It turned into a puff of smoke and drifted away.

"You know, in the beginning of the movie you were kind of nice," Neffie said curtly.

"Yes ... sweet Theodora. Shunned by the great wizard thus launching her onto the path of wickedness." Theodora stood and her summer dress morphed into the outfit she wore at the beginning of the Oz movie: pirate like red jacket, white ruffled blouse, tight riding pants, knee high riding boots and floppy red hat. "If it were up to me, I would have eaten that foul apple in the first reel and saved lots of time."She pranced about in her new outfit for a couple of seconds as if she were on a high fashion runway. She looked sexy as hell, Kent thought.

"Ow!" Kent barked when Neffie suddenly kicked his shin.

"Stop thinking with your dick," Neffie said.

"But he wants to have fun," Theodora simpered. "Let's have fun Mr. Orlando. Why don't you ask cute little Nefertiti to get naked right here."

"No way—" Kent started to say.

"Come now!" Theodora said with a forceful edge. "You've been picturing her naked this WHOLE time!" That outburst sounded like Jackie from the TV show adding more strangeness to the moment. Theodora focused her eyes on Neffie.

Neffie stood and pulled her yellow blouse over her head. Kent couldn't tell if she did it voluntarily or if Theodora was somehow in control. Instinctively, he looked around to see who was looking. Unlike the real world though, nobody in the cafeteria seem to be paying attention to Neffie undressing in public. He looked back at Neffie, her slim upper body was covered by a simple white bra, a pleasing contrast with her medium brown skin. Neffie kicked off her beach flip-flops trimmed in yellow, unsnapped her jeans and slid them down her slim legs, her panties were a matching white. Neffie draped her jeans on the seat of the cafeteria bench and adjusted her hair. She looked so sweet and vulnerable standing there in just her white undies.

"Just the way you like her," Theodora said reading his mind.

"You need to put a barrier up to bar your thoughts," Neffie said. "If you tried to read Alice's thoughts all you'll get is the Beatles 'Helter Skelter.'"

Kent's eyes narrowed as he remembered hearing that song a couple of times in Alice's presents. He quickly filled through his memory for songs that he could use as a thought blocker. Snippets of tunes slipped by like he was speeding through an FM radio dial. Suddenly, Norman Greenbaum's 'Spirit in the Sky' flair loud in the cafeteria.

Neffie smiled. "Good one," she said.

"Stop flapping that tongue and get naked!" Theodora said clearly annoyed with Neffie's interference in her little game. Theodora waved her arms and Neffie's bra and panties flew off her body exposing her brown, double A-cups with faint tan lines and small dark brown erect nipples. Below she had a cute tuft of black hair pleasingly accented with more tan lines. Neffie did a dainty little spin to give Kent and the witch a good look at her tight, tan lined ass. Facing front again, she gave the witch a half smile of defiance.

With smoldering eyes, Theodora waved her arms and her red jacket sparkled with sudden stars then winked away, so did her top and riding pants reducing her to red laced panties and bra, floppy red hat and the black riding boots.

The women stared daggers at each other.

The tension between the women was thick and palatable. Kent sat there in total carnal conflict. He wanted to grab Neffie by the hand and run for the door. But his dick was in charge now so his eyes kept darting from sweet naked Neffie to the sexily clad Mila Kunis.

Theodora walked up to Neffie and with a long nailed index finger painted red to match her hat, traced circles around one of the girl's tiny breasts.

"Oh my," Neffie whispered in dismay.

"Having second thoughts little Queen of the Nile?" Theodora asked pleased with Neffie's fresh despair.

"Not at all," Neffie said flatly as she stared in the direction of the cafeteria entrance, "but we have company." Kent followed Neffie's gaze and he saw a peacock standing outside the glass cafeteria doors.