Listen to the Music

Every nerve in Bea's body seemed alive with possibility, every muscle tensed with anticipation. She scarcely dared to breathe as she watched the stranger move, waiting for that wonderful, sweet, glorious moment when he would...

"Thank you, sir, and have a good evening," she said as he walked out the door, leaving the store empty. With catlike reflexes, Bea lunged to the spot where he'd lingered and slid shut the bolt. Friday night, and the store was finally closed! And better yet, she actually had a bona fide Saturday off for the first time in three months. She flicked off the main lights, leaving the store in semi-darkness. Bea knew she'd have no problems cleaning under the dim lighting; four years of working at DefTones Music had rendered the task of closing up instinctual.

She pulled down the shutters over the store window, then sprinted back to count out the drawer. Sixty cents short, but she could always blame that on Kevin. It was probably true, too, she thought as she emptied the wastebasket and tossed the day's returns in the store safe. She saw a can of pop in the trash, and she knew he never carried cash around. He'd probably borrowed some change to use the vending machine. Which meant that Sunday, they'd be sixty cents over. Kevin cared too much about the store to short-change it.

They all did, really. Bea smiled faintly as she ran the broom up and down the aisles while holding the little bag of trash from the wastebasket, remembering her first day at work. It had been the only job she'd ever wanted; she'd spent most of her teen years hanging out in the store, chatting about music with employees that seemed kind of like gods to her. They seemed to know every song by every band that ever existed; she would come in from a concert talking about the opening act, and these guys had already stocked their CD and were talking about the band's influences. That was why DefTones stayed in business when other music stores got sucked under by Best Buys and Cheapos; they knew music better than anyone. If you couldn't find it at DefTones, it wasn't worth hearing. Bea had spent not just most of her teen years here, but most of her teen allowance. The first day she got the employee discount was the best day of her life.

As she moved the dust-pile along to the back of the store, she slid CDs back into position and re-racked albums with an almost mechanical precision. Four years later, and Bea still remained glowingly proud that they trusted her to close the store on her own. Four years later, and she still spent most of her spare cash on music. "Huge music nerd, that's me," she said, pushing her glasses up by the bridge and making a mock snorting noise.

She was just getting up to the listening station when she noticed the small item sitting on the CD racks next to the store CD player. When she picked it up, she realized what it was-an mp3 player, with its headphones still plugged into the jack. Bea frowned. Someone must have taken their headphones off to listen to something in the store, then left it sitting there. She flipped it over, and breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Whoever it was, they'd put a little strip of masking tape on the back and written their phone number on it, just in case. Must be someone used to getting home and wondering where they'd left their mp3 player.

Bea slipped the player into her pocket and finished sweeping up. Lucky for them they'd left it here, instead of at one of the big box stores, she thought as she dumped both the dust and the small bag of trash into the store trash. She hadn't recognized the brand, but it looked to be expensive. But Bea already had a nice model of her own, and she'd have no problem calling up the owner and telling them to stop by the store on Sunday to get their precious playlist back.

She tossed the store trash into the dumpster out back, then went back into the store. Come to think of it...what was their playlist? Bea smiled mischievously and took the player back out of her pocket. She slipped the earbuds into her ears and turned the device on. No harm in seeing if this mystery person had any taste, right? It was just curiosity, the music nerd equivalent of sniffing another dog's butt. And hey, if there was anything good on there, she might just take a moment to copy it to her hard drive before returning the player on Sunday.

The buttons were a bit different from what she was used to, and the thing seemed to be permanently stuck on 'Shuffle'. Bea wondered if maybe it wasn't an import or something. Still, the display worked just fine, and she figured out pretty quickly what button forwarded to the next song. "Good thing, too," Bea grumbled. Whoever owned this, they were pretty clearly addicted to the 1980s beyond all hope of good taste. 'Feels Like the First Time'? 'Jessie's Girl'? Ugh, 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy'? Maybe she'd do this person a favor, empty out their playlist and put some good music on there.

OK, this one wasn't bad. 'In Your Eyes'. Bea let it play, remembering her first time listening to the song. That was one of the truly awesome things about music, the way that it could evoke memory so completely. "...All my instincts...They return...The grand façade...So soon will burn...Without a noise...Without my pride...I reach out from the inside..." And suddenly she was fifteen years old again, nursing a huge crush on John Cusack after seeing 'High Fidelity' (twice a day for a month) and picking up 'Say Anything'.

"Oh, I see the light and the heat...In your eyes...Oh, I want to be that complete...I want to touch the light...The heat I see in your eyes..." Was there a human being born that didn't utterly melt at hearing this song? Cusack could probably have any woman he wanted, even today, just by humming it as he walked by. Bea felt a little warm shiver run down her spine, remembering some of her teenage fantasies.

The next song was by Def Leppard, and Bea hit the fast-forward button with an irritated grunt. It didn't take right away, though. She had to listen to "Out of touch, out of reach, yeah...You could try to get closer to me...I'm in love, I'm in deep, yeah...Hypnotized, I'm shakin' to my knees..." while tapping the button with increasing frustration before she could get it to move on.

She was a little surprised to see 'Transylvanian Concubine' pop up as the next song. Rasputina was a pretty obscure band, even if this song had gotten a little bump from the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' soundtrack. Her opinion of the unknown owner's taste grudgingly went up a notch. "...teeth and hair are beauty, they know what their duty to be Countess in their hearts..." Bea shivered a little. This song had creeped the heck out of her when she was a kid, listening to the 'Buffy' soundtrack and thinking about evil vampire women gazing into her eyes. "...and their minds that have to whisper, see in them a sister, look into their eyes and you'll be a...Trance...lvanian Concubine, you know what flows there like wine." Odd. She'd never noticed that little hesitation Melora Creager put into the word before, but now it just seemed to stand out.

She tabbed to the next song. Ugh, Billy Joel? Jeez, why not just stick some Elton John on there and complete your transition to middle-age? "Well I'm shameless...When it comes to loving you...I'd do anything you want me to...I'd do anything at all..." She hit fast-forward sharply, but it only moved a little bit of the way further into the song. "I'm shameless...Baby I don't have a prayer...Anytime I see you standing there...I go down upon my knees..."

Whoa, had he really just said that? Bea blushed just a little in the empty store. She'd never really thought of Billy Joel as a 'sexy' singer, but when he sang, "I'm shameless...I don't have the power now...But I don't want it anyhow...So I've got to let it go..." It somehow sounded...thrilling, in a perverse way. Bea could actually picture someone like that, someone so powerful that you'd just want to give yourself to them completely. Someone...she felt another warm tingle, this one between her thighs as she considered the thought.

"Well I don't really know her, I only know her name...But she crawls under your skin, you're never quite the same..." Bea hadn't even noticed that Billy Joel had given way to Phil Collins. Somehow the transition just happened perfectly seamlessly. "And now I know...She's got something you just can't trust...And it's something mysterious...And now it seems I'm falling, falling for her..."

Bea blinked. She felt like she was still stuck in the last song, thinking of 'going down upon her knees', but Phil Collins was talking about some woman instead. "She seems to have an invisible touch, yeah...She reaches in and grabs right hold of your heart." Not this heart, Bea thought, hitting the fast-forward button again.

Instead, it looped back around to the beginning of the song. "Well I've been waiting, waiting here so long...But thinking nothing, nothing could go wrong..." Well, obviously something did go wrong. That wasn't what she'd intended to happen. "Well now I know...She has a built-in ability...To take everything she sees...And now it seems I'm falling, falling for her..." No, she wasn't! She hit the fast-forward button again, and it changed songs...

But instead of moving to the start of the song, it kicked straight into the middle of Thomas Dolby singing, "HA! It's poetry in motion...Now she's making love to me..." Bea didn't want to admit it, but she could picture exactly that. "The spheres are in commotion...The elements in harmony..." She shuddered. Something about that description just seemed to resonate inside her, the idea of a powerful woman taking her just sounding so...so right. "She blinded me with science...'She blinded me with science!'...And hit me with technology..."

Technology. That was it. Something about the songs, it had to be. Bea had never even thought about girls before, not even when drunk. This thing, it was doing something to her, she had to... "Whoaoa, listen to the music..." Bea reached up to pull the earbuds out of her ears, but the Doobie Brothers just kept telling her to "listen to the music..." No, she had to- "Listen to the music..." had to, to- "-listen to the music, all the time..."

Her hand fell back to her waist as Freddie Mercury sang, "Open up your mind and let me step inside...Rest your weary head and let your heart decide..." Bea nodded absently. It felt so hard to think, now. So hard to... "It's so easy when you know the rules...It's so easy all you have to do...Is fall in love..."

Bea sighed. So hard to think, so easy to fall in love...no! She gritted her teeth. Something was very wrong, here. She was getting more and more aroused, thinking of women and submission and getting turned on. It wasn't right, she had to fight this, this...whatever it was! She had to "...listen to the music..." She shook her head, trying to clear it, or at least to dislodge the headphones. Stupid earbuds fell out all the time when she was jogging, but these seemed to stick in place like they were glued.

If it would just be silent for a moment, just let her think! But Pat Benatar was singing, "With looks that kill and a mind that's twisted (twisted)...I don't know why I can't resist it (resist it)...I tell myself look the other way (other way)...When you want me to (when you want me to)...I, I always stay..."

And Bea could actually picture this woman now, see her standing there, she seemed "...So much more real to me...Closer than reality..." Desperately, she tried to remember the band's name, anything to help her cling to her sense of self, but even as she realized they were Black Lab, the songs switched again. It was like being in a maelstrom. Depeche Mode was singing, "It won't be long until you'll do exactly what they want you to," and then it became Animotion, singing "You are an obsession...I cannot sleep...I am a possession...Unopened at your feet," and the whole time in the background, she could hear Cheap Trick chanting, "Surrender, Surrender," and Bea knew there was something important about the next line, but she couldn't remember what it was and she'd never liked Cheap Trick anyway...

And now Robert Palmer was mocking her, telling her, "Your lights are on, but you're not home...Your mind is not your own..." Even though it was him singing, she was picturing this woman, draining her will away and replacing it with desire. "Your heart sweats, your body shakes...Another kiss is what it takes..." Bea felt her knees go unsteady as her pussy went slick and damp, and she tried desperately to stay standing as 'Addicted to Love' ground away at her will.

She could picture the woman now, gazing imperiously down at her, and for just a moment Robert Palmer gave way to Survivor, singing, "Piercin' eyes, like a raven...You seemed to share my secret sin..." And it was true, Bea felt like this mystery woman knew everything, every sudden and shameful desire that was welling up inside her, her need to surrender, to go down on her knees, to open up her mind and let this woman step inside...

Bea couldn't help it, she fell to her knees in front of the apparition, shivering with lust, and now Robert Palmer was back, and he told her, "Another kiss and you'll be mine..." as the woman leaned in, and Bea felt her mind just crumble under the sensory assault as she felt ghostly lips on her own.

She heard a soft, melodious voice tell her, "Close your eyes...give me your hand..." Bea felt her eyes shut, as though of their own volition, and when she extended her hand she could actually feel soft skin against her own. "Do you feel my heart beating, do you understand? Do you feel the same...am I only dreaming, or is this burning an eternal flame?"

"...yes," Bea breathed out gently, her whole body alive with desire, as the music continued.

"I believe it's meant to be," her new love, her powerful and commanding new lover sang. "I watch you when you are sleeping, you belong to me..." And that felt so true, so right. Bea could feel it burn into her brain as the song continued, burn like a flame in her heart forever. Bea belonged to her. How could she not have understood that before?

Every part of her burned with need now, and she knew that she would cum so hard, so easily, so soon... "Say my name, sunshine through the rain..."

That was all it took, and Bea shuddered in orgasm without even being touched as she gasped out, "Mistress," again and again and again...

When the song had finished, she walked robotically over to the telephone. She dialed the number on the back of the mp3 player without even needing to look at it, and spoke to her Mistress without removing her earbuds. She listened to her instructions, her heart thrilling to the sound of Mistress' glorious voice, and responded with the same words she heard from the device that had brought her into Mistress' spell. "I was born to love you," she said, "and I will never be free...you'll always be a part of me." Once the phone call had ended, she left the store, locking the door behind her.

She got on her bike and rode, heading towards her new home with Mistress, and her new lover's sweet caresses. The music caressed her even now, singing her one last song as she pedaled through the night.

"Under my thumb...'S a Siamese cat of a girl...Under my thumb...She's the sweetest pet in the world...It's down to me...The way she talks when she's spoken to...Down to me, the change has come...She's under my thumb..."

THE END