ONE MONTH LATER

Richard stood at the counter in his apartment kitchen stirring some cream into coffee. Through the door way down the hall it could be seen that Rouge was lying comfortably asleep in the bed. The phone rang and Richard answered it. "Hello? Oh, Key. Yes I know you haven't heard from Rouge in a while. Thank you for delivering her to me. She's doing wonderfully, very obedient girl."

"What do you mean by that?" hissed Key. He had a bad feeling about Rouge. He hadn't heard from her in a month and if something had gone wrong he had to be able to help her. The balances of fate were delicately strung on a fine wire just now.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that she's mine now. To have and to hold, to command and dishonor, to use any way I please for the purposes of my father and I."

"You dirty bastard! What have you done with Rouge?!" Key yelled, slamming his fist into the refrigerator, breaking a few bones in his hand. But Richard had hung up on him, and was calmly stirring some pink powder into the coffee.

"Rachelle baby, wake up. I brought you some coffee." Richard gently helped Rouge sit up and handed her the cup.

"Oh thank you honey but I really don't feel like it this morning…I had a bit to much to drink last night, I think a train ran me down…can I just go back to sleep?"

"Not this morning angel, we have important plans."

"Please Richard, not the coffee. Not this morning."

Richard grabbed Rouge around the throat with his big hands and shook her. "You will do as I say! Remember that Rachelle. If I tell you to go buy sushi you will. And don't think that I don't monitor your phone calls! I know you're fighting me, and I know that your friend Eric has been coming to the lobby. Now drink the goddamn coffee and enjoy it!"

Rouge took the mug in both hands and drank it in a few gulps as big tears rolled down her face. Richard had been so nice before, but now he was drugging her, she knew it. Slowly brainwashing her. She was forgetting things too, like Key's phone number. The sound of Eric's voice. These things were slipping away as new ideas were being forced into her mind. The drugs in the coffee were taking effect now. It took less and less time to work as the drug built up in her body. She felt a little fuzzy and then cleared.

Rouge got up and pulled off her pajamas so she could dress in jeans and a white shirt. Her neck was covered in a hand shaped bruise, visible in the mirror. "What happened Richard?" Rouge asked, arching her neck to show the bruise. "Were you too rough last night?"

"Yhea, sorry baby. Go powder it, and come on out. We're going to see your father-in-law. "

Rouge went back into the bedroom and rubbed concealing cream and powder on her neck and face. Richard's father was the man that had the machine that would make her dreams come true. If only she could remember her dream. It had been a very nice one and she had a vague idea of what it had been last night. Soft lips, warm arms, a toneless voice, the sound of a motorcycle, the smell of crack and leather. Who was that? Well, at any rate Rouge knew what she wanted to wish in the machine. Richard had talked to her a lot about her dreams and hopes for the future. Richard had told her the machine could make her a goddess. That sounded nice, sort of. Rouge had the general idea she'd prefer the person from the dream, but Richard was never wrong unless it came to buying the right brand of soup.

The phone was ringing. Eric went across the room and answered it. It was Key. "Eric, I hate your guts but I need another man to help me out."

"At least your honest." Said Eric. "What do you need help with? I must admit I'm not fond of you either…"

"I just asked the Chuho Fortune Teller what was in the cards and we need to get to the Asachi mansion right away. The day of reckoning is drawing near. Too near."