Circles within Circles – Chapter 25

And here is the much-requested sequel – or at least, the beginning of it! Let me know if you'd like to read more about Marie's strangely behaving sister and her boyfriend!

For those of you who might not have read the original series (a Tier 2+ exclusive), it followed Ethan and Anneke as they became acquainted and as they slipped into the clutches of an unscrupulous dominant who found an insidious – and humiliating – way to keep them under her control…

***

"Blackpink in your are-A!" Marie mouthed along with the words, her blonde head bopping enthusiastically to the rhythm of the music emanating from her wireless earbuds. Transatlantic flights might suck, true. Seven hours stuck in one seat was enough to make anyone lose their mind. But so long as you had a phone, earbuds, and every single K-pop album in your library… well…

Maybe it wasn't quite so bad.

Besides, there was the prospect of seeing Anneke again at the end of it. It seemed like literally forever since she'd last seen her sister in person, though maybe eight months was technically a bit shy of the mark. And how much had changed for Marie during that time! She'd taken on her first year of college, and actually made it through the incredibly difficult gatekeeping courses with passing grades. She'd hooked up with a guy now and then. She'd gotten not one, but two tattoos. She'd learned the art of clubbing, and the fine line between drunk enough to party and drunk enough to pass out…

Hah, she bet Anneke would never have dared try half the stuff she had this past year. Anneke was the boring one – the stick in the mud – the sensible older sister who never did anything remotely fun or dangerous. Heck, the most daring thing she'd ever done was start dating this guy of hers – Evan, was it? Or Ethan, or something? Anyway…

Marie glanced out the window into the shifting clouds, noting in satisfaction that they finally seemed to be easing down toward their destination. Good, almost there! Anneke was going to be so happy to see her – and so mad, too. She could already see those wide grey eyes, that shocked expression on her face! It wasn't every day that your little sis from across the ocean popped up on your doorstep unannounced, was it?

She grinned to herself, then punched PLAY on her music app once more. Damn, this was gonna be fun!

***

Everything went almost exactly as she'd expected – further proof that she, Marie Bakker, age eighteen and three-quarters, was more than capable of taking on the world.

ESTA, sorted. Luggage, obtained. Customs, not a problem. Rideshare, booked – thanks to the free airport wifi. And before she knew it, she was pulling up to the modest little apartment complex, staring about her in the evening light at what she knew had to be Anneke's home neighborhood. "This is gonna be great," she giggled to herself, making her way down the sidewalk, past the scattered children's toys, and catching sight of the address she sought. "Look out, sis. Here I come!"

Tok-tok-tok. She paused impatiently, then knocked again on the door, harder and quicker than before. Tok-toktoktoktok. Within she heard quick footsteps… the creak of an approaching person… and then, at long last, the doorknob turned, the door opened. There she stood: Anneke, one hand up over her mouth, her eyes lighting up in the strangest mixture of shock, delight… and hold on. Was that… fear?

"Rietje?!" So stunned she was, that she could only lapse back into her native Dutch and the pet name her sister had always borne. "Wat- wat is-?!"

"C'est moi," Marie announced grandly, with a loud giggle and a flourish of her arms. "Hier ik ben! It's me, myself and I!" Into each other's arms they fell, and despite her laughter, Marie felt the sudden, stupid prickle of happy tears. God, it was good to be here! Laugh at Anneke all she liked, she was… Anneke. Sweet. Loving. And her dearest, dearest sister.

Of course Anneke welcomed her in with a strangely agitated waving of hands. Of course Marie laughed and giggled and exclaimed about how amazing the place was. Of course Ethan stepped forward to greet her: his painfully American handshake, and awkwardly wondering nod, and strangely embarrassed air almost exactly as she'd imagined. Of course Anneke wouldn't go for a fun party boy. Only to be expected that this Ethan guy was nothing less than an out-and-out nerd. Hah, and he was wearing the dumbest striped shirt and elastic-waisted shorts, too. American fashion sure was something else…

"You sure you don't want supper?" Anneke blurted out. "Sure? Well… since you've already eaten… Oh, and since there's only one bedroom… hmm… about a bed for you…"

"I'll take the couch, no worries," Marie responded airily, glancing approvingly at the blanket-strewn sofa beside her. But as she was bending to tug the nearest, rumpled blanket up, the strangest thing happened. Something fell out of the blanket's folds: something so unexpected that for a moment, her jet-lagged brain didn't quite understand what it was seeing.

It was a baby's binky. Though somehow, it looked far, far larger than any binky she'd ever seen before.

"Umm… what?" She giggled awkwardly, reaching down and gingerly dangling it from one finger. "What the hell? You two can't have a baby together already?" But even as Anneke hurried forward, her first words of protest and fumbling explanation on her lips, the strangest sound began to emanate, seemingly simultaneously, from the two cell phones perched on the little dining room table. It sounded for all the world like the intro soundtrack to some podcast: a gurgling brook… the far-off wail of an infant… and with ASMR-like intensity, the sudden, breathy whisper of a seductive female voice…

"It's nursery time, sweetie."

Marie opened her mouth to laugh in confused incredulity. She hadn't the slightest idea what hypnotic triggers were, nor the devastating effects which they now had upon her sister and her boyfriend. But she didn't need to understand in order to be afraid – and the laughter died away on her lips at the terrifying sight unfolding before her.

Anneke, her face frozen in twisted fear, sank to the floor with a suddenly blank stare in her eyes. Ethan, until that moment leaning furtively in the corner, stumbled forward, and the low, gurgling cry that escaped his slack lips sounded for all the world like that of a despondent child. And then, even as she watched in recoiling disgust, his eyes glazed… his muscles spasmed… and he squatted down into the dumb, unseeing posture of a toddler in urgent need of filling his pants.

"Wha- Anneke! What- what's wrong? Wait, is this- is this some kind of joke?! You- you're just playing with me… right?" Her voice teetered into hysteria, her alarm growing as her older sister simply stared, then reached up and plucked the baby's binkie from her grasp with suddenly clumsy fingers. "Fank ooo, Mawee," she burbled, stuffing the thing full into her mouth and bouncing gently in juvenile satisfaction. "Me wuv my dummee!"

Marie bit back a hysterical sob, eyes full of half-incredulous horror as Anneke scrambled forward, a gleeful expression on her face. "Aww, wook! Eefan, he've a weal baby! He gonna make a fhtinky meff in his dye-puh! He alwayvf do dat…" Nor was she wrong. For already, Ethan was audibly grunting and straining with all the shameless, brainless abandon of an infant. "Uuuuhh! Eeeee-uuhhh!"

As the ripe smell of a newly filled diaper reached her nose… and as her formerly big sister broke into peals of high-pitched, juvenile laughter, Marie could only begin babbling out her own horrified pleas. "Anneke- please, this- this isn't funny! Oh- oh my god, did he-? Please, just tell me what's going on! I- I mean it!"

But the seconds ticked on, and the two grown adults lapsed further into their horrifyingly infantile antics, burbling and prattling as if they were little more than toddlers. Marie could only watch in fascinated horror at Anneke squatting above Ethan, giggling as dark rivulets of urine began spurting out and staining the fabric of her jeans in incriminating shame. "Oopsie! Me had ta go weal badh, too!", she babbled, and as she tugged the jeans down with clumsy fingers, Marie felt a wail of horror rising to her throat.

For there stood her supposedly older sister: a giant baby's dummy filling her mouth. An obviously sagging pull-up between her pee-stained legs. And the naughty look of a cheeky three-year-old dancing across her face.

Holy heck. What the actual hell had she just stumbled into?