Page 7 of Invade Me

So, I decided again to skip the redhead’s commission that day. I ignored my intense gut feeling and moved on, only praying that Mr. Ragu didn’t call me.

That same night, I had a dream. I found myself wandering through an amusement park filled with hundreds of people. At the center stood a large, colorful nest. As I approached it, I felt a tug on my arm. I turned and spotted someone dressed in a fluffy, red bunny costume. The person handed me a rose-shaped helium balloon with a long ribbon trailing behind. The bunny tilted his head and extended one hand, as if urging me to take the balloon.

"Don’t let me fly away!"came from his fluffy mask.

And then I woke up.

It was a funny, bizarre dream, and the first thing that popped into my mind was the rose-shaped birthmark on that student. A balloon? Seriously, Fate? My mind was playing tricks on me, for sure.

But again, I opened up the photo and engaged in a silly staring session.

On the fourth day, I finally lost faith in the reality of it all. I sat by the screen with my laptop plugged in, staring at the list with determination, making sure the battery wouldn’t die on me again. I pressed the cable firmly into the socket, checking it every five minutes. But just as new commissions appeared, and I rushed to click on the first one, a prompt flashed on the screen:"Your session has expired; you need to log in again."

I let out a string of curses and flung the mouse against the wall.

It was some god-awful bad luck.

When I finally logged back in, the other employees had already snatched up the remaining commissions, and there it was, yet again, just that unlucky amaranth-haired student left in the system. Yep.

I yelled a colorful curse loud enough to shake the walls, got up, and stepped away from the screen, my head spinning.

Anyway, my other duties were waiting.

That day, I had my usual appointment with the ‘dog client’. In my bad mood, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about strolling around town with a guy in leather gear who was only half-heartedly committing to his canine look. But the gig paid reasonably well, and it had been five days since my last one. So, off I went.

I pulled up to his place—it was in a pretty affluent neighborhood; I’ll give him that. He could afford Dark Dreams, so clearly, he was doing well for himself, whatever it was he did all day when he wasn’t moonlighting as a dog. Also, I had no idea if he was an omega or beta; I was on suppressants, so I couldn’t pick up on his Allure scent.

My ski mask already on, I hit the buzzer, keeping things anonymous as always.

He let me in, and right from the gate, I was immediately greeted by loud, cheerful barking. And no, not from an actual dog—just him, living out his canine fantasy. Moments later, the door opened, and there he was, ready to go.

This guy had a leather mask fitted to resemble a dog snout, with pug-typical ears and brown, bulging lenses over his eyes to complete the pug look. He was already on his knees, gloves that mimicked paws on his hands, kneepads securely in place for maximum crawl comfort. There was even a fluffy tail attached to a butt plug, thoughtfully covered with a strip of leather, so any passersby would just assume it was a regular tail—a permanent part of the costume.

His leash hung on a hook nearby. I never ventured past the entryway into his house—client’s rules. So I just stood there, gave him the usual pat on the head, and said, "Good boy." He wiggled his butt happily, wagging his pseudo-tail (and inthe process moving the plug inside, of course), making excited doggy noises.

We never actually spoke. He’d just bark, whine, or growl a bit. Honestly, I had no clue what his deal was, and he had no idea about mine. Once a week, though, we’d do this little routine, and I’d take him for a walk around the local park.

I grabbed the remote for the butt plug and then his leash to clip it to his collar, and he leaned forward to help me, looking downright grateful.

"Heel, boy. Time for a walk," I announced, and off we went, down his fancy front path, lined with pricey ornamental shrubs that probably cost more than most people’s monthly rent.

He was obedient as always, trotting along at my side while I occasionally entertained him by tapping the remote for his tail-plug to give it a little buzz. We reached the park right around five, peak people-watching time, which was most likely the whole point for him. This type loved to be stared at and thrived on the sight of shocked faces around them.

Sometimes I’d toss a stick for him to ‘fetch’, but with that mask on, he couldn’t really pick it up, so he’d just nudge it along with his paws. Not exactly realistic dog behavior, but hey, I didn’t sign up for authenticity. Today, I wasn’t in the mood; I’d have preferred to just sit on a bench and watch the swans gliding by.

So, we wandered over to the pond. I plopped down, pointed at the birds, and said, "Look, boy, swans. Go bark at ’em." As he obediently barked away, I sank into a cloud of stress, running over my problems in my head.

Sighing and rubbing my forehead through my mask, I tried to clear my mind of negativity. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed ‘the dog’ had lost interest in the swans and was sitting beside me, legs folded up, ‘paws’ straight in front likea loyal mutt waiting for a command. He made a soft, almost sympathetic whine.

Strangely enough, it made me want to talk.

"Business has been weird lately," I admitted. Normally, of course, I wouldn’t spill my guts to a client, but it wasn’t like he expected in-character conversation anyway. He knew I worked for the company he hired and nothing else, so it wasn’t against his scenario rules.

"There’s this one gig hanging around in the system that no one wants. And no matter what I do, I’m left only with this one. Power outages, logging issues, timing conflicts—you name it, it all kept me from getting any other jobs."

He whined encouragingly, tilting his head.

"It’s, well, a ‘special’ gig," I added, sighing. "Some young guy who’s, uh, looking for a home invasion scenario but with a fuck at the end, and that’s not my thing. I’m here for clients like you," I added with a smirk. "But it’s been days, and I’m seriously wondering if the universe is trying to push me into this."

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