Welcome to chapter nineteenth of an ongoing gritty noir series from ‘Sin Street’ created in partnership between Kate Granger and Sissitrix.
Follow a woman’s desperate tale of humiliation starting in a pit of despair before her rebirth, revenge, and resurgence. This series began in a dark place because it must.
Previous Chapters:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18
Diana left for City Hall to run the gauntlet of proposing herself as a Mayoral candidate while Sissitrix and I eyed one another cautiously, each figuring out what the other was thinking.
Rex got increasingly bored and eventually left us, seeking comfort and relaxation among people with no inhibitions or latent hostility. I needed to keep going and crack the information nut before inadvertently stumbling into more piles of shit.
“What are you not telling me, Sissitrix?”
“How do you know I am deliberately not saying what I am actually not saying?”
“Can you break into Red October’s hive mind using your Pod tech?”
“Let’s not label things inaccurately, Erin. What Red October has developed is an advanced artificial intelligence technology that can hook living humans up into a virtual world.”
“And upload people into that world where they interact according to Red October protocols.”
“Yes, and remember, all of this ghastly tech is still relatively underdeveloped.”
“We must beat Red October in the real and virtual worlds. If we want to prevent people from being consumed like sex toys, we must burn it all down.”
“I know Erin. Hardware, code, and even the idea must be destroyed.”
“Yeah, and the fucking bastards that conceived of it must die in the process.”
“Come with me, Erin. I’ll show you everything I know.”
I collected Rex from a private room where he was busy tying a woman for her pleasure while her husband helped. She squirmed and whimpered delightfully in a chest tie that squashed both breasts while pressing them apart.
Each time Rex pulled gently on a rope, his bondage subject pressed her thighs together, undoubtedly grinding out pleasure between two fat labia that leaked shameful rivulets of pussy cream down her thighs.
“She fucking reeks of sex, Rex.”
“Jessica is being a good girl, aren’t you, sweetheart?”
“Yes, Rex.”
“And good girls squirt messy lady juices all over their thighs. Isn’t that right?”
“Oh god, yes, please, Rex.”
My lover turned to Jessica’s boyfriend, addressing him as he might do a student.
“The ropes must restrict movement. You start rigging her by wrapping and tying off gently the fleshy areas first. The sisals will rub just enough to sting and burn tantalizingly without causing any lasting damage.”
“Can I try doing it myself, Rex?”
“Did you practice the double-column tie knot I taught you last week?”
“No.”
“Which knot did I teach you to use on a crotch rope?”
Jessica’s boyfriend considered that carefully, but I knew from his face that he would come up short. I imagined Rex would not suffer a fool under these circumstances.
“I can’t remember, Rex, sorry.”
“It was a happy knot that would rub Jessica’s clitoris. so she would get precisely what she needed. How the fuck will you ever make your girlfriend cum if you can’t learn these knots?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t remember.”
Jessica looked desperate to be roped up and possibly fucked but not so keen for her husband to do it. I beckoned Rex, who nodded for me to be patient, needing a moment longer with his client couple.
“I must leave now, Craig. I want one of the guy riggers to come in here and give Jessica her session, then fuck her at the end. You can’t take control yet, buddy. This is dangerous shit, and you need to take learning your knots and rope use more seriously.”
“Can’t I fuck her myself after the rigger is done?”
“Ask Jessica.”
The husband made eye contact with his wife, but Jessica shook her head, almost immediately averting her eyes, embarrassed for one of them, I couldn’t tell which.
“You need to earn the right to fuck me boyfriend. I need what you cannot yet provide. I want the rigger to fill my belly with semen, please.”
“Fair enough, Jess. I’m sorry, I fucked up.”
Rex left the room with me and Sissitrix still in it. The atmosphere was electric as we waited for my boyfriend to find a guy to fuck another man’s wife. Once a suitably qualified rigger took over, we left Jessica to have fun while her husband watched.
In Rex’s truck, I turned around to face Sissitrix.
“We’re going to the Manor house, right?”
“Yes. That’s where I have activated Allen.”
“Is he the key to all of this shit with Red October?”
“I discovered that Allen believed he was helping you, Erin. He predicted what you needed most, which is what fucked him up.”
“He went inside Red October’s system for me to get answers?”
“Yes. Let’s call it an upload universe because that’s basically what it is.”
Rex drove us towards the mansion, taking a direct route, passing by City Hall. People were being drawn someplace in dribs and drabs. Many of them held placards at the ready. I saw families laughing and joking, and some people wearing masks while others wore full costumes.
Everyone headed in the same direction, joining the back of what must be a mass protest. Rex turned left, drove a few hundred yards, and pulled up at traffic lights, where my newly appointed police force of the people held up cars on all four converging roads.
“We’re in the middle of whatever shit is going down, Rex.”
“Nothing I can do about it, Erin. You might want to ask the cops to allow us passage using your newfound influence.”
“I’m not using my credits on such trivia. Let’s wait it out and see who this fucking shit show is.”
A mass protest marched down the street towards our junction, coming from the right, heading left. The front row, a jovial mob, held a fabric sheet sign that clearly identified who they were.
Our truck was suddenly swarmed by protestors who looked like the ordinary people of Sin Street. A wrinkled old man slammed a sign against my window. He seemed unhappy but not angry or violent.
“What the fuck does ‘Sin Out’ meanRex?”
“Why don’t you ask him or one of the hundred other people waving similar slogans?”
I lowered my window to speak with a grizzly, dour-looking man.
“What the fuck do you mean by sin out?”
“What do you think, Miss? We’re tired of it all. The corruption, prostitutes, gangs, and drugs. Sin Street must be cleansed.”
“That’s not going to happen by you waving a few placards and stamping your feet or holding up traffic.”
“Our Virtue League is here to stay, Miss. Ask the Mayor because he agrees with us. His wife started all of this. She was the final straw, cuckolding him, holding orgies, and embarrassing all of us. It must stop.”
“The only thing you will achieve here is to promote, possibly re-elect a corrupt Mayor and stir up lots of violence. You have no fucking idea what you’re dealing with.”
“Ahh, fuck off, Miss. We’ve heard it all before. It’s time to pick a side, and the Virtue League is where I want to be. Do what you want but don’t talk shit to me.”
He moved on, tutting while shaking his head, and the crowd parted around us, following him. In a clearing, I saw the Mayor with half a dozen cronies guarding him while assembling a mobile pulpit for him to address voters. He took up position in the center of the junction we needed to cross.
I glanced at Rex, who gripped the steering wheel like it was his lifeline to sanity. He looked furious, ready for war, and desirous of a violent outcome. I had to calm him down, or we would find ourselves consumed by the Virtue League.
“Rex, I thought the Mayor enjoyed watching his wife being fucked by other guys.”
“I’ve no doubt he does, Erin, but like all politicians, he likes watching anyone get fucked except himself.”
“Touche Rex. That would be a great slogan for Diana’s campaign.”
Come to Underground, where everyone gets fucked.
We all laughed, but judging by the first few lines of Sin Street Mayor’s speech and a few raucous cheers, he was definitely getting voter engagement.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I join you today as a man of the people, powerless and ashamed as you are. A new remit, new laws of morality, a means to incarcerate people for impure thoughts and deeds… that’s what I stand for today. Who will support me?”
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah… we love our current Mayor.”
Rex was still angry. but containing it well. I felt like a cotton wool ball in a tinder box. With one spark, I would be on fire, with a crazed Rex out of the truck, running amok among the innocent.”
“The Mayor will talk shit for hours, Rex. We must get out of here.”
“I can turn back, and we can try another way.”
“Anything is better than this total bollocks.”
Rex slammed his steering wheel hard, gunned the engine, and almost ran over another protestor holding a Sin Out placard.
“He looks as though his face was cut up by razor blades, Rex.”
“It probably was.”
Rex used rat runs to avoid the heavy traffic flowing through Sin Street late afternoon on a Friday. He drove carefully, paying what I thought was little attention to my conversation with Sissitrix.
At my mansion house, I noticed Sissitrix had the place spruced up, with gardens looking nice, roller shutters on windows, and security everywhere. Rex turned back to them, looking serious.
“Do you have a kill switch for your AI, Sissitrix?”
“I do, and this house is wired to blow. It will be reduced to dust at my will.”
“Good. This virtual world sounds like a creation of hell, built by the wealthy, for them and their buddies to fuck everyone else, literally.”
Rex had calls to make, so he stayed in the truck while Sissitrix and I went inside. It seemed the refurbishment work to my house was more considerable than the gardens and parking lot.
We strolled into the ballroom, which was empty aside from new, more pronounced painted white tram lines on the wooden floor.
“I had railings installed for every walkway. Come with me, Erin, and see what this place was designed for.”
I was fascinated, not least of all, because Sissitrix had half a dozen technicians working at one end of the ballroom, using computer workstations as a means to control something I couldn’t see.
When my host signaled by raising a hand, the underground cells that surprised me last time were raised. The cages in each were gone, and in their place sat brand-new pods.
“What happened to the cages?”
“They were diversionary. Once I had them removed, a panel of intricate sockets was revealed underneath. They were similar to my pod connections, so I adapted.”
“What for?”
“There is a room downstairs with very old server racks and computer systems installed. They ran software in very early development.”
“Is this Red October’s upload universe?”
“No. This house contains a much earlier design, more pure, very rough, and created by someone else a very long time ago.”
“How long ago, Sisstrix?”
“At least fifty years, and long before any pod technologies existed. Red October must have acquired a copy of the coding and ran with it once they realized the power that might be acquired.”
“Do we have access to their universe?”
“Yes. Through Allen.”
The pods hummed gently, exuding a soft, calming white hue. I saw my glass cage in the center with Allen inside. A green hue radiated from them. I noticed their pod stood clear of the ground, propped up at all four corners by stands.
“Many people were slaughtered here, Erin.”
“What do you mean? Why? None of this is making any sense.”
“Let me run a holographic version of a documentary I found on the servers here.” It was made as a log to communicate the experiment’s progress to someone.”
The Glass Cube turned into a three-dimensional documentary-style movie. I saw a hazy vision of men and women wearing white lab coats moving from one cage to another. They led apes by the hand to metal chairs and sat them in front of their cages; each wore a metal helmet with diodes and wires connected.
When the animals were plugged into wiring looms reaching down from the ceiling, they spasmed; some went limp and catatonic almost immediately, while others writhed around in agony for an excruciating time, eventually falling out of the chair, bleeding from their ears and eye sockets.
“Fuck… that’s cruel.”
“It gets worse. Do you want to watch, Erin?”
“I must.”
The movie shifted to a new scene, with much more advanced tech that was far more horrifying. I saw human beings had replaced the apes, and the metal helmets were discarded. I felt sick and waved for the tragic scene to end.
“Has someone cut away their fucking skulls?”
“Yes, Erin. Bone was removed, and tissues are peeled back to expose the brain.”
Blood dripped down the subject’s paralyzed faces like tears from a crying child. The gray matter inside their heads was exposed with dozens of metal pins sticking out to which wires and springs connected in a mesh-like network and then to a more sophisticated wiring loom.
“What the fuck is this for?’
“These scientists were pioneers of a neural link. They also created a rudimentary upload universe into which they sent the souls, memories, and intelligence of their subjects.”
“At what human cost was this done, Sissitrix?”
“They have tortured and killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people.”
“They got away with it because nobody cares about what happens to people who disappear in Sin Street.”
“Exactly.”
“This means the crime lords facing off against Red October also have a version of an upload universe?”
“It’s safe to assume they were behind this project from its inception and closed this place down, opting for somewhere more sophisticated.”
“We have two rival exploitation consortia, both seeking dominion over Sin Street, Sissitrix.”
“And then, the world.”
“Yes.”
We eyeballed each other, neither able to conjure appropriate words to describe how utterly desperate we felt. I sat on the floor beside Sissitrix with my back against the wall, examining a room that was once a prison, then a torture chamber, slaughterhouse, and finally, a proving ground for the terror we were confronted by.
“We should move everything you have here and at the original warehouse to Rex’s armory. We can live there for now.”
“Why there?”
“It can be defended once we hatch enough of our soldiers, and I’d rather you defrost them than Rex control that. We’re open on too many fronts, Sissitrix. It’s time to consolidate.”
“We can’t leave anything behind.”
“Level this house. Destroy the whole fucking building and its foundations.”
“Okay, but there are a couple of things we should do first, Erin.”
“Go on… what do you have in mind?”
“You should talk to Allen.”
I stood up, and Sissitrix led me to the glass cube. I noticed its pristine walls, floor, and ceiling. I felt a positive vibe coming from inside, as though someone with love for me was close by. When Sissitrix raised their hand, the humming from Allen grew louder.
“I’ve removed his dampening field. You can speak using thoughts as before.”
Hello Erin.
Hello Allen. How have you been?
Not good. Quite sick, actually.
Has Sissitrix repaired you?
Somewhat, but I cannot be fully mended.
Why not?
I have a version of Max running around in my thoughts. he’s fucking crazy, Erin, and it hurts me so much. I feel his confusion and pain.
Can you show me? Can we speak with Max, please?
“Is that okay, Sissitrix?”
“Yes, Allen, go ahead.”
A nebulous green gas filled the glass cube. Eventually, it took on a form. A nose drifted into view, then one eye and a chin floated out of place. I recognized Max’s features emerging piece by piece from the soup-like fog.
“He looks in terrible pain.”
“Max is slowly losing his mind, Erin. He can’t cope with the virtual world that I’m containing him in. His possessions and need for power constantly drag him back to our reality.”
The man that coalesced in gaseous form looked terrified and dreadful at the same time. Hollow eyes, an angered expression, and severe pain wreaked havoc through my former boyfriend’s expression.
“Can I talk with him, Sissitrix?”
“You can try, but he may not answer.”
I stepped closer to the glass cube and touched Max’s enormous chin, almost as though he were real. He recognized me, looked angry, then sad and forlorn, shrieking silently. His image moved closer until our eyes met, and I saw the softness that was the man I almost loved.
“Max, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Erin.”
“What happened to you?”
“My life was stolen by someone, maybe you, I don’t know. Many copies of me were made. This is a copy of that original, I am sure. I shouldn’t be here.”
“How was this done to you, Max?”
“Red October did it. They fucked me, lied and cheated. They are cunts, Erin, all of them. They installed neural links into everyone, promising to track us for safety’s sake and provide intelligence and directives when required.”
“What is the neural link really for Max?”
He looked confused, winced painfully, and blinked uncontrollably as though his image were about to flicker its last and die. Max’s face portrayed ten thousand expressions in the blink of an eye as his avatar tried to keep pace with raw emotions from whatever intelligence drove them.
“Just before I drowned, something inside my head exploded, and I passed through a portal.”
“What sort of portal?”
“Allen says I died and was reborn in a virtual world, but it wasn’t this one. I am a copy, my real self is back there now being defiled.”
“What happened to you in the other reality, Max?”
“It was just like Sin Street, Erin. I was alone walking the streets for a few minutes, avoiding everyone I saw, and then men in uniform with blue berets came for me. They were fucking bastards and held me at gunpoint while fitting handcuffs.”
“Where did they take you?”
“First, I went to a prison where they processed me, photographed, fingerprinted, weighed, and measured me. Even my cock size and its condition were checked. They got a woman to suck me hard, measure my shaft from the balls, taste my semen when I couldn’t hold it, then flick my glans painfully while she laughed.”
“But none of it was real, Max.”
“It felt real, Erin. The pleasure and pain were just like anything I have ever felt.”
“What happened after you were processed?”
“I was taken into a courtroom where all of my crimes in life were read out.”
“Who prosecuted you? By what authority.”
“The Judge was a woman from the United Nations. I’m sure the soldiers wore blue and whote embroidered UN patches on their sleeves as well.”
“Oh fuck off, Max. You’ve totally lost your fucking mind. The UN could possibly be involved in this shit.”
My knees went from underneath me. and Sissitrix lent a hand, holding me upright. I had an awful, dreadful feeling that the prison Max was taken to might well be a perfect solution to an earthly version, where convicts could be executed, uploaded, and consumed as monetizable fodder in the Sin Street virtual sausage machine.
“Are you saying the authority inside Red October’s virtual world is the United Nations, Max?”
“I think so.”
“Did they find you guilty of a crime?”
“Yes. Every fucking crime, including some I don’t remember committing.”
“What was your punishment?”
He considered my question, then I saw tears and a sadness so deep, its bottom was unfathomable. Max’s chin dropped, and he was losing control.
“I need to know, or it’s impossible to help any version of you, Max.”
“I was stripped naked and put in stocks. My feet, head, and wrists were secured, then they raped me.”
“What the fuck do you mean, Max?”
“I was raped over and fucking over until my asshole bled, and I couldn’t feel any pain.”
“Who did this? The men who came for you?”
“No. Paying customers took turns laughing, spitting, and pissing on me while their friends fucked my tiny asshole, Erin. I can feel my guts on fire even now.”
“How did you get here, inside Allen?”
“Allen snuck in at night while I slept in the stocks and created a copy of me. The bastard left me there and brought me here. I’m fucking losing my marbles, Erin. Do something, please.”
“I’ll help you, Max.”
“Kill me. I beg you to end this for me.”
His face became distorted, angered, grieving, sobbing, and screaming all at once. The gas was sucked away, I thought back inside the pod, taking Max with it. I faced Sissitrix, horrified.
“I don’t have all the answers, Erin, but if I disconnect Allen now, this version of Max is terminated.”
“So both mad fuckers live together in Allen’s mind?”
“Yes. Until we can separate them and follow Allen back into Red October’s system.”
“Nah… we need to destroy every possible version of this upload universe idea, Sissitrix. Killing one upload universe just hands an advantage to the other.”
“I agree, but as you can see, we’re still feeling our way through the catacombs of this vile abomination.”
“Can it all safely be moved to the armory?”
“Yes, Erin.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Dive deeper into Sin Street on Sissitrix.com, where violence lurks in every alley and sex is a weapon. Brutal characters, tangled plots, and dark places in a corrupt neo-noir city that will drag you into its chaos. Written by Kate Granger, illustrated by Sissitrix.
Welcome to another episode of A resurgent whore! Can you feel the winter wind?
Lots of work.