Title: Ghost Wife
Chapter 11: Memory
“The threads,” Emma explained, her mind clearly racing with the implications. “I don’t know what they are exactly. A neural map? A mental representation of Katherine’s thoughts?” She paced the living room, her movements sharp and precise. “Hardware, software, that’s basically the question. We’d really need to see what happens inside the brain to start drawing conclusions. A PET scan would really—”
“Emma,” I cut in, holding up a hand. “You’re getting sidetracked again. Focus. You said you found a solution.”
She stopped, turning to face me. “I think I can alter my... her brain. Rewire her neural connections, on the fly. Nothing big, or not easily. We’re talking about very specific tweaks, editing memories, small suggestions?”
I stared at her, trying to process the implications. “So you could what, create memories to explain the missing time? Make her not suspicious?”
“Her or anyone else!” Emma said, her eyes gleaming with Katherine’s intellectual excitement. “I could create an explanation for the missing time they’d accept as their own. Make Sister Margery—”
“Margaret...” I corrected. It was fascinating to see how even basic information like names didn’t seem to carry over that well. I guess Katherine herself was bad with names, or didn’t care enough to remember them.
“Margaret, right. I could make her think she just felt like having some time away from the convent.”
“She told Father O’Brien she had a family emergency,” I reminded her.
“But if they ever speak with her family they’ll find out it wasn’t true,” Emma countered. “I need to create a plausible memory, that she had doubts, needed to think about her faith, get some rest, all of that.
“Let’s not fuck with her faith. She seems to take it seriously.” I warned, still feeling guilty about involving her.
“Right. Right,” Emma said, clearly distracted by the possibilities. “Whatever would work best, obviously.” She turned to the drugged nun on the couch. “It will take a couple of hours for her to fully metabolize the medication. I’ll take over, and once she’s more lucid, we’ll get her back to the convent, and then I’ll switch back with Katherine, leaving that girl with a peaceful, private memory of her little sabbatical.”
I sighed in relief. “Thank God.”
My wife looked at me, laughing. “Thank Katherine. She knows exactly what she’s doing. Being inside her brain... it’s like, it all just makes sense.” She tapped Katherine’s temple. “Everything is clearer. I’m so much smarter, so much more... capable...”
I snorted. “With the ego to match, apparently.”
She smirked, hands on her hips. “You’re just jealous that I’m a genius now.”
“You’re using HER brain,” I corrected. “That’s cheating. She’s the genius.”
She stepped closer, running a hand down my chest. “I’m using HER entire body, but I can share.”
Sister Margaret groaned from the couch, her eyes fluttering open slightly, still confused and drowsy.
“I thought you were a lesbian now,” I said with a weak smile as Emma’s fingers started to undo the buttons of my jeans.
“Mmm, I am. I mean, she is.” Emma’s fingers were now on my belt buckle, pushing me toward an armchair. She looked up at me, her eyes, Katherine’s eyes, full of a familiar hunger. “Seems like you’re the exception to the rule, no matter what brain I’m using. And this body is... aching for you.”
“Emma, not in front of—”
“Shhh, she’s barely conscious,” she whispered, sliding to her knees in front of me. “And I won’t let her remember anyway.”
She fished my hardening cock out of my pants, staring at it with a confused fascination. “I’ve never touched a dick before.” She giggled.
I chuckled. “Seems like the theme for this week.”
“Right?” she said, her fingers tracing the length of my shaft. “Not that I mind. I should, but I don’t.” She leaned in closer, her tongue darting out to taste the tip of my cock. “Salty.” She laughed. “Of course it’s salty. I know it is. But I don’t. Fascinating!” She swirled her tongue around the head before taking me into her mouth, her movements at first tentative, then more confident as she drew on her own original memories, not Katherine’s, for how to please me.
I stared at her, at that fiery red hair, those black-rimmed glasses, the determined, focused look in her eyes as she worked my cock. My wife, the scientist, my wife, the lesbian, my wife, dead and alive, on her knees in front of me, sucking me off in the living room while a nun drooled on the couch behind us.
“Damn, you’re leaking a lot,” she said, pulling back to stroke me, a string of pre-cum connecting her lips to my cock. “I didn’t know you had a thing for nerdy girls.”
“I have a thing for my wife,” I grunted.
She looked up at me, smirking again. “Right. Of course,” she said sarcastically, bringing her hands up to her own breasts, squeezing them through her shirt. “These aren’t very impressive compared to Mandy’s, are they?” she asked, then looked down at them with a frown. “But you know what’s nice?”
“What?” I asked, my breath coming short.
“You can have all the tits in the world now, fuck any pussy you want, and you’ll still be fucking me. You’ll still be fucking your wife.” She leaned forward again, wrapping her lips around my cock and taking me deeper this time. Her free hand slipped down to her own jeans, undoing them and sliding inside.
Was this going to be our life now? An endless parade of new bodies, new experiences, each one a violation of someone else’s life, a theft of their autonomy, all in the name of preserving my wife’s impossible existence? I was tempted, despite myself. A new woman every day, a new set of curves to explore, a new personality to interact with, all containing the same soul, the same woman I loved. I felt a wave of nausea, followed by an equally strong wave of desire. Besides, what choice did we have? Let her fade away?
“Come on, fill my mouth,” she moaned around my cock, her hand working frantically between her own legs now. “I want to taste you. I want to feel you shoot down this lesbian’s throat.”
I moaned and laughed, sliding two fingers through the fiery red hair. “Damn, is Katherine’s brain making you this much of a freak?”
“Oh I’m a kinky girl, Calvin,” she said, pulling back to gasp for air. “You have no idea the kind of stuff Katherine is into. Just not dicks, usually.” She went back down on me with renewed enthusiasm, her tongue swirling around the head before she took me deep into her throat, gagging slightly.
I felt my climax approaching, my hips thrusting forward, fucking her mouth with a desperation I hadn’t felt since the first time I’d made love to Emma all those years ago. I could feel her moaning around my cock, her own orgasm building. I came with a groan, my cock pulsing, filling her mouth with my cum. She swallowed it all, her eyes rolling back in her head as she came from her own touch.
When I finally pulled away, she looked up at me, her face flushed, her glasses askew. She licked her lips, then pulled her fingers from her pants, sucking them clean with a wicked grin.
The poor nun on the couch moaned again, her head lolling to the side, staring at us with glazed, unfocused eyes.
“Oh, sorry,” Emma said nonchalantly, noticing her audience. “Forgot you were there.”
I leaned back in the armchair, my heart pounding, my mind reeling from the intensity of it all. “Feeling more like yourself?” I asked, watching as Emma stood up and adjusted her clothes.
“Yep,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Weird how this seems to work. You reach climax and it brings me back. Vaginal or oral, doesn’t seem to matter. I’m pretty sure a handjob would do the trick too. I can’t find a rational explanation for it. This is baffling.”
I stared at her, frowning.
“Relax, it really is me, Cal,” she said, chuckling. “Well as much me as I can be in this brain, evidently. More me, at least. I’m still smarter. That doesn’t seem to be going away no matter how many times you fuck me. I’m as smart as the person I’m in, period.”
I nodded, thoughtful and, I have to admit, a bit turned on by—
“Oh I can see the gears in your head turning,” she said, winking at me. “A hot bimbo brain, a genius brain, a shy brain... What will you want to stick your dick in next?” She looked down at Katherine’s body.
I cleared my throat, trying to get back to more serious matters before my own imagination got carried away. “Emma, we need to come up with a plausible cover story to explain Lisa’s absence. And for Katherine too. Make sure they both remember nothing.”
“Make me forget?!” Emma asked, her voice suddenly sharp, her eyes narrowing. “No way!”
I blinked. “We cant—”
“This is the discovery of a lifetime,” she continued, her voice taking on Katherine’s academic tone again. “We have to study this. Properly. With equipment. I can’t just forget it!”
“She’s gonna freak out!”
“No she won’t,” Emma said, her hand waving dismissively. “She’ll be cool. I know her, remember? I know her brain. I’m her, currently.”
I frowned again.
She sighed. “I’m still me, Jesus, Cal... I’m telling you that this is too big for her to want to forget it. Too big for her not to want to study it.”
I was too tired to argue. We’d asked for Katherine’s help because we weren’t ‘qualified’ to figure this out. Maybe she wasn’t either. This felt more like magic than science. But in any case, she certainly was more qualified than me, or Emma would under normal circumstances, or in most bodies.
“So what now?” I asked, feeling drained.
My wife picked up Katherine’s phone, unlocking it with her thumbprint. “Now I leave myself a message,” she said, her fingers flying across the screen. “Explaining everything, in a way that will make sense to her. I’ll play with her memories too, to make it obvious something weird happened, so she believes me when she watches the video.” She hit record and held the phone up.
“Hey Kat, it’s you. Or rather it’s me. It’s Emma, Calvin’s wife. So obviously this whole possession business is not bullshit. I’m in your body right now, which you won’t remember. I figured out I can play with memories, among other things, so I’ll give you a completely different set of memories from the time was here. But when you watch this, not remembering recording it, you’ll know something weird happened. No doubt you’ll want to learn more about whatever is going on here.” She paused, then added, “Help us, and we’ll let you study us. We need to get the nun back to her convent, so I need a body to switch back into once we’re done.” She lowered the phone, ending the recording with a smirk. “There.”
Sister Margaret was stirring again on the couch, her eyes fluttering open. “What...” she mumbled.
Emma moved to her side. “It’s okay, Margery,” she said, her voice calm.
“Sister Margaret... Lisa.” I sighed.
“Lisa,” Emma corrected herself. “It’s okay, Lisa. You’re safe. Just relax.” She placed a hand on the nun’s forehead, freezing for a moment.
The nun blinked, her eyes still glazed. “Oh dear... I’m...” She tried to sit up, her body still sluggish. “I’m... so tired...”
“Jesus, your wife is really out of it,” Emma commented with a smirk. Wait a minute...
“Katherine?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I was expecting confusion, the same weird transition we saw with the others, but it was different this time. Instead of her acting like a confused Katherine waking up from a weird dream, she acted like she had been here all along.
“What?” she asked, looking over at me.
“You were just Emma,” I said, gesturing between the two of them.
“No I wasn’t,” she said with a confused frown. “I’ve been here the whole time. You two are nuts. I rest my case.” She stood up, adjusting her glasses. “It was entertaining, but I think it’s time for me to go. You clearly need some time to... process your grief and...” She gestured vaguely toward the nun. “Whatever this is.”
“Wait,” I said, standing up too. “What do you think happened here? What do you remember?”
Emma chuckled from the couch, apparently finding something funny in her own drugged confusion.
“What do you mean, what do I remember?” Katherine asked, her patience clearly wearing thin. “I came here because Mandy gave you my number and told you about the clinic. I admit the magician showing up and the clowns were entertaining, and the hypnotist act was a real hoot, but I have yet to see any evidence your wife came back from the dead.” She frowned. “That trick with the ceiling opening and birds flying out was pretty good, though. How did you...” She looked around, realizing how insane she sounded. “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”
Then, I laughed too, Katherine’s eyes narrowing.
“Did you drug me too?” she asked, looking at me, then at the still giggling nun.
“You should check your phone. There’s a video for you,” I said, leaning against the wall and crossing my arms.
She huffed and pulled her phone out, her thumb unlocking it. I watched as her face went from annoyance to confusion. She stared at the screen. “When did I...?”
“You didn’t. My wife did. Watch it.” I insisted.
She tapped the screen, her eyes widening as she watched herself, or rather, Emma in her body, explain the impossible. Her hand flew to her mouth, her breath catching.
“Oh my god,” she whispered, her eyes darting between the phone, the nun, and me. “This isn’t... You didn’t...” She looked at her hands, turning them over as if seeing them for the first time. “This is... This is real?”
“Real...” slurred Emma from the couch, her words barely audible. “Very... real...”
Katherine sat down hard next to her, her legs suddenly weak. “I don’t... How?” She took a deep breath, opened her mouth, then winced. “Ouch! Why does my jaw...” She trailed off, licking her lips, then ran her tongue over her teeth, her eyes wide with dawning horror. “No. No, no, no...”
I felt a sudden surge of guilt for my part in this. “Emma said you’d be okay with it,” I offered weakly.
“Okay with what? What the fuck did she do in my body?!” Katherine demanded, her voice rising in panic.
“Just... a quick blowjob,” I mumbled, unable to meet her eyes.
Katherine stared at me, her face a mask of disbelief. “I’m a lesbian!” she practically shouted, jumping to her feet. “I have never even... I don’t even like men! I never agreed to this!” She looked down at her body with disgust, then at the grinning, half-conscious nun. “I’m calling the police!” She fumbled for her phone again, her hands shaking.
“Wait,” I said, stepping forward. “Please, just... listen.”
“You listen! You and your dead wife sexually assaulted me! I’m going to have you both arrested!”
“Both arrested?” I snorted, gesturing toward the drooling nun. “Me and my dead wife? Does Sister Margaret have to be arrested too? How do you explain this one?”
She stared at the giggling, drugged-up nun, her anger faltering.
“Emma said you’d help. She said it was the discovery of a lifetime.” I added, heart racing.
“And that makes it okay for her to use my body like that?” Katherine shot back, though her voice had lost some of its edge.
“Okay, it was wrong,” I admitted. “But that’s just how it works. I’m sorry! When she’s in someone’s body she’s horny and...”
“That’s no excuse!” Katherine said, though she seemed to be calming down.
“It’s all I got.”
“Fuck!” she yelled, kicking the coffee table. She paced back and forth, her fists clenched, her mind clearly racing. “This is absolutely insane.”
“Will you help us?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
She stopped pacing and looked at me, then at the nun, then back at me. “I can’t believe I’m considering this...”