Voodoo Doll

***All characters are over 18 and are fictional. Any resemblance to any real-life persons or situations is purely coincidental.

.....

MYSTERY BOX

"What's taking you so long?" Tracy called out from the bottom of the attic steps.

"There's no light up here; I'm still trying to find the last box," Walt yelled back. "I know I've seen it up here somewhere before."

The light fixture in the old attic was no longer working; Walt was sure it hadn't worked in years. He was using an electric lantern to get the old boxes and other items out of the attic, but the battery ran out of power. He was now using his smartphone's flashlight; it wasn't too bright, but it got the job done. He saw only a few boxes left before the lantern went dead. He found two of them and brought them back downstairs and was now trying to look for the third. He knew he could've found it by now if his wife wasn't yelling at him every few seconds.

"He'll be down soon; stop yelling at him," said Rita, Walt's sister.

"We're going to be late."

"No, you're not. It's too damn early to get ready for your stupid party," said Rita. "You just want to get out of here faster."

"Can you blame me? This place is spooky, and it smells funny."

Rita doesn't know why her sister-in-law would think the old house is spooky, but she can agree there's an old, musty smell that can't be ignored.

They were cleaning out the attic of the house once belonging to Walt and Rita's grandmother, who died last year. She left them everything in her will, and when the legal and tax stuff that comes along with an inheritance was finally over, they decided it was time to start thinking about what they were going to do with the house and all of their grandmother's belongings. They considered fixing up the place and renting it out on Airbnb to make some extra money on the side, but they thought it was just too much of a hassle to deal with, so they decided to just sell the place.

As for their grandmothers' belongings, they donated most of the furniture, old clothes, kitchenware, and so on, to charity and sold a bunch of other stuff online whenever they could. They kept a few things for themselves, but not a lot considering how old-fashioned some of the stuff was.

Walt finally found the box he knew was there. He forgot it was behind some old insulation piled up in the corner. He took the box down the attic steps, and Rita took it away from him so he could relax. They were trying to clear out whatever was left in the old house before the new owners moved in in a few days.

"Is this the last of it?" Tracy asked. "Are you sure we didn't miss anything? I don't want to keep coming back here for any reason."

"I got everything except for the cobwebs and bones of some dead squirrels up there. But that'll be the new owner's problem."

They were using Walt's jeep since it was bigger to haul away whatever was left back to his place. There, they placed everything in the garage with some of the other old stuff they took from the house. Rita lived in an apartment, so she didn't have a lot of room for most of these boxes, so it was agreed they would keep whatever they could in Walt's garage until they figured out what they could do with it.

Just as they got everything in the jeep, Tracy had to run back inside to use the bathroom. As they waited for her to return, Rita noticed how each of the last three boxes Walt had taken from the attic had the same name on each of the top corners.

"Hey, these boxes all have the name Gertrude on them," said Rita. "Do you think it could belong to our great-aunt Trudy?"

"I remember meeting her when we were younger," said Walt. "Wasn't she Grandma's beatnik sister?"

"I think she was more of a hippie than a beatnik," said Rita. "She was also into a lot of mystical and supernatural stuff."

"Now I remember, didn't she also become a witch or something like that?"

"Wiccan, I believe it's called," said Rita. "She got into it after her hippie days. She only dabbled in it, just like she did with voodoo, paganism, and druidism, and she even joined a few cults."

"I'm starting to see why our parents rarely wanted to see her when we were younger."

"Yeah, I guess simple Presbyterianism just wasn't good enough for her," said Rita.

From what they remember their parents telling them about her, their great-aunt Trudy died about 15 years ago. Her will insisted on a Viking funeral, but burning a body on a boat as it floats away wasn't entirely legal. Instead, their grandmother cremated her sister and spread her ashes on a lake. She felt it was as close enough to what her sister wanted as the law would allow.

Rita was too curious to wait until she got to Walt's place to see what was inside these boxes. She decided to just open one of them to see what was inside. Besides a few old clothes and an old hand brush, she found a bunch of trinkets, crystals, small statues, tarot cards, and so on. Some items may have to be thrown away, but she did want to keep some of these items, especially the jewelry. The tarot cards and other occult stuff she found may be good to keep just for fun.

The most unusual item she found was a small, handmade doll that felt like it was made of canvas and was stuffed with beads. The doll had simple clothing on it, had no hair but had two X's sewn in for eyes, and had no other facial features.

"What the hell is this thing?" Rita asked.

"Maybe it's her old childhood doll she kept her whole life," said Walt.

"She was into weird occult stuff; maybe this is a voodoo doll," Rita said excitedly.

"That wouldn't surprise me."

Rita just threw the doll back into the box and resumed looking through it. A moment later, Tracy came back out of the house and locked it up. She walked up to the jeep and handed Walt the key to the house.

"Now let's get the fuck out of here," said Tracy. "I don't care if it's still early; I want to be ready in time for my company's business dinner."

Rita was annoyed by how her sister-in-law didn't even bother to say hi or even look up from her phone.

"We're all ready to go," said Walt. "There's literally nothing left to do here."

"Finally," she said before looking at the box Rita had opened. "What's all this?"

Rita explained it was a bunch of items that used to belong to their great-aunt Trudy and explained about her crazy history with the supernatural. Tracy looked through the box out of curiosity; Rita was worried she was going to take something despite claiming the box for herself.

"This looks cute," Tracy said as she pulled out an old wooden hairbrush.

"Yeah, it's alright for something so old and worn down," said Rita.

Rita also had her eyes on that brush and was worried Tracy might try to take it, which was why she made it sound like it was nothing worth having. As Tracy turned it around in her hand, one of the bristles pricked her index finger, and she dropped the hairbrush as she yelped from the small pain of it. Rita was happy because it meant Tracy wouldn't try taking the brush anymore.

"Are you alright?" Rita asked.

"It's just a prick," she replied.

Tracy grabbed the first thing she could find in the box to stop the bleeding. It was only a tiny cut, but she wanted to stop it from dripping right away. The item she grabbed was the voodoo doll. She didn't care how ragged it looked or what it was; she just wanted something to quickly wipe away the few drops of blood and then threw the doll back into the box. Rita was disappointed because she felt Tracy ruined the doll for her. She thought it would be fun to have as a joke, but now she might have to throw it away later.

"You should just throw these boxes in an incinerator," said Tracy, who walked away and got into the front passenger seat of the jeep.

"I think I'll keep these boxes for myself," said Rita.

"Are you sure?" Walt asked.

"There's some fun stuff in here I can use."

"Alright, it's all yours," said Walt.

"Can you two hurry the fuck up?!" Tracy yelled out the window.

"How can you stay married to her?" Rita asked. "She's such a bitch."

"She's alright," said Walt. "She's just been under a lot of stress at work."

"You've been using that excuse for her behavior for a few years now."

"She's still a good person; you just don't know her like I do," he said. "You used to like her also."

"Like you said, I 'used to' like her. Then she started being a bitch, and I'm just putting up with it for your sake."

They decided not to talk about it anymore before they started an argument neither one of them wanted. Walt helped Rita put the boxes she wanted in her car and said goodbye as they drove their separate ways.

On her way home, Rita wondered what she was going to do with her brother, who didn't seem to understand that his marriage was on its last legs. She could tell he wasn't really happy about how his marriage was going but just didn't want to admit it to himself. She was worried about how it was going to fall apart for him, and he wouldn't be ready for when it happened.

THE DOLL

When Rita got home, her live-in boyfriend, Raymond, helped her carry the boxes up to their apartment. They spent the next couple of hours sorting through what Rita brought to see what they could keep. There were a few things they agreed to keep around the apartment for themselves, but a few others definitely needed to just be thrown out regardless of how vintage they were.

During this time, Rita complained to Raymond about her bitchy sister-in-law. Raymond just nodded and agreed with everything she said. He also didn't like Tracy that much, but he didn't want to get in the middle of their relationship since he was also good friends with Walt.

A couple of hours later, they were sitting in the living room when they got to Great Aunt Trudy's box. Rita kept the jewelry, the hairbrush, and some of the trinkets she thought would look cute around the apartment, besides the other items she got from her grandmother's old house. When they got to the occult items, they had fun looking up online about what each one does. There were a couple of talismans that were supposed to ward off evil spirits in the house, and Rita joked she could use them to keep Tracy from ever entering her home. They also decided to keep tarot cards because they thought it would be fun to learn and use for when guests come over and wanted to have some extra fun.

Raymond found the voodoo doll very interesting. He thought it was the ugliest thing he ever saw but was kind of fascinated with what the internet had to say about it. The common use was the healing and protection of loved ones, not like what you would see in the movies whenever these things show up. But from what he read, they can be used to inflict harm or control others in a malevolent way.

"Maybe you could use this against her," said Raymond.

"Who? Tracy?"

"Yeah, get her to do your bidding," Raymond said jokingly.

"It would be nice if this ugly old thing could make her easier to tolerate," she said as she looked at the doll in her hand.

Then she saw the bloodstain on the doll and pointed it out to Raymond.

"This is Tracy's blood," she said. "If I remember anything from the movies, I think this means this doll is attached to her now."

Raymond let out a small laugh, thinking how funny his girlfriend was about the subject.

"One way to find out," he said. "Give the doll a command, poke a needle in it, or something to see if it could work on her for real."

Rita didn't exactly know what to do; she was mostly just playing around but couldn't help wondering if something like this might work. She did believe in some aspects of the supernatural and did think there was something possible out there beyond our understanding. So, it was possible this doll could have some kind of strange effect on Tracy if she believed hard enough about it.

She didn't have a needle, but she did flick the head of the doll several times. When Raymond asked why she was doing that, she said she hoped to give Tracy a bad headache, and he laughed. She also wanted to give it a command but didn't know what to command the doll to do. Then she remembered how Tracy was in such a rush for her dinner, so she decided maybe she could do something about it.

"Don't go to your company dinner," she told the doll. "Stay home for the night."

"That's it?" Raymond asked. "I don't believe in this shit; I was only joking around. But couldn't you at least ask for anything fun?"

"She was being a real bitch to Walt about this dinner all day," she replied. "I figure preventing her from going to her company's dinner was one way to see if it could work."

"Well, I would've used the doll to make her give us all of her money or do something embarrassing. But it's your voodoo doll, so that's up to you."

THE DRIVE

Walt was driving down the highway trying to pay attention to the road while his wife was complaining next to him about the people she worked with. She desperately wanted this new promotion coming up, but she was afraid of losing the position to some other people due to cronyism and nepotism. She had a lot of things to say about her coworkers, some of whom they were about to meet at the dinner. Walt just sat there driving and listening as best he could to what she was saying.

Then all of a sudden, Tracy started screaming in pain and holding her hands to her head.

"Are you alright?" Walt asked.

"I don't know," said Tracy, still wincing from the pain. "I suddenly got this pounding headache. It was like someone was punching the side of my head several times and then stopped all of a sudden."

"I think we should go home. You're obviously not feeling well--"

"No, no, we can't," she said. "I'll be fine. Let's just keep going."

About a minute later, Tracy suddenly felt something strange going on in her head. Not like the headache she just experienced, but some kind of wave of dizziness, not like she ever experienced before. Then all of a sudden, she had a thought about not wanting to go to this dinner, and the idea of it somehow felt right to her.

"Let's go home," she said.

"Are you sure?" Walt asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I just don't feel like going anymore. It's not that important."

Walt thought that was strange of her to say.

"You kept making it sound important because of that promotion you've been dying for."

"I know, I know," she said. "But forget it, let's just go home. I'll order a pizza while you drive, and we can pick it up on our way home."

Walt didn't know what came over his wife all of a sudden. But at the same time, he wasn't going to argue with her about it. He really didn't want to go to this dinner, so if she didn't want to go anymore, it was fine by him. He would much rather have pizza than hang out with her stuffy coworkers any time.

THE NEXT DAY

Rita had just come home from work when she got a call from her brother. He found someone who could buy some of their grandmother's old furniture they still had in his garage and wanted to see if she liked the price the guy offered them. It was just an old kitchen table with chairs, so the price was not a big deal for her, and she told him she was alright with it. Walt said he could probably squeeze the guy for an extra fifty dollars, but Rita told him not to push too hard because the kitchen table was now worth it.

In the background she heard Rita yelling about something. She couldn't make out exactly what she was complaining about, but she definitely heard something about that company dinner they were supposed to go to last night.

"I hear your crazy wife yelling in the background," said Rita. "Did everything go ok at the dinner?"

"We didn't go to dinner," said Walt.

Rita suddenly froze when she heard him say that.

"Why? What happened?" she asked.

"We didn't go to the dinner," said Walt. "We were on our way there, then suddenly Tracy got this very bad pounding headache and then insisted we go home."

"Wow, that's interesting," said Rita, trying to stay calm. "Hey, this may sound like a crazy question, but around what time did this happen?"

"I don't know, around 6:45 645pm," said Walt. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, just curious."

"Ok, you're being weird all of a sudden," he said. "I hope going through Trudy's old boxes isn't making you go kooky like she did."

Rita laughed. "Oh, don't worry, it's not going to happen. I have to go now, bye."

Rita ran to the box which still had the voodoo doll and picked it up.

"No. Fucking. Way," she said to the doll. "This is just a fucked-up coincidence, that's all. You are not real, just an old superstition."

But she wasn't entirely sure if she even believed what she was saying. According to Walt, it happened around 6:45pm, she was very positive when she had the doll in her hand. Tracy got what Walt called a pounding headache, which sounds like when she was flicking the head of the voodoo doll. Then Tracy changed her mind about going to the dinner, just like Rita told the doll to do.

"This can't be real," she said to herself. "But there's only one way to find out."

She thought hard of how to test the doll to see if it was true. She decided to command the doll to do something simple, just to see if it could work. She wasn't going to ask the doll to make Tracy do anything too bad, like give her all of her money or shave her head; there could be consequences to some of those actions. She decided to make Tracy just give her a phone call; they never call each other, only text, and even that's limited. So, making Tracy call her out of the blue would be a perfect way to see if the voodoo doll worked or if she was just being stupid.

"Tracy, call me," she said to the doll. "Call your sister-in-law, Rita."

Nothing happened at first, just a long silence. She was about to concede she was just being dumb when her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, and it said Tracy.

"Oh my God," said Rita. "Maybe this is just another crazy coincidence."

She answered the phone before it went to voicemail, and Tracy would just hang up like most people who don't want to leave a message do.

"Hello," said Rita.

"Hey, how's it going?" Tracy asked.

"Fine, just fine," said Rita. "How are you doing? Walt said you had a bad headache last night."

"I'm fine now; I don't know what happened," said Tracy. "As I told Walt, it felt like I was being punched in the head several times."

Just like when she flicked the head of the doll several times last night, Rita thought to herself.

"Well, I'm glad you're feeling better," said Rita. "So, why did you call me?"

"To be honest, I don't know," said Tracy. "I just had this idea to call you all of a sudden. Was I supposed to call you for any reason, and I just can't remember?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Oh, then this conversation is pointless," Tracy said before hanging up.

"Bitch," Rita said angrily.

Rita flicked the doll in the head with her finger a few times to see if she could give Tracy another bad headache. She was going to put the doll away when she had an idea of another good way to test how well the doll might work for her.

"Call me back and apologize for hanging up on me the way you did," she said to the doll.

A few seconds later, Tracy called her back and she answered.

"Hello."

"Hey, it's me again," said Tracy. "I just want to apologize for hanging up on you the way I did."

"It's alright," said Rita, hiding her amazement on how much the doll was working.

"As long as I have you on the phone, I just got another bad headache like the one I had last night," said Tracy. "You're a nurse, should I be concerned about this?"

Rita suggested ibuprofen, drink more water in case her situation is a result of dehydration, and other remedies she could try. She knew the most likely cause of those headaches, but it wasn't like she could tell Tracy what it was; so she had to play the good nurse and friendly sister-in-law to give her the same good advice she would give to anyone else.

Rita put the doll back in the box and walked away. She still wasn't sure if this wasn't just a crazy coincidence. She had a superstitious side to her and did believe in forces beyond her understanding. It was one of the reasons why she was so drawn to Great Aunt Trudy's mystical items. But, deep down, she wasn't sure if any of this was possible. She had seen enough UFO and ghost hunting documentaries to see anything was possible, but at the same time there were some scientific explanations to some of those occurrences.

She decided to put it out of her mind for now; she would have to do some more research on the subject later. Right now, she had to concentrate on getting dinner ready for her and Raymond. It was her turn to cook something tonight; she only knew a handful of meals to make and kept making them over and over again when it was her turn to cook. Raymond didn't mind because his needs are simple, and he liked the few meals Rita knew how to make.

Raymond came home an hour later, just as Rita finished cooking. They ate their meal and discussed their day. They were both nurses at different hospitals, so they had a lot to talk about. After deciding on what to watch on TV tonight, the subject of Walt and Tracy came up. Raymond was good friends with Walt, so he too was concerned about his marriage to Tracy.

"I was hoping something would change when he told me about what happened to them last night," said Raymond. "Walt told me they decided to stay home last night and had pizza last night, and it was the first time in months they had done this and they had a good time."

"Really? I wonder what changed."

"Maybe the voodoo doll worked," said Raymond.

Rita gave Raymond an eerie look, and he started laughing.

"I'm just kidding," he said. "I'm sure that was just a coincidence."

"Yeah, of course," she said with a nervous laugh.

"From what he told me, last night was fun, but then today she started acting up again."

"What do you mean?" Rita asked.

"Apparently, she missed the company dinner, and some corporate political bullshit was going on, and she missed out on it. So, now she's mad that she wasn't there."

"At least they had a good time last night," said Rita.

"Yes, but not the good time he had hoped to be getting," said Raymond before taking a few more bites out of his meal.

"What does that mean?"

"Because he and Tracy hadn't had sex in..." Raymond stopped himself when he realized what he was about to reveal. "No sex in at least a couple of weeks. I think he said."

Rita knew Raymond was obviously lying, and he knew she knew he was lying. He was hoping she would just forget about it and not want to ask about her brother's sex life.

"How long has it really been for them?"

Raymond knew he couldn't get out of this without answering her, so he might as well tell her the truth, or else she would expect the answer to be worse than she thought.

"Eight months," said Raymond.

"What the fuck?!"

Rita was in shock to find this out about her brother and Tracy.

"He can't live like this."

"That's what I've been trying to tell him," Raymond said. "But there's nothing we can do about it."

But there may be one thing she can do about it, Rita thought.

They changed the subject and finished their dinner. Afterwards, Raymond cleaned the table and dishes; whenever one of them cooks, the other cleans up. While Raymond was in the kitchen, Rita snuck off to get the voodoo doll. She took it to the bathroom so she could have more privacy with it; she didn't want Raymond to see what she was about to do and think she was crazy. For all she knew, she was being crazy, and it was all just a strange coincidence. But after hearing that revelation about Walt and Tracy, she figured she had to try something.

In the bathroom, she closed the lid on the toilet and sat down on it as she thought about what she was going to do next. It was awkward to get involved with her brother's love life, especially like this, but she felt she was doing him a favor if this worked. She thought if they had one night of passion, then maybe things would get better between them. It could also somehow turn against her somehow, but she had to at least give it a try.

She held the doll in her hands, took a deep breath, and gave it a command.

"Go have sex with Walt," she told the doll. "Wait, cancel that command."

At the last second, Rita thought if this actually worked, she would have to do more than just tell Tracy to have sex with Walt. Having sex after all this time could be good for their relationship, but for it to work out any better, it had to be more memorable.

She quickly thought up some things Tracy needed to do in order for this to work. The commands had to be specific, and she had to be sure it wouldn't fall apart somehow. She also thought she had to do this fast before Raymond started questioning where she was. The things she was going to tell the doll were going to be very awkward to say because of how they would involve her own brother. But she felt it was just something she'd have to get over if she wanted to help him.

"Ok, this is what I want you to do," she said to the doll. "Follow these specific commands."

NIGHT OF PASSION

Tracy was still pissed off about missing the dinner last night, and she showed it. She had been complaining about it all day, and now she was talking about it throughout dinner with Walt. And when she wasn't complaining about what happened last night, she had things to say about plenty of other things going on in their lives.

Walt was getting annoyed by her constant complaining, but he didn't want to tell her to shut up without it causing an argument. He had learned that sometimes it was best to be quiet and let Tracy tire herself out with all of her complaining.

After dinner, Walt offered to clean up. He never liked cleaning dishes, but with how annoying Tracy was being right now, he wanted to do anything to distract himself from her. He took his time to wash the dishes so this could last a lot longer than it should.

As Walt cleaned the dishes, Tracy went to the study to take some time catching up on some work emails. She liked to get some things done after hours so her days could be a little easier. After getting through the first few emails, she suddenly stopped when she felt a strange feeling come over her. She remembered feeling it last night right when she got the idea to tell Walt to take them both home.

This time, this feeling was giving her an urge to do something else.

"I have to have sex with Walt," she said to herself.

She didn't know why she thought that at this very moment, but she decided to go through with it anyway.

She stood up to walk out the door to see Walt when another strange feeling came over her.

"I shouldn't have sex with Walt," she said. "What's going on here?"

She had no idea why she suddenly went back and forth on the subject of sleeping with her own husband like that. Although, this made her realize how she and Walt hadn't had sex in months. So long, she wondered if that's the reason she was feeling this way tonight. She thought maybe this was her subconscious telling her something important about her marriage.

She sat back in her desk chair for a while, wondering if she should be concerned about this. First her pounding headache and ignoring the company dinner, then the evening when she decided to call Rita out of the blue. She never called Rita directly like this, and she still had no idea why she would do that. Now, finally, she was getting these strange ideas concerning her sex life with her husband.

She decided to focus on her emails and put all of this out of her mind. For all she knew, she was just stressed out from work, and this was some kind of strange mental reaction to it all. Tracy wasn't sure if this was accurate since she was not a doctor of any kind, but it was the best possible theory she got. Then all of a sudden, she got another strange feeling over her; only this time she felt it was more intense.

Without realizing what she was doing, she turned off her computer and went to her bedroom and opened her closet to find the lingerie that Walt always loved seeing her in. She took off her clothes and put on the two-piece black lingerie set and high heels. She then went to the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup.

In the bathroom, she started fixing her hair a little and applying makeup to her face. She was using a dark red lipstick she knew Walt loved to see her using, but stopped wearing months ago, and now she feels compelled to put it on to make her husband happy. She also applied some of her best perfume, one that she had to stop wearing because it kept attracting unwanted attention from men at work and other places. But she hoped it would help make Walt go crazy for her.

When she was done, she took a good look at herself in the mirror. It had been a while since she had worn lingerie, and she realized how good she looked wearing it. She was 32 years old with long chestnut hair and perfect C-cups that looked so good, some of her friends thought they were fake. She also had a perfect body with a nice round ass; this comes from getting on the treadmill a couple of hours a day.

As she looked at herself, she wondered why she hadn't worn any sexy underwear in so long. She also wondered why she hadn't had sex with Walt in several months, for that matter. He had tried to get things started with her, but she always refused for one reason after another. Mostly it was because she was constantly working; even when she got home, she was at her home office working.

Now all of a sudden, here she was getting herself ready to seduce her husband. She didn't plan any of this; it was like something compelled her to do this. She was scared by how she was feeling, but at the same time thrilled by it. She figured maybe this is what she needed right now: to just be taken by her husband and allow him to do whatever he wanted with her.

She opened the bedroom door to call out to Walt.

"Babe, can you come to the bedroom?" she yelled.

Downstairs, Walt was in the middle of watching a very good baseball game. His team was winning 7-2 in the eighth inning when he heard his wife call out to him. He was going to say he was busy but then realized something about what she said.

"Did she just call me babe?" he asked himself.

Tracy used to regularly call him babe, but stopped a long time ago. It was one of the little names they used to give each other before their relationship started slipping, and now, they're just going through the motions.

"I'll be right up," he called back to her.

He really wanted to finish watching the game, but he figured he should see if everything was alright with Tracy. After last night, with her headache and sudden change in her behavior, he figured he should check up on her to see if she was alright.

When he got to the bedroom, he found Tracy standing there by the bed, waiting for him in a sexy pose. She was wearing the lingerie he got her for Valentine's Day a few years ago, the one that had become her favorite item to wear when they made love. He hadn't seen her like this in so long; he was taken by surprise.

"Hey babe, thanks for coming," she said seductively.

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Of course, babe," she assured him, even though she wasn't quite sure if she was alright. "I just thought it would be a good time for us to have some fun together."

"Sure, sounds great," he said excitedly. "But are you sure you're alright? You seem... different."

Tracy walked up to him and put her hands on his chest.

"Is there something wrong with a wife wanting to look sexy for her husband and allow him to have his ay with her?" she asked.

"No, there's nothing wrong with that," he said. "And I'm very willing to have sex with you any way you want--"

"Any way you want," she corrected him.

"That's what I said, any way you want--"

"No, what I mean is, I don't want to have sex any way I want; I want to have sex any way you want. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it."

Again, she asked herself in her mind why she was behaving like this. She had acted sexy before, but not like this.

"Wow, ok, I'll go along with this," he said enthusiastically. "I guess a blowjob would be a good start."

Tracy pushed him back against the wall and kissed him hard. It was long and passionate--a kiss they hadn't had in years. Walt didn't know what had come over his wife all of a sudden, but he was liking this. Tracy didn't know what she was doing, but she decided to stop questioning it and go along with it. Even though she felt like she wasn't being herself right now, she loved how she was kissing Walt.

When they were done with the kiss, Tracy got down on her knees and began taking off her husband's pants.

"Wow, you really want to do this?" Walt asked.

"You said you wanted a blowjob," said Tracy. "And a blowjob you shall have."

"Yes, but you're on your knees," he said. "You always said you don't like being on your knees to give a blowjob because you don't like that submissive position because it wasn't very feminist. You usually do it when we're in bed."

Tracy thought he was right; she never liked being in this position when giving a blowjob, but somehow, she felt like it was the right thing to do at the moment.

"To be honest, it's something I've always wanted to do but felt too ashamed to do," she said. "But I want to be submissive to you right now. I really want to be on my knees and service my man."

Again, she wasn't sure why she was saying or doing these things, but she was starting to have fun, so she just went along with it.

"Ok, if you wish," said Walt.

"No, if you wish," she corrected him. "I'm here for your pleasure, not mine."

"Oh, yes, of course," said Walt with a big smile.

She got his pants and boxers down around his ankles. His large, erect cock sprang right up into her face, and she began going down on him. Tracy was surprised she was blowing him so quickly; she used to take her time and stroke him a little in the beginning or suck on the head a little before taking more of it into her mouth. But now, she was sucking off like she was a porn star.

Walt moaned from the pleasure he was receiving. Tracy had always been good at blowjobs, but now her oral skills were on a whole other level. She was doing something with her tongue every time his dick entered her mouth that he had never felt her do before; even Tracy didn't know where she came up with this method. She wasn't complaining about it; she was starting to enjoy this as much as Walt was.

Tracy began to deep-throat him, something Walt was cautious of because, as good as Tracy was at sucking his dick, she never had a good gag reflex. The first attempt lasted longer than he had ever seen her taking his dick down her throat. When she was done, she pulled the dick out of her mouth and began coughing and grasping for air.

"Are you alright?" Walt asked.

"I'm fine, babe; don't worry about me."

She went back to the blowjob, and after another minute, she tried deep-throating him again. She went as long as she could before needing to breathe again. She coughed even more this time, which got Walt worried.

"Honey, take it easy," said Walt. "I do like it, but I don't want you to hurt yourself over it."

"I'm sorry, babe, I got into it a little too much," she said as she stood back up. "You can take me to bed and ravish me now if you like."

Tracy got on the bed and got herself ready for Walt to join her.

"Are you sure about it?" he asked. "As much as I want to fuck you, you don't seem yourself right now. I'm concerned about what's going on with you."

"Babe, I'm sorry I've been such a bitch to you, and sorry I've been acting strange. But I assure you, I'm alright. I just want to have fantastic sex with my man by letting him use me as his willing sex slave."

"Well, I don't like the term slave," he said. "But alright, let's do this."

Walt got the rest of his clothes off and jumped on the bed with Tracy. They held each other close as they began kissing and rolling around the bed, groping each other. Walt got her on her back and began kissing her down her neck all the way to her breasts, where he pulled off her bra and spent some time kissing them and sucking on her nipples. She loved the way Walt played with her nipples; it always sent a charge through her body all the way down to her pussy. She was thinking how she missed doing this with him and asked herself why it had been so long since they'd been so intimate together.

He began kissing her down her body again until his head was between her legs. He got her panties off and was ready to go down on her before she stopped him.

"No, you don't have to do that," she said and moved away from him.

"It's ok, I don't mind," said Walt. "I like doing it, and you always said I was the best at it."

"Yes, you are, but... you can't," she said.

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Because... I don't know... I really, really don't know why I'm turning this down," she said. She had never turned down head from her husband before; now, all of a sudden, she was entirely against it.

"Honey, I thought you said I was in charge right now," said Walt.

"Yes, you are."

"Then if I'm in charge and I want to do this, shouldn't you let me do it?"

"Yes... Yes, I think so..." she said. She wasn't sure why, but what Walt just said somehow overwrote whatever it was that was making her against getting oral.

Walt wasn't sure what was going on with Tracy, but he felt maybe if he went down on her, it would make her feel a little better. She opened her legs wide for him, and he put his head right between them. He stuck out his tongue and began by lightly licking her pussy, getting her warmed up, and teasing her for what's about to come soon.

"Oh, babe, oh my," she said softly. "This feels so good."

Her pussy was getting warmer and wetter by the second, and he could sense her panting heavily. That's when he began to lash out his tongue like a hurricane, moving it around in every possible way he could think of to giver her the most pleasure. Tracy's body began to shake as she clenched the bedsheets beneath her and moaned heavily.

"Yes! Yes! Please, keep going! I'm almost there!" She cried out.

Walt worked her pussy harder than he ever did with her before. His tongue was doing things he never thought it could do. He missed the taste of her pussy; he wished he had gone down on her more often when they were married. It wasn't long before Tracy's body arched upward as an orgasm surged through her body, and she let out an ear-piercing scream.

"OH MY GOD!!! YESSSS!!!" She screamed.

When she settled down, Walt moved back up her body and began kissing her again. He didn't want to wait any longer; he wanted to fuck her more than he ever wanted to fuck his own wife before. Before he did, he quickly got off of her, opened the top drawer, and pulled out the box of condoms. The moment was ruined when Tracy stopped what they were doing and grabbed the condom box from his hand and tossed it away.

"No condoms," she said.

"But we always use--"

"No condoms," she repeated.

"Are you on the pill again?"

"Yes," she said.

It wasn't true at all, but once again she felt compelled to do and say something she never would say. She wanted to tell him she was wrong about that, but something was preventing her from telling him the truth about it. She wasn't sure about her period's timing this month; she could get pregnant right now, but she was too distracted by what was going on to do the proper math needed to determine if she was ovulating.

"Wait, is that why you're acting so funny?" Walt asked. "I remember you stopped using the pills because of how they affected your mood."

"You know what? That must be it," she said. "Mystery solved. Fuck me without a condom, please."

Walt was satisfied with the answer, but not with how she phrased it. But he has gone this far, so he might as well keep going. He got back on top of Tracy, who again opened her legs wide for him, and shoved his dick right into her pussy. He held it there for a few seconds, enjoying the feel of her pussy engulfing his dick. Although he had fucked her hundreds of times before, it had been so long since they'd been together intimately, it was like he was enjoying the feel of her pussy for the first time all over again. Even Tracy couldn't believe how wonderful it felt. She didn't care anymore why she was behaving the way she was; she just wanted to enjoy having sex with her husband.

He started fucking her slowly at first, and it seemed like she was enjoying it until she begged him to do a lot more. He did as she begged him to do and fucked her harder and faster. She began to let out small moans of pleasure every time he pushed himself into her body.

"Oh yes! Oh yes! Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me!" she cried out. "Please don't stop fucking me! Don't stop fucking your obnoxious bitch wife who doesn't know how good she has it."

Both Walt and Tracy were surprised by what she had just said. Walt wasn't going to say anything about it this time; he continued fucking her even though that comment was on his mind right now. Tracy was also glad Walt didn't say anything about what she said. She was surprised she would say such a thing about herself. But she did her best to put it out of her mind as she just lay back and enjoyed having sex with Walt.

Walt kept going and going, using every bit of strength he had to fuck her as hard as he could. He was getting tired but refused to stop even for a moment. Tracy had never felt her pussy being pounded so much before; it was like her husband had turned into a jackhammer. After a few more minutes, she screamed as another orgasm rocked her body. Walt smiled as he was proud of himself for a job well done.

Walt was starting to get tired out, so he decided to slow down a little. Tracy took this moment to make Walt get on his back. She began riding him, grinding her pussy around his dick in gentle motion, while Walt just lay back and let her take the reins. She started moving faster, riding him like a mechanical bull. Tracy had been on top of him many times before, but he had never seen her behave so wildly like this. Her tits were bouncing around, and her hair was flying everywhere; it was like seeing a whole new woman on top of him. After several minutes, Tracy suddenly stopped as another orgasm shot through her body.

When she began to relax a little bit, Walt made her get off of him and get on her hands and knees. He got behind her, grabbed her hips, and shoved his dick back into her. He began fucking her again. She moaned heavily as her pussy was taking the pounding of a lifetime. After eight long months of satisfying his own needs in the shower, Walt was taking out his sexual frustration on her.

"Oh yes! Fuck me! Punish me! I deserve to be punished!" she yelled.

Walt began spanking her ass, and when he saw how much she loved it, he spanked her some more.

"Fucking whore!" he yelled at her. "You need to be punished for holding out on me for so long."

He spanked her some more and called her an assortment of other names he never thought he'd say to her. Normally, Tracy only liked a little name-calling, but this time she was enjoying being verbally assaulted this way; there was something fun and thrilling about being treated like a total slut. She begged him for more, and he began going even harder on her as he pulled back her hair. Her face was turning a bright red color as she was screaming in ecstasy.

"Yes, keep fucking me! Punish me! I deserve this!" she yelled. "I'm a shitty who you should've thrown out of the house a long time ago! You can do a whole lot better than me!"

"Whoa! Hold on there," Walt said as he stopped fucking her. "Where the hell did that come from?"

He let go of how she was putting herself down a couple of times earlier, but he felt this was going too far. He was now seriously concerned about his wife's mental state.

"I... I... don't know," she said. "It felt like something I needed to confess."

"That was a little much," he told her. "Tracy, we may not have had the perfect marriage lately, but I don't think you're a shitty wife, and I don't think I can do better than you."

"Really?" she asked. "I know I can be a handful and very demanding."

"Well, I should have at least said something a long time ago about it," said Walt. "Maybe we should seek counseling? I don't want to split up, but maybe we just need to talk to someone to smooth things over."

"I think that's a great idea," she said. "Do you want to stop now and discuss this some more?"

Walt realized that despite the little conversation he was having with his wife, he was still behind his wife with his dick still inside of her and was ready to keep going.

"Let's finish this and then discuss it in the morning," he answered.

"Good idea."

He continued fucking her doggy style. They resumed the dirty talk but took the name-calling down a notch. Walt was worried she was going to say something strange again, but it didn't happen, so he got to enjoy himself without having to worry about her.

He turned her around on her back and got on top of her. He knew he was going to finish soon and wanted to look her in the eye when he came inside of her. He fucked her hard as she held him close with her nails digging into his back.

"Give it to me, babe, give it all to me," she said. "Fill me up; I want my pussy flooded with your seed."

He held off as much as he could, but suddenly, with one last thrust into her, Walt shot his hot load right into her pussy. He managed to get himself to slowly fuck her for another minute before his dick finally went limp and he pulled out of her. When he was done, he pulled out of her and got on his back. After a moment to relax and breathe, Tracy moved to lay her head on Walt's chest as he held her.

"Wow," he said. "What came over you tonight?"

"I really don't know; I just felt like I had to have sex with you," she said. "By the way, I have to confess something. I lied; I'm not on the pill."

"Really?"

"I didn't mean to at the moment; I just felt compelled to do this without a condom, and somehow, I lied about the pill. I really don't know why I did that. I'm sorry."

Walt laughed a little. "It's alright; I'm sure we'll be fine."

"While I'm still apologizing for everything, I'm sorry about some of the weird things I said."

"It's alright," he told her. "But we should definitely see a counselor. I think it will make things better between us."

"Of course," she said. "Also, maybe I can stop working so hard. I am so obsessed with moving up the corporate ladder I think it's having a negative effect on our marriage."

"And maybe I should speak up more about any issue I have," he said. "I've been trying to stay quiet to avoid arguments, but I think if I just said something, we could've resolved any issues we have long ago."

"Looks like we both have things to work on in counseling."

"What do you want to do now?" he asked.

That's when Tracy suddenly sat up on the bed. She got another strange feeling to suddenly do something at that moment.

"I'm going to make you a sandwich," she said.

"What?" Walt asked, worried that his wife was going to act strange again.

"I'm going to make you a sandwich and bring it right to you," she said as she got off the bed.

"Honey, we just had dinner earlier, you don't have to--"

"I insist," she said. "I'm going to make you a sandwich. Do you want something to drink with it?"

"Um, I guess a soda can," he said.

"Great, I'll be right back."

She left the room, still naked. Walt wasn't sure why she insisted on making him a sandwich, but he wasn't going to question it. He'd just take the sandwich and worry about his wife later. He was going to talk to her about marriage counseling in the morning, but maybe also if she needed to speak to someone about her behavior as well.

ONE WEEK LATER

Rita was done with the laundry, especially ironing Raymond's shirts. They take turns doing the laundry, but she always did the ironing because of how bad Raymond was at it. They did their best to share all the chores, but she didn't mind taking the lead on this one to make sure the clothes didn't get burned, which did happen a couple of times when Raymond tried to iron. But he did a few other things around the apartment that she couldn't do, so that made up for it.

Raymond had just gotten home from meeting Walt at the gym. He quickly changed his clothes in time to help Rita put the laundry away.

"How was the gym?" Rita asked.

"Good, we had a great workout," said Raymond. "Especially Walt, who has been full of energy lately."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, apparently things have been good between him and Tracy lately."

"Wow, I wonder what happened," she said, trying to hold back a smile.

"Yeah, they've been having a lot of sex, too much sex according to Walt."

"Good for him," she said.

"And they just started seeing a marriage counselor to resolve some of their issues."

"Oh, wonderful," she said happily.

"You're really happy for them?" Raymond asked. "You used to say a lot of shit about her. In fact, a few times you said you can't wait for their marriage to be over."

"I was just upset with her," said Rita. "If she's willing to go to a counselor and make things better between them, then I'm all for it."

"That's good to hear," said Raymond as he finished putting away the last of his laundry. "By the way, I need to tell you something very important."

"Excuse me?"

"We need to get rid of that voodoo doll."

Rita was just about to put away her underwear in her dresser when he said that. Now she was just standing there with some bras in her hand, staring at her boyfriend, wondering what to do next. Should she confess or try to deny everything? A lot of different ideas came to mind, but she was taking too long to say anything, so Raymond had to speak up.

"I'm taking from your long silence you know what I'm talking about and questioning whether or not you should admit what you've done."

"How did you know?" she asked.

Raymond told her how last week, when he was doing the dishes, he ran out of dish detergent and couldn't find another bottle he knew they had because they just got one the other day. He went to find Rita, and that's when he heard her from behind the bathroom door talking to herself. It took him a moment to realize she was talking to the voodoo dolls and giving them commands to give to Tracy. He listened to her giving the doll her commands, thinking it was funny how she thought something like this would actually work.

He walked away before she finished so she wouldn't realize he was listening in on her. He ended up finding the dish detergent himself, so he finished the dishes before she got back to him. He decided not to tell her what he had heard so she wouldn't feel too embarrassed by it. He had completely forgotten about it until he spoke to Walt today about how things changed with Tracy, especially that night a week ago when they had wild sex for the first time in months.

Walt told Raymond some of the details about and as he spoke, he realized these were some specific details he heard Tracy say to the doll. At first, he thought it was just a coincidence, but as Walt continued talking about that night more, he realized how this was no mere coincidence. Raymond couldn't hear everything Rita commanded the doll to do, but it was definitely enough to convince Raymond this it was all Tracy's doing.

"Wow, it actually worked?" Rita asked. "I wasn't sure how I was going to find out about it."

"Yeah, it worked alright," said Raymond. "By the way, didn't you think it was weird to get a woman to sexually satisfy your own brother in a very specific way? Also, be ready, because I have more questions to follow."

Rita did not feel ready for those questions, but she felt she had no choice in the matter. She put the bras that were still in her hand away and sat on the bed. Raymond sat next to her so he could have this very strange conversation with her about using a voodoo doll.

"Yeah, I did think it was very weird, but I wanted to help my brother," she said. "I was afraid he was going to end up getting a divorce, and she'll try to take everything. I thought a good night of sex would somehow make things better between them."

"Alright, that's understandable, and it did work," said Raymond. "As for those commands, there were a lot of very specific details," he said. "The things she had done and said to him. You got her to say she wanted to be his willing sex slave."

"Yeah, I may have gone too far on some of the details. Not very feminist of me, I know."

"I'll say; you even told her to make him a sandwich after sex," he said, laughing. "Why did you do that?"

"Isn't that a thing guys like to see their women do? Make them a sandwich?"

Raymond laughed. "I have never expected you or any woman I used to be with to randomly make me a sandwich for no reason. That's something you may see joked about on a TV sitcom or something."

Rita laughed with Raymond on that one.

"And there were crazier things you told her to do. You told her to refuse a condom," said Raymond. "She's not on the pill, you know."

"Oh, shit!" Rita cried out. "I just know guys like it better without a condom. I didn't think about if she was on the pill or not.

"Relax, she had her period. She's not going to get pregnant."

"Oh, thank God," she said with relief. "I like the idea of being an aunt, but not by trickery."

"Then you told her to say some weird shit, like she's a shitty wife and stuff like that," said Raymond. "I know you don't like her, but that was a bit much."

"What did you just say?" Rita asked. "What did she say exactly?"

"If I remember, Walt said near the end she screamed out about how she was a shitty wife who he should've thrown out of the house long ago and he could do a lot better than her."

Rita was in shock after hearing this unique detail.

"I never told her to say that," she said.

"For real?"

"I swear, I never gave a command for to say anything she was a shitty wife," she continued. "I think that was all her."

"What are you saying?"

"I think she was saying it on her own," said Rita. "Maybe deep down she always felt that way, and in the moment, she said how she felt, like she knew she wasn't a good wife for him."

"Whoa," said Raymond. "Well, it seemed to work. They're going to counseling and we don't need that doll anymore."

"Are you sure?" she said. "Shouldn't we hold on to it a little longer, just in case?"

"Rita, that's some serious power there. Even if Tracy doesn't become a better person, it's not right to control her like that. Do I need to explain the Spider-Man responsibility quote to you?"

"No, please don't," she said. It was a good quote, but she heard it enough times after so many movies. "Ok, you're right. We'll get rid of it right now."

They got the doll from the old box it was still in. They decided not to throw it away or destroy it because they had no idea how it would affect Tracy. Being crushed in a garbage can could probably kill her. Rita had a theory on how to safely get rid of the doll and tried it out. She commanded the doll to release its connection to Tracy and to no longer be used to control her in any anyway. Soon after she said that, the bloodstain, left over from when Tracy accidentally pricked her finger, disappeared. Rita and Raymond were both surprised that it just disappeared like that.

They both decided they shouldn't throw the doll away; they first needed to make sure Tracy's connection to the doll was definitely severed. They also didn't want to risk someone finding it in the garbage or some other way. Even if they didn't know what it was, there was still a chance it could accidentally cause someone harm. They decide to just lock it away and figure out how to properly dispose of it another time.

EPILOGUE -- SIX MONTHS LATER

Rita and Raymond were at Walt and Tracy's house. They were celebrating Raymond finally proposing to Rita after so many years together. They had a big dinner and plenty of wine. All except for Tracy, who was three months pregnant.

During counseling, when things were getting better between Tracy and Walt, they discussed that night when she didn't want him to use a condom with her. She thought maybe on some subconscious level she wanted a baby with him, and after some discussion they decided to just go for it.

Tracy was showing off the sonogram pictures to Rita, who was in awe of what she was seeing.

"Oh my god, it's so cute," said Rita. "I have no idea what it will look like when it's born, but I know it's going to be adorable."

"I am so excited," said Tracy. "I have a big book of ideas of what I want to do for the nursery."

"She's not joking," said Walt. "She can now write her own book of nursery room ideas if she wants to."

Not only have things gotten better between Tracy and Walt, but she and Rita have also become much more friendly. She even apologized to Rita for how bitchy she was to her over the last few years. Now they were always talking on the phone, going shopping, and doing other things together as if they were real sisters. During dinner, Rita even agreed to help throw Tracy's baby shower.

While Walt and Tracy took the dishes away to the kitchen, Raymond decided he had to ask Rita about the happy couple they were seeing.

"So, they're definitely happy? You had nothing to do with this?" He asked.

"Yes, this is all of them," Rita assured him. "It's always been there; I just helped bring it to the surface by making sure they have one night of fun."

"Ok, just making sure," said Raymond. "I guess we can find a way to get rid of the doll now."

"Yes, of course," said Rita.

She was sure she should get rid of the doll, but deep down she was wondering if she should keep it. Just in case Tracy starts misbehaving again.