Freya laughed at her companion's jokes. She was having breakfast with her chief competition in this race, Godfrey Honeysuckle, in a secluded lunch area next to a park near the racetrack. Godfrey wasn't a driver; but he was funding one, and it was he with whom Benjamin had made his bet over his accumulated fortune.
In the distance, she could see her pit crew getting into her car, doing their final inspections. Of course, when they got out, her men had been transformed into adorable sissy maids, each with a white-and-black checkerboard pattern embroidered into their frilly skirts.
It felt weird, laughing and joking with this man that Benjamin counted as a close personal friend, while Freya had never met him. Yet it seemed only yesterday they had been at school together launching hot wheels cars across homemade tracks. Now he was in his early 20s with a thick brown beard and striking green eyes.
"So my dear, you are still confident in your victory today?" Godfrey asked, smirking quietly to himself. "You know I have spared no expense in producing your competition. I have assembled the finest drivers and the finest cars. Even vehicles, as we agreed, that would be disqualified from international competitions because of unproven technology."
Freya laughed and flicked her hair, replying simply, "I've got this race in the bag."
"Ahh, your confidence never ceases to amaze me." He produces his cell phone from his pocket.
"Then perhaps you would like to increase the bet?"
"Oh?"
He handed her the cell phone. On it, there was a picture of a pair of wooden stocks erected on a sidewalk.
"I'm having them built on the sidewalk outside my building on wall street. Just for you."
Freya looked up at him red faced and handed his phone back.
"Uhmm.. what?"
"Oh my dear Freya. After I saw your tiktok video last night, I was struck by inspiration I just couldn't refuse. I've always assumed you were sexless.. but that isn't the case. It's the humiliation that arouses you, isn't it?"
"You saw that?" Freya's face burned as she remembered. Growing up, she had been beautiful, and so many men had courted her only to break it off when they found out her body didn't have sexual organs. Her hard, carbon composite exterior just didn't have orifices that could be penetrated, and she'd never had sexual impulses herself. Nobody had ever figured it out and she hadn't been motivated to explain it. The dares, the blowjobs.. those had never been sexual, just about her humiliation. And nobody had figured it out until now.
"Yes my dear. I have desired you ever since I became a man. I watched so many people chase you only to suffer rejection.. I thought you just weren't interested in men. But when I saw this.. I finally realized it. It's not men you want. It's humilation, no?"
"So I want to increase our bet.", Godfrey continued. "If I win, I don't just want everything you own. I want you. And in return I'll lock you up on wall street for everyone to see. I'll use my media companies to make sure your tiktok video is on nationwide TV. And I'll make sure every blogger and social media influencer in New York is there to plaster your face all across the internet. You will be the spank material for a generation of teenagers worldwide."
Freya found her self burning up, she rubbed her legs together to no avail. These things were saying.. they weren't true... they weren't true for Jeff, anyway, or Benjamin, or Freya. But now... now they were true, because of the changes she had made and the way the Chronivac had altered history to make her fit. These memories, the frustration, all so real, and the humiliation he offered was everything she could ever desire.
"You.. you can't do it though. You can't own me." Freya gasped out.
"Well, that's true for now. But there's not really precedent for you, is there? I have a team of lawyers working on it. Limiting human rights to those who aren't cybernetically enhanced. Your parents' experimentation was remarkable, and their insistence you be treated as human was admirable. But my lawyers assure me that, if you were to give testimony to support their claims, we could win the lawsuit and reduce you to nothing more than an object."
Freya moaned.. yes.. being stripped of her humanity, being reduced to an object, being literally owned by her childhood friend, what could be more humiliating than that.
"And what do I get if I win?" Freya asked.
"My dear Freya, be serious here. If what I say happens, that is you winning. So I'm not going to change a thing. We both know you're the best driver in the world. By any measure of the imagination you should win. The only way you're going to lose, is if you let yourself be overcome by your imagination.. if you see that what is best for you is the future I promise. The only way you're going to lose this race is if you LET me win, and I want you to have that memory, to know that you did all of this to yourself, for the rest of your life."