Sondra's head jerked up in surprise, a rather shocked look on her face from the sound of Linnis's raised voice. She had never seen Linnis be quite this vocal before. But what really surprised her the most was what Linnis was saying.

Jumping to her feet, Sondra ran over to Linnis and wrapped her arms around her in a gentle, loving embrace.

She still loves me...After all that I had done to her, she still loves me...

"Linny, I am deeply sorry for not waiting for you...It was wrong of me not to do so...but when you disappeared, it wasn't that I expected you to just stay away. I trust in you enough to know that you would never to stay away by choice. Neither do I believe that to be the case for Meru. No, I was afraid that, like her, someone...or some thing...was keeping you away by force."

A deep depression suddenly overcame Sondra, and her body began to shake like a tree full of leaves during a hurricane, while tears poured down her face, as she recalled the painful memories of all the friends and roommates she had lost over the years. They were like sisters to her, each and every one...and each time she lost one of her sisters, a piece of herself would be lost along with them.

"A-and you and Meru were not the only ones...Not by far. Every roommate I ever had...every friend that I've ever made...have all disappeared. One by one...day by day...year after year...everyone I know, everyone I meet...simply vanishes, never to be seen again. After being on this island and seeing this happen for...how long have I been here? Four, five years now, I think...Kim and Madison are the only two friends I have left from my very first year here at Shokushu."

"So you see, my love, it's not that I don't trust you or believe in you...It's just that seeing everyone who's ever meant anything to me vanish without a trace on such a disturbingly frequent basis...well...it's things like that that kinda makes someone lose hope after a while...Sometimes I think I'm just cursed..."

I held her close, stroked her hair, rubbed the faux ears a little out of habit, just trying to comfort her. She had lost so much, so many times, and it was plain unfair. "We'll both gradiate soon, right? They probably all just went home, and we'll find them then. I know if it weren't for you, I'd search night and day for a way out of this hellhole, maybe they all found one?" How little I knew, but it seemed to make sense to me, and it might give her hope.

"I don't know about that, Linny...If they had all left of their own free will, they would have all said their goodbyes before they went home, and I would have seen them off as they boarded the plane. If there had been graduation ceremonies, I would have attended them, cheering my friends and fellow classmates on as they walked down the isle...and there would have been a big party afterwards, where my friends and I would have gotten together and have a grand old time."

"But there were no ceremonies...no celebrations...no goodbyes. And if it was that they had just found a secret way out of here and took it, then...being the good friends that they were...they would have mentioned something to me about it. And besides...nothing that begins as a secret in a place like this, with so many people running around, would remain a secret for very long."

"If there was a secret way off this island, at least half the school would have found out about it by now, if not more, and the student population would be a hell of a lot smaller than it is today. No...They were simply there one day, and gone the next...with no warning, and no explanation for their disappearance, nothing...Nothing except rumors and speculation."

Sondra didn't mean to be a killjoy, but she just was recounting the facts as she saw them. Sondra had been around Shokushu long enough to trust her judgement. She knew that something very bad was happening to the students of Shokushu, and somehow the-powers-that-be that were running the place were responsible. Eventually, she'd find a way to expose Niceman's shady little operation, and when she did, a lot of students will be a lot better off...

"We just need to make it to our graduation, once we do, we can be as inquisitive as we want..." I sighed and shook my head, "There's some weird shit, here, for sure... but if they can take us for months and we don't remember a thing, they can wipe our memory of anything we learn... we have to ask questions from outside this place."

Sondra tried to fight through the whirlwind of thoughts and feelings going through her mind as she listened to Linnis, trying to figure out if and how it might be possible to do as she suggested.

"Just how do we get outside of this island to ask these questions? And, even more importantly, how do we do it without getting caught?"

It was hard getting past the thought of what might happen if they did get caught. Just how much might they remove from their minds?

Would they just take their knowledge of whatever they learned...or would they take more...Sondra shuddered at the thought of losing her memory of every friend she had loved and lost...of not knowing who the beautiful girl laying beside her was...

There could be no worse fate than that.

"We have, what, one or two semesters left? We play their game for a little longer. Graduates leave, we know that much. Seems to me the safest way to get outta here." She held up her hand with her wedding ring, "And if they take our memories of this place, you and I have an advantage - the rings. We'll know we're married, and that somethings going on instantly, and it's something small enough they won't notice. At least, they haven't yet."

Sondra nodded uncertainly. "I suppose you're right, Linny." Doubt rode on her words. So, if they do take away all of Sondra and Linnis's memories, the rings might help jog their minds a bit. 'Might' being the the key word here. They're rings they could have come from anyone and from any place.

And even if Sondra and Linnis eventually recognized the rings for what they were, would they--with all their memories taken from them--be able to make any connections? Would they be able to remember where the rings had come from, and thus remember each other and all the wonderful memories each girl had of the other?

It was almost too much to hope for, and Sondra did not have much hope left inside of her...

"Love is stronger than memory, too. Remember when we first met? We clicked instantly," I walked slowly to stand behing her and massage her upper back slightly, "Don't worry, Sondra... I'll always be with you, no matter what they do. They can take everything from us but our love, as mushy as that sounds." I was a big romantic under my layers of nymphomania.

Sondra allowed herself to smile a bit at that thought. "It doesn't sound all that mushy to me, love...and, who knows...it just might hold true. They say love conquers all. Hopefully that will prove to be the case, should they attempt to take everything we have together away from us."

Sondra was also a big romantic at heart. But she was a realist as well, and there were still some doubts as to whether or not things would work out as well as they hoped. She decided to keep her doubts to herself for now, though.

"Besides, it isn't like we can do anything about it," I smiled warmly and affectionately. I wanted to be with her forever, but on the off chance they couldn't, what good would ruining this time together be?

"I guess that's true. And that being the case..." Sondra leaned in gave Linnis a deep, passionate kiss on the lips. "...I think it's time we stopped worrying about tomorrow, and start enjoying the time we have together today."

I kissed her back longingly and gave a happy squeal. "Fuck like bunnies, then?" I asked hopefully.

"But of course, my love, what else?" With a giggle, Sondra quickly tore out of her clothes, and in the blink of an eye, her sexy little red outfit fell from her body and was left in a crumpled up heap on the floor, leaving Sondra in just her red cat ears and tail.

Too eager to wait for her wife to follow suit, Sondra began to strip Linnis out of her school uniform with lightning speed, fingers working in a blur as she undid the buttons of her blouse two at a time...

"Hell's bells, my horny kitten's eager for beaver," I was really impressed with how much overall punnage, wordplay and turns of phrase I had crammed into one sentence. It was a point of pride for me, to be sure.

"You know I'm always eager for beaver, Linny...but never so much so as I am for yours right now."

The last of the buttons came undone, and off came the blouse, followed quickly by Linny's skirt, which were pulled all the way down to her ankles. Linnis would have to remove it completely herself. Sondra stood up straight and gave Linnis another kiss on the lips that was just as intense as the last.

"Ready, love?"