The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

All the Fun of the Fair

Part 1

Sophie’s Story — Magic Tent

Darkness swirls around me, a black mist seeping out of the silver fog, spreading like an inkstain until my vision is blocked completely. I spin and tumble in the darkness, fear shooting through my heart until I see a thin tunnel of pale light before me. A way out of this darkness, the only way I can go. I follow it with desperation, my heart jumping in panic when it gets fainter and sighing with relief when it becomes more clear. I see a tent at the end of the light tunnel, and I go nearer and nearer. It is dark blue, covered in stars. A tall thin man in formal attire, with a wiry mustache and a creepy grin gestures for me to enter. But as I move to he takes off his top hat and holds it out to me, expecting me to put something in. I ask him what he wants and he replies “You’ll see…”

Every year my town had a festival, with sports and parades and bonfires. And there’d always be a fair. This never changed. There would be rides, tents, amusements and distractions. Every year I went along with friends, and since we were about to go into our final year of high school, it was much the same, just more immature than the previous year, that and sneaking more alcohol in with us. We usually did a few rides, ate lots of junk food, and blew the rest of our money on arcades and sideshows. This was a time of freedom, of fun, and that thought weighed heavily on my heart. Summer was halfway through, I had one more year of school before everyone was going to be going their separate ways. I never wanted that to happen, I felt I had just found the most amazing group of friends, and I didn’t want them to leave…

But now wasn’t the time for such thoughts. I was here with everyone and I was going to enjoy it, like I wanted to enjoy every day with them. This year was the biggest fair I’d seen in years. As the town had grown, so, too, had the number of visiting amusements and the number of people, though there were always familiar faces among them. More rides, bigger arcades, and a whole bunch of attractions I’d never seen before. The ones that stood out were the fancy old looking tents that had been pitched at the furthest and darkest end of the fair. Nothing lay beyond them but miles of fields and farmlands, so in the rapidly dimming light they looked like they were perched on the edge of the world. They caught my eye and I told myself I’d check them out once the usual fun and games had made me too queasy to do anything that involved much movement.

After three consecutive rides on something that spun an ungodly amount, I grabbed my best friend Emily’s arm (partly for balance) and declared in my finest mock posh voice “Come dear Emily, let us leave the gentlemen to their games and we shall explore the unknown!”

“Why certainly, darling Sophie!” Emily replied eagerly, almost being caught off balance by my clutching arm. Steve and the rest of the boys told us they’d find us after they gambled away the rest of their coins, and we proceeded to start walking slowly and cautiously towards the tents in the distance.

“Ohh, a dollmaker!” Emily cooed as we got close enough to start reading signs.

“Oh no, look who’s going in there, that’s Allison Miller.” I said in horror. “There’s no way I can stand being in the same room as her for more than a microsecond!”

“I don’t think a tent counts as a room you know” Emily pointed out, but I wasn’t paying attention as another tent had caught my eye. It was dark blue and covered in stars. Why was it so familiar? I was certain I hadn’t seen any of these tents here in previous years…

Curiosity took control of me now and I steered Emily towards it, saying “There, that one.”

She commented on how pretty it was as I led her past the sign that said ‘The Sorceror’s Store’ and into the tent.

Upon entering the tent, we were somewhat underwhelmed. It was hard to hide the fact that it was a hastily set up moving shop rather than a place of mystic beauty. There were a few flickering candles but the tent was mostly lit by a harsh fluorescent light. Tables encircled the tent’s perimeter, save for two gaps, one for the entrance we just walked through and another that led to a dark back area. There was a smaller counter in the middle of the tent with an antique cash register surrounded by some small trinkets.

Currently serving a customer was a girl who looked only a couple of years older than me. She had several piercings in her ears and a few more on her face, all silver charms that were striking against her ebony skin and midnight black hair. She was wearing a beautiful black dress that sparkled like the night sky. Countless tattoos adorned her flesh wherever skin was showing, including what looked like dark violet Celtic symbols upon one side of her face. These drew my attention more than the bright red rose on her shoulder or the skull and serpent on her forearm. Everything about her I found fascinating, she certainly outshone the contents of the shop without any difficulty. Her eyes locked onto mine for a moment, they were incredibly dark, the iris indistinguishable from the pupil at this distance. Yet there was something about them… It felt like I couldn’t look away. It was only Emily talking to me that made me able to take my eyes off her.

“Look at this stuff, it’s so cheesy.” She grinned, waving a fake wand around before making it go from rigid to droopy with the click of a hidden button.

“Yeah” I murmured, “where do they keep the real magic?” It wasn’t that some of the items on display weren’t impressive, and there were some spiritual stones and empowerment cards I would have considered buying had I not spent so much money already, but the feeling I got from the outside was that this place was so much more than what I could see before me.

I looked around the whole shop, peering into the dark back room as I passed, completely unable to see anything within. Disappointed, I continued round the tent, looking over the bland looking tricks and amateur level guidebooks until I found myself at the exit again. The customer who had been buying something had left and I turned to see Emily still perusing the wares.

“Hey lovely” I called after her, “you ready to go? There’s nothing much here.” She didn’t turn round though, like she’s off in a world of her own. It was only then that I notice the assistant had been standing right next to me for the last few moments. I jumped in surprise, and tried to remember how long she’d been there.

“I can sense that you’re a dreamer, and that you wish to see our real magic...” The assistant girl says with a sly smile as she watches my astonished face. Up close like this, I can see her enticing eyes much clearer. They were a deep, dark brown, but somehow I keep expecting to see amber, and that’s the image I’m left with as I turn away in embarrassment.

“How did you—” I start to say, turning back and hoping my checks aren’t too red, but she puts a finger over her lips and I find I’m no longer able to speak.

“Your friend is in a lovely daze, she will circle the tent until you return and won’t even know that you’ve been gone. What you seek is in the back room. Go there now…” the assistant winks at me and then returns to the register, smiling away to herself like she’s being kept amused by a private joke. I don’t trust her. Of course I don’t trust her, but the back room is right there, and dazed or not, Emily is right here.

I can feel in my mind my common sense being held by the arms by my curiosity and punched in the stomach by my desire to see what it is they think I seek. I step towards the back room and see that the way is now lit by dim candlelight. The deep blue fabric tent walls are hardly the most dramatic thing, but I still feel a sense of wonder and excited thrill overcome me as I turn a corner to see the magic shop I wanted to see in the first place.

It’s breathtaking. Marvelous contraptions fill the floor while sparkling trinkets and dull artifacts line antiquated tables. The way dust and cobwebs hang makes me wonder how long the place has been like this… If it’s a moving fair then either the dust and cobwebs are added for affect or this shop isn’t actually in a portable tent. As I have that thought the blue tent edges seem to dissolve in front of my eyes, revealing a cracked white wall with dark wooden borders. A window shows a sky full of stars and nothing else, and I can tell that my eyes are deceiving me there too, I just can’t see through that one. The same with those eyes on the sales assistant just now…

“Ah, good, you have a mind too sharp for simple illusions.” A disembodied voice speaks from behind me. I spin around trying to see the speaker but he’s nowhere in the room; I could have sworn the voice came from within arm’s length.

“You’re right there, aren’t you? You’ve hidden yourself with another illusion.” I say, trying to hide my fear.

“Clever girl” the voice says, and then a tall thin man appears before my eyes, unraveling himself from a jet black cloak. He towers over me and I find myself startled by his features. A wiry moustache, a toothy grin, a long, hooked nose, and wild, piercing eyes, all shadowed by his top hat that almost brushes the ceiling when sat atop his head. His stage magician’s formal attire, heck- his entire appearance may just be another illusion, but at least I could see him now.

“You have the dreamer’s eye, that’s good, very good.” The tall man says, tweaking his moustache and appraising me like I’m a commodity to be bought or sold.

“What do you want?” I ask.

“It is what you want that is of interest here.” The tall man replies innocently. “I am merely an eccentric shopkeeper, and a keeper of the ancient arts.”

“Yeah…” I reply cautiously. This is all almost too weird for me, but I’m still too curious to back out now.

“Take a look around, enjoy! Come see me when you have found what you seek. Don’t worry, you’ll know it when you see it.” With this, the magician shopkeeper or whoever the hell he’s supposed to be wanders behind a table and starts looking through a large book, occasionally glancing up at me and offering a wide, unsettling smile.

Feeling like I wasn’t in any danger, yet surrounded by dangerous things and even more dangerous people, I decided to calmly peruse the items in the shop. Many things completely intrigued me, from what appeared to be real spell books with different compliments of spells, to magic wands that I could feel hum with power just by looking at them.

There were certain contraptions and otherworldly object that I couldn’t even wrap my head around. There were ingredient bottles, presumably for potions, that defied anything I’d ever seen in a science book. There were crystal balls which even by just glancing at them allowed me to see my friends, the president, anyone who I thought about in the moment.

Then there was the pendant.

It hung innocently from the edge of a wax covered lectern. It was old tarnished brass, intricately carved, the metal flowing around and framing a giant crystal that was darker than any black I had ever seen. I tentatively gripped the fine chain and picked it up, holding it before my eyes.

The black crystal changed before my eyes, the darkness in it dissolving away like toxic smoke into perfect water until what was left was a sparkling gem so bright and colorful that I could feel my heart hammer as I held it.

“Don’t look away” said a voice a mere inch from my ear. I wanted to jump away from the creepy magician who had clearly snuck up on me, but I could no more move than I could fly. My eyes were transfixed upon the crystal, a shimmering rainbow of light now dancing into my eyes and penetrating my mind.

“Now remember.” Whispered the voice lovingly as I felt long bony fingers run through my hair.

The dream came flooding back to me in a torrent. The swirling darkness, threatening to engulf me. The tunnel of light, my only escape. The tent at the end, my last hope of refuge. And then the thin magician behind me, the gatekeeper of my freedom.

He had held out his hat, and I had asked what he wanted from me.

“Your mind, your body, and your soul.” He had replied, flashing that toothy grin he had greeted me with minutes earlier.

I had felt the darkness chasing me, not wanting me to escape. My mind, body, and soul had seemed like a heavy price at the time, but not as heavy as being engulfed and devoured by the darkness.

“Anything! Anything!” I had cried in a panic within the dream. The magician had just grinned wider still and held out his hat closer to me. Understanding, I had feverishly climbed into the opening, which expanded to fit me easily.

“Yes, my dear, you remember well.” Whispered the voice in my ear. His boney fingers now circled around my neck from behind, and softly squeezed so that I gasped through his grip. All the while, my eyes were lost in the pendent before me, and I only just realized how slow my breathing had become, and how hot my body was feeling.

I saw the dream in my mind’s eye now like I was recalling the most vivid memory. I was in a brightly lit room, lavishly decorated with red velvet and gold plated furniture. The magician’s assistant, the ebony skinned tattooed girl from the front tent was standing naked before me. Her name was Freya, I remembered, and I saw her tattoos covered every part of her. Dragons, wolves, mysterious looking symbols of at least three different styles flowed over her body like a canvas of living art. My knees were weak looking at her, and my breath heavy, and full of lust.

She had walked up to me, slowly, each moment sending shivers of anticipation through my waiting, still body. Her eyes were a bright amber, like the glow of a candle’s flame. Her gaze poured into me and I stared back, feeling a wetness spread between my legs as my heart pumped with exhilaration. I didn’t know exactly why I couldn’t move in that moment, but I figured it was something to do with obedience at climbing into the magician’s hat. I was in his domain now.

As Freya undressed me, she whispered words that swirled around me and then through me. I didn’t recognize the language, and I wasn’t sure it was even a language, it sounded more like an incantation. As she spoke the words, my mind felt a tug, like certain thoughts were being shifted, others cast out entirely.

“You can try and fight it…” Freya cooed into my ear invitingly, breaking her chants for a moment. “It mean’s more pleasure for me, but you will succumb. They always succumb.” She went back to her mystical recitation, a dull noise that seemed to fade away into nothing as Freya slowly moved around me, peeling my clothes off like she were carefully unwrapping a present. It was like a slow, sensual dance, and I felt arousal grow within me the longer it went on.

I had escaped the darkness of my dreams, and now I belonged to the magician. This felt right, it made sense to me the way everything does while in the dream. But as I stood in the magic shop and felt the magician slip his bone white fingers underneath my clothes, it felt as though my dream was being drawn out of my mind, trying to replace my waking reality.

The part of my mind that had protested even entering the tent in the first place was now making itself heard over everything else going on. The dancing spectrum from the dangling pendent, Freya’s dream chants, both tried to drown out the voice of dissent, but it fought hard.

You need to run now, it ordered me with desperate urgency. I know you don’t want to, I know this feels nice, but it’s the honey of the trap. This isn’t a trick, they are in your mind and you are about to lose it unless you fight back.

In the dreamspace, I was now naked, blank and motionless before Freya. She was kneeling before me, her midnight lips promising untold pleasure if I just stayed still like a good girl, like a good slave.

The word slave echoed through my mind with the menace of a rattlesnake. The voice of resistance was right; I was in danger of losing myself. Of losing everything.

Fight! Resist! Move!

My elbow holding the pendant was the first part of me to listen and carry out my will. It snapped back hard, both whipping the glowing gem of the pendent out of view, and also connecting to the magician’s face with a sickening crack. The hands that were creeping up my torso suddenly retreated from under my top and I didn’t turn to see the magician clutching his broken nose, as his howl of pain was enough.

I felt dizzy, disorientated, like I was still waking up from a deep and disturbed dream, but I forced myself to stumble forwards, fighting through the grogginess the entire time. I heard heavy footsteps behind me; broken nose or not, the magician was going to try and stop my escape. I grabbed the nearest wand to me and threw over the table on which it sat. It topple behind me and I was pushed forwards by the sudden burst of energy as a dozen blasts of stored magic erupted back into the shop in complete chaos. The passageway between the front tent and back room seemed several times as long on the way out, but by the time I reached the front shop my head had cleared significantly and I had formed a rather rushed but plausible plan.

Freya turned to face me, a quizzical look on her features. Her eyes were still dark brown, but amber was starting to seep through, like the illusion was weakening, or I was getting better at seeing through it. I had no time to focus on that right now, instead I pushed her against her sales counter and held the stolen wand to her face.

“Get out of my head!” I scream in a fury I didn’t realise I had. There were two random customers in the shop who jumped in panic at my sudden appearance and aggression. And then there was Emily, who seemed to have shaken out of her daze with a similar jolt.

“Sophie! What’re you doing?!” she cried in shock. “Let her go.”

Ignoring her, I stared down Freya. The illusion on her features was making her look calm and controlled, but I knew that to be another trick.

“You can’t stop him… He’s too… powerful!” Freya uttered in a strained voice, as though it was a great effort to speak the words.

“We’ll see about that! You’re coming with me!” I snarl defiantly. “Come on Em, there’s no time to explain, just trust me!”

I push Freya in front of me, wand held threateningly to her back and briskly maneuver her out of the shop. Emily looks panic stricken, but decides in that moment to follow close behind me. I get out of the tent, seeing the fair in one direction, empty fields in another. But then I notice that behind the bright glowing rides is a labyrinth of caravans, where all the fair workers sleep once the fair closes. Even as I march towards them, prisoner in front, friend behind, I feel an ineffable pull back towards the tent we just left.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I feel darkness approaching.