The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

THE ATTACHMENT

Chapter 12

by Abacab

“Holy... shit.”

Elizabeth said nothing as she collapsed, still panting, onto his chest.

“Just... holy shit. Ohmigod... wow. That... just... wow, wow, wow, wow.”

“And... that wasn’t a dream, Jim.” She could barely find the air.

“I know, I know. But it... it all felt just like the dream. Just... about... like it. My god, I just can’t even...”

“No, what... what I meant was... last night... we didn’t dream that either... I think we actually did that last night.”

Jim hesitated. “...Yeah, I... I actually kind of knew.”

“You did?”

“I wasn’t totally sure... I guess I can’t be totally sure of anything, not when Julia has me in trance like that. But I was pretty sure, like, 95% sure that it actually happened. I guess I just didn’t want you to think I was crazy. And beyond that, if it did happen, I didn’t want you to be embarrassed, or maybe even angry with me.”

“Well, I’m definitely not angry... I’m the opposite of that, at least where you’re concerned. But I’m pretty sure it happened, because I remember dreaming that we did that three times... and now, tonight... I’m kind of a little sore.”

“Aww, fuck, no, Elizabeth... why didn’t you...”

“No, no, no, Jim... there was no way I was stopping. You felt... oh my god, you felt so good. So good. You just felt absolutely unreal inside me, just like last night. I couldn’t get enough of you, tonight, last night, whatever. Even before I knew that what happened last night really happened, I’ve just been dreaming of feeling you inside me again, all damn day. And in the end, you felt every bit as good as I remembered from what I’d thought was a dream... maybe better. I don’t know how that’s even possible, but you felt that good.“

As Elizabeth wrapped her arms further around him, she pressed her lips to his ear, nibbled lightly. Jim closed his eyes, felt himself stir all over again with her warm breath filling his ear. He turned toward her, cradling her cheek tenderly in his hand, bringing her into him, kissing her deeply, slowly, as long as she would allow him to linger. He wondered if his head would just keep spinning like that every single time she kissed him, or if that might ever stop happening.

They both laid back to catch their breath, looking at the ceiling.

“Elizabeth, I have a question.”

“Alright, shoot.”

“Why haven’t you ever shown me this side of you before?”

“What does that mean? Was I supposed to say ‘oh, hi, Jim!,’ strip down, and fuck you right off as a fine-morning-to-you in the break room?“

Elizabeth giggled. Jim’s eyes narrowed with his tired grin, dreamily turning over the pleasant image of Elizabeth, skirt flipped up, bent over the break room table, as they both waited for the coffee to get done brewing.

“No, no, I don’t just mean who you are sexually. I mean... Elizabeth, if I’d known you were anything like this... not in the bedroom, just who you’ve been generally... who you’ve been with me since we had the dream together...”

“Oh, c’mon, Jim, don’t kid yourself. You still don’t know me. You have no idea who I really am. So last night you sat and watched me get a little drunk, a little high. We had some laughs, some real laughs, at least after you got high and finally loosened up. You figured out that I might have tastes in music beyond, I don’t know, Katy Perry or Coldplay or whatever it is you thought that ‘someone like me’ would have plugged into their Pandora bookmarks. But... so what? You obviously weren’t having much of a good time with me for most of the night.

“And then, against all odds, we got hypnotized by our drunk sociopath mutual acquaintance into wanting each other, into fucking each other silly... and most of our closest time since has not exactly been spent talking. So, as close as you might feel to me right now... as close I know as we both feel to each other right now, let’s be honest here. You don’t have a clue who I really am.”

“OK, fine, but... but I’m saying that who you’ve been since then is also not the Elizabeth I knew from work. You’re down to earth, so human, so sweet, so funny, so smart, so easy to talk to... the Elizabeth I’ve known all this time from work is... well, I definitely wouldn’t say she is none of those things, but... awww, fuck. I don’t know how to put it at all. Not without sounding like a total prick, anyway.”

“I come off like a conversationally awkward, obnoxious, empty-headed, completely vapid fake at work. Is that what you were going to say?”

“That is not what I was going to say.”

“...Yeah, that long followup pause might suggest otherwise, Jim.”

“...OK, maybe you do come off a little like that... just a little. But please, Elizabeth, please don’t be...”

“Jim, stop. I’m not at all hurt. I’m... I’m going to let you in on a secret. I’m a very shy person. I’m not kidding. I’m really, really shy. Sometimes I cover it up by being loud and obnoxious. Alcohol helps with that in social settings. Other times, I’m just plain awkward. I have no idea what to say, what to talk about with someone.

“And on top of it, I’m lost. I’m a mess. I just turned 30 last year. I know that somehow means I’m supposed to be a grownup, but I still have no idea what that’s really supposed to mean, what I’m supposed to be doing in this world. I’ve never really felt like I fit in with anyone. So my whole life, I’ve just kind of faked my way, when-in-Rome style, no matter where Rome is at the moment.

“So at work, no one is real with each other. I get that this is not a unique feature of our particular workplace environment. I get that being completely fake and weirdly detached and impersonal and frankly kinda gross... it’s just all a big part of everyone pretending they’re grownups that know what they’re doing, everyone actually getting along without killing each other. I get that it’s all this weird, endless, dead-eyed cultural ritual tied into a paycheck. And now I’m just like anybody else. I just do whatever it takes to keep paying down the student loans and now, however the hell I actually ended up with it, this little mortgage.

“I don’t really know who to be, who I am supposed to be, exactly. I’ve never known. But I do know that I can’t be anything like my actual self at work. I feel like they’d just fire me right off the bat if they got even a whiff of who I really was.”

“And so, you’ve ended up with this work-Elizabeth persona that is a direct reflection of what you see in everyone else... this work persona that is what you think is expected of you, this woman that is basically nothing like you and nothing to do with you.”

“Jim, make no mistake, I fucking hate her. I hate having to be her. And I’ve started to go a little crazy with her around all the time. Being a grownup is incredibly shitty. Everyone gets out there and gets a job and a husband and kids and turns totally horrible, horrible just like work Elizabeth. I don’t really have anyone around here to be real with any more. There’s no one left I can actually trust, no one left to remind me of who I really am. I feel so alone, constantly, just... alone.”

“But you still have Julia, at least, right? ...Or at least until last night, you did.”

“...Yeah. I... I did.” Elizabeth’s brow furrowed. She looked like she had a lot more to say on the subject. Jim knew she was still barely coming to grips with her best friend’s incredible violation of trust. That would surely take time.

“And you know,” Jim said, pressing on, “you didn’t have to be work Elizabeth with me.”

“How was I supposed to know that, Jim? It’s not like you ever showed me that you were any different, not like you ever encouraged me to be anything different than what I normally am at work. I always wondered if there was maybe more to you, but... you always had your civilized-bullshit work face on too, totally impenetrable. It was too dangerous to just suddenly ‘be myself’ or something with someone who isn’t showing their own cards.

“Beyond that, though, it was always clear... you were obviously disinterested in me. And once you’d made your mind up about who I was, it wasn’t like I was really going to be able to change your mind no matter what I did or said, not in that environment.”

Hearing all of this, Jim recognized multiple notes of truth. He felt his heart break a little.

From the living room, he heard a sound... a ringtone, a stiff-sounding MIDI flute playing a cute little melody through a tiny speaker. Jim thought briefly of the Pied Piper. He watched Elizabeth rise, sliding her underwear back on. “Gimme a second,” she said, following the sound out of the bedroom.

Jim picked up his watch on the bedside table. 7:24pm. Man, I bet Julia is beyond livid with me by now.

...Julia.

“If that’s Julia, don’t answer it,” he bellowed from the bedroom. “She may have figured out that I’m here. Don’t answer it.”

Jim heard the ringtone stop, then heard nothing... nothing for what seemed like forever. He began to panic.

Finally, footsteps. Elizabeth re-entered the bedroom, looking just as before, phone in hand.

“Was it Julia?”

“The goddamn devil herself. I just sent her to voicemail.”

“Oh, god... whatever you do, Elizabeth, don’t listen to that voicemail... not without me to tie you down to the mast first or something.”

“You know, I would tell you that you could tie me to the mast any time you like,” she said, leaning in, her nose touching his. “But I guess we don’t know right now that that could ever happen... and besides, I’ve told you one too many secrets tonight as it stands.”

She set down her phone, giggled, jumped back into bed, kissed him with eyes open, then eyes closed. Jim’s head swam anew. His hands broke loose of their own accord, exploring her back, sliding over her skin in long, light, teasing ribbons. Jim watched Elizabeth’s face, completely rapt with her all over again, as her girlish smile grew weightier, her eyes clouding, then rolling back in her head, her little shudders of pleasure punctuating the end of each fingertip’s slow track up and down the outskirts of her spine.

“You are so goddamned beautiful, Elizabeth,” Jim whispered. “You really have no idea. I’ve obviously been blind all this time to have missed it. But I can see you now. And you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

She closed her rolling eyes with a heavy, slow blink. Reopening them even more slowly, she returned his gaze. Waves of sweetness, gratitude, intense adoration surged forth all at once from her eyes, completely flooding Jim’s head. Maybe it was all self-delusion, but Jim still felt as if he could see everything within Elizabeth every time she looked into his eyes. He never wanted to stop seeing into her, stop seeing what she was. What he saw in her eyes, what he always saw now, seemed... perfect.

“...Man, just... y’know what, fuck this.”

“Fuck what, Jim?” Elizabeth smiled coyly, teasing his chest with her unbearably light fingers.

“No, not... well, yes, that, please. But what I meant was... fuck Julia. She can go get fucked. Heaven knows she can go get fucked by any guy gullible enough to listen to her power-tripping, mind-warping bullshit for ten minutes. But I don’t want to be that guy. I want you. I want to stay with you. I want to experience this with you over and over. And I want to learn, I just the fucking chance to actually learn who you are. I already know I won’t be disappointed.“

“You don’t know that. Jim, you... you really don’t know that you wouldn’t be.” Elizabeth smiled again, sadly and bashfully this time, turning her eyes away.

“Stop with the self-deprecation. I’ve seen enough. I know I’ve liked, I’ve... I’ve actually loved everything I’ve seen in you so far.”

Elizabeth’s smile widened just a little, losing none of its sadness; Jim saw a tear well up in the corner of her eye.

“What about you, Elizabeth? Do you want me? Do you want this?”

“Yes,” she croaked. “Of course. Of course I want you. Of course I want all of that too. So much.”

“So it’s decided, then. Fuck Julia, fuck whatever she wants. We’re doing this. We’re going to be together. It’s just that simple. She’s not going to stop us.”

Elizabeth looked into his eyes again, sadly, grasping his elbow lightly. “That’s, like, a really nice speech, Jim, but... with what she’s already shown us she can do to us, I don’t know how you think you’re going to stop her. Do you really think you can? Do you think there’s a way?”

Jim looked down, thought hard. “Maybe this is all just us, being ridiculous... maybe we’ve just talked ourselves into thinking Julia can do this to us, any time she wants. Because she told me something last week, back when she was trying to talk me into allowing her to do what she did to me. She told me all hypnosis is basically self-hypnosis. She told me you can’t make someone do what they truly, deep down, don’t want to do.

“And right now, I don’t want to be without you, Elizabeth. That’s all I know, that’s all I really feel. I don’t want to obey Julia in anything that would keep me from being with you, anything at all that would keep me from exploring what you and I could be together. So if you feel the same way, like you say you do, then... then maybe we’re both safe. Maybe that dumb little battle is already over, as long as we say it is.”

“Jim, that’s... that’s great, if it’s actually true... if it’s really anywhere near that simple.”

“I hope it is. And if it’s not,” Jim said, wrapping his arms around Elizabeth’s body, “we’ll just figure it out together as we go. But as long as I know it’s what we both want... I’m not letting her take you away. I know we’ll find a way.”

“Well, if you’re right... I know a really great way we can celebrate,” Elizabeth said, raising an eyebrow. “And if you’re not right, then, uh... we should still do the same thing we would have done to celebrate, because who knows... we may never get to do it again.”

“Um... didn’t you just say you were sore?”

“Oh, no, it’s not that bad... it doesn’t matter. You feel so damn good... what you’ve felt like, every time... I made the mistake of just thinking about that again, just now. Because if I think about that, how unbelievable you feel, even for a split second, that’s all it takes. From then on, all I want to do in the world is just fuck you all over again, do whatever it takes to get you back inside me. That’s where I’m at, like, right... fucking... now.”

Elizabeth kissed him deeply; Jim felt like his head might come undone, float right off his neck. She reached down, found his cock, squeezed gently, pulling him gently toward her as she continued kissing him. Jim marveled again at how hard, how huge he always felt in Elizabeth’s hand, how incredibly hungry she could always make him. He simultaneously winced at another, unrelated, but clearly relevant sensation.

“God... dammit. Sorry, I... I really need to pee.”

“Well, that’s, like, really excellent timing, Jim.”

“I know, I know, I should’ve earlier. I just, y’know, hadn’t wanted to be away from you yet.” Jim gave Elizabeth a parting peck before jumping out of bed. “I’ll be right back.”

“Just don’t be gone long, please,” she whimpered, sliding a hand between her legs, arching her frame.

Jim hurried toward the bathroom.

* * *

As he stood over the toilet, Jim heard the faintest little sound coming from the bedroom. Kerrr-dink.

...then another, then another: Kerrr-dink. Kerrr-dink.

Facing the wall, draining himself, he happily realized his head was completely clear for the first time in at least a week, probably much longer than that. He thought of Elizabeth awaiting him in the bedroom. For once, what he needed to do, what immediately awaited him, was very simple and incredibly easy: go back to the bedroom, go be with her, be happy, make her happy in turn. And he found he could barely wait the minute or so he knew he’d be gone to go pursue that immediate goal.

He hoped it really was going to be just as simple as consciously resisting Julia whenever she inevitably appeared. He just had to find some way, any way, to draw out this new and incredible experience with Elizabeth, to get Julia out of the picture for good. Being with Elizabeth was so much sweeter, so much easier and more natural, than being with Julia had been so far, than it would probably ever be. It was strange; you’d think having no free will would have made things particularly easy.

Kerrr-dink.

...Huh, that noise again.

...Julia.

...Elizabeth.

...No free will.

Jim cut off the remaining trickle, running back to Elizabeth’s bedroom as fast as his bare feet would carry him.

* * *

He found Elizabeth, still naked, sitting up on the edge of the bed, looking blankly at her phone, her eyes barely open.

She turned toward him slowly, immediately began to weep. Jim knew immediately that his worst fear had just been realized somehow. He forced himself to remain calm, to remember and follow the plan they’d made moments ago, to assess the situation with caution and a level head.

“You need to go,” Elizabeth cried.

“Elizabeth, why? Just a minute ago, you said you wanted me to stay. You said you needed me.”

“Now you... need to go.”

“I don’t need to go. I don’t want to go. I want to be here with you. I want that more than anything.”

Jim absolutely hated the sound of himself talking down to her like a child. He reminded himself that he wasn’t talking to Elizabeth right now.

“You need to go. This... this isn’t right.”

“Of course it is, Elizabeth. It’s very right... it’s the rightest thing I’ve known in a very long time. You said you feel that way too. There’s nothing wrong about us being together.”

“Jim belongs to Julia. It’s not... it’s not right for me to be with Jim.” Elizabeth was becoming less and less comprehensible as her body succumbed to a wave of wild, hiccuping sobs. She sounded like she was hyperventilating, like she’d just been stabbed.

“That’s not you talking... I know that was Julia texting you, Elizabeth. She probably hypnotized you with just a text message, just like she did to me earlier today. Remember? Remember what she can do to us? She’s hypnotized you, again... and now she’s making you say that. She’s making you believe it. It’s not true.”

“I know... I know... ohhhh, I know.... I... I can’t stop her... can’t get her out of my head.” Elizabeth collapsed into her own hands, scratching at her scalp, convulsing with sorrow.

“Elizabeth, you can stop her. I know you can. I broke free of her today when she did the same thing, the same thing she just did to you. You can break free too. She’s not even here, she has no power over you. I’m here with you. Just focus on me, listen to me. It will all be alright. It’s all going to be alright. Just forget about Julia, forget whatever she said to you...”

“You... you belong to Julia now. Julia will have you. I can’t have you. She... won’t let me. She has you... has me. She will never let us be together... never... you... said it yourself.”

“And we’ve just been over that, Elizabeth. We can control ourselves. She doesn’t control us, not if we don’t let her. And right now, all you have to do is try. Remember, you just have to...”

Kerrr-dink.

“Wait, no, don’t, Elizabeth... it’s her again. Wake up. Just wake up, Elizabeth. Get a hold of yourself. Don’t look at the...”

Elizabeth looked at the phone.

As she looked at the phone: Kerrr-dink. Kerrr-dink. Kerrr-dink. ...Kerrr-dink.

Jim watched helplessly as Elizabeth’s body sagged and slumped, jerking slightly. Her eyes were still aimed in the general direction of the screen while her eyelids began fluttering violently; her breathing had instantly become deep, hard, short, ragged, as if in the middle of a dream. Jim opted to take immediate advantage of her condition to prevent it from worsening. He walked toward Elizabeth, extracting the phone from her loosening grip, muting it, sliding it across the room along the carpet. He knelt in front of her, tried to look deep into her fluttering eyes.

“Wake up, Elizabeth. Wake up. Be with me. Be with me now.”

“You... don’t understand. You need to... go, now.”

“No, I don’t. I’m staying right here. She doesn’t control you, Elizabeth. You want me to stay. You know you do.”

“You... don’t undersssstand. She... is coming.”

“Julia said she is coming? She’s coming here?”

“She... shesssssssaid I... had to tell her if... you were here. I... I fought her... for you... fought so hard... ignored her... never replied.”

“Well, so what?”

“She... I have five minutes to reply now. If I... I don’t, she is coming.”

“So what? So we don’t answer the door.”

“I can’t... I, she will make me... let her in. You need... to go.”

“No, no, Elizabeth... just text her back and tell her I’m not here.” Thinking back to his own recent struggles with erasing Julia’s hypnotic texts before they could take effect a second time, Jim realized that it was unsafe to let Elizabeth handle this task herself. “I can do it for you.”

“I... I can’t lie to Julia. So deep, so deep now, I... can’t lie to her. You... can’t lie to her either... screen is... locked.”

“OK, then, tell me the unlock code.”

“I can’t. I... I can’t... remember now, she... won’t let me remember how to unlock... except to... respond. You need to go, she... is coming.”

“If I go, Elizabeth, you are coming with me.”

“I can’t... I can’t! ...can’t, no, she already... frozen, you know, she...” Elizabeth was weeping full-force again; it was so strange to watch someone who looked like they were crying in their sleep.

Now aware that Julia had frozen Elizabeth just as she’d frozen him earlier at the office, Jim could see Elizabeth’s arm muscles flexing slightly, an apparent attempt to break her paralysis. Elizabeth wasn’t getting any farther than Jim had initially managed in the same state.

“I can talk you out of this. I unfroze myself. Maybe I can unfreeze you, maybe we have enough time. Listen to me, Elizabeth, just listen...”

“Please, no, Jim, please, too late... go... hurry.”

Jim tried to recall when that last rapid-fire string of notification tones had come out of Elizabeth’s phone. He guessed that, if Julia’s time limitations had been literal in nature—and he had no reason, knowing Julia, to think that she might play fast and loose with the specified time window on her deadline—they probably had barely three minutes remaining to respond before Julia began heading in Elizabeth’s direction. He had no idea how close Julia might be; perhaps she was already waiting around the corner.

He knew that if he stayed, Elizabeth would eventually—and easily—be talked into opening the door for Julia. Even if he took the drastic measure of tying Elizabeth down or otherwise keeping her from reaching the front door, he knew Julia could probably trigger and deepen his own trance state just by speaking audibly from outside the house. Then, soon enough, he would open the door.

Either way, it would all be over. Once Julia was inside, both he and Elizabeth would be taken over by her again, then separated for good this time.

If he left, leaving Elizabeth alone, the result would be much the same; he’d immediately lose what he currently wanted most. He might escape Julia temporarily. But Julia would get there, get inside, get into Elizabeth, find out what he and Elizabeth had been up to, what they’d been talking about tonight. Julia would then make absolutely sure, one way or the other, that Elizabeth never seriously entertained the thought of being with Jim again.

...Or maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe Julia would program Elizabeth to lead Jim on, bring him back home with her again... where Julia would be waiting for him, waiting to start his “retraining.”

Jim could think of many other horrible ways that Julia could easily use and control the already-entranced Elizabeth—and, in turn, himself—if he left Elizabeth here alone. He couldn’t come up with any way to keep both of them immediately safe from Julia, any way that did not involve a reply to her text... a reply he could only get out of Elizabeth, a reply that Elizabeth had to send herself, without lying...

...or, at the very least, she had to send a reply while fully believing that she was telling Julia the truth.

Jim could come up with only one possible solution. It was not a solution he wanted to entertain. It was... it was horrible. It might change everything, everything that he currently loved so much about simply being with Elizabeth. And there was still absolutely no guarantee that it would work.

...But their time had run out, and as with so many other predicaments Julia had put him in, just in the course of the week prior... there was nothing else for it.

“Elizabeth,” he said, kneeling before her, “please, look at me now. Look into my eyes.”

She turned to face him again, still weeping, eyes still so distant and hazy, visibly split between who she really was and the part of her that Julia completely controlled. He put his hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder, up close to her ear.

“It’s Elizabeth’s naptime.”

Jim snapped his fingers.