The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Did you hear her leave?”

Jim was too exhausted, too distracted to answer. He was looking at the timer, having picked it up off the bedside table, now idly spinning it over and over in his hand.

“Jim, seriously, is she still out there? I didn’t hear the front door open or close or anything.”

“Yeah, I don’t know.”

“Well, we should maybe go see, don’t you think? It creeps me out to think that she might still be in the house.”

Jim now examined the back of the timer. He couldn’t quite see down into the screwholes of the casing. He needed to see.

“...Jim?”

“Yeah, sorry, gimme a minute.”

He turned the lamp on, sitting up in bed, holding the timer face down on the bedside table. Looking into the holes, he couldn’t be sure of what he thought he saw. He looked closer, held the timer up to the light, moved his head around to keep the light shining as brightly as possible into the tiny recesses.

Now he was sure. At least two of the screwheads were lightly stripped. Lightly stripped... but unmistakably so.

He sighed, brought his chin to his other hand, scratching slowly at stubble as he continued staring at the hardware.

“OK, fine, Jim. I don’t know what you’re doing that’s so fascinating, so I guess I’ll just go see if she’s still out there.“

Elizabeth stood, began walking angrily toward the bedroom door. Jim jumped up, catching her by the arm.

“Elizabeth, wait. Don’t go out there alone.”

Julia was there. She sat in the same chair in which she’d last placed Elizabeth. She was dressed now, laptop opened, looking as comfortable as she might have looked in her own home office.

She looked up at Jim and Elizabeth with a tight-lipped smile. “Why, hello there, lovebirds. I was beginning to think you two might never come out of there.”

Jim sighed. He didn’t bother to ask why she was still there. He could think of several possible reasons, some of them deeply annoying but ultimately harmless, some positively terrifying, and all of those possible reasons seemed equally plausible to him at this point. All of the hypothetical explanations for her stay also stemmed from the same obvious root cause: Julia couldn’t possibly let anyone else have the last word.

He wordlessly tossed the timer at her. It landed on her stomach.

“Oh, shit... thanks, Jim,” she said, picking it up and pocketing it. “Can’t believe I almost forgot that. I know it sounds silly, but I’m actually rather attached to it.“

“You lied, Julia. You said it was ‘off the shelf.’ But the screwheads are stripped. You’ve obviously opened it.”

“Yeah, sure, I have. Had to replace the battery once.”

“Don’t fuck with me, Julia. That thing looks brand new.”

“Well, it’s not. I’ve had it for years. What can I say, Jim? I’ve made it perfectly clear that I take very good care of my personal property.”

“No, you fucking hacked it, Julia... or, at least, you obviously did something to it. There was just no way that was only twenty minutes. There was absolutely no way in hell that the, uh... the last part was over from your finger-snap to the finish in five.“

“It amazes me, Jim, how you continue to think the very best of me and the very worst of me all at once. I don’t know a thing about electronics. I couldn’t ‘hack’ this thing if I wanted to. Fine, so maybe I could have started and stopped it while you weren’t looking at it, but... here, just look.”

She held the timer aloft for demonstration, reset it, started it. It let out a brief beep of acknowledgement, the same inoffensive little chirp that Jim remembered hearing when she had first started the timer on the coffee table. She now stopped the timer with the same button; it cheerfully beeped again. She started it once more, with the same audible result.

“...So you would have heard that too, if I’d been messing with it. Think whatever you want, but that was exactly twenty minutes. I’ve always told you that I play fair, too.”

“Julia, just... just stop with the bullshit. You don’t play fair. You never do. Nothing in that ‘twenty minutes’ was the least bit fair... especially to Elizabeth... and what the fuck was that, by the way? Why did you have her doing all of your dirty work? That was beyond fucked up... my god, and after all that bluster and chest-beating about how you’re such a fucking goddess in bed...“

“Well, Jim, that part proves my very point, actually...“

“...No, honestly... were you really so afraid to just actually fuck me? Did you maybe worry you might, y’know, come up short or something? That you’d fare so incredibly badly, in direct comparison to everything Elizabeth always manages to do to me, that you might not be able to talk me into sealing the deal after all, even when under?“

Elizabeth frowned, maybe even winced. Jim wasn’t sure what she was thinking, couldn’t see how his indirect compliment could have possibly displeased her; maybe she was contemplating, internally reacting to something else. She silently left Jim’s side, walking across the living room, plopping down exhausted in the chair across from Julia, now staring coldly at her old friend with her head in her hand.

“Jim,” Julia said, “think about it for a second. You won. I never expected you to win, nor did you. But I wanted to work in your best interest, in Elizabeth’s best interest, in case you could somehow pull it off after all. And since you did win, I’d think you would be grateful to me now. Because if you had fucked me for real just now, and yet you still managed to win... how do you think it might impact your relationship? How do you think you’d feel about it right now? How do you think she would feel?“

“Oh, c’mon, Julia. That explanation doesn’t fly at all. You know that Elizabeth of all people would completely understand. She’d have to; she knows exactly what it’s like, knows exactly what you can do to people firsthand. She just spent however many minutes on top of me, trying desperately to yank an orgasm out of me on your behalf, demanding repeatedly that I surrender to you... add to it that I watched her crying through the whole thing, and it really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that none of that was her idea.“

“No.... no, it sure wasn’t.” Elizabeth went silent again, returned to staring bullets at Julia.

“Look, I only did what I thought was best. I did what I knew was most fair.” Julia’s cold response came as she returned her gaze, in a transparent attempt to feign disinterest, to her laptop screen. “And that concern for your well-being, that deep consideration of every possible outcome for you, seems to have worked out in your mutual favor. So no matter what you make of my decision to have you fuck Elizabeth as my dream-proxy, you can both maybe stop trying to paint me as a heartless cunt now.“

The room fell silent, Julia’s strong choice of words momentarily chilling the conversation. Jim felt there was far more to be said on the matter, but there was also clearly no point in saying any of it.

He pulled his eyes from the floor, returning them to Julia. “Whatever. I still know you rigged that timer. I don’t know how, but you rigged it. I just know it.“

“And again, I could scream bloody murder that, sometimes, a timer is just a timer. But if you don’t believe me, what does it still matter now? You won.”

“But, see, that’s exactly it. You rigged it, but I still won. You had me right where you wanted me. I was a split-second away from blasting my wad straight out through Elizabeth’s ears when that thing went off. You could have just stopped the timer somehow, I know it. But you still let me win. Why?”

Julia sighed. “The timer went off because the twenty minutes were up. That’s it; that’s all there was to it. You won fair and square. You should just be happy. You should be proud of yourself. I can only remember losing a duel of wills to a subject maybe twice before tonight. I’ve never lost to a subject that I had managed to train as thoroughly as I trained you.

“But you fought incredibly hard, Jim... and in the end, you got what you wanted. That’s all I can say about it; believe me, or don’t. I can’t do anything about that part. It’s your choice to believe me, but it really was that simple.”

“No... no, no, no, Julia, it’s not that simple... it just can’t be. You’re up to something. You’re planning something else... you threw the match for some reason. I just can’t figure out why. You can’t honestly expect me to ever trust you by now.”

“And that’s more or less what you keep saying over and over, Jim. It’s really starting to break my heart a little. But I guess I do sort of understand. I just don’t want you sitting around for weeks or months, thinking I’m still lurking behind every corner, just waiting to launch the next phase of whatever unfathomably sinister master plan you think I’d somehow set in motion by letting you win.

“But, alright, Jim... as a first and last step toward work on our little trust issue, let’s start here: I’ve told you I am a woman of my word,” Julia said, finally closing her laptop, “and I am. So it’s time for me to go. And once I go, you’ll never need to worry about whether I’ll make good on my promise. I’ll just walk out that door, and neither of you will ever see me or hear from me again.”

Jim and Elizabeth both looked at each other with mixed relief and disbelief as Julia stood from the chair, stuffing her laptop into her bag, placing the bag onto her shoulder. She walked toward Jim. As she came closer to address him directly, Jim suddenly realized he was still completely naked.

“Goodbye, Jim,” she said, kissing him lightly on the cheek. “Can’t say I think you made the best choice for yourself, but I know you think you did, and...“

“Oh, fuck you, Julia.“

“...and so, as I was saying, I congratulate you, earnestly. I wish you and Elizabeth nothing but happiness. I really do. I hope it all turns into something amazing, that it turns into everything you ever dreamed.“

Jim said nothing as Julia turned away from him and began approaching Elizabeth. He trailed behind Julia, readied himself, carefully watching both of Julia’s hands, ready to leap onto her at the slightest sign that she might be preparing to snap her fingers in Elizabeth’s face.

“And Elizabeth,” Julia said, standing over Elizabeth in the chair, “my dearest friend, my little Lizzie Jantzen.”

Elizabeth said nothing, her head still in her hand, refusing to engage Julia’s eyes.

“I’m sorry our friendship seems to be ending this way. I know it’s all my fault, all my fault in so many ways. And I know you won’t believe me either, but I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done to you. It all went so terribly wrong, just in these last few days. But I wish you could remember right now how much happiness I’ve brought you too, both awake and asleep. That was all I ever wanted, really, when I first started taking you under... I just wanted to make my best friend happy, because I always knew I could if I could do that. And so many times, I did exactly that. I made you so, so happy.“

Elizabeth snorted at her, still stationary, still expressionless. Jim thought he might be seeing an actual tear at the corner of Julia’s eye. In the dim light, he couldn’t be sure. It still amazed him that Julia’s face might be capable of even suggesting tears, even as a mirage.

“But it doesn’t matter, none of it matters. Just know I tried. Just know that I love you...”

Elizabeth’s exasperated snort was louder, longer this time.

“...and I’ll miss you absolutely every day, Lizzie... every day until I die. I’ll miss you more than you can ever know.”

She leaned down, possibly to give Elizabeth a final kiss goodbye, possibly to execute some other course of action. Jim leaned over, knowing he might have even less time now to stop Julia from whispering a surreptitious command into Elizabeth’s ear.

Elizabeth finally removed her hand from her chin, now repurposing her hand to point at the door.

“Just get the fuck out already, Julia. And don’t ever even fucking think of coming back.“

Julia leaned back quickly, blinking slightly at the rebuke, finding a moment to recompose herself by pretending to look at her watch. Having delivered her well-rehearsed goodbyes, she walked toward the door as Jim and Elizabeth both traced and studied her every move, pushing her outside with their eyes.

“One last thing, y’all,” she said, turning back toward them.

As she turned, Jim felt his whole body tense up reflexively, expecting yet another unwanted trance to abruptly descend upon him at any moment. He braced his ears for the words Julia surely planned to say at this moment, prepared his mind so as to hopefully manage to resist them when they arrived.

“...I left a flash drive on the coffee table.”

Jim exhaled. “OK... and?”

“It’s got your video on it. You know. Elizabeth’s video.“

Jim looked at Elizabeth. She looked puzzled, a little appalled. Jim wasn’t sure of the appropriate response either. Obviously, the video had been far too important in his short relationship with Julia to be a comfortable parting “gift.” But it was also rather difficult to reject such a “gift” outright when your current lover, sitting right in front of you, was the woman depicted therein.

“...And I promise, no funny business. No subtitles, no subliminals or binaurals or anything weird, just the video. Just the video Lizzie and I made. The video I made of Lizzie when I had her under once this past summer.”

In the corner of his eye, Jim saw Elizabeth bring her palm to her forehead. He couldn’t understand her shame, if shame was even what she was feeling. He knew she surely didn’t even remember making the video.

“I guess I just thought that... well, now you two have each other, and I can tell you definitely like to dream together. You’ve both learned to dream while watching it. So maybe, I don’t know... maybe it might be a kind of useful thing for you to have at the ready every now and then.”

Julia turned away from them. She opened the door in no particular hurry.

“Goodnight, lovebirds.”

She closed the door behind her.

Jim looked at Elizabeth, still sitting dead-eyed in the chair, chin firmly re-planted into her hand.

“What do we do with it?”

She didn’t immediately respond.

“...Throw it away, Jim. Please, just... throw it away.”

Jim dutifully picked up the flash drive from the table and began heading toward the kitchen, toward the garbage can.

As he was opening the can’s lid, he heard her shout at him: “No, Jim. Wait.”

“You... you want me to keep it?”

“No, but... we shouldn’t throw it away. Somebody could dig it out of the garbage.”

“So what? They’ll never know it’s you.”

“I don’t know, Jim. I mean, the thing’ll be just sitting in the trash outside my house, right?“

“Yeah, and again, so what? Your face isn’t ever visible, your voice isn’t ever audible. It’s just... you know, it’s just you.“

Jim felt warm, immediately dreamy, wonderfully foggy, completely submissive all over again, just recalling the familiar image. He didn’t fight the feeling this time. There was no longer any need to fight it... no need to fight it at all.

Elizabeth didn’t respond right away. He wondered if she might be thinking about the exact same thing, feeling the exact same way.

“...Well,” she said, fracturing his reverie and his hypothesis simultaneously, ”I will still know it’s me. And even if no one else can tell who it is, I guess I just don’t really want me possibly floating around out there. I guess, just... just hold onto it for now, put it somewhere where we’ll definitely remember to deal with it tomorrow. We’ll have to delete it off the drive first... whenever we actually have the energy.“

“OK. Sounds like a plan.”

Jim walked toward the kitchen cabinets, opened a small drawer at random, and stashed the flash drive inside.

He returned to the living room, walked over, locked the front door.

“Let’s go to bed.”

Jim could not tell if he had said the words, or if they had come from Elizabeth.