The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

On the way back from one of his meetings, Bryce found one of his directors, Ken, standing outside his office.

“Bryce, do you have time to catch up? You were a little late to the meeting earlier, and there are some specifics I really needed to go over with you.”

“Not now, Ken,” Bryce snapped. Ken seemed surprised by this reaction. Everyone knew Bryce tended to have an open door policy; and that he tried his best to make time for everyone, even when he had no time to spare.

At the look on Ken’s face, Bryce felt a twinge of guilt. He relented. “Check back in a few hours,” he said. “I just can’t spare the time right now.”

He moved past the man, left him standing in the hall, and closed his office door behind him.

It was a few days later— a few days since he’d met Hallie. And so far, those days had been a return to the usual routine of things. Though Bryce had been thinking with longing of that earlier day. He always enjoyed those rare days of thinking time when they came around, and it was always a slight disappointment to him when they ended. There wouldn’t be another like it for some weeks now. Sometimes it was even as long as months— he knew the general workload for the near future, and he knew Cindy wouldn’t be able to find him a free day again for at least that long.

Unlike other times, however, Bryce was still stealing thinking time. Fitting it wherever he could within his days, even at the expense of other things. He wasn’t letting it go entirely this time.

But in the world outside his closed office door, things were more or less the same as they always were. This meant long hours in the office again. Bryce was back to staying late into the night. Back to being so busy during the day as to barely have time for breaks of any kind.

Normally, at times like these, Bryce went for days in a row without any breaks. He’d been stealing thinking time where he could fit it, lately, though, and that was different for him.

It was a slightly busier time of the year than usual, with the next board meeting coming up. Bryce’s days were a blur of meeting following meeting following meeting. Meeting with the team that reported directly to him all together, and then in one-on-one combinations.

Some of these meetings weren’t even scheduled beyond someone showing up to his office door with a look of urgency and anxiety on their faces, and begging Bryce for just a few minutes of his time for advice on how to address the newest crisis.

Bryce always gave it when he had the minutes to spare; or he had always done, until recently. Even just the week before, he’d let everyone into his office who had come. He knew they were all coming down to the wire with their preparations for the board meeting, and that everyone on his team was feeling the stress of that.

But lately, even when there had been people waiting outside his office, Bryce had turned them away with vague excuses, and shut his office door to shut himself in with his thoughts and his ‘thinking time’…

In past times like these which had been similarly busy, the business had kept Bryce away from home, kept him so busy that he hardly ever made it there, except to sleep. And he’d had some days in his time as CEO when he hadn’t even managed that— and had slept right there in his office on his office couch.

Bryce had been making the effort to at least return home to sleep this time. He hadn’t been sleeping in the office lately, but then, he hadn’t really been sleeping at all. That also happened to him sometimes when things got very hectic for the business. But lately other thoughts had been keeping him up— and even when he made it home at the end of the night, it was only to lie awake in bed for some number of hours thinking… and then eventually drifting off into sporadic bursts of sleep.

Of course, arriving home late in the night meant that everyone was already asleep when he got there. Both Kim and Daniel, so he never saw them, and Selene too, so he never saw her either.

He had given her fair warning this time. After the day that he’d met Hallie, he’d told Selene that he thought things would be ramping up even more in the last stretch of time before the board meeting, and that he wasn’t going to be home much.

Selene had been understanding as she always was, and that one conversation had saved him many subsequent conversations by phone. He hadn’t had to call her each day to tell her he would be late coming home again that night. It was understood that for the foreseeable future that he wasn’t going to be around. She knew not to expect him back.

Usually this was a quality he appreciated in Selene— her understanding and her patience. Her willingness to just let him do what he needed to do— her trust in him that he was doing everything in the best way possible, having taken everything into consideration.

He hadn’t been feeling any of those things lately. The only thing he’d felt about Selene in the past few days had been a sense of relief at not having to speak to her.

Bryce had had other phases like this one throughout the time he’d held his job. As the CEO, he was always busy; but sometimes, when things were a bit lighter, he was able to keep his evenings and his weekends free.

Then inevitably the time would come around again when he couldn’t— as was happening right now. But even phases like these came to an end eventually. He’d get back to his slightly more relaxed schedule once the board meeting was behind them.

Of course, then, just a few months later there would be a shareholder meeting to get ready for. and he and everyone on his team would do all of this all over again. He’d likely get another thinking day before things ramped up, at least. But that was just the nature of business— and normally, Bryce loved it for that. Often, he didn’t mind it all that much.

On the surface, everything looked the same as it had during other phase like this in his work. His comings and goings from the office and his house were the same, and the scheduling of his time when he was at work was about the same. From an external viewpoint, it all looked the same as before.

But from the inside, it was felt quite different. Bryce was spending long hours in the office, and staying away from home— but he wasn’t working half as hard as he’d done in the past. A lot of his time was spent on nothing. Just… thoughts. Lots of staring at walls and ceilings and thinking, behind a closed door, while people tried desperately to get a hold of him, and he was not there to be gotten hold of.

Usually, when Bryce was in a manic work mode, he was engaged entirely with the work itself. Thinking of it all hours of the day, even when he laid down to sleep. He’d had sleepless nights before, just like the ones he was having now, where he laid awake thinking over proposals and statements and figures all night. At times like those, it was like a cog in his brain wouldn’t stop turning. And usually, that hyperfocus energized and motivated him.

He’d been thinking a lot recently. But not of facts and figures. Not of statements.

And he wasn’t feeling energized by his work. He wasn’t feeling motivated at all— just the opposite. He was feeling completely unmotivated. Bryce was going through the motions, and doing all that was expected of him with the minimum amount of effort and care that he could get away with, just to be able to get through with it as quickly as he could.

Internally he felt… bored of it. Bored of his work— it might have been the first time that had ever happened for him. He just didn’t care. He could do the minimum, maybe even make mistakes or let some things fall through the cracks. And that was what he was doing— but inside, he felt complete apathy about it. His work just seemed pointless to him… not even worth a spare thought. There were other far more interesting things to think about, like Hallie.

All of Bryce’s thinking time had been given to her. He should have known that the first day they’d met had been a sign of things to come. He’d had dedicated time that he’d allocated to his work, and yet he’d spent the whole day after their meeting thinking about her, while only giving a minimum of effort and attention to his actual work. Things were still going the same way— energy and effort that should have been given to his work was instead going to thinking about her.

Meeting her had only been a chance occurrence in the building lobby, and the meeting had been five minutes or less and had only happened a few days earlier. And yet Hallie was where Bryce’s thoughts stayed— and the idea of her was the only thing that seemed to light up and interest him.

She seemed more worth engaging with, and more motivating than his work.

If his given task had been to plan a next meeting with her, or to plan out something that would benefit her, that work would have fired him up and made him eager to carry it through.

He didn’t really even know her, and yet he felt this way. But he couldn’t seem to get past the thought of her. It was stuck in his head.

At first, it had been like he was caught in the moment that she’d grasped his hand when he’d extended it in greeting. Then, he had been caught up in inappropriate fantasies of her— briefly. That had changed, and given way to new thoughts of her. Thoughts that seemed almost all encompassing.

When he thought of her now, she was a mystery that he wanted to consider from all angles. He wanted to solve for the answer, whatever it was. He wanted to know everything there was to know about her. What she did for a living— what she liked to do for fun— where she lived, what her hobbies were, things she liked, her favorite kinds of foods and drinks and gifts. Her favorite anything— how she spent her free time, who the people in her life were, if she’d ever been traveling… he wanted to know everything there was to know about her, and he had no information at all. It was incredibly frustrating to thirst for knowledge of her in this way and have nothing to sate it with.

That answer to the mystery he’d wanted to solve had been just a flicker of a look in her eyes, just a promise that there was more there and it was worth knowing, but he wanted it— he wanted to know her entirely.

His thoughts of her went beyond that, even. He was shirking his other duties as much as he could get away with, and so he had plenty of time to think them.

There was something about her— some kind of essence, some essential quality that Bryce couldn’t describe, but he knew it was present. He recognized it, and it drew him. It was incredibly appealing to him, and the more he thought about it the more he liked it.

There was something of that essence, whatever it was, written through every part of her— in the way she stood, in the way she accepted someone’s hand in greeting, in the way she smiled, in the way she spoke, in the way she walked. He only had a very brief memory to use for an example; and yet he found that essence woven through every part of that memory.

It was an essentially beautiful quality; Bryce wanted to be close to it so he could see it again. Bryce wanted to be in her presence, in her company, so that he could sense that quality and be close to it.

But it went even deeper than that. There was just something about her— something even beyond that ephemeral quality that he couldn’t quite name.

It made Bryce feel very good just to be standing next to her. It made him feel good just to remember standing next to her— he was sure if he ever saw her again that he would feel good in the same way. And he really didn’t know if he ever would see her again. As he went up to the office each morning, he found himself scanning the lobby as he crossed it in the hopes of seeing her. But she was never there.

She had something in her. Something that called to something in him— something that made it feel so good just to be in her company. Bryce couldn’t name it either, but when he thought about it, it made him feel warm.

There was a softness to her— a warmth— but there had also been that knowingness in her look. Some secret information she was hiding. That mysteriousness.

When Bryce thought of Hallie now, he thought of her as a whole: she was very attractive physically, and he could appreciate that too, but she had a whole life that he didn’t know anything about, and he wanted to— and she had some transient quality of beauty or something else that he couldn’t name, and that made him want her— and there was just something, something else beyond that about her personality— about her— he just wanted to be near her, wanted to be with her, wanted to have her close and keep her there. And he wanted to do things for her; anything he could do, anything that would please her, anything she would enjoy, anything that would make her happy.

He simply wanted her. To have her near, to spend time with her, to do things for her, to learn about her— all of these things were true, and when he imagined doing any of them, they made him feel very, very happy. But it was simpler than that— just a basic craving for her that he felt, and that had no form. He wanted her, and that was all there was to it.

It had only been days— but these thoughts of her had escalated quickly. What had started as brief fantasy stolen from his thinking time had given way to more general thoughts, but thoughts that also seemed to come from somewhere deeper in him.

The moment she’d clutched his hand— just for that second, and her hand had been so soft… and maybe she’d run her fingers over his wedding ring, and maybe she hadn’t— that had come back to him as a fleeting impression more than once, but the thing that really seemed to haunt him was her name. Ever since she’d told it to him, he’d found it crossing his mind now and again, and every time it did, the concept of her came with it.

At first he had been alarmed and disturbed by his thoughts of her— all throughout that day after meeting her, he’d been resistant to them. He’d challenged each one that came— their presence had offended him. He had not liked having them in his head at all.

But a few days had passed now. These feelings of affront were gone. He liked thinking about Hallie now, no matter how wrong it was… it made him feel so good when he did, and the thought of her was the only thing that seemed to stir him. He was apathetic to all else in his life. This was a new development: he’d been content with his life until the past few days.

But now everything had faded to gray, except for her— she was exciting, she was novel, she was new— and she was her. Her essence as a person was what drew Bryce. She was what he craved— just by virtue of being her.

Normally, if Bryce had thoughts to spare beyond his work, they were all for his family— but Hallie had taken their place in his mind. He did not spend his time wondering what Kim or Daniel were doing at that time of day— or wondering what Selene was doing. Did not spend his time thinking back on memories he’d made with them.

There was one memory he was remembering now, and it was the memory of him meeting her for the first time. There was one thing he was wondering about now, and it was what she was doing at that exact moment. What she was thinking about— was she thinking of him as he thought of her? Nothing else, not work, not even thoughts of his own family mattered.

This apathy and general disinterest in them might have come out, if Bryce had actually been spending his time in their company. But since he’d had his work to hide behind, none of them had noticed this change in him. As far as they all knew, he was hard at work. None of them knew that he wasn’t working half as hard as he normally did. None of them knew that even when he was working, he was not thinking of work— or thinking of them. He was only thinking of her. She was his perpetual daydream that lasted through every day, and that he sometimes felt spilled over into his dreams proper. And none of them knew about it— or about her. That was one good thing about the long hours later— they gave him cover.

Still, his apathy was starting to bleed through. Just as the thoughts of her had increased day by day since the meeting, gotten stronger, and rooted deeper, his feeling of general disinterest in everything that was not her (and in everything that wasn’t doing anything to get him closer to seeing her again) had also increased. And now, these few days later, it seemed to have reached the tipping point of actually affecting his external behavior.

The phone rang— he didn’t want to answer it. A new email, marked urgent, sent by one of his directors, arrived in his inbox— he didn’t want to open it. At first he had been able to push through these feelings of distaste, but it seemed with each call and each email this ability in him diminished. He answered the calls later and later on each ring— and then stopped answering them at all. He replied to emails later and later in the day after receiving them— then stopped replying entirely.

He showed up to scheduled meetings later and later after they were scheduled to start. Five minutes late, then ten— then a half-hour late. Then he skipped them entirely.

People came to his open door to ask for five minutes of his time— he turned them away. Then when they came back next they found his door was closed.

It reached the point that Cindy asked him if he was having some kind of breakdown because of stress. That gave him a little more motivation to try— he sat in on a few more meetings after that.

But they seemed irrelevant to him. When he was in those meetings, he knew everyone could tell that his mind wasn’t there. That he wasn’t really present, even if he was sitting at the head of the conference table. He wasn’t even making an effort to engage.

He looked at the figures they showed— he listened to the things they said, but none of it seemed to sink in, or last even a few seconds past the moment of transmission. None of it mattered.

When Bryce sat in front of his desk, ignoring his phone as it rang, or when he left his emails un-responded— when he skipped a meeting, or when he attended one, and barely participated, he was doing the same thing every time: thinking of Hallie.

When he stayed late in the evenings, he was sitting at his desk thinking of her. When he rode home by car service, as he looked out the car window, he thought of her.

When he lay down to sleep he thought of her— and when he woke up in the morning he thought of her. She was becoming an everpresent thought, and the more he seemed to think about her, the more he wanted to think of her.

He knew there was a time that he would have been horrified by this change in himself. Horrified by his abdication of responsibility. It was a time that had existed even just a few days earlier. But like with everything else, he just didn’t care. Those cares predated her— meeting her had changed all the rules. Hallie was the only thing that mattered to him now— and all that he cared about.

He felt like a young man in love again. Yet even when he and Selene had been together as teenagers, he hadn’t felt like this. He’d never felt this much. It made him feel young again— like a teenage boy skipping classes instead of the CEO skipping meetings. But the potential consequences of his change in work ethic didn’t seem real to him; he wasn’t worried about them. Whatever happened to him, as long as he still had his thoughts of Hallie, he would be happy. He just wanted to be able to keep thinking of her— that was all that mattered to him.

Towards the end of that week, Selene left Bryce a voicemail. In her message, she reminded him that that Saturday, Kim had a volleyball game at her private girl’s school.

Bryce remembered when Selene mentioned it. He had made a promise to Kim earlier that he would attend; and he’d made that promise to Selene as well. Both promises had been made before meeting Hallie, when things like family events had still seemed significant to him. But Bryce thought he should still make the effort to attend, even though he had been very tempted to use his work as an excuse again, and stay at the office to daydream more about Hallie.

Though he had been thinking almost exclusively of Hallie— Bryce thought that he owed it to his family to make some kind of effort; even though his link to them was feeling increasingly tenuous. He figured he should at least try to show up for Kim’s game, since he hadn’t seen any of them for a few days.

He made an effort that night to be home early for dinner— and he told them all that he’d be going to Kim’s game.

Kim seemed excited about this— she thanked Bryce and gave him a hug, in a rare show of sincerity from a girl who mostly liked to pretend that the entire world was beneath her.

Selene told Bryce that she really appreciated him making the time to be with them, even though he was otherwise so busy. There was no resentment in her tone when she expressed it. This was true to character for her: she generally tended to be understanding.

So Bryce went to the game with them, and he made good on the promise. All four of them rode together to Kim’s private school by chauffeur. Kim had her gym bag with her; and as soon as they arrived at the school, she rushed off to the changing room, eager to get ready and get on with the game.

If Bryce had witnessed this at any other point in time, he would have found this action endearing. But at that moment, he was feeling equally unenthused about following through on his family obligations as he had felt throughout the week to fulfil his work obligations. And so unmoved by Kim’s enthusiasm. But luckily, his own lack of enthusiasm had so far gone unnoticed by Selene and Kim both.

Even at that moment, Selene wasn’t paying very close attention to him. There were so many other people waiting to attend the game, and she was occupied with engaging them.

All of them were gathered in the lobby waiting together, and Selene was chatting with some family friends who were also there to attend. She wasn’t watching Bryce closely— but he’d done nothing to raise her suspicions recently, so there was no reason she should have been. She’d left him to socialize on his own.

Bryce knew plenty of the people who were waiting in the school lobby; at other games he’d made a point of chatting with some of them. Some of the men and women there were people he came across during the course of running his business.

Bryce was debating striking up conversation with some of them— or joining Selene with the group of people she was talking to, who were more like family friends— when he saw her.

It was Hallie.

He hadn’t been expecting her, and her presence came as a complete shock. And the sight of her seemed to amplify all the thoughts he had been thinking lately.

He felt more shaken up seeing her the second time. Had she been so beautiful before? And yet, unlike the first time, he was noticing more than just the way she looked. That quality about her— that quality that was written into every aspect of her being— that was what he felt drawn to this time.

He wanted to get closer to her— wanted to speak to her— he’d never imagined that this would be the place he’d see her next. He wondered why she was even there— she had once again inspired curiosity in him. He’d been wondering about her all week, but now, suddenly he was ravenous to have every detail of her life— every explanation, every piece of information he could get.

He wanted to go over and talk to her— he wanted to stay by her side the entire night— the fierceness of the longing surprised even him. He’d gotten used to his craving for her, and his thoughts of her, but they seemed to be even stronger when he was actually seeing her in person. He hadn’t remembered it being like this the previous time— it was as if all the thinking he’d been doing about her had intensified his feelings. Maybe if he kept thinking about her, his feelings would get even stronger still— and yet, there was no flicker of hesitation. He wanted to go on thinking about her, even if that would be the end result… and he wanted to interact with her.

He knew he couldn’t do it here, where Selene would see, where a good portion of their entire social network would see. He couldn’t do it here.

But this was Hallie’s second time crossing his path in a very short period of time— he hoped that he’d have a third chance to interact with her soon.

Until then he could keep thinking about her— and for this moment, he could look at her from across the lobby, and wonder about the answers to her mysteries. He watched her as she made small-talk— wished he was close enough to hear the sound of her voice; wished she was looking at him and not and the person she was talking to.

Her eyes did flicker to him briefly— but she gave no indication that she intended to come over to him. She only gave him that knowing look, as before. Then her eyes passed back to the person she was talking to.

He let himself watch her for just a moment longer after that— but just as he couldn’t cross and speak to her freely here where everyone else could see, he also couldn’t stand there staring at her. After allowing himself just that moment, he went to join Selene and their other friends to chat with them.

Even once they were all let into the gymnasium to watch the volleyball match, Bryce was still very aware of Hallie. In spite of this, he was able to keep his composure. But throughout the whole game, he was thinking about her.

She was in the same room as him again, even if they were nowhere near each other. They were in the same room— it felt like progress after going days without seeing her. This was the closest they’d been since they’d said goodbye the other day after meeting.

It didn’t matter to Bryce that there were other people in the room— or that Selene was right next to him. Hallie was there. Some of his craving to see her and be with her abated with that knowledge. He wanted to be even closer, if he could get there— he wished that he could be right next to her. Though for now, he would take being in the same room with her if that was what he could get.

But though he’d made this concession to himself, he found he was still watching her from the corner of his eye— she was only several rows down and to the side from where he was sitting. And even when he wasn’t watching her, he was thinking of her the same way he had been doing all week.

But his thoughts of her seemed to have changed again, after seeing her a second time. He was thinking of her more desperately even than before. Wondering about her more intensely— hoping and wishing for a chance to interact with her again, out of sight from everyone else there.

The only thing he had to help him with this desperation was the memory of meeting her, and now the added memory of seeing her from afar.

Those would have to do until later; until he could be lucky enough. If he only had the chance, he would tell her he’d been thinking about her. He wanted to know how she’d respond to that, just as he wanted know everything about her. And he wanted to have her close— have anything that she could give him, because it would be coming from her; even if it was only information. He wanted her— and he wondered if he would ever have her. He wondered if he would ever be that lucky.