The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Explain to me again why I cannot partake in this beholding of the DVD?”

Daniel looked at Radhu like he had sprouted a third arm. “Are you seriously asking me why I’m not letting you see a DVD of my fiancée screwing around on me? Seriously?”

“You just recounted how you showed it to Serena...”

“She’s a girl!”

“And that affects matters how exactly? She is practically bisexual.”

“It’s... it’s... dammit, it’s just not the same, okay? Now can we just go back to figuring out what the hell I should do now?”

“What was Serena’s analysis of the situation?”

Good question, thought Daniel. Earlier today, after watching the DVD that had been left attached to his front door, he had gone through another round of calls to everyone he knew looking for Jenn, without success. He had then called Serena and had been surprised to find her—she had been getting a lot more difficult to get a hold of lately. He had asked her to come over, and she had agreed, without asking questions. She had shown up forty-five minutes later, finding him in a sorry state alternating between anger and despair. Her hug had been welcome and reassuring. While he told her the events of the previous day, from the time when he had left her after lunch to go find Jenn up until the discovery of the DVD a few hours earlier, Serena had listened intently like the reporter she was. She had been curious about the DVD, and despite feeling funny about it, he had loaded the player again and fired up the video. He had stepped out of the room while she watched, having had no desire to see any of it again.

Serena had not made any comments afterwards. She had agreed with his assessment that it was unlikely Jenn had been drugged. She had also reiterated that not only did she not believe in hypnosis, but that even if she did, everyone knew that one could not be made to do something one did not want to do when in a trance. Serena had scoffed when Daniel had reminded her of his dream. But she had had no explanation for what Biff had meant at the end of the video about making Jenn “nice and obedient.” The kicker, had added Serena, almost talking to herself, was that Jenn was very much herself in that video—she was acting the way Jenn always acted.

“There is another possibility, of course,” Radhu mused, “and I apologize if the mere mention of it causes you distress, and that is that Jennifer sought out the experience in full acceptance.”

Daniel looked at his friend without flinching. Serena had said the same thing. “You mean, she may simply be having an affair with Biff.”

“As disturbing as the image might seem, much odder couplings have arisen in the history of the world.”

“Impossible. Not Jenn.” He sounded more sure than he really was.

“I would have tended to agree, prior to hearing the evidence you presented. But observe that people have also thought that time was an absolute reference frame. To err is human. Perhaps Jennifer is acting irrationally pending your upcoming nuptials.”

Serena had more or less argued the same, that Jenn might just be having a harmless fling with Biff, a rather drastic response to the understandable anxiety prompted by their marriage plans. After all, Jenn had never been particularly gung-ho about marriage in general, Serena had reminded him.

“No. I won’t believe that until Jenn tells me, face to face.”

“Have you managed to locate her?”

“No. It’s like she’s disappeared off the face of the earth. Gone. No one’s seen her—or Biff, for that matter. I stopped by his frat before coming here, but nothing. Wherever they are, they’re keeping quiet.”

Radhu looked at him, silent.

After a few minutes of contemplation, Daniel looked up at his friend. “That tea you gave me, remember? From your mother? Does it have any weird effects? Hallucinations? Or maybe—god this is so fucked up!—visions?”

“Visions?”

“Seeing things that are not there, but are nevertheless true?”

Radhu frowned. “There have been reported incidents in my family of psychedelic effects due to ingestion of my mother’s infusions, but I admit that I fail to see how that might impact the present situation.”

Daniel took a deep breath, and told him of the dream he had experienced two days earlier, in which he had seen Jenn with Biff, seemingly being hypnotized by the frat boy, and his feeling that the dream may not have been a dream.

Radhu listened silently before commenting. “Are you suggesting that perhaps the oneiric experience you underwent may have been an interpretation by your subconscious of actual events that may have been happening in your dwelling at that exact moment?”

Daniel shrugged, feeling vaguely ridiculous.

“It is not,” Radhu replied, “outside the realm of possibilities given the aforementioned reported family incidents.”

Daniel did not realize he had been holding his breath until he let it out. “So Biff might have been right there, in my place, fucking with Jenn’s head, and I could have stopped him?” I could have stopped him, but I didn’t!

“I must underline, for the record, that taking into account Biff’s estimated muscle mass, he would have most likely pummeled you into the ground.”

Daniel decided not to pursue the topic. He would face his guilt later, in private. “So you think... you think it’s possible she was hypnotized or something? Serena made it very clear that that’s a load of bull. But what do I know? And why would I have dreamt that anyways? And Biff sure made it sound like something like that was going on in the video.” Daniel could hear a sense of hope in his voice which angered him. Here he was, hoping that his fiancée had been hypnotized into being a slut for a guy she hated, because that was more palatable than the alternative, that Jenn was having an affair with that ape Biff. He was being selfish, horribly and stupidly selfish. But he could not help it.

“For the record,” Radhu said, “let me explicate that I do as a matter of fact believe that mind control is possible, and in fact is in use in the wild. Of course, I hasten to point out that the likelihood that Biff is employing such advanced technology is vanishingly small. According to my various sources, who happen to share my views about this particular topic, most techniques for achieving non-trivial mind control—that is, beyond mere trance-induced suggestions that are at best realized subconscious manifestations—involve mind-altering substances or severe stimulus deprivation coupled with an intense schedule of mental reprogramming and cortical stimulation. None of which could have been performed on Jennifer without you noticing, as they require time and have evident side effects. Some people have hinted at the development of new methods for mind control, including drugs without disastrous side effects, but such assertions have been offered without verification.”

“Bottom line, you don’t think Biff could have gotten his hands on that kind of tech.”

“It it highly unlikely. Not impossible, of course, but highly unlikely.”

“But possible, yes”

Radhu looked at Daniel with a look that conveyed all the patience in the world. “Honestly, if we are to contemplate unlikely but possible scenarios, I would rather we consider the doppelganger theory.”

“Doppelganger? As in twins?”

“The term twins implies a sibling connection, but in essence, yes, you are correct. The doppelganger theory suggests that everyone has a double, someone whose physical likeness is conducive to confusion and cases of mistaken identity. So one possibility is that what you witnesses was not Biff with Jennifer, but rather Biff with a doppelganger of Jennifer.”

“That’s crazy! I mean—even if it were true that we all have twins, and I’m not saying it is—what are the odds that Jenn’d have one here, in the same middle-of-nowhere town?”

“I would venture the odds are as low as Biff having obtained advanced mind-control technology. Which is somewhat my point here.”

“Look, maybe the frat got the stuff from someone else.”

“The likelihood remains negligible. Unless one of the members of the fraternity is closely acquainted with a suitably high-level executive or researcher in one of the handful of companies and research centers that have been rumored to be investigating such technologies.” Radhu’s eyes lost their focus, which Daniel recognized as a sign that he was thinking through an idea. “It should be a simple matter to cross-reference the Delta Iota Kappa membership with the employee lists of the aforementioned companies. I could run such an analysis, if you so wished.”

“That’d be great, actually. Don’t forget the alums too. But... where are you going to find those lists?”

Radhu shrugged. “It is a simple matter of being cognizant of where to look for them. Although I expect that employees whose income is not registered with the IRS, or the tax collection agencies of a Western country, may not show up in my cross-referencing search.” And Radhu’s eyes lost their focus again.

Daniel nodded, then hesitated before continuing. “Huh, Rad, while you’re down there investigating the frat, do you mind also taking a look at this and see if it has anything to do with, you know, any of what we talked about?” He held out his hand, from which Radhu lifted a silver charms bracelet. “Jenn showed up with one a couple of days ago, and it’s gotta be related somehow. The coincidence’s just too great.”

“Ah, one of these again. Similar to the one we found when we were investigating Marjorie’s disappearance last semester. Were did you get it?”

“I... huh... I borrowed it from Serena.”

In fact, it had been less a matter of borrowing than of ripping it off her wrist earlier that day. He had indeed asked Serena to borrow it, and she had refused, and he had pressed the issue, and she had heated up and accusing him of never listening to her and he had gotten angry in response to her anger and told her she was lying about that bracelet and she had dared him to take it from her if he thought it made her a toy of that frat and without thinking—barely seeing anything through the rage that had suddenly erupted from his core—he had lashed out and grabbed her wrist and ripped the bracelet off, at which point Serena had slapped him hard before kicking him in the groin even harder and then telling him as he lay on the ground holding his crotch that she knew he was hurt and confused because of what had happened to Jenn and that he was just lashing out and that was why she was not going to kill him but she nevertheless hoped that he’d choke on that bracelet. She had left that way, angrier than Daniel had ever seen her, and Daniel had been too much in pain to try and stop her. Now that he was somewhat calmer, and that his balls had stopped throbbing, he felt bad about what had happened, but he was willing to take advantage of the opportunity to look more carefully at that stupid bracelet. He would have plenty of time to apologize to Serena later.

“In fact,” he added, “has Serena seemed at all strange to you these past few weeks?” It was an open secret that Radhu was head-over-heels in love with the voluptuous black girl, and Daniel was hoping that such feelings would translate into keener observations.

“I have not detected a noticeable change in her demeanor, no.”

“I mean, the way she just dropped the Delta Iota Kappa stuff after she found Marjorie, and this bracelet, and—”

“Well, playing the odds again, I would venture that it is likely that the bracelet and its attendant significance as a purveyor of social possibilities was part of an exchange for Serena to stop her investigation, which she must have been leaning towards in any case because of her finding Marjorie.”

“Serena? Bribed? Come on...”

“Everybody has their price, Daniel. Everybody has their price.”

“I don’t buy it. Look, those bracelets came up left and right last semester—Marjorie had one, the girls had them at the NADA thing and they were certainly acting weird—” No reaction from Radhu at the mention of that ill-fated party. “Serena showed up with one at the beginning of the term and she’s been acting weird. Jenn had one...”

“I am satisfied with the explanation of Marjorie’s behavior as a result of a nervous breakdown. Serena has been acting like Serena. Jennifer is still a question mark, but we are missing much data. And as far as the serving staff at the NADA party, I have not developed a theory yet, but I do agree it was peculiar.”

“Peculiar my ass. Something’s going on. And I’m going to find out what exactly. And I think a starting point is to look at that bracelet, carefully.

“I’ll run a few analyses,” said Radhu. “I have some friends studying forensics that will take great pleasure in taking this apart. But remember that we found nothing of interest on Marjorie’s bracelet last time.”

“Just do your best, Rad. Meanwhile, I’ve got to figure out a way to find Jenn. The police were no help. They basically told me that students disappear all the time before turning up a couple of days later. They suggest I just wait for her to get off her binge and crawl back home. Unless they have some evidence of foul play or until a few days pass, they will not do anything. They did say something about hiring a private investigator if I was really worried.”

“That sounds like an eminently reasonable idea.”

“Yeah, it does.” He paused. “Listen, there’s something else I wanted to ask you. If you feel up to it. I don’t want to put too much on your plate. But you told me a week or so ago that you figured out a way to hack into the CCTV cameras around campus?”

“Correct. The ESPION project was granted funding to wirelessly connect all campus cameras as a testbed for their behavioral recognition technology, and penetrating their network was something an infant could do. Ah, I see—you would like me to keep a lookout for Jennifer.”

“And for Biff. Finding either is good enough for me.”

“I could run the aggregated feed through a few facial recognition algorithms, in parallel. And in fact I may be able to advocate for this endeavor to be counted as term project for my Advanced Pattern Recognition class. The question will be how to best reduce the ratio of false positives to...”

Daniel shook his head, listening to Radhu muttering to himself and clearly running through a few designs in his head. He would let him think some of it through before asking him if he could spend the night on his couch. He really did not want to be alone tonight.

Jenn still had not given any sign of life the following day. Daniel did the round of phone calls once more, but again no one had seen Jenn. Some of her friends were starting to get worried as well, and told Daniel that they would start looking and asking around for her. That made Daniel feel a little better. At least he was not alone. Serena did not pick up her phone.

In the afternoon, after returning from a lecture to which he had been unable to pay any attention, he started looking up private investigators. He soon ended up with a list of detectives that were willing to work missing persons in New England, and started calling them up, methodically going down his list. Many were not answering their phones, most seemed too busy to take new cases and those that were not too busy seemed unwilling to head all the way to North Alexandria to investigate.

Taking a break from his unfruitful queries, Daniel caught an email from Radhu in which the Indian passed along a name that had come up when he was helping Serena look into Marjorie’s disappearance the previous semester, a private investigator based in New York City that specialized in missing persons and that had gained a reputation in underground circles for specializing in people going missing under strange and unexplained circumstances after exhibiting atypical behavior. Radhu had included a phone number.

Seeing as he was having no luck with his own list, Daniel tried the number.

A recording greeted him. “Hi. You have reached the office of Sam O’Neill, licensed private investigator. I am out on a case this week, but please feel free to leave your contact information, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Mister O’Neill, my name is Daniel Malcolm, in North Alexandria. A friend of mine gave me your number, and said that you may be able to help me with my situation. My fiancée has gone missing.” Daniel then launched into the spiel that by now he had practiced with several voicemail services, describing as best as he could the situation, trying to not sound like he was struggling with a severe bout of paranoia. He left his contact information.

Undaunted, Daniel returned to his list of names, and continued where he had left off, calling them up one after the other. It was not until nearly the end that he managed to find an investigator—Grigory Pritznic—that was willing to help him out and who stated with confidence that this case would not a problem for him. They made an appointment for later in the day, to discuss the case in more detail, sign some paperwork, and negotiate a fee. Daniel allowed himself a small measure of hope.