HOSTEL
Chapter Three — Unpacking
Marcel was in heaven.
This was better than anything he’d imagined. Way more than what he’d expected when he first heard the whispered rumors about Club Trabant, and about the girls who hung out there. About what you could do with them, to them, if you had the right amount of Euros in your pocket. He briefly began to calculate how long it had taken to work up the nerve to even poke his head through the door, and wondered why he’d been so stupid.
Then Emily lowered herself onto his cock and began riding him with practiced ease, and he forgot all about the club. He placed his hands on her soft, smooth ass, pressing her deeper into him. She let out a soft moan and kept going, never breaking rhythm. She didn’t say a word; hadn’t said much at all, in fact, aside from the occasional praise for his abilities or the accepting “yes, Master,” whenever he asked her to do something.
Not that words mattered much at this point. He looked up at her pretty face. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling, her mouth slightly open. Her lovely breasts swung just so as she rocked back and forth, and he decided at that moment to make her titty-fuck him again if there was time. Then she clenched, and his fingers dug into her skin, trying to hold out as long as possible.
“Ja…”, he managed. “Yes… Em… Emil… Em…”
Beep beep beep. The little travel alarm clock from Emily’s purse began to stir, and she casually reached over to slap the top of it without breaking stride. She slowed her rocking motion to a crawl and leaned into him, gently nibbling on his ear while they both enjoyed the endorphin rush. “I love you, Master,” she whispered, before kissing him and rolling away.
“Das ist alles?” Marcel rolled over and propped himself against the two remaining pillows.
She shook her head and smiled, in that pretty way that he’d already fallen hopelessly in love with. “I don’t… did you ask if that’s all? My German is crap, I’m sorry.” She climbed out of bed and began to gather up her clothes.
“You’re just going to go?”
Panties, bra, shirt. “Yes, Master. Our time is up.” She dug under the bed for her skirt. “It was a great two hours, though. You’re a good fuck. I had fun!” She swept the alarm clock into her purse and kissed him. “And you’re sweet, too.”
“Can I see you again? A roll in the hay?”
“Of course, Master. I don’t know what the payment process is, but if you talk to the same people, they’ll send you to me.” She blew him a kiss. “I’ll be waiting.”
Before he could say anything, she was through the bedroom door and on her way out, jacket tossed casually over her left shoulder, her hips and ass giving him one last little sexy show.
Marcel froze. He held his breath so that he could hear the soft clack clack clack of her shoes on the hallway stairs as she made her way to the street. He didn’t relent until he heard the distant thud of the heavy front door, then exhaled slowly as he surveyed the maelstrom of bedsheets, discarded clothes, and used condoms. Scheisse! War das echt? Her scent lingered in the air, and he could still taste her on his lips. It felt wonderful.
He made a note to stop by Club Trabant again as soon as he had enough money in the bank.
Emily slipped into her jacket and made her way through the thinning mid-morning crowds. There was a chill in the air, but she didn’t mind; it helped to dry the sweat, and felt good against her skin. After walking a few blocks she pulled out her phone and, without making a single misstep, sent out a text message.
Job complete.
There was a coffee shop just down the street. The smell of roasting beans and fresh pastries filled the air, and she let her nose drag her to the shop entrance. Her phone buzzed as she reached the door, and she paused to check the screen.
Delete this message. Awaken.
She slid her finger across the screen and tapped it, causing the message to vanish. Suddenly the words on the screen became blurry. Everything was blurry. She placed her hand on the doorframe to steady herself, but everything continued to spin.
Her brown eyes rolled into her head.
Uhhhnnnnn…
“Verzeihung bitte!”
Emily blinked. What was I…
“Bitte?”
A man was behind her, gently and politely trying to squeeze past. It suddenly occurred to her that she was blocking the entrance to the coffee shop, and she sheepishly ducked inside. She let the annoyed man take his place in line in front of her and, feeling very much embarrassed, pretended to study the board above the counter.
Where the hell am I? A tap on the phone brought up the map app, and she studied it for a moment. She was a good hour’s walk from the hostel, in a suburb she’d never heard of. Mass transit wasn’t thank you Berlin! too far from the coffee shop, negating the long walk back to her bed, but it still felt weird. She tried to remember the things she’d seen and done over the past… two hours? Really? No wonder I’m sore all over!
The annoyed man seemed much less annoyed now. He was ordering a coffee, and possibly a muffin, using the kind of fluent German that Emily could only dream about. She had a sudden urge to share her story with him—how she’d gotten so engrossed in his city that she’d let herself wander way the hell out here, where few tourists bothered to sightsee. Perhaps he’d have a good laugh. Perhaps they both would.
“I wish Rebecca were here to see this,” she said quietly to herself.
“What do you mean, a job interview?”
Alice fussed with the bedroom curtains before turning to her. “Exactly what it sounds like. You show me that you’re capable of taking a job, and then you get the job. And then you work for me. They have job interview in the States, don’t they?”
Rebecca looked at the Irish woman as if she’d just announced a scheme to sell water on Venus. “But… I mean… I don’t understand.”
“Come on.” Alice took her by the hand, and she meekly acquiesced. “Let’s give Olivia here some peace and quiet, and go for a walk.”
They moved out into the hall, Alice gently closing the room door behind her with a soft thunk. “I know, I told her that she’d wake up fully refreshed. But I’ve come to find out that only takes you so far. They eventually get tired, even if you’ve programmed them not to.”
Rebecca still had a thousand questions. She chose the first one that popped into her head. “Why did you make me think she was Jessica?”
Alice was leading her to the main entrance. They passed by several smiling women, most of them pretty, most of them in their twenties. All of them gave Alice a huge smile and a word of thanks concerning their simply wonderful accommodations. Rebecca’s mind drifted to mafia movies, where the grateful people would shower their terrible, criminal, but extremely generous “godfather” with praise. Simply wonderful, Don Alice! I’ve never slept better!
Then again, what better way to generate positive online reviews than to hypnotize your guests into posting them?
They reached the main entrance. Alice sat down at the reception desk with a weary, tired sigh. “I’m sorry? Didn’t catch what you said just now.”
“Why did you make me think that Olivia was Jessica?”
“Oh, I didn’t, dearie! I simply told you to imagine that you were about to hypnotize the woman of your dreams.” She laughed. “To be honest, I thought you’d choose your friend Emily. She’s quite attractive, and you two do get along so well…”
Rebecca frowned. “Em? No. No! I’ve known Emily for too long. We’re like sisters. We’re—“
”Hypnosis is so dumb, Rebecca.” The redhead kicked her feet in the air and idly flipped through a magazine. “It only works in the movies.”
Rebecca kneeled at the end of the bed and dangled her new purchase in front of Emily’s face. “I bet I could hypnotize you. The smartest ones are the easiest to hypnotize.”
Emily looked up from the magazine. Her soft brown eyes began to track the motion of the crystal almost instantly. “Well, luckily for me, I just… failed my… chem exam… so… not so… sssmart…
“—not like that at all. Anyway, no. Jessica was one of the Aussie girls at the bar. The night that you… you know. Hypnotized me.” How many days has it been, anyway?
“Oh. Oh! Oh yes! Absolutely gorgeous, that one! You’ve got good taste. Tell you what, Rebecca. I’ll try to track her down for you. No promises, of course! She could be on a plane back to Down Under by now, but if she’s still in Berlin, I know a few people that can crack any hotel database in town. And who knows?” The tired look briefly vanished, replaced by one of proud triumph. “Heaven knows I’ve certainly been on a bit of a winning streak lately.”
“Speaking of flights, Alice, I’m only here for a few days. I’ve got a plane of my own to catch, and people back home expecting me.” Rebecca immediately thought of her mother, the woman who thought nothing of leaving ten increasingly worried phone messages if the first one went unreturned. Then her thoughts turned to Emily, luggage in hand, waiting at Tegel for the flight home.
A figure appeared on the CCTV monitor that hung over the desk. “Hold that excellent thought, dearie.” She tapped a black button on the wall and leaned forward in her chair as the front door swung open. Behind it was a pretty redhead, carrying a purse and a light brown jacket.
“Oh, hello Alice!” The girl walked into the lobby and headed straight for the desk. “I slept so well last night! I just wanted to say thank you again. This has been a great trip so far.”
“I’m really glad to hear that, Emily!” Alice pointed to Rebecca. “Emily? This is Rebecca. Rebecca? Emily.” The two women shook hands, and Alice chuckled as they did so. “You Americans and your handshakes, I’ll never understand it!”
Emily let go of Rebecca’s hand and stood there, beaming, a one-woman display of sunshine and rainbows. “I actually have a best friend named Rebecca! We should grab a drink this week, and I can make her jealous.” She giggled.
“A spare Rebecca?”
“Exactly!”
The redhead’s sunny disposition was impossible to resist, and Rebecca let herself be consumed by it. “You’re not going to believe this, but…” She paused to let Emily guess what she was getting at.
“Wait. No. NO. You don’t.”
“I do!”
“Well shit, what a small world!” Emily grabbed Rebecca’s arm and shook it. “What are the odds? Is she here in Berlin with you? I want to meet my spare Emily!”
“Well, we came here together, but she’s off exploring the castles down south.”
“Ohhhh, bor-ring!” Emily laughed and rolled her eyes. “Well, hit me up if you need a bar buddy. Right now I’m off to grab one of the showers while they’re still open. After the walk I went on this morning, I could use a good scrubbing!”
“Nice to meet you, Emily!”
“Nice to meet you, Spare Rebecca!”
Rebecca watched the pretty redhead until she turned a corner and disappeared into the depths of the hostel. She ran a hand over her skin, wondering just what the showers were like. Her skin was soft and healthy, and she thought about just how many times Alice had allowed her to clean up. How many times she’d been allowed to do anything.
How many times she’d be allowed to do things in the future.
“So did you hypnotize her too, Alice? Are we all hypnotized here? Me, Olivia, the girls in the hallway, the girl we just met?”
“They’re not under hypnosis right now, Rebecca.” Alice shook her head. “Although if you’d like to put any one of them under, we can arrange for that. I think we’ve already proven your skills in that department.”
Your mind is so empty and blank, Emily. So empty and blank. Empty except for the sound of my voice. My hypnotic, beautiful voice. So beautiful, isn’t it?”
Pale brown eyes, slowly darting back and forth. The magazine fell from her hands. “So pretty… wait… what are you… you…”
“Back and forth, Emily.”
“Back and… forth…”
Rebecca shook her head violently, ignoring the stare from her erstwhile ‘boss,’ until the memories sank back into their proper location. “If I’m not hypnotized, why am I not running screaming out the front door right now? Why am I not calling the police on you?”
Alice idly flipped through a stack of paperwork. “You mean you’re not calling the police and telling them that the sweet, innocent lass who owns this hostel has been controlling your mind with drugs and hypnosis? Think that’ll go over well with them? Although yes, I did hypnotize you into not doing that. Can never be too careful, Rebecca.”
“Controlling my… Alice, you can’t do this to people! You can’t just take me, Olivia, that redhead girl… you can’t just make us do stuff. It’s wrong!” She bit her lip and, to her surprise, managed to take a step towards the front door. Then another.
“How did it feel, hypnotizing those two girls at my club?”
Rebecca stopped. Run for fucks sake Rebecca run before she hypnotizes you jesus fucking christ why are you standing “That was a joke, Alice. I wasn’t about to melt their brains and enslave them.”
“Weren’t you now?” Alice’s laugh echoed down the halls. “I watched the whole thing, beginning to end. Caught a good bit of the conversation, too. What were you doing, if not that?”
“I told Phoebe to make out with someone, not to become my slave. That’s something you did, not me.”
Alice stood, and walked over to one of the file cabinets that lined the far wall. She stuffed a stack of paperwork into a top drawer. “I saw the look on your face that night, Rebecca. I know that look. I absolutely know that look! That feeling of power. Having a girl right where you want her, melting her thoughts, reaching in and grabbing the controls… how did it feel, Rebecca, to program that blonde girl’s mind? To make her do something she’d never do herself?”
“It was just …a joke.” Inside, she felt herself sag in defeat. “But I stopped. I apologized!”
“What was it that you said to your friend?” Alice was circling around the office desk now, closing in on her. “After those two stormed off? I remember it quite distinctly, Rebecca.”
”There’s a part of me that just likes bending people.”
She was a rabbit trapped in a snare, and the farmer was approaching, shotgun in hand, about to deliver the killing blow. She winced as Alice drew closer. But the Irish woman simply placed her hands on Rebecca’s shoulders and looked into her eyes.
“The thing is… what if that part of you wasn’t wrong?”
“Når isen drypper ned ad dig… Når du går i de korte kjoler…”
The pretty blonde hummed and danced her way through Alexanderplatz, enjoying the feel of the sunshine on her face, and enjoying the looks and admiring stares from both the men and the women that she passed. Today was a day for parks and memorials. Maybe a trip up to the top of the tower was also in order—it was bound to offer a good view on such a bright and clear day. She spotted the squat, funky World Clock and, after waiting for a passing tram, raised her camera to get a shot of it.
“Excuse me, are you Freja?”
She squinted in the bright sunlight, once again regretting the choice to leave her sunglasses at the hostel. “Freja? Ja, jeg er.” There was a man standing next to her, holding a sheet of paper. He looked nervous, and she tightened her grip on the camera. Another tram rumbled by.
“I think you dropped this, Freja.” He pushed the paper towards her, and she found herself taking it from him. She kept one hand on the camera and one eye on the stranger while she unfolded the mysterious item. There was a single sentence written in blue ink:
Du vil adlyde. You want to obey.
Her eyes closed, and her hands fell to her sides. The paper drifted away, forgotten. The camera bounced off her chest and dangled from its strap.
“Freja?” The man leaned in and gently touched her shoulder.
She licked her lips, slowly, sensuously. “Yes, Master. I hear and obey.”
“Um… open your eyes?”
She did so. “I await your commands, Master.”
He offered his hand, and she eagerly took it. Her skin was warm and soft. “We’re going to go back to my hotel room, and we’re… you’re going to have sex with me. Okay?”
She looked into his eyes. “As you wish, Master.”
He made sure to check his watch before they walked any further.
“Partners.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“But I have to leave for home. I can’t stay here.”
“Who says that you can’t?”
They were back in the kitchen, working their way through a fresh pot of coffee. Rebecca let Alice have the creamer—she preferred her brew nice and black—and aimlessly tapped the mug against the table. “I have obligations, Alice. I have family.”
“So tell them that you’re moving to Europe to start a new life and a new job,” said Alice. “People do it all the time. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow.
“Well okay, no, don’t go telling them that you’re headed off to be a mind controller! But come. Move to Berlin. You can stay in the hostel until you get situated. The business is good here.”
Two young women walked into the kitchen and helped themselves to the pot of coffee. They waved, and Alice proudly waved back.
“Oh girls? I have a request that you simply can’t turn down. You will hear nothing about the conversation that I’m having with Rebecca here, and you will remember nothing about it when you leave the kitchen.”
“Of course, Alice,” said the auburn-haired girl. She handed her friend a mug, and the two of them settled at a nearby table to chat.
“I thought that nobody was hypnotized here, Alice?” Rebecca crossed her arms, feeling smug.
“For your information, they’re programmed, not hypnotized.”
Rebecca watched the two friends for a minute. They were engaged in a spirited conversation, the auburn-haired girl’s hands wildly gesticulating as she recounted some kind of hilarious encounter from the night before. Neither seemed particularly bothered by Alice’s odd request. As if they’d been programmed.
“Okay,” she said after a while. “What exactly are you programming them to do?”
Alice grinned, and pushed back from the table. “Follow me.”
Three beautiful young woman sat in comfortable-looking recliners. Their eyes were wide open, completely captured by the wavy colored lines on the screens that hung inches from their faces. Each was naked, save for a white bathrobe, and each sported a pair of headphones.
“Behold, my three horsemen,” said Alice, beaming like a proud parent. “Tanisha is the student president of the largest sorority on the East Coast. Lucy is an aspiring model with a rather substantial following on social media. And Madison Cooke—of the New York Cookes, as they say in high places—is a rebellious little socialite whose stay here has already generated a bit of free press.”
Rebecca looked them over. “Am I supposed to be your fourth horseman?”
“You? Oh, heavens no dearie. I think three is plenty for now. I sought them out—it’s easy to know when someone’s visiting your city these days, thanks to the Internet—and I brought them here to be my marketers. Here, take a listen.” She pulled the headphones from Madison’s unresisting head, and held them out to Rebecca. “Oh come on now, it’s not going to brainwash you. Take a listen.”
Rebecca held the headphones at the edge of her ear, expecting to immediately drop into hypnotic blackness. But she heard nothing but a sleepy, soothing voice. I had the most wonderful, relaxing vacation! I stayed at this incredible hostel in Berlin. It was an amazing experience. Everyone was so nice and friendly! I haven’t slept that well in forever! I can’t wait to go back. I had the most wonderful, relaxing vacation! I stayed at this incredible hostel in Berlin. It was an-
She handed the headphones back to Alice, who gently repositioned them over the hypnotized blonde’s ears. “She’ll tell all of her wealthy, pretty friends to come stay with me, and I’ll take the best of the lot for myself. The rest? Well, quite likely they’ll still enjoy their stay. It is a nice hostel, after all.”
“You’ll have to put that into the brochure.”
Alice laughed loudly, and Rebecca cringed. You’ll wake up the… oh. Behind Alice, the three women remained motionless in their chairs. They were far too deep to be roused by something as simple as a laugh. It would take an atomic bomb to save them now, and even then, Rebecca wasn’t so sure that would be enough to wake them.
“Oh, that was a good one, love,” Alice chuckled. “What I’d give for the ability to really just be upfront about it all, perhaps cater to girls like yourself, girls who like being hypnotized and who like to hypnotize others. Come, sit in my magical little chairs for a bit. If only!” More chuckling. “I’m afraid we still have to do things the old-fashioned, secret agent way for now, while we wait for society to come to its senses. Let me show you how.”