The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Sunday: Day One

Brie looked up briefly as Chad, the IT guy walked into the store. She nodded slightly as he greeted her, but didn’t reply. And quickly returned her attention to the internet article on Faraday’s theories of inductive coupling from which she was scribbling notes. As Chad went to work on the computers at the back of the store Brie glanced at him through peripheral vision. Gone was the geek in anime t-shirts she used to talk to occasionally and here to stay, it seemed, was the preppy with his popped polo shirt and Dockers from some designer she couldn’t name. Unconsciously, she grumbled something as she returned to her studies.

The store where she worked, Darkly Mirrored was located in a mall in the city downtown. It catered to a cross between Goth and cyberpunk fashions with a section of books and music at one end. Business had fallen off more than usual this winter. Brie blamed the business next door; Prepsalon, with its snooty, elitist clientele, and the prep Nazis. The prep Nazis had appeared right after Prepsalon had opened in November, right before Black Friday and they had seemingly run off the customers who used to frequent her corner of the world. The slow business worked in her favor, since it allowed her to devote more time to her advanced degree program, but it wasn’t good for the store and its owner. The store was having a difficult time paying its bills.

The screen she was using went dark briefly and then began to reboot as she turned to glare at Chad.

“The system needs to reboot,” Chad said, finishing his work and walking toward the entrance. She had turned back to the screen and was bringing up her page and getting used to the brighter, slightly flickering screen so she barely registered Chad telling her about the new server connections and resolution and how the system was now tied to the store lighting to better enhance ambiance and mood.

“Hello,” said a voice from afar, pulling Brie from her reading. She took a moment to focus on the speaker. “Sabrina, how are you, dear?” Tiffany Welles smiled. “You’re such a pretty thing; you must come to my salon, my treat, neighbor to neighbor.”

“Maybe sometime Tiffany,” Brie tried to keep her reaction neutral. She hated Tiffany Welles, whose Prepsalon, she viewed as the decline of individuality and everything decent in the world. She was dressed in khaki pants with creases sharp enough to cut glass, a pink polo shirt with the ubiquitous popped collar, and a powder-blue cardigan tied around her shoulders.

“I’m here to meet with Jill, dear, is she about?”

“Tiffany,” a voice came from behind, before Brie could answer and her boss, Jill Monroe came into the room from her office. “How are you today?”

“I am well, darling,” Tiffany smiled. “Am I too early?”

“Right on time,” Jill said, “Brie, we’re going out to lunch and may be late getting back, can you hold down the fort until Kelly comes in?”

“Sure boss.” Brie half-smiled, watching them go and wondered what, exactly the two women, being almost polar opposites, might be doing going to lunch together. Shortly afterward, she returned to her reading and lost herself in the screen once more.

Jill had felt lost in a fog all morning and had barely been aware during lunch. Whisked along by her companion, she came back to herself and realized she was seated in a salon chair with a girl she sort of recognized applying polish to her nails. “What…?” she began, but lost the thought as an old-fashioned hair dryer lowered over her head and she could no longer see. Moments later her thoughts completely dissolved in a wash of flashing colors and sound.

“Hellooo…” Brie was startled when a voice broke her concentration. She looked up to see three women she didn’t recognize, all dressed in the brightest pinks, blues and yellows known to science and all with their collars popped. Brie tried not to grimace.

“May I help you?” Brie tried to smile. She normally hated the look the women wore, but found herself staring and her mind wandering among the colors. It was very hard to focus.

“We need you to sign for this.” One of them pointed to a stack of boxes next to the counter.

She took the clipboard and scribbled something on the line indicated, not really paying attention as the women left. She became quickly absorbed back into her reading and barely noticed anything else as the afternoon passed her by.

Kelly arrived at ten minutes past 5PM as usual. She sat at a terminal to check in while Brie was off in another world, staring at her terminal. Only when her ringer went off did Brie look up. Stretching, she shook her head clear and read the text from her boss. “Things went late with Tiffany so I will not be back today. Please be in at nine AM tomorrow because I have some big news to go over. Thanks, J.”

“Back among the earthlings, I see.” Kelly laughed.

“What the h…?” Brie began but stopped when she saw the time. “Shit!” she cussed, instead, “I’ve got to go.” She gathered her notes and grabbed her leather jacket to leave. “Boss wants us here at nine AM tomorrow.” She said rushing out. Kelly was already engrossed, looking at the screen in front of her.

Walking past Prepsalon, she couldn’t help but stare at both the salon and the attached clothing store: Prep Me, with its racks of colorful clothing. It took several seconds before she noticed the same three women from earlier staring back from the front of the store, smiling at her. Unconsciously, she tugged at her jacket collar, pulling it up and feeling it against the back of her head.

The lab was deserted when she arrived after mostly zoning out for the bus ride from work. She showed her ID at the security desk and retrieved her work from a locker. Removing her coat, she felt somehow lost for a second without the slight pressure of the collar against her neck and head, but it passed quickly. In the quiet of the lab she was able to clear her head and start working.

The project was groundbreaking and very few knew about it other than a few close friends and her professor, Dr. Charlene Townsend. It was a soft-mesh microcomputer to be worn by its user on the back of the neck which would interface directly with the user’s brain through subtle electromagnetic fields. The immediate application was as a stop-smoking aid, but Brie had imagined many possible applications beyond that. I could use it to reprogram the prep-Nazis she mused and the thought made her smile, but something deeper down made her lose concentration and her vision blurred as she stared into the electron microscope view of the tiny circuitry in the device. In a trance, she pulled the programming module from its box and inserted one of her three prototypes into it. She turned to her laptop and, connecting a cord to a port, began typing code.

Slowly Brie came back to herself. The screen was displaying a message stating that her file had been successfully saved. As she stretched, she realized that she had, at some point put on her white lab coat. A few slow seconds later she felt the popped collar of the coat against her neck. Her mind fogged again and she leaned back against the fabric. Test interface successful, she felt the words appear in her mind. Somewhere else, she felt the thought form that she was doing well and that her efforts to spread the lifestyle would be rewarded. At this, her mind was overwhelmed with pleasure. It was an hour later that she awakened, seeing that the time was quite late, and put her project and equipment away. Without thinking, she pulled up the collar of her leather coat and said good night to the guard at the front desk.

Monday: Day Two

Brie awoke with her alarm going off and sat up quickly. The bus ride home was a total blur and when she thought about it, so was most of her previous day. The hot shower washed away her concerns and sleepiness and as she dried off, she went to her closet. “Black,” she said, “black and gray,” she paused thinking about it. “Is that all I have?” She shook her head, what am I doing? she thought. “I’m cracking up…” she said aloud to no one, “way too many late nights in the lab.” She felt more like herself and grabbed jeans and a comfortable sweater so she wouldn’t be late for work.

The bus ride in was mostly uneventful until a foursome of two women and two men got on. She looked at them over her laptop, more prep-Nazis, she thought, every day, more prep-Nazis. She returned her attention to her laptop, and the notes she was reviewing. It wasn’t until several minutes later that she realized the four had sat down across the aisle from her and were staring… smiling, with their faces framed by their popped collars. The fog came back, washing over her brain and she barely felt the passage of time until she was standing outside of Darkly Mirrored… or what yesterday had been Darkly Mirrored.

PrepMe2, the colorful sign now read. There were a number of shipping pallets with shrink-wrapped boxes outside, and more within the store, but all of the familiar merchandise was gone and bare racks and shelves remained.

“The fuck, Right?” Kelly said, coming up next to Brie and handing her a coffee. “First I get here twenty minutes early, and now this… the apocalypse is nigh.”

Accepting the coffee, Brie didn’t say anything. She was still trying to process it all when another shock came to them.

“Girls!” Jill said from inside the store, “I’m so happy to see you both!” Brie and Kelly were struck by the sight of their boss wearing a tan pencil skirt and pink polo shirt with the collar popped. “I have a lot to discuss… so much to do!”

Looking at each other wordlessly, the two entered the store to hear what the boss had to say.

“We were about a week from closing the doors,” Jill said, “I had to keep up with the marketplace, or we couldn’t keep going. She unconsciously pulled at the corners of her collar. “Tiffany from next door offered a partnership and it was the perfect way out… I can even give you girls the raises you deserve.”

Brie’s mind had drifted since she’d entered the store. Something in the lighting she couldn’t quite pin down combined with her boss toying with her collar; drawing attention to it was affecting her. She knew enough about mental manipulation through her studies to recognize it happening, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to fight the flow. Kelly, she saw was lost in her own trance. Without thinking they both took the packages their boss offered them.

“… uniforms are yours, girls. They can be combined to wear for everyday life, if you decide to, but they are required here as part of the new dress code.” Brie realized slowly that she had tranced out while her boss was talking and didn’t remember taking the package. “You can use the changing rooms to put them on so we can get to work.”

Both of them stood, dazed, not moving.

“We need to get going” Jill urged, “With Kris and Julie still on vacation; I’m counting on you both.”

Slowly the fog lifted enough to move, and they both disappeared into the changing booths at the back of the store.

Brie unpacked the uniform box. Inside were a pair of sneakers from some preppy brand she wasn’t familiar with, two pairs of tan Capri pants, two tan skirts with white leggings, several pairs of socks in soft colors and five polo shirts (two pink, two white and one powder blue). She stood for a moment with the thought of quitting crossing her mind. Here in the booth the light was filtered and her mind seemed to clear a bit. If it hadn’t been for the fact the Jill had done so much for her, letting her study at work and even helping her with college loans, she might have walked out, but instead she selected a pair of capris and white socks.

With her shoes tied she looked at herself in the mirror. Half done, she thought, looking at the drab gray sweater contrasting above the bright, cheery rest of her outfit. She reached down for the shirts, her hands pausing briefly on a pink one, but selecting the blue one instead.

Dazedly she stared back at the blank eyes in the mirror staring out at her. Her hands unconsciously tied her messy hair into a braid at the back. That done, they went to her collar and pulled, but stopped just shy of popping the collar.

Stepping outside, she saw Kelly wearing a white polo and capris and noticed that her collar wasn’t popped either, yet, a half registered thought flashed and faded. Their boss complimented them, but seemed disappointed too, but said nothing about it as they all got to work, stocking shelves and filling racks of colorful clothes.

Brie saw Chad pass through the store and go into first one changing booth and then the other, but only distantly mused that he must be updating the lighting to match the rest of the store. He smiled as he sized up her outfit when he left. She, in her fogged state only saw the smile and his popped collar.

A few minutes before noon, she saw Jill meeting Tiffany in front of the store and the two of them walking away together. The store was shaping up, she could see through her semi-trance. Only a few racks lacked merchandise, pretty, colorful merchandise. Her hands drifted slowly to her collar.

“Earth to Sabrina”, Kelly’s voice pulled her from the depths. “Sprechen Sie lunch?” Kelly had one hand at her collar, pulling Brie slightly back into her trance.

“One moment girls”, Jill called, catching up. “These are for you, free of charge”, she held out a slip of paper with the words “Golden Ticket” on it in gold leaf, and smaller print offering the holder one free full makeover at Prepsalon. “A little bit of swag for my favorite worker-bees…enjoy your lunch.” Brie and Kelly both paused watching their boss walk away with her collar holding their eyes in its grasp until she disappeared into the back.

“Weird day eh?” Kelly laughed in between bites of her chicken wrap at the food court.

“You could say that,” Brie smiled, taking a bite of her salad. “Are you going to stay?”

“Yeah, I thought about it and yeah,” Kelly answered, sipping her soda, “as twilight zone as all of this is, Jill has done a lot for me over the past two years.”

“Me too,” Brie took a gulp of her juice. Their conversation was halted by the three women from Prepsalon walking by, looking at them, faces framed by their high collars.

“The prep-Nazis are everywhere.” Brie said watching them pass.

“Says little-miss Naziette in training!” Kelly teased. “And her friend, Brunhilde Von Pashtel!” and with a giggle she popped her collar.

Brie laughed, but slowly a worry she could neither shake, nor fully place set in. She stared at her friend without speaking.

“Now be a good little prep-Nazi and finish your lunch!” Kelly reached across the table and pulled Brie’s collar until it popped up.

Brie’s hands went quickly to pull it down, but stopped when they touched it and brushed lightly against Kelly’s hands. The fog returned and she ate her food quietly for several minutes.

“I’m not getting the makeover though,” Kelly spoke at last, “if only to spite those stuck up bitches next door.”

Yeah,” Brie agreed, “we need to draw the line somewhere.”

After lunch the restocking was done, but there was straightening to do, and a window display to build. Jill brought in help from next door, two of the women Brie and Kelly had seen earlier. Before they could team up, they were told to pair off with the two newcomers. “I think a little guidance in the new style will help you girls.” Jill smiled, tugging at her collar.

Brie watched as Jill went into the back with Tiffany and Kelly started working with her ‘guide’ on straightening shelves. Her hands were just about to pull down her collar but she stopped when a face filled her vision. “Hi Sabrina, I’m Jaclyn.” She said, here, let me help you with that.” She reached out and straightened Brie’s collar while pulling it to where it pointed straight up. “There, that looks so much better.”

Brie’s mind was lost in the fog again, but as she stared at Jaclyn’s face she knew she’d seen her before. “Hi… it’s Brie, please, have we met before?”

“Oh yes,” Jaclyn answered, “but I’m not surprised that you can’t place me, I used to be a customer here, before…”

“Jack?” Brie said slowly, remembering at last, a quiet Goth girl who used to come in and read in the book section for hours.

“That was the old me,” Jaclyn explained, before Tiffany changed my life. “You’ll see.”

Brie felt herself being led and saw Kelly being led to a computer screen. Mostly her gaze was fixed on the blue eyes and golden blonde hair, framed by a pink collar. She sat in a chair at a slight nudge and immediately her eyes were treated to a slideshow of smiling preppy girls with their popped collars… Like mine is a thought flashed in her brain.

Jaclyn and the other woman, whose name was Sheryl, and who also used to be a customer to the old store stood back and smiled before starting on the window display. “They’re so cute like that”, Sheryl said and they both laughed.

Brie’s mind floated along with the slideshow. The flickering screen, she distantly knew, was subliminal programming. The growing new self within smiled that she was awake enough to know, but unable to do anything but enjoy being an apt pupil. “Take Kelly next door for her makeover.” She distantly heard Jill say, and even more distantly saw Sheryl leading her friend away.

“You want to go with her, don’t you?” Tiffany’s voice whispered softly in her ear. “I know you do, dear… but you see you’re a gift that’s been dropped in our lap.” She brushed her fingers against Brie’s erect nipples through her shirt and blew gently on her earlobe.

Brie was unable to do anything but squirm slightly in her chair.

“Your friend Chad was a gift too, through his knowledge of computers we got you my dear, and soon the whole mall.” She repeated her caress on Brie’s breast with just a little more pressure.

“At first, we just wanted this store, didn’t we Jill?”

“Oh yes, Tiffany,” Jill said, pulling her collar against her cheeks and sighing. “I’m so happy to be with you now.”

“Now we need you to do us a favor Sabrina… you will do us a favor won’t you?

“Yes Tiffany.” Brie breathed, she wanted this.

“Good girl, Sabrina,” Tiffany cooed in her ear. “We need you to give us this.”

Brie’s eyes were drawn to her own laptop, held by Jill, showing her project.

The water against her scalp felt amazing. Kelly was on cloud nine as Sheryl and another woman worked on her. She felt sad for a second when her polo shirt was pulled over her head, but it passed quickly as the treated shampoo was massaged into her hair and scalp and slowly rinsed away.

Brie felt so much pleasure telling the security guard about her guest Jaclyn and how she was there to help her tonight. The guard seemed suspicious since her friend wasn’t on the list, but with just a little bit of talking, a guest pass was clipped to her pink polo.

The two worked quickly, making a few changes to the programming and replicating the devices until they had two hundred.

Brie pulled out a pink polo from her backpack which held her new clothes and placed one of the devices against the inside of the collar. As designed, it stretched and moved until it anchored itself within the fabric and proceeded to turn the exact color of the shirt. Satisfied, she pulled her blue polo over her head. It felt wrong, very wrong not to have the collar against her neck and it was probably a good thing that her friend was there because she started to feel doubts. Jaclyn put the pink polo in her hands and her eyes fell into it as she pulled it over her head, tucking it neatly into her pants. The sensations started immediately, even before she reached up to pop her collar. As the sensations coming from the embedded device multiplied tenfold she almost fell.

She smiled seeing Jaclyn tremble as a device was placed against her collar. And Sabrina pulled it up straight. They both stood, trembling slightly as the devices took them over.

Kelly was totally lost. The drugs in the shampoo and the ministrations of her new friends had her so turned on she almost couldn’t stand it. She barely registered as Sheryl lowered the hairdryer down around her head and briefly she was cut off from the world. Suddenly her whole world became swirling lights and pulsing sounds. Kelly felt too good to even think of resisting as it all remade her mind. Gone was the Goth from yesterday and replacing her, cell by cell was her new, stronger preppy self. Outside, the two preppy women smiled, watching Kelly’s body undulate like a serpent. It wouldn’t take long.

“How do you feel, Brie?” Jaclyn asked, attaching devices to the lab coats which hung on hooks in the lab.

“Sabrina,” she answered, looking at herself in the mirror as another batch of devices emerged from the machine. “Please call me Sabrina.” Sabrina felt a jolt attaching a device to the lab coat of her mentor, Dr. Townsend. “I feel like getting my makeover, Jaclyn.”

“Tomorrow Sabrina, tomorrow,” Jaclyn soothed, “and I have a feeling that you won’t be the only one.”

Sabrina walked past a construction operation that was beginning to set up on her way home from the bus stop. It told her that sometime in the early morning, the peace would be shattered by jackhammers. ‘That’s okay because I need to be up early for my makeover’, she thought with a smile. Absently she noticed a crisscrossing of power cables and a water line cover. Something seemed off, but her brain was too full of the things her invention was doing to her to care.

Once in her apartment she fell onto the bed, leaving her backpack and laptop on the floor and was fast asleep.

She was back in the store, helping a pretty female news anchor from a local channel straighten her collar and felt her tremble as the device began its work on her. It was so easy, and it felt so good. She watched the woman walk away to her makeover, and her new life.

Tuesday: Day Three

She awoke with a start as a clangor of dueling jackhammers rose outside and sank back on the pillow, still replaying the dream in her head. She could feel the device still performing its task and she knew it was stimulating the production of dopamine to make her feel wonderful about it. Knowing how it was changing her somehow made her want it more. She sat up and went to take a shower. She waited until last to remove her polo shirt and as soon as she had it off she felt the loss. A shower was important though, so she got in the shower quickly, paying particular attention to washing her hair and face. It was important that she look her best.

She dried herself quickly because she could feel herself slipping back and she didn’t want that, did she?

The pink polo shirt in her hands seemed to call to her. She craved the feelings it would bring her, still something resisted. Sabrina... No, she thought, I hate that name. The old Brie was resurfacing. She willed herself to drop the polo. It was slipping out of her hands and at the last second, fear of its loss gripped her. She quickly pulled it over her head and popped the collar, feeling wonderful as her new self, her true self, the new thoughts told her, reasserted and took over.

She decided that it was time to shed her old fears and complete her new image, pulling up the white leggings and tan skirt from her uniform. Sabrina went to the mirror and tied her hair into a French braid to finish the look.

“Oh no!” she gasped, seeing a small spot on the front of her polo, and turned on the faucet to wet a washcloth. She certainly couldn’t have a stain.

At that moment outside, there was a loud pop and a flash of light and smoke as the hammers struck between a water main and electric cable. The jolt was immediate, and though it was also more or less painless, Sabrina convulsed and fell unconscious on the floor.

Brie was awake and somehow she was herself, kind of at least. She was groggy and her muscles were stiff as she sat up. After a few seconds of confusion she had figured out what had happened. A power surge caused by the arrangement of the cables outside and an accident with a jackhammer had shocked her and caused an overload in her device. She still felt all of the cravings and the subliminal programming she’d received over the past few days. She still wanted her makeover very much, but with every moment the device wasn’t active, her old self became stronger. She pulled herself to a standing position and faced herself in the mirror.

The popped collar framed her face and it pulled her in. Yes, she thought, the programming was still there. She needed to put on a different shirt fast. Brie… Sabrina went quickly to her backpack and, after removing the inactive shirt, pulled out a white polo. All of them had had a device installed last night, so it was all she needed.

Holding the shirt in her hands she almost pulled it on, but instead, she threw it against the wall and sat down on her bed to cry and think. She needed a plan, and she needed it fast. Friends she cared about were becoming preppy pod-people and part of it was because of things she had done. She needed a plan and she needed allies, or (she looked at the clothes in her open backpack), she was going to become a preppy pod person too. The calendar on the wall caught her attention, six days until Kris and Julie came back, March fifteenth. Wonderful, she thought; beware: the ides of March.

Brie opened her desk drawer and dug out the TAZER her father had given her when she went away to college. Best I’ve got, she thought. The charge indicator showed three bars out of four, not many shots to make allies with, and with the power out in her apartment, there was nothing with which to charge it. She then grabbed the pink polo from the floor and examined the device. It was still partly active, which was a concern. She had designed it with redundancies, and a limited ability to self-repair if damaged, which was an even bigger concern. She didn’t have any other, safer preppy wear, so she slipped it on. Knowing that if it was able to recover, being powered by her own body’s electrical emissions it would be while she wore it. She spent a few minutes removing the stain. It’s important to look my best, she tried not to think the thought, and adjusting her perfect preppy look, knowing that if her eyes lingered too long on what she saw in the mirror, her own eyes would hypnotize her and the next stop would be her makeover.

She then picked up her phone and did something she’d never done before… she called out sick.

Wal-Mart was not busy in the late morning so Brie was among the few customers and she found what she was looking for quickly. She picked up several items from the tool department and the pharmaceuticals area before finding herself looking through the women’s clothing racks. There was a woman working at the rack containing the polo shirts she was seeking and she held back, watching.

The woman was wearing a green polo shirt with the collar popped, but what stopped Brie was that she was implanting the shirts with the devices. Shit, she mouthed soundlessly, they move fast. Brie took a deep breath, pulled up her collar and put on her best effort at a big smile before advancing. “Oh my!” she said, catching the woman’s attention. “You’re a lifesaver!”

“Hello,” the woman responded, smiling. Brie tried not to fall into her eyes, framed by the collar as they were, but the programming was very strong.

“I’ll take four of these pink ones!” Brie gushed. Taking from the ones the woman had obviously completed. “Thank you… Katherine.” She read from the name tag. “Could you please point me to the shoe department?”

The woman, Katherine turned and pointed, and didn’t see Brie add to her collection from the untreated pile, taking two and leaving only one. “It’s over in that corner, miss.”

“Thank you, Katherine,” Brie said, walking toward shoes.

“It’s wonderful isn’t it?” Katherine spoke breathily, while looking suspiciously at the single shirt where she knew there had been more.

“Wonderful, yes”, Brie tired to hold herself together. It would be easy to let Katherine fit her with a new device, she fought against the thought.

“I visited Prepsalon this morning,” Katherine said, moving closer. “When did you get your makeover?”

Brie swallowed and tried not to breathe, watching her toy with her collar. Brie’s own hands moved to her collar and the device within seemed to stir. “I…” she hesitated, “I was there yesterday.”

Katherine had moved next to her, looking at the shirts in the basket. “It’s wonderful,” she breathed, reaching for Brie’s collar.

Brie felt the touch and almost lost herself. “I have to…” she moved away… it was very hard to move away… “I have to get going… thank you.” She saw the device Katherine held in her hand when she turned to make her way to the registers, forgetting about the shoe department.

Katherine followed to where she saw Brie pay for her purchases. Watching, she dialed her cell phone and began speaking into it.

Brie glanced back several times while walking the few blocks to her next destination. She resisted the urge to zip up the collar of her leather jacket against the cold of the wind. The idea of pushing her polo collar closer to her skin scared her, and she was sure that her shivering was only partly because of the weather.

She entered the apartment building through a side entrance, being as careful as possible to make sure no one was watching. The second floor hallway was empty when she peered out from the stairway, and she opened the door to apartment twenty-seven with a key from her pocket.

Kris and Julie were her friends and had given her their key so she could water their plants and bring in their mail. She pulled a yellow envelope from her coat and slipped a note inside. Pulling the two “safe” polo shirts from her bag, she wished she could have one for herself, but her two friends were the last hope if she failed. Leaving the bundle on the coffee table and trusting the note to explain, she left, locking the door behind her. Near the stairs stood a woman, wearing a pink polo with the collar popped. Brie looked for an escape but saw none. She hoped to duck into the stairway before the elevator arrived, but just as she approached, it opened.

The woman held the door, smiling.

Drawing a breath, Brie put on her best smile and entered, checking that the first floor button had been pushed. She stood to one side, facing the door. The woman, she saw, was holding a golden ticket like she had been given and was visibly trembling, she isn’t one of them yet. Brie moved closer, grasping the TAZER inside of her pocket, just as the doors opened. Outside stood two smiling women with their megawatt smiles and popped polo collars. The woman walked out to them almost robotically and they turned to accompany her outside, but their smiling glances at Brie almost broke her fragile hold. It was so very hard not to simply follow them.

Brie let the first bus pass because the three women from the building were on it. Fortunately the next one was on time, and almost empty. She was exhausted and fell back into the seat with her eyes closed. The pressure of the seat against her collar and her skin against … the device sent her mind spinning.

Without Brie being aware, the bus pulled up to a stop to take on one of the preppy couples she had seen on the bus the day before. They sat in the seats opposite and stared their smiling stares. Brie was drifting on the sensations coming from the device as it drew power. Somewhere deep in her mind, everything that was left of her cried out and she bolted awake, with her heart pounding in her chest, only to see the smiling preppy faces in front of her.

‘My God,’ Brie thought, how many are there now? Her brain imagined them leading her into the salon and she struggled against the image, all the while trying to smile and stare straight ahead. She almost sighed aloud when the bus pulled to her stop.

At first the campus looked normal, but as she walked, she saw the changes, collars popped, everywhere there were small groups of them and watching them, she saw a pattern: they were patrolling. Ahead, she saw a familiar face, her friend Emily, from Doctor Townsend’s classes and what was most encouraging was that she was dressed in her usual jeans and sweatshirt look, with a normal hoodie over it. Emily was walking fast, almost running and it didn’t take long before Brie saw the reason. Two girls with college sweaters over pink polos with their white leggings and skirts were following her. Brie’s heart soared when she and her friend made eye contact, but sank when she saw the terror in Emily’s eyes. Shit! Brie thought, as far as she knows I’m a preppy- pod person too.

Brie tried to push back against the voice inside that told her she, indeed was.

Emily ran, like a woman being chased by a pack of lions, she ran. She turned suddenly and knocked over two more of the preppy girls, and then disappeared behind a row of buildings. The first two pursuers didn’t run after her, instead they kept walking toward Brie, and she recognized them as students from some of her classes whose names she couldn’t remember.

“Hello Sabrina,” the taller, blonde one said serenely, “Doctor Townsend said you would be coming. She’s in the lab.”

“Thank you.” Brie replied, forcing a smile. The doctor was her intended target.

At the security desk, the guard was wearing a campus security polo shirt with the collar popped and he waved her through without checking her badge. Before entering the lab, she stopped at her locker and retrieved a small tool kit.

The lab was worse than she had feared. At least thirty people were working at every desk and table, replicating her devices. She knew many of them and some she didn’t. The other part of her, the part she was trying to keep at bay was in heaven though, and she felt it trying to trap her and part of her wanting it to succeed. It would eventually, she knew.

Doctor Townsend greeted her from her office door. She was dressed, not in her usual lab coat, but a bright pink polo, with a white sweater tied around her shoulders, framing her face beautifully. Brie tried not to fall into her eyes, but being surrounded by a sea of pink, driven by a hive which pulled at her very soul to belong, she knew she had to do something fast.

“Hello Doctor Townsend,” Brie said, smiling. Pretending to be one of them made it harder not to want to be. “I have something important to show you.”

“Certainly, Sabrina,” The doctor beamed, “Please come in.” Brie followed her into the office and as soon as the door was shut, tazed her. The doctor convulsed and fell into Brie’s arms. Brie guided her to a chair and went to lock the door.

“Wha…” Doctor Townsend started, but was too dazed to finish.”

“I’m sorry, I really am, but I needed to stop what is happening and I need your help.” Brie began. “The devices are deactivated, at least temporarily by electric shock.”

“Yes,” the doctor seemed to be coming around, “It seems that you’ve found the cure, Sabrina.”

Brie paused slightly at her name, but continued. “I can’t stay here very long, but I need you to stop the devices and start turning these people back.” She peeked through the small window next to the door. “Can you do that?”

“Yes” the doctor answered slowly, yes Sabrina, I will.” Brie became suspicious as her full name was spoken again.

“Are you okay Doctor Townsend?” Brie asked.

“I’m recovering, Sab… Brie, but the cure hurts a lot more than the disease.”

“I need to go; Doctor or I’ll be putting you in danger.” Brie left the office and closed the door behind her. She saw several stacks of the devices on a counter and her hands moved toward them. The smiling faces, the pink, the popped collars, they had her. She could feel herself falling to it. She wanted to have a device on her again. She wanted it.

She didn’t know, but it might have been wanting it so badly that snapped her out of it, if only temporarily. Her hand stopped just inches from the devices and she started walking to the exit.

“Hello Tiffany,” Doctor Townsend spoke into her phone, her other hand was placing a new device on her collar. “Yes”… her body shook with pleasurable sensations, “yes, I’m much better, thank you. The makeover was divine, thank you. I thought you’d like to know that I just had a visitor. It seems that Sabrina has had a change of heart.”

“She was there?” Tiffany asked.

“Yes,” She used a stun gun to disable my device. Somehow she found that electric shock overloads them. I don’t think she understands the full extent of your makeover yet though.”

“Can you modify the devices so that this doesn’t happen again?” Tiffany asked.

“Well you see Tiffany, and this is rather embarrassing for me to admit… the devices are…” she paused, “They’re something completely new. Sabrina may be smarter than all of us Tiffany. Her work is… well it’s nothing I’ve ever even thought was possible- the redundancy, the self-healing, the adaptability, I could go on. We need to acquire her because I don’t think anyone else is even close to knowing how it all works. We’re working on it, but reverse-engineering something like this could take weeks.

“We’ll put out a bulletin.” Tiffany said, “She won’t get far.”

“Be careful no one damages her, Tiffany, She may even need special processing to ensure we don’t lose any of that precious brain of hers. I can’t stress this enough: be very careful with her… Oh, and I almost forgot… one of my team here had a suggestion for our expansion plans: she suggests placing the devices on pillows so we can get them while they sleep.”

Brie had decided to walk and not risk public transport. She was exhausted and constant stimulation kept her on the verge of slipping into trance. They were everywhere as she crossed the city. Here and there she passed people being led by others and coming finally to the mall where she worked, she saw where they were going. There was a line outside. Brie went around to an outside courtyard where there was a window. Inside she could see Prepsalon, and a line of people waiting for their makeovers. She saw Kelly inside lowering one of the hairdryers over someone’s head. A pair of police officers was leading the mayor, who was resisting, to one of the salon chairs . . . soon she wouldn’t be resisting.

She was too late, she knew. She couldn’t stop it by herself any more. “Hello Doctor Townsend,” she spoke into her phone. “This is Brie.”

“Brie,” the doctor responded, “are you all right? I was so worried.”

“Yes doctor”, Brie lied, “I just saw the mayor being led to a chair for her makeover.”

“Command and control, yes… if I were taking over I would convert the leadership and law enforcement first, and then transportation, hospitals… then everyone.”

“We need to get out of the city…” Brie stopped as a group of people walked by her, smiling and staring their preppified stares. “We need to warn people.”

“Where will you go, Sabrina?”

“I’m going…” Brie paused, suspicion rising once more, “I’m going to see if I can get to the military… the Army base north of here.”

“Good luck to all of us, then,” the doctor said. Brie hung up the phone. Somehow she knew that Doctor Townsend was one of them again. She didn’t know how, but she knew. Had she turned to look before starting to walk, she would have seen Jaclyn staring out the window at her, smiling.

Brie locked the door of her apartment and pulled the blinds closed. The city was becoming preppy all around her and to the best of her knowledge; she was the only resistance left. A glance at her reflection in her darkened TV screen told a different story with her braided hair and popped pink collar. She looked every bit a perfect preppy girl from the hair to the collar, to her skirt and leggings, to the toes of her designer shoes.

Judging by her flashing clock, the power was back on so she plugged in her TASER and her laptop and sat on her bed to unpack her bags. She had bought a few chemical products she might be able to use in fighting back, and she put them aside, along with some pliers, screwdrivers and a box of Aluminum foil.

Information, she thought, almost aloud, I need to know what’s going on. She reached down for the TV remote and switched it on… Charlie’s Angels were on, attempting to solve a case while posing as French Maids, she moved on. The next channel was showing an old movie with cowboys attempting to capture a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“Awesome!” Brie burst out laughing. “The world is being taken over by preppies and TV is showing reruns. Her laughter was the release of a day’s worth of trying to hold herself together. It felt good to let go, although it would have seemed out of place to someone watching. Telling Doctor Townsend that she was making her way to an Army base to the North might buy her time, she hoped. In truth, she didn’t even know where the nearest military installation was.

At last she found the news. The current story was about a sobriety and safety checkpoint on a highway outside of town. “This is Joanna Bosley” one of the anchors said as the feed transitioned from the previous story and the news desk.

“And this is Gail Rowland,” The other anchor announced, with an update on our top story, Joanna.” Brie looked up from unpacking to see that Joanna looked exactly like the reporter from her dream, and was dressed as she remembered with a sky blue cardigan to match her eyes and a pink button down shirt with the pointed collar pulled up and out to the sides, framing her face perfectly.

Brie’s hands went to her own collar. “It seems our opening story was in error,” both anchors laughed, “A demonstration started by a local business and spread through social media has been mistaken, strangely enough, for a conspiracy to take over the world.” The imaged panned outward to show both anchors smiling. Gail Rowland, Brie saw, was wearing an ivory crewneck and a lovely blue polo, the collar of which was on full display.

“A hoax?” Brie spoke in amazement, “for the love of Benji!”

“In the interest of promoting civility and harmony in opposition to racial and ideological divides, local business Prepsalon has organized what they’re calling a prep-in.”

“Yes Gail,” Joanne smiled, “Since this morning conspiracy sites on social media have been flooded with video showing public gatherings of citizens wearing a variety of preppy styles…”

“Like ours,” Gail continued, “While the conspiracy sites continue to reject assertions that the events are strictly a peaceful demonstration of unity and cooperation for all and insists that they have proof that we’re all in danger and that THEY are indeed after us, our location reports and sources continue to show only normal citizens going about their normal daily routines. The only difference, according to Tiffany Welles, owner of Prepsaalon, is that they are doing so in the best quality clothing available and at the pinnacle of style.

“Resistance is futile.” Joanne smiled brightly into the camera, and then the view transitioned into a commercial for the new store: PrepMe2.

Brie watched several more stories, staring at the pretty news anchors and zoning out through the commercials. At some point she turned away from the TV and booted up her laptop.

Brie unpacked her tools and opened a desk drawer, pulling out several more items. She went to work taking apart a multimeter and an mp3 player and after about half an hour, distantly listening to the TV behind her and with her laptop quietly humming at idle and showing a slide show screen saver she wasn’t paying attention to, she had what she wanted: a less-refined diagnostic and programming station for her devices.

She looked around the room while her hands fixed her pink collar. I should always look my best, she barely noticed the thought. There had been an idea of building a Faraday cage, but when she thought about it, the project would require a lot of time and materials she didn’t have, and the problem wasn’t that signals were coming from outside, so much as the ones coming from the devices themselves. She finally noticed her hands going to her collar again. Her eyes went to the laptop, still playing its screen saver-slideshow- image after image of preppy women in outfits like hers. Chad, she thought, they had my laptop open while I was zoned out on their programming. It was strange, she mused, that she could know how they were subverting her, and still she wasn’t moved to stop it.

Brie willed herself to stand, feeling just how tired she was and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face looked tired and drawn, but her collar stood as tall as ever, and her eyes… they looked very blank.

She looked at the clothes in little piles here and there. Messy, the thought eclipsed everything else. She had been hanging clothes in her closet for several minutes before she really gave any thought about it. I mist always look my best and be tidy. The thought lingered in her mind as she hung the last of her polo shirts and turned to her chest of drawers. She placed the leggings in a drawer and stepped back.

The device is doing this to me. The realization took a very long time to set in and even longer before she truly registered its implications. She needed to fight it… needed to want to fight it, or she might as well just put on one of the full power polos.

This thought had her swaying and looking toward her closet, but somehow she found the will to reach down for the aluminum foil. With visions of internet paranoia and tinfoil hats, and only a guess as to how thick a barrier she needed in order to block the signals involved, she folded a piece several times and tucked it against the back of her neck. The effect was almost instantaneous.

She felt terrible.

It wasn’t until it was interrupted that she realized how much of the signal she was getting. Her other part, the part that was Sabrina almost reached up and pulled the foil away. As her mind slowly cleared, she looked around. It was good, she thought, that she had tidied up her apartment because they were going to find her eventually, and her disguise needed to be complete, or she would never fool them. The polo she wore needed to stay on, she knew, because if they came she wouldn’t have time to change clothes, and even though it had regained strength it was still the least dangerous she had available.

She thought that after some rest she would try to get out of the city, but they would be watching, she knew. Her body ached with exhaustion. A part of her knew that the sudden onset was due to her device no longer stimulating her neural receptors. She was being a bad girl and it was now punishing her

She collapsed on the bed, instantly asleep.

“Hello sleepy head,” said a voice in her mind. “I’m over here.” Her dream-view turned until she saw a woman smiling brightly at her. She was dressed in a pleated skirt of the softest blue she could imagine belted at the waist in powdery pink, with white leggings and patent leather shoes with shiny golden buckles. Her top was a polo of the brightest, cleanest soft pink she’d ever seen and she had a soft, sky-blue sweater tied around her neck. To top it off, she wore a white hair band to hold her golden hair back prettily and keep her popped collar on full display.

“I’m dreaming.” Brie said to the girl in her mind.

“Of course you are, silly.” The dream said, smiling her million megawatt smile. “This is the only way you and I could talk.”

“Who are you?” Brie asked through her fog.

“Well aren’t you just the cutest little thing!” the dream teased. “I’m you, you silly girl!”

“That’s not possible.” Brie told the apparition, trying to feel a strength that wasn’t coming to her. Slowly she saw her own features within the smiling face that filled her sleeping brain.

“You know I’m telling you the truth, Sabrina. I’m the real you… you’ll be much happier as a blonde”

“I’m being made to…” Brie struggled to find the words. “The device, the subliminals… I’m being made to think it.”

“Yes you are, Sabrina,” the other her beamed. “And do you want to know a secret?”

Brie was silent, trying to see her real self but only seeing the preppy dream girl.

“The secret is that it doesn’t matter whether you want it because you were made to want it or not. What matters is that you want it, and you do want it, don’t you?”

“I…” Brie tried to find the words. “I don’t.”

“Don’t lie to me Sabrina. You’re programming yourself to make me real. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to make you do things.”

“You aren’t making me…” Brie struggled. “I’m not.”

“Your body says otherwise, silly. Open your eyes.”

Brie’s eyes opened slowly and in front of her she saw her laptop, and her fingers typing on keys. Attached to the laptop was the programming module she had made. Her head turned slowly to the side and she saw the aluminum foil shield lying on her pillow. Her hand tried weakly to reach out for it, but it suddenly seemed a thousand miles away. Her hand went back to typing. A window popped up on the screen showing a new version of her device. She could see new shunts and capacitors, and shielding noted as Mu-metal. The new version would be nearly invulnerable to overloads and Electro-magnetic pulses. She saw a window declaring that her file had been sent successfully.

“No,” her voice said weakly. The pleasurable feelings that washed through her body in waves made it hard to remember why it was bad.

Her hands pulled an object out of the programming module. She saw clearly that it was one of her devices and saw her hands place it on the collar of one of her pink polo shirts. It moved and wove itself into the fabric until it was invisible.

“Still being difficult?” the smiling face asked. “Okay, well I’ll make it easy on you then. When you wake up you’ll have to choose. Either you put that shirt on and you and I can do some real-time girl bonding or you don’t. You can feel how good it feels when you behave and you know that if you don’t behave, you’ll lose all of that forever. You know how it feels to lose the pleasure, Sabrina.”

Wednesday: Day four

It was light out when she awoke but her clock was still flashing from the day before. Brie stretched and felt more rested than she had in days. Getting up, she noticed the aluminum foil shield on the floor. On her desk, her laptop hummed away, showing its slideshow. Next to it, neatly folded, was a full outfit of a skirt, leggings and a pink polo shirt. Her hands reached up to touch her collar and straighten it.

She drew the blinds and stood in full frame, looking out the window. The world looked entirely normal, with bright blue sky and sunshine. Two women walked by, wearing punk rocker clothes. Maybe it was all a hoax, she chuckled at the thought.

Brie sat down and tapped the mouse pad on her laptop. Her Yoo-hoo home page looked normal, except for a few headlines about the “hoax.” She brought up her facelook page. The academic groups she belonged to were very quiet, which was unusual. She brought up her list of groups and found one of the conspiracy ones. They were usually fun to look at when she was bored, or after a few drinks.

The page had been very active the previous day, with video of her own city seemingly overrun with preppy pod people and many comments about how friends or family members were not themselves. These could be useful tools in finding the resistance in future expansion. She barely noticed the thought. She clicked the profile of a member she sort of knew from school. He had posted quite a bit about the preppy invasion early in the day, and even some cell phone video from campus. She smiled, seeing herself walking in the background of one. James’s most recent post was a selfie showing his neatly styled blond hair and popped white polo shirt under a nice argyle sweater. ‘Cute,’ the smiling voice in her head giggled.

The clock in the lower corner of the screen showed eight o’clock. It was time to take a shower.

Taking off the polo shirt, she felt the same immediate loss of what she had been feeling, but it didn’t crush her as forcefully as it had when she’d put on the shield. The water felt rejuvenating and she washed herself completely. She combed and dried her hair, finishing it with a tie to hold it in a pony tail. She sat on the bed and pulled on her leggings and then stood in her white shoes while pulling up her skirt. She paused briefly before picking up the polo shirt. I must look my best, she heard inside her head. Pulling it over her head, she went to the mirror and popped the collar. The sensations of pleasure and bliss returned and she had to steady herself against the sink. Sabrina’s eyes smiled back at her while she tucked her shirt and made sure everything was perfect.

She sat calmly in her seat on the bus, watching the city outside the windows. Here and there she saw groups of people in bright, high quality clothing with their popped collars worn proudly. Her hands went to her own and pulled it up straighter. The bus pulled to a stop and she saw three women get on. Two wore blue polo shirts and one wore white. All of their collars were popped, but they looked scared. Their hair was disheveled and their clothes seemed dull. Sabrina’s mind imagined them after their makeovers.

They sat down in two seats on the opposite side and one row back from her. She could hear them whisper occasionally as she looked out the window. Along with the people wearing bright clothes and high collars she saw a few others, moving in little groups, avoiding the rest, probably trying to convince themselves it was all really a hoax. She smiled.

“You’re traveling alone and you’re looking around a lot.” A voice whispered in her ear and Sabrina realized that one of the women had moved over and was right behind her. “They don’t do that.”

Sabrina began to turn her head.

“Don’t turn, just look ahead and listen,” the woman scolded. “Get out of the city,” she continued, “People are meeting at the old theater in the north end. Watch out.” Sabrina felt the woman pull away and saw the bus pulling up to her stop. As she stood, two more women got on. She recognized them immediately as Jaclyn and Sheryl from Prepsalon. They each smiled at her as they passed and she smiled in return.

The stores were just opening up when she arrived at PrepMe2. “Are you feeling better, dear?” Jill asked. She was wearing a pink blazer with a white dress shirt underneath; the collar of which was tied with a bow.

“Yes, Jill, thank you.” Sabrina smiled.

“You led us on a merry chase yesterday, Sabrina.” Tiffany said, coming out of Prepsalon. “I’m glad you’ve come to your senses.”

“Kelly honey,” Jill called “would you be a dear and bring Sabrina for her long overdue makeover?”

“I would be happy to,” Kelly answered, appearing from behind clothing racks. She looked radiant in a white polo and blue sweater. “Right this way Sabrina… you’ll feel so much better after.”

She sat in the chair with an apron wrapped over her body to protect her clothes. It’s important that my clothes stay neat and tidy the voice smiled inside her mind. Her hair treatment was complete and Kelly stood beside her, readying the old fashioned hairdryer. Sabrina was floating on a cloud from whatever was in the shampoo and other treatments, and she knew it was all to make her more receptive to the programming. She wanted this, she knew. Kelly smiled down at her as she lowered the hair dryer, shutting out everything. There was sound, a lot of tones that first confused her, but then they settled into a soft warble. Sabrina knew it was brainwave entrainment. The light started as a single point flashing in front of her and then there were two, moving in looping patterns. The lights continued to multiply, shifting colors and surrounding her with light. The patterns slowly became chaos but her eyes remained open, absorbing it all without resistance.

Suddenly the sound faded to a low hum, barely audible and the light shifted to a soft blue that calmed her. The blankness soothed her and her mind accepted it entirely. She had stopped thinking about the elements of the mind control and now simply floated in the blankness.

Ahead of her there was a lit circle and she moved, floating toward it. In the center was an old fashioned dressing table, pure white, with ornate, elegant carvings and a three-paneled mirror. Everything was like a magical morning when she was a little girl. The world shimmered with golden sunshine. She sat down in the gilded chair in front of the table and looked in the mirror. In the side panels she saw the beautiful blonde girl from her dream smiling at her, but in the center she saw herself, sitting blankly with her black hair hanging to her shoulders. She wore a black t shirt with a nearly worn off band name, a black leather jacket. Plain silver studs shone from her ears. Sabrina sat and stared.

She reached down and removed a pair of studded boots and the socks which had been under them. The girl in the side panels smiled her approval. Her jeans came next and then her panties. The clothing she removed seemed to vanish instantly as she removed it. Each time she felt a wash of pleasure and saw the smile on the face of her other self. The leather jacket disintegrated into the magical sunny air of the place when she dropped it and the t shirt quickly followed, along with her athletic bra. Had she thought about it, she would’ve found that she no longer remembered the clothing items.

Her eyes moved to the silver studs in the ears of her reflection. The shining image to either side nodded her smiling approval as she reached up to remove them. She sat quietly and stared as blankly as her naked reflection and didn’t register the rise in the golden light which surrounded her, engulfed her in its brilliance, cleansing her until she was a brand new thing, a clean thing, and when her eyes rose to meet those in the mirror, she saw her new, shining blonde hair. She wasn’t done, she knew. She couldn’t remain blank as she was.

A pair of white lace panties appeared on the dressing table and she slipped them on. When that task was completed, a pair of white leggings materialized in their place, followed by a pleated pencil skirt in the softest blue she had ever seen, with a soft pink belt at the waist. She barely felt herself moving, fastening the golden buckles on her patent leather shoes. A lacy bra came next and her reflection was no longer naked, but was still far from complete. Her hands swept up the pink polo that appeared in front of her, pulling it on and tucking it in perfectly. Her eyes fell into those of her center reflection, knotting the creamy white sweater over her shoulders. She placed first one, and then the other pearl earrings and then saw a blue satin ribbon appear.

Without thinking, her hands tied her hair into a pony tail on top of her head with a pretty bow. She rested a moment, gazing blankly at the blank eyes in front of her. All the while, the girl in the side panels smiled her knowing smile.

She knew what she needed, what she wanted. She knew what must be done and her hands rose unbidden to her collar. With an air of reverence, she pulled at the collar and saw- felt it rise against the back of her neck. The middle reflection smiled brightly as it was lit with her new self and her body shook with pleasure, feeling it wash over her in waves.

Outside, Kelly smiled as the equipment wound down, signaling that the process was complete.

Sabrina had been working at Prepsalon all day, learning how to create the perfect preppy style. Her trainers were Kelly and Tanya. She had just returned from lunch when her friend Emily from school had come in, guided by the two preppy girls she’d seen following her the day previous. It was her first time doing a full makeover and she felt awash in pleasure sensations following every step. The formerly nervous, shivering girl now sat placidly in the chair. Sabrina smiled, lowering the hairdryer over the newly minted perfect preppy girl’s head.