What Happened: Three
Sarah woke up, not at the mall, but tied to a chair. She still had all her clothes on, but with smooth nylon ropes holding her wrists and ankles to a sturdy wooden chair. She was in a basement, with a small window high up on a wall, but most light was coming from a bare overhead bulb. The walls were rough concrete, as was the floor. Sarah was facing the open door to the room she was in. It was through that door he came.
He was not tall, and he was not good looking. His face and body resembled a potato with folds over plump fat. His hair was thinning blond. His eyes were beady enough to only be small black points behind his glasses. He had thin lips on his pudgy face. As he walked, he moved with a shuffle.
“Don’t bother screaming,” he said. “It will just hurt your vocal cords and annoy me.”
Sarah had planned for this. If she was ever kidnapped, she would not resist and look for an opening to escape. “What do you want with me?” Sarah asked shaking a brown curl from her face.
“Right now, nothing,” he said as he moved something on wheels behind her. “I’ll want something from you, later, after I’ve brainwashed you.”
The word brainwashed hit something in Sarah’s mind that was a vibrating string of fear. “Brainwash,” Sarah said in shock. “You’re going to try and brainwash me like the Manchurian Candidate?”
“What?” The man said a little surprised. “Oh, hell no, nothing like that. That’s the old school way of brainwashing. That’s like using a hatchet for surgery. I’m using a scalpel, or laser. Old brainwashing is like chemotherapy to take out a cancer, poison the body, but what I do is like a gamma knife, burning out parts of your mind that would resist me.”
Sarah was well beyond scared now. Was this guy serious? Could he really brainwash her? Sarah was confident that she could resist any brainwashing, but that confidence was not absolute.
The man grabbed her arm and slipped a syringe expertly into her vein. The clear fluid was quickly expelled into her body. “What was that?” Sarah asked concerned it was some kind of addictive drug.
“Primer,” he said fiddling with something behind her. “It will put your mind and body in a state that will make the influence procedure absolute. You’ll start feeling warm in a second. By that time, I’ll be ready with these goggles.”
Sarah wanted to yell or scream, but something was stopping her. A nagging voice in her mind was telling her that she could still get out of this. She’d resist the brainwashing, make him think he’d won, and then run like hell. She was thinking this as her body felt warm all over like she’d slipped into a hot tub.
Then rustling behind her, and over her head slipped a pair of VR goggles. “I’m glad you’re cooperating,” the man said, “otherwise I would have to drug you, and I hate that.” Sarah could hear the goggles turn on with a slight hum. “Drugs take so long to work out of your system, and this is only going to take a few minutes,” he said.
Sarah gave a start. A few minutes? He was going to brainwash her in a few minutes. Panic was setting in. Sarah tested the ropes on her ankles and wrists. They were smooth, but firm. Just as she was about to start screaming the goggles before her eyes lit up, powered up, and that’s all she remembered.
The next thing Sarah realized was that the goggles were being removed from her head. She blinked. The little window was still lit. The door before her was still open. She still felt warm. Nothing else seemed to change in her mind or perception.
“There we go,” he said putting the goggles on the tray behind Sarah.
Sarah was very skeptical. She was positive it hadn’t worked. She was still very much in control of her mind. She was not brainwashed.
“Now what?” Sarah asked, trying to act casual.
“Now we have a conversation,” he said. “Sarah, you can’t leave this room until I say you can.”
Sarah felt something in her mind. It was a lot like one of the 2-D puzzles where the pieces slid in a grid to make a picture, but this was in her mind. It was not even a puzzle, but more like a window, with different colors letting different thoughts through her head. The man said she couldn’t leave, but she was sure she could. The door was still open. He had started undoing the knots at her wrists. As soon as her feet were free, she was out that door.
“Who are you?” Sarah finally asked as he squatted down and started undoing her ankles.
“I’m just a scientist,” he said. “One the government wishes didn’t exist, but as long as I don’t mess with them, they don’t mess with me. From time to time, they tell me they want something, or more specifically someone, and I get that person for them.”
“Someone wants me?” Sarah asked in surprise.
“What?” he asked looking up at her. “No, no one wants you. Hell, I don’t even want you right now. But I travel the country, and when I’m in town and need a place to stay, you’ll be there. You will have changed more to my liking. Then, I will—.”
The man didn’t finish as Sarah roughly shoved him to the side and ran. She was mere feet from the door. The hallway beyond was carpeted with cheap all-weather red fibers, but Sarah knew it led to freedom. Wherever she was, Sarah didn’t plan on staying.
She stopped abruptly right at the door’s threshold.
Sarah tried to leave. She tried to make her body go through the door. She desperately wanted to leave, but she couldn’t. Something in her mind and body would not form the thought and thus form the function to actually go out the doorway until he said she could. That was what was missing in her mind, the block of function that only he could give.
Sarah turned on the man furious. “Sarah,” the man said, “you will never want to hurt me or bring me to harm through action or inaction.”
Sarah paused as there was the sliding of glass pieces in her mind, again. The desire to kick the man in the balls was gone from inside of her. She didn’t want to hurt him. She hated him, but she didn’t want him to be hurt in any way. Sarah knew that her mind was thinking these things because he told her to, but that didn’t make things less real.
It was slowly dawning on Sarah that he really did brainwash her. He had control over her mind. The fear of her own mind betraying her own desires scared her more than she thought it would. She couldn’t even trust herself. She wanted to leave, but she couldn’t. She wanted him to let her go, but she didn’t want to kick him in the balls any longer since that would hurt him. He said her name, and issued a command, and she had to follow that command. Was this brainwashing linked to her name? Would every time someone said her name, she would have to obey the next command, even if she didn’t want to? Fear of no longer being in control of even her own thoughts ripped away what little courage she had left to reveal a deep hole in her heart of hopeless terror.
“So, Sarah,” he said sitting in the chair that moments before held her captive, “stand there and answer my questions quickly and truthfully as possible. Are you scared?”
“Yes,” Sarah said quickly. “I’m terrified! You can make me think and do anything you want. I can’t even trust the idea you haven’t already done so. You may like to see women scared out of their minds.”
“I don’t,” the man said. “Fear holds nothing for me. Sara, you are no longer scared of this situation or anything I do to you.”
There was that sliding in her mind and Sarah found her fear gone. Like it was never there. She felt her heartrate drop. Sarah was calm. The terrified pit in her chest closed. She stood there as instructed.
“Are you seeing anyone, romantically?” He asked.
“No, I dumped my last boyfriend because all he wanted was sex, and he said I was getting fat,” Sarah said thinking.
“Good,” he said. “Sarah, you will find no one sexually appealing.”
Sarah seemed confused as her mind let this command slide into place. She was sure he was going to make her lust after him like a dog in heat. She didn’t expect him to make her uninterested in anyone.
“Do you enjoy wearing thong underwear?” He asked.
“No,” Sarah said quickly, and felt she needed to elaborate. “Thongs are so tight that they go up your butt crack, and I don’t like that feeling. You also need to shave your bush, or at least trim often and shave the sides, and I hate that.”
“Sarah,” he said to butt in, “from now on you will wear thong underwear or no underwear at all. Sarah, you will shave your bush and legs daily.”
Sarah blinked as the commands slid into her mind. It seemed to take a bit for her brain to make the sliding glass around her thoughts fit together. She stood there as the thoughts of only wearing thong underwear or no underwear filtered through her mind. It was like the idea of wearing something other than a thong was just not even able to form. Then with a shock she realized she was wearing large white panties. She didn’t have hope for anything on her first date, so she didn’t dress up, underneath.
A concerned look came over Sarah’s face as she had to get out of the granny panties she had on. It was like a weight was pressing down on her. She had to get the panties off. She didn’t have any thong underwear, but she just couldn’t wear what she had on.
“Um, could you turn around?” Sarah asked as she felt her body screaming in mental agony that she was wearing panties.
“No,” he said still watching her.
Sarah had to stand there, but she also had to get out of those panties. The pressure was almost physical as she fought with herself. Sarah turned around so he couldn’t see her front, and then unzipped her skirt. She wiggled out of the waist and with blessed relief she pulled down her panties. She knew she couldn’t get her panties off because her skirt wasn’t really a skirt since it was connected at the bottom. She had to step out of her skirt to get her panties all the way off. He was getting a good look at her round rear and thick thighs. Sarah stood up, pulling her skirt with her. She wasn’t wearing panties now, and it felt much better. Her thick bush would have to go as soon as she could, and her legs were already shaved for her date, but now that was going to be a daily occurrence.
“Do you enjoy exercising?” He asked her.
“No,” Sarah said without thinking. “Who enjoys torturing their body and pushing their muscles, and being horribly sore afterwards?”
“Sarah, you love to exercise,” he said calmly.
Sarah felt the shock of the words hit her. She loves to exercise. Her brain let the pieces slide together, and now it was true. There was no denying that she loves exercising. The idea of going for a jog made her feel happy. She needed to get a gym membership.
“Sarah,” he said dragging her attention back to him, “you want to get really into weightlifting to build muscle, lots of muscle, bodybuilder size muscles.”
Sarah felt her mind shift. The image of her body with huge muscles filled her mind. She wanted that. She wanted to flex and show biceps. She wanted abs on her torso. She wanted legs strong enough to crush watermelons.
“Sarah,” he said pulling her from her fantasy, “you want to drop your body fat to under ten percent but take supplements to compensate for the lack of fat.”
The command glided into her mind and took root. Her last boyfriend had thought she was fat, but now she knew she was. She didn’t know how much body fat she had, but a rough estimate told Sarah it was probably well over ten percent. She had to get the fat off her body, and deep in her mind she knew it was her diet. Right then the command to lose body fat dragged the idea of eating healthy front and center.
“Sara,” he said, and she looked at him. She knew he was going to command her again, and she did nothing to stop it. “In three months, you will want to get silicone breast implants no smaller than double-D, but larger is better.”
She absolutely was not expecting that. The command went into her brain and sat there. Three months was a long time. She’d have dropped a lot of body fat by then, or so she hoped. Still nothing smaller than double-D would be quite large on her, no matter how she looked.
“Sara, you will work on making yourself sexy at all times,” he said.
This command took some figuring out. She had to be always sexy. Did he mean how she looked, like makeup? Did he mean dress, as in showing lots of skin? What did sexy mean?
“Sara, you will not get any piercings or tattoos, you hate them both,” he said.
The commands were coming quick, and so was the acceptance of his commands. This one was upon her in an instant. She hated tattoos. The idea of marking oneself for life made her disgusted. Even the idea of having earrings turned her off. Who would want something like that shoved through their body. She hated them both.
“What do you think of dying your hair?” He asked.
“I’m not opposed to the idea,” Sarah said truthfully. “I’ve dyed my hair blond and red, but now you’re going to tell me to dye my hair some color and keep it that way. Are you going to spend all night just issuing commands until you turn me into your personal fuck toy?”
He laughed. It was a pleasant laugh and Sarah caught herself smiling. “Okay that’s good, that’s fine,” he said with a smile controlling his laughter. “When I went through the mall garage with the license plate scanner app on my phone, I was just looking for a single woman that owned her own home. I was lucky to find someone like you, witty and smart.”
“License plate scanner told you I was single?” Sarah asked a little surprised.
“It gave me your name and address, but then social media did the rest,” he said. “You’re right, that just sitting here issuing commands is a waste of time. I just wanted to see how you would react to my commands. I wanted a feel for you.”
“Why?” Sarah asked genuinely confused.
“Because I have no intention of taking you sexually, as you are,” he said standing up. “You can be much better looking after you’ve changed. Then, I will fuck you until you pass-out. You’ll love it because I’ll tell you to love it. You see, I travel the country, and world, brainwashing people, and I always need a place to stay. I hate hotels, and places like this cost money and take time to set up. I want to just show up someplace and have a ready and able slave to put me up. In a few months you’ll be the perfect sexual partner and host. Sarah, you will not sell your house or move until I tell you, you can.”
“Well so much for that idea,” Sarah said with a huff. “I suppose you’ll put something in my mind, so I don’t go to the police either.”
“In a way,” he said picking up a pair of Bluetooth earbuds from his cart. “Sarah, when I snap my fingers, your mind will go blank and accept all commands given to it in my voice.”
Sarah glared at him. “I suppose when I wake up, I’ll be your perfect slave,” she sarcastically said.
He laughed. “Not exactly,” he said. “Sarah, when you wake up, you’ll not realize any time has past and will forget everything after you first got to your car.”
“Oh shit,” Sarah said knowing what was going to happen.
“I’m not into that either,” he said, and raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
Instantly Sarah’s mind emptied. Her eyes went glassy. Her arms hung slack. Her jaw fell open. He put the earbuds into her ears without resistance. Then he tapped on a phone to play his specially recorded and scripted audio file. Sarah stayed in a mindless daze until she was returned to the mall’s parking lot.