Alice always looked forward to girls’ nights. Every last Friday of the month, she and three friends would meet up in one of their dorms, and allow themselves to relax and take a break from their university studies. They were generally all good students, but everyone needs a cheat day, right? This time it was the turn of Alice and her roommate, Ella, to host. Alice was currently bustling around getting food ready for everyone, while Ella had popped out to grab drinks. Just as Alice was wondering what was taking so long, the door swung open to reveal her roommate’s smiling face. Ella was an Asian girl, with brown hair worn in a bob and a muscular frame which Alice had caught herself ogling many a time in the years they had lived together. Unfortunately for her, Ella had a sad case of straightness, which Alice had more-or-less reconciled herself to.

After Alice checked that everything had gone alright (“yeah, the queue was just awful for some reason”), the two of them set to dolling the place up, Alice occasionally having to pause and brush her auburn locks out of her face. They’d just got everything set up by the time Kiara arrived. It was funny to think that this tradition had begun as a breakup party of sorts, and even funnier that both halves of the couple had been there - Alice and the short Pakistani girl had dated for a few months before realising the two of them worked better as friends. There were hugs all round and small talk until the fourth member of the group, Faye, showed up, and then the four of them set into the meal.

As the four of them were relaxing after dinner, chairs pulled into a rough circle and drinks in hands, Faye piped up, “Anyone up for truth-or-dare?”

The others looked at the tall blonde with some reluctance.

“We’d make it a drinking game, obviously,” she added.

That was a more appealing prospect, and they quickly hashed out the rules: if you didn’t want to tell the truth, you had to sip your drink and take the dare, and vice-versa; you have to be as comprehensive with your truths as possible; no rephrasing failed truths as dares, and so on, and then set to it.

As the evening progressed and everyone started getting lightly - or heavily - buzzed, the suggestions progressed from silly (Alice ended up sucking her thumb for a minute and Faye told everyone about her childhood imaginary friend) to slightly raunchier (Ella listed off her celebrity crushes and Kiara needed surprisingly little persuasion to flash everyone - Alice hadn’t realised quite how comfortable they’d all become around each other). The atmosphere was still very relaxed by the time Alice was down to the bottom of her second cup and it was her turn again. She selected a dare.

Kiara got first dibs on choosing what to do. “Alright… how about you go make and eat a banana and pickle sandwich?”, she grinned, eyes gleaming with joking malice.

“Aw, c’mon - that’s unfair! Even if I actually liked either of those foods, that’s a foul combination! I’m taking the truth-” Alice drained the remnants of her drink - “and then I’ll probably have to tap out; I don’t want to be completely gone in the morning.”

“Lightweight,” Kiara chuckled. She thought for a second.

“Honestly, I’m pretty much out of truths for you. We got to know each other too well!”

“Actually, I’ve got something I’d like to ask,” Ella interjected. Kiara gestured for her to go ahead.

“It’s a bit more sedate than what we’ve just been asking, but I’ve genuinely always wanted to know - whenever I’ve seen you unpacking after returning from holidays, you always seem to have a bunch of pendants in your bag, but you never wear them. What’s that all about?”

Alice blushed. Well, it was too late to take the dare now…

“They’re for hypnosis,” she said. She got looks from two of her friends which screamed, “tell us more!”, while Kiara just shot her a knowing look.

“...It’s my fetish.”

So much for “more sedate”.

Ella snorted, a bit more forward than usual. “Really? Sorry, I don’t mean to be blunt, but hypnosis isn’t real!”

“First, why should that make a difference? You know that giant anpothro- anthothro- manrotho- human-shaped animals aren’t real, right?”

Ella conceded the point with a nod.

“But second,” Alice continued, “hypnosis is very much real. I’ve been on both sides of the pendant, so to speak, and what happened definitely wasn’t all faked.” Kiara nodded along.

Faye jumped in at this point, giggling. “So you’re saying that Kiara’s been walking around like a zombie, saying ‘yessss, mistressss’, and you’ve gotten off on that?”

Kiara laughed. “Nah, not really. I didn’t really ‘get’ it like she does. Not why we broke up, though!” She giggled slightly.

Ella still wasn’t having it. “Yeah, see? It’s all fake and play-acting.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Alright, well, it’s your turn. Since you’ve been so closed-lipped, I’m guessing you’ll go for a dare again?” At a nod from her roommate, she continued. “In that case, I dare you to prove it. I’ll try to hypnotise you, and you can prove it’s all fake by not dropping for me.”

Ella shook her head. “Nuh-uh. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it as a proper bet - and when we’re both sober. I doubt you could even make one of those pendants sway right now,” she teased.

Alice laughed and agreed. “Well, since you’ve said ‘yes, but later’, I guess we need another dare?” After nods all round, she took time to think.

“How about you snog one of us? If whoever you choose is okay with it, of course.”

Ella smirked at her roommate before deliberately turning her back and leaning towards Faye - who happily reciprocated - and after Faye’s own last dare (she ended up pouring the remnants of her drink down her shirt, and then hastily covering up in her cardigan), the night soon wrapped up.

***

Alice slept in the next morning, and so was only just starting on breakfast when Ella returned from her wake-up jog. They exchanged pleasantries before the Asian girl went to shower off the thin layer of sweat glistening on her body. When she emerged, now in a blue button-up shirt and long brown pants, Alice was looking at her contemplatively.

“You still on for that bet?”, she asked.

Ella grinned back at her. “Absolutely. What are we playing for - money?”

“Let’s discuss the terms a bit more first. Hypnosis is something of a subjective experience, so we’ll need to agree on some objective measure; otherwise, we’ll both be claiming victory and nothing will come of it.”

“Fair enough. You’re the expert here, so what do you suggest?”

“I’d say behaviour: if I can get you to do something you’d never do without a hypnotic nudge, I win. Otherwise, you do.”

“Right. So, pretending to be a puppy, zombie walking, that kind of thing?”

“I mean, we can if you’d like, but those are a bit clichéd. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially given how much hypnosis relies on expectation, but I think we can do better.”

“Such as?”

As Ella grabbed an apple and sat down next to her, Alice had a sudden, impulsive thought. She blushed guiltily. Could she actually suggest that? She wrestled with herself for a second before deciding to take her shot.

“This may be a bit out there… but I reckon I could get you begging me to fuck you.”

Ella almost choked on the apple.

“Are you really going to just hand this to me on a silver platter? You remember I’ve never felt any interest in women, right?”

“Yeah, well, I’m personally of the opinion that everyone has at least one person they’d be willing to switch teams for, even if they don’t know it. And we’re in uni - it’s practically a rule that you have to experiment. I didn’t hear a no there…”

Ella thought over it between bites.

“Alright, you’re on. If you get me begging you to fuck me, you win. Otherwise, no matter what happens, I do. Deal?”

“Deal.” They shook hands.

“Now, then, let’s get back to the stakes,” Ella said. “What do you want to play for?”
“Well, I think my prize is fairly obvious: if I win, I’ll have a beautiful woman, totally under my control, begging me to fuck her. I’ll be happy with that if you are.”

“Makes sense. Question is, what can I ask for to equal that?”

Alice cast her mind back to the previous night. “I know it’s not really a fair trade, but you were complaining a lot about that history paper of yours over dinner. How about, if you win, I give you a blank cheque for my help? I won’t write it for you, but if you need extra research, explanation, just a go-fer - you can get me to do any of that.”

Ella mulled over the proposition. “Y’know what, I can’t think of anything better. Having you at my beck and call does actually sound pretty nice, given how much of a history nerd you are. Other conditions, then. I assume you’re going to be acting somewhat sexually, given what your goal is here, but I expect you to respect my boundaries. Assuming this is actually real, will I be able to object to what you’re doing?”

Alice immediately nodded. “Yes - while you might feel consciously like you have no control, part of your mind will always be able to get you to speak up and tell me to stop, and I promise I will respect that. Also, if you really need to, you’ll be able to wake yourself up entirely without any negative effects. Still, it’s obviously better if we do lay out boundaries as well, so what would you say?”

Ella relaxed slightly. “That’s good to know. I’ll say no touching anywhere that isn’t exposed, and touching only with your hands. Nothing else sexual - don’t try get me to call you “mistress” or anything, alright?”

“Sure. Am I allowed to try and change those rules or get you to expose more skin?”

“Yeah, that’s fine, as long as I’m allowed to go back on it. Also, I want to set a timer. I don’t want you to say ‘well, actually, I’ll need a whole day, or a week, or a year to win the bet’ - there’s no point in it existing if you do that.”

“Sounds reasonable. How about an hour?”

“Really? You think you can turn me in an hour? You’re setting yourself up for a big fall when I’m not even a bit drowsy after 55 minutes.”

Alice just smiled at her. “Absolutely. Any other conditions you want to impose?”

“I think that’s all. How about you?”

“There’ll be more I want to go over when we’re properly starting, but for now, I just want to say that you need to make a good-faith effort to be hypnotised. You can try to resist if you want, as long as you’re still listening to what I’m saying and broadly cooperating with me. It’s not like in the movies where I can put up a spiral in front of you and you’re instantly hooked. That sound fair?”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I don’t think hypnosis works at all, so it doesn’t really matter if I follow along or not, right?”

“Right, that sounds perfect. Why don’t we start at 10?”

“What, today? It’s already 9:30!”

“Yeah, I don’t really need much prep time. Or do you have something else on?”

Ella gulped slightly. She wasn’t quite prepared for it to happen so soon after she’d laid down the dare. She steeled herself. “No, that sounds good. Let’s do it.”

Alice smirked at her. “Can’t wait to have you between my thighs, cutie.”

Ella tried to muster that same bravado. “Can’t wait to have you running papers to me at midnight.” The threat sounded weak even to her. Alice seemed very confident…

No, surely it was nothing. Hypnosis definitely wasn’t real. She was winning this, 100 percent.