Carin danced around the bedroom as she rubbed the towel over her hair, swaying her hips in time with the drumbeat the echoed around the room.

After a few minutes, she pulled the towel off and hung it from the corner of her headboard as she turned and pulled the wardrobe door open.

Instantly a figure dived out of the wardrobe and put its hand over Carin’s eyes and guided her down onto the bed in a strange cross between a grapple and a hug.

“Sleep!” Shouted the figure

In Carin’s head, the world started to slow down, the hand caused a thick, heavy, blanket of shadows to cascade over her mind and over the world around her, wrapping her up tightly and forcing her down into a never-ending freefall, her thoughts sliding away from her, becoming like stars in the sky, small untouchable pricks of light.

Carin lay limp on the bed, her body heavier than lead as she continued to fall eternally down.

The figure pulled a phone out of its pocket and snapped a photo of Carin. “Don’t mess with the champ,” giggled the figure as it pushed its phone back into its pocket.

The figure started to leave only to shake its head and turn back towards Carin. “When you hear the door close behind me, you are going to have no memory of what happened here and are going to go back to what you were doing.”

The second the door banged shut Carin started to blink and look around the room. After a few minutes, Carin shrugged to herself and walked over to the wardrobe, and pulled out a dress.

     “Oracle is going to turn heel, she just has to,” grinned Beth, as she leaned forward to get a better view of the TV.

“No way, they are not going to turn her this early,” argued Emma as she watched on with interest. “She’ll win the title first and then turn!”

Both girls stared at the TV, as a figure crept up behind them. Suddenly Emma spoke up. “I need more salsa, want anything?” She said, turning to Beth.

“Nah, I’m okay,” replied Beth nonchalantly as the figure panicked and ducked behind the couch. Emma wandered over to the kitchen and spooned some more salsa into a small bowl before heading back over to the TV.

The figure panted softly as it continued to hide, pressing itself firmly against the wall as it tracked all of Emma’s movements, hoping that the girl would not look into the shadows behind the couch.

Emma put the bowl on the table and sat down. “Oh come on! Her shoulders were down!” Shouted Emma as she waved her hands wildly at the TV.

Suddenly the figure rose up from behind the couch, a sinister smile on its face. In one flowing movement it grabbed both girls, covering their eyes and pulling their heads backward. “Sleep! Deep sleep!” It shouted.

Neither girl had long to react, Beth was able to cough out the start of a “what” before her eyes slammed shut and her body went limp, sending her crashing back into the cushions. Emma was hardly able to form a thought before her mind short-circuited and her body gave in to the command.

The figure laughed as it let go of the girls’ heads and walked around to the front of the couch. “Combo!” cheered the woman as she leaned in and kissed both of the sleeping girls on the cheek.

The woman then sat between the two hypnotized girls, pulling them closer to her before yanking out her phone and starting to take pictures, pulling various goofy faces into the camera as she did.

Once the pictures were taken, the woman lifted herself off of the couch. She posed the girls like they were kissing before quickly taking another picture. “All right,” she said, taking a breath. “I want you both to count back from a hundred when you get to zero you will forget everything and go back to your show,” stated the woman firmly before starting to walk away.

The girls’ lips moved slowly as they started to count down. After a while they both sat up and blinked, looking around the room.

“What just happened?” mumbled Beth as she stretched and rubbed her hair, her mind still slightly foggy.

“They are turning Oracle!” Shouted Emma, huffing a little as she stared at the TV. Instantly Beth lost track of her thoughts, her eyes focusing back on the show.

“I told you, they’ve got no choice!” She said, feeling slightly smug about being right.

     “Who’s coming in,” smiled Lacy as she pushed the door open. “It’s the champ! It’s me!” She shouted, causing Zoe to spin around in her computer chair.

“Oh really now?” Asked Zoe, raising an eyebrow. Lacy pulled out her phone and quickly opened up the picture of Beth and Emma in trance, holding the device out so Zoe could see the evidence.

“I got two, two to your one!” Grinned Lacy as she walked over to a whiteboard and added two tally marks to the one side.

“Plenty of time left in the game, I’m just getting warmed up!” Replied Zoe as she walked up behind Lacy and kissed her on the cheek.

“Seducing me doesn’t win you points,” giggled Lacy, rubbing her butt into Zoe’s crotch,

“I know,” said Zoe, gently blowing into Lacy’s ear. “But if I give you a big enough orgasm, you will be too out of it to score points for the rest of the day.”

Lacy pulled forward and turned to face Zoe, wagging her finger firmly. “That is cheating missy!” She said patronizingly.

“Nothing in the rules about it,” giggled Zoe.

“It’s against the spirit of the rules. The spirit!” Insisted Lacy before sticking her tongue out. “Anyhow, I’m heading back out, I’ve got more points to get!” Grinned Lacy as she skipped towards the door before turning to Zoe. “Later loser!” She giggled, making an L shape with her hand.

     Gail sighed as she walked into her apartment. “Finally home,” she muttered to herself as she flipped the lights on. “I can finally get this bra off, stupid fashion,” she continued, fiddling with her shirt as she wandered into the bedroom.

Once she was inside she pulled her shirt over her head and threw it onto the bed before unclipping her bra, letting out a relieved sigh as it dropped onto the duvet.

Gail picked up both and wandered over to her laundry hamper, however, as she got close, the lid flew off, sending clothes flying everywhere.

Gail let out a shocked scream before an arm shot out of the hamper and grabbed Gail by the wrist, pulling her forward. “Sleep!” Shouted a voice from inside the hamper as Gail’s mind went into freefall, dropping into an infinite field of darkness as the world plummeted away from her.

Zoe slowly rose up from inside the hamper, gently guiding Gail onto the floor before catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Zoe’s blue hair was currently topped by a navy blue pair of Gail’s panties, making her look like a perverted drunken sailor. Zoe gently pulled them off and threw them back into the hamper before pulling out her phone to take a picture.

“I guess I’m lucky you take so long to do laundry,” giggled Zoe. “If you were efficient I wouldn’t have had anywhere to hide.” She added as she snapped the picture. “But what to do with you?” wondered Zoe before spotting the mess she had made. “I guess I need to clean this up first.”

Zoe quickly got to work, finding all of the pieces of laundry that she had sent flying around the room and returning them to the laundry hamper, making sure to deepen Gail every time she went past.

Once the floor was clean Zoe gently moved Gail into a more comfortable position and rubbed her hair. “Now listen closely Gail,” purred Zoe. “When you hear your door close, you are going to wake up, presuming you just fell asleep after work, nod if you understand me.” She said as Gail nodded drowsily, a line of drool trickling down her chin.

Zoe smiled and wandered out of Gail’s apartment, tapping away on her phone as she did. As the door closed Gail look around and yawned. “Today was longer than I thought,” she said as she pulled herself up into a seated position. “But I guess I have no plans tonight,” she muttered to herself before flopping back onto the pillow and closing her eyes.

     Irma hummed to herself as she sat down with the thick stack of mail. She was confused by the sheer amount of letters, normally she received no more than two letters a week, each buried under fifty flyers for takeout places she had never heard of.

What made this pile even weirder was that all of the mail was in handwritten envelopes, it was almost like she had been sent a stack of birthday cards, months after her actual birthday.

Irma picked up the top one and started to open the envelope. Inside was a single sheet of paper that featured a picture of a cat in a hat.

Irma blinked and turned the paper over, only to find that it was totally blank. Irma turned the paper back over, only to see the cat again.

“Well this is normal,” muttered Irma, debating if this was part of some weird marketing campaign or if she had gone internet shopping while drunk.

She put the paper down and picked up the next envelope and gently tore it open, only for another sheet of paper to fall out.

This paper had the same picture as the first. As she stared at the cat Irma started to question what was going on. Had she signed up for the worst delivery service ever? Had the water board decided to introduce surrealism into the billing process? Had she accidentally joined a cult?

Irma shook her head and pushed the questions out of her mind as she picked up another envelope and tore it open, only to sigh as she saw another single sheet of paper inside.

“Again?” She mumbled to herself as she opened the paper up, revealing yet another image of a cat. She quickly threw the paper down and grabbed another envelope.

She ripped this one open quickly, only to sigh when she saw another single sheet of paper inside. The second she saw the top of the cat she threw it down, not bothering to fully unfold it.

She grabbed the next envelope and opened it, only to instantly groan and toss the whole thing away the second she saw the top of the cat’s hat.

After that Irma fell into auto-pilot, picking up envelopes and opening them, only to be met with the same page over and over and over.

Each one increased Irma’s confusion at the situation. Soon she had worked her way through the pile and was left with one single envelope. She sighed and grabbed it, pulling it open as she did. However, inside this envelope was a much smaller piece of paper with just the word “Sleep” written on it in bold black capitals.

Irma’s brain skipped a beat, a wave of confusion washing over her as her mouth dropped open for a moment.

“Sleep,” came a gentle voice from behind her. Irma felt something pushing her head forward, making the paper seem even bigger, Irma’s mind continued to skip and stuttered as her eyes rolled up into her head, the paper falling from her grip and fluttering to the floor.

“She shoots, she scores!” Giggled Lacy as she jumped on the couch and started to gather up the letters. “That’s it, just slide deeper and deeper with each breath and each moment,” purred Lacy as she looked around to make sure she had found all of the printouts.

Once she had found them all she quickly went to her bag and pulled out a massive stack of junk mail, placing it in front of Irma. “Irma, your junk mail was so boring you zoned out, in fact, it was so boring you don’t even want to remember opening it, it was too boring to even make a memory of,” explained Lacy as she watched Irma gently nod.

Lacy grabbed her bag and went to the door only to gasp and run back over to the sleeping Irma. “Almost forgot to take a picture!” She giggled as she pulled out her phone. “No point spending the GDP of a small country on toner if I’m not going to use it to win,” she exclaimed as she took the picture and headed back to the door, waking Irma just as she left.

     Emma wandered into her apartment and slipped her headphones off before dropping them onto the couch and plugging her phone into the charger.

She flipped the TV on before walking towards the kitchen to make herself some tea. However, as she opened the door a foam dart hit her in the face.

“What the hell?” Shouted Emma, waving her hands wildly as she tried to swat the dart off her forehead. As she stumbled back into the bedroom she felt something under her foot as another dart smacked her in the back of the head.

Emma started to wobble and spin around on the spot, trying to work out what was going on. As she turned to try and see where the second dart had come from she felt a shove from behind that sent her flying forward onto the bed.

“Sleep deep,” came a voice from behind her as Emma’s mind started to shut off, her thoughts totally gone by the time her head hit the sheets.

Zoe quickly dashed over, turning Emma onto her back and putting a pillow under her head. “You fell pretty deep,” she said to the sleeping girl as her camera’s flash illuminated the room.

As she admired the image, Zoe accidentally stepped on the tripwire she had set up, causing another dart to hit her right in the forehead. “Ouch!” Shouted Zoe as she shook her head. “I should take that down before I take any more pictures,” she mumbled to herself, quickly starting to disassemble the guns and tripwires she had scattered around the place.

Once she had collected them all, Zoe looked over Emma’s sleeping form before reaching into her bag and putting one of the dart guns into Emma’s hand.

“Count back from two hundred to zero, when you reach zero you will wake up and realize your new toy gun has arrived, in fact, you’ll be so happy with it, you won’t question why you can’t remember the last twenty minutes!” giggled Zoe, quickly running out of the apartment.

After a while, Emma rubbed her eyes and sat up. As she pulled her arms off the bed she saw the gun in her hand, for a moment her eyes glazed over as a big smile formed on her face. “Awesome! I’ve been waiting for this for ages!” She cheered as she looked over the plastic. “Wait, Why did I buy this again?”

       Lacy crept into Sammy’s apartment, gently closing the door behind herself as she looked around to make sure she wouldn’t be spotted. She quickly dashed through the apartment and climbed into the office closet, waiting for Sammy to come home from work.

After a few minutes of hiding, Sammy walked into the office and sat down in front of the computer, totally oblivious to the girl hiding a few feet away from her. Lacy opened the closet and crept up behind Sammy. She seized the arm of the office chair and spun it around before lunging forward and attempting to grab Sammy’s wrist.

Sammy quickly dived out of the chair, tackling Lacy to the ground, her body and mind onto total auto-pilot. Sammy quickly pulled the figure into a headlock before looking down and realizing who it was.

“Lacy?!” Shouted Sammy, not loosening her grip. “What the hell are you doing here? Where did you come from?” She asked, her voice massively fluctuating in volume.

“The closet,” coughed Lacy, as she tried to get Sammy off of her.

“Why were you in the closet? Did you want to borrow something?” Asked Lacy, her body still maintaining the headlock despite her brain being consumed by her confusion.

“Zoe and I are having a shock induction contest, please my throat,” gasped Lacy as she tried to wiggle free.

“Oh, right sorry,” nodded Sammy as she let go of Lacy and stood up, brushing herself off. “Force of habit,” she added before gasping. “Wait were you going to try and hypnotize me?”

“Was sort of the plan, yeah.” Nodded Lacy as she rolled over and took a few deep breaths.

“Sorry, I would have let it happen if you would have told me,” blushed Sammy, offering Lacy a hand up.

“Well it wouldn’t have been worth any points if I told you,” chuckled Lacy as she grabbed onto Sammy and pulled herself up. “The whole point is that we have to do the inductions without being spotted,” she continued before looking down. “Why are you still holding my hand?”

Sammy’s expression morphed from a shy blush into an evil smirk as she quickly lifted Lacy’s hand, watching the girl’s eyes follow it up. When the hand was just above Lacy’s head, Sammy pulled it downwards, using her free hand to pull Lacy’s body closer to hers. “Sleep!” Shouted Sammy as Lacy turned into a ragdoll in her arms, letting out a small sigh as her eyes rolled up and her head fell in between Sammy’s breasts.

Lacy’s mind spun like a turbocharged merry-go-round, her thoughts flying off in all directions as her legs gave way under her, the world going hazy and then totally black as she fell into Sammy, her mind submitting totally.

“That’s it, just sleep, deeper and deeper, sleep.” Purred Sammy as she gently rocked Lacy, using her free hand to snap her fingers on either side of Lacy’s head a few times, doing all she could to deepen Lacy’s trance.

“You always forget I’m a switch,” giggled Sammy. “Pity you two didn’t invite me to your game, I could have beaten both of you,” she added before a twinkle came to her eye. “In fact, I will beat both of you, tell me the full rules,” she said, leaning in and kissing Lacy on the neck.

      Zoe poured some chips into a bowl before looking around. “Looks good,” she nodded to herself. She had spent the whole afternoon cleaning in an attempt to make her place look half-decent. As she put the bowl down next to the other food she glanced at the whiteboard and smirked.

While the whiteboard declared she was one point behind, she had plans to make sure she got a decisive victory. She ran a finger over the gift-wrapped present in the center of the table and chuckled to herself, there was no way she could lose.

Once everyone had arrived Zoe pulled Lacy into her bedroom. “How is the winner feeling?” Asked Zoe sarcastically.

“Hey, not my fault you’re not as good as me,” replied Lacy as she stuck her tongue out.

Zoe tried to think of a comeback, however, a knock at the front door interrupted her thoughts. “What’s up! Who wants cake?” Shouted Sammy as she walked into the party, carrying a massive cake in her arms.

Zoe quickly left the bedroom and helped Sammy put the cake with the other food. “What’s the occasion?” She asked.

“I just thought you all deserved something nice!” Smiled Sammy.

“Well thank you,” grinned Zoe before looking around the room. “Everyone gather round!” She shouted, watching as the girls huddled around the table. “I’ve got a gift for you all,” started Zoe, pointing to the present on the table. “Irma, why don’t you open it?”

The girls all gasped with excitement, looking at the large package. Irma’s hand slowly reached forward to pull on the ribbon as Zoe’s heart started to flutter with excitement. However, before Irma could open the box Lacy interrupted.

“Why don’t we cut the cake first?” She asked with a smile, causing some of the girls to turn and nod at her. Zoe narrowed her eyes, had Lacy somehow worked out her plan?

“I’m sure we can do that after,” replied Zoe, trying to not give herself away.

“Well there would be more room on the table if we cut the cake now, and the icing will start to melt soon,” interjected Sammy, causing Zoe to let out a sigh.

“You’re right, I’ll get a knife,” mumbled Zoe as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a knife.

“Why don’t you do the honors?” Grinned Sammy as Zoe returned.

“Sure, sure,” nodded Zoe, her mind utterly focused on making sure the gift opening went well. She pulled the cake towards her and slowly pushed the knife into it. However, as the knife slid past the middle of the cake, a loud bang rang out as confetti flew out of the cake and showered the whole room in red and blue squares.

“Sleep!” Screamed Sammy, quickly dashing from girl to girl, pushing their heads forward. Sammy took the knife from Zoe and quickly pulled her back to the floor. “Sinking deeper and deeper, sliding further into a trance,” grinned Sammy, trying to keep as many of the girls under as possible.

Once she was confident that everyone was under Sammy took a breath. “Seven points!” She grinned to herself. “Hey, Zoe, where is the scoreboard?”

“In my bedroom,” replied Zoe, her voice nothing more than a dreamy sigh. Sammy quickly dashed into the bedroom and grabbed the whiteboard and pen, quickly adding herself onto the scoreboard as she walked back into the living room.

“Three, two one, wake up! wake up!” Grinned Sammy as she held the board out. “Hail to the Queen baby!” She cheered as the other girls slowly looked at her.

“What is going on?” Asked Emma, rubbing her head.

“Yeah, why did you make an exploding cake?” Added Irma. Zoe and Lacy looked at Sammy and then to the rest of the girls.

“It is a long story, tell them, Zoe,” smiled Lacy.

“Oh no, I think this is your job,” replied Zoe, raising her hands.

“I insist,” restated Lacy through gritted teeth, causing Sammy to sigh.

“They’ve been having a contest to see how many people they can secretly hypnotize over two days! A contest I just won!” Shouted Sammy as she thrust the board out once more, almost as if it answered the question on its own.

The other girls all looked at Sammy with confusion and shock, none of them sure if she was joking or not.

“You’ve been hypnotizing us?” Asked Beth as she glared at Lacy and Zoe.

“A few times!” Nodded Lacy before blinking. “Wait, how do you know?” She asked turning to Sammy.

“You told me!” Grinned Sammy.

“I did not!” Replied Lacy as she shook her head. “I kept it a secret so I could get more points! I was going to hypnotize you!”

“But did you?” Asked Sammy, enjoying the moment’s dramatic irony.

“I planned to and then. And then I didn’t,” said Lacy as her voice trailed off. “You hypnotized me, didn’t you?”

“I did! I turned your own induction back at you because I’m awesome!” Laughed Sammy.

“Fine, fine, you win,” nodded Zoe, patting Sammy on the shoulder. “So why don’t you open the prize, I mean the reveal is a little ruined, but still you deserve the honors!” She grinned, guiding Sammy over to the table.

“Well, I’m glad you can all accept my win so graciously!” Teased Sammy as she pulled the ribbon off the box. The second the knot loosened, the box lid went flying into the air as a load of fabric-covered springs sprayed out of the box, making every jump with shock.

“Sleep!” Shouted Zoe, quickly repeating Sammy’s strategy and trying to move everyone to the floor as quickly as she possibly could. Once everyone was lay in a pile on the floor Zoe smiled to herself. “And that is why I am the champ!” She said before clapping her hands. “Wakey Wakey! Come on wake up!” She shouted.

All of the girls pulled themselves up off the floor as Zoe continued to celebrate.

“Well done, well done,” nodded Lacy, walking over to Zoe. “Allow me to be the first to shake your hand.”

“I’m not falling for that,” giggled Zoe, pulling Lacy into a tight hug.

“Yeah I’m not letting any of you give me a handshake for the next few months,” added Irma.

“I vote we tape their mouths shut to prevent them shouting sleep again,” chuckled Carin as all of the girls started to laugh.

“Come on, get in here, all of you,” smiled Lacy, waving the girls over as the hug slowly became a huddle.

“I will still never forgive you for giving us a cake fakeout,” smiled Gail, resting her head on Sammy’s shoulder.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ve also made cupcakes, check my bag,” she said as she gently rubbed Gail’s hair.

“Yeah, you can go get them,” replied Gail.

“In case more snakes fly out, or confetti. Or it just catches fire.” Chuckled Beth as the girls hugged each other even tighter.