I awoke in a dark room. I was confused, scared. The last thing I could remember was walking down the street, someone had grabbed me, a hand over my mouth, then a sharp pinching feeling in my neck. I could feel I was restrained, metal chains holding my limbs in place, along with my neck and head. I struggled, but it was no use. 

I called out, “Hello? Can anyone hear me?” to no response. I had just wanted to go home. My girlfriend was waiting for me, she’d be worried sick. Not that I myself wasn’t. I’d obviously been kidnapped by some unknown person or people, for unknown reasons.  What the hell could anybody want with me?

A large screen turned on, bright white light, blinding in the darkness. I squinted my eyes and looked at what I could see of the room. It was very small, I was chained to a chair in the center. The walls were concrete, as was the floor. The screen was behind projected on the wall from a projector on the ceiling. 

The blank white screen changed. A colorful spiral in its place. Swirling color and pulsing movement. It was… captivating. I quickly realized I couldn’t bring myself to look at anything else. It was just… so… pretty…

It looked as if there were words within the spiral, swirling inward along with it. But they were faint, hard to make out. I had to focus hard on them to see. They were words like ‘Obey’ ‘Watch’ ‘Stare’ ‘Drop’.

This was hypnosis… these people were trying to hypnotize me… and it was working. I tried to resist, I needed to get out of there. I struggled against my bindings, I closed my eyes tightly. The chains wouldn’t budge. All I got for my efforts were bruises, from straining against the metal. I could still see the shifting colors behind my eyelids, but I staunchly refused to open them again. But with my eyes closed, I began to notice other things. The quiet whirring of the projector, a fan somewhere in the distance, and… quiet whispering. 

Many voices mixed together, all slightly offset, creating a confusing, quiet cacophony. The whispers said similar things to the words on the screen. I had no choice but to listen, I couldn’t exactly cover my ears. It felt like I stayed that way for hours, eyes tightly shut, unwillingly listening to the whispers telling me to watch, to obey, to give in.

My facial muscles hurt, I was so tired, the whispers sounded nice… Why not just… open my eyes… Wait, wasn’t that… bad… for some reason? Why did I close them in the first place? Shouldn’t I be… watching? But.. I need to go home…but whispers… watch… I…

I opened my eyes. The colors flooding back into them. Projected into the wall, onto my retina, into my mind. I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t remember why I ever would have.

I simply had to stare, watch, obey, sink, drop. This was just a simple fact. This was my reality. 

I didn’t know how long I stayed that way, I no longer knew what time was. I didn’t notice when the words changed. Shifting to things like ‘Serve’ ‘Smile’ ‘Happy’ ‘Servant’ ‘Forget’. I could hardly tell I was grinning widely. All I knew were the colors, the pretty colors, telling me what to think, and how to feel. I didn’t remember that I’d been kidnapped, or that I’d wanted to escape. All that I knew were the colors. 

Eventually, the colors turned off, the lights turned on. But I still saw them. They were a part of me. Everything I saw was behind the beautiful swirling colors that would never leave my vision. Someone removed my chains, but I didn’t move. I just watched the colors.

Dimly, I heard someone say “Damn, that worked great! Look at her, no reaction at all.” A hand waved in front of my face. I didn’t care, I watched the colors. “Hey, you in there?” I did not respond, I watched the colors. The man laughed. “Nice. This shit really works! Hey, she’s primed, let’s do this.” 

Footsteps, sharp pain in the back of my neck. The colors intensified, a pleasant buzzing filled my mind. Tapping at the back of my neck, pain with each touch, I didn’t care. I watched the colors, I felt the buzz. Pretty colors, fuzzy buzzing, no room for thinking. No need for thinking. Just pretty, just fuzzy. Tap. Tap. Tap. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Over and over. For what could have been seconds, could have been years, it didn’t matter to me. All that mattered were the colors and the buzzing. 

“Okay, let’s see here,” the man said, over the sound of pages being turned. “Code AF-59-63-JT-SF Execute Programming.”

The buzzing began to change things. It all started to become clear. These men… they were my Masters. They owned me. My mind, my body. This was how it had always been. I’d never been anything else. I loved being theirs. This was my life. My purpose. My everything. I was happy, eager, to serve. I smiled, happy to have finally remembered my purpose.

I stood in the kitchen, preparing my tray of drinks, smiling, feeling the bliss of service. I looked so pretty in my short skirted lil maid outfit. I was what my Masters desired of me, a perfect, happy slave. I was treated so very well. I loved serving. It was all I’d ever known. All I ever needed. The bell rang, and I acted. Taking my tray and walking my pretty, cheerful walk. I wandered through the crowded party, not speaking, just staring ahead, smiling, serving. The party wasn’t for me. I was a servant, not a person. I was happy. This was my purpose. It was all I’d ever been.

But was it? The thought ripped through my mind like a bullet, I stumbled slightly, but continued my path through the crowd, my smile never faltering. 

How long have I been here, really? It hurt. What was this? These weren’t my thoughts. My thoughts were of service, smiling, I was happy.

I miss my girlfriend. Who was… girl… friend? I didn’t… have… I… 

A hand groped me, it felt nice. Normal. It made me forget the odd thoughts, briefly. This was who I was. There was no need to be afraid. 

I should be. I began breathing more heavily, my smile becoming strained. This wasn’t normal. Something was… wrong.

Remember what happened. Resist. Run. My smile faltered, I had to stop this. I quickly returned to the kitchen, placing the tray on a countertop and beginning to hyperventilate. This wasn’t right. What were these thoughts? I was so so scared.

Another servant entered the room, I knew her as 003. She had pretty red hair and a lovely, lithe body, accentuated perfectly by the uniform our Masters had us wear. She was smiling like normal, looking to refill her tray. She looked at me, standing there, arms around myself, breathing heavily, fear evident on my face. “That’s no way to act, 001.” 

She put her tray down and walked over to me, her heels clicking pleasantly on the stone floor. “001?” She said, confusion in her voice. “You’re malfunctioning. Here, look at me.” She gently grabbed my chin with her thumb and index finger, lifting it to force me to look her in the face. “That’s it, 001. Don’t be afraid. You know we’re all trained in correcting malfunctions.” Her face was inches from mine, she smelled so pretty, was so pretty, my fears were fading away. She kissed me, the warm softness of her lips on mine, her tongue against my own, it was perfection. This was right. Her hands roved over my body, and my own responded in kind. She was so soft, so warm against me, how had I ever doubted my reality? How did I ever think this wasn’t exactly who I was, where I should be? This was perfection. I was a slave, a servant, a perfect, smiling, happy maid. That was me. I wasn’t anything else.

003 pulled away, her smile returning immediately. I felt my own return as well. “You did good, 001. Now let’s get back out there and be who we’re meant to be!” she said, excitedly. I nodded in agreement, picked up my tray, and continued with my perfect, happy life.