"Welcome to Boston, sweetie," Beth said warmly, pausing just long enough to give Chloe a big bone-squeezing hug before effortlessly taking her bags and hefting them into the back of her minivan. "There's a bottle of water up front for you--your mom says you weren't planning on taking your mask off the whole way through the flight, so I figured you'd probably be thirsty. There's also a couple of granola bars. We got a little bit of a drive ahead of us before we get back to my place, I don't want you spending the whole time with an empty stomach. Okay, honey?"

Chloe nodded, feeling the older woman's warm, maternal energy enfold her like a blanket fresh from the dryer on a cold day. "Um, yeah, uh, sure, that's fine," she mumbled, a wave of absolute exhaustion washing over her as she finally took off her mask and settled into the passenger seat with a sigh of bone-weary relief. The whole day had been a whirlwind of last-minute packing and lengthy drives and standing in endless endless lines, all to meet a woman she hadn't seen since she was probably about five years old; and even though she knew she probably had another couple of hours ahead of her before she could settle into a nice soft bed and at least take a nap, it was so nice to let someone else take charge for a while that she practically slumped against the car door once it closed.

But Beth was full of that same inexhaustible energy her mother had described, and she immediately struck up a conversation the moment they pulled out. "So this has got to be a pretty exciting trip for you, huh?" she asked, giving Chloe a companionable squeeze on the arm that was meant affectionately but nonetheless reminded her that Mom's old friend had the kind of physique that only came from running your own farm and doing your own chores day in and day out. "Four years of living at home and you're finally looking at getting out on your own. Bet your boyfriend's going to be happy, mm?"

Chloe pursed her lips in an approximation of a smile. "I don't have a boyfriend," she said, her voice dull with exhaustion but not from the flight this time. It had really been over with Lane for almost two years now, ever since he dropped out of college perhaps a semester before he was due to flunk out to focus on a career as a DJ that had resulted in perhaps three bookings and a conviction for selling ecstasy at a rave. They'd stayed together out of desultory inertia for a while, but the moment her plans to move out East solidified into a reality, he dumped her knowing she was about to dump him and it would be more than his fragile ego could handle. Getting rid of him was like having a tumor removed, but she still wasn't fully used to the idea of being single yet.

"Well, maybe you'll find someone nice out here at grad school," Beth replied, seamlessly switching conversational gears without so much as a lurch. "Your mother said you were applying to MIT, Cambridge, and Harvard. Oof. No small potatoes for you, huh, sweetie? Not that there's anything wrong with being ambitious, but between you and me, I don't think I ever learned a single thing in college that was worth a damn to what I wound up really doing with my life." The tone was casual, but it nonetheless elicited a tiny wince from Chloe. Because deep down, that was what exactly what she was afraid of.

It was her own fault, really. She should have said something to her mom years ago, admitted that eighteen was far too young to know what the hell she wanted to do with her life and she was really just plodding along in the footsteps of an absent father and an overbearing mother in the direction of a degree in mechanical engineering that overqualified Chloe for all the jobs she was really interested in and underqualified her for everything that would actually pay off her massive student loans. And now Chloe was staring down the barrel of another year or two of full-time studies, another unimaginable load of debt added onto the ledger, and she still had no clue what she was going to do with herself.

And Beth, her mom's extremely sweet and kind and well-meaning friend who was giving her a place to stay for the indefinite months it would take her to work through the applications process and get a job and find an apartment and schlep all her stuff from Austin to Boston, just kept accidentally stepping on all her emotional pressure points. "So what happens if you don't get into the schools you've picked?" she asked, the innocent question making Chloe's bright blue eyes water with incipient tears. "Word of advice, you should always have a fallback if things don't work out the way you planned."

Chloe blushed fiercely, opening her mouth and discovering that all her emotions were too big to fit through the tiny hole of a windpipe that felt like it was closing tighter every second. "I don't know," she muttered, trying to keep the biting frustration out of her voice. "I guess I'll just live in your guest bedroom and be your lesbian sex slave."

A momentary silence filled the cabin as Chloe replayed the words she'd just said in her mind, fully hearing and understanding them as if for the first time. Then the petite blonde literally, physically clapped her hands over her own mouth in shock and dismay, terrified at what else she might accidentally say if she didn't take a moment to get full control over her own voice. Her brain ran in circles with mortified embarrassment, desperately wishing she'd imagined the whole thing and knowing deep down that she absolutely had not.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, once she'd hesitantly removed her hands and made another tentative attempt at speech. "I don't know why I said that."

But the tall butch woman simply chuckled, giving Chloe a companionable pat on the knee before replying. "I don't know, it sounds to me like you've been thinking about it for a good long while. It's been a lot of stress keeping that GPA up, hasn't it, sweetie? Between school and work and trying to please your boyfriend while you keep your mom happy, I don't think you've had a minute to relax since you graduated from high school. It's no wonder the thought of just switching off your brain and doing what someone else tells you has at least a little appeal."

Chloe's mouth flapped uselessly for a moment, making goldfish motions as she tried to process the sudden and unexpected turn the conversation was taking. "...did my mom say all that?" she finally asked, unable to fully believe the notion that her own mother might gossip about her like that behind her back but also unable to imagine any other source for the bitingly accurate information about her personal life. It felt almost cruel to say it out loud like that, but at the same time Chloe couldn't really deny any of it. Even if her only experience with other women was a threesome she and Lane had with someone he met at the club one time after things started going south between them.

Beth patted her knee again, a swift ruffle of the fingers that reminded Chloe the older woman had never actually removed her hand. "No, sweetie," she cooed, her voice so sweetly condescending that it made Chloe feel foolish for even having asked the question. "You did, remember? You got in touch with me not long after your mom suggested staying here with me until you could find a place of your own, and I could tell something was bugging you so we did a little guided meditation together to help you get at the root of the problem. You told me it was really easy to relax with me, didn't you?"

Chloe blinked a long, slow, heavy blink, her exhaustion almost seeming to double as she struggled to recall the events the older woman was describing. "Relax, um, I...." She realized her mouth was simply hanging open, and snapped her jaw shut with a deliberate effort. "Um, no, sorry, I don't really remember that. I... it's been a busy couple of weeks, and I guess it just. Um. Slipped my mind." That didn't really seem possible, Chloe legitimately couldn't imagine admitting to one of her mother's friends that she had secret fantasies of being penned up in someone's spare bedroom like a piece of livestock and removed from all the complications of self-awareness and every bit of stress it brought along with it... but at the same time, she didn't want to think about what it implied if Beth could tell simply by looking at her that she was a brainless fuckslave waiting to happen.

Beth chuckled again, sliding her hand a little further up Chloe's inner thigh. "Well, I gave you permission to forget anything you wanted that first time," she replied, the soothing warmth in her voice making Chloe almost fail to notice the implications behind the phrase 'first time'. "And I suppose that is kind of a lot to take in about yourself, especially when you've sunk so many years into this whole degree nonsense and you're so invested in it all. I expect you probably just let it all tumble into the back of your head every time we finished up and you went to sleep." Chloe recognized the peculiar emphasis on that last word, doubling again the lethargy she already felt gripping her drowsy mind and heavy body, but all the memories it brought back faded away again as soon as she tried to remember them.

"Now that you're here, though, we can finally work on getting you to accept what you really want. What you really need, deep down." Beth's hand moved away from Chloe's leg for a moment, but it was only to reach for the seat release. "Fall back for me, sweetie," she purred, pulling on the lever and sending Chloe instantly backwards into a supine position before her conscious mind could even catch up with events. She felt herself plummeting into a bone-deep lassitude that obviated the whole possibility of thought and left her blank and docile and instantly accepting of everything she was told.

"There's a good girl," Beth murmured softly, returning her hand to Chloe's inner thigh just inches from her suddenly wet cunt. "Now you remember for me, don't you, sweetie pie?" The hypnotized woman let out a grunt of agreement, recalling at last the ways that the fantasies Beth implanted in her mesmerized mind grew seamlessly into her own need for acceptance and approval and freedom from the exhausting grind of ceaseless and pointless striving until she no longer knew where her programming began and her cravings ended. Beth was able to brainwash her so easily because the kennel in the spare bedroom felt like home even before the conditioning began. And a weak, helpless little slut like Chloe never stood a chance of resisting.

Beth's hand moved to cup Chloe's pubic mound, rubbing her through her leggings with a strength and a precision that almost instantly left her shuddering with arousal. Chloe thought she knew how to pleasure herself, she assumed that by twenty-three she had a pretty good idea of what her body liked, but that was before Beth's experienced touch elicited hot, heady pulses of mind-melting ecstasy. The notion of being a lesbian sex slave began to move inexorably from an abstract fantasy to a tangible need as she got closer and closer to the climax she so desperately desired.

Beth didn't give it to her, though. Not yet, not on the drive, not even when Chloe squirmed her leggings down to her knees and her panties along with them to present her bare, smooth shaven pussy to Beth's lascivious gaze. Instead the hypnotized blonde drifted on the edge of orgasm, her empty mind soaking up every last bit of Beth's programming and cementing her surrender in a way that even months of nightly video chats hadn't accomplished. By the time they finally pulled into the driveway, the farm lit only by a light on the porch and the setting sun, Chloe's thighs were messy with musk and all she wanted to do was submit.

But Beth had a self-control and a patience now entirely absent from the whimpering young woman, patience enough to strip Chloe of every last stitch of clothing right there by the car before clipping a leash on her and walking her into the farmhouse like a pet on a leash. "That's a good girl," she cooed, enticing Chloe through the door with a gentle tug before guiding her down onto her hands and knees to crawl the rest of the way. "That's my good girl, isn't it?"

Chloe nodded, her hypnotized brain already accepting the plan laid out for her. It would be a few months before Chloe was even expected to hear back from any of her chosen colleges, and her mother would easily believe that she was staying with Beth to save money while she got herself settled in. By the time anyone found out that she wasn't looking for her own apartment and didn't get into any of the grad schools she'd applied to, she could simply explain that Beth needed a good mechanic on the farm and Chloe liked the hard work and the fresh air. They were all halfway across the country. They wouldn't find out what she was really doing with her time.

But Chloe was already learning what awaited her. She crawled along behind Beth down the long hallway just beyond the living room, her jaw slack and her gaze unfocused with lust, until she finally reached the room Beth had laid out for her. The kennel in the corner looked exactly like all her masturbatory fantasies, filled with cushions and blankets and toys for her to edge her dripping cunt with, and it had a latch on it Chloe knew she'd be too dumb to figure out as soon as she climbed inside. "Isn't it beautiful?" Beth asked, and Chloe's head bobbed up and down again in a nod she knew deep down wasn't entirely prompted by her owner's hypnotic control.

Beth removed Chloe's leash and she crawled inside, feeling the conditioning close around her like an embrace that never ended, and it was at that moment that Beth reached into the kennel and finally, forcefully fingered her to a climax so intense her whole world went white. It was the perfect way to lock in all her programming, instantly and inextricably associating the kennel with orgasmic bliss, and Chloe knew she'd never want to escape her new life. It didn't feel like a trick or a trap or an endless grind for some promised reward she didn't understand and couldn't bring herself to care about. It felt like home. It felt like pleasure. And Chloe had never in her whole life wanted anything more.

THE END