Lexi hummed an upbeat tune as her music played in her ears and her feet pounded the pavement, as she went for her afternoon jog. The exercise and the fresh air always invigorated her. Her body was thrumming with energy, and she wanted both to hit the gym and work herself until she was exhausted and to go home and finger-fuck her needy cunt until she passed out with a happy, post-orgasmic smile on her face. Lexi giggled. Life was easy. Life was simple. Life was good. She only had simple choices to make now. Work out, or masturbate? Who did she want to fuck today? Sometimes, that second one wasn’t up to her, but that was OK too. Lexi giggled again, and felt her cheeks fill with heat. She loved being Sierra’s whore. No matter what, everything was easy now. She should have fucked Professor Sinclair ages ago. Now, she was getting straight As without having to go to any of those boring classes she vaguely remembered once caring about, and she wasn’t getting any of those obnoxious emails about her grades and her attendance. She could just enjoy being a nice, hot, dumb, slutty, muscular bimbo. Lexi couldn’t imagine any better life. She was so happy.

  “Excuse me.”

  At the same moment, Lexi heard someone trying to get her attention and felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned, already licking her lips. Maybe it was someone looking to pick her up. She was always up for that. But when she turned around, she barely had time to take in the vaguely-familiar face in front of her before she felt a sharp blow to her head, and everything went black.

***

  When Lexi awoke, her head felt like a ringing bell. It was twice as foggy as it had been before, and before she could shake off her confusion, a spot on one side of her head started throbbing so hard it made her groan. What the hell had happened?

  “You’re awake?” The feminine voice sounded strangely concerned. Lexi tried to open her eyes, but when she did the room span so much it made her nauseous.

  “Wha..?” was all she could manage.

  “I’m sorry about your head,” said the voice, now tinged with contrition. “I hope it doesn’t hurt too much. I was trying to be careful.”

  “W-who?” Lexi asked. The voice was familiar, just as the face had been, moments before she’d passed out. Lexi forced her eyes open, and saw a punk-looking girl with a sidecut looking down at her with a worried expression on her face.

  “Wha?” Lexi repeatedly dumbly. She realized she was seated in a chair and tried to stand up, but then she realized she was bound to the chair with a complex series of ropes and knots. She pulled against them for moment. There was no give at all. There was no chance of her slipping free.

  “I’m sorry!” the punk girl said again. She seemed strangely earnest, for a kidnapper. “It was just the only way. At least I think so… You’ll understand! I hope…”

  “Um,” Lexi began uncertainly, the throbbing pain in her head beginning to subside. “Do I, like, know you?”

  The punk looked sad for a moment, but then made herself smile ruefully. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t remember me, after everything that’s been done to you. I’m Ashe.”

  Lexi blinked, nonplussed.

  “We met one time at the mall,” Ashe supplied.

  Lexi blinked again.

  Ashe sighed. “We met again a few weeks ago when you were out jogging and we kinda… fucked.”

  “Oh!” Lexi giggled, and let out a happy sigh at the memory. “I remember now. You were good.”

  Ashe blushed. “Thanks,” she said quietly.

  “So. Um.” Lexi looked pointedly down at the ropes binding her to the chair. “Is this, like, for fun? Cause I can, like, totally roll with that.”

  “No.” Ashe suddenly turned dead serious. “Alex, I’m doing this to save you.”

  “Alex?” Wasn’t that what Professor Sinclair had called her too? It sounded so silly, Lexi thought. It didn’t suit her at all. “I’m Lexi!”

  “Exactly.” Ashe looked her dead in the eyes. “Alex, or Lexi or whatever, I know this situation is pretty fucked up but I really need you to listen to me right now: you’re not supposed to be like this. This isn’t you. You’re not trashy and slutty and dumb. You’re really smart! And, well, kind of a nerd, but in a cute way. This was all done to you by someone.”

  Lexi blinked and tilted her head, confused. She couldn’t wrap her head around that idea. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s Winter,” Ashe explained. “I’ve been… keeping an eye on you. When we met up before, I noticed something was wrong. You’d changed too much. I knew there had to be something weird going on. So, I started doing a little digging, and I found out about this girl called Winter. I know she’s… taken an interest in you lately. Alex, that girl is seriously bad news. I don’t know exactly how she does it, but she changes people. She’s done it before, and she’s done it to you. I don’t know exactly what it is. Some kind of hypnosis, is my guess. She’s been manipulating you, pulling your strings, ruining your life, and you don’t even know it.”

  Lexi just stared. That was so much for her to wrap her head around. Her? A nerd? It couldn’t be. It sounded so fanciful. But wasn’t that just what Professor Sinclair had said the other week? As absurd as it seemed, she couldn’t quite dismiss it. But Winter, her friend Winter, being responsible? That seemed even more impossible. Winter was Lexi’s friend. She trusted Winter implicitly. Winter had never done anything wrong to her. Lexi couldn’t believe that her friend would manipulate her like that. And moreover, how the hell would that even be possible? Hypnosis? That was just silly. Still, Lexi could tell Ashe believed it wholeheartedly.

  “So, I, like, dunno what you’re talking about,” Lexi responded eventually, “but I think you should let me go now.”

  “No!” Ashe cried. “Alex, please, just listen to me! Just try! Try to remember who you were!”

  Lexi shifted awkwardly, as much as the ropes holding her would allow. “I, like, really dunno…”

  “Come on, Alex!” Ashe bent over, leaning in close. “Focus! Can you really, honestly tell me you’ve always been this way? Do you really remember it clearly?”

  “Um, I guess…” Truthfully, Lexi wasn’t so sure. It was hard to remember. Everything was so foggy. Always so foggy.

  “I can tell you don’t really mean that,” Ashe pressed. “You can remember it, can’t you? Being smart? Being top of the class? Being a star student? Think about your grades. Think about all those hours spent in the library.”

  “I don’t…” There was something. Lexi wasn’t sure what it was, but it was something. Trying to think about it was making her head hurt.

  “Think about your body,” Ashe continued. “You weren’t always blonde, remember? When I first met you, you had brown hair. And you were all skinny and mousy. Look at yourself now.” Ashe gestured to Lexi’s exposed arms and midriff, her gaze following the lines of her chiseled abs and sculpted biceps. “It doesn’t feel right, does it? I’m sure you can remember, if you really try. You can remember being different. You can remember that this isn’t natural for you. You can!”

  “Stop!” Lexi cried out. The dissonant clash of memories she was experiencing was making her head hurt. She didn’t want to think about this anymore. “Just stop! I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, weirdo. Just let me go home.” She started testing the ropes again, but even her strong, well-trained body wasn’t capable of breaking them.

  Ashe sighed. She looked wounded by Lexi’s words. “OK, I guess you’re too far gone for that. That’s OK. I expected that. We can try something else.”

  “Or how about you just, like, let me go!” Lexi snapped. “If you wanna tie me up, you gotta at least show me a good time, jeez.”

  “Let’s make a deal,” Ashe said evenly. “You go along with what I wanna do for ten, maybe fifteen minutes, and then I’ll let you go. I promise. I’ll let you go, and you can leave and do whatever you want. Deal?”

  Lexi pouted. “Fine. Just get it over with quickly.”

  Ashe turned her back to Lexi for a moment, picking something up off the table behind her. She turned back around, revealing it was a pocket watch. “We’re going to do some hypnosis,” the punk girl announced.

  Lexi rolled her eyes. Hypnosis? That was obviously fake. But she knew it would be best to just play along, so she could get of there.

  “I should probably admit that I, um, don’t really know what I’m doing.” Ashe’s serious, confident demeanor cracked a little, letting her nervousness shine through. “I’ve never done this before. But I’ve been doing a lot of research, and I think I’ll be able to get the hang of it and make it work.”

  “What do you need me to do?” Lexi asked flatly. She had no reason to hide her impatience.

  “It’s simple,” Ashe explained, keeping a tight rein on her anxiety and irritation. She walked around behind Lexi, standing behind the chair until Lexi couldn’t really see her, even when she craned her neck. “You just need to keep staring at this pocket watch, and listen to what I’m telling you. That’s all.”

  Reaching over the top of her head, Ashe dangled her pocket watch in front of Lexi’s face by a long chain. It was simple, bronze and un-ornamented. Lexi’s eyes locked onto it instantly. It wasn’t simply that she’d decided to go along with Ashe wanted her to do. Looking at the pocket watch felt almost instinctual, somehow. It was familiar. The steady rhythm of the watch hands ticking around the plain, white clock face made her mind feel calm and quiet. She still didn’t believe in hypnosis, but she was struggling to feel quite as skeptical as she had done just a few moments ago. It was hard to deny that the simple sight of a pocket watch on a chain was having some kind of effect on her, and the effect grew stronger once Ashe started gently manipulating the chain in her hand to set the pocket watch slowly swinging back and forth before Lexi’s eyes.

  “Just watch,” Ashe whispered, and the soft, gentle, melodic tone of voice she used made Lexi shiver, even though she sounded a little like she was reading from a script. “That’s all you need to do for me. Just watch. Keep your eyes fixed on the center of my pocket watch, as it swings back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.”

  “This is, like…. dumb,” Lexi murmured, but her voice was already sounding sleepy and slurred.

  “Shh,” Ashe soothed. “No talking now. Just breathe. Take a few nice deep breaths. That’ll help relax you. Inhale, and let your lungs naturally fill to their fullest extent. Exhale, and let it all out, nice and slowly, nice and evenly.”

  Without consciously meaning too, Lexi found herself doing exactly what Ashe was telling her too. It felt so natural to obey. With her mind entirely focused on the swinging pocket watch in front of her, it was like Ashe’s suggestions completely bypassed her conscious brain, controlling her body directly as if she was a puppet on strings. Lexi could feel herself weakening and relaxing. She could feel herself breathing deep in time with Ashe’s words, and knew that she couldn’t bring herself to stop even if she wanted to. She felt helpless. She could already feel her mind softening and melting, and her thoughts growing dim around the edges. Lexi knew she was just a dumb bimbo, but how could she be so weak to this? So susceptible?

  “All you need to do is stare,” Ashe continued. “You can do that, can’t you? Just stare at the watch.” Lexi found herself nodding slowly. “Focus on the center. Let your eyes be drawn into it. Let the ticking of the hands and the swinging of the chain keep all your attention on that one spot.”

  Lexi obeyed. She couldn’t not obey. Everything was so rhythmic, so soothing. Ashe’s voice, the tick of the watch, the way it was swinging. Lexi could sense herself being lured into rhythm with it all. Her breathing, her thinking, even her heartbeat seemed to be settling into it. She was being pulled into state where everything was numb and dull. It was irresistible.

  “Count for me,” Ashe urged. “Count the seconds as they tick, tock, tick, tock.”

  Lexi giggled, sounding even more air-headed than usual. Maths wasn’t her strong suit. Even something as simple as basic counting - she just found it so easy to get distracted. All the same, when Ashe told her too, she started counting in time with each second that the swinging pocket watch tracked. “One… two… three… four… five… six…”

  Lexi felt a fingertip stroke along her arm. The touch felt so gentle, so sensual, so intimate, it made her moan. “Ah!”

  “Keep counting,” Ashe insisted, her voice sounding even closer than before, like she was right by Lexi’s ear. The possibility of disobedience didn’t even occur to Lexi. She was long past that.

  “S-seven. Eight.” It took Lexi a moment to remember her place, and then she had to count quicker to catch up. “Nine… Ten…” Ashe’s touch returned, this time stroking along her face. “E-eleven… twelve…” Lexi wanted to look round and see what Ashe was doing, but she couldn’t. Her eyes were fixed on the watch. Only on the watch.

  “Good, you’re doing so well,” Ashe murmured. Her hand moved down over Lexi’s jawline and down her neck, caressing her collarbones and the top of her chest. Involuntarily, Lexi arched her back. Her mind was so quiet that each touch felt like a bolt of lighting. It was so powerful. So hard to think about counting. Lexi wanted more.

  “Um… f-fifteen?” Lexi venture uncertainly, when she realized she’d stopped counting. She half-expected to be correcting, but the only response she got was a small, amused laugh from behind her. “Sixteen… seventeen… um…” Ashe’s hand on her chest was so distracting. It kept venturing lower and lower, exploring the hem of her low-cut top and sliding down towards her cleavage. “E-eighteen… nineteen…”

  “Good girl.” Ashe’s praise made Lexi blush. She remembered being praised like that before. Everything about this experience was so familiar. If only she could remember why. “How about… here?”

  Suddenly, Ashe’s hand was at Lexi’s hip. The unexpected sensation made Lexi shiver, and caused her to emit another low moan. It was so hard for her to think. So hard to focus. Her mind was shrinking. She couldn’t handle focusing on the watch and the way Ashe was touching her, not both at once. It was too much. But still, she had to try and count. She could hear the command echoing in her eyes and through her emptying mind. “Um… er… twenty… um… t-twenty… no… seventeen?”

  “Not quite,” Ashe said, sounding amused. “Twenty-three.”

  “Twenty-three,” Lexi repeated, grateful for the assistance. “Twenty-four… twent-ah!” Ashe’s hand was on her thigh now, exploring her, tracing the lines of her muscles. It was maddening. Lexi’s body felt so distant, yet so hot. She was craving more, even as her mind was slipping away. Even something as simple as a hand stroking her thigh felt overwhelming. Thinking was overwhelming. “Twenty… um… twenty…”

  “You’ve lost count?” Ashe asked. Lexi’s beleaguered mind strained to remember which number she was supposed to be at, but her thoughts were so utterly scrambled by the way Ashe had been touching her. With hand still on her hip, Ashe put her other hand up Lexi’s loose fitting top, feeling her way over each one of Lexi’s abs. Lexi went limp. That was her limit. Along with the watch, two hands touching her so sensually was simply too much for her. Her brain short-circuited. She felt everything slipping away, her vision vanishing to the single point at the absolute center of the pocket watch. It was like she had fallen down a well. Lexi nodded, very slowly. She’d lost count.

  “You can’t think anymore, can you?”

  Lexi shook her head.

  “You’re hypnotized right now,” Ashe stated.

  Lexi didn’t react. She just kept staring blankly at the swinging pocket watch. She was numb to Ashe’s touch now. She was hypnotized.

  “You’ve been hypnotized like this before, haven’t you?”

  Lexi nodded. She didn’t know how she knew that. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t remember. But she knew the answer.

  “Good.” Ashe let out a sigh of relief. “OK. Listen carefully. I want you to close your eyes.” Lexi obeyed. “I want you to imagine your mind. I know that sounds complicated, but it’s not. It’s very simple. Just imagine your mind as big, round ball, floating in an empty, peaceful space.”

  Lexi did as Ashe said. She formed the mental image of a ball. It was pink. It was her mind.

  “Now, I want you to imagine everything everyone’s ever said to you while you were hypnotized. Every command, every suggestion. Imagine each one as a rope, tied around that ball that is your mind in a tight knot.

  Unthinkingly, Lexi obeyed. The imagine in her mind changed in accordance with Ashe’s instructions. Her mind-ball was covered in ropes. Lexi wasn’t surprised. In trance, she wasn’t capable of being surprised.

  “When I snap my fingers,” Ashe continued, “you will imagine me cutting those ropes for you. You’ll imagine those knots unraveling, those ropes falling away, leaving your mind as it once was, unaltered. Are you ready?”

  Lexi just nodded.

  Ashe snapped her fingers. Lexi shuddered as, in an instant, all the ropes, all the suggestions and commands and brainwashing, fell away. Her mind was her own again. New memories, new realizations, new conclusions flooded her mind. It was impossible to believe. It was horrifying. It was just as overwhelming as what Ashe had done moments ago. She didn’t know how to process it. The light of her new knowledge blazed like the sun, so bright that it dazzled her completely. She couldn’t handle it. Her mind recoiled at the knowledge of what had been done to her. Drowned by the light, she blacked out.

***

  By the time she awoke, her back and neck had grown stiff from the way she was slumped in the chair. She opened her eyes blearily. She half-forgot where she was, but the ropes that still bound her in place were a swift reminder.

  “Alex?” came Ashe’s concerned voice. “Are you OK?”

  Alex… that was her name. Wasn’t it? Why did it sound so unfamiliar? Then, everything that had happened, everything that had been done to her, came back to her all at once. Alex’s eyes shot wide open. Winter. Sierra. The sorority girls. Professor Sinclair. The gym. School. Her hair. She remembered it all, and she understood. She started trembling.

  “Are you… you again?” Ashe asked.

  Alex didn’t know how to answer that. “I think so,” she said. Her mouth was dry.

  “Oh, thank god!” Ashe clasped her hands to her face. “I was so worried I’d messed it all up. Let me get you free.” Ashe produced a small flick knife, and quickly cut through the ropes holding Alex in place. Once they fell away, Alex was grateful for the ability to move again. She tried to stand, but her legs were so much weaker than she’d expected. “Careful!” Ashe said.

  After a few more moments, using the hand-rest of the chair to support herself, Alex was able to make it to her feet. Once she was stable, she surged forwards, and threw herself into Ashe’s arms. The punk girl’s eyes went wide with surprise, but she threw her arms open and accepted Alex into her embrace. “Thank you,” Alex whispered. “Thank you.”

  “I… of course,” Ashe replied, flustered. “You’re welcome.”

  It was a long time before either of them pulled away. Alex just wanted to be held, and the feeling of the warmth of another person helped stave off the dark thoughts she was having about her situation. But she couldn’t put it off forever, she knew that.

  “How are you feeling?” Ashe asked her. The punk girl was blushing.

  “I don’t even know how to begin answering that,” Alex admitted. She looked down at herself. Her body felt totally alien to her. It wasn’t the soft, shapeless, nondescript body she remembered. She was muscular. Toned. Powerful. She had to run her hand over her abs to convince herself they were real. She remembered all those hours spent in the gym well enough, though. How could she have done all that? She’d always wanted to get into working out, to improve her body, but she’d never been able to muster the willpower. Admiring her new body gave her a whole host of mixed feelings to deal with. It felt wrong, it felt like a violation, but in a way, it was what she’d always wanted. Not the muscles perhaps, but she was thin and fit and hot in a way she’d never thought possible. Would she lose this amazing body, now that it was all over? She didn’t know how to feel about that, and she didn’t want to admit to herself how much regret the prospect filled her with.

  Then, a lock of her hair fell into her face. She was blonde now. That prompted a very different set of thoughts. Alex had never thought about going blonde before, or even about dyeing her hair at all. Mousy, dull, brown hair had always suited her, in a depressing kind of way. The change wasn’t bad. It was nice to know she could change, in a way. But her new hair color really drove home the way that her identity, who she was, had been wrested away from her. Alex wasn’t in control of herself anymore. And it wasn’t merely her hair she’d lost control of: she’d lost control of her whole life. Her schoolwork was in tatters. Everything she’d been working towards was in jeopardy. She didn’t know if it was too late to recover it.

  Maybe it wasn’t, thanks to her recent encounter with Professor Sinclair. Thinking about that made her think about the greatest violation of all: the sex. Before Winter, she’d been shy and inexperienced. Now, her head was filled with images of sex, memories so pornographic she could scarcely believe they were real. The fact that her body had been used for such things, against her will, filled her with disgust. But the worst thing was remembering how much she’d enjoyed it. It had felt so good. From her first exhibitionist explorations, to being toyed with at Winter’s party, to being used as a whore, the pleasure had been incredible. It had felt so good to cast away all her shame and inhibition away, and just let herself do what had felt good. Two sides of Alex went to war with each other. One side insisted that it hadn’t been her, not really. The other side whispered that it was her. It had been her body and her pleasure, even if not her choice. Even now, the memories she was thinking about were bringing shameful warmth to her body, warmth that was growing by the second. All of a sudden, Alex became incredibly conscious of Ashe’s gaze, and even of the way the cool air in the punk girl’s room felt against her skin. She’d been out jogging in a shamefully slutty, revealing outfit - a low-cut top and tight booty shorts - and that was arousing her too. Alex couldn’t believe how sensitive her new body was. It was all she could to not to start panting.

  “Are you OK?” Ashe asked again, concerned. “You look kind of ill, do you need to sit down?”

  “No, I’m just- ah!” Alex couldn’t suppress a moan when Ashe placed a hand on her exposed shoulder. It had only been to help steady her, but to Alex, the touch had been electric. It reminded her of the way Ashe had touched her earlier, and of all the ways that all kinds of different people had touched her before that. The warmth in her body became a raging furnace. Without warning, her head became fuzzy and full of pink. She had to fight not to giggle. The moment passed, and she recovered, but she was left shaken. Apparently whatever Winter had done to her wasn’t gone. Not completely.

  “Was that…?” Ashe ventured.

  “I think it was just my body,” Alex answered, keeping her tone carefully even. “You did good, but apparently my body still has some, er, responses, after everything I’ve been through.” Alex vividly remembered the ball and the ropes. Winter’s conditioning was gone. But you couldn’t spend so much time masturbating and having sex without it making a difference to your bodies needs, she figured.

  “Right,” Ashe said awkwardly. “We should talk about what happens next.”

  “Next? What next?” Alex was confused. Wasn’t it over? Or was Ashe talking about between them? Alex blushed. The punk girl was cute, and clearly had feelings for her. And Alex had already experienced what she could do in bed first-hand. The heat returned for a moment, before Alex mentally pinched herself. She needed to stop thinking about sex. “Isn’t it over?”

  “I mean Winter,” Ashe said flatly. Hearing that name made Alex shudder. “Alex, we need to do something about her. What’s to stop her doing all that to you all over again? Or to someone else? We need to put a stop to it, once and for all. We need to confront her.”

  “Right. You’re right.” The thought of looking Winter in the face again was terrifying, but Alex couldn’t deny the sense of Ashe’s words. “But… how are we going to confront her?”

  “I don’t know exactly. I wasn’t really thinking that far ahead,” Ashe admitted. “But if the worst comes to the worst, it’ll be two against one. I’ve got this.” She slipped her knife out of her pocket again for a moment. “And you… well, all those muscles have gotta be good for something, right?”

  Alex nodded. “Yeah. Yeah OK. When?”

  “Tomorrow. I want to confront her as soon as we can, before she realizes anything is wrong. I’ve been scoping out her schedule. She doesn’t usually leave her place in the morning. How about we meet there, at 10 am?”

  Alex nodded again. She looked at the clock Ashe had on her wall. It was already late - 9 pm. She must have been out for a while. “Sounds good.”

  Suddenly, Ashe blushed. “Um… if you wanted, you could… stay here for the night.”

  “Oh. Oh!” Alex blushed too, when she realized what Ashe was suggesting. It was a tempting offer, and one her sex-crazed body was screaming at her to accept. But she couldn’t. It wouldn’t feel right. She had stuff she needed to process. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I think I need to be alone for a while.”

  “Right. Of course. Sorry.” Ashe was doing a bad job at hiding her disappointment. She looked so much like a sad puppy, it was making Alex smile.

  “But… after?” Alex offered, with a hopeful smile.

  Ashe looked up in surprise. A huge grin spread across her face. “After,” she repeated. “You go on home now. Like you said, you need to be alone. Just remember. 10 am tomorrow morning, Winter’s place. Don’t forget.”

  Alex met Ashe’s gaze. “I won’t.”

***

  The next morning, Alex was sprinting down the sidewalk towards Winter’s apartment as fast as her legs could carry her. She glanced at her phone. 11 am. She was late. She was so late. Alex cursed herself for how stupid and self-indulgent she’d been, and then blushed as she remembered it all. She’d gone home from Ashe’s place intending to get an early night’s sleep, but it hadn’t panned out. She’d had a lot to think about, of course, and more than a little anxiety to cope with. But that hadn’t been the real problem. No, the real problem had been that she’d been so incredibly horny. Once she was home and alone, it had gotten so much worse. It was like her body now needed sex almost as much as it needed air. The array of sex toys she seemed to have acquired only made things worse, as did all the unbelievably lewd memories she couldn’t stop thinking. But Alex had resisted. Touching herself would have felt like giving in. So she’d fallen asleep tortuously slowly, feeling hot and bothered and denied, having to repeatedly stop herself unconsciously rubbing her sheets between her legs.

  When she woke up in the morning, she’d already slept through the alarm she’d set for herself. But that had been the least of her problems. Her body had been on fire. She felt like she had a fever. The only thing could she think about was sex. The urge had been so overpowering it had made her feel dumb and giggly again. She’d tried to force herself out of bed, but her legs had been like jelly. In the end, she’d accepted she needed to cave. One orgasm, she’d decided. Surely that was all it would take, to take the edge off?

  Ten orgasms later, Alex was left relaxed, feeling totally amazing and blissed-out, and only just clear-headed enough away to pull her hand away from her pussy. At that point it had already been after 10, but even that hadn’t been enough to focus her mind. She’d been determined to get dressed and go to meet Ashe as quickly as possible, but she’d ended up getting side-tracked when she’d taken a look in her closer and discovered that she didn’t have any of her old clothes left, at least not that she could find. All she had were work-out clothes and party clothes, all of them incredibly pink and incredibly revealing. She’d starting trying things on in the hope they she could craft a less slutty-looking outfit, but the only thing she managed to achieve was turning herself on at the sight of herself in the mirror -  a sexy, blonde, athletic bimbo, with clothes to match. She hated thinking that way, but the heat in her body proved irresistible, and that led to another round of shameful yet intense masturbation. By the time she made it out the house, in the least revealing outfit she could find, Alex was left doubting her own ability to stand up to Winter and wishing she’d had the forethought to put Ashe’s number in her phone when the punk girl had given it to her so many weeks before.

  Finally, when she was over an hour late, Alex arrived at the front door of Winter’s place. Just being there set her nerves on edge. She could remember the last time she was here, when Winter had taken her name away. There was no sign of Ashe. Maybe she’d given up when Alex hadn’t arrived, Alex thought. Maybe she ought to go to Ashe’s place and see if she could find her. But on the other hand, maybe Ashe was already in there. Maybe Ashe needed help. Fighting her fear, Alex walked up to the front door and pressed her ear against it. Inside, all was quiet. What was she supposed to do now? Knock? That seemed absurd. When she rested her weight on the door a little bit, though, it started to swing open. It was already unlocked. What did that mean?

  Alex opened the door, and took a couple of steps inside. There was no sign of anyone, or of any struggle having taken place. As quietly as she could, Alex closed the door behind her, and turned back around to begin looking for Ashe.

  “Hello, Lexi.”

  The unmistakable voice had Alex shaking with fear. It was Winter. She wheeled around to see the goth girl standing at the far end of the corridor. She was dressed as immaculately as always, in a pretty black dress with corset detailing, with her raven-black hair framing her pale face and black-painted lips. An unnerving smile was on her face.

  “That’s not my name,” Alex retorted, keeping her voice as even as she could.

  “We’ll see,” Winter said, smirking. “Is there something I can do for you?”

  Alex balled her hands into fists. “I’ve come to… to stop you!”

  “Stop me?” Winter feigned puzzlement. “That’s funny, I seem so remember someone telling me something similar earlier this morning. She was standing exactly where you are now, too.”

  “Ashe?” The pit of dread on Alex’s stomach was getting worse and worse. “What have you done to her?”

  “Done to her? Why, Lexi, I’m offended! I assure you, she’s quite alright. In fact, you could say she’s never been better.” Winter’s sadistic grin stretched from ear to ear. “In fact, why don’t you see for yourself?”

  Winter snapped her fingers. For a second or two, nothing happened. Then, another person appeared in the corridor, walking in a door next to where Winter was standing. It was Ashe! At first, Alex rejoiced at the sight of her. But then, she realized that something was wrong. Very wrong. Ashe wasn’t her usual self. She was walking like a zombie, her movements all slow, heavy, and uncoordinated. There was none of her usual spark and personality in her face, only a big, absent, silly grin that Alex recognized all too well. Worst of all, her eyes were huge, unfocused, and utterly, utterly blank. There could be no doubt about it. Ashe had been hypnotized.

  Winter rubbed her hands together gleefully. “This is going to be so much fun.”