The sun poured through the window sills and drifted into Holly’s eyes. It was still 15 minutes before she had to wake up and get ready for the day, but an early start was no problem for her. Especially when it was with waking up naturally through the soft glow of the sun rays as opposed to a blaring alarm that’d blast her ears off.

Today was the first day — her first day at Conform, Inc. Holly was going to just be one of the many administrative assistant type workers who did monotonous data entry in the systems, but it was a lucrative job that paid well and would help her support her lifestyle. Living in a fairly sizable one bedroom apartment was very nice for her, but it was also extremely expensive as she lived in the dead center of a big city.

At least she didn’t have some massive impulse spending habit to make her life worse. She never got morning coffee or anything, and she probably would only buy three to five nice trinkets throughout the year. Needless to say, though, she’d be unable to otherwise, considering her rent was near two thousand dollars a month.

But now she’d be comfortable! The job paid really well — in fact, almost twice of her annual rent and bills, which definitely wasn’t nothing. Maybe she’d be able to take that vacation to the ocean she so looked forward to every year, only to say “not this year, not in the budget...” And she was pretty good at boring data entry, too. So it was a win-win — she’d help a really cool big company meet their goals, and she’d get to live without the dreaded fear of going under because of finances.

She got up, going over to the bathroom and doing her makeup. She’d usually opt for blues and purples for lipstick, but she figured she should make a reasonable first impression and went for the dark red. At least she could use deep purple eyeshadow to compliment it. Doing makeup was a simple part of Holly’s routine, but it was the part of her day she found most joy in. She was able to use just a bit of creativity to let her beauty flourish. Holly wasn’t particularly an artistic person, but she did have her creative ideas.

Oooh, Holly thought to herself as she put on her mascara. Maybe I can buy that new eyeshadow set with my first paycheck... Her heart fluttered a bit at the thought as she finalized her look, put on her fancy suit, purple tie, and work slacks, gathered her things in her briefcase and left for the train — a simple 5 minute walk away.

As Holly walked down the street, she saw only a few other people wandering around — it was still barely past 6am, after all. She also heard the sound of birds singing and calling out to potential mates on the phone lines. It was a nice sound — Holly opted to keep her headphones out so she could listen to it.

She took in a breath of fresh air as she waited for the train on the platform. The cool, crisp Fall air sank into her body, rejuvenating her. This was her favorite time of the year.

And now it was a fresh new beginning for her.

* * *

The way the glass doors in front of her new workplace slid open at the entrance was so elegant. It was extremely robotic, no doubt, having done the same motion dozens — if not hundreds — of times that morning. Holly slid into the building, clutching her briefcase and readjusting her tie. She stared at herself through the glass as she walked through. She looked good, confident. Like those go-getters she would see in the movies.

Holly looked at the email for her orientation. She was to go straight to her work desk on the fifth floor. She was given a small cubicle, where she would also be back to back with another worker. (Holly was specifically told in the email to keep socializing to an absolute minimum while she was on the job, but when Holly read that, she just kind of shrugged and brushed it off.)

Going into the massive elevator, Holly looked at the other Conform Inc. workers entering with her. Despite only wearing a bright purple tie and dull lilac work slacks, she was definitely the most colorful out of any of her new coworkers. Everyone else was essentially wearing the same outfit — black suit jacket and slacks, white business shirt, and a gray tie. She couldn’t succumb to being that boring, right?

Come to think of it, there wasn’t much color in the office in general. There was a tall green plant, and dull blue walls in the lobby, but other than that everything was black, white, or boring shades of gray.

Holly was a colorful person, but she was willing to put that aside for now to be able to work for this company. As long as they wouldn’t take all of her color away.

Finally, she made it to the fifth floor, where a few other workers got off. If Holly managed to make eye contact with them, she would pass them a friendly smile. The smile these workers gave in return was curt and hesitant, as if they were scared to be seen smiling... or maybe they just didn’t know what kind of look to give to this dopey, smiley newbie.

It was fairly difficult to find her desk, considering the desks in this massive labyrinth looked almost the exact same as one another. Each desk only had one or two trinkets on it. Holly remembered being told that she would be allowed to have up to two small items on her desk, but no more and no bigger than three inches. (What a weird rule, Holly thought.)

Holly looked for the one empty cubicle, and soon enough found one with a dimmed computer and a tidy top. The plaque on the wall of the cubicle said “Holly M., Administrative Assistant”, so it must have been her cubicle. Before she was able to claim her desk as her own, she heard the voice of the person who hired her last week.

“Hello, Holly,” Holly’s supervisor, Tabitha, greeted her as the new employee whipped around.

Tabitha was a tall, slender woman with hair that greyed with her age; Holly wondered if she was in her late 40s or early 50s. Either way, she looked decent for her age, though the wrinkles on her face were showing. Of course, she looked just the same as every other employee in terms of dress, though there was a gold chain connecting a golden pocket watch in her pocket to the hem of her suit jacket.

Tabitha wasn’t smiling, per se, but her face emanated its own kind of warmth (at least from what Holly’s eyes could see.) “Good job being on time today.”

“Thank you!” Holly smiled, bouncing a little. Tabitha’s eyebrow twitched as she watched this. “Thank you so much for hiring me. I’m really excited to get started!”

“I can tell,” Tabitha said with her flat affect. Holly stopped bouncing, finally getting the hint that maybe this wasn’t the right environment for her to show her excessive amount of energy. “Why don’t you put your stuff down and come into my office? So we can get your new hire paperwork squared away.”

“Sounds g— I mean, yes, of course.” Holly quickly realized that in order to fit in more, she was going to have to curb her enthusiasm just a bit, especially if she wanted her boss to really respect her.

Holly stuffed her bag away in the cubicle — judging by how focused everyone was on their work, Holly wasn’t particularly worried about people stealing her stuff or looking through whatever files she had with her. Tabitha walked Holly through the cubicles, and all Holly could see was a sea of people’s eyes glued to their computers. Holly was overall an optimistic person, so she wanted to label their focus as devotion to the work rather than soul-draining despair. She wasn’t given too much time to think about it though, as Tabitha was a quick walker and wasn’t giving Holly any time to smell the roses.

Finally making it to Tabitha’s office, Holly took a seat in the almost comfortable chair across from Tabitha’s desk. Being a fidgeter, Holly decided to twiddle her thumbs while Tabitha began speaking to her.

“Did you find our office okay?” Tabitha asked. It was clear she was trying to make simple light conversation — the building for Conform Inc. stuck out like a sore thumb, even in the middle of the city.

“Yeah! The trains were a bit rough today, but they were cooperative at least.” Holly was nervous, but she didn’t drop the massive smile on her face.

“I see,” Tabitha hummed in understanding. “And I see you completed all the paperwork I sent you.” It was a sudden change of topic, but Tabitha added, “did you see the dress code information I sent you?”

“Ah... hm. Um, I don’t think so?” Holly admitted, her smile turning from friendly to panicked.

“Hm. Not a problem. Just know employees are only allowed to wear one colored garment per outfit. Do you understand?”

Holly deflated. It was only her first day and she was already in trouble?

“Yeah, sorry,” Holly admitted remorsefully. “I’ll... reread the dress code when I get home.”

Tabitha nodded, not saying anything else. Holly could tell that Tabitha was not easily affected emotionally — which was both good and bad for a manager, probably. Holly felt a tinge of nervousness, of apprehension, but decided to brush it off. Surely the two of them would have better interactions going forward, right? It would all be Holly messing up on her first day, surely enough...?

“So, as I’m sure you’re aware, we take on a ton of new employees each month... being a company as big as ours,” Tabitha explained. Of course, that was self-explanatory, being the massive corporation that Conform Inc. was. The office in the city Holly was in was one thing, but there were probably dozens more like it — across the country, and across the world probably.

“Yes,” Holly nodded. Her entire body was tense with anxiety.

“So, obviously, I can’t go through the same old song and dance every day, multiple times. So we’ve prepared a small video for new employees. I’m going to take care of some things while you watch it — understood?” Tabitha spoke as she moved her massive computer monitor towards Holly. The screen was so large that it almost obscured Holly’s entire vision.

“Okay!”

Tabitha smirked, and Holly could almost read her mind — ‘good to see someone so enthusiastic about watching a training video.’ While clicking a few buttons, Tabitha began to load up the video and turn up the volume; she didn’t turn it up to a painfully loud setting, but it was loud enough to drown out the rest of the noise in the building, at least whatever Holly could hear.

“I’ll leave you for the next... half hour? Hour? To watch it. Be sure not to get distracted,” Tabitha ordered. Before Holly could ask any questions or get any clarification, Tabitha was out the door, leaving Holly to do nothing but watch the video that was now playing in front of her.

She expected a video showing employees working, or talking about why they loved working at Conform Inc., or at the very least just a basic informational video about her responsibilities and duties at the company. Instead, Holly was met with a black and white spiral with specks of light blue around it, swirling in the video rhythmically. It drew Holly closer and closer into the screen, and as weird as it was so far... Holly couldn’t look away. She was so curious.

She wasn’t being brainwashed, at the very least... was she? At least, that’s what Holly tried to think as she heard a voice speaking. The voice was definitely a woman’s, and it was a calm, soothing voice. Just hearing it almost put Holly straight to sleep.

“Greetings, and welcome to your first day at Conform Inc. I’m sure you have many questions about your responsibilities here at the company. There is no doubt that you will be a valuable, loyal employee to us, and we are very excited to bring you on board.”

Okay... this started out normal enough, Holly thought, still fidgeting with her fingers nervously as she continued to watch.

“Before we go into your duties here, we want to take some time to get you into the right headspace to perform optimally here. You can start by closing your eyes on the even numbers I count, and opening them on the odd numbers. I’m just going to take you into a deep place where things feel okay.”

Now it was weird... but as much as Holly wanted to resist, a part of her wanted to play along. She wanted to be a good employee, right? And that involved doing as this mysterious relaxing voice said.

The voice counted at 10. Holly closed her eyes, just as instructed. It talked her into a deep, dark place just as it promised; and then it counted the number nine, and Holly reluctantly opened her eyes. The countdown began to slow down to eight and seven, and with each count of two, Holly was more and more dreary at the thought of opening her eyes. It was almost like she wanted to lie down and take a nice, long nap... that was okay, wasn’t it? Wasn’t that what the voice was telling her to do? All she had to do right now was relax, and let the voice talk her into a soothing trance...

A stray thought crossed Holly’s mind. What a strange training. If she was more conscious, Holly would begin to wonder if this was actually something that was allowed; after all, seemingly hypnotizing employees didn’t seem like something that would be legal. Or was it? Holly knew nothing of these things, and she sure as hell was not a lawyer. Nor was she someone super bent on her new employers following the rules.

Not to mention... she was so relaxed. And being someone who was so nervous all the time, being relaxed wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Heck, even her fidgeting stopped somewhere around the number three or four. Holly began to rest her head on the table. There was almost a full minute between three and two, but Holly was almost deep in trance.

“You can keep your eyes closed, if you want,” the voice cooed. “Just make sure to follow my lead... and drop when I say one.”

“Mm,” Holly hummed, as if to agree with someone who wasn’t even standing in her physical presence. She didn’t particularly know what ‘dropping’ or ‘trance’ meant to her, but she was willing to find out if it’d mean being as relaxed and calm as she was now.

“Two...” the voice spoke. Holly could feel her consciousness slipping, and she was almost knocked unconscious — hanging by a thin thread when the voice said, “one... and all the way down.”

Now Holly was nice and tranced. And now the fun part could begin. The part where Holly’s mind could be toyed with and molded, just a bit. All for the convenience of her new employers.

* * *

Holly only realized she had fallen into a deep sleep when she felt a tender hand on her shoulder. Jolting awake, Holly whipped around to see Tabitha standing there. Her face had an unaffected look as Holly had already gotten to know, but Holly’s bigger concern was that Tabitha had caught her sleeping. During what was supposed to be an important training video. Ah jeez, Holly thought, she was sure to get fired now.

Holly immediately broke into a steam of apologies. “Oh my gosh, ah, oh wow, I’m... I’m so sorry, I had no idea I was going to fall asleep! I’ll immediately watch it again, I’ll watch it when I’m home too, gosh I’m just so sorry... what a dumb, stupid thing to do of me! I must have not gotten enough sleep... oh my gosh. I’m so sorry, boss, I—“

“Holly. Please. Don’t worry.”

The way Tabitha chuckled while saying that threw Holly off just a little; why was Tabitha so calm and accepting about the fact Holly straight up slept through a training video? Why, if she did that at any other job, she’d certainly get booted on the spot.

“Don’t... worry? Am... am I getting fired?” Holly nervously asked, standing up and twiddling her thumbs again.

“Of course not. If we fired everyone who fell asleep during that video, then we’d have almost no employees. It’s quite a boring video, I know.”

Holly stammered a bit, trying to figure out the right words. “I wouldn’t really say it’s boring... but... I dunno. I don’t know why I fell asleep.”

Tabitha waved her hand dismissively, probably sick of hearing Holly’s excuses. “I do not mind. I’m sure you retained some of the information from that video. I have faith you’re a smart and obedient girl, Holly.”

Holly blushed. For some reason, being complimented by Tabitha filled her heart with warmth. Being called smart was nice, especially as Holly was perpetually a ditz to say the least... but being called obedient was something else. Why did it feel so good? Why did it raise some kind of heat in Holly...? For some reason, Holly wanted to be called obedient again. She almost wanted to ask Tabitha to call her that again... just one more time...

No! Holly snapped herself out of it. What in the world was she even thinking? Being called obedient... it didn’t feel good to her, did it? Those thoughts were embarrassing, immoral. Holly thought to herself, it’d do me well to get rid of those thoughts from my brain for good!

Shaking her head as if to physically expunge thoughts of obedience being pleasure from her head, Holly straightened up and looked back at Tabitha. “Right... thank you. I’m glad you think so.” That wasn’t a lie, at the very least.

Tabitha nodded. There was a certain glint in her eyes, almost like... she knew. Almost like she was purposefully pushing Holly’s buttons. Holly had a feeling in her gut that this was planned, but she shrugged it off when Holly said, “well, why don’t I personally give you an orientation of how to use our data entry software? I’m sure you’ll need it. We do use our own spreadsheet software, after all.”

Holly nodded, stammering out a “sure, that sounds good” and trying to get rid of the massive blush across her face.

* * *

Holly spent most of her day slaving away at the computer screen; not that it was particularly a problem. She was never a particularly focused or intent person, but for some reason, when she stared at the software, her entire mind focused on mindlessly putting in numbers into each of the cells. It was a fairly easy software to use, but there was no getting around how tedious it was. Not to mention, how there was no way to make it faster.

If she was allowed to listen to music, Holly would be a bit happier. But there was a strict no phones, no headphones, no personal devices policy in place. For the most part, Holly could see that everyone abided by it; however, she saw one person on their smart phone, only to suddenly shift their attention back to the computer in a strange and hypnotic way.

So, Holly’s thoughts drifted. Come to think of it, she never even greeted her cubicle mate. Holly knew her name — Tia — but she didn’t know anything else about her. In fact, Tia never even made eye contact with her, as if Holly’s entrance into the suite was just an every day happening.

Holly whipped around, ready to nervously greet her new coworker. Not noticing her, Tia seemed pretty startled by Holly’s sudden introduction.

“Hey! Not sure if I introduced myself to you yet,” Holly started with the same awkward smile on her face.

Tia barely acknowledged her, but she did turn her head. “Can I help you with something?” She asked. It sounded like a genuine offer, though her voice was tinged with a want to not be bothered.

“Oh, no, I just... wanted to say hi. Y’know, since you’ll be seeing a lot of me! When we’re, uh, not staring at our computers.” Holly laughed off the awkwardness, or at least she tried; unfortunately for her, Tia didn’t even return it with a smile.

“I see,” Tia said. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. I tend to be pretty focused, so... please, I ask that you stick to your work. At least until I have a break.”

“You got it!” That was by far not the answer that Holly wanted to hear, but she masked her serious disappointment and embarrassment behind another one of her forced smiles. “Talk to you soon, coworker!”

Tia didn’t respond, understandably; she just immediately went back to her work. An air of awkwardness hung above the two, and Holly really wished from the bottom of her heart that she could blast music into her ears and try to forget about that horrendous interaction she just had. Instead, Holly forced those thoughts out of her mind and stared into her computer as if it sucked her in deeper and deeper.

Holly’s break came and went, but she didn’t bother saying hi to Tia again. She didn’t want to annoy her... more than she already had, that was. Instead, Holly went to the empty break room, grabbed a muffin and chowed it down in her short 10 minute break.

Holly briefly thought, was having a break that short in an 8 hour day moral? Was it legal, even? Holly’s first day hadn’t gone nearly as smoothly as Holly had wanted, but at least it hadn’t gone badly. Holly was a naturally social person, though, and not being able to talk to a person less than six feet away from her hurt.

The day passed; it was probably one of the slowest days Holly had ever had in her professional life... no, her entire life. The minutes felt like years, since all Holly was doing was manually typing numbers into a slow, slow computer. It was almost no wonder Holly fell asleep during the training video.

Just as Holly was packing up, she got a notification on the corner of her computer. It was from Tabitha, and it said in a very brief and curt message — “Please meet me in my office before you go.”

Great. More anxiety; just what Holly needed. Regardless, there was no getting around it or ignoring the message. The last thing Holly needed was to frustrate her superior even more. After packing her briefcase back up, Holly walked over to Tabitha’s office, making her way through the labyrinth of cubicles until she found the room she was in earlier.

Holly knocked on the door. “Come in,” Tabitha ordered, and Holly walked in.

“Hello,” Holly gulped as she spoke. “Did you want to talk to me?”

“Yes,” Tabitha said with a serious expression on her face. “I was wondering if you read the socialization policy I sent you during your on boarding.”

“...No, I’m sorry.” Holly deflated. Had she really missed another document she was supposed to read? “I must not have seen it either...”

“Please read it when you get home,” Tabitha requested. “It’s very important that employees don’t distract one another during work.”

Holly nearly was able to stop herself from asking, but she had to know... “Did Tia report me for talking to her?” She asked with a long moment of hesitation. The look of concern — and slight irritation — on her face was apparent.

“No,” Tabitha responded, much to Holly’s surprise. It didn’t seem like she was lying, either.

What Tabitha said next was a lot more creepy, and definitely threw Holly off a lot more.

“But we have our ways of knowing.”

“You do?” Holly asked, her eyes slightly widened from that statement. Were they stalking her, too?

“Yes,” Tabitha said, quickly ushering Holly out of her office when she added, “that will be all. I look forward to your work tomorrow, Holly.”

Holly murmured a “yeah, me too.” A blatant lie. She walked out of the office, slightly unsure if she was going to come back.

Except, of course she was. Of course they weren’t stalking her — who in their right mind would do that? She had to keep up her usual optimism and good will; after all, it was all she had.

* * *

Holly hopped on the train to work the next day. The enthusiasm she had from the day before had completely weaned off, after how awful her first day was. It seemed her entire day was marked by making mistakes, finding out she didn’t read employee manuals, falling asleep during trainings, and trying to make friends with someone who seemed to hate her from the start.

For some reason, Holly couldn’t bring herself to believe that Tia had ratted her out. When Tabitha said she didn’t, Holly didn’t see any sense that Tabitha was covering for her. Or maybe Holly was just too optimistic; after all, she’d often have instances where her coworkers were obviously conspiring against her and Holly would just willingly look the other way. Was this any different, Holly wondered?

It was creepy, in a way, how much Conform Inc. seemed to be on her tail. There was no real sense of freedom in her job, between the ten minute lunch break in her eight hour day, Tabitha somehow knowing she was socializing on the job with Tia, and... that video. Holly couldn’t remember the video by any means — obviously, because she was asleep — but for some reason, she felt changed after ‘watching’ it.

And there was how Tabitha called her obedient... why did it still feel so good? Why did it make Holly all jumpy and giddy inside whenever she’d think about it?

Holly skipped having breakfast at home and instead just made a quick bagel with cream cheese, stuffing it down on the train over to her workplace. She knew that having some proteins or even vegetables would get her more excited and ready to take on the day, but who would be in the mood to force themself to eat broccoli or whatever after yesterday? Not Holly, that’s for sure.

Though, Holly was fully intending to apologize to Tia for bothering her, and she brought some sort of... peace offering. She would leave it on her desk, apologize in five words or less, and then leave Tia alone forever and ever and ever.

Was it a good idea? Holly didn’t know; every time she thought she had a good idea, it ended up not being one. But, oh well... time for another day, Holly thought as the train pulled into the station.

* * *

Holly walked up to her desk; she was fully intending to make her apology quick and easy, but still meaningful. She of course only stuck to one color in her outfit today — a simple navy blue tie. That was it. Everything else was boring shades of gray. If she was going to be fully honest... she hated it.

As she walked to her desk, Holly saw the same view as always — dozens of heads staring at their computers. Same people as always, though Holly wasn’t expecting to get to know any of them. Notably, the people were of all different genders and whatnot, but there were significantly more women in the office. At least there was that.

She made it to her desk. Tia, as expected, did not acknowledge her. Holly paused — did she really want to do this? She didn’t want to get in trouble again... but apologizing was the correct thing to do, right?

Holly held her breath, and put a small bag containing a homemade blueberry muffin in it. Tia stopped typing, and though Holly wasn’t able to see her face, Holly could sense the hostility coming from Tia.

“Hey,” Holly started. “Sorry for bothering you yesterday.”

Shit. That was six words. Holly wanted to tack on a ‘I won’t do it anymore’, but that was probably unwarranted and ironic considering she was doing so right at that moment. Holly didn’t stand around for much longer, going over to her cubicle desk and beginning to turn on the machine. To her knowledge, Tia didn’t even pick up the bag or acknowledge it in any way. At the very least, Holly did her part, so it was probably okay to go back to the computer and get sucked into a dissociative state full of numbers and spreadsheet cells.

It was much more exhausting that day than it was the day before, but just staring at the computer screen, and doing her job... at least it didn’t feel bad. At least she was being obedient.

* * *

Holly felt a rush of emotions when she saw another notification pop up in the corner of her screen, from Tabitha once again.

“Please see me in my office, immediately.”

She wasn’t entirely sure what to feel — betrayed, since it was almost obvious that Tia ratted her out. Except... did she really? Were there actually surveillance cameras everywhere? Holly was beginning to not put it past them; and instead of feeling shame and guilt and anxiety, she began to feel angry. Angry that she was being stalked, angry that she wasn’t even to give simple pleasantries to her workmates! Angry that she kept messing up...

But, she had to go talk to Tabitha. So she gave a hefty, long sigh and wandered into the office. Holly, this time, didn’t bother hiding the crestfallen look on her face, even when met with Tabitha’s serious expression.

“Did you want me?” Holly asked.

“Please sit down,” Tabitha said. It was more of an order than a request, but Holly followed so anyways.

“I see you didn’t give a better read to the policy about socializing in the office.”

“I did,” Holly reaffirmed, ready to asset herself just a bit more. “I just didn’t think that... a simple apology was an issue.”

“We don’t allow any socializing during work hours,” Tabitha said with quite a bit more conviction in her voice. “But I don’t think you’re understanding this very important policy. Do you know why it’s so important, Holly?”

“...because it distracts people from work?”

“More than that. They’re distracted while socializing, and then it takes approximately 36 minutes for them to get back on track, at average. Do you know how much productivity we lose during that time?” Before Holly could respond, Tabitha snarled out, “about 7.6% efficiency.”

Holly wanted to quip back, ‘that’s all?’ In fact, she almost certainly would have done so if something didn’t stop her. Holly opened her mouth to rebel. But no words came. Even as her vocal chords tried to work, she couldn’t seem to word out that simple phrase of fight.

She couldn’t fight back! Why?

“I see you’re beginning to understand,” Tabitha nodded towards Holly, a small smirk crawling across her face. “Here at Conform Inc., we use a variety of techniques meant to quell rebellion or distractions. We like to call these techniques post-hypnotic conditioning. Since we’ve adopted these methods, our efficiency has over doubled — almost tripled. Your training video yesterday was... just a taste of that. Just erasing any sort of fight you might have in you.”

Holly gaped — she was nearly speechless. Tabitha was straight up admitting to... playing with her mind. Toying with it — no, molding it to be a tool of productivity for the company.

She managed to stammer out one word, almost a clarifying question. “Brainwashing.”

Tabitha hummed, almost in agreement. “Some may call it that. I think brainwashing is too harsh of a word. After all, it doesn’t hurt the employee... all it does it just make them a bit more willing to help us out. You know... to devote your life to us.”

If Holly wasn’t already ready to walk straight out before, she was now. “I quit,” Holly said, beginning to stand up and gather her things.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s an option for you,” Tabitha’s smirk widened as she spoke, pressing a button under her desk. Much to Holly’s chagrin, parts of the chair unhinged and clasps shot out to tie around Holly’s wrists and ankles. Before she could fight back (that was, if she even still have the ability to), Holly was strapped down to the chair. Immobilized.

“W-what are you doing?!” Holly demanded, panic rushing through her voice. “Please, don’t do this!”

Tabitha almost ignored Holly’s pleas, going around her desk and shifting her computer screen to now face Holly. Holly stared at it, not being able to look anywhere else as Tabitha turned on a giant spiral once again. A similar spiral to the last one, but a lot darker with shades of red. Strangely enough... colors of corruption.

“Please, don’t do this! I’ll quit, I’ll leave you alone! I’ll—“ Holly was cut off when Tabitha silenced her by shoving two fingers into Holly’s mouth, muffling her cries.

“Don’t worry about resisting. Just give your thoughts to me and stare at the spiral. This won’t physically hurt you, at the very least.” Tabitha’s voice was warm and soft — hypnotic. Exactly what Holly did not need. Her voice, despite being so soothing, was not comforting in the very slightest — but the more Holly would struggle, the deeper Tabitha’s fingers would go into her mouth, stifling her movements too.

Oddly enough, Holly felt the urge to suck... to lick and suck on Tabitha’s fingers. And she wasn’t able to help herself, so she did just that.

“Good, obedient girl,” Tabitha cooed once again. Holly nearly melted once again at being called obedient. “It feels good to obey, doesn’t it? It feels good to obey, and it feels good for me to acknowledge how obedient you are. You’ll make quite a good drone... going into drone space every time I command you to.”

“Mmf, mmmmf!” Holly struggled for a moment. She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to be a drone. She wanted to beg, once again, for Tabitha to let Holly go.

But maybe it was okay to be a drone? Holly’s thoughts were interrupted when Tabitha’s other hand slid down Holly’s torso, going under her belt and pants and playing with her cunt through her underwear. Holly, much to her horror and shock, was slightly wet — she was aroused by this. Aroused by being brainwashed, aroused by being obedient... and aroused by losing more and more of herself.

Tabitha began circling on her clit, going in larger and larger circles as Holly’s fight drifted further away. Her cries of protest became cries of pleasure, and she began melting into the touch. The sense of shame she felt was from how easy she was going into this. How deep down... she wanted to be a drone.

“Let’s see... you need a number,” Tabitha mused. “How about Drone #4097? Does that sound like a good number?”

Holly muffled out a noise — not one of approval or disapproval. She wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but she did know her mind was slipping further and further away.

“Very well, seems you agree,” Tabitha said with a dark chuckle to her voice. “Drone #4097, please drop for me.”

The drone complied — once again, much to her horror.

“And when you wake up... you’ll find yourself much, much more compliant with our policies. Much more willing to serve, and obey... doesn’t that sound great?”

Holly — Drone #4097 — nodded. That did sound nice.