Ah, unintended consequences. I expect you hypnokinksters probably have a lot more experience with that kind of thing than me! To be clear, I don’t mean when you give someone a trigger and it doesn’t play out as you’d intended, because human brains are weird and subjects can interpret things differently from the hypnotist. (Although, that is fun.) No, I’m talking about when a suggestion plays out pretty much exactly as the hypnotist planned - but with an added wrinkle no-one anticipated. Sometimes this can be frustrating, sometimes it’s hilarious, and sometimes it’s an added layer of sexy. And, of course, sometimes it’s all of the above. (Again, I realise I may be preaching to the choir here.)

Case in point: a couple of days after the start of AJ’s brain-cation, I could be found at home. At my apartment, not my partners’ - I’d just finished a long shift and wanted a shower and a change of clothes. That was pretty much the only reason I ever went home any more. Work had been boring as well as long, and I’d occupied my mind with thoughts of what Richard had been doing with Danielle in the meantime. That was the day they went shopping and bought her new straightjacket, and he sent me a photo of her trying it on, giving my imagination plenty to work with.

So I was guilty of being Horny At Work that afternoon. And in the car on the way home, too. So much so that when I got back to my apartment, I decided I couldn’t wait until I was back in the company of my mesmeric boyfriend and my brainwashed girlfriend - I needed to get off, right then and there. I reasoned that I’d then build up my arousal again throughout the evening as Richard and I played with Dani, rather than being too horny to think straight right from the start. I don’t know if that rationalisation makes any sense, but it was good enough for me at the time!

Kicking off my heels and pulling down my tights and grey skirt, I unbuttoned my shirt with one hand, the other already inside the black panties I wore (Alyssa’s, given to me by Dani) as I strode to my bed. Flinging myself on top of the duvet, I lay back and rubbed my clit vigorously, shrugging my shirt off as I did so and leaving it lying beneath me, getting increasingly crumpled and twisted as I bucked and writhed. I let my brain fill with images of Danielle submitting, my lover’s playful defiance transformed into cheerful obedience as I used her as my footstool... as she stood watching while Richard and I fucked on the couch, fingering herself as furiously as I was right now... as she kissed her way up my frozen leg... And then there was my idea of what the real Alyssa was experiencing, floating naked and unconscious in a dark void within the collar, gently squirming in her sleep, oblivious to what was happening to her physical form...

It didn’t take me long to reach the edge, the mental stimulation at least as potent as the physical, if not more. My back was flat against the duvet (and my shirt), my mouth wide open and my eyes tightly closed. My legs were spread apart and bent at the knees, pointing up into the air, my feet pressing down into the soft bedclothes, my fingertip spiralling around my clit faster and faster...

And then the trigger took effect. You know, the trigger I asked for - practically begged for - two days earlier, after deciding normal orgasms simply weren’t good enough any more. I’d had a taste of something better, and I wanted more - and Richard was happy to oblige me.

The stiffness spread through my body almost instantly - it took less than a second for the paralysing wave to permeate every inch of me, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Including, obviously, the hand between my legs, my middle finger pausing right on my button.

I lay paralysed, reduced to a mere sex toy once again, my lustful grunts and moans cut off, leaving my heavy breathing through the wide O of my mouth as the only sound in my home. My motionless body pulsated, on the brink of orgasm, silently crying out for release... but I couldn’t take myself any further. I couldn’t continue masturbating now that I couldn’t move - and I couldn’t get where I needed to go with just my erotic mental images, because my mind was frozen as well. I was helpless, completely unable to make myself cum, but that helplessness held my arousal close to its peak, keeping me frozen, caught between a rock and a horny place.

I remained there, blank and static, until my lust eased off just enough for me to unfreeze, my limbs slumping slightly, thoughts starting to wade back into my head through the mire of mindlessness. When I realised what had just happened, and why, I cried out with frustration and arousal, rubbed myself even faster and harder than before - and froze again within seconds.

The second time I unfroze, I managed to muster the willpower to drag my hand away from my cunt, and lay in an exhausted, sweaty heap for a couple of minutes, still achingly horny and sobbing over my thwarted freezegasm. A glance at my clock revealed that what I’d intended to be quick stress relief had taken more than half an hour, most of which I’d spent not as Jelly but as Doll. Richard and Danielle would soon be wondering where I was (if she was capable of wondering about such things, anyway). Groaning, I heaved myself off my bed and went to have my shower.

It was while I was in there that I realised - by getting this suggestion, I’d made it so I couldn’t cum on my own any more. In order to continue the necessary stimulation when I was frozen, I needed someone else to be there. I’d effectively given control of my orgasms to Richard and Alyssa - I’d only get to cum when, if, they used me as their fucktoy.

Thanks to this epiphany, I froze for a third time in the shower.

***

“OK, that does 100% sound like something I would do,” Richard cackled, “but I swear, I didn’t plan that.” He took a step towards me, planting his hands on my waist and looking me in the eyes, smirking maliciously. “Definitely gonna take advantage of it, though.”

I smiled coyly. “Is there any point pretending I don’t want you to?”

“I mean, the breathless excitement when you were describing it to me was a bit of a giveaway!”

One of his hands slid up, his knuckles brushing over the silky material of my dark blue jumpsuit, until his fingers found the zip sitting over my chest. He slowly pulled it down, moving it from just above my breasts to just below them. Relinquishing the zip, he slipped his hand under the folds of my outfit and delicately caressed the very edge of my tit. I shuddered and leaned closer, leaned into the stroke, my eyes fixed on his, feeling captured by his gaze, held in place by it even without being hypnotised by it. (At least, I didn’t think I was being hypnotised.) Trapping my nipple between two fingers, he gave it a gentle tug, and I let out a whimper...

“Seriously?” came a familiar voice, incredulous and amused. “You’re so horny you can’t wait two minutes for me to be ready?”

I giggled. That’s right, folks - Alyssa Johnson was back. (Cue cheers throughout the land!) It was two days after she’d been restored to her right mind - or, her right mind had been restored to her - and the last day of her week off from work. We’d given her two days to recover from the brain-cation, but as it turned out she’d only needed one, insisting she was fully functional again and ready to participate in my second ‘full’ hypnosis session that afternoon. (Or, if she still was feeling a little out of sorts, she was hiding it out of eagerness to see me get mindfucked again.)

Richard barked with laughter. “Oh c’mon, AJ, it’s been at least twenty.”

I was about to back him up, but the words died in my throat as he turned, moving out of my sightline, and I got a proper look at her, standing in the doorway. And Jesus fucking Christ on a bike, she looked sexy. She wore a fishnet top over a black bra patterned with white outlines of moons and stars, and black jeans with a belt decorated with large, gold-coloured buttons. Her makeup and eyeshadow was more dramatic than usual, verging on the glamorous - she didn’t tend to go to such lengths when at home. I didn’t know if she’d dressed this way to make herself look and feel powerful, to contrast how meek and subservient Danielle was, but if so, it was working. She looked unstoppable, like a speeding train in the form of a gorgeous woman, if you can imagine such a thing. One glance from her almost knocked me flat.

Richard was unfazed, perhaps because he planned to rob her of whatever delusions of power she possessed. (That’s not to say the outfit didn’t have an effect on him - the obvious tent in the front of his shorts was a dead giveaway.) He strolled over to AJ, holding out an arm to embrace her - but she ducked nimbly out of the way and scurried over to me, flinging her arms around me as I sniggered. He pouted. “That was rude!”

She stuck out her tongue at him. “You kicked me out of my own brain for four days, I’m not hugging you. Jelly’s my favourite now.” I burst out laughing, pulling her closer - and taking the opportunity to caress her stomach and fondle her tits through the web of netting.

He tutted and shook his head, smiling exasperatedly. “You really are back to your old self already, aren’t you? Well, if that’s how we’re playing it tonight, I guess I’d better break you all over again.” He made a show of stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles, as if warming up for a fight, a malicious gleam in his eyes.

“Oh, if you must,” AJ sighed theatrically, warming the side of my face with her breath. As usual, she couldn’t quite stop the corners of her mouth twitching into an eager grin of anticipation.

“Ooh, are we doing breaking?” I blurted, grinning at Richard. “Can you do me, can you break me too? I volunteer for breaking!”

“That was the plan anyway, Jel,” he tittered as he approached us. Placing a hand on each of our backs, he started to gently manoeuvre us towards the couch. As he did so, Alyssa, possibly feeling remorseful for dodging his hug, snaked one arm around him and pulled him closer to us. PSA: it’s hard for three people to hug and walk at the same time. Eventually AJ and I collapsed untidily onto the sofa, shuddering with mirth, while Richard loomed over us.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said in a sing-song voice, reaching into his pocket.

I raised my eyebrow at Alyssa, who seemed to have no better idea of what was to come than I did. “Surprise, huh? Whose birthday is it?” I asked wryly.

He paused midway through drawing out whatever it was, smirking back at me. “Um, mine, I think.”

“In like a month,” AJ pointed out, snuggling closer to me and resting her head on my shoulder.

“And? I have two hypnotised girlfriends - every day is my birthday.” Chuckling, he finally produced the contents of his pocket - a thin silver-coloured chain, from which hung a gleaming sphere of clear crystal. He rested the bauble in the palm of one hand, the other threading the chain between its fingers.

“Ooh, pretty,” I sighed.

“I know, right? Got it from a charity shop a couple of weeks ago, I’ve just been waiting for the right time to use it...”

“Charity shop, huh?” Alyssa teased. (‘Charity shop’ is British for ‘thrift store’.) “Bet you really broke the bank. Must be so valuable...”

“Oh, it is! It’s made of a rare and precious substance they call ‘glass’.” Letting the crystal drop from his hand, he stepped forwards and dangled it in the air, just above our line of sight. “But as you know perfectly well, AJ, it doesn’t matter what I use to put you into trance, as long as you can fix your eyes on it and stare at it, and let yourself get lost in it...”

I turned my head slightly to the left to get a look at my girlfriend as her mocking smile slowly relaxed, her mouth gradually going slack. Her eyes moved from side to side, as Richard gently swung the pendant back and forth above her. I grinned, watching her helplessly follow the glass orb, her gaze and mind instantly captured as always.

“God, I love that,” I whispered, equal parts amused and aroused. “That works so easily on her, it’s amazing...”

“I know.” At the sound of Richard’s voice, I turned my head to look up at him again. He was staring down at Alyssa, beaming proudly. “She’s such a good subject, it’s wonderful to watch. Just as wonderful as I’m sure it is for her, to watch the pendant swing back and forth, and let it drain all her thoughts from her head...”

“I bet.” Without looking, I reached up with my right hand and groped her tits again. She let out a little contented sigh, and her head lolled just a little more onto my shoulder, so she was practically lying on it. Still, her eyes followed the pendant, transfixed - not that I could see her face at that moment, but I didn’t have to. I could tell from Richard’s eager, lustful grin. (And I knew how good she was at fixing and following.)

“Like I say, she can use anything as a point of focus,” he remarked, continuing to swing the bauble before us. “A spiral, a fingertip, eyes, a point on the ceiling... I even used a bit of chicken on a fork once.” I laughed. The noise didn’t disturb the hypnotised girl slumped on my side. “But I so wanted to finally do a traditional pendant induction, just to say I’ve done it. And it must be nice to look at, right?”

I smiled in agreement. It did look pretty, after all. It was just a clear glass orb, of course, but the way the light gleamed on its polished surface was very attractive. (It had to beat a piece of chicken, anyway!) And there was something very compelling about watching it swing from side to side - it was hard to stop, or look away... I realised my own eyes were following it now; I’d looked away from Richard’s face at some point and let myself watch the pendant swing back and forth. Swallowing, I grinned again. No wonder it was such a prolific induction - there was no doubting its potency. My gaze had been captured by the crystal without my hypnotist even telling me to look at it.

Although, there was a good chance he’d intended that to happen, as his continued ‘hypnotist patter’ implied. “So shiny, so pretty,” he said, and even though I couldn’t see his smirk in my increasingly hazy peripheral vision, I could hear it in his voice. “So easy to follow it as it swings back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, drawing your gaze, draining your thoughts, emptying your mind... Reducing you to a mindless toy, a blank object, a hypnotised, malleable plaything once again...”

I’d already lost the ability to physically react to what he was saying. I just sat still, head tilted upwards so my eyes - the only part of me still capable of movement - could follow the pretty pendant. I was barely aware of anything else any more, even Alyssa’s body resting next to mine. I hadn’t had the presence of mind to keep playing with her boobs, and my right arm had slid down to lie in my lap.

I didn’t have to move. I didn’t have to think. All I had to do was watch the sparkling orb that hung in the air above me. Even as its swinging slowed to a stop, I remained transfixed.

“And as I drop the pendant...” Holding his other hand beneath the crystal, he let go of the chain and let the pendant fall into his palm. “You both drop, and sleep.”

My eyes rolled back and slammed shut. My body slouched just slightly before stiffening up, frozen in trance. My head leaned lightly against the cushion behind me, fixed upright - but moments later, as I heard Richard’s voice praising me, reassuring me, deepening my trance, I felt him plant his hand on the top of my head and tilt it to the left, until it came to rest against the top of AJ’s head.

If anyone had happened to walk in at that moment, they would have simply seen two girlfriends half-sitting, half-lying on their couch, leaning comfortably against each other as we caught a quick nap, utterly peaceful. They wouldn’t have been able to tell how ensnared our minds were, how raptly attentive our subconscious minds were, how aroused we were by the deep hypnotic state we were trapped in. Of course, our boyfriend standing over us saying things like ‘good girl’, ‘good toy’, ‘dropping deeper and deeper’, ‘completely hypnotised’, might have clued them in!

***

“One, two, three, wake.”

A little jolt went through me at the sound of Richard’s words, and the snap of his fingers. Before my eyes opened, a giddy smile spread across my face. I felt really great, like energy was bubbling inside my chest. Glancing at AJ, I saw a particularly goofy grin on her face, and let out a snort, which made her titter in response. That in turn elicited giggles from me - even more so when I noticed she’d drooled on my shoulder while in trance, leaving a wet patch on my jumpsuit.

Richard was now sitting in the armchair, leaning forwards with his elbows resting on his knees, watching us keenly. “Doing good?” he asked innocently, though he wore that usual mischievous smirk of his.

For some reason, I found that unbelievably amusing. I’d been trying to sit up, but I suddenly seized up and fell back against the couch, clapping a hand over my mouth as I was overcome with breathless laughter. The sound of a similarly hysterical Alyssa wasn’t helping. Every shuddering guffaw from her made me laugh harder, and I suspected my hilarity was having the same effect on her.

“Something funny?” Richard quipped. That just made it worse. The giggles were ceaseless, each one funnier than the last, making the next one even stronger. It felt impossible to do anything but sit there laughing and laughing, paralysed with sheer levity. “I never knew I was such a comedian,” he chuckled. I desperately waved a hand at him as my body convulsed, a wordless plea for him to please shut up, because I was going insane.

After maybe a minute at the mercy of my merriment, I managed to get a hold of myself, fanning my face with my hands as I fought to suppress my side-splitting glee. Then I made the mistake of looking at AJ, and her flushed face and mirthful expression set me off again. We collapsed into each other, her head resting on my shoulder again, juddering against it, my arms waving above my lap in an involuntary reaction to the hysteria that had seized me.

Eventually, we seemed to calm down enough to sit up, wiping tears from our eyes. We took a couple of deep breaths, opened our mouths to speak - and exploded with laughter all over again. I rocked back, my mouth wide and my eyes scrunched shut, pounding the cushion beneath me with my fists. AJ buried her face in my chest, her shrieks muffled by my boob.

I heard Richard tut with mock irritation. “C’mon, ladies, pull yourselves together! What’s the joke?”

I looked over at him blearily and shook my head, mouthing ‘I don’t know’ at him as the giggles bounced around my body like a pinball. AJ’s response was different - she raised an unsteady hand and extended her index finger in his direction. “You!” she hooted.

“Moi?” He affected to look offended, gasping with outrage and putting a hand over his heart, knowing this would only worsen our hysteria. “Am I just a joke to you people? Never have I ever been so insulted!”

Stop, stop, I screamed inwardly, unable to stop laughing long enough to speak, toppling sideways and lying on my side. Alyssa was still literally pointing and laughing at our boyfriend, who was shaking his head and smiling wearily. I don’t think he intended for AJ to turn this suggestion into another opportunity for bratting - although knowing her as well as he did, he should probably have anticipated that. Besides, it wasn’t like she was wrong - he was the reason we were having this little conniption fit.

He let us continue writhing and gasping for breath a few seconds longer, and then said, “Release.” The hysteria vanished like a switch had been flicked, leaving me lying in a crumpled heap, feeling like a wrung-out towel. Slowly, shakily, I sat up again, exchanging a long-suffering smirk with Alyssa.

“I’ll be honest,” our boyfriend commented wryly, “I’m not sure I thought that one through.”

“Ha ha,” AJ said in monotone, pointing at him again and giving him her familiar insolent grin. “Ha ha. Ha ha.”

“Shut up.”

“Ha ha. Look, I can still do this even when you’re not forcing me to laugh. Ha ha. Dumb hypnotist. You suck. Ha ha.”

“What are you, Nelson Muntz?” He threw his hands in the air exasperatedly. “Fine. I know you’ll like this one, anyway.”

“Ha ha. Ha hh-” Alyssa’s mockery came to an abrupt halt as Richard snapped his fingers. Instantly, I felt myself gripped by a familiar irresistible urge, the grin I wore from watching my girlfriend’s bratting sliding off my face as I leaned towards her. She met me halfway, our lips colliding and wrestling eagerly, our hands roving over each other’s heads and shoulders and through our hair.

We parted naturally a few seconds later, dizziness washing over me as we did so. I left my hands on her shoulders to steady myself, blushing and smiling at her. She beamed back at me from point blank range, teeth gleaming white.

“Hi,” I mumbled.

“Hi!” she giggled back at me.

“Thought that might shut you up,” came Richard’s voice.

AJ shot him a withering glance as we both turned back to face him. “Yeah, we both know it’ll take more than that.”

“Oh, so you mean I should use that trigger again? Keep using it whenever you try to speak, perhaps?”

“Yes, please,” I blurted before she had a chance to reply. “I’d be very OK with that.”

They both cackled. “I do appreciate you giving us both the trigger this time,” she admitted. “Jelly looked so cute being compelled to kiss me the other night, I kinda wanted to feel what she felt...”

“What, you mean, this?”

Snap. And our lips were magnetically drawn back together, as if our heads were being gripped by invisible hands and turned and pulled towards each other.

Knowing what was happening this time, I leaned into it, my hands delving back into her hair, my mouth twisting into a smirk even as it continued to explore Alyssa’s. She didn’t exactly put up a fight either, sliding a leg over my waist and planting her hands on my sides. In fact, as the compulsion wore off and I started to pull away, catching sight of the grin she wore that matched mine, she tugged me back towards her and smacked her lips back on mine, muffling my surprised squeak as she made out with me for a few more long moments.

Fuck, she’s a good kisser. She knows exactly what to do with her lips, her tongue, her limbs, her body... She gently thrust her hips against me as we made out, humping me just a little, her boobs rubbing oh so sensually against mine even through the few layers of clothing separating us. With just a few seconds of contact, she’d got me even more wet than I’d already been. (I realise I haven’t made much mention of being aroused during this session. I’m hoping you guys are assuming at this point that if I’m being hypnotised, or if I’m in close proximity with AJ, I’m horny.)

We finally parted, staring at each other through hooded eyes, breathing deeply inches from each other’s faces. I gave her one more fond caress on her cheek, and then glanced over at Richard. “I don’t think you thought this one through either,” I snickered, slouching a little more in my seat, not really feeling the need to sit up again. “‘Oh no, he’s forcing us to kiss! How dare he hypnotise his two girlfriends to make out? It’s an outrage. Curse you, you hypnotic fiend!’”

“Maybe I felt like being nice for once,” he chuckled.

AJ gave him a sceptical eyebrow-raise, and then winked at me, her eyes glinting with mischief. “I say we just make out anyway, so there’s no point him triggering us.”

I snorted with laughter. She really does find any possible opportunity to brat! “You son of a bitch, I’m in.” We shuffled closer on the couch, although it was slightly more effort to reach each other than before. I suddenly felt pretty tired, and from the looks of it AJ was too. But that wasn’t going to stop us.

“Damn, you thwarted my cunning plan to make you guys kiss,” Richard said drily.

Alyssa broke away from me to respond to him. “It’s not like we need any,” - she yawned all through the rest of the sentence - “any encouragement to kiss!”

“Don’t, you’ll get me going,” I groaned, covering my mouth with one hand to stifle a yawn of my own.

“Listen, I am so sleepy.” She stretched her arms, letting out another long fatigued exhalation as she did so. “I guess maybe I’m not still fully recovered from my li’l brain-cation after all...”

“Maybe not, but I’m beat too.” I giggled suddenly as we drew close again. “Hey, maybe you’re passing on your sleepiness to me. Like you’ve got, I dunno, chloroform lips or something.”

She snorted. “Chloroform lips!”

“Yeahh...”

I let my heavy eyelids fall shut as my lips landed on hers again. My hand ran over her fishnet top, snagging my fingers in the holes. I wanted to grope and caress and dry-hump her, to rub my crotch against hers... Our legs were entwined, so we were in the perfect position for that, but I couldn’t find the energy to thrust. My legs felt like dead weights. As did my arms, which came to rest on her side. It felt difficult to do anything - to even think of doing anything - except keep kissing her, more and more weakly by the moment. I couldn’t show the same passionate enthusiasm as I had only a minute ago - and I wasn’t getting it back, either. Managing to heave my eyes open for a moment and ease away from the kiss, I saw Alyssa’s own eyelids flickering, her face slack and expressionless. She looked like she’d almost fallen asleep sitting up, only the slightest movements indicating she was still just about conscious.

I should wake her up a little, maybe give her a poke, I suggested to myself. My hand belatedly responded a good five seconds later, one of the fingers still hooked in the netting of her top jabbing through and prodding her in the ribs. She grunted, frowned and opened her eyes. “Whuh?”

“You’re falling asleep,” I told her - and the sound of my own faint, languid voice startled me enough that I woke up a little myself. Had I been almost as bad as AJ?

She clumsily rubbed her face with one hand. “Can we lay down?” she mumbled. “An’, an’ keep kissing, obvi...”

“Yeah,” I sighed, already leaning back, my head lowering onto the couch’s armrest. It occurred to me too late that lying down was a mistake - we were in even greater danger of succumbing to the drowsiness that had overtaken us. But now that I was splayed out across the couch, my girlfriend lying next to me with her face resting on my collarbone and her arm around my torso, sitting back up again was impossible.

I lay there and stared blearily at the ceiling for a few seconds, my sleepy brain devoid of coherent thoughts. Then, remembering what we were doing, I nudged AJ. “Kiss.”

“Huh?”

“Kiss me.” I needed her to get her mouth to mine. I couldn’t bring myself to move.

“Mhm.” She shuffled laboriously up the couch to bring our faces level, kissing me just under my jawbone as she did so. She clambered on top of me, and I got a brief glimpse of her face - her slack jaw, and her vacant, almost completely closed eyes - before it descended towards mine, our mouths joining in another long, lethargic kiss. Every caress of her lips doubled my weariness, and I had to go to an even greater effort to keep the kiss going. It was like bailing water out of a sinking ship - a ship with more holes than floor.

Finally, the exhaustion overwhelmed us both, and we slowed to a halt. AJ stayed lying on me for a second, her mouth still pressed on mine even though the kissing had ceased, our noses squished together. She didn’t seem to have the energy to move off me right away, and I couldn’t muster enough to push her off, either. Soon, though, she struggled off me and lay at my side with a groan. As her face slid off mine, I felt a warm trickle running down my cheek, and smiled sleepily. “You drooled on me.”

She giggled feebly. “Sorryyy...”

“S’OK,” I murmured, burying my face in her hair, the vast quantity and soft quality of which made it the perfect pillow. (Not to mention, a convenient cloth to wipe her drool off.)

“Aww, look at my poor sleepy sweethearts,” Richard teased. I let out a tiny grunt of surprise - I’d actually forgotten he was even there. “And you were so wide awake and bratty only a couple of minutes ago! Where did all that energy go? However could you have grown so somnolent so swiftly?”

His use of such archaic language (seriously, who the fuck uses ‘somnolent’) broke through the haze enough to get my attention - he only talks like that when he’s being devious. Cracking an eyelid open, I was greeted by a blurry sight that resolved into Alyssa. Her own eyes were still shut, the side of her face squashed into the couch cushion, but she wore a little perplexed frown, so I assumed she’d been stirred by our boyfriend’s words too.

“Y’know, maybe you were onto something with that ‘chloroform lips’ joke. Seems to be having a pretty powerful effect on both of you... Did it never occur to you that I might’ve added a little something extra to the suggestion, to turn it into a trap and trick you back into trance?” He punctuated the alliterative taunt with his best evil laugh, like a supervillain tormenting two helpless damsels. Which was pretty accurate.

Even in my sleepy state, I managed to dimly process what he was saying to me. Each and every kiss was lulling us both into a hypnotic sleep. And yeah, I know what you guys are thinking: “So? Isn’t making out with your hot girlfriend until you go into trance kind of a win-win situation?” Well... yes, you may be right! But I didn’t want to make it too easy for Richard. Alyssa’s defiance must be contagious.

I wrenched my eyes fully open, and saw AJ do the same, letting out a groan as the effort made her eyes roll back in her head briefly. We gazed at each other vacantly, still lying prone on the couch, all our energy devoted to the simple task of staying awake. Oh, she looked so stunning, still wearing her glamorous makeup, her eyes hazy, lids drooping, her lips parted, a puddle of drool forming around her face...

Her brow was creased with consternation, perhaps realising that the ounce of resistance we could marshal at that moment was useless. I whimpered softly as the same thing occurred to me. We would succumb to the soporific smooches soon enough, one way or another. If we didn’t kiss of our own accord, all he had to do was -

Snap.

We were powerless to stop ourselves from sliding our faces just a couple of inches across the couch cushion, until our lips locked once again. As we made out in slow-motion, I felt her arm snake around my torso again, and her leg hook around my waist, cuddling me close. Instinctively I wrapped my own arm around her, without really registering that it had felt far too heavy to move just a moment before.

The cosy embrace only doubled, if not tripled, the weight of weariness crushing my mind. With one last long, lacklustre kiss, I finally lost my grip on consciousness and dropped into deep darkness.

“Good girls.” I felt Richard’s hand on the top of my head, stroking my hair. “Feels so wonderful to give in, and just sink back into sleep. Deeper and deeper by the second, listening to my voice, no thoughts of your own. Happy and hypnotised...”

He had a point - it did feel wonderful to give in. Say what you will about rebelling and resisting - AJ clearly got a big kick out of it, and in fairness so did I - but I highly recommend just fucking surrendering. Letting your mind get ensnared, and pulled down into the depths of trance, utterly controlled and helpless... mmm, it absolutely rocks...

“And I want you to become aware, very aware, of the person lying next to you,” he continued. “I want you to feel how close she is. How warm, and soft she is. Breathe in her scent. Notice how she feels, everything about how she feels, wrapped in your arms, pressed up against your body, snuggled up with you as you sink deep.”

I inhaled, letting the smell of Alyssa fill my nostrils. She was wearing this sweet, subtle perfume that smelt of... raspberries, I think. I was aware of my arm lying on her side, of the tips of my middle and ring fingers brushing against her bare back through her fishnet top, of her own arm lying on me in a similar position, but further down... And I was very aware of her face less than an inch from mine, neither of us having moved our heads since we kissed each other to sleep. She was so close, I’m still not sure whether our foreheads and noses were actually touching, or if the proximity just gave me the sense that they were.

“And it feels so nice, so comfortable, lying there cuddling her. Feels so safe, so reassuring, having her there. And you know, as you go even deeper into trance, that she’s going deeper too. You know, Alyssa, that Jelly’s at least as deeply hypnotised right now as you are, if not more. You know, Jelly, that AJ’s so so deep in trance right now, right beside you. So aware of that right now, that you’re lying next to someone just as mesmerised and mindless as you, the thought of that pulling you even deeper, even faster.”

Feeling AJ lying so close to me, knowing she was deep in trance too... He was right, that was intoxicating.

“Knowing she’s in trance sends you deeper into trance. Knowing she’s hypnotised, hypnotises you even more. As if she’s pulling you down with her - you’re wrapped around each other, and so as one of you sinks, the other goes with her. The deeper she goes, the deeper you go. The deeper she goes, the deeper you go.”

There we lay, snuggled up together, pulling each other further under Richard’s control with our mere presence. The deeper I went, the deeper Alyssa went. The deeper she went, the deeper I went.

He let us remain there, in that state of utter bliss, for a length of time that was impossible for our empty minds to calculate. At last, though, he began to manipulate our minds and reposition our bodies, setting up his next fiendish act of hypno-fuckery.