“Hello?” Kristen poked her head through the back door. She wasn’t trespassing; this was their neighbors’ house, and she’d been here a lot. She still felt a little nervous about walking across their yard and up to their house on her own.

Nobody answered. Nobody home? That was strange - Linda should be home. She usually was, at this time, and had told Kristen to come over. 

“Hello!” She raised her voice a little. Still no answer. But the door was open and Linda had told her to just come on in, if it was. Kristen wrinkled her nose and stepped inside. 

She had been here a lot, and made her way to the kitchen to start with. Linda usually prepared dinner for Doug, her husband, and would probably be there. Kristen suppressed a twinge of jealousy. 

They seemed to have such a nice marriage, Linda and Doug. Even though Doug worked a lot, like Kristen’s husband, he was much more attentive to Linda than Kevin ever was. Perhaps it helped that Linda seemed much happier about not having a real job than Kristen did...

Kristen worked in a store, morning shifts. She’d gotten home just under an hour ago, and had taken a shower, changed, and gone straight over here. The empty house was starting to get a bit oppressive. She should be happy, she supposed, that Kevin was so laser-focused on his career. At first, he'd wanted to buy a house in one of the really fancy areas.

Kristen thought she would have died from boredom there, in a place where people had real, actual servants. They'd moved here, instead, into a quite normal, middle-class-looking area, and put the money they’d saved aside for Kevin's future investment fund.

The area didn’t really matter much to him – he was barely home - but it had made all the difference in the world for her. Here, she could meet people, normal people, who had normal jobs. More or less.

Linda worked in a store too, of sorts. It was a fake store, being paid for by Doug and the other women's husbands. It didn't make any money and didn't have to; it was just there to give Linda and the other bored wives something do to. On some days, they didn’t even bother to go there.

Despite that difference - and it was a fundamental one, Kristen felt - she got along well with Linda, and really liked her. Doug was even more well-paid than Kevin, but the easy money hadn’t gotten to Linda’s head. She was kind, funny, helpful and pretty down-to-earth. Kristen liked her, a lot. It sometimes felt like hanging out with a slightly older, wiser sister.

When Kristen poked her head around the door frame and peeked into the kitchen, she stopped, her head jerking back. Linda was in the kitchen alright, but... not dressed like an older sister. In fact, she was hardly dressed at all. She was wearing lingerie, and over that, an apron. And heels, five- or six-inch heels that Kristen wouldn’t have been able to take a step in.

“Linda?” Kristen said, timidly. Linda didn’t respond. She didn’t react at all. She was standing beside the kitchen sink, staring at something on the wall. Or, maybe, at nothing at all. The look on her face was really unsettling. She looked vacant.

Kristen hesitated, unsure if she should go back home or not. What was this? Were they playing some kind of game? But the door had been open, and the golf bag had been leaning against the wall in just that angle Linda used to signal, I’m home, come on in.

She’d never seen anything like it. Linda didn’t even seem to see her. She was standing absolutely still, breathing calmly, her chest rising and falling slowly. Her eyes didn’t move, either. They were calmly inspecting something, on the wall or in the air. They looked glassy. Frozen. 

Kristen stepped into the kitchen, swallowing. This was spooky, she thought. It didn’t get less spooky when she saw the stuff on the counter top. Linda had clearly started preparing dinner - there was a cutting board, knives, a bowl with something in it. Kristen looked more closely at Linda, and almost wished she hadn’t.

Linda was standing at attention. Stiff, straight-backed attention, with her arms rigid down her sides. She was wearing a necklace as well, a big, green emerald-studded necklace that Doug had given her on their anniversary.

It had to be some kind of weird game. Linda had never, not once, let slip that they were into this kind of thing, but - you never really knew people all that well, did you. They wouldn’t have told her about this, would they.

Kristen laughed nervously. She tried to imagine telling people about her and Kevin’s kinky sex games. It didn’t work. Not least because they didn’t do any kinky sex games. They barely had sex at all. 

Kristen found herself staring at the necklace, and shook her head to pull herself together. Linda still hadn’t shown the slightest reaction, and so it was time to leave. She was obviously intruding on something.

Right then, she heard steps in the hallway behind her. She turned, and saw Doug, dressed in his usual, impeccable black suit, walking up towards her and smiling.

“Hi Kristen!” he said. “Linda told me you were coming over for dinner.”

“Uh,” Kristen said, too stunned to reply. He was acting completely normally. As if... as if his wife wasn’t standing three meters away and staring blankly at nothing.

“She’s preparing something extra nice today, she told me.” Doug went past her, into the kitchen. He went up to his wife, pausing briefly and obviously looking her over, and then kissed her on the cheek. He took the necklace and lifted it over her head. Then he murmured something into Linda’s ear and snapped his finger.

Kristen’s hand flew to her mouth and she took a step back as Linda’s face came back to life. Her mouth moved, and then broke into a smile as she blinked and then glanced around the room. She smiled at her husband, and then, even more widely, at Kristen.

“Hi Kris! I didn’t hear you coming! How’s your day?” Linda turned around and began preparing dinner. No, continued preparing dinner. Doug reached out and gently squeezed her ass. She giggled and swatted his hand away.

Kristen stared at them, utterly boggled. What was going on? She didn’t understand anything. They acted as if nothing was wrong. Although, she hadn’t seen anything actually wrong yet.

She’d seen something strange, yes, something weird that she hadn’t seen before, and – to be honest - wished she hadn’t seen now either. It wasn’t really wrong, though. People could do whatever they wanted in their home, right? But did they have to involve her in it?

She drew a deep breath and pasted a fake smile on her face. Before she could say anything, Doug held up the necklace. The centerpiece was a large crystal, ringed with emeralds, and when he held it out towards her, the crystal flashed.

For a moment, Kristen thought she remembered seeing that before, but then she forgot the thought. She forgot what she was about to say, too. For a moment, she just blinked, her mind suddenly blank. 

“You like being here,” Doug said, watching her. “You want to be here. You want to stay.”

His words seemed to come from far away, floating into her mind. They drifted through it and disappeared somewhere inside. They were familiar... but she lost them. Her mind felt sluggish and unresponsive. Kristen blinked, feeling vaguely confused. She blinked again, and slowly her mind began to work again.

“Linda baby,” Doug said as Kristen shook her head and tried to regain her focus. “Turn around and kneel.”

“Yes sir!” Linda said, in a suddenly high-pitched, girly voice. She turned on the spot and sank smoothly to her knees. She looked up at her husband, beaming.

Kristen stared at her. This was even worse. At least it cleared out the lingering confusion, in a hurry. She was alert now. And staring. 

“Suck my cock,” Doug said. Kristen thought her ears would fall off, but Linda just bobbed her head, said yes sir! in the same girly voice, and opened her mouth. When Doug opened his fly, Linda reached in and took out his cock, and put it in her mouth. 

It was already half-erect, Kristen noticed, then blushed. 

Why was she looking at Doug’s cock? She tried looking at Linda, but since Doug’s cock was right in the middle of her face, that wasn’t an improvement. Hastily she raised her gaze to look at Doug. 

“I don’t think” she began, but he cut her off with an imperious wave of his hand. His other hand was on Linda’s head.

“No no, it’s fine. We’re quite fine with you watching. We like you, you know.” He looked at her over his shoulder, and smiled. A warm, friendly smile, that almost made Kristen’s mind tilt. The contrast between the, the lewdness on the floor and the perfectly normal tone of his voice confused her.

“Linda likes you a lot,” he observed. “She’s very happy to have you as a friend. So am I, really. And I presume you enjoy being here too, since you come over so often? Nearly every day, isn’t it?”

I should go, Kristen thought. I should make some excuse, turn around and go home. I can’t just pretend everything is normal. 

“Yes,” she said instead, but then she licked her lips. She didn’t like turning people down. “Linda and Doug,” she said. He cut her off again.

“I understand you don’t want to be home alone, though, in that big house. Kevin works too much, really. It’s not nice of him to be leaving his wife all alone like that.” He shook his head.

Kristen swallowed. She agreed, completely, but she didn’t want to discuss her and Kevin’s relationship with Doug. 

“We’ve noticed you’re not happy,” Doug went on. “Linda thought it might be because you’re so lonely. You should have a loving husband to submit to, like she has.” He patted Linda’s head again.

“What?” Kristen said, too shocked to be polite. Did he really say submit?

“Linda is happy because she’s so docile and submissive,” Doug said. “She does what I tell her, and she enjoys it mightily. As you can see.” He chuckled, and Kristen glanced down at Linda involuntarily.

Her friend did look like she was enjoying it. She was completely fixated on Doug’s cock, and didn’t seem to be listening to them at all.

Doug raised the necklace again. The crystal flashed again. Kristen’s mind went blank.

“You like being here,” Doug’s voice said, floating from a distance again. “You want to be like Linda.”

Kristen blinked and shook her head, but the vagueness and sluggishness took longer to recede, this time. She put her forehead in her hand and breathed deeply.

“You’ve been here a lot,” Doug said, and she looked back at him. “I know you’ve seen this necklace. Linda mentioned you’ve admired it. I’m not sure if you remember how nicely it flashes. Linda has been flashing it at you, every time you’re here. More than once.”

He smiled at her, in a casual, friendly way, as if he was talking about the weather or about the state of the garden. Something about his smile, or his words, made Kristen uneasy.

“This is a very special necklace,” he continued. “I had it made specially for Linda. It works really well. This crystal here,” he said, and held it up. It flashed, and Kristen’s mind blanked out again.

“You like being here,” she heard Doug’s voice. “You want to stay here. You want to be like Linda.”

Kristen tried to clear her mind again, but it was even harder this time. Some of the vague, dreamy sluggishness seemed to remain.

“This crystal,” Doug was saying, “is a pretty unique thing. Well, not unique - certain people and organizations have it. They don’t sell it widely, usually. You need connections, and a lot of money. Which I have.” He caressed the crystal with one hand. His voice was getting shakier now, as his wife was speeding up on his cock.

“It’s a trance crystal, you might call it. When it flashes, it induces an instant trance-state in the people who see it. It’s a nice and pretty deep trance. Unfortunately, it’s temporary and goes away within a minute or so.”

The crystal flashed again. Kristen blanked out.

“You love the crystal. You like to be here. You want to be here. You want to be like Linda.” Doug’s voice was the only thing in her mind, his words floating through it and then out, to wherever his words went, and she was blank again. It took her even longer to come back to herself.

Kristen groaned as she tried to focus. She didn’t understand what was going on. It was hard to think, with the stupid crystal somehow making her mind all sluggish. She needed to go lie down, and rest. But she wanted to stay, despite the weirdness. She wanted to be here, near Linda.

“I think of it as a hypnotic primer,” Doug said, and gently pushed Linda’s head off his cock. “Good girl,” he murmured. “Go back to making dinner.”

“Yes sir!” Linda chirped, and rose in a graceful movement to swing around and resume her cooking. She didn’t even glance towards Kristen.

“Whenever you flash someone, they go into a trance. Just like that – zap! They come out of it soon, so there’s not much you can do. But, if you can flash someone over and over, every day and several times per day, the trances become longer and longer.”

He turned away from admiring his wife’s backside, and faced Kristen. His cock was still hanging out from his trousers. No, not hanging. It was fully hard. Kristen carefully avoided looking at it.

“The trances become longer, and you can slip in these little suggestions. The subject won’t remember them, but they do sink into their minds. That’s how Linda has trained you to come over here right away when you come home.”

Kristen’s mouth went dry with shock. Trained me? What... 

“Linda?” she said. She should go, she thought, she really should go.... But she couldn’t. She didn’t want to.

The crystal flashed. Her mind went blank.