Vanessa looked up at the woman with the long brown hair and the kind eyes. She was sitting perched on the corner of a school desk looking quite pleased with herself. Occasionally, she’d swing her neatly crossed legs and Vanessa would find her attention caught momentarily by the motion.

Focus, she thought to herself. 

“Soooo- explain to me again why kidnapping me was necessary. Aren't you supposed to, like, invite me to a meeting? Give me a pamphlet?”

The woman smiled. “We could hardly go up to you on the streets and just ask you to join our cult, now could we? You would have walked away without listening.”

Vanessa smirked. “And tying me up will make me listen? You’ve got to improve your recruitment tactics, lady.”

“Actually,” the woman twinkled, “we think being tied up will help you listen. And the kidnapping. Especially the kidnapping. Feels like you.”

Vanessa began to feel a little uneasy. “You’re crazy.”

The woman stood up and walked towards her. “You know, most people would be terrified of being tied up like this. They’d be sobbing by now."

She placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You’re breathing faster, sure. You’re sweating. But- I don't think that's about fear. Not with you. Not entirely, at least. In fact, I think,” the woman leaned over to whisper in her ear, “the fear just makes it better.”

Vanessa sat up with a jolt.

The woman continued. “Isn’t that what you said in that panel last month?”

Vanessa turned her head away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The woman grinned at her in a way that seemed almost sisterly. “Vanessa Hargrove. @hypnogirl300 on tumblr. Member of the local BDSM community since age 19. Attendee of SEVERAL annual hypnofetish conferences where you, and I quote from your blog, “got my mind mashed into a pulp.’ Sounds fun!" She winked.

"Demobottomed in the Brainwashing 101, 201, AND ‘301: Advanced Techniques’ class at the last conference.....Should I go on?” 

Her stomach felt strange. “That’s just a fantasy…”

“The spiral collection on your blog is quite impressive,” the woman continued. “As is the ‘mindless brainwashing’ mp3 playlist on your computer. So many plays too! Are you listening to them while you sleep?”

“That doesn’t mean…”

“Have you noticed that my voice sounds familiar, yet?”

Vanessa looked up in shock. She expected malice in the woman’s face but..instead there was something else. Something understanding. She thought of her old therapist.

She was beginning to feel dizzy.

The gentle voice continued, wrapping around her. “It’s OK, sweetie. You see, our recruitment tactics are VERY sound indeed. In fact, we only recruit people who we already know will be joining us. Do you think you’re here by happenstance?”

She laughed lightly.

“We’ve been watching you for months. Over a year by now. Everything you’ve done shows us you want this.”

Vanessa shook her head. “I don’t. I want my life.”

The woman reached over and lightly stroked her hair. “You’ll still have your life, You’ll still be you. You’ll just be...happier. More compliant. More carefree. Each day will be filled with blissful, single-minded devotion. Just like you’ve always wanted.”

She trembled. “What will you make me do?”

“Nothing that you won’t absolutely enjoy.” The woman looked seriously into her eyes. “I promise you. I’ll make sure of it.”

Vanessa looked down.

“No. I don’t want that.”

Suddenly the lights turned off in the room. There was a slight hum, like a machine coming online. Vanessa looked in front of her and saw a spiral projected on the wall across from her.

It was her favorite spiral. She had lost thirty minutes to it last week.

She defensively closed her eyes.

The mysterious (but still somewhat familiar) lady came and stood beside her. She felt her hair being slowly stroked again.

“You know how this works,” the lady murmered in her ear softly. “I actually can’t make you do anything that you ultimately don’t want to do. Any suggestion that you truly didn’t want would slide right off, even with a brain as well conditioned as yours.”

She continued. “The corollary to that, of course, is that things you DO want will sink right in to that brain. They’ll make a home there. They’ll become necessary. Compulsive.” The breath tickled her ear “Irresistable.”

It was like it was some kind of cue. Vanessa opened her eyes again to see the spiral rotating

rotating

rotating

right in front of her.

“I’m curious what will happen,” the woman whispered.

And

god damn her

Vanessa was curious too.