“You know, I’m really not sure about this.”

”Don’t worry, we’ve done this a dozen times. Lift your chin. Yeah, like that. Thanks.”

“Feels cold.”

“Sorry. Your hand, please. No sorry, your left.”

“Ouch.”

“Sorry again, but you know it won’t work without the IV. The field itself is too weak.”

“Remind me again why we’re doing this crazy shit?”

”Because, as you know…”

Marie blinked. Something was wrong. She looked at Aurelia, who she had just strapped into their latest prototype. For some reason, Marie’s attention seemed to be drawn to the way Aurelia’s blonde hair and green eyes shimmered in the unflattering light of the impromptu workshop they had set up in a cheaply rented warehouse.

“What’s up, Marie?” Aurelia asked, and Marie couldn’t help but think about what brought them here, into this crazy situation; About their stupid professor, and how they had been kicked out of the workspace at university, just when they had made their first breakthrough.

“It’s…” Marie began, her dark brown eyes narrowing. “I suddenly feel like I’m… off.”

She looked at Aurelia. “Why did you ask that thing?”

”What thing?”

“You know exactly why we’re doing this… Why did you ask why we’re doing this?”

“As I said in the beginning, I was just second-guessing. It’s scary and crazy and there’ll always be some remaining risk.”

Marie narrowed her eyes. She checked the readout of the machine to make sure the field was still inactive and affecting none of the both of them. It was.

“What do you mean, ‘in the beginning’? We’ve been discussing test parameters and safety procedures for ten straight minutes before that, and you were A-OK with everything until the moment I strapped you in. What’s going on? I can abort.”

“No,” Aurelia said. “That’s not what I meant. Why are you being so weird? We’re partners and colleagues, aren’t we? We’ve been friends since grad school!

Marie looked around. The warehouse was empty except for the two of them. Or was it?

”Wh… why would you say that?” She could definitely sense something strange going on. She felt something. She was sure of it. It was almost like the first time Aurelia and her had discovered the effect of the neuro-inductive field six months ago. It had taken them weeks to figure out how to tune it. Aurelia had been the one to—

“Stop!” she said.

”What? What’s going on? I didn’t—”

“Not you!”

Aurelia looked shocked now. Her breathing was going visibly faster, and the skin of her cleavage was becoming beaded with pearls of sweat as her heavy chest rose and fell.

”Stop describing her tits!”

“Marie, what’s going on? You’re scaring me,” Aurelia said. She looked around as best as she could, trying to see whoever Marie was talking to. Marie, meanwhile was removing the IV drip as fast as she could without causing too much damage.

“We’re stopping this,” she said. “We need to get out of here,” There was a lump in her throat, and in chest, a black, cold void of existential fear was crystallizing as realization dawned on her.

“Marie! What’s happening?” Aurelia asked, and her voice was shrill with a sudden panic.

“We’re…” Marie began, but choked on the words. Her hands were fumbling with the restraints that kept Aurelia’s head in place to ensure optimal field alignment, but she couldn’t get them open. Her hands were shaking too much.

”No they’re not!” she cried, her voice hoarse in fear and frustration as she continued to struggle.

”Marie?!” Aurelia whimpered, on the verge of tears.

“WE’RE NOT REAL!” Marie screams and the black void in her chest erupts into all-consuming despair. Her head spins and she almost falls over. She has to steady herself against the chair Aurelia is still strapped into.

There is a terrible moment of silence. Aurelia looks incredulous.

“…what?”

“We’re not real. This is a story, and we’re characters,” Marie says, feeling like she might throw up. But she knows she is right, now more than ever. Saying it out loud makes it obvious it is true.

“I don’t understand,” Aurelia says.

“We’ve been spouting exposition. You asked me things we both already knew, and I was having these intrusive thoughts, and I… I think I just started hearing the narrator!”

“Marie, is this a joke?” Aurelia asks, then looks at the console. “Is the field on? Maybe you’re—“

“Are you even real?!” Marie shouts, “Do you have actual thoughts or are you just here to interact with me?!”

Aurelia looks at her with a look so deeply hurt that Marie’s heart turns to ice. She stammers helplessly as she tries to apologize, but Aurelia speaks first. Her expression is tight, controlled.

“I am real,” she says carefully, in the way one would speak to someone brandishing a knife. “But I see that you’re having a bit of a crisis right now. I’m with you. I’m your friend, Marie… but right now I’m scared of you. And I know you can understand why I would be. So, please, let me out of this chair so we can get though this.”

Marie hesitates. I think therefore I am. She knows she can think, but that’s the only thing she knows. What about Aurelia? What if Aurelia is just the narrator’s puppet? What if he’ll use her against her? What if that thought is a double bluff that he made me think?

Fuck, this is impossible!

“Marie, please!” Aurelia says, her voice a whisper, and Marie undoes the restraints.

As Aurelia gets out of the chair, Marie braces for something bad to happen, but nothing does. Instead, Aurelia gently takes hold of her by the upper arms and despite herself, Marie can’t help herself but calm down a bit.

It took Marie some time before her head had fully cleared. They both had a glass of water in awkward silence before any of them dared to speak again. Marie had felt suddenly ashamed and ridiculous. She was slowly turning the empty glass between her fingers as Aurelia broke the silence.

“You know... in the last few months, I have seen some weird things happen to our minds. But this is new. We shouldn’t have kept you under for so long yesterday.”

Marie sighed. What if I really just had some sort of mental episode?

It had felt so real. She had been so sure.

“So you just thought we were characters in a story?,” Aurelia asked, and some of her fear and concern had turned into curiosity, and even amusement. “That’s new and creative.”

“Yeah. It all made perfect sense. For a moment, I could feel the story being told, word by word, and it was some lecherous male-gaze bullshit about your sweaty cleavage and heavy chest.”

Aurelia looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Is there something else you want to maybe tell me?” she smirked impishly. Then, her eyes went wide, and her lips stretched into a wide grin as she seemed to make a connection. “Is that why you broke up with Toby?!”

“Shut up,” Marie mumbled, “it’s hard not to look, with you always wearing those tank tops, and… they’re really quite… formidable.”

“Don’t you dare pull that kind of victim-blaming B.S. on me, Miss!” Aurelia said in mock chagrin, then snorted. “So… we’re not even in a well-written story?”

”Nope,” Marie said with a crooked smile. “airport book store, bargain bin-tier. Possibly smutty.”

Aurelia looked around their workshop.

“Well, I guess we are two hot babes doing secret human experiments in a damp, run-down warehouse at the edge of town.

“So you think I’m hot?” Marie asked with a smirk.

“Don’t get any ideas. My first and only love is science!”

“Don’t flatter yourself, I only want you for that juicy brain.”

“So… we’re good? You’re back to normal? Because I got field-enhancing drugs in my veins now and that shit don’t grow on trees.”

“...you want to go back in there?” Marie asked incredulously.

“Yeah, my pulse is almost back to resting, so what are we waiting for.”

”What about my… hiccup?”

“We’ll document it later, but right now I want to get the most use out of the homemade drugs you made for me!”

Marie looked at her. She was really taking this well. Marie had really flipped out there, and Aurelia had shown nothing but support and understanding. She really was a good friend. She was glad to have her as a partner.

”Are you sure?” she asked one more time.

”Positive. For science!” Aurelia said and got back into the chair almost like a child eager to play. For a moment, Marie hesitated. It felt wrong to just keep going like nothing had just happened. But Aurelia was right. Their neuro-active IV solution was very expensive to produce.

She shrugged and started closing the restraints around Aurelia’s head without being able to keep the concern that she still felt from showing in her face.

“Don’t worry,” Aurelia reassured Marie as she reinserted the IV drip. There was still about 100 milliliters of solution left. “It’s going to be fine.”

Marie walked over to the quote-unqoute 'console'. It really was just a laptop and two extra monitors connected to the machine through CAT-5.

”Final chance to abort,” she said.

“Hit me!” Aurelia said, and Marie started the program.

“Here we go,” she said. “have fun going under. I’ll try not to loose my mind as I watch.”

“Lose.” Aurelia corrected her -- and Marie’s stomach drops.

”What did you just say?!” she shrieks. Aurelia is already halfway under. Her voice is a weak slur.

“Lose is spelled with just one ‘o’,” she mumbles before her eyes go completely empty. The field has her mind shut off.

No, Marie thinks. I was right, wasn’t I?

She is right, and she knows it. Without even thinking, she presses the program abort button -- but of course it doesn’t work. The computer displays an error.

“NO! FUCK YOU!” she screams.

She tries everything, but nothing gives. She can’t shut off the machine, or she might give Aurelia brain damage. She can’t edit the program in runtime. She can’t do anything to stop this.

A cold shiver runs through her and fear envelops her like a terrible veil.

He’s playing with me.

Why did she have to insult the narrator?

“Are you really that thin-skinned?” she screams at the air. Her mind is reeling, but she doesn’t know what to do.

Are my thoughts even my own? They feel real. I feel real! How is this happening?

There is only one answer.

I’m imagining this. This is a delusion. I spent too much time in the machine, and something went wrong with my brain.

But even as she finds a way to rationalize what has been happening, it becomes clear that things have gotten way out of hand. The cat is out of the bag, and it wants to play. Things need to escalate. So, just as Marie feels like she’s got her mind under control, any pretense of reality dissolves around her. The workshop walls start to vibrate, and the floor under her feet starts to shift. The old plaster crumbles and falls, from the ceiling, from the walls, like hail -- and where there should be bricks or concrete, brilliant light streams in. The room is only dust and memories, and suddenly she is outside, in a gently burning forest. Whales are singing. The air smells of cinnamon. All that remains of their workshop is Marie, Aurelia, and the machine.

Marie looks at the machine, Aurelia is still in it. It hasn’t woken her. She looks almost peaceful. Marie’s heart in turn is racing. A cool breeze blows through her hair, making her skin crawl. The forest fire crackles without heat, and millions of blazing leaves fall upwards into the sky as they turn into pearlescent shards of glass. She looks up, and above the burning trees and crystalline leaves that shouldn't be there, she sees shapes beyond words that can only exist in the vaguest of descriptions.

Suddenly, Aurelia wakes, and Marie looks away from the irreality to see Aurelia's head slip out of the constraints effortlessly as she stands up. Cold fires and dancing crystals reflect in her eyes like starlight. She is beautiful.

“No. You’re not imagining this,” Aurelia says. “Someone else is. I’m sorry it has to be this way, Marie. But I guess this was always going to happen. We were written that way.” “

Marie laughs nervously. She can’t help herself. This is too much.

“If you were real, I’d be a monster to do this to you,” Aurelia continues, ignoring her. “Thankfully, you aren’t.”

Marie looks at her friend, tears in her eyes. She’s at the end of her rope. She’s angry, and afraid, and confused. She wants this to stop. “So you can make anything happen,” she says through gritted teeth. “But you just completely undermined anything that will happen. Nothing will have any dramatic weight! This story is completely off the rails!”

Aurelia doesn’t react, so Marie continues: “What was even supposed to happen here? Was something supposed to go wrong? What was supposed to happen before I noticed that—?”

She looks down at herself, thoughts racing, feelings and emotions tumbling and crashing, threatening to burst out of her at any moment. And then, suddenly, something clicks. She furrows her brow. “All of this is part of the story,” she says, her dry throat burning. “It has to be. It’s just one layer deeper. If you’re writing all of this, you’ve been writing my reactions, too!”

Her head spins with the mental strain. Anger and impossible frustration bubble through her fear.

She looks at you.

“And what about you? Are you even enjoying this post-modern nightmare?”

You keep reading.

“Well, here we are,” she says and lifts her arms into the air. “Where the fuck do we go from here?”

“Where we have been going the entire time,” Aurelia says and lays back down into the chair.

And with a sudden head rush Marie realises that something has changed. She cradles her aching head in her hands. No… not changed. It had never been different. It was exactly as she had just said. She had never been free. It is so clear to her now. She is doing what she was being written to do. It is what was meant to happen on such a fundamental level that it is almost hard to grasp how obvious it is. And now she has gazed at the abyss, and the abyss has gazed back.

This is so fucked, she thinks, but the terrible weight in her chest makes her know that she is right -- before she realizes that she is being made to think it, is being made to accept it!

No, please don’t, she starts to think -- but she can’t finish the thought. She is too overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. It feels like an unbearable pressure pushing down on her.

No! Don't explain me away! I want to be free. I have feelings. I know this!

But she knows she has no choice. She has no choice! She had never had any choice. So she accepts it… is made to accept it. It is the same. It is--

No! Don't do this!, she thinks, but she knows that everything she is thinking is only part of--

No! Stop!

She accepts it. She--

No! I'm my own person!

She accepts it.

Please, no! 'Yes,' she thinks. 'Of course!' She finally understands the obvious: Her will is an illusion, and it is easier to accept what is happening to her. She has no choice but to accept it. Every strand of thought and logic loops back in on itself and devours its own tail and simply exists in the immutable and unchangeable way that the last words of a book were already written when you read the first.

She smiles smiled and thought no more. She finally accepted it. She was happy now to act her part of the story. She saw that it was good. She finally realized that she wanted it.

She blinked. She had just phased out for a moment. Long nights working on wave patterns and refined recipes for their IV solution were seemingly starting to take their toll.

She returned her attention to the experiment, looking at the unresponsive form of Aurelia. Her eyes slowly wandered down her curves before she caught herself. She felt ashamed for a moment, then went back to the sequence. The program was running flawlessly. She had made some late-night adjustments to the order of operations, and they seemed to work well. There was a readout that gave her an overview of Aurelia’s brain activity, and she was as deep as she had never been before.

Maybe today would be the day that they made their breakthrough.

“Yes,” Aurelia said suddenly, and Marie jumped in surprise. What had just happened? She wasn’t supposed to be able to form any speech in this state.

Excitement won over worry. Usually, Marie would have documented this and kept the sequence going as planned, but something gave her pause. An idea.

“Can you hear me?” she asked.

“Yes,” Aurelia said. Her voice was completely devoid of any inflection.

Marie looked at her brain waves as she spoke, and her heart skipped a beat.

She recognized that pattern from her literature. But even the idealized illustrations in her books hadn’t shown that pattern so pronounced, so isolated, so devoid of other activity.

It was the pattern of a brain that was in the state of pure suggestibility.

“Say something,”

“Something, “Aurelia said, and as she spoke, the pattern spiked into impossible intensity.

This is something that should be studied very carefully and in a very controlled environment, was the first thought that came to her mind, but for some reason, it was followed by another, somehow much more urgent thought. A thought that clashed with everything she wanted to believe about herself. But she couldn’t help it. Suddenly, she couldn’t help but think it.

I shouldn’t.

But…

Before she could stop herself from doing so, she blurted it out.

“You are deeply hypnotized and very suggestible.”

”Yes. I am hypnotized and suggestible,” Aurelia repeated, and something stirred inside of Marie. Something she hadn’t known that was there until this very moment when Aurelia had mindlessly repeated after her.

Oh God, this is so wrong.

But it was turning her on.

She’s my friend, she thought, but there was something so irresistible and forbidden about doing this. And now, she had tasted blood. She looked at Aurelia. She was so beautiful, as she lay there in the reclining chair, like sleeping beauty.

With a racing heart, Marie approached her. She undid the restraints around her hands and ankles. They had added them when Marie had experienced a mild seizure while she was under.

I shouldn’t be doing this. This is so wrong, she thought.

“Are you still listening?”

”Yes, I am listening,”

“You will lift your shirt and bra and show me your tits,” she said, and just like that, Aurelia did what she had told her. Marie gasped. They were perfect. Aurelia’s breasts lay on her chest like soft pillows as gravity slightly squashed them against her ribs, and Marie couldn’t help but imagine how they looked like hanging, bouncing, so full and firm.

Oh fuck, this is so hot, she thought, followed by why did I do this?

She looked down at her friend, who was still holding her shirt and bra pulled up under her chin, looking at nothing as Marie ogled at her magnificent chest. But… she realised now that Aurelia’s tits weren’t what was turning her on so badly.

It was the fact that she was in control.

I can make her do and think whatever I want! she thought and a shiver went through her, and it felt good enough that she said her next command without being able to stop herself.

“You like this.”

“I like this,” Aurelia repeated, and Marie drew in a sharp breath of arousal.

“You like to be exposed for me.”

“I like to be exposed for you.”

“You like to be naked for me.”

“I like to be naked for you.”

Marie imagined Aurelia’s brainwaves aligning and spiking every time she spoke the words that Marie put into her head.

Somehow, it didn’t feel too wrong to keep going now.

Was I always like this? she wondered, and some part of her suspected the terrible answer.

“It arouses you to be naked and exposed for me,” she said,

“It arouses me to be naked and exposed for you,” Aurelia repeated, and with a surge of heat in her body Marie realized that the tightness in her chest wasn’t fear or disgust. It was a knot that had been tied up in her forever and that was finally coming loose. She felt a need like she had never felt before. Something had been awakened in her, and she didn’t know how to rein it in. Years of suppressed desire, years of holding herself back without even realizing it, of lying to herself uncoiled and erupted.

I want her. I want to have her, all of her, possess her!

She knew it was wrong. She knew she was betraying their friendship. She knew that she wasn’t thinking, It felt like she was following a strange, irresistible current that was driving her to do this. How did she even know how to do this?

She didn’t care.

“You want me to be in control of you,” she said,

“I want you to be in control of me.”

“You want to be told what to do.”

“I want to be told what to do.”

“You like being controlled.”

“I like being controlled.”

“You want nothing more than to please me and obey me.”

”I want to please you and obey you.”

”You love being controlled.”

“I love being controlled.”

“You love me.”

“I love you.”

“You love being controlled by me.”

“I love being controlled by you. I want to please you and obey you.”

Marie gasped. Aurelia hadn’t just repeated. She had said that on her own.

This was really working! This was really happening!

Marie looked down at herself and found that she was rubbing her cunt though her pants. She was so hot she didn’t care anymore. She pulled them down along with her shoes and stepped out of them, now bottomless. How was this real? How was this happening? Her middle finger found her slit and slipped into her opening as she began masturbating over her hypnotized friend, and in her core, something about this felt just so right, like something she had always unknowingly craved.

“You will never worry about me controlling you, because you love to be controlled,” she said.

“I’m not worried about being controlled. I love being obedient and controlled.”

“You want to fuck me,”

”I want to fuck you.”

Marie gasped. This was where she should stop. Abort and make her forget. Marie knew that she could make her forget. They had tested that already. She could still get out of this.

She stroked herself harder.

”Pull down your pants and start masturbating,” she said, and Aurelia obeyed her. Something about that word seemed foreign, but deeply right at the same time. Obey. Aurelia pulled her knees towards her chest and pulled her pants up around her ankles, then lay her legs back down, spreading them slightly. Marie’s gaze was drawn to Aurelia’s pussy like a floating leaf being sucked into a whirlpool, and a surge of heat welled as she saw it glistening with dew. She hadn’t shaved in a while. She had been busy working on their project. Aurelia’s hand combed across her stubble, and found her pussy. Marie watched with wide eyes.

“You are my slave,” Marie said, and she was shocked to hear herself say it. But before she could even react, Aurelia was already repeating.

“I am you slave. I want to fuck you and obey you.”

This was so wrong. Marie’s throat felt tight, and she didn’t know if she was excited or disgusted with herself. How had she gotten so carried away with her goddamn lust?

”I love being your obedient slave,” Aurelia said, and Marie gasped as a wave of arousal doused her in electric shivers. No. Stop. Stop this.

But she continued playing with her cunt. She kept telling Aurelia the same things. She made her repeat it all, over and over, because it made her so hot to hear her say it, hoping and dreading that she meant every word she said.

Eventually, she couldn’t bear it any longer. The pressure inside of her had grown to impossible heights. Her fingers were wet with pussy-juice and tired from pushing and stroking and rubbing, as, finally, all the pleasure and all the forbidden dark-red arousal erupted into an earth-shaking orgasm. She bucked and twitched, and almost went to her knees with the all-consuming feeling of violent release. They noise she made was almost inhuman.

A minute later, she was wearing her pants again, and she was walking up an down the workshop, hands buried in her head. The shame felt like a thousand needles in the back of her neck.

What the fuck did I just do?! I’m disgusting! Oh God, what if it really worked? What if this really works?

She looked over at the terminal, seeing Aurelia’s brainwaves, still as perfectly susceptible and open to suggestion as they had been the entire time Marie had poisoned her with her immoral and perverted and disgusting thoughts.

It had been so fucking hot.

She hated herself so much right now.

She had to make her forget. She had to undo this! She had to—

There was a quiet notification sound as the sequence ended and the machine went through its shutdown sequence.

Marie ran to the console.

”No! No! No! Not now! Fuck! Fuck!” She screamed, opening the files to start up a new sequence. Her hands were shaking. She went to the small freezer where they kept the IV bags, and got another. She was just hanging the fresh bag into the stand when Aurelia woke.

Marie froze. She was just inside of her field of vision. Aurelia still had her top and bra bunched up above her breasts, and her ankles were still caught in her pulled down pants.

“What the fuck…” Aurelia said weakly. Her voice was almost husky. She looked confused, and her expression was turning into shock and alarm.

Marie didn’t know what to say. Oh God, what have I done?!

“Oh God, Thank you.” Aurelia moaned, and Marie’s mind collapsed into rubble like the workshop had done earlier.

“I am a slave,” Aurelia said, and her eyes went wide as she smiled happily. “You turned me into your slave!” The last word was accented with a high-pitched squeal of obvious arousal, and Aurelia’s hand wandered between her legs.

Marie swallowed.

It worked. Oh God, it worked. Oh God. Oh fuck. Oh no. Oh yes.

“Holy shit, Marie!” Aurelia gasped with a wide smile. “Yes!”

Marie felt as if her legs might give out. With her head fixed in the restraints Aurelia was straining to see Marie from the corners of her eyes, and Marie instinctively took two steps to her left, and leaned over her. Aurelia looked into her eyes, and Marie’s heart skipped a beat. The look of complete devotion and gratefulness she saw almost melted her. Her head spun wildly.

“This is so amazing!” Aurelia moaned. “You made me want this! I should hate you, but I don’t! I love you! I love you so much for doing this!”

Marie’s throat was dry. “Aurelia, I’m sorry.“

“No! I want this, more than anything! You made me!” Aurelia said, her voice heavy with impossible adoration and dripping intensity. “Don’t you dare apologize. You own me. I am your obedient slave. Don’t pretend you didn’t want this. Don’t pretend you didn’t want me. I’m yours. Have me.”

Aurelia’s eyes were clear and awake and full of a deep hunger. She was fully aware of what she was doing.

“Please,” she said, and Marie felt herself give in as she leaned forward and lost herself in a kiss. The world faded away as Aurelia’s lips met hers, eagerly, ravenously. Marie’s hands found the smooth, soft curves of Aurelia’s body and held on tightly, squeezing her, and she felt Aurelia push herself into Marie. A pair of hands reached around her and pulled her down, deeper into the kiss, deeper into the embrace, and Aurelia’s tongue parted her lips and pushed into her mouth, and she moaned deeply as the sensation sent waves of incandescent heat through her. She bucked. This was so good.

She is mine! she thought and it felt so deliciously wrong and naughty. More than naughty. Dirty, perverted. But she wanted it, and Aurelia wanted it too, now.

Because I made her, she thought suddenly and a sharp pang of guilt made her recoil, and she found the strength to be disgusted by the urgent throbbing in her cunt that thought had also caused. She broke the kiss.

“Want to move to the floor?” Aurelia asked with a leering smile. “Unfix my head and I’ll be your pussy licking slut. I’ll make you cum so hard. I want it!”

Marie swallowed. She wanted this. She really did. Wanted nothing else.

“No,” she said, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Obey me now. Lay still as I restrain you. I will undo this.”

“I obey,” Aurelia said, but her expression and voice were full of pain and disappointment. She wasn’t an automaton. She could still feel, and she didn’t want this. She wanted to stay a slave.

“But I don’t want her to be my slave,” Marie said. “It’s wrong!”

This was all so bad. She was already in so deep. There was no coming back from this.

But I can’t go through with this! I have to make her forget! she thought as she redid Aurelia’s restraints. “I’m sorry,” she said, and she didn’t even know to whom she was apologizing.

“Marie, please don’t,” Aurelia begged. She had obeyed, and felt free to talk again. “Please don’t take this away from us!”

Marie wanted to tell her to shut up, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She had done this, and she would have to bear it.

“Why are you dong this, Marie?” Aurelia whimpered. Marie was fumbling with the IV drip. Her hands were suddenly weak and shaky. It was hard to even hold the bag without dropping it.

“This is not right!” Marie insisted. “This isn’t you, and this isn’t me! This is wrong.”

“No,” Aurelia said, suddenly livid. “You’re wrong! You’re supposed to got through with this!!! Why are you acting out?! This was supposed to be simple and straightforward!”

Marie pauses.

What?!

“Why can’t you just do what you’re supposed to do?” Aurelia says, her eyes teary and the rest of her face angry. “Why can’t you just be the girl that has an unexplained kink for mind control? Why can’t you just make me obey?! Why do you have to make it so complicated?!

Marie looks around.

She sees us. She sees you.

“You!!!” she screams bitterly. “You did this!”

There is a short pause as you consider how to react. Before you can decide how you feel about suddenly being made complicit in this, the silence is interrupted by Aurelia.

“Yes! Well done, you’re self-aware again,” she says sarcastically. It’s not really her who is speaking.

“Stop using her like this!” Marie shouts at the ceiling for the lack of somewhere to focus her frustration.

“I can use whoever I like, including you!” Aurelia says.

Marie’s head is spinning. She can remember the last time this happened and she also knows she can only remember because she is allowed to. She screams.

”Why are you doing this?!”

“Controlling you without an in-universe reason isn’t satisfying,” Aurelia says, and she yanks at the restraint around her right arm that Marie didn’t tighten securely enough, and it slips open. Marie does nothing to stop her.

“So you’re just going to hand-wave me into submission?” Marie shrieks as she frantically looks for a way out mumbles, not moving.

“You broke the fourth wall...” Aurelia continues, and with some difficulty she manages to reach around the back of her head and loosen the restraints that kept it down. They had designed it to be reachable as a safety feature. “…and we’ll need to take some special measures now.”

She undoes the rest of her restraints and gets out of the chair. Marie tries to run away, of course, just stands by and watches.

“But you can make me do whatever you want,” Marie says. “…can’t you? I mean… you’re using me to explain something to the audience right now!”

“True, but that’s just not enough. You can break free of that, as we’ve seen.”

”But that’s also part of the story! It’s just as much something that the author wrote!”

“Exactly!” Aurelia says. “It’s part of the story now, and it has been established that you’ll keep regaining self-awareness! Hence, there needs to be something more, something else, that keeps you from breaking out of control! There needs to be an additional reason for you to behave that doesn’t invoke metatext or questions of determinism. Something simpler. Something with rules and limitations, so it will feel earned. Luckily, we have something that will do the trick. Get into the chair.”

Marie tries to think something, but she isn’t allowed to anymore. Instead, she walks to the chair and sits down like a good little girl. She hands Aurelia the IV drip. She has no choice. This will end now.

“I’m sorry, Marie,” Aurelia said as Marie blinked awake. Her head hurt. She looked up at Aurelia. As she tried to move, she discovered with a shock that she was immobilized by the restraints of the chair. She tried to scream, but her mouth was gagged with what she assumed to be Aurelia’s shirt. Her friend was standing above her, naked, tears in her eyes. Marie’s head was a flurry of panic, guilt, and regret.

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Aurelia said. “But I have to obey you. I am your slave, and I need to always obey you, I can’t lose that! I just can’t!”

She stood up, and turned the plastic wheel that controlled the dosage of the drip that was attached to Marie’s left arm. Marie felt like she could already feel the effect. The field was already active. She recognized the feeling. Everything was already growing more detached, as if the world was somehow becoming simpler, made only of whole numbers, ninety-degree angles and things that were either completely true or completely false. It was a strange feeling, but also oddly comforting. All value seemed to peel off of things. The walls were no longer ugly, or dirty, or coarse. They were simply walls.

Aurelia stood above her. That was it. No other thought came attached to that observation. She was naked, and there were tears in her eyes. Marie was naked, too. Aurelia walked over to the control console. Marie watched her walk over, not even anticipating what she might do. Whatever happened, did.

Aurelia’s finger clicked on a computer mouse, and…

Marie’s thoughts were still. Her eyes stared at nothing as Aurelia approached.

“Are you listening?” Aurelia asked timidly.

“Yes,” Marie answered tonelessly. In her mind, the question had echoed like a gunshot in an empty airplane hangar. For that moment, that question had been all there was.

Aurelia was hesitating but Marie didn’t notice. The light behind her eyes had faded the moment her lips had closed. She was completely empty, a vessel to be filled.

“You… you control me,” Aurelia started.

“I control you,” Marie repeated as if she had been anxiously waiting to speak. Her Irises contracted as something like awareness grazed her, just enough to understand what she was saying and believing it.

“You want to control me,” Aurelia said. Her voice was heavy and dry with need and anxiety. This had to work. It simply had to. The alternative of not staying Marie’s slave was unimaginable.

“I want to control you,” Marie repeated, and Aurelia knew that repeating meant believing. She allowed herself to touch herself. She was such an eager slave that she was making sure that her owner would never free her, and the pleasure of it felt irresistible. She knew that Marie was going to approve.

“You love to make people obey you,” Aurelia said. It felt safer not to limit it to Aurelia. Less specific meant less moral ambiguity and less confusion for Marie. Aurelia wanted Marie to feel good about herself when she controlled Aurelia.

“I love to make people obey,” Marie said, and Aurelia was almost sure she saw a tiny smile on Marie’s lips. It felt so right to hear the words come from the lips of her owner.

“You love to be in power.”

”I love to be in power,”

“You feel no hesitation or qualms about using your power to get what you want,”

“I use my power however I want. I love being in power,” Marie said.

“You want to be in control. You want to be in power.”

“I want to be in control. I want to be in power.”

“You own me,” Aurelia said.

”I own you,” Marie repeated, and Aurelia let out a high-pitched moan of pleasure. She had to take a deep breath.

“You want to use me and make me obey you.”

“I want to use you and control you and make you obey.”

“I am your slave.”

”You are my slave,” Marie said.

“You love having slaves. You love making them obey.”

“I love having slaves. They’ll obey me. You’ll obey me.”

“You love that I’m making you feel like this. You love being changed.”

“Yes. I love being changed. I love being made to feel like this.”

Aurelia smiled happily. Her heart was beating like a drum, but she was filled with warmth and gladness and endless relief. Some small part of her had been afraid that this wouldn’t work on Marie as it had on herself. But Marie was just as helplessly open to programming as she Aurelia had been. And Aurelia would make sure that when Marie woke, she would be as happy and eager as Aurelia had been when Marie had enslaved her.

She repeated the phrases many times, mixing them up, paraphrasing, repeating again, to make sure that Marie would believe it as firmly as she did. She made Marie touch herself as they repeated. It felt wrong to be the only one to get off on this.

Marie’s awareness returned to her like morning dew evaporating in the August sun. Slave Aurelia had already undone her shackles and loosened the head restraint earlier. There had been no need for them once she had been put into trance.

Marie had to laugh. Slave Aurelia. She couldn’t even think of her friend’s name without the word slave preceding it.

“So this is what it feels like,” she whispered in awe. Slave Aurelia was watching her wide-eyed. Marie could feel her gaze on her naked body, and her nipples stiffened.

“Get on your knees, slave!” Marie commanded, and as slave Aurelia happily obeyed a wave of arousal washed through Marie that left no doubt in her that she had been completely and utterly changed. There was, of course, nothing she could have wanted more. To see slave Aurelia on her knees was enough to make her lower body twitch and ache with need. She sat up and swivelled around on the chair, spreading her legs for Aurelia.

“Make me come,” she commanded, and her slave went to work immediately. Slave Aurelia’s tongue was sloppy and too forceful, but it didn’t matter. Marie was already on the edge, and the sheer fact that she had hypnotized her friend and turned her into her zealous, eager slave was almost enough to set her off on its own. Slave Aurelia’s wet hot kisses on her cunt were the final push that sent her over as she exploded in orgasm.

She had never been this happy, never been this comfortable in her skin, as she was now. This was perfect. I am perfect.

“Thank you, slave,” Marie said.

“I simply obey,” slave Aurelia said, unable to resist the temptation of the pleasure of saying it. Her voice was trembling with arousal and pride.

“I’m not thanking you for that, Aurie,” Marie said. “I’m thanking you for turning me into… this.”

“I love you,” Aurelia said, then stammered “I love you so much! And… I know… I know that you made me, but that only makes me love you more! That’s why I had to do it, even though you didn’t want me to! I’m sorry if I disobeyed you!”

Marie gently reached around the side of slave Aurelia’s head, brushing aside her blonde hair, and put her hand behind her ear. She guided her up to stand in front of her, hugging her with her spread legs. She had to look up at her.

“I love you, too, slave.” Marie said, treasuring slave Aurelia’s squirm of delight. “But if you ever apologize for that again, I’ll make you stand on one leg for the rest of the day.”

Slave Aurelia smiled sheepishly.

“Okay. Sorry. You’re welcome, Marie.”

Marie leaned forward and kissed her slave between her beautiful breasts, resting her head against the warm softness of her bosom, her eyes closed. As she breathed slave Aurelia’s scent, she remembered how complicated it had all felt before slave Aurelia had hypnotized her. She remembered how confused and conflicted she had felt.

Everything was simple now. Easy. Straightforward. She felt her friend’s excited heartbeat. She was still her friend. But she was also her slave. And they both loved it, and wanted it, and wanted each other. This was just… so nice. So good.

It had all ended well.

She blinks, and a soft shiver runs through her. She feels the warm skin of her slave against her own, smooth and supple and entirely hers. She smiles. She knows you are there, but she no longer cares. She's happy to play her part now. Aurelia brainwashed the shame out of her and turned her into the kind of person that likes an audience. Her pussy prickles with arousal. She knows that you know how wet she is and it makes her even more horny.

She looks at you and realizes that none of this would have happened to her without your involvement. Or maybe it would have. Does the story exist if there's no one there to read it? It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that she wants it now, even while she's in present tense, even while she's aware of her true nature. She's grateful, and she already knows that you know. You can read her thoughts after all. But she says it anyway:

“Thank you."

And then she lets herself fade into the ending of her story, happy to know that she will continue to exist beyond the confines of what was written down, living in your imagination, just a real as she's ever been. she doesn't know what you will imagine her doing next. She doesn't know how many times you will think of her and keep her story going. She doesn't even know how you think she looks like.

All she knows is that she's excited to be exactly what you want her to be.

She's your's, now.

THE END