The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

She was walking along the shore, enjoying the feel of the warm sand as it pressed between her toes. The relentless ocean breeze tugged at her auburn hair. She stopped to spin in a circle, something she loved doing, raising her arms like a helicopter and laughing. In the distance she spotted Master waiting for her, and she gleefully ran to him, taking his arm and walking with him down the beach path towards the lighthouse.

“Hang on,” she said sweetly, “I have to go talk to that guy.” She walked over to James and kissed him passionately, wrapping her hands around the back of his head and pulling him in closer, deeper. He placed his hands on her tanned, bare ass and squeezed. Oh shit, I’m naked, she thought, but James didn’t seem to mind.

He looked at her and smiled. “Let’s go shopping for a new ladder.”

“I’m not wearing any clothes.”

“You can buy them at the hardware store.”

She smiled back. “I’ll tell Master, it’ll make him happy.”

Sprinting back to the water’s edge, she found Master standing knee-deep in the water, looking out towards the horizon. He turned to face her, but now he was the man in the tan trench coat, looking at her with a bemused smile. She shuddered and backed away.

“It’s time to obey, Kate.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You can’t make me.”

He held out his hand. “Obedience is Truth. Are you tired of the Weltschmerz, Kate?”

She turned and ran to the end of the beach, following the access road to the state highway and back into town, but he followed her in his white van, and it was all she could do to keep ahead of him. Finally she stumbled and fell to her knees. She looked up to find him standing in front of her, shining a penlight into her eyes. “Watch and sleep. Sleep and obey.”

She rose unsteadily to her feet. She repeated the words in a dull voice. “Watch and sleep. Sleep and obey.”

“Yes Kate, watch and sleep,” said Claire. She stood at Tan Trench Coat’s side, her blue eyes empty and lifeless. She reached into her silver purse and pulled out a pistol. “You must obey,” she said, handing the weapon to Kate.

“Claire, I’m sorry,” she said, taking the gun into her hands. But the blonde said nothing in return.

She felt Nikki’s hands on her shoulders, lightly massaging them. “We obey without question, Kate. The spiral commands us.”

“You will carry out your orders,” said Tan Trench Coat, pointing to his left.

She followed his finger and turned to her right, where James was chatting with a man in an oversized fur coat. She calmly raised the pistol and fired, hitting the man in the coat between the eyes. He fell to the ground, and James turned to her, eyes wide with fear. “Azure,” he said, waving his hands at her. “Azure.”

“No….” she whispered.

“I love you, Kate.” He blew a kiss to her. “I’ll dream of your beautiful face every night.”

Her finger curled around the trigger.

“NO!”

She sat up in her bed, clutching the sheets and gasping for breath. “It was just a dream,” she chanted to herself, rocking back and forth. “It was just a dream.” She stared at her reflection in the floor mirror. “I’m really tired of having dreams,” it said back to her.

From the hallway, she could hear the sound of heavy footsteps moving quickly, followed by a knock on the bedroom door. “Hey, Kate? Are you okay? I heard you yell.”

“I’m fine, Claire. Just had a bad dream, that’s all. Are you up?”

“Up and ready to leave. I gotta make a nine o’clock this morning, so I need to go home and change and shower. Thanks for letting me crash here last night. The people of this city owe you their lives, probably.”

“You’re the best, Claire. You can crash here anytime. Thank you so much for everything.”

A pause. “Can I open the door, or are you buck naked?”

She looked down at her pale, smooth skin. “Yeah no, hard no on that one. I’ll call you, though! You’re a saint!”

Claire bellowed out another laugh, likely waking up half the neighborhood. “I’m quiiiiite the op-pos-ite!! See you later, Lifetime Girl! Call me if you need anything!”

Kate listened as Claire’s footsteps grew faint. Waited for the front door to slam, for the beep of the remote car alarm, for the sound of Claire’s car roaring to life. Finally, the silence returned. She huddled beneath the sheets and closed her eyes, too afraid to fall back to sleep.

“That’s a great dress,” said James, eyeing her like a lovestruck teenager. “It really shows off your boobs.”

“You’re so gross, it’s sweet,” she said, bending over so that he could catch a better view of her cleavage. “I’m going to drive all of the men and women wild with passion and jealousy. And you, husband dear, get to take me home at the end of the night.” She paused. “Maybe.”

“Oh? You have a boyfriend on the side?” He kissed her, stealing another glance at her chest. “I’m not surprised. All of these road trips for work.”

“A sailor in every port? Me?” She gave him a hurt look. “Hmmm, no. The boss tends to frown on me if I skip out of required evening functions to pick up strange men at the docks. Besides, I’m sick of traveling. And I’m sick of you traveling. We need to spend more time at home together, like this. That reminds me, we have reservations at seven. You ready?”

“Almost ready,” he said, feeling her disapproving eyes burn into his face. “Not all of us can be punctual to a tee, Kate. It’s my cross to bear. I blame the mysterious old woman who cursed me as a young man.”

“You’re gonna hear some cursing if you don’t stop talking and start getting ready. Go forth and get ready! Chop chop!” She gave him a peck on the cheek and pointed to the stairs. She watched as he took them two at a time, rapidly disappearing into the upstairs hallway.

Her phone began to buzz. She fished it out of her purse and answered. “Hello?”

“Hello Kate. Are you tired of the Weltschmerz?”

Her eyes glazed over. “Yes.”

“Are you alone?”

“No.”

“You will make yourself available for instruction at nine tomorrow morning. You will call in sick from work if you must.”

“I understand.”

“You will remember only the programmed events.”

“Yes. Stupid telemarketers,” she muttered, hanging up the phone and placing it back into her purse.

The phone buzzed, and she blearily opened her eyes, waiting for it to go to voicemail. Then she remembered James. Crossing her fingers, she picked up. “Hello?”

“Hello Kate, it’s Doctor Mulroney. We got disconnected last time? I was really hoping that you would call back. I’m sorry if I frightened you. I know that tumors can be scary.”

“You didn’t. I’m sorry. I should have… well, you know what’s been going on.”

“Yes, I know. And I’m sorry about that. But if this is something bad, it’s better to deal with it right away. It’s very important that we do. Waiting will only make it worse. I want to see you this week, if that’s okay.”

She placed her free hand on the back of her neck, as if expecting to find the dangerous lump there, lurking just beneath the surface of her skin. “Yeah, it’s okay. I’ll call and set up something. I have to call Doctor Kapoor for an appointment, too. I’ll call this week, for sure.”

“I’m glad we spoke, Kate. I care about you. We’ll get you through this. Please see me as soon as you can.”

“I will,” she said, staring down at the phone. “I will. Promise.”

It was late for a morning jog—the sun was high in the sky, and breakfast was long since over—but she decided to hit the neighborhood anyway. She quickly found herself on the same route as always, running past the same mailboxes, making her way across the same intersections. It suddenly occurred to her that she now had more than a week’s worth of memories in her head, things she could recall clearly and without any fuzziness at all. Not all of them were good, but they were there. They were hers.

And then there was Michael Oliver.

She jogged in place at Hoover Avenue, waiting for the traffic to clear, as Oliver’s mugshot appeared over and over again in her head. Was he real? He was, that was for certain. Was she real? She obviously was. Did they meet? They were nearly in the same place, at roughly the same time. But as far as the press coverage went, she didn’t exist. No mentions, no photos, no mug shot, nothing.

Maybe I just read about this back in the day and it’s stuck in my head now, and I just remembered it wrong. That’s what Claire said. And Doctor Kapoor said there would be things that seemed real but weren’t. The light turned green, and she continued her jog across Hoover.

Nikki. Beautiful, striking, that hair… just like the woman in the photo. But if she existed, why wasn’t she arrested along with everyone else? Did the police let her go? If so, where did she go? Nikki didn’t have a last name. It would be nearly impossible to track her down by just a first name alone. And even if she could be found, what if she didn’t remember being there, either?

Brainwashing. That’s what the girl’s parents accused Oliver of doing. What if they were all brainwashed? It would explain the memory loss. It would probably explain a lot of things, like why they were all in bikinis, or why the man in her memory was called ‘Master.’

She stopped again at Constitution, jabbing at the walk sign while she did calf raises on the corner. You can’t just mind control people like that, Kate. That’s not how real life works. Pressured that girl to join? Tricked her into joining? Maybe. Brainwashed? That’s dumb. No way.

Her reverie was broken by the sound of horns honking. Looking up, she watched as a white van rolled past her. The passenger side window was down, and a hand waved to her. More mad beeping followed, and then the van was gone, leaving behind a tremendous cloud of acrid, gray smoke.

She watched it drive away, and shrugged. So why did I join them, then? Who tricked me?

Her thoughts bounced from face to face, and subject to subject, all the way down Constitution and into the Art District. It dawned on her that she had run for far longer than planned, and was now a good four or five miles from home. Her legs were aching, and the pretty little sidewalk cafes that lined the street were too tempting to resist. She grabbed an outdoor seat at a coffee shop and settled in with a latte and a naughty, Kate, naughty blueberry scone. She rubbed her sore thighs and groaned.

“Ugh, I feel like garbage,” she said, fighting the waves of nausea and dizziness that threatened, at any moment, to send her running for the toilet. “I’m really sorry, Jerry, but I’m going to have to call in sick today. Can you cover the Whitestone accounts for me?”

“Oh Kate, I’m sorry! They were really expecting you to… hey, can you call in around ten or so? At least be there to answer their questions, maybe do a little walk-through?”

“I’m really sorry, Jerry. I think I ate something bad at the restaurant last night. I think they gave me food poisoning. My husband woke up fine, but I’m… urp. Oh God, ugh. I think I need to just pass out all day, or I’m going to puke my guts out in the middle of the teleconference.”

She heard Jerry sigh. “Okay, Kate, I’ll see what I can do. Feel better soon.”

She lay back in bed and closed her eyes, begging the room to stop spinning for just a few seconds. Maybe it was the dessert? I shouldn’t have had the custard. I should have listened to James.—

The phone rang again, and she answered. “Jerry, I’m really sorry, but—”

She sat upright in her bed, sending pillows tumbling to the floor. “Yes, I am alone and ready for instruction.”

“Very good, Kate. Is that you? Kate Pendleton? Hey, Kate? It’s me, Tonya. Remember me? Kate?”

She looked up.

A woman looked back at her, clearly expecting Kate to recognize her, and rapidly becoming disappointed and confused when she did not. “Tonya? From the office? From Farmingham? C’mon, it hasn’t been that long, has it?”

Kate looked the tall woman up and down. Suddenly, a door opened and the memories all came marching out; Tonya, from Accounting, from back when she worked at Farmingham. Married, two kids, maybe three. That Tonya. “Oh, hey, Tonya!” she said, more excited by the thought of having an actual memory than by the thought of running into a coworker she rarely dealt with and barely knew. “I haven’t seen you in so long,” she added, realizing that she had no idea if that was true or not.

It was, apparently. “I know! Not since, well, you know. How are you? Did you find another job? Where are you working these days? How’s your husband Josh?”

“We’re fine. James is my husband, he’s doing great. We’re doing really well. I’m working from home, have an art business, sell some stuff online.” She paused, then decided to plunge into open speculation. “We do just enough to stay afloat and live comfortably, I guess.”

Tonya seemed pleased. “Aw, that’s great! Hey, do you mind if I grab a seat? Been walking around all morning. It’s just so nice out, isn’t it?” Without warning, she slid into the heavy metal chair across from Kate and picked up the discarded menu. “Ooh, they have pastries! How’s the scone? I’m supposed to swear off them, but I just can’t resist.”

“I… so… um… how are things back at the office?” Kate asked, looking down at her latte and scone, which were not yet finished enough to justify an early exit from the table. She proceeded to take a long, deep sip to speed the process along.

“Oh, you know, the usual! You should see Jerry, he’s all cut up since you left. Doesn’t know what to do or which way to turn! I told them you really ran that place from behind the scenes! Course they don’t listen to us accountants hardly ever. Did you meet Kerry? She’s your replacement. Kerry and Jerry. Oh, and Lita’s having another baby girl, probably in about three months or so. Brandon left to go back to grad school, and… oh, and I got a new tattoo last month, but you don’t want to see that. I’d get arrested if I tried to show it to you anyway, ha ha!”

“No, I guess that would cause a scene, huh?” She dug into the scone, buying herself time on what to say next. “Say, did I ever tell you about the job I had before Farmingham?”

“What, that accounts thing? I think so. Yeah, Somewhere out in California, I think. Or maybe Texas. It was warm, anyway. But hell, why am I telling you about it? You know it better than I do! Why do you ask?”

Dammit. “Oh, it just reminded me of the stuff you mentioned,” she lied, trying to sound relevant. “We had three people there with the same name; Larry, Terri, and Carrie. People would get them confused all the time. One of the reasons that I quit!”

“Well hell, I can see why!” Tonya laughed and waved for the waiter. “Hey, can I get a blueberry scone and a triple-caf mocha with non-fat milk? Thanks hun.” She turned back to Kate. “I gotta tell you, and don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m really glad that you quit. I can’t believe that they were going to fire you. After all the work you did for them? All of those extra hours? I’m in accounting, and tell you what, I see way worse stuff from corporate than what they were mad at you about.”

Kate put her latte back on the table. “Wait, they wanted to fire me?”

“Mmmmhmmm. After that Boston thing. You didn’t know? I swore that Jerry told you about this. I had to tell Jerry about it in the first place! Did he just tell you to quit without telling you why? Typical Jerry. I swear, that man wouldn’t stand up to an angry chihuahua. You wanna know what happened?”

Kate felt herself lean forward, the edge of the metal seat cutting painfully into her thighs. She ignored it. “Yeah, no, Jerry didn’t tell about any of this. What happened? I don’t want people spreading false stories about me. If I decide to go back into the industry… I need to defend myself. Please, go ahead.”

“Well here’s what I heard. So back in late March, Old Man Berghoff went looking for you at the Boston conference. The one at the Hynes? Anyway, he was real mad because he said that he was looking for you for three days and never saw you. I mean, there’s like a thousand people there! How’s he gonna find you in a crowd like that? So he complains to Peters, and Peters pulls up your post-conference report. I guess you said that you were in a networking seminar that Berghoff went to, and he didn’t see you there.”

“Wow. Well, you’re right. There’s a lot of people at those conferences! I was always good at filing those reports. No one ever complained.”

“Well that’s just it, and I’m really sorry for this, but I made it worse for you by accident. That same week, I got a call from the Holiday Inn in Miami, saying that they were sorry that your room wasn’t ready when you got there and offering to reimburse you for whatever hotel you ended up staying at instead. But your receipts were all for the Holiday Inn, showing you paid them, so I got into a big fight with the idiot in Miami about who owed who what. Peters heard me arguing and before I knew what I was doing, I was telling him all about it. So he told me right there and then that he thought that you were lying in your reports and that you weren’t going to conferences at all.”

“Oh, come on,” said Kate. “Even I would remember going… I mean, obviously I was there. Where else would I go? It’s my job. It’s like a free vacation!”

“I know, right?” Tonya’s mocha and scone arrived, and she took a long sip. “Mmmm, mmmm. Perfect for a day like today. Anyway, yeah, who’s not going to go to Miami Beach in the middle of winter? Crazy old Peters, maybe. He was really worked up about it, wouldn’t let it go, so I told Jerry to tell you that you were probably going to get fired, or at least written up something fierce. I should have know that Jerry didn’t have the guts to do it. So, I’m sorry. Like I said, I’m glad that you quit. You look happy!”

Kate forced a smile. “I’m doing okay. I like painting, James is great, he’s really supportive of my decision, and…. yeah. That’s so ridiculous that they think I was some kind of slacker! I remember pulling fourteen-hour days for them, and before the promotion, I got paid peanuts! Mac even said that he was promoting me so that he didn’t lose me to someone else.”

‘Well, I’m sorry. Like I said, you look good. I wish I looked half as good as you! This federal fiscal year stuff is wearing me out. Anyway, what else you want to talk about? Something less angry. It’s my flex day, and I don’t want to think about work. You got any kids?”

“Not yet,” said Kate, staring into her latte and wondering what else her brain was hiding from her.

“Polaris Consultants, this is Tina.”

“Are you tired of the Weltschmerz, Nikki?”

She stared at her office wall. “Yes.”

“You have a family emergency. You must leave work immediately. Tell your employees, and proceed to Meeting Point Delta. Obey.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Thanks for the ride home, Tonya! We’ll have to do this again sometime.” Kate climbed down from the enormous pickup truck’s passenger seat and waved. “Say hi to everyone for me!”

“Will do! We’ll keep in touch! Have a good one!” With that, Tonya was off, driving down Harrison at a clip fast enough to earn her a speeding ticket. Kate shook her head and walked inside the house.

“James?” she asked, hoping for a response. There was only the faint dripping of the kitchen sink. Feeling deflated, she reluctantly made her way into the kitchen and tightened the faucet handles. She eyed the bottle of Stephenson’s Quality Country Bourbon warily, like an old enemy. “Not today, buddy, not today.”

She made her way upstairs and spread out on the bed, making mental plans to take a shower or a bath after a quick nap, or perhaps the other way around. She thought about James and where he was, what he might be doing, whether he would ever really come back. He’ll come back. He has to come back.. Without thinking, she picked up her phone, and dialed.

“Doctor Mulroney’s office, this is Amy! Hi, how what can I do for you today?”

“Hi Amy, this is Kate Pendleton. I’m calling for—”

“Oh, hi! You had the head injury and the scans! Oh, are you calling about that? I have some good news for you. Everything came out negative, just like I thought. No tumors, no white spots, no weird things, it’s all good. Your brain is perfectly healthy!”

Kate idly scratched her forehead. “But Doctor Mulroney told me to make an appointment because he found a tumor. He called earlier and said… but there’s nothing? Why would…”

Well…” said Amy. Sounds of shuffling paper followed. “…I’m not the expert, but we sent your scans over to Neurology and they said everything was negative. I gave the report to Doctor Mulroney myself. I’m sure it was in there. Huh. Maybe he was talking about something else? He’s usually very thorough, you know. I can ask him about it. Or you can call him. He’s normally in his office right now, but he said earlier that he had an emergency patient to see and that he’d be back late this afternoon. Sometimes that happens. Anyway, it’s your call! Like, literally!” She laughed.

“No, it’s okay, you’re really the best. I’ll give Doctor Mulroney a call this afternoon, if he’s in. Three o’clock sound good?”

“Three-thirty, he told me.”

“Okay, I’ll call him then. Thank you, Amy, you’re great.”

“No, you’re great!” she squealed. “Have an amazing day!”

The shower seemed like a less and less of a good idea the more she thought about it. One look at the tub where James had fallen, and she immediately questioned the value of ever showering again. The smell of her sweaty workout clothes eventually drove her into the water, and she tried to soap up as quickly as possible.

Why did I do it? Claire’s right, I hate violence. I could never really hurt James. I love James. She let the water run over her body, feeling her muscles slowly relax. She turned and let the shower soak her hair. Suddenly she reached her arms out, and turned her feet inward, wobbling a bit as she did so. Just like that. Just… stop it, Kate. Just stop it. Just don’t do it again, ever. Never ever. I promise, James. Never again.

She worked the Manly Shampoo into her hair, letting the scent fill her nose, imagining his strong hands on her soft skin, feeling the heat build inside of her. I promise. Her left hand crept down below, while the right one moved up to her chest, and she let herself sink into pleasure for a while.

She stood in middle of the office, hands loose at her sides, car keys and purse discarded carelessly at the door. He stood in front of her, pacing back and forth and carrying on a phone conversation, but her dull, mindless eyes stared straight ahead into nothingness.

“Banana float crested awful. Terrific blue process computer lichen? Round. Round. Earl finch compartment radio.” He laughed. “Mermaid, lesson fallacy top granola!”

He ended the call and turned to her. “Were you seen?”

“No,” she said softly.

“You’ve done very well.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you ready to begin your next mission, Nikki?”

“Yes. I am ready for instruction.”