The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The carpet had a deep enough pile that sleeping on it was not entirely uncomfortable, and so it took Karen several minutes from the point when she first began to regain consciousness to when she realized that something was wrong. Her eyes flew open at that point and she sat up, blinking in confusion as she looked around at where she was.

Someone’s living room... a very large, richly-furnished living room, at that. She didn’t recognize it, though, or remember falling asleep here. She didn’t really remember falling asleep at all, for that matter; the last thing she could recall was being on her way home after work. And now she was here. Coughing nervously to clear her voice, she called out a cautious “hello?” She didn’t see or hear anyone, and nobody responded to her call. Perhaps I should just leave, and figure out what’s going on when I’m somewhere familiar... Climbing to her feet, using the couch she’d been sleeping in front of to prop herself up on, she looked around for the most likely exit.

She felt an odd band clinging around her neck at that point, and when she reached up to touch it her plan to depart was momentarily forgotten under a surge of surprise and concern. She felt a thick leather collar on her throat, complete with decorative metal studs and a tag hanging from the ring in front. “Okay, this is getting too weird,” she grumbled as she tried to undo the buckle. She was still wearing all the clothing she’d had on when her memory ended, right down to her shoes, but who knew what else had been done to her? If someone could bring her to a strange house and put a collar on her without her notice...

Karen’s heart began to hammer with fear, and her attempt to undo the buckle started turning desperate. Why won’t it come off? The strap seemed glued to itself, the collar fused into an inseparable loop. Dammit! I’ll have to cut this thing off when I get home. The fingers of one hand still hooked around the side of the collar, she picked a door and headed for it. She was halfway when she suddenly heard a faint high-pitched whistle that sent a strange shiver down her spine. She hesitated at the sound, turning to look for the source.

There was a man standing in the door behind her, one which a moment earlier had been closed. He was dressed in a dark but comfortable-looking casual suit, and he held a small silver whistle to his lips. Karen fought the urge to flee in terror, staring at him in the hopes that she’d recognize him from somewhere. But she drew a blank. He looked about thirty years old, with brown hair and plain features that could belong to any average joe.

“I don’t think you should go out just yet, Amber,” the man said calmly.

“My name’s Karen,” Karen snapped, and then grimaced as she realized she shouldn’t have given out her name like that. “Who are you, and where am I?”

The man smiled, and ignored her question. “Amber’s the name on your tag,” he countered, “and I think it suits you better. I chose it for you, after all.”

Karen flushed angrily, and yanked her hand away from the collar. “Look here, mister mysterious. I don’t know how I got here, but I’m damned well leaving.”

The man’s smile didn’t waver. “I thought you might feel that way. I’ll just have to teach you otherwise. Sit!” The man’s firm command caught Karen by surprise, but that was nothing compared to how surprising her own reaction to it was. Without a moment’s hesitation her legs folded, and she sat down crosslegged on the carpet. She was so stunned by her unintended compliance that she remained sitting there for almost ten seconds before she tried to scramble back to her feet. “Stay!” The man’s second command cut off her attempt before she even reached her knees, and Karen found that for some unknown reason she just couldn’t.

Karen’s fear finally broke through to the surface, and she looked at the man with terror in her eyes. “What did you do to me?” she whimpered.

“Hey, it’s okay, Amber. Don’t be afraid.” The man’s tone was soothing, but it didn’t help all that much. He walked into the room from the door, heading over to the couch Karen was sitting in front of and sitting down himself. Karen was literally trembling as he approached, but even with the force of her fear behind the desire to run away she simply couldn’t bring herself to stand back up. Her legs weren’t paralysed, she just couldn’t make them do what she wanted them to do.

“The collar you’re wearing is a magical artefact” the man began to explain, his voice as calm as if he were discussing something perfectly sane. “It’s a collar of control, a relatively minor and common enchantment in its day. But, of course, very rare now. This whistle,” he held the small silver whistle up, “imprinted it on me. That means you have to obey my commands. Have to. Don’t bother fighting it, you might as well just go with the flow.”

Karen shook her head in disbelief and denial. “You’re crazy. Let me go, I promise I won’t tell anyone, just... just let me go!”

“Come now, if I was going to do that would I have gone to all the trouble to bring you here in the first place?” The man leaned back in the couch and chuckled, grinning. “No, I’m not going to let you go. You’re mine now, for as long as I want you. Be good and obey me willingly, and things will be easy. I’m sure you’ll learn to love it here, Amber.”

“People will notice I’m missing! Please!”

The man sighed and shook his head. “I figured this might happen. The collar only forces your body to obey; I guess I’ll have to let your heart follow on its own in due time.” He stood back up. “Amber, heel!”

Karen leapt to her feet, suddenly able to command her legs to do so again... but found herself unable to carry out the second half of her desire and run away from this madman. “No! Oh god, please let me go!”

“Quiet!” The man snapped, and Karen suddenly found her voice silenced. She could only sniffle quietly and wipe tears from her eyes as the man walked out of the room into a hallway, and she followed closely behind him. She wanted to run, she wanted to punch and kick and scream... but meekly following felt totally natural, and that was all she could bring herself to do.

The man brought her to a small, windowless bedroom and led her inside. “Very nice. At least the obedience part works as it should. Okay, Amber, this will be your room for now; there’s a bathroom through that door over there and I’ll bring you some food a bit later. I’ll leave you to get comfortable here, and calm down a bit. Stay!” Backing out of the room, the man closed the door behind him. Karen heard the lock click, and then the sound of the man walking away. Tears welling in her eyes and blurring her vision, Karen stumbled over to a small chair and sat shakily. She still couldn’t make a sound, but at least she was free to move around again... within the confines of this room, of course.

It took Karen a while to pull herself back together again, although her watch was missing so she didn’t know exactly how long. Eventually, though, she was collected enough to look around and start thinking seriously about her situation.

She was in the hands of a madman... but at least one with the comfort of his prisoner in mind. The room was quite nice, furnished simply but richly. The bed looked very comfortable, but Karen couldn’t bring herself to lie down on it despite a wave of fatigue from the stress she’d been under. The attached bathroom was also small but good quality, with only a toilet, sink, and mirror. No razors in the drawers, of course... Karen returned to the bedroom again and paced restlessly, trying to work out what to do.

Escape, of course, or at least call for help. But how to get through the door? It was just an ordinary wooden door, she realized. Flimsy. She could probably smash it down with the chair, perhaps quickly enough that the man wouldn’t get here in time... But no, she realized, she couldn’t. As much as it galled and terrified her to admit it, she was prevented from even trying to turn the doorknob by the man’s firm instruction to stay here. He might as well have not even locked it, though in a way she was glad that he had at least allowed her that illusion. Or perhaps he simply wasn’t sure if the command alone would be enough.

Karen angrily yanked on the collar, frustrated beyond words even if she hadn’t already been ordered not to speak. It didn’t feel uncomfortable or tight, though it wasn’t loose enough to slide up or down her neck very far, but it was so damned restrictive in every other sense! Normally Karen wouldn’t have given the slightest credibility to anything described as a “magical artefact,” but given the evidence she couldn’t imagine any more reasonable explanation. Opening the door may be trivial, but in order to escape she first had to get this thing off.

Examining it in the bathroom mirror was no help; the buckle looked completely normal, but was nonetheless frozen solidly shut. She did discover one interesting thing in the process, though. After becoming annoyed with looking at the name “Amber” engraved in her tag hanging underneath, she’d turned the tag over and discovered that “Property of Zeiss” was engraved on the back. An alias, perhaps, but at least now she had a name with which she could label the man behind all of this. She just wished it didn’t say “property of,” that was even more demeaning than a new name being forced un her like this...

Upset by her failure and the writing on her tag, Karen returned to pacing. She’d searched the room from top to bottom three times now and found nothing useful, and then had carefully tidied everything back the way it had been for lack of anything better to do. She was now both worn out from stress and bored. Sighing, she sat down on the floor and leaned her back against the side of the bed. After staring at the wall for a few minutes, she lay down on her side. Perhaps a quick nap would help, she thought wearily, and squirmed a little as she tried to get comfortable. She didn’t feel quite right, somehow...

The thought that perhaps sleeping on the bed rather than on the carpet beside it again didn’t occur to her. Instead, she unbuttoned her blouse and then removed her bra. That wasn’t quite enough, though, so she took off her jeans too. “Hmmm,” she sighed in relief, and curled up at the foot of the bed. She felt much more comfortable now. Within minutes, she had dozed off.

Karen snapped awake again at the sound of the lock turning. Sitting up, confused but instantly alert, she looked at the door and sniffed the air. She caught a whiff of something delicious even before the door opened to reveal Zeiss bearing a tray. Her mouth watered, and for a moment all that crossed her mind was that she was hungry, and happy he’d brought her something to eat.

Then, quite abruptly, she realized that she was totally naked. With a strangled, startled yelp she snatched up her discarded blouse and held it tightly against her chest as she scooted away from him to hide behind the bed. She was torn between total embarrassment and sheer terror; how would this madman react to a naked female captive?

He laughed. “Oh, Amber, there’s no need to be shy. You look quite beautiful, I assure you.” Karen tried to say something in response, but since she still hadn’t been given leave to speak all that came out was another whimper. Zeiss laughed again. “This is fascinating... absolutely fascinating. Come on over here, Amber, let me see you... Come!”

She couldn’t stop herself from approaching Zeiss once the command was given, but Karen remained crouched down with the blouse hugged tightly to her chest in a desperate attempt to maintain her modesty. He reached down and patted her condescendingly on the top of her head as she huddled at his feet, and then ordered “Give.” Miserably, she handed over the blouse she’d been clutching. She just hoped he wouldn’t order her to stand up, too...

Zeiss looked her over, examining her body in a manner that was both clinical and admiring. “Well now,” he said once finished, “Looks like we may be experiencing some side effects, hm? The texts weren’t entirely clear on how this collar would affect a human, just that it could. Looks like obedience to commands isn’t the only behavior it’s imposing.” Setting the tray of food down on the small table by the chair, Zeiss quickly picked up the rest of the clothing Karen had thoughtlessly shed before dozing off. He tossed them out the door, and Karen could only look mournfully after them. She was beginning to realize what Zeiss meant, and the concept horrified her.

Zeiss stood silently for a moment, looking down at Karen’s crouched form thoughtfully, and then headed out the door himself. “Let’s try a little experiment, shall we?” He closed the door, and Karen heard the lock click shut again. She didn’t move until she was sure he’d walked away again, though, at which point she put her face in her hands and shuddered.

Dog collar. It kept running through her mind, over and over. The collar was obviously meant for dogs, and only dogs; it made dogs behave like obedient dogs. Made her behave like an obedient dog... No! I’ll not act like an animal for him! she beat her fists firmly against the sides of her head, and forced herself to stand up straight and tall despite her nakedness. I am not an animal. I’m human.

Her stomach growled, and she sniffed the air again. Hungry human, she amended, looking at the tray he’d brought in. The plate had a stake on it, thankfully well-cooked, and a serving of mashed potatoes; a very hearty meal. She definitely wanted it, and licked her lips in anticipation.

But she couldn’t eat it. Something was holding her back; some nagging concern... Oh god, she thought numbly. It’s on a table. That’s why I can’t... Sinking to sit heavily on the floor again, Karen stared at the food on the table for many long minutes. She just couldn’t bring herself to touch it, as much as she wanted to.

Until, finally, Zeiss returned. He didn’t say a word, he just took the plate off of the table and placed it on the floor. Then he left, and Karen stared at it for several more long minutes trying to hold herself back. But in the end, she couldn’t really do that either. When Zeiss finally came back to pick up the plate, she had licked it completely clean.

“Good girl,” he murmured with a lopsided grin. Karen just curled tighter where she lay, on her side in the far corner of the room, trying to hide her shame within herself. Zeiss left her to work out her thoughts on her own.

For the next few days the situation didn’t develop into anything much worse than that, though it was certainly bad enough that Karen retreated into denial for a while. Zeiss didn’t bring her any replacement clothes, not that Karen would have been able to wear them for any length of time anyway. Dogs did not wear clothes. Nor did they eat food on tables using utensils, drink from glasses, or sleep in beds unless explicitly permitted to curl up on top of the covers. Zeiss didn’t permit her to, of course, instead putting a large padded dog basket in her room for her to sleep in. He left the bed there too, though, perhaps to test the strength of the collar’s conditioning or perhaps simply because it was too much bother to remove.

The only thing Karen was thankful for, and she was very thankful for it, was that nothing seemed to stop her from using the toilet or walking around normally like the human she was. It was all that allowed her to keep her self image as such, and left her with a kernel of hope that she might yet manage to get out of this bizarre hell. She was very careful to keep her hygiene up, too, washing herself every day in the sink and keeping her hair as tidy as possible. It was all she could do to maintain her dignity.

It was while she was washing up on the seventh day of her captivity, however, that she discovered something which very nearly drove her over the edge of despair completely. In hindsight she realized it must have begun earlier, and only gradually progressed until she noticed it now, but... she was starting to change into a dog physically, too. Her nails were thicker and darker than usual. The tips of her ears were pointed, and fringed with a slight fuzz of hair growth. The tip of her nose was slightly upturned, her canine teeth seemed a bit longer than they had been before, and her irises were larger than they used to be. Their color was changing too, from her normal dark brown to a lighter, yellower... amber.

Zeiss must have heard her sobbing, since it was nowhere near time for her daily meal when he came into her room. He’d been leaving her alone for the most part, only coming in to test his control over her a couple of times in the past week and only for short periods; Karen had ended up spending most of the time lying in her basket or doing mild aerobics to keep in shape. It had left her genuinely puzzled over his motives in keeping her here, though it was clear he must be fairly far over the edge in some way to be doing it.

This time, he seemed downright sympathetic and tender. He had sat down next to Karen’s bed and gently stroked her head; she’d shuddered in revulsion at his touch at first, but eventually the canine elements in her psyche began to respond and she slowly calmed down. Finally, she uncurled and looked pleadingly into Zeiss’s eyes.

His expression was inscrutable. He must have been able to see the changes in her face by now, but he gave no indication; perhaps he’d already noticed some time earlier. But instead of saying anything to her about it, he simply told her “Speak.”

It was the first time he had given her leave to talk since the first day, and at for a moment she had no idea what to say. “I don’t want to be an animal,” she mumbled at last. “I want to go home.”

Resting his hand reassuringly on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Amber. You are home.”

Squeezing her eyes shut against the tears, Karen whimpered “Please. My name is Karen. I live at 121 Maple Street. I don’t want to forget...”

“You won’t,” Zeiss murmured reassuringly, petting the back of her head again. “I’ve been doing some more research, now that I know what to look for. And I am certain that you will be happy here. Just go with the flow, as I have always told you.”

“Why? Why are you doing this to me?”

“You’ll find out. Eventually, you’ll understand.”

Zeiss continued to stroke her head for a few more minutes, until finally Karen couldn’t bear how good it felt any longer. “Go away,” she told him softly, and without another word he stood and left. Karen stayed curled in her basket, emotionally drained, and didn’t realize that he’d left her with her voice back until almost an hour later. She was starting to recover by then anyways, and that cinched it. She stood back up and walked over into the bathroom again.

“Subtle changes,” she muttered to herself as she stared at her reflection. “Subtle changes... but I’m watching. I know it’s happening.” It was an oddly reassuring thought.

The physical changes began to abandon subtlety shortly thereafter, as if perhaps sensing it was no longer relevant; within two more days Karen had developed a soft fuzz of a pelt over her entire body and the skin on the tip of her nose had begun to turn dark and leathery. On the one hand it was horrifying to see it happen, but on the other at least Karen was beginning to feel a little more comfortable with her nakedness. The downside was that she could no longer sweat, and she discontinued the aerobics routine she’d developed to pass the time. Panting kept her cool easily enough, but she just didn’t like the image it projected.

Karen had already become quite thoroughly confused about her self-image by that point, and the thickening coat of fur certainly didn’t help matters. She acted so much like a dog under the influence of the collar, and now she was starting to look like one too, that she was beginning to wonder if it might be easier to think of herself as an animal rather than a human now. She continued to resist that, though, and kept reminding herself that she’d only been here for ten days so far. She didn’t want to crack just yet, there were still too many unknowns about what Zeiss had planned for her.

But soon the boredom started getting to her, leaving her pacing incessantly or spending hours endlessly running her fingers over her body to explore the alterations happening to it. Zeiss finally seemed to notice she was going over the edge, or at least the wrong edge according to whatever plans he might have for her. He came to her again the next morning, after she had finished her habitual grooming in the bathroom, and asked how she was doing. Karen didn’t answer at first, wondering whether he knew he’d left her with he ability to talk still and not wanting to tip her hand, but then Zeiss added “Would you like me to let you out of this room for a little while?”

“Yes! Yes yes, oh please, just a little,” Karen pleaded excitedly. In the back of her mind she grimaced at herself, at the eager tone and lack of self-control; she was sure that if she had had a tail it’d be wagging at this point. Thank god for small mercies.

Zeiss chuckled at her response and reached over to ruffle Karen’s hair; she shied away, and he didn’t force the issue. “Alright, Amber, let’s go for a little walk. Heel.” Falling in behind him as he walked out the door, Karen wondered if this was really a good idea. But she didn’t have a choice in the matter at this point anyways, and if nothing else she really did want to see someplace different for a change.

Zeiss took her on a short tour of part of the house, including the living room where she’d first awakened. Karen followed with nervous excitement and trepidation, wondering if she’d run into anyone else around the place. She knew it was unlikely Zeiss would let her see anyone that could rescue her, of course, and in her current condition the embarrassment would be unbearable...

They finally stopped back at the living room again, and Zeiss watched Karen for a minute thoughtfully as she stood next to him. She was curious and alert, sniffing the air incessantly and looking around the room, but remained firmly by his side. “Alright, you can stay in this room for an hour,” he said at last. “I’m going to go run an errand. Don’t leave this room, and be a good girl. Show me I can trust you.”

Karen blinked at him in surprise, then nodded cautiously. Zeiss turned and left the room, closing the door behind him. Okay... what do I do now? Karen looked around the room again. She couldn’t use any of the furniture, her collar would prevent such behavior, but she didn’t feel like sitting down just yet. This was the most promising thing to happen to her so far! She set about exploring the room thoroughly, rifling through drawers looking for anything that might contain useful information.

There wasn’t all that much. A few books lying around, some old newspapers, nothing to tell her the address of the large house or the true identity of her captor. The view out the window wasn’t much help either, the yard outside was large and surrounded by tall trees and fences. She could be practically anywhere.

The thought of leaving the room did occur to her, of course, and she wasn’t entirely certain the collar would prevent her from doing so in this case; Zeiss hadn’t used the word “stay”, and the collar had so far seemed to be tuned to traditional canine commands like that. But eventually she decided against it. For all she knew Zeiss was waiting just outside to see if she’d try that, and if she proved trustworthy now his guard would be down later. The room explored and the decision made, Karen stretched out on the plush carpet and turned on the TV to wait. She turned to the news channel, wondering if perhaps her disappearance had been noted, and spent the rest of her hour watching attentively.

Zeiss came back an hour later, as promised. Karen turned off the TV with the remote, but remained stretched out on the carpet where she was and watched him as he briefly surveyed the room. She’d been careful to put everything back exactly where it had been, and evidently nothing seemed out of place to Zeiss. He smiled down at her. “Good girl, Amber!” he praised. Karen grimaced; that had been the reaction she’d hoped for, but nonetheless it still grated a little. She hoped her expression wasn’t too apparent through the short fur on her face.

Zeiss took her back down to her room again right afterwards, but promised her he’d let her out for a while again soon. Karen looked forward to it; if this became a regular thing, she’d no doubt soon have more information and better opportunities to make a break for it. She just had to keep playing along, acting the role of the faithful pet above and beyond what the collar itself was forcing on her. She resolved to swallow her pride from this point on to accomplish that end, and only hoped that there would be an opportunity resulting from that sacrifice. She had no idea how long she could keep it up, otherwise...

Zeiss’ treatment of Karen began to change almost as much as her appearance over the next week. Soon he was regularly giving her the run of the house’s main floor for hours on end, letting her wander around unsupervised after giving her careful instructions not to touch telephones or go beyond her boundaries. Karen continued to comply willingly, expecting that at this rate she’d have her perfect opportunity any day now.

She just hoped she’d be recognizably human when that time came. Her pelt had finished growing out into a thick, soft coat of light brown fur; it was a slightly darker shade of her own original hair color, though that original hair had been replaced by the fur by this point too. Her nails had developed into blunt black claws, her ears were fully erect triangles that twitched reflexively to catch sounds, and her lower face was beginning to thrust outwards into a short muzzle. Black leathery pads covered the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. She’d even sprouted a tail stub from the base of her spine, an addition to her physiology that felt as much a part of her as her fingers were.

On the twentieth day of her captivity, Zeiss took Karen outside into the back yard for the first time. The sensory stimuli nearly overwhelmed her initially; the scents and sounds were especially intense to her new nose and ears. Zeiss gave her a while to get used to it, sitting quietly on a deck chair while she blinked and sniffed. Then, once she was accustomed to it, he cleared his throat to catch her attention.

“Would you like to play a little game, Amber?”

Karen pondered the question for a moment, and then nodded warily. “Okay, I guess.”

Zeiss grinned. “Excellent. It’s very, very simple.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large red rubber ball. Karen felt a sudden sinking sensation as she realized what game he had in mind.

“Fetch!” Karen sprang into motion, a surge of excitement rushing through her and blotting out the moment’s reluctance. Chase chase chase chase... there! Pouncing on the ball, Karen scooped it up in her hands and sprinted back up the yard to Zeiss. She handed it to him, panting slightly from the exertion. “Good girl, Amber! Now... fetch!” He threw it again, and again Karen couldn’t stop herself from bounding instantly after it. She quickly lost count of exactly how many times the cycle repeated. It was hard to think about it much under the circumstances.

Finally, after dropping the ball into Zeiss’ hands for the umpteenth time, he relented. “Good job, Amber. Take a break.” Karen collapsed to the ground in relief, stretching out on her belly in the cool grass and panting heavily. Her tongue lolled out between her lower canines, longer and broader than used to be, and she couldn’t spare the breath to lick up the drops of saliva that fell to the ground from its tip. She was exhausted.

She was also exhilarated. She had felt totally alive, thrilled to simply run and run and run while chasing a stupid rubber ball. She felt too good to even be disturbed by that fact; it was enough right now simply to accept it. Then Zeiss leaned over in his chair and began scratching her lightly on the back of her neck, right behind her ear, and she found it blissful to simply accept that too. Sensing no resistance on her part, Zeiss kept up the scratching. He slowly increased his efforts into a full backrub, scratching her all the way down her spine to the base of her tail, and with only a slight nudge to prompt her Karen rolled over onto her side and let Zeiss rub her belly. He chuckled out loud when Karen’s leg started twitching reflexively in true canine fashion.

Through the warm, murky haze of pleasure, Karen could only sigh in contentment and think to herself that she had got him to totally trust her now. It was a good feeling, knowing that.

Karen vaguely remembered Zeiss carrying her totally relaxed body back inside and laying her down gently on the floor back in her room. She had rolled onto her back and displayed her belly invitingly to him again with a somewhat goofy smile spread across her muzzle; he’d looked down at her thoughtfully, stroking his chin, and then had finally knelt down to give her a final scratch behind her ear.

She had licked his hand. She had actually licked his hand at that point! Karen shook her head in horrified amazement at the memory; what had possibly come over her? She hadn’t been ordered to, and although the collar had forced canine mannerisms on her it surely couldn’t force her to like them...

He may have come to trust her, but she had also come to trust him in some strange and twisted way. Karen climbed to her feet and patted down her ruffled fur, the pleasant memory of all that rubbing still fresh in her mind. “What am I thinking? What am I feeling?“ she mumbled in confusion. She wandered over into her bathroom, toe-claws ticking lightly on the tile floor, and stared into her reflection as if searching her face for an answer.

Her face was a dog’s face. It was still human in general outline but all the canine features were fully developed now. And dogs love their masters, of course... Karen shuddered, turning away. The man may have shown me kindness but remember that he did kidnap me, she reminded herself. He forced me into this. He put this damned collar on me. He’s responsible for turning me into this animal.

Her perspective restored, at least for the moment, Karen turned back to the mirror and examined herself again. She could almost swear the physical changes had progressed significantly even in the short time she’d been awake that day; her tail was over a foot long now, and she herself was almost a full foot shorter than she had been before. Her fingers seemed shorter too, a little stubbier, and she began to dread the day her hands were no better than paws. Would she be reduced to walking on all fours, too? Was she going to lose her voice for good, perhaps even her mind as well?

Karen retreated back to her room and sat on her haunches in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest and whimpering slightly. She felt no closer to escaping, if anything the chance seemed more and more distant, and her time had almost run out...

She was composed again when Zeiss returned a few hours later, curled up in her bed and resting off the remainder of her exhaustion from the run. He brought a bowl of food; Karen could tell from the scent that it was dog food, the stuff he’d started feeding her a few days back. She hardly even protested or hesitated at the time, she recalled miserably. In fact, she’d been pleased with how easy it was to eat directly from the dish compared to most human foods. “Thought you’d like to build your energy back up,” he told her. “And here, for your effort.” He set a milkbone down beside the food bowl. Karen just stared at it and drooped a little in dejection.

Zeiss noticed her reaction. “What’s the matter, Amber? You don’t like being given a treat?” he asked with mild surprise.

Karen couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but took it at face value and shook her head slightly. “It’s not that... I, I... it smells good...” tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice momentarily choked off in a despairing whine. “I had fun!” she wailed. She hated to admit it to Zeiss, of all people, but she had to tell it to someone.

He didn’t respond, at least not in words. Instead he stroked and petted the fur down her back, gently scratched her behind the ears, and when she began to lean into him he hugged her head to his chest and she buried her nose in his scent. Despite herself, it felt calming and wonderful; she had soon sobbed herself dry. Once her breathing had become slow and regular, he carefully disengaged from her and stood back up. Karen remained sitting on the floor, leaning wearily on her hands to support herself. “I’m... sorry,” she sniffled quietly.

“It’s okay, I think I understand,” Zeiss assured her. “But I know you can handle it. You’re a good girl, Amber. Now, why don’t you eat a bit? You’ll feel better on a full stomach.”

“Later,” she mumbled. “Soon. Please, just... I need to think.”

Zeiss nodded and withdrew from the room, closing the door behind him. Karen just sat and stared dully at the milk bone, her mind whirling with the same pair of thoughts over and over. He can make me behave like a dog but he can’t make me like it, was one. The other, much more reluctantly admitted but just as fundamentally true as far as she could see; I did enjoy myself out there. I did like it...

She just couldn’t face the logical conclusion of those two facts, not yet at any rate. Zeiss was right; she needed to fill her stomach. It’d take her mind off of things for a little while, if nothing else. Crouching over the food dish on her hands and knees, Karen lowered her head and methodically ate the entire serving. Afterward, she munched up the milkbone as well. It was delicious.

Karen slept very soundly that night, despite the intensely troubling thoughts she went to bed with. When she woke up late the next morning she felt fully recharged again; she stood and stretched, then shook herself vigorously and walked over to the bathroom for her morning grooming.

She didn’t wash much any more, without sweat glands her fur didn’t get dirty as rapidly as her skin and hair used to, but brushing her coat to a fine gloss more than made up for that hole in her schedule. She took the opportunity to do a full self-examination to see what changes the collar had wrought during the night, as she did each morning, and this time she found that the results of her survey were almost encouraging. She hadn’t changed quite as much as she’d feared, based on how quickly she’d been changing during the day.

Her tail had passed the two-foot-long mark, as she had kind of expected; comparing its proportions to the rest of her body suggested that it was just about done growing now anyways. The light brown fur had sprouted especially thick and long on it, and she brushed it thoroughly; she found herself thinking it made a passable substitute for the long hair she’d originally had on her head. She wanted it to look nice.

The rest of her body had also undergone alterations, but it was all a matter of incremental degree; her fingers just a bit stubbier, her muzzle just a bit longer, her ears a bit higher and her overall height a big shorter. Her breasts had become greatly reduced in profile lately, but despite her fears still managed to hang on; in fact, as she ran her claws through the fur on her belly, she discovered that they’d been joined by four new ones. The extra nipples that had appeared a few days back, hidden under the fur, had small but definite swellings under them. They’d developed more nerve endings too, she noted with interest as her exploring fingertips sent a pleasant tingle through her gut.

Karen sighed, and sat down in the corner of the room by her bed. Now that her head was clearer and the emotions distanced a bit she needed to do some more thinking. She was slipping into acceptance, she admitted to herself; she must have subconsciously decided that there was no escape, that she should make the best of her situation as it was. But what could she do about it? She didn’t want to suddenly start making things as difficult as she could at every step; not only would it make Zeiss raise his guard again after letting it slowly drop so far, but if Zeiss decided to throw the hardball back at her he could make her life extremely difficult. As things were, he was being kind and generous to her. Caring, even.

He kidnapped you, she berated herself abruptly with a shake of her head. Kidnapped you, kidnapped you, kidnapped you. It is not ‘caring’ simply to be nice about it. Still, she couldn’t shake that feeling despite intellectually knowing better. The man had her completely within his power, but not once had he forced himself on her or forced her to do anything truly unpleasant. Other than making her act like a dog all the time, of course, but that was the collar’s fault and not his...

Unable to get her feelings about Zeiss’ behavior straightened out in her mind, Karen finally decided to see if he was in the house at the moment. Perhaps seeing him would help. Leaving her room, to which she had not been confined at all for many days now, she padded quietly through the hallways looking for him. She heard him moving around upstairs, but upon realizing that he was in one of the rooms to which she was still forbidden access she decided to wait for him in the living room.

The living room had become her favorite room in the house, despite the bad memories associated with waking up there back when she’d first been kidnapped... so long ago now, it seemed, though it was really still no more than a month back. She could watch TV there when he was out of the house or gave her specific permission, though she didn’t do so very often any more; it seemed somehow pointless to try to keep up with what was going on in the outside world. She couldn’t get out there, after all. It was more relaxing and of more immediate relevance to instead lie on the floor in front of the picture window, curled or outstretched as the mood suited her, and watch the front yard for activity.

She’d never spotted another human, though recently she’d startled herself by barking vigorously at birds or other small animals that came into view. Yet another embarrassing but irresistible canine urge that she’d been forced to quickly accept, and fortunately Zeiss hadn’t been bothered by it yet. He seemed to find it amusing, in fact. She settled down in front of the window to wait.

Eventually Zeiss came downstairs and entered the room to find her lying in her usual spot. He smiled at her, and her tail gave a halfhearted wag that betrayed her uncertainty over how to think of him. But I’ve never wagged my tail at all in his presence before, part of her reflected. In fact, have I ever wagged my tail before?

“Good morning, Amber,” Zeiss greeted her, interrupting her thought. “Feeling better, I hope?” Karen shrugged noncommittally and turned her face back to the window. She studied her faint reflection in the glass, ignoring the world beyond it. What am I feeling now? she asked herself silently. Do I hate him? He did this to me deliberately! What should I do now?

“Well, you still seem a bit unhappy about something to me,” Zeiss interrupted again. “That’s no good; I can’t have you moping around the house all day like that. Since you liked your trip outside so much yesterday, how about we go for a little walkies?” Karen cocked her head at him and emitted an incredulous “erf?” Zeiss laughed and pulled a rolled-up leather leash out of his pants pocket. “Just to get out and about for a while, extend our territory a bit. Come, Amber.” The commanding tone injected into the order left no doubt that he expected her to obey, so she set her introspection aside and rose to her feet. She waited with resigned patience while he clipped the leash to her collar, and then fell into step beside him at his clipped command to heel.

Zeiss led her out the front door this time, into the yard that Karen had so far only seen from the window. The overall reduction in size that she’d undergone so far was made quite apparent by how she had to trot to keep up with him, and how the short leash hardly angled upward at all leading from his hand to her neck. She estimated that she must be around four feet tall by this point next to his almost-six-feet. It acutely reminded her of how much she was at his mercy, and she found herself once again considering herself fortunate that he was kind to her. She put the thought out of her mind and focused on watching her surroundings.

It was fairly easy to do; with her enhanced senses and the amount of time she’d spent cooped up in the house, everything around her felt almost electric with interest. It was all she could do to keep from tugging on the leash as she tried to examine every shrub or rock they passed, even with the order to heel still fresh in her mind. But she managed to resist and keep up with Zeiss’ steady pace as they walked out onto the road beyond the driveway. It was obvious that the house was fairly far from any city, although the narrow road was well-maintained. There were no signs of nearby neighbours either.

He took her only a short distance down the road, to Karen’s disappointment, before turning off of the pavement and leading her through a simple wooden gate in the fence. Beyond the dense rows of trees behind the fence lay a large open field bordered by hedges, perhaps a disused horse pasture. The grass wasn’t very tall, but it was wild and weedy underfoot; Karen was glad of the tough black pads that protected her soles. Zeiss stopped just inside the gate and undid Karen’s leash, rolling it back up and putting it in his pocket while she watched him with puzzlement.

Then he withdrew his hand from his pocket and held up the bright red ball with an equally bright grin. Karen groaned inwardly, but the unaccustomed sense of freedom and anxiety from being in this marginally public space had left her so charged with nervous energy that she instantly tensed for the throw. Zeiss hurled the ball as hard as he could and Karen sprinted the entire length of the field to retrieve it for him.

The field was much larger than the fenced-in back yard of the house, and after only four chase-and-retrieves Karen was starting to pant vigorously again. She tried hard to be resentful of this treatment, but it was just no good; between the attention she had to devote to finding the ball in the grass and the sheer exhilaration of it all she barely had time to reflect on how fortunate she was not to have to carry it in her mouth. Even the provisional “yet” tacked onto the end of that thought couldn’t bring her down from the high. Finally, Zeiss wound up for one last throw... and Karen was halfway down the field when she realized that it still hadn’t landed anywhere in front of her. She turned in breathless confusion to see Zeiss still holding the ball with a huge grin on his face. He’d faked her out.

They both laughed aloud, and then Karen jogged back to him with her tail curled in amusement. He put the ball back in his pocket, took out the leash again, and reattached it. Her tail remained curled as she panted all the way home.

The next morning, Karen was quite pleasantly surprised to discover that her body hadn’t changed at all since the previous day. The thought that just maybe she wasn’t going to change all the way into an animal was enough to keep her tail curled that day too, and on top of that good news Zeiss also gave her permission to go into the back yard whenever she wanted. “Just don’t track mud or water in if it rains,” he’d warned. “And don’t leave the yard under any circumstances.” He gave no indication that he noticed her lack of physical changes overnight, and Karen decided not to volunteer that information.

That day was also the first time Karen saw Zeiss doing any activity unrelated to her in any way; as she’d lain on the living room carpet watching the front yard that afternoon he’d come down and read a newspaper on the couch behind her. After reading the rest of the paper, he’d lingered intently on the business section and then made a brief phone call to an apparent stock broker with a few purchasing orders. Karen had watched it out of the corner of her eye with an intentness of her own; this was the first time she’d seen Zeiss do anything that made him seem like any other normal person. After he’d left, she’d sat on the floor and flipped through the discarded newspaper simply out of curiosity about what the man read.

The next day was another without further physical changes, and the same for the one after that. Karen knew Zeiss couldn’t help but have noticed by now, but he still gave no reaction and she didn’t want to risk eliciting one. He was letting his guard down more and more as the days had passed; that day he’d told her outright that he’d be out of the house for a few hours in the afternoon. He told her to heat up some leftover chicken from the fridge for him before he got back at six o’clock, and also to fix herself dinner at the same time. She did so, microwaving the leftovers as nicely as she could and pouring a helping of dog food into her dish.

Her mouth had watered copiously at the scent of the chicken she’d set on the table for Zeiss, but of course she couldn’t eat any of his food unless he gave it to her. She was just a dog, after all.

Another week later things were still going quite smoothly. Her physical transformation had obviously stopped dead, and she had Zeiss exactly where she wanted him; he trusted her obedience almost completely. As the days passed he’d told her to do more and more household tasks; fixing simple meals, cleaning and tidying the house, even bringing him the telephone once when it had rung and his hands were full. He also seemed to grow quite comfortable with simply being around her, often working for hours in the living room on whatever it was he did while Karen lay curled up on the floor at his feet. He even allowed her up on the couch next to him a few times, reached over to idly scratch her ears or stroke her back while she watched and listened to what he was doing. Her life, she was beginning to secretly admit to herself, was actually pretty good here.

And then one morning, quite suddenly, her growing complacency was shattered by a totally trivial and unexpected accident. She was brushing out the fur on her neck, as she did during every morning’s grooming, and the bristles of the brush caught her collar’s buckle on the downstroke.

The end of the strap woven through the buckle was pulled slightly out of place.

Karen froze, brush held in mid-stroke down her chest, and stared at her collar in the bathroom mirror. The memories of how she had struggled and struggled to get that collar off in her first days at the house came flooding back, and of how the buckle had at the time refused to budge a millimeter no matter what she did. But now...? Setting the brush down on the edge of the sink, her hand shaking so much that she nearly knocked it onto the floor, Karen reached up and tried to undo the collar. Her claws made the buckle somewhat tricky to tease open, but even so it only took ten seconds.

Heart pounding like a jackhammer, she carefully removed the collar from her neck and stared at her reflection in the mirror. What’s going on? she thought, How... why... and what’s going to happen now? Am I going to change back? Am I finally free? Nothing seemed to be changing in the mirror, and she felt no obvious unusual sensations other than the urge to pant from the tension.

And also that for the first time in almost a month she felt totally naked.

I’ve got to hurry, she suddenly realized. I have to make breakfast in half an hour. If I don’t show up... her collar still clutched in one hand, she turned and hurried out of her room. She hesitated for a moment before going into the hallway, both out of fear that Zeiss would spot her as soon as she went out there and to cast last glance back at her sleeping basket. Perhaps if I put it back on I can choose a better time, the thought flashed through her mind. She almost went with that, despite not knowing if it’d ever come off this easily again, but then she heard Zeiss moving around upstairs somewhere and she knew she was at a make-or-break decision point if she wanted to escape. Her brain flipped a coin and she ran down the hallway towards the front door. Then Zeiss’ footfalls also burst into a run upstairs and everything became a stress-induced blur.

The next thing she knew she was standing in the foyer facing Zeiss, who was standing in front of the doorway leading out. He was breathing hard from the run, but she was literally gasping for breath; the tension was nearly unbearable. He caught me, she thought frantically. Oh god oh no I did something really bad and he caught me I’m gonna get it now why did I do that!? Bad! Bad, bad! She began to cringe already at the mere thought of what might be coming, shying away from Zeiss with her tail tucked firmly down between her legs.

“Stay, Amber,” Zeiss ordered as he caught his breath. “Stay.” He recovered his composure quite rapidly, though he remained alert to any sudden moves she might make.

“How?” Karen finally panted, forcing the question out past the wall of fear in her mind.

“Hidden camera behind the mirror. I saw that you finally figured it out. Or part of it anyway.”

“N-no... how... my collar?” She clenched the collar tighter in her hand. “It came off!”

Zeiss actually grinned. “That’s not your collar, Amber. Not the collar, the one that changed you.”

“Not magical?” She rubbed her throat, thoughts whirling in a confused maelstrom. “Not...”

“Not for about two weeks now. Remember the first time we played fetch, Amber? You slept so soundly that night, all worn out... and then the next day, you hadn’t changed much at all while you slept? I switched it for a nonmagical double that night. You were fast asleep, never noticed.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want you to become a dog physically. I could have just bought a real one for that. But I needed to make sure it had finished changing your mind enough that it’d stick. And it did. I’ve been testing you since then. You passed them all beautifully.”

Karen felt as if the world was dropping out from under her. The two weeks since then, obeying Zeiss’ every command without reservation, trusting him and earning his trust, and at every moment behaving as much as possible like a dog on two feet... they had all been purely her own actions. No magical coercion involved.

“You had plenty of chances to escape, Amber,” Zeiss continued to speak in the background. “The very next day, I took you to an open field and let you run all the way to the end and back off your leash, remember? You’ve had free run of almost the entire property for weeks now... why didn’t you leave at any point? You must have thought about it, once or twice...”

She barely heard him, but enough got through to resonate with her own questions. She had been resentful, was still resentful... but at the same time, she had been willing. Was still willing. Had the collar really permanently warped her mind as well as her body? How could she possibly tell any more?

Zeiss stepped aside from the front door, unlocking it and holding it open. “Go ahead,” he said softly, watching her expression intently. “If you really want to. Consider it your final test, if you like... and make me proud.”

With a yelp of anguish she turned and ran back the way she had come, slamming the door to her room behind her and lunging into the bathroom. She stared at the reflection in the mirror, vision blurred by tears but clear enough for her to plainly see the dog-woman that she had become. The image in the mirror matched the image of herself in her mind... almost.

Almost tenderly, Amber placed the collar back around her neck and fastened the buckle again. Now the image was complete, the person that she truly was. The leather strap was a very good copy of the first one, too good for her to see a difference, and the tag was probably the original; it had her name engraved on it, after all. And on the back, “Property of Zeiss.”