The University Placement
In my third year of a business and marketing course at university I was expected to complete a work placement. Lacking the contacts to walk into a big company, I submitted myself to the vagaries of the university placement program. I was placed with a hypnotherapist that wanted to start an online business. It meant moving to the other side of the country, news which greatly displeased my new fiancee, but there was nothing I could do. I reassured Louise that it was only six months and I would be back as often as I could, packed my bags and left for my placement.
Throughout my course I had been prepared for the moment when I met an employer for the first time. Whole lectures had been devoted to teaching and practice meetings to ensure we made a great first impression. No amount of preparation could have prepared me for Holly though. We met the day after my arrival, in a small cafe in the centre of town. As we sat down I desperately hoped I was wearing a more intelligent expression than the other men there. She was frankly gorgeous, although with her pale skin, dark hair and gothic clothing she was the polar opposite of my blonde, tanned fiancee. I learned that Holly had been a hypnotherapist for two years and had found success treating insomnia. She was restricted by her location, and rather than move to a big city she wanted to move her business online and sell hypnosis mp3’s. She needed my expertise in order to move her business online, as she really didn’t know the intricacies of running a website and maintaining a business that way. I was excited to play such a large part in a business, but I knew I was being thrown in at the deep end and I was going to have a lot of work to do.
Over the next two weeks it became standard for me to meet Holly at her front door as soon as she finished her day job. Holly had found a fair amount of success as a hypnotherapist and it kept her quite busy, so while she was at work I worked on the online side of the business. These after-work meetings would usually end with one or the other of us ordering a takeaway, and I began to really appreciate spending this informal time with Holly. It was nice to have a friend. I was all alone in a new town—a situation not helped by having to stay at the university halls of residence, where I was yet to meet anyone sober. One evening as I was complaining about the all-night party my corridor had held, she surprised me with an offer,
‘It can’t be easy trying to work in such a hectic place, and I really don’t want you to burn out so quickly. Why don’t you stay with me? Your university pays your accommodation costs so I won’t even have to charge you rent. I’ve got a spare room and plenty of space.’ It sounded perfect, not least because of the opportunity to spend more time with Holly and so I readily accepted her invitation.
I had expected the university to question my change of address, but to my surprise my tutor emailed me the next day asking me to confirm my new address and rent details. I asked Holly whether anyone had raised any concerns about me moving in, but she evaded the question, joking that she had hypnotised them. I had explained to Louise, my girlfriend, why it was my only option and she had understood, although had she met Holly I might have had a harder time explaining it. Living together Holly and I quickly fell into an easy rhythm. When Holly was working I stayed home and worked on her business. As I was technically staying there rent-free I felt it only right that I take the lions share of the cooking and the chores—something Holly certainly wasn’t complaining about. I still wasn’t happy. I missed Louise—it had been a month since we last saw one another, and it was another month before I could get back to campus. I enjoyed spending time with Holly, but she worked during the day and I didn’t know anyone else. I sometimes felt quite lonely, and I was struggling to get a good nights sleep. Once again Holly had the solution,
‘I don’t know how much faith you have in hypnosis, but I really think I can help you. My first recording is ready to be released, and coincidentally it is designed to help people with insomnia. Why don’t you listen to it? You may find it helps you, and if it does then you can put a testimonial on the website. It’s win/win.’ Holly was so excited that even though I doubted it would work I couldn’t tell her no. I promised to listen every night for a week and see what happened.
That night I put Holly’s recording on my mp3 player and prepared to listen. Despite my skepticism I felt a curious mix of excitement and apprehension. If hypnosis was real I would have bet on Holly being great at it. Her voice was soft and soothing, relaxing anyone who listened to her for long. There was a world of difference between relaxation and therapy though, and even though I wasn’t exactly complaining at listening to Holly all night, I didn’t really think I would sleep better. I forced my mind to stop thinking and focus as Holly’s voice came through my headphones. She had done a great job, her voice was so clear and full of confidence. I quickly settled into the sort of relaxed stupor with which I listened to most of her stories. With her voice guiding me I visualised myself walking along a sunset beach. I could feel the sand between my toes, the cool breeze on my face. I began to wonder whether I was still listening or whether I was already dreaming. Eventually Holly began counting down from 10. As she reached one she snapped her fingers and said,
‘drop’ I felt my mind slip into welcoming darkness.
After two weeks of listening to Holly’s recording I had to admit it had been a success. I had not only begun sleeping again, I was sleeping better than at any point in my life. Listening to Holly meant a peaceful sleep with a guaranteed wake up exactly 8 hours later. It was like an alarm clock that talked you to sleep as well. We released it on Holly’s website and I wrote my testimonial with as much detail as I could remember. Holly smiled when she read about my skepticism,
‘So you didn’t think it would work?’ She said with a huge grin on her face. ‘I’m sure you appreciate my talents a little more now, don’t you?’ I assured her I was completely converted now.
‘Good, I can’t have my guinea pig having doubts!’ She teased, and I laughed along with the joke, trying to hide the unexpected sense of excitement I felt at the idea of more of Holly’s hypnosis.
It was coming up to two months since I had begun my six month placement and I finally had the opportunity to go back home and see my fiancee. I had been busy over the last few weeks as the insomnia recording had been a frankly unbelievable success, and my new-found ability to sleep meant I was able to cope with the increased workload. I had expected to be counting down the minutes until I got to see my girlfriend again; To my surprise I found myself resenting having to leave for a whole weekend and not be able to work. I desperately wanted the business to be a success, and I wanted to devote all of my time to that. I had spoken to Louise less and less, using my workload as an excuse, and I was becoming more and more convinced I didn’t want to go. It was a long journey and I had to book an early train to make sure I was back before midnight. The night before, I went to bed with my headphones on and another disquieting thought in my head—tomorrow I would have to try to sleep without Holly’s voice for the first time in a month. I found that worry far outweighed my excitement at seeing Louise.
I awoke the next morning with a new sense of purpose. It was as if my body knew what to do without my brain having to tell it. I moved downstairs, grabbed the phone, and told Louise that my placement was going to be my focus for a while, that I couldn’t come back and that I thought we should take a break. I had never felt so sure of my purpose, and the words flowed as if I had been thinking about this conversation for three months rather than three days. After half an hour we were through. Louise had reacted first with disbelief, then sadness and finally anger against my unrelenting coldness. Nevertheless I was sure I had made the right choice.
I was less sure two hours later and it showed. Holly came downstairs to find me sat in the kitchen with my head in my hands. I explained everything to her, including the strange surety that had gripped me and how completely that had left me. Louise had turned her phone off, she would never want to hear from me again. I had never felt so low and I couldn’t work out why I had done such a self-destructive thing. Holly comforted me, suggesting we go out for a drink. It was the last thing I was in the mood for but Holly persisted,
‘Come on, the only cure for a broken heart is lots of alcohol. Besides we could both do with letting off some steam, we have been working so hard recently. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was stress that made you think what you did this morning was a good idea’
I winced—it was still far too soon to be reminded of that. Nevertheless Holly had a good point. God knows drowning my sorrows seemed like the smartest thing I could do at that point. Holly noticed I was wavering and pushed me towards the door, saying,
‘Go on. You go and get ready and I will make us lunch. This afternoon you are going to forget about everything’
Afternoon gave way to evening and then night, as one drink became many. It was 1:30am when I finally staggered back to the house. Holly had been true to her word; I could barely remember my own name, let alone how I had broken up with my girlfriend that morning. She didn’t seem quite as drunk as me right now, the two of her that I could see were walking quite steadily. I propped myself against the wall of what I hoped was our house I lit a cigarette. To my surprise Holly didn’t go straight back inside, instead choosing to stand outside watching me concentrate on smoking and remaining vertical.
‘You know, I can help you with that’ She said as I gave up the fight and slid down the wall.
‘With standing up?’
‘No, you moron, with smoking. Since you found my sleep hypnosis so effective I thought I would improve something else about you’ she said with a smile on her face.
‘Haha, you will have more of a challenge this time. I wanted to be able to sleep properly, whereas I’ve never even thought about quitting smoking’ I replied.
‘Doesn’t matter, its foolproof. Check your emails tomorrow morning sweety, you won’t know what hit you’. With that she said goodnight and left me to ponder her words.
The next morning I woke to a hangover, my headache the only indicator of what had happened the night before. I stumbled downstairs to make a drink and then blearily switched my computer on. Once I saw the email from Holly though, my hangover was forgotten. I eagerly downloaded the file and read Holly’s instructions. Unlike her other file, this one was designed to be listened to whenever the urge to smoke felt like too much. It was only ten minutes long, but it was ‘guaranteed’ to remove the craving for smoking. I decided to try it right there. I switched on my mp3 player and played the recording. There was a silence of about five seconds, and then I heard that finger snap again and Holly’s voice saying ‘drop’. My head dropped and I remembered nothing more.
After two more weeks I had to hand it to Holly. I hadn’t smoked a cigarette since she had sent me the mp3 and if I was honest I really didn’t want one. What I really wanted was Holly. Before Louise and I had broken up I had certainly appreciated Holly’s beauty but now that I was single she was all I could think about. Despite living with Holly for over three months, all of a sudden I was feeling shy and awkward. I couldn’t make eye contact with her anymore for fear of blurting out my new found love, and every night I chased her through my dreams. I think Holly knew it as well, it seemed she was constantly teasing me. One night as I hunched over my computer I was distracted by her leaning across my desk, her breath soft and warm on the back of my neck.
‘I have a new recording I want to try. I have to tell you though, it’s a bit more... personal than the last two. This one is going to teach you to be a good boyfriend, exactly what a woman wants in a man’ She span my chair round and gazed into my eyes,
‘would you try for me?’ As if I could resist Holly when she looked at me like that. I slowly nodded my head, my dry mouth rendering me incapable of speech for a moment.
‘Oh thank you honey. You’re the best.’ She gave me a kiss on the cheek that made my head swim and left me to get back to work.
After that everything began moving a lot faster. The better boyfriend mp3 was replaced by a keep-fit one, then another one and another. In all honesty I stopped caring about the contents, I simply accepted each new one as Holly sent them to me. I was aware of their effect though. Since I met Holly I slept better, I no longer smoked, I exercised every day. I had become more considerate and selfless, and a lot more attractive to women. I had never felt better, but I had a lot of obligations. It sometimes seemed like my day was planned from morning to night and I was just a passenger. Meanwhile things were going well for Holly. She had been successful selling mp3’s, or come into money somehow, as she had taken a sabbatical from her day job to ‘finish the job while I was still here’ or so she told me. Whatever Holly was doing, it was private. I never saw her except for when I made her meals. Although Holly was in the house all day, I was still the one doing all of the chores and maintaining the website. I resolved to find out what Holly was doing. One night after we had eaten and were sat on the couch together I attempted to bring it up,
‘Umm, Holly, I wanted to talk to you about something’
‘absolutely honey, would you mind doing me a favour though? I have been working so hard and my feet are sore, would you mind giving them a quick massage while we talk?’ I had massaged Holly’s feet before, they were as soft as the rest of her skin, and as delicious as well. Wait, why did I think that? Before I could think about that I was distracted by Holly’s feet landing in my lap. I tried to gather my thoughts, being this close to any part of Holly was a very distracting experience.
‘I just don’t understand why I am doing everything still. It made sense at first but now that you are off work, do you not want to learn how to do these things for yourself? I will be leaving soon and...’ Holly cut me off,
‘Oh honey, do you think I don’t appreciate you? Believe me I know how important you are. I couldn’t have gotten this close to completing phase one if not for you. All I need is for you to keep doing what you are doing while I work on phase 2. You don’t mind being so helpful do you?’ I shook my head ‘Thank you honey, I promise everything will be ready before you go’.
Finally my placement came to an end and it was time to return home. I wasn’t excited. There really wasn’t anything to go back home to, apart from an ex-fiancee and final exams. I would be catching my train the next morning, and Holly had shooed me out of the house, saying she was planning my leaving celebration. I wondered what she had planned as I unlocked the front door and went back into the house. I walked into the front room and nearly fell over with surprise. The room was lit by candles, which were giving off a disarmingly pleasant scent. Soft music played in the background. In the middle of it all stood Holly. She looked incredible. Her dark hair was loose, framing her face. She had painted her lips an enticing shade of red, making her lips stand out against her pale skin, almost as much as her green eyes did. She was dressed like something out of my wildest fantasies. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Holly noticed me staring and smiled,
‘liking what you see?’ I just nodded my head, my steadily declining ability to speak in front of Holly reaching its natural conclusion.
‘I know you do Honey, I’ve so enjoyed watching you squirm around me recently’ She took a step towards me and said ‘I’m happy to tell you phase 1 is complete!’
‘Erm, great’ I managed once I worked out what Holly was talking about.
‘Well don’t be too pleased, we really haven’t got much time for phase two. Here, come and sit down, you must be tired.’ As Holly said this I realised I was quite tired, in fact my legs felt like they were about to give way. I just about made it to the couch before I collapsed heavily. Holly sat next to me and gently stroked my face, whispering,
‘Good boy.’ My head was spinning. I had no idea what was happening to me. Luckily, Holly filled in the blanks,
‘So, I bet you are wondering what all this phase one stuff is. Well honey, in phase one I hired an impressionable new intern. I persuaded him to move in with me. I used hypnosis to remove all of his ties to his past, to teach him how to be attentive and useful and to take care of himself. Finally I made him fall completely, hopelessly in love with me’ She stopped speaking here and looked at me, hoping to gauge my reaction. I knew what Holly was saying was shocking but the music, the scent from the candles, the warmth and above all Holly’s voice whispering in my ear was lulling me. Seeing this Holly smiled her radiant smile,
‘Following me so far? Good boy. That was phase one. However, that isn’t enough for me. Hypnosis can be used to improve a man in all kinds of ways. You exercise more, eat healthier, you don’t smoke anymore and you would make a very good boyfriend now. That’s all nice, but that isn’t why I became a hypnotist. I can use hypnosis to dominate your will, to control your thoughts, to own you completely. That is phase two—I call it slave making.’
This woke me up a bit. Slave making? That didn’t sound like a good thing. Holly was ready for my surge of resistance though. Moving quickly, she straddled me to stop me from trying to stand up. Before I could do anything else she leaned down and began a kiss that made me limp. Without breaking the kiss she reached down my passive form and undid my trouser, confirming an uncomfortable yet not entirely unexpected fact—I was hard as a rock.
‘Your erection could be because you really, really, want this to happen, or it could be a part of of my post-hypnotic triggers. It doesn’t really matter though, its showing you destiny. Your fate is sealed’. With that she slid herself onto my hard penis and started moving her hips. I had thought about this moment for so long that I completely forgot about the circumstances in which this was happening and started to moan with pleasure. Holly broke this revery with her laughter,
‘That’s it honey, give into pleasure, give into me. Become mine’. As I remembered again what was happening and began to move to get away Holly pinned me with another kiss, her tongue forcing its way into my mouth and leaving me completely passive. On and on this went, Holly driving me to the heights of pleasure before reminding me what was at stake. Eventually I couldn’t take anymore. I had been teased to the point of mindlessness and I was broken. I had no resistance left, and Holly knew it. She began moving faster, driving me to the point of exploding. Holly looked down at me with a knowing smile on her face,
‘This is it,’ she said, ‘Six months of conditioning and a lifetime of planning, and I finally get my slave’ I lay there, too weak to even comprehend what was being said to me. ‘I’m about to make you explode, and when I do all of your willpower, your resistance will be gone forever. You will embrace your destiny, and begin your new life of servitude.’ She began to squeeze, making me scream as the orgasm overtook me. I blacked out amidst the pleasure, my last view one I would become familiar with. Holly, flushed with pleasure and power, whispering in my ear again as her voice bypassed my conscious mind and reprogrammed me.
Everything changed after that. I never did make it back to campus. Instead Holly paid my lecturer a visit and he soon saw that there was no real need for me to return to graduate, he could send me my certificate in the post. I never heard from Louise again either; I can only assume that Holly convinced her not to contact me as well. My days stayed mostly the same. I worked on Holly’s website, I did the chores and I cooked. Some things were different though. My chores now including polishing Holly’s boots as well as organising her shoes, doing her laundry and anything else Holly thought would be a good idea. Holly had fully embraced erotic hypnosis in her online persona, and part of my job lay in screening the hundreds of slave applications she received as well as “proof” of Holly’s hypnotic ability should anyone be stupid enough to ask for it. It was when Holly got back from work though that things really changed. I spent most evenings on my knees, massaging Holly’s feet, making her drinks, catering to her slightest whim. One night, as I dutifully knelt performing my massage duties, Holly began speaking to me,
‘I still can’t believe how well my plan worked sometimes. All my life I wanted a slave, and all I had to do was fill out a form and you literally turned up on my doorstep. You were so easy as well- once I had broken your connection to your fiancee, the rest of your resistance tumbled like dominoes. You are the most attentive man I could ask for, but you are so much more than that. You crawl on your hands and knees for me, you do anything to please me. I’ve taught you so much’ she said, removing her foot from my hands and snapping her fingers expectantly. Knowing what was expected I opened my mouth.
‘And yet’ she said as her toes pushed their way past my lips causing my tongue to retract involuntarily at the salty taste,
‘There is so much you have to learn’ I reached for her other foot and began to massage as I had done so many times before. Holly closed her eyes leaned back, giving me one parting comment before returning her attention to the TV.
‘Its a good thing you have me to teach you’