Virtually Real
Keith might never have noticed the woman if she hadn’t looked like an amalgam of several of his friends from days gone by.
It was her hair that first caught his attention as they passed on the street: a chestnut-brown cascade of tight curls similar to Maisie’s. For a moment he wondered if it could be Maisie, but then it registered in his mind that this woman was several centimetres taller. Even so, the resemblance stirred up happy memories, and he smiled fondly as he reminisced about the cheeky little prankster.
The next time he spotted the woman, she stood slightly closer than social distancing mandated while they waited for the lights to change at the pedestrian crossing at the end of the street he lived on. On that occasion, it struck him that she dressed a lot like Bonnie—or, at least, the way Bonnie had at university. Since they’d lost touch some years ago, he had no way of telling if she still went in for such flowing hippie-ish hotchpotches of colour and pattern.
He found it hard to imagine Bonnie with a different look, but people did change. He knew he had, and he spent the rest of the day in a state of gloomy introspection, reflecting on the life choices and circumstances that had brought him to the solitary, dissatisfied existence with which he’d wound up.
The woman had just finished using a cashpoint the third time that she caught his eye. As she turned back to the street, tucking her purse back into her shopping bag, he realised that her facial structure was reminiscent of Gwen’s, albeit without Gwen’s habitual scowl, and he hurried past, trying not to let the reminder reopen old wounds.
Since then, he’d been aware of the woman somewhere along the way what seemed like every time he’d popped to the shops. Briefly he wondered if she could be stalking him (or, assuming it was just coincidence that he saw her so often, if she might think he was stalking her), but it was too daft an idea to entertain seriously. Most likely he just didn’t remember all the times she hadn’t been around.
Then came the first time they openly acknowledged each other’s existence. He was in a supermarket, reaching for the last bottle of semi-skimmed milk in the refrigerator cabinet when a slender hand came out of nowhere and snatched it away. Swivelling round, irritated, he found himself facemask to facemask with the woman, her greyish-blue eyes twinkling mischievously. Reluctance to make a scene immediately overwhelmed his annoyance, and he sighed, turned back to the cabinet, and settled for full fat.
A couple of days after that, she was just ahead of him in the checkout queue at a different supermarket. Her eyes met his as she placed the divider on the conveyor belt, and she gave a slight nod of recognition.
“We must stop meeting like this. People will start to talk.” He didn’t realise he’d spoken out loud rather than just thinking it until the woman’s mask creased with the smile beneath.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, mortified. “I didn’t mean to…”
“Don’t worry,” she interrupted, her voice a little deeper than he’d expected it to be. “I know how it is. All this social isolation… Sometimes you have to talk to yourself just to hear a real voice. And then it becomes a habit, and in the end you forget to keep quiet when there are others around.”
He nodded. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
“Understanding is part of my job.” She opened her purse, took out a business card, and dropped it on his side of the divider. “Give me a call if you’d like to chat. Strictly social—I’m not touting for business. We must be neighbours: maybe we can be friends as well.”
The cashier began scanning the woman’s groceries, and she moved along to the till.
Back home, Keith sat at the kitchen table. In one hand he held his mobile, in the other, the card, which gave the woman’s name as Nicole Fielder, and indicated her to be a qualified hypnotherapist.
Should he call her? She was the first woman (apart from his mother) with whom he’d had anything approaching a conversation in a long while. The hypnosis thing made him wary, though. He knew it was irrational, a holdover from having watched a Sherlock Holmes film featuring a femme fatale hypnotist at an impressionable age, but recognising the absurdity of his fears didn’t entirely rob them of their power.
The phone rang, startling him. He answered it, and his heart sank at the sound of yet another voice synthesiser spouting lies about his accounts having been frozen. These days he got more calls from mechanised scammers than from real people.
That settled it. After hanging up and blocking the number, he brought Nicole’s card closer to the phone and dialled.
A couple of rings later, she picked up. “Fielder Hypnotherapy Practice. How can I help you?”
Keith swallowed, and resisted the urge to hang up. “Er, hi. We met in the supermarket this morning…”
Her tone changed, became less formal. “Oh, I am glad you called. I was hoping we could make a proper connection after you broke the ice like that.”
“The ice-breaking was you. I was all: open mouth, insert foot.”
She tutted. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You spoke first, even if you didn’t mean to. And you just made a harmless joke. I’ve heard far worse from people inadvertently vocalising what they were thinking.”
He managed to keep from asking for examples. “Well, thanks for taking it so well, anyway.”
“Look, do you have some kind of videoconferencing set-up? I’d love to have a proper chat, but I ought to keep this line free in case anybody wants to book a session. Besides, I prefer to have at least some form of facial contact when I’m talking with someone.”
“I’ve got Zoom and a webcam.”
“Perfect! Give me a few minutes to get things set up, and I’ll text you the details.
“By the way, what’s your name? I need to call you something on my contacts list, and a proper name would be better than Q-man.”
The name puzzled Keith until it dawned on him that she must have said ‘queue man’ in reference to the queue where they had spoken. “Oh! Um, it’s Keith.”
“All right, Keith. Talk to you again in a bit. Bye!”
“Goodbye.” The line went dead. For a moment he stared at the phone in his hand, and then he stood up and headed for the spare room where his PC was set up.
When Nicole appeared on the screen, Keith was slightly surprised at how mundane her surroundings were. What with her dress sense and her profession, he’d envisaged a dimly-lit space festooned with drapes, wind chimes, crystals and candles, not the sort of office where doctors saw their patients. Now that he came to think about it, a low-key clinical setting like that made more sense, and he inwardly reproached himself for stereotyping her like that.
“That’s better.” Nicole leaned back in her chair. “Can you hear me all right?”
“Fine. So, what did you want to talk about?”
“Why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself?”
There wasn’t much for him to say on that topic, but somehow he found himself talking for over ten minutes. When he realised how long he’d spent answering her question, he felt a little embarrassed at having rabbited on like that, and slightly uncomfortable that Nicole had got him to open up with such ease.
“Enough about me. This is a conversation, not a consultation, right?”
“You’re right. My bad: I slip into professional listener mode so easily, sometimes I forget what normal social interaction is like. All the more easily under lockdown.”
He hoped she wasn’t about to start talking about her work. “Yeah, it’s still a weird situation, even though it’s been going on for so long. I get why the restrictions are there, but still…”
“Oh, absolutely. That’s why I was so delighted when you made that quip this morning. I’ve seen you around often enough, but just spotting a familiar face can’t compare with proper personal interaction.”
“I’ve noticed you here and there too. I guess we must both live in the same area.”
As it turned out, her house was only a few minutes’ walk from his. “Maybe when the restrictions are lifted, you could pop in for a cuppa,” she suggested.
Her phone rang. “Sorry, I have to take this.”
“Okay. Nice talking to you. Bye.” He disconnected and slumped back in his seat. The thought of someone calling her up to arrange to be hypnotised made him slightly queasy. It was ridiculous, he knew, but telling himself that didn’t settle his stomach.
The sensation had faded by the time he received another text from her, saying how much she’d enjoyed their chat, and asking if he’d like to talk again in a couple of days. He only hesitated briefly before agreeing.
By their fourth online meeting, the feeling of guilt was too strong for Keith to ignore. They’d been talking for about five minutes before he summoned up the nerve to make his confession.
“Nicole, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“I could tell something was eating you. Well done for confronting it. Now, just relax, take a deep breath, and say whatever you have to say.”
Relaxation was beyond him right now, but he inhaled through his nose until his lungs were practically full. “This is going to sound so stupid.”
“If it’s causing you distress, it’s not stupid. Come on, you can do this.”
He let the breath out in a whoosh. “I’m… a little bit scared about what you do. The hypnotism, I mean. I’m sorry.”
“No, that’s… quite common, actually. I’m very proud of you for having the courage to admit it. Don’t worry, I don’t judge you. I can help you overcome that fear, if you’d like. If you’re not ready for that, that’s okay too. We can still be friends.”
“Thank you. I know it’s got no logical basis, but still…”
“Those can be the hardest to deal with.”
They continued to talk for a good half hour. By the end he found that he had managed to relax after all.
A couple of weeks and almost a dozen conversations later it was Nicole who raised an awkward question.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but in all the time we’ve been talking, you’ve never said anything about a partner. Are you seeing anybody at the moment?”
Keith sighed and shook his head. “Not for a long while. The last woman I asked out decided she’d rather adopt a child and become a single mother.”
“I doubt that the events were connected. Most likely she’d been thinking about it for a long time.”
“Yeah, probably. Still a bit of a blow to the confidence, though.”
“Be a good boy and calm down for me.”
He smiled as a wave of relaxation flooded through him. No matter how bad a day he was having, Nicole could always make him feel better.
“Have you ever thought about asking me out, Keith?”
“Once or twice,” he found himself admitting. “But…”
“Go on. You know you can tell me anything.”
“You’re my friend. The only good one I have right now.”
“Friendship is the best basis for a strong relationship. Think things over when you’re turning in tonight, and you’ll find that confidence. Do you understand that?”
“I understand.”
“Good boy. Now, where were we?” She emphasised the last three words.
Keith blinked a few times, and mentally kicked himself. He’d lost the thread of the conversation yet again. It never seemed to bother Nicole when he did, but his increasing inability to stay focused on what they were talking about troubled him. He’d never liked the stereotypical clueless, self-absorbed males that kept turning up in TV shows, but now it looked as if he was turning into one.
Maybe (and this showed what a good job Nicole had done of chasing away his silly fears) he should try and find out if she could use hypnosis to help improve his concentration. He tentatively raised the issue, and after a little reflection, she agreed to give it a go the following evening.
The monitor showed Keith slumped in his chair, eyes closed, a blissful smile lighting up his face. Nicole loved to see him like that. She hadn’t imagined that anything could beat the thrill of the first time she’d lulled him into trance without his knowledge, but watching him willingly open himself up to her suggestions had surpassed it. Nevertheless, it was time to finish things off.
“From now on, whenever I use that trigger to wake you up, you will retain no conscious memory of what I told you while you were in trance, but you will recall that I have just praised you, and you will feel happy to have pleased me, and experience no shame at having forgotten anything. Do you understand that?”
She felt an enjoyable tingling in her loins as Keith confirmed his acceptance of her instructions.
“Very, very good.” She licked her lips. “In a moment I shall count you back up. When you return to full alertness, you will remember that I hypnotised you, and that you enjoyed it, but the details of what I said while you were in trance will be too hazy for you to make out. You will accept that that is normal for hypnosis, and not dwell on it at all. Do you understand that?”
Again he intoned, “I understand.”
The tingle intensified. Well, if she’d judged things correctly, and everything else went according to plan, she shouldn’t have to deal with it by herself.
“Excellent. Now, feel your mind rising up as I say one, thoughts becoming clearer and clearer with two, sensation returning to your body with three, eyes starting to flicker open with four, and wide awake on five.”
Keith straightened up and wriggled his shoulders. His posture was much better than it had been the first few times they’d chatted.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
He thought for a moment. “Good. Thank you.”
“I’m so pleased you felt able to ask me to help you like this.”
She saw his eyes glaze over for a moment as her praise triggered another rush of positive sensations.
“I’m glad you managed to dispel my paranoid fears about hypnosis.” His brow furrowed, as if he was trying to remember exactly what she’d said to convince him that it was safe.
She leapt in with a distraction. “And I promise I haven’t framed you for any gruesome murders.” It was a feeble joke, but it sufficed to draw his attention away from what needed to stay forgotten.
“I’ll wait until I’ve seen the local news before I trust you on that.”
Not much of a riposte, either, but she forced a chuckle.
“Nicole, I was wondering…”
She held her breath. Was this it?
“When the restrictions have been relaxed enough that people can eat out again, I’d like to take you out for a meal. To say thank you.” He gulped. “If that’s all right.”
She allowed a hint of disappointment to show in her voice. “Just to say thank you?”
He blushed. “Well, maybe… if it goes well… it could be the start of… something more.”
His shyness was sweet, in a way, but right now she was in the mood for spicy, not sweet. “Why wait? If there’s something you want to say to me, stop skirting around the issue and just say it.”
He took a deep breath. “Nicole, I like you a lot. You’re caring, and smart, and funny, and talented, and pretty, and if I could spend the rest of my life with just one person I’d want it to be you. So when we’re allowed to meet up properly, would you… be interested in getting together with me?”
“No need to leave it that long. We can start right now.”
He gaped at her. “But… the law. What if we get caught? You could get struck off, or whatever it is they do to hypnotherapists that break the rules.”
If he had any idea how many rules she’d already broken to bring him to this stage… She liked that he was so polite and respectful, but did he have to be such a goody-goody? Perhaps she should teach him to be a bit more of a bad boy. But not today: fine-tuning his morals would be a slow and gradual process. For now, she’d have to make do with a simpler trick. “You have heard of cybersex?”
“Oh! Er, heard of it, yes. Never actually… tried it.”
So much the better: his expectations would be that bit vaguer. “Don’t worry. I can talk you through it. And you know what?”
He didn’t, of course.
“Hypnosis can make it so much better. It enhances the imagination, and can convincingly replicate sensations. You’d almost think your partner was right there with you. Doesn’t that sound good?”
His jaw hanging slack, he nodded.
“Would you like me to put you back into trance?”
“Y-yes, please.”
“Okay, slow, regular breaths like I taught you.” She held up an index finger in her camera’s field of vision. “And focus on my fingertip as I move it back and forth, back and forth…”
She went on with the induction for a few minutes, and waited until she saw Keith’s eyelids starting to flicker before hitting him with the trigger she’d planted the week before, dropping him straight down into a deep, highly suggestible trance. Best to let him go on believing that it took a while for him to go under, so she’d be able to take him by surprise if she ever needed to.
“In a moment I will snap my fingers. When I do, you will go to your front door, unlock it, return to where you are now, and forget that you left your computer at all. You will then close your eyes, and will drift deeper and deeper into trance with each breath you take until you next hear me speak. No matter where my voice might sound as if it is coming from, you will accept that its source is your computer, and that I am still communicating with you remotely. Do you understand that?”
“I understand.”
She snapped her fingers, and watched with satisfaction as he stood up and shambled out of view. Not much later he was back in his chair, his eyes shut, breathing in a slow rhythm.
Nicole stood, and quickly prepared herself to go out.
She locked his front door behind her and looked around the hall. A little untidy, but then, he hadn’t been expecting a visitor.
Now, where in the house was he? “Keith,” she called, “If you can hear me, say, ‘I am relaxed and open.’ And keep repeating it until I tell you to stop.”
His voice drifted down the stairs. She followed the sound of it to a small, cluttered room where he sat slumped in a leather swivel chair.
“You can stop now.”
He fell silent.
“You are now in such a deep trance that it will be very easy for you to imagine that I am here with you, even though you know that I am really still at home.” She leaned over to his ear. “My voice sounds so close, you could almost feel my breath on your skin when I speak to you. When I describe myself touching you, your nerves perceive the contact as if it were really happening.”
She ran her hand across his cheek, whispering, “Feel me stroking your face.”
He drew a quivering breath.
“When you open your eyes, you will see a vision of me standing before you, undressing for you. You will remove your clothes, all the while focusing on your fantasy of me stripping.”
She began to undo the buttons of her coat. “Open your eyes.”
Keith obeyed, and his jaw dropped as he took in the sight of Nicole in the room with him. Not taking his eyes off her, he stood up, fumbling with his shirt buttons.
The coat fell to the floor. Nicole pulled her woollen jumper over her head, the action causing her blouse to ride up, briefly exposing her midriff, and she heard Keith gasp to see it. The jumper joined the coat, and Keith dropped the shirt onto the seat of his chair.
Nicole’s hands moved to the waistband of her long skirt, and in response Keith unbuckled his belt. A gentle tug below the hips, and gravity finished the job for her. She stepped out of the puddle of crumpled fabric and undid her blouse while he finished getting out of his jeans. His underpants and socks followed, and once he stood naked in front of her, his attention fixed on her body, his hard penis jutting up in front of him, she reached behind her back, unfastened her bra, and shook it free. The angle of his erection steepened sharply.
“Act out your fantasy, Keith. Reach out, and feel my soft, warm titties in your hands.”
When his fingers made contact with her flesh, they were colder than she had expected, and she flinched slightly, but the chill soon faded as he stroked and caressed her breasts. For several minutes she enjoyed his attentions, allowing the desire for more to build within her until it became a need.
“Suck on my nipple, let your lips and tongue register the sensation, the taste of my skin. Put your… slip your hand inside my panties, feel how hot I am, how wet I am.”
His obedient ministrations filled her with a pleasure that temporarily robbed her of speech, but right now he required no direction from her, his fingers worming their way into her pussy while his tongue lapped at her teat. She twisted her lower body around, trying to guide his fingers to the right spot, and the stab of ecstasy as he hit the target brought her voice back.
“Yes! Touch my clit. Stroke it, tease it, squeeze it, make me come and come and come…”
She could feel the tips of his teeth pressing slightly into her breast, the pain an exquisite counterpoint to the pleasure as he brought her to a series of orgasms. It was almost a relief when her ecstatic writhing caused his fingers to slip away from the nubbin and the fog of delight in her mind thinned.
“So good,” she panted. “N-now it’s your turn. Lie on your back. Tr-try not to come until I say…”
She shed her sopping wet panties as he stretched out on the floor. Beads of precum dribbled from the tip of his cock, and she caught some of them on the tip of her finger, anointing the head of his prick with the clear fluid.
“F-feel me taking you deep inside me. Feel your fat cock sliding into my warm, wet pussy. Ah!”
Her commentary became less coherent as she moved up and down on his erection, taking him a little deeper each time. Not that that was likely to matter by now: his hypnotised mind would probably still accept that everything she was doing to him was just an incredibly convincing fantasy woven by her words even if she were reading out the phone book.
She could feel the tension building within his body as well as hers, and thrust harder.
“Fucking… fucking… fu-u-u-uck!” Another climax shuddered through her body, and she felt Keith’s cock spurting jets of cum into her.
She collapsed on top of him and drew shuddering breaths as she waited for her head to clear. He softened and shrank, and she rolled off his body, still panting heavily, as was he.
It wouldn’t hurt to just reinforce his belief that it had all been in his mind. “Was that convincing enough for you?”
He blinked. “So real. I never imagined…”
“The brain is the most powerful sexual organ. Never underestimate its capabilities.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you. For being a good subject. We should do this again, some time soon.”
He smiled dreamily. “Yes…”
“Now, I’m going to count down from three, and when I get to one, you will sleep for me, and not wake until you hear me say your name again. And when I do speak to you, you will no longer think that I am there with you. You will come out of your trance, feeling calm and contented, and remembering what an incredible fantasy I helped you experience.
“Ready? Three… two… one.”
His eyes closed and his body went slack.
Nicole gathered up her clothes and put everything but the panties back on. Those she put into a plastic bag before stowing them in her coat pocket. After checking that she had left no obvious sign of her presence, she touched her lips to his forehead and left, making sure to latch the front door on her way out.
Back home, she resumed her seat in front of her laptop. “Keith? Can you hear me, Keith? Sit back in your chair.”
After a moment he came back into view, looking groggy and dazed. “That was… unbelievable. How… how was it for you?”
“I enjoyed it too. Would you like to try it again, say, tomorrow night?”
“Yes, please.” So eager. So completely captivated.
“Wonderful. And just think, a few months from now we might be able to get together and see if it’s as good in reality.”
Before he could respond to that, she blew him a kiss and logged off. Slipping a hand inside her skirt, she touched herself and mentally relived their lovemaking.
She was going to have a lot of fun with him.