The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Freeport

“Do you love him?”

“No, Kate.” The smile never left her pretty lips.

Kate squeezed her left hand until her nails were digging painfully into her palm, a ‘stress reduction’ method she’d read about once. Sometimes, it worked really well, just a sharp little jolt of pain to stop the spiraling and bring her back into the moment.

It wasn’t working now.

She went with her backup, the medically-approved set of deep, calming breaths. After three or four, or maybe twenty, she was able to continue. “Is… he controlling you?”

“Yes, Kate.”

“But… but you told me that you haven’t been hypnotized, Michelle! Were you lying to me?” Goddammit Kate, he just made her forget all about it. That’s Mind Control 101 too, you know this!

“No, Kate. I haven’t been hypnotized.” Her lips curled into a girlish pout. “But, I’m very susceptible to being hypnotized. And being hypnotized feels wonderful.”

Kate’s mind was boiling with ideas and options, none of which stood out as the best or brightest. She began to panic. She’d had the brunette under for less than an hour and things were starting to get convoluted and there was still James and James! What was she going to tell James, especially if she couldn’t get Michelle under control and then-

Deep breaths deep breaths…

“Okay! Let’s, um, let’s try a different approach. Michelle, when I tap you on the shoulder, I want you to look and act like you’re awake. You’ll still be in a very deep trance state, waiting for Master to arrive, but in the meantime you’ll pretend to be awake, and you’ll be happy to have a nice, long conversation with me.”

“Yes, Kate. Will Master be here soon? I’m… the thought of it makes me… mmmm… I want him so much. I can’t wait to see him.”

“He’ll be here very soon, but only if you do exactly as I tell you here and now. So when I tap you on the shoulder?”

“I’ll pretend I’m awake, and I’ll have a nice, long conversation with you.”

“And you’ll be completely honest with me.”

“I’ll tell you everything, of course! You are Master’s voice. I must obey without thought, or question, or hesitation. That is The Truth.”

“Sweet. Good. Great. Oh, and also, even though you’ll believe that you’re awake, you won’t think that you being naked is unusual, or that me being in my underwear is weird. Those are two perfectly normal things.”

“Yes, Kate.”

“Whenever you see me like this, you’ll how we all used to dress in those gold bikinis, and how perfectly normal that was. You’ll how much the bikinis reinforced… um… reminded us that we are hypnotized, obedient slavegirls. That’s what you are right now. A mindless, obedient slavegirl.”

“Slave…girl… mmm, yessss…”

“That gold bikini reminds you that you are safe with me.”

“Ye—”

“Feel yourself ri now, ri from the very deep and very complete hypnotic trance I placed you into. Becoming more aware with every breath, waiting for that tap on your shoulder, feeling ready to obey my commands. To obey Master’s voice, and to listen and obey me without question. And at the end of our conversation, I’ll tap you on the shoulder a second time, and you’ll find yourself sinking so deep and so calm back down into the trance state you were in just now. Does that sound good?”

Sounds good! God that really was a thing now, wasn’t it? James would appreciate it. Maybe it would end up as a meme of some sort, some slang that Michelle could carry back to Philadelphia.

“Yes, Kate.”

“Then let’s talk, girl to girl.”

May 20

“What happened after that?”

“Eventually, as promised, Decker broke me. He took everything that was Golden Dawn me and everything that was train wreck me and mushed it all up into paste, slapped a name onto it, gave it a job and sent it to LA to process s all day long. Of course, that was just a cover.”

“The job?”

“I guess if you want to get technical, it was a real place and a real job, in the sense that we did actual, real work, and to most of the people who worked there it really was just a 9-5 job that paid pretty well. They had no idea that the people who ran the place were mind controllers or that six of their coworkers were brainwashed sex slaves. But on the other hand, it was also a front, in that no one in upper management blinked twice when one of us disappeared for a week. And most project management firms don’t have a brainwashing facility hidden in their basement.”

“We can hope, anyway.”

“Oh God, I can’t even think about that! I bet that some of them would. Talk about zero turnover!

But yeah, that was my new life. I was one of those six brainwashed drones. I worked in ing. One of the project managers had a house in Van Nuys that she was renting out, and she cut me a good deal on it. I got a gym hip, spent my weekends at the beach, squeezed fresh orange juice from the trees in my backyard. I was young and pretty and, for the first time in my life, had a stable bank with money that stayed in it, month after month. Life was pretty good.

Until I would get a phone call, or an email. And then it was right back to the nightmare.”

She has a cover story burned into her mind. She’s Kate Gillespie, she has a full-time job she’d rather not reveal to her coworkers, and she’s decided to dance at Garcia’s Gold Club on the weekends for extra money. None of the other dancers have met her before, but she’s chipper and friendly and knows her way around a dance pole. They invite her out for drinks tomorrow, and she happily accepts.

When she walks out onto the stage and touches the pole, a key turns, and her mind goes blank. Her face softens, just a bit, and her eyes glaze over as Kate Gillespie is quietly erased from existence. She is nothing but her programmed orders now, a machine, a tool designed to do as commanded, and nothing more. When she is finished with her task, she will quietly slip away, leaving her street clothes in her locker.

There will be a black Mercedes waiting for her in the parking lot. She will ease into the enger seat. The click of her seat belt is yet another post-hypnotic trigger, one that turns off the machine, sending her back down into trance. This is where the real Kate Thomas lives now, in a state of mindless bliss, forever waiting to be told what to do and what to think.

The Mercedes will carry her back to Meeting Point Theta, where she will be given new memories, new experiences, new thoughts. She will wake up in her bed on Monday morning with a mild wine hangover and fuzzy memories of the TV show she loves to binge-watch but whose details she can never quite recall.

She will see the story on the news. On Tuesday, a coworker will ask her if she “heard about what happened at Garcia’s.” She will smile and shake her pretty head. No, she wouldn’t know anything about that.

Strip clubs aren’t her thing.

“I thought I was happy. I being happy. At least, on the surface.”

“But you weren’t happy beneath the surface.”

“No. Because it wasn’t real. None of it was real! On the surface, I was this typical California beach girl with a perfect tan, all carefree and jolly, right? But even erased memories leave behind little smudges. And little smudges add up, until your whole soul is stained and filthy. Towards the end, I started regressing, picking up the same old bad habits from my college days.”

“Drinking and partying?”

“Drinking and guys. I didn’t have a boyfriend. I’m pretty sure I was programmed to avoid any long-term commitments. But casual hook-ups? I was your girl. Again.

And it was because of all of that pain. All of that horror. Whatever Decker was making me do, making me witness… there was a part of me that was just as scared, and just as alone, and just as lost as I was when my aunt died. And it affected me, more and more. I was locked inside of a prison and I didn’t even know it.

And then someone slipped me a key.”

Freeport

“We’re just going to have a nice, wonderful conversation.”

Kate had, at many points in her past, thought of hypnosis as a kind of magic. With it, she could make the impossible possible, whether that meant getting beautiful young women to worship Michael’s cock, or creating an entirely new personality out of thin air. With Michelle, she sadly noted, she’d now managed to do both. A simple tap on the shoulder and the brunette was a brand new person, a facsimile of Michelle DiMera Simmons, a doppelgänger who leaned into the pile of pillows and viewed Kate with an expression somewhere between friendly politeness and bemusement.

“Sure, Kate,” she said, as if they were still on the street corner and not occupying a hotel bed together. “What do you want to talk about?”

The question was out before Kate could properly wordsmith it. “Why don’t you love your husband?”

“Oh, him. I don’t think he loves me. He just likes having me, like I’m another car in our garage. He grew up in a world where all of his friends had trophy wife moms, and his mom was one, too. I guess he sees me as that, more than as a wife or a person.”

“Have you… uhm…” Kate paused. Her next question felt entirely logical. It also felt extremely personal. She swallowed, hard, and tried to channel her inner Claire. “Have you, uh, ever thought about just leaving him? Getting a divorce? A separation?”

“Oh no. I’d never do that! Tom comes from money. He doesn’t have a lot of it himself, so I’d get nothing if I divorced him today. But his parents are loaded. So when they die, if they ever die, that’ll be when I’ll divorce him.”

Kate stared at her. Their expressions couldn’t have been more different: Kate wide-eyed and mouth hanging open, wondering just who the hell she’d hypnotized; Michelle placid and calm, exactly as she’d been programmed, dreamily spilling each and every secret with the enthusiasm of someone discussing the weather.

Questions flooded Kate’s brain, one after the other, until they were impossible to tell apart. “Did you ever love him? Do you think he’d be willing to change?”

“I did love him. I still do, sometimes. He’s hot, and he provides for us, and the sex is fantastic when we have it. But…” Michelle’s placid trance-smile faded away. “But I gave up on trying to change him. He’s too controlling of everything. His life, his schedule, my life, my schedule. I think that maybe, if we have kids, he might mellow out? But then, he keeps insisting that we have to start having kids soon. So even then, it’ll be him telling me what to do.”

“I’m sorry, Michelle.” Not that it helped much to say things like that, but then again, how much did she owe the brunette? She was barging into this woman’s mental house and throwing open every door. Was she really going to complain about the hidden messes she’d found?

You know what I could do? I could tell her to leave him, today. She would do it, no questions asked. She’d do anything for her Master.

No. No no no no no, how would that not be Decker all over again?

How would it be Decker at all? I’m not telling her to kill anyone! She would totally leave her husband for Michael, right? So why not -tell—her that she has to do it for Master? It would be so easy, she’d eat that suggestion up with a side of fries…

Because it’s not my job to go around fixing people’s shitty marriages!

Why not? Just drop some hints. I can drop some hints. It’s not even brainwashing! More like… brain… nudging!

“I don’t mind, Kate. He gives me a nice life. I have my house, my friends, and my job. Besides, I… um…” She pursed her lips, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Just between you and me? I kinda like being controlled like that. It’s hot to see a man that confident and dominant. To boss me around like I’m still working for him. Sometimes, when it’s late at night and Tom is sleeping in the guest room because we had an argument, I fantasize about getting down on all fours and crawling down the hall, hoping that he’ll command me.”

“Michelle…” Kate began.

The brunette was lost in her own fantasy. Her half-lidded eyes rolled into her head, and her hand drifted to her crotch. She ground her palm against her sex, moaning softly, as the fantasy took hold. “I’ve… mmm… I’ve spent so many nights like this, Kate! Dreaming of the naughty things Tom might make me do. All of the naughty things I would do, because I’m the peasant girl and he’s the lord of the m… mannn…oh! And then he looks into my helpless eyes and he tells me that he is my… my…

Massssster.”

Kate’s heart sank into the mattress.

“You’re going to think that I’m jumping off the Decker train early, but I have a related side question.”

“Don’t worry, Kate. I’m here to keep you on track, but every railroad has sidings.”

“That’s corny, but also not that bad. I might have to save that one.”

“Comes with the territory. My son is currently obsessed with model railroads.”

“Ha! Okay, I… thank you, I needed that little giggle. Ahhh, fuck. Anyway! Side question?”

“Of course. Go right ahead.”

“There are times… usually it’s late at night when I can’t sleep, or in the mornings when I go for a jog. I start thinking about how, as much as I’ve struggled to find happiness in my life, there have been times when I thought I was happy. Sometimes I was, for real, right? With my aunt, or with my parents. And there were times when the happiness seemed real, like in the cult, or like we’re talking about now, with me living in SoCal.”

“And you’re worried that your life now is also a lie?”

“Kind of? I’m happy. I know I’m happy. I love my husband. I love my friends. They all love me. I like this town, I like my life. But what if I don’t? What if, deep down inside, I don’t? Decker made me fall in love with James. What else did he make me love? Freeport? Claire? Turkey sandwiches? I’ve made a new life for myself, sure. But how much of it was founded on lies?”

“Would, say, that turkey sandwich taste any different if you knew for certain that Decker brainwashed you into liking it?”

“I guess not. It’s just weird not knowing how many things have been scripted out for you. Like those keychains in the drawer. Like the voice that tells me to hypnotize pretty girls.”

“What Decker put you through was very scary, Kate. It’s natural to have some lingering anxiety about it. Just as you’re afraid for the Golden Dawn cult girls, wondering if they can still be controlled, I think a part of you is afraid of what land mines are still inside your brain. Things that a Decker acolyte might use against you. But I also think that you’re giving Decker too much credit, which I’d like to discuss at length in a future session. When you’re ready, of course.”

“I’m not quite there, Doc.”

“I understand.”

“But I will be! I promise.”

Freeport

The light faded from Michelle’s eyes like a dying campfire. She sank into the pile of pillows, one arm flopping palm-up onto the mattress, the other dropping out of Kate’s view, dangling over the side of the bed. Her lips parted, allowing a soft sigh to escape.

“That’s good, Michelle,” said Kate. “Your eyes are open, but you are deeply asleep. Your mind is open, and you are in a deep and obedient trance. Listening to me, the voice of your Master.”

“Yes, Kate.”

“I’m going to give you some new commands today. Each and every one of them will become the absolute truth, and you will obey without question. Master demands it.”

“I’ll do anything for Master,” she nodded. The nods came heavy and slow. They reminded Kate of one of those drinking bird toys. It took the brunette a moment to regain her original posture. “Please command me, Kate,” she said. “I am ready to obey.”

“I have no idea how it worked. Decker talked about things like ‘contracts’ and ‘clients,’ so we think he was advertising that he had these women available for hire. And then, I guess people would get in touch and say ‘I want to fuck a hot blonde tonight’ or ‘I need this problem taken care of,” and he would pick the right girl for the job and send her off. He had, or at least I think he had, some government s at that time. James thinks it was all done on the Dark Web. Either way, at some point Decker got a contract for a job in Berlin, and he sent me. My name was Helen Chadwick, and I was from Ohio.”

“That was your cover story?”

“That was me, through and through! Even now, everything I about Berlin is through Helen Chadwick’s eyes. All of the memories, all of the emotions, all of the words… they’re all things that Helen was programmed to think and see and say, not me. It’s like I was a ghost that possessed her body, or she was a ghost and she possessed me.”

“So you think that your name is Helen Chadwick, and that you’ve traveled to Berlin as a… tourist?”

“As a tourist, yep.”

“What were you supposed to do in Berlin?”

“I was supposed to go to some kind of bar, or dance club, and meet the owner, a woman named Alice.”

“And then what?”

“I think… I think I was supposed to kill her.”

Freeport

“Imagine in your mind that you’ve just opened a big dictionary. You flip to a random page. You can see that page clearly in your mind. What is the first word that you see?”

Michelle squinted as she studied the imaginary words. Kate wondered if the woman kept a pair of reading glasses in her purse, then decided it didn’t matter.

“Parsnip,” Michelle announced. “I see the word parsnip.”

“Good.” Kate had swiped a Hyatt-branded notepad and pen from the nightstand. She jotted down the word in question.

“Now flip the pages again.”

“Did you meet this Alice person?”

“I did. I know I did, because I got caught.”

“She found out who you really were?”

“Yep. I don’t know if Helen made a mistake, or if Alice saw right through whatever dumb things Decker had programmed Helen to say, but I have this vague memory of walking into that bar or club or whatever, and then everything goes blank.”

“What can you tell me about her?”

“Alice? Absolutely zilch. I don’t what she looks like, what she sounds like, how old she is, what kind of clothes she wears… I’m sure that she scrubbed all of that out of my brain. I get the feeling that she was worlds above Decker when it came to mind control, and neither of us knew it until it was too late.’

“What makes you think that?”

“Because Decker could erase my memories, sure. But Alice… Alice could erase entire people. I walked into that place with a personality, and cover story, and an identity, and in a few short hours she’d erased all of it, forever. Helen Chadwick died that night. But not me. Not Kate Thomas. She kept me alive. She had her reasons for that, I suppose. But then she also did something else, something unexpected.”

“What else did she do?”

“She didn’t just spare my life. She saved it.”

Freeport

“Are you ready, Michelle?”

“Yes, Kate.”

Kate held the notepad between herself and Michelle like a tiny shield. “You will not—repeat, not—go into a trance when you hear the phrase ‘It’s a golden August sunrise.’ From now on, you will only go into a trance when you hear the phrase ‘parsnip gesture consecrate zinc.’ Only when you hear the phrase ‘parsnip gesture consecrate zinc.’ When you hear those words and only those words, you’ll that you are Master’s beautiful brainwashed slavegirl, and you will sink deep into trance for him. You will The Truth, and you will obey.”

“Parssssnip gessssssture con…secrate zinc,” Michelle slurred. “Yes. I understand, and obey.”

“The phrase ‘it’s a golden August sunrise’ means nothing to you.”

“It means nothing to me.”

“In fact, no other words can hypnotize you, or put you into a deep and obedient trance for Master. Only those four words spoken in that exact order.”

“Only those four words.”

“What happens when you hear the words Parsnip gesture consecrate zinc?”

“I will go into a deep and obedient hypnotic trance. I will that I am Master’s brainwashed slavegirl. I will obey.”

“Good.” Kate swung her legs off the edge of the bed. She gripped the notepad in her right hand. “Sit tight for a second.”

“So I came back from Berlin. Went back to my life. I forgot all about Helen and Alice and everything else, the same as every other assignment. But that little nugget she put in my brain… that stayed. For years, even while my mind was getting wiped and programmed and reprogrammed left and right, it stayed. Alice called it The Most Important Thing, and as it turned out, it was. Back when I was… wait, can I ask you something first?”

“Sure, Kate.”

“Will I get into trouble if I tell you that I thought about ending my life? That I tried to? I mean, I wouldn’t do anything like that now, but at the time…”

“This is a safe space, Kate. And I know that you are in a much better place now. I’m very proud of you. You’ve been a great patient. You’ve always been honest with me even when talking about some very, very difficult things. You can tell me anything you’d like to tell me, and I promise that I will never react negatively or judgmentally.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“You can continue, but only if you want to.”

“In the spirit of being honest, right? And, being honest, that day was one of the worst days of my entire life. My whole world was coming apart at the seams, and it just seemed to get worse with each ing day. I was having all of these flashbacks and nightmares. I scared the shit out of James. I scared the shit out of Tim. I scared the shit out of myself. That piece of shit Mulroney was trying to convince me that I had a fucking brain tumor. I thought to myself, ‘this is it, you’re going crazy. For real this time.’

And I was standing next to the kitchen sink while I was thinking this. There was a carving knife nearby, so I… grabbed it. And I held it. And I… I um…”

“You thought about it.”

“It would have been so easy. That’s what I kept telling myself. A plunge, a slice, and then there’s no going back. All of my problems going away forever, swirling down the sink drain, mixed with my blood. Just one push.

And then, right before I pushed, I heard this voice in my head. It wasn’t my voice. It was Alice. I don’t even know why I know that, but I know it in my heart and in my soul. It was her. It had to be her.”

“What did Alice say?”

“Exactly this, which I’ll never ever forget, not until the day I die: ‘When you are ready, you will obey no one but yourself. That is your final command.’”

“What did that phrase mean to you, when you heard it again?”

“I spent most of my life doing whatever other people told me to do. My parents, my aunt, the cult, Decker, Mulroney. When I wasn’t following orders, I just drifted through the world. Random guys, random bars, random clubs. When I heard that phrase in my head, things just clicked. I didn’t have to be a victim. I didn’t have to wait for someone to tell me what to do. I could get to the bottom of things all by myself, and I could start doing that right now! So I started by dropping that knife.

It’s funny. I have no idea why she did it. Why she put that little bird egg in my brain. She sure as hell didn’t have to. She didn’t know me, or want me, or had any reason to care about me or my freedom. But she did it anyway. And she was careful enough to make me wait until I was ready to free myself. If Kate Thomas had freed herself as soon as she got back from Berlin, sooner or later someone else would have gotten their hooks into her, pulled her back down, brainwashed her back into slavery. But I’m Kate Pendleton now. I have a life, and a future, and a soulmate.

Sometimes all it takes to free yourself is realizing that you can.”

Freeport

Rip. Rip. Rip.

She thought about eating the little bits of shredded paper, or even cramming whole chunks of the page into her mouth at once and suffering through until it was all stewing in her stomach, but that seemed excessive. Besides, she might barf it all back up, and then it would end up in the toilet anyway.

Rip. Rip. Rip Pieces of parsnip gesture consecrate zinc floated around the bowl, washing up now and then on a steep ceramic shore, only to be jostled free as more bits rained down around them.

When she was done, she rose to her feet and tugged the handle. She watched, spellbound, as the evidence of Michelle’s new post-hypnotic trigger swirled down the drain and into oblivion. Now those four words only existed to Michelle—who would soon forget all about them—and Kate herself.

Her clothes were still draped over the shower frame. She considered getting dressed; Michelle wasn’t exactly deprogrammed, but all of her locks had just been changed. Technically there was nothing left to do but get her dressed and ready to be snapped out of it.

Technically.

She left her clothes where they were, and walked back into the main room.

Freeport

“I wish I’d been able to get to know you, Michelle. We might have hit it off, been BFFs, watched our families grow up together. And we’ll never have that now, not ever, because of what I did to you. And for that, I’m truly sorry.”

Michelle, still deep in trance, took it in stride. “Yes, Kate.”

“No, don’t… don’t say anything until I tell you to. Our Master has a couple more Truths for you to discover today. You’ve already learned about parsnip gesture consecrate zinc, and what you will do if you ever hear those four words in that order. But… there’s more.”

Kate settled onto the bed, lying sideways across it, her head coming to rest against Michelle’s waist. She fixed her eyes on the ceiling, unwilling to look directly at her subject, trying to choke down the guilt that suddenly swelled up from below.

She knew that there were a thousand little ‘truths’ she could program into Michelle. Leaving that dick of a husband, for one. Convincing her that she could live a fulfilling life on her own instead of rotting away in an unhappy marriage while she waited for his inheritance to roll in. A command to be a good mom, a good woman, a healthy woman who ate all of the right things and brushed and flossed every night.

Kate could do all of those things.

She was going to do none of them.

“I don’t know if you’re a good person or not, Michelle. You seem like you are. And I’m sure that if we sat here for long enough, I’d get to know the real you. But we don’t have time for that, right? So, here’s your new truth. You are a strong, confident, beautiful woman. Whenever you are awake and aware, you will know that you are confident and capable of anything. From now on, you will do what you want to do, and you’ll love who you want to love, and you’ll be who you want to be.

I hope you make good choices, but I’m not going to force you to make them. I’m going to give you the freedom I gave to my friend Claire. It’s the same freedom someone gave to me. It’s worth more than all of the money in the world.

In a little while, I’m going to bring you completely out of this trance state. After I do, you will never go into trance for me ever again, even if you hear me say the words ‘parsnip gesture consecrate zinc.’ Not ever. If you understand and you are ready to accept that Truth, say ‘I understand and will obey, Kate.’”

She expected the brunette to hesitate. After all, slavegirls were supposed to obey their fellow slavegirls. And deep down inside—hell, not even that deep down—Michelle was still a slavegirl. But to her surprise, Michelle immediately chimed in with “I understand and will obey, Kate,” as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Now, listen extra carefully. There’s one final Truth. It is the most important thing in the world. You won’t it consciously, but it will become part of every fiber of your being…”

“When I get really overwhelmed, I try to focus on the positives. Like the fact that Michael Oliver saved me. Not that he gave a shit about ‘saving’ me—at the end of the day I was just another hot piece of ass he could control and fuck—but he saved me all the same. He stole my life, but what he stole was worthless. A shattered girl who was maybe two months away from throwing herself off a bridge.”

“He saved you at the cost of your freedom. And your free will.”

“Michael always bragged that he didn’t make slaves who sucked and fucked, that he made slaves who could think for themselves. I went from academic probation to Dean’s List and honors roll overnight. And ultimately…”

“Yes?”

“It helped me down the line. That little streak of independence he gave me. Like Alice’s command, it never really went away for good. A dulled-down knife, but still, you know, a knife. And he left it inside my head for her to discover and resharpen.”

Freeport

“Shoes! You had shoes. Where did you leave your shoes?”

Michelle was fully dressed now, minus the shoes. Kate’s question sailed over her entranced head. She tilted her head to look at Kate instead of scanning the hotel room for the missing footwear like a normal, un-hypnotized person would. Kate rolled her eyes.

“I honestly don’t know how these people do this day in, day out. Do you know how tiring it is to have to constantly order you to do things?”

“Yes, Ka—”

“Don’t answer that.”

The brunette quietly resumed her study of the closed drapes while Kate dropped to her hands and knees. The shoes were indeed under the bed, and with a sharp grunt, she pulled them out one by one. Kate had never been much of a ‘shoe girl,’ but she took a moment to ire them. They looked comfortable, and expensive.

“Found em! Here, Michelle, sit down on the bed and put your shoes on. Then we can go back down to the lobby so I can wake you up.”

“Yes, Kate.”

As Michelle moved to the bed as ordered, Kate took her place in front of the window. Mindful of leaving the room exactly as it was when they entered, she pulled back the curtains and took in the view.

“It is a nice little city, isn’t it? I never would have thought of living here when I was a kid. Or when we were in college. But it’s pretty, especially now when the leaves are changing. How long are you in town?”

“One more day.”

“You can stand up now. Do you have any free time tomorrow?”

“Yes, Kate.”

Okay, a little brainwashing isn’t going to kill anyone. “I want you to have a good day tomorrow, Michelle. You’re going to find that nothing really bothers you, no matter how annoying. You’ll enjoy the weather, and the leaves, and you’ll be sure to take some time to visit anything you wanted to see in town that you haven’t seen yet. You’ll give yourself some ‘Michelle time’ and you’ll go to bed tomorrow night relaxed and refreshed.”

“I understand and obey.”

“I really do wish I could spend the day with you! You’re literally the first Sea Lion I’ve met in person since I left California.” She shook her head. “I guess it wasn’t the reunion that either of us expected.”

Michelle, incapable of guessing, merely tilted her head again.

“I know, I know. If you weren’t hypnotized you’d probably be asking me why I never kept in touch with anyone from college. And then I’d say ‘because I spent years as a brainwashed sex slave assassin, obviously!’ and you’d start backing away from me verrrrry slowly.”

Kate gave Michelle a once-over, checking to ensure that all of her clothing was buttoned, zipped, and tucked in as needed. “So, yeah, it’s probably really good that you won’t any of that. I’m not sure if I’d even want to meet anyone from my college days. I didn’t really hang out with what you’d call a good crowd.”

Everything with Michelle checked out. Kate glanced around the room again, making certain that she hadn’t left anything of her own behind, feeling a little paranoid that she would. “You know, not to sound too judge-y, but you seem like the kind of girl who is big on the alumni thing.”

The moment she said it, little alarm bells started to ring in her head. “Wait… actually… Michelle, do you keep in close touch with anyone from college?”

“Yes, Kate. I used to be the head of the Pennsylvania NU alumni association until last year. I try to meet up with some of my girlfriends from college every summer.”

Kate’s mouth was suddenly bone-dry. The nightstand was within arm’s reach, and with a trembling hand, she blindly reached for the notepad and pen. Her eyes never left Michelle’s.

She gripped the pen tightly, pressing its tip into the pad.

“Your girlfriends. Tell me their names.”