Vera hoisted her bag with her yoga outfit over her shoulder as she walked out of the gym. She had been teaching all night. She pulled the hair tie out of her red curls and shook her head, the curls dangling over her shoulder. Yoga was suppose to be a stress relief, but teaching four classes in a row, filled with annoying people expecting her to fix all of their problems with a simple warrior pose, was just aggravating.

She walked across the dark parking lot, the moon shining a faint light over the few cars that were left.

‘Hey, Vera,’ someone yelled chipper. She looked back and saw a man from the last class she’d taught. He was kind of a hippie, his hair in dreads, always wearing colourful loose trousers and he was always trying to flirt with her and asking her out. Bragging about his trip to India or trying to name the yoga poses in Sanskrit. Brett something was his name. Vera didn’t date students, and even if she did Brett just wasn’t her type. He was dominant and controlling and quite condescending every once in a while. Vera lifted her hand and politely waved from a distance, then she continued to walk to her car.

‘Hold on,’ he yelled. Vera pretended not to hear him and walked a little bit faster. She heard his footsteps running towards her. He slammed her on the shoulder.

‘I’ll walk you to your car,’ he said. ‘It’s dark and late. A petite girl like you shouldn’t be walking alone over a dark abandoned parking lot, like this.’

‘Excuse me?’ She said. Bewildered by the masochistic nonsense that came out of his mouth. He wasn’t serious, was he? She studied his face. He was looking at her with a simple bemused smile.

‘I think I’ll manage,’ she said. ‘I’m thirty two and I’m plenty strong.’

He kept walking besides her. ‘You sure?’ He asked. ‘All sorts of creeps out here.’

‘Thanks for your worries I guess, but I’m not a helpless little girl.’

‘Not yet, you are.’ He said, the same secretive smile crept over his face.

What the fuck did he mean by that? Vera decided not to pay him anymore attention, she shook her head and kept on walking. She could already see her car. She just had to keep her cool and not lash out at him for another couple of steps. She fidgeted with her car keys.

‘Creeps that might want to kidnap you,’ he said. His voice had changed. It sounded lower and softer, more threatening. His body inching closer to hers. ‘Kidnap you and hypnotize you.’

She shied away from him, but he kept moving closer and closer, until she was stuck between his body and her own car.

‘What are you doing,’ she asked. ‘Brett fuck of. I don’t like this thing you’re doing right now, whatever it is.’

He pushed his knee in between her legs and put his elbow and forearm across her chest. She started to struggling and cussing and screaming. Brett just shook his head. He got a zip-lock bag with a white cloth out of his pocket. He calmly unzipped it and got the cloth out, then with a smile he put it over her nose and mouth.

‘See, I told you, there all sorts of creeps out here.’ He said. ‘You’re a pretty girl. Very very limber. Wearing those tight yoga pants all night, showing of your butt and your long pretty legs. Men will fantasize about you. Hell, even women will fantasize about you probably. And then, you know, one of them may have the guts to turn a fantasy into reality. One very courages man, who you’ve might have underestimated all along, who you’ve turned down without even giving it a second thought. You didn’t even want to drink a cup of tea. What’s the harm in just drinking some tea together?’

During his monologue he pressed the damp cloth against her face. She was fighting back with everything she’d got. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, the sounds got tempered by the cloth. She kicked him in the shins, there was no reaction. He was still monologuing in that same calm slightly bemused tone of voice. For a moment his calmness scared her more than the cloth on her face.

A wave of dizziness. Suddenly she was feeling light headed and intoxicated as if she had drunk too many wine. She pried on the cloth, kicked him and tried to punch him in the face. But he was quicker and stronger. A tingling sensation rushed through her body, she started to feel numb. Her mind started to drift of. She forced herself to focus.

‘I see you’re starting to feel the effects of the chloroform already.’ He said with a wink. ‘You know, if you just breath deep it’ll be over quickly.’

His words were echoing around her. She could hear the sounds but she didn’t really register any meaning. Her head was woozy. Drifting of. She felt heavier, her body didn’t react the way she wanted anymore. Her arms dangling limply at her side. Her knees trembling. She felt her body slumping into his arms. Her eyes turning up into her head.

No, no, no. Hell no. She wouldn’t be chloroformed that easily, she thought. She forced herself to open her eyes again. He was holding her up, pushing her forward, slumping her into the passenger seat of her own car.

He reapplied the cloth. She hadn’t even noticed it was gone, but now she felt the cold dampness hitting her face again. The strong chemical fumes crawling up into her noise and spreading into her lungs. Her head spinning, from a distance sounded his voice, then the dark drowsy mists of sleepiness grew stronger and overpowered her. She sank into a deep deep dreamless sleep.

***

She had a headache. She tried to stretch herself out, but she couldn’t move. What the hell was going on. She slowly regained consciousness. More and more of reality seeped into her mind, but it still felt like she was trapped in a bad dream. Brett was standing in front of her slapping her cheeks and telling her to wake up. Confused she looked around. She was strapped into a high chair, dressed in a fuzzy footsie. The drowsiness was swiftly fading. Her hands were secured behind her back with leather straps. She squirmed and wriggled and tried to get out.

‘I know you’re a flexible girl, but you’re not going to be able to bend yourself out of this one.’

‘You’re insane,’ Vera said.

‘That’s not a very nice thing to say now, is it? And seeing how you’re tied down and helpless like a little girl, totally dependent on me, you might want to try to be nice.’

‘You’ll never get away with kidnapping me. People will notice I’m gone. People will come looking for me. People know you’ve taken my yoga classes. It’s registered.’

‘Hmmm,’ Brett said pretending to be worried. ‘Yeah, I didn’t think of that. Good thing you’ve mentioned it. Yeah, I need to think of a solution for that. If only there was a way for you to be totally under my control but without you actually going missing. Hmmm, what to do, what to do?’

He brought out a pocket watch. It dangled between his thumb and index finger.

‘What?’ Vera said shrugging.

He slowly swung the watch from left to right.

Vera started laughing. Was he trying to hypnotize her? Was that his big plan? It was ridiculous. He must have another plan. Or would he really be that stupid? Did he really believe hypnosis was real. Brett put the watch down on the tray of her high chair and got out a vile with some dried leafs.

‘What’s your plan?’ she asked sarcastically.

‘Well I’m going to hypnotize you of course,’ he said.

‘For real?’ She started laughing again. ‘Okay, go ahead.’ She said. ‘Hypnosis isn’t real, you stupid jerk. It’s just a scam they do. Something for books and television. You can’t actually hypnotize someone and control them with a pocket watch.’

‘Well, maybe your right,’ he said pretending to ponder over his failed plan. He opened a vile and got one of the dried leaves out. He put it in teapot with warm water, it floated on the surface, slowly unfolding itself. He continued. ‘I agree a pocket watch induction is somewhat old fashioned, but I like old fashioned, and in the end all you need is something for the subject to focus on really. You can use anything you want.’

‘You’re crazy. You’re absolutely bat shit crazy. I just won’t look. I won’t.’ She shook her head defiantly.

He just smiled. ‘Dear, oh dear.’ He said bemused. ‘Now what? My plan is doomed to fail I hear. If only I had some herbs, you know, something to draw a tea from perhaps, that would make a subject highly susceptible. But where would I find something like that? I would probably have to travel all the way to India and then buy some herbs that presumably help you focus within your meditations, then after drinking that tea myself, I would discover they’re basically just psychotropic drugs making someone highly susceptible, and then I would need to stock up on them before returning home. Hmmm. If only, if only. O? What’s that? Seems like your tea is ready, sweetheart, should we let it cool for a moment?’ With his hand he felt the side of the teapot. Touching it a few times. ‘No it’s plenty cold,’ he said.

Vera shrugged. ‘I won’t drink that.’ She said.

Brett got a little plastic bottle out. He poured in the amber colored tea, then screwed a rubber nipple on top. He walked to her chair, put his hand against the back of her head and pushed the nipple against her lips. She refused to open her mouth, but he managed to pry her lips open and slipped the nipple in. A seep of warm tea drizzled over her tongue and into her throat.

She was struggling in her bounds. She cussed and called him every name she could think of, screaming and hissing at him, trying to spit it out, but it just seeped into her throat. She coughed and had to swallow or else she would have choked on it.

‘Sshhh, Sshhh, Sshhh,’ Brett said. ‘Daddy Brett will take care of you now. We just need to set some hypnotic triggers and plant some hypnotic suggestions, so we can play and have some fun together, and after that I’ll let you go back to your normal everyday life.’ He tilted her head backwards, pushing the nipple of the bottle into her mouth. Tea kept streaming into her mouth and she kept swallowing. She felt weirdly disconnected from the situation, like rationally she knew she needed to be scared or angry, but she just felt calm and relaxed, somewhat giddy even. Her whole body was tingling and fuzzy inside, the big picture seemed to fade from her mind, only the details were left. The way he cupped her head was kind of nice actually, the tea tasted somewhat sweet, without thinking she started suckling on the nipple.

‘Good girl,’ he said.

It confused her for a moment, but then the moment was gone and something else had grabbed her attention, the grain in the wood from the kitchen table for example. It was beautiful. Brown and wavy like the manes of a wild horse.

‘I think we can start the induction,’ he said. He picked up the pocket watch and waved it from left to right in front of her face. The light bounced off the silver in a beautiful sparkle. The pointers were pitch black curvy arrows. It had Roman numbers. It entranced her, she just couldn’t look away even if she tried, it swung to the left, then it floated motionless in the air for a little while until gravity would take a hold of it and swung it back to the right.

His voice in the background. Mesmerizing and beautiful. Soft melodic and bewitching. She felt her eyes getting dry she wanted to blink, she needed to blink, to close her eyes, just for a moment. As soon as her eyelids shut she felt herself tumbling down into a deep dark emptiness, falling or floating, she felt like Alice in wonderland, falling either really really slowly, or really really deep.

‘Falling deeper and deeper sweety. Let my voice drown out any and all thoughts. Let my words be your only reality. Whenever I tell you to sleep, you’ll sink a thousand times deeper into this hypnotic trance.’

She barely registered his words. It was as if her consciousness had checked out and his words immediately penetrated her subconsciousness. She wasn’t asleep, yet she wasn’t awake either. She was trapped in an undercurrent dragging her further and further into the sea of obedience. His words pulling her forward. His words drowning her, trapping her, coiling her. She was only aware for very short moments of time, fragmented memories.

She vaguely remembered feeling small and happy. Feeling carefree. She remembered it feeling so good. So immensely good. As if she was a little girl still, she remembered wanting to be a little girl badly. She also remembered being horny, being flooded with arousal. Orgasming in her high chair. She felt the need to be humiliated and diapered. She felt the desire to obey. She craved punishment, she needed to get a good spanking. She wanted to be helpless, overpowered and tied down. It was a roller coaster of desires.

Her car again. She sat in the passengers seat and dazedly stared forward. Confused she looked around. They were parked in front of her own house, she saw the white lily’s in her front garden shining in the pale moonlight. She looked at the person in the drivers seat. It was Brett.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

‘You didn’t feel so good sweety,’ he said, ‘You almost past out. You have to take better care of yourself,’ he said patronizing. She liked that. It filled her up with a warm fuzzy feeling. As if she was a little girl still and he was the big caring adult. She felt a strange tingle in her panties. She pressed her legs together. Her cheeks blushing.

‘Thanks for giving me a ride home,’ she said.

‘No problem. I hope you’ll feel better soon.’ he said.

They got out of the car and he handed her the keys.

‘But how will you get home?’ She asked. ‘Do you live close by?’

‘Close enough.’ He said. Half-heartedly gesturing towards the end of the street. ‘I think I’ll manage, I’m thirty two and plenty strong,’ he said.

She felt a giggle bubbling up in her chest, she tried to suppress it, but still she just felt young and giddy and small. It felt good to be protected and cared for by such a strong man. She didn’t want him to go away.

‘You wanna come in?’ she asked. ‘Like for some tea or something.’

She frowned. Why did she offer him tea? She never ever drank tea. She didn’t even know whether she would have it in stock.

‘Already?’ he asked with a surprised smile. ‘That’s a very kind offer Vera.’ He said. ‘And I will gladly take you up on that. But now you need to rest for a while, and frankly I could use some rest as well. You’ve exhausted me, with your limber yoga body.’ He winked. ‘So how about tomorrow you come by and I make you some very special tea I brought home from India.’

‘Sounds good,’ she said.

He smiled and he gave her a condescending pat on her head. ‘See you tomorrow then, Kiddo.’

She went inside. All flushed with arousal. She looked back through the window and waved at him, already contemplating what outfit she would wear tomorrow on their date, she wanted to wear something girly and cute.

***