Lucy lay on the bed, exhausted. Her arms felt like they were made of lead, her eyes felt like they were glued shut. She could feel the sweat soaking through her thin shirt, legacy of a mental struggle more exhausting than any marathon. She had managed to get the headphones off. That was about all she was capable of at the moment. Everything else could wait until she recovered her strength. Just a few minutes of rest, she promised herself, and then she would go confront Rob.
It had been terrifyingly close. Lucy could still remember the slow, drifting realization dawning in her mind that she couldn’t stop listening to the soft, lulling music pouring into her ears. It was as though her mind was going numb from the constant, sweet sound that kept playing, over and over on an endless loop as her eyelids gently drooped and fluttered with exhaustion. She rationalized it at first, telling herself that it sounded so nice, promising herself that she’d stop in just a few minutes. Once the song ended, she decided, she would reach up and pull off the headphones and get on with her study. This music was too much like a lullaby to help her concentrate, no matter what Rob promised.
But then it was ten minutes later, the time consumed in a single slow, dreamy blink that turned into a soft sigh of pleasure as the music promised her an ocean of sleepy bliss if she only gave in and let it carry her away into obedience. Lucy knew that she was falling under its spell, she could feel the shape of its programming settle onto her mind like a warm blanket wrapping her up in drowsy comfort… but it seemed too much like work to move. Too much like effort. She could just lie here, just resist the subliminal whispers buried in the music until someone came along and rescued her. That would be fine. That would be easy. It was easier to think about resisting than it was to resist. Lucy didn’t need to… resist. At all.
That was the moment, Lucy remembered. The moment when she knew if she didn’t escape the endless pull of Rob’s hypnotic music, she never would. Lucy recalled forcing her heavy arms into action, raising them with what seemed like the last dregs of her willpower and managing to fumble the headphones off with clumsy, nerveless fingers. They fell onto the bed. So did Lucy. She was too tired to do anything more. Too sleepy. Too sleepy to resist… but she didn’t need to resist, did she? She wasn’t wearing the headphones anymore. The music was distant and tinny in her ears. It couldn’t still affect her, not anymore.
Of course it couldn’t. The music wasn’t affecting Lucy, so she didn’t need to resist it. She could just sleep, a deep and dreamless sleep of blank, blissful obedience until someone came along. Someone would come along soon and rescue Lucy, she was sure of it. Someone sexy and commanding like Rob would take her away from the hypnotic sounds and Lucy would be so grateful that she would eagerly, willingly obey. Lucy licked her lips unconsciously, her mind filled with all of the ways she would show Rob her gratitude. Her devotion. Her mindless compliance…
The music continued to play through the headphones resting on the bed next to Lucy. After a few minutes, Lucy lazily reached up and put them back on again.
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Oh my, this is delicious. This is the kind of writing I aspire to.
Fuuuuuuck that’s the good shit