Chapter 25: At Wit's End

When Penny's alarm woke her up on Thursday it took all of her will to pull herself out of bed. She had thought that escaping the erotic dreams of Mistress Catherine would allow her to finally get a decent night's rest, but she had been wrong. Since her encounter with Mistress on Monday the dreams had stopped, but in their place was a strange sort of half-insomnia that, instead of leaving her feeling refreshed and ready for the day, left her groggy and sluggish.

That her sleep had been so fitful on Monday was not completely surprising. On the one hand, Penny had been hoping that after spending the weekend so erotically charged, the release that she had experienced at the hands of Mistress Catherine would allow her to go to bed early and finally recover from the events of Friday night. However, the whole experience with Mistress Catherine had been so distressing, so jarring, that Penny found herself too shaken to sleep very deeply.

It didn't help that, despite the massive orgasms that she had experienced, she still felt a bit aroused when she went to bed. She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened to her and, as much it all filled her with worry, it also turned her on. She was determined, though, not to let this arousal control her. For Sandy's sake, if nothing else, Penny needed to overcome Mistress Catherine's control, and she couldn't do that if she was spending her nights masturbating while remembering her submission in Mistress Catherine's office.

By Tuesday, though, this arousal had started to become a distraction. During lunch, she had slipped off to the bathroom to give herself a bit of relief. Wedged into a stall, she started to masturbate while steadfastly refusing to think about Mistress Catherine. Instead, she did her best to picture previous sexual encounters and, more than anything, to just let the physical sensations of her own fingers bring her to climax.

Eventually this strategy worked, but the orgasm that she had was unsatisfying. She came, but that was about it and, when it was all over she almost felt more frustrated than she had before.

Not only that, but what happened in Mistress Catherine's office the day before was still on her mind. Penny continued to feel a sense of danger and of failure – it was bad enough that she had lost the contest of wills with Mistress Catherine, but Penny was terrified that this could mean that Sandy would fall further under the hypnotist's spell. Sandy was so young and impressionable, Penny shuddered to think what might happen if Mistress Catherine were able to get her claws any further into Sandy.

All of these worries made Tuesday night another evening of sleeplessness and frustration. Penny was free of Mistress Catherine's influence, but for some reason just couldn't rest. When the alarm went off on Wednesday morning, it startled Penny, but didn't wake her up – she had already been lying awake in bed, frustrated, exhausted, and distressed.

What made it worse was that Sandy had been particularly happy all week. This was a good thing, certainly, and Penny took it to mean that Mistress Catherine hadn't done anything too bad to her yet, but it also reminded Penny of just what was at stake – just what she was jeopardizing by her failure to protect Sandy from Mistress Catherine. Sandy had been bright and bubbly, seemingly on top of the world – so full of life and joy. Penny wanted to protect that. She wanted to make sure that Mistress Catherine wouldn't crush Sandy's lively spirit.

Unfortunately for Penny, she didn't share Sandy's peppiness. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in almost a week and, on top of it all, she and Sandy had both been spending long hours at the office working on the presentation that Penny had to give the next week. Penny was doing her best to stay focused on work, but it was getting harder and harder considering her concern for Sandy, and for herself, combined with her lack of sleep and the seemingly constant arousal that was lurking somewhere within her.

By Wednesday night, Penny was determined to pull herself together. As soon as she got home she opened a bottle of wine, figuring that a few glasses would calm her nerves and help her sleep. After she had a nice buzz, she put herself to bed early, making sure that she would have plenty of time to rest before another long day of work.

When she got into bed, she decided to masturbate. She had a vibrator that she used from time to time, and she made use of it that night. Unlike the quick, desperate masturbation that she had done in the bathroom stall the day before, this time she took her time. She played with herself, caressed herself, let herself enjoy the sensations. She knew that she could take her time and still have plenty of time to sleep.

Eventually, she brought the vibrator into play, thinking the sexiest thoughts that she could conjure (that didn't involve Mistress Catherine). Penny did everything she could to slowly, sensuously build herself towards a climax.

Finally, that climax came. But even with all of the buildup and anticipation that she had tried to create, the orgasm wasn't satisfying. She came, but other than a slight shudder, it didn't fill her body with sensation. Her sex quivered a few times, and there was a bit of tingling there and in her nipples, but that was it.

Rather than let this get her down, though, she reminded herself that she was exhausted, so maybe masturbation just wasn't going to feel good. An orgasm, even a disappointing one, combined with the glasses of wine and her fatigue ought to allow her to get a good night's rest at last.

But that couldn't have been further from the truth. She had tossed and turned all night before finally, fitfully dozing off hours after she had gone to bed. When her alarm had woke her up she almost felt more tired than she had before she went to bed. She had a long day ahead of her, and lacked the energy that she really needed to get through it.

Nevertheless, she had work to do. She got up, showered, and got ready to go to the office. Her mind was on edge, her body and spirit were exhausted, and she still lived under the constant cloud of knowing that Mistress Catherine might prey upon Sandy at any time. But her coworkers were counting on her to put together a strong presentation next week, and so she had to block out her own troubles and get to work.

By the time she arrived at work, she was determined to push through. Maybe a really hard day of work would be the thing that would finally allow her to sleep. And, she reminded herself, her insomnia might not be entirely a result of her fears about Mistress Catherine. Maybe she was stressed about work. The best way to get over that anxiety, she decided, was to get her work done so that she could relax.

With this mindset in place, she got busy.

The more she worked, though, the more distraught she became. There was still so much to do, and Penny realized that she just hadn't gotten enough done this week. She had been so preoccupied with what had happened with Mistress Catherine that she hadn't been her usual productive self. She had to be ready by next week, and she wasn't sure she was going to make it.

And the presentation wasn't even the only thing she had to do. She had taken this on at the request of her co-workers, but her usual duties were starting to pile up as well.

To make matters worse, Sandy seemed to be especially happy today. She had walked into the office absolutely beaming. How could Penny allow such an energetic, lively young woman with so much going for her come under the spell of a hypnotist? Penny was convinced that if she didn't protect Sandy, the bright young woman would be subdued; robbed of her life.

All of this was weighing on Penny. Still, she reminded herself, sitting around thinking about how much she had on her plate wouldn't get it done – she needed to keep focused.

This remained a struggle throughout the day, though, as her mind kept wandering. She was relieved when, shortly after what should have been her lunch break (she didn't have time to stop, so she had worked straight through it), the door opened. Penny looked up, expecting to see Sandy – perhaps her assistant was bringing her something to eat, or had finished her tasks and was ready to offer more help. Even just seeing Sandy and her infectious energy sounded good to Penny at this point.

But it wasn't Sandy that suddenly stepped into Penny's office.

It was Mistress Catherine!

Penny's eyes grew wide and she stood up out of her chair in surprise and fear. Mistress Catherine calmly stepped into Penny's office and closed the door before simply saying, "Hello, Penny. It's good to see you again."

"What are you doing here?" Penny was momentarily stunned, but was trying to collect herself.

"Well, I'm here to talk to..." Penny cut her off, not wanting to give her a chance to cast her spell.

"Get out. I don't want you here and I don't want you to start your games."

"I'll leave if you want me to, but I don't know what games you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about – putting me in trance. I won't let you do it this time."

"Dear Penny," Mistress remained completely calm; totally at ease. "I promise that I will only hypnotize you if you ask me to."

"Am I expected to believe that? I've never asked you to before. Or is that it? You'll hypnotize me and then say that I subconsciously asked for it? Not this time – I want you to leave right now."