Chapter 23: The White Witch of Walden - Trust and Expectation

A PLEASANT SWIM IN THE OCEAN

The morning barely dawned at all. A warm front had rolled into the area during the night, and the weather was rainy and foggy with a low overcast that looked as if it was here for the duration. It was difficult to roll out of bed, since Dee lay on her back next to me on one side, while Brenda had cuddled herself into my other. They had stayed up late into the evening talking to Willie, and I often heard their raucous giggling as I worked in my office before going off to bed. Brenda and Dee had tucked the newcomer into Dee's bed and joined me in the master bedroom. It was to be Willie's last night sleeping alone, they said. And, they confessed, neither of them particularly trusted herself sleeping in the same bed with her.

We found Willie up and sitting on one of the kitchen stools, looking out at the rain. She seemed a little bleary-eyed, but claimed not to have a headache, which was a little surprising. She'd had three or four glasses of wine the night before, and considering it was the first time she'd consumed alcohol, she was in pretty good shape. Dee took over in the kitchen, just as she always does, but Willie insisted on helping, even though she didn't have the slightest clue what to do. Dee, the ever-tolerant teacher, had her doing small tasks while explaining how the food was being prepared. The coffee was first, and I sat and sipped while Brenda and I watched as the omelets, sausage and toast made their way to the table.

I'd been awake half the night worrying about how the Saturday was going to progress. Brenda had made a few minor suggestions, but had wisely left the major decisions to the Master himself. I wasn't at all sure this was going to work, but after the meal was finished I outlined the plan I'd eventually plotted out. Throughout the explanation, Willie sat in her standard pose from last night (the same pose Dee gave Brenda and me when we talked about HER and her role of slave); i.e., hands in her lap, head tilted slightly downward, eyes lowered, a mild blush on her skin.

If Willie still wanted to join our little family in the role of third slave, she would do so today, I told them. I would hypnotize her soon; this morning, and take her as deep as I possibly could to test the boundaries of her trance. Then, if everything went well, the three of them would go shopping for clothes during the day. I would take her out tonight to the fanciest hotel in town, the one with the rotating restaurant perched atop it's 22^nd floor; not tall as buildings go, but the tallest our little college city had to offer. We would take a room there for the night, and after dinner, I would introduce her to physical love, then hypnotize her again. If she really WAS a Natural, she would be my emotional slave from that moment. The concept had Brenda and Dee flushed and fidgety. Willie didn't comment or look up. She was the picture of alluring meekness.

The three girls did the dishes in silence while I shaved and dressed. By the time I came back out to the kitchen, Willie was dressed in a pair of tattered cutoffs and a faded t-shirt, and she rose from her chair and stood demurely before me.

"Are you ready, Willie?"

"Yes, Frederick."

I took her hand and led her into my office. There are two large, comfortable chairs in that room, and I sat her in one of them, then pulled the swivel desk chair over and placed it in front of her. The mahogany box sat on the mantle, and I took the watch from it and returned to sit facing her, several inches above her level. She had been looking around curiously. It was obviously the first time she had been in the room, since the girls were not normally allowed here.

"There are so many books in this house," she said in awe. "There are as many in this room as there are in your library."

Our "library" was sort of a second den, with a large table in its center. Brenda worked on her compositions there, while Dee was always reading one of the novels. "This is where I keep the books I collect," I told her. "We are a family of readers. If you become one of us, I will give Dee the task of teaching you to read."

"If?" Willie asked, concerned.

"This is your last opportunity for freedom," I explained. (I'd rehearsed this.) "If you so choose, I will grant it to you. I will give you the money we found in your home, and you can lead a normal life." While I said this, I looked fixedly into her eyes. I leaned forward toward her, my forearms resting on my knees. As I expected, she returned my gaze for only a few seconds before dropping her eyes to the watch I was idly playing with in my hands. "I don't believe in your... abilities with the cards, but if it means that much to you, you should seriously think about this. It is my final offer. You consider yourself a slave, but believe me: when I finish with you tonight, you will be enslaved so totally, you will be so completely in my power, that you will never, never be free again."

She was staring at the watch, rapt. "Like Dee?" she asked quietly.

"Like Dee, yes. Like Brenda."

She sighed. Her eyes seemed to lose focus. "Oh, Frederick," she said dreamily. "That would be... wonderful."

I had expected a little more... hesitancy, I guess. "And you're no longer concerned about the card-reading?"

She was silent for a long second. "If you will not believe, then I am of no use to you anyway. That is all I am good at. It is all I can do. I will have to... find some other way to serve you. Perhaps you will want my body?"

It was my turn to be flustered. I wanted desperately to reach down and shift my iron-hard cock, which had somehow become overly-confined in my trousers; but I was afraid that might wreck the mood we had somehow already attained. Her eyes seemed to droop a little, and when they blinked, they seemed to struggle to open again. They never left the watch. Her head had slowly cocked a little to the right, and she leaned very slightly forward toward me.

"What are you doing with that watch?"

"Nothing," I replied idly. "I use it to hypnotize Dee and Brenda. They can never resist it. It always, always puts them into a deep, deep hypnotic trance. Always. But I just want to sit here and talk with you for awhile. I might use the watch later. Let's just talk a bit. Okay?"

"It's so... shiny." She blinked again slowly. "Pretty. And it always puts... Dee and Brenda into... always..."

"Yes, always. I just swing it on its chain, and they can't look away. They try sometimes. I watch them as they try to turn their heads away; but they can't."

She didn't turn her head, but she slowly tilted it to the left, her eyes remaining locked on the watch. "Will you swing it for me?" she asked, barely above a whisper. "Please? Like you do with Dee? With Brenda?"

"I just want to talk awhile," I persisted, shifting the watch slowly from one hand to the other. This was happening too fast. "We can talk, and maybe I'll swing the watch later. Like I do with Dee. With Brenda. Because when I swing it for them, they start to get very, very sleepy. They can't help it. They can't fight it. There's nothing at all they can do about it. Nothing. Nothing. They just get sleepier and sleepier."

She seemed to deflate almost immediately. Her eyes drooped to mere slits and her head bobbed forward a little before jerking back up again. This was definitely progressing too rapidly. I wasn't getting all the high points of my induction in.

"Just like... in the... hospital," she mumbled. "You're making it... happen again."

I hadn't anticipated her making that connection. She was almost under. I still hadn't said anything about "Naturals" always obeying "so they'd be sure to wake up." This was like acting in a play and having some other player skip ahead a dozen or so lines by mistake. I was having to ad lib, but I wasn't sure where to pick up the dialog. In another moment, she'd be asleep, with or without my prompts.

"Surrender and sleep!" I ordered firmly.

Her eyes closed and she rocked gently forward toward me. I put my right palm against her chest to keep her from falling out of the chair, and I gently pushed her backwards. Her head lolled to the right and she rested, limp and unmoving, against the back of the chair, her hands in her lap, her mouth slightly open.

"You will follow my voice," I told her firmly. "Follow and obey my voice. You will see what I tell you to see; you will do what I tell you to do."

"Yes, Frederick," she mumbled into the chair's back.

"As soon as you fell asleep, you found yourself back on your island, long ago. You have no idea how you came to be here, but everything seems very familiar. You are sitting in your auntie's lap, and you are very small, very young. This is the past, and you cannot change what is happening. You can only relive it."

"I must be dreaming," she said, surprising me. When I had hypnotized Dee, I had had to entice her to comment; speech hadn't come naturally when she had first been put under.

"Yes. You know it is a dream, but you cannot wake up. You cannot remember anything about falling asleep. You are only aware of what is happening now. Happening again. Your auntie is holding you, gently but firmly, and you are so young, so small, that you cannot resist her embrace. She makes you feel so good, so comfortable in her arms. She presses your head against her breast and starts humming a lullaby. She strokes you hair."