Chapter 5

The first of the afternoon classes passed without much cause for comment. But between periods I did see Elizabeth in the hall. I don't think she saw me, and she wouldn't have recognize me if she did, but the same could have been said about me, before our morning encounter. She probably passed me in the hall every day at that time, and I'd never noticed before now.

During the second class of the afternoon I had another opportunity to observe Sandy. It was a chemistry course, and we were doing a lab activity. From the moment she entered the classroom and saw me, she couldn't seem to look away. Every time I glanced towards her, I caught her watching. She would shy up and look away, but never for long. Eventually the teacher started to notice her odd behavior. But a quick nudge from my power made her decide it wasn't important, while another nudge made her assign us as partners for the lab activity.

I knew I should be more careful when using my power, and I knew it wouldn't do good things for my karma, but Sandy is someone I've wanted for a long time. I figured my classical conditioning wasn't anything more than a nudge. Like what I had just done with the teacher. It was a bump in the right direction. It wouldn't do any real harm. And I could always release her and set things right.

The class moved over to the lab area and listened as the teacher outlined the safety rules. I was sure to pay attention while the teacher explained what we were going to be doing, mostly because Sandy was too busy watching me to pay attention to the teacher. When the teacher finished I turned to Sandy.

"I'll go get the supplies." I told her, and walked to the storage closet. When I got back she was studiously going over the lab worksheet. I glanced at my copy. "This shouldn't be too hard." I said, setting up the beaker tray and measuring our samples. She nodded silently. It was obvious that she was trying very hard not to look at me. Her feelings must be making her uncomfortable.

I've known Sandy for a long time and I've had a crush on her for years. We knew each other as classmates, but had never really developed anything beyond a casual friendship. But a few years back, someone started spreading rumors about my crush. The rumors were true, of course, but they couldn't have known that. For a while, I was picked on even worse than usual, and Sandy had distanced herself from me.

She was now, courtesy of my power, being subjected to a barrage of classical conditioning. The more she pays attention to me, the more thrilled and aroused she feels. The more she pleases me, the happier she feels. The more she obeys me, the more pleasure she feels. And while she is near me, or when she is obeying me, she feels contentment. Of course, I wouldn't expect this kind of conditioning to alter behavior overnight. It would probably be a few days before she threw herself at my feet. But it was already having a noticeable impact.

I finished measuring the powder and realized that we didn't have enough. I said as much.

"I'll go get us some more." Sandy offered, hurrying to do just that. She returned with a big smile on her face. "Here." She said, holding the dish out to me. Her eyes were fixed on mine, and she was no longer pretending not to stare.

"Thanks." I told her, and watched her smile get even bigger. I took the dish and poured the powder carefully into to the other pile.

As the experiment progressed, Sandy did more and more to help me with the work. This was deeply out of character for her, since she usually left others to do her share of the work. It used to suck to be stuck with her as a partner. But now she was more than willing to do her part. Sandy also started to lightly flirt with me, and took every opportunity to show off her body. She was reacting much more strongly than I had anticipated.

I scanned her mind to see if anything was wrong. Most of her thoughts were about me, and about what she could do to improve her standing in my eyes. She really wanted me to see that she was a wonderful person. She was concerned that I would try to push her away if she got too forceful. I searched her mind a little deeper, and that was when I found something interesting.

The conditioning I had done to her mind was something she was unaware of consciously. But her subconscious not only knew about everything I had done, it was actively trying to push her conscious mind into a relationship with me. I'm not really sure why it was doing this. It knew about the conditioning I had set up, and was taking every opportunity to expose her to it. Her subconscious was picking up subtle clues from my own unconscious reactions, and was using them to judge when I was pleased by something she did, and when I was not. If it judged that I was pleased, it was enough to trigger the happiness response.

It was an odd phenomenon, and definitely warranted further investigation. Her mind was split between two consciousnesses, and each of them was trying to control the other. The idea behind my classical conditioning of Sandy was that I could influence her towards certain behaviors by rewarding her for desired behavior and withholding that reward for undesired behavior. But her subconscious was being much more subtle in its manipulations of her psyche. I wasn't sure what the end result would be.

By the end of the period, she was radiating sexual energy. I could smell her excitement and arousal, and I had her rapt attention. I told her a joke and she giggled sweetly, tilted her head, and smiled up at me. She reached her hand under the table and grabbed mine, bringing it over to her leg and squeezing the back of it gently, invitingly. This wasn't an invitation I planned on refusing, and I slid my hand along her smooth leg, enjoying the warmth of her skin. She sighed contentedly.

"How do you feel about all of this? About me, I mean." I asked her. "You never showed any interest before."

"I don't really know. I guess I need some time to sort out my feelings. This is all so sudden. But there is definitely a spark between us. God! I haven't felt this way about anyone before. I'm totally yours, if you'll take me. I love you."

Her words startled me for a second. The way she slightly emphasized 'totally yours' in her offer made me think of Amber. Maybe something similar had happened to Amber; where her subconscious decided to take advantage of what I was doing to impose some changes on her conscious mind? I had to examine Amber when I saw her that night, to find out one way or another.

"I love you too." I said, pulling Sandy towards me and embracing her with a passionate kiss. The teacher interrupting ruined the moment. She told us to keep that sort of thing outside of her classroom, and I was too pleased with myself to object. Sandy, the crush I had held since seventh grade, was finally mine. I knew then that my demons had slipped free again. I knew I wouldn't be letting her go, ever.

As we were leaving class, I exchanged numbers with Sandy and promised to call her sometime that weekend. She seemed distressed when we parted. She was wonderfully happy and perfectly content for as long as I was with her, but without my presence, the conditioned responses wouldn't be triggered. She had spent the last hour in a state of total bliss, and now she felt that she was being abandoned; left within the ordinary, colorless world. It was no wonder she felt distressed.