Chapter 9: Abstinence

Phoenix: Hospital - Wednesday Day

After finally getting away from the airport, we got to the emergency room at 9 or so that night. It took me 3 hours and 4 seizures to see a doctor and get admitted; my father's threatening legal action probably helped. My papers were signed at 12:01 a.m. I hate emergency rooms. Sometimes you have to sit for so long, suffering, before anyone can be bothered to see you. Of course it's not like I was shot a hundred times, bleeding out, about to crash (and yes, one of those came rushing through). I only was having seizures, nothing too urgent.

The rest of the day is a blur. I remember blood tests, CT scans. Faces of family visits, snippets of conversation. They must have tried half the anti-seizure medications in their pharmacy before they happened on a cocktail that seemed to work. I spent a lot of time sleeping after that - between the jet lag and the seizures, I was exhausted.

Phoenix: Hospital - Thursday Morning

They kept up the tests the next day. I was woken early to catch a breakfast appointment with the MRI machine. The face that greeted me when I woke up shocked me. Braces, a bob of red hair, a chipper smile. "Wakey, wakey!" I'd known Alicia Lawrence through a coworker of my ex-girlfriend Erin. When I'd met her, she was recently emancipated, got her GED at 16, and was working her way through nursing school. Apparently, she'd graduated. I'd lost touch with her after Erin and I split. "Surprise! What are you doing here, Eric?" Her chipper attitude (and her presence) startled me to the point where I had another seizure. After that, I climbed into her wheelchair.

She wheeled me to Medical Imaging, yammering the whole way about Erin and how great she felt we were as a couple. I wanted to shut her up. We got to the MRI machine just in time.

The trip back to my room was just as full of chatter. Finally, in the elevator, I snapped. "Alicia, stop."

"Huh?" She stopped talking and looked at me, quizzically. "Stop what?"

"Just stop talking." An idea occurred to me. I beckoned her in front of me. "Come here. Look in my eyes."

She tittered. "What? You're gonna hypnotize me. I thought Erin said you weren't into that stuff."

I laughed. "Well, yeah. She always pushed it too hard."

"Well, I dare you," she said. "I can't be hypnotized." She smiled, smugly. "My willpower is too strong." She crouched down in front of me.

"Imagine you're already hypnotized."

"But I'm not!" She grinned.

"Imagine it!" I sighed. "Okay, now imagine how it has to feel, how it feels to be totally under my control, ready to respond to my words."

" ... okay..."

I did the whole countdown thing, and by '1' she slumped. I remembered one of her childhood nicknames being 'Apple' - she hated it, since it was a nickname about her chest the kids in her school used to call her. Since she was annoying me with her chatter, I just said "Okay, Allie. Whenever I call you 'Apple' in the future I want you to fall into a trance like this one, ready to respond to me, ready to obey. Oh, and if I call you 'Apple' as part of a sentence, just obey that sentence instead of falling into a trance. Will you obey?"

" ... yes ... obey..."

"Okay, wake up, Allie."

The elevator dinged. She flounced back behind me. "See? Told you you couldn't hypnotize me." She puffed her chest out in pride. "I'm too strong."

I chuckled. "Yeah, you showed me."

>

Phoenix: Hospital - Thursday Afternoon

After that, I spent most of the morning sleeping. I was woken at lunch to Alicia's sing-song voice. "Eric! You have a visitor!" She had a sly, conspiratorial smile.

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes to see Erin, my ex-girlfriend, standing in the doorway in a trenchcoat - she was probably dressed for work underneath. She gave me a little wave, sheepishly. "Hi, honey," she said. "Allie told me you were here."

Now, Erin is almost instant boner material - she looks like that pinup Danielle Riley. This is why she's so popular dancing as "Mary Magdalene" at the Audubon Club. I have no idea how I attracted her; we met in a painting class, we chatted a few times over coffee, then she kissed me. She was the one that taught me a little about hypnosis - a submissive, she loved having it used on her. I always felt she was pretending, and finally she admitted it. She'd seen people hypnotized at a show when she was in high school, and it turned her right on - she'd been desperately trying to get into a trance ever since. I broke it off with her a few months later, a few too many suicide attempts.

I just smiled at her, a little weakly, and said, "Hey, angel." I slipped back into my old pet name for her. I'd known this would happen - it's why I avoided her for so long. I wondered what I could do to her with the 'mojo' - maybe I could fix her, somehow, make it work with us. She'd wanted to be a hypnotic zombie all her life, or so she tells it.

She smiled at me, warmly. "How are you doing?" She sounded nervous.

I just waved around at the hospital room, the beeping machine watching my heart, the IV in my veins. "Oh, you know how it goes." I patted the side of the bed. "Come on, sit down."

She smiled at me, gratefully, and sat down. "Soooo," she said, "Allie told me you tried to hypnotize her?"

Alicia giggled from the door. "He did! It didn't work."

"Maybe he just made you think it didn't work," Erin said, laughing. She winked at me.

"It's true," I said. "That's what happened."

"Yeah, right," Alicia said. She rolled her eyes at us.

I felt like showing off. Besides, I wanted a little revenge - Alicia was responsible for Erin being here, bringing up all those old feelings. "It's true, Apple! In fact, you're falling into a trance right now."

"Oh reall..." She drifted off, slumping against the door frame.

"Ha ha," Erin said, looking between us. "I don't believe you two."

I just shrugged and gave her a knowing look.

Erin's jaw dropped. "You're shitting me." She got up and went over to Alicia, waving a hand in front of her face. "Alicia, wake up." But she just stayed under. Erin gave me an admonishing glare. "Okay, you've got some 'splainin' to do, mister." She walked back over to the bed and sat down. "How did you pull that off?"

I just shrugged. "Mind control." Might as well toy with her, tease her a little. "Apparently, that's why I'm in the hospital."

She squealed with glee. "I knew it! I knew it had to be possible!" She was bouncing. "Do me!"

I shook my head. "Can't."

"Oh, fuck you, Eric!" She got up and glared at me. "You're always like this! You just don't want to do it to me." Tears were running down her face. "You know how much it means to me."

"Look, angel." I put on an apologetic look. "Seriously, I can't."

She sat down, giving me puppy-dog eyes. "Well, why not?"

"Um," I said. "It only works when I have a seizure."

"Oh, right. Jordan told me you were having seizures. That's why you're really in the hospital, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I sighed. "Really put a damper on Italy."

She sniffled. "Well, at least you went. Did you manage to find any of your mom's family?"

"I was only there a week. So, no."

"Too bad, honey. So, what can we do to make you have a seizure?"

"They used to come all the time. With these meds, I've only had 2 or 3. Being on a plane that's taking off, or landing, seems to do it?" I shrugged. "Probably the stress of changing altitude."

"Oh," she pouted. "I don't think we can pull that off." She reached under my blanket. "Maybe if we stress your body some other way." She looked at me, hungrily.

I admit it. I'm weak. Erin had been a guilty pleasure for me a few times after we'd broken up. Love doesn't just die when a relationship does. She was hot enough to turn me on even if I didn't have the urgent erection from the earlier seizure with Alicia. Speaking of ... I turned to Alicia. "Apple, close the door, make sure we have some privacy. You can wake up when we're done."

She murmured an " ... okay..." and closed the door.

Erin thew off her trenchcoat (she was already wearing her costume for work underneath) and slipped under the sheet. She looked over at the door. "Is she just going to stand there?"

"Probably."

"Hot," she said. She reached under my gown and grabbed my cock. "We should invite her to join us..."

I grabbed her neck, and pulled her into me for a kiss; she moaned with pleasure. "No," I said. "I want you all for myself." I flipped her over onto the bed, climbing on top of her. It's easy to be dominating with someone who loves it, and you've done with in the past. I let out a little growl and bit her ear. She cried out my name.

I pinned her wrists to the bed and bent down to go to town on her tits. I could taste her vanilla body butter. Letting go of her wrists, I reached down to manipulate her, putting my other hand on her throat. My fingers slipped inside her, it was like slipping on an old glove. I knew exactly what to touch. I could play her like a fiddle.

Then I climbed up on Erin and thrust my cock inside her. It was like a key slipping into its lock. I heard two moans coming from the two redheads in the room. Erin looked at me, then at Alicia, then back at me with a question in her eye. I smiled, a bit sheepishly. "She feels everything I feel," I said, twitching my cock inside her to emphasize what she was feeling, making Alicia whimper by the door. "It's kind of a side effect."

"Oh, that's gotta be so hot," she said, pulling me further into her. "You have to do that to me." She scratched my back, then pulled me in and started biting my neck. I think she drew blood. "Come on," she muttered, "do it!" So I did. I didn't have a seizure, but came. I pumped my semen into her. At least I knew she had an IUD. Both of us agreed she'd be a horrible mother.

Like a lot of our times together, I felt bad she'd had no orgasm. Alicia did, sliding down the wall, gasping audibly. I collapsed on top of Erin, using her chest as a pillow. "Sorry about that."

She laughed. "You should be! I can't believe you didn't have a seizure." She slapped my butt. "How are you going to mind control me now?"

"I meant, y'know, about the cumming."

"Idiot." She looked at me tenderly, running the back of her hand down my face. "You know I like being with you, orgasm or no."

I shrugged. "Still, you should have one."

"I'm sure Hugh or Lee will give me one when I get home tonight. Don't worry about it."

Alicia stirred awake. She picked herself off the floor. "What happened? Why am I on the floor?" She shook her head. "Why do I feel so good?" She looked at us on the bed, and giggled. "Omigod! What are you guys DOING?" She looked scandalized, but pleasantly so.

Erin pushed me off her and rolled out from under me. "Nothing, now." She sighed, grabbing her trenchcoat. "It didn't work." She donned her coat.

"What didn't work?" Alicia was confused.

I rolled my eyes at her. "The mind control."

Alicia giggled. "Oh, right. Your hypnotic power. Good thing I'm immune."

Erin and I looked at each other and just started laughing. Alicia stomped her foot and asked, "What's so funny?!"

"Nothing," we said.

Then Erin bent over me and gave me a kiss. She knew she was giving me a good view of her chest, too. "Maybe next time," she said after breaking the kiss. Then she walked away.

"Maybe," I said. Erin was in the doorway when I started feeling the signs. "Wait a sec, angel" I said. She turned to me. "It's happening."

"Oh goodie!" I started shaking again, the pain stabbed me in my pelvis. Erin clapped with glee; she squealed happily. I gave her a dirty look. "Glad my suffering makes you so happy."

She stuck her tongue out at me. "You know it does."

"That's why I broke up with you." The seizure ended. I let out a sigh of relief.

Erin scrunched up her face. "Why don't I feel any different?" I peered at her. She didn't have the glassy eyed look that the other girls had - like Alicia had at the moment. She looked over at Alicia. "It looks like she's affected."

Alicia looked confused. "Affected by what? I feel normal. Should I be feeling different?"

Erin pointed at me. "His mind controlling seizures."

"Uh, what?" She looked between me and Alicia. "Mind control? Yeah, right. You couldn't even hypnotize me."

Erin looked at me. "Show me! Prove it!"