This story is written for those who enjoy a slow build up to their erotica but I hope that you all enjoy the climax and agree that it is worth the wait.
Emily was a petite, intelligent eighteen year old. She wore her long, shiny dark hair loose and flowing down her back. University was an adventure and Emily took to student life but she did find it a bit of a challenge to balance her budget. As with many students this was Emily's first real exposure to the harsh world of being responsible for her own finances; at home she had her allowance from Daddy but, if she was short of funds at the end of the month, her comfortable homelife would always provide whatever was needed.
So it was natural for Emily to take an interest in the A5 sheet which appeared on the noticeboard in her student hall. The notice said that the Psychology Department needed volunteers for a study which it was undertaking; volunteers would be paid and anyone interested should telephone the number on the advertisement.
Emily telephoned the number and was given a very brief interview by a young woman. The woman said that those whose answers showed that they were suitable would be contacted by post. It was not long before Emily received a typed letter saying that she had been accepted for Phase One of the study and that she should report to an office block in the city that Saturday. Simply for attending she would be paid £25 and anyone going on to Phase Two could earn £200 with the possibility of more money for Phase Three. The letter gave Emily her "Personal Number" which she should quote when arriving for her appointment.
University students are a rich source of guinea pigs for experiments in psychology so Emily did not see anything untoward in the arrangement but she was a little puzzled at the fact that her appointment was not on university premises. It was a very bland tower block with a long list displayed in the entrance hall showing the organisations, mainly businesses, which were renting space. University Psychology Study was on the fifth floor and Emily rode up in the lift with two other girls of around her own age.
They were met at the lift by a smartly dressed woman in her thirties. She welcomed them, introduced herself as Sally and checked their personal numbers on her clip board. Sally directed the girls into a large room which looked like an exam room with small individual desks. A few girls were milling around chatting and being served coffee by a business suited man who introduced himself as Dan. Emily noted that all the guinea pigs were young women like herself.
In a short time Dan and Sally had a whispered conversation and Dan announced that they were ready to begin and asked the girls to take their places at their desks. The prologue was shared by Dan and Sally and was very polished and professional. The girls were thanked for coming and assured that all of them would be paid £25 in cash when they left.
"We are meeting here rather than in college as we need to take you away from you comfort zone on campus. Please accept our apologies that we can give you very minimal information on the study as we don't want to tell you anything which may slew the results. All that we need today is for you all to complete a question paper in exam conditions. We will then examine the papers and some of you will be invited back for Phase Two."
The papers were handed out in silence and placed face down on the desks until the instruction was given to turn the papers over and begin the test. Emily found that she had a booklet of over thirty pages which she had to head with her number instead of her name. Many of the questions just required her to tick a box but some provided a box in which she had to write her answer. The questions covered every area of her life including her family background, attitude to money, feelings about risk, politics and religion and even asking about her dreams and fantasies. She was also asked quite searching questions about her sex life and medical history. Emily realised that anyone reading her answers would come to know her very well but somehow the fact that her paper only identified her as G74 made her feel free to write down her deepest secrets even though, at some level, she was aware that a list must exist linking her number to her name.
Like any psychological study some of the questions were repeated in slightly different formats and the subjects of the questions were jumbled up so that the examiners could check for any half truths while completely hiding which parts of the test were of genuine interest and which had merely been included as a smokescreen. When Emily left she was exhausted and she felt that someone had extracted her mind and examined it in great depth before giving it back to her. Over several days she kept coming back to the thought that she might have revealed too much about herself in her answers. Everyone has intimate secrets and if all of those are very professionally wrung out of us we feel a vague sense of having been robbed of our individuality and even our value as a human being. These are the things which we can choose to reveal very gradually to a trusted soulmate but to have them all taken at once by a complete stranger leaves a feeling of being made cheap and somehow dirty.
It was two weeks before the plain brown envelope arrived announcing that G74 had been accepted for Phase Two of the study completion of which would earn £200 in cash and free of tax. Emily noted that this time she was not being guaranteed payment for turning up; she would have to do something to earn her £200.
Emily was a little anxious as she went up in the lift in that same building for her next visit. She knew that no-one just gives away £200 and she was wondering what she would have to do. Her anxiety was heightened by the fact that she was depending upon the money to clear her credit card debt so walking away was not really an option. Her anxiety increased when she arrived at the fifth floor to see a middle aged lady in a white nurse's dress. The lady had a somewhat commanding manner and, having ticked off G74 on her clip board, she told Emily to go into the room at the end of the corridor. In the room a younger nurse waved Emily to a folding wooden screen and told her to go behind the screen and put all her clothing and personal effects into the plastic bag provided which she should then seal with the tag provided and mark her number with the pen also provided.
Emily was not sure that she had heard properly and she queried the instruction. The woman replied brusquely,
"All your clothes into the bag and come out dressed just in the gown provided."
Emily felt very vulnerable as she slowly began to strip behind the screen. She heard another girl arrive and be directed to a screen on the other side of the room. There was a moment of hesitation before Emily pulled tight the plastic tie on the bag. Once the bag was sealed she would have no access to her clothing until someone cut off the tag. But she did not care to dally while stark naked so she hurriedly snapped the tag shut and turned to the pale blue hospital gown which hung from a nail.
To Emily's dismay the gown was very brief. It was really only a very short shift which tied at the back and left her arms naked. Emily was sure that her gown did not quite meet at the rear and, despite reaching down and patting the thin cotton fabric, she could not be certain that her buttocks or pubis were completely covered.
She felt chilly as she emerged from the screen carrying her small bag of clothing in one hand. The attendant told her to drop the bag on the floor and knock on the door to the next room.
Emily felt her nervousness increasing rapidly as a male voice bade her enter. She found herself facing a long trestle table behind which sat two men and a woman all in business wear. She was told to sit on the single wooden chair facing the panel and she sat very carefully feeling her bare buttocks on the cold seat and clamped her knees together with her hands in her lap to keep the gown covering as much as possible.
The older of the two men asked Emily for her number and the panel found her test paper from the small pile in front of them.
"Congratulations on making it to Phase Two of the study. All we are going to do today is to ask you some questions then you will be asked to wait until we have interviewed all our candidates and at the end of the session you may be invited back for Phase Three."
The other man, who was quite dishy, took his cue to continue.
"We want you to be aware that you are free to leave at any point. All you have to do is to stand up and walk out of the door then you will be given your clothes. If you choose not to leave you will be handed £200 at the end of the session. Anyone who goes on to complete Phase Three will be paid £2000 but we will talk about that if we reach that stage."
This little speech left two thoughts in Emily's mind. Firstly £2000 was a great deal of money and secondly, if and when she did turn to leave, the gown would ensure that she would present the whole panel with a view of her bare bottom.
The woman was holding the test paper and she wanted Emily to elaborate on what she had written about her attitude to risk. That was the start of a very thorough interrogation based upon her test paper.
The dishy man wanted to know more about her erotic fantasies and Emily tried to give guarded answers but the panel kept driving her to be more specific. They wanted to know if there was a common theme to her fantasies, if the same fantasy recurred, had she ever acted out her fantasies.
Emily wished she had a glass of water as she could hear her voice becoming croaky and she had to keep clearing her throat. She was uncomfortably hot and was sure that she was blushing like a schoolgirl.
The senior man asked if Emily had ever had a rape fantasy and something in the way he stared at her somehow made it impossible to lie.
"Well, perhaps sometimes...I suppose."
"Perhaps? Does that mean you have or you haven't?"
"Well, Um, Yes I have."