Notes:
This piece was inspired by "Asking for It" by SensualFiend. If you enjoy the premise of this story and also enjoy M/F pairings, please check out their story as well.
While I have placed this story in the Mind Control category, I believe it would be most accurate to describe it as equal parts mind control and non-consent. If either of these genres is upsetting to you, I would advise you to skip this piece. Otherwise, thank you for reading.
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Ruth stood completely still as she looked up at the brownstone townhouse from the adjacent sidewalk. She stood this way, unmoving, for well over half an hour before she managed to take the first steps towards the door. It wasn't that she was nervous, but rather that she had practiced walking up these steps, practiced knocking on this door, dozens of times in her mind. Seeing them in person, only feet away from her now, made it all seem much more real than it ever had before.
When Ruth finally arrived at the door of the brownstone, she made exactly four sharp raps on the wood, just as she had practiced. She rolled her shoulders back to straighten her posture and appear taller, holding her hands firmly at her sides instead of playing with her hair or fiddling with the hem of her skirt.
When the door opened, Ruth looked straight ahead into the eyes of the woman who she found centered in the doorway. It had become a nervous habit of Ruth's to cast her eyes at the floor when someone tried to meet her eyes, but this situation did not allow for the luxury of shyness.
"Ruth."
The woman's voice was firm and calm, even as surprise tinged the edge of Ruth's name on her lips.
"I need to speak with you." Ruth felt a flutter of pride in her chest at the firmness of her voice: there was no wavering, no stuttering, nothing but confidence. Practice, after all, does make perfect.
"Oh. Well I'd be happy to speak with you, Ruth. Maybe we could schedule a time--"
"No!" Ruth said, only realizing how forcefully she had spoken when the woman raised her eyebrows in alarm.
"Sorry, I just meant..." Ruth sighed in frustration. "I need to speak with you now.
Right now
."
The woman in the doorway nodded quickly, stepping to the side and gesturing Ruth in. "Of course, Ruth, whatever you'd like. Come in, we can speak in the living room."
The woman, while surprised at the intrusion, seemed perfectly calm as she led Ruth down the hallway and to the living room.
"You can sit on the couch if you like," the woman told Ruth as she herself sat down in a green velour armchair in the corner of the room.
Ruth sat down on the couch, smoothing out her skirt and rolling her shoulders back again to sit up straight when she looked across the room at the woman in her green armchair, pretending not to be thinking about the last time she had been on that very couch. The woman had crossed her legs at the ankles and had sat herself down at a slight angle, as if she were sitting down with Jackie O. for tea.
"I'm surprised to see you, Ruth." The woman's voice was like velvet, smooth and luxurious in the most pretentious of ways.
Ruth flicked her eyes up to meet the woman's, offering her an acrid smile with her response.
"Why on Earth are you surprised? You don't think I had
forgotten
about you, did you?"
The woman's face didn't change, but Ruth could have sworn the woman drew a breath that was just a hair sharper than the last.
"I can't blame you, I suppose," Ruth continued smoothly. "I did forget. I forgot all about you, at least for a time. But I've remembered now. I've remembered
all of it
."
The woman shifted in the armchair very slightly, leaning an elbow on one of the arms of the chair and bringing a finger to rest against her lips, as if trying to put together a particularly fascinating puzzle.
"What do you remember, Ruth?"
Ruth's face darkened. She hadn't scripted this part. In all the scenarios she had imagined, the woman had done everything from laughing in her face to gloating over Ruth's extended torment. She had never asked for a retelling.
"What the fuck does that mean?" Ruth's every word dripped with disdain. "Y-you can't possibly pretend like you don't know
exactly
what I'm talking about." Ruth silently cursed herself for stumbling over her words at the very central moment of confrontation.
The woman smiled gently, encouragingly. "Of course, Ruth. Even still, why don't you explain what you remember to me. Let's make sure we're on the same page about the past before we discuss why you have reappeared in my home in the present."
Ruth glowered, but didn't have a substantial retort at the ready to dispute the woman's logic. At the very least, detailing what she went through would leave no doubt that the woman understood, without a shadow of a doubt, what she had done to ruin Ruth's life.
"Fine." Ruth said, clearing her throat a bit more aggressively than necessary. She collected her thoughts, reminding herself to avoid looking at the floor as she spoke.
"You took advantage," Ruth began. "You took advantage...of me."
The woman smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth in mild surprise. "How, Ruth? How did I take advantage of you?"
Ruth bit the inside of her lip. "We were at a bar, do you remember?"
The woman gave a noncommittal nod before Ruth continued.
"We were at a bar, I had been drinking...dancing. I was tired, I remember. I was just going to use the bathroom before I caught the bus home. But then... I was still in the hallway and all of a sudden you were just...
there
. You were there and you made me... you made me
touch myself
right there in the hallway."
"How did I
make
you touch yourself, Ruth?" The woman's voice was still velvety, but it was now coated with something close to condescension. "Seriously, Ruth, explain it to me. Did I ever lay a finger on you? Did I force your hand underneath that little red skirt you were wearing? Did I somehow push your fingers inside your panties? Squeeze your arm until you groped your own breasts? Because the way I remember it, you were doing all those things to yourself in that little dive bar downtown. I don't recall making you do any of it."
Ruth's lower lip trembled in confused anger. "No, no but you..."
"But I what, Ruth? I want to make sure we're remembering the same moment, that you haven't had some kind of mental break and fabricated a moment in your mind that simply didn't happen."
"You didn't touch me, you never touched me. But... but you told me to do all those things. I... I had to."
"Oh." The woman nodded, looking pleased. "So we do remember it the same. I didn't force you to do anything. I saw a pretty girl in a bar and asked if she wanted to have some fun with me."