I was enjoying the night. I loved New Year's Eve. You could feel, taste the excitement in the air. All the dazzling lights and sounds. The laughter. The hook-ups. I watched the crowd in the small pub I sat in and fantasized about the couples. Who would go home with who. I saw this one woman flirting with a guy. And yet, she kept looking at this redheaded woman in the back. I hope all three of them got together.
People deserve that. Even if for one night. New Year's Eve. The time when everything seems possible. When you can plot and figure out your next year. When you can tell yourself you will do things completely different this time. Sure, in the bottom of your heart you know most things will remain the same. Most of your goals that sounded good with a glass of wine now two months in do not sound so glamorous.
Ah, but for New Year's Eve. You can dream. Imagine.
I found myself lost in those thoughts, swept up in the magic of New Year's, when my phone buzzed.
Him.
My fingers tingled and my eyes lit up with excitement. We made plans for later. But, he had friends he wanted to see tonight. And I, I wanted to drift through as many parties as I could. Be an observer and enjoy after all the years locked up.
I paid for my drink and slipped out into the night. It rained recently, which added to the humidity but also caused every surface to be a dazzling mirror, reflecting off the lights and excitement of the coming new year.
I accepted the call.
"Well, hello."
"Heya. I didn't expect to hear from you," I said.
"Bad timing?"
"Not at all. You know how I love to listen to that voice," I said, the first drink of the night already betraying my arousal.
"Down, girl. Not until later. We made plans."
"I know. I just want you to know I'm eagerly awaiting when we can be together."
He laughed. Such a soft laugh for a man with such a deep, mesmerizing voice. And I mean mesmerizing.
"Seeing as it's two hours until the new year, I thought I would call and give you an offer."
"Oh?"
"You've been a lovely, adoring submissive for the past year. I have taken great pleasure in breaking your mind and making you my perfect little plaything."
His words hit like a hammer. My arousal grew as I remembered a year of hypnosis, brainwashing, conditioning, and training. I took a slow swallow.
"In fact, I've fucked your mind so much you probably don't remember life before I got inside your mind. Well, I'm here to give you a chance."
"A chance?" I asked, puzzled.
"You have two hours. I'm at the Red Bar, downtown. Hanging around outside. If you can reach me before the new year, before the countdown reaches zero, I will release you from all your conditioning and servitude."
I leaned against the cool brick wall and put my head on my forehead. "I--I don't...what do you mean? I thought we were--"
"Remember," he said, with a snap.
My mind shattered. I suddenly remembered things I forgot. How I was a barista. I served him coffee, every day. Every day he flash tranced me. Took me deeper. And deeper. Until I quit my job. Left my life. Showed up at his door, masturbating, drooling, on my knees. He took me in and then he really mindfucked me. Turned me into a submissive little fucktoy for him.
I blinked, wiping back tears.
"My god," I said.
"Yes. Now you remember. And you have two hours to reach me. To undo all this."
"How do I know you will?"
"I've conditioned your mind. You touch me, touch any part of me, before the fireworks start, before they say zero on the timer, and you're free. Nothing I can do about it."
My head swam and I tried to get control of myself. "Wait, you keep saying two hours. What if I don't make it?"
"Then you will go into a deep trance and contact me to come get you. You will forget all this again. And I will have you. For another year."
I shivered. "You can't do this. I'll-I'll go to the cops."
He chuckled. "See you. Or rather, I hope I don't."
He ended the call.
I felt furious. Taken advantage of. Ready to fuck him, and a lot of things, up. I looked on my phone at the distance from me to the Red Bar.
Maybe a thirty-minute walk.
I smiled. No problem. I marched off into the night, my blood boiling. I would be free of this. And then I would strangle him. And no jury would convict me.
I brushed past party-goers and drunks. Nothing mattered. All shapes and colors as far as I was concerned. All that mattered started and ended with finding the man who had me as his personal slave for a year.