Our Lullaby

Kenzie rubbed blearily at her deep brown eyes as she came out of her bedroom, her fingers running through her short auburn hair in a half-hearted, reflexive attempt to tamp down the random tangles. The living room was lit only by a single floor lamp and Tasha's laptop screen, but after a solid hour of lying in her room with the lights off and her eyes closed, practically everything felt too bright to Kenzie.

Tasha looked up from her computer, an expression of patient sympathy on her face. "Couldn't sleep again, huh?" she asked, turning the question into an acknowledgement. She leaned back in her chair, taking in Kenzie's disheveled pink pajamas and weary, heavy-lidded eyes with a look of affectionate concern. "I'm guessing you already tried melatonin."

"And counting sheep," Kenzie sighed, sagging against the doorframe with a miserable expression on her face. "And warm milk. And going screen-free. And cutting out caffeine after six. And cutting out screens showing caffeinated sheep." She shook her head slowly and sadly. "None of it helped. I just... can't get my stupid brain to shut up and fall the hell asleep."

Kenzie paused, hoping Tasha would pick up the hint and offer to help out, but her roommate merely nodded sympathetically and sighed in solidarity. Which meant that Kenzie would have to ask. She always hated asking-not that she thought Tasha was going to say no or something, but it just felt so... so silly, being a grown woman, a college student old enough to go out drinking without anyone else buying her drinks for her, and still needing something so silly and childish to help her fall asleep. Even if Tasha never refused, it still felt faintly demeaning having to say...

"Could you come sing me a lullaby?" Kenzie asked, her voice small and timid.

Tasha's response didn't exactly dispel Kenzie's embarrassment. She gave a crooked little smile, as though she was faintly amused by Kenzie's predicament, and said, "You want me to come in and sing you our lullaby again, mm? Well, I tell you what. Give me five minutes to get to a good stopping point on this paper, and I'll come in and help you get to sleep." And then, as though Kenzie had already left the room, she went back to staring at her laptop screen. Not that Kenzie was jealous or anything. (Stupid blue frequency LED lights.)

Kenzie trudged back into her room and flopped onto the bed, tucking herself under the covers with the dispirited air of a coach that just lost the big game. She knew she should be happy-Tasha was always as good as her word, which meant that Kenzie would finally get the sleep she needed. But Kenzie was going into her third week of insomnia now, and she had really hoped that tonight was the night that she was going to beat it herself instead of having to ask her roommate for a lullaby like she was a fucking five-year old.

But if anything, it had only gotten worse. No matter how early she went to bed, no matter how careful she was about exercise or diet or stimulants or screens, Kenzie wound up lying on her bed in a numb, exhausted haze until she finally broke down and asked Tasha for help getting her mind to settle. And every time, she felt a little bit less capable, a little bit more dependent on Tasha. The little pit of dread opened up wider in her stomach with every request that this night would be the night that Tasha would say, "No."

But thankfully, it wasn't. Kenzie heard her door open and close, and after a moment she felt Tasha settle onto the mattress just behind her. It felt a little strange, having her roommate spoon with Kenzie in bed and put her arm possessively around Kenzie's waist, but by this point Kenzie associated it so closely with sleep that sheer relief made the gesture into a comfort. Kenzie found herself wriggling back into Tasha's body with a soft sigh of pleasure on her lips.

"There we go," Tasha said, her other hand reaching down to stroke Kenzie's hair. "All cozy and comfortable?" Her voice was low and soothing in the darkness, speaking in a slow, patient cadence that sounded simultaneously comforting and condescending. It made Kenzie feel weirdly passive, like she was a small child at the end of a long trip being carried inside and tucked into bed.

She mumbled an affirmative grunt, already feeling inexplicably relaxed and drowsy. It was probably just force of habit by now-after three weeks, her brain had gotten so used to associating Tasha's presence in her bed with finally getting to sleep that simply hearing her voice made Kenzie get sleepy. Tasha would know more about that, though. She was the psych major. Kenzie made a mental note to ask her tomorrow, one that slipped right out of her fuzzy mind as Tasha spoke again.

"That's it," Tasha purred in her ear. "You're so tired now, ready to share our lullaby together. Ready to listen to our special song and let your mind rest." Her fingers swept through Kenzie's hair over and over again as she spoke, brushing at Kenzie's temples, soothing away Kenzie's stress and letting the drowsiness wash in to replace it. Kenzie felt her muscles melt into relaxation as she sagged into the mattress, her worries about her insomnia slipping away as she finally felt her thoughts beginning to slow down.

The sleepy feeling only intensified as Kenzie heard Tasha begin the lullaby. "As every pretty girl has a starscape in her mind," Tasha sang, her voice soft and sweet in Kenzie's ears. "So close your eyes to see them, the stars that hide behind..." Kenzie's eyes were already tightly shut, but somehow they seemed to close a second time inside her head on hearing the familiar words. She felt like she didn't need to try to keep them closed any longer, like suddenly it would be impossible to open them again.

"The stars, they twinkle sweetly with promises of sleep," Tasha sang on, her hand brushing gently over Kenzie's forehead and stroking away all of the tension in Kenzie's tight muscles. Kenzie's breathing slowed into a relaxed rhythm that seemed to keep time effortlessly with the slow, lazy song in her ears. "Behind them is the darkness, so beautiful and deep..." She could see the darkness inside her head, a void that seemed to almost tangibly wrap around her thoughts and muffle them as she listened to Tasha's quiet voice.

Tasha's other hand reached out and lightly stroked Kenzie's wrist, making her arm feel strangely floaty and detached as she relaxed into the soft melody. "The deeper down you go now, the more the darkness calls," she cooed, her fingers petting Kenzie's skin until it tingled gently with drowsy pleasure. "Your mind descends so swiftly, into the dark it falls." It did seem like she was relaxing faster, Kenzie thought loosely as her body sagged back against Tasha's warmth. Every night, the lullaby seemed to make it easier and easier to find the rest she was looking for. Her lips parted in a lazy, sleepy smile as her mind lurched into the void that Tasha's song described.

It didn't quite feel like sleep yet, though, Kenzie realized vaguely as she let the tune flow into her mind. She felt wonderfully relaxed, her mind blissfully unwinding as she listened to Tasha sing, "Your thoughts are like the starlight, surrounded by the night. And swallowed by the darkness, with every word, less bright..." But she didn't feel like she was falling asleep. She just felt like her mind was... quieting down. Settling into a lazy, peaceful groove where all she needed to do was follow along with Tasha's pretty lullaby and sink deeper into wonderful silence.

Kenzie's body didn't feel sleepy, either. She felt... weird, heavy and floating at the same time. Her arm seemed to drift into the air of its own accord as Tasha circled her wrist with a thumb and forefinger, singing, "The quiet dark is soothing, those stars can fade away, and in the deepest blackness, new thoughts come out to play..." But when Tasha let go of Kenzie's arm, it flopped against the mattress as though Kenzie herself couldn't possibly lift it. It was all so... weird. So very weird. Kenzie's mind couldn't seem to move past that word to process what was happening, though.

Because she was so drowsy. "The less you think in star thoughts, the more you think in dreams," Tasha purred in her ear, and Kenzie felt herself nodding drowsily in agreement. She wasn't asleep, but she knew she wasn't awake, either. Her mind kept wandering from thought to thought, unable to really connect them in any kind of meaningful way. It felt inexplicably familiar to Kenzie, but the lullaby tugged her sleepy mind away from thinking as she followed along with Tasha's words.

"And dreamy girls are pretty... so fade on, starry gleams," Tasha sang. Kenzie gave another tiny, sleepy nod of agreement as her mind melted into warm, foggy pride at the compliment.

The next verse didn't seem quite so familiar to Kenzie, though. "Replace your thoughts with my words," Tasha sang, her hand running up and down Kenzie's arm in a gesture of confident intimacy. "Replace your stars with night, and be my pretty dream girl, as stars fade out of sight..." Was that the way it went every night? Maybe Kenzie was usually asleep by the time Tasha got to that part of the song. That must be it. Tasha would-or she wouldn't, not without asking, and she'd have asked, or told, or asked if she could tell... Kenzie's thoughts whirled in a muddle of confusion for a moment, but then the confusion deepened until all she couldn't think at all and she let herself be carried along by Tasha's soothing voice.

"And as you float more deeply, the darkness takes on form," Tasha cooed gently, her voice a coaxing whisper that lulled Kenzie deeper into her half-asleep state. The momentary sense of anxiety faded, Kenzie's mind too disjointed and drowsy to retain it as she let the words of the song carry her further and further into the cozy void inside her own head that Tasha made more and more real with each verse. "And soon you see your new thoughts, so soft and sweet and warm..."

Kenzie sighed, the lyrics seeming to almost inscribe themselves on the silent black backdrop in her head. She didn't know how she could have forgotten them, even for a moment-as Tasha sang, "They're written in the darkness, so dark you cannot see until your eyes are sleepy, until you sleep for me..." Kenzie could see each word written on top of identical shadowy letters that seemed to become clearer and clearer as she listened. Of course she was a pretty, dreamy girl for Tasha. Of course she thought Tasha's words. That was what Tasha told her every night. And every night, she felt a little confused until she could remember them properly. Until she slept Tasha's beautiful, waking dream.

"But now that you can see them, you know you must obey," Tasha sang, and Kenzie could feel herself nodding again in drowsy acceptance. She was so sleepy now, practically dreaming she was awake, and Tasha's fingers felt so good stroking her neck and arms and back and belly. Tasha was absolutely right. "Your waking thoughts have faded, your will is swept away..." Kenzie felt her body slumping again, finding a new depth of relaxation as she sank deeper into Tasha's lullaby and let the words write across the darkness of her mind.

As if she knew exactly what Kenzie was thinking, Tasha's next verse began, "You only want to listen to my words in your ears." It felt almost astonishing to Kenzie-she knew, in a loose and groggy way, that Tasha was only singing the same words she sang every night, but somehow she couldn't connect that to Tasha's foreknowledge. It simply seemed natural and automatic to believe that the song knew her perfectly. That when Kenzie heard, "And every word's a thought now-in darkness, it appears," it was simply revealing a truth to her. A perfect, wonderful truth.

Everything the song said was true. "Your mind's a mazy plaything," Tasha husked out, her fingers finding their way down between Kenzie's thighs to tease away at her pussy under the fabric of her pajamas. "Your body's just a toy. And toys are to be played with, the thought fills you with joy..." Kenzie heard herself whimpering under Tasha's slow, sensual caresses, the words instructing her mind with such natural, obvious correct thoughts that she simply couldn't think anything else. She wriggled onto her back, spreading her legs wider to give Tasha more access to her cunt.

Until she heard the next verse, and suddenly Kenzie found herself doing something quite different. "Your hands move where I tell them, removing all your clothes," Tasha sang, and Kenzie's body moved automatically and unthinkingly to follow Tasha's instructions. She pulled off the pajama top, exposing her breasts to Tasha's teasing touch, and kicked off the bottoms with desperate eagerness before settling back onto the bed in passive, dreamy lethargy. Even before she heard Tasha sing, "The more you slip them off now, the more your thinking slows..." she knew that she could sink into trance so much better now that she was naked for Tasha.

Trance. The word felt so right inside her head now, as Tasha caressed her all over and sang her deeper into sensual slumber. "You love to show your body, you love to feel my touch... you know your mind surrenders, you want that now so much..." Of course that was what was happening. Kenzie was slipping-had slipped-into a hypnotic trance. She had surrendered her mind and her body completely to Tasha's control, and it felt so... so wonderful. So perfect. Kenzie couldn't think of anything better than finally being allowed to realize she was hypnotized.

And then she felt Tasha's fingers sinking deep into the wet, slick channel between her thighs, and suddenly she could. In fact, she couldn't think of anything but-the sensation of Tasha's slow, sensuous fucking seemed to push everything else aside even before Kenzie heard the next line. But she could definitely think of how good it felt to have Tasha inside her. "The less you try to think now, the better that you feel," Tasha purred as she pushed her index finger all the way down to the knuckle. "You simply must obey me, your mind just wants to kneel." Kenzie's head bobbed up and down like a puppet on a string in response.

She knew that Tasha was using the pleasure against her. Even if the next verse didn't begin, "My fingers in your pussy, they sap away your will," she could feel her mind melting more and more into the erotic bliss of Tasha's trance with every thrust of Tasha's fingers inside her sopping cunt. But the words of the lullaby were as intimate and familiar to her as Tasha's touch now. She knew that the line after that was, "The more that you resist me, the more your mind goes still." She'd lost that struggle already. So many times. Kenzie didn't have the strength to fight anymore.

And Tasha knew it, too. "And every sleepy evening, resistance melts away," she purred triumphantly, fucking Kenzie harder and faster until Kenzie could hear her pussy gushing around Tasha's frantically thrusting hand. "Your mind is bound more tightly. You know you must obey." Tasha was barely even singing now, her voice still sweet but filled with a commanding tone that sank its hooks into Kenzie's pleasure-fogged mind and fucked her into compliant bliss. All Kenzie could do was listen and obey now. Her mind was too blank for anything else.

"You can't resist my power," Tasha growled sensually, the impact of her hand against Kenzie's cunt sending shockwaves of pleasure through her whole body. "And every time you try, the sleep you crave eludes you and leaves you high and dry." Kenzie gasped in sudden realization, the words of the lullaby reminding her at last of the real reason for her nights of insomnia. All the exhaustion that sapped her will... it was just her subconscious trying desperately to free her from Tasha's inexorable control.

And failing. Every time, Kenzie failed. "Until you come to Mistress and beg me for relief," Tasha husked out, her voice thick with arousal as she continued Kenzie's brainwashing, "and sink into my slumber, and form your new belief." It was true. That final, despairing compulsion Kenzie felt every night to ask Tasha for another lullaby... it was just the final defeated gasp of a mind that couldn't possibly escape Tasha's control. No wonder Kenzie felt more dependent, more helpless with every passing night. She was being programmed into compliance.

And she couldn't escape. Tasha's song went deeper into her head with every nightly repetition, just like her fingers sank deeper and harder and faster into Kenzie's tingling cunt. Kenzie couldn't think about the words, not when she was being fucked so powerfully, not when her will was sleeping so deeply in Tasha's power. All she could do was listen as Tasha repeated, "Belief in my control here inside your sleepy head, belief that your resistance is servitude instead," and accept each instruction more deeply with every night. And every night, Kenzie suddenly remembered, it felt better and better to give in.

It was the only thing she could think of, as Tasha's fingers fucked her until she could feel herself squirting gush after gush of arousal onto the soaked sheets. Every time she came for Mistress Tasha, the pleasure felt better. "And when you come for Mistress, my words sink deeper in," Tasha said softly, leaning in close to make sure Kenzie could hear over the sound of her own moans. "With every gentle whisper I breathe upon your skin." That was the moment when Kenzie knew she would never escape. When she squeezed her cunt around Tasha's intruding digits and came harder than she ever had in her life.

Kenzie didn't know how long the orgasm lasted. All she knew was that eventually, her climax subsided into a sweet, dreamy afterglow that deepened her lethargy into total exhaustion. Her mind slipped away into a haze of darkness as she heard Tasha sing, "You're such a good girl for me, now slip into my sleep... and let your recollections sink into darkness deep." Kenzie nodded slowly, accepting the suggestion without thought or question.

The last thing she knew before the void finally claimed her was the soft feel of Tasha's cunt pressing against her lips. Her mind might sleep... but Kenzie's body still had much more to do for her Mistress tonight.

THE END