"Wait a second," Sua heard behind her as she left the movie theater, but there were so many people flowing out right along with her that it didn't even occur to her to look around until she heard the man repeat it a second time. "Wait, wait a second--do we know each other?" That, plus a tap on her shoulder for good measure, finally led Sua to turn and see a white man with an angular face and brown, slicked-back hair that made him look uncomfortably intense. The piercing stare he gave her with icy blue eyes that were only magnified by the thick glasses he wore didn't help much either. Sua felt a bit like a bug pinned to a display board under his scrutiny.
"Yes, I think we do!" he exclaimed, apparently oblivious both to Sua's discomfort and the rapidly-ebbing crowd that swirled through the lobby around them. "It's been a couple of years, but I never forget a face. You were with Ying Hang at First Ave that night the Cactus Blossoms were playing, right? The two of you needed a ride home after the party, and I wound up as your Uber driver, remember? I gave you pink lemonade roses and cucumber water, and then we took a little detour through downtown to my apartment."
Sua was about to tell him he was mistaken, whether or not he actually was--any dude who could pick your face out of a crowd after meeting you once two years ago was a guy who paid way too much attention to women--but the moment she heard the phrase 'pink lemonade roses and cucumber water', the world seemed to recede away from her as though she was tumbling backwards into her own head. The rush of the crowd became distant and irrelevant, and the man in front of her grew larger not in stature but in importance. He suddenly seemed to be standing in his own spotlight, and Sua found that she couldn't look away.
"That's a good girl," he murmured, taking Sua by the hand and walking her gently back the way she came. "I'm very proud of you for remembering that so well, pretty girl, and you can just let that memory carry you deeper and deeper as you follow along with me and allow your mind to relax. You weren't with anyone tonight, were you?" Sua's head swayed loosely from side to side, swiveling like a doll that had been played with too often and too enthusiastically. A tiny part of her wished she'd said yes--telling this particular man she was out by herself felt like a bad decision already--but Sua felt so detached from the critical faculties in her own brain that she was increasingly uncertain they were there at all.
"Good, good," the man murmured, leading her back past the auditoriums and toward the rear exit. "Let's just go this way, shall we? It's a little bit quieter out back, and my car's not that far away. And I think you'd like to take a little trip with me, wouldn't you?" Sua nodded, her head wobbling up and down like it was on springs. She didn't recall having any opinion on it just seconds ago, but somehow the mere notion of agreeing with the stranger made her chubby tan cheeks broaden into a dreamy smile of pure delight.
"I thought so," he replied, leading her out through a pair of doors that clanged ominously shut behind them and past the dumpsters that lined the alley behind the theater. "You really are a very suggestible little slut, you know. It's one of the reasons I remembered you so well. Normally I wouldn't try to hypnotize two girls at once, but you responded so well to my patter that I almost didn't have to worry about bringing you along with Ying. I could focus all my attention on her and just let you slip away into trance all on your own." A last vanishing sliver of Sua's mind bristled at being called a slut, but it was rapidly swallowed by the warm, drifting swell of arousal she felt at the stranger's praise.
"I really was going to fuck you both that night, you know," he continued in an almost conversational tone, bringing Sua out of the alley onto an almost deserted street before leading her over to a car that her hypnotized mind recalled with intimate familiarity. "I had it all planned out, I was going to line you up doggy-style and alternate back and forth between you while I deepened your submission to your new Master. You remember that part now, too, right? I'm your Master?" His voice was silky smooth, patronizing without sneering, and Sua found to her absolute joy that she did remember, in every glorious detail. Right down to the intense sexual pleasure she felt when she slotted his title into the little empty space in her brain where his name should have gone.