Remedial Subjects

1.

Claire glanced up from her laptop at a knock on her dorm room door. A hesitant knock--two soft taps, a pause, then one more. She blinked, frowned, and called, "Yeah?"

The door creaked open. Emma stepped inside.

She looked... unwell. Pale. Worried. Her eyes scanned the tiny room like she was checking the shadows for monsters. Claire wondered if she was going to peek under the bed. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest. She didn't move further in.

Claire sat up straighter. "Umm, Emma. Hey. What's going on?"

Emma hesitated. "I... I need to tell you something. But you have to promise not to freak out."

"That's encouraging," Claire said. She took a deep breath and pushed her laptop aside. "Okay... will you come in?"

Emma closed the door and stepped toward the bed like she was approaching a courtroom docket. She perched on the edge, tense and coiled. Claire studied her, concerned.

Emma took a deep breath. "It's about Professor Alden."

Claire leaned back slightly. "Uh oh. Creepy Psych Professor Alden? What did he--?"

Emma nodded, then shook her head. She spoke in a rush. "I've been going to his office. For tutoring. And it started normal. But then something--I think he's doing something to me!"

He watched her, a looming presence behind his big desk. She tried to focus on the case study he was helping her review. But his gaze weighed on her.

Alden smiled, his voice warm and calm. "You're having trouble focusing, Emma," he said. "I can tell. A lot of my students struggle just like this. Let me help. Will you let me?"

Emma looked up at him from across the desk, curious.

He lifted a silver chain from his desk drawer. A pendant dangled at the end, catching the light.

"Just follow this with your eyes."

Emma blinked. "What's that--"

"Just watch."

The pendant began to sway.

Back in the dorm room, Emma looked down at her hands. She worried the edge of one fingernail with another.

"He said it was, like, a focusing technique. To help me study. I thought it was harmless. But then..."

Claire frowned. "Then what?"

Emma's voice dropped. "Then I couldn't move. It was like my mind left my body. I could still think, but my body just--stopped listening."

The pendant swung in a relentless, practiced rhythm. Her eyes tracked it back and forth, breath slowing. Muscles unwinding.

Alden's voice, low and smooth: "That's it. Just let your thoughts fall away."

Her expression slackened.

"Deeper now. You don't need to think. Just listen."

Her arms rested on the desk, so heavy. Her lips parted.

"I asked him what he was doing to me," Emma whispered. "Uhh... But I might not have asked out loud. It felt so weird. I don't even remember."

Her blouse was half unbuttoned. It took a long time, her fingers felt clumsy.

He was sitting on the desk right in front of her now. Holding the pendant still. Her eyes were glued to it. Or maybe she just couldn't think about not looking.

"Good girl. You're responding perfectly."

She finished with the buttons. Stood up when he told her to. Passive as he pushed the blouse off her shoulders. It draped across the back of her chair.

He brushed her hair back over her shoulder. "Undo your bra."

Emma's fingers obeyed. Her face was blank. Eyes unfocused.

He smiled. "You're a natural, Emma."

Claire's mouth felt dry. She realized it was hanging open in horror. "Emma," she croaked, "you think he... what? Like, hypnotized you?"

"I think so... I don't know!" Emma said quickly. "I didn't want to strip in my professor's office, right?! But... something about it--keeps pulling me back. I've gone to see him three more times."

She knelt on the carpet, naked except for her soaked underwear. Her fingers worked under the fabric, masturbating because he'd told her to. Her eyes were wide and unblinking.

She moaned softly as Alden thrust his hips forward, and her throat stretched around his cock.

His hand gripped her hair. He grunted.

"That's it. Obedient. Empty. So good for me."

She moaned, unable to speak. She couldn't think of anything to say, anyway. There was nothing in her brain but pleasure.

Claire leaned in, heart racing. "That's crazy, Emma! That's--he hypnotized you to--Emma, we have to tell someone!"

Emma flinched. "I'm scared, Claire. Who's gonna believe me? I mean... do you?"

Claire hesitated, chewing her lip. Emma made a despairing sound. "See?!"

"Emma, look. I believe something happened. Alden did something to you, and you didn't want it. That's enough, ok? I believe you."

"I don't know what I want anymore," Emma said, tears in her eyes. "I feel like I'm... like there's two of me. Part of me wants to go scream at everyone in the admin building. Get his ass indicted. But there's this other part that just wants to go back to him. To kneel. To obey.

"...And I hate how good that feels."

Claire's face was tight. "That's not you. I mean, if he hypnotized you... He

did

that to you."

Emma hesitated. "I think he's still doing it. Even now."

Claire stood. "We can go to the dean. Or the cops. Or--I don't know, someone! Who do we report evil hypnotists to?"

Emma laugh-sobbed. "Claire! Don't make fun of me."

"I'm not." She sat next to Emma on the bed, put an arm around her. "I'm not. I promise. I'll help you figure this out."

"Ok," Emma said, and took a deep breath. "Come with me to his office."

Claire paused. "What? Why? Like, confront him?"

Emma wiped at her eyes. "No, not while he's there. He keeps the pendant in his desk. I just--I need you to see it. To really believe me."

Claire looked at her. "Didn't I say I believed you?"

Emma gave a weak, haunted smile. "Well, ok. I think I need someone else to see it so I believe it myself."

Claire hesitated. Sighed. Then grabbed her jacket. "Let's go."

Emma stood slowly, smoothing her shirt. She walked to the door first, then turned back, relief on her face. "Claire, I've been so... I don't know. Thank you."

Claire gave her a smile she hoped was supportive. But something in Emma's face, she couldn't tell what, sent a chill down her spine.

Claire followed Emma into the quiet hall of the empty Psych department. The low evening sun made tracks of light and shadow on the carpet. She felt like they were in a spy movie, like something terrible would happen if they were caught, though there was nothing wrong with students merely being in this part of the building.

Breaking into a professor's office, though... but when they got to Professor Alden's door, Emma turned the knob and opened it. The office was unlocked, but the professor wasn't there. Emma didn't seem to find this strange. Claire wondered what that meant.

"Emma?"

Emma didn't reply. She walked straight to the desk like she'd done it before.

Claire hung back, arms crossed, more wary than she let on. "You're sure he left it here?"

Emma opened the top drawer. "He always took it out of this drawer..." A soft jingle of chain. "Here."

She lifted the pendant slowly, like it was fragile, her eyes already fixed on it. The weight at the end caught the fading sunlight--a heavy, polished bead, silver or maybe stone, smooth as glass.

"This is what he used?" Claire said, stepping closer. "To, uh... to hypnotize you?"

Emma nodded without looking at her. "He said it was to help me focus. That if I just watched it... it would help me."

She held it up, and the chain dangled from her fingers. The pendant swayed in a lazy circle.

Claire gave a short laugh, masking her unease. "But it's not, like, magic, right? It's just a necklace."

"I know," Emma said, very softly. "That's what I thought, too."

She sat across from him, an attentive pupil, watching the pendant. Gradually, her eyes widened. Her jaw relaxed.

His voice was a hum alongside her fixation on the stone: "That's right, Emma. Just let go."

She breathed out, lips parting. Her eyelids fluttered, but stayed open. Her arms fell loose in her lap.

In the classroom, Emma turned slightly toward Claire, not meeting her eyes--just holding the pendant so it hung at eye level, gently swaying.

"I didn't notice it at first. How my eyes kept following it."

The pendant caught the light again, tiny reflections spinning across its smooth curve.

"It just made sense to keep watching," Emma continued. "It felt... easier... than looking away."

Claire frowned. "Emma..."

"I just... I need you to understand what it was like. How fast it happened. How helpless I felt."

Claire's shoulders eased. "Okay. Fine. So what happened next?"

Emma nodded and gave the pendant the smallest nudge.

"I'll show you."

It swung back and forth. Claire didn't realize her eyes were following it until she tried to glance at Emma--and didn't.

Her eyes were glassy now, her head tilting slightly.

"Thoughts drifting..." Alden murmured. "Body, mind softening..."

"Yes, Professor..."

"I remember hearing him," Emma said, quieter now. Claire had to focus harder to hear. "Even when I couldn't respond. Like I was underwater, and his voice was the only thing that reached me."

Back and forth. The pendant caught the last of the daylight. Swinging.

Claire shifted her weight but didn't move her gaze. Her eyes felt heavy. Not sleepy, just... focused.

"I thought I'd say no," Emma whispered. "I thought I

was

saying it. But I wasn't. My hands were already moving. Following his suggestions."

Emma rose slowly from the chair, unbuttoning her shirt with mechanical grace.

Her bra slipped down. Her nipples hardened quickly in the cool air. She didn't look embarrassed. Or aware.

Just calm. Blank. Entranced.

Claire blinked and shook her head, only barely. "He made you... take your clothes off?"

Emma nodded, face pale. Her eyes were wide as they followed the pendant, just like Claire's. "I didn't even feel it happen. Like my body stopped needing my permission."

Back... and forth.

"Like I was just on autopilot, you know?"

Claire nodded. The pendant swung a little slower now. Emma's voice matched its rhythm without trying.

Claire's shoulders slouched. Her arms hung loosely at her sides, no longer crossed. Her breathing, unsteady before, was soft and rhythmic.

"I think the worst part," Emma admitted, voice lower than ever, "was how good it felt. Like he was just... rewriting me? And the new version of me wanted it. Craved it."

Emma knelt on the carpet, mouth parted, Alden's hand stroking her hair as she bobbed, glassy-eyed.

"Obedience looks perfect on you," he said.

She could only moan softly in reply, her pussy pulsing to reward her.

Claire was barely breathing now. Her lips were parted. Her eyes, wide and fixed, had lost their edge.

"I didn't understand how deep it went," Emma said, "until the next time I heard his voice. And I got on my knees without thinking."

The pendant kept swinging. Back and forth.

"I think he wanted me to tell you," Emma murmured. "To explain what it felt like. So you'd believe me. So you'd understand what it's like... to belong to him."

Claire's brow twitched. Her lips moved.

"Emma," she whispered. "What?"

She tried to move, but her limbs barely responded. She was aware--but so slow. Like her brain was underwater. She tried to panic, but her breath barely sped up.

"I--" she gasped. "Emma, I can't--"

"He wanted me to show you how good it feels," Emma continued, oblivious to her friend's discomfort. "To just watch. And forget. Watch and forget."

"W-watch...?" Claire echoed, forgetting to blink, her mind dizzy. "And... forget?"

Something in Claire's voice, something in the tone, freed Emma's eyes from tracking the pendant. They locked on Claire's face. Saw how empty her expression was. How open. How vulnerable. Emma raised her voice.

"Sleep," she said, and snapped her fingers.

Claire's body jolted once. Then her shoulders dropped. Her eyes rolled back. Her head slumped forward, mouth still faintly parted.

She was deeply hypnotized. Emma shivered, surprised at the orgasm that bloomed through her whole body.

Emma blinked. She considered Claire. Her friend was standing just across the desk, her arms limp at her sides, breathing slowly. Her eyes were open but distant, pupils dilated, fixed on the pendant as it gently swayed in Emma's hand.

Emma watched her closely for a moment, head tilted, expression unreadable.

Then she put the pendant down on the desk. Claire didn't move. Emma made a satisfied noise and slipped her phone out of her pocket. She turned away slightly and dialled.

It rang once, then a click.

"Yes?" Professor Alden's voice--quiet, expectant.

Emma's voice shifted as she spoke. Not frightened, not anxious. Now that Claire was subdued, the facade fell away. She sounded calm. Clear. Almost reverent.

"It worked, Professor," Emma said. "She's ready."

A pause on the other end. "Good," Alden said. "Keep her under. Keep watching the pendant, Emma. Let her breathe in your submission. Let her melt. You can both melt for me. I'll be there in forty minutes."

Emma nodded, her voice thick with arousal. "Yes, Professor. I will obey..."

She ended the call and put the phone on the desk next to the pendant. Then she turned back to Claire. The act was gone. She wasn't programmed to pretend anymore. Her voice was warm now. Worshipful.

"Good girl, Claire," she murmured. "You did so well."

Claire didn't respond. Trance locked her gaze on the point where the pendant used to be. It locked her mind there, too, unable to escape.

Emma took the pendant from the desktop, stepped closer to Claire, holding it up between them.

"You don't need to think," she said. She was panting a little, with the anticipation of carrying out Professor Alden's instructions, and how he'd reward her. "Thinking is too heavy. You'd rather be light. Soft and empty."

Claire's breath hitched and then steadied. She whispered something unintelligible. Emma's eyes joined Claire's in the pendant's thrall.

"Soft and empty," Emma repeated, as though to herself. Her expression softened and emptied obediently. Automatically.

"He's coming to see us. To train you, just like he trained me. That feels so good. We feel so good, Claire."

Claire's lips parted, trembled. Then, "So good..." she agreed.

"It's okay. You don't need to speak," Emma whispered. "Your mind already knows. You're going to belong to him. Just like me."

Emma stood tall opposite Claire and let her body fall into parade rest. It felt effortless to hold the pendant between them, to stand still with her hypnotized friend, and join her in Professor Alden's trance.

Claire mirrored her without being told. It got dark outside, and the office lights came on automatically. But the two spellbound women didn't look away from the pendant. They just stood, side by side, falling helplessly under the spell of a man who wasn't even there.

But he would come to claim them soon. The pendant swung like the flame of a forbidden altar, and the faithful stood in a trance, awaiting the master of their ceremony.

2.

The door creaked open and a soft breeze stirred the stillness in the room, fluttering the edges of old papers pinned to the corkboard. Professor Alden stepped inside.

He moved without hurry, coat folded neatly over one arm, his steps measured on the dull linoleum. He closed the door behind him with a quiet click. Then he paused--surveying the scene before him with a knowing smile.

Emma and Claire stood side by side at the front of the room, behind his desk. Backs straight. Faces slack. Their gazes locked, unblinking, on the pendant that swung between them in lazy, hypnotic arcs.

"Perfect," he muttered. He let the moment stretch, savouring it.

The pendant caught the fluorescent light in soft flashes, marking time in the silent office.

"Good girls," Alden said.

Neither of them moved. Neither blinked.

Emma's chest rose and fell slowly, each breath in rhythm with the swing of the pendant. Her face was serene, an almost blissful emptiness radiating from her. Only a slight flush rising in her cheeks showed she had any awareness of the professor's approach.

Claire was different--more raw, more fragile. Her lips were parted, her expression dazed, her body still as a statue. As if she awaited permission to act like a person.

Alden circled them once, silent, hands loosely clasped behind his back. Inspecting. Admiring. When he came to stand between them, he reached out and put his hand over Emma's smaller, outstretched hand, stilling the pendant.

Claire's gaze stayed pinned to the stone, her eyes wide and glassy, as if unwilling--or unable--to look away.

Alden tilted her chin up with a gentle touch, directing her gaze to him. Their eyes met, and he saw it: she was awake enough to see him--but not awake enough to understand.

His smile widened.

"Do you remember your name?" he asked softly.

Claire's mouth moved. Nothing at first--then a breath of sound.

"...Claire."

He nodded approval, as if she had passed a test.

"And do you remember why you're here?"

Claire's brows knit faintly, as if dredging the thought up from a deep, silty bottom.

"I... was helping... Emma..."

"And now?" His voice dropped lower, smoother, wrapping around her confusion like velvet cords.

"I... don't know..."

A small shiver rippled through her. Alden's smile deepened. He leaned closer, speaking just for her.

"You're here to learn how to serve."

Claire's knees bent a fraction of an inch, her body responding instinctively before her mind could catch up.

He leaned in and put a hand against her side, straightening her, his voice calm and unhurried. He could feel Claire trembling under his touch.

"Not yet," he whispered, a breath against her ear. "Emma's prepared you well. But you'll kneel when I say. Not before."

The tension in Claire's muscles froze into place--caught between the urge to collapse and the need to obey.

Alden turned slowly to face Emma. Emma who still held the pendant. Emma, who showed no qualms about how she'd betrayed her friend. Her face was a picture of devoted stillness.

"My pet," he said.

"Yes, Professor." Her voice was light, melodic. Empty.

"Tell me what happened."

Emma didn't hesitate.

"She was trying to help me," she said, each word falling into place like a bead on a string. "I told her what you did to me. Told her everything. I told her how you showed me... what it means to be yours."

Her voice grew softer, fonder.

"I led her here. Showed her your pendant. I told her my story. She didn't even realize I was--was

hypnotizing

her. Until it was too late."

Alden chuckled, low in his throat.

"And how do you feel, Emma?"

She smiled faintly, the corners of her mouth trembling with bliss.

"Grateful."

"Why?"

Her gaze left the pendant at last, her wide eyes shining.

"Because I belong to you."

"Good girl."

Her body shivered at the praise, her breath catching, a tiny gasp of pleasure escaping her lips.

Alden took the pendant from her, patted her hand. She still held up her arm like a mannequin, as though she'd forgotten it existed. He gently guided it back to her side.

Then he raised the pendant before his spellbound students once more, holding it delicately, letting it resume its slow, inevitable sway. The chain caught the light again, scattering tiny reflections across their blank faces.

"Watch the pendant," he said. "You can't look away." As though they weren't already rapt. Perhaps he said it for his own enjoyment. He turned towards Claire.