"I'll be right out!" she called. "Just gotta wash up."
The bottle on the back of the sink read "Sleep." She picked it up as if she'd never seen it before, though she knew it had a twin in the shower, that she'd had them both since before the country went into lockdown. Still ... it drew her eye.
Bath and Body Works body wash, lavender and cedarwood. She read the smaller print. "Lavender Essential Oil inspires tranquility. Cedarwood Essential Oil helps calm the mind."
She nodded, her mind already feeling calm, feeling, in fact ... a little sluggish. Her gaze kept being drawn back to that one word. "Sleep."
She turned on the hot water, took a dab of soap on her fingers, and began counting quietly to 20 seconds. But a little rhyme, completely unknown yet completely familiar, came to her, and she spoke aloud as she scrubbed.
*One, two, three, four
Wash each finger, then four more
Five, six, seven, eight
Then you're allowed to masturbate
Tease the skin, circle the thumb,
Scrub the palms until you're dumb
Wash your hands to wash your brains
Till blank obedience is all that remains*
By the end, she found she was watching the girl in the mirror. Watching as her face grew slack and expressionless, as her eyes glazed over. It was arousing, really, she thought as she turned off the tap and dried her hands without breaking eye contact ... it made her tingle, deep inside, seeing how blank and open that girl looked.
She studied her face for a moment, how dumb she looked, how slack her mouth drooped and how vacant her eyes ... Fuck, that got her so hot, though not an inkling of any excitement was showing on the face of the girl in the mirror ...
A shadow fell over the bathroom doorway, from the corner of her eye.
"All clean now, baby?"
She nodded, slowly, her eyes half-lidded. His voice was so deep, so soothing ... so much like the voice in her head when she recited her little hand-washing rhyme.
"Brain nice and washed?"
A slow, drugged smile. "Mmm-hmmm ..."
"Good girl. Why don't you take a shower for me now, so you can feel that good and clean all over ..."
With a contented sigh, she moved away from the sink, and went to the tub, turning on the hot water.
She undressed slowly, languorously, a dreamy look on her face -- touching herself here and there as if for Him, beaming in his direction as she caressed the skin as it was revealed. He nodded, murmured "Good girl," again, and departed.
She dimly registered his soft footsteps departing again, moving toward the bedroom. She hugged her arms tight, then let her fingers dance over her thighs as she stripped off her underpants. (She hadn't worn a bra in days. Why bother, when she wasn't going anywhere?)