Chapter 3 -- A Friend Indeed
Kendra's Tale Continues
When I awoke, I was no longer in bed ... I was huddled on the floor of a hallway, outside a plain door. There was no one else in the hall. No one in sight. No one anywhere. No one at all. Somewhere, somebody was screaming. As I watched, the hallway began to lengthen, pulling away from me in all directions, even in the narrow axis, so that the opposite wall was soon a mile away. So much room. So much space. And no one there. No one anywhere. I decided the screaming was not going to stop. My greatest fear from the operating room had been my inability to breathe; and now, it was happening again. The hand that I had raised tentatively toward the door knob in front of me was diverted to my throat, clutching at the knotted muscles in my neck, trying to get them to relax enough to allow a single breath. There was no one to help me. No one at all. And I knew ... for absolute certainty ... that I was about to die ... all alone.
Then the door opened, and the screaming got much louder. Hands were trying to coax me into standing, but that feat was patently impossible. I had doubled-over in my fear and despair, and my stomach muscles would not relax. He tried to lift me under my arms, then used my breasts as handholds and picked me up, half dragging me back to the bed, where Janie lay shrieking. By degrees, as I was able to relax, I held her closer ... and closer. She was shaking like a leaf.
Maintaining my proximity to her, I rolled slightly and looked back over my shoulder at Dr. Arnold. "Please, sir," I said plaintively. "Please ... don't do that again. I ... I'll be a good girl. But, please don't do that to her again. Don't make her suffer. I'll do whatever you want, I promise, but please don't hurt my friend!"
He cocked his head and looked down at me quizzically. "Kendra ... I don't think I've ever met a girl quite like you. You defy standard categorization." He smiled almost sadly. "Here is your breakfast. There are no drugs involved, I promise. I will leave you two for awhile. When I return, we will continue your hypnotic conditioning." And he turned, and was gone.
Janie's arms were around me now, and her violent shaking had calmed, somewhat. We had never been in this position before, of course, lying naked while facing each other, our breasts pressed against one another's. She took a ragged breath. "What ... what the hell just happened to me?" she stuttered.
I didn't move, but held her comfortingly. I felt her fingertips begin to explore my back. "I can tell you," I said softly. "I know."
She pulled away from me slightly until she could study my eyes. "You did something crazy-stupid, didn't you?"
I gave her a brief smile. "I don't know how long we have. We should talk ... we should eat."
She kept gazing into my eyes. Her fingertips were tracing light little circles down my spine toward the top of my butt. "Ken ... have you ever thought about the two of us ... like this?" And when I didn't answer right away, she added "... I have." I opened my mouth; then I closed it again. I didn't know what to say. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her right now. "No," she answered for me. "No, of course not. That's okay. Really. Thanks for being honest with me."
I grinned. "I didn't say a word."
"Oh yes you did." She sat up, then push-pulled me until we were able to sit on the bed's edge. It was a regular breakfast ... and regular portions. It tasted wonderful. Our daily pills were sitting beside our plates ... vitamin tablet, birth control pill, the supplements we always took, C, E, fish oil. As we began eating, I told her everything I could remember about the previous night (I assumed it had been night, and that this was morning, but there was, of course, no way to verify that). She stopped me frequently, asking pointed questions about very specific things that I often had to struggle to answer. To this point, she hadn't even noticed the small bandage stuck to the back of her head. She examined my story like she examined my bandage, with care for every detail, and eventually, I came to realize how much I relied on her. I didn't know what to do anymore; and so, like always, I was laying it all out for her and asking her to make the choices for me.
When all my words were said, when all the questions that could be asked had been answered, she looked at me compassionately, holding my hand. From the moment I had gotten in the bed, we had been touching. She took a breath. "When he hypnotizes you ... do you ... you know?"
"Do I cum? Yes. Unless chloroform is involved."
She nodded in thought. "He knew our psych profiles before we came. So, he was obviously looking for two submissive females ... and they were shocked because you loved me so much that you openly rebelled ... you knew I was too weak to ever do it myself." She thought some more and went on before I could comment. "We have to assume he wanted women who were sexually attractive ... young ... and I'm guessing intelligent, too. Our resumes don't make us sound like dummies, and we ARE grad students, after all. But WHY? Are we being conditioned to be Toddworth's whores? Most perverts get off on the ACT of breaking women ... but he's been nowhere to be seen. And ... why the hell haven't we been raped yet? It appears to be a plot hatched by men, so sex has GOT to be involved. But since they're conditioning us, then why aren't they conditioning us FOR sex? The orgasms I feel when he puts us under seem to be more as a reward." She glanced at me and I nodded agreement. Her face hardened. "Do you think we can take him?"
"You mean, attack him?" I was shocked. "I ... I never even considered it."
"I'm sure we've been conditioned NOT to consider it. But those were positive reinforcements. They can be more easily overcome."
I squeezed her hand gently. "You've just experienced their rendition of negative reinforcement," I whispered.
She thought again, then nodded definitively. "Then that settles it. THAT'S what we face if we try to escape. That's the stick that we'll get if we don't accept the carrot. I can't take that again. And, if you feel the same thing I just felt, I know you can't, either." She patted my hand in both of hers. "I know that this goes against your personal creed, Ken, but we're defeated. Completely and utterly. There's no recourse but full surrender." She shrugged. "It happens, from time to time, to the best-intentioned of armies. And now, it's happened to us. But, as long as we're together, we'll get through whatever is coming and ... we'll be okay."
Having reached the same conclusion, I nodded. "Then the next big problem is ... bathroom."
