At the play party

meltinggoldanddippingthingsinit:

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not condone many of the actions taken in this story, and neither should you.

*****

As play parties went, this one was boring. I turned my pocket-watch over my fingers; I made game of keeping rhythm in how it caught the light and flashed without appearing to pay my hands any real attention. One flash, two flash, three flash…

“Nice watch.” Lauren landed on the couch beside me, right on cue.

“Hi,” I said “It’s nice to see you too. I take it you like pocket watches?”

“Yesss!” Lauren’s eyes lit up, then she blushed “I… kind of have a thing for pocket watches.”

“You don’t say” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Would you like to hear how I got this one? It’s a good story.”

Lauren tried to nod with her whole body and almost succeeded at falling off the couch.

“I was at a jewelry store, helping my friend pick out an engagement ring.”

“I don’t approve of engagement rings” Lauren interrupted. “Or jewelry stores.”

“Shh… you might have to change your mind on the second one. Jewelry stores are great places to find pocket-watches. Don’t you think that’s a good reason to support them?” Lauren nodded. “I thought so.”

“As you might expect, while my friend debated the relative merits of diamond versus other rocks, I gravitated toward the pocket watch display. I talked the clerk into letting me hold one of them – this one – before he ran off to help someone else. I tested swinging it back and forth a couple times.” I gave it a swing for effect. “Then I heard someone behind me say ‘What are you doing with that watch?’

“I turned around and saw two women, giggling. One looked forty-something, and the other looked about your age. Maybe sixteen.”

“I am not sixteen!” Lauren exclaimed. I knew that would get her.

“Right, right, you’re a little older. I guessed these two were mother and daughter. The mom nudged the girl and said ‘I wonder if he thinks he’s going to hypnotize someone’ and she snickered, a little like you just did. So I told them ‘I am going to hypnotize someone. If you like, I can hypnotize you, here, now.’ The look on her face was priceless, but she stammered ‘yeah right.’

”’But would you like me to try?’ The woman hesitated for a second, then nodded, so I started up my patter ‘the reason we’re so drawn to the pocket watch is it’s a symbol. Think about it; you saw my pocket watch and you knew I was going to use it to hypnotize people. In the movies, the stage shows, even the cartoons, the hypnotist has a pocket watch, and from the moment that pocket watch starts swinging’“ I started swinging my watch ”’your eyes are drawn to it, and everyone knows someone is going to be hypnotized.

“’That’s the power of the pocket watch. When it swings, everyone knows – I know, you know, everyone in the audience knows – that your eyes will follow it back… and forth… and you will be powerless to stop your eyes from following the watch, unable to look away. You will be compelled to let your eyes follow the watch back… and forth… because that’s how it always works. That’s the power of the watch. That’s the power I, The Hypnotist, give the watch as I swing it back… and forth… I have the power to compel you to follow the watch.

”’And when I tell you to drop, you feel compelled to drop into trance. Why don’t you drop for me now, drop a little deeper for me, and maybe you’ll feel a little bit more open to my suggestions, or maybe you feel a little more comfortable or a little more relaxed, or maybe you feel a little bit of each. It doesn’t matter what you feel, just that it feels right for you, and that you continue to watch the watch go back and forth as you go deeper into trance.’“

I glanced at Lauren. She was slumped against the back of the couch and I could see her eyes following my watch. She wasn’t quite in trance, but she hadn’t noticed I was giving the induction more detail than the story required. I doubted she would, after this point.

“I could see that, by now, both mother and daughter were entranced, even though I had only been trying to hypnotize the mother. Isn’t that interesting? Even though she wasn’t the subject of my induction, the daughter wound up going into trance. Isn’t it funny how, though she never even thought about whether she would or she wouldn’t, she ended up hypnotized. It goes to show that, even if you are just a spectator, you can still end up in a nice, blissful trance for me.”

That did it; Lauren’s eyes glazed over.

“I told them to drop even deeper for me. ‘close your eyes and drop deeper into trance.’ Their eyes closed.”

Lauren’s eyes closed.

“I explained to them that they were now deeply hypnotized. I suggested they would consciously realized they had been deeply hypnotized so they wouldn’t try rationalize the experience later.”

I looked at Lauren again. She was still out cold.

“You know what I think? I think that woman was one of us: a hypnofetishist. All along, she hoped I would hypnotize her, and when I did, it turned her on. Maybe she went home and thought about how sexy it was when I hypnotized her. How being hypnotized by me is arousing and exciting. Being hypnotized by me is something to fantasize about.” I decided that was enough.

“Lauren.” No response. I snapped my fingers in front of her. She blinked.

“Did my story bore you?”

“NO! Not at all! I thought it was a great story!”

“You zoned out.”

“Did I?” Lauren rubbed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I think we’ve both been on this couch a little too long. I’m going to go find someone to hypnotize.” Lauren opened her mouth, as if to speak. “Yes?”

She hesitated “Never mind.”

“Alright” I smiled warmly at her “I’ll see you later.”