Hypnotized and Humiliated - Chapter 6

Hypnotized and Humiliated

By Karen Singer

Chapter 6

He brushed his teeth… while staring at the dolly.  Just as he had shaved while looking at it too.  And when he stepped into the tub to take his shower, Dolly was left on the floor right next to the tub.  The dolly stayed there while he dried himself off.  But the moment he was ready to go get dressed, he picked it up and carried it back into his bedroom.  He held it while he selected his clothes for the day, and he set it on his bed while he stood right next to it and got dressed.  By the time he ate his breakfast with Dolly laying right next to his cereal bowl, he was already so sick of seeing the dolly that he didn’t know what he would do.  But going more than an arm’s length away from the thing had proven all but impossible.  At least the thing was made entirely of soft cloth so that sleeping with the dumb thing all night had not been a problem. 

Ten minutes later, Dolly was in the car with him as he drove to work – fifteen minutes earlier than usual.  He had left early because he was hoping that fewer people would see him with the stupid thing.  He didn’t know what he would do about lunch… probably not eat any.  He would have made himself a couple of sandwiches and brought them with him, but he was now out of stuff to make any sandwiches with. 

Mistress Vivian’s little visit last night had kind of upset his plans.  Not that those plans had included doing any grocery shopping, but he had planned on doing something else instead.  His girlfriend, Sandy, would be coming back from her trip tonight, and he had planned on phoning her last night to confirm that he would be there to pick her up at the airport.  He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about that… especially with Dolly in his life now.  Not to mention Mistress Vivian!  What the heck was he going to tell Sandy?

Still worried about that, he carried Dolly from the parking lot, into the building, and got directly into the empty waiting elevator.  He always got to work early, and since he was extra early today he had seen only a few people… who he didn’t think thought anything at all about seeing him with the stupid dolly.  He hoped anyway.  He finally got to his department and went through the door.  The lights were still off and he switched them on.  He felt a bit of relief at managing to get there without it being too embarrassing for him.  But what about the rest of the day? 

Worried about all too many things, he booted up his computer and started looking at the weather and news, just as he always did.  But most of his mind was still overly occupied with his own problems to pay that much attention to any of the news. 

He was only alone for about ten minutes.  That was when Marian walked in.

Marian always got to work early.  She not only hated to be late, but she felt that as the department Supervisor, she should be setting a good example for her workers.  Not that any of the women seemed to be learning anything from her yet.  She was a little surprised to see Phillip there already.  Him being early though was totally normal.  Sometimes he got to work before she did, sometimes she got there first.  “Morning, Phillip,” she said brightly as she headed for her desk.  She noticed the scowl he seemed to level at her as she approached.  And as she passed his desk, she saw the large cloth doll lying next to his keyboard.

She stopped to look at the doll… and at him.  He was still looking angrily at her.  “What are you doing with that?” she asked, already guessing that Vivian had most likely given it to him to carry again… although she noted that the thing was lying on his desk and he wasn’t holding it in his hands or in his lap.  She noted that his thumb wasn’t in his mouth either.

“What do you think?” he said with more than a hint of anger in his voice.

“Vivian?” Marian asked.

He nodded.  “But she told me that you’re the one who is ultimately responsible for all my problems now.  So I’m blaming you!”

Marian’s eyes went wide with shock.  And the biggest problem was that what he had just said was true.  Ultimately she was responsible for everything Vivian was doing to him now… because she had hypnotized him first.  But the statement still didn’t sound completely right.  “I’m… sorry,” she said sadly.  “I had no idea Vivian would do anything like this.”

“She told me you hypnotized me,” he said.  “What else did you do to me?”

Marian nodded, then went over to her desk where she deposited her purse before going back to him.  “I did hypnotize you a few days ago,” she said.  “And I’m very sorry about that.  I didn’t want to do it, but everyone kept egging me on and… I’m afraid in a moment of weakness, I caved to their wishes and did it.  And… I’m sorry.  Very, very sorry.”

“What did you do to me?” Phillip demanded again.

“As I said, I hypnotized you.  Twice actually.  The first time it was just a small demonstration for the ladies.  I made you suck your thumb.  But when I went to stop it, they all convinced me to make you keep at it.  I was going to remove the suggestion from you before you left to go home, but I got called to a meeting that went much longer than it should have, and I’m afraid you were gone by the time I got back.”

“Anything else?” he asked, his voice sill dripping with anger.  “Vivian told me you made me carry… that around all day,” he said indicating the cloth doll.

She nodded.  “Yeah, I’m afraid I did.  The next day, you came into work still sucking your thumb.  The compulsions should have worn off by that time, but I’m afraid you’re one of those people who go into a trance really easily… and when you do, you go deep.  Some people are just like that.  Some aren’t.  You’re just… one of them.”

“So?”

“So….”  She stopped to take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.  “So I wanted to remove the compulsion as soon as I saw you, but again everyone convinced me to let you keep sucking your thumb.  Then after lunch, Vivian brought in that doll, and everyone again jumped all over me to make you carry the thing around.  And I’m afraid that once again I caved.  But that day, I did remove all the compulsions from you completely.  From the start I felt bad about doing it to you in the first place, so I made you forget about everything bad that had happened so you wouldn’t be bothered by any of it.  You should have never had to face any of those memories again… consciously or unconsciously!”

“Well, it didn’t seem to work, did it!” he said nastily.

“No.  But I had no idea that Vivian would do what she did.  What did she do to you by the way?”

He shook his head and looked away from her.  “Pain!  Lots and lots of incredible pain!”

“Good morning,” Lisa said brightly as she walked through the door, interrupting their conversation. 

Marian looked at Phillip almost sternly before turning towards Lisa.  “Morning, Lisa,” she replied before going back to her desk.  But her mind was totally occupied by Phillip.  He had said, “Pain.  Lots and lots of pain.”  She didn’t want to think about what that meant, but her mind couldn’t help but throw out all too many disturbing scenarios. 

She was going to have to do something.  But right now, she didn’t know what.  And Vivian had those videos that Marian had no doubt would go directly up to Human Resources the moment she did anything at all to make the woman even a little bit angry with her.  And Vivian had been absolutely right.  If Human Resources saw those videos she’d be fired and out on the street in a minute.  Quite possibly even arrested.  And getting another decent job with that on her record was going to be all but impossible!  What the heck was she going to do?

Vivian managed to get to work, not only on time, but actually earlier than she usually got there.  But that didn’t mean that she was among the first to arrive.  There were already six others in the room by the time she walked in.  And the moment she got through the door, Felecia, Lisa, and Courtney all were pointing at Phillip.  “He’s got the doll again,” Felicia said excitedly. 

“She hypnotized him again,” Courtney added.

“I think I saw her doing it when I walked in,” Lisa added. 

Vivian was a little surprised to hear Lisa say that. But she smiled and headed to her desk, pausing to look across the aisle at Phillip and his doll before she sat down.  She didn’t miss the look of hatred that he leveled at her as she looked at him.  Feeling totally wonderful about everything.  She sat down and booted up her computer.  The first thing she did was to open her email program and start typing.  It was a very short email, so it took no time at all before she sent it.

Marian saw an email come through for her.  She opened it and saw that it was from Vivian.  Reading it though was no bundle of joy.  “You will make everyone think that you’re the one responsible for whatever Phillip does from now on.  You won’t let anyone else know anything different at all!”  Shortly after Marian read the email, she saw Vivian turn around and look at her… flashing a very evil looking grin.  Marian nodded that she understood.  She certainly wasn’t happy about it in the least.  In fact, she was rather furious, but she could think of nothing she could do about it? 

As she watched Phillip at his desk, she was grateful to realize that at least Vivian had let him set the doll down and not carry it all the time so he could actually do some work!  But the few times she saw him get up from his desk, he always went back to retrieve the doll before he took two steps.  Marian figured it out quickly that Vivian wasn’t letting Phillip get very far at all from that doll. 

It was shortly before the first break time when Marian got another email from Vivian.  “Go make coffee now and make sure that room is clean and tidy for us.  Then go back to your desk.  Go back and make more coffee just before the next break starts and make sure the room is clean.  Go back to your desk again after that!  When the second break is over, go back to the break room and clean it thoroughly!  Plan on doing that from now on!”

Marian’s anger grew another notch!

After she made the coffee, she came back to her desk to find several file folders on it as well as a note from Vivian to check her email – which she did immediately.  Her anger at Vivian grew by another major notch.  “Marian, since you won’t be taking breaks like the rest of us anymore, you might as well keep working.  Here’s some of my stuff to keep you occupied.  Let me know when you finish so I can keep you busy with more.”  Marian noted that there were three attachments to the email – all of them jobs that she herself had assigned Vivian to work on earlier when she had distributed the emailed department workload.  Now Vivian was making her do her work for her!  And Marian still didn’t know what she was going to do about it! 

She noticed that Vivian was among the first to get up from her desk to take a break and she stayed extra-long in the break room.  But even while Marian was in there making coffee for the second group, Vivian didn’t say one single word to her.  In fact, the only comments that were directed toward her were from several of the other women who all expressed their delight over seeing Phillip with the doll and they all wanted to know why she had changed her mind over hypnotizing him again.  Marian only shrugged her shoulders at the question and left the room as soon as possible.

Marian’s desk was at the very back of the room.  There was an empty desk between her desk and Vivian’s desk where Maria used to sit.  The other empty desk was across the aisle from Marian at the very back of the room.  The office was supposed to have twelve people working in it, but it was now down to ten.  And Marian already knew that that number wasn’t likely to increase anytime soon.  So with only an empty desk between herself and Vivian, she had no trouble seeing Vivian’s computer monitor.  Especially when Vivian turned around to get her attention, then turned her monitor more toward Marian as well.  Marian could plainly see that Vivian wasn’t working.  She was looking at shopping sites on the web instead.  She watched as Vivian leveled another nasty grin at her before turning back to continue browsing the web.  The damn woman was really being infuriating now.  And like before, Marian still didn’t know what she was going to do about it.

Phillip stared for a moment at the office door.  He needed to make a trip through that door.  He needed to make a trip all the way down to the men’s room – a very long walk!  Normally, it would be no problem for him, but how the heck was he supposed to do that carrying Dolly with him.  Dolly wasn’t exactly… inconspicuous.

Finally knowing that he was going to have no choice, he cradled Dolly in his arm and walked out of the office.  Now that the usual break time was over with, he was hoping he wouldn’t see anyone in the halls… or the men’s room either for that matter.  He also hoped that his arm around Dolly would hide the stupid thing somewhat, but he knew that the dolly was way too big and the bright clothes on it would make it stand out all too plainly in his arms.  The size of the thing didn’t exactly help matters either! 

Halfway to the men’s room, a woman walked out of one of the offices not far in front of him.  She stopped to stare at the dolly in his arms.  He couldn’t miss the broad smile on her face.

“Oh… she’s adorable,” the woman exclaimed as Phillip approached, never taking her eyes off of the doll.  Her words made Phillip pause right in front of her as she finally looked up into his face.  “Can I hold her for a minute?” the woman asked.  “Would you mind?”

Since he was standing so close to her, Phillip decided to try letting go of the stupid dolly.  He held Dolly out… and was relieved to have the thing out of his hands again. 

“Oh… she’s so cuddly soft!” the woman said as she hugged the thing close to her body.  “I have no doubt that your daughter is just going to love this thing!”

Phillip decided not to enlighten her as to the real situation.  “Uh… thanks,” he replied. 

The woman handed the doll back.  “Thanks,” she said.  “Your daughter is one lucky girl.”

Phillip only smiled at the woman before he continued on toward the restroom.  Women could get away with holding a dolly like this easily!  But men?  There was simply no way!  He had no doubt that he would soon be the laughing stock of… everyone!  And what about Sandy coming home tonight?  That thought was what worried him the most.  Sandy wasn’t exactly going to be thrilled at all about seeing him attached to Dolly.  She wasn’t going to be thrilled about anything else either!

He managed to make it to the men’s room without running into anyone else.  And coming back, the only people he saw he did his best to ignore.  He was still glad to get back to the office where everyone else had already seen him with the stupid dolly.

All morning long, the conversation in the break room, as well as in more than a few emails, was about the fact that Marian had hypnotized Phillip and made him carry the doll again.  Marian herself got a few emails asking why she had done it when she had been so against it before.  She purposely didn’t reply to any of those emails.  She honestly had no idea what she would say to them… that she could say.  She also got a few emails asking her if she intended on doing anything else with him.  Those too she ignored… or tried to.  She had no idea what else Vivian might be planning.  But she had no doubt that Vivian was planning something. 

Phillip watched the clock.  Lunchtime was approaching.  What the heck was he going to do?  He was getting hungry but there was no way he was going to walk out there and have lunch with his friends while holding his dolly.  No way!  And he wasn’t going to go anywhere else either!  He started bracing himself to be very hungry for the rest of the day. 

The other worry that was growing stronger in his mind was Sandy.  She was coming home tonight.  What was he going to do?  Right now he was ready to plead with Vivian and promise her absolute anything in return for letting him get back together with Sandy again – as a normal person!  There was no way he could let his girlfriend know anything at all about what was happening to him. 

The women all suddenly got up from their desks.  It was lunchtime.  With a sigh, he watched them leave the room.  Vivian paused briefly on her way out though to level another of her cruel smiles at him before she followed the rest of the women.  He would really like to kill her, but he knew he never would.  Doing anything at all to her was absolutely out of the question. 

“Not going anywhere?”

He turned and realized that Marian was still there.

“Not with this!” he said, nodding his head towards Dolly.  “You’re not eating with them?”

She shook her head.  “Right now, Vivian and I aren’t exactly best friends.  Although she probably thinks completely otherwise.  I’m trying to limit my exposure to her as much as I possibly can.”

“I wish I could do that!” Phillip replied, totally frustrated by the situation.

“Want me to bring you another deli sandwich?” Marian asked.

Phillip brightened considerably.  “Would you?  I’ll pay you.  Gladly!”

Marian grabbed her purse.  “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Twenty minutes later, Marian and Phillip were both eating their lunch at their desks.  With his mouth full of food, Phillip turned around.  “How come you’re so mad at Vivian?” he asked.  “Because of what she did to me?”

“Mostly that.  But also because of what she’s done to me now as well.”

Phillip’s eyes went wide.  “Did she hypnotize you too?”

“No.  And I’m fairly sure she wouldn’t really know how.”

“So what’s your major beef with her?”

Marian took a deep breath before replying.  “Blackmail!”

Phillip’s head snapped up at that.  “What did you do?”

“She’s got videos of me hypnotizing you.  If I say one little word against her, or don’t do whatever she wants, those videos go straight up to HR.  I’d not only be fired, but it’s possible I could be arrested too.  With something like that on my record, I’d never get a decent job again.”

Phillip tried to whistle, but his mouth was too full of food.  “So we’re both trapped by her!”

“Looks that way,” Marian replied.

“Can you hypnotize me again?” he asked.  “Take away her control?”

She shook her head.  “No.  I already tried that.  She has me locked out of your head completely.  According to her, she’s locked out everyone else from hypnotizing you as well.  Only she can do it to you now.  And as you know, she can do it all too easily.”

Phillip was a bit crushed by the knowledge that she had tried to hypnotize him again, and couldn’t… even though he already knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it.  Vivian had been very clear about that when he was in his trance.  “So it’s hopeless for me,” he stated.

Marian shook her head.  “Don’t look at it that way.  There’s got to be something we can do.  I just don’t have a clue yet what that is.”

“Can you kill her?” Phillip asked.

Marian was shocked.  “Phillip!  I could never….  Why would you even think something like that?”

“I’m sure you can figure out exactly why!  Did she get into your head like she did mine and make it so you can’t hurt her at all?”

“No.  I told you, she’s blackmailing me.  That’s all.  But I can’t kill someone, Phillip!”

“You might want to rethink that,” he said somewhat angrily.

Marian shook her head.  Yet she did know how he felt… or at least she had a pretty good inkling of why he felt that way.  A few minutes later, the women started coming back from lunch.  Marian watched how happy they all seemed to be.  She looked again at all the work that she was doing now that should have been Vivian’s… and she immediately started to think more seriously about Phillips suggestion to kill her!

Vivian had been very busy all day… she just hadn’t been doing anything related to work.  Well, she did get bored for a little while in the afternoon and she did take care of a couple of little projects.  But why should she bother doing much more if she had Marian to do it for her?  She quickly rethought that idea.  She hadn’t given any of her work to Phillip either.  Between the two of them, she saw no reason why she should ever have to handle any more work again.  It was Friday.  Next week she would make sure they were both handling her entire work load… even if it meant they had to come in extra early and work extra late – without pay – to get it all done. 

Yes, that sounded like the perfect solution to her.  And she would have all the time she really needed to check the sales on the internet.  She spent every second at work that she dared, researching what was on sale and where.  Just like she spent all the time that she could, shopping!  She just wished she had more money to shop with. That was a major problem.  The raise she would have gotten if she had moved into the Supervisor’s job would have helped a lot!  But that bit of extra money had gone to Marian instead – who should never have been hired in the first place.  Hmm….  Maybe she could get some of Marian’s money to shop with as well.  Not to mention getting some from Phillip too.  No use leaving him out.  The end of the month was coming up next week sometime – which meant payday!  Once they got their paychecks, she was going to make sure that both of them made a little contribution to her needy cause – clothes shopping!

Vivian spent every weekend shopping.  All day.  Saturday and Sunday.  And more often than not, she got a head start with it Friday night.  She was a shopaholic and she made no bones about it.  In fact she bragged about it.  And she also bragged because unlike the other women in the office, she never wore the same outfit twice – ever!  Oh, she might swap up the accessories a bit, add a different scarf or sweater over something she’d worn before, but that and a different pair of shoes was all it took to create a totally different look.  And she loved creating different outfits every day! 

She wasn’t at all like that stupid cow Marian.  Marian was laughable!  She was older than the rest of them and always dressed so plainly.  In fact, as far as Vivian could recall, Marian had never even worn a skirt to work since she started working there.  Or heels either!  How could she not?  The stupid ugly cow!  How could she dare call herself a woman?  She had a good mind to sort Marian’s fashion sense out for her!  She stopped her thinking and suddenly giggled.  Why not?  Why not change the way Marian dressed?  And while she was at it, she saw no sense at all in not taking things to a very uncomfortable level for Marian.  Of course, knowing what she did about Marian already, she was fairly sure that just a simple pair of heels worn to work would probably make Marian very upset.  The stupid ugly cow dressed so plainly – every single day.  Ugh!

With a small laugh, she started another email.

Marian cringed when she saw another email come in from Vivian.  But as much as she would have liked to, there was no way she dared not open it.  “Marian, next week, wear your highest heels to work!”  She saw Vivian turning around toward her with that vicious grin again.  She scowled angrily right back at her.  Wear her highest heels!  Why?  She never wore heels anymore.  Since she had left show business behind, she had also left her high heel collection behind as well.  They were simply uncomfortable and unnecessary – for any occasion!  Highest heels indeed!  She’d like to….  Well, she didn’t know what she’d like to do to Vivian, but thoughts of Phillip’s solution to kill her briefly flashed through her mind again.

It was getting on towards the end of the day when Vivian got an email from Phillip asking to talk to her before they left that day.  He was even polite enough in the email to call her Mistress Vivian and to say please!  She figured he wanted her to let him stop holding the doll now.  But there was no way that was going to happen!  No way at all!  He and that doll were now inseparable and she meant to keep them that way!  But she found that she was suddenly looking forward to telling him that little fact in person.  She emailed back that she would gladly stay and talk to him.  Ha!

When quitting time came, she waited while most of the others departed to go home for the weekend.  She was looking forward to getting out of there as well.  She had stores she needed to stop in.  She noticed Marian was still at her desk, still at work.  Well, somebody had to handle her work load.  Let the ugly cow stay.  It wasn’t like she was going to have anyone at home waiting for her anyway.  She headed over to Phillip’s desk.  “You wanted to talk to me?”

Phillip turned to her with the doll in his hand.  “Please, Mistress Vivian.  Please don’t make me carry this thing around anymore.  I’ll do anything if you’ll just let me alone now!  Anything!”

Vivian smiled cruelly.  “You’ll do absolutely anything at all for me now as it is.  Why would I ever want to ruin something that’s so much fun?  No, I have no intention of ever setting you free!”

“But please,” Phillip begged.  “My girlfriend is coming home tonight.  I promised I’d pick her up at the airport!  I can’t let her see me carrying a dolly around all the time!”

The mention of his girlfriend startled her.  She should have figured that a guy who looked fairly decent would have a girlfriend.  She was only surprised he wasn’t already married.  She got down close to his face.  “Now you listen to me you little twerp,” she said nastily.  “You call her.  You call that girlfriend of yours and you break off your little friendship completely.  You tell her that you never want to see her again!  Tell her you have another woman in your life now and your relationship with her is as serious as it can possibly get.”  She stuck her head even closer to Phillip’s head.  “And if you don’t think the relationship we now have isn’t very, very serious, then you better start thinking again!”  She backed off a bit.  “No dice Phillip.  You belong to me now and only me.  And it’s going to stay that way.  Dump your girlfriend – tonight!”  She smiled and nodded at the doll.  “You belong to me… and Dolly belongs to you.”  She turned with another of her wicked smiles.  “Have a nice weekend Phillip.”

He watched her walk out.  When he turned to look at Marian, there was a tear falling from his eye. 

“A girlfriend?” Marian asked.

He nodded, totally heartbroken. 

“What’s her name?”

“Sandy.  She’s been out of town on a business trip.  I was planning on picking her up tonight when her plane got in.”

Marian just looked at him for a moment.  “I’m sorry,” she whispered just loud enough to hear.  “I’m very sorry.”

It was Friday night and Vivian had nothing but thoughts of shopping on her mind.  Tomorrow and Sunday would be her main shopping days, but she always got an early start on some of the stores on Friday nights.  She pulled into her frowzy little apartment project that was the only place she could find where she could afford the rent… and still allow herself enough money to shop with.  As always, there were plenty of empty parking spaces available to her since all too many of the apartments were empty.  But that only made the place that much quieter… not to mention she never had a problem finding a parking spot. 

She got out of her car… and immediately noticed the envelope taped to her apartment door.  She hurried to it and pulled it off.  The outside of the envelope sent chills and fear right through her.  The envelope said in big bold letters:  “Eviction Notice!”  She opened the envelope and read the letter.  The apartments had been sold to another company and they were clearing everyone out so they could tear them down and build something else.  She only had until the end of next month to get out of there. 

She was panicked.  She didn’t know what she would do.  She didn’t have nearly enough money to move!  That would mean finding someplace that she could afford, which she knew would be nearly impossible.  Plus… it would mean coming up with money for down payments and deposits.  It would all come to a small fortune!  She was so upset that she couldn’t even eat dinner that night – before she went out shopping. 

What the heck was she going to do?  Evicted!