Hypnotized and Humiliated - Chapter 1 Part 2 of 2

Hypnotized and Humiliated 
By Karen Singer 

Chapter 1 Part 2 of 2

Since her desk was at the very back of the room and across the aisle from Phillip’s desk, Marian had a good view of Phillip’s back and she could mostly see what was going on with him.  Unfortunately, she also had a perfect view of most of the other women in the room, who were paying all too much attention to Phillip, and none at all to the jobs they were each supposed to be doing.  Not wanting to alert Phillip to anything going on, she sent all the women an email threatening to immediately remove the hypnotic suggestions she had given to Phillip if they didn’t get busy!  She was pleased to see that they each got the message.  Mostly.  She couldn’t help but notice that they all kept turning to watch Phillip a lot more often than they should.  Well, she really couldn’t blame them.  She was watching him closely herself. 

It wasn’t until nearly fifteen minutes later that Marian suddenly noticed that Phillip was sitting reading something on his computer, and by the position of his arm, she suspected that his thumb was in his mouth.  As far as she could tell, he didn’t appear to even notice it.  But she saw him suddenly jerk his head and pull his thumb away from his mouth and look at it.  With a shake of his head, he went back to whatever he was reading.  And a minute later, she saw his thumb magically find its way back into his mouth again… only to have him jerk it out again a few minutes later and look at in in wonder like he did before.  She nearly laughed out loud.  His little torment was only beginning.  And the funny part was, it would be his own mind that now drove him to suck his thumb. 

Phillip tried to go back to the article he was reading, but his mind was now more occupied by his stupid thumb.  How had it gotten into his mouth?  Why had he put it into his mouth?  Talk about dumb!  He just hoped none of the others in the room had noticed.  More determined than ever, he forced himself to pay more attention to the details in the article he needed to read… and two minutes later, he realized his thumb was back in his mouth again.  What the hell?  And to make matters worse, he heard Courtney chuckling.  When he turned his head to look at her, he saw her laughing at him.  Just great!  With his face turning red from embarrassment, he looked away to start reading again.  He made a fist with his hand and stuck it under his other hand to make sure his thumb wouldn’t somehow wind up back in his mouth again. 

But now that he knew he was having a problem with his thumb, he started worrying about it more and more.  Why was he doing it?  Would he suddenly find himself doing it again?  The worry increased and intensified.  It seemed to pile up more and more.  He couldn’t stand it.  The need to suck his thumb to relieve the stress was getting worse and worse.  The stress was practically killing him.  Why?  With an almost superhuman effort, he forced the thoughts away and managed to get back to the article he needed to pay close attention to.  And five minutes later, he realized that he was feeling perfectly fine and totally relaxed.  And he also realized that his stupid thumb was back in his mouth again.  Shocked, he immediately pulled it out… and heard some slight laughter from not just Courtney, but Vivian and Brittany too.  Damn!  And again he felt his face turning red with embarrassment. 

But the minute he had pulled his thumb out of his mouth, he felt the worry and anxiousness building up in him again.  And that anxiousness seemed to grow worse and worse by the second.  It was becoming unbearable.  And he remembered that just a few minutes ago he had felt no stress at all – while he was sucking his thumb.  He needed to suck his thumb!  It was all his tortured brain could think about!  Turning his back so that the others wouldn’t be able to see him as well, he brought his thumb up to his mouth.  It seemed to magically be drawn straight inside as he started sucking on it.  And just that fast, all his stress and worry melted away and he was filled with a feeling of calm, relaxed, bliss.  Ahhh! 

But he couldn’t sit there all day with his thumb in his mouth like that.  Now that he was feeling better, he removed his thumb and went back to work.  Only to find the anxiousness and stress immediately piling up in him again – almost worse than before.  In moments it got so bad he couldn’t continue reading.  He was forced to turn toward the wall again and put his thumb back into his mouth… and just like before, all the stress melted away immediately.  Relief!  What the heck was going on?

He decided a trip to the men’s room might be in order.  Maybe if he washed his face it would clear up whatever was happening with him.  Now that he felt calm and relaxed again, he took his thumb out of his mouth and got up from his seat and quickly left the room.  But the anxiousness was almost more than he could bear by the time he reached the door.  The minute he was out in the hallway, he had to put his thumb back in his mouth again.  As he walked, he desperately searched for signs of anyone else around.  Fortunately, he was the only one in the hallway just then as he moved faster than ever toward the men’s room. 

“Did you see?” Courtney squealed the moment he was gone.  “Did you see him?  He couldn’t keep his thumb out of his mouth!”

Marian smiled as she listened to all the women discussing what they had seen.  Every last one of them was overly excited about it… maybe too excited.  She herself had been rather fascinated watching Phillip come to grips with his new little problem.  She began to wonder what he would do when he came back.  Things weren’t going to get any easier on him, that was for sure!  How was he going to handle it?

“Ladies!” she called out into the room to get their attention.  “I suggest you get back to work now.  Besides, you wouldn’t want Phillip to hear you talking about him like that when he comes back!”

Fortunately, they appeared to get the message.  Mostly.  There was still more than a few constant whispers passed back and forth.

Phillip turned a corner on his way to the men’s room and saw two guys in the distance heading toward him.  He quickly coughed and pulled his hand away from his mouth as if he had only had it there to cover his cough.  He finally passed the men, but by that time he was going nearly crazy with anxiousness again.  His thumb went right back into his mouth the moment his back was to them.  He finally turned into the men’s room… and was very happy to see that it was deserted.  It was all he could do to remove his hand from his mouth long enough to help unzip his fly so he could pee, but the whole time he stood there, his thumb was again in his mouth… and he desperately needed it there.

When he was finished, he went to the sinks and turned the water on.  He washed his face with cold water over and over again.  But that did nothing to dispel the anxiousness and worry he felt now that his thumb was no longer in his mouth.  As far as he could tell, the only thing that helped was to suck on his thumb.  Once again the desperate anxiousness took hold of him, and his only relief was to put his thumb back into his mouth and suck on it as he left the men’s room to head back up the hallways to his department.  This time he saw two women walking together in the hall.  He removed his thumb again, but all he could think about was getting past them so he could get it back into his mouth again. 

Finally, he came back to the door to his department.  He paused for a moment outside, just sucking his thumb to calm down a bit more before he could find the willpower to remove it.  Quickly he pulled his hand away from his mouth and hurried in and to his desk.  It looked like every woman in the room was watching him… and were some of them laughing?  He tried to go back to work again but the anxiousness was driving him mad.  Like it or not, he was forced to bring his thumb back up to his mouth and suck on it.  He heard feminine chuckling again, but he couldn’t bear to look.  Instead, he turned his attention to his computer screen where he was finally able to concentrate again – as long as he kept his stupid thumb in his mouth.

He finally finished his reading – and well enough to understand it.  But now that he was done with that task, he started to wonder about his thumb again.  He removed it from his mouth… and immediately felt the anxiousness rushing back into him again.  His thumb went right back in and he began sucking on it again.  But this time, he wondered about something else.  He seemed to be sucking on the damn thing awfully hard all the time and his mouth was getting very tired and sore.  Could he just keep his thumb in his mouth and not suck on it?  He tried.  He stopped sucking and even opened his lips slightly.  But he could already tell from the moment that he had stopped sucking that the anxiousness was returning again.  Damn!  He closed his lips and went back to sucking on it again… and immediately felt the blessed relief of no more stress.  What was going on?  What the heck was he going to do? 

With his thumb still firmly being sucked on, he chanced glancing around the room.  He saw more than a few of the women watching him intently.  And two of them started laughing.  Not able to look at them anymore, he tried to face as much into the wall as possible.  To get his mind off of his problem, he went back to work.  It helped, but not much.  He was now faced with a new problem.  In order to type properly, he had to pull his thumb out of his mouth to do it.  In the end, he wound up removing it from his mouth for a few moments while he typed, then he was almost compelled to put to put it back into his mouth again to get some relief.  Over and over and over again.  Eventually, he just gave up and began typing with only one hand.  Ugh!  What the heck was going on?

Lunchtime came and Marian sat and watched as all the ladies got up from their desks the instant the clock told them it was time.  Most of them had stopped working five minutes earlier. 

Vivian couldn’t help herself.  She sat directly across the aisle from Phillip.  She stopped at his desk.  “That thumb must really taste good,” she teased laughingly.  “Are you eating that for lunch today?”  Laughing almost hysterically, she hurried for the door and the other women who were laughing just as much.

“Coming Marian?” Ashley asked from the doorway.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” she said as she picked up a folder from her desk.  “Save me a seat.”  But the folder hadn’t been why she was delaying.  She stayed a minute longer to see what Phillip would do.  He was staring back at her – with a very confused and worried look on his face… and his thumb firmly in his mouth as if it was stuck there and he couldn’t remove it.  Which was most likely somewhat true. 

“Need something Phillip?” she asked, doing her best to not mention his thumb… although even she wanted to laugh at the poor guy.  She totally expected him to mention the problem he was having with his thumb, but instead, he just sat there and shook his head – all with his thumb still in his mouth.  Raising her eyebrows at that, she grabbed her purse and got up.  “Enjoy your lunch,” she said as she walked past him and out of the room.  But she couldn’t help it, she was laughing to herself as she nearly ran through the hallways to catch up with the other girls. 

Phillip breathed a sigh of relief.  Everyone had seen him sucking his thumb.  Everyone!  And he still didn’t know what he was going to do about it.  He couldn’t seem to help himself.  The minute he pulled his thumb out of his mouth he went crazy with anxiousness and stress! 

It was lunchtime.  Normally at lunchtime, he would go out to one of the local restaurants where some of the guys in the company often went to eat.  He had been transferred into this department from where he used to work not that long ago so he knew a lot of those guys.  He actually looked forward to their company everyday – just as a change from all the constant feminine chatter that went on around him.  But today, there was no way he could go anywhere if he couldn’t take his damn thumb out of his mouth.  What was he going to do?  And worse, he was getting hungry. 

His eyes fell on the window at the front of the room that led to their tiny break room.  There was a basket in there that they kept filled with chips and things… and a coffee can that held the money they were supposed to pay every time they took something.  It was his one and only choice.  Getting up from his desk, he went into the break room.  He had to switch thumbs in his mouth, something he hadn’t thought of doing before, so he could get his wallet out of his pocket.  But then to get the money out, he needed both hands.  It was all he could do to pull a dollar bill out and throw it into the can before he nearly went mad with the anxiousness again.  Maybe he needed a doctor!  With his thumb now firmly back in his mouth, he grabbed a couple of bags of chips and a soda out of the tiny refrigerator. 

He was very glad that the women were all gone as he sat at the table to eat.  But eating meant that he had to stop sucking his thumb long enough to actually put something into his mouth… other than his stupid thumb.  Lunch was horrible!  He’d pull his thumb away, and stick some chips into his mouth or take a quick swig of the soda before he had to shove his thumb back into his mouth again – where he all too often felt the remnants of the chips still in his mouth before he swallowed them.  By the time he finished the chips and carried what was left of his drink back to his desk, he actually felt hungrier than before he ate anything.  Yeah, without a doubt – he needed a doctor now.  A good one!

At the lunch table, the girls usually went from one topic to another, but not this time.  This time the only thing any of them talked about was Phillip… and his thumb of course.  And Marian was surprised to realize that every one of the ladies there was looking at her as something of a hero.  It was a very strange position to be in, considering what she had done – something that she knew she absolutely shouldn’t have done!  But she couldn’t help it, feeling like a hero to all of them made her feel… somewhat good.

But still, worried somewhat about her victim, she left the table early to hurry back to the office.  She didn’t know where Phillip went for lunch every day, but she did know that he always went out somewhere.  When she got back to the office though, she wasn’t surprised to see him at his desk, his thumb still in his mouth as he stared at his computer screen where he was playing solitaire and looking totally miserable.  She saw him glance at her as she walked past him to her desk.  She set her purse down and went back to him.  The poor guy was forced to look up at him… with his thumb still in his mouth of course.  He had a very pleading look on his face.  She couldn’t blame him.  “Did you get some lunch today?” she asked.

Phillip felt nothing but totally embarrassed as Marian stood over him.  At least she wasn’t laughing at him.  He shook his head with his thumb still in his mouth before he finally managed to pull it out long enough to say, “Not really.  I had a few chips from the break room, but that’s all.  I’m sorry,” he pleaded as tears seemed to fill his eyes and the desperation to put his thumb back into his mouth again grew heavier and heavier, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  If I take my thumb out of my mouth, it’s like I go totally crazy.  I can’t help it, I’m sorry.”  With that, his thumb immediately found its way back into his mouth and he breathed a sigh of relief as the anxiousness again drained out of him.

Marian felt for the poor guy.  He was hungry and hurting because of her.  “Wait a minute,” she said as she quickly hurried to her desk.  She picked up her phone and called the first person she could find on her list of department employees – Ashley.  “Ash!” she said quickly.  “I need you to do something for me before you come back to work.”

“I’m already back,” Ashly replied.  “We’re just downstairs waiting for the elevator now.”

“I need you to go out and get a sandwich for Phillip before you come up.  Don’t worry, I know you’re going to be late – this time you’re running an errand for me.  But poor Phillip wasn’t even able to eat today.  Get him something good for lunch.  I’ll pay you when you get here.”

Ashley was laughing when she told the other girls why she was leaving.  She had no doubt what the topic of their conversation was going to be all the way back up to their department. 

Marian hurried back to Phillip’s desk.  She had to fix things for him, and she had to do it fast.  She really wanted to remove the thumb sucking from him completely, but something prevented her.  Maybe it was the feeling of being a hero to all the rest of the department, but at any rate, she still needed to fix things.  “Phillip,” she said quickly to get his attention, “Phillip likes to suck his thumb.”  As she knew he would, Phillip immediately went into a trance… slightly deeper than she expected.  Evidently, he was one of those people that could do that more easily than others.  She hadn’t had a lot of time to think this through, so she winged it with the first thing she could think of.  “From now on,” she hurriedly told him, “when you’re sucking your thumb and you have to eat or drink something, you won’t feel the compulsion to suck your thumb nearly as bad.  You will find that you’re able to eat much easier and enjoy your meal.  But the compulsion to suck your thumb will still be in the background and the minute you finish eating you will find that you have no choice but to suck your thumb again.” 

She turned her head as she heard the women coming back into the room from lunch.  She turned her attention back to Phillip again.  “As before, when you wake up, you will have no memory of being hypnotized at all.  Absolutely none.  I’m going to count down from three to one and when I say one, you will be wide awake again and feeling very good.  Now turn back and face your computer.” She waited until he had done that.   “Three… two… one!”  Again, she walked off and left him as if she had never been there.  The other women were still all gathered at the front of the room where they had been watching.  She quickly raised her finger to her lips to indicate that they shouldn’t talk about what they had seen.  It was a moment before any of them returned to their desks. 

The emails started almost immediately.  “What did you do?” was the gist of all their questions.  Marian emailed them all back at the same time.  “The poor guy couldn’t even eat.  I just fixed it so he could.  That’s all.  Now get back to work!”

Ashley eventually arrived with a box from a local deli and a can of coke in her hands.  When Marian saw her come in, she motioned her to bring them straight to her desk.  She dug fifteen dollars out of her purse and handed it to Ashley.  “That should more than cover the cost,” she told her.  She watched as a very smiling Ashley went back to her desk. 

With her sights completely on Phillip, Marian picked up the food and brought it over to his desk.  “Phillip,” she said, forcing him to turn away from the work he was now trying to do… typing with just one hand.  “You said you couldn’t eat lunch, so I had Ashley bring you this.  You can eat it at your desk while you’re working.  Okay?”

Phillip looked at the food, then up at Marian gratefully.  Why wasn’t she asking about his stupid thumb?  He nodded and pulled his thumb out long enough to say, “Thanks,” before his thumb went right back into his mouth again. 

When Marian had left him, he opened the box.  The deli sandwich looked and smelled great.  But how the heck was he going to eat it if he could barely get his thumb out of his mouth long enough to chew anything.  Bracing himself for the anxious stress that he knew was going to hit him, he picked up the sandwich and pulled his thumb out of his mouth.  He took a quick bite of the sandwich… and was surprised to find that he could keep his thumb out of his mouth while he chewed it.  Yes, the anxiousness was still there, but not nearly as bad now.  Maybe he was getting better!  He could only hope!  Happily, he finished the entire meal that Ashley had brought him, pickles, chips, and all!  But the minute he finished eating, the anxious worry flooded back into him again, and he had no other option than to start sucking his thumb once again.  Obviously, he wasn’t getting any better!

Marian had planned on removing the hypnotic compulsions from him about half an hour before it was time to leave for the day.  But fifteen minutes before she got the chance, she got called up to a quick meeting – that turned out to be not so quick.  The minute it was over, she hurried back to the office, fully expecting to find Phillip still there.  But the room was empty.  He had already gone home.   She worried a lot about him just then.  What was the poor guy going to do?  She didn’t know if he was married or not… but he didn’t wear a wedding ring or ever talk about a wife.  But that didn’t mean that he didn’t live with someone else – a guy or a woman for that matter.  How was he going to handle that hurdle – if he did live with someone? 

Having no choice but to hope the best for him, she grabbed her things and went home for the evening.