"Alright, I think I'm ready to g-"
Alhena's sentence crumbled.
In front of their face, slightly above eye level, a fingertip floated. They were staring at it, must have begun staring at it the moment it had appeared. Looking away wasn't an option. Their head was stuck in an invisible vice.
"Just a moment," spoke a familiar voice, sharp and sweet like cider, the source merely a shadow in the corner of their eye.
The fingertip began a slow, circular movement. Alhena's gaze stayed glued to it. Following along took no effort at all, because the effort wasn't theirs to make.
The voice was commenting on how utterly fixated they looked. How all of them must be so focused already. Suggested they should be able to feel their awareness fall in line, all of it existing only between face and fingertip.
And they did feel it. Pressure and anticipation built as the finger spiraled closer and closer, as their mind was compressed along its single axis, less and less space for thoughts to exist until-
-and then the fingertip moved away again. It'd only been there for a moment, but it'd been a moment of thinking absolutely nothing and god, how Alhena lived for those. Their eyes stayed fixed, the finger moved away again, thoughts rushed to fill the new space...
Fuzziness remained where some of their mind had been. Their eyes drooped a bit. Their body slumped against the wall. The voice pointed it all out, complimented how weak they were. Alhena's lips curled into a smile, responding to tone more than words.
There was no point in trying to start up thoughts that would get erased in seconds. Alhena waited like the good toy they were.
This time, it stayed where it was. A gentle but unyielding pressure, like pinning down a small animal that you're trying not to hurt. Every remaining part of Alhena's brain squirmed against it, the way you're free to squirm when you know there's no chance of actually escaping.
A moment of quiet. In a place that wasn't the center of their world, there was a distant burst of pleasure, then pain, then pleasure again. Then words crept back into their ears, reminding them how they could let all of this just slip away, how much they trusted their hypnotist, how getting toyed with was always so much fun. How-
"Up-up-up-up-up. Wide awake, all back here now. What are you looking forward to at the party?"
The finger launched away and their mind jumped back in place and it was jarring but the jarringness was of course the point. Going straight from trance to answering questions had become second nature. Don't look back, don't try to hold on to anything, just respond to what you're asked. Their voice was quiet, their eyelids heavy, but they gave an answer at once.
"...Seeing our friends again. Hearing their stories. The movie we're going to watch."
Putting one's mind to the future pulls it away from the past. As they finished talking, Alhena found an aimless void where recent memories should be, not unlike the sensation of walking into a room and forgetting what you were going to do there. They suppressed the urge to try and push through. They could just let it slip away. They trusted their hypnotist. They did always have more fun when they just accepted the surprise.
And then the urge to make up for the delay took over, pushing all questions from their mind. They left hurriedly, happily.
And on Alhena's neck, plain for all others to see, a newly-gifted hickey bloomed.
