Therapy, part 1

[nybble]

This is my first story on any site. Constructive criticism always welcome.

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Al didn't like dating. It's not that he was awkward or ugly or didn't bathe. He was just a regular guy, brown hair, medium build. remarkable in that he was unremarkable. It's just that in any dating situation, as adults, there is always a point in time when The Question pops up, and this was that moment. It was a shame, really. Karen was pretty, an athletic, brunette twenty-something with olive skin best he could tell in this smoky bar. She set down her glass of ice and asked:

"What do you do for a living?" Karen yelled over the over-amplified bass.

There was a momentary pause in his voice before he answered, "I'm a therapist of sorts."

"Physical therapy?"

"Um, no." He nervously stirred his drink. Why are you so nervous about your profession? You're certified. Lots of happy customers. It's respectable. Good money. And you should really be more-

"Hello? You in there?" Karen had dipped her head, trying to make eye contact with Al who was looking blankly at the straw-induced whirlpool in his drink.

"I'm sorry. I'm, um, a hypno-therapist." That drink was looking more and more interesting all the time.

"Great! A hypnotist!" Al glanced up. He couldn't have heard her right. But there she was, practically beaming. That was a new reaction, Al thought. Most women he'd met made up some excuse like their friend was drunk and sick and she had to take them home or their mom called or they had to go deliver a baby (that one someone actually used; it was a slow night). Good thing he kept track of that drink so closely; he really needed it now. He tipped it back and finished it, glancing over at Karen as he set down the glass.

"So, could you hypnotise me? I've never been hypnotised before. I've read a lot about it. Should I get comfortable?" She glanced around the room in a futile attempt to find an empty booth.

Al shook his head. "Here? Too loud."

"Well, then where? There has to be somewhere around here. How far is your place from here?" Karen asked, still grinning over her new toy.

Al's roommates were having a bachelor party at his apartment. No one he really knew, and he didn't want to be the only sober person there when the police showed up. Better to brave the wilds of an off-campus bar just to get out. His friends were always telling him to get out more anyway. Meet people. Make a new friend, perhaps. Friends are always one that you should make more friends, like it was some pyramid scheme.

"Hey! Over here!" Waving her hands and bouncing slightly, she giggled at Al's blank stare.

Bouncing. That was nice; didn't notice her chest before; too busy concentrating on her face. Her chest must be bigger than her top makes it look. Al shook his inner conversation out of his head. "My place is not an option tonight. Sorry."

"That's OK. Mine isn't far. Let's go!" Before Al could react, Karen had already dropped more than enough money on the bar to cover both of their tabs and was halfway to the door. Al watched, thinking about how she moves with real purpose. He supposed it would be easy to be that confident when you are that pretty.

Karen returned to Al, grabbing his arm. "Come on!" she said in exasperation, dragging him out of the bar to the amusement of some of the other bar patrons.

Once outside, Karen walked with purposeful strides down the sidewalk. Al had a bit of a time keeping up. "Where did you park?"

"I didn't," Karen replied. "I walk everywhere. Besides, it's not far."

Karen was walking, but to keep up, Al had to almost jog. She's a real oddball, thought Al. I think maybe I should hang back a bit, in case she whips out a meat cleaver or something. Well, the spooky music hadn't started yet, so, chuckling to himself, he supposed he must be OK. He made an effort to keep up.

She was right, it wasn't far. After about three blocks, Karen made an abrupt turn up the steps of a modest ranch home.

"Nice house. You live here by yourself?" Al had caught up by now and had wanted the conversation to get more normal.

Karen paused, her key still in the lock. "No. Just me and my sister now." Perking back up, she opened the door quickly and walked into the dark house, calling over her shoulder, "Make yourself at home! Can we start now? I know! I'll lay on the couch!"

Al stepped into the doorway and fumbled for a light switch. Finding one, he turned on the light. Normal. That's a relief. Right now, with the way she's acting, he half expected bodies on meat-hooks. Maybe this will be OK. Maybe she's just intense. Hypnosis could help with that, if she want to be helped. Really, all hypnosis is about helping yourself-

SLAM. Karen had reached around Al and had closed the door behind him. A few moths had entered the house, and, looking cross and swinging wildly, Karen caught them with her hands and killed them, smiled, and walked back towards the living room. Bugged-eyed, Al thought, "This is it; I'm doomed."

Walking slowly past the entryway, Al took a second look at the house. It was spotless. He thought perhaps he had walked onto the set of a Mr. Clean commercial. Once in the living room, the cleanliness of the house took on a whole new dimension. All of the pictures on the walls were perfectly straight. The magazines on the coffee table were stacked rigidly. There were a few pictures on a side table, all spotless and perfectly aligned, the bottom edge of the frame parallel to the front of the table. The pictures were of a middle-aged couple in lots of different locations. Tropical, desert, cruise, camping in the woods. The woman had an artificial limb; her right arm. "Are these your parents?"

"Can we start now?" Karen's head appeared above the couch with the statement, and after the seemingly requisite smile, she laid back down.

OK, thought Al. Maybe if I do hypnotise her, I can escape.

Sitting on the coffee table near the couch where Karen laid, he started through his routine he usually used with first-time clients. He told her about that all hypnosis was self-hypnosis, that he coulnd't do anything to her that she didn't want to do. The speech was long and dull, but it did usually did three things; it informed the customer of what they should expect from the session, it got them used to his voice, and it relaxed them. Tonight, it also went a long way towards relaxing Al. He needed it, too. By the time he got to the end of his mantra, he was back in his comfort zone. All thoughts of escape had left him.

"Do you have any candles?"

"Yes, on the dining room table."

Al retrieved the candle and set it on the couch's end table by Karen's feet. Flame was Al's favorite focus. Most people liked to look at it and it didn't break the mood by being too corny.

Karen seemed to be taking to the trance pretty well. Her breathing was slow and even and her muscles were relaxing. As he talked her through the relaxation of her different muscle groups, he started taking a more detailed inventory of her body. Wow. Very nice legs. Tapered waist. Either large firm breasts or a very industrial bra. Even complexion. Classic good looks. Full bouncy hair. And now hypnotised and ready to be coerced into just about anything.

Al then got very concerned. He was a professional, licensed hypno-therapist. Is what he was about to do ethical? Was it moral? Was it even possible? Seemed like he should be able to do it; most people are willing to stray away from their morals if they can blame someone else, or the hypnosis. He'd had one man strip naked when told to get comfortable.

Karen shifted on the couch, getting herself more comfortable. Calm down, Al told himself. She's just curious. Show her something a little odd and she'll be happy, maybe even happy enough to see him again, or even see more of him tonight.

He went though his usual trance steps, installing a trance trigger ("Karen, sleep please") and bringing her in and out of a trance several times. "Now that you are completely relaxed, I want you to concentrate on my voice. My voice is all you can hear right now. It is very strong and powerful to you."

"Yes."

"You will feel what it tells you to feel. You will act how it tells you to act."

"Yes."

"Even if what I tell you makes no sense to your conscious mind, it will make sense to your subconscious, and your subconscious mind will make it so."

"Yes."

He had her repeat this back to him a few times. She sounded like she believed it.

Now, what to do. She said she had studied about hypnosis, so I'm sure she's seen or heard of the balloon tied to the wrist or the oranges that make you happy or getting stuck to a chair or any number of other tricks. Besides, she had taken to the trance extremely well, and she was interested in hypnosis, and the drinks he had at the bar were starting to kick in, so he felt like showing off a bit. So what to do. Looking around the room, and seeing the pictures on the sofa table, he got an idea.

"Now Karen, when I count to three, you will wake up and feel completely refreshed. After you wake up, when I say the word 'legs', you will realise your legs are no longer real. They are prosthetic, artificial limbs. You will not be able to move them. They will not actually be attached to your body. They will not have feeling and they will not be warm to the touch. This change in your body will not be immediately appearant to you, but, as soon as you become aware of it, it will be as if it was always this way. Your subconscious mind is remembering this, so your conscious mind doesn't need to. Your conscious mind will not remember being given this instruction."

"Yes."

He had her repeat the trance instructions again.

"OK, I'm going to count to three now; one, your head is clearing, two waking up and three."

Karen's eyes opened once more, and she smiled.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine. What should I do?"

"You can sit up if you'd like." And she did, swinging her legs off the couch and onto the floor, sitting directly in front of Al. She leaned forward on her elbows, giving Al a good view of what was under her blouse.

"So, what now?"

"Not to sure. What would you like to do? Sit and talk? Stretch your legs?"

At that, there was a slight hint that Karen was aware of something happening. She sat up straight and got a concerned look on her face, like something was different that she couldn't quite grasp.

"Karen, are you OK?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not feeling myself right now. Perhaps I should get something to drink."

She leaned forward, as if she was going to stand up. She immediately got a very surprised look on her face and hit her forehead on Al's forehead before Al could get his hands up to catch her or to say the trance trigger to get her to lay back down. He did, however, manage to get his hands up enough to cup Karen's breasts through Karen's blouse. The shock of Karen's forehead combined with the shock of two hands full of Karen's breasts caused Al to also loose his balance, and they fell backwards off the coffee table into the floor.

"Karen, are you OK?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Are you?

"I'm so sorry; I didn't-"

"That's OK; I guess I was more drunk than I thought. I can usually manage to sit, even in my condition." Karen glanced back down at her body as she said this, seeming to indicate something about herself. It was then that Al noticed that he didn't have all of Karen on top of him on the floor. Her legs, detached from her body, were still on the couch. They were detached from Karen's body at the hips. Where he would have expected to see blood or the top of a femur was a steel rod with a ball attached to the end of it, like an artificial hip, and several of what looked like long grey plastic bags where her muscles should have been.

Shit! What the Hell! That's not supposed to happen! It's supposed to be all in her mind, not in my reality. How can I fix this? She walked home, I saw-

"Hey, space man! Do you always pay this little attention to legless women who knock you off coffee tables? Even the ones you are groping?"

He looked back at Karen, then down at his hands which immediately let go as if they were grabbing hot coals, and then back up at Karen. There was no worry on her face. She was perfectly fine with this, like it happened every day.

"Hey! Did you finally find one?" This voice, also female, was coming from the direction of the front door. There stood another woman, about Karen's build and age, also dressed for clubbing.

Karen looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Yes, I did, and I get him first."

[A.N.N.]

I'm certainly intrigued! Can't wait to see part 2.

[Green Dragon]

part two part two part two and keep it kinda clean lol