by Theacds » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:56 am
Alternate Chapter 3: Mind Resizing
He woke up on his back, blindfolded and tightly bound. "Mm..." And gagged.
"Mm?" The room was dark. Even blindfolded, he could sense that. And it smelled of sweat. But not quite dried. Someone had been here recently, and there was something sticky on his arm.
"MMPH!!"
With a surge of panic, Darren rioted and shook the chain bonds like a man possessed. What happened? He'd gone for the gun, but... something... happened.
Why was this room like this? He wasn't exactly a hard catch, but crazy was a straight deal breaker--though, he was pretty smashed last night... But that wasn't the issue!
"MMPH!! MM!"
The issue was that Darren could feel a pair of eyes on him?
"Easy, now, dumbfuck." It was her. It was the crazy girl. It was the maniacal psycho he'd loved and left last night back for bloody revenge. "Don't want to strain yourself before we start, now."
With a snap, the blindfold dropped. He couldn't yet see, but a dim lamp was heating up above him. He cried out once again, struggling twice as hard.
"Stop." The girl willed, and he was still. He trembled, but not consciously. It wasn't his time to talk. "I'd like to explain what's going on, Darren." Her voice made a slow and steady orbit around his head. Was he spinning, suspended in midair, or was she circling? "So, when I remove that rag, I want you to calmly and politely ask three questions."
He bobbed his head up and down and she smiled. The image of her was dim and quite frankly terrifying, but solid none the less. She had a dark red lipstick on, that much was visible, but were those... false vampire teeth?
With a snap of her fingers, the cloth around his mouth came undone.
"Are you...?" He cleared his throat and swallowed hard, sweating and panting in this sweltering, suffocating room. "Magic?"
"Yes." Red eyes set into a pale complexion, the crazy wore a full three piece suit and loomed just out of the light's range of influence. "I can use magic, I am magic, and I come from magic."
"Second question." Darren tried not to look directly into her eyes. Perhaps he wasn't that brave, but she really did scare the ever living shit out of him. "Am I going to live a prosperous and fulfilling life after all of this is over?"
"Prosper--?" She frowned. "Hold still." She spoke, staring directly to the chain from which he dangled. "Ah, there we go. Prosperous is a good word for it, but fulfilling is not."
"That's..." He was still stuck on the fact that she ordered an inanimate object into submission. Never mind whatever threat she veiled with the second part of that phrase. "Concerning."
She shrugged and smugly grinned. "And for your last question?"
"Hm..." The man would've scratched his head if he could, as it was itching something fierce, but couldn't quite manage. "Well..." It was a waste, but perhaps she'd appreciate this. "What's your name?"
The girl shook her head. "Of course you wouldn't remember. Not like you--." She blinked, arms held up in a stuck shrug. "... Did I... Not give you my name?"
"I don't think you did." Darren shook his head. "I don't remember a lot of what happened, to be honest."
"Huh." The girl smacked her lips and thought on that for a second. "Well, my real name doesn't translate well through a mortal body, so..." She endearingly flipped a lock of unnaturally red hair over her shoulder. "I'll just have you call me Barbara."
There was a beat.
"Well..." Darren said, testing her mood. "... Barbara, is there any way I can make all of this up to you and get on with my life?"
"Actually, no!" She stepped forward into the growing light, grinning from pointed ear to pointed ear.
"Oh, that's... not what I was expecting."
"I'm looking to make this mortal punishment a bit more bearable, right?" Barbara gestured a hand devilishly at him.
"Okay."
"And I meet this complete fucking asshole who just will not take no for answer." Barbara shrugged and closed her eyes. "But, hey," Barbara opened one eye, as if to wink. "Life's too short to be an uptight prude."
His stomach felt a little off. "I feel like I know where this is going..."
"So listen up, Darren, and I'll cut to the good part." Barbara walked up and gently pushed his face up to meet her own. She must have been seven feet tall to match him suspended in the air like this. "I need a maid." He didn't dare speak. "I want a cute maid." It was her turn to talk. "I want you to be my sweet, submissive bunny maid until I find a way back home."
Something about her tone shook him up. "Do I have a choice in the matter?" It was charming, but with a hint of threat.
"You have a choice in a matter." Barbara said with a smile. "What's two plus two time five plus nine?"
He had to think for a bit, but came back quickly with, "
"Ooh, you're pretty good." She giggled and then put her hands next to his ears. "Dumber."
With two snaps, he felt his head grow fuzzy. "What did you...?"
"What's five times five times ten?"
Darren pushed his mind into high gear. Pursing his lips tightly, he took a little longer this time for what should've been easy. He was lazy, not stupid. "Two-hundred and fifty."
"Wow!" She snapped approval into his ears and he could feel his brain turn to mush. "You must've been pretty smart before all this."
"Um..." He blinked slowly. "Thanks...?" He felt really... slow. Like there was a laggy delay to everything he did, said, or thought. It was calming, in a sense, like a sort of zen like state of mind, but distracting to say the least.
"What's two plus two?"
Even that was too easy, though it took him three seconds to think up the word. "Four."
Snap
"What's two plus two?"
"Four?" That sounded right...
Snap
"What's two plus two?"
He tried to force his mind into action, but it took a couple tries. "Four...?" It was hard to do much of anything, at this point, but he could just about manage it if he tried hard enough.
Snap
"What's two plus two?"
"Uh..." Darren moaned gently, his jaw slackening. He didn't have the slightest clue, anymore. He could still just barely recall answering that question, but whatever he'd said just wasn't coming. "Um..." It wasn't just a lack of knowledge, though. It was a lack of intelligence, a lack of mental strength. He couldn't will forward any intellect at all--not that there was much there anymore, anyways.
"What's two plus two, Darren?"
"I..." He wanted to answer, but even that was getting foggy.
"That's alright." The magical girl smiled, and patted him on the head. "With a brain that small, there's no way you'll be able to resist hypnosis." Barbara laughed, and tugged on his cheek. "Do you even know what I'm saying, stupid?"
"Um..." He didn't.
"Don't mind it." She said. "Let me do all the thinking for you, and sleep."
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https://www.deviantart.com/theacds !!