"They can't make us stay in, you know."

"Well, no, they can't. But they strongly recommend that we don't go out."

Jennie blew a raspberry in disgust. She tugged down her top, smoothed out her skirt, and then wriggled her feet into her pumps. Now ready by her own standards, she presented herself to her roommate for external approval.

Lara nodded her assent from the couch. Jennie looked good in pretty much anything, but when she dressed up, she definitely turned heads. Lara could turn a head or two herself. But she wasn't trying at the moment, as attested to by her lounging attire of sweatshirt, leggings, and bare feet.

"Come with," Jennie said.

"I'll pass," Lara said. "And really, you should, too. You've read the articles, same as me. Hell, we even watched that PSA together."

"Screw them. We're young, we're healthy. And we need to live."

"You're right about the last part. Not getting sick sounds like a good way to do that."

"All right, loser. Stay here and binge watch another lame cop show. I'm going to have some fun. Don't wait up."

"Yeah, okay. Be safe. Aside from going out at all, anyway."

Jennie rolled her eyes and headed out of the room. Lara heard the sharp, rhythmic footsteps of her friend's heels on the foyer tile. Then, she heard the click of the top lock being turned. But then, she didn't hear the squeak of the hinges indicating the opening of the front door.

Suddenly, the sharp, rhythmic footfalls sounded again, though almost immediately, they fell out of rhythm.

Lara looked up, just in time to see Jennie run through the living room, stumbling out of her pumps as she went. Panting and flushed, she barreled into the closed door of her room. The door yielded, and she tumbled inside.

The last thing Lara saw of her was a flash of her bare soles. Then the door slammed shut with an echoing thud.

"Uh, Jen? Jennie? You okay?"

Slowly, tentatively, Lara got up from the couch. She walked over to Jennie's door and put her ear close to it.

"Jennie?"

She got no response. But, she did hear something. Immediately, she wished she hadn't.

Over the repeating creak-thump of Jennie's bed, Lara heard wavering moans. Both the creak-thumps and moans gained speed, while the moans also grew louder.

"What the hell?"

But Lara knew exactly what the hell she was hearing. She just couldn't believe it. She pulled her head away from the door and took a step back, but the sounds were well loud enough for her to hear anyway.

Then, Jennie's voice rose in both pitch and volume, until she let out a warbling yell. And then, it was quiet.

Lara turned and headed back to the couch, her face red from embarrassment. She sat down and shook her head. What was up with Jennie? What had made her literally stop in her tracks at the front door, and then run to her bedroom to...do that?

Jennie's door opened, and she emerged slowly from her room. Her hair was disheveled, her cheeks were rosy, and her skirt was on crooked. A big, unabashed grin adorned her face. She plopped down in a chair catty corner to the couch and placed her bare feet on the coffee table.

"I needed that!" she said with protracted sigh.

"I didn't!" Lara said. "What the hell were you doing? I mean, I know what you were doing. But why were you doing it? You were all but out the door? What happened?"

"I don't know. I was standing there with my hand on the doorknob, and..."

"And?"

"And suddenly, every sexual fantasy I've ever had popped into my head. There was nothing I could do. My body just responded to them. I had to take care of business right then and there."

"Really?" Lara said, not hiding her disbelief.

"Yeah, really! Trust me, Lar, I barely made it into my room!"

"Whatever, Jen. Look, I need some air. I'm going for a walk."

Waving off any response, Lara got and headed to the foyer. Once there, she was about to slip on some awaiting flip-flops and reach for the front door, when--

It hit her just as Jennie had described:

Her brain exploded with erotic and explicit images, and her body screamed at her for release. And then she mimicked her roommate's actions from before--dashing madly to her room, slamming the door shut, and...all the rest.

A few minutes later, she emerged sheepishly under Jennie's told-you-so glare.

"I don't understand," she said, as she returned to her spot on the couch.

"Neither do I," Jennie said.

"The same exact thing just happened to both of us when we tried to leave the house. That can't be a coincidence."

Jennie shrugged. Lara got back up and walked over to their shared desk. She picked up her laptop, then she walked back to the couch, sat down, opened the computer, and starting typing.

"What are you looking for?" Jennie asked.

"I'm seeing if I can find any references to what just happened to us," Lara said, as she navigated search results.

"Finding anything?"

"Yeah, but talk about going down the rabbit hole."

Lara angled the laptop so that Jennie could better see it. Jennie perused the article on the screen.

"So, they're using mind control to keep us kooky twenty-somethings at home during this crisis?" Jennie said when she was done. "I mean, I could totally believe that...if I was a moron."

"It does sound absurd," Lara said. "But, a lot of folks think that's whats happening. Look at all of these articles."

"A lot of morons think that's what's happening."

"Fair enough. Still, something happened to both of us tonight. Not just something, the exact same thing."

"Whatever."

"I wonder..."

Lara pulled up the public service announcement video that they had recently watched when it had been broadcast. She clicked play and then expanded it so that it filled the whole screen.

"Ugh," Jennie said. "I'm not watching that stupid thing again."

"Shh," Lara said. "I'm looking for clues."

"Waste of time, but enjoy. I'm going to--what the hell?"

"Do you mind? I'm trying to watch this."

"Yeah, you keeping on watching it."

Lara continued watching the video, and as she did, Jennie watched her roommate. In another minute, the video ended. Lara then closed that window and turned to look at Jennie.

"What was your fussing about?" Lara asked.

"Mind control, I think," Jennie said with no trace of sarcasm in her voice.

"Now you do think there's mind control involved?"

"Yeah. Maybe. Probably."

"Why?"

"Because," Jennie said, "when you were watching the video, I was looking at you. At your eyes. And, well, I could see...spirals in them. Swirling spirals."

"What?"

"You know, like hypnosis. 'Watch the spiral...you're getting sleepy...you must do whatever I say.' Like that."

Jennie pantomimed her words. Lara shook her head in disbelief.

"Okay, fine, I'll watch the stupid video," Jennie said. "And you look at me--at my eyes--as I do."

"Jennie, this is--"

"Just do it. Please."

Lara nodded and handed Jennie the laptop. Jennie brought the PSA back up and watched it, while Lara dutifully watched her eyes.

"Holy crap!" Lara said.

"Spirals, right?" Jennie said, making swirly motions in front of her eyes.

"Yeah!"

"See! I told you!"

"This is crazy."

"Maybe. But it's true."

"We don't know that for sure."

"We don't?"

Jennie stood up and motioned for Lara to do the same. Lara begrudgingly got up, too. Then, Jennie took her by the arm and began walking with her towards the front door.

"What are we doing, Jen?"

"We need to see if it happens again."

"What? No!"

"Yes."

"Oh, jeez," Lara said, but she didn't fight it.

The two friends entered the foyer. Then, they both approached the front door and stood there, waiting.

Nothing happened.

"Okay, well now I'm feeling silly," Jennie said. "Mind control? Please. I can't believe I let myself get caught up in all that conspiracy nonsense."

"We weren't actually going out," Lara said soberly.

"What do you mean?"

"I think we need to try to go out to be affected."

"Oh."

"Let's go take a walk."

"Okay."

Lara reached for the doorknob....

Several minutes later, the two roommates exited their bedrooms. They shuffled out to the living room and took their respective seats.

"So, mind control," Jennie said.

"Seems like it," Lara said.

"Guess we're not leaving the house any time soon."

"No, guess not."

"I can't believe they're making us not leave."

"Well, they did strongly recommend we stay in."

"Yeah, but we have rights, don't we? They can't just hypnotize us without our consent."

"Apparently they can."

"Well, they shouldn't, is what I mean."

"No argument there."

"Can we do anything about it?" Jennie asked. "I don't want somebody controlling my mind. I mean, those were two of the best orgasms I've had in a while. But that's not the point."

"Ditto on the orgasms," Lara said. "But, no, I don't want my mind controlled, either."

"So, what do we do?"

"I don't know. I was going to continue with that cop show on Netwatch."

"Pass."

"Yeah, I'm not really feeling it, either."

The two roommates sat in silence, each pondering her situation in her own way.

"I just can't get over the fact that we were hypnotized by that stupid PSA," Jennie said after a while.

"Me, neither," Lara said. "It's crazy. Crazy that they did it, crazy that they're even capable of doing it, and crazy that we responded to it."

"Right!"

"And the scary part for me is, what if they programmed us to do other things that we don't even know about?"

"Oh, man! I didn't even think about that."

"Yeah, I mean, if you control someone's mind, who's to say that you stop at giving them just one suggestion. If you can make 'don't go outside during the lockdown' stick, surely you can make other suggestions stick. 'Give us all your money. Vote for our candidate. Think, believe, and do whatever we tell you.' How do we know they didn't give us those suggestions?"

"You're talking about full-on brainwashing."

"Yep."

"Can they do that?"

"Who knows? An hour ago, I would've said there was no way they could hypnotize us with a video and make us go crazy any time we try to leave the house."

"That's a good point."

"The weird thing is," Lara said, "I kind of want to watch that PSA again."

"Really? Why?" Jennie asked.

"I don't know. I just do."

"Huh. Now that you mention it, I do, too."

"Well, let's do it then."

Lara picked up the laptop again.

"Wait," Jennie said. "What if every time we watch it, it strengthens their hold over us. I feel like, maybe, that could happen."

"It sure could. Repetition is a key part of getting a hypnotized subject to accept a suggestion. And, it's definitely a brainwashing technique."

"So, we better not watch the video again."

"No, we better not."

The friends stared at the dormant laptop that rested on Lara's lap.

"I still want to watch it," Jennie said.

"Me, too," Lara said. "But like you said, we shouldn't."

"No, definitely not."

"No way. We're not giving them any more control over our minds."

"Right. We can think for ourselves. We can do what we want."

"Exactly."

Both women nodded in affirmation of their asserted independence.

But the now powered up laptop said differently. So did the video site that Lara had navigated to, which displayed the ready-to-be-played PSA.

Jennie moved to sit next to Lara on the couch. Lara angled the computer so that Jennie could better see the screen. Then she clicked play.

Although neither woman could see them in the other's eyes, because each one's focus was on the screen before her, the spirals swirled there during the run of the video. And though the patterns faded when the video ended, the brainwashing effects of the PSA remained, now even stronger with this third viewing, as its watchers had correctly surmised it would be.

Not that either woman were surmising anything further about the PSA or its effect on them. With the laptop now pushed aside, both Jennie and Lara sat with their legs spread wide and their bare feet on the coffee table. They both had their hands inside their underwear, and they both did...what they had done before in the privacy of their bedrooms.

When all their moans and yells had finished, they sat there, staring blankly ahead and grinning dopily.

Then, after sitting that way for a few minutes, Lara reached over and picked up the laptop. Jennie moved back into position beside her. And they watched the video again....