Carlie howled. Then hooted. Then wailed. Then shrieked.

The pretty, petite, hazel-eyed woman sat upright with her legs stretched out before her and spread slightly apart. An intricate system of fabric bands criss-crossed her body from shoulders to calves, rendering her utterly immobile below the neck and above the ankles.



Though otherwise fully clothed, her feet were starkly bare. Two other women skillfully employed a variety of mundane and extravagant implements to antagonize her vulnerably exposed and lushly oiled soles.



Malevolent glee shone in the eyes of the two women. The more outbursts they elicited from their subject, the more they intensified their torment of her.



Then, a fourth woman approached from behind. She affixed a cloth gag over Carlie's mouth and tied it off securely. Now significantly muted, the fraught subject could only emote her distress with her bright and tear-filled eyes.



Two more women walked forward to stand before Carlie. One led the other, whose upper body was similarly bound with taut fabric bands. The leader clasped her charge's shoulder with one hand and pointed straight ahead with the other.



"Take a good look, Naz. She had a choice. She could have cooperated with us. She said no. In the end, we get what we want with or without cooperation. But our methods work best on a calm, relaxed, cooperating subject. A cooperating subject suffers no pain or discomfort. When our goal is accomplished, we release her, unharmed. But if she won't cooperate, if she won't remain calm and relaxed, then we take other measures. We force her to be in the required state. This is what you see happening to Carlie. This is what we will do to you if you choose to resist us. Do you understand?"



Naz frowned. She was a small, attractive woman with dark skin, big brown eyes, and long black hair. She shared with Carlie not only being restrained, but being barefoot, as well. Contemplating her fate and the decision she was being forced to make, she clenched her fists and scrunched her toes.



"Choose now, Naz. Cooperate with us or don't."



With a surrendering sigh, Naz relaxed her hands and feet. Then, she nodded.



"Good."



All during the woman's explanation, the other two women had continued ravaging Carlie's feet. But as the tickle torture dragged on and on, Carlie's struggles began to diminish. By the time Naz agreed to cooperate, Carlie had gone limp. Her eyes stared straight ahead, glassy and  unfocused.



The woman behind her removed Carlie's gag, as the other two worked ceaselessly on her feet. But even with her mouth uncovered, Carlie didn't cry out. She simply groaned and occasionally twitched.



"You can stop. She is ready. So is this one."



Both women immediately ceased their work on Carlie's feet. They stepped back from her, turned around, and moved over to Naz. They forced the second subject into a seated position that matched the first one's.



Naz and Carlie now faced each other, with their bare soles roughly a meter apart. Naz was kept in place by two pairs of strong hands. Carlie was too dazed to move, or even to think.



The two remaining women left the room together. They returned about a minute later, each now carrying an object. At first glance, the objects could have been mistaken for mundane mixing bowls or simplistic helmets. But as ambient light glinted off their brushed steel surfaces, it revealed delicate overlays of circuitry that belied any simplicity.



The woman who had previously gagged Carlie walked over to again stand behind her, while the one who had led Naz into the room took up a similar position behind her. In near perfect sync, each one placed their object--which did indeed prove to be some kind of helmet--onto the head of their subject.



"Remember, Naz: No pain. No discomfort. Go home unharmed afterwards. If you remain calm and relaxed. Either way, we will get what we want from you. Your choice."



Naz swallowed nervously and nodded again.



"Good. Begin."



All four women then congregated off to the side of their subjects, in order to get the best vantage point for what was to come. The same gleeful maliciousness from when two of them were tickle-torturing Carlie now lit up all of their faces.



Trying to muster as much zen as possible in the face of the unknown, Naz succeeded in maintaining a calm, relaxed state...until it began:



Rhythmic pulses of light and sound from within the helmet preceded a barrage of stimuli. The woman had not lied to Naz--there was neither pain, nor discomfort, per se. But the storm of sensations quickly disoriented and overwhelmed her. She felt awash in a maelstrom. She tried to focus on where she was and what was happening to her, but unbidden images, noises, and thoughts began invading her mind. The onslaught continued and increased until, soon, she could no longer distinguish her own thoughts from those being forced into her brain.



She heard a voice through the chaos. Whether it was her own voice, or that of someone else, she didn't know. Nor did she care. The voice spoke both soothingly and forcefully. It offered solace. It promised peace. It provided pleasure. All she must do to reap those rewards was what it said.



"Surrender fully. Submit wholly. Obey always. Serve dutifully. Forget consciously. Remember subconsciously."



For the briefest of instants, an inner voice--her true self's voice--screamed hypnosis! and brainwashing! at her. But those screams sounded distant and faded beneath the overbearing drumbeat of commands that repeated over and over and over again. And once that instant passed, she neither heard nor remembered anything but that which was coercively instilled in her psyche.



Naz's gaze now matched the blankness of Carlie's. Dopey smiles graced both of their lovely faces. Those blissful expressions might have indicated they were peacefully content if not for the tears that streamed from their eyes, the drool that dribbled from their mouths, and the trembling that pervaded their bodies.



After several minutes, the regimen abruptly ceased. The helmets powered down. Carlie and Naz stopped trembling. The group of four women split into two, each moving over to one subject. One woman removed the helmet and undid restraints, while the other asked stern questions. Without hesitation, both Carlie and Naz answered the questions. Their answers proved unequivocally that they had submitted and surrendered, and that they would obey, serve, forget, and remember exactly as instructed.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Naz grasped the pretty, barefoot woman's shoulder and pointed straight ahead.



"It's very simple, Emily. Zoe had every chance to cooperate. She could have calmed down, relaxed, and done what we needed her to do. If she had, she wouldn't be suffering through any of this. But she chose not to do what we said. So now, we must make her do it."



Carlie knelt before Zoe, another attractive woman who was bound, barefoot, squirming, and screaming. With deviously deft skill, Carlie raked Zoe's exposed and lubricated soles with a sharply bristled tool that elicited precisely the desired reaction from her subject.



Horrified by the scene that played out right in front of her, Emily clenched her fists and scrunched her toes. Naz made note of the reaction.



"Whether you cooperate with us or not, Emily, we will get what we want. The choice is yours. What will it be?"



As an utterly exhausted Zoe finally gave in and gave up, Emily made her choice.



What that choice was didn't matter because, as always, the subject surrendered, submitted, obeyed, forgot, and remembered just as she was meant to do.