Five More Minutes

The sand slowly poured into the bottom of the hourglass. Bethany tried very hard not to watch it.

It wasn't exactly easy, though. The light seemed to catch each individual grain as it slipped out of the top bulb and fell in a glittering stream into the bottom. Every time Bethany thought she had fixed her gaze on the featureless tan walls or the pink polish on her tapping fingernails or just straight up at the white ceiling, she would find that after a few moments she was looking at the sand again. It heaped up in a tiny little mound at the base of the hourglass, slowly spreading as more sand tumbled out of the pinched curve of glass in the middle. Bethany knew it would take five minutes to empty the top half. That was how long she needed to resist.

And she would. She knew she would, because this entire thing was too silly by half. And because hypnosis didn't really even work at all, and it certainly didn't work like some kind of stupid magic spell that would melt her brain to mush in five minutes flat. And because she was a very strong-willed individual who didn't simply turn into a puddle of mindless arousal just because a certain extremely obnoxious boyfriend of a friend (ahem, Jeremy...) made claims that he was an 'master hypnotist' who could put anyone into a trance whether they resisted or not.

(Although honestly, she'd be a lot less surprised to find out that Letty was hypnotized into dating Jeremy than to learn that he actually had positive qualities that would attract women. What Letty saw in that perpetually jobless, constantly lecherous slob, Bethany would never know. Half the reason she'd risen to his barely-concealed taunts was the hope that once he thought she was 'hypnotized', he'd make a pass at her right in front of Letty and she could turn him down and show him up at the same time.)

But first she had to get through his little challenge. Which would be remarkably easy, because again, it wasn't as though she could really be hypnotized at all. She would just sit here silently in her chair, in this extremely boring, incredibly warm room that Jeremy had actually nicknamed 'the brainwashing chamber' (God, Letty could do better) and let him drone on while she watched the sand spill into the bottom of the hourglass. And at the end, she'd give him a good slap when he told her to do whatever inappropriate thing he was undoubtedly going to tell her to do, and she and Letty would go out for ice cream and wonder why the hell all their boyfriends kept trying to drag them into threesomes. In...something like four minutes? It was kind of hard to tell. There weren't any markings on the hourglass to indicate how far along she was in the challenge. She just had to watch the sand empty out until it was all gone.

Jeremy would no doubt tell her that her mind was emptying out right along with the sand, pouring down and down and down in an endless flow as her eyes locked onto the captivating sight of the slowly filling bottom bulb. Which was why she'd already tuned Jeremy out completely. Let him sit there and ramble on about 'deep, drowsy relaxation' and 'more and more focused on the sand the more you watch'. Bethany didn't need to hear any of it. It was just more of his half-assed hypnosis shtick that he probably picked up from one of those terrible online manuals on how to get women, nothing worth listening to at all. Even Letty looked bored sitting next to her, and she was probably used to it by now.

Then again, if he tried this crap on Letty often enough that they had a whole room for it, she had to be even more sick of it than Bethany. She certainly looked like she'd completely checked out of the whole boring challenge thing; Bethany noticed out of the corner of her eye that Letty had the vacant expression of someone who had long ago stopped even pretending to pay attention. Bethany suspected that Letty got that look a lot when Jeremy was talking. Bethany just hoped her friend wasn't so checked out that she wouldn't notice if Jeremy tried anything creepy-one of Bethany's very strong conditions to trying Jeremy's little dare was that she not be left alone with him. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but-no, no, it was exactly that she didn't trust him.

If he was planning on trying anything, though, he certainly didn't seem to be in any great hurry to do so. He sat in his chair, talking to her in that weird soft monotone that she had no intention of listening to and watching her watch the hourglass. Occasionally she'd catch a word or a phrase, like 'you don't need to listen, just hear and obey' or 'my words slip past your conscious mind, sinking deep into your subconscious as you focus your fading thoughts on the trickling sand', but it never seemed to go anywhere or catch her attention. It was just more of his hypno-babble, more of the same patter that he had been repeating with only tiny variations for...God, how long had it been? The sand looked significantly lower than before, but without a clock or a watch she had no real way of knowing.

The more she thought about that, the more it started to get to her. Bethany started wondering if the hourglass was really a five minute timer like Jeremy had said it was, or if he'd swapped in something as part of a weird prank. It felt like she'd been staring at the hourglass for, well, hours. She thought about storming out, telling him that he was a liar and a cheat and a lousy hypnotist, but...but making a big scene like that would hurt Letty's feelings. Just contemplating it felt draining. Bethany let the thought slip away and continued to watch the sand fall. Arguing about anything felt too much like work, especially when no matter how long the timer took, it would have to run out of sand eventually.

Still, it was incredibly frustrating. Bethany could feel the urge to fidget and shift in her chair growing, and she reminded herself that she was supposed to be still and silent. She tried concentrating on her body one limb at a time, picturing the nervous energy draining out of her feet and legs, then her arms and shoulders. She kept circling around to each part of her body in turn, again and again, imagining each one sagging into relaxation in turn until all that tension was gone and she could focus easily and effortlessly on the hourglass again. It seemed to work-with every deep, slow, lazy breath it became easier and easier to pay more attention to the flowing sand and less attention to everything else. Jeremy's voice, the stifling closeness of the room, the way Letty's head was slowly slumping forward onto her chest...none of it seemed nearly as important as watching the hourglass now. The hourglass was all that mattered. She just needed to keep watching until it was all gone, and then she would win.

She decided that the best strategy was passive resistance. She didn't need to listen to Jeremy, she didn't need to think about what he was trying to do to her, she didn't need to pay attention about Letty's drooping, dipping head. She just needed to stare straight ahead and watch the stream of glittering grains of sand as it poured out into the bottom of the hourglass until it stopped. And when it stopped, she would start to pay attention again. It was so simple she didn't know why she didn't think of it before now. She was going to relax, let go of all her annoyances, and chill out right here on the chair until this absurd 'hypnosis' challenge ended. See how Jeremy dealt with that.

As soon as she made her decision, Bethany instantly felt better. It felt like all her worries and frustrations just slipped away once she decided to passively watch the sand falling through the neck of the hourglass. All that stressing, all that planning, it wasn't helping anything. She still had to sit silently whether she thought about it or not, so why not give up the burden of all those exhausting, tedious thoughts and just let herself relax? It seemed so obvious now, like someone was walking her step by step through the chain of reasoning to its ultimate conclusion. Sitting and staring was easier than thinking. Sitting and staring felt better than thinking. Bethany could just sit and stare and relax completely, and allow events to take their own course. Like she was a passenger in her own body. That sounded wonderful.

The sand seemed to flow faster once Bethany stopped thinking about it. She found herself blinking slowly and heavily, her eyelids almost sticking shut every time they closed, and when they opened the sand level in the top bulb receded further and further. That made Bethany feel good all over. Her strategy was working. She was winning. She just needed to stay relaxed and comfortable in her chair, do whatever it took to remain calm and focused and happy and free of distractions like Jeremy's voice and the stultifying heat. She could tune out Jeremy's voice so easily now, not even really hearing him anymore, but the heat was a different matter. The more she noticed it, the worse it felt, until her clothes felt unbearably sticky and hot where they clung to her body.

Then she noticed Letty. Her friend suddenly seemed to stand out in Bethany's perception, like a mental spotlight had been turned on allowing Bethany to pay full attention to the other woman in the room as she drowsily stood and began to peel off her clothing. It seemed strange at first, almost inexplicable-Letty had never liked showing off her body before now. She even wore a t-shirt over her swimsuit when they went to the pool together. But the more Bethany stared, the more obvious it became. Letty was taking off her clothes so she could be cooler. She wanted to be cooler so she could be more comfortable. She needed to be comfortable so she could stay relaxed. It all made such perfect sense, once Bethany calmed down and listened to the voice in her head that explained it all so easily.

Before she even realized she was doing it, Bethany followed suit. She slowly rose out of the chair, her body almost seeming to float into an upright position, and she clumsily tugged her shirt over her head. Her hands trembled at first, as though they didn't quite want her to be relaxed and comfortable in quite this way, but Bethany stared at the sand and let it steady her mind until she remembered. She wanted to be comfortable. She wanted to be relaxed and happy. Being naked would make her comfortable, and being comfortable would make her feel peaceful. When she was peaceful, she would feel relaxed and happy and she would win the challenge. She couldn't argue with the inexorable logic of it all, and she peeled the sticky fabric away from her skin and cast it aside without a moment's further thought.

Her pants followed, then her bra and panties. Bethany knew that Jeremy was looking at her, his eyes gravitating to the warm cleft of her pussy as she slumped back into her chair and her legs splayed bonelessly to either side, but she didn't need to worry about it. She didn't need to think about it. She didn't need to think about anything anymore. She was relaxed, she was calm, she was staring at the hourglass and letting herself be directed until the challenge was over, and she could start thinking once the sand stopped flowing. It just seemed to get easier and easier to relax and stop thinking the more she watched. She didn't know why she'd ever worried about being hypnotized. She didn't know why she'd ever worried about anything.

Bethany sighed, tension leaving her body in a great whoosh as she stared at the sand draining endlessly out of the top bulb and taking all her stress and worry with it. Her eyes closed and opened again, each blink seeming to take hours. Time felt like it was stretching and distending, like she had somehow learned how to slow everything down and drift in endless contentment in the warm darkness behind her closed eyes. She felt a blissful happiness as she let Jeremy's voice wash over her, his instructions just out of reach of her conscious mind but nonetheless perfectly reasonable and natural to follow. She would follow them more and more instinctively every time, letting the reasons slip away like grains of sand through the hourglass. Every time she stared at the hourglass, she became more obedient. Every time she stared at the hourglass, her thoughts fell away quicker. Every time Bethany stared at the hourglass, she became more like her good friend Letty.

Letty wanted to be naked for Jeremy. Letty wanted to be obedient to Jeremy. Letty wanted to be horny for Jeremy. Letty wanted to masturbate, play with herself until all her thoughts melted into mindless bliss and she couldn't think of anything except pleasing Jeremy sexually. Bethany heard Letty repeating all those things, and she couldn't help being drawn to them like iron filings to a magnet. Letty was blank and submissive, and Bethany wanted to be like Letty. Her fingers got the message before she did, dipping into her wet pussy and fingering herself urgently.

Bethany's eyes squeezed shut as the onslaught of pleasure hit, emptying her mind completely and filling it back up with bliss. Her hand worked furiously at her cunt, swirling in and out of her slick pussy and grinding on her clit with each thrust. She heard herself moaning something, words that she couldn't make out because they didn't make sense because she didn't need them to make sense anymore. She just needed to fuck her thoughts away and obey. She could see the hourglass in her mind's eye, the last of the sand draining out of it, leaving her completely empty and totally docile and utterly, utterly obedient to Jeremy's will. She was obedient to Jeremy's will. She was o-obedient to Jeremy's will. Her lips stuttered out the words, her mind stuttered out the thought, her fingers stuttered out perfect sensual euphoria as she masturbated herself to an orgasm so profound that her mind simply froze, leaving her to float in endless drifting ecstasy for a while.

Eventually, Bethany heard a small sound, the thunk of something small being set on a table. It sounded strangely familiar, triggering a profound sense of confusion mixed with deja vu. She'd heard that sound before, she'd heard it with her eyes closed and her eyes open, she'd heard it with her clothes on and every time she heard it she opened her eyes and every time she opened her eyes the first thing she forgot was that she'd heard that sound before. She'd heard that sound before. Where had she heard that sound before? Bethany opened her eyes to look.

She saw the hourglass. All the sand was in the top bulb again, but it was already beginning to spill down into the bottom. Bethany's sense of familiarity melted into confusion before she remembered. Jeremy had challenged her to resist his silly, ludicrous 'hypnosis' attempt. She just had to sit here, naked and masturbating, until the sand ran out. Couldn't be easier. She'd just look away and ignore it all until Jeremy was finished talking.

The sand slowly poured into the bottom of the hourglass. Bethany tried very hard not to watch it.

THE END