The Coffee Shop Pt. 04

"Okay the food's ready," Andy called out to me, distracting me from Todd's preening.

I looked up at Andy, and grinned wolfishly. "Shall we start, dear?"

"By all means, let's," Andy replied.

"Todd, turn around and face me," I barked out at him.

Todd snapped about like a solider on a parade ground, responding to his drill sergeant. I was mildly surprised that Todd did not salute me. I blinked at the abruptness of Todd's response. It took me second to compose myself.

"Todd, listen very carefully," I told him as I ran through the instructions in my mind.

"Yes, sir," Todd replied looking at me square in the eye with a slightly vacant look on his face.

"Todd, in a few moments I will count from zero to five, where zero is this state or an even deeper state this," I told him. "When I wake you up, you will not have any conscious memory of my having controlled you tonight. The trigger will remain in your subconscious, as will your desire to obey me. For the rest of this evening, after you wake up, you will find yourself obeying my every instruction and command. At first you will not understand why, but slowly as time passes you will come to understand that I control you completely, and that as much as you might desire otherwise, you cannot help but to obey me. For just this evening, you will be wide awake and fully aware of what you are doing, and you will find yourself unable to resist any command, instruction or suggestion I give you."

I paused for a moment to catch my breath. "Todd, you will not try to leave or escape this building, nor will you attempt to summon help of any type whatsoever. Todd, during this entire evening you will be unable to physically harm me or Andy Anderson. Do you fully and completely understand these instructions?"

Todd stared at me quietly, as he replied, "Yes, sir. I understand, sir."

"Good," I responded. "Zero. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Wide awake! Wide awake!" I said as I counted Todd out of his trance.

Todd blinked his eyes a couple of times as he focused his attention on me. "What the hell?" he exclaimed, as he looked at me. Todd looked about the room, becoming more confused with each passing moment. "What in the name of little green apples is going on here?"

"You're about to find out, Todd," I answered him as I smiled my sweetest and most disarming smile at him.

"Cut the crap, and just answer my question," Todd demanded of me.

"Todd, take that data clip out of your jacket pocket and drop it on the carpet in front of you," I said to him in a commanding tone of voice.

"Say, what?" Todd exclaimed in total disbelief at my request. "What the hell are you talking about now?"

I ignored Todd's questions and waited patiently. Slowly Todd reached into the right outside pocket of his suit jacket, with his right hand. A few moments later Todd withdrew his right hand from the right outside pocket of his suit jacket. Clasped securely in his right hand was a small plastic something. It was a pretty good bet that the object was the aforementioned data clip. Todd held his right arm directly out in front of him and opened his right hand. The object fell from his hand onto the carpet in front of Todd. Todd's right arm dropped down to his right side. Todd's face became a mask of stunned surprise.

I looked down at the carpeted floor in front of Todd. Yup. It was the data clip.

"What in Sam Hill is going on here?" Todd demanded a bit more loudly, as he glanced down at the data clip that he'd just dropped on the carpeted floor.

"Todd, stomp on the data clip and break it into small pieces. When that is done, pick up the pieces of the broken data clip and put them in the trash," I instructed him.

"As if" Todd exclaimed indignantly, as he crossed his arms in front of his chest while he stood there glaring at me. A second or so later Todd raised his right foot and stamped down on the data clip. He moved his right foot off of the data clip.

I looked down to see that the data clip was broken into a few pieces. I glanced up at Todd and saw that he too was looking down at the data clip, a mixture of anger and surprise on his face. Todd' right foot smashed down on the pieces of the data clip two more times. When Todd removed his right foot from on top of the data clip pieces, all that could be seen were several significantly smaller pieces of what had once been a useful piece of equipment.

Todd bent down and started picking up the pieces of smashed plastic, gathering them into the open palm of his left hand. "What am I doing?" He said out loud, asking no one in particular. "Why am I doing this? What is going on, here anyway?" Todd continued asking 'why' as he walked into the kitchen and began searching for the kitchen garbage pail. I followed him into the kitchen. It took him only a few minutes to discover that the pail was kept in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Todd bent down and dropped the smashed pieces of the data clip into the kitchen garbage pail, closed the cabinet door, and turned around to face me.

"What is going on here?" He yelled at me. I could clearly hear a tone of fear colouring his voice. He did not understand what was happening to him, and it was starting to scare him.

"Todd, go down into the basement, and when you reach the bottom of the stairs, stop and look around. Wait there for further instructions," I said to him calmly, as I continued to ignore his questions.

"NO WAY!" Todd yelled at me emphatically. "This has gone far enough. I don't know exactly what's going on here, but it stops NOW!" Todd marched past me heading towards the front door. He never made it to the front door. (As if I had to tell you that? Surely you could have guessed that he wasn't getting away from me that easily.) Todd confidently left the kitchen and turned towards the front door. He took only one step before he turned the to right and started heading towards the basement door.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!!" He cried out in surprise as he raised his right arm towards the basement door and placed his right hand on the doorknob. He open the door and stepped forward crossing the threshold into the basement staircase. As the lights were already on, there was no need for Todd to reach out and press the light switch, so Todd's right arm dropped down to his side and hung there as he started his trek down the basement stairs. "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING??!!" Todd cried out as started walking down the stairs into the basement. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD, DID YOU DO TO ME??!!" Todd screamed out at me as he continued walking down the basement stairs.

I had to admit that I was enjoying watching Todd obey my instructions, as he struggled to figure out what was happening to him. I experienced a slight sexual thrill as Todd walked down the basement stairs. (Come on, be honest. Your cock would have stirred a bit too, if you'd been there.) Andy and I quietly followed Todd down the basement stairs. I glanced back at Andy, and was pleased to note that he was smiling. Clearly he was enjoying Todd's predicament as much as I was. All too soon the three of us arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Todd stood there and looked around the room as he had been told to, then he turned around and looked at me. He looked over at Andy for a second and then looked back at me, but he did not say anything. He gulped once, and took a few deep breaths.

Suddenly he shoved me backward into Andy, the two of us collapsing into a heap on the basement floor. A half a second later Todd bolted up the basement stairs like an Olympic sprinter exploding out of the starting blocks. As Andy and I picked ourselves up from the basement floor, I looked around and tried to figure out what it was that had scared Todd, other than the fact that I was controlling him. I looked about the room, puzzled for a moment. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the dinning room chair that was draped in clear plastic and had duct tape about the legs to hold the plastic in place. The chair was sitting on a large sheet of clear plastic, in a cleared away area of the recreation room. Clearly that was frightening to Todd for some reason, but I couldn't imagine why.

"Are you okay?" Andy asked me as I stood there thinking.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know what got into Todd, but we'd better go back upstairs and find him," I said to Andy as I headed for the stairs.

"Shit! He's probably in his car right now!" Andy declared as he whizzed past me heading for the stairs.

"Todd's not going anywhere, Andy," I called out to Andy as he started running up the stairs. "Todd's scared right now, and the last thing we want to do is to scare him even more. We should go upstairs quietly and calmly and talk with him. Humiliating him is one thing. Scaring him out of his wits is another."

"Oh, okay," Andy said as he stopped and waited for me. "I hope you're right about this. If I were Todd, I'd be in my car and burning rubber right now."

"Trust me on this," I said to Andy as I caught up with him on the stairs, and smiled at him reassuringly. We headed up the stairs slowly, listening carefully. When we reached the top of the stairs, the door was still open. We emerged from the basement entrance and looked about carefully. There was no sign of Todd anywhere. On a hunch, I headed over to the front door, with Andy in tow. It was a short trip.

What we saw when we arrived there, stopped us dead in our tracks. My guess was correct. Todd was there. He was at the front door. However, he was softly banging on the front door with his fists in a vain attempt to break it down. As I watched he reached down to the door knob and grasped it desperately like a drowning man grasping a life preserver floating nearby. Todd held onto the doorknob, but he did not turn it. He held onto the doorknob with his right hand while he banged on the door with his left fist. (Apparently my injunction that he could not leave the house was as potent as ever.) Todd took his right hand off the doorknob and balled his right hand into a fist. With a surge of energy he beat both of his fists against the front door, to no avail. Andy and I continued to watch silently as Todd stopped his banging and slowly crumpled into a fetal position in front of the closed front door. As we stood there transfixed, he began to whimper and cry. His crying became more profound and tremors ran through his body as he began to sob openly, his eyes tightly closed. He was like some little boy, scared to death and all alone. I couldn't help but feel slightly moved by the sight of him. I had not intended to scare him like this.

"What's wrong, Todd?" I asked him softly. He didn't answer. He just lay there, sobbing. I waited a few seconds and spoke again. "Todd, please tell me what's wrong." Again there was no reaction from Todd. I sighed and decided that direct action would be necessary. "Todd, stand up and tell me what is wrong," I ordered him. Slowly he climbed to his feet, with all the enthusiasm of a man walking to the gallows to be hanged.

"I.I.I can't leave," Todd said between sobs. "I want to leave more than anything else in the world, but I can't make myself open the door." He stood there looking at Andy and me, the tears continuing to roll down his reddened cheeks.

"Why would you want to leave?" I asked him. (Okay, so it sounds like a dumb question. But when you consider the situation, it really wasn't all that dumb a question to ask. Todd's reaction was unusual to say the least, and I needed to know why he suddenly felt so threatened and scared of me. Aside from the obvious point that I was controlling him, I mean.)

"You're going to kill me!' Todd blurted out as he stood there trembling in front of us. "I know it! Why else would you have put plastic on the floor and the chair, unless it was to prevent any bloodstains?"

My eyes went wide at Todd's words. It took me a few seconds to overcome my surprise and respond to his accusation. "I don't believe this," I said with a loud sigh. "You've been watching too many movies, Todd. Yes, we are going to do something to you, but it has nothing to do with physically harming you, much less killing you. If' we'd wanted to kill you, there are far easier and much less cumbersome methods available."

"Maybe," Todd sobbed as he continued his struggle not to cry. "Or maybe you want the satisfaction of doing it yourself. I'm sure that your 'sweetheart' Andy knows many ways to kill a man, and make it painful." Todd said a touch of sarcasm and arrogance returning to his voice.

"It isn't necessary to scare Todd like this, is it Paul?" Andy asked me as he turned and looked at me. I could see the hesitation in his eyes. He seemed as uncomfortable with this turn of events as I was.

"You're right, love," I said to him. I turned away from Andy and addressed Todd. "We are not going to kill you, or do anything like that. Think about it for a moment Todd and you'll see that we have no reason to kill you."

"Whatwhat do you mean?" Todd asked as the last of his sobs faded away in the light of this new hope.

"All the evidence of events on Saturday night has been destroyed, correct?" I asked him

"Y..yes. Sso?" Todd replied as he wiped the last of the tears away from his eyes.

"So, we have no reason to harm you, Todd," I said to him quietly. "Even if you told anyone about those pictures you have no proof to back up your claims. I'm sure you are too smart a lawyer to make any claim without proof, right?"

"Yyes," Todd agreed hesitantly.

"So there you have it," I said. "You have nothing to fear from me or Andy."

"Butbut I still can't leave this building," Todd whined.

"Of course not," I confirmed. "We are not done with you quite yet."

"Oh," Todd responded and gulped.

"Now, put your keys on the kitchen counter along with your driver's license," I instructed him.

"I don't want to do that," Todd asked as he inserted his right hand into the right front pocket of his pants and fished for his keys, while he walked over to the kitchen and stood by the kitchen counter.

"You don't seem to have much of a choice in the matter do you, Todd?" I asked him as he placed his keys on the counter and reached into the left front inside pocket of his jacket for his wallet.

"I guess I don't," he agreed, reluctantly. "I don't like it though." He shot me a look of disgust tinged with anger as he opened his wallet and struggled to slip his driver's license from the plastic slot within his wallet. He placed his driver's license beside his keys and returned his wallet to its resting place in the left front inside pocket of his suit jacket.

"Andy would you mind checking the kitchen, please?" I asked Andy as I kept my eyes glued on Todd.

"Sure. No problem, although I don't see why it's necessary," Andy said as he walked over to the kitchen counter.

"It's not necessary, love," I told him. "But I thought you'd enjoy seeing more evidence that Todd really is under my control. You've expressed your doubts this evening. I'm hoping this will help to put your mind at ease."

"Correct on both counts," Andy confirmed as he looked up front the counter and grinned at me.

I smiled back at him, and then returned my attention to Todd. "Go downstairs, sit down in the plastic wrapped chair and remove your shoes. Remain seated in the chair, and await further instructions," I commanded him.

Todd looked at me, and for a fleeting moment I thought I saw a snarl appear on this lips, but it could have been my imagination. Todd didn't say anything as he walked off to the basement. He knew by now that verbal protesting wasn't getting him anywhere, so why waste his breath on it? (See even a lawyer can learn.)

"Come on, Andy," I said as I walked into the kitchen. "Let's get all this food and stuff back downstairs. The fun is about to begin!"

"I'm right behind you," Andy chimed in gleefully.

It took a couple of trips to carry all of the remaining food items from the kitchen to the room in the basement, but only because we decided not to overload ourselves. We didn't want to spill anything on the nice clean carpets. During that time, Todd remained sitting in the chair, in his stocking feet, waiting, not at all patiently, but waiting. He didn't really have much of a choice, after all.

I looked over all the items available to me and finally decided to start with the oatmeal. I picked up the pleasantly warm bowl and walked over to where Todd was sitting. Carefully I swatted down and held the bowl over Todd's empty shoes. I tilted the bowl forward slightly and carefully poured the oatmeal into Todd's left shoe. When I had filled the left shoe completely, I tilted the bowl back to stop the flow of oatmeal. It took me only a second or two to reposition myself and the bowl of oatmeal above Todd's right shoe. Another forward tilt of the bowl and in less than a minute Todd's right shoe was filled with oatmeal as well.

"I don't believe this!" Todd cried out softly as he sat there stunned at what he had just seen me do. "You've just ruined a perfectly good pair of very expensive shoes. Do you realize that?"

"Yes, I realize that, Todd," I answered him. I looked at him sitting there on the plastic draped chair, in his stocking feet, and noticed that even his dark blue socks looked expensive. "Now, without picking up your shoes, reach down and put them on. Then stand up and walk around on the plastic covered area of the floor, with your arms hanging by your side," I ordered him.

"Shit. I guess I have to, " Todd said with a reluctant sigh, as he bent down to grab his right shoe with both his hands, and raised his right foot above his oatmeal filled right shoe. I watched with unconcealed delight as he pushed his right foot into the warm squishy oatmeal. Of course the oatmeal overflowed the shoe and spilled out over the top and sides of the shoe. A clear cut case of Archimedes' principle at work. Todd let out a soft sigh of surprise as he thrust his right foot completely into his now messy right shoe. After a second or two to be sure that his right foot was firmly entrenched in his right shoe, Todd directed his attention to his left foot. He let go of his right shoe and grabbed his left shoe. Another sigh accompanied his thrust of his left foot into his oatmeal filled left shoe. Moments later his left foot was firmly encased in his left shoe, and his left shoe was as covered in oatmeal as his right shoe.

Todd stood up and gulped once as he took his first step in his messed up shoes. He walked around carefully, as if he were wearing cowboy boots or high heeled shoes for the first time. He left a small trail of oatmeal as he did his walk about. I studied his face as he walked about, and I grinned as I caught a flash of delight crossed his features for the briefest of moments. I glanced over at Andy, who smiled back at me and nodded his head ever so slightly. Andy had seen the brief look of pleasure on Todd's face as well.

"How to you feel, Todd?" I asked him.

"Foolish, stupid and angry," Todd replied, as he continued walking around.

"You're not enjoying this at all then?" I taunted him.

"What the hell do you think?" Todd snapped at me, as he stopped walking and glared at me. "Thanks to you I've just ruined one of my best pairs of shoes. Why in the world would you think I'd be happy about that?"

"Walk about a bit more and then tell me how you feel, Todd," I directed him.

Todd shot me a dirty look, as he complied with my wishes. Andy meanwhile was standing in the background quietly watching all this. I waited a few minutes for Todd to complete his walk about. He was walking with a more normal gate now as he adjusted to the sensations coming from his feet. I could not help but enjoy the sight of Todd walking about in that smart looking suit of his, but then I've always enjoyed the sight of a well dressed man in a suit. I saw a brief twitch of a smile cross Todd's lips as he walked about the plastic protected area of the basement floor. I decided not to say anything just yet, though.