Unravelled

"Ugghhh, god Annie, you're the worst."

"Mhm. I've gotta go, but see you tomorrow, yeah? Games night?"

"Yeah, yeah, see you. Traitor."

Jo stared at Annie's icon on her phone for a few seconds after hanging up, then let out a growl of frustration, sneaking a glance over at her roommate. Alex, who was frowning at their textbook on the couch and twisting their bottom lip between two fingers, didn't seem to have been paying her much attention. She flopped down next to them, and leaned back to stare at the ceiling with a sigh.

"What's up?" Alex asked. Finally.

"That was Annie, she just went to see Unravelled, and she promised she would tell me what its whole deal was and now she's backing out on me! I can't stand it when-"

"When people break their promises, yeah, I think you've mentioned," interrupted Alex with a smirk. "That's that crime mystery one that broke the box office record in its first week, right? Must be pretty good."

"Yeah, but get this, there's literally no spoilers for it anywhere. How can they manage that two weeks after release?! I thought maybe they were just like, really dedicated to taking posts down, but I've tried IMDB, three Facebook groups, /r/movies - it's so weird, I mean, even if it's possible it can't be legal to just control all reviews across the internet!"

"Nerd." Alex grinned as they turned a page, the hypocrite. Jo ignored the flutter in her stomach at their playful nudge. Roommate, Jo, off limits. "So are you gonna go see it for yourself then?"

"Yeah, I guess I will. Kinda bummed that I've been suckered by their marketing gig like that, but hey. Wanna join? I get a free guest ticket each month."

"Nah, not really my genre. You can just tell me about it after, yeah?"

Jo nodded, suppressing the twinge of disappointment with practised ease, and opened the cinema app. Unravelled, 8pm. One adult. Middle left. Submit.

***

Jo settled into her comfortably cushioned seat and watched the theatre fill up. Mostly they were people in their 20s, like her, but a few were older. It looked like the session might have sold out again. She zoned out through the trailers and ads - she'd seen most of them before - and had to shake herself back to attention as the film started.

Half an hour in, she was stifling a yawn. It was pretty stock-standard stuff - mysterious disappearances, a plucky young detective for the audience to project onto, ominous hints about the manipulative perpetrator. The weird lighting and music choices were the only unique thing about it so far, but they had her zoning out more than really bringing anything to the film.

She had to remind herself to focus, figure out what had kept everyone so hush-hush. The detective was having a clandestine meeting in a nightclub with a young man, who claimed to have met the villain and narrowly escaped. "It was something about his eyes," he was saying slowly, "Indescribable, they... it was like they pulsed, and before I knew it my body was so... so heavy, and relaxed, and..." He trailed off, gazing into the distance as he swayed with the music.

With an eyeroll, the detective relaxed, apparently dismissing his story as drug-induced. Jo found herself mirroring the action. Probably Annie was pranking her, and all those reviewers just didn't want to admit they'd watched such a dumb film. The villain was obviously a hypnotist or something, and had sent the guy to trick the detective into falling for some trap.

She zoned out again, sinking back into her seat while he droned on about those inescapable, powerful eyes. At least the lights and music were kind of relaxing, and he had a nice voice, smooth and deliberate. He was pretty hot too, she noted as the camera switched to a closeup of his face. But jeez, why was the detective even still bothering with this guy?

"...and as you continue to stare, your head starts to spin and drift..." Ah. Jo realised he was the hypnotist just before his eyes pulsed with a strange swirl. Well, that was a little bit unexpected, she admitted. She'd thought the confrontation would come at the climax, but they were less than an hour in. His eyes pulsed again, and the spinning light of it on the big screen made her feel a little dizzy.

"In fact, you find you cannot look away, fixated on my eyes." Another pulse left her feeling confused. Why hadn't they changed the shot? It was getting creepy. She started to look around to see if everyone else was as weirded out, but the movement of the next pulse spun her eyes back to the screen. Wait, what?

"Yes, you, there in your seat. No matter how hard you try, you will find your eyes end up right back here, helpless to escape the next pulse... and it feels so good, as another wave of heavy relaxation spreads through your body..."

Horrified, Jo felt the beginnings of panic as she realised he was right, her eyes would no longer obey her will. Maybe she could cover them with her hand... but when his smooth voice drawled the word heavy again her arm dropped slowly, helplessly back down to her lap.

"...and you discover that you are trapped here, in this theatre, unable to avoid my irresistible eyes and words dropping you deeper..."

Come on, Jo told herself as she slumped in her seat, don't panic, just relax, there's got to be some way out of this, you just need to think-

"-because it turns you on to be controlled like this, forced to submit, and each pulse builds your arousal further as you realise you cannot stop it, you have been staring for too long now, and the fear only fans your arousal further until it consumes your mind-"

Heat pooled below her stomach as she struggled to think, and her groin ached at another pulse, each more powerful than the next. She had nearly had an idea there but it was pulsed away again, and she was too heavy and dizzy and weak and horny to do anything about it, and-

"-building into a need, a craving for the pleasure of touch but you are too deeply controlled to do anything about it. Sex is taking over your mind, turning you into such a needy slut, you would fuck anyone right now but I have no intention of letting you touch yourself-"

Jo managed to squirm a little in her seat, whimpering, and felt a similar movement in the seats next to her. There was a solution somewhere there, she was sure of it, if she could only think but she couldn't because she needed, needed to touch, needed something-

"-and thus you find your arms reaching instinctively across the armrests to either side, seeking the warmth of skin-"

-that was it! In a moment of clarity, she realised they were all in the same situation, so they could get each other off, and then... and then they'd find a way out, right? Jo eagerly felt her way under her neighbours' clothes and gasped at the strange fingertips questing against her own skin.

"-so turned on by the knowledge that they are as controlled and aroused as you, addicted to the thrill of compulsion-"

-god, he wasn't wrong, this was the hottest thing she'd ever done, and she could hear and feel the others responding the same way-

"-and once you come, and you will come, this addiction will be locked in, my control cemented, and you will remain a slut for me and anyone else under my control-"

Jo let out a whine as she realised the trap, fighting to control the feelings in her body, but the hands felt like fire against her skin and moans filled the air, surrounding her, getting inside her head until every nerve in her body screamed yes, yes, yes-

"-feeding on the arousal of those around you, allowing it to build just a little more, until the inevitability of your orgasm hits, tipping you over the edge as your bodies clench in pleasure against each other, minds falling apart..."

Jo lay in a daze, the last throbs of her orgasm finally fading away. The voice was still talking, but she couldn't focus on it too well right now, and that was fine. She was too busy imagining what she and Annie could get up to during their games night tomorrow. Maybe she could convince Alex to go to the Sunday morning Unravelled screening and join them afterwards...