ZYX

Miku looked up at the dangling crystal, her eyes blazing with a fierce intensity as she focused on the swaying, glittering piece of glass and set her mind to the task of following it with her stare. Chris waited for her to get settled, a tiny smirk spreading across his face as he watched her get ready with all the determination of a gladiator preparing for battle. "Whenever you want to start," he said, his voice ever so slightly condescending to Miku's ears. She knew it was absurd to get so competitive over something so silly, but she was determined to get all the way through this time.

"Z," she said, as he began to swing the crystal back and forth.

"There we go, that's a good start," Chris replied, his voice dropping slightly in register and mellowing into a warm, breathy purr. "You know you can do this. Just keep your mind focused on the letters, keep your eyes focused on the crystal and you know you'll be able to work your way easily and effortlessly back through the alphabet for me. And..."

"Y," Miku intoned, trying not to think about the way her lips already felt numb and clumsy as she spoke. She understood enough about hypnotism to know that every time she went through this sequence of actions, she became more and more susceptible to trance simply by association, but she was still just stubborn enough to force herself to try to get a little bit further along each time. Last time she made it as far as 'O'. This time she was sure she could get all the way.

Chris didn't make it easy, though. "That's it," he said softly, his voice coaxing her deeper into relaxation with every word. "Picture every letter in your mind as a link in a chain, each one leading you deeper down to the next one in a steady, even descent. You always start wide awake at 'Z', and you always sink down to 'Y', and after that comes..."

"X," Miku murmured, ignoring the way her brain lurched slightly as she spoke. It would be a lot easier to win if Chris didn't keep changing the game every time they played; sometimes he described the letters slipping away from her mind as she sank deeper into trance, while other times the recitation itself was hypnotic. She could never keep up with it all, especially not with the crystal constantly drawing her gaze back to its sparkling, captivating depths.

"That's right," Chris said, giving her an encouraging smile to go along with his encouraging words. "You're doing so well, staying focused and attentive to the letters, focused and attentive to the crystal that sways back and forth, and back and forth, and focused and attentive to the sound of my voice as it relaxes you deeper and deeper with every letter. Deeper and deeper with every letter, and the next letter is..."

"...W," Miku said, conscious of the moment of hesitation but unable to conceal it. She would have an easier time if she was working with hiragana-even after six years in America, she still had to force herself to think in English. Reciting the alphabet backwards required real mental effort on her part, especially when she was also trying to keep her mind on the crystal and Chris's voice at the same time. But that was what made it a challenge... and a challenge that Miku was determined to win.

"And deeper," Chris continued smoothly, lifting the crystal just a tiny bit so that Miku had to strain her eyes that much more to look up at it. "It's so good to repeat each letter and go deeper, so much better to struggle to remember the next letter and sink deeper still. Until you reach that warm, wonderful place in your mind where it feels too much like work to think at all, with..."

"V..." Miku mumbled, her head nodding just a little as she felt the suggestion take effect. She could feel the fog in her mind thickening, forcing her to expend a little more energy each time to follow the chain of the alphabet deeper into the spell that Chris was slowly weaving around her thoughts with his words. Her eyes already felt so heavy, but Miku knew that if she let them close she wouldn't be able to open them again.

Chris nodded encouragingly, his smile widening as he watched her eyelids droop and flutter. "That's it. Good girl. You're relaxing so much more now, focusing on each and every letter as they lead you deeper into my hypnotic trance. Paying close attention to the facets of the crystal as they gently spin past your tired, heavy eyes. Listening to my voice as I guide you down and down and down into the soft, sleepy place in your mind where you don't need to think anymore. Getting easier and easier to relax and sleep with every letter..."

Miku felt the pressure of the expectant pause, stretching out into a miniature eternity as she struggled to remember what letter she'd just said, let alone what letter came after it. "...U?" she finally guessed, her body twitching as a wave of deeper relaxation washed over her and her eyes began to burn with the effort of keeping them open. Miku could tell that this round wasn't going well, and the part of her that hated losing struggled against the part of her that knew all the things Chris was going to do to her when she lost.

Chris must have seen her internal battle and decided to put his thumb on the scale, because he reached out and took her left wrist in his right hand, rocking it gently from side to side as he said, "That's my good, good girl. Focusing on those tired, heavy eyes that want to slip shut and sleep so badly now, keeping your mind on my soft, soothing voice as it lulls you deeper and deeper into relaxation, staring at the crystal as it swings back and forth, feeling your muscles go loose and limp for me, and saying the next letter now..."

Miku's head jerked forward, and she blinked heavily as the fog in her thoughts threatened to overwhelm her completely. She tried to remember the next letter, but to remember the next letter she had to remember the last letter, and she couldn't concentrate on the letters and the crystal and Chris's voice and her tired eyes and her limp muscles all at the same time. Things kept dropping out of her head, just like she was... was hypnotized.

But Miku didn't want to be hypnotized yet. She wanted to show that she could resist, even if she didn't really want to resist, and she knew that didn't really make sense but she couldn't really think it through properly because her brain wasn't working very well right now because of the hypnosis that she wanted to resist... or did she? Miku realized distantly that her eyes had narrowed to slits, a thin band of white the only thing showing as she struggled to watch the crystal even though her head was already slumped forward onto her chest and she couldn't seem to lift it again.

But she knew she had to respond. She knew she had to say a letter, because if she didn't say a letter she would have lost the game again, and that would mean she was becoming more and more obedient every time they played. Miku wasn't sure she was ready for that. She liked being Chris's girlfriend, she liked all the hypnosis games they played together and all of the wonderful things he made her feel while she was deep in his power, but... she wanted to believe that it was still her choice. Even though she secretly dreamed of the day when she would stare at the crystal and sink into hypnotic oblivion at 'Z'.

So she fumbled around in her drowsy brain, forcing herself to pull out the only letter that still held any kind of meaning to her. "...N..." she mumbled, a trickle of drool running down her chin and soaking into the fabric of her thin shirt. She could feel a different kind of liquid warmth between her legs, as her body began to anticipate all of the ways that Chris was going to play with it once she surrendered to the trance completely, but her muscles felt too deeply relaxed to do anything about it.

Chris must have known somehow that she was almost ready to go under, because he let her arm drop heavily into her lap and reached up to stroke her cheek. "That's my good girl," he cooed, pulling her gently forward to slump into his arms. "That's my blank, obedient girl. Every letter you say makes it harder to remember the next one, until you're so helpless and confused that you don't have any thoughts at all anymore in that sleepy head of yours. Until all you want to do is repeat my words back to me like a good girl and surrender your will completely. Do you know your letters? Or are you a good girl?"

Miku heard, as if from an incredible distance, her voice slurring out, "ggd... grrl..." in a vacant, sleepy monotone. She had just enough time to be proud of herself for beating her record before her thoughts slipped away from her entirely and she surrendered to trance once again.

THE END