I Need To Wake Up

The first thing I notice is the light. It's painfully bright, swamping out all other sensations as it glares into my eyes. I instinctively try to clench my eyes shut to block it out, but that's when I notice that I can't close my eyes. I can't even narrow them to block out some of the glare. Now that I actually concentrate on them, I realize I'm not even blinking. I'm just staring straight ahead. My eyes start to burn with the urge to blink them, but I can't close them at all.

I realize then that I can't move at all. I can't stand up, I can't look around, I can't move a single muscle. I can't even twitch. I'm breathing, my heart is beating, but that's all the motion I seem to be capable of. That's why the lights are so bright. My pupils aren't contracting.

I start to panic, then, but it's a weirdly dreamy and distant sort of panic because my body isn't joining in. My breath doesn't quicken; my heartbeat doesn't pound in my ears. I just keep taking slow, lazy breaths and staring straight ahead as inside my body, I quietly freak the hell out. What's happened to me? Where am I? I try to think back, figure out how I got here, but the whole thing just seems to be a blank inside my head.

I start to become aware of other sensations. There's a damp spot on my t-shirt right over my breasts. I notice the way my jaw is hanging open, and realize it must be drool. My mouth feels dry now, though. I want to swallow, but that doesn't work either.

There's also dampness between my thighs. What was I doing? Whatever it was, I must have been turned on, but I don't remember any of it. I try to figure out exactly what the last thing is that I can remember, but then I hear the voices.

"Come on," one of them says. It's a man's voice. He sounds harsh and impatient. "According to the doc, we've got exactly seven minutes to grab the girls we want and get out of here before the effect wears off and they start thinking again. We're gonna do this row by row, and I don't want any fuckups."

Row by row...that rings a bell. I can't move my head or even my eyes, but suddenly the white space in front of me makes sense. I'm looking at a movie screen. I must be sitting in a theater chair. I listen, and hear the same quiet breathing to my left and right as I can hear from my own mouth.

"Damn," I hear another voice say, "look at the tits on that one!" The voices sound coarse, uneducated, and very loud in the stillness. When the men aren't speaking, all I can hear is quiet breathing. I want to know how many other people are sitting here like me, but I can't turn my head to look.

"Yeah, but she ain't on our list, so we ain't taking her," the first man says. He must be the leader. "Only the ones on the list, got it? Now, Row A, we got two. Seat 14 and Seat 26."

What row am I in? What seat? It's suddenly the most important piece of knowledge in the world, and I struggle to remember just how I got in here. I try to shut out the voices and concentrate.

I think back to the last clear memory I had. It was this afternoon, out at the mall. There was a guy there, a big guy. Kind of creepy looking, but he had on an employee badge and it was out in public in the middle of a crowd, so I wasn't worried. He handed me a piece of paper, told me it was a free pass to see a test screening of a new movie. I remember asking what it was, but he said he couldn't tell me. Some sort of big top secret.

I recognize the voice, now. "Oh, mama!" he says loudly. "Jesus, what a pair! Seriously, Jake, look at these!"

"Fucking Christ!" Leader says. I'm not sure if he's Jake, or if the Movie Pass Guy is talking to a third person. "What the fuck did I tell you about being on a timetable, and about leaving the ones not on the list alone? You want a girl, I'm sure the doc can arrange for you to play with one of the ones we're bringing along after he's done with 'em. Now pull her shirt back down, and get back to fucking work! Row D, we got three. Seats 9, 13, and 22."

Oh, god. They're kidnapping us. They're creepy pervert rapists, and they're kidnapping us, and I can't move. I can't run, I can't fight, I don't even feel any adrenalin kicking in. I'm just sitting here drooling in my seat while two or three guys drag us off to some weird doctor who's going to do something to us, and I don't know what, but--

But I can start to piece it together. Because I remember filling in some forms, now, some stuff they said they needed to get a good idea of who the best marketing demographic was for the movie. It seemed kind of involved, but they kept kind of hinting that this was a big movie, and that we'd have total bragging rights to all our friends if we saw it before everyone else did, and so I went ahead and wrote down everything they wanted to.

And then they assigned us to seats after they took the forms away, and I was in...in...shit! I can't remember what seat I'm in! I can remember sitting down, and the lights going out, and then...and then...

And then the movie started. I remember that the credits sequence was neat. Really neat. It had this cool techno music, and it was this mass of swirling lights that kept resolving themselves into words, but there were always more colors behind every word so they were kind of hard to read, but that was okay because it seemed like there was always another word coming along when I missed one. It didn't seem to matter what the words said, it was just important to keep reading them and watching the colors and listening to the music.

And that felt really nice, after a while. It just felt like my chair got more comfortable with every second, like I was floating inside the screen and it just seemed to fill my whole world the way that a really good movie can. It was just so captivating, so nice, and I just couldn't look away and I didn't want to look away and I felt myself getting all wet and I realized that the movie was getting me hot, but it was this weird, passive kind of arousal that just made me want to drift into it more and think less and...

And I know that if these guys drag me away, they'll show it to me again. They'll probably show me something else, too, something that makes me want to "play" with them. This doctor guy they work for, he's made something that hypnotizes people.

Maybe I'll be able to resist. These guys are talking like they don't think anyone can hear them. I don't think I'm supposed to be awake enough to realize what's happening. Even if I can't move, I've already fought this thing better than I should.

"Seat 15, not Seat 17!" Leader shouts. "Jesus, you want to grab some housewife whose husband is gonna call the police or something? Yeah, fuck you too, Lenny."

I try to remember what I put down on those demographic forms. Probably nothing that would make them think someone was going to miss me. I'm new in town, I live alone, and girls drop out of college all the time. I didn't tell anyone I was going to be here. By the time Mom and Dad get around to wondering why I haven't called them in a few weeks, there'll be nothing to lead them back to the movie theater at the mall, and me? I'll be off somewhere, staring into swirling lights until my brain melts into tapioca pudding. I feel a sick certainty in my gut that whatever went wrong and caused me to wake up, the doctor can correct it if I have his full attention.

I have to move, I know I do. I have to get out of here. These guys aren't expecting anyone to get up, they don't even think we can hear them. If I can just shake this off and make a break for it, I can get out into the lobby before they can stop me, and then I'm safe. (Or not. I suddenly realize I don't know how long I've been in here, I don't know whether there's anyone in the lobby or even in the mall. It could be midnight for all I know. I can't look at my watch.)

That just makes it more important that I snap out of this. I focus all my efforts on my eyes, trying just to blink once. If I can blink, then I can move. If I can move, I can run. If I can run, I can get away. I need to blink, that's all. I just need to blink.

"Row L, Seat 4." The words trigger a sudden flash of memory in my head, a casual glance down that didn't seem important at the time, but...Row N. I'm in Row N. They're just two rows behind me now. Ogodogodogod...

The theater's starting to seem a little dimmer, I realize. My pupils must be adjusting to the house lights. That's got to be a good sign, right? It means I'm starting to come out of this, way ahead of everyone else. I just need to wake up completely, and I...oh, fuck, I can hear them moving around behind me now, I don't have time, they're going to take me, they're going to take me and drag me off and turn me into a sex slave and I can't fucking move!

"Row M, Seat 22." I'm desperately trying to remember how many seats I walked past when I was heading down the row. I'm desperately trying to blink, to wiggle my toes, to close my mouth, to do anything. Was it six seats? Or seven? Did I just feel my fingers twitch? I can hear them right behind me now, the sounds of small collisions as they drag some poor comatose girl past her oblivious seatmates. She's never going to even know she was kidnapped, I think. She's going to go straight from the mind-blanking bliss of those shimmering colors into whatever they've got planned, and she's just going to wake up a happy little sex-kitten with no will of her own. I can feel my heart start to beat faster, and I'm not sure if she's not the lucky one in all this.

"Row N, Seats 2 and 7." Oh, god, that's me, I know it is, I'm sure it is, I have to move and I have to move now, I need to wake up and run away before they get their hands off me and drag me off to the doctor with the brainwashing machine, I have to move but I can't move and I have to get away but I can already tell there's no escape and I'm sorry mom, I'm sorry, dad, I wish I could tell you I love you but I can't even move my lips--

Movie Pass Guy passes right in front of my field of vision. He grabs the girl sitting next to me, and starts pulling her out of her seat. I'm in Seat 6. I'm in Seat 6, oh thank you sweet and merciful Christ, I'm so sorry for the girl he's grabbing and copping a feel on as he manhandles her past me but I promise I'll tell the cops about all this, because I'm going to get out of this. I'm not going to be kidnapped. I'm not I'm not I'm NOT! I'm so fucking grateful that it isn't me that I whimper out a tiny sigh of relief.

He stops. He looks at me. "Hey, Mack, I think this one's awake."

Shit.

"Nah, can't be," Leader says. "Doc says they'll all be out for a couple minutes more." I try to freeze in place, but I can feel my muscles starting to loosen a bit and now it's so hard not to blink, my eyes feel like they're burning in their sockets but now Movie Pass Guy is watching me like a hawk and I have to stay completely still, I worked so hard to move and now my whole life depends on holding this position and my muscles are aching and my butt's fallen asleep and--

He lunges for me suddenly, and I can't help it. I flinch.

"She's definitely awake, Mack," he says. "I saw her move. What do you wanna do?"

"Hold on," Mack says. "I'm calling the doc."

"Hurry, man," Movie Pass Guy says. "She's seen me, man, she knows what I look like. She can finger us!"

"I'm calling, I'm calling!" Mack says. "Yeah, doc? We got a problem. There's a girl not on the list, and she's starting to wake up ahead of schedule." I hear a pause. "Row N, Seat 6." Another pause. Someone else, maybe Lenny or maybe Jake, comes along and grabs the girl from Seat 7 away from Movie Pass Guy. "He says go ahead and grab her. She's an acceptable risk, and we can't leave her."

Movie Pass Guy grabs me, I try to fight, but I can barely even twitch in his arms. I would never have been able to run if I'd had to. He drags me out of the row and down the aisle, and I can't even hook my foot around the seats, I'm still so limp.

I try to beg, to tell him that I won't tell anyone about this, that I just want to get out of here and I won't ever let anyone know what happened to the other girls if they'll just let me go, to tell him that my parents will miss me and that he should look into his heart and ask himself if he can really do this to a helpless girl, or even just to tell him I'll suck his cock if he doesn't hand me over to the doctor...but my mouth feels like I've had four or five shots of novocain, and all that comes out is, "Blurp...blorg...wraggle..."

He drags me down to the front of the theater, now, to an exit door that's been propped open. There's a huge truck waiting outside with its rear door open. Another guy in the truck grabs my shoulders and pulls me in. Inside, I see sixteen or seventeen other girls, all seated on a long bench and buckled into place. They're all wearing these weird helmets, and I can see light spilling out from the visors in swirling patterns. None of the girls are moving. They're all just sitting there, drooling and watching the lights. They all have huge damp patches on the crotches of their outfits, and I can remember how good they must feel by now.

They shove me into a seat and fasten my safety belt, then push a helmet onto my head. I hear one of them yelp in surprise as I reach up to try to push it back off, but all my strength is gone and I'm as weak as a kitten, and then the lights begin, and my arms fall back to my sides and I can't even struggle anymore.

I try to squinch my eyes shut against the light, but the music whispers in my ears like a seductive promise, telling me how good it will feel when I open my eyes and open my mind and let go, and I don't know how long I manage to keep my eyes shut because time doesn't seem to mean anything anymore, but I suddenly realize I'm gazing deep into those wonderful swirls of color without even remembering actually opening up my eyes to see them.

And they're so pretty, now, they're even prettier than I remembered and I wish my arms weren't so heavy so that I could play with my pussy while I watch, but I know that's okay because these are just the lights that keep me quiet, the doctor will have other, even better lights for me and that just sounds so good that I just relax and stare and let the tingling in my pussy carry me deeper into the--

No! I can fight this, I know I can, I'm different from the other girls. I have to, have to fight...have to fight the soft, sleepy lights...have to resist, resist by sinking deeper into the lights and going so blank and open, until I...

I can't let it happen. If I sleep now, I'll never wake up, not as me. I'll just be the doctor's fucktoy, and that sounds so wonderful that I almost drift off right then and there. But I need to wake up, I tell myself. I need to wake up. I keep repeating it in my head, trying to push away the lights and the music with that one thought, I need to wake up I need to wake up I... need... to... wake... need... to... to...

I need to sleep. And so I do.

THE END