Controlling Nicola Ch. 01

(I’ve included both Parts I & II here, however the first is mostly background info. Part II is where the story gets interesting and can be read on its own.)

***Part I***

It was nearly 11 pm, and Gary had been working on the accounting program for almost sixteen hours straight now, stopping only to go to the toilet or run down to the 7/11 for more chips and coke. Such was his life, pretty average for a programmer, working for long stretches until they reach a mental block, then resting for a few days. Initially he'd chosen this line of work for no reason other than choosing his own hours, and by the time he realised that when his mind was whirring he had less control over his hours than people who work a 9 to 5 job, he already owned his own company, ProTek, and sometimes the torment he put himself through even paid off – while he himself had no need for a luxurious house, his wife, astonishingly, was satisfied with the alimony she was receiving from him. He had two sons and a daughter, all at various colleges around the state, so most of the time it was just Gary and Callie, the 10 year old cat the kids had always wanted, but was suddenly too much of a burden for any of them when it came time to move out. Gary wasn't particularly fond of animals, but for a man who rarely felt a need to leave the house, the feline's presence would sometimes be some comfort to him, perhaps a justification for the occasions he talked to himself, which were not rare at all.

So now, after working what to most people would be a double shift, Gary stopped. He felt the usual daze as he closed the various applications he'd been using, saving documents in folders without thinking too much, and opened up his email. The only people who ever had anything to say to him were his clients, who were "just wondering how the program was going". To these he replied with the same generic responses he had been giving for years, substituting the technical jargon to fit the current project, maybe even making up a term or more, for spice, as if anyone would dare argue with a programmer who had 15 years of experience behind him. Tonight, however, there was something else. Aside from the usual spam, there was one that caught his eye.

"LOSE WEIGHT THROUGH MIND CONTROL".

There was an attachment with it, but first he read the text within the body of the email.

"Finding it hard to lose weight? Well now you can! Throw out those diet pills and low fat milk! Go down as many sizes as you like in no time! How? Through self-hypnosis! Just 10 minutes a day and this effective program will have you at the weight you want to be. No pain, no sweat, no starvation, just the guarantee of a great body! With this email you'll find a trial of our program. Use it FREE for 30 days. So what are waiting for? You have nothing to lose... but your weight!"

It was rather tacky, but Gary had always been fascinated with the idea of mind control, after a life of being told what to do by his parents, his wife, and lately his children too, when they bothered to visit him. Even Callie had a way of coaxing him into letting her sit in his lap, as much as this interfered with his work.

"What have you got to lose?" he repeated to himself, scanning the attachment for viruses.

On opening it, the screen went black and little grey words printed themselves in front of him. It wasn’t nearly as advanced as he’d expected; it simply asked you to put in your current weight, and your desired weight, and then hit start. For the hell of it, he put down a ridiculously low weight in the latter category, and then clicked on the button. Immediately there was a swirling of the primary colours, fading in and out, this way and that, a lot like a lava lamp 100 times faster, accompanied by a low burring sound from the speakers. Ten minutes later, it stopped. The program flashed "THANK YOU" for a few seconds and then quit out of itself. Gary looked down at himself, half expecting something to have changed. Chuckling, and feeling like a bit of an idiot, he started up a porno film on his computer, jerked off, and then went to bed.

Gary woke up very early the next morning, which was very unusual for him since his wife and the kids had gone. In fact, it wasn't even fully light yet. After a quick shower, he decided he may as well go straight to programming, seeing as there wasn't much else to do so early in the day. 18 solid hours later, though not tired, he decided he needed some rest. First we went to fill Callie's bowl, and the cat purred around his ankles as he did so. This reminded him of the hypnotic weight loss so he watched that again.

This went on for a week, and yet Gary felt no different, but then again, he'd never taken much notice of his body until now. He went to the bathroom scales, trying to remember what he had weighed before this had started, but had no idea. In any case, he noted the weight and went to sleep shortly after that.

Three days later, hopping back on the scales, he almost fell over with fright.

"Holy shit, I've lost 10 kilos!" he yelled, and then looked down at Callie, who became quite frightened of the look in Gary's eyes and bounded off.

He immediately went to the computer and opened the program, this time changing his desired weight to 20 kilos more than his current one, and concentrated for the whole ten minutes as if his life depended on it, which it most definitely did, as he had not been at all plump to begin with, maybe 80 kilos if he had bothered to weigh himself before the almost fatal experience. Right when it was over, he felt so hungry he almost doubled up with the pain, and realised quite suddenly that he had not eaten since the first time he had hypnotised himself. Limping to the kitchen, he grabbed a jar of jam and began spooning it into his mouth with his fingers as fast as he could swallow, knowing sugary things would relieve him of his hunger pangs the quickest, and when that was empty he unscrewed a tube of condensed milk and began oozing that down his throat as well. Though his stomach still ached and rumbled, he ran to the phone and called Pizza Hut.

"Two family size pizzas! Any kind! Bring them within 15 minutes and I'll give you another $50!"

The delivery man was there in 10, greeted with a grunt by a man in pyjamas who grabbed the pizzas, threw two $50's at him and slammed the door. Still, it had been the best delivery for the young guy all day.

Not caring what kind of pizzas they were, they were both gone in a matter of minutes. He was still hungry, and then he realised it was the program, that would not let him stop eating until he had reached the desired weight. He rushed back to the computer, cursing as he went, and made the adjustment. Ten minutes later, he felt pleasantly full. He understood that if he didn't want to kill himself, he would have to do this day by day.

No longer in a panic, he was so angry at the program he would smash it if he could, but his dependence was such that he didn't even delete it from his computer. Instead, he hacked it, primarily so he wouldn't have to pay for it once the trial period was over (like he was going to PAY those bastards for the torment he'd been through) but also to see what exactly made it tick. After some toying, he found that subliminal messages were shown with the swirls, and also in the accompanying sounds, which was what he had suspected, but that such a program would be so effective was hard for him to believe. Gary was so impressed with what he saw, he was ready to fly up to wherever the maker was and shake his hand, but then he recalled the misery he'd been put through and decided against it. Other than that, he was afraid of what a person with that kind of programming ability could do to him, even in person.

And now it was time to experiment. Since Gary only ever associated with his clients, which was rare and, to say the least, unpleasant, the only place a geek like him could go to find a subject was, of course, the internet. It was quite late at this time, and since it was a Saturday night, the only channel that seemed to have any active chatters was called #living_dead which was filled with people who appeared to be completely different from each other in every way - one guy was looking for sex, another was talking to no one in particular about death, and another was going on and on about the merits of living a Christian life. Then there were the usual "trawlers" - men and women of varying ages from all over the country, stating their age, sex and location, simply looking for someone to chat with. He watched on for a while, noting most of these trawlers were male, and the ones claiming to be female you could tell were not as if they were standing right in front of you in drag. Finally, he found one he liked. Nicola_18 was saying, 'Bored on a Saturday night, looking for friendly chat with someone interesting.' He left the channel and changed his nickname from the usual Lonely_Daddy to Lonely_Boy, then sent her a message that simply said, 'Hi.'

They talked for a while about music and movies, nothing too exciting, since Gary wasn't quite sure what people her age talked about so just followed her lead, trying to answer like his youngest son, Alec, might.

Suddenly she asked him what his name was and, since he'd been pretending to be him for so far, he simply said, “Alec.” Nicola told him she really liked that name, and Gary inwardly prided himself at having chosen it, the only name of any of his kids in regards to whom he'd been permitted any input by his wife who, on the day, had reluctantly admitted she liked the name too. Of course, in the greater scheme of things, Gary's small triumph had been of very little significance.

When she asked him for a photo, he sent him one of Alec, who looked disturbingly unlike Gary, and in fact rather handsome, with dirty blonde hair that was a bit long, a lovely tan and killer smile. The only part of him that looked at all like Gary were his deep blue eyes which, unlike his father, were not made to look like they bulged right out of his head due to the thick glasses he wore. In fact, that particular shot of Alec looked like a picture that comes with a photo frame. The one she sent in return almost had Gary falling out of his seat! In it she was leaning against a palm tree, the camera having taken a shot of her from the side as she looked down at her feet in the sand, a bit sad looking with some of her thick auburn hair hanging over her face, but still a knock-out in a tiny little halter neck dress. Gary told her she looked stunning in it, to which she replied that it had been taken professionally, and she didn't really look that great, though he refused to believe anyone who looked so goddamn sexy could ever look plain, and never mind who took the photo. However, he didn't say anything to that, hoping to bring out her insecurities so she would be more vulnerable and willing to participate in the scheme he had planned. Being the depressed teenager that she was, combined with the feeling of anonymity in cyberspace, she had no problem at all telling him her life story as if they had been friends since childhood. Apparently she was in her first year of college, doing well, if only because she had nothing better to do in her spare time than study. He asked her why a lovely girl like herself wasn't out partying on a Saturday night and, as it turned out, her mother and sister had been killed in a car crash two years earlier, and since then her father never let his only daughter out of his sight, whenever he could help it. The only time they were separated was between the times he dropped her off at the college, until he picked her up from the gate in the afternoon. The rest of the time they were at home together, or if she did ever go out it was with him following closely behind, to the point where she gave up on shopping and lunches with friends completely. It actually depressed Gary that such a treasure was being kept from the world, though this, combined with the tragedy, helped him understand the reasons behind her father's over-protection.

"So what do you do?" she asked, once again catching Gary off-guard, but since they weren't talking face to face, this time he gave himself a moment before replying.

"I'm a programmer," he told her, a profession many 20-something's were taking up lately, since the IT boom he had rightfully predicted. It actually made him feel better about himself, having told this one truth.

"Oh cool," she said. "You must know heaps about computers and stuff then. My dad got me this brand new one with all the thingameys, but I don't know how to use anything except the internet and check my mail."

"Thingameys?" What was she on about?

"Yeah you know, like, a scanner and webcam and stuff."

Gary gulped.

"Oh and a printer," she added. "I know how to use that though, to print out essays and stuff."

Yeah, printer. Whatever.

"How about I show you how to turn that webcam on?" Gary suggested. "I'd love to see what you look like right now.

Nicola didn't really care either way and about half an hour later she'd given “Alec” enough information to find out what kind of webcam it was and he'd guided her through the steps of setting it up. Soon he could see her beautiful face in front of him, slightly pixelated, but still perfect in every way. He stared at her for a few minutes, not letting on that he could see her yet, and made it so his computer would save the image to his hard drive every 30 seconds.

"It's a bit fuzzy," he lied. "Turn the second knob behind the lens to the left a bit." This actually caused the camera to zoom out a bit. This way he could see her lovely breasts too, which seemed to be bursting out of the little red tank top she was wearing. He didn't need to look down to know that his boxer shorts were tenting between his legs.

"That's perfect," he typed to her. "You're lovely."

He noticed her shift in her seat a bit, brushing her hair behind her head revealing her long creamy neck, trying to make herself look more presentable, which was completely unnecessary.

"You're gorgeous," said Gary in an attempt to ease her feelings of apparent awkwardness. "Just keep doing whatever you were before, forget the camera's there. I don't want you feeling like you're under some sort of pressure just because of me."

After slumping a little and scratching her cheek, she wrote back, "You can't see my tummy, can you?"

"No," he fibbed once more, enjoying the momentarily clear image of her face and torso, noting her stomach, though not toned, was definitely flat. "What's wrong with your tummy?"

"What ISN'T wrong with my tummy?" Her brow furrowed and she slumped a little more.

"No girls seem to be happy with their bodies." This was Gary's attempt at cheering her up, proving he really didn't know anything about teenaged girls, as Nicola was about to point out.

"Oh, what do you know, you're a boy. You just see us as fuck holes and you don't care what we look like or what we think of ourselves."

"Now just wait a minute, I didn't mean it like that at all," he typed quickly, but Nicola had not finished.

"We put on make-up, dye our hair, work out and eat like rabbits to please you pigs, but you don't even notice, you just want sex sex sex and that's the only thing that ever goes through your minds. So Alec, with all the girls I'm sure you ensnare, how many of their names do you remember?"

That outburst had been completely unexpected and Gary could think of nothing to say that wouldn't provoke her more, which was the last thing he wanted. Of course he couldn't tell her he thought she was fat because that would be an outright lie, and she definitely didn't want to hear how beautiful she was, as those comments must have been something she had to "deal with" every day. There was only one wonderful way out of this.

"I could help you tone your stomach," I said.

"What, you're an aerobics instructor too?" she mocked.

Gary was not finding it very easy to keep his temper, but he went on anyway. "No, I have a program, it'll make you slim." He quickly changed that to "slimmer" before pressing Enter.

"Like an exercise program? No thanks, Daddy doesn't like me going to the gym, he's afraid I'll hurt myself."

"No, it's a computer program. It'll make you lose the weight you want from where you want to." Of course when he said it, he had no idea whether he could actually alter the program to do that at all, but he was afraid if she left now he’d never see her again.

"Oh you're kidding me, like I'm meant to believe that."

"Okay be here the same time next week and I'll give it to you."

Neither of them said anything more for a few moments, and Gary was afraid the unbelievable things he was saying had scared her off. He waited a bit longer, and eventually she said, "I bet you won't be here, but sure, not like I have anything better to do. Later, Lonely_Boy." That was the last thing she said before logging off, and with that the image went blank as she disconnected herself from the internet.

Gary opened the folder where he'd stored the images of Nicola and had them play over and over as he masturbated. While they weren't revealing in any way like the pictures and movies in his vast porn collection, everything about her seemed to exude sexuality in a way he could hardly comprehend. In the past couple of years since the divorce, he could count the number of times he'd had sex on one hand, and even those times were hardly worth remembering. No, compared to staring at her beautiful figure there was nothing in the world worth getting turned on over, and more than anything he wanted her, all of her, mind body and soul.

***Part II***

Following a full week of work on his most important project - and this certainly did not involve accounting - Gary had altered the hypnotic weight loss program to his satisfaction. He had replaced 'current weight' and 'desired weight' with 'area of improvement' and 'desired result' respectively. These messages would still be broadcasted on a sub-conscious level to the user, but with it even stronger messages such as "Nicola belongs to Alec" and "When Alec commands, Nicola will obey" and also, for spice, "Nicola has no inhibitions around Alec". Though disappointed he would never hear her call him by his real name, but otherwise quite pleased with himself, Gary grabbed an unopened box of Kleenex and logged onto the chat program, then went straight into #living_dead to await her arrival. In the meantime, he chatted up some other girls, most of who hadn't gone out for the simple reason they were barely teenagers. The ones who were able to send him photos were all pretty plain and seemed pretty thick even for their ages and yet he felt compelled to go further with them, for no better reason other than that he could. But not tonight.

Nicola joined the channel and looked at the list of names, scrolling down until she saw Lonely_Boy, whom she really hadn't expected to turn up, but the fact he was there and perhaps he was not pulling her leg got her excited. She was about to intiate a conversation but he beat her to it, asking how she was feeling.

"A lot like Rapunzel would have felt," was her candid reply.

Once again Gary wasn't sure what to say, so he got straight to the point and sent her the program. "The instructions are right there when you open it. If you still want to talk to me afterwards, I'll be here."

"Alright," she said, and opened the program as soon as she had it.

The instructions were quite simple, even for Nicola who hardly knew anything about any program that wasn't a word processor, and she had soon filled in the two fields with 'Abdomen' in the first and 'Needs to be flat" in the latter. The Start button sent her to a screen showing rather pleasing swirls in red blue and yellow, which merged into each other and disappeared, then grew and dissipated like unending globs of paint. A faint hum came from the speakers, a bit like static, but with something else, reminding her of a radio with the faintest possible reception. She quite happily stared at the screen for the full ten minutes, and actually felt a bit hollow when it was over. As it had already quit itself, she went straight back to her chat with Alec.