The Coffee Shop Pt. 04

The contact of Chuck's right fist with the left side of my face was painful to say the least. Unfortunately it was not an isolated event. Chuck pummeled my face and jaw with his two fits for a time between infinity squared and infinity cubed. It was a new experience in pain and suffering. What few thoughts I had gathered in the brief respite since being punched in my stomach, were blown away like leaves being scattered by an autumn wind by this new assault on my person. The only thought that pounded through my brain was that I was in pain, and that it didn't appear to be stopping. Bound as I was to the chair, I couldn't move to escape. I was too confused by the pain flooding my brain to try and use my powers on Chuck. All I could do for the moment was to sit, suffer through it, and wait for it to stop. I kept my eyes shut, in the faint hope that my eyelids might help protect my eyes from this assault of Chuck's.

"Had enough?" Chuck inquired, when he finally stopped beating his fits against my face. The tone of his voice implied that more pain would be forthcoming, if we did not come to an agreement that was to his liking.

I nodded my head yes and slowly raised it up to look at the brut before me. Chuck had gone from being my lover's best friend and thus someone I thought I could trust, to an unfeeling and cruel Neanderthal of a man. The compassion and concern I had felt for him earlier had seeped away like water poured on sand in the middle of the Sahara Desert. My only objective now, was getting out of this situation. I had reached my limit. In point of fact, I was well past it.

"Now, unless you want more of the same, you're going to do what I said earlier," Chuck proclaimed. "You're going to return Andy back to normal, and leave him alone. I'll leave you alone for a few minutes to think before you answer."

I gulped as I listened to Chuck's pronouncement. Even if I could do that to Andy, which I couldn't, I wouldn't. (Okay, so that doesn't exactly make much sense, but my thinking was somewhat less than clear at the moment.) I stared at Chuck in hurtful silence as the pain in my beaten face started to slowly increase in intensity. Chuck had been careful in where his punches landed. My eyes were not hurt, and my mouth while tender and sore was not causing me any speech impediments. I felt around in my mouth with my tongue, and I could not feel any loose or broken teeth. I took the few seconds of free time to try and gather my thoughts and my powers. I would try one last time to reason with Chuck before I used my powers on him, I decided. I didn't like being pushed into this situation, but I didn't see that I had any other options open to me. Oh, I could have agreed to Chuck's demands, but then I would have been lying. Eventually I would have to use my super hypnosis powers on Chuck, so I might as well do it now and get it over with.

"Your answer?" Chuck inquired as he stood there towering over me.

"I told you before, Chuck," I answered slowly. I could talk but it was difficult and painful. "I can't undo what I haven't done. Andy is." My words were cut off in mid sentence as Chuck landed a quick jab on my face.

"Wrong answer!" Chuck bellowed. "You've earned this!" Before I could even try to snag Chuck's attention and grab even a second's worth of eye contact with him, the rain of blows falling on my head and now my chest racked my body and mind with pain. It was impossible for me to concentrate. Although he did not know it, Chuck had effectively neutralized my super hypnosis abilities. After all if I couldn't think clearly I couldn't use my powers on him, now could I? Another lifetime of pummeling started, and I resigned myself to enduring the pain until another opportunity presented itself for me to use my powers on Chuck. There would be no hesitation this time, I promised myself. I hung on, and waited for Chuck to vent his rage and homophobic fears out on me. I had concluded by now that Chuck was homophobic to some degree, otherwise why would he have reacted so violently to what he thought I had done to Andy?

Finally, Chuck let up. I sent a silent prayer of thanks to God. I concentrated on my breathing, which was difficult since it was painful even to breath. Taking a deep breath was a new adventure in pain. My first thought was that I had some bruised ribs, courtesy of Chuck. (At least I hoped they were bruised and not cracked. Better not to think of that possibility, I told myself, First get yourself out of this mess and attend to your injuries later.) I did my best to ignore my pain filled body and concentrated on just one thing. Getting Chuck to stop. I decided that I would send one word into Chuck's mind to freeze him in place. Once that was done I could rest for a few minutes, and while I recovered my strength I could start thinking about how I was going to handle this entire situation.

It took a major effort of will to move my head, but I did it. Slowly I raised my head up and looked around for Chuck. He was standing about two meters away from me, with his arms crossed on his chest, glaring right at me. The anger had not left his face, but added to the anger was impatience and disgust. I guess I was tougher than he'd thought I'd be. That was some consolation to me but not much. Chuck slowly raised his arms in a boxers stance as he looked at me. The threat was clear. I got ready to launch my powers at Chuck's mind while I had eye contact with him.

My opportunity was snatched away from me. Chuck turned his head suddenly, as he responded to the sound of a voice calling out from the vicinity of the front door.

"Hello. Is anybody home?" It was the voice of an angel. An angel decked out in a pair of white sneakers, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a light gray pullover knit shirt over which was worn a light tan jacket. A black braided leather belt snaked its way through the loops of the jeans to encircle the waist of this gift from God. All that was missing were the wings and the halo, but I didn't give a damn about that. It was Andy! Andy turned back from closing and locking the front door to my apartment. "I got the message you left, Paul. Sorry I'm late, but I got delayed" Andy's words died on his lips as the scene before him started to register on his mind. Andy had started walking towards where Chuck and I were, but he stopped dead in his tracks, as the full impact of the scene in front of him crashed into his mind.

I can only dimly guess at the turmoil of thoughts, emotions and feelings that must have been churning through Andy's mind as he saw me sitting in a dinning room chair bound and helpless, with Andy's best and closest friend standing only a few feet away from me. I looked at Andy in stunned amazement as I watch the shock of the scene become painted on his face. It lasted only a heartbeat or two though. The shock quickly became supplanted with blood red rage. Never before in my life had I seen someone become 'red with rage'. Right before my eyes I saw my sweet wonderful Andy transformed in to a raging maniac, who launched himself at Chuck, without the slightest trace of hesitation.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Andy cried out as he quickly overpowered Chuck and dragged him to the floor. Andy had Chuck pinned down and was holding him easily. At least it looked like he was doing it easily from where I was sitting. Andy was so quick and fast that he would have put a professional steer wrestler to shame. I decided to keep my mouth shut and try to recover my strength, mental and physical, as I was sure I would need them very shortly.

"I'm protecting your ass," Chuck replied savagely, as he tried to wiggle free of Andy's grasp. It was a futile effort at best. Andy's rage had given his already tremendous strength an extra boost. He could have held a raging bull elephant at bay. (That may be a slight exaggeration on my part, but from my viewpoint that's what it looked like.)

"What in God's name are you yammering about?" Andy shot back at Chuck as he wrenched Chuck up from the floor and held him as tightly as ever.

"Let me go, and I'll explain," Chuck snarled at Andy.

"Fine, but you'd better have a strong explanation for all this," Andy replied as he released his hold on Chuck.

"Oh, I do," Chuck said as he rubbed and flexed his arms, while walking a few feet away from Andy. Suddenly Chuck darted towards me. He bent low and in one fluid and swift motion snagged the dish towel rag that was still lying in front of me and savagely stuffed it in my mouth, effectively gagging me once more. Andy was caught completely by surprise and had no chance to do anything more than take a few steps towards Chuck. Chuck danced back in front of me and held up his hand in a 'stop' gesture. 'Hold it right there, Andy. It's safe for us to talk now."

"What in the world are you blathering about now?" Andy asked, as he stopped his approach towards Chuck.

"Now that Paul is gagged, he can't use some kind of trigger to put you back into hypnosis, and take control of you again," Chuck explained as if this should be obvious to Andy. "I know he's been messing with your mind, and all that is going to stop, as of right now."

(I suppose I could have acted then and there, but I decided not to. Andy had to find out what had happened during the past few hours anyway, so why not let Chuck tell him? It would give me more time to recover my strength and powers, and besides I was curious as to how this little scene was going to play out.)

"Messing with my mind?" Andy said in a voice that revealed he was clearly lost at sea, as far as trying to make sense of what was happening here. He looked at Chuck for a moment and then one piece of the puzzle slipped into place. "You mean the hypnosis sessions with Paul?"

"Yes, exactly," Chuck said and smiled at Andy encouragingly.

"I still don't follow you. What have they got to do with having my mind messed up, or you beating the shit out of Paul?" Andy asked stilled perplexed.

"Well those hypnosis session of his have been much more than just helping you to relax and deal with your stress at work," Chuck said in a voice that was noticeably a few degrees cooler. "For the past little while, Paul here has been 'adjusting you', shall we say. He's been alerting your beliefs and perceptions to the point where you think that you're gay, and that you're in love with him to boot!"

Andy; jaw dropped open, and his eyes got very wide as the implication of Chuck's statements rocked Andy's world right down to the bedrock. Andy's face was a classic pose of absolutely stunned shock. Andy just looked at Chuck, silently unable to say a word.

"And further more, here's the proof!" Chuck crowed triumphantly as he walked into the living room, and picked up the small black jewelry box that held the two gold wedding bands that Andy had presented to me the night before. Chuck looked at Andy for a moment before he walked over to where Andy was standing. "I'm really sorry to have to do this, buddy," he said as the remorse filled his voice. "But see for yourself. These are the same rings that you showed to me last week. I recognized the engraving. Why else would Paul have them, if he wasn't that special person you told me about?"

Chuck let those words sink in for a few minutes before he started talking to Andy again. Chuck placed his hand on Andy's shoulder. "I know you," he said as he stared intensely into Andy's eyes. "We've known each other a long time you and I. I can't count the number of times I've trusted you with my life. I know you better than I know my own brother. I know you're not gay. I figure that the only way you could have been tricked into doing any of this, is for this little shit here to have been screwing with your mind when he was supposed to be helping you. I was just explaining this to him, when you came in. He's going to undo everything that he did to you. He's going to set matters right."

Chuck paused for a moment before he continued. "You're my best friend Andy. I'm closer to you than I'll probably ever be to anyone else in my life, except maybe my future wife. I won't see you throw your life and career way on something that isn't real, that isn't you. I WON'T see you turned into some faggot's boy toy!"

Andy looked at Chuck, but did not speak. Andy slowly walked to the far end of the dinning room table opposite from me, and sat down heavily in the chair that he found there. He looked different. For a few minutes I couldn't figure out what it was that was different about him. Then it hit me. He looked like he'd just lost his best friend. Suddenly I had a pretty good idea as to what Andy was going to say to Chuck, and there wasn't anything I could do to stop him. I couldn't talk with a gag in my mouth, and as for my powers, they didn't work on Andy.

Chuck put the jewelry box back on the living room coffee table. Slowly Chuck walked over to where Andy was sitting, and stood beside and slightly behind him. Chuck looked down at Andy, with a soulful expression so profound that it was almost painful for me to look at him. I suddenly realized just how much Chuck did care about Andy. He was a true friend to Andy. It didn't make this mess any easier to straighten out, though. Chuck placed his left hand on Andy's left shoulder and pressed down gently. "I'm really sorry about this, Andy. God knows I am."

Andy nodded his head in silent agreement. That is to say he started to nod his head, until Chuck snaked his left arm around Andy's neck and applied the same 'carotid control' restrain hold that he'd used on me earlier this afternoon. Andy was too surprised to offer much resistance and went down without a fight. I watched in utter astonishment as Chuck quickly tied Andy to the dinning room chair. Chuck was both fast and efficient, and would have given a professional calf roper a good run for his money. (I realized that Chuck must have found the spool of cord that I kept in my kitchen junk drawer, although how he knew where to look for it in the first place was still a mystery. The cord wasn't strong, but wrap enough of it around someone's wrists and ankles and you could tie them up very securely. I knew that from first hand experience.) Satisfied that Andy was securely bound he walked over to where I was. He stood there beside me while he waited for Andy to regain consciousness. It took but a few minutes.

Andy shook his head a few times to clear it. He struggled briefly against the cords that bound his hands and legs to the chair he was sitting in. Satisfied that he could not free himself he turned his head in my direction and looked at me. His face was a mask of resignation and hopelessness. He shook his head slowly in sorrow, and then looked up at Chuck and tiredly asked, "Now what?"

Chuck removed the gag from my mouth for the second time that day. Once again he offered me a drink of water and I gratefully accepted. (God, I hated the taste of that dish towel!) "Now Paul turns you back to normal. When that's done I untie you both and you and I leave here. Since you can't attack me now, it's safe for Paul to talk and hypnotize you again. He can't make you attack me now, so we're both safe."

"No." Andy said in the suddenly quiet room.

"No, what?" Chuck asked.

"No, Paul won't do it," Andy answered. "He can't."

"What do you mean he can't?" Chuck responded. "He did this to you, so he can undo it."

"No, you don't understand, my friend," Andy said with a heavy heart, as he turned and looked at Chuck. "He didn't do anything like that to me. I really am gay. I have been all my life. I just never told you."

"Bullshit!" Chuck screamed out. "Your mind is still warped with his poison. You don't know what you're saying. It's not real!"

"No, I'm afraid that it is the truth, Chuck," Andy replied when Chuck had calmed down somewhat. "I never wanted to tell you, because I knew that I would lose you. I knew that to tell you, that coming out to you, would cost me my friendship with you. I am sorry Chuck, but it is the truth." Andy looked at Chuck with an expression that nearly caused me to burst into tears. Andy was saying good bye to his life long friend. Andy knew that their friendship was over, even if Chuck didn't. My heart bled for Andy, but I didn't know what to do. Well, that's not exactly true. I knew what to do. I just didn't want to do it.

"I don't believe any of this!" Chuck retorted. He wasn't screaming but it was clear that he was putting out a lot of effort to keep his temper in check. "I've known you too long, and I know you too well, Andy. We're going to fix this now!"

"You can't fix, what isn't broken, Chuck," Andy said in that same tired and beaten voice. Then Andy looked over at me. "So what do we do now?" He asked me in that same tired voice.

"I already told you!" Chuck exclaimed clearly becoming frustrated with the two of us. "Now let's get to it!"

"Well, as I see it, your job and career are still safe, Andy," I answered him. I ignored Chuck and his ranting, while I looked at Andy. (Jesus Christ! I didn't want to do this, but I didn't see any other way out of this mess.) "It's just your word against Chuck's that you are gay. There is no evidence, so I don't see that anything serious can come of this, at least as far as your job is concerned."

"What that hell, are you saying?" Chuck demanded of me. "You talk like Andy's gay and as if I would tell our superiors about this. Well even if it were true, which is it isn't, I wouldn't do that. Would you PLEASE come back into the real world now? We have work to do!" Chuck didn't like being talked about as if he were not even in the room, but clearly he was more troubled by this apparent lack of interest that Andy and I display regarding Chuck's plan of action.

"When he knows and accepts the truth, though," Andy said in that same lifeless and sad tone of voice he had come to adopt. "I'll have lost him. What's worse is that in his anger he just might report me to our superiors."

"No, he won't do that," I assured Andy. "That much I can promise you." Andy looked at me doubtfully, but didn't say anything. I turned my head and looked over at Chuck. He looked back at me as if I were insane.

I gathered my mental powers and locked eyes with Chuck. In the space of a heartbeat or two, I fired my commands into Chuck's mind. "You will obey me completely from now on. It is the most natural and wonderful thing in the world for you to do," I sent into his mind. "It makes you feel good to obey me, completely and totally." I sat there and watched as the expression on Chuck's face changed from one of anger and confusion into one of bliss and joy. It was like flipping a switch. One second he was angry with me and the next he was looking at me like I was the most wonderful person in the world. I derived no satisfaction or excitement from it though. I closed my eyes and let out a soft sad sigh. I couldn't help hating myself for what I'd just done to Chuck, because part of me had enjoyed it. I'd felt a slight tingle of pleasure and tasted the sweetness of revenge on my tongue as I'd seen Chuck transformed from a brut into my obedient and willing slave. I didn't have the time right then to consider if my emotions and reactions were normal, given the circumstances. I had more important matters demanding my attention.

"Chuck, you will now untie me, and then untie Andy. After that you can sit down in the living room and watch television until I call for you again. Do you understand?" I instructed him in a clear and steady voice.

"Oh yes..uh..sir!" Chuck replied after fumbling for a moment on how to address me.

"Good," I responded. "You will not attempt to leave this apartment or contact anyone by any means until or unless I give you permission to do so."

"Of course, sir!" Chuck agreed seeming aghast at the very thought of doing something without my permission. He stood there looking at me, while he waited to see if I had anything else to say to him. "Should I untie you now, sir?" He asked unsure if he should carry out my previous instructions. His confusion was understandable. He was somewhat new at begin someone's servant (okay slave), and so he was unsure of exactly how to respond and react.