Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapter 56.

by BigBird74

56.

Katherine had worked long into the night preparing the reception room for Dahlia’s big press conference. Carefully chosen flowers lined the sides of the room, placed strategically so they would show up clearly behind where Dahlia would sit. Katherine had always believed that, with sufficient care and attention paid to surroundings, it was possible to sway the sympathies of those in attendance. Her job had been made easier by the fact that Dahlia was looking her very best. After all, the public likes beautiful people. Katherine could only marvel at how trim and perfectly turned out Dahlia was after all those months recovering from her ‘breakdown.’ That word – breakdown – had been carefully selected by Tommy, again, to elicit a large dollop of sympathy. Drug use was still a complicated issue as far as public opinion was concerned, with a wide range of opinions, from those likely to have also indulged in the forbidden to those whose moral compass would never permit such abandon. Katherine knew, in our age of constant media, that playing the victim card would be best. It was therefore crucial that everything about the event played its part in conveying such an image.

It did not help that the cleaner seemed to be distracted, her mind clearly elsewhere. More than twice, Katherine had caught ‘Petra’ staring at the podium that was to elevate Dahlia back to her former glory, deep in thought. She had brushed off the fat slob’s excuses and firmly reminded her that the hallway and reception room must be spotless by 11am when the various guests were to arrive. It was only after the third time of telling that something finally shifted inside of ‘Petra’ and the next time Katherine checked on her, she was busy mopping the marble floor.

Checking her watch, Katherine could see that Tommy was due to arrive at any moment. Of the many men in her life, Tommy was, by far, the one she cared for most. Their relationship was purely platonic, but grounded on a real affection formed over many years of working together. Tommy had always looked out for Katherine and sent various projects her way. But Dahlia was something special. Until the ‘incident’, she had been Tommy’s prized client and he was understandably nervous about where he stood with her. Now, given what amounted to a second chance, he wanted nothing to go wrong and had asked Katherine, as a safe pair of hands, to take the job of assisting Dahlia.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapter 55.

by BigBird74

Dahlia was finding it increasingly hard to ignore the growing sense of dread she felt as she neared the address Melissa had given her. Her last encounter with Katherine, just before leaving Hilltop, had been unsettling. She was angry at the cleaner’s “rude” disturbance of Ms Western and had warned ‘Petra’ to be at the house early the next morning. Having forgotten that the press conference was to be held tomorrow, Dahlia was fretting over how fast things were moving and how she had no control over events. After a long anxious wait, she was relieved to see that the bus back into Barton was empty and she was able to hide out the journey far away from any sneering kids and judgemental adults. Already Dahlia’s fragile mind was adjusting itself from that of a pampered princess loved by all to a relative outsider who felt shy about her looks. While she still valued the ability to step out of the public eye, the risks of losing everything was now apparent and explained a great deal of her unease.

Once back in Barton, it had taken some time to orient herself and find Edge Road. If a description had ever fitted a name, this was it. The closest end of the road was situated not far from the main bus station, with all the dubious charms common to those districts around the world: beggars, homeless vagrants, sex shops and bars all covered in graffiti and litter. Wherever she looked something unappealing caught her eye. The roughest denizens of Barton seemed to inhabit this space and it shocked Dahlia. Of course, no-one paid her the slightest attention. Why would they, she caught herself thinking? In her current guise she was no better than any of them. In fact, given her gross weight, lack of money and worn through dress, she was arguably worse off.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 53-54.

 by BigBird74

Hilltop had many advantages. The biggest, as its name suggests, is that it sits atop a particularly steep hill that overlooks Barton in the valley below. Its isolated position ensures a great deal of privacy and was one of the reasons Dahlia originally opted for it. However, for someone of Dahlia’s current physique, it was something of a nightmare to climb. Of course, to those with a car, this poses few problems, but to those forced to use public transport, the nearest bus stop is several hundred metres down a winding road.

Never having taken a bus to Hilltop before, Dahlia was not completely sure of where the stop was and was looking anxiously from the misted window for clues that she was getting close. The bus was crowded and Dahlia had been crammed into the passenger well with a half dozen other people, all tired and irritable. If people’s faces do truly show how they have lived their lives, this group had been particularly hard done by. As it juddered along the road, the bus kept coming to a sudden halt, throwing all the standing passengers forwards and onto one another. After being hounded by those kids in Barton, Dahlia was hypersensitive to any signs that the other passengers would find her disagreeable. But, fortunately or not, a pall of various body odours hung over them all. Tired, hot and sweaty people, all mixing together. Each time the bus swerved, Dahlia found herself instinctively reaching to push back her hair. Years of habit left her fingering her short masculine haircut, feeling sick to the core that this time she could not remove her wig to reveal her golden tresses. No this time it was real and it could be permanent. For all her bodily changes, her hair had acted as a kind of mask or shield. Now, without it, she felt unattractive and exposed, and was doing her best to avoid making eye contact with any of her fellow passengers.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 51-52.

by BigBird74

Dahlia had received a few shocks in the past few days and was about to experience one more. Until the moment she had stepped from the limousine, Dahlia’s newfound identity had been rather a private affair. Sure the doctor, Ms Nechita and now Melissa had provided a daily witness to her decline, but they all shared one important piece of knowledge. They all knew who it was under that vast bulk. For, despite all that had happened to her, inside her head, Dahlia still saw herself as a slim supermodel contained within some kind of fat suit. She had yet to accept that her new shape might be ‘permanent’ or long lasting in any meaningful way. But as she eased her fat body from the luxury of the limousine to the dusty poverty of Barton High Street, she was about to experience what her new life might really involve.

One cannot blame Dahlia for her myopia. After all, she had lived a life of luxury and privilege for almost the whole of her adult life, starting on her modelling career at such a tender age. Before that she had been cosseted within the bosom of a loving family. She had never wanted for anything, nor had to experience the harsh realities involved in ekeing out a living from one’s own meagre talents. Everything she was drove away in that car. Melissa now inhabited her space and seemed intent on shutting the door on Dahlia’s route back.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 40-42.

by BigBirgd74

From her conversations with the doctor Melissa had expected some changes in Dahlia since the last time they had laid eyes on one another. Though his descriptions were not terribly detailed, he had said enough to give her a rough idea of what to expect. But this! This, she did not expect. A few days into her stay at the clinic and Melissa could scarcely believe her own eyes as she watched her sister needlessly busy herself in the already clean room. Clearly she was in the throes of some deviant fantasy that had completely eclipsed her better judgement and was using every opportunity she could to parade herself in front of the ‘stranger’.

As she manoeuvred about, her cheap dress pulled tightly on her waist and thighs, her large melon-like breasts created an odd silhouette as she bent over and they merged with her fat belly into one huge round mass. It was truly staggering how much weight she had piled on in a few months. Melissa reflected on just how much willpower it would have taken for Dahlia to do that to herself. Could she not see what was happening? Her body, a picture of slender beauty, seemed to have burst open, unable to contain the fat that now covered her. The changes were so many and so profound that Melissa struggled to take it all in. She wondered if she would have recognised her own sister had she not been told it was her in advance.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 36-37.

by BigBird74

Dahlia kept one eye on her former room over the next few days to see if and when the new patient would arrive. Meanwhile her daily routine continued: up at 6.30am; breakfast at 7.30; cleaning until 11.30, when she stopped to eat lunch; cleaning until 4.30pm; and free time till 6.00, when she had her evening meal. The routine was so entrenched that deviating from it, even for a few minutes, proved unsettling for her. Dahlia’s rigid nature went hand-in-hand with her iron will, which in turn explained how she had maintained her low calorie diet and exercise regime for so long. Now her focus had changed and she was instead sticking diligently to her timetable of cleaning while looking forward to her three large meals.

It felt good eating, repeatedly filling herself to the brim and achieving a forbidden sense of fullness. This was not without cost. As her appetite expanded, Dahlia found she had to eat more to gain the same satisfaction. While heavier, more calorific foods sated her growing hunger more than others, she only felt truly happy when her belly pressed outwards, tight against her cheap polyester dress. Only in this bloated state did she feel like she feel ‘right’, sensing that she was investing herself fully into her role as Petra and making the most of her treatment.

Still, for the past few days, her overeating had stepped up a level. The fact that a new guest would see her – albeit dressed as Petra – worried Dahlia. Voicing her fears to Ms Nechita, Dahlia was reassured by the mature housekeeper that the new guest would never recognise her in her wig, glasses and uniform. Naturally Ms Nechita was careful not to mention the substantial layer of fat now surrounding her body, which was threatening to burst at the seams and render her utterly unrecognisable whether she wore her disguise or not.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 34-35.

by BigBird74

Everyone that is fat was thin at some point. Dahlia had often wondered what exactly ran through their minds as they got progressively bigger. Did they see it happening? Did they not panic when their bodies started changing shape? Now she was gaining weight, Dahlia could understand a little better, though not completely. For the mind plays tricks on us all.

Those who successfully undertake a strict diet usually regress at some point as the body uses a variety of tricks to restore those suppressed habits, pulling away at a person’s subconscious. As Dahlia had long known, it takes an iron will to remain on top of things and keep one’s bad habits bottled up. Soften that up and one thing is certain, a person’s other desires will take hold.

Weight gain also tends to creep up on its victims. All is fine till one day you find a favourite dress is tight around the waist or hips. These were the thoughts running inside Dahlia’s head the morning we re-join her, as she prepared for the long day ahead. When we last encountered Dahlia, she was spending her days as Petra busy in the clinic, cleaning and attending to her duties around the large, converted country house. At the end of the day, she would return to her room where she would undress and reclaim her identity as Dahlia. A couple of days into this routine things were shaken up when it was suggested that she change rooms and go and stay instead in the servant’s quarters on the top floor. Despite some misgivings, Dahlia agreed, convinced that it would speed her ‘recovery’ by embedding herself deeper in what she imagined was the reality of being Petra.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 32-33.

by BigBird74

The doctor was regretting his decision to drive all the way to the resort at which Melissa was staying. He should have taken a redeye flight at the crack of dawn, but had somehow convinced himself a two-day road trip would have been better. It was now over two weeks since he had last seen Melissa. Since then he had been busily attending to her sister’s journey of discovery as she unveiled her self-destructive streak. To get away for a few days would be a welcome relief. No matter how you framed it, screwing with people’s heads was morally repellent and it took a toll on the doctor, who was only too happy to escape the confines of the clinic for a couple of days. It also helped that Melissa’s treatment was less morally dubious. Indeed lifting her out of her malaise might be seen as a positive endeavour in its own right.

He had intended to visit much earlier, but Dahlia’s rapid progress had meant he had needed to stay at the clinic almost constantly. Were he to commute regularly, given the clinic’s isolation, he would have been spending too much of his time on the road. Besides the amount he was charging Dahlia justified cancelling his other patients for a few weeks. Even so, he could not neglect Melissa. For his plan to work, he needed to make sure that the ‘viable option’ he was crafting for Dahlia existed. For that, Melissa’s adherence to her own ‘timetable’ was critical.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 29-31.

By BigBird74

When she first started experiencing anxiety attacks a few years ago, Dahlia attended several self-help workshops that purported to give their attendees ‘greater consciousness and awareness’. Dahlia found some relief in what they said, but, like clockwork, the next fashion show would soon approach and her anxieties would return.

Even so her time there was not a complete waste. One particular idea had lingered long in Dahlia’s mind and she recently found herself reminded of it. Serious changes in our lives, when they happen, are largely something brought about by factors out of our control. Therefore, rather than fretting over change, we need to grow to accept it and adapt as best we can. Dahlia bit her lip hard as she contemplated those words. It had been ten days now since she had been checked into this exclusive clinic and she was already feeling nervous as to what she had let herself in for, wondering how she could accept the changes she was experiencing.

It was normal for Dahlia’s mind to wander when she was mopping. Though physically taxing, these simple chores relaxed Dahlia and gave her the space to explore the inner recesses of her mind. Right now she was reliving last night’s encounter with her doctor, dwelling upon how their recent interactions had changed.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 27-28.

by BigBird74

27.

Just as Dahlia’s body ached, so did Melissa’s, though for very different reasons. Whereas Dahlia’s soreness was the result of crawling about on all fours, scrubbing and mopping, Melissa’s sorry state had resulted from a carefully calibrated exercise routine dreamt up by her new trainer. She had needed to summon almost all her courage to ask the receptionist to arrange for a trainer, thoughts swirling around her head as she approached the imposing desk.

Ever since gaining weight in her early teens, Melissa had thought of herself existing within a certain social box. Whenever she had tried to step beyond the bounds of that box, Melissa found herself worrying about how she was being perceived: judgmental stares, whispered comments or worse. Inevitably this pushed her to retreat back to the comfort of her box, where she typically indulged in food or television to make herself feel better.

However, she was not the same woman she had been a few weeks before. While the old Melissa would have sat by idly, stewing in her own self-contempt and too shy to do anything about it, her recent change of heart nagged away at her, imploring her to action. After all this was an expensive resort and she was not going to let the opportunity pass her by.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 25-26.

by BigBird74

Dahlia’s evening was short and punctuated only by her evening meal and a visit from her doctor. Her body ached with an unfamiliar exhaustion. Though she was used to exercise, the same could not be said for hard, real work. The few times that evening she had risen from her bed, she had felt a twinge in the small of her back, a sign perhaps of having overdone things a little. Laying on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling, lost in her thoughts and contemplating what had been a highly unusual day. Stretching her spine, she lengthened the arch of her back and ran her hands up and down her svelte figure. Pausing at her belly, she slid her fingertips over her flat stomach.

Closing her eyes, she sunk her fingers in as far as they would go, her taut, muscular stomach providing instant resistance. She felt kind of disappointed: there was no evidence of her earlier, substantial lunch, no bulge, no fatty softness. She pictured how it would feel instead to touch soft flesh layered on wider hips and a fuller belly. The idea sparked heat within her nether regions and she let her mind wander down this formerly forbidden trail.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 23-24.

by BigBird74

23.

Sooner or later, Dahlia knew there was an important line she would approach and, at that moment, she would have to take a decision whether or not to cross it. A bit like Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon, it would mark the moment she took this a step farther than would be ‘advisable’. A game is a game, a controlled experiment in a secluded place another, but this was fast developing into something beyond that, something that may have lasting consequences. She wondered when that Rubicon moment might be? Would she even know when it had happened?

‘Could it be now?’ Dahlia mused as she sat in the cleaners’ room looking down at the food left there for her lunch. She had expected to eat in her room. But when she had returned there earlier, Ms Nechita pounced on her from somewhere close, as though she had been waiting for her.

“You are not allowed in there. That room is for patients only. You are cleaner,” she exclaimed. Dahlia searched her face to see if she could determine whether or not she was serious. Did she really not know I was a patient here? Confused I nodded, agreeing with her. “You have lunch now. Make the most of it. I will come find you in half an hour”, she barked at me, clearly not wanting to waste a moment longer on me than was needed.

As I wandered back along the corridor, I turned to see if she was watching me. As if to emphasise that there was no entering the room, she turned the key on the door locking it shut, making a scene of placing the key in her top pocket.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 21-22.

by BigBird74

21.

The rippling electricity that filled her body made Dahlia breathe in short, shallow breaths. She peered left and right down to opposite ends of the corridor. From her brief tour of the house, Dahlia could tell that her room was situated in one of two wings. She stepped from the room a little further, still nervous of being ‘seen’ in this dress.

Just as her nerves were starting to jangle, she could hear the clip of heels on the solid wooden flooring, approaching her from behind. She spun around to see a woman approaching her. This being an old house, the corridors were dimly lit with only a little natural light let in through the small windows. Dahlia froze. She did not recognise the woman and, for a moment, debated in her head whether or not to duck back into her room. But that would look terribly odd!

“Petra?” The woman asked in an alien accent. “I am looking for Petra.” Dahlia’s fingers twitched. She was still holding the name tag and decided now was the time to lift it into place.

“That….. that is me,” she answered with little thought as she pinned the badge to the lapel of her dowdy dress. She was still mildly drowsy from the aftereffects of the tablets and her mind was not at its sharpest.

“Hmm. You were not quite what I expected,” the woman replied, surveying Dahlia intimately, her dark brown eyes scanning her face and body. The two of them stood beside a window, the daylight revealing the older woman’s worn, dark features. “I am Ms Nechita. I am the head of cleaning for the clinic.” She paused, still weighing Dahlia up. “I understand that you are here for ‘training’ and induction.” Her voice betrayed a slight measure of disbelief, as though, in spite of Dahlia’s drab uniform and name tag, she was somehow talking to the wrong person.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 19-20.

by BigBird74

19.

Dahlia slept peacefully through the night. After she had been helped from the car to her room and readied for bed, she had slept almost ten hours straight. When she did finally awake it was into unfamiliar surroundings. The plush decor of her home could not have been more different to the Spartan interior she now found herself in.

As she gazed slowly around her, she could tell that she was in some kind of medical facility. Definite clues to that surrounded her everywhere: the pale, wipe-clean décor, the patient’s chart hanging on the wall, and the functional bed linen. While some effort had been made to make the room feel less functional and more like a hotel room, it was still obvious that Dahlia was in a clinic of some sort.

She pulled back the covers, stretching her lithe body, clothed only in a patient’s gown, as she arose from her deep slumber. Spotting a mirror on the side wall, she took a few slow steps towards it and peered at herself. She looked tired. Very tired. Her face had taken on a heavy look overnight. Slowly the memory of just what had happened hit her. An all-consuming sense of shame took hold as her mind pieced together the broken fragments of the evening’s events.

Oh god! What had happened? She felt she must ring Tommy! She looked for her phone and realised it was nowhere to be found. She hunted through the few cupboards that lined the room, searching up and down, opening and closing every drawer in a rising panic.

Just at that moment, a middle-aged woman entered the room. By the way she was dressed, Dahlia could see she was a nurse or some kind of attendant.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 17-18.

by BigBird74

17 & 18.

When Dahlia emerged from her cocoon, just like a butterfly, her appearance was immaculate and primped to perfection. Ever the professional, she had doubled down on her strict diet and exercise this past week and everything seemed to be floating along as expected. Fortunately Tommy had ensured that the show was to be held relatively locally, meaning a limo ride of two hours or so. She looked at the clock and thought how the day might pan out. Makeup and dressing would take approximately three hours, the show itself would last an hour. Once the after show photos were out of the way and she had been escorted home, she could expect to be back in ten hours.

Wincing a little at that thought, she nevertheless pressed on, being polite to all those hanging around her trying to help and never giving a hint of the irritation she felt at their ‘fussing’. Her entourage was there to help of course, but Dahlia could not help but see them as unnecessary. None of them were close friends. Indeed a good number of them were a decade or so younger, so she could expect very little sympathy from them. They were all climbing up the career ladder that Dahlia was perched precariously on top of.

Sure that this would be the last show for some months, Dahlia could almost see a finish line ahead of her and a time she could live a little more freely. Though this thought may have been expected to cheer her up, she actually found herself getting as wound up as before her last show, if not somehow worse. She had been fine on the drive over, but almost as soon as she had sat in the makeup chair, her nerves had started jangling, as powerful as ever.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 15-16.

by BigBird74

15.

A week later and Dahlia’s lighter mood had begun to darken again. Another show was approaching and she was starting to feel the pangs of anxiety creep up on her. Despite seeing the doctor twice a week now, very little seemed to help her pass through her panic attacks. All her usual tricks and confidence boosting routines were failing to inspire her and she felt flattened by the demands the show’s organisers were making. Not only was this a lingerie show – something that always unsettled Dahlia – but she was to wear the show’s masterpiece: a diamond encrusted bra and panty set, complete with angel wings!

The morning before the show, Tommy, her agent, had been on the receiving end of a firm rebuke. He had been trying to push Dahlia into yet another show, hot on the heels of what he assumed would be a great success tomorrow. But Dahlia had stood her ground. She had finally secured some time to herself and nothing, she repeated to Tommy – nothing – was going to disturb that.

Tommy had sensed the edge to her voice and knew better than to push harder. He had known Dahlia since she started out in the world of modelling some 20 years ago now. She had been his ‘greatest success’, after he had discovered the pretty girl in a supermarket of all places. While Dahlia had snapped up the opportunity he afforded her without much thought, Tommy had been a good influence on her. Diligent, if pushy, and honest, he had worked very hard to propel Dahlia to the heights she now inhabited. He was not going to stop till he had lifted her onto the pantheon of the very best models. Though the press had labelled her a ‘supermodel’, he knew, from inside the industry, that Dahlia still needed a few more notable appearances to achieve true greatness.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 13-14.

by BigBird74

13.

How many thresholds do we cross in our lives? When we leave home? When we enter our marital home for the first time? However many it would be, we can all relate to the sensations as we do it. A feeling of bubbling excitement, a step into the unknown or a moment of acute anxiety as we push ourselves forward. That was how Dahlia felt as she walked into the waiting room and then into the doctor’s office dressed as ‘Petra.’

In the back of her mind, she still felt she risked a ridicule. But that child-like moment of raw excitement pushed her into his room, her eyes cast to the ground. It was strange how dressing up can affect a person’s whole demeanour, how their body language can shift in a moment. Dahlia felt like a massive weight was pressing down on her shoulders, making them slouch. She struggled to lift her eyes to the level of the doctor. Shorn of her ‘body’ and the confidence her beauty had given her, she found herself a shy, retiring woman.

That said, the redness in her cheeks was not from shyness. Dahlia was experiencing a tremendous sexual high as the handsome doctor surveyed her, not as a supermodel, but as an ordinary, dumpy cleaner. Oh god! Why did she find this so arousing? “Good Mornin’ Sir,” she said in her mock accent.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 11-12.

by BigBird74

11.

It actually took a couple of days for the bulge in Dahlia’s stomach to work its way out of her body. The thick glutinous sludge of the various treats she had enjoyed that sinful night was hard for her bod - used to a richly fibrous diet - to digest and expel. When it finally vanished, she felt mildly remorseful, as her guilty souvenir from the weekend had been lost. The strange thrill of appearing to be less than perfect was matched by the sweet tingling she got inside of her every time she recalled that weekend’s events.

In fact the only downside had been the strained conversation she had with her sister when she returned to find the mansion virtually spotless and cleaned. Melissa swallowed Dahlia’s explanation that she had hired a ‘one-time’ cleaning company to deal with the mess. She was on too much of a high after the weekend camp that she was not in the mood to deal with what she saw as minor triviality. For her part, Dahlia was relieved that Melissa bought her story with relatively little fuss.

The only fly in the ointment was that the clean-up had done nothing to correct Melissa’s slack attitude and, two days into the new week, the house was already looking untidy around the edges. This left Dahlia confused as to how to handle the situation. Perhaps she really should hire a cleaning company and be done with it and let Melissa have her ‘victory’?

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 9-10.

by BigBird74

 9.

It was hard to adequately describe the feelings Dahlia experienced as she dragged the cheap polyester dress up her lithe, beautiful body. She had slowly removed the adornments one expects of a beautiful, rich woman: the expensive earrings, the tasteful layers of makeup lightly covered her face, her full mane of long blonde hair now tied up into a tight pony tail. Of course, Dahlia still looked better than 95% of other women, even in her natural state. Deep inside her own thoughts, she considered how a woman of her status, a cleaner that is and not a successful model, would act. That sent a spasm of pleasure shooting through her body. As did the next thought: “For this weekend, I will think of myself as Dahlia Western’s cleaner. I will be…. Petra.”

To those of us unaware of the doctor’s shenanigans, this would all appear a sudden epiphany. But that is to miss so much of what had happened the previous few weeks. The doctor had pumped Dahlia full of the idea that she yearned for anonymity. Dahlia’s desire to slowly fade away was a symptom of this and being a cleaner made that happen to sudden effect. While she was suggestive, he had also evoked the sexual eroticism that can be achieved by safely degrading oneself. What would be hugely embarrassing in public, might be highly enjoyable in private. Psychologically, she had been groomed for this moment and was totally unaware how her natural tendencies had been worked up into a frenzy. So it was only natural that, once dressed in her cleaner uniform, Dahlia felt an explosion of euphoria as though she were escaping all that fear and angst that had built up.

Now it is important to remember that Dahlia was not some kind of automaton. Hypnotherapy does not affect those unwilling to move in a certain direction, but it most certainly gives a big shove to those that are inclined towards that action. Her inhibitions had been lowered in a way one might see on a drunkard. The mind is still there, just many of its defences are lowered.

Story: The Cleaner Returns. Chapters 7-8.

by BigBird74

7.

What was she doing here? The cool, dank room reeked of the lavender scent used to ward off moths. Dahlia only knew of this place as Petra’s expenses had included an invoice for a new uniform from this shop. The shopkeeper looked equally baffled. Dahlia felt antsy as he stared at her, plainly unsure of whether he knew her or not. 

“What did you say you wanted again?” He asked.

“A cleaner’s overalls and the dress that fits underneath,” she replied. “It is for my cleaner….” Dahlia stopped herself, reminding herself she had no reason to justify or explain anything.

“I see,” he nodded as he wandered off to find the attractive woman what she wanted. “And she is your size, you say?” He asked, slightly incredulous.

“Yes, that’s right,” Dahlia replied curtly and a little agitated.

After what seemed half an hour, though in reality little more than a couple of minutes, the shopkeeper returned with a cheap polyester cleaning smock. Long, grey and very drab looking would be how one would charitably describe it. The rough material had fine lines running from top to toe in a failed effort to impart some ‘fun’ into the dress.