Smut Central

by Brandon McCalla

  He did. He began speaking as if there was never an interruption. Dr. Adler was distracted and wasn’t as diligently listening as she should have been. Markus was nearly four hours early, something must have happened. Why is he here at the office so early? She mused.

  Once the session was over and the patient had left the office, Nancy went to her desk. She was going to find out what was going on momentarily. There had not been a dull moment when it came to Mr. Excitement. She was thinking about him more than she professionally should have since Monday’s session. Gary wasn’t expected at the office until eight p.m. Markus obviously wanted to speak with her alone and in confidence before the actual session was underway.

  Markus walked into the office and sat on the couch with his head propped up by his hands. He looked drained of all energy. Nancy Adler watched him, not knowing what to do. She gathered herself and was back into psychiatrist mode.

  “Why are you here so early?” she asked him.

  “They didn’t accidentally stumble upon me on some park bench.”

  “What are you talking about?” She questioned. “Who are they?”

  “Jonathan and Gwyneth,” he answered. “Gwyneth told me I was a gift, a birthday present. Jonathan purchased me.”

  “Purchased you?” She exasperated with outright shock and confusion. “I don’t understand. What do you mean by purchased?”

  “I don’t know what she meant, but it sounded like the truth. After she told me this I began feeling lightheaded. I was blacking out again. I tried to walk away, almost made it but only got to the front door, and I was back in La-La-land. I had more flashbacks. I’m more than certain someone’s played with my mind.”

  “What did you see this time?” Nancy probed.

  “What didn’t I see? I had a series of flashbacks but I don’t think they’re flashbacks anymore. I think they’re false images or situations. I can’t explain it. What does Michelle have to do with any of this? What does she have to do with Jonathan and Gwyneth, and purchasing me? Why do I remember Jonathan walking when he’s never ever been without his wheelchair since I’ve known him?”

  “I don’t know.” Dr. Adler was beyond confused. “You said so much and I don’t understand most of it. Markus are you ok? Markus, Markus…”

  There was a man with a scar on his face, standing in front of a boy sitting on a chair. The man had his stopwatch and it was spinning, moving back and forth in front of the boy’s face. The people around them were just as mesmerized as the little boy was.

  “This isn’t what the scientists think. This is what Franz Mesmer has been telling the world all along, this is magic. This is a beautifully dark art long gone. Most only know a fraction of what I know. This is the reason why most cannot do what I do. What I am doing now is what I call reprogramming. This is a very delicate hypnotic procedure because this boy has already been hypnotized with a different identity and past and now I am going to wipe that out and implant a completely new personification.”

  The people listened to the man and looked at the boy as he sat on the chair. His eyes were wide open. He had been sitting that way for hours and hadn’t blinked once since the man put him under hypnosis. Flies were buzzing around the boy’s head, moving in a uniformed fashion that defied logic. The man with the scar began using words that none of the people had ever heard before. They were words rarely spoken by man, an ancient tongue far removed from civilization.

  The people listened with eerie attention and silence till the man began speaking English again. “One particular client wants a sex slave for his wife. I am now instilling in the subject latent suggestible things that will allow him to fulfill those tasks even though the subject is young and hasn’t experienced things of a sexual nature before. Behold what I call the Randleman Machine, assistant if you will.”

  An attractive, young lady walked into the room rolling a chair that had a crude looking machine attached to it. It looked very much like an electric chair.

  “Doctor Randleman, you said he is being reprogrammed. What was he programmed for initially?” A person asked.

  “Athleticism,” Randleman answered. He uttered the word, “rise” and the boy stood. He said, “Sit” and the boy went over to the machine and sat.

  Immediately Randleman’s assistant began connecting the boy to the weird looking chair apparatus. A helmet was placed over his head. The lovely assistant activated the machine, lights began flashing and a humming noise was heard throughout the room.

  “This particular specimen was designed to be a football player or something of that nature. His psyche is implanted with things that will allow him to one day be as physically fit as possible. Now this doesn’t mean he will become a sports star but with the right urging and guidance he will. All the psychological aspects are now about to be imbedded in his subconscious mind with the Randleman machine, information, notions and things that will encourage him to excel are about to be placed within his mind through audio and visual aid. We acquire our subjects when they are young, preferably 10 or younger. Sometimes they are obtained the day they were born. We acquire them from drug addicts and pregnant runaways, women who are giving their kids up for adoption. We use kids whom are less likely to be missed. Then they are purchased and placed back into the populace, and either adopted or discovered. They are rarely noticed or thought of till they are grown, grown and superstars.”

  “What happened?” Markus uttered.

  He saw the way Dr. Adler was looking at him. Her face was an expression of fright.

  “You blacked out again,” Nancy said. “You were about to tell me something. We were talking about your recent flashback. Then you started mumbling. I didn’t understand and then you just fainted.”

  “This shit is getting worse. If you get my meaning…?”

  “What triggered the blackout this time? Was I pressuring you, maybe asking you too many questions?” She inquired.

  “I’m not sure. I don’t know what’s going on. I started thinking about Michelle again. Maybe that was what sent me to La-La-Land. How long was I unconscious?”

  “I walked in at eight o’clock sharp. I would say you were out a little less than four hours,” Gary Zimmerman worded.

  Markus didn’t realize Gary Zimmerman was in the room until he had spoken. He was sitting on a chair on the side of the couch. He gave Markus a weird smile.

  “Oh…”

  “Shall we begin our hypnosis session?” Gary asked.

  “Do you think that’s wise Gary? I mean he just woke…” Nancy spoke with concern.

  “Now is fine, Nancy. I wanna get this over with,” Markus said.

  “I figured you would,” Gary said.

  “Who is Franz Mesmer and who is Randleman? What is the Randleman Machine?” Markus questioned.

  Those two names made Gary arch an eyebrow. “I’ve never heard of anything called the Randleman Machine. But I’ve heard of Randleman and Mesmer. Where have you heard of them?” Gary asked.

  “Where…? I guess when I blacked out the last time. I don’t seem to remember much of what I saw the last time I went unconscious. I remember flies, and a time piece spinning in front of my face, and I remember those two names.”

  “Interesting…” Gary mused.

  “Markus has been telling me some very strange and interesting things,” Nancy added.

  The fact that Markus mentioned both Mesmer and Randleman was disturbing to Gary Zimmerman. Markus told him about everything that happened in relation to the blackouts and flashbacks.

  “Someone possibly had placed psychic blocks on a number of these kids. Maybe when Markus starts recalling the events, we will get a clear picture of what is inside his mind. The fact or fiction could be from his own imagination or actual things he vaguely recalls seeing and hearing. It can be anything, any number of scenarios. Maybe even a different set of scenarios I know nothing about.”

  “I don’t understanding any of this,” Markus told him.

  “I don’t either,” Nancy
added.

  “Let me try to explain. Bear in mind, I do know a thing or two about hypnotism, and the mind. But I’m no expert though Nancy thinks I am,” Gary Zimmerman started his explanation. “People have been entering hypnotic-type trances for thousands and thousands of years. Different forms of hypnosis played a role in many cultures’ religious practices, and still do. But the scientific concept of hypnotism wasn’t conceived until the late seventeen hundred’s.”

  “Franz Mesmer can be called the father of modern hypnotism. He was an Australian physician who believed hypnosis to be a mystical force flowing from the hypnotist into the subject. He believed it was magic and referred to it as animal magnetism. Many critics quickly dismissed the magical element. All things related to hypnosis are mostly theory, even now. Mesmer’s assumption that the power behind hypnosis was magic not tinkering with the subconscious mind, has governed what most people believed to be true for some time. Hypnosis was originally called mesmerism, after Mesmer.”

  “What the hell is this, a history lesson, huh?” Markus blurted.

  “Hypnotism was developed way before me and you. I guess that makes it history.” Gary answered.

  “What about Randleman?” Markus asked.

  “Ahhh,” Gary Zimmerman structured. “Randleman, Fritz Roy Randleman. He was a great illusionist and magician. There is a belief that Fritz Roy Randleman is a stage name. I’ve done extensive research on him, and if Fritz Roy isn’t his first name then Randleman is definitely the last. He was born in Germany, and performed his tricks at a very young age in various traveling circuses, and gypsy fairs throughout Europe in the forty’s and fifty’s. Randleman was a hero of mine when I was a little boy because his tricks were so good they were believed to be actual magic. He allegedly died of old age in the early ninety’s. He would have been close to eighty years old when he passed. I saw him perform his infamous Lord of the Flies trick in France when I was sixteen while vacationing with my family.”

  “What does all of that mean?” Markus asked once Gary stopped talking.

  “It means that whoever played with your mind has studied a great deal. It means I have a task ahead of me,” Zimmerman answered.

  Nancy didn’t know why Gary didn’t tell Markus about the orphanage, and the possible pedophile cases. He didn’t mention the kids they found with no knowledge of who they were, or how they wound up at the orphanage. Zimmerman reached into his briefcase and pulled out a stopwatch.

  “I don’t think it’ll take me long to relax you into a suggestive state. Afterwards I can’t give you any promises that I can do anything else. You might begin to tell me things once I begin asking you questions, though I’m not sure of what I should ask you or what you might tell me. You could be telling me what you think is the truth and it could all be lies, something someone placed inside your head,” Gary Zimmerman told Markus.

  “Ask me about the flies,” Markus urged. “And about Michelle…”

  “I don’t think this has anything to do with some women you met at a club. I’m not sure why you blacked out then, or why you began seeing things after you encountered her. I think this is deeper than that.”

  “I want you to start there. I don’t care about deeper. All I care about is not blacking out anymore. And I wanna know who this Michelle is. If you get my meaning…?” Markus was blunt. “I don’t care about Mesmer or Randleman, but I do care about blacking out again. I do not like these dreams and these flies buzzing around inside my brain.”

  “Fair enough, I wouldn’t like flies buzzing around inside my head either. Shall we begin?”

  Markus took a deep breath. “Ready when you are,” he grinned nervously. “Be gentle.”

  Zimmerman laughed then his demeanor changed. He made Markus and Nancy switch seats. Now Markus was in the shrink position and Nancy was on the couch. He told Markus to sit as still as possible.

  “Concentrate on sitting as straight as you can, keep your eyes on this…” Zimmerman said, allowing the timepiece to begin spinning back and forth—forth and back.

  Dr. Adler’s eyes were glued to the stopwatch. Minutes passed and she had no knowledge of time. Her eyes never blinked. She gasped as she felt relaxation. She realized she had been mesmerized by the stopwatch like Markus was being beguiled. Nancy shook off whatever was causing her to relax. She gathered her wits and gave the timepiece Zimmerman was spinning in Markus’s face a better look and saw that there were initials engraved on it… F.R.R…

  27

  “Who is Michelle?” Markus asked once he came back to his senses. “Nancy, did Gary find out who she is?”

  He felt like he emerged from the deepest darkest void. He remembered nothing but the back and forth motion of the timepiece Zimmerman had dangled in front of his face. It was going back and forth and forth and back, Zimmerman was talking to him with the smoothest voice, telling him to relax.

  He relaxed instantly. One moment he was watching the timepiece, the next moment he was staring into Nancy’s face. He completely lost track of time. Markus didn’t know how long he was under hypnosis.

  Dr. Adler looked like she saw a unicorn or something beyond the norm. She was staring at Markus and he deduced that he was hypnotized for a while.

  “I think you believe Michelle is the little girl you’ve being seeing when you first began seeing what I think was a fabricated flashback. In other words, I don’t think it’s a true piece of your past. She might quite possibly have been another kid involved in what I believe is called the Randleman Protocol but I’m not sure. Michelle might be a person you were in an emotional situation with during your ordeal, when you were a child. She might be a made up character in your mind.”

  “What protocol? What ordeal?” Markus asked.

  Zimmerman appeared to be as tired as Markus. He looked over at Markus, who wanted to go and get some sleep, but he wanted to get to the bottom of this.

  “Why can’t I remember the session?”

  “Which shall I answer first, your first, second question or the third?” Zimmerman asked.

  “The third,” Dr. Adler said.

  Markus and Zimmerman turned their attention to her.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  “I don’t know why you can’t remember our extremely long conversation. You were very talkative. I think whoever hypnotized you, or was hypnotizing you placed a series of defense mechanism inside your mind, called the Randleman Protocol. The Randleman Protocol is triggered when the rational portion of your mind starts situating the facts from the fiction they placed in your brain.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” Markus said, glancing at the wall.

  It was a few minutes past one in the morning. He had been under hypnosis for more than four hours.

  “What happened to me when I was a kid?” He asked.

  “I think you were kidnapped, or put up for adoption. I’m only speculating because I’ve known about something similar, an old case I was working on when I was a detective in the missing persons division. You have experienced a situation that involves an orphanage, or your time in the orphanage is false memory. Jonathan Manners indeed purchased you. I’m sure of this but from whom, I don’t know. Your rational mind can’t accept that you saw Jonathan walking before because the memory is false. Someone created your first encounter with Jonathan and Gwyneth through hypnosis.” He paused to think about things. “It’s only logical to assume that Gwyneth told you the truth. There are other children involved. Michelle most likely was possibly one of them, or she reminds you of someone you experienced the ordeal with. I know of six other persons besides you who were possibly in the same situation. I wasn’t able to thoroughly examine them like I did you. I think you were sold, I think all the kids were put up for fake adoptions. I think the program involved or involves giving a child a bogus identity and reprogramming their thought process through hypnosis so when they get older they will excel in a specific field or situation. All of this is very strange. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.
”

  Gary Zimmerman seemed incensed by this. Markus wanted to put everything behind him. Knowing more about his situation served to confuse him even more. It was like he was living some perverse science fiction he didn’t understand, and wasn’t sure if he even wanted to. He wanted to ask more questions. Markus wanted to know about his past. He wanted to know what else Zimmerman knew. Markus was scared.

  “Do you think Michelle has flashbacks and blackouts?” Nancy asked.

  Markus gave her a weird glance. He was going to ask Gary Zimmerman the same question.

  “No,” Gary said matter of fact. He seemed confident in his answer. “I think Markus was reprogrammed, and the reprogramming included this Randleman Protocol. Markus I think, you were hypnotized for one specific reason then you were put under Randleman’s watch again.” He held up the stopwatch he used to hypnotize Markus. He offered it to him, but Markus refused to touch it. He put the timepiece inside one of his pants pockets. “I suspect the Randleman Protocol is the reason why you were having flashbacks and blacking out. Randleman or someone who practices his method fumbled. He or she shouldn’t have attempted to rewrite what had already been rewritten. Your mind was undergoing some sort of healing, attempting to regenerate itself back to its normal state fighting the protocol. That is why you’ve been blacking out I think. You’re mind didn’t understand what was going on, what was the truth and what was the lie. So your mind would shut down. You are so old now. Initially I think you were first introduced to hypnosis when you were ten years old. The Randleman protocol might have been added when you were much older.”

  “Why do you suspect these things?” Markus asked.

  “Because in the beginning you spoke to us with child-like adolescence,” Dr. Adler answered before Zimmerman could. “Then as the session progressed your speech and mannerisms matured. I estimated the age to be nine or ten in the beginning and then possibly fourteen or sixteen years old.”

  “Why would anyone wanna do this to me?” Markus asked, shaking his head.

  “I don’t know. I think you were originally hypnotized and psychically implanted with information that would urge or compel you to become some sort of athlete when you got older if you were guided in that direction. But that never happened. I think Randleman tried to wipe that out and put something else there. I think the first person who was supposed to purchase you reneged for some reason and whoever is behind this got another customer. Only that customer wanted you to possibly become something else. I know, it all sounds so damn strange, some sort of modern day slavery, something out of the Twilight Zone.”