The morning after, The Black Queen informed her employees that she wouldn’t need them for the rest of the week. That gave her the necessary space and time in order to conduct her plan successfully.

After this, she went to see David who had just awakened and was screaming for help. She walked in the room with nothing on but a very small, see-through night gown and a wooden box in one hand. He looked at her disdainfully and continued screaming.

The first thing she told him was:

“That won’t do you any good, so don’t waste your breath. All of the divisions are soundproof.”

David’s blood was really boiling. Although he wasn’t very keen about beating women, he knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, if he found himself on the loose. His wrists were poorly treated from the pressure of the chains, but his fingers were still strong enough to choke her. He continued trying to set himself free…

“Oh my… you definitely are stubborn! When are you going to learn that you are my prisoner and that the more you try to fight me, the more your situation becomes hopeless?”

He remained silent as she approached him. All of her feminine attributes were perfectly exposed and his anatomy was rioting again…

“You’re not willing to speak to me, today? That’s alright… I’ll forgive you, but only because you’re not at all indifferent to my charms. Sex is indeed a very powerful weapon to use against a man…”

“I’m not saluting you, whore! It’s just an involuntary reaction of the body, muscles contracting and expanding… it means nothing!”

“Is that so? I guess I should punish you for that then, but I woke up in a good mood. That’s why I’m going to let you out of that chair. Of course, before I do that, I have to make sure you don’t jump at me and try to kill me. This box here has the solution for that problem…”

She opened the box in front of his eyes. Inside there were two golden bracelets for his wrists and two more for his ankles. There was also a ring, which she immediately placed in her right index.

“These little ornaments here will ensure your obedience when I free you. They seem regular jewels, but these ones can emit very powerful discharges of electricity. The ring I’ve just placed in my hand is a technical wonder that controls such discharges. This little purple stone here… is the button that activates the hidden circuits in the bracelets. Allow me to demonstrate…”

She grabbed one of the wrist bracelets and placed it in contact with his bare skin. A very subtle touch in her ring initiated the shock sequence. David felt the electricity running wild though his pores. The discharge lasted only a few seconds, but the pain was intense.

“Believe me when I tell you that the four of them together create a much worse feeling of discomfort. I’m going to place them now and only then I shall remove those chains, do you understand? Don’t be stupid enough to disobey me this time.”

He nodded, though he was obviously thinking of attacking her anyway. When all the bracelets were placed, she went to the back of his chair and got rid of the chains. A finger was ready to energize his new restraints at any time…

“You can step out of the chair now, but be careful… a sudden move can lacerate your body.”

David got up and stretched his legs. It felt good to be able to move them again. He looked at The Black Queen, observing the way in which she protected her ring. The distance between them was no more than seven feet, but if he jumped at her at that moment, he wouldn’t be able to hit her without being electrocuted first. That was a bad thing, since he wasn’t feeling too strong. He would have to play along with her for a while, long enough to get closer, long enough to distract her… too bad he didn’t know how to.

“You better do what she tells you for the time being.”

The voice that was calling him was clearly Gay-Yee’s. He felt really stupid for not listening to it in the first time.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll find a way out of here. For now, stop protesting and do what she tells you. You need to gain her trust and the best way to do that is to inflate her ego by showing her a little more respect. I know it’s hard, but you’ve got to do it.”

“I’ll do that. I’ll behave accordingly, then… if that’s what she wants… but I promise you I’ll kill her when I have the chance.”

“When that time comes believe me I won’t do anything to stop you. For now, try to be patient! You have to win her over with your new attitude…”

David shook his head and the voice in his consciousness was gone. The silence was short, yet it helped him clear his head for the difficult task ahead. Soon, The Black Queen was talking to him again and he had to pay attention to what she wanted:

“Enough with that stretching of yours! I’m beginning to get bored… walk very slowly towards the door. I want to show you something…”

“What exactly are we talking about?”

“You’ll find out in no time. Now, move!”

He started walking, never taking his eyes of her ring. Anyone could feel powerful with such torture devices… to him, it was just another way to hide her frailty. As he approached her, she started walking in circles, until he was facing the door and she was behind him. That way, it would be even harder for him to try anything against her, since he lacked an extra eye on the back of his neck to trail her movements.

“Open the door and look to your right. You’ll see a corridor that leads to a staircase. That’s where we are going.”

The corridor she mentioned it had its white walls decorated with large oil canvases depicting ethereal scenes. There were angels and demons engaged in a battle for the souls of men, a beautiful silver lake where fairy-like creatures were feeding the swans, and other by-products of a natural talent for representing the impossible. The artist’s signature was pretty much the same in every one of them. Unfortunately, it was always very fuzzy amidst the other splashes of colour and he couldn’t catch the name.

“I know what you’re thinking right now. Yes, they’re all my doing. I love the arts, and painting was always in my blood.”

“It seems a much nicer hobby to me than the one you have right now.” David replied. His answer wasn’t at all aggressive… he rather, let it slip out as if he was really impressed with her ability to create such a palette of light and shadow, good and evil.

“Quite frankly, I’m not interested in what you think.”

“I know. Still, they are good paintings…”

He heard her laugh.

“I see you’re now trying to resort to flattery. I like that, but I don’t believe in your sincerity. Keep those comments to yourself. We’re nearly there.”

Up the staircase there were four more doors. The first one opened to another hall, this one completely packed with more than one hundred monitors aligned and a secretary with a large array of switches and buttons. All the monitors showed different images of feverishly working men in what appeared to be a large office.

“You’re looking at the inside of my software company. The video surveillance system is connected to my house twenty-four hours a day so I can check on their progress. Not all of them are under hypnosis at the moment, but I’ve planted some renewable suggestions in their minds not so long ago to make them work more eagerly. My first game was designed in these premises, and just before release I’ve added the finishing touches. Now, I control the whole process behind it.”

“They’re making another game?”

“Of course they are, a much more sophisticated one, aimed at an older audience. I’m not interested in controlling just the sons anymore: I want the parents as well. ”

“Older people don’t usually play videogames.”

“I’ll make sure they do. You see… my new game will me more realistic, the next step in virtual reality. The hypnotic elements will be a natural part of the scenario from the beginning to the end. I’m preparing an ad based on such technology to entice the older ones to buy the game. Everything should be ready before the end of the year.”

“This is even worse than I thought”, his consciousness said. “This woman’s ambition is to control the world! I have to do something… real fast!”

“She’s too far, David…” Gay-Yee informed. “She’s at the secretary right now. You won’t be able to reach her.”

“I have to try. Don’t you understand? I really have to… I…”

The sudden jolt of energy made him fall to the ground, and he was baffled. How on earth… now she could read minds as well?

“You weren’t paying attention to what I was saying, David.” The Black Queen said. “That’s the price for your distraction. Now, get up and continue looking at the monitors. I’m not through with my revelations, yet.”

David had no choice but to do exactly as she told him. His muscles were reluctant, drained. The bracelets had sucked ten years of life out of him. Another one of those and he would probably faint… he had to calm down… start all over again… gain time.

Naturally, The Black Queen wasn’t going to give him that time. She had been playing with the glowing buttons, making the images change. The one hundred monitors combined, now exhibited kaleidoscopic, entrancing representations with the words “Sleep, David. Sleep for me…” flashing in and out at regular intervals.

Everything was pretty much the same as the images he had already seen, featuring only something new. The image of The Black Queen was no longer there… it had been replaced with something more appropriate for him: now, it was Gay-Yee’s face that dominated the set, a face he knew and loved… and hopefully, she thought, his subconscious mind wouldn’t consider being dangerous.

David tried to look away, but whenever he simulated the necessary movement, the electrical pain returned. After half an hour of such treatment, he past out…

… only to be awaken shortly after and see everything start all over again. The Black Queen wasn’t in a hurry. Deep in her head, she could almost smell victory.

For the remainder of the day, Gay-Yee’s face, intertwined with the lights and patterns, tempted David’s resistance. After six hours, he felt his eyelids getting heavier… and knew that evil was closer of finding a way through. The voices in his head were confusing: some of them were hardly human at all, but rather demonic.

He knew that wasn’t really her: that she was at home in South Korea, probably waiting by the computer, immersed in the young lover’s anxiety, as she daydreamed of their possible future together. It was a trick… created by a single picture… a delusion that would plunge him into everlasting darkness.

Yet, there are some things you can’t really explain to a loving heart, and this form of awareness was one of them. It’s true that love can be blind… and that the blindness eventually spreads to the rest of the body. It was about to happen just that.

After another hour, the mesmerism was nearly irresistible. He was sinking into a bottomless pit, by the second… as his feelings of love overwhelmed him. Feeling defenceless, his concentration on the image of his love never faded away, not even after the expected metamorphosis at the end of induction.

First, there was the moment where Gay-Yee and The Black Queen merged in a single entity. Following just that, the shapes of the beauty of the West became clearer… the power of the words grew with the power of her eyes…

“Sleep, David. Sleep for me…” The Black Queen spoke out loud.

Distracted, confused, in love with a dying vision… David heard her, and closed his eyes. The new hypnotic induction had trapped him …

“Well… that wasn’t so hard, after all, and all because you were in love with someone” she said to him. “Now that you are hypnotized, you can be reprogrammed too. I wonder what I’m capable of doing to your mind, right now… Let’s see… where shall I begin?”