I found myself curled up in my patient’s lap, a smile on my face as I felt warm all over. I had to pause a moment to figure out if I was being hypnotized or not, but I really had no way of knowing for sure. I assumed I wasn’t, since I was able to think straight.

He slid his fingers through my hair as he looked down at me. “Good to see you’re awake.”

I yawned softly, resting my head against his chest. I suddenly realized something. “Wait, I have to get back to work!”

James’ voice came over the room’s intercom. “Actually, Jennifer, I’ve got some bad news for you.”

I blinked, rubbing the last bits of sleep out of my eyes as I glanced up and saw the camera was on. I wondered how long they’d been videotaping us, but I couldn’t imagine it looked good. “James?”

He sounded almost apologetic. “Yeah… One of the doctors decided you’d make a better test subject, Jennifer…”

I almost leapt to my feet, but my patient held me down gently. He shook his head. “Just listen to him.”

James continued. “Ah, I really don’t know what to tell you, Jen. I don’t really have any control over the decision.”

My mind raced with all sorts of thoughts. Who was the doctor? Why was I the new test subject? Had I done something all that wrong? Did it have to do with this patient? What was going to happen to me? What was the test?

My patient whispered something in my ear and I immediately melted against him, all my little anxieties briefly melting away as I smiled happily. “Yes, Master…”

James sighed over the intercom. “Take care of her, will you?”

“Yeah, I will.”

I cuddled up to Master a little more, blissfully unaware of anything going on around me. He continued to stroke my hair gently, an almost loving touch to it. “Just listen for awhile, Jennifer.

“I used to be a technician here, my name was Stan Goodman. One day, an unnamed doctor decided to use me as a test subject for some new experimental procedures and ideas. It turns out there’s a sect of the lab’s medical team that has that kind of leeway over the rest of us.

“He transformed my body to be that of an anthropomorph, partially to test out new procedure, but also to eliminate my previous identity. Seems a story was made up about Stan hacking into the system, and so he was sent away — so I couldn’t fall back on my old identity, as any proof of it I no longer have access to.

“The doctor also decided to outfit me with a new form of mind control. I was never really told the intricacies of how it works, but it’s an addiction. I have to control others’ thoughts and bodies every now and then. I don’t know what he intended to use me for, but that’s what he’s done.

“You, Jennifer, were slated to be a test subject. I was released as your patient, but I was told to try out my abilities on you and see their effectiveness. Now that they know how it works, they want to keep you around for further testing. Actually, they’re going to…” He paused for a moment. “They’re going to make you another test subject for the anthropomorphism wing that they’re developing.”

I only listened to what Master said because I knew he wanted to. He was somehow able to do all his mind control without ever actually verbally communicating anything — and I never heard his thoughts because they were in my subconscious. They had simply seemed like instinct to me, but they were really his hypnotic inductions and triggers working beyond my awareness.

But I didn’t want to become a new test subject. I was a doctor, and as boring as the work sometimes was, I wanted to continue doing it. I wanted to one day become head of one of the departments and maybe do something with my time here. I had no interest in what was apparently in store for me.

But all I could manage was a happy little moan for Master.

Day one of my imprisonment. They locked me in a room by myself and I apparently wouldn’t be getting much company. I had no idea what to do with all that time. I just lied on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to figure out how they would actually convince me to go along with a procedure to turn me into a half-animal.

I gave it some thought, too. I had always fantasized about being half-cat or something — I always thought it was really sexy. But I never thought to actually give up my life and give into living a fantasy. I mean, really — it would just be living in a dream world, right? I’d never get to leave the lab again, not someone as rare as me. Who knows what would happen. Who knows what kind of things the government would do to figure out who created me, why, and how to shut the place down.

Day four of my captivity. I finally figured out how they were going to try and get me to go along with this transformation and, ironically enough, it was hypnosis.

They brought me in to the neurology department of the cybernetics wing, which it turns out they had modified to now work with non-robots. I guess that was the minor malfunction that had been discovered and I assumed that’s why I was not informed about it, since it was primarily being changed for me.

A few lab assistants were there, but I didn’t see any doctors I recognized. The lab assistants strapped me into the chair, keeping my body pinned against it, as they then laid the chair flat, so that I was staring up into a screen. Then one of the lab assistants injected me with something. I flinched a little but, but there wasn’t much I could really do about it.

After a moment, I was left in the room alone. I heard a brief hum, then the screen flickered on in a pattern of slow, melting colors. It reminded me of a tie-dye lava lamp. I then heard a very smooth, monotone voice, but it didn’t sound like it was over an intercom. It sounded very clear.

“Relax, Jennifer… Relax…”

I didn’t want to relax, I knew they were trying to control me — but the lab assistant had injected me with something that made me feel really sluggish, but kept me awake. Some kind of anesthesia, maybe, I wasn’t really sure. I tried hard to focus on my surroundings, to not give in to whatever they were going to do to me.

“Just relax, Jennifer… Look at the screen, let your eyes follow the patterns… And relax…”

I wanted to shut my eyes, but something compelled me to watch the screen as I was told. Not out of obedience, I guess I just really liked the way it looked. My eyes flitted half-shut, then I snapped them back open, trying to fight against whatever drug had been injected into me. I found my gaze start to slowly ease along with the pattern.

“That’s right, Jennifer, just watch the colors and relax… All I want you to do is relax… Don’t think about anything, just watch the colors, feel how soothing they are, and relax…”

Again, my eyes drooped half-shut as I felt extremely drousy. I tried my best to fight it, telling myself, “You can’t relax, Jennifer, if you relax, they’re going to start hypnotizing you. Think about something. Anything. Like, um…” And wouldn’t you know it, when I tried to think of something specific, nothing came to mind.

It didn’t take long before I found myself just thinking about the melting and oozing colors. I found that my gaze seemed to just be pulled along by the myriad of pleasant colors as a slight smile crept along my face.

“Very good, Jennifer. Just feel your body melt against the chair like those colors… Just relax, just melt away…”

I gave an audible “mmm…” as I did what I was told, sinking against the chair comfortably. I felt my body start to just melt against the chair, like the colors. Wait, hadn’t someone just said that? Eh, whatever. It felt really good.

“Very good, Jennifer, just feel your whole body, from your toes to your fingertips to your head, everything… Just melt away…”

“Mm-hmm…” Not really in any position to fight the relaxation anymore, the monotone voice and drugs having their effect, I felt my entire body just give in to the melting colors and I lost every last bit of tension in my body as my eyes continued to float around the screen.

“You’re doing very well, Jennifer. Now, with your body so relaxed, so comfortable, just feel your mind begin to melt away, as well…”

This sent up alarms. I knew that was what they wanted in the first place and I tried to fight against it.

“There’s no need to fight it, Jennifer… You can see how good it feels to let your body relax, just imagine how wonderful it will feel to let your mind relax… Feel the colors in your mind…”

How can you feel colors in your mind? The thought confused me a little bit, but then I started to consider it. I started to feel my thoughts drift a bit, start to just kind of float and melt.

No! … What? What was I saying no to? I tried hard to focus on what it was, but I had a hard time thinking past that voice.

“Melting… Drifting… Relaxing…” Over and over, the voice repeated itself, and the more it did, the more I felt myself giving in.

Soon my entire consciousness was just floating and had completely melted away.

I don’t know how many days they did that to me. I could’ve spent weeks just going in and out of hypnotic trances. They didn’t actually command me to do anything — as far as I know — they just kept hypnotizing me over and over. Soon I didn’t even bother resisting in any form. They would strap me in, they’d bring up the screen, and in under a minute, I’d be putty to form as they wanted.

And the worst part was, I still had no idea who they were. I was just waiting for them to make me what they wanted, I was tired of spending my days in a trance with nothing to come of it.

So one day, I got my wish. They had me deeply under, as they had become extremely skilled at doing, and they began to change their pattern of wording.

“Are you open to my suggestions, Jennifer?”

My response sounded like I was involved in a far-away euphoria. “Yes…”

“You will do anything I tell you, isn’t that right, Jennifer?”

“Yes…”

“Would you ever think of disobeying me?”

“No…”

“That makes you an obedient patient, doesn’t it, Jennifer?”

“Yes…”

“Tell me. Tell me you are an obedient patient, you will do what I tell you.”

My mind drifted and melted. “I am obedient. I will do what you tell me.”

“Good, Jennifer. Have you ever fantasized about being anthropomorphic?”

“Yes. I’ve fantasized about being half-cat.”

“Is that so? Would you like to be half-cat?”

Even my subconscious knew that answer. “Not permanently…”

“Yes you do.”

My subconscious realized its error. “I want to permanently be half-cat…”

“Well, we are going to do that for you, Jennifer. How do you feel about that?”

I smiled lazily as I continued to float away, totally distant from everything, just feeling as happy and relaxed as I could. “Mmm…”

That went on for some time, but by the next day, I was already beginning my transformation. The first thing they did was a series of highly advanced surgeries that shaped my body to be more feline. They gave me a long tail, making it an extension of my spine — I spent several weeks in a trance recovering from that one. Then they removed my ears and implanted new, feline ones on top of my head, which they spent several days calibrating and fitting so that everything would relay correctly between my new ears and my brain. This, I also spent several weeks in a trance recovering from. They then broke my arches and reset them so that I would walk more feline — this took a great deal of time to recover from, as well. They did a series of other surgeries as well, and the only thing that didn’t take a great deal of time to recover from was the implant that would grow fur on my body — spotted, like a leopard.

They then brought me in for one more session of hypnosis.

“Good morning.”

I purred in my happy, euphoric trance. They didn’t even strap me in anymore, as I was utterly transfixed on the screen, my tail swaying back and forth slowly, almost hypnotically, itself.

“What is your name?”

“Jennifer O’Shea…”

“No. You will forget all you know about your past identity. Your new identity is the half-cat you have become.”

Without so much as a second thought, I was reborn. I had no identity anymore, I was a new person.

“Your master will give you a new name.”

Although my identity was gone, I remembered Master.

I purred loudly, happy that I would finally get to return to him.