This story is another inspired by #hypnochan. A discussion of song lyrics as stories lead to me being quite carried away. Special thanks goes to Alice, Jack Bruce, Pete Brown, Grace Slick, and Eric Clapton. Also special thanks goes to my retiring editor, who when told I wanted to try going British for this piece, decided why not go a bit overboard? That said, my editor insists on taking personal responsibility for any mistakes in the conversion process—whereas I just hope you all enjoy!
The White Album
Chapter 1: White Room
Alice’s eyes blinked open slowly. She didn’t remember where she should be waking up. She just knew it wasn’t there. There, or here by her perspective, was a very white room. Everything shined in a way that screamed professional and sterilised. The cabinets and the strange monitors with various lines and waves screamed hospital.
The detail that didn’t seem very hospital, or at least like any hospital she had visited before were the buckles and straps held down her arms, her legs, and her waist. Alice tried to struggle free, but only felt the smooth bonds rub in an alluring fashion across the black hospital gown she was certain she was not supposed to be wearing.
She remembered talking to a woman with intense, dangerous eyes. Staring inside them had felt like staring into a dark jungle while being a little too close. In retrospect, the young woman thought, once you can see the tigers crouching it’s already too late.
Her eyes fell back to the monitors as she tried to slow her breathing and to maintain some form of calm. I should be hyperventilating. I’m entirely too calm. They must have drugged me. She must have drugged me. It had to be her. Those eyes . . .
Even the monitors were shiny white plastic, their displays a friendly green on black. None of them were labelled with anything but acronyms she failed to recognize. She tried struggling more, only to find the hospital gown slid higher each time she moved her hips. While she knew she was wearing panties when she’d been at the party, she doubted she still was.
She ceased struggling.
Besides the green, no other colours stood out amongst the overpowering white. The only place she could rest her eyes comfortably was on a pair of long, ornate curtains. They stretched from the ceiling to the floor, edges lined with a darker black that reminded her of a pattern she’d seen on a dress once a long time ago.
‘You’re awake. And to think, you said no strings could secure you.’ Alice would have screamed if she’d felt any less calm. The crisp white door had opened and closed since she’d passed it with her eyes. There had been no sound. She was sure there had been no sound. She’d never been so certain of anything. ‘Lovely. I love that look of fear as things start to click together. Don’t worry. You’ll be able to feel more than mild fright eventually. You just won’t ever have any reason to, ever again.’
‘What are you doing to me? How did I get here? Where is here? How did you-’
‘Shhh.’ The familiar woman placed a pale finger to her softly painted lips. Her dark crimson nail caught Alice’s eyes as she tried to remember her name, or fight against the urge to fall into silence. Alice’s lips sealed on their own, and the other woman smiled more. ‘Perfect. You’re in lovely blackroof country here. No gold pavements, my tired starling. But, we are quite near The Station. The other questions you asked don’t matter. Have any that do?’
Alice closed her teeth around her lip and whimpered. One out of three questions answered, and she wasn’t even sure she understood a third of that. Thinking of the situation as anything less than a losing battle felt impossible.
Desperate to have some questions answered to distract herself from how exposed and helpless she felt, Alice reached out her voice towards the first question that came to mind. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Kate. My name is Kate.’ Alice almost regretted asking. Knowing the woman’s name was Kate didn’t change anything. If anything, it meant she more intimately knew her abductress. Intimacy was the last thing on her mind besides procuring a pair of pants.
A simple, slow beat echoed through the room as Kate inspected the monitors. Alice couldn’t tell if the straps holding her down had electrodes or anything else pressing against her body, and she was sure she didn’t feel any needles. She wanted to ask what the devices were monitoring, but she didn’t feel like she would get an answer. She already felt so tired. Being refused again sounded so exhausting. Only just awake, her eyes already felt heavy.
After what felt to Alice like an eternity. Kate pulled away from the monitors and stood before the curtains. ‘Now, as you wait in this place where thoughts are shadows, and shadows run from themselves, I shall leave you with a little something to keep you occupied. And in case you were hoping for sunlight? Dawnlight shall smile on your leaving.’
With a simple tug, the curtains opened to reveal not a window, but a television. Alice whimpered. She didn’t know why. She also didn’t know why she couldn’t look away. The screen illuminated first with images of silver horses galloping in a stampede. They ran upon moonbeams that when the camera zoomed out farther were within Kate’s eyes.
Kate. Alice had hardly noticed Kate leave the room while she watched those horses run through her eyes. Their glistening forms filled her mind with half-formed concepts. Shadows withdrew as her mind was illuminated by those long graceful moonbeams, leaving Alice almost feeling as though the thoughts horses were running from Kate’s eyes into her own.
Alice waited.
Alice moaned.
Hours or days, Alice lost track of how long she had been in the white room with black curtains. Kate’s eyes were her world, and the thoughts that rushed from that world into hers were more and more familiar. Beautiful dark eyes no longer seemed dangerous. They seemed dominant. They seemed powerful.
Like a girl waiting in a queue for a train to come, Alice eagerly watched each new image that came onto that screen. At first she had longed for a window, but now the screen was better than any window.
A nurse, she thought her name was Sammy, had visited once or twice. Something had been injected into her arm. Alice hadn’t cared. Sammy always kissed her forehead, a consolation for a wound that as soon as it occurred was too old and then forgotten.
She slept in those eyes.
She dreamt in those eyes.
Alice remembered Kate had been so kind in such a frightening crowd of people. She’d been invited to a party where she’d known no one. Kate had sought her out. Kate had been the only warm place to hide.
And then Kate’s eyes . . .
Alice slept, and Alice dreamt.
Her only dream was Kate.
Straps pulled away from Alice as the black curtains fell shut. ‘Say goodbye to your windows, my tired starling.’ Kate stood over Alice. She no longer felt concerned that she was unaware the other woman had entered. Instead she was glowing in the bliss that Kate was there at all.
‘Oh yes! Goodbye, windows!’ No longer was there a television behind the curtains. There were windows. There had always been windows. Always. They showed the dawn.
A dress and lacy undergarments fell onto Alice as the straps finished withdrawing. ‘It’s time to dress, little one. Restless diesels await. We’ve a holiday to take, you and I. To think I walked in on such a sad time, and now, you need no longer sleep with the lonely crowd, those poor, poor shadows.’
Empty but giddy, Alice nodded and tore off her hospital gown, exposing herself excitedly to Kate. Her dark eyes traced along Alice’s every curve. They felt like the dawn’s loving embrace, waking her from such a long sleep.
Sliding on the lace took entirely too long but soon she was dressed anew. The glittering fabric was barely more concealing than the hospital gown, but it was tighter and definitely drew Kate’s eyes. That was all that mattered to Alice. That was all that would ever matter to Alice.
Alice rose from her bed and wrapped herself around Kate’s arm. She felt thankful that the curves of her bust so perfectly melted around the other woman’s flesh. It was where she belonged. Pretty eye-candy for a wealthy socialite.
Her thighs trembled. She had waited for years in a place where the sun never shined, and now every other moment Kate’s eyes drifted along her body.
As they walked out of the white room, Alice felt her own need just beginning.