The Accident - Part 2

Mia was the last person in the office, as usual. It was important to set a good example for her subordinates, especially since she’d only recently been promoted. She smiled as she worked. Her life was coming together nicely. It was everything she’d ever wanted; a high-powered job, a daughter to mould in her image, a hot lover on the side... There was that small issue with Richard, but with her income she was certain she’d be able to take him to pieces in the divorce, and any judge was sure to give custody of Susie to her over him. She could always marry William instead, if she decided Susie needed a male influence in her life.

The door to her office opened, and she looked up, startled. She’d been sure she was the only person left in the building, and moreover the man who’d entered wasn’t one she recognised. With his neat hair and his white coat and his easy-going smile, he didn’t look like a burglar, but she eyed him warily all the same. Judging by his coat, he probably worked in research and development – a lot of them she didn’t know by sight. She’d heard they were a bunch of nerds with no social skills, down to a man.

“Hi, little Mia,” he said brightly, dumping a travel bag down on the floor and walking towards her.

Mia bristled. Little Mia?! Who did this loser think he was?

“What do you want?” she demanded. “What’s your name?” She was going to report him to HR first thing tomorrow. He could suffer a demotion or two, and a very long course on how not to talk down to women in the workplace, especially women who were his superiors.

“I have a little something to show you, sweetie,” he said, in the same tone a kindergarten teacher might have used on a particularly slow student. Mia felt herself going red. This man was going to get fired.

“I’m not your sweetie,” she snapped. “And I asked you-”

“Here,” he said, putting his phone down on her desk. “This should explain everything.”

Mia looked down at the screen. She tried to look away again, but she couldn’t. It felt as though the shimmering lights were pouring into her skull, spinning around and around and around, spiralling deeper and deeper into her mind. There was sound as well. Music, she thought, tinkling music like something to go with a nursery rhyme, accompanied by a rush of indistinct whispering voices. She felt dizzy. Her vision swam in front of her, and only the swirling colours remained in her sight. Where was she again? She wasn’t sure. There was only light and sound, bright lights like fireworks and sweet, gentle voices behind the softest of music. But it kept going, getting brighter and louder, until the lights were blinding and the soft music echoed thunderously inside her head, until it was all too much…

And then the lights and the sounds were gone, and Mia was sitting at her desk again. The phone’s screen was black; she could see her expressionless face reflected in its surface. She blinked. She tried to speak, but her lips wouldn’t move. She tried to turn her head, but nothing happened.

“Look at me,” said the strange man, and Mia’s neck tilted up automatically. She felt sick fear bubbling up inside her stomach. What was going on here?

The man smiled and patted her on the head. “That’s a good girl,” he said, still speaking to her as if he were addressing a small child. “Sitting pretty for the doctor.” He sat down in the chair opposite her desk. “There’s no need to worry, Mia. You’re in safe hands. I promise everything is going to be alright. My name is Dr Smith. And a doctor is just what you need, because you see… you’re about to have a little accident.”

Mia went cold. An accident? She didn’t know what was going on here, but it was clearly nothing good. This neat, smiling man was dangerous. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get her legs to move. Her body was frozen still. She could only sit there at her desk with her hands folded meekly in her lap like a doll’s.

“But you don’t have to worry about that just yet,” the doctor went on. “We’re going to have a little talk first… I want you to close your eyes and imagine that we’re inside your mind.”

Mia closed her eyes. She didn’t want to make herself any more vulnerable than she already was, but she couldn’t stop herself. Her body was acting on its own, completely out of her control.

“Good girl!” the doctor said. “Now, what we’re going to do is think of all the things that make you an adult, okay? So to start off with, I want you to imagine everything you ever learned in school, from kindergarten all the way through to college. That knowledge is certainly an important part of your adulthood. You don’t need to think of specifics, just hold the concept in your mind. All the formal education you’ve ever had… I want you to picture it as a pink bubble floating in your mind. So pretty, but so fragile too. You have to be very careful or else it will pop! And you wouldn’t want that to happen, Mia, because if the bubble pops then everything it represents will vanish from your mind forever.”

Mia did as she was told. All her education, from corporate law to the alphabet, was soon floating in her mind as a pale pink bubble. She felt anxiety gripping her. If the bubble popped, it wouldn’t really be gone forever, would it? What was this doctor freak planning to do to her?! She couldn’t lose her education! She imagined herself being unable to read or count to ten, stuck with the vocabulary of the littlest of toddlers, and felt sick. This had to be a joke, some kind of twisted prank, a magic act that had gone too far.

“Well done, little lady!” said Dr Smith. “Now, what’s another thing that makes you an adult? How about your maturity? That’s pretty essential, isn’t it? Adults have all kinds of barriers in their minds that make them not want to do the sorts of silly, embarrassing things they did when they were babies. Their dignity and self-control and modesty gets in the way. So let’s take all those things and turn them into a pretty pink bubble too. You’ll have to be extra careful with this one, Mia, because if it pops then you’ll lose all your inhibitions, everything that tells you childish things aren’t fun, everything that stops you from acting like a messy, rambunctious little toddler. You’ll be the silliest little girl in a grown-up’s body!”

Mia let out a quiet whine, but did as Dr Smith instructed, imagining the bubble forming in her mind, floating in the void alongside the other one.

“In fact,” the doctor continued, “I know for certain that if that bubble pops, you’re going to have the sweetest little habits. You’re going to have a hard time keeping things out of your mouth; your dummy, your thumbie, even your little toesies! You’ll love to lie on your back and shove your toes in your mouth! It will make you feel so silly that you won’t be able to get enough of it. And you’ll also love to strip off and run around with your pretty boobies out. You won’t really get why they’re so big and bouncy, but you’ll love the way they jiggle about. It will feel so wonderfully silly to run around topless. I bet you’ll want to show off your boobies to everyone you meet!”

Mia’s face was burning at the very idea. She could feel the doctor’s words like they were real, living things, wriggling their way into her head, and she could see herself in her mind’s eye giggling and rolling around on the floor, trying to get her feet in her mouth just like Susie had done when she was littler. She could see herself marching up to strangers, yanking up her shirt, and lisping, “Wook at my boobieth!”

The bubble finished taking shape and she groaned with mingled terror and shame. She wanted desperately to believe that none of this was possible, that it was all some bizarre attempt to frighten her – but then how had he frozen her body? If he could make it so she couldn’t move, didn’t that mean these other things were possible too? If the bubbles popped…

“Good job, Mia,” said Dr Smith. “Now there’s something else that makes you an adult, isn’t there? Something very important.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “You’re potty trained.”

Mia tried with all her might to open her eyes, to get up and flee, but her muscles didn’t so much as twitch.

“Babies don’t know how to use something as grown-up as a toilet,” said Dr Smith, “or even a little plastic potty. They don’t know how to hold it when they need to do a pee-pee or a poo-poo, so they have to wear big, crinkly diapers at all times of the day and night, don’t they? So be a good girl and make your potty training into a pretty bubble, Mia. Everything you’ve ever learned about what a toilet is and how to use it and how to know when you need to go.”

Mia did it. The pink bubble formed inside her mind.

“You know what will happen if this one pops, don’t you, Mia? All those thin, sexy panties, the ones you like to slide down your legs for your lover, will have to go. You’ll have something much more appropriate on your cute little bottom; a nice thick nappy for you to pee and poop in. A real adult will change it when it gets too full, because you’ll be far too silly and little to change it yourself. All those complicated tapes will be way beyond you! Besides, you might not even know when you need changing. You’ll just go in your pants without a second thought. But there won’t be any shame. In fact, being seen in a loaded diaper will be so silly that I bet you’ll be really fussy about having them changed. You’ll love nothing more than squishing about all day in a big, stinky nappy!”

Why was he doing this to her?!Mia screamed inside her head. Who was this man? How did he know about her lover?

“Alright, Mia. You can open your eyes now.”

Mia opened them, looking fearfully into the doctor’s face.

He laughed. “Your husband hired me,” he said, speaking to her for the first time like she was an adult. “He found out you were planning to get a divorce.”

Mia’s eyes widened. Richard was responsible for this?!

Dr Smith snapped his fingers, and Mia felt her body suddenly unfreeze. She shoved the chair back and staggered to her feet, backing away quickly until she hit the wall behind her. Her eyes darted towards the door.

“There’s no point trying to run, sweetie,” said the doctor. “Now stand still like a good girl while the doctor tells you what’s going to happen next.”

Mia started breathing very fast, but she stayed where she was, not daring to run.

“Like I told you before, you’re going to have an accident, Mia,” said Dr Smith. His voice was calm, back to its gently condescending tone, but his eyes were glinting maliciously while he spoke. “A little fall. It won’t be a bad fall. You won’t even get any bruises. But I’m afraid it’s going to make all those pretty pink bubbles pop.”

“Nooooo…” Mia whimpered, tears spilling down her cheeks. “No, no, no, no no…”

“Yes, Mia,” said the doctor, his smile turning into a grin. “You’re going to be a very special girl. But don’t worry, your Daddy and your big sis are going to take such good care of you.”

Big sis? Susie?! “Please!” Mia begged, her eyes wide and horrified. “Don’t do this! My daughter needs me!”

“And she’ll still have you,” Dr Smith said, smirking. “Just not as a mother. I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful baby sister to her. She’s going to love dressing you up and playing silly games with you. You’ll probably worship the ground she walks on. She’ll seem so grown-up to you, feeding herself and going to school and using the potty, while you’re stuck at home in dirty diapers, utterly dependent on your Daddy for everything.”

For a moment, Mia stared into the doctor’s pitiless face, then she ran. She bolted for the door as fast as she could, but Dr Smith’s amused, sing-song voice called after her, “Time to have an accident, Mia!”

Mia felt an awful sense of vertigo. She put her arms out to balance herself, but it was no good. She toppled in place for a moment, terrified, then fell down hard on her bottom… and all three bubbles popped.

Uh-oh, thought Mia, and then it was all gone, her knowledge and her maturity and her potty training too. She looked around. She didn’t remember why she’d been running, but she knew she’d fallen down and gone boom... She wondered for a moment if she was going to cry, but no, she wasn’t ouchie anywhere. She looked at the man standing above her and said the only thing that came to mind. “Oopsie!”

The man laughed and Mia gurgled happily up at him. She got to her feet with the man’s help. What a nice man! She hoped he’d take her to her Daddy. She missed her Daddy. And her big sissy too.

A warmth blossomed suddenly in her pants. She lifted up her skirt and peered at her undies, where a dark wet patch was spreading rapidly. They were soaked through in an instant, and pee-pee ran down her legs and into her socks, and more drenched the carpet. She was having an accident! The man laughed again, and Mia giggled too. She was such a silly baby!