A Taste of Her Own Medicine - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

The start of a new short story, commissioned by an anonymous Patron.

"Cheyenne," Rachel said patiently, glancing over the top of her clipboard. "Why don't we let Kendra speak?"

There was a part of Kendra that wanted to stick her tongue out at her mother, to rub it in her face, but that would only prove what the woman had been complaining about in the first place, which was how immature her daughter was. It was strange enough being here, listening to the therapist call her mother by her first name... She assumed her mother's friends did that, though Kendra wasn't allowed to, nor were her friends, so, for her, it was a rare.

"Fine," Cheyenne huffed. 

Kendra knew her mother well enough to see she was choking back a comment or two, no doubt about how Kendra couldn't have anything valuable to add to the conversation, since she had no experience with the real world... As if that wasn't all Cheyenne's fault. She hadn't let Kendra get a job when she was in high school, claiming she wasn't ready for it, and her grades would suffer, refused any suggestions Kendra had about going off and doing anything cool without her, didn't want her enrolling in a college too far away from her because Kendra still needed her... 

"I just feel like nothing I do is good enough for her," Kendra shrugged uncertainly, eyeing her mother nervously. She wasn't going to like this... But, as Rachel had pointed out to them multiple times, they had to be truthful if they wanted to make any progress towards repairing their relationship. "Like, ever..."

"And how far back do you think this goes?" Rachel asked gently. "Can you recall a time before that was the case?"

Kendra blushed, shifting on her chair. "I-I mean, not clearly," she said. "I do remember something that might have been the first time she made me feel this way, but not much before then..."

"Can you tell me about it?" Rachel requested. 

Kendra sighed, nodded. "I was, I think, four, and she was disappointed in me for how slowly I was potty training, when all of her friends' kids had mastered it when they were younger, and..."

"You were being willful," Cheyenne interrupted. "I could tell you knew when you needed to go, but..."

"Cheyenne," Rachel snapped. "That's very good, Kendra. I'd like you to tell me everything you can remember about that."

"I-I mean, that was it," Kendra told her. "Like I said, I was four, so my memories from then are pretty fuzzy."

"For your conscious mind, yes," Rachel agreed. "I suspect there may be more... If you're willing to try some hypnosis. If you aren't comfortable with that..."

Did people actually do that? Kendra had always assumed that was limited to movies, or TV shows... She'd never heard of anyone doing it in real life; on the other hand, she'd never spoken in depth with her friends who went to therapists about what happened in there, so what did she know? "W-We can try," she offered. "I don't know how good I'll be at it, but..."

"Wonderful," Rachel smiled. "Cheyenne, could you step outside for a minute? Have some water, maybe use the bathroom..."

"Fine," Cheyenne rolled her eyes, probably just as doubtful about all this as her daughter. 

"All right, Kendra," Rachel spoke softly, walking over to her desk and sitting down at it, turning the monitor around. "This might seem goofy to you, but I want you to take it as seriously as you can, all right? Just stare at the center of the pattern."

The monitor filled up with a constantly moving black and white swirl, making Kendra feel a little dizzy. "I-I..." she began.

"Shh," Rachel told her. "Just stare, and listen to my voice..."

Kendra did her best, but the swirl was making her feel so disoriented... "I-I don't..." she said after a moment, shaking her head, blinking, looking away. She flinched, seeing her mother sitting beside her, head slumped forward, eyes closed. "W-Wait, when did...?"

"It's all right, Kendra," Rachel assured the girl. "We can start whenever you're ready."

"Start... what?" Kendra frowned.

"This is just a little exercise that I think will help both of you," Rachel said. 

"B-But aren't you going to...?" Kendra glanced back at the monitor, glad to see that Rachel had now turned it back around to face her, taking away the swirl. 

"Don't worry about that," Rachel chuckled. "I have everything I need. Now, would you like to begin?" Kendra sighed, still confused, then nodded. Rachel snapped her fingers, and Cheyenne's eyes popped open, wide and innocent and fearful.

"Oh no!" she squealed, pressing her hands to her crotch, hopping up off of her chair, scrambling for the door... Only to stop halfway there. Kendra watched with a mixture of shock and bemusement as a dark spot appeared on the crotch of her mother's pants, then began to grow, quickly spreading down the legs, glistening as the liquid soaked through the fabric, began to trickle out, into a puddle below her...

"Didn't I tell you that you should use the bathroom?" Rachel clicked her tongue. "They never listen, do they, Kendra?"

"W-Wait," Kendra felt light-headed again. "D-Did she actually just...?"

"She did," Rachel confirmed. "I used your memories to put her into your state of mind from that day, as close as I could reconstruct. I didn't know she'd do this, but it does bring it even closer to that memory. Now, it's up to you, Kendra... If you'd like to show her how it felt, you can react the way she would have, or if you'd like to show her how you would rather have been treated, you could do that, too."

"S-So she really...?" That seemed so impossible, and yet... The way the woman was standing there, squirming and whimpering... She didn't seem at all like the adult version of her mother that Kendra knew. "She thinks she's four?"

"Well, basically," Rachel said. "It's complicated, but the quick answer is 'pretty much.' She definitely thinks that you are her mommy, however."

Kendra stood up, watching as Cheyenne shrank back, nibbling her bottom lip, tears glistening in her eyes. "I-I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I-I didn't mean to..."

"Look at this mess you made in the nice lady's office!" Kendra scolded. "Honestly, mo... Cheyenne."

The name tasted odd in her mouth, not quite right. She had friends whose parents let them call them by their first names, but it had always been a foreign concept to her... And now, especially, it felt inappropriate. "Honestly, Chey," she gave it another try. She would never, in a million years, have dreamed of using a nickname like that normally, and she heard a nervous giggle escape her throat at the idea of her mother's reaction.

"I-I'm sorry!" Chey repeated. "I-I thought I could hold it more, b-but then..." She went quiet, staring down at what was beneath her.

There was certainly a part of Kendra that would have loved to give her mother a taste of her own medicine, and Rachel had basically given her permission to do exactly that... That wasn't what she was supposed to do, though, was it? She was meant to take the high road... Or, at the very least, that's what she knew she ought to do, what wouldn't make her as bad as her mom in Rachel's eyes. It wasn't a competition, of course, and the therapist probably wasn't allowed to take sides officially, but surely there was some of that anyway, and Kendra wanted her to think that she was nice, and didn't deserve her mother's behavior.

"It's okay," she told the regressed woman. "It's only an accident... Everyone has them from time to time..."

"B-But I had it here," Chey pouted. "I-In front of mommy's friend..."

"She doesn't mind either," Kendra promised. "Just remember not to wait so long next time, okay?"

Chey wiped her eyes. "O-Okay, mommy..."

Rachel snapped her fingers again, and the hopeful smile on Cheyenne's face melted away, turning to horror and disgust. "What did you do?!" she demanded, glaring at Rachel.

"We can discuss that in a moment," Rachel told her calmly. "Kendra, would you wait here, please? I'm going to go help your mother find something to change into, and get her clothes washed."

Kendra nodded, smirking as she saw her mom attempting to hide the huge wet spot on her pants as she was taken out into the - thankfully empty, other than Rachel's secretary - lobby. It really was crazy, Kendra thought, how effective the hypnosis had been... She glanced at the closed office door, waiting a second, then two, before scurrying behind Rachel's desk.

All she'd intended to do was take a look at the name of the software Rachel had used to make that swirl, to see if she could learn more about it... At the bottom of the screen, however, she saw an open note-taking program, and, curiously, clicked on it, seeing a pair of files there, one for her, and one for her mom. Her mother's was the active one, and, while she did want to see what Rachel had written about her, she luckily scanned what was already on screen first, a sly smile forming on her face as she did.

'Hypnosis seems effective,' Rachel had written. 'Giving her the trigger phrase, "Are you mommy's sweet little girl?" as a shortcut, in case we need to return to this exercise in the future. Be sure not to use it in front of Kendra unless she is also under hypnosis.'

"Yes," Kendra agreed, taking a picture of the screen with her phone, "that probably would have been a good idea..."