The small condo that Mystery Inc. had rented for almost a year now was slightly lit up in the darkness of the midnight that had snuck onto Ohio. The Mystery Machine stood, as always, like a Flower Power sentinel outside the front door, and only the outline of the paint job could be seen with the faint illumination from the window.
Freddy stood just inside the door, the only member of the gang awake, sorting through a pile of letters that had arrived that morning. All were addressed to simply "Mystery Inc.", and Freddy was intrigued.
He didn't see the shadow slip by the door.
He did hear the sound of someone bumping into the Mystery Machine and cursing under their breath as they did so. Startled, he put the mail down on the little hall table and cautiously looked out, ready to bolt should the need arise. He knew he was being silly. Too cautious, as always. But that was what solving mysteries did to you. He was jumpier than he'd ever been, and smiled to himself as he made his muscles relax. If someone was out there, they probably didn't mean any harm.
"Who's there?" he called softly, looking out with one eye in the peephole in the door. He knew the clatter as the front door opened would wake the rest of the gang, and that was the last thing he wanted.
"Open the door."
"I can't," Freddy replied, now a little puzzled. The fright-and-flight reflexes were back; the voice was a little startling in its preciseness. It was a male voice, fairly young from what Freddy could tell.
"Open the door."
"Who are you?"
"No matter. Open it."
"Not until I know who you are."
"It doesn't matter!" the voice insisted, now growing angry. Freddy backed away slightly.
"OK. Goodbye."
He was an inch or so away from his previous position when a hand grabbed him, over his mouth, muffling the yell he gave hastily, hoping with all his heart that it would wake the rest of the gang.
It didn't.
Instead, the mystery man held a coin in front of Freddy as he struggled in the arms that held him, pushing him down, stopping any attempts at getting away.
"Do you really want to die?" the voice asked softly, tightening its grip on Freddy's mouth. Freddy knew what the guy was getting at. Submit, or be asphyxiated. He made himself lie still.
"Good. Clever boy."
Freddy clenched his fists, wishing he could see his attacker and punch him for that. In his nature, he wasn't violent, but this was a desperate situation and Freddy hated terms like "clever boy".
"Now. Watch the coin."
Hypnosis. He's trying to hypnotise me.
Freddy struggled again, but the man brought his spine back onto the table, stunning the nerves and stopping the fresh attempt to get free. Freddy gasped as pain shot up his back, knowing what had happened and resenting the man's knowledge of that attack. He was weakened now, and knew it. The hand around his chest loosened and moved to his throat, tightening around it.
Again, submit or die.
"One swift move and you're dead. Now lie still."
Freddy had no choice now. The pain in his crushed spine was crippling, and when he did try and move it was clumsy and uncoordinated. His eyes found the coin.
"Good, good. Do as I say. You are mine now. Your mind is mine, your body is mine. I will say what you do, I command you to obey. You have no choice but to obey me. I will always be there, watching you, and heaven help you should you disobey a command from me. Am I understood?"
Freddy nodded once, his eyes captured by the glare of the coin, unable to shift from it. A voice called his name from upstairs, and his ears heard it but his brain shut it out. You're busy now. Don't respond.
"You shall obey my every command," hissed the man, and Freddy nodded again, inside screaming for help, desperate, but on the outside as normal as ever.
Don't let him! Don't let him get you! cried his inner self. He'll never let you go!
But it was too late. Freddy was a fly caught in a spider's web. He couldn't resist the man, or the hypnosis.
The man reached forwards and placed a small object inside Freddy's ear, and it bleeped once and was silent.
"That will command you. I can hear you, and you can hear me. Do you understand? I will always be there, listening. You are powerless to resist. Yes?"
Freddy nodded once again, trapped.
"Freddy? Freddy, you OK?"
Daphne's voice travelled down the stairs. The man glanced up, knowing that if the girl saw him, the game was up. Instead he reached out and banged Freddy's head back hard, knocking him out, and vanished through the window he had opened so silently behind the curtain.