✅1️⃣ Trusting the Babysitter

Chapter 8 - Baby's First Punishment

"I can do it myself," Claudia muttered, half sobbing. She sounded like she was at the end of her tether, and wouldn't be willing to play along with this game much longer.

"Yeah, she's embarrassed. I'll clean up–"

"No!" Lorelei growled again. "I said you do it. It's super mean. You gotta do the same. You put her in diapers. Cos she's a bad baby. Punish her! Now!"

"Okay," Adam relented in the face of Lorelei's determination. There was no room for disagreement there, so he followed Claudia out of the room and overtook her in the hallway. He grabbed her wrists at the bottom of the stairs and pulled firmly, forcing her to move faster to keep up with his brisk pace. He didn't stop when she stumbled but kept on pulling while she tried to keep her balance. He wished he could have been gentler, but there was no other option while she was hesitating like that.

"What are you doing?" she squealed as he hauled her towards the bathroom. She must have been aiming for her own room, but that wasn't the punishment Lorelei had decided on. "Let me go! I can change my own–"

"Do you have diapers, baby girl?"

"What is with you? Lori's still downstairs, you can drop it for a few seconds. Just let me get these pants off, we can tell her you punished me, okay? Why do you even care, I thought you'd be giving her a real spanking for throwing a tantrum like that. I've never seen her be that wild before, demanding everything she wants."

"She told me to punish you," Adam argued.

"If she told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?"

"Of... Oh crap. Would you piss yourself if she told you to?"

"No! I just... I don't know!" She was yelling almost as much as her little sister now, clearly upset and confused. "What the hell is going on today? What are you doing?"

"It's the drugs, isn't it?" He answered, mind racing as he tried to put his thoughts into words. There was too much to think about, too many details. Claudia's confused stare told him right away that she didn't know anything about St Jeremy's root or whatever it was; but she was also distracted enough to stop fighting him off, so that he could unzip her trousers without opposition.

"What are... drugs... tell me what's going on! And get your hands off my clothes you freak!"

Adam rocked back on his heels, and backed away half a pace. He mumbled something that could have been an apology, then took a breath while he looked for the right words.

"Your mum told me about this herb. It's supposed to do something to your brain and make you respect authority more, so like the rules are really important and you have to do what you're told. She gave it to Lorelei so she won't be a nightmare, and the babysitter so she can make some poor sap pay attention and work hard even if he's planning to slack off. Which I wasn't anyway. But I think it doesn't work like she wanted it to. It's like the kid tells me to do something and I didn't even think of disobeying. She told me to drag you upstairs and diaper you, and I couldn't see any other response. It's not just respecting authority, it's doing anything someone tells you. Even a little kid trying to cause trouble. No wonder everybody calls her a demon if she's like this."

"So you obey anyone?" She didn't seem convinced. "Slap yourself."

That brought a brief smile through the tears, and then Claudia shook her head. She was staring into space now, trying to think through the ramifications of what she'd just heard. Adam was quickly becoming sure that she was as smart as he'd expected, and as much as he wished she'd picked a different experiment, he couldn't deny that she'd made her point. He'd have to obey either of them, which wasn't the most enviable position in a war between siblings.

"You were trying to undress me," she said.

"I couldn't help it, she told me–"

"But you stopped when I said stop. That's useful. Means we can shut this down. Order her not to give any more orders, right? It's not like the genie granting wishes, where she could try to misconstrue the command. You said you didn't even think of disobeying, so that means it's on an instinctive level. Weakening the critical censor, perhaps. So you'll follow the order how you initially understand it, there's no weaseling around on technicalities. We can just tell her to shut up and she won't be able to demand anything until it wears off."

"Yeah. But... your mum didn't tell me about this until she came back. I guess she always does that, giving the stuff time to kick in. And Lorelei must have figured it out a long time ago. The drug's in the cupcakes, that must be why she didn't eat hers. I thought she was just playing with her toys, and then she wanted to share it like a peace offering. But when you said she could have half..."

"She ordered me to stick around and eat it. And I did. You're right, I didn't even realise anything was wrong. And then she made me..."

"Yeah. But right now you better get changed. It's clear she's got some kind of scenario in mind. Making you go through all the humiliation she had two years ago. Did the babysitter diaper her then?"

"Yeah. I thought it was a bit harsh, but it makes sense if you want to avoid a mess, I guess. But left me to get the sofa and the carpet clean, and put the laundry on. He yelled at her and then he was on the phone to his girlfriend again, leaving me to keep her entertained while I did my homework. Lazy ass, typical guy."

"Right. So if she's trying to recreate that day... I don't know. But she'll be upset if we didn't follow her orders, she'll just repeat herself. And neither of us can resist her right now, so we need to try to keep her happy. Okay?"

"You are not going to diaper me!" she snapped. "You already pulled my trousers down, and that's more than I want anyone to see."

"Right. But if I don't she'll order me." He stood up again and pushed the bathroom door closed, and then stood with his nose to the flimsy wood. "So I'll stand here, you can get changed, then I'll take your clothes down and put the laundry on. Use dirty towels to dry the puddle and put them on too, so your mum doesn't ask too many questions. I'd rather not have to explain all this, and it's probably less embarrassing if we just say she's trying to bully you by giving me orders. Don't say what she made you do."

"Yeah. But you're leaving the room."

"If I come out first, she'll know I didn't follow her orders. She'll try thinking of something else. Don't worry, I won't look. Have you even got any diapers?"

"There's some in the cupboard with all the cleaning stuff. The ones for bedwetters, they'll probably still fit me, perhaps. If not we can tell her that. Now, nose to the wall and don't look around until I tell you otherwise."

Adam nodded, and stared hard at the door. He didn't need to be told that, he'd always tried to do the right thing. But somehow it didn't feel so bad getting orders from Claudia. It just made it easier to resist any temptation, helping him to deny his own baser urges. He was sure now that he could cope with obeying orders until the stuff wore off, if he could just get Lorelei to shut up so that he could count on those orders being sane.