Rob, the New Scupture

The day had been nothing if not a rollercoaster, Rob admitted to himself. It had started out as a most normal day. He woken up in his bed, not quite remembering where he was. But that was something he knew he would get used to as he lived longer in the city. It had only been a week, after all, since he had moved from his home town to try to make it as a model. The realization still gave him a thrill, but it was still disconcerting, as always.

He’d prepped for the day, trying to do something with his hair and wondering for the umpteenth time whether he should lay out the money for professional styling. It would cut into the reserves he was living on quite a bit, but maybe it would improve his chances. Or maybe the agencies won’t like it and it’ll hurt them, he retorted to himself, still see sawing. He’d tabled the argument, as he had so many times, and left to do his daily circuit of the agencies.

One of the Agencies had said they were interested finally, after two had said not to come back again, so Rob had been riding high when he’d left to get some lunch back at his place. Which is why, when he pulled away from the curb, he didn’t check his mirrors and CRRRUNCH!

Rob had glanced in his mirror and his heart had fallen into his shoes. It was a limousine, an expensive one at that, and he plowed right into it. He saw all of his savings (and maybe more) going up in smoke. But when he had gotten out of the car to talk to the driver and exchange information, the passenger had called him over and asked him if he ever thought of going into modeling. Responding that he had just left an agency trying to get in, Rob was invited inside as the limo pulled to the curb to wait.

The interior of the limo was immaculate, as was the man inside. Mr. Nott (for that was his name) had explained that he was in the industry and was always trying to get new talent in. He waived off the damage to his car, which was a relief to Rob, saying that it was a small price to pay for finding Rob. Mr. Nott’s said that as long as Rob worked hard he would easily make it back, but that he had to really focus on the work. To throw his entire self into the role. To listen to the instructions of those he worked with. To follow exactly what the photographers told him to do. To do nothing else. To think nothing else. To just let the others do the thinking, To-

The blare of a siren had jolted Rob out of the conversation, and they’d both stepped out of limo. Rob had explained the accident, insurance information had been exchanged, all the normal stuff of an accident. At the end, though, after the police had moved on, Mr. Nott gave Rob a card and asked him to be there promptly at 4:30.

The rest of the afternoon Rob had been alternately incredibly excited and incredibly nervous, and he’d shown up right on the dot. Apparently the top floors of the address was Mr. Nott’s residence, and Rob had been ushered out to the roof, where Mr. Nott kept a garden, which was where Rob was waiting now.

Still anxious, he paced back and forth until Mr. Nott emerged from the house a few minutes later. “Rob, my boy, good to see you could accept my invitation!”

“Glad to be here, Mr. Nott.” Rob said humbly.

“Call me Latham, please.”

“ Okay, Latham.”

“Now, like I was saying before, I’ll waive any damages to my car, but you have to put one hundred percent into this job.”

“Oh, I will, I will.”

“Good, my boy. Now the first thing we got to do, then, is get you comfortable in front of the camera. So what I want you to do is just to start posing, and I’ll start taking pictures with this here.” He patted the camera case he had brought out with him.

And so they started out, Rob doing some flexes and Mr. Nott giving him encouragement. The hardest thing for, Rob, though, wasn’t being in front of the camera, it was the strobe on the cameras flash. The pulsing it did was really distracting. “Mr. N- Latham, is there any advice you can give me about that strobe? It’s kinda making it hard to focus,”

“Yeah, a lot of models I know say that. They say what you need to do is practice focusing on it, so you get used to it and can focus on the lens when you get to a real shoot. Why don’t you do that for now?”

“Okay, Latham.” And for the next few shots, Rob stared directly at it. The patterns were kind of pretty, he realized. It was kinda… soothing to watch them. “Yeah, it think it’s helping.”

“Good, now why don’t you just relax a bit, kid, you’re kind of tense, and that can show.” Rob felt his body relax almost involuntarily. “Exactly, good. Now, like I was telling you in the limo before, one of the key things is you gotta follow the instructions of the photograper, right? He knows what he’s doing and the shot he wants, so you gotta relax into it and work with him yeah?”

“Right.” Rob said dreamily, still looking at the pretty lights, his mind having a hard time thinking of anything else.

“So you have to follow instructions, repeat it.”

“I have to follow instructions.” Rob said.

“And my first instruction was to relax, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Rob’s head was starting to whirl, finding it harder and harder to think.

“And so you do, it, don’t you? With each flash, with each click of the camera, each second that passes you relax into it more and more.” Mr. Nott took more pictures. Rob’s head was too fuzzy to really be able to keep count, as the whirrs and clicks and flashes and drove it further and further off balance. His arms and legs felt heavy, and it was getting harder and harder to stay in pose,

“Good, good, I can tell you’re really relaxing into it. Don’t worry about the posing, you’re hitting them just fine. You don’t need to worry at all, you’re a natural. Just follow along.”

The relief Rob felt with that comment swept over him, driving his mind further into the whirling mire the pretty lights were making him feel. He was so relaxed that the next instruction didn’t even phase him at all. “Take off your shirt boy.” Rob peeled off the shirt with out him really thinking to do it, and he tossed it to one side.

“Excellent, Mr. Nott said, a sly grin appearing on his face. He took a few more pictures, and then commanded. “Now, drop your pants.”

Rob’s mind was barely functioning at this point, and seemed to try to balk at this, but the thoughts were too slow. “Wha…buh…” Rob said, trying to form an objection.

“You have to follow instructions, remember? Your not there to think, you’re there to carry out instructions. You don’t have to think. You don’t want to think. You just carry the instructions out, no matter what they are. Do that and everything will turn out perfectly.”

“Don’t… have… to… think…” Rob responded, his mind falling completely into the mire.

“Precisely, my boy. You just obey everything told to you.”

“O…bey.” His mind now empty, still staring at the strobe on the camera, Rob unzipped his jeans and pulled them to his knees, following instructions.

Mr. Nott smiled broadly. This one was coming along just fine. This first session would establish everything, and over the next few months he’d drill it till the boy was his empty headed puppet. It would take a few months to totally eradicate the boy’s free will, but he wanted to put some time between the accident and the disappearance. That way the case would just become another statistic, and the boy would become his next mindless obedient mannequin.