26 My Mongrel (1)

In 1961, Lifton published his book "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism" where he defined 8 techniques that are commonly used to reform the way an individual thinks and reasons.

Those 8 techniques were: Milieu Control, Mystical Manipulation, Demand for Purity, Confession, Sacred Science, Loading the Language, Doctrine over Person, and Dispensing of existence. Those techniques were the tip of the iceberg when it came to unfreezing the mind.

Unfreezing is the process of disconnecting an individual from their past, manipulating and enhancing their vulnerability to make them susceptible to change. It's a process typically used by Cults, religious organisations and terror groups; it's the first step towards radicalisation.

When you successfully unfreeze an individual you can change or rather warp that individuals sensibilities. You can make a nice and ordinary man a murdering sexual predator. A good mother will become neglectful. A doting Father would become capable of killing his children in cold blood and so on.

I've always been a fan of mind manipulation techniques, especially unfreezing, changing and re-freezing. The mind is a fragile instrument and it's very interesting in the ways that it can be twisted and turned. If you can play with a mind then you can essentially create your own slaves who are enamoured with you, your doctrine and your ideals. Manson was good at it so was Koresh and more recently Miscavige.

I personally was never good at it. Maybe because I'm attracted to wilful people who like to put up a fight. I did all kinds of things to Melody, to attempt to unfreeze her. I locked her away from people. I starved her and tortured her, I showed her kindness and love as well, yet I never could make her mine in that regard.

Of course, I didn't always fail, there had been one time when I succeeded in making someone my follower.

It happened during my childhood.

There was a girl named Diane, who had been raised in the church with me. She had been meek; friendly but quiet, and like many children growing up in our Parish, she was a toy of Father Johnson.

At first out of boredom, I ostracized her.

I made the other children spread rumours about her seducing the Clergymen and praying to Devils. With her having to visit Father Johnson's room once or twice a week in the night, it wasn't hard for these rumours to spread. Then I slowly made her rely only on me. I encouraged the other children to bully and assault her.

They degraded her, made her cry, treated her like a dog. Every time just before she passed out I'd appear to save her. Naturally, she began to rever me like a God.

She became a small puppy that hung on my every gesture and sound. It was endearing how loyal she was to me.

During her days of abuse, I was her only light, so it was easy for me to put ideas in her head.

The first idea was that the world had been overrun by demons and that we were the only humans left.

The second idea was that we were put on the world to kill and slay all the demons.

I had said all that playfully, but she took every word to heart.

In the oncoming weeks, she snuck out at night and left Church grounds. Nobody knew what she was up to until the police came and arrested her. Apparently, she had broken into several homes and killed three families while they slept in their beds. She also murdered three of the church boys who had been bullying her, and their bodies were later found buried in the courtyard.

I can still remember the wide smile she had on her face while she was being escorted in cuffs. I felt so proud when she whispered into my ears, "This is only the start. We will get rid of all the demons."

Unfortunately, that never did happen, she ended up being sent to a mental institution and dying there at the age of 14 during an electrotherapy session, it was the 50s.

Min Ho reminded me of Diane.

However, unlike Diane he was a grown man with his own ideology firmly set in him, to make him loyal to me I needed to unfreeze and thoroughly break him first. But a two-year-old wouldn't be capable of that. That's why I bought him to Golden Hoove. I had intended to push him in this place or have his sensibilities warped in some way....but....this was beyond my expectations.

Seeing him all beaten and chained up while being escorted to his first match, made me feel elated.

This would be the start of the extreme conditioning he needed to go through to become my slave. It seemed that leaving him with Kang Seung had been a good decision.

....

"It seems to be him!" Sang Min laughed loudly while wrapping his bulgolgi in lettuce and placing more meat on the grill, "How entertaining! I wonder what he did to make Seung nominate him. He must have offended him somehow."

"Hmmm"

I didn't say anything.

There were various ways in which Min Ho could have gotten on Kang Seung's bad side. Min Ho was quite expressive, and he likely displayed his discomfort, or he saw something and protested or tried to help someone when he shouldn't have helped.

Regardless of what he did, it didn't matter.

It didn't matter how Min Ho offended Kang Seung, what mattered was the result.

How desperate would these matches make him?

***

IN THE ARENA

"It is time for the Clash of the Newcomers!" yelled the short presenter in his Plague Doctor mask. "We've had some exciting first-timers, and now we have a newcomer who's been recommended by Kang Seung himself!"

The crowd cheered and went wild.

The presenter hopped towards Kang Seung, "Sir Kang, please tell us the name of your nominee and what we should expect."

He respectfully put the microphone under Kang Seung's chin.

Seung made a nasty grin, "His name is Pathetic Bitch."

The crowd burst out into laughter, cheers and hoots.

"You should expect nothing, except for him to be pummelled. You will see a bloody shit show."

"WOOHOO!!!!" The crowd cheered and people began laughing at Min Ho and chanting things like, "Pathetic Bitch die in a Ditch", "Get fucked up!"

***

In the torture room, Sang Min cackled while feeding me a tender piece of Bulgolgi. "6 out of ten for the rhyme, though the cheer is a bit unoriginal" he said, "You know a decade ago we used to sell stones to audience members and they'd chuck rocks at the weakest fighter, now that was fun."

"Oh" I raised an eyebrow, "Why did you stop, that sounds great."

"Well contestants cost money and they usually belong to someone. Stoning someone is amusing, but when they died from the stoning VIP members weren't happy, this is a business after all not a cult. People mainly only come here for three reasons: to kill, to be entertained, or to make money."

I nodded, it made sense, although it was a shame. I could imagine Min Ho being pummelled by rocks. To be nearly killed by a mob, that sense of uselessness and fear would make him such a pathetic piece of art.

I wanted to see that, but then again if he died so easily my plans would be ruined.