Whether all made up and dressed to the nines, or groggily fumbling for her coffee in a nightshirt and bare feet, Jenny always managed to look sweetly adorable and incredibly desirable at the same time. This morning, in full-on groggy/nightshirt/fumbling mode, she minimally succeeded in sweeping her long blonde hair out of her face, as she mostly succeeded in not spilling the steaming contents of her tightly grasped mug.
Fully awake and groomed after a shower and her own mug of coffee, Libby smiled knowingly at her friend’s pre-caffeinated ordeal. She wore a sweatshirt, leggings, and no shoes, completely owning the outfit and making it both attractive and presentable. Looking and living less the extremes that Jenny did--she was neither as exceptionally pretty, nor nearly as much of a mess--suited her and made her happy.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Libby said, as Jenny exited the kitchen and took a seat next to her at the dining room table.
“Ditto,” Jenny managed to utter between sips of coffee.
“How are you feeling?”
“Hangover free,” Jenny said with a thumbs-up, then with a thumbs-down, “but tired as hell.”
“Understandable.”
“Which part?”
“Both. You didn’t drink. But you didn’t sleep much, either.”
Jenny crinkled her nose, as she tried to make sense of Libby’s words.
“Not getting you. Either you or the coffee is defective.”
“What do you remember about last night?” Libby asked.
“Pretty much nothing,” Jenny said with a frown. “That’s why I’m thinking I drank. A lot.”
“You didn’t. Neither of us did.”
“Drugs?”
“Nope.”
“Nope on dope. Great. The ‘rents will be proud. Head trauma?”
“No.”
“Excellent. The ‘rents will be relieved. So, any thoughts on why I can’t remember last night?”
“Yep.”
“Please don’t wait for the formal invitation. It’s in the mail. Do tell.”
Libby laughed, then finally acquiesced to end the mystery.
“Hypnosis,” she said.
“Hypnosis? I knew it. That was my next guess. Actually it was my first guess, right before drugs. But I didn’t want to spoil it for you.”
“You knew you were hypnotized last night?” Libby asked with unabashed surprise.
“Oh, yeah,” Jenny said with a confident nod.
“You’re full of it.”
“You’re right, I am. I don’t remember being hypnotized. Because I wasn’t. Because you’re full of it.”
“No, I’m not. And yes, you were.”
“Come on, Lib. Be serious. I’m in a state even caffeine might not repair--well not just a single serving of it, anyway--so don’t mess with my head. Just be honest with me. I drank too much, right?”
“You didn’t have a drop, J. You were hypnotized.”
Jenny groaned and downed the rest of her coffee. Then she sighed.
“You’re sticking with hypnotized, huh?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“By who? You?”
“Oh, no, not me,” Libby said. “I was hypnotized, too.”
“What? We were both hypnotized? How? By subliminal messages in some late-night, hard-sell infomercial? By a door-to-door stage performer who dropped by to give us a private show? By a new swirly spiral app that we downloaded and spent half the night drooling mindlessly over?”
“You really don’t remember, do you?”
“If I remembered, I wouldn’t be asking. And how come you remember if I don’t?”
“That’s how he wanted it,” Libby said with a shrug.
“That’s how he wanted it? Our hypnotist?”
“Yeah.”
“And who is he?” Jenny asked.
“Cyril.”
“Who’s Cyril?”
“You know, Cyril, our friend.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“You don’t remember Cyril?”
“No,” Jenny said with growing annoyance, “I don’t know who the hell he is.”
“Wow,” Libby said. “He really did a number on you.”
“So you’re saying that some mysterious friend of ours, who I don’t remember, hypnotized us both last night, leading me to get no sleep--aside from whatever sleep or trance or whatever he placed me into--so that this morning I’m dead tired with no memory of not only the night before, but of this supposed friend of ours, Cyril. That’s what you’re saying?”
“Well, yeah.”
“And that makes sense to you?”
“Well, sure. I remember it, so of course it makes sense to me.”
“Of course, you remember it. Because even though we were both hypnotized by Cyril, I was the only one weak willed enough for him to control. He put us both under, but your iron will made you immune to his suggestions. It wasn’t you who clucked like a chicken or thought she was meeting her favorite celebrity or paraded around bare breasted because she was told she was on a topless beach. Is that it?”
“Actually, it wasn’t like that at all,” Libby said, shaking her head for emphasis.
“What was it like then?”
“I was the suggestible one. I went under easily, while you resisted. He did finally put you under. Then, once we were both hypnotized, I did everything he told me to do, no questions asked. But you kept resisting. He had to work to get you to follow any of his suggestions. It took almost no effort to make me his puppet, his slave. I was weak, I couldn’t help myself. But you, your will really was iron. It took him all night to break you, to make you obey his commands.”
Jenny sat in stunned silence.
“Then why can’t I remember anything?” she finally asked.
“Because once he did get you under his control, he wanted to exert his power over you. One way to do that was to erase your memory of everything. He thought it would be funny to let me remember everything, though. He implanted post-hypnotic suggestions in my head that I know are there, but which I have to follow. With you, he implanted some of the same suggestions and some different ones. You have to follow them, too, just like I do. Including one that you keeps you from remembering.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. It’s true.”
“If this Cyril guy is my friend, then I’ll just look him up in my phone. I’ll call him. Or better yet, I’ll get his address and go confront him. And then I’ll call the police.”
“You can try to do those things, but you won’t be able to.”
With a disbelieving glare at her friend, Jenny got up and retrieved her phone from the bedroom. She returned to the dining room to show Libby how determined she was to disregard Cyril’s supposed power over her. But as her finger hovered over the Contacts button, she found that she couldn’t bring herself to press it. With a growl of frustration, she moved to dial 911. Again, she simply couldn’t do it.
“This is crazy!” she yelled at Libby.
“Yeah, it kind of is,” Libby said with a chuckle.
“It’s not funny!”
“Cyril won’t let me be upset by it. And if you take away the anger, then yeah, it’s a little bit funny.”
“It’s sick!”
“I suppose it is. But I’ve always enjoyed sick humor. You have, too. But Cyril didn’t take away your ability to be angry, so you’re only seeing the sick and not the humor.”
“Arrgghh!”
Jenny stormed back into her bedroom. Worried that she might do something drastic, Libby followed her.
“This is insane,” Jenny said. “I’m not letting this happen.”
“What are you going to do?” Libby asked.
“I don’t know. But something.”
Libby watched her friend fume for a moment, then she nodded as she made a decision.
“I’m sorry, J. But I can’t let you do anything that might get you hurt, or that will jeopardize Cyril’s hold on you. So it’s time for you to…sleep, my dear.”
Jenny took in a breath, with which she planned to unleash a top-of-her-lungs rant at her friend. But instead, she sighed it out and went suddenly weak in the knees. Libby nodded at the expected effect of the trigger phrase she had spoken. She calmly walked over to Jenny and helped her onto the bed. Jenny tried to move and speak, but a blanketing drowsiness overcame her. Within seconds, she was fast asleep.
“Poor J,” Libby said with a thoughtful frown. “How cruel of Cyril to play with your head like he did. But it won’t be for long. You’ll remember everything soon. He’s coming back, and he’s going to hypnotize us again. I’ll go under in a snap, no doubt. And even you won’t offer any resistance this time. He told me last night he’s already bored with me. I’m too easy. So he’s going to erase my memory and have me go to sleep for the rest of his visit. Then he’s going to focus on you. He’ll let you remember everything, like I do. And he’ll make you do his bidding, like I do. You’ll fight his control, of course. But he wants that. He likes it. Ultimately, he’ll win. And he’ll make sure you know he’s won while he dominates you. But he’ll also make sure you enjoy it, like I do. I’m kind of jealous, J. I don’t want it to end. But at least I won’t remember what I’m missing, or how great he is. You’ll soon see, J. You’ll see how wonderful our master is.”