Chapter 1

Tina fiddled with her skirt as she sat across from Dr. Hoffman. The doctor was older, maybe in his 50s, with a distinguished air about him. His salt-and-pepper hair was slicked back, and his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled, which he did a lot.

Today was supposed to be a trial session where she would join some kind of new study about how hypnosis could cure anxiety. Apparently, there were a lot of girls taking part in this trial and multiple doctors performing the routine all across the states. If she passed today’s screening, she could get a 100 bucks. If she made it to the end of the trial, then she would get a lot more.

Tina wasn’t really hard up for cash or anything. She just wanted a little more spending money so she could buy a nicer prom dress.

But there was something about the doctor’s smile that made Tina uneasy, a slight leer in his eyes that seemed to hint at darker intentions. When he patted her hand reassuringly and told her everything would be just fine, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to this study than he was letting on.

“Alright young lady. Just recline and close your eyes. The listen to my voice,” Dr Hoffman said.

Tina made herself comfortable in the chair and closed her eyes. She could hear the ticking of the clock, and a soft whirring sound.

“Listen to my voice,” Dr Hoffman said softly. He really did have a soothing voice, Tina thought as she tried to relax. Something warm covered her up and she found herself sinking deeper into her subconscious.

“Let’s count from one to ten and back again,” Dr Hoffman murmured. Tina nodded along as he counted. This was actually quite nice. It wasn’t scary at all. It was quite relaxing.

His voice was becoming a little muffled as she drifted, the ticking sound getting louder. There were other voices too. Strange voices. A girl’s voice that sounded very eager, begging, wanting. A man’s voice, commanding, authoritative.

“Deeper, Tina, let’s go deeper.”

Tina felt a little like she was floating. The darkness was comfortable, she was pleasantly warm, the soft sounds of the room were nice.

“Alright Tina, I’m going to put some headphones on you and you’re going to internalize everything you hear. You will take everything you hear to heart and believe it. And when you wake up, you won’t remember any of it.”

That sounded a little strange, but Tina nodded anyway. She felt something settle over her ears ... And then she was sinking into the darkness.

“Alright, that’s it for today,” Dr Hoffman was saying when Tina blinked her eyes open. The clock said that an hour had passed, but it didn’t feel like it. She felt like she took a very short and very powerful nap. She was strangely warm, her body tingling with some kind of weird sensation that she couldn’t pinpoint. But she felt quite energized.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You spent 45 minutes in a deep trance, listening to one of our test audios.”

“What was it about?” Tina asked, curious.

Dr Hoffman laughed, making his eyes crinkle upward attractively.

“I can’t tell you now. Otherwise the study would be a bust!” he said cheerfully. He held out a glass of water. Tina took it gratefully and downed it in one go.

“Do I pass the screening?” she asked as she set the glass down on the table.

“Yes, you can collect your money at the front,” Dr Hoffman said easily. He moved to sit behind his table.

Tina waved goodbye and exited quickly. The experience didn’t feel like much, if she was being honest. It felt like she had just taken a nice nap in his office, that was all. She didn’t feel any different.

“Thank you for coming,” The receptionist, a pretty blonde lady said with a big smile. She handed Tina an envelope then continued with, “Come back next week at the same time for the second session. If you experience any weird symptoms before that, please record them and let us know!”

Tina nodded. She didn’t know if she would be back. She only wanted the 100 dollars after all. And there wasn’t any kind of contract that was forcing her to come back. She didn’t really think she had the time to spend 12 weeks in this study, een if the money was kind of attractive.

Still, she waved goodbye and left.

It was evening already. After school and the hypnosis session, it was around 7 pm on a Friday night. Tina lived pretty close to the clinic and it was a walkable distance but she usually took the bus because she didn’t want to walk through the less savory part of town. It seemed that this evening, luck wasn’t on her side because it didn’t arrive even after 20 minutes. Frustrated, she decided to start walking.