When I turned eighteen my friend Cara had bought me a hypnosis pack. We had been fooling around with many magical and magician supplies like hypnosis, rune stones, faery dust and tarot cards ever since the Magicke Shoppe opened down the main street. It was actually located down a side street off the main one. So now by Cara's twenty-first I was pretty good at it, as I had been practicing for about three years. At every birthday party I had performed it as a party trick, always on the birthday boy or girl. Nothing more than clucking like a chicken or running around like a monkey. All harmless jokes and pranks. There was always someone there that recorded it to play back to the victim.
"So remind me again who will be there tonight?" I asked my friend already knowing the answer. I looked at her and smiled almost tripping over a broken bit of cement sticking into the air. Cara giggled as I gained my composure and pretended like nothing had happened.
"Only the four of us Cat, you know that. You can still bring your hypnotist act along if you wish. I'm sure Pat will have a camera on him." Cara said to me. "But I wish Jane could have been here. Work has flown her interstate for the whole weekend. It sucks." Jane was Cara's girlfriend. "You can always bring your boyfriend along." I shook my head.
"Nah, he doesn't know you that much and I don't think he likes Luke very much. Anyway, it'll be like old times. The four of us trooping around being idiots." Cara laughed at that. When we were younger we were always getting into trouble from one person or another. "Do you think the boys will be there by six? Or do you think it'll be more like seven or eight?" She laughed again.
"Probably one of the latter." We both cracked up. Pat and Luke were renowned for being late to everything that we organized no matter what is was or when it was. "Okay so we need chips, dips, drinks and, my personal favorite, ice cream." I nodded as she read the food list for the party. "We will also order a couple pizza's. Maybe we should message the guys and find out when they are coming and what pizza they'd like so its ready when they get there."
"Sounds good to me. I'll do it if you want." I whipped my cell phone out of my back pants pocket and sent a message to the guys. "Done and done." We entered the mall and headed to the supermarket to buy our party food. "Ooh, how about party pies or sausage rolls?" Cara rolled her hazel eyes in disgust. After receiving a message from Pat's phone (cheese. six-thirty.) we headed to the checkout to pay for the items. I grabbed a pack of cinnamon Tic-Tacs and threw them in the pile. "Sorry. I'm still addicted to them." I whispered to Cara. She just smiled and shook her head; her red brown hair swayed, gently brushing her bare shoulders. She was wearing an off the shoulder deep rose red colored dress with black pumps.
We arrived home and ordered the pizzas straight away. The broken voice squeaked 'Half an hour' into the receiver. They would arrive about five minutes after the boys got here. We decorated the house with a few meager streamers and balloons. The boys arrived just before the pizzas. I opened the door as the pizza guy reached it. While we chowed down we watched a movie of Cara's choosing, as it was her birthday. We followed by having a cake. By the time the guys were finished with the cake there was only about one third left over. After we finished and tidied the lounge room from all foodstuffs I brought out my hypnosis kit. It wasn't a watch like you normally see on the TV but a pink crystal on a black leather string.
"Ready Cara?" I asked my friend. She nodded. "Okay, watch only the crystal. Listen only to the sound of my voice. Each new suggestion will stop the previous one. You will hear no other noise beside my voice; see nothing else but the crystal. I will count backwards from three, when I reach one you will fall into a deep trance. You will awake when I snap my fingers. Three. Your eyes are getting tired. Two. Your eyelids are drooping. And one." Cara's head fell forward onto her chest. "Okay, Cara, cluck like a chicken." She started to cluck.
