"Hypnotize Carly."
Rayne sat and stared at the words written on the note in front of her. She felt a swell of nervousness flush through her body as she eyed the dark haired sophomore out of the corner of her eye. She still wasn't super comfortable with hypnotizing people she had just met...and to make matters worse, here was Trisha, the head of the sorority she was trying to join, knowingly watching the whole thing. Judging her on her abilities. "No pressure" she thought to herself.
Rayne took a moment to gain control of her emotions before giving Carly a smile and asking, "So, what do you think of hypnosis?"
Carly was busy jotting down notes for her report, and didn't really even look up for more than a second to respond. "Eh, I've seen Trisha and Laura demonstrate it several times and I've seen a few of the stage shows that they've dragged me to, but I really don't think it's real. Not the way that they say it is anyway." Her voice had a certain tone to it, as if she was trying to get a reaction out of Rayne and Trisha, but was trying to pretend to be innocent at the same time.
Rayne looked up, only to see Trisha roll her eyes all the way back into her head, as if she was trying to look at her own brain. The expression was clearly one of exasperation as Trisha turned to grab a drink out of her fridge.
Rayne's gaze moved to Laura next. She was still face down on Trisha's bed, a tube sock stuffed under her nose, as the poor girl was...if Trisha's suggestions were correct, going deeper with every breath. "What about Laura?" she asked, turning back to Carly.
"Oh she believes it's all real, or at least that's what she tells everyone." Carly responded while flipping back and forth from one page to the next to check her notes.
"No, no, no..." started Rayne "That's not what I mean. I mean...look at her!" she pointed to the blonde who was 'passed out' on the bed. "She's...well she's really out! You don't think it's real, even looking at that?"
Carly finally looked up at Rayne and laughed heartily. "You don't know Laura as well as you think you do!" She said, smiling "Honey, that girl always wants to be the center of attention. She's also an actress, so her getting hypnotized here is par for the course. So no, I don't think she's hypnotized. I think she's acting."
Rayne shot Trisha a confused look, just in time to see the older girl shake her head in disbelief, while rolling her eyes and slamming back her can of soda like it was a glass of whiskey. The young freshman was starting to get nervous. She needed to find an opening to work Carly into a hypnotic trance, but so far she was drawing a blank.
Carly looked up from her notes and smiled at Rayne, who couldn't help but notice that her posture was more akin to a news journalist than a college coed. "So, what do you think of hypnosis?"
"Opening found!" thought Rayne as she tried to hide a smile. She pretended to think it over for a bit before she finally answered. "Well, I have two sides I can give experience from. I am learning to be a hypnotist, and have successfully hypnotized several people. But I've also been hypnotized several times by Laura in the course of her teaching me. Which would you prefer to hear about?"
"Both!" Carly shouted enthusiastically, "I'm curious what it feels like to hypnotize someone else? You know, from your perspective believing that it's real."
Rayne hid a shudder of annoyance. "Is she seriously this dense?" she thought to herself before calming down and smiling at Carly. "What's it like to be a hypnotist?" she asked herself rhetorically as she searched for an answer...and a way into Carly's mind. "It's an interesting group of emotions. When you're first presented with a subject, which is a person you're going to hypnotize, it's like you've been given a puzzle that you need to solve. So there are feelings of nervousness and tension while you search your mind for how to hypnotize them, and then once you start you have to be constantly watching to make sure it's working and be ready to adjust on the fly. It's kind of like trying to solve a puzzle while the pieces constantly change on you." Rayne watched Carly closely as the older brunette carefully took notes.
"And what's it like when you get someone, as you guys would say, "under"?" she said, putting the word 'under' in air quotes as she did.
Rayne smiled as she remembered her first time hypnotizing Laura. "I won't lie, it's a rush!. You take a person, like you, who is fully awake and focusing on something, and then in just a few minutes time that person will be completely hypnotized, relaxed and calm." She chose her words carefully, hoping it wasn't too overt of a suggestion to Carly. "You also get the thrill of it. The person can end up like Laura over there..." she pointed to the deeply hypnotized blonde, still laying on the bed, "completely limp and helpless in your arms. You are the only thing holding them up, and in that same moment you can feel just how much stronger than them you are. But there is also a massive responsibility. The subject has to look at the hypnotist, Carly..." she said pausing for the suggestion to sink into Carly's mind "and say to herself...'I trust this person...this person knows what they are doing. They can, and will, hypnotize me.' And once you, as a subject, say that to yourself, you give that trust and permission to the hypnotist. And being that hypnotist is a massive responsibility, and a hell of a thrill to know that someone..." she casually pointed to Carly, "trusts me enough to go into hypnosis for me...when I ask them to."
Carly looked at Rayne and blinked several times, slowly, before snapping out of her tiny little trance. "Wow...that sounds intense." she said honestly as she took down a few notes. "What's it feel like to be hypnotized?" she asked, seeming to have forgotten that she didn't believe hypnosis was real.
Rayne smiled. This was exactly the 'in' she was hoping for! "Being hypnotized is actually quite relaxing." she started. "It's like you can just sit there, and focus on my words, and allow your body to just start to relax. You don't have to worry about making it happen, you just let it happen, you just let everything start to relax. Sometimes something will happen and you'll notice the relaxation, like a muscle spasm, or your hand falling, that's fine. Other times you won't really notice how your body just slowly starts to sink down into your chair. How your breathing becomes more relaxed, and slow, shallow. People rarely realize how the muscles in their face just seem to relax. Their mouths opening to bring in more air and to just relax into the words. But for me...personally...the most interesting thing about being hypnotized is the tingling and the buzzing. You may not notice it at first. But as time goes on you start to feel a tingling in your body. Sometimes it starts in your fingers, or your toes. Sometimes
it starts in your ears, or your face. It can start in the big muscle groups too, like your legs, or your arms, or your shoulders. No matter where it starts, you just begin to feel it, moving along your body, slowly and easily as it moves through every muscle that you have, every single muscle. Some will tingle more than others...some might not tingle at all. But you will feel the tingling now. Slowly moving through your body. Which brings me...to the buzzing. That feeling that you're feeling now, in your head, in your mind. That clouding of your thoughts, as if your very process of thinking was getting slower, and slower. Like your thoughts were moving through jelly, sticking and slow, slowing down more and more with every word. Slowing... Slowing... slowing, right down to a nice... relaxed... Stop."
