"Harper, I need to tell you something!" said Jae, looking wild-eyed and sleep-deprived. "It's about Lori. It's... it's gonna sound crazy, I know, but I really need you to listen to me."
Harper experienced a sharp sinking feeling in her stomach. Before Jae opened their mouth, Harper knew exactly what they were about to say.
"I think Lori is part of some kind of... brainwashing conspiracy."
Harper could do nothing more than let her head fall into her hands. Already, she could feel a headache coming on. How had it come to this? What had Lori done? She knew she'd have to find out, although she wished she could simply cherish her ignorance. Clearly whatever it was wasn't good. It was late in the evening, and Harper had already resigned herself to another long, lonely night. Lori had been spending most of her time out with her other friends lately.
In a way, Harper was grateful for that; it meant less distraction - and less temptation - while she pursued her frantic investigation into Professor Elbourne and the possible explanations for the madness her life had become. At the same time, though, loneliness was taking its toll. Harper hadn't made much effort to connect with her other friends. None of them could understand what she was going through. And being alone all the time, trying to understand what felt totally inexplicable, was making her feel like she was losing her mind.
That didn't mean Jae's arrival was welcome, however. Harper had met them once or twice before, and they'd gotten on just fine. But they were hardly friends, and the last thing Harper had ever expected was for Jae to turn up at her apartment late at night, wide-eyed and frantic. In their messy, rain-drenched state, Harper had barely recognized them, despite their dyed blue hair and ethereally androgynous appearance. As if she needed another headache. As they sat opposite each other in her room, Harper was already struggling to imagine what she might possibly be able to say to allay whatever suspicions Jae might have.
"What... what exactly did you see?" Harper asked, trying to keep her voice neutral. She needed to know what Jae knew, before she could get started on damage control.
"It's kind of hard to... wait." Jae squinted at Harper pointedly, before their eyes widened in shock. "You knew! You knew, didn't you?"
Harper swore under her breath. Apparently her poker face was slipping, and Jae was more perceptive than Lori. She quickly decided there was probably no point trying to lie. "I... did. Yes."
Jae went very quiet for a long moment, and completely still. "You're gonna tell me everything, right now," they demanded finally.
Harper took a deep breath, and launched into her tale. She told Jae about the very first day, when she'd discovered Lori - or rather, 7005 - at their apartment. She told Jae how they'd figured out the codeword that activated Lori's brainwashing. She told Jae about the latex bodysuit hidden under Lori's bed. She told them about their efforts to understand what was going on, and told them about the brainwashing file they'd found on Lori's computer.
She didn't, however, tell Jae about any of the ways she'd taken advantage of Lori's brainwashing. Harper told herself there was no need to reveal any of that quite yet. Besides, she reasoned, it would probably just make them panic. Better to just keep it her little secret. Yes, that was for the best. She also didn't tell Jae that she, herself, was clearly a victim of the same brainwashing. That was out of an entirely different sense of shame. She had no reason to hold that back from Jae, but she just couldn't bring herself to say it. Most of the time, Harper tried to pretend that discovery was nothing more than a bad dream. It was almost the only way she could cope.
Jae listened to her story without a single interruption. The look on their face kept passing through different shades of horror and amazement, but Harper could tell they utterly believed every word. The fact that they accepted such an unbelievable tale so quickly, however true it was, only made Harper more curious to figure out what they had seen. "I don't even know what to say to that," Jae breathed, once Harper was finally done.
"Yeah." Harper smiled ruefully. "It's a lot."
"That's really all you did?" Jae exploded at her, without warning.
"What?" Harper blurted out, surprised.
"You've known about this for, what, weeks?" Jae was clearly seething, and Harper realized she'd misjudged their mood. "And you've done... what? Nothing! How could you just let this happen? How could you just sit on your hands and wait, with this... this stuff in Lori's head? Brainwashing her, controlling her... influencing her... making her weak and mindless..."
Jae trailed off, the anger seeming to drain from their face. Harper stared at them. What was going on? But then, just as quickly, Jae seemed to snap out of the stupor.
"You... you should have done something," they finished lamely.
"We did," Harper replied awkwardly, thrown off by Jae's strange behavior. "We, um, experimented a little. Trying to, y'know, figure out how it worked and stuff."
"That's it?" Jae demanded.
"Well, what the hell were we supposed to do?" Harper shot back, exasperated. "What are you supposed to do, with something like this? Who could we tell? No-one would believe us! And we have no idea who's responsible, or how we can fight back. What would you have done?"
"I... suppose," Jae begrudgingly allowed, although they didn't look entirely placated. "But what about that professor you mentioned? You really haven't gone after her?"
Harper found herself struggling to come up with an excuse. She hoped she was managing to hide the guilt she felt over how much she'd dragged her feet when she'd been enjoying playing with Lori and 7005. "We... we were just scared, OK? We didn't know what could happen. We didn't know what she might be able to do - and that's assuming she's even the one who did this to Lori. Are you really gonna blame us for that?"
Jae went quiet for a long moment. "I guess not," they finally conceded.
"Thank you," Harper said.
"But," Jae quickly continued, "we need to do something. Now. Or soon, at least. We can't let this go on any longer."
Something in her tone made Harper feel uneasy. "Jae, what did you see?"
"It was at Maddy's place," Jae began. They sounded truly scared, and Harper couldn't help but feel a little of that same fear as she listened. "A few days ago. I showed up late, and I saw... something. Through the window. I don't know what, exactly. But I think... I think Lori was doing something to Madison. Harper, I think she was brainwashing her."
"No!" Harper trembled.
"Lori was in that... that bodysuit," Jae continued. "And she had Madison staring at something - at some spiral. On her TV. I think Madison was trying to fight it but... but I don't think it was working. Lori was... touching her. Forcing her, something, I don't know. Harper, she was brainwashing Madison. I know it."
"That... no. No, no, no." Harper just kept shaking her head over and over and over again. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"I think she's got Sally too." Jae's voice was trembling, but they managed to keep going. "They've all been spending a lot of time together. Lori and Sally, before, and now all three of them. But they keep messaging me too. There's something... not right about them. I don't know what it is. But they're different. They keep inviting me over. They're all so eager. They're insisting we sit down and watch a movie together. Just like the night Lori got Madison. I'm afraid that one day they'll just show up, and I'll end up sitting down with them and staring into that... that spiral... watching... helpless... no escape... as it..."
Again, Jae trailed off. Their eyes were distant and unfocused. A truly disturbing possibility occurred to Harper. "Jae? Jae?"
Hearing their name aloud seemed to jolt Jae back into their right mind. "What?"
"Did..." Harper's mouth was dry. "Did you look at the spiral? That night that you saw them."
"What?" Jae seemed shocked by what Harper was suggested. Almost excessively shocked. "No! Fuck no! I mean, yeah, I looked at it for a moment. I saw them, after all. I saw what they were doing. But I didn't... no. I didn't get brainwashed. I'm here, aren't I? I'm talking to you about fighting this... whatever this is."
