"Pleasure to meet you..." Jen said with her best fake smile. She reached out to shake the man's hand, only to have him take her hand softly and then kiss the back of it. Jen couldn't help but blush as he did so, and for the first time she noticed something about 'Steve'. "There is something oddly familiar about him..." she thought to herself. "Almost like I know him from somewhe..." her thought abruptly stopped as her face ever so slightly went slack. For a split second her pupils dilated as she thought to herself, "I have never seen this man before." A second later her smile returned.
During this brief exchange Lindsey simply stared off into space as she thought to herself. "Steve, his name is Steve. Of course I knew that. I have always known that."
Jen finally moved from the door and motioned for both of them to come in. "I'm afraid I'm not much of a cook. But the pizza was delivered a few minutes ago, so let's sit down and get to know each other shall we?" she said with a much more genuine smile than she had a few moments ago.
The Apprentice, acting under the pseudonym of 'Steve', simply smiled "Oh, I know you pretty well already" he said to himself as he took a seat next to Lindsey, always playing the part of the good boyfriend.
Their dinner was rather uneventful, with Jennifer asking the normal big sister questions like 'how did you meet?', etc. 'Steve' lied through all of them, of course. That is until she asked one perfect question as an opening. "So, tell me, what do you want to do with your life Steve?"
The hypnotic apprentice looked up at Jennifer with a devious grin and said "I'm actually studying to be a Master Hypnotist. I think it will open up a lot of doors for me in life." He couldn't help but gently squeeze Lindsey's hand as he said this.
Jennifer just about spit her drink out at his reply. "A hypnotist? You have to be kidding me! Why would you waste your time learning a skill that only a weak minded person could be affected by? What are you going to do with your life, make people cluck like chickens on stage for a living?"
"Jen! Be nice! This is my boyfriend!" shouted Lindsey angrily, heavily emphasizing the word 'boyfriend' as she did.
"It's alright, hun..." The Apprentice said with a slightly devious smile "I hear this kind of thing a lot from people who think they are more informed than they really are." He left a deliberately long pause at the end of his sentence as he waited for the insult to sink in, just long enough to cut Jennifer off from making a reply. "You see Jen, hypnosis does not actually work on weak minded people. It only works on people who are above a certain level of intelligence. It works because of a person's imagination, and there is a clear link between imagination and intelligence. Which is why any time a person says 'I can't be hypnotized I'm too smart' they are actually admitting to being too dumb. Are you smart enough to be hypnotized, Jen?" He asked with sly smile, knowing his trap had been laid perfectly.
Lindsey couldn't' help but shoot a smile at 'Steve' before tilting her eyes to the side to take in her sister's expression. She knew Jen was in a pickle, she could deny being able to be hypnotized...but that would mean admitting that she was too dumb for it to work. Or she could admit to being smart, and at the same time admit that she could be hypnotized. The whole situation felt an awful lot like revenge for all of the crap Jen had given her about being hypnotized at the stage show last weekend.
Jen knew that she was caught as well. She glared at the hypnotist and glanced briefly at her sister before returning her stare to 'Steve'. Her sister was eating this up and that pissed her off even more. She also knew she needed to make a response and soon. "Well..." she started as she leaned over the table, folding her arms across her chest to make herself seem more confident, "We both know that between me and Lindsey, I am the smarter one. Our GPAs alone can prove that." A brief glance over to Lindsey proved her point as her younger sister's face scrunched up in anger. "But simply saying that intelligence makes you more susceptible to hypnosis doesn't make it a fact."
Steve smiled. "Quite right!" He said as he sat up in his chair and extended his hands out to Jennifer, palms facing up. "Perhaps you'd care to put your intelligence where your mouth is? After all, if I'm full of it...you have nothing to fear. Do you Jennifer?"
Lindsey's eyes moved from her sister to her boyfriend, then back again, as a slight hint of a smile escaped her lips. But to her surprise Jennifer gave a confident smile of her own and put both of her hands directly on top of 'Steve's'. "You're quite right..." she said taking a deep breath and centering herself. "I have nothing to fear."
Steve smiled and gently slid his hands under Jennifer's, "I knew you were brave, Jen. Now all I want you to do is press down on my hands... " He was instantly surprised by just how strong the police woman actually was, as she nearly slammed his hands into the table. He was able to recover and hold her back, but she was remarkably strong. "That's it, just look into my eyes Jennifer, nothing to worry about...after all, you're too smart to be hypnotized...remember?"
Jennifer stared directly into his eyes while she continued to press down on his hands as hard as she could. She knew deep down that he couldn't keep this up forever, he was strong but she was stronger. Way, way stronger. She didn't want to break eye contact but she could see her sister watching intently. She wasn't sure what 'Steve' had in mind, but she was sure that she could beat it. She had to beat it.
Lindsey couldn't believe her eyes. In front of her was her boyfriend, who was trying to hypnotize her sister. The scene was like a fantasy, but...at the same time it felt like it was a new fantasy. Like it had just recently been created. That seemed like an odd way to word it in her mind, but she couldn't think of another way that fit. She was just in the middle of watching 'Steve' start to sweat when he pulled his hands out from under Jennifer's and quickly and commandingly said "Sleep!" For a split second her eyes closed and then reopened, as she realized the command wasn't aimed at her. But damn did it almost get her. Fortunately for her, she opened her eyes just in time to see Jennifer's entire body push forward. She was using so much force to try and press 'Steve's' hands down, that her hands not only slammed against the wooden table but her entire body jerked forward with it. Jennifer managed to catch herself just before her head hit the table and looked up at 'Steve' with a surprised look in her eyes. Lindsey couldn't help but notice that there was something odd about her eyes as well; they seemed glazed, almost unfocused. As Jennifer stared at 'Steve' her jaw opened slowly as if to speak, but no words came out. Instead, her hands gently slid back towards her body while one hand slid off of the table. For a split second Lindsey was starting to think the induction had failed, but no sooner did she think that then Jennifer's eyes slowly started to roll up into her head as her eyelids gently closed. A soft sigh escaped her lips as her head fell gently against the hand still sitting on the table.
