✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

34. Precise Instructions

Ffrances started talking without a pause, telling Gabby how easy it was to imagine the things she was talking about, and how easy it would be to follow her instructions. To imagine that for the rest of the day, whatever happened, she would find that she was always a little younger than Tess. If Tess had to behave a certain way as part of being younger, then Gabby would have to do the same. And whether they were both in trance or not, Gabby would feel compelled to go along with any post-hypnotic suggestions that Tess was given. She was very clear that these instructions would last the rest of the day, and wouldn't have any effect in the future. Tess counted the same reminder repeated in different ways at least a dozen times. She wanted to ask if that was necessary for hypnosis, a way to make sure that her instructions weren't misunderstood or something, but she could already guess that interrupting this session wouldn't be a good idea.

"Just relax," Ffrances continued, "and imagine all the things I've described. Focus on those thoughts, those dreams, and let them become more real in your mind. Let yourself dwell on them for a minute or two, until you are certain you will be able to feel those things, and then you can let yourself wake up. You don't need to remember these suggestions until after you've experienced them, so you can find that it's all a surprise if you would like that. So for now, let yourself imagine, until you need to wake up." Ffrances finished her speech, before turning back to Tess when Gabby began gently nodding, her eyes still closed.

"See? Just like that. Of course, it's quicker because she already has practice finding her way into trance. If you're sure you're up for this, I'm going to be focusing on your feelings, and on how you want to feel. I didn't want to leave you both waiting while I prepare the other. And if I try to hypnotise two people at once, I suspect Gabby would be able to resist. I try to match the pace to the subject's state of mind, you see, and I'd be focusing on you because you've not done this before. She's a big one for trying to spoil her own surprises. Somewhere inside her is a desire to always be in control, although that's a side of her that she's unwilling to let out between the two of us. I think she'd try to avoid trance, and just play along, which would spoil the surprise a little. So I've made it so she will find herself following all the instructions I give you even if she's not properly in trance. Is that okay?"

Tess had some trouble understanding all of that, but after a while she dismissed it as something that mattered more to Gabby than to her. She didn't need to understand all the nuances of how the hypnosis worked, although she could imagine getting more curious once she had experienced it.

"That's fine," she said, nodding again.

"And you, Gabby? Are you awake yet? Earth to Gabrielle?" Tess turned and shook Gabby's shoulder which seemed to get her attention.

"I said, is that okay?" Ffrances repeated.

"Sorry, didn't realise you were talking to me."

Ffrances went on to explain roughly what they had in mind; having them dress up in some old clothes that she had found, to recreate that photograph, and then finding themselves feeling like they were a few years younger again. Gabby nodded, and said that was fine. But then she added something else; asking if she could make it last more than just today. So that after today, if she wanted to feel younger again, she wouldn't need more hypnosis. She suggested that if she decided to act like a child in future, or dressed up in childish clothes again, she would find it easier to accept other people treating her like a kid in response, and wouldn't feel awkward about the responses of people she trusted. Tess hesitated just a moment when she compared this to her earlier thoughts about just trying this once. But then she realised that it didn't make any difference to her. If Gabby wanted to be a child again, she could dress up and let Ffrances or Tess call her a baby. And if Tess wanted to keep on seeing herself as an adult, she only needed to keep on acting like an adult. There was no harm in it, so she agreed.

Maybe she would have asked to do that separately, but she didn't think it could possibly be a problem, and she felt like they'd already spent enough time discussing it. She was here to be hypnotised, and she was already getting impatient. But it seemed there was one more bit of explanation left: about how hypnosis itself would actually take place.

Ffrances explained that she was going to start the metronome, and then they were going to focus on it. They would start to focus so intently on that little silver needle swinging back and forth that they would take in all Ffrances's words without really processing them. She would describe a scene to imagine, and it would seem almost like reality because they weren't concentrating on her words enough to decide if they were true or not. And then their focus would start to swing back and forth between the metronome itself and Ffrances, getting deeper into trance each time they went back and forth between imagining the scene she described and feeling it. By that point Tess could already see in her mind's eye how she could start to be overwhelmed by the different thoughts, and lose the ability to distinguish between the real world and what she was being told. When Ffrances reached forward and tapped the metronome to set it moving, she found that she was already imagining how good it would feel to go into trance. She was ready now, and she really wanted to experience it right away, without the need for any more explanation. The images were so vivid in her mind that it was all she could think about, just hoping that Ffrances would be ready soon, to start the trance that they were probably both craving.

"All ready to play, girls?" Ffrances asked, cheerful as ever. Tess pouted a little; she'd been ready for an hour now, and they just seemed to be talking.

"Yeah," she said, and her displeasure rushed away just as quickly as it had come. There would be no more waiting, she was sure. "That sounds like a lot of fun. Let's do it." Ffrances smiled and turned her attention back to Gabby, who was already giving her own confirmation.

"Well, I don't think I was as deep as I usually am," she stated. She went on to say that she thought she had taken in the post-hypnotic suggestions, but she wasn't quite sure, and that she thought it was just because Ffrances had been concentrating on Tess. But even if she partially remembered the hypnosis, she didn't want to delay playing any longer; she would be happy enough playing along, even if it only felt a little more realistic.

"Wait," Tess said as soon as Gabby's monologue ended. She'd been trying to understand what her cousin was getting at, until the realisation finally hit her. She remembered Ffrances telling her how she would feel when she started the metronome, and Ffrances starting the metronome, and imagining how it would feel to focus on it... and then she was looking away, and the steady tick-tick-tick had already stopped. There was a gap in there somewhere, but she couldn't work out where. And Gabby seemed to be talking as if they had already done something. It was so easy to imagine herself nodding in silence, imagining what she had been told to, just like she'd seen Gabby do a few minutes before. "Wait, did you do it already? Was I blanked out like that thing you did to Gabby?"

"You were. And you were a very good subject."

Tess was so excited now that she couldn't wait. It was real. The whole thing was real, and she'd just been hypnotised. That meant more to her than she ever would have imagined.