✅ Younger Than You Think?

"J: Back Seat"

Iniña found herself crying; she would have been wailing at the top of her voice if she had the strength. She was so weak, so helpless, and she couldn't remember how she'd got there. She didn't understand it in that much depth; she just knew that something was wrong, and her body reacted almost automatically to that fear. There were no thoughts in her mind now, nothing she could focus on to remember who she was or why. It was like she was tumbling through a storm of images with nothing solid she could hold on to. And then she heard a voice, firm and confident. Close enough that it was separate from the background chatter of all the people around them, and not pausing to wait for replies for anyone else.

Like a hundred other sights and sounds, her mind was able to focus on the voice for a second. And the voice was there, constant, and she started following along with the steady tones. Somehow, in that state where she didn't know which way was up, she could follow the sound of one voice. She held onto it like a lifeline, focusing on the sound without knowing why. She didn't need to think about any of the scary things around her, she could just keep thinking about that voice. She lost it a few times, her attention dragged away by a noise in the distance, or by something bright and shiny, but the voice was always there. Coming back to it felt safe somehow, a reminder that she hadn't lost everything in her haze of confusion. There would always be one thing that she could come back to.

It wasn't long before the crowds around them thinned out, and they were outside again, but Iriña barely noticed the difference. She was just listening to the voice that was comforting her, as her awareness returned enough that she could start to understand what she was feeling. She could hear some of the words as well, but her mind was still working slowly and all the things it was telling her rushed through her mind and were gone again before she could properly think about them. That voice was telling her a story about a happy little girl going on a trip to visit her grandpa; how she loved being able to relax and watch the scenery go past outside the car, knowing that there were no chores for her, and nothing that she needed to think about. It was just a little break, and nothing to worry about at all.

As the narrative went on, Iriña slowly found more of her thoughts returning. Enough to realise that the teenager was carrying her now, and had used her name a few times near the start of the story. Maybe that made it easier to get her attention or something; but the story now was certainly about this little girl Kelly, who was in a much more pleasant situation than Iriña. For Kelly this was just a vacation, a chance to play like a kid again, with the promise that she could go home with her Mummy and Daddy afterwards, back to a life with schoolwork and chores to rule her days. Kelly was looking forward to this little break, and it sounded like she was going to have so much fun. Iriña even found herself smiling when Lyle described some of the experiences

"Feeling better now, little Kelly?"

Iriña nodded, and it took her a couple of seconds to realise that the monologue had finally come to an end. She was sitting in the back of a car now, with Lyle beside her. Seamus was in the front of the car, although the woman in the other seat was someone Iriña didn't recognise. There was no sign of angry Mary. The landscape outside the windows was rolling hills, massive fields filled with different kinds of animals, and occasional stands of trees that looked more like a giant shrubbery, a solid mass of undergrowth stretching from ground to canopy. Nothing like what she was used to near home.

She'd been so focused on what the teenager was saying that she'd barely noticed them buckling her limp body into a child car seat. She hadn't noticed any signs at the airport to tell her where she was, or any highway signs before they turned off onto a narrow lane that seemed to wind through the hills ahead as far as the eye could see. There were occasional houses, some of them built in a weird timber frame style that looked somehow different from historic buildings she'd seen before, but none of them had markings more informative than a generic family name or a house number.

"Are you back with us now?" the woman in the front asked, and Iriña nodded again, before realising that wasn't particularly useful.

"Yeah," she managed to force a word out, although her mouth still wasn't quite performing normally.

"That's good. Was that what came out of that hypnosis course, Lyle?"

"Kind of. But not really. I mean, it's basic psychology. The scientific papers about her survival say she has exceptional recall. Like... she never sleeps, so her memory is structured as a continuous narrative. And beyond a certain point, people who excel in some mental field often panic when they find a deficiency. There was a savant in the seventies who could multiply six-figure numbers instantly in his head, nobody could work out how. They called him a human calculator. But he had a full-blown panic attack the one time he realised he'd made an error. It's like the world suddenly doesn't work the way you thought, so I guessed it might be the same for Kelly. That right, dear? You started panicking because you couldn't join together all the things you were experiencing?"

"Uh-huh," Iriña answered. She wanted to say more, but she didn't think she'd be able to shape the words. She wasn't even sure that she knew how to put what she was thinking into words.

"So I tried telling her a story. A voice right in your ear immediately grabs your attention. And because it's constant, every time your mind comes back to it you're reminded that you were listening a second before. As your thoughts clear up a little, you can follow the story I'm telling. I deliberately referenced back to what I'd said one or two sentences before as often as possible, making it extra easy to think about what I'm saying. Easier to focus, pull you out of the anxiety state you were in. I mean, like I said to Seamus before, I've seen guys who are confused coming out of a bad trip respond in the same way. Give them a confident voice, no pauses, something to focus on. It helps a lot. The courses only taught me the psych theory behind it, and how to craft a story better for keeping her attention. Now, Kelly might have been thinking less critically about what I was speaking, found it easier to accept. And that can be a good way to start a trance, but not when I barely know what state of mind she's in. Nothing more invasive than getting our little girl to feel comfortable with us, and appreciating praise. Isn't that right, Kelly?"

"Umm..." Iriña mumbled. She wanted to say that he was getting it wrong; that it was Kelly, not her, who was more comfortable. Kelly really needed a break after all the grown-up things she'd had to deal with. But those words were too complicated, and probably beyond the ability of her mouth right now. So she thought of something she could say instead. "Maaaaybe?"

"Good girl," Lyle said, and reached out to pat Iriña on the head. She normally would have been angry about that, but she knew that she didn't have so much freedom to react here. She knew that fighting would only lead to punishment; and might even put her in danger. All she could do now was content herself with the fact that one of her captors trusted her a little more. She smiled a little, proud of herself, and went back to thinking about how she might escape.