Count To Ten (Louis Tomlinson Fanfic)

Chapter 5

Niall's P.O.V.

"I hear you have some sleeping problems?" We all sat down next to the big chair lying in the middle of the room as Louis sat down next to the man who volunteered to do the hypnotism. He was about 30 years of age and introduced himself as Ethan.

"Yeah, a stupid dream keep me up every night" He mumbled rubbing his eyes lightly and sitting back.

"Alright. But before we begin, I just want you to know that this treatment only works if you're willing to fully cooperate. There are many occasions when it stopped halfway and there are many occasions when things went horribly wrong so your cooperation is the key to getting through the doors with satisfaction." He pointed at the front doors and we all, including Louis, tensed up a little. Louis slowly nodded at his words.

"Alright then." He said while slowly pushing Louis down on the chair by his shoulder.

"I need you to relax. Take a deep breath....and exhale. Inhale....exhale" He was breathing with him and at one point, so were we. "Very good. Now, I want you..." He took a lughter and lit it. Bringing it closer to Louis' eyes, he spoke in a calm tone. "...to stare into the flame."

"You're slowly, falling asleep..." We all watched with wide eyes as Louis kept staring into the flame and within seconds his eyes rolled up to the top and they shut close.

"Okay. Louis, can you hear me now?" I could tell Rose was worried and was fully regretting this decision with every passing second as she knitted her eyebrows and stared at him in horror. "Louis?"

"Yes" He answered with his eyes still closed and that made us ease up a little.

"Good, I want you to respond to everything I say. Can you do that?" He asked and it took some time for Louis to answer.

"Yes"

"Alright. We're gonna go, to the darkest corners of your mind" He said while putting the lighter down on the small desk next to the chair. "Tell me what you see?"

"I uh..." He started and we could lightly see his eyebrows raising. "I'm in a forest"

"What do you see?"

"Nothing. It's pitch black.....there are trees...."

"It's the same dream" Rose whispered leaning to the front and I put my arm around her trying to comfort her. There were plenty of occasions that this worked right? Why should we worry? He's gonna be fine.....I think.

"Yeah? Do you hear anything?"

"No. Just silence" His talking was quick. As if he was in a hurry to finish talking. The man opened his mouth but closed as soon as Louis spoke again. "Wait I heard something"

"What is it?"

"A voice."

"And what does the voice say"

"It's a counting." We all straightened up together. It was the same dream. "I shouldn't be here" He almost whispered.

"Louis, what are you doing right now?" The man asked as he noticed how Louis seemed to tense up a little.

"I'm running"

"Stop running"

"I can't. She's gonna come to me"

"Who is?" He leaned closer and all of a sudden Louis stopped struggling. He stopped everything.

"Louis?" The man called. "Louis can you hear me?" He slowly looked up at us and Rose stood up in alarm. The man quickly raised his hand for us to not move or panic before he spoke again. "Talk to me son?" We all watched with hope until he said something and for a second he twitched. We all let out relieving sighs but without letting it settle, he started shaking vigorously as if he was under attack. He brought his hands up to his head and started struggling to get out of something.

"Louis, listen to m-" The man spoke and with an instant Louis started screaming. "Hold him down" The man yelled and we all got up to our feet trying to get him to calm down. His eyes were still sealed but he looked like he was in a lot of pain.

"Louis, I want you to walk back into the light. Louis, focus. Louis!" The man held back the lighter in front of his eyes and if he didn't stop moving we thought he might burn himself.

"Louis! Focus-" He yelled and with those words his eyes snapped open. Still petrified over whatever he was dealing with, he stood up from his chair. The side effect of being hypnotized got him to fall down on his knees but he was still disturbed.

"Sshh, hey, hey! Louis!" Liam who was in his side of the chair quickly put his hand around him and brought him in for a hug. "It's okay. You're okay. Ssh...." He whispered and Louis' loud and quick breathing seemed to slow down a bit. "You're alright mate. It's over" Liam said soothing his hand on Louis' back until he finally stopped struggling and accepted the hug.

~*~

"So you can't do anything about it?" Louis said in a hopeless tone as we all sat down circling the hypnotist.

"I'm sorry. Whatever you're dealing with is a very strong emotion that you seemed to keep running into" He said while neatly arranging his simple utensils on the table. "Most patients tend to let go of these emotions through hypnotism but you, somehow, seemed to be holding on to it"

"I'm holding into it?" Louis winced as he spoke.

"Either that, or it is holding onto you" He looked up at him when he said it and it felt twice as creepy than it ever was.

"Is there anyway that he could get rid of it?" Rose asked.

"From the occorances that you were telling me and from what you saw right now, I'm not really sure if there is a way." He replied dragging our hopes to the ground. There were many things that disturbed my mind when I was watching the hypnotism. I sat up wanting to get the biggest concern out of my head. "Why did you ask him to stop running?"

"He said he seemed to be waking up from the same dream. He's in a forest, he hear someone counting, he runs, he falls. Maybe there's a different way to end it." He got up while grabbing some of the stuff that was lying in the edge of the desk. "You're running because your mind is telling you that something bad is gonna happen when it hits ten."

"Something bad is happening. I fall of a cliff" Louis reminded.

"Because you were running. Now, crossing a different pathway to your dream from the outside world can be quite dangerous. You all saw for yourself." We all leaned to the back with raised eyebrows as Louis looked around slightly clueless of what he was saying. "But maybe you can do that yourself"

"He started screaming. How could we expect it to be any different when he's fighting himself?" Liam questioned.

"When you're fighting yourself you have a choice of waking up" He said while turning around to put the stuff back on the shelves. "In hypnosis, we put you to sleep and we don't let you wake up until we say so. If what's after you really frightens you, the work could go out of control. But if you could hypnotize your mind yourself, you could turn it off on your own"

"So you suggest I stop fighting it?" Louis murmured.

"If you want to find what it wants, yes"

"Yeah but, he grabbed a knife while he was sleepwalking two nights ago. Either he was trying to hurt someone or hurt himself. If he didn't fight it...." Zayn said slightly concerned.

"Well, next time give his mind time to figure out who the knife is getting pointed at"

"You want us to watch, until he stab someone to death??" Harry asked sitting up with a sarcastic smile as if the guy just said the stupidest words ever. To be honest, we all did.

"No. I want you to watch until you figure out what he's gonna do with it. Since it's a knife you assume that he's gonna hurt someone. He could probably be thinking of..... making a simple salad." He shrugged and we all started laughing at his words. We weren't in the best of mind but that was still something we found to be funny. "You'd be surprised how many times it has happened before" He added.

"So Louis, I say you stop fighting it. Let it flow."