Tides of Hypnosis

Chapter 6: Emotions (Marie)

After I brought Callie back to the Octarian base, some Octolings took her and put her in a prison cell. Octavio told me that I could see her when she woke up, which sounded good to me. I wanted to make her feel like crap. In the meantime, Octavio talked to me about how Callie used me and manipulated me.

"You two are the Squid Sisters, correct?" he asked me.

"Uh, yeah," I said.

"And you hosted all of those Splatfests, as you called them."

"Yep," I confirmed.

"I bet you didn't know that Callie rigged the Final Splatfest so you would win?"

"But, that benefitted me."

"That's what you think. But in reality, she got more fame after that. Since you always performed your music during Splatfests, winning the final one gave you more fame in the music industry. But Callie got fame in everything else. Movies, TV, talk shows, anything."

"But what about all of our songs?"

"They were a way to make you famous for music, so when you started to go your separate ways, she could get fame in every other way, and you would only get musical fame."

"That's... That's crazy," I said. "She went to all that trouble just to get me stuck with music?"

"And look how it turned how," Octavio said. "You might have some fame with your Tide Goes Out song, but Callie starring in movies and TV among other things."

"Now that I think about it, it does kind of make sense," I said.

"So, what do you think of the Squid Sisters now?" Octavio asked me.

I knew exactly what to think.

Later, Octavio let me go down to talk to Callie in the prison. I told him that I didn't need any guards, and he reluctantly let me go down without any. When I got to Callie's cell, she was just sitting there in the corner, crying. It was pretty satisfying seeing her all broken down, now that I knew the truth about her.

She looked up at me, tears spilling out of her eyes. I sat down by the bars and motioned for her to also come to the bars.

"Want to talk?" I asked.

"Yes!" Callie responded.

Callie's face suddenly brightened. It must've been my voice, my personality. She must've thought I was "normal," or at least to her standards. I wanted to make myself seem meaner, but it just didn't feel right in my mind, so I scrapped that idea and talked normally.

"Are you okay, Cal?" I instinctively said.

Why did I say that? I didn't want to feel sorry for her. And I said it so nicely, too. I also called her Cal. I know I had done that a lot in the past, but why now? The whole phrase just came out naturally, though it was quite the opposite of what I was going to say.

"Not really," Callie said.

Good, I didn't want her to be okay. I wanted her to suffer like I did when she beat me up. But the next thing I said surprised me again.

"Sorry," I said, and quickly put my hand over my mouth.

Why did I saw that? I wasn't sorry! I had to get my mouth under control.

"We're done," I told her. "The Squid Sisters are done."

This made Callie go from looking hopeful to looking like she was about to cry. And she did cry. But then I realized something. Why was she crying? Why was she so happy when I started talking to her. She hated me, she tried to kill me. She was probably mad that she was the one suffering now.

"You beat me up and try to kill me, but when you get beaten up and you start to suffer, then you cry for me to come back," I said cruelly.

This just made Callie cry more.

"I didn't try to kill you, Marie!" she cried. "I love you, and you know it! Octavio did something to you!"

That made me realize that even though I saw Callie try to kill me, and even though Octavio told me how evil she was, I still felt that she loved me. And even more weird was that I wanted to hug her. I tried to suppress any good emotions towards Callie, but seeing her crying so much hurt my heart. But I hate her! She tried to kill me! It didn't make sense. I tried to think about why I would still love Callie. Maybe it was because I had all of those good memories with her. That had to be it. But it went beyond that. I didn't just love her in the past, I felt it now too.

I couldn't take it. I pressed a button on the wall to open the cell door, and I rushed in and hugged Callie. She was looking down, so she didn't see me and was caught off guard by my sudden embrace. But thought surprised, she hugged me back.

"Cal," I started. "I have no idea what's go-"

I was cut short by the sound of Octolings running down the stairs with Octavio behind them.

"Marie!" Octavio yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"I don't know!" I cried.

"Argh, she's starting to love Callie again," Octavio said, annoyed. "Bring me the hypnoshades!

"But sir, they were just meant to wipe her recent memory and make her believe you. They weren't meant to impl-"

"DO IT!" Octavio screamed.

Make me believe him? What? I'm so confused. But my confusion was interrupted by Octoling guards pulling me away from Callie. They started to beat Callie unconscious, and I couldn't help but cry out to her.

"Callie!" I yelled.

The Octolings pinned me down as the scientist ran over with the shades that I wore yesterday. Octavio called them "hypnoshades." Does that mean they're trying to hypnotize me? But before I could wonder what they did anymore, the glasses were thurst into my face, causing me to blackout.