✅🎊✂️ Hypnosis Won't Take Me There!! [alternative cut]

Chapter 370: The Day Ahead

Adi jumped when she heard the door open, and her phone tumbled out of her hands onto the floor. She'd been paying so much attention to the tiny screen that she hadn't heard Dean's footsteps in the hallway, and hadn't noticed the door move until it was halfway open and started to squeak. Normally he announced himself with a sharp rap on the timbers, but if he'd knocked today she had been too preoccupied to care.

"Careful!" he exclaimed, and stooped down towards the tiny slab of glass and plastic skittering across the floor. It bounced on the tip of his boot, and Adi just about managed to grab her fragile treasure without it suffering any real damage. She'd been lucky, not just to retrieve her phone unbroken, but to get it back in her hands before Dean could see what was on the screen.

That was probably why she'd dropped it in the first place. She was practically shaking with nerves as she made one guess after another. Less than an hour before, she'd been thinking with enough of her adult mind to make connections she couldn't believe she'd missed. She was sure now that Dean had taken her away without telling her friends. That this wasn't a family vacation, but an attempt to get her on her own. And as if to prove it, he'd called her by her baby name immediately when he caught her trying to email Toni. And then he wouldn't let her use her computer. He wouldn't let her call for help, and the only reason that made sense with all the things he'd said was that he wanted to turn her into someone else. He wanted her to return to childhood and then grow up as someone else, as whoever he wanted her to be.

But Adi was a genius. Even with the hypnosis stifling her thoughts, there was intelligence in there. A few days before, she'd glanced at the card with the house's Internet password on for a second before Dean decided not to let her use it on her own. Yesterday she'd watched Dean type in the password on her laptop, so that she could play a game about a mathemagical rabbit that inexplicably couldn't play offline. And between two half-seen passwords, she thought she might have a reasonable chance of guessing the answer.

He'd let her keep her phone. She guessed that he knew that there was no signal at the house, maybe for miles around. But if she had composed a text message, there was a chance of it sending as soon as they travelled somewhere with cellular service. And her phone still had wifi, so she could send an email just as soon as she guessed the password. For now, she just needed to not get excited, and sooner or later Toni would be there to help her.

"Do you need a change, baby girl? We're going shopping today, so we'll have to get ready soon." The faintest hint of impatience in her voice told Adi that he'd asked already, while she was lost in her thoughts. She smiled as she realised she'd managed to keep her plan a secret for now. She reached down with one hand to check her diaper, which seemed to be as dry as she could expect after a change less than an hour before. But she hesitated, thinking about her situation.

She couldn't get away from here, because there was nowhere she could get to. She couldn't contact her family yet, and Dean was bound to respond with her baby name if she tried. But if he wanted to be a babysitter, she wasn't going to make it easy for him. She giggled like a naughty child, and used her diaper without another word.

* * *

"I got–" Britney and Toni started talking at the same time. Although they weren't spending time with Adi, they'd kept the habit of visiting her home at regular intervals. The place seemed oddly quiet without a toddler charging around causing trouble. Even if she was really an adult, it was hard to see her as anything but the rambunctious child she'd recently become.

They paused briefly, and then Toni spoke: "After you?"

"Yeah. I got a message today. Thought I should say."

"Same. She sent it to both of us?"

"Could be. Maybe she wasn't sure who to send it to, and she wanted to try both. But as drunk texts go, this has to be right up there."

"Drunk?"

"Yeah. Or high on something. Didn't you think so?"

"Different message then," Toni shook her head. Somehow, curiosity managed to overrule her previous sense of urgency, and she couldn't help asking: "So who's yours from?"

"Belle Carter. Last person I expected to hear from. Like, unless Dean came back and she had information for us. But I got the unsolicited message pouring her heart out, bemoaning how she's so lonely now and nobody understands her. And she never realised, but we were the best friends she had, not all the trendy kids who wanted to take her position as queen bee. You know, the traditional lament of the cheerleader who's finally realised she's not the same person as the mask everybody loves."

"I don't know so much about that. But... she's confiding in you?"

"Yeah. Lonely, I guess. She's got no family, you know? All her peers have parents giving them whatever they ask, and without Dean she's having to look after herself. Don't envy her. And she says – straight up – she wants to know if Lillibel can come and play for an afternoon. Like, she still deserves a break from stress even if she's not doing it to help Adi."

"I thought she was doing it because she's got the hots for her big brother?"

"Well, yeah, but she's not going to say that, is she? She won't even admit it to herself. It was always just so Adi could have some company, or not be an only child, or whatever. Let her lie to herself."

"Yeah, but... her brother's not here either."

"Then she's got more responsibilities than ever. And Adi's told her how much it helps with stress. I can't believe I'm saying that, after the way she treated Adi last year. But if she's taking it hard enough to ask for that, then maybe we should give it a try. I mean, taking care of her doesn't really appeal, but if you can make someone happy and it doesn't cost anything, then– Or..."

After interrupting herself, Toni kind of trailed off, leaving Britney waiting in confusion for a long moment.

"Or what?"

"Just something Casey said the other day. I'll tell you, but we're getting off-topic. I need to tell you..."

"Yeah, you had a message too. What's yours?"

"I got an email from Adi."