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

Chapter 422: Unloading

Lily and Vicky sat on the sofa, watching cartoons. Lily didn't understand half of the jokes, but she still found herself laughing whenever her new friend did. She felt safe, and she knew that she could ignore her adult worries for as long as she was here. Even the baby babble didn't bother her anymore, it was just something else to laugh at now that both girls were doing the same.

But all good things have to come to an end. And when the cartoons ended, she found herself looking back and forth between Vicky, and reg on the big armchair. She thought she was as calm as she was going to be, and somehow she wanted to tell them what had upset her so much. She didn't want to wait until she was properly settled in, because then she would either bury it at the back of her mind again or be unable to speak through a flood of tears. She needed to say it, but she was sure that babble wasn't going to be the best tool for the job.

"You want to be a brave little girl?" reg asked, reading her mind more easily than she could read the neat block capitals on the whiteboard standing beside the TV. Lily nodded.=, and Reg pointed to the board. "Want me to erase this so you can be a big girl and tell us all? Or just change it so you can speak, and so it's easier for you to say what you want to say without all the inhibitions and worries you learned as you became an adult? And would you like Vicky to be a little sister to console you, or provide a little maternal support?"

Those were hard choices, but Lily could answer each with a small gesture. And she assumed that in the case of the last question, Vicky could signal her own answer just as easily.

The whiteboard was changed, and placed on the coffee table. The armchair was pulled out so that they were all sitting around the little table, with no video to distract them. Vicky put a caring arm around Lily's shoulders, and they asked the questions.

It was easy to tell the story now. She could get excited like she was spinning a fairy tale, and get the warm fuzzy feelings she barely remembered from so long ago. She didn't need to worry about difficult thoughts or adult concerns now. She was a child spinning a story, and when she started with her real childhood she could remember just how it had felt, when she was a child without a care in the world. On the inside, she could see everything as clearly as normal. She knew she was an adult, and that the exaggeration and giggles were just an act she was putting on. But it was so much easier to go with the flow and feel those things, so she just let herself keep playing along.

She told them about losing her parents, when she was barely old enough to understand what death even meant. She told them about the reasons for not going to live with her uncle, which she hadn't understood at the time and would probably have omitted if she was recounting the tale as an adult. She told them about her brother struggling to raise her, doing part time jobs to keep them comfortable alongside his schoolwork, and still finding time to give her all the attention a young girl could need. Of the fun they'd had making new things, and finding unorthodox ways to keep the family stable. About months improvising restoration of an old cottage that had once belonged to their great-grandfather. Memories of vacations in a land mostly unexplored by tourists. Of the effort Dean had put in to make sure they could stay together in the face of a system that wanted to tear them apart, and how much she had come to love her big brother when she saw him always put on a smile for her.

And then she told them about starting to grow. About the days when Dean had stayed late at school, distracted by his activities with the basketball club, and she had wondered if her brother still loved her. About training her fitness and joining the youth cheer squad as soon as she was old enough, so that she could come along to his games and see him perform. About the times she'd seen him chatting with the cheerleaders, the ones closer to his own age, with such joy in his eyes. And about wanting to be more like those girls, whatever the cost. Pushing herself to act more mature than the kids she knew, afraid of losing the attention of the only person she really cared for. While he still grew more distant, even if he kept any relationships hidden from her. About the day Dean had graduated high school and left for Moistville, trying so hard to make sure she had the money and the skills to support herself while he was away, but rarely having the time to actually spend together. About his visits that had started every other day decreasing to weekly, and something coming between them that she couldn't even see.

By then there were real tears in her eyes, and Belle couldn't continue. But as soon as she stopped, Vicky had her arms around her. Providing a shoulder to cry on, and listening without judgement. Soon Reg was there on her left side, another arm across her shoulders, but with no hint of anything inappropriate. They were just there to support her, and to help her cope with the feelings she needed to get out.

They spoke to her as well, half thoughts that showed they understood. About how difficult it must be to grow up alone. About how it would only be natural to want a childhood with more friends, and with a caregiver to provide all the attention she'd been missing. About how natural it was to become devoted to the one taking care of her, and to feel lost when he could no longer fulfil that role. They understood; they wouldn't judge her for feelings she couldn't admit even to herself. And they could see that it was good for her to be young again, even if her reasons were so very different from theirs.

"So, being little again helps you to be more comfortable with a childhood that wasn't quite what most people expect," Reg explained, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "There's nothing wrong with that. And you found a friend who's into the same things, so you've got someone you can confide in. Us too, in fact."

"It's not that," she shook her head, "I'm still the freak. It's..."

"You don't need to tell us if it's hard," Vicky whispered, but the feelings inside Belle were boiling over, and she couldn't keep the words inside any longer.

"I wanted him to pay attention to me again. She was playing baby, enjoying it so much, and when I found out I couldn't even tease her. All I could think was that if I was a baby again, Dean might pay attention to me. Like I could go back to before everything went wrong. And he was okay with that, I don't know why. He ended up playing babysitter to both of us, but he wouldn't let Lily be his sister because he said that would be too confusing. And I was so glad to have him focused on me."

"That's still a positive thing. Even if it's unusual, you two have found something–"

"And then they disappeared. Didn't say anything, just went. I've not seen my brother in a month and a half, and I can't cope without him. Her family and friends are so worried. His friends won't tell me where he is. I think he's actually left me for good, and I don't know how he could do that!"

Then, there was silence except for a wail slowly breaking down into sobbing. There was nothing else to say. But somewhere, on the inside, Belle knew that her new friends would do everything they could to help her get over this.