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

[Flashback Chapter 438: A Deadline That Leaves no Time for Mistakes]

When Dean looked down at Adi, telling her that she had listened to that cursed file again, she just wanted to deny it. She didn't want to admit that she could have turned herself into a baby, taking away her own road out of this prison. She needed to say she wasn't so gullible. But then she thought back to her first foray outside, and nodding off while she sat on a tree stump to check if she had a signal. Waking up feeling littler than she had before, and not noticing the change. She remembered a few other times she'd worried about getting trapped as a baby, or about what was happening with her exam results back home, or what Dean had planned for her. Moments she'd tried to play a game on her phone, and woken up with no recollection of what she'd played. She'd been putting it down to tiredness, or the few suggestions she hadn't quite shaken. But this made so much more sense.

"Damn," she said when she eventually found her tongue. "I'm the biggest idiot in the world. If I'd just asked you what was going on, we could be out of here by now. But I was too caught up in myself, thinking I know best." She sighed, and then another realisation struck:

"Like how I got into this mess in the first place. Too proud to admit that listening to that thing was a stupid mistake. I mean, you've seen my reviews if you're a critman. You know why I was listening really. To show off how smart I am. Too smart to be hypnotised, or to rub their noses in it. All the gullible masses who believe–"

"You believed the evidence in front of you. That's not dumb. And as much as I'd like to understand what happened better, we have priorities today. This isn't just about making sure you know what's going on, it's about making sure you're free of those suggestions."

"This Chastaine guy has a plan, right? To get this all out of my head. If he knows hypnosis, then... But how do I know he's any better? He might have all this rep, but that's easy to fake if you're collecting brainwashed slave girls with the help of some schmuck who trusts you."

"He's not going to hypnotise you. He's good enough to help people who've had problems with malicious or incompetent hypnotists, but this Lady Larsen is an expert. She's well known in the regression community, he says, but he doesn't quite understand some of the things he's heard. And this file is like a möbius strip of manipulation, with a mind cage wrapped up inside. Anything that might pull you out of it just takes you deeper. And he doesn't know how to break something like that, and even if he could it might cause so much damage to your ego."

"So what then?"

"The plan was you take a break, until it starts to fade on its own. And then we bought you the removal file. That one's just as insidious, but it's kind of a mirror image of the baby name file, so it should work. As long as you have some time without being a baby before you listen."

"So I have to wait what, two more weeks?"

"No. Because you can't complete your university registration without hearing your name, and then you'd be starting from scratch. After that you'd have to make it through your first few weeks at Moistville without any lecturers, tutors, guidance counsellors, or residence staff reading your name. You'd never escape it long enough during term, and by the next break you'd find it even harder to escape. We only have one option."

"What's that?"

"I suspect your friends already suggested it. But the longer you've been doing this, the more willpower it will take from you, and more time to clear your head before you can even try. You're going to start listening to the file again."

"What?" Adi snapped, thinking for a second that Dean had literally gone insane. But then she thought back, and realised... "Britney said the same thing. When it had only been a few days since I listened. You think I can change my baby name, right? To something that isn't my real name, like Dorothy or something, and then I'm not going to overhear it. Britney suggested that, but I tried it, and I don't think it worked. I'm not sure, but I think I slipped back to Adelaide without realising. That's why I had the file on my phone, so I could try it at Toni's house."

"Yeah. And unless Britney hadn't done her research yet, she probably said you need to wait a week before you try it if you don't want that to happen."

"I thought I knew better," Adi confessed. "And then when it didn't work, I decided she was wrong, so I wouldn't have to admit I'd made such a dumb mistake. So I take a week off and then listen again?"

"Not quite. With this file, you need to wait longer if you've been listening longer. Chastaine's been collecting anecdotes from people who've tried it. You might be okay to listen to it again now, even if you would reject the removal file at this stage. So that's what we'll have to do. My backup plan. It'll take a few days before you stop responding to the old one anyhow, so we need to start before Tuesday unless you're going to dump your university registration. That's why I was so glad that you tried to trick me, and you were organised enough to do it. It's good practice for your adult thoughts, and it means you're probably ready earlier than we thought."

"So then..."

"After that it's your choice. You can go back to being a baby if you really want to. Because I always knew that's a possibility. I'll support you either way, as long as I know it's your real decision, but I don't believe you'll take it. Ot you can change your baby name, and make sure you pick something you're not going to hear by accident. Or you can try listening to the removal file and trust that your resistance to unwanted suggestions is better than just about everyone in the recreational hypno community. Or you might believe that you already fought off the baby name trigger, so you can go back to a normal life. I'm not going to push you, it's your choice."

"You said I should speak to this Chastaine guy," Adi answered sullenly, putting off making a real decision. She wanted to say that she was free now, or her intellect would make sure she was able to accept removing all the suggestions. But she'd learned a long time ago that she wasn't as smart as she had once thought, and that intelligence didn't necessarily mean resistance. She didn't want to speak to her stalker, and she didn't trust him at all, but now she couldn't take the risk. The choice was between doing something that someone else had told her was dangerous, even though she was sure she could take it, and doing what they agreed was a safer but less perfect option. Even if this guy was crazy, she couldn't see how he could take advantage of her if she didn't tell him the new baby name. It was a tough thing to decide, when she'd been hoping so hard to escape. She knew really what she was going to decide, but asking to speak to him just made it take a little longer before she had to bow to someone else's superior powers of reason.

"Yeah, I'll get him on video chat if you prefer. Or call him. Whatever you're more comfortable with. I'm sure he'll be happy to take your call, no matter how busy he is. He really cares about you, and he's determined to make sure this works as well as possible."

"Video, please. So I can see he's not getting off on this, at least not while I'm there."

"I'm sure it's the last thing on his mind."