"Come on, it'll be fun!" Kate pulled Dorothy's sleeve, trying to drag her into a dilapidated office building with a neon sign that blinked 'Charon' in an offensive shade of pink.
Dorothy rolled her eyes at her best friend's insistence that the inside of what could pass for a whorehouse would bring them joy.
"You know I don't believe in all that psychic crap, Katie."
"Well I do, and I'm not going in there alone. Come on, I wanna find out once and for all that I was Cleopatra in a previous life."
"Of course he's going to say you are, everyone's Cleopatra.. I'm sure he'll be happy to tell me that my cat's actually Cleopatra." Dorothy threw her arms up, escaping Kate's grip as she stood her ground.
"Don't be silly, your cat obviously used to be the goddess of the hunt." Kate put on her sweetest smile and puppy dog eyes.
Dorothy kept her face neutral, though she wanted to smile. She was more than used to Kate's odd facial expressions, but her cat was called Artemis for a reason.
"Fine, whatever.." Kate said, frustrated that emotional blackmail never seemed to work on Dorothy. Then she had a thought. "You do this and I'll go see that boring art thing with you next week."
Dorothy shook her head, about to argue that classic art was uplifting and inspiring, but the words got caught in her throat. She did not want to go alone to the gallery, and well, if Katie wanted to spend her money on something silly that was her choice. Dorothy nodded, starting to move towards the door. "But you're paying."
"Of course." Katie smiled and dragged Dorothy through the door and into a hallway where they were instantly hit by a wall of incense.
Pretty soon Dorothy and Kate found themselves sitting on an uncomfortable couch that had the misfortune of matching with the rest of the room. As she shifted in her seat waiting for the hypnotist to finish his preparations, she considered walking out. Looking over, Kate shot her a look that said 'don't even think about leaving me alone with this creep'. Dorothy sighed, and resigned herself to another hour of her life wasted.
At that moment, the hypnotist stepped back into the room, rubbing his hands like a mad scientist, or so Dorothy thought.
"You ok, dearies? Ready to start? Remember, one life, one hour, that's all you get." the man who called himself Charon but looked more like a train-collector named Colin told them.
Dorothy nodded, more nervous than she wanted to admit. Kate just smiled.
"Now, once you arrive at your destination, you'll feel a little bit disorientated. Just remember, you'll be re-experiencing a lost memory, not actually returning to the past. There's no penalty for asking questions, nothing you can mess up, so just relax and enjoy the experience. Any last questions?"
"Nope." Kate said.
"Let's just get this over with." Dorothy mumbled.
"Okeydokey," the man said, well used to scepticism, "let's get started."
As he handed them a strange-smelling drink, Dorothy hesitated. But when Kate grabbed her drink and downed it in one, Dorothy had no choice but to do the same. As the sickly-sweet concoction made its way down her throat, Charon said "See you in an hour. Have fun." The last thing Dorothy saw was his toothy grin.
Dorothy was about to complain that nothing was happening, when she noticed she was no longer sitting on a couch. Instead, she found herself lying down, looking up at strange images of naked people doing unmentionable things. She blinked and looked down at her body. It still looked like hers, like the hypnotist had told her it would to her own eyes, but now it was covered with some sort of sheet instead of her regular jeans and band shirt.
