Title: Her Own Path
Chapter 2
For her plan, Sophia needed to hypnotize a few people. Some servants, and someone who could use the family’s money. The servants wouldn’t be an issue. She didn’t have any triggers in them, but they were so heavily conditioned that they couldn’t think of resisting any of the family . As for the other, Angela would be her best bet. Her parents wouldn’t give her the time of day, and Angela was at least sympathetic to her cause.
Sophia finds Angela coming from her training for the day. “Hey, want to come to my room. I want to talk to you about something.”
Angela flashes her a smile. “Sure, let’s go now.” Their parents usually respected their privacy, so they shouldn’t be interrupted any time soon.
“Thanks,” Sophia replies. They walk together in silence until they reach her room and Sophia shuts the door.
“So what’s up?” Angela asks, sitting on Sophia’s bed.
Sophia sits on her bed, facing her sister, and takes a deep breath. “I want to try to hypnotize you.” The look on Angela’s face becomes a bit surprised. Sophia waits for a beat, but when Angela doesn’t deny her, or even respond at all, she continues. “I just want to try it on someone other than the servants. They’re too easy, too conditioned. We just have to start speaking in the right tone of voice and they’re already halfway into trance. At least with you, I’ll have to work for it a bit.”
Angela appears to at least consider it. “You know Mother’s thoughts about this. I’m not saying you’re wrong, and I do share some of your feelings on this. But…”
“Please, Angela. Just this one time. Do it for me. Please?” Sophia’s tone is a bit pleading a this point.
Angela sighs. “Okay, I’ll do it. But just this once. And if Mom finds out about it, I’m totally blaming you.”
Sophia gives her a smile as she lets out the breath she’d been holding. “I can agree to that. And thank you.”
“So, what do you need from me?” Angela asks, nodding.
Sophia holds up a finger. It’s the best focus she has on hand. Her mother dismisses things like pendants and spirals as unnecessary crutches weaker hypnotists rely on to increase their ability. “Just watch my finger.” She starts moving her finger back and forth. “Just watch and listen.” Angela’s eyes follow her finger, and her posture begins to relax slightly. “It’s so easy to follow, so easy to listen. So let yourself focus. Focus on my finger as it goes back and forth, back and forth. Focus on my words, let them enter your mind. It’s so easy, so simple to follow for me. To listen for me. Just let my words flow into your mind. And as they do, you’ll find your own mind, your own thoughts fading away. One by one. It feels so nice to let my words fill your mind. Replacing your thoughts. It feels right to think my words.”
While Angela wasn’t as susceptible to hypnosis as the servants were, she had been hypnotized by their mother a fair amount of times. And since they all had used the same style, Angela was primed to drop very easily for it. So while it was a little more work to drop her, it wasn’t by much. Angela’s eyes quickly glaze over as they follow Sophia’s finger.
“That’s right, your mind fading away. Leaving you so empty, so blank. Letting my words fill your mind. Letting your mind go. Fading away, replaced by my words. It’s so nice, feels so good. As you fall down for me.” Sophia holds her finger up higher, and Angela’s eyes dutifully follow. “Letting my finger pull you down. Down into trance. Down into submission. Down into obedience. Down into my control.” As she says this, Sophia pulls her finger down, causing Angela to fall forward, dropping into trance.
Sophia takes a deep breath, satisfied with how quickly she was able to pull her sister down, unaware of the advantages that made it easier for her. “Now, Angela, I’m going to tell you some things, and you’re not going to them. You’ll just having a nice, relaxing trance, and I brought you up without leaving anything in your mind. You can do that for me, can’t you?”
Angela gives a sleepy nod. “yess… forget…”
“Very good, but even when you forget, you’ll still obey perfectly” Sophia continues softly. “Now, when you wake up, you’ll go into the family and send some money to a private I’ll give you.” Sophia gives her the details of the and the amount she needs. “You’ll do your best to conceal this from our parents, but if they find out and ask about it, you’ll have a suitable excuse ready. You won’t question why you’re doing this, you’ll simply feel the need to do it. You can do that for me, can’t you?”
Angela returns another nod
“You’re doing so well for me.” This would hopefully take care of her money issues. “Coming up for me now, forgetting your commands, but still obeying perfectly. Thinking I just gave you a nice relaxing trance. Following my words as I count up. 1. Feeling good, memory leaving you. 2. Knowing your commands, even when you forget them, ing only a relaxing trance. 3. Wide awake now.” Sophia waits for a beat to let Angela wake up. “So how was that?”
Angela blinks a few times as she comes back to herself. “Wow, Sophia. That was great. You really are a prodigy in this.”
Sophia blushes at the praise. “Thanks. I needed that. I guess to just know that it wasn’t just the servant’s conditioning doing the work for me.”
“We both know it’s not just that.” Angela gives her a smile. “But I’m glad I could help make that clearer for you.”
Sophia lets out a sigh. Angela didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, now she just had to wait. But she still had more to do. She gives Angela a nod. “It has. It absolutely has.”
Sensing that Sophia has said everything she needs to, Angela gets off the bed and makes her way to the door. “Well, glad that was quick, and that our parents didn’t barge in or anything. Hopefully having done this will help you settle down a little bit.”
Sophia just gives her a wry smile as she leaves. Then she waits for a few minutes before moving on to her next step. She gets up and exits her room. She goes around the house, finding two servants and telling them to come back to her room with her. Once she has them in her room, Sophia closes the door. It’s quick work to pull them both down into trance.
“Now you two. So deep for me. So ready to obey my commands. You won’t this trance when you wake up, you’ll simply think I called you in here to talk about something mundane. And when you wake up, you’ll assume our conversation is over and be on your way. You won’t the commands I’m going to give you, but you’ll obey them nonetheless. When you wake up, over the next few days, you’ll find yourselves gathering the supplies I’ll need for a few days of travel here in my room. Some dry food, water, and camping supplies. If anyone asks what you’re doing, you’ll tell them they’re for a surprise I’m working on, and say that I haven’t told you anything more.” Both servants nod as the commands sink into their malleable minds. “That’s right, coming back up for me now. Coming out of trance, forgetting I hypnotized you, but obeying perfectly.” Sophia snaps her fingers and both servants blink awake. “That’ll be all, you can go now.” She says nonchalantly.
Both servants seem confused for a moment, but they each nod, speaking a quiet “Yes, ma’am,” and leave her room.
Sophia sits in her room for the rest of the day. Everything should be in motion now. She just needs to wait.
The next few days were extremely nerve-wracking for Sophia. There wasn’t much she could do to speed things up, she just needed to hope everything worked out now. During this time, she received a call from the university, asking her to confirm her name. Sophia proudly told them she was part of the once great clan. As expected, this vastly simplified her application process, and they would be sure to send her the confirmation of her enrollment soon. Supplies steadily piled up in her room and she made sure to keep them hidden. She noted when Angela made the transfer to her . This took a huge weight off her shoulders. She was confident in the servant’s conditioning, but she had no idea how well her sister’s would stick. That was by far the largest risk in her plan. But it all seemed to be working. She was going to bring this off. Sophia kept up her routine, but she was often lost in thought about starting at the university soon. She almost felt like she was gliding through the days now, just going through the motions of each day. Unfortunately, her mother noticed this as well.
“Sophia, you’ve been so distant lately. What’s wrong?” Her mother asked at the end of one of their practices.
Sophia shakes her head as she focuses on the present fo now. “Ah… Nothing, Mom. Just been thinking lately is all.”
Her mom sits down and gestures for Sophia to sit down across from her. “What have you been thinking about? Something I can help with?”
Sophia motions that she wants to leave, but a look from her mother makes her sit down, sighing. “Well… I’ve been thinking that maybe you’re right. Just sticking with our family’s tradition may be for the best. It’s just… taking me a bit to let go of that fantasy of learning something more. I guess it does make me a bit distant.” She puts on what she hopes is a suitable apologetic expression.
Her mother’s face lights up in a smile. “Oh, Sophia, that’s fantastic. I’m so glad you’ve come around on that.” She leans forward and puts a hand on Sophia’s shoulder. “It’s always better when family sticks together.”
Not this family. Sophia thinks to herself bitterly, feeling slightly guilty about lying to her mother like this. But not too much. The only person she’d really miss was Angela. Maybe she could reconnect with her at some point. Sophia just wished Angela would be able to understand her actions. She doesn’t let any of this show as she just nods and returns her mother’s smile.
The rest of the day es uneventfully. Dinner is about the same. Her mother tries to ask her some questions about how she thinks her future with the family will be, but after a few monosyllabic answers, she stops. Sophia doesn’t want to perpetuate her lie any more than she already has. She’ll be leaving soon anyway, so it won’t have to be for too much longer. After dinner, Sophia returns to her room. She should have the rest of the night to herself now. She opened her closet, checking on the supplies the servants had been bringing. She’d been checking them every night, but tonight she finally had enough to make it to the university. She shuts her closet and decides to just wait for later in the night, so everyone has time to fall asleep.
About an hour later, there’s a knock on her door. Sophia was so caught up in her own plans that she jumps a little bit. “Come in,” she calls.
The door opens and Angela walks in. She shuts the door behind her, and sits down in a chair across from Ahsley. “Hey. Mom’s not the only one who’s noticed you being distant lately. I don’t know what you told her, but I doubt it was the truth.” She gives Sophia a hard look. “So what’s going on with you?”
Sophia meets her gaze for a moment, before looking down sheepishly. Angela had always been able to read her. “Yeah, okay. But please don’t be mad at me for it.” She looks up again.
Angela nods. “I won’t. You have my .”
Sophia lets out a long sigh. “Okay. I’m leaving tonight.” She just stops talking there, watching Angela for her reaction.
Angela just gives her a sad smile. “I thought it would be something like that. I wish you didn’t have to go out on your own, but I think it’s for the best.”
Sophia just stares at her sister for a few seconds. “You expected this?” She asks incredulously.
Angela shrugs. “Well, not this exactly, but something like it.” She reaches out and puts her arms on her sister’s shoulders. “Sophia, you have so much talent, and it’s being stifled here. I’ll miss you, of course, but you’ll be out there, doing what you want. I’ll smooth it over with our parents, somehow.”
Sophia’s face melts into a weak smile as she pulls Angela in and hugs her “Thank you.” Sophia begins to tear up a little. “I’ll miss you too, and I wish there was another way. But I think this is what I need right now.
The sisters hold the hug for a little bit longer before pulling apart. “Well, I suppose this is goodbye. Write me, at least. Please?” Angela asks.
“Of course, I will. Just don’t let Mom find out.” Sophia says, wiping away some tears.
Angela laughs a little as she stands up. “Don’t say it like it’s my first time hiding something from her.” She walks out of Sophia’s room, giving her one last look as she exits.
Sophia lays back on her bed. Not how she had planned things to go, but it made her life a little easier. She waits a few more hours to ensure that everyone’s fallen asleep. Then she pulls out her supplies, all gathered in a big backpack. She slings it on, then quietly as she can, starts making her way out of her family’s compound. Her phone had the map she needed, and she made sure the servants brought her a few spare batteries for it. The weather wasn’t too bad, even at night. She gets a good distance away before putting out her camping equipment and sleeping for the rest of the night.