A Wave Of Desire

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Ocean

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"J..Justin, I am going to tell you something. Something that you need to do when you wake up."

"Yes Ocean, I am listening. I will do whatever you tell me to." Justin's robotic voice was making this all so much worse. That, and the fact that he was so willing to help me and do whatever it was that I was going to tell him.

That moment right there was when it hit me that someone like me, a Siren or someone else that could bespell someone like this, was potentially dangerous to the entire world. A person that could hypnotize someone else and make that person do whatever the hypnotist wanted them to was, in my opinion, a very literal and very scary weapon.

If someone found out what I was capable of doing, if they learned my secret, would they hate me? Would they think that I was a monster? Would they want me to leave? I didn't know. And unfortunately, right now I didn't have the time to think about it either.

"Alright, J..Justin, you will be waking up soon, but when you do you're going to have a massive headache. Your head is going to hurt so bad that you just want to leave. You're going to be sad that we couldn't talk more, and I am going to walk you to the door with Makai. When we get there, you will reach out to shake my hand and pull me into a hug. Do you understand so far?" I didn't want to overload him. This was a lot that I was telling him.

"My head will hurt. It will be like a migraine. I will reluctantly want to leave. We could be friends because we used to be, things have just gone bad. When you tell me goodbye at the door, I will shake your hand then hug you." That robotic voice repeated the steps back to me in a slightly reworded way. That told me that his mind was taking it all in and committing it to memory. That was good.

"Yes, that is good so far. Remember though, you need to shake my hand when we get outside on the porch, not before." I added that little addendum.

"Shake your hand then hug you on the porch." His monotonous voice repeated back to me.

"Very good." I smiled reluctantly. He was listening and it was going so well. "OK, after we say goodbye, you're going to get into your car and wait just a moment for us to close the door to the house. However, you will be checking your phone for messages and not watching us at all. After we are inside the house you will start to drive, but the pain in your head will be so much worse. The light is going to hurt your eyes so bad that you will grab your head with your right hand and wince in pain. Do you understand so far?"

"My head will hurt. It will be like a migraine. I will reluctantly want to leave. We could be friends because we used to be, things have just gone bad. When you tell me goodbye on the porch outside, I will shake your hand and hug you. I will get into my car and check my messages. After you have gone inside, I will drive but my headache will get worse. So bad that I grab my head with my right hand."

"Yes, that is right. Now Justin, after you grab your head, you will crash your car into one of the other cars that are parked out there. You will not be going too fast so you will not be hurt. You will just bounce your head off of the steering wheel and nothing else. Got that?" 

"My head will hurt. It will be like a migraine. I will reluctantly want to leave. We could be friends because we used to be, things have just gone bad. When you tell me goodbye on the porch outside, I will shake your hand and hug you. I will get into my car and check my messages. After you have gone inside, I will drive but my headache will get worse. So bad that I grab my head with my right hand. That is when I will crash into another car. Not fast, just enough to hit my head on the steering wheel."

"That's right. Really good. Now, when you wake up, you won't remember me telling you this, it will all be subconscious. You will do everything that I said, but you won't remember that I am the one that told you to do it. This will all seem natural and unplanned to you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Ocean. I understand."

I hated myself for what I had just done. I didn't want this to happen to Justin, but I wanted to help him too. This was what Dr. Malachi said we needed to do, and I trusted him. So, if this was what I had to do, I would do it. I just wouldn't like that I had to do it.

"OK Justin, I am going to count down from five and snap my fingers. When I do, you will open your eyes. You won't remember that you were hypnotized, but you will do everything that I told you to. Ready?" I didn't wait for a response. "Five… Four… Three… Two… One." Snap! The sound of my fingers echo loudly in the nearly silent room.

"Justin, are you OK?" Makai was already there to get the ball rolling. And I noticed that Dr. Malachi was gone, intent on not letting Justin see him here.

"I..I think so." Justin was already holding his head. "I..I just have a really bad headache all of a sudden."

"That must be why you went silent for no reason." I spoke softly so it didn't hurt his head. I had already gotten to my feet to make it look like I had been on my way back from getting the drinks in the kitchen. "Do you want some aspirin? Is there anything that we can do for you?"

"N..no. No, I think I will be fine. I am just going to leave."

"Are you sure?" Makai sounded concerned and looked at me with wonder. He, like me, was probably wondering if Justin's head actually hurt or if he just thought it did. Was I causing him real pain or imagined pain? And if he winced like that, what was the difference? He would remember pain even if there wasn't any.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I am sorry, we didn't get a chance to talk at all." He sounded so sad.

"Don't worry about it. You can come back tomorrow. We have the whole weekend free." Makai gave him a friendly smile and started to walk toward the door with Justin. I was trailing behind them, knowing what was coming and dreading it.

"Yeah, if you don't mind, I will come back tomorrow, maybe around noonish?" I saw hope in Justin's eyes as he looked at me.

"Yeah, that sounds good." My immediate response seemed to make Justin happy.

Thanks, Ocean." We were outside now, and Justin turned to look at me, his hand stretched out and a smile on his face. "I really hope we can work this out."

"Me too, Justin. Me too." I returned the smile and shook his hand. He pulled me into the hug like he was supposed to. After that he waved goodbye, a light twinkling in his eye before he turned and hurried to his car. I saw him reach for his phone while Makai and I turned to go back into the house.

"Dammit, Makai, I don't like this." I could hear the emotions in my voice as I said that.

"I know baby, I know. I don't like it either." Makai's voice didn't quite mask the sound of the car starting and the engine revving as Justin started to accelerate. 

Makai pulled me against his chest then, hugging me tight as if he could make me not hear the moment that Justin's car smashed into the back of a car outside. It didn't work. I heard it. I heard it all. And every bit of that sound was like a knife to my heart. 

I had just hypnotized an innocent person into feeling pain and crashing his car. Yeah, I can delude myself into thinking that he wouldn't get hurt in the accident because it wasn't fast, and I told him not to get hurt. But would that really work though? Would he really be OK? I didn't know and that was going to eat at me now for a long time. I had done this. I was the reason this happened to Justin. It's just one more thing in the list of things that were my fault. Just one more notch in my belt, I guess. This never-ending cycle of pain and sorrow that I was causing people, I needed it to end. I needed it to stop so that I stopped feeling so guilty.

"I think we should go outside now." I pulled away from my boyfriend. "We need to go check on him and call for an ambulance. We need to get this whole thing moving." I spoke more firmly than I thought I would. I guess I was steeling my resolve somehow. "Are you ready, Dr. Malachi? Because my work in all of this is over."

"Yes, Ocean, I am ready.. Let us do what we need to do."