Insurrection - N.C.U. - Part 3 - Alt Ending

Klaire and Josh meet up for their lunch date, but Josh has a clever way to make sure the date goes smoothly. This is the Alt Ending version the additional part is clearly labeled below.

Cover Image made by HeroineArtAi

Josh was sitting down at the far end of the cafeteria, absentmindedly looking out the window while he stirred his soup in its bread bowl. He wanted to simply take a moment to relax, and calm himself down from his day. “Is this seat taken?” a playful voice said from behind him. 

He turned to smile at Klaire and stood up to pull out the chair next to him for her to sit down. “My lady…” he teased playfully as she took her seat.

“Such a gentleman.” she said, more playful than surprised. “That will get you places you might like.” She grinned, letting him fill in the blanks as to just what those places might be. “Sorry I’m late, my class ran a few minutes longer than I expected.” It was a rare admission that she was, in fact, not perfect.  

Josh sat down next to her. “It’s fine, it was only a few minutes.” he said, sliding a small tray of cookies he had gotten for them in her direction. Klaire took one as the two began to make small talk, discussing things like classes and activities they were involved in. But Josh couldn’t help but feel like Klaire wasn’t really there, that she was lost in her thoughts instead. “You seem like something is on your mind.” he finally expressed, leaning on it a bit harder than he would have liked. 

“Huh?” Klaire asked, shaking herself out of her thoughts to refocus on Josh. “Oh, sorry, yeah it’s nothing. It’s just…something with my roommate that has been stuck on my mind. It’s not a big deal, really.” 

Josh shifted in his seat and gave her a stern look as he adjusted his posture to look a bit more commanding. He gave her a serious look as he held his hand up in front of him and pretended to take notes on an imaginary notepad. “I zee…” he said in his best fake German accent. “Zo, vat zeems to be zee trouble?” Surprisingly, he managed to keep a straight face as he continued. 

Klaire laughed and shook her head. “Idiot…” she deflected. “It’s nothing, really.” 

Josh took a very in character sigh, and tilted his head down as if he was staring over the frames of glasses that he was not really wearing. “Now mizz, how I am supposed to be helpings you if you vill not be tellings me da issue.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Do not be making me be pull out zee hypnosis, to be makings you tell me now, frauline.” he said, playfully scolding her. He couldn’t help but feel nervous about bringing up hypnosis with her for the first time, but excited at the prospect.  

Klaire visibly blinked at the mention of the topic. “Hypnosis? Why would you say that? What…did you mean by that?” she stammered, trying to regain her composure but taken completely by surprise by the comment. 

Josh tilted his head and smiled at the realization. “Your roommate is part of the secret hypnosis sorority that's been meeting on the top floor of the girls dorm, isn’t she?” he asked with a knowing smile. “That’s what's going on, isn’t it.” he said more than asked. 

“What?” Klaire asked, even more taken by surprise “No, of course not! Why would you…” She trailed off as her surprise finally got the best of her. “How do you know about that?” 

“Oh…” Josh said with an air of confidence and smugness, “I have my ways.” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully before leaning in to Klaire and giving her his best faux attempt at seduction. He slid his hand to hers and picked it up, staring into her eyes. “I know…many secrets, Klaire. Many secrets indeed.” he finished with a grin, laughing a bit.  

Klaire looked flustered as she did her best to hide her embarrassment. “I thought it was a secret.” she admitted, looking very nervous all of a sudden. “She said no one knew about it. Figures she would be wrong!” she huffed, yanking her hand away from Josh without realizing it so she could fold her arms across her chest. 

Josh smirked and leaned back in his chair. “To be fair, I only know because a friend of mine is in the sorority and I asked her about it one time. She simply…couldn’t resist telling me about it.” he said, raising an eyebrow and moving his hand in a very typical “vampire hypnosis” kind of mannerism. Waving his palm towards Klaire, then pulling it back and letting his fingers fold forward like a squid, as if he were pulling her mind towards him. He kept this up for a moment before laughing it off and sitting up normally. “Besides, I helped her learn hypnosis so it’s not like I wouldn’t be aware if she was doing something like this.” he oh so skillfully dropped into the conversation as if it was a casual comment, and not purposely put there to inspire Klaire’s imagination and keep her talking about hypnotism.

“Wait,” she said, falling for the trap perfectly. “You know hypnosis?” she asked, suddenly starting to wonder how many hypnotists were on this campus. 

“Oh yeah.” he admitted as he relaxed and picked up his soup bowl to finish his lunch. “I worked in a computer lab as a tutor my freshman year for an entire summer. Fourteen hours a day, three days a week, for five months straight. Not a single student came into the lab during that time, so I had to entertain myself somehow. I don’t like reading, the computer was too old to play games, or run a video or even a DVD. So I used the time to research things and, well, one day the rabbit hole led me to hypnosis and I got interested in it, so I kept studying it.” he finished, wrapping up his (and my own) backstory of learning hypnosis.

“You learned hypnosis…from the internet?” she asked, leaning back with a smirk as if to say she was starting to doubt his abilities. As if the internet was some kind of wasteland of misinformation of something. 

“Of course,” he answered confidently. “I practiced on a few friends, including the one in the sorority, one or two of the girls I dated…” He dropped that line as a test to see how she would react and was pleased to see her blink a bit more rapidly for a second, a clear subconscious sign that she was processing the idea of being hypnotized by him. After all, they were on a date. Kind of. “I found I really like it and I’m pretty good at it. I don’t really use it for anything serious, just, you know, goofing off with my friends, doing a show at parties, things like that.” he shrugged as he picked up a cookie. “If you think that’s impressive, you should see what I can do with a yo-yo!” he said, both seriously and as a little humorous shift in perspective to make the conversation more light hearted. (also a skill I learned in my time in that lab). 

“You're serious aren’t you?” she asked, leaning in closer to him, a clear subconscious sign that she was interested. 

Josh smiled as he watched her play right into this hand. He tried to keep his posture calm and relaxed as he sat back, turning in his chair to face her and also leaning in. “Yes. I could show you…if that’s something you’d like to see now Klaire.” The statement was carefully worded to slip into her subconscious mind and lead her to the decision he wanted her to make. 

Klaire instantly leaned back and moved her arms in front of her, a clear sign that he had pushed way too far. She played it off by laughing a bit. “You are not hypnotizing me.” she said, turning away to eat the bagel that she had gotten before she sat down. “I’m too smart to be hypnotized anyways.” 

Josh pulled back a bit to make sure he didn’t press too quickly. “Actually…” he started as casually as possible, “being smart, like you are,” he complimented her to make the next suggestion slip a bit more easily into her mind, knowing she was on the defensive. “makes it far easier to be hypnotized.” He watched as she rolled her eyes and shook her head, but pressed forward before she could say anything. After all, bagels take a minute to chew. “I’m serious.” he said, “The smarter a person is, the more easily they can use their imagination, and the more they can feel and see what is being described in their mind. It’s why people who read a lot,” he continued, recalling that he had seen a rather large pile of books by Klaire’s bed when he was in her room, “tend to be very good at going into hypnosis. You already have that skill set to imagine things in your mind, you have the ability to focus, so when asked to simply go into a hypnotic trance…you find that you can do it rather easily.” During his explanation, Josh had carefully shifted his comments from a third person, generic “person that likes to read,” which was something he knew Klaire would describe herself as, to a first person wording aimed directly at Klaire. He didn’t think the comment would put her into a trance, but he did want her thinking about it. And he held back a smile as he saw her blink a few times and stare off into space, slowly processing what he had said before swallowing her bagel. 

Klaire didn’t look at Josh, a clear sign that she was a bit embarrassed. She knew she was kind of stuck. She either had to admit that she couldn’t be hypnotized, and therefore not as smart as she really was, or admit that she was intelligent, and a reader, and therefore easily hypnotized. The setup was quite brilliant, even though she didn’t realize on a conscious level that it was done intentionally. But Klaire was also quite crafty herself, and instead created a third option. “That may be the case.” she said with a smile, “But I still don’t have any interest in being hypnotized. if you want to demonstrate you can do so on someone else.” she said, leaning back confidently as she picked up the last cookie and smiled as she bit into it.. 

Josh gave her a knowing smile. “That, my dear, can be arranged.” 

Some time later Trisha heard a knock at her door. “Come in!” she shouted from her desk, where she was busy working on a PowerPoint presentation for one of her classes. 

The door opened and Josh leaned his head through the door. “Hey, you up for some company? I have someone here I’d like you to meet.” he said with a smile. 

“Sure!” Trisha said, moving towards the door to greet her old friend and whomever he had brought with him. To her surprise, Josh walked in with Rayne’s roommate Klaire, who she had met earlier at the sorority meeting. “Klaire! It’s good to see you again!” she said excitedly, looking at Josh “I already know her!” she beamed. 

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Alt ending chapter 3

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“Of course you do.” Josh said with a smile as he closed the door behind Klaire. “That’s why I brought her here, to you specifically.” 

Both Klaire and Trisha looked at one another and then back to Josh. “Oh?” Trisha asked, still confused. 

Josh casually took a step closer to Trisha as he offered his hand for her to shake. “Yup.” he replied, smiling but not really answering her. He watched as Trisha glanced down at his hand, a curious smile forming on her face as she reached out and took it without really thinking about it. She was about to ask a question, was about to inquire what he meant by that, and Josh knew that. Just as her mouth opened, he tugged her arm making her jerk in surprise, gasping softly as she took a step forward. His other hand shot out and softly grabbed her shoulder to balance her. “Look into my eyes Trisha. Just feel them pull you in, deeply…easily…completely now. Everything else is fading away. Gently swirling into the background, into the void.” He slowly moved his hand in a circle, keeping her arm jerking gently as he held her in place and stared deep into her eyes. 

Klaire gasped as she watched Trisha’s body jerk forward in surprise, her eyes staring deeply into those of the man who was hypnotizing her. The idea that someone who, in her eyes, held a position of power and authority, could be rendered so helpless, so instantaneously, made her pulse quicken. Trisha’s face was slack and she appeared to be struggling to speak, and with every swirl of her arm she tried so hard to resist. But with every motion of her hand, her eyes lost focus more and more. First they blinked, then they started to roll up into her head, only for her to force them back down in defiance and start the process over and over again. Each time she lost a little more ground, and each time her eyes would stay unfocused just a little longer.  

It was exhilarating, it was exciting, and it was pretty damn arousing if she was being honest with herself. But then something else happened. Something she didn’t expect. She heard Josh commandingly say “Sleep!” and her attention snapped back to Trisha just in time to watch her eyes roll up into her head and then slam shut. The grad student’s head flopped forward as her body followed suit ever so slightly and bent forward at the solar plexus, just above her belly, while her arms hung limp at her sides. Klaire could only stare in stunned silence as Josh whispered suggestions to Trisha, suggestions to simply be unaware of everything else going on, to just relax and sink more deeply, until he touched her shoulder and told her to focus on him. 

“That can’t be all it takes.” Klaire thought to herself. “There has to be something more, some kind of trick or…or even magic?” But yet there was Trisha, the bubbly overly excited head of the sorority, completely standing but slumped forward, asleep on her feet. Programmed to simply be unaware and helpless in her own dorm room. “Wow!” Klaire thought to herself as the realization of what just happened finally settled in. There was no denying it. Josh had just hypnotized Trisha, and he had done it almost effortlessly!

“See?.” Josh said, snapping Klaire out of her daydream as she stared at Trisha. “I told you I was a hypnotist.” he smiled, slowly and confidently moving closer to Klaire. 

“You…you did!” Klaire glanced back at Trisha before sheepishly looking at Josh. “I guess you were right.” she admitted. 

Josh smiled as he stood in front of Klaire with a warm smile and opened his hand, still staring into her eyes. “Right about what, exactly.” he said, leading her to the answer he wanted. 

Klaire was still in shock at everything that she had seen, or else she might have realized what was happening. Without even thinking about it, she reached her hand out and placed it in Josh’s. “You do actually know how to hypnotize someone.” she admitted,  looking back at the now oblivious, and completely still, Trisha. 

“Thank you.” Josh said with a smile, as he rubbed the back of Klaire’s hand with his thumb…and then quickly gave it a jerk.

Klaire’s eyes shot open as she found herself being tugged towards Josh unexpectedly. She felt his hand softly catch her shoulders and stop her from falling, and there was a feeling of…safety, or reassurance that she was safe with him, despite what he had just done. She found herself looking up into his eyes as he stared down at her and spoke in a soothing, but commanding voice. It was a familiar voice, the voice he had just used on Trisha. “Look into my eyes, Klaire. Just feel them pull you in, deeply…easily…completely now. Everything else is fading away. Gently swirling into the background, into the void.”

Klaire’s mind was racing. She was barely aware of what was happening, her adrenaline was still pumping from the shock of being pulled forward, and now she was staring right into Josh’s eyes. She knew he was talking, she could hear his soothing voice, but she couldn’t figure out why everything was happening so quickly. She felt her hand being moved in a circle, felt her body jerking slowly as it was moved too far down for her to stay upright, and then brought back up and then down with another soft tug. Her brain was in shock, taking in as much information as it could to try and make sense of the situation. But there was so much going on, the words just seemed to slide right past her attention, past her awareness and into her mind. She felt herself struggling to form a response, struggling to say something, anything. But it was getting harder and harder to focus. She felt the world around her blur for a moment before forcing her eyes to focus. But when they did, they focused right back on Josh’s eyes, staring down at her. Something about this just felt…right. 

She felt a firm tug down, and what thoughts she had left vanished in an instant as her heart skipped a beat and her adrenaline kicked in again. A single word made its way into her mind. “Sleep.”  But to her it didn’t seem like just a word. It had a force behind it, an authority, it was spoken in such a way that she felt she had no choice but to follow it. Had no choice but to obey it.  She didn’t consciously think about what that meant, not the word or the act of following it, she simply had no resistance to it. And then her mind simply went to sleep. Just like it was told. She felt her body sink forward, her arms hanging loose at her sides. She felt the pull of gravity on her upper body as she simply relaxed. She had a vague view of Josh smiling at her as everything went blurry and saw a brief glimpse of the light above her head, and then everything went black. 

She felt a hand under her chin, tilting her head up softly. She felt a warm breath on her ear as she heard whispers in the distance. Whispers telling her it was ok to relax, that she was safe. That she was…hypnotized. “Yes…” she thought to herself, less in words and more in feelings. “That feels right…hypnotized…”  The words in the back of her mind seemed to slide more easily into the distance. She wasn't really paying attention to them anymore, not on a conscious level. But she could feel them affecting her. She felt safe, she felt calm. She felt very open and honest with the man who was whispering into her ear, into her mind. She felt that…she could realize her attraction to him, realize how strong, and confident he was, and how much she really enjoyed that. How much that turned her on. And somehow, in the back of her mind she realized that she could express that to him in whatever way felt right to her. 

She didn’t know why, but her eyes seemed to open. She could see the man in front of her giving her a very confident, almost egotistical smile. She felt herself melt into that smile. Something about the power that he seemed to have over her just made her shiver deep inside. She thought of the whispers, thought of how best to express to this man in front of her how she really felt. Without thinking she moved in and kissed him, aggressively and passionately. Her arms didn’t want to really move much at all, but she used what strength she had to pull him in deeply, and to start to move him to the bed.

She felt herself stop and break the kiss, staring back at the man who had hypnotized her. The man who she needed to show just how excited she was, and felt herself lift her shirt up and over her head. She tried to give him a confident, seductive smile, but her body didn’t seem to respond at all. 

She felt her shirt slide from her hands, and saw the man before her hold it up and give it a sniff, smelling the combination of her perfume and her natural scent. He seemed to smile as he tossed the shirt over his shoulder. It never did seem to hit the ground, instead it seemed to land on something, no…someone standing there…slumped and relaxed. Hypnotized, just like she was. Part of her wanted to try and figure out who that was, where she was, but then she looked back into Josh’s eyes, and felt her mind empty again. One single thought filled her mind. She had to show him how excited she was, how happy she was to feel this way. And she knew just how to do it. She grabbed him and pulled him down on top of her and onto the bed. 

And all the while in Trisha’s mind all she could think of was how relaxed she was, how calm, unaware, and peaceful she felt. She knew she would stay that way until she felt a hand, the hand of her hypnotist, touching her shoulder and telling her to focus. Until then, she knew she would stay there, unaware of the activities occurring in her dorm room, on her own bed. 

The end.