Moana
I went to sleep that night with anger still in my heart for Edrick.
When I woke up, however, that anger turned into fear.
I found myself no longer in my bed, but I was now at the little desk that was in my room. And it wasn’t just that, either. I had my sketchbook lying on the desk in front of me, and what was drawn on it…
Was the knife.
I gasped and quickly snapped the sketchbook shut. Why was this happening to me? I stood, knowing that I needed to tell someone, but I couldn’t tell Edrick. If I told him, then he would likely only freak out even more, and I already felt like a prisoner.
These drawings had to be prophetic. And the only way that I could get to the bottom of what they really meant was by accessing whatever part of my brain that they were coming from. Maybe then, I could start to use them to my advantage before something really bad happened.
It was late, but Dr. Rhodes did mention that I could call him anytime I needed anything. I quickly pulled out my phone and dialed his number with shaking hands.
“Hello?” he answered a few rings later. “Is everything alright, Moana?”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Dr. Rhodes, I need your help. I’ve been having more dreams… I want to try hypnosis again.”
Dr. Rhodes paused for a few moments. “I could come to the penthouse tomorrow, if you want—”
“No!” I insisted. “It needs to be right now. Is there any way you can do it over the phone?”
The therapist was quiet for another few moments. I bit my lip as I listened to him sigh over the phone.
“It is possible, but it’s not easy. And if you see or feel something during hypnosis that frightens you or makes you feel bad, you might get hurt if I’m not there to help you. Are you sure you’re willing to take that risk?”
“Yes.” I knew the risks going into it, but I didn’t care. I needed to get to the bottom of this, and something in me was telling me that I needed to do it now. Time was ticking, and somehow I felt that figuring out the source of these visions might help figure out how to stop something horrible before it happened.
“Alright,” Dr. Rhodes said with a sigh. “Do you have a comfortable place to lie down? And can you dim the lights?”
“Yes.” I dimmed the lights, leaving only my bedside table lamp on, and then quickly laid down on my bed. “I’m ready.”
For the next twenty minutes, Dr. Rhodes slowly guided me into a state of hypnosis. I pushed my mind to open up to the idea, but for a long time nothing happened, just like the last time that we tried. In fact, I was about to call it quits again when I suddenly felt a change inside of me.
I no longer felt fully conscious. I felt as though I was half in a dream, half out of a dream. My mind felt foggy, but clearer than ever at the same time.
“How do you feel, Moana?” Dr. Rhodes’ voice floated across to me as though he was whispering into the wind across a pond. It felt light and airy and far away, but the words came to me all the same.
“I’m… Okay,” I replied, my tongue feeling heavy in my mouth.
“Good. I want you to try to picture a place. Any place. Just let the image come into your mind, and don’t force it.”
“Okay…” I did as Dr. Rhodes said. As my eyes were closed, everything was dark at first. But slowly, a landscape began to form around me; one that I had seen several times now.
The cliff.
“What do you see?” Dr. Rhodes asked.
I swallowed and looked around. “A cliff,” I said. “With pine trees on one side… It’s raining, and the sky is dark and cloudy. I’m cold.”
Dr. Rhodes paused. I looked around a little more, and turned fully around. My heart practically stopped as I saw a figure standing off in the distance, in the mist.
“There’s someone else here,” I said.
“Can you walk up to that person?” Dr. Rhodes asked.
I felt my heart sink at his question. I was scared to do it, but I also knew that this was just hypnosis, and it wasn’t real. Deep down, I knew that it was Michael; but maybe walking up to him, confronting him in my mind, could help me somehow.
Slowly, I began to walk up to the unmoving figure. The grass crunched underneath my feet and the wind blew so heavily. Even the rain soaked my clothes; it was all so real that it was deceptive. If I didn’t focus on the fact that this was just a vision, I felt for sure as though I would suddenly get stuck in this vision and would never be able to come out.
However, no matter how far I walked, I didn’t feel as though I was really getting any closer to the figure.
“It just keeps getting further away,” I said.
Dr. Rhodes paused for a moment. “That’s your mind not accepting the vision,” he said gently. “Try to open yourself up to it.”
I stopped, and took in a deep breath. Open my mind, I thought to myself. The figure wasn’t moving toward me… It wasn’t real. None of this was real, and maybe if I accomplished this, I could learn something that could make sure that it didn’t need to be real to begin with. Maybe I could learn something valuable that could stop all of this before it even started.
Slowly, I began to walk again. This time, it didn’t only feel as though I was just walking in place, and the gap between myself and the figure began to come into view. The outline of Michael’s tall, slim body slowly solidified in the mist. I could see him better now… He was holding something.
Of course he was holding the knife. I could see the gold glint in the rain.
Upon seeing the knife, I felt my heart drop again. I stopped, unable to go any further.
“Can you describe what’s happening, Moana?” Dr. Rhodes asked. “You’ve been quiet for a long time.”
“Y-Yes,” I said, swallowing. “Um… It’s Michael. He has the knife, and he’s just… Staring at me. And smiling. I’m afraid.”
“You have two options, Moana.” Dr. Rhodes’ voice was calm and steady. “You can choose to stop the vision now if you’re scared, or you can try to go a little further. It’s up to you…”
I swallowed again. “I should go closer,” I whispered. I started to walk again. I reached my hand out toward the knife that was in Michael’s hand…
But then, Michael’s hand shot out too, like a mirror image of me. His hand wrapped tightly around my wrist, and he held up the knife with his other hand. There was a gleam in his evil eyes, and then he brought the knife down toward me.
