Hypnosis Cures What Ails Her Pt. 03

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. All characters are over the age of 18.

Second to last chapter, working on the final one but it’s taking longer than expected so I figured I’d post this while you all waited.

I enjoy your comments and love hearing feedback.

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Chapter 7

I woke up later than normal the next morning, sunlight streaming through the window to blind me in the literal and figurative sense as I had what seemed like the worst hangover I’d ever had in my life. After Cassie and I had our confrontation last night, it had been relatively simple to use hypnosis to at least temporarily remove her desires for me. I didn’t have that shortcut. We tried to snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie like normal, but I was finding it impossible to have her so close without the darker places of my imagination playing out every filthy scenario in my head. After an hour I made an excuse, went back to my room and took several sleeping pills which now had the effect of giving me a pounding headache. Painfully I made my way to the kitchen where I heard Cassie frustratedly arguing with someone.

“Look I don’t care what you do with him. I just don’t want to hear about it so keep it to yourself.”

Ash, who was dressed in the same outfit as the night before, laughed. “That’s not what you were saying last night.”

“And that was last night. Just… please. I can’t handle hearing about… all of this right now. So do what you want, I’m glad you had a good time, but I don’t want to be involved anymore.” Cassie noticed me as I came further into the room and her face instantly brightened. “Morning dad! Ooh… looks like you didn’t sleep well at all. Feeling alright?”

Figuring that it would be a bad idea to say “I took too many sleeping pills while trying to keep myself from fucking you” I instead just groaned and said “I think I had too much wine. Don’t worry about me though, I’ve had hangovers before.”

“Aww. Well try and take it easy old man. It looks like you and Ash have some things to talk about so I’m gonna go hit the gym. Can you do the thing?” she asked with a smile. “Do the thing” was shorthand for “Can you hypnotize me to give me better stamina and recovery so I can get the most out of my workout?” This had become our routine ever since she had gone back to the gym after her injury.

With me hypnotizing her almost every day it had gotten to the point where I could put her into a trance with a single word and a snap of my fingers. Ash, who had been brooding silently after her fight with Cassie, watched intently as she saw me put my daughter into a hypnotic state, give her suggestions, and then reawaken her all within two minutes. Cassie awoke refreshed and smiling. “Thanks dad! Be back in a couple hours. Love you.” Cassie grabbed her bag and ran off to the gym, leaving me with her friend.

Knowing that the caffeine would just make my headache worse, but not caring in that moment, I started fixing my usual pot of coffee while downing a glass of water and some aspirin in the hopes that I could mitigate the damage. I decided to stop ignoring Ash. “So… when did you get here?”

“Never went home. I figured Cass would want someone to talk to so I just went to the park and smoked for a couple hours. We texted during the movie and I could tell something was up but she wouldn’t talk about it so I came back after you *finally* went to sleep. She let me in, let me sleep on the couch, but she’s not saying shit. So what the fuck happened last night? Last night she was all in on her little plan and this morning she doesn’t want to talk about it. I *know* you caught her in the closet, so SOMETHING happened. A month ago if I had said that you and I fucked she’d want to know every detail, but today she’s a completely…” Ash’s jaw went slack as she put two and two together. “You fuckin’ hypnotized her last night didn’t you?!”

I shrugged, too tired and worn out to care about Ash’s indignation. “Bravo. You figured it out. Can I go now?”

“What the actual fuck is wrong with you? Cassie spends fucking years pining over you and months trying to work up the nerve to make a move and then last night you catch her red-handed and you’re just like ‘nope you don’t get to make your own decisions’. Like you could have just rejected her instead of fucking brainwashing her.”

I sighed and sat across the table from her. “That’s not how it works Ash. I can’t make her do something she doesn’t want to do. If I tried to make a suggestion that she wouldn’t agree with then the hypnosis just wouldn’t work. I’ve seen it happen before. On some level she genuinely doesn’t want to feel that way about me. She told me as much last night.”

“BULLSHIT! You’re literally the only guy I’ve ever heard her talk about. She told me herself that she fantasized about you all the time. Fuck, that time you made her cum on the couch she called me up the next morning and talked my ear off for hours about how it was everything she ever dreamed of.”

I glared at Ash, feeling my temper rising again. “Did she also tell you that she broke out into tears when it happened? Or that she was visibly terrified and apologized over and over again after it happened? She might have felt differently later, but right then she hated herself for it. And that wasn’t the only time she felt that way. Last night she begged me to reject her because she couldn’t stand feeling that way. So yeah, maybe she does feel that way at times but when faced with her fantasies about me she seemed awfully conflicted about it in the moment. Neither of us wants to make a mistake that we can’t take back. And honestly, this attitude is pretty fucking rich coming from the girl who blackmailed me into sex last night.”

Ash rolled her eyes. “Oh please, it was Cass’ idea. I wouldn’t have ever gone through with blackmail; it would have hurt her too much.”

“How would I have known that?!”

“You might have figured it out had you literally ever talked to your daughter’s only friend.”

“You’re not her only friend.”

“Really? When was the last time you saw any of her other friends?” That stopped me cold. I thought for a minute and realized that I hadn’t seen any of Cassie’s other friends since maybe a month after Cait had died. Ash noticed my abrupt silence. “Yeah, after her mom died those other bitches basically abandoned her.” Ash swallowed hard. “We met in group therapy. Something school had set up for students who had lost family members. I had already been in that group for a year because of my brother and when she started talking about how you had been fucking useless it broke my fucking heart. My parents did the same shit and they still haven’t gotten over it.”

I felt my mouth go dry. “Ash, I’m, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Cassie never told me. I should have… I dunno. It’s not right what I did and it’s not right what your parents are doing.”

Ash shook her head, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “I don’t need your fuckin’ sympathy.”

I reached out for her hand. “You’re going to get it though. I can’t replace your parents and I’m sure you don’t need me to in the first place, but you were there for Cass when I couldn’t be, no matter what happens I’ll always owe you for that. I want you to know that you’re always welcome here and I’ll always listen to you.”

Ash didn’t take my hand, leaving her arms folded across her chest but I saw the tears welling up as she tried to blink them away. I got up from my chair, crossed over to the other side of the table and wrapped my arms around her in an awkward hug. Ash took a shuddering breath, still trying to fight against the emotions. And let it out with a strained chuckle. “Fuck you, you dirty old fuck.” she said with a laugh. I held her for another moment as she relaxed her shoulders having finally managed to keep herself from crying in front of me. “Can we do this in the living room? This is uncomfortable.”

I grabbed my coffee and Ash and I went to sit on the couch. “Look I…” she began “I hated you for a long time. All I saw when I looked at you was the man who hurt Cassie. And when you put her on painkillers after everything that happened with my brother I was ready to kill you myself. But I can’t hate you. Not if I love Cass, and I do love her, like romantically. It helps that you got your shit together. If you were still the same useless piece of shit you were three years ago I’d be taking Cassie away from here as soon as I could convince her to leave. I’d kidnap her if I had to.”

I sipped my coffee as I thought about it. “Does she know how you feel?”

Ash sighed. “Maybe? I haven’t said it out loud. I probably should. But I think you two need to sort your shit out first. This whole hypnosis thing is a band-aid if I’ve ever seen one. That girl wants you bad and I don’t think she’s going to stop until she gets it out of her system.”

“What happens if we go through with it and she regrets it? Would you be so casual about it if you thought she might turn to painkillers because she couldn’t handle what she had done? What happens if we get it out of our systems and that guilt she feels about wanting me in the first place turns into something worse?”

Ash had started to reply when my comment about painkillers caught her off guard. She took a long time to reply. “I think… I think she’d only regret it if you changed. She fought so hard for so long after her mom died to get you back to normal. I think that’s what she’s scared of. I think the real question is if you and her do what you obviously both want to do, then are you going to be able to keep it together for her?” I didn’t have an answer for her. “Worth thinking about.”

Ash grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, apparently done with our conversation. I couldn’t think of anything else to say either so I simply sat and watched whatever Ash wanted to watch as I drank my coffee. An hour or so later Cassie opened the front door and loudly announced herself to the house “Knock knock! Everyone decent?”