New Rival Chapter 4
Ashley lays back in her bed, pondering the issue at hand: How to take down Dr. Rosa. The university’s therapist is arguably the strongest hypnotist among the students and faculty. “We have to take her on together, we don’t stand a chance otherwise.” She says to Lily and Zoe. “If she has someone else in her office to take even one of us away, she’ll be able to get the other two and then focus on the last one standing.”
Lily nods. “I agree, but how do we guarantee she’ll be alone?”
Zoe looks up. “What if we just schedule an appointment? She still needs to keep up the pretense of being a proper therapist, at least for now.”
Ashley sits up at this with a concentrated expression. “It’s risky. That’s probably how she gets people. If she knows there’s more than one of us, she might have other people there just in case.”
Lily shrugs. “Just schedule it for one of us, maybe emphasize you want it to be private, and then the three of us show up and get the jump on her. And if there’s someone else there, just say you’re not comfortable with that and leave.”
Ashley bobs her head back and forth as she considers it. “That’s probably our best bet. We need to prepare for this one. We’ve gotten away with playing it by ear on our last encounters, but we need to have a proper plan for Dr Rosa.” At Lily and Zoe’s nod, she continues. “I’ll take the lead, and you two support.” The three of them go back and forth on this for a while and eventually come to a plan.
Ashley needed to take a walk before they took on Dr. Rosa. Yes, there was some danger in leaving her room alone, but it should be minimal as long as she stayed in public areas with plenty of other students around. She was walking through a park on campus, just taking in the scenery. She was going around like this for a while before she heard a voice calling to her.
“Ashley, hey.” Ashley turns around to see Sophia jogging towards her. Ashley raises her hand to wave to her, and Sophia returns it. “How did it go with Ms. Kayla?” She asks as she reaches Ashley.
“Hey, Sophia. Yeah, we got some useful information from her.” Ashley responds, suppressing a slight smile.
“That’s good. Let’s walk for a bit.” She falls into step next tot Ashley. “I’m glad I found you, there’s something I think you should know about.”
Ashley gives her a questioning look as they walk together. “What’s that?”
Sophia smiles briefly. “This is just some speculation, I don’t know how true it is, but I think there’s someone trying to hypnotize everyone in the school.”
Ashley is surprised to hear this and doesn’t quite manage to hide it fully. “How did you hear about this?”
“Just something I overheard with some students in a hypnosis session. The hypnotist was saying something about a plan to take over the school. I didn’t want to get any closer, but I’ve been letting people know as much as I can,” Sophia explains.
“Aren’t you afraid that you might tip off someone who’s already been taken that you know? For all you know, I could be part of it.” Ashley says with a concerned expression.
Sophia shrugs. “It’s possible, but I think it’s more important to spread the word. Even if I’m enslaved if more people know about it, then it’s worth it.”
Ashley hadn’t considered that. Maybe it was selfish of her to keep that knowledge to herself. If she and her friends had been hypnotized, then there would be no one to try to stop Dr. Rosa. But if Sophia had been telling so many people about it… “Why hasn’t there been a big announcement about it yet?”
Sophia cocks her head, considering this. “I actually hadn’t thought about it. I’ve been more focused on letting as many people know as I can. Maybe people are afraid to let on that they know in case they tell the wrong person and get hypnotized.” Having come to a similar conclusion herself, Ashley just nods. “And on that note, I have something for you.” Sophia pulls out a set of earrings and hands them to Ashley. “These should give you a light shock if you’re falling into trance. I had a friend put a bunch of these together, and I’m giving them to everyone I can.”
Ashley shakes her head. “I shouldn’t…”
Sophia cuts her off. “It’ll help if you’re not enslaved, and doesn’t make things worse if you are. Just take them.”
“Thank you.” Ashley flashes her a brief smile as she pockets the earrings. She could sense there was some kind of magic in them. Catgirls can’t wear normal earrings like this, but it would have been impolite to keep declining them and they could be useful for Lily and Zoe. They’d need it more than she did anyway. “Hopefully it’s nothing as sinister as you think it is, but it’s good that you’re trying to help everyone with this. It’d be nice to have it resolved soon, whatever it is.”
Sophia returns her smile. “Me too. Honestly, I’d be relieved if I’m overreacting to something harmless, but better safe than sorry.” She begins walking off, waving to Ashley.
Ashley returns her wave. It was an unexpected encounter, but she felt like some good came out of it. At least there would be people who might be working to stop Dr. Rosa if Ashley and her friends fell. She decides to head back to her room to talk it out with Lily and Zoe.
Arriving back at her room, Ashley sees Lily and Zoe talking. They both turn to her as she enters. “How was your walk?” Lily asks.
Ashley sits down on the edge of her bed. “I saw Sophia again. That girl who told us where to find Ms. Kayla. Apparently, she overheard someone being hypnotized into Dr. Rosa’s plot. And she’s been telling as many people as she can about it.”
“What if she’s already been hypnotized by her, and is just saying that to gain your trust?” Zoe asks.
“I thought about that, but it doesn’t make sense for Dr. Rosa to draw any attention to her plot yet. If she has enough people that it doesn’t matter, she should have enough people to take over the school. And she’s also giving these out.” Ashley pulls the earrings out of her pocket. “She said they’ll give you a slight shock if you’re falling into trance. You two can have one each if you want. I can’t use them anyway. I’m not sure how splitting them up will impact the effect, but it can’t hurt to have it.”
Lily focuses on the earrings for a moment. “There’s some magic in them. And I agree that Sophia probably isn’t enslaved yet.” She looks at Zoe. “I’m good with splitting them if you are. It could make the difference against Dr. Rosa.” Zoe considers it and then nods. Each of them takes an earring and puts it in their ear.
“Well then. If you guys are prepared, I believe we have an appointment with Dr. Rosa.” Ashley states with some trepidation in her voice. The three of them leave their room and head to the therapist’s office.
Once they arrive outside, Ashley takes a deep breath. “Well, here we go,” she mutters under her breath. Lily and Zoe are standing back a bit as Ashley knocks on the door.
A soft “Come in,” comes from inside.
Ashley walks into the office and sees Dr. Rosa in her chair. She closes the door but keeps it unlatched. She looks around the room and confirms that she and Dr. Rosa are the only ones there, and there’s clearly no place someone could be hiding.
“Ashley, right?” Dr. Rosa asks her. At Ashley’s nod, she continues. “So what can I help you with, Ashley?”
Having confirmed there was no one else there, Ashley proceeds with their plan. “Actually, I think I can help you with something.” Dr. Rosa’s face takes on a confused look at this, and the door opens again as Lily and Zoe walk in.
“I’m sorry ladies, this is a private session.” Dr. Rosa says to the two who just walked in.
“That’s right, this is a private session. A private session for you.” Ashley begins her induction just as they planned. “And you know all about how these sessions work. You lull your patient down into a nice trance. All in order to help them. So let us help you. Let us give you that nice trance. Just look into my eyes and let them guide you down. Down deep into trance.” Ashley focuses some magic into her eyes to make them extra entrancing.
“Just focus, Doctor. Her eyes are so nice, so easy to watch.” Lily says, moving closer to Dr. Rosa. They had considered trying to overload her with multiple focuses and types of induction but concluded they didn’t have the experience together to pull it off effectively. So Lily and Zoe focused solely on supporting Ashley’s induction.
Zoe was moving closer to Dr. Rosa from the other side. “So simple to watch and listen. Listen as you fall for us.” Zoe was glad to have a plan this time. It was bad enough having to face the therapist, she couldn’t imagine coming up with this in the moment.
Dr. Rosa’s gaze was fixed on Ashley’s eyes “yessss… listen… fallll… into trance,” She’s already looking and sounding very spacey, and she her head slumps forward before Ashley can continue.
All three of them just stare at her for a long moment. If Dr. Rosa was going for a shock induction to get all three of them in an instant, it probably would have worked. But the moment passed as they looked at each other.
“Uh, are you sure she’s the correct person?” Zoe asks in confusion. It’s a stupid question and she knows it, but it had to be asked.
Ashley nods in equal confusion. “Yeah, she’s Dr. Rosa. I’ve seen her around a few times. It’s definitely her.” Ashley is reassuring herself as much as she’s reassuring her friends about this.
“There’s no way she would just fall like that,” Lily agrees. “There’s gotta be something going on here.” She looks at Dr. Rosa. “We could always just ask her.”
“Probably our best option right now.” Ashley turns to Dr. Rosa. “Now Dr. Rosa, are you deeply hypnotized?”
Dr. Rosa lets out a sleepy “yesss…”
“Why did you fall into trance so quickly.”
“I was commanded to… by Mistress…”
Ashley looks back up to Lily and Zoe. “It’s someone else. Dr. Rosa’s just another puppet.” She looks back down at the entranced therapist. “Who hypnotized you before me?”
“I don’t… remember…”
“Do you remember anything about her?”
“just a message… to give to whoever hypnotized me…”
“What’s the message?”
Suddenly Dr. Rosay sits up straight, her eyes open and her voice loses the sleepy, blank tone it had a moment ago. “You’ve done well to make it this far. I’m giving you three one last chance to let me have my way with the university. If you come to submit to me willingly, I promise you will be treated well as some of my highest ranked slaves. Come to me soon with your decision.” Dr. Rosa gives them a room number before her body relaxes again.
Ashley looks back to her friends. “She seems confident. She’s basically inviting us to drop in on her at any time.”
“Yeah, but she’s gonna be expecting us,” Lily replies.
Zoe nods. “On the upside, at least we have a plan. I don’t see why we can’t use it on her.”
“True. Anyone able to get Dr. Rosa will be dangerous.” Ashley agrees.
Lily looks down at the hypnotized therapist. “What do we do with her?”
Ashley considers it for a moment. “It’s too dangerous to take her with us. Who knows what other programming could be in her. And we don’t have time to get it out.” She looks down at Dr. Rosa. “When we leave, you will wake up, forgetting that we were ever here and that you were hypnotized.”
“I think we should still recover before taking her on,” Zoe says. Ashley and Lily both nod. The three of them walk out of the office and back to their room.