Tales of Olsen

16

Jordan and I rushed into the classroom just moment before Keith began. Just like the first day, we were at the front of the room which gave him a good view of us as we came in. As he looked on, I could see that he wasn’t pleased to see us. If he had sent that tornado to kill us, then it would have ruined his plans. There was no motive for his attack, yet he was the most likely suspect.

“He doesn’t seem pleased to see us here,” Jordan said pulling her notebook from her bag. She was the only one in our class who insisted on taking notes with a notebook.

“Well, we’re here,” I replied, “there’s nothing he can do about it.”

“Well, class there’s something I’d like to discuss with you today, an experiment of sorts” Keith began,

He didn’t look our way but the tension in the room vibrated off him and we were the only ones who had any idea what was happening. This was strange, the schedule for today had stated that he would be focusing on the patient-doctor relationship when dealing with folk medicine. There was no record of a scheduled experiment.

“Don’t get nervous,” he said instantly looking in my direction as if he had been reading my mind, “this is a social experiment. No lab coats.”

The rest of the class breathed a sigh of relief but we knew that this had something to do with us and it was likely to end poorly.

“I need one of you beautiful young ladies in the front to come on up here,” he said, “ah, why not one of you two?”

He said pointing to where we sat. I tried to shrink down in my chair, but it was too late because the entire class was now looking in our direction.

“What should I do?” Jordan asked through clenched teeth.

It must have been such a strange thing to witness. Being called to the stage by the most handsome man on campus and there we were crouching in our seats as if someone was about to attack us.

“Let me do this,” I said

“No, I’ll do it.” Jordan replied, “if anything weird happens you can rescue me or at best me my witness when you file a formal complaint.”

I sat upright and watched as she stood and walked away. There was something sinister about the way Keith looked at her, but as usual, he quickly shielded himself and the look of surprise and satisfaction was gone.

“Now class,” he said, “I will demonstrate what happens when a doctor gets hypnotized.”

In that instance, I knew something was wrong and I knew that whatever he was doing wouldn’t turn out well. The entire class let out a surprised gasp and suddenly everything went silent. My mind began to race to try to find a way to rescue her.

“What should I do?” I asked trying to summon Alex to my mind. Truly, although I said I didn’t need him, I was totally in the dark and there was a real danger here. Jordan looked terrified and Keith looked pleased.

“Eloise,” Alex’s voice rang clearly in my head like the haunting of a familiar ghost, “just breathe and channel your strength, you can’t do anything when you’re flustered”

I tried to calm myself but when I saw Keith sneering over at me I couldn’t help the disgust that filled me.

“My love,” he whispered, “please focus, or you will lose your friend.”

The thought of losing Jordan was enough to sober me up.

“What should I do?” I asked

“Focus on what he’s doing,” Alex said

Keith had begun talking again and I could see the way he moved his hands and I read the chanting on his lips. I recognized a rhythm I didn’t know I knew.

“What then?” I asked

“Become him,” Alex whispered,

I didn’t understand what he was saying but then my mind began to mimic Keith’s actions. I sat there in my seat and watched myself begin to counter his actions. Soon Jordan began to relax, and Keith’s face became contorted in anger.

“What are you doing?” he asked far too loudly

The class was now fully engrossed in his little number, but I was too busy trying to save my friend from becoming his most recent victim.

“I’m not doing anything,” Jordan said, “I guess maybe you're just not as good as you think you are.”

This sent the entire class in an uproar and Jordan stood to walk away. Keith grabbed her hand but before he got a good hold, she snatched it away and looked towards me. I nodded signaling that I had her back if anything went down.

“I think we should go back to the lesson for today,” she said, “if that’s alright with you.”

Jordan’s confident walk off the stage didn’t do much to quench the situation. When she finally sat beside me I finally allowed myself to breathe.

“You were right there next to me,” she said, “I could feel you.”

I shrugged and looked back at Keith who seemed even more furious than when we had walked in earlier. The class went on as expected but when it ended I decided to do what I had planned on doing all along. I wanted to find out what he was planning. The only move he had made so far was to try to kill us with a tornado and that had failed and now he was trying to hypnotize Jordan. There was no logical flow here and I needed to find out why and what he planned on doing.

“I’m going to talk to him,” I said to Jordan who looked at me with shock and disapproval

“You know that’s not the best idea.” She said

“Well I just saved your life,” I said, “what could happen?”

I knew exactly what could happen, but I was choosing not to dwell on that. I walked over to Keith who stood talking to a few students. He immediately lit up when he saw me, and the other students seemed to notice.

“Ah, my favorite student,” he said

I’m sure he knew just how inappropriate his statement was, but I figured he meant to do it to sound that way.

“Hi, can we talk?” I asked

“Sure,” he replied seemingly surprised to get the invitation.

The other students took this as their cue to leave but not before throwing curious glances our way.

“What’s this about?” he asked

“I was wondering if you were still up for that dinner you wanted to get the other day.”

It was clear that my question had thrown him off, but it was also clear that it made him very pleased.

“How the prey must follow the lure to the web,” he said reaching up to touch me.

I caught his hand before he could do it and allowed it to fall.

“You should try not to do that before all your students,” I said

“Well, I have no apologies for doing what I’m allowed,” he said, “surely I can touch what’s mine.”

“I don’t think you’ll be getting that date if you think it’s proper to refer to me as yours,” I replied

He seemed to snap back to reality in that instance.

“You’re right,” he said, “you aren’t mine right now, but I have a feeling that it will happen for us, and very soon.”

My stomach curled at the thought of his words that were heavy with an ominous promise.

“So dinner?” I asked

“Why do you want to have dinner with me?” he asked

“Well,” I began, it wasn’t hard to find the lie, “I was actually thinking about what happened in the barn and I wanted to know more. Maybe find out what it’s all about.”

His brow raised and the smile on his face grew wider.

“You’re interested in our little cult aren’t you,” he said

“I didn’t say it was a cult,” I replied, “I just said it has a lot of the features of a cult.”

I wondered how he even knew I thought of it as a cult.

“Well I think we can make this date of sorts happen,” he said

“Not date,” I corrected trying to keep this as transparent as possible, “dinner.”

“Dinner,” he said clasping his hands together and flashing me a curious glace, “and will your mascot be there?”

I looked around at Jordan who was eyeing us suspiciously and wished that she would try to make herself less obvious.

“No, just me,” I replied, “she’s not really into this.”

Keith smiled and took a step towards me. Instinctively, I stepped back but he was undeterred,

“Soon this will all be over,” he said when he was standing close enough that I could feel his breath near to my cheek. “It will be over soon, and you will be mine.”