The backyard was enormous of course, it had flower gardens, elaborate fountains, and even a whole hedge maze. We made use of pretty much all of it, Emily would run back and forth across the yard, laughing until she was out of breath, and I’d chase after her. When she got too tired to run, she sat on a bench and threw things for me to bring back to her. I was rewarded with head pats and belly rubs. It was pretty much the greatest day of my life. After a solid hour of play, we relaxed together under a tree, Emily was dozing off leaning into me. I was about to fall asleep myself, when I heard something that made me perk up

“HOLLY!” 

My name, someone was calling me. I looked around and saw Lily standing on the back porch. She was pretty far away and she hadn’t seen me yet. So I waved until she spotted me

“OH NO” Emily was suddenly wide awake “Quick! You got to hide!” 

But it was far too late for that, Lily was marching across the lawn toward us, I suddenly remembered that I had something very important to talk to her about. 

“Lily, I’m glad you found us, I have something I need to-” I stopped, she was closer now, but had halted as if frozen in time, a look of shock on her face. I watched as she flushed red all the way down to her shoulders, then jerked her head to the side, holding up a hand to block her view. 

“E-Emily, what the actual fuck are you d-doing out here?” 

She sounded like she was trying to be angry, but her voice was high and rasping, like she was suddenly out of breath, the stammering didn’t help either. Emily still seemed intimidated though

“It wasn’t me this time! It was Lilith’s idea!”

“God damn it, of course it was Lilith” she looked back over at us, only to immediately look away again. I glanced around, trying to figure out why she was averting her eyes. 

“Holly, are you there? Can you understand me?”

“Uh…yeah?”

“Okay, don’t panic I can fix this, just stay calm”

“Um…got it” 

I had no idea what she was talking about, she looked like she could use some comfort, I wanted to nuzzle her leg and get some more pets, but Emily was still holding me. Without turning to look at us, she held out a hand

“G-give her to me, now!” She couldn't keep the stammering out of her voice, this seemed to give Emily some confidence

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Emily replied slyly, Lily finally turned and fixed her gaze on her, scowling.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna join us?...join her?” Lily just stared

“What?”

“I dunno'' Emily shrugged in a imitation of nonchalance. 

“We were having a lot of fun, and you seemed like you wanted to join in.” she gestured to me

“Doesn’t she look like she’s having fun?”

Lily’s eyes flicked to me, and for once managed to stay there. She was staring quite intently now actually, her face turning redder and redder, biting her lip. She seemed a bit distracted.

“Just a little bit of fun” Emily continued, her eyes had begun to glow softly

“You and Holly could have so much fun together, if you joined her. Don’t you think so?”

“Fun…?” 

“That’s right, just come over here and lie down with us, I know you want to lie down with us, you're so tired, aren't you?"

"I'm...tired...but I need to-"

"Rest, you need rest, your eyes are almost too heavy too keep open. just come rest with your friend Holly"

"no time...I need to..."

"Help her, right? you need to help Holly?"

"Yes...I need...

"To rest first, your too tired to help her right now, you have to keep her safe right?"

"Yes...need to...keep her safe..."

"She's safe with you, isn't she?"

"Yes...she's safe with me"

"Then there's nothing to worry about, you're here, she's here. so she must be safe right? Holly is safe"

"Holly is safe"

"Now you just have to fix her, right?"

"Right..."

"Then what are you waiting for? come over here, sit down, and fix her"

Lily seemed confused, but she came over and sat down beside me, her eyes seemed somewhat vacant.

"Good Lily, now you just need to rest a bit and you can help Holly. Will you tell her to close her eyes? will you tell her she's sleepy? will you tell her to listen closely and sleep? sleep, close your eyes. Your eyes are closing, your eyes are closed, you are falling asleep, you are deep asleep, just listen to the Princess and sleep, sleep Lily, sleep…”

Lily’s shoulders slumped, her eyelids fluttering, she sighed looking more relaxed than I think I have ever seen her. She tilted forward, leaning on my shoulder Emily gasped

"Oh my god...I did it! It worked just like Lilith said it would! I have to go get her, I have to show her. after this, she HAS to come to my tea party-"

“You little brat!” Lily shot back up to her feet and glared at Emily who’s excitement shattered in an instant.

“Uh…uh…it was Lilith’s idea she said-”

“Hand her over, NOW”

Lily still looked dazed, but she also seemed furious. Emily stepped in front of me, separating us. I noticed she was being careful not to meet her sister's eyes.

“Lilith said not to give her too you”

Lily clenched her fist, I realized that this was about to get bad, but I couldn't tell if it was in a weird hypnosis way or an actual violence way. It occurred to me for the first time in this whole encounter that I should probably try to help my friend somehow…

“Emily, listen to me for a second”

She turned to look down at me, her eyes were already wet. For a moment I thought it was weird that she was looking down at me from above, but the thought seemed to slip out of my head…

“We had lots of fun today, didn’t we?” she nodded but didn’t say anything 

“And I’m glad I got to play with you, but I think I need to go with Lily now, don’t you? Your other sister messed with my head, so Lily needs to fix me up.”

The tears were flowing freely now, she wrapped her hands around my neck and held me tight.

“But then I’ll never be able to play with you again…”

“And what do you think is going to happen when you give her back to Lilith?” Lily interjected “She’s gonna take her away, and probably give her to that weird girlfriend of hers as a gift, then we might never see her again” 

Emily was crying even harder now, squeezing me tighter

“Nooo…” 

was all she could say, choking back sobs. I hugged her back, the poor girl needed more hugs.. 

“How about this” I told her “Let me go with Lily, let her fix me up, then I promise, I’ll come play with you again, we can finish our tea party” she parted with me somewhat, pulled back enough to look me in the eyes

“R-Really?”

From behind her, Lily did not seem pleased with this offer, but I ignored her

“Really, in fact, Lily will come too, and Hanna maybe. We’ll all have a big Princess tea party together” the tears were drying up, I gave her my most reassuring smile

“We’ll do that, IF you promise not to hypnotize me anymore, got it?” she squeezed me tight again.

“I promise!” finally she released me, turned to Lily, and gave her the end of a leash for some reason. I looked at Lily who was staring at me again

“Are we ready to go?” 

But she didn’t respond. I noticed she wasn’t quite looking me in the eyes, she was glancing lower…

“Lily?” she snapped out of it, flushing red yet again, she looked at the leash in her hand, dropped it, then offered her open palm to me. I took it and she pulled me up to my feet, my legs wobbled for some reason. She looked like she was gonna tell me something, but then averted her eyes and turned, walking back toward the house, I followed, Emily was skipping along beside me, her tears from a moment ago barely even a memory

“Are you gonna undo Lilith’s hypno’s on her?” she asked excitedly, “Can I watch?”

“No” Lily replied instantly without turning around.

“I think it's a good idea” I said “then she can learn how to do it, and can help me if your not around” 

“Yeah! I can help too!” Emily beamed 

“Whatever” 

Again Lily didn’t even glance back at us, I studied her, and from the way she was dragging her feet I could tell she was worn out. I guess this had been a long day for both of us

“Emily…what did you do with the clothes she was wearing when she first got here?” Lily asked suddenly “Go get them, and bring them to my room, then I’ll let you watch” 

like a lightning bolt she was gone, scurrying off into the house, I grinned watching her go

“You know what? Your sister is adorable” she just grunted in reply

"Did she really almost hypnotize you?"

"I was...distracted... and tired" She shrugged it off, but seemed nervous

"Lilith coached her, so she was cleverer than I was expecting...but she got cocky and didn't finish the job. Then she mentioned Lilith, and I guess that freaked me out enough to wake me up."

I was surprised, so it had been a close thing after all... 

“Why don’t you play with her more often? If you played with her more, maybe she wouldn't have sided with Lilith."

“Not enough time…” her shoulders slumped even further, and I decided to let the matter drop, she didn’t need a lecture about family bonding right now.

***

Once again I was lying in Lily’s bed, in her strange, but cozy room. It was a little harder to get comfortable this time, Lily had wrapped some sort of weird cloth around my torso, and some more around my legs. She said they were ‘my clothes’ but that didn’t really make any sense to me. They just made me feel restricted. But Lily had calmed down considerably once I had put them on, so I decided it was for the best. Lily was seated on the bed beside me, and on the opposite side was Emily, barely containing her excitement enough to sit still. It was funny, she seemed happy enough just to be included.

“Let me know when you’re ready” I looked into Lily dark green eyes and instantly found myself locked onto them, she had such lovely eyes…such a lovely face…I could stare at it forever…I blushed, remembering she hadn’t actually started yet

“Uh, go ahead” her eyes closed for a moment, and when she opened them, they glowed faintly in the dim room. As I stared, the room seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer, her eyes becoming the only point of light. 

“Just like we did before Holly, you remember, just close your eyes, open your mind, and sleep” 

I was back in that comforting, calming dark green void. Just floating gently, I felt a smile spread across my face

“Good, now once again, imagine-”

“A big purple elephant!” Emily blurted out “being ridden by…a monkey! On a unicycle!” the void shifted and the image materialized before me. It was pretty disorienting.

“Emily, if you do that again, I’m kicking you out and we’re not having a tea party” Lily hadn’t broken out of her calm soothing voice, but Emily was cowed enough by this to not even respond

“Just let that fade away now, Holly, you are listening to me, do you like listening to me?”

“Yes”

“Good, you are only listening to me. Just listening and following my instructions, you trust me don’t you?”

“I trust you”

“Good” I smiled again, it was good.

She guided me back down the stairs, back through the door to my mind, back to my room. It was exactly how I had left it. I got down on my hands and knees, and crawled over to my favorite toy, once I had it in my mouth, I carried over to my little bed in the corner and lied down with it.

“So, do you see anything that doesn’t belong in your room Holly?” 

Oh yeah I was supposed to be searching. I sniffed the air, and did a lap of the room, picking up my favorite toys and checking underneath them, sniffed around my food and water bowls for a while then finally returned to my bed

“I can’t find anything strange, everything smells normal too” I told her “Maybe I’m better already?”

“That’s…doubtful, can you look again? More carefully this time, Lilith is extremely good at what she does. It will be very subtle”

Again and again I searched the room. Sniffing and pawing at every little thing. But nothing seemed out of place. I even jumped onto Mommy Lilith's bed, and nuzzled her, she gave me some head pats, which felt nice, but they didn't help me find what Lily was looking for. It was all perfect, exactly the way it was supposed to be. Still Lily persisted, she was surprisingly patient. And I was surprised to find I didn’t mind doing it over and over again, listening to her and following her instructions just felt...blissful. Eventually though, I heard Emily’s voice again

“I don’t think this is working” she sounded bored. How long had we been doing this? Time was fuzzy for me.

“I told you to keep quiet”

“But you're not getting any closer this way” Emily insisted. I started to feel a little ashamed

“I’m sorry Lily…I’m not doing a very good job am I?”

“No Holly, You’re doing wonderfully” her praise made me smile and blush, I was being a good girl after all. I heard Emily giggle

“But maybe you're right” Lily conceded “We might need to try a different tactic…I guess Lilith got you deeper than I thought…how long did you spend with her?”

“I…don’t think it was that long…”

“Hmm…strange” she thought for a moment, then said

“Alright…I think I’m going to try and take you deeper. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course” I smiled again “I trust you Lily”

“Then go ahead and open your eyes”

I was back in her room again, lying in her bed, my gaze fixed to her gorgeous green eyes. As I watched, they began to glow brighter and brighter, while still retaining their soothing dark shade, until they shone down on me like twin eclipses. I was so focused I hardly even noticed when she moved to straddle me…and put two fingers under my chin, tipping my head back just so…I wanted to compliment her, but…train of thought…kept trailing off…such gorgeous eyes…I could stare forever…had I been staring forever?...I can’t recall anything else…Don’t even want to…such gorgeous eyes…

“Sleep for me now, that’s a good girl, just sleep. Remember before? just like that, so deep. no need to worry, you trust me”

I was plunged into that deep green void once more, spiraling blissfully down and down and down, but I wasn’t alone this time. Lily was there with me, A verdant green goddess, guiding me. Staircase after staircase we descend, her hand in mine, guiding me deeper and deeper until finally we came again to my door. She asked me again if I trusted her. I affirmed enthusiastically, she smiled and asked me to open the door and let her in. of course I did. She walked into the deepest part of my mind, still pulling me along behind her. She didn’t seem concerned with the contents of the room. Just started speaking in that lovely mesmerizing voice of hers. And as she spoke the world shifted around me. The room was morphing and changing…and soon enough, I couldn’t even remember what it had looked like before. But I wasn’t even really paying attention to the room, I could only see her. When she was done, she smiled at me. Wrapped her arms around me, cradled me.

“Shhhh, that’s a good girl, you did so well…just sleep…you can feel safe, I’m taking care of you, I will always take care of you…sleep”

There was something I needed to tell her, I remembered. Something important I needed to say, it was a bit embarrassing, but it was also far too important to leave unsaid much longer. I searched for the right words, prepared to say them. But she derailed my train of thought.

“I think I’m done, but I want to go deeper…just to make sure…sleep…sleep…sleep

“And now you're waking back up, slowly and gently drifting back to me” I opened my eyes. How long has it been? my mouth was a bit dry, but warm safe feelings still hung around me like an afterglow. Lily was above me still, her eyes no longer shining, she looked more exhausted than ever, but she was smiling. Emily was curled up next to me, fast asleep, but as I stirred she woke up, And in a matter of seconds she looked hyper again, she reached over and started…petting me for some reason. I sat up, pushing her hand away.

“Aw, it worked” she said, pouting

“It did?” I tried to do some self inventory.

“You should be all cleared up now don’t worry about it” 

“But…I can’t really tell the difference…are you sure I’m fixed?”

“Yeah about that…” she had a guilty look on her face now

“I decided it would be best if you...didn't remember what Lilith did. Trust me…I think you’d rather just never know about it”

“Well…if you say so…” I kinda wanted to argue, I was curious. But if Lily thought I was better off not knowing, she was probably right. It might be embarrassing or something.

“So, you're all done now?” Emily asked, she was bouncing up and down on the bed in excitement, Lily sighed

“Yes, but-”

“So we’re having a tea party now, right? All of us? You promised”

“We promised we’d have a tea party” Lily admitted grimly “but we didn’t say when we would”

Emily was about to protest, but I beat her to it

“Oh come on Lily, lets just do it” Emily was surprised I took her side, but not as surprised as Lily

“Holly, you can’t be serious, we have to-”

“I’m dead serious. Today has been crazy. I'm sick of running around, you look like you're about to pass out, let's just chill for a bit and have a tea party” she shook her head

“We really don’t have time for this”

“Well, I’m not budging until we’ve had a tea party” 

Lily didn’t say anything for a while, Emily didn’t speak either, like she was afraid I’d change my mind. Finally Lily’s shoulders slumped

“Fine” she said, sounding defeated “Emily, go get all your stuff and bring it here”

Instead, Emily looked at me bewildered

“Does…does your family have hypno eyes too?!” she asked, I grinned at her

“Nope, your sister just has trouble admitting she likes to have fun sometimes, now go get your stuff!”

She was off like a rocket, and practically slammed the door behind her 

“Don’t look at me like that” I told Lily, who was glowering at me “it’s just a quick tea party, it’ll be fun”

“If I wanted...I could make you change your mind and come with me” 

“You could,” I agreed, “but you’d never do that. You wouldn’t use your power on me without my permission, right?”

“Of course not-”

“Then I guess we’re having a tea party” she sighed again, and got up wandering over to her wardrobe, I watched her. There was still a lot of stuff I needed to talk to her about…and maybe even some stuff I needed to say. But it didn’t seem like a good time. She was tired and didn’t need any more problems to deal with right now.

With the help of some butlers and maids, A tea party was quickly prepared in Lily’s room. Emily wanted me to dress up again, but being fully conscious this time, I was able to have some input on my outfit. Eventually we landed on a sensible, sleeveless green dress. She insisted the color match with Lily’s eyes for some reason, and I decided not to fight her on that, it was such a lovely color after all. I didn’t get a crown this time, but Emily braided my hair. When I left the bathroom, I was surprised to find that Lily had not been dressed like a princess, but instead wore black pants and a jacket with a white collared shirt underneath, she also wore white gloves and a dark green bowtie. I grinned at her.

“Looking sharp Lily” to my surprise, she turned red a bit

“You look…lovely” now I was blushing

“Looks like we’re about ready to get started”

I looked up to see that Hanna had arrived, apparently she agreed to join us. Hanna was inexplicably dressed in what I could only describe as Sherlock Holmes cosplay, complete with a silly hat and a pipe

“Uh, what are you…?” she shrugged

“Emily picked it out, that girls mind is an enigma” 

Speaking of which, Emily finally stepped in to join us. She was back in her favorite Princess dress, her silver tiara glittered with purple gemstones, a true princess indeed. There were also three stuffed toys in attendance who were introduced to me as Mr. bun, (a stuffed rabbit) Miss Elephant (Emily’s favorite) and Mrs. bun (no relation) 

The tea party was officially underway. We sipped on empty cups, and pretended to nibble plastic cookies. Emily excitedly led the conversation to various topics, including: which flavor of ice cream was best, trying to decide what her second favorite animal was, which of her stuffed toys would make the best couples, and other adorable and inane topics. Lily was unengaged for the most part, idly tapping her fingers on the table and staring off into space. But Emily didn’t seem to mind, she was just happy we had joined her at all. She really was the cutest little thing. Every now and then, Emily would get excited and her eyes would flash, I’d suddenly find myself hopelessly fixated on them. 

“Emily…” Hanna interrupted her sternly “your power?”

Emily flinched and the light in her eyes quickly faded, she looked down at her plate

“I’m sorry…”

“That’s the third time in the last ten minutes!” Lily scolded “You need to get control and stop zapping Holly! She’s had enough of your nonsense in her head today”

“But I didn’t- I didn’t mean to!” she said, still looking down, afraid of letting it slip again, poor thing…

“I’ve got an idea” 

I reached across the table and grabbed her under her arms. She squeaked in surprised as I easily lifted her up and put her on my lap 

“There, now you’ll stop making me dizzy on accident” 

Emily was delighted by this plan, Lily was giving her a weird look, Hanna seemed concerned

“You know, Emily’s power isn’t that strong yet, she shouldn't really be able to affect you this much.”

“Maybe I’m getting stronger!” Emily said proudly, I prodded her side.

“Yeah you're real tough” I said, tickling her, she squirmed and giggled, man I wish I had a sibling, guess I’d just have to steal Lily’s 

“Holly’s just… a bit more susceptible I think” Lily tried to explain

“Hmmm…” Hanna seemed suspicious for some reason…

“If I practice my power and promise to be good” Emily asked “Can we have Holly over for another tea party soon?”

“Absolutely not” Lily glared at her “once we get her out of here, I am NEVER bringing her back, today has been a nightmare” 

Emily looked crushed, but I couldn't really bring myself to disagree…still though…

“Which is why…” I said, giving her a small squeeze 

“Next time, you’ll just have to come over and have a tea party at my house” she tilted her head all the way back to look at me, eyes wide

“Really?” I smiled at her

“Really, we’ll even get some real tea, and some real cookies, you wanna bake some cookies with me?” she turned around in my lap and hugged me

“Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” I hugged her back, for the first time, Lily seemed to soften a bit, she smiled at me, and I smiled back. I felt my face turning red again.

“That reminds me” I shook my head, no time to get distracted.

“We need to find another way for me to get out of here without getting my memory wiped, I don’t wanna forget any of this” Lily looked grim

“That’s…going to be tricky, mom is very strict” 

“She's worried I’ll tell people or something right? I’ll just explain to her that I’d never do that. Wouldn't that work?” Lily shook her head sadly. Hanna was thinking

“Hmmm...I can only think of two ways for this to work out without you getting memory wiped: Option one, Mom turns you into a maid or something, and you just live here forever, that’s not what we want obviously. Option two: you become someone's slave, Mom’s not gonna trust you to keep your mouth shut on your own, but if you belonged to somebody, she could be sure you wouldn't blab and she’d probably let you go.” Lily shook her head

“Well we can’t do that, obviously” she said, waving her off

“Why not?”

“What do you mean ‘why not’? I’m not just gonna let someone enslave her”

I felt like I should probably be a part of this conversation, but they kept talking over me. 

“Why don’t you do it then?” Lily flinched

“ME? I-I can’t do that!” 

“Why not?"

"Because I'd- Then she'd- I can't-"

"You're in love with her, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am, but I can’t just-” she stopped dead…wait. Had she just admitted to being in love with me? She slowly turned to look at me, her face redder than I had ever seen it

“Lily…” I was speechless “do you really-”

“Holly” she interrupted her eyes were suddenly bright and irresistible. She was the only thing in the room

“Forget everything we just said” 

I blinked, Hanna and Lily were both staring at me, like they were waiting for me to answer a question

“Sorry” I said sheepishly “I think I spaced out for a sec, what were we talking about?”

Lily just nodded and turned her attention to Hanna

“And you” I noticed that Lily’s eyes were glowing but her power wasn’t focused on me, she was glaring at Hanna, who glared right back.

“You are never going to speak of this ever again”

“Is that so?” Hanna was smirking, but there was tension in the air, I could feel them fighting each other.

I reached out and covered Lily’s eyes with my hand

“Hey stop it! No Hypnotizing your sister! What did she even do?” the spell was broken, Hanna relaxed 

“Yeah Lily, why don’t you tell her what I did?” Lily pushed my hand away and stared at her lap. I tried again to recall what we had been discussing that led to this. Man, how did I manage to space out during such an important conversation? I looked over at Hanna

“What did you do?” I asked trying to clear up the confusion she just shrugged

“Oh nothing, I was just testing a little theory of mine” Lily looked up at her suspiciously

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about Holly…about how easy she is to entrance...And I think I just figured out why. It's not that Holly's weak willed, She’s just extremely vulnerable to hypnosis for some reason. Unprecedentedly vulnerable” She looked back at Lily accusingly 

“And it just so happens, that she’s been YOUR best friend since you were in kindergarten, strange coincidence huh?”

“That’s…that’s not-”

“I think that just like how I’ve been training my resistance for my entire life, Holly’s been practicing the exact opposite, learning to go down easier and easier over time, sound plausible to you?” Lily didn’t respond. The room was quiet for a while. Then she looked up at me miserably 

“Holly I’m…I’m so sorry” I reached across and put a hand on her arm

“Listen, I forgive you, okay, but you really need to apologize to Emily, don’t you think?” 

She blinked, uncomprehending

“Apologize to…Emily? What for?”

“You were just scolding her about using her powers by accident, but you were doing the exact same thing to me without even realizing it since we were kids. So you owe her an apology.” she just stared at me for a long moment. 

“O-oh! Accidentally! of course! I must have been accidentally using my powers on you while we were growing up together. That’s definitely how it happened. uh huh, sorry about that Emily, you should still work on it, but uh, yeah I used to do the same thing…accidentally…not on purpose.” 

Hanna was rolling her eyes for some reason but I felt like some genuine family growth was happening today. And I was pretty proud of myself for being part of it. 

Our little bonding moment was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Come in” Lily called, A maid entered the room and bowed to us, I wondered how she managed to keep a straight face, we must have looked ridiculous

“Miss Lily, The Lady has requested your presence, please come with me” Lily made a frustrated sound

“So when I need to talk to her, she’s too busy, but when she needs to talk to me, I just have to drop everything, is that it?” the maid didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just bowed again

“Whatever” she got up “I’ll ask her about letting you go Holly, and if she won’t let you leave without erasing your memory…we’ll figure something out, just do me a favor and stay here okay?” 

I felt like I’d been told to stay put like a hundred times today, but I just nodded. Hopefully this will all be over soon.

“Could you stay as well, and keep an eye on her? She asked Hanna "

"Just don’t-” 

She quickly looked to me, then back again 

“Don’t say anything that...its not time to say yet” 

Hanna rolled her eyes again, but nodded, I was trying to parse that cryptic sentence when Emily piped up

“I’ll stay too! I’ll stay here and protect her brain!” I gave her another squeeze

“Well, aren’t I lucky to have such a brave Princess to protect me” 

She just nodded solemnly, totally committed to the seriousness of her task. Lily left with the maid. The tea party came to a close, and so Emily immediately began planning all the details of our next tea party, which was to take place at my house. 

“Just to warn you, my house is…a lot smaller than yours…like a LOT smaller. My entire house could fit in your foyer I think” 

“That’s fine! I wanna see your house! I wanna meet all your toys!” 

I made a mental note to dig all my old toys out of my closet and dust them off. I wouldn't want her to think they’d been neglected. Hanna seemed deep in thought, so I decided not to disturb her. She did join us eventually though, she said we were going to play a ‘resistance training game’ the game went like this: Emily would use her power on me and hold my gaze. While Hanna would read a sentence or two from a book. I was supposed to stay aware of what Hanna was saying, while looking into Emily’s eyes, and then repeat back what I had heard when prompted. I performed poorly to say the least. The first time I only remembered eight words, the second time I went down to five, then three. I was getting worse at it with every attempt. It was frustrating, one moment I was focused and listening to Hanna intently, and the next thing I knew Hanna was snapping her fingers in front of my face to wake me back up.

“Ooookay” Hanna sighed

“I’m gonna say we give this up for now, I honestly have no idea how to help you” I was a bit ashamed of myself

“Sorry…I’m pretty hopeless aren’t I?”

“It’s not your fault, honestly Lily has a lot to answer for-"

She was interrupted by another knock on the door, A butler entered, 

“Miss Holly, your presence has been requested, please come with me.” Hanna stood up 

“Just her?” the butler nodded,

“Could you guys…maybe come with me anyway?” 

I was worried about running into Lilith again, I was clearly not going to be able to defend myself if she caught me. But Hanna shook her head 

“If my mom said just you, she’ll be annoyed if we come along, best to stay on her good side if at all possible”

“Alright…see you two later then” 

Emily looked sullen, but she didn’t say anything, just gave me another hug. She was just too cute. The butler turned and left the room. And after a deep breath to psych myself up, I followed