Still, Hung Jin did not respond. A few seconds later, he blinked twice; his eyes closed, then opened, and closed again. Lauren’s heart rate increased. She was getting through! She already knew he was susceptible to hypnosis, and susceptibility was important to success in contacting an alter.
“I want you to remain calm and sit as comfortably as possible in the chair,” Lauren told him. “I’d like you to think about your mom. Let that part of your mind that remembers her best come forward and talk with me. While that other part of your mind is talking, you will be asleep, relaxing and comfortable. When you’re ready, when the other part of your mind has taken control, I want you to open your eyes.”
She watched as Hung Jin’s head fell backward, rolled to the left, and then moved back to center. That was it! A visual cue. She was correct in her diagnosis. Just then, her patient opened his eyes. To Lauren, his face took on a softer tone; the skin was smoother, the eyes wider, the forehead relaxed.
Her patient sighed. “I’m so tired.” The voice was slightly higher and less hoarse.
“You’ll get a chance to rest in a little while. Right now, I’d like to ask you your name so I can talk with you as a friend.”
“My name’s Anthony.”
“Okay, Anthony. Mine’s Lauren. It’s nice to meet you.”
Just then, her patient stood up and kicked the chair behind him. It flew backward across the room. He looked down at Lauren, his eyes fire red with anger, his face hard and his teeth clenched. His head twice jerked hard to the left.
“Anthony, please, calm—”
“You think you can outsmart me, Doctor? You can’t!” He swung at her, a backhand that slammed against her right cheek and sent Lauren crashing to the floor. He hovered over her body, grabbed the chair, and let loose a primal scream as he lifted her into the air and slammed her down to the ground. The force of the impact of wood seat against the floor sent a jolt of pain up her spine. As if that were not punishment enough, he tightened the ropes around her chest.
“Please don’t… hurt me,” she gasped. “I’m just…trying to… help you. I’m just… trying to… help you.”
“If you wanted to help me, you’d answer the one simple question I asked you.”
Tears streaming down her face, her stomach muscles cramping from the pain, she tried to slow her respiration and lessen the painfully restricted heavings of her chest. She finally looked up at Hung Jin. “I did. I don’t know… where my… husband is.”
“That remains to be seen, Doctor.” He grabbed the rope around her neck and pulled. “That remains to be seen.”
Lauren felt the pressure build up in her head as the blood flow to her brain slowed. Her heart, trying to compensate, began pounding. She looked at him, her eyes silently pleading for him to stop.
He leaned into her face again, his nose an inch from hers. “Where is Harper Payne?”
22
With Hung Jin’s face up against hers, the cabin door suddenly swung open, bringing with it a forceful draft of freezing air. The candle flickered several times before finally going out. Almost completely in the dark now, with only a splash of moonlight projecting through the open doorway of the cabin, Lauren began to sweat — while still shivering from the frigid wind that ripped through her thin flannel pajamas.
Hung Jin reluctantly turned and kicked the door closed. He reached into his pocket and rooted out a red Bic lighter, then relit the candle. He turned to Lauren and paused. “Now, where was I?”
Lauren looked at her captor and attempted to assess what this man was all about. But with her brain still deprived of oxygen, she felt she was on the verge of losing consciousness. She blinked and shook her head. Stay awake. Focus.
Hung Jin walked behind her and pulled on the rope. It tightened down on her chest again, a cobra coiling around her, attempting to squeeze the life out of her.
Lauren’s mind went blank. Everything that she had been concentrating on so hard was gone. All she could think about was trying to get a breath.
With a sudden thrust, he yanked on her wrist bindings until they clamped down so tight her hands began to tingle. Tears rolled across her cheeks. And as quickly as her mind had gone blank, something wormed its way into her thoughts.
Lauren struggled for a breath. “When I was… a teenager I had a boyfriend… who would handcuff me to the headboard. Tommy. He was tall and very muscular, and when he… grabbed my arms it would hurt. He’d throw me… onto the bed, a brass bed, and I’d be naked.” She paused. “I can’t… breathe. Loosen ropes.” She waited a moment, then felt him loosen the bindings around her chest. As she suspected, he wanted to hear more. Good. “Tommy would tighten the cuffs so the metal would be digging into my skin. It hurt, but felt good. It felt so good I told him to make it tighter, and tighter, until I couldn’t take it anymore.”
He moved around in front of her, rested his hands-on her thighs, and looked into her eyes. “Do you want me to make the ropes tighter?”
Lauren forced a smile as she tried to recall what Steven had told her while under hypnosis. What were the words he had used? “Hit me. Make me bleed.”
Hung Jin matched her smile, a blissful grin that broadened his narrow face. “Yes, ma’am!” He brought his right hand across to the left side of his torso and unleashed a vicious backhand across Lauren’s face. Blood oozed from her nostrils and bled down into her lips. “I want more,” she said. “Do you feel it, too? Are you enjoying this?”
He began to breathe faster, his chest rising and falling quickly. But then the smile disappeared and he threw his left hand up to his temple. “Owww!” he screamed, recoiling backward, struggling to maintain his balance. He gripped his skull with both hands and thrust his head backward. “Ahh!”
Lauren watched as he moaned and dropped to his knees in agony. “I told you to keep some Excedrin nearby, you son of a bitch.”
“No!” He struggled to get to his feet and leaned his left shoulder against the cabin wall.
“Untie me!”
Hung Jin grabbed two handfuls of his hair and moaned.
“Anthony, are you there? Please, help me.”
“I won’t let you beat me,” he shouted. And then he did something Lauren had never seen a patient do before — not that any of this was something she’d ever experienced — but he began slamming his head against the wall until he finally crumpled to the floor, where he lay in a heap. He had knocked himself out to avoid leaving his mind susceptible to someone else’s control. Amazing… but not very helpful. Or was it?
He lay there for what seemed to be five minutes, finally stirring and getting to his feet. He stumbled forward and stopped directly in front of her.
Lauren looked down and braced herself. She didn’t know what form of retribution he would choose for what she had just done to him, but whatever it was, it would most certainly involve pain.
He leaned menacingly over her, his jaw locked and his eyes narrow. “Where is your husband?”
Lauren wearily lifted her head and made eye contact. His gaze was sterile, devoid of humanity. She tightened her lips and said, “I don’t know.”
“Then perhaps you need some more convincing in order to properly consider your position.” He grabbed the ligature and tightened it again.
Seconds later, everything went black.
23
Lauren’s face was being slapped in rapid succession…weak, open-handed smacks designed to bring her back to consciousness. She lifted her head, the pounding headache threatening to get worse with each degree of inclination of her chin.