by Dr Harper
One thing you need to understand about me is that I despise psychological torture. At least with physical torture, the victim knows the perpetrator is causing their suffering.
But with psychological torture, the perpetrator plays innocent while the victim self-destructs and blames themselves.
Do it to a homeless veteran and his family, and unfortunately you’ve incurred my deepest disgust.
You’re already aware that I have a bit of a temper, but today is going to be different.
I am a flawed person, just like any other, with secrets and regrets.
Today, you will learn one of those secrets.
But I wouldn’t quite call it a regret.
◆◆◆
“Eleanor?” Phil stood up from his chair. “Did you say Eleanor?”
“Phil, I think your daughter might still be alive.” I reached out and touched his shoulder. “I think she might have come to this very office.”
His eyes welled with tears. “Alive?”
“I can’t say for certain,” I said. “But it would explain a lot. She has the same name as your daughter, and you both have some sort of history with homelessness. She also claims she escaped from a cult – and you’re showing some pretty severe signs of brainwashing.”
“Brainwashing?”
“Up until a moment ago, you weren’t able to remember most of your life,” I said. “For the past three years, you’ve been deprived of sleep and forced into this terrifying, life-consuming ritual. It would be enough to make anyone lose their mind.”
“Where is Eleanor now?” asked Phil. He didn’t seem to care about his own suffering at all. He just wanted to know about his daughter.
“Noah, I know it’s late, but can you try to reach Eleanor at the number listed in her file?” I asked. “We only have one hour before Phil needs to start his rituals again, and she may already have the answers we need.”
He nodded. “You got it, boss.”
“The rituals,” said Phil miserably. “Do I have to keep doing them?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “We still don’t know who the man with two knives is. If you don’t resume the ritual, I think he’ll keep harming them.”
Phil looked to the ground.
“It won’t be for long,” I reassured him. “We’re going to figure this out.”
“I just don’t understand,” he said. “Who would want to do this to us?”
“I don’t know,” I said. I found myself saying that a lot with Phil.
“I just want to see my daughter again.”
“Phil, can you remember anything else from the hypnosis?” I asked. “Anything at all?”
He shook his head. “Sorry.”
“I can get you back into that state, but we’re running out of time until you have to start the ritual,” I said. “It would be best if we could just get ahold of Eleanor. Do you have any idea where she might be staying? Any past shelters or friends?”
He closed his eyes tight and waited for a few seconds. Then he sighed and looked up. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember.”
I turned to Noah. “What about you? Any luck?”
“No, doc,” he said. “I’ve tried five times. She’s not answering.”
“Let me give it a try from my cell.” I walked over to the desk. “Maybe she’ll recognize my number from her initial call.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said gently. “I’ve got it, doc. You’ve gotta take care of Phil.”
“Thanks.” I nodded and walked back to Phil. “Do you want to try the hypnosis again?”
“Sure,” he said. “Whatever you think will help.”
For the next fifteen minutes, we attempted the same induction method, but it didn’t seem to be working anymore. Phil kept opening his eyes, and he didn’t seem relaxed like before.
“Is everything okay?” I asked. “You don’t seem quite as receptive to my suggestions.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking about Eleanor. It has me so distracted.”
“No, don’t blame yourself.” It was silly to think he could enter a hypnotic state after learning that his daughter was actually alive. We’d just wasted precious time, and now we only had 45 minutes until the rituals started again.
Maybe we couldn’t get Phil back into the hypnotic state, but there were other clues to this mystery. I sat down and reviewed the security footage over and over again. I watched him stab Anne until I couldn’t stand to watch it anymore.
Who was this guy? Fully body armor, gas mask… It was the stuff of nightmares.
Out of ideas, I turned to Noah. “Still nothing?”
He jolted up from his desk. “What– Oh, uh– No, sorry.”
“Were you sleeping?” I stormed over to the desk. “Give me the phone.”
“No, I got it!”
But I snatched the phone and Eleanor’s file from his hands and dialed the number.
“Hello?” A girl’s voice answered after two rings.
My heart jumped. “Eleanor?”
“Yes…” she said. “Who is this? It’s the middle of the night.”
“Eleanor, this is Dr. Harper,” I said. “You had an appointment with me two days ago–”
“And you canceled it at the last second.”
“Yes,” I said. “Because I was treating your father, Phil.”
There was a long pause on the other end.
“He’s– He’s one of your patients?”
“Yes,” I said. “And we need your help. I don’t have time to explain– we need you in the office now.”
“My dad is there with you?”
“That’s right,” I said. “Please, can you come?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s a ten minute cab ride. I’ll leave now.”
“Thank you so much,” I said. “And I’m sorry about all of the late-night calls.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we’ve been ringing you for the past hour.”
There was another pause. “I don’t have any missed calls from you. This was the first.”
I felt my stomach drop, but I tried to keep acting normal. “Okay, see you soon.”
I hung up the phone and – without thinking – I lunged at Noah.
“Who are you!”
“Woah, what?”
I pushed him against the wall. “Brand new assistant, listening in on my sessions, delaying us at every step with your bumbling incompetence… Who are you!”
“What are you talking about, doc?”
I pushed harder, hands closing in around his neck.
“I’ve had bad assistants before,” I growled. “But nobody is this fucking stupid.”
He started choking, tugging away at my grip.
I punched him in the face and he fell to the ground.
Phil rushed over. “What did you do that for?”
“He was lying,” I said. “He wasn’t calling Eleanor.”
“Why would he lie about that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But we’ll find out when he wakes up. Here, help me tie him up.”
Phil bent down with me and we secured Noah to the desk with my belt.
My own assistant. How could I have been so blind? He had access the entire time, and I just kept giving him more.
I was supposed to be good at reading people.
◆◆◆
Eleanor arrived ten minutes later, exactly as promised.
The moment she opened the door, Phil sprinted toward her and pulled her into the longest hug I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t even tell if they were crying or laughing. Maybe a bit of both.
“I don’t want to interrupt,” I said. “But we only have 30 minutes until the rituals start up again.”
They broke their embrace and turned to me. Eleanor had a soft kindness in her eyes, just like her father. She had to be about sixteen by this point, but she carried none of the innocence someone her age should have.
“Eleanor, how– how did
you escape?”
“After the stabbing, I pretended to be dead,” she said. “They dragged me into the woods and went back to the house for a shovel to bury me. That’s when I ran.”
Phil pulled her closer. “I’m so proud of you.”
“You said it’s a cult?” I asked. “What kind of cult?”
“It’s called My Happy Family,” she said. “It’s more like a lot of little cults. They call themselves hobbyists. I found their forum on the dark web. They share brainwashing techniques – for forcing people into your family.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Forcing people into your family?”
“Yeah, like with dad and me, that ritual wasn’t unique,” she said. “People have been perfecting it for years and reporting back with their experiences. Apparently they used to punish the person who missed the ritual, but that sometimes made them suicidal, and you don’t want your investment to commit suicide.”
“Investment?”
“Yeah, that’s what they call the people they’re brainwashing,” she said. “They put a ton of time and emotional energy into their investments, so they want to make sure you stay a long time.”
“So they switched to hurting other family members?”
“Right,” said Eleanor. “If you’re afraid for your own life, you might eventually give up. But if you’re afraid of hurting someone you love, you’ll keep doing the ritual forever.”
“That’s sick.”
“Yeah, they use a lot of CIA mind-control techniques,” she said. “And then they chart their results to determine the best methods. It’s all just based around votes and most popular comments. For example, one poll determined that five hours of sleep is just enough to maintain docility without causing too much exhaustion. So now everyone goes with five hours. They’re like a hive mind.”
“But how can someone just forget who they were and join a new family?”
“Well, they tend to go after vulnerable populations,” she said. “Homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes… They offer something nice, like an Apple Watch, and then they load you up with benzos.”
“Like Xanax?”
“Right,” she said. “After a few weeks, your memory turns to mush. Then they start up the rituals and replace your memories with new ones. It’s only a matter of time before you accept your new reality.”
“And people just forget their old life?”
“That’s why they do the ritual in such frequent intervals,” she said. “That way you spend every moment of your life thinking about the ritual, paralyzed by the fear of what happens if you miss it. Constant fear messes with the rest of your brain.”
I couldn’t argue with her there. She could have quite a future in this career someday.
I took a deep breath. “Eleanor, is this the man with two knives?”
I walked over to the desk and pointed at Noah.
She took one look at Noah and frowned.
“There is no man,” she said. “That’s what I’m trying to say. It’s just them.”
“Just who?” asked Phil.
“Wait…” She looked at Phil. “You don’t know about Anne yet?”
I raised my eyebrows. It was strange to hear a girl refer to her mother by name.
“You’re saying your mom is involved in all this?”
“She’s not my mom,” said Eleanor. “She and Rose are the whole operation.”
“What?” I frowned. “So you and your dad–”
Phil spoke weakly. “We’re their investment.”
◆◆◆
I shook my head, trying to absorb what Eleanor was telling us.
“It’s not possible. I’ve seen the security videos.”
She let out a cold laugh. “Yeah, that’s one of their favorite methods,” she said. “They call it digital hallucination. Almost all of them have it set up, because it erases any doubts the investment might have. Here, show me one of your videos.”
I took out my cell phone and played the most recent attack.
“There! See?” She pointed to Rose’s room before the man even arrived.
“What am I supposed to be seeing?”
“The book,” she said. “Great Expectations. Every single night Anne gets attacked, Rose is reading that book before bedtime. Here, look.”
She took out her phone and scrolled through to find a video. I watched with morbid fascination as Rose opened Great Expectations and eventually turned out the lights.
“The timestamps are the same every time,” said Eleanor. “It’s a loop. And whenever Rose gets stabbed, Anne and dad’s video always shows the same thing too. On the forum, they all help each other doctor the clips.”
“Wait a minute,” I said in disbelief. “Phil, right before Anne got attacked earlier, I asked you to call Rose – she answered, right?”
“Yes.” He nodded.
“What time was that?”
He took out his phone and scrolled through his calls. “12:47am”
I skipped the security video to 12:46am and watched intently. One minute passed as the man with two knives entered Anne’s room. Rose remained fast asleep in her room. Then 12:47 hit. Exactly when Phil talked with Rose.
But in the video, Rose remained fast asleep.
“What the hell…” I wondered out loud.
“So the man with two knives–”
“Isn’t a man at all,” said Eleanor. “It’s both of them. They just put on that creepy outfit, and then stab whoever got missed in the ritual.”
“That’s insane!” I said. “Why would they stab each other? Why not just stab another one of their other investments?”
“You know what codependency is, right?”
“Yes, of course. When one person feels an unhealthy emotional reliance on another – responsible for their wellbeing.”
“And the rescuer mistakes that dependence for love, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “So, let me get this straight. They make you feel guilty for hurting them, when they’re the ones actually causing harm? And then they use that guilt to make you ‘love’ them? “
“That’s why I made the appointment,” said Eleanor. “I mean, I understand what happened to me, but I still can’t get rid of the guilt. It’s not like the scars from the knife. It’s deep inside of me. Like a monster squeezing at my heart.”
I felt my blood boiling. “They can’t get away with this,” I said. “Let’s call the police now. We have everything we need to put them away.”
Eleanor shook her head. “They all have detailed police plans,” she said. “There’s an entire subforum devoted to it. They get away with it almost every time, because it’s their word against some brainwashed homeless person or drug addict.”
“Can’t the police get their IP addresses or something?” I said, growing increasingly agitated. “Did Anne and Rose ever post there?”
“Yes,” said Eleanor. “That’s how I found the forum in the first place. I saw it on Anne’s computer the night I called the police. She left it open, and I recognized our whole Disney backstory in one of their posts.”
“Perfect!” I said. “Can you show me the post? Then the police can find the IP.”
She gave me a funny look. “There aren’t any IPs,” she said. “It’s the dark web.”
I gritted my teeth and repeated, “They can’t get away with this.”
“At least we’re safe,” said Phil, pulling Eleanor into a hug. “At least Eleanor is okay.”
“But they’re going to hurt someone else!” I said. “It’s only a matter of time.”
“Sorry, Dr. Harper.” Eleanor shook her head. “I don’t think there’s any way we can stop it.”
I thought for a moment and said, “What if we use their own tricks against them?”
◆◆◆
“Phil, unfortunately I need to put you under 24/7 watch,” I said. “I was wrong about the man with two knives, and now I can see your family is at serious risk.”
“W– What?” Phil stammered.
“You can’t lock me up, my wife needs me.”
“I just need to keep you for a little while,” I said. “Until we can perform a few more experiments.”
“No!” said Phil. “No more experiments. Please.”
“There’s something else at work here,” I said. “I think you were right about the demon theory. But I have to figure it out – so your family can be at peace again.”
“No!” said Phil. “We’ll just go back to our rituals.”
“Yes, the rituals start back up in a few minutes,” I said. “I’m going to bind your hands and take you to the safe house now.”
“Bind my– what?”
“That way you can’t perform the ritual,” I said. “So I can try a few more experiments.”
“No!” Phil screamed. “You can’t do that! You saw what he’ll do to them!”
“I don’t think he’s going to hurt them anymore,” I said. “Now, come on– let’s go.”
“No!” Phil sobbed. “No! You can’t do this!”
He continued sobbing and shouting into the Apple Watch until we exited the office and returned to the lobby.
“That was good, Phil,” I said quietly. “You could be an actor, you know.”
“Thanks,” he said. “So now… They’ll think they still have control of their investment, and they’ll wait for me – instead of taking someone else?”
“That’s right,” I said. “And I can keep monitoring them until we get enough evidence to send to the FBI. I really think we can get enough of a case here to open a major investigation.”
“What about Anne and Rose?” asked Eleanor.
“I doubt they’ll keep hurting each other,” I said quickly. “Not if they know this could go on indefinitely.”
“No, I mean they’ll come into your office,” said Eleanor. “They’ll want to know where he is.”
“Let me handle that,” I said. “I’m quite good at telling people what they want to hear, as long as I know their motives. And thanks to you, now I do.”
They both nodded.
“Phil, there’s just one more question I have,” I said. “Why did you come to me in the first place?”
“To therapy?”
“Yes.”
He looked down, ashamed. “Anne suggested it, because I felt suicidal after Eleanor left,” he said. “I thought it was because Anne cared about me, but apparently she just wanted to make sure her second investment didn’t die.”
