Totally: A Hive Mind Story
by NickelModelTales
CHAPTER 3: Power Outage
Reilly and Sydney climbed all the way up to Phi Delta House’s fourth floor. Up here, the carpets were even shabbier, and there were strange stains on the plaster walls. Half the electric lights didn’t work. The corridor was lined with a great many bedroom doors, as this was the floor where most of the freshman and sophomores bunked. Each door was individually decorated. The hallway was lined with empty cardboard boxes, old mail catalogs, and small bits of trash that hadn’t been picked up yet.
“We’re going to… your room?” Reilly guessed as she and Sydney picked their way down the corridor. Reilly, Bree, and a third girl, Gabby Blossom, all lived in Bedroom 417.
“Not mine, no,” Sydney replied easily.
The two sorority sisters reached the end of the hallway, where all the electric lights had failed for some reason. With confidence, Sydney knocked on the door to Bedroom 441.
Reilly blinked. Bedroom 441 was the Phi Delta Sigma private suite. The Baxter Room.
The door unlocked from the inside, and Sydney let herself in. She pulled Reilly in after her, then relocked the door.
Surprised, Reilly looked about. She’d never seen the inside of the Baxter Room before. Somehow, it was much less impressive than she’d imagined.
She was standing in a small living area, with a beat-up couch thrust under the only window. A light curtain hung over the window pane, that did little to block the glowing moonlight. A chipped TV stand stood before the couch, currently empty. To the left, Reilly could see the kitchenette; the bathroom was just beyond. To her right, a heavy beaded curtain guarded the entrance to what Reilly supposed must be the bedroom. The little suite smelled musky; Reilly could see traces of dust floating in the air.
“Hey there!” Sydney sang out. “We’re totally heeeeeere! Are you decent?”
The beaded curtain swelled outward, and to Reilly’s shock, a young man stepped forward. He was thin and lanky, with bushy, brown hair and glasses. The man’s face was physically attractive, sure, although Reilly thought he looked like an outcast. He wore an old Guardians of the Galaxy tee shirt, faded jeans, and sneakers. No class at all.
“Brucie!” trilled Sydney, obviously very pleased. “There you are!”
Reilly felt ill. Soooo… Sydney’s boyfriend wasn’t at the University of Denver after all, but was secretly living in the Baxter Room? Sydney was hiding her boyfriend in Phi Delta House???
Oh, that bitch. Boys were strictly forbidden anywhere past the second floor, period. Bree was always aching to sneak Tyler up to their bedroom for some quick afternoon nookie, but she didn’t dare. The punishment for such illicit activities was instant banishment from Phi Delta Sigma, and possibly expulsion from Beamont University.
Sydney had gone too far this time.
“Hey there,” Bruce replied, gazing at Reilly. His eyes rolled over the younger woman’s body, obviously assessing her chest, hips, and legs. “Yeeeeah, she’s really nice.”
“She totally is, isn’t she?” Sydney agreed joyously. She seemed to be overjoyed to see Bruce.
“Okay,” Reilly said alarmed, “I don’t know what’s going on here, but—”
Bruce peered at his newest guest. “You’re an Electrical Engineering major?”
“Uh, yeah. Well, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.”
“Great,” said the guy, and he offered a weak smile and his hand. “Hi. I’m Bruce.”
Reilly hesitated. Neither Sydney nor Bruce seemed threatening in any way. Had she misjudged the situation? For an instant, Reilly wished that she had Bree’s journalistic instincts. At a glance, Bree would know what was really going on here.
Deciding to play for time, Reilly accepted Bruce’s hand. His handshake was even limper than his smile. “I’m Reilly, Reilly Bartlett,” the sophomore said.
Sydney laughed, a musical sound. She perched on the couch, then crossed her long legs.
“Okay, Reils, I admit it,” she said cheerfully. “I kinda teesny bit lied to you. Just a little! But I had to, see? If the other girls found out that Bruce was up here, I’d totally be in trouble.”
“Um, yeah,” agreed Reilly.
“So just give me a few minutes to explain,” urged Sydney. “Please? Pleeeeeeease, Phi Delta Sister Honor? Just listen to what I have to say, then you can totally do whatever you want.” She smiled pleasantly. “We want to offer you a job.”
As Sydney was talking, Bruce knelt beside the couch. He began emptying a large, cardboard box.
“A job?” Reilly echoed. “What… Hold on, this is too weird.”
“Yeah, I know,” agreed Sydney, nodding sympathetically. “I totally didn’t handle this very well. So, like, let me start over? Girl, sit down.”
The blonde woman patted the couch cushion next to her. “Sit,” she repeated.
Puzzled, Reilly obeyed.
“Awesome,” grinned Sydney. “See, Bruce here is a scientist, a really, really, really smart one. Totally brilliant. And he has this equipment that he needs your help with. I’m funding him ’cause I think he’ll make tons of money someday.”
Uh huhhhhhhhhhh… thought Reilly. Sydney was a terrible liar. What was going on here?
Reilly flicked her gaze at Bruce. The young man was placing what looked like a fat, customized laptop onto the TV stand. A portable electric generator already sat on the frayed carpet; Bruce connected the generator and laptop with the world’s fattest power cable.
“Bruce is totally a genius” Sydney gushed. “Someday, we’ll remember as the next Steve Gates, or someone.”
Before she could say anything else, Reilly’s gaze drifted over Sydney’s shoulder. On the couch’s small side table, she could see a stack of books, obviously checked out from the Beamont University library. Reilly could read some of the book titles: Modern Hypnosis by Allister Talgarth, Clinical Hypnotism Explained, by H. J. Connors, and Hypnotize Your Friends! A Guide to Fun and Practical Mind Control by Tony Plaaz. The books were marked with several Post-its sticking out from the pages.
What the fuck? The sophomore thought. Nothing here made sense.
Bruce opened his laptop, and now Rachel saw that there was a computer tablet attached to the back of the laptop screen. The tablet was directly facing her.
Warily, the beautiful young sophomore asked, “…what’s so special about this computer?”
Out on the porch of the Phi Delta house, Bree was pacing, her ear glued to her phone. “Where the fuck are you, Ty?” she demanded.
On the other end of the line, her boyfriend Tyler was irritated. “Aw, don’t tell me that now you’re free!” he groused. “You said you were busy tonight.”
“I…” Bree scowled. “Ty, I had a mandatory sister meeting. I had to go. It only lasted about ten minutes.”
“Yeah, well, when you said you had a sorority thing, I made other plans.”
“Oh, goddammit Ty,” Bree swore. “Look, can’t we still hook up?”
Over a week of bad luck, Bree and Tyler had yet to synchronize their schedules. Bree was aching to feel Tyler’s hands on her body, and to run her own hands over his muscles. She craved sex.
Tyler didn’t reply right away. “I… uh…” he hemmed, “Justin ’nd me, we have something else goin’ on.”
That didn’t really make sense. “Wait,” demanded Bree, “you and your loser roommate have something to do tonight? It’s a fucking Tuesday.”
Tyler sounded defensive. “Yeah, well—“
Bree’s phone beeped, loudly. She glanced at the screen and swore at the LOW BATTERY warning on the display.
“Ty?” she snapped. “My phone’s about to die, I’ll call you right back, ’kay?”
And then, her phone did die, right at that moment.
“Shit!” Angry, Bree stalked back into the sorority house. She hurried up the grand staircase, taking two stairs at a time.
What the hell? It had been over a week since Bree and Tyler had boned. If anything, Bree’s boyfriend should be itching to get into her pants. Why was he blowing her off?
A cold thought hit Bree: What if Tyler was cheating on her? Tyler seemed like an honorable guy… but Bree had been fooled before. What if he was cheating???
In the back of Bree’s mind, a small voice piped up: Careful girl! You’re getting obsessive again.
Angry and worried, Bree ignored the voice.
After a minute of huffing up the stairs, the beautiful young journalism student reached the fourth floor. She pushed her way into Room 417, the joint bedroom that she shared with Reilly and their other roomie, Gabby Blossom. The room was dark; Reilly and Gabby were out.
Bree pushed through the junk pile on her desk, searching for her phone charger. She had to call Tyler back.
In the Baxter Room, Bruce aimed Brainwave’s emission screen straight at Reilly Bartlett. The beautiful young sophomore was eyeing the device with growing suspicion. Bruce wasn’t certain how much longer Sydney could distract her.
Just a few more seconds… Bruce willed at Sydney. He watched impatiently as Brainwave’s software loaded.
“So, anyways,” Sydney was lying, “Bruce here is developing a new computer, but it draws, like, way too much electricity. Or something. I totally don’t know, I’m a Media Studies major.”
“Uh-huh,” said Reilly, looking unconvinced. “So why wouldn’t…”
“Ah ha!” Bruce exclaimed as the Brainwave indicator reported READY TO COMMENSE. He flipped the master switch.
Immediately, the portable generator hummed to life. Brainwave’s tablet screen activated.
“…there!” Bree grunted, shoving her phone charger’s plug into the wall power outlet. Her phone’s screen lit up…
…only for the entirety of Phi Delta house to go completely black. Every single light went out. The phone died, again. Bree was alone in the darkness.
“Fuck!!!” swore the journalism major.
She could hear the angry yells of her fellow Phi Delta sisters on the lower floors. From the sound of things, the whole sorority house had blown yet another fuse. Again!
“Goddammit!” Bree seethed at her rotten luck. Was she cursed?
Growing anxious, Bree fumbled her way through the darkness, seeking the door. Maybe, once she found her way downstairs, she could locate Reilly. Yes, Reilly! Reilly couldn’t help her with her boy problem, of course, but she’d have a good sense if Tyler was being unfaithful. Reilly was grounded in a way that Bree lacked.
Reilly! Bree had to find Reilly…
Bruce watched in satisfaction as the beautiful Reilly Bartlett gazed into Brainwave’s emitter screen… and her surprised expression faded. As the machine went to work on her mind, Reilly’s body became relaxed. Her hands slowly unclenched and fell limply to her sides. Her red lips opened slightly. Her eyes glazed over.
Pleased, Bruce checked the portable generator. From experience, he knew that he had perhaps nine minutes of deep hypnosis time with Reilly before his power supply choked out. Why Brainwave choked all the other electrical currents in the sorority house, Bruce couldn’t say. But it was obvious that he couldn’t keep using the machine this way for much longer.
But one step at a time. Right now, Reilly was falling into a deep, suggestible trance. Bruce had to move quickly.
“She totally fell for it!” Sydney exclaimed, pleased. “You were totally right, Brucie, she was instantly hypnotized! That’s, like, so amazing.”
“Yeah,” agreed Bruce with a grin. He snatched Hypnotize Your Friends! from his stack of books. “Now, Syd? I want you to look into the screen, too.”
“Me…?” said Sydney, her smile fading. “But Brucie…”
“Look into the screen,” Bruce said firmly. “You must obey.”
“I must… obey…” murmured Sydney, her eyes turning to look into the Brainwave tablet.
Bruce flipped through his book, keeping an eye on his hypnotic subjects. In less than a minute, Sydney had also fallen into a mindless state, staring into Brainwave as the device mesmerized her.
“Very good,” Bruce instructed, locating a key passage within his book. He read aloud: “And now, both Reilly and Sydney, I will count from ten to one. As I count down, you will relax even deeper, going deeper and deeper into hypnosis, deeper and deeper under my absolute control. When I reach the number one, you will be completely mindless and listening only to obey me. Ready? Ten…”
The hypnosis script included phrases and commands designed to induce submissiveness and thoughtlessness in the affected subjects. Both Reilly and Sydney listened passively, their eyelids drooping as they surrendered their own mental control.
“Wonderful,” smirked Bruce, flipping forward in his book. He glanced at his generator. Seven minutes left. He had to hurry.
“To Reilly,” the young physicist commanded, “when you next awaken, you will feel refreshed and relaxed and wonderfully rejuvenated in every way. You will be glad that you came to visit me. You only want what is best for me.”
Bruce licked his lips. Now to implement the most important part of his plan.
“From now on, Reilly, you’ll find that you constantly have four thoughts, endlessly playing over and over inside your mind. You will never question these thoughts; they are absolute wisdom to you. The more you hear these thoughts in your head, the happier you will become.
“Be devoted to the sisterhood. The sisterhood of Phi Delta Sigma is of the utmost importance to you. The outside world doesn’t matter. Only the sisterhood is important.
“Dedication is the most important thing. You will find that when you are put to a task, dedication to that task is upmost in your mind. You will be dedicated as you have never been before.
“Everyone under our roof must commit to the project. Soon, there will be a great project here at Phi Delta Sigma. Down to the core of your being, you feel that everyone who lives in this house must be just as dedicated to this work as you are. Of course, not all sisters will immediately be as passionate as you are. But in time, they will. Everyone in this house will be dedicated to the project.
“And here is the single most important directive, Reilly: Sydney is always right, always wise, always cool. From now on, you admire Sydney so much. You want to be like Sydney as much as possible, Reilly. You want to think like Sydney. If Sydney has an idea, that idea instantly becomes the best idea in the whole universe. You trust Sydney. Sydney only wants what is best for you and Phi Delta Sigma. If you could be just like Sydney, you would be so happy.
“From now on, Reilly, you will find these four core thoughts cycling over and over in your mind:
Be devoted to the sisterhood.
Dedication is the most important thing.
Everyone under our roof must commit to the project.
Sydney is always right, always wise, always cool.
“And now, Reilly, sink deeper into relaxation, deeper into hypnosis. Already, those thoughts are beginning to endlessly flow through your mind…”
Bruce smiled tightly as the entranced Reilly sighed quietly and deflated into the couch a little more. She was his. Later, once she woke from her trance, she would consciously remember none of his instructions. But she would obey every word he’d planted within her mind.
She was his.
Soon, all the Phi Delta chicks would be his.
Of course, Bruce had only hypnotized Sydney and Reilly. And Brainwave, with its massive energy requirements, was proving to be a difficult tool. But after reading and rereading all of the hypnosis books, Bruce thought he saw a way to bring the whole sorority under his sway:
Step One. Hypnotize Sydney, and continuously rehypnotize her to keep her in his power.
Step Two. Solve Brainwave’s energy problem. That was where this Reilly chick would come in.
Step Three. Hypnotize the other Phi Delta sisters, one-by-one, and convince them that they utterly revered and worshiped Sydney. Sydney would control Phi Delta; Bruce would control Sydney.
Easy!
A yellow light on the generator came on. There was only three minutes of power left. Bruce had to pick up the pace.
“Sydney, focus on my words,” the scientist demanded, flipping to another passage in his book. “Upon awakening, you will discover…”
Sydney’s instructions were much simpler than Reilly’s. Sydney, after all, had already been hypnotized multiple times by the Brainwave machine. Working on her was simply reinforcing Bruce’s control of her thoughts.
The generator’s red warning light began to flash, indicating that it was about to die. Time was up.
“And now, ladies,” crooned the makeshift hypnotist, “I’ll count up from one to ten, and at the number ten, you’ll awaken completely, remembering nothing. And when you leave this room, you will completely forget that you ever visited me tonight. You’ll both be utterly convinced that you were in your rooms this evening, studying.
“But long after you leave me, you will absolutely follow and obey all of your new instructions. You will automatically follow them without hesitation or resistance, believing my instructions to be your own ideas. Obeying my commands will feel so good. Ready? One… Two…”
The count up had to be rushed, but Bruce wasn’t worried. Both Sydney and Reilly had gotten a full dose of Brianwave; they wouldn’t be able to think independently for a while. He had them.
“…and ten!” Bruce said, snapping off Brainwave’s master switch. The extra tablet screen went dark.
…huh?
Reilly blinked, wondering what had just happened. She felt like her mind had wandered… or was she dreaming? Her body felt relaxed… and tingly… So good.
Yawning a little, the beautiful sophomore rubbed her cheek. Oh, yeah. She was sitting on the couch. In the Baxter Room. With Sydney. And Bruce.
Ah, Sydney and Bruce! It was hard to say for whom Reilly had more admiration. The young woman absently smiled at the two greatest people in the world.
Sydney also looked a little spacey. But Phi Delta’s greatest sorority sister ever merely smiled once, and Reilly felt a surge of loyalty in her heart. Sydney was soooo cool! Sydney was always right, always wise, always cool. The more Reilly thought about it, the more she wished she was more like her older blonde sister.
“How do you ladies feel?” Bruce asked, setting his book back onto the stack on the end table.
“Like, great,” Sydney replied, dabbing her eyes. “Totally great.”
“Yeah,” Reilly found herself agreeing. “Like, totally great.”
“Good,” nodded Bruce, pleased. “Now, Reilly…”
The sophomore looked up, eager. “Yes?”
“I need your help,” Bruce said, now pulling out what looked like technical blueprints. “See, my… uh, custom laptop computer here draws an awful lot of power. Do you know of a way to get more electricity out of the house electrical systems?”
Sydney looked at Reilly expectantly.
“Er, well, how much power?” Reilly wanted to know.
Bruce consulted his blueprints. “A steady supply of three thousand watts at twelve volts for two hundred fifty amps.”
Right away, Reilly’s jaw dropped open. “…how much?”
Bruce repeated his figures.
“Is that a lot?” Sydney innocently asked Reilly.
“That’s… yeah, that’s a lot,” said Reilly, still amazed. “That’s, like, the power requirement if you wanted to run a small cell phone tower or an industrial machine in a factory or something.” She shook her head. “I kinda doubt all of Phi Delta Sigma house uses that much.”
“Oh.” Sydney went pale. “Well, you can find a solution, can’t you, Reils?”
Reilly couldn’t fathom disappointing Sydney. Sydney was always right, always wise, always cool! There had to be a way.
Furrowing her brow, Reilly thought out loud. “I suppose,” she mused, “we could, like, get a heavy duty extension cable, then run it out to the distribution transformer out front… We’d tap directly into the city’s power grid that way.”
Sydney made a face. “Huh?”
Reilly rose, pulling back the curtain over the window. “See the telephone pole down there, just outside the house? See that trash can-sized machine mounted at the top? That’s a distro transformer. We’d plug our cable in there, and…”
“…and my machine gets all the dedicated power it needs,” Bruce finished, his eyes glowing. “Is it dangerous?”
“Eh, probably,” Reilly shrugged. “And illegal. But I can totally figure out how,” she quickly assured the other two. “I’ll dedicate myself to the problem. Dedication is the most important thing.”
And then, a solution popped into Reilly’s head. She snapped her fingers in recognition. “Of course!” she exclaimed. “Oh, I totally took Analog Circuits last year. There was a lecture on this public utility stuff.”
“Then do it,” Sydney ordered. “Like, do it immediately.”
Reilly blushed slightly. Sydney is always right, always wise, always cool! “Like, totally,” she murmured. “I’m dedicated.” Dedication is the most important thing.
“Great,” Bruce pronounced, sounding pleased. He glanced at Sydney. “And you? What’s going on with your assignment?”
“Oh, I totally asked the sisters that we do AHSH,” Sydney reported, checking her nails. “And, like, I almost got lynched on the spot.” She seemed unconcerned.
For reasons she didn’t understand, Reilly was suddenly filled with compassion for her blonde sister. “But they should have!” she exclaimed. “Going out for AHSH is totally such an awesome idea! Everyone under our roof must commit to the project.”
“We’ll get the sisters on board,” Sydney informed her calmly. “There’s, like, a week before the House Vote, remember? Once you fix Bruce’s power issue, he can totally start hypnotizing the other girls.”
“…right,” Reilly said. Wait, what had she just agreed to? Oh well, it didn’t matter…
“Then you have to get started,” Bruce ordered Reilly. “I need my special computer on that independent power, right away.”
“Oh, of course!” gushed Reilly. She considered the task ahead. “But I might need some help from one of the sisters.”
Sydney nodded. “Okay then,” she said to Bruce. “We can totally solve that problem.”
Down in the living room, there were groans of relief when the electricity came back on. Bree was on one of the beat-up couches by the windows, straining to read a journalism textbook by moonlight.
“Finally!” Cici Owens declared. “Jesus, these stupid blackouts last longer each time.”
“We gotta complain to the electric company,” Catlyn Caffee, a freshman, insisted.
“Yeah, we did,” muttered Madi Reed. “They said we had to replace the house’s fuse box. Its, like, older than my parents.” She scowled. “I want a snack.”
Bree frowned, trying to absorb herself back into her textbook.
“Goddammit, its too hot to study,” complained Cici. She grabbed the remote control and flicked on the flatscreen TV. “I’m gonna Netflix for a while.”
Giving up on the living room, Bree climbed the staircase. She’d throw open the window in her bedroom and study up there.
But as she ascended, Bree knew she wouldn’t get much studying done. Her mind kept returning to Tyler. What was her boy up to? Bree couldn’t get her suspicions out of her mind. There was a there there! There had to be!
There was a light on inside Bree’s joint bedroom. Surprised, Bree pushed open the door to see Reilly, sitting at her desk, studying what looked like electrical engineering materials on her laptop. The TAMPA ELECTRIC COMPANY logo was across the top of her current webpage.
“Hey…” Bree said suspiciously.
“Hey,” replied Reilly, still intently peering into her laptop screen.
“So… where’ve you been all evening?” Bree asked, annoyed. “You weren’t Zooming with Sydney’s stupid boyfriend, obviously.”
“Erm… no…” said Reilly, distracted. “No, I was in here. Studying. Dedication is the most important thing.”
Bree paused. “No, you weren’t in our room,” she told her roommate. “I was up here earlier, when the lights went out. You weren’t here.”
“Yeah… well…” Reilly’s voice trailed off. She scrolled further on the webpage.
Bree plugged in her own phone, brooding. Was the whole university going crazy?