Tick... tick... tick...

The pendulum swings back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You watch it, waiting for the Gaoler’s next command.

“Close your eyes.”

You do as you’re told, listening to the ticking of the pendulum.

Tick... tick... tick...

“Your left hand is in a bowl of ice water.” You feel a chill in your hand. “The water is so cold, your hand starts to feel numb.” Sure enough, your hand begins to lose feeling.

Tick... tick... tick...

“Your hand is so numb that you can’t feel the bowl against your palm or fingers.”

Tick... tick... tick...

“The cold travels up your left arm, followed by the numbness. You can’t feel a thing from the wrist down.” As before, this becomes true, and a chill runs down your spine; whether it’s from the hypnosis or fear, you don’t know.

Tick... tick... tick...

“I’m going to stick a pin in your right hand now.”

You feel a sharp pain in the hand that is not numb, and your eyes fly open as you rip the pin from your skin. “Wh-why...?”

The hypnotist grins. “Look at your other hand.”

You do so and suddenly feel dizzy as you see seven pins, with the same red heads as the first, sticking from your left hand. Suddenly, the numbness leaves you, and your vision swims in surprise.

“See, pain is mostly in the mind,” the Gaoler remarks as he casually yanks the pins from your hand, making you yelp seven times in quick succession. “If you train yourself to feel numb, then you won’t hurt so much.” He winks. “That’s it for this session. Go home and take a nap.”

You stand and leave the cavern, dazed and amazed. On the way home, you look at your hands. The right hand has one small red dot on it. The left hand has eight.


Lore/Layout by @Bibbit