The Kismet Tome Story 1

1

A Kismet Production Project…2

Brought to you by the makers of Zephyr and Contrition…3

Sponsored by Mystik Eternity, Destined Magic, Chaos’ Love…4

The Kismet Tome Story5

* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *6

Manuscript 1: Tidings of Great Joy7

By: Rannison Darrek8

* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *9

Chapter 110

The man sank into his black leather chair with a sigh, the old seat groaning under his sudden weight.  The brightly lit office with a doubled glass door entrance contained a pair of black sofas to the side under a surrealistic painting, and a black marble desk at the far end of the room, behind which the man was seated.  A heavy bronze plate on the desktop was embossed with the name Lennar Herrek.11

Lennar pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.  His fingers slipped under to his weary eyes, trying to rub away the fatigue.  Work.  In the name of scientific advancements, he had missed countless meals and nights of sleep.  But there were times, times like this moment, that he wished he could just drop into a deep, sweet slumber and never awake to the harsh reality of the world again.12

He dropped his hand to his desk now, absentmindedly fumbling around to find a pen to click away on, and studied his workspace.  The infinitely dismal and spotlessly clean linoleum floor gleamed under the glare of the fluorescent bulbs.  His office was underground, and therefore housed no windows or scenery to relieve the claustrophobic atmosphere that clutched at a man who has been away from the sun for much too long.  His haggard face was badly in need of a shave, his long, jet-black hair tied back carelessly, and his off-white lab coat held numerous coffee stains.13

And now, he sat back to rest, to think, for the first time in days.  He was used to mindless work, but the breakthrough had drained him emotionally as well as physically.14

His intercom crackled and a woman’s voice shattered the silence.15

“Mr. Herrek?  Miss Hana is here for your four o’ clock appointment.  Should I show her in?”16

Lennar grabbed an overturned clock at stared at the face with surprise.  It was already 3:55PM; he’d sat entranced for half an hour.  He smiled at the irony of that, considering whom he was about to meet, and pressed a button that was semi-camouflaged with the desk.  “Thank you, Ami, please show her in.”17

He distractedly straightened up his work area, and then futilely worked his fingers through his untamed hair.  He attempted to stand as the young woman walked into his office, but the tail of his coat was caught under the roller of his chair and he ended up tumbling back down quite ungracefully, bringing a hot flush across his face behind his skewed glasses.  He pushed the chair back hard, cursing crudely, and shot his hand out to Hana.18

In a comically business-like demeanor, Hana suppressed her laughter by biting her lower lip painfully, and forced herself to reach out to shake Lennar’s hand.  After two firm pumps, they disengaged and sat down across from each other, the desk in between as well as a cackling tension.  This was dispelled when both could no longer hold in their mirth and let out their laughter, Hana’s starting from a fit of giggling and escalating to a merry and bright sounding laugh, and Lennar’s a chuckle to guffaws.19

“My god,” Hana cried out, wiping out tears from her eyes, “how can any scientist be so clumsy?  I’m beginning to think you’re doing this to charm me.”  Her eyes twinkled mischievously as she took a deep breath and released it.20

Regaining his composure, Lennar answered with the first signs of happiness since they last met.  “My dear lady, I only wish I had the aptitude to wile and woo you.  Unfortunately, I really am just a clumsy lab worker.”21

Their smiles towards each other were genuine and earnest, and for the both of them it had been a much-needed release, for their work allowed for little pleasure, if any at all.  But eventually they replaced their business faces and began.22

“These are our most recent updates.”23

Lennar slid a portfolio across the gleaming desk to Hana, who picked it up and read the contents.  He waited patiently as she tried to digest the information.24

A few minutes passed before Hana dropped the papers onto the desk sunk back into her chair.  In just a few seconds it seemed like she had gone from a young girl to an aged woman.  Gone was the air of a gentle engagement, and Lennar was suddenly sorry to see it gone.  But he couldn’t let personal feelings get in the way of work.  He found her extremely attractive, but they would remain associates, and become nothing more.  Better for both of them if they didn’t even become friends after this project.  At least, it would be easier.25

“These results.  They’re not possible.”26

“I know that.  I asked specifically for you to come meet me because I wanted to know why it’s not possible, and why it happened.”27

Hana made no reply, and instead picked up the pages again.  The first page was a form.28

The first few boxes held a name, date of birth, gender, and other miscellaneous information.  Below these, the time elapsed box was filled as “46 minutes” with small and neat handwriting.  Under the “Observations”, the same scrawl stated: “involuntary verbal self-regression (time reference indiscernible), epileptic seizures, BP spiked 242, erratic REM”.29

A chart on the bottom revealed the most shocking information for her.30

“This had got to be some sort of a mistake,” she muttered under her breath.31

“There’s no mistake, I had my assistants triple check the equipment and the readings.  Everything you see is one hundred percent accurate.”32

She looked up from the paper to study Lennar’s expression.  He was dead serious, but beyond that she couldn’t read anything from his dark eyes and thin-pressed lips.  She spoke slowly now, her gaze holding his.33

“The subject’s mind frequency was under seven cps.”34

“I’m aware of that.”35

“And you say that he—the subject went under involuntary self-regression?  Mr. Herrek, I was a hypnotherapist for six years, and I’ve been making a living as an interrogative hypnotist in the PD for the last two years.  And if there’s anything that my experiences have taught me, it’s that there is no involuntary anything when it comes to hypnotizing a subject.  There is just absolutely no way to make a person do something they would not agree to consciously.”  But even as she finished her words; she felt her confidence, her surety in her knowledge, melt away from her, for what did she know about hypnosis, really?  Sure, she’d put in a better part of half of her life into studying the field, but what was that compared to the knowledge of thousands of years of history?  Yet after all this time, from the ancient Chinese to the Romans, the indigenous Americans to the modern hypnotist, what was really known about hypnosis?36

Nothing much, she answered herself miserably as she once again sank back into her chair.  She wanted it to dissolve under her and deposit her to the floor, she wanted to lie down and sleep and forget all her troubles.  Now she wished she had never taken on the job, had never chanced a glanced at the campus bulletin on her way to pick up her brother for dinner.37

Yet a part of her, deep down, was exhilarated.  The adventurous side of her, the ambitious and daring core, was crying out in joy.  Hadn’t she always wanted this?  Wasn’t she attracted, and then ensnared, by the mysterious and enigmatic quality of this job and research?  Ever since she picked up that first autohypnosis book for a tedious high school research project, she had known where the path of her life lay.  And didn’t a part of her always wish childishly that she would one day discover something, stumble upon and uncover some earth-shattering discovery?38

This was her dream come true, the best thing she could ever have hoped for in her whole pathetic career.  It would change her life forever, not to mention the effect on the human race as a whole.39

So why did she have this horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach?40

“Miss Park,” Lennar began.41

“I believe we agreed on Hana, during our last meeting.  Lennar.”  She managed a strained smile.42

He returned a more sincere one.  “Hana.  I know this is quite a shock for you, and I assure you, we did not exactly take this all in a stride either.  But by now, you must realize that we’re walking into uncharted territory.  This is something extraordinary, something that has never before happened in recorded history.”43

“How true that is,” she muttered, taking her glasses away from her eyes and haggardly rubbing her eyes.  Replacing her glasses on the bridge of her nose, she looked into his face again.  “So where does this leave us?  These symptoms are all…unusual, to say the least, and some downright unbelievable.  Where do we even begin to explain this away?”44

It was Lennar’s turn to look harried.  He mechanically ran his hand through his hair out of habit, and was silent in deep thought.  Then, he answered.  “You were saying that his brain waves were…erratic.  My knowledge in that area is elementary, so why don’t you start by refining my education?”45

Hana felt more comfortable dealing with this, as she was better equipped for the task.  “Well, in layman’s terms, a normal human has four possible ranges of brain activity.  Normally, we operate at around twenty cps, which is in the Beta range.  This is when we are able to reason, and we are under the influence of our conscious mind.  Beta can range to any higher amount of brain activity; at about sixty cps, a person would be diagnosed as undergoing acute hysteria.”46

Lennar nodded.  “But that’s not what happened with our subject, is it?  He was way under par.”47

Hana sighed in acknowledgement.  “Yes.  Besides Beta, you have Alpha, Theta, and Delta frequencies.  Alpha is approximately seven to fourteen cps, where your conscious mind is recessed and you are mostly influenced by your subconscious mind.  This is where you experience most of your daydreaming, blank outs, and for some extreme cases, fugues.”48

“Fugues?”49

“Temporary memory loss, a black out of sorts, but mentally.  Some patients go into violent streaks, some try to hide from some imaginary monster, some simply cease all nervous functions or reflexive reactions.  Just last year, a perfectly normal man hacked his wife and two kids to pieces with a butcher knife.  When he came to, he was sitting in the middle of their remains, his shoulder dislocated for hyper exertion.  Couldn’t handle it, so he killed himself a week later.  It turned out he had a history of fugue symptoms, chunks of his memories just completely blank.”50

Lennar grimaced.  “Sounds like something out of a Saturday night sci-fi special.”51

She only nodded.  “But the most importantly is the role of hypnosis.  Because hypnosis is only a method of communicating directly with the subconscious mind without interference of the conscious mind, nearly every case of hypnotism involve the Alpha range.  This is where myth and reality become diverge.  Unlike the movies, you can’t just hypnotize someone and then make them do your biddings.  The subject is completely awake, but just not completely aware.  You can’t make a person do something they wouldn’t normally consent to.  They’d just refuse.”52

“But it’s possible to push commands into their subconscious, right?  I mean, I’ve seen some of you guys do your stuff.  It’s like programming, basically.”53

“It’s…more complicated than that.  While it’s true that we can’t force them to do things, the subconscious mind is very different from the conscious.  It will not hesitate to evaluate whether or not an action is logical or ethical.  Any hypnotic suggestion that is accepted will be executed without question.  Normally.”54

Still listening avidly, Lennar got out of his chair and to a small fridge in the corner of his office, behind his desk.  He came back with two bottles of chilled water.55

“Thank you,” Hana said with a smile, and uncapped hers to take a swig.56

“Normally.  That means there are exceptions.”  It wasn’t a question, and Lennar’s eyes told her explicitly just how great his thirst for this new flow of knowledge was.57

“Yes.  As certified and licensed hypnotists, we have specific procedures that we must perform in order to maintain the safety and health of our subjects.  For an example, an operator must always begin their more serious sessions with what we call a safety net.”  Her fingers slid together under her chin as she spoke, and now the intensity in their gazes was equal.  “That is to say, we weave a security wall.  For example, we might say something like, ‘in a moment, I will bring you back to the incident, and you will experience the incident as you experienced it at the time it occurred.  However, you will not feel the pain.  The pain will be there, it will be a known presence obvious to you, but it will not hurt you’.  Often times thrill seekers trying to have some fun neglect to go through with these lengthy procedures.  It causes unpredictable results, and sometimes irreversible and permanent mental damage.”58

Lennar frowned.  “We did everything by the book.  You’ll have to tell me more about this later; it’s worth looking into if we want to find out why the test became bizarre.  For now, well have to rule out human error.  I believe there were two more.”59

She gave a sigh.  “The last two wouldn’t even be worth mentioning, were his brain activity not so low.  You see, even now there’s very little that is known about Theta and Delta.  All we know is that some cases of deep hypnosis brings a subject into this range of low activity, and all recorded cases of authentic psychic phenomena always somehow involve this range.”60

“And Delta?”61

“Well, we know that it’s not good for a person to have such low activity.  That’s all we know for sure.  Some patients in a coma may experience this from time to time.  But…well…” Hana seemed unsure quite suddenly, which intrigued Lennar quite a lot.62

“Hana, I’m a scientist, and I respect your view on these things.  There’s not enough known information for us to be sure of anything right now.  Feel free to speak your mind.”63

She studied his face for a long time in silence.  Finally, deciding to give it a try, she let out a breath and began with an unconfident voice.  “Lennar, do you believe in the supernatural?”64

Now Lennar was definitely taken aback.  “Are you asking me if I’m religious?”65

“Close enough.”66

“No,” he replied at first.  Then, after some consideration, he changed his answer.  “Actually, no as in I follow no church and worship no God.  But I’m an agnostic, as I believe most scientists are nowadays.  What does this have to do with anything?”67

Hana was even more apprehensive, but pushed on.  “Astral projection, past lives, psycho kinesis.  What’s your take on that whole sphere?”68

He finally understood what she was driving at.  “I won’t have security come in to haul you out of my office and report you as a madwoman, if that’s what you’re worried about.  And to answer your question, I’ve no stand on the subject.  In my personal opinion, there are too many cases to just shun the whole thing as fraud.  And like Thoreau said, ‘whoso be a man must be a nonconformist.  We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other.  Nothing is at last—‘“69

“—sacred but the integrity of your own mind.’” Hana finished.  “That was Emerson, not Thoreau.”70

Now Lennar was truly shocked.  “I didn’t take you for a classic lit fan.”71

She grinned.  “Touché.”72

They shared a companionable pause, looking at each other with warmth that did not belong.  Lennar broke the silence first.73

“I’ll be frank with you, Hana, because I trust you more than those feds, or any of my co-researchers at that.  After seeing the incident with my own eyes, I’ve thought about what you’re thinking right now thousands of times.  I keep trying to squelch the thoughts, to stamp it out with logic or reasoning, but I just can’t.  Not because I don’t want to, but because nothing in the situation disproves involvement of…unstable theories.  Watching the tapes didn’t help, either.”74

This caught her attention like a slap.  “Tapes?”75

“Of course, who do you think we are?  We keep audio, visual, and written records of all our experiments.”  He grimaced.  “Research, I mean.”76

Hana would have laughed had she not been so anxious.  “Can you show me?”77

He became alarmed.  “They’re confidential.  I’m afraid I’d be risking my job by doing so.”  She began to object, but he raised a hand to quiet her.  “Besides, I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”78

Lennar reached under his desk and depressed a button on a drawer.  A panel appeared, and he punched in a seven-digit key code.  It slid out smoothly and inaudibly, and he grabbed a small disk in a plastic cartridge case.  He threw it across the desk and kicked the drawer shut again.  “Someone broke in last night and stole the recording.  No idea why anyone would want some silly disk like that, but I guess I’ll still have to file a report.  You know how those feds are, always breathing down our necks.”  He smiled and winked.79