11 Hypnosis

The advisor drove to the entrance, as General König and Erika came out, they were greeted by Noah.

"Master Julian is waiting for you. Please come with me." As they followed Noah, Erika held General's cold hand. The General held onto Erika's hand tightly.

"André, everything will be fine. I'm beside you." André calmed down a bit as he took a deep breath.

"Erika, if I go mad again. Stop me." Erika nodded.

"If something goes wrong, I'm beside you." Erika smiled.

As they entered, Julian greeted them with a smile.

"Welcome, General. Welcome, Erika. Please have a seat."

"Noah, bring them something to drink." Noah bowed and went outside.

"I called you here because I wanted you to meet with an old friend. General, you should know him. Arik, come in."

"Yes, Master Julian."

"Bring the gift, the General might remember it."

"General, open it. It might be something you remembered." Erika said.

As General opened the box, a blue cross necklace was shown.

"General? Do you remember?" No reply.

Erika looked at the General but he kept on staring at the cross.

"General? What do you see?" Erika asked.

No reply.

"Julian, what did you do? Tell me!" Erika yelled.

"Just wait." Julian sat on his chair smirking.

"Agh, ugh..."

"General! I'm here. I'm here." Erika shielded General.

"Noah!" Julian whispered him.

"Yes, sir."

Noah took out a syringe and secretly injected drug into General's forearm without Erika knowing.

"General! General!" Erika called out.

"Take General home. Looks like he remembered something." Julian smirked, Erika hurriedly went out with the General.

"James, something happened to the General. Let's bring him back." James understood.

"Do you remembered what happened?" James asked.

"Julian showed us a weird cross and it seemed like the General remembered. Then he suddenly passed out.

"Let's take General into his room first." Erika opened the door as James laid down the General on his bed.

"His pulse is okay. Why isn't he waking up?" Erika scratched her head.

"Call Helen." James nodded and went down.

When Helen came in, she sighed.

"He passed out again? What the crap is Julian doing?"

"Beats me." Erika sighed.

"Helen, look at his forearm. A syringe mark. I think Noah did or Arik guy did that." As they checked his other symptoms they concluded that it might be tranquilizer.

"Erika, General's eyes are opened." Helen pointed out.

"I don't get it." Neither Erika.

"General, do you know who I am?" Helen asked.

There was no reply.

"André, it's me. Erika. Do you remember me?"

No reply.

"Is he staring into space?" James said.

"General, talk to us." Erika called out.

"He's saying something." As they leaned closer, the General murmured something.

"I killed them, I killed them, I killed them. I'm a murderer, I'm a murderer."

"General, wake up! wake up! It's not real." Erika called out.

"General, you need to wake up. Erika is waiting for you." Helen tried to call out to the General.

"André, I know you can do it. Don't give up." Erika held his hands.

"General, Erika is waiting for you." James called out.

"E-ri-ka... Erika... Erika...Erika..." The General clutched his hands.

"André, you didn't kill them. I believe in you. What you see is false. It's not real. So, please, wake up. André. We are waiting for you." Erika waited for General to respond.

"Erika, look." James said.

"General, can you hear us?" Helen called out.

"I... what happened to me?" He sounded confused.

"You were hallucinating." Helen explained.

"I was hallucinating?" The General couldn't remember what happened.

"Erika? Erika?"

"I'm here. I'm right here. I'm proud of you. You came back." Erika was relieved.

"I don't remember what I saw." The General said.

"Don't worry. Don't try to remember." Erika looked at the General if he is hurt anywhere else.

"Erika, I'm going to get some medication for him. Watch him closely." Erika nodded.

"General, good thing you came back. You made us so worried." James smiled.

"Erika.... I feel sleepy."

"Go to sleep, I'll stay beside you." General nodded.

After few days, General was still asleep. Helen and Erika didn't know what to do. The drug caused the General to have coma like sleeping state for at least five days.

"I'll call my father. Maybe he might know what's wrong." As Erika ran down to find her father, thankfully he was finished talking to another doctor.

"Dad! We need your help." Erika was out of breath from running.

"What's wrong?" Her dad asked.

"It's the General. He's been drugged again. We tried to wake him up but it's useless. Can you help us?" Her dad agreed.

"Bring me to him." As they went to the top floor, General was still sleeping.

"Helen and I tried every possible ways but it doesn't work. We tried calling other doctors, but they won't help us." Helen nodded.

"Let me take a look." As Erika's dad did various types of tests, Erika and Helen waited for his diagnose.

"Erika, what happened do you remember?" He asked.

"General and I visited Julian and when we were meeting him, he gave us a box. Inside was a strange cross, I don't remember but the General stared at it for a long time as if he was being brainwashed. Then when he came to be, he suddenly passed out. Helen and I discovered a syringe shot but we couldn't figure what type of drugs they used. He did wake up for a few minute but he started to hallucinate. Then he wouldn't wake up." Erika dad nodded and tapped her finger on his notepad.

"I can't do anything. It depends on him if he wants to wake up. It sounded like he got hypnotized. I don't want to use the wrong medication on him. Let's wait for him to wake up. Drugs like this will wear off when it's their time. Carefully observe him."

"I remembered something." James said.

"This happened to him before. He got hypnotized a lot when he was younger. Because he wanted to forget something. I don't know what he wanted to forget. I've seen him in this state before with another person who was hypnotizing. The cross you mentioned, is it a blue colored cross?" Erika nodded, "Yes. I remembered it was blue." James nodded.

"Something to do with that person then? That person hypnotized the General before. Whenever he used the blue cross, the General will go into trance state. He will forget about some stuff." Helen held Erika's hand.

"This time it was worse. I suspected Julian used high amount of drugs that was used during General's hypnosis. That person could have implanted false memory to the General. I believe the General did not murder anyone. He was forced to by that person." James told them.

"Whenever the General kills someone, it wasn't him. It was a scarier side in him. The General I knew cared for the people. The colder side of him kills with little remorse. So I suspect similar things might happen when he wakes up. From before I always knew the General had a warmer side and a colder side. He fights internally because he knew killing was wrong. But the colder side always takes over. That might be the reasons why he killed so many people. I don't know what happened to his childhood. Might've been something worse. I will try to find more information." When James finished talking, Erika was boiling from the inside.

"James, does that person work for Elias?" Erika asked.

"I think so. It's highly probable." He said.

"Do you have the blue cross with you?" Erika shook her head.

"That cross made the General like this. Of course not." Erika replied.

"James, tell me everything about the General after you find out. Don't tell anyone about it." James nodded.

"Helen, go with him." Erika nodded.

"Am I allowed, it's the General's confidential information..." Helen asked Erika.

"We'll tell the General later. This is an emergency situation. Two heads are better than one." Erika signalled them to go out.

"James, let's go." Helen said.

"Call me General Advisor. I like that better." Helen looked at James and replied, "James is shorter. Come on James!" James rolled his eyes.

Erika laughed at them for a while.

"Erika, stay strong for the General. He will wake up soon." Her dad placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks, dad." Erika smiled and gave him a hug.

"You stayed beside me at my worst. It's your turn to be with the General at his worst." Erika is really grateful for her father. He's the rock that she leaned on whenever she's in a difficult situation.

"Dad, you can go back to work. I'll watch over him." Her dad nodded, "I heard you're going to the frontline soon. Be careful." Erika waved him goodbye.

Several days passed. Erika, James and Helen were reading everything related to the general.

"Do you think the General has some kind of personality disorder?" Helen asked.

"It says here that he's been through psychological trauma and memory loss. With what James said last evening, it could be personality disorder associated with trauma. The General has two sides, the warm and cold side. These can cause memory loss. Plus the hypnosis just made it worse for him." James seemed to agree with her.

"But I don't understand why that person implanted false memories into the General and feeding him drugs while under hypnosis..." Erika was confused.

"The General probably wanted to forget those memories and asked that person to help. He took advantage of the General by implanting false memories. I don't think he killed Julian's parents. He might've killed other people but not his parents." James said as he read Julian's information.

"Hey, look. It says that General was abandoned at 7 years old and stayed in an orphanage. Julian's parents were killed at the same day, it was Julian's birthday. Due to abuse in the orphanage, he ran away and met a person from the Oppositions. They took him in. Since he was still young, he worked for them. Another information from the doctor, it says that General has visible scars and tortured marks. He passed out many times due to drug intake. But it didn't say what type of drugs. That's weird." Helen sighed as she lied back on her hard chair.

"Well, at least we know now. General did not kill Julian's parents. But being abandoned cause him more mental damage. That's why he has personality problems. He just asked the wrong person for help." Erika finally got the truth.

"We did a lot for today, I'm going to get some food. Helen, James, what do you guys want?" Erika got ready to go to the cafeteria.

"Just the regular." They both agreed.

"Watch the General for me. I'll be back."

"Hey James, I found something. The person who hypnotized the General was Noah? Look here. It's a written statement by him." James started to read the statement and looked at Helen.

"André was asking me for help and I agreed. In order for him to forget everything, I did hypnosis on him regularly with drugs. It was Elias command. I made him lose his emotions and memories temporarily, he became a different person afterward. He was used by Elias. I was forced to hypnotize André, we would be constantly abused if we did not follow orders. I didn't want to say this, Elias' successor will be worse." They kept reading.

"This is the day I will betray the General, he and I had been close friend. Elias' successor has come. We escaped from the Opposition and I did not want to return. But, they threatened my family if I did not go back to the Oppositions. The Opposition wants power, the General fought them for a long time. General is powerful and I know he can defeat Julian and Elias. I left this key and map here, you will need it one day. If I lose my life, please tell the General that I am sorry. Erika, please take care of the General. He will need you. All the best,

General Secretary."