FreeNovelHe and Leopold hauled Raines inside, easing him down onto the couch. His eyes were wide open, unblinking, seemingly lost in
ssort of trance that was quite unsettling.
Beverley shivered as she glanced over, "Should we try waking Raines up?"
"I heard it's dangerous to wake a sleepwalker, and they could drop dead from shock," Nina said.
"But what if he's stuck in a nightmare and can't snap out of it? Waking him might actually do him sgood," William chimed in.
Skyler stood pensive at a distance, "It's possible he's been hypnotized."
He squatted down, whispering into Raines’ ear, "I'll count to three, and you'll wake up. One, two, three."
With a snap of his fingers, Raines' eyes closed and then slowly opened, as if his soul had been returned to his body. Seeing
everyone around him, he started, "What are you all doing here? Is it morning already?"
Beverley and Leopold exchanged a look, "Raines, you're in the study, not your bedroom. You've been hypnotized, took a little
nocturnal stroll from your room's balcony to here."
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"What?" A shudder ran through Raines’ whole body.
Skyler was seething, "It has to be Geoffrey's doing. This is way out of line."
Raines cradled his head, a slight pain throbbing.
"Don't worry, Raines. I'll help you break the hypnosis. Just try not to think about anything right now and go back to sleep," Skyler
said, patting his shoulder.
"Okay." Raines nodded and left the study for his own room. Lately, he'd been having memory gaps. Could it be that it wasn't his
amnesia worsening, but that he'd been hypnotized without knowing what he was actually doing?
Back in the study, Leopold advised everyone to head to their own rooms to get srest, it was late, and any issues could wait
until the morning.
When he returned to his room, Aurelia had already taken a short nap and was just waking up.
"Where have you been?"
Leopold briefly recounted the night's events.
She was furious, "Geoffrey is so devious. Hypnotizing Raines, he must be up to something. The sleepwalking must have been an
unexpected side effect.”
"Maybe he's trying to turn Raines into a living surveillance device," Leopold mused.
Aurelia gasped, "You mean Geoffrey has been spying on Skyler, not through hidden cameras, but through Raines?"
Leopold nodded.
"We would have never known about the hypnosis if it weren't for Raines’ sleepwalking incident."
In another room, Mira couldn't sleep, haunted by thoughts of the ghost she had encountered. She covered her head with the
blanket, fearing the ghost might seek her out in the middle of the night.
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Nina pulled the blanket down, "Don't smother yourself."
"I'm scared," Mira shivered.
"It's just Liam's ghost. Nothing to fear," Nina assured her.
"You didn't see him. His smile is creepy, really," Mira insisted, "Regardless, he's still a ghost."
"He'll probably go bother Uncle Leopold, Aunt Aurelia, or Kane. Doubt he'll cback for us," Nina tried to reassure her, though
she too felt a chill.
"I bet he loves playing hide and seek," Mira speculated.
"Yeah," Nina nodded, "That's why he showed up when we were playing. He never appears otherwise. Do ghosts look any different
from the living?"
Mira pondered for a moment before replying, "They look exactly the same, just popping in and out of view, disappearing in the
blink of an eye."
"They're probably just going invisible, not wanting to be seen. I've heard if you have a camera, you might catch a clear glimpse of
them," Nina remarked, recalling the horror movies she'd secretly watched as a kid.
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