What made you stop trusting your own memory?

The First Clues

I always thought my older brother Daniel was just weird. He was 19 and I was 12 and he’d gotten super into hypnosis after some sight class. He’d do these dumb party tricks, making his friends act like chickens or whatever.

Mom and dad thought it was hilarious. Daniel kept saying he wanted to be a therapist, and this was practice.

He even helped dad quit smoking, so everyone thought he was like amazing, but something felt off about Daniel. I’d have these conversations I couldn’t really remember.

Like, I’d tell my friend Maya that Daniel’s girlfriend was annoying. Then the next day, I’d feel super guilty about it for no reason.

Or my sister Sophie would randomly give Daniel her allowance. When I’d ask her why, she’d be like, “I don’t know. I just wanted to. It was weird.”

My 19-year-old brother used his psychology class hypnosis skills to make our sister give him her allowance and mom get headaches after family meetings.

Everything changed on this random Thursday after dinner. I was in Daniel’s room trying to steal his charger when I knocked over his psych textbook. All these index cards fell out.

They weren’t notes for class. Each card had our names and creepy stuff written on them. Mine said, “For memory fog, touch nose and say anyway.”

Sophie said, “Money release.” Snap twice. My hands were literally shaking.

That night, I waited till Daniel left for his dumb job at the movie theater. I snuck back in and almost puked when I found his notebooks. He had one for each of us.

Mine went back a whole year. Every page had dates and gross notes like, “Successfully implanted guilt trigger about girlfriend.” And Liam forgot argument about chores.

Level four trance achieved. He’d been hypnotizing me and I didn’t even know.

The next morning, I found Daniel in the kitchen making coffee.

I found your notebooks, I said. I was trying not to cry. Daniel just smiled at me.

What notebooks, buddy?

Then he touched his nose.

Anyway, you should get ready for school.

Stop it. I backed away from him. I know what you’re doing. You can’t hypnotize me anymore.

He actually laughed.

Hypnotize you? Come on, Liam. I only do that stuff at parties. You’re being paranoid.

I told mom and dad after school. Daniel put on this whole confused act. He showed them his actual homework and said the cards were for a class project.

He was so good at lying. Mom and dad totally bought it. They always took Daniel’s side.

Daniel got way worse after that. At dinner, he’d use these trigger words to make Sophie tired so she’d go to bed and he could eat her dessert.

He’d make me forget stuff I was mad about by doing his stupid hand gestures while we talked. The scariest part was not knowing what else he’d made us forget.

If I didn’t do his chores, he’d hypnotize me into thinking I’d already said yes. If Sophie caught him sneaking out, he’d make her forget she saw him.

We started writing everything down just to remember stuff. But even then, there were these weird gaps.

Then Friday night, I woke up and Daniel was sitting on my bed with his stupid pen light. He was swinging it in front of my face.

You’re getting sleepy, Liam. So very sleepy.

I sat up fast.

Stop. I’m awake. I know what you’re doing.

He didn’t even care that I caught him.

You’re dreaming this. Tomorrow you won’t remember. Just like all the other times.

That’s when I realized how many times he’d probably done this. I told Sophie everything the next day. She freaked out and tore apart her room.

She found this creepy voice recorder under her bed. It had hours of Daniel talking while she was asleep, telling her to give him money and forget things.

We started putting together all the stuff we’d forgotten. Fights that ended with us saying sorry for no reason, agreeing to stuff we hated. Blank spots after hanging out with Daniel. We couldn’t tell mom and dad again. They’d just believe Daniel.