- And now?
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- Nothing?
- Not at all.
- And what to do?
- For the sake of everything... - Ass broke off without inventing a word that touches the soul. - I'm not treating you, you're treating me.
Perhaps, solving a psychological problem with the help of hypnosis was not the best idea. Especially hypnosis, invented muddles... by magicians. However, he would not agree to be subjected to magic hypnosis in any case. There's something humiliating about applying magic to someone who isn't... Who hasn't... The phantom clenched his teeth and focused on what's going on in the Yellow Room.
Harley looked through all the pages again, sighed and put aside the useless "NLP Techniques. Magical hypnosis?" Ass sat on the couch and tried honestly not to comment on what was happening, even though the language was still used to describe it. But when the psychoanalyst went to him, holding a watch in his hand on a chain, Phantom surrendered.
- The squint would develop,- he muttered. - You tried to put me in a trance twenty times.
- Three,- Harley fixed it, but the homemade pendulum removed it. - Then just... Close your eyes. And do the things that I will readout.
- Here's more! - The former magician was outraged. - Let me do it. What to read in this waste paper. I'll think of a better one myself.
Harley's eyes flashed an expression of anxiety and curiosity at the same time. The phantom gladly looked at the professor trying to justify himself as he tried to pick up the words:
- I was thinking... Maybe hypnosis doesn't suit us. Then somehow, if I master the technique... And you...
- Sit down,- Ass pointed to a place next to you with a majestic gesture. When he stayed there, Phantom took the offensive:
- You know... The hypnotist also enters the trance with the one he, uh, hypnotizes. You said it yourself.
Harley, looking almost enchanted at his patient, slowly overcame the last couple of steps and went down on the chair in front of him. Ass smiled quite a smile without taking his eyes away, and the psychoanalyst unwittingly copied the smile. A shadow of a smile. And yet it was unexpected... Friendly. Compared to the eternal melancholy, for sure. In general, excessively happy faces Phantom disliked: they seemed suspicious to him and just annoyed. But Harley, who apparently smiles only on big holidays, looked very much like nothing.
- Close your eyes,- said Ass, penetrating his own sense of importance. The professor's smile became wider, but he obeyed. Only the barely shuddered when Phantom took his hand in his hand and ran a cushion over his wrist, while just trying it on. It was weird to pet someone. He never stroked cats and people...
- What are you doing?
- Don't interfere with your work! - A former magician has flared up. I was overwhelmed by the pages of the book I rejected, mumbling:
- It says here that you have to talk, nonsense, I'm talking to you anyway, words distract you, and there is no use...
- Can I open my eyes for now? - The psychoanalyst was cautiously interested.
- You can't! - cut off Ass without breaking away from - Chapter Five. Programming in stages. The further he read, the more confused and irritated he became. And, finally, he was gently but confidently called out:
- A phantom.
With surprise, he instantly turned to Harley. He hadn't heard an appeal by name for a long time: how he had lost his magical powers as if he had turned into an invisible person. In such, accidentally crashed, notice that there is someone in the room, and say: "sorry". If you're lucky.
And then Ass forgot what he wanted to give in response to an unceremonious attempt to distract him. Because thin fingers slid on his hands, slowly and rhythmically touching his skin and not letting him concentrate. Almost immediately, Harley started talking about the foundation of the Pervers School of Magic - a total nonsense, but now he didn't want to be silent. About school, about looking into the eyes and listening, about something else...
One minute after another. Dark eyes on the face itself, evenly soothing touch, monotonous voice...
He's gone. Everything is gone.
