Invisible Pt. 01

Kim removed her thumb from my forehead, and I opened my eyes.

"I guess we were both right, child," she smiled. "You are quite suggestible. But for some reason, I can't hypnotize you."

I exhaled, torn between relief and disappointment. I looked around. "Sorry, everybody."

Nods, shrugs. Smiles. It was no big deal, it seemed. I relaxed.

It was a party. One of my old college friends had gotten engaged to another one, and they'd thrown open their apartment in celebration. So, some of the guests were people I had graduated with, just a couple years ago; and some others were friends, relations, coworkers -- people of all ages -- some that I knew and some I didn't.

One of the "didn't" was Kim. A striking woman in her 30s who seemed slightly Asian -- exotic, anyway -- and had a piercing way of looking at me. Through me, almost. (I'm kinda short, with mousy brown hair and glasses, and I'm used to people looking through me, but this was different. Usually they look through me like I don't matter. But she looked *inside* me ... like I *did*.)

And as the party went on, and the crowd thinned, as most of the old folks went home and the guests that were left got looser, somehow it had come up that Kim knew a little about hypnotism. And somehow it was suggested that she demonstrate on a few people. They'd placed a chair in the middle of the room, pushing the coffee table out of the way, and while friends had perched on or leaned against all the available furniture to watch, she'd made a guy raise his arms, pulled by imaginary balloons, and made a girl forget her own name for a few hilarious minutes. All in good fun.

And then she'd pointed at me.

I'm not ... really comfortable being the center of attention. But I also have this thing where I hate feeling like I'm letting people down. So, even though I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work on me, I let my slightly tipsy friends good-naturedly push me toward the chair. I was willing to play along. Heck, being hypnotized did sound kinda fun, and the ratio of friends to strangers had shifted toward friends over the last couple hours, so I was a little less of a wallflower than sometimes.

In any case, nothing had happened. I was a little disappointed (and surprised by that reaction!). But I was also relieved. Now maybe it could be someone else's turn in the hot seat.

"I'd like to try a different game, if that's all right, Kara," Kim said kindly, as if she wasn't concerned at all about her failure. (And how I envied that poise. I think I would have slunk away in embarrassment, but she was so confident and relaxed!) "Have you ever thought about superpowers?"

"Superpowers?" I asked. I'd been about to get up, but it seemed I wasn't finished yet.

"Yes, the classic question. If you could have one superpower, what would you want it to be? I'm sure you've thought about it bef --"

"Invisibility." It just tumbled out of my mouth, before she'd even finished speaking. Kim raised her eyebrows. There was a murmur through my assembled friends.

"Invisibility? And why is that?"

"Omigod, it just seems so ... I mean ... I think about it all the time, honestly. Like I've thought about time travel a few times, and of course everyone considers flying, but ... Being invisible. You're just. Like. No one would be looking at you! You know? No one sees you, no one judges you, you can do your own thing and be left alone ... Go where you want, see and do what you want? And not have to make conversation, or even worry about what your hair looks like? Omigod, it would just be so ... so --"

"Freeing," she said with me.

"Yes!" I sagged back in the chair. I'd said a lot of words very quickly, like a spaz, but for the moment at least, I wasn't thinking about that. It felt good to say it.

She was looking at me very intently. "And how would that make you feel, do you think? How do you think being invisible would change you?"

It was a way of asking the question I'd never heard before, or considered. "I'd be ..." I said, and paused to think. "Fearless," I decided. And smiled a shy smile.

She didn't smile back. Just watched me for a moment. Then nodded, once, as if she'd come to a conclusion.

"Then I think I have a little gift for you." She half-turned, without standing, and gave orders that didn't sound like orders. "Bill, be an angel and hand me my purse. Jill, pour me a half glass of that delicious wine. The white. Thank you, dears." She rifled through her bag for a moment, and produced a small clear vial, like a bottle of eye drops. Or a nasal decongestant. It was unlabeled, and half full of a clear liquid. She handed her purse off to someone without looking and held the bottle up so I could focus on it, and her.

I was peripherally aware of our audience leaning forward, rapt at the moment she was creating, but I couldn't tear my eyes away to look at them.

"This, my child, just so happens to be an experimental new product -- an invisibility potion."

I stared at the innocuous little bottle between her manicured fingers.

"Would you like to try it?"

I nodded, slowly, my mouth dry. What an amazing, unbelievable coincidence! She had the very thing that could make my dreams come true, right there in her bag!

She held my gaze as she took the wine glass from Jill, held the little bottle over the glass, then held the wine out to me. I forgot to watch what her hands were doing; I never looked away from her eyes, and she never looked away from mine.

"Here, try some of this. The alcohol should activate the neuro-refractors, and make them work faster. It shouldn't take more than a couple of sips."

I don't usually drink wine -- I mean, I don't usually drink -- but I didn't feel like I was in a position to refuse. I took a cautious sip of the potion-infused white wine.

"Mmmm!" I enthused. "That's kinda yummy! Is it grape?"

Kim giggled, a little, and threw a glance at someone to her left. "Grape, huh? Interesting ... I mean ... Sure, I figured it might as well have a pleasant flavor... Wait, you mean like, children's medicine grape?"

"Mmm-hmmm!" I nodded, then gulped down the rest of the glass in two big swallows.

I laughed out loud at my boldness, the moment the glass was empty. What was I doing?

"Very good, pet," she said, taking the glass from me. Her momentary giggles were gone, she was back in control. "Now close your eyes for a moment, and concentrate. Turn inward. Feel it working its way through you. Feel the potion turning you invisible ..."

After a moment of dizziness, I *could* feel a warmth spreading through me. I focused on that feeling, with my eyes closed. I could feel it moving from my throat, through my chest ... spreading outward, filling my frame. The warm tingles coursed slowly down my arms, my legs ...

I opened my eyes and held up my hand before my eyes. I could *feel* the potion working through my hand, and could *see* it at the same time! My wrist, then my palm, faded away, and for a moment my fingers were floating in midair, unconnected from anything! Then the feeling rushed to my fingertips, and they were gone too! One moment I could see my fingerprints, the next ... no matter how much I wiggled them, I could see nothing sticking out of my sleeve at all!

"Are you guys seeing this?" I squealed. I looked around, trying to interpret the expressions on my friends' faces. "This is incredible! Kim, you are seriously magic!!"

I stood up, turning both hands over and over, mesmerized by the sight of my empty sleeves waving in the air. I took a couple of steps, watching the carpet beneath my feet moving through the space where my hands should be.

"Dude, this is crazy!" said Sam. "You're just a bunch of clothes walking around!!"

I couldn't believe it. I was giddy with this new power, I had to see more. I pulled my turtleneck over my head in a flash, and threw it at Sam, who caught it with a surprised squeak.

My arms were gone! My tummy was gone! "This is so freaky!!" I shrieked, with another laugh. I placed my hand over my tummy, and all I could see was my ring, suspended in the air.

"Kara, that's ..."

I looked up. My friends were looking, frankly, astonished. They were staring. Aaron's mouth was hanging open.

I walked toward him. "What?" I asked, somewhat teasingly, stopping in front of him.

Kim, behind me, cleared her throat, and Aaron swallowed, recovering slightly. "It's so weird! I'm just seeing your bra floating around!! Above your empty pants!!"

He was still staring at my chest. But I guessed that was all right -- after all, if all he could see was my bra, it's not like he was looking at my tits, right? And anyway ...

I had a sudden fit of giggles. "I wanna say, hey, my eyes are up here, but it's like ... where? Ha ha!!"

Oh, we all had a good laugh at that one. It was intoxicating, a little, being the one to make my friends laugh for once. Of course, the wine might have had something to do with it -- that was a little intoxicating too.

But I knew what was really making me feel different, bolder: this amazing new ability.

"Kim, how long does it last? Do you know?"

"It varies from person to person, but usually it's at least a couple hours," she said.

"OK," I said. "I want to enjoy this. Everybody -- um, everybody go back to what you were doing, talk amongst yourselves, I want to just ... like, walk among you invisible. Drift around behind and between you, unseen."

"But we, uh, we can still see you," said an older guy I'd met tonight, called Dan (I was pretty sure). "I mean, we see your pants, your -- your socks ..." He did a double take as he caught his wife glaring at him. "What? I'm -- I'm just trying to help ..."

"Right! Right!" I said. "The downside of invisibility. People can't see you, but you sure can catch a chill!"

I looked downward for a moment, considering, but I think I'd already decided what I wanted to do. What I needed to do. I giggled like a little kid as I took off my bra, as my thumbs went to my waistband ... in moments I was gloriously, invisibly nude!

There was a wave of reaction through the friends and strangers around me as I disappeared. "Holy cow!" said Jason, still looking in the general area where I'd vanished. Sara gave a long, low whistle of appreciation. "Oh Christ," I heard Jill murmur. "Bill, go turn up the thermostat."

I did a little dance around the circle, laughing and humming. Some of them seemed to follow me around the room with their eyes, but I knew it was only because they could hear me. I couldn't help it though! It was wonderful! I spun around, with my arms outstretched.

"How -- how does it feel?" asked Liz, somewhat shyly. "What's it like?"

"It's amazing!" I crowed. "Walking around the room nude is so -- so freeing! I feel like I can do anything!"

I put my hands over my mouth, stifling my laughter with an effort. I tiptoed around for a moment, weaving between them, and watched as they all looked in various directions, trying to decide where I'd gone. I stood next to Liz and suddenly said, "I'm over here now!"

And oh! How funny it was it watch them all turn to look in my general area! And how funny that they still couldn't see me!

I kissed Liz's cheek, then ruffled Aaron's hair, then hopped over by Dan. I was going to give him a kiss too, but I suddenly stopped. I swayed my head one way and the other, and his gaze followed me each time, like he was looking right into my eyes.

"Dan? Can you see me?"

He looked panicked, and looked away quickly.

"It's your glasses, honey," said Kim, calmly. "We can all see your glasses floating around the room. It's quite uncanny. Why don't you come sit in your chair for a moment, and we'll take them off."

"Oh, okay!"

I went back to the chair where she'd been trying to hypnotize me -- ooh, it was kinda cool under my naked butt! -- and she put her thumb to my forehead, just above my glasses.

Instantly I felt a buzzing in my head, in my brain, that felt ... odd, but kinda familiar ... and from far beyond the (rather pleasant, rather pleasurable) buzzing I could dimly register Kim saying words. It didn't matter, though, I didn't need to listen. I could just enjoy the buzz ...