Truth and Reconciliation Ch. 03

"Sure," she replied without hesitating.

"It can't leave this room. Promise me," Jason said sternly.

"Okay, I promise," Evelin responded, concern in her voice.

"I have a job." He hadn't realized it, but he must have been desperate to share the news with someone based on how good it felt to tell Evelin.

"What? Since when?" Evie was flabbergasted at the seemingly simple admission.

"For the past couple of months now," Jason said, calmly answering her questions. "It's the app you've been testing for me.

"Huh, I thought that was something you were doing, you know...for fun."

"No. I have a little business developing apps now," he exaggerated slightly. "I even have employees...well, sort of."

"You have employees! You're kidding, right?!?" Evie clearly didn't know how she was supposed to handle this information.

"Well, technically, they're subcontractors. But, I assign them work, and I pay them, so 'employee' isn't too far from the truth."

"Why are you telling me this?" asked Evelin, concern, confusion, and perhaps a little sadness in her voice.

"Last semester, do you know why I didn't attend classes?"

"No, I mean Mom said you messed up your registration or something. Honestly...," she hung her head in shame, "I was just glad I didn't have to do your chores anymore...so I never asked. I guess I didn't want to know the answer."

"Yeah...,"

Jason let the silent accusation hang in the air a moment before continuing. "The reason I didn't attend classes is that Mom refused to transfer money out of my college fund.

"I did all the paperwork for her. All she had to do was sign the bank transfer. She told me she did it. She told me several times she did it. She was lying to my face.

"And on the day that I was finally removed from the roles, she lied to me again.

"I don't know what was worse, the embarrassment I felt at not being able to pay my bills, or the shame when the administrator realized that it was my own mother refusing to pay."

"Jason, oh my god, I had no idea. I'm so sorry..." Evie walked back over to her big brother and wrapped him in her most loving embrace.

"Evie, I can't do it anymore. I can't live like this," Jason was on the verge of tears.

"That woman. My god, that woman. She hates me, Evie. She hates me and has tormented me for the past ten years. Every single goddamn day for ten years! She has done everything in her power to hold me back, to keep me down, to sabotage my dreams.

"Why?" he pleaded with his little sister as tears began to run down his cheeks. "Why? I don't know what I did to deserve this? Do you? Has she ever told you why she, why my own mother hates me so goddamn much?"

"I don't know, Jason. Oh, god, Jason, I'm so sorry," Evie was crying now too.

They both just held each other for several minutes until Jason finally pulled himself together and steeled his voice.

"I'm leaving Evie. I won't make enough money on this project. So it's going to be a few more months, but I'm already looking for the next project. I'm going to save some money, and then I'm leaving."

Jason was so focused on his anger now that he didn't see the look on Evelin's face. His words had broken her heart, and she simply stared blankly, lost in her own despair.

"I understand," was all she said as she stood and left Jason alone in his room.

'That was rather abrupt,' thought Jason, oblivious to his sister's pain. 'But, at least I can get some work done tonight.'

--

The next evening, as he worked alone in his room, Jason reflected on his recent successes and frustrations with Evelin.

While he was thrilled by their budding physical relationship, things hadn't progressed much. They would make out, and she would give him a handjob.

He had asked to return the favor, but she insisted that, at least for now, she was only comfortable with him kissing her and doing a little heavy petting.

It was all still pretty new to Jason, so while he was anxious to move things forward, he had decided to be patient.

However, his patience quickly evaporated when he learned that Evie was out on a date tonight.

The thought of it made him angry and afraid.

He was angry that Evie would "cheat" on him—though she never made any indication that she had stopped dating or that her affections were exclusive.

And he was afraid that she'd fall in love with someone, and he'd lose the emotional trigger that was empowering his hypnosis with her.

He knew he had to ratchet up his efforts. And, as he thought about improving Evelin's hypnosis, Jason realized that one of the most challenging aspects of her initial programming was getting her to repeat the phrases out loud.

That thought gave him an idea.

And, even though he wasn't sure if she'd be home tonight at all, let alone use the app, he thought it best to prepare a new set of hypnotic messages for her.

He decided to use what she had responded to before, plus some new stuff.

Hypnotic Messages

-Speaking clearly, at a normal conversational level, repeat after me:

-Jason works so hard.

-Jason works so hard for me.

-Jason works so hard for my family.

-Jason deserves so much.

-Jason deserves my kindness.

-Jason deserves so much.

-Jason deserves my love.

-Jason is my man.

-I love my man, and Jason is my man.

-I love only one man, and Jason is my man.

-Jason is my only man.

-I must keep Jason.

-My love keeps Jason.

-Jason deserves my love.

-Jason deserves my reward.

-I reward Jason with my loyalty.

-I reward Jason with my love.

-I reward Jason with my body.

-Jason deserves so much.

-Jason deserves my reward.

-I must keep Jason.

-My reward keeps Jason.

Jason recorded these messages and uploaded them to the server. Then he built a new audio program, using the recordings, and assigned it to Evie's account.

Over the past few days, Jason had continued to make progress on the app. Two exciting features he'd implemented were not part of the project; however, he believed them vital to his plans.

And, while working on them used valuable time, he considered the new features to be worth it. Plus, he was still reasonably sure he could still meet his upcoming deadlines—if he avoided further distractions.

The first was a simple alert system. The server could notify him via email or text message, based on events. Someone logging in, or starting the program, or after a certain amount of time listening, etc.

His initial instinct was to try to hide this new feature, but he realized that it was actually an invaluable testing tool. He would email the folks at HAS tomorrow and see if he could get it added to the project. Maybe they'd even pay him extra for it.

The other feature had to remain a secret, however. Jason could now monitor the app users in real-time—no more uploading snippets and listening on a delay. Both live audio and video streaming were now available to him.

He couldn't talk to the user yet—something that may come in handy—but that should be easy enough to add later.

Late that evening, Jason was a little surprised—and a little relieved—when the system notified him that Evelin had started the app.

She was home from her date and heading to bed.

As usual, the system was set to run through its routine. First tones, then subliminals, and finally hypnotic messages.

With the alert system working, Jason allowed himself to doze off to catch a little catnap.

A little while later, he was woken up by an alert indicating that Evie's hypnotic messages had begun.

As quickly as he could—it was still a bit clunky—Jason connected to Evie's phone and opened the microphone feed.

A good couple of minutes went by as Jason listened, time enough for three or four cycles of the messages. At first, all he heard were the background noises of her bedroom, but soon enough, Evie's voice started coming through the microphone.

She was just kinda mumbling at first, but once she adjusted to talking in her sleep, she could be heard loud and clear.

Jason hit record on his PC then sat back to enjoy his handiwork. After a few seconds, though, a thought occurred to him, 'What if she can be heard outside her room. Fuck! I better go check.'

Quickly, Jason made his room as dark as possible, then quietly tiptoed out into the hallway.

The house was two-stories with the master bedroom—and en-suite bath—on the first floor, and the three remaining bedrooms were on the second floor.

Jason's bedroom was at the end of the hall. Evelin's was near the stairs and the upstairs bathroom, and Beth's room was in the middle.

Jason was just tiptoeing past Beth's room when he glanced up to see her standing at the top of the stairs regarding him suspiciously.

"Jason, what are you doing?" his older sister asked with both confusion and annoyance in her voice.

"Umm...I'm going to the bathroom."

"Uh-huh...and you're sneaking...because...?"

Jason straightened up, feeling incredibly foolish. 'What the hell was I thinking. I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night all the time. Why did I think I needed to sneak down the hall.'

"I'm not sneaking. I was just trying to be quiet. I...uh...didn't want to bother you."

"Really?" asked Bethany. "That's...that's really sweet," she added, her tone genuine.

Beth's demeanor changed completely. Her shoulders drooped slightly as she broke eye contact and looked away from Jason. Then, one hand reaching over to grasp the opposite shoulder, she quickly shuffled past Jason and darted into her room.

"Good night, Jason," was the last thing Bethany said, her voice almost straining against something.

"Good night, Beth," Jason replied, somewhat confused, looking after his older sister. But she had already shut her door.

'That was bizarre,' thought Jason. 'I can't remember the last time I've even spoken to Bethany. Between her job and social life, it sometimes feels like she's avoiding this family as much as I am.'

Jason started back down the hall but paused as his own thought echoed in his head. 'Wait. Is she avoiding the family too? Was that the emotion in her voice? She was upset to see me? What a bitch! What did I ever do to her?'

For a brief moment, Jason's thoughts turned to Beth before the death of their father. With only two years between them, their childhood had been contentious, and they had often been at each other's throats.

Jason chucked a little as he remembered the endless refrain of his parents, "Jason, stop aggravating your sister!"

"Bethany, stop teasing your little brother!"

"If you two don't cut it out right this second...So help me!"

God, they drove each other nuts.

Jason also remembered one time when he was just six-years-old, one of his earliest memories. He was playing on the swings at a little park near their home.

Some older kid started messing with him, telling him, "That's my swing, so get off."

Jason wasn't quite smart enough to acquiesce to the bully and had stood his ground, "Na uh, I was here first. Wait your turn."

The bully shoved Jason right off the swing and onto his back. It hadn't really hurt, mostly just startled him, but it was enough to start him crying bloody murder.

Maybe his memory had been colored by the passage of time, but even so, it was so vivid that he never doubted his version of events.

Regardless, as he remembered it, Beth had suddenly appeared next to the bully. Jason could remember looking up at her; the fury in her eyes shocked him and extinguished his blubbering instantly.

"Don't you ever lay a hand on my brother!" she screamed as she threw a wild haymaker that landed square on the bully's jaw and sent him straight to the ground.

Moments later, Jason and Beth's father ran over, one-year-old Evie in a papoose on his chest, and tried sorting everything out.

Both Jason and the bully were okay—if the latter was a bit stunned.

Sadly, though Jason didn't recognize it as such at the time, the bully's parents weren't there. He was alone—a common situation for him. So, after Jason's dad made sure he was okay, they left him to his own devices, and they all went home.

While Jason and Beth sat in the living room watching TV, their parents talked about what happened quietly in the kitchen.

After several minutes they emerged and informed Beth that even though she was protecting her brother, it was not okay to hit that kid. She should have got her father.

As punishment for fighting, she was to be sent to bed without dinner that night.

Naturally, Beth was furious. In her mind, she was doing the right thing by protecting her brother.

The punishment seemed to be mostly symbolic, though, because not long after the rest of the family finished dinner, their dad "snuck" a full plate into Beth's room.

Then, about an hour before bed, Beth's mother snuck her a bowl of ice cream.

It would be another seven years before Jason's dad had his accident, and the two siblings fought the entire time. Even so, after that event, Jason never questioned whether or not his sister truly loved him.

One time he even mentioned it to his dad, who just laughed at Jason's little revelation, "Ha! You know, Son, I think you're right. Sometimes we love someone so much that it's hard to contain all those feelings. They get mixed up and come out in topsy turvy ways.

"Yeah, you and your sister fight, but I know you love each other. And you know what?"

"What?"

"I bet one day, when you're all grown up, you and Beth end up becoming terrific friends."

Jason came back to reality feeling a familiar sense of loss. For his dad, sure, but also for the friendship that might have been between Beth and him.

Janice had fucked everything up, and he was going to make her pay.

Remembering his initial purpose for being out in the hallway, Jason made his way toward the bathroom. He paused for a few moments outside Evelin's door and listened. He could definitely hear her talking, which was a problem, but he couldn't tell what she was saying.

He wasn't sure how worried he should be about this. Evie was a teenage girl. Being on the phone late into the night with friends or boys is kind of the teenage girl's prevue.

Plus, he didn't need her to repeat the phrases too many times.

'Nah, I think this will be fine,' Jason decided as he walked into the bathroom. 'Might as well use the can since I'm here.'

Once back in his room, Jason turned off Evie's hypnotic messages so she would stop speaking out loud.

He was then able to—with the higher quality recordings provided by Evie's clear speaking voice—edit together a new version of the hypnotic messages.

He also added a quick, "Speaking quietly to yourself, repeat the following:" to the beginning. Better to be safe than sorry.

Uploading this new recording to the server, he linked it to Evie's account and set it to play for the next two hours.

Finally, with all that accomplished, he crawled into bed for some much-needed sleep.

--

Jason really didn't have time to worry about the women in his life for the next couple of days.

Evelin's programming was running properly, and he was excited to see the results. He needed to be patient, however, as rushing could cause his younger sister to become suspicious. Jason needed Evie to believe, 100%, that everything she was doing was her own idea.

Meanwhile, Bethany or Janice's progress would just have to wait until he had more data from his Evie experiments.

Besides, he was behind on his project—the official parts of it anyway—and he really needed to get some work done. So that's where he focused his time and energy.

After Evie's last date, it was four days before she again snuck into Jason's room.

Not really expecting Evie and being rather tired, Jason had simply gone to sleep that night. So, he was startled awake later when she crawled into his bed.

Still half asleep, he began to loudly ask what was going on. In response, Evie put a finger to his lips and whispered, "Shhh, it's me. Relax."

"Oh, shit. Sorry, Sis. You scared the crap out of me. I was really asleep."

"What," she replied, mock hurt in her voice, "you weren't waiting for me with bated breath?"

"I thought about it," Jason said ice in his words, "but then I figured you were probably out with some other guy...again."

He had said it much harsher than he intended—likely due to just being woken from a deep sleep—and he instantly regretted it.

"Oh," was all Evelin said in reply.

His brain finally awake, Jason looked at his sister for the first time. She was wearing lingerie again, though something different and much sexier than before.

As before, it was hard to tell in the low light of his room, but Jason was pretty sure it was red. All straps and lace leaving little to the imagination. And with a sheer wrap covering her shoulders.

She had also done up her hair into long curls, which hung down. He suspected she had also spent some time on her makeup. He couldn't quite tell, though, due to the subdued lighting—and how she was hanging her head, upset by his comment.

Sitting up, Jason reached out to touch his sister's arm, "Evelin, you look so beautiful."

She lifted her head, just slightly, at his remark but remained silent.

Really looking her over now, Jason was taken aback by just how beautiful she truly was. "Did you do all this," Jason gestured at her, indicating her appearance, "...for...me?"

"Do you like it?" Evie responded hopefully.

"Oh my god, yes. You're stunning. But why go through all the trouble? Not that I'm complaining."

Evie smiled at her big brother, "I wanted to do it a couple days ago, but it took me longer than expected to get everything together."

"Well," Jason said, openly ogling his sister now, "as far as I'm concerned, it was more than worth the wait!"

Evie just giggled appreciatively in response.

"Seriously though," Jason continued, "why did you go through all this trouble?"

It took Evelin several long moments before she finally responded. When she did, her jovial demeanor had passed into something more somber.

"The other day," she finally started, staring at the floor, "when we spoke, I told you the truth. I told you that I wanted to give you my love because you deserved it. And... because I don't want to lose you."

"I remember," Jason said when she paused, indicating she should continue.

"I also told you that Mom had kinda fucked me up. That I was terrified I wouldn't be good at relationship stuff?" she paused again.

"Yeah, you said you were afraid that Mom made you scared of being alone and at the same time afraid you wouldn't be able to keep a man."

Evie smiled at her big brother, happy that he had remembered their conversation. "Yeah, basically. Well, because of all that, I've been a pretty active dater.

"I was so sure I'd never find a man that, for the past couple of years, I've never said 'No' when asked out.

"I know it sounds crazy, but when someone shows interest in me, I'm so scared of losing them that I try to...keep them happy." She again hung her head in shame.

"Oh," Jason responded, unsure of what she meant. "Oh!" he repeated a moment later when it clicked. "You mean you've been...sleeping with all those guys." Jason was in shock and had no idea how to feel.

"No!" Evie quickly corrected him. "I don't sleep with them. But I do... I, you know...help them out in other ways..." she made a stroking gesture with her hand.

Jason just stared at her blankly, not taking her meaning.

Evie rolled her eyes at her big brother and smirked, amused by his naivete. "I give them handjobs...a lot of handjobs. But that's it. Just the handjobs."

Now Jason was confused, "Wait, just handjobs. Why not more?" And, before he could catch himself, he added, "How many guys have you jerked off?"