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“And… wake up.”

Marcus opened his eyes and blinked several times, trying to get used to the light in the room again. Fortunately, Caesar had been looming over him and the naga’s hood stopped those annoying sun rays from hitting his face directly. Almost like a snake-shaped blind.

The rat waited, still lying comfortably on the sofa, as consciousness returned to all those places where it had been forbidden to be just a few seconds ago. As a hypnotist, he knew what the process was supposed to feel like, but he hadn’t experienced it before, or at least not as many times as he would have liked. This must have been the third or fourth time he’d actually felt hypnotized by someone.

Caesar was a pretty good hypnotist, though. The process had been really enjoyable.

“How do you feel?” the naga asked.

Marcus blinked an additional time and tried to get his thoughts together.

“Still a bit fuzzy. Comfortable. You know the drill, I bet.”

“Let me add a few words to that,” the naga offered, a teasing grin on his face. “Do you feel… nice and refreshed?”

“Ugh.”

“Perhaps you feel as if you just woke up from the best nap you’ve ever had?”

“Please, stop it,” Marcus groaned.

They’d had this conversation before the naga put him under. Even though they were both hypnotists – and pretty good at what they did, or so Marcus would like to think – they had very different approaches to hypnotic trance.

Caesar was a sucker for the classics, which meant he used a lot of strong collocations, clichéd expressions and common tropes Marcus absolutely abhorred. Not because he thought they didn’t work – they must work, if they’d been used for such a long time – but because he simply thought they were cheesy and unoriginal. The whole “trust in me” routine snakes used to go on about certainly caused his eyes to roll up, but not because anything good was happening in his mind.

He’d even asked Caesar to not hiss before they’d had their session. The naga had said he didn’t mind doing that and that most people seemed to like it a lot, but Marcus had different ideas. He didn’t need the naga to act like a snake, just like he hoped nobody he was putting in a trance expected him to act like a rat.

However, there was a specific set of common hypnotic phrases Marcus hated with an even stronger passion, mostly because of how inaccurate he felt they were.

It was those that had to do with sleep. In his experience, hypnosis had nothing to do with sleeping. Why people seemed to find such an easy correlation between both things was something he’d never been able to understand. Of course, he knew where they were coming from – the external aspect of someone being hypnotized was pretty similar to someone falling asleep – but that was an idea he was expecting to get from someone who had never been hypnotized, not from an experienced subject. Once you were put in a trance, you’d realize being hypnotized and sleeping were completely different states of mind.

But Caesar seemed to like it.

“It’s cute, comparing it to sleep,” the naga had simply said when Marcus had asked him. “Makes people feel extra cozy.”

“Then you should focus on amplifying the feeling of coziness,” the rat had argued, “instead of comparing it with being sleepy.”

In response to his friend’s opinion, Caesar had simply shrugged. Marcus wasn’t intending him to change his routine by then – obviously not – but it amazed him that the naga was so unbothered by something that drove him crazy. Different people, different tastes, I suppose, the rat would end up thinking whenever they had those conversations.

Marcus stretched and sat up on the sofa. The naga watched him curiously, as if expecting something to happen.

“What do you remember from the trance?” he asked.

Marcus frowned. He could remember if he wanted to, but right now…

“I remember you guiding me through relaxation exercises,” the rat answered. He knew Caesar had changed his routine for him, in order to make him feel more comfortable, and he was thankful for that. “And I remember the induction. I’m not entirely sure about the deepener, though. At first I thought there was a countdown, but…”

“… but you think countdowns are cheesy and unnecessary,” Caesar intervened with an amused smirk.

“Yeah. So I think I’m wrong.” Marcus scratched the back of his head. “You didn’t count me down, but made me feel as if I’d been counted down?”

The naga shrugged. Marcus imagined he wasn’t going to get an answer out of him.

“And what about the time dilation stuff?” the rat asked then. He had almost forgotten about it. “Did we do that?”

“Perhaps we did. Perhaps you forgot,” Caesar replied.

Marcus held his gaze. There was no way the naga was so thick as to make him forget the one thing he’d wanted to experience and the main reason why he was visiting.

They’d been talking about experimenting with time dilation for weeks, since it was a common topic of interest. You could always come visit, Caesar had offered. One weekend, just the two of us. I zonk you, you zonk me. I make you experience some good ol’ time dilation and you… er, well. I suppose we can find out then.

But the rat could have sworn time hadn’t been dilated at all. The fact that he couldn’t remember wasn’t making things easier for him, either. Typically, time dilation would consist of him being hypnotized for a few minutes and then being made to believe he’d been under for hours, or the opposite. It happened naturally in many trances, without the hypnotist needing to suggest it, much like amnesia. And just like amnesia, it could be guided and reinforced.

The problem being, of course, that if you don’t remember the trance you probably don’t know for how long you’ve been under. And if you don’t know for how long you’ve been under, then it’s almost as if time dilation had never happened.

“Did you make me forget the trance?” Marcus asked. He’d raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe.”

“... doesn’t that sort of go against what we were aiming for in the first place?” the rat asked in disbelief.

He’d known Caesar for a long time. He was aware of how skilled the naga was, and he didn’t think he’d ever encountered a cleverest hypnotist. There had to be a reason behind that apparent blunder.

“I miiiiight have toyed with your mind while you were under,” the naga admitted, his smirk softening a bit. “You’ll find out soon enough, I bet. Don’t worry too much about it.”

Marcus relaxed a bit.

“So you put triggers on me or what?”

“I’m not supposed to tell!”

“What do you mean ‘you’re not supposed to tell’? You’re the one who put me under! It’s not as if somebody’s forcing you to keep it secret. You’re not part of an audience, you know.”

Caesar chuckled softly. He slithered away from the sofa as Marcus stood up and stretched again. Now that the hypnotic afterglow was slowly fading away and the rat realized how good he’d been feeling for a while, he sort of wanted to come back to it. Well, I don’t think Caesar’s done with me yet, he thought. So I’ll probably be under again soon enough.

He turned to the naga, a hesitant look on his face. What he saw was about to make him snort in disbelief.

Caesar had coiled on the opposite corner of the room. He’d taken out his Game Boy Advance from a pocket. The familiar trumpets coming out of the console’s speakers made it very obvious to Marcus that the naga was playing Pokémon Ruby.

“You’re trying to tease me,” he rationalized.

Caesar turned his hooded head to the rat.

“What? No. I’m hatching eggs. I’m trying to get an Azurill to complete my Pokédex.”

Marcus scoffed, an incredulous smile on his face.

“In fucking 2024?”

“It’s never too late.”

Marcus could tell the naga was making a big effort to look serious. He enjoyed being mysterious about his shenanigans, acting like he hadn’t done anything at all and letting things unfold at their own pace. However, the naga was also a terrible actor. He wouldn’t be able to pretend for too long before breaking down, that for sure.

Marcus could only hope Caesar wouldn’t stretch it for an unnerving time. He couldn’t wait to find out what his friend had really done to him – the rat had been looking forward to that weekend, after all.

“Is it safe for me to go grab a glass of water?” he asked.

“What? Oh. Sure thing. You’re not hypnotized now. Right?”

Mumbling a soft response in disbelief, the rat walked away from the living room and headed to the kitchen. As the clear liquid poured into his glass, Marcus wondered if he could delve into his suppressed memories to find out what his friend had programmed him to do. Whether it was a trigger or an ongoing suggestion, the rat was completely clueless. Would Caesar approve of the fact that he wanted to take a peek? He was growing impatient by now.

Perhaps that was what the naga wanted. Was it a challenge, then? Trying to see for how long Marcus could resist the temptation to revisit his memories and find out what Caesar had done to him?

The rat shook his head and took another sip from the glass of water. Nah. He wouldn’t look into those blurry memories. It would ruin the fun. Plus, if Marcus wanted him to try and resist his suggestion to forget the session, then he’d better state it clearly.

Holding that thought in his mind, the rat yawned and returned to the living room. Caesar was still playing Pokémon, the naga’s head resting on one of his coils.

“Managed to hatch that Azurill yet?” the rat asked.

“Nope. I’m only getting Marills so far.”

“Oh. You need to give one of the parents a… er, Sea Incense,” Marcus explained. How could he remember that stuff and at the same time have no idea about what Caesar had been doing to him minutes ago? Brains certainly worked in mysterious ways. “Otherwise, you’ll always get Marills.”

“Aaaaah. Gotcha.”

Marcus sat on the chair and kept looking at the naga as he played.

Now he was feeling something.

Whatever Caesar had done to him was slowly taking effect, even though the rat had still no idea what it was. There was a slight sensation of his perception shattering, something that was supposed to be one way and instead was another way. An echo of a suggestion. It was the only footprint – or coilprint – Caesar must have left behind, the only thing that hinted at Marcus being still caught in a mind altered space.

Besides that, it didn’t feel like anything weird was going on. He’d been able to go get a glass of water and drink it after all, hadn’t he? However, Marcus was attentive enough to tell he was still under hypnosis of some kind, even if he wasn’t allowed to think about it.

And meanwhile, Caesar kept playing Pokémon. What an idiot, the rat found himself thinking. He wasn’t serious, of course. Marcus loved that scaly goofball.

He yawned again. Just in case, he decided to finish that glass of water. Anything unexpected could happen.

“Where do you find that Sea Powder you mentioned again?”

“Sea Incense.” Marcus rubbed one of his eyes. “I don’t… I think it was… Heck. I have no idea. My memory is not as good.”

“Yeah. I’ve noticed.”

“What do you mean?” the rat asked, an amused grin spreading on his face.

“I just mean you’re too good at forgetting stuff,” Caesar pointed out. He looked up from the GBA’s screen and smiled at the rat. “Which is true and has been proved.”

“I suppose you’re…” Marcus had to stop in the middle of the sentence as another yawn took over him. “Man. I’m feeling tired today.”

“Oh, are you?”

This time, Marcus noticed Caesar’s façade completely falling. The naga was suddenly interested in what he’d just said. Very interested. His deep, jet black eyes were practically sparking, which was a thing the rat supposed they did, in certain other situations, with certain other subjects that were into that kind of thing.

“Would you go as far as to say… you’re getting sleepy?”

“Fuck off.”

Caesar chuckled and turned his attention back to the console.

Marcus tried to understand what was going on. By now he was practically sure it had to do with him getting tired. Or sleepy? What if the naga had conditioned him to get more tired whenever he drank a glass of water, or something like that? Perhaps he’d convinced his subconscious that the water was actually sedative. That doesn’t make any sense, the rat thought. He had no way of knowing I’d go for a glass of water, right? That was true, unless Marcus grabbing a glass of water had also been a suggestion Caesar had put in his brain.

The rat scratched the back of his head, feeling the gears of his brain turn slowly. He was fairly confused, but he didn’t think the naga had done that. Why would he? Just to put him back into a trance? To make fun of him for not liking cheesy phrases such as “you’re getting sleepy”?

And still, Marcus was. Getting sleepy.

He fought a new yawn and lost the battle. It took over him like an army and he the rat felt completely washed away for as long as it lasted. He could feel the familiar tingle on the edges of reality. Then he was back in it again and he felt sort of disoriented.

What…? He felt tempted to verbalize the question, but Caesar was quicker than him.

“How long has it been since I woke you up?” the naga asked.

“Uh…” Marcus wasn’t sure. He hadn’t looked at his wristwatch when he’d opened his eyes. “I don’t know. A few minutes?”

“I think it’s been over ten by now,” Caesar guessed. “Maybe eleven.”

“Why is that important?” Marcus asked.

The naga looked up from the screen again. There it was. He was grinning again, as if he was secretly participating of a joke Marcus had no idea about.

“Do you think it’s important?”

“You seem to act like it is,” Marcus argued.

Caesar held the rat’s gaze. Marcus could feel the naga’s reluctance to talk about it slowly melting away under the stronger flame of his enthusiasm.

“Okay. I’ll tell you what I’ve done.” Caesar’s black eyes gleamed enigmatically again. Marcus could almost see the appeal of an eye-based induction now. “You remember we were talking about time dilation, right?”

Marcus had a hunch, but he nodded and waited for his friend to speak.

“Most people seem to think time dilation works for your whole aware experience,” Caesar explained. “As in, if I tell you one minute is an hour, you’ll feel as if an hour has gone by even though you’ve only been staring at me for a minute, and all of you will believe that. But that’s not the only thing that can be done with time dilation. You can narrow it down – and by that, I mean I could make you think an hour has gone but… only for certain parts of your brain. Or for certain needs your brain might have.”

Marcus held the naga’s gaze. He wasn’t entirely sure he’d been able to follow the explanation, but he got the idea. Just in case he hadn’t arrived there yet, Caesar chuckled softly and added a clearer explanation.

“So what I did is I basically told your brain that, for each minute you’re awake, your subconscious will feel as if you’ve been awake for an hour. The rest of you doesn’t notice that time dilation, you see – your conscious mind acts as if you’ve only been talking to me for a few minutes, which is what you’ve actually been doing. But since your subconscious is telling your brain that you’ve been awake for eleven hours now… it believes it, of course.”

“W-what…” Marcus rubbed one of his eyes. “Is that even possible?”

“You’re always going on about how ‘being asleep’ and ‘being hypnotized’ isn’t the same thing,” the naga continued. He shrugged, a teasing grin on his face. “So I wondered, why don’t I tease him about ‘being awake’? And you’re about to get really tired of it, you see.”

“I…” Marcus stuttered. He was only now beginning to understand what was going on. “Are you implying that you’re not going to let me fall asleep, no matter how many hours my subconscious think have passed by?”

“It should be twelve by now, and yeah.” Caesar smirked. “That’s exactly what I’m implying. In fact, I might have been a bit of a naughty snake… and taken your ability to sleep from you. And by that, I mean actually sleeping. You won’t be able to sleep… unless I ask you to sleep.”

Marcus felt his cheeks getting slightly warmer as he thought about the implications of that sentence. It was a complex concept, but hot nonetheless.

“So you’ve basically made being asleep and being hypnotized equal, just to tease me. Am I getting this right?”

“You are. Finally!” The naga chuckled again. “This must be really affecting you. I think you would have reached this conclusion much sooner if you hadn’t been awake for almost thirteen hours now.”

“I haven’t.” Marcus rubbed his eyes again. They felt slightly dry, although he knew it was his mind playing tricks on him. “I’ve only been awake for thirteen minutes. Four hours, if we count the time I’d been awake before trance.”

“Oooooh. Right, I hadn’t taken that into account. That means you’ve been awake for seventeen hours now. No wonder your thinking isn’t at its best, heh.”

Marcus ignored that last remark. He couldn’t help but feeling slightly uneasy at the thought of having such a basic need as sleeping in the hands of the cunning naga, but there was no one else he would have trusted on something like that.

“So…” Marcus stood up and pulled the chair away from him. If he wanted to not feel consumed by all those sleepy feelings swirling inside him, he’d better start moving in order to fool his brain and make it think he was actually doing something. “For how long do you intend to keep this going?”

“That’s the fun bit.” Caesar’s teasing smirk grew a bit wider. “I can put you to sleep right now. But it’ll be on my terms.”

“What?” Marcus felt his heart beating a bit faster. Perhaps he was slightly agitated because of the lack of sleep, but that sounded like a severe consent breach to him. “What do you mean on your terms?”

Caesar took his time to answer. By then, Marcus was starting to think he was simply gaining time in order to make him feel even sleepier.

“Well. I really want to see an extremely clichéd induction working on you,” the naga admitted. “And I know that it’s not like you’re extremely opposed to that, but rather, it’s just a matter of pride. You dislike the aesthetic of cliché and want an… original approach when being put under.”

“I don’t think it gets more original than this,” Marcus replied. Most of his words mingled with a yawn this time.

“Yeah, that’s why I mentioned pride back there,” Caesar’s body rose from his coils and approached the slightly drowsy rat. “So tell me, Marcus, are you getting sleepy?”

Ugh. No, please, Marcus found himself thinking.

“Maybe I am,” he answered back. “But there’s no way you’ll get me to repeat... uh, well, that.”

“Wait. I hadn’t thought about making you repeat it. That’s an even better idea.”

Marcus fought the urge to facepalm. Stop giving the snake ideas, he told himself.

“Anyway, I think you’ll have to deal with being awake for a long, long while,” Caesar teased him. “Or until I get an Azurill. Whatever comes first.”

“Oh, come on.”

But it didn’t look like Caesar was joking. The naga went back to his Pokémon game and pretended to ignore Marcus, who crossed his arms on his chest and pretended to be annoyed. He was actually impressed that Caesar had managed to build that scenario. The only thing he found slightly infuriating was that the naga wanted him to swallow his pride and accept going under with a clichéd induction.

Well, perhaps if I wasn’t so insistent about it, Caesar wouldn’t have known, the rat thought. I only have myself to blame for this. And it’s just a matter of finding out for how long I can’t remain awake before…

Before what? If he couldn’t sleep and he also wasn’t going to accept being hypnotized by the embodiment of a cartoon hypnotist, what was going to happen to him? Perhaps Caesar will pity me or something when I start collapsing, the rat hoped. I mean, it’s not like he wants to kill me with sleep deprivation.

“You placed safeguards, right?” the rat asked. His voice cracked a bit.

“Uh? Oh, yeah. Don’t worry. You’re safe.” The naga shoot a quick glance at him before going back to his game. “Which doesn’t mean I’m going to take it easy on you. You need to learn just how fun the classics are!”

“Yeah, like hell I am,” the rat answered. He gave the naga a cocky smile. “You want to turn this into a battle of prides? Fine by me. I’ll go sleep in bed.”

“You’re free to try if that’s what you want.”

Marcus scoffed.

He walked to the naga’s bedroom and headed to the king-sized bed. Never before in his life had a bed looked as appealing to him. No wonder I want to lie on it so bad, the rat found himself thinking. If what Caesar told me is true and my subconscious is doing its work, then I’ve been awake for eighteen hours now. Which is a lot more than I’m used to.

The rat allowed himself to collapse on the inviting bed. By then, his body was already aching. Every single muscle wanted to stop functioning after being put to work for such a long time, even if that hadn’t actually happened. It felt like that, which was the important bit. Obviously, Marcus knew that was what hypnosis was all about.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the deep, tranquil darkness. The rat couldn’t be entirely sure, but he highly doubted Caesar had been able to take the ability to sleep away from him. What, hypnosis could cause insomnia now? Well, I suppose it can, he thought. But not intentionally – and not without end, for fuck’s sake.

A long sigh escaped his lungs. His whole body was relaxed on the bed. He could feel the caress of the silky sheets under the thin layer of brown fur covering his body. There was also a very definite pocket of warmth that had remained captive there since the moment they’d left the bed that morning, trapped beneath the blankets. The mattress was just the right amount of firm and spongy. It adapted to the rat’s body perfectly well, making it feel safe and welcome. There were no noises in the house and the lukewarm sunrays that reached Marcus’ body weren’t bright enough to keep him from the wonderful darkness.

Everything was perfect.

So why wasn’t he sleeping?!

I can’t believe he actually managed to make this work, the rat thought. It surprised him to notice how angry he actually was. Was he frustrated because he’d been sleep deprived for a longer time now? Or was his brain simply not in the best state to judge things?

Marcus lacked the insight to know and he decided he wasn’t going to start working on that in the middle of a session. He kicked the fresh, comfortable sheets away from him and sat up on the bed with an annoyed huff.

The rat caught a glimpse of his reflection on a nearby mirror and noticed it looked just as grumpy as he was feeling at the moment. His jaw was clenched and his pierced ear would twitch in anger from time to time. There were also dark rings under his orange eyes, but Marcus knew those had been there all along. Plus, there was no way hypnosis could make those appear in his body. One thing was his subconscious, and a very different thing was the physical processes going on in his body.

He moved to the edge of the bed and stood up.

It was difficult. The whole world seemed to move under his feet for a few seconds until he regained his sense of balance. Just in case, he leaned on the closest wall and tried to clear his mind. How long was it now? He had no idea. His thoughts felt heavy and it was extremely difficult to keep his eyes open. Caesar had been right – he was getting tired of being awake. He wanted to sleep so bad.

Slowly, dragging his feet like a particularly tired zombie, Marcus returned to the living room. Caesar remained in the same position. The naga’s head rested on his top coil while he played Pokémon. He probably hadn’t found that stupid Sea Incense yet.

“Oh. There you are again. It hasn’t been much longer than ten minutes, you know.”

Marcus groaned something in response.

“Did you get some sleep?”

“You know that I didn’t, idiot,” Marcus growled.

Caesar looked up from the console and stared at him. Marcus ignored his seemingly worried look and sat on the same chair again.

“Man, you look terrible. And very, very grumpy. More than usual, I mean. You’ve always been a grumpy fellow.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Do you want to be put to sleep already? I can do that if that’s what you wish. Just say the magic words.”

“There’s no way I’m…” Marcus nodded off in the middle of the sentence, but the programming the naga had put him through kicked off and woke him up almost immediately. The rat let out a disoriented snort. “… fuck! I’m not…”

“You’re not sleepy. Not at all.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.”

“But you aren’t saying you are, either.”

The rat’s patience was nearing its limit.

“Look, as a joke, this has been very funny,” he conceded. It was a false concession, of course – there was nothing funny about the situation, at least now that Marcus was caught in that frustrated, sleep-deprived headspace. “But I think you should probably take me back to normal before I get more unpleasant. You won’t like it.”

“Oh, god. You’re actually threatening me.” Caesar regarded him with a shocked look, his eyes very open.

Marcus leaned back and gave him a sly smile. He couldn’t help but wonder how ridiculous that would look in his current drowsy demeanor.

“It’s not a threat,” he pointed out. “It’s just a warning. I’m a rat, you know. I bite.”

Caesar scoffed and went back to playing his game.

“Is that the best you could come up with?” he asked. “You see, it turns out I’m a snake. I’ll let you guess whether I bite or not.”

Marcus groaned. There was a growing pressure in his brain, like a big hand squeezing it tight. Fuck, I need to sleep and I need it now. He looked at the naga again, trying to come up with ideas. His friend looked so cozy, too, now that he was resting on those smooth, comfortable coils…

… and then Marcus caught himself nodding off again.

“I could make you feel guilty about consent, you know,” the rat heard himself say. “I could always say you have no way of knowing whether I like this or not. I could mention I didn’t agree to this.”

“Technically, you didn’t,” Caesar agreed. “Yes, you could say that. Will you?”

Marcus considered it for a split second, rubbing one of his eyes. The chair felt so uncomfortable. He wanted to go back to the bed, but he knew he wouldn’t get the sleep he craved there.

“I don’t want to make you feel bad. You don’t deserve it. Plus, I don’t… I don’t think I’m mad at you. Or at the situation. I think it’s just the sleep deprivation talking, but I don’t know. I’m very, very…”

“… sleepy?”

“Tiiiired…” Marcus caught himself right before stepping into the naga’s trap. No, he wasn’t going to say it. At least, not yet.

The naga turned off the console and put it aside. Well, that’s an improvement, the rat thought. Of course, that only meant Caesar also thought there must have been an improvement on Marcus’ side, or else, he wouldn’t stop that farce of pretending to play a twenty-year-old game.

“It’s been a bit more than half an hour now,” the naga said. Marcus heard those words, but his tired brain struggled to turn that into hours, somehow. Half an hour… was that fifty hours? Five? As if Caesar could read his mind, he made a quick clarification. “Actually, it’s been forty-one hours.”

“Mmmhm.”

The rat didn’t know if he wanted to talk anymore. A part of him felt as if he was far, far away. He didn’t even register the chair he was sitting on. It was completely different from being hypnotized, of course – unpleasant, uncomfortable. Hypnosis was the release. Sleep was the release. He only had to give up.

“I’m not giving up,” he stated. He had no sooner spoken those words than he nodded off again. This time he opened his eyes a bit abruptly, one of his legs kicking the air automatically, almost as if he’d been freefalling somewhere. “But…”

“But it’s getting harder, isn’t it?” the naga asked, approaching him. “Here, let me help you.”

“What are you going to help me with…” the rat asked, yawning.

“I’m going to help you with giving up, of course. You’ll soon see it’s not such a bad option.”

Damn you, snake… Marcus thought. He closed his eyes momentarily and when he opened them, he noticed the naga was much, much closer to him. The tip of his tail was climbing around his leg.

“No… don’t coil around me…” the rat asked weakly.

“Uh, why not? Will that make it too difficult for you to stay awake, little rat? Is that what you’re saying?”

“I’m not… little. I’ll bite you…”

But Marcus had no strength left to bite or do anything that required a moderate amount of effort. He felt his friend’s smooth scales wrapping around his body, tightening their embrace even if softly at first – then coiling more firmly around him. He let out a soft sigh as his body rested, wrapped in the naga’s body. The cool touch was as pleasant as fresh sheets, and feeling Caesar’s body squeezing all around him only made him feel more comfortable.

“Isn’t that better?”

“Hm… better… but…”

“But nothing. You already answered.”

Marcus let out a soft groan. The tip of Caesar’s tail moved to his chin and forced him to look up into those beautiful, hypnotic eyes. Don’t tell me he’s going to use that as well, he thought, a bit embarrassed. The naga was definitely going to make him regret ever judging his clichéd methods, apparently.

It looked like his scaly friend was getting better at cold-reading him as well.

“Don’t worry, little rat. I’m not going to put you to sleep until you say the magic words,” Caesar reassured him. “But I’m pretty sure that won’t take long. Even your pride has a limit.”

“Not… little…” Marcus complained.

But he was little – or at least, that was the impression he was getting now that Caesar’s slender body was wrapped all around him. The naga chuckled, still looking straight into his eyes. Marcus made a big effort not to simply let his eyelids drop down. They were so incommensurably heavy right now he had no idea why they were still open.

“I don’t think you can hold on for much longer,” Caesar insisted. “Soon, it’ll be forty-eight hours. What if you start hallucinating? What would you hallucinate about, Marcus?”

The rat let out a really low whimper.

“Let me tell you,” the naga offered. “You’d probably hallucinate about being lulled to sleep in the coils of a scaly friend. Staring into eyes that make you feel weird. You’d probably hallucinate about giving up and how good it’d feel.”

Marcus opened his mouth to complain, but he couldn’t.

He was tired. Eyes so heavy. So, so tired…

“Hey, little rat.”

The naga’s voice reached Marcus’ ears as if those words had been spoken a few seconds ago and he was only realizing now. The rat allowed his blurry vision to focus on his friend’s hooded head. Into those deep black eyes, just as devoid of light as his sleep promised to be.

“Yes…?” he asked weakly. His voice was the thinnest thread now. He wanted to sleep. He needed…

“You are getting sleepy.”

Marcus felt the sentence pull a certain string, somewhere deep inside. A string he wasn’t even aware had been there before. He shuddered helplessly, trapped in Caesar’s coils.

Yes. He was getting sleepy.

“I will say it again. Just let it sink in.” The naga’s grin grew a bit wider. His head seemed to be swaying left and right now. Those eyes were glowing, pulsing. How could they glow if they were black? “You are getting veeeery sssssleepy…”

Another shudder. Marcus didn’t know when he’d got so lost into it, but he was now. A softer, helpless whimper escaped his lips as he dove deep into that brain-melting gaze. Under any other circumstances, he would have complained about the hissing. He would have resisted those simple words, easily.

But now he didn’t want to. He wanted to sleep.

“Say it for me now, little rat. Let’ssss hear you…”

Marcus struggled.

“Hmmff… I… I am…”

“Yessss?”

“I am getting… sleepy…”

“Ssssee? That’ssss much better, isssssn’t it?” the naga asked.

There was a teasing edge to his voice, but it was obvious that he was enjoying the situation very much. Marcus also was enjoying it, now – and whatever remained of his crumbling pride was slowly becoming just that – ruins of a character he’d tried to act like, in the past. Right now, the only thing he wanted was to…

“Hey, little rat.”

Needed to…

“Want to feel something really nicccce?”

Marcus couldn’t muster enough strength to nod. His eyes were impossibly heavy. His mind was exhausted. Wanted to sleep. Needed to sleep.

“Then ssssay your sssssentencccce again, come on.”

Marcus didn’t know anymore, but the sentence came easily to his lips.

“I’m getting… sleeeepy…”

“Heh. Good.” Caesar was really close to his face now, the snake’s hood covering everything, those eyes swallowing the rat’s mind with every comforting pulse. Like a black hole. “Watch this, then.”

Marcus never got to know what he was supposed to be watching. The rat’s mind simply stopped working altogether, thoughts disintegrating into mist, fading in the dark. He plunged straight into a dreamless sleep, his limp body dropping like a rag doll in those strong coils. His eyes rolled up briefly before those heavy eyelids shut down like opaque doors.

He was floating in the void. He was also sinking deeper into it. For a moment, it felt as if Marcus had stopped existing. There was nothing.

Only sleep. And sleep.

And sleep.

Then, a short eternity later, Caesar’s voice came to him like a distant dream. It broke through the darkness gently and felt like a hand petting him right between his ears. It didn’t make Marcus’ mind more aware in the slightest. It simply happened at the same time as all that sleep that was going on.

“Wouldn’t it be fun,” the pleasant voice suggested, “if someone had conditioned you to think every second you spend sleeping is actually an hour.”

Marcus didn’t understand. He was snoring now. Drifting. Fading.

Sleeping.

Next time, he’d make sure to let Caesar know what he thought about him tricking him into reciting cheesy mantras, but not now. Right now, rocked back and forth between those coils…

… it was Marcus’ time to rest.