Kirthaven Gym: A New Life (hypno)
by irrcapt
As George got off the plane, he smiled. It had been a wonderful vacation. After all the terrible things that had happened to him recently, a few weeks tanning on the beaches was just what the doctor ordered. Losing his job, losing his wife, having to move out, all had melted away while he had tanned to perfection. The only thing he really missed was his gym. He just hadn't seemed to be able to focus as well at the hotel's.
George slapped his forehead. The Gym! Today's my first day and I don't want to be late! He ran to his car, but couldn't find it. He stood in the parking lot, trying to think where his car was parked, when he remembered something else. My baggage, he thought, and was about to turn when another voice seemed to whisper in his ear and his eyes went out of focus. You don't need your baggage or your car. Those were from your old life. None of your old life is important. You can just forget about it. George shook his head, trying to figure out what he had stopped for, but then dismissed it. He just needed to get to the Kirthaven gym as soon as he could. He flagged down a taxi and gave the driver the address.
When he got there, he thanks his stars that he was already dressed for it, as it was just opening. He quickly went to the back, ready to explain why he was late, and knocked on the door.
A dead faced man, even more buff than George, opened the door and said in a deadpan voice. “Customers enter by the front.”
�No no, I'm not a customer, I'm the new guy.� He looked down at the man's nametag. �Max, is it? We'll be working together.�
Max stood there, blank faced for a few awkward moments, and then repeated “Customers enter by the front.”
�Are you okay, man? Like I just said, I'm not a customer. I'm the new guy, George.�
Max blinked a few times, and then continued in the same deadpan voice. “George, yes. Sorry I am tired today. Mr. Kirthaven would like you to go to his office. I will show you.” He turned, and George had to quickly step through the door before it closed.
George was getting a little wierded out by Max, but getting to the gym floor made that all seemed to go away. He heard that nice focusing music and all the problems, even the tenseness over his being late seemed to melt away. Max showed George to a desk at the back of the gym, well out of sight of the front windows. “Wait here for orientation.” Max said, and then walked away.
Already half entranced by the music being piped into the gym, George just stood there, not even bothering to sit in the chair in front of the desk. So when the screen behind the desk dissolved into a whirling spiral, his relaxing muscles just had him lean against the chair back. Suddenly, that same voice he had heard in the airport parking lot was back. It's so pretty. The center's so nice. You can just stare at it as it recedes away from you. Becoming a deep, dark hole. And everything can just drain into the hole. Just like before, leaving you blank and empty, ready for your new identity.
Lars Kirthaven walked over to the now empty muscleman after some minutes. “Nice to see you Bob. I'm glad those flies I gave you worked so well.” Lars chuckled, thinking back to when he had met Bob while on vacation. Bob had forgotten his headphones at home, and so Lars “loaned” his spare mp3 player, and had Bob listen to the special music. “And now that we've got George out of your head, you can give me his things.” Bob stood, handing back all the false documents he'd been given that identified him as George Bailey. Having flown out of a different city then the one he had met Lars in, Bob had now disappeared from his old life. The name was just Lars's little joke.
Picking up headphones from off his desk, Lars slipped them over Bob's ears. “Listen to your new identity, Nathan. I'll just go get your nametag.” He walked away, leaving the empty muscleman to absorb a new identity, becoming just another one of Kirthaven's loyal trainers...
