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Penny Reid woke up and found herself tied up to a chair. She looked around and saw some of her old "friends".
They were not really friends, more like associates. In her younger days, Penny had been part of a gang, The Scarlet Shadows. When Penny turned twenty-five, she had quit the gang and gone straight. That was about ten years ago.
Since then, Penny had gone to community college and got a degree in business and worked at a local bank. She had once had a boyfriend, but it fell through, considering everything she was happy.
Which made her staring down her past a bit hard. Standing there was the leader of The Scarlet Shadows, Paul Garrard. He had been the person who had brought Penny into the gang. When she had been just out of high school and not sure what she would do in her life, he appeared and told her about his gang. She gladly joined and was a happy member till she left.
"Hi Paul." She said, her voice sounding sarcastic. "Why am I here?"
Paul put his hands up to his mouth and looked down at Penny, annoyed. "You know why you are here." He explained. "It is about the money from St. Augustine.
Penny lifted her eyebrows and tried to look away, "yeah", she said, looking away. "I'm not telling you."
Right before Penny left The Scarlet Shadows the gang had robbed a bank in St. Augustine, Florida. It was a location that none of them lived near, and with the mask on their faces there was no worry about them being caught if they got away. They did, and they split up, with Penny being in charge of bringing the money back.
Only, she didn't, that was when she decided to leave the gang. She took the money and moved to a state on the other side of the country before going to college. Now that she had been found out, she regretted not changing her name, something she had considered.
Paul sighed, then signaled a person that Penny did not recognize over. This woman was dressed in a blue shirt and blue jeans. She looked at Penny and then back over at Paul. "She is exactly how you said she would be." She said, explaining to Paul. She pondered for a moment, then nodded her head, "I can work with it though."
The woman then pushed Paul aside and stared at Penny. "Hello Penny, my name is Kimberly Simpson, and I joined the gang about two years after you disappeared. I remember that some members thought you had been caught by the cops or died, but Paul here, he knew that you had run. So, we spent the last few years trying to find you." She then started to walk around Penny and continued to talk.
"Paul really liked you. He told me that he brought you in himself, something he seldom did. You running made him question doing that ever again, at least until he met me. He knew he had a real diamond in the rough when he found me in Vegas, and well I have been a great help to him ever since." Kimberly stopped when she got back in front of Penny.
"I just have to try, because maybe it will be easy that easy. Can you please tell me where you hid the money?" Penny then batted her eyes looking down at Penny.
"No", Penny responded shortly, "I don't remember where it is."
Kimberly started to laugh at his. Paul and the others around started to laugh as well, and Penny had no idea why.
"Penny, Penny, Penny", Kimberly repeated, shaking her head, "that doesn't really matter for me." Kimberly then pulled out a coin on a string and put it in front of Penny.
"You see Penny, Paul found me in Las Vegas doing street magic, in particular hypnosis. He seemed to realize what no one else did, that there was no trick to my act. I was really doing it, really hypnotizing my targets. He came to me and offered me room, board, and a group of people to be with, and all I had to do was hypnotize a few people."
It was now Penny's turn to laugh. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life." She then looked over at Paul. "You look for me for ten years and this is the best you could come up with if I said no, a hypnotist?"
Paul stayed quiet, just letting a smile grow on his face.
Penny laughed at Paul and then again at Kimberly, who rolled her eyes and started to move the coin back and forth. "You are getting sleepy, sleepy", Penny said, making a mockery of what Kimberly was trying to do.
Kimberly ignored her. She started to focus her eyes onto Penny's, which were watching the coin, thinking it was not serious. Kimberly then started to speak.
"The coin is swaying, swaying at a consistent rate. With each swing it continues to sway. You watch the coin and its swaying Penny. You follow the coin with your eyes. Each sway, each pass, each swing makes you want to focus more and more on the coin. As it goes, you find that it is making you sleepy to watch it. The coin is making you tired, like you want to go to sleep. You are slowly giving in to this feeling, which each swing, each sway, each pass. Your eyes are nearly closed, they are dropping, they are dropping, with each sway, each swing, each pass. They are now closed." Kimberly finished and Penny's eyes closed.
"Even with your eyes closed you are still listening to my voice and much like it was able to make you tired with each swing, each pass, each sway, you still follow it. Now first, where did you hide the money from the bank you robbed in St. Augustine, Florida?"
Penny sat there, silent for a moment, her face scrunched, like she was thinking. "I forgot."
Paul looked dumbstruck at that, after all this time, he had been so close to getting his money back and he had been blocked, once again by Penny. Kimberly was not as disturbed though. She had learned a trick to deal with this from her hypnosis teacher, another thing she could do.
"That is fine Penny, the you of today, forgot, but what about the you from right after you had left The Scarlet Shadows. Does that person remember where you hid the money?"
Once again, Penny's face scrunched as she thought, and then she answered. "There is a case in Lewis and Clark National Park. I know a park ranger there; he helped me hide it."
Kimberly then motioned to Paul that it was done. Paul, however, was thinking, he pulled Kimberly over and spoke to her quietly. "You can make people think they are in the past?"
"Yeah, it is a simple thing we can do." Kimberly answered back.
"That gives me an idea." Paul explained, then whispered it in Kimberly's ear. Kimberly smiled, and nodded, agreeing with Paul's idea.
"Penny, I want you to think back, back to right before you left The Scarlet Shadows, why did you leave?"
"I was done being a member of a gang, I wanted to go to college, I wanted to earn a real living. When we were all separated after the bank robbery, I had time to think to myself, and I decided that I should run." Penny answered back.
Kimberly sighed and continued. "That is not true Penny. I want you to forget that you ever thought about leaving the gang. The thought of leaving The Scarlet Shadows will never cross your mind. Instead, you went to college to get a job at the bank you are working at now. You contacted us to tell us you were in the bank well enough that you were ready to rob it." Kimberly looked over at Paul who gave her a thumbs up.
"I never left The Scarlet Shadows." Penny answered back.
"If you find any inconsistencies over the last ten years you will discuss them with me, and I will be able to explain them away. You will not ever consider going straight again. Now, when I count to five, you will wake up. 1-2-3-4-5."
Penny woke up and found herself tied to a chair, she started to shake around trying to get free. She looked up and saw Kimberly and screamed at her. "Let me go!"
"Okay, okay", Kimberly said, trying to sound meek. She untied Penny who got up and dusted herself up. She looked over and saw Paul and smiled.
"Paul, it has been so long. I am so glad to see you again. So, like I told you... earlier", Penny seemed confused, not knowing when she had talked to Paul earlier, but shook her head, deciding to ignore it for now. "I am well entrenched in the bank, I could give you our schedules, and it is only a matter of time till we will be able to rob it."