Jenn and J. Lee were back at the hotel. When the two girls returned, Ben was sitting in the living area, flipping through the case files for the hundredth time, while Ray was staring off into space yet again

"Finally," Ben said, putting the files aside as he got up and stretched his body. "What took you so long?"

"We just enjoyed talking to Turner. That's all," Jenn muttered sarcastically, walking around him to get a good look at Ray. He seemed weird.

Ben whirled around to face her. "Pardon?" There was a hint of jealousy in his tone.

"We went to speak to the victim's family," J. Lee said, watching him with mild amusement. "We've found some interesting clues." Then she walked into the office.

When he heard what J. Lee said, he looked at Jenn with a lopsided smile. "So did you really enjoy talking to Turner or were you trying to make me jealous?"

Jenn turned to him with a look of absurdity. "I was just being sarcastic. Don't flatter yourself." She rolled her eyes, turning back to Ray. "Hey, are you okay?"

Seeing this, Ben pressed his lips into a thin line, feeling annoyed. There she was again, fussing over the kid. Though he knew that Ray Darce was just a year younger than he was, he couldn't help but feel that Ray was acting like a kid. What was with all the insecurity and weird act, anyway? Perhaps the kid just loved the attention. Ben clenched his teeth and strode towards the office. When Jenn didn't move, he asked, "You coming?"

Jenn shook her head, never taking her eyes off Ray. "It's okay. Proceed without me. I've gotten what I need to know."

Ben frowned. "What are you going to do with him?"

Jenn turned to give him an impatient look. "What? You afraid that I'm going to kiss him again?"

At the mention of the kiss, Ben felt a huge ball of jealousy flare inside him. He balled his hands into fists but managed to maintain his calm expression. "No need to get all sarcastic. I was just asking," he muttered. There was a distinct edge to his voice.

Jenn bit her lips and groaned inwardly. She had not meant to say that to him. Honestly, she didn't what was she thinking to cause her to say those words. Anyway, Jenn got a hold of herself and exhaled deeply. "Well, I want to find out how Ray managed to go back into a trance under your watch," she stated in a calmer tone.

Ben widened his eyes and turned his gaze to the kid. Ray was in a trance state? But how?

"No need to look so surprised," Jenn muttered, mostly to herself, turning her attention back to Ray. "He must have done this himself, considering the fact you're not capable of inducing a trance on a person and there was no one else here when I was gone."

Ben didn't even notice that there was anything wrong with the kid until Jenn pointed it out. What a great babysitter he was. "Sorry, I didn't realise," he tried to apologise. When Jenn didn't make any response, he sighed and went into the office, shutting the door silently behind him.

Jenn waited until Ben was out of sight and then she heaved a sigh. Only he could make her feel guilty for being sarcastic. When she saw the hard expression on his face after she mentioned the kiss, her conscience kicked in. She didn't even know why she felt bad about it. Compared to what he said to her six months ago, this was nothing.

Jenn blinked and stopped that train of thought right there. Whoa, that was close. Shaking her head, she quickly dismissed those distracting thoughts. She took a deep breath to clear her mind. Then she put her focus on the person in front of her.

"Ray, can you hear me?" She made sure to lower her voice and keep it serene enough to reach into his unconscious mind. She kept her eyes on his, observing his fixated stare waver the slightest bit when she spoke to him. Then she gently held onto his wrist, feeling for his pulse.

"Ray, I want you to focus on my voice." She started inserting more force into her voice. "Okay, take a slow, deep breath ... As you breathe in, you might feel a tingling or prickling sensation in your hands."

His hands twitched in her grip. Good, she was inside his head now.

"Don't worry. It's normal for you to feel that. Just focus on my voice and follow it," she said soothingly. "Now, you can see that it's getting darker and darker around you. The light is slowly fading away as you inhale ... exhale ... and your eyes are closing slowly ..."

Ray's blank eyes started to close, his eyelids shutting slowly.

"Breathe ... Relax into it, Ray. Feel your eyes close as everything gets darker around you, darker and darker, darker and darker."

Now his eyes were completely closed.

"Good. Do you still hear my voice?" She waited for his reaction. A moment later, he nodded slowly. Still smiling, she released her grip on his wrist before going on. "Okay, Ray. As I count from ten to one, remember that you feel yourself opening your eyes as you wake up."

She started counting. "Ten ... Nine ... Feel yourself opening your eyes ... Eight ... Seven ... You're breathing slowly as you wake up ... Six ... Five ... Four ... You're waking up now – and you're doing this all on your own ..."

Ray opened his eyes slowly as she spoke.

"Three ... Two ... You're awake now ... One." She gave his shoulder a light pat.

Ray blinked at Jenn as he came out of his trance. His forehead creased in confusion. "Jenn, why are you kneeling in front of me?" He tried to recall what he was doing just now. An awkward smile crossed his face. "Did I fall asleep just now?"

Jenn backed away, putting some distance between them. She continued to observe him closely. He seemed normal enough now. "What do you remember?"

He scratched the back of his head. "I was dreaming, I guess. I don't really remember much about it, but I do recall a voice speaking to me." He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remember the voice he had heard. "This is going to sound weird." He chuckled nervously. "It sounded gentle, soft, like an angel, asking me to follow her." He slowly opened his eyes again and sighed. "I'm talking nonsense."

Seeing the look of embarrassment on his face, she had to struggle to keep her face straight. "No, you're not," she said, causing his eyes to snap back to her. "The so-called angelic voice you heard was my voice." She burst out with peals of laughter.

He snorted. "You're kidding, right?" he said in disbelief. "I mean, how would you know what I heard in my dream?"

"Ray, you weren't dreaming. You were in a trance," she explained, wearing an amused smile.

"Huh?" He stared her with wide eyes, incredulous. "But how ...?"

"Have you ever heard of self-induced trance?" she asked, cocking her head to one side. "Well, that's what you were doing to yourself just now."

"So you're saying that I hypnotised myself? Is that even possible?" He raised an eyebrow, looking dubious.

"Well, you did just put yourself in trance. Quite successfully, I might add." Then her face became serious. "But seriously, what were you thinking, Ray? Did you try to recall the hypnotist's voice again?"

Ray gave her a sheepish look. "I was just trying to see if I could match his voice with the voices of the people I know. I guess I went too far with it."

"Obviously." She stated flatly. "Ray, the killer suppressed your memories of him. It's normal for you to not remember him. That's the whole point of his suppressing your memory. This killer that we're dealing with is good with hypnosis – I give him that much. So don't you dare push yourself into doing what you did just now, okay?"

He nodded in resignation. "I was just trying to help as much as I can with the case."

Jenn sighed. "I know. It's hard to be told to sit still and do nothing when you could be doing something to help," she said comfortingly. "But if helping means you risking your mind, then I'd rather not let you do it. You'll need guidance if you want to get it right."

He grinned goofily, his mood visibly shifting all of a sudden. "Because I mean so much to you, right? You can't risk losing me," he said teasingly.

"Yeah, sure." She laughed dryly at his joke. He was testing her. "What would I do if I lost you? Your parents would surely kill me for not protecting their son from the killer's oh-so-hypnotic voice."

"You have a twisted sense of humour." He laughed, letting it slide. "Hypnotic voice? More like creepy voice." He pretended to shiver with fear.

"It's just a voice." She gave him a pointed look, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "Why are we arguing about a voice anyway?" she said, dismissing the topic. Then she got up. "So now that we've lifted your self-induced trance, let's see what we can do about recovering your memory of the killer."

He smiled crookedly, looking thrilled that she would let him help in some way. "Give it your best shot." He took a deep breath and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"Just sit still and focus on your breathing," she said, her voice turning gentle again. "In and out. In ... and out. In ... Out ..." she lulled, tapping her fingers lightly on the couch in a steady slow rhythm. "Let yourself drift away as you relax into it."

Ray felt his muscles relaxing as his eyes turned blank once again. He inhaled and exhaled deeply according to the rhythm.

Tap ... tap ... tap ...tap ...

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Jenn said, watching his fixated stare. "Feel the air going in and out of your body. Now you feel your eyes closing as you breathe ... in ... and out." His eyes slowly closed. She brought her hand up to his shoulder as she continued tapping on the couch with the other one. She gave his shoulder a light pat, putting him under.

"Now, I want to bring you back to three years ago, the day of the first murder." She pressed two of her fingers against his wrist, feeling his steady pulse. Her left hand continued with the tapping.

Tap ... tap ... tap ... tap ...

"Tell me what you see, Ray," she commanded in a low voice, soothing yet assertive. "Do you see the girl at the party?" she asked suggestively, guiding his subconscious mind back to the first victim.

His eyes moved under his eyelids, but then they stilled again. "Yes, I see her," he murmured in a droning voice.

"Okay, you're doing very well, Ray. Now tell me what happens next," she prompted gently.

"I'm walking up to her." His eyes were now moving under his lids again, as if he were watching a movie. "She sees me and smiles. I smile back at her and ask for her name."

"Can you tell me her name?" Jenn asked, although she knew what the girl's name was. She was just making sure that Ray was not straying away from her.

"Anna," he mumbled. "Anna Shaw."

"Good, you're doing a great job." She decided to fast-forward the event. "You're having a great time with Anna, and the party is almost ending, but you have something you need to do, right?"

"I ... I need to get her out of there," he said, his voice turning urgent.

"Steady now." She removed her hand from his wrist. She placed it on his shoulder and squeezed it in a calming manner. "Breathe in deeply and let it out slowly. In and out."

His tensed muscles relaxed as his chest heaved in and out evenly.

"Good. Now you're bringing Anna out of the party." She led him back to the memory. "Where are you bringing her?"

"My car," he replied slowly. "She's asking where we are going."

"And what did you tell her?" she prodded.

"Somewhere where we could be alone," he quoted from his memory. "And as she strapped on her seat belt, I took out a white cloth." His brows twitched at the scene in his head. His nose crinkled. "Chloroform," he said, recognising the smell from his memory. "I used the cloth to cover her nose and mouth."

"And she struggled," Jenn continued for him. "But it didn't last long."

"No, it didn't." He shook his head.

"After a while, Anna was unconscious. And you were sitting there calm as could be," she added smoothly.

"Yes." He nodded at her suggestion, accepting it without a trace of doubt. "Then I started driving."

"Where were you headed?" she asked, still tapping with her free hand while her right hand continued to knead the muscles on his shoulder tenderly, easing him to go on.

"I was driving through a forest," he mumbled as his forehead creased with concentration.

"And the road went on and on," she said, fast-forwarding the memory again. "Until you saw a warehouse."

"Yes, and I stopped the car," he went on. "There was a person in front of the warehouse." His breathed hitched.

There it was. She moved her hand away from his shoulder and cupped his neck. "Can you describe the person? How does he look?"

"I ... I can't. I can't see his face." His heartbeat thudded against her palm, increasing as his brows twitched again.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. Just breathe. In and out." She felt his pulse slowing down. "Just take it easy, okay? Let's go back to when you stopped your car. Are you getting out of the car?"

"No," Ray said. "I just sat there watching the person."

"What was the person doing?" she asked, checking his pulse.

"He was ..." He stopped suddenly, his voice strained. Then he tried again. "He came closer and ..."

"Deep breaths, Ray," she reminded him gently. "In and out ... In ... Out ..."

Ray drew in a shaky breath. "I can't see anything," he gasped. "It hurts." He groaned, bringing his hands to his head. Beneath his eyelids, his eyes were moving rapidly.

She could see that this was as far as he could go. "Just breathe in deeply, Ray."

"Stop it." Ray shook his head, pushing her away from him. "Just stop it." His eyes snapped open as he got up from the couch, his eyes swinging around wildly. "I can't see anything," he exclaimed in desperation.