Chapter 64: Lois's Dark Side
Lois had no reason to disbelieve Dean's explanation.
After all, Peter was exactly that kind of person—the kind who'd have zero shame about his bathroom habits.
So when Missy invited Lois to come inside and sit down for some coffee, Lois—worried that Peter might be destroying their home right now—immediately nodded in agreement.
Seeing Lois follow Missy inside, Brian, who'd been cornered by several elderly residents peppering him with increasingly invasive questions, finally saw his chance to escape. He immediately stood up and started following the women toward the house.
However, what Brian didn't expect was that the moment he stood up and took maybe two steps, a wooden cane cracked across the back of his head.
"Hey! What the hell?!" Brian yelped, clutching his skull and whirling around to face the group of senior citizens. "What's your problem?"
But now there was only one Griffin family member left on the lawn, and these people didn't bother pretending anymore. The elderly men surrounding him all raised their canes and began beating him in unison.
However, these geezers were seriously lacking in upper body strength. After dozens of blows, not only had they failed to knock Brian unconscious, but they'd also given him an opportunity to slip out from between one old man's legs.
Brian was stronger and smarter than the average dog, sure—but against fully grown adult men, he was still just a forty-pound Labrador.
As soon as he darted free from the group of elderly attackers, he was seized by several muscular younger men who'd been watching the commotion with cold amusement.
These men all wore identical baseball caps pulled low, and their facial expressions showed almost no variation—the telltale signs of people who'd already undergone the body-snatching procedure.
The elderly residents, seeing these men easily restrain Brian, all spoke with pained expressions. "God, the age gap really shows at moments like this! I've decided—I'm not waiting anymore. Even that ugly girl would be better than staying in this decrepit body!"
Hearing this old-timer's declaration, another elderly man who'd been privy to Dean's plans chuckled darkly. "Then you've come to your senses too late, friend. Dr. Armitage's orders to his son were 'dead or alive'—that girl's probably already at the bottom of the lake by now."
The first old man's face fell when he heard this, and he immediately cursed, "Goddammit! Then I'll have to compete for this dog at the auction instead."
The elderly man who'd shared this information felt like he'd just swallowed a fly, because he was the one who'd originally claimed Brian's body for himself.
Initially, nobody else had wanted the dog, and he'd been smug about finding such a bargain—a healthy, intelligent body that could potentially last another decade.
As it turned out, because he'd run his mouth, this prize that should have been securely his might now slip away, making him so furious he wanted to slap himself for speaking carelessly.
While chaos erupted on the lawn, Lois had already followed Missy into an elegantly furnished study. Looking at the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves packed with psychology texts and psychiatric journals, Lois said admiringly, "Wow! I really envy you having a private space like this. You can just do whatever you want in here—read, think, have some peace and quiet."
Missy smiled slightly, stirring her coffee cup with a silver spoon. She used the gentle tinkling sound as an auditory anchor while extending her psychic influence outward.
"Lois, you must be exhausted all the time," Missy said, her voice taking on a hypnotic quality, each word carefully measured. "A foolish husband. An insecure daughter. A dog that clearly wants more than just to be your pet. Have you ever thought about how boring your life has become? Have you ever considered just... letting go? Relaxing completely?"
Stewie, who'd been lurking silently in the hallway after lowering his presence to near-invisibility, watched the scene unfold with growing surprise.
She's going straight for the nuclear option? he thought with bewilderment. I haven't even made my move yet!
He'd originally planned to spike Missy's coffee with some mood-altering compounds from his diaper bag—something to make her more aggressive and reckless.
But he hadn't expected that before he could act, this amateur psychic would launch such an intense hypnotic assault on Lois. The woman was going so hard that even Stewie was caught off guard by her lack of subtlety.
Lois, directly affected by Missy's psychic suggestion, felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She stumbled backward onto the leather sofa.
She lay there quietly, her mind completely consumed by Missy's words and the memories they stirred up—past troubles, most of which were caused by her idiot husband.
Maxing out credit cards on giant chicken fights. Running red lights and causing city-wide traffic jams. Buying a tank and destroying half the neighborhood. Getting drunk and crashing the car, then trying to frame Meg for it. Starting a war with a local chicken mascot that resulted in $100,000 in property damage. The list went on and on.
In Lois's mental landscape, surrounded by this collection of Peter's catastrophic failures, she had no desire whatsoever to regain her normal consciousness.
It's too exhausting, a voice whispered in her mind. Cleaning up Peter's messes is simply too damn exhausting.
As for Missy's mention of Brian's inappropriate feelings toward her—in comparison to everything Peter had done, it barely registered.
And that "insecure daughter" Missy had mentioned? Meg didn't even appear for a single moment in Lois's mental space, not occupying even an inch of her consciousness.
"Huh," Dean said, walking into the study and looking at the hypnotized Lois with genuine surprise. "I didn't expect this woman to be so fragile. You dropped her with basically one sentence!"
Usually, his wife needed to put in significantly more effort to hypnotize people—employing talk therapy, building rapport, searching for psychological vulnerabilities and exploiting them over time.
Nothing like this woman, who'd collapsed at the first suggestion.
Missy rolled her eyes at her husband, complaining, "If your husband were a brain-dead man-child, and the other members of your family were equally problematic, you'd have given up on life years ago. The fact that she's still barely holding it together just shows what an incredibly strong woman she is. A truly competent mother."
"Hahaha, you're absolutely right, honey," Dean said jovially. "So, in order to help this wonderful woman finally relax permanently, let's get her down to the operating room! Our clients can't wait any longer. That fifteen million dollar payday is calling our names!"
Hearing her husband's command, Missy set down her hypnosis tool—the silver spoon she'd been using as a focus object—and moved to Lois's head.
Looking down at Lois's still-beautiful face, Missy said with barely concealed jealousy, "I can see why her body's worth fifteen million dollars. If I weren't worried that my psychic abilities would fail if I transferred into a different body, I'd want to inhabit this one myself."
Dean looked at Lois's face, then let his gaze travel down her remarkably well-preserved figure. An image of this being his wife flashed through his mind, and he felt his pulse quicken with inappropriate desire.
However, he forced himself to say diplomatically, "You're not inferior to anyone, Missy. You're perfect just the way you are."
Listening to her husband's practiced praise—even knowing he was deliberately flattering her to prevent resentment—Missy still smiled and said softly, "But my youth is fading, Dean. After another ten years, let's change our bodies and start fresh together. Okay? We could be young again."
Before Dean could respond to his wife's proposal, Stewie noticed Lois's eyelids twitch subtly. Then her entire demeanor shifted completely—no longer the gentle suburban housewife, but something far more dangerous.
Seeing this transformation, Stewie chuckled darkly. Chris's desired outcome has arrived right on schedule.
Having witnessed what he came to see, Stewie immediately turned and waddled out of the room, wanting to be far away when things inevitably went sideways.
Meanwhile, Dean, still in the study, also noticed something was profoundly wrong with Lois. He immediately grabbed the veterinary anesthetic he'd prepared earlier, raising the syringe to inject it into her neck.
However, Dean's reflexes were clearly no match for the personality that had just taken control. A slender but remarkably strong arm shot out and grabbed his wrist in a vise-grip.
Then, in his shocked gaze, she spoke—and her voice was completely different: "It's been a long time since I slept that comfortably. Thanks so much for the nap, Missy."
Although the person speaking hadn't physically changed, both Missy and Dean could immediately sense that the woman before them was no longer the Lois they'd been speaking to moments ago.
Besides the drastically altered voice—now cold, clipped, and carrying a dangerous edge—her eyes told them everything they needed to know. This was a predator far beyond their ability to handle.
Missy, sensing mortal danger, immediately released her grip on Lois and lunged for her hypnosis tools on the nearby desk.
Lois—or rather, the dark personality inhabiting Lois's body—didn't even try to stop her. This version of Lois had mental defenses that made psychological manipulation completely ineffective.
Taking advantage of Missy letting go, Lois leaned forward with fluid grace. Her left hand shot out like a striking snake toward Dean's temple.
CRACK!
The stunned Dean dropped like a sack of potatoes, and the anesthetic syringe was smoothly plucked from his hand before he hit the floor.
"Stop!" Missy screamed, having retrieved her silver spoon. She began stirring the air with it frantically, trying to project her psychic influence.
The result was Lois casually kicking the heavy coffee table, which slid across the hardwood floor and slammed directly into Missy's shins, knocking her to the ground.
"Bitch," Lois said coldly, standing over the fallen psychiatrist. "How long did you think you could keep playing these amateur mind tricks?"
Missy looked up in horror, finally understanding that they hadn't captured a vulnerable housewife.
They'd unleashed something far worse.
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