Overheard

...and he had a strange look on his face that Julie couldn't quite place.

"Good morning, Mom," Eric said as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter.

"Morning, Eric. And good morning, Lucas," Julie replied with a smile, setting the dish she was washing down on the counter. "Can I get you boys anything to eat before you head off to school?"

"No, we're good," Eric replied, taking a bite of his apple. Lucas just shook his head.

As they headed towards the front door, Julie couldn't help but notice that Lucas was acting a bit strange. He kept glancing at Eric with a sly smile, and every time Eric would say something, Lucas would nod his head and reply with a quiet "Yes".

Julie shrugged it off as just teenage boy behavior and went about her day, running errands and doing some work from home. But as the day went on, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

Later that evening, as Julie was making dinner in the kitchen, she heard Eric and Lucas talking in the basement laboratory. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but the tone of their voices sounded serious.

Curiosity getting the best of her, Julie quietly crept down the stairs to listen in on their conversation. And what she heard made her blood run cold.

Eric and Lucas were discussing their plan to hypnotize and brainwash Julie.

"We just need to get her under our spell," Eric was saying. "Then we can get her to do anything we want."

Julie couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her own son and his best friend were planning to manipulate and control her mind.

But as angry and scared as she was, Julie knew she had to play it cool. She couldn't let Eric and Lucas know that she had overheard their plan. She had to find a way to protect herself and stop them before it was too late.