"Don't worry, success is guaranteed," she said. My head spun as she leaned forward smiling. Deep red lipstick. Too-white teeth. Cruel eyes. A shark's smile. Her black gloved hand hit me like a bolt of lightning. Pain seared from my abused thigh into my agitated brain.
Her rapturous giggles complemented my howls of torment.
Cutting off mid-giggle, she leaned forward. Breath hot in my ear she whispered: "Don't fight it."
I felt something solid click shut around my cock.
She moved back, pointing a small remote at me.
"We'll sing this symphony of agony together," she said, pushing a button.
Agony overtook rational thought. The haze of pain forced my mind back to the beginning.
***
Tick. Β΄
Tick.
Tick.
Each tick of the antique mantel clock reminded me of my therapist's extravagant hourly rate. The silent struggle to find words was getting expensive. To cut costs, I resorted to a clichΓ©.
"I'm at my wits end."
Eyes on my dossier, the therapist nodded. He continued his silent reading for about a minute, then looked up at me. Sympathy in his eyes, he sighed, steepled his fingers and furrowed his brow.
The clock kept ticking.
Silently, I lamented the price of his gestures.
"I have good news," he finally said. "We can help. Best of all, our program guarantees success."
I nodded. The 'Succes Guaranteed' line on their brochure sounded too good to be true, but I was desperate enough to suspend my disbelieve.
"But how?"
"Technology," he replied. As if one word explained everything.
Sensing my confusion he continued.
"Integrated Virtual Reality Therapy. IVRT gives you direct access to your core personal values. We use it to help you accept difficult emotions and reframe your personal narrative. It allows you to make positive behavioral changes in record time."
Tipped off by my dubious expression, he quickly changed tack.
"I'll be blunt," he said, leaning forward. "By law I have to say that one hour in an IVRT-Sheath is equivalent to ten hours of therapy. In truth it is much, much more effective. One hour in the Sheath works; even in cases where ten thousand hours of therapy wouldn't make a dent."
I don't know if it was him reading my reactions so well, the sudden honesty or the burning conviction in his eyes. Maybe it was all three. Before I knew it, I had signed the dotted line on every waiver and contract he pushed towards me. There were lots of them. The last one was a payment plan. IVRT was not cheap.
***
His phone rang as I signed the last stack of documents.
He looked askance at me. "Do you mind? They wouldn't disturb me if it wasn't important."
I waved a hand that I didn't as I pushed the last of the papers over to him. Clutching the horn of his classic handset between his shoulder and ear, he gathered the papers and stuck them in a brown folder.
Knocking without waiting for an answer, a nurse in white scrubs, bristling with efficiency, entered. The therapist was deeply engrossed in a conversation that seemed to revolve around him saying Β΄umh', 'yes' and 'no'. She looked at him, then motioned me to follow her. The richly carpeted hallway outside the stuffy office led to a mahogany clad elevator. The push of a stylish copper button sent us to the basement.
***
In no time at all, the bell dinged and the doors slid open.
"Follow me," she said. Her white sneakers squeaked as she left the elevator's dark green carpet and stepped onto the basement's off-green linoleum.
I followed.
The elevator's outer doors slid shut behind me, cloaking the out of place, vintage interior with sleek metal doors. I looked around the brightly lit hallway. The off-green floor was the only color on display. The ceiling, lights, walls and a dozen of unmarked doors where all white.
We took a corner. It revealed another white hallway and even more doors. The contrast with the richly carpeted, vintage offices upstairs was stark. I felt lost, floating on an off-green river in a bright white landscape.
"This way," she said, giving me a bland, corporate smile while holding a door open. The door, seemingly picked at random, revealed a square, white room dominated by a polished metal frame. A shiny, oversized, synthetic sleeping bag hung from it, suspended by clusters of cables. Distracted by the chunky, heavy duty zipper running along its front, I almost missed the plastic chair behind the sleeping bag. For some reason it was bolted to the floor.
"Place your clothes there," the nurse said with a perfunctory tone. She waved an arm in the general direction of the chair.
"I have to get naked?"
Ignoring my question, she pulled the zipper down. The sleeping bag cracked open with a wet squelch.
She turned her attention back to me. I caught a look of disapproval, quickly hidden behind a professional mask.
"Look, there's a lot to do and we are on the clock."
I tried my most charming smile.
"Sorry, but I did not expect..."
Her eyes hardened.