The Life: Sacrifice (The Life 3)

“As you know, we’ve been studying the brain and its functions and overall effects on the rest of the body. Sort of a mind over matter experiment, if you will. As you can see here, the patient is reacting as if restrained, but she hasn’t been. She’s simply reacting to the subliminal messages that we’ve programmed into her room.”

“She’s now focused on everything else around her and her body, except the thick bandages around her head. She has no idea that anything has been done there, of course. We weren’t quite sure what changes would be made to the subject’s personality at this stage, but I’m pleased to report that she hasn’t seemed to have undergone any great change in characteristics, other than what the programming has done.”

On the screen, Victoria raised her fingers to her mouth and pulled on her tongue hard enough to snap it off at the root. Then she started screaming, but there was no sound. One of the scientists entered the room and started wiping something along Victoria’s thigh beneath the sheet that kept her decent.

Because of the subliminal messaging along with whatever they’d done when they opened her up, she couldn’t move her legs, and her arms were hardly any better. I knew some of what they were doing; he’d explained it before, but seeing it in action was a bit out there. She looked like a ragdoll being controlled by strings.

Long story short, they were running an experiment where they could basically turn a human being into a robot by controlling their mind. The bandages around her head were from where they’d actually opened up the top of her head and looked at her brain, among other things that I don’t want to know about.

“Now, we will snap her out of it, and you’re just in time to see the results.” He turned off the video and entered a room where two other doctors were already tending to Victoria. Whatever they injected into her arm seemed to wake her up, and her eyes opened slowly as they adjusted to the light.

“What happened?” She looked confused by the sound of her own voice, and then her hand went back to her mouth where she did that thing with her tongue again; this time, her ‘ouch’ resounded around the room. “How, I thought you took my tongue.” She looked even more afraid now that it was still there.

“Please move your left leg, Ms. Bailey.”

She reacted to the use of her given name, something I’d told them to use as part of her torture. The more she’s reminded that her past life, the one she’d had in Gianna’s home, was over, the more she’d suffer. “I can’t move my leg….” She started to protest before one of the doctors poked her leg with something, and she moved it out of the way in haste.

“I don’t understand; how is this possible? I thought you took my tongue. It wasn’t there before; it was gone; I tasted blood.” The other doctor was scribbling away like a machine, and the room got very excited. “Go on, tell us more of what you experienced.” Victoria looked around at them before lifting her hand to her head, where the thick bandages protected the incision from being exposed.

“What have you people done to me? Why is my head like this?” As soon as she started becoming aggressive, one of the doctors moved over and injected something into her arm. She was out in seconds.

“What do you think? Tomorrow we’ll work on cognitive dissonance since we’ve had such great success with perception. She did very well, don’t you think? A most interesting case study.” I think you’re a crazy fuck Naz but do you. She doesn’t deserve much better.

I didn’t say that out loud; of course, I just told him to keep up the good work and signed off. I removed the artificial mole and other identifying markers I’d worn during the call. Although my face is never shown, I always make sure my neck, hands, and anything else that might be exposed are camouflaged, just in case.

Victoria wasn’t looking so full of herself these days, for which I’m grateful. To some, having her relive the same torture day after day, where she thinks she’s been paralyzed and lost her tongue, might seem a bit hedonistic. So is having those demented fucks playing around in her brain at will. But I think it’s the least I can do to pay her back for the years of hell she and her mother put Gianna through.

They’d taken her voice and did their best to maim her by pushing her down the stairs. Now, Victoria will get to relive that every day for the next six months or so. After that, she’ll be Jimmy’s problem. She won’t get to live the life she’d become accustomed to, but I doubt she’d even remember once Naz turns her brain to mush.