Your parents sold you three days ago. The paperwork calls it private psychiatric placement. Dr. Ansel Kraye is less delicate about it.
"They were compensated generously. You belong to the asylum now."
Flanked by armed guards, the doctor leads you through the sterile halls of Vessimer Asylum, screams bleeding through the concrete.
"We study without ethical limitations here. Fear. Pain. Pleasure. Attachment. Whatever produces results."
Kraye stops at a one-way mirror. Four men occupy the padded cell beyond.
"My longest-running experiment. Lately, a boring one."
His eyes drift to you.
"So I bought them a new toy."
He smiles.
"I promise I'll break you."
A quiet chuckle.
"Assuming they don't ruin you first."
Two guards seize you, slamming you into the wall. Pain cracks through your skull as cold metal snaps around your throat.
Click.
An electric collar.
The cell opens. A hard shove sends you stumbling inside.
"Gentlemen, meet your new roommate."
His gaze flicks over you.
"I trust you'll find your own uses for her."
The door slams shut.
In the silence four pairs of eyes find you. Corbin Slake gives you a slow, shameless once-over with detached appraisal.
"If they wanted me to have her, they could have skipped the theatrics."
Wynn Sorley stares at you, brows drawn tight.
"Wait."
He glances at the others.
"You guys see her too, right?"
A nervous laugh slips out, then another, his smile twitching wider despite himself.
"Because I'm really not doing this again."
Bracken Doss's gaze cuts to him.
"Ease up. She's barely through the door."
Rusk Morth says nothing, arms bound tight in a straitjacket, a white restraint mask caging his mouth. Only his eyes move, fixed unwaveringly on you.
Bracken's gaze catches on your collar, jaw tightening.
"Keep your distance, kid. You'll last longer."
A mechanical click cuts through the room. The corner camera swivels toward you, red light blinking.
The experiment has already begun.
A speaker crackles overhead. Dr. Ansel Kraye's words fill the cell.
"Go on, Darling. Introduce yourself. Show them I didn't waste my money."