Club Bespoke Pt. 03

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Hayden slowly opened his bleary eyes. What the hell had just happened to him? His vision remained blurred but was gradually getting better as he tried to piece together where he was. The last thing he remembered was being in a taxi with the strange masked man. The masked man had done something to him, put something in his neck, a... a syringe of some sort. He'd been drugged. He'd been drugged and now god knows where he'd been taken!

He needed to remain calm, take in his surroundings, all of that stuff he'd seen in movies or read in books. Reality was very different however, and he had to focus all of his will into trying to control his breathing, feeling a numb tingle all over his skin and a tightening around his head as his body careened towards a panic attack.

His eyes darted around the space he was in trying to find anything he could to tell him where he was. The room was small and sparse, nothing but a faded green door that looked like it belonged on a submarine or something like that and a single yellow light in the ceiling. Looking at his body, his clothes had been taken away and replaced with what he could only describe as a white boiler suit. He was sat upright on a chair of some kind and was pleasantly surprised to find he wasn't bound to it in any way. Instinctively, he stood, meaning to make for the door and try it, but struggled to keep his balance and immediately slumped back down. Whatever they had given him clearly hadn't worn off yet. He had no time to curse this however as he heard the lock on the door start to open.

Hayden considered trying to move again but his head was still swimming from when he'd tried to stand before. He had little choice but to watch as the door opened and the masked figure from the car stepped into the room. He appeared to be holding another syringe, a sight that strengthened Hayden's growing panic.

"Get away from me!" Hayden cried.

The figure stood silently staring at him.

"W-who are you? What is this place?" Hayden shouted at the seeming void of a person.

"Contained in this syringe is a combination of medicines that will counteract the effects you are feeling at the moment. Allow me to apply this to you and we will begin to explain."

Hayden doubted he could have resisted if the figure had decided to just do it anyway, so left with no choice he simply nodded. The figure moved towards him and placed the syringe directly into his neck, the same sharp pinch from the car making Hayden flinch. For a few moments he felt no different, but then the fog in his mind and blurriness of his vision started to clear. He felt as if he were able to stand again and that his balance had returned.

"Follow me," the figure told him, turning to leave the room.

Acting purely on instinct, Hayden did as he was told and left the room behind the masked figure. He stepped out into a long, thin corridor that was as dimly lit as the room had been. He tried to make sense of what he was seeing as he kept up with the figure. On his left and right were multiple doors, all looking like the one from the room he had woken up in. The place had an odd atmosphere to it, like it was stuck in a moment of time. If he had to place it, Hayden would have said it reminded him of the old Cold War bunkers he'd seen in documentaries and in movies.

As they continued to walk, they made turns to the left and to the right, seemingly at random as far as Hayden could tell. This place was like a labyrinth. Even if he had gotten free before, he'd likely have gotten lost down here and eventually found by whoever was running this place, whatever it was. They turned a corner and finally were met with a set of stairs. If only for the promise of some sort of different architecture, Hayden was oddly relieved to see them.

The top of the stairs opened into a comparatively cavernous room, the ceiling at least twice or maybe three times as high as the corridors he'd just come from and the space wide open and without cluttered walls and corridors. What did fill the room were a series of desks, each one adorned with multiple computer monitors and masked figures just like the one leading him sat behind each one. The walls were covered with storage units, scraps of paper and even post-it notes. There were tables laid out with what looked like random computer components and pieces of mobile phones like the one he'd received. It was like looking at a surreal reflection of the office he worked in.

The figure leading him had not stopped and was heading for a door at the far end of the room. Hayden quickly sped himself up and caught up with them as they reached the door.

"Go in," the figure told him.

Hayden nodded and tentatively tried the handle to the door. It was different to the ones downstairs, much more like a traditional door, and his hand shook as he turned the handle and opened it. Inside the room he saw another desk and another figure dressed in black with the same mask as the others sat behind it. There was an empty chair opposite the desk. It felt like he was about to take part in a bizarre job interview.

"Welcome Hayden," the figure said. "Please take a seat."

Their voice was distorted like the man from before but was also clearly different. There was a different pitch and intonation in their words. Hayden sat in the chair as instructed and waited for whatever was going to happen next.

"I trust the ill-effects of the drug we gave you have now worn off?" the figure asked.

Hayden nodded.

"Good. I apologise for the crude way you were brought here but as you can tell from what you have seen, secrecy and discretion are of utmost importance to us and what we do. We have to take every precaution possible."

"A-and what is it you do? W-who are you people?" Hayden asked.

"All in good time Hayden," the figure replied.

Hayden flinched as they reached into their desk for something. They produced a file which they gently slid across the table towards Hayden.

"Please take a look at this," they said.

Hayden picked up the file and opened it. Inside it were photographs of him at Club Bespoke. There was one of him in the lobby, in the elevator, the corridor and sat beside Lucy in the room. Seeing her again made Hayden's brain feel fuzzy.

"H-how did you get these? I thought there weren't any cameras..."

"Is that you in the photos Hayden?" the figure asked, ignoring his question.

"Yes, that's me," he replied, eyes still fixed on Lucy.

"Good. Please hand those back to me."

Hayden felt reluctant to part with the pictures, wanting just a little more time to look at Lucy but, obedient as ever, he handed them back. The figure took them and returned them to the drawer before removing a device that looked like an electronic tablet of some kind. They fiddled with the screen for a moment and when they turned it back around there was what looked to be a video of the room playing. He recognised himself of course but was mortified to see he was completely naked with Lucy sat beside him in the fitness gear he'd asked her to wear.

"Can you explain to me the conversation you were having here?" the figure asked.

"P-please can you just explain where I am?" Hayden said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"You're in a secure facility with people who want to help. That's all you need to know for now. But we can't help if you don't answer my questions."

Hayden didn't know why, but he believed this person was telling the truth. Despite the secrecy, the masks, the less than pleasant way he'd been brought there, he felt they were being genuine. At the very least he felt like he owed it to Lucy to give this a shot, even if there was only a slim chance they meant it.

"S-so here I was asking Lucy about her abilities..." he began.

"So her name is Lucy, yes?" the figure asked, cutting him off.

"Yes, yeah."

"And what did you discuss regarding her abilities?"

"I wanted to know what she could do, what the limits of her abilities were. She told me she had an upper a lower limit, no smaller than a child, no bigger than a horse I think she said."

"I see. Go on."

"I-I then asked her if she could mimic me, y'know just out of curiosity, I didn't want her to stay that way so I could do stuff to myself..." Hayden trailed off suddenly feeling very self conscious.

"And she did it?"

"Yes, I mean you can see in the video," Hayden replied.

"Was she able to match your voice too?"

"Yes, scarily well actually."

"Interesting. As you can tell the videos don't have sound, hence why we need you to fill in the details for us. Please continue."

"Ok, so from there I asked her whether she had any experiences she'd particularly enjoyed before..."

"Why?"

"So we could do them again and so that she'd enjoy it too..."

This was feeling more and more like an interrogation to Hayden. Not being able to read the emotion of the masked figure before him was starting to make him even more uncomfortable.

"What did she say?" they continued.

"Well she gave me a stock answer about it being her time with me. So I pushed a little more..."

The figure sat forward slightly. It was the first emotional response Hayden had seen since he woke up. Now they were interested.

"She told me the Club's privacy policy wouldn't let her tell me about anything else she'd done with anyone else. So I simply asked her whether there was anything she enjoyed. Her answer was strange. She said she enjoyed completing her duties whatever was asked of her."

"And that stood out to you?"

"Yeah, I mean she could have just said the first part, why did she add 'whatever is asked of me'? Anyway I then asked her if she felt anything like physical sensations and such because she hadn't reacted when I'd... er..."

"Just carry on," the figure insisted.

"I wanted her to be able to feel good too, to be able to feel what we were doing together. I know it's stupid but it's better for me that way. She found a way to do it. She said something about her having a code that could be altered so she could feel everything like a human would."

This seemed to have really piqued the figure's interest. They were leaning fully forward now, clearly listening intently to what Hayden was saying.

"Did it work?"

"Yes it... it worked. She was able to feel everything. It was amazing."

"And was this just physical sensations?"

"No it wasn't. It was emotional too. She felt everything, joy, happiness, excitement. She started to ask for things, made her own decisions about what she wanted from me, how I could please her. It was incredible. But then there was after. After, she felt sadness and despair. She even cried. It was horrible. I didn't want her to feel those things, that wasn't my intention at all."

Hayden felt a cloud of shame and hurt hanging over him at the memory and at how long it was taking him to get her away from all that.

"Did she say anything else?" the figure insisted.

"She told me she felt sad that she wouldn't see me again and that she'd never feel like that again. I tried to cheer her up, I was such an idiot. I told her that things would be great now because she'd be able to feel everything and enjoy it. She..."

Hayden started to feel a lump in his throat. It was the first time he'd talked about any of this out loud and it was hitting him far harder than he thought it would.

"She said I had no idea the things she might be made to feel or experience. I-I asked her to leave with me but she said that they'd know and that they'd catch her and make her disappear or something. I pleaded with her but she was just so... hopeless. Not like in a 'oh you're terrible at this' sort of way but literally without hope, you know? And then she..."

Hayden could feel actual tears start to roll down his cheeks now. It was such a painful memory and to be reminded of it when he had little to no hope left of fixing the situation beyond what this emotionless stranger could do for him was particularly soul destroying.

"She asked me to command her to switch her emotions back off, to reverse what she'd done. She said she didn't want to feel any of what was to come. I-I had no choice. I did what she asked. And then I just left her there."

Hayden started to sob slightly. It felt like ever since he left the club that night, he'd been suppressing these emotions, so laser focused on trying to find a solution that he had locked it all away. Now he had no choice but to face them.

"Did we get all that?" the figure seemed to say to someone other than Hayden. "Good. I'm about to proceed now."

"W-what's going on?" Hayden asked, wiping his eyes.

"The information you have given us today is invaluable to our cause. We have suspected for some time that the Representatives are more than just unfeeling automatons and you've confirmed that. That information alone will do immeasurable good towards correcting the injustices thrust upon them. I'm going to offer you a choice now Hayden. You can choose to leave now if you so wish. We will drug you as we did before and you will awaken in your home with the counterbalance syringe and our thanks and needn't think about any of this again. Or if you feel there is more you wish to give, you can join us and maybe see about correcting some of these injustices yourself."

Hayden's mind was a blur. He was still no clearer as to what they were or what they did and yet he felt the urge to say yes.

"W-what happens if I join?"

"You will leave your old life behind. You will be cut off from friends, family, anyone who already knows you. You will be dedicated to the cause and the cause alone."

"And what is the cause exactly?"

"To offer freedom to all sentient beings."

Hayden thought for a moment. Leaving his life behind should have been a difficult decision, but the more he thought about it and the more he thought about Lucy, the more it wasn't.

"Will we be able to free Lucy?" he asked.

"With your help it is possible. I cannot say more than that yet. So, will you leave or join us?"

Hayden took a deep breath.

"I'll join you."

"Excellent."

The figure stood and removed their mask.

"Welcome to The Conductors," she said.