Opening Act Ch. 01

"Stoppp laughing at me!"

"Sorry, sorry! You're just being a little ridiculous."

"Am..." she trailed off, meaning to finish with the word 'not' but she noticed someone across the street looking at them.

"Hey! What are you looking at? Never seen a drunk girl before?"

The man turned away, ignoring her. She threw an arm out, pointing at him.

"Hey I'm talkin' to you!"

Vic pulled her arm down.

"Chill out okay, it's fine."

"Everyone juss wans to look at me and get away with it." She looked up into Vic's eyes.

"S-sorry," she stammered out.

"For what?"

She had meant for mentioning people looking at her after what Jazz said earlier, but her drunken brain changed course.

"For... turning you down. I juss--"

"Oh please, Ana," he said with a casual tone. "That water is so far the bridge, it made it to the ocean already."

"You're like... a brother to me. I love you sssooo much."

"Love you too, girl."

They arrived to her apartment after a long silence. Ana insisted that she could make it upstairs on her own while Vic assured her that she was dead wrong. After what was almost certainly an incoherent back and forth between them, Ana finally relented and let him bring her up to her apartment.

Her apartment was small. Haphazard would have been how Vic described it, but she considered it an organized mess. He guided her into the bedroom where she fell face-down onto her mattress.

"Text me when you wake up so I know you're alive, please."

"Mmhmm," she muttered with her eyes closed. Vic turned out the light and shut the bedroom door behind him.

Ana, barely conscious, waited until she heard the apartment door open and slam shut. She reached her hand out towards her nightstand, trying and failing to find the handle for the bottom shelf.

After deciding the effort was useless, Ana pulled her knees in slightly, lifting her hips up off of the bed. It had been a long time since she'd masturbated without her vibrator or a dildo, but it would have to do. She struggled hiking up her skirt, rocking back and forth on both knees with shaky balance to allow the fabric to slide up under her torso. She brought her right hand to the outside of her panties.

It was true that she didn't really see Vic in any kind of sexual way. He was a perfectly good looking guy and probably a kind lover but growing up with him just did something to the way her brain processed him.

She rubbed herself through the soft fabric of her panties as her face laid heavy against the pillow.

Still though, she couldn't ignore the the warm feeling she felt from the casual touch of a comfortable man. The fact of the matter was that Vic was plenty attractive and he made her feel safe.

She could hardly feel a thing through her panties. Her hand moved up to her warm skin before slipping underneath her waistband, feeling the soft hair above her pussy. She took in a short breath as she moved further, hand sliding along her slick lips.

The shameful truth was that, even though she felt the way she felt about Vic, she still couldn't deny a desire to lay naked with him in that moment. The comfort and warmth of a familiar body sounded irresistible to her drunken mind, though she knew she would despise the idea in the morning.

Ana's finger found her clit. She teased it, intent on eliciting a pleasurable reaction from her body. She found this as useless as trying to open her nightstand. The alcohol made her nerve response weak, leaving her as unsatisfied as Vic did. In one final attempt to please herself, Ana slipped a finger inside and began to pump.

Ana really, truly did not have a significant desire to have sex with Vic. To this point in her life, nothing had entered her that wasn't silicone or a finger. Sure, she'd given a few handjobs and even a blowjob to a real live person, but nothing beyond that. She wanted her first time to be special with someone she truly loved.

However.

In spite of all of that, Ana fantasized as she fingered herself face-down on bed. She banked on not remembering it tomorrow morning, hoping her shame would wash away with the rest of the evening.

As she pressed her finger deep inside herself, feeling it's somewhat unsatisfying filling of her vagina, Ana imagined Vic climbing on top of her. She imagined him hiking up her skirt as she had done to herself. She imagined his dick resting between her cheeks before he pulled her panties to the side. She imagined him lubricating himself with his own spit before spreading her cheeks apart and slowly, painstakingly slipping inside her, taking advantage of her drunken mind and body.

Vic would never, ever do this. Ana would never really want this to happen. But right now, the thought set her mind ablaze and her pussy dripping. She tried her best to give herself the pleasure that her brain wanted, but her numb body struggled to receive it.

Ultimately, Ana fell asleep. She had the wherewithal to take her finger out of herself and fell into a peaceful but unsatisfying slumber.

Wednesday Morning

In the end, drunken Ana got her wish. She woke up startled, her alarm blaring after what must have been several snoozes. Her phone read 7:27 a.m.

"Fuck..."

Her head pounded. She got up slowly, resigning herself already to being late seeing as she should have already left to make it to work on time. Ana grabbed her phone and sent off an apologetic email to her boss before heading to the bathroom to shower.

She enjoyed the relief of the hot water against her throbbing head. It was likely the only relief she'd be feeling all day.

"Got my badge this time. See?"

The security guard stared blankly at her for just long enough to make her uncomfortable.

"Hold your hands up like this over your head."

Ana rolled her eyes and held her hands up in the metal detector. The nice thing about coming in late? No lines.

She walked quickly to the elevator and made the trip up, avoiding eye contact with Tom Acron as the floors zipped by. One 'ding' later and she was dashing past the front desk.

"Hey Bailey! No Gina, huh?"

"Nope. They let me in charge for once!"

She gave him a thumbs up, skipping backwards.

"Hell yeah! I'll stop by and hang out later. See ya!"

She ran to her desk, taking care at the corner to avoid another collision. She made it to her desk, sat down, and signed in.

8:30 on the dot.

Ana: sup yall

Jazz: there she is!

Jazz: how you feelin?

Ana: like shit tbh

It was true. Her headache hadn't gotten any better.

Vic: glad to know youre alive

Vic: what happened to texting me this morning?

Ana: what?

Ana: did you ask me to?

Vic: sure did

Ana: sorry... fully blacked out last night

Jazz: lol no shit

Ana wondered what embarrassing shit she did last night, but she had enough to worry about today. She changed the subject instead of inquiring.

Ana: anyway

Ana: assuming i don't get fired today

Ana: it's $2000 day baby

Jazz: rub it in some more

Vic: what time again?

Ana chatted away with her friends for a bit, passing the time with some banter. It eased her nerves. At least until about fifteen minutes later, when she heard Mark's voice behind her.

"Ana."

She clicked away from that chat window with the speed and precision of a teenage boy caught watching porn.

"Hey Mark."

She turned and looked at him. His expression was impossible to read, so she started her speech.

"I am so so so sorry that I was late. I promise this will neve--"

"You're fine. Don't worry about that."

"Are you sure?" She should have just been counting her blessings but she was so floored by his casual response that she couldn't help but pry.

"Yesterday you said--"

"Yes, I know what I said. We will let just this one pass, okay? I understand things happen sometimes."

Ana couldn't believe her ears.

"I just came over here to tell you that you are good to sign out at 10:45 to head down to Audio for the study. I don't know how long it will take, but just let me know when you are back."

"Okay, I will. Thanks Mark."

"Mmhm."

He started to walk away. Ana apologized again, but he didn't respond.

As the time ticked by, she found herself anticipating 11 o'clock. She knew it wouldn't be anything exciting, probably listening to different beeps and deciding which ones were most pleasant, but the change in routine was enough. She ended up watching the seconds go by on her computer when the time hit 10:44.

56...

57...

58...

59...

00. Ana signed out, grabbed her backpack, and stood up. She made sure she had all her things before walking away from her desk, back towards the elevator.

"Bailey, do you know where Audio Therapy is?"

He grabbed a clipboard that hung on the wall and his eyes traced down its length.

"Looks like... B3. Should be down there. I don't know what else is down there but there should be signs on the floor."

"You're the best, thank youuu!"

She walked into the elevator and turned to press the button labeled 'B3'. As she did, she caught Bailey's eyes looking back up to her face.

She decided not to let it bother her. Jazz was right, girls were used to catching guys gawking at their asses. Bailey was still a good kid, even if he was stealing glances at her butt. It wasn't his fault he was an 18-year-old boy.

The elevator plunged below the ground to the 3rd basement floor. In all her time at ProdinaMed, she had only even been on 3 floors of the building. The ground floor, the floor she had her interview on, and the one she worked on. It felt strange, somehow wrong, to be going to another. As if she were intruding on some place where she shouldn't have been.

When the doors opened, Ana was taken aback by just how bland the floor looked. Everywhere else she had been in the building seemed like it was designed in an attempt to mask the banality of the work being done. Audio Therapy seemed to be the exception.

The walls were all painted an unremarkable off-white. The floors were carpeted with a white-speckled dark grey that completed the professionally uninteresting decor. The walls were bare and even the chairs that dotted what she now realized was a waiting room were just as bland as everything else. The most interesting thing in the room was the desk, which had a young woman behind it.

Ana walked up to the desk, taking note of the fact that there wasn't a single other soul in the room.

"Hi," she said formally. The woman looked up. She had the pretty face of a young receptionist at a private company.

"Hi! How can I help you?" Her voice had the cadence and tone of a female suit. She wondered how early this one was indoctrinated.

"I'm Annalise. I'm here for the--"

"Yep, just go ahead through the door over there. Room 147, they're getting set up for you now."

Ana turned to look at the door. She was surprised to see it there, having not noticed it during her initial survey of the room. It was barely a different color from the walls.

"Okay, great... thanks." She stared at the woman for a moment.

"Do I need directions or..."

"First of all, just go ahead and walk through that door. Then keep going until you reach room 147. It will be on your left."

The woman gave her an exaggerated smile, clearly mocking her. Ana entertained the thought of smacking her across the face, mostly just to soothe her own ego before turning and walking towards the door.

As she grabbed the handle, she heard one last thing from the girl.

"Have fun!"

The hallway through the door was equally as boring as the room before it. The walls and carpet were the same color. The doors were all the same as well, though they had room numbers on placards next to them. The numbers started at 101 and went on from there, alternating sides as the hallway stretched out ahead of her.

As she drifted slowly down the hallway, watching the numbers increase, the thing that struck her was just how quiet it was. It made sense, she supposed, for them to eliminate as many factors as possible on a floor where hearing studies take place, but the lack of sound made her feet on the carpet sound closer to her ears than they really were.

What really set her on edge was the complete lack of anyone else in the hallway. She saw that it turned at the end, but it was so quiet that she was sure she would've been able to hear someone from a mile away.

She walked down to the end of the hall and turned the corner. The room on her left was 143. 147 was two doors down. The way the hallway continued out beyond her was unsettling for a reason she couldn't fully understand. It did exactly what the first one did, went on for just a bit longer than it seemed like it should have and made another left turn.

Ana did her best to ignore her discomfort and walked through the door into room 147. The room inside looked similar to a room in a doctor's office, complete with an examination table. Ana was almost shocked to see someone sitting at the computer desk along the wall.

"Hello! Come in! Have a seat!"

It was another younger woman in a lab coat with dark hair, maybe a year or two older than Ana. She sat down on the exam table after dropping her bag on the empty chair next to it.

"Have you ever done one of these before?"

"No... honestly I didnt even know this was a thing until yesterday."

The woman chuckled softly, setting Ana at ease, if only slightly.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, you don't have to worry. This is very, very easy. All that's going to be happening today is that I will be giving you a questionnaire to fill out and then you'll be going into another room and listening to some music for a bit."

"Easy as that, huh?"

"Easy as that." The woman smiled warmly. "Before we begin, do you have any light sensitivity issues? Or a history of epilepsy?"

"I do not." It struck Ana to ask why, but her anxiety got the better of her.

"Ok great, great." The woman wrote some things down on a piece of paper attached to a clipboard before pulling the paper off and handing Ana the clipboard and a pen.

"So this is just a simple questionnaire asking about various other health conditions beyond what I just asked you. They kind of help us determine how to proceed."

"Okay, got it." Ana took the clipboard and began reading through the list. Nothing was out of the ordinary to her, though she did come across something that gave her pause.

Have you recently experienced or are you currently experiencing headaches?

She weighed her options. She was almost certainly on the top of her boss's shit list. Her track record for showing up on time was mediocre at best. Barring the literal act of god it must have taken to save her today, she was likely one slip-up away from the performance improvement plan to unemployment pipeline.

$2000 was not something that was easy to come by so quickly. It would be a perfect safety net if something happened that was out of her control and she ended up jobless. And she had no idea how this answer would affect her chances at getting that money.

She checked 'no' next to the question, finished the questionnaire, and handed it back to the woman.

"All done? That is great."

The woman read through the questions quickly and put down the clipboard.

"Perfect. That's everything we need to get started."

She opened up a desk drawer and pulled out a blue hospital gown.

"Go ahead and change into this. I'll give you some privacy and be back in a couple minutes, okay?"

"Do I really need to do this? Am I not just listening to music?"

"You absolutely are, but we are trying to limit as many factors as we can for this study. That does unfortunately include making sure everyone wears the same clothes."

The idea was preposterous to Ana, but she didn't exactly have a choice. As the woman walked out, she stood up and began taking her clothes off. She neatly folded her dark red blouse and black skirt, putting them on the exam table.

She pulled off her shoes and hesitated at her socks, unsure if it was necessary. As she leaned back up, she became acutely aware of the fact that she was standing in her underwear and bra in this unfamiliar place. It sent a small shiver down her spine, along with a small pang of anxiety. It was only the thought of the money that pushed her through to the end. She unhooked her bra, taking care to not let it drop to the floor, instead neatly placing next to her other clothes on the table. She did the same with her panties, leaving herself only in socks. In spite of the lack of others in the room, she felt completely exposed here. Something about the eerie stillness of the floor she was on sent her into a bit of a panic as she scrambled to put on the gown.

She was fumbling with the final set of strings at her back as she heard a knock from the hallway. With the final knot tied, she shouted to the door.

"Come in!"

It felt like a shout anyway. It was loud even though the tone that came out sounded tame in comparison.

"Everything okay in here? Are you ready?"

"Yeah I am. Do I need to take out my nose ring? And should I bring my clothes with me?"

"No, you can keep your nose ring in and you'll be coming back here. Don't worry."

She made no further motion, but Ana knew it was time to follow her. As she walked towards the door, the woman stopped her.

"The socks have to come off too, sweetie. I promise we are very diligent with cleaning here."

Ana took her socks off, placed them in her shoes, and followed the woman out the door. The rough carpet was relatively unpleasant against her bare feet as they walked further into the halls away from room 147. With only a thin, papery hospital gown separating her skin from the air around them, she realized how cold the hallway was. She squeezed the back of the gown together with one hand as they walked, unsure of how much of herself was visible from behind. There was obviously no one else in the hallway with them and she didn't see any cameras, but the feeling of being watched was undeniable.

They walked until they reached room 201. At first, nothing seemed special about the door until Ana read the placard next to it.

Room 201

Audio Room

Ana laughed, partially out of nervousness.

"Aren't all the rooms down here audio rooms?"

The woman ignored her attempt at a joke.

"This is where we part ways. When you go inside, you're going to see a chair. Just walk inside, sit on the chair, and wait. It's got some other parts hanging over it as well that are a part of the experiment, but the most interesting characteristic of the room is... well, I won't spoil the surprise."

She desperately wanted the woman to spoil the surprise. Having to get naked at work was surprising enough. She was done with surprises, but didn't want to say anything to ruin her chances to get paid.

"Okay." She looked at the woman one more time, trying to read her face. It was kind and soft, but at the same time so expertly closed off.

"Thanks," Ana said, for reasons that she couldn't explain.

"No, thank you, Annalise," the woman said, pronouncing her name perfectly. "I'll see you when you're all done, okay?"

She walked away back towards the room they met in.

Ana turned back towards the door. She grabbed the handle and held it still for a moment. She felt as if she was going against all of her instincts. Something didn't feel right here, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. She wasn't going to turn back now, but what part of this was worth $2000 to ProdinaMed? She was told very little, but offered a lot.

Ana took in a deep breath and let it loose slowly. Her friends knew where she was. There was record of her employment. Besides, this was the Audio Therapy department. Beyond torturing her with the same Nickelback song a hundred times in a row, what was the worst they could do to her?