The Thorns Upon the Roses Ch. 01

That was the last thing I could remember.

White overtaking my vision.

Pain, or something else, blinding me completely.

White began to flood my vision.

My eyes slowly opened, but my nose was the first sense to come to life. The sheets smelled fresh, full of love and care. They were soft, white, high thread-count sheets, and my face was practically sewn deep into it. Sleep was taking its time to let me wake back up. As my fingers began to wake up, I gripped into the sheets, and my fingers dug deep, like a rock-climber hanging onto a small crack upon a mountainside for dear life. There was no blanket, or anything atop the white sheets, and suddenly I felt cold. Shivers ran through me like an electric shock.

My eyes decided to join the sensory excitement.

In the opposite corner, the door was steel, and I could see three different locks, heavily fallen into their resting places. The walls were barren, but wood paneling tried to act like itself could stand to be its own decoration. Red shag carpet was laid out for a floor. In total, I had a room the size of a small hotel room. Perhaps 15 feet from the head of the bed to the wall nearest the foot, and maybe 30 feet down the long wall of the room.

Where am I?

I tried to remember. Remember anything, anytime, anyplace!

Nothing came to me, and my heart began to pound softly. I sat up, and I realized I wasn't wearing my own clothes. There were no dark jeans, shitty graphic T-shirt, old tennis shoes. Instead, I wore grey sweatpants and a grey t shirt. These weren't my clothes.

My hands went to my head, and my hair fell between my fingers to barely cover my eyes. Even at its longest, my hair couldn't darken my sight and let me wake back up in my own room.

"Joshua."

The woman's voice came from a speaker, somewhere within the room. There was nothing on the walls or ceiling, yet I couldn't spot a speaker.

"Joshua, I am glad you are awake now. You slept for so long. I was quite worried we had overdosed you, yet here you are."

I couldn't speak. My brain was racing to try and catch up to the rest of my body. I couldn't think, I couldn't process anything. Instead, I just blinked. It was small, but blinking gave me something that I could control within this confusion.

A buzzer sounded, and from the door a small window opened at waist level. A platform extended from the window slowly, until about two feet extruded itself freely. Then a sliding noise proceeded a pair of handcuffs.

"Put them on, Joshua. We need to build trust first." The woman's voice was stern, yet warming within this room.

Finally, I had the courage to speak up. "This is a good way to start with the trust! Where am I?"

There was no answer, and silence echoed back at me.

Realizing I had no choice, I stood and walked across the room. The red carpet was so much softer than I had expected, and it almost tickled my feet. I grabbed the cuffs, and they confused me at first. These were no traditional handcuffs. The cuffs were connected by a thin strip of metal that was long and loose. That's some way to constrain someone, I guess. The cuffs themselves had a white light around the sides of the cuffs, and as I moved my hand to the cuff, it widened its cuff, allowing room to comfortably move my hands inside. Once both hands were inside, a BEEP sang out from the cuff, and the white light changed to red. The cuffs and the connecting strand began to constrict until they were the exact size of my wrists, and they drew together until there was no distance between the cuffs. Strangely, the cuffs weren't tight. Instead, they sat snug around my wrists. Admittedly, they didn't allow for much movement, but they never pinched anything.

Once the cuffs were done tightening, the door hissed quietly, and it rolled open, retreating into the walls.

On the other side of the doorway, a man stood with a clipboard. Well-dressed in business casual and wearing thick black glasses, his hand extended and he began to motion for me to step out into the hallway, and follow him.

Just one guy? I could take him.

I stepped out, and as he motioned to the right, I saw a woman brandishing a taser rod.

Any thoughts of running stopped with the dancing arcs of electricity that zapped at me as I made eye contact with the woman. Unlike the man, she was not dressed for the office. She looked to be security, and a belt lining her waist was decorated with more forceful forms of keeping my peace.

The man spoke, "Follow me," and strode past me and walked down a hallway of what looked like a home, yet I still saw no windows. The woman nudged me with her elbow, and I fearfully began to walk forward.

We made it to the end of the hall, and a lavish home began to open up. We pushed past a reading room with large chairs and endless bookcases. The walk was brisk, and I had no time to observe, but nothing could hide a strange fact. I saw another woman casually reading in one of the chairs.

The blip was gone, and I was already being marched down a new hall. Various doors were shut, but light spilled through the floor. At the end of this hall, a staircase split, and we descended. My heart sank with every step. Maybe that was the way out of here! As I thought to make a run, I heard a zap from behind me, and I knew that Taser-Lady was still there.

"Where are we going?" I asked, and I expected to receive no answer.

"You are going to see the Doctor." The woman answered.

The man turned, and with anger in his eyes, he said past me, "Enough! Do NOT talk to the subject."

In wild confusion, I turned and looked at Taser-Lady, but she quickly nudged me forward to continue to follow the man.

Subject? What is going on here?

Down the stairs, a singular door stood in our way. We walked through, and like the room I awoke in, this door hissed and rolled into the wall.

We stepped forward into a room full of equipment. A series of monitors, sat upon a table, of which two empty chairs sat tucked into the table. Wires spilled onto the floor and ran down the length of the table toward a wall and then up into the ceiling. Across the room, a bed, like one for a check-up at the doctor's office would be. Further, a partition blocked some of the view for me, but I could see light coming from behind it. Again, no windows. Only barren walls.

"Take a seat over there. Kripke, watch him until she gets here. I'm going to go prepare some final things next door."

"Yessir."

I walked over to the bed and sat down, and the door hissed behind the man as he left. Taser-Lady, or Kripke, stood to the side of it.

"Is this the FBI or something?" I knew she couldn't talk to me, but I was desperate for anything. "I don't even remember breaking the law, or like jaywalking even once. Why am I here?"

Kripke stood straight ahead and didn't look at me.

"Whatever..." I sat in silence on the bed for a few minutes. Typical doctor's office. Even in handcuffs and rushed by security, they still make you wait. At least I still had my humor, for better or worse...

After what seemed like a half hour, the door hissed open. A woman strode through with fierce confidence and laid a bag down at the table. The man from before followed her with not even one percent of her attitude. Her hair was a dark red that in poor lighting seemed brown. A white lab coat trailed down her sides, and covered a very respectable work outfit. I had no doubts that this was the woman whose voice had came through the speakers earlier, and at the first words from her mouth, my thoughts were confirmed true.

"Stand, please."

Again, the soothing side of her stern voice offered some solace.

I stood.

"Okay, Joshua, be ready for a lot of information soon. For now, we need accurate measurements. Arms out. Legs spread."

My cuffs beeped, and they separated, no longer connected by anything.

What measurements could she want? Could she need?

She retrieved from her pocket a rolled-up measuring tape. With quick movements, she ran the measurements of my arm span, the length of my fingers, each one. The size of my neck, my chest, my waist, my hips. With each measurement, she spoke it aloud, and the man could be heard typing away the numbers into the computer. She pulled at a tuft of my hair, the bridge of my nose, my ear lobes. Almost a hundred measurements were recorded, and she didn't look to be stopping soon.

She stopped barking numbers out as she squatted and said, "Please, don't freak out."

Suddenly, she pulled at the waistband on my sweatpants and pulled them straight down.

I yelped. I shot down and tried to grab the pants before they hit the ground, but I froze as Taser-Lady took a few strong steps toward me and sparked the taser-rod.

"Ah! Um. What the fuck!?"

I stood back up and sweat poured down my back. I watched the taser spark go out, and I gulped back to reality as I felt the woman's hand around the shaft of my junk.

"Flaccid is 4 inches."

"Lady, umm...."

"Oh, hush. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Actually, you should be proud. Its statistically above average to be this big when soft."

Then, with a small pat on the base of my dick, she stood, and walked back to the table.

"And you can pull your pants back up, sweetie."

I clambered for my pants, and I moved backward until I pressed against the bed. As I stood panicking, I realized I wasn't wearing any underwear.

"Give us just two minutes to finish inputting these numbers, and then I'll give you answers, Joshua. I can promise that you won't like what you'll hear."

As she said this, the Doctor winked at me from behind long black eyelashes.

---

A projector had flickered from behind me, and now a blank white square shined against the wall next to me. Mr. Cooper had left the room for a moment, but he now returned with a box and set it on the table.

The Doctor asked me, "Do you learn better from pamphlets? Some people are visual learners, some like videos, some like papers, some like being told by voice." Her voice was so soft for how terrified I was.

"Um, sure. I'll take..." I was cut off.

"Eh, no time. Mr. Cooper will you please start the presentation?"

The man, Mr. Cooper, clicked on his computer, and the projector began to shoot images on the wall. My heart sank.

Pictures of me walking down the busy streets of Manhattan. Pictures of me on my couch through the blinds in my apartment on the lower west side. Pictures of me getting into Ubers with my friends on late nights out. The pictures seemed to span months.

"What the fuck..."

"Oh relax, honey. Are you hurt? Do you hurt? Of course not! If we wanted to hurt you, we would have done so already! Let's get in the right headspace really quick, lovely. You've lost a bit more control of yourself since yesterday. We have that control now. Well, I have that control now. And that's a good thing! We'll get into it soon. Just trust the process, okay?"

She stood near me and smiled blankly. Her voice carried the only humanity within her body.

"Next slide Mr. Cooper."

The slide flickered for a moment then went dark.

"Oh shit," Mr. Cooper said.

The Doctor stood without turning to look at Mr. Cooper. Her eyes were fixed on mine.

"I think the bulb went out, or something..."

"Perfectly fine, Mr. Cooper. We'll just go at it without a proper formality." The Doctor recomposed her posture and stood straight up. Her perky smile tried to offer the genuine care that her words comforted me with as she said, "Joshua, if its not clear already, we've been keeping tabs on you for some time now. And congratulations! You've been picked, among a dozen other nominees to participate in our study. In exchange for your work, you'll be given a monthly stipend of $13,500 dollars, for a total 60 months. This is to be rewarded only if you continue our study, to the fullest extent we require your work. Once completed, you will be released from our campus, and your life will continue as you see fit."

"So, I'm your test subject? What kind of tests could you possibly be doing that warrant a few hundred thousand dollars?"

"An annual income of $168,000, which becomes $810,000 after five years is not something to dilly-dally over, Joshua."

"So, you've kidnapped me, and if I do some study, I make a pretty kickass salary for a few years?"

"Yes."

"And if I decide to finish your study, and then call the police? I feel like they'd be pretty interested in something like this?"

"I'm sure they would be interested, Joshua. But believe me, it would be rather tough to convince them of anything. You don't know where we are. Nor our names, outside of the codenames we go by. We know your schedule, and we know the only three people that might be concerned you left them. Your boss isn't likely to go looking for some part-time nobody who walked out on a dead-end job. Your phone records even show that mommy and daddy seem to have been out of the picture for a number of years." The Doctor's voice was hard to argue against because every word calmed me down back to sensibility. "You don't know what we are even offering you as well!"

"What are you offering?"

"A blessing. I'm interested in completing this study, for my own sake of accomplishment really, and I would like to pay you as part of it."

I could sense the secrecy behind every word.

"What are you holding off on," I asked?

"To put it bluntly, Joshua, and I might preface by saying Today is the last day anyone will call you by that name. Bluntly, Joshua, we will be transforming you." At this, Mr. Cooper stood and carried the box over to Joshua, and he placed it on the bed. "Should you wish to continue with this trial, please take this box over to the partition, and change into more humane clothes. Those grey robes are disgusting."

"Transforming? Into a superhero? Into a monster? What if I don't want to do this trial?"

"Well, its simple. If you don't wish to continue, Kripke will put two rounds into your skull, then one more into your heart for good measure."

The Doctor walked back to the table of monitors before adding, "I would not test Miss Kripke either. If you don't believe me, check the walls over by the partition. You'll notice a few notches where previous subjects have decided against the trial."

I picked up the box, and I walked over to the partition. As I made it behind the small fake wall, footsteps followed me. Miss Kripke stood with some distance, and her eyes seemed sorry and apologetic, but she said nothing.

I set the box on the ground and knelt over it as I unfolded the lids. Before checking inside, I turned around and looked at the wall. A dozen bullet holes were spattered along the wall, and I gulped as a tear made a dramatic escape out of my eye. I wiped it away, and went back to the box.

Folded and tucked away neatly into the box was a matching pair of navy-blue panties and a push-up bra. Underneath was a pleated blue skirt and button-up shirt with a logo I couldn't recognize sewn onto the breast.

I looked to Kripke, and I smiled with disbelief.

"You're paying me almost a million dollars to dress like a girl? I'll do a hell of a lot more for that kind of money. I expected to open this and see stuff from Saw!"

I began to take off my shirt, but I stopped. "Do you mind turning away?"

Kripke said, "No. I need to make sure you put it all on."

"As long as you don't giggle. No offense, but if this is some kinky shit, it's a little weird that you all watch as a group." I took off my shirt, and I grabbed the bra. Like any man in their life, I had worn a bra before at some point when my girlfriends and I were younger, and we were exploring each other during drunken nights. It had always been tight, as my frame was larger than any of my girlfriends had been built with. This was different. In front of me was a navy-blue bra, and it fit like a charm. The straps were already loosened to where I guessed they might go, and the back hooked in with ease. Forgetting Kripke for a moment, I even cupped the boobs, but then I realized she would shoot me if I didn't continue. The constant whiplash of tone I was feeling with these people was starting to become exhausting. I grabbed the shirt from the box, and pulled it over my head. Equally, I dropped my pants. My dick was still soft, but being nude in front of a woman began to stir me up, and I could feel myself getting hard.

Kripke said, "Don't worry. It happens more often than you think."

I grabbed the panties: a matching navy-blue pair that seemed like briefs.

"I'm sure." I pulled them up, and my dick and balls fought the panties and seemed to roll around with no control.

I grabbed the skirt, pulled it up, and stood there for a moment feeling like a moron. Then my bank account called my name, and I didn't mind feeling like this.

Kripke made a sudden movement, and I jumped with fear. She holstered her side-arm and covered it with a strap. Then to my surprise, she moved in closely and grabbed my hips to make me stand straight toward her. I realized that we were almost the same height. I had never been particularly tall, only 5'10". I looked into her eyes as I was grabbed the same way I had grabbed women before on dates that went particularly well. She was strong, and I could see now how big her arms were. She was muscular, and the blue in her eyes shined out underneath dark blonde hair. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. "Hold still," Kripke said.

Then she grabbed my skirt, and she slipped her hands inside. My dick stirred again, and we stood close enough that I'm sure she felt the skirt bounce a little with the movement, but she said nothing. Instead, her hands guided my shirt into my skirt, and she tucked it in for me. Kripke smoothed out the shirt into the skirt, then pulled a little out so I had room to move without it tugging at me. Her voice was stale, and she said, "You look nice. Shoes will be in the next room. Follow me, Joshua."

I paused before moving, as something within me was awake and yelling out. My head swam with a dizziness I had never felt before, and I wasn't sure what emotions to even call it. The way that Kripke had grabbed my waist, moved her hands into my skirt... I shook it off and stepped out to follow her.

The Doctor and Mr. Cooper were gone as we went to the door. The door hissed open, and Kripke said, "Thanks for not making me shoot you. Try and keep up that attitude."

---

"We're outside the city by about an hour as the crow flies. My family has owned this cabin for generations. As an only child of old money, its generous to say I've made some modifications with this place without breaking the bank." The Doctor was seated at the other end of a long table. Mr. Cooper was scanning through files and jotting notes near the Doctor. Kripke stood somewhere behind me, for I sat at the other end of the table with figures, graphs, and multiple pages and dossiers in front of me. "So now it's a repurposed lab, and in the last decade its housed various breakthroughs that we hope to continue the tradition of. Please report to page 14 and read along with me please.

"I, the subject of this trial, agree to live on the campus and extended areas for the given window of time, 18 months. I, the subject of this trial, agree not to contact or communicate with anybody outside of the trial, unless instructed to by the conductors of this research trial...

The contract signing went on for almost an hour, and I signed and initialed here or there. Should I have put up a fight on some of this, I didn't need to remember their assurance plan to guarantee my consent. Every once in a while, Kripke would shift her weight from one foot to the other, and the slight ruffle of noise would make me nearly faint of a heart attack. These people seemed peaceful enough, but unhinged didn't even begin to unpack the levels of deranged that was hiding within these walls. As pages would flip, I would run a finger to the bra straps over my shoulders, or my legs would move, and I would feel the new business going on downstairs. I was horrifically uncomfortable, but as the hour passed, I felt myself feeling more accustomed to my clothing.