The Thorns Upon the Roses Ch. 01

Eventually, the pens were put down, and Mr. Cooper came over to me to collect my signed papers and added, "Should things go sideways, we now have signed papers saying you had no complaints about this. Please, do not test the Doctor."

A clap! Her hands came together, and the Doctor smiled at the end of the table at me. "Darling, you look wonderful in that uniform. I assure you; the days here will be fun! Should you comply, it will be well worth your time."

It was the first acknowledgement of my cross-dressed clothing.

"Thank you, I guess?" I wanted to be sarcastic, but I was so blind-sided by every ounce of these characters, that I couldn't tell if this was still a prank, or if I was really about to be executed an hour ago... "Care to actually explain anything now? Why am I wearing women's clothes, um, through and through?" I shifted in my seat, and I pulled at the end of my skirt again, feeling that it was too high up.

"Women's clothes? I guess that's one way to put it!" The doctor stood and began to walk toward me slowly as she elaborated, "Last week, would you have called your everyday clothes, 'Man's Clothes?' Or would you have just said they were 'Clothes?'" The Doctor sat atop the table near me, and she said, "A lot of our research is going to be about perspective."

The gears had already clicked to some extent over the last hour. Now, her words began to unpack this more clearly. "So, I'm a woman now? Or I wear women's clothes- I wear clothes now?"

She pointed a finger to her nose like we were playing charades. "Over the next 18 months, our program will be swift, and some days will be long. The days will vary between a few categories: testing, fitness, education, and leisure. The entire campus, save my office upstairs, is yours to explore, and I assure you, the other people here are as free to talk to you about anything, as you are free to breathe the air around you." The Doctor took a deep breath of air. "But as to specifics: Yes, we will be transforming you into a woman, and the process is already begun!"

Mr. Cooper brought forward a bag, and he set it down in front of me.

"Go on!" The Doctor said, "We don't want you walking around barefoot all day! We run a clean campus, but the pebble under the foot still sneaks past our janitor every once in a while."

From the bag, I pulled out thigh-high white socks, with a small blue stripe running around the top. Further, a pair of black flats followed. I began putting the socks on and rolling them up as I asked, "So I dress up as a girl for 18 months, and I walk out loaded for a few years after? This seems like a good deal so far. Especially the lack of judgement from you all. I'm sure I don't really look the part so far." I laughed at my own joke, and none of them returned any humor.

Instead, the Doctor stood, and offered me a hand to follow. Her soft blue nails seemed to glow from her skin. "Don't doubt yourself, even for a moment. The specifics will be laid out soon, but being positive about yourself is something we are studying. Speaking of! Follow me to the study hall."

My shoes were slipped on, and I took her hand and stood.

---

The study hall was much like a library on a university. Books, laptops, and half a dozen tables populated the room, but nobody else was in here. The Doctor went at once to a podium, and Mr. Cooper found a table and began to sprawl out his notes again from his briefcase.

Instinctively, I took a seat as well, although I assumed we were beginning a tour, so sitting down seemed silly only to move again. As I sat down, I felt my skirt get bunched up, so I stood and smoothed it out as I sat again. The Doctor noticed, and she smiled at me.

"Welcome to the study hall! Frequently, you will have "class" here, where you will be instructed and learn various things that may catch your interest!"

"So, I'm a woman now, but what special classes will I be taking?" I tried to not sound sarcastic, but that was difficult to say without sounding like an ass.

"We offer many subjects, and Miss Kripke as well as Mr. Cooper teach a few courses throughout the year. School will be, far more different than you are used to. As you are expecting, some of the classes will be more experimental with its teaching procedures, and some will be basic financial literacy courses, because I've found that far too many people come through here and don't even know how to check their credit scores."

I laughed, and the Doctor returned the laugh as well.

"Class will begin tomorrow morning. Show up here at 8 A.M. sharp. Your bag, supplies, really everything in general is already being taken to your room as we speak. Be sure to read through the books in there, or at least familiarize yourself with them. Its already evening now, so we'll call it a night soon. Before we call it a night though, we have one more thing to address. Miss Kripke, if you wouldn't mind?"

The Doctor motioned to Kripke, and she nodded in return. The Doctor went to the study door, and it hissed shut as she waved a key card next to the door. It hissed shut, and I heard heavy locks slam into place. Kripke moved to me briskly, and retrieved her taser-rod.

Kripke looked me dead in the eyes. "You can either resist and make this incredible difficult, or comply, and this first day will earn you some extra points in our books." Then she zapped the end of the taser-rod and said, "Pull your skirt down, young lady."

I stood and shook with fear. My hands complied instantly, and I shot them down to the waist and began to shimmy the skirt down to the floor.

The Doctor commanded, "And your underwear, honey." As she spoke, I trembled as I pulled down the panties. "This isn't just a fun campus where we will be studying the effects we have on you. This is a private institution, so there are no ethics, or morale codes we need to follow in the name of science. As I say this, Mr. Cooper is..."

I felt the sharp jab of the needle go into my neck.

"Fuck!" I turned and saw Mr. Cooper returning the needle to a case as my hand shot to my neck to defend what damages were already done. Then it seemed like my fingers had fallen asleep, and I realized my body was going limp. I turned back, and Kripke already had the taser put away, and she was holding my body like it was nothing, guiding my slow fall gently to the floor.

"Mr. Cooper is injecting you with the same agent, although FAR less potent, than the one we used to grab you in the city. Had we used the one from before, you would have fallen over and not waken up for a day or more!"

"Whutthehell..." I was starting to slur my words as Kripke laid me down. Kripke knelt down behind me, and she guided the back of my head onto her thighs, propping my vision up so I could see the Doctor walk toward me with a cylindrical case the length of a can of chips. Despite the drug, I was still completely coherent and aware of everything in front of me, but my body was paralyzed. The Doctor knelt down at my side, and my eyes trembled before hers.

"My baby, please listen closely, because if you have any questions, you won't be able to speak very well for about an hour, and by then! Who knows what adventure we will be partaking in by then? For now, our last business affair. To truly be a woman in our eyes, you need to be resisting the urges that come when you are around attractive women and men, like Miss Kripke over here. I'm sure that if we were in any other scenario, your body would be yelling at you to 'Make a Move!' but we can't have that here, at least not right now!" The Doctor giggled to herself as she brought the case forward and sat it lightly on my stomach. "Those urges are natural, but we need to fight them! Especially in the clothes that you'll be wearing. Your older masculine brain is going to find them attractive at times, because you've been conditioned to find them attractive for your entire life! And there is nothing wrong with that, but it will interfere with the results. The best way to fight these ideas and urges? Constrict them at the source!" She pulled out a small metal ring and brought it close to my eyes. "Do you know what this is? It's called a chastity device. They've never been actively used in history, but the idea became widespread a hundred years ago as bored housewives tried to destroy whatever they wanted to as they hid from their abusive husbands during the 30s and 40s. Regardless, the idea is simple, but two-fold. On paper, this locks up your little... mistake, and prevents you from getting one of those despicable annoyances. The second function of this device, is that if worn for extended periods of time, the penis, like any muscle in your body, will shrink and constrict back without use. Over a month, no long term effects would be seen, no matter the size! After six months, you might notice some shrinkage. A year, perhaps it doesn't stay as hard as it could!" The Doctor laughed again as her hand disappeared below my waist. My sight was blocked by the bra and the case, nor could I feel anything happening. I wanted to scream, but even that idea was being locked away. She continued, "Don't fret! Even after all of that, you would get it back to how it was with a good week or so of regular use."

My heart rate softened a bit with that, but I wasn't concerned about losing an inch in the long run. The thoughts began to run away as she went quiet for a moment. If on day one, I've had a gun pointed at me, a taser threatening or two, and now this! What the fuck is going to come next!? I've got to get out of here!

"And I know what you're thinking! 'Oh no! This lady is crazy, and I can't imagine what they'll do next!" The Doctor looked over for a second as she grabbed something else from the case: a cage, no larger than the head of my penis. "Tomorrow morning, we'll go over certain... enticements that will perhaps keep you more in line. While some of it is cash incentives, we are also looking at furnished and compensated living expenses... Oh don't spoil things! Tomorrow morning! We'll learn more tomorrow. For now, I want to explain one piece of information about this little cage to you." The Doctor brough up a small key and held it in front of my eyes. "This key is unique to your cage. There are no copies. There is no chance of earning a second key. Should you get out of line, we may just drop this one in the lake down the hill, and let you go back into the city. Realistically, locksmiths can pick the lock and set you free, but if we do decide to set you loose before your trial is over, we add a bit of gorilla glue to it! That stuff works wonders! The only way to really melt through it without destroying the lock involves some pretty intense acids! Oops!" The Doctor laughed again. Her hands disappeared below my bust, and she said, "Click! Now let's stay on our best behavior, and we won't have any problems to deal with! Maybe in a few months, we can take this off, or even look at getting a new one! You can pick out the color if you're extra good."

The Doctor stood and dusted her knees off with her hands. "Miss Kripke, please escort her back to her dorms.

Without straining herself, Kripke lifted me with ease and placed me in a wheelchair. Where it came from, I have no idea.

She wheeled me out as Mr. Cooper and the Doctor stayed back and chatted within the study hall. I rolled through the halls until I returned to my room, except it was now unrecognizable. A dozen boxes, dressers, and a desk had materialized since I was last in these walls. A thought occurred to me that if anything had gone poorly in the previous rooms, I may not have ever seen this room again. Suddenly this room felt like a haven.

Kripke stopped the chair in the middle of the room. She picked me up and set me down on the bed. She smoothed out my skirt, and removed my shoes, placing them neatly on the floor of my bed.

"Thanks for not making me do something to you." Kripke said as she grabbed a blanket from atop one of the boxes. She began to fan it out as she laid it over me. "Between us girls, you're kind of making them freak out. Coop is going crazy trying to figure out why you're still being sarcastic. Keep it up. I like it. It won't bring you any trouble if you just do what they say. If you're interested, I'm hosting a book club, and this week its some murder mystery bestseller. I had them leave a copy in your room." Kripke moved away from me, and wheeled the chair toward the door. "To put a little ease on you, listen to the door after it closes. You won't hear it lock. You aren't trapped in here, but you've chosen to live here. Choose to make it a good life. I'll see you around... Oh! Last thing. Tomorrow, they'll want you to have a name. It's going to last 18 months, so don't pick something terrible."

The door hissed shut, and my heart pounded in my chest. I stared at the ceiling for nearly two hours before I began to feel my heart actually pounding in my body.

Slowly the feelings came back, and I sat up as soon as I could. I felt dizzy, and every part of my body had the tingles of when it falls asleep. Tears began to form in my eyes, and suddenly I began to weep uncontrollably. I pulled my knees up to my chest, and I felt the cage for the first time.

I took off my skirt, and I tossed it onto the floor, and I practically ripped my panties off of my body as I looked at my body. My penis was locked behind metal. I wanted to throw up. At first, I tried to rationalize anything. I tried to convince myself that I was dreaming. I tried to convince myself that this was a prank by someone horrible. I tried to convince myself that I had actually died and gone to Hell. Somehow, spending eternity in the flames below felt like a better option than living out a life under someone else's control. Maybe the adrenaline was over. Maybe my brain finally caught up to my eyes. I realized a gun had just been pointed at my head, and I was crying all over again. I realized I had been drugged, twice now, and the tears became empty moans of defilement. I realized there was a piece of metal around me that would last months, and I felt nothing.

I tried pulling on the cage a little bit, but at the first sharp pinches I gave up and sat on the bed motionless. My eyes went to the door. Despite everything that was happening, a truth began to call out to me. Kripke had been truthful. I never heard locks in the door.

I stood, and I walked over to the door. As I got close to it, the door hissed open, and I jumped back a step with a startle!

Retreating back to my bed, I pulled off my shirt and bra, and threw them aimlessly into the room. A clock sat on a small table next to my bed, and it blinked out 7:30 P.M. at me. I rolled over into my sheets, and I closed my eyes in hopes of waking up back in my terrible, shitty, disgusting, over-priced, unkept apartment.