TAKEN
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Part 4: The Hospital
... A ray of light flashes through a window to my right. I'm strapped down to a stretcher in the back of a moving ambulance.
What is going on? Why do I keep seeing that crazy place... that cavern? What is wrong with me?
I feel like I'm dreaming but I can feel each bump the ambulance hits, each time we make a turn. That must have been the movement I felt. It was enough to shake me out of the hallucination.
Where are they taking me? How long have they been driving? I can't see much outside the ambulance. The windows are too small and too high.
Finally, I feel the ambulance slow, then stop. A minute passes. Then two. Finally Duke opens the back door.
We are at a hospital of some kind. Looks like an older building from the 50's but I don't recognise it. Where have they brought me? I can smell smoke hovering in the air again. Have I said how much I hate smoke?
A man in blue scrubs approaches. Tall and dark complected, he looks a bit Italian.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" The man in blue scrubs says. He may look Italian but that is definitely a Manchester accent. Must be local then.
"Male, 28. Collapsed in a grocery store." Duke says in a bored tone. "Hallucinations, paranoia, panic attacks. We had to administer a sedative to calm him and keep him strapped down."
"Ok. The E/R is crazy today. Can you take him over to acute care? Tell the nurse there to keep an eye on him and I'll be by as soon as possible."
The two paramedics push the stretcher down short hallway and into a room with a number of bays. Once there they move me to a hospital bed - a gurney - and strap me back down. I still feel out of it, too lethargic to try to get away. Wouldn't help anyway... they are so much bigger than me.
Duke turns and gives me one last look - another of those wicked sneers - before pulling the privacy curtain around the bed. I hear the paramedics talking to a nurse but then they all move away and their voices recede into the distance.
I wait for someone to return. And wait. How long have I been waiting? I'm not sure, but I'm starting to feel less groggy. A little more aware. Whatever they injected me with is wearing off. But still I wait.
I stretch in my confinement, trying to get comfortable. And that is when I notice. One of the straps holding me down - the one over my chest and arms - gives a little. Is it loose?
I push against it. Yes! It is definitely loose. Maybe I can get it to give... if I just push harder. I can feel it give a bit more but not give way. Harder. I tell myself. My arms are bulging with the effort. I am sweating. My face flushed. I give it everything I have. I can't get it to give any more.
At last I give up and collapse back on the bed. I'm coughing. I'm sure there is smoke coming from somewhere.
"Hello again!" The curtain pulls back to admit the man in blue scrubs. His tanned complexion looks slightly out of place in the sterile environment. More like a TV doctor than one you would really see in a hospital. He seems friendly, though, flashing me a quick smile.
He picks up my chart and runs a hand absently through his thick dark hair.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" I ask desperately. "I'm really confused."
"Just relax and don't worry. You can call me Don. I'm one of the Residents. For now, I just need to take your vitals and get you ready for more tests."
"Tests...?"
"Yeah. Doctor LeBaron, your attending, has looked over the report from the paramedics and has ordered a couple tests."
He takes my blood pressure, pulse, and puts one of those oxygen monitor things on my finger. His calm and friendly manner relaxes me, if only slightly.
"Pardon me... sorry to bug you but do you smell smoke?" I ask him.
He frowns. "No, do you?"
"Yeah... .smells like something is burning nearby. Or maybe someone smoking. I can't quite tell."
"There's no smoking in here. We don't allow that in the hospital."
Don pulls out some sort of a kit from one of the cabinets. He pulls a can of something and sprays a bit of foam into his palm before spreading it across my chest and stomach.
"What's that? "Don't worry, just shaving cream." "Shaving cream?"
"Yeah. Like I said, we have to get you ready for some tests. One of them is an EKG and it will be easier if your chest is smooth. Now I need you to sit very still so I don't nick you." He gives me a mock stern look. "If I need to I will get a couple guys to hold you down."
I've had a hairy chest since I was a teenager and I'm very proud of it. I think it looks great with my build, makes me look really masculine. I trim it - just a bit of manscaping - but I would never dream of shaving it off.
But I'm not given a choice. Don's motions are deft. And he is thorough. A few minutes later and my chest is smooth.
"Now, that wasn't so bad. Was it? "
I shrug noncommittally but I hate it. I don't want to look like a kid. It looks so smooth. Just like in my hallucination.
"Now, this next part is the bit most guys hate. I apologise in advance, but it's best if you are completely smooth." Don pulls out something like a kitchen scouring pad. He scrapes it in small circle patters across my chest. He is not gentle and it feels like he is ripping my skin off.
I wince in the pain but don't argue. He's a doctor. He knows what he is doing.
When finally complete, Don surveys my chest. Hairless, red, and burning as if I have some nasty rash. He nods approvingly.
"I'll be back in a bit and then we will finish up those tests." He gives me another smile and retreats beyond the privacy curtain.
I am alone again. I look down at my hairless chest and try to tell myself that it helps me look more like a body builder. Wish I could believe it.
The skin on my chest feels raw. I want to scratch but, still tied down, I can't move my arms to do so. I listen to the sound of a nearby clock ticking away the seconds. I feel so helpless. What the hell do they think is wrong with me that all of this is necessary?
An hour later, maybe more, and I hear footsteps approaching.
The curtain pulls back and a nurse enters. A woman with blond hair, blue eyes,,, and I can't help but notice her shirt stretched tight around her amble bosom. My eyes trail down her body before I catch myself and look back at her eyes.
She is smiling. Bemused. She wraps the cuff around my arm and starts the blood pressure monitor again.
"I do hope you aren't going to use some silly chat up line like `Come her often?'" she laughs.
I don't really feel like laughing but force a smile.
She gives my arm a squeeze as she takes off the blood pressure cuff. The bends closer to me, her breasts resting on my arm. She whispers in my ear. "Feels like you work out a bit."
"Um... yeah. I try to keep fit."
"It shows." She says with a wink. She says nothing for a moment, thinking. Her eyes scanning up and down my body as I want to do to hers.
She sticks a thermometer in my mouth and puts a finger to her lip, telling me to hush. She peeks past the curtain. "Hmm. Looks like we are alone for now."
She takes the thermometer out of my mouth and notes the information on my chart.
Her fingers gently probe my neck, checking my glands. Then they slide down my chest. My now smooth and hairless chest I remind myself. Her fingers are moving but her eyes are locked on mine.
Her fingers trail down my abs. Tracing the outline of each muscle before sliding under my jeans. Then wrap around my dick. My jaw drops open.
"Hope you don't mind. We don't get many guys in here as hot as you."
This is freaking surreal. I swear.. I have a porno at home like this. "Naughty Nurses" or some shit like that. Never thought it would happen to me in real life. I watch her hand gently and deftly stroke me. This is like a wet dream... I should be hard as a rock.
But I'm not. My dick just isn't responding. I just don't feel aroused at all. Nothing. I might as well be watching paint dry.
The nurse pulls her hand away. She steps back, picks up the chart, and carries on as if nothing had happened.
"Um... sorry." I stammer. "I guess I'm just a little freaked out about what is going on. This has never happened before."
"What hasn't happened before?" She asks as she turns to enter information into a computer terminal I hadn't noticed before.
"You know, not being able to get hard."
"Excuse me? What are you talking about?" She looks genuinely confused. She has no idea what I'm talking about.
Oh god. Was that another hallucination? Did that actually happen?
Before I can say anything, the lights flicker...
Part 5: The Talon
... And I am back in the cavern.
One second laying on my back in a hospital bed, then the next in some terrible sword & sorcery movie from hell. The abruptness of the change makes me feel sick to my stomach. These hallucinations are getting worse. I hope the hospital can do something to help me control them.
The fire on my left seems to have died down a bit but the one on my right is, if anything brighter than before. In the increased light of the fire on my right, I can more clearly see the groups of people on the sides of the cavern now.
I still can't see much of the group on the left other than they all appear to be men. But the larger group on the right...
I blink in disbelief. They are naked except that each has a collar on his neck and some sort of apparatus over their genitals. All are men. All are in the same position. On their knees. Heads bowed. Arms behind their heads. Submissive.
I turn back to the Tribunal and the gravely voice fills the cavern again. "The next two qualities of a Man are strength and virility. These two qualities both extend from and feed into a Man's courage and stoicism.
"A Man will build his body for strength, endurance, and power. The vulnerable will build it's body for aesthetics... if at all."
Images are pulled from my mind again. Displayed for all to see. I am in the hospital bed, straining against the loose strap. I am struggling for freedom. But I fail.
"No... that's not fair!" I cry out. "I work out all the time."
The shrouded figure seems to contemplate me for a moment. "This creature has indeed spent time building muscle. It is, in fact, dedicated to a physical regimen. But that is just for appearance... there is no real brawn. And when faced with situation where strength could have earned freedom, it failed. It clearly lacks strength."
The Tribunal raises a black robed arm before me and my eyes eyes go wide in shock.
Emerging from the sleeve of the black cloak is not a hand, but a claw. The skin pale, almost transparent, like a sickly worm. Where fingers should have been there are talons. Long, curved, and sharp.
I draw back as much as the Grey will allow. Instinct taking over. Whatever this... creature... may be, it is not remotely human. Some primal instinct rises -- from some genetic memory or religious dogma -- and tells me to run away. The Grey have a firm grip, however, and I cannot escape.
The claw hovers a few inches from my neck. "A Man requires a voice to issue commands, to direct the situations around Him. His voice can be another form, another expression, of His strength. The vulnerable, those lacking that strength, are better listening than speaking. Taking orders, not giving them. And so, I take from the creature it's voice so that it may learn to listen and to obey."
The talons clench on my neck. Squeezing. Digging into the flesh. My throat suddenly feels like I've gargled with battery acid. I open my mouth to scream...
... No sound emerges at all. I am completely mute. No, I remind myself, this isn't real. This is just a hallucination. I'll be fine. Once they sort me out at the hospital, I'll be fine.
The Tribunal steps back slightly. Watching me. Weighing me. As if it knows what I'm thinking.
"A Man is desirable to others, to men and to women, and he desires them in return according to His own tastes and preferences. When something he desires offers itself to him, he will take it and the pleasure it offers him."
The images again. I'm getting used to them. The nurse from the hospital. I see her hand sliding down my body. Stroking me. My body not responding at all. My dick limp limp despite her attentions and desire.
"This creature was given a situation from its own carnal fantasies and yet it was not even aroused."
I can't speak to defend myself. My voice is gone. But surely never encounter never happened. It was a hallucination as well.
"A Man's sexual prowess is testament to His virility. Let this creature's manhood be locked away so that it may learn to find it's pleasures elsewhere."
One of the men in grey holds my arms. He stretches my shoulders back so my groin is pushed forward. My cock, still shrivelled, is dangling in front of me. The second of the Grey has some sort of contraption in his hand. A metal ring and a tube of coiled metal. The ring is placed around my testicles and the tube is slipped over my limp dick,
The two pieces touch. And they change. Literally sealing together. There is no mechanism, no lock. They just change. No longer a ring and a coil. They are one solid piece as if they had always been so. How is that even possible?
"Try to touch yourself." The Tribunal hisses at me. It is clearly an order and I obey without thinking about it.
I wrap my fingers around the metal enclosing my penis. But can feel nothing through the tube. I give the device a tug, trying to slide if off, but it doesn't budge. What had been the ring around my balls, now just part of the whole object, secures the device quite effectively. There is no way I'm getting this off without taking my balls with it.
I feel the weight of the metal on my groin. It is not uncomfortable but is heavy enough you would never really forget you had it on. There is a small slit at the end, to piss through I assume. I've heard of a chastity cage, even if I've never worn one before.
My eyes raise to the group of naked and hairless wretches kneeling on the right of the cavern. I am too far away to see the details clearly but I know that the apparatus each of them wears over their dick matches the one I now wear on mine.
"You cannot touch yourself, cannot stoke yourself." The shrouded figure tells me. "If you do start to harden, the cage is tight and will constrict you. You will feel no pleasure, only discomfort. Soon, your body will learn and you will stop growing erect at all. In time, your sexual organ will wither from disuse, become smaller, less significant even to you."
The Tribunal turns abruptly to take a step away. The black shroud that covers its form raises with the motion, slapping me in the face. I blink...