✅ Younger Than You Think?

"L: Nursery"

Iriña stopped, staring around her in surprise as soon as they entered the building. From the outside, it had looked like some kind of old farm. Buildings in the same style had been everywhere for the last hour of their drive, surrounded by masses of fields that were presumably divided up between them. They were probably in every rural area, with some variations, and Iriña had assumed that this one was something like the same when the car pulled up in a gravel courtyard between all the weather-worn buildings. But then Sylvie had lifted her out of the car and taken her hand as they walked up to a wooden door with a few traces of paint that had mostly peeled away long ago. And the inside of this building was like nothing she could possibly have imagined.

It was a nursery; a preschool building. The pictures were obviously some child's finger painting, and the walls they were stuck to had the same blend of institutional grey-green paint that Iriña had come to assume that every state-funded school or hospital used. But the area of bare walls on show was very low. It was covered by pictures, which were held up with pins or tape, as well as posters of various kinds, corkboards, signs pointing to different rooms, and on one wall a huge mural of unicorns with butterfly wings dancing along a rainbow. The image was so lively that it seemed certain you could stare at it for hours and still notice new things. And the room as a whole had so many things in it. Amidst the chaos, it took more than a minute for Iriña to realise that there weren't any windows, and no natural light. That kind of made sense; the little windows on the outside of the farmhouse wouldn't have been appropriate for a nursery like this. But it was still a surprise to realise how much the place had been altered to fit its new role.

Stacie stopped with Iriña, and held tight onto her hand. Seamus was just behind them, closing the door with a loud click. It hissed a second later; did this place even have its own air supply? That would be crazy, but the little sound underlined Iriña's surreal sense of being cut off from the rest of the world.

"Okay, Kelly?" Sylvie asked, and Iriña nodded slightly in response. "I know it can be a bit overwhelming at first. This is the Schoolroom, although you're only seeing a tiny part of it now. Here, we're going to teach you how to be a baby again so that you can be a good girl for your new Mommy or Daddy. Once we're sure that you are ready to be a baby, you'll get a couple of years of nothing but play, with a family who loves you. And when you are too old to be seen as a baby anymore, perhaps you can try to find your old life again. Won't that be nice? I know this must sound scary, but I want you to remember that there are many different ways we can teach you. And the easier you make it, the easier it will be for you to grow up again when you're placed in a suitable environment. So... the moment of truth. Are you ready to be a baby for us?"

"They'll come for me," Iriña whimpered. "They won't leave me here..."

"Kelly?"

"What does it... I mean... what are you going to do to me? How do you turn somebody back into a baby? Is it just like... learning to act? I think I'll be really embarrassed."

"Don't worry about that. We do actually have some fairly sophisticated techniques to help you feel like a baby again. And any shame you feel will quickly fade with exposure. When you've done something a hundred times, it's hard to be upset by it. You just need to be willing to try. And once you start acting appropriately, it's easy to build up new habits. Trust me, the last thing we want is to make you uncomfortable. The hardest part is often teaching our little ones to enjoy their new lives.

"I'm not a little one."

"But you are, Kelly. You're young, and you are small. You've learned to fight against that, but all our studies of psychology show that if you allowed yourself to just go along with the way people initially seee you, it would give you a much greater chance of happiness. And there are people who do this voluntarily. Just not so many who are cute enough to appeal to all the mommies and daddies waiting to adopt."

"Why can't you just let me go?" she whispered. "I'm not what you need anyway."

"I know. And I will have to talk to my manager about this. But listen to me, Kelly. It's only for a short time. It's unconventional, but it seems to be beneficial for almost all subjects. And it'll be just like playing a game. Can you just try it for me? Can you be a good girl for me, Kelly?"

She wanted to say that she was always a good girl, but that might have been too much. For now she needed to stay on the good side of these people, so they wouldn't turn to drastic measures like causing brain damage to make her act like a child. And hopefully they could stay away from those weird drugs as well. She swallowed her pride, and muttered a 'yes'. This time it was Seamus who patted her on the head and called her a good girl, as if she was a baby already. She allowed herself a little smile at that; one step closer to working out how she could manipulate these people. If they kept on treating her like a child, they were bound to make a mistake sooner or later. She just had to keep playing along until they didn't suspect her anymore; or until they thought she'd learned her "role" so she could start a new life.

"Okay. Well, Maggie's probably doing storytime with a couple of little ones. They've all had a while to get used to the routine, so they're doing pretty well at showing what good babies they are. So, while we work out what to do with you, and I try to talk Management into a plan that will allow you to get through this in one piece, can you sit in on storytime? No interrupting, okay? And only one syllable words if she asks you anything. Just imagine you're a toddler enjoying the story, keep pretending for now, and sooner or later it will all come naturally."

Iriña nodded. She could play along, and let them think their training was working. She knew it was a risk; they'd done this on a lot of people before, after all. But she had to trust in her own intelligence. Her mind was the thing she was proud of more than anything else, and if she couldn't maintain the mental separation between herself and the role she was playing, then there was something much more fundamental wrong.

"Please..." she mumbled, and turned to look at Sylvie. "Please, not the drugs again?"

"She did have a bad reaction to both of the things we've tried," Seamus pointed out. "I'd be very nervous about how she reacts to most of the things we've got."

"There are different kinds of medicine," Sylvie said to Iriña, talking down to her a little. "I promise, we won't just surprise you with any of the things you've had problems with before. And... I think it's reasonable... assuming I can get Management to agree, I'll recommend that we don't surprise you with anything in your food or drinks. Where it's necessary, I'll ask for one of the nurses to explain why. As long as you can keep being a good girl for us, I think we can allow you some of your own choices."

"Thank you," Iriña answered. Her tongue was still a little weak, and she heard herself lisping like a small child. But she knew that would go back to normal soon, and as long as it wasn't actually causing her any problems, she could let herself laugh at how childish she seemed. Better to laugh than to cry, as Uncle Chad had always said.

"Come on then, let's get you to the playroom," Sylview took her hand, and led her to one of the many doors leading out of this main chamber. Iriña wasn't surprised when there turned out to be an elevator a little way down the hallway; this was one of the taller farm buildings, and she doubted that any kind of school could fit within the ground floor alone. But she was taken aback when Sylvie pressed a button and she felt that they were moving downwards. Maybe this nursery was eveen larger than she had expected. Now, all she could do was wait and see.