ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏʏs (Book 1)

xiv. baby you look so cool

Sami Larsson peeled her eyelids open. She stared with a haze at the harsh ceiling lights shining down on her. Her head throbbed. The last thing she could remember in her tired mind was falling asleep in her warm bed. How had she gotten here?

She was horrified to find herself in a dimly lit barn—strapped down to a cold medical table with leather straps around her forehead, chest, and waist; her arms and legged bounded down. A strip of cloth tied around her mouth. Almost immediately she found herself taking in shallow breaths. She tried screaming out for help. But help never came. All she could hear was her own heavy muffled breathing and the faint squeak from the table whenever she thrashed—or, at least, tried to.

Cold sweats covered her skin. She tried pulling her wrists free but failed miserably with every attempt. She cried hysterically.

In an instant, she froze at the faint sound of slow, steady footsteps approaching. She tried to turn her head as much as she could against the restraints to peek.

"Hello, Sami." Ashton Kingsley greeted as he came into view. What was he doing here?'Sami frantically thought to herself. He had a large folder in hand filled with all sorts of papers that peeked out of the corners in his hands, a white lab coat draped over his shoulders. "So wonderful of you to join us."

Sami tried pressing her lips together around the now damp cloth desperately to hold back her cries. Her eyes stung, but she wouldn't let herself break in fear. The last thing she wanted was to show him how truly terrified she was.

Ashton opened the file and flipped through the first few pages, his eyes swiftly scanned over the words. "Are you familiar with the workings of Dr. Ewen Cameron?" He asked after a long moment of silence. When he got no response, Ashton chuckled. "No, of course not. No worries. His brilliance was never appreciated the way it should have been." He carefully walked around Sami as she breathed heavily. Her eyes glared at the ceiling—refusing to look anywhere near him. "He was an internationally prominent psychiatrist. With many beautiful studies and techniques to rewire the mind—to change the thought patterns."

Ashton dropped the massive file onto the small tray beside him. The harsh light above shined around his silhouette as he towered overhead. He gripped the edge of the cold surgical table and leaned in. His eyes went vacant as though he lost himself momentarily to his thoughts.

Sami blinked. She was beginning to tremble all over again. Her teeth clenched down on the cloth. When Ashton seem to come back to reality, his lips curled into a chilling grin.

"The mind is a wonderful tool," he spoke with such wonderment as he reached out and gently brushed a damp strand of hair out of her face. She flinched in disgust at his touch. "I find it absolutely fascinating how we know so little about something so fundamentally important. Just like, for example, the other day; I was reading this article by a Belgium psychiatrist that hypothesized the mind could, in a sense, reprogram itself, that it could be rewired and change how it reacted to things. Instead of fear a person could feel joy and instead of sadness they'd feel hopeful and happy,"—He ran his finger down the side of her soft cheek. A distant and chilling gleam in his eyes—"Instead of pain, they'd feel pleasure."

Sami struggle against the strap holding her head steady. She wanted to get as far away from his touch as possible. But all she could do was screw her eyes shut and swallow the dry lump in her throat.

"'Fear of the unknown,' he called it. Since we don't take part in hurting ourselves on a daily basis, the thought of being in pain scares us. We trick ourselves into being afraid. We tell ourselves the knife cutting into our skin hurts and we believe it! We truly believe it! But what if we didn't? What if we told ourselves it felt good? Then what?" he reached over and took something from the tray beside him. "What if, instead, we said 'this drill driving into me feels euphoric.'" When Sami caught sight of the black and yellow power drill in Ashton's hand, her breath hitched.

Her eyes widened as she squirmed in her restraints. "Don't worry, if you pass out in the middle of our little experiment I'll just give you a shot of adrenaline," Ashton informed as he lifted a sharp needle from the tray for her to see. "That should at least keep you going for a few more hours or so."

The sound of the drill screeching to life drowned out her muffled cries of agony as Ashton began drilling holes into her sides.