The Afectus Programme

Prologue

"Miss Collins? Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes."

"It is 11:04 on Thursday 25th of February 2021. This is Detective Jack Miller interviewing Miss Ava Collins on the Afectus Case. For the sake of the recording, can you confirm your identity?"

"Ava Collins."

"Let's start from the beginning then. How did you first hear of the Afectus Programme?"

"I saw the advert on a flyer in my local coffee shop. The one with the line of happy families standing in front of massive white picket fence houses with neatly cut lawns and fancy cars. They were promising a new start for anyone struggling with their lives. Have no money? No prospects? Or are you just bored and unfulfilled? They had all the answers... Every lucky participant was offered a secure job, a lovely house, car and even a devoted partner. Everything you could wish for was simply given to you. All you had to do was join their programme and live away from the rest of society in a city they had built and sealed off. It sounded too perfect to pass up."

"And when was this?"

"Back in 2018. In the spring. I was too desperate to ignore such an opportunity. I wish I had known better."

"What did joining the programme entail?"

"They said it was a scientific experiment that tested how the brain and body works when dealing with emotions. One of the main reasons for a corrupt society is that we feel too much. We're too sensitive and selfishly focus on our own happiness; trying to achieve everything they were generously offering. By living away from this corruption and providing us with things we had always wanted, they wanted to see what emotion would prevail.

"I had waited so bloody long to be accepted into the programme. I filled in form after form about my political views, my relationships; whether I was close to any family members who would miss me in my time away, what my financial status was... That should have been a warning, but in my desperation to escape my life, I ignored all the suspicious signs. I was forced into multiple procedures- each one more taxing than the one before- to test my physical stamina and mental stability. It seemed worth it at the time.

"Once I was accepted as a valid candidate, I signed my contract- which I stupidly didn't read the whole way through- and they told me I was one step closer to my dreams. Before entering the Afectus neighbourhood, they took me to a lab. I was told it was merely one last blood test and then I would be good to go. That's where they attached implanted electrodes into my brain and abandoned me for two weeks. Each day, I was assigned a different emotion. Any time I acted or felt anything other than that specific emotion, the electrodes would shock me by sending electrical pulses to the brain, causing excruciating pain and essentially training the brain to disregard other emotions. The body and brain could then only deal with one emotion at a time. Each candidate went through the exact same procedure before being taken to their promised new life. The problem was, we couldn't properly appreciate it. They controlled our every emotion and decision, until we just passed our days mechanically."

"So every day consisted of one emotion?"

"Yeah. We were each individually given a weekly program."

"Could you give me an example of what your week would look like?"

"Sure. So, Monday could be Happiness. Tuesday: Sadness, Wednesday: Paranoia, Thursday: Confidence, Friday: Stress, Saturday: Jealousy and Sunday would always be Happiness."

"And you couldn't feel anything other than that assigned emotion for the entire day?"

"Even if you wanted to feel something else, the programming prevented it."

"Until the incident?"

"Yes."

"And that's when you met Mr Harris?

"Yes."

"Ok. Could you walk me through the week leading up to the incident? Just to clarify how a normal week in the Afectus Programme would pan out."

"Of course. That would be back in October of last year."

Hi! Thanks for picking my book and I hope you enjoy it! This is my first work on Wattpad, so please be nice! ~ Fran