Rabbit Hole

Beyond The Metal Door

WARNING: Strongest language yet (usage of the C-Word), very violent imagery, transphobia, psychological horror, descriptions of brainwashing.

After all that, it came back to this. The key to what went on. The darkest secret this place held. The resting pillar of this whole fucked up operation.
What is behind the Metal Door?

Kat's POV

run.
RUN.
GET OUR BEFORE IT'S TOO-

My eyes finally open again.
I'm in a dark room, almost empty.
What happened?
The last thing I remember is a guard covering my mouth and falling unconscious.
I go to move my arms.
They're strapped to a piece of wood.
After starting to come to my senses, I notice what I'm strapped to. A wooden chair.
I look directly infront of me, and see a screen. To the side, a monitor and keyboard. On that table, a roll of duct tape.
Looking behind me, I see my worst fears and my suspicion confirmed.
The other side of the metal door.
I'm in the room.

"Oh, good. We can begin." a voice calls out.
And Wilfred emerges from the shadows.

Amanda's POV

We arrived in the same meeting place I started this whole nightmare in. The social room. After catching something on Kat and Blake's lights, we knew something had gone horribly wrong. So, we meet here and plan from there.

"Hey, remember the first interaction we had?" Liv asks.
"How can I forget? You called me an archetype and I called you a 'mean girl'."
"Yep. Then the next day we screamed at each other and I broke down."
"Then we killed a guy together a few hours later."
"Yeah, funny how things turned out."
"Hey, Liv?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry about the hostility at first. I was way too harsh."
"Hey, you weren't at fault. I was horrible to you. You had every right to say that."
"Yeah, but in hindsight-"
"You didn't have hindsight. It's fine. I swear."
"So, how you dealing with Andrew?"
"Honestly, it feels like everything's starting to click into place. I had a feeling when he came after me that things were too good to be true. Should have trusted my gut. When I look back, it feels obvious. He always defended me in arguments, but when it came to actual confrontation, he backed down. It felt like he didn't want me to get better, because he didn't. While I was sad, I was easy to manipulate."
"Liv?"
"Yeah?"
"Fuck the prick. Besides, he'll be dead by the end of the night, right?"
"Hopefully. There's no way I'm letting the bastard live. However, if he avoids me, I'll consider letting him just rot in prison. But he won't leave me alone."
"Yep, and we're ready for him."
"Absolutely."

"Hey?" Ace calls out as he reaches the door.
"You got the right place."
"Good. The others coming soon?"
"Just waiting on Harriet."
"What about Blake and Kat?"
"They might be in danger."
"Huh? Blake's safe."
"Both of their lights flashed."
"Oh, it's just morse code. Kat was giving their location, Blake was trying to get it."
"Good.
"So, Jade and Nick alright?"
"Yep. I mean, Nick got shot in the leg, but Jade's helping him, and it was non-fatal. He'll be fine."
"Alright."
"Where's Elliott and Jules?"
"Jules is dead. Elliott isn't with us anymore." Nyla responds.
"What happened?"
"We found Bill. He was hypnotised. He killed Jules. Elliott snapped. Brutally killed Bill. I argued with him, and he was about to attack me too for a split second. Then he left. No empathy at all."
"That's horrible, Nyla. Are you okay?"
"Not at all. But whatever they're trying to do to Kat cannot happen. We need to save them."
"And we will."
"Right. So, we wait for them before making our move?"
"Yeah."

Kat's POV

"Oh good. We can begin. Ignore the guards. They'll come it at some point, but they're there for safety."
"What the fuck is this?" I ask.
"This, is our hidden purpose."
"What are you gonna do to me?"
"Fix you."
"I don't need fixing."
"Your folks seem to diagree. That's why they sent you here."
"They do not know anything about me."
"They're your parents, of course they know enough about you."
"You don't know anything about how it works for me."
"I know enough to do my job."
"What is your job?"
"Fixing people like you."
"What is there to fix?"
"Your mind."
"My mind doesn't need fixing."
"It does. All of yours do."
"Why?"
"You know what I hate about how we've done things in the past relating to people like you?"
"What's that?"
"How people instantly believed that you needed to change the body to fit the mind. I've always hated that reasoning. If you don't think right, why should your body have to change to fix your warped world-view? So we came up with a new way to fix things: change the mind to fit the body."
"You can't change the mind."
"We have. Multiple times."
I stay silent.
This is really happening.
"Do you want me to show you how?"
I nod.
"You see this screen? This will display a shade of pink. It will be so bright that closing your eyes does nothing. The light will be bright enough to pass through your eyelids and still have the same effect, even the same shade shows up. Looking away does nothing, either. When I turn on the light, you will see pure nothingness on the walls. When that screen turns on, anywhere you look will be reflecting that same shade. Even covering your eyes does nothing. It would take a thick sheet of metal to negate the effects. The only way to avoid it is if you have anyting that alters your vision so that the shade is not exact, like for example those weird paper 3D glasses."
"And what are the effects?"
"Oh, that's only the first half. Around the room are small, but powerful speakers. They will not send out sound, but vibrations. Those vibrations will reach your brain, and linked with the visuals of the colour, it will train your brain to be locked to your assigned gender at birth. In your case, female. Both are needed to complete the procedure, one will not work without the other."
"How does it know what that mindset is?"
"Oh, we set that. We've been given strict instructions to set the vibrations to heighten and dampen specific behaviours.
"Why pink?"
"That was a choice by us. It could have been any colour, blue, red, orange, yellow, even beige would have done it, but pink fit with our ethos best."
"I wonder why."
"So, the procedure needs to last the full duration in order to have the full effects. But we planned around that. In the case of a disturbance, you will be sent into a coma, which you will not wake from until the procedure is completed. Of course, I would be fine, we make special contact lenses to alter the vision of the person carrying out the procedure, so the vibrations do nothing. However, if someone walks in, the procedure automatically cuts out to avoid harming the entrant, and would be started at the same point once everything is resolved."
"So contact lenses would void the whole thing?"
"Yes. Now, since any shouting would disrupt the procedure, Iwill have to duct tape your mouth shut before we start. However, I will give you five questions, that I will answer honestly."
There's no getting out of this myself, so let's try get enough out here and hope that everyone comes back.
"Question one. Do you really believe in what you're doing?"
"Good start. Yes. Everybody that works for this facility believes truly in our mission. Even the guards. The whole operation is an opt-in thing. Only those who will follow religiously are allowed to work here. 4 left."
"Hypothetically, what would happen if a cis person was given one that matched their AGAB, for example a guy being put through the male one?"
"You wouldn't want to witness it. We've only done it once, male on male. It mkes them incredibly succeptible to manipulation, and highly violent. We did it a few weeks ago, actually. What do you think happened to Bill?"
"You-"
"Yes. He's dead now, though. You really need to be careful who you let in, that Elliott kid's a psycho. He caved Bill's head in with a brick. Saw it myself over the CCTV feed. The real one, not some bullshit TV and a VHS player. 3 questions left, so if you want further information, you have to use one."
I don't want to know more, so I switch off.
"Three, was Cole the only traitor?"
"That's a really good one, actually. No. There was one more. Two left."
"Four, out of interest, who was it?"
"I knew you'd do that. The traitor was Andrew. The King of Hearts."
"Liv-"
"She knows. Andrew botched a capture attempt. Fucking twice. Absolutely useless, that kid is. Great manipulator, horrible planner."
"So, that's all?"
"Yes. And I won't count that as your fifth, because you've been so good with this so far. Final question, make it count."
"I will. You said you were given instructions on what to input. By who?"
"Alright. This is our biggest secret yet, so strap in- oh, you already have. This is not a stand-alone mission. We were set up."
"As what?"
"As a government program."