He didn't like needles. He didn't like getting shots. He didn't like it. He hated it with everything in him.
They always had to strap him down when they had to inject it into him.
He could hear his mother screaming at him like she always did, about how he needed it. How it was normal.
He was being childish, and he knew that. But that didn't change his opinion about it.
He watched as the blue liquid was injected to him, as the skin around the injection turned a dark blue, before going back to it's normal flesh tone.
He slammed his eyes shut, and tried to hold back that feeling of...peace, is what they called it.
Peace…
Calmness. Serenity…pathetic.
He didn't want it. He didn't want to feel it.
He'd rather go around as an empty shell than have that...that shit, injected into him without his consent.
But he always lost. He always felt himself immediately calm down, a warm feeling spreading around inside him. Like it always did.
"Isn't that better, elskan?" His mother asked, her voice sickeningly gentle, her fingers brushing his cheek, wiping away the tears that had dared fall.
No. No it isn't. It isn't better.
"Ja…" He answered, his hands shaking.
"Give him the next one." She ordered, snapping her head to face the nurse. "Now."
"Ja, Mrs. Bondevik." The nurse replied, nodding her head, turning back to the table to get the next case.
The next one. Joy.
And then Empathy.
Then Hope.
Then...his least favorite.
Love.
"Give him another Peace." His mother said, tapping the nurse on the arm. "And...while you're at it, another Joy."
"Mrs. Bondevik, we're running low on Joy, we can give him a third shot of Peace, if that-"
"No." She said, waving the nurse off. "Another Joy. Get someone to send my husband in. I have a meeting in an hour that I can't be late for."
And without another word she left the room, leaving the nurse and him by themselves.
The nurse gave a long sigh, her shoulders slumping. "How do you put up with her?" She asked, groaning.
He didn't answer her. He was too busy staring at where they had injected the Peace, and how the skin around it was turning blue.
"Two Joy, another Peace, Hope, Empathy, Love...I'm going to need another shot of Peace by the end of the day…"
The nurse left the room, shouting out into the hallway that his father was needed in the room.
This is what the world has come to… He thought, a smile slowly rising. We're so far gone...that not even we're capable of feeling anything without injecting ourselves with filth…
Pathetic.
They were pathetic.