Little did Angel know that his father and brother were watching Angel from the laptop connected to a video camera in the living space of the basement.
The laptop sat on the table in between the plates of breakfast food that were scattered about.
Don Henroin sat at the head of the long table glaring at the door blocking him from seeing Angel in the bathroom while Arackniss sat to his right quietly eating his omelet and drinking his coffee.
Arackniss knew what was coming and helplessly knew it was best to let it pass.
Dr. Red entered the room unsuspectingly humming a happy tune and holding his notepad as he sat down at his place at the table at the don's left side and served himself a plate of food.
"How is my son, Doctor?" Henroin asked.
"Excellent," Dr. Red replied, chipperly filling his plates with food. "Anthony has been completely obedient. His behavior was quite promising."
"Is that so?" Henroin asked.
Dr. Red gave Henroin a confused look and replied, "Of course. He did everything I asked him to. Is there a problem?"
Henroin typed on the laptop, turned the monitor around for Dr. Red to look at, and said, "Watch closely."
Dr. Red watched the video footage play back to when Dr. Red gave Angel his pill and walked away to put the dishes in the sink. He watched closely as Angel opened his mouth and let his long tongue fall out of his mouth.
"What is he doing?" Dr. Red asked.
"What do you think?"
"He spat out my pill!"
"Yes, we should have known he'd pull some shit like this," Henroin said annoyedly. "Anthony is not someone who complies easily."
"Not to worry, Don Henroin," Dr. Red replied. "I've dealt with quietly rebellious patients before. Anthony will be no different."
"So, what are ya gonna do about it, Doctor?" Arackniss interjected between sips of his coffee.
"I have ideas," Dr. Red replied.
"What kind of ideas?" Henroin asked with a devious smile.
"Tell me," Dr. Red replied. "Do you two have porn collections?"
About an hour later, Angel had finished his bath and put on his gray uniform.
Angel looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. His clothing was unbearably dull. He looked and felt completely like a prisoner. Every outfit he had for the next week would look like this. That fact was almost more painful than the therapy he had already endured.
Right on cue to add to his current misery, Angel heard the basement door open and shut and the sound of Dr. Red's stony feet stomping their way down the stone steps.
Angel exited the bathroom to meet Dr. Red just as he reached the bottom step. He stood there at attention as politely as he could.
"Hello, Doctor," Angel said shyly. "What do we do now?"
Dr. Red said nothing but grabbed Angel's wrist and quickly led him to the chair he was sitting in before.
Dr. Red moved briskly in a surprisingly quick manner for his stone composition. Angel was back in the chair before he even had time to be nervous.
"Dr. Red, what are ya doing?" Angel asked timidly, not even protesting when Dr. Red strapped him back into the chair.
Angel waited patiently until the good doctor finished his work and walked away. The silence was tense.
Angel anxiously gripped his knees with his free pair of hands as the basement door opened and another pair of footsteps made their way down the stone steps.
"Uh, doctor, what's going on?!" Angel asked a bit more anxiously than before.
Angel looked up to see his father with a box stomping angrily in his direction. The anger on his face made him gulp in fear.
Henroin set the box on the ground, stomped over to Angel, and said, "Anthony, why the fuck aren't you cooperating?!"
Angel shrank back confusedly and replied, "Dad?! What are ya talking about?! I've done everything the doctor asked!"
"Not everything," Dr. Red fumed with his ruby eyes burning, holding a dirty red pill Angel recognized all too well. "We saw the footage from our video camera. Did you really think we wouldn't catch on to what you were doing?! Do you think we're stupid?!"
"N-no, I…I just didn't think…" Angel managed to stammer out.
"No, you didn't!" Dr. Red interrupted as he headed back towards the kitchen to dispose of the dirty pill. "If you were, you wouldn't be making me waste perfectly good pills!"
"I'm sorry…I…I just don't like pills that don't make me high!" Angel stammered out, blurting out the first lie that popped into his head and writhing in his chair on the verge of a panic attack. "I can't swallow them!"
"Well then, it looks like we're going to have to perform some heavy-duty electroshock therapy until you do," Dr. Red said with a sadistic chuckle. "Don Henroin, please find a way to restrain his spare arms."
"Gladly," Henroin said, summoning rope out of nowhere while Doctor Red began pushing the cart back over from the other side of the room.
Angel couldn't take it.
"WAIT!" Angel screamed in a panic. "I'll take the pill! I'll take it!"
Dr. Red stopped pushing the cart, stood up straight, and said, "What was that?"
"I'll take the pill," Angel said, hyperventilating on the verge of a panic attack before making himself take a deep breath to calm down. "I'm sorry. I spat out the pill because I thought it would hurt me. I didn't know what it would do. I'm so used to Val giving me pills that I don't trust them no more. I'm really sorry. I'll be a good boy. Just don't shock me again."
"Now we're getting somewhere," Don Henroin remarked as he made the rope disappear.
Dr. Red smiled happily and said, "A breakthrough! How wonderful! Thank you for your honesty, Anthony! I'm so proud of you. Now let me get you that pill and a glass of water. You're showing so much promise."
Dr. Red practically skipped over to the kitchenette in excitement to prepare the pill and glass of water for Angel.
Angel sat in his restraints trying to catch his breath while the good doctor explained, "These pills are meant to calm down your emotions, not unlike an anti-depressant. They're of my own creation. I have used them on patients plenty of time, and they have very few side effects."
"Okay," Angel replied meekly.
Henroin annoyedly walked over to Angel and grabbed hold of his chin, immediately shaking Angel out of his frightened stupor.
"You ain't gonna give the good doctor any more trouble now? Are ya?" Henroin asked in the intimidating voice he used in shakedowns and interrogations. "I'm paying him good money to take care of ya, so I don't want to hear or see anymore trouble out of ya. I've invested far too fucking much into bringing you back into the fold for you to fuck this up for all of us now, ya giant shit. So, if ya don't keep quiet and do what your told, you ain't ever gonna leave this basement or keep all of your brain, if you catch my drift. You got that?"
Angel repressed his anger as much as he could against his entitled sperm donor. He shook angrily, but he managed to keep his face twisted in fear so that his father could only assume he was shaking of fright.
"Well?" Henroin asked.
Angel couldn't open his mouth and keep himself under control, so he responded with a shy nod and his father let go.
"Please back away, Don Henroin," Doctor Red replied, walking across the room with a new pill and a glass of water. "Anthony has apologized. You don't need to intimidate him anymore. He'll behave. Right, Anthony?"
Angel nodded shyly again as Doctor Red approached him with the glass of water and the pill.
"Now, take your medicine," Doctor Red said.
Realizing he had no choice and barely able to hold back his tears, Angel opened his mouth and allowed the good doctor to place the pill in his mouth. Doctor Red then held the glass of water to his lips and Angel slowly drank down the glass of water until there was nothing left.
"What a good boy!" Dr. Red said, enthusiastically patting Angel's head. "I'm so proud of you."
"Thank you, doctor," Angel replied with a shy smile.
Doctor Red quit petting Angel's head and began unstrapping his limbs.
"Set up the projector, would you, Henroin?" Doctor Red asked as he unstrapped the rest of Angel's body. "It's in the closet."
"You got it," Henroin replied.
Henroin walked over to the closet to get out the projector while Doctor Red got Angel back to his feet.
As he got to his feet, Angel noticed that his head was lighter. His mind felt clearer, and his heart felt somehow calmer.
"Are you feeling alright, Anthony?" Dr. Red asked, snapping Angel out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, just a little light-headed," Angel replied.
"Oh, the medicine must be working already," Dr. Red said, gently pressing his stone hand on Angel's back to guide him over to the sitting area on the other side of the basement.
"What? Already?" Angel asked in surprise.
"Yes, this medicine is meant to calm you down," Dr. Red replied proudly. "It wouldn't be much help if it didn't work quickly. Would it?"
"No, I suppose not," Angel agreed.
"Of course, this medicine is still in the experimental stage, so I can always adjust the dosage later if you're not feeling comfortable enough," Dr. Red suggested.
"Okay," Angel agreed as Dr. Red sat him down in the fainting couch facing the wall.
Angel felt the calm feeling occupying his mind rapidly materializing into a fog. The fog grew denser and denser until every anxious feeling Angel might have felt was replaced with a sedate, serene sense of forced tranquility.
"Very good," Dr. Red said. "Henroin, is the projector ready to go?"
"Yeah, Doc," Henroin replied, taking his spot on the couch against the wall. "We're good to go. I'd like to stay for this if ya don't mind. These films happen to be my favorites."
"Of course," Dr. Red replied while Angel suppressed his desire to physically cringe at his father's remarks. "Let's get this show started. Angel, for this next therapy session, you only need to watch and observe the straight porn on the wall in front of you."
"Okay, doctor," Angel replied, getting comfortable on his couch.
Dr. Red pressed the button on the projector and started the film. He quickly crossed the room to shut the lights off and sat himself down in the chair between Angel and Henroin before the credits could even finish rolling.
Angel laid back against the fainting couch and settled in for some "therapeutic" porn.
The cloud inside his head held back any anxiety and panic that he had felt before. His mind felt clearer in a way yet still analytical in another. He felt peaceful yet so disconnected from himself and what made him, well, him.
Angel realized then that this clarity was something he could use to his advantage. He could use this time to figure things out. He would use this time to plan. He would use this time to think of every possible scenario that could happen when he tried to escape so that, when the time came, he would know what to do.
"Oh, this is my favorite part," Henroin said, interrupting Angel's thoughts.
"Keep it in your pants, Henroin," Dr. Red chided. "This therapy is for Anthony, not you."
"I don't wear pants," Henroin retorted. "Besides, isn't it good for him to be around men having normal reactions to men and women having sex?"
"He's been around plenty of that, Don Henroin," Dr. Red said. "Anthony knows plenty about how to mirror the reactions of others. We need to allow him to show natural reactions of his own."
"If ya say so, doc…" Henroin relented.
Angel hardly paid any mind to their conversation. He barely took any mind of the distorted sexual mess playing on the wall in front of him either.
Angel ignored everything and simply thought.