Ethan sat on the ground, resting against the cold wall. Couldn't they at least put a bed here? His back was granted to be killing him after a few more nights sleeping on the carpet. He closed his eyes and tried to introspect, but his mind was rushing, expecting to be fed with a new TikTok every five seconds. The anxiety started kicking in, as the boy's starving brain punished him for refusing its daily dose of social media. How was he supposed to introspect with his thoughts running wild, nothing to distract him?
Embraced by dread, Ethan jumped to his feet and started pacing around the room. He was on the verge of a panic attack. He couldn't endure another minute of this hell, let alone the whole night, or however long they were intending to keep him locked.
"Let me out!!!" he screamed and banged the metal door. The noise echoed off the corridor walls, but there was no response. Ethan started hyperventilating. He grasped his head and fell on the floor. Then he curled into a fetal position and sucked on his thumb, rocking back and forth and humming the Green Green Grass song he knew from Tiktok. Minutes, maybe hours have passed until he fell asleep on the floor.
A familiar buzz woke him up. The door was open. He was wide awake in a fraction of second. Breathing heavily, he crawled towards the exit and didn't stop until he was out of his prison.
"Had a bad dream?"
Dabrowski's voice was mocking but Ethan didn't care. He wrapped his arms around the man's legs and sobbed.
"Don't let them lock me there again. Please, please. I can't take it."
The soldier laughed and helped the boy to his feet.
"You're just like all of them. I knew it. Good news, soon it's going to be your smallest problem."
It took Ethan a full minute to realize he was soaking Dabrowski's shirt with his tears. He jumped away and wiped his face with a sleeve.
"Sorry... I... I did have a bad dream. I'm fine."
"I'm sure you are," the man smirked and patted his back. "I hope you slept well because this is going to be an interesting day."
As long as it didn't involve spending the longest hours of his life in an empty room, Ethan was up for anything.
"You managed to introspect some?" Dabrowski's question made the boy shiver.
"A bit," he said, trying to sound nonchalantly. "So anyway, what's the plan for today?"
"Can't tell you for sure. My bet is, you're about to find out whether you love it or hate it here. There's nothing in the middle, to be honest. That's why I said it's so important to introspect."
Ethan struggled to maintain a poker face. He was mad at himself for his shitty attention span. He channeled the anger towards his parents for letting him spend hours on his phone without a break.
But as he ate the breakfast, he decided he's feeling alright. He made eye contact with Levi again and just grinned at each other without a word. Then Levi bloated his cheeks, and pushed his ears out, making himself look like a monkey. In response, Ethan pouted his lips and snouted, barely stopping himself from making pig noises. They played this long-distance game for a minute before Ethan caught the guard's scolding gaze. He had to force himself not to laugh as he looked down at his food. If only he could find a way to spend more time with that boy. He looked like fun in this soulless place.
After eating, Dabrowski led him to floor -13. As they walked through the corridor, they saw two people walking in their direction. It was Peter with his assigned soldier. Ethan tried to make eye contact but Peter stared at his own bare feet, his eyes hidden under his moppy blond hair. His reddened cheeks contrasted with his thin, pale skin. The soldier nodded at Dabrowski.
"Dabrowski."
"Hey Stevens. All good?"
Stevens shook his head and pursed his lips. "Liam here didn't take it well."
"Poor little dude."
"Yeah. Hope you're more lucky with yours. What's his name?"
"Ethan. He's a good kid," Dabrowski said and put his hand on his protege's shoulder and Stevens with his boy walked away.
Dabrowski led him to an unassuming door with a sign saying "Screening Room". He opened the door and gestured at the boy.
"It's the waiting room. Sit there and wait until you're called."
"You're not coming in?" Ethan asked. His confidence was undermined by whatever happened to Peter in that room.
"Can't. It's a restricted area."
"Then how come am I allowed?" Ethan raised his eyebrows, mostly just stalling.
"Don't be silly, kid," Dabrowski chuckled and pushed the boy inside.
Ethan sat on one of four simple chairs in the tiny waiting room. He looked at the other door leading to the Screening Room. He read a few extra signs with big red exclamation marks. "TOP SECRET". "UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN." Ethan shuddered. Something about these signs - including the font choice that reminded him of a nuclear factory - made him lose the last bits of comfort. If Peter survived, whatever it was, he would survive it too.
He waited and waited. The voices coming from the inside sounded more and more agitated, interrupted by something that sounded like a hammer hitting against a metal surface. Ethan's stomach tightened. He didn't like this waiting game. It was almost like waiting for a dentist appointment, hearing the drill working inside. He hated himself for his vivid imagination.
Finally, the door opened and Dr. Anderson gave him an impatient look. "Hurry up inside, kid, before this piece of junk stops working again."
Ethan stood and followed the doctor inside. The Screening Room was impressive and intimidating. At first, it reminded Ethan of a futuristic recording studio. There was a thick glass that divided the room into two compartments. The half he found himself in had a huge console with countless buttons, knobs, displays and controls that made Ethan's head spin. The console faced the glass wall and there were a few large screens above it, all disconnected and pitch black.
Through the glass, Ethan saw a room, empty except for a strange-looking chair in the middle. Ethan couldn't keep his eyes off it. It was unlike anything he's ever seen. The chair was the most bizarre fusion between an electric chair and a carnivorous plant. The wires, straps and machinery sticking out of it flanged like a viper nest. The boy stepped back and clenched his sphincter. Something told him the chair was there for him. Suddenly, he wished he was locked away in his cell.
Next to the chair, there were two men in protective suits and engineer's helmets, meddling with it and talking animatedly, but Ethan couldn't hear a word through the soundproof glass. Dr. Anderson sighed, sat by the console and took a gooseneck microphone in his hand.
"Are we almost ready, gentlemen? It was supposed to be ready three days ago!"
It was clear it wasn't the first time they were having this conversation and Dr. Anderson was out of patience. One of the engineers showed a thumb up and they started moving some cables and tools aside.
Just then, Ethan heard a nasal voice just next to him. "What are you waiting for, kid? Get naked."
Ethan gasped. Somehow he hadn't noticed Mr. Ogilvy standing right next to him. The big man had this unexplainable motionless stance that made him blend with the surroundings like a chameleon. The boy's shaking fingers started unbuttoning his shirt by themselves. He wished Mr. Ogilvy wouldn't watch him as intently as he did, but he knew he had no choice, so when his shirt was gone, he reluctantly took off his pants and stepped away from them, feeling like a little fish lost inside a supercomputer.
"Please enter the Chair room and sit on the Screening Chair," Dr. Anderson directed when the boy was naked.
"Are you sure I should be naked?" Ethan tried, looking warily at the two engineers in their full suits.
"Do you think I'm making it up as we go, kid? Just do what you're told," Dr. Anderson blurted. "Damn it, I'm having a coffee break after this one."
Ethan took a deep breath. He had to pull it together. There was no escaping it. All he could do was to take it as a man. He thought about Levi. Levi wouldn't complain, he was sure. This thought gave him strength, even if he felt partially guilty for his feelings towards him. He still loved Spencer, he was sure of it. But Spencer was far away.
The engineers were done cleaning up just when Ethan entered the Chair Room. Ethan forced himself to stand confidently before them, owning his nakedness. Deep inside he was squirming, but the two men seemed focused on their job.
"Sit down here," one of them pointed at the chair. From up close, it looked even more intimidating. There were various wires and extensions sticking out of it. In a way, it looked like some kind of a prototype.
The chair was big. Too big. It felt cold on Ethan's skin and the boy gasped when his butt touched the seat. Before he could worry too much about it, the chair's leather straps came to life and wrapped themselves around Ethan's arms and legs. The boy shrieked in terror and wanted to escape but the chair got him good.
"Don't mind the cuffs," one of the engineers said. "It's just so you don't touch yourself."
Touch myself?! Ethan thought to himself. Why on earth would he touch himself in front of all these people.
The men picked up a handful of wires from the floor. He tried to shrink away from them, but the straps held him firmly in place. They began to connect the wires to various parts of Ethan's body, each one feeling like a cold snake as it slithered across his skin.
"These are biofeedback sensors," the other man explained, attaching one to Ethan's forehead. "They'll help us measure your body's response to different stimuli. It's not painful, I promise."
At least these guys seemed nice. Ethan gulped, watching as the man attached another wire to his chest. His heart pounded underneath it, as though trying to escape the foreign object.
Next, they attached a few electrodes to Ethan's thighs. Then they moved to attach sensors near Ethan's groin area, a slight blush creeping onto his cheeks. One of them took the boy's penis in his fingers as if it was just another wire and put on a small ring that looked like a rubber hair band, with a thin wire attached to it. His dick twitched in reaction to the touch and Ethan could've sworn the band tightened itself around the root.
Lastly, they put big, sci-fi looking glasses on his head. Ethan was surprised to see that they seemed completely invisible despite their considerable weight. He blinked a few times to settle them more comfortably.
"All set now," the man said. "Just relax and go with the flow. Oh, and don't close your eyes. You can blink, but don't close them for too long."
"Why?" Ethan asked, however wishing the men would go away already. He felt completely exposed and inadequate in front of them.
"It will trigger a warning sequence."
"Warning sequence?"
"As long as you keep your eyes open, you'll be fine," the man said and they both turned their backs to him and left.
"So, is it working?" Dr. Anderson asked the men when they entered the console room.
"For the most part. The receptive and generative systems work like charm," one of the engineers said. "The main extension is functional, too."
"Which extension?"
"The... penile one," the man smiled, but looking at Dr. Anderson, he didn't consider it good news.
"What about the others?"
"We'll be adding them over the next few days. It's a lot of work."
"Explain it to the boss," the doctor said and turned back to the console. The men left without a word, leaving just him and Ogilvy in the room, and Ethan behind the thick glass.
Ethan was sweating despite the cool air. He could feel the wires tugging gently at his skin with every breath he took, making him hyper-aware of his own body. They were like spider webs, each one connected to him, transmitting signals to the vast console. He felt uncomfortably exposed, vulnerable, and unable to move.
"The procedure will begin shortly, Ethan," Dr. Anderson's voice came through the speakers.
Ethan sat ready, but for about a minute, nothing happened. Maybe that was it. Maybe all they needed him for was to sit there and chill on a chair for a few minutes. It wasn't that bad; he was even getting used to his nudity, as long as he didn't think too much about people watching him.
But then, a digital mist appeared in the room, right in front of him. Before he could focus on it, it took the shape of a beautiful, young blonde woman in a bikini. Ethan blinked. She stood there, fixing her hair, so life-like and alive, he couldn't believe it was just a projection. A few seconds later, the whole room changed around him and turned into a stylish bathroom. Ethan's nostrils were filled with a rosy aroma of bath water and the sound of the flowing water was so realistic that the boy started thinking it was him who got transported into this place, and expected the woman to notice him at any moment. But she didn't. Instead, she unpinned her bra lazily, exposing her breast as it fell on the floor. It was the sexiest, tightest, fullest pair of boobs the world has ever seen.
Just when it happened, the door to the console room opened and the large suited man entered.
"Morning, Doctor," he said in his deep voice. "What's the status?"
Dr. Anderson stood up when he saw him and saluted. "Sir, we just started working on our second subject today."
"At ease, Doctor. Don't let me interrupt you. I wanted to see our new toy in action," he said and Dr. Anderson wondered if he meant the device or Ethan. "I wish we could see what this boy will see.
"We can and we will, Sir." Dr. Anderson pressed a button and two large monitors over their heads came to life.
"What am I looking at, Doctor?"
"This screen shows us the projection from the point of view of the subject. The second screen," he moved the finger, "shows a closeup on our subject, so we can observe his reaction more... closely."
"Fascinating," the mysterious man murmured, as if to himself. "Where's the popcorn?"
"Sir, food isn't allowed inside the screening..."
"I know, I know. Just tell me what it does."
Anderson adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. "This device uses AI models to generate life-like augmented reality projections. It will attempt to find and generate the most... sexually arousing images."
"And how will it know what makes the kid horny?"
"We started with input provided by the boy himself during the interview," he said and pointed at the screen above, where a naked woman was sitting on the edge of a bathtub.
The suited man watched the naked boy's heaving chest, covered with pins, fascinated by primal fear in his eyes. "The girl doesn't seem to do much for our boy, Doctor," he chuckled, pointing at Ethan's dormant penis.
"That was to be expected sir. Let the technology do its magic," Anderson said and pressed a button.
The projection flickered slightly in front of Ethan's eyes, and a second later a handsome young man, looking like a surfer entered the bathroom. The woman smiled and beckoned him. The man was wearing only swimming shorts and the woman pulled them off, exposing his thick, hardening dick. She took it in his hand and started stroking. At the same time, Ethan felt his dick growing between his legs.
"Whatever happened, it seems to be working," the suited man scratched his chin. "Is it the action? Or is our boy into hot studs?"
"Actually, this is something we can check rather... easily." Dr. Anderson pushed another button and a heatmap appeared on the screen showing the AR projection. Red, semi-transparent dots were appearing around the surfer dude's dick. "The glasses are equipped with an eye tracker. We can see exactly what the boy is looking at."
"Amazing," the suited man nodded. "We've found ourselves a big dick lover."
"It's indeed very possible, Sir. The fantasies the boys reveal during the interviews are rarely honest or reliable. But they're a good starting point. If sensors register a strong sexual response from the body, the device will iterate the projections little by little, fine-tuning it for the results that the subject finds... most satisfying. And if there's little or no response, I can switch the model to a more... adventurous mode."
"This technology sounds very powerful."
"Yes, Sir, it's indeed state of the art."
"Then why bother with the interview in the first place?
"We're trying to find out what sexual preferences and... perversions the subjects are most likely to lie about. So far we've found that many teenage boys who have more... uncommon tastes tend to be in strong denial."
"I see. Let's give this adventurous mode a try, then?"
"With pleasure, Sir!" Anderson saluted and pushed a few buttons.
In the console room, the monitor blinked and displayed a message, "Insufficient Subject Response. Randomizing Generation Seed."
Ethan gasped, when the bathroom and the pair disappeared. He looked down at his semi-hardon. To his surprise, the band around his dick morphed into a soft tube. It glistened with lubricant, enveloping his boyhood like a warm blanket.
"So... that's the secret technology," the suited man said quietly in the other room.
Meanwhile, a new image was projected in front of Ethan's eyes. The empty room turned into what looked like an empty classroom. In the middle, there were two high-school boys, wearing only tight speedos and kissing passionately. One of the boys was a slim, but toned sports boy. The other one was slim and had a nerdy look to him, but both were insanely cute. Ethan's dick came to life, twitching with every heartbeat.
"Bingo!" Mr. Ogilvy giggled. The suited man had completely forgotten the man was in the room with them and his voice startled him at first.
Ethan helplessly watched as the nerdy boy went to his knees and pulled the sports boy's speedos down his firm thighs. Without wasting any time, he put his dick into his mouth and started sucking it with gusto.
Ethan could barely breathe. His dick was rock hard and throbbing now. He wanted to touch it badly, but his wrists were trapped. Just then, he remembered that it was only an AI creation, and that he was being watched. He closed his eyes, desperate not to reveal his fantasies to these men.
And then, an electric shock jerked his entire body. "Closed eyes violation" text appeared before his eyes for a few seconds before disappearing. That's it. They got him good. Helplessly, he watched the two boys going at it and listening to their moans - and hating himself for loving it.
In the console room, the chart showing the subject's arousal was reaching 90%.
"It looks like the device is outperforming, Doctor," the suited man said.
"It's not... it's not!" Anderson repeated with annoyance. "The stimulating extension isn't working."
"The tube around his dick?"
"Yes," the older man cringed at the colloquial expression. "The maintenance guys...They were supposed to fix it days ago."
The tube around Ethan's boner was sticky with lubricant and moving slowly like a worm.
"It's supposed to be pumping like crazy," Mr. Ogilvy said helpfully, startling everyone once again.
Dr. Anderson pressed some buttons frantically but it still wasn't working.
"I'll leave you to it, Doctor," the suited man said and moved for the exit. "Our... investors are going to love it. Just make sure it is working."
Dr. Anderson sank into his chair and exhaled when the man left. "He's not going to be happy if we don't make it work soon."
"We will, oh, we will," Mr Ogilvy giggled.
"This doesn't look right. They can't get it working in days. And this is only the first extension. Let's go inside and see."
The vision before Ethan's eyes disappeared when Anderson turned off the device and he saw the two men approach and kneel next to him. Before he could get used to the reality, Dr. Anderson pulled the tube off his erection. Ethan felt a pang of shame as they examined his swollen member.
"The lubricant seems to have done the job, but we should do something about the smell," Doctor noted.
"I think the smell comes from the kid," Ogilvy chuckled. Dr. Anderson took Ethan's penis between his fingers and whiffed.
"I think you're right. But it doesn't explain why it didn't work. It worked fine for the blondie boy."
"Maybe we should add more... essence," Ogilvy said, whispering the last word.
"Not in front of the boy," Anderson scolded him. "But yes... this could work. Indeed it could! Say kid," he faced Ethan, as if only just remembering that he was here. "What did you think? Did you experience any issues? How would you rate the projection?"
Ethan was shaking now and tears of embarrassment were trickling down his cheeks. "Just let me go now, please."
Dr. Anderson and Mr. Ogilvy shared looks.
"Two cry-babies in a row," the doctor shook his head.
"Third time's a charm," Ogilvy giggled.
They uncuffed Ethan from the chair and led him back to the console room. As Ethan started dressing, Dr. Anderson glanced at his erection that refused to go down.
"Important thing, kid. No touching yourself. You're a horny little shit, I get it, but you have to keep your hands off for a while. Unless you want to stay here for a couple more weeks. I'm serious."
Ethan just nodded and finished dressing without looking at him.
"Now go! And tell the next subject to come back tomorrow. We have a lot to do!"
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think archhunter420@gmail.com