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Dylan sat on the edge of the cold examination table in the soft grey pajamas they always made him wear, his bare feet dangling a few feet from the floor. Goosebumps rippled up his legs from the cold breeze rushing over him from the vent above his head.
Darling hummed while he worked, some cheerful little tune Dylan didn't recognize, while two technicians held his head steady and pressed the metal plate against the back of Dylan's skull.
"Remember, this is just a precaution," Darling said. He crouched so their faces were level and smiled with his eyes. "Protocol. We test every unit on the subject who will wear it. Can't have an unproven failsafe, can we? What if you ever... lost control?"
Dylan didn't answer. He watched his own hands twist together in his lap. They looked very small.
Darling glanced at the technicians and gave a little nod, still smiling.
The current hit like a nail driven straight through the top of his spine. His arms locked. His lungs seized. The world went white and distant and very, very small. He could hear himself making a sound - high, animalistic - but it seemed to come from somewhere else very far away.
It'll just be a few seconds, Darling had promised before he called the technicians in earlier. Just long enough to make sure it works.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight-
They kept it on long enough for Dylan's vision to tunnel. Long enough for wet warmth to spread down his legs. Long enough that when they switched it off he collapsed forward into Darling's waiting arms like a puppet with cut strings.
Darling patted his back in slow, measured strokes while Dylan's body kept shaking. His jaw had locked so hard his teeth audibly clicked together with every tremor.
"Good job, Dylan. There now. Next time will be easier. You're going to be very strong one day, you know. Very strong..."
They tested it again the next month. And the month after that. Protocol, they said. Always protocol.
By the sixth month Dylan no longer flinched when they reached for the remote. He just closed his eyes and counted the seconds in the dark behind his eyelids, waiting for the white nail, waiting for the lesson Darling was so sure he needed to learn.
Just protocol, he told himself, the way the grown-ups always said it.