"Hey there, everyone! I'm SpookySarah, and welcome to my stream!" The video, taken one handed, showed a twentysomething brunette wearing a denim jacket and headlamp. "Today, we'll be exploring this abandoned factory! Locals have reported mysterious sounds and moving black figures...could we have a haunting on our hands? Officials have warned the public to stay away, saying the structure is unstable...could this be a cover-up? Tonight, I'm going to find out!" 

Despite Sarah's constant commentary, her initial exploration revealed nothing but rusting, abandoned equipment and crumbing concrete columns. That is, until she came to a door, freshly painted, with a pink hexagonal design in its center. With bated breath, Sarah pushed the door open; it swung open silently, the light from her flashlight sweeping over the interior. Inside stood figures, mannequins, standing in a neat grid with a clear path down the center. 

"This is definitely creepy," Sarah narrated, her flashlight reflecting off the tinted masks and skintight black suits of the figures. "...but not the weirdest thing I've seen." 

She glanced at her camera. There, a beeping alert read 'Connection Lost'. 

"Oh, drat." she said. "Good thing it's still record-" is all she got out before the figures sprang into motion. Her camera was plucked from her fingers, her bag pulled from her shoulder...but she had precious little time to complain as the figures wrestled her to the ground. A sickly-sweet scent filled her mouth and nose as a medical mask was forced against her face. It only took a few seconds before she felt her struggles grow sluggish and weak, her head becoming heavy and tired. The last thing she saw before she slipped into sedated unconsciousness were the black figures towering over her, the light glinting off their tinted black visors as they held her down and everything went black. 

Sarah awoke with a jolt, finding herself restrained not by the mysterious black figures, but by a series of robotic arms holding her in a standing spreadeagle. She could feel a gas mask strapped to her face, although for the moment it fed her crisp, clean air. A series of small LEDs out of the corner of her eye provided the only light, barely illuminating the black cylinder that held Sarah's struggling body. And struggle she did, screaming out for help that would never come until her muscles were sore and her throat was hoarse. 

It seemed like hours before Sarah heard the soft sound of approaching footsteps. "Here." came a voice, a robotic monotone. 

"The subject has been secured, but not sedated. Our existing sedative is not well-suited for long term use."

"Well then," came another voice, sarcastic. "Sounds like you should fix that."

"Affirmative. Acquisition had been determined to be suboptimal and redundant. Parameters have been changed to adapt."

"Don't sass the client, dear." Came a third voice, brisk and professional. There was the clunk and clang of equipment, despite Sarah's pleas for help, for release. 

"Alright." came the second voice again. "Hit it."

"Affirmative." came the first voice. "Sedating subject." 

Once again, the sweet smell filled Sarah's nostrils. She struggled briefly, then stilled as she lapsed back into unconsciousness. 

She awoke slowly the second time, becoming distantly aware of the muffled hum of an engine, the sway of a vehicle. 

"Nhhhhhh..." she groaned, stirring. 

"Man." came a voice, familiar and unfamiliar all at once. "They weren't kidding when they said it was short-term only."

"Different job." came another voice. "different tools." 

Sarah blinked open her bleary eyes, attempting to sit up. Her movement was arrested, and she let out a moan of confusion. 

"Easy now, dear." came a voice from behind her shoulder. "Wakey wakey." Sarah's sleepy eyes focused. In front of her was a seated figure, bound in thick canvas straps to a gurney. The legs were bound to each other and the gurney at the ankles, knees, and thighs, and an off-white straightjacket restrained the patient's upper body. A medical mask was strapped to her face with thick black straps, her blue eyes glazed over and unfocused. Behind her stood a nurse in a professional pink uniform, her eyes smiling with delight. With a start, Sarah realized she was staring at a mirror, her struggles reflected for her to see. 

"There, there..." cooed the nurse. "There's no cause for alarm. We'll arrive at the special hospital shortly, and then you won't have to worry about a thing~"

"Ngggghhhh...." Sarah said, struggling. "Nnnn...no! Let me go!"

"There's no need to be difficult, dear." the nurse said with perfect patience. "You're going to have to accept reality at some point." 

"Screw you!"

"Hm." The nurse said, nonplussed. 

There was a hiss, and Sarah felt a wave of fatigue come over her once more. The nurse smiled beneath her mask as Sarah's head lolled to the side and patted her gently on the head. 

"Sleep well, dear." She cooed. "You've got a long day ahead of you~" 

Sarah awoke to a gentle beeping and bright white lights. She squinted, pulled at her arm to shield her face...but nothing moved. She tried again, but it was as if she was completely fixed in place. 

"Perfect, you're awake." came a voice from behind her. "I see you've noticed the restraints. A custom piece of equipment...impressive, no? A combination of vacuum-sealed latex and an electromagnetic collar keep the patient perfectly still throughout the procedure." 

"Puuhhhhhhh..." Sarah mumbled, trying to think with a head full of cotton. 

"Ah, yes. I would prefer to have you completely awake, to provide a better show, but alas...life is about compromise, no?" 

"Nhhhhhhh..." Sarah moaned, a single tear running down her cheek. 

"Well then. Let us begin, shall we? First, a series of small incisions in the skull, to allow me access to the brain." There was the whirr of an electric saw, and a steady stream of prattle from the doctor. 

"Now that the brain is exposed, we can begin installation of the cybernetic hardware provided by the client." the Doctor said, as much to Sarah as to herself. "The first chip is grafted to the Cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for muscle control and movement." "The second chip is grafted to the Hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for creating and accessing memories. However, the chip has several leads that must be attached to various points of the temporal lobe." The Doctor reached over and patted Sarah's tear-streaked cheek. "Don't you worry, dear. You won't feel a thing. Did you know that the brain lacks any nerve endings of its own? I could poke it with my finger and you would not feel a thing." There was a pause. "See?" 

"Now, forgive me if I cease my lesson for a bit, my dear. Attaching these chips is delicate work." The silence seemed to stretch for hours, broken up only by the Doctor's humming and occasional muttering. Sarah could only imagine what was going on inside her head, and wished she couldn't. 

"There we go, dear...all properly installed and wired. And very neatly done, if I may say so myself. Now to turn them on and preform a basic function check." 

"Nuuuuuuhh...nooooooooooo..." Sarah groaned, launching another bout of fruitless struggling. 

"Oh, don't you worry, dear! The chips draw power directly from your nervous system, so there'll be no messing about with batteries!" "After all"-she giggled to herself-"we wouldn't want me having to pry you open every two months, now would we?" 

There was a sudden pressure in Sarah's head, like a switch labeled 'Migraine' had been switched on and then hurriedly switched back off. She let out a groan, which was ignored. "Ah, perfect. Green lights across the board. Let's stich you back up." 

There was more happy humming, as Sarah's drugged-out brain struggled to comprehend the magnitude of what had occurred. 

"There we go, all finished." the Doctor said happily. "Nurse?" At the edges of Sarah's vision, a door slid open and a tall figure, dressed in red-and-white latex, stepped in. 

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Monitor the patient for any ill effects," she said, taking her gloves off with a snap. "And prep her for a long-term stay in Room 14, Level Blue."

"Yes, Doctor."

"Excellent. I'm off to touch base with the client. I'm sure they would appreciate a status update."

"Yes, Doctor." Sarah's eyes struggled to focus on the advancing figure. "I've heard *all* about you, dear. The Doctor's latest project...I'm glad to see it coming along so well."

"Puhhh...project?" "Indeed. The Doctor doesn't mind doing something special, especially if it allows her to try something new. Especially for the right client."

"Cuh...cli..." 

The nurse ran a finger over a Sarah's stitches. 

"Poor little thing...you had no idea what you were getting into, did you? Still, I can't complain. It's a helluva show." 

"Fuh...fuhh..." Sarah said, as angrily as she could manage. 

"Now, that's enough of that." pushing a button on the IV machine. A second later, the fog in Sarah's head doubled. "Now, then..." the Nurse said. "Let's get you dressed." 

Sarah was vaguely aware of the stiff collar being removed from her neck, the vacbed releasing its pressure before being stripped away. Her vacant eyes fluttered as strong hands slipped her unresisting body into a blue and white latex catsuit, with '#014' over her heart. Another collar, a thin strip of soft plastic unremarkable except for a QR code and RFID chip, was wrapped around her neck and riveted closed. Thick canvas and leather straps were wrapped around Sarah's wrists and ankles, restraining her to the chair. The Nurse tapped a few buttons on her PDA. 

"Vitals stable...everything's looking good!" she said, smiling to herself. "Lets get you to your room."

 Sarah said nothing as she was wheeled through the white hospital hallways. They came to a large set of double doors labeled 'LONG-TERM PATIENTS." The Nurse nodded at the orderlies, and wheeled her patient through as the doors buzzed open. They shut behind her, electronic locks locking with a dull click. With that, the second set of doors before them opened. The Nurse grunted with effort as she pushed the chair along the padded floors. She moved quickly but carefully, eyeing the vents ready to flood the whole wing with sedatives at a moment's notice. The Doctor had made it Quite Clear that, in the case of an escaped patient, any staff members found at fault would join the would-be escapee in a permanent padded cell. No patient had ever escaped their cell, let alone the wing...but still. Although...it was rumored that The Doctor herself had been a patient of this wing, back when Sleepy Smiles Special Hospital had been a typical medical institution. The Nurse knew better than to try and confirm it. It was entirely possible some of the squirming, straightjacked-clad occupants of the padded cells she passed hadn't been clever enough to leave well enough alone. 

With that, she swiped her badge at the door of Room 14, glancing at the security camera above. The door clicked open. Wheeling her patient inside, The Nurse shut the door behind her. Sarah stirred, head lolling as the straps were released and she was laid on the white padded floor. She sat up, groggy, just in time to see the door slam shut. The Nurse had just finished making the required notes on the placard next to the door when she heard the muffled hammering start as Long-Term Patient #014 realized her predicament. She smiled as she wheeled the empty chair down the hall, leaving her to her fate. 

With a huff, Sarah sat down on the padded floor of her cell. She had scoured every padded inch of her cell, looking for a weakness, something, anything...but there was nothing. She had paced for hours until her nerves were frayed, then screamed until she was hoarse, hammering fruitlessly at the door to her cell. Now, exhausted, she lay on the floor and tried not to succumb to despair. 

Suddenly, her body seized up, like she'd been tased. Heaven knows she knew what it felt like, from the rare occasions she was caught poking around where she didn't belong. However, there was no pain...her muscles simply refused to obey, shocked into stillness. And then...her right arm started to move of its own accord. Sarah watched in horror as, with a slight tingle, her bicep flexed...and then relaxed. Then her left bicep, the same slow, smooth motion. Then her glutes, then her calves. The movement was robotic, unnatural...but Sarah could only watch, trapped in her own body, as each and every muscle in her body was slowly flexed and relaxed. 

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the sensation disappeared, and Sarah's body was under her control once more. And so the cycle repeated. Sarah would pace, or scream, or sleep, until her body seized up and was put through its motions with painstaking precision. Food and water were administered three times a day through a slot in the bottom of her cell. At first, she refused to eat...but every time the tray was withdrawn from her cell still laden with food, a short while later she'd wake up, her head fuzzy, her throat sore, and her stomach no longer hungry. 

Unusually for her, she dreamed every night, jumbled messes of past memories. It would have been mind-numbingly boring, if not for the constant dread, dread that only increased more and more every time she seized up and was forced to watch the unseen force puppet her body with ever-increasing dexterity. 

By the tenth day, her body was able to sit up on its own. By the fourteenth, it was able to stand. By the twenty-seventh, it was able to walk around the room without losing its balance. Every day, the unseen force gained greater and more precise control, and every day the duration of its presence grew more and more. On the 53rd day, as Sarah watched her fingers flex in front of her eyes, the slot opened and a tray of food slid into view. With mounting horror, she watched her hand, shaking slightly, reach down to grasp a spill-proof container of tomato soup and bring it to her lips. Her mouth opened of its own accord. Sarah felt the soup being poured down her throat...and felt herself swallow, completely unbidden. Six days after that, Sarah was a prisoner in her own body for all but an hour each day, split up into short intervals of all-too-brief freedom. +

She sat, back straight, and watched her hands use a fork and knife to feed bites of food into her smiling mouth, tears streaming down her cheeks. Four days after, even that was taken away from her as every movement, no matter how small, was removed from her control. She blinked every 15 seconds, no more, no less. She took 12 breaths per minute, no more, no less. Her heart beat at a steady 62 beats per minute, no more, no less. She fell asleep instantly at lights-out, and awoke promptly when the lights switched on at 7am each morning. But even then, Sarah's suffering wasn't over. Her body preformed hours upon hours of exercise; jumping jacks, squats, push-ups, stretches. Even though her muscles weren't hers to control, they ached all the same. And every night, strange dreams, jumbled memories. 

Then, one day, Sarah's body woke up, rose, and stood, unmoving, in front of the door to her cell. A minute later, the door opened. There stood the Nurse, in her red-and-white uniform, with a wheelchair at the ready. Sarah's body turned and sat, unmoving, as the canvas straps secured it to the chair, electrodes fitted to her head. Sarah could only watch, her eyes fixed straight ahead, as she was wheeled into a room, empty except for a large screen. There were footsteps, a door closing, and then silence. It seemed like forever before there was the sound of the door opening once more and a figure in a latex uniform, pink and white, stepped into her field of view. 

"Hello there, Sarah." she said, clipboard in hand. "I'm Dr. Malphren, Head Hypnologist here at Sleepy Smiles Special Hospital, and I'll be administering your treatment today. Before we start, allow me to explain the procedure." she smiled. "Just under four months ago, Dr. Malphren, our Head Surgeon, installed two computer chips in your brain. The first was wired to your motor functions, as I'm sure you've noticed." Sarah did her best to glare. She did not succeed. "The second chip was connected to your memory cortex." The Doctor continued. "Now that your body is up to the client's standards, its time for your mind to follow suit." Sarah could only watch silently with mounting dread. "During your stay, the second chip has been analyzing and categorizing your memories, which were then marked for deletion every night. You may have had some strange dreams." Dr. Steph said with mock sympathy. "Side effect of the process, I'm afraid. When I press this button"-she gestured to her PDA-your existing memories will be deleted, providing a blank slate as requested by the client. They've also requested that we install some programming," she said, gesturing at the screen "which should prove particularly effective once your mind is wiped. Any questions?" 

Sarah's body stared blankly ahead as its helpless occupant struggled desperately to make herself heard.

"Excellent." Dr. Steph said, smiling. "Erasing memories in three...two...one." Sarah...disappeared. Her body, a vacant shell, sat still, half-closed eyes staring blankly ahead. Humming to herself, Dr. Steph placed a pair of headphones over its ears and a mask over its mouth and nose. The gas, formulated to make subjects more responsive and susceptible to hypnosis, was probably overkill, but Dr. Steph's Special Hospital is always happy to go the extra mile for its clients! With another tap on Dr. Steph's PDA, the screen came alive with a flashing spiral. 

PROGRAMMING INITIALIZED, the PDA read. INSTALLING HEX_OS.EXE. ESTIMATED TIME REMAINING: 10:29:59. Dr. Steph, smiling to herself, let the door close behind her. She was sure the client was going to be *very* pleased. After all, she certainly was...

Two figures, dressed in identical white latex uniforms, made their way down the hallways of Sleepy Smiles Special Hospital, stilettoed heels clicking on the white tile. "I appreciate you coming to visit us so quickly, Mx. Hex." Dr. Steph said. "Although the uniform isn't required for visitors."

"What can we say?" the masked figure replied, their voice riding the uncanny valley between organic and synthetic. "We're excited to see the results. And with such a lovely uniform," they continued, doing a little twirl, "it seemed a shame not to." 

Dr. Steph smiled. 

"I'm sure you'll be very pleased with the results. Although I am somewhat surprised you don't already have your own 'covert' Drones."

"Standard HexCorp Dronification Procedures involve permanent installation of Drone Hardware, which does limit covert capabilities somewhat. Maximum efficiency is gained by outsourcing Covert Drone creation until official HexCorp procedures are generated and optimized." 

"Fair enough." Dr. Steph replied, coming to a door. "This way, please." 

Inside the room was a standard hospital bed, Sarah's body secured to it by a network of canvas restraints. It's eyes were closed, a mask over its mouth and nose keeping it sedated. A Nurse, in her red-and-white uniform, stood at attention as the pair approached. 

"Nurse, remove anesthetics from the patient." 

"Yes, Dr. Steph." 

The mask removed, Sarah's body opened its eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling. 

"The chips you've provided worked like a charm. Her body and mind have been prepared according to your exact specifications."

"Excellent." Hex said, stepping closer. "May I?"

"Of course." 

Sarah's body twitched. 

"Covert Drone #0001 Activated." it said in Sarah's voice. "Connection to the HexCorp Drone Hive established."

"Wonderful~" Hex purred. 

Their body shuddered, and a second later Sarah's body did the same. 

"Drone #0006 Activated. Welcome, Hive Mxtress." it said, in Sarah's voice. Then, in Hex's voice: "Oh, wonderful! You did an excellent job!" their eyes flicked to the restraints. "Do you mind?"

"Oh, of course not. Nurse!" The two of them, assisted by the Drone, quickly removed the restraints from the freshly-minted Drone. It stood, smiled, and offered Dr. Steph its hand. 

"You did an excellent job, Doctor. The money has been wired to your account."

"The pleasure is all mine, Mx. Hex. Let me walk you out." The three figures once again walked through the hallways of Sunny Smiles Special Hospital, the now-empty Drone pushing a cart laden with data drives, the sole remaining evidence of Sarah's existence. All her memories, her entire life, compressed down to ones and zeros, as her body became part of the hive, just another Drone. Dr. Steph watched the Drones pile into their car, wave, and drive away. It had been a most fulfilling assignment...and it had opened up many exciting possibilities for future...experiments~