Zoey’s first thought upon clawing up from her drug-induced haze was that the experiment had gone horribly wrong.

Light offered a merciless greeting as she awoke, brown eyes blinking against the glare, and it took a few moments for them to adjust and reveal that she was back in the lab, if the endless bottles of chemical solutions and reagents surrounding her was any indication. She was lying down upon a table, the metal uncomfortably cold against her bare skin, yet when the beautiful Asian scientist tried to rise, something held her in place to the sound of creaking leather. “Mmmpppgghhh…” she moaned, something rubbery and spherical filling her mouth and reducing her speech to guttural utterances. “Mmmmppggghhh?” She remembered coming back to the lab after completing some errands for Dr. Michael, of heavy footfalls sounded behind her as a sickly-smelling cloth was forced over her nose and mouth, and now…

“Mmmmppgggghhhh!” The shock set in, burning away the fog clouding her thoughts, and with a start, she realized she’d been strapped down to one of the lab’s surgical tables. Bands of leather held her spread-eagled at the wrists, ankles, waist and throat, all as unyielding as iron and leaving her pinioned as helplessly as any insect from Dr. Michael’s collection. Worst still, she’d been stripped down to her bra and panties, her usual outfit of a silk blouse, mid-length skirt and lab coat callously discarded upon a nearby shelf. “Mmmmpggghhh!” she screamed again, the leather mask gag covering her nose and mouth swallowing the force of her cries and only deepening her terror. “MMMPPPGGGHHH!”

“Ahh, good to see you awake, my beauty.” The voice sounded familiar, yet was not, for there was an arrogance in it, an oiliness that seemed completely out of place from the speaker. A figure stepped in front of the light, and Zoey flinched as a warm hand caressed her forehead, like one might a favoured pet. “You need to be conscious for this experiment, after all.”

Heart pounding at her breast, Zoey realized it was Dr. Michael looming over her, and her employer, normally so self-effacing, gave a cruel sneer. “You’ll have to tell me what being drugged was like. I’ve never experimented with chloroform before, at least not with a human subject.” A manic gleam suddenly entered his eyes, sending a shudder through Zoey’s curvy frame. “Indeed, there are so experiments tests I want to run on you.”

“MMMPPGGGHHH!” She caught a glimpse of the empty vial in the breast pocket of his lab coat, the sight of the label confirming all her worst fears. For years now, Michael had been developing a revolutionary new drug designed to boost one’s confidence, a silver bullet for introverts longing to fit in, the painfully self-conscious and those with crippling confidence issues. No more would these people be forced to live in loneliness and regret or be too afraid to seize opportunities, he’d insisted more than once. It had become something of an obsession for the good doctor, and though she respected her employer, Zoey could see why. He was a timid man, forever uncomfortable in his own skin, never mind around other people, the sort who could certainly benefit from his own research.

Even so, the compound he’d produced was only experimental, unstable, their early tests producing a notable increase in confidence at the complete loss of empathy and restraint. Yet Zoey could not fail to understand the significance of the vial in his pocket, and her struggles intensified as the terror set in. “Why look so shocked, my beauty?” Michael demanded, having noticed where her gaze lay. “You didn’t honestly think I wouldn’t take advantage of what I’d created, did you? Now I feel better than ever!” A hand settled on her bare thigh, provoking a shudder of fear. “And now I can go after all the things I’ve always wanted.”

“MMMPPGGGHHH!” Zoey tried squirming away, twisting her head about his breath fell hot upon her neck. “MMMMPPPPPGGGHHH!”

“How many times have I watched you from the corner of my eye, too cowardly to express myself? Too frightened of being rejected or blacklisted?” Michael whispered, and his hand moved up and down along her naked skin. “I know you’ve always pitied me, Zoey, and I can understand, for I’ve always been a weakling. But the experiment was a success. I’m never going back to what I was before, and I’m never letting you go.”

“MMMMPPGGGHH, MMPPPPGGGGHHH!” the Asian woman screamed in horror, the sound echoing off the polished tiles of the lab. “MMMPPPGGGHHHH!”

“Now it’s time to run some experiments on you, my beauty. Are you ready?"