Reprogrammed

Chelsea squirmed uncomfortably in her bus seat. Part of her discomfort was knowing that this was far outside the city limits, as it had been an hour since she had seen a tall building. Another part of it was to do with the fact that the girl on her right was crying softly into her hand. And of course the fact that Chelsea was handcuffed to her armrest.

She had never been what you could call an ordinary girl. She had been the girl with purple hair in junior high, or the eyeshadowed goth at parties. Sure, she had partied a lot, but any was too much for her parents. They were the squarest people on the planet. She wasn't sure if they had ever even had sex since they concived her. They had, of course, been mortified at the thought of having a punk daughter. They had tried counseling, talking and even spanking, but Chelsea just laughed it off. It was part of the punk lifestyle after all, wasn't it? Getting in trouble? At least until this morning.

Her parents had woken her up to tell her that they had signed her up for treatment at St. Agnes' rehabilitation centre. At this place, they told her, they could reprogram your mind with various psychological procedures. Some would involve punishment for past misdeeds, others would be slightly more complex.

Chelsea didn't have any say at all. One minute she was asleep, next she was being escorted bleary eyed and confused out the door to the bus she now sat on. It had only been when they snapped the handcuff on her that it clicked that it was happening. After this six month program, she would never be herself again. She didn't even know what her parents had wanted her to be programmed to be!

But now the bus was stopping and the girls onboard were muttering amongst themselves. They had stopped at a gate in a long fence. The driver said some words to the guard and he opened it. Chelsea could see the sides of a huge complex ahead...