by P J Mann
Laura wasn’t really into extreme sex and bondage, but she was curious about it. Mostly she was curious about Sabina and wondered what it was like to be her.
She lightly shook her head, finding her thoughts quite silly.
“What are you thinking?” Questioned Sabina noticing Laura’s expression.
In that very same moment, the telephone rang. “Hello, this is Laura Jefferson,” she said answering the phone.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Jefferson, we are trying to get in touch with Ms. LaMotte, have you seen her?” Dr. Wright asked.
“Yes, she is with me, where do we need to be?”
“I am calling people separately, so I would like to ask her if she can come downstairs and meet me at the reception.”
Laura looked puzzled at Sabina, who started silently to giggle. “Oh, Ok, I will tell her to come downstairs.”
“Perfect. Afterward, I would like to have the same talk with you, so I will let Ms. LaMotte call you once we are finished with our conversation.”
The individual meeting was necessary to deliver the personalized dose of drugs each of them were supposed to take during the whole period. Dr. Wright also gave each of them the same bracelet, where the sensors that would have recorded the values during the entire period were. The small devices she noticed close to the bed were supposed to be connected wirelessly to the bracelet, to record the quality of her sleep.
One after another all the other patients were called, and in the evening, during dinner, they gathered together in the dining hall, prepared to kick-off the therapy with a proper meal.
Dr. Wright explained that, although the hotel was rented for the whole month only for them, the services offered would have remained the same so that the rooms would have been cleaned between ten and twelve o’clock in the morning.
“Anyway, during that time, we will have our group therapy, followed by lunch. In your room, you will find the full schedule for the first week. There are a few options you can choose for the afternoon activities besides the individual psychotherapy sessions,” Dr. Wright explained. “All form of communications, particularly mobile phones and computers will be forbidden. This is not because we want to isolate you, but we all realize the negative impact that electronic devices have on the quality of sleep. During this month, you will have to learn again how to relax and detach from the daily issues that might keep you awake during the night. For this reason, we need to eliminate every source of distraction from the task.”
He took a pause to notice the general reaction to that rule, but it seemed like everybody understood the point, and none of them had anything to object. After all, there was a telephone at the reception desk, and in case of necessity, they could use it to communicate with their families.
Dr. Wright smiled satisfied and gestured to one of the members of the staff to collect the mobile phones of each patient.
“Don’t you worry, you will get them back the day you leave this hotel,” Dr. Wright reassured.
Laura glanced at Sabina with a sort of concerned expression. Sure, she was aware of the adverse influence of the electronic devices on the quality of sleep. However, Laura would have never imagined that Dr. Wright would have went to such a drastic measure by forbidding their use. Mainly she wasn’t sure about giving away her mobile phone.
To be sure she switched it off hoping that it would have been enough to protect her personal data stored inside.
“I guess it is just to be sure we won’t use them, don’t be afraid,” Sabina whispered, while she handed her device to the waiter.
With a deep sigh, also Laura gave away her mobile, realizing she was more dependent on it than she ever thought she would be. Perhaps this is also a way to understand that I am using it too often. Maybe this is also the cause of my insomnia; who knows? She thought.
In the evening, Sabina remained with her until the hour grew late. She would have stayed with Laura also for the whole night if it weren’t for one of the maids who came to announce that it wasn’t allowed for any of the guests to share the room during the night.
“This is such a pity, I would have loved spending time with you. But I guess it is time for our good night’s sleep,” she said sarcastically as she left Laura’s room, followed by the maid.
“I would have also loved to spend the first night with her; I’m starting to feel lost,” she said aloud.
She looked at the bedside table and grabbed the pillbox she received from Dr. Wright. “One before sleeping,” she read.
With a sigh, she took one of the pills, connected the monitoring devices to the bracelet, and tried to fall asleep.
She felt tired, and although she doubted she would have ever been able to sleep for the whole night, Laura decided that at least she would have rested her eyes by keeping them closed.
It was about midnight, and Dr. Wright was still awake, inputting his notes on the computer, trying to make a record of that day with the details he got from the individual interviews with his patients.
He was relieved by the fact of having to deal with only six of them, although they were just a few, the material he could gather was enough to keep him awake until the wee hours of the morning.
A light buzz of his phone announced an unexpected call.
“Hello,” he replied.
“Good evening, or perhaps I could also say good morning, considered the time. I hope I didn’t wake you up,” said a familiar voice.
Dr. Wright startled as he realized who was calling him. “Mr. M, this is quite a surprise. I was not expecting any calls, particularly from you. However, despite the late or early hour, I was still awake, working on the assessment of each of our patients.”
“Any interesting results yet?”
“Not yet, but I wasn’t expecting any until they start with the first dose of the drug. From tomorrow on, I presume I can have more details to share with you,” Dr. Wright replied.
“I understand…” he replied thoughtfully. “I was just wondering whether you consider any of your patients able to achieve any results in a shorter time.”
“This is difficult to say yet. However, there are a couple of girls who seem to be quite an interesting case. They are completely the opposite of the other, but they share some similarities which might be worth to explore in detail,” Dr. Wright replied. “Their names are Sabina LaMotte and Laura Jefferson.”
“Interesting, what can you say about the others?”
“They are very similar cases as the previous one; surely you remember Ethan Jackson.”
“Unfortunately, I do remember, it had been the most expensive case in the whole experimentation so far. Nevertheless, Mr. Jackson gave us excellent results. Now, I hope that with the new development of the drug, we can reach results before the end of the forecasted month.” Mr. M. said bitterly.
“I am sorry for that case… Prof. Doyle and I believe we can indeed hope for a better result this time out, and whether this might or not be the case when we can have results before the planned time, it is indeed a starting point to new developments.”
“Well, keep me informed. I will be waiting for some positive news. Good night,” He replied hanging up and ending the conversation.
Dr. Wright remained to look at the phone and wondered whether he had to call Prof. Doyle about the possibility to shorten the times.
He glanced at the clock, “I can’t call him at this time. There will be time tomorrow to have a chat with him. Meanwhile, I should also try to get some sleep, or I will soon be the one who needs some sleep therapy. But first I need to prepare something…”
Jonathan woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. He was sure he heard some noises coming from the corridor and wondered whether any of the other guests were having a night walk.
He walked toward the door and listened carefully, but it seemed like he must have been dreaming about it, as the silence in the hotel seemed total.
He walked back to the bed, but again he heard the same noises as if someone was wa
lking outside. He tried to open the door to check what was going on out in the corridor, but to his great surprise, he found it locked.
“What the hell…” he said. “First you take our mobile phones, and now you are locking us in our rooms? Had you at least informed us about this little detail, I would have run away back to my home.”
He opened the windows and went to the balcony, for some reason, he found himself looking for a way to escape. A safe route that would have divided him from that sort of prison.
He shook his head; “all I need to do is to tell them whenever I can that my therapy time is over. I am not in prison, and besides, I can always contact the reception by telephone.”
He remained for a while to look outside at the peace of that place, and then the lights caught his attention in a couple of other rooms which were on. “Yes, we are here with the same old problem. I presume we all feel excited to start this therapy and sleeping in these luxurious rooms won’t make things any easier.” he chuckled.
He returned to his room, knowing that there wouldn’t have been any sleep to be found for him for the rest of the night, and regretted not having brought anything to read with him. “I was sure that we could keep our mobile phones with us, so to have a way to spend the night. But maybe it is better this way.”
Laura woke up and noticed that it was still dark outside; she looked at the watch she had on the bedside table and sighed. “It is only three o’clock in the morning, what am I supposed to do for the next four hours?” she said switching on the light.
She glanced over at the monitoring device wondering whether they would continue to record even if she was far from the bed and walked to the restroom. She looked at her image in the mirror “at least I can say that I slept for three full hours.”
That didn’t seem to console her; three hours were better than the usual two, but she also had nights with four hours of sleep.
To be honest, she wasn’t sure what she had to expect from her first night, perhaps it was also too early to be expecting any results. Nevertheless, she couldn’t stop feeling frustrated about it.
She returned to her bed, grabbed one book and continued to read, hoping that, at least the recordings could have given Dr. Wright with the right amount of information to help her with the problem.
She could not read, everything in that room seemed to grab her attention even when she was not looking at it.
She dropped her book on the bed and looked around, when her gaze met the pillbox. She grabbed it and observed it. There was no information whatsoever about the contents, and she wondered whether it could contain anything she shouldn’t take.
“Why should I be always this paranoid? I went through thousands of tests to get the right dosage, they would have noticed if there was something not suitable…”
She placed it back and resumed her reading.
A few hours later, at 07:00 am, she was awoken by the alarm clock, and she felt surprised about two things. The first was that she could fall asleep again, and the second was that she felt as rested like she had never felt before.
For the first time in many years, she woke up in a good mood ready to start the day with the new therapy sessions.
At the breakfast table, Jonathan expressed his concerns about the fact that the door of his room was locked the whole night.
It seemed like he was the only one who noticed that and the noises coming from the corridor, but on the other hand, nobody even tried to open their door.
Dr. Wright arrived after a few minutes; he looked tired like he hadn’t slept the whole night. “Good morning everybody,” he greeted with a slight smile on his face.
“It seems like we are not the only ones who suffer from insomnia,” Carolina chuckled.
Dr. Wright nodded, smiling, “I had quite a few things to do last night, but I hope to have a better sleep for the following nights. How about you? How was your first night?” He asked.
“I have a question before we all start describing our first experience,” Jonathan snapped.
“Certainly, is there something wrong?” Dr. Wright wondering about his sudden challenging tone.
“Oh, you bet there is! Last night I heard some strange noises coming from the corridor. I wanted to go out and check what it was, but the door of my room was locked. Are we prisoners here?” Jonathan dared.
Dr. Wright sighed, “I should have told you about that, and the fact is that I forgot to tell you. During the night your doors get automatically locked. This doesn’t mean that you are in prison, or that you cannot escape. The idea is to have a full night monitoring of your activity, and if you could go for a night stroll, the recording would not be complete.
“I am sorry for having forgotten these details but believe me in case of an emergency or for whatever reason you need to leave your room, the reception will be reachable 24/7. As I mentioned before, you are free to interrupt your therapy whenever you please, and if you feel like this detail makes you uncomfortable, I cannot stop you from leaving this hotel at any time; even right away.”
Jonathan lowered his gaze, feeling a perfect idiot for snapping that way. “I am sorry; I should have waited for your explanation, before accusing you of any kidnapping.”
“What a cabron!” said Gabriel, shaking his head.
“Hey! Watch your tongue! Who do you think you are to speak to me like that? I bet that if you were the one to discover this detail, you would have acted the same way,” Jonathan protested.
“Oh, shut up you two, and let us all have our breakfast in peace. If you have any issues, go outside and solve your problems,” Carolina said with a clearly exhausted tone in her voice.
Dr. Wright glanced at everyone, “Please, let’s not get upset about this little issue. I admit that it is my fault in the first place, and Mr. Abbey’s complaints are well-founded. I believe none of us would have found it funny to discover that our doors were locked. There is no shame in his reaction, and during this month we will have to focus mainly on the therapy, rather than the future issues we might have with one another.”
Gabriel nodded, “you’re right, sorry Jonathan.”
“No big!” he replied, and finally everyone could start eating their breakfast, exchanging the experiences they had during their first night in the hotel.
It seemed clear, that everyone started with a bit longer night of sleep than their usual couple of hours and found their mood much improved, except for some cases.
There were plenty of activities to be chosen, but Laura opted for the yoga and evening meditations. She hoped that relaxing her mind from all the worries and thoughts she had during the day would have helped her in falling asleep faster and in keeping herself asleep for the whole night.
During the second night, however, Laura was also awakened by some noises coming from the corridor; she knew that the doors would have been locked during the night. Yet, since the door was quite heavy, if there were a thief, he would have quite a difficult time in trying to open the doors.
She walked outside on her balcony, to see whether there was something suspicious to be spotted, but everything seemed to be quiet.
“So, I’m not the only one to hear strange noises,” said Jonathan as he noticed Laura on the balcony.
She turned her gaze to him, startled by his voice. “Jeez, you scared me,” she replied. “But I have heard something coming from the corridor too, what do you think it is?”
“I don’t know, but it is the same noise I heard last night. I doubt it is a thief, as there are plenty of surveillance cameras installed in the whole property, but I would like to know where it comes from.” He replied.
“Moreover, our doors besides being locked are also quite heavy, and to open them would require a certain effort, this might give us the time to call for help,” she replied. “Hey! Why don’t we try calling the reception, if we cannot look outside in the corridor, they might do it for us.”
“That is a brilliant idea! I’ll go call them,” that said, he disappeared
back into his room.
After a few minutes, he came back.
“So, what did they say, will they check and call you back?” Laura wondered.
“Yes, they said that although they can’t see anybody from the cameras, they will send a guard. I am not sure they will call me back, but I feel better now that I know someone is going to take care of this noise.”
They both returned to their rooms and Laura looked once again at her watch. It was 04:15.
“Should I read something or try to fall asleep again? There are only a couple of hours until the wake-up time.”
She decided that just like the previous night, she would have started reading a book, hoping to fall asleep again. However, this time it felt a bit different. Perhaps it was the noises coming from the corridor that shook her nerves, but she could not fall asleep anymore.
Regardless of this detail, she didn’t feel too tired and following the group therapy, and then the individual therapy and the programs for the day wasn’t too hard for her.
Nevertheless, as she reached her bedroom later that evening, she started to feel tired. And she fell asleep almost immediately.
She was sleeping so soundly that she didn’t hear anything coming from the corridor, like those strange noises suddenly stopped, to let all the guests fall asleep.
Chapter 4.
The next morning before breakfast, Dr. Wright called Prof. Doyle. He had intended to call him already the previous day, but he was overwhelmed with the program that he couldn’t find any reasonable time to do that.
“Good morning Bernard,” greeted Prof. Doyle.
“Hello, I was calling you because I received a call from our client during the first evening of our experiment,” Dr. Wright started to explain.
“Really? Why did he call you so early?”
“He wanted to understand whether there was the possibility to try a shorter time frame for the test. I told him that this wasn’t something I could reply to straight away, and I promised to call him as soon as I had any results that could give us a hint on possibly moving in that direction. However, you are the one who took the tests, and you are more suitable than me to answer those questions.