Figures shift in haze. Yellow light. Cold. Smell of cortisol, antiseptic. Lines threaded through your spinal column.

Fingers move inside your back.

Incursion. Threat.

Get up.

[Can’t.]

Full-body lockout. Like sleep paralysis. [All you can do is twitch.] Fingers still moving in your back. Crawling. Insects. Centipedes. [Centipedes are not insects. Predatory arthropods belonging to class Chilopoda subphylum Myriapoda.] No pain. Only twitching discomfort.

There should be pain.

Stop.

[Centipedes.]

[Please stop.]

Pressure. Warmth. Base of your skull. Splay of fingers across skin.

Little circles against your nape.

Handler.

Handler’s voice. 3-1. All-clear. Ease. Trigger punches through the haze. Received. Safe. Struggling ceases.

Lines in your upper spinal column are Handler’s. Body lockout is Handler’s. Necessary, then. Hard to understand. [Anaesthetic.] Necessary, too. Handler.

That’s it. Good.

Pad of Handler’s thumb. Circles against your nape.

Still.

Safe.