Tied tightly to a chair. The rope nearly cutting his skin. A beam of light shines on Steve’s head, casting a shadow on his face.

Two restraints shoot out of the headrest, locking his skull in place. A visor lowers from somewhere. A soothing voice echoes in Steve’s ears, “There is no reason to be nervous. Improvements are necessary.” Even so, sweat dribbles down his face.”What the hell is going on?” Steve spits out.

“You need to relax,” the voice says. The visor moves in on Steve’s eyes, and an image appears.

Not an image; a nightmare. Steve sees his life, his memories, his sorrows, his pain, his suffering, his losses, his rejections, all of it, flashing in his mind. Then, the worst pain of all shoots through his brain as a never ending bright light blinds him. Drills sawing his skull into pieces of bony fragments could not feel worse.

After hours of pain, he is released to the world. But not as something happy. The world is now a terrible place of misery. Steve’s world is now broken.*