Tenth of December

Jeff is a test subject and prisoner at a facility nicknamed Spiderhead because of its central hub with hallways branching off of it. The facility tests new drugs on inmates. Abnesti, Jeff’s handler, uses a device called a MobiPakTM to inject him with drugs via a remote. The drug ED763 makes the Interior Garden Jeff is in seem beautiful, and the drug VerbaluceTM makes him capable of expressing that beauty using sophisticated language.

On another day, a woman, Heather, joins Jeff in Small Workroom 2. Abnesti asks them to say how they feel about each other’s attractiveness. They are injected with a drug that makes them attracted to each other, “Like if you’d dreamed of a certain girl all your life and all of a sudden there she was, in your same Workroom” (47). Jeff and Heather have sex while Abnesti watches. He adds VerbaluceTM to their system and asks them to detail their intense love for one another while they continue having sex. After, they are allowed to stay together for an hour; the drugs start to wane, but Jeff still feels residual love for Heather.

Abnesti changes the drugs to bring them back to normal. They become embarrassed and stop feeling love.