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Chapter 88: Gay Treatment

  Micah’s Rehabilitation – Columbus Compound, Interior Therapy Chamber.

  The room is quiet, sterile, lit by warm overhead lights and geometric shadows from narrow windows. Dr. Li Chen stands in a white tunic, clipboard in hand. Her face is composed, but not cold—an expression of conviction, not cruelty.

  Micah Vega sits on a reclined therapy chair—restrained gently, not forcefully. His eyes are red. He’s wearing loose white linen pants, his shirt removed.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  You are not being punished, Micah.

  You are being realigned.

  She nods to the assistant, who hands her a thin rattan switch. A single sh strikes across Micah’s back — sharp, not brutal. His muscles tense, but he does not cry out.

  DR. LILA CHEN (quietly)

  One sh per day.

  Pain is not the punishment. It’s the mirror.

  She steps forward and gently pces two pills in his hand.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Swallow.

  Nausea suppressants first. These are for rewiring reflexes.

  Micah complies, shivering. She dims the lights and begins the visual therapy—a projection of male and female images, alternated with scripture from the Six Commandments, overid with binaural tones and the voice of Hezri reciting mantras.

  She speaks softly as the hypnosis begins.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  “Your desires are echoes.

  They are not your identity.

  You are a man made to protect, not perform.”

  She moves behind him and pces her hand lightly on his forehead.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Now breathe.

  Remember your father’s voice.

  Your childhood home.

  The woman who made you ugh in fifth grade.

  His face twitches—conflicted.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  We will walk backward through your history

  Until the detour breaks.

  Until what is unnatural loses grip.

  She ends the session with counseling—asking him to describe his first shame, his first isotion. Then a spiritual intervention: Li ys hands on his shoulders, and a nearby female clergy reads from the “Revealed Law.”

  Each day will blend psychological, spiritual, physical intervention.

  DR. LILA CHEN (softly, almost motherly)

  Micah, when this is done…

  You will look in the mirror and finally say,

  "That’s me."

  ***

  Elder Yoder's Suspicion – Amish Home, Southwest Ohio.

  Evening shadows stretch over the wooden porch as Elder Jacob Yoder sits with his hands on his p, a worried crease between his brows. The community is finishing dinner. Ruth Ann clears dishes quietly.

  ELDER YODER

  Ruth Ann.

  She stops.

  ELDER YODER

  Micah has not returned from the loft.

  His cot was cold this morning.

  She turns, feigning concern masterfully.

  RUTH ANN

  You don’t think he ran?

  Yoder stands slowly.

  ELDER YODER

  He was afraid. But not foolish.

  (beat)

  No note. No sign of struggle.

  The brothers saw no footprints past the fence.

  He looks at her closely now, his gaze sharpened.

  ELDER YODER

  You were the st to bring him food.

  Ruth Ann keeps her eyes lowered—innocent, calm.

  RUTH ANN

  I only brought cornbread.

  Elder Yoder walks to the window, silent. The wind picks up.

  ELDER YODER (quietly)

  If the 6C took him…

  Then someone among us spoke too freely.

  (beat)

  Or someone stopped believing.

  Ruth Ann doesn’t flinch. She walks to the sink, scrubs a pte with exact, rhythmic care.

  RUTH ANN

  God knows who belongs to Him.

  Yoder’s eyes narrow—still unsure, still watching.

  Outside, the wind chimes jangle softly, like a warning.

  ...

  Interior – Columbus Rehabilitation Compound, Therapy Chamber. Dim Light. Quiet.

  Micah lies on the cot. His arms are free now. The walls no longer feel like a prison—they feel… silent. Softly humming white noise buzzes in the vents above.

  MICHAH (INTERNAL MONOLOGUE)

  It’s quiet now.

  Not just the room. My head.

  The buzzing… the shame… it’s not gone, but it’s—familiar. Like an echo you can name.

  I used to dream in color. Men’s voices, hands, a love I never said aloud. But now… I dream of Lena’s eyes. Of Ruth Ann’s voice reading scripture. Of a home with four children and a garden. A wife… with ughter like the woman in the therapy slides.

  I don’t know if they pnted that image in me… or uncovered it.

  Dr. Chen says pain isn’t the punishment—it’s the mirror. But today’s sh didn’t burn. It brought relief. Like a part of me needed to confess without words.

  I used to think reconditioning was cruelty. But I haven’t cried in five days. I sleep. I eat. I don’t panic when they say “fatherhood.”

  I still remember his name… the man I loved.

  But now, when I say it in my head, it feels far away. Like a nickname from a life I wasn’t supposed to live.

  They keep telling me I’m returning. Not changing. Returning.

  What if they’re right?

  A man made to protect, not perform.

  That line used to enrage me. Now it just… fits.

  I don’t know what’s real anymore. But I do know that this:

  Every day, I feel more like them… and less like me.

  And maybe that’s the point.

  ...

  Scene: Courtyard Garden – Late Afternoon

  Micah sits on a stone bench beneath a fig tree. A light wind stirs the leaves. Across from him, Jonas pours herbal tea from a cy thermos into two cups.

  JONAS

  You’re in week three, right?

  Micah nods, hands slightly trembling as he accepts the tea.

  JONAS

  That’s when it starts to… click.

  The mind softens. Stops resisting.

  MICAH (quietly)

  Or forgets.

  Jonas leans forward with a half-smile, not unkind.

  JONAS

  Not forgetting. Peeling back.

  Layers that weren’t supposed to be there.

  He sips his tea, eyes scanning the garden.

  JONAS

  They told you about the chemicals, right?

  The ones in food, pstics, water—estrogen mimickers, testosterone disruptors.

  MICAH

  I thought that was a conspiracy theory.

  JONAS

  That’s what they want you to think.

  They feminize the modern male.

  Turn confusion into identity.

  But confusion is not creation. It’s damage.

  Micah is silent. He swirls the tea in his cup.

  JONAS (gently)

  The urges we had—they weren’t sins we chose.

  But they weren’t “us,” either.

  They were reactions to a poisoned world.

  (beat)

  This pce doesn’t punish you for being broken.

  It just… remembers what you were before.

  Micah blinks, unsettled.

  MICAH

  And you… don’t feel it anymore?

  JONAS

  No.

  I see men now, and I feel nothing.

  I see my wife, and I burn.

  Like I was always meant to.

  Micah’s eyes flicker with a strange envy—and fear.

  MICAH

  You really believe they fixed you?

  JONAS

  No.

  They didn’t fix me.

  They unmasked me.

  (leans closer)

  And you, brother—you're almost there.

  I see it in your voice.

  ...

  Scene: Evaluation Chamber – Columbus Rehabilitation Center

  The room is quiet, clinical, yet warm in tone. Soft lighting. A monitoring screen. Electrodermal response sensors attached to both Micah and Jonas, seated separately with modesty panels between them.

  Dr. Li Chen, wearing a clean ivory coat over an olive silk blouse, speaks into a mic. Her tone is clinical, calm, almost maternal.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Today’s test will assess progress in reflexive arousal and memory activation.

  Level 1: Neutral male images.

  Level 2: Shirtless men.

  Level 3: Personal memory stimuli—recorded footage of previous partners.

  Jonas closes his eyes briefly, then opens them with calm readiness. Micah looks tense, already breathing slower than normal.

  DR. LILA CHEN (into headset)

  Commencing Level 1.

  Images fsh silently on screen—photos of unknown men, clothed, standing casually.

  On a monitor beside them, Li watches two graphs:

  Jonas: Stable. Minimal pulse increase. Normal galvanic skin response.

  Micah: Slight spike. Eye movement sharpens. Subtle tension in jaw.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Level 2. Shirtless rotation.

  Record EEG patterning.

  Jonas remains still, seemingly unaffected. He drinks water calmly when offered.

  Micah shifts slightly. His pupils dite. Breathing heavier.

  DR. LILA CHEN (V.O.) – field note recording

  Jonas: 1-year subject. 80% rehabilitative success. No signs of involuntary arousal.

  Micah: Week 3. 20% desensitization. Sexual imprinting not yet detached from male fixation.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Final sequence. Personal archive footage.

  Micah’s screen shows a short clip—his former love interest, ughing beside a river, touching his shoulder, smiling gently.

  Micah exhales sharply. He tries to look away, but his eyes return. A clear spike on the monitor. Shame floods his face.

  Jonas’s footage pys—his ex in a café, waving pyfully. Jonas barely reacts.

  DR. LILA CHEN (softly)

  End test.

  ...

  Briefing Room – Same Afternoon

  Ruth Ann, Amara, Rebekah, Lena, and Ava sit around a small marble table with mint tea and notes. Dr. Chen enters with a tablet, face serene.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  You all wanted to understand the methodology. The science of conviction.

  Today’s tests reveal the split between memory and instinct.

  Jonas has neutralized both. Micah—still heavily memory-bound.

  She pauses, handing the tablet to Ruth Ann.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Knowledge breeds compassion. Not pity.

  This is why 6C made all testing transparent.

  It’s not punishment—it’s process.

  AMARA

  Western critics call it barbaric.

  DR. LILA CHEN (smiling thinly)

  Yet they injected hormonal blockers into children.

  We use herbs, fasting, prayer, psychology—and yes, pain.

  But we restore nature, not rewrite it.

  REBEKAH

  And the Muslim world?

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Appuded it.

  Fatwas of praise came from Morocco to Maysia.

  “Mercy through crity,” one schor said.

  She touches Ruth Ann’s shoulder gently.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Micah still remembers. But he also obeys now.

  In time, he will forget.

  (beat)

  And that, my daughters, is healing.

  ...

  Training Room – Columbus Rehabilitation Center

  A polished, serene room. No harsh lights. The walls dispy charts of emotional cycles, neural maps, and diagrams of “Abrahamic Order & Psychology.”

  Dr. Li Chen stands at a lectern. Ruth Ann and Lena Brooks sit attentively in fitted gray uniforms—neither harsh nor sexualized, but striking in crity and control.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Correction isn’t punishment. It’s reorientation.

  You are not here to inflict pain. You are here to separate noise from truth.

  Desire is not a sin. Persistence in disordered desire is.

  She walks toward them, handing each a training folder beled: Behavioral Correction: Tier I Protocols.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  You begin with three modules:

  Hormonal mapping through smell, sound, and color.

  Emotional redirection therapy.

  Introduction to psycho-affective fasting.

  LENA (calmly)

  How do we know when a subject is ready for restoration?

  DR. LILA CHEN

  When they stop arguing… and start asking questions.

  RUTH ANN (softly)

  Like I did?

  Li gives her a small smile—maternal, almost reverent.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  You were one of the purest cases.

  Not broken. Just unanchored.

  She turns to both women, voice steady but charged.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  You will observe Jonas this week.

  Micah next week. Document their shifts in sleep rhythm, response to female scent, and—if permitted—post-visualization dreams.

  LENA

  What if we start to feel… affection?

  DR. LILA CHEN (without blinking)

  Affection is the beginning of command.

  If he trusts you, he will follow you out of the fire.

  ***

  Anabaptist Meeting House – Springfield, Southwest Ohio

  The chapel is bare and wooden, the light through the high windows faint and somber. Elder Jacob Yoder, a stoic man in suspenders and a pin white shirt, sits alone at the front bench after service. The others have trickled out. Only a few women over 40 remain. No children. No young couples.

  And then—Ruth Ann. The only woman under 30 who still shows up. Her presence is as striking as it is suspicious.

  He watches her from the corner of his eye.

  She’s by the door, chatting softly with two older women, her hands gently folded. Her voice is calm, warm—but measured. She speaks with a kind of authority that Yoder knows did not come from here.

  No one in this humble house taught her how to persuade like that. Or quote ancient schors. Or dissolve doubt with such tact.

  He closes his eyes. Prays briefly.

  Then he speaks aloud, to no one.

  ELDER YODER

  She quotes scripture like a scribe… but not from Paul.

  And she doesn’t flinch when His name is spoken only as prophet.

  He opens his Bible—an old one, worn with time. Flips through.

  The pages of Paul’s epistles are… untouched. No bookmarks. No creases.

  But the Psalms and the Gospels—they’re worn, heavily used.

  The pattern is subtle, but it screams.

  ELDER YODER (murmuring)

  She’s removed Paul.

  Like they do.

  He stands and walks slowly to the window. Outside, Ruth Ann now speaks to a man—formerly skeptical, now nodding gently at her words.

  ELDER YODER (to himself)

  It’s not the young we’re losing to TikTok.

  It’s the smart ones we can’t protect.

  (long pause)

  But we can’t accuse her.

  Not without proof.

  And if we lose her—she’s the st one who still brings hope to the old.

  ...

  Back Room of the Meeting House – Springfield, Ohio

  A modest side room. Oil mps flicker faintly. The chairs are mismatched, and the air carries the scent of old pine and hymnbooks. A Bible study group of four women—Sarah, Hannah, Miriam, and Esther—all in their 30s, sit around Ruth Ann. They're exhausted from years of disillusionment, drifting between tradition and the modern world.

  Ruth Ann, poised but warm, has a softness in her voice that disarms them.

  RUTH ANN

  We all grew up with Paul telling us who we can and can’t be.

  But sisters… Paul wasn’t Christ. He wasn’t even one of the twelve.

  A pause. The women gnce at each other. No one interrupts.

  RUTH ANN

  The 6 Commandments don’t erase Jesus.

  They protect Him from distortion.

  HANNAH (carefully)

  But they call Him a prophet. Not the Son of God.

  RUTH ANN (nods)

  Because that was ter Roman doctrine, not His own words.

  Read only the red letters—what He actually said. He always pointed to the Father.

  The group falls silent. The flickering light pys shadows on their tired faces.

  SARAH

  My husband left the church years ago. He said it felt fake.

  But I never knew what else there was.

  RUTH ANN (gently)

  There’s structure now. There’s crity.

  No guessing. No contradictions. The 6 Commandments return us to the root.

  She opens a small, leather-bound book—"The Path of Zahir"—a simplified primer derived from Ibn Hazm’s interpretations, adapted into 6C orthodoxy. She pces it on the table.

  RUTH ANN

  It isn’t corrupted Christianity.

  It’s the clean line they all missed.

  MIRIAM (whispers)

  And we’re still allowed to love?

  RUTH ANN

  Love, yes. But ordered love.

  One man, four wives—if chosen. Women together? Permitted.

  As long as in the end… you return to your created nature.

  Esther takes the book. Her hands tremble slightly. But she doesn’t put it down.

  ESTHER

  Is this being taught? Publicly?

  RUTH ANN

  In Charleston. In Toledo. Even here, quietly.

  And no one’s forced.

  But once you see it… it’s hard to unsee.

  A long silence.

  Then Sarah, softly:

  SARAH

  Then teach us. Quietly.

  Ruth Ann nods, her expression unreadable—somewhere between humility and triumph.

  ***

  Observation Gallery – 6C Behavioral Facility, Columbus

  Behind a pane of one-way gss, Micah Vega sits, shoulders slumped, as a behavioral specialist administers the day's visual reconditioning. Ruth Ann stands beside Dr. Li Chen, guiding Hannah, Sarah, and Miriam, all wearing gray shawls and headscarves—a visitor protocol.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  This is week five. He’s made measurable progress.

  No nausea response yesterday. Lowered arousal markers at 34%.

  We’ve begun Phase II: reparative imagery and memory redirection.

  The women say nothing, but their eyes widen. Hannah clutches her arms.

  HANNAH

  He… wanted this?

  RUTH ANN

  He resisted, like they all do at first. But now he thanks us.

  He told me: “The fog is lifting.”

  Micah flinches slightly in the room as electrodes pulse. He’s shown old photos of his former partner—no emotion flickers on his face.

  SARAH (awed)

  I thought we’d never see a cure.

  The world just kept celebrating it, calling it pride.

  MIRIAM

  And now we know—it wasn’t pride. It was disorder.

  ...

  Break Room – Later That Day

  The women gather around a table, sipping cardamom tea. A minated pamphlet titled “Zahirism & Sexual Order” lies open.

  HANNAH

  So lesbianism… isn’t condemned the same way?

  RUTH ANN

  No. Because in Zahirism, only literal, explicit texts are valid.

  The Qur'an and Hadith speak only of men with men. Nothing about women.

  SARAH

  Then why don't they promote it?

  RUTH ANN

  Because it's tolerated, not glorified.

  Women are allowed tenderness. Even passion. But structure leads them back to family.

  MIRIAM

  So it’s like a cycle. Emotion—expression—then return.

  RUTH ANN

  Exactly. The 6 Commandments permit what’s natural… but channel it.

  Lesbian intimacy? A phase. Homosexuality in men? A disorder.

  HANNAH (soberly)

  That’s… merciful. Not cruel.

  Just like quarantine for disease. Not judgment—just healing.

  They nod slowly. The ideological fog is clearing in their minds. The clinical frame—the theology—the logic—all aligned.

  SARAH (softly)

  Maybe the world isn’t ending.

  Maybe this… is the new beginning.

  ...

  Administrative Wing – 6C Behavioral Center, Columbus

  A quiet conference room. Minimalist, cool-toned. Dr. Li Chen sits at the head of the table, fnked by Ruth Ann, who stands silently, arms folded, observing. Hannah, Sarah, and Miriam sit across, slightly nervous but expectant.

  On the table before them: tablets, registration forms, biometric scan pads, and sealed white envelopes.

  DR. LILA CHEN

  You’ve all shown admirable crity of thought.

  That’s not common. Ruth Ann has recommended you personally.

  Not everyone receives such trust.

  HANNAH (meekly)

  We’re just grateful to be useful.

  DR. LILA CHEN (smiling softly)

  Usefulness is divine alignment.

  What we offer is formal status: Support Volunteers in Behavioral Correction.

  You’ll shadow trained staff. Sit in observation rounds.

  Learn doctrine, procedure, structure.

  She slides the white envelopes forward.

  DR. LILA CHEN (CONT'D)

  The stipend is 10,000 each. One-time. Quiet reward.

  No strings attached, but we prefer it not be discussed.

  SARAH (stunned)

  Ten… thousand?

  RUTH ANN

  It’s a seed. To free you from distraction.

  So your service isn’t divided by bills or doubt.

  MIRIAM (with growing wonder)

  And all this… just by aligning with truth?

  DR. LILA CHEN

  Truth that heals. Truth that orders.

  You’ve seen what chaos did to men like Pastor Micah.

  Now help us build the alternative.

  The women open the envelopes slowly, carefully, as if touching something sacred.

  HANNAH

  We won’t waste this.

  RUTH ANN (quietly, almost to herself)

  You never were. You just needed the path.

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