Part 8/13:
The floating face introduces two tiny pink cubes, claiming they can mend emotional pain by elevating serotonin rapidly. Carl and his wife, overwhelmed by guilt and longing for comfort, pop the cubes into their mouths. The euphoria they experience resembles soaring in heaven—until it inevitably fades. To sustain the bliss, they repeatedly consume more, but each time, the pleasure wanes, and a deeper ache of emptiness and shame festers beneath the surface. The floating face, powered by their brain chemicals, grows more insistent and manipulative, draining their authentic neurochemical balance and feeding off their distilled happiness.