Maybe it’s Riley’s anxious fretting in the corner, this doctor’s obnoxious attitude, and a room drenched in a sweet scent not unlike what was coming out of his pipe. I know I’ve been here before!

But before I can ask her how she even found a place like this, the whirring sound of hydraulics takes everyone’s focus. From underneath the bed comes two halves of a beige ring, sliding up and out until they meet above the headrest, a row LEDs now flashing as they marquee across the arc. The electric hum of machine slows and drops into pulsing womb-like heartbeat.