The Room
thedr7q*snap* OK, so the camera works. Don’t know why it’s here since I’m locked in a dark room. *click* Looking at the photo I can see a window. Funny thing is I can’t see the window without the camera. Why is the only thing in here a camera? Why am I in here? How long have I been here? I don’t know. My memory is still hazy. I don’t know what could have happened. I can’t even remember finding the camera, which I assume happened. Maybe this will pass and I’ll have a better idea of why I’m here. Since there’s nothing else for me to do I might as well feel what’s around the room. As I try to feel the walls to get a sense of the room I start to forget what was there before. I can’t remember if I just started pacing or if I’ve been doing this for hours. *click* I just stepped on something. I can’t think of what it is. The more I try think of it, the less certain I am of what just happened. I need to lie down. Maybe my brain won’t hurt as much if I just sleep for a while… just a while though… don’t know what would happen if…
Thump, thump, thump. Everything’s gone black. What is this? Thump, thump, thump. Who…? What…? Hello… I feel scared… Like something… or someone is going to get me…
I wake to the sound of silence. Alone. I couldn’t process it before but I’m all alone. Nobody else in this room. Just me. Maybe this will be forever. I take my time getting up. By the time I’m on my feet I realise that I’m thirsty, I’m hungry. Is there any way to get food or water in here? Guess I’ll have to see. I return to what I was doing before. Pacing the room with my body up against the wall to see what I’m in. The wall I start on has a bed against it. Not a particularly comfortable one but it’s better than sleeping on the floor. Wish I’d known about that earlier. I turn a corner and feel the next wall. I feel what I think is the window that I saw with the camera. Only the surface doesn’t feel like a window. It feels like a painting. Where did I put the camera anyway? Guess I’ll have to try walk into it, or see if there’s a light switch. On the other side of this wall I hear the *click* I reach down to feel what I’ve stepped on, only to see it’s something I’ve stepped into. It’s a faucet. I turn the top and hear water coming out. I quickly drop and drink the water. At least I hope its water. At this point I don’t care. As long as I’m drinking something. After a long drink I continue pacing the walls. The third wall has nothing on it. I go back to double check but there’s nothing. That’s upsetting. I go back to where I was and move onto the fourth wall. As soon as I turn I kick something. It’s a food bowl. Reaching down, I immediately catch the curdling stench from the bowl. It smells like canned fish. Not opposed to free food, I shamelessly drop to the bowl and devourer the fish. After what was probably a minute, the bowl is empty. Not a single shredded piece of fish left. I walk across to the faucet and wash my hands before returning to pacing the walls. I retrace my steps across the third wall and end up at the food bowl again. Stepping over the bowl, I feel a slight bump in the wall. I wouldn’t have noticed if the bump didn’t have hollow spots all over it. Once I find the camera I’ll come back to see what this is. The rest of the wall has nothing. I turn the corner and end up back at the bed which I flop onto. For some reason pacing a room has left me tired. I close my eyes and think. All of my thoughts slow down… Until I hear something in my room… I try to get up and see what’s happening but I’m too tired… I’m too weak… I’m…
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the doctors of tomorrow… The class of ’09! Everything is still so dark… You could get a job anywhere now… How about that human research centre that just started up… They are going places. This is… Me? Was this my life before…? This…? You are going to be the greatest doctor they have sweetie… I was a doctor…?
The stench. I could smell it in my dreams. God, it’s awful. I sit up and feel the bed is wet. I think I just peed in the bed. I don’t remember finding a toilet before. I should probably dedicate a corner to that. I roll off the bed. Hoping to quickly get away from the stench. I outstretch my arms to get myself up. There’s something in my hand when I put it down. The camera! Sitting up, I turn the camera on and take photos of the walls. The wall with the bed has obvious pee stains. The wall with the painting has a small drain by the faucet which I plan to use as a bathroom where I’ll clean my mattress. The blank wall is… still blank. And the bump with holes, thanks to the camera’s flash, is clearly a speaker. So outside this room there is somebody. So I’m not alone! So I’m here for a reason… Cleaning my bed can wait. I go to the speaker to investigate. It’s only about the size of my hand. Pressing my ear up to it, I hear nothing. No static. No talking. Just more silence. “Hello?”… No response. Whoever’s out there wants me in isolation. Going back to my original plan. I drag my mattress across the room to the faucet and clean out the pee, at least until the smell dies down. After hard work cleaning I start to feel hungry. Investigating the food bowl I see that it’s refilled. No stench this time so it’s not fish again. Putting a hand inside the bowl, I feel what I think is an apple and a slice of bread… no a sandwich. With ham in it. OK… so my captures are giving me school lunches. Good to know that I won’t die of starvation. After eating and drinking from the faucet, I suddenly feel… bored. There’s nothing to do in here but eat, drink & defecate. The best thing to do now is simply go to bed. The mattress is still soggy from cleaning it before. Closing my eyes I try to go to sleep… This isn’t going to happen is it. Since I’m not going to be sleeping anytime soon, how bout I go through the camera. *click* the painting on the wall is quite nice. Shame I can’t see it without the camera. Flicking through the photos I see something peculiar in the corner above the faucet. It’s a camera. Trying to get up to investigate the camera, I find that I can’t. I suddenly feel weak. I’m tired all of a sudden. My eyes feel heavy… I wasn’t like this a moment ago… Why am I suddenly so…
Where am I…? I’m at a table… There’s a plate with toast in front of me… This is someone’s house… My house…? I try to get up but I can’t… This must be a dream… It all starts to come back to me… I’m in a room… This is my apartment… And today is the day… I don’t know what but I have this haunting feeling that today is the beginning of the end…
I feel sick… Stumbling out of bed. I crawl to the drain and vomit. How am I sick? After vomiting on and off for what feels like years. I finally stop. Either that or I have nothing left to vomit up. Rinsing my mouth with water. Not drinking any in fear of more vomiting. I take a photo to see if most of it got into the drain. A lot of it is in the corner. Walking over to clean it up. I feel the camera in my hand once I get there. I almost forgot about it. Feeling it, it seems like a regular security camera that you’d see in a convenience store. Most likely being used to make sure I don’t try get out. Don’t worry, I’m far too sick for that. What if that was the point. What if they made me sick so I would feel too weak to escape? This is all too much for me. After cleaning up my vomit and having some water I go back to bed. I need sleep to help me think. I’ll investigate some more tomorrow. If it is tomorrow… What if this has all been one day and I’ve just lost track of time..? There has got to be more to this… Something is definitely going on…
Walking up to a building. Tap, tap, tap people walking everywhere. All dressed like they’re going blow something up or get vomited on. “Hello there” a man in a blue suit. He frightens me… His face is a red blur… looking down, his shadow is growing... It’s engulfing me! I’m sinking into his shadow! The darkness is blinding me! I’m… I’m… scared…
*gasp* Waking up in a cool sweat. Was that what happened to me? Is that shadowy figure the reason I’m here? I’m just glad it’s over. Rolling out of bed, crawling to the faucet. Washing my face. That dream’s got me thinking about life on the outside. Not what’s out there, but why I’ve never thought of it before. I’ve been so focused on this room that I’ve lost sight of what I’m fighting for. Going over to the bowl, I find nothing there. What’s with this? I thought they were at least feeding me? Fine. I don’t need their help. I’ll find my own way of surviving. How does that make you feel? I feel angry! I need to hit something. Walking up to the blank wall. I punch it. I punch it hard! Again! And again! And Again! *drip* And again! And Again! And… I feel weak. Dropping to the floor I feel a puddle. It’s blood. Coming from my hands. So this is what I’ve become. Where’s my civility? What happened to me? I’m better than this. I feel tired. After washing the blood off my hands I go back to bed. My face feels moist now. This isn’t blood. Its tears. I’ve sunk so low. This isn’t me. At least this wasn’t me… I’m ashamed of what I did… I know that I’m better than this. I know that I was better than this…
Light. Light that’s blinding compared to my room. "No more stalling Doctor." This man seems familiar. His face is blurred. He’s the man I saw before. In the building. Who is he? What does he want? "Test subjects are no reason to halt operations. If you can’t find a subject then WE will be forced to find one." The experiment. I don’t know why but “the experiment” just feels… right…
*slam* A loud noise woke me up. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Looking around the room, everything is where it should be. Sitting on the side of the bed, I can clearly see that my hands are bandaged. That noise must have been my captures fixing me up from yesterday’s events. Was it yesterday though? I don’t have any way of checking the time. For all I know that was only hours ago. The smell finally hit me. I wasn’t a bad smell. If anything it actually smelled good. Going over the food bowl. I can really smell it. Meat. Cooked. Probably some of their leftovers from outside. Although I’m not too pleased that they see me as a pet, I’m still grateful that I’m finally getting some real food. Biting into it, I have no idea what it is. For all I know I’m eating another person. Where is this coming from? I’m thinking too much into this. It’s not like I have anything better to do, but still… I could at least think of something a bit more pleasant. At the final mouthful of my mystery meat I bite something hard. Might be some bone. Pulling it out of my mouth it’s clearly not bone. It’s too round, too smooth, too soft. If I weren’t so weak I would have probably bit through it. I think it might be a pill. Eat it… Wait… I’ve heard that before. Before I hit the wall. That little voice, whispering in my ear. I run to the speaker. If this is them then there should be some buzzing from the speaker being turned on. Nothing. It wasn’t the speaker. There’s a little voice in my head telling me these things. I think I’m finally going insane from this place. I need to lie down… this is too much for me… go to sleep…
Another day in the room. Walking around the room, I kick the camera. Almost forgot about that. Picking it up, I look around the room with the flash. The only difference now is the blood stains on the blank wall. Turn it around… Obeying my insanity, I turn the camera around. *snap* a photo of my face. Come to think of it, I can’t remember what I look like. I haven’t seen anybody’s face in so long. Looking at the camera screen, I see it. I’m a girl with ragged brown hair. I look sick. My skin’s turned into a light grey. My eyes have darkened and faded. I can barely see a difference between my iris and the rest of my eyes. Oh god… This is what I’ve become… I can hear that voice in my head again. The only company I have in here but I’m just ignoring it. Then it says something. Something that stands out. A question that I can’t answer. What is your name? What is my name? I feel shivers going down my spine. I feel like all of this mental torture was just leading to this. My name is… My name is… My name… is… I don’t know anymore…
"Time is running out doctor." Everything is red this time. Not coloured red… but faded into it. Is this fear? "WE have gone through your contract and it appears that WE have the rights to use YOU as the subject in The Experiment." What is the experiment? "Just relax doctor…" a needle… I’m feeling woozy… Falling… Everything’s going black…
Light. The first time I’ve seen it in what feels like years. I’m in a room. Looking around. I see a food bowl and a painting and… This is my room… I look up to see that the new found light is coming from a torch tapped to the ceiling. There are no lightbulbs in here. A note is lying in the middle of the room. “Dear miss…” I can’t read it. It’s typed out but I can only read a few of the words. I haven’t seen words in so long I’ve forgotten how to read… The few words I can read say “We are sorry for your…” words I can’t read. “Your services are no longer…” no longer what. I can smell something… gas? The voice is speaking up. We are sorry for your inconvenience but your services are no longer required. Because of your current mental state we regret to inform you that you are not allowed to leave. We understand this must be startling but you did sign a consent form stating that we have every right to terminate the project and its subject (being you) if necessary. We once again apologise for the inconvenience. So I agreed to this? This room was somehow my choice? I deserve to have my questions answered. The door is opening. The door that was hidden on the blank wall. Men is biohazard suits… with guns… She’s still alive! Holding a gun up to my head. Preparing to execute me. This is it no more answers. We’re sorry boss. Boss?
Symptoms of isolation over long periods of time.
Self-Narration
Hearing Voices
Paranoia
Talking in one’s sleep
Scattered Memory
Forgetting one’s past
I’d like the count that as a success. I think this is deserving of some scotch. The good doctor may no longer be with us but we still have her work. To account for an outlier we must try this again. Find someone new. “Boys. Clean out the room” Let the next subject live in their own mess, not someone else’s. The doctor’s theory about isolation was ingenious. It causing someone to deteriorate into basic primal instincts. Although I’m not too happy about her not remembering my face. Being scared of me? I feel insulted! Shame she had to test it. Ah well. On to the next subject. In the name of Science.
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