THE INFINITE LOOP

                    

I woke up to find myself in a room with grey walls on all four sides, the room seemed to have no exit whatsoever… It was very poorly equipped, with just a bed, a mirror and a lavatory. I got up from the extremely uncomfortable bed and headed towards the mirror. The mirror reflected back an image of a girl who looked malnourished and had no hair on her head, just a scalp that was filled with scars. The eyes of this girl looked dull. “Is this me?” I thought to myself and ran my hand across my scalp. The scars hurt very badly and I found myself asking questions like “Who am I? What is my name?  Why am I in this place?”

At this precise moment a man entered my room. He was wearing a white suit and seemed friendly and trustworthy. The man came near me, bent down and held my hand. The warmth of his hand was comforting, almost like a hearth. The man then looked at me and said “Don’t worry, I’m here to help” . He  gave me a warm smile which made me feel as though all my unresolved questions would be solved by him. I smiled back and uttered the words “Okay”. He then instructed me to follow him.

As I walked alongside the man, I noticed that there were many rooms like mine and that the overall colour of the corridor was the same as that of my room, a morose grey. The man then led me to a room where he told me sit at a desk ,then he provided me with food.

After I finished eating, the man gave me a notebook and made me solve a lot of complex math problems but refused to answer any of my questions regarding my identity. “I’ll tell you everything in due course” was his response each time I asked him a question.

After what felt like ages of solving math problems, the man finally said, “You may stop now.“  Then, he then said that he was going to take me to a place where I would find all the solutions to my questions. I eagerly followed him and as we walked down that sorrowful corridor again I spotted a large door at its end. The man instructed me to go through the door and I did as he said.

I opened the door and when I went inside I spotted a chair with mechanical arms above it equipped with various tools like scalpels drills and  syringes.  Suddenly it all came back to me - all my memories and my identity… everything came rushing back to me. I remembered that I was trapped in a facility where the cerebrospinal fluid of children with high aptitude was being harvested … I remembered that my brain fluids had been harvested again and again and that the memory loss was a side effect of the harvesting.

 I frantically tried to go back through the door I had entered but it was of  no use as it had been locked. I saw people wearing blue jumpsuits approaching me, I tried to run but it was of no use... They restrained me and turned a deaf ear to all my pleading and crying .They fastened me to the chair and covered my mouth with a piece of cloth. I tried to utter the words, “Please don’t do this” but it was of no use. The last words I heard before a syringe filled with anesthesia was injected in my hand were, “Goodnight little princess”. I then felt the prick of the syringe and then the world went black.

Epilogue: I woke up to find myself in a room with grey walls on all four sides,the room seemed to have no exit whatsoever... It was very poorly equipped ,with just a bed, a mirror and a lavatory. I got up from the extremely uncomfortable bed and headed towards the mirror. The mirror reflected back an image of a girl who looked malnourished and had no hair on her head, just a scalp that was filled with scars. The eyes of this girl looked dull. “Is this me?” I thought to myself and ran my hand across my scalp. The scars hurt very badly and I found myself asking questions like “Who am I? What is my name?  Why am I in this place?”…………………………………………….

- Adithya Athreya

Rotaract Club of NM College

                                     

                             

The clue to the next article is :

I'm offered to the loved, and also to the dead. I come in many varied hues, most notably red. I’m beautiful to look at, but painful to touch. What am I?

Let's see how smart-witted you are to  answer this riddle and thus, guess the theme of the next article...