I spin around and around in my swivel chair, my strawberry blonde hair flying in my face. Something flashes in the periphery of my vision. By the time I get back around to look for it, whatever it was is no longer there next to my twin bed. However, laying on the teal and white bedspread is a glistening box that seems to be covered in a mix of shining colors swirling together. A chill runs over my bare arms and I shiver.
Normally in books or movies when a character sees a strange box or object that just appeared they stupidly touch it and something bad happens to them.
You can imagine how frightened I felt when my body moved against my will. As if I am possessed, I stand, walk over to my bed, and reach out to touch the box. I watch as my pale hand touches the corner of the box. The surface of the box is smooth and oddly warm, the hair on the back on my neck stood on end. All of a sudden, I feel as if someone had turned a vacuum on in my room and I get sucked into the box.
I am surrounded by blackness, I felt like the darkness was encasing me and sucking the air out of my lungs. I look around my heart is racing and my head is pounding. Right in front of me I spot a light. I race to the light without thinking, because hey, when you see a light it normally means escape. I run straight into a glass door.
OW that hurt.
Beyond the door it looks like the inside of an office building of some sort with a bunch of people working at rows of desks. I open the door and step through it. Once the door shuts, it disappears and the same beige wall that covers the rest of the room replaces it. All eyes snap to me. My breath catches in my throat.
Omg they all look exactly like me.
All the workers have the same traits as me. They are all 5’4, with medium length strawberry blonde hair, my pale skin, and ice blue eyes. I look at their name plates and see that all of them say my name, Kiara James, and then something after like, liver, blood, heart, etc. I walk up and down the rows frantically until I notice a room that I didn't see before. This says Kiara James Brain. I run to the door and pull it open. I am greeted with the sight of many people running around like headless chickens. In the front of the room is two huge windows that show my desk. Wait, my desk? I go over to the person who is standing at the front of the room barking orders at people. She looks like she is in charge.
“Um excuse me where am I?’ I ask. I flinch a little my voice sounds so small and afraid.
“Oh um this is Kiara James’ brain. Who might you be?” she asks.
“I am Kiara James,” I answer.
“Oh honey we are all Kiara James. What part of the body do you control?” She puts her hand on my shoulder and talks to me as if I was a child.
“Uh I don’t quite understand I am Kiara James I touched a box and ended up here.” I insisted while pushing her hands off my shoulders.
“Darling if you are going to keep being difficult I won’t be able to help you. Now go back out to your desk and keep working. In case you haven’t noticed we are having a crisis. Kiara’s brain in shutting down and I don’t know why.” Her face is covered in pure worry so I make my way to the door and walk out.
Once I get back to the main room I search for an exit. There is no door in sight except for the one that I just walked through. Wait a minute the door I came through it just disappeared. Maybe this is a dream. I run through my day today trying to find the time that I fell asleep, but nothing seems to jump out at me. I try a different strategy. Thinking back on my day I look for strange things that happened to me. The only thing that I can think of is when I was walking home everyone I saw seemed to be lost in thought or daydreaming. Hmm that’s strange. I store that away in my memory to come back to later and right as I do one of the workers gets up and makes her way to the printer, grabs a paper, and puts in a filing cabinet. Curiously I walk over to the cabinet and grab the paper she deposited. As soon as I take the paper out of the drawer the memory from earlier comes rushing back. I look down at my hands and scan the words on the page. As I read the paper my eyes widen. The paper is an exact explanation of the memory from earlier. I start to panic. This is no dream, I really am stuck in my own mind. The thought comes to me right as I realise that I don’t have a way out. There are no doors or windows and there are no mysterious boxes from me to touch so that I can get out of here. I erupt into laughter at the severity of my situation.
Think about it I touched a box that was randomly sitting on my bed, then I got sucked into my head literally, and now I have no way of getting out. I thought this type of things only happen in books. My head whipped back and forth, my eyes scanned for any possible exit. I was searching for ten minutes before something catches my eye. An empty desk in sitting in the corner of the room and there is a computer there. Something draws me to that desk and I take quick strides to the computer. When I reach the desk I notice that it is bare save for the desktop that looks like it has fallen asleep. The cool surface of the mouse slides under my sweaty palm as I shake it to reveal the teal screensaver. I gaze at the screen trying to decipher what drew me here. I am seconds from turning around and trying something else when the mouse moves on it’s own. My eyes lock on the moving cursor watching it’s path. The arrow comes to a stop on the file application, but it doesn’t stay for long before the screen changes to show the now open file application. The cursor moves quickly clicking folder after folder to uncover the desired folder. When the screen stops flashing my eyes come to rest on the file name being displayed on the screen. My heart is pounding in my ears as I use the now stationary mouse to open the file which is labeled ‘Command Center Floor Plan.’ The screen flickers and then the floor plan fills the screen. I search the screen for a door symbol and then I find it.
Right behind me should be a door it’s my way out. I whip my head around and scour the wall for signs of a door, but there are none. I don’t want to give up just yet so I walk over to the wall where the door should be and slide my hand over the surface. I expected a smooth surface to meet my hand, however that is not the case. Instead a rough material rubs against the skin on my hand. At some places on the wall there are large bumps. My mind races trying to find and answer. I crazy idea appears in my mind, but hey it is worth a try. I reach my hand over to where the door knob would be if there was a door here and sure enough the cool metal of a handle collides with my hand and I fall through the door. I hit a wall, or at least I thought it was a wall. I look up and my eyes connect with the chocolate eyes of the man in front of me. He speaks and his voice sounds like sandpaper.
“Where do you think you’re going? Prisoners aren’t allowed to escape.”