"Mr. Colin, we need to talk. There are somethings you need to know before you decide to walk through that door."
Jeremy looked at the woman and began to feel anger rising up inside of him. His initial shock at seeing someone in the room was replaced by an immediate sense of wanting to shake this woman. "You have me sitting in a room in a chair blindfolded, gagged, and tied up. You play these recordings asking me for things I don't have, telling me to be calm! Calm!? You expect someone to be calm!?" Jeremy took a step toward the woman. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't be a hug.
"Mr. Colin, whatever you are thinking about doing, you should step back and reconsider. As of now, there seems to be no one else in this room with answers. I may possibly be your only way out of here," The woman gestured next to her. "Please have a seat."
Jeremy looked to his left in the direction she had pointed and about a foot in front of the mirror he had broken was the metal chair.
"How did that get in here?...How did YOU get in here?" he asked.
"In time Mr. Colin. All of your questions will be answered in time, but for now I need you to have a seat and listen."
Jeremy walked toward the chair and then paused. He wasn't quite sure he wanted to do what she asked.
"What if I don't want to sit? What if I decide I want to go through the panel?" he asked.
"I won't stop you, Mr. Colin, but I would not advise it until you have received all of the proper information. I will tell you this if it will help you trust me," she began, "things here are nothing like they appear."
Jeremy thought about his options and decided that for the time being he would entertain her request and have a seat. Once he was in the chair, he asked, "Now what is it you need to tell me?"
"Mr. Colin. Subject number 1026-81. Case Note 38B." Se was reading from a folder she had in her hands. She continued. "Mr. Colin seems to be of the firm belief that there is a global conspiracy. He seems to feel as though there is an agency watching him at every turn and has even taken to using the metal trays he is given during meal times to construct some sort of shielding apparatus. It is our firm belief that the subject is a candidate for procedure DAC5. We have decided against procedure DAC4."
The woman closed the file.
Jeremy wasn't sure what to think. He wanted to ask the woman what all of what she read him meant. He also wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
"Mr. Colin, do you have any idea where you are? Do you remember anything that has happened in the last 24-48 hours?" she asked.
Jeremy shook his head and mouthed "No."
"Jeremy, do you remember me?" The woman walked closer toward him as she said this. Jeremy began to shake his head side to side. He looked like a child trying to get a thought out of his head. He could feel a headache coming on. How was he supposed to know who this woman was? He didn't even know where he was or how he had gotten here!
“Why are you doing this to me?' Jeremy asked. “I don't understand. I don't understand why you have me in this room telling me things I don't remember or believe.” He put his hands over his face and held them there. “I don't understand,” he whispered.
The woman covered the rest of the distance between herself and Jeremy. She placed her had on his shoulder and knelt in front of him. “Listen Mr. Colin. This is going to be difficult for you to grasp, but you have been in my care for the last 2 months. The recording you heard were part of the tests we were trying to run to break you out of your psychosis. We thought that by playing into your conspiracy theories, we could somehow bring you back into reality.” The woman took her hand off of Jeremy's shoulder and opened up the folder. She began to read again.
“Mr. Colin has greatly improved after procedure DAC5. The multiple stimulants combined with the proper doses have proven to be effective in the breakthrough. We are on our way to calling this a success.” The woman looked up. She noticed that Jeremy was staring at her.
“What is it Mr. Colin?” she asked.
Jeremy's mouth curled into a smile and he spoke. “Nothing here is as it seems. That was one of the first things you said to me. For someone who is trying to get me to not delve into conspiracies, that sure is a funny thing to start with...actually that is a hilarious thing to start with.” He began to chuckle and his chuckles turned into giggling, which then resulted in him laughing so loud that it seemed to him the woman had begun to get nervous. She reached toward her pocket with her free hand.
Jeremy stopped laughing. “What's in your pocket?” he asked.
“Nothing Mr. Colin. Why would you think I had anything in my pocket. I was just concerned about your uncontrolled laughter in a situation like this.” she replied.
“You seem a bit nervous.” he stated.
The woman looked Jeremy square in the eyes. “Mr. Colin. I have nothing to be nervous about.” Her response was given in an almost amused tone and was quickly replaced with a more serious one. “Mr. Colin,” she began as she cleared her throat. “I do believe it is time you and I leave this room.”
Jeremy looked confused. “Didn't you just say I shouldn't go through the panel?” he asked.
“We won't be leaving by THAT panel Mr. Colin. Have you forgotten about the room on the other side of the wall?” she replied.
“Oh, yeah. The other room.” Jeremy didn't think he wanted to go into the other room. In that room, there was a strange television, a man he hadn't met yet, and not to mention the fact that he had somehow fallen asleep and woken up without even knowing how? All in THAT room.
“Listen....ummm...well I don't know your name, but I don't think I want to come with you anywhere. As it stands, you might be the only person who has given me any supposed answered, but you are also the only person here.” He began to stand up and move away from the woman as he spoke. “I know you might think I'm nuts or delusional or whatever you have in the folder there, but I'll tell you, I am none of the above.” Jeremy continued to move away from the woman toward the panel, not taking his eyes off of her. “Wanna know what I think? I think there is something going on here. I think YOU have something going on here. I think YOU are not what you seem, and I think I am going to be leaving, but not with YOU.”
While Jeremy was explaining this to the woman, she again started to reach for her pocket. Jeremy noticed this and began to move a bit faster. By the time he had finished telling her what he thought, the woman's hand was in her pocket and Jeremy was at the panel.
“Mr. Colin, I think you should step away from that panel.” she said. “I think you should move away from the panel and sit down. Maybe I haven't made myself clear.”
“No,” Jeremy answered, “No you haven't made yourself clear, and the only thing I AM clear about is that I will NOT be coming with you. I will not be going anywhere with you.”
The woman slid her hand out of her pocket. Jeremy looked at the shining object in her hand and it didn't take him long to recognize a syringe as she advanced toward him.
“Mr. Colin, please calm down. I understand that you may be a bit confused right now. We would like you to calm down.” she said.
Jeremy remembered the male voice saying something to that effect and then said, “We? We? Who is we and who are you?”
“Mr. Colin, where is the chip?” the woman asked in an emotionless voice.
She was closer now. Looking at him with the same look a panther must give her prey before it she pounces. “We just want to know where the chip is.”
“What chip?!” Jeremy yelled. “What chip?! I don't know what you are talking about!”
Jeremy was at the panel now and he then realized he had begun typing in the code 102. He only needed three more digits. He could only hope that dashes didn't count. He could only hope he had in fact been using the right code. He looked around to see if there was anything he could use in case the woman decided that needle needed to be inside his arm, neck, leg or anywhere else.
The woman took that quick glance as her cue. In one quick motion, she was in front of him, hand poised to strike with the needle hovering over him.
He lashed out. Jeremy brought his hand up and pushed back. He connected the bottom of her chin with the heel of his palm and with a push up, she was falling backwards, the needle flying up into the air and away from Jeremy. Without a second's hesitation, he turned around and typed in the last three digits. Six, eight, one. With a satisfying double beep, the keypad accepted the code. A motor began to hum. The room went dark.
A stream of white light appeared by the edge of the panel where the keypad was.
It had begun to open.
© 2009 by Laira Reid
