Room

By Nidal Abrar Syed

I'm starting to lose my mind. I've been locked up in this room for more than an hour now, I can't really tell the exact time because there is no clock or window here but I know for sure that it's been more than an hour. There is no noise here, not that of someone speaking, not that of a machine operating, not that of a vehicle, nothing, the room is dead silent. But apart from all this, what scares me the most is the fact that I have no idea how I got here.

Everything is white in color, the bed I'm sitting on, the wall I'm leaning on, the wall I'm staring at, the walls I'm not staring at, the door that never opened, the floor and the ceiling, the whole room is white for some reason. I don't really care about that but at this point I can't help but pay attention to each and every detail of this room because that's all I could do. I want to play a song in my head to pass the time but I can't think of any right now, maybe it's the fear and paranoia messing with my head. I tried opening the door, in fact that's all I did during the past hour after waking up. I kicked it, tried to break it, banged on it, even screamed my lungs out but nothing helped, the door is still locked and I'm still stuck in here. I'm lying on the floor now, beside the bed, staring at the blank ceiling, trying to remember how I ended up here. Was I drugged? I must've been because my head still feels slightly dizzy. But more than how I got here, I want to find out why. There has to be a reason behind me being here. The last thing I remember before this is driving with my mom, we were on our way to visit Aunt Betsy. I hope my mom is safe.

I can't take it anymore, I feel like the room is shrinking, or am I getting bigger? I don't know, I just want to get out. I just.... Wait, I hear something, someone's here. I don't know if they're my captors or my saviors, at this point I'd be happy to see either of them. They're opening the door, two people are walking in, they are wearing surgical masks on their faces, are they doctors?

"Who are you people? Why have you locked me here? Let me out, please"

"Ma’am, please calm down, we're here to help you"

"Why can't I remember coming here?"

"You don't remember many things, Lydia"

"What do you mean? I remember being with my mom before this"

"Your mom died six years ago in a car crash, you were involved in it too but managed to escape with head injuries, which in turn has caused a blood clot in your brain, resulting in short term amnesia. You keep forgetting things every few hours, you'll probably forget all this after a while. We're trying to treat you here and keeping you in an isolation chamber for a couple of hours everyday is a part of the treatment"

I stared at them in shock and confusion, wondering who those people are but more importantly, what was I doing here and how did I get here in the first place?

By Nidal Abrar Syed