Evanesce
Chapter One
Imprisonment
I don't know how long I was there, partially because each day was the same. I was taken from my little room, and escorted to an examination room.
The exam room was larger than mine, but it was still small. One wall measured about ten feet, and the room was pretty square. The floor was black, as were the walls and ceiling. The metallic table and chairs brightly reflected the light from above. Every day I sat there, and talked with the USMF scientists. Rather, they talked and I listened, or they asked questions and I answered.
I had this little device strapped to my wrist while I was there. It was like a bracelet in a way, but it had needles on the inside of it. Barbaric little piece of equipment... never knew anything of the like existed. Hell, the needles weren't the worst of it. Damn thing had an electric charge to it, and anytime I disobeyed I get shocked.
I disobeyed a lot. Never used to 'til I got there. But now is different from then.
They always started by asking my name, like they didn't already know. I always told them who I was, calmly as I would if asked by a stranger.
"My name is Jane Proudfoot," I said, simple and honest.
"Very good," said the, well... the leader of the group I guess. He was older, pre-Phantoms I thought. He was taller than me, with dull blue eyes, and gray-streaked blond hair. He was frail. I never knew his name. He always had this kind look to him though, like he wanted to be my friend or something.
"Do you know who you are?" one of the other regulars asked. He was younger, had brown hair and eyes, and looked pretty average. Except for that expression on his face. All business, and no nonsense. I liked him, just because he didn't try word games like the others.
"I'm part of the United States Military Force," broad questions require broad answers.
"What do you remember?" asked the older psychiatrist. What a broad question! At least he seemed to believe that there were some things I didn't remember.
"What do you mean?" No shocks yet, but then these sessions lasted for hours.
"The week before you were brought in, for example," the man continued, "Do you remember it?"
I pretended to be thoughtful, and shook my head 'no'. Along with name and who I am, that one week is what they were always interested in. They aren't ever getting it. USMF or not, I didn't want to think about it enough to tell them.
"Do you remember anything?" the dark man asked, and I met his eyes.
"No," I lie, and the first shock hit. They knew I remembered things, because when I was first brought in I told them of a night I spent talking to my brother just after my graduation from high school. They never got another memory, and I'll be damned if they ever will.
So the hours past like that, and eventually they left and I was returned to my room. It was about seven foot length one way and six the other. It was a rectangle just large enough for a bed, a mirror, and a lot of pacing. If I had to go to the bathroom, I had to call a guard.
I never knew why I was there, but it didn't matter. When I wasn't with the scientists, I was trying to sort out what happened.
Much like them I guess, just without the little bracelet.
I almost went insane when I woke up in there. The first day was the worst. See, I should have been dead. The last memory, and the one they're after I'll bet, is of my standing under the shadow of certain death.
I guess I should have run, but I just didn't feel like it. I let my emotion rule over reason, and even now I wouldn't have it any other way. I let my friend die because I let my guard down. 'Friend,' I'd called him that behind his back. Now, I'd tell him face to face if it were possible. Maybe for once I'd try to actually be his friend. Yeah, maybe...
But the one and only certainty in my hellish existence was that he was dead. In a way, it was what I clung to in order to keep sane. It sounds weird, I know, but it was the one thing I could know without any variables.
So there, that evening, or I think it was evening, as I stood in front of the small mirror as I had time after time before, as I stared at my reflection, I felt different. My resolve hardened for the first time in however long I'd been in the black halls and black rooms.
I was going to leave, whether they let me or not. And I was going to find any of my friends that were still alive. Then I'd see what I'd do, after I knew what happened.