The Ministry of Love through Julia's Eyes; an excerpt.
When Julia first awoke, she was looking at a glittering white porcelain ceiling. She was lying on a cold steel bench, and she was unable to tell the time as there were no windows to let the natural light in. She did not recognize the surroundings she found herself in, but found herself frightened by the simple circumstances around her. She felt a faint pain in her abdomen, and remembered the vicious blow she had gotten. At the same time, there was the dull aching of a hungry stomach. She tried to sit upright, but as soon as she lifted her upper body a bit the faint pain turned into a searing sting. With a sharp gasp, she lowered herself onto the steel bench again.
In the short time she had been upright she had seen some more of the bizarre surroundings she had found herself in. There were four telescreens, on each wall one, and a door at her feet. She was alone in her cell.
Suddenly, and overwhelming feeling of loneliness came over her. She thought of Winston. Would he be in a similar position now? Would he be thinking about her? She heard footsteps in the hall and once again tried to sit upright. This time, she succeeded, and she was facing the door. A guard, dressed all in black, was at the door. A plate with food was set at the door, and she scrambled to the door as quickly as she could. As she smelt the food, she could not feel the pain in her abdomen, just the hunger that was overwhelming all her senses.
After she ate even the smallest crumbles on her plate, she finally felt somewhat better. She started to pace through the cell, but suddenly a voice rang out from one of the telescreens: "Don't move! Sit down with your face to the door and your hands on your knees!" A group of guards came to her door, and one of them stepped forward out of the group. "We have orders to take you with us." he said. "And you thought you should be with the lot of you, because I would be too much to handle?" Julia asked. She was ignored by the guards as they walked into the hallway. A sudden thought went through her head. I could be shot at any moment. There's no doubt they eventually want me dead. That's why they brought me here. But somehow, she knew this was not the time when that was going to happen. They would not have taken the difficulty of bringing her into the Ministry of Love when they just wanted her dead as soon as possible.
The guards led her through a room with a bed in it, and some strange device next to it. She was bound to the bed as soon before she even had a possibility of looking around the room she was brought into. She could hear someone coming in, but she could not see who it was, and they were not making any sound. She felt an incredible amount of fear racing through her veins. She knew this could be one of the implications of the actions she had adored, but she had never really thought of them before. Now that those consequences were happening, she could not help but tremble in fear. In her mind, she made a resolution. She would absolutely not betray Winston.
She could hear someone coming into the room, and tried to look back but couldn't. Then the person started to speak. It was a voice she would recognize out of thousands. The person they thought they could trust. It was O'Brien. It was unexpected, but so obvious at the same time.
She could now see him from the corner of her eyes. Somehow, he looked older now that she saw him here.
She was startled out of her considerations when he started yelling her name. "Julia! Julia!" "I'm not deaf if you think so" she said, irritated. "Maybe we should have taken the same approach with you as with Winston." O'Brien said mysteriously. She didn't ask what they were doing with Winston, despite the burning curiosity in her mind. It would be stupid to show what she felt for him.
"Julia, as you can see, there is a device next to me. If I choose to, I can make you feel pain like you have never felt before. Of course, I would not do this for just any reason, but if you tell me lies or anything of the sort, you will feel the consequences. Do you understand?" "I understand" said Julia, a bit frightened now, but she wouldn't show that. She was determined not to let O'Brien see her fear, determined not to be broken by his hand. Somehow, in his manners, he seemed more like a doctor, and not really like a torturer. The way he resettled his spectacles, an action she had seen him perform so many times before, the way he paced through the small place. The whole environment didn't feel like he would be able to hurt her at any given moment, but she was very aware that he could.
"Julia, I'm taking the trouble of trying to cure you, because just like Winston, you are worth the trouble. And you have just projected the hate inside you towards the wrong side. I am going to help you to be a better person. Right now you hate Big Brother, right?" "I do" said Julia hesitantly. She didn't know if that was the best response, but she was so afraid of the pain that would come if she didn't answer truthfully, that she would not even try to lie. "Then we are going to fix you" said O'Brien, with a tone in his voice that showed he wouldn't stop before he had fixed her, that he wouldn't stop before she was another mindless drone that believed everything the Party said.