Factory Reset | ✓

awaken

I opened my eyes to a colorless world. A world much smaller than I was used to but for as far back as I could remember, it was all I had. It was both familiar yet foreign, comforting yet alien.

Instead of endless blue skies and soft green grass, my world consisted of a square-shaped room with bright white walls that blended into cold white floors. There was no visible light source but it was almost as if the room glowed because of the lack of shadows. The light somehow evenly covered everything from all angles. Aside from the bed where I woke up in, there was nothing else.

Or, at least, I thought there was nothing else. When I glanced up at the wall across from me, for the first time, there was something other than empty space staring back at me. A white wall clock hung there, and as soon as I laid my eyes on it, it began ticking out every second as it passed.

Tick.

Tock.

Other than my own voice, it was the first sound I heard in who knows how long. I could remember what clocks generally sounded like, but to hear one again like this, it felt different. It felt like I was living again, in a way, instead of just thinking about living or imagining how life was.

What was it like to be alive again?

Digging around in my memory returned no results. My mind was as blank as the room was white, and it frustrated me. I closed my eyes, trying to focus more on what was there, but the same results kept happening. I knew what thinking was, but trying to think now was impossible.

The more I kept pushing myself, the further it felt like I was getting from finding any answers. The frustration grew, and I wanted to hit my head against the wall until the answers bled out of me. It had to be in there somewhere. The past can't be erased that easily. I had to remember—

And then, as if a switch was flipped, all I could think about was the clock. The constant rhythms of its ticks and tocks and how it brought a sense of calmness. The more I tried to resist the wave of calm washing over me, the stronger it got. Before I fully realized it, I stopped resisting it.

My small world got even smaller as the edges of my vision began to blur. The white of the room all around me began to darken and my vision turned black as I fell backwards onto the white bed.

▬▬▬

After what felt like an hour, the trance over my mind finally dissipated and I was able to open my eyes again to my small world. I glanced up at the wall and the clock was still there, but its ticking wasn't as hypnotic as it was earlier. For now, I would be allowed to stay conscious.

Just in case another haze engulfed me, I took care to avoid looking at the clock again. I looked around at everything in the room except the clock, trying to see if I could find any changes. To my utter disappointment, everything looked the same as it always did. But how long was I here?

And more importantly... where was I?

The thought didn't occur to me before, but as soon as it did, the question kept repeating itself on a loop. Where was I? WherewasI?

Where

was

I?

As the panic started to spread in my veins, I pulled myself out of the bed, kicking the blankets aside as I got up. My eyes landed on the pillow, the only thing left on the bed. I would've noticed if there was something underneath it. It was thin enough that I would've felt an object if it was there.

That wasn't enough for my rational mind to stop my hands from throwing the pillow across the room. To my surprise and utter disbelief, there was a thin black device lying on the bed. Its screen was dark but once I reached out my finger to tap it, it lit up and three icons stared back at me.

Of the three icons, two of them were faded out, as if it was something I had not yet unlocked. Monochrome question marks stared back at me, teasing me as for what their true identity could be.

The third icon, unlike the other two, was vibrant and full of color. Its image was shaped like an old-fashioned phone and the background color was a pale blue. I stared at it for a long while, realizing it was the first color I had seen in a while, and it brought me joy to remember its name.

There was something about this particular shade of blue that made my heart happy, and my panic from earlier managed to settle down by looking at it. Was this my favorite color? Why couldn't I remember if it was? It was hard to know for sure without any of my memories.

Pulling me out of my thoughts, the tablet in my hands began to emit a shrill sound. The thread icons from before were replaced with a checkmark in a green circle next to an x in a red circle. It took me a few seconds to realize that someone was calling me. But who could it possibly be?

Along with not remembering who I was or my past, I couldn't remember anyone else. There were no names or faces to put with names. No one I could think of that would want to call me. And even if I had a relative who would contact me, how would they know how to reach me?

Before I could overthink even more, I clicked on the green circle and the screen went dark.

"Hello, Aura, and welcome to The Sanctuary," a cold and mechanical voice responded.

I tapped on the tablet, trying to see if I could make an image appear. Maybe of a person's face? Or was I even talking to a person? I could be talking to a robot for all I knew. After a few seconds of tapping around, the red circle with the x inside of it appeared again in the top right corner.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I reached over and tapped it to see what would happen.

"Oh, you wish to leave? Why are you pressing the x button? Why, are you trying to 'exit'?"

The voice grew more and more pixelated as it continued talking, and a sense of unease arose in the pit of my stomach. I stared in horror, unsure of what to do, but I wanted the voice to stop.

"Why - no, you'll stay with us forever."

As soon as the last words were out, the tablet went completely dark. No matter how many times I tapped it, the screen didn't light up again and the disembodied voice didn't return.

And then, it hit me. I wasn't allowed to leave.