Conniveo

Chapter 19: Serendipity

Deafening silence.

I had heard the expression in a song once. Of course, I thought it was one of those pseudo-deep onomatopoiea-ish things that musicians came up with so that whatever they were trying to sell didn't end up being all about parties and alcohol and love and 'fire' rhyming with 'desire'. But I finally got a feel of what it was about. It was so quiet around me, I felt like I had gone deaf. Only the sound of my breathing and occasional sighing reminded me that my ears were fully functional. I wasn't sure how much time had passed in my big-looking small room, but I could guess I had been here about a day. I had managed to fall asleep twice out of sheer boredom but my body was tired of sleeping. I needed something to do, but there was nothing in the dull gray room. I wondered if I could last two whole weeks like this, doing absolutely nothing. I could kill myself, but there was nothing in the room which could inflict any sort of injury - unless I wanted to bang my head on the floor. Finally, I decided to talk to the jailor. He'd been helpful with making the room look bigger. Maybe he would be right for some conversation. Anything was better than this nothingness.

"Hello? Guy in charge?"

Still deaf. I muttered some curses to nobody in particular and rolled over in my bed. My mind pondered the trial I had been given, with the many charges I was supposed to have. What the woman said at the end confused me more than anything. How could I be guilty of existing? That was so...I don't know. 'Racist' didn't quite cover it, but that's what it reminded me of. My existence was a crime? I wondered if it was my existence in particular or anyone who also came from my time. Was Greg also guilty of existing? If the crime was my simply existing, then what was the punishment - to be made nonexistent? If that was what they wanted, they should have just let me go. I honestly had no intentions of coming back for anything. Not even Kana, as much as she fascinated me. When I saw her again, something inside me came alive. Maybe it was just the recognition. Or lust, because she was so hot it was ridiculous. But I knew it was just an evanescent feeling. It would pass, like all my other high-school crushes and ex-girlfriends I could have sworn I was head-over-heels in love with. Besides, I was really looking forward to seeing where things went with Chloe.

My stomach growled, interrupting both the silence and my thought chain. I looked up at the ceiling. I couldn't find the camera or whatever was being used to watch me, but I knew there was one somewhere. I heard a dull beep sound and I looked down at the ankle bracelet. It was flashing a dull orange light now. I wondered what the lights meant and if there was some sort of significance to the colors. I heard a clanking sound and looked towards the wall to the left of the cell. Much like the bed, there was a projection from the wall, holding a round brown thing in it. I got up and walked to it. The projection was some sort of block with two depressions in it, like the depth of bowls. Inside these bowls were the round brown thing and a weird soup-like mix that looked about the same colour as the round thing. Was that bread? I touched it. It was warm and somewhat firm, but dimpled under my touch. Like the consistency of cake, if I could liken it to anything I knew. It did not have any sort of smell, which made me wonder-

"Is this actual food?"

"Yes," came the reply. Oh, so he was answering now.

"What is it?"

No reply. Maybe the jailor guy only answered when he thought it was necessary. It pissed me off a bit, but I quickly suppressed my irritation in favour of my hunger. I picked up the round cake-like thing and mentally tried to prepare myself for whatever assault was about to be unleashed on my taste buds. I bit into it.

It was really good.

Once I bit in, the smell was released. It was like it was locked away within, waiting for me. It smelled like a cake-shop mixed with a casserole mixed with lasagna. I had no idea what it was supposed to be but it tasted amazing. I did not think I was so hungry, but I noticed that the bread was gone in barely a minute. I stared at the other soup-like thing. Was it going to be just as good? There was no spoon to scoop out any of it, and it wasn't in a bowl that I could pick up and drink from. Just a hemispherical depression in the blocky wall projection.