Factory Reset | ✓

rewrite

"Wake up..."

"Aura, please wake up..."

"You can't be dead..."

"Not like this..."

"Not yet..."

I opened my eyes, half-expecting to see someone hovering over me, but I was alone in my room again. The warm blanket from before covered me and a peek beneath revealed I was clothed. No jacket this time — only a thin white t-shirt and white pants stared back at me. My feet were naked.

Was I really alive? It was hard to believe that after everything I went through, I still ended up back here. Yet a part of me wasn't surprised. Things kept happening in cycles — of course, I was alive. Life was just a series of events repeating over and over again until it all ended with death.

Death was not in the cards for me. Not for a long while anyways.

As long as my body kept breathing, there was a chance for me, however small, to make it out of this place. I would make it out of this place — in one way or another, in one form or another.

I reached under my pillow to pull out the smartphone, but it wasn't there. My only form of communication with the people I knew were there was gone. Were they giving up on me? Was this their way of telling me goodbye? What about my meals? My bathroom trips? My freedom?

Even the window was just a dark rectangle — there was no view to be seen. No sun. No moon. No faint outline of trees. It looked as if someone painted the wall inside the window frame black.

"Hello," I called out. "What are you doing to me?"

No answer.

"I know you did something to me," I tried. "I know you're still doing something."

There was still no answer.

I sat up on the bed, wrapping my arms around my knees. What more could I say? What if they weren't listening to me right now? What if they weren't watching like I thought they were?

Then all of this would've been pointless — all this trying to be free again. If I was stuck at the whim of someone who didn't even care for my life, what chance did I have of living again? I knew I was destined for greater but what if destiny was just a lie we told ourselves to feel better?

What if this was all for nothing? What if I was just... nothing?

Still hugging my knees, I rocked back and forth on my bed. The sudden loss of my routine was hitting me harder than I expected. What was causing this severe overreaction? What was wrong with me? That thing I saw in the water — that vision — was it really me? Was it my memory?

If it was my memory, then there had to be more of them somewhere, but where?

"Tell me who I am," I yelled towards the ceiling.

The lights of the room dimmed and something told me that my pleas were heard for once.

▬▬▬

An escort came to my room for me and we walked together in silence. As much as I wanted to ask questions, I couldn't find the right words for them just yet. After walking for some time, we finally arrived at another room. The escort left me alone and I was standing before the door.

The label next to the door read NM4. It could've stood for anything. There were so many words in the English language that started with N and M, but nothing I could instantly think about.

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what could possibly be the last room I'd ever enter again. Then I opened the door and my eyes gravitated to the person already inside. It was a older blonde man wearing a long lab coat. His dark blue eyes looked tired from under his glasses.

"I am sure you have plenty of questions, Aura," the man said. "Please have a seat."

He gestured towards an empty chair sitting across from the chair he was sitting on. Other than the two chairs and a small table separating them, the room was empty. This whole place screamed minimalism. Every room had the bare minimum of what that room needed — nothing more.

I did as I was told and sat down in the chair, staring at the man. Was this my chance to finally talk to a living human being? To find out real answers about who I was? Why I was here?

"Before we begin," he said, "can you tell me if you remember anything?"

"Remember what?" I asked back. The question was vague — what was I supposed to be remembering? What did he mean? And if I said yes, would that put me in trouble?

"Good." He scribbled something down in the notebook he had pulled out of his pocket. "Please close your eyes and we'll be done quickly. I'm sure you're ready to get back to the real world."

That was it? I almost wanted to push for more information but how would I get that without revealing what I knew? And what was going to happen if I closed my eyes? Would I die here?

"Please close your eyes," he repeated, growing impatient. "I have to be going soon."

I closed my eyes and waited, hoping that something good would at least come out of this. Just because my eyes were closed didn't mean my ears were. I heard footsteps growing closer.

And then, I felt something being placed on top of my head, and everything started to make sense. Images flashed through my mind — were they memories? — and I finally knew who I was.

I was a recent high school graduate, working a job I hated, so I could take a gap year to save up for college. There wasn't enough money for me to go right away and I didn't qualify for any scholarships either. Life was depressing, but the promise of having future success was enough.

Once this gap year was up, I'd get to major in neurobiology, and provided things went well, I could go to medical school and make my parents proud. Seeing me succeed was all they wanted.

Yet something didn't add up. Why was I in this—

My memories were clashing. As the new ones filtered in, the old ones filtered out. I was on vacation in a really fabulous hotel to take a breather for a few days. That's why I was here. But there was someone sitting here with me. I think I was asking for directions to somewhere.

I tried to open my eyes but something was holding them shut. It was impossible to open them up again. Did someone glue my eyelids shut? No, that would be ridiculous. Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe this whole thing was just a bad dream and I needed to wake up in my bed again.

"Hello?" I asked. "Where can I find the hotel's pool area?"

All I got back was silence. It was like no one was there. It was like I was alone all over again. Of course it was a dream. Wiping memories? That would be unethical. No one would allow that.

Before I could ask the other questions burning in my mind, I blacked out.