Lotus Eaters (Chapter 1)

I pass the cells of the facility. The walls are off-white and the brightness of the fluorescent lights hurt my eyes. The cold air fills my lungs and I shiver in my thin all-white uniform as I roam the halls, my footsteps echoing on the marble floor. Finally, I head to my destination. The room is dark, but I see the uniforms of my fellow doctors glowing slightly from the light coming from the window of the adjourning room. The window view is of another room. Like every other wall in this facility, the walls of the room are white. Each wall is cushioned with white foam boards and there was nothing else in the room. Empty, just like how my soul has been all these years. I see her sitting at the corner of the room, her arms wrapped around her folded legs, her white garment rippled around her, her soft blonde hair tousled around her shoulders. I stand, together with my co-workers, in the dark room, observing her behind the glass. She does not know that we are watching her, and I see her trimmed nails digging and scratching at her arm.

When the assembly of the doctors is complete, a slit on her door opens and a knife slides in. At the sight of the sharp object, she scrambles for it. She turns it and flips it over, examining its sharp edge and its gleaming blade. Slowly, she runs the blade down the palm of her hand and makes a clean cut. She fascinately watches as the blood drips down to the floor. She does not flinch, for the cut is so clean, she feels no pain.

I shiver, not from the cold, but at the sight of her blood streaking down her arm. I am grateful for the dark, for my comrades do not see my disgust at this experiment.

This facility is dedicated to discover new therapeutic cures for the mental obsessions of individuals. The Lotus, it is called, getting its name from Homer’s Odyssey written centuries ago. The tenants of this facility are no ordinary beings, but clones of the deceased and current mental patients. No patient is a normal being, but instead a carbon copy of another, their obsession programmed at birth.

After half an hour of observation, three men go into her room. Two hold her back as the other takes the knife away. She cries and struggles, but the men are too strong. Once the one carrying the knife goes out of the room, a doctor goes in to tend to her wounds. One by one, the doctors file out of the dark room. I stay behind and watch as they bandage her cuts and leaves. I watch as she softly sobs and scratches at the door. A few minutes later, the men come back to take her to her room; and I too leave, knowing that someone will clean the blood on the floor.

I jot down a few notes and glance at her credentials:

 

NAME: FOXTROT66

AGE: 15

GENDER: FEMALE

HEIGHT: 5’3’’

WEIGHT:

EYECOLOR: BLUE

HAIRCOLOR: BLUE

DATE CREATED: AUG. 9, 2030

 

Those are the basic things about her. Other details are about her health and dental records. The last page, the once I cringe to read, is about her Lotus, or obsession, in simpler terms:

 

Her fascination with blood and sharp shiny objects are similar to those of Case66. Case66’s past with the murder of her mother and father has greatly affected her mental state. Unfortunately, with Case66’s, a.k.a Brittany Werner, death on July 9, 2030, we were forced to create Foxtrot66 to continue further observation.

 

I will not torture myself by reading on to my observations of her. No, I will not… I head to her ivory cell; which I think is a prison, its color trying to compensate for the evil doing behind these walls. I head into her cell. She is not surprised, for she sees me often, for I am her doctor and friend. Sitting still on her bed, she does not look at me. I am not surprised by her behavior, for she is always like this whenever she is taken away from her Lotus.