The Jewel Project

Chapter 1

"Hello there, I'm Dr Stevens. Welcome to the Jewel of New Orleans'." A pause. "You must be James."

The voice was smooth, it sounded fake, almost prerecorded. Her blond hair was pulled back in a perfect ponytail without a single strain of hair out of place. Stevens eyes where tired, like she hadn't slept for years. Yet somehow, the rest of her did not reflect that.

"Please, follow me." Without any response, she started walking down the hall. You were able to peak trough some of the windows located on each metal door that covered the walls. You saw a girl, her name was Stella. You could without any difficulties tell that she was from a wealthy family, and indeed she was. The youngest daughter of the Whitehaven family. She looked happy, her eyes sparkled in a way only children's can. A big, pretty little girl smile covered half of her face, revealing her perfectly straight, milky white teeth. You almost felt bad for her in a way. Because she tried so hard to be polite and make the grown men and women in the room like her, just like her mommy and daddy told her to.

There was a boy in another room. Dressed in a grey hoodie and worn-out jeans, he sat upright in what looked like a dentist chair. His name used to be Adam Redoak although at this point, he no longer goes by that name. He turned his head towards the door and looked you dead in the eyes. The boy did not look frightened, nor distrad. But his eyes did not sparkle, and there was no smile on his face. Nothing but emptiness. You stopped your movements and glanced at him. He turned his head straight forward again shortly there after.

"These are our examination rooms." Stevens said after a minute or two. "This is where you will be spending most of the next few weeks." She continued.

"How long will I stay here?" You asked as you tried to catch up.

Without looking at you, she answered: "The program was designed to last thirty days, however, most parents come back for their children earlier than that. After two weeks or so." You nodded slowly, despite knowing that she could not see you. But she did not seem to care much about the lack of an answer, as she didn't proceed to say anything else about it.

It wasn't until you've past what seemed like hundreds of doors you that realized the facility is far bigger than you expected. A sudden thought crossed your mind: Perhaps I'm not as out of place as I thought? You had never really thought about it but seeing all the occupied examination rooms, it was obvious that you did not belong to the minority. You were right, and you had not even seen half of it. You passed room after room, with every turn you thought you'd seen it all. But one after another they appeared and soon you found yourself outside room 7463. There was a clipboard besides your door, like every other. Your name was on there, but you did not go by that name yet. You thought it was odd for them to include that. But it wasn't odd at all, you just didn't understand it yet. Stevens would feel bad for you, or maybe just laugh at you. For being so naive. But they can't really blame you though because you were once again not a part of the minority. There has never been a single child able to burst the bubble of their own illusion. They want to believe that it all will end soon, that they will come back them. There isn't room for other thoughts. They have to come back.

You walked through the door. The room didn't look the way you depicted it. There was a bed to your right, the blanket was lying in a messy pile on the floor accompanied by the pillow. You had a window right in front of you; the plexiglass was opaque, however, you could easily that it once was clear. Scratches covered the plexi, dust trapped in the crevices gave it more of a brown hue. The frame of a mirror sat on the wall next to the window. The glass that once sat in the metal frame was shattered into a million pieces. Some of the fragments were tinted red at the edges. You didn't think more about it, despite finding it quite unusual. Your room looked like all the other unoccupied rooms, there were really only one difference. This one didn't seem unoccupied.

The door closed behind you and the sound of Stevens high heels faded away. You pulled the door, it was locked. Your looked around while your legs started moving. Time to settle in, you thought to yourself as you lifted the sheets of the floor. A low thud caught your attention. Something had fallen to the floor. A book, hidden in the bedsheets. It looked used and worn out. You briefly flipped through the pages without really looking at the words themselves. It looked like a diary. You opened the first page once again, you saw a name, one that you did not know.

Belonging of Adam Redoak