• That night was the most horrifying night of my life, my ‘awakening’ as the others called it. It started like another normal night but things soon changed. As I sat there in my room I contemplated what it was that made me take the choice I had been given. I looked around the room; it was more of a cell with its dingy walls, greying blinds and large, locked, steel door. Any form of colour must have been a luxury. I got up from the creaky chair I was seated in and headed over to the blinds, surprisingly enough they didn’t work, just like everything else in the room, either broken or pointless. Frustrated I sat down on the edge of the small bed in the corner of the room, again almost useless as a form of furniture, with its unforgiving hard mattress and one, flat pillow. What a life, I thought to myself, confined to this cold, cramped room which looked as if it could fall apart at any moment. As I lie there on the hard bed I began to wonder why I was being kept locked up, but soon, to my dismay, I found out as my life as I knew it began to rapidly spiral out of control. I waited around, killing time by playing solitaire in my mind, occasionally making the odd trip to the blinds to try and see the outside world but to no avail. I pondered some more about my situation, but then things started to happen. All of a sudden things felt different, wrong different, the more I thought the worse it became. I could feel my thoughts whirling round and round in my head, faster and faster. I could hear things differently; my sight faded then became clearer than ever. What was happening to me? What had they done?

    I lay on the bed, tossing and turning, trying to relax. I started to drift off….Suddenly I heard a noise from outside, a metallic sound, of whirring wheels. I jolted upright in shock and backed myself into a corner, like a trapped animal. What was this noise that bore its way into my skull? Was it coming to end the pain in my mind? I quickly came to my senses as the locks on the door slowly clicked. I tensed up, edging further away from the door. The handle pushed down and the door creaked open, I then realised there was no more threat. It was just the lunch lady. I could smell the food, but damn it smelled awful. The usual lunch lady wasn’t on duty that day either; a newer, younger girl had brought me my evening meal. I thought it was my lucky day, the old grouch was off duty for once in her miserable life, not that she had one… As the trolley girl wheeled my food in I could sense something different, I could smell something so alluring, it wasn’t the food, and I noticed a small, single cut on her arm, a small drip of blood. It smelled so inviting; she noticed me staring and looked terrified, as if I were going to harm her. She lay down my plate with a clatter and soon moved as quickly as she could onto the next room. What was she so afraid of? Why had I reacted to her blood in that way? I hated blood; I couldn’t stand the sight of it. I never gave it another thought. A few hours later though and I wished that I had asked all the relevant questions before making the foolish choice that I had.

    They told me I would change, they never said how. They told me it would be over quickly and the changes would not be that apparent. I didn’t understand how I could ‘change’. The past days had been a blur to me; all I could remember was drifting into a deep sleep. I could remember the steely walls of the room, and the whirring of machines, everything else was a blank. I couldn’t even remember where I was, how I had gotten here, all I knew was it didn’t feel right. The more I thought, the less I remembered, like something inside of me was stealing my memories, hiding them from me and keeping them to itself. I couldn’t even remember my home anymore. I wandered over to the bathroom, just as charming and welcoming as the other room. Cracks raced their way across the walls, cobwebs engulfing the ceiling, a whole world away from home…at least I think it was, I couldn’t remember much about home anymore. I found the mirror and stared at the man looking back at me. Id been there roughly, judging by the state of my facial hair, around three weeks, I really needed to sort it out. I rummaged around in the tiny cabinet looking for some form of razor to sort myself out. They really didn’t cater well in this place…eventually I found an old, rather unpleasant looking razor blade and decided to take action against my wayward facial growth. A while later I was done, much better…at least I didn’t look like I’d been living on the streets anymore. I gazed into my own reflection, something was different I could sense it, nothing seemed different, but something had definitely altered. I thought no more of it and headed back into the other room. I shut the door behind me and it almost broke of its hinges... I lay back down on my bed, hard and uncomforting… the coils creaking and moaning as I twisted my body around. I looked up at the bland white ceiling and sighed...what a place, I thought again, laughing silently in my head as I drifted off…indeed sir…what a place…