I stood up from the generic office chair, pushing myself away from the long white desk I had been furiously typing on for the last 6 hours. My fingers cried at me, demanding a break. I fear if I didn’t listen to them, they would go on strike and my work efficiency would deplete significantly. Anything but that.

The alarm clock my boss had gifted me one fateful day started beeping, reminding me to get up and get some fresh air if my inner clock decided to stop working for whatever reason. I turned the alarm, along with the computer, off and headed towards the exit.

The buzz of the workplace, a mix of clacking keyboards and hushed conversations, stayed with me even as I walked closer and closer to the exit, showing how diligent each worker was here at the company. It filled me with pride, knowing that I had contributed to this well-oiled machine of productivity and labour. The faint scent of coffee and the sterile smell of printer ink slightly lingered in the air, not too obvious but noticeable.

“Sol, there you are!”

A voice broke my line of thought, which was quite annoying. I was about to reprimand the owner of this voice until I realised who it was.

“Ah, hello there. Do you need something?” I asked the person who had called for my attention.

“Yes, I just need you to go to the technology department and give them this drive. They’ve been asking for it for quite a while, and my team has been rushing to complete this.” The person’s long brown hair rustled as they shook their head in exhaustion.

“Sure,” I answered, eager to break the conversation and head outside. This small interruption was not accounted for in my daily schedule. “But why can’t you send the data through the cloud? Wouldn’t that be more efficient?”

“Umm, we had thought of that, but…” The voice trailed off slightly towards the end, hesitating to continue. The person decided to reveal the rest of the sentence, albeit by whispering the contents in my ear. “Uploading the data onto the cloud could potentially mean other departments could access the code, and the head of technology specifically asked us to prevent that from happening.”

Admittedly, this information had piqued my interest somewhat. I agreed to become a courier for the drive, finishing the conversation and finally heading towards the exit. I was five minutes behind schedule, and this broke my heart.

***

Based on previous observations, which were undoubtedly correct (this is not 100% proven true), other people would feel apprehensive if they looked at my eyes. I’m not sure if this was some supernatural occurrence, which is completely possible looking at the surroundings, or if I was just that ugly. Please, dear God, I hope it’s some supernatural voodoo magic or something.

Well, all these thoughts were actually in response to my surprise that Lady Interrogator was staring at me, shattering all the recently formed preconceptions I had about my scary eyes. Her bleached eyes looked at me directly.

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Before the interrogator had first looked at me in the hospital room, I had wondered if she was blind. But, after less than a second, it was obvious that wasn’t the case.

After around twenty seconds, the giant in front of me started speaking.

“Who are you?”

My shivering paused. Who am I? Did you not see me literally ten minutes ago? You were the one who poisoned me! I’m sorry, I’m not really suited to all this magic supernatural stuff. But… am I?

Don’t worry! Within the time she had reached my homely little square, I had already drafted multiple imaginary responses to any 101 questions that Miss Interrogator would ask me.

“My- I uh… um. You… Please don’t kill me.” My words started off strong, but the confidence level behind each word progressively became lower and lower. Well fuck. “Sorry, I mean… um…” My words trailed off once again.

I had the perfect thing to say in my head, but everything disappeared as soon as I opened my mouth. Right as I was about to completely shatter the confidence of this giant, someone came to my brain, right where sentences were made and flicked the entire word manufacturing facility. This wasn’t fair. I let out an invisible tear, wondering whether this was related to the barrier around my memories or if I was just stupid.

***

After the blade was carefully inserted in his head, I was transported to this fairy-like world. It was undoubtedly beautiful, however it didn’t look like anything I had ever seen before. After countless interrogations, both failed and successful, I was blessed with the opportunity to understand the myriad of different ways people thought. The way their brains work, and how they interact with their own emotions and the influences of others.

It was all incredibly interesting, and I had often wondered whether the career I chose was fit for me. Spending my days scrunched over stacks of pearl white paper dotted with small ink letters, researching with my various colleagues on any fascinating topic. Psychology was just one of the countless subjects I had found captivating. Unfortunately, destiny had a different plan for me.

Here I was, struggling to breathe air, water engulfing my lungs. All I could hear was the heart beating in my chest nonstop, working terribly to keep me alive. The water attempting to pressure my limbs into submission was noticeable, but nothing too big of a problem. The main issue was how I was constantly sinking into the dark abyss that lay beneath me.

Violently thrashing one hand to keep myself above the surface of the throbbing water, I tried to unbuckle my armour. It wasn’t too difficult, but the fear of endlessly drifting downward and drowning in this unknown place made my actions a bit more rushed than I would have liked.

Everything was almost off now. The chest plate was all that was keeping me from floating. I used both hands to take the hefty armour off, my desperate pulls on the water's surface ceasing for an unbearable amount of time.

I saw the armour waft up slowly, breaking the surface of the water right before I did. I urgently took in deep gasps of air, trying to fill my lungs with something other than water.

That was terrible. No matter how strong I was, I couldn’t breathe underwater forever. I was utterly exhausted from flailing around in the water.

Now having the ability to look around and survey my surroundings, the scenery was still as breathtaking and empty as before. Well, almost. There was a lone figure suspended in midair facing toward me. As I turned to face it, it looked startled and started turning left and right.

Feeling no threat from this figure blending in with the darkness behind him, I started swimming over to it. The motionless water parted with every movement of my hands, my weighty armour no longer slowing me down. I made it to the figure quite quickly and saw that instead of being suspended, it was instead standing on an invisible surface. It had been pacing around in a squarish circle, a squircle, ever since I had started swimming towards it.

I grabbed onto the edge of the invisible surface, pushing my hands up to launch me onto the square floor. The figure had now moved to stand at the complete edge of the square, almost falling back into the water.

I had to find out where I was. The ritual didn’t always work properly, so for now I treating this place as if it were reality. The figure in front of me didn’t look like the patient, so I decided to ask it who it was.