My Horrid Vision!

I was sitting in a meeting room on a chair by the round table. There was a phone lying on the table and couple more chairs around it. The room looked like the ones I see at work, but slightly darker. There were few dim lights on, which were throwing just a bit of clarity into the room. There was someone else sitting opposite to me. I looked hard to see who it was. But he was wearing a hooded black cloth. It covered most of him. It was an eerie scene and I was starting to feel scared. I tried to think how did I get there…but no, I couldn't remember anything before that exact moment. I remembered my whole life, but all those memories seemed to be very very old. Then what had happened in between!! Did I lose my memory? Was I in Coma or some other disease for a long time? I looked at myself and my body looked alright from every senses. I even felt alright…Then what! What was it!

Then he spoke…the hooded figure. 'What are you worried of?'

I looked up at him. It was still very hazy, very unclear. The lights flickered once and complete darkness fell just for a second, it made me more frightened. And he spoke again, 'Tell me, what's bothering you. I'll take care of you'.

I said, 'where am I?'. He chuckled for once, but immediately controlled himself.

'You are where you wanted to be…You are what you chose to be. You are here with us, you are one of us. And WE will take care of you'

Although his words were supposed to be comforting, but the harsh sound of his voice was making me anything but comfortable. I looked around, through the glass windows of the room, hopelessly looking for some help. At first the glasses looked dark, but I looked hard and felt few figures walking past it. I felt a jolt of hope in the deepest of my heart. I was about to leave the chair when the voice spoke again-'they are with us too'. I took some time to realize whom he was referring to. When I realized I looked back through the glass and noticed the hooded clothes covering those figures that I noticed earlier. Depression fell back with a larger amount now. Confrontation was the only way.

'Who are you? And what do you want?'

'I am your future. And I already told you, I want to take care of you. I will give you what you want, I will tell you things that you want to hear and I will convince you to feel happy when you lose it by mistake.'

It must have been one of the most depressing things I had ever heard. I thought for a while, considered the offer. Then spoke, ‘but I don’t want to. I don’t want fancy things, I don’t want to be praised and I definitely don’t want to be convinced to be happy when I am not’.

Silence fell. I felt mixed emotions boiling inside. One part of me was hopeful that I would be released soon and the other part was scared of the worst.

‘Well then’, he said and pointed to a door in the corner of the room, ‘there’s your door. That’s the exit. Suit yourself’

‘And you won’t stop me?’

He laughed out so loud that every corner of the room was echoing the sound for longer than the laugh itself existed. ‘Why would I?’ he said, still amused. ‘You know, I am no different than you are. Maybe stayed here a bit longer than you did, but nevertheless the same origin.’ A pause and then ‘haven’t you looked at yourself properly?’

Something startled in me and I looked down at myself. I was wearing something black, which covered all my body. I tried to reach for my face and realized that it was covered in a hood. He was still smiling quietly. When I looked back at him he shrugged and pointed me towards the door again. It was a plain white door with the borders lit bright. In fact it was the brightest thing in the room. I looked at him for the final confirmation and he looked genuinely uninterested in whatever I did. So I started to walk towards the door and stretched my right hand for the bolt. I held it and twisted. Then quickly and unceremoniously opened the door. A cool breeze came in closing my eyes shut. It felt fresh. I touched my face and my hood was gone. I smiled to myself and opened my eyes. But wait, it wasn't as I expected. It was just mist. It was foggy white mist all over the place. No matter how hard I looked, I saw nothing. I turned to my guide and asked, 'what is in there?’

There were more people now surrounding my original host. All hooded, all in black, all looking depressed themselves. My host replied, ‘we don’t know…we don’t know beyond this door’

‘but..’ I started but couldn’t find anything to finish my sentence…I felt confused. I looked at the gloomy room full of dark-colored, mournful, but somehow satisfied bunch of people and then at the white outside blocked from vision by thick powerful mist and I felt as confused as ever….so which path to take, which way to go….my head started to spin badly and I saw all my life in front of my eyes played in a fast forward motion….

Then I opened my eyes, sweating and scared, lying on my bed by the bedroom window. I sat up and my heart was still beating fast. I removed the curtain and looked into the bright sky outside. It was morning. Around 9 -9:30 and the day two of my without-reason vacation begins…and clearly I am still confused. I left a long sigh and got back to my day.