Chapter 22
Asmita
I can’t catch my breath. We are falling into the darkness, and all I can hear are my own screams. Jesse holds on to me tightly as we fall deeper and deeper.
I close my eyes as the sand slowly rains down upon us.
I stop screaming because there is no use; it only wastes my energy and won’t help us.
Suddenly, light begins shining in and brightness surrounds us.
I timidly open my eyes, and the light is so bright that I’m forced to squint.
I try to open my eyes, but the light is bright and only getting brighter as we fall.
Before I know it, we’ve stopped falling.
When we hit the ground, I expect to feel pain, but I feel nothing.
It feels like clouds have caught me. I open my eyes against the brightness and slowly look around me.
I take Jesse in, and he’s laying only a few feet from me.
When we hit the ground, he lost his grip and landed a few feet away.
He’s got his eyes wide open, trying to find his balance to stand up.
I don’t know what the look on his face means. It looks like he’s bewildered.
I take my eyes off Jesse just long enough to take in our surroundings.
A stark white room meets my gaze and as I look around us, I notice everything is white.
There’s no furniture in the room, no windows and no sign of an exit.
There’s a long mirror on one wall and as I look at it, I see my reflection.
I see Jesse standing now taking in the room as well.
I feel like my throat is closing up. The idea of being trapped in this room sets off a panic deep inside of me.
I circle the room and can’t find any seams along the walls that would indicate a door or a way to escape.
The panic in me is threatening to come to the surface the longer I’m in this room.
My eyes go back to the mirror on the wall.
I look at Jesse and his eyes meet mine in the mirror.
We run toward the mirror and start looking over it and around it, and we cup our hands to try to see through the mirrored glass.
A loud buzzing sound startles us both, making me jump. The voice we hear sounds electronic, almost computerized, and the words that come out next terrify us both.
“Welcome Asmita. We’ve been waiting for you.”
Those seven words are enough to knock all of the air out of my lungs.
Whoever is here, possibly behind that mirrored glass wall, knows who I am.
And it all comes crashing down on me… will I ever see my parents again?
Will I ever be happy… grow old with someone who cares about me?
Will I know the truth about my life, after being clueless for all those years?
I don’t know the answers, and the panic rising in me has reached a boiling point. I start to see black. The bright lights of the room fade to black and that’s all I know now. Black.