The Beginning of the End

By Sandalie Gamage

Lights. Really bright lights. That’s all she saw. She fluttered her eyes open and sat up. The room she was in was dark, though she could’ve sworn there were blinding lights in every corner. She rubbed her eyes. Everything was hazy and she couldn’t remember how she got here.

She looked around the room, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. There was no light in the room except the dim glow from the lamp. She ran her hands up and down the walls, trying to find a way out. Nothing. She was stuck.

She ran her hands through her hair. Suddenly, something struck her. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened with horror. Who...who was she?

She racked her mind, trying to remember her name. Her family. Anything. But it was blank. A long moment of nothing before appearing in this room. What had happened? One minute she was somewhere, and now she was nowhere.

Footsteps. Then voices. Hushed whispers, so quiet she could have missed them if she breathed too loud.

“She’s in there,” one voice said.

“They’ve been preparing for her arrival for days,” a second voice replied.

Then a lock clicked. A door appeared in the solid wall before her and she stepped back. The light flooding from the room temporarily blinding her. She put her hand over her eyes.

“Awake? At last, we’ve been expecting you,” a gruff, yet somehow comforting, voice said.

She moved her hand off her face and looked up. A man stood before her, he looked like any other person on the street, yet there was something about him that didn’t seem right. She took another step back.

“It’s alright. They’re always scared when they get here,” he smiled and gestured for her to follow him.

A sudden thought dawned on her. Bright lights. Loss of memory. The way the man looked. She gasped, the blood draining from her face. “This...this is the end, isn’t it?”

The man chuckled. “Oh no. No, no, no. This, my dear, is only the beginning.”