Enhancement

- - 73 - -

Subconsciousness engulfs me, claiming me for itself. Cold at first, and foreign. So foreign yet eerily familiar.

I am everything and nothing, a second and an eternity woven together, floating freely.

All the darkness...

and the clouds...

unbreakable silence...

I can't see but I feel myself...

Falling...
......
....
..

-- -- -- -- --

I shift against soft sheets. Confused, I roll slowly to my other side, eyes closed. My cheek rubs against a pillow, the seam of the covers resting on my other side.

This must be paradise. Sleeping in an actual bed with real warmth. At ease, no impending doom ready to devour me alive. This is great.

Wait... How did I get here though? My skin becomes more sensitive to the bedsheets. Where am I? Am I okay?

Part of me wants to stifle the nagging questions and stay blissfully ignorant to the world. Sleep is for peace, not anything else. No interruptions.

Yet... so many questions. Where is everyone? Are they here? Nicolette, Stephen. The Equinox banquet with Stephen was fun, with the joking and relaxation.

I smile mentally to myself, heart tingling. We had actual fun, and it's not like we shouldn't have been. Hard-earned grins. The world owed us those.

Then the stage, our names called loudly, the descent towards the doors and...

No, no, no. No. No. Screeners, tables, syringes. The emotion-controlling device shoved in front of my face by the Screener. The burn marks blew my cover.

I pinch my eyes shut, but the events continue playing. Every gruesome detail, vivid with each tense feeling. The cold shackles, dry air on the roof. My head spinning so quickly my stomach rejects the sensation just thinking about it.

I twist around in the sheets, shaking away the memories. Nightmares in the daytime.

Hmmm. I still don't want to let go of this peaceful state, but anxiety get the best of me. My stomach quivers, my thoughts falters. I can't shake the uneasiness away.

I slit my eyes open just a fraction of the way. There's only one way to find out. I don't want to, but have I ever?

I fully open my eyes. The room is dark, so I can't see a thing. I pull myself to a sitting position, which normally triggers the lights or the windows. I can tell for a fact I'm not in the Project, so thank goodness for that.

The windows fade to transparency, gradually releasing sun rays. Once the darkness cracks into light, my mouth falls open. I flip around the covers and sweep my eyes over every corner of the room.

Everything is dark-colored, from the black walls to the bedcovers. The paint on the walls shows minor streaks, and the room is smaller than my old one back home. I flick my gaze towards the window again. Even the window is smaller.

I shuffle the covers around, all of them black. No gray or white, or even any signs of the Enhancement Project's bleached floors. My punishment for burning that fear-emotion sensor is putting me... in lower-class?