Amneisa

Amnesia III

"Miss Pierce, you're up," called Mr Holloway as he came out of the testing room to address the queue of students waiting for their turn.

Addison sighed before following him through the mahogany door into a brightly lit room. It was a small room that only contained a few things: a heart rate monitor, two chairs and a video projector.

Mr Holloway gestured for Addison to take a seat next to the heart rate monitor while he closed the door behind them. "Okay, so this is really simple. All you have to do is watch a slideshow of images and videos while I record your reactions along with your heart rate."

"What are these tests for?" Addison asked. No one had cared to mention that yet.

"For the upcoming trip of course," Mr Holloway replied clearly confused by the obvious question. Then it clicked. "That you know nothing about.... Right... Sorry about that. The cube trip is what every final year business student goes on. We need to run some tests so that the trip is as effective as it can be. Is that okay?"

"I guess so."

"Great let's get started then! If at any point you want to stop, just let me know and I'll let you leave."

"Okay".

Mr Holloway switched off the lights, took a seat on the other side of the room and began the slideshow.

Three out of the four walls in the room lit up. An image of a tarantula was displayed on them. Even though it was just a picture, it was enough to cause Addison some serious discomfort. The tarantula was black and hairy, that alone was enough to make Addison's skin crawl. What was it about spiders that made them so utterly terrifying? They were harmless creatures, yet we perceive them to be as dangerous as snake venom.

Slowly, one of its legs started to move. Then another. Then another. Until all eight were moving together in unison. Addison shivered. She wasn't scared, it was just an uncomfortable experience. She couldn't help but wonder what relevance this had to a business trip? How were a tarantulas movements supposed to be related to her education in Business Management? 

The video changed pulling Addison away from her thoughts. Yet what it changed to made Addison want the tarantula back. It was a series of multiple clowns getting up close to the camera. Their creepy smiles were anything but infectious. In fact, it was rather like a disease, an epidemic. Their haunting laugh echoed across the room and rang in Addison's ears. She could see the madness in their wild eyes. She didn't like the way they seemed so happy yet sad at the same time. It was as if they wore a mask to cover their insanity. Addison squinted her eyes slightly and was sure that she had moved further back into her chair. The thought of watching any more of the video made her feel sick to her stomach.

Luckily for her, the thirty-second clip had finished. There were a number of other images and videos shown. A faceless girl trapped in a raging fire. Blood dripping from a knife while a man wiped it clean as he stepped over his slaughtered victims. Numerous five-second videos of people jumping from extreme heights just for the sake of an adrenaline rush. There were many more, some worse than others. All of them caused Addison discomfort, but it was nothing more than what she had felt upon seeing the clowns or the spider. After each video, Addison could see Mr Holloway put an 'X' in a box after glancing at her heart rate that had been relatively steady.

The video changed again, this time to a mass of water. An ocean to be more precise. There was a storm coming. The harsh winds caused gigantic rough waves to collide with each other. At first, Addison was calm, it was just water after all. But then her head started to hurt. It was a sharp pain near her temple that quickly spread like wildfire across her whole forehead.