Confined Yet Free

Birth of an Uprising

"Tell me all about it...what happened?" A tall slender man walked into the all-white room I'm held up in. He is wearing a white lab coat and white gloves, the only thing with color in the room is me. I am filthy, there is dirt covering my black shoes and my pants. I had bruises on my arms, scratches on my face and my left eye was irritated. Mr. Lab coat sat me down at an all-white table. This room began to feel like a decontamination chamber mixed with an interrogation room. "When did it all go so wrong Cam? Tell us, we are here to help," he said sitting on the opposite side of the table. He said "us"... I looked around and found four cameras for each room corner. I set my hands on the table and thought through today's significant events. "Mr. Lab coat, what room are we in. What is the room number?" He sighed and got up from his chair. " Not that this is important but," Mr. lab coat opened the door and look to his right for the room number. "546-4. Now can we get to the task at hand, Cam?" I nodded in response and swallowed hard at the gruesome events. " Everything started this morning, Sir. It started with a text." I stopped mid-sentence and glared and Mr. Lab coat. "Yes, I know this is difficult Cam but we can't help if you don't let us. What did the text say?" he said empathetically. " The text said "None of it is real. Don't you just hate it when things pretend to love you? I know I do. Trust no one. you're welcome, Cam. Love Prince."

Mr. Lab coat left the room quite abruptly and returned with a white sphere in his right hand. He sat it on the table closest to me. " This is a recording device used in interrogation rooms all over Asia. We get the luxury of using it today. Now tell me the rest. Don't skip on a single detail. When did it all go so wrong, Cam?" he asked. I let out a huge sigh followed by a groan. " Ok, Mr. labcoat let's get this over with."

It's Saturday! This week has been so tiring. My plan was to sleep late today but my mental clock has a permanent alarm set for 8:45. I don't really have anything else to do right now. My laundry basket is full at the moment but i'm way too lazy to get off my bed and walk all the way to the far corner of the room. I might as well watch some TV. I reach for the remote and my phone chimes. It's from one of those spam numbers. "774-623," I say out loud. I should just delete it but I love replying to these. The text isn't even trying to sell me anything. The text reads "None of it is real. Don't you just hate it when things pretend to love you? I know I do. Trust no one. you're, welcome, Cam. Love, Prince." This is the dumbest chainmail I have ever seen; there isn't even a specific number of people I should send it to. Whatever, I'll just send to all contacts. Clicking on the send button did nothing at all. I tried to use voice control but my phone would just cut out of it. The number wasn't even a 1-800 number now that I think of it. I shake it off and delete the message.

Five minutes later I am watching Netflix on the Roku with my headphones in. I wear my headphones so I don't alert my family that I'm awake. The last thing I need is my mom to come in and ask me to do some random chore like throw the lawn in the washing machine or mow the laundry. I just reached the last season of "Once Upon A Time" and I am just about caught up. All of a sudden my show freezes. One of the main characters, Henry, turned and stared at the camera. This must be another Elsa special...or maybe... Peter Pan is back. I gasp at the possibilities but then the camera zooms out revealing wires,boom mics, and other hidden production tools. This reminded me of the time I rode the Harry Potter ride with my family in Universal Studios. The ride stopped right before the end. I thought it was a part of the spooky adventure but they turned the lights on, revealing the secrets of how the ride was made. To be honest it ruined the magic but mostly it made me uncomfortable because I knew as soon as someone turned the lights on there was a screw-up. A voice broke through my thoughts, "How does it feel to be out of the dark?" I turn to the door in defeat: if my little brother knew that I was awake that meant everybody knew I was awake. To my surprise, there was no one at the door. " Project 226, can you hear me? You're wearing headphones, 226, nothing knows you're awake." I hear the same voice again. My brother sounds nothing like that. I am most-definitely losing my mind if I think Henry is speaking to me. I turn my attention to the TV as Henry nods. "There, there, don't scream. Feel free to imagine you're dreaming if it would help you cope. As the main character of this pretend dream, do me a favor and follow the next few rules carefully as I tell you about your situation. Do not respond in any way: do not look around the room; do not smile; do not frown; and most importantly, do not run.

I don't know what it is about him but I want to listen. Something about him just commands attention.I get into a comfortable position on the bed and try to act normal. "You received a text this morning. Blink if this is true." Henry said. I blinked once. Henry nodded. "There are cameras in your room, Your family is full of actors and your precious life is in danger." he said abruptly. I paused in all motion, for some Insane reason I believed him. Well, i didn't quite believe all of it i need a little more proof than a talking TV character . My head wants to turn and scan the room but I remember one of his rules said not to, instead I decided to get back into my false comfortability and nonchalantly bring my focus back to Henry. "How do I explain this? Have you ever been on a virtual reality coaster. One that isn't really a roller coaster but it feels like one? If you have blink and if you have ever looked for cuts in the screen or ways to prove it's not real blink twice."henry request. I shift on the bed and blink twice. I hate roller coasters but i love the virtual ones. The simpson ride had a huge screen so half way into the ride I started to feel as if it was an actual roller coaster. This freaked me out so much that I was scrambling to find a bump in the screen or something to tell me it's fake. " Great so you'll understand this. When i say "go", go to your clothes basket in the far corner of your bedroom. I want you to look for an exceptionally thin white line or something to prove to yourself that this is all a masquerade. Try to make it look like you're about to do some chores."

I swallow hard in disbelief. A slight frown forms on my face but I shake it off quickly remembering his rules. While making my way to the clothes basket I trail my fingers across the wall as casually as possible. As I begin digging through the bin I lay a hand in the corner of the wall, hoping that it just appeared that I was in need of stability at the moment. With every trembling bone in my body I was praying that he was wrong and hoping this was a joke. At this point I really don't know what else to do. I feel timed all of a sudden and technically I am, if I stay at this clothes bin to long it will appear suspicious. Overwhelmed, I tug a bit of the wall paper out of frustration. A faint white light appears along the lining of the torn wallpaper. To be clearer it wasn't exactly light but it was definitely white. I grabbed an old shirt from the bin and casually smoothed the wall paper. Back on the bed I plugged my headphones back in. " Well, i can't say i'm impressed with your ability to keep a straight face while occupied but I can say that i'm proud you found it. Make it to the back woods as soon as possible. You need to... Ah yes Mr. pan we meet again!" Henry completely stops and returns to the shows events. I stare in confusion wondering why he would leave so precipitously. All of a sudden I hear a knock at the door. "Cam! Breakfast is ready!"

I snatch my phone from bed and turn my television off. Heading down stairs I feel a sudden shift in the regular mood. " Darling, did you get any messages this morning?" my dad inquired. I was in a frozen shock but had to keep my cool. "No, why do you ask? Was I supposed to?" Perhaps it was because I was nervous but my mind began to wonder. How could I truly know my television had been telling the truth and how could a television speak to me? I am absolutely losing my mind and not in the playful i am desperately trying to portray. The truth of the matter was this kind of situation only happened in the movies and that I should not be so trusting of such outlandish delusions. I am not the main character of a cheesy horror movie or worse ;a typical character in a lousy excuse for a short story. "Cam!" my father shouted at me causing me to be yanked away from my thoughts. "Yes." i responded quickly and quite rudely. My father had always been quick to yell but now wasn't the time to get into it with him, my mental health was at stake. "I was just curious as to what you'd be doing today, but i can see you seem quite occupied with your daydreams." my father snapped. His childish behavior predispose my siblings and i to ignore it although something was off.