Persona Factory

Humanity has always been searching for its origins. Questions like 'what are we' and 'what is our purpose' have always been engaging for people.

They searched for answers in many realms – some went far and explored the heavenly objects around us, while others searched the answer within themselves. So far, none came back with answers.

I have found one of the answers. I never studied for it neither searched for it. The answer just revealed itself to me. The answer is the complete opposite of what we used to tell ourselves. The question, on the other hand, has always seemed so trivial to us.

Have you ever wondered what makes you the person you are? Why do you think, behave and feel the way you do? People have collected and unified all the spiritual aspects used to define this unfamiliar realm under one term – personality. The older terms, such as mind, heart and soul, lost from their independence and became sub terms of personality. This question, like I noted to you earlier, always seemed trivial to us – we never really devote time to wonder about it. We always preferred to take the easier way and told ourselves that we are who we are, and nothing more.

I was on my way back home from a friend's house party a week ago. The hour was 3:53 a.m., and I was one block away from my apartment. I was exhausted, so I decided to cut through the forest. I entered the forest and passed by countless tree silhouettes. After a minute of groping in the dark, I saw fading lights coming not so far ahead. I didn't know the woods before, so I mistakenly believed the lights were coming from the windows of houses on my block.

I approached closer to the lights, until I saw that they come from a wide building, hidden among the woods. The sight of the mysterious building fastened my heartbeat pace. I felt like a young boy who discovers a long hidden secret. Flooded with excitement, I reached closer to the building and searched for an entrance. I found a great iron door, which made a tiny creek, tiny, but wide enough for me to slip through. I made sure no one else is around to see me, slid through the creek and entered the building.

I was now standing in a small foyer. Wooden table stood in front of the wall at the rear end of the foyer. There were hanging hooks ordered in rows upon the side walls. Some hooks held coats, hats and purses, which meant that I wasn't the only one in the building. I got into some kind of workplace.

What kind of workplace is open so late at night? A factory, probably.

I saw three doors behind the wooden table, all had signs nailed to them: "Essences", "Shells" and "Clinic". I looked from one door to another back and forth, while deeply brooding. I wanted to see what is behind each door, but which one should be the first? After long exertions, I decided to take the door, whose sign read "Shells".

The door opened slowly as I entered, revealing a dark tunnel with fading orange light coming from the end of the tunnel. I entered and walked toward the far fading light, completely not ready for what I will find on the other side.

When I got out the tunnel, I stood in a long hall. Lamps were scattered all over, and spilled their weak, fading light upon long shelf stands, like the ones you can find in libraries. However, these shelves did not hold books, but small cardboard boxes. This was more a warehouse than it was a hall. The place was so full of boxes that many of them just stood on the floor.

I peripherally noticed one box on the floor. The box stood half open and bruised, as if people threw it to the floor instead of putting it down easily.

I got to the box and took a careful glimpse inside. Within the box, mostly covered in darkness, was lying an infant. He coiled within himself, trying to defend himself from the cold. His skin seemed dry, like the blood covering it. The infant was still alive and struggling to breathe. He slowly turned his head toward me. He looked at me with black hollow eyes and sad face.