The Room

The Room(Trevor Arrowood) Currently, I’m sitting in a park bench in our local park. My best friend, Lucas Art, is sitting right beside me. I’m shaking, is how afraid I am. “Keith, are you alright? You look really pale, and you’re shaking. The room isn’t going to be that bad, you’ll blow right through it,” says Lucas confidently.

The room. I get shivers down my spine just thinking about it. The room is where you can go once a month, to experience any type of tranquil thing, or past memory. But, there is a small downfall to this in my eyes. To be allowed access, the day you turn sixteen, you have to go in the room, for the first time. It wouldn’t be all that bad, if you didn’t have to face a fear that you live with. The worst part of it is, you don’t know which fear you’ll have to face. Today I turn sixteen, so I have to face a random fear. That alone scares the living daylights out of me. “I don’t know Lucas, you know the rumor. If it’s true, that if you don’t face your fear, you get kicked out of the city, I feel that’s what will happen to me. I’ve always feared it.

Lucas smiled at me, and said, “It’s never happened. If it is true Keith. Plus, you’re the smartest in our class, as well as the most athletic in our class, of course you’re going to pass. If anyone isn’t going to pass, it’d be Matt.”

I smile back, but with dead eyes. “I know you’re trying to lighten the mood, but still, I’m worried. We both know that Gwen would pretty much die if I didn’t pass.”

Lucas looked at me sympathetically, “Again, you’re going to pass this with flying colors. I did it last week. If I can do it, you can. But let’s say the rumor is true, and you don’t pass, which you will, Gwen would be torn up, but you have to know you two are teenagers. We all don’t know if you guys will last throughout high school.”

That remark, pulled at me. Gwen and I are really close already, and we’ve talked about being together. But I have to shake the thought off. “Thanks for the pep talk, but I have to go to the facility. I’ll go right to your house when I’m done. See you later man.”

“See you soon Keith.”

Lucas did a great job of making me feel better than when we went to the park to talk, but I still walked with trepidation, nonetheless. The facility that the room is located in, is only about a fifteen minute walk from the park. When I arrive, I look up and down the glass building and see the scientists feverishly working to perfect whatever they’re working on. I push open the doors to enter the waiting room. The room is void of life besides the assistant and I. “Keith Carson?” asks the attendant.
“That’s me,” I say. “Do we just go back to the room, or do I have to wait?”
The attendant looks at his watch. “I’ll lead you to the room Keith.” He walks out from behind the counter and leads me to double doors that lead to a long corridor. We walk halfway down the corridor and make a left. When I turn the attendant is just standing completely still in front of an iron door. “This is the room Mr. Carson. You may enter.”

I stare at my feet for half a second, look up, then push the iron door open. After I enter the room, all I see in the room is a pure white on the walls, ceiling, and floor. After I look around, I look at the middle of the room where I see a pod shaped seat with a velvet interior and a table in front of it. On the table is a sheet of paper. On the paper are instructions on how to use the chair. First, I sit down, and then feel a tingling in my thighs, which must have been the medicine that sends me into my mind and makes me feel that I’m in reality.

* * *

I feel as if I’ve just been hit by a train when I wake up. I sit up and look around me, and to my surprise, I find myself lying on a couch. “I swear that I fell asleep in my bed last night…” I whisper to myself. I hear loud steps from behind me. I turn around and see Gwen running down a staircase. “Gwen? What are you doing here?” I can’t put one and one together at the sight of this. Her and I can’t sleep at one another’s houses, our family may as well kill us if it happens.

Gwen looks at me after that thought, and I can see the terror in her eyes. She looks like she’s been crying for hours. Only I know that look from helping her throughout the years. She sits herself down next to me, and grabs both of my hands in hers. She looks me in the eyes and says “Keith, I’ve done something, something that is seen as terrorist to the government.” Now I’m awake. I feel as if someone could drop a piece of lint in the room, and somehow you would be able to hear the sound.
“Gwen, what did you do? You know you can tell me anything.” I feel as if I’m losing Gwen.
Gwen looks as if she is going to open her mouth, but right after her mouth starts to open, I hear something get kicked open from above my head. I hear some yelling before I hear more thumps of feet down the stairwell. Five men come barrelling down the stairs, and they’re all covered head to toe in uniform. They run to the couch. Two of the men grab Gwen, and she begins kicking and screaming. The other three tackle me and hold me to the ground. But as Gwen screams, “I love you Keith!” I realize something. None of this is real. Losing Gwen is my fear.
Everything stops as I notice this, and the guards disappear.

When I think about what just happened the scene shifts and I return to the reality of the room. The room isn’t empty anymore, there are five armed guards standing around me. “Come with us,” the largest of them says. I obey and follow them. The guards take me to an elevator. The elevator goes down. It feels I was going down for five to ten minutes. The doors slide open and the large guard looks at me and says “Your results were beyond phenomenal, but we have to be cautious about your actions.”
The guards then lead me to a clear glass room. I’m commanded to enter the doors and I do. The doors slide closed after I enter. I hear a hissing a sound, but see nothing. Just like in the river, I feel as if I’m losing consciousness, but this time, I fade away to the one thing that’s been pure throughout my life: Gwen.