Seven Days

'I have been locked up for seven days.'

'I have nothing but my tied hands, a broken pen and the numbers in my head to keep me company. One really small window around fifty cm. Four walls. Some square feet of space. Twenty-six letters in an alphabet I haven't spoken in seven days of isolation.'

'One hundred sixty-eight hours since I've touched another human being.'

“We have brought your i̶n̶j̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ food,” they said to her.

“F̶o̶r̶ s̶u̶r̶r̶e̶n̶d̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶o̶ u̶s̶ For proper behaviour,” they said to her.

“Y̶o̶u̶ w̶i̶l̶l̶ n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ g̶e̶t̶ o̶u̶t̶ o̶f̶ h̶e̶r̶e̶ Just a few more days,” they said to her.

They are the minions of The Ixtal. The initiative that was supposed to serve justice. The same people who pulled her out of the principal's office and locked her in a place for rebelling against the results. No one cared that she was just speaking her mind. That she needed an explanation. A simple clarification.

She has no idea where she is.

She only knew that she was transported by someone in a white van who drove five hours and forty-eight minutes to get her there. She was aware that she was handcuffed to her seat. She knew she was strapped to her chair. S̶h̶e̶ k̶n̶e̶w̶ h̶e̶r̶ t̶e̶a̶c̶h̶e̶r̶s̶ n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ b̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ t̶o̶ s̶a̶y̶ a̶ w̶o̶r̶d̶. She knew she didn't cry as she was taken away.

'D̶i̶d̶ m̶y̶ p̶a̶r̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ r̶e̶a̶l̶i̶z̶e̶ I̶ h̶a̶d̶ d̶i̶s̶a̶p̶p̶e̶a̶r̶e̶d̶?̶ My parents must be worried.' She thought.

She knew the sky was falling every day.

Vistancia, sector Five, is bustling with aquaculture and farmers heading out for their morning shifts. A million leaves from a hundred different branches dip in the wind, fluttering with the false promise of flight. The gust caught their withered wings only to force them downward, forgotten, left to be trampled by the soldiers stationed in sector five.

There aren't as many trees as there were before, which is what scientists say. They say their world used to be green. Their clouds used to be white. Their sun was always the right kind of light. But she had not in the slightest memories of that world. The only existence she knows now is the one she was given. A ruthless king who rules all the sectors and the ruthless people who follow him, this small box and an echo of what used to be.

In an attempt to feel the small pane of glass, she reaches out her hand, but it is heavy. Like a fish of the deep rising to the surface of bright air and sun, she swam up to consciousness out of a dead blank into a whiter world than she had ever seen. The light was blinding. She heard voices very near at hand as if just behind her ear, talking together quietly in a business-like way. Her eyes twitched as hot tears streamed down her face, and she squeezed her eyelids shut in the hope his tears would stop. Her choppy breathing and watery eyes remained for quite some time, and she lay there unmoving.

"Where am I?" she asked slowly. She almost thought that she might have forgotten how to speak.

"You are in the hospital," a nurse said while checking her eyes. "You seem pretty well now. You can go home tomorrow."

She sat up, looking around. No one was there.

"Miss Adrina" the nurse called out as she was keeping her things back, "Your mates are in the ward beside yours"

Her eyes widened, "My mates..." she repeated. She always thought during those seven days that she was alone there. "Clare and Holly?" she muttered to herself.

She quickly jumped down from her bed and rushed out of the room. She couldn't believe that her friends had been there the whole time. She couldn't wait to see them and find out what had happened. She stopped in her tracks as she saw the person standing in front of her. It was someone she had never expected to encounter. "LOREK?" she blurted out in confusion.

Lorek turned towards her in surprise, his face registering shock. He stammered and stuttered, trying to find the right words to say. "What are you doing here?" he finally managed to ask.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" she said while walking towards him.

He pondered that point and said, "Oh, well. I gave the cadet test and got injured during that." He showed her his burnt hands, "Guess, it will take a few more weeks."

"How did this happen?" she asked as she frowned.

Lorek took a seat in the hallway and patted the chair next to him while looking at Adrina, "Guess the conversation would be long, why don't you take a seat?"

She nodded as she sat beside him, "So, tell me what happened in the test?"

"The thing is," he hesitated but sighed and continued, "I don't remember properly how I burned my hands this badly," He looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

"What?" she asked, not able to believe what she had just heard.

"Yea, I know this sounds ridiculous but it's true and it's not only me but all of us who survived. We don't remember how we got injured this badly. The only thing we remember is waking up at the cadet test ground. We were given the task to collect five ribbons as a team of three but unfortunately, some wild creatures raided our ground. As a result, students died and were severely injured. We tried our finest to fight back and protect ourselves but we were too outnumbered and outgunned. We all lost consciousness soon after and when we woke up, we were all in the hospital with multiple injuries." He sighed and leaned back on the chair as he turned his head towards her. "Your turn!"

"Hmm?" she asked in confusion as she was thinking so hard about what she just heard. It was really weird that all of them are having confusing memories. She felt like she had heard about this somewhere before. Déjà vu??

"Tell me how you got here?"

"Oh!" she looked down at her fingers, "well, I got punished"

"For what?" Lorek asked as he raised one of his brows.

"I rebelled against the cadet test result. You remember that?"

"Oh, that? I thought the principal would solve that by himself."

"Well, he certainly did," she scoffed, "by calling The Ixtal."

Lorek's eyes widened, "He called them just for this?"

"Yeah, and I was kept in a tiny box-like room for seven days, where I was given barely any food and no contact with anyone else. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. For instance, the only light I was given was a small window in the corner of the room. I could barely change my position there since the room was so small. I was so hungry and scared that I was barely able to sleep. I can still remember the feeling of hopelessness and despair that I felt during those seven days as there was no contact with the outside world." She sank deeper inside her thoughts as she clasped her hands on her face her elbows kept on her thighs.

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that," he was at a loss for words. He couldn't comprehend who had it worse the ones who went for the cadet test or Adrina who just wanted a simple answer to her question. "Was it just you? or there were others with you?"

She looked up, "Right! I just heard there were two other girls with me. I didn't know they were there."

"Well," he stood up, " You really need a strong mind to survive that level of adversity. You can do it, though. Take it one step at a time, and you'll get through it."

"Strong mind...." she repeated, "Strong mind... strong mind..." she kept on repeating it.

Lorek bent down to her, "Hey...you OK?"

She shot a look at him, "I remember now! It wasn't Déjà vu after all!"