by Felipe Brenny
My head buzzes, forcing my eyes open. I roll off my bed and fall to the ground. Only when I look up do I realise I’m not on my bed, let alone in my room. There’s a yellow flowery-patterned couch I must have just been sleeping on, a coffee table, a window letting in sunlight, and a radio playing corporate jazzy Muzak. Taking a moment to turn the nobs watching the red line move across frequencies, it doesn’t change anything. I look outside, but there’s nothing beyond the glass; it’s just a white void. I swear I’ve seen this place before. There’s nothing here, so I look at the one door and open it.
At first, I’m puzzled. I look back, then forward, going as far as possible, closing and opening the door, and when I step through, I’m in the exact same room. Couch, coffee table, window, radio, and another door on the other side. On the coffee table, there’s a notepad and a glass of water on a coaster. Opening the notepad, there’s nothing inside, so with a nearby pen, I scribble something onto the first page and put it back down. Taking a deep breath, I go through another door; another replica of the room is before me. I know I’ve seen this place before.
I open the notepad and find nothing; I can’t find the scribble I put on it. I pinch myself, and the pain settles in. Who would take the time to set this up? This is some elaborate joke. I go for something more extreme—kicking over the coffee table. I rush to the other room only to find it back exactly how it was. With the door open behind me, I can still see the kicked-over coffee table. I close the door and quickly open it again. In that split second, the coffee table is back to normal. What the hell?
There’s gotta be something here, right? I look at the various colourful paintings I’ve ignored up until now, each of them arranged to form a lumpy rectangle, and I start to rip them off the walls, hoping for some exit. I throw the couch cushions everywhere, look under potted plants, the couch, the radio, and even the carpet itself. That’s when I realised the branding on its tag, June Corp. Of course, I was here in this room yesterday. Only, it wasn’t so messed up then. If I remember correctly, to get into this room, I had to get past the receptionist. But no matter how many doors I go through, I always end up in the same place. I was on my way to meet the CEO when I, when I, didn’t? I sat on the couch and someone greeted me, but I can’t remember anything after that.
Am I dead? There’s no way, right? Thinking back, I did see some kind of flash. Maybe I really am dead. But if that’s the case, then why am I here? Why am I stuck here? There’s only one thing I can do.
I search the place top to bottom, covering every square inch again and again. I try to break the window open, but nothing happens. Attempting to force the wooden floor with the table also yields no results. However, in the middle of my search, I finally find something. Underneath the cup of water, what I’d thought was a coaster turns out to be a booklet. I take a deep breath and open it.
Hello! Welcome to June Corps state-of-the-art Timestamp. Here in your own little reality, you can do whatever you want without consequences, and the best part? This is your own little pocket forever! No more rent, no more taxes, just this one room, for the rest of your life.
What? I don’t want to read any further, but there’s nothing else to do.
No one knows you’re here. Once you signed whatever contract you agreed to, you allowed us to keep you here for observation. Don’t worry, you won’t die, or rather, your body won’t. Right now, you’re stuck inside your own head with no way out, and that’s okay.
‘How is this ok?’ I yell out. They said I was being observed, right? Surely they can get me out. Please. One more time, I read through the booklet.
Hopefully, there’s a good book to read, or really any type of entertainment, because you are going to be stuck here for a long, long time.
Author Bio
Hi, my name is Felipe Brenny (He/Him), and I am a third-year student at QUT studying creative writing. I have a passion for writing various kinds of fiction, and for my creative project unit, I am working on a dystopian novella, which I hope to complete after the unit. I enjoy playing a variety of video and board games, as well as reading books like “The King in Yellow” and “House of Leaves”.