Mistica Chronicles


Welcome to Issue 9

Darkling280 Winning Entry

"What do you think we should call it?" a voice asked.
I blinked groggily. Honestly, I was exhausted, and I didn't have a clue as to where I was. Strangely enough, my memory seemed quite faulty- in fact, I'm not quite sure I even knew who I was.
My name... what's my name...?
"Hmm, well since it 'erases'... how about Erasure, then?" a different voice suggested.
I opened my eyes again, and looked around. Two people wearing white lab coats stood next to me. I looked down, only to find myself laying on a cold, steel table.
One of them- likely a scientist- glanced over at me.
"Ah, it's awake," he said, obviously interested. "Here, come look," he said, motioning for the other scientist to come over.
"I don't want to antagonize it," said the one that was farther away.
It? I'm a person, I have a gender- I'm not an it.
"It's not like it'll hurt you. Though it can erase people, it will listen to whatever we say," said the other.
Listen to whatever they say? With a start, I noticed that this was actually true. Even though I didn't want to help them, I had a strange feeling- a feeling as if my free will had been stripped away. Somehow, I knew that I would do their bidding, whatever it may be. And it scared me.
"... That is true, I suppose. Regardless, I think it's time for it to sleep."
"Very well, then."
One of them stuck something in my arm and, the next thing I knew, I was out cold.

I slowly opened my eyes, trying to will the sleep out of my body. I wanted to be alert. Except, when I awoke, there was no one else in the room. I tried to call out, to see if anyone would come.
... And then, I realized that I could no longer speak. Terrified, I started yelling, waiting for sound. None came. I was mute. Suddenly, a man wearing a lab coat entered my room.
"So you've realized? That you can't speak?"
I nodded, slightly depressed.
"That was done on purpose. Your vocal cords were severed." As if reading the shocked expression on my face, the man followed up with more information.
"You must have figured something out by now. You're in a laboratory- you're an experiment."
Experiment? I silently wondered.
"Yes. You have power over death itself. And you are ours to manipulate."
It was then that I came to one inexorable conclusion.
I had to escape.

When I next awoke, I found myself alone yet again. I had regained most of my energy, and was ready.
Ready for an escape. I quickly lifted myself off of the uncomfortable metal table, and opened the door. Or, rather I tried. It's not like anything in this world is ever that easy and, as such, the door was locked. Next to the door knob was a key pad consisting of both letters and numbers. I was going to enter "erasure", but the "e" key and the "s" key were missing. After thinking for a moment, I entered a code, punching in "3ra5ur3". I was even a little surprised when the door opened with a satisfyingly electronic "click". I left the room.
Immediately upon exiting, I knew that I had to leave as quickly as possible. I started running through the maze of intertwining corridors and hallways, until I finally made my way to a stairwell. Excited, I began to climb. I reached the top of the steps, and I... I could see sunlight, coming in through a window! Enthralled by the sun, I failed to notice a person approaching me from behind.
"Trying to escape, are we? Tsk tsk, we can't have that. Now, Erasure- you will not leave."
Those words struck me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to go back. I could feel myself straining to go down the stairwell and back to my room. Even though I didn't want to. I wanted to be free.
You have power over death itself.
Huh? I wondered. Oh, that phrase, what that scientist had told me... do I really? Do I have that kind of power?
I concentrated on the man before me. Disappear. Be gone.
He still stood there, and I was still pulling towards the stairwell, my body not heeding my brain.
Then, a word came to me.
Erase.
It was one of those things where, had you blinked, the entire spectacle would have gone unobserved. Having not blinked, I stood in awe of what had just happened.
Inexplicably, the scientist who stood in front of me not seconds before had vanished, as if into thin air.
Though shaken, I pressed onward, and reached the outside.
For the first time I could remember- my memory's about three days old, mind you- I was outside.
And free.