Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-24841732-20141010150639

A short story I typed up rather quickly. I'm worried it is a bit cliche and might not mkae sense.

I sighed. It was either this or be evicted from my apartment. I needed money since I lost my job last week. My girlfriend was furious. We were already short on cash and now we were basically screwed. Until I saw the ad. 2000$ for a psychological experiment that would last an hour at most. All they would do is show some pictures and record my reactions. It seemed too good to be true. A miracle. They led me down the hall the the small cell.

At one end was a one way mirror, revealing a tall man with a slight build, short brown hair, and bags under his brown eyes. I hadn’t gotten much sleep. When I wasn’t looking for a job I had Kat screaming and fighting with me.

At the other end of the room there was a small tube TV. The kind with the built in VCR. An unmarked VCR tape stuck out of the opening, presumably part of the test. They sit me down in a rather uncomfortable plastic chair. Unexpectedly, one of the men escorting me to the room straps me into the chair, stating it’s for my own protection. A shiver goes down my spine. What’s on that tape that they need to strap me down? The other man, one in a crisp labcoat, pushes the tape in and turns on the TV. He gestures to the man strapping me in, and they both walk out. I hear a click as they lock the door. The TV remains blank for a few minutes. I begin to wonder if it’s broken. I decide to call out to one of the doctors, but as soon as I open my mouth a picture flickers on the screen.

It’s a short clip of a dog running through a field, chasing a frisbee. I can’t help but smile. Eventually the dog catches and snatches the frisbee out the air, then the clip cuts to black again. If it’s just an hour of this, then this will be the easiest two grand I ever made.

Thirty seconds later another clip begins. This time it’s over five minutes of a shaky camera trailing a kid walking to school. This one freaks me out a bit. Why is this guy following the kid? It can’t be for a good reason. Then as abruptly as it started, it ends, leaving me with a black screens again. However, this time it is only ten seconds before it starts again. It starts in the middle of a stand up comedian's routine. The dark thoughts leave my mind as I laugh at his crude jokes. However, it ends as quickly as it started. Five seconds later, another clip comes on. Meat hangs on large hooks and frost collects on the camera, blurring the view. A walk in freezer, presumably for a butcher. One of the men start to speak, but before he can finish his sentence the screen cuts off again, but then immediately flickers to another image. The clip only lasts a few seconds but I recognize it quickly. It’s a clip of footage from the holocaust.

The screen doesn’t bother pausing before it starts the next clip. Another shaky camera. The man holding the camera grabs a child and forces her into the car. The kid screams and I recognize her from one of the previous clips. She can’t be older than thirteen. I immediately feel sick to my stomach and scream, demanding to know what’s going on, but no one answers my pleas.

More clips flash by, faster and faster. I barely have time to take them in. Before long it’s just a blur. Everything from children laughing playfully to horrific mutilation plays before my eyes. I tug at my restraints and beg for it too stop. My brain doesn’t know whether to be horrified or happy, being overwhelmed with stimuli. Then an image makes me pause. It’s only there for a fraction of a second but I know immediately what it is. Kat. I grow furious. Why in the hell do they have a picture of MY girlfriend? I thrash against the restraints, suddenly understanding why they’re there. More images flash by. Pictures of my family. Pictures of a wreck, of them pulling the corpse of my mother out of the car. Except my mother isn’t dead, was never even in a car crash. I scream; confused and afraid. More confusing pictures. Of me as a child, then of Kat. Pictures of me getting married, but I realise it isn’t Kat I’m marrying.

I restlessly pull and trash against the leather straps until one of them snaps. I glance at the mirror and view my tear streaked and horrified face. I undo the other strap and rush to the TV, meaning to smash it, when a picture stops me. Paralyses me. An image from a security camera of me lying dead in a white room identical to this one, in front of a smashed TV. My mind snaps. I can’t handle seeing myself lying dead. No one can. My sanity slips away faster than the images do. I see more images. A burning school. Kat dead. A news anchor reporting on a war that never happened. None of them affect me anymore. In my unnatural calmness I notice something I didn’t before. A timestamp in the corner. But the dates are impossible. Months in the future. Years. One nearly a century from now. None of it makes sense. Instead of trying to make sense of it, I just reach up to my face and force my thumbs into my eyes. The world goes black with a soft pop. I’m relieved for a moment.

Then another image flashes on. 