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Eva-Sabina Mareș, 18 years old, is participating in the 6th International Literary Creation Competition, from Bucharest, Romania. She is guided by Prof. Nicoleta Stoica, „Saint Sava” National College. We are grateful for the participation and wish it success.

110279
 
 
Faith. It usually blossoms in the dark. Closed enclosures, and deafening silence - the perfect combination for unchained hope to grow. Instead, the clean-swept corners of the box drive me insane.
I can’t remember the last time I saw my hands. My long nails leave red scars along my arms. Or so I presume; the darkness is far too strong to be breached by mere mortal eyes. I can’t remember anything except the dark. I know how a body looks and works, how a dog barks and a ship sails; I know of mothers and fathers, of love and war. The notions are all there, pictured clearly in my mind’s eye, disregarding the continuous shadow that envelopes me, clouding my vision.
Every day was the same. I woke up pondering my existence, trying to understand why someone would choose to punish me like this; what could have I done to deserve this treatment? Food was served on a metal tray from a slit in the bottom left wall of the box. Every day I would wish to see at least a sliver of light served with my sustenance, even the tiniest speck of illumination would have been a blessing, but none came. Ever. 
The days droned on, three plain meals, the same infuriating thoughts, deranged schemes of escaping building themselves up in my mind without permission, only to be demolished by the certainty of the dark. My eyes were useless, sometimes not even I knew whether they were closed or not. Weeks passed, months turned into years, and after a while, I stopped trying to keep time by scratching the walls; I probably couldn’t count that high anyway. 
Were I to say that from the second I woke up, I knew that day would be different, I’d be the biggest liar ever heard of. Head spinning and stomach rumbling, I sauntered off the mattress that served me as a bed and wet my face in the sink, feeling for knots in my hair and blemishes on my skin. Opening my eyes felt odd, almost like something had changed. If I squinted hard enough, I could perceive my fingers in front of me. That had never happened before. After thoroughly scanning the room for the unknown source of light and only finding the same old, over-traced surfaces, I threw myself on the bed in frustration; my mind must’ve made it up. Waiting for the oh-so-familiar sound of the metal tray on the concrete floor to become unbearable. I kept fidgeting with my fingers, trying to understand why I could make out their vague shape in the darkness. The tray slid across the floor towards me and I got up to retrieve it when the bottom of my shirt caught onto something, a lifted piece of material from the wall above my so-called bed. A very easy-to-miss corner had become unstuck from the side of the box, dragging slightly upwards.
The tray of food forgotten, I got to work on the tiny piece of material that seemed to peel from the wall. It taunted me, releasing itself from the wall painfully slow, millimetre by millimetre. After what seemed like an eternity, I could finally grip it properly. The plan was to pull. So I did. Pulling hard pained the pads of my fingers but only by doing so could I discover something that would change my life. I should probably wish I hadn’t pulled, hadn’t realised the slight light in the box. But I simply cannot bring myself to.
A few minutes had passed before I uncovered a section big enough to peer through. While contorting to try to put my eye at the opening, I realised I was holding my breath. Infinite questions flowed through my mind, images of meadows and rivers, sweet perfumes, and soft hands plagued my imagination. I couldn’t distinguish anything clearly, only grey shapes moving about outside the box. My fingers got to work again on the growing corner that lifted off the wall. Chewing on my lip, I let my mind wander once more to the beautiful scenery I had imagined would await outside that dark, miserable backdrop that had been my home for as long as I could remember. The sound of another metal tray being pushed along the floor brought me back to reality, the smell of the warm food making my stomach rumble. But I was so close, I couldn’t stop yet. I wish I had stopped to eat, maybe I wouldn’t still be hungry if I had. 
The corner was finally wide enough for me to hold with both of my hands, fingers on one side, thumbs on the other, providing support. Puffing the hair out of my eyes and breathing hard, I finally pulled. A loud tearing sound filled the box, throwing me on my back and effectively pushing all air out of my lungs. I hit my head slightly and cut my hand on the water glass on one of the trays. I got up, the pain forgotten, blood gushing freely through my fingertips. I peeled the corner all the way and pulled hard on it so it would fall to the ground. 
What I saw was not a meadow, nor a flowing river; it wasn’t even a pair of strong arms. It was… eyes. Tens upon tens of beady, round, colourful eyes. Pear-shaped bodies, minimal clothing, blue flesh that shone as though… it wasn’t flesh. In a daze, I scratched at the three other walls, tearing down all the darkness that had caged me. All around, there were robots. Sparkling metal surrounded me. Hundreds of them, the numbers multiplying by the second, gathered around my box, my compound, gawking their glinting eyes at me in amazement. 
“Code red, subject 110279 has breached the darkness. I repeat: subject 110279 has breached the darkness, bring forth any and all teams available to paddock area number 30,” a mechanical voice repeated on the interphones, deafening me. Ears ringing, eyes wide open, mouth agape in shock. Everything crashed into me all at once. The sound barrier between the box and the outside broken, thousands of voices filled the air, children, if you could even call them that, exclaiming in amusement at how I was thrashing around the room, and older, more serious-looking robots, turning away silently, looking as if they almost pitied me.. I was an animal kept in an exhibition, in a zoo. To them, I was only a number. 
The placard on the outside of the wall read:
           S. 110279 
           Age: 17
           Gender: Female
           Born in captivity
 
      A door to my right burst open, and robot security surrounded me in seconds. Instinctively, I grabbed a piece of glass off the floor, realising it would do me no good but holding on to it tightly, letting it cut my hand once more, allowing the pain to pull me back to reality. Their eyes were unnerving, gaping at me but more like observing my presence, rather than seeing me. Before I could even attempt to run from them, a syringe pierced my neck. 
      The last words I heard before passing out were: “Situation under control, subject 110279 has been successfully drugged. Taking it back to HQ now, clear a path”. Then, I succumbed to the darkness once again. 
                      /0\
Green is opposite red on the colour wheel, but white makes it pop so much more beautifully. Bloody fingerprints stain the floor, clots caught underneath my nails. My wrists shake uselessly in the cuffs attached to the walls; white pants dust-filled and with trails of deep burgundy alongside their lengths in varying degrees of dryness. I can hear a soft murmur through the glass door. A human doctor walks in without looking at me.
“Glad to see you’re awake. Right, come on, get up, we have to go.”
“Where?” I croak, vocal cords aching from the slight effort.
“Reconditioning. You’ve seen far too much, far too early.” Her voice is sweet like honey, the words flowing through the air almost visibly, and when she reaches out with a palm to stroke my cheek, I lean in.
Then I understood what she meant. “What? No, no please, I swear I won’t tell, I won’t talk ever again, just- “ My voice breaks, tears stream down my face, lips quivering, forehead sweating.
“Oh, I’m sorry, honey, you’re just too young, still. Only a few more years and then the study will be complete.” 
I start to scream, but it dies down in my throat. Another needle pierces my neck, and the dizziness is almost immediate. Her eyes are so blue, so incredibly beautiful, bright like the sea on a sunny summer day. It’s a wonderful sight to black out to.
 
                    /0\
 
I open my eyes. Yet another marvellous day in this cave. My sight already accustomed to the dark, my hands unseen, the shapes of my fingers, and the colour of my hair unknown. The vast void accompanied me through all my troubles, trapping me inside a bubble that I needed to escape but didn’t quite know how. The sound of the metal tray on the floor disrupted my train of thought. 
What am I having for breakfast today?