Convict - Short Story

CONVICT

- by Ivak m

As you know HOLE to some extent is same as its name suggests. It is said to be the ultimate punishment for criminals ever built. I read somewhere that it was invented something akin the neuro-relaxtants. The idea was that this device would excite the “Happy” region of mind & thereby provide a natural calmness and sense of fulfillment to the person, as against the chemical induced state that might have side effects. But the application failed to become popular. Many potential customers reported they could just get a glimpse of the memories being targeted. The ‘near yet so far’ experience left them more frustrated after the session than before. Thus the intended application never became effective.

Nobody knows who first came up with the idea of using HOLE as justice delivery application. Whoever it may have been, it was soon evident that HOLE had found the application for which it was born. Supposedly HOLE affects the “Fear” and “Sad” regions of our mind more than the “Happy” part. This might be because of the hidden animal in each & every human. It apparently affects the punish sector of brain, whatever that might be. But the end result is an uncontrollable panic, depression, a state of raw fear. Fear is a basic instinct of every animal and hence is deep rooted in our psyche. Happiness is fairly a more modern development.

David was a strong man. They say that he had spent most of his life fighting the world, literally. He is said to have spent more time in jail than outside and more time in HOLE than dreaming. Probably this is what made him so strong. May be he had some special super strong strait or something. He was always the stronger one. I remember it was a Sunday. It was the day old Jeff died. And the strangest thing is that day he had told us at lunch that he could die happily now as he saw his childhood home in the HOLE. It’s the day now I can say surely that since when David started acting strangely, even for guy like him.

From that day on I started to feel as if David was always looking forward to his HOLE time. He even picked up fights with guards to earn extra time in HOLE. Day before yesterday on our way to HOLE David strangely seemed calm. Smiling calm. Even when they were giving us the drugs his smile didn’t falter. Then we were made to wear the strange helmets, the modern Head-cuffs. We were pushed into different holes arranged like spokes on wheel. And then it started, the hourly dose of our personalized nightmare, the hour which felt like eternity. The same sequence of image kept on repeating. My.. M.. M.. My.. My old home, my mom on the porch, my d.. d.. dad beating me up, my mother lying on the floor covered in blood, me with a knife in hand and b.. bl.. b.. blood on my hand. Again m.. my my old home, my DAD beating me up and it went on. Suddenly the image went blank. It never had been blank. It was all darkness. Just like a black board we had back in our school where I could draw anything. And then it disappeared. The guard had removed us from our holes. The eternity was up. Till the next session.

Back in common room, David asked me how the darkness was. I was surprised. I had thought the blankness was a thing I had imagined. “Did you also experience the hollow void?” I asked David. “I also?”, David was laughing like a mad person. “It was I who created the Void. It is I who will now control the HOLE”, he went on boasting. I was listening to him dumbstruck. “Although old Jeff who first experienced it, it was my brilliant idea and strong mind that made it possible” he boasted. “Jeff was too coward or stupid to use it. I am neither”. He had a strange look on his face. And then came the most shocking part. “We need not fear the HOLE anymore”, he said.

Yesterday the whole session went blank. Not just mine but everyone’s. And all were happy. Back in cells David was their God reincarnated. They worshipped David the great, David the mighty, destroyer of Goliath. He had rescued them all from the evil depths of HOLE. And he would lead them through it all the way. I knew it was wrong but I felt that everything would be temporary. I felt soon David’s act would be caught and a solution found. But even after 1 week no one other than us knew. Even when I informed a guard indirectly (I was too afraid of David’s wrath if he found out), he dismissed even the probability of such an event.
Then today early morning David was shouting from top of stairs that he was going to deal with HOLE once and for all. Our minds need not be in control of anybody other than ourselves. He was going to make the HOLE ineffective on everybody. “It’s wrong”, I thought. I wouldn’t let him do it. I couldn’t. And next thing I remember is his shocked eyes looking at me as his body tumbled towards the ground, 4 stories below. I had to stop him, somehow. Otherwise it would all be wrong. It would all be useless, meaningless. If David succeeded, then the darkness would return in the HOLE. Then how could I see my old home again, how could I see my mother ever. I don’t want to lose that again.