The room I woke up in was bleak, barren and desolate, as if the place had been abandoned by humans for a thousand years, or as if I were in Ramez's clinic, but after one of the disasters that struck the world. The bed was worn out, the walls were cracked, the place was dark, and I could barely see the exit.
Silence reigned over the place except for the sounds of dogs barking from somewhere outside. I got out of bed, then shouted for Ramez but no one answered.
Outside the room, the echoes began to reverberate in the dark corridors, which were interspersed with the light of a moonlit night that streamed in from one of the windows. I took a lighter from my pants pocket and lit it. I began to feel my way and began to descend to the bottom of the stairs .
Where were the seats that were there a moment ago? I continued my exploration until outside the villa, and what I saw was amazing, the place that was surrounded by towers a moment ago was now a barren land empty except for distant lights looming on the horizon.
Darkness envelopes the place, the barking of dogs, I don't know where it comes from, but it makes the atmosphere even more terrifying. A strong wind blows dry leaves under my feet, and outside I see no sign of the car. What's happening? Am I still dreaming? I don't think so. I hesitated before pinching my shoulder to make sure. It hurt, which made me even more surprised. I screamed for Ramez again, but to no avail ... until I heard the voice.
As if someone was trapped inside a wardrobe, a persistent voice calling for help. I knocked to see, and I knew that it was coming from inside the place. I entered the villa again, then I shouted, wondering:
- " Is anyone here? "
The voice soon became the screams of two distressed women:
" Help! We're down here!"
" What now, Ramez? What did you get involved in and what are you getting me into? "
My feet started running towards the source of the sound, it was coming from behind a small closed door at the bottom of the stairs, I knocked on the door and they burst into tears asking for help.
The door was tightly locked, refusing to budge when I tried to open it.
I looked around, and there in my sight was a large hammer of the kind used for demolition.
One of them shouted:
" Hurry up, please."
I said:
- "Well, I'm trying. Give me a chance."
All women are like this ; they want everything right away, then they wonder: Why have divorce rates increased ?!
The last sentence I said to myself as I pulled the hammer and cursed the day I saw this Ramez.
I hit the door with the hammer and it responded, even leaving a big crack in it that showed it couldn't take much longer.
But what is this?
The crack was stained with something.
I wiped my fingers to find a trace of moisture, I smelled it. . What is this? Blood !
Is the door bleeding?
I looked at the hammer head, and found it covered in blood.
Is the door bleeding or the hammer? Or is it someone's blood that was smashed by the hammer?
A cold shiver ran up the top of my head.
I paced faster towards the door, I wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
I kept falling down with determination until the wooden door shattered, revealing a small flight of stairs down to another metal door secured with a thick chain.
Oh my god, what is this? A prison?
I walked up the short flight of stairs until I reached the cold metal door, and behind it I began to make out features in the darkness . They were huddled to the side, away from the flying wood. Beneath a dying electric lamp that gave off feeble threads of light, I saw three women in a pitiful state. One had a cut on her face that extended from below her eye to her cheek. One eye was swollen and blue-rimmed. The second was a precious lady with bruises and abrasions on her face. The last was lying on the floor, and I did not know whether she was alive or not.
The smell is unbearable.
I snapped myself out of my trance and grabbed the tight chain, rivaled only by the thick metal lock that held it shut. I had to reassure them, I told them that this door was beyond my power to open, but I would be back for help.
Their screams and crying increased to interrupt me, and one of them approached and said:
" No, don't go. Please, I beg you, sir. If he comes and sees what happened, he'll kill us all."
Then the fat lady came from behind her, her hair flying carelessly, to extend her hand from behind the iron and hold my hand in supplication:
"My daughter is dying, I don't know how much time she has left. Please."
Screaming and pleading with bated breaths. Suddenly their eyes shot up the stairs behind me, then sudden death.
Their eyes were fixed on something, or rather someone, behind me.
I felt the gasping breath in the back of my head, and the last thing I saw after I turned around was the hammer heading towards my head to smash it.
But the hammer pierced me, passing through me like a ghost as I slowly faded from the scene as if I was melting ... before I woke up to find an old Rolex watch in front of my eyes.
****
I was clinging to Rams and he was trying to calm me down, I started screaming like a madman.
I was screaming and not knowing what to say while holding his collar.
" What did you do? What did you do? "
He grabbed my hand tightly and released my stony grip on his clothes.
- Who did what? You? Or are you talking about me? I don't understand anything. Please, calm down.
Seeing the devices around me made me lose my mind.
Where have you been? And where am I now?
I was like someone who died and came back from death, and before I came back I saw hell.
I asked him to step away from me and let me calm down until the conversation was over and the trembling subsided.
After a while that I did not realize, I found myself sitting in a corner of the room, and he suddenly threw a cup of water in my face. I jumped, so he pushed it away, then extended it to me again, saying:
" Dr. Adam, I don't know what you saw, but I have to reassure you, this is likely to happen; the tumor is in the hypothalamus, and this area is responsible for imagination, and your seeing any hallucinations is very normal."
Hallucinations ! What is this mule talking about? I've seen it, smelled it, and touched the blood.
" Don't say hallucinations; I was fully conscious, I hadn't gone crazy yet to be able to differentiate between reality and illusions. I was sure of what I saw, I had never before witnessed a hybrid between a dream and reality. Am I supposed to lose consciousness in front of you for all these hours without anesthesia?"
He was standing leaning against a wall with his hands folded, and after thinking, he adjusted his glasses and then answered:
" It seems to be a symptom of the new medication. You know what? That's a positive, reassuring thing."
I replied in disapproval:
- "Well, how so, genius?"
Ramez came forward to press his finger on my chest as he answered:
- "You should know this better than anyone, a drug without side effects is a drug without effect . "
He sighed and continued, saying:
" Do you know too? I believe that everything I have seen seems real indeed. The mind is the instrument by which we distinguish between reality and illusion. But if this instrument is broken, how will we distinguish?"
I put the cup down beside me, hoping he was right, but I had to deny it.
Or do I not believe my eyes that saw and my ears that heard?
" When we dream, our belief in the reality of the dream ends as soon as we wake up, but we do not get out of bed to become more certain.
He said, patting the devices:
" That's what I'm sure of, Dr. Adam. These machines say you were lying in front of me the whole time, and your vital signs are fine."
I got up to dust myself off, then answered him, walking away:
" You know what? Damn the devices, damn the drug, and damn you, Ramez."
I went out to hear him chasing me.
" Wait , Dr. Adam, we have to finish what we started . "
" Go find another lab rat; I've had enough . "
I quickly finished the stairs until I reached the bottom, and in front of the point where the door I had broken a little while ago was, I stopped. The shiver returned to me as I touched the wall, the solid wall that had no doors. I said : "It was here, what is this?"
"The door… where did it go? Was it really a hallucination? Am I really losing my mind? Is the sight of me wandering the streets in a torn robe and foam dripping from my cheeks closer to me now than ever before?"
I left immediately, intending never to return again. I left laden with terror that had not yet left my trembling limbs, and laden with disappointment at the failure of the experiment and the resumption of moving towards certain death. After I left, and after my car disappeared from the horizon, Ramez returned inside, frustration hanging from the top of his shoulders.
****