Am I Free?

“What is your name?” A deep voice of a man echoes throughout the poorly lit room.

Daniel, who is cuffed to a white medical bed, can barely see anything. Small beads of sweat are pooling on his forehead due to the humidity and hot temperature of the room. His blurry vision keeps on roaming around the room trying to find the one he has been looking for forever. Isabelle, the only reason he is holding on, all this pain he is enduring just so that he could see her once he gets out of this place. “What is your name?!” The man now loses his patience and brings up the electrodes to Daniel's temples and gives him a shock. He screams and throws his legs around and pulls on his wrists hard to breakfree from the cuffs, but it doesn’t work. The man keeps on holding the electrodes to his temples to make him suffer more and more importantly to damage his memories of her. But little did he know the only thing that is keeping Daniel alive is the hope of meeting Isabelle one day. “Do you know her?” The man holds up a photo of Isabelle in front of his face and stops the shocks. “Yes, this is my Isabelle.” A small smile appears on his lips while his eyes close shut.

“I don’t know what to do with him.” The man groans annoyed and gestures the nurses to open him up and take him back to his cell. The nurses open his cuffs and slowly help him get off the bed and slowly head out of the chamber. Daniel hangs his head low and keeps on smiling recalling Isabelle’s face. Seeing her bright smile gives him strength to be alive and endure the torture. The nurses drop him on the bed once they enter the cell and slowly help him sit on it properly. “Do you love her that much?” One of the nurses asks him while they help him take off his sweat drenched hospital suit. He opens his eyes and stares at the nurse silently. The nurse wipes his body down and helps him wear the fresh suit and slowly makes him lay on the bed again.

“More than I should.” He replies in a very low voice. “Why more than you should?” She asks as this particular nurse has taken a bit of interest in Daniel. “Because she doesn’t even want me, I don’t blame her it’s not her fault. Nobody would love a crazy maniac like me.” He laughs laying on the bed with his eyes closed. The nurse silently stares at his face and studies his pained expression. A sigh comes out of her mouth while she pulls the blanket on him and turns around to leave. But she stops after taking a few steps and turns to him and stares at him for some more time. “Why don’t you just deny him about remembering her? They will probably let you go if you just deny knowing her.” She says as she feels really bad for him. He opens his eyes and stares at her and slowly gives her a sweet smile. “I can’t ever forget her.” He whispers and turns away from her.

The nurse keeps on looking at him for some time and slowly exits the room without saying anything further to him. Daniel silently stares at the white wall; sometimes the whiteness of the wall is way too bright for his liking. They have been keeping him locked away from the outside world for a while now, it all happened so fast. One day out of nowhere two men entered with his mother and took him away. They forcefully put him in a van and brought him to this facility, where they have been torturing him ever since. He knew something was wrong, he knew they didn’t get him here to do his treatment or cure him. Actually there is nothing wrong with him; he just has a problem of being adamant. Now that they ask him every day about Isabelle he knows he is here so that they could keep him away from her. But he knows he will be out of here one day and be with the one he loves, the one that makes him happy, his love Isabelle.

“Come here Tim! Stop running from me! I said stop!!” Isabelle yells as she chases after Tim. Tim on the other hand is running as fast as he can with the jar of candy from his mother. She was not giving him candy so he took a stool got on in and stole the jar of candy that was kept inside the kitchen cabinet. “Slow down you two.” Zen stands in front of Isabelle to block her from getting to Tim who is giggling and holding Zen by his leg. “You don’t get in between this, it’s all your fault that he doesn’t listen to anything I say to him. You keep on ruining him by pampering him with whatever he wants.” Isabelle lunges to get the jar from Tim’s hand but Zen yanks her to him by her arms and pulls her closer to him.

“Let my son have whatever he wants, you worry about me for now I have had a hectic day.” Zen smirks and leans closer to Isabelle. She rolls her eyes at him and slowly pushes him by his chest. Zen lets her go and chuckles and slowly picks Tim up and kisses his cheek. Tim in return does the same and hugs Zen tightly by his neck. “I can’t with you two.” Isabelle lets out a breathy sigh and slowly starts walking to the kitchen to check if dinner is ready to be served. Her life has been stable for months now, she is happy. She has everything now, there’s nothing to be unhappy about. But a part of her isn’t happy, she feels empty at times. She knows the reason behind her emptiness but she never acknowledges it. She keeps on ignoring it just for the sake of having a peaceful life, there’s nothing Zen wouldn’t do for her and her son she knows that very well. He provides them security something she wouldn’t be able to give Tim. She slowly brushes off all her thoughts that keeps on running back to Daniel and slowly walks out of the kitchen with the maids who are carrying the dinner.