Without Connection

CW: Kidnapping, violence, murder

Carly awoke on the cold tile ground with the feeling of dread that this was not where she was supposed to be.

The fluorescent light flickered above her, a meal ready, but she felt the feeling of panic, of disorientation, of dread.

Still groggy, she got up and ran to the steel door that trapped her inside. Steel, locked shut.

“Help! Help!” she exclaimed as she banged against the door. “Someone let me out!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A soft voice came through the door. Close, like a whisper.

“Hello, who is there? Can you help me? Please let me out.”

“I can’t do that,” the voice said. It belonged to a girl, a young one. “But please be quiet. He doesn’t like it when his subjects make noise. He says it disturbs his focus.”

Carly stopped the pounding.

“It also disturbs the others. They’ve suffered enough. I’m going to go check and see if they’re ok.”

Carly continued to plead with the sweet little girl’s voice, but it disappeared. She paced the 10x10 room that was now her whole world.

This isn’t happening to me. This is a dream. Abductions like these happen to someone else, not to me.

But why not her? she later thought. Missing persons, random disappearances. They happen to people who don’t have anyone to look out for them. They happen to people who are alone. Without connection, who are vulnerable.

Would anyone really miss her if she was gone? Her last memory was feeling drowsy on the subway home from work at 9:00 p.m. She wasn’t expected back until Tuesday. No plans for the long weekend, not a lot of plans ever.

She ruminated, thought, and dwelt on her situation, until the first noises came.

They started from what sounded like a door further down from the hallway that she was in, or as best as Carly could tell. The door opened, closed, then came some mumbled sounds. Voices? Then footsteps into the distance. Finally, a buzz, a whir, and then—screams. Blood-curdling screams, like the life was being sucked out of someone. Only a few seconds, and then silence.

Fatigue eventually overtook her. She awoke; food was waiting for her. Coming to her senses, remembering where she was, she felt anger. She threw the food towards the small stall where she was expected to relieve herself.

“You’ll need that if you want to keep your strength up. The transition can be difficult if you’re not strong.”

Carly felt a wave of rage as she listened to the girl's voice. She calmed herself, hoping that by following her directions, she would get the answers she needed.

“Please, you’ve got to tell me something. I feel like I’m going insane here. Who is this monster who has kidnapped me? What does he want with me?”

“He needs your help. He needs young girls to help him understand.”

“Understand what?”

“How to get his mother back. I’ve already said too much. It will only agitate you further. It takes a couple of days for new subjects to calm down. I’ll be back tomorrow. Please eat. It’s good for you.”

The voice disappeared again, and Carly was left alone with her anger and her despair.

Carly awoke the third day to find the girl in her room, sitting along the wall, staring at her.

“You look calmer. That’s good. That makes the process go smoother.”

“Please, tell me. Who is this person? What does he want? You said he wants people to help him understand why his mother left. What could I possibly do to help him with that? I don’t even know who his mother is.”

“His mother was a mystic. She would convene with spirits and forces of magic. Until one day, she summoned the wrong spirit. She summoned a demon, a servant of the underworld.”

“What? You can’t be serious.”

“It’s true. And the doctor was in the room and watched as the demon ripped the very soul of his mother out of her body, and took it back to hell with him. He wants to understand the process. So he experiments on young girls, just like what his mother was, to see if he can reverse it.”

“I don’t know what to say. This is insane. How can I reason with someone like this?”

“How can it be insane when he’s already come so far?”

Carly sat in silence. A noise came from another room—a double knock, as if to signal the young girl.

“I’ve got to go. I’ll be back to check on you later.”

The young girl stood up, turned towards the concrete wall of the cell, and walked right through it to the other side.

Carly had hoped to be able to bargain and plead for her life. But she saw, here and now, there was no hope.

She tried her best to process the conversation with the young woman, so close in age and demeanor to her. Again she succumbed to sleep, and the girl was there again when she awoke, smiling.

“Why do you stay? You were a prisoner here, you can walk through walls. Why not leave?”

“Who will take care of the others?”

“How many others are there?”

“We grow in number every few days. I’m one of the lucky ones. As I said, he’s a scientist. Trial and error. I was more trial, some of my sisters were more error.”

“And he does this to be able to gain the power of the gods, to march into hell, and get his mother back.”

“We all need connection to something. He lost his connection. And look what it’s done to him. I’m here so that those of us who have lost our bodies don’t lose ourselves as well.”

Carly sighed, resigning herself to her fate. And which one will I be? Trial or error?

The latch on the door turned. A large, dark, and menacing figure, face hidden from the light, stood at the entrance.

“I gave him my opinion of you—that you’re very nice and didn’t cause a fuss. I think he’ll listen to me!”

Carly stood up and calmly walked to the door. The doctor took her by the arm. As a test, she gently pulled her arm away. But the doctor's grip was unflinching, unyielding. There was no chance of escape.

He led her to the chamber. Along the hallway were faces—translucent figures, barely noticeable if not for their eyes. There were so many. Dozens of faces, almost identical to hers. Her soon-to-be new sisters.

The doctor led her to another room. At the center was a contraption with lights and sensors all 360 degrees around it. The doctor placed her in the middle, laying her on a bed, strapped down.

“The remnant likes you. She has a high opinion of you.”

“She tells me you are trying to gain the power of the gods. Tell me, what kind of god will you be?”

The doctor finished the last strap and finally looked at Carly. She looked into his eyes. There was no life there, no mercy, no humanity. It was stripped away like the souls of all the girls he had worked on before her.

“The kind of god that does not concern himself with the opinion of insects.”