The Reddest Red

In the corner of a dark room, there was a girl huddled up on the bed, clutching a tattered blanket tightly as though it was the only source of comfort in her life. 

She looked a little pale and sickly, like someone who was sick for some time. Her lips were chapped, and her short hair looked unkempt. She looked no more than 15 years old. 

For someone who looked so fragile, her eyes told a different story - they were sharp and observant, darting around the room looking for any signs of danger or intrusion. 

At the same time, the girl seemed to be in a trance, lost deep in thought. It was like she was trying to solve a puzzle that had baffled her for a long time.

The reason for her isolation and dissolution remained a mystery to her as well but she was constantly thinking about the time when she got to know that there were others like her in that place, kept captive in small rooms with no hope of escape. 

She had found out that the alleyway outside her room led to a larger complex, filled with even more rooms like hers, each housing a captive just like herself. It all happened when she was taken to a different room for examination of her health or that's what she had been told. 

As the rooms all had prison-like features, she could see others through the iron bars, on her way.

It was all too much for her to handle, it was confusing and terrifying. She had no idea why she was trapped there and how long she had been there. 

Since that day, she was being taken to conduct health examinations regularly, almost every other day.

It was hard to keep track of time but during one of those days, when she was taken to the so-called doctor's office, she had an encounter with a boy who looked about her age. That boy too seemed to be in the same situation as she was.

He was also being examined by the doctors there so he didn't see her first or he intentionally didn't look at her direction, she had no idea. 

So, she just took a seat across from him where the doctor told her to sit. 

She had seen others like her before but they were all inside their own rooms. She had never interacted with them or even met each other that up close.

Thus, she was a bit nervous about talking to him even though she desperately wanted some answers. 

During the doctor's examination, the boy stole a glance at her in an unusual manner. It looked as if he knew her as if they had met before. She was taken aback by this because at first he hadn't even tried to look towards her but didn't say anything. 

Instead, after the examination was over, when the doctor left the room, it was only her and the boy left in the room. 

Even the guards who escorted her to the examination room were stationed outside, so there was no one to intervene.

She was about to say something when the boy whispered to her, " Did you take the medicine they give us?" She didn't understand what he meant, but the boy kept whispering to her, "The medicine they give us, makes us forget things, memories, everything." 

She was about to ask him what he meant, but at that moment the guard suddenly opened the door and told the boy it was time to go back to his room. 

That day when she was sent back to her room, she couldn't stop thinking about what the boy had told her. She wondered if it was true that they were being given some kind of medicine that made them forget everything. 

She was contemplating the matter when suddenly she realized something strange - she couldn't remember anything about her life before she was taken to the facility or even the times she spent in the facility. She started feeling a sense of panic and fear. 

She was anxious and kept trying to recall any memories or details from the past but nothing came to her. It was as if her whole memory had been erased.

The entire night she spent tossing and turning in bed, trying to make sense of what the boy had said and her mysterious memory loss.

The Next Morning. 

'BANG!'

'BANG!!'

A loud noise suddenly jolted her out of her thoughts, and she sat up straight in bed, her heart racing. She realized that it was just a door slamming shut in the distance, but her anxiety lingered. 

The loud bangs stopped after a minute or two then the usual silence returned to the facility sending chills down her spine. 

She was frozen in fear when the door to her room slowly creaked open.

A man with a plate on which there were some fruits and a bowl of porridge entered the room. He placed the food on the table and without saying a word, he turned around and left. 

She stared at the food, her stomach growling with hunger. At first, she was hesitant to eat but then she couldn't help it. Also, she knew she needed her strength if she was going to figure out what was happening to her and others in the facility. 

Upon coming close to the plate she saw that there was a small plate with two pills next to it.

She stared at the pills for a moment, wondering what they were for and if they were the same medicine the boy had mentioned. 

She didn't know whether she was being watched or not, so she acted casually and decided to eat the food first.

After finishing her meal, she picked up the pills and acted like she was taking them, but she slipped them into her pocket instead. She knew it was risky, but she needed to figure out what the pills were and if they were tied to her memory loss.

Basically, after the meal, she lay down on the bed, pretending to take a nap. However, sleep wasn't the only thing on her mind.

She needed to hide the pills somewhere safe, in case someone searched her room. She carefully scanned her room for a hiding spot, and finally decided to hide the pills in a small crack she found in the wall near her bed. 

She pushed the pills deep in the crevice. She felt grateful that the pills were small enough and the crevice was deep enough to conceal the pills. 

She spent hours lying down, deep in thoughts and trying to recall any of her memories. It had been hours since the guard had made a visit with food for her and after that no one had come. 

She was thinking when would they come when suddenly she heard footsteps outside in the hallway.