Mr. Torres

Eudaimonia Psychosocial Discovery Facility (Powered by R.E.P.S. Solutions),

Undisclosed Location

David Torres poured a third portion of sugar into his coffee and stirred; he knew it was not healthy, but he preferred this over energy drinks as his fuel. His mother kept reminding him that energy drinks and sugar were not good for him, together with her asking when she was going to have a grandchild. He was used to it, like listening to a broken record. Still living at his parents' home in his late 20s, he was not planning to have a family until he got his life together and perhaps enjoyed a bit of it first. His elder sister Emily was a hard-working paralegal, and his younger brother Alex was a successful software engineer, as for David, he was still figuring out what he wanted, picking up odd jobs here and there. Warehouse worker, delivery driver, and security. Worked mostly with references and word-of-mouth suggestions, on temp contracts. He was good and he was not asking questions, and this way he made connections with a ton of people. The money was not bad either. Although there was no stability, to David that was a good thing. It terrified him to have a permanent job since he didn’t know what he wanted to do yet in life. This shift gave him a sense of flexibility, not exactly what is called freedom, but it was close enough.

David turned his attention to the screens, taking a sip of his coffee. At night or with lights out they were green with night vision. During daylight or with lights on, they would be colourful, not the black and white shit-technology he had encountered in other security jobs. Being a night owl, he preferred the night shift, which also paid more generously.

The air in the room was cool and sterile, and the hum of the machines was a constant companion. After about two months on the job at Eudaimonia, the routine had started to feel comfortably monotonous. Something was exciting about being awake when the world was quiet or asleep.

That night, however, was not the case. David noticed a small group of people in lab coats entering the room of one of the residents -the staff insisted on not referring to them as patients- and woke them up. They kept waking up the people every hour. Baffled, he thought it was not his business, and doctors know their jobs. “Who am I to say anything”, he thought. But it was weird that they were at that hour. “I’m doing my job, they are doing theirs”, he concluded.

As he turned his gaze to another screen, he saw a few nurses, who were in another room, with technology equipment, communicating with the residents. It seemed like the residents had put on some VR equipment and stayed standing in the room, while the nurses observed. There was one more room with residents, but they were left to sleep undisturbed.

“Weird stuff”, he thought. “Anyway”, and he opened his book to the page where he left it last night and continued to read. He had recently quit smoking and a toxic relationship, so he was in his phase of reading self-help books. The type of books that suggest "How to love yourself", and "How to be happy" type of content.

At the end of every shift, he exchanged posts with Gary, the extremely cheerful day shift guard. He had messy red hair and a youthful energy. His voice was loud and a bit high-pitched, and he looked like he was smiling all the time, even when talking, which creeped David out a bit. He seemed so much of a morning person that the option of making small talk with him seemed exhausting and repulsive.

“Alright, off I go to catch some sleep, see you tomorrow, Gary!”, David said every time and rushed to the staff room to take his things and clock out.

For the next couple of nights, David could not quite concentrate on reading his book, as he was concerned. These occurrences seemed to be escalating, for three days now, doctors enforcing sleep deprivation to the first group, and nurses observing residents immersed in a Virtual Reality.

The first group started to become more irritated, and a resident tried to attack a doctor, but they put him in temporary isolation in another room and in a straitjacket. Based on the resident’s reactions, he was probably being woken up by a noise at regular intervals. He seemed to suffer, he was doing intense movements, and he opened his mouth like he was shouting. A couple of hours later, he started hitting the walls of the isolation with his body. David turned his gaze to other rooms on the screen, as he felt something inside him in pain when looking at the poor guy.

In the second room, the residents with the VR equipment seemed to also experience some kind of distress, because they started making neurotic movements and one was taken away because he was having a seizure. The rest carried on. The people in the third room looked peaceful and fast asleep, with no more movement than usual.

David found his book on the desk, trying to brush the weirdness off and carry on with his shift. He was constantly trying to get comfortable in his chair, and he kept fidgeting. Another itch of restlessness made him get up after a bit, admitting to himself that he had failed not to care. At this realization, his heart sank with fear and self-resentment.

He remembered when he was in elementary school back in the day and he used to play with the neighbours’ kid, Tommy, until he found out that Tommy’s mum was domestically abused. David wanted to help his friend, so he reported to the teacher and his family, and he told people. Tommy hated him and never spoke to him again at school. In fact, to David’s knowledge, Tommy never spoke a word to anyone ever again. As he discovered later, Tommy’s dad found out and beat up Tommy’s mum even more harshly to punish her. The sight of this rough violence was too much for a wee child to witness, selective mutism they called it. From that moment David had learned that way that meddling with anything that is not your business could end up making it much, much worse.

He had started to feel pain for the residents, and it just didn’t make sense to him anymore, this situation. He started shuffling papers in drawers and checking out documents nervously.

In many documents, the company was R.E.P.S. Solutions, he knew it had to do with something medical, but he read more carefully the initials:

R.E.P.S. Solutions: Research & Experimental Pioneers in Sociopsychology Solutions

The only other thing he knew was that this is a private company and that they are contractors. They had branches and departments in many countries. Their locations are private information as well, and in order to work for them, someone must be "invited".

David remembered he had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so he felt hesitant to call the police in case this was all “part of the plan” or “under control”, and he was just overreacting. Besides, he wanted to be a good employee and finish this job successfully. After all, this was one of the best-paying, easiest jobs he had in months.

He decided to call a number to the “Head Office” they had given him in case he had any questions. After waiting some time while listening to melodic violin waiting music, a voice picked up the phone.

“R.E.P.S. Solutions Call Centre, you are speaking with Ines, how can I help you today?”

“Yeah, hey, hi, ehm, this is an internal call, from station number 971, Eudaimonia, you are speaking with David”.

The tone of the speaker changed slightly.

“How can I help you today, David?”

“Ehm, I- I just wanted to ask where I am supposed to report any abnormal incidences. I am not sure exactly if they are abnormal, it’s just that…”

“As an employee of R.E.P.S. Solutions, may I remind you that you have signed an N.D.A. so I would discourage you from sharing company information with outsiders.” Her tone sounded very professional and certain.

“No, not outsiders, of course! Just the company, this is an internal call, and I haven’t disclosed anything to anyone, I know what I have signed”, David rushed to reassure the person on the other end of the line.

In truth, he only got a gist of what he signed to not ask questions or share information with outsiders. The rest seemed like legalese and medical jargon to him, and he only skimmed through it with his focus on the payment and benefits parts of the agreement. Now he wished that he had given the paper to Emily to check it first. He was just a bit too proud to ask for help, and it didn’t seem like a big matter to him at the time.

“Great”, she responded. “Besides, there is no such thing as abnormal occurrences. It’s all under control, you just leave it to the experts, they know best”, her tone conveyed a sense that all is fine.

“O-Okay, then- I was a bit overreacting, sorry for that, and thanks for the advice, Ines. Everything is fine, you’re right, experts know their job!”

“Alright, David, anything else I can help you with today?”

“No, it’s all set- perfect, thanks!”

David was not certain at all, but he wanted to sound that way, at least on the phone. When he ended the call, a sense of fear ran through his body, his heart pounding like he was a terrified deer running in the forest. He took a breath and another sip of his coffee.

Then, he sat back in his comfortable chair and scrolled through his Instagram overflowing with reels of cat videos for distraction. “All is under control”, he told himself, but even he didn’t believe it anymore. He would give a glance at the wall of the CCTV feeds occasionally, but there wasn’t anything else he was supposed to do. He looked around the room. There is the door that goes to the staff room that has the lockers, kitchen, and fridge, the door that goes to a small WC, and another door that goes to a hall connecting to the doctor's offices and then the rest of the building.

At the end of his shift, the day guard arrived at exchange posts. Gary was his usual cheerful self again. David was still on edge, but he didn’t rush to the staff room this time.

“Hey colleague, what a beautiful morning, isn’t it? How are you doing?”

 “Hey, Gary! Not bad, can’t complain”. He stretched and extended himself while yawning to seem confident and relaxed.

“Anything exciting happened last night?” Gary raised his freckled eyebrow.

“Nah, same old, same old. And with you?”

“Same also, today they are expecting new residents I heard, they’ll be running some tests like always”.

“What do you mean, what kind of tests?”

“You know, the usual skills tests, blood tests, some stuff with cables, beats me, you know?”, he raised his left shoulder and his hands while keeping his frozen smile.

David thought that with the frozen smile, his colleague looked like that kid in the old chocolate commercial.

“I guess this is day stuff”, David replied, “Alright, I’ll be off then!”

“Yeah, everything is under control”, Gary made a thumbs-up gesture like everything was okay.

As David went to the staff room, he felt something was off, but he tried not to think about it too much. He went home to do his after-work routine: get some sleep, go to the gym, shower, eat, and go for a walk before he came back later.

In the late evening, it was time. He did everything as usual again, clocking in and all. Made his sugary coffee, took a sip, made the perimeter around the building, then came back, with the coffee mug in his hand, and sat behind his desk, staring at the wall of CCTV feeds. This time they had more residents in more rooms, it was true. They left them resting, while horrid things were happening. They brought the people of the first two rooms together in the bigger room. It looked like a gym hall, and it was always empty in the night. Well, that night this was not the case. There were some items in the middle of the hall, it was not easy to see what exactly. David reminded himself to not care and opened his book from the previous night to read on.

His peripheral vision caught some movement, so he looked over his book and saw the residents fighting with each other, and the doctors were watching from a corner.

A resident had grabbed another with his bare hands. Another had taken a stick and was hitting everyone around him. There were some people running around the room uncoordinated. One person was on his knees grabbing his own head like he was hearing a loud noise, and he was shaking himself back and forth.

“Is this also supposed to be under control? This is bullshit”, David decided. "Party's over"

He got up from his comfortable chair. He rushed and put on his earphones. He dialed an emergency number to call for backup, as he grabbed his equipment with the taser gun and stick. Then, he opened the door that led to the halls, doctor’s offices, and the rest of the facility.

“112, what is your city?” the automated answer echoed in his headphones. But he was speechless.

A group of people in lab coats stood a few meters from the opened door. A tall old white man was in the middle of the first line and seemed to have authority over others in the room.

 “Torres, 29, Hispanic male, middle child, high school education, no criminal record or recorded mental illness”, a woman with glasses next to the tall man said while scribbling notes in her notebook.

“Mr. Torres presents as a subject of particular medical and psychological interest. Mr. Torres, unbeknownst to him, emerges as an integral variable in our ongoing study, poised at the nexus of ethical compliance and moral intervention, a critical juncture in our current research phase. What insights might we glean from his case?”