Tallies and secrets

Kaleb touched the cold and smooth surface of the white metallic wall until his finger felt the scratch he made on it, just like he did every night since he was trapped here. A hundred tally marks. A hundred lost days, stuck in this jail cell. A hundred lost opportunities to see his daughter, all because he took the wrong contract. He missed his little girl. Little Dallas with her eyes full of hopes and joy, her smile missing some teeth in it, making her look more mischievous then she really is. Kaleb imagined how much that little rascal must be for her grandma to handle and had a bitter sweet smile. He missed her so much. He imagined her face as he closed his eyes to finally fall asleep.

He was walking in a courtroom, alone. He looked at the people in the jury and then the public but couldn’t see anyones face, except the detective who was in charge of the bank roberry’s case and his mother who had decided to leave little Dallas at school to not traumatize the young girl. The judge was speaking with a woman, tall and slender. He felt like he knew her voice, a sweet but sensual voice, but couldn’t say where or what from. She looked at him and smiled as she turned to the judge again, talking in hushed tones.

“He knows too much, your honor. He will make all of this fail. He saw him stealing the plans.”

“Fine”, said the judge who then turned to look at Kaleb. “ You are sentenced to 10 years of prison.” The man knocked his gavel as the bayliff grabbed the agitated prisoner to bring him to his jail.

Kaleb woke up, extremely tired, as he often was since he was stuck here to roth. He was still in his cell. He lifted his hand to touch the wall and something was wrong. He sat on the cracking mattress and looked at the wall. The bare white, cold, metallic wall. He shook away the weird feeling, thinking it must be a remnant of a dream. He got up and his eyes were once again drawn to the wall. He kept feeling like something was wrong with it, yet he had no memories of it being any different then what it was. He once again pushed the thoughts from his mind and took his place in front of the wall. A new day was starting. As the metalic door opened he taught “maybe today will be the day my daughter comes to visit me!” He hoped for it, knowing it would probably not happen.

***

Another day. Another night. Kaleb layed down on his bed. With his hand, he once again touched the cold wall. Since the morning it bothered him, yet he still couldn’t tell what was different, if there was anything different at all. He didn’t even know why he kept touching the smooth wall searching for something that definitely wasn’t there. He took a big breath and closed his eyes. 

For a reason he didn’t understand, some guard pointed out earlier that tonight was his hundredth night here. 

“No”, he thought, “it’s more than this… isn’t it? Must be more. Should be more…” 

After a moment deliberating with himself, Kaleb fell asleep without being conscious of it. In his sleep he felt as if his body was moved, but couldn’t open his eyes. As he was wondering what was happening, he heard a woman’s voice. A sweet, sensual voice. The same voice he had heard in the courtroom.

“ Did he notice the fact that there was no more tally mark on his wall?”

“Not that we know of, but something seemed to bother him for sure.” 

The voice of the man answering was familiar. Where did he hear that voice before? Was it the one of the detective? He was sleeping, so maybe it was all wrong. This was certainly a weird dream. He heard the woman’s voice again.

“Ok then. Put him in the chair. We’ll see if we can fix this.”

At this moment, he felt that he was being moved once more. He felt he was placed in the said chair and being strapped in it. His eyes were forced open and he saw the people surrounding him. As tape was used to keep the lids up, he felt like screaming, but at the sametime, he knew this would be pointless. He felt like this wasn’t the first time. Was this not the first time? 

“Put it back where it was!” Kaleb was in the bank’s vault with a man, a faceless man. 

“ You do your job, I’ll do mine.” The faceless man had answered him without lifting his head just as he was shoving what looked like research documents and blueprints in his bag.

“I won’t let you ruin this. We were hired to test the security, not for theft.”

The man snorted. 

“ You were hired as a decoy. I was hired for theft. Now you know too much. I wouldn’t wanna be in your place. Say goodbye to all that you love.” Kaleb looked at him in shock just as the man walked past him and everything around them turned to black.

Kaleb woke up in his cell again. Without looking at the walls around him, he got up, and took his place in front of the door. Another day was starting. Once more, he hoped today would be the day his daughter would come and see him. How long has he been here again, he couldn't remember. He definitely should have kept track of it. Maybe tally marks on the wall would have been a good idea. Whatever, it was too late. It was now time for breakfast.

***

At night, he walked back to his cell. He felt so tired. As he laid on the squeaky mattress, he wondered when he'd be able to feel rested in the morning, if he’d ever feel rested again. This cell was certainly not the best place to rest, that was something that needed not to be said, but again, he was so tired. He closed his eyes, thought of little Dallas again and fell to sleep.

“ So Mister Norton, you want us to believe that you were hired to rob this bank as a way to test its security? In no way this robbery was supposed to be real?” The detective looked at him with a suffisent smile. “ Do you take us for idiots Mister Norton?”

Kaleb looked at the detective addressing him. He hated being called Mister Norton, but he figured it was not the time to make a fuss about it, but to be honest about the situation. 

“No… I swear it’s the truth… Check with the Bank Manager who hired us!”

“ We did. The man denied hiring anyone for a fake robbery.” The detective laughed at the ridicule of the affirmation. “ Do you have any idea how long you are going to be in jail for a bank robbery like this one, Mister Norton?” 

“ Look detective, I swear it was not supposed to be a robbery. It was a security check up.” 

“ Yeah right!” The detective got up just as the surroundings changed. 

Another morning had arrived, and once more, Kaleb woke up feeling as tired as the moment he went to bed. He really didn’t get why he was always so tired. He got up and did his things like every morning. He then took his place in front of the white door. It was breakfast time and he was hungry. Plus, meal times were the only moments in the day where he saw people. He had no family, therefore no one to come see him. He then wished he could have had kids. Maybe a little daughter would have been nice, but he didn’t remember being so lucky.

***

Night had finally arrived and the prisoner took his place in his bed. He closed his eyes, feeling empty of good thoughts. After all, who cared how long he had been here, he had nothing to go back too outside of those walls. Within a second, the man was now asleep.

“ So you stick to the story saying this was not a robbery? Really?”

“How many times do I need to say that this was planned as a security check up. Nothing was supposed to be taken!”

“Where are the plans, Mister Norton?” The detective asked angrily.

“What plans? I don’t even know what you are talking about!”

“Stop playing us for fools Mister Norton. These plans are very dangerous. Such technology should never see the light of day.”

“What technology?” His voice sounded more and more panicky. “I swear I have no idea what you are talking about. All I know is that this man is the one who stole whatever documents he stole!” He added pointing to a man in the room. A faceless man.

The detective grinned as he got up from his chair and threw him in jail.

Kaleb woke up once again in a cell. He sat on his bed looking around him, worried. The metallic white door opened and a woman walked in and sat on the empty chair in front of the room. She spoke to him with a sweet and sensual voice.

“Good morning. I’m Doctor Eva Frank. I’m a psychiatrist. Do you have any idea what you are doing here? Or even how you got here?”

Kaleb cleared his throat.

“ Umm no… Where am I? Who am I?”

The Doctor looked at him with a grin. 

“ Do you remember any family?”

“I don’t remember anything! What happened to me?” He asked, panicked, as he looked at his hands and the walls surrounding him. 

“Well, Mister Norton, I am pleased to tell you that the experiment worked. Let me just say that you were the first to test our memory modifier chair. It seems like we finally found out the right tuning.” She got up and took a syringe. “ We sadly can’t put you back in society. Your memory loss and your disappearance would be too hard to explain, so… Good night Mister Norton.”

As she spoke, the doctor inserted quickly the syringe in the man's neck and injected him with its content. She removed it without care just as the lifeless body fell on the mattress. Another day, another death.