Project Charmed

I have never laid awake wondering what tomorrow will hold. I have never gotten butterflies wondering if a guy will like me. I have never even ran downstairs on Christmas morning wondering what Santa brought. I never had too, I know what's going to happen in my life, or at least I think I do. 

It didn’t used to be this way you know. Before all of the fighting and negativity people were happy. Everything changed once the colleges started to open up. Because my country is so overpopulated, there were not enough colleges to take in all of the hopeful high school graduates yearning for a degree. People became so worried about getting into college that the mere thought of not getting in drove them crazy. The night before every college was to release their roster for that year over 5,000 possible attendees killed themselves. This occurrence with colleges was the first of many to come. The same thing happened with learning whether or not you could receive a loan, whether or not you got the job, the possibility of failure was so overwhelming that people would rather take their own lives then accept failure. It doesn’t surprise me though, to be quite truthful it really didn’t surprise any of us. 

In a world where you are constantly told that you have to be perfect why would you willingly accept anything else?

 Over the course of 7 years, our population dropped from 5 million to people to 3.5 million. Yes, this included natural causes of death, but the majority was death by suicide. We had a very clear problem on our hands. The only question was, how do you retrain an entire society to realize that failure is not the worst possible outcome, and sometimes failure is even inevitable. 

My government contacted a group of ancient witches that lived 9 miles passed the border. In exchange for us protecting them, they agreed to create a potion, that when any ring is dipped into it, it will reveal the future of the wearer. So there was our solution, if you know what your future holds, you won’t feel the anxiety that comes from waiting and worrying if you are not good enough. Even if you do fail, you know that it is going to happen and you are given the opportunity to mentally prepare yourself. From then on, every adult and child was required to constantly wear the rings handed out by the government. The rings were charmed to grow as you grew so you never needed a new size. No matter the circumstance, the ring must stay on your finger at all times. The ring would know if it had been removed from your finger and sent a notice to the head political figures the second it is no longer on you. Police forces would immediately be dispatched to your location. If you were a first time offender you were let off with an extreme warning. However if you have taken your ring off twice, you were executed on the spot. I know this sounds harsh, but they just want to protect us, they can not have people believing that it is okay to take off your ring. The ring worked by constantly analyzing your body. Any time your brain presented any signs of nervousness or anxiety, the ring would reveal what happens. This took away the worrying and allowed people to see their entire lives and never worry in the slightest.

Project charmed (as the government calls it) is extremely affective, there are fewer than 50 deaths by suicide reported every year. The only downside is never being surprised.

The earliest memory I have of the ring playing an active role in my life was the night before my first day of kindergarten. I still remember laying in bed as my mom finished reading me my favorite book. She tucked me in, turned on my nightlight and closed the door. I was tightly clinging to my stuffed rabbit, Harry, and staring at the ceiling. Thoughts began swirling around in my head. Will I make any friends? Will people like me? I wonder if anyone will want to play on the playground with me? It didn’t take long before these questions were answered. I immediately saw myself playing with (apparently) my soon to be lifelong best friend Laura. The ring is great isn’t it? I am so lucky to have a government that is willing to remain allied with witches in order to keep us safe.

I’m sixteen now and the ring has still never failed me. I do miss it though. I miss being a normal teenager. I have read books about girls dreaming of the future, pondering about what career they will have and where they will live. Sometimes I wish I didn’t know, but I guess knowing beats catastrophic population decline. 

Tonight I am going out to dinner with Laura, she said that she has something to ask me, but I already know what it is. All she wants me to know is that she is going on a trip for a week and was wondering if I could take care of her plants. Obviously I don’t mind, but I am rather excited for this dinner, I have always loved Thai food. The dinner went very well up until this happened. 

I couldn’t breathe, it felt like my entire world came crashing down, everything that has always been anything may have been a lie. Do I tell someone? Do I tell anyone? What will happen to me? These were the thoughts running through my head at dinner as Laura asked me to go dress shopping with her. Usually this would be a light hearted question that made me excited for a night out with her but that was not the case this time. This time, oh this time, it meant that my ring was wrong. She never mentioned a trip or taking care of her plants. I was wrong, my future was a lie. How can this even be possible?

When I got home that night I asked my mom if this had ever happened to her and she just laughed saying, “Oh sweetie, that is quite impossible, I’m sure you were just mistaken.” I warmly smiled back because how do you insist that the impossible just happened to you. 

Weeks went by and nothing like this had happened yet, but I started feeling sad and anxious for no reason, even though things were not going as planned I always knew the outcome so what did it matter. But then it hit me. What if I only think I know the outcome, what if the future is only decided once it happens in the past. Maybe the ring doesn’t reveal the future, it pauses where you are in time, plays out whatever it is you were worried about, and simply transports that memory to your brain. The ring is not showing you the future it is showing you the past. 

Suddenly I felt my body jolt. I awoke covered head to toe in a white suit with wires connected to my body from everywhere. Over a loudspeaker I heard the words, “Project Charmed, Experimental Subject 397, failure” “Time under, 16 years 3 months 12 days 2 hours” “Subject has not discovered the reality of the ring but still questions it” “Put her under again boys, let’s try again”