“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

- Oscar Wilde

It all began so very much like a regular day, a relaxing weekend morning. It was the kind where I could sleep in bed without a care in the world. I didn’t worry about the future and I couldn’t be bothered to think about the past, everything was just fine right then and now.

I simply love those kinds of mornings but the more I rested there in my bed the greater discomfort I felt from the fabric. Whenever I stretched one of my limbs or rolled over for comfort it felt like the bed sheets were made of burlap or some other very coarse material. It was too irritating to tolerate any more, so I unenthusiastically decided to get up out of bed.

As I lifted the sheets they seemed stiffer than I might expect of a normal fabric. Furthermore they were not the usual colour for my bed. I sat up looking over this bed that was clearly not mine. As my half asleep brain started functioning further the more odd things I started to notice. I was nude. Now that was odd, I’m not usually one to sleep in the buff. This room I was in, it’s not the bedroom I’m familiar with. There were very few things actually in the room, just this bed I was sleeping in, a beige bureau with no mirror, a wooden cabinet, and myself.

I stood up and walked away from the bed. This left me with an odd feeling in my head, I felt lightheaded, as if I had significantly low blood pressure or if I had been drinking the night before. What did happen to me last night? Had I been drinking too much? That would also not have been the kind of thing I would do. Besides a hangover doesn’t feel quite like this, I think.

I was glad it was so quiet in this room, no loud noises or birds chirping to disrupt my sleep or give me further discomfort in my head. The room had two windows with an abundance of light shining through but for some reason both were frosted over. I walked closer, touching the surface of the glass, it wasn’t cold. The windows were not covered in actual frost but they were made of some kind of plastic that let light through but made it very difficult to see objects on the other side. Besides this translucent quality they were also fixed in place, I couldn’t open these windows.

Despite this the room remained decently lit. As I turned away from the windows I thought I heard some sound, a thud not too great a distance away. Perhaps there were construction vehicles at work in the front yard of this house I must be in. That is I think this is a house. Looking around this room I began to doubt this was part of a normal house or apartment. The walls were painted blue but rather thickly and unprofessionally. It didn’t look like an even varnish to me. It was rather thick and lumpy in some parts of the walls.

What concerned me more was the one door of this room. As I walked closer to it I discovered it was just a picture of a door designed into the wall. Curiously putting my hand onto what should have been the doorknob it and every other part of this door. It felt as if it could have been paper. Backing away from this picture of a door I became very concerned.

I said aloud “If that’s not a real door then how did I get in here?” Then glancing around the room once more I ask “more importantly how do I get out?” My heartbeat was increasing at this point, panic slowly setting in. “If I can’t use this door then there is no way for me to get out” I said to myself. I felt tremendous concern and after a moment or two I was pacing around the room, my thought process hindered with fear. “I’m trapped here and I don’t even know where here is. “ I thought out loud. “But how did I get here?”

I looked around again. The bed was back against one wall in front of me, bureau behind me against the other wall, windows to the right, fake door and wooden cabinet to the left. I was truly trapped. Another loud thud sounded from the other side of those windows. I walked over to them to try and get a better look at who ever was making such a ruckus this early in the morning. I couldn’t see though those inconvenient windows but I was certain it must be morning. After all I had just woken up, and I went to sleep at...

My mind drew a blank, when did I go to sleep and where. “It is morning because my watch says...” looking at my wrist I remembered I had no watch on, or clothing for that matter. I walked over to the bureau hoping to find clothing inside but not only would it not open but it felt strange to the touch. It was plastic; all of it was a solid piece of plastic. This discovery made no improvement to my mood and my heartbeat rose back up a bit.

I sat on the bed trying to think. Why would someone put that in a house? How did I get in this room? This is just too strange, but I can get out of here, just have to think. Come on man think, think...

And then a more frightening question came to mind. What is my name?

A wave of coldness enveloped me as I thought those words. “What is my name?” I asked aloud. I thought further and various names echoed in my head. Phil, Will, Bill. These names I have been called them before but none of them truly stand out, none of them stick to me. I thought some more but still they did not feel as if they were part of me. Bob, Joe, John, Jack, Mac, Moe, Dan, Dad, Daddy.

“Daddy” I said out loud. “Did someone actually call me ‘Daddy’? Does this mean I am someone’s father?” I thought about the possibility of me having a family. Something came to me, a memory of being with someone. A wife and children, but their names, faces, and voices are unclear to me.

Another loud thud came from outside. It was getting annoying but I still tried to concentrate on this mystery. “Who am I?” I asked myself out loud. More thinking unlocked what I wanted to see. I had memories of fun times, meeting new neighbors, playing with the kids, birthday parties, and even tender moments with my wife. But despite all that the details were irritatingly limited, I couldn’t remember the actual people I was with or how I got here. Frustration was settling in.

Looking over at the cabinet I could see that although it was wood the surfaces of it appeared grainy and uneven. It looked like it wasn’t complete, as if some careless person constructed it. More sounds came from outside, this time with shuffling of some kind. Then it hit me. “That’s it isn’t it. This is the works of some prankster with access to construction tools” I said this to myself in an effort to give me some hope and clarity. At least it would explain this room I’m in.

I stood and talked with new confidence and irritation. “Some jerk has taken advantage of me while drinking. I must have been led here after a night out on the town. This must be some construction site and as a prank these jokers built a room around me. I was too drunk and passed out to hear them setting up this very faulty room. It was never designed to be a real home in the first place.”

Another loud thud came from outside and being filled to the brim with self-assurance I gave a shout to those people out there. “Will you keep it down out there!? Seriously do you think it’s funny that you put me in here!?” The sounds continued to penetrate the walls and windows. My anger was rising. “I’ve had enough of this now; I want to come out now!” My shouting did nothing to stop the sounds but it did infuriate me.

I started to think they couldn’t hear me with all the noise outside. So I considered breaking open the windows. It would be too dangerous to try it with my bare hands, but I didn’t think I would be doing any actual vandalism. After all this room was just a joke someone set up with me as the victim. I’m not really the person who wasted these building materials. In my heightened anger I grabbed the bureau and lifted it up over my head. It must have been hollow or something since there would be no way I could do this with a normal bureau. I threw the bureau length wise toward the window, but it didn’t break. It just made a loud thud. My frustration could go no farther I charged at the wall and pounded at the walls shouting “Let me out you bastards!”

Then suddenly the noise outside came to a stop. A feeling of relief washed over me, calming my rage to a declining exhale. It was then that the thought occurred to me that the people who put be in this room might not be the same people at work in the construction site. Perhaps the pranksters had just used their tools and materials in the night and left me. That would mean these people outside are the regular employees. If that was the case I thought I shouldn’t have called them bastards since I held no contempt for them specifically. I would regret offending them and be very appreciative to them for rescuing me.

Suddenly the whole room began to shake. I shouted in a panic “What on earth is this!?” A shadow briefly eclipsed the light coming through the windows, whatever it was it must have been big. Could it be they were very angry with me? And now, now they are using a bulldozer to crush me in this room? No! No one could ever be that angry, could they? I was about to call out for help, to tell them I’m in side this room, but before the words could leave my mouth, it happened.

The wall with the windows began to shake, shake and move. I was overwhelmed with fear at the thought that I was actually going to be crushed to death in this room. But then the wall itself moved away, as if it were all one solid piece designed to slide on an axel attached to the house. This was exactly the case. The wall turned on a pivot some distance to the left and vanished out of site in the now overwhelming light from outside. I felt my eyes strained by this intense light, it became apparent that I was not waking at morning but rather was in a dark room where my eyes had previously adjusted to the dim light. I would have raised my arms to block out this strong light, but then I saw her.

There as a silhouette in the light she was there, a female who would bring me into a terrifying new world that I could never escape. As my eyes adjusted to the light I could make out her face. A giant smiling face with eyes that would not stop looking at me. This was the face of a little girl overwhelmed with joy at the sight of this new thing she had found. She was only a child but from my perspective she was a giantess whose smile gave me no comfort.

She began to giggle. “Hello little man” she said in a voice that sounded loud even though she must have been trying to keep quiet. “Good to see you’re awake; we’re going to have lots of fun.”