Sensorium

Day 456… Or is it night? It must be his mind playing tricks on him, he can’t have been here this long. A young man pushes himself up from the hard, dusty ground upon which he had been sitting. It’s uneven and as he struggles to his feet, he almost stumbles back over again, slicing the inside of his finger on thickly woven brambles beside him. If he were to be honest with himself, the man still hadn’t figured out where ‘here’ is. A sigh of frustration leaves his lips as he realises that the tally marks in the mud, the ones he thought he had been logging, the only thing that had been helping him keep track of how long he has been there have seemingly vanished.

He watches the palm of his hand in fascination as the blood flowing from the inside of his finger begins to trickle backwards. It is as if time is running in reverse, the red liquid continuing to recede until there is nothing but a short red mark remaining, teasing what might have been. He is used to the strangeness of this place; every day feels like doomsday. The disappearing markings that he continued to attempt to tally; the dense black clouds above, so rich that any sun there might have been has been blocked out completely; the strange flashings of green and red that shoot through the sky; the ominous sound of a high-pitched beeping noise that seems both close, yet very far away; the absence of anyone else but… he pauses in thought as his eyes catch a flash of purple disappearing behind one of the many hedges he is surrounded by.

“Wait!” the man hears himself yelling as he gives chase. For days he has heard voices, fragments of nonsensical conversation… “Brain” “Money” “Sensorium”.

Sensorium…he knows this term. It’s an old word, first appearing in the mid-17th century; its usage now mostly restricted to medical terminology. The Sensorium is known as the seat of sensation. It is the phenomena of perception; namely, the recognition that the way humans interpret the world, behave, develop values, depends entirely upon their own unique and ever-changing sensory environment.

Goosebumps rise on the back of his neck as he rounds a corner and sees her. In all of the time he has been here, he had never seen another person. She has short brown hair and is wearing floor-length purple silk. Her golden eyes, in contrast to the silver heart-shaped locket hanging from the nape of her neck, almost glow and she smells like home. She is ethereal.

A sob escapes from her lips as she turns and runs. Confused, he follows. They dash around hedge after hedge, the brambles tearing at the young man’s clothing, trying to hold him back. Finally, they reach a clearing. He blinks and suddenly he is no longer surrounded by hedges but rather, tall grey tower blocks. This has never happened before. In his peripheral vision he notes a glimmer of purple disappear into a crowd of people, he’s lost her.

People! He has been searching for people for so long but right now, all he wishes to find is her. His attention is drawn to a brief flash of light seeping through the silhouettes of the townsfolk and he makes his way towards it. Stumbling through the crowd, he catches snippets of differing conversations.

“He won’t make it.”

“There’s nothing we can do.”

“Perhaps it’s for the best…”

Feeling an innate sense of urgency wash over him, the man pushes on faster. The light is getting brighter and the shrill beeps, now almost screaming at him. He stops fast when he sees what it is. The light, it’s a fire, it’s a car and it’s on fire. How is that supposed to help–

A woman sits hunched in a chair sobbing as the steady high-pitched beeps shift into one long dull tone. The most distinctive thing about her is the long purple scarf that she is wearing. She stands looking down at the hospital bed, fiddling with the end of a delicately encrusted silver heart-shaped locket. Taking a shaky breath, she leans forward and plants a kiss upon the forehead of the now lifeless body below her.

“You almost made it.”

Hi! I hope you enjoyed this piece of fiction - if you did, I would love it if you left me a heart 🖤

Sensorium is actually an edited version of the first chapter of a novel that I'm working on. I'm incredibly excited about it and will be posting more about the story in the future!

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