Through the whirring and the rumbling, Jo, Liver and Wage were sitting on their house’s porch eating a cramped brunch, which they made from all the ingredients they could find in the house. They have always been independent teens, since their parents have been treating them abhorrently for years. They experienced all forms of abuse in the past years, however, whenever they would intend to report it, something cryptically prevents them. Whether it’s a lavish-looking black van, a brutal dog or simply any other manner. Was it their parents?
It was a luminous day on the beach, full of laughter and ecstasy. Jo, Wage, Liver and kristy were sand skiing, their parents behind them, taking photos with a grin on their faces.”i bet I’ll be the first to reach the water” chirped Jo. All six of them then abandoned the skis, sprinted in the sand and frantically jumped into the water. “Better luck next time Jo,” their mum said while pulling her hair up into a ponytail. Splash! Bloop! They all started splashing each other with the gleaming, salty water of the beach. A while later, their parents dropped them home and went to get some groceries, but they returned home very late and with no groceries. That was two and a half years ago.
Curiosity takes over. The fact that their parents returned home that night with completely different personalities is extremely suspicious. They looked the exact same physically. They decide to thoroughly search the house while their parents are gone. They consistently leave at 4 every week. Yet another eerie behaviour. There was a room they were strictly forbidden from entering, which made their will to enter exceed.
They already practiced lock picking before, so entering wasn’t going to be hard. They hastily entered and they took a few steps back, bewildered. A gigantic, modern-looking machine was right there in front of them, in their house. They suspect this machinery is the cause of their parents’ behaviour. However they’re unable to come close, it’s well equipped with an electrical field. The initial ABF was carved in the machine, they could detect it from afar.
The siblings return to their room, unanswered questions flooding in their heads. What’s ABF? What was this machine? They sat in the living room, feeling more ignorant than ever. Crunch! A brick with a piece of paper attached to it breaks through their bedroom glass. They sprint to the source of the sound, adrenaline flowing through their bodies. They reached out for the paper and what was written was utterly startling.
“The machines in the forbidden room control and explain your parents’ behaviour. ABF (a better future) is a facility that makes teens go through violence and abuse by loved
ones in order to see the effects of it on the brain. Your parents will forever be in this state, I guarantee that. Their ventromedial hypothalamus will always be activated. They destined you to become lab rats. Just as they did to me. However, we control our fate. Their aim is to take chemicals from teens’ brains after years of abuse to produce a cure for several mental illnesses. I ran away from all this cataclysm and it’s your turn to do the same. From your long lost sister: kristy.”
بقلم أشرقت هشام
كلية الهندسة قسم ميكانيكا
