No windows, no doors, not a single crack in the wall as far as I could tell. I had woken in this white room minutes or hours before--time seemed to have stalled--and hadn't heard a sound. if this was a dream, it wasn't like any dream I'd had before. No, this was very real. All at once the room seemed to get brighter, from white to the hottest, whitest of whites. Even with eyes closed tightly shut, the white light seemed to penetrate.
I thought I had been blinded. White blind. It's all I could see. Everywhere. Eveeywhere was the same. Same definition, contour. There were no corners, no lines. No walls. Even the floor I sat on looked the same. I closed my eyes again. Only white. No black, no darkness. No reprieve. No hope. Tears fled from my face. I reached up to wipe them...with what? No hands. No arms. No!
They were there, I could feel them. Felt the flesh. I could feel the goosebumps on my arms. I could feel solid ground beneath me where I sat. I kept looking around for anything, any sign. There was nothing, nothing except...a ball. Small and red. Smooth, without reflection or shadow.
It was beautiful.
It was perfect.
How had I not seen it before? I reached out to grab it, and missed. I stood up and reached again. It evaded me, but never moved. I tried to run at it. A force was there. Stopping me. I tried to run at it. Jump on it. Bite. Kick. Punch. Bite. Again and again. The force grew stronger, I felt weaker.
It did not move. Again and again I tried. The red got slightly bigger, as if mocking me. I clawed. Screamed. Roared! Punch. Bite. Headbutt. Kick. Bigger again. I shrieked.
The ball started spinning. Spinning around me. Faster and faster until I fell.
I opened my eyes. There was the ball, next to the little window that was not there before. The ball was large now. Misshapen. Dripping. Dripping down the padded white wall. Still spinning. The whole room was spinning, and then went black.
Darkness, sweet darkness. So welcoming. Take me away. Away from the white of my room.
The eyes peered through the window and wrote little notes on a little clipboards.
"No improvement. Call the orderly to clean up the blood and bandage her head."
"Shall we increase the Lithobid dose tomorrow?"
"Double it. We'll put some objects in her room. See if we can stimulate brain activity and cognitive skills. See if we can pull up a buried memory."
"Very well, sir. We'll start with a red ball."