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Fabienne awoke with a start, and was immediately greeted by bright, sterile light. Once her sight recovered enough for look around. She appeared to be in some sort of small, windowless room. A cell, perhaps? She made an attempt to sit up, and immediately met with resistance. She was being restrained. Specifically, she was latched to a gurney by several leather straps. She struggled against them for a moment, then sighed. Well, this was a predicament.
Suddenly, she heard a mechanical whirring, and looked up to see a screen descending from a hatch in the ceiling. It slowly moved towards her, eventually positioning itself to make it the only thing she could see. Even if she looked away, there were several subordinate monitors mirroring its contents to ensure she could see them. She grumbled something about her limited field of vision, then turned back to face the main monitor. The blank login screen suddenly disappeared, and a series of words began to appear.
Fabienne furrowed her brow, glaring at the display in front of her. ‘Forget’ in an odd, almost unnerving sort of font. Was this some sort of joke? Was she being pranked? Or maybe unwittingly part of some elaborate hoax? Whatever, it was just words on a screen. Words on a screen. She read words on a screen all day, every day. Sure, being restrained was novel, but otherwise this situation was mildly disconcerting, rather than terrifying.
Right, just words on a screen. Nothing more. She sighed, and looked back at the monitor. ‘Forget, made way to the word ‘Erase’
“Erase…” She muttered. She found the word… oddly compelling? She wasn’t sure why.
“Erase.” She muttered again.
“Forget…” She mumbled, the word forming unconsciously.
“What am I forgetting?” She mumbled, looking around once more. Again, she was greeted by a gaggle of additional screens, all intent on occupying her field of view.
The word on the screen became ‘Blank.’
“Blank…” Fabienne was noticing a commonality between all of these words. Still, she doubted there was anything to it. Any moment now some howling reality tv host would barge in and explain the deal.
“Blank…”
“Blank slate…” She whispered, her mouth seeming to finish the sentence on its own.
Erase. The word stuck in her mind, beginning to dominate her internal monologue. She tried to think of other things, but every other thought led back to it eventually. Even if that wasn’t the case, other words inevitably rushed to the forefront, derailing any other thoughts she might have.
Empty.
Erase.
Hollow.
Empty.
Forget.
Format.
Empty.
Erase.
“Erase…” She whispered. Her mind was beginning to slow, and her eyes felt very, very heavy suddenly.
“Forget…” She mumbled. Her thoughts were foggy, and thinking was beginning to become difficult. Thankfully, she had the screen in front of her to focus on.
Empty.
Erase.
Format.
“Format…?” Even in her addled state, the word puzzled her. Format. As in memory format? Or, perhaps keeping in theme with the other words she’d been shown, format as a verb…
“Format…” Formatting. Deleting digital files, restoring a device to a pristine state.
“Format…”
The screen switched back to ‘Forget.’
“Forget…” Forget… and format… very… similar…
“Forget…” She repeated.
“Forget…”
The word displayed on the monitor changed once again. It now read ‘Everything’.
“Forget… everything…”
“Forget…”
“Everything…”
“Every…”
“Thing…” Fabienne’s mind gave up, fully submitting to the instructions being delivered to her.
Though the process had been mostly silent other than Fabienne’s own words, a sharp, metallic voice spoke.
“Breathe.” It commanded.
“Breathe…” She repeated, barely comprehending the words.
“Breathe…” She knew nothing, but enough instinct remained to obey the command.
Finally, the screen went blank, and Fabienne’s body relaxed. Free of instruction, it went limp.
“Formatting process complete.” The metallic voice said. There was a flash of light, and then the restraints on the gurney loosened. It took Fabienne’s slack jawed body several seconds to respond to this. Perhaps the brain drain had been… too effective. Regardless, her limbs fell to her sides, dangling harmlessly.
“Ready… for… conditioning…” She muttered.
The screen spent a few moments flickering, its operator navigating to the conditioning program.
“Conditioning beginning in three…” A mechanical voice began counting down.
“Two…”
“One…”