Pick Your Own Path (Patreon)

Chapter 1
The Awakening

Beep… Beep… Beep… The beeping continues. You’re not sure where it is coming from. It doesn’t sound like your usual alarm clock. With your eyes still closed you reach out for it to turn it off. You reach out… nothing. You reach out further… nothing. “What the…” You say out loud. You open your eyes and let out a gasp!

 You are in a room you don’t recognize, in a bed you don’t recognize! You look up and there is a flashing red light that the alarm is coming from. “Beep… Beep… Beep…” You look around you. “Where am I?” You say softly. The room itself feels cold and cramped. To you it looks like a prison cell. The whole room is made of metal. The bed you are in has a single pillow and sheet that are stained. In the corner of the room is a rusted toilet that looks like it hasn’t been washed in years. You looked down at yourself and realized that you were not wearing the same clothes. You were in some sort of jumpsuit. Almost like an orange prison jumpsuit but the suit itself was a dull grey color.

 You slowly stand up from the bed to get your bearings. As you do so you can feel how wobbly your legs are, you can barely stand up! You sit back down on the bed for a moment before you can fall over. While you sit there you try to recall what has happened to you. “How did I get here?” You say to no one but yourself. You strain your memory but the last few things you can remember is getting ready for a party. That’s right a party… You had spent most of an afternoon at your house getting ready. You wanted to look as attractive as possible because you knew there were going to be a lot of people at the party. The party was for your friend Allie. It was her birthday party.

 You could remember that you finished getting ready for the party, and you had managed to leave your house. Oh yeah! You couldn’t take your car because it was in the shop so you had to contact an Uber. You had gotten into the car when it had arrived. The driver had seemed friendly enough. He had introduced himself as a guy named Henry. Henry had moppy orange hair and a wide grin. He was rambling on about anything that came into his head as you got into the Uber and he began to drive.

 You do remember a very distinct scent in the back of his car. You couldn’t quite place it. Whatever it was though, it had started to make you feel sleepy. “W-w-what’s… what’s going on…” You had mumbled out.

 “Oh nothing…” Henry had said with a soft chuckle. “Just a quick little chemical reaction back there is gonna make you have a nice little nap…” You could feel your heart rate speed up as you began to panic but you couldn’t keep your eyes open much longer.

 “W-what??! Why… why would you… but I…” Those were the only words you could get up before you could feel your eyes closing and body begin to slump to the side of the car. The last thing you heard before you passed out completely was Henry say,

 “Nightie night baby…”

*****

 Back in your holding cell you jumped up in a panic! Where were you?! Why had Henry kidnapped you?! How would you find a way out?! As if it could read your mind and hear your burning questions, a voice came over some sort of speaker that you couldn’t see anywhere in the cell.

 “Hello there, you are finally awake. Welcome…” The voice sounded like a robot and had no distinct gender. You wondered if the voice was a real person just disguising their voice or if it was just some kind of machine.

 “Who are you?” You ask the disembodied voice.

 “Who I am is unimportant. But you may call me The Creator.”

 For some reason that name sends a little chill up your spine. You were not liking the look of any of this. “Why am I here?” You ask next.

 “You are here because I wanted you to be. Because I believe that you deserve to be here. Adults these days are growing up much too fast and some of them haven’t even grown up at all. These “adults” run around our world calling themselves “grownups” but I can see them for what they truly are: nothing but overgrown babies.”

 You listen closely to what the voice is saying but it sounds more like a lunatic talking in your opinion.

 “That is why I have created this place. This is a place where these so called “adults” are taken and changed into what they truly are and are just pretending not to be. Babies. Big stupid innocent babies. That way they will never have to bother the rest of the world again. All they need is a Mommy or Daddy to watch over them and they are content for the rest of their lives.”

 You can’t help yourself from blurting out. “That’s crazy! You can’t turn people into children again! That’s actually insane.”

 “Is it?” The Creator asked. “Personally, I thought that it was pretty genius.”

 You could do nothing but shake your head in frustration and disbelief; but you decided to turn your attention to a more pressing matter. “So what about me?”

 There is a short pause. Then The Creator laughs at you. The laughter is malicious and teasing simultaneously. Finally it speaks up, “Well, you are here because I have chosen it to be so. I have watched you as I watch all my subjects for some time now. I believe that you deserve to become one of my babies.”

 You gasp in shock. What are you going to do?!

 “But…” The Creator continues. “I will give you a chance. A chance to escape your fate. I like games; and you will never win this one but at least no one can say The Creator doesn’t play fair.”