The Choice Part 2

A continuation from part 1

It was several hours before Jim woke up. He was in a bed with white sheets and in a small room with white walls. A single light floated in the middle of the room trying to keep the light level as constant a possible. Several seconds passed before he could piece together what had happened. He spent several hours closely examining his cell and found no way out. Right as he finished his inspection, a voice came from microscopic speakers in the walls. “Good morning Jim. How are you feeling?”

“Not to bad except for the fact that I was drugged by an unknown person, locked in a cell for who knows how long and everything I have ever done was just erased by some greedy school officials so that they won’t lose money oh, and by the way, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?!?!?” Jim bellowed.

“We are the under belly of society, we are forgotten, we are the rejected, we are the shadows of the world, we are the ones who refused to enhance and were cast out and we are the only future you have left.” The Voice answered with smug authority. “You probably have a lot of questions. Staring with, do we know where your brother/sister who didn’t enhance and vanished is?”

“How did you know?” Jim cautiously asked.

“The schools use all of those ‘standardized tests’ to brainwash the students so that they think that they had an older sibling who vanished and it scares them into making the Choice. Now, are there any other questions aside from ‘where am I?’ or ‘When are you letting me out?’ because I can’t answer those.”

“Why did you kidnap me?” Jim inquired.

“Because you have no enhancements and we wanted you to join us.” The voice answered dismissively. “Will you join us?”

“I need some time to think.” Jim replied as he tried to wrap his head around everything that was happening

“You have until tomorrow morning. Any other questions?”

“What’s for dinner?”

That night Jim dreamed for the first time in years. He dreamed he was in a dark room that was only lit an old fashioned light bulb lamp hanging from the ceiling. Jim was sitting in a chair with a table that was shaped like the yin-yang symbol in front of him. In one corner there was a stack of three boxes and someone was sitting on the top box so that only their legs could be seen in the light. The person spoke in a voice that seemed very familiar to Jim. “So you’ve finally come to see me Jim? You’ve finally learned the truth about your ‘brother’ and have come to visit me.”

“I’m sorry but who are you and where are we?” Jim asked with a touch of annoyance.

“We are where you have always been but could never see. We are in your mind. Specifically we are in you subconscious. As for who I am well that’s where it gets a little complicated. The short answer is I am you.” As soon as he said that Jim recognized the voice as his own but, something was slightly off about it. “The long answer is when the school was trying to brain wash us our mind tried to defend itself by fragmenting our personality effectively making a copy of all of our memories and storing it in our subconscious. I am the unaltered you.”

Jim took all this in calmly and logically. “Is this real or is this just a dream, and if it’s real, why are you choosing now to talk to me?” Jim asked after some time had passed.

“You are dreaming right now but, I am real. The only reason you can see me is because dreams are controlled by our subconscious. I can’t prove to you that I exist the same way that you can’t prove that you think. As for why, because I finally could and I wanted to see if we had the same view on light, darkness, chaos. Which do you think is more powerful?” The other Jim said dismissively.

Jim was confused for a second. “Why do you include chaos?”

“Chaos isn’t light or darkness it’s the ‘other’ option between the two choices. Chaos is the equalizing force of the universe; it tears down light and darkness indiscriminately. When people talk about restoring the balance between light and darkness they only want to destroy the other side. That in turn leads to an imbalance which either leads to the rise of the other side or the destruction of their side. Chaos has no targets, no goals, no order and will eventually reduce everything to true equality, nothingness. Now, which do you choose?” The other Jim sounded serious for the first time.

“I don’t know.” Jim answered honestly.

“You have lived in the light for all of your life. Now live in the shadows for awhile. Next time we talk you better have made a decision or I’m taking over until you make your choice.” The other Jim spat the last sentence out like he was spitting out poison.

Jim woke up in a cold sweat with a sudden start. As he tried to catch his breath, he considered all that he learned about the human mind in school, he concluded that it was possible for his mind to create a split personality in response to brain washing over along period of time and that if he had a split personality that the “him” that wasn’t in control would reside in the subconscious. Some types of Multiple Personality Disorder, MPD, keep the different personalities completely unaware of each other and others exchange memories between the different personalities. He decided to act like the dream was real and, after he spent some time in the shadows, he have an answer to the question that the other “him” asked.

All of a sudden the voice from before came from the walls. “So, now that you’ve had a night to think about it, will you join us?”

“Yes I will.” Jim answered confidently.

“Wise choice, welcome to your new life”

A door set in the wall slid open and revealed a pitch black hallway. Jim smirked a little bit as he strode out of the white room and down the hall to his future.