Say My Name

            Wait, what was that? I think to myself as I turn my attention away from my work and look around, searching. Who called my name? It’s not like everyone knows who I am, or random strangers happen to know my name somehow. I think one of my friends has to be close by, so I get off of the park bench I have been sitting on to get a better look at the passers by, hoping to find a familiar face hiding in the crowd.

            “Xavier!”

            There it was, again! The voice sounds vaguely familiar but I can’t place who it was, exactly, or where it’s coming from. This doesn’t normally happen; I’m usually pretty good at finding people. This was the second time someone called my name within a minute, though, and I have no idea where this person is. “Yeah? Where are you?” I call out, hoping to see a hand waving somewhere, a distinguishing movement, a talking pig, something, whatever was calling my name! I don’t even have a common name, it’s not like Xavier’s are all over the place. I was about to give up the search and hope whoever it was would just come to me when I feel a sting on the back of my neck. I think it’s a bee, so I try to swat at it, but I can’t move.

            When I regain consciousness, I realize that I had lost consciousness, presumably right after I got stung. Did I really get stung? I wonder, as I look around, observing the cold metal table I am now strapped to. “Hello? Anyone home, or is it company policy to leave new captives alone in a sterilized room to contemplate what they’ve done?” I hope they react to sarcasm, otherwise I would be talking to myself, and I’ve heard that isn’t a good sign.

            I hear movement in the hallway beyond a door I only found a few seconds before (the walls are shiny to a degree that makes it hard to distinguish anything about them). Oh, good, I think, sarcasm does work, after all. The door opens, and I immediately wish that sarcasm didn’t work at all on the thing that came through the door. I desperately wish that the anything I might have said had sailed far over its heads. The creature coming at me doesn’t even make any sense! How can the body be blurred like that? Is it vibrating? I want to ask something that isn’t the horrid thing in front of me, but sadly my options were out. I try to count the heads, just for something to do as it waddles up to me, but they move to quickly, and they are too blurry to be able to distinguish one from the others. One of them starts shrieking something at me that I don’t understand, and another one starts saying “Would you like a cracker? Would you like a cracker? Would you like a cracker…” endlessly. Why does that head sound like my downstairs neighbor? The other heads remain silent, and an arm comes out- I didn’t even notice the arms until one reached for me, I had been preoccupied with the heads. It unbuckles my straps, grabs my neck, and holds me down. Before I can try and figure out what’s going on, intense pain flashes through my body, and I scream.

            I wake up again in a little room, very much the inverse of the other one where luster is concerned, suspended from the ceiling by chords of some sort. “Why are you doing this to me?” I scream at the walls and floor, and I get no reply.

            I wonder how long I’ll last here.