Sylvia Trints

[helen]

Tracking: Patient Number 7

Patient Info:

Number: 7
Name: Sylvia Trints
Designated Color: Pink
Current Task: Debriefing
Next Task: Speech Pediments

xx

Sylvia opened her eyes and awoke groggily. She put her hand on her forehead to try to steady herself as she rose from the cold floor she lay one, and then stared at her wrist in shock. Sylvia had never owned a watch, she didn't see the point in one, yet here one was on her wrist.

"Ummm...okay..." she said out loud, even though there was no one in the room. She reached down to her neck to grab her camera, thinking to take a picture of the watch, but it wasn't there.

"Where's my camera?" She asked the empty white walls in front of her.

"You'll have no use for that here," a silky-smooth voice answered back.

Sylvia turned around, expecting to find someone behind her, but all she saw was another empty wall. She hooked a few strands of her light brown hair behind her ear. She closed her dark brown eyes shut tightly, praying that she was imagining this, but when she opened them, she still saw the blank white walls.

"Ummmm...where exactly is here?"

"Welcome to the Enrichment program," The voice said, bouncing off of the walls.

"Uh, I didn't, I d-d-didn't sign up for any program..." Sylvia stuttered, a little frightened.

"Stammering. Do not worry, that shall soon be fixed."

"Okay..." Sylvia replied slowly, not sure if she wanted anything of her to be "fixed." "I'm sorry, miss, but who are you?"

"You can call me EVAT. I will be your adviser throughout this enrichment program."

"Where am I?" Sylvia asked in a tiny voice.

"As You've already been informed, the enrichment program. We are going to enrich you."

"There must be some mistake, I don't need to be enriched..."

"Of course you do, and your reward won't only be your enrichment."

"What else?"

"If you complete your training, and don't do anything that wouldn't be right, you'll also get cake."

"What about seeing my family, my friends, my boyfriend, when can I get my camera back?"

"You'll have no use for those things. You are going to be enriched by our program, and all you'll need is me, the finest AI, and that watch upon your wrist." The feminine voice explained without revealing anything.

"But how can I leave?"

"I think that would be enough questions for today, Miss Trints."

"You can call me Sylvia, EVAT." Sylvia hated her last name, and she hated when people called her that. She wouldn't go to college to be called by it, she had suffered through it enough in high school. And now, here too?

"Please proceed to the next room, Miss Trints." A door Sylvia hadn't noticed suddenly opened in front of her.

[helen]

Tracking: Patient Number 7

Patient Info:

Number: 7
Name: Sylvia Trints
Designated Color: Pink
Current Task: Speech Pediments
Next Task: To Be Decided

xx

As she walked through the room, Sylvia noticed suddenly that it was almost exactly like the room she had just left. Hard, bare cement floor. The same fluorescent lights making the white walls seem even whiter. The same perfect square shape. Everything was the same except that in the center of this room there was a large square table. If Sylvia had her camera with her, she would have taken a picture. It seemed so...precise, so perfect. The table was in the exact center, and everything was incredibly clean. Even through a camera lens though, she suspected it would've given her the same chills.

"Are you ready to begin your first lesson?" EVAT asked. The AI's voice echoed across the room.

"Ummm...no, not really."

"Go sit down at the chair there and read one of the cards."

Sylvia walked over to table and sat down in the chair. It was a huge chair, and it almost absorbed her. She picked up the card at the top of the stack before her and read out loud:

"I am reading this card both clearly and conciss--"

[glow=yellow,2,300]ZAP![/glow]

All of a sudden, there was a loud zapping sound emitted from the chair, like a fly caught in a bug zapper.a jolt of pain shot through her body, and she tried to jump up, only to realize that she couldn't. The chair was so closely tucked into the table, she couldn't move anything except for her wrists. Her body was fizzy though, and she was frazzled. She slowly realized that the chair had electrocuted her, not enough to hurt her too much, but enough to give her pain.

"What..."

"You need to read the cards all out loud properly before you can continue. Each time you mess up, the chair will release a portion of electricity onto your body."

"How about we turn off the chair, and I just read a card to myself silently?"

"That won't help you at all. You need to be enriched in everything before you can receive your cake."

"B-b-b-b--"

[glow=yellow,2,300]ZAP![/glow]

"Uh!" Sylvia winced in pain. "I didn't even read the card that time..." she whispered.

"You still stammered. Don't worry, soon all of your nasty little speaking impediments will be gone!" EVAT's voice called out.

Hands shaking, Sylvia timidly held up the next card.

"I am reading this card loudly so that--"

[glow=yellow,2,300]ZAP![/glow]

"Agh!" Sylvia cried in pain. This time it had hurt two times more.

"Each time you speak incorrectly, the chair will shock you more. If you don't finish all of the cards, and you keep messing up, the shock will grow to that of an electric chair. And you don't want that to happen, do you?"

"But I didn't stammer that time."

"No, but your voice was too quiet. And a quiet, shy voice is not the way to cake."

Sylvia picked up the two cards and re-read them out loud. She was really frightened now, but she figured that she should probably just do it. She'd never been one to argue before really.

"I am reading this card both clearly and concisely." She picked up the next card.

"I am reading this card loudly, so that everyone can understand me," She read in a louder voice than normal.

"I am reading this card steadily, because--"

[glow=yellow,2,300]ZAP![/glow]

Sylvia knew that she had not read the card steadily at all, her voice had been quivering in fear.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, only to be zapped with even more power.

[glow=yellow,2,300]ZAP![/glow]

"What?" EVAT snapped.

Sylvia wished that she could describe EVAT's voice as condescending, but she couldn't. She couldn't describe the voice as anything other than a woman's voice. It seemed to have no emotion to it at all.

"I'm sorry," she called out clearly, concisely, and steadily in a loud voice.

Card after card, she read through them all, occasionally getting shocked.

"This final card I am reading so clearly that even one who does not speak my language could understand it. So concisely that every word rolls off of my tongue. So steadily that it sounds recorded. I'm reading this final card with confidence--"

[glow=red,2,300]ZAP![/glow]

That last shock was enough to send poor Sylvia's body into a state of shock. She couldn't feel any of her bones, and she was glad because she was sure that if she had she'd be screaming in pain. She wanted to start screaming at the top of her lungs then, but her throat was too sore and to dry. She'd been reading out loud for what seemed like years.

"Tsk, tsk. That wasn't very confident at all, was it?" EVAT teased, like it was no big deal that Sylvia had almost been killed.

Sylvia picked up the card and read through all of it as confidently as she could, and she felt her bottom lip begin to tremble. She dared not to bite it though, who knew what EVAT would've done to her for that.

"Congratulations. Please proceed to the next room for your next lesson."

Sylvia found that now she could get up out of the chair. Her whole body ached. She slowly and uncomfortably walked away from the table. If she hadn't been so sore, she would've ran away from it as fast as possible.