The breeze was blowing the white curtains of the window, it filled the room with a rather soothing feeling, but he couldn't feel it. He's been staring outside for a long time as if he was looking for something; he still hasn't found out. But his eyes, they look blank, as if the light from them is gone; a blind man's eyes are more alive than his. What is he looking at? He blinks sometimes but doesn't shift his gaze. The breeze got stronger; the curtains are flapping wildly, papers flying in the room; everything is in chaos yet peaceful. Everything is moving, except him; neither he moved nor he shifted his gaze. He eventually moves from his position closer to midnight; this was his usual routine; sitting in the chair for hours and being in trance, not even let a sigh escape from his lips. If anyone called out to him he'd look at him/her with that same dead expression.
Image Source
He was in this state since he was brought to this facility 3 years ago. No one knows what happened to him; not even his name. He was found half-dead, lying unconscious near a cave on a desolate island. He was talking gibberish since he gained consciousness, asking about a box that was with him. He was looking for a box frantically, and then he suddenly blacked out. When he came back to his senses a fisherman handed him that box saying he found it inside the cave; finally having it in his hands, the stranger tossed the box aside like it was garbage. And then silence. He hasn't said a word since as if he never learned to talk in his life. But why? The puzzle box is unique, a pyramid with beautiful carving on its side. Each block moves clockwise, and if aligned correctly, it will tick and the box inside it will open to reveal the mystery that it's been keeping. What is the mystery behind the box and his certifiable state had become a puzzle itself.
Flashback
He was exasperated, constantly trying to decipher but every move seems futile. He spent so long trying to solve this mysterious puzzle but he couldn't; days and nights intertwined and became one. He stops, sometimes, throws the box away, and walks around in that cave, defeated. There's no food left, not even a breadcrumb; his stomach growls but he's helpless. Picking up his water bottle he gulped the last few drops of water. Then he started fidgeting with the box again. The box contained a riddle, not the answer. The answer or the answers are etched all over the cave, but it's inexplicable; he's unable to make connections between them. He had been trying to align it but it wasn't working, the hinges are rusty and didn't turn smooth; he feared if he put pressure on it then the box might and the riddle would never be found. But that wasn't the only issue he was facing, the cave is at least 800 years old and deserted, no one had set foot here for at least a few hundred years by the way it looked; so the box should be at least that old. It wasn't old, that was the problem; barely 100 years old but not more than that. So, the box might have been changed; he started to think if he was going to be stuck here forever. No, impossible, if the one who changed it could leave then so could he; that's what he told himself. Either someone must have gotten here before him or someone was living here and the answer to any of those was yet unknown.
All that knowledge and degrees seemed worthless at that moment. He was tired, he screamed but he only heard his echoes; he cried in desperation but no one to wipe his tears. Holding the box to his chest, he fell to the ground and cried more. The sun was going down and soon darkness engulfed all around him; never had he ever faced darkness such as this. Putting the box safely aside, he started looking for a way out. Out of breath, out of strength, out of food and water he couldn't last long, he was losing consciousness; slowly drifted off to sleep. Suddenly he felt something, he realized he could breathe still but the air should feel suffocating but it wasn't. He got up and started to walk, he didn’t go inside the cave since he broke his torch but now as he didn’t have a choice, he would give it a try. He kept on walking to god knows where until he ended up in front of a waterhole; after drinking his stomachful, he let out a sigh of relief. Then he sprinkled some water over himself and to him it felt as if he was coming back to life.
He sat down, but just for a few minutes, he didn’t have the strength to stay up any longer and a sort of peacefulness was overcoming him; he fell asleep.
To Be Continued
