An abandoned square building in the snowy landscape of Siberia was recently discovered. In it a diary of a self-proclaimed scientist was found. This is the final entry:
After months of our research, we have come to a conclusion that humans have the ability to adapt to rituals easily. However, an overdose of repetition can cause severe damage to the psychological well being of a Homo sapien, which ultimately results in strange and violent behaviours. This is proven by two out of three of our test subjects.
Subject A: Female, Early 20’s.
Contained in a room with a subtle and steady ringing tone. During the first few hours, subject A was unmoved by the sound, clearly aware it was an experiment she signed up for. But by the twelfth hour she began showing signs of resistance, shutting her ears in hopes to drown out the sound. Strangely, at the twenty-fourth hour, she adjusted to the sound and began to accept its presence.
We left Subject A in the room for a few more days and on the fifth day we stopped the tape. Almost instantly, she realized it was completely silent. She began searching for the source of the sound and when she found none, she went into a state of panic. We had to sedate her before she killed herself.
The next couple of days, we tied her to a bed and watched as she hummed a monotonous tone. She would not eat, she would not speak, and when she stopped for just a second to catch her breath, she goes into frenzy. After weeks of trying to help her recover, she stopped humming because of the soreness in her throat. The silence that was forced upon her caused more fits, and we decided to put her in a straight jacket for her safety. Unfortunately, that did not stop her from running into a wall and cracking her skull open.
Subject B: Male, Mid 30’s.
Placed in a room with a television. The first day, Subject B watched what was being played and showed mild expressions of glee. On the second day, he realized the television was on a loop, but he watched it anyway. After a few days watching the screen with vocal questions on why he was asked to do so, he stopped watching and retreated to a corner away from the television.
Seeing his attempts to escape it, we decided to take the experiment up a notch. We switched off the lights in his room, leaving the only light that brightened the windowless walls coming from the screen. A few days later, we found Subject B murmuring words that made no sense. I forgot to mention, there was no sound coming from the television.
Studying Subject B closely, we noticed he was mimicking the characters on screen. He could not hear them so he made up his own words. This was when we took the television away. Once the television was no longer with him, he began to act as the characters on screen. One of the videos on loop was a dead animal being eaten by ants. Subject B emulated what he saw by biting himself until he bled. When we entered the room to sedate him, he violently bit some of our men.
We tried to help Subject B as how we did Subject A, but we found our efforts useless. Subject B chewed off his lips, grinded his teeth, and clench his jaw repeatedly until his gums bled. Eventually, we had to end his suffering for him.
Note that this diary was found in a white walled room filled with grotesque repetition of the words, ‘it is over,’ in dark red. We have reason to believe it was written in blood, though yet to be determined if human or animal.
After investigating the building further, we found no trace of humans ever being experimented in the place. The building was completely bare, with no sight of equipment or bodies. Maybe the building was cleared up after the experiment, or maybe there was no experiment to begin with. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that we never found the owner of the diary.
Do you know where he is, dear reader? You wouldn’t be reading this if you don’t know where he is.
Do you know where I am, dear reader? You wouldn’t be reading this if you don’t know where I am.
~ ~ ~
Subject C: Male, Late 40’s.
Subject C suffers from a strange psychological disorder. He writes to himself in a diary, pretending to be doing something with his life. His words revolve around characters that he believes is himself. He does not have a dissociative identity disorder, but he has a strong conviction of the ‘lives he has lived’.
When spoken to, Subject C seems like an ordinary person. His history backs up that notion. He came from a well to do family, obtained a good education, and had a bright future ahead of him. The only problem was that he didn’t do anything with what he had. He ‘hibernated’ for so many years that he became used to it. Only now he tries to relive his life in the different dreams he once had.
We don’t know how to help Subject C recover. He is not violent like the rest, but he remains unmoved. Since the beginning of the experiment till now, he seems to be comfortable in his plain white room. I guess it’s time to call it quits. This experiment is over.
Concluding with my hypothesis, humans have the ability to adapt to rituals easily… not doing anything is one of them.
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You’re probably going, “What the heck did I just read?!”
Don’t worry, you’re not Subject C… or are you?
This is a strange story about a deadly sin called ‘Sloth’. Sloth is actually the hardest sin to write about because it’s rather vague. Is laziness sloth? Is laziness a sin? After reading what it meant, I decided to paint sloth in a clearer picture, though my method seems to be the opposite.
Sloth is not laziness, sloth is having something but not doing anything about it. Sloth is when you have talent, time, skill, finance, education, heath, dream, but you do nothing with them. Sloth is when we waste our lives away when we have so much to live for. The thing about sloth is that the moment we adapt to its lifestyle, we cannot get out of it. It drives us crazy just to get up and do something when we are so comfortable not doing anything. At the end of the day, sloth leaves us regret for not living life to the fullest. It is then that we imagine what our lives could have been, but have no power to change the past. We are ultimately left with nothing.
The easiest way to beat sloth is to do something. Hone a talent, grow a skill, improve yourself as a human being. Sloth does not have the power to stop you from being great, unless you give it the power.
Anyway, I hope this story wasn’t as confusing as it seems. Do let me know what you think of it in the comments below 🙂
© 2014 Jeyna Grace
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Jeyna Grace 