The room was stark, illuminated only by the harsh fluorescent light that buzzed intermittently above. I sat across from two agents, their expressions unreadable, their badges shining ominously under the light. Agent Harris, with a voice as cold as the steel table between us, broke the silence.

“Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? Tell us about the night you were taken.”

I licked my dry lips, my hands trembling beneath the table. “It was like any other night, until it wasn’t,” I began, my voice barely a whisper. “I was walking home from work, the streets empty, when suddenly, the world around me changed. It was as if I had stepped into a vacuum—sounds muffled, the air charged with electricity. Then, the light… it was blinding.”

“And how did they take you?” Agent Lee interjected, her pen poised above her notebook.

“They didn’t take me… not in the way you’re thinking. It was like I was pulled by an unseen force, lifted off the ground. I fought, and screamed, but it was useless.”

The agents exchanged a look, skepticism written all over their faces. I could see it, the disbelief, but what I was telling them was my truth.

“Describe the inside of the ship,” Agent Harris demanded, leaning forward.

“It was cold, sterile. Everything was too smooth, too perfect. There were others there, not just humans, but beings I couldn’t begin to describe. They examined me, and probed my mind and body. It was invasive, terrifying.”

Agent Lee scribbled something down before asking, “How did you escape?”

Escape. That word tasted like ash in my mouth. “I waited for my moment when their attention was diverted. I ran, and found a way out through corridors that twisted and turned. I don’t know how I knew where to go, but I felt guided somehow.”

“And you believe you’re being pursued now?” Agent Harris’s eyes narrowed.

“Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but I can feel them, watching me, waiting. I can’t sleep; I see their eyes in every shadow.”

The room fell silent, the agents processing my story. It was then I noticed it—the subtle shift in the air, the way the light seemed to flicker, just like that night.

Agent Lee finally spoke, her voice softer, “What if we told you, you never escaped? That what you experienced was meant to happen?”

I froze, a cold dread settling in my stomach. “What are you talking about?”

Agent Harris stood, the room seeming to warp around him. “We’re not what we seem, nor is this place. Your ‘escape’ was a test, an experiment. You’re still with us, on our ship.”

Panic surged through me as the realization dawned. The room, the agents, it was all an illusion. I hadn’t escaped; I was exactly where they wanted me.

“Why?” The word escaped my lips, a plea for an understanding I was sure I’d never receive.

“For knowledge, for understanding,” Agent Lee—or the being that resembled her—responded. “Human resilience, the strength of your mind, it fascinates us.”

I looked between them, my heart racing. “What happens now?”

“Now?” Agent Harris smiled a gesture that didn’t reach the cold, dark eyes that bore into mine. “Now, we continue our study. There is much we can learn from each other.”

The room blurred, the figures before me shifting into forms no human eye could comprehend. I realized then, the horror of my situation wasn’t in being abducted or even in the experiments. It was in the knowledge that my mind, my reality, could be manipulated so easily, and the terrifying uncertainty of what was real and what was not.

As the alien landscape materialized around me, a single thought echoed through the terror: I was never meant to escape.