Cryptomnesia
3rd Place Winner in the Spring 2017 Science Meets Fiction Contest, co-sponsored by SciCom : the College of Science & Engineering science communication initiative and eleven40seven : TCU Journal of the Arts. White-hot pain sears through my temples and I bolt upright, gasping. Metal wires pull me back and icy fluid splashes against my ears. I clasp my hands on either side of my head and find brain-probing crystals jammed into my skull. Steel cords cage my forehead and tether me down against a cold glass surface. I claw at the crystals and yank on the wires protruding from them, but the pain only intensifies. I scream, my hands convulse. I let go and my arms splash back into the freezing blue liquid that surrounds me. Hyperventilating, I look down at my body. Another steel cord wraps around my waist. Fluid laps up over my knees and soaks into my clean white body suit, s...