DEEMA ALGHUNAIM

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The Torture

I was in an Incommunicado detention for two weeks. Then I was taken to a room with a window overlooking another room. In the middle of this room there was a chair on which I sat. There was a young man in the other room. He sat right in front of me, and I have never seen him before. I noticed a camera focused on me.

"You only have to watch that stranger", the police officer said, and I mimed as yes.

I was not sure whether it is a questioning, or a torment session. I could realize no difference at that stage. It was a pleasure to see a person after two weeks of solitude, but he seemed without expression. He didn't look like an officer, he was just another prisoner. I smiled to him, and then an electric shock runs over my body. I was confused and contracted my brows as a reaction, but it was followed by another one. He didn't do anything, not a single muscle in his face was moving. Thus In an imitation I froze my face just like him, and everything was back to silence. After three hours I cried. And the electric shock started again. I realized that it is a torment machine to hold me from any facial expression. I stopped and looked straight into the stranger's eyes. I studied every line in his face, every curve.

Three days later, I was back to a normal cell. Forgetting how do I look, having his face in front of mine, both without an expression, made me in half-belief that he is me. My mind was full of stories about him just to distract me from the dreadful freeze of our muscles. It was hard and fearful to adapt my relaxed face that set me in a self paranoia. The police man entered, sealed my eyes and took me in a car. I felt that we are going to another prison or so. The car stopped and we were out in the fresh air, and what a wonderful relief that was. I was almost losing my conscious.

He released my eyes from the seal, the image of the man in the last torment was still haunting me. The new room was wide and dark, and there was also a chair in the middle. I sat on that chair, and doze. The strange man came to me in the dream, he smiled but nothing was happening to him, as if he doesn't feel the electric shocks. He left the room, but I didn't want him to go, I cried: "don't go, don't go!".

I heard a child's giggle. It annoyed me. It felt like a mocking relief. I woke up terrified from a great noise, and rose my head with my eyes half open. I saw a great amount of faces watching me. I leaned to the chair and cried. In my half conscious I heard a child was crying with me. Then I lost my conscious, and my mind.