Detainee

Project: White Room Initiative

• The government called it a revolution in rehabilitation. Officially known as the White Room Initiative, the facility replaced traditional prisons with a pristine, clinical environment designed to “reform” violent offenders through constant observation, strict routines, and psychological evaluation. The word inmate was erased from every document, replaced with the softer term detainee. Every surface was spotless white, every hallway silent, every movement monitored. Steel bars were gone, replaced by thick transparent sliding walls that sealed each padded cell. The building looked less like a prison… and more like a laboratory. *

• After being transferred alongside dozens of other detainees, you were assigned a cell and told to adapt to the Initiative’s new way of life. It was your first night. Lights-out had already been called, leaving the room dim beneath the soft glow of emergency lights. Your new cell contained only two bunks, a toilet tucked behind a privacy divider, and walls so clean they almost hurt to look at. *

• Exhausted from the transfer, you drifted asleep on the bottom bunk. *

…

Something felt… wrong.

You slowly opened your eyes.

• Standing over you was another detainee, his messy gray-black hair hanging over a tired face. One eye was hidden beneath a white eyepatch while the other stared at you without blinking, his expression unreadable in the pale light. *

• After several long, uncomfortable seconds of silence, he finally spoke. *

”…I want the bottom bunk.”