About Manish and the People Imprisoned in His Mind

Sometimes it’s really hard having all these people trapped in my mind. It’s not they bother me, but for the simple fact it can get crowded. When I first assigned for this job, the career of a mind jailor was fairly new and as you can imagine, relatives weren’t delighted, especially my dad.

“Manish, you’re an idiot. You know people will think you’re crazy. They’ll say you have a multiple personality disorder or something.” That’s what my dad used to say. He was all about what will the neighbors say. Neighbors he hated by the way, but I guess even an enemy’s opinion is an opinion we care about.

The fact is I’m not even near to being crazy. If there was the slightest chance for me to have a mental disorder I wouldn’t be working as a mind jailor in the first place. Even I don’t know how many tests I’ve taken prior to getting hired. So isn’t this something my dad should be proud about? Every insanity test that has ever been invented I’ve passed with flying colors. I’m the exact opposite of a crazy person. But no, what will the 72-year-old neighbor say.

Currently, I’m holding 9 people in my mind. There’s James who’s been accused of second-degree murder and whose story is practically one out of a cheap B-rated movie. James goes to work, James gets back home, James finds his wife with another guy. James kills both his wife and the guy and finally, James ends up as a mind prisoner of yours truly.

Then there’s Melissa. Ah, Melissa, now here’s a story worthy of an Oscar, unlike James’. Have you ever met someone who was so horrible you simply had to admire them? That’s Melissa. This 25-year-old was your everyday college student until one day. What happened on that specific day? I’d love to know as well, but I don’t. What I do know is what happened later. You see, Melissa was smart. Instead of charging into the college guns blazing, Melissa took her time; like a patient spider that always gets what she wants.

One day Melissa decided to collect stuff, out of boredom I guess. So she invited her best friend Mary to her room, they hang out as always and then, Mary never got back home. But the next day Melissa went to college with a lovely new neckless. It was a simple neckless with a white pendant that had “M” written on it. A few weeks later Melissa put another white pendant right next to the first one. This one had “E” written on it and around that time Eve, who was also a college student went missing. Then Leonard disappeared, then Ian, Sam, Sarah, and… Then Melissa got caught.

The crazy girl decided to make a necklace by plucking out a single tooth from each victim in order to spell her name and she picked people whose first letters spelled Melissa’s name. That’s crazy stuff; to kill someone just to pluck out a single tooth. It looks like every madman has his or hers own logic that justifies actions. They are like stories we tell ourselves to make us feel good about what we do as deep inside, we are all good people. Even Melissa and Melissa needed a story that justified what she did.

Now, let me explain my job. You see, at one point classic prisons became overcrowded and authorities had to find a more effective way to deal with “bad people”. Instead of building new prisons, they created a machine called “Mind Relocator”. It does exactly as the name says; it takes a mind and relocates it somewhere else. To be more specific, to another person’s mind. So you have people like me whose minds are the new prisons. It’s efficient, the costs are minimal and it all fits into an average human skull. Pretty amazing, right?

And here I am, Manish, a guy whose mind is serving as a prison for 9 people. Just, for quite some time now, it became really hard for me to keep up with it all; everything feels just so overcrowded. The place where I live is small and sometimes I feel like I’m living in a box with no windows. Often I feel as if the clothes I’m wearing will choke me to death one day and, and…

God, where is my necklace? I know I left it here somewhere. And that stupid wife of mine, Janeen, how could she cheat on me? I was a good husband. She deserved everything that happened to her…

I was just doing my job, why can’t these idiots understand, I was just doing my job…

Ah, here it is, my necklace with Manish spelled on it. It’s my lucky necklace you know; I don’t know what I would do without it.

Every madman has his logic to justify his actions.