​
Chapter One: A Beautiful... Exhausting World
The clock began to crawl toward 11:00 PM. Silence washed over the house; everyone had fallen asleep except for my older brother and me. We brought out our secret stash of food and drinks. While my brother, "Marwan," tried to tune the television with bated breath, I—the middle brother, Abdulrahman—watched the hallway with a terror that gnawed at my heart. In our world, turning on the TV after 10:00 PM is a "crime" punishable by absolute exile beyond the city limits. No one knows the wisdom behind this law, but merely asking "Why were the laws made?" is a crime in itself. I had tried to lure my family into questions before, but they only met me with absolute silence and eerie indifference.
I live with my simple family in a place I do not recognize and cannot dissent against. My father does not work; he spends most of his time isolated in his room, silently watching the outside world through the glass. I don’t know what month it is; all I know is that the year is 2416, in a city called "Oxaya"—a city of phantom safety, advanced beyond imagination.
Our needs are fulfilled in a way that sparks suspicion. We don’t need to leave the confines of the "Closed Cube." Every necessity of life is provided at the press of a button, for free. Marwan once told me that this city sits in the middle of something, but he didn't say another word. At first, I was happy here; for as long as I can remember, I have lived within the "Cube's domain." Our city consists of solid metal cubes stacked side-by-side. Each cube houses one family, a small green space, and a pond we drink from. At the end of the domain—which spans only a few kilometers—sits a small wooden door, looking strangely out of place amidst all that metal.
Above that door, three laws are engraved, summarizing our world:
Leaving the Cube's domain for any reason is strictly forbidden.
All life necessities are provided upon pressing the side button.
Turning on the television after 10:00 PM is strictly prohibited; violation means exile to certain doom.
These laws were my only way of understanding our world—a world that looks beautiful from the outside but is the very definition of misery. No one in the house can stand the other. Silence is the official language. If not for Marwan, who tries to keep me happy despite drowning in his own well of loneliness, I would be lost.
The clock struck eleven. The "Sleep Sounds" chime began to ring throughout the Cube, but my curiosity was stronger than my fear. I urged Marwan to turn on the TV to find out what they were hiding from us behind the forbidden hours. He refused at first, but my persistence won. We were trembling. Marwan pulled me into the room and locked it, sweating profusely. He turned on the device, and a blurred screen appeared, hiding severed connections. I stepped forward with curiosity, but he pushed me back, trying to bypass the system. He finally reached an encrypted channel with a mysterious code and an ambiguous name. He tried to guess the password, but failed. He looked at me sadly and turned off the device, saying: "It seems our failure was a mercy... go to sleep and never ask for this again. Do you understand?"
I crawled into bed, but my mind refused to rest. I fell into a deep slumber after hours of thinking, waking only to my mother's voice calling me for breakfast. My eyes were red from exhaustion. I fell off the edge of the bed suddenly, only to find the clock pointing to 10:00 AM. I went to the kitchen hungry, but my mother rebuked me with her usual silence: "Don’t disturb me, the broadcast will start soon... order your food from the button quickly, we don’t want to miss the Censor's word."
I left, annoyed. I pressed the button, and after seconds, the wooden door opened to reveal a man in cold, formal attire. He handed me the order and left silently. I went back inside, where the whole family had gathered reverently before the television. I began to eat hungrily while everyone listened to a strange man speaking from behind the screen:
"To the brave people of my city... you are in absolute safety. We are working hard to protect you. Do not attempt to leave the Gate or violate the laws. Outside the Cube, there is nothing but the end."
When the speech ended, my family began to chant with a terrifying mechanical tone: "Long live the Supreme Censor... long live the Great Leader, our protector from the treachery of enemies." I chanted with them, out of a fear I couldn't name. Afterwards, my mother switched to the children's channel—the only other available station—to broadcast two hours of repetitive content before the static returned.
And so our life continues: my father tends to the garden to kill time, my mother cares for my younger brother, Marwan fixes devices he orders broken just for entertainment, and I play ball with my sister Hana and climb the trees.
A life that is a strange mix of absolute safety... and total boredom.