Kamal Sawlani - Creative Writing Task 3

When I was a child, I distinctly remember myself being sent to bed for throwing my mother’s phone into the toilet bowl. My mum hurriedly tried to rescue it, but to no avail. After getting reprimanded by her, I was sent straight up to bed. I protested towards my mum’s ruling and begged to watch television instead. However, my mum disagreed with an iron fist and I reluctantly found myself going to bed at four in the afternoon.

My mum put me into bed and left the room. As soon as her footsteps became inaudible, I looked out of my window in my little, quaint room to see cars zooming past. The city was still bustling with activity and I could see my friends playing at the nearby park. I went to sleep, sorry that I had been so mischievous that day.

I woke up in the middle of the night, with the room dark and dim. I saw an evil pair of eyes glance by outside the window. Scared, I tried to go back to sleep. Suddenly, someone comfortingly held my hand and I felt at ease.

The next day, I woke up and wondered, who had sat by me in my longest night. To this day, it still remains a mystery.

Kamal Sawlani Science Fiction LA AA: The Closed Case

Science Fiction Short Story: The Closed Case

Name: Kamal Sawlani Govindani (15)

Class: S1-04

Number of Words: 549

David Englander, a high-ranking officer at Quantico, walked under the police tape and into the crime scene to face a tight group of policemen crowding around a body on the bed. Blood was all over the place, and photographers were busy snapping photos of the scene in the dimly lit and stuffy room.

“What have you got?” David asked the first officer at the scene hurriedly, with the wailing of the police sirens in the background. “Nothing great. Her boyfriend called the cops to check her apartment after he found that her door was unlocked,” he replied.

That was the scene two years ago when Lisa Hawkins was murdered in her bedroom with no gun. Just the murderer’s bare hands.

Soon enough, the suspect, Jamie Mint, confessed to the crime and was put on death row with no trial. A year later, this case has intrigued Kayden Renaud, who has been accredited with solving many complex crimes at the FBI. Firstly, the suspect did not seem like he could kill a person with his bare hands. Secondly, all of the evidence was circumstantial as there was no DNA sample found at the site. Kayden managed to persuade his superior, Rebecca, to reopen the case. Kayden and Rebecca decided to visit him in his home, the county prison.

The silence and staring of the inmates crept Kayden out as they entered the prison. Rebecca gave Jamie a hand gripper, which he had to bend. If he bent it, it meant that he could exert over 300 pounds of pressure, the amount needed to strangle someone. No matter how hard Jamie tried, he couldn’t bend it.

The next day, Kayden explored Jamie’s case files. He found out that Jamie had been visiting a psychiatrist for the most of his life, Dr. Gilroy. He was involved in optogenetics, which is the manipulation of memory, at MIT. Currently, scientists can use blue light and fiber-optic wire inserted into a person’s brain to make certain memory orientated neurons sensitive to light by genetically modifying them. Using this, researchers have used optogenetics to implant a false memory into a mouse’s brain. Dr. Gilroy believed that you could do the same thing to humans if you put the person in a hypnotic state. He presented this idea to Rebecca as well as to Nat, the FBI head of department.

“What is this? A Science Project?” questioned Rebecca. “We have PowerPoint, you know,” Nat said sarcastically. Kayden was using posters to display his idea as he was more of a visual person. After explaining to them what optogenetics was, they agreed to ask Jamie to shave his head. Once they did that, they found a scar that looked exactly like what would happen if someone inserted a fiber-optic wire into someone’s brain. Rebecca and Nat were shocked while Kayden grinned.

This discovery led to the arrest of Dr. Gilroy as they believed he was the one who murdered Lisa Hawkins. However, Dr. Gilroy had an alibi, thus clearing his name. After more thorough investigation, it was revealed that Dr Gilroy was bribed to cover up the tracks of a billionaire’s son, who was a patient at his clinic. Both Dr. Gilroy and the Hugo’s were arrested and the case was closed, with Jamie being released from prison.

Someone: Kayden

Wanted: To capture the right criminal

But: His superiors did not believe his reasons for reinvestigating the crime, but he eventually convinced them

Then: They went on a mission to find the real criminal and found themselves shrouded in many scientific concepts.

So: And eventually debunked the mystery!