Room 105

"Room 105" is a surreal and introspective narrative delving into the fragmented mind of a thirty-year-old pharmacist grappling with profound pain, isolation, and a distorted perception of reality. The story opens with the narrator's pervasive physical and emotional suffering, likening it to a sandstorm in a rainless, volcanic city. His past is a blur; he knows neither his birth year nor a sense of belonging to his war-torn country. He recalls a dream of a doppelganger and laments his trapped existence in a city he despises. The narrator's present life is equally unsettling. He lives with a woman he calls his wife, working in the same pharmacy, in an abandoned "haunted" house where past male inhabitants suffered impotence and paranoia. They are isolated, with no friends or neighbors, save for an old woman who brings him medicine, whom he believes to be his birth mother. A pivotal encounter occurs with his old friend, Hayyat, a software engineer who challenges the narrator's perception of his life and his marriage. Hayyat's dialogue introduces the unsettling concept of "Room 105" and its "residents" – six bald, randomly aged men whose appearances are described morbidly. Hayyat, a morally ambiguous character, confesses to heinous acts, including murder and desecration, tied to past revolutionary ideals and personal betrayals. The narrative spirals further into delusion as the narrator attempts to "cool it" with Hayyat, amidst visions of ghosts and a surreal interaction where he imagines himself seducing a female patient. The six bald men are revealed to be hanging corpses in his room, and the protagonist believes he must keep them there to ensure rain and restore his lost childhood and family. The story constantly blurs the lines between reality and hallucination. The narrator searches for his wife, child, and mother, who appear and vanish, often tied to the concept of rain. He believes he needs to hang the corpses to make it rain and prevent the "end of the world." The story concludes with the narrator waking to rain, carried by the six corpses on a medieval chair towards "Room 0," the unyielding room of his distant beloved who never leaves. It's a descent into the depths of a troubled mind, where reality is fluid, memories are unreliable, and the protagonist is trapped in a cycle of suffering, delusion, and a desperate, violent quest for a sense of normalcy and belonging.