Therapy Bits

Our host for the 3TC challenge is di. Our words today are mandatory, fathom, and logic.

Three Things Challenge #MM209 | pensitivity101

Elias had always trusted logic. It was the one constant in a world that rarely made sense. Equations, proofs, and theorems—these were his language, his way of understanding the universe. So when the government announced that participation in The Dream Program was mandatory, he complied, though reluctantly.

Each night, citizens were required to sleep beneath silver headbands that “harmonized” the collective subconscious. It was supposed to eliminate conflict, fear, and hate. The math behind it, they claimed, was sound. Elias tried to fathom the equations they displayed on the public screens, but something felt off—too neat, too perfect.

The first night, he dreamed of an endless ocean. Voices echoed beneath the waves, whispering numbers that dissolved as he reached for them. The next morning, he woke with tears on his cheeks and no memory of why.

By the third night, he began to notice things—his colleagues smiling too widely, his neighbor humming the same three notes over and over. When he asked questions, they tilted their heads, eyes blank, as if logic itself had been erased from their minds.

Elias realized then that the dream was not meant to unite them, but to rewrite them.

On the fourth night, he removed the headband and placed it on the windowsill. He stared at the stars, trying to fathom how far the human mind could fall when reason was no longer required—and how much further it might rise if even one person refused to dream.