~~~~
She opened her eyes, the room was
dark, damp, and cold. It was quiet, save for the dripping of water in the
distance. Her head hurt, her legs ached, and her whole body was sore. As she
took a moment to acknowledge her surroundings, one question came to the front
of her mind.
“Where am I?” She wondered aloud.
There was no light in the room, so she couldn’t make out any details, but there
was a barred window that let in air from the outside. The ground and walls felt
like they were made of stone, ancient, and wet stone. Her heart raced with
panic, uncertain of how she came to this place.
She stumbled through the room,
searching for a door or exit. It didn’t take long, there was a metal door left
ajar. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she realized it was like the bars
to a cell. With terror filling her every waking thought, she exited the cell.
The hall was no better, it was just
as dark, just as quiet and just as wet. She prayed the puddles she stepped in
were just water as she moved deeper into the mysterious structure. A pinch of
pain assaulted her senses, nothing tremendous, but it did make her legs wobble
a little.
She checked her body, searching for
any signs of harm. She found no bruises or wounds, nor any indication she had
been violently assaulted. She breathed a sigh of relief, no injuries would hold
her back. However, she was still sore all over. Which made her wonder again,
what had happened?
‘I feel exhausted,’ she thought, ‘my
body feels starved, yet I feel no desire for food.’ The need for sustenance was
there, but her stomach felt queasy at the mere mention of food. She also felt a
reoccurring headache, which attacked her in-between the bouts of nausea. ‘I
must be dehydrated,’ she realized.
Her eyes tracked down towards the
puddles of “water” that lined the floor. How desperate was she for a sip of
water? Was it worth the risk? ‘No, not yet,’ she assured herself, ‘I haven’t
even made it that far, for all I know there’s water around the next corner.’
She had adjusted to the dark
somewhat, the shape of the rooms was becoming even more defined. Yet, it only
caused her heart to sink further. The hall seemed endless, infinitely repeated
jail cells on each side. Whenever the path split, it did so into similar
endless hallways. It was like a maze with no entrance or exit.
It finally did seem hopeless; she
wanted to run away from this dark place. However, she resisted the urge, she
was afraid of tripping and falling. She resigned herself to wandering these
endless halls for a little longer.
But, as her bare feet stepped along
the damp stone, a sense of familiarity wiggled its way into her brain. This
place didn’t feel intimately familiar to her. However, a small part of her
remembered the sensation of this stone beneath her feet. A hazy memory, laced
with panic and blurred vision, crawled along her mind’s eye.
‘Why am I here?’ She asked herself
again, ‘what force led me here, or rather forced me here?’ The structure was so
vast, it made her wonder how she ended up so deep inside. Or, more
terrifyingly, had she been wandering deeper inside the whole time. Her eyes
scanned the hall, searching for an identifying mark to confirm she hadn’t made
such a foolish mistake. Alas, the hall was bare, it was all the same no matter
where she looked.
As she became further and further
lost in the maze of hallways, she had more time to consider her situation. ‘Why
am I alone here?’ She thought, ‘where is here?’ She poured over her own
memories, not a single one pointed to what this place was. She was a regular
person, living a normal life. She was no criminal, no renegade, nor did she
have any notable enemies. Which made it all the stranger how she ended up in
this forsaken place.
‘If I am not here because of my own
mistakes,’ she pondered, ‘then I might be here for a reason I have yet to
consider.’ She stopped herself in the middle of the hallway and turned towards
one of the cells. It was the same as the one she woke up in, bare and empty,
with a barred window to the outside.
She desired to leave this place to
go home to the comfort and warmth of a familiar place. Yet, every fiber of her
being resisted the idea of going outside. Her senses screamed danger, the more
she stared at the window. Her feet felt glued in place as her eyes seemed
locked onto the dark night.
Finally, she forced herself forward
and ducked behind a nearby wall. ‘Don’t go outside,’ she told herself, the
phrase felt familiar, like a mantra, ‘not until I remember what happened
before.’ She curled up in a fettle position, her arms around her knees, her
head curled into her legs. For now, she’d have to find comfort in the darkness.
She didn’t know why, but it felt like the smart thing to do. Her mind drifted
away, as her eyes fell shut, and she slipped back into the embrace of sleep.
~~~~
Sometimes people are locked away not to keep them in, but to keep others out.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
~~~~
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