>>>~~~~<<<
She woke up expecting the light
scent of her lavender candles or her husband’s aftershave. Instead, she was
assaulted by the musky smell of mold and mildew. She was still in bed, but not
her bed. This bed wasn’t very comfortable; its mattress was tiny and rotted, and
the frame was so rusted she was surprised it hadn’t collapsed under her weight.
Upon realizing she was not where she
should be, she sprang out of bed in a panic, nearly cracking her head on a low
ceiling. Once she got her bearings, she noticed how small the room was.
Although it wasn’t an oddly small room, it was exactly the size she expected a
prison cell to be. Too bad she wasn’t a prisoner and shouldn’t be anywhere near
prison.
It was also dark as hell, as not a
single spark of electricity ran through the rudimentary lights. She could tell
it was midday, as wherever she was, the roof and walls were so decayed they
were full of holes that let a little bit of light trickle in from outside. Now
the only question was, where was here?
But truthfully, that was hardly the
only question. How did she get here? Why was she here? Where was her family?
Were all equally valid questions. It was clear she’d find no answer to them
just standing around. Thankfully, the bars to her cell had rusted open long
ago.
She stepped out into a grand hall of
prison cells. It was certainly taller than any prison she’d seen in pictures or
on TV. Alas, that also meant the holes letting in sunlight were far out of
reach. Even if she could reach them, it’d be a long way down when she exited
through.
Her first goal was to find someone
or at least an indication of where she was. Her second goal was to avoid
wherever that stench of mold was coming from. Her third was to figure out how
she came to this place. Was she kidnapped? Was her family frantically looking
for her? Had they ever realized she was gone? How long had she been gone?
She was at home before all this,
right? Her memory was fuzzy, but she recalled her last time waking up to be
much more pleasant. Her husband at her side, getting the kids ready for school,
all that normal suburban stuff. Then she went about her day? What else did she
do?
She pondered this for a moment as
she wandered through the hall, looking for a staircase that wasn’t collapsed.
There was that work trip, but had that started yet? Was that yesterday or
whatever day she was spirited away, or was that still coming up? Great, now she
couldn’t even get her past straight.
If only her husband or kids were
here, they’d at least be company. Someone to comfort her, someone to share the
pain with, someone to talk to. Alas, she had no one. But if they were here, her
husband would…what would he do? What would the kids do? Would they be scared?
Would they try to break the tension? What would they even say?
Her husband would say, “Honey, why
don’t we…” No, he didn’t call her honey…or did he? What was his nickname for
her? Did he have one? What was her nickname for him? On that note…what was his
name?
She stopped dead in her tracks as
she spotted that hole in her memory. And once she spotted one, the others
became more apparent. What did his face look like? What were her kids’ names?
How many kids did she have? Where did they live? What year was it? Who was she?
On a separate note, how long had she
been walking? Only a few minutes, right? She was still a little groggy from
waking up so suddenly. Then why couldn’t she see the cell she woke up in? Why
did the hall seem off? It’s like whenever she turned around, something was
different. Was all this even real? Was she even real?
She hoped it wasn’t because now she
was panicking. Something was wrong. Why was it sunset all of a sudden? What’s
that creaking sound? She looked around and saw nothing but an endless hall of
rusted-out cells in every direction. Forwards, backwards, up, and even down.
Wasn’t she standing on the bottom floor? What is that moving in the corner of
her eye?
Rather than answer that last
question, she began running. She needed to find something: a door, a stairwell,
another room, anything. The world wasn’t closing in, but it was constricting
around her. Nothing made sense. Her mind felt like Swiss cheese. Like parts of
it had been removed. She hadn’t seen anything else yet, not even a skeleton.
Would it be scarier if there were other people’s remains? Or is it scarier with
there being none? Does that mean no one else had died here? Or is there
something cleaning up? Is there someone following her? Why does the hall seem
to stretch further and further?
Her legs were burning, and her mind
was in a swirl. Nothing made sense, and nothing would anymore. Her pace slowed,
but her heart beat faster. Something was there. Something must be chasing her.
She dived into the first cell she could find and practically tripped over the
bed. She hit her head on the wall and collapsed into the rotted mattress. Not
the best place to hide, but she wasn’t getting another chance to pick. Her
vision blurred as a shadow appeared at the door of the cell.
>>>~~~~<<<
When awakening in a strange and unfamiliar place, it is best to think back and retrace your steps to determine how you got to this place. But in this case...are there even steps to retrace?
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
