Apologies! Your web browser lacks required capabilities. Please consider upgrading it or switching to a more modern web browser.
Initializing. Please wait…
[[Return to sleep|Return to sleep]]
[[Open eyes|Open eyes]]You think you've been resting long enough, time to [[open your eyes|Open eyes]].Your eyes slowly flutter open as you attempt to adjust to the dimness of the room. You feel groggy, as if you had been sleeping for days, or years. You lift your head slightly and feel a sudden wave of dizziness. Closing your eyes again quickly, you try to relax as you feel a burning shooting through the back of your throat as you fight to hold back vomit. The nausea does not cease and you feel a growing sense of panic.
You [[reach for something|Reach for bucket]].
You [[manage to keep it down|Lay back]].You reach for something, anything, to be sick in. Looking down to your right you see a wastepaper basket and violently throw back the bedsheets that have been constricting you as you are [[sick in the basket|throws up]]You attempt to regulate your rapid, desperate breaths with slow ones; your eyes are clenched shut, focusing solely on the task at hand. The desperation to keep down this sickness is overwhelming but somehow you manage to fight it off. Your breathing returns to normal. The feelings of dizziness, however, linger past the nausea and you begin to wonder at your surroundings. Slowly opening your eyes and begin to take in the sights of the dark room. Through the gloom, you see a [[lamp|lamp2]] in the far corner. Using the back of your hand to wipe your mouth, you regain your balance and composure to be able to take in your surroundings. You are in a room, minimally furnished, with a [[bed|bed]], one [[end table|end table RIGHT]] on [[each side|end table LEFT]], and a [[lamp|lamp]] in the far corner. The space is quite small and you unsuccessfully attempt to fight the growing sense of claustrophobia that is beginning to envelop you. You glance around the room hoping to find a window to gulp back some fresh air and find nothing. Walking over to the bed, the sheets strewn over the mattress and onto the floor. The sheets are clean, white, and sterile. There is a grey woolen blanket at the end of the bed, be it for warmth, comfort, or aesthetic, you are uncertain. Glancing at it you realize that the room is chilled, and you hear a low hum of what you assume is an air conditioner, pumping the room full of cold, artificial air.
Shivering, you [[put the blanket around yourself|puts blanket on]].
You feel a growing sense of dread and wish to find more information about the [[room|room2]].
You walk to the end table at the right side of the bed. It is wooden and coated in a thin layer of dust, all but smallish, rectangular shape. You reach out to touch the cleared space.
You falter.
Something may have been set there recently, you think to yourself.
Somehow your eagerness to find something, anything, to get you a way out of this room overpowers your uncertainty of the unsullied area on the table.
You [[open the only drawer|drawer RIGHT]] that the table has, in hopes of finding something, anything, that will indicate where you are.Walking around to the side of the bed, you see the end table. It is wooden and coated in dust, identical to the one on the opposite side of the bed. There is one single drawer on the end table and your curiosity outweighs any hesitation and you [[open the drawer|drawer LEFT]].You pad barefoot over to the lamp. The lightbulb is flickering. You pray silently that the light does not burn out and leave you in complete darkness. You lightly touch the lamp shade and feel dust and the remainder of a spider web beneath your fingertips.
The lamp intrigues you and you wish to [[further investigate|lamp part 2]].
You grow tired of the lamp and wish to explore the [[rest of the room|room]].As you attempt to investigate the lamp, you look down and realize that you are neatly tucked into a bed. The sheets are clean, white and sterile. You feel a growing sense of dread as you recall your fear of hospitals. Swiftly, you throw back the starched sheets and pad barefoot over to the lamp.
The lightbulb is flickering. You pray silently that the light does not burn out and leave you in complete darkness. You lightly touch the lamp shade and feel dust and the remainder of a spider web beneath your fingertips.
The lamp intrigues you and you wish to [[further investigate|lamp part 2]].
You grow tired of the lamp and wish to explore the [[rest of the room|room]].As the lightbulb continues to flicker, you attempt to turn the lamp shade. There is squeaking, as the shade attempts to move along the holder (something it appears not to have done, or touched in any way for that matter, in a long time). You persist and the lamp shade gives and you are able to turn it around.
On the back side of the lamp shade you see something that looks rust coloured, just a smudge at the bottom. You squint your eyes in the dim lighting and look further. A fingerprint. Blood?, you think to yourself, I better keep moving before whatever happened here happens to me[[...|room2]]You are in a room, minimally furnished, with a [[bed|bed]], one [[end table|end table RIGHT]] on [[each side|end table LEFT]], and a [[lamp|lamp]] in the far corner. The space is quite small and you unsuccessfully attempt to fight the growing sense of claustrophobia that is beginning to envelop you. You glance around the room hoping to find a window to gulp back some fresh air and find nothing. Grasping the blanket, you draw it in around you, it softly slides across the surface of the starched sheets below. Wraping the woolen blanket around yourself you hear a soft smack of something hitting the cool tiled floors. Your head snaps in the direction of the sound and you bend down to look at what the blanket had shook loose.
You see a small note pad, metal spirals binding it together. It is no bigger than your hand and has a small wooden pencil caged through the metal spirals. Flipping up the page you [[take a look at the first page|notebook 1]].The first page of the notebook is blank. As you flip through the remaining pages, they crinkle softly under your touch. As you get to the sixth page you see something that catches your eye. Is that an impression?, you think to yourself.
Looking closer at the page you see that indeed there is some sort of impression on the page, perhaps from a previous note. Your heart races as you slide out the small pencil from the wiry cage of the notebook spine to [[reveal what the impression says|notebook2]].Opening the drawer, it catches on the unsanded wood. You cough uncontrollably as a cloud of dust reaches your nostrils. Wiping back the tears that have flooded to your eyes, you look in the drawer.
The drawer is empty.
Angrily, you slam the drawer shut. You don't understand your need to look for any indication of what has brought you here, but you continue to [[search the room|room2]].Looking back at the room, you begin to feel frustrated and fearful. Where the hell am I, you question aloud. You desperately wish to leave the room, but there are still things left unchecked. Should you look for [[clues|description of items]] or search for a [[way out|door]]?Should I search the [[bed|bed]], the [[end table on the right|end table RIGHT]], the [[end table on the left|end table LEFT]], or the [[lamp|lamp]]?, you think to yourself.Your eyes have become more accustomed to the dim lighting, which continues to flicker, and you desperately hope to find a way out before the bulb dies out. You pad lightly across the cool tiles to the edges of the room where you see a door. The same cool grey as the walls, it is clear to see why you did not immediately see it. There is a bar-like handle that you push down and it does not give.
The door is locked.
Frustrated, you jiggle the handle in hopes that it will unlock and feel panic rising in you like the nausea from earlier.
You scream, "[[LET ME OUT|scream]]"
Defeated, you walk back to the centre of the [[room|room2]]LET ME OUT!, you scream, banging on the door.
There is a soft hissing. You turn your head from side to side, searching desperately for the source of the sound. You reach in your pocket and take out the nail file that you found in the side table drawer, ready for the unseen enemy to show their face. What is happening?, you think to yourself. Your head begins to feel dizzy again.
HELP ME!, you cry out, frantically.
Your vision blurs. You run blindly in the direction of light, pricking your finger on the nail file in your panic. Crying out in pain, you reach into the growing darkness around you as your vision fails you.
You run into something.
Tall.
Slender.
You are falling together and you reach out in your frenzied state.
Through your haze, you feel as though your finger has grazed something.
There is a loud crash.
What little light there was before is gone.
You lay on the ground, losing all rememberance of what has just occurred and everything that you once were. Your memories, like the light in the room, suddenly [[dissolve|Begin]].The nail file is slightly rusted at the tip and is no longer than your index finger. The handle is plastic and carries the inniatials "R D". The innitials bring on no sense of recollection and you swiftly put the nail file [[in your pocket|room with nailfile]].The wood is unsanded and cries out when scraped against the inner table. Amongst the dust there one single spider that scuttles away in fear at seeing another form of life. Flinching away, your head jerks back and the dimness of the light manages to reflect off something within the drawer. You brush aside some dust and see a small, metallic [[nail file|nail file]]. You shove the nail file in your pocket and feel better knowing that your search has [[paid off|room2]].Gliding the pencil softly across the sixth page, you try desperately to reveal the previous note jotted down. Hopeful that this could be the missing link, the ultimate unveiling of your purpose in the room, a means to the way out, you frantically rub the pencil across the surface.
Up. Up. Down.
You drop the pencil, disappointed. No instructions to an exit, no grand finale. Simple gibberish. You softly close the notebook and place it into your pocket [[...|room with notebook]]Looking back at the room, you begin to feel frustrated and fearful. Where the hell am I, you question aloud. You desperately wish to leave the room, but there are still things left unchecked. Should you look for [[clues|description of items]] or search for a [[way out|door with notebook]]?Your eyes have become more accustomed to the dim lighting, which continues to flicker, and you desperately hope to find a way out before the bulb dies out. You pad lightly across the cool tiles to the edges of the room where you see a door. The same cool grey as the walls, it is clear to see why you did not immediately see it. There is a bar-like handle that you push down and it does not give.
The door is locked.
Frustrated, you jiggle the handle in hopes that it will unlock and feel panic rising in you like the nausea from earlier.
You scream, "[[LET ME OUT|scream]]"
Defeated, you walk back to the centre of the [[room|room2]]
[[...|door with notebook2]]You pause in your frustration.
The notebook.
You quickly grab at the notebook in your pocket and open to page number six.
Up. Up. Down., it reads.
You sigh deeply. Think, you tell yourself, relax and think.
Up. Up. Down.
You look at the door handle.
Up. Up. Down.
The door noiselessly [[slides open|hallway]]All you can hear is your heart pounding in your chest.
You take one soft step into the hall.
It is fluorescently light.
There is the familiar stark white that you recall from the sheets inside the room.
The hallway is narrow.
You look around you and find that you are at the end of the hallway.
There is only one [[way to go|hallway2]] because you know that you cannot go [[back into the room|back in the room]]...Looking back at the room, you begin to feel frustrated and fearful. Where the hell am I, you question aloud. You desperately wish to leave the room, but there are still things left unchecked. Should you look for [[clues|description of items]] or search for a [[way out|door with nailfile]]?Your eyes have become more accustomed to the dim lighting, which continues to flicker, and you desperately hope to find a way out before the bulb dies out. You pad lightly across the cool tiles to the edges of the room where you see a door. The same cool grey as the walls, it is clear to see why you did not immediately see it. There is a bar-like handle that you push down and it does not give.
​
The door is locked.
​
Frustrated, you jiggle the handle in hopes that it will unlock and feel panic rising in you like the nausea from earlier.
​
You scream, "[[LET ME OUT|scream]]"
​
Defeated, you walk back to the centre of the [[room|room2]]
​
[[...|door with nailfile2]]You remember your nail file.
Angrily, you use the nail file and attempt to unlock the latch on the door. You slide the nail file through the slit in the door and jimmy at the lock. You hear some sort of click.
Ectastic, you shove at the door and it loudly, and slowly, scrapes open. You continue to shove against the door, ignoring the hissing sound. You begin to sweat as you strain and struggle against the weight of the door. You fight through the feeling of diziness, thinking that the strenuous activity is the culprit. You push and push against the door, it only moving slightly with each thrust, and you suddenly forget why you are pushing. The room begins to spin and your vision begins to blur.
Screaming, you drop to the ground. You are afraid because you attempt to understand what is happening and find that you have no memories to call from. The room goes [[black|Begin]].You walk down the hallway.
[[I better close the door behind me|hall closed door]], you think. What if someone sees it open?
You hesitate.
...But if I left it open, I would have somewhere somewhat familiar to run to, if necessary, you thought silently. [[Best leave it open|hall open door]].More fearful of the unknown, you decide to slowly pad back into the room.
It wasn't so bad afterall, you think to yourself, and the hallway is too bright. What if someone were to see me?
You close the door behind you. It softly clicks shut.
Immediately, there is a loud chirping sound. Suddenly there are red lights flashing from light bulbs you didn't even see when you investigated the room.
You put your hands on your ears to block out the angry siren. You frantically look around you for something to do, to escape the sounds and the lights, and crawl back into the bed.
Putting the blanket on your head, like a child hiding from monsters, you try to wait out the sounds. Through the high pitched chirps, you are able to make out the loud thumps of boots on hard ground. Your heartbeat speeds up and you pull back the blankets, shut your eyes, and wait for whatever is coming. Suddenly there is a prick in your neck and you cry out but as you attempt to open your eyes you lose all memory of the nature of the sounds and the flashing red lights you can see through your eyelids is the last thing you see before you drift off into [[blackness|Begin]]...You sidestep and, biting your lip, slowly push the door shut.
There is a soft click.
Instantly, you are bombarded with loud, high-pitched chirping, and flashing red lights. Panicking you run blindly down the hallway, through the once fluorescently light hall and now red flashing hall into darknesss. The only guide through this darkness is the pulsating red light. You continue to run straight, arms ahead, trying to find any way out.
You hear a hiss and a pinch on your shoulder.
You cry out.
Your heart is racing.
You are slowing down.
Your limbs are like lead.
You are running through sand.
Like those nightmares you had as a child.
Your mind is wandering.
The sirens are blaring.
You cannot think straight through the noise. Or was it the lights?
You are hunched over now, dropped to your knees.
Your head is filled with pain, your vision blurring.
Were they tears or something else?
You drop to the floor and there is only [[darkness|Begin]].You leave the door open, your curiosity driving you foreward.
You look ahead and see that the fluorescent lights only continue 20 feet infront of you.
Despite the ominous look of the hallway ahead, [[you must go on|hall open door2]]Walking slowly, the walls so close that you can walk along with your hands gliding along the walls simultaneously.
But you don't.
You touch nothing.
The darkness is approaching.
It is just in front of your face.
The hall is illuminated.
The hall behind you is bathed in darkness.
Going back to the room is [[no longer possible, you must continue|hall open door3]]...The newly lit up hall shows a dead end with two doors
[[one on the left|left hall door]]
and
[[one on the right|right hall door]]
You top between them both. Somehow you know that going back after going through one door is not possible.
Opening one door means leaving another behind. You found that out by leaving the room behind.
I have to make the right choice, you think. And it should be soon.You open the door and suddenly there is something on you.
Strangling.
A black shape.
Blurred in the sudden darkness.
Has the light shut off? Is it by time or movement?, you think.
You feel the strain on your neck and remember the more pressing issue at hand.
Your mind panics.
I need something to get this off of me, you think desperately to yourself.
You begin to feel life slowly escape you as [[your vision turns to black|Begin]]
but you remember the [[item from side table|left hall door2]]The growing anticipation, fear, and excitement at what you might find behind the door is almost overwhelming. You reach for the handle on the door.
It is locked.
You cannot help but chuckle.
Your fate seems to be decided.
You turn around and [[open the door to the left|left hall door]].Pulling out the nail file, you lash out at your attacker.
Suddenly you are alone.
The lights flicker on.
What you see before you is dazzling.
You can't begin to understand.
How is this possible..., you begin aloud, forgetting all fear and giving into the staggering sight before you.
What you see is a window, taking up the whole side of the wall. There is nothing unique or startling about the glass, shape or size.
It is what is [[through the window that you cannot understand|left hall door3]].
It is not what you see through the window but how.
And why.
Your mouth falls open.
It is staring back at you.
What you see staring back at you is something both so shocking and so average. Something you see every day, walking down the street. At the supermarket. In schools. In the park.
The sizing is wrong. It fills up the entire window, staring excitedly back at you. It's eyes mirror yours:
Fear
Wonder
Excitement
Intrigue
It's large face is staring back at you. Expectantly.
It is you. It is me. It is human.Double-click this passage to edit it.