When I Met You

Chapter 26: All Tied Up

You began to stir, coughing as you awoke, taking in a large sharp breath, followed by a minute or so of raspy breathing as if your body had forgotten how to breathe and was trying hard to remember. You drifted in and out of consciousness, not sure how much time was actually passing in between, as everything around you seemed the same every time you opened your eyes. But now, you were more or less awake, not feeling sore exactly but tired and weak, the thought of trying to move made you groan as you felt like you weighed 1000 lbs. "Am I... outside?" you asked yourself, as you swear you were staring up at the night sky, gazing at all the beautiful stars that painted the dark captivating void of space. Your vision was blurry and everything was dark except the lights overhead but you didn't feel cold, if you were really outside at night in March you would have been freezing but you weren't. Nor was the supposed ground you were resting on hard or uncomfortable, in fact, it was so soft and you felt so warm, you probably could have gone back to sleep with little trouble, especially with the soft and calming lullaby you could hear. "Wait... where is that music coming from?" you thought, closing your eyes one last time before forcing yourself to sit up and look around, not having a single clue where you were at the moment. 

You found yourself on a round bed, with lots of pillows and a nice, soft weighted blanket on top of you and what you thought was the night sky was a dark dome covered with a web of lights on it. The dome structure completely covered the bed, although there were two parabolic arch openings with curtains built-in, one set was open while the other was pulled closed. You reached out to touch the dome, finding that it was solid, made of something that kind of looked like wood but you weren't sure considering it didn't feel like it. The bed was actually really nice, it was dark but you could still see thanks to the fairy lights and being in an enclosed space made you feel safe, seeing as you loved drifting off into your own world, being in a space that separated you from everyone and everything to some degree made it even better. The music was calm and repetitive, filling you with a sense of peace as you stared up at the lights noticing that they seemed to react to the lullaby, growing a little brighter and a little less so as the song played on.  

You heard an unfamiliar sound, it was loud and thundering, causing you to snap back to reality and before you drifted off again you decided to get up and look around. So throwing off the weighted blanket, you slowly made it onto your feet to investigate the rest of your surroundings, feeling much better once you stood up and stretched. The room was relatively empty, except for the bed and a lounge table, the kind that are close to the ground you'd have to be sitting on the floor to use it and you noticed there was a small cushion under it for that very thing. The room itself was clean, with two white doors, one near the bed and the other was down a short hall but you opened the door that was closer first, finding there was a nice bathroom inside. You walked back out planning to try the other door when something catches your eye, something you didn't notice before as it was on the opposite wall and it sent a chill up your spine. You caught a glimpse out the window, it was long and short, and at the top of the wall, way too far to reach unless you floated up to it but that wasn't what freaked you out, what was on the wall beneath it did. It was a nice metal sign that said "Gracie's Room" on it, and your first thought was "what the fuck", before immediately rushing towards the other door to get out.  

You didn't know why you didn't freak out sooner, or why it didn't click that you were in some kind of danger, you didn't know what you were thinking, in fact, you weren't thinking at all. There was no physical threat, and with you being a complete and utter idiot when it came to picking up on red flags or social cues and hints there was no reason for you to be alarmed. It literally had to be written on a sign for you to understand that something wasn't right, and you panicked more as you reached the other door, finding that it was locked. You kept trying to force the door open, banging on it, which in hindsight probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you didn't stop, you couldn't, you were freaking out too much at this point. You locked onto it, you needed to get out, you couldn't focus or process to think of a plan, you just started crying and didn't stop even when you heard someone approaching the door.