Chapter #2
When I first awoke again, the first thing I heard was voices, arguing. No- not arguing. Having a heated discussion, as my mother would say, in whispering voices. I lay there, eyes lightly closed for a moment, still gentle enfolded in the lingering embrace of the peace that sleep gave you. I remembered quite a strange dream … It had had a moving tree in it, and Viola had been there, as well.
Better get up soon if I want to get a decent amount of skiing in, I thought. I sighed and sat up, opening my eyes. I heard a sharp exclamation from the voices, and then nothing. Absolute silence enveloped my room.
Only I wasn’t in my inn room anymore. The room I now found myself in was completely and utterly white. From the blankly tiled floor, to the curtains that hung over the freshly polished, barred window. It was lit from all directions, a smooth, continuum of light that gave the unnatural effect of no shadows
Where was I? It looked like a home for psychos.
My heart started to beat wildly, jumping into my throat as I panicked. My stomach was fluttering even as I tried to console myself that nothing was wrong. I desperately strained my memories, trying to find a way I could possibly have found my way into this room.
Then I remembered the dream, and the last shred of interest I had in the voices evaporated. It all came spilling back, in frightening details. I froze in shock, my breath catching in my throat. After a moment though, I let it out again. I would need oxygen to think this through. I sorted my mind out, like jot notes on paper. God, how I wished for a piece of paper. I knew that wherever I was, I had never been here before. I knew that I didn’t want to be here.
Fear contracted within me, and I shuddered. Things weren’t looking too good.
And I knew that whatever had happened in my ‘dream’ last night wasn’t a dream. I wasn’t as stupid as those heroines in the books that lived in denial for far too long, and usually ended up missing all kinds of chances. The sensations I’d experienced in the moment, the smells, the feelings, the emotions … it’d all been far too realistic to be a figment of my imagination.
Moving trees, kidnapping, my friend’s ungaugable danger- I accepted it all. The first step to fixing it, was accepting it. I took a deep breath, and then let it out.
I glanced down at my attire. Unsurprisingly, it had all been replaced. I now wore a pair of fuzzy, and quite warm, white pajamas. Wow, this place liked white way too much. I valued colour, it changes things up.
Looking around the room now, I realized it was much more commodious then I’d originally thought, despite the hospital white colour. The bed that I now stood beside was memory foam, queen sized, and quite luxurious. To my immediate left was a small, yet elegant white (what a surprise) bedside table, obviously made to mimic the curvy style that had been all the rage in the Victorian times. The table held nothing but a large lamp, with an overhanging lamp shade.
The room itself was airy and of ample size, stretching at least ten meters across the perfect circle it was shaped in.
The only window this room sported sat across from me, looking out into a beautiful, boundless sky, with only a few fly away wisps of clouds to interrupt it’s royal colour- and a row of smooth, quite solid looking metal bars. These didn’t even look like the standard issue iron prisoner bars. My father was a smith, and he knew the different metals, and had taken the time to teach me, too. If I wasn’t mistaken, the bars outside my window were crafted from titanium.
Wow. This place must be rich. Was I really worthy of such high grade confinement? Maybe I was, but I couldn’t imagine how. I walked over to the window and ran my hands around the edges. It was completely sealed. Oh, well, I hadn’t really expected it to open in the first place. Confusion dominated my being even as my terror threatened to overwhelm it. I furrowed my brow, thinking. Fear was bad. Fear clouded your mind and clogged the ability to reason. I concentrated on the confusion, and the fear simply lurked by it’s side, never subdued in this strange new place.
