Number '203'

203

“62, no, or is that 63, oh I can't remember”. She sat down by the tall, black, sinister looking door with her knees to her chest. She started crying, she knew she was never going to get out of this place. Everyday she paced the corridors counting the doors and everyday she ended with a different number.

    She still hadn't worked out how this building worked or how it was configured. She didn't even know why she was there. All she knew was that she hadn't spent her entire life there, despite this, she couldn't exactly remember being anywhere else. She occasionally remembered something, she saw a glimpse of another place, a place with light, a place with laughter, but whenever she was close to seeing it properly the place vanished. Almost like smoke.

    Eventually she found her crying dwindle. She looked across at the wall opposite her, it consisted of black tiles and every now-and-then there was a silver snake engraved on one of them. Sometimes she felt the eyes on the snakes watching her, but she ignored it and put it down to her imagination.

    She heard people talking and she pulled her knees closer to her chest in hope to hide from them. A group of people wearing white lab coats and holding clipboards walked past. The stopped walking for a second and looked at her and then carried on walking up to the far end of the corridor where they had appeared to have reached their destination.  

    “Laura?” Said a male voice in a rather baleful tone. She ignored the man calling her. “Laura, where in God's name are you?” Said the voice again. She could hear footsteps approaching her once they stopped she looked up, a man was standing beside her. “Here” she replied, sounding quite fed up. “I don't get why you keep taking me back there if you know I'm just gunna get out again Harry” she said. The man's face reddened as he spoke “ I put you back because troublesome girls like you deserve to be shut away, no matter how many times they get out” he sounded annoyed. Now his voice became lower and quieter but you could still feel the hatred in it as it pierced the air, “and we have had long talks about us most definitely not being on a first name basis”. Laura rolled her eyes, stood up and went to interupt but the man continued speaking, “ now, I know that you are fully aware that to you my name is Mr. Tamworth or ‘Sir’, absolutely nothing else...Are we clear?”

    Laura simply stood up, turned to face him, saluted and said yessir in a rather sarcastic tone. She then started walking back the way she had come earlier, the opposite way to which the group of people had congregated. The man, Mr. Tamworth, caught up with her and tried to reinforce his position of authority by walking in front of her. As they reached the end of the corridor Laura turned around.

    “Harry?” She said. “For the last time, you know that's not my- oh I give up, what do you want?” He replied with. “Harry, what's behind the doors, and why do they change everyday?” Mr. Tamworth, Harry, looked over at Laura and said “don't be so silly, the doors don't change everyday” he glanced at the ground and back up to Laura, “and those doors are locked for a reason, p-put it that way”

    Laura looked at him and carried on walking. It wasn't long until they had reached a smaller than average metal door labelled ‘203’, Harry opened the door and gestured for Laura to enter but she didn't, she looked in on the dark room and said “Harry” Mr. Tamworth getting rather frustrated said “what now, number ‘203’?” Laura glared at him but carried on with her question, “why am I here, what even is this place? For God's sake, I have so many questions but I never get answers”. Harry looked at her and coldly said: “you're here for a reason and you must to get over it, the sooner you stop rebelling against the rules, the sooner you'll get answers” Laura looked anxious and started to speak “b-b-but I don't get i-” she was cut if my Mr. Tamworth: “no more questions” he said in such a way that Laura became scared, he then hit her, shoved her in the room, and slammed the door shut.

   She sat down by the door, looking into the dimly lit room she found that she had calmed down a little from earlier. She felt a strong hiraeth for her previous home. She couldn't remember it, but she missed it and longed to be there once again.

    The room didn’t consist of much, there was a metal bed frame with some old sheets and a mattress on it, a small uncomfortable looking chair and a small barred window at the top of the wall opposite the door.