I was alone. I had no
idea where I was or how I got there. There was just enough light to
make out where I was. As I looked around I was able to see that I was
in a hallway. I bushed my back against the wall and looked straight
ahead of me. There was a room at the end of this hallway with a
bright light shinning under the door. I began to find my feet and
tried to stand. As I did I felt something against my back, it was a
doorknob! I quickly grabbed it and tried to open the door but it
wasn't budging. There was no way to go but forward.
The door at the end of
the hall was open and as I walked in the room was like something out
of a horror film. Tiled walls that had probably been white at one
time but were starting to yellow. There was a surgical table in the
middle of the room with a table beside it with tools lined up on the
table. There was a white sheet over the surgical bed. Something was
obviously under the sheet and though everything inside of me told me
to run I slid off the sheet.
There was a man tied
to the table and without even thinking I grabbed a scalpel and
slashed the bindings from his arms and legs. After he was free I
dragged him off the table and listened for breathing. He was alive!
He had scars over his chest and most of them looked fresh. I shook
him. Gently at first them more and more violently until finally, he
coughed and opened his eyes. “Where are we?” I asked him
“I don't know” He
responded, spitting the words out between coughs. “Who are you?”
He asked back.
I told him my name was
Lindsey, and that I had only just woke up here a minute ago. I asked
him his name but he didn't answer. “I think I can walk.” He said
after a minute of silence “Please help me up.” I Helped him to
his feet, and after a stumble he was able to hold his own weight.
“How did you get
those scars?” I asked him afraid to know the answer.
“Self inflicted.”
He responded then stumbled forward and tried a door on the far side
of the room that I hadn't noticed. It swung open and I followed the
man from the table out into another hallway. It was like stepping
back in time. Torches lined the walls and the walls seemed to be made
of a packed dirt. Shadows danced on the walls, they looked like men
walking beside us. I took a few steps after the man from the table
and heard a sudden scream from behind me. I turned around only to see
a naked man slam the door shut. A few of the torches blew out as he
shut the door and the shadows moved from the wall to just below the
door. They told me the naked man, if he even was a man, was still
standing on the other side of that door.
I backed away from the
door until I bumped into the man from the table. “What the hell was
that?” I asked
“I don't know, I
didn't look.” he answered.
“How could you not
look?”
“They are different
every time. They are always more and more horrible. You learn to just
not look.” It dawned on me then that my friend from the table had
been probably been in that room for a long time. He seemed fearless,
walking down the hallway to where the shadows beckoned to us. There
was curve in this earthen hallway. And the man from the table just
walked along until he had almost disappeared around the corner. The
last thing I wanted was to be alone in this hallway so hurriedly I
ran after him.
We walked down the
hallway in silence after that,side by side. He never looked back, I
never stopped looking back. Eventually we came to a solid steel door,
without hesitation the man from the table threw it open. His bravery
was almost inspiring, but I guess anywhere was better than back there
with that thing. This room was concrete and empty save for something
in the corner covered by a white sheet. The man from the table just
looked around the room as if he was trying to solve a puzzle. I
walked over to the sheet on the ground. It wasn't moving, it didn't
seem to be alive. I pulled the sheet off quickly. Beneath it was
little girl, clothed in a mint dress, her knees were pulled up
against her chest and she was hugging herself. I stepped back out of
surprise. She was nothing but a corpse, her skin dry and fragile as
if she were a mummy. I looked over at the man from the table. He was
running his hands over the walls, this puzzle of his was consuming
his entire attention. I heard a small whimper and looked back to the
little girl. And she was looking up at me.
Her mouth was open and
what was left of her milky eyes were looking at me hungrily. This
wasn't real. It couldn't be could it? Then the little girl began to
raise her arms they reached the same height as her knees and then
they dropped down again. Suddenly her skin began to flake and float
away in an imaginary wind. This little girl melted away into nothing
in front of me. I recoiled away from her. Shocked at what I had seen,
suddenly nothing was in front of me. Just a wooden door. One that
hadn't been there earlier. Something touched my shoulder and I
jumped. It was just the man from the table. My mind was racing. I
collapsed and all I wanted to do was cry.
Suddenly the man from
the table pushed the wooden door open and walked out into the new
hallway. This one was made of concrete brick and had no lighting
whatsoever. The light from the room I just left showed a stripe was
running along near the top of the wall and the shadows were back.
They seemed to stay below the stripe. I followed him out and shut the
door behind me. I heard a scream and was determined not to look back.
The man from the table turned around and looked at me. What was he
looking at? “You learn just not to look” Then I saw them. The
shadows stepped off the walls, they were people! They walked
straight, reached there hands forwards and climbed onto the opposite
wall, they dug there shadow fingers into the stripe and melted into
nothing again. “Are they gone?” said the man from the table,
terror in his question. I nodded, unable to speak.
He straightened his
back and turned around and sped down the hall. He didn't run but he
came close. He was terrified, until we came to to another door then
he slowed down and returned to his normal state. I noticed that some
of the scars on his back had opened and were beginning to leak blood
down his back. He took no notice. “This is the last room.” He
said, almost laughing.
“How do you know?”
I asked.
“It said so on the
walls.” He answered, then he kicked the door open and ran into it.
The room was identical to the first one I was in only, no sheet on
the table. I followed him in and looked around. There was no other
door in this room Just a two tables one with surgical tools and one
with straps. “We all have to do it.” He said. For a moment I was
confused and then everything went black.
I woke up strapped to
the table with the man from the table standing over me. Only he
wasn't the man from the table, now I was the man on the table and he,
he was only a shadow. He held the scalpel in his hand and said
nothing. He just traced his hand over his body until he found a scar
and then cut me. The blade burned me. I screamed. And he repeated the
process over and over again until suddenly everything went black.
The next thing I was
aware of a man was standing over me. I wasn't on the table anymore I
was on the ground. I coughed “Where are we?” He asked me.
“I don't know” I
said between coughs. “Who are you?” I asked him. He told me his
name was Lindsay and that he had only just woken up here. Then he
asked who I was. I didn't answer. After a minute I said to him “I
think I can walk, please help me up.” I stumbled trying to get my
balance. My eyes starring at my feet, making sure they were still
strong. When I raised my head I saw the writing on the wall, it was
black, bold letters that only said. THIS IS YOUR LAST ROOM.
“How
did you get those scars?” Lindsay asked me
“Self inflicted”
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